Cronavirus- a Rational Perspective
21st century Black Death? Overblown hype? Maybe somewhere in between. Here’s one man’s excellent opinion.
Poetrooper sends.
THE POLITICS OF CORONAVIRUS
BY JOHN HINDERAKER
The Democratic Party press is openly trying to turn coronavirus into President Trump’s Hurricane Katrina. In that context, much of what reporters say is too stupid to be worth rebutting. For example, when the Dow dropped 1,000 points after Trump gave a coronavirus speech a few days ago, the echo chamber told us that Wall Street has no faith in the incompetent Trump. Then, when Trump began to deliver this afternoon’s speech that declared a national emergency and announced various anti-virus measures, there was a brief drop in the Dow, about which many liberals tweeted, blaming Trump. But then the Dow soared 2,000 points, and lots of those tweets were deleted.
That is the world we live in: the press vs. the Republican Party. But let’s step back from hourly swings in the stock market and take a broader look at coronavirus and how it is likely to impact our politics going forward. I suggest several propositions:
1) The Democrats’ effort to blame coronavirus on Trump is doomed to fail. Most people simply aren’t that dumb. The virus came from China. Its origin may have been a market where freshly-slaughtered bats and such animals were sold, or possibly a nearby government laboratory. No one who isn’t already a fanatical Trump hater thinks that the global spread of the virus is somehow his fault.
Much more to read here: Powerline Blog
Thanks, Poe.
Category: America, China, Guest Link, Reality Check, Trump!
Seems to me there might be a little irrational fear creeping into some here at TAH from all the media hype. This wise assessment may help.
This is the virus vs Americans.
And Trump for himself. As usual.
Says the dude with political/intellectual dyslexia…
OH, you’re still hiding in your cave, are you, you quack?
The sun’s shining somewhere, whether you like it or not.
GROW UP, willya?
Some day, you’ll die and nothing can stop that and the only thing you’ll leave behind is a trail of ridiculous, self-involved twaddle of FEAR AND LOATHING OF EVERYTHING YOU CAN’T CONTROL!!!!! THE HORROR!!
I think we need to quarantine him. He makes me feel “unsafe” with all his negativity. Besides, he keeps telling us he wants all of us who support Trump to die. Why do we have to suffer this fool?
Maybe a little off topic for this post, but Sir, a quick question.
Could a former officer, who never resigned their commission, be charged under Article 88 of the UCMJ?
I would hope so, but I was never a military lawer; until I was a Psyop officer in a reserve unit, I was always in command of trigger pullers. I don’t know who recommended that clown for a commission, but then my cohort had 1LT Calley. Plus, I served in active duty units, in the National Guard and in the Army Reserve, with many incompetent officers. Then in civilian life I discovered, just as Justice Rehnquist commented, almost half of licensed attorneys are incompetent. I might add that applies to judges as well. I found most of them trying cases neither know nor understand the Evidence Code and how to apply it. My first attorney boss liked to say that most judges were put on the bench by their creditors because they were such lousy lawers.
But in all seriousness, I would think he would have to be recalled to AD to be court martialed. I suspect the big green machine has more important issues on their plate.
Roger, just looking for a little perspective on that question. As far as Big Army having bigger fish to fry, that’s a given.
Thank You for answering.
((Out))
For both doctors and lawyers, it is always wise to remember that 50% of them graduated in the bottom half of their class.
The good officers I have known keep their conduct within a strict set of guidelines, regardless of who is looking or UCMJ status. They are always on duty, and strictly self-govern, honorably.
I am thus rather … disdainful … of those who fail to do so.
Did they resign their commission? No? Then act like an officer.
An officer can be forthright in opinion, even critical of things, well within bounds of Article 88 and others.
If those standards are too burdensome, resign and be free like the rest of us.
” with many incompetent officers… almost half of licensed attorneys are incompetent.”
More like half of all professions. I hope your realization of that didn’t shatter as many illusions as mine did.
Makes a darn good argument for limited government, though. Unfortunately those most in need of that argument are seem to be the least receptive.
Not really, as I worked as a law clerk in a private practice law firm of three attorneys. And I did most of the lawyer stuff except try cases during three years of night law school. So, I knew what I was getting into. When I was sworn in as an attorney, I had already dealt with a spectrum of the local litigators and judges.
Well, look at it this way, rgr769er: if there isn’t a Fool in the room, there won’t be any laughing and pointing, and we can always count on Lars, the Squawking Seagull, to provide us with something to point at and laugh.
