US Politics: Serenity Now

[sologdin]

1984 was always applicable to the west--but it can apply simultaneously with it can't happen here, the iron heel, jennifer government, the handmaid's tale, brave new world, fahrenheit 451, a clockwork orange, and the trial,

one day, ceteris paribus, if we are fortunate, these will cease in applicability, having been replaced at some point only discernible long after they have become a fait accompli by the windup girl. if we are unfortunate, by contrast, it will be by the road.

decent op-ed in today's NYT regarding the substantial covid undercount.

[Rippounet]

9 minutes ago, sologdin said:

decent op-ed in today's NYT regarding the substantial covid undercount.

Decent, yes. But honestly I'm not so sure about this:

Quote

But the undercount probably continued after April 25, albeit at a lower rate.

At a lower rate? Depends which state you're looking at.

We know from the other thread that the undercount is exploding in some states. In the agregate it's probably getting worse, in part because the White House wants it to be worse. And unless the epidemic slows down by itself, the trend will logically keep getting worse, with tens of thousands of deaths being attributed to other factors every month.

[Maithanet]

This Trump administration push to reopen, in addition to being completely barbaric, just highlights the kind of magic short term thinking of this administration.  Trump is trying to get Americans to accept a certain level of death/suffering from the disease in order to reduce the economic damage.  But right now the country is reopening with barely any plan, inadequate testing, virtually no contract tracing, insufficient PPE, etc.  The only possible result is that the disease gets more widespread.  It might take 3 weeks, or 6 weeks or two months, before we see a big increase in deaths (say from current ~1,500 deaths per day to 3-5k per day).  But it is definitely not going to take 8 months or more, such that the election will have already happened. 

The current Trump plan is betting that Americans will accept 100k deaths per month.  And perhaps the worst part of all, maybe he's right.   

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

24 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

This Trump administration push to reopen, in addition to being completely barbaric, just highlights the kind of magic short term thinking of this administration.  Trump is trying to get Americans to accept a certain level of death/suffering from the disease in order to reduce the economic damage.  But right now the country is reopening with barely any plan, inadequate testing, virtually no contract tracing, insufficient PPE, etc.  The only possible result is that the disease gets more widespread.  It might take 3 weeks, or 6 weeks or two months, before we see a big increase in deaths (say from current ~1,500 deaths per day to 3-5k per day).  But it is definitely not going to take 8 months or more, such that the election will have already happened. 

The current Trump plan is betting that Americans will accept 100k deaths per month.  And perhaps the worst part of all, maybe he's right.   

Said it before and I'll say it again, Trump's companies are probably losing insane amounts of money right now. Damn near everything he invests in is a major loser during a quarantine, and his kids are obviously keeping him up to date with that. Certainly he cares about getting the economy open for his reelection, but he's also acting in his financial self-interest. 

[sologdin]

Depends which state you're looking at.

agreed.  kristof's deductive argument appears to be that the incentives to underreport disappear in some places after a date certain.

 

Trump's companies are probably losing insane amounts of money right now.

now is a good time to strike casinos and beauty pageants and trifling luxury hotels from the earth. 

 

Trump plan is betting that Americans will accept 100k deaths per month.  And perhaps the worst part of all, maybe he's right.

we are living out agamben's homo sacer books in their dreadful particulars--the sovereign here attempts to redefine bios in line with its imperatives--to construe the demos itself as zoe, which goes far beyond fascism's identification of bios with at least a significant portion of the demos.  we see this in the forfeiture of the political dream of the plague; no need to surveil through quarantine centrally; the free market in viral load is to be trusted instead.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I hate to be a stubborn asshole, but this committee hearing is demonstrating exactly what I pointed out in another thread. 

[Martell Spy]

FBI serves warrant on senator in investigation of stock sales linked to coronavirus

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-05-13/fbi-serves-warrant-on-senator-stock-investigation

Quote

 

WASHINGTON  —  Federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to a prominent Republican senator on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the novel coronavirus first struck the U.S., a law enforcement official said.
Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, turned over his phone to agents after they served a search warrant on the lawmaker at his residence in the Washington area, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a law enforcement action.

The seizure represents a significant escalation in the investigation into whether Burr violated a law preventing members of Congress from trading on insider information they have gleaned from their official work.

 

 

[Guest]

They're still trying to push hydroxychloroquine? Even Trump isn't pushing hydroxychloroquine anymore.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

12 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

They're still trying to push hydroxychloroquine? Even Trump isn't pushing hydroxychloroquine anymore.

EVERYONE INJECT HIM WITH THE DISINFECTANT NOW!!!!!!!!!! 

USE BLEACH TOO TO BE SAFE. IN ALL ORIFICES!!!!!!!!!! 

Also, someone should whip him. But who has one of those?

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Rippounet said:

The conservative propaganda machine is in panic mode because it has identified a real threat to the Republican Party. Because the leadership is aware that democracy is a threat, the rank-and-file has to be agitated to prevent the truth from coming out.

Edit: combine that with the data fudging on the coronavirus and one can start wondering whether it's the US or China that's closest to turning into a dystopian nightmare.
If China is closer to 1984, I wonder what the US is turning into? Stephen King's The Running Man perhaps?

 

Some voters are so concerned about all of this they will vote for Biden to hopefully rid themselves of deathcultchief -- if they get to vote -- where the hell is my absentee ballot? The rest of the voters are so determined to keep deathcultchief they're just champing at the bit to shoot the rest of us, and they are armed, you betcha.

