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Historians of the future, pan-roasting fresh-caught June bugs over their campfires, may wonder when, exactly, was the moment that the financial world broke with reality. Was it when Nixon slammed the “gold window” shut? When “maestro” Alan Greenspan first bamboozled a Senate finance committee? When Pets.com face-planted 268 days after its IPO? When Ben Bernanke declared the housing bubble “contained?”

If our reality is a world of human activity, then finance is now completely divorced from it for the obvious reason that, for now, there is no human activity. Everyone, except the doctors and nurses, and some government officials, is locked down. So, the only other thing actually still out there spinning its wheels is finance and, to those of us watching from solitary confinement, it is looking more and more like an IMAX-scale hallucination with Dolby sound.

How many mortals can even pretend to understand the transactions now taking place among treasury and banking officials? On their own terms ­­­– TALFs, Special Purpose Vehicles, Commercial Paper Funding Facilities, Repo Rescue Operations, “Helicopter Money” ­– stand as increasingly empty jargon phrases that signify increasingly futile efforts to paper over the essence of the situation: the world is bankrupt. It’s that simple.

The world is locked down and in hock up to its eyeballs. It faces what the bankers euphemistically call, ahem, a “work-out,” which is to say, a restructuring. The folks in charge are resisting that work-out with all their might, because it will change many of the conditions of everyday life (especially theirs), but it is coming anyway. When debt can’t be paid back, money vanishes. Money isn’t capital, but it represents capital when it is functioning. When it isn’t functioning, it stops being money. Now the whole world realizes that the debt can’t be paid back, will never be paid back… and that’s the jig that’s up.

The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is the black hole in the financial universe where money goes to die. Money is rushing in there at a fantastic rate these days, and the Fed is trying to spew out new money at an equal rate to replace it ­– raising the question: is it even money anymore, or just a figment in the larger hallucination? Kind of seems that way, a little bit. They brought out their biggest money-launching bazookas only a few days ago, and it may only be few days more before that gigantic salvo proves inadequate. What then?

Perhaps the key is how long the ordinary folk agree to their orderly confinement, even in the face of the corona virus. That moment may be a bit further out, with the melodrama mounting especially in New York City right now, numbers of sick people going all hockey-stick, and frightful scenes in the hospitals. But then, whether it’s a week from now, or Easter Sunday, or sometime after that, what will the ordinary folk do when they decide en masse to de-confine and come roaring out in the streets?

I must imagine that one vignette will feature a mob of inflamed formerly middle-class Long Islanders swarming into the Hamptons with blood in their eyes for the hedge funders cringing in their majestic show-places, who will discover with maximum chagrin that privet hedge is no hedge at all against the wrath of the plebes. There has never been a bigger swindle in history than the aggregate shenanigans on Wall Street lo these years of the new millennium, and we all know it, even if it’s hard to explain just how they did it. The money boyz should be taking a haircut-and-a-half now instead of wailing for bail-outs, but such is the perversity of human greed that they made one last desperate attempt to nail down their fortunes when everybody else was losing…everything.

You understand that banking and finance was headed firmly south long before corona virus stole onto the scene. The tremors started back in September with the Fed jamming untold trillions into the black hole that had opened in overnight lending between banks. That was an infection, too, and boy did it spread — as fast as corona virus! This is indeed a most unfortunate convergence of events, but it should tell you that the banking and finance system, and the global economic arrangements that evolved with it, had already passed their event horizon. History had punched our ticket and was embarking us on a journey whether we were ready or not.

Is it a comfort to know that Joe Biden waits patiently on the sidelines to wave his aviator glasses and make everything normal again? I didn’t think so. Mr. Trump, for all the awe of his office, is not much better positioned to turn about the ship we’re now sailing on. Rough seas ahead, in uncharted waters, as we seek landfall in the next new world.


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A Too-Big-To-Fail Bankster
Three Teenagers who bring him down
Gothic doings on a Connecticut Estate.
High velocity drama!


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New Paintings from the 2022 Season

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The Jeff Greenaway series of novellas. These rollicking, short books depict the misadventures of an eleven-year-old boy growing up in New York City in the early 1960s

About James Howard Kunstler

View all posts by James Howard Kunstler
James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency and the four-book series of World Made By Hand novels, set in a post economic crash American future. His most recent book is Living in the Long Emergency; Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward. Jim lives on a homestead in Washington County, New. York, where he tends his garden and communes with his chickens.

746 Responses to “Forced Liquidation”

  1. Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:00 am #

    Whew. For a moment there, I thought the virus got you, Mr. Kunstler.

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:31 am #

      It must have got him, he still thinks Trump can turn this puppy around. Trump does not care.

      A doctor in Madrid

      I’d bring you something from America, perhaps New York but American media has been on a ventilator for years in self-quarantine and currently is tasked with supporting the MAGA movement. Sieg Heill. I think that is Jewish for what the fuck.

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:33 am #

        https://youtu.be/bWFr6khY2U4 ( link did not work )

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:38 am #

          I dare you to watch it.

          • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:44 am #

            If you do watch it simply replace Spain with America. It is the same story. Wealth and privilege destroys compassion and are the wrong accidents to good leadership. Yet greed and privilege appears to be the foundation stone of the American republic. Americans watching this video won’t know what SOLIDARITY means. In the days of Trump narcissism is the word people learn. Fry me a June bug.

          • Iananna March 28, 2020 at 5:39 am #

            I refuse to waste time watching doobtoob – just give us the short version, 10 words max.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 11:56 pm #

            People over 65 don’t get ventilators and die in Madrid.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 11:57 pm #

            That was for Iananna.

      • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 11:45 am #

        Doctor to KDog: I have good news and bad news.

        KDog: give me the bad news first.

        Doctor: you have the killer flu

        KDog: what’s the good news?

        Doctor: you don’t have Covid 19.

        KDog: oh thank God.

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:48 am #

          Thank god it is only the Trump crud and I can get back to work in no-time. But wait? I need a job first. My helicopter money blew away before I could get it.

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 1:15 pm #

          BRH,
          Doctor; “Sorry but you have only three months to live”

          Patient; “But…But how will I be able to make the money to
          pay my hospital bills…”

          Doctor: “OK, six months then…”

          …Old joke, poorly told….

      • WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:25 pm #

        “Mr. Trump, for all the awe of his office, is not much better positioned to turn about the ship we’re now sailing on”
        That was what he actually wrote.
        And if reading words is a problem for you – he means “not much better” than Joe Biden, which is really really lowering the bar in spite of Joe being a professor and all. *eyeroll*

      • cc rider March 27, 2020 at 7:31 pm #

        K-Dog you are so drunk on your libtard koolaide that you can’t think reasonably. I suspect this is a condition you’ve had since birth. The American media is tasked with supporting the MAGA movement? Really? You are obviously taking DMT or LSD or whatever you faux hippies are taking these days. And JHK did not express in any way, shape, or form that he thinks Trump can turn this puppy around. Go to Peru and go on a month long ayahuasca trip or something. You’re already not operating in reality so you might as well just operate in a nice laid back setting while tripping.

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 7:32 pm #

        I had it linked on my website but the You Tube to the best of my knowledge was taken down by the Spanish Government. Panic control.

  2. Ishabaka March 27, 2020 at 10:04 am #

    It’s time to insist Joe Biden take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test, as President Trump did. I hope he’s fine, but we cannot afford to elect a president with Alzheimer’s Disease during a worldwide crisis.

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:06 am #

      Do you find it odd, that a candidate who claims to want the presidency, never mentions that his debate opponent is clearly senile?
      I would not enter into a competition with a disabled opponent.

      • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 10:13 am #

        Beryl of Oink, nothing is odder than the fact someone who is as apparently ignorant as you is able to type sentences on a computer.

        Here is something passed on by a doctor friend. This is what the disease looks like up close and personal.

        Anecdotal info. Still worth the read:

        “I am an ER MD in New Orleans. Class of 98. Every one of my colleagues have now seen several hundred Covid 19 patients and this is what I think I know.

        Clinical course is predictable.
        2-11 days after exposure (day 5 on average) flu like symptoms start. Common are fever, headache, dry cough, myalgias(back pain), nausea without vomiting, abdominal discomfort with some diarrhea, loss of smell, anorexia, fatigue.

        Day 5 of symptoms- increased SOB, and bilateral viral pneumonia from direct viral damage to lung parenchyma.

        Day 10- Cytokine storm leading to acute ARDS and multiorgan failure. You can literally watch it happen in a matter of hours.

        81% mild symptoms, 14% severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, 5% critical.

        Patient presentation is varied. Patients are coming in hypoxic (even 75%) without dyspnea. I have seen Covid patients present with encephalopathy, renal failure from dehydration, DKA. I have seen the bilateral interstitial pneumonia on the xray of the asymptomatic shoulder dislocation or on the CT’s of the (respiratory) asymptomatic polytrauma patient. Essentially if they are in my ER, they have it. Seen three positive flu swabs in 2 weeks and all three had Covid 19 as well. Somehow this ***** has told all other disease processes to get out of town.

        China reported 15% cardiac involvement. I have seen covid 19 patients present with myocarditis, pericarditis, new onset CHF and new onset atrial fibrillation. I still order a troponin, but no cardiologist will treat no matter what the number in a suspected Covid 19 patient. Even our non covid 19 STEMIs at all of our facilities are getting TPA in the ED and rescue PCI at 60 minutes only if TPA fails.

        Diagnostic
        CXR- bilateral interstitial pneumonia (anecdotally starts most often in the RLL so bilateral on CXR is not required). The hypoxia does not correlate with the CXR findings. Their lungs do not sound bad. Keep your stethoscope in your pocket and evaluate with your eyes and pulse ox.

        Labs- WBC low, Lymphocytes low, platelets lower then their normal, Procalcitonin normal in 95%
        CRP and Ferritin elevated most often. CPK, D-Dimer, LDH, Alk Phos/AST/ALT commonly elevated.
        Notice D-Dimer- I would be very careful about CT PE these patients for their hypoxia. The patients receiving IV contrast are going into renal failure and on the vent sooner.

        Basically, if you have a bilateral pneumonia with normal to low WBC, lymphopenia, normal procalcitonin, elevated CRP and ferritin- you have covid-19 and do not need a nasal swab to tell you that.

        A ratio of absolute neutrophil count to absolute lymphocyte count greater than 3.5 may be the highest predictor of poor outcome. the UK is automatically intubating these patients for expected outcomes regardless of their clinical presentation.

        An elevated Interleukin-6 (IL6) is an indicator of their cytokine storm. If this is elevated watch these patients closely with both eyes.

        Other factors that appear to be predictive of poor outcomes are thrombocytopenia and LFTs 5x upper limit of normal.

        Disposition
        I had never discharged multifocal pneumonia before. Now I personally do it 12-15 times a shift. 2 weeks ago we were admitting anyone who needed supplemental oxygen. Now we are discharging with oxygen if the patient is comfortable and oxygenating above 92% on nasal cannula. We have contracted with a company that sends a paramedic to their home twice daily to check on them and record a pulse ox. We know many of these patients will bounce back but if it saves a bed for a day we have accomplished something. Obviously we are fearful some won’t make it back.

        We are a small community hospital. Our 22 bed ICU and now a 4 bed Endoscopy suite are all Covid 19. All of these patients are intubated except one. 75% of our floor beds have been cohorted into covid 19 wards and are full. We are averaging 4 rescue intubations a day on the floor. We now have 9 vented patients in our ER transferred down from the floor after intubation.

        Luckily we are part of a larger hospital group. Our main teaching hospital repurposed space to open 50 new Covid 19 ICU beds this past Sunday so these numbers are with significant decompression. Today those 50 beds are full. They are opening 30 more by Friday. But even with the “lockdown”, our AI models are expecting a 200-400% increase in covid 19 patients by 4/4/2020.

        Treatment
        Supportive

        worldwide 86% of covid 19 patients that go on a vent die. Seattle reporting 70%. Our hospital has had 5 deaths and one patient who was extubated. Extubation happens on day 10 per the Chinese and day 11 per Seattle.

        Plaquenil which has weak ACE2 blockade doesn’t appear to be a savior of any kind in our patient population. Theoretically, it may have some prophylactic properties but so far it is difficult to see the benefit to our hospitalized patients, but we are using it and the studies will tell. With Plaquenil’s potential QT prolongation and liver toxic effects (both particularly problematic in covid 19 patients), I am not longer selectively prescribing this medication as I stated on a previous post.

        We are also using Azithromycin, but are intermittently running out of IV.

        Do not give these patient’s standard sepsis fluid resuscitation. Be very judicious with the fluids as it hastens their respiratory decompensation. Outside the DKA and renal failure dehydration, leave them dry.

        Proning vented patients significantly helps oxygenation. Even self proning the ones on nasal cannula helps.

        Vent settings- Usual ARDS stuff, low volume, permissive hypercapnia, etc. Except for Peep of 5 will not do. Start at 14 and you may go up to 25 if needed.

        Do not use Bipap- it does not work well and is a significant exposure risk with high levels of aerosolized virus to you and your staff. Even after a cough or sneeze this virus can aerosolize up to 3 hours.

        The same goes for nebulizer treatments. Use MDI. you can give 8-10 puffs at one time of an albuterol MDI. Use only if wheezing which isn’t often with covid 19. If you have to give a nebulizer must be in a negative pressure room; and if you can, instruct the patient on how to start it after you leave the room.

        Do not use steroids, it makes this worse. Push out to your urgent cares to stop their usual practice of steroid shots for their URI/bronchitis.

        We are currently out of Versed, Fentanyl, and intermittently Propofol. Get the dosing of Precedex and Nimbex back in your heads.

        One of my colleagues who is a 31 yo old female who graduated residency last may with no health problems and normal BMI is out with the symptoms and an SaO2 of 92%. She will be the first of many.

        I PPE best I have. I do wear a MaxAir PAPR the entire shift. I do not take it off to eat or drink during the shift. I undress in the garage and go straight to the shower. My wife and kids fled to her parents outside Hattiesburg. The stress and exposure at work coupled with the isolation at home is trying. But everyone is going through something right now. Everyone is scared; patients and employees. But we are the leaders of that emergency room. Be nice to your nurses and staff. Show by example how to tackle this crisis head on. Good luck to us all

        • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:19 am #

          The topic of my comment was senility, not COVID-19.
          Which hospital is that, BTW?
          I thought so.

          • MC Hammerabi March 27, 2020 at 11:41 am #

            BofO states the obvious and you blast him/her as ignorant? Joe Biden is a obviously out of his mind…maybe a golem/zombie even. But the fact that Bernie, who claims he wants to be president, doesn’t put a pin to that balloon seems strange. BTW, you lost everybody after the first sentence. Nobody is reading your drivel.

          • Pete March 27, 2020 at 11:45 am #

            Yeah, that was a bit unfair. Perhaps that’s a bot or a bot like reaction. Nerves are frayed… understandably.

            Yes, Joe Biden’s brain is on permanent coronavacation.

            More obvious than the senility, would be his brazen corruption. I seem to recall stories of Joe and Hunter grifting their way across China. Maybe that’s why they make all our medical supplies and drugs. Smooth move Joe.

          • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 11:52 am #

            On this blog, the wall of text is typically a good indicator of the mental health of the poster.

            “Should the line count exceed 4 or 5, do consider scrolling by.”

            — Anonymous Blog Comment Section Pro

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 12:05 pm #

            Are you saying Evelyn’s novella above was overkill? But hey, TV medical show producers may be looking for scriptwriters – yup, right here in the CF Nation.

          • Cargill March 27, 2020 at 7:12 pm #

            BTW, you lost everybody after the first sentence. Nobody is reading your drivel.

            Speak for yourself. I read it all and found it interesting, informative, and very scary. It’s interesting how everybody on the lunar right (starting with the Orange Bastard) is in total denial about a global pandemic

            It’s as if anybody admits to its severity, it means the deep-state experts and the Democrat governors win. I understand the GOP in its one-party fascism is a death cult, but it really is taking things too far.

            They want the old useless eaters all dead so capitalism bounces along. Do any of you actually READ what James writes about Wall Street and the financial swindle system? Whose side are you on?

          • benr March 27, 2020 at 8:47 pm #

            @CARTROLL

            Again everything you post Is 180 degrees out of phase with reality.
            Amazing.

          • David Webb March 28, 2020 at 5:10 pm #

            @Cargil – you do realize that there are people who are fully aware of the seriousness of this pandemic that are not fanatical believers in the Cult of Orange Man Bad, don’t you? In other words, a person can objectively read, assess, and understand science without having to believe that Donald Trump is the evilest of evil men to ever exist in the history of the universe.

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 1:26 pm #

          Ev,
          Thank you. Great read. Good information.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 1:45 pm #

            As Merry said to Pippin while in the grasp of Treebeard: Don’t talk to it. Don’t encourage it.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 1:44 pm #

          Evie, we go way back. And you know my feelings for you and the level of respect I afford you. Now just tell me clearly: Why do you support Biden for President?

          Because he’s the one who can beat Trump? No matter that he is not qualified for office? So it’s just about your feelings in other words, your hatred for Trump not Biden per se? How utterly reactionary, selfish, dysfunctional, and weak of you.

          • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 1:21 pm #

            Janos

            Who told you I supported Biden? I supported Bernie and I expressed to my friends privately how much I detested, and still do, Biden.

            Sadly to me Trump is so awful I would hold my nose to vote for almost anyone running against him. If Biden chose Hillary as his running mate I would not vote. I may not in any case because usually by the time the voting gets to where I am the outcome is already decided.

            I voted Jill Stein in the last election.

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 7:33 pm #

          President Trump continues to defy his scientific advisers and downplay the threat of the pandemic.

          • Exscotticus March 28, 2020 at 1:43 am #

            Good. I don’t want a Prez who simply does whatever his advisers suggest.

            We’re not a medical or scientific oligarchy. And having known quite a few doctors and scientists in my day, I’m thankful for it.

            As for “downplaying” the threat of the virus, Trump just ordered GM to produce ventilators. That doesn’t sound like downplaying to me. But it does sound like TDS.

            As in you have it.

          • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 1:31 pm #

            Fat man is now playing a public game of Russian Roulette.

            Gambling that if he is able to point to things afterwards and crow that he was correct, he thinks he will win the game.

            If the opposite occurs, in the chaos that following public fury should render him into nothing by melted fat.

            BUT…

            I may be putting too much hope into thinking there are still enough people with intelligence out there to make my prediction come true on the chaos branch.

            According to the article in Atlantic Monthly, despite in front of the entire world with Trump’s denials there was a crisis, his lies about testing, he continual dismissal of the need for immediate action, his attacking state leaders who publicly went against his advice, his clear and obvious mistakes and his arrogant and narcissistic behavior, his favorability ratings have risen.

            If that doesn’t make you want to give up all hope that Americans are ever going to deserve the world’s respect again it is unimaginable what will.

        • Iananna March 28, 2020 at 5:56 am #

          Abusive verbosity is never attractive and rarely relevant.

          • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 1:44 pm #

            That’s just one dummie’s opinion dummy. If it is witty and contains truth I find it very attractive, even when it is directed at me and sometimes painful. truth is the key.

            No doubt what you receive truly is never attractive, but probably always relevant.

        • Iananna March 28, 2020 at 6:03 am #

          I do not take it off to eat or drink during the shift.”
          What doctor would eat in contaminated PPE?
          The phantasy ones made up by EvelynV.

          • Q. Shtik March 28, 2020 at 1:20 pm #

            What doctor would eat in contaminated PPE? – Iananna

            ============

            I think what the doctor means is that he/she forgoes eating and drinking during the shift. duh.

          • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 1:35 pm #

            Thank you Q

            I’m not much of a believer that it does any good to coax along the stupid ones.

      • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 12:01 pm #

        Good rule of thumb, Nightowl.

        Keep ’em short, keep ’em positive, keep ’em funny

        To the best of our ability.

        Brh

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 1:49 pm #

          So very American. Positive thinking! Short and sweet! No shades of gray! No thinking allowed! Pats or Stealers! Republicans or Democrats! The funnies!

          • WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:32 pm #

            Fuck’s sake, he was trying to be nice.
            And sure, Americans let their freak flags fly, often to the amusement of the rest of the world – but really? you find a lack of intellect among us? not enough Captain Kirks here compared to the rest of the world? That’s beyond laughable. You sound jealous.
            America for the fuckin’ win.

          • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 3:41 pm #

            There are 50 shades of gray. Or so I’ve heard.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 3:44 pm #

            And the etymology of the word, nice? Fool.

          • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 4:27 pm #

            I have been in Krautland long enough that I am probably more German by now.

            Look at it as more efficient.

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:54 am #

      Why should Biden take it. We already know the result so if you have a doubt … perhaps you should take it. But I don’t think you have much to worry about. If Satan ran for POTHUS against a cigar store Indian, Satan would win. Mental illness over Alzheimers, it is a <b<no brainer. — KDFP

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:56 am #

        Mental illness over Alzheimers, it is a no brainer. — KDFP

    • bluedog March 28, 2020 at 11:34 am #

      Why not they did back in 1980,and the people clapped and cried for more.!!

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:28 pm #

      It must be a pretty shitty test if Trump passed.

  3. Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:04 am #

    It turns out that maybe the NYT was a little bit less than accurate, in its tales of overwhelmed hospitals and shortages of critical supplies.
    I know, who’d have thought the newspaper of record wouldn’t have maybe gone to one or two of the hospitals in the same city it is located in, and seen for itself?

    • Exscotticus March 28, 2020 at 1:58 am #

      Clearly, the editorial narrations don’t match the videos.

      We’re to believe hospitals are overwhelmed, yet the images look like any hospital on any given day. Why the staff even has time to give interviews!

      Meanwhile, someone who has the strength to stand in line for five hours to get tested is indeed sick. But why they’re heading to an MD instead of a shrink is anyone’s guess.

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:31 pm #

        The tests cost about $200 a pop. Ventilators are 30K or so. Resources have to be used wisely. The infection should be abated to the maximum degree possible.

  4. peakfuture March 27, 2020 at 10:06 am #

    I’d go with us going off the gold standard is probably the main one. I get lots of flack for that sometimes, but my point has always been – let’s have a standard that politicians and bankers can’t influence by the stroke of a pen or keyboard press.

    Timber, oil, gold, silver, kilo-watt hours (energy, which Arthur C. Clarke suggested at one point). Even a mix of all of these, backing a currency would be better than we’ve got now.

    The series Mr. Robot made similar analogies – everything is synthetic (and they even mention the gold standard):

    https://peakfuture.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/the-importance-of-art-mr-robot/

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:08 am #

      Since the people who argue these points are in disagreement with each other, who is to say you aren’t right, or at least partly right?

    • shotho March 27, 2020 at 10:11 am #

      My answer would be 1913 with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act and the unleashing of the federal income tax. The era of big central government began then and has never stopped.
      This essay was a good, readable discussion of where we are now. Debt is sinking into the proverbial black hole, never to be seen again in our lifetimes. It is an opportunity for government to expand even more, as the Nazis did in the 1930’s, a la ‘national’ socialism. But chaos also looms.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 1:53 pm #

        Their socialism was National. Communism and Capitalism are International. That’s why they united against them. Same reason the Capitalists fund the Antifa. Logically they shouldn’t, right? But something else is going on.

    • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 1:31 pm #

      “Timber, oil, gold, silver, kilo-watt hours (energy, which Arthur C. Clarke suggested at one point). Even a mix of all of these, backing a currency would be better than we’ve got now”

      Peak,
      All the above worthless without a strong military.

      Really. Our currency is currently backed by the USMC. Up to a few days ago, it was working.

      • peakfuture March 27, 2020 at 3:01 pm #

        General order for commerce and trade, enforcement of contracts and the like is backed by force/violence, for sure! The added condition for fiat currency is belief, which force can provide or “encourage.”

        At least with timber, energy, etc., there is something intrinsically useful. Gold and silver do have some side uses, but at least as money, they’ve got a track record.

        A barrel of oil, a bushel of wheat or rice – they can be stolen and destroyed, but not like fiat currency.

        Correct me if I’m wrong; USMC = US military complex, not US Marine Corps.

        • WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:36 pm #

          You’re wrong.

  5. EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 10:09 am #

    JHK,

    It truly disappoints me you don’t come clean about the fact that all these last months, or has it been years now, your lean has been in the direction of legitimizing the existence of the toad we have running things in the white house. “Running things” being a misspelling actually for “Ruining things”.

    Even now when the only thing to be said is that we are in this godawful state of national horror almost solely because of this fool who you recently attributed as being “powerful” for being able to withstand all the efforts being made to rid of his wretched grip on the scepter.

    Today’s blog smell like regurgitation.

    Evelyn– I hate to disappoint folks. But it sounds like you need to find another blog to follow, since i have failed so miserably to edify you. Please go look for one. Make haste! Your peace of mind apparently depends on it! — JHK Admin

    • shotho March 27, 2020 at 10:17 am #

      Your simplistic response is simply a fool’s misunderstanding of what is happening now. The overhang of massive debt is the accumulation of many years and many politicians. Your responses are nothing but an example of ignorant hatred, an embittered and unhappy harpy.

      • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 10:27 am #

        Evelyn is well rested and on a rant, who can stop her? It’s Trump, all Trump, don’t you know. He created and spread the virus; he messed up a perfectly sound financial world. But don’t say she has TDS. Oh no, she’s the sane one. We’re the crazy ones.

        Perhaps a little primal scream time, followed by crayons and a coloring book will help, Evelyn. Then it’s time for the jello with the medication and a nice nap in the room they assigned you.

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 1:34 pm #

          “Perhaps a little primal scream time, followed by crayons and a coloring book will help, Evelyn. Then it’s time for the jello with the medication and a nice nap in the room they assigned you

          hmuller,
          Maybe…maybe what she needs is a man? A real man! A virile A-type personality?

          Ev might suggest otherwise.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 7:08 pm #

            Don’t look at me. I’m 65, a toothpaste tube nearly all squeezed out.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 1:55 pm #

          Indeed. Daddy issues?

          • GreenAlba March 28, 2020 at 2:29 pm #

            Yawn… Three gaslighters in the space of five comments.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:40 pm #

            @GA Yes it is interesting to watch how they do it.

            Trump spread the virus. <– True.

            Trump created and spread the virus. <– False.

            Conscious reflection can discern the confused logic but repetition perpetuates a confusion which suggests Trump did not spread the virus, which by inaction, he absolutely did.

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 10:41 pm #

            By your logic, K-Dog, every governor spread the virus because every one of them could have taken more Draconian measures at an earlier date.

            Yes, I know I was exaggerating in my parody above. The difference between us is that you don’t know when you’ve written silly shit.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 11:53 pm #

            Lets get this straight. By your logic Trump can blame the governors for inaction because he was ready to help them all along. All they had to do was ask. Trump was doing a great job from the beginning by being ready, willing and waiting. A golden hammer, ready to go. Is that right?

          • hmuller March 29, 2020 at 3:05 pm #

            Governors don’t need his approval for everything they do. Several governors NY, CA, IL et al. put us under house arrest without Trump’s permission. Local law enforcement issues are decided with out the POTUS. I don’t expect you to be a constitutional law scholar, but I thought you had a nodding acquaintance with the concept of separation of powers.

            The facts really don’t matter to you. No matter what, you’ll dump on Trump. Too bad you lack the honesty or introspection to realize that this loathing shapes your opinions.

    • rainmaker March 27, 2020 at 10:23 am #

      The reason that we are in this “godawful state of national horror”, is because of all of us, and our gullibility, our willingness to believe lies. Trump didn’t cause the financial crisis, it was a LONG time in the making. Trump didn’t brew up a virus in the White House basement, either. EvelynV, if all you can do is blame TRUMP! for everything that is wrong with this country, then I believe that you have a mental illness. Perhaps you should take a look in the mirror, Ms. Perfect.

      • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 11:39 pm #

        rainmaker

        If all I could do is blame trump for everything I’d believe I have mental illness too.

        Fortunately that is far from the case. I also blame everyone of you stupid fuckers who put that POS POTUS in office and still support him.

        Next we could turn to McConnell and after that Sean Hannity and after that….

        • Iananna March 28, 2020 at 6:16 am #

          EvelynV, were the Orange Oaf to disappear, whether multiple lead poisoning or 25th Amendment, it is Pence and Hello, Gilead!
          Do you fancy being Ofmike?

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 10:13 am #

            I love that show – The Handmaiden’s Tale. But clearly it’s fiction. Fundamentalists will never rule America and impose their values, although that’s a favorite fear porn meme among the left-wingers.

            Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center makes a lucrative living scaring the shit (and the money) out of liberals, telling them the KKK and fascist militia’s are running rampant. They’re armed and ready to take over!

          • benr March 29, 2020 at 9:16 am #

            @hmuller

            Indeed now if only there was more then 10,000 of them scattered across the entire country.

    • teddyboy46 March 27, 2020 at 10:28 am #

      Evelyn , I always find it fascinating when people such as yourself. Who Hate Trump beyond reason. Twist any event of fact into a reason to hate and blame Trump. 12,000 people died of Swine flue under Obama’s watch and no one blamed him.

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:33 am #

        I just learned of the death of a friend of a friend, earlier this week. The friend called the house, crying hard. The man who died leaves behind a wife and two children.
        He died from the flu. It kills people every year, and so far in numbers higher than the COVID-19 virus.
        His death is not going to get the nation’s attention, just the attention of those who loved him.

        • ellipsis March 27, 2020 at 11:08 am #

          Wanna bet it got counted as CV19?

          • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 11:16 am #

            I heard it can be counted as numerous causes. Pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, pneumonia B, which is especially bad this year,

          • Nightowl March 30, 2020 at 4:54 am #

            That is the beauty of the Alice in Wonderland approach the media utilizes when misinforming the public on the Wuhan virus.

            It is anything and everything, everywhere and nowhere.

            Just FEAR it.

      • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 11:34 pm #

        teddyboy

        Whether or not any of the imaginary blame you would pin on Obama pertains, it is totally irrelevant and in no way whatsoever alleviates Trump of his responsibility totally fucking up the US response to this pandemic.

        You stupid fuckers who have no sense of logic whatsoever. Why not also bring up the fact that Abraham Lincoln screwed up by leaving McClellan in charge of the Union Army for so long. And holy Jesus look at some of the blunders George Washington made.

        If you want to say that Trump is an imperfect human and is entitled to make mistakes that will cost several hundred thousand people their lives or intense suffering because someone before him made some other misstep just come out and say it. Lay your stupidity right out there in the open and quit being coy about it.

        Trump has acted and is still acting like someone who if they were a domestic pet would have been put down by now for fear it was rabid and would end up killing everyone in the household.

        • Exscotticus March 28, 2020 at 2:07 am #

          >>> If you want to say that Trump is an imperfect human and is entitled to make mistakes that will cost several hundred thousand people their lives…

          LOL. So now you’re blaming Trump for something that hasn’t even happened?

          Let us know when Wuhan virus deaths under Trump exceed swine flu deaths under Obama. 1500 is a long way off from 12,000.

          • Majella March 30, 2020 at 5:52 am #

            That should take about 6 days at the current rate.

    • rainmaker March 27, 2020 at 10:37 am #

      The fact that JHK hasn’t banned EvelynV leads me to think that he lets her rant in his comment section so that we can see just how nuts the liberal Democrats are. Thanks, JHK, for providing a public service.

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:44 am #

        He can ban it, but it comes back under a new identity.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 11:43 am #

          JHK tolerated seawolf for a long time. And half of his comments were just drunken obscenities from the bottom of whatever bottle he crawled into.

        • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 2:17 pm #

          No dumbass, if he wants me gone, I’ll be gone for good.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:43 pm #

            I feel your pain.

      • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 1:59 pm #

        He leaves Evie here (so far) because she is entertaining in an intelligent way. Just have to keep the intelligence level at a simmer so that it doesn’t go too far over the MAGAts’ heads.

        And BENR, I do like you now despite your slant on many things that go the opposite of mine. You often have intelligent commentary and actually look forward to what you have to say about things, even when I disagree.

        hmuller often tickles my funny bone, so he gets to stay too.

        Beryl of oink I don’t know why it took me so long to realize what a f&cked and unaware skank she is.

        And to anyone who is stupid and I do mean STOOPID enough to give trump a pass on this, he certainly did not cause the Corona virus but he is SOLELY the cause of making it be as bad as it is. Everyone who has a valued person in their lives die from this just bear it in mind there was a good chance it wouldn’t have happened without this man with no redeeming human qualities in the Whitehouse?

        k Thompson: America is acting like a failed state

        “Rudderless, blindsided, lethargic, and uncoordinated, America has mishandled the COVID-19 crisis to a substantially worse degree than what every health expert I’ve spoken with had feared. “Much worse,” said Ron Klain, who coordinated the U.S. response to the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014. “Beyond any expectations we had,” said Lauren Sauer, who works on disaster preparedness at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “As an American, I’m horrified,” said Seth Berkley, who heads Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “The U.S. may end up with the worst outbreak in the industrialized world.””

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:48 pm #

          Yup, that is the way things are shaping up. I do agree. Being told that we have to be grateful for what daddy does when daddy is a sociopathic narcissistic compulsive liar who does not have a firm grip on reality and lives in a fantasy world is too much to put up with. It really is over the top. And at the end of the day this means we are never going to get flying cars doesn’t it?

        • Majella March 30, 2020 at 5:56 am #

          They’re right. At this point in time – a crucial inflection point – the USA is looking like a third-world shithole country. Ironic.

    • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 11:33 am #

      That rates you a score of ‘8’ on the Trump Hate-O-Meter, Evelyn.

      Plus the Hate-O-Meter is throwing in a bonus point for your unwarranted criticism of our host, JHK.

      Total: 9 Hate-O-Meter points.

      Brh

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:49 pm #

        Which really is as high as you want to go.

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:49 pm #

          Where are they when you need them.

    • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 11:41 am #

      Twuuuuuup!

      • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 11:42 am #

        In my fit of laughter I forgot the “m.”

        Darn.

    • devon44 March 27, 2020 at 12:13 pm #

      The people who can’t let go of their Trump obsession, even when facing a serious national crisis that could collapse our society…. it’s frankly disgusting. You’re embarrassing yourself, and all of us. Get your shit together!

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:01 pm #

        It’s more serious than that I’m afraid. He is a symbol, either rightly or wrongly, for “the White Man”. In other words, our entire Race and Civilization.

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:52 pm #

          But it was not the white man. It was the dumfuck white man. There was a difference. Unfortunately there was also a difference in strength, as the universe shows.

        • Iananna March 29, 2020 at 6:07 am #

          If the Orange Oaf is not the ID of America it’s hard to imagine a better example.
          Alas, the Super Ego died when Bubba couldn’t contain his cigar.

      • Majella March 30, 2020 at 5:59 am #

        Those words have a distinct ring of Himself’s style of speech – accusing others of his own behaviour (projecting), and the use of “disgusting”. Too much Fox?

    • benr March 27, 2020 at 12:32 pm #

      Speaking of smell you realize most of your posts reek of nothing but your opinion.
      Give it a rest and while you are at it step back like you promised.
      Do yourself a favor go outside and see the world IS not ending.
      We are still spinning through the black void on a speck of dirt protected by a thin layer of gas and water heated by a star 92 million miles away.
      Now if the sun goes dark or the moon lurches into us then we have a real problem.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo

      • capt spaulding March 27, 2020 at 4:03 pm #

        No problem at all. Trump will put Jared on it, end of problem.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 5:40 pm #

          Come to think of it, Jared has been invisible for months. What’s up with that?

          • Iananna March 28, 2020 at 6:22 am #

            Long may he remain MIA.

    • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 2:16 pm #

      One thing for sure, I no longer forward your once upon a time savvy essays to friends anymore.

      Sadly I have the rep of being a fan of yours and I now live with a certain dread some of those friends, not hearing from you any more via moi will look for you to see what’s going on for themselves. It will be embarrassing.

      If you would do one thing for me I would highly appreciate.

      Dig through your archives back when bush was in power and dig out the essay in which you angrily advised our readers to henceforth regard the Republican party as the party that ruined America, or words to that effect.

      It was the most prescient thing you ever wrote IMHO.

      Thanks for you tolerance thus far, you’ve clipped me out of your page once or twice in the past so as my fury with the insane man in the WH rises, more and more I feel like someone with their head already in the guillotine waiting for the blade to fall.

      All this time you’ve been predicting what is now happening except you didn’t foresee which specific black swan it would be. I have to say, a biochemistry teacher I had in college hit the nail on the head.

      • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 5:48 pm #

        I’ll never understand your obsession with Trump. I see him as a bit player in the grand sweep of history. And as it turned out, a very ineffective player, unable to drain the swamp or save America from a doom countless persons and historical forces created over decades of mismanagement.

      • Daddyotis March 27, 2020 at 5:53 pm #

        TDS

        MAGA

        TRUMP 2020-2032

    • cc rider March 27, 2020 at 8:23 pm #

      Wow! Both K-Dog and Evelyn have very, uh, let’s say unique comprehension abilities when reading today’s blog post. Of course that goes for other past posts as well. Many past posts. I keep trying to find where JHK said he thinks that Trump can “turn this puppy around”, or………well I’m not even going to try to capsulize what Evelyn said. It’s so ridiculous and delusional. The “turn the puppy around” comment was K-Dog’s higher up above.

      I hate to use the now very much cliche’d TDS as a diagnosis, but I think it is the proper diagnosis. I hope a vaccine is on the way so it won’t keep spreading.

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:03 pm #

        Not so fast there. I am entitled to my opinion. Today’s article ends with this:


        Mr. Trump, for all the awe of his office, is not much better positioned to turn about the ship we’re now sailing on. Rough seas ahead, in uncharted waters, as we seek landfall in the next new world.

        is not much better positioned‘ is gas-lighting. The article holds off mention of Trump until the end but Trump has been showing himself to be an incompetent dolt all week. I’m on solid ground. It is you who stands on quicksand. To suggest that Trump is positioned in any way to solve this mess borders on criminal.

        JHK did but we both agree a carrot can’t do the job.

        • hmuller March 29, 2020 at 3:19 pm #

          Your totalitarian inclinations keep showing through, K-Dog, in your casual toss-off lines.

          “To suggest that Trump is positioned in any way to solve this mess borders on criminal.”

          You would set yourself up as the thought police, opinions you don’t like are criminal (or border on the criminal) and deserve punishment.

          What kind of person would tell others: “if you think the President can solve this problem you should be locked up in jail, your thoughts are criminal. I and my brown shirts will beat such notions out of you head, Sieg Heil!”

          You really need some introspection time, K-Dog.

  6. Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:15 am #

    I see that actor James Woods has gotten himself kicked off of Twitter again. He posted pictures of the male escorts at Andrew Gillum’s meth party, or something like that.
    I want to posit the theory that Mr. Woods was doing the right thing. Those men clearly were not practicing social distancing. We are supposed to alert the authorities when we see that.

    Meth orgies are contributing to the resurgence of the AIDS virus. No question there.
    They can forbid Americans from gathering in churches, but they can’t ban these types of parties? At the same time, there is a movement to end the discrimination against gay Americans in the form of a ban on blood donations.

    I don’t get it. It almost seems like we have to become alarmed to the point of hysteria about whatever disease the politicians are pushing today.

    • shotho March 27, 2020 at 10:19 am #

      By all means, in a police state, let’s have the police investigate our very private parties.

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:25 am #

        Just in case we misunderstand each other, shotho, I am not in favor of having police show up at parties.
        I am merely pointing out that the “health and safety above all” rules don’t get applied across the board.
        Andrew Cuomo actually used the “if it only saves one life” excuse. That doesn’t seem to matter to him when there is talk of making NYC a sanctuary for criminals from south of the border.

        • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 11:29 am #

          Certainly banning homosexual meth romps could be construed as ‘homophobic’ and judgemental.

        • WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:44 pm #

          Meth is illegal. Has been for a long time. Gay or straight, 2 people or 200, it’s illegal. To manufacture, distribute, or possess. The paraphernalia is illegal. Meth residue in children’s hair is grounds for losing custody immediately.
          No “ban” of gay meth orgies is needed. All your points are invalid.

          • benr March 27, 2020 at 6:17 pm #

            Take that one step further/
            There are stories circulating about people going into a weekend long meth, booze, Ecstasy, Viagra and coke party for two days straight of sex and partying and going from no measurable HIV infection to full blown AIDS case in one weekend.
            Some call it chasing the bug and figure once they have it they can quit worrying about it.
            I can’t seem to find the story about the above parties it appears to have been scrubbed.

            https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17166076

          • benr March 27, 2020 at 6:21 pm #

            OMG there is even a term for some of it.
            Chemsex!

          • Majella March 30, 2020 at 6:11 am #

            Benr

            Interesting article, but I’m not sure that your post accurately represents the conclusion of the study:

            “Having identified online as a bug chaser or gift giver did not consistently correspond to behavioral intentions, as 24% of HIV-positive men and 36% of HIV-negative men were specifically seeking partners of the same serostatus. These data suggest bug chasing and gift giving do exist; however a sizable portion of both bug chasers and gift givers were not intent on spreading HIV.”

      • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 1:38 pm #

        shoto,
        In the current situation, the social order should sanction those without social responsibility. Sanction with enthusiasm.

        Yes, Private parties.

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 12:06 pm #

      Gays have a very bad attitude about viruses. Some of their twisted even want people to catch the virus and get sick. Do you have any idea why that could be? If you do please come to my AIDS and tell me why.

      • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 1:44 pm #

        “Do you have any idea why that could be?”

        Dog,
        The human animal can, at times be perverse, and able to rationalize the most inhumane of acts.

        Learned this…50 years ago, at a young age.

        Many people never understand this most basic tenant of human nature. Many of the people who do not understand this maintain a liberal bent.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:07 pm #

        Yes, if you want to see Gays at their worst, watch “The Gift” on youtube about the bug chasers.

        Their eros has been taken over by thanatos.

        But at least these guys often pursue this consciously (though they couldn’t explain it to you, conscious craziness in other words) and with consent perhaps. Worse are the Infected who just seek to destroy as many of the unwitting as possible. A Black specialty it would seem.

        • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 11:18 pm #

          Janos

          What if we want to see pedophiles at their worst. Are there any videos of you we could watch?

          I’m not saying I would want to watch them, I’m just asking.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 1:53 pm #

            That stuff is immoral and illegal – as it should be. Needless to say “pedo” means child. Lolita was a youth, not a child. An ephebe or a hebe becoming an ephebe.

            Older women find the beauty of younger women simply unbearable. Contemplate the story of Snow White and the hatred of the Old Cat Queen.

            Read Nabokov’s “Lolita” and observe your rage as it arises as Humbert Humbert exalts in the beauty of this divine youth.

          • GreenAlba March 28, 2020 at 2:46 pm #

            “Read Nabokov’s “Lolita” and observe your rage as it arises as Humbert Humbert exalts in the beauty of this divine youth.”

            She is 12 at the start of the book, when his obsession starts. A child. Get a grip.

            And Humbert Humbert was well aware of what he was doing and what he did. Throughout the book he is sickened by himself. At the end when he listens to the children playing his regret is that Lolita is not among them – because he has stolen her childhood.

            You are on the wrong side of creepy and have no excuse but stupid insults. Women of a certain age are, as often as not, delighted to be out of the ‘competition’ and see it for what it is, once they no longer have to feel part of it.

            Wisdom that will probably never come your way.

          • GreenAlba March 28, 2020 at 2:48 pm #

            It astonishes me that anyone can read Lolita and so totally misunderstand the author’s intent.

      • WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:45 pm #

        Please change your User Name. Dogs across America recoil in horror each time you type.

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:05 pm #

          You know it’s true.

    • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 2:26 pm #

      Beryl of Oink I don’t think you GET anything.

      You live in a pig wallow of a mental world that causes you to permeate a reek every time you express your thoughts.

      I might be back for a visit next Monday, see y’all then if JHK doesn’t cut the cord.

      • sprawlcapital March 27, 2020 at 6:58 pm #

        Abuse of the English language in these comments has gone too far for even a tolerant person like me to remain silent.

        Permeate a reek . . .

        Permeate means to move or diffuse through, as in a substance moving though a permeable membrane. You are trying to say exude, emit, or excrete, meaning to give off. So Evelyn, shape up or ship out.

        And Elysian, it’s tenet, not tenant.

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 8:39 pm #

          And Elysian, it’s tenet, not tenant.

          Sprawl,
          Of course it is…my error.

        • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 10:21 pm #

          sprawlcapital

          Good for you making the attempt. I’m one who more than once has expressed an appreciation for Q.

          I hesitated to use the word myself, like you I thought maybe it could only be taken as you suggested. So, before posting I looked it up. Bingo.

          It is defined as a verb meaning “spread throughout” with an example “the aroma of the soup permeated…”

          Doesn’t seem so far from “Beryl of Oink’s reek permeated…”

          If Q overrules me I will surrender you the point.

          • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 10:57 pm #

            If Q overrules me I will surrender you the point. – Eve

            ==========

            I dare not set myself up as an authority as it pisses off our host no end.

          • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 11:15 pm #

            It’s OK Q, I wouldn’t have surrendered anyway. It was just a trap I was setting for you.

            I’m not sure whether or not you passed yet.

            sprawlcapital cherry picked his definition usage and I was interested if you would fall for it. Air can be permeated as can membranes and thick skulls. You would think his use of diffuse might have provided the clue he needed to come correct on his own.

            But still, I give him a thumbs up for being interested in correct grammar and bear no ill will towards him for focusing his crosshairs on me.

        • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 11:23 pm #

          sprawl, even though you stubbed your toe against my awkward word usage, I grant that exude or emit would have been preferable choices. Excrete however brings the TP crisis into one’s thoughts a tad more than I’d have wanted, even though in Oinker’s case it would definitely have been applicable.

    • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 6:29 pm #

      I posted that in the Mon. thread from last week.

      Gillum lying naked and methed out on the floor of his hotel. Later some pics came out of him dancing naked with dudes.

      He, ofc, denied it all. And JW gets banned for posting the truth; par for the course iacross the Fake Nooz and grabbled social media landscape

      Destroy them all. Worldwide.

      • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 12:29 pm #

        “Later some pics came out of him dancing naked with dudes.”

        Owl,
        I will not access the pics, but a question;

        Was it a boogaloo, or the standard dick dance?”

    • Ron Anselmo March 28, 2020 at 12:23 am #

      Woods posted a picture of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum, passed out on the floor of the South Beach hotel room, laying in his own vomit, where he had his little private meth-fueled party with some male escorts.

      Here’s the takeaway: JFC, he was within a percentage point of being Governor of the State of Florida, and directing the current State Level response to COVID-19. Maybe between meth parties?

      I repeat. JFC. Over.

      Sign me a genuflecting Floridian, blasphemous language aside.

      • Ron Anselmo March 28, 2020 at 12:26 am #

        Reply to Beryl’s post @ 10:15am – not sure how it got so far down.

  7. Elrond Hubbard March 27, 2020 at 10:24 am #

    From the Twitter account of Wendell Potter, defector from the health insurance industry, a thread (lightly edited):

    As a former health insurance exec, I don’t think any story better illustrates my old industry’s racket than the one I’m about to tell you: Right now, as we enter the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes (#COVID19), health insurers are still raking in record profits.

    With the COVID19 death & illness count growing each day, you might expect health insurance companies to be one of the industries taking a huge hit right now. After all, they must be reeling from all the medical care Americans now need & all the claims being filed. Right?

    Get ready to be outraged. The country’s big for-profit health insurers may actually be one of the huge winners from the pandemic. Among the few corporations to see big jumps in their stock price this week are Anthem, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna & Humana (where I used to work).

    Investors clearly believe insurers will make a killing, with one Wall Street analyst boosting Cigna to “strong buy.” As medical claims skyrocket how on earth is this possible? A toxic combination of skimping on coverage for COVID19 treatments & raising next year’s premiums.

