caulfield12

No foreigners have been allowed into the country since the end of March. Chinese coming back from abroad, students, tourists...mandatory two week quarantines. Have been told this ban might last until October, or even January of 2021. So I essentially can’t leave to go home to the US for summer vacation and return to my family and job, at least as things stand now. First test will be renormalizing flights with South Korea, Thailand, Japan and Bali in all likelihood. Americans might be the last group cleared, along with the UK.

Much better than in a US public high school. Because we are one of the most expensive intl. schools in the city and have the most placements for elite universities abroad, at least of any major city outside Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, so we are certainly prioritized compared to ESL/language teachers backpacking across Asia. But education is much more highly valued and teachers more respected across nearly every single Asian culture. That said, the last week or so out in public there are so few foreigners remaining we get stopped for documents and temperature checks nearly everywhere we go in public. There's a tangible fear of foreigners importing the virus....they don't know I have been here the whole time, so they probably believe many of us are sick from watching worldwide coverage. 90% of infections are related to locals and returning students.

That would put it at anywhere from a 6-12X higher mortality rate compared to the common/seasonal flu. We can split the difference and just call it 9X worse. It's going to be interesting to see the results here in Wuhan....attempting to test 11 million with the throat swab/nucleic acid antibody test before next Friday. It won't be 100% conclusive, since roughly 4-5 million left the city in the first three weeks of January (especially university students, who comprise 2 million of the seasonal population and are presumably all back in their home cities/provinces, would have a higher rate of contracting but much lower death rate).

The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS May 7-10 among a random national sample of 1,112 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer, including 1,001 registered voters and 583 voters in battleground states, defined as the 15 states decided by 8 points or less in 2016 -- Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. This is the first poll I've seen with Biden actually trailing in the battleground states...by 7 points. That said, do the math for 15 states with those numbers and you could have just 39 voters (on average) representing each of these battleground states (some with quite significant populations.) It would be Trump 303 and Biden with 262 and then another 18 "others." All of the major betting sites have the cumulative average as Trump at 49.9 and Biden at 41.7 (won't get into all the possible reasons for that, but it starts out with Trump having significantly more "hardcore" followers or for sure/certain voters.) Statistical noise, or a meaningful sign that the push to reopen is starting to resonate more and more around the country? It's pretty difficult to ascertain as of yet. We should know more conclusively by June 1st. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/cnn-poll-2020/index.html

We meaning all the residents of Lawrence or even Douglas County, all the residents of Kansas, all Americans. And do you really think Donald Trump actually CARES about YOU? Howard Stern knows him about as well as anyone in the media does... “The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most,” Stern said on his SiriusXM show, the New York Daily News reported. “The people who are voting for Trump for the most part … he wouldn’t even let them in a (expletive) hotel. He’d be disgusted by them. Go to Mar-a-Lago, see if there’s any people who look like you. I’m talking to you in the audience.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/13/covid-19-finally-pushes-howard-stern-to-turn-on-friend-trump-and-his-maga-listeners/

We have 32.3% of the global Covid cases, 28.6% of the total deaths and yet comprise only 4.2% of the total population. Within the week, we’ll be ahead of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th worst countries combined...which are the UK, Italy and then Spain/France, which currently are neck and neck for #4/5.

It all comes down to how much we care about “society,” and how we define it. Do we place our own individual needs ahead of everyone else, and why? Is it more that our concerns (these days) don’t flow beyond the boundaries of our neighborhood, our local bowling league or our volunteer or church group? Is it simply a blowback to globalization...that we’ve been taught since at least the 1990’s that we’re all in this together as a global community, leading to inevitable “but why don’t we help OUR own people more?” conversations. We were talking in the office yesterday and my British co-worker pointed out that we were losing the forest for the trees arguing that Trump was xenophobic or racist or whatever label you want to put to it...yet it’s striking how much the consequence of that attitude (are you one of “ours,” or not?) is affecting the attitudes of so many around the world. We can’t even agree on what it means to be an American, and who has the “right” to be considered one. And it extends across the globe. Many Europeans today would prefer the EU collapse, rather than assist fellow member countries financially. Inward looking authoritarian is rising across much of the world. Is it really any surprise that the conflict within our own country is being mirrored right back at us, as the so-called leader of the free world? There’s a certain kind of American, now legendary the world over, who thinks that carrying a gun to Starbucks, not vaccinating their kids, denying their neighbors retirement, and denying their own families decent healthcare, is the pinnacle of intelligence, civilization, decency, and progress. The rest of the world, and the rest of America, has come to know such people as the American Idiot. The American Idiot, it seems, knows no bounds. Today, for example, their latest and greatest cause is to protest against lockdown, reopen a pandemic-ridden society where the infection rate hasn’t even fallen yet, thus ensuring that death on a mass scale becomes death on an historic one. The question therefore arises: are such people (for whom the idea of a society of equals, who people are to respect, care for, nourish, and protect) simply… sociopaths? I mean that in this sense: to the American Idiot, society doesn’t really exist. Everyone is an enemy, a rival, an adversary, cannon fodder. Come down with a deadly pandemic? Too bad for you. You must have been weak, and only the strong survive. This kind of attitude, which betrays a stunning indifference to everyone else’s life or death, is surely the essence of sociopathy. So: are we living in the age of the sociopath? And isn’t that one of the things the pandemic proves, despite all the feel-good stories of doctors and nurses? That many of us have become hardened to the point of indiffierence about life and death? But can you have a functioning society made of sociopaths — and if you can’t, what percentage of sociopaths does it take to destabilize a functioning society for everyone else? https://eand.co/how-freedom-turned-sociopathic-in-america-963048c59f8f