Me? I had two wonderful filets of steelhead trout for supper last night. I went to bed giggling and full of fish, thinking how nice it will be to go to that fishing lake up north when it’s restocked and catch a few bluegills or trout, or whatever they release this year.
And then I will contemplate the Epidemic That Never Was….!… because most people had enough common sense to stay home and wait a few days while it passed like a Thief In The Night.
If you think I am hiding from this crisis then you know fuck all about me.
Quite the opposite.
You get treated as you earn.
Own it.
I didn’t earn a coward label, mail clerk.
I wish you would hide away in general. And we all know far more about you than we wanted.
You wouldn’t be posting here so much if you were out playing Florence Nightingale to all those afflicted with kung flu.
He din’t say he was helping Mason, just that he wasn’t hiding… probably out licking doorknobs if I had to guess…
You gonna whip your Empirical Evidence out to prove it?
Christ what a fucking bore you’ve become.
Hell, I thought the virus was a world wide problem. I wasn’t aware it had a thing for Americans only. Fucking moonbat…
You fucks insist on interpreting everything I say in the worst way possible. It is tedious.
The truth usually is.
Were was Obama during Swine flu
Playing golf ???
He certainly didn’t do much until we were about six months into the spread of the infection and many tens of millions were sick with it. The outbreak started in early April in the U.S. and 0bama didn’t declare a national emergency until October 24, 2009. Surprisingly, the MSM had nary a bad thing to say about how he handled it./sarc.
Spoken like a good little communist. Well done, we would not have expected anything less.
We all gonna die, at some point in time from some cause. Not a damn thing we can do about it, except prepare for an “afterlife” according to your beliefs. Better to prepare for an afterlife and find out that isn’t one, than to NOT prepare and find out there is.
I still say what I FIRST (take that Chipster) commented on this subject several days ago. This is an overblown media feeding frenzy brought on by a bug supersized by the Chinese, enabled by the domestic enemies of our Republic, to cause harm to the American people, and President Trump in particular. Love him or hate him the empirical data (eff you seagull) shows that the economy is doing better than it has for DECADES. They (our enemies) threw every piece of sh^t they could come up with and nothing stuck, until now. They will destroy this Republic in the process of hanging on to the power that they have. While Pigalooney was trying to pad the emergency spending bill with some more of her pet projects, daTrumpster shoulda snuck in some DoJ money for full scale investigations of the treasonous SOBs that are a part of congress.
Turn off the TV, get a cold beer, go outside into the fresh air and sunshine and quit trying to ruin my life. And while you’re finally washing your damn hands, wash the rest of your nasty azz self too.
Yeap, we’re all going fo die, and some of us just have a headstart over others.
That’s what I tell my kids. Mom will be around for a while, and I’ll be kissing dirt soon enough. Due to my heart issues, I was told by the Military Cardiologist that in 10 years or less…..
A) I’d have a new heart.
B) I’d have a mechanical pump, and waiting for a new heart.
C) Be dead.
Well that 10 years expired July 2016, same shitty heart, I never was good with numbers. But I have slowed down a lot in the last few years, but I’m still trying to keep a step ahead of the Grim Reaper.
I hear you on the heart ailment thingy.
On August 1 of 2010 I was admitted into the cardiac unit of the Zablocki VA Hospital in Milwaukee with an assortment of cardiac issues that put me on a heart transplant list and gave me 6 months to live….
Well, because of the fine care I received at the Milwaukee VA Heart Failure Clinic and a drop dead gorgeous RN Practitioner named Mary I am still waiting for my six months to be up…
I just figger that since it’s a government hospital it’s the same hurry up and wait we all experienced in our various military services.
Seriously, because of good genetics I have “pristine” cardiac arteries and required no surgery, no heart transplant and not even a stent.
The cardiologist doing the cardiogram asked me if I was a vegan or have I always eaten a good diet to which I replied, depends on what you call cheeseburgers, burritos and the like.
To which he asked me if I never smoked, I replied, Nope, I smoke two packs a day.
He shook his head and said that he had never seen anything like my arteries before and asked me if he could use them in his classes.
So my genetics and arteries, as well as a couple other things about this glorious body I inhabit are now at the UW Milwaukee School of Medicine and Cardiology Department there.
One thing I will say is that they give you some really good drugs for that and it is a blast to lay there watching your heart pump while you are carrying on a conversation with people around a fully staffed medical procedure room !!!!!
It is not survival of the fittest anymore, we have long since outgrown that as a species, it is survival of whomever has the best Guardian Angel.