    How do I know this? I used to handle financial information for Cigna & learned that industry CEOs reveal stuff to financial analysts they’d never say to the general public. Few reporters bother to listen in to insurers’ calls with analysts, but one who does is @bobjherman.

    .@BobJHerman reports that in a recent call with analysts, health insurance CEOs said they don’t expect their profits to fall due to COVID-19. They even expect to meet their most ambitious 2021 earnings goals (and they’ve already been seeing record profits in recent years).

    How do health insurers continue to see huge profits during this crisis? “If medical claims start to rise uncontrollably,” @bobjherman reports, “they’ll increase everyone’s premiums next year.” Humana CEO Brian Kane put it more opaquely: “We would price for this for 2021.”

    They’re already prepping for big rate increases next year. California officials say they expect insurers to hike premiums up to 40% next year for plans in the state’s Obamacare exchange. Those getting coverage through employers should also brace for big premium hikes.

    In addition, Anthem’s CEO said his company expects to realize a “net saving” because hospitals are canceling non-emergency & elective procedures due to COVID-19. And we already know insurers are refusing to waive copays & deductibles for COVID-19 treatments.

    This is all music to investors’ ears, who are rushing to buy these stocks. When the market closed today, the Dow was up 2.39%. By comparison:

    * Cigna: Up 6.5%.
    * UnitedHealthcare: Up 6.67%.
    * Anthem: Up 9.93%.
    * Humana: Up 14.92%.

    It’s high times for the insurance racket.

    So, while many suffer serious illness or death — and millions lose jobs & health insurance — the industry sitting pretty in the United States right now is the health insurance industry.

    That perfectly sums up all you need to know about healthcare in America in 2020.

    Imagine being an insurer when a truly earth-shaking disaster hits, and you’re on the hook for all of it. Shouldn’t you be afraid of going out of business from all that liability? Now imagine being an insurer where there is simply no downward pressure on premiums, because people are infinitely motivated to pay through the nose no. Matter. What.

    Medical insurance in the USA needs to be abolished. Demand Medicare for All.

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:28 am #

      That’s what all the people running for the Democrat nomination were pushing this time around. Many of the same people who pretended Obamacare was health care reform, and supported it as such.
      At least Bernie has stuck to his one conviction.

      • Elrond Hubbard March 27, 2020 at 12:32 pm #

        Unlike the other candidates, Bernie is not a triangulator. He doesn’t choose his positions to target a segment of likely voters; he chooses them because he believes in them.

        Obamacare is a weird contraption that was clearly designed around a central requirement: protecting revenue streams for insurers, medical device manufacturers, big pharma and the rest. Even the so-called public option that was part of that debate was really only there to squeeze Medicare for All out of contention.

        • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 1:09 pm #

          Bernie got triangulated to the sidelines. By Dems, no less.

          • Majella March 30, 2020 at 6:23 am #

            True that.

    • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 10:38 am #

      Elrond, I’m glad to see we hate some of the same people. As JHK has often pointed out – health care, insurance, big pharma, etc in America is one big rip-off scam. Actually, it’s a criminal enterprise where the crooks control “the regulators” who are their own people on temporary assignment to government.

      You see the deep state’s knee jerk negative reaction to hydroxychloroquine. They don’t want this pandemic to end too soon.

      • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 11:00 am #

        Re the knee jerk, hm, see Evelyn’s doctor friend of a friend’s comment above about Plaquenil.

        The Marseille doctor’s study seems to have been seriously flawed in its methodology and therefore its conclusions are suspect.

        • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 11:38 am #

          I offered you something at the end of the previous thread of JHKs.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:24 pm #

            I was so hoping for a box of chocolates and a long-stem rose, malthuss, following your Leonard Cohen-themed comments, out of the blue as they came.

            But I replied to you anyway, as I try to be polite if you don’t get too abusive.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 11:52 am #

          GA, Do you want a cure? Would you prefer years of testing first? Forget the Marseille doctor. Numerous YouTube videos (some from doctors) testify to the efficacy of this medicine, like the Hasidic Jewish doctor in the video below. Are you calling him a liar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA6qvKhTwl0

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:18 pm #

            I’m not calling anyone a liar, hm. I’m just pointing out that it doesn’t appear to be a panacea. Why do you always over-react, as if no-one had the right to point out responsible provisos to people jumping on bandwagons? Did you read the comment above? There are people that this medication would actually kill.

            I read another conversation (under an article about the French study) between doctors pointing out how toxic the stuff is and that 400 million people worldwide absolutely couldn’t have it because of a pre-existing condition. I forget what it was, but it was just one pre-existing condition for which it would be contraindicated that they were discussing.

            A cure would be wonderful. Being killed by a supposed cure not so much.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:19 pm #

            Got the italics entirely wrong there, sorry. Only meant to be on ‘one’.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 12:27 pm #

            400 million people is about 5% of the world’s population. If 95% can be helped by this medicine, we should consider that a great success.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:46 pm #

            hm

            I hate to break it to you, but just because it’s completely contraindicated for 400 million people (and that group wasn’t exclusive) doesn’t mean the rest will be helped by it. Let’s just watch and hope.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 4:53 pm #

            I agree, GA. Although St Anselm could bring God into being through his ontological argument; I don’t think we can create a cure by words and arguments. I’m saying when an approach looks promising, pursue it with all speed and vigilance. Let’s see where it leads.

            Maybe I’m just projecting my own dark side. But I think some people are delighted by a plague to reduce the world’s population, (not you, of course) and want this thing to run.

            If half the baby boomers died off (with all our pension and medical needs and insufferable crankiness) would life be better or worse for the struggling millenials? I wonder if they’ve heard about the “small pox blankets”? Did that grocery store bagger just cough into my bag? I’m surrounded by conspiracy!

            I see Prince Charles and Boris Johnson now have the virus. Maybe if they sneezed on the Queen, we’ll finally see real change. Her consort has whimsically imagined helping to reduce world population.

            “In the event that i am reincarnated, i would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve over population.” Prince Philip Aug 1988

      • Elrond Hubbard March 27, 2020 at 12:44 pm #

        hmuller, I too am glad we hate some of the same people.

        Re: hydroxychloroquine, I read the situation differently. If it’s effective then it should be used, but not recklessly or without thinking things through. Think of COVID-19 as a hostage taker. No matter how badly we want to defeat the evildoer, if we just burn down its house without doing what we can to save the innocents inside, then we’re not that much better than the virus.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 5:00 pm #

          I wasn’t suggesting we dose everyone today at once. But let’s not drag our feet either.

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:00 am #

      It is an unfortunate fact of life. People are willing to pay money to reduce risk in their lives, to help with astronomical health care costs, to fix the car when wrecked, to guarantee income after a premature death, to guarantee income to a restaurant in case of shutdown (that is a new one for me). Just about everyone has a risk they want covered. Remember the CDOs in 2008, they were insured against loss.

      Insurance by its nature is a racket. No problem with premium vs. out pay until catastrophe hits. Katrina clobbered State Farm, I remember a lot of non-paid claims after the hurricane. Something about flood vs. wind damage.

      Insurance however is a risk to itself. The risk being that there will not be too many disasters in a period of time. 2008 put financial insurance folks out of business, too many tornadoes or hurricanes will pressure home and commercial insurance groups, health insurance gets clobbered with too many hospital admissions ie epidemics.

      Insurance has one recourse to recoup losses from disasters. Car insurance, if you have too many accidents, will raise your rates, health insurance borrows this year to pay costs, then raises your rates next year. Whole geographic areas will pay higher rates on homeowners if catastrophe hits too many times.

      It is up to the consumer whether to accept more risk and pay less insurance costs.

      Health care insurance is like any other insurance. It is up to the consumer to take the chance of getting sick vs. paying premiums.

      Our conundrum in the US has nothing to do with the insurance. It is determining whether health care is a human right. Eliminate the insurance industry from healthcare and the CBO price tag is 50 trillion dollars over ten years. So taxes instead of premiums. Notice none of the Medicare for All boys will tell the public how much they are going to pay in increased payroll taxes to get to 100% public coverage with no insurance. That does not cover the decreased service that metered health care brings.

      Many people are watching what happens with case and mortality numbers when socialized vs. insured health care are compared. The catastrophe is upon us, let’s wait and see who wins.

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 11:28 am #

        If you take the expected events out of insurance, and make it true insurance, the price drops drastically, because most people don’t have major medical events requiring prolonged hospital stays and surgery.
        I kept trying to explain this aspect of Obamacare to a young woman who thought she “needed” insurance. They put that “access to health care” slogan out there in the MSM and it amazed me hw many people bought it.
        Everyone knows that insurance companies hinder “access to health care”.
        This woman had asthma. I asked her how much she spent in a typical year, for treatment of that “pre-existing condition”. Generally she spent nothing, but the amount she spent for “access” even with a subsidy, was always more than a doctor visit cost.
        Then there was the specter of hospitalization. The insurance available on the bronze plan was lousy insurance.
        So she spent more per month, to get “better” insurance, and still faced co-pays and an increased deductible.’
        All this does is allows hospitals to charge more money for their services.
        If they could only charge what people could afford to pay, they would go out of business.
        People don’t understand that for the most part, they are self-insured.

      • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 11:48 am #

        JohnAZ

        “The catastrophe is upon us, let’s wait and see who wins.”

        There is something not entirely pleasant about your wish for a system (yours, naturally) to ‘win’, as if this were a jousting match. Maybe it’s part of the American psyche.

        Can’t you just wish us all well? It isn’t nice to think that each death in my country or Spain or Italy is almost a call for ‘told you so’ jubilation to you. (Bizarrely you never mention the German statistics – not only do they have more ventilators per head than the rest of us, but more nurses too, which has been suggested as an important factor in higher survival rates.)

        I get no pleasure from seeing American Covid statistics growing. Nor from imagining either what your premiums will be like next year or how many people will be financially ruined by medical bills even if they survive.

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 12:28 pm #

          GA

          In case you haven’t noticed, the battle between socialized medicine and insured medicine has been going on for fifty years and is the number one issue of this year’s election. So yes, it is a win for one side or the other. And the response to what is currently going on will be a major campaign issue.

          Myself, I think the answer is a hybrid between the two as I have described before.

          I, too, get no pleasure watching the shortcomings on both sides of the pond hurting thousands of people.

          BTW, will your taxes go up in response from all the additional costs of treating the virus? If not, who is going to pay for it?

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:59 pm #

            Boris wasn’t proposing to hike taxes to pay for HS2, so I don’t know. I’d dump that particular white elephant myself before I’d put taxes up. And of course I wouldn’t have imposed the cost to GDP of Brexit on the population either. That will have to be paid for as well.

            But why do you simplify everything as if healthcare systems were identical in ‘Europe’ from north to south and east to west? What do you think of how Germany is doing, given the enormous rise in cases?

          • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 1:39 pm #

            Did Germany actually act responsibly by having enough resources available to clobber the virus on its starting phase?

            Is Germany’s character such that average personal space is larger?

            Two suggestions.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:20 pm #

            Rationality and conscientousness, combined with a willingness to obey authority. It made them formidable when ruled well and hopeless when ruled by an alien force. But yes, they have the same advantage East Asian societies have over us, plus better hygiene than most of them except perhaps Japan.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 3:00 pm #

            JohnAZ

            Germany’s healthcare system is well resourced. That is my point. You seem to talk as if the options are the insanity of what healthcare costs in the US and underfunded ‘socialised’ systems. There is also the option of a well funded ‘socialised’ system.

            Whatever way you cut it, healthcare in European systems is primarily dispensed according to need and in the US is it dispensed according to income. So many people in need don’t get the healthcare they need. You need to count those deaths for all the periods between pandemics as well as pandemic deaths, in order to evaluate the different systems (not just two!).

    • amb March 27, 2020 at 1:29 pm #

      Hey Commie or Clown… or both. Medicare for All is doing really well in Italy, Spain and France isn’t it? That is why all the deaths (rationing, inefficiency, etc.).

      • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 1:35 pm #

        Healthcare is rationed in the US as well. It’s just that it’s rationed by income rather than by clinical need.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:21 pm #

          Good rejoinder. True too.

          • cc rider March 27, 2020 at 8:36 pm #

            I’ll second that.

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:27 pm #

          Not totally true.

          65 and over. Medicare

          Veterans VA

          Both not as responsive as regular insurance.

          The real kicker right now is EMTALA. Federal law that says that any patient in the ER that gets Medicare money must be seen and stabilized regardless of ability to pay. One of the reasons for high hospital costs is to cover for these indigents which in the hospital I worked in could be as high as thirty percent.

          The virus is clobbering hospitals right now because of EMTALA.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:10 pm #

      Bravo. Our Civilization is turning into a giant Lie, a poor excuse that lets the few make obscene profits off the suffering of the many.

      • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:28 pm #

        Just remember that health care costs money. It is not a magical trick like the Dems want it to be.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 4:09 pm #

          Yes, Civilization costs A LOT. It’s not just an arrangement whereby parasites in suits can milk people.

          Shame on you.

          • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 4:17 pm #

            No, shame on you for expecting anybody to owe you anything.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 5:45 pm #

            So much for the Social Contract. We’re dealing with a barbarian in John Az.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 6:02 pm #

            Survival of the fittest, dude! JohnAz waves a wallet; Janos brandishes a club. Money or populist power. Which way allocates limited resources best?

          • cc rider March 27, 2020 at 8:42 pm #

            Yes, shame on John AZ for being completely ignorant.

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 12:17 am #

            I wasn’t taking sides; just defining the issue as I saw it.

  8. stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 10:30 am #

    SSL, STAY HOME!

  9. robert magill March 27, 2020 at 10:30 am #

    Nixon took gold off the table. Thus began a Las Vegas style paper binge in this country and then most of the world. We all lost. Now even Vegas has unemployment.

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:35 am #

      Nixon started the China thing rolling, didn’t he? I can’t say I blame him for what politicians subsequently , though.

    • stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 10:37 am #

      Well, my gold ain’t going nowhere. Will it go up in price? Silver? I bet if I went into the corner convenience store the the Packi would take a silver dollar for a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk.

      • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 10:42 am #

        Asians recognize the value of silver and gold. Try explaining to an American that a silver dollar coin is worth more than it’s marked legal tender value of $1. It’s like talking to Jethro Bodine.

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:02 am #

          Back in the old days, noble metals were the measure of wealth. If you held a bunch of gold, you were rich. If you wanted to exchange wealth, you made part of your gold into coins. Easy to transport.

        • benr March 28, 2020 at 9:30 am #

          Older silver dollars yes the new ones are not even worth the price of minting them.

    • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 11:39 am #

      No, 1913 was the beginning.

      Or even after Abe Lincoln was killed and the new Prez took Rothschilds money. But they had Judah Benjamin on their side, during the war.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:16 pm #

        Abe might have seen thru the scam. Perhaps issuing debt free greenbacks is what got him killed. Booth’s mother claimed he was in contract with more powerful men who might have urged him on, pretending to care about the same issues that he did.

        Kennedy got it after he did the same.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:16 pm #

          contact not contract

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:30 pm #

          Abe Lincoln. Reconstruction and the Radical Republicans

          JFK. The Deep State and Cuba/Russia.

    • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 2:02 pm #

      “Nixon took gold off the table. Thus began a Las Vegas style paper binge in this country and then most of the world. We all lost…”

      Robert,
      Sorry for your current situation, but untold millions of Baby Boomers and others lived very well during the past 50 years. Nothing is forever.

      I think Nixon was the greatest President of my 70+ year life. I consider him responsible for the quality of life that was evident in our lives. He wasn’t just a politician, he was a Statesman. A Nationalist, and one of the Great Americans. Seriously.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:24 pm #

        He “opened China” too, right Ely? Wrong: he opened America to their cheap goods and began the offshoring of our infrastructure, a process that doomed us. All so that a few people could get rich. He was owned lock, stock, and barrel.

        Wrong as wrong can be.

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 8:44 pm #

          Janos,
          I’ve read every page of the Nixon Tapes as they were printed…never mentioned China as other than A hedge against Russia. He opened China to screw the Russkies…and did so, they becoming the odd man out of the triumvirate. Cheap goods were not even available at the time as China had no export economy nor the ability to generate one.

          He was playing global politics, and he was a winner.

          • benr March 28, 2020 at 9:31 am #

            No the United states actually did use China as a foil against Russia never realizing at the time Russia would make a better ally than China ever did.

          • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 12:23 pm #

            benr,
            That is true today…but back in 1970 the USSR was the threat…and China then had 800 Million +on their shared border.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 1:56 pm #

            Perhaps like Churchill? As Pat says, a great man at the expense of his nation’s greatness.

  10. teddyboy46 March 27, 2020 at 10:30 am #

    My prediction . Andrew Cuomo will parachute in to the Virtual Dem,Lib convention and save the day by becoming the Candidate, and will be elected. Remember this is just a prediction feel free to tell me i am wrong.

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:41 am #

      He will run, I have said he was running at least since Trump got in the race. He had to step back for Hillary’s turn, she and Obama had so much dirt on each other he had to endorse her.
      Running for president was Andrew’s motivation for going down to Puerto Rico numerous times after their hurricane. He botched that, as he never checked to see where supplies ended up, even though he was right there and could easily have done so.
      He also messed up making sure there were enough ventilators on hand in NYC in case of a catastrophic event.
      Then he whined to the federal government for help.
      He can’t manage a state government.

      • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:10 am #

        You are right! But is it a product of the overall idiocy of the American polity?

    • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 10:49 am #

      Very possible. Old uncle Joe will get the results of his mental acuity test, and decide (for the good of the nation) not to pursue the office, handing over all his delegates to Cuomo.

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:59 am #

        Cuomo has already claimed that he supports Joe. Joe is senile, and Andrew knows he is senile. Why would he support the senile candidate, if he wasn’t planning on it working to his advantage down the road?

      • robert magill March 27, 2020 at 12:37 pm #

        Joe will run with Hillary and her bug-out bag of arsenic.

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:08 am #

      It is interesting to compare the daily pressers from Trump’s group and Cuomo’s. They have largely converged in attitude about facing the virus. Why? Easy, neither one has much latitude on what to do or how many resources are available. Both of them are facing enormous pressures because of the idiocy of their predecessors and the apathy of the American public in regards to health care preparedness.

  11. neon sky March 27, 2020 at 10:35 am #

    June bugs, I remember them! They’re gone now, probably the victims of the neonic industry, just like bees.

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:42 am #

      Our ash trees are going. A victim of the trade imbalance with China.

      • stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 10:47 am #

        I’ve got more than few ash trees on the property. I am afraid of the emerald borer. They are not around these parts yet. They will spread just like the virus.

        • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 10:51 am #

          They don’t mention these kinds of environmental issues in the Green New Deal literature.

          Just like drugs being manufactured in the country that killed our pets, and is sending over fentanyl in amounts that can only be intended to kill us, doesn’t seem to be listed as a threat in any of the Homeland Security stuff.

          • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 11:40 am #

            thanks…

          • stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 12:01 pm #

            I had the adelgids big time, We had some really cold weather, Like 20 below. thanks Greta. Kicked the shit out of them fuzzy bastards.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:07 pm #

            Has Greta changed the weather now? She seems to get the blame for everything.

          • stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 12:12 pm #

            yea, you would think. twenty below and rising as we speak!

          • stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 12:15 pm #

            Now she has the virus. She seems to get her little mitts into everything! Who has the best hair? Boris or the Trumpster?

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 1:05 pm #

            Well Boris’ hair just hangs as it grows, St E. It doesn’t have a suspension system like Trumps, other than a very temporary one when he runs his fingers through it for aeration or something.

            Seems the Chief Medical Officer has caught the virus too. I wondered how he couldn’t given Boris has had him hovering on his shoulder for so long.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 7:52 pm #

            Health Secretary, Matt the App, has got it too.

            He thinks life and medicine can be conducted via a phone anyway, so won’t miss the contact.

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:16 am #

          Cut half of them down to create an adequate social distance. The borer can’t spread. Take out all infected trees.

          When the pioneers spread westward, they brought their east coast elm trees along and planted way too many of them, and only them.

          The result, Dutch elm disease and the near extinction of the American elm population. Two other examples, the American chestnut and the ponderosa pine. A disease took out the chestnuts and a beetle is in process of taking out climax forests of pine.

          • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 11:35 am #

            The insect that is threatening our hemlocks was inadvertently introduced from Japan after WWII.
            As far as pests from China, we aren’t even trying to keep them out, only to manage the damage.

            We do have a branch of the NYPD devoted to trying to keep out counterfeit designer goods, though.

          • stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 12:10 pm #

            I havea giant elm, maybe 40 inches in dia. That thing survived the Dutch disease. Natural selection? I have been planting seedlings from the parent. i have several that are 10″ in dia. Those elms grow like weeds. i hope they survive, otherwise I have a lot of knarly wood on hand.

      • neon sky March 27, 2020 at 12:02 pm #

        You should see what millions of gypsy moths can do to an oak forest.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 12:16 pm #

          I’ve heard trees have more genes than people because they have to try and create a wide array of chemicals to ward off enemies. They can’t just jump up and run away. There’s even a movie about the day trees decide that humans are a threat to their survival and begin emitting a chemical to kill us. The kind of plot twist that would evoke a tearful standing ovation from Greta Thunberg.

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 12:34 pm #

          The Gypsy moth was man made, a hybrid created to harden the silk worm to tolerate US winters to create a silk industry here.

          The killer bee was developed by trying to make the docile European bee tougher and produce more honey.

          Those both worked well!

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 12:41 pm #

            OMG. Don’t get Janos started on the topic of “miscegenation”. It starts with forbidden love among insects, then pretty soon…..

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:28 pm #

            Why do you mock a serious issue? And what could be more serious than the survival of our Race? Surely there is no America without us, the Native Americans?

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 5:06 pm #

            So you’re a Native American? I thought you were Irish.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 5:13 pm #

            Whenever different tribes have run into each other, there’s been miscegenation. If only as a result of rape. They say the exotic is erotic.

            The only exception I know about are the Vikings who settled in Greenland and lived there circa 900-1300 AD. They never touched Eskimo women. And the Eskimo men certainly never came calling on those sweet viking girls. It was pretty much a case of kill the Eskimo’s on sight.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 5:50 pm #

            Whites are the Native Americans as a moment’s clear thinking reveals. Can you do that, be rational even for a moment? Or do you prefer indoctrination like the rest of the herd?

            And there is evidence that the Inuit finished off the dying Vikings of Greenland – and/or that the Viking women went over to their side, the winning side of those who can provide life. In any case, Conquerors typically spare the women. Spare them and
            then don’t touch them, right Horace? Guess that explains those six foot tall, blonde Inuit they found. Kind of like the Lumbees of Roanoke.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 6:30 pm #

            The “blond Inuit” mystery is complex. Genetic testing has debunked the Viking connection (if you believe the testers).

            “DNA tests debunk blond Inuit legend”

            Two Icelandic scientists have shot holes in the theory of the missing Norse tribes of the Arctic.

            Agnar Helgason and Gisli Palsson say their DNA tests have failed to find any evidence that Europeans mingled genetically with Inuit half a millennium ago.

            The scientists made the statement after a visit to Cambridge Bay last week.

            Rumours of blue-eyed, blond-haired Inuit have circulated through the Arctic since the turn of the century.

            They were thought to possibly descend from a group of Norsemen who disappeared from a Greenland settlement 500 years ago.

            A well-known Canadian Arctic explorer, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, hinted in his diaries he came across European-featured Inuit in the early 1900s in Western Nunavut.
            o Helgason and Palsson tested the theory by comparing DNA from 100 Cambridge Bay Inuit with Norse descendants from Iceland.

            They presented their findings in the Kitikmeot community last week.

            Helgason says his preliminary findings show there is no match between the Nunavut and Icelandic DNA.

            “Stefansson’s hypothesis doesn’t seem to be supported by the data at this point in time,” he says. “But I wouldn’t want to give a final death certificate for Stefansson’s hypothesis at this point in time.”

