JCauto

Want things to be better with trade? Here's an idea - stop letting people transport and make things for an artificially low cost.

Why do I say "artificially low cost"? Because until we account for the cost of removing the pollution from transport, it's another example of the "tragedy of the commons", whereby those who are able to do so gain an economic benefit while the negative impacts of that benefit are passed along to the rest of society or the natural environment. When Bangladeshi garment factories need to pay the full cost of their raw supplies and to send their finished goods to market, then it becomes more attractive to build the clothing factories closer to the place the clothes are sold and transfer those costs to the wages of the people nearby (and yes, of course, the costs will go up too).

When this principle is applied to all goods and services, then it provides a market incentive to localize and diversify supply chains and move the added value closer to the market where people pay for the goods. Once again, the "Black Swan" of the COVID-19 virus has blown up the conventional wisdom of globalization and economies of scale by demonstrating their inherent vulnerability and how the real (albeit rare) mega-risk event has been removed from macro-level economic decisions.

It actually would be smart for the Right to embrace Climate Change as a reason to advocate for a more nationalized economy and supply chain for food security and economic prosperity. Of course, they won't because they refuse to allow something they can't control like science and expert knowledge to interfere with political decisions.

31 minutes ago, Canuck1966 said:

It would take me too long to write it all down.

You can do the research if you could be bothered.

The fact that the Chinese lied and obsfucated is the main issue. That's where people's anger should be channeled, but the Dems and leftie loons can't help themselves

Give us a quick summary then. He was directly asked this question by a journalist and refused to answer it, instead just calling her names. Let's make it easy, just give us the top 3 things he did during that time period.

2 hours ago, Sujo said:

Trump says to lockdown

trumps team says protest lockdown

trump endorses protest against his lockdown.

 

some wonder why trump and his supporters are a sandwich short of a picnic.

It's not so much that, as it is emblematic of his chaotic management style. The experts all noted the importance of calm and consistent messaging and getting trustworthy information out there for public reassurance. The administration chose to go "business as usual" and this chaos is the result. Turns out there are actual realities that can't be altered by bluster and misinformation. I believe this is why this crisis is finally having an impact on Trump's political fortunes. In the past, his style managed to get him what he wanted more or less and so he could justifiably say "it worked, what's the problem?" and continue on. His supporters were happy, his opponents were stymied and couldn't understand how he kept winning. When that DOESN'T happen though you see the result, endless blaming of anyone or anything to shift responsibility and no ability to actually resolve the issues. That would require technical expertise and competence, and those people have already been driven out of the administration in favour of sycophants. I'll be amazed if Drs. Birx and Fauci are still working for the administration in one months' time. Just waiting for the campaign to smear them as "Democrats", "Deep State", etc. to start.

Unless I'm mistaken, that's the choice the majority of TV readers will have made, no? It's certainly the choice I made although Canada is doing better than the UK. Still rather be here (Laos) than there. Certainly the point that I haven't experienced the health care system under COVID-19 is relevant, but that's kind of why I'm here; so that I don't. To my astonishment, I've discovered that the Lao people are more disciplined than Canadians!

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

 

Sorry but both are probably breaking the law.  You block my free right of passage and you might not like results as my 2 ton SUV continues on its way.  Peaceful lawful protest for any reason does not give anybody the right to block a road

Yes, I believe one of your ilk tried that already. He's in jail for life.

7 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Freedom loving patriots that do not run and hide behind mommys skirt at the first sign of trouble.

Did you see how it was already uncovered that this was a nationwide astroturfing op? All these "patriots" were mobilized by a number of different state-based websites with different names but somehow amazingly they all used the same text and ended up being registered to the same people. Right after this "storm the legislature" thing starts off, the President hissownself tweets about liberating various states with Democrat governors. 

Look, I'll give credit where it's due - good idea for a bit of a covert operation to try to push public opinion in your direction, and I by no means am of the opinion that only one side does this, they both do. However, once again, these guys are just rank amateurs and incompetents. If you're going to do a covert op, it shouldn't be able to be completely exposed by Reddit internet detectives within hours of its occurrence through basic searching of the web. 

1 hour ago, Bluespunk said:

None of those things are essential. 

I have observed that our politics have lined up quite well up until this point in time.

The idea that "beer is not essential" is where we must part ways. Bloody communist!

19 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 Cohen was an anti-Trumper since he panicked and testified a whole load of made up garbage about Trump to please the lefties whose star Cohen clearly thought was rising. A snitch and a fantasist. Bad move Michael. We all know what snitches get...

Right, so someone who worked closely with Trump for his entire life is ACTUALLY an anti-Trumper because after getting caught breaking the law numerous times for his boss, he caved to the pressure and testified against him to get a reduced sentence. Why not go whole hog and call him a "never-Trumper" who was conspiring to take the perfect business transactions that he was instructed to do and corrupt them so that it appeared to make Trump look guilty of being a business fraud? If you're going to spend your time constructing a complete fiction, no sense in half-measures!

18 hours ago, Crazy Alex said:

The fact is many Democrats hate Trump more than the virus. Thus, their decisions are made through that prism. They literally want the economy as devastated as possible because they think they need it. Not bad logic, given their choice for the Democrat nominee. But as every scam to GET TRUMP, this one has a very high chance of backfiring. Blue states are generally the worse-hit. They're not going to vote for Trump anyway, so let these feral anti-Trumpers ruin their own states.

