The Swamp

The irony is that as much as Trump likes to tout the success of the stock market as a result of his effectiveness as president, one of the reasons it is tanking this week is because no one has any confidence in him and he has no credibility with the public to do anything about combatting this.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:24 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:01 pm Almost a 1200 point drop - an absolute blood bath in the last hour.

Isn't down like 4000 points this week? MY company's stock went up $9 last week when our earnings report came out. Should have fucking sold it. Down $10 this week.

Yes - the whole week has been a stock exchange bloodbath - which is why the Cheeto is trying to limit information re the virus.

Failing. But I guarantee you he gets it's his neck. Not sure what that means.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... nal&wpmk=1

The complaint alleges HHS staff were “improperly deployed” and were “not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation.” The complaint also alleges the workers were potentially exposed to coronavirus because appropriate steps were not taken to protect them and staff were not trained in wearing personal protective equipment, even though they had face-to-face contact with returning passengers. The workers were in contact with passengers in an airplane hangar where evacuees were received and on two other occasions: when they helped distribute keys for room assignments and hand out colored ribbons for identification purposes.

Awesome.

#TrumpVirus is trending on Twitter.

Of course it is Trump we're talking about here, so the odds he and his buddies are all shorting right now to buy back on the cheap for the long are pretty high .

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:37 pm https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... nal&wpmk=1

The complaint alleges HHS staff were “improperly deployed” and were “not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation.” The complaint also alleges the workers were potentially exposed to coronavirus because appropriate steps were not taken to protect them and staff were not trained in wearing personal protective equipment, even though they had face-to-face contact with returning passengers. The workers were in contact with passengers in an airplane hangar where evacuees were received and on two other occasions: when they helped distribute keys for room assignments and hand out colored ribbons for identification purposes.

Awesome.

It gets better...

The sad thing is that (like most of his crises) all he has to do is wave his hand and put the experts in charge who know how to handle it and the damage would be manageable. This would literally take no more effort than he's already giving.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:27 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:08 pm This thread title has the potential to really look stupid down the line.

It was meant to be wry.

How about just "This Virus Thingy"?

rass wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 7:26 am

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:27 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:08 pm This thread title has the potential to really look stupid down the line.

It was meant to be wry.

How about just "This Virus Thingy"?

We should save that for the next pandemic...

Update on my end - the school seems to have laid down the marker that if the travel advisory to France, Brazil or Russia (the three countries kids at Friends are headed to) that they will re-evaluate at that time. At least that is something objective. Quinn is supposed to be two days in Paris and then 10 days in Lyon with a host family before two more days in Paris. The Lyon thing is probably the worrisome part because of its location near northern Italy and that fact that Lyon just hosted Juventus in CL on Wednesday and 3000 fans from Turin made the trip to Lyon. So, that seems like it might kickstart things there.

Quinn badly wants to go - is definitely not scared - but he's 18 and has that mindset. Jen and I want him to go, but want to be reasonable about the risks (Jen less nervous than I am ). Would be easier to assess if the cheeto running this country were not a corrupt liar and I felt more confident that I had all the facts. The French health minister was the one who made the call to allow travel for the CL game and has not raised the travel advisory level in that country, so perhaps I can trust him.

They are supposed to be on the plane two weeks from tomorrow. I would guess up until the moment they leave for Dulles the school can pull the plug. The contract with the company running the trip says no money back unless the advisory goes to "4" so...if the school cancels this, not getting any money back. Sunk cost, and all that.

We were in the planning phase of a relatively last minute trip to Disney in May (we wanted to go this coming Nov but the school schedule screwed that up) and decided this week (despite finding awesomely priced airline tickets, though perhaps that was telling) not to pull the trigger because of the uncertainty of the virus thingy.

Also, the makers of Corona beer would definitely prefer my moniker have been the one that caught on.

The #trumpvirus I am on board with.

Frankly, based on this sequence of tweets, Quinn's probably safer in France:

I mean, fuck. How is this kind of crap from the White House helpful to people who need to make decisions...

