Virus thread, the political one.

[vertical_doug]

It's the reincarnation of Leona Helmsley.... rules are for little people...

Speaking of Helmsley, the estate Dunnellen Hall sits on top of Roundhill in Greenwich. I know DCT and Justin definitely know this house. It has been for sale several times since Leona died. It's cursed.

Everyone who touched this thing since 2007 has taken a bath.

Former Helmsley estate in Greenwich takes $11M price cut - GreenwichTime

And from the NYTimes, the curse...from the Archives
Helmsley Estate: Does It Bring Bad Luck?
By Richard L. Madden
April 21, 1988
When Louis Duff handled the sale of Dunnellen Hall in 1974, he had a conversation with the seller, Lynda Dick, whose 46-year-old husband had died of a heart attack while being drive home by his chauffeur.

Mr. Duff, president of Duff Associates Inc., recalled that Mrs. Dick said: '' 'This house is like the Hope Diamond. It has brought bad luck to everyone who owned it.' ''

At the time, Mr. Duff disagreed. But as he talked now about the troubles of the estate's other owners, he said, ''I wouldn't argue the point with her today.''

Dunnellen Hall, a hilltop 28-room Jacobean mansion on 26 acres with a sweeping view of Long Island Sound, has seen many lavish parties in its 70 years. It was the setting for a 1968 movie, ''A Lovely Way to Die,'' starring Kirk Douglas.

But among its owners, at least two sold or lost the estate because of financial setbacks, and three - including the current occupants, Harry and Leona Helmsley - have been indicted.


''It hasn't been a very happy house,'' said Marjorie Rowe, president of Preferred Properties Inc., who handled two sales of the estate.

Last Thursday the Helmsleys pleaded not guilty to New York State charges, and they face Federal charges of evading more than $4 million in income taxes by fraudulently charging luxuries at Dunnellen Hall - including jade art objects, a marble dance floor and a swimming pool enclosure - to their hotel and real-estate empire.

Tonight, on the eve of their arraignment on the Federal charges, the Helmsleys asserted anew their innocence. The indictments, they said in a statement, represent ''the first time that the state and Federal Government have ganged up on any American citizen to jointly prosecute them on charges based on their income-tax return.''

They added, ''The Helmsleys will fight the charges in both cases because they are false and malicious.

The mansion on Round Hill Road in the estate section of Greenwich known as the back country was completed at a cost of $1 million in 1918 for Daniel Grey Reid, a steel, tin-plate and banking magnate, as a wedding present for his daughter, Rhea Reid Topping and her husband, Henry.

She named the mansion Dunnellen Hall for her mother, Ella Dunn, though some people here still call it the Topping House. Two sons - Dan, who later was an owner of the New York Yankees, and Bob - were frequently in the news because of their extravagant parties and frequent marriages. Indictment and Tanker

In 1950, the estate was sold to Loring Washburn, president of a steel-fabricating company. But after his financial difficulties, it was taken over in 1963 by a finance and factoring company.

The estate remained vacant until it was acquired in 1966 by a partnership that subdivided some of the land and resold it a year later to Gregg Sherwood Dodge Moran, a showgirl and former wife of an heir to the Dodge automobile fortune. She had married Daniel Moran, a New York City police officer. In 1977, Mr. Moran died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Florida.

Mrs. Moran sold the estate in 1968 for $1 million - then a record price for Greenwich - to Jack R. Dick, a financier, who was indicted in 1971 by a New York grand jury and charged with stealing $840,000 by the false use of documents to obtain a loan. He died in 1974, before the case went to trial. A few days later, Federal lawyers said they obtained $1.7 million to cover back taxes from the sale of part of Mr. Dick's art collection, which included many hunting scenes.

The next owner, Ravi Tikkoo, an Indian-born owner of oil supertankers, bought the mansion for $3 million, including $1 million for the furnishings, in 1974. But people here who knew him said that Mr. Tikkoo's wife never liked the mansion and that a slump in the tanker market eventually forced its sale to the Helmsleys in 1983 for $11 million, another Greenwich record.

