I waited for 3 1/2 hours at the DMV this morning to get my Tennessee driver’s license and voter registration in order.  Basically lost a half day of work at the worst time of year for me, but it was worth every waking second knowing I’ll be able to vote against this fucking clown in a red state.

46 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

For guy who feels better than he has in 20 years, he certainly looked like he was gasping for breath waiting for the chopper to leave.

 

3 hours ago, Dick Allen said:

For guy who feels better than he has in 20 years, he certainly looked like he was gasping for breath waiting for the chopper to leave.

To be fair, we don’t know how he felt 20 years ago.

Is 800 covid cases on a campus of 18000 students a lot? Just asking. Rumor is KU has 800 individuals who are positive.

At some stage, hopefully sooner rather than later, the Thai government will have to re-open its borders and find a way to ‘manage’ the Covid-19 situation rather than remain in a travel bubble of its own making. The longer the government doesn’t re-open to something akin to general tourism, the harder it will be to re-boot the former Thai tourism powerhouse.

You would think with a compulsory wearing of face masks, some diligent respect for social distancing and constant reminders of good hygiene and hand washing, most of the risk factors for Covid-19 can be mitigated. Testing before travel and upon arrival also provides an extra level of defence. There are well established ways to avoid a virus beyond the blunt tool of simply closing borders.

Sure locals, who have been living inside this Siamese Bubble for 6 or so months, will also have to manage their own prevention with potential new cases coming into the country. The recent complacency will have to be replaced with a new vigilance.

The mandatory 14 day quarantine, clearly a major sticking point for many travellers, has been cobbled together to appear as little more than a money-making exercise for a select group of wealthy hoteliers, rather than a well-grounded public health policy. Appointing a government-owned private company as the intermediary for travel arrangements also smacks of turning Covid travel into a profit centre for a single business entity. The 10 room guesthouse in Patong and the bike tour company in Chiang Mai are making nothing from this exercise.

The two reoccurring themes behind every announcement about possible re-openings are “fear” of a new wave of Covid-19 and “we’re just waiting for a vaccine”.

Whilst the Thai government’s success in containing Covid-19 relatively early is something to be proud of, it has been replaced with an irrational fear to develop a useful, science-based plan to re-open the borders.

And while the hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine are shared by millions, the history of successful coronavirus vaccines is not good. In fact there has never been a workable vaccine for any of the five other coronaviruses. The urgency and clear need for a vaccine for Covid-19 has forced scientists to fast-track their development and testing, and clinical trials are currently underway. But, even if they work they will only be partially successful and many people simply won’t get the vaccine, either through choice, poorly-informed fears or lack of access. So waiting for a vaccine could be a LONG wait… it simply may never happen.

Thailand’s travel and hospitality industries, and they ARE industries, are in a perpetual limbo. Whilst everyone is happy to see a development like the Special Tourist Visa, it is not even a remotely sustainable model for Thailand’s tourism industry beyond the immediate short-term.

It’s time to replace fear with professional management of this inconvenient virus.
 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1186070-hard-truths-about-travelling-to-thailand-right-now/?utm_source=newsletter-20201006-0539&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

Edited October 6, 20205 yr by caulfield12

Rudy Guiliani, the only person on Trump's debate prep team that hasn't tested positive, was on Fox News last night coughing his ass off.

i am sure he is hoping for a positive test so he can feel better than he has in years.

Edited October 6, 20205 yr by Dick Allen

12 hours ago, NWINFan said:

To go along with the dumbest thing he has done when he returned to the White House and took off his mask. I seriously don't know what he is thinking, but it doesn't get any dumber than this. The leadership just isn't there and that is putting it mildly. This is more than dumb. This is insane.

I'm not a Pence fan, but for his own future, he should stay away from Trump as much as possible.

He's got a small chance to be president if he can stay healthy.

6 hours ago, greg775 said:

Is 800 covid cases on a campus of 18000 students a lot? Just asking. Rumor is KU has 800 individuals who are positive.

I assume that you took math in journalism school.

It's about 5%.

22 minutes ago, knightni said:

I'm not a Pence fan, but for his own future, he should stay away from Trump as much as possible.

He's got a small chance to be president if he can stay healthy.

Before late January, 2021...or 2024?  If he can at least battle Harris to a draw this week, he still has a puncher’s chance four years from now.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-29/trump-s-convention-offered-peek-at-2024-republican-primary

Arguably, Pence and Pompeo have the most to lose in a Nov. 3rd blowout, along with Donald Jr. and Ivanka.

