James T Canuck wrote:

A refreshingly intelligent question.

LL&P

Sir, I am familiar with Mr. Hitchens.

As for myself I was raised Roman Catholic, became a "Militant Atheist" at college and, years later, came to find (through life experience) that there is a force/power out there that we can influence -- and, in turn, it influences day to day reality itself. However, I do not believe that this force is some sort of white-bearded thunderbolt throwing vengeful policeman in the sky. Buncha silly ass mythology and such.

The only religion I've yet seen that reflects what I learned is called Religious Science (wiki Ernest Holmes or Science of Mind.) FYI we sometimes refer to ourselves as a "disorganized" religion, probably because we are undogmatic (our motto "open at the top" means that we encourage challenges and hard questions.)

[Personally, I HATE folks that try to jam their religious beliefs down my throat, so the above is solely informational in nature. I don't proselytize anyone because, unlike America's Christofacists, I don't need everybody to agree with me.]

Namáste.

I salute you, Sir, and look forward to your return.

A fan.

Upon further review I decided to "yellow card" myself so as to practice some introspection.

While I don't think it quite violated the Geneva Convention, my "pogrom" joke was in extremely poor taste. And I clearly went over the top in my reaction to MyVoice and nypoet22. The use of terms such as "Snowflake," "Adult's table" and the like is unacceptable. I really do hate Political Correctness but that's no excuse.

I was consciously thinking of the Borat character when I threw in the "pogrom" bit. But of course I am not Sasha Baron Cohen and while you'd expect something like this out of Borat you'd not expect it out of non-Borats such as myself.

As such, I want to apologise to my "family" here in Weigantia. For the record I am not unfiltered, but in this case my filters clearly failed me. I see the lesson here and I can (and will) be better than this.

Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

I'm surprised there hasn't been much comment about this "signal" from the top brass. The ultimate and very practical solution to a slow moving Trump coup is to turn the White House into a reverse "Roach Motel" (you can leave, but you can't re-enter) on the day Biden takes office. Hunger, thirst and cold should clear the building...even if Trump decides to take a few staff hostage. You can leave on your feet, on a stretcher, or in a body bag if you so choose. Dangle a few big macs in a sack to close the deal. Sic semper tyrannis, dumb ass.

Biden holds the high cards.

Named, Donald...

Behold from the archives...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOBF9qPto4c

lol

LL&P

Take care and stay safe everyone!

Enjoy,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hgkFjisCqM&list=RD0hgkFjisCqM&start_radio=1&t=11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzg7VOMK9Ms

LL&P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GAuexrVzo

Jethro, not so dull, Tull.

LL&P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bppPNIvrxZw&fbclid=IwAR3-WHnfc5MXy6-jU--MJwLXSrQTeNIUM3TbzCALdAuzkma7Yj-bre0_0BM

One of the most heart-breaking impacts of this pandemic has been seeing families unable to be with their dying loved ones due to extreme restrictions on hospital and hospice visitation and knowing that so many loved ones have died apart from their families. Thank God for the medical professionals who have taken the place of families during these times.

This concert sheds light on this sad state of affairs ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhW2v0NDM0

LL&P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f2g4RMfhS0&list=RDEFMD7Usflbg&index=5

I fear that we are going to be hurting for medical personnel right when things are at their worst if we do not find ways to help them. You cannot work 100 hour weeks for long without it having severe effects on a person. We are going to have a medical force suffering from PTSD and depression in staggering numbers if we do not address this quickly.

Here’s the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXTJrCw6JAE&t=300s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKr10utcD1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VUtTnJHU0c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTnu27jHz-g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjX7jye2Xnc&list=RDxG0HUm8f56A&index=37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCWj8Nz5DUg&list=RDxG0HUm8f56A&index=8

Here's one of my favourites, I Like To Rock ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKORP6ENyFw&list=RD4PQ3v3S4qrE&index=17

I'll start it off with new music from a classic artist, AC/DC just released their new album Power Up and new single, Shot in the Dark ... I like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54LEywabkl4

i'd say that's precisely what it's set up for: don't get sick, and if you do, die quickly. the ACA managed to put a significant band-aid on the consequences of that structure, but it's still the overall way the country's apparatus is set up.

What the hell, he had the 2016 efforts of the world's greatest liar and her supporters ('Comey', 'Russiagate', 'Conspiracy', etc.) for an example. How could he possibly go wrong?

Anyway, that's about his only option. After all, "I'm a world-class asshole" would be just too embarrassing.

