The Corona Virus and the Uselessness of any Proposed US Federal Balanced Budget Amendment

[vba_php]

Adam, if you wanted to impress her, clean up your place and cook for her.

the place IS clean, you goof! and she has already agreed to cook my favorite, which I eat every day. TACOS. and I DO impress. I'm too mysterious to impress. she's curious, and apparently it has remained that way for quite some time. if only she knew more than that. the whole story, that is.

Sometimes a walk in the moonlight can be very romantic.

she got scared of the virus, otherwise we were going to go for a long walk, yes. I will be travelling up to her place, she's not coming here.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

In these walks, we maintained social isolation because we didn't want anyone to overhear too much anyway, so we would walk to where nobody was closer than 10 or 15 feet. This social isolation is part of a Japanese theory of privacy that a Japanese grad student told me about in college. If you are out in the open, you can SEE who is too close and can move elsewhere. Nobody can sneak up to your door and listen if you are outside where there are no doors for eavesdroppers to hide behind.

 

[Steve R.]

A very casual review of the reaction of some pundits to what the politicians are proposing to "solve" this crisis. I started the thread with the premise that politicians really weren't interested in balancing the budget and would use an event such as the Corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak to ignore/change the rules. Back in 2008 the housing bubble burst and Congress frantically passed new legislation with much public fanfare so "too big to fail" would never happen. Now the politicians are apparently foaming at the mouth to undo all those supposedly well thought-out (sarcasm) regulatory constraints!!!!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yep, Steve R., where have you EVER seen a politician that didn't want to throw money at a problem so that s/he could be more popular, particularly when an election is looming?

 

[vba_php]

Yep, Steve R., where have you EVER seen a politician that didn't want to throw money at a problem so that s/he could be more popular, particularly when an election is looming?

Richard, are you aware that Trump is now giving away 2 trillion dollars?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

So? Does that invalidate my comment? I didn't say Republican or Democrat. Despite Trump's style, he's a political figure and is therefore at least some kind of politician. Unorthodox? OK.

 

[vba_php]

no it doesn't invalidate it. I was simply making a point. stimulus, stimulus, stimulus. just like giving it to the insurance idiots 12 years ago.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I'm not sure how much of that you can blame on Trump. Last time I checked, he was the President. He SIGNS the bills presented to him by congress. If you think the amount is too high (I agree with you), blame in on the people who love to pick winners and losers. Gun stores loose. Pot stores win in NJ. BTW, he doesn't have line-item veto (I think he should) so its all or nothing. This is how the left has managed to get way too many boondoggles through on government funding bills. If Trump refuses to sign, the government shuts down and he's the bad guy. Without the help of the Republicans in Congress, this is a battle he cannot win and he's not going to be able to win on these bills either. He's already had to sign some really bad bills so far and the one they're working on now will be even worse.

The government (CDC) refuses to give us statistics. There is no way you can evaluate their assessment based on what they post. We can't tell if its getting worse or better.
How many people are tested?
How many tested positive?
How many are exhibiting symptoms?
How many are hospitalized?
How many are cured?
How many died?

All we hear from the media is hyperbole and opinion. What the hell happened to reporters reporting facts?

We can already see that the number testing positive is high. But that increases the denominator so the death percentage is going down quickly. The disease spreads very rapidly and that is what has everyone in a dither. It is ultimately headed to be around the same death rate as the annual flu epidemic which is around 1%. We don't shut down the country when we have a worse than normal flu season? Personal responsibility is key and we, as a people no longer value that. Apparently, I am not responsible for taking precautions in flu season to avoid close quarters and symptomatic people. Panera Bread stopped putting peanuts in my favorite salad (Thai Chicken). Why, some people are allergic to peanuts. Shouldn't the people allergic to peanuts not eat them? Or, better still, under a doctor's supervision, desensitize themselves so that peanuts are no longer life threatening. We have a whole generation, possibly two of people with severe peanut allergies due to medical advice to not give peanut butter to young children. If you know anything at all about allergies, you acquire immunity to allergens by being exposed to small doses over a long period of time. I went through two years of treatments when I was in high school to desensitize me to allergens that caused my worst reactions such as dust and tree pollen. I still have seasonal allergies because spring and fall are overwhelming but I am no longer addicted to anti-histamines. i get by with topical treatments such as eye drops and nasal spray.

Look at Trump's face when he gets up to speak. It's like someone is standing behind him pulling the strings. His mouth is moving but he doesn't believe anything he is saying. He is confirming Dr. F(whatever)'s very dire predictions. Look at the doctor's face. He's got his 15 minutes of fame and he's not giving it up. He knows the press mantra of "if it bleeds, it leads" and so he is just Mr negativity. There are several hopeful treatments and while the results are anecdotal since the treatments are not in a controlled study, they are real.

Now Trump is being blamed by the anti-Trump media for the death of someone who ingested fish tank cleaner because part of the ingredients sounded a little like one of the drugs Trump talked about.