February 26, 2020

At his press conference on coronavirus, invited to respond to Nancy Pelosi and other critics who say he doesn't know what he's talking about, Trump goes strongly political.

Most of this press conference is above politics, and his answer to this question is, ultimately, that we need to work together and be above politics, but Trump dives straight into politics at this point, and he's blunt and, I think, very effective:



He says Pelosi is "incompetent" and "not thinking about the country." He points to the doctors on stage with him and says they are "the most talented people in the world" and "they shouldn't be demeaned." He says, Nancy Pelosi knows what she is saying is not true, "she's trying to create a panic," and she's "trying to get a political advantage" when what is needed is for everyone to work together.

122 comments:

gilbar said...

isn't it Time? In the interests of Nation Health?
For our President Trump to Declare an EMERGENCY, and enact MARTIAL LAW?
And Order the Arrest, and Execution of ALL DEMOCRATS?

I Mean? What are they Going To Do? Impeach Him? Again? When they're DEAD?

mccullough said...

Pelosi is under some delusion that she is relevant.

cubanbob said...

Trump is right. The market has tanked due to the virus and Sanders. He also right about Pelosi and Schumer. Trump looked very much in control and on top of things.

Bay Area Guy said...

Didn't see the speech, but I suspect Trump is right about Pelosi (& Schumer too).

There's no need for politics here. Nobody wants to get the virus. So the NIH & CDC will likely get a few billion $ to recommend the proper medical/scientific course of action.

Whatever Trump does, the Left will criticize.

Browndog said...

After his complete answer to the Pelosi question I began to feel a little sorry for the sad sack that has to stand next to him on the debate stage and try not to get murdered in the first five minutes.

I hope it's Bernie.

Paul said...

who you going to trust, the doctors or Pelosi - Me? I am going with the docs

readering said...

Let's face it, AA loves to listen to Trump.

clint said...

In CNN's breathless warmup, they brought on experts to pre-condemn the President for the remarks he hadn't made yet.

They actually mentioned Hurricane Katrina, by name, two or three times.

They couldn't help themselves.

Yancey Ward said...

The truth is hard to face here, but there is little effective that can be done short of finding a quick vaccine and producing it. Trump was rigth in pretty much the entire press conference- the Democrats are trying to make it political, so responding politically is appropriate pushback.

I still think this thing is just vastly overblown- I wouldn't be surprised to learn months from now that 90% of the claimed cases of COVID world wide are misidentified ailments, and that 90% of the deaths are deaths that would have happened without the outbreak of COVID.

But if you want a somewhat effective plan, and you don't want to play politics, close the borders for 3 months. Put up or shut up.

Drago said...

readering: "Let's face it, AA loves to listen to Trump."

Only 1/1024th as much as obama liked to listen to himself.

Drago said...

clint: "They actually mentioned Hurricane Katrina, by name, two or three times."

Before they are done, the MSM will have people eating each other in the Superdome again.

Anything, anything at all to get rid of Trump.

doctrev said...

I Mean? What are they Going To Do? Impeach Him? Again? When they're DEAD?

2/26/20, 7:23 PM

I was thinking close the borders, arrest the State Department flunkeys that contradicted the CDC and brought diseased people into the country, or quarantine the most at-risk parts of the Chinese population in America, but this has a certain directness that the President will most appreciate.

Yancey Ward said...

I am reminded of this.

rehajm said...

I didn't see the reporter q&a before. I don't recognize any of those people. Remember when The White House was a plum what made celebrities of the correspondents? Helen, Sam, that elvish woman...

Another public service thanks to our current President

Birkel said...

It is my strong belief that this particular virus will be quite bad in at least a few places. And I believe both the rate of infection and the death rate (for diagnosed cases) will be substantially higher than the numbers the Chinese have issued.

However, I also believe the Trump Administration will do something. And that something will be criticized. And racist fopdoodles and blithering idiots (Hi, readering.) will say anti-Trump things.

America will be less affected than most of the ROW. Our rural areas will not see major spread. Cities are much more vulnerable.

We'll see.

Michael K said...

But if you want a somewhat effective plan, and you don't want to play politics, close the borders for 3 months. Put up or shut up.<

The best treatment is the Gilead drug, Remdesivir. The government has already ordered 90,000 doses. The4 vaccine may take longer but the drug cured the single patient it has been sued on in 24 hours.

Schumer is an ignorant fool.

Cryin’ Chuck. Well, let’s see – no plan, no urgency. We have a plan. We’ve been moving in Trump time, which is to say as quickly as possible, since January 29 when the President courageously pulled down those flights from China. Let me lay the plan out for you, Hugh. And it’s a four-pronged strategy that we have to deal with. The first thing is on the front lines, the personal protective equipment that we need to have for our health professionals, folks in nursing facilities, things like that. What are that? That’s the gloves, that’s the goggles, that’s Tyvek suits. It’s the masks, the N95 masks. The second thing that we need are treatment options. The third is the vaccine development, and the fourth is the point of care diagnostics. Hugh, we’ve been moving very rapidly on all four fronts. Today, for example, on the personal equipment front, HHS is putting out a half a billion dollar proposal to rapidly get manufacturers of face masks in to get that done. If you look at the treatment options, this is what’s interesting, Hugh. If somebody gets Corona, and they’re moderately to severely infected, there’s, first of all, there’s a drug called Remdesivir. It’s made by Gilead. What we’ve done there are a number of things. First of all, we’ve secured the 4,500 doses that they have. In addition, as a cost of almost $200 million, we’re moving to secure the other 90,000 doses they have in involved material.

readering might want to do some reading.

