When Cheating, Fire the Ref?

Or so Trump seems to be doing?  NYT

It is a strange system where the boss can fire the auditors? WAPO

Especially when asked by the guy being investigated? CNBC

Romney says "a threat to accountable democracy" CNN

Was Investigating Pompeo FOX News

Trump continues Purge of Watch Dogs VOX

I still don't understand how people who want to stop government waste and drain the swamp can support Trump as he gets rid of people who investigate him and his cronies? :-(  I guess "their" waste and abuse of power is okay?

Lock Up the Elderly and Infirm?

I have been spending time in Jerry's world.  Please join us and help me understand his thinking?

"There you go again, simply ASSUMING that the shutdown "slowed the transmission." And by the way, I value human life in its entirety-- the freedom to move about, worship, speak, socialize, WORK, and to take reasonable precautions with ones own health and the health of others. 

In New York, Cuomo ORDERED nursing homes to take in active COVID patients! And he let the subways continue to run. A shutdown that should have been well-targeted and lasted 2-3 weeks might have been effective, but what was actually done was not, so 1/3 of all US deaths attributed to CV are in New York. 

Time for you to admit that these statewide tyrannical edicts have done more harm than good over huge swaths of the country. I'm simply not buying that "if it saves one life" nonsense. People die. Governors are not gods." Jerry

Jerry  So based on this. "And by the way, I value human life in its entirety-- the freedom to move about, worship, speak, socialize, WORK, and to take reasonable precautions with ones own health and the health of others." 

You are willing to have other people literally die so you can do as you wish? 

And of course lock downs work, as Vietnam proved very well.  We just did not lock down early enough or hard enough... Remember that Trump was denying the need in the end of February, just before it became real to him and he supported the lock downs.

What do you think the states should have done differently that could have saved more lives? Please be specific. (G2A / John)

States could have locked down just long-term-care facilities, perhaps even quarantining employees in place. They could have /suggested/ stay-at-home, masks, social distancing where possible. NYC could have sanitized the subways frequently. They could have NOT criticized Trump for shutting down travel with China and Europe, and NOT shut down medical facilities unnecessarily, and not picked winners and losers in other businesses. They could have had emergency supplies available or at least on order. 

And what makes you think that states "saved more lives" with these drastic measures? Might the opposite be true? Jerry

So here is Jerry's list as I understand:

1. States could have locked down just long-term-care facilities, perhaps even quarantining employees in place. 
2. They could have /suggested/ stay-at-home, masks, social distancing where possible. 
3. NYC could have sanitized the subways frequently. 
4. They could have NOT criticized Trump for shutting down travel with China and Europe.
5. They could have NOT shut down medical facilities unnecessarily.
6. They could have not picked winners and losers in other businesses. 
7. They could have had emergency supplies available or at least on order.
8. May we have saved lives today and caused people to have shorter lives?

And my new response to Jerry...

1. Do you think any of those low dollar workers would be willing to stay away from their life, families, etc for many months?  I mean this proposal does nothing to make the virus go away. And please remember that a LOT of the dead are not in the long term care centers.  
2. They did "suggest"... In most states no one was being arrested or charged.  Since I work for an essential business I really have not noticed a change and no one has ever asked me why I was out of the house.
3. Apparently they started sanitizing the subway system on March 3rd. And with the stay home orders ridership decreased by 90%.  They likely could not shut public transportation down since the essential workers needed it. 
4. Trump's travel restrictions were somewhat useless because he did not follow through. And he did not limit travel from Europe until mid-March.  And by then it was too late, the barn door had been open too long.
5. I do not think any essential medical facilities or procedures have been shutdown?  What are you thinking of?
6. How would you have changed the critical industries and personnel definitions?  Are you thinking they should have left the gathering places open?
7. They apparently did have medical supplies on order for a normal year, and they increased their orders ASAP.  However demand exceed supply and the national stockpile was not adequate and or fully stocked.  
8. We are having a hard enough time determining how many are dying from what today, (ie covid, depression, scared to go to the hospital, etc)  And you want to try to guess the long term impacts of shut downs?  "Sorry Granny... We chose that you should die instead of stress these other folks out?"

So in summary it seems that your proposal to save lives was that we should have quarantined all the elderly, infirm and their care givers for 6+ months?  And /suggested/ stay-at-home, masks, social distancing where possible.  And let any businesses stay open that wanted to.  Does that seem an accurate summary?  Do you think this would have worked and saved more lives?

Link to an Interesting Detailed Timeline

Why Churches are High Risk?

Know the risks: Where you are most likely to get coronavirus (ABC)

"So where are the highest risk areas in the community for getting infected? 

"The general theme of what I can see is, lots of people together in an enclosed environment with poor airflow and usually some sort of talking or singing involved leads to lots of people in that environment getting infected," said Bromage, in an interview with ABC News. 

