Wuhan's first?

by liberal japonicus

I'm back with an Abbott and Costello pun to start things off.

Obligatory exposition. I was an exchange professor in the city of Daejeon, an hour south of Seoul for one year. While there are lots of things that I hope I will write about, I thought that I would start with some discussion of the coronavirus and what I've seen in Korea and Japan. As I'm sure all of you are aware, the Chinese efforts to contain the virus have been pretty intensive/harsh/draconian (adjectives to adjust depending on your opinion of China and the danger of the virus). I'm not sure how much coverage you've gotten where you are, but here is an interesting story, and the twitter video can give all your Chinese learners some stuff to practice listening to. (不客气!) However, because I wasn't in China and I wanted to talk about my personal experiences, I won't talk anymore about that. I'll also leave Ugh's post up so folks can talk about what is happening elsewhere especially in the US. I realize that may be a bit chaotic, but I feel like the situation in Asia is quite different than the US, though reading the Guardian suggests that there are some similarities with the UK and Europe. Anyway, more below.

So, I was finishing up my year in Korea, where the universities start at the beginning of March and one of the early responses was that date was pushed back 2 weeks, with the February graduation ceremonies cancelled. I surmise that some big reasons for this were that there are a lot of Chinese exchange students in the Korean universities (more than Japan) and the Korean college student population is much less tied to a hometown, so you would have people travelling from all over the country. I also guess that this is why they didn't ask elementary, secondary and hagwon (private cram schools) to close. There was a pretty impressive turnout of resources, hand sanitizer dispensers appeared everwhere, all the train stations had consultation tents and temperature cameras, airports have had them since SARS, but they were all fully staffed. Posters everywhere with explanations on handwashing and regular announcements on transport, in stations and other places, all multilingual. All staff with masks, required, a requirement that was extended to every work place shortly after.

I had gone back and forth to Japan a week earlier and when I reentered Korea for the last time (Feb 17), they were interviewing everyone entering with a Chinese passport, and foreigners with longterm visas were no longer permitted to go thru the automatic immigration barriers. The last one seemed more performative, in that Koreans were still allowed to use the automatic gates, but I suppose they wanted a check on all foreigners. However, I'm not sure how they would have told the Chinese from the Koreans for the automatic barriers, though it is possible that they could have flagged their passports, and they directed me because I was more obviously foreign.

This was before the cluster in Taegu, South Korea, which was the airport that I have been travelling thru the most this year. Here are two links about that cluster
from the Guardian and the BBC. This is a great set of graphics from Reuters detailing clusters and explaining why the Taegu cluster raised such red flags. The interaction between the church at the center of the Taegu cluster and Korean reaction is something I'll try to take up in a later post when I discuss Christianity in Korea.

I also can't find it, but when the first few people who test positive for the virus show up, both in Korea and Japan, they will publish a detailed itinerary of where they were. This Korean article is a rough example, and there is a post about information and information technology in the works.

As most of you realize, left/right mappings are always complicated by internal politics and history, so one country's political ecosystem never neatly maps onto another country's, but for shorthand, the current administration is left, the previous right leaning President, Park Geun-Hye having been impeached. but the current administration of Moon_Jae-in is assumed to be more sympathetic to China as well as dealing with North Korea (something that interacts with Trump's call for SK paying a larger share of defense) All this is an interesting mix, so there is quite a bit of argy-bargy about how South Korea has not stopped all Chinese from entering the country as evidence of communist leanings. And there are people on the left who are quite disappointed with Moon's tenure, and the virus is providing a locus for pent up anger, but I didn't really get as deep an understanding of the currents to be able to confidently explain them.

As a side note, for me, the received wisdom was that Park Geun-Hye was a buffoonish character who was manipulated, but a good Korean friend said, when I wondered, after passing a group of people handing out leaflets in front of a banner with her face why this was still a thing, she said that she had met her in the context of her work and she was actually quite sharp and her impeachment was due to larger forces, which gave me pause and something to think about as the Democratic primaries kick into high gear. But back to the story.

When I departed from Korea out of Taegu for the last time, it was the last flight as the route was suspended the next day. As a point of contrast between Japan and Korea, I returned to announcements that all foreigners who had visited Taegu would be banned from entering Japan. Again, since all the flights from Taegu had been cancelled until further notice, the action was completely meaningless as there was no way to know if a foreigner had visited Taegu, except as a retroactive step, if someone had entered Japan, come down with corona and, in the course of investigating, was found to have visited Taegu, it immediately becomes the fault of the person rather than the system that failed to keep them out.

This raises one of the points I think distinguishes Korea and Japan. People often say that Korean has a 'ppallippalli' culture (link, link) and the response to corona is an example of that. Another friend suggested that Korean society was a lot like something that would be designed by a 16 year old genius: brilliant ideas, but not enough lived experience to avoid huge potholes. Still, the idea of not waiting, but doing something, seems to be baked into Korean culture.

