I think "Wuhan virus" is a fine thing to call it.

They can tell there's something off with the taste of the cake because this was baked with love.

Had this been done in the labs of a food-processing company, people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, food chemists are very good at hiding unpleasant smells and flavors.

"The framing will be simple: Trump signed a bipartisan criminal-legal reform bill, the First Step Act, and has been generous with his pardon powers toward unjustly imprisoned black people, like Alice Marie Johnson.... ...Trump’s status as a self-styled reformer is laughable, [but] Biden’s record is grotesque.

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/03/trump-is-going-to-try-dampening-black.html

Guys, no more gross stuff. You're not in sixth grade. Here comes a wave of disease to prove it.

Wes Yang—

23 minutes ago

We should all want the president to wake up transformed — competent and able to take effectual action against the pandemic — because the cost of his failure will be measured in human lives at a grand scale. But we all know there is no chance of that.

Depending on the scale of the injury, he may yet be persuaded to hand off executive authority to some competent entity or individual, perhaps in the US military, and grant them emergency powers beyond reach of politics to do what is necessary.

We have more than a dozen nominal ongoing declared “emergencies” — this is an actual one, requiring the more or less instantaneous conjuring up of state capacity from an entity largely sapped of it and captured by rent seeking private interests.
Tens or hundreds of thousands of people in the United States are about to die horribly because of the blithe failure of their federal government to defend its citizens.

In these weeks, it will be difficult to for enthusiasts of the Orange Game Show Host to say "But Hillary!" with the tone of childish butthurt sufficient to earn forgiveness.

Wes Yang—

23 minutes ago

We should all want the president to wake up transformed — competent and able to take effectual action against the pandemic — because the cost of his failure will be measured in human lives at a grand scale. But we all know there is no chance of that.

Depending on the scale of the injury, he may yet be persuaded to hand off executive authority to some competent entity or individual, perhaps in the US military, and grant them emergency powers beyond reach of politics to do what is necessary.

We have more than a dozen nominal ongoing declared “emergencies” — this is an actual one, requiring the more or less instantaneous conjuring up of state capacity from an entity largely sapped of it and captured by rent seeking private interests.

In these weeks, it will be difficult to for enthusiasts of the Orange Game Show Host to say "But Hillary!" with the tone of childish butthurt sufficient to earn forgiveness.

That was worth a repost to correct the formatting.

Clever.

Extortion is cheaper than lobbying

https://mobile.twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1236808175849836545

"But Hillary!"

What would Hillary have done that might be effective and, umm, Constitutional?

grant them emergency powers beyond reach of politics to do what is necessary

There's a word for that: dictatorship. Why do these people keep wanting to hand unfettered power to Trump?

Emphasis mine.

In Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s case, that’s a Lifetime Censorship Award from FIRE. I mean that literally (not Joe Biden literally, literally literally) – FIRE traveled to RPI and handed a trophy to them, a process that somehow necessitated the presence of a dozen campus police, because what doesn’t these days?

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/360824/

Still proud of yourself... That's ducky! Keep a stiff upper chin! Last projection I heard was 500,000-ish will die here, so that's how the Game Show Host will be remembered. And your tombstone, etched this year or 2060, will read "But Hillary!"

Carry on! Walk tall!

> Why do these people keep
> wanting to hand unfettered
> power to Trump?

You didn't read it. Yang suggests that others will be given the power, because Orangeboy's busy watching Fox & Friends.

Yang linked this Trump tweet, perhaps the fifth I've ever read. From this morning, March 9, 2020-

@realDonaldTrump

So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
7:47 AM - 9 Mar 2020

You didn't read it. Yang suggests that others will be given the power, because Orangeboy's busy watching Fox & Friends.

I did. He's still wrong. Even delegated, that power still belongs to the Office of the President. And what's to stop Trump from giving that power to his insiders and buddies? witness the caterwauling over Pence being put in charge of this effort.

I guess unfettered power is best left in the hands of nameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats who will use it for *checks notes* their notion of what's best for the country?

