Let’s reboot this thing. Have at thee.
Political Discussion In The 20s
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And yet, his gallup approval rating is better than it ever was; 49% approval to 45% disapproval.
Like I said above, crises do always help the sitting president – apparently even when he disastrously mismanaging them.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/203207/trump-job-approval-weekly.aspx
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See it depends what advice they are giving. For example I am an expert on X-Men comics of the 1980s and global supply chain of technology parts. Yet I am happy to advise on all manner of nonsense I know next to nothing about.
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Youre also an expert Dave.
Our ONLY expert Dave, mind you.
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Is it just the advice of medical experts or can it be other experts too?
You should absolutely always listen to the advice of astrophysicists. They be smart people.
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I mean, that sounds plausible, but id probably pay more attention if our expert Dave said it…
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I can confirm that Dave is an expert.
I’ve just learned not to stick magnets up my nose. I wouldn’t have known I needed to learn that except for expert Dave.
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I’m only an expert Dave, he’s an expert David.
Wait.
Are you saying that DavidM and DaveWallace are TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE?!
Mind. Blown.
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I’m no expert Dave but I do know the magnet-nosed astrophysicist was from Melbourne.
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I’m only an expert Dave, he’s an expert David.
Wait.
Are you saying that DavidM and DaveWallace are TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE?!
Mind. Blown.
Remember, a W is just an M upside down.
I will say no more. The conclusion is there if you want to see it
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I’ve just learned not to stick magnets up my nose.
THAT is what you took away from that story?
My thing is, now I want more people to stick magnets up their noses and I want to be there to see it!
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I’ve just learned not to stick magnets up my nose.
THAT is what you took away from that story?
My thing is, now I want more people to stick magnets up their noses and I want to be there to see it!
Luckily this video footage was captured at the scene.
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Fuck all governments. they are responsible for everything bad in the world today.
Well, personally, I like to blame the corporations for everything bad in the world today. (And the governments being in their fucking pocket.)
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I think maybe initially, he seems to be enjoying it now as a new platform to talk about himself and how great he is.
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He’s upset at any sort of criticism he gets though, and he gets a lot of that. His skin is no thicker than when he took office.
We were headed for this sort of leadership in the long run, the kleptocracy was a fact in many countries and with many variations before Trump’s election, but Trump is more obviously corrupt, selfish and incompetent than anyone any western democracy has experienced before, except Italy of course.
We’ve jumped forwards several years and the future is now.
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Is it bad to support business when there is a huge downturn because of the pandemic?
Not on principle though the devil is in the detail of how it is done.
There are dangers in potentially handing a blank cheque that is open for the money to be directed at shareholder enrichment rather than securing employment for their staff.
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I’m an expert at removing magnets from noses.
For a small fee.
Okay, maybe not that small a fee.
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I’ll give you $50 to put some magnets up my nose!
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That’s 50 Oz dollars.
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Haha.
I’ll go roll in my lawyer money and wish it was pounds
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I’ve just learned not to stick magnets up my nose.
THAT is what you took away from that story?
My thing is, now I want more people to stick magnets up their noses and I want to be there to see it!
I said I didn’t know it was something I needed to learn; I already knew Aussies are buck eejits.
I didn’t say I wouldn’t watch. That would be the greatest thing ever. I reckon the girlfriend showed remarkable restraint unless we’re not getting the full story. (He magnetised the pliers!
) I would’ve tested what else I could stick to his nose. -
I’ll give you $50 to put some magnets up my nose!
Bloody knew it.
Do not read what I just wrote to Christian.
What can I give you in order for you not to give $50 to Miqque to stick magnets up your nose?
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I wish I could, Tim. I’m not doing too well indoors either.
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But there is doggo…
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But there is doggo…
There’s always doggo.
They all seem to be hiding. I’ll try and find one for you later. That’s a legitimate excuse to go outside, right?
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We had a very good advantage but we were at least two weeks late with the implementation.
What you’re saying now we have been doing for two weeks already, but unfortunately the virus already spread here.
I also wanted to make a point about the Australian Dollar. The joke has been made a couple of times over the years and it’s always insulting, particularly because if feels a lot like an imperialistic British perspective condemning those dumb convict Australians and their futile economy. I know the intention is not to be insulting, but then again, you’re not on the receiving end of the joke.
Our economy is fine. Comparatively, it is as good as the US and the UK in a lot of ways (in some ways it is better) notwithstanding the exchange rate between the Australian Dollar and the countries of most posters here. That is how exchange rates and macroeconomics work, and, particularly, there is little to no difference in the cost of living between the UK, US and Australia, in the same way there is little to no difference between comparable neighbouring economies such as Canada to the US and France to the UK.
