ESPN.com: Knicks hire CAA’s William Wesley to advisory role

Brian Cronin
June 24, 2020 at 12:13 pm
“Don Chaney won coach of the year in Detroit, but didn’t have much success in New York.l

Houston, but yeah, agreed with the overall point.

***

Oh, yeah, I forgot he was in Houston. In my mind’s eye, he was only coach of the Pistons.

And in looking him up, I learned that he was head coach for 12 seasons in the NBA and only had a winning record twice. BUT he won coach of the year that one year that he didn’t suck at coaching, so good for him!

(I guess that’s kind of like when they gave Kim Basinger an Oscar the one time she made a movie that didn’t blow)

“Wesley joins a front office that includes Rose, general manager Scott Perry and chief strategist Brock Aller.”

History in the making.
John, Paul, George and Ringo material.

Obviously evaluating a coach is more complex than [X factors] but we need to hire Thibs solely because of [X factors]

He’s hiring so many people I’m thinking it’s because he has no idea how to fix the Knicks

Coach of the year award is not exactly like Mvp of the all star game award or half court shot 10000$ award.
It shows that for one season (year) the coach was focused and in great control of his team, against 29 others and got the best from the guys he was coaching.
Is it sustainable ?
Pretty Difficult due to aggressive competition.
As any of the annual nba awards.

Is it repeatable?
Why not?

Yeah, it’s similar to storing fruit like strawberries. You want them exposed so the fridge can wick the moisture away (preventing mold).

It’s getting to the point where the organization is so poorly managed, it should no longer be acceptable to make fun of them. We spent years hoping to get out from under CAA. We finally made some progress and now we are all in. It’s sad. I’m done.

whoever started with that rooting for laundry shit last year – curse you…that is one sorry sounding thought, and it’s stuck in my mind now…

Oh man, you guys read Begley’s interview with Woodson? He’s going after this HAM.
I feel like he has a good shot, and I kinda miss the circle goatee tbh…

I’ve called DSJ a special talent too.
Many times this season.
Not in basketball sadly …
In comedy.

Just as in Fizdale’s case I’d prefer to watch Rose work instead of talk before i draw any conclusions.
Know how to talk to the press ain’t bad tho.

Phil was a Visionary but his Knicks vision seemed slightly drugged perhaps by trade-allergy pills.
His Jr/shump giveaway-trade that played a huge role in cavs championship imo was a clear sign to me that he wasn’t fully aware of the league’s dynamics during his POBO days.

Reposting from the previous thread.

So, about the NBA restarting. Avery Bradley isn’t playing because one of his children is at-risk for covid, Jokic and Malcolm Brogdon have both tested positive so far, and it’s taking place in Florida where cases are spiking and their idiot governor refuses to do anything about it in order to suck up to our idiot in chief. Anyone else thinking this might be a bad idea?

Oh, and I love that we’re totally in bed with CAA again. It was so great last time how could it go wrong? Remember when we won 54 games, made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and then traded for a 1RP and two 2RP for Bargnani? Good times.

The difference now is that CAA is us, not who we are bargaining with. Will Rose et. al. be as shrewd now that his legacy is about wins on the court rather than wins in having his clients sign large contracts and play in lucrative markets? It used to serve CAA’s purposes do do right by its clients at the expense of Dolan and his cast of buffoons running the Knicks. Now , Rose and WWW have seen what incompetence as an executive can do to tarnish one’s glittering legacy in a prior occupation. Does Rose want to follow Phil’s example?

As for me, I couldn’t care less about what connections are most important to Rose, so long as he makes smart deals and improves the team in some sort of non-stopgap way and without being a sideshow.

I’m hoping Rose just keeps adding more and more people.

One my friends has a friend who is friends with Wes, so if Rose keeps this up he’ll get to me eventually

“So, about the NBA restarting. Avery Bradley isn’t playing because one of his children is at-risk for covid, Jokic and Malcolm Brogdon have both tested positive so far, and it’s taking place in Florida where cases are spiking and their idiot governor refuses to do anything about it in order to suck up to our idiot in chief. Anyone else thinking this might be a bad idea?

The infection rate is strictly a function of personal behavior. There are 106,000 total infections statewide from the beginning of the crisis here in Florida out of a population of 21M which gives an infection rate of about 0.5%. So 99.5% of the populace has managed to not get infected by using reasonable techniques including the myriad of olds that are terribly susceptible.

If the players and their ancillary personnel stay within the confines of the bubble, the vast majority will be fine. If a few decide to visit Diamond Dolls a few time the league will be shut down in 2 weeks.

I am kinda curious how the governor of Florida is an idiot with 5100 cases today and CA’s gov isn’t an idiot with 5,000 cases today and twice as many dead.? And how Cuomo isn’t an idiot for forcing infected patients into nursing home?

Just curious how that works?

***I am kinda curious how the governor of Florida is an idiot with 5100 cases today and CA’s gov isn’t an idiot with 5,000 cases today***

California has 40,000,000 people, Florida has 20,000,000 people. Do you still not get it?

Just curious how that works?

be honest, you are not curious in the very least…you just want to argue…what is that 🙂

it’s not just you bob…it’s a thing…this is the place for it…it’s kind of fascinating…like a vice or something…peoples’ vices are often interesting…

okay then, what was the side dish you had with your steak?

favorite steak side dishes: applesauce, baked potato (lots of butter), green beans (more butter) and some french bread (you see a pattern)…and milk for the beverage, maybe chocolate milk…

favorite steak side dishes: applesauce, baked potato (lots of butter), green beans (more butter) and some french bread (you see a pattern)…and milk for the beverage, maybe chocolate milk…

I try to eat as ketogenically as possible so my beloved breads and pastas are out. Broccoli and spinach.

Cuomo and De Blasio deserve plenty of blame, too. Morons act like this is some zero sum game, like “If Cuomo fucked up, then Trump didn’t.” When obviously it isn’t. There’s been plenty of fuck-ups out there. None as bad as Trump, but there’s plenty of blame to go around in NY, CA, NJ and other “blue” states.

“My parents live in Fort Lauderdale and are both 70 and have lung conditions so I’m not real thrilled with that asshole either.”

I’m in the same boat (68 but relatively healthy) but as long as they use their heads they’ll be fine. I walk around my complex a half hour a day with my wife, Have been to Publix 5 times since the beginning and been out to dinner twice in the last 3 weeks. I’m dying to go to a movie or a show or concert or sit down at a poker table, but it’s just unwise. Always sit outdoors to eat where the air is circulating and the tables are far apart. So far so good.

The olds just have to be smarter. But we couldn’t just quarantine the entire nation until a vaccine is found. AIDS has been around for 40+ years and still no vaccine. There is no guarantee there will ever be a vaccine. There wouldn’t he a country to re-open if we hermetically sealed everyone in place for 18 months.

People at very low risk have to get back at it and the olds have to be smart. The low risk people do NOT have to re-open by indulging themselves in high risk activity. That point needs to be hammered home better.

I like Hammond too, but the fact that Pop gave the reigns to TIMMAY when he was out is a little concerning. She should definitely get a shot, but she’s probably being groomed for the San Antonio job. It’d be hard to pry her away.

It sure sounds like it’s Duncan that’s being groomed for the job, no?

And if it were anyone else but Tim Duncan, I’d agree that it was a demerit for Hammon for her to be passed over by Duncan, but, well, you know, it is Tim freakin’ Duncan. Pop’s worked closely with him for, what, 23 years now?

The amusing thing is that one of the reasons Udoka left San Antonio was because he was behind Hammon and Messina in the Spurs coaching pecking order. Pop’s bench is just an amazing place to be.

Watching the Rose interview now. First, Mike Breen is just the best. Second, Rose comes across very genuinely. He didn’t say anything that was alarming. I wish he was a bit more forthcoming re: style of play, but there seemed to be a genuine humility and passion for success. I am cautiously optimistic about him.

I also watched the interview just now. I agree with Z-man about except that I think he was forthcoming about the style of play. He clearly said it’s not up to him, it’s the coaches decision. He also said that the coach and management have to work together to build a team that has players that support whatever style of play the coach uses.

Right, I wanted him to say that he would consider league-wide trends for successful play and choose a coach that was sensitive to that. I wanted him to say something about the use of analytics. (He hasn’t hired anyone suggestive of specific expertise in that area, to my knowledge.)

(He hasn’t hired anyone suggestive of specific expertise in that area, to my knowledge.)

That definitely has been a glaring absence in his hires so far.

Mouthbreathers like bob will work like dogs their entire lives to afford to send their kids to the best colleges, and when they come home will go on and on about how stupid they became.

The inevitable Mike Breen #metoo scandal (or equivalent) is going to devastate me. I love that man.

Florida is currently reporting more cases than Germany, Italy, Spain, and France combined. Or so I read in the paper the other day.

Cuomo did his best, and quite well overall, to handle a disaster that was partly of his own making. I will leave it to the historians to decide how well he did.

It’s clear that as a nation this is going just about as badly as it possibly could measured both by mortality and economic activity. There is no question that the largest part of blame rests squarely on the shoulders of President Trump.

At least Desantis and the Florida SG have finally sent out an alert strongly encouraging the use of masks. Imagine if Trump had done so three months ago.

We are doing better than Brazil. That’s all I can say about our response.

Brian Cronin: Why would he be an assistant coach (and the head coach when Pop’s not there) if he didn’t want to coach?

Good point. Maybe Pop talked him into it? But I remember him saying he wasn’t thinking about coaching at the end of his playing career, and I believed it too much maybe. My question in regards to Hammond and Duncan is if San Antonio doesn’t give Hammond a shot- who will? That’s if Duncan is the coach in waiting. Imagine the PR storm if Pop leaves, and they pass Duncan over for Hammond. So, it makes me wonder how even of a footing are Duncan and Hammond on for Hammond to have all this buzz? Can she make that jump if Duncan is clearly the lead assistant? Don’t get me wrong- I like Hammond. But doesn’t that structure hurt her chances elsewhere?

I think Cuomo and DeBlasio did the best they could after making the original sin of not closing down 2 weeks sooner. With a exponentially spreading virus, just a few days makes a big difference, and they failed that initial test.

Hard to know exactly what is happening in Florida/Texas/Arizona. My inclination is that most of the spread happens indoors, and those states are now HOT and unbearable outside for the most part so people are hiding indoors with crappy ventilation systems that are probably pushing all the virus around. The vast majority of cases in California are happening in LA where aside from the very coastal areas it is HOT. In contrast, in the northeast, true, people are way more careful because of how horrible it was here in march-may, but the weather has been really mild so far, easy to do everything outdoors. But already you can see people being much less adherent to social distancing here. The rubber will hit the road in the northeast in July/Aug when it’s 90+ degrees and 85+ humidity, people are forced inside, and at the same time, reopening introduces more people onto subways/trains/buses/offices.

My guess is that the rest of the country never gets nearly as bad as NY unless people are REALLY dumb, just because people don’t live in as close quarters as they do in NY, and public transportation is way less important in other places. But exponential spread is exponential spread, and just a little bad luck could unfortunately go a very long way.

“Sure, bob, Cuomo is a mass murderer. Just ask any arch-conservative!”

Use any adjective you choose but he made an executive order/fiat where the direct result of such a poorly thought out idea in the name of political correctness cost thousands of older people their lives directly. The facts are in evidence. They are real things and inescapable sequelae of his actions.

Characterize them any way that assuages your conscience and votes. Feel free this is America….

NY was dealing with huge unknowns, and the greatest fear was that hospitals were going to be completely overwhelmed in terms of capacity, health care personnel and equipment (PPE, ventilators, etc.). There was also moronic resistance from the feds re: vastly increasing testing capacity. So what to do with elderly people so incapacitated that they required 24-hour care in a medical facility was a very tough call at the time. Asshole conservatives who are desperately looking for any reason to tear Cuomo down will second-guess every decision he made in the context of what we know now. But where was the outcry then? What alternative solutions were being offered by Cuomo-hating voices of reason?

It’s the same bullshit line of reasoning used to defend Trump. He actually did NOT prevent travel from China to US. Thousands of Americans and others returned to US from China after his so-called ban, either directly or through other countries. And obviously NYC, with its vast amount of business, educational and family connections to China, suffered most as a result. And at the Time, Trump was promising us that the virus would magically disappear, trying to convince us that deaths would be minimal based on nothing scientific and flouting experts like Fauci, saying that he was “shocked’ to learn how many people died of the flu, implying that COVID was overblown and should be regarded as a lesser problem, and a billion other criminally negligent things.

I think in retrospect that the nursing home thing was a terrible idea, but everything is very easy in retrospect. I can tell you from personal experience that all NYC hospitals were basically completely overwhelmed with the sickest patients many people have ever taken care of, with ICU nurses taking care of far too many of these people, non-ICU nurses and even pediatric nurses trained in a matter of hours/days to try and manage critically ill patients (“this is a ventilator, this is how it works, we understand that we have 1/2 the number of respiratory therapists available, now go take care of these patients), radiologists who hadn’t seen a patient in years learning on the fly how to order stuff and actually take care of unbelievably sick patients. Where I work, by mid April we literally had 3x the amount of ICU patients on ventilators in the hospital as the maximum pre-COVID ICU capacity. If the shut down had happened just a week later, it is possible that you would have seen the entire hospital system collapse. That’s what Cuomo and co. were planning for when they asked the nursing homes to take the patients back.