So I ask, why were rules and procedures changed just before the election in Pennsylvania and Georgia because of COVID? - Fox talking empty head Jeanine Pirro

Asked and answered in one sentence! The orange one should think twice about destroying that goldmine.

Well, your economy isn't set up for unrestrained exponential growth of the number of positive cases, hospitalizations and death that will surely occur if your country doesn't act.

You will remember that during the last pandemic, the economy fared much better only when the virus was brought under control by first initiating responsible lockdowns that paved the way for managing transmission through proven public health measures.

We just can't separate the economy from getting the virus under control.

But, when the virus is so out of control across a country and when hospital capacity and health workers are stretched so thin and on the brink of not being able to keep up with the positive cases that need hospitalization, let alone other non-related but equally essential medical care, then something has to give.

I think lockdowns, whether they are targeted or national, need to be clearly communicated as to why they may be necessary and how long they may be required. Most importantly, it needs to be made clear that during the lockdown, time won't be wasted like it was before.

Lockdowns will get you to a place where transmission is manageable through the implementation of proven health measures - isolation, contact tracing, quarantining of contacts. This is the ONLY way to shut down the virus.

People need to be persuaded to buy into this strategy and to do everything in their power as individuals to stop this virus - for the sake of their own well-being and for the well-being of everyone around them. They need to know that while they do their part, the president, governors and mayors are doing their part as well.

In the case of the US - and Canada may get there, too, if we are not careful - a lockdown may be the only tool in the tool box right NOW that will save lives and save the economy. Health and the economy have never been so inextricably linked. But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing all of the other activities that will help to break the chains of transmission and prepare to be able to successfully manage the virus as the lockdown is released.

It's not enough to just wears masks and wait for herd immunity through vaccination. You must "do it all!"

And, as the WHO DG has always said, the antidote to this virus is national unity and global solidarity. No one is safe until everyone is safe.

Good luck to us all!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/14/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-cases-deaths-winter.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Most important message: there is still hope and a chance to get the virus under control!

Yes, I do understand that uniquely American individualism.

But, the fact of the matter is that your country is going to be in for a whole lot of hurt if Biden can't change the course of the US response, or lack thereof.

And, I would disagree that it has a lot to do with enforcement. What it has to do with is leadership. It's about the art of persuasion and the ability to communicate with people, empower them with the knowledge they need to do their part in the overall national strategy and comprehensive package of health measures that will protect both lives and livelihoods.

If enforcement becomes necessary, then the battle is already lost.

the challenge inherent in trying to trace and isolate a virus is exacerbated by the US deep-rooted ethos of individualism and freedom from government restraints. we have issues with anybody telling us what to do, ostensibly for our own good. even if it really is for our own good. and our economy isn't set up to accommodate that enforcement even were it to occur.

JL

after the rise of the robber barons (first gilded age) and before the great war, the first roosevelt and the progressive era instituted the first legit attempts at federal regulation of business. the war interrupted the process, and the inter-war period saw a conservative backlash against economic progressivism, which freed up capital and led to consumerism and the "roaring twenties." the parallels between that era and today are pretty hard to miss.

the easy answer is a market correction, i.e. another great depression, and a major contraction of our economy, which thanks to trump and covid seems a pretty good bet to occur. as to how we can avoid that sort of massive economic collapse, i'd say we need to start closing loopholes and put some teeth in enforcement, so as to remove the incentives for the investor class to send jobs and money offshore, then let that top-heavy economy filter downward to those middle and lower class individuals who are willing to work for it.

JL

The following is my attempt to transcribe part of a WHO virtual press conference where Drs Mike Ryan and Maria Van Kerkhove explain in detail what needs to be done to bring the virus under control and how successful countries have managed to do this. The topic of masks and mask mandates was conspicuous in its absence from this discussion, interestingly enough ...

------------------------------------------

The idea is to crush the curve down to a very low level of transmission and number of cases and then extra effort is needed to keep pushing that number down, relentlessly, until you reach enough control so that other measures and restrictions on peoples' lives and livelihoods can be released and so that the public health action linked to community action is enough to keep the disease under control. This is the goal.

More waves and peaks of cases are not inevitable. We have the systems that can bring the virus under control: active case finding. isolation of cases, tracing contacts and quarantining contacts, testing with a rapid turnaround time, using hospitals for optimal clinical care. Once numbers are down, use the time wisely to prepare and stay ready for more transmission and for dealing with clusters.

It is critically important to isolate cases and quarantine contacts. Ideally, this should be done outside of the home in an isolation and quarantine facility. But, this is rarely possible and so isolation and quarantine in the home must be taken seriously. This means 14 days of not going to work, not going to the grocery store, not socializing with friends, not inviting people over to your home. And, people need to be adequately supported through their isolation/quarantine.