Do you even read your own material? You accuse the Democrats of wanting the economy to be as devastated as possible, then actually close the next sentence with "let these feral anti-Trumpers ruin their own states". Who hates whom?

On 4/16/2020 at 7:59 AM, Mama Noodle said:

Its blatantly shocking how many people don't understand how federalism/republic of states works. One minute they have to quickly find their fainting couch because trump isn't shutting down the country fast enough, next minute they are clutching their pearls at 'authoritarian' Trump for creating guidelines for opening up the country, stating he doesn't have the authority. Its all rather pathetic.

 

Bottom line is that the Fed is a backup, and local states have the responsibility to maintain preparedness and request to the Fed if they need anything. Going after a president is a stupid deflection when not a single person who needed a ventilator or medication or a bed didnt get one. 

 

Further, there is no way everyone can stay in their homes until a vaccine comes around. We have to learn to live with the disease or face a massive depression, riots, protests, etc. Its impossible. 

This pandemic has shown that the partisans will be partisans no matter now many bodies stack up. 

Sorry, but I didn't see your posts when your president claimed "absolute authority" the other day and informed us all that HE'd be the one who makes the decisions. Did that nugget happen to pass you by? I can't seem to find your diatribe about how federalism/republic of states works there. Why not?

As to "not a single person who needed a ventilator or medication or a bed didn't get one", that's a straight up lie contradicted by dozens of published accounts from front-line workers at hospitals.

Your last line is correct - are you one of the "self-aware wolves"?
 

6 hours ago, Mama Noodle said:

Good. Millions in taxpayer dollars for years and years and the ONE TIME we need the WHO to help guide policy and be transparent, they utterly fail the planet by taking lying China at their word. 

 

The hyper partisans will ALWAYS blame Trump, they are the same people that have been blaming trump for almost 4 years even when faced with irrefutable evidence that they were wrong, just pivot and deflect to the next thing Trump does without even skipping a beat or apologizing or acknowledging they were wrong. 2 Million cases of Covid 19 globally and growing exponentially certainly has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the WHO, the UN, and the Chinese Communists. 

 

 

So, uh, about that "irrefutable evidence"...

I had also been reliably informed that this guy was the best, able to cut through all sorts of stuff to get to the core of the problem and sort it out in a New York minute. How is it he can be foiled by such incompetent boobs as the WHO? Could it be that he just blames everyone and anyone when things don't go his way, and then takes all the credit any time they do? I know he was bragging a lot about the stock market, why isn't he also responsible when it tanks?

Why is this article titled "Mass testing is not that effective"? The second paragraph explains why mass testing hasn't happened - they don't have the resources! Therefore, BECAUSE they can't do mass testing, they're instead using "contact tracing". Later on they attempt to compare the effectiveness of four hospitals who conducted "mass testing" and contact tracing. The comparison is a joke - four hospitals can't "mass test", and the results of the four vary so wildly that there would basically be a correlation of zero from the data set. And then the Health Department guy says this "proved" that contact tracing was more cost effective and efficient. Good lord.

Colour me unimpressed with the Health Department leadership and communications strategy. 

2 hours ago, twocatsmac said:

The blame game will run for years, I say China virus you say Trump virus.

People are already politicizing and trying to rearrange the narrative of the corvid 19 virus. 

Fortunately there will be a final tally and that should put to rest arguments about who did better than whom.

We won't have sufficient data to draw any conclusions about whether climate change is significantly man-made or not. The temperature measurements and modeling are on a global scale over the course of decades, and to attempt to draw conclusions from a small blip within this massive set of data will not be productive.

We are seeing immediate and positive changes to the environment as a result of the lack of vehicles and industrial activity reducing pollution and un-crowding spaces.  That this should happen so quickly and comprehensively should provide food for thought for those who doubt whether humans can have major impacts on the planet through our activities. Of course we can and of course we have.

We are also seeing how the massive changes in the workplace that we were assured were not possible to implement in fact were entirely possible to implement and have happened almost instantaneously and seamlessly. We are also seeing how there was no money available for health care, education, universal basic income or other "socialist" things, but suddenly now there are trillions of dollars that are appearing out of nowhere and this can be spent on these things - but only a small proportion, we still have to give away the majority of it to large corporations for some reason despite the "free market" and these corporations efficiencies, innovation and management being the thing that supposedly determines success or failure. We are also seeing how people who are denied a living wage are actually the ones we depend on to keep the modern world running. We are also seeing that "expertise", "knowledge" and "experience" are actually things that provide the best guidance for how to deal with urgent and difficult problems, rather than "gut feeling", "charisma" and "celebrity". We are also seeing how those who are gullible and attracted to conspiracy theories will ultimately end up heavily damaged by or even killed by those characteristics.

So I'm optimistic that once we get through this mess we will have disposed of many of the lies and people who have built this foundation of BS that has enabled us to get to this dreadful situation. The shock of the rug being pulled out from under this (false) economy will have gotten all the pain over with in one fell swoop, and the situation will be ripe for a shift to the new Green Economy where we stop allowing unfettered access to and conversion of resources (the commons) for private gain and the true costs of things are priced in. Then and only then can we find a balance and move forward.