You do know, when it comes to the issue

[SpeareChucker]

that you are being manipulated. You're pretty damned smart.
This is true for more than one issue, so this is just a generic observation.

Numbers, by themselves, can look very scary or persuasive.
50,000 is a lot. $50,000 is why a lot of us drive used cars.
It's a big scary number when contrasted with annual income.
On that, most of us who post here can agree, even the ones
who smugly insist that 50K is a pittance compared to their worth...



50,000 Happy Meals a month, yeah, that sounds pretty damned unhealthy,
but when you think about it, how many children are eating a happy meal every day?
I mean, honestly, do you have any idea has to how many children there are
and how many adults order Happy Meals because they are frugal (cheap)?
The number isn't really a valid metric and no reason to hate on McDonalds.
It's not like they're selling arsenic fries with bleach shakes...



50,000 people have died in the US from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
That's a big number, that's a lot of deaths, that is something to be concerned about.
Anyone who is not is either stupid or a die-hard Trump supporter denying reality.
Yes, 50K is a big number no matter if it is dollars, burgers or deaths.

I have to cede that point.

However, there is a reason that you are only being given a number.
First off, and most obvious, it is guaranteed to grow on a daily basis.
Even the stock market does not go up on a daily basis for the purpose of investing,
as many of us know, and while Trump is president,
number losses are presented with breathless consternation:
The financial sky is falling! We dropped 500 points today!
When looked at as a percentage, that 500 is not very scary,
it's going to vary from day-to-day, some days up and some days down,
but we really don't track aggregate losses, we track the trend over time
and that trend is historically an upward trend, it's why mutual funds are popular.

Now, that brings me around to the point that 50,000 deaths is a tragic number,
if it happened on one day. It is a cumulative number that is never presented
either as a percentage of total population, or as a daily up or down number
as is the stock market and the two numbers are somewhat converse.
We get a report on the market of daily gains, losses and what the percentage
is. If you look past just the number presented, we see a continual aggregate gain.
With the "Covid" the only thing that is reported is an aggregate total of deaths,
not the daily up and down in the numbers nor the trend which is pretty much
the same, or decreasing, but it is in the reporting of the number, that the emphasis is made.

This is done to manipulate an uneducated population that is
enthralled with technology and how much smarter we are for it.
I would like to remind you that in that hubris, you share a lot
of the thinking of people back in the 1880s who thought that they
were on the cusp of knowing pretty much everything there was to be known...

 

[bellisarius]

The "Dangling Digit Delusion."

The death rate for the Wuhan Flu in the US, so far, is 24 per 100K population. (This includes the greater NYC area which seems to be an outlier. Without the greater NYC area the death rate is 12 per 100K population.) The average annual death rate in the US NOT counting the Wuhan Flu is 864 per 100K population.

So so far the Wuhan Flu has increased the US death rate by 2.7% (1.3% if you normalize the greater NYC numbers).

But the press and the politicians can't scare you with those numbers.

 

[SpeareChucker]

My point exactly.
If Secretary Clinton had performed at a level even approaching competency,
she would be the President now and one of two things are apparent to all of her voters,
the first being that this virus would never had emerged and if it had then she would have ensured
that it did not reach this shores, and even if it gained a beachhead, she would have prevented its spread...

#TrumpVirus​

 

[bellisarius]

That does seem to be the morphological breakdown.

 

[SpeareChucker]

Let's face it,
if you were a virus
would you roll up to her back door
or would you avoid her abode at all costs?

 

[Adre]

So what you’re saying is that the Trump Administration and the President himself have acted swiftly, decisively and correctly since the virus was announced in January. They have not contributed to a single death and as Trump has emphatically stated he has no responsibility whatsoever for anything related to COVID-19.

And not to be picky but the death toll is 50% higher than you stated. And climbing fast.

 

[bellisarius]

So what you’re saying is that the Trump Administration and the President himself have acted swiftly, decisively and correctly since the virus was announced in January. They have not contributed to a single death and as Trump has emphatically stated he has no responsibility whatsoever for anything related to COVID-19.

And not to be picky but the death toll is 50% higher than you stated. And climbing fast.

Why don't you tell us sparky. Just what powers does the president have to deal with a virus in a Federal Republic from of government?

None you fucking moron.

 

[SpeareChucker]

*chuckle*


The "actual number" is slightly larger!
I wonder if our Golden Boy can fill us in on the percentage change that makes?


I do doubt it.
But, it does allow him to ignore the point being made...

 

[SpeareChucker]

EARHARDT: "Are we safe to fly? Many of us are going on trips. We are all going to the Super Bowl. Is that safe?"
FAUCI: "Yes, of course. And I’m glad you asked me that question. Right now the risk to Americans is really low. We are keeping an eye on this and if that changes we'll be very transparent about making the American people know. But you should not be afraid at all of getting on a plane and going to the Super Bowl. Remember, there are five travel-related cases. This is a different story. If you were telling me would I like to go to China or Wuhan or whatever I would say be careful about that. But if you want to fly to the Super Bowl, have fun. It’s not a risk."

January 30, 2020

https://grabien.com/story.php?id=270873

But, Trump's the idiot...

 

[Adre]

Why don't you tell us sparky. Just what powers does the president have to deal with a virus in a Federal Republic from of government?

None you fucking moron.

Nice try, good deflection. The President himself claimed “total authority.” Of course he’s an idiot. But he has enormous powers in a declared national emergency. Using those powers another President could have had tens of millions already tested and contact tracing would be well underway. All he did was falsely claim that anyone who wanted a test could get one, which was an outright lie. Another President would not have utterly wasted six or eight weeks holding silly ego driven afternoon rallies while doing almost nothing substantive related to combating the disease. It was March before he even admitted this thing was a problem, ffs.