In any case, I would also caution against making economic jokes in the current climate because for everyones dollars may plummet in the next 6 months as GDP shrinks and economies freeze, so you may end up eating your (implied) words.
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It’s difficult to tell. Sweden’s number of deaths per 1m of population (since we can’t trust the infections number) is not great. If we take out the tiny micro-countries like San Marino and Monaco where even one case skews stuff highly and they are 9th in the world. It seems to be increasing as they had the 6th highest new deaths in the last 24 hours.
The only ones we can really look at now are the countries that seem to have slowed the increase, which are South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong at various points. The Americas and Europe are still on an upward trajectory. They have used the system of heavy testing and contact tracing followed by quaratine for those affected above super tight lockdown (although they have restricted too they have mostly carried on working)
The problem there is you have a lot of factors. Those cultures are not very tactile like southern Europeans, since SARS they are rather obsessed with sanitation in public places. In east Asia it is normal to see surgical masks being worn anyway at airports and malls. They are also seeing hints of second surges which could mean they have to lock down more, we don’t know.
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One thing that occurred to me: it bothered me at first that so many countries were using different approaches to dealing with corona. Sweden for instance is hardly doing anything, restaurants and schools are still open there. And Sweden doesn’t seem to be doing worse in numbers than other countries. Maybe there is a purpose behind the different approaches, namely testing to see which approach has the best results. If everyone does the same thing, you don’t get to see results of other approaches.
Just posted another Guardian acticle about Sweden in the news thread; a lot of people there are getting nervous.
The thing is that Sweden is still pretty early in the curve. We will know in a few weeks how well what they are doing is working.
I think we should all be more South Korea. Except it’s too late now. Our governments are collectively morons.
Oh, they are looking to South Korea. It’s just that what they were doing there is not quite so easy to replicate everywhere – like the fact that hey had legislation in place that allowed them to, in case of an epidemic, track people’s phone and credit card data. But one other important fact is that most infections in SK could very early be traced back to one singular incident, a religious gathering with crowds of people in close proximity. But once it was clear that this was where the infection started, it was relatively easy to track everybody who had attended and the people they had come into contact with and contain the infection in that way.
At this point now though, SK has multiple new small infection clusters whose origins are unclear and which will not be quite as easy to contain this time, so SK’s way of doing things may not actually make the huge difference it seems right now. But then again, there is no doubt that they did the right thing very quickly, and that we can learn a lot from them.
If I understand what I am hearing about plans developing for Germany correctly, using the South Korean measures will be pretty much the next step when the first phase of measures are over: lots of testing and tracking and isolating every infection. Plus, face masks for everybody. But you need the resources for that, especially for the laboratories for the testing and manpower to track the infected and their contacts. We need the time we are hopefully creating now by flattening the curve to prepare all that stuff.
There’s pretty soon going to be apps that allow you to voluntarily use some phone information to decide whether you have been near to a person who turned out to be infected, allowing users to self-quarantine. That’s going to be one of the interesting new approachers that will be here very quickly and that might make a big difference.
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Is it bad to support business when there is a huge downturn because of the pandemic?
Not on principle though the devil is in the detail of how it is done.
There are dangers in potentially handing a blank cheque that is open for the money to be directed at shareholder enrichment rather than securing employment for their staff.
Individuals are always told to have money saved up for an emergency, usually around 6 months of cash in a savings account. For many people, especially those at the lower end of the economic spectrum, that can be damn near impossible.
That same philosophy should also apply to corporations. They should have a six month reserve and if that is expended over the course of six months, then they are eligible for a bailout. A condition of receiving the bailout is they have to rebuild their reserve by a certain date while paying back the loan. If they don’t have the reserve, they would be ineligible to receive a bailout. As an incentive to have that savings, I would give them a tax break on interest earned from those funds.
Or you could say that if the government has to bail a company out, they will have an ownership stake until the debt is paid.
Corporations need to be held far more accountable than they are.
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But one other important fact is that most infections in SK could very early be traced back to one singular incident, a religious gathering with crowds of people in close proximity.
We had something similar in Malaysia. A month after the first case the numbers remained very small, in the 20s, then a Muslim conference was held just outside KL with 16,000 people attending from various countries. It’s now increased to near 3000 but the majority have been traced back to that event or people in contact with those that attended. The death rate is 1 in 1m, a lot lower than in most European countries. The peak in new cases was on March 26th so is showing signs of getting under control. The projection was now we’d be at 300 new cases a day and it’s closer to 150.
