Joe Nation
Joe Nation's JournalAre we watching Darwin's Natural Selection in real time?
I keep hearing Right-wing pundits, politicians, and Trump lemmings say that this virus is no big deal. It will pass quickly. I see churches filled with people on Easter Trump opines in a Fox interview How many people will actually listen to these idiots and end up gasping for breath in an overcrowed hospital ward?
These happy talkers have already used the economy as the excuse du jour to scare people back into the shops and restaurants. We have not seen the peak and we have no idea when the cases will begin dropping off. SendIng everyone back into group settings will likely only result in a second spike. This week may determine what the path of this virus takes in this country.
My feeling is that this is going to turn out to be a biology lesson our decendents will be reading about in schools for years to come like the 1918 Spanish Flu? I guess we're all about to find out. Having conversed with some of these Trump sycophants, I have to conclude that many, many of them will follow the Trump Adminstration right over that cliff. Like a mass suicide for dumb people.
My son got married today
My first born, my first to marry, my son got married today. I wasn’t there. My wife wasn’t there. My other sons were not there. No grandparents, No aunts. No uncles. No cousins. No life-long friends. Just one person they asked to perform the ceremony and one witness.
The guest list was never grand. They only invited the people that were closest to them. The beautiful conservatory was reserved. The honeymoon was planned. A week in China, a week in South Korea, and a week in Japan seeing all the sights. A trip of a lifetime to celebrate their union.
Slowly, all the plans they had made began to unravel like a slow-moving catastrophe. With the COVID-19 outbreak in China, they had to alter their plans and decided to only visit South Korea and Japan. It just gave them more time to see the other two countries they noted.
Once the virus spread crossed the borders, South Korea and eventually Japan were also off the table. Undaunted, they planned to take a trip to New Orleans and then Las Vegas as a substitute for their grand Asia honeymoon. Even those plans were peeled away. The dinners venues, the hotels, the airlines all regretted the inconvenience and refunded little if any real money.
The venue they had carefully chosen announced that they were closing under orders from the State. The wedding was a matter of weeks away. Every single plan they had carefully made was peeled away like a sticky band aid on a large gash and just as painful. It was as if the world didn’t want they to get married.
Today, they said the hell with all of that and got married anyway. Proof that we will persevere and get through this but only if we do it together. I am so proud of them.
People scoffed at Trump declaring a national emergency and cancelling the 2020 elections
I certainly wouldn't put anything past this megalomaniac and I too found this to be a ridiculous scenario until recently but with the Covid-19 virus a reality, Trump may just see an opportunity to stay in power even if he loses the election bigly.
After what we have witnessed this week, I am not sure what this idiot will do next fall. He obviously has no empathy no compassion and only sees an opportunity for himself and you know that the GOP will happily follow him right over that cliff. They always do.
What do you think Trump will do given the current pandemic? Will he gracefully walk away in an inevitable defeat or will he declare some type of emergency and try to stay in power like his best buddy Putin has done all these years? After all, Putin is his role model.
List of DU members, family, and friends lost to COVID-19
Thank God this list is still at zero. Keep it that way please.
The Coronavirus is tracking like the Spanish Flu of 1918 - Beware the Autumn of 2020
At the end of WWI, soldiers on both sides returned home already infected with the Spanish Flu. The trench warfare had spawned more than a new way to fight a war, it had also spawned a deadly virus that would kill between 50 and 100 million people world-wide. But that didn't happen the spring of 1918 when the war ended, it took until the following fall for the pandemic to really ramp up.
----snip------
The first wave wasn’t that bad. In the spring of 1918, a new strain of influenza hit military camps in Europe on both sides of World War I. Soldiers were affected, but not nearly as severely as they would be later.
Even so, Britain, France, Germany and other European governments kept it secret. They didn’t want to hand the other side a potential advantage.
Spain, on the other hand, was a neutral country in the war. When the disease hit there, the government and newspapers reported it accurately. Even the king got sick.
So months later, when a bigger, deadlier wave swept across the globe, it seemed like it had started in Spain, even though it hadn’t. Simply because the Spanish told the truth, the virus was dubbed the “Spanish flu.”
Now, as fears about the coronavirus spread, at least one historian is worried the Trump administration is failing to heed the lesson of one of the world’s worst pandemics: Don’t hide the truth.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/29/1918-flu-coronavirus-trump/
Being pressured to support Sanders by my son
My oldest son and I talk politics on a regular basis. We're fairly similar politically but we have had a rough time settling on one of the democrats throughout the primary process. Or should I say I have had a rough time, he has been locked into Sanders the entire time. I have to admit that my son does his homework. He can talk at length about any of the candidate's positions on just about any policy proposal they have.
After the debate last night, I started to see the wisdom of his arguments. Sanders has the passion, the ideas, the right focus, and he doesn't waffle in the face of criticisms. I don't get the feeling that he is simply listening to political polls and changes his stances weekly like some of the other candidates.
Could my son have been right all along while I was hiding behind open-mind wait and see who survives the vetting process indecisiveness?
Damn! I must have been a good parent or something. 
Is Trump a blessing in disguise?
It certainly doesn't feel like it right now but as the Republican base shrinks and the Democrat's base grows, isn't Trump clearing the way for Democrats to act any way they want to act in the future? Why would Democrats have to abide by laws that Republicans clearly flouted? Liberal policies may come in bunches in the not too distant future. Could Trump actually usher in a liberal cultural tidal wave by the mid-twenties?
I'm not sure but it certainly makes for good fodder to feed the paranoia on the Right.
The U.S. - IRAN - RUSSIA Triangle and Unintended Consequences
It is interesting to think about the fact that Russia is a staunch supporter of Iran while also interfering in U.S. elections to benefit Trump who is now attacking Iran. You have to wonder what Iran's leaders are thinking about Russia's efforts to install Trump who is now antagonizing them at every turn. I'm guessing that someone didn't think this through to the end. Unintended consequences?
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Mon May 27, 2013, 01:46 PM
Number of posts: 963
