Just when you thought that we were on the right side of the evolutionary curve, pictures emerge of students jamming Florida beaches and others videotaping themselves licking toilets and doorknobs as part of “coronavirus challenges.” It is tempting to shrug and say that this is an efficient way to thin the herd of morons but, of course, these young people are putting more vulnerable people at risk. They however are not immune. One toilet licker has come down with the virus and a “coronavirus party” has led to transmission.
We discussed today how police are how ratcheting up charges for pranks and challenges posted on social media as “terroristic threats.” It still comes as a cost. The “coughing prank” has led a store to throw out $35,000 in produce that is badly needed in this crisis.
Some of these individuals however are likely undeterred. In bizarre TikTok footage, people are shown licking toilet bowls. One such man according to Piers Morgan is now in treatment.
Another TikTok character explained her video licking an airplane toilet seat by telling Metro : “I was tired of that b***h corona getting more publicity than ME. I’m the real celebrity.”
Others have decided to gather for moronic moments. At least one person in Kentucky is now infected after taking part at a “coronavirus party.”
This all explains the latest coined term: Covidiot, or “someone who ignores the warnings regarding public health or safety.”
“If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968)”
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
Rose, that NEJM was originally published on Feb 28. They have republished it with today’s date for good reasons, i.e. numerator vs denominator and selection bias are skewing current flawed fatality estimates.
Meanwhile…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-coronavirus-great-awakening-11585262324
A Coronavirus Great Awakening?
Sometimes the most important ingredient for spiritual renewal is a cataclysmic event.
By Robert Nicholson
Could a plague of biblical proportions be America’s best hope for religious revival? As the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, there is reason to think so.
Three-quarters of a century has dimmed the memory of that gruesome conflict and its terrible consequences: tens of millions killed, great cities bombed to rubble, Europe and Asia stricken by hunger and poverty. Those who survived the war had to grapple with the kinds of profound questions that only arise in the aftermath of calamity. Gazing at the ruins from his window at Cambridge University, British historian Herbert Butterfield chose to make sense of it by turning to the Hebrew Bible.
“The power of the Old Testament teaching on history—perhaps the point at which the ancient Jews were most original, breaking away from the religious thought of the other peoples around them—lay precisely in the region of truths which sprang from a reflection on catastrophe and cataclysm,” Butterfield wrote in “Christianity and History” (1949). “It is almost impossible properly to appreciate the higher developments in the historical reflection of the Old Testament except in another age which has experienced (or has found itself confronted with) colossal cataclysm.”
Americans, chastened by the horrors of war, turned to faith in search of truth and meaning. In the late 1940s, Gallup surveys showed more than three-quarters of Americans were members of a house of worship, compared with about half today. Congress added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. Some would later call this a Third Great Awakening.
Today the world faces another moment of cataclysm. Though less devastating than World War II, the pandemic has remade everyday life and wrecked the global economy in a way that feels apocalyptic.
The experience is new and disorienting. Life had been deceptively easy until now. Our ancestors’ lives, by contrast, were guaranteed to be short and painful. The lucky ones survived birth. The luckier ones made it past childhood. Only in the past 200 years has humanity truly taken off. We now float through an anomalous world of air conditioning, 911 call centers, acetaminophen and pocket-size computers containing nearly the sum of human knowledge. We reduced nature to “the shackled form of a conquered monster,” as Joseph Conrad once put it, and took control of our fate. God became irrelevant.
Who will save us now that the monster has broken free?
“Men may live to a great age in days of comparative quietness and peaceful progress, without ever having come to grips with the universe, without ever vividly realising the problems and the paradoxes with which human history so often confronts us,” Butterfield wrote. “We of the twentieth century have been particularly spoiled; for the men of the Old Testament, the ancient Greeks and all our ancestors down to the seventeenth century betray in their philosophy and their outlook a terrible awareness of the chanciness of human life, and the precarious nature of man’s existence in this risky universe.”
The past four years have been some of the most contentious and embarrassing in American history. Squabbling over trivialities has left the public frantic and divided, oblivious to the transcendent. But the pandemic has humbled the country and opened millions of eyes to this risky universe once more.
“Sheer grimness of suffering brings men sometimes into a profounder understanding of human destiny,” Butterfield wrote. Sometimes “it is only by a cataclysm,” he continued, “that man can make his escape from the net which he has taken so much trouble to weave around himself.”
For societies founded on the biblical tradition, cataclysms need not mark the end. They are a call for repentance and revival. As the coronavirus pandemic subjects U.S. hospitals to a fearsome test, Americans can find solace in the same place that Butterfield did. Great struggle can produce great clarity.
“The ancient Hebrews, by virtue of inner resources and unparalleled leadership, turned their tragedy, turned their very helplessness, into one of the half-dozen creative moments in world history,” Butterfield wrote. “It would seem that one of the clearest and most concrete of the facts of history is the fact that men of spiritual resources may not only redeem catastrophe, but turn it into a grand creative moment.”
Could a rogue virus lead to a grand creative moment in America’s history? Will Americans, shaken by the reality of a risky universe, rediscover the God who proclaimed himself sovereign over every catastrophe?