Case studies that traced back COVID-19 outbreaks at the beginning of the pandemic, have found that the main sources of infections in the community lead back to the workplace, public transportation, social gatherings, and restaurants — indoor environments, with limited air circulation, and many people spending a prolonged period of time in the same place."

I mean where do a bunch of people get together in a closed environment and sing?  Church

Before I started wearing my mask more regularly, my method of keeping my germs to myself was to breath through my nose and keep my mouth closed as much as possible.  It seems I was on to something. :-)

And remember... Not wearing a mask in high risk environments may be hurting your neighbor.  Which would be very un-Christian like...

NYT COVID slows, but...

Solving The Entitlement Problem

Through Natural Selection?  A lot of older Conservatives do not believe that COVID 19 is as transmissible and deadly as the data indicates.  In fact Jerry just compared it to the flu again...

And we know that it is the Old Folk who did not pay enough payroll taxes to keep the SS and Medicare trust funds fully funded through their retirement.  So let's just fully reopen the economy and kill 2 birds with one stone. :-)

Of course based on the numbers below we need about 10 million of the duffers and disabled to volunteer to pass away for the good of the USA's financial situation. :-(  It will be like when tribes used to send the old out to freeze. :-)  Thoughts?

Fun with Masks.

I forgot mine in my Truck, so I got creative with office supplies. :-)  I have gotten pretty serious about wearing my mask now that I have accepted that it is to protect others from me. No sense making life more difficult for store workers...

Will Trump Tax Returns be Released?

SCOTUS Listening to Arguments (FOX News)
SCOTUS Grills Both Sides (USA Today)
I Have Seen Trump's Taxes and You Should, too (Bloomberg)
Trump's Many Promises to Release Tax  Returns (Politifact)

It still amazes me that the Trump supporters are so scared of what is in Trump's taxes that they are not asking him to honor his commitment.  And yet they seem fine voting for the same guy that they fear is likely hiding some deep and damaging secret.

I am more interested in learning about how he cheated to avoid estate taxes.  Then there are possible bribery charges in his future?  And this guy has created a timeline.   It would be humorous if Trump becomes the first ex-President to end his life in jail.  Maybe he should have just stayed a celebrity...

COVID Deaths per 100K

Which States are Leading and Why?  That question was on my mind, so I made up this informative and puzzling slide.  Thoughts?  Any location related I have missed?

Maybe Liberals are more prone to die from COVID? :-)  I think that would be a correlation vs causation error... :-)

COVID coming to a Neighborhood Near You?

As always, click the image to zoom.

And a map for your convenience... :-)

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Trump wants Chuck Todd Fired for Misleading Barr Quote

Full Quote:

"Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who's writing the history. But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law."

Shortened Quote:

"Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who's writing the history."

Now the funny part is that NBC has apologized and acknowledged that the full quote should have been used.  How many times have you heard Trump or his Administration apologize for their lies, exaggerations, mis-quotes, etc?  I am not sure I have ever even heard him acknowledge an error?

I mean look at this BIG INTENTIONAL lie by the Trump Campaign...  If Chuck Todd should be fired, then Donald Trump certainly should be fired or worse...

I do wonder what it is like to be Barr and how he rationalizes his choices and actions.

An Absolute Chaotic Disaster

Obama was always so good at speaking clearly.  And that certainly sums up the Trump administrations COVID 19 efforts. :-)

And where did those air freighted supplies go?

And don't even get me started on testing...

And then was Trump saying things would be GREAT within 24 hours of one of his experts saying we were in trouble.

Yes, Obama pretty much nailed it... :-)  "An Absolute Chaotic Disaster"

And now Trump needs to decide if he should protect the lives of his voters or get the economy open...  I bet he wishes he could go back to January and nip this in the bud... :-)  To bad he ignored his scientists and Navarro...

Republicans Love Actors?

A guest post by Hiram.

Something that is really strange about Republicans is that as critical they are of the media, they seem to actually believe what happens on it is real. They elected Arnold governor of California because on some level, they actually believed he was the terminator. Republicans elected Donald Trump because on some level they believed he was the successful businessman they saw on his tv show.

This makes Republicans different from Democrats. As huge a fan I am and many of us are, of "The West Wing", no Democrat has ever thought Martins Sheen would make a good president just because he played a good president on TV.

I have been thinking a lot about the media and the Republican attitude toward it. It is amazingly ambivalent. As critical as Republicans are of media, it utterly dominates their thinking. Fox News, which is barely a news network at all, plays a huge role role in setting the tone for Republican thinking. But what is even more baffling is that how Republicans, despite their negative attitude toward media, love to take their candidates from it.

Republicans want government run like a business. Far enough, America has many hugely successful businessmen, men and women who built empires that created great wealth, not just for themselves, but also for those who entrusted them with their money. People like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos.