In New Orleans, even in August, people will run the streets happy, yelling, "Mardi Gras's a comin' baby!"

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boogaloo

Those voters run the streets happy, yelling, "Boogaloo's coming and you're gonna die, baby!"

Another reason this coming one is going to be the darkest winter, as the pandemic experts are predicting.

[Guest]

Where the fuck is Mullins going with this line of questioning? It's bizarre.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Where the fuck is Mullins going with this line of questioning? It's bizarre.

As he said himself, he's having a hard time understanding this. 

But to my point, taking your mask off and on repeatedly to speak kind of defeats the purpose. 

Bright is a great name for a doctor, btw. We have a doctor Slaughter, and a doctor Butcher, both of which are very nice people. However, literally, doctor Kind is a jackass. He can't even sign off on his own work half the time, and bitches about it.

Literally not making any of these names up.

[Fez]

48 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

FBI serves warrant on senator in investigation of stock sales linked to coronavirus

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-05-13/fbi-serves-warrant-on-senator-stock-investigation

Haven't decided how I feel about this yet. On the one hand, there's a decent argument that this Trump via Barr specifically targeting Burr for retribution over the fact that the Senate Intel Committee has not specifically exonerated him about everything Russia related. On the other hand, there also seems like a decent argument that what Burr did was worse, and more likely to be illegal, than what the other senators originally mentioned as selling off stocks did.

Of course, both these things could be equally true.

[Martell Spy]

14 minutes ago, Fez said:

Haven't decided how I feel about this yet. On the one hand, there's a decent argument that this Trump via Barr specifically targeting Burr for retribution over the fact that the Senate Intel Committee has not specifically exonerated him about everything Russia related. On the other hand, there also seems like a decent argument that what Burr did was worse, and more likely to be illegal, than what the other senators originally mentioned as selling off stocks did.

Of course, both these things could be equally true.

I did not think of that. Sad times we are living in when you have to consider such motives of the DOJ. Makes you miss the days of white nationalist, yet somewhat by the book AG Sessions.

I'm just kind of surprised this is being investigated at all. With how the SC has been acting, I fully expect them to find a way to rule in favor of this kind of corruption with in the next few years, when they are given an opportunity to do so.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

I have never understood the relationship between Native American land and the rest of the US very well, but I assume the South Dakota Sioux tribes are within their rights to restrict entry to their lands through checkpoints and roadblocks, even though the roads themselves are US/State highways? If you want to talk about government overreach, this is where conservatives should be up in arms about a governor interfering in what is essentially a federal matter, correct?

[Fragile Bird]

Speaking of testing, I see the US has finally passed Canada with regard to numbers of tests per million, 31,303 v 30,983. But after seeing all the stories about the bullshit going on in US testing numbers, I just laughed out loud.

I know that antibody tests are not being combined with infection testing in Canada because no antibody test was approved for use in Canada until just this week. Canadian companies were making antibody tests and were shipping them to the US, which made a lot of people wail in anger on the internet (why can't we have these tests!), but they couldn't be sold here because the manufacturers couldn't prove acceptable levels of accuracy.

The test approved by Canada was also recently approved by the FDA, the DiaSorin LIASON test, which is supposed to be 97.5% accurate.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-s-first-antibody-test-marks-step-forward-in-covid-19-response-1.4938299

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Things are moving fast with Burr.

Others may follow suit, on both sides.

Regardless of political party, any guilty insider traders must be punished. 

[GrimTuesday]

Out of curiosity, do people think that part of the calculation for Pelosi is internal? It feels like there is something going on in terms of the Progressive caucus vs the more establishment part of the Democratic part of The House? Jayapal seems to be trying to take an active roll in shaping legislation and Pelosi keeps sidelining her citing Republicans will not agree to the plans, meanwhile Josh Howley and Corey Gardner are putting out a plan that would reimburse up to 50k of salaries for companies to keep folks on the payroll which Jayapal has been pushing for a while now. Right now the Progressive caucus makes up 40% of the delegation, dose anyone else think the Pelosi is trying to avoid emboldening them and giving potential new members something to run on in future elections?

[maarsen]

1 hour ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

I have never understood the relationship between Native American land and the rest of the US very well, but I assume the South Dakota Sioux tribes are within their rights to restrict entry to their lands through checkpoints and roadblocks, even though the roads themselves are US/State highways? If you want to talk about government overreach, this is where conservatives should be up in arms about a governor interfering in what is essentially a federal matter, correct?

It seems the American government is also challenged in the understanding of the relationship. I guess the indigenous peoples are taking a page from their northern neighbours on how to negotiate with governments. 

[Mexal]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

Haven't decided how I feel about this yet. On the one hand, there's a decent argument that this Trump via Barr specifically targeting Burr for retribution over the fact that the Senate Intel Committee has not specifically exonerated him about everything Russia related. On the other hand, there also seems like a decent argument that what Burr did was worse, and more likely to be illegal, than what the other senators originally mentioned as selling off stocks did.

Of course, both these things could be equally true.

Fuck Burr and fuck Loeffler. I don't have any sympathy for people who tell the public one thing (everything is fine, economy will be great, nothing to worry about with the virus) and then privately sell a shitload of stocks (and buy stocks directly related to the virus). Those fuckers should be in jail. We trust them as public servants to tell us the truth, not learn the truth and profit from it while we sit idly and get fucked. To me, it's about as big a breach of public trust as you can get and clearly illegal.