Thank you for the update, Estovir. I only saw today’s date.
What are your thoughts on the estimates?
Thank you, as well, for sharing the WSJ article. I enjoyed it.
The predictions peddled by the MSM are incorrect. Fatality rates from SARS-CoV2 / COVID-19 are more likely under 1%. Numerator vs denominator
When a person acquires HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Epstein-Barr Virus, Cytomegalovirus, Rhabdoviridae (Rabies virus), all cause certain pathology and eventual death that no one escapes if untreated. Not true for SARS-CoV2 / COVID-19. More than 80% of those are experience mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. Most of these do not seek medical attention and hence do not get tested (denominator). The current fatality rates are based on those who die (numerator) divided by those who test positive (denominator). Since 80% never get tested, these are not included in the denominator, leaving a skewed result due to selection bias.
Moreover, Dr Anthony Fauci stated all this a month ago on February 28 in the NEJM article I posted on this forum back then and now you.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-coronavirus-as-deadly-as-they-say-11585088464
Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?
Current estimates about the Covid-19 fatality rate may be too high by orders of magnitude.
As of March 23, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 499 Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. If our surmise of six million cases is accurate, that’s a mortality rate of 0.01%, assuming a two week lag between infection and death. This is one-tenth of the flu mortality rate of 0.1%. Such a low death rate would be cause for optimism.
the following article, written by a Yale physician, and published by NYT, supports with the above NEJM & WSJ analysis.
Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?
There may be more targeted ways to beat the pandemic.
By David L. Katz
Dr. Katz is president of True Health Initiative and the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.
The data from South Korea, where tracking the coronavirus has been by far the best to date, indicate that as much as 99 percent of active cases in the general population are “mild” and do not require specific medical treatment. The small percentage of cases that do require such services are highly concentrated among those age 60 and older, and further so the older people are. Other things being equal, those over age 70 appear at three times the mortality risk as those age 60 to 69, and those over age 80 at nearly twice the mortality risk of those age 70 to 79.
These conclusions are corroborated by the data from Wuhan, China, which show a higher death rate, but an almost identical distribution. The higher death rate in China may be real, but is perhaps a result of less widespread testing. South Korea promptly, and uniquely, started testing the apparently healthy population at large, finding the mild and asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 other countries are overlooking. The experience of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which houses a contained, older population, proves the point. The death rate among that insular and uniformly exposed population is roughly 1 percent
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-pandemic-social-distancing.html
Thank you for the excellent replies, Estovir! I am sorry I missed your earlier post of the same article, but, it seems it needed to be repeated anyway. I will share your additional links with those friends and family who are particularly anxious about the whole thing.
In the above article, Dr. Katz notes that it is unclear why China’s death rate is and suggests it may be due to insufficient testing. I suspect that their death rate was, indeed, very high and at least some portion of the cause is the terrible pollution.
What are your thoughts on the containment response, if you feel comfortable commenting? Was there a less disruptive way to decrease infections and ‘flatten the curve’?
Dr. Katz notes that it is unclear why China’s death rate is and suggests it may be due to insufficient testing.
Katz is not alone in questioning China’s figures. I posted on this forum an article published in JAMA on March 23. Look for it. It was skewering in the few words they used to call out China but rightly so.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763667
I take what the WHO and China say with less than a grain of salt. For decades I heard the lie by the WHO that medical care in Cuba was a shining example of what health care should be. The WHO breathlessly cited their “data” that many on the Left referenced. Here’s the caveat: their “data” was supplied by the Communists of Cuba. The WHO doesn’t have the resources to visit every country and assess the health care therein. They simply publish, like with China & COVID-19, whatever data the member countries provide them. Imagine that.
Was there a less disruptive way to decrease infections and ‘flatten the curve’?
Dr Anthony Fauci was very clear in his goals as articulated in a NEJM podcast & transcript that I also posted on this forum. His goals were simple: not to panic & use caution
https://podcasts.jwatch.org/index.php/podcast-256-anthony-fauci-talking-with-patients-about-covid-19/2020/03/10/
We did not listen. Setting aside the $2 Trillion passed by Congress, what is the price to this country for panicking and failing to adopt a modicum of caution? We will never know
FWIW:
“To the Editor:
Re “Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?” (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, March 20):
We take issue with Dr. David L. Katz’s suggestion that the global community is overreacting to Covid-19. He favors letting the pandemic run its course, but somehow “walling off” the most vulnerable. He argues that his strategy would preserve the global economy, while stemming deaths from Covid-19. We disagree.
First, it is not yet known who all of the most vulnerable people are. We believe that it is easier, quicker and more efficient to reduce transmission over all than to permit high levels of transmission in the community but somehow keep it from afflicting susceptible people in our highly networked world.
Second, it is likely that more intense transmission among younger people, who Dr. Katz suggests should be freed of most social-distancing restrictions, would result in many more of their deaths, especially as hospitals become overwhelmed.
Third, allowing the virus to spread uninhibited across a wide swath of our country might eliminate any hope we might have of snuffing out viral transmission into a new respiratory virus season next winter.
