I've noticed the death rates suddenly spiking this week in the NYTimes and it's distressing. I know there's not going to be a quick turnaround. People are just going to keep dying.
San Antonio is in the thick of things. My girlfriend is transporting COVID patients every day at work. We're approaching the point where the nationwide death count will be 50 times the size of 9/11. I remember when it was only 10 times.
There aren't a lot of things that have killed this many Americans. I wish our government was trying to keep us safe.
At our peak in April, we were seeing maybe 35,000 cases a day. As of yesterday, we have reached 75,000. Yes, the death rate is lower, which can probably be chalked up to younger people getting it and knowledge about how to treat it. A couple things about that: death isn't the only problem with this virus, many people who survive are going to have lifelong complications. Secondly, the sheer volume of numbers in the last few weeks is going to guarantee a death count of at least 1000 a day well into August, assuming steps are taken to mitigate it now.
I can't believe we're still talking about this on this level. The country has collectively lost it's mind, but it's about 30% of it that is holding the rest of us hostage to their delusions. It isn't an accident that the only countries who still can't wrap their head around the problem are the US, Brazil, Russia and India. Look at the leaders of those countries, and you have your answer as to why.
My 20 year class reunion is next Friday. I'm not going. I think it's irresponsible it's taking place now rather than later in the year or next year, and I don't care what people think. If there is even a 1% chance someone could get this and suffer, then it's ridiculous to be a part of that. But I just know what the conversation would like from a group of people from a small town if I bring up the reason, so I'm likely just gonna ghost it. I don't have time to deal with the political bullshit as well. Classmates surely live all over the state and country at this point. Why on Earth would we gather everyone from north, south, east and west and then put everyone and their families in a gym for 8 hours??
I understand the desire to get back to normal, but that isn't going to happen this year. No chance. It could have, we blew it. If people had REALLY wanted schools open, the wouldn't have pushed so hard to get back to the bar and tanning salon. We made our bed, now we have to lie in it.
In other news, John Lewis passed away last night. It's best not to idolize politicians, but Lewis was a true American hero, a Freedom Rider who had his skull cracked open on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There are calls to rename the bridge (which inexplicably still bears the name of a KKK Grand Dragon) to the John Lewis Bridge. He deserves it. He paid in blood.
At our peak in April, we were seeing maybe 35,000 cases a day. As of yesterday, we have reached 75,000. Yes, the death rate is lower, which can probably be chalked up to younger people getting it and knowledge about how to treat it.
The death rate is lower because of massive testing. In the early peak, a disproportionate number of hospitalizations were making up the COVID case totals, because testing was scarce. We now have the capacity to test asymptomatic and light symptoms folks. As health authorities, like Fauci, said at the initial outbreak, the actual number of cases was probably 10x the reported cases.
When you're seeing almost 800 deaths reported on a weekend (where the numbers usually drop off a cliff until Tuesday afternoon from a reporting standpoint), you know the problem is back in a big way.
Absolutely amazing interview with Trump by Chris Wallace of FOX News this morning. A couple highlights:
1.) Says he "doesn't care what the military says" when asked about renaming bases named for Confederate Generals. If Barack Obama had ever uttered that phrase, he would have been tarred and feathered.
2.) On the Coronavirus case surge "it is what it is".
3.) Again refuses to say if he'll accept the results of the election (same guy asking same question as 2016).
4.) Wallace calls Trump out on the "cognitive test" that Trump has been touting as a sign of his brilliance by revealing he took the same test and one of the questions is a picture of an elephant and the test asking to name what it is and another is to say the number that is 7 less than 100.
5.) Trump states "I'm not a big fan of FOX, I'll be honest with you".
6.) On Wallace calling Trump out for them having no Obamacare replacement plan after nearly 4 years, Trump replies "Excuse me...We're signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan that the Supreme Court decision on DACA gave me the right to do."
7.) Trump on schools: "The Democrats are purposely keeping their schools closed, keeping their states closed. I called Michigan. I want to have a big rally in Michigan. Do you know we're not allowed to have a rally in Michigan?"
So the Confederate base name thing is a little blown up for no reason. Come next year, Biden gets to rename them whatever the hell he wants instead of Trump renaming them.
Just put that into perspective of how much of a shit show that’d be if Trump got to rename these bases. Be glad he’s too stupid to realize this because him doing so changes the conversation away from every other important issue as news shifts ti ‘is the Hannity Airbase a better name than Fort Bragg?”
And schools should reopen, not because of what Trump says, but what the experts say about the issue as I mentioned in the COVID thread. It’s hypocritical for any democrat politician to go against this and hammer away at Trump for being anti-science or anti-expert. Open it up but do it carefully and do not look to the federal government for guidance.
Everyone knows is ‘cognitive test’ was a joke.
It should also be noted that Fox News is vastly different than Fox Opinion. They still lean right, but will call bullshit when they see it much like this interview did. Trump doesn’t like Fox when it doesn’t run as his propaganda machine like he thinks it should. Fox News division (different from Tucker and Hannity) still have some ethics about them.
We've discussed before the forced transfer of Uighur Muslims in China into re-education camps. What is now becoming clear is the extent to which this has been followed by campaigns to reduce the birth rate of the Uighurs - that includes the use of coercion to sterilize women.
That appears to be a policy response to concerns that the Muslim birthrate has been higher than that of Han Chinese - at least since the introduction of the 'one child' policy. The fact that in the last year or so some of the historically available demographic data on things like births and deaths has stopped being published also makes it clear China knows how controversial their practices on this issue will be internationally.
The fact that the renaming of bases is an issue in the first place is why I am exhausted with this presidency. When an issue is important, he doesn't act, and when it is inconsequential and deserves little national attention, he turns it into a public spectacle. I'm quite tired of it. We're still in the middle of the pandemic. Maybe this isn't the best time.
Funny, I would put Tucker Carlson squarely in the camp of the independently minded and wouldn't associate him with a sycophant like Hannity at all, regardless of whether or not you agree with what he says. He regularly bashes most republicans, sometimes grilling them on his own show, and leans solidly left on many economic matters, endorsing Elizabeth Warren's economic platform when she was still in the race, and doesn't pretend to say otherwise. I don't consider any journalist or pundit authoritative, but I at least trust that i'm getting an honest opinion from the individual rather than the party line when i'm listening to someone like him. I genuinely don't see that kind of ability to dissent from the political party platform from any of the major news networks today. Maybe i'm missing some key examples, but I consume a bit more political media than I should and almost all of what comes out of the competitor networks is the sanitized party line and nothing else.
I mean, if Bari Weiss is too counter revolutionary for what was once the gold standard of quality mainstream journalism, I don't know what else to say about the state of the modern media that hasn't already been said.
The fact that the renaming of bases is an issue in the first place is why I am exhausted with this presidency. When an issue is important, he doesn't act, and when it is inconsequential and deserves little national attention, he turns it into a public spectacle. I'm quite tired of it. We're still in the middle of the pandemic. Maybe this isn't the best time.
Funny, I would put Tucker Carlson squarely in the camp of the independently minded and wouldn't associate him with a sycophant like Hannity at all, regardless of whether or not you agree with what he says. He regularly bashes most republicans, sometimes grilling them on his own show, and leans solidly left on many economic matters, endorsing Elizabeth Warren's economic platform when she was still in the race, and doesn't pretend to say otherwise. I don't consider any journalist or pundit authoritative, but I at least trust that i'm getting an honest opinion from the individual rather than the party line when i'm listening to someone like him. I genuinely don't see that kind of ability to dissent from the political party platform from any of the major news networks today. Maybe i'm missing some key examples, but I consume a bit more political media than I should and almost all of what comes out of the competitor networks is the sanitized party line and nothing else.
I mean, if Bari Weiss is too counter revolutionary for what was once the gold standard of quality mainstream journalism, I don't know what else to say about the state of the modern media that hasn't already been said.
Bari Weiss is only a national name because in college she literally tried to get Muslim professors at Columbia fired for being too pro-Palestinian. She is ground-zero for the "cancel culture" she now makes a career talking about. She is absolute most hypocritical messenger imaginable even if you believe it's an actual problem, even though in most cases when someone talks about being cancelled they are simply someone with a large media platform of some kind pissed that anyone talks back to them. Having her as the poster child of this movement makes the whole thing look ridiculous. She isn't a serious person, she's a grifter. It's not a coincidence that her and Andrew Sullivan resigned within 48 hours of each other. They are starting their own media venture. I guarantee it. Likely funded by some libertarian billionaire. Her resignation letter was a publicity stunt. Hell, maybe they can give Charles Murray and "The Bell Curve" another run in the public discourse like Sullivan did when he was the editor of the New Republic in the '90s. I'm old enough to remember when he called Iraq War opponents a "fifth column". So these two will blend together quite well when this inevitable announcement is made.
