Saturday, February 29, 2020
Talkin' About My Generation
It's been almost 18 19 years since 9/11, almost 40 years since Reagan was elected, almost 48 years since Nixon beat McGovern, and almost 75 years since the end of WWII (meaning the youngest surviving veteran of that war is around 91 years old).
Our Medical System
If this virus doesn't fizzle out - or when the next one comes along - we will very quickly hear stories of people being semi-coerced into staying in hospitals simply for isolation. Stays they will be expected to, but can't, pay for. And when those stories come out...
No epidemic plan that doesn't deal with this reality is a plan at all.
No epidemic plan that doesn't deal with this reality is a plan at all.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Hack Season
I never take myself out of this stuff. We are all part of the mess. But it is tiresome watching people make arguments for/against candidates that they wouldn't make if their candidate preferences were different. I'm not saying they - we - are necessarily full of shit, except for the people getting paid whose job it is to be full of shit, just that it's human nature to pick a team and root for it and against the others.
How To Keep That Gong Alive
Trump has a rather special personality, of course, but once upon a time there was some sense that people who presided over total disasters would resign (perhaps to resurface later) for symbolism even if it wasn't really their fault. That faded long before Trump, and the aftermath of the financial crisis cemented it. That any of the people (government, bankers) felt comfortable not just keeping their jobs but being public figures more generally subsequently...
Wow The Chinese Government Sounds Bad
The Chinese government silenced whistle-blowers, withheld information and played down the threat of the new coronavirus. Now the ruling Communist Party is trying to rehabilitate its image by rebranding itself as the leader in the fight against the virus. https://t.co/yfiLxW18bM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 28, 2020
Can You Provide A Means of Payment
A country where they ask you for a credit card as they're considering wheeling you in for heart surgery from the emergency room is not one that can handle any kind of epidemic.
All props to individuals and institutions who make it work better than this, but as a system... It just can't be done, my friends.
I have no idea if this will be a real epidemic or if it'll just fizzle out soon, but if it fizzles the lessons we will learn are... precisely zero. DC brains just can't even handle what needs to be done, which is not a sliding income-based scale of vaccine affordability, with tax advantaged vaccine savings accounts and vaccine empowerment zones for urban areas.
If there is an epidemic and any sort of vaccine available, even an imperfect one, you have to get it to 300 million people. Now. You set up vaccine administration stations everywhere. Schools, malls, offices, everywhere. I don't know you have strictly have to make it compulsory - probably, though that might be more trouble - but you go door to door with it.
This is a massive problem which would require the entire weight of the state, not some argument about WHETHER FREE VACCINES ARE SOCIAMALISM. It isn't like "oh, well, give up your iphone to get your vaccine, peasant." It's "save civilization."
And the people who run the country - and not just the Trumpkins - have no idea.
Humanity died because DC Wonks spent 6 months coming up with a Rube Goldberg machine to make sure the sons of billionaires had to pay for their vaccines. NO FREE COLLEGE OR VACCINES FOR BILLIONAIRES.
All props to individuals and institutions who make it work better than this, but as a system... It just can't be done, my friends.
I have no idea if this will be a real epidemic or if it'll just fizzle out soon, but if it fizzles the lessons we will learn are... precisely zero. DC brains just can't even handle what needs to be done, which is not a sliding income-based scale of vaccine affordability, with tax advantaged vaccine savings accounts and vaccine empowerment zones for urban areas.
If there is an epidemic and any sort of vaccine available, even an imperfect one, you have to get it to 300 million people. Now. You set up vaccine administration stations everywhere. Schools, malls, offices, everywhere. I don't know you have strictly have to make it compulsory - probably, though that might be more trouble - but you go door to door with it.
This is a massive problem which would require the entire weight of the state, not some argument about WHETHER FREE VACCINES ARE SOCIAMALISM. It isn't like "oh, well, give up your iphone to get your vaccine, peasant." It's "save civilization."
And the people who run the country - and not just the Trumpkins - have no idea.