We do agree with Dr. Katz’s point that a public-health response should be very aggressive in finding ways to protect and treat those who are especially vulnerable to severe Covid-19 infection: older individuals, people with chronic diseases and the immunologically compromised. But it is a false dichotomy to suggest that this can happen only if social distancing is reduced.
Until we have a vaccine to prevent Covid-19 and effective antiviral drugs, it is essential to engage in aggressive personal hygiene, social distancing, increased testing, isolation of exposed people, and strategies to avoid transmission in health settings. We must buy time for these advances and save lives in the interim.
Sten H. Vermund
Gregg Gonsalves
Becca Levy
Saad Omer
New Haven, Conn.
Dr. Vermund is dean of the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Gonsalves and Dr. Levy are epidemiologists at the school. Dr. Omer is director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.”
Gonsalves has registered as not being a fan of Dr. Birx’s application of AIDS research to Covid 19 in terms of transmission rate and its ability to project how it will move,( i.e. for her ‘county by county’ shutdown rationale). He maintains that since AIDS is a much slower model (he’s absolutely right since Covid 19 moves through contact that doesn’t require sex or sharing needles although it could move through blood transfusion) and that the research Birx is using, while he has tremendous respect for her and it’s awesome for the AIDS model — it’s really not correct for Covid 19.
When considering that Colorado is putting out research that shows each Covid 19 case averages passing it on to four people, this would tend to support Gonsalves’ conclusion. Even if the rate of contact transmission is lower than that in Colorado. Toss in the lack of Trump over his shoulder constantly trying to influence things and it looks like we have a winner.
The better application of AIDS research re Covid 19 will be in looking at how to shut down its insane replication rate biochemically. The two viruses absolutely share that in common ands that’s where AIDS drug cocktails arrived to have success.
The better application of AIDS research re Covid 19 will be in looking at how to shut down its insane replication rate biochemically. The two viruses absolutely share that in common ands that’s where AIDS drug cocktails arrived to have success.
we are no where close to having succeeded against HIV. “drug cocktails” are a failure in HIV. The virus hides in the lymphatic tissue where blood circulation is poor. HIV drugs do not penetrate lymphatic tissue well, allowing the virus to wreak havoc, in spite of those HIV drug cocktails that never even reach the lymph nodes via the bloodstream
http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/69/25/3084
I am the key (and only) researcher at my university pursuing the above paradigm. Long-term complications are many in HIV+ patients.
Eerily the initial Coronavirus trajectory reminded me precisely of HIV in how the world responded: panic, paranoia, “I’ll get it”, with really ugly human behaviors.
COVID-19 will be history soon. HIV continues to destroy the lives of those infected with HIV with a higher prevalence of heart disease, strokes and more, in spite of being HIV undetectable. Where is Nancy Pelosi’s government bailout on HIV? HIV is still a political stigma. Not so with COVID-19
Get it, Estovir. My mom was involved in early AIDS research. Big difference between the early days and now though. Just saying that going through the replication rate door made a huge difference in the treatment of AIDS. All best, man.
So, how many of the faithful followers will be in church Easter Sunday and want everyone to go back to work the next day?
No clue. Let’s see what happens.
I have an image of lemmings going off a cliff. Anybody sending their kids back to the reopening of Liberty University next week?
https://medium.com/the-polis/jerry-falwells-willing-to-sacrifice-other-people-s-kids-to-please-trump-336a32445931?source=friends_link&sk=eefed93a48b1411a726be80d1e949ad2
I guess it is one way of draining a very, very shallow gene pool !
i humbly suggest the US reconsider corporal punishment.
In Singapore CANING is used after due process trials to adminster a fast and serious punishment to offenders. It is an alternative to long terms of incarceration which do not serve to deter but create jails filled with sick and malicious people preying on each other.
https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/caning-singapore-judicial-school-parental-corporal-punishment/
Singapore is a clean, order, and free city-state which is one of the most desirable residencies in the world. Please, law professors, consider a study of the feasibility and effectiveness of caning such as practiced in Singapore
Nicole Wallace who actually has a show on MSNBC is ATROCIOUS. She’s the worst. She’s unbelievably god awful. Why is she allowed on air? With her own show?? She’s hideous. Enough. Get rid of her. Take her OFF THE AIR. Go away loser.
Meanwhile, Our Toilet Licker In Chief Contiues Disinformation Campaign
During a news conference Wednesday evening, President Trump said: “We don’t have to test the entire state in the Middle West or wherever they may be. We don’t have to test the entire state. I think it’s ridiculous. A lot of those states could go back [to work] right now, and they probably will.”
He’s correct that the entire population of a state does not need to be tested right now. However, all 50 states do have cases, and those small- and medium-sized outbreaks may be growing exponentially.
The president talks frequently about letting certain parts of the country get back to work. But if that is allowed to happen when the number of cases is still growing, those communities could well find themselves in the same situation as New York, Washington and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, where the disease continues to spread.
Edited From: “Fact Check: Testing Should Take Place Wherever There Are Cases, Despite Trump’s View
Today’s NPR
……………………………………………………….
