TrickstaPriest

Trying to remember if there are event cards in Pandemic, and if so, whether included in them is "Governmental response is purely CYA."

I read somewhere that when the Soviet Union collapsed, historians expected the rest of the world to band together in opposition to the one remaining superpower.  That didn't happen, because the rest of the world was actually pretty okay with America as the dominant presence on the world stage.
 
Then 2016 happened.  That'll teach 'em.
 
 
If you're watching the news at all, you're watching too much negative news.  Things are pretty sh___y right now.

I'm not a Bernie or Bust type guy myself. I voted for Hillary last time despite wanting Bernie. I'll vote for Biden if he gets the nom (Which seems likely), but honestly, at this point if it was 'Rabid one eyed squirrel or Trump' I'd go with the fluffy tailed rodent.
 
But yeah, some folks are very short sighted. *Sigh*
 
 

I take the support for Biden as a sign that America is fine with the status quo of the 1% running everything and not giving a damn about the country or its people as a whole. People constantly complain about it, but when given a chance for significant change, they run like scared rabbits and prove once again how lacking we are compared to other First World democracies. Bernie is unlikely to run again and thus we'll have lost the most significant proponent for true change in this country for a long time. We deserve whatever happens at this point.

I have read the claim that pretending to be stupid is a very good way to win, in politics and other places. Granted, this came from someone who called him/herself The Mitanni, as key to success in EVE Online... but The Mitanni said he/she learned this from family -- Southern aristocracy, who know it can pay to be dismissed as Bahbul-thumpin' dumb hicks despite Ivy League educations, while they work to keep themselves in power.
 
Though <cough> I do not entirely believe someone who hides behind a pseudonym, even if they add citations to academic works on Southern genealogy. I think I could pull out the link if anyone wants to read the Twitter thread and judge for themselves.
 
More apt, perhaps, might be the adage about the fox who knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one thing very well. Trump is a hedgehog. Unfortunately, what he knows very well is bullying, exploiting white grievances, and conning loans out of Deutche Bank (3 times, 3 bankruptcies!)
 
Dean Shomshak

Trump is not a genius but I give him credit for not stupid. What he is, is willfully ignorant of many subjects and unwilling to change his preconceptions because that would be tantamount to being wrong. 

Isn't it?  We've lost two hospitals here over the last 5-6 years and the Kaiser one is going to be next.  Hospitals aren't profitable under the current system, squeezed between patients with no savings and insurance providers that refuse to pay out.

I live in a "indipendant" living facility. We are locked down, people are actively fearful, From what I hear, it is a "bad" flu in the young, but deadly to over 50's and very young children. I've cancelled the Wednesday D&D game till summer comes (or a vacine)

Essentially, the entire nation of Italy has been quarantined by its own government.
 
In the USA, the eMLS esport championship tournament sponsored by Major League Soccer have been postponed but not canceled.  It was originally part of the cancelled SXSW music/cultural festival in Austin. A date and venue have not been set for a second attempt, which seems to be the norm pretty much everywhere. (This is mainly of interest to me because I attended the Series Two finals in Portland last month and had a blast. And I did not catch the flu or any flu-like disease.)
 
In Portland, Gamestorm, the biggest tabletop game event of the year in the city, is going ahead -- partly because a postponement would be financially crippling to the fan-run convention.

I know folks often sneer at 'thoughts and prayers' given how some folks use that as a cop out , but I think they sure couldn't hurt

The thing to note is that a mortality of 2.3% for us youngsters is still really damn high.

My understanding is that the elderly and immunocompromised are far more likely to have severe and critical cases of the illness. In China the mortality rate so far is 14.8% for ages 80+ against overall mortality of 2.3% (still more than 20 times as deadly as the standard flu, if you get it). As someone with a mother about to turn 81 in a few weeks, you can understand I might not be jumping for joy just because younger people aren't too likely to suffer serious harm from it.

You know, it was only a week ago that I was reading posts on Reddit from people who were adamant that COVID-19 "only infects Asians", "only kills the elderly", or that it was "just another flu".
 
edit: Now Reddit is full of posts from people who are sick, but won't get tested because they'll be charged $7500, and won't stay home from work because they can't make rent otherwise.

I guess, I need to bring in the best I can for 2020.
 
Hastur…….
 
Hastur……..
 
