March 12, 2020

Want to game some actual scenarios?

Instead of these weird "the elections will be cancelled" musings, there are some actual possibilities that are worth considering how they might play out.

1. Infected Senate:

Chart out which states allow the Governor to appoint replacement Senators, which ones don't, and the ages of existing Senators in those states.

Rank the Senate by age, set a baseline probability of, say, 2% due to a lot of public contact, and then add 5% for each 5 years over age 60.

Roll the dice, and assume Governors will make fast partisan appointments, and that special election seats will remain vacant.

For special election states, they might just wait until the general anyway, but they might rush special elections because....

2. Merrick GarLand O' The Lost:

How quickly do you think the slowest moving legislative body on earth might act to nominate replacement Supreme Court justices if necessary.

Or, what are the odds they could hold off an appointment under various scenarios constructed under procedure 1 above.

March 12, 2020

This is what actual leadership looks like

https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1238192561858269184

In a nutshell, Macron announces that they are closing the schools.

He follows by explaining WHY.

Specifically, he explains that young people are particularly susceptible to contracting the virus, remaining asymptomatic, and spreading it to others. So the schools are being closed for their safety and everyone else's.

Relevant action, based on scientific fact, and explained in a rational way.

March 12, 2020

In case you needed to see Sarah Palin rapping "Baby Got Back"

Don't say I didn't warn you.

March 12, 2020

Never Fear, The Anti-Vaxxers And Fake Cure Hucksters Are Here

So, we all chuckled at Jim Bakker selling his colloidal silver covid-19 cure.

But, dress it up as "science", and you've got yourself something....

https://twitter.com/BigggDoggg777/status/1238128079832256514

What I like about the "Quinine Cures Covid-19" thing is that it pretends that the information is somehow coming from the National Institutes of Health, because it links to an honest to goodness real NIH link.

And the reason for that is because the NIH, among other organizations, provides a gateway to a vast index of "things someone wrote somewhere". In other words, just because something that looks like a research paper can be found in the PubMed database, that doesn't make it true.

A completely unvetted, unverified, unduplicated, and since-uncommented-upon-in-the-literature "pre publication copy" of what purports to be a report of covid-19 treatment appeared in late February. The paper describes no methodology whatsoever. None of that, of course, matters.

What matters is that "Big Pharma" is, as usual, suppressing a cure, and "Mainstream Media" is helping them cover it up. Your only hope is to rely on the good intentions of strangers on Twitter to tell you the truth!

March 11, 2020

Austin's SXSW Now A Worse Value Proposition Than Fyre Festival

The difference between SXSW and Fyre Festival is that, at Fyre, you got a tent and a sandwich.




https://pagesix.com/2020/03/10/sxsw-refusing-to-issue-refunds-after-being-canceled-due-to-coronavirus/

SXSW refusing to issue refunds after being canceled due to coronavirus

I get it, like the Bailey Savings and Loan, the money you paid is in Martini's place, but I'll give Billy McFarland credit for at least trying.

March 11, 2020

Religious Freedom Under Attack!

Well, here goes:

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-jim-bakker-missouri-coronavirus-cure-lawsuit-20200310-lvdemyn5sff4zlihkvi6l3rlsy-story.html?outputType=amp


Missouri sues televangelist Jim Bakker for hawking coronavirus ‘cure’


The Missouri Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it was suing Christian televangelist Jim Bakker for promoting a product that claimed to cure coronavirus on his television show, according to the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader.

—————


Dumb, dumb, dumb.....

All Bakker has to do was say, “if you buy this shit, I will pray over it for God to cure your coronavirus” and he’d be fine.

It is perfectly legal and, in fact, respectable, to get money out of people so that an invisible genie will cure their illnesses. But you can’t sell it in a bottle. He should have just done the same damned thing without the bottle.

March 11, 2020

My wife was shot yesterday

I took her to Walgreens for the pneumonia vaccine.

I have also learned how the vaccine works.

It makes your arm hurt so bad, that you don’t notice the pneumonia.

Edit: someone asked me to change the title, and so I updated it to “yesterday”

March 10, 2020

Opportunistic biological warfare

How much gaming do you suppose has been done around using misinformation techniques to deliberately contribute to the spread of an existing epidemic in enemy territory?

Instead of developing and deploying a biological weapon, you get enough people to behave in counterproductive ways.

March 7, 2020

How do I adjust my iPhone for daylight savings?

So, I’m getting ready to turn the clocks ahead this weekend, and I checked all of my iPhone settings and I can’t see where to turn the clock an hour ahead.

Does anyone know how to do that?

March 6, 2020

My coronavirus strategy...

I figure the best defense is a good offense.

So, when I go out, I cough and spit on damn near everything. That way, my germs get the jump on anything out there that might try to infect me.