> that power still belongs to
> the Office of the President.

Does he have any responsibilities to go with it?

How much would you wager on his comprehension of the word "exponential"?

I didn't know that cheerleading was in the job description of journalist. Of course, I'm an old dinosaur, so things may have changed.

https://twitter.com/AlxThomp/status/1236331136319619074

You keep the faith Crid, no matter how unhinged.

Golly, you think the Orange 8th-Grader has everything under control?

The faith —the belief in things nowhere in evidence— is all yours.

...and grant them emergency powers beyond reach of politics to do what is necessary.

No. Never. Do not hand unlimited emergency powers to any president or governmental agency, Trump or anyone. This way lies authoritarian government. Have we learned nothing from history?

Yang suggests that others will be given the power, because Orangeboy's busy watching Fox & Friends.

Which others? Who will choose them? By what criteria will they be selected? And those others will voluntarily give up their emergency powers when the emergency has passed? Where will we find these selfless saints who only have the country's best interests at heart?

Yang's summary dismissal of Trump using those powers is blithe and born of a simplistic disdain for Donald Trump. Any president, given unlimited "emergency" powers will use (and likely abuse) them.

From DC's conservative newspaper:

Coronavirus is exposing Trump's unsuitability to handle a crisis

by Philip Klein | March 08, 2020 11:51 AM

President Trump’s bombastic style has served him well through many stages of his political career, but as the coronavirus spreads rapidly throughout the United States, it is exposing how deeply unsuited he is to deal with a genuine crisis that he can’t bluff his way through.

Trump Says the COVID-19 Death Rate Will Be 'A Fraction of 1 Percent.' Is He Right?

It's too early to tell, but there are reasons for (relative) optimism.

Ronald Bailey | 3.6.2020 2:55 PM

President Donald Trump opined this week that the U.S. death rate from COVID-19 would turn out to be "a fraction of 1 percent." At least one authority—University of Pennsylvania vaccine expert Paul A. Offit—agrees. "I think he's right," he told FactCheck.org, adding that there has been a "wild overreaction" to the disease largely because it is new. "We're more the victim of fear than the virus," he said.

Disclosure: As I report this, I am self-isolated with a bad cold which could well be caused by one of the four human coronavirus strains that are thought to be responsible for about 15 percent of adult common colds.

> Any president, given unlimited
> "emergency" powers will use (and
> likely abuse) them.

Yang's speculation is his own. But do you see Trump admirably using his authority and resources to defend Americans during this crisis?

This is probably the closest thing to hygiene these feminists ever had been exposed to

https://mobile.twitter.com/BubetteS/status/1237052385375051777

I spotted yet another article today that referred to Trump's slashing, two years ago, funds for the protection of the public's health. Plus, from another source:

"In 2018, the Trump Administration cut 80 percent of CDC funding used to fight global pandemics. The funding support, which went to training local health professionals and bolstering emergency response across 49 countries, was reduced to just 10 nations. China wasn’t included in the revised list."

How can any supporter of his justify that, now?

R.I.P. playwright Mart Crowley, 84.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Playwright-Mart-Crowley-Best-Known-For-THE-BOYS-IN-THE-BAND-Has-Died-at-84-20200308

When I saw the movie version of "The Boys in the Band" (as an adult, in 1992) one of my main reactions was: "Since when does any group of adults - or even teens - play a telephone game as immature as THAT?"

OK, so I was still naive, even as an adult.

> How can any supporter of
> his justify that, now?

Presumably none could, but inspect such accusations carefully before assuming they're true.

Besides, games of 'gotcha' will always favor the far Left. "Funds for the protection of public health" could describe any number of reprehensible boondoggles. Specifically—

"In 2018, the Trump Administration cut 80 percent of CDC funding used to fight global pandemics. The funding support, which went to training local health professionals and bolstering emergency response across 49 countries, was reduced to just 10 nations. China wasn’t included in the revised list."

But do you see Trump admirably using his authority and resources to defend Americans during this crisis? ~ Crid at March 9, 2020 2:22 PM

I don't know what Trump or anyone else would use those powers for. I do know no president should have that much power. The temptation is too great.

