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The shadow of Corona virus creeps ever-darker across the scene like a cosmic messenger from Karma Central telling mankind to stop and assess. We’re about to find out what we’ve wrought with the wonders and marvels of globalism. Is there anything you can think of over at the Wal Mart or the Walgreens that isn’t made in China? I mean, everything from a dustpan to a lint brush? I can’t say for sure, because I’m not over in China, but the place is apparently not open for business these days. One must surmise that a lot of activities in the USA may not be open for business much longer, either.

The action in my local supermarket yesterday had an undercurrent of stealth desperation; no overt panic buying, no fighting in the aisles, but an edge of suspense. Personally, I cleaned out an entire product-line of cat food, loaded up on cooking oil, rice, dry beans, and evaporated milk — and I wasn’t the only one checking out with the sixteen-roll bindle of toilet paper. Obviously, many products were still there on the shelves to get (minus that cat food). Is the time perhaps at hand when a lot of stuff won’t be? Just sayin’.

The message is getting out — though not from US authorities yet — that everybody may soon be spending a lot of time home alone. That’s exactly what has happened in China and a region of northern Italy. France banned events with more than 5,000 people (why that number, exactly?). Japan has canceled school for the time being — duration unknown for now.  So a USA lockdown is not merely hypothetical. These, then, are two fundamental conditions the world faces for a while: nobody moves and nothing gets produced.

Are we taking this thing too seriously (some might ask)? I don’t pretend to know the answer, except, again, to point to China and think that they can’t possibly just be fooling around with all those zombified cities and shuttered factories. The next question might be: will the global economy return at some point to “normal” operating conditions, that is, the fabulously complex network of supply lines, markets, and payment arrangements as they worked up until January 2020? I am for sure not sure about that. Once a gigantic and fantastically precise mechanism breaks, I doubt it comes back together neatly and quickly. In the physical universe, the power of emergence is like the cue ball on a billiard table, and it appears that all the rest of the colored balls will be bouncing off the bumpers and sinking into pockets for a while… and eventually the global table will look a lot different.

I’ve long maintained that of all the many networked systems we depend on, banking and finance are the most fragile, the most susceptible to dangerous disorder. And, of course, that is exactly what we’re seeing in the stock markets. Trillions of dollars in notional wealth have vaporized. Over on the bond side, interest rates are crashing toward zero as loose capital desperately seeks a safe harbor. But how safe is Bond Harbor, exactly, when all the advanced nations are so deep in the borrowing hole that they can never really meet their obligations? And Gawd knows what is going on with the “innovative” financial IEDs in Derivatives Land. How can they not be blowing up with price movements of the kind that went down last week?

As that colossal hairball unravels, nobody will get paid for anything for a period of time, again, duration unknown. There was chatter last week about a supposed Sunday meeting of global Central Bank poohbahs looking to come up with a battle plan for arresting the damage. It must have been mighty secretive because there’s nothing about it on the news wires Monday morning. But what can they do, really, except the only thing they know how to do, which is to jam more “money” into crumbling arrangements? And then, we must ask, when does this stuff lose its credibility as “money”? Answer: when the contours of the black hole it is disappearing into become obvious and undeniable — and some might argue that we can already see all that. If the equity markets turn up today, that will probably be an indication that the CB Boyz and Gurls have launched a direct stock-buying blitz… meaning that, until further notice, markets are not really markets. That would be a set-up for another round of cratering when the CBs shoot their wads on that gambit.

One thing I’m hearing a lot is how much this emergency spotlights the USA’s need to reindustrialize. That would be a natural conclusion, but I warn you it will not work out the way they’re saying. I’m not going to harp on this for now, but our energy supply situation is not what it’s cracked up to be, specifically shale oil, which depends utterly on a reliable stream of loans to keep up the incessant fracking — not a bright prospect with credit markets frozen — and above and beyond that, it’s an industry that doesn’t pay for itself, doesn’t make a red cent. So, watch for carnage in the shale oil patches. The next trick will be to nationalize the industry, and that will only add another layer to a looming national bankruptcy.

Now, that suggests to me that we’re not actually able to return to manufacturing at the scale we abandoned a few decades ago — in other words, Make America Great Again. If we make anything, it’ll be at a much smaller scale, and maybe even a scale that would seem laughably humble. When the dust settles from the present financial meltdown — and that might take a while — Americans with any remaining capital might want to invest in water-power and hydroelectric sites. (Note, there are plenty here in Washington County, New York.) The hydroelectric part is a bit iffy, since that does require a lot of copper and steel for the turbines. But water-power itself can drive machinery. Again, just sayin’.

Of course, one of the ironies of this situation is that the entire news media assumes that the election contest is proceeding along the usual formal trajectory. No one seems to wonder whether the party conventions can even be held if the corona virus sticks around through the spring, or even the election, for that matter.


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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.

813 Responses to “This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around”

  1. Htruth March 2, 2020 at 9:53 am #

    Post Office Employee Tests Positive For Coronavirus. Facility Shut Down For “Cleaning.”: https://youtu.be/1NDsvDe3Ixc

    • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 12:48 pm #

      Don’t want to catch no disease
      Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,

      • gonetohell March 2, 2020 at 9:26 pm #

        Kuntsler’s just ecstatic that the PPT is back in action. That will give the Orangutan in the WH his best chance at being reelected. Surprised JHK went through an entire construct without giving that stinking socialist, i.e. communist, Bernie Sanders another kick in the pants.

  2. DrTomSchmidt March 2, 2020 at 10:05 am #

    In World Made by Hand, the local oligarch has electric power run by a turbine. But all those eventually wear out and so his estate eventually goes dark.

    That seems unlikely given that any relatively decent mechanic can take a car alternator and connect it to motive power and generate SOME power from it. So some DC will always be available.

    Different from the time of World Made by Hand is that we now have DC-powered LEDs that will last for quite a while (100,000 hours of use). What we won’t have is excess power from highly complex generators. So you’ll continue to have electric lights for a very long time, which adds to nighttime productivity, especially in winter. The rest of the electric infrastructure, like refrigeration, TV, cable? Not so much.

    • Matt Holbert March 2, 2020 at 10:36 am #

      “any relatively decent mechanic can take a car alternator and connect it to motive power and generate SOME power from it”

      Reminded me of the Peak Oil Man animation film from 10+ years ago. I tried to find it online but was unsuccessful. Does anyone here have a link?

        • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 11:08 am #

          I like that.

          Instead of metal pipe, will PVC work? Does that alternator go directly to a convertor, or does it go into a 12v cell battery, and then converted from DC to AC?

          That looks like a good backyard project, with materials easy to find.

          Brh

          • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 11:10 am #

            I am sure PVC will work just as well as a metal pipe. Anything will work just as well. Got wood?

          • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 12:43 pm #

            I got some groceries, some peanut butter,
            To last a couple of days

          • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 5:36 pm #

            Well, that goes to show you, if the apocalypse comes, I’m toast.

            But I have read of people hooking up a contraption with an auto alternator and getting juice out of it. What do I know?

            Brh

          • Bilejones@hotmail.com March 3, 2020 at 3:43 pm #

            We could all go back to Roman technology like the good people of Flint, Michigan and start using lead again.
            Very malleable.

          • Iananna March 4, 2020 at 9:08 am #

            That auto fan would not work as a wind catching propeller as well as being too heavy.
            Also, it would be better to make the vanes out of PVC as well as altering the angle correctly.
            The sooner we move to DC in general, up to 48V is as near as makes no difference to non-lethal.

        • stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 12:51 pm #

          I hope you guys realize that picture is a joke.

          • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 1:16 pm #

            How so?

          • stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 3:08 pm #

            Hey Backrow, for one thing that contraption has a thermostatic fan clutch which freewheels till about 180 degrees temp. even if the fan was mechanically locked an auto alternator needs to spin at a minimum of perhaps 2000 rpm to produce any useful current. that’s why the pulley is do much smaller than the crank pulley. No way in hell a wind driven fan will ever spin that fast. Power in equals power out minus losses and that thang ain’t goin’ do squat!

          • David Webb March 3, 2020 at 2:24 am #

            The fan clutch is kind of a giveaway.

          • Iananna March 4, 2020 at 9:09 am #

            BINGO! Like Piggy’s glass in Lord of the Flies.

      • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 1:19 pm #

        Matt.
        Car generators take a lot of Horsepower/torque to produce any significant output. Connect one to a 3hp gas motor and watch it bog the motor to a stop.

        Been there, done that…got the scars to prove it.

        • DrTomSchmidt March 2, 2020 at 3:51 pm #

          Can you gear down from a slow windmill to get it? Bike-crank at the right speed? My understanding of alternators is they generate some power at low speed, and a lot more at high speed.

          I have a number of hand-cranked LED lights. 10 minutes of cranking supplies enough power for about an hour. Only problem is the power is stored in NiCd batteries and those will wear out and become unusable in a world made by hand.

          I did buy the ultimate shake flashlight that charges a super capacitor that will go through tens of thousands of charge/discharge cycles. That was $70. Maybe I’ll get five ounces of gold for it some day.

        • Farmer McGregor March 2, 2020 at 4:31 pm #

          Gotta agree with elysianfield there, that picture’s a very bad joke.

          Maybe with gale-force winds you might actually generate some power, but that push fan is terrible at collecting air flow (not to mention the little thermo-clutch problem). That’s why the big ones use the style of turbine blades that they do — and they gear up the slow rotation of the blades to a much higher speed to drive the actual generator. You’d be much better off with the type of windmill blades used on the old well pump stock watering systems out on the prairie (many blades connected to the hub) since they will grab a small breeze to produce motion.

          Another detail: the picture shows a typical automotive alternator. These produce alternating current (AC) which is rectified into sloppy direct current through a diode bridge inside the unit. This will charge a battery, or provide usable power, but the alternator must be connected to a battery (or other power source) to provide power to the field windings or it simply will not generate. Better to use a permanent magnet generator like found in pre-1960’s cars and trucks since these will generate without a power source connected to them.

          • BackRowHeckler March 3, 2020 at 4:07 am #

            You sound like you know what you’re talking about, my friend. Rip and E. as well.

            Those permanent magnet generators found in pre 1960s cars must be pretty rare now.. I remember junkyards all around here when I was a kid full with cars that went all the way back to day 1. Also abandoned wrecks in fields and woods. We’d take those magnificent hood ornaments off of them, still have a few.

            Brh

      • Matt Holbert March 2, 2020 at 4:00 pm #

        My spouse just informed me that it is “Post Oil Man.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWC6W1ctkMY

  3. cc rider March 2, 2020 at 10:09 am #

    San Antonio Mayor: CDC released patient who later tested positive for COVID-19

    https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/san-antonio-mayor-cdc-released-patient-who-later-tested-positive-for-covid-19/

    I don’t suppose it should surprise me that the CDC still doesn’t understand how this virus works after a few months of observation…. That these tests are at best fifty percent accurate. That an infected person can transmit it for a few to several weeks while being asymptomatic….That someone who has been infected can get reinfected a few weeks later…..etc…etc….etc….

    But don’t worry or even take precautions. Just keep shopping America. Don’t stock up on food and supplies though!! God no don’t do that!! But do keep shopping.

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 10:49 am #

      Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

      The CDC basing their responses on statistics is a joke. You mention they do not understand the virus, boy is that an understatement.

      Testing is inadequate, not enough test kits and the test will only catch the virus at certain stages. We do not understand the immune response to these viruses at all.

      The biggest problem with statistics in medicine is that individual responses to disease have wide distributions with big standard deviations.

      The end result is that this disease run will hopefully peter out like all the other viruses before it since polio. Humans have not successfully “cured” a virus epidemic ever. We can fire up our immune system against individual “bugs” but cures? Nope.

      We need to destroy the virus organism, probably by blocking its reproduction. Money within national and international medical organizations needs to be spent on this effort. These little s—ts are going to destroy us if we do not get a handle on their ways.

      Who knows, if we figure out how to block and destroy their methodologies, perhaps some understandings of cancer may occur.

      • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 10:53 am #

        I wonder if their is a climate dependency of these coronaviruses. Are they virulent between certain latitudes? Alba, what if their main Achilles heel is higher temps and higher latitudes are where they propagate the most.

        What if we start praying for global warming?

        • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 11:04 am #

          Well, I guess you can pray that the developing grand solar minimum is miraculously reversed right now before it hits the peak because all this “warming” is starting to reverse and will keep reversing until we are pretty damn cold by the end of this decade. Depending of course on your particular latitude.

          Anyhoo…..the virus has popped up in Indonesia. We’ll see how it goes there because I think that Indonesia is pretty warm year round. Warm winters and hotter than shit summers.

          • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 3:06 pm #

            We’ll see how it goes there because I think that Indonesia is pretty warm year round. Warm winters and hotter than shit summers.

            We have our first cases of community infection (all others relate to Wuhan, the Diamond Princess, or Iran), and Australia is at the end of summer – and our summers are pretty hot.

            Some health experts are anticipating that the virus will peak in around August – our coldest winter month – although it’s not that cold really.

        • GreenAlba March 2, 2020 at 12:35 pm #

          JohnAZ

          “What if we start praying for global warming?”

          I have no expertise whatever in Covid19 but it’s doing fine in Singapore where my daughter is, and they don’t ever have a cool season.

          She responded to a message I sent last night by saying she reckons the UK media are being sensationalist. SIngapore seems not to be flapping, although they are taking all possible precautions. She has to have her temperature checked just to get into work in the morning. Anyway, 106 cases have been confirmed in Sg, 78 have been discharged from hospital and 38 remain. No-one has died. And she reckons old people in Sg aren’t particularly healthy (how she knows that I don’t know!). So she’s pretty sanguine about it for now.

          Global warming is going to bring bugs we don’t currently have moving north (whether it’s bugs that affect us or bugs that infest crops), so even for that reason I certainly won’t be praying for it.

          Amusingly, one of the ‘plans’ here is to try to entice retired doctors out of retirement. How tempting would that be if you’re in the main age group to die from it?! And after Jeremy Hunt’s long efforts to destroy the morale of the medical profession, it’s a joke. They’d all have to have an emergency re-registration with the GMC, and undergo the lunatic appraisal scheme that was brought in after Harold Shipman, which caused a whole lot of older doctors to say ‘f*ck this for a game of soldiers’ and retire early.

          • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 1:50 pm #

            Individual cases of incidence is not what I am pointing at with my conjecture. The ability of the virus to spread in an environment once introduced is what I am questioning. The belt of latitudes that includes the high density large quantity community cases is limited so far.

          • SpeedyBB March 5, 2020 at 10:21 am #

            If you’d like to see one big reason for the shortage of doctors (and more coming – if you don’t care for that darkie Sikh poking around in your wife’s innards head for the next town … why goldurn it – a Mooselum …) get a load of the excellent kevinmd.com blog.

            The medical professionals at the front line are being treated like shit, by the media, the public and the multiple layers of useless corporate administration running the hospitals: fifteen minutes per patient, max… no more rest lounge for doctors, nor food… inhuman long shifts… absurdly pitiful protection from deranged, violent patients and their families… doctors rated with “likes” get the best raises. Guess who is giving in and writing the blizzard of opioid prescriptions…

            The profession is in a deep crisis but it is being ignored.

        • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 12:53 pm #

          What if the virus is as tough as a tardigrade? Critters are damn near immortal.

          This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
          This ain’t no fooling around

          • GreenAlba March 2, 2020 at 1:35 pm #

            Could be, K-dog. At my age I’m less sanguine than Sg daughter.

            Not that I haven’t had a good run, but if the gods were kind I could have another 20 years and I wouldn’t turn them down.

        • rhys12 March 2, 2020 at 1:42 pm #

          A recent study showed that the drier it is, the better viruses survive and propagate. This is one reason why Nursing Homes, Rehabs, etc, that don’t allow humidifiers and are bone dry, constantly have problems with flu epidemics. The reason they do that is that bacteria and mold do just the opposite. You need a high absolute humidity (not relative humidity) to retard viruses and would probably have mold growing and bacterial infections. Viruses also don’t remain viable for long outside the body, and they have to take over and use your cells to reproduce themselves. So they require crowds and/or travel to survive and spread. If you stay away from other people and don’t travel far, it contains them. Crammed cities like in China and massive amounts of fast air travel, like in the West, guarantee these sort of things are going to continue. I never heard that temperature or latitude affected them. They aren’t alive, they are just bits of code in a shell, like computer code but written in DNA or RNA.

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 12:26 pm #

        JohnAZ

        Time for you to wake up in the 21st century. There is much understanding of cancer. You probably should realize there is much variety in cancers. Some cancers are very much understood and controlled and others not. Remedies that work for one do not have relevance to others. Not likely there is a silver bullet.

        But we can wish.

        • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 2:00 pm #

          Yes, we can wish.

          This is one place I separate from my political brethren, EvelynV. We have succeeded in crapping up our environment so badly with residues from just about everything. It is like we live in an environmental soup of poison. As cancer is a DNA mutation inside each of us, a cancer reduction program will involve reducing the crap we put into the environment. I am definitely an advocate for cleaning the environment. AGW will react beneficially if we start reducing pollution. Just do it wisely so it does not destroy more folks.

          • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 3:45 pm #

            We have succeeded in crapping up our environment so badly with residues from just about everything. It is like we live in an environmental soup of poison.

            I used to have a professorial colleague back in the 1980s … he was a microbiologist. He was predicting | warning back then that the profusion of chemicals was killing people, and the rates would increase.

            Particularly women, as they spent more time around kitchen products, cleaning stuff, plus bathroom goop, and make-up.

            Our environment has been extremely compromised in the pursuit of the mighty dollar (look at the shale oil scandal) – and I can just barely (but fondly) remember the smell of a proper ripe tomato.

      • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 1:23 pm #

        “The CDC basing their responses on statistics is a joke. You mention they do not understand the virus, boy is that an understatement.”

        John,
        And probably an incorrect one. The CDC is not staffed by stupid people. They are staffed by people that take direction from a political entity. They are people constrained by budgets.

        They are trying to fight the war with resources they currently have.

        To consider them “stupid” is…dismissive.

        • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 1:45 pm #

          Oh no.

          Not stupid, just trying to do a Mission Impossible trying to deduce anything from statistics.. The logistics of the situation are saying that even control may be impossible, that the infection just needs to run its course.

          Sorta like flu.

          You are right, the politics ARE stupid.

  4. malthuss March 2, 2020 at 10:12 am #

    Im on you tube, listening to ‘Reluctant Preppers’—Rick Rule is moving to Washington state,

    comment,

    Outdoor farming above 40 degrees latitude will be difficult in a grand solar minimum

    • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 12:55 pm #

      Get you instructions, follow directions,
      Then you should change your address
      Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
      Whatever you think is best

  5. newworld March 2, 2020 at 10:21 am #

    At one time the American Left could put forth a believable critique of America’s “American Psycho” and its Batemans, no longer having sold out to the oligarchs for Tranny story hour, thanks a lot.

    Why this matters is because my reliable sources say that the Batemans have off shored production of antibiotics to primarily China.

    • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 12:37 pm #

      Not only is the production off shored, so is most important research.

      My doctor friend explained that American pharmas upon the discovery of a new drug by Asians or Europeans they take the new discovery, modify it slightly in some chemical way entitling them to claim their version is proprietary to them and then market it.

      The pharma industry is where you will find the worst examples of American corporate greed. The pills I take cost medicare $148,000 per year and are manufactured in China. Without the pills, by now I would be on to the next…well…I would cease to be except in the loving memory of all who read my posts.

  6. Elrond Hubbard March 2, 2020 at 10:21 am #

    Kunstler will never change. It’s never enough for things to be as bad as they are. He will continue to paint everything as the beginning of the end of everything, and won’t stop until either one random thing finally vindicates him, or the curtain finally falls.

    JHK is all about that narrative turn, baby — the one that proves he was always right to expect disaster.

    • ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 10:33 am #

      The truth is much subtler. “The End” is already here, it will just play out for a very long time in our short term focused world. I think that’s what Jim tries to convey.

      • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 10:42 am #

        Yeah the “beginning of the end” probably started a few decades ago. As a snow ball rolls down hill it obviously gets bigger and picks up speed. Yes, “The End” plays out over a long time. There is no defining line that says, “Okay folks here it is: The END!”

        • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 4:12 pm #

          Can you really start a small snowball rolling down a hill and it will get bigger and faster? I live in a hot, dry, flat land, so I need to ask.

          And I quite like JHK’s apocalyptic, end-of-the-world slant on almost everything … it’s a nice prism through which to view the rich tapestry of our existence.

          I dislike it however when her burbles on about the Democrats being the Forces of Darkness, wearing the black hats, with the Repubs being a weird cross between a damsel in distress and the white knight … that is crazy.

          • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 4:42 pm #

            Cargill in theory yes. Of course it would have to be a big enough snowball to really get going.

        • shotho March 2, 2020 at 8:18 pm #

          In the history of humanity, how many ‘ends’ have we seen. And, yet, here we are. What hubris to think that all will end with us.

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 12:38 pm #

        Did you mean “The End” by the Doors?

        • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 4:41 pm #

          Ha! I actually thought about that song when I posted.

          You know, I think we can say that when that song came out “The End” began. We’re fifty years into it now.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 2, 2020 at 10:52 am #

      And your Leftist Apotheosis, epitomized by John’s Lennon’s song, “Imagine”. is never going to come true either. Simply put, Lenin does lead to Lennon.

      • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 10:57 am #

        Perhaps it is a loop…. Lenin leads to Lennon which leads to Lenin which again leads to Lennon, ad infinitum….

        • Janos Skorenzy March 2, 2020 at 11:06 am #

          Should have said “does not lead to Lennon” but Lennonism does lead to Lenin. Liberalism is, as the Commander said, Communism’s pimping little sister. Of course if they win, they prop up the charade with things like Lennon. So in that sense you are right too.

          • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 11:17 am #

            I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard from more than one source that within the last two years of his life he pretty much poo’d poo’d his song Imagine. The context seemed to indicate that as he got older he realized how silly it was and that he grew to loathe it.

          • messianicdruid March 2, 2020 at 1:59 pm #

            Lennon read a book on Groucho.

      • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 11:05 am #

        I bumped into John Lennon at a macro restaurant near where he lived ..I didnt speak to him.
        He was super into psychics. I know because I was familiar with a few of them.
        Apparently a very hen pecked man.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 2, 2020 at 11:07 am #

          Yes, Yoko controlled him for the “good of the world”!

          • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 11:15 am #

            Julian Lennon has said a few things about her.
            He bought his letters or cards to JL back from her.

            One celeb said he was the most henpecked man, bar none.
            Plus cigs, booze, heroin…a weakling.
            Liked the black panthers. His last album was done around the time they went to the islands and saw a flower, Double Fantasy..hence the albums title.
            While in the islands I believe he consulted w Black leftists and bought them an expensive piano…memory’s not clear on that.

            Yoko turned their 1970 million dollars into 50 million in 10 years.
            investing in beef cattle.
            they were semi vegetarian, if I recall…they would eat in a macrobiotic place, all the time, according to the manager.

      • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 11:19 am #

        Hear! Hear!

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 10:58 am #

      In the Old Testament, truthful and accurate prophets are deified. In all cases, deniers and corruptness block the changes required to undo disasters. History is busy rhyming now.

      • messianicdruid March 2, 2020 at 2:10 pm #

        An example ? I thought the faithful prophets were hated and the false were heeded by the majority.

    • Walter B March 2, 2020 at 11:21 am #

      The “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die” attitude is fine Elrond, for people to accept, especially those who are not the types that can be counted on to solve complex problems once they appear. However, when serious and dangerous things unfold before us, the masses will inevitable turn to those they believe can mitigate the danger and cry out “Landru guide us”! Those of us who have accepted positions of responsibility for the safety and well being of others cannot simply lay back, get high and die because that was not what we signed up to do. Before the shit hits the fan is the time to work to stave off disaster because there does become a time where it all falls down when too many just sit there looking stupid.