Certain cynics might venture that Turley runs these toilet licking columns to avoid addressing the dubious statements Donald Trump continues making. A serious cynic, in fact, could venture that Trump, as Putins stooge, is deliberately creating confusion to undermine our response to this crisis.
This passage sum it up:
“…America’s disengagement on the coronavirus fight is part of a broader retreat from the world. From the Paris climate change accord to multiple trade agreements, the Trump administration has unwound decades of U.S. leadership on a range of issues….”
“BEIRUT — As America’s rivals make gestures of support for other nations stricken by the coronavirus, the United States is losing the geopolitical contest prompted by the epidemic while struggling to contain the virus at home, analysts say.
At a time when the world would typically look to the richest and most powerful nation for leadership in a crisis, the United States has instead retreated into its own form of self-isolation, with its president downplaying the severity of the threat and top American officials squabbling among themselves.
Instead, the United States’ rivals, notably China and to a lesser extent Russia, have been stepping up to offer aid to other stricken nations, a role long fulfilled by the United States in crises stretching back to World War II.
Planeloads of Chinese medical equipment, masks and protective gear have been landing in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Iran and Iraq, among others. Jack Ma, China’s wealthiest man, donated test kits, masks and protective suits to each of Africa’s 54 countries.
African heads of state took to social media to profusely thank him, and headlines of major newspapers gushed with gratitude. “The perception across much of the continent today is that the Chinese are stepping up to deliver the kind of public goods that the U.S. used to provide,” said Eric Olander, the director of the China-Africa Project.
To the extent that the United States has engaged with the rest of the world on the coronavirus issue, it has mostly been to trade barbs with rivals over what name should be used to describe the virus — Trump insists on calling it the “Chinese virus” — and who is to blame for its spread.
“In international crises, America has always been the country to which other countries have turned for leadership and to steer the ship. And now, which country is looking to the United States? No one,” said Elisabeth Braw of the London-based Royal United Services Institute….
But such is the severity of this crisis that America’s absence could permanently impact its standing, ceding ground to an ascendant China in the great game of global influence, analysts said.
“I do wonder whether this really is an inflection point in the international system,” said Nathalie Tocci, the head of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and a former foreign policy adviser to senior European Union leaders.
“Here in Italy it is going to change for good the perception of who is leading in the world, and it’s not the United States,” she said. “It’s so strong what is happening. It’s so powerful and it’s so traumatic. The emotions that it ignites today are going to be engraved in the national narrative.””
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-us-traditionally-leads-in-times-of-crisis-now-its-practicing-self-isolation/2020/03/25/1fa3f9b6-6d38-11ea-a156-0048b62cdb51_story.html
Book, all the time Trump spent burning bridges with traditional allies really ‘pays off’ now.
He didn’t burn bridges with anyone. Members of the permanent government allied with the Democratic Party ran bogus investigations of him for three years, also harassing a number of his appointees. Because the culture of the Democratic Party is fundamentally sociopathic, they have no conception of why this is bad behavior.
Cool. That settles it. I trust Absurd over the head of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and a former foreign policy adviser to senior European Union leaders.
S’all good.
What, some Davos denizen says x (or you fancy he says x – liberal discourse is like the party game of rumors) and therefore we’re all obligated to take it as stipulated? What’s amusing about you, Gainesville, is that you go through your life convinced you’re the smartest guy in the room, then you pepper us with howlers.
Not claiming to actually be even considered smart, let alone smartest. It’s an abstract concept. Everyone is genius at something. What’s your specialty, Absurd?
And the Gainesville thing…, I’ve asked you to explain in the past. No luck. Who is this person? My guess the object of your unrequited love from way back? The person who strapped you to that four poster and did some bad business?
Color me wildly curious…
At one time, TIA was obsessed with someone named “Diane.” He’s apparently moved on…
Apparently, the old fool TIA still thinks of “Diane.”
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/26/covidiots-coronavirus-challenges-and-parties-lead-to-new-cases-across-the-country/#comment-1934748
The whole “Gainesville” thing apparently gives TIA the feeling that he’s “in the know” and/or smarter than the next guy. Furthermore, he often uses the following, as a response to others:
“As Others See Us”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/real-men-dont-write-blogs/201312/others-see-us
Excerpts:
1) Robert Burns, the great 18th-century Scottish poet and songwriter, not only wrote the words of “Auld Lang Syne,” but also the famous line, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglay.” (No matter how well we plan, things may go wrong.) And another one he is famous for is, in the original Scottish, “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!” Or, in modern English, “Oh would some Power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us.”
2) “That said, it still might be appropriate to let people know (as gently as possible) when they are making fools of themselves. If I’m going on and on about something and you see a louse crawling around on my hat, please tell me!”
If the shoe fits, TIA. And it apparently does.
Absurd, Trump spent 3 years alienating our NATO allies. He even spent a couple weeks insulting Denmark and Sweden just for good measure. And all along Trump kept praising the most dubious world leaders so our traditional friends would know ‘who’ he really approved of. One could argue that Trump was working overtime to make sure our traditional friends would never look to the U.S. again for any leadership.
Absurd, Trump spent 3 years alienating our NATO allies.
Shill thinks the world is high school.
TIA thinks “the world” is the Turley blog.