H......

Note that the virus is more effective against people on the wrong side of 50, who are afflicted with a Y chromosome.  I suspect that this subspecies of human is disproportionately represented on this forum, so please stay safe everyone.

When the Coronavirus really hits the tech industry will we switch to UDP to avoid handshakes?

IOKIYAR.  The same goes for (corporate) welfare and shockingly high budget deficits.

Getting away from the presidential campaign (though perhaps returning obliquely, we'll see), yesterday I heard something surprising on the program Marketplace. I find the program interesting because it's a business/finance program, which pulls it one way, but it's public radio, which pulls it another. Anyway, yesterday host Kai Ryssdahl (I hope I'm spelling that right) interviewed a Mr. Siroca, the director of the port of Los Angeles. Siroca avowed that coronavirus fears were hurting the port's business, but weren't the first trouble: The port was already hurting from Donald Trump's trade wars, which he condemned as stupid and crazy, bad for American business in general and the port in particular. Not his exact words, but more or less the sentiment.
 
This surprised me because while Mr Ryssdahl has interviewed many business people who told how Trump tariffs and trade policies made business more difficult. I don't recall hearing anyone call them out so bluntly. (And Ryssdahl, as a good journalist, sticks to objective facts such as reminding us that, contrary to what Trump says, other countries don't pay the tariffs, Americans do, and that the promised stampede of blue collar manufacturing jobs back to the US has not happened yet.) And a thought occurred to me, which I haven't heard suggested before, though maybe some of you have encountered it already.
 
See, businesses can apply for waivers from the tariffs. The administration's process for deciding whether to grant waivers is apparently, hm, opaque. So business owners and managers can't know whether an application was denied for some greater economic strategy or... other reasons.
 
It occurs to me that while the tariffs have been a lousy way to protect and promote American manufacturing, they might be an excellent hammer to hold over the heads of business people who might be tempted to complain about Trump's policies. Keep quiet, and maybe you get your waiver. Say in public that business, trade and economics don't work the way Trump says and his policies are counterproductive at best, and you could see your costs going way up.
 
Oh, and one of Mr Ryssdahl''s occasional interviewees is a soybean farmer who admits that China's retaliation has hurt his business. He's holding on because of federal payments to make up for his losses. He admits he'd rather be selling soybeans than receiving government money, but he avers he remains supportive of Trump and his policies.
 
Well, naturally. He too has a strong financial incentive not to condemn Trump. But another thought: Isn't that the long-time accusations conservatives have made against Democrats? That they create and nurture a class of people dependent on government handouts and so will keep voting for the party that provides them?
 
Dean Shomshak

Totes! 
 

That maybe the Truth of the Day

It helps if you understand that a lot of American voters, on an intellectual level, aren't really sure what they want--but they know on a visceral level what they hate.

Exactly.  And then Hillary lost.

Do understand, not necessarily talking about the Dem voters, more the party itself.
 
I do think winning the House in 2018 was the worst thing that could happen to the party.  It lead them to believe that being just anti-Trump works and is all they needed.  Rather than looking in the mirror, which a good trouncing would have forced upon them.  Unfortunately, this will be needed in 2020.  I hope the party can then honestly look at itself and do that.
 
To be sure, the Republican party needs that moment too,  but it'll likely have to wait till 2024.

Sanders' failure so far to put together a broader, winning coalition within the Democratic party is a "sneak preview" of the problems he would have doing so in a general election.  My politics are pretty leftward, but I recognize the importance of coalition-building.  
Given how the incumbent is running the country, even a challenger running as a moderate Republican(which Biden is not doing) would be offering the country a meaningful alternative.  

I'm afraid I must respectfully but emphatically disagree with the sentiment of, "Anyone but Trump." Donald Trump is not the disease. He's a symptom. The system running America today created President Trump -- its dysfunction, its partisanship, its elitism. The failure in leadership made Trump look like a viable alternative to many people. Major factions in government, in media, have protected and enabled him because it was in their selfish interest. Trump couldn't have exploited the divisions, the fears and hatreds, in American society if they weren't already seething under the surface.
 
All of that won't go away with Donald Trump. The system itself is in desperate need of revision. If effort isn't made from the top on down to change direction, to chart a new course, there will be another Trump. Maybe a more competent, and therefore more dangerous Trump.