In retrospect, what they should have done is transfer all those patients to the Javits center, Central Park’s temporary hospital, or the USS Comfort ship rather than back to the nursing homes. But everything was on fire all at once, and as I remember it, the Comfort ship wasn’t supposed to take COVID patients for whatever reason. It definitely could have been much better, but the sheer amount of unknowns and the absolute chaos of this sudden flood of patients has to be taken into account too.

At the end of the day I think I’d give Cuomo a 4 or 5 out of 10. He made some bad calls, he made some calls that were too late, but at least he took the whole thing seriously, had daily briefings that reinforced the severity of the problem, and was able to convince the gigantic majority of people to stay home.

“So what to do with elderly people so incapacitated that they required 24-hour care in a medical facility was a very tough call at the time.”

Jesus… you must get dizzy spinning so hard and need to see a chiropractor after bending yourself into a pretzel with the convoluted “logic” you espouse to try to put a patina of credibility on Cuomo’s moronic edicts

How about sending them to the 2600 capacity Javitz Center and the 1200 bed Comfort that that asshole President sent to NYC for the Governor to use at no charge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What kind of an absolute moron sends recovering patients into the most vulnerable population with a highly contagious infection. Nothing could possible go wrong there, right?

They were virtually unused the entire time

1200 bed Comfort wasn’t allowed to take COVID patients – only patients who had other illnesses. See this article for how poorly the Comfort was set up by the Navy/Trump.

Javits center definitely should have been used, but I’m not 100% sure whether there was a real infrastructure set up there to take care of the patients (nurses, pharmacists, techs, radiology, doctors, food service, etc)? See this article re: how difficult it is/was to set up something like this.

The Comfort ship was really the best option – a military hospital ship that is used to rapid deployment and had staff, ORs, ICUs, etc. But the rollout of that was completely botched by non-Cuomo federal/military leadership.

My guess is that Cuomo’s choice was to keep these patients occupying hospital beds, risking hospitals literally running out of beds, vs. sending them back to a place that had the infrastructure already in place, while hoping that the nursing homes would put enough precautions in place. Obviously that ended up being a bad call but nothing is as simple as it appears.

Bob?

Were you not aware that the USNS Comfort was blocked from having Covid-19 patients on board?

Did they not discuss that on Fox?

It is now a matter that is in dispute it appears but absolutely no one living in New York at the time could understand why it wasn’t taking Covid patients.

Do we get a retraction from Bob? Not counting on it.

It also should be mentioned that Cuomo has fulsomely apologized for the nursing home debacle. He owned it. Meanwhile, the next time Trump apologizes for something he has done will be literally the first time.

Fuck Cuomo. I don’t give a fuck about Cuomo, he’s the same shitty governor and politician he has always been. Let me reiterate: fuck that guy. I’m mystified by his high approval ratings honestly.

So. About those rallies with no social distancing.
Good idea, or no?

Refusal to wear masks, does that appear to you to be a liberal thing, or does it seem like the kind of rank selfishness and science-denialism that aligns more with conservative thought? Just wondering if you’re capable of intellectual honesty.

I dislike Cuomo for a lot of reasons, and his coronavirus response has been mixed at best, but the nursing home decision was difficult to forecast at the time vis a vis the few other available options. If you think the hospital system is going to be overwhelmed–and that is what most every expert was predicting at the time–then you have to balance the risk to nursing home residents vis a vis adding to the risk to those in already overwhelmed ICUs. That’s a difficult calculus, and I don’t think there’s a clear answer. To assert otherwise is results-based thinking.

The greatest failure of Cuomo and DeBlasio’s COVID response (outside of not shutting down weeks earlier) is their refusal to mass release non-violent inmates when infection rates in prison are projected to be over 40% in June. Combine that with the atrocious health care, cramped conditions, and at-risk population, and you have a human rights disaster. It’s unconscionable.

That said, their response was lightyears ahead of that of any Republican governor. Florida will not reach New York’s highs in infection rate, but the curve is going to plateau for the next few months at a way higher rate than it would have been had they done a proper stay-at-home order.

Owen:
It’s Becky Hammon, not Hammond….

Stupid autocorrect lol

I listened to Rose yesterday. I was reminded of a lesson a learned about 20 years from listening to CEOs on conference calls with investors.

“Don’t listen to what they say. Watch what they do”.

All you need to know if putting recovering covid patients into nursing homes was when the PA public health commissioner mandated the same thing as Cuomo and the immediately pulled he own mom from a nursing home into a hotel. A real scum bag.

It like all the limousine liberals that scream against school choice and refuse to educate their own kids in the same schools they won’t let poor folk escape. Bastards.

I know the increased Covid-19 caseloads in Florida, Texas, and California are troublesome, but before everyone starts panicking again, some of that is due to both more and more efficient testing. We now know what the high risk activities are, where the high risk zip codes are, have better contact tracing etc.. than earlier in the pandemic. It’s probably not quite as bad as it looks compared to before. We are probably just doing a better job of capturing asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases now than we were 2-3 months ago. That accounts for some of it.

Also, there is some evidence out of Italy that the virus itself may be weakening, That means that even if cases start rising sharply, the hospitalization, ICU patients, and deaths may not rise at the same rate as before.

Finally, since this time around it’s younger people that are coming up positive because we are doing a better job in nursing homes (and unfortunately a lot the elderly are already dead). The combination of even a mildly weaker virus with a younger population of positives could be surprisingly benign.

Everyone is focusing on cases, but cases can be almost irrelevant. There are many millions of cases of the common cold every year but no one worries about it. Watch the hospitalizations, ICU, and death data over the next 2-3 weeks (trailing data). That’s how we’ll know if the virus has weakened, whether younger people are handling it as well as expected, whether treatments are improving etc…

Reopening states is not going to do much for the economy…

You realize reopening states means millions of people go back to work, right. This does little for the economy? The unemployment rate went from 3.5% in February to 14.7% in April and this isn’t a gigantic drag on the economy? Getting many of these people back to work isn’t going to do much for the economy? OK….

“Everyone is focusing on cases, but cases can be almost irrelevant.”

Facts:

7 day moving average of daily infections in USA 5/4 (first day of FL reopening) = 28,900
7 day moving average of deaths in USA 5/4 = 1,861
7 day moving average of daily infections yesterday in USA = 32,404
7 day moving average of daily deaths in USA yesterday = 620

I can’t help myself, even after I tell everyone not to.

You do have to admire how Bob dodges a punch quite effortlessly. He quotes someone pointing out he was completely wrong about the USNS Comfort, says nothing about it, and then just blithely motors on as if his credibility is intact.

I give him this, he does a fair job of impersonating Fox News Editorial and he knows that the best defense is a good offense.

You realize reopening states means millions of people go back to work, right. This does little for the economy?

Please explain how Sweden’s unclosed economy is projected to post a 7 percent GDP loss this quarter. The economic benefits of reopening are marginal, especially with everything operating at reduced capacity, never mind the increased healthcare costs/burden. Employment numbers are coarse-grained indicators.

Perhaps this paper might be of interest:

https://www.nber.org/papers/w27099
“On average, stay-at-home policies are not associated with higher joblessness in the US states that imposed them than in states that did not. We interpret this as evidence that the negative economic shocks were national and not local. There is however some evidence that stay-at-home has sectoral and occupational impacts. States with more jobs that can be done from home seem to have lost fewer jobs after implementing stay-at-home than states with fewer such jobs. This effect itself is not highly statistically significant.

Policy has been predicted to matter for the economy, at least in theory. We find no strong evidence of this in our sample. Stay-at-home is not the most economically important predictor of mobility and its local impact on joblessness is highly dependent on model specification.

…

The [statistically significant] association between own-state/own-county policy and growth of new cases of Covid-19 is weakened when accounting for neighboring state policies. It is further weakened by using a control group of counties on the side of a border that has no stay-at-home policy. This does not imply that local policy is unnecessary or fruitless since we believe that behavior responds to neighbor state policy. This implies there is justification for policy coordination if the objective is to mitigate the spread of disease and to reduce mortality.”

Without national coordination and action, we’re fucked. This is not going to be a V-shaped recovery. It’s going to be a severe, multi-year recession.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Wake me up when Bob starts getting into Q-Anon. His current schtick just ain’t hitting like it used to.

“c’mon owen – it’s a simple game for bob…he does not give one iota of feces regarding what you think or say, unless it provides an opportunity to engage…”

I would if any of it made the slightest bit of sense. Someone please tell me how putting infectious recovering people in a place with the weakest of the weak made any sense. AND MANDATING IT! Closing 5th avenue and throwing up MASH units in the street would have been far superior.

“Please explain how Sweden’s unclosed economy is projected to post a 7 percent GDP loss this quarter”

Sweden’s economy did better wrt GDP than Germany ffs :

Sweden’s GDP increased by 0.1% in the first quarter, when seasonally adjusted and compared to the final three months of 2019. The median forecasters in a Reuters poll of economists had expected to see a 0.6% contraction on a quarterly basis.

German GDP fell at an annual rate of 2.3% in the first three months of the year. The German Statistical Office has forecast Europe’s growth engine will record a 10% plunge in GDP for the second quarter of 2020, dependent on the success of lifting lockdown measures.

Whatever happens in the future is speculative but Sweden is betting that herd immunity will prevail in the end.

But your question was why is Sweden’s GDP projected to drop I would guess when demand globally dries up and supply chains are disrupted you will probably sell less product. But the actual economic data so far favors the Swedish model.

“What you are wrong about is the idea that Cuomo had the authority to shuffle a bunch of recuperating Covid patients to the Comfort. He wasn’t allowed to do that and the ship never had more than 20% occupancy, with mostly non-covid patients.”

There’s one gigantic hole in this argument Owen…. all Cuomo had to do was ask Trump to change the use of the ship…. he asked Monday and got approval from Trump 6 hours later…….

“In a phone interview on MSNBC, Cuomo said that he spoke with Trump after his own press conference and that the president granted permission for Comfort to accept COVID-19 patients.”

“We don’t need the Comfort for non-COVID cases, we need it for COVID,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference in Albany, N.Y. earlier Monday, when he announced he would ask Trump to let the ship take that role.

At Monday evening’s coronavirus task force briefing, Trump said the ship would be used to treat patients from New York and New Jersey.

“It is set for COVID … hopefully that will be very helpful to both states,” Trump said.

Whatever happens in the future is speculative but Sweden is betting that herd immunity will prevail in the end.

The -7% number is the Swedish government’s internal projection. That counts as good evidence that the GDP loss will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 7%. That’s right at the EU projected average of -7.1%, implying (in the small sample that we have to work with) that in the EU the presence or absence of lockdowns doesn’t affect the economy on a large scale compared to, say, massively changed consumer behavior and increased government outlay as a consequence of the virus going around. At this point, it should be obvious that the Swedish strategy is an abject failure–you’re getting higher deaths per cap with no significant economic improvement.

Here are some non-academic sources advancing a similar point:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/sweden-in-very-deep-economic-crisis-despite-soft-lockdown

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sweden-didnt-impose-a-lockdown-its-economy-is-just-as-bad-as-its-neighbors-who-did-2020-06-25

But your question was why is Sweden’s GDP projected to drop I would guess when demand globally dries up and supply chains are disrupted you will probably sell less product.

This is precisely why reopening won’t do much to help local or national economies! The entire world–cities, states, countries–is in severe economic shock, and in the U.S. there has been extraordinarily little financial relief, coupled with international trade plummeting. There is no strong reason to think that lockdowns are the cause of worldwide economic havoc, and no reason to think that the U.S. economy will improve substantially once they are lifted.

Well, I’m not with the Greek Chorus on this one, bob. Fuck Cuomo. Never liked him, he’s a feckless plutocrat.

Your side has to answer for its cultural position that wearing masks is some snowflake shit that is a violation of their freedums. That’s making things a whole lot worse. Those MAGA goobers who are so selfish and stupid that they shun masks are your fellow travelers, bob. What do you have to say about that? Forget about Cuomo and the boat for a minute and answer me that question.

Why is mask trutherism a thing that your redhat comrades seem to believe?

everyone has the right to speak – and, increasingly a means to be heard…and, what comes to mind first:

Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of ’em are stupider than that

okay, enough negative thoughts for the moment, time to wash my mind…I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me….time to put on some tunes and get shit done…favorite track at the moment is something i came across when i was moving my cd’s around…one of my favorite discs of the 90’s…

that’s right man, shot him in the ass on the downstroke 🙂

One my friends has a friend who is friends with Wes, so if Rose keeps this up he’ll get to me eventually

Is it the inevitably of history or the power of positive thinking? DRed for GM!

“Your side has to answer for its cultural position that wearing masks is some snowflake shit that is a violation of their freedums. That’s making things a whole lot worse. Those MAGA goobers who are so selfish and stupid that they shun masks are your fellow travelers, bob. What do you have to say about that? Forget about Cuomo and the boat for a minute and answer me that question.”

