Gromnir

1) the billions was iran's money being returned to them. 2) iran stopped pursuing their nuke weapons development. sure, iran giving up development o' nukes weren't a huge sacrifice when it were so easy to quick restart such at anytime, but there weren't a way to stop iran regardless. get iran to voluntarily give up their development were deemed significant enough legitimize the return to iran o' their money. again, am not defending the original deal, but iran were adhering to the deal and the billions they received were their own money which decades past were seized in banks 'cross the globe. HA! Good Fun!

am agreeing the iran deal should not have been ended by the current admin. we weren't in favor o' the iran deal. understatement. however, there were every indication that iran were actual following the deal. absolutely nobody were claiming that iran were trying to game the system by sneaky developing nukes while the deal were in place, and is not as if nations weren't looking for such evidence. not a good deal, but it were a deal and it were being adhered to by all parties concerned. as much as we didn't like the deal when it were penned and signed, we were even less in favor o' breaking. US broke. done. sanctions imposed. past tense. nevertheless, given realities o' 2020, am favoring easing o' sanctions. HA! Good Fun!

good luck. take care of your family. take care of yourself. take care.

gonna state an opinion unrelated to anything current being discussed in the thread: US sanctions on iran should be eased during the covid-19 crisis. can reimplement anytime in future, but for the moment am believing this is a right thing to do situation. sure, sanctions is even more effective now than they were before current health crisis in iran, but not only is there a moral component to consider in maintaining sanctions at this time, but have observed previous how the aphorism 'bout power corrupting is more valid when inverted: power corrupts. powerlessness corrupts absolutely. am not actual suggesting situation is so bad that iran is being pushed to the point they can do the unthinkable. nevertheless, wouldn't take much for iran problems to spin outta control too fast for there to be meaningful opportunities to react. and again, more important, am thinking given the nature o' the current crisis (a pandemic) there is a choice which is right. am not so naive to believe lessening sanctions decreases iranian terror efforts now or in the future. am not saying lessen sanctions buys the US future good will. the us-iran relationship is functional unfixable particular as long as is such a strong non-secular component to the divisions. am recognizing how many will see lessening o' sanctions as little more than an opportunity for iran to direct more money into military and terror efforts directed at the US. probably right. again, am suggesting a temp easing o' US sanctions on iran. would be the right thing to do. HA! Good Fun!

like too many other current social issues, people chose sides on coronavirus, not that there ever were sides. if an issue becomes binary, then there will be predictable polarization which leads to the predictable echo box and groupthink culture we has seen develop beyond our expectations this past decade. once people choose a side, then it becomes near impossible to move 'em. again, covid-19 is not a sides kinda thing. regarding the current pandemic, there were a paucity o' information which initially made multiple outcomes plausible. given the severity o' too many o' those outcomes, our opinion back in january was that it made sense to prepare for worst case scenarios even if we hoped for best... but we are so past that point. nevertheless, we are faced with endemic me and mine selfishness o' 2020 peoples as well as the near impossibility o' moving individuals from one side to another, even if the sides were never real. we won't see people buy into and embrace the need for social distancing until they abandon their emotional attachment to a side and recognize how selfishness does more to hurt us all as 'posed to genuine helping me and mine. this is not an apocalypse kinda moment, least not the 90-minute movie or sf novel apocalypse norm. assume 1% death rate directly attributed to disease and then add a couple more % points if worst-case scenario health care surge measures fail. even worst-case, is not the pockyclypse kinda situation which has us embracing "shiny and chrome." faced with a serious situation, people should try to stay calm. panic is self destructive and all too often people in high pressure situations behave in a manner which is jaw-dropping foolish. however, there needs also be a recognition that short o' panic inducing drama, am uncertain people will abandon sides. listen to fauci and look at italy triage situation and nevertheless remain unconvinced there is anything to see here? wtf? so need to get past this sides culture which spread less quick than covid-19, but may end up being more lethal. HA! Good Fun!