On the other hand, Japan is a country that changes slowly, if at all. Outside of the Meiji revolution, (itself a rather protracted affair, but quite short compared to previous history), Japan is the opposite of ppallippalli. Karl van Wolferen, in The Enigma of Japanese Power, likened Japan to a hugh ship that can be turned only incrementally and currently (he was writing in the late 80's) is without a rudder. The book is not often on lists of books to read, in part because it offended Japanese so much, but it seems to me that the current administration of Abe Shinzo is an exemplar of this. For example, the day before yesterday, Abe announced that elementary and secondary schools should close until the start of the spring break (Japan school year starts in April, so the last few weeks of classes, which include graduation are in March) However, there was apparently no consideration of families with 2 working parents, nor understanding that hospital nursing staff will be a particular problem. This seems like a studied ignorance of women and society (a post about differences and similarities between Korea and Japan is on the back burner as well) but it is likely that the announcement permits Abe's government to claim they did what they could and schools will, in the absence of clear guidance, make various nods to the policy without actually doing it. Of course, with the Olympics coming to Tokyo, the concern is that it will impact that, and because Japan has become so dependent on tourism, there is a fine line to tread. I've got this open on my computer, which might be interesting if you want to see what's happening in Japan. But I'm not too optimistic with the reports of the cruise ship quarantine being a fiasco, and reports that hospitals are refusing to test for corona.

I'll finish up here, I'd be interested in seeing how much of this is familiar to all of you and what you are seeing where you are. Stay safe and wash your hands!!

[added]
Just as I hit post, I remembered that Hilzoy had posted a few times about dealing with flu, as well as getting a guest post, which I link here as they still have good information in them.
https://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2005/10/bird_flu_prepar.html
https://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2009/04/swine-flu-what-we-should-do-for-one-another.html
https://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2009/04/swine-flu.html
https://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2005/11/quarantine.html

Comments

[JanieM]

wj -- I'm sure that's part of it. It's not all of it. Some people are just gonzo. Luckily for the rest of us that tetanus is not contagious.

[Hartmut]

I always took vaccination as a natural part of life and was quite surprised when I learned (as an adult) that there is* fundamental opposition to it from some groups (and not all of them religious lunatics or ideologues). And I have no first hand experience of major lethal outbreaks around here.

*historical opposition had at least some merit since the original smallpox vaccination carried a significant risk that would not be deemed acceptable for a modern treatment.

[hairshirthedonist]

A friend of mine who is irredeemably anti-vax posted a meme reading something like "You want me to vaccinate my kid to protect your kid who's already been vaccinated. How does that make any sense?"

Of course, no - I want you to vaccinate your kid to protect all the people who can't be vaccinated, like infants(!) for example. I guess the idea that there could be anything but a selfish motivation is beyond some people.

[wj]

The one that got me was a friend who tried to tell me that those childhood diseases were dying out anyway, and the vaccination programs had nothing to do with it. And this guy is well educated and in the health care field! Amazing.

[John D Thullen]

The entire conservative movement is Wilmer Krusen heading up the malignant parade of Republican misgovernance.

With any number of jackbooted nationalist hater Gautleiters right behind.

[nous]

I have family members who are vaccine paranoid. One is quite politically involved on the local level with the GOP, where it spills over. They are also homeschoolers and creationists and into homeopathy and quite pro-life. There's a whole ecology of alternative facts and truths beyond argument going on there.

They read the VAERS database as if there is a cause-and-effect relationship between a data entry and a death and not just a correlation.

They talk to and believe parents who claim that their child's death happened as a result of vaccines and believe that the companies producing those vaccines are covering up known risks.

They think that vaccine producers are bypassing important safety studies (like double blind tests with a placebo), not processing how such a test would be medically unethical and morally inexcusable.

They read peer reviewed articles about non-specific reactions to vaccines given in batches and see this as a sign of failure on the part of the pharmaceutical companies, rather than as a sign of a solid system of review.

Their latest version of vaccine paranoia is that we give too many vaccines too soon and that the pace of it wrecks young immune systems. This then turns into a parental rights argument and a bodily autonomy argument on which they are adamant. It doesn't matter if another's life is at risk; a parent should be able to choose what is best for their child.

Which, ironically, is the exact same argument that they reject when it comes to abortion as a female health issue.

[throws up hands]

[russell]

FWIW, the news from here:

Church services cancelled for the next two weeks.

Work is work from home until further notice, probably similar length of time or maybe a bit shorter.

Feels weird, nobody I know is ill. But best to keep it that way.

[liberal japonicus]

Russell, you know Tom Hanks...

Don't worry, if you know anyone from Europe, you won't be seeing them. Unless they are from the UK, presumably speaking English affords some protection against the virus...

