PLAYPEN: Covid-19 Everything Political

[JoeKitchen]

Meanwhile, the USA now has almost as many Covid cases as Spain, italy, Germany, UK and France combined.

The world is sitting here wondering how a country that is supposed to save the planet can make a political argument over 40,000 people dying.
The President is someone who gets carved into a mountain or has a giant marble monument built about them.
The opponent is someone that nobody ever heard of who doesn't have the support of a lot of his own party and is somehow supposed to go from zero to winning an election.

Here the best a Prime Minister can hope for is to have a suburb in Canberra named after them.
We just ask that they can provide some leadership and guide the country out of a problem.
Most world leaders seem to be doing that and most opposition parties and unions seem to be supporting them.

The combined population of those countries is 324M, still less than the USA.  So what is your point? 

[JoeKitchen]

I am not seeing that being reported, but I may not follow all of the news sources you do. Can you provide links to a couple of those reports.

All you need to do is watch the night shows in the USA. 

They are constantly making fun of those protesters in the same exact fashion that they did in 2016.  It's just setting up Trump to win re-election.  As Bill Maher put it, the media is giving into panic porn and it is going to let Trump sail to re-election with his optimism. 

And to be honest, I think it is all planned.  Trump making that statement that he is in charge of everything forced the governors to shoot back and establish their authority.  So now it is the governors that said it is their responsibility.  Then Trump supporting the 1st amendment right to protest put the Dems to have a knee jerk reaction to admonish it. 

This will be used against them in November. 

[BobShaw]

The combined population of those countries is 324M, still less than the USA.  So what is your point?

LMAO. That is the point. The worst performing country has almost more cases than the next 5 countries combined. The USA has 10,000 more cases per day than all of Europe and will soon (probably within a week) have more cases than all of Europe with a population of 700M. But if you guys are happy, great. Ciao.

[JoeKitchen]

LMAO. That is the point. The worst performing country has almost more cases than the next 5 countries combined. The USA has 10,000 more cases per day than all of Europe and will soon (probably within a week) have more cases than all of all of Europe with a population of 700M. But if you guys are happy, great. Ciao.

Deaths per million is the figure to look at, not overall deaths, when comparing countries. 

[BernardLanguillier]

The combined population of those countries is 324M, still less than the USA.  So what is your point?

The point is that although the wave came to the US 3~4 weeks after it reached Europe the US didn't leverage this advantage to take measures timely that could have resulted in a better control of the pandemic.

Although Trump is the #1 culprit he is not alone obviously, many governors should have acted quicker also.

A few days old, but an eye opening interview from a close friend of Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1gCFy3iMI

Regards,
Bernard

[JoeKitchen]

The point is that although the wave came to the US 3~4 weeks after it reached Europe the US didn't leverage this advantage to take measures timely that could have resulted in a better control of the pandemic.

Although Trump is the #1 culprit he is not alone obviously, many governors should have acted quicker also.

A few days old, but an eye opening interview from a close friend of Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1gCFy3iMI

Regards,
Bernard

Piers Morgan, a close friend of Trump?  How much have you been smoking since being in lock down Bernard.  I suppose you're going to insist Brian Stelter is a fair journalist too.  Perhaps when he is not missing deadlines by crying himself to sleep. 

You're really clutching at straws here.  It is nice to see you are finally starting to realize that the governors are the ones who were in charge of shutting down and opening up.  Not quite there yet, but you are starting to come to grips with how federalism works. 

[LesPalenik]

Piers Morgan, a close friend of Trump?  How much have you been smoking since being in lock down Bernard.  I suppose you're going to insist Brian Stelter is a fair journalist too.  Perhaps when he is not missing deadlines by crying himself to sleep. 

Piers Morgan may be not a close friend of Trump, but he makes a good point when pointing out that Trump's speeches are not only self-serving, but he is wasting also a lot of Fauci's and other people's time who are busy in saving the lives.

[JoeKitchen]

So I kind of saw snippets of this story from my brother's posts, claiming Biden was putting out racist ads, but just assumed it was him being nuts.  However, after looking at it more closely, the irony is great. 

Cynthia Nixon says Biden is ‘courting hard-core racists’ in latest coronavirus ad

So, everyone knows this is China's fault, and that China holds the majority of the blame here.  So, Biden used this and ran with it, trying to imply he would be harder on China more so than Trump, which is rich given his past statements.  Of course it is a total flop with Republicans and independents due to those past comments.  But the funny thing is, the left went nuts over this as well, insisting Biden was being racist by blaming China. 

Now I do feel many Dems blame China too, but the far left wing of the party is who is in control, so more then likely Biden will capitulate and start insisting China holds no blame with the virus, putting him a loosing position.  Like I said, the woke wing of the party is going to make Biden just as unelectable as Bernie by the time November gets here. 

[JoeKitchen]

Piers Morgan may be not a close friend of Trump, but he makes a good point when pointing out that Trump's speeches are not only self-serving, but he is wasting also a lot of Fauci's and other people's time who are busy in saving the lives.

Welcome to politics, where the president, including every president, even Obama, used press conference to serve themselves in getting re-elected.  You act like this is something new. 

Insofar as Fauci and Birx, it is beyond obvious they are just as annoyed with the press as Trump; you can tell by their body language and tone how pissed they are with reporters over their stupid questions.  The whole story of Trump wasting their time is just a new attack to take away from the fact that even they are starting to speak out against the press. 