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 12:45 pm #

        WALTER, I’VE BEEN SAVING THIS FOR YOU UNTIL I SAW YOU COME BACK. I WROTE IT AFTER YOU EFFORT TO HAGRIFY KIRK DOUGLAS.

        “February 6, 2020 at 10:31 am #

        Well tucsonspur are actors really acting or simply being themselves and assimilating themselves into the roles they play? I always admired Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster and grew up believing that they were what used to be called men’s men. Men who stood for what they believed in and what they believed in was always just and right regardless of the cost to the individual.
        Perhaps I have become jaded or simply too old, but I see less and less men of character like Kirk and Burt and more and more spineless followers and gutless cowards. You may have a point about what happens once enough of these real men men are gone.”

        Walter,

        I wish for you to see this so I’m going to save it and repost it tomorrow.

        Did you ever listen to Click and Clack on NPR’s Car Talk? The two mechanics who took phone calls about car problems from phone-in callers?

        One time a young woman who called went thru the usual interrogation about who, what, and where. She told how her role in life at the time was to serve as a food provider for actors and actresses shooting movies on Hollywood sets.

        One of the brothers tried to get her to reveal who the most obnoxious celebrities were but she demurred telling them such a discussion could only get her in trouble in her job. So instead they quizzed her on who the nicest celebrity was and her answer was Michael Douglas. That prompted me to look him up on the internet to see if I could learn anything about him that synched up with her high appraisal

        My google search led me elsewhere inadvertently. I came upon information about Kirk Douglas. What I learned led to me conceiving of a premise for why Michael Douglas, his son, was such a nice guy. That being, the father was a son of bitch who should have died sixty years ago. Michael was living a life to atone for his asshole father.

        Kirk Douglas is widely believed to have raped Natalie Wood when she was still a young starlet. Not the kind of rape that people blow off because she diddled around with him and allowed it to happened. It was a brutal rape. One that scarred her for life and may have contributed to why her life was so short. Kirk was known for similar behavior with other women and should have had his nuts cut off.

        I suggest you develop keener senses for picking the people you choose to admire. For example, give up on your love for the Fat Bastard who porked prostitutes while his wife was giving birth to another unfortunate product of his toxic semen.

        • benr March 2, 2020 at 1:03 pm #

          Talk about going from your elbow to your head to get to your toes.
          Jesus all that just to get another Jab at PRESIDENT Trump.

          • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 1:28 pm #

            benr

            You lost me. Where is the jab?

          • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 1:34 pm #

            Nevermind, I see now why you misunderstood. It wasn’t to jab at Trump. I’ve detested Kirk Douglas and was riled by the praise Walter heaped on him.

          • Walter B March 2, 2020 at 3:55 pm #

            I hope that you understand that I never met Kirk Douglas or knew anyone who did so I have no Idea what kind of a man he was in person. The characters he played in films and how he acted in the roles was what I was already impressed with. What people really are in person be it saint or serial killer is a total unknown when they operate in television, movies or here in Cyberspace.

          • Elrond Hubbard March 5, 2020 at 10:02 am #

            Good day, Walter B. You are pretty far from the mark if you think my attitude about our current predicament is denial, or ‘eat, drink and be merry’ etc.

            My remark above was specifically aimed at JHK, and at how he goes about his self-assigned role of social critic. Kunstler very much has a preferred narrative: one that causes him to emphasize some facts, neglect or minimize others, and assign various roles to various actors in the psychodrama. What narratives do is create tension and anticipation. Above all, what one sees in JHK’s blog posts is how much he is jonesing for that tension to be released — and for his various theories, grumblings and animosities to be vindicated. I call this the narrative turn.

            Kunstler has been up to this for many years now, going back to when he was prophesying Y2K disaster. Y2K, though, turned out to be a finite problem, with a finite solution. It’s not that he’s as wrong about everything as he was about Y2K; far from it. He sees a number of very important things quite clearly. But he invariably will fit events into his frame, rather than adjust his frame to better account for events. His is a distorting lens, even as he turns it on matters of crucial importance.

            I see something similar at work, Walter, in your admiration of “men’s men” like Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. At the risk of being patronizing: Walter, these are actors, and the movies you so admired them in are fiction. It’s a cardinal mistake to assign significance to images that rightly belongs to concrete facts. This kind of mistake is not fundamentally different from consuming a diet of pornography, and then expecting real-life sex to work the same way. (I trust you take my meaning and that I’m not trying to impute any insulting subtext.)

            FInally, I’m not looking for Landru to guide us; I want us to guide ourselves. For that to happen, first we have to see things clearly. JHK does not see things as clearly as he or some others think he does.

        • stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 1:09 pm #

          Evelyn, are we really paying $400+ a day so you can post this crap?

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

            Yep, pretty disgusting ain’t it? Don’t think I’m not feeling a little sheepish about it. If it had to come out of my own pocket I’d say “fuck it!”, not going to pauperize my heirs just to keep me hanging on a few more years.

          • hmuller March 2, 2020 at 7:18 pm #

            The funny thing is that socialist medical care rationers would probably decide keeping old Evelyn alive is just too expensive. Damn it, there’s a 10 year boy whose parents believe he needs gender reassignment surgery and we shouldn’t make them wait for it!

  7. JustSaying March 2, 2020 at 10:23 am #

    Funny, I bought the sixteen-roll bindle, lots of rice, pasta, and cans of crushed tomatoes. Need some dried beans.

    The virus is highly contagious, with a high fatality rate, and long incubation period. What could go wrong?

    • Janos Skorenzy March 2, 2020 at 10:56 am #

      You could end up a hobo, or a “bindle stiff”.

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 11:05 am #

      Here is the deal. Evolution, whether guided or not, favors survival of the fittest. This includes single cell organisms. Hit bacteria with antibiotics and the one or two out of a hundred that are immune to the antibiotic breed into “superbugs”. Viruses live in close proximity with out cells. The constantly mutating body of viruses produce units that can act very effectively against our defenses, These survivors become very prolific and create pandemics. Each generation gets better at “eating” us.

      If we do not uncover they ways to stop this progression, future pandemics are just going to get worse.

      Especially for the survivors.

    • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 11:06 am #

      bindle? whats that?
      I bought a big sack of beans, yesterday.

      I didnt see lines at Costco like the images of panic shoppers that are happening around the world.

      • benr March 2, 2020 at 12:59 pm #

        Boy I sure did it was insane.
        Made the mistake of going in to buy an extended warranty on a new idiot box.
        It was insane.

  8. RaymondR March 2, 2020 at 10:24 am #

    Black swans are circling the lake and only a few have landed. There are more to follow.

    • draupnir March 2, 2020 at 4:33 pm #

      The Chinese are now expecting a plague of locusts. Talk about being kicked when you’re down.

  9. ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 10:27 am #

    Out west here in the “Land of Enchantment” not a hint of Covid panic. Maybe I’m just not near enough to any big cities or maybe we’re just too stupid/smart (as the case may be) to pay any attention to the hype, but no one I know ever mentions it and it sure as hell isn’t causing any disruptions to BAU. Same with the election hysteria, although I did hear from someone that Pete the Buttgigger dropped out over the weekend and that Old Smokin’ Joe is back in the ring with blood in his eye after the apparently clueless electorate in SC breathed new life into his geriatric campaign. Oh well, “there’s no accounting for stupid,” as the old saying goes, so what are ya gonna do? “Some will win, some will lose, and all the rest of us will sing the blues” as some gang of longhairs back in the day might have said. I’d have to amend that song title too, though, to “Don’t Stop Deceivin.”

    • Janos Skorenzy March 2, 2020 at 10:57 am #

      Blacks don’t like Pete. They prefer the Old White Idiot – the Klansman!

      • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 11:08 am #

        truth be told, most dont like legal infanticide, commie, weakling Peter.

        Comments from Brietbart—
        This guy could not even run a city, he nearly destroyed South Bend Indiana, why would anybody think he’s capable of running America?

        how much he is being paid? less if he goes with Bernie, Lots, lots, more if he sides with Biden

        whose only claim to fame is that he didn’t get himself into trouble in the military

        As a Hoosier, I apologize for this bit of pond scum having infected the body politic

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 11:10 am #

      Think of where the pandemic is most prolific, the cities.

      If the Dems were not the hypocrites they are, they would be representing their urban constituencies loudly right now with tons of ideas of how to control the epidemic.

      Like with all issues today, their silence is deafening.

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 1:36 pm #

        Date: February 26, 2020 at 2:35:50 PM EST
        Subject: What I am doing for the upcoming COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
        Dear Colleagues, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.
        The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April.
        Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves:
        1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
        2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
        3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip – do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
        4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
        5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
        6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home’s entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can’t immediately wash your hands.
        7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
        What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
        1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
        Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average – everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
        2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you – it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth – it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
        3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
        4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY “cold-like” symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.
        I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it. Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus.
        Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.
        I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share this email. Good luck to all of us!
        Jim
        James Robb, MD FCAP

        • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 2:12 pm #

          Excellent post.

          Note the impossibility of disinfecting the entire world. These are wonderful pathogen limiting steps for everyday.

          How many folks will follow these guidelines? Not only inadvertently, but like was mentioned last week, purposely contaminate areas.

          Bubble suits would work okay. If a panic starts, it could deteriorate to that. The ultimate goal is self isolation.

          • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 2:18 pm #

            I would like to add, close the toilet cover before flushing. Open toilet seats spray contaminated water ten feet out. Not much help in public areas without covers. I believe fecal contamination directly may be a problem or environmental contamination in the community.

          • hmuller March 2, 2020 at 7:24 pm #

            Yes, excellent post, Evelyn. You’ve earned your pill ration to live out the month. Now if I could just find a giant body condom to wear in public. It’s OK. Everybody in town already thinks I’m a prick.

          • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 10:38 pm #

            Not only inadvertently, but like was mentioned last week, purposely contaminate areas.

            Did anybody rational suggest that?

        • beantownbill. March 2, 2020 at 2:34 pm #

          Evelyn, you do everyone here a great service by posting this. It’s funny, but I find I do most everything on this list normally.

        • SpeedyBB March 5, 2020 at 10:47 am #

          I would like to chime in and mention cash money, just about the single filthiest daily item we come into contact with. Whenever I go into a bank I always pause at the end of a contact with a teller or customer service officer to remind them to scrub up real good after any contact with cash.

          https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/821787

      • draupnir March 2, 2020 at 4:46 pm #

        The only weapon we have against the corona virus is the old, tried and true cordon sanitaire (as in the Chinese model), which will not stop it, but may at least slow it down. Treatment is limited and may do as much harm as good. It turns out strong antivirals are toxic. There is no vaccine, and may never be one. Remember, they developed a vaccine for SARS, but it killed all the mice they used for testing. Poor little critters simply fell over dead. Meanwhile, expect public gatherings to be forbidden, and the immanent closure of places where the public gathers. My sister said she wasn’t going to stop going to the casino. I told her they’d be closed. Cold turkey, baby.

    • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 11:10 am #

      “Good time Charlie’s got the blues.”

  10. draupnir March 2, 2020 at 10:49 am #

    WHO released some preliminary figures over the weekend. Apparently, this bad boy has a mortality rate in excess of 2%. About 20% require ICU care. Of the very ill, people are recovering, but the morbidity rate is a little alarming, at around 13%. About 6% have so much organ damage, they aren’t expected to survive for more than a year in some sort of frail, gray illness. Another 7% might linger a little longer. I’ve seen anecdotal reports of sudden death by heart attack on reinfection. Millennials rejoice, the baby boomers are finally going to lie down decently and quietly expire. However, the second wave might be coming for you, like it did in the 1918 flu epidemic.

    That 2% mortality rate is, of course contingent on the availability of ICU beds. They managed to pull some of the early survivors through with the use of ECMO, which is the machine used to oxygenate blood and keep it circulating during surgical procedures where the heart is stopped. Supplies are limited. Get yours now.

    In China, the medical system was quickly overwhelmed.

    • Gonga Din March 2, 2020 at 10:57 am #

      Well, that’s just chirpy.

    • Ron Anselmo March 2, 2020 at 11:11 am #

      Where can you get the ECMO machines?

      • Bob March 2, 2020 at 12:44 pm #

        Major hospitals *may* have a handful each.

        Smaller regional hospitals won’t have any, never mind the nurses or doctors competent to manage them.

        • Ron Anselmo March 2, 2020 at 12:50 pm #

          What about Amazon?

          • draupnir March 2, 2020 at 1:12 pm #

            High tech, expensive, specialized, medical equipment.

          • Bob March 2, 2020 at 1:14 pm #

            Backordered until December 2020.

        • rainmaker March 2, 2020 at 5:57 pm #

          We here in Cooper CO MO don’t even have a hospital or an emergency room anymore. The corp. running the place shut it down and declared bankruptcy last month.

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 11:12 am #

      I wonder what the influenza statistics are lined up next to your stats. Good job, by the way.

      • draupnir March 2, 2020 at 12:00 pm #

        I think I misspoke above. Twenty percent require hospitalization, though many of those go on to require ICU. I believe the mortality rate of influenza is around 0.1% and the morbidity rates are nothing like this.

    • roccofire March 2, 2020 at 9:33 pm #

      Excellent point, I asked our e.d. obs unit doctors/providers their thoughts on the virus, real, fake press scare tactics or a mixture of both. That debate continues but our medical director said the treatment of ICU care and ventilators would be needed to treat the infected would overwhelm us. But flu, drug overdose, dwi, accidents, shootings and stabbings keep us busy, normal everyday diseases of life keep us busy every single day. The old precautions hold, eat healthy, wear a seat belt, wear a helmet, no smoke, drink little, plant based diets, exercise, those old drunk Greek guys had it right, live in moderation, I know that is boring!

    • Sean Coleman March 4, 2020 at 1:51 pm #

      It does not appear to be any worse than earlier diseases like SARS. See this for example: https://abcnews.go.com/US/coronavirus-compares-sars-mers-recent-viral-outbreaks/story?id=69329364

      “Most people with SARS became ill within 2-10 days after exposure. The death rate was nearly 10%, but could increase to over 50% in adults older than 60. “

  11. fugeguy March 2, 2020 at 10:50 am #

    Market is up today which must mean that the FED by proxy is buying the market. Cause nobody using their own money is shopping for stock “bargains”.

    • abbybwood March 2, 2020 at 1:18 pm #

      I cannot imagine Sanders wanting to have anything to do with Mayor Cheat and his billionaire wine cave crowd.

      Of course I didn’t think Bernie would kiss Hillary’s ass in 2016 but he did (and drove his supporters into the arms of DJT in the process I think).

      In the meantime, speaking of frauds (Hillary), did anybody else read about these big bankers from Barclays who were acquitted of fraud in this banking scheme?:

      https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/no-banker-goes-jail-former-barclays-executives-acquitted-fraud

  12. San Jose March 2, 2020 at 10:51 am #

    Leviticus 11:13-19 lists flying things you shouldn’t eat including bats. Good advice. I think the Corona virus is over-hyped, but I hope I don’t get it. Glad I live in Utah, where every-other person is Mormon, and probably has a year’s supply of food. Apparently, the church has a $100 billion in investments.

    Just in case, I bought an extra package of toilet paper at Costco on Saturday. But in Utah at least, it’s business as usual.

    Jen in Salt Lake

    • Janos Skorenzy March 2, 2020 at 11:00 am #

      How good it must feel to write “in Salt Lake”. No longer are you behind enemy lines. Of course the growth of Hispanic Mormons cannot not be disquieting…..

      • San Jose March 2, 2020 at 11:18 am #

        I am very happy in Salt Lake. I thought it was a stereotype that people “are nicer” in Utah–but they truly are. In just a few short months, I feel I am becoming nicer. Maybe places do have a morphic resonance?

        Jen in Salt Lake

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 11:16 am #

      Mormons are awaiting Deseret, where an apocalypse is going to create a Mormon paradise on earth. Hence their accumulation of resources.

      Not a bad prophecy in today’s world.

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

        False prophecy is bad in any world.

        • San Jose March 2, 2020 at 6:48 pm #

          Messianicdruid–Mormons are not awaiting “Deseret.” JohnAZ is just making stuff up. When Utah wanted to become part of the United States, they asked to be called the state of Deseret. They liked the imagery of bees working in community for the good of all. But the folks in Washington didn’t the church having the power to name the state, so they named it Utah, after the Utes. BTW, women in Utah had the RIGHT TO VOTE before they joined the US. They were pretty mad to lose that right.

          They call themselves “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” This is because they believe that these are the “Latter-Days” before Christ comes again. No specific date has ever been given. So they think the messiah is coming again soon, but before that happens, times will be tough and hence they do the food storage thing.

          My personal belief is that Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, might have channeled the Book of Mormon from some strange dimension. Or maybe is was bi-polar? Who knows?

    • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 1:30 pm #

      Jen,
      Couple of days ago, the first case of community developed Kung Flu discovered in Santa Clara County.

      Your timing is impeccable.

      • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 6:58 pm #

        How’s this for timing,

        Jen buys her house in San Jose, Cal for $150,000.

        20 years later she sells it for $3 million.

        It’s called synchronicity by some, good fortune by others.

        Proving sometimes good things happen to good people.

      • San Jose March 2, 2020 at 7:29 pm #

        My daughter still lives in the Bay Area. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for good.

    • rhys12 March 2, 2020 at 1:53 pm #

      The word now is that workers in the labs (like the one in Wuhan) have been selling lab animals out the back door for meat (after they have been infected and no longer of use) instead of incinerating them like they are supposed to. One guy in Beijing (a year or two before the coronavirus) made over a million dollars in one year doing that before he got caught and went to prison. Want to bet they weren’t doing that at Wuhan also?

  13. volodya March 2, 2020 at 10:56 am #

    When it comes down to it – and it will – re-industrialization will happen like JHK sez, but with energy sources other than rapidly expiring oil. Remember coal? Water-mills? Horses, donkeys, oxen? Good old fashioned elbow grease? 

    Dare we say it? Slavery? 

    Also, if your thing is climate, wave good-bye to Greta and find another cause to agitate about. AGW was and is the realm of the billionaire, the college grad, the virtue signaller, prosperous coastal people that always had zero intention of actually living by what they preach, the stance being one of climatological innocence. We’re not to blame, no, look, we MUST be blameless, we have a roof-top garden.

    Money was always at the root of it, with plutocrats cooking up schemes to profit from development of alleged “greening” technology, or through such financial chicanery as trading in instruments like carbon credits. But to be fair there’s many personal motivations for all this climate perturbation. Some people are truly convinced that doom is around the corner, some in the scientific community are just looking to make a modest living through research dollars, some people are just trying to get laid. 

    The more cynical of them won’t be surprised by what’s going to hit, but I’m afraid that some of the young, the naive,the pink, the moist, still in school and therefore unschooled and unhardened in the ways of the world, are in for a real let-down. That is, they’ll find out they’ve been played, that it was a con, all of it for the rich to get richer, for the comfortable managerial clerisy to carve out jobs in universities and in well-compensated bureaucratic positions ie climate regulatory bodies. 

    When the financial and economic unwind comes (as it must), when current arrangements vis-a-vis trade with China come to a grinding stop, through either money conduits clogging up with the detritus of financial collapse, or something like this Wuhan flu, or a choking off of oil pipelines from the Middle East, a great re-arrangement will have to happen. 

    And given the exigencies of getting necessary materials and objects no longer made on the North American continent, never mind the continental USA, climate concerns will dissipate like morning fog.

    Let-down? What let-down? Global warming? What global warming? Oh THAT global warming. Well, that’s all to the good isn’t it, what with all that CO2 bringing about a re-warming and re-greening of the planet. THAT’S what we were all concerned about all along. Wasn’t it? More CO2, not less. Warmer is better, isn’t it?

    And so with Democrats and – cough – progressives guilty of the very accusations that they’re presently hurling at their political opposites, people are showing their cognitive flexibility. Two plus two equals five? Sure, why not, if my livelihood and well-being depend on it, I am convinced of the unalterable truth of it. 

    With this as the precedent, with the intellectual and behavioral template being set as we speak, they’ll insist they were always for the very things they previously said they were against. Down the memory hole it goes, reality shape-shifting on the pages of the august New York Times, the paper of record.

    There’s no way they can pull it off you say? I say they can and they will. 

    • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 11:34 am #

      A huge economic crash will make extinction rebellion go extinct just like everything else you say. But as soon as the coming economic crash downshifts into passing gear…..I can’t find the words…..perhaps I should just quote NASA.

      Using climate models, we estimate that aerosols have masked about 50 percent of the warming that would otherwise have been caused by greenhouse gases trapping heat near the surface of the Earth. Without the presence of these aerosols in the air, our models suggest that the planet would be about 1 °C (1.8 °F) hotter.

      https://climate.nasa.gov/news/215/just-5-questions-aerosols/

      An economic depression with a sudden doubling in anthropocentric global warming. Fun Fun Fun. Famine within a year followed by a nuclear winter.

      The temperature extremes will be extreme.

      • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 12:18 pm #

        Ahhhhh yes, you speak of “global dimming” aka The McPherson Paradox.

        Yes, NASA’s models “suggest”. It’s still an unproven theory. We have historic records on how the sun’s cycles affect climate, both short and long term.

        But, you like your suggested theories. We’ll see…..

      • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 2:25 pm #

        They have been monitoring air pollution in Wuhan since the shutdown started and it shows a huge reduction.

        This was noticed after 9/11 when air travel was stopped for a few days. High level pollution declined and things warmed up at the surface.

        Talk about damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

        One comment, if the sole goal is aerosol reduction, what are you going to do with all those folks who are not working or driving?

        • volodya March 2, 2020 at 2:51 pm #

          I can’t remember who said it. It was some time ago on this site, that old-fashioned air pollution is the first-order problem, global warming a second order problem, that if you fix the first, you fix the second.

          I don’t know the truth of it, but putting on my cynic’s hat again, if you want to distract from air pollution (of the type you see settling in as grey aerial scum over urban areas on hot August days), then the global warming thing is one way to do it.

          Well, nothing is being done about global warming except a lot of talk with a perpetual motion media machine spinning out words. So, if you’re one of those with a mandate to measure CO2, you’ve got a long-term job, and seeing as nothing is being done, CO2 will continue to increase, thus guaranteeing that this issue stays alive. Which means that air pollution will never be addressed. Which means that a lot of bottom lines benefit.

          • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 5:30 pm #

            Windmill projects are being built, and solar panel are being installed, V.

            Greta Thunberg led a GW march just today, in Bristol, England, a mob of school kids following her like she was the Pied Piper of Hamilen. That’s what’s being done. Another thing is college kids across America demanding this or that university ‘Divest’ from oil companies.

            Meanwhile, worldwide oil demand has ramped up to 102 million bpd, and India and China are burning all the coal that can be mined in the US and Australia.

            Russia, China and Norway are going balls to the wall mining oil and precious metals in the arctic. Norway is a special case, signaling to the world they are abandoning ‘fossil fuels’ and embracing renewables — Going Electric — it was a con job all along.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 7:35 am #

            You do know why your apparently terrifying imp was in Bristol, don’t you, brh?

            Because the River Severn and the River Wye, along with some other rivers in England and Wales particularly (including the Calder valley, where I have family) are currently inside people’s homes, where they have been for some time now following repeated storms. Floods that are normally classified as 100-year floods are now happening every couple of years.

            So, while you may disagree with the proposed solutions, only people who refuse to look at what’s happening under their own nose can continue to ignore the problem. I realise that non-Americans are more in the habit of paying attention to such phenomena when they’re not in their own neck of the woods than Americans are, but if stories of Muslims and people with knives get through to you from far, far away, I don’t know why situations of climate-induced distress seem to pass you by.