another repeat https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/heartbreaking-video-shows-coronavirus-devastating-toll-on-italy/ we are finding out daily how the transmissibility o' the pathogen is higher than original believed. china resorted to draconian measures to keep their numbers as low as they are, and is every reason to believe the chinese could be downplaying how bad their covid-19 outbreak has been. chinese also were initial doing the chill thing-- went so far as criminalizing those individuals who were warning their fellow citizens o' a potential disease problem in wuhan. etc. gd were wondering recent why we cannot have nice things? answered. HA! Good Fun!

usa were so lucky to have forewarning o' the coronavirus. china made worse by hiding, but were still a huge advantage this disease started elsewhere. we first became aware o' the pandemic potential in later 2019 and we knew by late january 2020. lucky. too bad we #@%$ed it up, eh? so much time wasted. only now is personnel and equipment being mobilized responsibly... at least more responsible. so, enjoy the flowers. HA! Good Fun! ps would be so ez to dismiss as yet another example o' floridaman ignorance, but sf folks, living under new shelter in place restrictions, ain't doing much better. ... people in china and italy must look at such images with shock.

in the most bass akwards and krazy twist, am confronting reality that best case scenario results in trump being re-elected. we don't want another four years o' trump. is hard to imagine a worse President. no remaining viable candidate could be worse than trump. however... at the moment a majority o' republicans, based on recent polling, are not worried 'bout covid-19. such will not be the case if we get a trajectory similar to italy insofar as infections and deaths is concerned. only takes a few % point loss o' the otherwise ironclad obtuse base to doom a trump reelection. deaths in large numbers and/or months o' quasi-lockdown following the market nightmares is gonna eventual take its toll, even if toll is only a few points. am not wanting italy situation. vaccine is, at best, 'bout a year away, which means if even after a summer respite, the virus will likely be back in september/october and will be in full swing by november. the uk study we linked earlier with +1 million deaths were not worst case scenario. we checked and +2 million were worst case scenario. best case scenario requires an almost complete lock down o' everything for the next year. not next two weeks or months. to prevent an explosion o' cases until a viable vaccine is developed and has widespread distribution, study suggests best case requires near total lockdown for a year. year... earliest. but... quasi-miracle happens and spring followed by an early summer arrives this year and covid-19 proves just as weak to heat and humidity as is flu. vaccine gets sooper fast development, production and dissemination beyond any expectations. prayer ends up working. etc. so, we all get very lucky and covid-19 patients do not overwhelm medical facilities for months with patients dying in hospital hallways as they is triaged with brutal but necessary efficiency. such a best case eventuality is the one for which we should all hope. anybody doubt such a result convinces republicans and independents that trump were right (or right enough) all along and they vote him in for another four years in november? am not hoping for a continued trump Presidency. nevertheless, am genuine praying we get a situation which makes another four year o' trump inevitable. #$%& HA! Good Fun!

our complaints 'bout obama stimulus is old and well trod. is not that we were 'gainst government spending during a time o' most recent major recession, but rather that the money were so poorly spent. coulda' boosted economy much more effective with infrastructure investment... but again, is an old argument and not worth revisiting yet again. am recognizing how doomed is handing $1000 to millennials and others, but we do not know o' a better solution at this time. the thing is, with social distancing being so important, is not as if grand new infrastructure programs is gonna be possible. likewise, is worst possible time to be developing and implementing government programs to help educate people on a bit o' fiscal responsibility. social security offices recently closed, w/o warning, and they just ain't equipped to telework on any scale. am suspecting most government agencies is similar under prepared. is gonna be less chance for govt to interact with people so cannot plan programs which require more communication. many secondary issues. am suspecting $1000 wouldn't even come close to getting many Americans flush. for the multitudes who is 'bout to lose their jobs, too many who are not full-time employees and as such won't be getting unemployment, $1000 is a laughable 'mount. all those fraudulent unemployment numbers is gonna become much more transparent in the near future. and for millenials, stimulus is an opportunity to upgrade their game console or purchase a better tv. etc. but again, as much as am dubious 'bout efficacy o' stimulus such as envisioned, given the situation we don't have a better idea for getting money direct to those who need something to get through the next month(s). sucks. no other way to frame it. sucks when a terrible idea might nevertheless be the best idea. HA! Good Fun!