I’m happy to answer any substantive queries. I don’t know the actual answer about masks. At first Fauci said they were worthless and he is supposed to be the big macher on all things infectious disease and then he changed his tune.

In March on 60 minutes he said there’s no reason to be walking around with masks. I’m sure he didn’t actually believe that and wanted to conserve the protective devices dr’s and nurses in the direct line of fire but he should have said precisely that. Then the CDC reversed its position so its unsurprising the great unwashed is a little confused.

Viruses are so small these cloth/cotton masks can’t provide much of a defense but if they can block a meager amount of droplets then people should wear them in public places when in possible contact with the public.

I can only speak for myself but when I go to publix I wear a mask and latex gloves. When I go out for a meal at an outdoor eatery I wear a mask when I get out of the car and walk inside to be seated and then remove my mask and eat.

I think keeping distance is a more effective strategy but multiple layers of defense are better. I believe people who venture into public in areas where they will contact others are being disrespectful of the people around them even if don’t believe in it themselves.

I would also not believe a law passed mandating face coverings during a pandemic in public was an infringement on my rights of any kind.

I do think arresting a father for playing catch with his daughter without a single souls within a 20 feet IS an infringement of civil rights.

Did you happen to see Louie Gohmert yesterday? He ACTUALLY pounded the table.

use the link thing…that code looks scary…

We pause our regularly-scheduled political arguing for some actual Knicks news, via Shams:

Knicks have claimed two-way guard Jared Harper on free agency waivers and waived two-way guard Kadeem Allen, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA

Tommy Beer:

Harper is a quick, athletic, smallish PG (5’10) out of Auburn.

He appeared in 33 games for the Suns G-League affiliate this season and averaged 20.8 points, 5.7 assists and 2.7 made 3-pointers, while shooting 35.9% from 3-point territory.

Kadeem is no huge loss, though I know nothing about Harper besides his height and these stats. Not sure why we wouldn’t just sign Lamar Peters to a two-way, though.

Looks like bob tried to post a link to an attachment that sits on his actual Microsoft account. Not surprised he doesn’t know how the internet works. Feeble-minded.

Good luck running on CHAZ and the preservation of Confederate monuments as your platform. Those are the core issues on Fox News right now, I know this because my wife hate-watches it every day.

Winning hand you got there, bobster!

it’s fucking outrageous the new politburo quietly cut kadeem allen for nothing. great two way prospect who was not afraid of the moment, unlike zero-way retread dsj who is a special talent as long as it isn’t 5 on 5. that’s it for me, enough caa oligarch bullshit. i’m out.

j/k kadeem will be like 34 years old the next time we play. except the part about him being better than dsj. meant that part deeply.

Winning hand you got there, bobster!

Don’t forget about the lobster vote!

I liked Kadeem. Sorry to see him go for Shane Larkin 2.0 but probably won’t make a difference.

it’s fucking outrageous the new politburo quietly cut kadeem allen for nothing. great two way prospect who was not afraid of the moment, unlike zero-way retread dsj who is a special talent as long as it isn’t 5 on 5. that’s it for me, enough caa oligarch bullshit. i’m out.

He’s not a difference maker, but like I said earlier.

Don’t listen to what they say. Watch what they do.

It’s not even good for him. That’s the bizarre thing. It’s just how stupid he really is. Could have won reelection easily if he had handled things just adequately. Still might of course.

I know the increased Covid-19 caseloads in Florida, Texas, and California are troublesome, but before everyone starts panicking again, some of that is due to both more and more efficient testing. We now know what the high risk activities are, where the high risk zip codes are, have better contact tracing etc.. than earlier in the pandemic. It’s probably not quite as bad as it looks compared to before. We are probably just doing a better job of capturing asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases now than we were 2-3 months ago. That accounts for some of it.

And Phil Jackson was a great GM too

I mean there are so many articles out there refuting this. For example, to quote the Texas tribune “ Regionally, some hospital officials are reporting that intensive care units are near or over capacity, and local leaders have warned that hospitals could get overwhelmed if the number of infections keeps climbing.”

Here’s Cuomo’s explanation for the nursing home decision. What’s bob uranus’s answer to this one?

Okay, I give Rose’s first personnel move a 10. We dumped a journeyman scrub and replaced him with an electric 22yo prospect with some upside who passes, shoots 3s, gets to the line and is lightning quick. He probably doesn’t amount to much, but at least there’s an outside chance that he does. Low risk, high reward…that’s what those 2-way deals are all about.

Here’s a pretty good scouting report.

Here are some NCAA tournament highlights.

And here’s a Knicks Film School reaction.

He’s probably more like 5’10” but has a 6’5″ wingspan and is tough as nails and has a 40″ vertical. What I like is that he has very solid body mechanic on his 3-pt shot and seems like he pulls up effortlessly both spotting up and off the dribble. He reminds me a bit of Kemba Walker in that regard. He seems to lack finishing ability, especially with his left hand, and he seems tough but not especially strong. He also doesn’t seem as comportable with his jumper inside the arc. But hey, as a 2-way contract guy, he’s exactly who you want.

I mean there are so many articles out there refuting this. For example, to quote the Texas tribune “ Regionally, some hospital officials are reporting that intensive care units are near or over capacity, and local leaders have warned that hospitals could get overwhelmed if the number of infections keeps climbing.”

You should try reading what what people say. It helps. smh

I didn’t say all of it could be accounted for by increased and improved quality testing.

I said to watch hospitalizations, ICU, and deaths over the next couple of weeks. That’s how we’ll know what’s really happening, Right now they are NOT growing at the same rate as the new cases. There are some places where hospital capacity is being used up, but overall the “reported” cases are going up way faster than the other data.

There is ZERO DOUBT there is way more testing going on now than in April and early May. Many states also have more data for targeting high risk jobs (like meat packing), high risk activities, certain zip codes, etc… to find more positive cases. They have been hiring contract tracers and accumulating data for that very reason. They want to find more positives so they can quarantine those people and slow the spread.

Back in April if they did 10 tests and found 5 cases, there were probably 50 positives they never found because they didn’t know where to look and didn’t have the testing capacity to find them.

Now, they do more tests and know where to look,

So the KNOWN percentage goes up and the UNKNOWN percentage goes down. What the exact total is is still unknown. But the actual new daily caseload now is not comparable to the prior peak and anyone that says otherwise either doesn’t know what they are talking about or is lying for political purposes.

What we have now is better testing & location of positives nationally, a few states where the caseload is clearly growing rapidly, and other states where the caseload is…

And just for a little added pizzaz:

Politifact gave Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo a “mostly false” rating over his claim that his controversial nursing home policy was put in place due to guidelines from the Trump administration.

Hey… at least the didn’t give it a “pants on fire!”

Deeefense: You should try reading what what people say.It helps.smh

I didn’t say all of it could be accounted for by increased and improved quality testing.

I said to watch hospitalizations, ICU, and deaths over the next couple of weeks. That’s how we’ll know what’s really happening, Right now they are NOT growing at the same rate as the new cases.There are some places where hospital capacity is being used up, but overall the “reported” cases are going up way faster than the other data.

There is ZERO DOUBTthere is way more testing going on now than in April and early May. Many states also have more data for targeting high risk jobs (like meat packing), high risk activities, certain zip codes, etc… to find more positive cases.They have been hiring contract tracers and accumulating data for that very reason. They want to find more positives so they can quarantine those people and slow the spread.

Back in April if they did 10 tests and found 5 cases, there were probably 50 positives they never found because they didn’t know where to look and didn’t have the testing capacity to find them.
So the KNOWN percentage goes up and the UNKNOWN percentage goes down.What the exact total is is still unknown.But the actual new daily caseload now is not comparable to the prior peak and anyone that says otherwise either doesn’t know what they are talking about or is lying for political purposes.

I read what you said. It was ridiculous wishful thinking that even though positive tests are going up, things aren’t bad, it’s basically because we are testing more. If we were testing more but things weren’t getting worse, then the percentage of test results would be way down, but they aren’t. And hospitalizations and deaths will lag the increase in positive tests because that is the way the disease works.

It seems Marbury isn’t too thrilled with bringing in World Wide Wes.

case fatality rate hopefully will never be as bad as it was in march/April in NY if only because the treatments are a little better now.

It’s early yet, but things are looking good. 33% and 20% reduction of mortality is pretty amazing, especially for a drug that has few serious risks. Might not be injections of cleaners, but it’s something. From the WHO website:

What is dexamethasone and does it work against COVID-19?
Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid used in a wide range of conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects.

It was tested in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom’s national clinical trial RECOVERY and was found to have benefits for critically ill patients.

According to preliminary findings shared with WHO (and now available as a preprint), for patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth.

Do we know if this was considered a weak draft before the NCAA season got shut down? I think that it’s awfully hard for pundits to do punditry if they don’t have narratives to draw on. Even the good draftniks are deprived of those precious 1000 minutes of play to decide if someone is a Knox or a Zion.

Co-sign the LaMelo Dunc’d On pod being pretty good. They’re a little more bullish on his ability to develop into a shooter than I am, but overall I think their evaluation was thorough. It’s hard to not be drawn to him as essentially a bust-proof prospect after the Ntilikina/Knox experience–that passing/court vision isn’t going anywhere.

I like the Dunc’d On podcast but they are famously bad scouts.
But interesting to hear at least.

Positive cases are the WORST metric for measuring the status of the pandemic and it’s impact when volume of testing, quality of testing, strength of virus, and the demographics of the positive cases are are all critical to understanding the outcome and they are all changing in ways that make cases look worse than the outcome is likely to be.

lol this is just wrong on so many levels

what is “strength of virus”? Is that measured in virus strength units?

if you think just because most of the cases are now in the 20-50 year old range right now that that means they will stay in that age group, I would call that…very very optimistic. Because it’s not like those 20-50 year olds know anyone that might be older than 50 or 60, right? And the fact they are often not symptomatic or only mildly so probably means they will be less likely to take all the precautions necessary to protect the older people in their circles.

Can someone tell me why Cole Anthony is still in the Tier 1 of The Stepien’s rankings?

Frank: lol this is just wrong on so many levels

what is “strength of virus”? Is that measured in virus strength units?

if you think just because most of the cases are now in the 20-50 year old range right now that that means they will stay in that age group, I would call that…very very optimistic. Because it’s not like those 20-50 year olds know anyone that might be older than 50 or 60, right? And the fact they are often not symptomatic or only mildly so probably means they will be less likely to take all the precautions necessary to protect the older people in their cir

The strength of virus is the true IFR (infection fatality rate).

That means given exact populations of infected people, how many will die. There have been many estimates of that floating around all along, but the point is it’s not necessarily a static number. Viruses can mutate or lose strength and slowly die off on their own. What tends to happen is that the strongest variations kill their patients and die off themselves. The weaker ones survive and continue infecting hosts.

So for arguments sake, lets say the IFR was 1% at the start, it might be .6% now. That means all else being equal, fewer infected people will require hospitalization, ICU, or die. If on top of that you are doing a better job of protecting the most vulnerable people like the very old and sick in nursing homes (and not doing stupid things), even fewer people will die.

The question is what was the IFR before and what it is now?

No one knows for sure, but doctors in Italy are reporting lower tested viral loads and way more recoveries for people even over 80. They flat out said it’s not the same virus now as it was in March/April. The medical authorities in Italy tried to play that down because they don’t want irresponsible behavior in Italy to return but it’s still encouraging…

We have guys that know very little abut basketball running the organization. It was bad enough when we had a few people that do understand basketball being assisted by incompetents. Now it’s probably going to be worse.

Well, one of the things that will be really great, you know the word “experience” is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word “experience” is a very important word. It’s an — a very important meaning.

Who the fuck is this guy that is peddling coronavirus lies?

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-losing-its-lethality-in-italy-according-to-doctors-2020-6

“In terms of the transmissibility, that has not changed. In terms of the severity, that has not changed,” she said during a press briefing on Monday.

“It may not be that the virus itself is becoming less potent,” Ryan said. “It may be that we are — as community and as a global community — successfully reducing the number, intensity, and frequency of exposure to the virus, which, on the face of it, the virus then looks weaker.”

The IFR in NY and basically everywhere with high prevalance was ~1%…. that is very high…. and that is high enough to proceed with extreme caution and not just accept whatever cockamamie unproved theory that it is less deadly than what the scientific community basically accepts as the IFR….

the IFR can move down over time… it’s not a static thing but that will happen once we have better treatments which we have some better treatments but we don’t know how effective it is…. and have better preventive measures like mask wearing and social distancing and contact tracing… things that states like florida, texas and arizona have not done…..

the reason cases are so important is because they are a forward indicator….. and it’s not just because they are testing more… the percentage of positive cases are also increasing….. and hospitalizations are also increasing…. deaths are a lagging indicator and it’s only a matter of time until vulnerable populations are hit.

Well at least now we know Strat’s new alter ego

I didn’t want to say it because I got in some trouble last time, but boy the very specific, bizarre worldview is identical

“Z-man
June 25, 2020 at 9:24 pm
Here’s Cuomo’s explanation for the nursing home decision. What’s bob uranus’s answer to this one?”

Z…. I was curiously awaiting your pithy reply to my rebuttal of your earlier post.

