October 6, 2020

We have nothing to fear but... Be afraid!! Be very afraid!!!

I'm completely jaded about the highly polarized blabbing about Trump's "Don't let it dominate you, don't be afraid of it" speech:



I don't think people actually disagree about anything here. The virus is dangerous, and we need to do what we can to navigate the risks but we also must balance other considerations — such as the mental and economic wellbeing of the nation and the need for children to play and learn. We should be smart and rational and make good decisions given the information and expertise that is currently available.

But the election is breathing heavily down our neck, breathing more heavily than sick/not sick Donald Trump having gamely climbed a big flight of stairs and positioned himself on the balcony to tell us he's doing just fine. So the various commentators are acting as though we're at polar opposites.

Trump's opponents had to counter his "Don't let it dominate you, don't be afraid of it" with accusations that he was saying the virus isn't even a problem at all and you shouldn't take any precautions. But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not. The disagreement is bullshit. There's just some variation in how cautious you need to be or how much you ought to display cautiousness.

You know, a lot of people are talking about karma — because Trump didn't take enough care, he was sanguine, and then he got what was coming. So let me quote you a line from John Lennon's "Instant Karma": "Why in the world are we here?/Surely not to live in pain and fear?"

143 comments:

Unknown said...

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
Pretty good translation of what Trump said.

Wince said...

"But the election is breathing heavily down our neck," like Joe Biden.

You know, a lot of people are talking about karma — because Trump didn't take enough care, he was sanguine, and then he got what was coming. So let me quote you a line from John Lennon's "Instant Karma": "Why in the world are we here?/Surely not to live in pain and fear?"

From Instapundit...

ANDREW SULLIVAN ON TRUMP’S CATCHING COVID: “The man has spent years at war with reality: living in delusions, perpetuating fantasies, imagining hoaxes, constructing conspiracies, accruing debt, rewriting history constantly as self-serving myth. At some point, reality was going to get personal in return.”

A law school friend emails:

How is that different, Glenn, from when Pat Buchanan said of people with AIDS decades ago: “Homosexuals have declared war upon nature, and nature has exacted an awful retribution.”

Seems like Sullivan has endorsed the “sin origin” of illness, just like Buchanan did so many years ago. Not much Christian charity, it seems to me, in either statement – they are both atrocious, and for the same reason.


And AIDS wasn't a contagious disease.

mockturtle said...

I emailed the President that, while I'm delighted he is recovering nicely, he might consider easing off on the tweets until he's off the steroids.

PubliusFlavius said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85ii4RksHuo

Fresh Creepy Joe

rehajm said...

...but we also must balance other considerations — such as the mental and economic wellbeing of the nation and the need for children to play and learn.

Forgot to add the PHYSICAL well being of people not going to the doctor for routine medicine, delaying needed surgeries, and dying of undiagnosed terminal ailments due to lack of screening. Also the added death of drug and alcohol abuse.

WisRich said...

Another sensible message by Trump.

Sebastian said...

"Trump's opponents had to counter his "Don't let it dominate you, don't be afraid of it" with accusations that he was saying the virus isn't even a problem at all and you shouldn't take any precautions."

I was sorry to see yesterday that even Althouse distorted Trump's meaning, with her "Back to normal!"

"But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not. The disagreement is bullshit. There's just some variation in how cautious you need to be or how much you ought to display cautiousness."

Sorry. Many progs are saying be very afraid and let it (or at any rate, them) dominate you. Evidence: Whitmer in Michigan, Walz in Minnesota.

And look at the picture in the post below: ticker of 211K deaths dramatically projected behind an author pushing a book about Jimmy Carter. Be very afraid! Let it dominate you!

hombre said...

How many lives and businesses have been lost by Democrats/mediaswine politicizing the China Virus? The facts have been obscured by efforts to demonize Trump and run cover for stupid, murderous Democrats like Cuomo, DeBlasio and even Chinatown Nan.

Robert Cook said...

"Instant Karma" is my favorite John Lennon song, (after, perhaps, "A Day In The Life").

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I’m tired of hearing Joe lie about Trump unchallenged. His new take that Trump is responsible for getting COVID because “anyone who says social distancing doesn’t work and masks don’t work” deserves to get sick. But Trump never said those things. In fact he has said the opposite. Somehow the dishonest gaslight media suffering from fact check fever never corrects the record. How strange.

Achilles said...

Think about what this means for our country if democrats win at this point.

Look at what they are saying and doing.

They are fearful disgusting tyrants who have pedaled one lie after another.

These stupid mask mandates demonstrate the abject failure of our society. People believe these masks used this way in a forced manner will help.

They are so brainwashed and stupid.

TrespassersW said...

If someone has a chronic, debilitating health issue, or is working their way through something like cancer treatment, and they were to say "I'm not going to let [health issue] dominate me," we would applaud their courage and determination.

But the 'rona is different, apparently.

Fernandinande said...

John Lennon's "Instant Karma"

Yoko is wearing her mask wrongfully.

I'm Not Sure said...

"But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not."

Are you sure about that? They are saying they need to be in control of what businesses can be open and how they are to be run. They are saying they need to be in control of how close together people can gather and what sort of protective wear they must have. Sounds a lot like domination to me.

"The virus is dangerous, and we need to do what we can to navigate the risks..."

Apparently, it's not much more dangerous than the flu- moreso for older, sicker people, less for younger ones. Rhetorical question: When did we ever lock down society to navigate those risks?

Magson said...

Mike Rowe posted his thoughts about "The Rona" a while back, and summed it up as "I'm concerned, but not petrified."

Sadly, most politicians and the media seem to fall in to the "petrified" camp and are trying to force everyone else to be in that same state of mind with them.

Howard said...

The White House coronavirus cluster was easily and painlessly avoidable. That's just like the quarter million Dead Trump is responsible for all due to his carelessness and depraved selfishness. And you love him for it it's the only salve that brings relief to the pain of impotence.

John Borell said...

I do not know if we are not rational enough to figure this out ourselves or if the media just treats us like children.

Maybe it's all bullshit.

This isn't that hard.

There is a global pandemic that kills a not insignificant number of people that get the virus, but not a huge number that we all should fear it above all else.

If you're young and healthy, go about your lives. You really have nothing to fear.

If you're old and not healthy, take some precautions.

But no one should "fear" the virus at this stage.

How about this, go read a book, read some history. Learn about things people really did fear.

I'm reading the Guns of August. Trench warefare in Eurpoe. That's stuff to fear.

mikee said...

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice. Get busy living, or get busy dying."
Andy Dufresne

Mark O said...

The Karma was that Trump faced the Covid and came away healthy.
Nothing could be worse for the Democrats. Soon we will hear, "His recovery was God's sign to us that he should be reelected."

It's better than, "Si. Se puede."

Joe Smith said...

Without McCartney, Lennon was kind of a hack.

McCartney without Lennon wasn't much better.

William said...

Nancy is going to impeach him for obstruction of poetic justice. The optimum outcome of this illness would be for Trump to die. A less poetic but reasonably fair outcome would be for Trump and Pence to resign for reasons of health, endorse the candidacy of Biden, and then hand the reins of power over to Nancy for the interim. The refusal of Trump to take these reasonable steps only serves to underline the fascist nature of his regime and the man himself.

