Below is my column for BBC on the Sanders campaign and my recent discussion of the election with over a dozen of his supporters at the University of Michigan. Biden is being portrayed as the effective nominee after last Tuesday and at least one Democrat is suggesting the cancelation of the remaining primaries. However, polls show a distinct lack of excitement about Biden as a candidate. His express selling point is that he is better situated to defeat Trump. That leaves an obvious vacuum on positive passion that was so evident at the Sanders rally that I attended.
Here is the column:
Standing in front of the library of the University of Michigan on Sunday, Bernie Sanders could be excused if he paused a moment to reflect on the estimated ten thousands of cheering supporters.
It was 60 years ago at the University of Chicago that Sanders began what he later described as “the major period of intellectual ferment in my life”.
Sanders joined the Young People’s Socialist League and other organisations and organised his first protest. He could only marshal a force of 32 students to occupy the administration building, but he ultimately prevailed. Sanders spent much of his life fighting for big ideas with small crowds.
Now, he has not just the numbers but the movement that he always dreamt of. Indeed, he is the movement. While some might not want socialism, everyone in this crowd desperately wants Sanders.
Watching from the edge of the massive crowd was one person who knew all too well what Sanders may have been thinking as he stood before this university crowd. Alan Haber smiled while holding fliers for Earth Day, wearing a tiny pin that simply read “SDS.”
The initials stood for The Students for a Democratic Society, a radical student organisation from the 1960s. Hader was its first president. Although others grew more moderate or conservative with age, Sanders and Hader continued to organise and agitate and wait for the crowd that might eventually form.
Those crowds got smaller and smaller for decades. Now the crowd was finally here and waiting for the first major presidential candidate in our lifetimes to call himself an unabashed socialist.
Most of Sanders’ supporters would not be born for decades when he stormed the UChicago administrative building. However, they identified with this 78-year-old radical in a way that Joe Biden can only dream of. Before the rally, I found two students setting up the stage hours before Sanders would emerge.
Arden Shapiro and Hazel Gordon are precisely why the Democratic establishment is so worried about this movement – and so seemingly incapable of tapping into its energy. While they would vote for Biden if forced to in an election against Trump, they see Sanders as the only true and clear voice in the race.
Arden said that she was “really angry” about the level of corporate control in our system perpetrated by both parties. A trans woman, Hazel said that she saw Sanders as the only person truly fighting to help people secure medical insurance, particularly mental health coverage.
Hazel said that she viewed Biden as taking the side of corporations and did not support anything she believed in. Arden would later help introduce Sanders at the rally and called on her fellow students to bring five friends to the polling places to secure a win in Michigan over the establishment.
Others were even more direct. There were the guys distributing “Eat the Rich” T-shirts. Another supporter carried a sign reading “Make Racists Afraid Again”. Those images unnerve many traditional Democratic voters who see this movement as potentially careening out of control.
Sanders has never done particularly well with people of his own age. Many of those who once joined his causes in the 1960s are now worried about their 401k accounts and social security payments. Sanders had to wait for a new generation and they are here in droves. The problem for the Democratic party is that they are including leaders like Biden in their fight against the “establishment”.
Indeed Sanders drove home that point in his speech where he denounced Biden and his “billionaire backers” for trying to kill this movement. The only reference in the speech that drew greater boos than Biden was a reference to ICE raids.
For them, the future lies with Bernie and younger voices like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who electrified the crowd. Whatever happens Tuesday, Sanders has found his audience and they are not going away. Sanders has shaped a rising generation that does not recoil from the term “socialism” and believes, as he did, that compromise only invites betrayal.
Every establishment figure now appears lined up against Sanders and over a dozen people told me that the concerted effort has only angered them more with the Democratic party. While half insisted that they would reluctantly vote for Biden if needed, half were not sure or outright refused to support Biden.
In other words, many are likely to stay at home. They are ready to storm the White House, the ultimate administrative building, for Bernie but not willing to walk into a polling place for Biden.
One former Michigan graduate wearing a homemade “Socialist Butterfly” jacket with Bernie’s picture on it said that she became a socialist after listening to Sanders in 2016. She is back again in 2020 with the same commitment. She still “feels the Bern” but feels nothing for Biden.
The Democratic establishment is hoping that the hatred for Trump will fill that void, but the co-ordinated effort against Sanders is only reaffirming the view that it is the establishment writ large that is the problem.
Jonathan Turley gives legal analysis for the BBC and is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He was called as a Republican witness to testify at the Trump impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.
Cindy Bragg says: March 13, 2020 at 9:52 PM
“Seth……no need to comment to me. I don’t appreciate your attacks on my friends, so……
Goodbye, Mr. Paint Chips!”
“My friends…”
Isn’t that just adorbs.
What a bunch of people on this blog need to learn.
———–
How Government Red Tape Stymied Testing and Made the Coronavirus Epidemic Worse
FDA and CDC bureaucrats stopped private and academic diagnostic tests from being deployed.
Ronald Bailey3.11.2020 11:25 AM
CoronavirusAbstract
(Dgmate/Dreamstime)
The United States is home to the most innovative biotech companies and university research laboratories in the world. That fact should have given our country a huge advantage with respect to detecting and monitoring emerging cases of COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus outbreak.
Instead, as The New York Times reports in a terrific new article, officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stymied private and academic development of diagnostic tests that might have provided an early warning and a head start on controlling the epidemic that is now spreading across the country.