            Palsson, an anthropologist who translated Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s diaries, says the explorer’s claim to have seen the European-featured Inuit could have been a way to get additional funding for his exploration.

            https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/dna-tests-debunk-blond-inuit-legend-1.374175

          • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 10:02 pm #

            “Stefansson’s hypothesis doesn’t seem to be supported by the data at this point in time,” he says. “But I wouldn’t want to give a final death certificate for Stefansson’s hypothesis at this point in time.”

            ===========

            This Helgason dude really really liked the phrase at this point in time. Wouldn’t saying at this time be expressing the exact same thing but in fewer words? Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style encourages us to eliminate unnecessary words and sentences in our writings.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 10:11 pm #

            I thought you were Irish.
            ==

            Croat.

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 10:32 am #

            Q. Shtik, Maybe the article was literally translating word for word what “the Helgason dude” said in Icelandic. Maybe they speak slowly and use a lot of superfluous words because that’s how “The Eddas” are written, also they have so much time on their hands. Time to fish; time to watch glaciers melt, time to DNA test Inuit, time to watch Greta YouTube videos.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 7:57 pm #

      Any good to eat?

  12. akmofo March 27, 2020 at 10:38 am #

    Money is credit. Credit is the future. The future is what you make of it. The sickness in the US is not the finance system, it is the commie depressives that cannot be without spreading their commie depression to others.

    • ellipsis March 27, 2020 at 11:05 am #

      Credit is debt is future consumption consumed now and “paid for” (allegedly) later, plus compounding interest, of course. To be in debt is to be a slave, which is why all sane societies have always resisted it altogether, or at the very least implemented strong measures to minimize its negative effects. The US is now “free-balling” it into an increasingly enslaved future with unrestrained money printing, for as long as it lasts anyway.

      • AKlein March 27, 2020 at 11:29 am #

        Ellipsis, ultimately, all debt represents the redistribution of current wealth. (However, this is only true for real wealth, not notional wealth, which is quite a thicket caused by money being representational wealth.) The end game of most economic systems, ours especially included, will result in all the real wealth eventually becoming the property of the very few masked by the existence of debt (i.e. it is redistributed upward, resulting in consolidation.) The ancient Hebrews understood this dynamic very well. Whence their Jubilee.As Solomon averred, there is nothing new under the sun.

        • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 12:06 pm #

          Solomon was a foreign agent, a thief, and total disaster for Israel. Debt and slavery is exactly the system he and his father David instituted. Taxes and Kingship.

      • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 11:34 am #

        Yes, we’re all familiar with the idiotic Marxist propaganda that you constantly ape. Credit is neither debt nor slavery! Credit is an open horizon for an unlimited future. The Spanish of the Middle Ages who stole all the gold and silver in the world from the Americas, shriveled from a world superpower down to nothing within a generation. They were eclipsed by Italy France England Holland, for one reason only. That reason is credit!

        You’re not a slave! You are lazy bum! Your only “talent” is to whine and defecate commie propaganda as an excuse for your stupidity ignorance poverty misery, lack of energy and life.

        • ellipsis March 27, 2020 at 12:20 pm #

          LOL! You and your fucking “commie” bullshit. You’re one trick pony. Tell me, are you twelve years old playing on the computer, or what? Surely you could have never survived into adulthood being this fucking stupid.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 1:01 pm #

            Nah, I described you pretty accurately. Your nervous laughter just confirms it, Commie. Your “debt is slavery” whiny nonsense just tells us that your credit worthiness is probably ZERO. Which also tells us that you’re a total loser.

          • ellipsis March 27, 2020 at 1:11 pm #

            Half-wit says what? Ain’t your mom staying home with you during all this CV nonsense? I think I hear her calling for you, so you’d better run along now and check. Either that, or she’s screaming out from the mailman slipping her the bone. Either way, run along now little one. Go have fun and call all your little playmates a commie for me, ‘K?

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 1:42 pm #

            Got you pegged good, didn’t I. Well, loser, enjoy your commie whining. That’s all you have, and all you will ever have in life.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 12:20 pm #

          Is your love of debt/credit in any influenced by the prominent role of Jews in banking?

          • ellipsis March 27, 2020 at 1:15 pm #

            It’s mostly influenced by the fact that he’s a prepubescent playing on the computer. And oh yeah, he REALLY likes the word ‘Commie’ A LOT. Just pull his little string and find out.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 1:37 pm #

            Well, Muller, them are some interesting stereotypes youz propagating. Is that again common to all you Germans?

            And no, my “love of credit” is influenced by my complete aversion to Catholicism and its arab variation, Islamism.

            But since you made this interesting assertion, let me ask you this, Muller: What percentage of your personal banking personnel are Jewish? Because in my encounters during my personal banking when living abroad, I never came across a single Jewish person working at the bank, EVER. For some strange reason they were all Italian Iranian Portuguese. So I’m curious, where do you get your interesting thoughts from. Maybe you share with us some more from your copy of Mein Kampf?

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:34 pm #

            Really dumb, Akmo. The Bankers don’t work in branch offices as tellers or even managers.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 2:53 pm #

            Ok, Jan, so who are the bankers? The shareholders? And who are the shareholders if not the public, you and I?!!

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 5:24 pm #

            Yes afmofo, all sorts of people can be shareholders. But what percentage of bank shares are owned by Jews? I doubt a definitive answer could be found thru research. There are so many holding companies, false fronts, privately held corporations. A real labyrinth.

            “Ownership” in our world is a far more occult topic than most people realize. For example, how many people know that Rothschild controlled Cede & Company owns their equity shares. Ordinary investors have a legal claim but not title.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 6:43 pm #

            Let me quickly solve that mystery for you, Muller:

            Q: What percentage of banks are owned by Jews?
            A: Zero point zero one and less.

            Q: What percentage of Jews own bank shares?
            A: Zero point zero one and less.

            Banks are boring and unprofitable! What we own is the FAANG stocks!

            I think you very well knew the answer to the questions, Muller. Which brings us back to your original assertion. So wherever from did you come by your assertion, and with such unabashed racist certainty?

            I do find it interesting that ownership only interests you Goys when it might possibly involve Jews. Seems to be an occult cosmic interest in this subject for many of you. How come, Muller? To me this extreme Jew interest smells of extreme fear. Are you fearful of Jews, Muller? Do you fear for your life, Muller? Did you do something wrong to justify this fear? Did you really think anyone ever escapes God’s justice?

            Let me comfort you. You’re not paranoid, Muller, God is indeed watching you. We’re watching too. There’s no escape and nowhere to hide. Sleep tight, Muller.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 7:27 pm #

            Your threatening comments, afmoto, sound like a case of cyber-bullying. JHK should protect this site from people like you.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 7:49 pm #

            Muller, I just state the obvious. No one escapes God’s justice. Study your history books. All reasonable people will agree, James and you included.

            James will also agree with my opinion that all this Jew talk and Jew interest stems from extreme fear. You Goys are fearful of God’s justice for what you did to the Jews and how savagely you mistreated and maligned them. Is this fear justified? That’s easily answered, isn’t it.

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 2:13 pm #

          “You’re not a slave! You are lazy bum! Your only “talent” is to whine and defecate commie propaganda as an excuse for your stupidity ignorance poverty misery, lack of energy and life.”

          Mofo,
          With all respect. The hardest thing to master in the art of the Polemic is to answer a question without rancor, ad hominems, and with an argument that is cogent and addresses the opponent’s errors, if errors they be.

          The easy, slothful method is to call someone a stupid cocksucker, to metaphorically reach through the screen to grab them by the throat. It is violence by other means. I, myself, am no stranger to violence. It is very difficult to remain civil…difficult…demands discipline. Try it.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 2:27 pm #

            No, Ely, the discipline is me pegging these commies to the cross, day in and day out. They make me so sick with disgust and aversion, but I still do it. It’s God’s work, Ely. Truly it is. It is the thunder and the lightning bursting their diseased black cloud of misery and loserdom. God’s electric shock therapy.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:32 pm #

          No. He who lends, must also lose if the venture fails. Otherwise, they are aping God, able to create out of nothing. If people go along with it, they will end up as as slaves to these few. There is no other possible outcome.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 3:08 pm #

            So when a bank fails, who pays? The shareholders pay! And who are the shareholders, Jan, if not you and I and our pension fund. The system is us. We end up paying, always!

            That’s why I can’t stand these commies and their malevolence. They spent their money and youth having been educated in Marxist ignorance at University, and then they spend the rest of their stupid sad life in denial of their youthful stupidity hoping to appease and comfort their ego regurgitating the commie propaganda that screwed their life in the first place. They don’t have the honesty and courage to look at their problem and try to change their thinking and outcome.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 6:46 pm #

            First of all I am not a commie, marxist, or socialist. I like to think I’m a free market libertarian.

            But I must ask you, afmoto. Haven’t you noticed that in recent times failed banks are bailed out by the society at large, i.e. the taxpayers? I wish we did live in a world where huge, broken capitalist enterprises were allowed to fail.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 7:09 pm #

            Oh, Muller, where did I ever say you were a commie? Honestly, you completely escaped my radar. I never paid any attention to anything you wrote.

            Now to your “observation”. Please inform us which banks were bailed out by the taxpayers. When did such occur and what was the cost to taxpayers. I know you Germans like to be precise, so let’s have it.

          • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 7:42 pm #

            OK you’re right. No banks have been bailed out at public expense. It was all just a dream I had.

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 7:54 pm #

            C’mon, Muller, you just fold like that the second I challenge you for some facts. Are you that lazy that you can’t Copy & Paste some of the crap you read at the Russki propaganda site Zero Hedge?

  13. akmofo March 27, 2020 at 10:44 am #

    Dr.SHIVA on pandemics and the fraud of the gov mafia
    https://youtu.be/3mb5kgfRJMw

  14. wwg1wga March 27, 2020 at 10:50 am #

    Financial GAMES without frontiers, WARS without tears.
    http://www.got-truth.com/docs/Financial%20Games%20without%20Frontiers.pdf

  15. ellipsis March 27, 2020 at 10:57 am #

    Nailed it, Jim! Fucking nailed it!

  16. James Kuehl March 27, 2020 at 10:59 am #

    Like many catastrophes this one is the result of a confluence of events. We face a pandemic coinciding with an unsound economy, fragile supply chains, and inept leadership at every level. Like a car wreck, it was not solely the fault of the bald tire, the sharp curve, the wet road, or the tired driver. It was all these things occurring simultaneously.

    • wwg1wga March 27, 2020 at 11:03 am #

      The END march of self-organizing criticality is GASLIGHTING!
      http://www.got-truth.com/docs/Globalist%20end%20game.pdf

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:24 am #

      Our lovely polity breeds ineptness and apathy. Do not make an issue about anything!

      Inept leadership is a product of any polity regardless of the philosophy of the polity.

      The remainder is the result of capitalism, survival of the least costly way of doing business.

      The combination of the two creates pandemics and the apparent lack of resources to deal with them.

  17. JustSaying March 27, 2020 at 11:10 am #

    I have four months of paper products so I am good to go!

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:18 am #

      I hope the virus does not last five months or twelve.

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 11:41 am #

        We could commandeer the paper the NYT was going to waste by putting ink on it. Problem solved.

        • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 11:45 am #

          A fitting end to The Paper of Refuse.

          • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 11:57 am #

            Good one!

          • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 2:19 pm #

            Owl,
            …All the news that’s fit to flush….

      • PeteAtomic March 27, 2020 at 11:49 am #

        Me neither John… I think the damage to the economy is gonna be bad enough after a couple months…

        April Fools Day this year is gonna be real, real bad I think with rents/mortgages becoming due

  18. Robert White March 27, 2020 at 11:19 am #

    The Western Empire of Fractional Reserve Banking was taken down March 10th 2008 around 11:00am Bear Stearns time New York City as it became clear that Bear Stearns, & the top marquee Investment Houses/Bank Holding Companies were overextended & overleveraged with pie-in-the-sky valuations & the debts to back it up if it went South.

    Richard ‘the Gorilla of Wall Street’ Fuld was the longest running Wall Street Chief Executive Officer in the history of Wall Street when he leveraged Lehman Brothers 44:1 thinking erroneously that the Federal Reserve & Treasury Secretary would always have his back as he aggressively went headlong into a leveraged takeover of Wall Street via off-balance sheet repurchasing agreements in the overnight REPO market. Fuld would take debt off of his books before an earnings call so that the books looked stealthy every month. He was aggressively attempting to beat the shit out of every counterparty in the game until margin calls rendered him yesterday’s man.

    The Chicago School of Neoliberalism built the entire financial world and all economies into one giant betting parlor thinking that at no time would they ever experience defaults on the order of 10% on Subprime Residential Mortgage Backed Securities. When defaults went over 10% due to the constant Federal Reserve backstop ‘Fed Put’ that never allowed for the process of mean reversion to take hold the weakest link in the chain of promises/bets became the outsized leveraged Investment Houses on Wall Street that leveraged the most.

    Fuld was indeed the Gorilla of Wall Street at 44:1 leverage. He surpassed all of his competitors by a clear margin.

    Margin calls ended the career of Richard the Gorilla of Wall Street due to his rookie mistake of using short-term finance for maintenance of long-term debts.

    Economics 101: Never use short-term money for long term investments. Operating cash is a must in business just in case of margin calls.

    Economics 101: Housing prices do not always rise in failing markets.

    RW

  19. Walter B March 27, 2020 at 11:21 am #

    “Money isn’t capital, but it represents capital when it is functioning. When it isn’t functioning, it stops being money.”

    A real gem Jim, mind if I use it?

    I haven’t found anyone out here in the real world that does not believe that this is the excuse to crash and reset the financial/economic system. Frankly I must admit that it will be a lot less violent than if the systems are left to crash on their own.

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 11:29 am #

      How do you reset the system when it is the basis for the retirement for every senior citizen in the country? Who gets to keep the residual, the younger generations who are still economically active or the elders who have left the market?

      A very unattractive political conundrum of the future.

      • Walter B March 27, 2020 at 2:12 pm #

        Not to worry JAZ, the old guys like you and me are going to take it in the shorts. Who do thieves concentrate their thieving on? That’s right the old and the frail that cannot fight back. We call it the Rule of the Dogs, pick ’em off from the back of the pack..

        • Robert White March 27, 2020 at 3:39 pm #

          You have to have faith that your fellow man will not tolerate anyone picking off the elderly in society, Walt.

          Always be a good person to build karma points just to be sure. And the Bible says to be ‘slow to anger’ which means that you stand your ground when pissed off.

          Your first month as Mayor of small Jersey town looks to be a great start to lots of work.

          Robert

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 4:12 pm #

          Remember the great equalizer is Mr. Colt’s 45.

    • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 11:43 am #

      And to allow the Masters of the Universe to snap up whatever they want for next to nothing.

    • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 11:45 am #

      I have found some younger than me people who actually believe this is all about the virus.
      There is a generation that came of age seeing ‘missing children’ on the milk cartons at the breakfast table.
      They grew up easy to scare.

      But you are correct, it is being used as an excuse.

    • MC Hammerabi March 27, 2020 at 11:54 am #

      I would like some finance guru to explain to me: if the FED can just conjure all this money out of thin air (which happens on a smaller scale when any bank makes a loan) … why don’t they just do that all the time? Why force me to pay taxes? Why not print money and fix roads, schools, railroads, hospitals? Why print money just for mega-global corps and connected bankers?

      Bill Ackman made $2 billion dollars manipulating the stock market in the last month. But if those trades go the other way, he’s first in line for a bailout. How could our system be more evil? And the dems answer: Joe Biden…Joe phukin Biden

      • Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 12:01 pm #

        Joe had a lot to do with that exception to the bankruptcy reforms for student loan debt.

      • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 12:39 pm #

        Good points!

      • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 2:24 pm #

        “I would like some finance guru to explain to me: if the FED can just conjure all this money out of thin air (which happens on a smaller scale when any bank makes a loan) … why don’t they just do that all the time? Why force me to pay taxes? Why not print money and fix roads, schools, railroads, hospitals? Why print money just for mega-global corps and connected bankers?

        MC,
        You are experiencing the end game. The concept works insofar as the rest of the world accepts Dollars…the new paradigm will work until the rest of the world doesn’t…pretty simple, really.

        • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 8:55 pm #

          Ely,

          Taxes and Kingship = Debt and Slavery

          That is the system the Edomite plague King David imposed on Israel. It’s the system he learned from the Greek Philistines (Heb: foreign invaders). It’s the system of ROME and Romanism, and as long as ROME exists and you remain wilfully blind to its existence, their system will continue to exist.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:39 pm #

        Why? Social control. Just as you are forced to pay back every jot and tittle. If you could do what they do, then it wouldn’t mean anything anymore. But since you can’t, they can get real labor, capital, and property with their fake monopoly money.

        Get it? The salient principle is not just creating out of nothing (in mockey of God), but its exclusivity. They take forgery and effort to create new currencies, very, very seriously for this reason.

    • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 2:20 pm #

      “I haven’t found anyone out here in the real world that does not believe that this is the excuse to crash and reset the financial/economic system”

      Walter,
      I do not believe it. It tries to explain away human stupidity and greed.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:42 pm #

        Wrong. The forgoing explains how they are able to get away with it. I’ve just created a higher third that reconciles you and Walter in terms of these two posts. He already knows the point I’m making though. Amazingly, you don’t.

        I mean you think Nixon was a great president too….

        • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 8:53 pm #

          Janos,
          Why do you think that, when the shit hits the fan, that there must be blame assigned? Why do you consider assigning blame paramount to other concerns? Simple Politics? Have you not noticed that blame means nothing to people like the Demon Sow? Uncle Joe? even Paul Bremer, for Christ’s sake? Blame does not seem to have negative consequences. If you feel blame assigned will translate at the ballot box, well, maybe, but maybe not. He who has the largest and loudest megaphone prevails.

          I do not think Nixon was a great president…I think he was the Greatest President.

          But I could be wrong….

          • akmofo March 27, 2020 at 9:41 pm #

            You are wrong. JFK was your greatest and bravest of your Presidents. That’s why CFR tool Allen Dulles and the Vatican/CIA mafia murdered him. He was going to expose and end their gov mafia.

            There’s a sacred memorial to JFK in Jerusalem.

            From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

            Yad Kennedy (Hebrew: ?? ????, Kennedy Memorial?) , located in the Mateh Yehuda Region near Jerusalem, Israel, is a memorial to John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in 1963. The 60-foot high (18 m) memorial is shaped like the stump of a felled tree, symbolizing a life cut short.[1] Inside is a bronze relief of Kennedy, with an eternal flame burning in the center.[1][2] It is encircled by 51 concrete columns, one for each of the 50 states in the United States plus one for Washington, D.C., that nation’s capital.[3] The emblems of the states (and of the District of Columbia) are displayed on each of the columns,[3] and the columns are separated by slim panels of glass.[4] The monument measures approximately 250 feet (76 m) in circumference around its base,[4] and there is space within the memorial for approximately 100 visitors at a time.[3] The monument was built in 1966 with funds donated by American Jewish communities.[1]

            Yad Kennedy and its adjoining picnic grounds are part of the John F. Kennedy Peace Forest.[5]

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 10:34 pm #

            Fascinating, since Kennedy said Hitler was a very great Leader and that would be recognized once the war time hysteria died down. Needless to say he was wrong about that: you folks never intend to let that hysteria die down.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 10:36 pm #

            Eli: You need to justify your love. Tell us Why you consider him so great. Was it his wing tip loafers and how he walked on the beach with them? The way he licked his lips? What? You say he wasn’t responsible for the destruction of economy, that he didn’t see the offshoring coming?

            Seeing such things is the Job of a President….

          • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 1:46 am #

            Janos,
            Why was he the best?

            Shortened the Vietnam war by bombing the North Vietnamese into the stone age.

            Cut a deal with the house of Saud that required American Dollars to purchase oil. This provided the outstanding wealth and power of the US that extended, even in it’s shredded form, to this DAY…we may be watching the end of the dollar’s hegemony as the weeks and months unfold, but it held for 50 years…50 YEARS of wealth from plundering the rest of the World, shoving dollars down their throats, and making them like it. Janos, you gotta love this kind of powerplay. What other President did something so simple, so impactive, so prescient?

            Aligning with China, spooking the hell out of the Russians, and changing the dynamic of the cold war.

            By closing the Gold Window, he solidified the hegemony of the USD. He allowed the generation of our fiat currency and ensured that the rest of the world had to accept it…had to.

            What is not to like…to love? A Nationalist, America First without-a-doubt, and a real Statesman.

            The existence of our middle class can largely be attributed to Richard Milhouse Nixon. Dig him up and I would vote for him again.

          • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 1:58 am #

            “You are wrong. JFK was your greatest and bravest of your Presidents.”

            Mofo,
            We all were impacted by JFK. A great speaker, charismatic, Intelligent.

            But what did he do that could be considered a lasting testament to his term in office?

            Why great? Why brave? Probably a good man, naval officer, married well…kick started the Federal Civil Rights involvement.

            But…the Bay of Pigs did not end well…coulda’ been worse, of course. He pissed off the Mafia by placing Bobby as head of the DOJ, gave us LBJ….

            What will define his greatness? Certainly nothing like the 50 years of prosperity that Nixon provided.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 4:58 am #

            Why great and brave? Because he stood for the great Enlightenment principles of Freedom and Openness and never backed down from these in the face of imminent danger. He never folded. He was of true Hebrew spirit. The Vatican mafia Nazis brought him to the Presidency because his Nazi father was one of them and was involved in organizing the great theft of the 1929 market crash. But his son JFK turned out to be a true sincere and principled American and thus a natural friend of Israel. JFK was the first American President to supply Israel with weapons included the then top state of art Hawk missiles. It was a huge and real change in the attitude of the US towards Israel and signalled the first stage of a security pact between the two countries.

  20. BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 11:26 am #

    “History had punched our ticket and was embarking us on a journey whether we liked it or not.”

    That’s good. Thomas McGuane good.

    • PeteAtomic March 27, 2020 at 11:40 am #

      I agree

      this pandemic is squeezing some good writing out of Jim’s noggin there like pus exploding from a volcanic zit

    • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 11:43 am #

      Did you know Leonard Cohens manager stole his million dollars
      and it was the only million that he had. This was maybe 20 years ago.

      Len also had an affair w Janis Joplin and wrote a song about her.
      Len lived up the road from me, but far up it.
      His touring may have been due to financial distress.

      • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 11:53 am #

        Many interesting tidbits coming from you out in LA, Malthus. Keep ’em coming.

      • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 12:03 pm #

        “Len also had an affair w Janis Joplin and wrote a song about her.”

        So did Kris Kristofferson.

        So did Joan Baez, but she missed out the affair.

        Writing songs about Janis was a bit of a thing.

        • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 12:16 pm #

          Joan Baez had a thing with Peggys bull dyke partner. Not w Janis, far as I can tell. Peggy finally published a new book..’A few things went wrong along the way’ is the title or close to the title.
          Her first book was written for heroin money, with a porn co writer.

          And JB had a thing – fling with MLK?

          A friend of mine had an affair with Janis.

          Joan has complained about lesbians coming on to her back stage. ‘Im not interested’.
          The lesbians need to go to Melissa Es shows.

          • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 1:06 pm #

            Looks like just about everybody in Cal at that time had a fling with Janis Joplin. Or at least a one night stand.

            Brh

          • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:44 pm #

            Janis looked like that kind of person. But Joan? Joan? So wholesome. I’ll never see her the same way.

        • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 1:10 pm #

          When I said she ‘missed out the affair’ I didn’t mean out of the song, just that she didn’t have one… i presume.

          Not that I would know – I don’t have your contacts, thankfully.

          I don’t know who Peggy is. Perhaps thankfully as well.

  21. malthuss March 27, 2020 at 11:46 am #

    Jim,

    what about supply chain disruptions?

    • PeteAtomic March 27, 2020 at 11:49 am #

      great question

    • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 11:54 am #

      I live near one of the biggest toilet paper factories in Germany.

      All is well, my friend.

      • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 12:12 pm #

        You do not understand chains. USA still produces a lot of food.
        It may rot in fields and silos if the pandemic goes ‘Black Plague.’

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 12:55 pm #

          In ‘Earth Abides’ Ish returns to civilization after recovering from the mutated Trump crud and his snakebite.

