2020 Dumpster Fire (Enter at your own risk)

[TheFlop]

And I'm not saying no precautions should be taken.  If you want me to hand sanitize everytime I enter a room at a school?  Sure whatever.  You want to cut down on class sizes?  Sure.  You want to limit the number of fans at sporting events (let parents and close family in only).....sure.  Changes at the margin aren't what most people are upset with....it's with how this entire thing has been hijacked and politicized by a movement.  And before Haydouche chimes in with his Trumptard reference, remember that Trump was willing to act pretty quickly on this (fair to argue he should have done more in hindsight).......the problem has come in with the open ended continued movement of the finish line and that has been almost exclusively coming from the left.  

[NoiseInsideMyHead]

On 5/5/2020 at 6:36 PM, NoiseInsideMyHead said:

Here’s a thought exercise. Let’s say the media never picked up on a “new” virus and it didn’t have a name. And nobody ever invoked the p-word. Instead, they just reported generically on trends, data, and observations about respiratory viruses, illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths in the aggregate.

Would 2020 just have gone down as a “really bad flu season”? I mean, who has even even paid attention every other year in modern history when such things have been  announced? Who here hasn’t just shrugged at stories of ‘norovirus on a cruise ship’ or ‘Asian flu’? We’re pretty desensitized and resilient, after all.

Yet, there are now armies of armchair epidemiologists out there who couldn’t begin to tell you how many died last year, or the year before, or in any year from any cause, but who seem to know for a fact that “this one is bad.”  Nearly none of them have witnessed it first hand, mind you. Rather it’s what they’ve heard. Over and over.

No panic. No economic upheaval. Some deaths, sure, but mostly in assisted living facilities and tightly packed urban areas. Gentle reminders to wash hands, stay home if you’re sick, see your doctor. Pharma could have quietly worked up a vaccine, and rolled it out in due course with the usual seasonal admonition to ‘get your flu shot.’ Nobody ever reads those labels anyway. “Oh, a bigger needle this year? Okay.” Or, “Two shots this time? Oh, well, what’s my co-pay?”

Maybe we can learn something about the perils of too much information in the Information Age. Maybe being human and vulnerable isn’t really the problem. Maybe putting too much information in the hands of those least equipped to deal with it is the real culprit.

Nearly five months later, I stand by every word in this post. Especially the last paragraph. Real-time COVID stats serve no purpose whatsoever, except to divide.

[The Sicatoka]

15 hours ago, Nodak78 said:

You can have a 100% of citizens of NY, CA and other east and west coast.  means nothing.  You need a majority in 38 states. 

 

14 hours ago, mikejm said:

 

You really have no idea how the electoral college works, do you?

A candidate can be elected POTUS by winning in a certain 12 states. Study civics, at least to the level required for new citizens and then come back.

 

Point of order -- 38 States would be a reference to how many it takes to amendment the Constitution, and a Constitutional amendment is what it would take to eliminate the Electoral College. 

[TheFlop]

In most years this wouldn't be much more than "there is a nasty crap or a nasty gunk" going around.  It would have gone through a majority of the population in the spring....like this stuff usually does.  Instead by taking this new political approach of trying to cure a virus, we have managed to only prolong it much like throwing log after log on a fire instead of just having one initial bonfire that would have burnt itself out.  

[Oxbow6]

40 minutes ago, Ranger said:

Some thought same about warmer weather

What about goggles?

Would more than 6' help?

Another 2 week lockdown? 3 months?

Vaccine.......made mandatory by the government?

[Ranger]

6 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

What about goggles?

Would more than 6' help?

Perhaps TNT can answer that for you...  or yourself, you’re purportedly a medical professional?  

[Bison Dan]

10 hours ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

Trump is  refusing to promise a peaceful transfer of power if he loses.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/time-for-democrats-to-call-trump-s-bluff/ar-BB19oEaI?ocid=msedgdhp

What makes Trump’s most recent statements so fretful is that as president and leader of his party, he possesses powers he didn’t have in 2016 to dispute the tally. As Barton Gellman reports in a new and frightful Atlantic feature, plans are afoot for Trump to set aside the voting results in six swing states controlled by Republicans, and have their legislatures cast their states’ Electoral College ballots for Trump. “If [Trump] throws the decision to Congress, which he can do almost at will, the law is a labyrinth full of dead ends when it comes to how that’s resolved. Experts tell me that the Electoral Count Act is so garbled and full of logic bombs that it can easily lead to deadlock,” said Gellman in an in-house interview.

