I just want to talk about the mask. Is he taking it off, so that it symbolizes an eagerness to get us back to normal life, or is he putting it on, which would represent a more cautious approach, prioritizing safety over economic and social activity? I guess you can see it either way. The text noncommittally informs us that he would "release evidence-based national coronavirus guidance."
The photo caption says it's a picture of Biden removing the mask, but why choose that photo? Isn't Biden the one who would impose a national mask requirement? I'm not sure. The column is only telling me that he'll do what "evidence" supports... and not even that he'll do anything — he'll just "release... guidance."
But I'd like to know "What America would be like"! I see the picture and it stimulates hopefulness that we're about to rip off the masks and move forward. But I'm more of an optimist. I'd see the glass as half full, not half empty. But this legendary glass has always had a set amount of water in it and half empty or half full was always only about the observer's state of mind.
A man with the mask half on or half off is in the middle of an action that he controls. He's either in the process of getting fully into the mask or getting fully out of the mask. It's not a test of the observer's state of mind. My optimism might lead me to see him as taking off the mask, and I am actually right if that caption is true, but the issue is "What America would be like under a President Biden," and I think Biden is the candidate who wants to err on the side of shutting us down.
When it comes to coronavirus, Trump seems to be the optimist and Biden the pessimist. I'm not convinced the 2 are really that different. Differences are exaggerated in the lead-up to the election. Once the votes are counted and the outcome of the election is known, we'll get something more like a rational discussion of what to do about the pandemic. Until then, I'm not trusting any half-masked grins.
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He takes off his mask and coughs in his hand.....almost EVERY speech. Pretty gross. Especially, since as President, he should be following the CDC recommendations of coughing into your elbow, but then....it's just Joe being Joe. Vote Trump 2020!!
That's not like asking whether a glass is half full or half empty.
The glass is too big.
It's not the mask, it's the muzzle.
Depending on your leaning, either activity - on or off - could be optimistic. I encounter a lot of people who swear by wearing masks being key to reopening.
My leaning is taking it off is optimistic.
Biden promises less in the future than Trump delivered before the outbreak became a pandemic. Trump took strong action to curtail the spread of the disease, rather than just issue "guidance". The CDC, meanwhile, issued evidence-based guidance like "don't wear masks in public". Which helped more?
The column is only telling me that he'll do what "evidence" supports.
Just ask yourself if over the last four years the Democrats have been the party of “evidence”.
Ask whether Joe Biden has been the party of “evidence” with respect to his own campaign, and the President’s remarks about Charlottesville.
Then vote accordingly.
Once the votes are counted and the outcome of the election is known, we'll get something more like a rational discussion of what to do about the pandemic.
That there is a glass-half-full statement. Hope people settle down a little.
The glass isn’t half full or half empty. It’s twice as big as it should be.
There’s another reason why it matters if he’s taking it off or on. He’s touching the front of the mask, which is potentially contaminated if he’s been wearing it, thereby contaminating his fingers.
Trump has been successful at achieving actual results, but much less successful at symbolic actions. He failed to get a border wall built (failed symbol), but illegal immigration is down (successful real result). He failed to get Obamacare revoked, but succeeded in eliminating the mandate. He failed to lock her up, but leaves office with Hillary's reputation in tatters, in the eyes of history. He failed to negotiate a trade deal with China, but our trade deficit with China is way down. He failed to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, and Iraq, but US deaths in those places are way down (remember how the WaPo used to have a monthly page showing the pictures of dead US service persons?). He refused to submit the Paris Climate accord to congress, but history will show the largest 4 year decline in greenhouse gas emissions during the Trump term.
What we will see from the Democrats? A multitude of symbolic successes with no practical impact: increased Covid testing (See! We did something!) embrace the Paris Climate accord (See! we did something!) Congressional resolution decrying racism (See! we did something!). Probably a change in tax law that looks like punishing the rich, but which will have little or no impact on gov. revenues. (See! we did something!). "Commonsense" gun restrictions which will be found unconstitutional (see! we did something!).
serious questions
since Sept 14th, case numbers case numbers have been SKYROCKETING past RECORD HIGHS!
meanwhile, the seven day average of daily deaths is steady
What the?
