[QUOTE=kladner;540488]More from the Contemptible Scumbag Department:
[URL]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/22/large-corporations-exploiting-coronavirus-crisis[/URL][/QUOTE]

Burr wasn't the only SSCI member to sell stock this way ... and the 2013 loophole introduced via 10-second-floor-discussion amendment to the 2012 STOCK Act which allowed him to do so passed both houses of Congress by unanimous consent, and was signed into law by then-president Obama. Again, the scandal is what's legal, and the fact that it's only legal for the same clique of lawmakers who made it legal for themselves and their cronies.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;540468]The "Polio vaccines are a Western plot to sterilize Muslims" insanity has kept that disease going for decades in areas where it could be stopped.[/QUOTE]

They may not be a Western plot to sterilize Muslims, but the role of US Intel agencies in subverting such programs to serve their own ends certainly feeds into such conspiracy theories:

[url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/05/20/314231260/cia-says-it-will-no-longer-use-vaccine-programs-as-cover]CIA Says It Will No Longer Use Vaccine Programs As Cover[/url] NPR
[quote]A White House official says the CIA will no longer use vaccine programs as cover for spy operations, answering health experts' complaints that it had hurt international efforts to fight disease.

The CIA famously used a vaccination program as a ploy to gain information about the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. That effort didn't succeed, and the doctor involved was sentenced to a prison term. But the revelation had immediate effects — particularly in the fight against polio.

As The New York Times reported in 2012, vaccination teams were banned in some areas of Pakistan.

And vaccination workers have been assassinated, the deans from Tulane, Emory, Columbia and other universities wrote in a letter to President Obama dated Jan. 6, 2013. They also compared the use of vaccine programs to the CIA's early infiltration of the Peace Corps, saying that in both cases, the practice had to be stopped to protect volunteers and gain access where people are most vulnerable to disease.[/quote]
In the case of Iran, the fact that the US is maintaining its brutal "maximum pressure" program of economic sanctions in its ongoing attempt to force regime chamge in Iran certainly boosts various "they will stop at nothing to destroy us" CTs. All widespread CTs of which I am aware have that underlying element of truth. In the case of China, there was indeed an international military games event held in Wuhan last October which included US servicemembers, so the now the CCP, desperate to deflect from their horrific role in allowing the initial local cluster of cases to absolutely explode and likely costing themselves, and now the world, any chance of containment, has that convenient hook on which to hang their official CT. I've heard more than a few folks who normally are anything but Trump backers agreeing with his aggressively shoving their odious party-line BS back into their faces. Oh, y'all are *annoyed* no end? Well, the rest of the world is being a hell of a lot more than 'annoyed' by the results of your derelection of public safety of your own citizens.

====================

Good article with bending-the-curve-or-not charts over on Wolf Street today:

[url=https://wolfstreet.com/2020/03/21/hottest-battlegrounds-in-the-coronawar-is-social-distancing-kicking-in/]Hottest Battlegrounds in the CoronaWar: Is "Social Distancing" Kicking In?[/url] | Wolf Street -- Iceland? That surpised me, until I saw this comment-#1 update by the author:
[quote]Two very fresh updates to the text:

(1) The Bay Area reported today 135 new cases confirmed yesterday, far above the 50-per-day of the last 6 days. Not a welcome sign. But still below the South Korea curve.

(2) Iceland has a wikipedia page on their outbreak which says most of their early cases came from ski tourists returning from northern Italy and nearby Alpine hot spots.[/quote]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;540518]BAll widespread CTs of which I am aware have that underlying element of truth.[/QUOTE]CT?

Please expand that TLA. TIA. HAND.

[QUOTE=xilman;540525]CT?

Please expand that TLA. TIA. HAND.[/QUOTE]

The sentence leading in to the CIA-related link above the 'CT'-containing paragraph contains the whence-the-initialism, though I didn't explicitly write "...conspiracy theories (CT)".

Also, I neglected to add something to the following:

"I've heard more than a few folks who normally are anything but Trump backers agreeing with his aggressively shoving [the CCP's] odious party-line BS back into their faces."

...namely that of course Trump is using said kerfuffle to deflect from his own early-dismissal-of-the-pandeic-threat inanities.