Nikki Haley probably goes to the head of the 2024 pack in that scenario, perhaps Paul Ryan, Cruz and Rubio, Kristi Noem...who knows what the world will look like by then?  Then you have Hogan, Baker and DeWine who will come out of Covid the strongest governors, along with Noem.

36 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Rudy Guiliani, the only person on Trump's debate prep team that hasn't tested positive, was on Fox News last night coughing his ass off.

i am sure he is hoping for a positive test so he can feel better than he has in years.

Guiliani has been strangely absent for the past few months. Regardless, he has nothing useful to say regarding this crisis. He needs to go away unless he wants to help Trump fall further behind in the polls. 

"Who gives a shit about 205,000 dead and counting in less than a year?"

 

 

6 hours ago, Tony said:

 

Not sure what is going on there?  Is that her daughter?

32 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

"Who gives a shit about 205,000 dead and counting in less than a year?"

 

 

Just to be clear, this also isn't true:

"CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010."

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

15 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Not sure what is going on there?  Is that her daughter?

Yes, her 15 year old daughter. As much as I am not a Kellyanne fan, I don't like this stuff out there dealing with her 15 year old. That is a Conway matter. Not for the world to see.

9 minutes ago, KipWellsFan said:

Just to be clear, this also isn't true:

"CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010."

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

And Covid isn't the flu. If we just acted like we do during flu season, the 210k dead would be multiplied. This guy is gasping for breath after receiving treatment maybe no one gets, and he continues to downplay it. 

The only thing crazier than what he has done the last 48 hours, are the people defending it.

 

Besides why do we have to learn to live with Covid. Isn't it just going to go away?

Edited October 6, 20205 yr by Dick Allen

9 minutes ago, KipWellsFan said:

Just to be clear, this also isn't true:

"CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010."

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

I have shared the deaths by year for Flu number so many times in the last six months,,, but those people dont' seem to care about the actual numbers.

14 hours ago, Texsox said:

I think y'all believe I'm saying something I'm not. I must not be clear. 

Whatever plan you want, actions are what makes the difference. Irresponsible people will cause a great plan to fail. We need everyone from elected officials to Joe Sixpack to be responsible. 

That's not a policy or plan. It's a strategy to implement whatever plan you want. I can't even comprehend that as any kind of plan and at least in my corner of the globe no entity has that as a policy. 

We're going to continue to have this pandemic as long as we have irresponsible people. 

You're also talking about a perfect world were everyone listens and does what they are supposed to do with no argument at all instead of being forced to be responsible.

Sure it would be great if we made a plan where we just said "Hey everyone stay home for 3 weeks. Only go out if it's vitally necessary. After 3 weeks it will all be over and we can go back to normal again." But that's fantasy thinking.

Instead we have to force businesses to close because if we don't, people will still continue to go to them. Whether it's because they think the rules don't apply to them or because they think it's somehow against their "freedoms" or whatever else.

And here we are, months later continuing to fight this thing because so many people can't seem to do the right thing.

13 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

It was to film a commercial

 

 

Then it was dumber yet along with being insane. 

4 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I have shared the deaths by year for Flu number so many times in the last six months,,, but those people dont' seem to care about the actual numbers.

The flu death numbers are also just estimates and almost certainly vastly overinflated.  The amount of actual verified flu deaths every year is way less than the CDC estimates. 

The last 4 years has really shown just how right George Carlin was about how stupid most people are.

49 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

"Who gives a shit about 205,000 dead and counting in less than a year?"

 

 

Remember that in February, the president told Bob Woodward COVID is 5x deadlier than the flu.

1 minute ago, Quin said:

Remember that in February, the president told Bob Woodward COVID is 5x deadlier than the flu.

You should want to get Covid. With all of the great drugs his administration has developed, you will feel better than you have in years.

COVID has been here for 7 months full-blown, and 210k+ have died. After the winter, the models that have been most accurate today project 340-370k dead by the end of the year. 

The Flu has killed 359,000 people since 2010. In terms of deaths per year, ignoring all other rates, COVID is 10 times as deadly as the Flu. They should have denied this geezer health care. 

Edited October 6, 20205 yr by Look at Ray Ray Run

5 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

You should want to get Covid. With all of the great drugs his administration has developed, you will feel better than you have in years.

Not that you have access to literally any of it... but it is easy!

Someone needs to take his phone away.

1 hour ago, KipWellsFan said:

Just to be clear, this also isn't true:

"CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010."

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

Yeah - I was going to say - a high end count is around 50K and that is with something that has a vaccine (not perfect by any stretch - but it helps).  And 50K vs. where we are headed (which is 300-400K) - probably isn't the best comparison but it is already 6times more than the flu and that doesn't even adjust for the fact that we are all wearing masks and behaving much different than the normal flu.