If that many people are getting The Worst Disease in HISTORY!!!!, where are the deaths?
If it's not killing people, what then?
should we be Super Concerned about it? Why?
Masks are the magic rabbits feet that make people comfortable-ish going out again and spending money. We’re never getting rid of them. It’s going to be like wearing pants, as we have been reminded many times. “What’s the problem!? You wear pants to be polite every day, right? Just wear the damn mask!”
It’s completely irrational and anti-science—there is literally no actual protective benefit whatsoever in the way masks are actually used—but the dummies and the emotionally unstable have won the day on this one, and this is the price we have to pay to leave our houses, in perpetuity.
Well done, frightened and stupid sheep of America 👍
But I'd like to know "What America would be like"!
Well...I can tell you.
It would be California on STEROIDS. Look at California. Dictator for a Governor. A failed state with a population of elites and serfs. Haves and have-nots. Homeless in abundance. Businesses failing or fleeing from the State for their lives. Ruined industries, agriculture dying. Power outages all the time. High taxes. Unaffordable and broken. Micro managed in everything we do. Divided and broken. BANKRUPT!
Yes. Vote for Biden and get the Godzilla version of California.
I told you so.
"What America would be like under a President Biden."
It would look a lot more dire than that photo, what with Biden's Long Dark Winter (tm) a-comin'.
I do NOT understand, why americans are So upset about headscarf mandates?
It's Just like wearing pants, a form of politeness required By Law
It's a Truly minor imposition...
It is Not like women are being required to wear Burkas... Yet
Anecdotal evidence clearly shows, that wearing a head covering reduces the likelihood of rape, so; be Polite! wear your head covering!!!
</sarc?
The hand with the mask is a distraction so you don’t look at the other hand taking the money. It’s magic.
“Biden promises less in the future than Trump delivered before the outbreak became a pandemic. Trump took strong action to curtail the spread of the disease, rather than just issue "guidance". The CDC, meanwhile, issued evidence-based guidance like "don't wear masks in public". Which helped more?”
Here is my take at Biden’s proposals to address the pandemic:
Double the amount of testing available.
How’s he going to do that? Huge contracts with big donors wit toothless performance guarantees? Seen that before - a lot with Democrats. Te reality is that we have massively more testing available under Trump tha we would have under either Croojed Hillary or Sundowner Joe one of the things that Trump did was to create a unique public/private partnership where the government’s job was to put together the different parties, and what they needed. Most of the substantial increase involved facilitating private testing. There is plenty of private testing facilities in the country. The problems were in providing them with the testing supplies needed, and the permitting required. And that required facilitation up the line. Moreover, they put together those who needed testing, with those capable of providing it (yes, that was a real problem). This is the sort of thing that is taught in Business School, and not where Dem politicians get their degrees. Oh, and they came up with the idea of drive through testing. Etc. And what would Bide do except to throw billions at the problem, with the metric of success not being how quickly could people get testing results, but how much money was squandered.
Increase production of PPEs
Again, fighting yesterday’s battles. I think that there is probably a glut right now on PPEs in this country. At least here in Phoenix/Snottsdale, every grocery store, Pharmacy, Walmart, etc, has big displays of hand sanitizer and (mostly) disposable masks. I think both Walmart and Kroger’s are running Buy One/Get One Free sales for both right now. Both are back in the Dollar Tree and 99¢ stores (they also now have back in denatured alcohol, but only the 50% stuff which probably doesn’t work well enough).
How did we get there? Trump’s task force last spring again put together public and private resources. Hand sanitizer is now being made by numerous companies that otherwise produce drinking alcohol. And numerous companies that use sewing machines were recruited to cutover production to sewing masks.
Trust the experts
The same experts who got us into the problem in the first place, and can’t agree among themselves about the severity of the problem and how best to address it.