Richard Aubrey said...

Apparently, masks work if you wash your hands every time you touch the mask. If you inhale and there are infected droplets, they are absorbed into the fibers. Exhaling doesn't get them to go away. So, every time you adjust your mask, take it off, put it on, you are contaminating your hands. And everything your hands touch.
And you're carrying a supply of virus for the next time you inhale.
Never saw anything about mask efficacy which didn't include washing hands every time the mask is touched.

So the question would be whether it protects others. See contamination of surfaces after touching your own mask.

But it's a great virtue-signaling device, and a sign of submission. About which some of my friends are proud. "Make me do stupid stuff....!"

Richard Aubrey said...

Apparently, masks work if you wash your hands every time you touch the mask. If you inhale and there are infected droplets, they are absorbed into the fibers. Exhaling doesn't get them to go away. So, every time you adjust your mask, take it off, put it on, you are contaminating your hands. And everything your hands touch.
And you're carrying a supply of virus for the next time you inhale.
Never saw anything about mask efficacy which didn't include washing hands every time the mask is touched.

So the question would be whether it protects others. See contamination of surfaces after touching your own mask.

But it's a great virtue-signaling device, and a sign of submission. About which some of my friends are proud. "Make me do stupid stuff....!"

Temujin said...

The most miserable well-fed people in history will not allow any optimism or a thought of moving forward with life. They want everything shut down. Until Nov. 4.

To them leadership is done from behind, not from out front. To them a good leader is one who grovels before them. A bad leader is one to tells them to take a flying leap at a rolling donut and moves forward with or without them.

Sebastian said...

"The disagreement is bullshit."

It should be, but it isn't. Like anything else both the virus and the fear are now prog tools.

Heather Mac Donald has it right in her latest piece in City Journal, referring to the tyranny of fear.

Disregarding malicious prog use of viral fear encourages their destructive machinations.

Unknown said...

“Keep the pressure on. Never let up. Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new"

DT has been reading Alinsky. Will this 'accentuate the differences' between DT's health and Biden's? Why won't Biden release his health records or have I missed it?

tim in vermont said...

"They are fearful disgusting tyrants “

"These stupid mask mandates demonstrate the abject failure of our society.”

All of this tyranny started with the “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service” signs and now it has gotten to this horrifying stage of requiring masks indoors during a pandemic!

This kind of overwrought reaction to a simple little thing is what make me think that the reaction is really about emotion, and not reason at all, which is why trying to reason you out of it is pointless. Anyway, you seem to be in the distinct minority IRL. I just drove 1800 miles cross country, (living my life) and haven’t noticed many people at all except one guy in North Carolina who was in a gas station without a mask and he yawned and wiped his nose with the back of his fist. But it being a free country, I just left and took my business elsewhere.

wendybar said...

If he walked in and said nothing, they would bitch that he isn't talking and informing the American Public. Nothing this man can do will please any of the crying left wing Propagandists.

tim in vermont said...

"But Trump never said those things. In fact he has said the opposite. Somehow the dishonest gaslight media suffering from fact check fever never corrects the record. “

Exactly. They put the words of low info types on Twitter into Trump’s mouth.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

I don't think people actually disagree about anything here. The virus is dangerous, and we need to do what we can to navigate the risks but we also must balance other considerations — such as the mental and economic wellbeing of the nation and the need for children to play and learn. We should be smart and rational and make good decisions given the information and expertise that is currently available.

Are Democrat politicians people? Because I'd say it's pretty clear they do NOT want to "balance" anything, other than the ability of the Left to protest, riot, burn, and murder.


Trump's opponents had to counter his "Don't let it dominate you, don't be afraid of it" with accusations that he was saying the virus isn't even a problem at all and you shouldn't take any precautions. But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not.

Yes they are. At least until after the election, that's EXACTLY what they are saying

Mike Sylwester said...

My step-son has CNN on all the time, so sometimes I can't avoid hearing some of it.

Last night, Chris Cuomo was interviewing a woman whose husband died of COVID-19 a few months ago. The interview proved that Trump is evil for saying that people should not be afraid of COVID-19.

FWBuff said...

What a contrast between Carter's portrait as commissioned by the DNC on the cover of the book in your previous post and the video of Trump in this one! That portrait of Carter is making Trump's point. The fear and tension on Carter's face were captured (and emphasized) by Warhol and were chosen to portray the Democrats' idea of leadership in the unsettled '70s. Trump's video speech and his leadership philosophy couldn't be more different: yes we're in the unsettled '20s, but don't be dominated by your fear!

wild chicken said...

CNBC just showed all the mixing and schmoozing and hugging after the AVB announcement last werk...jeez like nothing to worry about at all.

That's pretty much what I see in my life. Mask for show but private life is business as usual. Thanksgiving at our place, no problem!

wild chicken said...

ACB!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Be honest progressives and just say that you want to outlaw optimism, well wishes and sweet dreams.

Big Mike said...

We are down to the last few weeks in this election, and I think this episode demonstrates the need for a Republican wave election. Donate to your local GOP candidates and vote s straight Republican ticket. Democrats need to be punished up and down the ticket, right down to county and city offices, so that they never try to do this crap again.

Jersey Fled said...

But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not.

But they are not only saying it, they are living it.

Take the school closing issue as an example. The risk of school age children dying from the disease is about as close to zero as you can get. And as of 22 hours ago Newsweek reported that a total of 8 teachers had died since the beginning of the school year due to the virus.. As best I can tell, none of the eight could be definitively traced back to contact with their students. There are 6.2 million school teachers in the U.S.

Yet state and local authorities have locked down public schools everywhere due to blind hysteria over the risks.

That meets my criteria for being dominated by their fear.

Birkel said...

tim in vermont and Karen B will be along to explain that discussions of trade-offs means you hate grandma and are actively murdering people through your heartlessness.

Which is nice.

Professional lady said...

Life must go on. We must all look at our responsibilities and circumstances and make the best decisions we can with the information we have. A lot of the time it's a balancing act. I don't know how effective the masks are and I don't spend a lot of time wearing one. However, if I go to a store or other indoor public space, I don't mind putting one on. I figure the people who are serving the public are under enough stress. If putting a mask on does nothing but make their day less stressful, I'm ok with it.

traditionalguy said...

P T Barnum Trump is still the greatest show on earth. And for his last act he gave us the old “ you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it” story line.Maybe he can sing Danny Boy next.

stevew said...

The politics of fear, long a tool used by the powerful to manipulate the populace. Even Al Gore says so.

The Assault on Reason - The Politics of Fear

Yancey Ward said...

Since we are now posting videos about Karma.

tim maguire said...

All of us carry around a basket of things that could harm us. Some worry us a lot, some a little, some hardly at all. COVID is one of the things in that basket. A few months ago it worried us a lot not because it was especially deadly, but because it was new and we didn't know much about it. As we learn more and get used to sharing the world with it, normal people are recalculating how much they should worry.

Trump is saying, not much. The experts are working hard on a cure but in the meantime live your life. There is a lot, emotionally and factually, to support Trump's position.