[wj]

Counties here are urging (although not, yet, requiring) postponing or cancelling public events. Neighboring Alameda County (Oakland and Berkeley) defines that as 1,000 people. But here in Contra Costa County, a "public event" is one with 50 (five zero) attendees. Not clear of they mean that to include workplaces....

[Marty]

NBA season suspended, 1 player tested positive.

[Hartmut]

I had to laugh out loud when I heard in the news that Trump has declared a travel ban for all Europeans to the US because we have mismanaged Corona on this side of the big pond.

Berlin universities have postponed the start of the next semester by a week yesterday and plan to do as many courses online as feasible.
Well, I hope the worst is over in a month. I'd be quite unhappy to cancel my short trip to Malta at the end of April.

[John D Thullen]

QAnon, at the urging of White House murderer Steve Miller is claiming Tom Hanks and his wife picked up the Coronavirus in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong Pizzaria after borrowing Hillary Clinton's butt plug during a session of find the anal albino hamster with a bevy of kidnapped republican kindergartners trafficked by Vince Foster.

Truth is solely in the believing.

[John D Thullen]

All European countries, along with Canada, Mexico, North Korea, and China must immediately close their borders to all Americans, who are about to be the leading carriers and vectors of the virus in the world.

Americans identified as Democrats will merely be turned back, but those identified as republican subhuman vermin should be executed immediately as they disembark with single bullets to the head.

Roust out all American diplomats in the American Embassies and consulates, deporting the harmless deep state apparatchiks who are merely guilty of typing, filing, and long lunch breaks, but hold the Trump appointees for interrogation and torture, kill them, and ship their virus-ridden bodies to Russia for proper burial in their Homeland.

Burn the contaminated embassies and consulates to the ground and keep all in-country nationals staffing the joints under tight surveillance for the interim for signs of American influence and brainwashing, including symptoms of right wing republican dyspepsia, and sneering, leering attitudes toward their countrymen who are different than they are, and who they hate for exhibiting Jewishness and over-melanined tendencies, and proclivities for empathy and politically correct banter, such as admiration for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the essays of James Baldwin, and the pleas of refugees.

As for Boris-loving Brits who are exempt from the travel ban, flood the Chunnel from the French side.

Let's get a good vigorous nasty economy-ruining trade war going across the globe, stoke xenophobia to the max against diseased Americans which brings America to its exceptional knees and foments a viciously violent and savage genocidal backlash against all things republican, conservative, and trumpian in this country which should have happened a long fucking time ago.

As Tucker Carlson pointed out, the disavowal of racist hate speech against white conservative republicans is preventing us from defeating this dreadful, deadly qvirus.

As for the other virus in the news, the Coronavirus, wash your hands and the deep state, the good one, will fashion a vaccine soon.

In closing, if my son or another loved one contracts the Coronavirus and possibly dies from it, I personally will attend to making sure that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, all republican trump politicians and their staffs, and rightwing "news" "personalities" are not afforded the luxury of dying by natural causes.

Stephen Miller's last living image on his corneas will be of me.

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/norwegian-cruise-line-managers-urged-salespeople-to-spread-falsehoods-about-coronavirus/ar-BB115f3c

Find those managers and salespeople and kill them.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and all conservative right wing subhuman vermin who are repeatedly pushing fucking lies about the virus outbreak must be arrested and charged with treason and endangering national security.

When found guilty, fucking kill them.

And then we start in on all republican politicians with absolute genocidal ferocity.

Declare martial law and butcher all internal enemies of America.

[John D Thullen]

Right wing filth in my eight fantasy baseball leagues want to declare a halt to all leagues because Donald Trump called the Coronavirus a fantasy.

[John D Thullen]

The Arctic Ocean has contracted a case of chlamydia from being fucked up the ass by conservative climate change deniers.

The Arctic begged that they use a condom but Mike Pence is a devote barebacking Christian rapist, so no dice.

He said if herpes is good enough for my wife, the polar bears can put up with too.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31405895/arctic-ocean-chlamydia-grizzly-bears-hibernation/

[John D Thullen]

JPMorgan, after pounding the table on buying Boeing stock with both hands at $450/share and all the way throws in the towel as it reaches their target price of $181.

Now, they want you to watch it. If it rises, watch it some more. When it reaches $450/share again, put all your savings into it and stop watching it.

They'll watch for you, from afar on their yachts in offshore marinas where your money has mysterious ended up.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jp-morgan-abandons-boeing-buy-091422237.html

The same oddsmakers are taking office pool bets on Jaime Dimon's prognosis after his heart surgery.

So much killing to be done. So little time.

[russell]

So much killing to be done. So little time.

I don't know what's going on with you but enough of this already.

Knock it off, man.

Thank you.

[John D Thullen]

You're welcome.

I'm done.