Imagine if there was ANY type of world geopolitical problem related to the Czech Republic and Slovenia... Would reporters (or the American president of the future) then get to ask Ivanka or Melania to respond for those respective countries? What were they doing in their twenties, let alone at the age of 2? Because the CBS reporter (Weijia Jiang) Trump went after has been (I’m going to repeat it) in the US since age 2 and is an American citizen. Her parents are retired and own a Chinese restaurant in West Virginia of all places. It doesn’t get any more American that that! Getting an education and improving one’s position through the financial sacrifice of parents...that’s the true American Dream, not coming over to the US on shady modeling/socialite work visas. She believed in the power of journalism so much she even became a reporter at the age of 13! Isn’t that the type of ambition we would hope our own kids would emulate, and possibly even praise? “Jiang graduated from The College of William and Mary in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a minor in Chemistry. She also graduated from Syracuse University in 2006 with a master’s degree in broadcast journalism. In 2012, she was inducted into the prestigious Professional Gallery at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. [13]

But, without the previous experience with SARs in 2002-03...which hit southern China and HK directly, such a response would never have been possible. This time around, there was a consensus pretty much immediately on following the strictest guidelines...with everyone adhering, regardless of which side of the protests they were on for months and months prior. Unfortunately, the rest of the world outside of SE Asia has yet to learn their lesson/s adequately...and probably won’t until the next pandemic hits. Plus, quarantine is much easier to enforce on an island by shutting down one road, bridges, ferries, subways/tunnels and HKIA.

Unfortunately, Greg has transformed himself martyr-like into a living pinata, an apropos representation of roughly 35% of our fellow Americans. He, like they, won’t go away so easily or quietly. ( Just like coronavirus briefings.) As soon as you start ignoring them, something even more outrageous happens to drive the next media cycle. I spend literally hours each day now explaining that not all Americans agree with or believe about China whatever the President and people like Greg might argue. They simply can’t fathom how a leader could seemingly care so little about the people who are dying by the thousands each and every day. If America is (as they’ve believed for a lifetime) the #1 and best country in the world and THIS is the example being set, what hope is there for everyone else? Everyone currently is watching Trump’s treatment of that Chinese-American reporter (Weijia Jiang) on social media (end of Monday Rose Garden press conference)...and thinking all Americans are like that. We are talking hundreds of millions of people watching every single day and laughing/crying about what’s going on in the US. I’m close to running out of plausible counter arguments.