Don said...

May the left rot in hell.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

F Nancy. Rich corrupt democratic bitch.

etbass said...

I love it when Trump strikes back. He takes no B.S. from anyone. He is paying the leftists back for decades of crap they have been giving any conservative in power.

rhhardin said...

Attributing the stock market selloff to the low quality of the democrat candidates displayed last night was fun. Answering a gotcha question.

Leeatmg said...

Even though he threw some politics in there and hit back at Pelosi (and Schumer) it was a very strong, effective, and almost traditionally Presidential answer. We could use more of that from him.

James Pawlak said...

Only another example of a member of the Democrat-Socialist-Fascist Party hoping to effect Lenin's maxim: "TELL A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH AND IT BECOMES THE TRUTH".

Anonymous said...

Golly...surprise, surprise. Logic and everything... You're idiots (leftists).

wildswan said...

In the regular flu season 2019-2020 the US handled 41 million cases of flu including 280,000 hospitalizations and suffered 16,000 deaths. No one paid any attention, just another flu season, maybe a little worse than usual. So, anyhow that shows our capacity to handle this new corona flu. We won't break a sweat till things get worse than 280,000 hospitalizations. The problem seems to be that this corona flu spreads very easily and very fast. So, in parts of the US like San Franpoopsco and LA where elementary rules of hygiene have disappeared on the streets among the homeless, the virus could be devastating unless changes are made right away. Money won't help unless the dirty encampments are cleaned up and no one should think that mentally-ill drug addicts are going to do that. But will the mayors of those cities be any different in this emergency than the drug-addled homeless? Or will the senators and governors? Pelosi has to take the lead and call for those changes. What's the point of saying you are the third most powerful person in the country if you don't take the lead in helping your own state make needed changes in the face of a possible epidemic?

Ken B said...

Let's remember the game Pelosi is playing. If the virus gets bad she wants a track record of scolding Trump now so it can be replayed later.
The virus could be a disastrous Trump, even if he handles it well. But it could be bad for the Democrats too if it takes off in San Francisco or a sanctuary city. If so she needs a record of “I warned him”.

readering said...

From opening to article in Bloomberg--Markets:


"U.S. stock index futures fell as President Donald Trump’s speech failed to assuage investors’ concerns of the novel coronavirus derailing global growth. March contracts on the S&P 500 Index were down 0.4% as of 9:19 a.m. in Tokyo, after slumping as much as 1%, as the president held a press conference to update the country on the administration’s response to the growing crisis. The underlying index is mired in a five-day losing streak that wiped out more than $2 trillion in value from American equities."


Jimmy said...

The MSM, Pelosi, and the left are praying for bodies stacked up in the streets, so they can blame it on Trump. Reality is that there are bodies stacked up in most Dem run cities. Parts of LA, San Fran, chicago, would qualify as third world countries- and no one, Not the leftists on this blog, or the MSM or Sanders, Warren- will even mention what a disaster those cities have become.
Trump is right-he said it nicely, but Pelosi and her cohorts are miserable bitches, who accomplish nothing, whine to get paid for that, and blame everything on the President.
Close the southern border. NOW. This virus might be serious long term, we honestly don't know. Yet. but if it spreads rapidly, it will do so in conditions that exist in the poorer third world countries, like the Bay Area, LA, etc. and watch the left try to blame Trump if that happens. Just like they blamed bush for Katrina.
Pelosi needs to start working for America, perhaps for the first time. I'm not hold ing my breath on that one. Ditto for all the stellar presidental candidates.

narciso said...

Thats what panicking gets you im sure soros or steyer appreciated the cover for their shorting of stock

rightguy said...

The death rate in China for Corona virus is 2%- less than influenza. So we are in for what is probably going to be like a pretty bad flu epidemic ? I have been through a few of those. Not to mention that there have been no deaths so far among the 60 US citizens who have contracted CV.

Krumhorn said...

"I like a man who grins when he fights" - Winston Churchill

I watched the whole press conference. Trump is a master of the political theater, but more than that, he was in command, informed, and made his points effectively.

- Krumhorn

rightguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

DJT is now surpassing FDR in the use his Presidential Commander in Chief power that is now held in an unbreakable level of esteem by most Americans. As Ike, who served under FDR, would say about his experience under FDR, "Hitler should beware the fury of an aroused Democracy ."

Christy said...

At this point I feel more at risk from the fear mongering than from the coronavirus.