          • BackRowHeckler March 3, 2020 at 9:53 am #

            Spring is right around the corner; any day now I’ll be headed to the coast to check out sea level rise in the North Atlantic from when I was there late last summer. I’m doing my own investigation, not one that’s manipulated to reach certain conclusions designed to garner yet another govt grant. I’ll let you know what I find.

            Brh

          • BackRowHeckler March 3, 2020 at 10:47 am #

            At any rate, in this valley we has massive, destructive flooding in 1853, 1913, 1925, 1936, 1938 and 1955. Finally after 1955 the state and the army Corp of Engineers embarked on a flood control project, mostly dam building, and no flooding since.

            Mark Twain said ‘everybody complains about the weather, nobody does anything about it”. He didn’t realize weather could be politicized … you have politicized it, and you solution seems to be to shut down human civilization.

            Brh

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:19 am #

            Good to know that you think the Rivers Wye, Severn and Calder, to name but three, are in on the research grant scam, brh.

            You never address an actual point, I’ve noticed. It’s just fingers in the ears and la, la, la.

            I know that you know what a 100-year flood is, and I know that you know that if a 100-year flood morphs into a 2-year flood that’s not just a random weather event. You are not dumb. You recognise patterns and underlying trends elsewhere in life, when your ideological viewpoint does not depend on you refusing to see them.

            And ‘I’ have not requested the shut down of civilisation.

          • volodya March 3, 2020 at 12:10 pm #

            BRH, wonderful to hear about the wind-mills and solar panels. Great about Greta leading the march. I feel elevated and lofty and virtuous. 

            As for those college kids demanding divestiture, was that demand made before or after they fired up the SUV? Or did they do it on-line, you know, by means of gigantic data centers hoovering titanic quantities of energy in their construction and operation and oh yeah, who can forget, all those polluting rare earth metals. 

            If China and India don’t get on-board, and they won’t, this is all talk. If it impinges on the material well-being of shot-callers in coastal enclaves, this issue goes down the memory hole. 

            Pfft, gone. 

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:18 pm #

            Perhaps, volodya, we could have got on to discussing the limitations of solar and wind long ago if people, in your country in particular, had not allowed themselves to be taken in by the fantastically well financed disinformation about the original problem. Wasting decades arguing about the unarguable was exactly the aim of their funding.

            ‘OK, we get it. Now let’s talk about what we can do about it and not do about it’ might have got us a little further. But no, it has to be ‘no, it can’t be true because progressives’.

            I think it’s hilarious that people who think they see every conspiracy going can’t see how they’ve been manipulated.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:48 pm #

            brh

            “you have politicized it, and you solution seems to be to shut down human civilization.”

            Actually, my contribution, rather than solution, since there is no solution, has been to divest myself of a car, and many a potential foreign holiday that I might otherwise have enjoyed once my years of pauperdom came to an end. So fling your accusations of hypocrisy and whatever else at someone else.

            My life is no less civilised than it was 20 years ago when I had personal motorised transport (relatively briefly too). But those extra holidays might have been nice.

  14. John1945 March 2, 2020 at 10:59 am #

    From the official government web site-CDC:

    “There is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for COVID-19.”

    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention-
    treatment.html

    As simple as that,folks.There is no cure.Grin and bear it.Then die !
    Honesty emanating from government is so rare that I am speechless.

    If Jerome Powell says something like that about the stock market I will be even more surprised.

    • sanspeur March 2, 2020 at 11:57 am #

      CHAGA mushroms. Must be sourced from birch trees. Lab grown don’t have same antiviral effects.

      • John1945 March 2, 2020 at 12:59 pm #

        Thank you,Mr.sanspeur

        Trading algos reacted to your comment.Covid19 danger dismissed as irrelevant and utterly unsubstantiated.Stock market resumed its brutal rise.

        “Every American could become wealthy by investing $15 per month in common stocks.Everybody ought to be rich”

        John Jakob Raskob,August 15th,1929

  15. akmofo March 2, 2020 at 11:00 am #

    Mesmerizing raw footage of brimstone burning
    (sulfur balls from Sodom & Gomorrah)!

    https://youtu.be/sA7kiAIRdMo

    .

    • stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 1:22 pm #

      Who farted? I smell SO2!

      • akmofo March 2, 2020 at 1:49 pm #

        If you smell a fart, that would be CH4.
        If you smell SO2, that would be the grim reaper.
        If you smell, that would be you 🙂

        • stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 4:32 pm #

          Sorry AK,CH4 aka methane aka natural gas which you heat your house with has no odor whatsoever, they add mercaptan to it so if it leaks you will know. SO2 or H2S however will water your eyes with the smell. My dog is a veritable sulfur gas generator.

          • akmofo March 2, 2020 at 5:18 pm #

            they add mercaptan to it so if it leaks you will know
            ==

            The body does essentially the same. That does not change the fact that it’s a CH4 fart.

            The sewer smell or rotten egg smell of your dog is H2S.

            SO2, again a completely different molecule, is a pollutant from coal burning power stations, which would exclude your dog. SO2 reacts with H2O to produce acid rain.

      • akmofo March 2, 2020 at 2:02 pm #

        From the same Discovered Media YouTube Channel as above:

        https://youtu.be/BBmDdEs11HE

        Blackened peak of Mount Sinai.

        .

  16. K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 11:04 am #

    Between now and the stock market Seneca cliff. Cash out.

    • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 11:10 am #

      what good is ‘cash’ paper in dystopia?
      beans, bullets, barbed wire, bullion and bandages.

      • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 11:18 am #

        Kindling. But if you cash out of the stock market you can make one more trip to the grocery store and get canned peaches for your cash before they are gone. But if you don’t hurry and cash out things will not be peachy keen for you.

      • lbs March 2, 2020 at 11:23 am #

        We now only have 4 B’s to save us. Biden, Bloomberg, and Bernie.

        • lbs March 2, 2020 at 11:24 am #

          We now only have 3 B’s to save us. Biden, Bloomberg, and Bernie.

          • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 11:25 am #

            Yes we lost Bootgig

          • lbs March 2, 2020 at 11:25 am #

            Sorry for the bidenism.

      • cc rider March 2, 2020 at 11:24 am #

        …or as Tom Luongo says, “Gold Goats and Guns”

  17. lbs March 2, 2020 at 11:21 am #

    I guess I’m kind of spottily prepped inadvertently. Got about four of the giant TP packs (24 rolls or whatever) in each of my bathrooms. Why? Figure that space under the sink might as well be fully utilized, and it’s not like TP goes stale, at least not for a number of years.

    • Ron Anselmo March 2, 2020 at 11:45 am #

      What is it with the TP? Man has been around for 10,000 years, and gotten along just fine prior to TP. Yet about 3 weeks without food becomes very troublesome. What do we see Wal-Mart & Costco shoppers filling their carts with? Hard to figure.

      I suppose we all have our priorities, but without much input, output shouldn’t be such a concern. Am I missing something?

      • beantownbill. March 2, 2020 at 12:24 pm #

        I think you are wrong, Ron. During the entirety of human history, it has been only relatively recent that average lifespans exceeded 35 years. Much of the longevity increase has been the result of vastly improved hygiene. Therefore, I believe toilet paper is an important item to have.

        • Ron Anselmo March 2, 2020 at 12:58 pm #

          Agreed. Somewhat. You’re not suggesting though, that if those who’ve been conditioned to pick up after their dogs, would simply take the little extra time needed time to wipe their dogs’ asses, that their dogs would live to be 20 or 30 years old, are you?

          • beantownbill. March 2, 2020 at 2:43 pm #

            Lol!

          • ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 3:26 pm #

            That’s what the cross-carpet butt scoot is for. And for the entertainment value, of course.

      • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 12:42 pm #

        TP is ‘Made in the USA’, is it not?

        One resource we have here in North America is plenty of trees.

        Brh

        • benr March 2, 2020 at 12:57 pm #

          And water nothing gets those areas near as clean as a good shower.

      • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 1:35 pm #

        Ron,
        Several years ago, our own Q-Schtik, described the portable bidet that uses a water cleanse…bought one then and will never even need Toilet paper…save to dry off, and that can be accomplished with one of the wife’s towels….

        • ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 3:23 pm #

          Does that get all the clingons as well? Those would seem to be a bit problematic, save for using a fire hose.

          • benr March 2, 2020 at 4:43 pm #

            It does and it leaves you really clean.
            The French actually got something right for once.

          • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 7:30 pm #

            Cleaner than you can ever get with toilet paper. Only downside is it needs water pressure to operate…and was probably made in China….

            “Q” recommended it. I bought two on his recommendation,and can vouch for the product. Product was approx. $40 per (for an upscale model) and can be installed in minutes.

  18. JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 11:26 am #

    This world has been moving toward a civilization based on urban living conditions for 150 years. We have driven agrarian folks off the farms with technology and into the cities. History is repeating again.

    Our political systems are mutating into a agrarian vs, urban orientation with the urban currently winning due to just plain demographics.

    God’s, Mother Nature’s, ironic sense of humor is showing again as the unicellular pathology of the planet is attacking Man in the urban centers, where all the folks are.

  19. hugho March 2, 2020 at 11:29 am #

    Thank god that Jim is finally off his political rants for a while. I wonder if anyone besides Jim cares about Mueller and FBI hi jinks. The latest virus is the real news and my friend at Dell says that when they try to type Corona it auto corrects to “Corolla.” Since I drive a Corolla, I am delighted

    • Nightowl March 2, 2020 at 11:47 am #

      Media Matters is a joke. Get ‘effed.

    • James Howard Kunstler March 2, 2020 at 12:25 pm #

      Hugho– Interesting to see that the perversion of the FBI, DOJ, and CIA for years running is a trivial thing to you.

      • benr March 2, 2020 at 12:56 pm #

        You can bet if they had gone after and treated Democrats in this manner he would be up in arms!
        Just remember Hugho injustice can always Boomerang the other way just as judicial tyranny and activist Judge shopping always returns to bite those that support it for their guy or gal in power.
        Eventually that person of trust leaves and another Trump, Bush, Obama or Biden gets in the hot seat.

        • Nightowl March 2, 2020 at 2:33 pm #

          It is more than just injustice though. It is an assault on the country and our way of life. I left the US in part to get away from modern US culture and to experience the world, but I am still an American. And the country is worth preserving, and improving over the long term. It is never too late.

          The individuals who have perpetuated this fraud deserve to be locked up and have the key thrown away. And I don’t think much more of their enablers either, no matter how low on the totem pole.

          This goes far beyond partisanship. The coupsters are a group of psychopaths.

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 1:51 pm #

        JHK – just bad timing on your part. If you were sincere you’d’ve started when Hoover was running the show, gotten even more exercised when Kennedy was assassinated, and should have gone ballistic when the 911 hoax was foisted on the public.

        It’s so clear now that the deep state has become such a weakling it can’t even accomplish what should have been the easiest mission of all. Ridding us of the toilet waste now occupying the whitehouse.

        You’ve wasted so much cred catering to the MAGA crowd my disappointment in you is profound.

        I wish you had stuck to the script. A hard rain is going to fall and if anything Trump was the first black swan to insure it is going to happen.

    • GreenAlba March 2, 2020 at 1:22 pm #

      “Since I drive a Corolla, I am delighted”

      Carownervirus is even harder to cure and the resulting societal morbidity is longlasting.

      • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 2:29 pm #

        Ha, love it!

  20. JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 11:34 am #

    Once a carrier infects an area, the virulence reaction should show how the organism responds to an environment. IOW, how fast does an area creatE community style infections?

  21. HowardBeale March 2, 2020 at 11:39 am #

    On a personal level: Think about the number of people you know and know of that are living paycheck-to-paycheck. If we have the kind of closures like they are in China, Italy, South Korea, and other places, some of those people are going to be hungry; people in your neighborhood. This could go south in a week or two after shutdowns.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/01/11/live-paycheck-to-paycheck-government-shutdown/#4b16f1584f10

    • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 11:51 am #

      Two weeks, first they will hit up family and friends and before they wander the streets and fallow fields of our winter land they will find cash for: one bourbon one scotch & one more beer.

      • K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 11:54 am #

        She a-hollerin’ about the front rent, she’ll be lucky to get any back rent, She ain’t gonna get none of it

      • knuclebuster March 2, 2020 at 5:54 pm #

        Are we talking George Thorogood and the Destroyers here?

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 12:58 pm #

      I know people who live paycheck to paycheck.

      Interestingly enough these same people always have plenty of cash for beer, lottery tickets and pizza.

      Brh

      • WayfaringStranger March 2, 2020 at 1:50 pm #

        stifle

      • ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 3:20 pm #

        Interestingly enough these same people always have plenty of cash for beer, lottery tickets and pizza.

        What else is there? Although, in hard times, one should do the common sense thing and switch from beer to whiskey, moonshine if it’s available. It’s an all purpose medicinal, as well as merely recreational.

    • WayfaringStranger March 2, 2020 at 2:06 pm #

      I’m in a low income neighborhood. It went seriously to shit in the last downturn. It got back to (what passes as) normal (slowly) but I know what’s coming again.
      Pplz get aggro we be servin’ up some lead.
      Multiple attempts by meth-head creeps trying to bust in your door while you’re home and they hear you and they DO NOT CARE, surely work to force you to re-think your “Liberal” ideology and your views on the 2nd Amendment.
      Drunk, high, cold, hungry, sick-of-it people are not a joke. People who let their own kids and pets go hungry and filthy while they tweak care even less about you. Normal people are not raised to view the world with a realistic idea of what many others are capable of. I had to re-learn over a period of years (due to China-outsourced downward mobility and social decline, thank you Bill Clinton) and it wasn’t enjoyable. Okay, it really blew. But I’d sure hate even more to be taking a crash course now. My life expectations have been beat to shit. For this I now rejoice.

  22. sanspeur March 2, 2020 at 11:54 am #

    https://youtu.be/g3BZd1CmiZI

    Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
    Packed up and ready to go
    Heard of some grave sites, out by the highway,
    A place where nobody knows
    The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
    I’m getting used to it now
    Lived in a brownstone, lived in the ghetto,
    I’ve lived all over this town
    This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
    This ain’t no fooling around
    No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
    I ain’t got time for that now
    Transmit the message, to the receiver,
    Hope for an answer some day
    I got three passports, a couple of visas,
    You don’t even know my real name
    High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
    Everything’s ready to roll
    I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nighttime,
    I might not ever get home
    This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
    This ain’t no fooling around
    This ain’t no Mudd Club, or C. B. G. B.,
    I ain’t got time for that now
    Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
    Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
    You oughta know not to stand by the window
    Somebody might see you up there
    I got some groceries, some peanut butter,
    To last a couple of days
    But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
    Headphones, ain’t got no records to play
    Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
    Gonna be different this time
    Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard,
    I can’t write nothing at all
    This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
    This ain’t no fooling around
    I’d like to kiss you, I’d love you hold you
    I ain’t got no time for that now
    Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
    We blended with the crowd
    We got computer, we’re tapping phone lines,
    I know that ain’t allowed
    We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
    Or in a suit and a tie
    I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
    I don’t know what I look like!
    You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
    We make a pretty good team
    Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving,
    You ought to get some sleep
    Get you instructions, follow directions,
    Then you should change your address
    Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
    Whatever you think is best
    Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
    They won’t help me survive
    My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
    The burning keeps me alive
    Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
    Don’t want to catch no disease
    Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
    You better watch what you say

    • ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 12:47 pm #

      The Heads! Forty years ahead of their time.

      • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 1:45 pm #

        “Y’all don’t look like you belong here, do ya city boy?”

        Me

        • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 2:01 pm #

          “Who said anything about a Still? You shore got a purty mouf….”

          Me, again.

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 1:12 pm #

      Yes Talking Heads

      Also The Clash ‘London Calling’

      And Fury in the Slaughterhouse

      “Every generation got it’s own disease
      I’ve got mine
      Will you help me please”

      Brh

  23. Ishabaka March 2, 2020 at 12:15 pm #

    Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are all in their 70s. What if they all get coronavirus at the same time? What if they all die?

    • beantownbill. March 2, 2020 at 12:33 pm #

      America has a pretty detailed plan of succession. That’s why it’s important to consider voting for someone based on who their running mate is. In addition, there’s many elderly members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices. The meek – and the young – shall inherit the Earth.

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 12:45 pm #

      Is the Pope sick?

      I believe all public appearances have been cancelled?

      • WayfaringStranger March 2, 2020 at 1:41 pm #

        He is indeed. They say “a cold”.

    • WayfaringStranger March 2, 2020 at 1:49 pm #

      What I find really fascinating is that all the Important People and the usual Professional Outrage-inciters are almost to a man/woman talking with tones that this is not something they “feel” themselves.
      It’s an anti-Trump spin opportunity, etc. etc.
      But they seem not to have realized that it could cut them down personally in a hurry. Like everything else, they’re Elite when it comes to ACE 2 receptors and spliced-in HIV hooks? It seems so. This virus, like everything else is another Small People problem to them.
      That ought to start changing, with some of these assholes realizing they’re human like the rest of us.
      Maybe by the Ides of March. Beware. @_@

  24. Patriot March 2, 2020 at 12:27 pm #

    With apologies to Pink Floyd:

    We don’t need no sanitizer
    We don’t need no masks and gloves,
    A vote for Bernie’s a vote for health care
    Russia, leave Breadline Bern alone
    All and all you’re just another stiff in the ground,
    All and all you’re just another stiff in the ground.

  25. ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 12:45 pm #

    Evidently old Bloomy’s quite the tomcat. After Trump’s many boasts previously, I find it hard to believe that any of this is still an issue.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/mike-bloomberg-women-president-white-house

    ******

    But in his memoir, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Bloomberg wrote that he “traveled with a big expense account, I had a girlfriend in every city”. The original version of the book published in 1997 also said that a reason his marriage fell apart was because “I like to go out and party,” according to news reports from the time. When the book was reissued ahead of the 2020 presidential election, that line was altered.

    In a 1996 interview with the Guardian, he described his single bachelor life in New York as being a “wet dream”. And in a radio interview from 2003, he talked about how he would “really want to have” Jennifer Lopez, a remark he later explained away as wanting to “have dinner” with her. Meanwhile, he’s been accused in court records of telling employees “You must be a great fuck” and “I would like nothing more in life than to have Sharon Stone sit on my face.”

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 1:02 pm #

      The man’s a Player, what can I say.

      Or should I say ‘Play-yaaa’!

      Brh

      • ellipsis March 2, 2020 at 3:14 pm #

        Yep. I imagine he trails trolling lines baited with Benjamins everywhere he goes. Best lure out there, even for fugly old guys with no personality.

    • Kevvia Knack March 2, 2020 at 6:08 pm #

      He must have a thing for Hollywood actresses. He and Heather Graham were an item for a while

  26. djk March 2, 2020 at 1:23 pm #

    Somewhat amused by people who think they need lots of toilet paper, when food becomes difficult to get you won’t be visiting the bathroom much. Some items at Walmart and Market basket here in Claremont N.H. are gone or very low amounts left. Yesterday the parking looked like it does the day before Christmas.

  27. rhys12 March 2, 2020 at 1:30 pm #

    Saw a fun article comparing this situation to the Jaws movie where the sheriff wanted to close the beach but the mayor wouldn’t allow it because of the money the Town would lose.
    Our government has been nothing but reactive. Being proactive would have meant grounding ALL air travel the minute they found out – instead they close down air travel from particular countries AFTER people flying in from them have infected a lot of people on the plane and here.
    Now the virus is becoming politicized, with people either claiming it is less dangerous than the flu – (as if China would have deliberately devastated their own economy – $60 billion so far and climbing) – over essentially nothing; or on the other hand claiming we are all going to die and causing runs on stores and hoarding. Even at the worst “only” 60 to 70 million will die out of the world’s 7 billion. It will probably be a lot less. At the best it would die out over the summer. Probably it will run into 2021, if it doesn’t become another regular annual problem like the flu.
    Since you can get covid-19 again after recovering, it seems your immune system’s response doesn’t last very long. This suggests that a vaccine wouldn’t be very effective either, and might have to be given monthly. Although person-to-person transmission seems to be its main way of spreading, poop seems to be another possible way. Think what that is going to do in San Francisco with their homeless situation, or in Florida where they are continually spilling raw sewage.

  28. stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 1:31 pm #

    What will become of America’s pastime in three weeks when the coliseums are scheduled to be full of 50,000 screaming fans? Just wait till they try to shut them down.

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 10:07 pm #

      NCAA Basketball tourney coming up too. Lot of people moving around the country, lot of people in those arenas.

  29. WayfaringStranger March 2, 2020 at 1:34 pm #

    Good Lord, JHK’s an optimist. 16 rolls of TP ?!? I’ve got 85 and I’ll be getting more. Other stuff too of course. Keeping it separate from the normal supplies because I’m out of room, don’t want the long-range items to be mistakenly consumed, and it looks reassuring piling up like that. Not very “Martha Stewart”, but whatever.
    So far people near me are all either trying to be cagey and not obvious (as I am), or they just don’t get it yet. It seems like the latter.
    Our local “News” has been focused on the stupid feel-good normal stuff they waste time on, multitudinous mug shots, and the Amber Alerts for Wandering Alzheimers (in semi-rural “declining” rustbelt Midwest, we get a lot of those). Which all works for me since I’m on a budget and have been stockpiling in modest amounts over time.
    But stay casual.
    Dress schlumpey (my specialty).
    Don’t make eye contact or chat.
    Go back multiple times, grab one monster pack of TP each time, not several monster-packs in one go.
    Use the self-checks. You don’t want to incite a Costco “run” situation till you’ve got what you can.
    Don’t talk about the virus like you care or go over and encourage your neighbors to survive. I mean, did you ever really like them anyways?
    Life In Wartime, indeed.

  30. stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 1:36 pm #

    I grabbed a box of N95 masks at the Home Depot a few weeks back and they had plenty at $19.99 a box. Now they are out of stock but are selling as fast as listed on eBay for about $250.00 a box. I should have bought them all. Of course if this thing gets any legs I’ll sell the ones I have for about $2500.00 a box. PANIC NOW!!!

  31. stelmosfire March 2, 2020 at 1:42 pm #

    I figure a vaccine will be found soon and there will be a rush to vaccinate everyone on earth, Unfortunately the vaccine will also contain an AI bio-metric chip, aka “The Mark of the Devil” . Don’t get the vaccine!! You will rue the day! “Mini-Mike Bloomberg is financing the entire program!

  32. akmofo March 2, 2020 at 1:58 pm #

    Corona virus in Italy:
    18 more deaths reported in 24 hours as total cases exceed 2,000.
    Cases double in 48 hours.
    =

    Goodbye EU economy.
    We’re not done on the DOW down.
    Likely headed to 19k.

    • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 2:35 pm #

      It’s up 800 points today, 3/2/2020. Unless of course, that’s the Vatican news feed

      • akmofo March 2, 2020 at 2:46 pm #

        They’re all Vatican “news feeds”. Only they’re not news.
        Anyhow, you’ll get to see it before the end of the month.

    • goat1001 March 4, 2020 at 1:26 pm #

      DOW headed to 7200.

  33. wet dog March 2, 2020 at 2:15 pm #

    What I’m not hearing is the current situation in China. NASA satellite images of the smog levels still show everything is shut down. Are people heading back to work, or do we still have 600 million in quarantine? China’s keeping quiet now that more attention has moved to other countries.

    Because that’s the key. If those factories aren’t running by the end of March, and the locked shipping ports aren’t re-opened, this baby could be going down for a very long time. The supply chain, the debt edifice hanging over our civilization, could easily come crashing down.

    What would you think if China said they had over 100,000 dead, and 1.5 million infected? Don’t those numbers sound more plausible than 2,000 dead? They sure do, and would explain the draconian response. The sky high infection rates on the Diamond Princess and at the South Korean church (81%) makes obvious the Chinese are lying their asses off.

    Man, this has been one hell of a start to a year. So much has happened. And if China doesn’t produce widgets again soon, the world in 9 months will be radically different.