Our culture of risk-aversion wants us to worry as much as possible about as many things as possible. The people supporting this culture want us to remain as worried as possible for as long as we can keep it up.

I have no sympathy for this second group and I suspect even most people in that group don't support it. They just fell into it without thinking too much and continue to not think too much.

Francisco D said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
I’m tired of hearing Joe lie about Trump unchallenged. His new take that Trump is responsible for getting COVID because “anyone who says social distancing doesn’t work and masks don’t work” deserves to get sick. But Trump never said those things.

You mean the very fine people thing is also a Biden lie?

How about asking Putin for Hillary's emails?

How about saying you should inject bleach into your veins or take fish pond cleaner?

How about saying covid was a hoax?

Trump was so unserious about covid that he did not have so many press briefings that the DNC media stopped televising them.

The Dems are not only rewriting history, they are telling you not to believe your lying eyes.

LilyBart said...

But the virus is not dangerous for most of us; if we're not the 'elderly infirm' we're not likely to die! But we're taking on horrible risks by 'quarantining' - risks to our mental and physical health - and economic health, which impacts our physical and mental health as well. Poverty is a killer!

We've made a terrible mistake demanding everyone act like they're at equal risk for this virus - we've hurt the low risk while squandering the opportunity to protect the truly vulnerable. I think the death number is higher for it!

Yancey Ward said...

And Althouse is wrong- the Left is literally trying to scare you into submission and voting for Biden and the Democrats. That she misses this is kind of shocking to me.

The lockdowns have been the biggest domestic policy error of my lifetime- there isn't anything else on the same level of magnitude. The mask policies are just virtue signalling writ large- we know this because there is no detectable signal whatsoever about mask mandates and COVID outbreaks- none whatsoever. I am not telling you to ditch your mask, but we apparently are now going to have mask mandates forever given the arguments being used in their favor.

Amadeus 48 said...

The virus is coming for Biden. He better watch out. I don’t think wearing that mask is going to be enough. And no one really social distances consistently. And now they say that social distancing may not be effective. He needs to stay home in his burrow. The more he ventures out, the more likely he is to get it. Can he win from his hole in the ground? Maybe. Maybe not.

The odds caught up with the Trumps. Joe’s time is coming. Is he ready?

I'm Not Sure said...

"I am not telling you to ditch your mask, but we apparently are now going to have mask mandates forever given the arguments being used in their favor."

This is what's so troubling. Nobody is telling people they're not allowed to wear a mask if they feel the need but plenty of people are keen on insisting (to the point of using the force of government) that everyone must wear one.

Original Mike said...

"The FDA, which approves COVID-19 tests, and the CDC, which provides clinical guidance, need to address test sensitivity immediately. The FDA needs to set appropriate cycle thresholds for U.S. testing labs, and the labs should note the number of cycles taken to detect the virus on all test results. The CDC needs to provide clinical guidance for providers that sets a reasonable cycle threshold for a positive test that required contact tracing." [emphasis added]

They don't do this already?????? Speaking as a scientist, this is appalling.

I don't know if this stuff's been reported before, but this is very important information regarding testing.

MayBee said...

The idea that certain people "deserve" to get COVID is gross.

That aside, people are going crazy that Trump said not to be afraid. CNN has been saying all night how disrespectful that is to people who have died.
BUT this month is also breast cancer awareness month. We are constantly told to STAND UP TO CANCER. And how if we have cancer, we will still be Crazy Sexy Cool and we will still teach our college courses and be fun and brave. Is that disrespectful to the people who die of cancer?
Are we supposed to live our lives afraid of car accidents, cancer, heart attacks? Is it disrespectful not to?

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Mask mandates = being forced to participate in someone else’s bullshit superstition rain dance.

I do it when I need to to access necessities like medical care
for myself or my children, and sometimes when I want to because it’s more
important to be kind than right and people I love think masks make them safer.

None of that changes the fact that mask usage as practiced by the general public is nothing more than rubbing a rabbits foot or refusing to wash your favorite jersey until you come home with the pennant.

Those of you who participated in bringing about this now-cemented state of affairs — in which to participate in public life means you must pretend up is down and black is white — I will never forgive and I will never forget.

Bruce Hayden said...

“And AIDS wasn't a contagious disease.”

Of course AIDS is contagious. It’s just that it isn’t usually contagious the same way as COVID-19. And much of the way that it spreads is trough sexual practices primarily practiced in the gay community.

“How is that different, Glenn, from when Pat Buchanan said of people with AIDS decades ago: “Homosexuals have declared war upon nature, and nature has exacted an awful retribution.”“

Face it. He is right, at one level. The orifice involved was not designed for sex. And because of that, the mechanisms present with orifices designed to protect you when having sex are not present.

Francisco D said...

William said... Nancy is going to impeach him for obstruction of poetic justice.

We have a thread winner!

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Hey tim in vermont, I read your article about why we should wear masks. it quoted a Beijing study that said that you have a < 5% chance of catching Covid 19 from interactions outside the home, but a 40% chance of catching it from interactions inside the home, and that therefore the most effective place to be wearing a mask was at home.

Oh, and that mask wearing AFTER the people in your home showed symptoms was ineffective.

And washing your hands a lot was roughly as good as wearing a mask.

So, do you wear a mask at home?

Or do you ignore the studies you quote to the rest of us?

Amadeus 48 said...

The best way to cover up a mistake is to keep making it. Masks? There isn’t a detectable move down in new cases when they are mandated. Lockdowns? They didn’t do much good, but they sure did a lot of harm.

It is remarkable how impervious humans are to their own experience. It’s a good thing the CDC didn’t recommend human sacrifice to appease the gods.

Kay said...

Trump's opponents had to counter his "Don't let it dominate you, don't be afraid of it" with accusations that he was saying the virus isn't even a problem at all and you shouldn't take any precautions. But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not. The disagreement is bullshit. There's just some variation in how cautious you need to be or how much you ought to display cautiousness.

This!

jim said...

He feels great because he's pumped on steroids

Kevin said...

But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not.

Really?

You just posted a picture of Jonathan Alter discussing Jimmy Carter on MSNBC with Coronavirus Pandemic - US Total Deaths IN RED affixed to the chyron.

Just what message do you think these people are trying to send by plastering that number to the screen 24/7?

Marshall Rose said...

Is the future of the human race one that is masked up all of the time?

Virii have always been with us, and always will be with us, and will always kill some of us.

Wearing masks won't stop that.

The fear pushers have made masks a virtue signal, one that can now be used to otherize people. Where does that lead?

BUMBLE BEE said...

Heaven knows... he took the blows... wouldn't do it my way - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftD46_AW1EQ

Browndog said...

You cannot reason with libs. If you could, they wouldn't be libs for long.

The only way to deal with them is to crush them. Sound harsh? What do you think they are doing to you, with success, every single day?

Michael K said...

Blogger Howard said...
The White House coronavirus cluster was easily and painlessly avoidable.


Yes, but we don't yet know who was the vector. How many Democrats have been infected ? Face diapers, of course.

Achilles said...

Howard said...

The White House coronavirus cluster was easily and painlessly avoidable. That's just like the quarter million Dead Trump is responsible for all due to his carelessness and depraved selfishness. And you love him for it it's the only salve that brings relief to the pain of impotence.

