Apocalypse Fiction

The writers of this dumb show making Mar-A-Lago the primary disease source is a bit too obvious.

Afternoon Thread

Too morbid?

Expert On Everything

It's amazing. There are online and broadcast commentators who one moment are go-to experts on cabinet reshuffles, HS2 and antisemitism and the next on pandemics and the symptoms of coronavirus. We are so lucky to have them. I hope they get well paid.

— Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) March 14, 2020

The couple times I have been asked to contribute myself to a possibly (possibly) lucrative career as a TV or radio pundit I have declined. I suppose it's hard to resolve the "no I am not an expert on everything" stance with what I do on this dumb blog, but I do my best here not to offer myself up as an expert on things I am not an expert about. When someone points the camera in your face you can't make that caveat clear.

I have opinions on everything like the rest of you, but this is just a dumb blog.

Apocalypse Now

I don't read a lot of apocalypse fiction. The two I have read recently are The Passage trilogy (vampire apocalypse) and Station 11 (virus apocalypse). I suppose the message of the latter is "sure things aren't perfect, but you'll miss it when it's gone."

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Cause, yanno...

I Have Opinions

The worst thing about blog culture is that everyone decided that with a google search they could be experts. I try to resist this but also...well... I got nothing except the obvious. Free at point of service medical care for all.

Message: I Am Competenet

My big wet beautiful boy is going to address the nation again.

Virus: You're fired!

Cha Cha Cha Cha Cha

Fortunately we are going to bail out the rich people.

Big Sweaty Mess

No not My Beautiful President. The gym. Occurred to me that maybe people should stop going? Occurred to me as the woman at the supermarket checkout started spraying her counter when I left after having gone there after going to the gym.

Overnight

Have we gone live to Ohio diners yet?

At Least We Can Still Have Happy Hour

Supposed To Be

Well then...

“The lack of testing in the United States is a debacle,” said Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s Chan School and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. “We’re supposed to be the best biomedical powerhouse in the world and we’ve been unable to do something that every other country has been able to do.”

Afternoon Thread

Fortunately there is no such thing as society.

Lessons Taught But Never Learned

I don't wish it but if this epidemic expands we are going to learn that we basically have a failed state. Those weird historical blurbs you read in museums about how the leeches didn't work will be funny because, well, that's us. We didn't even have a leech stockpile.

Sneaky Pete Wine

Roy is wrong. My President is perfect.

Stonks

Time for some dog track socialism.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide But Me And My Monkey

Like everyone else, I have become a public health expert. I suppose totally random and arbitrary decisions to limit travel and contact might not be the worst thing, narrowly defined, but also probably not the smartest or cheapeset...

Morning Thread

I could go for some boredom right about now.

Wednesday Night

The lads way over 30.

We're In Our Base Killing Our Base

They can't keep this up forever.

Stonks

Not good!

Gotta Hide The Grift

Some combination of "how can I make money off of this and how can we avoid making me look bad" because that's the story of everything.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.

Plus racism, of course.

23 Years In Prison

Bye, Harvey.

The One Thing I Truly Believe Even Though I Have No Evidence

Is that insurance companies flag people (and share this with providers) who are "influencers" who on paper don't have "better" insurance but in practice find their path through the system to be remarkably smooth. Journalists, academics, those kinds of people. Probably TWITTER BLUECHECKS because that's our world now.

Build That Wall

*TRUDEAU: U.S. A MAJOR SOURCE OF POTENTIAL VIRUS TRANSMISSION

— Sarah Rappaport (@SarahRapp) March 11, 2020

A not very improbable development is that the US, given our incompetence, becomes the world's pariah and effectively quarantined.

OK Boomers

"Call" "your" "doctor."

So you think you COVID-19. Now what?

Don’t panic — it’s still cold and flu season. Call your doctor if your symptoms get worse. Stay home and self-isolate. But most importantly: stay informed about what’s happening. https://t.co/88RJuyfrc7

— NPR (@NPR) March 11, 2020

A quarter of the population is living on Earth-2.

In It To Win It

Your mission, if you choose to accept it...

Here Ya Go

Tuesday Evening

Count the votes! Count them again!

Happy Hour Thread

I guess there's more voting today!!!

We're In Our Base Killing Our Base

Fox anchor Ed Henry on coronavirus deaths in Florida: "There have been 18 cases of COVID-19, two people, sadly, have died, but both of those residents were elderly and had traveled internationally. So when you hear the context, it's not quite as scary" pic.twitter.com/5aRW09WP1S

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) March 10, 2020

The Power of Positive Thinking

Trump to reporters on Hill after meeting with GOP senators: “Stay calm. It will go away”

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 10, 2020

Hope

Even the best fantasy version of technocratic genius President Obummer couldn't handle a full epidemic. What are we going to do, nationalize some hospitals? Nationalize all the hospitals? We've taken core public functions and thrown them to the wolves and clawing them back would be hard even if President Obummer was into it, and I'm not sure he would have been.

Fixing the Economy

The most important thing is bailing out the beleaguered hotel industry, and by that I mean Trump owned hotels.

Haha it's gonna happen.

Nostalgia For Normal

I do miss the good old days of Obama-Biden negotiating with House Republicans.