[QUOTE=Till;540506]Is it that New York takes testing much more serious than other US states, or do they really have so many more cases?

[URL]https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/[/URL]

Btw. the worldometer corona pages update faster than John Hopkins, great site I think.[/QUOTE]


Funny, I could swear that a few hours ago US charts showed 38k+ cases (now down to 32k+)...

[QUOTE=Till;540531]Funny, I could swear that a few hours ago US charts showed 38k+ cases (now down to 32k+)...[/QUOTE]

Hey Till, is this you? If so take care! :smile:

[url]https://nypost.com/2020/03/20/thailand-hospitals-use-ninja-robots-to-fight-coronavirus/[/url]

I'm sure LaurV can confirm for us whether or not that is really you, since this is in his back yard..

Hmm. Are you refering to the similarity of my (default) avatar pic with the robot?
No comprendo ;-)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;540518]All widespread CTs of which I am aware have that underlying element of truth.[/QUOTE]
Really? How about the ones involving space aliens? The Illuminati? The "Moon landings were faked" ones? The JFK assassination ones? By golly, there were [i]hundreds[/i] if not [i]thousands[/i] of people on that grassy knoll blazing away! The "9-11 was an inside job" ones? The "mass shootings are all staged" ones?

[QUOTE=Till;540540]Hmm. Are you refering to the similarity of my (default) avatar pic with the robot?
No comprendo ;-)[/QUOTE]

Yes, that's it. I thought the resemblance was close enough so there would be no question about it. :)

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;540542]Really? How about the ones involving space aliens? The Illuminati? The "Moon landings were faked" ones? The JFK assassination ones? By golly, there were [i]hundreds[/i] if not [i]thousands[/i] of people on that grassy knoll blazing away! The "9-11 was an inside job" ones? The "mass shootings are all staged" ones?[/QUOTE]

You confuse "credible amount of evidence a reasonable person would believe" with my "element of truth", which makes no claim as to the relative amount of said element. Let's take your space-aliens example: Government has long been conducting secret flight tests at Area 51 - thus mysterious lights in the sky, etc - and giving implausible explanations by way of cover stories. Thus official secrecy feeds the CTs, another common aspect when the CT involves the government.

I'll let other readers comment on the various CT-feeding elements of truth in your other exemplars - busy trying to get some actual work done just now, you happened to catch me just as I was going to edit a post about that.

[quote=ewmayer;540552]You confuse "credible amount of evidence a reasonable person would believe" with my "element of truth", which makes no claim as to the relative amount of said element. Let's take your space-aliens example: Government has long been conducting secret flight tests at Area 51 - thus mysterious lights in the sky, etc - and giving implausible explanations by way of cover stories.[/quote]

I see. Hmm, that would serve equally well as an "element of truth" for angels and demons, as for space aliens.

So your "element of truth" can range from the trivial, through the trivially trivial, to the totally meaningless.

Examples:

Illuminati conspiracies: Element of truth: There [i]was[/i] a group called the Illuminati.

9-11 conspiracies: Element of truth: The 9-11 attacks [i]did[/i] happen.

JFK assassination conspiracies. Element of truth: He [i]was[/i] shot. (Not all the bats:censored:t crazy "theories" concede that he was killed)

"Mass shootings never happened" conspiracies: Element of truth: Mass shootings [i]were[/i] widely reported.

Tonight's numbers from [URL]https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6[/URL]

Global:
cases 335972, deaths 14632, recovered 97881
CFR1 = 14632/(14632+97881) = 0.1300 = 13%
CFR2 = 14632/335972 = 0.4355 = 4.36%

US:
cases 33276, deaths 417, recovered 178
CFR1 = 417/(417+178) = 0.7008 = 70.%
CFR2 = 417/33276 = 0.0125 = 1.25%



Pretty similar numbers at [URL]https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/[/URL]
global cases 336075, deaths 14613, recovered 97636
CFR of resolved cases 13%
active cases 95% mild, 5% serious or critical

US: cases 32783, deaths 416, recovered 178; active 32189, of which 795 (2.5%) are serious or critical
8576 new cases, 114 new deaths