Details: Pelosi and Schumer said in their joint statement that additional funding Congress grants to the Trump administration to combat the coronavirus must include the following provisions:People got no money. What the fuck is affordable? I suppose an 18 page form on a broken website should answer the question, as long as you filed your taxes in a timely fashion!
The president cannot transfer these new funds to anything other than the coronavirus and fighting infectious diseases;
Vaccines are affordable and available to all that need it
Humanity died because DC Wonks spent 6 months coming up with a Rube Goldberg machine to make sure the sons of billionaires had to pay for their vaccines. NO FREE COLLEGE OR VACCINES FOR BILLIONAIRES.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
True
And mother is getting sick of him moping around the house.
The decision to put Mr. Pence in charge was made on Wednesday after the president told some people that the vice president didn’t “have anything else to do,” according to people familiar with the president’s comments.
Keep Talking
The White House press pool is being called for an unscheduled event in the West Wing, per @JenniferJJacobs. Looks like Trump wants to talk after markets got hammered again today.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) February 27, 2020
THE DOW IS PLOTTING AGAINST ME
We Can't Do It, My Friends
Trump will make it worse, of course, but despite whatever heroic measures individuals and institutions make, there is no way our system can handle an epidemic. It just can't.
Lunch Thread
I have many hopes for whichever Democrat beats Trump, but one is certainly not putting GOP Daddies into all the Daddy jobs - Defense, FBI, etc. - which is something Democrats love to do because it always works out so well.
All Dozen Of Them
The most over-represented people in our discourse are the "NeverTrumpers." Most of them aren't even by any measure "moderate Republicans," unless you think of Bloody Bill Kristol as one. They're very right wing conservatives who just want Trump to tweet less and bomb more. "NeverTrump" as a brand should require a bit more of a commitment than "oh boy siree I really don't like this Trump guy much" and not "unless the Democrats vote for Biden Bloomberg John Kasich I regret that Trump is, once again, all their fault." But that was, of course, their inevitable path that dumb hippie bloggers like me told you would be the case years ago.
Nevertheless...
Nevertheless...
My Friends In Bethesda All Agree
There are a lot of reasons for this, but whatever weird fantasies the Tom Friedman-types have about Michael Bloomberg being the savior of the Democratic party, or some Unity Ticket of Amy Klobuchar and Zombie John McCain, or whatever, come in part from the fact that too many people in politics truly believe the Morning Joseph green room has most of the electoral votes. It's one thing to believe it should, but they truly forget that it doesn't.
No Worries
Mike Pence is going to pray the virus away.
I'd feel slightly better if I believed any of these assholes actually prayed.
I'd feel slightly better if I believed any of these assholes actually prayed.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Culling The Herd
Obviously they're sociopaths but also dumb ones.
Here's the clip of Azar not assuring Rep. Schakowsky a covid-19 vaccine will be affordable to all. pic.twitter.com/Z8aNd4wLWj
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) February 26, 2020
They Died On Teevee
One consequence of a world run largely by PR spinners, to which we've added a president who can't really see existence outside the little tv box, is a weird belief that you can hide all reality from people. To be fair, the Right has had great success with this. See, for example, bullying all news outlets not to show THE BAD NEWS IN IRAQ but SHOW ALL THE SCHOOL PAINTINGS INSTEAD. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE SCHOOLS WE PAINTED!!!!
But it's a bit harder to hide dead people at home and its consequences. If the coronavirus ends up being a major thing, it's going to be a major thing whether or not CNN acknowledges it.
But it's a bit harder to hide dead people at home and its consequences. If the coronavirus ends up being a major thing, it's going to be a major thing whether or not CNN acknowledges it.
Here's The Thing, Rush
Modern medical treatments for lung cancer are just lies, and in fact will kill you faster so the state can get at your estate that much more quickly. The real way to cure lung cancer is to guzzle bleach. Like you, I am a medical professional and know these things.
Bring In The Boss
We all do love the boss. Please bring that person, the boss, in.
Bloomberg campaign is hawking these.
