Archive for March, 2020

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  The (Partial) Solution:  Mom’s Chicken Noodle Soup Savored Alone (And Wash ‘N’ Wear ‘N’ Hide!) (March 30, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Public Health on March 30, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “The greatest danger:  the Virus is aerosolized.  Three feet or six feet or nine feet or a dozen feet is not enough.  ‘Social Distancing’ should be defined as a person staying in his or her own isolated breathing bubble.  ‘Give me my space’ is the only way.  If one person in a room is infected even if asymptomatic, the entire room is and all those in it are tainted.”

K          “Most calamities require villagers to gather together to save heat and share food and trade resources and provide each other with aid and succor.  This menace requires villagers to disband and disperse and distance and hide from each other.”

. . .

J          “That said, I am drowning the Virus with warm fluids before it drowns me.  I drink warm liquids at every opportunity and create opportunities to drink warm liquids.  Coffee in the morning.  Tea – black or green – throughout the day.  And green tea when taking zinc.  Chicken noodle soup or other hot soups for lunch and at night.  Even merely microwaving water and honey and sipping it throughout the day may save or salvage the respiratory system.  Limit cold drinks but cold is better than not.  And wash hands regularly and thoroughly.”

K          “I now skip my nightly ration of one (1) cold beer and instead make one (1) glass of Glühwein substituting diluted elderberry juice.  I add raisins and cinnamon that are touted as ‘best if used before the outbreak of World War II’ discovered lounging in the back of the pantry.”

. . .

J          “They are so right.  Wash your hands.  Wash your hands.  Wash your hands.  Wash your hands.  Completely and thoroughly for a good 20 to 30 seconds.  And moisturize the skin to keep it moisturized.”

. . .

J          “The entire outside world is presumptively tainted.  Everyone needs to wear a set of outside clothes that can be removed at the door to the inner sanctum, placed in a bag and then laundered with soap and dried at the warmest setting for 30 minutes.  For the first time in two generations, our family is not hanging things on a clothes line.”

K          “And we are all counting on the gas and the water and the electricity to be flowing.”

. . .

J          “If possible, a couple should put up plastic and divide the house into two units.  Each can keep a watchful eye on the other.  Who knows, a little distance may bring a couple closer together.”

K          “Living alone limits the threat.  And the number of suspects failing to picking up socks is finite.”

. . .

J          “Stop smoking.  Full stop.  So easy to dictate and so very difficult to follow.  This is the time when twelve small steps must be collapsed and completed in one giant leap.  So easy to say.”

K          “Start sleeping.  Mindfully, if possible in these times.  I am on a regular schedule after a day filled with regularly scheduled activities.  At least that is the plan so far.”

. . .  

J          “Wipe every surface.  The life of the Virus seems to set new longevity records with every new study.  Then wipe the surface again.”

. . .

J          “Read, talk and form your own opinion about the efficacy of gargling.”

. . .

K          “When this is all or largely over, all of the single folks and ascetics and couples and successful social distancers who survive can get together and have a big kegger . . . with very cold beer.”

J          “And set up a committee to try to figure out how not to @#$% it up this go round.”

. . .

[The most valuable sources of information and commentary include Roger Seheult, MD at MedCram; Dr. John Campbell’s avuncular daily update; the many timely, insightful and informative articles and commentary by Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart at “Peak Prosperity”; the award-winning investigative reporting of Caitlin Johnstone at “Caitlin Johnstone”; the daily aggregation of articles cum commentary by Raul Ilargi Meijer at “The Automatic Earth”; and Charles Smith at “Of Two Minds”.]

[“The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks.  This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact.  Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth.  Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections.  If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.” in “Not wearing masks to protect against coronavirus is a ‘big mistake,’ top Chinese scientist says” in “Science” dated March 27, 2020 by Jon Cohen.]

[See “For Autocrats, and Others, Coronavirus Is a Chance to Grab Even More Power” in “The New York Times” dated March 30, 2020 by Selam Gebrekidan.]