As for the catalyst event at the New York Times, it was publishing a op-ed by a US Senator (Tom Cotton) calling for the deployment of the US military in American cities, days after he had called for "no quarter" in dealing with protesters. That phrase has meaning, and Cotton, being a solider who I am certain GAVE no quarter to many innocent people in Iraq, certainly knew. Here is the defintion:
The phrase no quarter was generally used during military conflict to imply combatants would not be taken prisoner, but killed.
So Cotton was quite clearly calling for extra-judicial killings of civilians by the US military if language means anything anymore, which I suppose it doesn't, because nothing else does. So yeah, alot of people had a problem with this being viewed as a "legitimate opinion", unless indiscriminate slaughter without trial is now perfectly fine.
So the Confederate base name thing is a little blown up for no reason. Come next year, Biden gets to rename them whatever the hell he wants instead of Trump renaming them.
Just put that into perspective of how much of a shit show that’d be if Trump got to rename these bases. Be glad he’s too stupid to realize this because him doing so changes the conversation away from every other important issue as news shifts ti ‘is the Hannity Airbase a better name than Fort Bragg?”
And schools should reopen, not because of what Trump says, but what the experts say about the issue as I mentioned in the COVID thread. It’s hypocritical for any democrat politician to go against this and hammer away at Trump for being anti-science or anti-expert. Open it up but do it carefully and do not look to the federal government for guidance.
Everyone knows is ‘cognitive test’ was a joke.
It should also be noted that Fox News is vastly different than Fox Opinion. They still lean right, but will call bullshit when they see it much like this interview did. Trump doesn’t like Fox when it doesn’t run as his propaganda machine like he thinks it should. Fox News division (different from Tucker and Hannity) still have some ethics about them.
You might want to look at this before making a definitive statement on schools:
Unlike the US, South Korea actually has some leg to stand on in how to deal with the virus, since yesterday they had 40 new cases and we had 60,000. There were more than 40 new cases just in my small city on Friday. There is a huge goddamn difference between opening schools in places where the virus is under control (South Korea or even Canada where you are) and in the US where it is now just spreading completely unchecked because of the clusterfuck response of the last 4 months. If we wanted to open schools safely, we needed to put in the leg work to do so. None of it happened. We aren't just back to square one, we're 10 miles behind even that.
Parents don't give a shit about the politics of this. It's ridiculous to think even the most left-wing mom and dad want to remain cooped up with their children endlessly for another 4 months to make some kind of political statement. And yet DESPITE that, so far polls show overwhelmingly that they don't believe it's safe yet. It's the same with the this as with the economy. To fix it, you have to give the populace as a whole a sense of security that is utterly and completely absent in this country. And for good reason. Even if it IS just a perception, it is totally rational to HAVE that perception based on what has happened since January.
You also have WAY more faith in the wisdom and judgement of local school boards than I do. Nevermind the fact that they aren't going to have the money for ANY of things that need to be implemented. Where is it going to come from?? The feds are threatening to take away the 10% they are responsible for. Municipalities aren't going to raise taxes anytime soon. Who will suffer?? Likely only a small number of actual children, but innumerable teachers over the age of 50, not to mention the thousands of kids who have grandparents are caretakers.
So the Confederate base name thing is a little blown up for no reason. Come next year, Biden gets to rename them whatever the hell he wants instead of Trump renaming them.
Just put that into perspective of how much of a shit show that’d be if Trump got to rename these bases. Be glad he’s too stupid to realize this because him doing so changes the conversation away from every other important issue as news shifts ti ‘is the Hannity Airbase a better name than Fort Bragg?”
And schools should reopen, not because of what Trump says, but what the experts say about the issue as I mentioned in the COVID thread. It’s hypocritical for any democrat politician to go against this and hammer away at Trump for being anti-science or anti-expert. Open it up but do it carefully and do not look to the federal government for guidance.
Everyone knows is ‘cognitive test’ was a joke.
It should also be noted that Fox News is vastly different than Fox Opinion. They still lean right, but will call bullshit when they see it much like this interview did. Trump doesn’t like Fox when it doesn’t run as his propaganda machine like he thinks it should. Fox News division (different from Tucker and Hannity) still have some ethics about them.
You might want to look at this before making a definitive statement on schools:
Unlike the US, South Korea actually has some leg to stand on in how to deal with the virus, since yesterday they had 40 new cases and we had 60,000. There were more than 40 new cases just in my small city on Friday. There is a huge goddamn difference between opening schools in places where the virus is under control (South Korea or even Canada where you are) and in the US where it is now just spreading completely unchecked because of the clusterfuck response of the last 4 months. If we wanted to open schools safely, we needed to put in the leg work to do so. None of it happened. We aren't just back to square one, we're 10 miles behind even that.
Parents don't give a shit about the politics of this. It's ridiculous to think even the most left-wing mom and dad want to remain cooped up with their children endlessly for another 4 months to make some kind of political statement. And yet DESPITE that, so far polls show overwhelmingly that they don't believe it's safe yet. It's the same with the this as with the economy. To fix it, you have to give the populace as a whole a sense of security that is utterly and completely absent in this country. And for good reason. Even if it IS just a perception, it is totally rational to HAVE that perception based on what has happened since January.
You also have WAY more faith in the wisdom and judgement of local school boards than I do. Nevermind the fact that they aren't going to have the money for ANY of things that need to be implemented. Where is it going to come from?? The feds are threatening to take away the 10% they are responsible for. Municipalities aren't going to raise taxes anytime soon. Who will suffer?? Likely only a small number of actual children, but innumerable teachers over the age of 50, not to mention the thousands of kids who have grandparents are caretakers.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
This is exactly why I'm a conservative. There is no one size fits all big government solution for every crisis. Sorry, there just isn't. I had faith in the beginning that people would step up and do the right thing and for a short while they did. Now that the train is off the rails, it's time to fucking ignore 'centralized' government and use our brains like rational human beings...
No, if it was Ebola two people would have died (one being the US patient zero who was too far gone to help) instead of 145,000 and counting. We know because that's what happened in the last Administration. Even if you want to take swine flu, which for some reason conservatives STILL grasp onto like they're actually making a salient point, it was 12,000 over the course of an entire year. Or, to put it in percentage terms, only 8% of the total we've had here in only 150 days. Bringing up swine flu is like saying "take that libtard, Trump is 184% worse than Obama."
This is what we get as long as I've been a politically conscious adult. Monumental, earth-shattering fuck-ups courtesy of the Republican Party, and then the eventual "oh well, what's done is done". Other countries are opening schools because they had a population of citizens who didn't throw a temper tantrum, and, just as importantly, a centralized, consistent message from the government. South Korea is getting only a couple dozen cases of day. Germany and Canada a couple hundred. New Zealand and Cuba aren't getting any at all. Vietnam has 100 million people and ONE case today. We are getting 70,000.
To compare our ability to open schools to other countries is exactly what I've said before. We're the kid who fucked around all semester and thinks they can ace the final just by showing up. We can't use other countries as a metric for what is going to work in school reopening because we haven't suppressed the virus like they have.
No, if it was Ebola two people would have died (one being the US patient zero who was too far gone to help) instead of 145,000 and counting. We know because that's what happened in the last Administration. Even if you want to take swine flu, which for some reason conservatives STILL grasp onto like they're actually making a salient point, it was 12,000 over the course of an entire year. Or, to put it in percentage terms, only 8% of the total we've had here in only 150 days. Bringing up swine flu is like saying "take that libtard, Trump is 184% worse than Obama."
This is what we get as long as I've been a politically conscious adult. Monumental, earth-shattering fuck-ups courtesy of the Republican Party, and then the eventual "oh well, what's done is done". Other countries are opening schools because they had a population of citizens who didn't throw a temper tantrum, and, just as importantly, a centralized, consistent message from the government. South Korea is getting only a couple dozen cases of day. Germany and Canada a couple hundred. New Zealand and Cuba aren't getting any at all. Vietnam has 100 million people and ONE case today. We are getting 70,000.