US, UK coronavirus strategies shifted following UK epidemiologists' ominous report For the study, researchers used a simulation model that was originally developed to support pandemic flu planning and modified it to examine the impact of certain scenarios for the coronavirus pandemic. Their models show that under a mitigation strategy: "even if all patients were able to be treated, we predict there would still be in the order of 250,000 deaths in GB, and 1.1-1.2 million in the US." It was not immediately clear what length of time researchers assumed to be the full course of the pandemic. The study concludes that the suppression strategy will likely lead to the disease quickly spreading again once these measures are lifted, and that such measures will be needed periodically until a vaccine is found. It says: "The major challenge of suppression is that this type of intensive intervention package -- or something equivalently effective at reducing transmission -- will need to be maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more) -- given that we predict that transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed." ... one hopes these is worst case scenarios

'course you mean it sounds similar to the chinese/hong kong response? we see emoticon, but we hope this ain't a crude attempt to compare to yang's $1000 per month. a stimulus check is not at all similar ubi. obama did stimulus. stimulus is not new. yang's ubi is not similar save amount o' the check... but 1/12th. now alaska has something similar to ubi, and that ain't changing fact they is gonna get additional stimulus. @Guard Dog y'know, if any other republican frontrunner from 2016 had been elected instead o' trump, he/she would be able to use this crisis to validate the inevitable downsizing and belt tightening which woulda' occurred during the past three years. for decades, republicans, pre trump, has been kinda united in efforts to reduce fed spending. a guy such as jeb bush or even ted cruz would be able to point to efforts to reduce debt as being perspicacious given the need to raise huge amounts o' money during a time o' genuine crisis. if republicans had showed a bit o' backbone and resisted trump worst urges regarding debt, we coulda' been in a much better position to absorb a new crisis. unfortunate we got obama debt plus trump debt and now are gonna add necessary coronavirus debt all in a relative short space o' time. is a bill which needs be paid by somebody, and somebody is you and Gromnir and other americans, regardless o' party affiliation. HA! Good Fun!

the hoarders are a bane. have been trying to shop for our neighbors. we live in a gated community where folks tend towards older. next door neighbor is a cancer survivor in her late seventies who cares for her husband who has alzheimer's. two doors down from us is a woman current going through cancer and her husband who suffers from chf. etc. is 'bout four people we offered to do shopping for them if we were already shopping for self... which has morphed into Gromnir going to store for toothpaste or a single bunch o' parsley just so we have an excuse to do shopping for ___________. this am we went to store with an extreme reasonable list for neighbor folks, save for fact they added tp to list and we forewarned her that such would be highly unlikely. mayonnaise, dozen eggs, 4 avocados, 5lb bag potatoes, frozen peas, frozen corn, and a gallon o' 2% milk. were able to get half gallon o' milk, avocados and a couple cans o' corn in water, which we made a career move regarding and decided to purchase in lieu o' frozen as there were nothing available in the freezer section o' the local store save for ice cream and a few other specialty items . we would mention how the hoarders are most hurting the folks at greatest danger from the virus as is the old and folks with med conditions who cannot run all over town to find food and supplies who is suffering, but am knowing am up against the indifferent to almost anything as long as it doesn't affect me or mine mentality. HA! Good Fun!

have never played star trek: on line, but we have played too many bad star trek games. we kinda liked star trek: starfleet command, but in our experience that title is more notable as an exception than rule for decent star trek pc games, and am recognizing many folks didn't like starfleet command near as much as we did. whatever else, we don't need another bad or forgettable star trek game. has been too many less than stellar star trek titles... which is unfair to the star trek fans who deserve better. +90% o' the time we would prefer a new ip as 'posed to a title which might require a license. am typical more interested in the developer o' a game than the setting or the license o' a new title anyways. that said, is a few unique novels, movies, tv shows, old crpgs and pnp rules systems which we s'pose is deserving o' consideration as inspiration for development o' a new crpg, but our list o' such is gonna be most frequent populated by obscure properties in large part precise 'cause they is obscure. fans is, all too often, annoying baggage which adheres to a license. developer/publisher need meet the unreasonable, fluid and elusive fan expectations. unnecessary burden on a developer. regardless, we would be okie dokie with a good star trek rpg. HA! Good Fun!