Only a truly stupid human being would type something like this.

Skeptical Voter said...

You go guy. That statement was bound to blow up a million liberal heads.

mockturtle said...

Jim observes: He feels great because he's pumped on steroids

Yes. That's why my 9:31 admonition. Having had a course of steroids for asthma many years ago I can testify that I felt great: Powerful and invincible. For the course of treatment. Then it dropped me like a ton of bricks even though I tapered off.

q12345q6789 said...

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
Pretty good translation of what Trump said.

Look. Call a spade a spade.
Trump's brand has HEALTHY dollops of pure-D fear mixed in with it.

Fear the Mexican rapists coming for your daughter's purity.
Fear the Muslim politicians from Sh*thole countries.
Fear the Progressives coming to take YOUR country away.
Fear the Chinese (or don't depending on what day it is).
Fear the Antifa rioters.
Fear the Mail-in Ballots.
Fear, Fear, Fear.

Saying that Trump is above using fear tactics is simply incorrect.
Maybe you believe that you should be *afraid* of all those things. That doesn't change the fact that fear is the driver of the impulse and that he exploits it.
He doesn't want you to fear Covid19 because he thinks that will get him re-elected.
If you being afraid of Covid19 would help him get re-elected you better believe he'd be spinning a different tale of the woe and misery this awful disease had wrought.

Personally, I continuously wish America had a more balanced approach to *most* things instead of thrashing about in partisan poison-pits trying to out do each other in our manufactured tribal "outrage" contests.

n.n said...

didn’t recommend human sacrifice to appease the gods

The Communists had one-child, the Progressives normalized selective-child for social progress.

mockturtle said...

Browndog @11:34, you are most certainly right. Benign neglect won't work.

n.n said...

You cannot reason with libs. If you could, they wouldn't be libs for long.

Liberalism is divergent, typically generational, but it can be a fast progressive process.

Rabel said...

"I don't think people actually disagree about anything here."

I disagree. You do read the comments here, don't you?

madAsHell said...

These stupid mask mandates demonstrate the abject failure of our society. People believe these masks used this way in a forced manner will help.

Agreed. The homemade masks are propaganda, and ineffective. It's the same tactic Reagan used with "Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Old Oak Tree" during the Iran hostage crisis. The masks are reminders of how miserable things are.

If Hillary had been elected, then there would be no masks, and it would just be a bad flu season. Suck it up! You proles!!

Curious George said...

"But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not. "

Many are.

Leland said...

I don't think people actually disagree about anything here.

Jocko Willink discussed this in his latest Unraveling podcast. He thought at the beginning of Covid, as it was a disease that affected us universally, it would be an unifying event in the US and the world. He was surprised by the level of disagreement. And he doesn't think it is really that far apart, but that once a side is taken, few seem interested in crossing the divide or allowing others to cross it.

n.n said...

“Homosexuals have declared war upon nature, and nature has exacted an awful retribution.”

The rectum is part of the digestive system, and an ideal location for pathogenic transmission. Our ancestors recognized the risk of trans/homosexual male relationships and discouraged the practice. That, and the biological imperative to prioritize the normalization of couples (i.e. male and female relationships). Also, notice that they encouraged self-moderation to promote social balance, Posterity development, and contain pathogenic spread.

Iman said...

And you love him for it it's the only salve that brings relief to the pain of impotence.

Howeeee bringing the lefty low-T projection...

I'm Not Sure said...

"The best way to cover up a mistake is to keep making it. Masks? There isn’t a detectable move down in new cases when they are mandated. Lockdowns? They didn’t do much good, but they sure did a lot of harm.

It is remarkable how impervious humans are to their own experience."


It's almost like the intended goals here aren't the same as what's being publicly advanced.

Mark said...

Buy your Trump Beats Covid! coin from the White House gift shop:

https://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/product-p/trump-defeats-covid.htm

Sprezzatura said...

“There's just some variation in how cautious you need to be or how much you ought to display cautiousness.”

Yesterday Althouse was running w/ the idea that the Ds are against freedom and DJT was equated w/ being for freedom and normalcy.

Today, re nuance it turns out that the Ds aren’t simply anti-normal freedom haters, and DJT can get anti-freedom/anti-normal.

That seems like a boring/unsatisfactory POV re blogging for the hillbillies.

IMHO.

n.n said...

Fear the Mexican rapists coming for your daughter's purity.

He hasn't stopped immigration. He has encouraged emigration reform to mitigate the casualties and collateral damage from immigration reform at both ends of the bridge and throughout.

Fear the Muslim politicians from Sh*thole countries.

Not Muslim politicians, which is a diversitist perspective. Politicians from shithole, shitshow countries, yes, in order to slow the spread of social contagion.

Fear the Progressives coming to take YOUR country away.

Communists, Nazis, Fascists? Dysfunctional and wicked solutions, including: diversity (e.g. racism), redistributive change, selective-child?

Fear the Chinese (or don't depending on what day it is).

Fear the Chinese communists. They're Pro-Choice: human rights violations in progress. They are an aggressive and progressive risk for their neighbors. They leverage labor and environmental arbitrage that forces and encourages developmental misalignments (e.g. Green energy). They need to do a better job of safeguarding their biological experiments and hazards.

Fear the Antifa rioters.

The neo-Nazis, yee, and Some, Select Black Lives Matter the contemporary Democrat neo-KKK.

Fear the Mail-in Ballots.

Democracy dies without authentication, without a chain of custody.

n.n said...

Masks? There isn’t a detectable move down in new cases when they are mandated. Lockdowns? They didn’t do much good, but they sure did a lot of harm.

Masks have limited value for source control and in close proximity to individuals expressing forced expulsions. The lockdowns were always Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic. The single greatest cause of excess deaths was Planned Parent. The single greatest source of infection was likely through cross-contamination (e.g. poor hygienic habits, poor sanitation).

bleh said...

It's time to let it burn. Seriously. Now that we know much better how to treat the virus, we are in a much better position to utilize medical resources. No more turning away young people, who later develop near-death symptoms. No more hooking up old or infirm people to ventilators willy nilly. There's a well developed protocol now. Use it.

If it's true that "immunity" is partial and short-lived, that's all the more reason to let it burn. Continuously "flattening the curve" just supplies the virus with more hosts to infect. The entire world should try to get to as close to herd immunity as possible. Strangle the virus, rob it of its oxygen.

Unshackle the American people. In most (maybe nearly all) COVID-19 deaths, the virus is a finishing blow, a coup de grace for very sick people. Protect the vulnerable, definitely. Let it burn for a month or two, and protect the vulnerable. Let's get out of this dreadful holding pattern. The virus won't go away if we obsessively stop the spread to the healthy and the young.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

q12345q6789 said...
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
Pretty good translation of what Trump said.

Look. Call a spade a spade.
Trump's brand has HEALTHY dollops of pure-D fear mixed in with it.

Fear the Mexican rapists coming for your daughter's purity.

So we shouldn't care about our daughters getting raped? How about our mothers, wives, girlfriends, friends, and acquantences?

Here's a question for you: which group is more law abiding:
Americans as a whole
People who come to America legally
People who break American law to come here?