To compare our ability to open schools to other countries is exactly what I've said before. We're the kid who fucked around all semester and thinks they can ace the final just by showing up. We can't use other countries as a metric for what is going to work in school reopening because we haven't suppressed the virus like they have.
No country is safe until there's a vaccine or an effective treatment/cure. Don't kid yourself. There is also, by the way, no guarantee that there will ever be a vaccine or a cure. I'll take the proper precautions but I'm not going to live in perpetual fear. Our society seems to be torn between total paralysis and total recklessness with no middle-ground. Wow, just like our two-party system! What a surprise...
So the Confederate base name thing is a little blown up for no reason. Come next year, Biden gets to rename them whatever the hell he wants instead of Trump renaming them.
Just put that into perspective of how much of a shit show that’d be if Trump got to rename these bases. Be glad he’s too stupid to realize this because him doing so changes the conversation away from every other important issue as news shifts ti ‘is the Hannity Airbase a better name than Fort Bragg?”
And schools should reopen, not because of what Trump says, but what the experts say about the issue as I mentioned in the COVID thread. It’s hypocritical for any democrat politician to go against this and hammer away at Trump for being anti-science or anti-expert. Open it up but do it carefully and do not look to the federal government for guidance.
Everyone knows is ‘cognitive test’ was a joke.
It should also be noted that Fox News is vastly different than Fox Opinion. They still lean right, but will call bullshit when they see it much like this interview did. Trump doesn’t like Fox when it doesn’t run as his propaganda machine like he thinks it should. Fox News division (different from Tucker and Hannity) still have some ethics about them.
You might want to look at this before making a definitive statement on schools:
Unlike the US, South Korea actually has some leg to stand on in how to deal with the virus, since yesterday they had 40 new cases and we had 60,000. There were more than 40 new cases just in my small city on Friday. There is a huge goddamn difference between opening schools in places where the virus is under control (South Korea or even Canada where you are) and in the US where it is now just spreading completely unchecked because of the clusterfuck response of the last 4 months. If we wanted to open schools safely, we needed to put in the leg work to do so. None of it happened. We aren't just back to square one, we're 10 miles behind even that.
Parents don't give a shit about the politics of this. It's ridiculous to think even the most left-wing mom and dad want to remain cooped up with their children endlessly for another 4 months to make some kind of political statement. And yet DESPITE that, so far polls show overwhelmingly that they don't believe it's safe yet. It's the same with the this as with the economy. To fix it, you have to give the populace as a whole a sense of security that is utterly and completely absent in this country. And for good reason. Even if it IS just a perception, it is totally rational to HAVE that perception based on what has happened since January.
You also have WAY more faith in the wisdom and judgement of local school boards than I do. Nevermind the fact that they aren't going to have the money for ANY of things that need to be implemented. Where is it going to come from?? The feds are threatening to take away the 10% they are responsible for. Municipalities aren't going to raise taxes anytime soon. Who will suffer?? Likely only a small number of actual children, but innumerable teachers over the age of 50, not to mention the thousands of kids who have grandparents are caretakers.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
This is exactly why I'm a conservative. There is no one size fits all big government solution for every crisis. Sorry, there just isn't. I had faith in the beginning that people would step up and do the right thing and for a short while they did. Now that the train is off the rails, it's time to fucking ignore 'centralized' government and use our brains like rational human beings...
You're right, its not Ebola. 2 whole people died of Ebola in the US. This is worse. Much MUCH worse. Wanting to open schools in the US right now is literally saying, "I don't care of children, their caretakers, or teachers are killed."
If it was just the CDC and all the experts saying “it’s safe to send your kids to school because of X” and not just Trump and Co spouting off about it because it makes them look good, a lot of parents would probably be on board.
But as I also said, school boards, not the federal government, need to show that they are ready to reopen up with proper safety measures in place and a plan. I agree, most schools board aren’t there yet, but I think the US needs to give them a chance to get there before passing judgement.
In my opinion, they have two months to do so which is plenty of time considering all the information available on how to do it. If the local school boards drop the ball and don’t come up with a viable plan that the individual parent doesn’t agree too, then ya, keep them home and start home schooling. That’s one less potential person spreading the virus around and I am for that.
But there is another caveat here. A lot of parents can’t afford to keep their kids home. School is day care. It’s where the kids go to be looked after for a couple of hours while they work to pay rent, put food on the table and every other cliche. Not everyone can work from home and those that can’t shouldn’t have to choose between the childcare that they get from sending their kids to school or their job.
If anything, the US can wait for a January reopening when Biden comes in and throws cash at school boards and cancels next years Summer vacation because of it but that’s relying on a lot of ifs.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
I think for some districts, delaying school openings for a month or even three months is something that might be perfectly "pragmatic and smart". I think insisting that the consequences of doing so are limited or are offset by children missing school time is the dogmatic position.
I don't doubt that some places in the US have done well enough at suppressing transmissions to open schools. Some have not. And I think alot of your framing in this thread is actually quite dogmatic, positioning yourself against a strawman of "living in fear". It's not about personal fear. It's about a very real understanding that we are, right now, at peak hospitalizations and deaths from the virus in many parts of the country, and this has all kinds of ramifications that radiate out beyond merely "the vulnerable population". Saturated hospitals are going to be worse at treating victims of automobile accidents for example.
I don't see why shutting down the country at this point is not feasible. We are doing less now than we were before, which is still less than what other countries have managed. For all my disappointment in how the administration has handled the COVID crisis, I still think the United States is capable of handling this situation were the government to actually take responsibility for the lives of its people.
We're not stupid. The only reason so many people refuse to practice social distancing and wear masks is because they've been told it's political. In the absence of government misinformation and with a normal administration, we would have tackled COVID at least as well as the average developed country.
There was nothing unavoidable about the soon-to-be 150,000 deaths in our country. There is nothing in our culture that prevents us from being responsible with public health. There is nothing in our brains that makes us incapable of organizing to respond to problems. The problem is not that America is inherently broken.
The problem is political. Our government does not view saving lives as a high priority.
If Trump suddenly decided to turn around and take responsibility for the issue, a second shutdown with another stimulus and universal online classes is easily doable for the largest superpower on the planet.
The reason that's not happening is not because we lack the resources or the brainpower or that the majority of Americans can't obey a law designed to save lives. The reason is because our government doesn't want to do this.
I would slightly disagree and say that America is inherently broken. And the only first step that can be taken to even think about fixing it is getting this lunatic away from the reigns of power.
But to other points, universal basic income to 80% of your wage should have been implemented til the end of August at a minimum. Once it was realized masks significantly reduced the spread, a national campaign to encourage them should have been waged. Other countries took these steps. They are (generally) fine. Even countries that had major, major problems initially (Italy, France, Spain, UK) are now doing quite well. The Asian countries continue to be a model of how to handle the situation.
It's understandable if tragic that mistakes and horrific problems would arise initially. These could have been mitigated greatly since the Administration was WELL aware of what was coming as early as January, but they would have been given leeway regardless (and were, to a certain extent). To be where we are on July 20, seeing twice as many cases a day as we were seeing in April, is absolutely unforgivable. There is really no one besides us and Brazil who is handling it even remotely as badly.
There is a narrative at play here that this virus spread is inevitable and there is nothing to be done but let it wash over us. There are DOZENS of countries who provide obvious examples of why this simply isn't true. Human beings and nations can, for the most part, beat this with altered behavior and will. The United States is collectively too selfish to do so. I'm not shocked by that, it was always going to be one of our biggest problems. But it's time for this so-called "great" country to take a long, hard look in the mirror. We're the laughingstock of the international community.
On a lighter note ... it's primary election season here in Washington, for legislative and state executive offices. Some excerpts from candidate statements in the booklet I got in the mail, for the laughs:
(Spoilered for length)
Disclaimer: "King County Elections does not correct punctuation, grammar, or fact check candidate and measure statements."
Also, note that party affiliation is self-reported; the top two candidates advance regardless of party, so there's no reason to have parties control who gets to be on the ballot in their name. Some interesting choices of "party" come out of this.
Candidates for governor:
Alex Tsimerman
(Prefers StandupAmerica Party)
Community Service
... Alex Tsimerman has received over 12 trespasses for a total of more than 1200 days from going into the Demo-Nazi-Gestapo Council Chambers. ...
Statement
...
(1) Stop Seattle/King Fascism with idiotic face! ...