As the Times reports, Seattle infectious disease expert Dr. Helen Chu had, by January, collected a huge number of nasal swabs from local residents who were experiencing symptoms as part of a research project on flu. She proposed, to federal and state officials, testing those samples for coronavirus infections. As the Times reports, the CDC told Chu and her team that they could not test the samples unless their laboratory test was approved by the FDA. The FDA refused to approve Chu’s test on the grounds that her lab, according to the Times, “was not certified as a clinical laboratory under regulations established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a process that could take months.”
In the meantime, the CDC required that public health officials could only use the diagnostic test designed by the agency. That test released on February 5 turned out to be badly flawed. The CDC’s insistence on a top-down centralized testing regime greatly slowed down the process of disease detection as the infection rate was accelerating.
A frustrated Chu and her colleagues began testing on February 25 without government approval. They almost immediately detected a coronavirus infection in a local teenager with no recent travel history. Chu warned local public health officials of her lab’s finding and the teenager’s school was closed as a precaution. The teen’s diagnosis strongly suggested that the disease had been circulating throughout the western part of Washington for weeks. We now know that that is likely true.
Did the FDA and CDC functionaries commend Chu for being proactive? Not at all. Washington state epidemiologist Scott Lindquist recalled, “What they said on that phone call very clearly was cease and desist to Helen Chu. Stop testing.” On February 29, the FDA finally agreed to unleash America’s vibrant biotech companies and academic labs by allowing them to develop and deploy new tests for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The Times notes:
The Seattle Flu Study illustrates how existing regulations and red tape—sometimes designed to protect privacy and health—have impeded the rapid rollout of testing nationally, while other countries ramped up much earlier and faster. Faced with a public health emergency on a scale potentially not seen in a century, the United States has not responded nimbly.
Due to red tape, the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. will be worse than it should have been.
https://reason.com/2020/03/11/how-government-red-tape-stymied-testing-and-made-the-coronavirus-epidemic-worse/
…And the New York Times article
—-
‘It’s Just Everywhere Already’: How Delays in Testing Set Back the U.S. Coronavirus Response
A series of missed chances by the federal government to ensure more widespread testing came during the early days of the outbreak, when containment would have been easier.
cont: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-delays.html?searchResultPosition=6
I think his business career has been very productive. You should worry about your own.
I do every single day.
Still think open borders and sanctuary cities and caravans are grand ideas?
Bernie and I are the same age. This is all Deja Vu for me . . .
A BRAIN.
Regarding outsourcing of various things, something Trump talked about often over a period of many years when he was not running for office. Here is an article to add to Anon’s reading list. *in particular: “Donald Trump is expected to announce a new executive order aimed at ensuring medical supplies and pharmaceuticals are made in America”. I await Joe Biden to add that to his list.
Medical Supply Chain From China a ‘National Security Risk’
The outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus, which was recently labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), has highlighted the longstanding issue of America’s dependence on China for medical supplies.
President Donald Trump is expected to announce a new executive order aimed at ensuring medical supplies and pharmaceuticals are made in America, in response to the spread of the virus.
While a White House spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times about the order, an official statement from Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) office appeared to confirm its existence, as did media reports.
The announcement comes as the Chinese Communist Party-run Global Times published an article saying that China “could ban the export of face masks and other medical gear to America which are in acute shortage,” over recent actions by the United States to restrict market access to Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which was founded in 1987 by a former People’s Liberation Army engineer.
The United States is “dramatically dependent” on China for medical supplies that include among them masks, scans, prescription drugs, and their ingredients, according to Rosemary Gibson, a senior adviser at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, and the co-author of “China RX: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine.”
“Our dependence is a risk to our national security,” she told The Epoch Times. “For prescription drugs, 90 percent of the core ingredients, the chemicals, and other ingredients depend on China.”
Gibson said the dependence on China is a huge risk because it exposes the lack availability of certain medicines that are crucially needed in the United States, especially antibiotics. Doctors and nurses could also be at risk if there’s a shortage of masks and protective gowns.
Last week, the Trump administration granted exemptions from tariffs on medical products imported from China, which include protective masks and medical gloves.
“This is about life and death here,” Gibson added. “This is about survivability.”
The United States is ramping up efforts to quell the spread of the virus, which is now confirmed in over 1,3o0 people across the country, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University. At least 38 people have died from the virus, as of press time.
Rubio praised the administration’s expected executive order, a day before chairing a March 12 hearing titled, “The Coronavirus and America’s Small Business Supply Chain.” He serves as chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
“The coronavirus outbreak has been a wake-up call that we must combat America’s supply chain vulnerabilities and dependence on China in critical sectors of our economy,” Rubio said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration’s forthcoming Executive Order is a very strong first step toward increasing domestic production by enforcing Buy American requirements for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, as well as fast-tracking FDA approval of critical products impacted by the coronavirus outbreak’s strain on the supply chain.”
Gibson said the reliance on China for medical supplies stems on the communist regime’s engagement in a “strategy of illegal trade practices to fix prices to dump products [and] medicines on the global market at below-market prices.”
“They subsidized their domestic companies, they don’t want to import our products and so that has driven out western companies,” she said. “It’s not just lower costs, it’s market manipulation.”