And my personal angel is named Mo !!!
I’m still amazed at how all this has turned out…
I’m living the best part of my life now and I hope it lasts a long time !!!
” they give you some really good drugs for that”
Valium and Benadryl, I think. I, too, enjoyed my procedure. I even asked for a doggy bag. Probably too much for those overly serious medical types. They just didn’t seem to be able to laugh at my jokes. The worst part was the hospital food.
Ammo sales went thru the roof just like TP.
Hers’s some evidence:
https://www.sgammo.com/
Bulkammo.com too. Federal M855 1000 rounds loose went from $305-315 to $400-420. I just looked and it looks gone.
I was concerned before, this is almost unsettling.
He who panics first, panics best?
I’m still sitting on my Obama stash…
Must be left over from the days of the country’s greatest gun & ammo salesman.
Yup!
Strange… I prefer to stock up on chocolate and ice cream….
I must be missing something special here. You can’t eat ammo, but you can go fishing and catch a nice meal.
Some folks would say, tongue firmly in cheek, that the person with ammo can acquire all the other things.
(Grin)
Ensuring adequate provisions includes knowing how to go get fresh stuff, such as fish and various other things. Fishing line and simple tackle are low cost.
Adequate provision also includes proper proportions. If your target is two months without resupply, a year worth of anything is diverting away from something else.
Stuff that might be banned or heavily restricted? That can change the calculus a bit.
Some folks seem to want to test the structural integrity of their homes, by seeing how much ammo they can pile in one closet. I have known a few folks that discovered “industrial strength shelving” the hard way.
Including the food of the one that stocked up on Chocolate and Ice Cream !!!!!
I’m with you. I prefer Coffee ice cream, but I can’t do the caffeine anymore. Chocolate is a more than acceptable substitute. Problem is I can’t seem to maintain a stockpile–it keeps evaporating.
That is true good lady, but with my ammo, I can get most anything I really want from just about anyone I want to take it from. Particularly liberals and socialist democrats. And I can keep my stuff with it. Lead is the true precious metal.
Sales always spike this time of year.
Folks spend their tax returns. (Scuse, the paybacks of their interest free loans to the folks in DC)
Folks on annual bonus compensation, and where calendar year = fiscal year, get their bonus after the end of year closing, which posts around …. now-ish.
So spring fling shopping is a thing.
Were people under the impression that the timing of this “crisis” hype was random or accidental?
I just got my state non-interest loan check remittance, it’s going to bit-con.
Well aware it’s stupid but I’m afraid of bank insolvency and runs.
YMMV/my .02 satoshi/not advice.
First, it was swine flu. Then it was bird flu. Same seasonal flu. All anyone had to do was get the flu shot.
Then it became the antivaxxers, who are more afraid of protective measures than they are of one of their kids getting polio or the long-term damages caused by contracting whooping cough or measles, and WE have to live with their idiocy. If you’re an adult who never got vaxxed for measles, and you run into some kid who is carrying that bug and has spots on his skin, RUN to the nearest doctor and get the vaccination, you IDIOT!!
Now it’s a bug that has jumped the fence like they all do and is a potential threat, but instead of stocking up on canned, frozne and boxed goods ahead of time – when these MAROONS had plenty of warning – the shelves at Costco are emptied of toilet paper???? How many times a day do these idiots take a dump, anyway?
IF we’re really lucky, they’ll choke their own plumbing lines and be found floating in their living rooms.
This is ridiculous. An abundance of caution to avoid spreading a disease is fine, makes sense. For the rancorous IDIOTS in the press to blame it on someone else only shows their own ignorance. It’d be nice if this shows them to be the fools they are, but it’s doing that anyway.
I have always thought the anti-vaxxers were akin to some kind of cult. All my siblings and I were vaccinated. So were my children and all my grandchildren. My daughter, in an excess of caution, wouldn’t let her kids get all the shots at the same time. But no one I know of had an autistic kid. There is simply no evidence to support that claim. I think it is about as provable as bigfoot.
Yeah – that giving a bunch of shots in one visit never made much sense to me. Especially after the clown shot me sideways with that shot gun in basic. The kids behind me in line started fainting at the sight of the blood dripping off my arm.
Alas, I predate most of those vaccines. I have to blame all my mental shortcomings on mother nature.
As for toilet paper; if the situation is so bad that toilet paper is unavailable chances are your plumbing isn’t working either. Better to stock up on the stuff that makes toilet paper necessary.
Frankly, Bigfoot is more provable than vaxx-related autism. But ignorant people have to have something other than themselves to blame for such things.