...
... (25) Stop Seattle/King Fascism with idiotic face!
So, being such a nuisance to local governments that they repeatedly convict you of trespassing counts as community service? As for that statement, all 25 of the numbered points are the same. My best guess about the "idiotic face" is that it's the county's official logo, a black and white stylization of MLK Jr's face.
Leon Aaron Lawson
(Prefers Trump Republican Party)
Elected Experience
... I have never been in politics. If your indented outcome for this election ...
Statement
I was treated like a criminal growing up because I chose Marijuana over prescribed pharmaceuticals. But now the state picks and chooses who is allowed to grow and sell marijuana... In 2017, they ran me out of business, slandered me to customers and made false reports about me cooking meth. ...
I don't know what the facts are here ... but that sure sounds like a drug dealer to me. "Elected Experience" line included just for the error.
Goodspaceguy
(Prefers Trump Republican Party)
Elected Experience
Goodspaceguy has run against perennial incumbents 21 times. Sometimes Goodspaceguy survived the primary election to go on to the November General Election.
Wait, he's made it onto general election ballots? I don't remember ever seeing that.
Omari Tahir Garrett
(Prefers Democrat Party)
Statement
I am running as a spokesperson for the anti-apartheid/reparations-now movement. My issues and solutions:
... 2) The current Governor's biggest mistake is turning Seattle's SVI building over to proven historical Negro vampire criminals. ... 5) Remove the names/images of the "North-American Hitlers", Washington/Jefferson, those mass-murderers of Native American "Indians" and "owners" of hundreds of "slaves". ... 10) Since race is arbitrarily based on "skin color", redefine "race" based on hair color, which is much easier to change - especially for "white minded" integrated Negroes like Court Justice "Uncle" Clarence Thomas.
A lefty wacko for a change. Vampires!
Thor Amundson
(Prefers Independent Party)
Statement
...
As the first Senator not financed by PAC money ... I am backed by %100 of Orca ...
Wait, does this goof even know what office he's running for? There aren't any Senate elections in WA this cycle. Also, I was unaware anyone had polled the local marine mammal population.
Nate Herzog
(Prefers Pre-2016 Republican Party)
Statement
...
As an anti-Trump Republican, I know Washingtonians appreciate a leader who tells it like it is. Many of my fellow Republicans get upset when I say Donald Trump is a phony and an assclown. As is Tim Eyman. Fair enough.
...
I think that statement stands on its own.
David Voltz
(Prefers Cascadia Labour Party)
Community Service
David is a member of demolay in his teens like bill Clinton Statement
David is an ubres and lifts drivers who saw his income literally die over night when Jay Sleezee Shutdown the state and is why running for Washington State gouvenour as the Cascadia Labour Party, because Jay Sleezee has to go he has increased taxes on everyone shut down construction on Spokane north moterways and killed the economy and increased unemployment in this state to double digits, he also supported Crooked Hillary in 2016 David asks you for your vote please check out Davids Facebook page
This one had me wondering ... just how easy is it to get on the ballot in Washington? Answer: 1% of the salary, or the equivalent in signatures. Nonrefundable. As of 2020, that's $1874 or 1874 signatures to run for governor. No wonder there are 36 candidates on the ballot.
Bill Hirt
(Prefers Republican Party)
Statement
My previous 8 campaigns have never been to win but to tell voters Sound Transit should've never been allowed to spend billions adding Prop 1 extensions to Central Link. ...
This year it's to debunk claim fossil emissions are an existential threat. ...
...
However it's the Sun not higher CO2 levels from increasing fossil emissions that can significantly inccrease global temperatures. ... still a tiny fraction of the 96.5% CO2 that warms Venus.
...
Venus? That doesn't strike me as a good way to make his point.
There's a third "Trump Republican" in the race, but his statement isn't anything special. The only really notable bit? He's Russian.
The other statewide offices don't attract quite as many kooks, but there are still some fun bits in there.
(Lieutenant Governor)
Joseph Brumbles
(Prefers Republican Party)
Statement
...
Unfortunately our state government as well as the state parties have been heavily infiltrated by fake representatives. There are also too many manipulated candidates. Sadly, some were even recruited to run against me. ...
Paranoid much?
(Lieutenant Governor)
Marko Liias
(Prefers Democratic Party)
Statement
As the son of a carpenter...
... Endorsements: Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib, ...
Note: Cyrus Habib is leaving office to become a priest. Nothing silly about this candidate, of course.
(Commissioner of Public Lands)
Cameron Whitney
(Prefers Republican Party)
Community Service
I've never been to jail Statement
I like environmental protection. I don't like fires. Let's work together to clean up the environment and stop fires. President Trump says we need to rake our forests to clean up debris that exacerbates fires and that's where I intend to start. Please vote for me, Cameron Whitney.
There's the stupid.
(Commissioner of Public Lands)
Steve Sharon
(Prefers Republican Party)
Statement
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If elected, I will direct an independent, state funded study of the effects of 5G cell phone towers upon living things My research indicates that this radiation is killing trees, birds, honey bees, human life.
...
... I will stop chemtrails in Washington state. ... I am against the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, eugenics, Satan, New World Order. ...
And there's the crazy. I left out the list of sources of electricity he's against. By process of elimination, it's either nuclear power or nothing.
Finally, the legislative district I'm in - which consistently votes 90% or more Democratic.
(Representative Position 1)
Leslie Klein
(Prefers Republican Party)
Statement Republicans: I am running to give you someone to vote for besides Donald Duck or Minnie Mouse. ...
Realistic aims, at least. He'll probably make it to the general election, since the third candidate in the race is "No Party Preference" and doesn't seem to have any real platform.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
I think for some districts, delaying school openings for a month or even three months is something that might be perfectly "pragmatic and smart". I think insisting that the consequences of doing so are limited or are offset by children missing school time is the dogmatic position.
I don't doubt that some places in the US have done well enough at suppressing transmissions to open schools. Some have not. And I think alot of your framing in this thread is actually quite dogmatic, positioning yourself against a strawman of "living in fear". It's not about personal fear. It's about a very real understanding that we are, right now, at peak hospitalizations and deaths from the virus in many parts of the country, and this has all kinds of ramifications that radiate out beyond merely "the vulnerable population". Saturated hospitals are going to be worse at treating victims of automobile accidents for example.
That's why I'm saying leave it up to the localities. Most of the folks' here on this thread seem to think that some decree from on high is needed. I'm just saying that there isn't a one size fits all solution for this outbreak any more. It sucks, but just like different states start and finish their schools at different times, it looks to me like having in-class schooling at all will be a state by state, or even district by district decision.
Of course, now that this is the case, Trump has to jump in and insist on his own one size fits all, everybody back to school bullshit message. What an asshole. So much for Republicans being against 'big government'. Hypocrites...
There are a lot of countries that have reopened schools now, so there's a fair amount of experience to draw on internationally. This article gives an overview of that experience. In summary I'd say that suggests the risk associated with increased transfer by younger children (including to their families) is very low. For older children the risk is higher, though still far short of the risks associated with many communal activities for adults (bars, churches, concerts, indoor sports etc).
There's been a fair amount of discussion in the thread about the need to manage the risk of transmission (through masks, social distancing etc). However, I would suggest that at least as important as that is the need to monitor whether that risk has crystallized, i.e. is the disease spreading as a result of the reopening? One of the reasons for trying to drive the virus down to low levels is that this makes it clearer when a new cluster starts to develop - but you do need to actively look for that. If I had a school-aged child I'd want to know that my school board had arranged for a randomized testing program, with speedy publication of the results of that (preferably within a day).
My impression of the US from a distance may of course be wrong. However, for what it's worth that impression is:
- while testing levels are relatively high compared to other countries, there is a lack of randomized testing to track community spread (and in many states the % of positive results also shows that testing levels are still lagging behind the actual spread).
- there has been an over-concentration on boosting testing numbers, at the expense of ensuring results are provided quickly. If test results are not available for a week or more (which I understand is the situation in at least some areas), those results are nearly useless.
- many months since the need for it was clear, there has still been far too little effort put into test and trace systems.
While I understand in principle the attraction of managing risk at a local level, I suspect that there would be few, if any, local school boards able at the moment to provide the level of information I would want as a parent to assess the risk of sending a child to school.