So nobody should discount Trump’s avowal, especially now that he actually serves as president and seems bent on delegitimizing the election. But you don’t have to be a Trump fan to concede his right to challenge ballot results, especially in a tight state contest. Al Gore’s campaign did that in 2000, protesting “illegal votes” and “legal votes that were improperly rejected” in Florida in a dispute that went to the Supreme Court for resolution, without permanently soiling the fabric of democracy. We should mention, of course, that Gore ultimately conceded defeat after the Supreme Court decision and made no move to enlist a pitchfork brigade in overturning the Supremes.

But will Trump follow through on his disturbing threats? Flipping through the news clips of his presidency, one can’t help but notice his penchant for issuing of ground-scorching threats that end in flounder and retreat. He not only loves to bluff, but he loves to bluff big. He made nuclear war noises against North Korea and then cuddled with Kim Jong-un in a pair of summits. He vowed to jail Hillary Clinton but folded. He laid the rhetorical groundwork for invading Venezuela but then backed down. He threatened to close the border with Mexico, demanded that General Motors reopen its Lordstown plant, promised to end birthright citizenship, said he would strip California of federal funds, pledged to adjourn Congress, and bragged of holding “absolute“ power over the states that he would use to reopen them. He even thought he could bluff the pandemic into submission by claiming that it would disappear soon.

Please explain to us how you would stop whole sale fraud in mail in ballots when: 

1.  Some states are mailing out unsolicited ballots to every reg. voter.  So what happens to the ballots that go to dead people or people that have moved?

2.  Some states are not requiring any vertification - signature doesn't matter, etc.

3.  Some states are going to count for up to 14 days after the election.

 

They already have ballots that have been thrown away.  

Why would Trump not be worried about a fair election.

 

[Oxbow6]

13 minutes ago, Ranger said:

Perhaps TNT can answer that for you...  or yourself, you’re purportedly a medical professional?  

Nah I don't  know much. 

How about you give us some insight? Oh wait......you would have to form a coherent thought/opinion back up by some sort of facts. You haven't done that since this thread opened or even in our past PM conversations. But feel free to chime in with whatever nonsensical comments you would like. 

[TheFlop]

How the bunker crowd practice their "don't share your air molecules with me" belief.

[UNDBIZ]

9 hours ago, UND1983 said:

Like bailing out convicts so they can vote?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/597

Quote

Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and
Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Paying off felons' fines is great.  Paying off felons' fines for the stated purpose of getting them to vote for your candidate may be a crime.

The Bloomberg camp has made their intent behind paying off the fines very clear, and it may come back to bite them.

[The Sicatoka]

Let's go to the actual interchange:
 

Quote

 

Reporter: "Win, lose or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferal of power after the election?"

President Trump: "We're going to have to see what happens."

 

 

Um .... read the question.
If Trump wins, what transition of power?
And there can't be a draw (see Constitution). 

So the answer to "win, lose, or draw" has to be --> we're going to have to see what happens (to know what happens).*

 

*It's kind of like you have to pass the bill to see what's in the bill.

 

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

Woodward: Trump rooting for 'quadruple trainwreck on Nov. 3'

Journalist Bob Woodward on Thursday said that President Trump declining to engage in a peaceful transition of power if he loses the election would be "putting a dagger in the Constitution," adding that he thinks that the president is "almost wishing for a quadruple trainwreck on Nov. 3" in regards to mail-in voting.

© Getty Images Woodward: Trump rooting for 'quadruple trainwreck on Nov. 3'

"We have a president who has forsaken his basic duty to protect the country, to tell the truth and organize and plan, have some theory of the case what is he going to do as president," Woodward said in an appearance on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/woodward-trump-rooting-for-quadruple-trainwreck-on-nov-3/ar-BB19q3Vr?ocid=msedgdhp&fullscreen=true#image=1

[Oxbow6]

The Minnesota Department of Health is now changing how they report their hospitalization numbers on their webpage dashboard since the overall Covid19 patient hospital volumes in the state have dropped from the 600s to the mid 200s on a daily basis. Those numbers aren't scary enough now so the MDH is switching  to reporting a model to report  "severity and capacity". Maybe Ranger can explain why this was done?

[Hayduke1]

1 hour ago, TheFlop said:

Once again, your logic is ridiculous.  "Because I can't/don't feel safe going out, I don't think you should go out either".  Listen to yourself.  

And if you want to hear the "real world" in Grand Forks, maybe you should go out and find out yourself instead of guessing how the 5 callers on KNOX figure into the rest of Grand Forks.  The truth is that people are having weddings, kids are playing sports, people are going back to work (now that the $600 weekly kicker is gone).  

Covid may be the most recent threat to those that have health issues but it isn't the first and won't be the last.  Letting your fear of missing out syndrome take over and expecting everyone else to hunker down too is downright selfish.  

Nice narcissistic behavior.  