Narayanan said...

@Blogger Michael K said..
____&&&&
Thanks for Link to HH interview with Peter Navarro.
I'm passing on to friends.
Reminded me of Dagny rounding up railcars to move grain harvest.

Ken B said...

I thought Trump was right in that clip. I can hear the left screaming already. She started it and he was asked directly.

Ken B said...

Readering
Your quote makes you look foolish. Citing Bloomberg media?

readering said...

I think the flu is very serious and I get a flu shot every year. But the fatality rate from flu this season so far has been a little more than 0.05%. Much lower fatality rate than coronavirus, but a lot a lot of folks in this country have contracted the flu this season, almost 9% of the population. Is the coronavirus, with no vaccine in sight, as contagious as the flu? Hope not.

roesch/voltaire said...

Trumps comments on how Japan is handling the virus shows just how uninformed he is about so many issues, Abe faces intense criticism over the issue and the Japanese are very unhappy with the lack of progress and preparation.

Steven said...

I think there is a legitimate criticism of Trump trying to downplay this and of the CDC and others who seem to be not responding as strongly as they should be, for example testing only people who've been to China when there are clearly other countries where the disease is spreading undetected, like Iran or South Korea.

The coronavirus appears to spread very easily. It will take at least a year for a vaccine to be developed and manufactured in sufficient quantities for it to be publicly available. I would not be surprised if by this time next year it is as common as flu. In China the overall mortality rate is 2%, more than 10x greater than the flu and it's 15% for people over the age of 60. Maybe it will be less here due to lower rates of smoking and such, but it's still bad. The number of people who die will be small, but still bad enough that everyone will know someone personally who died from it.

narciso said...

Thats been the primary focus, the canadians still allowed flights from tehran as recent as last week.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

It’s amazing how effective the truth can be at cutting through the bullshit... that’s why you’ll always have an advantage when the truth is on your side....

Birkel said...

Steven,
In China.... the lying commie bastards are lying and cannot be trusted.

chuck said...

the canadians still allowed flights from tehran as recent as last week.

The Canadian border might be a problem.

stephen cooper said...

We need to pray for the Chinese, who are suffering most from this.

Remember, if you pray for someone and God answers that prayer, even if the person you pray for is someone you will never meet,

God has blessed someone who you care so so much about.



It does not work the other way ---- if you do not pray for someone, God does not do anything to harm them because of your lack of prayer.

God only works for good.

Goethe said something like that, you can google it.

stephen cooper said...

The people who run Marginal Revolution deleted my comment when I said something similar, maybe because I did not express myself correctly.

narciso said...

Dont see how that could be problematic.

Limited blogger said...

Trump is in complete control, and has the best personnel to handle this situation.

Schumer and Pelosi look foolish, and small with their partisan attacks during this crisis.

Kind of stunned that Trump conceded fear of the democrat presidential nominees contributed to stock market downturn.

iowan2 said...

Pelosi and Shummer, and the rest of the leftist, are tone deaf. They are totally oblivious to the visual the American people have witnessed is less then 24 hours.The train wreck that was the Democrat debate, Tuesday night. The faux hysteria demonstrated by Pelosi, Shummer and other leftist. All topped off by President Trump doing a great job at his press briefing and answering all the follow-up questions. A performance as good as I can remember from any President.

That's the Choice in front of voters. Tonights exhibition of leadership vs. last nights rodeo of retards, and misfits.

And all the Dems had to do is not be crazy, and they couldn't do that.

William said...

Inevitable is such a doom laden word. It is perhaps inevitable that the coronavirus will spread here, but it by no means inevitable that it will have the impact of the Bubonic plague. This virus is bad news, but it is not necessarily catastrophic news. The President is right. Take the proper precautions and see how it plays out.....I would think that when China gets a handle on it, the stock market will stage a quick rebound. I would hope that the mortality rate here will be less than in China. Or maybe I'm wrong, and millions die and the stock market tanks and Bernie wins the election.

D. said...

Everyday corona is in the news, the chicomms loose their part of the "supply train".
Trump 2020!

narciso said...

Well wuhan was a major hub from shanghai to beijing.

stephen cooper said...

narciso - I phrased it really badly, made it sound like God punishes us for not praying, when that is not the case at all.

narciso said...

Its our communication line to him, we get hung up on our notions.

Wince said...

Trump should move to use his emergency powers to make it illegal for cities like San Francisco to continue their practice of busing the homeless to other cities.

Whether or not it's necessary, it'd be a kick in Nancy's dentures.

Achilles said...

readering said...
From opening to article in Bloomberg--Markets:

There is no common cause. No working together. No support for Trump or anyone trying to deal with this.

It is all about power. readering is only interested in how to use a virus created in China as a weapon against her political opponents. Pelosi and Schumer are the leaders of a political movement populated by insane vicious and calculating shitheads.

They would never say anything like this about Obama. Obama’s reaction to hurricane Sandy was demonstrably pathetic. But Democrat.