You’re projecting again, Diane.
“Diane” doesn’t live here anymore, sweetie.
This morning it was reported that the G-7 couldn’t get together on a consensus statement about COVID-19 because of Trump’s insistence on re-naming the virus the Wuhan Virus. The rest of the countries said “no”, Trump wouldn’t budge, so no statement.
This morning it was reported
Thanks for the bulletin from your rectum. Been an education.
“Washington (CNN)A push by the US State Department to include the phrase “Wuhan virus” in a joint statement with other Group of Seven members following a meeting of foreign ministers on coronavirus on Wednesday was rejected, resulting in separate statements and division in the group.
“What the State Department has suggested is a red line,” a European diplomat said. “You cannot agree with this branding of this virus and trying to communicate this.”
The proposed draft statement by the United States also blamed China for the pandemic’s spread, the diplomat told CNN.,,,”
What a f…g jerk.
Wait two days and see what retractions are issued.
Viruses have often been named by their origin. This has suddenly been branded racist by Communist China, who wishes to shirt responsibility for arresting its own doctors who tried to warn of the pandemic when there was still time to slam a lid on it.
China not only disallows freedom of speech in its own country, but fights it around the world, as well. Mustn’t use the common name of Wuhan Virus, as that will remind people that it abused human rights (again) and helped a pandemic spread. Ahem. Cough. I mean it’s racist.
I gave you an extensive list of other diseases whose name included a country, city, forest, or river of origin. Those were not racist.
Why do so many people parrot instead of think and question?
“Why do so many people parrot instead of think and question?”
Why indeed, Karen.
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/25/italian-priest-dies-after-giving-his-ventilator-to-young-patient/#comment-1934764
Trump can call the virus whatever he wants. The actual virus is SARS-CoV-2. The disease is Covid-19. There are a host of common names, including the Wuhan Virus, and the Chinese Communist Party Virus.
That is called Free Speech. It has been explained with myriad examples the the common name of diseases is often their origin.
I read the CNN article that claimed the G-7 refused to meet because President Trump wanted the joint statement to include “Wuhan virus.”
It appears that China’s reach is long. China is doing an all out PR face saving campaign. They were warned about the spread of diseases in live exotic animal meat markets. Miserable places. They lied and hid the virus’s initial outbreak for weeks, going so far as to arrest their own doctors. They are trying to make the world forget that the Chinese Communist Party, once again, abused human rights and helped a pandemic spread. They even object to the virus’s name, SARS-CoV-2, because of its reference to SARS, another pandemic that began in China.
I blame the Chinese government for those two actions, and for their PR campaign trying to shut everyone up about it.
If the G7 refuses to meet because of the common name of a virus, which follows the same naming convention as any other, then they are a bunch of Covidiots in league with a communist dictatorship, willing to put people’s lives secondary to pleasing China.
Correction – refused to agree with the joint statement, not refused to meet.
Karen posted (and I inserted substitute words):
“Why do so many people parrot instead of think and question?”
They were (Trump was) warned about the spread of diseases
They (He) lied and hid the virus’s initial outbreak (the experts’ warnings) for weeks (for almost 2 months and counting),
They (He) even object to the virus’s name
….blame the Chinese government (Trump Admininistration) ………….. and for their PR campaign trying to shut everyone up about it.
If the G7 (Trump Administration) refuses to meet because of the common name of a virus,…..then they are a bunch of Covidiots in league with a communist dictatorship, willing to put people’s lives secondary to pleasing China (and Trump).”
The substitutes fit.
Karen, the Trump administrations campaign to distract (your posts) on this are idiotically counterproductive political correctness which is injurious to worldwide cooperation, a necessity in fighting a global threat which was not purposefully instigated by anyone. By your reasoning Americans should call it the Wuhan/Trump virus.
Here is the CNN article, in which some of the member nations gave their own individual statement because they disagreed with the draft statement created by the United States, in which the common name, “Wuhan virus” was included. They hasten to help Communist China shrug off responsibility.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/g7-coronavirus-statement/index.html
‘President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has decided to pull back from associating the coronavirus with China, which he had previously done by calling it the “China virus” or the “Chinese virus.”‘ -CNN
Good.
The “Spanish Flu” in 1918 and the “Wuhan Flu” in 2020 originated in China.
China must be sued for gross and malicious dereliction and negligence in not eliminating practices which allow viruses to “jump” species from animal to human creating pandemics.
China must be prosecuted for the criminal act of releasing the “Spanish Flu” and the “Wuhan Flu” as biological weapons.
After multiple failures to weaken and unseat a duly-elected president who was on an inexorable path to an historic landslide election victory, the DNC (American Communist Party HQ) and the “deep” actors who run it must be investigated for potentially acting to enlist and ally with a foreign and fellow communist power to perpetrate a contrived “outbreak” causing an apparently “intractable” and counterfeit “crisis” which would finally bring down President Trump.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
– Rahm Emanuel
______________
Teddy Kennedy used a secret message to get the Russians to intervene in Reagan’s 1984 re-election
‘We knew senators were doing this sort of thing all the time and we ignored it’
Allen McDuffee Jul 27, 2017
“In 1991, Tim Sebastian, a reporter working on a story for the Sunday Times of London, was poring over a trove of documents in Moscow’s Soviet Communist Party Central Archives that Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the new Russian Federation, had just opened after the fall of the Soviet Union.