[See the e-commentary at “Venturing A Few Unfounded And Unwarranted Predictions (July 13, 2015)”; on the need to build railroads in the new world order at “Amtrak – The (Rail) Road to National Security (January 23, 2006)”; the concern with the power failing and nuclear reactors heating up at “Lights Out:  Renegade Nuclear Plants (September 21, 2015)” and the paradox and curse of growth in “Stealing Resources . . . Through Time . . . and Across Space (February 20, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Wash N Wear N Hide

#MasksForAll

Wash your hands; wear your mask

Love means not being in the same room

Wash your hands; wear your mask

Drown the Virus with warm fluids before it drowns you

Wash your hands; wear your mask

Give me my space

Wash your hands; wear your mask

“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”  Professor Albert Allen Bartlett

Wash your hands; wear your mask

One person is currently presiding over the greatest crime against humanity in the history of humankind.  Do the math.  Think about it. 

Seen in the personals: single man with toilet paper wishes to meet single woman with hand sanitizer for some good clean fun.

What’s the difference between Covid 19 and Romeo and Juliet?  Covid 19 is a corona virus – Romeo and Juliet were a Verona crisis.

The ‘Great Disconnect’ between the ‘spot price’ for ‘paper precious metals’ and the ‘real price’ for ‘physical precious metals’ as assessed by SD Bullion is also true for Au (Gold).  The ‘real price’ has increased almost weekly from $130 to $140 to $155 an ounce over the ‘spot price’ for ‘paper precious metals’.  A real market is emerging in a country with no real free markets.

Toilet Paper Consumption Study (TPCS):  A new roll installed on Sunday

[Big bumper:]

Motion And Memorandum To Continue Trial And For Shortened Time

          COMES NOW . . . and files this Motion And Memorandum To Continue Trial And For Shortened Time.

          The Coronavirus and the resulting disease, COVID-19, are far more virulent and potentially much more fatal than is generally acknowledged.

          Both clients/citizens and both attorneys and the one likely witness are over 60 years of age.  They are all more vulnerable.

          When the hospital system becomes overwhelmed in a few weeks, the Triage Protocol will allocate scarce resources including ventilators to those under 65 or perhaps to those under 60 years of age.

          Regular handwashing is critical but not adequate by itself.

          Social distancing of three to six feet is not adequate.  The aerosolized particles float in an entire room and remain for a period of hours.  Conducting a trial wearing a 3M N95 valved mask and latex gloves is awkward.

          Marc G. Wathelet, a distinguished virologist who led a team studying the SARS virus COVID-19 and aerosol transmission, describes the transmission mechanism: 

The isolation measures to fight transmission of COVID-19 proposed today in Belgium recommend a distance of at least one meter between individuals. This recommendation is based on transmission of the virus by contact with contaminated material, or, when two people interact face to face, by the very small droplets generated during speaking, coughing and sneezing. Under the influence of gravity, these droplets quickly fall to the ground, within one meter.

However, there is a list of evidence that converges to indicate that COVID-19 is also transmitted by aerosol and when aerosol transmission occurs, it is imperative to have much stricter isolation measures.

An aerosol, literally a solution in air, consists of micro-droplets, which are so small that they stay suspended in the air or fall much slower than small droplets. They are produced during normal breathing and this production is accelerated by speaking or even more by singing, shouting.

The danger of aerosols is that they can spread the virus over greater distances and between people who do not interact face to face. Even more stringent control measures are therefore needed for viruses transmitted by aerosol.

While the conventional view is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 disease is not transmitted by aerosol, it seems clear to me that this view does not take into account the following observations.

1) It should be noted first that most respiratory viruses are transmitted by aerosol.

2) SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV are uncommon among respiratory viruses, as there was very little evidence that they could be transmitted by aerosol, except during the few super-spreading events. For example, on one flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, 22 people were infected with SARS-CoV from one index patient in 2003, and the distribution of the cases represented on the seat plan for the plane favored the aerosol transmission interpretation. 

3) More than 3,000 medical personnel were infected by the new coronavirus in the Hubei province this year. All the images from Wuhan show the personnel with simple isolation masks, not type N95 or FFP2 “duck” masks. The difference between the two types? Isolation masks only protect against expectorated small droplets, not aerosols. 3,000 cases of infection for medical personnel aware of working with an epidemic respiratory virus is very strong evidence of aerosol transmission. 

4) In the age of ubiquitous videos, the Chinese government has documented two incidents of transmission in open markets, where an individual was responsible for several infections. In one of the markets, the shortest interaction leading to transmission lasted only 15 seconds and the two individuals were separated by a fruit and vegetable display, at a distance of more than two meters. In the other market, the shortest interaction only lasted 50 seconds. The Belgian government’s position heard on the radio that it takes 4 hours of close proximity in the classroom setting to consider a possible transmission certainly does not take into account the evidence. 