I hope so because while they seem to be doing well in test and contact trace they don’t seem to be making the kind of capacity preparation I see elsewhere with field hospitals and ventilators. While the UK is talking about ordering 30,000 ventilators they’ve mentioned 250. Malaysia is smaller than the UK by population but only by half so using the same logic it would be 15,000.
To add Malaysia has also instigated a very strict lockdown to go with test and trace, we are effectively under house arrest. Only one person can leave the house at any time, if you want exercise you can do press ups in the house.
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That same philosophy should also apply to corporations. They should have a six month reserve and if that is expended over the course of six months, then they are eligible for a bailout.
We don’t really learn though do we? In 2008 that was the exact problem with the banks, they held very limited reserves so they were shafted as soon as the market showed cracks. That resulted in a lot of legislation requiring them to retain cash reserves to manage a crisis but we didn’t really do it to any other businesses. It seems to work too, despite them having to potentially forego several months of mortgage payments (which is retail banking’s most profitable area) nobody is talking about banks going bust or not being able to handle that.
We don’t necessarily need radical changes to avoid a lot of the problems being seen now.
Certainly not beyond Johnson to just pretend that he has died until it's all over
— Frankie Boyle (@frankieboyle) April 1, 2020
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Trump changes tack on coronavirus crisis
There was no sugar-coating it this time. No optimistic talk of miracle cures or Easter-time business re-openings.There was just the cold, hard reality of the facts on the ground.
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” a grave-faced Donald Trump said in his Tuesday afternoon press conference.
“This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks.”
How painful? When the president was asked how many Americans are currently projected to die from the virus given even the current mitigation efforts, he said it was better if his medical experts responded.
The number of deaths, based on current projections, is between 100,000 and 200,000. On 15 April, for instance, 2,214 Americans are expected to die.
–SNIP–
The president tried to frame this news as best he could, noting that the projections for US casualties if the government had done nothing were in the millions.
“A lot of people were saying think of it as the flu, but it’s not the flu,” he said. “It’s vicious.”
Of course, it was just a week ago the president himself was making exactly such comparisons, noting that the early fatality numbers were much less than those from the flu or even automobile accidents.
“We lose thousands of people a year to the flu,” he said then. “We never turn the country off.”
Now, however, the seriousness of the situation has hit home.
He spoke of checking in on a friend who was in the hospital with the virus – “a little older, and he’s heavy, but he’s tough person” – only to find out he was now in a coma.
“I spoke to some of my friends, and they can’t believe what they’re seeing,” he said.
Mr Trump’s change of attitude also extended to some of his recent political feuds.
Just days after attacking Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, mocking her name and calling her incompetent on Twitter, the president said he had a “really great conversation” with her and detailed the support the federal government was providing her state.
Last Friday, he had suggested that if state leaders were not “appreciative” of him, he wouldn’t talk to them.
On Tuesday, he recounted conversations with Democratic governors in California and Louisiana.
There was still a veiled shot at New York and its Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, however, as the president suggested that both his state and New Jersey – the two hardest hit in the US – “got off to a very late start” with their pandemic response.
–SNIP–
The new call from the White House was to continue the current mitigation efforts for an additional 30 days; that even if things go from bad to worse in the weeks to come, the efforts will pay off.
It will, however, be a long, slow grind.
“There’s no magic bullet,” said Dr Deborah Birx, one of the experts on the US taskforce.
“There’s no magic vaccine or therapy. Just behaviours,” she said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52115584
Good.
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Cue every craven pundit in the US saying that this was when Donald Trump finally became president
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While the UK is talking about ordering 30,000 ventilators
Not 30,000, Thirty.
The newsreader struggling with this number on the BBC last night was Alan-Partridge level comedy gold. Or would be, if it wasn’t the end of the world:
Look at the absolute astonishment of this newsreader when she realises Britain will only be getting 30 ventilators from the “thousands” promised by Michael Gove. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/8ji30JW5AP
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) April 1, 2020
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Took a look at headlines and I shouldn’t have.
Hancock is going with unproven tests and talking of a Dunkirk approach. Yeah, that time we got our arse handed to us by Germany. That time that was a total fucking defeat but it got spun as a win.
Not to forget, he wants Premier League footballers to donate their wages.
And then billionaire bastard Philip Green is wanting a bail out.
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This motherfucker:
Donald Trump Trashes Chuck Schumer In Letter: “I Never Knew How Bad A Senator You Are”
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The emergency field hospital has opened at the ExCel Centre;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52150598
Similar hospitals are planned across the UK, including in Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Harrogate and Bristol.