Affectionately,

Bob Uranus

It is shocking even to me that you fellas would swallow the notion that the CDC a place lousy with career scientists and researchers would not only recommend nursing homes not only take active recovering patients but SHOULD do so. That didn’t seem a little odd to anyone?

Begley:

Knicks have claimed ex-Net Theo Pinson, per SNY sources. New York will waive Allonzo Trier to make room for Pinson, sources say.

Bye, Iso-Zo…

As the resident Trier-optimist who also loved Theo Pinson in college and desperately wanted us to snag him as a UDFA, I have no clue how to feel

I’ll miss trier, it’d be nice if we re-sign him on the cheap. Guessing some team will shell out $$$ for him.

Does this allow an Orlando-team to play him this season?

The Trier Era ends not with a bang but a whimper.

bob, you really have reading comprehension problems. Or are just an insufferable asshole. Or both. You can spin the shit as much as you want, but no one at the time was questioning the strategy in the media and given the guidelines and the circumstances, his approach was one of those things that anyone with his head not up Fox News’ ass could get past. Did you even read this part?

When should a nursing home accept a resident who was diagnosed with COVID-19 from a
hospital?
A nursing home can accept a resident diagnosed with COVID-19 and still under Transmission Based Precautions for COVID-19 as long as the facility can follow CDC guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions.

It is so clear from reading the entire document that Cuomo was not going against any recommendations from the federal government. It turned out badly, maybe even predictably so, but that happens to pretty much every leader during a crisis, especially in the early stages. He lost some battles, but is clearly winning the war, especially when compared to nearly every Republican politician other than maybe DeWine, and CERTAINLY better than the leaders in the states overrun with low-IQ science-deniers like yourself.

Trier was a pretty bad defender during his time in NY, but it’s not like he was the only one.

well, at least we’re making our way through the roster…from the bottom up…

wake me when julius is a wizard…

The board has some serious comprehension issues aside from not knowing much about basketball.

Ok yeah it’s Strat

ess-dog:
The Trier Era ends not with a bang but a whimper.

Are you saying that he’s one of The Hollow Men?
🙂

As for losing Trier, maybe Jared Harper will fill his role.

When should a nursing home accept a resident who was diagnosed with COVID-19 from a
hospital?
A nursing home can accept a resident diagnosed with COVID-19 and still under Transmission Based Precautions for COVID-19 as long as the facility can follow CDC guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions

That was the problem.

They did NOT have the capacity to quarantine properly and did not have the appropriate PPE for residents or doctors, nurses and staff. But they were sent in anyway. That’s insanity.

My uncle is in one of those homes in Queens. He talks to my mother on the phone. He told us about the conditions. It was a disaster. People were dying left and right. He was exposed, but fortunately recovered.

I live near Creedmoor hospital in Queens. Mentally ill patients from the hospital are being allowed to roam the streets in the neighborhood, beg for money, loiter and even try to enter local restaurants even though there are positives in the institution.

It’s a nightmare.

Cuomo was an idiot and 40%-45% of the deaths in NY are on him.

i remember as a kid getting creeped out whenever we passed pilgrim state on the LIE…that was one seriously spooky looking place…

i imagine i’d still be freaked out if i had to spend a night in that place…i think i may have seen them feature it on one of those haunted places shows…not that i would ever stoop so low to that level of entertainment 🙂

yes, and the answer is always: aliens…

okay, so deeefense is strat…hey strat – hope all is well for you and the family and you are staying healthy…health first – this silly bullshit second…

Hahahahahahaha oh my god, he switched back into his normal writing style.

Dude, we get it, you can’t stay away. It’s the trait of yours I find most relatable. Why all the obfuscation?

If it’s Strat it’s Strat. I am all for a reset if that’s what he wants.

Pinson’s numbers are godawful. It’s pretty rare to make a roster decision where you give up 20 points of TS% but it’s the truth that Trier never played any defense at all. Looked like Melo out there.

I will be interested when Lance Thomas writes his memoir to hear what the real deal about Zo was.

Trier had to have some coachability issues.

This new guy Deeefense thinks this blog sucks and that nobody here knows anything about basketball yet he posts here many times daily

Weird

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/26/1_in_5_ballots_rejected_as_fraud_is_charged_in_nj_mail-in_election_143551.html

All mail in election …. what could possibly go wrong?????

Just in case anyone thinks that if you recover from Covid, you’re obviously fine, take a look at this.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200622-the-long-term-effects-of-covid-19-infection

that sounds like a challenge bc…hmmmmmm…

Tough to know what to make of Pinson. Poking around the interwebs it looks like he was thought of highly coming out of college except that his shot was broken and possibly unfixable. But then he goes and shoots 38.3% on 329 3 point attempts in the G-league and 83.5% on 139 FTA. Those are both still relatively small sample sizes but certainly promising. His shot still looks like a catapult and he shoots it like 60 mph at the hoop, so I’m a little bit skeptical. But otherwise, hard not to like his ability to pass, great size and wingspan for a guard, and at least on limited video I watched, looks pretty quick twitch with good hips on defense. Dribble/pass/shoot/defend with good size, seems a good guy to take a flyer on especially since 4.5MM for Trier’s qualifying offer seems too pricey.

Brian Cronin: If you can pull off an entirely different personality to give yourself a “clean slate,” then whatever, but, well, come on, no one can actually pull off an entirely different personality.

Very few highly proficient writers are able to write in a different voice ( Phil Klay did it in Redeployment), let alone amateurs. What is also amusing is once the renamed poster is identified, they often deny it before vanishing. If Strat, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Deeefense want to meet at Ivarones on July 4th, lunch and drinks are on me.

“maybe bob is really just mike k trying to drum up traffic…”

The man actually has a sense of humor!

Cordially,

Bob Uranus

Just like no one ever actually leaves a site when they say they’re going to leave.

wink wink it’s Strat hahahahah

Brian C. and Mike K. appreciation post. Thank you both for making this site possible.

We have guys that know very little abut basketball running the organization. It was bad enough when we had a few people that do understand basketball being assisted by incompetents.

Phil wuz gud GM
Wuz Millz fault Phil phailed
I am not Strat
I am new guy Deeefense

Z-man, I’d love to trade Randle for someone who can score from outside, but all those players make something like twice as much as he does and have longer contracts. Gordon Hayward makes similar money to those players but his contract is shorter. I’d rather trade Randle for him.

I posted that last week, stoner…

PS I’m taking a relative to a dispensary in MA today, any “medicinal” recommendations for an old guy with a bad back? I don’t know the first thing about strains beyond the basic sativa vs. indica difference.

I’d be down for Hayward but why would the Celts do that?

Between Jared Harper, Kenny Wooten, Iggy, and Theo Pinson the Westchester Knicks, whenever the hell they’re allowed to play again, should be a pretty entertaining product.

Any value beyond that is very much TBD.

It’s easy to forget about how decent Iggy was as a college freshman and how young he is. Players his size who are as ambidextrous as he is are pretty rare. He definitely needs to build himself up physically and work on that shot, but I hope we get to see a lot of him next year.

And consider that barring trades, we’ll probably have two draft picks spending time in the G-League, I just might have to go to the county center a few times!

I had a similar experience, but with having my date smoke really good weed after a couple of drinks. The conversation stopped, she asked me to take her home and that was it.

seems you have found a most excellent reason for never needing to date again…

a woman that’ll spot your squats – shoot, you done found a winner already and need to hold tight on to that…

without question the best companions I’ve had over time had spent time in the military…they just seemed to have a great understanding for teamwork makes the dream work…

seeing how I’ve spent my life faded 24/7, I always appreciated having a reasonably sober partner around…more drugs for me 🙂

Unless you plan on eating them at 8 PM, it’s too late.

geo:
so, the great debate today – do I attempt to make ribs, or, simply go buy them…they seem easy enough to do, but, I’ve had mixed success, to be kind to myself…

I’m guessing similiar grilling process as steak, open grill over medium to high heat, a few minutes each side…I can do this…

https://media2.giphy.com/media/ToMjGpx9F5ktZw8qPUQ/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47869b747527dbfc5ec1a05eb0776937a79e7ba563&rid=giphy.gif

Cooking ribs is nothing at all like cooking a steak. Steak is basically all muscle and fat so you go hot and fast to cook it. Ribs have a ton of connective tissue so you have to go low and slow otherwise they’ll be tough as hell and basically inedible. To cook ribs on the grill you have to keep them at a temp of around 250 F and cook them for hours, literally all day. You can also bake them in the oven and finish them on the grill, real quick on high heat just to get some char, which will be faster. You should definitely use a spice rub; if you’re going to use sauce add the sauce at the very end or even after they’re finished. If you add the sauce at the beginning it’ll be totally burnt by the end, like eating ribs covered in charcoal.

The Athletic reports that several of the Delete Eight teams want to play additional games, too, maybe in Vegas. There is one outlier:

The Knicks, sources say, have expressed reservations about participating, in part because they have a roster with several soon-to-be free agents who might decline to take part (as many as eight players potentially). If accommodations could be made to help a team like the Knicks fill its roster by way of G League players, however, then that could be an X-factor of sorts.

For once in a rare while, Knicks management may be on the right side of history. Playing games this summer is going to be incredibly dangerous. It’s arguably irresponsible for anyone to try. But it’s super-duper irresponsible for teams with nothing to play for to do so.

Hahahahah Delete Eight

I did not coin it, but would happily buy a beer for whoever did.

I agree the Knicks could find a way to practice basketball for their young players and have reasonable precautions against COVID. But I think they are worried about something else. They have a number of players on lightly guaranteed contracts for next year. An injury during a summer schedule would be very bad for those players. And since the players on those contracts are veterans, the eight games or so wouldn’t be very helpful to them. So I think the Knicks are protecting their players.

I agree the Knicks could find a way to practice basketball for their young players and have reasonable precautions against COVID. But I think they are worried about something else. They have a number of players on lightly guaranteed contracts for next year. An injury during a summer schedule would be very bad for those players. And since the players on those contracts are veterans, the eight games or so wouldn’t be very helpful to them. So I think the Knicks are protecting their players.

I am assuming UFA and players with options decline to play. We really don’t need to see anymore taj or payton or portis or ellington or bullock or harkless. The only player on an option or a FA is dotson that I would be interested in seeing play more.

In poker there is an important concept called “blockers” Blockers is the concept that card removal effects the chances your opponents have particular hands combinatorically. If you have AK suited or unsuited in you hands you have removed 50% of the combinations that your opponents can have of AA and KK. That’s a big deal!

The knicks have too many useless veteran blockers on their roster and I don’t mean shot blockers.

Wyoming? Really?

I love sports. We don’t need sports right now. Every sports league that comes back is going to be a start-and-stop train wreck. Let’s get the pandemic under control and then get back to the bread and circuses.

I love sports. We don’t need sports right now. Every sports league that comes back is going to be a start-and-stop train wreck. Let’s get the pandemic under control and then get back to the bread and circuses.

This is generally where I am, but I do think the NBA’s plan can be justified on very specific grounds: they have a reasonable argument that they’re providing a safer environment for players than the general population.

The bubble is kind of like a small oasis in which NBA players/staff are treated like citizens of countries with semi-competent federal governments. There’s nowhere else in this country I’m aware of in which there’s strict testing, contact tracing, and a boatload of other safety protocols.

Keep in mind plenty of players live in states acting completely recklessly, but even here in NYC the reopening process is far more aggressive than I think is wise.

Of course, it’s not without risk. Because of the close quarters and, obviously, basketball being played, a genuine outbreak could be a total disaster and prove that argument totally wrong.

At the end of the day I think they’ve set up a situation in which it’s more likely than not fewer people will get infected than if they didn’t return, so I don’t think it’s fair to criticize them on those grounds.

All of the other leagues are being unambiguously reckless and greedy.

I’m not probably going to be enjoying the return of sports all that much because everything is going to have this asterisk-y quality to it.

What’s the point, really? Great, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the world champions of a 60 game baseball season, whoop de doo.

The baseball season might be the first one where the first ~80% of the games are nearly as exciting as the last 20%. For that alone it’ll be worth watching.

And as for asterisks, I see the concern, but that’s for the pundits to worry about. They could turn the NBA playoffs into a double-elimination tourney and I’d still consider the champs to be the final team standing. At the end of the day, the competition will still be there.

Since this season will be asterisked by consensus, no better time to test the Elam Ending in every playoff game.

Deeefense: The IFR for young healthy people is so low, it’s not shocking they aren’t overly worried about it.

Had we has just managed nursing homes, elderly, and people with significant risk factors better (all of which was known from Italy and China), the number of deaths would massively lower.Since then, we’ve also learned not to put ventilators on people as quickly because it was killing some of them.

But the political goal of the media has been to panic people, destroy Trump, and to hell with the economy and what we need to do to control, it save lives, and save the economy.

It’s self centered of young people people to not wear masks and gather at bars and clubs because they risk bringingthe disease home to their grandparents or people that are vulnerable, but their self centeredness is the least of our issues with them.If you ask me a lot of the young generation is delusional,bordering on mentally ill.

Which is it, the media has thrown everyone into panic or young people dont care about this? If young people dont care about COVID, should the media not be alerting them more often?

Trump has been nothing short of abysmal during this crisis.