          Ish sees a backhoe abandoned while digging a new mass grave pit. The half dug pit is alongside another that was already used and filled in.

        • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 1:16 pm #

          That’s OK – Nightowl will be able to start a lucrative and delicious line in Toilettenpapierwurst.

          • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:14 pm #

            In Robin William’s movie, Moscow on the Hudson, his character defected to the US in NYC. The flashbacks showing why he was so depressed concentrated on not being able to buy toilet paper in the USSR and having to stand in lines for hours to get it.

            Hmmm!

        • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 6:31 pm #

          It was a joke.

      • beantownbill. March 27, 2020 at 12:56 pm #

        And you can state that you are not full of shit.

      • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 5:10 pm #

        Nightowl

        Is it a paper products factory, napkins, paper towels, masks etc. Or just TP?

        • Nightowl March 27, 2020 at 6:37 pm #

          Just TP and tissues. My wife was at the store today and it was the only brand left on the shelf.

          The Germans all buy the greenwashed and cheap stuff, so that was the first to go.

          The thrift always cracks me up here, even though I am somewhat thrifty myself. You can go to Aldi or even Penny (discounters) and see a Porsche GT3 parked in the lot.

          • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 9:54 pm #

            We have Aldis here now. A new one under construction in the area too.

            People seem to like Aldi’s.

          • Nightowl March 28, 2020 at 6:05 am #

            Yes, Aldi is pretty good overall. Though in Germany, there are two options: Süd and Nord.

            And everyone knows Süd is the best.

  22. malthuss March 27, 2020 at 12:11 pm #

    UNZ.com

    Well, the Coronavirus China Virus is going to test this theory, promulgated with the upmost zeal and enthusiasm by our elite in corporate America, the media, public sector, academia and the entertainment industry.

    The first black female police commissioner of Philadelphia has instructed police to stop making certain arrests as the China Virus spreads through the city, a precursor to lawlessness, anarchy, and chaos.

    The same mentality has spread to Cincinnati, a city where almost all violent crime – according to police arrest records – is committed by blacks. The black police chief has announced the city is suspending in-person responses from police to a shocking number of violent crimes against law-abiding citizens and property owners. [Cincinnati police temporarily suspending in-person response to certain 911 calls, WLWT.com, March 24, 2020]:

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 12:42 pm #

      Are these black on black crimes?

      • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 1:17 pm #

        Well, reports try to mask when Blacks are perpetrators of crimes.

        I dont try to tease the exact numbers in such a boon doggle.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:52 pm #

      In the end, masked White Men will have to restore order. Their masks will afford protection in many ways.

  23. Beryl of Oyl March 27, 2020 at 12:13 pm #

    Seems like our AG has had sufficient time to look over all the evidence Rudy Giuliani gathered for him over in Europe.

    I wonder how many people were chagrined and alarmed when he concluded his mission just in time, ahead of the virus. Do you think they might have been hoping that some of the key players might die before anyone got to talk to them?
    I’m thinking of all those movie scenes where the hero floors it and makes it across a bridge as it is being raised.

  24. venuspluto67 March 27, 2020 at 12:16 pm #

    One might even look at this novel coronavirus as nature forcing the rendering of accounts that we humans needed but refused to do.

  25. K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 12:45 pm #

    And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
    Everybody knows that it’s moving fast

    Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
    Are just a shining artifact of the past
    Everybody knows the scene is dead
    But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
    That will disclose
    What everybody knows

    • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 1:17 pm #

      why do you keep doing this parody?

      • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 1:19 pm #

        Why is it a parody? Looks like a quotation to me.

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 1:50 pm #

          It is a direct quote. Cohen did not have the only version.

          • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 1:54 pm #

            I finished last week with it but I posted it again because I knew malthuss was going to give me a hard time. He made the mistake of not knowing it was a quote once before so I knew he would do it again. I wanted to have some fun and I set him up. Forgive me, we are all stuck at home.

          • GreenAlba March 27, 2020 at 7:42 pm #

            I’m a big fan – heard it too many times not to recognise a direct quote!

  26. malthuss March 27, 2020 at 1:19 pm #

    BRH
    QTIPS

    Sick ‘n Tired says:
    According to my cousin in NYC, NY people (himself included) have been going to CT to buy rifles & pistols, which I found surprising, since I couldn’t buy a box of ammo with my FL driver’s license when I lived in CT.

    • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 3:29 pm #

      My brother was in a gun store out in Hicksville, Ct yesterday. He said ammo was stacked deep, being sold cheap.

      Brh

      • benr March 29, 2020 at 9:23 am #

        Everyone is afraid of the coming riots for food and tp.
        I was worried it was going to happen as well but that worry has receded a bit.

  27. Pucker March 27, 2020 at 1:27 pm #

    Yesterday, my Boss asked me if I had “watched the News”?

    My initial reaction (which I kept to myself) was: “Why on Earth would I watch the News?”

    My trust in the System has basically collapsed. I’m at a point now where I believe in planting my own garden and sewing my own face masks. I don’t trust the government at all.

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 1:49 pm #

      He wanted small talk.

      • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 2:29 pm #

        Dog,
        No, he was leading up to asking Puck if he owned a Weedeater….

      • Robert White March 27, 2020 at 5:20 pm #

        It was the polite way to remind him that he had to keep a distance of two meters without actually stating it openly. Moreover, the boss was probably concerned about the worried employee as worried employees are less reliable.

        RW

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:09 pm #

      You are ready for The World Made by Hand?

    • Nightowl March 28, 2020 at 3:11 pm #

      The opener and the following line read like something out of a MIke Judge film.

      Near daily occurance for me, round these parts.

  28. JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 1:30 pm #

    Good data source

    The guardian.com has USA data map from Johns Hopkins and State by State stats. Shows an accumulative graph for a number of countries.

    I noted:

    This is a Blue territory disease, urban areas only with few exceptions. States with one or two major cities only for their population, mostly in the west have higher occurrences. New York really stands out, what is different there than Chicago?

    The incidence curves were interesting. Asian countries have flattened out, western countries still climbing. Is this character differences, “how well people behave”, or just timing? Or both?

    Cuomo said this morning that is very difficult to get a six foot safe zone in New York City, if we were to get a average safe zone per capita figure for the cities, would it correlate to the incident rates?

  29. amb March 27, 2020 at 1:38 pm #

    A Black Swan has landed. And… there is a giant V-formation of more swans of the black persuasion, via perfect murmuration, on the horizon–headed in our direction. This “Fourth Turning” will contain many disastrous hum-dingers. Prepare for the collapse of all that is corrupt and fake, and the beginning of a new life paradigm. The purge has begun. Let’s hope the next iteration is born from intelligence, awareness of history and a deep seated integrity.

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:07 pm #

      The last Fourth Turning crisis was The Great Depression- WW2.

      Think about the High that emerged, the post war USA dominated world. We became powerful and wealthy by helping the rest of the world reassemble itself.

      I do not have a clue about what is going to come out of this Fourth Turning. I do notice however that the country in the best position is not us, it is China. We may watch China go roaring past us like a high speed rail train. In the meantime, our lovely polity just encourages us to tear ourselves apart. We may get what we deserve.

      BTW, when the China Express roars by, our Elite will be jumping on board.

      • Robert White March 27, 2020 at 3:20 pm #

        Jim gives us the answer with the long emergency whereby Commerce & Industry is reduced to ‘a world made by hand’ due to
        mass systemic breakdown of what was once an ordered world.

        This is why Jim is now a real deal Futurist. He said the long emergency would manifest, and low & behold, he nailed it for everyone in the world to see.

        Credit where credit is due IMHO. What writers came along and predicted the long emergency quite as presciently as Jim has just articulated it with his latest book?

        Bottom line from this point of time in the paradigmatic ‘fourth turning’ we are now evidencing is that few predicted this outcome by writing a book in advance of the global implosion of 2020.

        There is a clear path forward knowing that we are now hurling at warp speed into the Greatest Depression along historical time of finance in the Western world.

        RW

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 4:04 pm #

          Yup!

          His book that we just read is incomplete. He needs to write a Virus addendum. It is like everything just shifted from first to fourth gear.

  30. K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 1:47 pm #

    Our nation assumed global leadership in previous global crises. In the 2014 Ebola epidemic America was a leader. But our current administration abdicated the job of leadership. Trump cares about the greatness of Elite Class Financial Portfolios more than about the future of humanity, or America.

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 1:48 pm #

      KDFP

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:56 pm #

        KDFDC

        Dog Catcher

        • tucsonspur March 27, 2020 at 3:35 pm #

          Okay. He’ll ‘hound ’em and impound ’em.’ He’s capable.

  31. EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 2:04 pm #

    Rejoice!!

    Fat bastard has told us MAGA time will finally arrive when the easter bunny gets here.

    Can you believe it!!!?

    https://digg.com/2020/trump-impression-coronavirus

    • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 3:27 pm #

      Trump Hate-O-Meter score: 6

      No editorial comment necessary. The post speaks for itself.

      Brh

      • Robert White March 27, 2020 at 3:49 pm #

        I would like to register a T-H-O-M of 10 on President Trump, BRH.

        Note: Jim would boot me off of his blog if I attempted to get a score of 10 on the Trump Hate-O-Meter, so I think it is reasonable to just ask for the 10.

        RW

        • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 4:06 pm #

          My question remains the same. Please put down all the suggestions to send in to Trump’s group of what you would do different to handle this emergency. Should be the shortest post in the history of this blog.

          • Majella March 27, 2020 at 4:58 pm #

            Why bother? Himself ignores any useful or sound advice, amply demonstrated largely.

          • 4014HAMPHEDGE March 27, 2020 at 6:04 pm #

            Herewith a number of items, special for Surgeon General & retired General Honore’ headed Defense Logistics Command during Katrina.. (Too bad cop cars couldn’t carry water bottles…)

            First, for the Surgeon General: Looking at a combination bed increase and encouraging action at the national level;, run the USS UNITED STATES through shipyard repairs and refit for Hospital Ship Service. If the Nuclear Propulsion nags, tow this 3rd Hospital Ship to the Port Of New Orleans, appropriate and needed for 2nd & 3rd wave Covid events. This invites private funds.

            For General Honore’; Rail based military logistics going to bed just as Gen. Honore’ began his career, there are still templates at Ft Polk and especially Ft Eustes VA. The General can call up his active counterparts and see about recommissioned US Army/Guard RR Operations and Maintenance Battalions as core units for putting back the US breadbasket district rail links, extant into the 1960’s.

            Both of these enhancements, the Ship raising national morale, and the agriculture rail branch lines essential for Famine Hedge, can take place most expeditiously with substantial participation of people of wealth, and give them something to tell their offspring besides how they went broke trying to keep their bank accounts intact.

            Assembling new generation apprentices girl & boy to help older hands rebuild the UNITED STATES (is that a play on words or what?) and a few hundred important farm branch RR lines should be doable in short order. Plenty of willing hands with experience and Patriotic desire, methinks. Bucks first, then the blisters!

          • Nightowl March 28, 2020 at 3:15 pm #

            Maj as President. Most of the US would resemble Beyond Thunderdome in about 3 years.

  32. HappyMotorist March 27, 2020 at 2:15 pm #

    Jim,
    There could be a Dunquerque-style flotilla of escapees from the isolated east end of Long Island headed for shelter in Nova Scotia or Martha Stuart’s compound on Turkey Island.

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 2:33 pm #

      Yup! Related,

      The Mexicans are blocking US folks from entering Mexico at ports in Arizona because of the virus.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 2:55 pm #

        Trump is releasing prisoners since prisons are corona breeding grounds.

        • Robert White March 27, 2020 at 6:31 pm #

          nCoronavirus is likely a superspreader virus that remains airborne for days. If I am right we will never see the end of this superbug and it will continue to ripple through the population mutating.

          Never in world history have they emptied out prisons. Containment is next to impossible if it is a superspreader.

          RW

          • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 6:50 pm #

            Yup! The worst case scenario is not pleasant. Unless you like staying inside!

          • readfreak March 27, 2020 at 9:10 pm #

            Once everyone gets it, it will burn out. Once you get it you will have some immunity to it. It may eventually become more like a common cold. There are people working on an overall coronavirus vaccine.

          • Nightowl March 28, 2020 at 3:16 pm #

            I have remote viewed the scenario in quesiton using Looking Glass technology.

            You are wrong.

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 11:05 pm #

            I can’t tell, NightOwl, are joking about remote viewing, or not?

          • Nightowl March 29, 2020 at 3:39 pm #

            hmueller,

            There is only one person here who would say that seriously. How is this a question?

        • cc rider March 27, 2020 at 8:45 pm #

          He was already releasing prisoners because his daughter and her besty Kardashian batted their eyes and him and said, “Pretty pleeeeeze!”

          One of several things I do not like about Trump is that he actually listens to his fool daughter and her fool husband. Both are poster children for stereotypical millennial idiots.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:10 pm #

            So you think family sucks?

      • Majella March 28, 2020 at 5:33 am #

        Do you object to that JohnAZ?

  33. WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:14 pm #

    re: the question in paragraph 1 –
    How about going back even further to when Nathan Rothschild lied about Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo (a very serious bit of reality at the time) to manipulate everyone else to his own advantage and make a killing. How ’bout dat. 😉

  34. WayfaringStranger March 27, 2020 at 3:58 pm #

    Good God. if this thread is an indication of my fellow human’s internal states at this point in time I………..*sigh*………..I’d better not say. I can only come up with an endless string of decidedly un-Christian sentiments and I’m trying hard to die a decent human being in case the Angel of Death gets me and I end up looking into the eyes of Blond Caucasian Blue-eyed Jesus a lot sooner than I expected. Fairly exhausting project.

    But just in case any of you are curious, this tread is really really bad. Let’s try to elevate our thoughts for the Monday post, shall we? We don’t want JHK to get depressed and stop writing do we?

    Remember, we’re all in this together! We can do it!

    • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 4:13 pm #

      Mocking Christ, Christians, and the White Race all at the same time. Ah, you have revealed yourself too early in the game.

      You are not an asset to your side at all.

      • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 8:57 pm #

        Janos,
        You certainly seem animated today….

        • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 10:32 pm #

          You like Nixon because he was a Law and Order President who let you hit protestors with your billy club?

          I respect that, but a President has to be more than that. Remember him and Billy Graham whispering about the danger the Jews represented while in the Oval Office? How pathetic was that?

          • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 1:28 am #

            “whispering about the danger the Jews represented while in the Oval Office? How pathetic was that?

            Janos,
            As I recall, Nixon had reservations about speaking of certain issues around Kissinger…I believe the conversation was with Halderman. (Somewhere in the Nixon tape transcripts…you could look it up….)

            Oh, and we didn’t need Nixon’s permission to hit protestors with billy clubs…as a matter of fact, he presented us with ample opportunities.

  35. JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 3:59 pm #

    Watching Bill Hemmer showing the daily stats. We are globally and nationally still in an exponential increase.

    What is going on? The medical community has pounded the importance of isolation and personal space for a period of fifteen days. We are on day twelve and still no flattening. ???

    Trump’s goal of Easter turn on depends on whether flattening occurs. Not yet.

    I was logging on and a message stated as a news item.

    TSA says that hundreds of thousands of airline passengers continue to fly weekly. Huh! Does that sound as stupid to everyone as it does to me?

    What the heck did China do? Their curve is flat! Instead of putting the guidelines into place to halt the outbreak like they did and enforcing them, we just continue to f**k around.

    If we keep up like we have been doing up to now, we might as well stop the restrictions for all the good they are doing.

    • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 4:21 pm #

      What is going on? The medical community has pounded the importance of isolation and personal space for a period of fifteen days. – JAZ

      ============

      I think 6′ of space just doesn’t cut it. I spend all day and evening in my man cave – a roughly 12′ x 12′ cube with a 9′ ceiling. Then I go to our bedroom, sleep fitfully for 8 hrs then get up and do it all again. So far it’s working.

      • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 4:51 pm #

        Are you drinking screwdrivers?

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 4:56 pm #

        Yes, people on the internet will survive as long as the food holds out.

    • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 5:01 pm #

      JohnAZ, how the f&ck can you read thru is forum and ask such a question?????

      Just do a search on everything Beryl the Oink has written, multiply that by however many wear MAGA hats in the nation, top it all off with the rotten pumpkin squatting at the top of the pig pile in the WH and if you still have to ask, jump into the pig pile with the aforementioned oinker.

      Stop the restrictions at your own risk. My restriction has been tightly in place for two weeks and won’t be letting up anytime soon, regardless what others do.

      Pretty lame thing to say,”might as well stop the restrictions…”

      * * *

      I don’t know about you but I’m finding a way to make lemon juice out of MAGA lemons who think roaming about is an activity approved by fat bastard and is therefore A-OK. Let’s hope they are all anxious to get out and look for fish tank cleaner.

      If this ships of fools does, it deserves to sink.

      • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 5:39 pm #

        My restriction has been tightly in place for two weeks – Eve

        =============

        ………but the moment the Prez gives the OK I’m boarding a giant cruise ship for the sunny Caribbean………… NOT!!!!!!

    • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 5:17 pm #

      JohnAZ – just for you.

      PASSENGER ON THE TITANIC:

      Holy shit! What is that fool captain doing plunging steam ahead through iceberg waters?!!

      PASSENGER WEAR A RED HAT

      Whut rong with that? We go fast is fun and we be home faster.

      POTT:

      Yeah but it’s foolhar…WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT BIG THUMP!!!!!?

      PWRH:

      Whheeeeeeeee!! Captain make fun ride for us…

      SOON

      POTT:

      WTF, this fool ship is only half filling the lifeboats with people and most of the crew is already over the side.

      PWRH:

      If we keep up like we have been doing up to now, we might as well stop loading the life boats for all the good they are doing.

      • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 6:48 pm #

        You do not even get the point of my post. The government has put out what it takes to shut this sucker down. To a huge degree, they are ignored. Flights fly, spring breakers sit on the beach and party, news folks take tons of pictures of people congregating in parks, churches, whatever.

        China forced their folks to comply and they turned the curve.

        We, America, seem to be too hard headed to get the job done. We will pay for this.

        The problem with your analogy is that the Chinese showed us a route through the ice field, and our government’s experts reiterated the same. The US people are the believers that the ship is unsinkable.

        • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 7:51 pm #

          JohnAZ

          I absolutely DID get the point of your post, but it was a bad point. You more clearly did not get the point of mine.

          Your point was: Give up trying because too many fuckheads aren’t going along with it.

          My point was simply that don’t give up just because a lot of people are slopping up the situation.

          Karma will have its way on this. When the big wave comes if it does it will be on the backs of those people more heavily than ones who stick to the rules.

          • benr March 27, 2020 at 8:54 pm #

            Probably not it seems the shit bags of the world typically squeak by while honest hard working people get screwed over and over.
            We are rarely around to watch that karma in action much like a tree falling in the forest not making a sound unless someone is there to hear it.

  36. Elrond Hubbard March 27, 2020 at 4:06 pm #

    After Trump Attacks Whitmer, She Says Vendors Aren’t Sending Desperately Needed Coronavirus Supplies
    “They’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan.”

    https://wwjnewsradio.radio.com/articles/after-trump-attacks-whitmer-she-says-fed-supplies-delayed

    “After President Donald Trump issued scathing comments about Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, saying she’s ‘not stepping up,’ and ‘doesn’t know what’s going on,’ she told WWJ 950 the state is having trouble getting the equipment they need to fight the novel coronavirus.

    “‘What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we’ve procured contracts — They’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan,’ Whitmer said live on air. ‘It’s really concerning, I reached out to the White House last night and asked for a phone call with the president, ironically at the time this stuff was going on.’

    “The other stuff was Trump speaking with Sean Hannity on FOX News about Whitmer, a Democrat who has said very pointed things about the federal government’s lack of coordinated response to the coronavirus crisis. Trump said of Whitmer, ‘She is a new governor, and it’s not been pleasant … ‘We’ve had a big problem with the young — a woman governor. You know who I’m talking about — from Michigan. We don’t like to see the complaints.’

    “Michigan’s request for disaster assistance has not yet been approved by the White House, and Trump told Hannity he’s still weighing it.

    “‘She doesn’t get it done, and we send her a lot. Now, she wants a declaration of emergency, and, you know, we’ll have to make a decision on that. But Michigan is a very important state. I love the people of Michigan.'”

    Up to now my animus against Donald Trump, while true and deeply felt, has been a matter of principle. But this is as personal as it gets.

    My two nieces, both nurses in their mid-twenties, commute daily from Windsor, Ontario to save lives at Children’s Hospital in Detroit. And Donald Trump is using their lives and safety, and the lives and safety of the entire population of Michigan, to blackmail the governor into stroking his ego.

    What kind of man behaves this way, in the midst of a pandemic? No kind of man at all. Donald Trump is a turd in a suit.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 4:40 pm #

      Is this their regular job or are they volunteering? If the latter, kudos. If the former: In what universe is at all alright for Canadians to steal American jobs?

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 4:51 pm #

        We appreciate your concern.

      • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 5:11 pm #

        As a Jewish History expert, I ask you, when did the Khazars convert?

        I read in mainstream publications how inbred Jews are. like millions trace back to 5 people.

        • hmuller March 27, 2020 at 7:00 pm #

          The ruling elite of the Khazars was said by Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Daud to have converted to Rabbinic Judaism in the 8th century, but the scope of the conversion within the Khazar Khanate remains uncertain.

          Perhaps DNA testing and analysis will answer the questions that surround the degree to which East European- Russian Jewry is descended from Khazar tribesmen. Remember the language of Jews within the pale was Yiddish (basically a medieval German dialect with a smattering of Hebrew and Slavic words). There’s little or no trace of the Khazar language, a Turkish dialect.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 12:52 pm #

            Muller,

            How come you know all this Jewish minutiae? And how come you don’t know how much of your tax dollars went to bail out the Vatican mafia sham banks?

            Btw, Muller, one Turkish word did make it into Hebrew, Israeli Hebrew, and that’s Shuwarma. Yummy yum yum!

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 11:23 pm #

            Contrary to your assumptions, I love Jews. As a religious scholar, I’ve studied Judaism and Hebrew all my adult life starting with a course at the Hebrew University on Mt Scopus in Jerusalem under Haim Rabin. I regret I never met Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem who was retired but still alive in 1975.

            I was trying to open a discussion on the topic of ethnicity, race, and tribalism in American society and the allocation of power and wealth. You took it very personally. Note, in my posts I passed no value judgments, said nothing about good and bad, condemned no one. I was just trying to examine the facts. Clearly, I made a big mistake. I try to discuss a topic in a detached manner and next thing I know I’m accused of Nazi war crimes. I’m old but not that old.

          • akmofo March 29, 2020 at 6:19 am #

            Yes, Muller, me takes everything personally. Everything is ALWAYS personal, especially outrageous Nazi stereotypes.

          • akmofo March 29, 2020 at 6:42 am #

            Since you say you lived in Israel, you should know exactly how outrageous your Nazi stereotype truly is. Israel was a dirt poor country in the 70s when you were there. It has improved under Netanyahu, but it is still a long way from being a first world country. The great majority still live in crumbling Soviet style housing. And the financial condition of most Jews abroad is not much better. Most are lower middle class if not poverty level.

          • hmuller March 29, 2020 at 9:36 am #

            I wasn’t talking about Jews in Israel but Jews in America. Is it a Nazi stereotype to say,

            “American Jews have made an enormous contribution in the fields of banking, entertainment, the media, medicine, science, and law.” or “American Jews on average have incomes above the national average.”

            Is it racist to say, “African Americans have made an enormous contribution to the NBA”?

            These days acknowledging basic facts is dangerous and controversial, someone always takes offense. We have to walk on egg shells all the time. And clearly we can never have the frank discussion JHK speaks of regarding race and ethnicity in America.

            No one knows what restroom to use, what pronouns to use; the number of genders changes weekly. This country is an open festering wound of angry people ready to jump down one’s throat over any comment.

          • akmofo March 29, 2020 at 11:12 am #

            No, Muller, this is what you said:

            “Is your love of debt/credit in any influenced by the prominent role of Jews in banking?”