am not gonna reexamine our personal criticisms o' deadfire, particularly as we enjoyed deadfire in spite o' those numerous criticisms. however, we will make two quick (brevity is a perpetual elusive goal) observations: 1) deadfire "exploration" were a predictable developer reaction to poe fan criticism. am unable to recollect all the games wherein developers attempted to find some kinda perfect exploration balance. sad reality is developer attempts is near always met with a significant % fan disappointment. sequels is particular targets o' developer efforts to find the ideal mix o' dense locales and opportunities for exploration. sequels which alter the scheme as a response to fan feedback is illustrative as such makes clear just how doomed is developer improvement... and so were the case with deadfire. poe, so we learned from poe feedback, didn't have enough exploration. *sigh* deadfire actual did a goodly job with all those rando mini-encounters spread 'cross the world map. unlike bg1, which had us need overcome near identical encounters ad nauseum, deadfire developers took significant pains to vary those brief world map encounters. each poe2 world map encounter offered a slight different challenge-- quite an achievement considering just how many o' those there were. 'course chances are it didn't matter if challenges were different when players could find an ideal party scheme and set o' tactics with which to overcome 90% o' all encounters. still, deadfire did a much better job o' varying than bg1 and morrowind/oblivion and other sandboxie games which sell exploration. regardless o' efforts and achievements, deadfire exploration were, predictable, criticized by fans. at least as many people were bothered by deadfire solution to poe lack o' exploration. net gain o' 0... at best. exploration is a no-win battle for developers and attempting to add encounters or features to inflate sense o' exploration is wasted blood sweat and tears. 2) the gods y'know, am believing this is gonna be a contrary opinion, but for us, full vo hurt the deadfire gawd stuff. yeah, the gawd confabs were exposition heavy and the info drops were frustrating for the seeming obvious questions you could not ask the gawds, but has been other games with as much ham-fisted narration which did not much bother us. vo made deadfire gawds worse. any other game we woulda' read through the gawd dialogues in seconds and gotten back to killing and 1007ting and faction choices and saving villages, or whatever. however, 'cause deadfire were full vo we actually listened to the gawd's smack. particular during our first run o' deadfire, a few o' the more tedious narrative interruptions no doubt felt much longer than they appeared to be when viewed from the pov o' the game script. am knowing people were general much in favor o' the deadfire full vo even if they didn't approve o' the cost o' vo. contrary pov is deadfire didn't improve our game experience at all and may have hurt 'cause were a personal tendency to listen to the more tedious deadfire dialogue exchanges as 'posed to giving 'em a quick read and click inspection. ... so, maybe not quick observations after all? nevertheless quick for Gromnir. baby steps. HA! Good Fun! ps we did like erik the viking approach to communion with the gods. skip to ~8:30. apologies for poor quality, but is a not particular popular movie, and is a 1989 release, so not many clips from which to choose.

How Did the NBA Push Through 58 Coronavirus Tests When Almost No One Else Can Get Them? aoc deserves her punching bag status in many/most circumstances. folks over on fox love to point out how ridiculous is progressive liberals in general by highlighting aoc blunders. currently the talking heads at fox is blasting the n00b member o' Congress by highlighting her claims that rich folks is getting preferential covid-19 testing. point out aoc has no evidence to support her claims. recognition o' fact multiple nba teams has now tested all their players in spite o' paucity o' available tests may not be proof but is indeed evidence in support o' aoc position. HA! Good Fun!