Democrats are just terrible people.

stephen cooper said...

narciso rem acu tetigisti.

In the novel "Brothers Karamazov", there is this nice description of the guy (Efim Polenov, for the scholars) who paid for Alyosha and Ivan (2 of the 3 Brothers K - William Shatner and Yul Brynner played them in the technicolor 1950s version, if I remember right) to go to Russian boarding schools (he was their uncle, or the second husband of one of their aunts, or something like that) ...

if I remember right, he got bored taking care of other people, stopped sending tuition checks to the Russian schools where Alyosha and Ivan were studying, and moved from Moscow to France and became a liberal who loved humanity, even though he had given up liking the individual people he knew, except for his Parisian mistresses. DON"T BE THAT GUY is as good a motto as any.

Skeptical Voter said...

I watched Richard Goodstein---the bald headed smirking Democrat politico and former campaign operative for Hillary Clinton on Laura Ingraham tonight. I've got a medical name for this jerk referring to a portion of the male anatomy which my wife won't let me repeat in polite company.

That said the Democrat attack on Trump re Coronavirus and the administration's response to it breaks down into the following subheads.

1, Trump tried to block travel from China to the USA on the reasonable assumption that if you don't let possibly infected people in the USA the disease won't spread to the USA. The Deep State State Department response to that was, "We will bring three planeloads anyway and quarantine them on military bases." The Pelosi Schumer Schiff Madness response was, "Banning travel from China is racist."

2, Trump had previously cut funding for the CDC and the NIH--which statement may or may not be accurate, but in any event Trump's administration is now spending more on CDC and NIH than the Obama administration ever did.

3. Goodstein hit particularly hard on the claim that the US can not effectively fight the coronavirus threat if "you have a science denier in the White House". This more of that tired old attack that turns everything ultimately to the climate change religion. Trump is an apostate on that issue, and so is a science denier.

My eyes glaze over and I simply want Goodstein to go away.

Amadeus 48 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

Demmies never disappoint.

They refuse to give credit to, praise, or even work with Bad Orange Man. They carp away, hoping that this time they will get lucky and something bad will happen to someone else, ideally a POC who supports Trump.

Never forget, 12,000 to 60,000 people of all ages die in the US every year from flu.This is the baseline. By the time the MSM and the Demmies (BIRM) get done, the public will be totally misinformed or uninformed about what usually happens every year in this country of 330,000,000. A recent example was the death of the beautiful and charismatic Bre Payton, a young woman memorialized on the Federalist website, who died at age 26 from infuenza complications at the end of 2018.

The question yet to be determined is how many additional deaths will occur in 2020 in the USA because of coronavirus.

Ray - SoCal said...

Thanks Michael for the interview, 2nd one I read/watched of Peter Navarro recently.

I'm glad Trump is the current President. He is taking a very aggressive stance, and making things happen. My one complaint is the test kit issue, that seems to be a big SNAFU that CDC is in the middle of.

Is CoronaVirus only very contagious in colder climates. The areas affected Northern Italy, Qoms, Wuhan, and Korea are pretty cold this time of year. Hopefully Spring will reduce the spread. And does not like sun light? It does not seem to be spreading much in tropical countries.

As mentioned by other posters, the Chinese infected and death numbers are a lie. Based on their actions, it's way more than they have officially posted. The question is how much more? My guess is 10X. The actions don't match their words.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

"This coronavirus is a godsend for Democrats! Didn’t you know? With luck it will lead to a recession!” OK, none of them have said that, but it sure seems like you can infer from their comments. that they are thinking it. #Resist Trump in his efforts to combat coronavirus!

Bernie and Warren have all of these plans to spend money that is currently invested in markets, which is all well and good except that as soon as it becomes clear that the government is going to take the money, investments become worthless, so a huge portion of the money they are counting on taxing simply is gone.

Democrats have always been happy to throw more and more. stuff on the wagon that the horse of the free market has to pull, but now they want to start carving steaks out of the horse and expect it to keep pulling all the same.

Ray - SoCal said...

A few SWAG Scenarios:

1. CoronaVirus is seasonal, and with the end of Winter reduces it's spread in a month or two. This stops the spread in China, and the US escapes with few deaths.

2. CoronaVirus is weaponized, highly contagious, keeps on changing, and has a high death rate, but it hits those most that have a certain Genes. This devastates the Chinese Economy until a a vaccine and other measures finally get it under control. Lots of businesses flea China, due the perceived high risk. Many move back to the US.

3. CoronaVirus is highly contagious, and devastates China, North Korea, Africa, and countries with sanitation issues, including the Middle East. It's also spread through fecal materials, as well as through airborn droplets. In the US it has a huge impact on the homeless populations. It it mostly confined to the elderly, along with those with other health issues such as lung damage due to smoking and pollution. A vaccine is developed in about 12 months.

4. CoronaVirus hits the US, lots of working from home, online schooling. Stock market hit, but mostly over leveraged companies, especially those with global operations. US muddles through until a vaccine is distributed widespread. Some populations, such as homeless, are hit hard.

