It’s a Saturday Forum
Talk amongst yourselves.
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, March 14, 2020
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31 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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This may stick around in the historical assessment of Trump “No, I don’t take responsibility at all”
Remember when “the buck stops here”?
Is the testing delay the worst single thing Trump has done? We had a delay in testing because Trump thought bad numbers of infected would hurt him politically! Trump is personally responsible for higher number of deaths. In a perfect world he would he would be tried for murder since anyone with a brain knows the repercussions of a delay in responding to an epidemic. And the people who enabled the delay, including doctors? They have blood on their hands. The head of the CDC should lose his medical license, at the very least. Ideally, he would be brought up on charges. The “I take no responsibilty” quote should be featured in an ad with numbers of people who died from the virus along with Dr. Caucus statement that the testing delay was a failure.
Trump is responsible for a higher number of deaths because of a deliberate decision on his part. As far as I am concerned he is a murderer.
‘I can’t get above water’: how America’s chicken giant Perdue controls farmers
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
@OzarkHillbilly:
My brother-in-law raises piglets under a similar system. He owns the building and equipment, built and operated to the agri-business specification. He farms about 40 acres of corn that is part of the feed he uses, but everything is controlled by the company. He is effectively an employee. Oh one more thing, he owns the risk, all the loans are in his name.
NYT, an actually not bad column from Bretbug Stephens: Trump Meets Nemesis, Punisher of Hubris
I couldn’t help thinking of a different definition of nemesis tho:
A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an ‘orrible cunt… me.
@Sleeping Dog: It’s insane, and Republicans will defend these predatory practices by corporations to somebody else’s death.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Typhoid Mary… Covid Trump.
If you are into self abuse: Bernie or Bust: the Sanders fans who will never vote for Biden
That was enough for me. I have to ask tho, is it just me or does anyone else here feel like she is failing in her chosen major?
I was watching the “BBC in America” news program two days ago. They were discussing COVID infected numbers globally.
They were able to be very specific, except for the USA. The newscaster stated, almost offhand, that the reason was: “…that the USA did not have a Heath Service, but a Heath Sector.”
This is our shortcoming. Driven for profit, competitive, disjointed, non-communicative.
The “best healthcare in the world” is being shown to be the lie it is.
In typical Trumpian logic, Trump stands with corporate leaders and states how THEY will step up in Covid19 battle… In the same way his real estate ventures were often kicked off.
Responsibility?
It would be comedy it it wasn’t tragedy.
From The Guardian:
@Liberal Capitalist:
I’ve said it’s wrong to call what we have a health care “system”.
Wisconsin Governor Orders All k-12 Schools to Close
Seen on Twitter: “ I don’t take responsibility at all, said the guy who filed for bankruptcy six times.“
@OzarkHillbilly:
I know Pareto’s rule applies to my own field, engineering, only about 20% are actually any good at it. I see every day in the news that Pareto’s rule applies to economists. What say you, Dr. T? James? Is Poli Sci any different? Plus, don’t a high percentage of undergrads go into law or some other post grad non Poli Scy specialty?
@gVOR08: It just seems to me that certain things are so basic they have to be accepted as gospel. In civil engineering that would be gravity. In polisci it would be that a single wo/man in govt can accomplish nothing by /her/himself.
shrug
But I’m just a dumbass carpenter who thinks the laws of nature are god’s way of saying, “Fuck You.”
There has been another rocket attack on American troops in Iraq in the last few hours. The best time to get out of that country was ten years ago; the second best time is now.
@Slugger: No, the second best time to get out was 9 years, 364 days ago.
My county went from 1 case of covid-19 to 25 (as of yesterday) in less than a week. It’s a disturbing trend.
@Kari Q: I think we’re about to see a significant increase in cases. Our latest confirmed case appears to be a DMV employee in one of the busier locations in the state.
Aviation news are getting depressing. Airlines are reducing capacity, which is sensible, but there are more extreme measures. Kuwait closed its airport to commercial aviation. LOT Polish Airlines has suspended operations for two weeks.
It’s hard to make predictions, but more than a few European airlines won’t come out of this crisis, especially those who had difficulties before the COVID pandemic, like Norwegian and Alitalia (by all rights, the latter should have gone out of business a long time ago).
In Mexico, I fear for Interjet.
Some airlines in Asia will see troubles, too. One, Starlux, began operations just a few weeks ago. It’s a luxury, full service airline based in Taiwan. they started small, with only a few flights per day on two Airbus A321 narrow bodies. They’re down to one flight per day now due to the epidemic.
OTB sparks and Kit listens. I missed my chance to contribute to the list of happy songs in yesterday’s forum, but bowing to popular incessant prurient demand, I’m posting my list here:
– You Make My Dreams — Hall & Oates
– Don’t Stop Me Now — Queen
– I’ve Just Seen a Face — The Beatles
– Hang Fire — The Rolling Stones
– Build Me Up Buttercup — The Foundations
– Pain Killer — Sarkodie
Spotify was shuffling yesterday while I was working, and I heard Ben Folds Five’s “Uncle Walter” for the first time in I don’t know how long.
Oh, god, but he is, isn’t he?
NBA players should not have to shame NBA owners to do the right thing by their employees…yet another example of callous billionaires not giving a damn about anyone else…
Newborn baby tests positive for coronavirus in London
As an FYI, my employer (a BIG one) cancelled all travel unless VP and security-response-team approved.
I was approved… and the customer just cancelled today. That makes my internal process (go/no go) simpler. I don’t have to sweat the choice.
Having flown and stayed in a hotel in this past week (picked up a used RV), the near impossibility of avoiding contact was evident.
My prediction: Just a short hop to a national mandatory “no-travel at all” status. I expect that in a week’s time.
Today, I explained to my wife the complexity of a box of Mac & Cheese: farmers, processing, chemistry, packaging, sales, shipping, local distribution, stocking on shelves… it’s a modern miracle for 50 cents.
So fragile.
How does Covid19 end? If we are successful in stopping the spread due to lockdowns and social distancing, what happens when life gets back to normal? If there isn’t yet a vaccine, will there still be a bunch of non-immune people out there, susceptible to another outbreak?
@Liberal Capitalist: It was nice knowing you. 🙂
@Monala:
The ideal is that all active infections will have run their course before too much of the population gets infected. Even if we can manage that, there is ongoing threat of reintroduction of live virus from the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, successfully “flattening the curve” to avoid overwhelming the health care system also delays the date when nobody is contagious any more. Given the incubation period and contagious window, I’m really not seeing how the US could afford to lock down for long enough to really restrict eventual spread.
With all of that said, I would appreciate it if y’all could let us know if you’re sick. I dislike it when people go missing (looking at you, Doug), and we don’t know what happened. I have instructed my daughter to let you guys and others know, should I die, and given her the appropriate passwords, written down. She has done the same for me.
@Kari Q: @Jen:
On Wednesday March. 11 cases in Mass.went from 22 to 92. The 70 were all from a biotech company meeting in Boston.