COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

[Jovan Dragisic]

I can assure you, Jovan, that I am the only one on this forum who caught the reference (e.g., see above). I'll take the farce over the tragedy, for what its worth...

We already did the tragedy bit in 1939. It would have been a double tragedy without the virus in a few years, with the hyperinflation all over the West and China and Russia left holding all the remaining cash. Now everybody is broke at the same point, so at least there's nothing to wage a world war over.

OTOH... Dude, there's actual libertarians published on mises.org sending open letters to the UK government demanding a GOVERNMENT MANDATED RETURN TO THE GOLD STANDARD, you got the whole pro-business-globalist-all-we-need-is-tax-breaks crowd begging for higher handouts and export manipulation schemes, social democrats demanding cuts in taxes while Christian democrats are pumping live cash to individuals...

[Mark Rippetoe]

Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?

It is in their interest to make sure it is as deadly as they say it is. If it's not, they have too much explaining to do.

And what about suicides? Will those be correctly attributed?

[Gerald Boggs]

The Richmond VA police are also asking people to inform on their neighbors.
Richmond Police: Call if you see groups of people or businesses not complying with social distancing

[wiigelec]

Just don't get too distracted and forget about this little piece of the puzzle:

Text - H.R.5717 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

[Barry Charles]

It is in their interest to make sure it is as deadly as they say it is. If it's not, they have too much explaining to do.

And what about suicides? Will those be correctly attributed?

Whatever the death toll is, it will be deemed to be lower because of the actions taken. This is a very convenient conjures trick. It’s exactly the same as a school district declaring a snow day. Even if it doesn’t snow, less people died that day is almost a certainty.

Conversely, what these actions did to the economy will be deemed to be part of the natural cycles. That we were due for a major downturn independent of the virus.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Whatever the death toll is, it will be deemed to be lower because of the actions taken. This is a very convenient conjures trick. It’s exactly the same as a school district declaring a snow day. Even if it doesn’t snow, less people died that day is almost a certainty.

Conversely, what these actions did to the economy will be deemed to be part of the natural cycles. That we were due for a major downturn independent of the virus.

Thus, The Swamp abides.

[Yngvi]

And the rest are voicing strong opinions on the matter all over BB boards, podcasts and online collaboration websites.

Quite right. It may be time for action. Is it still too early for civil disobedience and organizing protests?

Do we have historical data on peak daily influena related deaths in any of these regions?

This one has good info: File:Causes of death — standardised death rate, EU-28, 2016 (per 100 000 inhabitants) HLTH19.png - Statistics Explained

How come none of you are singing Sweden's praises right now? Are you all salty now that the term "socialist paradise" is quite literal and can no longer be bandied about as a pejorative?

Also, I snapped a photo of a woman in her 70s in a wheelchair at the MVD in Phoenix today. She wasn't wearing any PPE at all and had her wheelchair pressed right up against the counter, way past the "social distancing" red line. This woman almost single handedly restored my faith in humanity.

Sweden is doing the right thing. Maybe it is because they learned their lessons after experimenting with socialism a few decades ago.

A document from the Italian Health Ministry, tracing mortality for the 65+ age brackets, up to and including Week 11 (that's March 8th to 14th)

http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/cal...si_2020w11.pdf

Data for all three brackets are significantly above expectations (defined as > 1.96SD, if I understand correctly). Data is collected from 19 cities (from the look of it, the 19 biggest cities in Italy).

IPB

If this is more current than the EU mortality monitor, it is useful. It shows the same thing; It shows that the current spike is still lower than a normal flu season.

Title of an article in yesterday's the New York Times
"More Americans Should Probably Wear Masks for Protection"

Didn't you hear? The "masks will have no effect" narrative was a noble lie our experts agreed upon, because masks were in short supply.

This is damned good information, but I'm afraid it's too late for that. The issue now is not the virus. It is the baser totalitarian instincts of our Betters In Charge, and what we will do about it. At this point, they are pushing us, and measuring the distance we back up.

UK Police Force Creates Tool That Lets People Snitch on Others For Not “Social Distancing” – Summit News

"This Is Unprecedented" - South Africa Invokes Military-Controlled Lockdown As Infections Soar | Zero Hedge

Everything is not going to be okay. The Pandemic. The Revolution. Doesn't matter the title. The local authorities here are threatening to arrest violators of their little martial law ordinance. How will they be regarded on the other side of this? I can't think of a better way to piss a lot of people off than to do something like this. And this "rat your buddy out" thing in the UK was devised by people too young to remember East Germany. It tears a society apart.

China already has a large scale version of this called the "social credit score". Ratting out someone who is "unpatriotic" will increase your social credit score while lowering theirs.

If China is already in a 1984 society, Britain and the US are 1984 Lite. Liberty is not a single test. It has to be constantly reinforced every day, and I don't really see us doing much of it.

