Objectively intelligent.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

This stuff lasts for generations. Near our ranch, there's a family that owns tons of the land around us. The family ran the general store back in the 20s. The land was acquired as payment for debt to the store during the Depression.

Fast forward 90 years, and the shale boom hits. Oil wells start popping up all over the county. And back in the 20s, no one knew to hold on to mineral rights. So now this family is raking it in (they started drilling last year, before the nose dive in oil prices).

I like the family. Nice people. They do good for the community. But their good fortune is just that: being in the right place at the right time.

My grandfather and his brother owned a grocery store, hotel, and a bunch of commercial property during the Depression. They gave credit to people who needed it and did quite well for themselves. Acquired a whole lot of assets on the cheap.

Then they sued each other, one became an alcoholic and gave all of his money to his mistress while the other one, my grandfather, sold off a ton of land in the 60s. Much of that land is now prime fracking property, and another huge parcel sat where a highway was built in the 70s. I went to school with the kid whose family bought it and made a fortune selling pieces of it along the new highway.

My mother and her brother sued each other over my grandmother's estate and haven't spoken in 20 years.

"Right place, right time" only works if you've smart family. Mine fucked it up quite spectacularly. And I doubt they're alone in that incompetence. My grandfather no doubt rolls in his grave.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

My grandfather and his brother owned a grocery store, hotel, and a bunch of commercial property during the Depression. They gave credit to people who needed it and did quite well for themselves. Acquired a whole lot of assets on the cheap.

Then they sued each other, one became an alcoholic and gave all of his money to his mistress while the other one, my grandfather, sold off a ton of land in the 60s. Much of that land is now prime fracking property, and another huge parcel sat where a highway was built in the 70s. I went to school with the kid whose family bought it and made a fortune selling pieces of it along the new highway.

My mother and her brother sued each other over my grandmother's estate and haven't spoken in 20 years.

"Right place, right time" only works if you've smart family. Mine fucked it up quite spectacularly. And I doubt they're alone in that incompetence. My grandfather no doubt rolls in his grave.

You really just want the people who piss it away to have a good time doing it.

A storied ancestor of mine was one of the lithographers on Audobon's prints, built a smaller printing empire before the civil war, and then managed to both fight in the civil war (reading his own obituary at one point) and print maps of battles (after they were over) making another fortune during the war. After the war, his wife died in one of the periodic fires that flattened large sections of Brooklyn, he married a woman much much younger than him and spent all his money partying with his war comrades, various NY politicians, and his young wife, and on various Scottish causes. He frittered it all away before he died, but it sounds like he had a blast. When one of his maps or prints surfaces now and then it fetches a small fortune, but there are only a couple left in the family.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

throughout the covid19 crisis sweden has been held out as the counterexample to policies pursued throughout europe and north america: No lockdowns, accept a high death toll and push on to herd immunity. The picture has been mixed. Sweden has a dramatically higher death toll than neighboring scandinavian countries to which it is geographically proximate and demographically similar. But it has still fared better than hard-hit countries like italy, france and the united kingdom, which eventually pushed hard lockdowns to stem the spread of covid.

But the real story is buried down at the end of this recent article in the times.

The times looked at mobility data from google and found that swedes were going to restaurants, shops and recreational areas at comparable rates to residents of other european countries. Buried even further down we find that sweden’s gdp is expected to contract by 7 to 10 percent this year, again on par with estimates in other european countries.

In other words, the idea that sweden was going to plow head on into the epidemic, have a high mortality but not wreck its economy really isn’t true on either score. Despite what seems like a dramatically different policy, the reality on the ground sounds fairly similar. Economic impact seems comparable. Any sense that countries could avoid the economic calamity with the kind of ‘just man up’ approach trump world is encouraging doesn’t seem to have saved sweden from economic calamity. Individual swedes also seem to have ramped down economic and social activity nearly as much as residents of other countries.

tpm

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

You really just want the people who piss it away to have a good time doing it.