Details of what the executive order would entail remain unclear. Trump announced late on March 11 that the United States will impose a 30-day travel ban on travelers from Europe amid coronavirus concerns, with exemptions for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Robert J. Bunker, adjunct research professor at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, told The Epoch Times it would be a “massive strategic mistake for the United States to allow itself to continue to be vulnerable to Chinese ‘pharmaceutical blackmail’ potentials.”
“The communist regime could use such leverage for international gains such as further cracking down on Hong Kong or isolating Taiwan by threatening to withhold pharmaceutical delivers to the United States if its demands are not met,” he said via email.
The State Department is also urging Americans to think carefully before traveling outside the country because of the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19. The department “advises U.S. citizens to reconsider travel abroad due to the global impact of COVID-19,” it said in an updated global health advisory on March 11.
In multiple states, people are also being cautioned against attending major gatherings. Public health officials in California are advising against gatherings of 250, and in New York state, public gatherings of 500 people or more are being banned.
On March 12, Vice President Mike Pence said officials are expecting to see thousands of cases of coronavirus in the United States. Trump also announced on March 11 that he will instruct the Treasury Department to allow individuals and businesses negatively affected by the coronavirus to defer their tax payments beyond the April 15 filing deadline.
One thing the US can and probably should do is stop relying on disposable gowns, drapes and other medical items that can be re-sterilized. Did you ever watch M*A*S*H? For surgery, they used cloth gowns, masks and hair coverings. It might save money.
If you want to blame someone for US dependence on Chinese-made ingredients for prescription drugs, blame Big Pharma. They use Chinese manufacturing because Americans have to be paid a living wage, and they make more money. I seriously doubt American companies can get up and running with the capacity to completely replace all Chinese-made prescription drugs and ingredients before this COVID-19 crisis ends. If this is a foreseeable crisis, why hasn’t Trump done something in the 3+ years he’s been in office? Could it be because of all the generous donations Big Pharma makes to his campaign.
I very sincerely wish he would just shut up and stay off the airwaves. Every time he speaks, my portfolio takes another hit, and chaos ensures, just like the sudden European travel ban he decreed without even consulting our European allies. But, his ego won’t allow it. Truth is, he’s just a bystander to this crisis, which has no dependable federal leadership. He honestly doesn’t understand the extent to which most people have no confidence in him and don’t believe anything he has to say. He will no doubt continue trying to shift blame for his failures to the CDC, to Obama, to anyone else he can. Americans are sick and tired of this lack of leadership and endless airing of his grievances.
Natacha – our European allies did not consult us when they got into Brexit and decided to screw over the UK for leaving the EU. Did they ask our opinion? No!!! We do not have to consult them when the continent is infected.
Paul, that shouldn’t matter now. And that’s why the markets are gyrating: ‘because investors know that Trump is too concerned with petty grievances’. That’s not leadership!
Peter – the market is going nuts because the Saudis and Russians are fighting over oil, travel business is down, airlines, etc. Disney stock is tanking on its own before they decided to close Disneyland and Disney World. Disney owns like 70% of the entertainment IPs.
Paul, you’re not dealing with reality. It’s no coincidence the market tanked after Trump’s speech. That was a vote of ‘No Confidence’. To blame it all on the Saudis and Russians is absolute denial.
Paint Chips, you have got to stop thinking of old leaded paint as potato chips.
Allan…..LOL…..I wondered how you had come up with the name.
Cindy, thanks but I think the real credit goes to Olly.
It is well earned for couple of reasons: 1. Despite his multiple aliases, nothing about his posting style has changed. 2. None of his aliases have demonstrated an ability to connect with the left half of the brain.
As long as point 2 remains true for every alias he uses, then it is perfectly reasonable to use Paint Chips when addressing or referencing him.
Cindy, these threads are full of genuine nut cases, including Alan, who dwells in an alternate reality. If liberals outnumbered conservatives here he wouldnt try to tag me with stupid names. Alan only does that because he’s a coward protected by our nominal moderator on comment threads dominated by conservatives. Being protected as he is, Alan feels safe to insult as he does.
Seth: explain to me why you think the financial markets would remain positive in the face of a global pandemic, in which the Asian markets and manufacturing sectors are suspended, and Europe doesn’t have enough equipment or room in hospital.
Make your argument.
Paint Chips, so far almost all of what I have said over the time I have been here has been true or realistic. You claim differently but you are unable to prove me factually wrong on significant things or show anyone why my opinion isn’t based on reality.
We had a lot more Liberals on the list in the past and that had no effect on what I said. Today I think you might be right. Liberals are learning they can’t defend these crazy positions they have had so they seem to depart or at the very least change their names. You have done that multiple times pretending to be someone else. That is a sign of cowardice.
Seth……no need to comment to me. I don’t appreciate your attacks on my friends, so……
Goodbye, Mr. Paint Chips!
Mr. paint Chips. Well done! 🤣
Thank you Cindy. 🙂
Seth – why would the markets remain positive after Chinese manufacturing suspended, global work is disrupted as people cannot go to their jobs, schools are closing, hospitals in Europe run out of ventilators, and people keep finding excuses for non essential travel?
I just wish people would stop doing panic runs on toilet paper. You can’t eat toilet paper. These people are all going to be in toilet paper forts with nothing to eat.
Paul C……👍
It’s not that the market is going down, it’s that the opportunity to buy is going up.
_______________________________________________________________
“One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.”