Greg, it’s still not over here in China after arguably 5-6 months, as we have always been operating on an early to mid November timeline for the very beginning of this whole thing. We had the most extreme, draconian, lockdown measures anywhere. Imagine every road/lane/alley into and out of your neighborhood had locked metal gates and police checkpoints. You’d just drive right through those gates like in a late 70’s Clint Eastwood movie, right? That your daily health status to even go out was determined by algorithms on a mobile phone application...which in the US 35% would absolutely refuse to use. Look at all these places with early success like South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong...other than Vietnam (can’t trust numbers that pristine), Taiwan and New Zealand, there are few success stories. And these are parts of the world that already experienced SARs in their lifetimes, which is why everyone is more than willing to wear a mask. It’s a sign or symbol of being responsible and concerned for your own health and especially the heath and safety of those around you. We might shut down a city of 11 million again...and I might have to retest just a couple of weeks after supposedly passing with flying colors...because, count ‘em, 17 local infections. Imagine shutting down the entire state of KS over 17 cases. The whole state’s population being tested. That’s how extreme things are...but haircuts! Starbucks! And you can simply forget your scenario of 3-4 business trips or otherwise in the winter...companies will cancel them to conserve resources in lieu of teleconferencing and 90%+ will be afraid to fly until there’s a vaccine. Unless they just get so desperate they say “F_____ it!” but that’s not going to be any of those 1%ers imploring everyone to go back to work to increase profits and make their lives more convenient again.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-salon-owner-admits-view-171044053.html Saying that she thinks the PPP money is from “one of the loans,” Shelly Luther went on to claim that she doesn’t “know how I’m supposed to spend it,” adding that she is aware that there are a number of regulations and guidelines that come with the funds. “I didn’t want to put myself in deeper debt by spending it the wrong way, you know, and also having to close the salon,” Luther said. “So until I got further instruction on that, I didn’t want to spend it.” “And giving me $18,000 to spend when my stylists aren’t actual employees of mine, they’re actually subleasing,” she concluded. “So I wasn’t sure if I was even able to give them any of that money as employees because I don’t pay them.” Besides the widespread adulation she received from the right over her defiance of stay-at-home orders, which included praise from President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) flying in for a haircut at her salon, Luther was also the beneficiary of a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $500,000 on her behalf.

Yeah, we were just discussing this...coworker in France and one in UK picked it up on Reuters and BBC. So the question is how long does a test last? We tested Thursday to return this week. So...? Every day? Every week? Who pays? How realistic is that for a city of ten million plus when the United States can’t even do the test once for 10% of the entire population? We did nucleic acid and pharyngeal (throat) swabs...same tests again? Nose swabs? Antibody tests? It’s supposed to be district by district, and over the next 10-14 days. Wife had one set of tests a couple weeks after going back to work, hasn’t been tested again, pretty sure she went back March 30th so that’s now going on six weeks back at work with only being tested once. With nursing or assisted living centers, the cost for a “pretty good one” in Iowa is around $4500, and that’s with discount down from the $4800-5000 range, supposedly. What I worry about is when my mom needs full time, 24 hours per day care. The cost for that is around $6500-8000 per month, and that’s in one of the cheaper or more reasonable states. She has dementia/Alzheimer’s, mild diabetes and elevated cholesterol, but still gets around with a walker and has adjusted well and socializes a lot more after a rough first six months of transition. She lived on her own and drove a car up until age 89-90, so it was a momentous change for someone both stubborn and who valued her independence and privacy...her way of life ever since my father died about twenty years ago. All things considered, it would certainly be cheaper if she was at home (and I wasn’t in China)...but the old house has stairs/split level and her environment now is so much safer in terms of avoiding a fall.

Which is why Hawaii currently sports a 30-35% UNE number. Almost 20% higher cost of living, but revenue streams drying up. Essentially, what amounts to a total ban except for the richest of celebs and 1%ers due to that 14 day initial quarantine making it a three week commitment.

At this rate, dwelling in a campus town, you are poised to be the vanguard of this budding new movement of remote laser hair cutting and sculpting...currently, only coastal elites have access, with KS 46th or 47th on the list for potential adoption. Well, this is slightly unsettling... @Laurie_Garrett 4h Here's the thing about #COVID19 : it will continue to circulate in the world, returning over and over, until 7.8 billion humans have been immunized. Also, the Wuhan cases were previously classified asymptomatic carriers, suggesting VERY long incubation times.

You really have to ask this with the current political climate? How many times has Trump brought up the China flight ban that still let in 40,000...while inexplicably dilly-dallying 2-3 weeks too long on Europe, because, well, they were not shith%#$ countries? Do you honestly think China in this present climate will allow US entry any time soon (their bans on all intl. travelers went in place on March 28th, so already six weeks.) We can, in return, block $15 billion worth of international students from China and India, and threaten the bankruptcy of roughly 30-40% of US colleges and universities in the process. Is that a good thing to winnow out the weakest, those without massive endowments that are barely getting by with small liberal arts programs rather than focusing on STEM, business/entrepreneurship/finance, etc.? Capitalists might say yes. Of course, then you’re going to have yet another tranche of permanent lost jobs, not to mention the marked fall in tourism spending/shopping. The result will be significant tuition hikes on in-state/out of state tuition as well as the even bigger impacts on private schools...because the climate for raising taxes to support state colleges and universities is simply non-existent. Finally, there’s going to be hell to pay for international airlines that connect through all the hubs in the US and China, American as well as Chinese/HK based carriers. PS. Korean and draconian don’t belong in the same sentence. I spent an extra 15-20 minutes yesterday just negotiating all the locked metal gates (installed to enforce quarantines) in my neighborhood just to get to the local mall for lunch. Keep in mind, this is week 17-18 over in China, and 17 new cases the last two days in Wuhan. Had to pass through two massive police checkpoints where they check documents and health pass/codes....waiting patiently for them to write down my passport and phone number. Some residents creatively cut individual bars out of the gates, so women and children can fit through, but it will be a miracle if 20% of small businesses can survive with convenient access now cut off to these local main streets from individual apartment complexes. Just locked metal gates everywhere you go. The fabricating company might be the only one to profit from all this.