Don't Talk About The War

Biden on MSNBC last night said of his vote for the Iraq War, "I didn't believe he had those nuclear weapons. I didn't believe he had those weapons of mass destruction."

He said his vote was for inspectors to prove they didn't have WMDs.

This isn't backed by our reporting. pic.twitter.com/O3Tq0Ihzxt

— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) March 10, 2020

Lots of savvy people are going to spend the next several months telling us to ignore Biden when he lies (he lies a lot) or that he didn't mean what he plainly said and welp...

Hype Man

I suppose one can make (an incorrect) case that the virus story is being overhyped, but this is not it.

Survival Thread

Monday Evening

How is it only Monday?

Patient Zero

My first impression was that the CPAC coronavirus person was some nobody and that's why they were keeping his/her identity secret, but then it seemed that they were *really* keeping the identity secret and so it was likely it was... not a nobody.

New: The CPAC attendee w/ coronavirus didn't just have general admission, but a higher-level ticket which gave him special access. CPAC staff are in direct contact w/ the patient & are relying on his memories, as well as their own, to reconstruct his experience at the conference.

— Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) March 9, 2020

...oops, report says "him" so "his" not his/her.

WHEEE

-1772

A bit weird, as I thought the lesson of the last crisis was that the powers that be would never ever let the stock market crash (or stay crashed, at least).

Getting Closer

If this continues to get worse, it's gonna get into the Fox and Friends orbit. Then what?

"Move Through The Population"

The rich and not so old are not the most vulnerable populations, but they aren't exactly living in quarantine either.

On #COVID2019, @BorisJohnson said:

“One of the theories is perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go & allow #coronvirus to move through the population without really taking as many draconian measures.”

This is a CRAZY theory! #COVID19pic.twitter.com/usABMckLqf

— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) March 8, 2020

Shitpost Your Way Through It

This works remarkably well, because the press loves shiny balls, but a potential pandemic is hard to distract from.

During the Bush era, @mikeallen told me every administration spin was either Nothing To See Here! or Look At The Shiny Ball! Feels like Nothing To See Here! has run its course, shiny balls are about to start appearing everywhere.

— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) March 9, 2020

Stonks

Likely another round of immense ridiculous bailouts going to happen. You can give people money to spend in businesses to keep them afloat, or you can give the businesses money to keep them afloat even though no one has any money to spend in them. Guess which we will choose! Again. And Again. And Again.

Run Away

Do what is medically appropriate, of course, but the utter lack of interest by House Democrats in attempting any public leadership role whatsoever...

I think a recess is a good idea because politics is threating to break out and it must be contained before it does https://t.co/sOxM4buAQ1

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) March 9, 2020

Morning Thread

Farce

What’s most worrying here is that many US energy companies are levered up to their necks in debt that’s been securitized.

The possibility that a COVID19-induced recession would cause those companies to default was a major danger. Now the Saudis are pushing them to the brink. https://t.co/X7Cm4wQ1Vp

— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) March 8, 2020

Reality Bites

As much as I was an opponent of our Glorious Imperial Mission in Iraq, and as much as I thought it was likely to be a disaster even aside from all the dead people, it was also the case that... wow they fucked it up! This was their (Bush, the Neocons, the whole gang) initiative and they sent a bunch of Heritage interns to run the damn country. Sure there's dumb ideology and sure massive quantities of cash just disappeared into pockets, but even with those things you can still think "wow, maybe we should try to do a decent job here, I mean after our friends get billions of dollars of course, if only so we can do it again next year in Iran!" But they just couldn't do it.

How hard is it to just tell the CDC to "do whatever." They probably have some idea. And the problem isn't Trump, though he certainly isn't bringing even the conservative A game. They are unable to not fuck things up. It's just Republican governance.

Sunday Afternoon

Looking for the cure on the golf course, as one does.

We're In Our Base Killing Our Base

An odd plan for a guy concerned overall with re-election.

NEW YORK (AP) — The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted the plan this week as a way of trying to control the virus, but White House officials ordered the air travel recommendation be removed, said the official who had direct knowledge of the plan. Trump administration officials have since suggested certain people should consider not traveling, but they have stopped short of the stronger guidance sought by the CDC.

Great Moments In Real Genius

"Virality."

Virality of C19 is overstated due to conflating diagnosis date with contraction date & over-extrapolating exponential growth, which is never what happens in reality. Keep extrapolating & virus will exceed mass of known universe!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2020

Gotta Keep The Numbers Down

But how's this playing in Ohio diners?

A federal strike team of nurses and doctors arrived Saturday to support the staff at the long-term nursing home, Life Care Center of Kirkland, Wash., where officials have announced the deaths of 13 residents and a visitor who were infected with the virus. Tim Killian, a spokesman for the care center, praised the workers who continued to show up even as 70 of the nursing home’s 180 employees have developed symptoms.

“The amount of work and stress that these staff and employees and caregivers are under is tremendous,” Mr. Killian said. “They truly are heroes.”

Earlier on Saturday, Mr. Killian said that the center was still unable to get all of its staff members tested for coronavirus. The home had received 45 virus testing kits, Mr. Killian said, which was not enough for the 63 remaining residents and dozens of staff members.

Morning Thread