 

[petey23]

9 hours ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

LOL, you really do believe.

?

[UND1983]

1 hour ago, Redneksioux said:

I’m sorry that you can’t see the difference, you have a political view on covid and I cannot change that.

I can guarantee you that there are plenty of parents of immunocompromised children that are sacrificing their joy due to your wide open stance on the subject.

takeaduke69 likes this

[Ranger]

26 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

Nah I don't  know much. 

Correct. You should stick with your rants about a governor of a state of which you do not reside, and your creepy obsession for children and adolescent sports. I choose to remain neutral in these discussions, mostly because much of what’s said here is nonsensical and has pushed away those with expertise and helpful opinions, but also because of Hatch Act issues (regarding the political tug-of-war)...something Goon should be more concerned with too.

[Bison06]

7 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

The Minnesota Department of Health is now changing how they report their hospitalization numbers on their webpage dashboard since the overall Covid19 patient hospital volumes in the state have dropped from the 600s to the mid 200s on a daily basis. Those numbers aren't scary enough now so the MDH is switching  to reporting a model to report  "severity and capacity". Maybe Ranger can explain why this was done?

As you are well aware, changing criteria quietly is the easiest way to manipulate data.

Want to ramp up something? Include a few additional criteria. Want to slow it down? Take a few out.

[TheFlop]

7 minutes ago, Hayduke1 said:

Nice narcissistic behavior.  

 

The ironic thing is that people like yourself are the true narcissists.  Unable to look at the entire issue to arrive at an informed decision because in your mind you and your opinion are all that matters facts be damned.  

[Bison06]

Another classic example of the media taking something that was not said and reporting it as if Trump did say it.

People, go to the actual video or audio of what Trump ACTUALLY said on the peaceful transfer of power and stop being manipulated by the media.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/elections/100000007359070/trump-refuses-to-commit-to-peaceful-transfer-of-power-after-election.html

Please, someone tell me what part of this is anywhere near what is being reported.

[Hayduke1]

And so are members of his cult.  

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-president-is-a-psychopath-20200924-i4yegtrvjvelzgrqniinn6pvue-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3y_0bgyHDbEw1BM0WJKeB-rJ2336QVoFpK4ZNPvzxZL18AnuUInZxpiwg

Say it plainly: The president is a psychopath

We are psychologists, and we are convinced Donald Trump is a psychopath. His malignant behavior over the past four years is growing and escalating right before our eyes. Trump’s psychopathy will change us forever if he is not stopped.

This is not hyperbole. This is not an expression of "a left-wing agenda.” This is a mental health opinion based on thousands of hours of documented behavior by this president.

[TheFlop]

1 minute ago, Ranger said:

Correct. You should stick with your rants about a governor of a state of which you do not reside, and your creepy obsession for children and adolescent sports. I choose to remain neutral in these discussions, mostly because much of what’s said here is nonsensical and has pushed away those with expertise and helpful opinions, but also because of Hatch Act issues (regarding the political tug-of-war)...something Goon should be more concerned with too.

Lol......so you're a Federal employee......explains your participation here during daytime hours.  

Who would have ever thought....Ranger the voice of neutrality lol.  Except for his take on parents that want their kids to be able to experience life and play sports......but other than that completely neutral.  

[Bison06]

1 minute ago, Hayduke1 said:

And so are members of his cult.  

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-president-is-a-psychopath-20200924-i4yegtrvjvelzgrqniinn6pvue-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3y_0bgyHDbEw1BM0WJKeB-rJ2336QVoFpK4ZNPvzxZL18AnuUInZxpiwg

Say it plainly: The president is a psychopath

 

[petey23]

19 minutes ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

Woodward: Trump rooting for 'quadruple trainwreck on Nov. 3'

Journalist Bob Woodward on Thursday said that President Trump declining to engage in a peaceful transition of power if he loses the election would be "putting a dagger in the Constitution," adding that he thinks that the president is "almost wishing for a quadruple trainwreck on Nov. 3" in regards to mail-in voting.

© Getty Images Woodward: Trump rooting for 'quadruple trainwreck on Nov. 3'

"We have a president who has forsaken his basic duty to protect the country, to tell the truth and organize and plan, have some theory of the case what is he going to do as president," Woodward said in an appearance on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/woodward-trump-rooting-for-quadruple-trainwreck-on-nov-3/ar-BB19q3Vr?ocid=msedgdhp&fullscreen=true#image=1

Ahh. The staple philosophy of the left.

"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty"

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

Fauci said yesterday we remain in the first wave since cases never declined significantly to a good baseline.

1918 cases broke out in the spring, then literally disappeared in the summer, and then an explosion of cases in the fall