{"id":81331,"date":"2020-05-24T21:11:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T01:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=81331"},"modified":"2020-05-24T21:12:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T01:12:13","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-friday-may-22nd-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=81331","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Friday, May 22nd, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Friday, May 22nd, 2020…but before we begin, here’s another picture forwarded by The Boss worth far more than a mere thousand words, one which indeed says it all<\/em><\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Consider this an example of settled political<\/span><\/em> science…as well as established economics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

We lead off the Friday edition with a brief commentary.\u00a0 After learning our current self-inflicted crisis was birthed by George W. Bush’s backing of a lockdown plan with no exit strategy conceived by two government doctors with no epidemiological or pandemic expertise aided and abetted by a complex-systems analyst at the Sandia National Laboratories helping his 14-year-old daughter with her high school science project<\/em><\/span><\/a>, we’re solidly of the opinion the burden of proof<\/em><\/span> is on those advocating the lockdown<\/em><\/span> to demonstrate not only why<\/em><\/span> the unprecedented quarantining of the healthy rather than the sick and vulnerable should continue<\/em><\/span>, but why it was ever remotely advisable in the first place<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until facts<\/em><\/span> are presented which convince us of the contrary, here’s how we assess the relative peril posed by the Wuhan “pandemic”, courtesy of Jeff Foutch:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Power-hungry Progressive politicians intent on destroying The Donald, a cowed citizenry and a pliant press have combined with social media to produce a perfect storm of pusillanimous panic.\u00a0 Thus, in order to meet the insatiable appetite of the constant 24\/7 cable news cycle for the sensational, have standard winter storms become “bomb cyclones”, regular summer heatwave been offered as evidence we’ve only years to live and predictable spring floods termed “unprecedented”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, the tyrannical streak exhibited by those in power from the local to federal level (regardless of the efficacy of their actions<\/em><\/span><\/a>) is the most disturbing development.\u00a0 The recently retired, and now golfing almost every day G. Trevor forwarded this incredibly prescient quote from Thomas Jefferson, which needs no emphasis from us:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia*<\/span>, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man.<\/span> And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>“<\/p>\n

* War of all things against all things.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sorta makes one think those old, dead White men knew what the heck they were talking about<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, which is why Progressives are so intent on overturning the Constitution they ordained and established to protect us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more on the utter idiocy which is the Wuhan pandemic panic, we turn to\u00a0AEI<\/em>, where Charles Murray (the same Charles Murray attacked at Middlebury College in March of 2017<\/em><\/span><\/a>) details what he sees as…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three Americas and the pandemic, Part I: New York City<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

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“As I try to cope with the media firehose of information about the pandemic, I am struck by how seldom the accounts foster a sense of perspective<\/em><\/span>. Yes<\/em><\/span>, the pandemic is<\/em><\/span> a big deal in terms of the aggregate number of cases and deaths.<\/span> But how does its severity vary<\/em><\/span>? Where<\/em><\/span>?<\/span> To what degree<\/em><\/span>? I took an initial stab at providing that perspective\u00a0last week<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>, pointing out how radically just one factor, population density, affects coronavirus rates.<\/span> I\u2019m going to expand on that first step by showing you visually<\/em><\/span>, through maps, how the incidence of reported coronavirus cases is playing out across the nation.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, I have taken advantage of the many health departments around the country that have published coronavirus case numbers by zip code.<\/span> Using zip codes as the unit of analysis gives us a much more granular look at what\u2019s happening than the numbers for entire cities or counties. In all, I have assembled data based on zip codes for 14 of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Dallas\/Fort Worth, Miami\/Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, Washington, Atlanta, San Antonio, St. Louis, and Baltimore.<\/span> For New York City, I restricted the sample to zip codes in the five boroughs. For the others, I included all the contiguous zip codes in the metropolitan area that had a population density of at least 1,000 per square mile.<\/span> This post<\/em><\/span> discusses New York City<\/em><\/span>. Part II<\/em><\/span> will consider large cities in general<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> Part III<\/em><\/span> will describe the situation in small cities and rural areas<\/em><\/span>. I devote an entire essay just to New York City because it soon became obvious<\/em><\/span> that I was not dealing with a collection of 14 cities that I could analyze together<\/em><\/span>, but with 13 cities and the distant outlier that is the Big Apple<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To see why<\/em><\/span> I reached that conclusion, consider the coronavirus rates that demarcate each decile of New York City\u2019s population. For example, the 10 percent of its population who live in zip codes that have the lowest coronavirus rates are people who live in zip codes that have a rate of less than 1.03 percent of the population.<\/span> (In the metric that is usually reported, it amounts 1,034 reported cases per 100,000 population. I prefer to use percentages of the population instead, because I think \u201ccases per 100,000\u201d unconsciously leads people to overestimate incidence.) Those<\/em><\/span> zip codes constitute the first decile<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> The second decile<\/em><\/span> consists of zip codes that have a coronavirus rate of 1.03 percent to 1.28 percent<\/em><\/span>. And so on<\/em><\/span>, up to the 10th decile<\/em><\/span>, consisting of zip codes with coronavirus rates of 2.85 percent or higher<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> I then prepared a map of New York\u2019s zip codes, shown below, so that the lightest orange represents the coronavirus rate for the first decile<\/em><\/span> while the darkest orange represents the rate for the 10th decile<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The maps below<\/em><\/span> use exactly the same definition of coronavirus deciles and color coding<\/em><\/span>, but applied to the six cities that immediately follow New York City in population<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The gap<\/em><\/span> between New York City and the other cities is extraordinary<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

