Unintended Consequences from the Covid-19 Pandemic (1 Viewer)

[AccessBlaster]

I've often thought that since Trump was a billionaire, TV star and president, it seems rather strange to accuse the man of being stupid! In my view, outlier achievements require the opposite: super-smarts. Everybody makes mistakes, but if someone has repeated success, to me it is probably due to outthinking others. But then I am not an outlier, so what do I know.

If Trump can keep the Covid-19 death toll down to or near seasonal average, and somehow gets most of jobs back the Democratic's could be in trouble come November.

The problem is half the country is hoping for his failure for political reasons.

 

[Jon]

Trump rubs the media up the wrong way. Then again, they were against him anyway because he is a Republican. But perhaps his aggression towards them makes them respond even harder. And then you get over-the-top less believable reporting from the said outlets, leading them to lose credibility. Perhaps its all part of the master plan.

 

[AccessBlaster]

What gives him the "authority" to unilaterally declare what is true or not true?

His end user licence agreement (EULA) that lets him and China have absolute power.

These free programs are not so FREE are they?

They also get special perks from the Government that other business do not receive.

 

[Steve R.]

The political left claims that all there policies are all based on science. Anyone disputing their interpretation of science based policies and the need to pursue certain governmental restrictions to protect the populace is accused of being "uneducated". The political lefts fails to comprehend that science, as new data becomes available, is evolutionary. Early antibody testing suggests COVID-19 infections in L.A. County greatly exceed documented cases.

Based on the results of the first round of testing, the research team estimates that approximately 4.1% of the county’s adult population has an antibody to the virus. Adjusting this estimate for the statistical margin of error implies about 2.8% to 5.6% of the county’s adult population has an antibody to the virus — which translates to approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the county who have been infected. That estimate is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the county at the time of the study in early April. The number of COVID-related deaths in the county has now surpassed 600.

“We haven’t known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limited,” said lead investigator Neeraj Sood, professor of public policy at the USC Price School for Public Policy and senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. “The estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies.”

When a new disease "hits", it is hard to predicate how it will behave. While taking the "safe" cautionary route appears appropriate, it may (in the end) prove to be an over-reaction.

 

[Steve R.]

His end user licence agreement (EULA) that lets him and China have absolute power.

These free programs are not so FREE are they?

They also get special perks from the Government that other business do not receive.

Based on the assumption that an EULA actually creates a supposed "contract".
I contend otherwise, but that is for another convoluted disputable discussion in another thread.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

un-knowing, not stupid, just like richard

It is difficult to imagine how a Ph.D. in a physical science can be called "un-knowing" - particularly since I know the specific subject for which you made that claim. And as you should realize, I know it well enough to be able to quote various parts TO you. So please realize that there is a MASSIVE difference between "don't know" and "no longer interested because I know better."

 

[vba_php]

The political left claims to be for tolerance and free speech, but given the opportunity they label anything that they do not agree with as "hate speech" and/or "harmful misinformation" that must be suppressed.

i would think you would be smart enough, at your age Steve, to realize what kind of bull$hit goes on at a corporate level. why is this realization a surprise to you anyway!?

 

[vba_php]

"no longer interested because I know better."

you WILL know in the future, one way or the other, old man.

 

[vba_php]

Trump rubs the media up the wrong way. Then again, they were against him anyway because he is a Republican.

anybody knows that the majority of the media outlets are left leaning Jon. I'm sure you know that, right? I'm not sure about the BBC though.

 

[Pat Hartman]

BT (Before Trump), I actually was a Bill Maher fan. Even though he is very liberal, I thought he was rational. He could see when the left went off the rails. AT, he succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome and I couldn't watch any more. The left is so far off the rails, they're not even in the same state anymore. America is NOT a socialist country and if they don't stop pushing this, they are going to disappear as a party.

Trump just agreed to "give" the people trillions of dollars. Can the left really top that? Many people are collecting more on unemployment than they were earning as employees because Congress couldn't be bothered to work out the details. Wealthy companies that were never going to shut down and so have to lay off people (like hedge funds) have applied for and gotten loans to pay their employees. Those loans will be forgiven because they were used for the intended purpose. Huge windfall for them because Congress couldn't be bothered to think about how to avoid this.

Trump started buying oil for the national reserve at least a month ago when the price started to drop. I sure hope we have more room and that he's now buying oil from our good friend Saudi Arabia. But even if he's buying from US and Canadian producers and paying them $10 a barrel or whatever their break even cost is, it's a net plus for us. He wouldn't be taking $37 a gallon from US producers. He'd just have to give it back as subsidies to keep them afloat. I think we're currently buying about 30% of our oil from Saudi Arabia.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, and all the rest of the internet sources that control what we see are a clear and present danger to the US and other democracies of the world. They have convinced our government at least that they are benign and just give people a platform and so should not be held responsible for content. I believe that once they meddle with content in ANY way, they become responsible for it and the laws protecting them need to be removed.