[Hartmut]

And of course there's pörn about it
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgq5ew/coronavirus-porn-going-viral-pornhub-xhamster

[Snarki, child of Loki]

I, for one, look forward to Karmavirus spreading like wildfire through Trump rally attendees.

At last, the spittle-flecked crazed invective will do some good.

[cleek]

my manager just told us to "prepare ourselves to work from home". yes indeed. i am ready. gimme the word.

[wj]

Trump actually takes action in the public good . . . for the European public -- restricting them from traveling to the local disease hotbed which is the United States.

Well, baby steps, I suppose.

[wj]

I, for one, look forward to Karmavirus spreading like wildfire through Trump rally attendees.

It does seem like a pretty safe bet. Followed by denunciations of the "deep state" for seeding the events with the virus. Because personal responsibility is only applicable to others.

[cleek]

Pence is concerned about 'irresponsible rhetoric' from people downplaying coronavirus.

worst. administration. ever.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/pence-says-there-s-been-irresponsible-rhetoric-people-downplaying-coronavirus-n1156371?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

[hairshirthedonist]

Let's not forget about Rump's media lackeys:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nyt-nw-sean-hannity-coronavirus-hoax-20200312-3cbp7t5t5ffgjla64izir3nfau-story.html

I have to wonder many people who buy this sh*t will be hit hard enough for the light bulb to come on.

[John D Thullen]

It'll be an incandescent light bulb of very low wattage designed to increase the darkness.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/03/what-if-the-incompetence-doesnt-ameliorate-the-malevolence

[wj]

hsh, are you saying magical thinking doesn't confer immunity? Who knew???

[hairshirthedonist]

It'll be an incandescent light bulb of very low wattage designed to increase the darkness.

But then how will it keep the chickens warm?

[John D Thullen]

Muzzle Jim Cramer:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jim-cramers-epic-rant-the-government-should-suspend-tax-collection-2020-03-12

He claims he is ALWAYS right and the government is always wrong in the article.

Here's Mr. Always Right two days ago:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/videos/cramer-im-more-comfortable-buying-stocks-now/vi-BB1100k3

We have a surfeit of loud-mouthed, know-nothing, grifting assholes in America.

They must be made to go quiet forever.

That scum aside, here's a warning to our conservative overlords:

If you suspend all taxes, the conservative movement dream, you'd better NEVER fucking resume them, especially on me.

You will have to kill me if you do that, conservatives.

You will have to kill me, I repeat.

I have everything to lose besides all I've lost in the past three weeks.

Besides my stock market investments, I have a Federal Civil Service pension, which barely pays the bills.

Don't fucking tax me.

I don't care what I lose, but the conservative movement will lose more if they tax me one fucking cent.

America is going to live under radical conservative standards and suck the big swinging conservative cock and swallow.

And you will like it. You'll say thank you and ask for more.

What's going on with me?

Like tens of millions of real American human beings, I've fucking had it.

There is no way forward except into the pit with EVIL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kBN340vd4

I don't give shit if I survive.

[John D Thullen]

Run, you fools!

[wj]

JDT, Dare we hope that Cramer did put lots of money into stocks on Wednesday? It would be enough to engender a belief in karma.

[wj]

Another opportunity for Stephen Miller to get rid of some d*mn furriners:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/us/colleges-cancel-classes-coronavirus.html

1. Colleges cancel classes, and
2. Replace them with online classes, but
3. International students' visas typically do not allow online classes, so
4. Send them all home!

It would be hard on the students. And brutal for the universities (financially). But hey, they're all elites anyway, so who cares?

[nous]

Seems like that's been taken care of for the moment, wj.

About 50% of my class is internationals, so here's hoping.

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/03/10/international-students-will-not-lose-f-1-visa-status-over-online-courses-per-new-us-accommodations/

[John D Thullen]

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/

[wj]

nous, delighted to hear that the deep state is sneaking one over on Miller et al. After all, it's the right thing to do . . . which is why it requires deep state action during this administration.

[John D Thullen]

Tom Cotton said "we" are going to hold accountable those who inflicted the Coronavirus upon us.

Anything I say here is NOTHING compared to what comes out of these Republican dog shit mouths.

Who is he planning on killing? I hope the Chinese government is listening closely and is manufacturing and stockpiling as many thermonuclear weapons and their transport apparatus as possible.

We and our country and the peoples of the world are in grave, mortal danger from the most dangerous, murderous terrorist group on the face of the planet: the Republican Party.

I want to hear from Joe Biden what he will do in his first day on office to begin using the full national security apparatus of this country to put the entire conservative movement and its tens of millions of fellow travelers out of commission, just as Joseph McCarthy fought to wipe the Communist Party in America off the face of the Earth and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill used the full power of America's and Britain's blood and treasure to destroy the Nazi Party and the Japanese armed forces.