5. A miracle happens, and a vaccine is developed and has widespread availability in 7 months.

6. A drug treatment is found that can be used on people infected. Lots of rumors on this, but no good information I have seen so far.

walter said...

Aunty Trump said...Bernie and Warren have all of these plans to spend money that is currently invested in markets, which is all well and good except that as soon as it becomes clear that the government is going to take the money, investments become worthless, so a huge portion of the money they are counting on taxing simply is gone.
--
I agree.
And that has made me confused by your prior(?) nods to the Bern.

chickelit said...

narciso said...Thats what panicking gets you im sure soros or steyer appreciated the cover for their shorting of stock

If market sorrows go viral, Soros is left standing.

n.n said...

Trump tried to block travel from China to the USA on the reasonable assumption that if you don't let possibly infected people in the USA the disease won't spread to the USA... "Banning travel from China is racist."

So, he did attempt to create a viral-break, and met the same resistance from bigots, and special and peculiar interests, with ulterior motives, alleging diversity.

walter said...

I mean, honesty and consistency are great things..if not a fucking ignorant loon like Berno.

walter said...

n.n.,
Goes against "fair share".

Readering said...

I have written many times on this site tthat I will not vote for Biden, Sanders or Bloomberg, so it looks like I'll be sitting out November. I have also written repeatedly that incumbents win unless they face a serious primary challenge. I also remain fully invested in the market. I have no interest in seeing the market tank for any reason. Does not change the fact that POTUS' contentless presser was an embarrassment and the cotentless Dear Leader routines of veep and hhs sec even more so.

eddie willers said...

it was a very strong, effective, and almost traditionally Presidential answer. We could use more of that from him.

He truly has grown into the job.

walter said...

Every one of us has made a note of the preferences of "Unknown"...

Achilles said...

Unknown said...
I have written many times on this site tthat I will not vote for Biden, Sanders or Bloomberg, so it looks like I'll be sitting out November. I have also written repeatedly that incumbents win unless they face a serious primary challenge. I also remain fully invested in the market. I have no interest in seeing the market tank for any reason. Does not change the fact that POTUS' contentless presser was an embarrassment and the cotentless Dear Leader routines of veep and hhs sec even more so.

That is nice.

Your decision making abilities and critical thinking skills are awesome.

Nobody thinks you are an idiot or that you are a useless tool.

Readering said...

On the internet no one knows you're a dog.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"Trump had previously cut funding for the CDC and the NIH"

Funding increased, but not to the amount requested. That's not a cut.

If you ask for a 10% pay raise, but your boss only gives you 5%, he/she is not cutting your pay.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Have any of these critics ever actually worked on a large, complex project, which is what this is? Just throwing additional funding/personnel resources at a problem usually slows down development of a solution.

Lance said...

I agree with the President. Scare mongering is wrong.

Matt Sablan said...

I mean to respond to political hits he has to do so. Bush proved you can't not go political.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Hey!! The bodies are already floating by Brian Williams' window. You commenters are so apathetic!

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

"And that has made me confused by your prior(?) nods to the Bern.”

Local boy makes good. At the time I would have voted for Bernie, the government was hell bent on destroying the working class from which I came for the benefit of coastal rich liberals who call themselves “the elite." I wanted a wrecking ball. Bernie actually once agreed with me, which is the subject of Bloomberg “attack ads.”

The stakes are clear now though that the left no longer cares about checks and balances, just power at any cost. The left has shown that they were capable of throwing out the covenant between us as a people to respect the result of elections that actually made our democracy work. Every election now is life and death.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Spect CDC sitting on their thumbs, are we? With decades in the hospitality industry, I'm pretty sure the Prez has an inkling about what's to do. Nancy won't keep the turds off her Financial district's sidewalks.

Big Mike said...

@exhelodrvr, a phenomenon I have seen numerous times in my career as a government contractor.

But let’s face it, throwing money at problems is the standard, one size fits all solution Democrats offer up to any and all problems. Enough problems go away of their own accord that it even appears to work now and then.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

"Nobody thinks you are an idiot or that you are a useless tool.”

He’s right! the idea never crossed anybody’s mind... (apologies in advance for the elipsis)

Big Mike said...

@Unknown (11:31), don’t you worry. I have it on good authority that the Democrat establishment plans to use a brokered convention to give Hillary Clinton her long-awaited rematch.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

Warren is going to solve the coronavirus problem by abrogating our racist border controls and burning the money.

Big Mike said...

BTW, Big Mike is sitting on his sofa trying to get his coughing under control so he can get back to sleep. Big Mike has a cold, which is caused by a type of Corona Virus. No doubt that’s why the damned disease spreads so easily — it’s a lethal form of the common cold and no doubt spreads as easily. But I have not been exposed to anyone from Wuhan or Korea or any other CoVid19 outbreak, so it’s just a bad cold.

I hope

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

Trump may be a moron, but his efforts to decouple the US economy from its over-dependance on China kind of looks prescient, any fair minded person would have to admit.