We’ll feature Parts II & III of Murray’s series as they become available.\u00a0 Meanwhile, consider this graphic forwarded by Balls Cotton:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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We cannot speak to the precision of the comparisons, but the concept and conclusion are undeniably dead-on balls accurate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a related item also courtesy of Balls Cotton, writing at Conservative Review<\/em>, Daniel Horowitz reveals a…<\/strong><\/p>\n

New study demonstrates how low coronavirus fatality rate is outside nursing homes<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

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“We no longer need to rely on unicorn simulation models<\/em><\/span> to predict the threat level of COVID-19. After millions of global cases<\/em><\/span>, we now have reams of hard data<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> In recent days, two things have become clear<\/em><\/span>: 1) The overall death rate is\u00a0dramatically inflated<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0with people who died only\u00a0with<\/em><\/span>\u00a0COVID-19 \u2013 not\u00a0because<\/em><\/span>\u00a0of it \u2013 especially in nursing homes<\/em><\/span>; 2) Outside<\/em><\/span> nursing homes, the fatality rate is low even for most seniors<\/em><\/span> and shockingly low for younger and healthier people<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> This destroys<\/em><\/span> politicians\u2019 reasons for pushing the irrevocably harmful actions taken by our government rather than a more strategic and targeted approach<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

We should note many of the dead INSIDE nursing homes are victims of the hopelessly misguided, indeed criminally-negligent policies of blue state governors like Andrew Cuomo.\u00a0 Though\u00a0anyone getting their news and information from the WaPo<\/em><\/span>\u00a0would be justifiably confused as to the precise level of responsibility Fredo’s older brother had for many of the deaths…so here’s a hint<\/em><\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Just to demonstrate gubernatorial ineptitude isn’t limited to Albany, writing at\u00a0Best of the Web<\/em>, Jim Freeman notes how Fredo’s older brother Sonny has had company in visiting death upon the aged and infirm, as he reveals…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minnesota Not Nice<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

Could a state design a more destructive policy to address coronavirus<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

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“Thank goodness Covid-19 isn\u2019t as deadly as many media pundits feared<\/em><\/span>. Given the incomprehensible policy blunders of Minnesota\u2019s state government<\/em><\/span>, its health system might<\/em><\/span> have been completely overwhelmed by now<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The sad news from the Land of 10,000 Lakes (and nearly 50,000 state employees) is that Minnesota has been implementing the disastrous Covid-19 strategy made famous by New York\u2019s Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/em><\/span>. The essence<\/em><\/span> of the plan is to forcefully reduce the income of people at low risk, while simultaneously increasing the chances of virus exposure for those at high risk<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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