The federal deficit under President Donald Trump will top $1 trillion this year, the Congressional Budget Office announced in its annual fiscal outlook on Tuesday https://t.co/YVNKAw9WQC huuuuge deficit
Shared psychosis does not have to have psychosis; it can be any symptom, but usually a delusion (such as persecution, or impunity). Having the same disorder to start with, such as sociopathy, would further predispose to transmission of symptoms. Shared psychosis 🤪
1. A woman who was a senior producer at Fox & Friends when the show interviewed Jerome Corsi to talk about why Obama's birth certificate was fake was just hired by Facebook to help decide what videos to feature in its new News tab https://t.co/jhodEnrkKT
Americans Trapped in Wuhan Aren’t Angry at the Chinese Government. They’re Angry at Their Own https://time.com/5773546/americans-trapped-wuhan-coronavirus/ “I’ve actually been a little bit annoyed at the p–s-poor treatment,” says Steece, who before moving to China served five years with the U.S. National Guard. “Why is it that American citizens have to pay $1,000 and not have our families come with us? It’s bulls–t.” It’s a similar situation for Benjamin Wilson, 38, a restauranteur in Wuhan from Alexandria, La. Although Wilson’s seven-year-old daughter, Jasmine, has an American passport, his wife is a Chinese citizen. Even were there room on Wednesday’s flight, Wilson couldn’t bring himself to split the family up at this difficult time. “It’s sad when other governments are offering evacuation for Chinese spouses and children as well,” he says. “While with our government, we’ve heard about the rumor of a plane coming — I have not seen any information directly from the embassy myself — but then there was not enough space for everyone.”
BREAKING: Mass nonviolent civil disobedience underway on steps of US Capitol Crowd chants "Protect the Constitution!" as police grab 600 sq ft banner featuring Article II, Section 4, the impeachment and removal clause #NoCoverUp #WeWantWitnesses #SwarmTheCapitol #RemoveTrump https://t.co/TZpn1zvpfv
Tonight on NPR a 28-year old man with insurance who went to the emergency room for life-threatening appendicitis and now has a wrecked credit because it was out of network. He owes $28,000. Our current system is paid for by ruining people's lives. We need #MedicareForAll. 有保险的得个阑尾炎也没用，都不需要得癌 🤪
Alan Dershowitz laughed and patted Pompeo on the back right after the president praised Pompeo for swearing at, lying about, and belittling a reporter. Dershowitz says he did it because he agrees with Pompeo on Middle East policy. https://t.co/9WkLSsIt8c 哈弗法学教兽
Secretary Wilbur Ross says coronavirus will be good for [checks notes] American jobs: "I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America." https://t.co/Y4SbDIcTi4 独菜党都一样，要么推卸责任，要么落井下石🤪
The German language has, as usual, a hyper-specific word for this phenomenon: “Aktionismus,” literally Actionism, or action for action’s sake. What I was witnessing was Aktionismus in the face of a problem that required a sensitive response involving public trust. But since the Chinese government cannot elicit either of those things, I was seeing the compensatory flailing-around of a state with no other options. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-china-epidemic.html Instead of having an adult conversation with the population about the virus and putting in place reasonable policies that have been used effectively elsewhere, the Chinese state has gone into full lockdown mode. This demonstrates one of those truisms from political science: Authoritarian governments are like people who don’t have any fingers but do possess two thumbs. They can take forceful actions but can’t fine-tune the levers of government.
谈云识天气
Actually, I’m not being fair. When the Chinese Communist Party has time, it can come up with and use sophisticated policies — witness its co-opting of traditional faiths to fill a spiritual vacuum in society.
But when faced with a crisis, the party can’t seem to avoid grand gestures: building hospitals from scratch in two weeks, locking down tens of millions of people, banning millions more from traveling to big cities and so on. In some ways, a moment like this one is a technocrat’s dream: When Western health care experts say that this sort of lockdown won’t work, they basically mean it’s never been tried on this scale with this kind of uber-efficient government.
Now that it’s being tried, not just in Beijing but across the country, the effects are kind of thrilling to watch. Apartment compounds like mine are being fumigated. (With what? Who cares!) People are walking around with loudspeakers blaring out warnings against the virus. Villages are closing their gates as if bandits were on the prowl. And going to a restaurant or a bar is almost an act of treason or, at best, foolish selfishness.
谈云识天气
The most interesting question is why the party feels the need to carry on like this. I think it knows the people don’t trust it in these cases and assume there has been a cover-up.
Hence one of the most popular figures in the crisis: Zhong Nanshan, the hero of the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, now 83, who is back in action, treating patients and warning citizens about the need for hygiene. He has been adopted as the incorruptible official — a familiar trope in Chinese history, the Confucian official who stands tall despite pressures to bend. And so we read endless profiles of Dr. Zhong in Chinese social media, discussing his family background, upbringing, successes and apolitical pursuit of science-based truth. The clear implication is that he is that rare official capable of such principled conduct.
Behind all this lies the feeling that most other people in the party can’t quite be trusted. This has been reinforced over the past few days by reports that at least eight people who were detained in Wuhan in early January on charges of spreading rumors are in fact medical doctors, not fear-mongering ne’er-do-wells. This startling fact is now leaking out in online reports that are sometimes, but not always, being blocked. At some point, the government will have to admit to a partial cover-up.
Considering the underlying distrust, it’s hard for the government to say what many epidemiologists are saying: This outbreak is serious but not catastrophic. Because if the state leveled with the people, it would also have to admit that there is no need for this degree of social control. Fewer than 200 people were reported to have died as of Thursday evening, in a country of nearly 1.4 billion, and there is no indication that we are at the start of a Hollywood disaster-style movie.
谈云识天气
The government’s inability to formulate a measured response will turn this outbreak into a direct successor of the SARS epidemic. That hardly was a huge public health disaster — fewer than 800 deaths — yet it has taken on a legendary reputation as a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, one that should never be allowed to recur.
But of course a new outbreak has occurred.
谈云识天气
Does this mean that the state will suffer? I don’t think so. For despite their mistrust of the system, people overall are going along with the lockdown. In private conversations and on chat rooms, they say it’s impossible not to take drastic action in a country as big as China.
In this sense, the population has absorbed the government’s narrative of Chinese exceptionalism: Running China requires a strong hand, and these measures, as absurd as they seem, are proof that the government is doing a good job — and portend that the party will come out of this, as always, triumphant.
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