The conditions were different in almost every way. True, we have another egomaniacal, racist, populist President who pretends to understand economics and business. Hopefully history will remember Trump more accurately than Lincoln. But very little else is similar in these scenarios. Perhaps most importantly, we have the internet now, so the very need for a central government in our daily lives is substantially decrea…
In my area (Vancouver Island, just north of this "pact") we are seeing something very odd. People are going out. Families are having BBQs in local parks. Restaurants aren't letting people dine in, but the grocery stores are operating essentially normally. I'm near the water and am seeing kayaks and boats out like any normal weekend. Vacation properties are in use. RV parks have customers. I see groups of old people c…
Because people realize that kayaking isn’t a risk so why would they avoid it? This is why no restrictions should be imposed that don’t have a very clear and obvious effect. If that means they must rely on people’s ability to do the right thing (e.g not take the bus to go kayaking, not go places where it’s crowded) then so be it. It’s better to have a sustainable and accepted lockdown that is 95% water tight, than an unsustainable and less accepted lockdown.
Otherwise, as you say, once people stop accepting the lockdowns anyway.
It's really someone who wants to own the success of others and blame others for failures. Zero accountability yet still wanting to call the shots.
It's wild watching someone who seems to just be a garbage manager be in charge of something as large as the nation. Micromanaging. Manage via publicity. PR instead of content. Agreement instead of actual thought and discussion. I've left jobs over a combination of two of those things, and it seems like we have all of them right now as a nation. I wish someone who has direct reported to Trump in the past was on this s…
>> I wish someone who has direct reported to Trump in the past was on this site and could give insights into his actual managerial style.
I've never worked with the man directly, but I work with people who take direction from him. It isn't an act. This is not a mad genius playing the befuddled character at the microphone (Boris J) only to become a cool dictator behind the scenes. The chaos and incoherence you see on TV and twitter is the 24/7 reality.
Exactly right. One of the rules of the game is that you're not allowed to say anything negative about Donald Trump even if (perhaps especially if) it is factually correct. If you do, he will retaliate (by, for example, withholding badly needed aid). So the governors have to speak in code. Listen to Newsome's news conference today and the answer he gave to a reporter about his reaction to Trump's announcement that the…
> If you do, he will retaliate (by, for example, withholding badly needed aid) Has this actually occurred? I know NY asked for way more ventilators than they got, but as I understood it they were giving them out "just in time" rather than up front in case they were needed more elsewhere.
It isn't only about who it is withheld from, it is who is favored and given to.
Florida, where President Trump moved his residence to and who's governor he enjoys a special relationship with, has had greater success than other states in requesting and receiving allocations from the federal stockpile: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/despe...
Naive question: how is this better than each of these states doing its own thing (even if those things end up looking similar)? What does California gain by teaming up with WA and OR, for example?
Look at the Netherlands and Belgium screaming at each other and threatening to close borders because one felt the other had too little restrictions. Let’s just say it’s very much bad for your neighborhood of states to have that kind of situation. Closing borders or having diplomatic disasters isn’t worth it. It’s better to reach a common decision.
I'd rather everyone close their borders for now (except for cargo and essential travel, with testing/quarantine) and countries/states/regions respond however they see fit for their own populations. The regions with the best responses can be examples for the others to follow.
I'm in Oregon. My first read: CTRL-F for "test" to see if there's any new statement on serological testing. Nothing. This is all we want right now. This is the first priority, and whatever is second is somewhat distant. Not having widespread serological testing to understand the prevalence in our communities really gives a feeling of being in a third-world country. It's awesome that Drs. Bhattacharya and Bendavid hav…
Serological testing is really bleeding edge still. It’s only done as part of research projects as far as I heard, and you can’t really buy the capacity to do it on an industrial scale yet. Perhaps this varies between countries (where manufacturers exist and so on) but many countries in Europe still have few or no serological tests done, and we are weeks ahead of the US in terms of the epidemic progress.
Exactly right. One of the rules of the game is that you're not allowed to say anything negative about Donald Trump even if (perhaps especially if) it is factually correct. If you do, he will retaliate (by, for example, withholding badly needed aid). So the governors have to speak in code. Listen to Newsome's news conference today and the answer he gave to a reporter about his reaction to Trump's announcement that the…
> you're not allowed to say anything negative about Donald Trump Have you used Internet or watched American TV in last five years?
Let me be more precise: if you're a Republican politician or a civil servant you are not allowed to say anything negative about Trump and hope to keep your job. If you are a Democratic politician you are not allowed to say anything negative about Trump without risking the loss of federal money and resources that you would otherwise receive.
Anyone else is, of course, free to say whatever they want. (For the time being.)
I'm a little disturbed that I feel like the country has been tearing apart for a while. There is a major political bifurcation, and now pacts between states. Right now the pacts are for the pandemic, but what else might these coalitions be used for in the future? I'm not saying that they'll be used for some nafarious purpose, but the fact that they are like-minded politically makes it more likely to deepen the divides.
I'm in Oregon. My first read: CTRL-F for "test" to see if there's any new statement on serological testing. Nothing. This is all we want right now. This is the first priority, and whatever is second is somewhat distant. Not having widespread serological testing to understand the prevalence in our communities really gives a feeling of being in a third-world country. It's awesome that Drs. Bhattacharya and Bendavid hav…
Serological testing is really bleeding edge still. It’s only done as part of research projects as far as I heard, and you can’t really buy the capacity to do it on an industrial scale yet. Perhaps this varies between countries (where manufacturers exist and so on) but many countries in Europe still have few or no serological tests done, and we are weeks ahead of the US in terms of the epidemic progress.
Yeah, that's the point right there. Why the heck is this so bleeding edge? A small team at Stanford made it happen rather quickly. With a small budget.
And yet our leaders aren't even talking about it. Where's the will to do this obvious first priority?