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 3:02 pm #

      Are people heading back to work, or do we still have 600 million in quarantine? China’s keeping quiet now that more attention has moved to other countries.

      I asked our friends who live in Shanghai – they returned to work Monday, after having been at home since the Chinese New Year holiday period – some weeks ago.

      They said things are slowly re-opening – but they wear masks at work, plus there are strict hand hygiene rules etc in place.

      They believe the Chinese Government has done a good job in response to an explosive epidemic starting in Wuhan.

  34. Patriot March 2, 2020 at 2:26 pm #

    Sanders 78 . Bloomberg 78. Biden 77….78 on 11/20/2020. Three old white men. So much for diversity and inclusiveness.

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 2:36 pm #

      Yeah, what purpose does the Democratic public serve.

      Elect those Elitists.

    • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 8:19 pm #

      2 jews and a crook..what more could Israel ask for?

      https://zionistelection.org/election/2a3b7a80-ba00-42ec-957e-c0375167a065

      • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 8:29 pm #

        Malthus

        Don’t be surprised if its an Israeli scientist who comes up with a vaccine for this coronavirus. They have some of the world’s best researchers over there.

        Brh

  35. Patriot March 2, 2020 at 2:39 pm #

    https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/news/2019-12-06-flu-season-fast-start-cases-spread

    From October 2019 to November 2019 2400 Americans died from the flu. As many as 61,000 people died from the flu during the 2018-19 season. Don’t get your panties in a bunch snowflakes…..trust facts not feelings

  36. Robert White March 2, 2020 at 2:41 pm #

    Systemic breakdown has been expected since the GFC was never ameliorated post-Lehman Moment. Blowing fat tails in the dark pool derivatives universe is not difficult given REPO infusions since September which essentially telegraphed to all that all was not well in Ponzi Hell on Wall Street.

    The bioweapons industry likely launched this new virus on civilization to cover up central bank incompetence system wide as that was about to be uncovered in the wake of Powell’s backstop of the private REPO term & overnight facility normally controlled by the largest investment houses on Wall Street.

    With a mortality rate hovering around 2.0+ per cent and worldwide incidence of presumptive case load that does not even approximate seasonal flu or incidence of suicide in First Responder communities in North America we need not engage in hysterical contagion that will undermine recovery effort in the long term, or near term.

    Government handling of preparedness seems to be lackluster by comparison with SARs conundrum pre-Lehman Moment.

    If the DOW can’t be kept afloat we will evidence the certain demise of Deutsche Bank & the entire European Union in one go.

    Given Lord Acton’s most memorable analogy we can conclude with accuracy that when the entire edifice of Fractional Reserve Banking implodes the Western Empire of Finance subterfuge will be employed to provide cover for the bankers & Economists that helped that happen.

    The subterfuge is the bioweapon nCoronavirus which is now looking to have been manufactured in Wuhan Province China.

    Repatriating the post World War Two USA Manufacturing Base is wholly unthinkable, impractical, & out of sink with the so-called master plans of speculator investment houses on Wall Street & in The City London.

    The specter of war will be evident soon.

    nCorona is just smokescreen.

    RW

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm #

      The bioweapons industry likely launched this new virus on civilization to cover up central bank incompetence system wide

      You have some evidence for this?

      The subterfuge is the bioweapon nCoronavirus which is now looking to have been manufactured in Wuhan Province China.

      You have some evidence for this?

      If the DOW can’t be kept afloat we will evidence the certain demise of Deutsche Bank & the entire European Union in one go.

      You have some evidence for this?

      • Robert White March 2, 2020 at 10:00 pm #

        Aside from my own proprietary & anecdotal evidence?

        RW

        • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 11:28 pm #

          Aside from my own proprietary & anecdotal evidence?

          So all spin and apple juice then?

          • Robert White March 3, 2020 at 3:38 pm #

            When the DOW drops a thousand points Deutsche Bank takes a 5% haircut every day it happens. If the DOW implodes for one full week it will be GAME OVER zero sum for the EU & Deutsche Bank shareholders plus their derivatives counterparties on Wall Street.

            If the DOW tanks for one week we will evidence the end of the Fractional Reserve Banking System of the Western Empire.

            America is insolvent & Uncle Sam is drunk on the souls of the poor.

            RW

    • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 7:34 pm #

      “nCorona is just smokescreen.”

      RW,
      Hell of a smoke screen. Wars are much cheaper than what we might expect to see in the coming months. I would have to disagree with your premise.

      • Robert White March 2, 2020 at 10:28 pm #

        Western central banks are imploding even without nCorona manifesting. The timing of viral contagion exactly matches the timing required for the timing for cover-up. I don’t believe in coincidence when it comes to the fixed & rigged NYSE, or Wall Street. Benevolence is not their core business.

        RW

  37. Tate March 2, 2020 at 3:33 pm #

    People have lost sight of the fact that the reason cold & flu season is in the winter is because these viruses thrive when people are confined together indoors. It has nothing to do with the temperature.

    • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 8:20 pm #

      i thought it was that the cold makes mucus lining thin and germs get in.

      • Tate March 3, 2020 at 2:34 am #

        First time I’ve ever heard that. Maybe it’s lowered humidity that makes the mucus lining thin. We keep a humidifier going at our house during the cold months. It’s especially important in this high dry climate.

  38. Patriot March 2, 2020 at 3:40 pm #

    So far, this flu season, 18,000 Americans have died from the flu. 3 have died from the corona virus version of the flu. 61,000 died last year in the USA from the flu. Where was the hoopla? Where were the warnings and constant media attention? Do you really think 43,000 Americans are going to die from the corona virus during the remainder of the flu season. This is hysteria at it’s finest.

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 4:24 pm #

      Coronavirus is a black-swan event, with a lot of unknown unknowns … it is more similar to 9/11 or Katrina. The flu, like traffic accidents, and deaths in nursing homes – while unfortunate, and tragic for the families involved – are just background noise that we learn to live with.

      Plus the Corvid-19 death rate is much higher than flu.

      • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 4:37 pm #

        Well at least your last sentence has some scientific basis

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:23 am #

          As if psychology isn’t a science, at least in some sense. Expectations, fears, norms, etc – these things can be and are studied. Advertising and Propaganda are practical applications thereof.

  39. Cargill March 2, 2020 at 4:19 pm #

    The very spooky-looking Ann Coulter has endorsed Elizabeth Warren – isn’t that nice? Ann said this:

    ‘Sen. Warren has convinced me that Bernie isn’t that worrisome. He’ll never get anything done. SHE’S the freak who will show up with 17 idiotic plans every day and keep everyone up until it gets done.’

    Recommendations don’t come much better than that – everything Ann Coulter thinks is idiotic is probably pretty good for the country. Go Liz!

    • hmuller March 2, 2020 at 7:36 pm #

      Ann Coulter is 58 and still looks like a slender sorority girl. Give the old gal some credit.

      • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 8:21 pm #

        too bad she denies the deep state and endless war.

        • hmuller March 2, 2020 at 9:46 pm #

          Well of course, she’s an asset of the corporate globalists just like Rush Limbaugh.

          • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 11:34 pm #

            Well of course, she’s an asset of the corporate globalists

            Our Ann isn’t far enough lunar right for you? Glory be – I’m sure she would be shattered to hear that.

            I think my favourite comment from here is when she said (roughly): “No-one whose great-grandparents were born in this country would ever allow their boys to play soccer.”.

            Just about every piece of bigotry, prejudice, anti-immigrant ranting, and vulgar nativism, all in one sentence! Well done!

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 7:54 am #

            “I think my favourite comment from here is when she said (roughly): “No-one whose great-grandparents were born in this country would ever allow their boys to play soccer.”.”

            Ireland used to be like that. My husband didn’t get to play soccer at school – he was educated by the Christian Brothers and the they took the view that soccer was English and to be avoided. They got hurling instead. As with the Catholic church generally, people eventually said ‘enough’.

        • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 8:44 am #

          Cargill, If you believe the world can be understood in neatly framed terms of right-wing and left-wing indicates the MSM, the corporate media thought shapers, the globalist elite have succeeded with you.

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 10:46 pm #

        Ann Coulter looks like anorexic David Bowie in drag, adam’s apple and all.

        Scrawny sorority girl at an evangelistic bible college maybe.

        • hmuller March 3, 2020 at 1:09 pm #

          It’s those long, skinny legs which most impress me. An entire Shriner’s convention could drive their little cars under that arch.

      • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 3:10 am #

        It’s not for nothing they call Ann ‘The Ice Queen’.

        I’ll bet she was a hot little number about 3 decades ago, tho.

  40. K-Dog March 2, 2020 at 4:25 pm #

    The second coronavirus death is confirmed in Washington state. Same hospital. Thirteen cases now, which is 5 more than yesterday and hundreds have been exposed.

    Don’t want to catch no disease
    Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
    I better watch what I say

    Cus now its only twenty miles away

    A new line in the song lyric, just for me.

    • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 4:40 pm #

      It is up to 6, all in Washington State. ????

    • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 7:36 pm #

      Dog,
      Quit sniffing butts and you’ll be ok….

  41. dolph9 March 2, 2020 at 4:27 pm #

    So, stocks are going to post their biggest gain ever.

    Just laughing, guys. This will continue forever. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can break the stock market anymore.

    What a joke.

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 5:03 pm #

      Perhaps just a dead-cat bounce … I guess we’ll see.

    • Robert White March 2, 2020 at 5:12 pm #

      I ain’t nothing, dork.

      RW

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:27 am #

        Bob is a remote viewer. Evidently now he thinks he can change things, not just view them.

        Go Bob!

        • Robert White March 3, 2020 at 3:26 pm #

          My online avatar is MASTER OF UNIVERSE, Janos.

          RW

          • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 8:46 am #

            How many fingers am I holding up, Bob?

          • Robert White March 4, 2020 at 10:27 am #

            That’s funny.

            RW

  42. Patriot March 2, 2020 at 4:40 pm #

    https://onlinenursing.duq.edu/when-flu-season/

    Flu season typically falls sometime between the start of fall and the end of spring. For the past three decades, flu activity has peaked at some point between the months of October and February but always tapers off by April.

    Peak Months of Flu Activity
    Here is a breakdown of the “peak months of flu activity” over a 34-year period between 1982 and 2016:

    February was the peak month for flu activity in 14 of the 34 flu seasons, making it the most common month for peak flu activity.
    December followed February, with the highest flu activity in seven of the 34 flu seasons.
    March is third, with flu activity peaking this month in six seasons during the 34-season period.
    January was the least common month to facilitate peak flu activity, with the flu peaking this month in only five of the 34 flu seasons.

    Read it and weep death lovers

    • GreenAlba March 2, 2020 at 5:06 pm #

      OK, so that’s flu sorted, now what about this Covid19 thingy?

      • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 6:45 pm #

        Well, to reach 61,000 deaths between now and the end of March (In America) it’ll have to average 1200 deaths a day. Do you really think that 34 years of statistics don’t show a trend for when all kinds of flu (SWINE MERS SARS) levels off? Or perhaps in your apocalypse loving mind, this version of the Corona virus will keep going and going like the Energizer bunny. Please explain to me why yoiu think that way if you do

        • GreenAlba March 2, 2020 at 7:52 pm #

          My apocalypse loving mind? I’ve said less about Covid19 over the last couple of weeks than most of the American worried well on here. I’m not the one hoarding bog roll or dried beans.

          I didn’t say you should worry or not worry – I just wondered why you were talking about flu patterns when it isn’t flu.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:29 am #

            Anyone who tries to prepare is “hoarding” according to the Scottish biddy.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 8:05 am #

            Anyone who is hoarding is hoarding. It’s a neutral word to this Scottish biddy, not an ideological indicator.

            I could line my hall with toilet paper packs if I could get worried enough, I suppose, since I lack hoarding space, but I just can’t get quite worried enough. And while we have hot water I just don’t see toilet paper as being something I’ll die without anyway.

            How long do you think a few extra packs of toilet paper will last you if it’s the end of civilisation that’s coming?

            I’ve got a couple of bags of basmati and some very old lentils, couscous and dried pasta in the cupboard, along with some cans of soup that have been there for years that I didn’t buy and don’t like. That will have to do as hoarding for me.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 8:07 am #

            You do realise that one of you is complaining that I’m apocalypse-loving and one of you that I’m not apocalypse-conscious enough. It’s always good to be attacked from two sides at once, as it suggests you’re actually sane.

          • hmuller March 3, 2020 at 9:51 pm #

            Those who “hoard” during a time of plenty are performing a valuable social service in three ways.

            1) They won’t be competing with everyone else when shortages hit – leaving more good stuff for the late preparers.
            2) They’ll have supplies to share with family, neighbors, and friends.
            3) They supported local retailers with their purchases during the lean times of low sales volume.

            In our not too distant agricultural past it was necessary to preserve food until the next harvest. Today’s molders of public opinion have turned prudence from a virtue into a vice. No surprise there; they’ve attacked and perverted all moral, righteous and traditional values.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:30 am #

            “Those who “hoard” during a time of plenty are performing a valuable social service in three ways.”

            And that’s why I didn’t criticise them, hm. Or feel any need to put ‘hoard’ in inverted commas because, as I explained, it’s a neutral word in the context.

            I don’t have the kind of home where you can hoard. Others may be luckier and are welcome to their stores.

          • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 8:54 am #

            Of course, I wasn’t attacking you GA. I was just pointing out to the general readership that “preppers” are not the evil enemies of society the MSM portrays. Neither are they the whackadoodle nut cases the MSM portrays. (Maybe some, certainly not all). We do live in precarious times when the just-in-time delivery system can be interrupted by an assortment of causes.

        • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 10:50 pm #

          Flu season never caused the Chinese to go apocalypse. Somethings suggests you are mixing apples and splitting wedges.

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 5:15 pm #

      Read it and weep death lovers

      This is like the sound of one hand clapping. No-one is arguing against the fact that flue kills a lot of people every year, but you make the point for everyone else: there is a great deal known about the flu, and not just statistics. There are also vaccines, and a lot of information about its spread,and a great deal of other epidemiology.

      Corvid-19 still has so many unknowns that it is a new event, and is therefore much more concerning at this stage. I fail to see what is difficult to understand about all this.

      And even if flu does kill more people annually – so what? Should we wait until huge numbers die of coronavirus before we mount a serious defence (which does in fact seem to be the policy position in some places).

      • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 7:01 pm #

        Swine flu, MERS and SARS are all variations of the corona virus. There’s no reason to assume that it won’t tail off by the end of this month. If you think different, please explain to me why this mutation of the other versions of the corona virus should not fade out by April as the others have. I repeat: 61,000 Americans died from the flu in the 2018-2019 flu season . Where were the agonized cries for more research to eliminate the flu menace? Where were the constant public affairs messages on how to avoid a disease that killed 61,000 Americans? Why weren’t there quarantines to cut down on the death toll of those 61,000 Americans who died? I don’t remember any of those things happening in the 2018-2019 flu season. There WAS vaccine available. And yet, 61,000 Americans died with that vaccine in stock. Why? Why? Why? So Corvid-19 is a new event? Oddly enough, swine flu, MERS SARS and Ebola were new events. Why wasn’t there the degree of fear chaos and hang wringing like there is over Corvid-19? Please tell me. And finally “: And even if flu does kill more people annually – so what? Should we wait until huge numbers die of coronavirus before we mount a serious defence (which does in fact seem to be the policy position in some places).” Please tell me why there wasn’t a massive “defense” against the common flu that killed 61,000 people last year. Please educate me . The corona virus has as many unknowns at this stage as Swine flu, SARS and MERS at the beginning of their stages. Sorry, you won’t win any points with that logic

        • elysianfield March 2, 2020 at 7:40 pm #

          “please explain to me why this mutation of the other versions of the corona virus should not fade out by April as the others have….”

          Patriot,
          I would suggest you read Laurie Garrett’s tome on practical virology called “The Coming Plague”. She explains everything you need to know regarding infectious diseases and how they are vectored and combatted. Book is over 20 years old, I’ve read it twice…approx. 600 pages.

        • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 10:52 pm #

          As I just wrote, the IS one reason to make a dire assumption:

          The Chinese are having a panic attack.

          • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 11:39 pm #

            Precisely – 600 million in lockdown isn’t a modest response.

  43. wm5135 March 2, 2020 at 5:02 pm #

    “The specter of war will be evident soon.” Robert White

    The specter of war is clearly evident at this moment. Which culture produced The Art of War?

    1294 point dead cat bounce at this moment.

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 5:10 pm #

      1294

      That’s not a dead cat. That’s a Bengal Tiger.

      Brh

      • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 10:55 pm #

        So many things to eagerly await tomorrow for: Super Toomsday, will the cat bounce, does all the local news reporting today about emptying store shelves cause the cattle to stampede?

  44. JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 5:12 pm #

    I am actually laughing at the response of the “outsiders” to Trump’s group response to the virus. All kinds of folks are saying that the Administration is doing nothing to attack the pandemic.

    Ha! I do notice that in all the critical articles there is not one, not one, suggestion of what to do as an alternative.

    Pelosi and her declaration that we needed 8.5billion dollars instead of 2.5 billion. Based on what?

    Why can’t the Deep State jerks just volunteer to contribute their expertise to the solution teams? This needs to be bi partisan but as long as the current Dem team is in place, cooperation of any sort is a pipe dream.

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 5:20 pm #

      Why can’t the Deep State jerks just volunteer to contribute their expertise to the solution teams? This needs to be bi partisan but as long as the current Dem team is in place, cooperation of any sort is a pipe dream.

      I think you have this precisely backwards.

      Trump will never allow genuine expertise on his team – that’s why he puts his god-bothering airhead VP in charge, so no-one can upstage the Orange One and his loopy pronouncements.

      He doesn’t care about public health and welfare … he doesn’t want uncomfortable truths. He cares only about the stock market and re-election fortunes.

      • Nightowl March 2, 2020 at 5:39 pm #

        Good. Let the hate flow through you!

        FFS man, get a grip.

      • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 5:48 pm #

        Hey Cargill, you gotta do a better job than that ramping up the hate.

        That was weak, WEAK!

      • beantownbill. March 2, 2020 at 5:55 pm #

        If this is so, then Trump ought to be very pleased with the 1300 bump up in the DOW today.

        • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 8:14 pm #

          Do you know what PPT stands for? If not, research.

      • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 6:19 pm #

        I love the smell of vitriol in the morning – it smells like … victory.

        I assume the word “hate” is code for reasonable, argued criticism from the Centre-Left that you know is right and you don’t like to face the truth.

        VP Pence was appointed to shut down truth from the experts, n case this thing runs the distance – the Orange One wanted only his feel-good messages out there, such as there’s a vaccine just around the corner. It’s pretty plain to see.

        If Trump had any strategic smarts he would use the corona virus as a tool to bolster his re-election – but he only has one bullet in his gun – and that is the stock market. Sad.

        But carry on – the reactions are indeed entertaining.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:32 am #

          And Black unemployment levels. What about the Base? The Unknown Man remains unacknowledged.

    • EvelynV March 2, 2020 at 10:56 pm #

      Tell the truth howbout?

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 5:43 pm #

      Phew!!!

      That looks like a 40 cal. S&W, a Big 40!

      That Brotha ain’t playin!

      Brh

    • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:34 am #

      Not all Blacks like each other. That is one very switched on spade. A true Friend to the White Man as indeed I am to the Black Man.

  45. beantownbill. March 2, 2020 at 6:20 pm #

    OK, the election process is playing out exactly like many believe: TPTB are insuring that Bernie does not win the nomination. It’s awfully suspicious that Buttplug and Klobuchar are dropping out the day before superTuesday. I mean, think about the effort these two made to get this far, the endless fund-raising, speeches, tv appearances, flying around the country, etc. Sure, they wouldn’t have won the nomination, but logic tells me people with an ego big enough to run for president would at least wait until the results of tomorrow’s primaries are clear.

    No, to me, these two have already made deals with TPTB so Bernie can’t win. Klobuchar gets to be VP under Biden. Who knows what Buttplug got promised – watch carefully after the primaries to see where he lands, or if he appears to have come into a lot money.

    Bernie gets fucked again because the Deep State will do anything to prevent him from being president.

    I’m definitely not a socialist, and I wouldn’t want Bernie to lead the country, but I kind of feel bad for him – it’s unjust to rig the election. Let the people decide.

    And if he somehow wins tomorrow, his life will be over before November. Heart attacks are killers, man.

    • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 6:47 pm #

      If that’s true there’ll some mighty pissed off Bernie Bros in Milwaukee this summer … wait until the hot night they figure out the fix is in, all beered up on Miller after they loot the brewery. The alcohol fueled street battles with MPD will be epic.

      Brh

      • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 7:06 pm #

        Maybe BRH. Off course we might all be dead from the corona virus by then. If you don’t believe me, ask Alba and Waltzing Matilda

        • GreenAlba March 2, 2020 at 8:11 pm #

          No use asking me, Patriot – I don’t know anything about it. I don’t get het up about things like that. If I get it I get it – probably will living with a doc but what can you do?

        • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 9:19 pm #

          You can just call me Wally. Or Matty.

          I also have no expertise in the epidemiology of the coronavirus, and have not made any statements implying that everyone (or anyone) will be dead by November.

          However unlike some, I read authoritative reports that outline the real position – I don’t indulge in spin or politicising of this or any other public health issue. It is a disservice to the public, and possibly a genuine threat.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 8:15 am #

            I think Patriot’s possibly indulging in projection because he’s wetting himself, Cargill, like those big manly cowboy types who fall to pieces when they see a syringe looming. 🙂

            I suspect that psychology possibly accounts for his pseudonym too.

    • Patriot March 2, 2020 at 7:08 pm #

      Buttigieg won’t be the only guy fucked in the ass in Milwaukee
      \

      • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 7:44 pm #

        Patriot

        Crude but funny

        Funny because it’s TRUE

        Unless of course ex congressman Barney Frank shows up in the assless chaps he wears while cruising for dates out in P-town.

        • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 8:40 pm #

          Unless of course ex congressman Barney Frank shows up in the assless chaps he wears while cruising for dates out in P-town.

          That’s a very funny image too – does Our Barney bat both left and right handed?

      • HapMan March 2, 2020 at 8:41 pm #

        The two of you seem a bit preoccupied.

        No judgments, but if you want to take it offline, we’ll understand.

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 7:32 pm #

      It’s awfully suspicious that Buttplug and Klobuchar are dropping out the day before superTuesday.

      Can you explain to me how the “ballots” are configured? At this late stage, are the ballots (or online forms) set in stone, so Klobuchar and Buttigieg still have their names on there?

      I’m not a socialist either – like most from the Centre-Left I want a robust mixed economy with a lot of safety nets, and a lot of environmental care – but it does seem rather unfair on Bernie if deals have been done, in what is supposed to be a wide-open ‘democratic’ process.

      In Australia we make no pretence about it – all candidates for all seats are determined by branches alone, but lots of backroom deals are done, with the party machines (head office) having a lot of clout to get things their way.

      No public voting is involved – to win pre-selection for a seat you have to climb various greasy poles within the parties, not with the voters.

      • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 10:24 pm #

        One question

        How can an economy be a robust one when it is being sucked dry by taxation?

        That was Barry’s big mistake, his 35% tax on corporations, part of the Recovery Act, moved much of manufacturing offshore. His recovery that he is falsely bragging on today, would have been real if he had not listened to the corporation haters in his party.

        • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 11:09 pm #

          How can an economy be a robust one when it is being sucked dry by taxation?

          Of course it is always a question of microeconomic intelligence and balance.

          What I have real problems with is that (a) the seriously rich – here in Australia as well as the US – believe they should pay almost no tax if they can work the system, and (b) that rates of taxation (and wages) have to be very low – scandalously low – in order for an economy to “work”.

          I think this is just conservative | Wall Street spin. There are very good ways in which the vast majority of the working class can do a bit better – even substantially better – without wrecking anything, and without driving business offshore.