5) A group of Japanese epidemiologists calculates that one transmission in two is asymptomatic. Asymptomatic transmission, where the individual does not cough by definition, in such proportion is a clear indicator of aerosol transmission.

6) The difference in the clinical presentation of cases during the SARS and MERS epidemics, and that of COVID-19 cases. There are more cases where the first symptoms are pulmonary with the new coronavirus. Respiratory infections that are caused by small droplets or by contaminated surface begin in the upper respiratory mucosa because they cannot reach the lungs, first hitting another surface in the nose, mouth or throat, and this first infection can then descend into the lungs. The presence of more cases where the first symptoms are pulmonary for COVID-19 is a clear indication that transmission also occurs by aerosol.

7) Super-spreading events: when a single person in Daegu in South Korea can infect at least 37 others in a single episode, it is clear from the description of the event that aerosol transmission was involved.

8) Finally, the high base reproduction number of COVID-19 (~ 7) determined by three distinct groups of epidemiologists, in other words the fact that the virus diffuses with great ease, strongly suggests a transmission that also includes the aerosol mode.

When we consider these eight points as a whole, we come to the idea that aerosol transmission is an important vector for the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, isolation measures that do not take into account aerosol transmission are doomed to failure.

We should not meet in the court room.  We should if at all possible stay in our respective rooms and not endanger any other person.

          There is no urgent need to resolve this divorce case in the next few weeks.         

          Last night, the undersigned delivered a gift of one of the few remaining pulse oximeters in . . . to [Wife] who took her oxygen and pulse levels and then (hopefully after properly sanitizing it) went over to take [Husband’s] levels.  They need each other.  In a few weeks, they may call 9-11 and be told that they will not even be transported to the hospital.

          The entire political, economic and legal system is two weeks behind this pandemic.  The solution is to get two weeks ahead of it.  The court system needs to marshal its resources to deal with emergency cases and matters.

          . . .   In regular daily calls since late January, they emphasize:  self-quarantine, self-quarantine, self-quarantine, self-quarantine, self-quarantine, self-quarantine.  (Try to) save yourself and your community.  (Try to) save your community and yourself.                    

          This pandemic is not totally outside an individual’s control.  When presented with an opportunity, the individual simply must make the right decision.

          Let’s make the right decision.  Continue this trial to a later date.  Our lives will be much different then.  We can decide the proper course of action at that time.

[And, of course, because an American-trained lawyer was involved, the only reasonable course of action was stridently opposed.]

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Covid-19 PanICdemic:  ‘Virus Trumpius’ Is Virulent And Traumatic (March 23, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Kleptocracy on March 23, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “History and epidemiology will refer to the Virus via the Latin phrase ‘Virus Trumpius’ because it was enabled and exacerbated during the reign of the 45th President.”

K          “Alleging that the Virus was ‘Made in China’ is not completely accurate because it was assembled in China but likely used parts manufactured in the West.”

J          “Trumpi could have imposed a timely tariff on it in February and significantly truncated its impact.”

. . .

K          “The message from the authorities was puny and the response from the public was puerile.  The populace needs to participate and not always look to the government for help.”

J          “A number of friends still buy and sell the ‘It’s just the flu’ meme.  They have not thought that Nature is thoughtless and indifferent to their opinion and their plight.”

. . .

K          “You know that the President and the government and the non-governmental agencies are lying at just about every opportunity to cover for their delay or ineptitude, but the vexing problem is that the exact opposite of what the government is saying is not always the precise truth.  And everything is still moving at warp speed.”

J          “And the response is always two weeks behind.  The strategy should be to get two weeks ahead.  The ‘Fortnight Folly’ plagues the response every week and every day and every hour and every minute.”

. . .

J          “The real threat is lost in the discussions of hand washing and social distancing.  The droplets drop to the ground.  The tinier airborne aerosolized particles float in the air and contact far more people in a wider area for a longer period of time.  The real threat is that the virus is spread by these tiny aerosol particles that sail through the body’s gauntlet of defense mechanisms, settle in the bottom of the lungs and drown someone from the inside.”

K          “I heard that at a dinner party last Thursday, the seats were spaced another foot apart and everyone had fun practicing social distancing by keeping one yard between attendees.  That is problematic.” 

. . .