My default setting is not "Orangeman Bad." Nor is it to worship a president, any president, as a national savior.

It's possible that Trump's laissez faire attitude toward this outbreak is warranted; that with all the Purell, hand washing, and food handling standards this country has, and lacking the the open-air markets and outdoor toilet habits of the Third World, it's possible that we're simply not as vulnerable to it - that the panic is overblown by a media anxious to capture viewer eyeballs with sensational stories of the imminent onset of the zombie apocalypse.

It's also possible that immediate and drastic action is called for. The 1918 flu epidemic spread because the government did not take any action to let people know what to do, or even tell them that there was an outbreak. Our government, on the other hand, is telling people to wash their hands and avoid crowds, the news media are following the epidemic numbers like gambling addict weighing odds at the race track, and people have cleaned stores out of toilet paper, MREs, and disinfectant. And .40 caliber ammunition sales are up 435%, according to report on the radio this morning.

Yep. Let's imagine Scenario 2, rephrasing: Strong encouragement must be affirmed for social distancing, and for America's supremely responsive entrepreneurial impulses, as well as for proficient regulatory engagement.

Still— How would you rate him? More to the point, how would the fanboys rate him?

An outcome is approaching.... Is there any number of American dead that would interrupt their teenage devotion to his splendor? Let's guess:

☐ 0 - 50,000

☐ 50,000 - 100,000

☐ 100,000 - 200,000

☐ 200,000 - 300,000

☐ 300,000 - 400,000

☐ ~ 500,000

> Nor is it to worship a president,
> any president, as a national
> savior.

Word.

But as Jackson put it in an action film a few years ago:

I have had it with these motherfucking black swans in this motherfucking century!

You missed a key point on this Covid stuff, Conan. Deal with the effin sewage!

Yes this Corona is transmitted through the air, so avoid crowds. But it is far better transmitted through sewer contamination. Hence a the fast transmission in some of the more 3rd worldish areas. (Which does call into question just what the heck is going on in Italy.) Most of the US take human waste disposal seriously. Unfortunately for Crid he lives in one of the areas that doesn't.

Either way, none of that is the president's responsibility. Electing Tom Steyer was never going to fix the water supply in Flint. Trump isn't going to fix the public pooping issues in California. What the president is responsible for that does have an effect here is immigration. Once again the west coast opposes federal control of immigration. They want to take that authority on themselves. Well, when you refuse to enforce immigration laws don't be surprised when you can't keep infectious people out.

Handing out dictatorial powers as Crid advances through Yang is no solution. Complete agreement there Conan. And well put.

Crid, do I think Trump has everything in his control? Of course not. I'm not mental like you. I'm not expecting a magic geriatric to come flying in and save me. As a more grounded person I think Trump has already done everything he reasonably can do (and did so years ago before Corona was even a concern). I recognize there are limits to the power of the presidency. At the end of the day the only person you can rely on is yourself.

Speaking of 1918...

I heard recently that hand-washing was NOT stressed as a defense against the flu pandemic, back then! How could that be, when pretty much all the DOCTORS already knew how important that was, by the 1890s?

However, this seems to contradict that statement:

https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/fluresponse.html

Does anyone know why the contradiction even exists?

Does anyone know why the contradiction even exists? ~ lenona at March 9, 2020 5:35 PM

Once the pandemic could no longer be denied or kept secret by the politicians, public health experts took over and implemented effective measures.

Politicians had tried to deny the Spanish Flu out of existence. For example, Philadelphia refused to cancel a parade for returning WWI veterans, many of whom were bringing the flu back to the US with them. Almost 12,000 people in Philadelphia would eventually die from the flu.

Because the US and allied nations kept a tight lid on information about the flu (fear of giving the Central Powers hope of winning the war), it was named "The Spanish Flu." Spain was the first nation to make information about it public, so most people thought it originated there. It actually jumped to humans in Kansas and American soldiers took it with them to crowded training camps and eventually to war-torn Europe.