Where is the wooden toilet? Next project?

Sounds like the Covid 19 version of John Lennon’s Imagine.

“This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great,” Trump said at the White House, as he confirmed a positive test result “out of the blue” for a top staffer, Vice President Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller. Apparently, it would be better for the entire WH to test positive and for Nancy Pelosi to becoming acting president, in other words. This is just beyond idiotic. If they weren’t testing everyday, they would have the entire Cabinet, top advisors (Stephen Miller is now thankfully out), coronavirus task force, etc., in quarantine. Something about preserving the continuity of power...sounds vaguely familiar. The irony here is how afraid Trump actually is about germs, that he’s now furious valets weren’t wearing masks, that Katie Miller was going from office to office without a mask talking to everyone, coughing audibly, passing out briefing papers, etc. If we saw his actual paranoid behaviors behind the scenes, America wouldn’t even open up until 2021 at the earliest. And, coming directly from the updated handbook of Emoluments Clause digressions: Trump Los Angeles @TrumpGolfLA Level 1: Game on! We are thrilled to announce the reopening of @trumpgolfla beginning Saturday May 9th! We look forward to welcoming you back Book your tee time now! https://bit.ly/2yCwr2M

“Vice President Pence has not served in the military, but has been a frequent backer in part because of his father's and son's service.“ Of course.

“At least it seems that way in the complicated articles I've read.” Point rebutted. Greg, you know we’re just messing with you...especially if you’re going to talk like Bobby Boucher in The Waterboy. (Adam Sandler) "Ben Franklin." (Young Bobby Boucher) "Mama, when did Ben Franklin invent electricity?" (Kathy Bates) "That's nonsense, I invented electricity. Ben Franklin is the Devil."

1) Equating measures put in place to keep you and your loved ones from dying=tyranny on an equal scale with the British and French monarchs from 1776-1792, check. 2) Plays conservatives are being unfairly persecuted card when less than five US newspapers have called for Trump to resign over the impeachment issues or pandemic response. Check. Hundreds did in the cases of Clinton and Nixon. 3) Blames governors for not giving more explicit instructions (after detailed CDC guidelines to assist them, as well as salons and barber shops, with reopening are withdrawn), which conveniently takes Trump off the hook for every government action we don’t like. If governors did provide county by county or district by district information, it would amount to more tyranny or policies that were too prescriptive. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t? 4) Equates getting a haircut in the face of such tyranny as a patriotic action similar to dumping tea in Boston Harbor...when men all around the world have somehow figured out how to buy and even use their own electric Wahl hair clippers. 5) Shoutout to President Trump for the low gas prices (which also fails to acknowledge all the US energy companies hemorrhaging jobs in order for us to enjoy $1/gallon gasoline.)

And the Astros had a similar record in the first half of 2005...16-31 on May 27th.

The 85-86 Bulls at 30-52 making the playoffs? Think of what fans ended up seeing...and we’ve had a .500ish or even lower Padres team make it in the modern era.

Awful Administration Official of the Week Award goes to: HHS HEAD ALEX AZAR BLAMES ‘HOME AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS’ FOR MEATPACKING CRISIS: The country’s top health official suggested to lawmakers at the end of April that meatpacking employees were more likely to catch the coronavirus based on their social interactions and group living situations than from exposure on the job, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn and Laura Barrón-López reported Thursday. Azar’s comments, made April 28 on a phone call with a bipartisan group of members, sparked outrage from labor unions that have been fighting for safer working conditions as thousands of meatpacking employees have tested positive and at least 20 have died from the virus. Many employees at closed plants will head back to work soon under Trump’s recent order to keep operations running to avoid a meat shortage at grocery stores. The secretary proposed sending law enforcement to communities where many meatpacking workers live in congregate housing to better enforce social distancing rules, according to two of the lawmakers on the call. politico.com 65% of the new infections in NYC this week were individuals already under quarantine 60 members of the Secret Service are under quarantine, with 31 already having tested positive for Covid