This is what will break the chains of transmission. Without isolation of cases and quarantining of contacts it will be virtually impossible to bring this virus under control. But, there is nothing inevitable about the next peak of transmission - getting the virus under control is completely within our hands to do - as individuals and with strong government leadership, clear national plans implemented with targeted control measures at the local level, we can prevent additional subsequent waves of transmission.

There are countries that have been successful in bringing transmission down to low levels and in sustaining those low numbers - China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea. Each country has had to adapt its strategy to its social contract with their populations. They have had to determine what are the country's powers under public health law, what are the community expectations and what are the trade-offs on the socio-economic side in terms of being able to crush the curve and sustain low levels of transmission. But, there are common elements to a successful strategy to control the virus.

The first is a focus on case detection, case isolation and, most especially, quarantining of contacts and on providing support to those who must go into isolation or quarantine such as food, financial support, physical support and a place to quarantine. People need to be supported through this process and not just told to go home.

For example, in a community transmission environment at any given time, one person in 400-500 people may be actively positive for COVID-19 or for SARS-COV-2. If you imagine that one case has an average of ten contacts and if you isolate that case and the ten contacts, that is eleven people impacted by the health measures as opposed to a lockdown where 400 or 500 people are affected by the measure. The success that Asia has had in bringing the virus under control was all about their ability to find these eleven people - find the cases and their contacts - maybe not ALL of the cases but enough of the cases to begin breaking the chains of transmission and continue doing that.

Secondly, communities in Asia have higher levels of trust in government and community compliance with various health measures and so they've tended to be able to implement some of these measures longer in terms of the behavior that is required from individuals.

And, third, there was serious follow-through in these countries. Once they got the numbers down, they followed through. They didn't start reducing testing centers, they increased them. They didn't reduce clinical capacity, they increased it. They ran through the finish line and beyond and kept running because they knew the race wasn't over, that it was a false finish line. Too many countries operated on the idea of an imaginary finish line and when they crossed it they may have decelerated some of their activities to keep the virus under control.

The countries in Asia, South Asia, and Western Pacific that have been successful have continued to follow through with their key control activities. They haven't stopped, they've kept at it, all the while preparing for more cases.

Finally, successful countries have implemented multiple measures in a comprehensive strategy to control the virus. These countries have taken advantage of ALL of the tools and determined how to apply these tools within their territories and their social and societal contracts and then they have followed through on these actions even when the numbers have been brought down very low. And, they have managed to sustain community commitment to the actions taken.

So these countries have been able to open up and reduce restrictions to lives and livelihoods because the measures in place affect only small numbers of people - the cases and related contacts. The rest of life had returned to normal and so these countries now have an advantage of being able to sustain the effort to keep the virus under control.

Dr. Ryan went on to describe the situation in Europe and in North America as very tough. It's hard to go back into a phase of potential lockdown as people are tired and exhausted. While it is not an easy situation that faces Europe and NA, there is always hope and a chance to turn things around and a chance to learn. As the DG, Dr. Tedros always says, it's never to too late to start implementing a comprehensive set of measures and national strategy to get this virus under control!

The one thing that was stressed over and over again, in this presser and others, is that we must, must, must be able to test and trace and in the situation of intense transmission it may not be possible to trace every case and we accept this. There are times when testing and tracing is not the most efficient way to proceed. But, you must be able to know where the virus is and, as the numbers of cases drop, you must be able to re-engage in tracing, quarantine and isolation. If there is one thing that differentiates the responses to this pandemic in Asia and Europe and NA it is the ability to follow through on these health measures and that goes especially for contact tracing and quarantining of contacts.

Are you frakkin kidding me? Of course there were not "relaxed" regulations. There were practically no regulations to speak of. Rapid expansion and reckless speculation could not have crashed the economy of there had been.

There have been a great many things blamed as causes of the 'great depression' of the '30's, but far as I'm aware, "low taxes and relaxed standards" have heretofore never been among them.

And it would be generally agreed I think that it was the ensuing world war that "spurred a pendulum swing in the other direction".

And in spite of being a student of the 'dismal science', I've never heard of "taxes and regulation stifling competition". Definitely stifling business and entrepreneurial effort in general, but NOT "competition"!

One is toxic and spreads pestilence, and the other's just a microscopic virus...

they should start calling her "the ronna," as in, moscow mitch, poor donald and the ronna

good point about interstate competition undermining fair business practices. state taxes are just one of many vehicles driving this issue, however.

