BBC: China pneumonia outbreak: COVID-19 Global Pandemic

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Larry]

27 minutes ago, Fred Jones said:

If you accept that brainwashing by the Republican party started many decades ago, and has become so prevalent in everything they produce (magazines, talk radio, Fox Opinion, and every GOP politician, etc.) it becomes more clear.  It would take weeks to point out everything, but for example, I used to think Warren and AOC's crazy tax the rich policy was wrong, but it is actually based on sound economic policy and for 35 plus years after WWII, when the tax rate on the rich was more than two times it is now and more than what Warren and AOC proposed, the US experienced the biggest economic expansion in history.  However, if you listen to the GOP, or fraud economics, it would devastate the economy.

 

Recall a decade or so ago, reading an opinion piece that I thought seemed to make a point that was good enough to fool me.  (Which I suspect isn't trhat tough, when it comes to economics.)  

 

The author suggested that we consider two imaginary companies, 1950, Inc, and 2000 Inc.  (To contrast the two era's tax policies.)  And consider that the end of the fiscal year is approaching, and both companies have made a profit of $10M, and they're contemplating what to do with it.  

 

1950's choices are:  

 

1)  Leave the money in the company's bank account.  They'll have $10M.  But it will count as profit, and the IRS will demand 35% of it in taxes.  

2)  Pay it to the owner.  But, the owner is already in the top income tax bracket.  So, the IRS will demand 70% of it in taxes.  

3)  Expand the company.  Spend it on something.  Add a second shift to the factory.  Expand the factory.  Add some more trucks to the fleet.  Something.  The money will be gone.  But the taxes will be zero.  (Because the company didn't make a profit.)  And, if you spend it on the right things, then maybe next year you'll be trying to figure out how to dodge the taxes on a $12M profit.  

 

2000 Inc has the same choices, but:  

 

1)  If they keep the money in the company's bank account, there's ways they can make it work out so it's not a taxable profit.  However, there is a risk to keeping the money, even if you dodge the taxes.  As long as the money's in the company's name, then it's vulnerable.  If something happens to the company, then that money can be gotten by somebody else.  Say, the workers find out that you've been intentionally underfunding the company's pension fund for the last 20 years, and they manage to win a lawsuit, despite all the pro-corporate judges you've paid to have appointed.  Any money in the company's name is vulnerable.  

2)  If you pay it to the owner, then you can do it so he only pays 5-10% tax.  And once the money is in the owner's name, it's untouchable.  

3)  You can still expand the company.  But that's still a risk, both because of the factors in item 1, and because of business uncertainty.  

 

In short, the author's point was that high tax rates on corporate and "rich people" income, encourages businesses to plow their profits back into the company, which expands the economy.  Usually, it means employing more people.  And even if it doesn't, it means buying things from other companies.  

 

Like I said, I thought it was at least a believable argument.  

[Wildbunny]

8 hours ago, FrFan said:

https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/le-coup-de-gueule-de-juliette-binoche-ne-vient-pas-de-nulle-part_fr_5eb3c235c5b646b73d27f256

Anyways she's still gorgeous

https://www.bfmtv.com/static/nxt-video/embed-playerBridge.html?video=6155336898001&account=876450610001

Hope he's right about the 2nd wave

 

He doesn't explain why his model says there'll probably no second wave in this sample...

 

And Singapour seems to disagree with him.

[visionary]

 

 

 

[Larry]

12 minutes ago, visionary said:

 

 

 

Wondering:  Do we know how long someone is infectious, before they test positive?  

 

Still, seems like a long-overdue, common sense, step.  

[Fred Jones]

2 hours ago, Larry said:

 

Like I said, I thought it was at least a believable argument.  

 

Great book on the subject:  Arguing with Zombies:  Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future by Paul Krugman - Just lays everything out from the BS Republican tax cuts to trade.  It was difficult for me to read because after a brief read I had to put the book down because I got so mad, had to cool off, and resume reading.

 

From this book and many other readings and such, the GOP wants three things in life.  Tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for corporations and screw the bottom 90 plus percent of the population.  if you look at everything from going after Warren, to the BS "Tea Party" made up debt crisis just so they can deny Obama policies and such, it explains everything they do.  Just look at who they attack - it is always someone that threatens them.  The 2017 Trump tax cut benefited corporations, the rich and will increase taxes on the bottom 90 percent.  Yet, ask a Trump supporter and they will tell you they are making more and the Trumpster is taking care of them.