Not "normalized for age", or any of that other BS. Which group, on average, is going to cause more crimes per capita?

So, Trump's "crime" is telling a truth you don't want him to tell.

Fear the Muslim politicians from Sh*thole countries.
You mean the ones who pay terrorists to attack Americans? I take it you love those people?


Fear the Progressives coming to take YOUR country away.
You mean, the people who openly say that no devout Christian, Muslim, or Jew should be allowed to be a judge, or on the Supreme Court?

The people who want to use the power of the Federal Government to force Nuns to pay for abortions?

Fear the Chinese (or don't depending on what day it is).
You mean the Communist government that is currently running concentration camps? Militarily bullying most of its neighbors? Those Chinese Communists?

Fear the Antifa rioters.
You mean the people burning down parts of cities, destroying poor and minority neighborhoods , and killing far too many people? Those people?

Fear the Mail-in Ballots.
You mean like when people vote ballots for the dead?
https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/10/05/voter-fraud-case-testing-system/

Or when Democrats insist on sending out ballots to every "registered voter", even the ones who are dead, have moved, or have changed their name (so they get two ballots, one in the old name, one in the new)?

You mean a move that is designed for the main purpose of enabling vote fraud?


Fear, Fear, Fear.

Yes, we do pay attention to the real world, and what's happening in it. Which means there are real threats, and wise people work to block those real threats.

Shutting down the economy to "protect" ourselves from a disease that, for 90+% of the country, only kills less than 0.1% of those infected? There the real threat is the shutdown, not the virus.

Maybe you believe that you should be *afraid* of all those things. That doesn't change the fact that fear is the driver of the impulse and that he exploits it.

It's not "fear" when the problem is real, and your approach is commensurate with the problem.

That's "rational response to the situation"

Howard said...

Will ACB ban the use of the aborted fetus stem cells that saved teh Donald?

Gk1 said...

"Those of you who participated in bringing about this now-cemented state of affairs — in which to participate in public life means you must pretend up is down and black is white — I will never forgive and I will never forget."

This. So this. This is something the progressive virtue signalers will not be prepared for and will experience first hand as they try to implement all of their glow ball worming nonsense. We will rub this covid response in their face that they will gleefully wreck our economy and be heedless of any benefit no matter how undetectable. We now see for the world what they will do if given just a tiny teaspoon of power over our lives.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Re “fear fear fear”:

You misinterpret Trump’s message or worse. He wants to CONFRONT those things you listed not fear them. Why are the local Democrats so afraid of confronting Antifa? That sure isn’t making Portland or Seattle safer. Politicians don’t want to confront China or solve problems because then you can’t fear monger about them. Pretty much the opposite of what QWERTY wrote.

WhoKnew said...

I realize I'm just feeding the troll but I have some questions for Howard. He says Trump is responsible for every one of the 200,000+ deaths the government is attributing to the 'rona. That means that a different set of policies than those implemented by Trump could have resulted in zero deaths from the 'rona. What are those policies? How do they fall within the legitimate authority of the federal government to force their implementation nationwide? What guarantees does Howard have that those outside the authority of the feds would have been implemented by the states? How do Trump's actions or lack of actions compare to Coumo's forcing infected patients into nursing homes? How could Trump have prevented that?

q12345q6789 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

"Immunity" as measured by antibody detection is less important than some would think.

T-cell responses are where the action is.
And in previous coronavirus infections, antibodies disappeared but T-cell responses remained.
That is why an estimated 30% of the population is highly resistant to Winnie Xi Flu.
T-cells.

q12345q6789 said...


n.n and Greg the Class Traitor:

SO, I appreciate the response. But y'all missed my point.
My point was that Trump exploits fear on issues all the time when he believes it will be politically advantageous to do so. SO his admonishment against fear is comical. Or tragic. Or both.

I already accounted for the fact that some people may be genuinely afraid of some of the things on that list. So be it. Your elucidations on the particulars of my list don't refute my point at all. But I must give you both props for communicating *much* better than Trump ever could on these issues.

Trump seizes on and exploits fears or grievances purely for partisan political purposes. I don't automatically give him a free pass to the moral high ground with exhortations against fear. He says what he says for votes. I didn't think this was a controversial viewpoint.

Birkel said...

T-cells hard at work.
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2020/10/05/Another-study-suggests-common-cold-protects-some-from-COVID-19/3371601912308/

Karen B and tim in vermont will be along any minute now to explain why only face condone and never touching another human being will save you.

Or something.

No trade-offs are allowed.

Fernandinande said...

As a Pogo character, perhaps P.P. himself, said "We have nothing to sphere but sphere itself."

Birkel said...

That UPI article says B-cells.

Mila Jovovich will be mad at me, I guess.

tim in vermont said...

I don’t believe that the case fatality rate is under .1 %, but still that doesn’t take into account the fact that unchecked this virus is many times more contagious than the flu and so unchecked it will infect many more people even at the same fatality rate and so kill many more. If that fact “scares” you or “fills you with fear” I am sorry about that. If taking simple measures to tamp down the pandemic, measures that don’t cost much, aren’t difficult, and are shown to work fills you with fear, maybe you aren’t somebody people should be listening to. If it “scares you” that the immunity only lasts a short few months, unlike the flu, so you don’t want to hear it, maybe that says you are not grown up enough to take part in the conversation.

Guess what? You can live your life even if you wear a mask in the grocery store or at the barber shop. The virus escaped from that ChiCom lab, the virus that they collected in that mine where workers were dying of pneumonia, this is the world we live in now and to pretend that there won’t be a “new normal” is just wishful thinking. Grandpa plowed using mules, the forests used to be filled with trees growing massive crops of edible chestnuts, new normals are the way of our life.

Jersey Fled said...

I'm 73 years old and have a heart condition. I'm willing to take the risk of opening up the economy so that kids can go back to school and healthy 30 year-olds can go back to work. I will take the appropriate individual actions to minimize the risk to me. I don't need the entire country to suffer massive harm to keep me safe. That's my job.

tim in vermont said...

"in close proximity to individuals expressing forced expulsions.”

Forced expulsions like somebody who doesn’t know they are sick talking loud? You are really grasping at straws here. Fact is that if you are indoors for long with somebody who is pre or asymptomatic and has no idea that they have been exposed, you are going to breathe in a lot of virus, enough to infect you, and you will then be the person who doesn’t know he was infected and so refusing to wear a mask until your symptoms hit, three days after you have been breathing out virus. This isn’t fear mongering, it’s common sense caution, like not running stop signs. There is stuff you can do to reduce the risk.

zipity said...


Face it. Nothing Trump does is acceptable to the people who have yet to accept that Hillary face-planted in 2016.

If Trump cured cancer, the headlines would scream "TRUMP THROWS THOUSANDS OF ONCOLOGISTS OUT OF WORK".

If Trump walked on water, the headlines would be "TRUMP CAN'T SWIM".

When someone asserts to me that Trump is a RACIST, I immediately ask them to cite an example of something racist he said/did.

Blank stares follow.

q12345q6789 said...

n.n and Greg the Class Traitor:

SO, I appreciate the response. But y'all missed my point.
My point was that Trump exploits fear on issues all the time when he believes it will be politically advantageous to do so. SO his admonishment against fear is comical. Or tragic. Or both.

