caulfield12

This reminds me of the press conference the other day. Classic bait and switch about drug interdiction and the border wall when the American people want facts and guidance about what to do. As long as the administration is successful at distracting attention away from the most important issues, refusing to take any responsibility and taking credit for a constantly moving goalpost (100-240,000 lives lost now considered a victory like no other in the history of pandemics), we’ll continue to get the government we deserve. If it takes blaming others for the situation in order to feel better about ourselves, well then there will always be people like that...just as there always have been. All I know from living through this firsthand is it takes a monumental amount of shared sacrifice and a common goal to defeat this virus, and the US isn’t there, not yet. Wuhan declared victory by clapping for medical workers, honking horns, sirens going off for 3 minutes at 10:00 a.m., but, even now, it doesn’t feel close to being over.

"I blame the corrupt business owners that are employing these ILLEGAL immigrants, not the U.S. government." 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be a very lonely place if you do that. But just ignoring or wishing these people away in the face of the biggest healh care crisis in a century isn't going to solve the problem, because it's about science and flattening the curve, not politics. We are only as strong as the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Yes, they’re bringing massive amounts of Muslims here to Wuhan to bury them in mass graves but only after removing all the organs first...just like we don’t have any contingency plans to help any illegal immigrants who have been doing the work Americans refuse to do at below minimum wage. That’s the way things have been for at least forty years in this country...because the corporations and politicians benefit, as they work as nannies, or do most of the shitty work at casinos, hotels and golf courses. The politicians act like when these immigrants who often pay taxes at a higher rate than the 1% get sick, when the homeless get sick, when refugees at the border get sick, that it will all just miraculously go away. The irony here is that the Trump administration and China have pretty similar policies on Muslims and immigrants. That’s why there is almost no daylight between the two. When has he ever criticized Xi Jinping OR Vladimir Putin? I’ll hang up and listen to the answer. And if the United States doesn’t start acting like a world leader sometime soon, it will be a scary world we’re leaving for our children and grandchildren. A world where everyone is left on their own, a world without empathy/care or compassion...where what we’re essentially left with is simply survival of the fittest. Two months from now, we’ll look closer to a Purge movie than a shining city on a hill. We’ll look at the way we’ve been treating the least among us, and understand where it all went wrong. And the people who held their nose to vote because they thought it would benefit their stock portfolios will also have nobody to blame but themselves.

If we had a respirator for every female that Trump has referred to as "nasty" in the last 3+ years, there would be a net surplus of 30,000 now. At any rate, we can battle back and forth for the rest of the year about who was more unprepared... states vs. Federal government. We know what Harry S. Truman would say about that. But arguing we had the biggest economy in the history of the world and getting credit for having his signature on every check that goes out? They really should just have a camera and no press at these briefings. Just present information from non-politicians.

Well, nobody has held a single funeral in the city of eleven million since January 23rd. Undoubtedly, those dying the first 2~3 weeks weren't being caught or were being logged as pneumonia. Of course, that's the same exact case all around the world. But every body was taken away for 10~11 weeks and cremated almost instantly. What's the natural attrition rate of a city of 11 million over that time period? This weekend is the first time since January anyone could go out... and it's also Qingming or tomb sweeping festival. Which means every family in the city that lost a loved one finally has the opportunity to take the ashes and place them in the cemeteries, and there are only eight of these places in the city. It's a cultural thing. So you'd have to provide convincing or compelling evidence that NYC, Chicago or LA wouldn't have similar numbers with ZERO citywide funerals from January 23rd through April 4/5/6. Is it likely that the numbers are underreported, sure? By a factor of 10~12, no way. Think of all the people who died because the hospitals were overwhelmed the first month just like what you're going to see in NYC. Heart attacks and strokes that couldn't access an ambulance or taxi because they weren't available. Normally, people die here while stuck in traffic jams with no medevac helicopters. In this case, many couldn't even get out of the house or successfully enlist an ambulance or taxi because all public transportation was shut down. In 2015 there were 153,623 deaths in NYC. That comes to 420.88 a day with heart disease and cancer as leading causes. So we can divide that 153K by 1/5 (10 weeks) and the number would be around 30,000ish. Wouldn't be surprised by 8000~12000 deaths that were not counted. But similar problems with numbers in Italy and Spain. Some reports those countries are over reporting deaths for a number of reasons. But 3x the reported numbers absolutely make sense and wouldn't be a surprise, because that would align with the 10% mortality rates in southern Europe.

Probably too busy coming up with some more prescriptive abortion guidelines. I feel embarrassed to be an Iowan sometimes. Compared to Reynolds and Steve King, Terry Branstad is almost benign.