These guys did amazing things, and if you believed a great businessman has the qualities to be a great president, it would seem natural to choose a candidate among those guys or guys like them. But Republicans didn't do that. Instead they chose as their businessman president, someone who wasn't really a businessman at all. Someone who played a businessman in the media Republicans affect to despise. Someone who has lost far more money in his career than he has ever made for himself.

Why do Republicans think that way? Why do Republicans act that way? I simply do not know.

Do Not Look Behind that Curtain

Trump admin working to hide bad numbers.  And have the politicians write the reopening guidance.

And there is a book coming out about how FOX news is complicit in aiding Trump's misleading of their viewers..  ‘We don’t really believe all this stuff. We just tell other people to believe it.’

I tried to find information on FOX about the federal government's actions to fight the COVID virus and found little.  They are too busy trying to distract people with the Flynn story.  Then again if my administration was in charge of headlines like this I would be trying to distract folks also...

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said Thursdsay that the death toll in America from coronavirus has risen to 73,297, a jump of almost 2,500 in the past 24 hours." 

Or like this one...

The unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent in April. 20.5 million job losses recorded — and the real situation is even worse.

Here is an interesting piece regarding what we can expect as we lift the restrictions.  I wonder if Trump and FOX can hide a couple of hundred thousand dead Americans at election time. Or if his voters will let him off the hook for his contribution?

Where is My Double Dip?

Economy in free fall, Why not stocks?

As I have mentioned, I am patiently awaiting my buying opportunity.  Unfortunately it seems that the US Government is working to manipulate the market by spending, borrowing and buying at historic levels.  Now there may be good reasons to do this, however to have it done by the folks who are supposed to be the fiscal conservative and keep government out of my business people is so disheartening. :-(

Well I did sell some stock again at 24,000+ but I am still about 35% in the stock market.  One of my more impulsive decisions was to buy some of a Vanguard Energy Index fund (VDE)... It is at ~33% of its high so I figured why not...

How High Will Death Toll Go?

FOX: Coronavirus death toll in US projected to double as restrictions ease, key model predicts

Apparently even FOX could not prevent the simple truth that increased social activity means more dead Americans.

Thankfully Menards made me buy and wear a mask while in their store yesterday.  Maybe that will become our new norm to protect store employees.  My previous solution was to just to stay away from people, shop quick, keep my mouth closed and breath through my nose...  But I am fine with the mask, though I really should invest in a cool skull one.

However it seems that some idiots are going to resist masks, social distancing, etc because they still don't believe the numbers.

Now I have no problem talking about the trade offs here, but I have little time for those who say there is a "correct answer"...  In no specific order, here are the trade offs I have been discussing lately on FB:

• Impact on personal freedom (ie enforced stay home orders, must wear masks, must wear gloves, cell phone tracking, etc)
• Number of citizens that will experience significant illness or a terrible death.
• Cost in lost revenues and debt incurred by our government. (ie burden on our kids)
• Number of citizens driven to poverty, depression, hunger, death, etc.
• Number of citizens to die due to delayed healthcare.
• Etc

The reality is that there are consequences to every course of action.  The current path has cost America ~$5,000,000,000,000 in borrowing and lost revenues. That means we are spending in excess of $5,000,000 to save each potential victim.  Would you spend that on an 80 year old to give him a new heart?  Or would you send that money elsewhere?  

This is about looking at the data, evaluating the options, making hard decisions and taking hard action.  There is NO GREAT path, just less bad ones.  People will die, money will be spent, debt will be accrued, etc.

Here is an interesting piece regarding how important things did not happen in April.  I mean if you think about it, Trump and crew seemed pretty interested in the economy and assigning blame instead of focusing on the solution.  I wonder if other GOPers will be willing to consider cutting him loose now that his luck has run out?

Whiner in Chief

The Press is SO Mean to me...  (boo hoo hoo...)

Here is a man who lies, exaggerates and/or changes his story often whining that real professional journalists call him out on it.  Unlike many of the Far Right opinion folk who let him get away with it.  My other name for Trump was going to be "Victim in Chief".

Here are more of his thoughts and feelings.  One that frustrates me is his continued call for more spending and a payroll tax holiday.  Doesn't he know that social security and medicare are headed for the rocks?  And he wants to reduce there funding?

"Trump said that while he thought common ground could be found with Democrats over an infrastructure package, “we’re not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut. That is so important to the success of our country.”

Here is AP's Fact check of recent Trump Admin comments and claims.  And CNN's Factcheck.  And I would give you FOX's Factcheck, but they simply do not do them on Trump. :-( 

Reade, Biden and Does It Matter?

The usual questions... Why now?

And why does it matter?  I mean our current President has an apparent history of such actions.  In fact he bragged about it.

At least Biden asked to have Reade's complaint found.

Should we stop the presumption of innocence just because a women cries foul decades later?

Thoughts?