President tests positive for COVID19

[kork13]

The only things remotely on that scale might be nuclear winter from a full scale nuclear war. Yes, widescale nuclear war would be VERY, VERY bad for our economy.

Actually I was just reading about Yellowstone & the rising magma level under its supervolcano caldera... If/when it blows its top, it would devastate the entire North American continent & put the world into a volcanic winter for a decade (people, crops, animals, air, water, etc. would all be poisoned.... Massive deaths all around). Its last eruption (640,000 yrs ago) was 2500x more powerful than the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption. Frankly, that possibility scares me more than nuclear war, because our nukes, at least, we have control over.

[disneysteve]

unless you get a test

Ah yes, how could I forget to mention our utter failure as a nation when it comes to testing.

While government officials and pro athletes are being tested regularly, even daily, for the rest of us, tests remain hard to come by, especially if you are not having symptoms but are concerned you may have been exposed.

And yet, we've sent millions of college students and school children back into classrooms with little to no testing in place. Yes, some colleges are doing it right and testing everyone weekly, but many colleges are not. And few if any elementary and secondary schools have regular testing in place for staff or students.

Many workplaces have started bringing back employees in person but are they getting tested regularly? If not, who's to say it's actually safe to be doing that.

What could the administration have done? They could have used the DPA to ramp up production of testing supplies. They could have come out with clear, consistent, data-driven guidelines about who should be tested and when. They could have widely publicized the self-isolation guidelines via TV, radio, and social media posts. They could have taken the lead in getting accurate information out to the public. Instead, they questioned the experts every step of the way and promoted misinformation and conspiracy theories.

[rennigade]

It looks like most people agree that if Biden wins and takes office in Jan, covid-19 will vanish within a month or two. The violent protests will vanish within a week. There will be no more police shootings of unarmed black men. Racism will cease to exist. Or...is everyone going to spend the next couple years blaming the previous 4 years, lol

We all know that expression, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...yet, thats what all americans do every single time an election comes around. People still put their faith in elected officials. Its fascinating.

[Singuy]

It looks like most people agree that if Biden wins and takes office in Jan, covid-19 will vanish within a month or two. The violent protests will vanish within a week. There will be no more police shootings of unarmed black men. Racism will cease to exist. Or...is everyone going to spend the next couple years blaming the previous 4 years, lol

We all know that expression, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...yet, thats what all americans do every single time an election comes around. People still put their faith in elected officials. Its fascinating.

We can only agree that Biden wouldn't add fuel to the fire, and that's all I want. Just want someone who can form a complete english sentence and awknowledge the other party are Americans too, none of that "part of the problem" rhetoric. Trump is perfectly fine if all the democrats piss off and leave.

So far Trump is the only modern president who is toying with the idea of not transferring power peacefully if the time comes. I pay a mighty premium living in democratic first world country for the stability of the democratic system. He is doing this country a disservice no matter how much he props up the stock market.

[disneysteve]

It looks like most people agree that if Biden wins and takes office in Jan, covid-19 will vanish within a month or two. The violent protests will vanish within a week. There will be no more police shootings of unarmed black men. Racism will cease to exist.

I don't think anyone believes any of that. I certainly don't. You asked how this administration has mishandled the pandemic and a couple of us have shared our answers, but this is what you got from that? You might want to go back and reread our responses.

As for racism, contrary to what Trump has said, there is systemic racism in this country. It's not a problem that can be fixed overnight, but you certainly can't make progress by denying its existence and banning racial sensitivity training, as Trump did just recently. Racism isn't going away anytime soon. Neither is bigotry or sexism or other forms of discrimination, but it's not hard to see ways in which the current administration has made things worse.

[ua_guy]

It looks like most people agree that if Biden wins and takes office in Jan, covid-19 will vanish within a month or two. The violent protests will vanish within a week. There will be no more police shootings of unarmed black men. Racism will cease to exist. Or...is everyone going to spend the next couple years blaming the previous 4 years, lol

We all know that expression, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...yet, thats what all americans do every single time an election comes around. People still put their faith in elected officials. Its fascinating.

Well, not quite. But many of us remember a world where the previous democratic President and VP:

-Called to action early, quickly, and advised precautions with regards to viral outbreaks (H1N1, Ebola) and bolstered a national pandemic response team.
-Led efforts against systemic racism including proposing additional training/retraining for police as well as providing funding for body cameras, including forcefully condemning supremacist groups, every time.

I'd say the next president has a great shot at doing anything in either of those realms, really.

[Singuy]

Just to be clear I am not anti-republican. I would vote any republican in over Trump as nothing past candidate said leads to more division and dangerous ideology. I would consider myself socially liberal and fiscally conservative, but have no problem paying taxes or the 2nd amendment. I actually agree more with Romney and McCain than Bernie Sanders. Sanders also have voice of division much like how Mao demonized the rich during the Chinese resolution. I will happily agree with anyone who doesn't divide the nation to what it is now.