These two posts deserve repeating.

We already did the tragedy bit in 1939. It would have been a double tragedy without the virus in a few years, with the hyperinflation all over the West and China and Russia left holding all the remaining cash. Now everybody is broke at the same point, so at least there's nothing to wage a world war over.

OTOH... Dude, there's actual libertarians published on mises.org sending open letters to the UK government demanding a GOVERNMENT MANDATED RETURN TO THE GOLD STANDARD, you got the whole pro-business-globalist-all-we-need-is-tax-breaks crowd begging for higher handouts and export manipulation schemes, social democrats demanding cuts in taxes while Christian democrats are pumping live cash to individuals...

I would demand a return to the gold standard if I thought anyone might listen. Gold is more difficult to manipulate; You can't hide the inflation caused by printing money. People forget that we still had the gold standard as recently as 1971.

Also, I am curious now. What was the farcical reference?

Just don't get too distracted and forget about this little piece of the puzzle:

Text - H.R.5717 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Virginia is the testing ground. We will see if they get away with it on the state level.

[David Kirkham]

It is in their interest to make sure it is as deadly as they say it is. If it's not, they have too much explaining to do.

And what about suicides? Will those be correctly attributed?

Rip,

Below I have pasted a family text (yesterday). This hysteria is going to destroy the economy and undoubtedly lives--literally.

Text from my sibling quoting a doctor (in Iowa) who had texted her the following:

"Update (from said doctor):

We are keeping the dead in the basement hallways in body bags because the freezers are full and the trucks to take them only come once a week. Mind you some did not die from corona virus bit others sadly did. The supply trucks and garbage trucks, are not coming as frequently, due to demand, fear, lack of employees, etc"

My reply:

"[Siblings]. According to the latest information I can find, as of 27 March (today), there have been a grand total of 3 deaths attributed to Covid-19 in Iowa. The first death was on Wednesday, 2 days ago. There are 235 cases state-wide. Of course these numbers are not likely to be absolutely accurate, but certainly within a factor of say 10 or so.

Something isn't making much sense here. Is [Doctor's] hospital hiding the body count from the media and the CDC?

Even as they are surely overloaded I'm confident they are capable of counting Covid-19 bodies and accurately reporting them (unlike the Italians apparently have been able to do). This virus appears to be nasty. I'm also gravely worried people are spreading fantastically false rumors faster than Covid-19 ever dreamed of spreading. Certainly this is a nasty disease; I don't deny that.

Even so, the threat to our greater population because of this self-inflicted destruction to our economy is a catastrophe our country has never faced. We have dug a hole that we will fill with more victims than Covid-19 appears to be doing at this moment. 2, only 2, people have died in Utah to date.

Many people who live paycheck to paycheck lives are now utterly devastated--without work. Jobless. I'm saying this as a businessman who has very little debt. I've paid almost everything off. I have reasonable cash reserves. I have not let anyone go. I can weather this storm for a long time. Yet, consider this, if I'm scared beyond belief, how must those who are faced with the loss of their job or their business feel at this time when they go home and face their spouse and children? I can't imagine.

I have seen more economic destruction in my life than I care to ever remember. Spreading absolutely insane rumors only adds fuel to the fires of destruction and does nothing to mitigate the enormous damages that have been wrought upon the weakest of our society. I absolutely believe [Doctor] to be telling the truth as well. He has no reason to not tell the truth. The statistics indicate, however, he very well was not told the truth or someone in his hospital is seriously mistaken who he talked to.

The CDC says three people have died of Covid-19 in the entire state of Iowa to date. I'm quite certain there are more hospitals in Iowa than just the one [Doctor] works in. I'm also quite certain, with the absolute terror that is going on, the CDC is demanding numbers of the Covid-19 death count from all hospitals. 2 deaths should not overwhelm [Doctor's] hospital or anyone else's, let alone make them stack up bodies.

However, yelling "FIRE" in a healthy theater will certainly cause unintended consequences of the most serious kind. The only way to effectively combat a mortal threat like this is to critically analyze the numbers. Otherwise--well--we've seen what happens."

On a final, very sad, note:

My wife just got a phone call from her mother, her voice shaking. My wife's mother (80) is taking care of her father (86), who has advanced dementia. My mother-in-law is so scared she has asked the family to keep away for some time now. I imagine she had reached her breaking point when she called and begged my wife for help.

My wife (a lifter too) just called me to let me know she was going in. I'm proud of that woman.

What god-awful demon has been loosed upon our world where the elderly and infirm are now reduced to begging their own children for help?

[Yngvi]

This one is very satisfying. Hubei Residents Riot After Quarantine Lifted; Police Beaten With Their Own Shield, Cop Cars Overturned | Zero Hedge

Maybe there is hope for China.

[Jovan Dragisic]

Also, I am curious now. What was the farcical reference?

There's a famous quote by Marx in an essay that says history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.