There are a lot of countries that have reopened schools now, so there's a fair amount of experience to draw on internationally. This article gives an overview of that experience. In summary I'd say that suggests the risk associated with increased transfer by younger children (including to their families) is very low. For older children the risk is higher, though still far short of the risks associated with many communal activities for adults (bars, churches, concerts, indoor sports etc).
There's been a fair amount of discussion in the thread about the need to manage the risk of transmission (through masks, social distancing etc). However, I would suggest that at least as important as that is the need to monitor whether that risk has crystallized, i.e. is the disease spreading as a result of the reopening? One of the reasons for trying to drive the virus down to low levels is that this makes it clearer when a new cluster starts to develop - but you do need to actively look for that. If I had a school-aged child I'd want to know that my school board had arranged for a randomized testing program, with speedy publication of the results of that (preferably within a day).
My impression of the US from a distance may of course be wrong. However, for what it's worth that impression is:
- while testing levels are relatively high compared to other countries, there is a lack of randomized testing to track community spread (and in many states the % of positive results also shows that testing levels are still lagging behind the actual spread).
- there has been an over-concentration on boosting testing numbers, at the expense of ensuring results are provided quickly. If test results are not available for a week or more (which I understand is the situation in at least some areas), those results are nearly useless.
- many months since the need for it was clear, there has still been far too little effort put into test and trace systems.
While I understand in principle the attraction of managing risk at a local level, I suspect that there would be few, if any, local school boards able at the moment to provide the level of information I would want as a parent to assess the risk of sending a child to school.
Tests are taking between 5-7 days to come back in Florida for certain. I've known at least two people who have gotten tests in relatively low-hit areas (and one of them was a high priority case based on bieng immuno-compromised) and they STILL took 48-72 hours. So yeah, we have alot of testing compared to the amount we were doing in April when only people who were obviously sick were getting tests, but it's not really possible to put a test and trace program in place when no one is getting results for anywhere from three days to a week.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
I think for some districts, delaying school openings for a month or even three months is something that might be perfectly "pragmatic and smart". I think insisting that the consequences of doing so are limited or are offset by children missing school time is the dogmatic position.
I don't doubt that some places in the US have done well enough at suppressing transmissions to open schools. Some have not. And I think alot of your framing in this thread is actually quite dogmatic, positioning yourself against a strawman of "living in fear". It's not about personal fear. It's about a very real understanding that we are, right now, at peak hospitalizations and deaths from the virus in many parts of the country, and this has all kinds of ramifications that radiate out beyond merely "the vulnerable population". Saturated hospitals are going to be worse at treating victims of automobile accidents for example.
That's why I'm saying leave it up to the localities. Most of the folks' here on this thread seem to think that some decree from on high is needed. I'm just saying that there isn't a one size fits all solution for this outbreak any more. It sucks, but just like different states start and finish their schools at different times, it looks to me like having in-class schooling at all will be a state by state, or even district by district decision.
Of course, now that this is the case, Trump has to jump in and insist on his own one size fits all, everybody back to school bullshit message. What an asshole. So much for Republicans being against 'big government'. Hypocrites...
I think there's a limit to this logic of federalism though. I think two strong points have been made above by semiticgod and jjstraka. One, there is nothing preventing the US, even with the dire situation it is currently in, from doing what's right now in order to suppress transmissions to a manageable level. This might require some extreme -- but short term -- lockdown measures that might need to go beyond what the US originally did.
This ties into jj's point as well. Other countries, even those that had disastrous initial results, eventually got it together. Many of them did so with 1. far stricter lockdowns than the US, 2. generous bailouts for citizens.
But state governments don't have the resources like the federal government and its ability to borrow in order to bail out their citizens. So no, I don't think it's right to say "leave it up to the localities". You can't do two things at once here imo. You cannot get the political will at the national level to have the kind of generous economic bailouts people need in order to also institute the extreme lockdown and temporary economic closure you need. So I think even if some parts of the country are perfectly fine with suppressed transmissions, it's actually quite reasonable to ask them to make the economic sacrifice and join in on a second nationwide lockdown.
Because it's very possible that we are going to see the most deaths we've ever seen in the coming weeks in the US. It's time to break out of so-called "common sense" ideas and actually look at countries which had intense initial outbreaks and now have suppressed virus transmissions have done.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
I think for some districts, delaying school openings for a month or even three months is something that might be perfectly "pragmatic and smart". I think insisting that the consequences of doing so are limited or are offset by children missing school time is the dogmatic position.
I don't doubt that some places in the US have done well enough at suppressing transmissions to open schools. Some have not. And I think alot of your framing in this thread is actually quite dogmatic, positioning yourself against a strawman of "living in fear". It's not about personal fear. It's about a very real understanding that we are, right now, at peak hospitalizations and deaths from the virus in many parts of the country, and this has all kinds of ramifications that radiate out beyond merely "the vulnerable population". Saturated hospitals are going to be worse at treating victims of automobile accidents for example.
That's why I'm saying leave it up to the localities. Most of the folks' here on this thread seem to think that some decree from on high is needed. I'm just saying that there isn't a one size fits all solution for this outbreak any more. It sucks, but just like different states start and finish their schools at different times, it looks to me like having in-class schooling at all will be a state by state, or even district by district decision.
Of course, now that this is the case, Trump has to jump in and insist on his own one size fits all, everybody back to school bullshit message. What an asshole. So much for Republicans being against 'big government'. Hypocrites...
I think there's a limit to this logic of federalism though. I think two strong points have been made above by semiticgod and jjstraka. One, there is nothing preventing the US, even with the dire situation it is currently in, from doing what's right now in order to suppress transmissions to a manageable level. This might require some extreme -- but short term -- lockdown measures that might need to go beyond what the US originally did.
This ties into jj's point as well. Other countries, even those that had disastrous initial results, eventually got it together. Many of them did so with 1. far stricter lockdowns than the US, 2. generous bailouts for citizens.
But state governments don't have the resources like the federal government and its ability to borrow in order to bail out their citizens. So no, I don't think it's right to say "leave it up to the localities". You can't do two things at once here imo. You cannot get the political will at the national level to have the kind of generous economic bailouts people need in order to also institute the extreme lockdown and temporary economic closure you need. So I think even if some parts of the country are perfectly fine with suppressed transmissions, it's actually quite reasonable to ask them to make the economic sacrifice and join in on a second nationwide lockdown.
Because it's very possible that we are going to see the most deaths we've ever seen in the coming weeks in the US. It's time to break out of so-called "common sense" ideas and actually look at countries which had intense initial outbreaks and now have suppressed virus transmissions have done.
The problem with that is that our federal government is NOT going to do the right thing unless there's a coup or Trump has a stroke. Sorry, he's just not capable of admitting he was wrong.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
I think for some districts, delaying school openings for a month or even three months is something that might be perfectly "pragmatic and smart". I think insisting that the consequences of doing so are limited or are offset by children missing school time is the dogmatic position.
I don't doubt that some places in the US have done well enough at suppressing transmissions to open schools. Some have not. And I think alot of your framing in this thread is actually quite dogmatic, positioning yourself against a strawman of "living in fear". It's not about personal fear. It's about a very real understanding that we are, right now, at peak hospitalizations and deaths from the virus in many parts of the country, and this has all kinds of ramifications that radiate out beyond merely "the vulnerable population". Saturated hospitals are going to be worse at treating victims of automobile accidents for example.
That's why I'm saying leave it up to the localities. Most of the folks' here on this thread seem to think that some decree from on high is needed. I'm just saying that there isn't a one size fits all solution for this outbreak any more. It sucks, but just like different states start and finish their schools at different times, it looks to me like having in-class schooling at all will be a state by state, or even district by district decision.
Of course, now that this is the case, Trump has to jump in and insist on his own one size fits all, everybody back to school bullshit message. What an asshole. So much for Republicans being against 'big government'. Hypocrites...
I think there's a limit to this logic of federalism though. I think two strong points have been made above by semiticgod and jjstraka. One, there is nothing preventing the US, even with the dire situation it is currently in, from doing what's right now in order to suppress transmissions to a manageable level. This might require some extreme -- but short term -- lockdown measures that might need to go beyond what the US originally did.
This ties into jj's point as well. Other countries, even those that had disastrous initial results, eventually got it together. Many of them did so with 1. far stricter lockdowns than the US, 2. generous bailouts for citizens.