Bloomberg campaign is hawking these.
Incivilitude
This blog (meaning me) used to be a lot more uncivil. I didn't just mellow and get nice with old age or sell out to the man (the man won't offer!). Incivility, the online equivalent of screaming, was the only way to hope to be heard at a time when, for example, we were about to go kill a million people and the only guy on TV who thought that was a bad idea got fired. Gotta scream when you aren't handed a microphone. I "scream" a bit less now that, for whatever the media's current flaws, there are actually more people to the left of Evan Bayh on the television and in the funny papers. "Trump is bad" is not framed as a hugely controversial borderline treasonous opinion in a way that "George Bush is bad" actually was. The Kids Today won't remember everyone (politicians, media figures) leaping to salute (literally or metaphorically) MY PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH every chance they got.
And Then Everyone Got Rich
Lots of money sloshes around even during a badly handled crisis. The question is just who pays, who gets, and who benefits.
The Betsy DeVos chain of hospitals just appeared out of nowhere!
The Betsy DeVos chain of hospitals just appeared out of nowhere!
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Seeing Red
Roy speak, you listen.
I remember this and I also remember that in some circles (like Mad magazine!) red-baiting was an object of ridicule. I didn’t know then that it had been an object of ridicule for years before that, going back to the beatniks, The Manchurian Candidate, and Joseph Welch. But as I grew older it became more obvious that red-baiting was some bullshit, and anyone who pulled it was probably trying to get away with something. In fact culture reflected that: Red-baiters were figures of fun, obviously flim-flam men, the Tartuffes of democracy.And sign up for his newsletter. If you only sign up for one newsletter (like me) let it be that one.
When the Soviet Union actually collapsed, and with it any chance of a Dictatorship of the Proletariat in our lifetimes, I figured that nonsense was over for good. People only called you a commie-pinko as a joke, like calling you an Albigensian.
But here we are in 2020, and last week Michael Bloomberg literally called Bernie Sanders a communist in a Democratic debate, and today we have people practically drawing a Stalin mustache and red star on Sanders because he noticed that Cuban kids don’t get rickets anymore and can read.
Nothing To Do
I'm not one to panic over things like coronavirus. I'm not saying there's no reason to panic, just that my inclination is to not. And I'm not panicking now. There's a lot of perfectly justified criticism of what is coming out of the Trump administration about it - these are not very bright and competent people - along with a general "oh shit Trump's in charge." But what if he wasn't? What if it was like year 6 of a fantasy Obama administration. Not precisely my fantasy Obama, but the fantasy of a competent, technocratic leader who would have a handle on this stuff (that I think Obama was...not that is a different conversation). Let's give our RPG Obama Dem majorities in Congress, too. So, to the extent that our federal government can respond, within the boundaries of a somewhat better reality, it can.
I don't know how you make our health care system work unless you start calling up for profit hospital CEOs and saying, "we own your hospital now." I don't know how you mobilize the necessary resources for the public good unless you overturn 40 years of dogma. I don't know how you begin to have a for profit medical system, as we have constructed it, serve the public need. Half of Missouri could be dead and they'd be debating President Obama's ATTEMPTED SOCIALIST TAKEOVER OF THE MEDICAL SYSTEM on Hardball, and the Supreme Court would rule it unconstitutional, 5-4, with RBG casting vote 5 against.
Not sure what happens if half of NoVa is dead, but...
I don't know how you make our health care system work unless you start calling up for profit hospital CEOs and saying, "we own your hospital now." I don't know how you mobilize the necessary resources for the public good unless you overturn 40 years of dogma. I don't know how you begin to have a for profit medical system, as we have constructed it, serve the public need. Half of Missouri could be dead and they'd be debating President Obama's ATTEMPTED SOCIALIST TAKEOVER OF THE MEDICAL SYSTEM on Hardball, and the Supreme Court would rule it unconstitutional, 5-4, with RBG casting vote 5 against.
Not sure what happens if half of NoVa is dead, but...
