JoeWeber

Here at sea in the Caribbean one country after another has been locking down for weeks. The French Islands are following the strict French guidelines, the Dutch Islands are shut down but being a bit more relaxed and the rest of the Windwards and Leewards are doing their own version but, except for St. Kitts and Nevis, every country is taking it as seriously as the people will allow. It seems to be working to control the spread. There are a few outliers that need waiting on, like the Heineken Rally that brought in a lot of Europeans a couple of weeks ago and that sort of thing, but for the most part shutting down seems to be working. Essential service businesses have lexan barriers at the checkout counters and some have installed hand wash stations at the door. Distance tapes are laid down in front of the cashiers to control the queues. Cruise Ships are nowhere to be seen and there are no Spring Breakers, which is good. The government, as in the ministers, make radio announcements frequently and seriously. I'm telling you, I wouldn't want to meet the St. Martin Prime Minister in an alley, she takes no shit. Follow the rules or suffer. They know exactly what the curve is and they get it in spades that flattening it will be key to their survival: the ventilators they have are the ventilators they will have. It might be too soon to tell but when this is over there might be some lessons to be learned here.

Worse news: he thought it was General Electric.

Let this detonate in your brain, again. We know it's happening but we try not to think about it because, well, stuff. From the Guardian: Until now the use of mobile phone tracking in the fight against Covid-19 has been restricted to national governments, which are either monitoring data within their borders or in discussions with mobile operators and technology companies about doing so. They include the US, India, Iran, Poland, Singapore, Israel, and South Korea. The British government is engaged in talks with BT, the owner of the UK mobile operator EE, about using phone location and usage data to determine the efficacy of isolation orders. The concept of an international mobile tracing scheme would go further, enabling authorities to monitor movements and potentially track the spread of the disease across borders. How long before the data is not anonymized? How long until I can locate you with an app?

Horse shit. If Trump lovers and Christians end up with lower infection rates you'll give it to me, and deservedly, with both barrels. I did notice that closet liberal BIGUN liked your reply. Interesting.

How can anyone take pride in that? Even Ron deserves better.

Now go to the blackboard and write that 1000 times.

Sure, but this is SC and I'm guessing there weren't any vaginas in Ron's post, not that we should be protected there either. The rules are there for good reasons and I'm probably one. Still, we are all adults here. Maybe loosen the rules and tighten the membership a bit?

Thankfully my delicate sensibilities were again protected from the dark forces of reality. Anyone up for a drunken party where we all wear serious disguises and guess whose who?

You make it too complicated. Human lives will vary in value depending on their usefulness, usually in the short term, but for exceptional situations we look to the long term. For example, I wouldn't trade you for a half rack of Mikhail Espresso Russian Imperial Stout but I might trade Turtle for a sixer of Regal Select. On the other hand there is, apparently, a materials cost analysis we can look too. That's about $585 USD or something. Too bad we don't have pure Rhodium feet, I guess.

You're a swell guy in my book. But won't it be an interesting thing to see how the infection and rates tabulate demographically when this is over? If the Trumpettes and Christians come out ahead Coreece will have a field day with us.

Seriously? You didn't Google it and immediately post it unread? You some kind of closet Liberal?

Then why not look for a simple answer from a reputable source? Maybe it's owing to wider availability of testing, poor adherence to social distancing recommendations or the thing is accelerating as predicted. I just know that you won't hear it first on FOX News or from President Dipsy Doodle in the Rose Garden.

Not exactly. That's what governments do. This is what the resistance does.

Instead of hopefully on any future day, how about hopefully someday all of our brothers and sisters will again be able to gather together to do this incredible thing we do? Please, don't force the issue or press your DZO's with dates that create expectations that cannot be assured. We'll still be skydivers when this passes. Stay chill.

Darn, we've phone a friend, used our lifeline and the 50/50, polled the audience and asked our wives. Hmm.. what to do, what to do? Check with the CDC? The WHO? Jared Kushner?

Silly you, again. Follow the money.

Generally you are right. But it is worth remembering that skydiving, and to a certain lesser extent base fatalities, aren't final events except for the deceased. When they happen co-participants in base often simply run for it. At the DZ most people pack up and go home for the day or go chill until operations resume. Some people, on the other hand, need to deal with it nasty or not. And trust me, none are thinking: "Oh, well, it's all about personal responsibility and he signed the waiver." There are no bastions of personal freedom anymore, skydiving in particular, and there are always down stream effects.

Sorry Jerry, welcome back!

Well, you are exercising a privilege granted to you by whomever created and is responsible for the service. It's not a right. With that privilege comes many important responsibilities which includes looking out for the safety of others, not only yourself. Covid-19, the regular flu or just the clap you should be concerned with transmitting it to others. Simply managing not to hook it in on any given day isn't quite enough.

The gentleman was pointing out that he chose to wear a helmet, ostensibly for safety reasons, as a personal choice. Like seatbelts, I wrongly believed that helmets were now a universal requirement for all ages. Not so, I now see, and I stand corrected. However, if the gentleman's home state is California, as his info suggests, then he is required by law to wear a helmet. To that extent my point is intact. I also don't want to survive certain things if that misfortune visits, but for the overwhelming most part I think I do. So it seems to me that wearing a helmet agrees with the odds.

And if there were no motorcycle helmets would you recognize the need and, in the name of your personal safety, build one like we used to build our own video helmets? Would you be on the jumping sidelines until the reserve parachute was invented. You aren't doing anything inherently smart or independent minded by wearing a motorcycle helmet or jumping with a reserve. Those are things you must do or not participate. The reality is that those two things don't even scratch the surface of the interconnected web of lessons learned and regulations and protections adopted that make bike riding and jumping somewhat safe to do. So it's really nothing to point out as an example of anything. All of us here, with the possible exception of the incredibly aged like Kallend, got on the societal safety train long after it left the station and like it or not, unless you want to go live alone in the woods, you're in the bubble with the rest of us.

All, and I don't mean most, I mean all of the huge mega yachts I see every day are foreign flagged. BrentHutch and others listen to me: the super rich do not give two fucks about trickling down the wealth. It sounds nice but if it happens it's incidental. Think clearly on just one example, Bill Gates had $65 Billion when he promised to give it all away. He hasn't paid tax on anything he's given away best I can tell and now he has over $100 Billion. Had he declared all of his stock gains back then he'd have stood with $40 Billion. At the rate he's giving it away he'd be back to $65 Billion. Wealth is trickling up. Not a goddamn penny should go to any carrier that has not been US Flagged from day one. Not a goddamn penny should go to any US corporation with untaxed (in the US) overseas reserves. And for goddamn sure that douche Trump shouldn't be in charge of any bail out funds.

Exactly. When I read the report you linked I saw the page. I'm happy to read the cites but please read them first.

Also no party affiliation data. Nor is it a list of convicted officials. Nor, and here's the kicker, does it give any relationship to the then political environment. For example, I sort of wonder if a lot of (R) Senators and Congress people now feel a little emboldened since they gave Trump a pass. All of that is hard to come by which is why I was willing to rely on your independent research, not after the fact Googling.

Yes, well perhaps you recognize the new problem you have: lockdowns do not mean business.