But state governments don't have the resources like the federal government and its ability to borrow in order to bail out their citizens. So no, I don't think it's right to say "leave it up to the localities". You can't do two things at once here imo. You cannot get the political will at the national level to have the kind of generous economic bailouts people need in order to also institute the extreme lockdown and temporary economic closure you need. So I think even if some parts of the country are perfectly fine with suppressed transmissions, it's actually quite reasonable to ask them to make the economic sacrifice and join in on a second nationwide lockdown.
Because it's very possible that we are going to see the most deaths we've ever seen in the coming weeks in the US. It's time to break out of so-called "common sense" ideas and actually look at countries which had intense initial outbreaks and now have suppressed virus transmissions have done.
The problem with that is that our federal government is NOT going to do the right thing unless there's a coup or Trump has a stroke. Sorry, he's just not capable of admitting he was wrong.
Sagaar Enjeti, who I would describe as the right-wing populist co-host of The Hill's Rising, has now been saying for at least two weeks that the economic response has guaranteed Trump will lose because he's completely turned over that operation to the supply-side cultists like Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore, and Art Laffer. Frankly, it's likely confirming that the person with the actual political instincts in 2016 despite his other horrible qualities was Steve Bannon, not Trump. If he'd simply gone along with a UBI and supported the lockdowns, he'd be cruising right now:
Sagaar Enjeti, who I would describe as the right-wing populist co-host of The Hill's Rising, has now been saying for at least two weeks that the economic response has guaranteed Trump will lose because he's completely turned over that operation to the supply-side cultists like Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore, and Art Laffer. Frankly, it's likely confirming that the person with the actual political instincts in 2016 despite his other horrible qualities was Steve Bannon, not Trump. If he'd simply gone along with a UBI and supported the lockdowns, he'd be cruising right now:
Agreed, it's become quite clear that Trump has very little political insight of his own and anything he said or did that was positive was the work of one of his many past advisors. When he is in doubt he defaults his decision making to the worst ideological wing of the GOP, the one that hates nothing more than people in need getting help from society.
I'm voting straight ticket Democrat, myself. Just for this election cycle. The GOP needs to be entirely dismantled before it can be repurposed as something better.
Sagaar Enjeti, who I would describe as the right-wing populist co-host of The Hill's Rising, has now been saying for at least two weeks that the economic response has guaranteed Trump will lose because he's completely turned over that operation to the supply-side cultists like Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore, and Art Laffer. Frankly, it's likely confirming that the person with the actual political instincts in 2016 despite his other horrible qualities was Steve Bannon, not Trump. If he'd simply gone along with a UBI and supported the lockdowns, he'd be cruising right now:
I'm voting straight ticket Democrat, myself. Just for this election cycle. The GOP needs to be entirely dismantled before it can be repurposed as something better.
I've pretty much decided on doing the same. The Republicans are totally unworthy of my vote at this time in history and a protest vote for the Democrats might get my message across. It's time for a warning shot across the GOP's bow. Correct course or become irrelevant...
I've pretty much decided on doing the same. The Republicans are totally unworthy of my vote at this time in history and a protest vote for the Democrats might get my message across. It's time for a warning shot across the GOP's bow. Correct course or become irrelevant...
It's getting to the point where i've seriously considered leaving the country soon. I have the money and the means to do it, but I never wanted to consider it an option. However, i've had just about enough of watching the ability of good, ordinary people to express themselves freely drain away in favor of a merciless progressive overlord class that delights in putting fear into people by ruining the lives of public figures and ordinary people alike in order to enforce self-censorship, even about the most trivial things. If i'm going to live under a system of totalitarian thought, I would rather it be literally any other one than this one.
The GOP's response to all this is the worst, because they know it's going on and they know it's an issue for their voters, but all they do is make false promises to get their base to vote for another round of tax cuts and entitlement cutting. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are particularly bad about this. They are nothing but slaves to their donors and nothing about who they are represents me.
Protect my right to exist or I have no use for you.
Comments
At our peak in April, we were seeing maybe 35,000 cases a day. As of yesterday, we have reached 75,000. Yes, the death rate is lower, which can probably be chalked up to younger people getting it and knowledge about how to treat it. A couple things about that: death isn't the only problem with this virus, many people who survive are going to have lifelong complications. Secondly, the sheer volume of numbers in the last few weeks is going to guarantee a death count of at least 1000 a day well into August, assuming steps are taken to mitigate it now.
I can't believe we're still talking about this on this level. The country has collectively lost it's mind, but it's about 30% of it that is holding the rest of us hostage to their delusions. It isn't an accident that the only countries who still can't wrap their head around the problem are the US, Brazil, Russia and India. Look at the leaders of those countries, and you have your answer as to why.
My 20 year class reunion is next Friday. I'm not going. I think it's irresponsible it's taking place now rather than later in the year or next year, and I don't care what people think. If there is even a 1% chance someone could get this and suffer, then it's ridiculous to be a part of that. But I just know what the conversation would like from a group of people from a small town if I bring up the reason, so I'm likely just gonna ghost it. I don't have time to deal with the political bullshit as well. Classmates surely live all over the state and country at this point. Why on Earth would we gather everyone from north, south, east and west and then put everyone and their families in a gym for 8 hours??
I understand the desire to get back to normal, but that isn't going to happen this year. No chance. It could have, we blew it. If people had REALLY wanted schools open, the wouldn't have pushed so hard to get back to the bar and tanning salon. We made our bed, now we have to lie in it.
The death rate is lower because of massive testing. In the early peak, a disproportionate number of hospitalizations were making up the COVID case totals, because testing was scarce. We now have the capacity to test asymptomatic and light symptoms folks. As health authorities, like Fauci, said at the initial outbreak, the actual number of cases was probably 10x the reported cases.
1.) Says he "doesn't care what the military says" when asked about renaming bases named for Confederate Generals. If Barack Obama had ever uttered that phrase, he would have been tarred and feathered.
2.) On the Coronavirus case surge "it is what it is".
3.) Again refuses to say if he'll accept the results of the election (same guy asking same question as 2016).
4.) Wallace calls Trump out on the "cognitive test" that Trump has been touting as a sign of his brilliance by revealing he took the same test and one of the questions is a picture of an elephant and the test asking to name what it is and another is to say the number that is 7 less than 100.
5.) Trump states "I'm not a big fan of FOX, I'll be honest with you".
6.) On Wallace calling Trump out for them having no Obamacare replacement plan after nearly 4 years, Trump replies "Excuse me...We're signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan that the Supreme Court decision on DACA gave me the right to do."
7.) Trump on schools: "The Democrats are purposely keeping their schools closed, keeping their states closed. I called Michigan. I want to have a big rally in Michigan. Do you know we're not allowed to have a rally in Michigan?"
Just put that into perspective of how much of a shit show that’d be if Trump got to rename these bases. Be glad he’s too stupid to realize this because him doing so changes the conversation away from every other important issue as news shifts ti ‘is the Hannity Airbase a better name than Fort Bragg?”
And schools should reopen, not because of what Trump says, but what the experts say about the issue as I mentioned in the COVID thread. It’s hypocritical for any democrat politician to go against this and hammer away at Trump for being anti-science or anti-expert. Open it up but do it carefully and do not look to the federal government for guidance.
Everyone knows is ‘cognitive test’ was a joke.
It should also be noted that Fox News is vastly different than Fox Opinion. They still lean right, but will call bullshit when they see it much like this interview did. Trump doesn’t like Fox when it doesn’t run as his propaganda machine like he thinks it should. Fox News division (different from Tucker and Hannity) still have some ethics about them.
That appears to be a policy response to concerns that the Muslim birthrate has been higher than that of Han Chinese - at least since the introduction of the 'one child' policy. The fact that in the last year or so some of the historically available demographic data on things like births and deaths has stopped being published also makes it clear China knows how controversial their practices on this issue will be internationally.
Funny, I would put Tucker Carlson squarely in the camp of the independently minded and wouldn't associate him with a sycophant like Hannity at all, regardless of whether or not you agree with what he says. He regularly bashes most republicans, sometimes grilling them on his own show, and leans solidly left on many economic matters, endorsing Elizabeth Warren's economic platform when she was still in the race, and doesn't pretend to say otherwise. I don't consider any journalist or pundit authoritative, but I at least trust that i'm getting an honest opinion from the individual rather than the party line when i'm listening to someone like him. I genuinely don't see that kind of ability to dissent from the political party platform from any of the major news networks today. Maybe i'm missing some key examples, but I consume a bit more political media than I should and almost all of what comes out of the competitor networks is the sanitized party line and nothing else.