[CharlesWT]

Looks like, unless you live under a rock in Montana, you're going to be exposed to COVID-19 eventually. A possible exception, if you can avoid getting it long enough, you'll be protected by the herd immunity of everyone who did get it. :(

[wj]

Tom Cotton said "we" are going to hold accountable those who inflicted the Coronavirus upon us.

The simple, accurate, answer is that the Trump administration, thru their delays, denial, and general incompetence, are the ones most accountable. But will Cotton see it? Nah, probably not.

[cleek]

Looks like, unless you live under a rock in Montana, you're going to be exposed to COVID-19 eventually.

and everyone's goal should be to delay that as long as possible, for everyone, so we don't overload our health care system.

[John D Thullen]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mcconnell-reject-house-democrats-coronavirus-bill-package

How dare you fucking conservatives speak about the needs of my country?

You are NOT my government.

You are NOT my fellow Americans.

You are NOT fucking human.

YOU are the virus that is killing America.

Disobey, resist, flood their zones with shit, destroy.

[wj]

Perhaps one might admire McConnell's consistency.

But there is the question of whether he is viewing the world thru his navel. Or has he succeeded in looking out his own mouth by now?

[Nigel]

Well, the UK basically just gave up on halting this.

The aim is now “herd immunity”....

[John D Thullen]

I've had a lingering cold and cough for two weeks. Since I had the flu three years ago, these things tend to hang on.

I never got sick before that.

No fever. I'm 90% sure it's not Coronavirus, but I don't want both overlapping.

I'm quarantining myself except for forays into the fresh air by myself.

If I must shop for food, I'll find a 24-hour grocery and go in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately, the friend "temporarily" living with me works as a chef at Whole Foods, the largest downtown store in Denver, it's packed with upscale traveling people; the younger generations are big time casual huggers and kissers and the young men shake hands at the drop of a hat .... so .... I'm feeling a little like the germaphobe Jack Nicholsen character in "As Good As It Gets", dodging everyone, which I hate.

In Italy, everyone views everyone else around them with absolute terror and fear, not as a fellow human, but as a disease vector.

Plenty of folks around me are not even noticing what is going on virus-wise. They are not really affected by the stock market directly because they have little at stake. Mostly, some of them are pissed off because their sporting events have been canceled.

I look at my cellphone like it's part sewer trap and part laboratory petri dish in a bio-weapons lab.

I sprayed it with bathroom cleaner today.

An epidemiologist the other day said that the TV remotes in motels and hotels are the filthiest objects on the face of the Earth, and are rarely if ever cleaned.

Worse than the dish of communal peanuts at a dive bar in a tuberculosis sanatorium.

The markets are slaughtered. These corporate geniuses, having spent their cash hoards on juking their shares with buybacks, are now diving onto their credit lines.

Finance Capitalists are the rope Lenin knotted to hang capitalism itself.

Trump will end up declaring martial law and canceling the election.

Take care of your families.

You have no government to fall back on. The poor are fucked, as conservatives wish them to be, the better to humiliate them when things go south completely.

Think of the immigrant folks in their fucking hellhole border prisons and the children stolen, kidnapped from their parents. Think of the prison population.

When they start to resist quarantine crackdowns and their trapped circumstances, conservative fascists will slaughter and butcher them.

We need to smuggle weapons to these human beings.

Trump will renege on the national debt.

He will close the borders completely to the rest of the world.

It's the conservative nationalist right wing nightmare come true. It's the wet dream of every xenophobe, racist, nationalist, John Birch, KKK, militia gun loving hater in American history and Trump and his killers are giving it all to them.

All they have dreamed of has been given to them by a virus.

Jesus Christ, I hope Tom Hanks, the human being and the symbol, is OK. If something should happen to him, it would be for morale like losing Jimmy Stewart on a bombing mission during World War II.

People would say, well, if he's not immune, then fuck me ...?

Stop them. They must be stopped. Please stop them.

wj: "Perhaps one might admire McConnell's consistency."

I'm going down to the graveyard tonight. Wanna come along and whistle as we walk past because my whistler is broken. I'm trying to set a tone here, and you are queering the mood music with your sprightly little jingles. Though, that's creepy too.

What will the jingle be to advertise the destroyed, dystopic America?

I expected this to be a slower process, like the vegetation sprouting in the cracks in the pavement in Walker Percy's "Love In The Ruins", with maybe time to enjoy three winsome women as things slowly crumble and molder away.

No one expects the Spanish Flu.

[John D Thullen]

Is it alright to say, "chill, baby" to someone coming down with the chills.

[russell]

Tom Cotton said "we" are going to hold accountable those who inflicted the Coronavirus upon us.

We're looking at you, pangolins!!

[CharlesWT]

Now we know... :)

[wj]

An epidemiologist the other day said that the TV remotes in motels and hotels are the filthiest objects on the face of the Earth, and are rarely if ever cleaned.