A shocking document landed in Sebastian’s carrel. It was a memo dated May 14, 1983, prepared by KGB chief Viktor Chebrikov and meant only for the eyes of Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party — the leader of the USSR.
The subject: “Senator Kennedy’s request.”
“Comrade Y.V. Andropov,” the memorandum begins, “On 9–10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.”
Kennedy, already a senator from Massachusetts for two decades at the time of the memo, had turned to John Tunney, his University of Virginia law school roommate and a former U.S. senator from California, to act as a conduit between him and the Kremlin. The purpose of the liaison was to “root out the threat of nuclear war,” “improve Soviet-American relations” and “define the safety of the world,” according to the KGB memo.
Chebrikov wrote that Kennedy, “like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations,” especially in light of other global conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, not to mention President Ronald Reagan’s plans to deploy mid-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe. According to the memo, Kennedy was particularly concerned about Reagan’s refusal to consider alternatives to his stances on matters of politics — and especially foreign policy — because the “well publicized improvement of the economy” and the general “success of Reaganomics” allowed him to pursue his global affairs agenda unfettered.
Kennedy’s proposal was simple: The senator would help Andropov in dealing with Reagan, if the Soviet Union would help the Democratic Party in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.”
– Timeline
https://timeline.com/teddy-kennedy-used-a-secret-message-to-get-the-russians-to-intervene-in-reagans-1984-re-election-e4d45af01368
Karen, China s more accurately described as a statist-capitalistic dictatorship. There are no more communes and the Chinese people are pretty much on their own. This is a gigantic change since 30 years ago when all lived and were part of communes. They are not communists.
My god, who could’ve forseen the implications of a demented game show host slithering into the oval office, getting impeached, and then being left in charge anyway???
My god, who could’ve forseen the implications of a demented game show host slithering into the oval office,
Again, liberals fancy that if they caricature someone, the caricature is the reality. Your sneers have no effect on meatspace. Sorry to break it to you.
And I should GAF about what you say exactly why?
if people don’t learn to get along better it’s going to get ugly
people should try reasoning instead of heaping more witty or bitter insults on each other
might i suggest the POTUS who is presently our national leader that we should all be wishing to succeed not fail as we are under the same national roof.
for anybody slinging insults, if you have a criticism why not articulate it in a way that is intended to convince?
If we are done reasoning with each other, then it will quickly degenerate into more coarse persuasions. i am ready for that but I doubt most other people are.
the bill put forward has many dubious merits that you geniuses could be dissecting if you cared.
here is a “progressive” comedian but one like talking to a money man who criticizes a lot of this from a political view
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-7uro3A3qU&t
he may be right; this may be a historical act of legislative corruption. isnt this worth a minute of your intellectual efforts, friends? i have not had time to parse it.
I enjoy venturing into the Jimmy Dore world from time to time. I’ll dive into this bit a little later. Thanks.
And you’re right, Kurtz. Probably time for me to step off from this place. If people go after me i suspect i’m pretty close to incapable of not going going back at them…
In other words, kinda like Trump in that respect.
Just doubting my presence does any good in the least in this realm. I get the sense my humor really serves no constructive purpose here. As far as discussing things with Allan, let’s just say it’s as close to a futile undertaking as anything could possibly be it seems.
Plus I have a couple huge projects coming up and spring is always a really busy time for me. Provided it’s okay to eventually leave the house at some point.
all best…
I get the sense my humor really serves no constructive purpose
Try growing one before you determine whether or not it has a constructive purpose.
Paulie, as you can see from the regular inanities of people like Allen and TIA (just ignore except to correct misstatements of fact) many of the posts here are by fools with no interest in communicating. Stick around. You raise the level of discourse appreciably, even if you are occasionally intemperate or offend the better posters like Kurtz.
Guess I’m learning the hard way, Book. Then again, that’s my specialty. Ha. Thanks.
My god, who could’ve forseen the implications of one political faction having enough thirst for power that they would manufacture a scheme to remove a duly elected President, get him impeached, and then being left in charge anyway???
FIFY. Anyway, those crazy founding fathers; they’re the ones that knew the House would cede to their simple majority passions and the Senate would be held to a higher standard.
Civics literacy is achievable…give it a go.
Who could have foreseen a reality TV performer, a failure at business after 6 or so bankruptcies, a failure at selling Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump water, Trump golf accessories, and who couldn’t get credit from any US bank, so he had to go to Saudi Arabia and Russia to borrow, getting help from Russia to cheat his way into the White House? Trump was not “duly elected”–he cheated, and will never be viewed as legitimate.
Who could have foreseen a POTUS trying to leverage aid to an ally appropriated by Congress to help him smear a political rival, hiding the transcripts of phone calls with world leaders, trying to get Russia back into the G-7, siding with Russia over American intelligence, refusing to disclose financial and tax records and refusing to cooperate with a Special Counsel and House investigations.?