I mean, if Bari Weiss is too counter revolutionary for what was once the gold standard of quality mainstream journalism, I don't know what else to say about the state of the modern media that hasn't already been said.
https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter
Bari Weiss is only a national name because in college she literally tried to get Muslim professors at Columbia fired for being too pro-Palestinian. She is ground-zero for the "cancel culture" she now makes a career talking about. She is absolute most hypocritical messenger imaginable even if you believe it's an actual problem, even though in most cases when someone talks about being cancelled they are simply someone with a large media platform of some kind pissed that anyone talks back to them. Having her as the poster child of this movement makes the whole thing look ridiculous. She isn't a serious person, she's a grifter. It's not a coincidence that her and Andrew Sullivan resigned within 48 hours of each other. They are starting their own media venture. I guarantee it. Likely funded by some libertarian billionaire. Her resignation letter was a publicity stunt. Hell, maybe they can give Charles Murray and "The Bell Curve" another run in the public discourse like Sullivan did when he was the editor of the New Republic in the '90s. I'm old enough to remember when he called Iraq War opponents a "fifth column". So these two will blend together quite well when this inevitable announcement is made.
As for the catalyst event at the New York Times, it was publishing a op-ed by a US Senator (Tom Cotton) calling for the deployment of the US military in American cities, days after he had called for "no quarter" in dealing with protesters. That phrase has meaning, and Cotton, being a solider who I am certain GAVE no quarter to many innocent people in Iraq, certainly knew. Here is the defintion:
The phrase no quarter was generally used during military conflict to imply combatants would not be taken prisoner, but killed.
So Cotton was quite clearly calling for extra-judicial killings of civilians by the US military if language means anything anymore, which I suppose it doesn't, because nothing else does. So yeah, alot of people had a problem with this being viewed as a "legitimate opinion", unless indiscriminate slaughter without trial is now perfectly fine.
You might want to look at this before making a definitive statement on schools:
Unlike the US, South Korea actually has some leg to stand on in how to deal with the virus, since yesterday they had 40 new cases and we had 60,000. There were more than 40 new cases just in my small city on Friday. There is a huge goddamn difference between opening schools in places where the virus is under control (South Korea or even Canada where you are) and in the US where it is now just spreading completely unchecked because of the clusterfuck response of the last 4 months. If we wanted to open schools safely, we needed to put in the leg work to do so. None of it happened. We aren't just back to square one, we're 10 miles behind even that.
Parents don't give a shit about the politics of this. It's ridiculous to think even the most left-wing mom and dad want to remain cooped up with their children endlessly for another 4 months to make some kind of political statement. And yet DESPITE that, so far polls show overwhelmingly that they don't believe it's safe yet. It's the same with the this as with the economy. To fix it, you have to give the populace as a whole a sense of security that is utterly and completely absent in this country. And for good reason. Even if it IS just a perception, it is totally rational to HAVE that perception based on what has happened since January.
You also have WAY more faith in the wisdom and judgement of local school boards than I do. Nevermind the fact that they aren't going to have the money for ANY of things that need to be implemented. Where is it going to come from?? The feds are threatening to take away the 10% they are responsible for. Municipalities aren't going to raise taxes anytime soon. Who will suffer?? Likely only a small number of actual children, but innumerable teachers over the age of 50, not to mention the thousands of kids who have grandparents are caretakers.
This isn't fucking Ebola for God's sake! If the kids can safely go back to school they should. I do trust my local school board more than I trust a bunch of germaphobe, hysterical parents. Sorry that Trump dropped the ball because he's a fucking dipshit but we can't let our kids fall too far behind or this will be an even worse disaster.
This is exactly why I'm a conservative. There is no one size fits all big government solution for every crisis. Sorry, there just isn't. I had faith in the beginning that people would step up and do the right thing and for a short while they did. Now that the train is off the rails, it's time to fucking ignore 'centralized' government and use our brains like rational human beings...
This is what we get as long as I've been a politically conscious adult. Monumental, earth-shattering fuck-ups courtesy of the Republican Party, and then the eventual "oh well, what's done is done". Other countries are opening schools because they had a population of citizens who didn't throw a temper tantrum, and, just as importantly, a centralized, consistent message from the government. South Korea is getting only a couple dozen cases of day. Germany and Canada a couple hundred. New Zealand and Cuba aren't getting any at all. Vietnam has 100 million people and ONE case today. We are getting 70,000.
To compare our ability to open schools to other countries is exactly what I've said before. We're the kid who fucked around all semester and thinks they can ace the final just by showing up. We can't use other countries as a metric for what is going to work in school reopening because we haven't suppressed the virus like they have.
No country is safe until there's a vaccine or an effective treatment/cure. Don't kid yourself. There is also, by the way, no guarantee that there will ever be a vaccine or a cure. I'll take the proper precautions but I'm not going to live in perpetual fear. Our society seems to be torn between total paralysis and total recklessness with no middle-ground. Wow, just like our two-party system! What a surprise...
You're right, its not Ebola. 2 whole people died of Ebola in the US. This is worse. Much MUCH worse. Wanting to open schools in the US right now is literally saying, "I don't care of children, their caretakers, or teachers are killed."
If it was just the CDC and all the experts saying “it’s safe to send your kids to school because of X” and not just Trump and Co spouting off about it because it makes them look good, a lot of parents would probably be on board.
But as I also said, school boards, not the federal government, need to show that they are ready to reopen up with proper safety measures in place and a plan. I agree, most schools board aren’t there yet, but I think the US needs to give them a chance to get there before passing judgement.
In my opinion, they have two months to do so which is plenty of time considering all the information available on how to do it. If the local school boards drop the ball and don’t come up with a viable plan that the individual parent doesn’t agree too, then ya, keep them home and start home schooling. That’s one less potential person spreading the virus around and I am for that.
But there is another caveat here. A lot of parents can’t afford to keep their kids home. School is day care. It’s where the kids go to be looked after for a couple of hours while they work to pay rent, put food on the table and every other cliche. Not everyone can work from home and those that can’t shouldn’t have to choose between the childcare that they get from sending their kids to school or their job.
If anything, the US can wait for a January reopening when Biden comes in and throws cash at school boards and cancels next years Summer vacation because of it but that’s relying on a lot of ifs.
I just think this is missing the point. The point isn't whether kids will get sick and possibly die from the virus. But that kids will become vectors for the virus and increase its risk to the vulnerable population. And teachers and staff can fall into that category. As well as the parents or other family of these children.
This is a pretty widespread failure on understanding what a pandemic is, imo. We see it with mask wearing opposition as well, mask opponents treat masks as some form of personal cowardice. But masks aren't about protecting yourself -- they're about protecting the people you interact with.
Likewise, delaying school openings isn't mainly about protecting children. It's mainly about protecting the people they interact with.
The vulnerable should be protected for sure, but total shut down of the entire country is not achievable now, if it ever was. Honestly the shut down went better than I expected and it still wasn't enough. It's time to be pragmatic and smart, not dogmatic and either paralyzed with fear, or reckless with stupidity. We're now to the point that the grandkids (and probably the kids too) need to wear masks around grandma and Aunt June with her diabetes might need to stay away from family reunions for a while. And for God's sake use the masks and hand sanitizer in rest homes and hospital rooms! If Trump has a complete epiphany tomorrow I think it's too late. The genie is out of the bottle and I doubt it's going back in...
I think for some districts, delaying school openings for a month or even three months is something that might be perfectly "pragmatic and smart". I think insisting that the consequences of doing so are limited or are offset by children missing school time is the dogmatic position.
I don't doubt that some places in the US have done well enough at suppressing transmissions to open schools. Some have not. And I think alot of your framing in this thread is actually quite dogmatic, positioning yourself against a strawman of "living in fear". It's not about personal fear. It's about a very real understanding that we are, right now, at peak hospitalizations and deaths from the virus in many parts of the country, and this has all kinds of ramifications that radiate out beyond merely "the vulnerable population". Saturated hospitals are going to be worse at treating victims of automobile accidents for example.
We're not stupid. The only reason so many people refuse to practice social distancing and wear masks is because they've been told it's political. In the absence of government misinformation and with a normal administration, we would have tackled COVID at least as well as the average developed country.