The ExCel exhibition space – usually used for large events such as Crufts and Comic Con – was transformed into a hospital in just nine days.
It is the first of several Nightingale Hospitals planned in England, with the latest announcement that two will be built at the University of the West of England in Bristol and the Harrogate Convention Centre.
Others are due to open at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre and Manchester’s Central Complex.
In Wales, more than 6,000 extra beds are being set up in temporary hospitals – many in sports and leisure facilities, including Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
In Scotland, a temporary hospital is being built at Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus (SEC). It could have capacity for as many as 1,000 beds and will be named the NHS Louisa Jordan after a nurse who served in Serbia during World War One.
And Belfast City Hospital’s tower block will become Northern Ireland’s first Nightingale hospital with 230 beds.
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I think it’s generally dangerous to compare the current situation with the war, but honestly the speed and efficiency on display here really does have parallels with how things were done in the war. Need a squadron of Spitfires? Sure, here’s a grommet making factory in Birmingham we’ve just re-tooled to churn them out. Need a hospital? Sure, here’s one in a conference centre. It’s incredibly impressive what people can mobilise to do when they have to.
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I think it’s generally dangerous to compare the current situation with the war, but honestly the speed and efficiency on display here really does have parallels with how things were done in the war. Need a squadron of Spitfires? Sure, here’s a grommet making factory in Birmingham we’ve just re-tooled to churn them out. Need a hospital? Sure, here’s one in a conference centre. It’s incredibly impressive what people can mobilise to do when they have to.
I have a close family member who is involved with this in the NHS in Birmingham. You’re right, it’s impressive just how quickly this is all being put together.
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Those are the headlines
God I wish they weren’t
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Are they still being paid? I thought they would have been fired by now. Sportsball is over.
Yes.They are legally contracted of course and they won’t set them loose as they’d be afraid of losing star players for the next season.
Those in Italy have taken an across the board paycut while the game is suspended. In the UK it seems to be more voluntary, the Manchester United team are donating 30% of their salaries to the NHS. That’s probably more of a statement than it initially looks because they have to pay PAYE tax and with the amount they earn will be paying 45% on a lot of that anyway.
As Ben alluded to I’m not that keen on singling them out, while they do earn crazy money they are in the majority from working class backgrounds, many have already voluntarily donated large sums while the likes of Richard Branson with his own island and several billion in the bank is asking for government bailouts.
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Are they still being paid? I thought they would have been fired by now. Sportsball is over.
Yes.They are legally contracted of course and they won’t set them loose as they’d be afraid of losing star players for the next season.
Those in Italy have taken an across the board paycut while the game is suspended. In the UK it seems to be more voluntary, the Manchester United team are donating 30% of their salaries to the NHS. That’s probably more of a statement than it initially looks because they have to pay PAYE tax and with the amount they earn will be paying 45% on a lot of that anyway.
As Ben alluded to I’m not that keen on singling them out, while they do earn crazy money they are in the majority from working class backgrounds, many have already voluntarily donated large sums while the likes of Richard Branson with his own island and several billion in the bank is asking for government bailouts.
Well the top players make crazy money, but that’s a small group. I think most players make a modest living. It must suck for them too. Obviously it would be shitty to ask those to donate their entire salary.
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Poll: Majority of Americans now disapprove of Trump’s coronavirus response
52 percent of respondents disapprove of his management of the deadly outbreak, while only 47 percent approve.
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George W. Bush in 2005: ‘If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare’
Another instance of W being a more competent President than Trump.
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George W. Bush in 2005: ‘If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare’
Another instance of W being a more competent President than Trump.
And then some guy set up some sort of pandemic unit.
Huh, whatever happened to both of those?
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What the fuck has happened to the BBC
This is almost literally a joke from the Day Today:
I mean, literally:
I had the same response when I read that. But then I read the article it came from. It’s an interesting and well-written explanation of how medical statistics work, and the extract isn’t representative of the article at all. I have no idea how those sentences came to be circulated completely out of context, but some sub-editor at the BBC probably needs shooting.
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For Lorcan:
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And another one gone, and another one gone:
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John Lewis, once Trump target, backs Joe Biden for president
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I’m all fed up with people bandying numbers around like they know what they mean. I scolded my local news team yesterday, and I’m all done with bad science / medicine reporting. Pet peeve today is newsies comparing the number of virus deaths in NYC to the 9/11 attacks. One of these things is NOT like the other, and I would be pleased if newsblabbers kept thier misunderstandings and delusions to themselves.
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I scolded my local news team yesterday, and I’m all done with bad science / medicine reporting.
Did you shout at them from your window? Please say you did!
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