J          “One part broke which shut down the entire machine and the entire operation.  The part is complex, proprietary and sourced only from one country.  They are trying to find a weekend gunsmith who might be able to lathe the piece or someone in the Maker community to craft a replacement.” 

K          “One coffee grinder at Costco broke down ten day ago and the other one broke down on Wednesday.  There is no ETA for the parts.”

J          “The water utility system is a combination of old infrastructure with few available replacement parts interfacing with new technology operated by only a few techs who understand how it works and interfaces.  No parts, no people, yes problem.” 

. . .

K          “When you live in a Kleptocracy, private wealth is at the top of the list and public health is at the bottom of the list.”

J          “And now we all pay for it.  The Kleptocrats are conspiring with the Republicans to exploit the opportunity to loot the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.”

. . .

K          “All the politicos are saying is that they need to push on a rope.  One party says they need a bigger rope.  The other party says they need to push harder on the rope.  Either approach is doomed to failure.  They can print money, but they cannot print products.  Stabilizing the economy is the only viable solution, but just giving money is inadequate.”

J          “The government can put money in their pockets, but it cannot put protein in their bellies.  If money is injected into the economy, more dollars will chase the few available products.”

. . .

K          “Their sewing society took the plans and sewed face masks at home.  All the women dropped everything to become the ‘Betsy Ross Bandanna Brigade’ of Smalltownville, America.”

J          “She used an old pillow case to make a prototype that can be laundered.  However, they need to be made and made available in much greater quantities that can only be accomplished in factories.”

. . .

J          “I’m not even a lawyer, but everyone knows that it is illegal and immoral to shout ‘fire’ in a theater if the speaker knows there is no fire in the theater.  One word could cause panic and pandemonium and possibly personal injury.  It is both illegal and criminal to shout ‘no fire’ in a theater when the speaker knows there is a fire in the theater and the theater goers will heed their advice and not act to protect themselves.  The Fox Faux journalists should be indicted.”

K          “We live in a country with many, many, many rules and many, many, many laws, but we do not live in a country that believes in or adheres to the rule of law.  No one in power or with powerful friends will ever be even indicted for intentionally misleading the public and sentencing thousands of gullible citizens to their death with only a few sentences.”

. . .

K          “Last week I noticed for the first time the ‘Great Disconnect’ between the ‘spot price’ for ‘paper precious metals’ and the ‘real price’ for ‘physical precious metals’ as assessed by SD Bullion.  The ‘spot price’ is $13.26 an ounce and the ‘real price’ is ten dollars more at $23.26 an ounce for ‘junk silver’ that is largely U.S. coins minted before 1965.  A real market is emerging in a country with no real free markets.”

J          “$1663 for $100 face value divided by 71.5 ounces.  There is so much going on that the manipulators are overwhelmed and lost control.  The monetary reset is slowly taking shape.  The financial system is fizzling and will soon fail.”

. . .

K          “I am looking for something other than a malignant explanation for Tulsi Gabbard’s decision to quit the race which is understandable and then her decision to endorse Biden which is deplorable.”

J          “Cui bono?”

. . .

J          “They are alleged to offer some hope but are dangerous if taken incorrectly.  Stay tuned.”

K          “Think thalidomide.  That came too close to home.  The science may advance in the next while, yet definite safety and efficacy conclusions may be elusive.  Staying tuned.”

. . .

K          “Some of the babblers seem to believe that the country faces a choice and does not need to close non-essential services.  They can send the wait staff home today or they can receive calls in a few weeks that their maître d’, their sommelier, their chef, their prep cook and their wait staff are down and possibly out.  If there is only one option, there is not a choice.”

J          “Complete lock down nationwide.  Nothing less.  Get two weeks ahead today.  Revisit the lock down in a fortnight.”

. . .

[See “Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired:  To help manage the shortage, the authorities sent a message that made them untrustworthy” in “The New York Times” dated March 17, 2020 by Zeynep Tufekci; the essay and many pained and painful comments in “The S*** Is Actually Hitting the Fan But Somehow It Doesn’t Feel Real” dated March 14, 2020 in “The Organic Prepper” by Daisy Luther; and the article on the treasonous and criminal behavior of Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in “Senator Richard Burr Sold a Fortune in Stocks as G.O.P. Played Down Coronavirus Threat” in “The New York Times” dated March 20, 2020 by Eric Lipton and Nicholas Fandos.  Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) also undertook transactions based on inside information.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Civil Libertarian(s) for the (hopefully short-term) Lock Down

Two is one; one is none. 