There was nothing unavoidable about the soon-to-be 150,000 deaths in our country. There is nothing in our culture that prevents us from being responsible with public health. There is nothing in our brains that makes us incapable of organizing to respond to problems. The problem is not that America is inherently broken.
The problem is political. Our government does not view saving lives as a high priority.
If Trump suddenly decided to turn around and take responsibility for the issue, a second shutdown with another stimulus and universal online classes is easily doable for the largest superpower on the planet.
The reason that's not happening is not because we lack the resources or the brainpower or that the majority of Americans can't obey a law designed to save lives. The reason is because our government doesn't want to do this.
But to other points, universal basic income to 80% of your wage should have been implemented til the end of August at a minimum. Once it was realized masks significantly reduced the spread, a national campaign to encourage them should have been waged. Other countries took these steps. They are (generally) fine. Even countries that had major, major problems initially (Italy, France, Spain, UK) are now doing quite well. The Asian countries continue to be a model of how to handle the situation.
It's understandable if tragic that mistakes and horrific problems would arise initially. These could have been mitigated greatly since the Administration was WELL aware of what was coming as early as January, but they would have been given leeway regardless (and were, to a certain extent). To be where we are on July 20, seeing twice as many cases a day as we were seeing in April, is absolutely unforgivable. There is really no one besides us and Brazil who is handling it even remotely as badly.
There is a narrative at play here that this virus spread is inevitable and there is nothing to be done but let it wash over us. There are DOZENS of countries who provide obvious examples of why this simply isn't true. Human beings and nations can, for the most part, beat this with altered behavior and will. The United States is collectively too selfish to do so. I'm not shocked by that, it was always going to be one of our biggest problems. But it's time for this so-called "great" country to take a long, hard look in the mirror. We're the laughingstock of the international community.
(Spoilered for length)
Also, note that party affiliation is self-reported; the top two candidates advance regardless of party, so there's no reason to have parties control who gets to be on the ballot in their name. Some interesting choices of "party" come out of this.
Candidates for governor:
I don't know what the facts are here ... but that sure sounds like a drug dealer to me. "Elected Experience" line included just for the error.
Wait, he's made it onto general election ballots? I don't remember ever seeing that.
A lefty wacko for a change. Vampires!
Wait, does this goof even know what office he's running for? There aren't any Senate elections in WA this cycle. Also, I was unaware anyone had polled the local marine mammal population.
I think that statement stands on its own.
This one had me wondering ... just how easy is it to get on the ballot in Washington? Answer: 1% of the salary, or the equivalent in signatures. Nonrefundable. As of 2020, that's $1874 or 1874 signatures to run for governor. No wonder there are 36 candidates on the ballot.
Venus? That doesn't strike me as a good way to make his point.
There's a third "Trump Republican" in the race, but his statement isn't anything special. The only really notable bit? He's Russian.
The other statewide offices don't attract quite as many kooks, but there are still some fun bits in there.
(Lieutenant Governor) Note: Cyrus Habib is leaving office to become a priest. Nothing silly about this candidate, of course.
(Commissioner of Public Lands) There's the stupid.
(Commissioner of Public Lands) And there's the crazy. I left out the list of sources of electricity he's against. By process of elimination, it's either nuclear power or nothing.
Finally, the legislative district I'm in - which consistently votes 90% or more Democratic.
That's why I'm saying leave it up to the localities. Most of the folks' here on this thread seem to think that some decree from on high is needed. I'm just saying that there isn't a one size fits all solution for this outbreak any more. It sucks, but just like different states start and finish their schools at different times, it looks to me like having in-class schooling at all will be a state by state, or even district by district decision.
Of course, now that this is the case, Trump has to jump in and insist on his own one size fits all, everybody back to school bullshit message. What an asshole. So much for Republicans being against 'big government'. Hypocrites...
There's been a fair amount of discussion in the thread about the need to manage the risk of transmission (through masks, social distancing etc). However, I would suggest that at least as important as that is the need to monitor whether that risk has crystallized, i.e. is the disease spreading as a result of the reopening? One of the reasons for trying to drive the virus down to low levels is that this makes it clearer when a new cluster starts to develop - but you do need to actively look for that. If I had a school-aged child I'd want to know that my school board had arranged for a randomized testing program, with speedy publication of the results of that (preferably within a day).
My impression of the US from a distance may of course be wrong. However, for what it's worth that impression is:
- while testing levels are relatively high compared to other countries, there is a lack of randomized testing to track community spread (and in many states the % of positive results also shows that testing levels are still lagging behind the actual spread).
- there has been an over-concentration on boosting testing numbers, at the expense of ensuring results are provided quickly. If test results are not available for a week or more (which I understand is the situation in at least some areas), those results are nearly useless.
- many months since the need for it was clear, there has still been far too little effort put into test and trace systems.
While I understand in principle the attraction of managing risk at a local level, I suspect that there would be few, if any, local school boards able at the moment to provide the level of information I would want as a parent to assess the risk of sending a child to school.
Tests are taking between 5-7 days to come back in Florida for certain. I've known at least two people who have gotten tests in relatively low-hit areas (and one of them was a high priority case based on bieng immuno-compromised) and they STILL took 48-72 hours. So yeah, we have alot of testing compared to the amount we were doing in April when only people who were obviously sick were getting tests, but it's not really possible to put a test and trace program in place when no one is getting results for anywhere from three days to a week.
I think there's a limit to this logic of federalism though. I think two strong points have been made above by semiticgod and jjstraka. One, there is nothing preventing the US, even with the dire situation it is currently in, from doing what's right now in order to suppress transmissions to a manageable level. This might require some extreme -- but short term -- lockdown measures that might need to go beyond what the US originally did.
This ties into jj's point as well. Other countries, even those that had disastrous initial results, eventually got it together. Many of them did so with 1. far stricter lockdowns than the US, 2. generous bailouts for citizens.
But state governments don't have the resources like the federal government and its ability to borrow in order to bail out their citizens. So no, I don't think it's right to say "leave it up to the localities". You can't do two things at once here imo. You cannot get the political will at the national level to have the kind of generous economic bailouts people need in order to also institute the extreme lockdown and temporary economic closure you need. So I think even if some parts of the country are perfectly fine with suppressed transmissions, it's actually quite reasonable to ask them to make the economic sacrifice and join in on a second nationwide lockdown.
Because it's very possible that we are going to see the most deaths we've ever seen in the coming weeks in the US. It's time to break out of so-called "common sense" ideas and actually look at countries which had intense initial outbreaks and now have suppressed virus transmissions have done.
The problem with that is that our federal government is NOT going to do the right thing unless there's a coup or Trump has a stroke. Sorry, he's just not capable of admitting he was wrong.
Sagaar Enjeti, who I would describe as the right-wing populist co-host of The Hill's Rising, has now been saying for at least two weeks that the economic response has guaranteed Trump will lose because he's completely turned over that operation to the supply-side cultists like Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore, and Art Laffer. Frankly, it's likely confirming that the person with the actual political instincts in 2016 despite his other horrible qualities was Steve Bannon, not Trump. If he'd simply gone along with a UBI and supported the lockdowns, he'd be cruising right now:
Agreed, it's become quite clear that Trump has very little political insight of his own and anything he said or did that was positive was the work of one of his many past advisors. When he is in doubt he defaults his decision making to the worst ideological wing of the GOP, the one that hates nothing more than people in need getting help from society.
I'm voting straight ticket Democrat, myself. Just for this election cycle. The GOP needs to be entirely dismantled before it can be repurposed as something better.
I've pretty much decided on doing the same. The Republicans are totally unworthy of my vote at this time in history and a protest vote for the Democrats might get my message across. It's time for a warning shot across the GOP's bow. Correct course or become irrelevant...
It's getting to the point where i've seriously considered leaving the country soon. I have the money and the means to do it, but I never wanted to consider it an option. However, i've had just about enough of watching the ability of good, ordinary people to express themselves freely drain away in favor of a merciless progressive overlord class that delights in putting fear into people by ruining the lives of public figures and ordinary people alike in order to enforce self-censorship, even about the most trivial things. If i'm going to live under a system of totalitarian thought, I would rather it be literally any other one than this one.
The GOP's response to all this is the worst, because they know it's going on and they know it's an issue for their voters, but all they do is make false promises to get their base to vote for another round of tax cuts and entitlement cutting. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are particularly bad about this. They are nothing but slaves to their donors and nothing about who they are represents me.
Protect my right to exist or I have no use for you.