Who could have foreseen a Republican party so afraid of losing power that it refused to allow an actual trial of an impeached POTUS, and voted along party lines, with one exception, not to impeach?
Who could have foreseen a POTUS downplaying a public health crisis, calling it a “hoax”, lying by saying that there would soon be zero cases, lying about a quickly-available vaccine and that there was a “game changing” drug treatment available, lying by saying anyone who wants a test can get a test, and pushing to force people to violate CDC recommendations about staying home until the crisis passes?
No one who loves America could possibly support this person. I passionately wish he would shut up and stop lying at the vainglory pressers that are a waste of resources.
Trump was not “duly elected”–he cheated, and will never be viewed as legitimate.
Have you rejected the payment of any income that was affected by the tax cut President Trump’s signed? Are you not filing 2019 tax returns? Unless you can answer yes to both questions, then you’re acknowledging President Trump as legitimate.
No one who loves America could possibly support this person.
LOL! Millions would disagree.
Trump was not “duly elected”–he cheated, and will never be viewed as legitimate.
Natacha has approved of and acknowledges Donald J. Trump is her legitimate President of the United States.
Took you long enough.
OMG! Don’t get me started, nay, restarted:
Barack Obama will NEVER be eligible to be U.S. president.
Barack Obama’s father was a foreign citizen at the time of his birth.
– A “citizen” could only have been President at the time of the adoption of the Constitution – not after.
– The U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5, requires the President to be a “natural born citizen,” which, by definition in the Law of Nations, requires “parents who are citizens” at the time of birth of the candidate and that he be “…born of a father who is a citizen;…”
– Ben Franklin thanked Charles Dumas for copies of the Law of Nations which “…has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress, now sitting,…”
– The Jay/Washington letter of July, 1787, raised the presidential requirement from citizen to “natural born citizen” to place a “strong check” against foreign allegiances by the commander-in-chief.
– Every American President before Obama had two parents who were American citizens.
– The Constitution is not a dictionary and does not define words or phrases like “natural born citizen” as a dictionary, while the Law of Nations,1758, did.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Law of Nations, Vattel, 1758
Book 1, Ch. 19
§ 212. Citizens and natives.
“The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ben Franklin letter December 9, 1775, thanking Charles Dumas for 3 copies of the Law of Nations:
“…I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising state make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly that copy, which I kept, (after depositing one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed,) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress, now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author…”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To George Washington from John Jay, 25 July 1787
From John Jay
New York 25 July 1787
Dear Sir
I was this morning honored with your Excellency’s Favor of the 22d
Inst: & immediately delivered the Letter it enclosed to Commodore
Jones, who being detained by Business, did not go in the french Packet,
which sailed Yesterday.
Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise & seasonable to
provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the
administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in chief
of the american army shall not be given to, nor devolved on, any but a natural born Citizen.
Mrs Jay is obliged by your attention, and assures You of her perfect
Esteem & Regard—with similar Sentiments the most cordial and sincere
I remain Dear Sir Your faithful Friend & Servt
John Jay
These people are too stupid. Normally, natural selection would simply cull them. The problem is that their reckless behavior hurts everyone else. 1% of young people die from Covid-19, according to the latest figures. That will change as more tests are run. But it’s still 10 times more likely than the flu. Sure, it’s better than the 19% of people over 80 who die of Covid-19, but it’s worse than the flu.
Is this because of Common Core? They can’t work the percentages?
If they want to do the “coronavirus challenge” they should do it properly. Go through an ICU and see people their age struggling to breath on ventilators. Have they ever seen anyone breathe on a ventilator? Ever seen anyone wake up on a ventilator, and have to have their hands tied down? Or talk to someone with lung damage from the virus. These fools’ actions are spreading a pandemic that is killing people, impoverishing billions of people world wide as the global economy grinds to a halt, causing food shortages. Idiots. I vote them off our island. Dump them out on Alcatraz after the tours and ferries have stopped where they can’t cause any more carnage.
Not totally without merit, but most of us regardless of political differences know to not do these type things. This has become a super market like tabloid for bad behavior, How about more like the Italian priest (exceptional behavior) and millions of good works by normal Americans, which predominate and can lead through inspiration?
“Bowl Boy” is aka Gay Shawn, and I suspect he was licking toilet bowls way before Coronavirus. Those gay dudes are kind of sick and nasty to begin with.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjraOiQxka8
Notice the worker in the background wearing the apron. He gives the guy a nod of approval, waves, then walks off.
I wish I didn’t click on that 😲😲😲😢😢😢😭😭😭
That’s not right. I’m disturbed and probably will be….w.t.h. Is wrong with these people.
Like I said, Mark of the Beast, we are the Beast, close enough.
Makes you want the flood again, just stunned.
Maybe we should consider posts like these as applications for community service. Let them continue licking public toilet seats and urinals clean until every last state has moved through its curve.
I encourage Governors of northern states (e.g., Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Mass) to order hospitals to turn away anyone under 25 who presents with Covid symptoms AND a sunburn. Spring Breakers.
Pathetic
Yesterday I read a news report about a man who ignored a quarantine order, went for a walk and was eaten by an alligator. Some people just have to learn the hard way!