– Paul Simon
__________
“Buy when there’s blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.”
– Baron Rothschild, 1815
That’s not leadership!
Really? Why don’t you define what leadership is? Does a good leader continue policies that have outsourced interests, vital to our national security, to foreign entities? Or does a good leader defy those failing policies and prioritize making our country as independently secure as possible? I’d say the latter is a visionary leader.
In the pre-Trump era, Republicans held hands with liberal Democrats in embracing NAFTA, GATT, the WTO and most-favored-nation trade privileges for China.
In retrospect, was it wise to have relied on China to produce essential parts for the supply chains of goods vital to our national security? Does it appear wise to have moved the production of pharmaceuticals and lifesaving drugs for heart disease, strokes and diabetes to China? Does it appear wise to have allowed China to develop a virtual monopoly on rare earth minerals crucial to the development of weapons for our defense?
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/03/coronavirus-new-world-order-america-first-pat-buchanan.html?utm_source=The+Imaginative+Conservative+%28Daily%29&utm_campaign=b5738fb125-Today%27s+Essays&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b25fb6fc69-b5738fb125-132528881&mc_cid=b5738fb125&mc_eid=c1f326aae5
olly………I always enjoy your comments, your intelligence, and your humor!
That’s sweet of you to say Cindy. I don’t get a lot of feedback on my posts. Check out this article regarding the pandemic that was shared with me this morning.
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Olly, your thoughts are treasured bits of common sense and Americanism that strikes against those that with no knowledge disgrace themselves.
You and Cindy might be interested in this https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
If you cut off coronavirus you will be left with other information.
Enjoy.
Thank you Allan. I appreciate that. And thank you for the link.
“n alarming unintended consequence of President Donald Trump’s misguided trade war with China has suddenly threatened to cripple the US fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration’s tariffs on Chinese medical products may contribute to shortages and higher costs of vital equipment at a time of nationwide health crisis. In the last two years, Trump’s policy has forced China to divert the sales of these products—including protective gear for doctors and nurses and high-tech equipment to monitor patients—from the United States to other markets, and now the US medical establishment faces looming trouble importing these necessities from other countries, which may be hoarding them to meet their own health crises.
To deal with this issue, the Trump administration quietly announced on March 10 and 12, 2020, that it would temporarily reduce some tariffs imposed on Chinese products to treat the coronavirus pandemic. But those actions, which effectively acknowledged that trade wars can endanger public health, covered only a handful of urgently needed products. Trump’s tariffs had been slapped on nearly $5 billion of US imports of medical goods from China, about 26 percent of all medical goods imported from all countries. Now that there are potential supply shortages globally, the US health crisis demands that the administration comprehensively and permanently reverse these policies of self-harm….”
https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/trumps-trade-policy-hampering-us-fight-against-covid-19
The administration’s tariffs on Chinese medical products may contribute to shortages and higher costs of vital equipment at a time of nationwide health crisis.
Your petty-mindedness hinders your ability to address the larger problem. Have you bothered to consider why this is a problem in the first place? This administration’s trade policies are not the root problem. Their policies do however expose it.
Our trade policies over the last several decades have left us exposed to manipulative trade practices that do actual harm to our national security. As a result, when a crisis like this happens, we are not in a position to effectively isolate ourselves and deal with it.
The big, progressive brains that brought us these trade imbalances are never going to be held responsible for the damage they’ve done. In this case, we’ve moved the bulk of our needed medical supply chain offshore and are now realizing the costs of those policies.
Small-minded people will ignorantly blame this administration for finally doing something about the root problem. In the meantime, the President will have to take whatever actions are necessary in the short term to deal with this crisis, but strategically, he needs to continue to put our national security first.
Seth:
No. The markets are dropping because there is a global pandemic, European hospitals are overrun without sufficient equipment, China is abusing its citizens again and lying about the data, Chinese manufacturing is stagnant, world financial markets are in chaos, people are unable to go to work with quarantine measures globally, American schools are closing, people are unable to go to work in some sectors…
And you want to blame Trump? I’ll blame Trump for the tenor of his Tweets or discourse any day. But this is not Trump’s fault. Stop politicizing a health crisis and pull together for once.
Karen, Seth accurately noted the market decline after Trump’s disaster of a speech early in the week. It reacted positively today to his declaration of a National Emergency with $50 billion to spend.
What the President says is not the only, or most important factor in this crisis, but it is still very important, and to date, has been his usual ego trip with attempts at blaming others, and minimizing the threat, complete with medical falsehoods counterproductive to the efforts of our medical experts. We need unity now, and that goes for our dealings with other nations, especially our allies – it is a world wide crisis. We need leadership. Trump has so far proven not up to it. Maybe he’ll get it eventually, but given who he is, not likely.
” It reacted positively today to his declaration of a National Emergency with $50 billion to spend.”
Anon, you demonstrate how you don’t or can’t think. There was a relatively linear rise in the indices today not focused around the $50 Billion.
“We need leadership. Trump has so far proven not up to it.”
More evidence that you don’t have the slightest idea of what you are talking about. Today’s press conference demonstrated outstanding leadership that we seldom see. There was no partisanship.
Actually, Trump just didn’t crash the car into the wall like he did the other night. He did, however, shake all kinds of hands and get his mits all over the mic.