I already accounted for the fact that some people may be genuinely afraid of some of the things on that list. So be it. Your elucidations on the particulars of my list don't refute my point at all. But I must give you both props for communicating *much* better than Trump ever could on these issues. I want to delineate between: #1. acknowledging problems to find solutions and #2. exploiting fear for control.
To Wit: A #1. Trump who actually used all the powers at his disposal (and presumably his mythical powers of "deal-making") to address and fix problems with mail-in ballots to co-ordinate the postal service and the governors of states into a consortium wherein anyone not on board with making this as free and fair an election as possible would be irrefutably exposed.
A #2. Trump who uses all of his time and influence to impotently rail against a procedure that is legal and outside his legal purview to change. And then to actually declare that if he doesn't WIN this election its automatically RIGGED. And to continuously repeat that message to his followers. Essentially stating that an America that doesn't elect Trump is therefore illegitimate. (but, but but Hillary says she won?! And no one cares. And she wasn't a sitting President when she talks her fool head off either. We hold Presidents to a higher standard... or we used to).

Trump seizes on and exploits fears or grievances purely for partisan political purposes. I don't automatically give him a free pass to the moral high ground with exhortations against fear. He says what he says for votes. I didn't think this was a controversial viewpoint.

I'm Full of Soup said...

WTF will be the Dems's defense when one of their mask-wearing zealots gets it? Like Biden, Pelosi, Kamala etc? Or MSM loon like Jake Tapper or Joy Reid?

Stephen said...

"I don't think people actually disagree about anything here."

With due respect, Professor Althouse, that statement is untethered from reality. Read your own commenters, Trump, Ingraham, Hannity, compare them to the doctors who are writing for MSM--the epidemiologists, the primary care doctors, etc. As between the two, there is a radical difference in evaluation of the science and medicine concerning the transmissibility and seriousness of the disease and the efficiacy of basic precautions like mask wearing and handwashing, which have relatively low social and economic cost.

And that's just one example.

These disagreements matter a lot. Why do you want to suggest that they don't exist?

hstad said...

"...You know, a lot of people are talking about karma — because Trump didn't take enough care, he was sanguine, and then he got what was coming...?"

I find this comment so ridiculous I don't know where to start? If you know anything about "viruses" they don't care about your so-called prevention care is! Viruses will do what viruses have always done - you can't stop them. But the whole "mask" issue is such a fraud, I can't believe people are taken in by these so-called scientists like Dr. Fauci (who gave many conflicting pieces of advice on masks at the beginning). If masks work so well, how come the virus is still around? How come the scientific literature is just as inconclusive on the effectiveness of masks as Dr. Fauci's many on and off again mask pronouncements. Please note one fact, Sweden went to the herd immunity model (was criticized non-stop), and their results were not that much different vs. the lockdown model. Just another day and another recycled arguement of "Orange Man Bad". People are tired of this and the MSM are losing their creditability wholesale - they are selling GIGO.

RMc said...

So the various commentators are acting as though we're at polar opposites.

It's not enough that the media divides us...they have to make it look like the division is Trump's fault.

DanTheMan said...

>>Sadly, most politicians and the media seem to fall in to the "petrified" camp and are trying to force everyone else to be in that same state of mind with them.

Sadly, most politicians seem to fall into the "How can I use this to increase my power over the people who voted for me, and more importantly, against the people who did not vote for me?"

Jim at said...

Personally, I continuously wish America had a more balanced approach to *most* things instead of thrashing about in partisan poison-pits trying to out do each other in our manufactured tribal "outrage" contests.

I have a sneaking suspicion you think only one side should adhere to these suggestions.

Michael K said...

Nice response to the troll, greg.

Meanwhile, China is moving Tibetans to forced labor camps.

OldManRick said...

Masks do one thing to limit COVID - they stop all large size droplets from going too far. They do not stop all small droplets, individual COVID viruses, or hold in the virus forever. I looked up a study on droplets done before COVID that basically said the big ones fall to the ground in three feet and the small ones hang in the air. In an operating theater, masks prevent bacteria from the surgeons from being deposited into an open cut.

But the argument for masks has been a one dimensional analysis - they stop big drops but there is no analysis of the drawbacks of masks. One of the body's mechanisms for combatting virus and other diseases is to expel them from the body by breathing them out. Sunshine is the best disinfectant and by expelling toxins, viruses, and bacteria, the body lets sunshine do some of the work combatting illness.

Masks negate this mechanism - you re-breathe what you tried to get rid of. Masks keep the bad stuff near your mouth so your body has more to fight against. This thread claims a bump in COVID deaths after each mask mandate. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1297865055036411905.html It makes sense - if you have COVID, you get a heavy dose if wearing a mask. A heavier dose should mean a greater likelihood of death.

It's also known that wearing masks also makes you re-breathe the CO2 you exhale and this increases your blood acidity level (which slightly lowers your resistance to lots of stuff). WHO even said don't wear a mask when you exercise.

Masks are the classic politician's response to a problem - let's do something. Indeed masks may be good in some cases (like the surgeon cutting you open) but a comprehensive analysis and looking at tradeoffs hasn't been done.

hstad said...

I posted my comment above but forgot to include an outside source on the stupidity of 'Elite' edicts. Here you go:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-updates-covid-19-guidelines-acknowledging-virus-can-spread-via-tiny-air-particles-11601921416?mod=hp_lead_pos4

Gospace said...

madAsHell said...

Agreed. The homemade masks are propaganda, and ineffective. It's the same tactic Reagan used with "Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Old Oak Tree" during the Iran hostage crisis. The masks are reminders of how miserable things are.


My better half uses lace masks- they meet the definition of cloth covering.

OldManRick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Howard said...

The JCS on quarantine along with half the WH staff. Trump, the Wuhan candidate delivered the China bioweapon to the apex of American power. Passive-aggressive Treason by the mole behind the resolute desk.

Michael said...

According to Worldometer there were 332 deaths from Covid yesterday in the USA. 757 two days ago. There are 330 million people in the USA. The fat man over 70 was not one of them.

steve uhr said...

Trump got covid because he's a leader? He acts like he led the army into battle and took a bullet. What a crock of shit. He got COVID because he was careless, and he's still telling his dwindling number of supporters to be careless as well.

5M - Eckstine said...

Repeating.

Yancey Ward said...
And Althouse is wrong- the Left is literally trying to scare you into submission and voting for Biden and the Democrats. That she misses this is kind of shocking to me.

The lockdowns have been the biggest domestic policy error of my lifetime- there isn't anything else on the same level of magnitude. The mask policies are just virtue signalling writ large- we know this because there is no detectable signal whatsoever about mask mandates and COVID outbreaks- none whatsoever. I am not telling you to ditch your mask, but we apparently are now going to have mask mandates forever given the arguments being used in their favor.

...

For local leaders haven't exhibited any clarity or wisdom about the pandemic. Rather they have used a very superficial look at the pandemic to place control measures on the citizenry based on the worst possible case their fears can imagine.

In my locale there has not been a single case of covid documented. Zero infection rate if you believe the surface. But very tight controls. You can ask the question to the public health official but they won't answer it other than to look at the meta stats for the area.