 

[quietlylooking]

Why don't you tell us sparky. Just what powers does the president have to deal with a virus in a Federal Republic from of government?

None you fucking moron.

One thing I'd like to see him do is to try to bring the country together again in this difficult time.

 

[Adre]

One thing I'd like to see him do is to try to bring the country together again in this difficult time.

That is not his re-election strategy.

 

[SpeareChucker]

One thing I'd like to see him do is to try to bring the country together again in this difficult time.

You can lead a horse to water...

 

[bellisarius]

One thing I'd like to see him do is to try to bring the country together again in this difficult time.

How? Everything he says is derided by the press and the democrats.

The biggest problem as I see it is that an overwhelming number of our citizens don't have the slightest clue as to how our form of government works and who is in charge of what.

In a situation like this the Federal government can make suggestions, can provide support, but it CANNOT issue orders. The decisions as to what to do and how and even whether to ask for aid or not fall to the individual governors.

So here we have a situation where those very governors are attempting to hold the Federal government accountable for the decisions that THEY made and the press is right there with them.

[sarcasm]My goodness, just look at how many "lives were saved" by the timely and decisive actions taken by the governors of New York and New Jersey?[/sarcasm]

This is a really bad flu type that has no vaccine and is going to run its course. It kills all of the usual suspects that flu's normally do. At some point herd immunity will kick in and depending on which "expert" you care to quote that will be after 60% to 90% of the population have been exposed and developed immunity. There are some out there that postulate that the faster this spreads through the communities the faster we'll get to the herd immunity. Conversely there's another camp that wants to slow the spread down so as not to overwhelm the Health Care system. Both camps have valid points.

In the end not a single life is going to be "saved." Which brings up the discussion as to how many lives are we going to destroy in an attempt to delay the inevitable? And that discussion is the crux of the matter. When you have the press and certain politicians putting forth the notion that they are "saving lives" and that any attempt to return to normalcy is "murder", where is the common ground to "bring the nation together?" The dialog has become so emotionally charged that it's borderline impossible to find that common ground.

 

[Adre]

Someone needs to bone up on Presidential powers during the period of declared national emergency. Even though he believes himself to be an absolute expert on government.

 

[RobDownSouth]

The beans-n-ammo hoarders are in full hand-wringing mode today. This apocalypse has NOT turned out the way they envisioned, so it's time to #ReopenCrackerBarrel

 

[HisArpy]

You can lead a horse to water...

I think the most obvious part of it is that a certain segment of our society doesn't want to see that they're being manipulated and lied to.

It's much easier to turn a blind eye to how unhealthy some foods are when they taste so good, even as they slowly kill you.

 

[bellisarius]

Someone needs to bone up on Presidential powers during the period of declared national emergency. Even though he believes himself to be an absolute expert on government.

Yes, someone ^^^^^^ most certainly does.

 

[DeluxAuto]

How? Everything he says is derided by the press and the democrats.

You, sir, are full of shit. Even when the Republicans controlled everything, they could get almost nothing done. Even when there is a Republican occupying 1600th Penn. Ave., Republicans still incessantly whine and complain that somehow the Dems are wholly responsible for the country's woes. The GOP needs to grow the fuck up if they want to lead this once proud nation.

 

[SpeareChucker]

As an aside, but still topical:

Where are the protests occurring?
Are they not in the Blue States where governors are
"doing the right thing" that might save that proverbial "one life,"
where they are putting lives before economy and demanding more Federal support?

Now, I ask myself, how does this hurt Trump in the upcoming elections...




(I mean, don't the dead traditionally vote Democrat?)

 

[HisArpy]

You, sir, are full of shit. Even when the Republicans controlled everything, they could get almost nothing done. Even when there is a Republican occupying 1600th Penn. Ave., Republicans still incessantly whine and complain that somehow the Dems are wholly responsible for the country's woes. The GOP needs to grow the fuck up if they want to lead this once proud nation.

Someone needs to learn to read.

He asked how "WHEN THE PRESS" misconstrues everything he says and does.

He never mentioned the legislature.

 

[RobDownSouth]

You, sir, are full of shit. Even when the Republicans controlled everything, they could get almost nothing done. Even when there is a Republican occupying 1600th Penn. Ave., Republicans still incessantly whine and complain that somehow the Dems are wholly responsible for the country's woes. The GOP needs to grow the fuck up if they want to lead this once proud nation.

Trump claims to have all this authority, yet eschews all the responsibility associated with this authority.

There is a word for this: childish.

 

[HisArpy]

As an aside, but still topical:

Where are the protests occurring?
Are they not in the Blue States where governors are
"doing the right thing" that might save that proverbial "one life,"
where they are putting lives before economy and demanding more Federal support?

Now, I ask myself, how does this hurt Trump in the upcoming elections...




(I mean, don't the dead traditionally vote Democrat?)

No no no. Biden is going to beat Trump because it's all Trump's fault that their governor had to go full Stalin.

 

[DeluxAuto]

Someone needs to learn to read.

He asked how "WHEN THE PRESS" misconstrues everything he says and does.

He never mentioned the legislature.

So what?

The cheerleading section is under the bleachers, Derpy. Also, no one was talking to you.

 

[HisArpy]

Trump claims to have all this authority, yet eschews all the responsibility associated with this authority.

There is a word for this: childish.

Another mixed message because the speaker of it cannot understand that total authority to do something isn't the same as being responsible when someone else does something.