          Large corporations (during the Obama era, but a lot longer than that, and since) take production offshore because wages are lower, workers rights are often non-existent, regulation is slacker, and much else.

          It has nothing to do whether the corporate tax rate is 28.5% or 32.7%, or 35% – that is a false argument.

          And a fairer tax system can lead to better schools, hospitals, roads, national parks, cleaner rivers, and much else.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:43 am #

          You can’t have a robust economy with open borders – not a National Economy. You simply get the upper class making a killing as parasite who kill the host – the Nation in other words.

          • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 4:02 pm #

            What is this obsession with “Open Borders” and “Globalism” – what bug has got up your butt, and when?

            All through history – from the Egyptians onwards – societies, economies, cities, and cultures have always been MUCH better as a result of ‘international’ trade. American prosperity has been built on trade as well.

            The Rust Belt has hollowed out because the rest of the world caught up, and the same thing happened to the industrial north of England too. There was no major conspiracy – except among the owners of capital who moved their factories off-shore when it was cheaper.

            And international cities are much more interesting than Omaha Nebraska. And while I agree with JHK that the hyper-complexity of the ‘modern’ world, and the level of wanton consumption is planet-wrecking … it is no reason to go all White Native and America First … with a compound up in Idaho and a stack of beans.

            That’s silly – just vote Democrat and follow your real interests.

    • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 7:45 pm #

      Bernie gets f**ked again because the Deep State will do anything to prevent him from being president.

      What has it got to do with the “Deep State” – if you were a hard-headed / clear-eyed Democratic Party official who believed that (a) Bernie would be slaughtered in a general election, and (b) the House and Senate could be lost for years, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to make it not happen?

      Memories can be long – they had disastrous choices with George McGovern, and even Hubert Humphrey and Michael Dukakis.

      A cowhand’s cattle-dog should be able to beat Trump – they just have to pick the right one. Not that I have any time for Joe Biden either – he’s a gaff-machine and yesterday’s man.

      • BackRowHeckler March 2, 2020 at 8:23 pm #

        You underestimate the support Trump has here, Cargill.

        It going to take an extraordinary candidate to beat President Trump. I don’t see one on the horizon.

        Brh

        • Cargill March 2, 2020 at 8:47 pm #

          He has some of the lowest polling numbers of any recent president going into a re-election year, plus he loses head-to-head races against the Dem front-runners.

          But I agree – I don’t see any of the current Democratic Party candidates galvanising 51% of the voters to fight off Trump’s low but very solid base.

          • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 10:14 pm #

            Cargill

            The real story is the electorate is divided into thirds.

            One third Liberal
            One third independents
            One third conservative

            Looking at this you can see that the independents decide most races. Independents that voted for Obama, voted for Trump.

            The bases do not budge much.

            The question in 2020 is can Bernie, assuming he is the nominee, convince the middle independent group that government control is going to make their future better. Is socialism the proper future for America?

            Bring it on, the people of the country can dig their own grave.

          • JohnAZ March 2, 2020 at 10:17 pm #

            Also, do not believe the media polls, they are all weighted. One of the reasons that the shock hit in 2016 is that the polls were wrong and the Left believed their own press.

          • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 1:00 am #

            The question in 2020 is can Bernie, assuming he is the nominee, convince the middle independent group that government control is going to make their future better. Is socialism the proper future for America?

            Well – if my only choice is between government control, and a total stranglehold by the corporate elite and the entrenched ruling 1% as you have now – I think I’d take the government option, thank you.

            Where do I sign up?

          • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 1:01 am #

            But I do agree that polling can often under-estimate the support for Trump – look at Hillary. And this is made much more difficult in a system where voting is optional.

          • elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 1:28 am #

            “He has some of the lowest polling numbers of any recent president going into a re-election year, plus he loses head-to-head races against the Dem front-runners”

            Low polling numbers…yet he fills stadiums sometimes several times a week. Fox news is our Leni Riefenstahl…

            Trump ist der Sieg!

            Polls are seemingly manipulated.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:47 am #

        You’re one of the “now” people like me. The only difference is that you love wogs and I don’t. And the World divides on that issue. There will be no peace until we are on different sides of the chasm. It will be like the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic; one side burned, blighted and erroded and the other lush and green. Guess which side you are one? The one run by pure Blacks.

        • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 4:20 am #

          I assume you’re joking – nobody can be that blatantly racist and believe they have a place in civilised society.

          Have you no dignity?

        • PeteAtomic March 3, 2020 at 8:30 am #

          lol Janos

    • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 8:13 pm #

      Steyer spent big money and got nowhere.

  46. fugeguy March 2, 2020 at 6:52 pm #

    Up almost 1300 points. Between today and Friday the VIX must be broke…

    • malthuss March 2, 2020 at 8:23 pm #

      PPT.

      How could VIX go broke?

      • Robert White March 2, 2020 at 10:33 pm #

        By no longer measuring what it purports to measure.

        RW

        • fugeguy March 3, 2020 at 11:06 am #

          Yea or at least they will need a new scale with no upper bound…

  47. Patriot March 2, 2020 at 7:05 pm #

    ohttps://thehill.com/policy/finance/485465-warren-proposes-400b-stimulus-plan-to-fight-economic-damage-from-coronavirusld

    Warren wants 400 Billion to fight the corona virus:

    Of course old senile Joe is celebrating his victory in the South Vietnamese primary

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 2:45 am #

      What saddens me is that when it comes to testing for the virus we really look ill prepared and totally unsophisticated. Meanwhile South Korea is performing diagnostic screens via drive thrus. They’ve tested something like 35,000 people. But here people are receiving $3,000.00 bills to get tested for coronavirus. The healthcare situation in the US is unacceptable for a first world country. Truly our government doesn’t seem all that interested or concerned with the health of our population. They just want to be sure the economy keeps rolling so the execs can make bank before they bail to fairer lands once they’ve sucked the cow dry.

      • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 4:24 am #

        What saddens me is that when it comes to testing for the virus we really look ill prepared and totally unsophisticated.

        I guess that’s because you are. The Orange One has made sure of that.

      • ellipsis March 3, 2020 at 6:27 am #

        The healthcare situation in the US is unacceptable for a first world country.

        LOL! Who said this was a first world country?

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:22 am #

          We used to be one from what I understand.

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 2:53 am #

      Trump is still just “thinking” of closing the border with Mexico due to the virus scare. But the border still isn’t closed. Even now! Whites cannot even have borders but only Jews have the privilege to vote in the Zionist elections. Hypocrisy 101.

  48. snagglepuss March 3, 2020 at 1:03 am #

    I said I wouldn’t post here again, but when I read Jim’s comment…” Personally, I cleaned out an entire product-line of cat food”, I needed to applaud his instincts to protect the vulnerable. ( the cat). I am nominating him for president. Jim has the heart of a lion.

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 2:35 am #

      Ah, but his cat may wish to claw you to shreds. Put your hands forward to clap and let’s see.

      • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 9:17 am #

        I’ve mentioned before that a friend of mine (with two cats) says jokingly that cats only sit on your lap so they’ll know when you’ve gone cold. So it could be partly aesthetic. 🙂

        Only kidding…

        Maybe I should stock up on kibble too. Wouldn’t want to the kids to find me half eaten if the lentils and basmati run out.

        • elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 11:08 am #

          Alba,

          …You got lentils? Where, exactly, are you located?

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:39 am #

            Since I may clearly have to defend them, EF, I just checked my stocks.

            It wouldn’t be worth the journey as there’s one unopened 500g pack of green ones (best before end of this very month, so good for another five years anyway) and two thirds of a bag of red ones, best before July 2010. And I came across a small pack of red beans from our friends in the PRC (with a blank after ‘best before’ so it could be ‘best before dessert’ for all I know), so actually I’m better provisioned than I thought, although it’s all as much past its sell-by date as I am.

            I don’t inspect my cupboard contents very regularly, it would seem. But when I do it always amazes me how time flies as you get older. 🙂

          • elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 6:48 pm #

            Alba,
            Wife just today spoke to one of her brothers who live in Kirkland, Washington. He said he visited Costco on Sunday…2000 people attended that day…no spaces available le in their massive parking lot. Many shelves emptied. No water, no toilet paper for sale at any price.

            The Kirkland store is Costco’s flagship…hence the “Kirkland Brand”.

            He stated that the store did one million in sales on that Sunday. Crowds were orderly.

            Why the focus on toilet paper? Not many calories per roll, I would expect.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:52 am #

            Good lord, EF. That’s a panic.

            I recall when I was a nipper, people (not us, but you heard about it) hung newspaper on a hook in the privy. And we had some weird product made by a company called Izal that was shiny on one side and probably less useful than newspaper but didn’t leave you with print on your arse.

            A bit of history…

            https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XOsAeBEAAEMRUqpd

            Bums have become more demanding over time (I realise that’s ambiguous given our respective slang). But toilet paper takes up so much flippin’ room when you live in a small place. In my previous house at least I had a loft and a Ramsay ladder (and a Costco card – pointless now without a car). In this flat normal stocks of loo paper live in the actual hall, near the bathroom and outside a cupboard, as cupboard space is at a premium. The Victorians presumably had less ‘stuff’ – and certainly less voluminous toilet tissue.

            The preoccupation with loo roll seems to be universal – Sg daughter mentioned it flying off the shelves too, earlier, although generally there seems to be less panic over there and she reckons it’s business as usual for the most part.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:59 am #

            I like this bit from the Wellcome ‘article’:

            “but speedy change was not to be in the British toilet-paper stakes (Americans liked soft paper, but the psychologists recorded that Brits thought Americans were ‘extravagant’ and prone to ‘crazes’ that would pass).” 🙂

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:27 am #

          Or how about when your cat sits on your lap to show some affection by “kneading the dough” on your legs and then the claws come out and dig into your skin.

          They mean well. 😉

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:42 am #

            Yes that hurts! Our greyhound has claws that are the biological equivalent of the spikes on running shoes, so her friendliness can be painful too.

  49. SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 2:16 am #

    Don’t fall for their wizardry of normality. The mother ship has drifted into unchartered waters and will probably go over the edge of the world. Maybe not, but my guess is just as good as theirs. It doesn’t care if its hot or cold, wet or dry. In the end its a strange, complex, and deadly cold that most have never had and so its more than likely to spread through the herd like an Australian forest fire. They say summer colds are worse. At any rate, since it is a sort of cold, it’s probably going to come around again, and again, and again until the entire population has it. Unfortunately, this whole episode appears to be a natural (or maybe not so natural?) result of a dirty, densely populated, hyper mobile world. And thus, could a complex cold be the thing that finally makes the Earth stand still? The wizards don’t think so. They also don’t think you should wear a mask or keep extra supplies around.

    • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 4:13 am #

      Consider joining House Slithernen. I know Bruno Malfoy – he’s a great guy. Don’t believe Harry or his movies. Down with mud bloods and normies of all kinds.

      • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 9:44 am #

        🙂

    • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 6:00 am #

      The same thing was said about Swine Flu SARS MERS and Ebola. Only during those times,the MSM didn’t create a culture of death daily

      • Nightowl March 3, 2020 at 9:47 am #

        The fearmongering is classic. Amazes me that the same people who have watched the MSM verifiably lie at unprecedented levels on nearly a daily basis are now stocking up on beans and rice and covering their face with the equivalent of a tampon.

        I can’t prove it, but if I had to wager some cash on this is a manufactured crisis, I would drop some big bucks on it being one.

        • Nightowl March 3, 2020 at 9:48 am #

          “… on this being a …”

          • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:21 am #

            Ok that is fine but why? Who is winning? If the Elite thought this would make people more convinced that their governments can take care of things then their plans have truly backfired as Western governments look pretty pathetic in the face of a major health threat. Big business is losing money in a major way. Why would they spring for that? The governments of the West have proven the last thing they want to do is to stop business as usual. That in and of itself tells me it is real. In other words, they are telling people not to wear mask and to go about their daily lives because they want the money flowing and they don’t care if that means infections explode.

  50. Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 4:05 am #

    A magnificent human being – Michelle Malkin at the America First Conference addressing young White Patriots. This is the real deal. In contrast, CPAC was a bunch of corrupt, owned, careerist, censorious fags cavorting with Lady Maga. Mindless “intellectuals” or guns for hire. Such loathsome creatures are the inevitable end result of a Democracy turned into a Plutocracy. The American Firsters are a beginning, although She admits that the Old America can never come back – far too much diversity now. So where is the hope? I’ll have to order her book or books perhaps. Ann Coulter admits it’s over as well.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=7s1eu1U29ps&feature=emb_logo

    Malkin touches the live rail here. She criticizes the Jews, but even the Left does that. No, she calls herself a White Majoritarian, admitting that the real America is White. Thus any real America 2.0 must be too, I should think. And that could only be attained with redrawn borders, and keeping all able bodied men in uniform (on call) until they are age 50 or even more. A completely militarized society, ruthless against enemies without and within. Very little Democracy, so called – as if most people have ever known or will ever know their ass from their elbow and deserve to have a say.

    • akmofo March 3, 2020 at 6:05 am #

      The US is not a Democracy and never was. The whole argument is bogus. It’s a Republican system. A system that ALWAYS turns to a corrupt plutocracy and a Dictatorship. The US is on the same path. The only difference is the smilie propaganda along the way.

      The Democracies created, modern and old, all remain free pluralistic societies they were designed to be, where the middle class only goes from strength to strength. It’s the Republican system that always fails and always turns ugly. The Republican system is designed to protect the NAZI rich, and that’s what it does. The NAZI rich then build fantasies of their “superiority”, and the whole thing goes to the shiter.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 12:57 pm #

        It never was a Democracy and was never intended to be. The Founders hated Democracy. Nazis? You bet! Hated Indians and wanted the Blacks out. No brown immigration either. But the Secret Power, the Money Power, Your Power, has triumphed. Laugh while you can – you will not laugh long.

        • akmofo March 3, 2020 at 1:40 pm #

          They didn’t hate democracy, they seemingly never trusted the people. The question is why?

          One of the things I struggle to answer is, whether it’s all a fugazi fake. Did the founders not have the foresight to see that it would end in failure. ROME always does. I’m coming to the conclusion that is it all a fugazi fake. It was designed with a defect built-in to fail. A kind of planned obsolescence. But why?

          You are all lost souls. You have no real connection to your history and who you really are, who you were. You and your forefathers gave up your souls to Caesar for a promised coin of silver. Maybe it’s this unconscious realization by so many people in the US, that is driving the commie political movement. A kind of suicide revenge for the NAZI lies they got ensnared in.

          I’m not laughing, Jan. I’m quite sad for you and for all Americans. The ideas of the Enlightenment and of Freedom, slowly vanquished by the Vatican and its Jesuit machinations.

          But, like JHK, I’m an eternal optimist. In time the US will dissolve into more natural constituents, and maybe from that real and honest political entities will emerge.

    • ellipsis March 3, 2020 at 6:25 am #

      Funny that recent immigrants (Malkin is of Filipino origins) are some of the most staunchly conservative people out there. For instance, many on this board rail on incessantly about the third world brown types coming across the southern border, when in fact many if not most of those people become arch conservatives themselves once they get established, quickly adopting and expounding on the same close the border attitudes that their white counterparts have. Citizenship for me but not for thee and all that. Believe me when I say, the Hispanics where I live and work – many first generation and/or illegals – are several orders of magnitude more conservative than any whites I know.

      Needless to say, the America 2.0 that Malkin dreams of is a crack pipe dream. Simply never going to happen. The Jewish and Christian Zionists have long since settled that question in favor of plutocracy. The only America 2.0 coming down the pike is an impoverished and abandoned one, in which all of the wealth has been extracted and consolidated among a handful, who in all likelihood will choose to live elsewhere. As global citizens, their place of residence will officially be “anywhere the fuck we want.” Some sort of reorganization at the local level will be inevitable, but I’d expect it to be of limited scope and effectiveness, especially considering current and developing remote surveillance and targeted killing technologies. In the end, America 2.0 will be just another impoverished and occupied third world country like all the rest, with the humans occupying it viewed as what they are: livestock to be exploited and/or eliminated at will. Moo!

      And finally, yes, Democracy is totally misguided. The Zionists have that part right at least. Government is way too important to trust with the dumb-asses who vote. They’ll fuck it up every time.

      • akmofo March 3, 2020 at 7:07 am #

        Zionists voted for pure Democracy. That’s what Israel is.

        The US is ROME ver 0.92
        The Soviets are ROME ver 0.98
        The EU is ROME ver 0.96

        So yeah, you do fsck it up every time, because your fantasies are always the same, and those fantasies are to be masters of the universe.

      • BackRowHeckler March 3, 2020 at 8:28 am #

        You’re right about that Elips. My Basque in laws are big Trump supporters and pretty right wing about most issues. Odd thing, back in the day, in Spain, the family fought for the Republic against Franco, and more recently, supported (at least metaphorically) the ETA separatist movement. Now they’re flag waving Trumpists. Go figure.

        Brh

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:17 am #

          So are you finally establishing that you are against the Zionist regime and occupation?

      • volodya March 3, 2020 at 10:36 am #

        Ellipsis,

        I’ve seen what you’ve seen with respect to immigrants. 

        It’s an interesting thing that immigrants become staunch conservatives once they cross the border, but I think they were that way over yonder back in the home country. And it’s not just the border issue, I think a majority of immigrants come from socially conservative societies and that’s how they are themselves. 

        It’s not just the usual suspects like Muslim and Hindu, but also folk from that vast swathe of land in Asia. And Latin American immigrants. African too. Patriarchy anyone? Lot’s to be found in immigrant societies. 

        LGBTQ? Not so much. Mr and Mrs Lopez and Asif and his wife and those of their circle aren’t so eager for gay sons to come out of the closet and don’t want their daughters cavorting half-naked in night-clubs at all hours of the night. Trans-genderism? Gender fluidity? Pass on that thanks. 

        Sex ed? Um, well, the thought of some “progressive” teacher imbued with western values expounding on the topic in front of their impressionable charges gives mom and pop the shivers. So no thank-you.  

        But that’s just the cultural side which Democrats out out of step with. Democrats tout their immigrant-friendly credentials, not understanding that self- interest is at the core of everyone – not just Democrats. Democrats can’t seem to get through their thick skulls that you can only fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the time, and they are resolute in their refusal to credit non-white and non-western people with a full set of intellectual faculties. 

        Can these humble, grade-school lettuce pickers and chicken evicerators and office cleaners understand what the Democrat game is? Of course they can. They’ve survived circumstances immeasurably more difficult than most of us can imagine and they’ve made a hard move to an alien society, whether legally or illegally. They’ve got eyes and ears and functioning minds like everyone else.

        It’s not such a secret that Democrats are in oligarch pockets, doing billionaires’ bidding. A semi-educated immigrant can pick that up, accustomed as they are to highly corrupt and stratified societies. So, if the Democrat in virtue-signalling mode thinks they’re putting one over, I would argue they’re not. 

        What this means is that there’s an unexploited political constituency in immigrant communities, one that Trump alienated with his blusterings on Mexicans. Too bad about that. If he’d instead hablad a bit of espanol and quietly and reasonably explained why open borders are inconsistent with the well-being of workers he’d have cleaned Hillary’s clock big time. Did Trump learn from his misstep? I doubt it. Will someone else have learned? 

        • volodya March 3, 2020 at 10:40 am #

          PS by “Asia” I meant central and east Asia as distinguished from south Asia and the middle east.

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:16 am #

          And still you learned nothing from her speech. It doesn’t matter whether or not these immigrants are conservative. Conservative means nothing. It is no longer different from the term Liberal. Conservatives and Liberal are both Establishment and both work for the Elite Corporatists. It is as simple as that. No Conservative represents “the working person” any more than any Liberal. It is a joke. They all work for the billionaire donor class. And that class loves immigrants and open borders because the love of money is the only love they know. The pandering to the immigrants is disgusting and future generations will curse those who did so once they realize it was immigration that ultimately destroyed America.

          • volodya March 3, 2020 at 11:51 am #

            “Conservative” as it is at street level is one thing. “Conservative” at the elite level, I agree, is meaningless.

            I go by what I see. And so I’m not bothered about race. I’m bothered about culture. But I think it’s not too late. Assimilation is the key. What worked in the past – the e pluribus unum thing – can still work.

            But there’s no guarantees. If people are incentivized to not assimilate, they won’t. As to how that plays out you can look overseas at a multitude of blood-soaked places where competing ethnicities go at it tooth and nail. And competing ethnicities are what Democrats are encouraging.

            I say that Democrats are dead wrong if they think they’ll stay above the fray. And, last I checked, Democrats don’t come with any technology or magic that repels bullets. Bullets don’t care about your station in life. They’ll kill the rich man just as dead as the poor man.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:01 pm #

          Thus we need more such immigrants, right? Except Malkin didn’t say that, did she?

          Folks, these people are incorrigible. Give them an eight of inch as Ellipsis did, and they’ll drive a hole thru your line for a touchdown. Kudos Volodya. Shame on you, Ellipsis.

          When will learn? Too late for America 1.1 in any case. Thanks BRH. You are truly a representative man.

    • PeteAtomic March 3, 2020 at 10:11 am #

      “And that could only be attained with redrawn borders, and keeping all able bodied men in uniform (on call) until they are age 50 or even more. ”

      ha ha ha

      ok.. well that starts with you Janos. I hope your uniform fits you well when they stick you in a small room with another 100 guys and give you under 10 minutes to change.

      Have fun.

      • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 10:57 am #

        Will Hugo Boss design them this time around as well? 🙂

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:05 pm #

        You’re not going to be able to beat our prices, Pete. We’ll be offering great get out of town deals.

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 2:39 pm #

      She admits that the Old America can never come back – far too much diversity now. So where is the hope? I’ll have to order her book or books perhaps. Ann Coulter admits it’s over as well.

      Thank goodness for that! Who would ever want to return to the plain vanilla, white picket fence, Leave It To Beaver, soda-fountain world that all the nativists swoon over? When the biggest thrills would be Perry Como and Bing Crosby?

      And what you good ole boys never admit – just about everything interesting that you can consume to feed your mind (music, dance, art, design, movies, etc) have been invented or created by black people and jewish people.

      No, she calls herself a White Majoritarian, admitting that the real America is White.

      Nothing like high-voltage self-hate to boost your book sales! Malkin is a Filipino. And if she really believes that she is an :American: and not Asian, then the whole White Supremacy argument of all these crazy outfits (AF, CPAC) is blown up – skin colour doesn’t matter at all.

  51. benr March 3, 2020 at 8:41 am #

    The wheels of industry in China have fallen off and the engine has seized up!

    As viewed from space.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51691967

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:30 am #

      Extinction Rebellion should be pro-coronavirus then. I wonder if Extinction Rebellion true believers are out there licking elevator buttons and handrails and sneezing on kiosk counters and sundry doorknobs?

      • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:31 am #

        But I do have to admit. I like the clean, clear, crisp air. Deep down I hope they don’t come back online. At least not in the same way. I know. Dream on.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:07 pm #

        Are you buying sundries, like toilet paper and batteries, and rice and beans? Be ready for a short siege at least.

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 1:31 pm #

          I definitely am and I am ready for a lockdown lol. I hope you are getting ready too. And hey, if the whole thing somehow does blow over then that is less you’ll have to go out shopping for later. I’ve actually been thinking something like this would happen for a long time.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 2:03 pm #

            Yes, me too. Perhaps we will end up being the only two people left.

            When Adam delved,
            And Eve span,
            Who then
            Was the Gentleman?

            Unknown authorship, or at least unknown to me.

          • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 1:59 am #

            That was John Ball. He was an English priest who had heretical ideas and I believe he was excommunicated even but he was one of the leaders of the The Peasants Revolt of 1381. The revolt was due to the extreme toll the Black Death had on the peasantry in England. Their numbers were thinned considerably and so they became over worked and over taxed by a nobility that was consolidating power. That phrase was a reference to the original pristine state of man before the advent of hereditary ruling classes.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 4, 2020 at 5:31 pm #

            Yes, it’s beautiful, but I must reject the egalitarianism, alas. As Carpenter said in his “Towards Democracy”, Democracy can only work if the people are sages. I believe it was Madison who said pretty much the same in the Federalist Papers.

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 4:25 pm #

      I emailed Chinese friends in Shanghai – after working from home since Lunar New Year, they returned to work on Monday – masks are required, as are hand-washing protocols.

      They say the government has done a good job since the coronavirus exploded in Wuhan.

  52. Goodwalkspoiled March 3, 2020 at 10:24 am #

    Fed rate cut confirms Corona concern. And 50 bp amplifies that. Now they’re way low on dry powder for the next stock market pull-back. But it sure stemmed the tide on last week’s downward spiral. Coupled with Biden resurgence, Wall Street is confident Bernie will get hosed once again. No way the DNC lets Bernie have the nomination, no matter what the voters say. The politburo doesn’t like him ’cause he assures complete Dem destruction. So Biden is the fig leaf for now. Their field is 3 old white cranks who couldn’t get elected dog catcher. And the market loves it. They’re counting on warm weather to end the virus scare, in spite of the media’s pipe dream of Corona recession.

    • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 10:29 am #

      And according to the CDC, that’s exactly what should happen. Just like it happened with Swine flu SARS and MERS, all “different” flus the time they emerged.

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:33 am #

      I love how they think this thing is seasonal when there is SO MUCH they do not understand about it.

      • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 12:37 pm #

        There’s 40 years of data to give them confidence . The Corona virus IS different but does have some shared characteristics with flu in general. Since when did you become a nervous nelly?

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 1:09 pm #

          Well I didn’t think wishing we had more information and being concerned about the unknown makes me a nervous nelly.

  53. JohnAZ March 3, 2020 at 10:27 am #

    7 people were killed by a tornado in Nashville yesterday. One more than the pandemic.

    OMG, the market needs to tank 1000 points and we need to set up a national effort to eliminate tornadoes and limit their spread.

    The mortality rate is higher than flu.

    BUT, I wonder how many of the moderate cases of Corona are folks sitting at home fighting off what they think is the flu.

    Increase the denominator and the rate goes down.

    • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 10:34 am #

      I don’t remember the market tanking during the 2018-2019 flu season when 61,000 Americans died. Like I said before, the BBC (Note that Alba) has stated that there have been 18,000 (+6) flu deaths in America this flu season. I’d say the Corona virus better “giddy-up” if it wants to break that number

      • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:02 am #

        Patriot – I’m perfectly familiar with flu death numbers for a variety of personal reasons. Why do you keep over egging the pudding and repeatedly making a point – to me – that I haven’t remotely argued against? It sounds desperate, almost as if you’re trying to convince yourself.

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:37 am #

          Boomers are trying to convince themselves that there will not be any sort of discontinuity since we have had major shifts and civilization has always gone on. Though the major seismic shifts underneath everything have sort of missed them. Notice how many people are trying to convince themselves that this thing is nothing.

          Ok fine, then again, why are countries acting in ways that make this thing look like a real plague? Is it just to make them look like they are on top of things? I imagine if this was a routine thing they probably could have saved a ton of money since they have never EVER acted this way with the seasonal flu.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:53 am #

            Do you know every boomer in the world then, SSL? You think they all process information in exactly the same way? Would you not be insulted if someone suggested you shared all the supposed dipsy faults of ‘millennials’?

            I’m not trying to convince myself of anything. What would that mean in my situation? If buying a sack of beans would make me more zeitgeisty I could try that to please you but I seem to have very restricted accommodation compared to you, so I can’t easily oblige.

            “Boomers are trying to convince themselves that there will not be any sort of discontinuity since we have had major shifts and civilization has always gone on.”

            Given that I’d read The Long Emergency while you were still at primary school, you don’t think that’s a teeny weeny bit patronising? Or is this just another facet of your propensity to refer to ‘me’ as the EU when I’m not even in the EU (which you’d kinda think you’d have noticed)?

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:59 am #

            Most of the people on this website are boomers or boomer-ish.

            And they’ve mostly known about discontinuities since you were still in bobby socks, Miss.

          • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 12:46 pm #

            There were 61,000 flu deaths in America last year, SSL. So far this yer there are 18000 (+6) Now why wasn’t there no mass hysteria over the death of 61,000 Americans in the 2018-2019 flu season? Did you even realize that many died last flu season.? What precautions were taken to keep 61,000 Americans from dying in the last flu season other than, wash your hands, and get vaccinated Were there travel bans? Was there mass testing”? Was there quarantining? Were schools closed? Business shut down”? Nope, 61,000 American died from the flu last season and all we were told was to wash our hands and get vaccinated. Don’t you see some kind of disconnect here?

          • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:18 pm #

            Yes, normalcy bias on display. Another: There have been no wars fought on American soil in over a hundred years, so there never will be again. As if a hundred years is a long time in total scale of things.

          • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 1:25 pm #

            I do see a disconnect. And that is why I think they know something that we don’t. We all are just making our best guesses truthfully. I hope ultimately that you are correct and its all just an overhyped media drama.

        • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 12:39 pm #

          Nope.Just showing that there is independent agencies reporting rational non hysterical information about infectious diseases. I’m not a science denier….are you?

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:55 pm #

            What science do you think I’m denying?

          • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:19 pm #

            I think SSL was agreeing with you, but you were in contention mode so you didn’t see it.

            You’re conflict oriented just like me. How is your favorite daughter doing? Anymore news from the “front”?

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 2:08 pm #

            She is not my favourite daughter, she’s just the one who’s been lucky enough to do more interesting things with her life and have more choices. You’ve been treated to my local daughter’s amazing financial prowess as well – it’s just a different kind. She was out in Singapore too, at Christmas, for a rare treat.

            Singapore daughter is fine, thank you. She said again that she can’t believe how much media hype there is ‘once things affect Europe’, but I looked at the Straits Times this morning and there were a few articles on the coronavirus, so who knows?

            There you are – enjoy the flavour.

            https://www.straitstimes.com/global

            There’s one saying the Korean authorities are seeking murder charges against the weird church where their epidemic was incubated!

          • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 5:09 pm #

            She’s my favorite one too just based on what you’ve said. Don’t feel guilty – it’s natural! Don’t confuse having an inner feeling with your attempt not to show (add italics) it, in this case, your favoritism. There different things. And believe me – they both know I’m sure in any case.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:18 am #

            You’re as ignorant as ever. And someone with no children, clearly.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:20 am #

            And the one who gets the support is the one who’s here, dummy. She lives 25 minutes’ walk away from me, so I don’t need to WhatsApp her as if she lived in feckin’ Singapore.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:22 am #

            But noted that you prefer the one who’s enjoying life far away with a good career over the one who’s stayed here and produced a child. Interesting bit of hypocrisy there. But not surprising.

    • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:00 am #

      JohnAZ

      I’m guessing some of them won’t even think they’ve got flu – they may just think they’ve got a bog-standard cold. It might not even be as bad as flu for the majority of people.

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:34 am #

      Normie thinking is turning you into a zombie.

      • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 11:55 am #

        Rational thinking is leaving me sane. For some people it will be just like a cold. For other people it will be the grim reaper.

        Ideology is leading you to be silly.

        • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:00 pm #

          And I don’t know which group I’d be in either. I just know that, since I live with a feckin’ doctor I’m more likely to get it than you,

          • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 1:14 pm #

            Where do you find I have been irrationally ideological?

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 1:42 pm #

            Ideology was the wrong word, quickly chosen and regretted immediately afterwards!

            It isn’t rational to assume everyone is going to be terribly ill, because most of them/us won’t be, given current observations.

            In the UK, it is envisaged that most people will be able to take care of themselves isolated at home and that only a minority will have to be hospitalised. That doesn’t mean there’s not a problem, since the NHS is a very tight ship and Tory austerity cuts have left it with few spare (fully staffed) beds. So, if there are too many people hospitalised, non-urgent operations will have to be postponed, for example.

  54. Patriot March 3, 2020 at 10:31 am #

    Or and by the way, Trump haters, when the corona virus falls far short the the media’s apocalyptic predictions, guess who’ll look stupid, and guess who’ll take the credit for it.

    • akmofo March 3, 2020 at 11:06 am #

      It’s not about Trump, it’s about a large clique of people that hate America.

      https://youtu.be/BgkCNI1yDNM

      Tucker Carlson takes a look at Bernie Sanders.
      What Tucker needs to do next is to ask why, and can anything be done about it.

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:22 pm #

        What protocols has Israel set up against the Virus? Seriously, Israelis get a lot of things right. We could learn a lot from you lot if we would but watch instead of listening to you.

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 1:40 pm #

          I’ve heard many Israeli startups are working on developing a vaccine. I think they have also closed off all international travel right now if I am not mistaken. Or it has at least been curtailed much more severely than here in Open Borders USA.

        • akmofo March 3, 2020 at 2:07 pm #

          Nothing special, just standard stuff. Israel cut flights from trouble areas like China Japan Korea Italy. Some Israelis on that Japanese cruise ship returned with the Virus. They’re under supervision. There were also Christian Korean tourists that traveled the whole country and infected many people in Israel. So we too already have plenty of cases.

          Israeli scientists are supposedly working on the problem. Some say there might be a vaccine developed in a few weeks/months. I don’t know. I wouldn’t touch it. I don’t believe in that “science”.

          The thing that kills viruses is hygiene and sunlight. Israelis have plenty of both, so my guess is we’ll be alright.

    • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 11:39 am #

      Personally, if I have overhyped the coronavirus I will admit my mistake. Your right that the arbiters of “truth” will not admit such a thing. Trump is more concerned about money than he is about the health and well being of the population. Let’s at least face that fact head on.

      • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:03 pm #

        If you’ve overhyped the coronavirus, it will not be a mistake. If you’ve under-hyped the coronavirus, it will similarly not be a mistake.

        This coronavirus is in the category of known unknowns, so the lack of crystal balls is not a mistake, it’s just a fact.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:26 pm #

          Yet the Unknown must be dealt with once it makes an appearance. That means preparation. Thus overhype is far more apropos, is it not?

          C’mon get out of your head. This isn’t a class on Existentialism. And I of all people have nothing against such classes or such introspection. But to introspect, once first needs to survive. As Jefferson said, Survival is the first morality.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 1:51 pm #

            I agree that preparation is better than the lack of it, yes. Obviously. But you are as familiar as I am with the gloaters who claim everything is a hoax or a ‘mass fantasy’ because a particular epidemic doesn’t turn out to have lived up to expectations. And those people may have an input to the ‘next time’, so it’s better not to do their work for them.

            However, if we overreact unnecessarily (as it may or may not turn out) we will have more impact on the economy and people need that to survive too.

            I also agree that it would be good if the experience opened people’s eyes to the folly of having ‘everything’ manufactured in one virus-prone country. But I imagine any enlightenment on that point will be more transitory than the virus itself.

      • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:04 pm #

        But I agree that your president’s utterings on the matter seem to be for political rather than scientific reasons, which is not OK.

      • fugeguy March 3, 2020 at 12:31 pm #

        It is a potential pandemic. We have not had such an event in the modern world. The economic implications are probably the most frightening given how fragile (lacking resiliency) the system is…

        … but it is unknown for sure. However, at this point it seems that some amount of damage to the economy is assured.

        • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 12:38 pm #

          Agreed, fugeguy.

        • hmuller March 3, 2020 at 12:53 pm #

          There are people who dismiss corona as no big deal based on the numbers of cases and dead to date. They remind me of the optimist who fell off the top of the Empire State Building. Halfway down he was heard to say “so far, not too bad.” Or the teenage boy who admits his girlfriend is pregnant – but only very slightly.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 1:08 pm #

            I agree with you, hm. I don’t claim it’s no big deal. We don’t know how big a deal it’s going to be in the non-Chinese world. And it would be daft to claim it’s not going to do any harm to supply chains and the global economy because it already patently is doing just that, which is quite likely why my husband and his immediate colleagues don’t have any masks, despite responding to emails suggesting ‘someone’ is going to fit them for one.

            But neither he nor I have felt motivated to turn our small flat into a warehouse, even though we’ve joked about lentil-related privations. But that’s just us. It could change. 🙂

            Comparing it to flu is pointless, because it isn’t flu.

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 1:13 pm #

            The time may come when even you may be grateful for a haggis, hm. 🙂

          • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 2:14 pm #

            Apparently you and your ilk in this blog dismissed the 140,000 American flu deaths between the flu seasons of 2017-2018 and 2018 and 2019 as no big deal too

          • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 3:29 pm #

            Whose ilk are you referring to, Patriot? You seem to be misreading, whoever it was.

            If I get to be 85 and demented you can dismiss my demise to flu as no big deal much as you like. I’ve got a living will to prevent people giving me daft flu vaccinations if I’ve lost my marbles. And if I haven’t lost my marbles but I’ve lost my functions I’ll just tell them not to.

      • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 12:52 pm #

        Bullshit

        • SoftStarLight March 3, 2020 at 1:36 pm #

          Ok well your right. I can’t know how Trump truly thinks and feels. But you have to admit that he has seemed a bit more concerned about the stock market as he is telling people the virus is just going to disappear and that it may not like the summer. I can understand wanting to be optimistic to keep people feeling more hopeful. I just wish he had an equal and strong dose of caution and concern. It would help if he arrested the people who told that one man it would be $3,000.00 for his coronavirus test. You have to admit that is ludicrous in the midst of an apparent pandemic.

          • Nightowl March 3, 2020 at 1:54 pm #

            Has there been any interviews with individuals who were infected and recovered?

            I have yet to find even one. Curious that.

          • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 6:11 pm #

            Has there been any interviews with individuals who were infected and recovered? I have yet to find even one. Curious that.

            Here is the only one I have read:

            https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/i-had-the-coronavirus-worst-part-stigma.html

          • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 2:08 am #

            Thanks Cargill that was interesting. I heard again tonight that some doctors are saying if you get re-exposed to the virus, the second infection is even worse. I have heard that a few times now but it also sounds like an unsettled question needing more data.

          • Cargill March 4, 2020 at 4:08 am #

            Yes – everything we’ve got used to about being immune when you’ve had measles or chicken pox once … does not necessarily apply. It’s like a rapid-onset AIDS in some ways.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:12 am #

            Nightowl

            “Has there been any interviews with individuals who were infected and recovered?”

            This guy, who was on the Diamond Princess with his wife, has been posting video updates from the start of their quarantine on the ship. They’ve now had coronavirus and are recovering.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTyX-YJPPgw

            I haven’t listened to this clip, for the usual reason, but I’ve seen them on the news at various stages, including since they emerged from treatment.

  55. fugeguy March 3, 2020 at 11:05 am #

    On a lighter note, I just got notification that Jim’s new book just got delivered to the house. Some light reading when I get home.

    Looking forward to it.

  56. hmuller March 3, 2020 at 12:47 pm #

    The FED just declared an emergency half point cut in interest rates. Well alrightee! There’s nothing a virus fears more than interest rate cuts.

  57. Patriot March 3, 2020 at 12:50 pm #

    How many people died from the flu in 2018?
    In total, the CDC estimates that up to 42.9 million people got sick during the 2018-2019 flu season, 647,000 people were hospitalized and 61,200 died. That’s fairly on par with a typical season, and well below the CDC’s 2017-2018 estimates of 48.8 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths.Jun 20, 2019

    How many people died from the flu in 2019?
    So far, 14,000 people have died and 250,000 people have been hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC.Feb 14, 2020

    We have a long way to go to equal the 2017-2018 flu fatalities

    • hmuller March 3, 2020 at 12:55 pm #

      Patience, we could get there.

      • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 1:19 pm #

        Well we have a long way to go before we reach 80,000 flu deaths here in the United States

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:29 pm #

          Take a big lake and introduce a tiny amount of pond scum over one square foot of that lake. The scum doubles in size every day, if conditions are right.

          Obviously in an amazingly short time the lake would be covered if those conditions prevailed, right?

          • malthuss March 3, 2020 at 2:40 pm #

            Compound interest is amazing, in the long run.

  58. djk March 3, 2020 at 1:07 pm #

    In the classic old movie” War of the Worlds” what killed the invaders was the common cold. The concept put forth here is the fact that sometimes ,the least suspect thing can be the toppling point that brings down the house of cards. Things will continue as “normal”, until one day they don’t. We are rapidly approaching that day.

    • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 1:18 pm #

      Things will continue as “normal”, until one day they don’t. We are rapidly approaching that day.

      State some scientific evidence to back that claim

      • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 1:33 pm #

        You’d have to define science. Is Sociology a Science? It does use techniques like systematic data gathering and mathematical analysis of the data. But the subject matter is not inanimate matter, so the results are never as clear. As Aristotle said, do not expect more precision than your subject allows for. You can do things with Oak that you can’t with pine; with iron that you can’t with gold and vice versa.

        • Patriot March 3, 2020 at 2:13 pm #

          I thought you said this wasn’t a class in Existentialism, Janos

          • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 4:54 pm #

            That wasn’t. Just simple, define you terms – an essential for any real debate or conversation. In Philosophical terms – rhetoric I believe, of which logic (another subject) enters into, of course.

            An argument is something different than a legitimate debate, right? Most of the political debates are mere argument devoid of “arguments” in the philosophical sense. Thus the politicians deploy ad hominems, faulty logic, keep shifting their ground – words suddenly mean something different, change the subject rather than answer a tough question, tell bizarre stories (Biden), etc.

  59. Tate March 3, 2020 at 2:08 pm #

    I have to report for jury duty tomorrow. I don’t mind.

    Tonight I’ll give my head a clean shave, groom my long white beard. Tomorrow I’ll show up fresh & early, maybe take a Bible to read, or my pocket copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence & Constitution, bottle of hand sanitizer, maybe tie an onion to my belt.

    • GreenAlba March 3, 2020 at 2:18 pm #

      I didn’t really picture you so Tolstoyan, Tate. Now I have an image, but I’m trying to get the tunic out of my head. 🙂

      I used to see Finca as a cross between Tolstoy and Demis Roussos for some reason.

      • Tate March 3, 2020 at 3:19 pm #

        Naw, I’ll be wearing my favorite feed cap.

        • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 7:27 am #

          I had to look that up. 🙂

          Is that jury wear?

          • Tate March 5, 2020 at 6:14 pm #

            Is that a thing in the U.K.? “Jury Wear”?

            I didn’t have to report after all. Checked into the website the evening before & my number was eliminated. Good. I was all out of onions.

          • GreenAlba March 6, 2020 at 8:58 am #

            Nah, not actual jury wear. I was improvising. People used to dress smartly for such public duties, though, and a man wouldn’t keep a hat or a cap in his head. I suppose even now I’d imagine the norm to be semi-smart, rather than turning up in ripped jeans and a bare arm covered in tatts.

            But I’m old fashioned about these matters – not quite converted to the ‘anything goes’ philosophy in the context of pubic solemnity.

    • elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 7:04 pm #

      Tate,
      Do not forget to wear the button that says; “Kiss me if you believe in Jury Nullification”.

  60. Patriot March 3, 2020 at 2:21 pm #

    Green Alba:
    I agree with you, hm. I don’t claim it’s no big deal. We don’t know how big a deal it’s going to be in the non-Chinese world. And it would be daft to claim it’s not going to do any harm to supply chains and the global economy because it already patently is doing just that, which is quite likely why my husband and his immediate colleagues don’t have any masks, despite responding to emails suggesting ‘someone’ is going to fit them for one.

    But neither he nor I have felt motivated to turn our small flat into a warehouse, even though we’ve joked about lentil-related privations. But that’s just us. It could change. ?

    Comparing it to flu is pointless, because it isn’t flu.

    So comparing 140,000 Americans deaths by conventional flu is pointless compared to 6 deaths from the corona virus? What would you call a disease that killed 140,000 people in two years…..would you compare it to being a “little bit pregnant.” I repeat: The United States main stream media didn’t give a good god damn about those 140,000 deaths.Correct me if I’m wrong. Perhaps you think dying with the corona virus is somehow worse than dying with conventional flu.

    • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 7:47 am #

      I was referring to the spread pattern of the virus and its likely chronology, nothing more. As you point out yourself, by implication, it hasn’t spread yet in the US. In any flu epidemic you cite for the US, you’re looking at deaths during a full flu season. You haven’t had a full coronavirus season yet, if it observes seasons (we don’t know that yet).

      Why would you think I discount the ‘flu deaths, any more than I’d discount deaths from traffic accidents, deaths from hypothermia, or deaths from food poisoning? And why do you want me to defend your mainsteam media who are feck all to do with me?

      In the UK, as I’ve explained, there are priority groups who are offered ‘flu vaccination on the NHS and anyone else can get it for a few quid at the local chemist. But here’s the thing – apart from over-65s, which is one priority category, ALL the other categories of at-risk individuals have an uptake rate of only between 42 and 48 percent for the FREE vaccination. Perhaps you have a suggestion as to what the government should do about (a) people who exercise their right not to be vaccinated (or have their children vaccinated) or not to be arsed, even though invited by an actual personal letter or (b) people with underlying medical conditions (mostly old) who will be the first to be culled by any random virus.

      What do you want the government to do about the 33,000 Americans killed and 2,239,000 injured by motor vehicle accidents in the US?

      You can compare dying with corona virus with dying with flu all you like and I’m happy for you to do that. I merely pointed out that assuming it’s going to disappear by springtime is at this stage just an assumption, however true it may turn out to be. I don’t know why you have a problem with that.

      • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 7:56 am #

        And a lot of the problem lies in the issue of CAPACITY on the part of healthcare systems. However hard it is for the NHS to cope with extra sick people when there’s a bad flu epidemic, at least it’s something that there are always plans for. Average numbers of hospitalised flu patients are taken into account routinely.

        If you don’t know how many people are going to get coronavirus you can’t plan for them, so it’s better all round if fewer people catch it. Extra fully staffed hospital beds don’t just materialise out of thin air.

        If I were you I’d concentrate my efforts on persuading your government that any rational response to dealing with coronavirus would be to offer free testing and free treatment (i.e. bill picked up the the folks who pick up the bill for military invasions), just as the UK’s rational response to flu is to offer free vaccination to all at-risk groups and free treatment to EVERYBODY, because that’s, you know, civilised. Your country doesn’t give a f*ck about sick people generally, as far as I can see.

        • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 7:59 am #

          *would include offering free testing*

  61. akmofo March 3, 2020 at 3:30 pm #

    Cute baby Dalai Lama learning Hebrew and hanging with Negev sheep
    https://youtu.be/AUcEuA1XSto

    • EvelynV March 3, 2020 at 4:23 pm #

      As in so many ways Patriot, you’re on your ass.

      Coffee is addictive, chocolate is addictive, for many here living on this website is addictive, cell phones are addictive, bicycling is additive. For me music is addictive.

      Marijuana and none of those cause physical withdrawals on abstention.

      If you use marijuana every day of your life whatever consequences there might be is less significant that using the internet every time you want an answer to question or watching FauX news umpteen hours a day to fill your joyless empty life.

      So I suggest you phuque off on the subject.

      • Tate March 3, 2020 at 5:05 pm #

        Marijuana is the sneakiest of addictions. It’s precisely because it doesn’t have withdrawal symptoms that it’s so devilishly addictive. It truly is ‘The Devil Weed.’

        • EvelynV March 3, 2020 at 5:25 pm #

          Some may differ on this but habit forming is not the same as addictive.

          This is no question how many things are habit forming, weed being one of them.

          An oxycontin, heroin, or even coke addict is in an entirely different quantum level of involuntary compulsion from a pothead.