What this reveals is a government full of Karens very anxious to let Dales be the new patriarchy.

Drago said...

Li'l stevie uhr:"..and he's still telling his dwindling number of supporters to be careless as well."

Today, Wanda Vazquez, Governor of Puerto Rico, endorsed Donald Trump for re-election.

Preference cascade.

Drago said...

Howard wants to play the ChiCom Treason Game!

LOL

Not a moment too soon with the release today of the partially unredacted Brennan handwritten obama briefing notes showing how hoaxy Howards russia collusion lies were!

Better change that narrative Howard.

Tsk tsk tsk

mockturtle said...

Dan the Man speculates: Sadly, most politicians seem to fall into the "How can I use this to increase my power over the people who voted for me, and more importantly, against the people who did not vote for me?"

This. Proof is in the videos of Pelosi and Feinstein in public without masks. Feinstein walking through a crowded airport! It's all about power and finding new ways to attain and wield it. The Dems are vile.

q12345q6789 said...

I know it will not be publicly accepted by the Trumpist faction in this comment section; But there are people commenting here who voted for Trump, who wanted to see Trump succeed, and who agreed with many of the underlying assessments guiding policies that were advertised (if not actually implemented) AND who still believe that the President Trump they have come to know over these last four years (and especially this year) has some major, glaring, undeniable faults that have to be considered, discussed, and learned from if America is to retain any semblance of her previous glory.

It's easier to just write those people off as lib-tard idiots or commie-psychos.
But that won't help Trump win either.

Peace.

gadfly said...

. . . breathing more heavily than sick/not sick Donald Trump having gamely climbed a big flight of stairs and positioned himself on the balcony to tell us he's doing just fine."

Tim Miller gets it right:

"I think this has to be the weirdest shit I have ever seen in my life."

"First, Trump takes off his mask, very strongly, very heavily. This is a man who is still on several experimental medications for a deadly virus that is highly contagious and spreads through the air. . ."

"But apparently . . . [in order] to demonstrate that he has in fact “learned a lot” since contracting the COVID . . . “lessons learned” came in a distant second to “übermensch.”

"So we get a madman, his face pancaked under a 2mm coat of orange powder, jacked up on steroids, straining to breathe—and not caring a whit about those around him. And I’ve got to hand it to him: Trump nails that image."

"As the mask comes off the first thing you notice is the president’s complexion . . . , the orangina is back. This is a change from his au naturel look at Walter Reed, which revealed him to be the sickly senior citizen he is—but also leant him a soupçon of humanity. For me, that was actually an upgrade."

"Whatever the case, free of medical oversight, the Bad Orange Man was back and his next move on the balcony was to attempt to put his mask in his pocket very aggressively. It took him five or six tries. You can see him wince and get quite flustered. After Trump successfully disposes of the mask, he takes two deep breaths to center himself before the still shots. Very deep breaths. Then he points at someone off camera, giving them the get out of here sign."

"Then he takes two more deep breaths—with another wince as if he had broken ribs. After that he spends quite a while trying to button his jacket. The drama builds to one mammoth, labored breath. The type of breath you would take if you were a child who was about to enter into a competition in a swimming pool over who could last the longest underwater without drowning. That heave gave him the stamina to move into a dramatic extended salute lasting 23 interminable seconds."

"Throughout the salute he holds an aggressive glare. Then he steps back and looks deep into the distance. Fully embracing his posture as the leader of a death cult, Trump turns and enters the White House. Without a mask. The coup de grâce (for whom, we won’t know for a couple weeks), is Trump moving into an extremely congested, spittle-filled soliloquy—straight to camera—about how our Dear Leader may well now be “immune” from the deadly virus that has killed 210,000 and which is currently inhabiting his lungs, and his White House. The show must go on."

Birkel said...

tim in vermont believes everything on google scholars.
But he distrusts the CDC and WHO because those numbers reveal his arguments.

Meanwhile, the best he finds is a 2% reduction in case positives so long as we all wear masks forever and give power over American's freedom to politicians, which he deems a fair trade.

tim in vermont doesn't do trade-offs.

Francisco D said...

I'm Full of Soup said...
WTF will be the Dems's defense when one of their mask-wearing zealots gets it? Like Biden, Pelosi, Kamala etc?

Maybe there is a reason Madame Pelosi does not want House members to be tested every day.

effinayright said...

steve uhr said...
Trump got covid because he's a leader? He acts like he led the army into battle and took a bullet. What a crock of shit. He got COVID because he was careless, and he's still telling his dwindling number of supporters to be careless as well.
***************

Careless? Every friggin' person he comes into contact with at the WH gets tested every time they visit or are in contact with him.

Unmasked at rallies? Point us to outbreaks at those rallies, will you?

Dwindling number of suppoers? BWAAAhahahahahaaa!! Better lay in a case of tequila to get you through the aftermath of election day. Just the other day there were eight hundred cars on the turnpike between Mas and NH showing their support for Trump.

Biden can't even organize a two-car funeral.

tim in vermont said...

“Repeating”

I guess if you repeat your lies often enough about masks, maybe people will just believe them without checking. Meanwhile, Sweden opened schools a month ago and now cases are climbing again.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/

Deaths follow cases by about a month, so we will see if the new treatments make a big difference. I hope they do and expect they will. This is not an argument that Sweden shouldn’t have opened their schools, but they adamantly refuse to require masks, just saying.

but since we are repeating here.

Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural Experiment Of State Mandates In The US

Mandating face mask use in public is associated with a decline in the daily COVID-19 growth rate by 0.9, 1.1, 1.4, 1.7, and 2.0 percentage points in 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, 16–20, and 21 or more days after state face mask orders were signed, respectively.

I am sorry, but I used to do the kind of statistical analysis of trending data professionally that the Instapundit article is attempting, and an effort like that might have gotten me laughed off of the project, and afterwards, a few concerned inquiries into my state of mind. I could explain why, but your eyes would glaze over and you wouldn’t listen anyway.

What I don’t get is why so many people are adamantly against looking at the real data, but swallow whole any half baked ‘analysis’ from a political website done by political bloggers. I guess it’s because it’s what you want to hear and on some level the masks frighten you.

effinayright said...

tim in vermont said...
"Masks? There isn’t a detectable move down in new cases when they are mandated.”

That piece on mask mandates over at Instapundit should read “Are mask mandates a magic solution? No.” Because that’s all they proved, that a mask mandate can’t stop COVID dead in its tracks. Let’s see what scholar.google.com has to say:
***********

Heh. "google scholars". that's a good one.

Perhaps you would like to comment on the actual EXPERIENCE dealing with covid in Sweden?

Or how about these other sources:

https://rationalground.com/mask-charts/

https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/studies-of-surgical-masks-efficacy-masks-are-useless-in-preventing-the-spread-of-disease/

https://www.technocracy.news/masks-are-neither-effective-nor-safe-a-summary-of-the-science/

https://fee.org/articles/europes-top-health-officials-say-masks-arent-helpful-in-beating-covid-19/


Jim at said...

He got COVID because he was careless, and he's still telling his dwindling number of supporters to be careless as well.