Of course there's a Maryland nursing home right now with 77/95 infected because they took all their 27 allocated Covid tests away... those places are no better in these situations than the cruise ships. My mom's main factor for survival in her assisted living center is pretty much Iowa's relatively remote location. And Trump, evidently, can't withhold the impulse to point out that there are fewer automobile accidents this last month...or bringing up the flu again. And he never clarified yesterday that the US was PAYING was Russia for the supplies, not a humanitarian donation.

It's because they DO have kids. They don't want to see a health care system so decimated (think of all the doctors and nurses dying in Italy from performing so many intubations) that there's not just a threadbare framework left to save their kids or elderly parents when this is all over.

Sure, but it's a lot easier for leaders to change their tone. When I read what you'd written, Charlottesville came to mind almost immediately. But this isn't about states' rights vs. Federalism. It's bout clarity. About everyone being on the same side... pulling in the same direction. We also have to waste time educating governors about asymptomatic transmission or the dangers to the elderly of attending church services in Florida. Everyone should act like they have it Covid and behave accordingly... and thank God they don't. At a certain point, there has to be a strategic plan for getting through the next four months, and especially beyond instead of reacting. Governors are going to have to work together to share equipment after peaks are over... and avoid too many peaks occurring simultaneously to prevent the entire health care system from collapsing. Decide on a mask policy and stick with it. Stop bidding up the prices of ventilators to $50,000 but agree to a framework for the order in which critical areas will need them. Unfortunately, we're still going to be dealing with states on the back end of this who waited too long because they didn't have surveillance testing to warn of a tsunami coming (see Albany,GA) before it was too late.

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/01/philadelphia-hahnemann-hospital-joel-freedman/ Then there are the profiteers, like Joel Freedman, who bought and closed a Philadelphia hospital and now wants the city to rent it from him—for $1 million a month.

The states should have been building their stockpile. We have almost 10,000 in our stockpile and we've been building it," Trump said at the White House. "We've been supplying it. But the states should be building. We're a backup. We're not an ordering clerk." Trump also appeared to question the financial wisdom of investing in mass production of the critical breathing machines, saying that in a few months they would only be worth $5 apiece ..... The building controversy over ventilators came as it emerged that 20% of a federal reserve of ventilators were out of commission because their maintenance contract lapsed. Hospitals in California and New York received machines from the stockpile but found them to need repair, according to the story first reported by The New York Times and CNN reporting. Federal officials have said they have sent 4,400 ventilators to New York -- by far the worst-hit US state -- from the national stockpile. Even the new ventilators will not be available to states that are in the heat of the coronavirus battle right now. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/donald-trump-ventilators-leadership-coronavirus/index.html

Friday setting up as a battle between Dr. Fauci, GOP governors and Trump over why there’s still no national/Federal stay at home declaration yet. States without Statewide Stay at Home Orders (info is a few days behind, cnn.com) Alabama Arkansas Georgia (Thursday) Florida (just instituted Thursday) Iowa Maine (announced) Mississippi (just announced) Missouri Nebraska Nevada (just announced) North Dakota Oklahoma (announced) Pennsylvania (just announced) South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee (“safer at home”)??? Texas (not stay at home, but some restrictions recently announced) Utah Wyoming https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-deaths-top-5000-in-us-as-more-states-issue-stay-at-home-orders https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/02/opinion/if-clueless-governors-wont-act-trump-needs-issue-national-stay-at-home-order/ https://fox8.com/news/coronavirus/what-are-you-waiting-for-11-states-that-havent-asked-residents-to-stay-home/

Well, as usual, they’ll get back to us on this. Will insurance companies that are waiving copays get reimbursed by the government? Will there be any (independently-verifiable) way of tracking $2 trillion in spending? Well, no, we don’t have time for witch hunts, hoaxes and negativity. What about the 30 million who aren’t part of ObamaCare and can’t buy in now (SEP)...even if they wanted to? Sounds great to say the government would LIKE to take care of everyone, but what will be the reality? One of his better quotes... 11. "One thing about the way I've conducted myself is not a lot of people know who I've been talking to and what I've been talking about and that protects people." Shorter (Jared) Kushner: I talk to people. Lots of people. You don't know them. But I talk to them. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/politics/jared-kushner-axios/index.html

Captain of USS Theodore Roosevelt fired... https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-relieves-uss-theodore-roosevelt-captain-loss-of-confidence-2020-4 https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/brian-kemp-ron-desantis-donald-trump-coronavirus/index.html Now we have this unprecedented situation in Florida with the governor stating no local/municipal/county restriction is allowed to be stricter than his statewide rule. What happened to local officials on the ground being able to make those decisions more effectively? More confusion. Now it was reversed again. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that local governments can enact stricter measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus than what is outlined in his statewide stay-at-home order, seeking to clear up confusion over language that says his order “supersedes” all local actions. After he signed an executive order around 1 p.m. Wednesday telling everyone in the state to stay at home through the end of April, except for certain essential activities, DeSantis issued an amendment to the order hours later. The amendment said the governor’s order “shall supersede any conflicting action or order issued by local officials in response to COVID-19.” Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241720381.html#storylink=cpy Finally, Trump announcing theorizing that the wearing of scarves because they are thicker will provide more protection than proper medical masks is borderline certifiable.