[disneysteve]

Just to be clear I am not anti-republican.
I would consider myself socially liberal and fiscally conservative

Every now and then, I take one of those surveys that plots where you stand on the political spectrum. Every time, in every survey, I land either on or just to the right of center so I'm far from a left-wing radical.

[Petunia 100]

I wouldn't say record fires and super hurricanes where cat 4-5s are common is "hasn't come to fruition".

It might be of political theater when discussing this issue but home insurance actuary science doesn't lie. If it was such a hoax, our home insurance wouldn't double in FL all of a sudden this year. Looking at beach front property insurance is even more scary.

There are many homeowners here being dropped by their insurance companies, because of all the fires. Fortunately, there are other companies still writing policies. But yes, the price has certainly increased substantially.

[Petunia 100]

Climate change IS a hoax in the sense that it's already been changing over thousands of years is a reality. Sounds convincing in theory, but little proof in reality, much as "peak oil" gloom an d doom has been drilled into our consciousness over the past 30 years. but hasn't come to fruition. The planet already goes into heating and cooling cycles, over the millenia, reverts to the mean. Maybe human activity over the past couple hundred years has accelerated the heating part, but if you look at the science behind it, that will also swing the pendulum and trigger a cooling cycle. The fact is that 2020 is a blip in time, and attempting to extrapolate thousands of years of gloom and doom is a fools errand.

The only things remotely on that scale might be nuclear winter from a full scale nuclear war. Yes, widescale nuclear war would be VERY, VERY bad for our economy.

There's little proof? What are melting polar ice caps, record heat waves, and more severe and frequent hurricanes, please? And do you not think it might be important to survive until the next cooling cycle? I consider that to be important.

[rennigade]

There's little proof? What are melting polar ice caps, record heat waves, and more severe and frequent hurricanes, please? And do you not think it might be important to survive until the next cooling cycle? I consider that to be important.

The question is..are humans responsible for this? I think most would agree that is not the case. Humans do not even move the needle in terms of climate change. That's silly talk. I don't think we even realize how insignificant we are on the greater scale of things. We're just arrogant and we have to have an answer for everything and that typically involves blaming someone or something.

[Petunia 100]

The question is..are humans responsible for this? I think most would agree that is not the case. Humans do not even move the needle in terms of climate change. That's silly talk. I don't think we even realize how insignificant we are on the greater scale of things. We're just arrogant and we have to have an answer for everything and that typically involves blaming someone or something.

Why is that the question? We need to cope with climate change, since it is real. If your house were on fire, would you just sit in your recliner and ignore it, comforted by the knowledge that you did not start the fire? That would not be my reaction.

[rennigade]

Why is that the question? We need to cope with climate change, since it is real. If your house were on fire, would you just sit in your recliner and ignore it, comforted by the knowledge that you did not start the fire? That would not be my reaction.

How do we cope with it then? If hurricanes get worse, people will need to leave the coast. Getting warmer, head to colder areas of the planet. Polar ice caps melting, again, move inland. Mother nature is going to do what mother nature does. We cannot stop mother nature. We know this yet we pretend we can have some sort of impact on her/his will.

House on fire isn't a great analogy. I can fetch water and throw it on the flames to put it out. It's something we have control over. Hurricanes, polar caps melting, record high temps, there isn't anything you can do to stop it. Except relocate to a different patch of land on this planet. Is that how we should cope? You must have some answer other than "cope with it."

[Singuy]

The question is..are humans responsible for this? I think most would agree that is not the case. Humans do not even move the needle in terms of climate change. That's silly talk. I don't think we even realize how insignificant we are on the greater scale of things. We're just arrogant and we have to have an answer for everything and that typically involves blaming someone or something.

Where do you get this "most people" when 97% of scientist have data showing human is the cause. It's not very hard to trace back out history since the industrial revolution.

Considering we cause mass migrations of plants and animals while our hunting of certain species for sport/food has caused instinction, humans are anything but a insignificant impact to this planet.

I still don't understand the argument, we will eventually run out of oil and gas anyways, so the future is renewables no matter what. If accelerating this transition has even 1% chance in making a difference for our ability to survive then it's worth pursuing.

[Petunia 100]

How do we cope with it then? If hurricanes get worse, people will need to leave the coast. Getting warmer, head to colder areas of the planet. Polar ice caps melting, again, move inland. Mother nature is going to do what mother nature does. We cannot stop mother nature. We know this yet we pretend we can have some sort of impact on her/his will.

House on fire isn't a great analogy. I can fetch water and throw it on the flames to put it out. It's something we have control over. Hurricanes, polar caps melting, record high temps, there isn't anything you can do to stop it. Except relocate to a different patch of land on this planet. Is that how we should cope? You must have some answer other than "cope with it."

Well, we could be thinking about how all of this is already affecting and will continue to affect growing seasons and loss of prime agricultural land to the sea. We could be preparing by building large green houses to grow grains, fruits, and vegetables. People and animals will need to continue to eat.