The later measures were effective because modern medicine and Germ Theory had finally been accepted by the medical establishment. Medical schools had begun relying on the scientific method and not the miasma school of thought.

This is a very well-researched book on the subject, leona. Bit slow toward the end, but well worth the read if you want to know more.

> Either way, none of that is
> the president's responsibility.

"Really, we'd have to say he's errorless in all respects... A personage of featureless good character, permitting only the best outcomes from each and every behavior he exhibits, from all phenomena he touches…

"Sure, it sounds a little crazy at first, but eventually you have to acknowledge that this game show host is not only the finest president in American history, he's the first truly PERFECT man to ever live!

"So no discussion of faults can be tolerated without trite dismissal."

— Ben, Others

> as Crid advances through Yang

Did you go to high school?

> and lacking the the open-air markets
> and outdoor toilet habits of the
> Third World, it's possible that
> we're simply not as vulnerable

Well, y'know, Italy. ALL of it.

Consider this:

"[D]on’t make the mistake to think that what is happening is happening in a 3rd world country."

Joke of the (last) week.

… About which, more.

Once again showing how mature you are Crid. As someone you admire greatly once said "You're not in sixth grade" Crid. It is time to grow up.

Maybe even read a copy of the constitution some day? Find out just what each part of our government does? It would help you to stop sounding like a crazy person.

Though thanks for detailing what the hell is happening in Italy. Sounds like they are taking advice from the US in the Spanish Flu era.

> read a copy of the constitution

So we can put you down as…

☒ 100,000 - 200,000

Meanwhile, try not to "advance" too many things.

Well, y'know, Italy. ALL of it.

Consider this:

"[D]on’t make the mistake to think that what is happening is happening in a 3rd world country."
Crid at March 9, 2020 6:19 PM

Having lived in Europe I can tell you that medically in spite of all their industrial base, italy and the rest of the EU is most decidedly a third world (or being generous) a low second world country.

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3820035/posts

Most people in Europe cannot even comprehend how much better and quicker care is in a US hospital.

Socialized medicine never allows for excess capacity. When they need it, they don't have it.

Americans are the world's most discerning economic animals: We're better than anyone on the planet at price discovery, and yes, that includes the Israelis.

This is what makes our current health-care schemes so repellent... We don't even know what we're paying for care, as costs are sliced and dispersed from so many angles by so many players & middlemen.

Nonetheless, you're correct, our care is the envy of the planet. But you'll have noticed that doctors and patients aren't pleased when they look ahead.

Our consumer approach to these things has so far proven rewarding enough to our garden-variety geniuses that they aspire to be doctors and specialists, rewarding us all. But it's easy to imagine that as the regulatory and administrative technocracies roar onward into history, this blessing won't continue.

But at the moment, I can't imagine where I'd then prefer to go for care.

Our consumer approach to these things has so far proven rewarding enough to our garden-variety geniuses that they aspire to be doctors and specialists, rewarding us all. But it's easy to imagine that as the regulatory and administrative technocracies roar onward into history, this blessing won't continue.

But at the moment, I can't imagine where I'd then prefer to go for care.

Crid at March 10, 2020 5:00 AM

As I think I mentioned before on this board, my husband had a stent put in his heart and then spent five days in a small regional Japanese hospital.
The price was quite reasonable. The doctor was competent and caring. But the big caveat. This was not a difficult procedure. God only knows what the outcome would be if he had needed a bypass.
I could see that hospital being quickly overwhelmed by even a ten percent infection rate with Covid19.
There are a lot of people over 65 in Japan. Many of them are smokers, and heavy drinkers. The mortality will easily be double or even triple what we see in the US.

There is national health insurance but it is not a socialist system. As we saw in the great Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami, the infrastructure is just not there to deal with even a small scale disaster.

I remember hearing that Kobe, with its infamous photo of a side-fallen elevated train, slammed Japanese self-esteem as has nothing in America since Viet Nam... And IIRC, they were nearly a decade into a recession at that point.