“Kings play the fool, and the people suffer for it.”  Horace

Got a letter that says I’m an essential employee and a paycheck that says I’m not

STFH:  Stay Home

STFH or the SHTF

One person is currently presiding over the greatest crime against humanity in the history of humankind.  Do the math.  Think about it. 

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Covid-19 PanICdemic:  It Is Real . . . And Unreal . . . And Surreal (March 16, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus on March 16, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Enough.  It is time to wake up.”

J          “I want to go back to my boring life.  I want to be totally and completely bored again.” 

. . .

J          “Complete lock down nationwide.  Nothing less.”

. . .

K          “Everything is moving at warp speed.”

J          “And the response is always two weeks behind.  The strategy should be to get two weeks ahead.”

. . .

J          “It exploded.  The public sieged some of the Costcos.”

K          “The pandemic produced pandemIConium.”

. . .

K          “Two distant acquaintances in two distant and different cities in two weeks.  Attendees at one funeral used one of the high-tech communication protocols to gather and pay their respects.”

. . .

J          “Instead of using the WHO testing kit, they came up with a kit that tests for everything from baldness to pregnancy but does not focus on COVID-19.”

. . .

J          “When you combine a long and asymptomatic incubation period that spares the young while spearing the old all the while attacking the immune system head on, headaches follow.”

K          “And other disturbing symptoms.”

. . .

K          “One percent of three hundred thirty million is three million three hundred thousand.”

J          “The prospect of a vaccine in under a year is unrealistic.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “We Ain’t Ants; We Are Grasshoppers (April 9, 2012)”, “Save The Planet; Save The People? Oh, And Happy Earth Day! (April 23, 2018)”, “Girding For the Going Grid (October 11, 2010)”, “On Community (June 3, 2013)” and “Developing ‘De-Community’ (December 10, 2018)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Your grandparents were called to war.  You’re being called to sit on your couch.  You can do this.

Sorry.  The lifestyle you ordered is out of stock.

What if they close the grocery stores?  We’ll have to hunt for our food.  I don’t even know where Doritos live . . .

3 hours into home schooling and 1 is suspended for skipping class and the other 1 has already been expelled

Home School Day 2:  Teacher fired for drinking

Kiss me I’m Irish!   Wave to me from at least 6 feet away

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Covid-19 PanICdemic:  It’s (Been) Here.  It’s The Aerosol That Kills! (March 9, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Epidemiology on March 9, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “The aerosolized particles are killing us.  Hand washing is fine.  Social distancing is a start, but we need much more, much distance.  The particles float around and live much longer than anyone realizes.”

K          “They say that we need to stay six feet apart or two meters if you live in a rational country with the metric system.  The idea that an area six feet and one inch away or two meters and two centimeters away is safe is unsafe, absurd and dishonest.  Any room is an oversized petri dish of disease.”

J          “The famous epidemiologist George Carlin’s observation ‘Isn’t making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?’ should inform us.”

. . .

J          “If you are a Republican, it is a hoax.  It you are a Democrat, it is a pox.”

K          “If you think it is a hoax, you are a Republican.  If you think it is a pox, you are a Democrat.”

. . .

K          “The country is incapacitatingly polarized.  If the Democrats proclaimed that the sun rises in the East, the Republicans would insist that it rises in the West.”

J          “However, I consulted with a congenital and unreconstructed Republican colleague who has not repudiated her medical training and is heroically sounding the alarm.” 

K          “Sounds like the old ‘Beans v. Bullets’ debate and division among preppers.  Tell me your political party, I’ll tell you your position on all the big issues.  I can tell if a person is going to buy an N95 or another 9 or a .45.”

J          “Her sentiments are offset by two quite reasonable and informed persons in two different settings who dismiss the Virus as a hoax along with global climate change.”

. . .    

J          “The reams of toilet paper are irrational but not surprising.  I understand the generation that wiped its way through Sears and Ward and Spiegel catalogs opting to file away piles of paper, but this generation has not seen that privation and should calibrate their real needs.”

K          “Someone suggested that when tragedy strikes, bowel movements spike.  Hoarding water in tiny unhealthy plastic bottles is as absurd as stockpiling during regular times.  I saw stacks of inexpensive buckets and barrels on the shelves that could be filled instead.  And then staged outside to collect rain water.”