St. Patrick’s Day partiers hit the town over officials’ pleas amid coronavirus outbreak *sigh* is hard to be angry with the guy who earns a living via a day gig when he decides to violate certain reasonable cdc guidelines in order to keep working, but this is not same. is not a story 'bout a guy desperate to support self and kids 'cause he gots no savings and is literal a couple days o' day-work away from being homeless. ... the real reason bernie sanders' campaign were doomed is 'cause the young people he were counting on to get him the nomination are broken. they won't vote, but the saturday 'fore st. patrick's day they will go out to packed bars in chicago and pittsburgh and southie where they use hand sanitizer to clean their conscience as well as their hands. terrible reality is most o' the boneheads in packed bars tonight won't get serious sick 'cause the under 40 crowd is less vulnerable to covid-19 serious symptoms and are unlikely to die or need hospitalization. sure, the younger folks still become infected, but they do not suffer as does the elderly or those with underlying med conditions. somebody else's grandparent, two degrees o' separation removed from these party clowns, is gonna die and the revelers will never even know they were the cause. meanwhile, spain locks it down and people in italy, where they is subject to wartime triage practices 'cause hospitals cannot handle the numbers o' sick, are continuing to die in increasing numbers. and folks on this side o' the pond shrug and wonder what is all the excitement 'bout while they blame media or a political party for yet another hoax which is invisible but lethal?

julia child and fred rogers HA! Good Fun!

Trump Caught Google Off Guard With a Bogus Coronavirus Site Announcement "A source at Google tells WIRED that company leadership was surprised that Trump announced anything about the initiative at the press conference. What he did say was also almost entirely wrong. There will be a coronavirus testing site, not from Google but from Alphabet sister company Verily. “We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing,” Google tweeted in a statement. “Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.” "Even that, though, was not the original plan. The Verge reported Friday afternoon that Verily had intended the site for health care workers only. After Trump unexpectedly publicized the effort, Verily decided it will let anyone visit it, but can still only provide people with testing site information in the San Francisco area." would be nice if we could get through a Presidential announcement w/o trump indulging in the old razzle-dazzle. even today, trump and pence refused to walk back claims 'bout the website. HA! Good Fun!

have mentioned previous our greater admiration for bobby as 'posed to jfk, recognizing am talking 'bout political contributions. am not gonna undersell jfk wartime efforts and bravery. that said, an impoverished china, stuck with an agrarian and largely pre-industrial economy subject to frequent famines while nevertheless possessing nukes would not be a positive in our mind. as dangerous as you might believe china to be today, am only able to imagine a kinda north korea but magnified +50x as being inherent more dangerous than the current reality. in fact, all the other positives you note combined might not counter the dangers o' a china cut off from globalism. am not gonna suggest we were lucky to have nixon as President. after all, is tough to ignore watergate and vietnam. that said, a great number o' monumental positive changes occurred not just during nixon admin but 'cause o' nixon, not least which were his efforts with china... epa, clean air act, clean water acts and while it receives less press than his efforts to get cancer research funded for first time by fed, nixon is the guy who personal spearheaded the movement to end American policy o' forced assimilation o' native peoples. HA! Good Fun!

solution: have cnn, washington post and nyt do full length articles confirming existence aliens complete with interviews from air force generals and overnight 2/3 o' the tinfoil hat brigade who current believe a government coverup o' alien contact will be arguing with us 'bout media conspiracies and the impossibility o' alien contact. 'cause legitimacy ruins the conspiracy? is how it worked with coronavirus after all. have early washington post and bloomberg articles warning americans o' coronavirus issues being undersold by china and 'cause the schizotypy, undereducated losers distrust the media to a pathological degree, the loons ignore dangers. if coronavirus warnings had remained blog fodder, the k00ks mighta taken more serious? https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/editorial/opinion--trump-fans-believe-him-over-the-media-on-coronavirus-this-is-dangerous/2020/03/10/950cac91-39ad-458c-a9c2-a44da0bbcb82_video.html on a positive note, am needing give ted cruz a rare positive acknowledgement as he has recent recognized the administration's failures insofar as implementing rational and reasonable coronavirus testing. 'course his acknowledgement came while he were needing maintain self-quarantine, so would look kinda obtuse if he didn't, but is curious how he is an exception as 'posed to rule. HA! Good Fun!