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” – Rahm Emanuel, then President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff

“As usual the data does not support your view. As per this morning’s CBS poll, who is and isn’t wearing masks has little to do with age and a lot to do with political ideology.”

Just as a point of order it is pretty silly to call a poll “data”

Secondly the comment you were flailing around trying to refute was:

“It’s self centered of young people people to not wear masks and gather at bars and clubs…”

You aren’t actually trying to argue that young people go to bars and wear masks when they are elbow to elbow , are you?

Thirdly while the daily infection rate has been increasing for the last month is primarily the result of young people no matter what your dopey, virtue signaling and completely irrelevant poll says:

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/longevity/504749-young-people-accounting-for-a-growing-percentage-of

” He was saying young people disproportionately don’t wear masks and I pointed out that’s almost certainly not the case.”

It is pretty clear he was saying they don’t wear masks when they indulge in high risk behavior at bars and clubs where they can easily spread the disease because they are within a foot or two of eachother Whether they wear masks when properly socially distanced is far less relevant:

It’s self centered of young people people to not wear masks and gather at bars and clubs because they risk bringing the disease home to their grandparents or people that are vulnerable, but their self centeredness is the least of our issues with them. If you ask me a lot of the young generation is delusional, bordering on mentally ill.

“The idea that a simple, neutrally worded poll can be “virtue signaling and completely irrelevant” is something one could only think if they have Stage 4 Fox News Brain. In other words I wasn’t remotely surprised to see you say it.”

HaHaHaHa… If they ask you that question you are going to 100% answer it “Of course I wear a mask 24/7” precisely BECAUSE you know it is the right thing to say whether you do or not. You’ve been successfully been trained in a Pavlovian sense……..

HaHaHaHa… If they ask you that question you are going to 100% answer it “Of course I wear a mask 24/7” precisely BECAUSE you know it is the right thing to say whether you do or not. You’ve been successfully been trained in a Pavlovian sense……..

Are you going to try to argue, with a straight internet face, that your guy hasn’t created a partisan divide when it comes to masks, and caution regarding COVID-19 generally? This might be the stupidest hill you’ve ever died on, and that’s saying a lot.

He doesn’t wear a mask himself. He’s going on an indoor, non-socially distanced rally tour and actively sabotaging any meager safety measures that might be in place. He has literally fucking said that people who wear masks are showing disapproval of him.

I mean trying to contest this might be the worst argument I’ve ever seen. Come on man, I promise I won’t tell Hannity and co. you conceded on this point!

bob makes me ashamed to be a boomer

He gets something like 37% approve, 58% disapprove on handling the virus, that 37% is his dead ender base that wouldn’t abandon him even if videos of him fucking a goat came out. Everybody else thinks he has done a shitty job. There’s no way for him to fix it either, it’s too late. He can’t just “kung flu” his way out of this shit.

who is Jones?

the lost generation sounds way cooler…from here forward – that’s my generation…

gotta say, we were raised on some of the best music recorded- ever…

in Los Angeles County, officials said Saturday that the positivity rate there had risen to 9 percent; two weeks ago it was averaging 5.8 percent. In Texas, the rate climbed above 13 percent on Friday; it was around 7 percent two weeks ago.

Arizona’s positivity rates have been climbing steadily since early May and have been averaging above 20 percent for a week, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

And in Arizona, Florida and Texas, there’s not enough testing capacity for people who want to be tested. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/world/coronavirus-updates.html

Both notes are From today’s news. Clearly, it’s not increased testing that is driving up known cases. If it were, positivity rates would go down, not up, as you expanded testing to people less likely to have the disease. Instead, it’s more likely that the shortage of tests means that testing is more concentrated in those most obviously sick. And I don’t buy it that it’s not a worry because it’s mostly young people who don’t die of it as often. It’s still a serious disease often with bad Long term side effects.

more folks have come back to work…lots more traffic on the roads, more mobility for the virus…

not sure what percentage of the population has been exposed to date, what models call for possible final population exposure – ugh, I remember somewhere early on seeing 80%…I don’t remember hearing whether it was possible to be re-infected and whether the virus mutates…

I’ll be honest, I’m hopeful for it, but definitely a little nervous if school opens up in late august/early september…

it’s crazy, the kids will be healthy all summer and then boom, once school starts they’re coughing and having runny noses all the time…

teaching must require a seriously well trained immune system…

just gotta be as safe as possible, and as prepared as possible…

Italian doctors are starting to release academic papers on some of the possible reasons for the death rate in Italy dropping sharply from the beginning of the pandemic until now even after controlling for age. The good news is that they are seeing the same thing in Britain. Here’s a thread with some info.

https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1276695443427090432

I love KG. Sure there are things to nitpick about him but I love him.

https://twitter.com/randyjcruz/status/1277284305509715968

KnickfaninNJ:
cognitive delirium affects Covid patients if all ages equally, and it’s a bad side effect.

that might explain some of the posting here…

Hong Kong has had 7 covid deaths. 97% mask compliance on public transit.

Right. All the wingnuts out here in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach and all of the wingnutty parts of Orange County aren’t wearing masks because Fauci said not to wear them in March. Mmmmkay.

Furthermore all the wingnuts at the Tulsa rally would have totes been wearing the masks but Fauci said not to in March, and they’re sticking with that. Same thing for all the little junior wingnuts at the rally in Phoenix.

Uh huh. All Fauci’s fault.

” Then it became clear Fauci was at fault for people not wearing masks.”

Not even close to what I said. I said Fauci, the Surgeon General, the CDC and the WHO all up through the end of March were saying in unison masks were unnecessary:

@WHO @CDCgov & my office have consistently recommended against the general public wearing masks as there is scant or conflicting evidence they benefit individual wearers in a meaningful way, but real concerns about pulling from the healthcare worker supply…”

Then they do a 180 and say you MUST wear masks. Can’t imagine why anyone would be confused about that?

It did nothing to increase the trust in governmental information from scientists . Nor did the predictions that 2.8 million would die. Personally I wear one any time I go where I will be within close proximity. If it helps 10% (haven’t seen actual evidence it does)I’m all for it

And yes…. Trump would have been a lot smarter to hold his rally in Boone Pickens Stadium outdoors in Stillwater,OK and put one fanny in every 5 seats……

Fauci has said that the reason they told people not to wear masks was because there weren’t enough to go around. They were needed for health care professionals. It was A shortage the federal government could have addressed in January.

Is this a serious conversation or are we in a bar in The Villages?

Another three days and I am still amazed Trump hasn’t cottoned to the fact that doing the best thing for the country is the best thing for him.

Speaking of the NY Times, this video op-ed piece trolls Dolan and the Knicks ( you have to wait until the very end for it)>
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/opinion/income-inequality-nba-socialism.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Fauci has said that the reason they told people not to wear masks was because there weren’t enough to go around. They were needed for health care professionals. It was A shortage the federal government could have addressed in January.

That was utterly indefensible. If you’re an appointed health official, you tell the public the truth. Once you lie to the public, and admit you lied to the public bc you didn’t trust them to act responsibly, you can’t expect them to believe you when you start telling the truth.

It also reeks of bullshit.

Owen: Hong Kong has had 7 covid deaths. 97% mask compliance on public transit.

Between this and TNFH citing a poll as evidence, it’s worth nothing that the statistical logic requirements of this evidence based community plummets significantly when arguing with Bob.

Between this and TNFH citing a poll as evidence, it’s worth nothing that the statistical logic requirements of this evidence based community plummets significantly when arguing with Bob.

Agreed. It is worth nothing.

Brian Cronin: Agreed. It is worth nothing.

obviously meant noting, but fair play.

“bob willfully ignored that part, just like gun rights fanatics willfully ignore the well-regulated militia part of 2nd amendment”

HaHaHaHa….. I guess your scholarly statist self isn’t aware that like the “gun nut fanatic” the US supreme court decided in 2008 that your “well regulated militia” statist argument is bullshit:

District of Columbia v. Heller, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, 2008, held (5–4) that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to possess firearms independent of service in a state militia and to use firearms for traditionally lawful purposes, including self-defense within the home. It was the first Supreme Court case to explore the meaning of the Second Amendment since United States v. Miller (1939).

Read this a few time and suck on it , baby:

“guarantees an individual right to possess firearms independent of service in a state militia and to use firearms for traditionally lawful purposes, including self-defense within the home.”

thenoblefacehumper: Anyway, extremely weird coincidence that New Yorkers, who tend to not take their cues from Donald Trump, are masked up almost to a person while states with a lot more followers in the death cult are struggling with compliance.

Just to be clear, the guidance is:

1. The most important thing you can do is stay at home.

2. The second most important thing you can do is keep 6 feet distance if you must go out.

3. If you can’t comply with the first 2, the least you can do is wear a fucking mask.

So hooray, New Yorkers, for completely ignoring the first two points of federal guidance because they want to get blitzed on a saturday afternoon in huge crowds standing close to each other. And let’s make fun of all the idiots who ignore the one point we pretend to care about, even though really those masks spend most of the time on our chins or in our pockets bc you can’t drink with a mask on.

Let’s also make believe all those people dining on the sidewalk without masks on are households who live together. 100% of them

Z-man: That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t wrong to a degree about face coverings, but to suggest that he is responsible for what people are doing today or using his words as a justification for it is ludicrous.

I don’t believe that his words are the reason people aren’t wearing masks. But I do think it’s fair to say he (and the CDC, and WHO) damaged his credibility on the matter, and it’s very understandable that people don’t take guidance from someone with damaged credibility.

bobneptune: “So physical separation … is the best way to get a virus not to get to you,” he said.

Exactly. And it’s the idiots in NYC who are flouting his guidance, just like they did back in early March when they were responsible for spreading the disease to a point that the entire economy needed to be shut down.

I guess that Donald Trump’s fault, too.

You should be wearing a mask if you need to get groceries or commute to an essential job. Not to get wasted on the street in close physical proximity to 2,000 people because you hate being cooped up in your shitty apartment.

“Z-man: That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t wrong to a degree about face coverings, but to suggest that he is responsible for what people are doing today or using his words as a justification for it is ludicrous.”

He certainly is partly responsible whether your world view allows you to admit it to yourself.

The real question is … was the lockdown the proper way to go or was the Sweden route better?

Sweden has a death rate per million lower than Belgium, the UK, Italy and Spain and just slightly higher than France.

Another question that few discuss is what are the costs of the lockdown (beyond the economic, which are enormously substantial). How many extra suicides will we see due to the lock down. How many people died of heart attack and stroke because they were more fearful of getting infected in a hospital and ignored early symptoms. I saw an estimate the other day that there are usually 800,000 cancer screenings done per month in Americas and only 300,000 done each of the past 3 months…. how is that going to play out.

The butcher’s bill is far from being tabulated.

This is maybe the must ludicrous argument we have ever had here.

“I AIN’T WEARING NO MASK I STILL GOT MAH FREEDUM” is not a thing that the latte sipping libruls are saying. It’s red state MAGA chuds. It’s Ted Nugent. It’s the Karen at Trader Joe’s throwing a hissy fit and screaming at the top of her lungs because of “Democrat pigs.”

It’s militia dudes in Michigan and it’s redhats at Trump rallies and not a single one of them is refusing to wear the masks because they were confused by Anthony Fauci.

And yes, it’s some dumb young people too. So dumb Gen Z idiots and red hat wearing idiots of all ages, those are your anti-maskers right there. My fellow NPR-listening, Prius driving, kale salad eating, Silver Lake living snowflake libtards are all wearing the fucking masks like responsible adults and everybody fucking knows it.

Come on now with this bullshit.

thenoblefacehumper:
I am at least glad Hubert has quietly moved off his previous position of precautions taken to combat COVID being a bunch of liberal bullshit

Yeah, that was never my position. Nice job channeling NahNah, though.

JK47: “I AIN’T WEARING NO MASK I STILL GOT MAH FREEDUM” is not a thing that the latte sipping libruls are saying. It’s red state MAGA chuds. It’s Ted Nugent. It’s the Karen at Trader Joe’s throwing a hissy fit and screaming at the top of her lungs because of “Democrat pigs.”

Sure, man.

But now you’re Bob, responding to every critique of Trump with “whatabout Cuomo and DeBlasio”?

I’ll be you when you said “fuck cuomo” and kept trying to bring it back to the stupid rallies he was holding: fuck those MAGA hat wearing idiots. They’re dumb and dangerous, and they should be doing what they’re told.

But tell me what is worse for the spread of COVID:

A. idiots with MAGA hats going to a grocery store without a mask

B. Streets full of thousands of young liberals in cities drinking and partying in close proximity to each other every weekend with masks that sometimes cover their face but usually are off.

If you think it’s A, god bless you.

If you think it’s B, how do you reconcile that with the idea that Trump is the reason people aren’t listening to Fauci?

Bob, you are a strange dude. You take all the necessary precautions yourself but don’t fault the President for not encouraging everyone else to do the same?

It’s just bizarre.

A friend of mine has gone down the Covid truther rabbit hole. He’s quite prominent actually. And across the last three months he hasn’t said a single critical thing about Trump while completely savaging the public health establishment.

It’s just strange.