When traveling, my wife carries a special plastic bag, just to use when handling the remote. Has for years. Seems to work for her.

[John D Thullen]

Just bought a bottle of wine at Trader Joe's down the street.

I've never experienced anything like it, except during monsoons in the Philippines.

On a late Thursday afternoon, a good half of the shelves were cleaned out. Unlike most days when folks are purchasing a few things, the grocery carts were overflowing. Lines long at every checkout.

Things were calm, but this wasn't desultory shopping; it was business. People moved with their heads down, distancing as they filled their carts.

The White House has panicked the entire world.

The calls are coming from inside the house.

I'm a liberal, pretty much. The military is not my favorite institution, but since no one is in charge except the Evil, I want a military coup.

I would accept James Mattis as the leader of the action.

Clean out the White House. Move the inhabitants to an ICE prison for later execution and release the harmless immigrants to make room.

Grab Mitch McConnell by the nose and drag him into a cage. Arrest his corrupt wife to keep him company.

No negotiation. No deals. Fuck them hard.

Let whatever pointless succession deemed by the Constitution happen.

Military leaders and members who resist the coup will be neutralized, but I tell you, many hate this fucker.

I was talking to my brother yesterday, he of the stepson who waltzed around with the semiautomatic weapon mock shooting it at the TV several years ago,, he now the graduating Navy Seal, and I asked my brother if he had spoken with the kid about the murdering Seal Trump pardoned or whatever bullshit he pulled, and the answer was "yes, and he told me the unanimous opinion was that if that guy came anywhere near serving Navy Seals, they would scrag him."

All norms, all codes of conduct have been violated. The field is open to violating all norms and codes to destroy the malignancy inflicting this country.

The issues are not the issue.

When the Republican Party rises up with whatever pop guns they have in their possession, do what needs to be done.

Place the Strategic Air Command and NATO troops on full alert to warn trump's foreign sponsers that shit will not be tolerated.

I'm crazy.

There is no other way to be if you want to take down this oddly incompetent but truly malignant Evil.

.

[John D Thullen]

We are in grave danger:

https://digbysblog.net/2020/03/the-hannity-trump-propaganda-bubble/

Step up, conservatives.

Do something.

Or would you rather sit on your tax cuts and your fascist judges?

[russell]

Step up, conservatives.

Do something.

This message, I endorse.

Thanks John.

[wj]

Jesus Christ, I hope Tom Hanks, the human being and the symbol, is OK. If something should happen to him, it would be for morale like losing Jimmy Stewart on a bombing mission during World War II.

Hanks and his lady had the good fortune to be in Australia when they came down sick. So there were test kits readily available. And treatment protocols in place when they tested positive. Guess it's a good thing they weren't here at home.

[russell]

Sleepy Joe Biden on the corona virus. He starts talking around 35:00.

Sanity, common sense, and complete sentences. So f**king simple and refreshing.

Kick his ass Joe, early and often.

[John D Thullen]

Pangolins.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/opinion/coronavirus-china-pangolins.html

This thing would be so much less boring if we not only contracted the virus, but shed our human carapaces and transformed into those things.

Kafka meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers

[John D Thullen]

Cramer knows everything.

It's completely different than everything he knew yesterday.

https://realmoney.thestreet.com/jim-cramer/jim-cramer-best-time-to-buy-is-coming-but-not-here-yet-15264148?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO&yptr=yahoo

Cramer is to grifting in investing what Emeril Lagasse is to cayenne pepper in cooking.

The more he BAMS, the shittier it tastes.

STFU Cramer.

We can lose all of our nest eggs very well by ourselves.

[russell]

if we not only contracted the virus, but shed our human carapaces and transformed into those things.

who says we won't? it's still early days.

never mind deep state plots, maybe it's nature's way of restoring the world pangolin population.

all natural systems seek balance.

as an aside, a FB friend has been sharing posts about wild and semi-wild animals of all sorts re-taking public spaces normally dominated by humans, now left vacant by people in self- or government-imposed quarantine. wild pigs romp in Italian piazzas. gangs of monkeys swarm public squares in Asia.

the critters are having a good old time. no doubt they have lots more viruses where COVID-19 came from, ready to share with us. hope they don't put 2 and 2 together.

[John D Thullen]

Hey, they owe us, considering all we've given them.

It would be like Native Americans plying us with alcohol and then depantsing us at the pow wow and ending up with our house titles.

[John D Thullen]

The markets will crash again tomorrow if overnight trading is any indication bwahahaha.

[John D Thullen]

https://newrepublic.com/article/156901/dismantled-state-takes-pandemic

Reparations are in order.

Raise the marginal tax rate on registered republicans only to 100% for three years consecutive years.

Kick them off Social Security and Medicare for five years.

