George Rebane
You can indeed have your own opinions AND your own facts – America proves it daily.
Know the denominator!! The innumerates of the land are constantly bombarded with naked numerators about this stat and that stat. And none of them make a peep that they know about what they are being told. That the US has suffered more than 60K C19 deaths means nothing unless you know either the total number of infections or America’s population. Naked numerators are NOT news unless you know what the denominator is and how that compares with others in the same class (e.g. international C19 death rates) in which the numerator belongs. Dumbth rules.
Dr Fauci is quoted saying, “Opening too soon COULD cause a (C19) rebound.” Well, no shit Red Ryder. Reported by everyone from FN on down, this is a tautology of cosmic proportions; a real nothing-burger seen as ‘news’ only by the nation’s light thinkers. Fauci had to say that because it's also his job to disperse palliative pabulum, true statements masquerading as epiphanies of expert opinion. But it’s up to us Americans out here in television land to understand that we learned nothing new. And woe be to them (and really to us all) if enough of our fellow citizens really thought they were enlightened by something actionable.
Asymptomatic C19 carriers are not contagious, shows a new German study, thereby debunking the Chinese claim to the contrary, and making moot more of the claims by the nation’s CCP-celebrating lockdown loonies. (more here) H/T to correspondent since the lamestream has a tendency to suppress such news.
Censorship rising. The Left, supported by corporatist America, now determines which facts and opinions may be publicly expressed in the various media. Even FN can no longer claim to “fair, balanced, and unafraid.”
‘I vas just following orders.’ Does anyone else notice how many of our police are becoming automatons, mindlessly carrying out their lockdown orders, no matter how insane? This behavior is a harbinger of the police state the progressives intend to implement sooner than later when they tip the balance of power. And as has happened in so many other countries, historically and especially during the last century, the government people with the guns will always act to first and foremost protect their own jobs and families’ security at the expense of yours. The Left has a full pipeline of laws and regulations awaiting implementation to control every aspect of our lives and livelihoods. But there are still LE voices in the wilderness that recognize and oppose the national insanity; here is one from the Sacramento Deputy Sheriffs Association. (H/T to reader)
Nevada County – ‘still a day late and a dollar short’. As of 2may20, NC with 100K residents has a total of 41 C19 cases that include one death, two still active, and 38 recovered. Our hospital is empty of C19 patients, and western county has had no new cases since 17 April. Also, as of 2may20 Yuba and Sutter counties with a combined 175K residents have 50 recorded cases that include 36 recoveries and 3 deaths with the remaining 11 being active. Yuba and Sutter have opened up their businesses with the advisory that commercial enterprises “use all appropriate health measures” in the public square. As a remote rural county that doesn’t understand the nature of the current coronavirus epidemic and how it compares to a regular flu season which has never impacted the conduct of commerce, NC remains closed, fearful, and continues to shutter and threaten its businesses. Talk about rank ignorance and political CYA.
[4may20 update] Prof Alan Blinder, the very liberal Princeton economist, was interviewed in the 4may20 WSJ, a newspaper in which he regularly appears. Asked about the Fed’s response to the C19 pandemic, he gave it high marks for immediately providing lavish liquidity to commerce (part of its monetary policy), but reminded us that the Fed cannot create jobs because that is the role of government’s fiscal policy (taxes, tariffs, fees, regs). Of interest to me was that he never deigned to elaborate on the fiscal policy required to create jobs, avoiding this important detail for good reason. To the leftist economists proper fiscal policy here means government creating winners and losers in the commercial sector by selectively issuing taxes, tariffs, fees, and regs. That has never worked, and it’s always been the opposite of the government getting out of the way that has given rise to rapid economic growth (witness the most recent snail’s pace of growth stifled by Obama.) But the Blinders of the world cannot make their case to a knowledgeable audience without inviting more public blowback on their cherished collectivist economics. So the good professor left it to the reader to interpret which kind of fiscal policy would be needed today to rescue our economy.
Seventy-one years ago the refugee Rebanes from Europe arrived in the Port of New York aboard the troopship USS General Harry Taylor packed with a regiment-load of WW2 survivors. We had spent the last ten days on the storm-tossed North Atlantic housed in huge sleeping bays like sardines in canvas sleeping bunks stacked 5 and 6 high. (more here) And finally, on the morning of 4 May 1949 we landed in the world’s greatest country that promised all of us lucky ones life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness as each of us saw fit and were capable, … and did we ever!
[5may20 update] Aerosols, droplets, speaking, singing, …, and Covid-19. Here is a very illuminating summary of how the virus can be transmitted and the effectiveness of masks.
rebanesruminations.com 
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