There was a good ol’ yeehaw ‘Murican country music concert in East Tennessee yesterday, thousands of bro country fans packed in shoulder to shoulder, sangin’ songs about trucks and beer, no masks. Yeeeeee hoooo!

Now where’s the equivalent Vampire Weekend concert?

Just making the skullfuckingly obvious point that mask trutherism is really kind of a conservative thing, and to try to argue otherwise is really pretty goddamn embarrassing.

Simmons on the Knicks and Lebron. Not how I recollect things and since history is set in stone at the moment it happens I reject this all completely.

https://twitter.com/DailyKnicksFS/status/1277627204239855617

At a dealership’s service center getting my car worked on the other day. Camped outside in a lawn chair while a bunch of people sat indoors for hours not wearing masks because it was merely a “suggestion” in that county. Really enjoyed hearing the self-described redneck moan about having to put one on to talk with the triage mechanics. Didn’t even bother to fasten it correctly. He said to the employee that masks didn’t do shit and we’re basically just looking at an overhyped flu anyway. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his inability to walk the thirty feet from his car to the entrance without panting didn’t exactly bode well for him during a SARS pandemic. But I dunno, I guess there are probably Dems out there who wear “redneck” like a badge of honor.

It’s interesting that Bill Simmons spent a decade publicly excoriating Lebron for the decision when it turns out it he pitched the idea to Lebron’s team (now our front office) and is just pissed off that that the show was taken away from him. Anyhow apparently he said something about the Knicks today?

Anyhow apparently he said something about the Knicks today?

That they were Lebron’s first choice. Which is such bullshit.

There was a coronavirus hearing in the House yesterday in which the Republicans refused to wear masks. It blew up into a whole thing. Today James Clyburn is saying he won’t recognize members of the committee who refuse to wear masks.

You’re telling me this isn’t a red/blue cultural thing? Something something Fauci in March?

JK47: There was a coronavirus hearing in the House yesterday in which the Republicans refused to wear masks. It blew up into a whole thing. Today James Clyburn is saying he won’t recognize members of the committee who refuse to wear masks.

You’re telling me this isn’t a red/blue cultural thing? Something something Fauci in March?

I’m agreeing with you that the mask issue is a red thing.

I’m going on to say it is a blue thing to be an idiot who thinks bringing a mask to a gathering of hundreds of people in close physical proximity is safe.

So how is it all Trump’s fault that no one is listening to Fauci when it isn’t convenient for them anymore?

It’s just anecdotal of course, but the friends and people I know who are “liberal” are wearing masks, those more “conservative” are not. I think education level plays into that somewhat, as my college educated friends and acquaintances pretty much all wear masks.

Having said that, I’ve observed over many weeks that only about 10-20% of locals here in west Knoxville are wearing masks in public situations. This is a very conservative area, but probably more like 60/40.

Also, I think young people around here are wearing masks at about the same rate as older folks. I’ve seen a number of families where the parents are not wearing masks but the kids are. I’ve seen quite a few old folks not wearing masks. And, a lot of very overweight and obese people not wearing, which I find a bit alarming. But, c’est la vie, I guess.

I really enjoyed Simmons’ “The Book of Basketball”, but he’s become such a pompous, condescending dick who lives to troll anyone who’s not a Celtics fan. I also think he’s lost a lot of credibility over the years, mostly because he’s such a blatant Celtics and Red Sox homer and can’t objectively talk about any other teams.

Bob Costas? He’s the worst sportscaster you can think of?

Most of the protesters I saw were wearing masks. And it doesn’t appear that is has caused a second wave, at least in NYC.

I think people can get on their high horse about protesting racial injustice if they want but they should recognize that racial injustice has killed a lot more people than Covid-19 ever will.

Hubert if you care to scroll up on this exact thread, you’ll see that I literally made the point about anecdotally seeing some things I didn’t like among younger folks before you. Mostly related to nightlife in lower Manhattan.

I’ve also participated in protests in which masking was near universal, countless people were distributing masks and hand sanitizer, and distance was kept to the extent possible. So it doesn’t surprise me that there hasn’t been a protest related spike one can point to in NYC, at least not yet.

Generally I think you’re inferring way too much from your anecdotal experiences and equating them with both hard data (again, if polls are Fake Suppression Polls you can also look at which states are experiencing renewed outbreaks and draw plenty of conclusions re: political implications) and specific directives and statements from conservative politicians.

But hey, if you are correct and there really is a phenomenon of young people recklessly thinking they can basically do whatever they want if they’re masked, my advice to them would be to stop believing everything they read on knickerblogger.net 😉

Owen: And it doesn’t appear that is has caused a second wave, at least in NYC.

It doesn’t appear that MAGA idiots going grocery shopping without masks is causing the spike, either. They’re just providing endless hours of entertaining video with their stupidity.

It’s likely the new spike is being caused by the same thing that ignited the first spike: people aged 20-40 who live in cities recklessly gathering in large groups (at bars, restaurants, and now beaches) without social distancing.

Statistically speaking, that subgroup of the population is overwhelmingly blue.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/wa-sheriff-on-mask-order-dont-be-a-sheep/281-094bddc6-b99f-412f-b871-6a2157292775

“Don’t be a sheep,” says Lewis County Sheriff.

I now live in Bucktown, a tony neighborhood on the Near West side of Chicago, and lived in Humboldt Park (a largely Puerto Rican neighborhood) before that. I see very rich white couples, who are presumably Democrats (this being Chicago), not wearing masks in Bucktown; I also saw older diabetic Puerto Rican men not wearing masks in Humboldt. In the redder suburbs I also see plenty of white people of all ages not wearing masks. While I’m seeing a number of maskless young people irresponsibly congregating in bars and parks in Chicago, Illinois’ case rates are currently declining and have been for a bit now. No one group is clearly to blame for any change in case rates. I think that this issue is not profitably thought about by blaming the mask-wearing behavior of specific groups–Gen Z, Trumpkins, boomers, whatever. What governs the case rate now is the stay-at-home strictures (or lack thereof) imposed by state and local governments. Understandably, cases in FL, TX, AZ, CA etc. are soaring because their stay at home orders were cut way too short and were mishandled in any case.

You should expect large scale risk-taking once stay at home orders are lifted, by significant pluralities in every demographic, because people are not good at assessing risk, especially with poor messaging and enforcement on the part of local, state, and national government; even worse, some people just plain don’t care. And large-scale noncompliance is what I’ve noticed.

At bottom it’s a policy failure at every level of government that allows for the spread of COVID. If we had a properly coordinated contact, trace, and quarantine response led by the federal government, we could be South Korea. Instead, we’re going to be in the epidemiology textbooks (along with Sweden, lol) as an object lesson in fucking up pandemic response. Let’s not obfuscate this reality with nonsense generational warfare and moral outrage porn (though if you really want to, maybe older whites should stop electing Republicans…)

Hubert’s “both sides bad” ax is constantly in need of grinding. Today’s no different.

I read an interesting note out of Texas about the hospitalization data.

It seems that every person that enters the hospital for whatever reason is being tested for Covid-19. If you are positive, you are automatically added to the hospitalization list even if you are asymptomatic and there for an entirely different reason. There is no distinction being made between being hospitalized FOR Covid-19 and being hospitalized WITH Covid-19.

The testing makes perfect sense. You want to protect healthcare providers and other patients. But you have to distinguish between those two groups. Otherwise you can’t know if the virus is strengthening, weakening, or staying the same.

Cases themselves are only relevant in light of the impact they are having on people over time. If the number of people that are getting very sick or dying is falling (lower IFR), that’s great news. It means the virus is dying out. We need consistent accurate data to know that.

It seems that every person that enters the hospital for whatever reason is being tested for Covid-19. If you are positive, you are automatically added to the hospitalization list even if you are asymptomatic and there for an entirely different reason. There is no distinction being made between being hospitalized FOR Covid-19 and being hospitalized WITH Covid-19.

If that testing was the reason positive tests were going up in absolute terms, then the percent of all the tests that are positive should go down because you are testing people without symptoms that wouldn’t have been tested under old protocols. So it can’t be the explanation for most of the rise in tests.

Holy shit, Reddit finally banned r/The_Donald.

MUH FIRST AMENDMENT THOUGH

How about Fox News reporting Trump is in a “fragile” mood and might drop out of the presidential race if he feels he has no chance to win. I’m sure its total bullshit but the fact its coming from Fox News is pretty hilarious.

Hubert wrote: I will bet good money that Deefense is not strat. This is a much younger person.In addition to Reub, there is another guy who keeps coming back under different names (I just remember “er” who also believed we were all dumb and Phil Jackson was smart. Also, Strat denied statistics. Deefense uses them poorly. That’s another reub / er trademark.

Years ago the legendary jon abbey wrote about Max Fisher-Cohen (paraphrased): It’s remarkable that someone as seemingly intelligent and articulate as yourself could arrive at the wrong conclusion with such regularity.

It strikes me the same could be said of Hubert.

Nah, Deeefense is Strat. No way it’s er, who meant well but did not write as eloquently as Strat. And it’s definitely not reub, whose awfulness as a human being shines through every pseudonym.

“We had a POBO who knew a lot about basketball but he was surrounded by incompetents” is Strat’s catchphrase. It’s probably tattooed on his ass.

I actually like Strat, as much as I bust his balls. Welcome back, amigo.

This does not strike me as the same man who was paralyzed by fear of catching covid. Maybe he took my advice on meditation and learned to chill, but this nonchalant attitude about covid is decidedly unstratlike, IMHO:

Deeefense:
I know the increasedCovid-19 caseloads in Florida, Texas, and California are troublesome, but before everyone starts panicking again, some of that is due to both more and more efficient testing. We now know what the high risk activities are, where the high risk zip codes are, have better contact tracing etc.. than earlier in the pandemic.It’s probably not quite as bad as it looks compared to before. We are probably just doing a better job of capturing asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases now than we were 2-3 months ago.That accounts for some of it.

Also, there is some evidence out of Italy that the virus itself may be weakening, That means that even if cases start rising sharply, the hospitalization, ICU patients, and deaths may not rise at the same rate as before.

Finally, since this time around it’s younger people that are coming up positive because we are doing a better job in nursing homes (and unfortunately a lot the elderly are already dead). The combination of even amildly weaker virus with a younger population of positives could be surprisingly benign.

Everyone is focusing on cases, but cases can be almost irrelevant. There are many millions of cases of the common cold every year but no one worries about it.Watch the hospitalizations, ICU, and death data over the next 2-3 weeks (trailing data). That’s how we’ll know if the virus has weakened, whether younger people are handling it as well as expected, whether treatments are improving etc…

And again, this guy is interpretating data poorly. Strat is more likely to say all the data is wrong bc it’s not happening in his neighborhood than to cite data incorrectly.

Come on, Mike K… Pull off his mask like in Scooby Doo and let’s see who it really is!

Hubert:
Also notice how deeefense does not self identify as elderly or at risk

He got sniffed out in about ten seconds last time so he’s probably trying some thicker Clark Kent glasses

We tried partition. My history is a little hazy but I don’t think it ended well.

Hubert, I’d say that it’s easy to resort to personal responsibility but possibly incorrect. Show me some data. I’d say that the fact there were official reopening orders and people were forced to go back to work is likely to be by far the biggest driving factor. A lot of people had to show up at their jobs or lose them.

I would trade him for Bob in a heartbeat, and throw in a protected first to sweeten the pot.

Pulse oximeters are expensive and the better ones are hard to get.

I bought one. I check my results a few times a week, especially if I cough or sneeze and I’m not sure why. It was $72. There were cheaper ones and more expensive ones. I think it’s a pretty good one, but what do I know. The only thing I am certain of is the Knicks still suck.

“Neptune doesn’t bother me as much as he appears to bother most of you. I think he believes most of what he writes but he’s also the consummate troll. I’m sure he sometimes stakes out a few extreme positions just to troll. I’ll start out like Hubert: I will bet good money that if the nation were to be partitioned and people had a choice where to live, Neptune would not be clicking his horse boot spurs together and saying “There’s no place like home” and be longing for Brownback’s Kansas.”

You couldn’t be more wrong. I generally believe everything I write. I don’t mind tweaking you fellows but I believe what I state. I don’t think white people are endowed with the original sin of racism. I just don’t . Etc. Etc.

You couldn’t be more wrong about moving away from the east coast though. You are correct, I would not go to Kansas because the weather sucks eggs there. However I have already looked at realtor.com (a half dozen times in the last month) looking at properties in the Gulfport/Biloxi, MS area. The weather is warm, they have a ton of casinos (I like to play 20-30 hours of poker a week pre-covid), I love seafood and my oldest son will be in Jackson , MS for at least the next 6 years.

Having lived in KY and UT for years I find middle America just fine I have absolutely no problem with it.

Would I miss going to lectures by Ai Weiwei and Paul Krugman at the CUNY Graduate Center and stuff like that, sure …. but I have a rational fear that many on your side will co-opt what would be a Swedish model (a capitalist society with a strong social safety net strong on individual freedoms) for a more Marxian model a little light on the civil liberties for the sake of the Ummah.

Anyway Strat, instead of insisting on a safe space you should simply confront ideas with which you disagree. Your generation is too coddled. This political correctness stuff is getting out of control. It’s not how the real world works.