Because America
If a pandemic hits, instead of actually trying to provide health care for people we'll pay Erik Prince to "house" the ill for like $10000 per day per fast dying resident.
I Don't Think We Have A Plan For that
If we do get hit by a genuine pandemic, lol our health care system. People with insurance spending 3 hours on hold trying to get pre-approval for a blood test. People without it or with not good insurance....
After returning to Miami last month from a work trip in China, Osmel Martinez Azcue found himself in a frightening position: he was developing flu-like symptoms, just as coronavirus was ravaging the country he had visited.
Under normal circumstances, Azcue said he would have gone to CVS for over-the-counter medicine and fought the flu on his own, but this time was different. As health officials stressed preparedness and vigilance for the respiratory illness, Azcue felt it was his responsibility to his family and his community to get tested for novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19.
...
But two weeks later, Azcue got unwelcome news in the form of a notice from his insurance company about a claim for $3,270.
Monday, February 24, 2020
But What About My Part In The Story
It's depressing realizing that so much opposition to an actual change of personnel in DC (it happened bigly with Clinton in '93, can explain elite opposition to people like Howard Dean, and happened to a lesser extent but still did with Obama) isn't even about people seeing their great future income streams dry up, because they probably won't. It's just about a minor reshuffling of the pecking order of the permanent floating class of DC.
Few elite pundits spend 4 seconds thinking about policy, except against some 20 year old mental model of what Reagan Democrats want. But some candidates for president threaten the most important thing, their own importance.
Few elite pundits spend 4 seconds thinking about policy, except against some 20 year old mental model of what Reagan Democrats want. But some candidates for president threaten the most important thing, their own importance.
Everybody I Talk To. You Know, Everybody Who Matters
Pretty much every person I cover and talk to and email and text with day to day think it’s impossible Bernie can win. Maybe they are just massively wrong. I honestly don’t know.
— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) February 23, 2020
I don't want to debate Bernie's "electability" which people can have differing opinions about, but when all the Serious Politics Knowers you chat with day to day who inform you on everything in politics, and who you presumably think of as spanning the relevant ideological spectrum, have a unanimous belief on this issue which is completely at odds with polling, maybe you aren't getting the full perspective on all the non-Bernie issues, too.
Maybe the bubble is YOU!
Bye Harvey
One of our faves.
A jury convicted Mr. Weinstein of felony sex crime and rape, but acquitted him of the most serious charges against him, predatory sexual assault.
My Foreign Policy Vision
In any civil-warish situation, there are likely to be Bad People On Both Sides and perhaps, most of the time, we should just stay the hell out of it, especially as any noninsane person looking at our record of foreign interventions at all levels (from exploding cigars to dropping bombs) would conclude that our record of achieving our stated or even nonstated goals, unless those goals are some version of What's Good For Milo Minderbinder (but even then), has been catastrophic for everyone involved.
We did pretty good post-WWII Europe. For a bit.
We did pretty good post-WWII Europe. For a bit.
Everybody Gets Sick
I try to keep my bad thoughts to a minimum, but very few people are rich enough be immune from enjoying the glorious realities of our health care system. You don't just need to have "good insurance." You need to have the extra super secret insurance that most of the 1% don't even have. Basically, you need to be super super rich.
Thinking it's all gonna be good for you, personally, is one of those follies of youth things which extends right up until the point where you or yours actually has to deal with it. Then we're all communists now.
Thinking it's all gonna be good for you, personally, is one of those follies of youth things which extends right up until the point where you or yours actually has to deal with it. Then we're all communists now.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Politics As Fandom
I don't like to be negative about this kind of enthusiasm, especially to the extent that it motivates people to do productive things, but politics fandom, like all fandom, tends to be exclusionary and offputting to those outside of the club...
Our Dumb Discourse
Cable news is basically going to be "Democrats who hate Bernie" and "Republicans who claim they hate Trump but hate Bernie more."
Even if you aren't a big Bernie fan you can maybe see that's a... problem.
Even if you aren't a big Bernie fan you can maybe see that's a... problem.
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