If people really wanted to take down Trump with the Coronavirus, they'd order him a new wife

definitely on the work radar -- was sitting in st. louis airport last night on a text thread w friends in the DC area- half are not caring about it, the others w government spouses are freaked out. stock up for end times kind of shit. interestingly enough.. HD online was sold out of the n95 masks (maybe just where i was surfing from)
saw several folks in the airport with facemasks.. usually only the chinese but these were regular old 'mericans..

not changing my travel schedule -- california, texas, ohio and india on the calendar next 45days.

It's funny that at work we had an exercise to ensure everyone had the right equipment to work from home as well as their cell phone info updated in our internal system because of this, and then we all had to work from home today because we lost water at the office due to a huge water main break yesterday that flooded part of a major highway.

So if I'm to follow Republican logic during Obama's presidency, I can blame the market turning down on Trump.

(But what's wild, like Brian said upthread, is that you actually *can* blame Trump for this whereas under other circumstances it would be silly.)

Anyhoo, just, uh, stop looking at your 401k until, oh, next year, btw. 😳😳😳

Crazy. Why would anyone think a virus would affect an election. Idiot Republicans, this is what happens when you tout the stock market. Another case of the coverup is worse than the crime.

The dow dropped another 1000 points to start the days trading? Yikes.

Of course a libtard would focus on that rather than the Dow being up OVER 100 POINTS since 10:00 AM.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:06 am The dow dropped another 1000 points to start the days trading? Yikes.

yep, it's all on speculation that business will be disrupted over the next weeks, months.

I have a monthly plan to buy funds so I'll get in cheap on Monday (woohoo)

The REAL irony is that in my opinion the selloff is more related to earnings revisions because of the ongoing trade war and the CEOs are using the virus as an opportunity to issue revenue warnings that were going to be coming one way or another so the virus is their "get out of jail free" card. After all, how can they be blamed for an act of God?

The irony comes in that Trump is actually responsible for that as well so if the public ends up blaming Trump for the bad response and the ensuing selloff it's still his fault.

This is good.

brian wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:36 am The REAL irony is that in my opinion the selloff is more related to earnings revisions because of the ongoing trade war and the CEOs are using the virus as an opportunity to issue revenue warnings that were going to be coming one way or another so the virus is their "get out of jail free" card. After all, how can they be blamed for an act of God?

The irony comes in that Trump is actually responsible for that as well so if the public ends up blaming Trump for the bad response and the ensuing selloff it's still his fault.

So Trump is actually trying to calm fears by saying it will go away? I mean it will go away. People will build a immunity or a vaccine or it will be treated like the flu and eventually no one will care.

Prostate cancer usually goes away too if you act to treat it.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:40 am

brian wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:36 am The REAL irony is that in my opinion the selloff is more related to earnings revisions because of the ongoing trade war and the CEOs are using the virus as an opportunity to issue revenue warnings that were going to be coming one way or another so the virus is their "get out of jail free" card. After all, how can they be blamed for an act of God?

The irony comes in that Trump is actually responsible for that as well so if the public ends up blaming Trump for the bad response and the ensuing selloff it's still his fault.

So Trump is actually trying to calm fears by saying it will go away? I mean it will go away. People will build a immunity or a vaccine or it will be treated like the flu and eventually no one will care.

No one knows yet what is going to happen. Other potential pandemics ended up burning themselves out. The virus can mutate into something that is effectively benign even relative to the seasonal flu (though it could also mutate into something worse). It could spread widely but still only affect a relatively small population relative to the seasonal flu, etc., etc.

I think caution is called for and I think the response from Trump has been bungled in part because of his ignorance, stupidity and vanity, but I think if you're going to include people who are overreacting corporate CEOs have to be included in that list. Though in my opinion, their doing so is strategic. They knew a selloff was coming one way or another, virus or no virus.

interesting inside look at the virus hitting pro cycling during a race.
https://www.velonews.com/2020/02/news/i ... eak_505630

The primary reason the market is way off is due to a very legitimate concern - that practically every fucking thing is manufactured in China - and many of those Chinese manufacturing plants are/were shut down tight for weeks due to the virus. As some of you know, I spent my career in the shipping/logistics/transportation industry, and I still talk to those folks regularly. They are shitting their pants because shipping volumes are going to hell because volumes from China drive shipping volume all down the line, too, so their revenue is tanking before their eyes. That's the reason that global transportation stocks are taking it worse than just about any of them, and it could get worse before it gets better, depending on China. This could cause American assembly plants to shut down, due to lack of parts inventories. To keep their assembly plants operating, the big automakers are paying up to charter entire cargo planes for whatever parts are available.