Your generation is too coddled.

just wait til the hair on your ass turns gray TNFH…you’re gonna want a little compassion and understanding too…

there comes a time when the children you raise have better bladder control than you yourself have…that’s a mighty dark abyss of human frailty to have to stare down in to…

oh yeah bron – i can stop posting at anytime…anytime…any time…time…

“Your generation is too coddled”

This just drips with irony…….its actually too delicious…. it just needs to marinate some.

Hey Bob, do you genuinely believe that Trump didn’t know about the bounty system when he tried to get Russia to the G7? Or do you genuinely believe that intelligence officers risked their careers to keep him from shocking intelligence that should warrant sanctions as immediately as the Mueller Report’s indictments of the Internet Research Agency should have?

If you genuinely believe the shit you say, I pity you even more than I did five minutes ago.

I honestly do just love to hear how people defend Trump. I am a fan of gymnastics too.

“Hey Bob, do you genuinely believe that Trump didn’t know about the bounty system when he tried to get Russia to the G7? Or do you genuinely believe that intelligence officers risked their careers to keep him from shocking intelligence that should warrant sanctions as immediately as the Mueller Report’s indictments of the Internet Research Agency should have?

If you genuinely believe the shit you say, I pity you even more than I did five minutes ago.”

I don’t have any Idea and neither do you. Why would you be shocked that Putin would pay Fascists to kill American soldiers? Isn’t that kinda Putin’s job?

Hasn’t Trump put more restrictions/sanctions on Russia than Bush/Cheney when Putin invaded South Ossetia/Georgia and Obama/Biden when Putin annexed the Crimea? I thought so.

Obama is caught on a hot mic telling Putin’s slappy to give him some room til the election and Obama removes missile defense from eastern Europe and Trump is a cuck.

Your righteous indignation is akin to Ins. Renaud saying ,”I’m shocked, shocked to see there’s gambling going on here,” while jamming an envelope into his back pocket.

That’s some Jerry Seinfeld level funny shit……..

That’s a dodge, a pivot, and a whataboutism, all in a swift combination that would make Sugar Ray Leonard envious

“Oh FUCK off with that bullshit. Honestly I think you have some level of lead paint consumption these days.”

Well that’s a convincing argument……hmmm…. maybe in CHOP it actually is!

bobneptune: Not every Trump supported is a knuckle dragging anti logic Luddite You have a tendency stereotype people needlessly.

…says the hypocritical, science-denier.

“Such a split would not be without risks. One of the conditions of the break-up would have to be they’d get no nukes. Such a nation that denies science would not be able to survive for very long. They’d become impoverished and unstable over time. Would I want an unstable nation like that at my border?”

What makes you think you and your pals on the coasts could dictate anything like that. Don’t you realize the land based missile silos are virtually all in flyover country. And the rural people have the real guns. And the military? Do you think most of the military is from Greenwich village or Olathe , KS? The SAC bases…. mostly in fly over country. If you are lucky, well let you have a couple of subs so you can be like France and Britain.

The Nets will not have Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Wilson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan and maybe Spencer Dinwiddie in Orlando. They’re six games up on the Wizards right now.

So things are going great so far with the NBA restart. (Even if Durant and Kyrie were already out.)

Here’s 3 studies, but what do these authors know they’re just actual scientists doing actual science instead of taking astronomy 101:

“We found that black drivers were less likely to be stopped after sunset, when a ‘veil of darkness’ masks one’s race, suggesting bias in stop decisions. Furthermore, by examining the rate at which stopped drivers were searched and the likelihood that searches turned up contraband, we found evidence that the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was lower than that for searching white drivers. Finally, we found that legalization of recreational marijuana reduced the number of searches of white, black and Hispanic drivers—but the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was still lower than that for white drivers post-legalization.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0858-1

“Conversely, class 6 (low threat, likely unarmed), which are LIH characterized by an apparent absence of force used by the victim, is the only class in which the plurality of victims is a non-white race (black, non-Hispanic). This finding comports with prior LIH research that finds that black Americans are not only disproportionately likely to be killed by law enforcement but are disproportionately unlikely to present an objective threat of deadly force (as measured both directly by mention of use of force by victim in incident narratives and by proxy through victim’s armed status) [5].”

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-020-00430-0#author-information

“high levels of structural racism in the domains of political participation, employment, and judicial treatment were generally associated with greater odds of myocardial infarction among Blacks (Table 3). In models adjusting for individual-level risk factors and state-level racial disparities in poverty, these associations were statistically significant”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4133127/#S11title

“Why would you be shocked that Putin would pay Fascists to kill American soldiers? Isn’t that kinda Putin’s job?“

I honestly giggled. You mean new member of the G-7 Vladdie P?

Russian sanctions were passed with veto proof majorities in the Senate. Over Trumps objections that allegations of Russian interference in the election were Fake News.

But yes, he really nailed them with those sanctions.

The worst

Everybody that has read this thread is a little bit dumber now thanks to Bob.

I’d spend time arguing with him, to point out all the idiocy behind everything he writes, but, really, what’s the point.

(Remind me again why jon abbey was banned but Bob Neptune lives to pollute this site with Fox News Cliff’s Notes everyday…)

“Everybody that has read this thread is a little bit dumber now thanks to Bob.”

Yall have been enlightened, ya just don’t realize it yet.

“allegations of Russian interference in the election were Fake News.”

Um…. the allegations were that the Trump campaign actively colluded with foreign nationals to influence the election. No one disputes agents from Russia spent ~ 660K on Facebook ads. The notion that the campaign colluded with Russia and violated any election law was never remotely proven despite years of limitless inquiry.

However someone with metaphysical certitude DID actually collude with foreign nationals to influence the 2016 elections. And who might that have been? Let’s guess????

I could go on but why bother…..

but there’s also some other random stuff like this: compare and contrast.

Specifically:

This election should be a 45 state slaughter or worse, but somehow the democrats wound up with a candidate that’s probably less than a year away from needing assisted living. How they can be that dumb is beyond me. If they would have found anyone palatable to the moderate swing states they would have demolished him in every one of them.
If the democrats put up a moderate like her (but not a “has been” like Biden), they would win at least 45 states in one of the greatest landslides in history.
This is an extremely bizarre opinion given the very basics of the electoral map, so like the Phil Jackson/Steve Mills one I don’t think more than one person holds it.

Oh yeah, that’s a smoking gun.

Jeez, I guess I overestimated Strat.

Strat, here’s a tip the next time you want to come back:

We really don’t pick up a lot of new people, especially when there is no basketball. So anyone who just shows up with a new name like Deeefense or Knew Your Knicks, we will automatically know it’s either you, Reub, or er. The only way to throw us off the scent is to come up with a believable backstory of how you’re a long time lurker and come up with a reason as to why this particular conversation made you want to break your silence.

And then keep posting as Deeefense for a little bit.

Actually, you should get into an argument with yourself. Call out deeefense for having a stupid position and then have deeefense call your new character names and storm off in protest of his treatment.

That would be fun.

bobneptune: despite years of limitless inquiry.

I would hardly describe the inquiry as limitless. Justice was obstructed all along the way, and Mueller himself said so,

er was incapable of being articulate. His was more an ESPN.com Facebook-linked comment. There’s no possible way that he suddenly learned to use capital letters and punctuation. Also, 95% of er posts were about locating Melo’s used jock so he could bury his snout into it.

I ran out of characters in my previous post but for those of you who might be interested in trying the Wim Hof breathing method, I recommend reviewing the following video as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq93ghEaxzM

Name is Bron – James Bron:
I ran out of characters in my previous post but for those of you who might be interested in trying the Wim Hof breathing method, I recommend reviewing the following video as well:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq93ghEaxzM

@ James Bron. As a fucking old boomer* I thank you for this and Jowles for the steady cardio tip ( I am up to 75 minutes daily).
* or Gen Jones.

I’ve been doing 45-90m a day of walking. Really makes a difference on mood. Just wish I could sleep 8 hours of restful sleep a night. My brain will not let me sleep in.

Even if you give Trump all possible benefit of the doubt when it comes to Russia, it’s becoming more clear that he goes into phone calls with Putin completely unprepared and gets his clock cleaned every single time. Which makes sense, really. Vladimir Putin has been on the world stage a long time and is an extremely cunning operator, while Donald Trump is a flimflam artist who read “How To Win Friends And Influence People” a long time ago and thinks that’s all he needs to know.

You-know-who will tell you “Trump’s tougher on Russia than any president evar and whatabout Obama” but unless you believe Carl Bernstein is a Deep State™ hack and Kayleigh McEnany is a bold truth teller the picture that’s emerging is very clear. Trump doesn’t need to “collude” with Putin to get his ass kicked by Putin. Putin owns him just based on the sheer fact that Putin is smart and Trump is dumb. The reporting on this is very damning.

I know, I know. FAKE NEWS1!!!!11!! You can always just “fake news” it all away.

Woj:

After positive tests for the coronavirus within the traveling party headed to Orlando, the Denver Nuggets have closed team’s practice facility for several days, sources tell ESPN. Facility was locked to players and staff starting Saturday, and could open again later this week.

So things continue to go great for the NBA restart…

I have a hard time with Michael Barbaro. I tried listening to his last one with Vince Champion and had to stop it. His interviewing style and questions are not for me. He also pours a little too much honey down his throat before taping, – the voice is just over the top. A little ASMR is ok but his voice makes me giggle.

I love Stay Tuned and some of the Vox podcasts and then some niche ones. Memory Palace is cool.

I am really struggling to understand why the death rate is so much lower now than it was in NY. It seems plausible the NBA could get through this without anyone dying. And it seems plausible the players would be safer playing than they would be at home, or at least as safe.

I’m more loyal to The Daily than I probably should be. It’s pretty hit or miss. Vox’s Today Explained is a little better IMO. I also like The Weeds and some episodes of The Ezra Klein Sow from them.

Why is This Happening from Chris Hayes is really good. He’s so much more talented and interesting than he can display in a cable news slot.

As far as sports go, I think Dunc’d On is the closest thing to a basketball related podcast that reaches the level of detail in the typical knickerblogger thread.

Now three Pelicans tested positive for the virus, but Griffin wouldn’t say which players, hmm…

I also like The Weeds

I did it for awhile back in 2018 or 2019, but found it too bullshitty polisci seminar/wonkish for my liking. There was an episode on the “two-track” presidency that I found more inventive/speculative than descriptive. Not a very good thing to be when there is so much concrete shittiness to analyze in this administration.

Worse yet, the overuse of “like” as a filler word killed any interest I had. It’s, like, always, like, like this, and I, like, can’t, like, stand it. If it’s gotten better on that front, please let me know, because it has the podcast on permanent “no” for me.

I think the difference is that as soon as one player tests positive everyone else on the team is then presumed to be positive.

It’s not like if one guy blows his achilles out everyone else on the team does too.

What do you do if Jevale Mcgee tests positive in the fifth game of the WCF? I don’t know, how quick can they turnaround tests?

Also, when injured players are ruled out in the playoffs, it’s because of a physical inability to play. If a player tests positive but is asymptomatic, it’s a completely different thing.

I mean, Jordan had “the flu” and still went out and wheezed all over his teammates and opponents because he was able to put the ball into the hoop. Twenty-some years later and he receives praise for what he did (while hungover).

No one gave a shit about the safety of others, and it would’ve been no different in 2019 had a player suffered from flu-like symptoms but was well enough to dribble and shoot for 48 minutes. This is completely different.

“Sweden’s rate as compared to its neighbors Denmark, Norway and Finland (countries that much more similar in most respect, since I have to spell that out for you, you imbecile) is between ~5 and ~12 times higher.”

Yeah, was going to say the same thing but I have destroyed enough threads.

I guess if everyone goes into the bubble clean and no one comes into the bubble after, that works. I don’t know how that happens though. I don’t know, maybe they can make it work.

I am definitely enjoying watching the Premier League.

What does “cold ass” mean in this context?

Also, when injured players are ruled out in the playoffs, it’s because of a physical inability to play. If a player tests positive but is asymptomatic, it’s a completely different thing.

Of course it seems completely different, but the practical effect is the same as an injury. A player can’t compete for his team due to an unpredictable event. Teams are going into the playoffs with many fewer injuries than usual because of the long layoff since the last games, which has allowed players to heal. Instead of injury cases now teams have Covid cases. They have to compete with whoever is available, just like in any set of playoffs.

I think he means this is about to be a fiasco that will one day be the subject of a documentary that will reflect poorly on many involved.

I agree with Jordan Clarkson.

Sweden made a debatable moral calculation.

They knew going in that if they didn’t lock down as hard as other countries they’d get more cases and deaths up front than they would have otherwise, but with less damage to the economy. The hope was the population would regulate its own behavior enough to mitigate some of the short term health care burdens (and it has).

In the end, what they are gambling is that X deaths in 3 months is better than X deaths in 6-9 months as long as you don’t totally destroy your economy and country.

They don’t believe the cases and deaths will be much different either way. It’s just the timing that will be different. They are taking the case and death pain up front to limit the short and long term economic pain.

alsep73:
I think he means this is about to be a fiasco that will one day be the subject of a documentary that will reflect poorly on many involved.