          • Majella March 4, 2020 at 1:33 am #

            I’m all with you, Evie.It is ridiculous that weed has been demonised so harshly & for so long. It’s truely a crying shame how many young people (and older people) have been incarcerated for ‘crimes’ written at the behest of big corporates – originally DuPont, which wanted to replace as many items that industrial hemp used to provide, with fecking plastic. We’re reaping the consequences of THAT one right now and for generations to come…

            A long-time weed user, particularly when I was younger. These days not so much, and I prefer the edibles – chocolate or cookies. I can take it or leave it though.

            When there were times when it wasn’t obtainable, it was no big thing. No withdrawal, no pain, no worries. I haven’t turned to a any alternatives, so the ‘gateway’ argument is not valid to me. I’ve never tried any other illegal mind-altering substances either.

          • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 9:15 am #

            Well get a load of our two pothead grand dames. Who could have known? Recreational marijuana is now legal in Illinois. Come and spend your money, we need it. Our fat Governor will kiss you (no tongue).

          • volodya March 4, 2020 at 10:21 am #

            Alcohol is a gateway drug.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 11:11 am #

            Gateway to sex, quite often. 🙂

            https://www.amazon.com/Beer-Since-1862-Tin-Sign/dp/B000O7MB92

  62. JohnAZ March 3, 2020 at 4:03 pm #

    How about something more enlightening.

    Like tonight’s Dem returns.

    Bernie is going to burn them good in Texas and California.

    The DNC will then have a major problem of what to do next.

    I watched Bloomberg’s town hall on Fox. There is more distance between him and Bernie than him and Trump. When they asked him at the end if he would favor Bernie over Trump, he had difficulty answering.

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 5:55 pm #

      The DNC will then have a major problem of what to do next.

      There is the argument that the DNC (and conservative Democrats generally) aren’t afraid of Bernie losing, but rather that they are afraid that he will win. Bernie isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – but he is very popular among those under 30, and Latinos.

      • Patriot March 4, 2020 at 7:00 am #

        Care to revise your analysis now that most of the turns are in,Comrade?

  63. BackRowHeckler March 3, 2020 at 4:08 pm #

    New way of war emerging in the Battle of Idlib, Turkey’s unmanned drones destroying dozens of Syrian tanks, artillery pieces and APCs. Drone warfare coming into it’s own, changing the field of battle irrevocably, like the French Exocet anti ship missile deployed by Argentina in the Falklands War, the helicopter in Viet Nam, and the long bow at the Battle of Agincourt.

    Brh

    • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 5:06 pm #

      Or the Convex bow in Alaska. The Northern Indians tried to dispute the Inuit’s entry into the North America. It went poorly for them since the Inuit had the Asian super weapon.

      They later lost it. Either they didn’t need it or didn’t have the right materials to make them anymore.

    • JohnAZ March 3, 2020 at 6:39 pm #

      Do you realize than drone warfare obsoletes war. If there is no loss of life, what is the point? Ground war weapons like tanks are obsolete. Manned Air weapons are obsolete.

      Good!

      • elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 7:08 pm #

        “Do you realize than drone warfare obsoletes war. If there is no loss of life,”

        John,
        What do you mean “no loss of life”? Depends upon which end of the drone you end up on….

        • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 9:44 am #

          The end result is drone against drone. What is the point?

          • elysianfield March 4, 2020 at 10:47 am #

            John,
            The point is that our current wars are not peer to peer. We got the drones…the adversaries got the shrapnel.

  64. Cargill March 3, 2020 at 4:17 pm #

    The DOW closes 786 down – looks like the dead cat has stopped bouncing. We’ve taken quite a haircut – I trust capitalism works (or manipulation works – whatever it takes) and climbs back up over the next couple of years.

    • EvelynV March 3, 2020 at 5:37 pm #

      At least trump can take comfort in knowing he made the Fed cower.

      Now trump’s remaining problem is how to work it so he can blame the Fed for the crashing economy by their rash lowering of interest rates.

      Also, when will he begin belittling Pence for allowing corona virus to ruin the beautiful stock market he used his stable geniusness to cultivate into the beautiful beautiful thing he had made it?

      Trump understands the stock market very very well so he knows that the mayhem of super Tuesday has made things fall apart and the democrats should be blamed.

      • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 5:42 pm #

        Also, when will he begin belittling Pence for allowing corona virus to ruin the beautiful stock market he used his stable geniusness to cultivate into the beautiful beautiful thing he had made it?

        I read today (on one of my “real facts” news websites) one of the political commentators saying Trump will dump Mike Pence for Nikki Haley – on 16 July as the Dems announce their candidate. He will cite Pence’s ‘failure’ on the corona thing. Big call, but not totally unreasonable.

        • Janos Skorenzy March 3, 2020 at 6:01 pm #

          Great Man, Chris Matthews, ejected from top position as Talking Head.

          Fox News

          Chris Matthews’ abrupt resignation at the beginning of MSNBC’s “Hardball” Monday night came after several weeks of blunders that prompted the network to take action, say people familiar with the matter.

          Mathews spoke to part of the controversy in an on-air apology, saying that “compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have thought were okay were never okay…and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

          MSNBC had no comment, but people familiar with the matter say the timetable for a planned retirement was suddenly accelerated after a series of mistakes and missteps by the onetime Jimmy Carter speechwriter and Tip O’Neill aide.

          But for Matthews, a passionate political junkie, to bow out the day before Super Tuesday, rather than at the end of the primaries or even the end of the week suggests he did not control the timing.

          His sudden departure is being portrayed by insiders as a matter of mutual agreement with the network that has employed him for two decades. He told viewers it’s time for a younger generation to take over. But there is no question that the recent spate of self-inflicted wounds rendered him a liability at the left-leaning network.

          While people familiar with the matter say Matthews’ retirement had been imminent, they were unable to say whether that meant in weeks, months or after the 2020 election.

          Matthews went to break immediately after disclosing his resignation, and the substitute host, Steve Kornacki, looked visibly shocked as he praised his colleague as a legend. But insiders say Kornacki had in fact been notified in advance.

          The most high-profile embarrassment in a shaky month came when Matthews likened Bernie Sanders’ victory in Nevada to the Nazi invasion of France in 1940. After a weekend of intense criticism, he apologized to Sanders at the top of “Hardball” last Monday.

          The final straw may have been a piece in GQ magazine Saturday by Laura Bassett, who described being a guest on his show in 2017 and was naming him for the first time.

          Bassett said the host looked at her in the makeup chair and said, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”

          Janos: What a tragedy! But hear me, Cargillian et al, I guarantee you that some young Zoomer will see you as obstructing the Revolution too. Ever hear of the Oedipus Complex? And Zoomers! Hear me as well: it can go the other way too. Ever hear of the Cronos Complex?

          Example: An older Comrade and her young lover walked into a Communist meeting. Stalin made a dirty joke to Trotsky. Trots than proceeded to lecture Stalin about Revolutionary Ethics. Big Mistake. Very few ever got away with treating Stalin like that. He hated Trotsky after that. Trotsky ended up with an ice pick in his head.

          Sander’s victory in Nevada compared to a Nazi invasion. Truly supernatural stupidity. Beyond that, did he forget that Sanders was Tribe? You aren’t allowed to talk that way to them no matter how bitter the inter-tribal fighting is, not if you aren’t one of them in any case.

          Note: I’m assuming that Stalin was much older than Trotsky. If he wasn’t, then it’s not an example of the Cronos (who ate his own sons) Complex per se. But it served to illustrate the point in any case, even if mistakenly.

          • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 7:30 pm #

            Note: I’m assuming that Stalin was much older than Trotsky.

            Trotsky born in 1879, Stalin in 1878 – so more like fratricide.

          • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 7:35 pm #

            I didn’t mind Chris Matthews myself – I kind of liked his “hard ball” style. I just had trouble with his voice – it was raspy enough to strip paint off a door.

          • Nightowl March 4, 2020 at 4:06 am #

            Another media clown goes down for being a bad little boy.

            Those who scream the loudest …

          • Patriot March 4, 2020 at 7:02 am #

            What Love joins Oedipus Rex

  65. Pucker March 3, 2020 at 4:18 pm #

    How would Americans react to such quarantine measures as in Hong Kong? I suspect that many people might react: “I’m not over 60, so there’s not much risk to me. Fuck it.”

    At night, the “Scoops” may come around like in the movie “Soylent Green”?

    All of the homeless people probably won’t even know what’s going on? There was a homeless bloke in the local Walmart bathroom last Thursday. I literally made-his-day when I informed him that there was plenty of warm water in the sink so that he could bathe. Life’s simple pleasures….

    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/01/810392094/hong-kong-has-contained-coronavirus-so-far-but-at-a-significant-cost

  66. Tate March 3, 2020 at 5:23 pm #

    This is going to solve the problem of the Vibrant Enrichers for sure.

    Stop! Don’t Touch me There!
    This is my No-No Square!

    Note: Inside the “No-No Square” is the fabled “Front Hole.”

    • Janos Skorenzy March 5, 2020 at 1:38 am #

      That’s her real face too. Thus she doesn’t need a mask at the Masque or during “Purge”.

  67. akmofo March 3, 2020 at 6:29 pm #

    The Nationalist Right eviscerates the Commie Left Labor Party in the latest Israeli elections. The leftist Labor coalition is down to 6 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. There is a very clear international global trend to the political Right as Dr. Steve Turley describes in this video, and I’m glad for it. People are waking up.

    https://youtu.be/VyhYUTeMHNw
    .

    • JohnAZ March 3, 2020 at 6:44 pm #

      Socialism is a failure, over and over. The “gimmes” are finally being outvoted against by folks who are started to realize what they are going to lose.

      • Robert White March 3, 2020 at 7:18 pm #

        I agree that TARP & Quantitative Easing for Too-BIG-to-fail banks is socialism & a failure. The ‘gimmes’ of Wall Street infamy are actually addicted to the opioid of Federal Reserve stimulus and can no longer be left to titrate financial stimulus all on their own.

        Bankers don’t want to go to rehab!

        No, no, no!

        RW

        • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 8:05 am #

          Heard of any alternatives to Wall Street? Heard of community banks? Heard of mortgage companies? Heard of any alternative to the MSM propaganda outlets? Heard of any alternatives to the car? Heard of alternatives to the supermarkets? Heard of alternatives to the malls? If not, well, there’s a business opportunity for you, is there not? Instead of constantly whining, get off your ass, organize and do something different for a change, you god damn loser.

          • Robert White March 4, 2020 at 10:41 am #

            I’m an orthodox pinko Commie bastard Grumpy Marxist, and I live in Canuckistan, man. I think of alternatives to Wall Street every day, BuckO.

            What’s with this ‘get off your ass’ stuff?

            RW

          • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 11:08 am #

            What’s with this ‘get off your ass’ stuff?
            ==

            Firstly, you can start by voting out blackface Castro Jr you have PM. Second, my Canuckistani comrade, without the goodwill of the US, you would have no economy and no country. You can’t even get gasoline for your fleet of German assmobiles without sending your oil to be refined in the US and sent back to you, that’s how pathetic you are.

            Other than the clothing company Roots and the transport company Bombardier, I can’t think of a single Canuckistani company of international renown, can you?

          • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 11:13 am #

            blackface Castro Jr you have ^as^ Prime Minister

  68. elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 7:18 pm #

    Well, ladies and germs;

    The BBC, this AM, reports that strongman warlord V. Putin, that vile commie bastard, has again applied the lash of dictatorial edict to the backs of his suffering subjects.

    He now “suggests” that conventional marriage, between a man and women (as assigned at birth), become the law of the land in Russia. He also demands that Russia become recognized as a God fearing country.

    What an asshole….

    • elysianfield March 3, 2020 at 7:20 pm #

      And…the link;

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51719764

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 7:40 pm #

      He now “suggests” that conventional marriage, between a man and women (as assigned at birth), become the law of the land in Russia. He also demands that Russia become recognized as a God fearing country.

      If you substitute “USA” for “Russia”, there are plenty of politicians and voters who would say exactly the same in the Land of the Free.

      • hmuller March 3, 2020 at 10:03 pm #

        You can do much worse.

    • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 9:14 am #

      It would be less alarming if he were also thinking about taking on the scandalous domestic violence situation in Russia, even before the recent law to make certain forms of domestic violence no longer illegal.

      I can see why the ‘pro’ vote among men would be high – it’s not hard to see where this is leading, in terms of women’s entitlement to live lives free of being beaten black and blue by their husbands. Nothing like adding a bit of politico-religious endorsement to the mix.

  69. Cargill March 3, 2020 at 7:46 pm #

    CNN is reporting that Mike Bloomberg has won American Samoa, and he had seven field staff working the votes there. Having spent one long day in that island idyll, I expect the field staff would have met almost the entire population by spending all their time in the one McDonald’s. They’re very big people.

    • hmuller March 3, 2020 at 10:01 pm #

      They’re prone to cargo cults and Bloomberg can afford to bring lots of “cargo”.

  70. Pucker March 3, 2020 at 8:03 pm #

    I get all of my information from CNN and CCTV.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFRGlTFAiLs

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 8:38 pm #

      You can do much worse.

      • Nightowl March 4, 2020 at 4:12 am #

        Name a site that’s worse and post all verifiable lies they’ve been caught publishing over the past year.

        I’ll do the same for CNN. I’ve already got 8 in the chamber.

        The only caveat is that you can’t use another MSM site, as that makes the game too easy.

      • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:32 am #

        Not much.

  71. messianicdruid March 3, 2020 at 10:24 pm #

    San Jose said, “My personal belief is that Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, might have channeled the Book of Mormon from some strange dimension. Or maybe is was bi-polar? Who knows?”

    Jerald and Sandra Tanner used to republish original texts from their families of the Doctrines and Covenants and early Book of Mormon. You could put chapters of the book of Isaiah beside it and other than the character names being changed, the stories were identical.

    akmofo says, “There is a very clear international global trend to the political Right as Dr. Steve Turley describes in this video, and I’m glad for it. People are waking up.”

    Yet you disparage Republicanism [ a government of law ] and claim Democracy [ mob rule ] is a Godsend.

    The giants of the past disagree:

    “When individuals act collectively in large groups and are not held responsible for the consequences of their behavior, decisions are unlikely to be reasonable or prudent. This design flaw in popular government was recognized by several Founding Fathers. John Adams warned that democracy “soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

    James Madison was equally concerned with the pernicious consequences of large-scale democracy, arguing that democracies “have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

    Even George Washington had his doubts about whether democracy was consistent with wise government. Democracies are slow to correct their errors, and those who try to guide the public down a wise course frequently become the object of popular hatred: “It is one of the evils of democratical governments, that the people, not always seeing and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act right; but then evil of this nature seldom fail to work their own cure,” Washington wrote. “It is to be lamented, nevertheless, that the remedies are so slow, and that those, who may wish to apply them seasonably are not attended to before they suffer in person, in interest and in reputation.”

    Our Republic has almost been stolen. Only the Right seems to realize this.

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 11:06 pm #

      Our Republic has almost been stolen. Only the Right seems to realize this.

      Of course they do – because they did all the stealing (with both hands).

      • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:32 am #

        Let’s see. Which side’s answer to everything is to use judges to amend the laws and want to change all elements of the Constitution to fit their philosophy. Which side wants to change the actual demographics of the nation to forward their agenda? The “browning” of America is a Democratic dream.

        Who Is stealing the Republic? You are dead wrong!

    • akmofo March 3, 2020 at 11:42 pm #

      Yet you disparage Republicanism [ a government of law ] and claim Democracy [ mob rule ] is a Godsend.
      ==

      Uhh yes, the mafia of the “law”. Where corrupt absurd interpretation and corrupt selective enforcement of the “law”, presents a Kafkaesque reality of lawlessness in favour of the rich and powerful. It is a recipe for tyranny. The US overcomes this reality with full spectrum propaganda. But the fact remains, and you know it.

      What Democracy brings to the table is true economic social and political accountability. The rich cannot deploy their money because their money cannot buy votes en mass. Contrast this with the ease at which the rich buy individuals in the Republican system and the ease at which the whole system is rigged.

      “Mob rule” is a fair trial by your peers and kin as jury. Something you’ll never get in a system ruled by the rich and privileged. Again, you know this!

      • Cargill March 4, 2020 at 2:17 am #

        Yes – in a true democracy:

        – the House of Representatives would be the supreme body
        – the leader of its majority party would be the leader of the country (prime minister or premier)
        – the Senate would have very limited powers of review – not legislation
        – the Supreme Court would be restricted to deciding very strict issues of Constitutional Law – no judicial activism
        – for example, Parliament would decide whether abortion was legal in the nation, not unelected senile judges
        – the president would be largely a ceremonial position – to shake hands with visiting dignitaries at airports, and to cut ribbons at ceremonies

        That is how a genuine democracy works elsewhere … much better than a Republic where you elect a king.

        • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 9:20 am #

          And yet doesn’t the Queen of England have veto power over the entire Australian government, if she chose to exercise it?

        • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 9:29 am #

          Jeez, we’ve been doing it wrong for all these years. Who knew? Founders like Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton must have been pretty stupid. Really, what morons they were, basing the US Constitution on lessons learned from the English Civil War and the Enlightenment. Nothing about Tranny rights in it, Imagine! Cargill, do you think you could find time to come here and rewrite our Constitution? There’s this distinguished constitutional scholar who about 10 years back wrote a long article for Atlantic stating basically the Constitution should be voided — it was a racist document — I forget his name … shouldn’t be hard too find, you could dig him up, put him on your staff. Start with the Bill of Rights, especially the 1st and 2nd amendments ,.. they have to go … your biggest impediments to total lefty domination.

          When you’re thru the door will be wide open for the country to transform in a squalid freakshow like San Fran and LA, Utopia really. We could run the place on windmills and solar panels, sit around in a big circle and talk endlessly about the 1619 project.

          Brh

          • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 10:14 am #

            Founders like Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton..
            ==

            They were brilliant man. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are brilliant documents of the Enlightenment.

            BUT,.. for whatever reason, they were afraid of the “mob”. They were afraid of the people. And that made them choose wrongly against Democracy.

          • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 11:32 am #

            Akfomo, congrats on re electing you Prime Minister.

            Israelis above all are a sensible people.

            Brh

          • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 11:51 am #

            Thanks, buddy!

            Israel faces the same commie challenges the US is facing. The same entrenched deep state commie Vatican mafia that exists in the US, also exists in Israel. The same judicial warfare employed against President Trump is employed against Netanyahu and his allies. There was a big question if Netanyahu would even be allowed to run because of the bogus charges against him. They also intimidated Netanyahu’s political allies with judicial warfare so that the large right wing Russian immigrants Party was forced to back out of supporting Netanyahu’s political coalition.

            But people didn’t give up. Netanyahu didn’t give up. And that’s how we’re standing here today with a victory.

        • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:39 am #

          Do you, in Australia, understand why the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution?

          To protect the minorities of the country from the majority!

          If there was no Bill of Rights, the Blacks, Browns, Asians etc, could be crushed under the heel of a White majority, decades ago.

          Democracy crushes dissent. That is why Parliamentarianism was rejected by the FF.

          Also, balance of powers was the core of the FF thinking. They wanted an executive branch to do things when required in spite of the legislative political BS. That was the failure of the Articles of Confederation.

    • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 9:42 am #

      The Articles of Confederation were more Democratic than the consequent Constitution. They did not have an effective executive branch as the FF were still afraid of monarchical government. The Articles failed because a legislative form of government never gets anything done. Design by committee is never effective. The Constitution was a miracle of compromise. We still are seeing today with the Pelosi vs, Trump debacle the battle between the executive branch wanting to get stuff done and the legislative branch trying to figure out what to do.

      Some of our problems today need action and the balance of powers is getting in the way.

      Biden’s success against the Socialist last night shows that there is still anti-socialist sense in the Democratic public. I feel better today about the future of the country.

  72. BackRowHeckler March 3, 2020 at 11:22 pm #

    Well, Super Tuesday is history, and the fix is in. Now all we have to do is wait for the Long Con to play out, which will happen in July, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I would say Sanders should bolt the Democratic Party that is hosing him, but he was never a Democrat to begin with. What did he expect? Time to rally the faithful under the red banner, show his true colors, and launch a third party run … his own Party, answerable to only him — Bernie Sanders — like Theodore Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party in 1912. Of course Roosevelt actually liked the United States, and there’s your difference.

    brh

    • Cargill March 3, 2020 at 11:45 pm #

      Well, Super Tuesday is history, and the fix is in.

      Seems like you share the same elitist streak as the Founding Fathers – you can’t abide (and certainly don’t trust) the democratic vote of the people.

      I think three things are happening:

      1. The Democrat gene pool is very shallow, so Biden is reluctantly seen as the best of a bad lot.

      2. Bernie did well against Hillary in some of these states, but with more robust opposition this year, he is vulnerable.

      3. People are holding their noses and voting for Biden, because they believe he has the better chance of beating Trump.

      But there is no fix needed – things are playing out sort of as predicted, although the tragic showing of Elizabeth Warren is probably a surprise. Not the least for her.

      Trump would love a third party runner, to split the sensible vote … but I don’t think even Bernie would try that. And I think Bernie loves America at least as much as Teddy did – he really only wanted places where he could shoot large vertebrates.

    • Cargill March 4, 2020 at 1:58 am #

      The Left never really learns how to do stuff.

      If Elizabeth Warren had dropped out on Sunday as well, Bernie would have won much more – the Left vote for Bernie would have been boosted much more than if Bloomberg weren’t there to spoil any votes for Biden.

      It’s a very good argument for ranked choice voting systems, but I appreciate that is very difficult to manage when delegates are won on a proportional basis in each state / district.

      • ellipsis March 4, 2020 at 6:05 am #

        That was Lying Lizz’s express purpose. To steal votes from Sanders. Not that it would or will make much difference in the end.

      • benr March 4, 2020 at 8:39 am #

        No Bernie does not love America he wants to destroy the Constitution, the middle class and bankrupt the country.
        The Constitution and the bill of rights is Americana major changes to any of it and the country as it is simply ceases to be.
        How does someone with so little clue about what makes America tick even begin to think you have the pulse of the average American and then make such uninformed comments on it?

        • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 10:02 am #

          I note than there is not a group working with Bernie, there is only Bernie. They do not vote for a philosophy, they vote for Bernie. If Bernie gets stiffed, we are going to have a civil war.

          I an sick of seeing cultish figures pictured all over the place, like Korea, like Cuba, like the USSR.

          Uniparty, uniperson cults last only as long as the individual. Hopefully, the Bernie cult will expire with him.

          Bernie is a mystery, like all Commies before him. Their belief is the elite, to the point of a uniperson, needs to run the people. Power is the evil at work here. Bernie believes he is smarter than the rest of us.

          Here is an interesting thing. Bernie and Trump are similar here. Trump is a believer also that his picture of the world is the right one and we need to follow him.

          However, the more conservative approach of controlling the government’s reach into our lives appeals more to yours truly as I do not trust the Elite, the Deep State. Their agenda is not good for the rest of us. Their effectiveness index is terrible and they should not be running much of anything.

          • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 4:25 pm #

            Too many political movements are versions of Messianic apocalyptic cultism. “We will triumph over evil and march lockstep into a better future where we all think the same pure thoughts.”

            These authoritarian collectivists speak of the right to housing, health care, education (i.e., state indoctrination), etc. Of course, the promise to deliver such things implies the right to seize resources for the common good. They promise to set up society as a well-run prison, or at best a military camp.

            Lost in all this are the dignity, rights, and autonomy of the individual.

        • Cargill March 4, 2020 at 3:02 pm #

          The Constitution and the bill of rights is Americana major changes to any of it and the country as it is simply ceases to be.

          This is piffling nonsense and you know it. There are many ways to organise society, governance, and power – including in America. There is nothing particularly magical about the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights … they have some lofty aspirations, but also a lot of murky parts.

          And of course the whole thing was designed by a committee that was heavily constrained and compromised – the authors were elites, and the states were very jealous of each other.

