Coronavirus

[KnightHawk 2.0]

His approval rating is at 46%. It was exactly the same a year ago. Those who disapprove must vote against him this fall.

Completely agree. Those who disapprove of Donald Trump must vote him againist him this fall.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

He owns a lot of commercial real estate. I haven't looked at his holdings in a while but those properties have large mortgages. Banks aren't going to want to foreclose on owners any more than landlords are going to want to evict their tenants when there is nobody to replace the shuttered businesses. But I imagine he's shuffling money around to pay mortgages.

I hate to attribute all of his stupidity to avarice and conflicts of interest, but it's not a good time to be in commercial real estate given that everything is leveraged in that business. His high end residential and offices are probably fine but what about hotels, entertainment, etc. I'm sure he wants the economy to be back even if it kills people.

Agree Donald Trump wants the economy back up and running, even if kills people because it will give something to brag about to his supporters and cronies.

[filghy2]

His approval rating is at 46%. It was exactly the same a year ago. Those who disapprove must vote against him this fall.

Amazingly, the share of people who approve of Trump's handling of the coronavirus is still only slightly less than those who disapprove, and it's come down only a couple of points over the past month. There's even 17% of Democrats who think he's done a good job. It looks like people are more worried about the economy than the virus, which is what he is hoping to capitalise on. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/coronavirus-polls/

Unfortunately, I don't think voting him out is going to be the end of your national nightmare. What are the chances Trump will accept defeat? The complaints about mail-in voting seem to be setting up a pretext.

[Stavros]

Unfortunately, I don't think voting him out is going to be the end of your national nightmare. What are the chances Trump will accept defeat? The complaints about mail-in voting seem to be setting up a pretext.

I admit my previous post was a bit over the top, but your comment sums up part of the fear- the armed bands roaming the streets with battlefield weapons in demonstrations where placards read something like 'the lockdown is tyranny' feed in to the narrative that the 2nd Amendment is there to enable local militias to defend the US against invaders and tyrants, something of an irony when the current President appears to have encouraged them. It is a calculation they must make if the 45th President loses the election, would he support an armed insurrection against the State Goverment? It sounds preposterous but is I think on the agenda of the Patriotic Front, the Proud Boys and some of the more extreme groups. My guess is that a man who values money more than anything other than his ego, would calculate his losses if an armed insurrection devalued the dollar. Who knows?

But for me as an outside looking in, I wonder if two such hostile camps can ever be reconciled, if either side will accept defeat or what will they do if they are defeated? It seems to me that the most profound structural change that has taken place, has been the use of State's Rights to subvert the Constitution, and to elevate State's Rights to the status of 'Independent' Rights. When I was an undergraduate the lecturer we had in US Political History suggested we think of the 50 States as 50 countries, and it seems to me they are (re-)discovering their power.
The Constitution gives every citizen the right to vote, but in many States the letter of the law is a dead letter -States openly admit they are purging voter rolls to advantage one party rather than another. Obstacles that make it hard for citizens to even register are not coincidentally making it harder for Black, Latino and poor voters to register for the assumpiton is made that they tend to vote Democrat, and when they go to vote on election day pollng stations in Black majority areas are closed for 'health and safety' reasons.
The Constitutional right to an Abortion has been exposed to States Rights -the letter of the law is in effect a dead letter where the State defines legal term limits to the extent that an Abortion in practical terms is impossible to obtain.
Crucially, the Supreme Court has declined to rule on these issues on the basis it is up to the States to decide. For this reason, it seems to be that a more aggressive promotion of the State will advatage those who, win or lose the election, have found a way to rule without reference to either the Federal Government or the Constitution. It is secession in all but name, without going as far as to create a separate currency, and without restricting the free movement of people, though I can see a scenario in which people who now want to leave New York and New Jersey for the Dakotas or Wyoming may face a hostile reception.

Now back to the science. What I find so depressing about the demos in the US and the frustrations being voiced here in the UK about the lockdown, is that it is absolutely clear that Covid 19 thrives in crowds- sports events, clubs, public transport-, that it transmits with frightening ease, that it enters the body to lock onto the lungs with extreme speed and causes horrific results, and not just death.
I am no fan of Boris Johnson, but this mid-50s, energetic man is now barely able to walk 10 yards without having to rest from exhaustion, while in some cases there is a fear that having had Covid 19 can have a negative neurological effect that is still being examined -again, a man who has something of a brain must be in danger of not being able to use it again as once he did. If he cannot return to a normal life as some patients have, we may be looking for a new Prime Minister before the end of the year.

It is essential for people to mantain their distance from others, for large gatherings to be discouraged, even banned until it is deemed safe to return to normal, if that is possible.