We’ll have no shortage of those.

Deeefense:
Sweden made a debatable moral calculation.

They knew going in that if they didn’t lock down as hard as other countries they’d get more cases and deaths up front than they would have otherwise, but with less damage to the economy. The hope was the population would regulate its own behavior enough to mitigate some of the short term health care burdens (and it has).

In the end, what they are gambling is that X deaths in 3 months is better than X deaths in 6-9 months as long as you don’t totally destroy your economy and country.

They don’t believe the cases and deaths will be much different either way.It’s just the timing that will be different.They are taking the case and death pain up front to limit the short and long term economic pain.

They kinda missed a key variable:

If you’re an interconnected economy, and everyone you’re connected with shuts down, your economy is going to tank, too.

You can make a case that everyone should have made the cold-hearted decision Sweden (and the US in 1918) did. But it’s foolish to say Sweden should have acted independent of everyone around them and expect to have a unique outcome.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti played in Moscow in 2011. We were all pretty weird looking at the time, but I was the least weird looking. I look kind of generically European. The other freaks in my band stood no chance. We were there for about five days, and over the course of that five days, the four other guys in the band all got shaken down for every penny of cash in their pockets by “police.” And not all at the same time either, it was several separate incidents.

The next time we played there I almost got electrocuted. There was a loose wire hanging from the ceiling at the venue and our local handler who was standing right next to me grabbed it to move it out of the way and she got blasted with god knows how many volts of electricity. They had to take her to the hospital and they told her that she should “probably” regain use of that arm in a few months.

On the taxi ride to the airport our driver pulled over and tried to start a fist fight with a guy in another car, but the passenger of the other car got out and was a giant behemoth MMA heavyweight looking guy and he just tossed our driver aside like a rag doll.

The kids who came to our shows were lovely but fuck that place. Russia can eat my ass.

NEW THREAD PLEASE MODS

Hello my fellow New York Knick fans. I am a longtime lurker of this site. I have finally decided to engage in social intercourse with you all in the hope of having the chance to communicate with my favorite all time poster – GEO.

That is truly one amazing individual. We could all be better human beings by following in that guy’s path.

Now that we have come to the end of this thread, I, like my favorite person in the world, feel a confession of some sort is due. Well, here you go:
I’m a vile man, I confess it. My crimes and sins are beyond counting. I have lied and cheated. Gambled and whored. I’m not particularly good at violence, but I’m good at convincing others to do violence for me. You want specifics, I suppose. When I was seven, I saw a servant girl bathing in the river. I stole her robe. She was forced to return to the castle naked and in tears. If I close my eyes, I can still see her tits bouncing. When I was ten, I stuffed my uncle’s boots with goat shit. When confronted with my crime, I blamed a squire. Poor boy was flogged and I escaped justice. When I was twelve, I milked my eel into a pot of turtle stew. I flogged the one-eyed snake. I skinned my sausage. I made the bald man cry! Into the turtle stew, which I do believe my sister ate.

The burden of remorse we all carry can now be lifted for a time.

Regarding the NBA restart – I read about the Denver Nuggets closing their facility, and also Jokic testing positive over in Serbia.

If you test as asymptomatic (which Jokic was at the time of the positive test) does that mean your body will still develop antibodies to the virus?

geo’s super secret alternate account:
Hello my fellow New York Knick fans. I am a longtime lurker of this site. I have finally decided to engage in social intercourse with you all in the hope of having the chance to communicate with my favorite all time poster – GEO.

That is truly one amazing individual. We could all be better human beings by following in that guy’s path.

Now that we have come to the end of this thread, I, like my favorite person in the world, feel a confession of some sort is due. Well, here you go:
I’m a vile man, I confess it. My crimes and sins are beyond counting. I have lied and cheated. Gambled and whored. I’m not particularly good at violence, but I’m good at convincing others to do violence for me. You want specifics, I suppose. When I was seven, I saw a servant girl bathing in the river. I stole her robe. She was forced to return to the castle naked and in tears. If I close my eyes, I can still see her tits bouncing. When I was ten, I stuffed my uncle’s boots with goat shit. When confronted with my crime, I blamed a squire. Poor boy was flogged and I escaped justice. When I was twelve, I milked my eel into a pot of turtle stew. I flogged the one-eyed snake. I skinned my sausage. I made the bald man cry! Into the turtle stew, which I do believe my sister ate.

The burden of remorse we all carry can now be lifted for a time.

You had me going there for a minute…
🙂

Oh, and a good candidate for Post of the Year!

ugh brian plz new thread

“I’m a vile man, I confess it. My crimes and sins are beyond counting. I have lied and cheated. Gambled and whored. I’m not particularly good at violence, but I’m good at convincing others to do violence for me. You want specifics, I suppose. When I was seven, I saw a servant girl bathing in the river. I stole her robe. She was forced to return to the castle naked and in tears. If I close my eyes, I can still see her tits bouncing. When I was ten, I stuffed my uncle’s boots with goat shit. When confronted with my crime, I blamed a squire. Poor boy was flogged and I escaped justice. When I was twelve, I milked my eel into a pot of turtle stew. I flogged the one-eyed snake. I skinned my sausage. I made the bald man cry! Into the turtle stew, which I do believe my sister ate.”

I wasn’t sure if this was written By Hemingway or Charles Manson…..

But for the record…. you are supposed to gamble and whore. The milking your eel in the turtle soup part….. not so much.

oh my goodness, it’s grrm…better yet – the imp…

so, had to kill time while god daughter finally caught up to me in season 4 of the wire…

ir’s funny, there’s maybe dozens of series which I’ve never watched before, wanted though to go over familiar ground…started with a band of brothers, then did season 2 thru 6 of a game of thrones, going through seasons 1 thru 3 of boardwalk empire…

alright then – end of the thread, soon to disappear words…

*** major spoilers ahead ***
things I’m most looking forward to when asoiaf kicks off again:
– valyrian armor
– finally ice spiders, grrm is such a tease
– firewryms
– valryia, past and present, those chimeras from a world of ice and fire were pretty creepy, also want to read the beginning of the faceless men
– nymeria’s and arya’s connection
– jaqen h’ghar, the red priest on the boat
– more good times on the silence

The text in the BBC article doesn’t support the headline. In fact, to quote something late in the article “ This doesn’t necessarily get us any closer to herd immunity, though, according to assistant professor Marcus Buggert, one of the study’s authors.”

And the paper you cited uses a lot a unverified assumptions built into a mathematical model to support the authors pre-formulated conclusion. If the math is complicated enough you can always get the conclusion you want by varying the assumptions. For example, the author assumes that people who are more susceptible to the virus are proportionally more infective. No evidence is cited to support this, and actually the existence of people who spread the virus without facing symptoms implies the opposite. It seems like the authors personal opinion written up as a scientific paper. When something like this survives peer review, let us know.

This doesn’t necessarily get us any closer to herd immunity, though, according to assistant professor Marcus Buggert, one of the study’s authors.” .

What they are saying here is that if those that are more naturally immune also do not pass it on, then it WOULD change the herd immunity math. They just haven’t proven it yet. However, it’s seems fairly logical and intuitive to assume that if you are immune on your own, you aren’t passing it on because you either aren’t sick at all or you are much less sick, much less contagious, and passing it on way less frequently and with lower viral loads. Now they just have to prove it.

That’s the assertion made by the second paper by looking at data in Sweden. He is suggesting that’s there is evidence of natural immunity and not passing it on.

So have other statisticians that have looked at data in countries with various degrees of lock down. They said the virus tended to burn itself out quicker than expected even without lockdwns suggesting high levels of natural immunity.

At the very least, there is reason for optimism even though most people seem to enjoy doom and gloom (especially on the left).

However, it’s seems fairly logical and intuitive to assume that if you are immune on your own, you aren’t passing it on because you either aren’t sick at all or you are much less sick, much less contagious, and passing it on way less frequently and with lower viral loads. Now they just have to prove it.

Except that lots of evidence suggests that people who aren’t sick can and do pass the disease on to others.

One of the dumbest posters to ever hit the site. Bravo.

Uh yeah, I have no interest in getting into this one.

You had me going there for a minute…
🙂

Oh, and a good candidate for Post of the Year!

Me too. He got rid of the elipsis and I was thinking OK this is not GEO. Then the narrator in italics reached the word “castle” and I laughed out loud.

First, thanks TNFH for the odd piece of basketball shoved into this thread. As post #470 or so, I’ll give you may favorite quote of the day (in the hopes that it will burn an end this thread and we can start anew), by someone who clearly doesn’t know anything at all about anything:

What must we conclude from all this? At best, our commander in chief is utterly derelict in his duties, presiding over a dangerously dysfunctional national security process that is putting our country and those who wear its uniform at great risk. At worst, the White House is being run by liars and wimps catering to a tyrannical president who is actively advancing our arch adversary’s nefarious interests.

Susan E. Rice (@AmbassadorRice), the national security adviser from 2013 to 2017 and a former United States ambassador to the United Nations.

Deeefense:
We should be doing business with Russia. We need Putin to help us combat China. That’s our REAL economic and political adversary. The media and left turning Russia and Putin into the villain has been one of the worst polices possible. Now instead of it being the the US, Russia, India, and Europe against China, it’s Russia and China doing business together as adversaries to us.Trump is a moron, but his instincts on Russia and China were correct. It’s left wing media and war mongering neocons that hate Trump that have made the world a much less safe place trying to drive Trump out of office with all these Russia scams.Putin sucks, but we can do business with him on radical extremism in the Middle East, against Chinese expansionism, and trade.It’s insane to drive him into the hands of China so he can salvage his economy all over Trump. It’s fucking dumb.

Goddamn, this guy…
BTW, anyone has any questions on anything related to China can ask a normal fucking Chinese guy like me aside from what you are told. At least I can provide another perspective, not like your “whoever is softer on China loses” talking heads.

thenoblefacehumper: This thread could use some basketball content, so read about Mason Jones who I’ve mentioned as a possibly intriguing 2nd rounder or UDFA. I also like Trevelin Queen.

I like Queen a lot. Not as high on Jones but sure, why not? fwiw it seems like this draft is weak at the top but deep with flier prospects. There should be rotation players available well into the 2nd round. Now who those players will be is the problem. Queen seems like the kind of player that is a few tweaks away from being really good. Physically he looks NBA ready.

So the new WH excuse for BountyGate is that it was in the PDB, but since nobody told him aloud about the bounties, he wasn’t “briefed” about it because, like a truly engaged leader, he doesn’t actually READ the PDB that is given to him.

Furthermore, the people who summarize them are too afraid to tell him things that will upset him because they are concerned that they will lose influence, so they refrain from telling him stuff like this but put it in the PDBs to cover their asses because they know he’ll never read it.

Sounds like a not at all dysfunctional way to run foreign policy, amirite? This is surely the best way to do things. Glad homey takes the job so seriously.

And that is the MOST GENEROUS possible explanation.

Mike Pompeo: “According to Pompeo, Trump has asked for his briefings to include as many visuals as possible—maps, charts, pictures, videos, and “killer graphics.” “That’s our task, right? To deliver the material in a way that he can best understand the information we’re trying to communicate,” Pompeo said. Trump has asked for his briefings to include as many visuals as possible—maps, charts, pictures, videos, and “killer graphics.” “That’s our task, right? To deliver the material in a way that he can best understand the information we’re trying to communicate,” Pompeo said.”

The West is big, man

Sending love. Stay strong.

hi swift…my sincerest condolences for your loss…yourself and your wife are in my thoughts and prayers…

I’m so sorry swift. Sending my most heartfelt condolences.

Swift and abundant, that’s a heartbreaking story and my heart goes out to you. I hope you and your wife can be strong and support one another. My condolences too.

So, so sorry, Swift. Thinking of you and your wife during this terrible time.

Swift, you and I bicker like schoolchildren but my deepest and most sincere sympathies are with you and your wife, for the rest of our time here together. I hope you find some light at the end of the darkness. Honestly have tears in my eyes for your loss.

Swift, there are no words adequate to describe the deep sorrow I feel for you and your wife. May both of you find the strength to persevere through this tragedy and find some solace in the love and respect you have on this site.

Swift, I am so, so sorry. I’ll be thinking of you and your family. A support group and therapy sound like great ideas, and as you know you should always feel free to use this community as a resource to the maximum extent possible.

Swift, I am so, so sorry for your loss. What a tragedy, and in a time of no respite from anything. I can only say that we are here for you, and please, please, please keep visiting and posting often, as that is how this family can in some tiny minuscule measure help.

Heartfelt condolences Swift. We’re here for ya.

As a most time lurker and sometimes poster I have great love for this blog and an odd affection for the people on it for over a decade. I am a father of 2 young children. They are my whole life amongst a sea of craziness, difficulties and life’s twists and turns. Cannot fathom what it would be like to lose one. My heartfelt condolences, Swift.

I lost my father at the beginning of quarantine. Not covid related. In these circumstances it has been excruciating for my mom. Your situation is that x1000.

Take good care,

Chris

I am so sorry, Swift. Wishing you and your wife all the best.

I cannot imagine the depths of your loss, Swift. Sending you love. Thank you for opening up and allowing us to join with you in your grief.