[Robert Roaldi]

Just bringing to people's attention a recent Sam Harris Making Sense podcast with two ex-military leaders (from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns) about the importance of social cohesion and the function of leaders in a society under attack. They make an interesting point that it's important for leadership to spread the truth about a situation. It may be unpalatable but if the leadership does not, then you easily end up in a situation where government is not trusted and then people may latch onto any harebrained idea. They expressed disappointed at how the interweb has not fulfilled its initial promise of spreading useful information.

Link to the long podcast https://samharris.org/podcasts/195-social-cohesion-everything/. The podcast has the double benefit of being long and densely packed so you have to pay attention for a long while, which is good for the soul. These are intelligent people with something useful to say.

[BobShaw]

A few days old, but an eye opening interview from a close friend of Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1gCFy3iMI

Bernard

I have never really been a fan of Piers Morgan, but he nailed that.

[Alan Klein]

You didn't, you replied after me and I thought it was addressed to me.

Regarding misinterpretation, I had an issue when you said the unrest is because of the totalitarian rights grab. That was your misinterpretation; the unrest is because of the economics of the lockdown. If those people would get the same money they were making before the lockdown, the majority will care less that the government will take away they right to roam free for a couple of months. I guess that's why the Chinese didn't revolt much yet, a full stomach goes a long way (that and not dying).

The right to earn a living and feed your family is a pretty important right.  Are you going to support one of those families going forward?

[Alan Klein]

If you ever needed a proof of the rise of a totalitarian state, how about total merging of the state and media? Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc, are taking down posts that are... get this.. against government orders.

Like the example I posted earlier, police blasting over bullhorns: "You must obey government orders."

Absolutely scary.

Those companies are used to following government edicts.  After all, they kowtow to  orders from the Chinese government in their China businesses.

[Alan Klein]

It is May 8th actually. 

The things that gets me, is that the elitist leftist Dems are scoffing their face at the average Americans, falsely making these protesters out to be Nazis and racist.  These are small business owners, gig workers, lower income workers, etc.  The plus is they are setting themselves up for another defeat in November just like HRC did with her deplorables comment. 

That's why Trump changed his mind and let the governors decide the timetable, so they'll get blamed whatever happens.  Meanwhile he's saying let's open it up for the economy.  So when all those people are out of work, they'll  vote for Trump to restore the economy to what he did before the virus when everything was humming along, great economy, great employments, stock market, etc.

[Alan Klein]

American Medical Association statement regarding reopening: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/ama-states-should-follow-4-signposts-safely-reopen-america

All four of the AMA's suggestions are medically based.  How can you design a remedy for getting the economy going without having any economic standards?  This is too narrow viewpoint and prescription.  A leader must look at all the variables.  He needs to consider economic, social, political, and other disciplines as well as medical.  All have an impact on society. 

[Alan Klein]

Piers Morgan may be not a close friend of Trump, but he makes a good point when pointing out that Trump's speeches are not only self-serving, but he is wasting also a lot of Fauci's and other people's time who are busy in saving the lives.

The Dems are constantly attacking Trump so he defends what he's doing.  The Dems did this with collusion, obstruction, emoluments, and impeachment.  If they stopped playing politics all the time, and let him do his job, he wouldn't have to spend time defending his administration.  The fact he can get some much done despite their constant harassment is simply amazing to me.   

[LesPalenik]

Welcome to politics, where the president, including every president, even Obama, used press conference to serve themselves in getting re-elected. You act like this is something new. 

Insofar as Fauci and Birx, it is beyond obvious they are just as annoyed with the press as Trump; you can tell by their body language and tone how pissed they are with reporters over their stupid questions.  The whole story of Trump wasting their time is just a new attack to take away from the fact that even they are starting to speak out against the press.

To some degree. Most of Reagan's, Clinton's and even Bush's speeches were well written, sounded upbeat and were a pleasure to watch, but sadly Trump raised lowered them to a new level.

[LesPalenik]

The Dems are constantly attacking Trump so he defends what he's doing.  The Dems did this with collusion, obstruction, emoluments, and impeachment.  If they stopped playing politics all the time, and let him do his job, he wouldn't have to spend time defending his administration.  The fact he can get some much done despite their constant harassment is simply amazing to me.   

Actually, many things might turn out better if he stuck to golf playing and let the experts make the important decisions.

[armand]

The right to earn a living and feed your family is a pretty important right.  Are you going to support one of those families going forward?

Wait, what?
What did I write, in response to what, so you can reply to this? I say something about a+b and you start to comment that a is before e.

My reply and example was to show this unrest is mostly about not being able to afford to not work, and much less about liberties being taken away by a totalitarian regime. Most would be able to deal with staying at home for a while if they had the financial resources. Those hit the most would be those who already were in a bad position to start with.

And that part about me having to support somebody, enlighten me. Are you suggesting communism? Are you going to support somebody? I'm sure there are a lot of people in a worse position than you. Or maybe Trump should do it, he has much more than us, although I just read that while many hotels participate in hosting healthcare providers that are volunteering in areas of need, Trump hotels don't take part in that. For whatever it's worth I would have donated my bonus but I won't get one.

[armand]

All four of the AMA's suggestions are medically based.  How can you design a remedy for getting the economy going without having any economic standards?  This is too narrow viewpoint and prescription.  A leader must look at all the variables.  He needs to consider economic, social, political, and other disciplines as well as medical.  All have an impact on society.

If only we could find somebody who cares about others opinions and could also lead.