Seven months into a two-week lockdown and you're still spouting this shit.

Go bury yourself in a hole. Permanently. It's the only way to be truly safe.

Yancey Ward said...

Wow, Tim- that study is so full of shit, I don't even know where to start, but I will point out that almost all the supporting data was gathered in places where the masks were mandated after the Spring peak in infections had been reach- so the data was artificial- even without the mask mandates, the case rates would have dropped. They also don't include all the data from this Summer til now where all those same places still mandate masks, and are now seeing increases in COVID.

Again- the signal for mask wearing can't be detected when you look at the entirety of all the data. I am fucking sick and tired of having to deal with your idiotic links that cherry pick the data that way.

Birkel said...

OldManRick is talking about trade-offs.

tim in vermont is not going to like that even a little bit.
Prepare for a "how dare you, sir" followed by a strongly worded letter.

Iman said...

Happy hour soon, uhr!!!

Birkel said...

tim in vermont will now tell us about all the other European countries that are also seeing increases in cases.

And their masking policies don't make a difference.

Now do Hawai'i.

Birkel said...

2% lower for infection cases after 3 weeks is the hill tim in vermont wants to die on.

So the 98% of cases that keep on keeping on leaves is in masks for how many years?

MeMySelf said...

I see others have taken Howard to task for posting an idiotic statement above.

"That's just like the quarter million Dead Trump is responsible for all due to his carelessness and depraved selfishness"

Howard please explain, because I don't understand what it is you're blaming Trump for. How is he responsible and how was he careless and selfish? Is he responsible for what Governors did in their states? Was he careless for stopping travel from China? How was he selfish? Please explain and try and do it with facts, not strawmen and ad hominem attacks.

Michael K said...

Deaths follow cases by about a month, so we will see if the new treatments make a big difference. I hope they do and expect they will. This is not an argument that Sweden shouldn’t have opened their schools, but they adamantly refuse to require masks, just saying.

So, contrary to all data, you expect schoolkids to die ? Wow !

n.n said...

q12345q6789:

No, the point is that your topics are where evidence demonstrates that he is a rational and practical actor, and does not exploit fear (e.g. em-pathetic appeals) to justify his policies; and that your examples are evidence that others do leverage fear ("phobias") to normalize their interests.

Michael K said...

It's easier to just write those people off as lib-tard idiots or commie-psychos.

It's easier to write you off with your blank profile and silly ID.

Michael K said...

Blogger Howard said...
The JCS on quarantine along with half the WH staff. Trump, the Wuhan candidate delivered the China bioweapon to the apex of American power. Passive-aggressive Treason by the mole behind the resolute desk.


Howard could be half right, as is often the case. Somebody delivered this Chinese bioweapon. It would be interesting to learn who.

n.n said...

He got COVID because he was careless, and he's still telling his dwindling number of supporters to be careless as well.

Open air (i.e. not greenhouse effect), and masked and unmasked individuals. The likely explanation for the disparate outcomes and every other event since the pandemic was recognized is that the transmission modes have been micharacterized, and the primary transmission mode is fecal, not droplet, or aerosol. The exponential expansion peaked before the mandates, and they spiked after their enforcement. Other than Planned Parent in New York, New Jersey, Washington, the evolution of the virus has followed the same curve everywhere, with one important exception:

Finito On The Covid Nonsense

Singapore had a horrid problem with PPE in their hospitals like everyone else when Covid hit and their health care workers were getting Covid just like everywhere else. Rather than screaming at people they took what they learned from SARS and instituted militant hand-washing before and after every contact with a person or thing.

They found when they did this that other than being directly exposed to someone coughing or when performing a high-aerosol procedure like intubation their staff didn't need N95s and other high-grade PPE yet their transmission rate to and between their staff went to a statistical zero.

Again: Singapore achieved statistical ZERO health care transmission almost-immediately.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Howard said...
Will ACB ban the use of the aborted fetus stem cells that saved teh Donald?

What drugs are you smoking now, Howie?

I don't know of a single useful therapeutic that comes from fetal pluripotent stem cells.

Monoclonal antibodies most certainly aren't one of them.

So, even if the SC were to ban the use of fetal stem cells (and I'm not clear how or why they would), no one would be harmed by doing so.

That's an impressive level of stupid, even for you

q12345q6789 said...

Michael K said...

It's easier to write you off with your blank profile and silly ID.

LOL.

You are the hero that Trump deserves.
But not the one he needs.

Matt Sablan said...

Will cancer survivors saying not to let cancer dominate you be treated with the same attitude?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Terrific post.

boatbuilder said...

I am old enough to remember when Trump was evil because he knew how serious the pandemic was but didn't tell everyone to panic.

That was what, three weeks ago?

Then Trump was evil because he didn't believe the virus was serious (even though he knew it was serious and didn't tell anybody) and he therefore got it because "karma".

Now he is evil because he won't die and he says he got through it and tells people to go on with their lives.

But nobody else who got it is evil (except Rand Paul and members of the Trump Administration) because they all got it because Trump didn't wear a mask all the time and didn't tell them it was important to panic.

Did I get that right?

MayBee said...

Matt Sablan said...
Will cancer survivors saying not to let cancer dominate you be treated with the same attitude?


Yes! That's what I keep thinking of!

bagoh20 said...

"But are they saying be very afraid and let it dominate you? No, they are not."

I wish it was just that, but it's much worse than that. They're saying every single day that you should be very afraid of not letting them dominate you. They are selectively punishing citizens and groups based on discriminatory classes of religion, and political ideology. If they were just telling us to be scared of the virus, we could decide for ourselves. They don't believe in such things.

"The virus is dangerous, ..."

This is a mostly valueless statement, inserted only out of fear - fear of not saying it before anything less than fear mongering. If you are not being dominated by the fear meme, then you could just say things about Covid without always covering your ass with a little bow to the monster. Lots of things are dangerous, some more dangerous than Covid, but you don't need to crawl on your knees when you talk about them. 99.9% survival rate after contracting it. Is that really "dangerous"? Science.

hstad said...


Blogger steve uhr said...10/6/20, 2:59 PM "...his [Trump's] dwindling number of supporters...?

Nice opinion, but certainly factless fantasy on your part.

I live in CA and quite frankly I'm seeing Trump electioneering signs in mass vs. 2016[saw virtually none]. Now that may just be anecdotal evidence? On the other hand there's something to these massive Pro-Trump rallies in NYC and Hawaii (ultraliberal geographies). I would venture to say that President Trump will not only have a landslide victory, but may also win the 'Popular Vote'.

Drago said...

Greg The Class Traitor: "What drugs are you smoking now, Howie?

I don't know of a single useful therapeutic that comes from fetal pluripotent stem cells."

That is correct.

All useful therapeutics developed from stem cells have come from adult stem cells.

But only all of them.

Howard doesn't know that because......duh. It's axiomatic. And even if he did "know it" right now, by tomorrow he wouldn't.

But if you really want to have some fun, ask Howard to explain how the US Govt used chemical warfare and nerve agents in violation of international law to clear Lafayette Square and, in real meanie fashion, stop the democraticals from burning St Johns Church to the ground.

And then sit back, wait for Howard's answer....and be prepared to laugh your a** off.