Davidson Deac II

Thanks for that. We talked about doing the same, but the restroom thing might be an impediment.

I have some marble chips to spread around a flower bed. And a fire pit to build in the back. Not really looking forward to either of those. Can't use the "we are going out" excuse any more either.

Just to change the tone a bit, what is everyone doing since we can't go out? My wife, son and I rented terminator dark future friday. It wasn't as bad as I heard. On saturday, I did some yard work. Then we got out took a long walk, grilled some chicken, and then she watched a movie on The Filipino Channel, while I watched the old movie Battle of Britain. Today it was another walk, and reading a book that I bought (and planned to read at the beach this week), Countdown to DDay, which gives the german perspective of the buildup to the Normandy invasion

It took a little while for production of those things to get started and ramp up. Ford had some factories making war materials, but it took 6 months to really ramp up after pearl harbor. Some factories are already switching to medical equipment, but it won't happen overnight. https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/hanesbrands-producing-face-masks/83-d0d46c7b-31e8-4903-914a-c8d991cafd55

Man, if they have to quarantine all of congress, that would be catastrophic. I mean what would we do if they couldn't put on a show for the news cameras? j/k, I do hope Senator Rand is ok. But it would be funny if we had to quarantine all of congress, and force them to all stay together for a couple of weeks. Might actually get some things passed.

But his basic point is correct. There aren't near enough military personnel in the US to enact and enforce martial law across the entire country. They could set up checkpoints, but that would just be controlling movement, not enacting martial law.

In fairness, its much much much easier for Singapore and South Korea to be ready. They are much smaller, with stricter governments in place. Singapore is an island, and South Korea has only one land border that is shut off. And they don't have to deal with 50 states/governors. That being said, I agree our government should have done more at both the federal and state level.

I wonder if they actually tried, or they just ask about the possibility of doing it. I have no problem with them asking about the procedure for doing so, or the possibility of it passing. Actually doing it though, well it is way to early for that. Fwiw, Trump might try to do it anyway. Lincoln did it without asking for Congressional approval during the Civil War, although the courts eventually ruled that he didn't have the authority.

Most of the non violent offenders who are in jail awaiting trial will probably be released until the trial situation is resolved. This is done to keep them from being in large crowds and to slow the growth of the virus. And probably because if they get it in jail, the state or county will have to cover the cost of treatment. Its already starting to happen. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241343476.html

Its interesting that North Carolina has the highest number of cases for any state that has not actually experienced a death. Hopefully, that says something positive about the states handling of the issue so far. Although its probably a large amount of luck.

Will Matt Dillon or Wyatt Earp be in charge?

In my opinion, Martial Law would only be used as a last resort, and only in a handful of areas if the population refuses to follow the rules. For example, if the spring break college kids in florida had refused to go home. Otherwise, they will leave enforcing the rules up to local law enforcement.

Martial Law is direct military control of government functions. There is a difference between that and using the national guard to keep the peace or to assist in a disaster. I believe the last time it was used in the US was when the governor of Alabama felt the local government of a county was corrupt, so he stood them down, and allowed the National Guard to take over control of police operations.

Ten years in the military taught me one thing. The grapevine is rarely correct. Not saying a lockdown won't happen, or that they are not discussing it. But there is no reason to do it as a surprise, or not announce it once the decision is made. Also, enforcing a true statewide lockdown will be nearly impossible. Would have to call up a large segment of the National Guard (ie first responders). Not sure they want to pull cops, hospital workers, fire fighters etc... to enforce a full lockdown.

Because many of the places were blood drives occur are being shut down, we could be facing a severe shortage of blood over the next few months. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/21/us-blood-donations-shortage-coronavirus I may go donate soon. Nothing else to do on the weekends now.

I agree with you. I just hope this thing burns itself out in a month or so, or the damage to the economy could end up being devastating.

I do wonder at what point they decide to relax restrictions, allow the restaurants, bars, etc... to re-open. At some point, the economic damage may end up being worse than the damage from the flu. I don't know what that point will be, but if people start losing homes/apartments/means of travel, its going to be hard to quarantine. I think we could survive a couple of months of restrictions, but after that, things will get bad.

Depends on the type of mask. No doubt the masks you buy in the drug store don't help, but certain types of masks help. Novant health had a screening area set up in front of one of their offices I drove by Friday, and all the screeners were wearing masks, gloves, head covers etc... They must do some good for the people wearing them. I really wish I had one of the old mark V gas masks that we used in the Navy.

Not only are they much older, they are also more densely populated, use more mass transit and tend to have large gatherings of family and friends. When I was there, it was nothing to see large groups of friends and family walking down the streets holding hands, or arm in arm. Their problems with this thing are societal. Its somewhat ironic that our tendency to shy away from that sort of thing might actually help us. We may eventually pass them in terms of absolute numbers, but I don't think as great a percentage of our population will be infected.

The lockdown is already in place. The only thing that will change is the degree of the lockdown, ie the level of restrictions.

Technically, they could declare martial law in some areas and suspend habeus corpus without mobilizing large numbers of troops. It gives more authority to the government. It would give them the authority to put people in jail for disobeying the commands to stay at home. Of course, putting large numbers of people in jail would kind of defeat the purpose of keeping them isolated.

Funny you should ask. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/03/17/will-coronavirus-lead-to-martial-law/ Senators should probably have their staffs spell check. But the Martial law thoughts are way off base for now. Almost everyone is staying home, Martial law across the country would be mostly pointless.

Navy is preparing USNS Comfort and Mercy to move to Los Angeles and New York. They will start taking non Corona cases in order to allow the Civilian hospitals greater leeway to focus on the virus. Wouldn't be surprised if we see the Carriers and large deck amphibs do something similar. The Army and Air Force are also preparing to aid Civilian medical workers.

No, I am not an expert. Just trying to get some accurate information. I was asking you what experts you were referencing that were saying the things you mentioned. What experts are saying the mortality rate is ten times that of the flu? I am looking at the CDC website and there isn't anything that says its 10 times that of the flu. You provided a link to a map that doesn't do any comparison to flu deaths and doesn't provide context. And flu deaths vary depending on the strain.

What experts? Everything I have seen so far says that the death rate is either a little higher than the flu, or that they don't really know at this point. It also seems to vary according to region. The worst hit region in China had a 2.9% death rate, while others are as little at .04%. https://www.livescience.com/new-coronavirus-compare-with-flu.html It seems to me that the biggest issue right now with this thing is that the experts just don't have enough information at this point.