Good observation. I noticed that as well and I noted that Pence did the same. That did not make me happy. However, I also noted that neither of them touched their faces or anyone else except for the elbow shake. My guess is that there was a large bottle of Purell waiting for all of them.
“Anon, you demonstrate how you don’t or can’t think.”
So says Allan the Blog Idiot.
Diaper Man is so feeble one can smell his diaper. Just a stupid old fool who hasn’t had a new thought since 1962.
Paint Chips, were you calling me? Do you need a new set of diapers already?
The situation with Brexit is not even close to being comparable to suddenly announcing a travel ban 2 days before it was to take effect. People had to scramble to cancel trips, try to get alternative transportation, and people were put on hold for hours when trying to re-book travel or get a refund, only to have the call hung up. There was chaos at airports.
COVID-19 is already here. And, Trump lied about Americans being screened for COVID-19 before being allowed to return.
School districts across CA are announcing today that schools will close on Monday. 3 days notice. That’s because there is a chain of command in these decisions in this Democrat stronghold state. Trump did not require schools wait until Friday to let parents know.
That’s just what happens as more information gets out, meetings are held, and decisions made. Parents are scrambling to figure out what to do, as childcare during plague is not a good idea.
Don’t look at your retirement portfolio for at least 6 months. Buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
In the free markets of a free America, you, NUTCHACHA may develop a company that produces the particular products you mentioned or an organization which endeavors in the bizarre orientation of your choice. Congress has no power to tax for individual “…Welfare…” as specific welfare, redistribution of wealth or charity. Congress may tax only for “…general Welfare…” or to facilitate that ALL WELL PROCEED; the key being ALL.
Have at it.
It’s time to stop talkin’ and start chalkin’.
wow that is a first time i agree with almost half or 2/3 of what Natch said. the third para was crud of course, your typical trump hate
try and keep on thinking of something useful to say and you will raise the tenor of discussion here
as to “Trump doing something” the issue of global supply chains making America insecure has and was part of the campaign, although the issue at the time was related to other things, not medical. i could go back and pull the articles to show you but im a little busy right now
Nat, at least we now recognize all your expertise comes from fictional TV shows.
“If you want to blame someone for US dependence on Chinese-made ingredients for prescription drugs, blame Big Pharma.”
Blame the globalists that want to outsource everything and blame our leaders that take kickbacks from our enemies such as China.
For decades before enterring politics the President has been warning us about these types of problems.
Why did Big Pharma move some operations overseas?
That’s what happens when the cost of doing business goes up. They save money every way they can. That’s also why there are robot inventory scanners in Walmart now. Kiosks instead of human order takers. Phone trees in India. Online chats from customer service reps in India instead of manned helplines. So much made in China. H1B visa holders instead of Americans.
Politicians “help” people right out of jobs. What did they think was going to happen?
Every time the cost of doing business goes up, the choices are increase prices, lay off workers and have the rest pick up the slack, relocate, close. That’s it. That are the only options I am aware of. There is no magic money tree.
Action. Consequence.
What did you think would happen to your retirement account when a global pandemic spread from China? When Chinese manufacturing shut down, the world economy takes a hit. When a pandemic spreads globally, and traffic and events fall off, more hits. You just wait. When people have to stay home from work, nationwide, and with all these school closures, more hits.
There is going to be a deep global economic downturn. I’m not sure how long it will take to recover, but it will be a study case to prepare for the next Big One. And there will always be another one.
And someone needs to do a better job training nurses how to get into and out of a bunny suit without contamination. I am very disappointed to hear that nurses are getting sick from their covid19 patients. That wouldn’t happen without a breakdown in pathogen training or infection control policy.
I always worried that off shoring operations was going to bite them in the butt. I was more worried about contamination or supply problems. However, when Asian markets close, that can impact our supply of medicines that have nothing to do with covid19.
Some of these companies are head quartered in high tax states. It was inevitable that they would cut costs by off shoring, along with so many other American manufacturing jobs.
This could affect so many industries that rely on parts made in China.
Trump to EU: “Hey, you guys are a COVID hot spot. I’m thinking of banning y’all from coming to America. Thoughts?”
EU to Trump: “No, non, nien, niche [sic]. Don’t do that.”
Trump to EU: “OK, then. Well, I was just thinking out loud. Sorry. Send as many as you want.”
-Natacha’s view of consulting our European allies.
Looking at Biden’s plan to combat COVID it seems that Biden is plaigerizing a lot from what Trump has been doing or has already done.
Imagine that. The MSM has bashed Trump on his plans but Biden is copying its most important features.
Among other things:
Biden referred to the Trump’s actions in permitting university testing for the virus, “no efforts should be spared”. Trump already called for the elimination of copays thought by the Anon’s to have included the entire costs.Trump already got such a commitment from the insurers that included expanded coverage. Trump has already called for fast-tracking a vaccine something Biden felt needed to be done.
Trump said we were “very close” to a vaccine, which is a lie. Do you know much about how vaccines are developed? You should really do some research on this, because it’s not like cranking up an assembly line to turn out cars or mixing ingredients to bake a cake. You can’t really “fast track” a safe, effective vaccine. After an injectable or inhalable solution is created by culturing and isolating the organism which is stable in solution and determining whether it should be administered as a live, attenuated organism (like the Sabens vaccine), a killed organism (like the Salk vaccine), or whether some protein or other element isolated from the organism is sufficient to provoke an immune response (like the pertussis vaccine) then it has to be tested for efficacy and safety. Efficacy means that it must stimulate an effective immune response. Safety means that it doesn’t harm recipients, cause allergic reactions or otherwise put the recipient in more danger than the disease itself. Testing the vaccine for safety and efficacy takes a long time. It requires human volunteers, lots of follow up blood work and examinations. It does no good if a vaccine isn’t both safe and effective.