 

You can look at trade.  FDR set the tone for trade with other countries and those policies and such has done very well for every president, and the rest of the world, until the current nightmare.  The Trump has single handedly set the US back years with him just being dumb.

 

Sad...……………………………...

[Cooked Crack]

My man was getting it in

[TradeTheBeal!]

Ooof, gonna be a while before anybody goes on a pub crawl around here.

[Larry]

Quote

“More than 50 cases have been linked to a 29-year-old man who, in a single night last weekend, visited five clubs and bars in a popular Seoul neighborhood, health officials said. He tested positive on Wednesday.”

 

At one point, I think that half of the positive cases in SK came from "Patient 31".  After being informed that she had tested positive, she attended two church services near the hospital.  (And met a friend for a buffet across the street.  But they didn't find any cases from that.)  Those two services accounted for (at the time I read it) around 250 cases.  And another 50 came from a funeral outside of town that was attended by a group from that church.  

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

[visionary]

 

 

 

[visionary]

 

[Renegade7]

Really want me to believe Trump and Pence taking a Q-tip to the skull everyday for testing the way they feel about it? 

 

I don't, finding it less believable everyday that passes.

[COWBOY-KILLA-]

10 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

Really want me to believe Trump and Pence taking a Q-tip to the skull everyday for testing the way they feel about it? 

 

I don't, finding it less believable everyday that passes.

Pretty sure they are taking the one that is a nose swab, not the impaling one we’ve seen at the testing centers. 

[visionary]

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by visionary

[Renegade7]

41 minutes ago, COWBOY-KILLA- said:

Pretty sure they are taking the one that is a nose swab, not the impaling one we’ve seen at the testing centers. 

 

Like proof on that, I can see that. When Trump first got tested he emphasized how much it sucked the impaling test, no way he's doing that everyday. So is one he taking actually FDA approved or same one military taking?

[skinsmarydu]

Y'all !

The Orange One Has Expressed Concern! 

 

 

 

 

Now, I need an over/under in relation to Susan Collins Level Concern...then Vegas can open !

[DCSaints_fan]

10 hours ago, Larry said:

Like I said, I thought it was at least a believable argument.  

 

High corporate taxes encourage corporations to play a shell game by offshoring profits.  And sometimes other nations ultimately end up getting the tax revenue in a bait-and-switch, like what happened with Apple and the Ireland/EU.

 

Theoretically speaking, I think the corporate tax rate should be 0%.  Tax would ultimately be paid as profits went to the owners.  As long as they were well-audited and it wasn't abused, like say, having a Ferrarri and a mansion in the name of the corp on which you paid 0% taxes. 

[The Evil Genius]

 

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

[FrFan]

The #Discovery program fiasco
Initially nine European countries were to participate in this clinical trial launched by France.
Ultimately, only France and Luxembourg (only one patient at the moment) joining in !
This country (government) is a permanent joke at all levels.

Edited May 11, 2020 by FrFan

[zCommander]

Saliva tests emerge as new option to diagnose COVID-19

 

The use of saliva tests to fill the need for diagnosing COVID-19 has its pros and cons, experts told Healio Primary Care.

 

“There is a shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs and, thus, a great desire to establish an alternative sampling method that does not rely on swabs,” Carey-Ann D. Burnham, PhD, D(ABMM), FIDSA, F(AAM), a professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in an interview. “Nasopharyngeal swabs cause patient discomfort, whereas saliva is noninvasive.”

 

More here:

https://www.healio.com/primary-care/practice-management/news/online/{dc2af83e-4162-4ebe-a873-446e23507fef}/saliva-tests-emerge-as-new-option-to-diagnose-covid-19?utm_source=selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=primary care news&m_bt=151702162645

[visionary]

 

 

 

[skinsmarydu]

We may end the summer with a President Pelosi after all. 🤞

[LadySkinsFan]

People who think that they have this virus figured out, don't. It's like nothing seen before with varying side effects not normally associated with viruses. So it's not surprising that a vaccine can't be developed rapidly. 

 

The only way to not get the virus is to enact stringent avoidance measures yourself.