MadisonMan said...

apologies in advance for the elipsis
Shouldn't that apology be before the elipsis [sic]?

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

"I hope”

There are two kinds of people, people who think based on patterns that are necessarily incomplete “It’s nothing you idiots!” and people who evaluate risks rationally based on evidence they can glean, “It might be nothing, it might not.” The first kind of people don’t like to live with uncertainty, so they bootstrap certainty out of nothing. They really don’t like the second kind of people, at the end of the day.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

"Shouldn't that apology be before the elipsis [sic]?”

It would have been if I had had my coffee already...

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

OK, that last ellipsis was pretty lame, even by my internal standards.

Lance said...

@exhelodrvr1

If inflation is 10%, but your boss only gives you 5%, he/she is cutting your pay.

Agree or disagree?

exhelodrvr1 said...

Lance,
Disagree.
If you buy a new car, and now have $500 per month car payments, but your boss only gives you a $100 per month raise, he/she is not cutting your pay $400 per month.

wendybar said...

Nancy looks like she is having a nervous breakdown. Time to step down, retire and go away Negative Nancy....how can anybody work with THAT???

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

I thought Congress set budgets.

Maybe if the CDC spent less time on politics redefining rape as asking again after she said no once, people wouldn’t think that their budget was too high.

Lance said...

@exhelodrvr1

You're wrong. In real terms your boss is paying you less money. But it doesn't really matter because you are using a bad analogy.

If the costs for CDC rise 5% due to inflation and President Trump proposes a 3% increase in the budget, then CDC will have to find a way to cut their costs. That is a cut and to pretend otherwise is ignoring economic principles.

When I was a kid it was Democrats that lied about economics (tax and spend), now it's the Republicans (tax cuts pay for themselves).

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chinese-border-california-20160607-snap-story.html

Lance said...

"Trump may be a moron, but his efforts to decouple the US economy from its over-dependance on China kind of looks prescient, any fair minded person would have to admit."

I totally agree. Trump is a moron.

daskol said...

What I find unsurprising, but still upsetting, is that bits of really bad or at least scary news seem to immediately proceed big drops in US market indices. Thursday and Friday down markets last week, for example, precede news updates regarding corrections to the Chinese numbers and the significant outbreak in Italy. Some bad news over the weekend, and relatively big drops Monday and Tuesday, preceding the release of really bad news about potential community spread in CA. The news feels very stage managed.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Lance,
"In real terms your boss is paying you less money"
No. In real terms, you have less disposable income. That's NOT the same as your boss cutting your pay.

daskol said...

ha, by not paying you more money, your boss is paying you less money. agency!

Lance said...

@exhelodrvr1

In real terms your boss is screwing you and not taking care of his workers. I'm guessing his own pay doesn't suffer.

I would also wager that in real life you're probably the jerk boss taking advantage of his workers and not the worker getting taken advantage of. Otherwise, I think you would probably understand me better.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Lance,
I'm sorry that you don't have a basic understanding of finances; I don't have the time or inclination to put any more effort into this discussion.

Megthered said...

Again the idiots on the east and west coast are trying to make us folk in flyover country panic. Too bad it still won't work. We see right through you and are really not worried about this. We know when spring comes or next week, there will be something new you'll be screeching about. And we'll still ignore you.

alanc709 said...

Lance, you must have gone to economics school. Otherwise, you would know something about economics.

Lance said...

@exhelodrvr1

Let me know when you have time for some economics and basic finance lessons. I'm happy to help you understand inflation and real income when you can.

Lance said...

@alanc709

I'm just arguing a simple premise: when worker pay increases less than inflation, their buying power goes down and their pay is "cut" in real terms. They will have to make cuts in their costs or save less money because their income is not keeping up with their expenses. That is a pay cut.

How is this wrong?

But yeah, if you're stupid, then you can say that their pay increases because the dollar amount goes up. It's just a lazy argument and if you base decisions without accounting for inflation you're going to make bad decisions.

roesch/voltaire said...

How does Trump’s appointment of Pence square with his criticism of Obama’s appointment to handle the Ebola scare in 2014? As usual the con speaks out of both sides of his tweeter.

Big Mike said...

@roesch, because Donald Trump put someone competent in charge?

daskol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

If I were a riverboat gambler, I would be strongly tempted to take my gains in bonds and put them into stocks, but if I were a riverboat gambler, I wouldn’t have been so heavily invested in bonds to begin with, I guess.

Gospace said...

And if you really want to see some TDS, here's Dan Rather ranting about how Trump doesn't believe in science... and we're doomed, doomed I tell you, DOOMED!

Remember Dan? Apparently he believes in time travel, for I understand he still insists that a document produced in Microsoft Word with ll it's default settings was produced several years before Microsoft Word existed, and it's absolute proof that Bush was AWOL from the Texas ANG, or something like that. Took those bloggers sitting around in pajamas in their basements less than 24 hours to determine his fraudulent documents fact checked by the finest layers of fact checkers that the mainstream media has to offer were fraudulent.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

So what if NYC is all but shut down due to coronavirus on election day, and Upstate New York decides where the electoral votes go?