IF vaccines caused autism, why haven’t any of my pets been on the spectrum?
Maybe Jenny McCarthy, it was genetic and they go it from their mother….
I seriously believe that vaccines help cause adulthood!
There’s always chemtrails in the mix too….
When you watch “Fury”, the part where they all look up and see thousands of contrails going across the sky is about the best thing I have seen to really bring the scope of the destruction we brought to the German and Japanese Nations…
Not just hoarding toilet paper Ex, but a lot of people are now making a run on bidets (see what I did there)? 😉
Thru the years, I’ve had my fair share of people who tried pounding sand up my butt…..I’m definitely not going to invest in a bidet and have water shot up there.
https://news.crunchbase.com/news/toilet-paper-hoarding-boosts-bidet-sales/
I wonder what makes the bidet buyers think that any situation where toilet paper is unobtainable will leave them with running water. Are the bidets perhaps pedal-powered? Hand-cranked? (Oh my, what images!) Heck, just buy an enema bag.
As for the run on toilet paper, I can only believe they eat it like Beldar Conehead.
Hahahahahahahaha!!! Good one!!!
Six black helicopters without visible markings and of unknown variant, just flew over my secure compound in a low altitude formation. No Zombies yet reported in my AO.
Keep a close eye on your corncob crib/bin behind the outhouse. With the TP shortage/hoarding going the way it is, those will be the first two outbuildings the Zombies assault./smile
Hmmm. The ones that fly near me haven’t been in evidence lately. Wonder where they went? And should we feel more or less secure???
“That is the world we live in: the press vs. the Republican Party”. Sadly, no. It’s the press vs the American people who elected the President. This is a false flag.
While it may be a serious problem for those with compromised immune systems and the elderly, this is no different than when our nation suffered from polio, mumps, chicken pox, whatever your poison.
Its up to us, as Americans to stand strong, keep the ship in trim and sail into the 2020 election with a solid plan to man battle stations and re-elect our President. JMHO
Oh, right. We used to deal with endemic diseases and epidemics all the freaking time, back to our founding…. over and over and over again.
Oops.
We did so well in 1918 that we swamped Europe with fresh troops. Everyone else basically petered out. We never did get that bad off, bad as it was. We survived and recovered on 1918 tech and knowledge. And -that- bug was freaking lethal, and hit the key economic cohorts -hardest-.
And we just freaking drove on and got past it.
The folks hyping this China Coronavirus panic are not just misguided. Many are actively trying to screw America for their own agendas. Others are unthinking dupes serving those who do active harm.
Don’t help the hostiles.
Either way, when this is all over some folks are going to be holding a bag of shit, and wont be able to explain away the brown fingernails.
““That is the world we live in: the press vs. the Republican Party”. Sadly, no. It’s the press vs the American people who elected the President. This is a false flag.”
As I see it, the left is totally at war with Red State America, but they don’t have the balls or guts to pull the shit they do outside of dark blue locales because they know they’ll get their asses handed to them.
Rats are opportunistic gnawers. They chew when they feel safe and costs are low.
Time to up the costs.
While serving on the OKIE 3, one of my shipmates showed me how the chinese wipe their butts with only one square of shit paper. Disclaimer- If your prone to puking on things like I’m going to tell you all, don’t read this. Ok, 1-fold one square in half and pull out a small piece from the bottom of the middle and put it aside.
2-unfold the square and stick your middle finger through the hole.
3-wipe your butt with the middle finger.
4-when done, pull your finger through the hole while holding the paper with your other fingers wiping the shit off.
5-Now that piece of paper that you put aside is to clean under your finger nail.
6-I never tried it but I wonder how many years one can get out of one roll.
This was told to me as I mentioned above and of course you all know that I wouldn’t be “shitting” you.
I told my son this technique a couple days ago. He’s still not sure if I was serious.
That technique also made into Army rotor-wing flight school. A captain Barry platform instructor as I remember. 1967
In 1994, when my son went through Basic at the Benning School for Wayward Boys, his drill sgt complained that his platoon was using too much TP. He demonstrated your system as how they were to conserve and use the TP in the company latrines.
That story was told unofficially at Being in 86, as an explanation of “what do we do with this little wad of paper” from an MRE.
It was also told at a YMCA summer camp in the 70s. We had real John Wayne paper: rough, tough, and “takes no shit off anyone”.