What Biden is really saying is to trust the bureaucrats. But they have been a big part of the problem all along. The CDC had centralized testing, was capable of maybe several hundred tests a day, and wasn’t even doing that right. Now we have tens of millions already tested, and probably better than a hundred thousand tests a day. Bureaucrats do what they are good at, which is grow their empires in the putative pursuit of addressing pressing problems. But, unlike businesses, there is rarely any real negative feedback from failing to address those problems, except for the to ask for even more money.
Protect Obamacare
Duh!
1) We'll have a softer approach to China.
2) We'll have a softer approach to Iran.
3) We'll have a tougher approach to Israel.
4) We'll have a softer approach to Germany paying for it's share of NATO.
5) We'll stop building a border wall and in fact, open up border entries in those walls.
6) Free stuff to include: healthcare & college, except that it won't be actually 'free'. You'll just have it taken out of your paychecks so you won't have to write physical checks for it. Just like your income taxes. So you'll think its AOK.
7) We'll have to learn the meaning of "Badakathcare" and "Trudinternaddinaldepressure".
All in all, he'll be in office for about 4 months, but it'll be a laugh-a-minute. Then the Totalitarians would take over.
If the photo was a true picture of the future 'Biden' administration, he'd be taking off the mask and Kamala Harris would be behind it.
I've been seeing Biden commercials with people in scrubs criticizing Trumps response to the CV-19. Let's just ignore Pelosi's Invite to come down to Chinatown to celebrate their New Year. "It's Safe" she said. Also, forget de Blasio saying the same. The credentials of the "scrub people", when you get close enough to the screen to read the nanosecond burst of their CV, show they aren't Virologists, Immunologists, or infectious disease specialists. Who is zoomin who here? Cases do not equal hospitalizations or deaths. Try reading "Moral Panics" by Erich Goode.
"What America would be like under a President Biden."
See above article that Ann posted titled "But if you go wearing pictures of Chairman Mao.... you are going to make it with Portland people anyhow."
He’s not taking off the mask yet. But if somehow he’s elected you just wait. The mask will come off then.
In the unlikely event that Biden wins, it is even more unlikely that either he or Kamala will be running the show. By then maybe the Grey Eminence behind them will become less grey.
international "the good guys"
Yeah- all the players who stuff Biden-mob family coffers. Clinton coffers. Pelosi coffers.
+ all the other democratics in the FBI CIA etc...
"we'll get something more like a rational discussion of what to do about the pandemic"
So, you don't know if Trump or Biden will resist the radical left more but you do expect rationality to break out. Okaayy.
Of course, we are not just talking about Biden being prez. There's a good chance the Senate will go Dem. So, what will an all-Dem America look like? Might that be something nice women like Althouse would want to vote against? If not, why not?
Biden forgets his mask, can't find it at "rally" with Obama yesterday
Cringe.
I agree with the picture of California as the Biden future. Michael Anton's book, "The Stakes," makes it pretty clear. Another example is the Australian state of Victoria.
Must be nice to have an entire "news' publication dedicated to electing democraticals.
"Once the votes are counted and the outcome of the election is known, we'll get something more like a rational discussion of what to do about the pandemic."
If Trump wins do you REALLY think a "rational discussion" on ANY topic will be the result?
Thanks Bruce Hayden for your take on Biden's covid plan. I agree completely, and I think that the tv ad which features that is a very weak ad.
Gilbar,
The reason cases are skyrocketing is because the official cdc definition of a "case" is a positive lab test.
1 sensitivity thresholds were increased in July. This means that a test that would have been negative in June would be positive in August.
2 the number of cases is bullshit. Do more testing, you will always find more cases. What is not being reported is te rate of cases. Absent that, it is shit.
I predict that by the end of November few states will require masks.
Kung flu is over in 3 more days, regardless of who wins. It may take a month or so to wind down but it is definitely on the roof.
In Puerto Rico dept of ed is telling my wife she will be back in the classroom in January.