A storied ancestor of mine was one of the lithographers on Audobon's prints, built a smaller printing empire before the civil war, and then managed to both fight in the civil war (reading his own obituary at one point) and print maps of battles (after they were over) making another fortune during the war. After the war, his wife died in one of the periodic fires that flattened large sections of Brooklyn, he married a woman much much younger than him and spent all his money partying with his war comrades, various NY politicians, and his young wife, and on various Scottish causes. He frittered it all away before he died, but it sounds like he had a blast. When one of his maps or prints surfaces now and then it fetches a small fortune, but there are only a couple left in the family.

A storied ancestor of mine commanded the Revolutionary Army before George Washington showed up to take over. If he'd just said, sit down George, I've got this, then we coulda been someone. Instead it's been all downhill from there.

Actually, not even an ancestor, just a cousin, but so close.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

tpm

I think you have to differentiate between sectors. Health systems here pressed the governor (actually threatened to defy him) to resume elective procedures, as our bed and ICU capacity remained strong.

They're packed with patients. As are eye docs, dentists, orthos, derms, etc.

CPAs have been insanely busy through this, but most of that has been work from home. Don't know how lawyers are doing.

Seems that the necessities or borderline necessities are weathering this mess. The purely elective purchases (bars, restaurants, movies, certain retailers, etc.) are more challenged, or completely fucked (gyms, yoga studios).

I think the percentage drop in gdp from country to country will be the same because the elective purchases from nation to nation tend to be the same. The test for Sweden will be whether it resumes those elective purchases faster than the rest of the world.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

tpm

Except those other countries (and us) will have sharp peaks in the next months, and Sweden may be over it?

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

tpm

That article missed a key factor: God.

This is blue-state plague, here to smite those who push the gay agenda on good God-fearing Christians. If you exclude a few places like meat packing plants and nursing homes, it's hardly touched real Americans. Who knows, maybe meat packing plants are part of the gay agenda.

I'm sure in Sweden its done the same.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

A storied ancestor of mine commanded the Revolutionary Army before George Washington showed up to take over. If he'd just said, sit down George, I've got this, then we coulda been someone. Instead it's been all downhill from there.

Actually, not even an ancestor, just a cousin, but so close.

My ancestors carried cement.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Except those other countries (and us) will have sharp peaks in the next months, and Sweden may be over it?

To get herd immunity you have to have immunity

Not sure what to make of this -- maybe only testing issues -- but there are people on this ship who clearly tested negative and then positive. Maybe it is a very small percentage but disturbing nonetheless. Everything I have read up until this looked like tests of random nasal material turn up negative and then positive.

If that isn't the case, we aren't talking about herd immunity, we are talking about something worse.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

If you are looking for an interesting Twitter thread on white racism and Trump, then this is worth reading.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

My ancestors carried cement.

My people were Calabrese.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

That article missed a key factor: God.

This is blue-state plague, here to smite those who push the gay agenda on good God-fearing Christians. If you exclude a few places like meat packing plants and nursing homes, it's hardly touched real Americans. Who knows, maybe meat packing plants are part of the gay agenda.

I'm sure in Sweden its done the same.

G.O. but I'm thinking no longer PC? Or whatever the new term is for PC?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

To get herd immunity you have to have immunity

Not sure what to make of this -- maybe only testing issues -- but there are people on this ship who clearly tested negative and then positive. Maybe it is a very small percentage but disturbing nonetheless. Everything I have read up until this looked like tests of random nasal material turn up negative and then positive.

If that isn't the case, we aren't talking about herd immunity, we are talking about something worse.

1000 sailors on that ship got it. Calm the fuck down.

[Hank Chinaski]

quadrafecta

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

That article missed a key factor: God.

This is blue-state plague, here to smite those who push the gay agenda on good God-fearing Christians. If you exclude a few places like meat packing plants and nursing homes, it's hardly touched real Americans. Who knows, maybe meat packing plants are part of the gay agenda.

I'm sure in Sweden its done the same.

...and the number is six hundred and sixty-six: https://news.yahoo.com/evangelicals-...183249943.html