is an admitted catch-22 for us. am willing to accept a game with bioware-style tangential romances just so long as such fare is optional. simultaneous, am recognizing is no possible way to do romance better than has been done as long as such fare is kept optional and tangential. to task writers with creating an entire romance arc which may be completed through a relative small number o' insular and discrete dialogue encounters that do not substantial alter the critical path plot in any meaningful way is not gonna produce anything more profound than we has seen in multiple games. try and think o' a compelling romance from a book, movie or whatever, which coulda' been complete exorcised from the work w/o altering the plot. nevertheless, optional and tangential is what we demand. am conceding the manifest unfairness o' our demands and accept the wasted resources. am knowing romances is popular and such will be added to many games we choose to purchase and play. therefore, as long as romances kept optional and tangential, the fundamental irredeemability o' romances is acceptable to us. best crpg romance: ravel unrequited love for tno. core. not optional. ravel's romance is developed from ravel's perspective and player choice does not alter it. ravel love for tno is decided not the bioware-style minigame romance. skip ahead to 5:25 when Gromnir speaks o' the possibilities o' game romance, we talk o' ravel from ps:t. disappointed resignation: precise 'cause o' the effort which goes into realizing bioware-style romances, the chances o' the ravel approach being used simultaneous in a title is diminished. what a loss. HA! Good Fun!

new low/high for fox news gaslighting is tucker carlson blaming liberal media for underreporting coronavirus. what? first stories we are able to recollect distinct (am confident there were other earlier articles, but am referencing stuff we recall) were bloomberg and washington post China Pneumonia Outbreak Spurs WHO Action as Mystery Lingers Specter of possible new virus emerging from central China raises alarms across Asia initial reported US cases were january 21, 2020, almost a week before first time tucker carlson ever mentioned coronavirus on tv or radio, and from that date almost every major media outlet save a few state media stand-ins were giving daily coronavirus updates, along with queries as to why the US were so slow to react to the clear growing threat. the thing is, for folks who only watch fox, they are gonna believe tucker... and trump. aside, and given the lack o' buck stops here from trump... Trump administration budget cuts could become a major problem as coronavirus spreads "The cuts started in 2018, as the White House focused on eliminating funding to Obama-era disease security programs. In March of that year, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, whose job it was to lead the U.S. response in the event of a pandemic, abruptly left the administration and his global health security team was disbanded. "That same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was forced to slash its efforts to prevent global disease outbreak by 80% as its funding for the program began to run out. The agency, at the time, opted to focus on 10 priority countries and scale back in others, including China. "Also cut was the Complex Crises Fund, a $30 million emergency response pool that was at the secretary of state’s disposal to deploy disease experts and others in the event of a crisis. (The fund was created by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.)" Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response "In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency. The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team. Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced. The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10. Meanwhile, throughout 2018, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its director, Mark Green, came repeatedly under fire from both the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And though Congress has so far managed to block Trump administration plans to cut the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps by 40 percent, the disease-fighting cadres have steadily eroded as retiring officers go unreplaced." I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it. " It’s unclear whether the decision to disband the directorate, which was made in May 2018, after John Bolton became national security adviser, was a tactical move to downgrade the issue or whether it was part of the White House’s interest in simplifying and shrinking the National Security Council staff. Either way, it left an unclear structure and strategy for coordinating pandemic preparedness and response. Experts outside government and on Capitol Hill called for the office’s reinstatement at the time. " Its absence now is all too evident. In his remarks Wednesday night, the president talked about travel bans and the resilience of the U.S. economy but made little specific mention of the public health crisis unfolding across America — exactly the kind of detail a dedicated NSC pandemics infrastructure would have pushed to address. A directorate within the White House would have been responsible for coordinating the efforts of multiple federal agencies to make sure the government was backstopping testing capacity, devising approaches to manufacture and avoid shortages of personal protective equipment, strengthening U.S. lab capacity to process covid-19 tests, and expanding the health-care workforce. " now the stuff 'bout former regulations from the obama admin being the cause o' delayed testing, which trump were insisting 'til today were not delayed, is pinocchio worthy in the extreme, but it is true the fed testing scheme (which had nothing whatsoever to do with swine flu standards as swine flu were FLU and delays, such as they were, were all related to vaccine development and not testing) were indeed ill-suited for the current needs given the scope o' covid-19. with initial cdc failed test release and the lack o' urgency related to covid-19, problems with the scheme were compounded. even if trump had acted sooner there woulda' been unfortunate delays insofar as testing is concerned. however, if the administration had started their efforts in january as 'posed to end of february, problems coulda' been overcome much sooner. buck stops. and keep in mind that folks such as bill gates were sounding alarm bells early in the trump administration Bill Gates Warns Of Epidemic That Could Kill Over 30 Million People The Trump administration is ill-prepared for a global pandemic ... am knowing nobody is gonna read all this, but whatever. parting shot is to note that while it seems like we are singling out trump on this, we ain't. as somebody who never passed up a chance to complain 'bout obama blunders, we complained when obama did the exact same f'ng thing early in his admin. bush had made pandemic and disease issues part o' the fundamental nsc structure post 9/11 and early in his administration, obama gutted the nsc presence, though not the cdc as has trump. took the ebola scare to motivate obama to undo initial stoopid. oh, and bush had removed the nsc pandemic personnel early in his admin and only brought such folks back post 9/11. wtf is wrong with these guys? HA! Good Fun!