Make it four for what they haven't paid back for Bush's Iraq war expense.

Don't wanna pay it?

Talk to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5dThhYBcpE&t=49sl

[John D Thullen]

He still won't get tested, or sez he hasn't been:

https://juanitajean.com/I-am-not-happy-about-this-at-all-not-happy-at-all-nope-not-okay-okay-maybe-just-a-little/

It's like he has a homing device in his pants to tell the virus where he is.

Melania hasn't touched the big tub of pork fat in years so I expect she might still be safe.

I think this proves that he has been vaccinated and knew his operatives were releasing the virus in Wuhan with the goal of worldwide spread to achieve conservative goals of closing all borders and suspending all taxation, firing all federal employees, suspending all government operations outside of Secret Service use of golf carts on his courses, and handing most federal lands into a trust fund for his kids.

Oh, what part of this might not be true, conservatives?

Prove it, given the evidence.

[John D Thullen]

Overthrow and abolish the Supreme Court.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31450991/federal-judge-paper-supreme-court-conservatives/

Do not reform it.

Kill it.

[John D Thullen]

The rule of law is dead.

No needs for courts to adjudicate a dead thing.

Kill all of the courts.

[Hartmut]

All state-run museums in Berlin will be closed as of to-morrow until 19th of April.

[John D Thullen]

"Hope they don't put two and two together"

The alternative reality mandated by the conservative movement for us to live in uses alternative math and alternative facts, so their answer would be "5", plus tax cuts, and three mulligans on every hole.

[John D Thullen]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/european-stocks-rise-after-us-fed-vows-to-pump-trillions-into-markets-085917198.html

We'll see if this rally holds today as the free capitalist financial markets push aside the poor little piglets, take their cigars out of their mouths, and plunge in to suck on the gummint titty.

Wonder if they'll shore up Bitcoin, too?

No doubt libertarians will throw in the towel on that financial tomfoolery and come up with some new grift and call it "freedom".

It will be, what shall we call it .... educational? ... to hear Leon Cooperman and Paul Tudor Jones mumble into their caviar dockside regarding their bailout, after telling us just weeks ago that the markets would not open if Warren was elected and if Sanders was elected they'd be cooling their heels awaiting the train trip to Siberia.

What say conservatives shut their fuckng mouths. I mean the First Amendment says you don't have to, but it would seem gallantry would mandate at least a pause in the bullshit fucking lectures we get year round.

My reading of the Second Amendment and it's free floating ever ambiguous commas that conservatives hold as denoting absolute certainty, says differently, that conservative mouths and my trigger finger have a symbiotic action/reaction relationship and everything goes.

I predict within a month Larry Kudlow, as reward for his repeated cataclysmic brand of non-prescience and his single undergraduate degree in college alcohol and blow will be named Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the next conservative thrust into institutional ruination.

[John D Thullen]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=svkda6Y19uM

Refresh our memories.

The horse, as reward for kicking the shit out of the operating theaters, has elevated himself to Chief Administrator of Hospital Operations.

As well, he has brought in a nag called Prince of Pence, who once finished sixth at Pimlico only to be proved to have been doped to improve his performance, and named him Chief Anesthesiologist to administer a long somnolent dose to keep the patient under long enough to let all the other jackasses steal the patient's watch and wallet.

See, the quandary the conservative movement finds themselves in is how do they prove that government cannot be depended on while at the same time using government to burnish their corrupt horses' reputations as our saviors during this crisis.

They want trump to emerge from this dressed in a tacky unicorn costume, surrounded by a heroic halo of fake lighting, while continuing to kick the crap out of government and chew their way out of their stalls to stampede America into fascism.

[John D Thullen]

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/03/denying-reality-is-finally-biting-republicans-in-the-ass/

Drum is right and he is wrong.

Reality does bite them in the ass but these assholes have had their asses completely chewed off and will continue on their ruinous rampage assless.

Even assless, the horseshit will continue to cloud all satellite photos of America until someone shoots horses, don't they.

My mission today is to drive east of Denver to a small town and see if there is one bottle of cough medicine on the shelf.

[John D Thullen]

Back to report that I decided to stop at a local grocery store and found what I needed though supplies, as they say, were limited, so not sojourning east on to the Plains to seek out Comanche witch doctors.

This is very unlike me. I've exposed myself to all sorts of dangers in my life with hardly a second thought, and the Ebola and SARS episodes didn't even register on my radar,

I wasn't paying attention, but now, as the comedian said above, there is a horse ... loose ... in the hospital!

[nous]

Two Finnish metal bands that I listen to had their North American tour cancelled after just one show. That's a lot of money laid out that will not be made back and both bands are trying to figure out how to survive the financial loss.