Having lived in the Quad Cities, Iowa, Augusta (GA), SE Asia and especially Wuhan...escaping extreme humidity is a significant consideration. Colombia...the finca/farm/coffee growing region between Cali and Medellin was the best overall weather in the world. Santa Fe, NM was another city I looked at, but too cold at night due to elevation.

Yeah, I can still vividly remember the sat call from one of the wives to her husband. As far as Texas goes, any thoughts on the best place to live (looking at five year old’s future educational needs) between San Antonio, Round Rock and Austin (might be too pricey by then.) Really have poignant impressions of Riverwalk still from years and years ago. Looking more at five years down the line from now...when we come back from China. Have family in Dallas/Plano. The other area under consideration is Albuquerque, because of the climate. Finally, my cousin wrote almost 75 books (aimed at middle schoolers) on Texas, Civil War and history of the West/Native Americans. Not sure how many are still in print, but worth checking out for young students. His name is Gary Clifton Wisler, he actually became pretty good friends with Carl Everett of all people in the last decade of his life.

I would rather hear from his brother and Karlie Kloss. They might even beat The Bachelor ratings and get their own spin-off.

Jared Kushner about to make his first public appearance...this should be interesting if he takes questions. Guess we’ll never get a 9/11 Commission Report to figure out what went actually wrong so as to be better prepared in the future...because “impeachment/media/hoax.“ Sighs again. Another aspect of the Treasury/monetary policy moves....the pressing needs in Europe. Investors are selling what they can to keep their money in dollars due to the unprecedented amount of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which threatens to paralyse the global economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve opened the taps for central banks in 9 new countries to access dollars in hopes of preventing the coronavirus outbreak from causing a global economic rout. The dollar pared gains just before the Fed announcement. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/forex-markets-european-central-bank-coronavirus-in-focus.html

I meant literally....from 3.5 to 10-10.5%. Should have clarified. Some states, like Texas, it’s up 1,600% in two weeks. In this case, it’s probably more accurate to go state by state, and also simply trying to intuit states that aren’t capable of reporting accurate numbers of claims due to online crashes and inability to get through via the phone numbers.

Yeah, the breathtaking (and heartbreaking) documentary is what really got me interested in the reading. Usually, it’s the other way around.

What do you know, two Trump states in Iowa and Nebraska are mostly following the rules (also, lesser population density) and still have lots of school districts open as of this week.

“So, the media is absolutely responsible for this. But, one should not think the media is the media, OK? 90% of them are working for the Democrats, they're working for the left. And you know, why you would pay so much attention to what I say, hey I'm flattered, great, you want to write about me? That's great. And as you know, Ray, and they know, if you defame me or slander me, you'll see me in court." https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/devin-nunes-coronavirus/index.html Devin Nunes has to be one of the worst, now that IA Rep. Steve King is quiet. Check that, he’s actually taken to comparing the head of the Army Corps of Engineers to Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf. Going with all the wartime analogies...

Sounds like eastern Long Island...Manhattanites fleeing the city and hoarding all the goods/groceries (through an army of assistants and line-waiters) the year-round population (much more middle class) needs to survive. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/kansas-coronavirus/index.html Topeka, KS residents struggling to follow mayoral requests...reminiscent of conversations from a week ago.

One of the most striking statistics of the last few days is Germany hitting 500,000 tests per day in a much smaller country when we’re touting that we ramped up to 100,000 per day...that’s not counting the 160,0000 backlogged at Quest and 500,000 that aren’t being used because they’re in the wrong places to meet current needs, private hospitals and testing centers, etc. Pretty jarring that the UK and US need to learn so much from other countries about how to get this right. Germany’s still under 1000 deaths and they’re still extremely critical of their own response so far and looking to make continuous improvements. And Florida is still exempting religious services from the stay-at-home order. Sigh.

https://news.yahoo.com/behind-scenes-kushner-takes-charge-235545283.html You know you’re in serious trouble when a secret government cabal behind the scenes led by Jared Kushner offers the greatest promise. The senseless death threats to Dr. Fauci are just the icing on the cake.