Biden isn’t “plagerizing” anything–he is repeating good advice from knowledgeable people. As to paying, co-pays may be eliminated, but deductibles aren’t, and since it isn’t even mid-March, most people with insurance haven’t met their annual deductibles, which can be very high. Yesterday, Rep. Katie Porter of California got a CDC official to commit that no American would have to pay anything for a COVID-19 test. She’s the hero here, not Trump. Problem is, there still are nowhere near enough tests available, something Trump has been lying about all along.
The mainstream media are criticizing Trump for his lack of leadership, for his shortsightness in disbanding the rapid response team, and for his deceitful attempts to downplay the significance of this crisis, plus his knee-jerk European travel ban. Because he lies so much, every time he speaks, the market goes crazy. He needs to just shut up. He’s done enough damage already.
Natacha – a vaccine is ready for human trials in the UK. For $4k you can be a test dummy.
I doubt the “test” but not the rest!
“Trump said we were “very close” to a vaccine, which is a lie.”
Nat, it is only a lie in your mind. It is a matter of perspective. I believe Trump had said up to a year and the CDC pointed to a 18 months. One doesn’t know the answer but before COVID the President focused on producing vaccines quicker and more effectively placing some of the control in the cabinet offices of the DOD and Dept. or health. See my response to Paint Chips.
Lazy bureaucracies waste a lot of time. Trump is used to dealing quickly with situations and pushes people so he gets the job done faster. Can he do it this time? Who knows, but it is worth the attempt.
Remember the example of the skating rink in Central Park. NYC spent years trying to repair it unsuccessfully. Trump came in with costs lower than had been spent and a time frame of a small fraction of what NYC had already spent. He got the project done underbudget and well before the time frame he proposed. People forget that large buraucracies like the federal government waste time and money while not getting the job done.
Allan: what you don’t understand is the extent to which we are way behind in dealing with COVID-19, not just in terms of developing a vaccine, but also in limiting transmission and coming up with drug therapy. Trump never said it would take “up to a year” for the vaccine–he said we were “very close”. Dr. Fauci corrected him by stating it would take at least 12 to 18 months. It could actually take years. This is a novel virus, and we don’t know enough about how it behaves, other than it is very virulent, it has a higher mortality rate than seasonal influenza, and children do better than adults. It also can live on contaminated surfaces for as long as 9 days. People who are infected can infect others before they are symptomatic. In developing a vaccine, the virus might not be stable enough in solution to be effective. It might cause allergic or other bad reactions in volunteers, or they might have to change the formulation to get a sufficient immune reaction. It takes trial and error. You can’t “fast track” biology. This is not a situation in which “pushing people” does any good. You can’t push a virus into replicating itself by a deadline or the human immune system to speedily create antibodies in order to compel fast results. This isn’t like building a skating rink. And putting Big Pharma insiders like Alex Azar in charge is just dumb.
There are many unknowns, but we’d be further along if we had been on top of it from the beginning. The delay is Trump’s fault. His lying and downplaying the risk have caused the stock market to go into free fall. He needs to shut up and let the scientists do their work. And, no, they aren’t lazy bureaucrats, either.
Very “close”
What does that mean? Close to what? How long is close. Very close in terms of a previously unknown vaccine is a wide range. Actually the President might be right based on how he is mobilizing the private sector.
We have had all of history to come up with an effective anti-viral and to date haven’t been able to do so, but in the pipeline there now seems to be a few undergoing trials. Will they work? Who knows. How do you limit transmision when you start off not knowing how it spreads and when it is so small it can go through masks. We have faced this problem every single year and that is why the President started his special taskforce on influenza before this virus existed in man. He knew the process was too slow and the production of vaccines too cumbersome. He thought about this long before everyone was focusing on this particular pandemic.
You don’t like him. I get that but your rationals and explanations are near meaningless and lack understanding of the science and the history. You make all sorts of comments that make you sound ignorant.
To add a wee bit of nuance to your sweeping generalizations about “large buraucracies”…
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/basics/test-approve.html
How does that change what I am saying? It appears you probably haven’t read what you refer others to and certainly haven’t spent the time to evaluate what was said there or above.
It *should* change what you’re saying because of this:
“How do you limit transmision when you start off not knowing how it spreads and when it is so small it can go through masks. We have faced this problem every single year and that is why the President started his special taskforce on influenza before this virus existed in man. He knew the process was too slow and the production of vaccines too cumbersome”.
This CDC basic primer deals exactly with why there is no such thing as vaccine development being too “cumbersome” and “slow”. Testing the efficacy process is what it is. As is scaling for side effects, which are really effects deemed distasteful in a perfect world. Basically, here’s the primer for Trump (and you)…it’s impossible to change the approval process without changing human biology and physiology. That’s if you’re into things like safe and effective vaccines.
In other words, it’s not like buying off electrical inspectors in NY.