The problem with trying to extract proportionally larger income taxes from the highly successful is that it creates interstate competition for attracting the highly successful as residents. Witness the migration of rich people and corporations from CA to TX.

It's a wonderful 'coda' to the Trumpian regime to have its final gasp from the parking lot of a dildo emporium... Considering he rode into town on the largely undisputed 'dossier' of misdeeds.

Trump's greyness compounded by his almost slip referring to 'the incoming administration' is pitiable, and expected.

LL&P

During the dark days after 3 November, my biggest consolation was the color of Arizona on the electoral maps. First light blue, then changing to solid blue, my heart fluttered with hope. I and the other Arizona voters (miracle of miracles!) gave 4 electoral votes to Biden ensuring that he would pass the finish line, even if the Republicans succeeded in undermining the democratic process in Pennsylvania,

Collins, Graham, Tillis, Cornyn, Ernst, and of course "Moscow Mitch" are returning to Washington. The near-term consequences are Republican obstruction to each and every progressive idea that the House Democrats manage to pass. The long-term consequences are impossible to know, but these folks will have 6 years to provide us with examples in the future.

Oklahoma voters in June and Missouri in August expanded Medicaid via ballot initiative. Why did Democrats in the remaining twelve states whose legislature refuse to do so NOT propose a similar ballot initiative?!?!?!

Special mention goes to Florida Democrats for once demonstrating how to blow a perfect opportunity.

50% of the money would go to hiring and raising the salaries of teachers and other certified employees, such as counselors and nurses.
25% would go to hiring and increasing the salaries of student support staff, including classroom aides and bus drivers.
12% would go to career and technical education programs.
10% would go to programs dedicated to retaining and mentoring teachers.
3% would go to scholarships for the Arizona Teachers Academy, which waives college tuition for teachers-in-training who commit to work in Arizona schools after graduation.'
https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2020/11/03/proposition-208-invest-education-act-election-results-raise-taxes-high-earners/6041668002/

We will assume that a large majority of the those who wrote the progressive ballot initiatives, gathered the signatures to get them on the ballot, and cast their ballot to make these ideas into law were Democrats. In the process, they overcame the resistance of state legislatures, both Republican- and Democratic-controlled.

I hope that progressive are paying attention, especially in such heartbreakingly-red states as Florida. For the next 2 years, they must concentrate their energies on copying the successful ballot measures from other states into their own.

But to me, there is nothing that more clearly demonstrated the results than Biden's win in Georgia. A quick glance at the election map says it all: a sea of red in the Confederate states, with Georgia the lonely one "dressed in blue".

I am also cautiously hopeful that Democrats in the other Southern states will quickly flood the "Fair Fight" organization and create homegrown versions. Will I get my hopes up? No, because Democrats across the land have proven time and time again how readily they surrender ground and even turn on their allies.
For example, I had a conversation with a Democratic "operative" in Arkansas last week. He dismissed this suggestion out-of-hand; I hope others in his state will NOT allow their myopic view of their fellow citizens prevent them from at least TRYING!

As has been the case since 2015, Trump and company have managed to pack a years' worth of news into a week, so there were many possible avenues to pursue. I think you chose a good one.

A technical issue: I checked my bookmark this morning and there was no new FTP: http://www.chrisweigant.com/ftpts/
I was relieved to find it, but wonder if I should delete the bookmark.

-CW

Nah, that's Romney's niece. Totally separate thing.

One is toxic and spreads pestilence, and the other's just a microscopic virus...

Heh.

:-)

-CW

hey, isn't the rona the RNC chair or something?

on the way to the prison, or...?

Heh. Couldn't resist.

:-)

-CW

Yeah, I know. But hey, today's spin day, right?

Silver linings...

As for legalization and $15 and family leave, I would argue, that is substance, not just appearances. The rest of it, you're mostly right, though.

-CW

I got the $15 minimum wage thing, but I'm not sure that some states passing marijuana legalization or electing transgender candidates, etc., makes up for, um, not taking the Senate. Democrats are as bad as Republicans when they confuse appearances for substance like this.

Say it: IT WAS THAT BAD. The odds of electing Dems to those two Georgia seats are poor to horrible. McConnell and the Republicans will almost certainly castrate every Democratic initiative led by Pres. Biden for the first two years of his administration - except the ones he can, undemocratically, almost autocratically, use executive orders to accomplish.

This blows. Good for the first gay Black/Latino House member from the Bronx, but the House Dems already outrank the Republicans in every demographic category possible. What they don't have despite said new member from the Bronx, is the political power to deliver anything progressive on a national front, period.