The only meddling they should do is to ensure the safety of individuals. Hate speech is in the eyes and ears of the reader/listener but negativity directed at individuals and even companies could be construed as harassment and so be banned and continued behavior should result in expulsion. This is always a slippery slope but rather than searching for "hate" speech via algorithms (which we all know exhibit bias because they are written by humans), they should be leaning more toward responding to complaints.

The general public doesn't understand how their news feeds and searches are biased so they succumb to the effect of confirmation bias. "Everyone" hates Trump so I must hate him also or I am a bad person. If all they ever click on are negative stories, that's all they'll ever see in their feed unless they get to the end of the list. Favorable reporting is not eliminated, it is just pushed so far down the list that you can't actually see it. I once played with my yahoo home page to prove this to a friend. After a couple of weeks, All I could see on the main page was news about the royal family of the UK with some other royals slipped in also.

I stopped using Google as a default years ago. I use duckduckgo or bing for searching. Sometimes I use Google for technical stuff if the other two don't provide the answer I need.

 

[zeroaccess]

Evidently Mark Zuckerberg, under the auspices of "harmful misinformation" is censuring those who do not agree with government Covid-19 guidelines. Very "1984" of Zuckerbeg. What gives him the "authority" to unilaterally declare what is true or not true?

Coronavirus protests test Facebook's free speech pledges

The political left claims to be for tolerance and free speech, but given the opportunity they label anything that they do not agree with as "hate speech" and/or "harmful misinformation" that must be suppressed.

We have to make an exception for harmful misinformation. For example, people sharing miracle cures that are unproven and potentially dangerous.

I'm a firm believer in free speech, but sorry - our species has proven that we need some guardrails.

 

[vba_php]

people sharing miracle cures that are unproven and potentially dangerous.

there ARE mysteries. for example, this man, which happens to be faithful:

Padre Pio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

then of course, there are frauds, like this dude:

Peter Popoff Ministries

Dream Bigger

peterpopoff.org

 

[AccessBlaster]

BT (Before Trump), I actually was a Bill Maher fan. Even though he is very liberal, I thought he was rational. He could see when the left went off the rails.

I know every once and awhile he is spot on, his videos from home lately are pretty good. But I do recall him rooting for the economy to crash, so they could blame Trump. But that is the mindset of today's socialist.

 

[AccessBlaster]

We have to make an exception for harmful misinformation.

Wonder who gets to decide that, let me guess the left?

 

[Pat Hartman]

We have to make an exception for harmful misinformation. For example, people sharing miracle cures that are unproven and potentially dangerous.

Therein lies the problem. The left was lobbying to censor Trump because he suggested using a 50 year old, well tested, Malaria drug because many doctors had had success with it. And then they accused him of murder because some ignorant person ingested fish tank cleaner and died.

That's why I suggested targeted threats and negativity only. That is pretty clear to identify.

I do recall him rooting for the economy to crash

That was when I left him.

I also used to watch Rachel Maddow occasionally BT just to get an idea of what the left was thinking. And I still do watch when she does the commentary after Trump gives a speech. I listen and I think, "what speech did she listen to, Trump never said that". The Trump hating media doesn't actually report what Trump says (unless it was something stupid), they report what they THINK he said as if it were fact.

 

[AccessBlaster]

If you notice the cable channels only cover "Trump's" portion of the update. When the scientist come on to explain the update they all break so as not to hear any good news. They are busy fact checking Trump instead of reporting on the experts and their conclusions.

 

[zeroaccess]

Wonder who gets to decide that, let me guess the left?

Not any political faction.

 

[zeroaccess]

I also used to watch Rachel Maddow occasionally BT just to get an idea of what the left was thinking.

I think this is a large part of the problem. Watching an opinion personality and assuming that "that's what this whole swath of people (the opposing political faction) think". This us vs them mentality, this political tribalism, is killing us.

 

[vba_php]

This us vs them mentality, this political tribalism, is killing us.

stay out of it, zero, or you'll be just like them.

 

[zeroaccess]

If you notice the cable channels only cover "Trump's" portion of the update. When the scientist come on to explain the update they all break so as not to hear any good news. They are busy fact checking Trump instead of reporting on the experts and their conclusions.

Actually, many of us would prefer to just have the health experts give the update themselves. Would save us from having to do all that fact-checking