To add to that - they are pulling back hours and shifts at baltimore harbor because volume in-bound is off.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:57 pm The primary reason the market is way off is due to a very legitimate concern - that practically every fucking thing is manufactured in China - and many of those Chinese manufacturing plants are/were shut down tight for weeks due to the virus. As some of you know, I spent my career in the shipping/logistics/transportation industry, and I still talk to those folks regularly. They are shitting their pants because shipping volumes are going to hell because volumes from China drive shipping volume all down the line, too, so their revenue is tanking before their eyes. That's the reason that global transportation stocks are taking it worse than just about any of them, and it could get worse before it gets better, depending on China. This could cause American assembly plants to shut down, due to lack of parts inventories. To keep their assembly plants operating, the big automakers are paying up to charter entire cargo planes for whatever parts are available.

Other than that, though, things are fine.

I love AOC.

Most likely she'll never be President, but considering she's in a safe seat, she should be the face of the party after the current crop of dinosaurs dies.

So she went after the fact that Pence is in charge of the government response considering his lack of scientific knowledge and his record as Governor.

So Ted Cruz thought he'd make himself a hero on Fox news tonight.

Didn't go well...

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:57 pm The primary reason the market is way off is due to a very legitimate concern - that practically every fucking thing is manufactured in China - and many of those Chinese manufacturing plants are/were shut down tight for weeks due to the virus. As some of you know, I spent my career in the shipping/logistics/transportation industry, and I still talk to those folks regularly. They are shitting their pants because shipping volumes are going to hell because volumes from China drive shipping volume all down the line, too, so their revenue is tanking before their eyes. That's the reason that global transportation stocks are taking it worse than just about any of them, and it could get worse before it gets better, depending on China. This could cause American assembly plants to shut down, due to lack of parts inventories. To keep their assembly plants operating, the big automakers are paying up to charter entire cargo planes for whatever parts are available.

Interesting choice of words.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 7:11 pm I love AOC.

Most likely she'll never be President, but considering she's in a safe seat, she should be the face of the party after the current crop of dinosaurs dies.

So she went after the fact that Pence is in charge of the government response considering his lack of scientific knowledge and his record as Governor.

So Ted Cruz thought he'd make himself a hero on Fox news tonight.

Didn't go well...

MIT Lincoln Lab Award?

Dont fall for it Pruitt. You already fell for it once with the Liberal Party.

To follow up on SCK’s point:

Yikes.

When logisticians start panicking, then we know there's a problem. Everyone overlooks logistics or thinks it's so simple.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:57 pm The primary reason the market is way off is due to a very legitimate concern - that practically every fucking thing is manufactured in China - and many of those Chinese manufacturing plants are/were shut down tight for weeks due to the virus. As some of you know, I spent my career in the shipping/logistics/transportation industry, and I still talk to those folks regularly. They are shitting their pants because shipping volumes are going to hell because volumes from China drive shipping volume all down the line, too, so their revenue is tanking before their eyes. That's the reason that global transportation stocks are taking it worse than just about any of them, and it could get worse before it gets better, depending on China. This could cause American assembly plants to shut down, due to lack of parts inventories. To keep their assembly plants operating, the big automakers are paying up to charter entire cargo planes for whatever parts are available.

This. Chinese slowdown is finally landing on wider markets.

As you know I work in manufacturing and the metals industry has been nervous for weeks and weeks now because half of China did nothing for a month. A major dip was coming regardless. Is media panic accelerating the dip? Of course, but people have been waiting for a major correction anyway.

Carlin said it best:

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

Maybe we deserve this virus.

ETA, the photo.