Thank you. During these trying times you have managed to make me laugh.
Spectacular!!
Wow, Jon looks like we have a literal franchise of fundamentalism going on here with the coughers, the 1000, the Iman, and the toilet lickers!
This one reaches the level of true poetry. Shall we splice some of the finer lines together? Some with which to work…
*One toilet licker has come down with the virus and a “coronavirus party” has led to transmission.
*“I was tired of that b***h corona getting more publicity than ME. I’m the real celebrity.”
*Others have decided to gather for moronic moments.
*This all explains the latest coined term: Covidiot,
The possibilities are truly sublime here. Personally, I’m fascinated with venturing into some of the more Polynesian forms, where, say, these 4 lines are shaped into a quatrain where the first and third lines become the second and fourth lines the next stanza. Repetition will have an awesomely hypnotic effect, no doubt.
Thanks, Professor! I’m feeling this will prove beyond a worthy way to spelunk into the next daunting and uncertain Covid day!
Paulie, when Professor Turley highlights the escapades of ‘morons’ it allows the Trumpers on this blog to express their disgust. Therefore even us liberals can see how ‘sensible’ the Trumpers appear in contrast to the toilet lickers.
Seth, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in days.
Something like reaching in the bear’s cage and tickling its nostrils with a feather. Not actually poking it with a stick. Just enough to make it get up and dance.
i’m not going to take the bait of this steaming heap of verbal dung filled with insults
instead i will just hold my nose and ask you fellows to please take a look at the bill being proposed and see what you can understand about it and whether it will have a net salutary effect or just deepen existing economic problems?
I welcome analysis and comment from all bickering partisans here
Paulie J,
Many years ago, I entered a conference room I thought was the correct location. Once I was seated and began listening to the presenter, I began to hear what I thought was the English language; however, I didn’t understand a word of it. Your comment just reminded me of those days. Thank you.
Stay safe!
😁
You too, Ted!
With regards to the one saying corona is getting more attention than her, it looks to me, like a comorbid spectrum of Histrionic and Narcissist, more Cluster Bs.
Yep, I just watched her video after posting this comment above. She is classic Cluster B and definitely in the Histrionic range. Didn’t hear her say other ppl getting sick is not my problem. That would be more lack of empathy, so closer to Narcissism.
I feel bad for so so many people/young teens/adults who absolutely have no idea how the entertainment industry actually works, and that includes the “influencers” online line Logan Paul or Paul Logan.
They’re plants. It’s all pre-planned. Don’t believe any backstories, they’re all fake. They have connections and they know people. The one’s that don’t know people, go to extreme measures to get attention.
I worked in casting for a quick minute, probably my least favorite job, hate seeing people upset and crying about their 1 chance. Anyway, we spent months auditioning all these women for a supporting role in a major film, and after it was all said and done, the Director / Producer session of casting starts, that’s the final last stop on the casting train. The director and producer walk in, say they have a “gal” one who has not auditioned. VP of Casting is annoyed, says Director and Producer wasted 3 months of time. Director says “Idc, she is my friend, I’m the director, whatever I say goes, it’s my movie, she doesn’t need to audition.” The producer backed him up, and that was that…went to a girlfriend, who did not audition.
You could say the same about a lot of industries, not just entertainment.
But with all the online stuff, a lot of them have agents, and they’re put there, and promoted heavily, with fake subscriber counts, and they shoot up to the top on YT feed, or wherever, really fast, it’s all smoke and mirrors.
This is a tangent, but I was surprised in the Weinstein case, that even the nepotism based actor/actresses, which is a nice chunk, we’re expected to play ball, with the hotel pass around, hot potato. I thought those ones got a pass bc of their connections, but I was wrong. Surprise, surprise. I also thought once you were at a certain level, you didn’t have to play the pass around, hot potato game, but alas, I was wrong there too.
They ALL have agents, and they’ve received the whole script in advance. Huge advantage. An unrepped actor, or writer for that matter relies totally on contacts, too. Only when push comes to shove, even with the backing of a lower chain producer the job will go to the most connected at the top, i.e. pushed by bigger management.
Agents used to do what lit managers do now, but even the managers are stepping up the chain since they’re all becoming producers as well. A big company like Anonymous Content for instance will manage a writer or actor or both, bring in an agent for finalization of a deal, bring in a director from the stable they rep, produce the project and go right to distribution from there. It’s such an insular game. And it’s still ripe for the Harvey Weistein’s of the world to manipulate…
Oddly enough, Covid 19 might do more for the remedy than any constraints or trials from the outside in.
There’s a crown on your head!
Why are the youngins licking toilets? Even without CV19, say it was the toilet licking challenge…toilets have all sorts of germs, not to be outdone by the hotel remote control and room telephone.
I knew TikTok would be involved in this somehow, and sure enough. The amount and level of access young people have today online to just absolute nonsense and stupidity, add on the maturity levels in relation to age have changed with each new generation.
Some media fault, the folks over 65 message, and then they changed it. We already had an 18 yo die in Cali from CV19. It’s no laughing matter.
There are idiots everywhere and they deserve what they get.