Anon, you apparently don’t understand the things you read and quote. In that regard you sound more like Anonymous the Stupid. With regard to the entire spectrum of healthcare relative to the virus Trump has done a lot to speed all the processes up.
Natacha, yes I know all about how a vaccine is made. In fact, I was one of the lab rats used to develop one of them.
I already posted about the vaccine development. They are making remarkably fast headway, but that’s all academic until and unless it is completed.
http://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-awarded-funding-cepi-covid-19-vaccine-development
Joe Biden basically repeated everything the Trump Administration is already doing. You would know it if you spent a few minutes researching what the Administration actually does every day, rather than this constant, haranguing, Orange Man Bad. There are absolutely ways to improve the bureaucracy, but you are unaware of what’s been done.
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/03/12/joe-bidens-plan-for-dealing-with-wuhan-virus-was-plagiarized-from-the-most-amazing-source/
Why should wealthy Americans not have to pay for a covid19 test? What about upper middle class Americans? Because nothing is free. We all pay for it in taxes. I will happily chip in so the poor can have a test without paying at POS, but I do not want to pay more so that Kim Kardashian and Bill Gates can get tested without a copay. That’s ridiculous.
It is supposed to be means tested. She is not a hero for demanding that the rich not pay for their covid19 test.
That’s another Allan lie. Trump said:
““Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of the health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing,” ”
No insurance companies are paying for any part of any treatments. Many have agreed to pay for testing.
Anonymous the Stupid, I can’t figure out what I lied about. I can’t find this statement that was quoted but it seems like it is a quote from the President. How does that make it “another Allan lie”? Don’t trouble your puny brain answering because you are just too Stupid.
Since the Anon aliases are unaware of much of what is happening and therefore issues in their minds become confused I will quote the WSJ. It probably won’t help because they don’t care about the facts and make up the BS as they go along.
FDA to Allow Labs to Begin Use of High-Complexity Tests for Coronavirus
Policy means certain labs can begin immediate tests for coronavirus
Thomas M. BurtonUpdated Feb. 29, 2020 1:19 pm ET
The Food and Drug Administration said Saturday that it will allow hundreds of U.S academic hospital labs to immediately begin testing for the novel coronavirus.
The move by the federal agency means that the nation will become able virtually overnight to test thousands of patients rather than the few hundred tested so far for the virus, known as Covid-19.
“We believe this policy strikes the right balance during this public-health emergency,” FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn said in a statement. “We will continue to help to ensure sound science prior to clinical testing and follow-up with the critical independent review from the FDA, while quickly expanding testing capabilities in the U.S. We are not changing our standards for issuing Emergency Use Authorizations.”
President Trump announced a news conference on coronavirus Saturday afternoon.
The FDA said the new policy is for certain laboratories that develop and begin to use validated Covid-19 diagnostics before the FDA has completed review of their Emergency Use Authorization requests.
The FDA estimated that between 300 and 400 academic medical centers and a few large community hospitals can immediately begin testing. Until Saturday’s announcement, the U.S. had been limited to a relatively few diagnostic tests done so far by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
continued https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-allow-labs-to-begin-use-of-high-complexity-tests-for-coronavirus-11582992472
I Went Fox Expecting Denial
But Their News Ain’t No Better
This story corresponds with mainstream media. Hospitals are unprepared for pandemic.
……………………………………………………..
Martha MacCallum calls out CMS head for dodging question on coronavirus prep: ‘That is not a direct answer’
https://www.foxnews.com/media/martha-maccallum-seema-verma-coronavirus-hospital-preparedness
Scary!
Bull! How do we know if there is enough equipment if we have no idea about the number of people who will contract the virus? This is getting silly.
Cindy, your question reveals another issue: ‘Trump dismantled the White House Pandemic Office that would have coordinated all necessary information’.
‘Trump dismantled the White House Pandemic Office that would have coordinated all necessary information’.
The man he fired is a non-practicing lawyer who appears to have been a John Bolton protege. I don’t think he’d have been much help here.
Absurd you are lying. Obama created a White House Pandemic Response Team to deal with the Ebola outbreak. Then, in 2018, Trump either told John Bolton to dismantle the team, or Bolton did that on his own. Regardless of whose decision it was, Trump was president and it’s his White House.
Despite the Pandemic Response Team’s existence the President recognized, before we were faced with the Corona virus, the need to improve our ability to create new vaccines quicker and more effectively than had been doing. He noted that, vaccination levels were only 45% of CDC goals. He recognized the shortcomings of our methods in the manufacture of influenza vaccines and that those methods could make the vaccines less effective and unsuitable while not being efficiently scalable.
The President stated that the approach being used was insufficient if a pandemic occurred.
He therefore established the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force which was to be co-chaired by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This sounds like the President was on target.
One wonders if his time wasn’t compromised by phony claims of Russian influence and impeachment if the President would have been able to focus even more time on this problem that he recognized needed to be directly targeted and under direct supervision of the DOD.
Allan……..exactly!
Well Cindy maybe you can tell us why investors didnt get the same notes Alan claims (with no sources as usual). Does it seem logical the markets would go careening as they have if investors had faith in Trump?? No, it’s NOT logical.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/nsc-pandemic-office-trump-closed/2020/03/13/a70de09c-6491-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html
“Well Cindy maybe you can tell us why investors didnt get the same notes Alan claims (with no sources as usual). Does it seem logical the markets would go careening as they have if investors had faith in Trump?? ”
Paint Chips, you read the Washington Post which is written for people that can’t think and need someone else to push talking points. Faith isn’t everything with regard to the market places when supply chains are interrupted. That is something above your intelligence level, but do you remember yesterday when I indicated it was around the time to start buying. Did you note the Dow Jones and other indicators today? Did you see it spike upwardly while the President spoke?