The mansion is hidden from the road by hedges and a stone wall, and it is topped by a wire-mesh fence

Ms. Rowe just laughed when asked whether there was a curse of Dunnellen Hall.
''No, no,'' she said. ''It just happens that way. It seems a lot of people lost money in that house.''

As for its marketability, Mr. Duff said: ''There is nothing else like it. There will always be somebody who will want that house.''


A version of this article appears in print on April 21, 1988, Section B, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: Helmsley Estate: Does It Bring Bad Luck?

[johnmdesigner]

Speaking of the Helmsley's, several weeks ago we were in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery standing in front of their mausoleum.
I seem to recall a clause in the will that those who had inherited money from were required to pay a visit to the tomb once a year. Never figured out how that was verified.

[j44ke]

Red is blue, black is white, double plus ungood.

Anti-Vaccination Activists Are Growing Force at Virus Protests - The New York Times

[Colinmclelland]

Red is blue, black is white, double plus ungood.

Anti-Vaccination Activists Are Growing Force at Virus Protests - The New York Times

So I don't get the whole anti-vax thing...but I can kinda sorta understand how you might at least decide to think about it if it's to protect your kid from what you somehow consider to be a theoretical danger.

If they come up with an effective vaccine against COVID are these people really going to refuse it? Really?

Cos I absolutely don't understand that...

[BBB]

Guns good. Needles bad. Doesn't quite have an Orwellian ring to it.

[j44ke]

Guns good. Needles bad. Doesn't quite have an Orwellian ring to it.

That’s what I mean. Which is what makes it seem Orwellian to me.

Who is selling what they are buying?

[j44ke]

3000 daily deaths by mid-June.

200,000 new infections per day by the end of May, up from 25,000 per day now.

This is from an unreleased internal report by FEMA leaked to the NYTimes.

[vertical_doug]

3000 daily deaths by mid-June.

200,000 new infections per day by the end of May, up from 25,000 per day now.

This is from an unreleased internal report by FEMA leaked to the NYTimes.

On the face of it, this seems to be an illogical report. The increase in new infections will almost instantaneously overwhelm medical care leading to worsening outcomes. In every country, you see increasing mortality rates with increased infection rates.

The only explanation that makes sense, is they will be driven by testing and all asymptomatic cases will be reported because of increased testing.
This seems improbable too.

In that situation, US is at 3.8mm infected and 200,000 dead. Be close to 10k dying per day in this case (a bad seasonal flu every week) if their report is accurate.

I can't see this report as being real. It has to be some kind of plant to discredit the media or something.

[guido]

Stimulus: White House’s “pause” on coronavirus economic relief is risky - Vox

"... States and cities have been sounding the alarm that their finances are in trouble as spending has skyrocketed in response to the health crisis and revenue has fallen off a cliff. States are warning they’ll face enormous budget shortfalls and be forced to make catastrophic cuts without federal assistance. President Donald Trump has suggested relief will be used as leverage to force states and cities to change their immigration policies, a message reinforced by Kudlow on Sunday."

"But I want you to do us a favor" all over again... The thing trump seems to understand best is blackmail...

[Sbti]

Well, he stunk up the Lincoln Memorial yesterday very strongly.

Tuesday he's heading to.... wait for it... a mask making facility in Phoenix. What are your bets he will wear a mask? I say no, he will not lower himself and will want to show his extreme amount of mushroom testosterone. Lapdog Pence now says he should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic, even though he threatened retaliation against the reporter who exposed Pence's lie and that everyone was told by Mayo that masks were required. Mayo still should have refused his entry.

Trump will just say, hey, it's past April and like a miracle, there can be no virus surviving in the 103 degree heat tomorrow.

[j44ke]

On the face of it, this seems to be an illogical report. The increase in new infections will almost instantaneously overwhelm medical care leading to worsening outcomes. In every country, you see increasing mortality rates with increased infection rates.

The only explanation that makes sense, is they will be driven by testing and all asymptomatic cases will be reported because of increased testing.
This seems improbable too.

In that situation, US is at 3.8mm infected and 200,000 dead. Be close to 10k dying per day in this case (a bad seasonal flu every week) if their report is accurate.

I can't see this report as being real. It has to be some kind of plant to discredit the media or something.

Here's the report itself. PDF Link.