Think I'll have to buy a t-shirt from both Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum to help them out.

http://www.insomnium.net/

https://www.omniumgatherum.org/

[John D Thullen]

A conservative, once you get him away from the bat soup memes, looks at what science sez:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-coming-coronavirus-storm/

Meanwhile, referring to hairshirt's quote way up thread regarding the Spanish Flu and fatal differences in leadership in American cities, looks like we have a candidate for republican conservative murderer of the week.

Sue him personally, take everything his family owns, and sue the South Carolina government and bankrupt it and close it down.

Fuck these filth hard.

[John D Thullen]

Meanwhile, let's play "When You Meme Yourself"

https://me.me/i/hen-you-meme-yourself-fox-news-what-does-racism-look-2ec201644ca6417d9f1f026eff2701a3

[John D Thullen]

A friend, who happens to own the watering hole I frequent just left for Switzerland because his Dad, a longtime drummer for the Beach Boys during their tours after Denny died, and who has a pretty good Beach Boys tribute band his own self, had a gig over there.

The day before he left, the gig was canceled because of current events and his Dad isn't traveling but my friend and his girlfriend went anyway, cough.

She kisses me on the lips when I see her.

When she gets back, I don't think so.

[John D Thullen]

I'm taking a break from the watering hole anyway, for obvious reasons.

[John D Thullen]

Link to the (former, soon to be deceased) Governor of South Carolina mentioned above:

https://www.wyff4.com/article/sc-governor-says-schools-should-not-close-events-should-not-cancel-in-wake-of-coronavirus-mcmaster/31406138

[John D Thullen]

I'm corrected now that my friend and his girlfriend also canceled their trip to Switzerland.

Good.

A victory for kissing, but still I think I'll keep that moratorium intact for the time being.

[John D Thullen]

Brazil's President Bolsonaro has contracted the virus.

Another savings on bullets for the budget conscious.

[John D Thullen]

By all means, let's watch the budget:

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/03/there-are-no-good-republicans-in-congress

I'm going to book some more losses in today's rally as a capitalist vote of confidence in pig fucker republican America.

[hairshirthedonist]

I'm taking a break from the watering hole anyway, for obvious reasons.

Saturday night, I went from a crowded restaurant to a crowded bar while celebrating a friend's birthday. Tuesday night I went to a not-crowded-but-not-empty bar for happy hour to see off a friend moving to Texas. I had second thoughts about both at the time, but these few days later, I wouldn't do either. I'm just not going out for anything optional, at least not anywhere where I'd be in anything approaching close quarters with other people. A walk in the woods would be okay, I suppose.

I always took it seriously, but this got weird fast.

[John D Thullen]

The five most terrifying words in the English language: The Market Looks To Trump

https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-and-european-equities-are-up-for-now-51584093540?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

[John D Thullen]

Elect me President:

I will pardon John Hinckley Jr. and James Hodgekinson.

[John D Thullen]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/13/1927097/-Trump-administration-won-t-let-states-use-Medicaid-to-ramp-up-the-fight-against-coronavirus

The republican party is a genocidal murder syndicate.

Conservatives (I speak now generally), your guns are silent.

Why?

If you are not using your guns at this particular moment in history, after threatening to do so at every turn while the nigger was President and the lesbian cancer sufferer was running for President, then you are proving the weapons are useless.

So, when we get through this, we are going to take them from you.

They are just junk. You won't miss them.

[John D Thullen]

Matt Gaetz, killer and thief:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/12/1926974/-Rep-Gaetz-tests-negative-for-coronavirus-takes-paid-sick-leave-that-he-s-voted-against-for-others

The gummint is always there for trough-swilling vermin subhuman conservatives.

Plus, we need better, more deadly viruses.

[wj]

Well of course the Trump administration won't grant the usual disaster waivers for Medicaid! The initial applications came from California and Washington. If it had been Florida or Alabama (or anywhere with a Trump resort), that would have been a whole different story.

[John D Thullen]

Two can play game, it looks like.

https://qz.com/1817736/china-fuels-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-blaming-us-army/?utm_source=YPL&yptr=yahoo

One way to eradicate the virus may be a nuclear exchange.

[russell]

friends suggest:

buy gift certificates from bars, restaurants, and public performance venues so they have some cash flow.

reach out to folks you might know who participate in AA, NA, or similar, and who will be going without meetings for a while.

keep in touch with vulnerable people in your neighborhood to make sure they have food, medicine, and other necessaries, and also just to let them know somebody's looking out for them.

feel free to add your own suggestions for helpful, constructive things to do.

[wj]

In breaking news:

A second person who visited President Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago estate last weekend has tested positive for coronavirus, according to emails from Republican party officials to other guests who were present. The president has been near two people in two days who have since been diagnosed as infected.

But he still won't get tested. You knew ignorance was bliss. But this blissful?

Anyone started gaming out this election year if we suddenly got a President Pence not via impeachment? May be time for a little contingency planning.