Zed Head

I think that you're saying that Trump made the decision, because he heard about the letter? Trump has feathers? So, was Esper lying about not having read the letter or was he really just unaware? You can't argue about Pompeo though. I think that guy cheated his way to first in class. Had to, he just doesn't ooze smartness. This is about the opposite of the cases many years ago where the Navy ships were running in to cargo ships in the night. He should be receiving commendations. Maybe he will with the next administration. Good luck to him. Edit - not to keep "last posting" the thread. But this looks, overall, like somebody who had tried all of the "approved" routes, but knew, because he was an intelligent leader, that nothing was happening or going to happen, so made the difficult choice to sacrifice his career for his men. Just another example of destruction under the current administration. Doesn't have to be direct. Just takes a touch.

You can just follow the chain up. What's scary is he's another West Point guy. West Point's reputation is dropping rapidly. No offense to anyone who attended, but this guy and Pompeo are destroying it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Esper https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/esper-coronavirus-defense-162403 "Esper's approach was on display Tuesday night, when he acknowledged on national television he had not closely read a letter from an aircraft carrier's commanding officer who was pleading with leadership for help and supplies amid a coronavirus outbreak on his ship. "I'm going to rely on the Navy chain of command to go out there to assess the situation," he said on "CBS Evening News." Edit 2 much later. Just came across this - "A row has erupted in the US over the sacking of the commander of the US Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which is docked in Guam. Captain Brett Crozier had written a scathing letter asking for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak onboard his warship, which was subsequently leaked to the media. Acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the commander exercised poor judgment. Modly said the letter was sent through the chain of command but Crozier did not safeguard it from being released outside the chain. “He sent it out pretty broadly and in sending it out pretty broadly, he did not take care to ensure that it couldn’t be leaked and that’s part of his responsibility,” Modly said. “It raised alarm bells unnecessarily,” he added."

I hate to keep bringing up Governor Cuomo, it seems partisan. But every time I see the guy speak he says something new that makes sense and adds to all of the other sensible things that he's said. His planning builds and adapts as time goes on. And the overall plan makes sense. He's on CNN now, I just saw him on MSNBC. Wouldn't be a surprise to see him on Fox next. Ridiculous, CNN brought on Robert Kraft the owner of the Patriots and the massage parlor weirdo to talk about how he sent a plane to China to bring back a bunch of masks. The rich guys have to see their faces out there...

I can avoid people without seeming like an arse.

Interesting report behind a paywall. https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-02/coronavirus-trump-pandemic-program-viruses-detection

NYC is recommending face "coverings" for everybody. We need some ideas on how to build your own at home. https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/04/02/new-york-city-urges-all-residents-to-wear-face-coverings-in-public-1271059

The bigger problem is how many people has he gotten to line up behind him. It's incredible. Everybody knew that Trump was a con-man and a liar, from before he was elected. Everyone was shocked when he actually got elected. But nobody expected so many people to fall in line with him, and basically become like him. I imagine that he has some sort of power, the ability to just talk his way in to people's heads until they give in. The ones that have resistance get pushed out and the rest just become zombies.

The WH briefing is still going on. Over two hours. Actually ended just as I typed that.

I didn't watch today's thing but I just came across a clip of Jared Kushner speaking. I have to say, it sounds like everything that Cuomo talks about in his briefings, just condensed. Cuomo's been talking about data-driven decisions since the beginning. The proof will be in the decisions and the results. Make things happen. Kushner's the second one.

If you step back and look at everything else going on you can see that the current administration is turning to full blame-defection mode. Even at the state level. The nursing home that had the first outbreak here in Washington state got a $611,000 fine for being out of compliance. From an inspection, by federal regulators, after the fact. Like people don't understand that inspections are supposed to prevent problems, not find grounds for punishment. And listen to Trump talking about the state's lack of "stockpiles", and how the Feds are a "last resort" after state efforts fail. Like FEMA does not have a responsibility there. It's all back to politics. https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/kirkland-nursing-home-fined-611000-over-deadly-coronavirus-outbreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Emergency_Management_Agency "The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. The governor of the state in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the president that FEMA and the federal government respond to the disaster. "

Segue from the Saturday Night thread.

He's come out of the shadows. Jared Kushner speaks at the task force briefing The president’s son in law said the president asked him to “break down every barrier” to help the effort.

The authors might have started writing their paper before the various daily briefings. The focus from everything I've seen has been on not overwhelming the medical system. They're drawing lines on the curve charts to show the limit of the medical system. The lives saved is due to the ability to get everyone on to a ventilator that needs one, plus to give the patients the normal care that a caregiver can give when they're not beaten down by having too many patients to deal with. The authors don't really seem to address that aspect. They're just saying the the same people will die, like they're ignoring the medical care issue. I see a paper that was published even though it didn't fit the reality of the time it was published. Not uncommon. They put the work in and want to see it in print. Ironically, considering the title and the initial statements, that is dishonest.

Since one of its qualities is that it removes the need for the aluminum pedestal if you switch to a ZX distributor, comparing it to the pedestal price is reasonable.

So I've been browsing around the internet watching car videos and came across this guy who has a channel where he finds old cars and builds engines and stuff, and he built one then took it to the dyno for tuning. A Chevy 307. Guess what "best" timing was? Weird. It's at 31:30

Only because it fits with the previous post. Where are the ventilators, the DPA, who's running the show... The IHME model bumped up a bit today. Worse than yesterday. New norm. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/white-house-general-motors-defense-production-act-161833

Can you feel shifter movement in 3rd gear at lower RPM? Put slight pressure on it forward and backward. The shifter has a fairly direct path to the third gear coupler and gears. With the brass bushings a transmission guy could probably tell quite a bit about the transmission's condition through the shift lever. Could also just be that the bushing o the bottom of the shift lever is worn, letting the lever wiggle more.

The Slotinator

Son-in-law in Chief. Can't blame him for avoiding standing next to his father-in-law on that podium. Probably good that he's involved but it shows how incompetent the official channels are. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/01/jared-kushner-coronavirus-response-160553

Cuomo is on. Early today. I think it's a mistake to have his brother Chris on at the end of the briefing but I guess people get blinders on when it comes to family. Oh well.

Perspective. Any comparisons and calculations should be along the lines of what would the difference be if action had been taken sooner and also the effectiveness of actions. And the effect of inaction. Projections, total, are already at World War I levels. And that's just the first year. But the effect of delays and inactions, the increase above the best case scenario, could easily surpass Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The media is not really grasping or discussing the numbers, in a leadership context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/us-gun-purchases-coronavirus-record

Not sure what you mean. Maybe they made a mistake. The current time stamp is 3:04 pm and the number is 932,605 confirmed. Looks like you caught an error in and they rolled it back. Not clear what time zone the're reporting either. I sent those guys another email about how the way they break up the USA in to states is a dishonest way to show the data. They have the states mixed in with the countries. I think that they might be bending to the will of the White House. Or just don't care. The site was interesting but it's not of much use anymore except for sensationalizing things. So, in the end, you were right, the JHU site is not of much use. I've lost some respect for Johns Hopkins. That's why I'm going to the IHME site. JHU records the past, the IHME site projects the future.

I'll probably post this link occasionally, below, just so people can see where we're at, and where we're going. Read the assumptions about the model at the top of the page, they describe things like the assumption that all 50 states will have social distancing guidelines within a week of the last update. As the assumptions change, due to reality or new data, the model will change. It could get better or it could get worse. I'll post an image of the current projections also, as a snapshot to look back on. This is the model the administration is using. https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections Read this page and it explains the assumptions in the model. http://www.healthdata.org/covid/updates