            Number one, I don’t have a love, or a hate, for credit. Knowing history, I have an appreciation for its usefulness that’s uncolored by Vatican commie propaganda and propagandists.

            Number two, there is no prominent role of Jews in banking, period. Jews were and remain coincidental and very marginal, if existent at all, to the history of banking and to banking at present. Them are the facts, which I have yet see you dispute.

            Number three, that snide racist remark of yours, was pure Nazi propaganda straight out of Goebbels playbook.

            There were and are a gazillion and one banks and bankers in the US and in the world, yet, I bet the only ones you can name are the less than a handful who were Jews. That’s the thing that sticks to your mind. Tell me I’m not correct! And that’s the result of deliberate Vatican propaganda Vatican obfuscation of their activities and Vatican racism. Plain and simple, Muller.

            “Is it racist to say, “African Americans have made an enormous contribution to the NBA”?”

            Yes, it is! And don’t play the dumbass German bullshitter with me who “didn’t know”. I know you all too well! Acknowledge the racism, and understand it for what it is!

            “And clearly we can never have the frank discussion JHK speaks of regarding race and ethnicity in America.”

            There is no discussion to be had. It is irrelevant! What’s relevant is not people’s skin color or ethnicity, what’s relevant is people’s culture! You say you’ve been to Israel, so you should know this best of all! We have a million and one people of different skin color and shades thereof, and just as many ethnicities and religions, but we have one Israeli Hebrew Biblical culture which unites us all as one. We are all Israeli. Nobody cares and nobody should care beyond that! The same in the US!

          • hmuller March 29, 2020 at 3:37 pm #

            “Never argue with a crazy man” – Billy Joel

          • akmofo March 29, 2020 at 4:31 pm #

            Crazy person? Tell me, Muller, what’s the purpose of them racist Nazi stereotypes other than division enmity discrimination and ultimately mass murder? Is that all you Germans are capable of? Now how do you like that for a racist stereotype?

            What’s the purpose of it all, if not to denigrate one group or elevate another for political purposes? And based on what?!! Based on skin color?!! Based on religious affiliation?!! Based on some other racist nonsense?!!

            Why is it that you can’t see people just for what they are as individuals? Why is everything for you has to be “Jews” or “Blacks” or whatever. How would you like it if the second I see a German I see a murderous Nazi lizard whose only instinct is that of division and conquest?

            Oh, what’s the matter, Muller, you don’t like my compliments? You Germans are skilled mass thieves mass enslavers mass propagandists mass murderers… and mass sodomizers, including porno. In fact, the best in the world!! Now it’s not so much fun to be in an “open a discussion on the topic of ethnicity, race, and tribalism”, is it?

      • Robert White March 28, 2020 at 10:54 am #

        That would be the NAFTA Universe, Janos. Free Trade between CANUCKISTAN & USA was ushered in many moons ago. Heck, my American academic advisor in university [old Bill] was always suggesting that I could reap big bucks if I utilized the NAFTA agreement for contract work between nations.

        RW

    • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 5:29 pm #

      weak! Weak!

      Turd in a suit?

      Trump Hate-O-Meter rates that post a ‘2’ at best.

      Really rather crude, not what one would expect from an erudite and sophisticated Canadian.

      For real arrogant, condescending hatred, Elrond, you need to study your fellow empire member Cargill’s posts … to see how it is properly done.

      Brh

      • Elrond Hubbard March 27, 2020 at 6:28 pm #

        BRH: when it comes to hatefulness, the unembellished truth about Trump outstrips the most florid inventions.

    • Nightowl March 28, 2020 at 3:22 pm #

      Orange Man Bad!

  37. stelmosfire March 27, 2020 at 4:09 pm #

    Man, you people are so fucked up.we are screwed beer, butter, guns .gasoline, emts, paramedics, nurses, doctors bye bye

  38. akmofo March 27, 2020 at 4:16 pm #

    Dennis Miller and Dave Rubin on the idiocy that is “ellipsis”:
    https://youtu.be/qlZ61g3j2Wo

  39. Loneranger March 27, 2020 at 4:31 pm #

    What Washington DC really needs is a woodshed out in back

  40. Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 5:29 pm #

    As I was reading an article about Prince Charles having contracted the Corona Virus my attention was drawn ineluctably (as if to the proverbial train wreck that one cannot stop staring at) to a picture of the Prince that accompanied the article. I wondered if close set eyes might somehow make one more susceptible to infection. His are all but on top of one another. I think this should be looked into.

  41. capt spaulding March 27, 2020 at 5:46 pm #

    It occurs to me that the current Covid 19 pandemic has some disturbing similarities to other scenarios that have been proposed. For years there have been articles in newspapers, magazines, and books that warned about the dangers of another pandemic similar to the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. The common phrase used was “It’s not a question of if, but when”. These various articles and books, and the advice they contained, were pretty much ignored by the average person in the world.

    Ironically, the same thing has been said about another earthquake occurring on the San Andreas Fault in California. Other predictions have included warnings about the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, and on and on. All of these things have been steadfastly ignored by most of the world, and then when one occurs, it is greeted with shock and dismay by everyone, and frantic attempts to deal with it are hastily put into action.

    It appears that most human beings ignore the predictions of others, much like ignoring the warnings about the bull in the field, until it’s horn goes up your ass, whereupon it suddenly becomes extremely important, and totally relevant to your life

    Most people who have been educated in various scientific fields can probably be trusted to know something about the subjects they
    have studied, and therefore they should probably be taken seriously,
    or their opinions at least seriously considered.

    This brings me to the last subject, which is probably the most serious and important one of all. Probably more important than all of those other things put together. Climate Change. Apparently it’s not enough that 97% of the world’s scientists say it’s happening, there are still many people out there who deny that it’s going on. The problem with climate change, is that it’s not gonna go away in a few weeks or months. As far as humans are concerned, the effects might as well be forever, because it will last your whole life, and the lives of your descendants on into the future. The consequences will last for millennia, and your descendants will curse your name for being so stubborn and foolish as to not take it seriously. You know that bull in the field? He’s been keepin’ his eye on you, just sayin’.

    • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 6:20 pm #

      A loss of 6 or 7 billion people due to this virus would solve the climate problem faster than any actions directed at the climate problem itself.

      So, if Corona goes hog wild we should maybe look at the bright side.

      • capt spaulding March 27, 2020 at 8:36 pm #

        I guess every cloud does have a silver lining. Like they say: Mother Nature ALWAYS bats last.

      • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 8:52 pm #

        ho wild? that was swine flu.

      • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 8:53 pm #

        As long as it is not those you love…

    • elysianfield March 27, 2020 at 9:02 pm #

      Captain,

      …Climate Change? That is Soooo last month.

  42. sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 6:00 pm #

    I am wondering what is JHK’s overall philosophic position concerning the nature of the universe within which we dwell. Does he believe our world and the manifold starry systems which lighten our night sky are the consequence of some purely random accident and fated to gradually run down through the inexorable law of entropy, or does he believe the far-flung, unfolding cosmos was planned and put into motion to fill the inscrutable purpose of an overarching Creative Agency?

    If we hold to the second alternative we must admit it is impossible to predict with any accuracy what the future holds for us without taking this Creative Agency into account…

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 6:34 pm #

      Or is it all the above, a creative force put in the laws of physics to make a universe. A really great question is why? And why fiddle with a lot of losers on the third planet out from a yellow dwarf star in a non descript galaxy in a universe of billions of galaxies.

      The answer to that question may be the miracle that is spelled

      G
      O
      D

  43. JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 6:26 pm #

    Everything you have said is right on.

    Why?

    People follow the path of least resistance, or the greatest pleasure.

    A paramount rule!

    They will not deviate unless they are forced to. China shut down Wuhan and its surrounding area totally and enforced it well. The US has not put the hammer down yet to stomp on this bug. The TSA can arrest to this as their statement today says. Domestic travel in the hundred thousands a week is ludicrous.

    This mess is just going to run its course. I hope warm weather and UV light kill it.

    • JohnAZ March 27, 2020 at 6:27 pm #

      Cap’n Spaulding

  44. wm5135 March 27, 2020 at 6:33 pm #

    Thankyou Mr. K. a delightful read.

    For everyone else:

    Had the distinct pleasure of telling an acquaintance, of long standing, with TDS to Kiss My Ass, the highlight of my week.

    ps: the fat lady is still lounging on the couch eating bon bons and watching stories – stay safe and well

  45. K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 7:11 pm #

    Earlier this month, Trump called Inslee a “snake.”

  46. sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 7:31 pm #

    If we understand God’s plan there is no reason for anything other than optimism.

    • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 7:45 pm #

      Jesus said ‘rejoice and be exceedingly glad’, and he didn’t mean only when things are going well but even when they are not. This is only possible when we understand God’s plan….

    • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 8:22 pm #

      Do we have a plan?
      No
      The meaning of creation is we play it by ear
      We are God
      But you don’t know it
      You forgot
      It’s how God (we) programmed it
      Programmed to forget
      Experience the reality of being a trapped ego
      God (we) watches
      Waiting for you to remember
      That you are the watcher
      Loop until you find the way
      Love hides in familiar faces
      Love hides in molecular structure
      Love comes when you least expect it
      Love is the answer
      Beauty is the universe gazing at itself in a mirror

      • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 8:33 pm #

        There’s a lot of truth here and quite beautifully expressed…

      • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 12:19 am #

        But then the flushed, handsome face of Trump appears in the glass. Can you love him? No! Thus the mirror shatters and humanity falls.

        Truly one is reminded of Morton of Merrymount who so vexed the Pilgrims with his flushed handsome face and hate of the godly – their version of it that is. Morton loved to “get down” with the Indians, even teaching them about European Paganism a la the Maypole.

        Can you dig it, Sunny?

        • sunburstsoldier March 28, 2020 at 1:17 pm #

          Through a glass darkly…

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 8:24 pm #

      After all this is the best of all possible worlds.

      • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 8:27 pm #

        K-Dog

        Are you confident that the multi-worlds theory of quantum physics allows you to make qualitative assertions like that?

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 8:58 pm #

          I learned it from Pangloss the pangolin.

    • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 8:24 pm #

      Oh no
      There is one reason
      Until we get it
      Lots and lots of pain

      • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 8:35 pm #

        I agree. Suffering is the path to wisdom…

        • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 9:04 pm #

          There is no “THE” path. At best there is only “A” path.

          It’s an old self-righteous claim so called christians have been stumbling around in the dark looking for for as long as I’ve been familiar with the subject.

          • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 9:29 pm #

            There is always an optimal or ideal way to achieve an end. This is the path…

          • Ricechex March 28, 2020 at 1:44 am #

            Evelyn, I believe you are entitled Jew. Please dont take offense as I am born Jewish (both parents) as well. I really find you very entitled, offensive, and in many ways a pushy fascist. You are really a nasty broad who I think is a man. Women just do’t talk like you do.

          • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 4:02 am #

            Ricechex

            Besides you being a sexist where did you ever get the idea Jews tried to make converts on reservations?

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 11:38 pm #

            Ouch, Evelyn. That Ricechex doesn’t hold back.

            If he thinks women don’t talk like you do, he clearly hasn’t watched “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” or known any Jewish girls (which is remarkable since he claims to be “Jewish born”).

          • EvelynV March 29, 2020 at 7:11 pm #

            hmuller, yeah I hear you. I hate rudeness too, Turns my stomach inside out coming from someone who has never been the fuck on this forum before. Where does he get off??!!!!

    • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 10:30 pm #

      If we understand God’s plan – sunburst

      =========

      Please post a copy of God’s plan. Apparently, I wasn’t on the list of addressees.

      • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 10:44 pm #

        Good point. I’ll see what I can do…

      • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 10:49 pm #

        Can we assume that God has one?

        • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 11:12 pm #

          If there’s a God he probably has one (a plan) but you have brass balls claiming to know what it is.

          The same goes for all the other believers on this site like JohnAZ, Messianicdruid, Akmofo, Janos et al. The hubris is very annoying.

          To be more specific, I’m an atheist so, no, I don’t believe there is a plan.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 6:29 am #

            No, Q. When you can read the Torah in Hebrew, you will no longer have the annoying hubris of an atheist, because you will no be a Vatican ignoramus/atheist.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 6:33 am #

            I posted this for Jan and his Schumer Pelosi comedy bit, but his post disappeared. Anyhow, it equally applies to you, Q:

            Hebrew lessons for you:

            https://youtu.be/zpdxOIjFaKI

            If my black sister can do it, so can you, Jan.
            Or did my black sister also pass you by?

          • sunburstsoldier March 28, 2020 at 1:18 pm #

            Is brass balls a good thing?

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 2:04 pm #

            Have you heard of the Urantia Book? That’s the Plan according to Sunny.

            Where you monitoring when I revealed myself to him? That I know of the Urantia Book and its bizarre racism? Sunny, his face glowing red, admitted all that I said was true, but modern Unrantians have essentially repudiated their own scripture, though lacking the balls to do it overtly.

            He revealed that his Son in Law is Black – despite the Urantia Books low opinion of Blacks. O Happy Day!

            Bizarre? Only because it talks about Orange and Green races. I fully endorse what it says anent Blacks.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 2:06 pm #

            You have a Black Sister? It passed me by! Do tell!

            Comedy? She said what she said. Traitor? Obviously. Crypto? Don’t know, what do you think?

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 8:56 pm #

            I think they lost a boatload of Jewish donors to Trump, and they are bankrupt and desperate for them to be back. But it ain’t gonna happen.

  47. Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 8:01 pm #

    Gens alba conservanda est (“The white race must be preserved”) Is this part of your God’s plan? It is part of Odin’s. If our Gods are at war, so must we be as well.

    • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 8:25 pm #

      God’s plan is peace on earth and goodwill to ALL humankind…

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 8:28 pm #

        Spell it backwards. Plan for Dog. — KDFP

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 8:31 pm #

        In other words, White Rights are Human Rights. And to be against Whites, is to be inhumane.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 10:25 pm #

        You’ve got it backwards: Peace on Earth to men of goodwill. To the rest? May the Saints make war upon them.

        • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 1:13 am #

          “May the Saints make war upon them.”

          …And may the Seahawks render them asunder….

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 8:26 pm #

      I may be stirring shit with a stick but Janos, how is the infection rate breaking down by ethnic heritage?

      • Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 8:30 pm #

        Top secret it seems. Some say Type O’s (most Northern Whites) do pretty well. Ditto Blacks. East Asians and Southern Europeans not so well.

        But none of this is confirmed.

        • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 8:54 pm #

          Too much is top secret.

        • malthuss March 27, 2020 at 8:55 pm #

          Viruses mutate as they pass from one person to another.

          • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 9:11 pm #

            Which is why the number of cases needs to be minimized. The most aggressive response is the right response and in the long run by far it will be cheapest. Unfortunately this means the way things are run has to change on the top level and for everything to work we need a social safety net. Not a nanny state but a social contract that puts people first. Things have to be made fair. They are not at all fair now.

          • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 10:20 pm #

            “Things have to be made fair” — K-Dog

            Where the hell are we, in kindergarten?

            I think soon we’ll be “getting down to stems and seeds”, as Commander Cody once said. Things won’t be fair, quite the opposite. Narcissists who abused drugs and alcohol, addicts, sociopaths who have mistreated their own families and others and find themselves alone, people who have recklessly squandered money … are going to find themselves on the short end. The day of reckoning has arrived.

            Brh

          • sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 10:55 pm #

            That sounds fair to me…

          • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 10:56 pm #

            Relax BRH Fair on my terms. — KDFP

      • EvelynV March 27, 2020 at 10:07 pm #

        I’m glad you are using a stick.

        Beryl of Oink would no doubt use her hands.

  48. Janos Skorenzy March 27, 2020 at 10:24 pm #

    Washington Examiner

    Two professors of medicine at Stanford University published an opinion article Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting there is little evidence that the coronavirus would kill millions of people without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines.

    “Fear of Covid-19 is based on its high estimated case fatality rate—2% to 4% of people with confirmed Covid-19 have died, according to the World Health Organization and others,” the article, headlined “Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?”andwritten by Dr. Eran Bendavid and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, reads. “So if 100 million Americans ultimately get the disease, two million to four million could die. We believe that estimate is deeply flawed. The true fatality rate is the portion of those infected who die, not the deaths from identified positive cases.”

    The deaths from identified positive cases are “misleading” because of limited data, according to the professors.

    “If the number of actual infections is much larger than the number of cases—orders of magnitude larger—then the true fatality rate is much lower as well. That’s not only plausible but likely based on what we know so far,” the professors argued.

    The professors cited data from Iceland, China, the United States, and Italy, which is arguably the hardest-hit region when it comes to the coronavirus.

    “On March 6, all 3,300 people of Vò were tested, and 90 were positive, a prevalence of 2.7%,” the professors said. “Applying that prevalence to the whole province (population 955,000), which had 198 reported cases, suggests there were actually 26,000 infections at that time. That’s more than 130-fold the number of actual reported cases. Since Italy’s case fatality rate of 8% is estimated using the confirmed cases, the real fatality rate could in fact be closer to 0.06%.”

    The professors argued that current epidemiological models aren’t adequate for two key reasons.

    “First, the test used to identify cases doesn’t catch people who were infected and recovered. Second, testing rates were woefully low for a long time and typically reserved for the severely ill. Together, these facts imply that the confirmed cases are likely orders of magnitude less than the true number of infections,” it reads.

    Ultimately, while stressing the seriousness of the virus that has infected almost half a million people, the professors aren’t convinced a universal quarantine is the most logical course of action.

    “A universal quarantine may not be worth the costs it imposes on the economy, community and individual mental and physical health,” the article concluded. “We should undertake immediate steps to evaluate the empirical basis of the current lockdowns.”

    JS: Similar to what Dr Bergman was saying. We’ve tested a couple of thousand people here – the ones who felt sick and came in. That’s simply not a viable data set. South Korea tested hundred of thousands, etc.

    Again, I admit I don’t know. But the person who cares the most about it (Kdog) and who may be the best at statistics, isn’t in the rational part of his mind right now.

    • JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 12:53 am #

      Janos

      The flu seems to be in society’s comfort zone, even as it kills lots of people.

      Until we are shown mortality data that is collected the same way from both viruses, the fear is unfounded. Italy has published data that says of 650 deaths of people diagnosed with Corona after death, only 52 were actually killed by the virus. The rest were killed by other causes in conjunction with the virus. There have been cases where the patients have had both flu and Corona. The data is so mixed up.

      Another problem is the number of home care and no symptom cases that never get reported.

      The data base stinks, never in history has so much damage been done based on so little data.

  49. sunburstsoldier March 27, 2020 at 10:42 pm #

    This whole social distancing thing is weird. Imagine a world where you needed to wear a hazmat suit to come closer than ten feet to another human being. This would effectively put an end to civilization as we know it…

    • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 10:58 pm #

      Voyeurism will be ‘out there’.

      • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 1:16 am #

        “Voyeurism will be ‘out there’.”

        Not to mention the end of Frottage as a pathology.

    • BackRowHeckler March 27, 2020 at 11:05 pm #

      This will all blow over pretty soon. I give it to about June 15, at which time there will be some new bullsh#t coming down the pike to worry about. Which just goes to show you in this modern life if it’s not one goddam thing its another.

      For those of you on this board complaining about President Trump ad nauseam, he’s way behind Biden in the polls, so just hold on for 9 months and you will have a new dynamic president elect, a real man of the future, a LEADER
      .

      Brh

      • K-Dog March 27, 2020 at 11:12 pm #

        Weeeelllllllll yeah.

        A new dynamic president elect and it is going to be me cuz:


        Alexandra Tara Reade said that in 1993 she was in her mid-20s when Biden, then a senator from Delaware, touched her several times making her feel uncomfortable. Reade said her responsibilities in the senator’s office were reduced after she refused to serve drinks at an event — what she called a desire of Biden’s because he liked her legs. Reade said she felt pushed out and left Biden’s employ in August 1993 after some nine months.

        Biden is going to be out of the picture.

    • Q. Shtik March 27, 2020 at 11:22 pm #

      Imagine a world where you needed to wear a hazmat suit to come closer than ten feet to another human being. – sunburst

      ============

      Yeah, have you ever tried to boink a chick in a hazmat suit??

      • sunburstsoldier March 28, 2020 at 1:12 pm #

        I wondered if anyone would pick up on that…

  50. malthuss March 27, 2020 at 11:47 pm #

    60 billion dollars for Jewish charities.
    explain this madness.

    TIMES OF ISRAEL–Images of Trump beside Bonesman Mnuchin

    WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday emergency legislation to help the nation weather the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic. The $2.2 trillion stimulus — the largest ever in American history — includes appropriations that will assist an array of Jewish groups and institutions.
    The package, called the CARES Act, offers small business loans, employee retention tax credits, and financial aid for nonpublic schools, which would include the nation’s Jewish schools, with a pool of emergency response funds, and other instruments to help nonprofits stay afloat.
    Those who have power over you are those you are afraid to criticize.

    • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 12:19 am #

      Wait a minute, Malthus.

      Charities of all stripes are getting help, not just Jewish charities. Catholic, Lutheran, non denominational etc will be sharing those funds too. Why are you focusing only on Jewish organizations?

      They all do good work in the Hartford-New Haven area.

      Brh

      • malthuss March 28, 2020 at 10:44 am #

        A Jewsih woman told me she could not get help from J ‘charities’—those ‘charities only help Jews new to USA, not ones born here.

        Jewish ‘charity’ is nepotism, or in this case, robbery.

        • malthuss March 28, 2020 at 10:44 am #

          oops Jewish.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 12:44 pm #

            No, “Jewish” charities are Vatican mafia fronts masquerading as “Jewish charities”. Again. per usual, we see the Vatican mafia thieving from ordinary people and especially from ordinary Jews.

          • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 1:57 pm #

            Akfomo

            In Hartford the Jewish and Catholic hospitals combined resources to form one of the best hospitals in New England. So around here anyway the two religious groups can and do work together.

            Brh

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 2:16 pm #

            Brh,

            Was there a reason the hospitals were originally Jewish and/or Catholic?

            Seems very strange to me to have such denominational separation in healthcare giving. We certainly don’t have anything like this in Israel. Everyone goes to the same city hospital(s), no matter what’s your ethnic or religious background.

            Why was this original reason for separation, whatever it was, now overridden? Just to save money? This doesn’t make sense.

          • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 3:03 pm #

            Akfomo

            Those hospitals have roots in the 19th century, when jewish immigrants from eastern Europe, and Catholic immigrants from Italy and Ireland, were establishing themselves in what was primarily a Protestant United States.

            One surprising fact is that those faith based hospitals actually predate the public municipal hospitals established in cities in the eastern US.

            In the beginning I’m assuming these hospitals took care of their own group, but by the time the early 20th century rolled around they became mainstream and treated everybody.

            I don’t know if I described that too well, but that’s about the size of it.

            Brh

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 5:03 pm #

            I still don’t understand. So do these hospitals now cater to Jews and Catholics only, or are they now just regular hospitals open to all?

          • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 5:39 pm #

            Regular hospitals, open to everybody.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 6:27 pm #

            Brh,

            So they didn’t combine together, they were just re-designated to be regular hospitals. Your original post is misleading.

            I couldn’t understand how a Jewish hospital would serve pork and other non-kosher meals along with non-kosher dishware. It didn’t make sense. Nor seeing crusafixes on the walls something that Jews would feel at all comfortable with.

          • GreenAlba March 30, 2020 at 8:21 am #

            “In the beginning I’m assuming these hospitals took care of their own group, but by the time the early 20th century rolled around they became mainstream and treated everybody.”

            I read (either in the Foreword or in the actual book) in The House of God (Samuel Shem) that such Jewish hospitals originally grew up to accommodate Jewish medics, who faced some prejudice at the time in establishing their careers in mainstream hospitals. I don’t know the history.

            It’s a roller coaster of a book anyway!

  51. toktomi March 28, 2020 at 12:19 am #

    @JHK

    “what will the ordinary folk do [?]”

    Nothing, they will do nothing, exactly as they have done all the way up to this moment.