Actually, to be clear it was going down when the president spoke. It rallied hard right at the close. If you’re timing that…it was when the corporate guy answered a question about restocking shelves in the stores.
Here’s some market insight from someone who trades them for a living these days. Never buy the dip before it tells you it’s just a dip and not a free fall.
Big picture, the market is now on a down trend. It’s been in a channel for awhile. In other words ripe for selling the highs and buying recent lows. Whereas it’s good to “buy the dips” in an up trend, the reverse is true in a down trend. In .other words, you’d be better off selling the rallies now.
We’re looking at whipsaw volatility for awhile as the market tries to calibrate itself. Three separate days in the last week rank in the top ten of volatile days dating back to 1924. Wild action. Absolutely wild. And it caught people by surprise.
A week back on the first crash day, I said here to think of it like taking a significant chunk out of a tree with an axe. Will the tree rally back? Possibly. But if the chunk is significant enough the tree might tread water for awhile but it will suffer, if not die, as a result.
The market came down 25% in a week. Straight up, we’re talking end of up trend. Can you day trade or swing trade? Sure. Just know what you’re doing. Biggest mistake traders make, and it’s driven entirely by cognitive dissonance, is to confuse whether they’re trading short term or long term. I.e. Entering a trade on short term signals and logic and then hanging in longer term when the trade turns against them. That’s how people go bankrupt.
“Actually, to be clear it was going down when the president spoke. It rallied hard right at the close.”
You had better change your source of information. I think the President started speaking at 3:30 and stocks went down perhaps the first three minutes. Then the stocks soared and not due to any one person that towards the end answered questions. It appears that at one point there was a shudder which reversed itself. The line was linear from about 3:33. You are no stock analyst.
We remain in uncertain times but when this problem ends our economy will soar. Globalism has taken a bad hit which will be good for the normal American citizen that works and perhaps not so good for our globalist billionaires. I think medicine will rapidly demonstrate specific advancement during this time period. I think the American public will be made more aware of proper hygiene and might even readjust its values. You talk about the possibility of the “tree” dying but I am very optimistic about the future of the US just as I was when Trump won the election.
Look at a short term chart. The various swings inside the press conference will be washed out on a daily chart. I’d suggest a one minute chart or even less.
We’re in for a wild ride for awhile. Best to trade markets on technical information rather than the mix of fundamental factors, and frankly manic and paranoid factors, you’ve just cited.
But you be you, brutha. Just don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
Anon, you are looking at a leaf on the tree and missing the entire forest. Expand it out all you want and use all the garbage that the so-called experts tell you to use. They aren’t such experts for if they were most of them would be on an island with their favorite alcoholic beverage. Your type of investor is great because as a rule they lose relative to the marketplace leaving more money for better investors.
Remember that most of the trading is done by huge companies who hire the best so when the expert from MIT is selling he is selling to another expert from Harvard. You think it is a wild ride and that is what happens when you look at seconds. The market is quite predictable in the long term. It’s just that one can’t accurately predict when the sudden fall will occur or when the sudden rise will occur. I never considered 9/11 to be a wild ride just like I don’t consider this a wild ride. I consider all of these things opportunities.
We don’t know how many people will need hospitalization, but we do know what our hospital capacities are. Have you seen the illustration that tracks the growth in the number of COVID-19 cases in China, and how the number spiked very quickly, superimposed over a flattened curve if transmission is slowed down? This graphic has a line that represents the maximum hospital capacity in this country. If we don’t take steps to slow down transmission of the virus, then we won’t have hospital capacity to meet the needs of infected people and people will die because we can’t take care of them. We are handicapped because we are unable to test enough people, so there are positive cases out there infecting others. That’s why all of the closures.
Kind of makes open border Democrats look like maniacs, right about now, doesn’t it?
In order to test people, we need accurate test kits in sufficient quantity. The beta test rollout developed by the CDC had accuracy problems. That was addressed. The reagents come from a company whose operations are in Germany and Spain. They are working round the clock to get those reagents out.
We have to scale up field assay test kits to at least a million. That will take time.
The CDC had an increase in pandemic preparedness funding. We need to analyze their response times and find ways in which to improve it for the next Big One.
I also think that the world needs to develop a coordinated system for suspension of travel. A critical area to work on, as well, is to evolve a world market that can withstand periodic temporary suspensions. A couple of months of suspended business and travel activity is not the end of the world. But the markets need to become able to withstand that.
Did you bother to look and assess what Trump has been doing in the recent time frame. He is working like a businessman not a politician and he is getting things done.
Too bad his business career has been so sketchy then, isn’t it?
Not if you understand business and business leaders that are visionary thinkers. Politicians think in terms of elections. And the risks they take typically have no negative impact on their careers or their personal finances. All the risk is eventually borne by the citizens. In contrast, business leaders shoulder enormous personal risk to their career and finances.
If we compared 50 years of what political leaders have done to this country, with what Donald Trump has done in the business world, I would say his leadership has been far more successful than the politicians.