a kinda curious national emergency declaration filled with self congratulatory puffery and a wealth o' misleading statements. anytime trump stopped reading direct from his pre-written content, he descended into doggerel. President didn't take any responsibility for current lack o' testing available and the slow start on making improvements to the previous testing scheme. if the administration had not marginalized the significance o' the current coronavirus for so long, testing changes woulda' been implemented earlier than last week. recall, the first evidence o' community outbreak in usa were late january. trump flat-out lied 'bout nsc reorganization. "i can't think of a bad relationship," were his claim in reference to state governors? oh, and during the Presidential announcement, the chief executive, who has had direct contact with those who has tested positive but has nevertheless not been tested himself, were shaking hands and violating any number o' social distancing recommendations. trump were bizarre obtuse 'bout his personal testing. trump says he ordered many more ventilators. from where? the problem has been described as one o' the hard reality the ventilators do not exist to supply the need. etc. HA! Good Fun!

quarantine is actual legal problematic. the fed has power to quarantine comes from the commerce clause of the Constitution. fed can quarantine those it identifies as problematic at points o' entry or those it believes may promote spread o' infection via interstate travel. police power, which is basis for most quarantine efforts, is specific reserved to the states. as such, states have more power to quarantine... in theory. the thing is, individual states often do not have a cdc analogue or the necessary apparatus to carry out a quarantine action. so cdc has people and knowledge to implement effective quarantine measures but they actual lack power to do so. states, converse, have legal power to do quarantines, but they rare have peeple and, skill and training to implement quarantine. last large scale quarantines in the US were spanish flu, and if you wanna shock self with predictable tales o' government incompetence and unreasonable obtuseness, you may read history for how effective and humane were such efforts. at times like these we often wonder why isn't the government doing something more? why isn't the government doing something, anything? is hard to believe, but often our government doesn't have the existing capacity to do what needs be done and the current administration gutted the cdc and nsc personnel who were in the best position to mobilize needed national efforts once warning signs became apparent to most. HA! Good Fun!

in our estimation, there were no good reason to force the kavanaugh confirmation once his questionable past came to light. as skarp notes, the position o' Justice is not elected by public and is in fact a lifetime appointment. Justice position is consciously undemocratic and yet such individuals sit in judgement over the entire nation, often for decades. as such, there should not be any serious questions regarding character or competence o' Justice candidates particular as there is so many candidates available. fact such concerns were ignored is shameful. that said, and ignoring skarp's feigned ignorance for the nonce, am gonna recognize how on the short list candidates for the seat on the bench vacated by Justice Kennedy, amy coney barrett were near top o' such a list. am only a teensy bit familiar with molly jong-fast, but given amy coney barrett's record on a score o' issues often mislabeled as liberal, am suspecting molly woulda' been no more happy with collins voting in favor o' an amy coney barrett confirmation than she were with kavanaugh. HA! Good Fun!