    Humans are nearly 100% programmable and the program is so sophisticated and automated now that the bulk of the masses will simply melt into their Barcaloungers.

    Phuque! Just “say goodnight, Gracie” and quit drooling in your soup.

    ~toktomi~

    • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 7:29 am #

      Local TV station runs ‘Burns and Allen’ occassionally, shows produced 65 years ago and still funny.

  52. tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 1:39 am #

    Out here in the great Grand Canyon State, governor Douche Bag Ducey still hasn’t cracked down. KGUN9 news has been highlighting restaurants still open, like tonight’s example, Frost Gelato. People still coming in from wherever. No lockdown, and the opposite of the Law of Raspberry Jam will apply i.e., The farther it’s spread, the thicker it gets.

    Emperor of Ice Cream Ducey can be a real smoothie. Another Trump ass kissing entrepreneur, cashing in before the ice cream melted.

    No testing kits yet at my medical center. Waiting for days for a call from the higher ups. Nothing. Ducey brings Death.

    Good to hear this though.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-pariahs/new-yorkers-irked-to-feel-unwelcome-in-states-fearing-coronavirus-spread-idUSKBN21F00S

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:14 pm #

      You blame the governor but Trump is where the mega-bucks stop.

  53. Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 2:35 am #

    Congressional Nut Case (D-MI) Haley Stephens raves about Corona and the Time of Darkness while wearing purple/pink rubber gloves – the kind you do dishes with.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=e98A4iTnsVY&feature=emb_logo

    Kdog’s dream mate if things go south with his current squeeze?

  54. EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 4:37 am #

    Fat bastard gets an honorable mention in the last paragraph.

    Why are the Brits so lucky when our tangerine turn came back negative?

    * * *

    Boris Johnson, the prime minister of Britain, on Friday announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. In a brief video released on Twitter, he shared the basics: Having developed “mild symptoms — that’s to say, a temperature and a persistent cough” — he underwent testing and received the bad news. He will now be “self-isolating” until the illness has run its course.

    Looking mostly healthy, if typically disheveled, Mr. Johnson stressed that he would continue to “lead the national fightback” from his home via teleconferencing. He urged the British public to abide by the three-week lockdown put into place on Monday. The more effectively people stick with social distancing, the faster the nation and its National Health Service will “bounce back,” he said, before closing with the plea, “Stay at home, protect the N.H.S. and save lives.”
    It was a responsible, no-drama message. If only the prime minister had displayed such leadership sooner, he — and who knows how many others — might have been spared this illness.

    Instead, Mr. Johnson’s handling of the crisis has borne an unsettling resemblance to that of President Trump. He was slow to recognize the risks, taking a mid-February holiday with his pregnant fiancée at his country home. Even after the virus became impossible to ignore, he remained glib and dismissive, as his government dithered and failed to put together a coherent response.

    In early March, Mr. Johnson suggested that the best course of action would be for Britain to “take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures.” This, he explained, would create a sort of “herd immunity” that would protect the population as a whole.

    Um, maybe. But not without killing untold numbers of people first. The plan was quickly recognized as bonkers and scrapped, and Mr. Johnson moved to embrace a more conventional path of containment and social distancing.

    Policy planning aside, Mr. Johnson’s use of the bully pulpit has been an abject disaster. “The best thing you can do is to wash your hands with soap and hot water while singing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice,” he said at a March 3 news conference. “We should all basically just go about our normal daily lives,” he urged, before chuckling about how he had been running around shaking hands willy-nilly. This prompted a cheeky scribe for The Guardian to call the prime minister “the U.K.’s own super-spreader.”

    Such macho swagger would be hilarious if the repercussions weren’t so lethal. Who knows how many people Mr. Johnson infected with his blithe ignorance, including potentially his fiancée.

    Mr. Johnson is far from the only bad role model of the moment. Mr. Trump, of course, has been trumpeting, and indulging in, even more reckless behavior. Until the past couple of days, his news briefings were a case study in poor social distancing, with officials crammed together for the cameras. Not so long ago, he was boasting of how he wasn’t bothering to protect himself from germs and was, like Mr. Johnson, still out there slapping palms with the people.

    • JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 11:17 am #

      Good analysis. I have noticed a common denominator across the board regarding national reactions to the virus. The head man in charge, regardless of political position, wants to ignore the situation and hopes that summer will kill it. Very reckless!

      I believe that governments today are the biggest con jobs in history. Their job is to do nothing and it really burns their butt to have to take action. They want their power but with no responsibility. To expect anything else is to be disappointed. Trump is a perfect example, talked really big about really necessary changes, but then gets into the Deep State and his resolve disappears. An awful lot of the Deplorables are bitterly disappointed about the first term and its alarming lack of change. I blame Trump but even more I have lost faith that anything the government does can help this country.

      Seeing as the old fogeys in DC seem to have the keys to the kingdom, maybe a good solution is to let Corona rip through the place and take out everyone over seventy. Problem solved.

      World wide, reluctance to act has cost Chinese, European, American and Iranian lives in droves. My question is how do we as the people of the world punish these people in all countries. How do we change things so that governments are responsive to the people instead of their own power mongering irresponsible ways. I am hoping the Fourth Turning, approaching rapidly now, will mow down a lot of these governments.

      To me, the choice in November is between Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. Trump is a known with known behaviors. Biden is a carbon copy but a dummy parroting Progressive zeal. Somewhere on his head is a
      memory stick slot that someone programs every week with the latest Liberal rot. Free everything platforms will fail in 2020 as we try to come back from the virus. Just replacing what we have lost will probably drive us off the financial cliff. Dems better come up with something better.

      I want to see a lot more of Cuomo. Having to face real problems in New York has created a politician with a sense of responsibility. Refreshing! Being driven by real problems and solutions, he has drifted to the center of the political spectrum. I hope it sticks.

      • JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 11:24 am #

        BTW, is the responsibility for the debacle the fault of the Federal government or the individual states? Whose job was it to have a back up health care system in place that could handle the virus?

        The question is Constitutional and hopefully will be answered as part of the “”search for the guilty” phase of the blame game that is coming. Or not!

  55. EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 4:48 am #

    Some of the comments seem to suggest we shouldn’t be so worried because the projected death tolls are bogus.

    It sounds to me like for some who get this disease, whether they die or not they would prefer death to the experience.

    But, more to the point, what IS the death toll. Three articles that suggest the Chinese, little inscrutable rascals that they are, haven’t been entirely forthcoming on that statistic…

    http://www.thebigwobble.org/2020/03/a-21-million-drop-in-mobile-phone-users.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FiLosF+%28The+Big+Wobble%29

    https://time.com/5811222/wuhan-coronavirus-death-toll/

    https://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/sudden-rise-in-so2-levels-suggests-huge-cremation-surge-202002100908

    • Majella March 28, 2020 at 9:50 am #

      Thx, Evelyn. I heard about the SO2 signature back in Feb, but couldn’t find anything about in on searching, so I figured it was just another BS fear rumour.

      • JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 11:19 am #

        Is this the Soylent green for climate change?

    • benr March 28, 2020 at 9:55 am #

      Good to see you understand the Chinese are liars and always have been anything to make the world not see how badly they bungled all this.
      anything to save face even though everyone now knows they lie.
      I am often surprised at what people will say about Jews but have not noticed all the stereotypes that people ascribe to Jews the Chinese exemplify. They will break every deal if it does not make them money.
      Everything is about money for them they will pinch a penny till they leave fingerprint ridges in it but they will also spend heavily on something if it makes them look better in the eyes of everyone around them.
      I have grown to despise their culture.

      • malthuss March 28, 2020 at 10:46 am #

        Chinese are crooks, according to a pal who does much biz
        with them, not Koreans, not Japanese, Chinese are crooks in his
        experience.

        • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 10:16 pm #

          Here is a shorter email from the same person who wrote the first one.

          I just got back into the office this morning. I ended up staying in China to visit a Chinese Auto company who is the joint venture partner with our main customer BMW. You have got it exactly right, I believe that it may already be, over. This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. I was in Japan in the 80’s and although I respected our Japanese competitors and still do, I was never really scared of them. They always, at least for me, were going to lack the critical mass to be a real threat to us. This is not the case with the Chinese. They have mass aplenty and they are very nationalistic and they do not like Americans. They seem to regard us as a modern analogue to Rome, with Europe being Greece. In other words we are the rather stupid bully boys and the culture really springs form Europe. The minute they can stick it to us, they will. I am not one to argue for Governmental help or intervention as a general rule, but if we are going to have a huge department of agriculture and a national agricultural policy, does not it make sense to have some sort of manufacturing policy and someone looking out for the productive interests of our nation? Sometimes we are just so stupid that it boggles my mind.

          But enough popping off; I will right all wrongs this evening and provide glowing feedback. I hope to get to the range this weekend as my sons lacrosse league has completed it season and I owe him some plinking with the new .22 I bought him for his birthday. I do like the trigger and I can’t wait to try it with some real rounds.

          I will give you a full report. I will be presumptuous enough to include a story I wrote the last time I was in China, Things have only gotten worse since then.

      • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 9:19 pm #

        benr – it took me a while to find this. I got it just for you. It was sent to me by my best friend in 2008. My friend has been dead for seven years now. She received it from a person she was doing business with via Ebay. It’s long so you might be discouraged about reading it but once you get started it moves fast. He was an excellent writer.

        * * *

        China in Four Scenes

        Scene I: Taiwan On

        I should have known that I was about to be in for something different before I even got off of the plane. While standing in the aisle preparing to disembark, I observed a diminutive Chinaman clutching a box that was boldly emblazoned with 52 point, bold red letters stating proudly that its contents were “Human Organs for Transplant”. Morbidly curious, I attempted to make conversation. I asked the gentlemen where he had gotten the organs in question. Without a hint of irony or a moment’s hesitation, he responded “E-bay”. I forced a chuckle and proceeded out of the airplane door bereft, for the moment, of the need for further interaction with my fellow man. I had landed in Taiwan for my first visit to the land of unbridled laissez-faire capitalism. I had been to Asia before, to Japan and Korea, but never to China.

        One of the most interesting things about Asia in general is its menacing polite formality.
        Any student of history will know that Asians can be very friendly and hospitable, right up to the point where they decide to use you for bayonet practice. This dichotomy is well illustrated when entering the R.O.C. through Taipei’s Chang Kai Check international airport. As you get off of the airplane, you are greeted by a sign informing you that “drug trafficking in the Republic of China is punishable by death”. This sobering tip no longer causes any real or immediate angst in me, but it causes a twinge of foreboding to percolate up from the old hippy locked away somewhere within my 48 year old psyche. There is a certain amount of menace designed into this message, which tells the foreigner that he is welcome here, but that he had better not fuck up. When you then look at the customs officials who, instead of the official and sinister looking uniforms common in Europe and the United States, sport double breasted blue blazers with gold buttons, white pants and white deck shoes, the mixed metaphor of the situation takes on a certain dadaesque quality. Imagine being marched off to the firing squad by Lord Mountbatten’s deck crew.

        The next moment of humorous import came as I was standing in the line at passport control. As I gazed past the immigration officer in an attempt to ascertain in which direction I would have to go to retrieve my luggage, I was mesmerized by a huge billboard extolling the virtues of “Respectable Siddhartha” figurines promising “peace, joy, and happiness wherever they are”. Horribly reminiscent of those hideous little Hummel figures that my mother used to collect, each variant of these pink and cherubic Siddharthas (naked except for a homespun loincloth) had a different pose designed to entice the consumer. The problem was that, to a western eye, these poses were distinctly reminiscent of hand signals used by sports coaches and football referees in the USA. There was a “Safety”, Siddhartha figurine and a “Bunt sign” Siddhartha, as well as my absolute favorite, the “Personal Foul” Siddhartha. It was difficult to mask my amusement to the immigration officer, but I was able to morph it into a “just happy to be like I am” type of attitude that got me past customs without any unpleasantness.

        After clearing customs and getting our baggage, I was trundled into a VW minibus and subjected to a two hour ride south to Tai Chung. Along the way, we passed the exit for a place called “Little Ding Dong”. We hove into Tai Chung about 1am, just as the dratted bars closed. My hotel, which was really quite nice, had its employees tarted up in bush jackets and long bush trousers with Sam Brown belts and faux leopard skin headbands. This patently ridiculous attire caused me to grin. The staff mistook this for overt friendliness and treated me very kindly.

        The next day I was escorted to a Chinese temple as an introduction to the local culture.
        There are basically two types of temples in China. The first is an ancestor worship, local deities, and animism type of deal which is difficult to square with a Judeo-Christian religious perspective. The second type of temple is Buddhist, which is easier to fit into a western point of reference because there is a single main figure of veneration, similar to Yahweh or Allah or my own Christian Hairy Thunderer.

        This temple fell into the first category and it was stupendously beautiful. The carvings and woodwork were as fine an example of artisanship as you will find anywhere (including Italy) in the western world. The extreme polytheism of the Chinese meant that in every nook and cranny, there was an alter to some god. In the center of the temple was a huge, sand filled brazier with enough joss sticks burning in it to smoke a ham. Around this gigantic smoking urn were tables on which offerings were left. The offerings were singular in nature and included Doritos, Mars bars, and Coca Cola. One can envisage one of the local deities reclining on the sofa on Sunday afternoon munching on chips and watching the ball game.

        So that I might receive the total cultural portfolio, the next stop was a large Buddhist temple that overlooks Tai Chung. This temple featured a very corpulent Brobdingnagian five story seated Buddha who seemed to be staring at you as you approached. This mysterious effect was somewhat mitigated as you walked around the side and found that Buddha had a sliding glass window installed into his left flank. Buddha was wired for sound and light and the clever Taiwanese had installed a large spotlight in his third eye which shown at night with the effect of remarkable enlightenment. Buddha gazed meditatively across the valley and into the town. As I was sharing the Buddha’s view, I noted that the local Christian minority, displaying a fine sense of humor, had erected a gigantic cross on top of a building directly in the Buddha’s line of sight.

        From the Buddha dome we headed inland to what is undoubtedly the finest hotel I have ever stayed at. The place was called the Lalu and it is located on Sun Moon Lake on the site of Generalissimo Chang Kai Checks former summer palace. Say what you want to about Chang, he had great taste. The location is exquisite with mountains rising above the lake that take on a beautiful lilac tone at sunrise and sunset. The hotel itself has that Asian-Pacific style of architecture characterized by long unbroken lines and the extravagant yet calming use of wood; a kind of Japan meets Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie style. Actively minimalist while compellingly warm at the same time, this was the only hotel that I have ever been to that I look forward to going back to.

        The next morning, I headed for the mainland and the Peoples Republic of China.

        Scene II: Dick Soup

        I have driven in Paris, London, Porto and Rome, but nothing could have prepared me for the uncontrolled insanity of mainland Chinese driving and drivers. Here the horn is not a tool to indicate your annoyance at some perceived sleight by another driver, as it is in America. In China, the horn is a real and indispensable warning system. When a Chinese driver uses his horn, it is to tell you that in a matter of seconds he will be occupying the space where your vehicle currently resides, so you had better make a move. As the Chinese are the world’s only true remaining pragmatists and capitalists, despite their piss ant, Punch and Judy, control possessed government; they will use any available avenue or tactic to accomplish their vehicular goals. This means passing on the shoulder, driving into oncoming traffic, and regarding any vehicle smaller or less powerful than the one that they are piloting in the same way that dominant wild male chimpanzees regard any smaller or less aggressive rival male. To wit: something to be bullied and pushed around.

        Chinese driving is a totally reflective of life in the ocean. There are analogs to every type of marine denizen. Small fry that dart in and out of coral for protection are represented by pedestrians and rickshaw drivers. Fast predators are given their form by sedans and coupes. Large sharks find their mirror image in small trucks and busses, and the land whales, appearing as ponderous yet irresistible trucks, are simply so large that nothing can fuck with them. After the initial five minutes of eye popping, jaw hanging terror, I got into my Caesarian Roman fatalism groove and just tried to enjoy the show. I was on my way to a place called Wuxi, which is about two hours by car north of Shanghai, to look at some land. Having shortly discharged my professional obligations for the day, I decided to start the afternoon with some local cuisine.

        China has the same fascination with eating butchers offal and fish guts that all Asian nations exhibit. The night before, in Shanghai, I had been treated to the famous “Shanghai Hairy Crab” which was not all that bad until I was pointed in the direction of some white sticky goo in the presented crustacean. I tried it and found it revolting and when I asked what in the world it was, I was told that it was a most prized delicacy, the semen of the hairy crab. I was further informed that this delicacy was full of healthful benefits and would help improve my skin tone. I fought hard and successfully to keep the hairy crab semen from reappearing but for the rest of the night I felt degraded and dirty. Sound familiar ladies?

        After the previous night’s culinary fiasco, I was determined to get something to eat that lived on dry land and walked on four legs. I made it clear through an interpreter at the restaurant we went to that I was ready for anything as long as it was not seafood in any form. He compliantly nodded and disappeared into the back and emerged a few minutes later with some soup. It looked like sausage soup. There were rings of sausage in various diameters some of which were impressively large. As I slurped and munched happily away, one of the other gentlemen on the trip started perusing the menu. He did not say anything to the rest of us, but he quietly stopped eating his soup. I found the sausage odd in consistency and was sucking on a smaller piece of it when I asked out loud what this was. At this point the other gentleman was unable to contain his glee and pointed out on the menu exactly what I was eating. “Three Penis soup: containing the Penis of Dog, Donkey and Ox”. I was mortified, but I have to admit, dick soup is not that bad, and at the risk of being accused of having bestial or homosexual tendencies, I have to say that I would rather suck on dog dick than eat crab semen.

        Scene III: Just Like Home

        I am from Detroit, so Wuhan felt just like home. Dirty, dilapidated and imbued with a palpable underlying tension, I could relate to Wuhan in the same way I can to the Cass corridor. The drive in from the airport through a Kafkaesque miasma of parked trucks, street stalls and crippled peddlers set the tone. The tone was given a time signature when the faucet in my hotel announced that the water was not potable. The fully orchestrated score was completed and performed the next day when we drove through Wuhan.

        At one point during our drive I looked up an alley to see a mass of humanity descending upon the street. The alley was wide, grey, and dusty and filled with people in various garb including the classic Bruce Lee black pajamas. It looked like something out of Pearl Buck. This Malthusian spectacle was so bereft of color that it seemed that I was looking at an old film shot in black and white. Whole blocks of the city had been flattened and an army of Chinese peasants were picking through the rubble looking for anything of value, and in China, anything that is not a rock is of some value. I have seen quite a bit of poverty in my day, and I can be chillingly cold blooded about it, but this grinding poverty combined with incredible population density was downright unsettling.

        Then came the contrast that made me wonder about the stability of this country. As we emerged from the poverty corridor, we drove past a row of beautiful new buildings. Modern European architecture at its finest was on display housing Audi dealerships, Mercedes dealerships and a lowly Honda dealership. A shining new soccer stadium was visible in the distance. A more crass contrast between the haves and the have-nots I have never seen in such immediate proximity. It was digital wealth.

        I was so surprised that I impoliticly made a crack about the faded vestments of communism growing more threadbare and tattered by the day. One of my Chinese associates chuckled to himself and said to me “Dean, if you want to see a Chinese communist, please let us know a couple of weeks before you come next time. I am sure that, given two or three weeks, we can find one for you”.

        Scene IV: The Sun Rises in the East:

        A couple of weeks ago, when my buddy Mike found out I was going over to have a look at the capital city of the People’s Republic, he turned up his nose and said to me “Beijing is a shithole”. Mike had not been to Beijing in almost two years but he is a reliable and insightful observer, so I took him at his word. I am sure that Mike was right, the last time that he was there. It is a tribute to the industriousness of the Chinese people and Government that, two years on, Beijing is most definitely not a shithole. On the contrary, Beijing is already taking on many characteristics similar to Washington D.C.

        Government officials routinely use their power to siphon off money from honest citizens and then use it to create a lovely environment for themselves. Our Washington mafias are experts at this and the Chinese show real promise. The drive in from the airport took us past a golf course which was invested with condominiums and which featured a club house that would be the envy of the swankiest American venue. The main drag looked more like Rodeo drive than a communist backwater. It was just like our nations capital. There were fat cats driving around in Audi A6’s, spectacular hotels, good restaurants, and something that I had not yet seen in China, panhandlers. In Europe, Novotel hotels are about the same standard as are Holiday Inns in the U.S. The one that I stayed at in Beijing was positively luxurious.

        The industrial facilities that I toured were as good as anything I have ever seen in the west, the notable difference being that a Chinese hourly worker earns about $1.05 an hour and a University degreed Engineer earns about $1.50 an hour. Big shot managers earn the unheard of wage of $3.00 per hour. By the way, they are clever and they work like Trojans. Teach your kids Chinese; they are going to need it.

        The next day I went for a tour of the Forbidden City. During the approach to this cultural highlight, I was badgered by street hawkers shilling their wares. I bought myself a red butane lighter with an enameled picture of Mao on it that played “The Sun Rises in the East” when you open it up to light a cigarette and I acquired a waving Mao wristwatch for the princely sum of four bucks.

        No photographs or films can prepare you for the vastness of the Forbidden City’s conception and execution. Seemingly built in one year alone (1420), it is so gigantic that you could fit a football stadium into each of its three major courtyards. I have been in older structures, and I have been in more impressive structures, but I have never been in an older, more impressive structure in my life. It is an absolute must see if you ever make it here.

        After an entire day wandering around this magnificent complex, I returned early to my hotel and turned in. I had caught a cold in Wuhan and was coughing up hairballs while my sinuses played the first movement of Janacek’s Sinfonietta inside my skull. This presented a potential problem as all of Asia is still somewhat possessed by the fear of SARS. Coughing and hacking your way through an airport will call the unwanted attention of the Medical authorities down upon you. As I had no fever, I was pretty darn sure that I was not really sick, but I did not want to take any chances with being quarantined for two weeks in the workers paradise. So I took an overdose of Contact and went to bed. The next morning I was desiccated enough to make it past the prodders and sniffers without incident although the phlegm in my throat had the consistency of spackling compound. I successfully negotiated my way past the thermo sensors and got onto my plane.

        As I sat high over the Pacific, I collected my thoughts and came to the conclusion that China is the first place I have ever been, and I have been globetrotting now for about twenty-five years, that scared the hell out of me. In winning the cold war and wholly discrediting communism, we have turned the entire non-Arab world into a bunch of raving capitalists. I am afraid that some of them may turn out to be better at it that we are.

        • hmuller March 29, 2020 at 9:44 am #

          Jeez Evelyn! Why not just cut and paste “War and Peace” into this forum. Providing a link for something that long might be something to consider.

          • EvelynV March 29, 2020 at 11:31 am #

            hmuller

            I kind of thought you all would have been innoculated by now by Janos. His stuff often deadly dull and I’ve never been able to read to even the halfway point.

            Strangely when I posted then re-read it again for the first time I was surprised by what I didn’t run across but was expecting. I had to dig down into my emails again to find the shorter piece I posted afterwards.

            The one thing that stuck out in my mind from the original reading is the man’s assertion that the Chinese hated Americans.

          • EvelynV March 29, 2020 at 11:35 am #

            humuller, I avoid providing links directly into my email account. I don’t even know how if I wanted to.

        • benr March 29, 2020 at 10:01 am #

          Interesting perspective.
          Mine came from hosting Chinese kids for five years and dealing with what beyond spoiled, lying brats they were and how their parents allowed them any excess no matter how crazy.
          Had one kid that show up with paper bags full of 100 dollars bills just sitting in the bedroom on a dresser.
          When I suggested we put it in a bank she got mad.
          Wound up asking the agency to house her elsewhere she never got the concept that food should not be left out for the ants and that my wife and I were not servants.

  56. tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 5:33 am #

    Trump’s super ego, arrogance, and narcissism are holding him up. He can’t admit that he’s blown it, maybe really believes he’s doing a great job. Much of what he’s done is collapsing under the Corona, and making him, God forbid, a Loser.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/democratic-group-defies-trump-ramps-185816282.html?bcmt=1

    I knew instantaneously that Trump was lying here. Isn’t it so easy to tell? Lie detector of a facial expression.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE2XHYxkJgw

    There it was, the presidential integrity indicator. But, what can one expect in this day and age? It’s mouse nuts, really. Just that it was so evident.