This link offers some perspective on the development of a vaccine, a bit technical but I think some people will understand it -
https://www.fpm.org.uk/blog/covid-19...g-development/

[broncofan]

https://www.businessinsider.com/wisc...lection-2020-4

Keep in mind that we don't diagnose all of the people who are infected and that Wisconsin doesn't have a really bad outbreak. The people who were there were all probably being cautious given the publicity about the elections at the last minute.

[TheGreatestLiar]

good news and bad news
https://news.usc.edu/168987/antibody...eles-county/3&
The bad: LA county has roughly 3% of the US population. If you extrapolate LA county's 200,000 to 400,000 cases nationally, it would equate to 6 to 12 million cases on April 10. If you extrapolate it to the world, you 150 to 300 million cases.
The good: LA county had 617 documented deaths from COVID 19 as of yesterday. So its lethality is overstated just as its prevalence is understated.
Nevertheless, there is nothing in these numbers that supports easing of social distancing, and I will continue to regard people I meet as if they were waving a bloody chainsaw.

[Cereal Escapist]

I'd like to point out something I found out 3 days ago but I can't fathom.

I know a republican family in Texas where one, the grandfather, has died of covid-19 and another is currently hospitalized but not on a vent and that family still insists on facebook every day that trump is handling this pandemic well.

When your own family is afflicted, don't you have to stop and ask yourself if your political ideology is blinding you or is it your individual family member's fault for getting sick?

[filghy2]

I know a republican family in Texas where one, the grandfather, has died of covid-19 and another is currently hospitalized but not on a vent and that family still insists on facebook every day that trump is handling this pandemic well.

When your own family is afflicted, don't you have to stop and ask yourself if your political ideology is blinding you or is it your individual family member's fault for getting sick?

We are definitely in cult territory here. Even if people are not following this closely and are confused by misinformation there are two things that should have penetrated and at least created serious doubts:
(i) the President is passing the buck and refusing to accept responsibility for dealing with a national crisis;
(ii) until a few weeks ago he was dismissing the risks and claiming it was all under control.

[broncofan]

I won't guess when Trump supporters will decide he's done a bad job. If it's someone else's family member who dies, it's not their issue. If it's their own family member, I've seen a few articles already that there are no hard feelings.

But even without increasing test availability and making sure our hospitals are equipped, imagine if he had just provided accurate information to the public. If he had consistently said, "people of all ages can die from this, those with pre-existing conditions are more likely to die and the elderly are more at risk but nobody is exempt. Also, you can spread the illness even if you don't have symptoms. It's twice as transmissible as the flu. Be careful." This would have had a huge impact and yet it's inconceivable that he can even maintain a consistent message because he's so tied to whatever's expedient (and he's got shit for brains).

He hasn't even told his base to stop spreading slander about Dr. Fauci. He hasn't told his base to stop attending these demented rallies where they're potentially spreading the disease. He's trying to scapegoat immigrants pretty late in the game given that wherever anyone has come from their outbreak is less severe than ours. All of the hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin studies are coming back with disappointing results as well. We were all hopeful, but he doesn't have the first clue about any of the antivirals being studied or how far along different vaccine candidates are. He hasn't to my knowledge coordinated a national serological survey nor has he helped increase lab capacity which will be necessary to increase testing beyond the threshold it's been at for at least two weeks.

Anyway, hopefully we see some good news pretty soon.

[Laphroaig]

I won't guess when Trump supporters will decide he's done a bad job. If it's someone else's family member who dies, it's not their issue. If it's their own family member, I've seen a few articles already that there are no hard feelings.

But even without increasing test availability and making sure our hospitals are equipped, imagine if he had just provided accurate information to the public. If he had consistently said, "people of all ages can die from this, those with pre-existing conditions are more likely to die and the elderly are more at risk but nobody is exempt. Also, you can spread the illness even if you don't have symptoms. It's twice as transmissible as the flu. Be careful." This would have had a huge impact and yet it's inconceivable that he can even maintain a consistent message because he's so tied to whatever's expedient (and he's got shit for brains).

He hasn't even told his base to stop spreading slander about Dr. Fauci. He hasn't told his base to stop attending these demented rallies where they're potentially spreading the disease. He's trying to scapegoat immigrants pretty late in the game given that wherever anyone has come from their outbreak is less severe than ours. All of the hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin studies are coming back with disappointing results as well. We were all hopeful, but he doesn't have the first clue about any of the antivirals being studied or how far along different vaccine candidates are. He hasn't to my knowledge coordinated a national serological survey nor has he helped increase lab capacity which will be necessary to increase testing beyond the threshold it's been at for at least two weeks.

Anyway, hopefully we see some good news pretty soon.

Trumps own words will eventually come back to haunt him...