“Benning”
Apparently my spell-check doesnt like Confederate names on bases (Grin)
Right after I arrived in Madrid, Spain for my junior year of college, I took my first Spanish dump. I could feel my panic rising as I scanned the bathroom looking for the old “papel higiénico”.
Then I realized what was going to save me: the big,thick, and free Madrid phone book.
Took a while to get it soft enough, but hey, any port in a storm!
And actually, the phone listings were vastly superior to the TP that the “señora” of my pensión eventually broke down and bought for us extranjeros.
And we didn’t even have to ration!
When I got to Germany in ’67, the Germans had two types of TP; the John Wayne type you describe and the “waxed paper” type which was similarly effective but probably more comfortable.
But did you ever figure out what that “shelf” in the crapper was for?
Nope, never did. And I really didn’t want to speculate. some things, like sausage ingredients, are best left unknown.
Holy shit, I didn’t think that anyone outside of the USS Okinawa knew about this technique, and I’ll be hogs whistled-WOW
When I was in Germany the supply room closed and TP was unavailable until Monday. It’s amazing how much crap can be generated in a day and a half by two platoons. Monday morning latrine cleaning was a detail to be avoided if at all possible. Newspaper is a poor substitute for TP, but works well for clogging toilets.
I was taught that trick in Viet of the Nam
with the small piece of toilet paper that
comes with C-rations.
Hell, after a couple of weeks in the bush it didn’t matter much, anyway.
We have an untreated virus in out midst that is ignored but is way more destructive than any coronavirus – stupid people who believe every stupid thing, written by stupid people on Facebook. The Facebook Virus. Turn it off.
In one of John Ringo’s sci-fi novels, aliens who want to conquer earth unleash bioweapons on us, to make better slaves.
One was a parasite infestation that produced one visible sore in an obvious place, and looked distinct. It took a long time to kill you, but the victim had only the sore as a symptom until the fatal end-state. You could kill the parasite worm with rubbing alcohol and a lot of scrubbing. However, that would hurt badly.
The stupid and the lazy died of it.
-that- is diabolical.
Anecdotal Report: I was looking at reports about bare shelves around the country and looking at my list of things I’d like for shtf/quarantine/spring (namely: vinegar, potatoes, and garlic for food storage and planting) so I went to the nearest 24 hour WallyWorld.
Before I even walked in the store I noticed a heavy feeling in the air, lot sparsely populated by vehicles and carts everyfuckwhere. Decided to ask a nice young lady if they were open, what it looked like ‘in there’. She was pleasant, bragging about her TP score, “I didn’t think it could be like this! I was down to two rolls. These people…”
I thanked her for her report and wished her luck.
I swallow my nerves and head into the grey box.
Locusts had picked it pretty clean.
And the look on the faces of people there. Saw a couple putting on hand sanitizer and another pair of kids laughing at the lack of hand san in the courtesy stand then laughing at the chaos remnants.
Couple weirdos with gloves on, yet still tapping on their idiot boxes.
Talked to a polish lady working there, her theory that this is a bioweapon. She was clearly pretty ill, physically mostly. Red nose, coughing. I kept my distance. For a moment I felt like Matt Damon in Contagion, like I needed to find someone more important than myself to seize and shepherd out the store.
I found most of what I was looking for, no gd garlic (HOW?!?!), and some nice-to-haves. How were there still pot pies?!
Someone is watching over me.
Take care out there y’all. People are getting a bit testy because of it all. Just remember, we all gotta slow down and be nice or all this will change us.
Oh hell, now I’m rambling, tired and rounding drunk. Be well.
“Act civilized” is good advice as is “calm down and think”
We can all use more of that.
I will say up front that I know this is goofy, but hey my mind works in goofy ways sometime.
One of my favorite authors of all time is James Thurber. When I was just a young lad, an English teacher cousin of mine sent me Thurber’s book “My Life and Hard Times,” the memoir of a sort which IIRC really launched his career. It’s a collection of very funny memories of his years growing up in Columbus, Ohio.
Anyway, there is a chapter in that book titled “The Day the Dam Broke.”
Read it here:
https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Thurber_Dam_Broke.pdf
It is quite simply a fable for our times. And I predict its ending is how this coronavirus idiocy is going to end up.
Give it a read. It’s pretty short. And if you like that, read the entire book. You won’t regret it.
Due to panic buying, Walmart has decided to open Register #2.
I saw that, you can’t hide it anymore…..
In other news, the World Health Organization has determined that Dogs are completely incapable of harboring or transmitting the virus and have ordered the release of quarantined canines.
Yes folks, WHO let the Dogs out!!!!