    • SoftStarLight March 28, 2020 at 1:50 pm #

      Totally agree! He needs to turn his ego into a Commander and turn his arrogance and narcissism into empathy, integrity, and determination. Just be honest with us and tell us we are screwed in many ways because we sent the manufacturing of our medical equipment, supplies, and medicines overseas. And take charge of getting it back here like now!

      • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 3:31 pm #

        Appearing to do something is often more important than doing it in military strategy. The Allies pretended to land on some beaches during the Normandy invasion, while really landing on others in stealthy force. In boxing, one feints with a left only to deliver a right.

        Just so with getting elected. The people are the enemy who need to be fooled in order to get their votes (defeat them). There’s no way to get around this in a popular democracy. The people are too dumb to understand the issues and/or can’t face unpleasant truths like the Cornona Virus. If you told them the Truth, you’d lose to the Liars who didn’t.

        Beyond that, there are the evil lies, the lies that maintain the hideous class structure. They all lie about that. And the Communists who tell the Truth are the worst of all since they want to eliminate all structures, all have and have not, and all borders as well. What kind of Justice is that?

        All of the above (2nd paragraph) applies to Trump. Lying is effortless to him, he doesn’t even have to think about it. Both kinds: the ones that win votes and the kind that maintain the Class structure of which he is part.

  57. akmofo March 28, 2020 at 5:49 am #

    Good bit of comedy, Jan. Thank you for the amusement. But yeah, America was always Israel. and Israel was always America. Now all that’s left for you to do is to learn Hebrew and study the Torah. There will be test at the end, Jan, you best be prepared.

    • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 6:00 am #

      Btw, Jan, 30% of Brazil and Argentina are Jews. Imagine our soccer team when they make aliya! Same with Africa and Jamaica, and we already dominate Europe in basketball! All your base are belong to us!

    • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 6:09 am #

      Hebrew lessons for you:

      https://youtu.be/zpdxOIjFaKI

      If my black sister can do it, so can you, Jan.
      Or did my black sister also pass you by?

      • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 2:11 pm #

        Yes! I’m sorry! Now I’m all ears. Tell me about this Black Sister!

        • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 2:21 pm #

          You can watch her and learn. She seems like an intelligent person and I can confirm that she knows what she’s talking about. The YouTube link was provided.

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 2:44 pm #

            Another very good resource: https://www.ancient-hebrew.org

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 3:20 pm #

            Oh just a “soul” sista. How are your efforts to marry a Yemeni going? Why not try for the Sister? She’s even blacker!

          • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 3:50 pm #

            Yemeni aren’t black, neither are they African. Yemeni Jews are beautiful soulful people nonetheless, and extremely intelligent.

    • SoftStarLight March 28, 2020 at 1:43 pm #

      Ah! So the pandemic is keeping you honest these days. That’s a good thing! You do realize when the King comes you will have to relinquish your boast don’t you? But it is written that the nations are of their own and not owned by you. You’ll have to come back down to Earth one way or the other. Why not try now?

      • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 2:10 pm #

        When the Antichrist appears, Akmo will fall at his feet. Too proud to admit they blew it last time, they’ll accept the Fake who strokes their ego – until he betrays them.

        • malthuss March 28, 2020 at 11:41 pm #

          Have you seen the painting of the giant snake and the children walking into its mouth? AT ISKON CENTER.

      • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 2:33 pm #

        Kingship and Taxes are Slavery and Debt, in that order. They are the antithesis to Hebrew culture and values of the TaNaKh. When such was imposed on Israel by the Edomite foreigners King David and King Herod, it was worse than the plague. Your Caesar Messiah is your King, keep him, and all the counterfeit foreign nonsense that go along with him, and leave us out of it!

  58. Pucker March 28, 2020 at 7:01 am #

    A bloke was telling me yesterday that the concept of “Herd Immunity” doesn’t necessarily apply to some coronaviruses, such as the Common Cold, for which the subject develops antibodies, but then loses the antibodies and, therefore, can be reinfected over-and-over.

    “ A spate of mysterious second-time infections is calling into question the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostic tools even as China prepares to lift quarantine measures to allow residents to leave the epicenter of its outbreak next month. It’s also raising concerns of a possible second wave of cases.
    From March 18-22, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported no new cases of the virus through domestic transmission — that is, infection passed on from one person to another. The achievement was seen as a turning point in efforts to contain the virus, which has infected more than 80,000 people in China. Wuhan was particularly hard-hit, with more than half of all confirmed cases in the country.

    But some Wuhan residents who had tested positive earlier and then recovered from the disease are testing positive for the virus a second time. Based on data from several quarantine facilities in the city, which house patients for further observation after their discharge from hospitals, about 5%-10% of patients pronounced “recovered” have tested positive again.

    Some of those who retested positive appear to be asymptomatic carriers — those who carry the virus and are possibly infectious but do not exhibit any of the illness’s associated symptoms — suggesting that the outbreak in Wuhan is not close to being over.”

    • SoftStarLight March 28, 2020 at 1:38 pm #

      This is very interesting and I have heard similar things here and there. Did you hear that there are allegedly 21 million mobile accounts in China that have been inactivated since January? And also funeral homes in Wuhan have like thousands upon thousands of urns. Supposedly significantly many more compared to last year before the outbreak.

      • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 2:07 pm #

        SSL – further up links are posted to three article together on those topics.

  59. stelmosfire March 28, 2020 at 8:10 am #

    Excise taxes, cocksuckers. a new bill in the mail. i have a ’96 truck and the bastards are still charging me 60 bucks to park it in my driveway.i put 120 miles on it last year plowing snow. I’m about to drive it through the city hall window!.

    • stelmosfire March 28, 2020 at 8:14 am #

      death and taxes and lawyers. Fuck ’em all.!!!

      • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 9:23 am #

        Send me a pic of that elm if you get around to it.

    • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 8:25 am #

      Don’t do that!

      Hey RIP I was interested in your post about the elm tree on your property. I thought they were ALL gone. Frankly I’ve never seen a live elm but in 19th photos you see them lining the main streets of our towns, they were beautiful trees … how did yours survive? And what shape is it in?

      Brh

  60. Pucker March 28, 2020 at 8:42 am #

    Mr. Spock could have had cosmetic surgery in order to appear Human so that he wouldn’t suffer racial and species discrimination in Star Fleet. It’s interesting that Spock deliberately chose not to have such cosmetic surgery, and Spock chose not to be circumcised.

    • Pucker March 28, 2020 at 8:53 am #

      Mr. Spock said that circumcision, like flossing one’s teeth, is “illogical” since Vulcan chicks find a foreskin and bad breath a Big Turn On. Captain Kirk, since he was a Canadian Je..w, felt that circumcision made him part of some big special, “Chosen” group deserving “Special Treatment.”

      Uhuru and Nurse Chapel wanted Spock inside of them because Spock exuded “Power”, and Spock was “Mysterious”.

      • Pucker March 28, 2020 at 9:05 am #

        And Spock was a Big Intellectual, like Woodrow Wilson, who also had a big dick and who women found attractive.

        • capt spaulding March 28, 2020 at 10:11 am #

          Lyndon B. Johnson was similarly blessed. His pet name for his dick was “Jumbo”. He also had a fiveskin.

          • hmuller March 28, 2020 at 10:52 am #

            Way too much information there.

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 11:12 am #

        Size does not count as social distance.

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 11:14 am #

          Doing it with masks on could be interesting.

          • sunburstsoldier March 28, 2020 at 1:28 pm #

            Or hazmat suits, which would require some modifications…

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:26 pm #

            Too sweaty.

      • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 2:10 pm #

        You bastids have finally found a way to drive me away from this forum.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 6:47 pm #

        I thought Uhuru was Kirk’s girl? Who can blame him the way her mini skirt would fly up every time the Enterprise lurched too and fro?

  61. PeteAtomic March 28, 2020 at 9:50 am #

    I’m hoping one major consequence of the Wuhan virus is that the re-ordering of supply chains ramp up and the US stops its subservience/dependence on Chinese manufacturing.

    Local economies based on local resources is the future, not unrestricted globalism.

    There is meaningful work close to home; food to grow, things to make & repair, service to perform, all without thousand mile supply lines to faraway countries or the need for mass immigration.

    • benr March 28, 2020 at 9:59 am #

      Indeed.
      Time to retool Zenith!
      Time to fire up American know how and most of all grow things!
      Grow food that does not take toxic chemicals to grow.
      Good wholesome food nutrient rich using natural fertilizers and free range animals. Our ancestors knew the ways its time to relearn them.

      • SoftStarLight March 28, 2020 at 1:29 pm #

        I hope too that this whole episode wipes out Globalism once and for all. After all, this pandemic so clearly arose within a global system of non-stop travel and totally porous borders, if any. And global supply chains are clearly not stable or sustainable.

        • Majella March 28, 2020 at 5:57 pm #

          Not a lot of ‘dreaded globalism’ in 1918-19 was there? Jet travel was what distributed it so quickly.

        • toktomi March 29, 2020 at 1:53 am #

          Oh, really, how much “globalism” can there be when the place is deserted? Ya, I guess that killing off 7 billion people might be a bit of a buzz kill for globalism.

          Somebody needs to spruce up the comment algo’s around here.

          ~toktomi~

    • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 1:45 pm #

      Yes we may have to learn to live with less. Pete.

      Ok by me.

      • PeteAtomic March 28, 2020 at 7:00 pm #

        yep you may have to start drinking some locally made vodka there BRH

        🙂

  62. wwg1wga March 28, 2020 at 11:12 am #

    Constitutionalism IS the new counterculture!

    http://www.got-truth.com/docs/Constitutionalism%20is%20the%20new%20counterculture.pdf

    • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 3:01 pm #

      Welcome back, Carter!

    • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 3:04 pm #

      Thank you for your service!

  63. Pucker March 28, 2020 at 11:23 am #

    The CDC is advising everyone to keep “2 Meat Eaters” apart, right? What if there are 3 Meat Eaters?

    • elysianfield March 28, 2020 at 12:17 pm #

      ” 3 Meat Eaters?”

      https://www.grindr.com/

      • Pucker March 28, 2020 at 1:45 pm #

        Gross! It’s a Queer App!

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 12:26 pm #

      Three meat eaters have nine feet.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 6:58 pm #

      From Breaking Bad: Badger’s pie eating contest fantasy on the Enterprise.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSmbOBh9PEY

      I wonder if the Beverly Hillbillies are on Youtube? There’s some great Miss Jane jokes. Why wouldn’t it be…..

  64. K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 12:17 pm #

    Our orange POTHUS. The cat has not changed his spots! I could do a better job and you probably could too. We both know Biden can’t and he is just another lizard anyway even if he wasn’t channelling Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. What are we going to do? I’ll run as a green if you want!

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 12:20 pm #

      KDFP My collar is in the ring. I just put that message on my website.

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 12:30 pm #

        A reasonably normal guy with at least average intelligence and abilities. That is an order of magnitude better than the turds we have to choose from now. We should pick door number three. My platform is that I can do a way better job than the establishment.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 7:00 pm #

          Trump has gone Socialist. You’re not needed anymore. Nor is Bernie. Superfulous units must report to the recycling facility.

  65. K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 12:40 pm #

    Trump is handling this badly. I don’t even think a businessman would tolerate the disorganization and incoherence of the Trump response. Our Nero fiddles while Rome burns. KDFP

    • SoftStarLight March 28, 2020 at 1:23 pm #

      Perhaps it is time to allow yourself to be given over to a Higher Power? In the end, Man will be unable to answer all of the questions and riddles. I believe in your cause. Many do not, or do not see it the same way. And this is why we are where we are. And we have been here all along. Its just that in times like this the nature of Human Nature is revealed. We must attempt to fix the heart. Then we can attempt to fix the world.

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:16 pm #

        Giving oneself over to a higher power when action is needed is a death sentence.

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:17 pm #

          Now more than ever.

          • SoftStarLight March 29, 2020 at 12:42 pm #

            I didn’t mean you wouldn’t take appropriate actions or precautions. But you said Nero is fiddling while Rome burns. Why are we in this situation to begin with? A lot of bad choices by a lot of people. Maybe if we were guided by a Higher Power we would have done better. That’s all.

  66. K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 1:02 pm #

    Cuomo sees to have his shit together.

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 1:02 pm #

      seems

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 1:07 pm #

        Perhaps he can be VP.

        • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 2:12 pm #

          What about Stacy Abrams?

          Biden/Abrams 2020

          ‘We’se ridin with Biden
          Stacy Abrams is drivin’

        • PeteAtomic March 28, 2020 at 2:13 pm #

          may as well make him the presumptive President if he does that

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 1:10 pm #

        No, he is listening to science and anticipating the future. He is putting lives first. Your objection is irrelevant for now and he has not passed my interview. I’m saying he could be a choice not that he is the choice. Take a deep breath, don’t worry, Soros is not a citizen.

        • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 1:17 pm #

          Whoever is going to be VP is going to bring in the experience I lack. The Synergy will be incredible.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 1:18 pm #

            We are going full hockey stick.

          • Pucker March 28, 2020 at 1:43 pm #

            “Awe Shoot! We’re go’n full hockey stick.”

            – Slim Pickens

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 2:07 pm #

            Ride the bomb — Slim Pickens

        • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 2:16 pm #

          Can you accept a national program of stop and frisk of the lower races?

          Without it, Manhattan would be a boarded up and burned out shell by now – even as America will be unless the natural order is reestablished.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:24 pm #

            If I did that I would have to frisk you. You still want it?

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 5:48 pm #

            Don’t get frisky or I’ll activate the agonizer on your collar.

    • PeteAtomic March 28, 2020 at 2:13 pm #

      “Cuomo sees to have his shit together.”

      He seems to act the job as ‘in control’ politician well. I say ‘act’ cuz the fed. gov’t days ago sent his state thousands of ventilators, but he wouldn’t acknowledge that until his office called the Tucker Carlson show yesterday and admitted the ventilators were in warehouses in the state lol

      maybe some posters from NY state can tell us what they think of the guy..

      • PeteAtomic March 28, 2020 at 2:14 pm #

        Wanna weigh in on that one, Jim??

        How do you like your governor?

        • BackRowHeckler March 28, 2020 at 2:48 pm #

          JHK already said the guy is a jerk.

          • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 3:23 pm #

            I know what JHK said. Last week. But I’d hold the leather end of the leash.

          • tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 5:51 pm #

            Cuomo is doing a damn good job. In early May, we could have a couple of million+ cases in NYC.

            950,000 ventilators? Read it here, read about the rich looking for ventilators on the dark web, wanting to build ICUs in their Hampton homes.

            ‘Ventilators cost only about $35,000, peanuts to the elites. But because the US healthcare industry is about making money, no one heeded warnings going back more than a decade that the country should stockpile the machines.

            “Hospitals in America are all about trying to be profitable, they’re not about being prepared for a disaster,” says Dr. Tim Kruse, who makes house calls in Aspen for his billionaire patients who are fretting about getting a ventilator if they need one. “Having a bunch of ventilators sitting around in storage affects their bottom line.” Capitalist Pigs.

            Read it here:

            https://nypost.com/2020/03/21/super-rich-people-are-panicking-over-the-coronavirus-ventilator-shortage/

          • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 7:52 pm #

            Bitches get shit done. So do jerks.

          • SoftStarLight March 29, 2020 at 12:43 pm #

            Lol 🙂

  67. JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 3:50 pm #

    It does not make sense.

    Social isolation and distancing are becoming a way of life. Pictures of metro areas show empty streets. I have no doubt that the average distance between people has increased. People are more hygienic, washing hands, taking daily showers, disinfecting surfaces and anything entering the household.

    Right?

    So how come this scourge is surging instead of leveling off. People leaving the prime infection cluster and infecting clusters all over the US. Latest info points to even NY not topping out for weeks.

    Mission impossible? Protect your own selves!!

    101000 and accelerating!!

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:25 pm #

      What does not make sense? The social distancing is only half-assed so far and that WILL make for a long protracted and expensive experience of social distancing. As long as even one State does not participate in a full lock-down all lock-downs are compromised. Reason being States don’t have borders that can be managed.

      Only with full participation for a period of time determined by epidemiologists can the virus be knocked-out. Then to keep it from coming back a monitoring and selective quarantine has to be in place as life returns to what people thought was normal. That state of affairs would have to be maintained until effective vaccines are developed.

      • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:25 pm #

        KDFP

    • K-Dog March 28, 2020 at 4:26 pm #

      The people who are dying were infected weeks ago.

    • PeteAtomic March 28, 2020 at 6:07 pm #

      this virus can be asymptomatic & community spread for a while before people know they have anything..
      and as K-Dog points out, many people don’t take social distancing serious enough

      there are plenty of opportunities for the virus to keep spreading around!

      • JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 6:58 pm #

        I guess it is asymptomatic for a lot of folks. Our sampling tests are grossly insufficient to make a determination of the scope of this as we do not even see the carriers.

        Interesting possibility. Two carriers with active disease on board. An epidemiologist’s dream. Test the heck out of these sailors. You will have a very good idea of the nature of the beast. I would take a bet that this bug infects just about everyone. Personal immunity sets the reaction.

    • EvelynV March 28, 2020 at 7:38 pm #

      JohnAZ

      I don’t think you fully understand yet. This link is to a tool that presents a projection of the number of cases for whatever state you click on.

      On the graph presented you can move the cursor to each specific date on a time line. As you do you will see the projected number of cases presented on two scales. You’ve heard of flattening the curve. This makes it perfectly clear.

      I have another link for my own state which similarly shows actual occurrences rather than projected. For where I live the matched has been uncanny so far.

      Based on the best of the projection this thing has barely started. The slope is just starting to really steepen and in two weeks if you check back the verdict will be much closer to certainty one way or another.

      https://covidactnow.org/?fbclid=IwAR1ktlLBu0wxGUPvw_vYBihIbgvvWcF596Icx73SyFKppLYAHkLUSmJXCrQ

      • JohnAZ March 28, 2020 at 8:13 pm #

        Oh, I understand that it is just starting. I am trying to answer for myself the invisible hand that is spreading this plague. We are officially following the Chinese lead of isolation, but it is not working. The 15 day plan is 13 days in, and it is still worsening as you pointed out. Thanks for the links, I follow the Johns Hopkins data bank which is very disconcerting.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 7:45 pm #

      Dr John Campbell is doing a long youtube every day keeping the world up to speed. He addresses your question saying: Although Spain just had its worst day, I expect to see these numbers begin to fall in ten days after the effects of the quarantine begin to kick in.

      Remember, the disease has an incubation period of up to 14 days. So we are still dealing with the pre-quarantine infections.

      Check him out. He seems pretty solid and he seems to believe that the Disaster is very real, alas. I’m going to tune on Western Rifle Shooters which is featuring him every day, but I suppose you can subscribe to his youtube channel. I never do that so I don’t know.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=dsce2GLH_Dw&feature=emb_logo

      So my present position: It’s real and we’re likely to lose almost all of our rights to the extent we still had any. The right to vote is likely to remain since it was almost completely unreal past the local level anyway. This is the majority viewpoint over there. They are allowing other voices however.

  68. Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 5:46 pm #

    JS: Anglin opines on the Trump’s Aid Package and hopefully the end of the Libertarians and their reign of folly and evil.

    f we just turn into a society where everyone stays home all the time and the government sends them money… well, that is probably better than where we were headed otherwise.

    There is literally no reason that we can’t just keep printing money and give it to people for free as they stay in their houses in a state of paranoid hysteria because of viruses.

    I don’t mind just sitting on the sidelines and watching.

    I do fine alone, personally.

    Fox News:

    President Trump on Friday signed a more than $2 trillion legislative package to combat the coronavirus pandemic and send economic relief to workers and businesses squeezed by restrictions meant to stop the outbreak’s spread after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the legislation earlier in the day.

    “I want to thank Democrats and Republicans for coming together and putting America first,” Trump said during an afternoon Oval Office signing ceremony.

    Trump marveled at the magnitude of the aid package as he penned his name on the legislation: “I’ve never signed anything with a ‘T’ on it,” Trump quipped of the trillions of dollars of new spending.

    The legislation, approved by voice vote despite 11th-hour drama arising from a GOP lawmaker’s objections, amounts to the costliest stimulus plan in U.S. history. It includes checks for most Americans, boosted unemployment aid, help for small business as well as a massive loan fund for corporations – at a time when unemployment is surging at a record pace, a consequence of businesses closing in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

    Hopefully, Coronavirus will destroy libertarianism, if nothing else.

    It is the absolute most poisonous thing, having these Republicans refuse to do anything for their constituents because they believe the government shouldn’t even exist.

    The government does exist, it is the biggest government that has ever existed, and it isn’t going to stop spending money because Republicans take a principled stance and refuse to allow money to be spent on their own issues.

    Attaching fiscal liberalism to social conservatism was such a stupid idea to begin with, and the refusal of the American conservatives to use the government to accomplish their agenda is probably the prime reason why we lost so badly over the last 70 years.

    For example:

    Republicans accepted that it wasn’t any of the government’s business if men had anal sex with each other, because the government doesn’t represent the people.
    Democrats turned around and used every mechanism of the state to force homosexuality down people’s throats.
    Homosexuality was never a popular thing. What was popular was the theory that the government doesn’t have a right to tell people what to do. Homosexuality never could have been pushed through if Republicans had been willing to say “the government is a part of our society, thus it should enforce our values.”

    The government does have a “right” to tell people what to do, because it has the ability to tell people what to do, and that is all a “right” actually is in reality.

    Libertarians took over the GOP with Reagan and the National Review and they’ve served as an evil parasite, doing the bidding of Jews, telling Christians that it is morally wrong to fight for their interests. Their economic positions are as dumb as their philosophical values.

    A Republican president signing a $2 trillion “aid package” probably represents the end of this kind of stupid dogma.

    Good on the big guy.

    My America isn’t dead yet.

    JS: Finally some National Socialism from the “big guy”, the Orange Lebowski. Bout time, but better late than never. Yeah, the money will probably run out in real terms unless radical change is undergone. But until it does, Whites deserve their share. And being the biggest group, that’s going to be the lion’s share. It’s only right and fair.

    • tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 7:30 pm #

      I wonder what he means by ‘lost so badly over the past 70 years’. If it’s Congressional or Presidential power, Republicans have held it for the most part, the Presidency itself for forty of those 70 years.

      Republicans in general have been for less governmental interference than the Democrats, and the Libertarians have no real power to speak of, no governorships, no one in Congress.

      Libertarians took over the GOP? No way.

      On the homosexual marriage issue, it was the Liberals who voted in favor, with only Kennedy agreeing on the conservative side.

      “Good on the big guy.” Like he had any choice.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 28, 2020 at 7:34 pm #

        Culture is upstream of economics. They lost the upstream by refusing to fight for their values in the marketplace of the House and Senate. They only cared about the marketplace qua marketplace. They fought the good fight in regards to the 2nd Amendment ONLY.

        • tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 7:57 pm #

          Conservatives introduced the DOMA into Congress. Signed by Clinton. It was challenged and eventually went to the Supreme Court where DOMA went down.

          I guess the saying should be changed to, “you can’t fight the Supreme Court.”

  69. Pucker March 28, 2020 at 6:01 pm #

    Thank God that our leaders had the wisdom to spend $6 Trillion on fighting “Terrorists” rather than a few hundred million bucks on stockpiling protective masks and PPE’s.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HojqEOKnotU

    • tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 7:39 pm #

      Amen, Puck. What it is.

      • akmofo March 28, 2020 at 7:55 pm #

        Actually, what you really need are gloves. Your nose will filter out and kill viruses and prevent them from attaching and thus infecting, but your mouth won’t. As long as the gloves prevent you from touching your mouth, you’ll be ok.

        • tucsonspur March 28, 2020 at 8:04 pm #

          Where can I find those no touch mouth gloves? Maybe I’ll get a glove that has a mind of its own, and goes for my throat and strangles me.