John Henry
He's taking it off. If he were putting it on, his right hand would be up near his ear, where the loop is already in place. One does not reach across their face to put the ear loop on.
h said...
He failed to get a border wall built (failed symbol),
400+ miles of wall so far hardly seems like failure. That's the 30' bollards.
Construction continues apace.
And Mexico is, (arguably) paying for it.
illegal immigration is waaaay down.
John Henry
"When it comes to coronavirus, Trump seems to be the optimist and Biden the pessimist. I'm not convinced the 2 are really that different."
There's nothing 'seems' about it.
Maybe Biden is just one of those idiots who wears a mask around one ear, or with is nose always sticking out.
A vote for Biden is a vote for even more government edicts from on high. Edicts that will be ignored by the favored few in DC.
i think we're supposed to find the smile charming. And what is this "what America would be like under Biden" as if a new absolute monarch is about to be crowned. America under Biden isn't going to be all that different than it is under Trump, only worse. Unless you're a government bureaucrat, then it's going to be like a pig in sh*t.
"The text isn't particularly interesting. We're told Biden will impose environmentalist regulations, defend Obamacare, protect "dreamers," accomplish a "project of racial healing," and rejoin the "good guys" in foreign affairs."
Jesus, Althouse. Biden's flying monkeys will destroy the energy industry, double energy costs, destroy the medical system, eliminate all restrictions on immigration, enshrine racial hatreds in public policy, and hand direction of our foreign policy over to China. And you want to talk about useless scraps of cloth. Thank God you don't vote.
Well, I despise, detest, and distrust the WaPoo, the NYT, and the rest of the media.
What a great Photo. Biden's a man of VIGOR, who looks half his age. They must have looked through a hundred photos to find that one.
Anyway, the USA will be GREAT under Biden. Remember that Trump depression? Remember all those endless wars Trump got us into? Remember all those bad trade deals? Remember the open borders? Remember the systematic Racism? Well, Biden will FIX all that.
And remember all those terrible stories about corruption and incompetence in the White House? I can promise you, you will never again read those stories under a Biden Administration. Remember the daily updates about CV-19? Those will disappear too.
That's just how he wears it sometimes.
This morning Meet the Press featured a succession of female reporters all outdoors and clearly socially distanced—NO ONE WAS IN SIGHT IN MOST CASES—yet all were masked. I had trouble making out what they were saying through the masks.
Virtue signaling I suppose.
Also a frightening, foreboding sight—all the masks were black.
Is Biden's mind half empty or half full?
And what proportion of that half is fully functioning?
The EPA power grab over every bit of water in the US - including puddles in fields after rain - was one of the most far-reaching regulatory intrusions into everyone's life ever. Previously, the EPA controlled "navigable waters" such as rivers and lakes. Obama decided they should countrol all water in the US. Trump stopped that damn foolishness.
So yes, Biden will re-institute that EPA power grab. And many, many more. Stop him now!
As a matter of body mechanics it's pretty clear he's taking it off since he's holding the front and it's hanging from one ear from which he'll pull it off. Then look at the video linked above where he rummages through pockets, finds a mask and puts it on -- he does what people do, holds the mask by the ear strings and puts it on by pulling them over his ears simultaneously, no mask front contact. It's really the only way that works well.
400+ miles of wall so far hardly seems like failure. That's the 30' bollards.
Construction continues apace.
And Mexico is, (arguably) paying for it.
illegal immigration is waaaay down.
And Mexico, along with other central American nations, have, perhaps for the first time, a compelling interest to pursue emigration reform to mitigate progress at both ends of the bridge and throughout.
So, he's fixing to unmask, and show us the REAL Uncle Joe. Safe to say that none of us will like it, but it'll be too late by then.
I called it a while back -- Ann's rationalized a vote for Jorgenson because Trump didn't convince her he would bring us salvation -- as if anyone could do that. But demanding the impossible and not getting it, well, reason enough to reject the only chance we have.
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