[theflashunc]

On the face of it, this seems to be an illogical report. The increase in new infections will almost instantaneously overwhelm medical care leading to worsening outcomes. In every country, you see increasing mortality rates with increased infection rates.

The only explanation that makes sense, is they will be driven by testing and all asymptomatic cases will be reported because of increased testing.
This seems improbable too.

In that situation, US is at 3.8mm infected and 200,000 dead. Be close to 10k dying per day in this case (a bad seasonal flu every week) if their report is accurate.

I can't see this report as being real. It has to be some kind of plant to discredit the media or something.

Or someone screaming from the inside that this plan is dumb and is going to get a lot of people needlessly killed after not getting any attention from the administration behind closed doors. Given the administration's complete lack of any connection to facts and living in an alternate reality, I think this is the likelier scenario.

[j44ke]

On the face of it, this seems to be an illogical report. The increase in new infections will almost instantaneously overwhelm medical care leading to worsening outcomes. In every country, you see increasing mortality rates with increased infection rates.

The only explanation that makes sense, is they will be driven by testing and all asymptomatic cases will be reported because of increased testing.
This seems improbable too.

In that situation, US is at 3.8mm infected and 200,000 dead. Be close to 10k dying per day in this case (a bad seasonal flu every week) if their report is accurate.

I can't see this report as being real. It has to be some kind of plant to discredit the media or something.

Or someone screaming from the inside that this plan is dumb and is going to get a lot of people needlessly killed after not getting any attention from the administration behind closed doors. Given the administration's complete lack of any connection to facts and living in an alternate reality, I think this is the likelier scenario.

Yes, doesn't seem like they are shifting any variables on testing? I think this report must be the way things are composed in the current administration. Good news followed by bad news. Good news is that separation is resulting in plateaus and downward trends. Bad news is that projections based on the coming months is that loosening social separation guidelines will reverse those trends.

[j44ke]

Better, more thorough follow up from Washington Post (which is not uncommon these days.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...691_story.html

[mzilliox]

as i try to understand why my fellow Americans seem to overwhelmingly feel a certain way that is opposite to the way i feel rational humans would think... i find some solace in this article. it helps me to understand a way of thinking im not built for i guess. i try hard to understand people, to know why they would think totally different to me, this helps. its really pretty sad.

Work and workism - Anything But Sports

[BBB]

That’s what I mean. Which is what makes it seem Orwellian to me.

Who is selling what they are buying?

What happens when one of those white male assault rifle toting protests gets out of hand? A nervous security guard pulls a handgun in the face of the angry white dudes with assault rifles determined to storm a government building and it will be on for young and old. This is what they (the puppeteers) want isn't it?

[j44ke]

What happens when one of those white male assault rifle toting protests gets out of hand? A nervous security guard pulls a handgun in the face of the angry white dudes with assault rifles determined to storm a government building and it will be on for young and old. This is what they (the puppeteers) want isn't it?

I really don’t know the answer to that.

BTW, today is the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings.

[mnoble485]

^^^
Some of us are old enough to have been around when this happened. I was in college at the time and attended a student protest that night.

Mike

[theflashunc]

What happens when one of those white male assault rifle toting protests gets out of hand? A nervous security guard pulls a handgun in the face of the angry white dudes with assault rifles determined to storm a government building and it will be on for young and old. This is what they (the puppeteers) want isn't it?

More Beer Hall Putsch. But the violence will be tragic all the same. The stuff in Michigan in particular I'd consider paramilitary terrorism and we'd be horrified by if this were happening in any other country that purports to be a democracy. Yet here we are.

[j44ke]

^^^
Some of us are old enough to have been around when this happened. I was in college at the time and attended a student protest that night.

Mike

My father came home and took the whole family back to the university where he worked. We got in a long line of people that snaked around the campus and walked slowly with them. It was dark. There was some singing but it was actually pretty quiet. Two things happened that I didn’t understand until later. Students kept coming up to my father and saying they were glad he was there. Then someone came up and took my father’s photo, and some students went for the camera, but my father said “No don’t give them any excuses.” Later I understood that as a young professor without tenure, he could have been fired. And everyone, including my father, thought the photographer was FBI. I was 5 years old and I still remember those moments very clearly.