Anonymous said...

The media act like a bunch of children asking Trump to predict the future. Anybody with any historical perspective regarding the world of medicine and infectious disease understands that speculating regarding the spread of this virus is pointless. We are terrible at predicting these things. The bird flu pandemic has been supposedly "imminent" for 20 years now, but meanwhile we have been hit by diseases no one saw coming (SARS, ebola, Covid-19). Epidemiologists track record is no better than economists, and often their predictions seem to be influenced by the hope for more "funding".

Anonymous said...

readering:

From opening to article in Bloomberg--Markets:

"U.S. stock index futures fell as President Donald Trump’s speech failed to assuage investors’ concerns of the novel coronavirus derailing global growth. March contracts on the S&P 500 Index were down 0.4% as of 9:19 a.m. in Tokyo, after slumping as much as 1%, as the president held a press conference to update the country on the administration’s response to the growing crisis. The underlying index is mired in a five-day losing streak that wiped out more than $2 trillion in value from American equities."


You were shocked to discover that an epidemic negatively affects the stock market?

I've been chuckling at the "please chill", all-client emails our brokerage-wallahs have been sending out recently - I wondered, "Who are the people out there so dumb or oblivious that they didn't see this coming? Or think politicians can control the inevitable economic fallout of public health crises?"

Well, now I know.

Anonymous said...

Lance: "In real terms your boss is screwing you and not taking care of his workers. I'm guessing his own pay doesn't suffer."

Sure, why not? You can posit any conditions you want for hypothetical scenarios.

"I would also wager that in real life you're probably the jerk boss taking advantage of his workers and not the worker getting taken advantage of."

However, there are some constraints on confabulations involving actual flesh-and-blood people.

"Otherwise, I think you would probably understand me better."

I don't think anybody is having any difficulty understanding exactly where you're coming from, Lance. Your self-understanding, on the other hand, could probably benefit from a little more detachment and a little less emo.

Rusty said...

Lance said...
"@exhelodrvr1

If inflation is 10%, but your boss only gives you 5%, he/she is cutting your pay.

Agree or disagree?"
Your boss isn't cutting your pay. The money supply is. Your boss doesn't have any effect on the Fed. Other than that you are correct. You lose 5% of your buying power.

Lance said...

@Angle-Dyne

Intellectual dishonesty annoys me. Especially when the person is smart enough to know better and doesn’t even acknowledge inflation or the effects that it has on budgets or even their own pocketbook. I come here to hear intelligent arguments and this wasn’t one.

I can lie with numbers to make an argument to, but I would just be mentally masturbating and trying to convince myself I’m right. I would much rather look at the budget for the CDC and see if it has enough funds for studying COVID-19. I don’t know if it does or if cuts have hurt the CDC’s ability to respond to an epidemic. But exhelodrvr1’s argument wasn’t any better than Pelosi’s saying the cuts have hurt the CDC.

This sounds serious from the Business Insider:

“In 2018, the White House eliminated a position on the National Security Council tasked with coordinating a global pandemic response. The CDC that same year also axed 80% of its efforts combating disease outbreaks overseas because its funds were depleted.

In its latest budget proposal, the Trump administration sought to cut CDC funding by 16% - even as Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar seeks emergency spending from lawmakers to combat the coronavirus.”

Arguing that this is not a cut is ridiculous

Bruce Hayden said...

“Have any of these critics ever actually worked on a large, complex project, which is what this is? Just throwing additional funding/personnel resources at a problem usually slows down development of a solution”

Anyone else here remember the “Mystical Man Month”? Which is part of Brooks's law which points out that 9 Women Can’t Make a Baby in a Month

Fond memories there for me. A lot of exciting stuff was going on in software development in the last half of the 1970s, which is when I had my first really professional programming job - working on the 1980 Decennial Census, a project that really, seriously, had real hard deadlines. My mentor, a GS-15, was put in charge of the editing and counting, which was the part that had to run correctly and get done on time (reapportionment was based on its outputs). We talked about these issues constantly. He had a core team of 5 1/2 (I was the half, since he knew better than to give me a part where I would have to interact with anyone else, instead writing the piece that had to be bullet proof and fast). And one of those was his personal coder (he dictated his part of the code). We heard a lot about the 9 women, etc, as he was constantly under pressure to add staff in order to make the deadline. Pressure all the way up to the White House (Carter, the nuclear engineer, was President, and likely heard about the 9 women). He never did expand his staff, the code ran great, and was delivered early. I should add that I saw the Census copy of Yourden’s “Structured Design” on my bookshelf yesterday reminding me of those days. This guy turned me onto it. He wrote his own FORTRAN Algol 68 like precompiler for this project to prevent the sort of spaghetti code that everyone was used to at the time. I checked out the book, and forgot to return it.

Anonymous said...

Lance: Intellectual dishonesty annoys me.