          A Bill of Rights is not necessary – and not necessarily desirable – free countries like the UK and Australia survive well without it … freedoms are preserved through the power of parliament, the common law, and very rarely, the High Court ruling on a Constitutional issue.

          With a Bill of Rights you risk granting far too much power to lawyers (and lawyers are never in doubt about their own brilliance – including the Founding Fathers) – and the courts.

          America has become far too litigious, at so many levels. If you don’t like a decision of a parliament, you whisk them off to some court somewhere, and demand ‘protection’ from some unelected judge.

          And you are stuck in the past – the founders (so assured of their own brilliance) made it extremely difficult to amend the Constitution – so for example the Second Amendment, which everyone knows was only about each individual state having the means to put down slave riots, now leads to gun-nuts everywhere having the capacity to kill 50 school kids in less than a minute.

          Every Second Amendment gun-nut should seriously think about the thousands of young lives they have personally destroyed.

          I could discuss other intensely legal issues that arise in quite a few other amendments, but this is long enough.

          We’re very grateful we don’t have a Bill of Rights – we are a very free people who live by the rule of law, not by the sleaze of lawyers. Trump is a cult, and a nut-job, but his worst legacy is his abuse of the courts, and his abuse of Congress.

          A very marginal system has been made unworkable. The snarl on the face of that Brett Kavanaugh when he was under a little pressure – it symbolises everything ugly about the right-wing deep state.

          • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 4:32 pm #

            So Brett Kavanaugh’s face is twisted into a hideous snarl, and the left wing nut jobs you venerate have the faces of Cherubim?! Don’t even get me started on the creepy face of Adam Schiff.

    • ellipsis March 4, 2020 at 6:02 am #

      This will be Sanders’ swan song. Too old, too decrepit, and ultimately and most damning, too marginal. Big money rules the US and he of all people damn well knew it. I admire his spunk, but he was always nothing more than a long shot. His true value was in speaking truth to power, but in the end, that really doesn’t count for shit either. Power, when it comes right down to it, flows from the end of a gun, and them guns cost money. Power is never unseated by peaceful revolution from within, but always by bloody struggle from without, with or without the tailwind of total collapse. That is the only way the Zionist Globalist abomination currently running the US will be put down. Same as it ever was.

      • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 7:51 am #

        Name a better “abomination”. You have something better you can point us to? Perhaps Cuba, Iran, Syria, or my personal favourite “Gaza/Palestine? C’mon, show us your paradise, Commie.

        • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 2:07 am #

          C’mon, show us your paradise, Commie.

          Can I suggest you employ another epithet rather than “Commie” – it’s so hysterically over-used by most of the lunar right nut-jobs on here. I understand you have been brought up by the capitalist machine – but if you keep throwing the word around like confetti, then it absolutely loses any force or meaning whatsoever.

          I for one are at the left end of Left-Centre – call me a “Commie” all you want – it doesn’t make any difference, it has no impact, and it doesn’t indicate that you’re a discerning thinker or writer.

          And there are a LOT of excellent countries to live in – you should try it sometime!

          Have a great day, comrade!

          • akmofo March 5, 2020 at 7:19 am #

            It’s not overused because there so many of youz commie worms, shitting your commie depression crap on everything and everyone youz come in contact with.

            Like I said, show me your commie paradise, or fsck off with your depression propaganda.

    • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 11:21 am #

      Milwaukee better have some damn strong police presence there or all hell will break loose

      • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:40 am #

        Remember 1968?

        • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 9:27 pm #

          Nope. I wasn’t born until Gerald Ford became President..

        • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 9:28 pm #

          but I understand what your sayin’ there..

          more street fighting they do.. the more split the dems become so..

  73. Nightowl March 4, 2020 at 4:15 am #

    It appears Biden really will be the candidate.

    I cannot wait for the debates.

    LOL.

    • ellipsis March 4, 2020 at 6:12 am #

      Yes! They should be fun. Biden will have the Gore vs. Bush II advantage, in that Trump will have to be very careful with his attacks for fear of appearing to be picking on a retard. And of course Biden is capable of being a very effective counter puncher, sometimes even because of his gaffs. The comedic effect could work very well for him. I see Biden being very electable based on the sympathy vote. Yes, Americans really are that stupid.

      • Nightowl March 4, 2020 at 8:49 am #

        Yeah, it is going to be epic.

        Meanwhile, Chunk Yoghurt is in full meltdown at TYT.

        Now that the focus has shifted from Trump, and the media and DNC are effing Berine again and forcing Biden on the voters, Chunk now claims the media lies all the time.

        https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1235131233283084288

        I have no words …

        • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 11:33 am #

          ha ha ha

          hilarity!

          Cenk is such a loser.. I actually kinda feel bad for the guy.. and then I remember all the terrible shit he actually believes in ..and then I don’t feel so bad for him anymore lol

        • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 6:14 am #

          Those who have “no words” are usually admitting that they’re confronted by inconvenient truths they really can’t abide. Sad.

          • Nightowl March 5, 2020 at 6:20 am #

            And those posting incoherent word salads are usually low IQ.

            Sad.

      • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 10:07 am #

        Yeah, just picture Biden in negotiations with Putin, Xi, the Ayatollah or Un not being able to remember what country he is in, or whose wife is whose. Sympathy vote my foot, the man in incompetent, which shows after last night how incompetent the entire Dem side is right now.

      • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 5:57 am #

        Yes! They should be fun. Biden will have the Gore vs. Bush II advantage, in that Trump will have to be very careful with his attacks for fear of appearing to be picking on a retard.

        Yes I agree – although I think it’s the reverse … Our Joe (dementia-ready I agree) is still several levels smarter than the Orange One – the Adderall Queen (UK super-strength) will be slaughtered in a genuine debate. He hasn’t even answered a real question for four years.

    • hmuller March 4, 2020 at 4:37 pm #

      So Biden and Trump are the two best qualified people in America to be President? Maybe Elon Musk stumbled onto the truth. We exist in a computer generated matrix program. And it’s a Sitcom.

      • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 6:16 am #

        Archie Bunker All in the (Crime) Family.

  74. tucsonspur March 4, 2020 at 5:24 am #

    The blacks really must be stupid. I guess they really believed that “put you all back in chains” remark Biden made back in 2012(?).
    In SC, Rep. James Clyburn began the black boost, and Biden carried the South thereafter, the plight of blacks under the Democrats for decades apparently inconsequential.

    Then the dropout legs began to stomp Bernie in unison, with even Beto in on the beatdown. Bernie dies! Biden lives!

    This bald tire who was ready for a blowout must have had that run flat feature to take him this far. Often seeming to be retarded, this retread of a relic puts a wicked wallop into Wokesterism. He’s a wealthy, withering whiffler, a leftover Obama lesion who has already grabbed the loot but still likes the limelight.

    • ellipsis March 4, 2020 at 5:53 am #

      Talk about your low information voters,” eh? SC probably came down to simple name recognition. I like your characterization of Biden. He’d definitely provide four years of comedic relief. Perhaps the Dems will even play up that angle, with blooper reels as campaign commercials? Gerry Ford II. Lovable old curmudgeonly grandpa thing. Challenge fat ass Trump to a pushup contest during the debates. Lots of possibilities there!

      • tucsonspur March 4, 2020 at 11:51 pm #

        Considering center of gravity, muscle strength, etc., I wonder if Trump could raise that fat ass at all! Then there’s that belly of jelly…

    • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 3:43 am #

      The blacks really must be stupid.

      I respectfully suggest FAR less stupid than the white working-middle class who voted for the Orange One!

  75. ellipsis March 4, 2020 at 5:45 am #

    So much for the “socialist revolution,” eh? Now hopefully all the “commie, commie, commie” nonsense can stop. One wonders whether even Bloomy’s money can put a stiff like Biden over the top. I guess we’ll see soon enough. Either way, I see in Biden a slightly better spoken, albeit considerably more senile version of Trump. Better pick a competent VP, because there’s a better than average chance he/she will be the head spokesperson before his term is up. No substantive differences whatsoever. The Wall St big money fix is in either way. Flip a coin now to settle it and lets move on already.

    • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 7:46 am #

      Commie.

      • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 10:25 am #

        Zionist.

        • akmofo March 4, 2020 at 10:42 am #

          Damn right! And proud of it!

    • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 10:14 am #

      I wish you realized how really incompetent you sound backing up a demented old man to lead the country. Better have a good backup plan, the VP. This is balderdash. VPs are good followers and usually lousy leaders. If they were leaders, they would be president.

      Just announced Bloomberg has suspended his campaign. Biden is in the driver’s seat now, until Warren quits.

      • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 10:48 am #

        I don’t think it was a statement of support for Biden at all. Biden is identified here as a tool for the Elite and Wall Street.

  76. akmofo March 4, 2020 at 7:45 am #

    In a Democracy, corrupt politicians and their parties get punished by annihilation. They disappear off the political map. Political coalitions are formed so that political promises can be kept. If these political promises are not kept, the political coalition comes apart and so does the government. This way, there’s always political accountability for the promises made to the public.

  77. benr March 4, 2020 at 8:34 am #

    Should be a biden Bernie ticket then we could call them the bumbling b’s

    • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 9:46 am #

      Stacy Abrams will be VP pick, IMHO.

      Biden/Abrams 2020.

      “All bases covered, all questions answered, all fears allayed.”

      That’s the campaign slogan, incidentally

      Brh

      • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 10:18 am #

        Abrams is such a sore loser and a typical Black in terms of the constant complaining and false accusations of racism I can totally believe it. But it is White peoples’ fault for letting things get as bad as they have so let the chickens come home to roost. They’re going to anyway until the fight comes back. If it ever does.

        • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:26 am #

          Certain elements of Blacks are gimme artists.

          They are pulling down the rest of their ethnic group.

          Multi child welfare recipients are famous for their abuse of the system and even many of the Blacks admit that fatherless homes are a major impediment to the Black communities economic independence.

          The Black “leadership”, like Abrams, feed on these people knowing they are powerless without their dependence.
          Remember Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition of the seventies. He had the right idea but was steam rollers by the Black “leadership” and succumbed. Too bad!

          • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 3:31 pm #

            You’re right John. There is a Black Aristocracy too. My brush was a little too broad but still generally workable.

      • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 11:37 am #

        Leftist racist identarians are power hungry sociopaths who believe they are “owed” something from a government they want to control that will give them redistributed wealth from evil white people who manipulate them (not my opinion either ppl– Aida Rodriguez on the Young Turk show)

        • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 3:35 pm #

          As a White identarian I simply want a homeland and nation for White Americans. I would prefer that occur through actual negotiation. No war or conflict necessary. Hey! I am an idealist ok.

          • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 6:23 am #

            Head for Boise Idaho … you could be happy there.

    • hmuller March 5, 2020 at 10:27 am #

      I think Hillary will be persuaded for the public good to accept the job of Biden’s VP. Then we can all place bets on how long the hair plug king will live. Papa Bush waited over two months before his country club pal’s crazy son shot Reagan. I don’t think Hillary is that patient. Bad shrimp at the inaugural ball?

  78. BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 10:00 am #

    Biden might be the first President in history to have had a facelift — probably more than one — and hair plugs installed. All the insults we’ve heard directed at the president about his appearance, Orange Man, Fat B#stard, all that, haha, it’ll be our turn to hammer the Presidents appearance … it works two ways not just one way, and hammer him we will, mercilessly.

    Brh

    • malthuss March 4, 2020 at 10:05 am #

      Well, 80 isnt pretty. Pretty is the 10-14 year olds he is known to grope.

      I found this, however its now A2030 not A21>

      “I’m looking into buying rural land’

      You need to study up on the effects of UN Agenda 21 in all of our cities here in the U.S. The reason – to be direct and to the point – is that the intent is to get people out of the rural areas (research the “wildlands projects”) and into tightly packed cities (thus the popular mixed-use developments that are “in fashion” in every city). The way they get you off your rural land is by limiting what you can build, reducing services, increasing taxes, etc.

      So wherever you move, before you buy – find out what’s happening in that county with regard to how it affects land owners – in fact go out and talk to them to see what their concerns might be.

      Look up Rosa Koire on YouTube – then start looking what is being done in your own city. I listened to Rosa’s talks and then followed her advice and looked at what was happening in my own city – and was shocked to see that everything she said is 100% true.

      • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 11:23 am #

        The big question is where are all these city dwellers going to plug in their $75,000 EVs they’ll be driving? It’s a problem?

        Brh

  79. SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 10:09 am #

    Will the election even happen? I feel like there are so so many people who are totally clueless about what is coming. We’re only a few days away now from major “containment” activity on the West Coast supposedly. That will rapidly spread East as the realization that thousands of cases went undetected for weeks comes to light. Oh well, at least we started testing a few people.

    Or it could all just disappear and the nation will return its focus to Golem versus Retard, printed money, Kylie Jenner’s weirdly short middle toe, and flamin’ hot Cheetos.

  80. Billy Hill March 4, 2020 at 10:14 am #

    The Killer B’s die in office then what? Pelosi? She dies too. Then what? Sec of State Bloomberg? Another B?

    Poor Bloomberg got in because he thought Biden was going down. It’s larger than Bloomberg. Biden had to be resuscitated to head off what might come out of Ukraine, which is just the tip of the corruption iceberg. Further down lies Seth Rich, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and her brother, the Clinton Foundation, Jeffery Epstein’s bi-partisan blackmail…

    But wait! There’s more!

    On second thought it’s so dark, and so deep, that perhaps it is better that we just pretend not to notice, forget about it, and Move On… Forward… in to the next NFL season, the latest Netflix.

    We Are Here! Entertain Us!

    • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 10:21 am #

      I honestly even doubt Biden actually really won. It was all probably fabricated. Obviously such surges are possible in politics but really, he was behind in every poll essentially and nobody thought he was going to make it. He didn’t have the crowds, etc. It really is all just entertainment as you say.

      • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 11:06 am #

        particularly old black folks are told who to vote for by their masters so I wasn’t surprised Biden won in the South, there..

        • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 3:29 pm #

          I know! You tell em its ok to leave the plantation but they still won’t go. They got real comfortable with the way things were so why change now I guess.

          • Cargill March 5, 2020 at 6:31 am #

            If James had any genuine integrity, he would cull your disgustingly racist posts. It’s interesting that he doesn’t. I guess that’s why true troglodytes post here … because you aren’t culled.

          • Billy Hill March 5, 2020 at 8:05 am #

            If our host culled then we (and you) would not experience your posts of pure Truth, like shafts of sunlight down a darkened corridor illuminating the Way. The contrast here is not Yin and Yang, but more akin to Jesus among the Pharisees. In time disciples will gather, and hymns will be sung praising your name.

            (ed. note: from time to time posts appear telling JHK to write about something else, to develop better opinions, to remove certain posters, and on and on. These have been conspicuously ignored.)

  81. JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 10:25 am #

    Bloomberg has suspended his campaign. What a party! A businessman with no personality, a demented old man and two Communists. Tulsi, what the heck are you doing associating with these losers?

    Call Trump all the names you want. Something about water off a duck’s back. He is ten times the President that any of these losers could hope to be.

    Except maybe The other businessman, Bloomberg, who just quit.

    I am enjoying the Dem pundits this morning. It is amazing how much BS they can come up with to defend the incompetence of the Democratic Party.

    • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 11:05 am #

      Good post John, and I totally agree.

      Joe Biden is the best they got???
      seriously…

  82. JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 10:36 am #

    Interesting analogy.

    Snowbird effect.

    Businesses in Phoenix have to man up during the winter to handle the large influx of winter visitors. However, what do you do with extra folks not needed during the summer. The answer many times is to not man up to effective levels during the winter to avoid the Springtime dislocations. This leads to long lines, overcrowding of almost everything during the winter, and relief for the year round residents during the summer.

    Now plug in the Coronavirus. A “Winter” condition. We need, all of a sudden, ten times the personnel to counter the health care load presented by the virus. How do we get all these folks, from thin air? What do we do with them after the plague subsides? What we see right now are the equivalent of long lines and overcrowding of the resources required to fight the virus spread.

    These are the issues that the government is fighting right now. A good idea would be to just stay silent and let them do their impossible job.

    • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 10:46 am #

      Ah, but coronavirus is not a Winter condition. So now what?

      • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:18 am #

        SSL

        Did you read my analogy at all. The “winter” condition refers to the overcrowding of resources by increased demand.

        But yes, flu viruses are a winter phenomenon too.

        • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 11:30 am #

          Someone highlighted an additional problem for our hospitals here. Used to be hospitals were cleaned by hospital cleaning staff, employed by the NHS (and who took pride in their work). Creeping – sorry, rampant – privatisation of services means that for a long time now NHS hospitals have been cleaned by private contractors employing staff on zero-hours contracts. Workers on these contracts do not get sick pay. So when they’re sick they will continue to come into work. In hospitals.

          Oops. Predatory capitalism strikes again…

          • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 11:35 am #

            Predatory Socialism is usually backed up by the tender hands of Stasi and NKVD. Would you like that better?

          • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 11:40 am #

            Great point BRH.. I lived in the UK for a short time.. and the obsession with “benefits” from the government..and how the government was supposed to run their lives & the government was supposed to do everything….

            good fucking grief.. some of the most powerless slaves I’ve ever encountered in my life.

          • JohnAZ March 4, 2020 at 11:57 am #

            Predatory capitalism my foot.

            We are in a brave new world here, where there is so little information about a major threat that all we hear is to wash our hands and do not touch your face.

            Another way of saying, we do not have a clue what to do, so hunker down and let this disease run its course.

            Your example is a good one. To get rid of disease residue in a hospital requires sterilization. In other words, every room is maintained like an OR. Gee, I wonder what the cost impact on the National health care system might be?

            It amazes me how proponents of socialized anything think that the answer to all problems is to throw money at it.

            Right now, there is no way to clean a hospital to the point it should be, or a ship, or a school or any other public area. This virus is everywhere, like every other bug. We will never even impact the problem with “cleanliness”.

            So the best advice IS try to keep the organism from invading your space by washing your hands and not touching your face.

            It still depends on how good your immune system is, just like it has been since humans evolved.

            Want a good laugh. Visit a hospital’s isolation area and just observe. Tertiary care is the number one threat to community health. Heard about killer viruses and super bug bacteria. Hospitals are the number one cause.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 2:47 pm #

            So none of you guys would mind losing your sick leave rights? OK, understood.

            And you think that your sick leave rights are socialist. Or maybe you don’t have any? How does it work, JohnAZ? If you were absent from work at your hospital to have, say, a heart operation, did your pay stop straight away?

            Did you get paid vacation time? Did you complain and say you couldn’t accept it because it was ‘socialist’?

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 2:53 pm #

            Pete A

            “good fucking grief.. some of the most powerless slaves I’ve ever encountered in my life.”

            That’s what I think too about zero-hours contract workers. Good choice of words.

            Uber drivers don’t just get no pay when they’re sick, they get charged money for not finding a relief driver themselves. One here died because he couldn’t get to a medical appointment because of the regulations. Good man. That’s a real man. Hope his wife is duly proud.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 2:59 pm #

            You people have been rendered semi-insane by ideology.

          • K-Dog March 4, 2020 at 3:03 pm #

            The NKVD had nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with Stalin.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 3:03 pm #

            “Predatory Socialism is usually backed up by the tender hands of Stasi and NKVD. Would you like that better?”

            Why do you always answer questions in the same way, brh? The biggest, fattest straw man you can find.

            And this from a man who claims he has loads of free time when he’s at work. Nice ‘work’ if you can get it.

          • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 3:18 pm #

            GA

            I can’t help it if the presses break down.

            What do you want me to do? Handstands? Jumping Jacks?

            There’s time to kill in the middle of the night.

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 3:23 pm #

            Even when the computer network went down at my office, we found stuff to do. Do some cleaning if you’re stuck feeling like a leech taking money for nothing. 🙂

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 3:27 pm #

            I’m fascinated by PeteA’s notion that getting sick pay renders you a slave to the government, though. What a way to think!

            Like the government was going to send you out to dredge canals or something in lieu!

            Seriously what happens to people in your country who unexpectedly become seriously sick and need time off to recover – do their employers just sack them? And let their kids lose their home? And you talk about slavery!!

          • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 3:29 pm #

            And GA, about those UBER drivers you’re so worried about, I say tough sh#t. Let them go out and get some training to do something else. Nobody told them to spend $150,000 on a worthless degree in gender studies. I got a lifetime of work from one printing class I took in HS. There are plenty of skilled jobs around here going unfilled, for example everybody is looking for CNC machinists. The RR is hiring up in Springfield. The pay is good, the work is hard and dangerous, jobs where you are not “making a difference”, or “saving the planet”, but earning a living.

            Brh

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 4:22 pm #

            brh

            Now you’re making yourself look like an idiot because you’re miffed I pointed out you have an easy time at work. Luck you. My husband often comes back with one of the two filled rolls I’ve made him because he hasn’t had time to eat it (he goes in 45 minutes early to do so but once you’re in you end up working – unpaid – before your start time.

            How many Uber drivers do you really think have a degree in gender studies in the UK? Really, I’m challenging you to back up your ludicrous claim.

            Who do you want to drive taxis? Do you just want there to be no taxis when everyone’s done a college course in something ‘useful’? We need staff to clean hospitals. We’d still need staff to clean hospitals if everyone had a useful vocational qualification.

            And you’d still look down your nose at them. That kind of ideology is grotesque.

          • BackRowHeckler March 4, 2020 at 4:54 pm #

            GA I don’t look down on anybody and believe there’s dignity in all labor.

            But you gotta find an angle, and work that angle. I don’t even have to work if I don’t want to. I’m not out there to kill myself; I like being out in the world mixing it up with people, especially people different than myself.

            Brh

          • GreenAlba March 4, 2020 at 8:26 pm #

            There’s no dignity finding yourself on the street because you were unlucky enough to be sick or have an accident. The NHS was created to give working people dignity. As were the trade unions.

            People aren’t scum because they don’t have a skilled job. The unskilled jobs still need to be done. And how you treat the ‘losers’ (a thoroughly American concept) says a whole lot about you as a society.

            I know you’re not nasty to the people you work with, but there’s no virtue in creating a society that doesn’t give a f*ck about people down on their luck through no fault of their own.

            I just don’t get this weird idea I read on here about the government running people’s lives. I’ve still to find out what it is the government is doing to me to get its payback for giving me healthcare without having to be ruined. Whatever it is, it’s delightfully painless.

          • Janos Skorenzy March 4, 2020 at 8:34 pm #

            Good points, Alba. Never believe what these Pete types say, but watch what they do in their own country of Israel – National Socialism in a word.

            BRH is simply their ideological victim and mentally owned by them. He actually says things like, “Bibi is a man’s man” and shit like that.

        • SoftStarLight March 4, 2020 at 3:28 pm #

          Sorry I sort of missed the analogy! I re-read your post three times and I see what you mean now. And yes, I just remarked purely on the seasonality of the virus. 😛

        • PeteAtomic March 4, 2020 at 9:01 pm #

          oh lord you guys..

          I’m denigrating the general feeling and philosophy I encountered in the UK as a whole. I never mention NHS in my post there. A lot of the people I knew there were just common working class people. I felt bad for them. They were forced to pay in large amounts of their paychecks to a government in which they then felt forced to attempt to navigate an enormous bureaucracy of varying “benefits” in which to survive. To me, that was mind boggling.

          • GreenAlba March 5, 2020 at 9:57 am #

            “I’m denigrating the general feeling and philosophy I encountered in the UK as a whole.”

            Yeah, and wouldn’t I love to know how much of the ‘UK as a whole’ you actually met. Outside of the Daily Wail.

            I never worked in a single job where I didn’t do unpaid overtime and where it wasn’t expected.

          • GreenAlba March 5, 2020 at 10:01 am #

            Except the Co-op Dairy, who were excellent employers.