J          “Putting aside a little chow is prudent and prescient.”

. . .

J          “The customers at my Costco were focused but edgy.”

K          “Edgy and focused at mine.  All it will take is a spark.  Sambucol, then hand sanitizer, then thermometers, then hydrogen peroxide, then rice, then beans, then wipes have almost disappeared.”

J          “The ‘Baltic Dry Index’ measures changes in the cost of transporting raw materials and the ‘Costco Dry Goods Index’ could measure an admixture of fear and preparation by the public.”

. . .

J          “The third time is a charm.  The real threat is that the virus is spread in a tiny aerosol form that allows it to sail through the body’s gauntlet of defense mechanisms, settle in the bottom of the lungs and drown someone from the inside.”

. . .

J          “The word ‘triage’ will trend and be trendy.  Consequential decisions must be made when an otherwise healthy but infected 18 year young requires a ventilator that is occupied by an 81 year old with multiple debilitating conditions.  If I present in the middle of the catastrophe even if I know the physicians who make the call, I will be denied care.”

K          “No question here.”

J          “In the hospital, they identify you by your birthday not by your social security number, so there is no question about your age and thus your entitlement to attention.”

. . .

J          “The real threat is lost in the discussions of hand washing and social distancing.  The droplets drop to the ground.  The tinier airborne aerosolized particles float in the air and contact far more people in a wider area for a longer period of time.  The real threat is that the virus is spread by these tiny aerosol particles that sail through the body’s gauntlet of defense mechanisms, settle in the bottom of the lungs and drown someone from the inside.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Shop While They Drop – The $2.99 Sacrifice (May 7, 2007)”, “Beans and Bullets (April 6, 2009)” and “Globalization:  Colonization Without The Costs; Corporations Supplant Countries.  Oh, And Happy Bastille Day! (July 15, 2019)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Flatten the curve

Don’t test, don’t tell!  It’s only the flu!

Keep calm and panic

“Isn’t making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?”  George Carlin

Flatten the curve.  At least it sounds like someone is doing something.

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Covid-19 Pandemic:  Coming To A Town Near You (March 2, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Epidemiology, Newspapers, Press/Media on March 2, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “You are the only person in America who predicted the precise day that the market would start tanking.”

K          “Don’t let it get around, but I did so by predicting that the market would start tanking every day for the last one thousand and one days.”

J          “Seems that I should have abided the Valentine’s Day e-mail to ‘SELL, SELL, SELL’ immediately.”

. . .

J          “When the 3M N95 valved masks were no longer available, the government passed the word to tell the public they are not effective.” 

K          “You know that the government and the non-governmental agencies are lying at just about every opportunity, but the vexing problem is that the exact opposite of what the government is saying is not always the precise truth.”

. . .

K          “For decades, we discussed the three EEEs.  Sometimes it was energy, environment, economy, and sometimes it was environment, economy, energy and sometimes it was economy, energy, environment.”

J          “Epidemiology.”

K          “The four EEEEs.”

J          “In the new world, it may be epidemiology and energy and then epidemiology and environment and then epidemiology and economy.”

K          “And then epidemiology and epidemiology and epidemiology and epidemiology.”

. . .

K          “And America’s most profitable second-rate newspaper out of New York continues its unrelenting campaign to attack Sanders and to advance Biden while  presenting its inadequate and distorted coverage of the Virus ‘below the fold’ for weeks.”

J          “It is ‘The Times’ we live in today.  It is a time of greed not of greatness.”

K          “We live in an ‘Information Desert’ in an ocean of lies.  The lies of the WHO, CDC and NIH are parroted by the propagandists at the MSM, ABC, CNN, NBC, CBS, Faux FOX, MSNBC/DNC, NPR, PBS and others.”

. . .

K          “Think man had a hand in creating it?”

J          “Hands down.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Honesty And Efficiency . . . In Life And Law (July 31, 2017)” and “Seeing 2020:  Covid-19:  BAU v. BAU (February 24, 2020)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Covid-19 Pandemic f.d.b.a. Coronavirus:  Coming to a town near you

You can’t call it “Pandemic” unless it’s from the Pandemic region of France, otherwise it’s just Sparkling Flu.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.  Specialization is for insects.”  Robert A. Heinlein

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.  We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.  The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”  H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

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