Then stop practicing it. Your indulging in it here is annoying everybody else, too.

Especially when the person is smart enough to know better and doesn’t even acknowledge inflation or the effects that it has on budgets or even their own pocketbook.

Nobody is not acknowledging that inflation has an effect on budgets or pocketbooks.

To be fair, your reading such a lack of acknowledgment into the responses you're getting may be the result of stupidity, not dishonesty. (If so, read harder. *There is no such premise in the responses you're getting*.)

I would much rather look at the budget for the CDC and see if it has enough funds for studying COVID-19. I don’t know if it does or if cuts have hurt the CDC’s ability to respond to an epidemic. But exhelodrvr1’s argument wasn’t any better...

You don't know about the CDC, but you can speculate, with intellectual honesty of purest ray serene, that exhelodrvr1 is a jerk who's mistreating his employees. I just don't understand how anyone can fail to take you seriously, Lance.

At any rate, I offered no opinion on CDC budgets. Why are you blathering at me about it?

Drago said...

Rusty: "Your boss isn't cutting your pay. The money supply is. Your boss doesn't have any effect on the Fed. Other than that you are correct. You lose 5% of your buying power."

And that's only if there are not alternatives for the consumer to purchase.

In America, shocker! There often are.

Bruce Hayden said...

Here are my predictions. Maybe a bit rosy, but still...

I think that the epidemic will be under control well before the election. Trump will take credit for it by his decisive actions. Republicans will mostly believe him. Democrats will not. He will respond that Bernie Sanders has zero executive experience, and doesn’t have a clue about what he doesn’t know, and would have screwed it up royally. Which, of course, is true. The Democrats will of course disagree, using the reduction in the increase in funding, removing the person from the NSA, etc as their excuses. He will respond that his early actions closing the borders to nationals from significantly affected countries, ordering a billion masks, immediate prioritization of antivirals and a vaccine, etc were critical, etc. It won’t help the Democrats that one of the transmission avenues is fecal transmission, and that is almost entirely a problem in this country in big cities long under complete Dem control, such as Speaker Palsi’s San Francisco. Another aspect is that our first patients were the result of a Deep State bureaucrat disobeying a direct order from the President. And finally, our most likely avenue of infection (with Trump’s travel restrictions) is very likely to be over our borders, which Trump has been trying to seal, against determined resistance by the entire Dem party, since the day he took office. Despite the Dems almost complete control over the MSM, I expect that more moderates will believe Trump, over the Dems. We shall see.

I think that by this fall, the immediate crisis will ostensibly be over the peak, and appearing to be in decline. I expect that the antivirals, including the one mentioned by Trump will be showing some success. A vaccine will probably be close. There is a decent chance that COVID-19 is close enough to the flu that it is less infectious in the summer than in the winter. Long term that may not matter a whole lot, except that the election is at the beginning of November, and that time will be spent working on antivirals and vaccines, as well as getting masks, gloves, and information out to the public. The other thing to keep in mind is that we are much more sanitary than either the Chines and Iranians, esp where it counts. Also, Wuhan is slightly larger than NYC, with a comparable population density. The bulk of our population lives in places with far lower population densities. The county we live in half the year has a population density roughly 1% of that of Wuhan, NYC, and DC. And coming with lower population density comes is driving cars, instead of walking, bicycling, and using public transit or taxis/Uber, etc. This means that most of us won’t have near the exposure to the virus. Those of you stuck in high density cities, like NYC and DC are likely not to be so lucky. But those most vulnerable are likely Democrats anyway, and more likely to vote for Bernie anyway. Win/Win. DC doesn’t yet have the fecal contamination problem, so may not get hit quite as hard, BUT it is where the politicians hang out, so I expect a lot of screaming and yelling from there. Should be interesting.

Bruce Hayden said...


Something else that will be interesting is the effect that this will have on illegal immigrant ion and homelessness. Both communities are at higher risk than probably anyone else in this country. Moreover, they are the hardest to track and quarantine. Imagine a presymptomatic contageous illegal crossing the border with a bunch of other illegals in a small enclosure like a truck or van. Decent chance that they all get infected. They then split up on this side of the border, going their separate ways, being hidden by relatives and friends until they get to perceived safety. Which will likely be overcrowded. Indeed, Hispanics in general appear to live in much higher densities than mainstream America. (Similar house to the one the two of us share across the street typically has 6 cars and trucks in the garage and on the street at night - in probably 5 bedrooms they probably have close to twice as many people living there). One of the dangers of this disease is that you can apparently be contagious before you show symptoms, which is going to make it very hard to screen people who shouldn’t be here, before they infect a bunch more people.

Homeless are in a similar situation. They often live on the streets, sometimes in high densities. Moreover, they often live in a highly unsanitary way, such as defecating on the streets. Dems, of course, encourage this. At lest for now. Their self preservation may, ultimately require that they give up their concept. We shall see

Nichevo said...

Another aspect is that our first patients were the result of a Deep State bureaucrat disobeying a direct order from the President.


?! I missed this.