The bottom line is closing bars and night clubs is pretty much a violation of our 1st amendment right (freedom to peacefully assemble).  Telling restaurants that they can't serve a product that they normally serve is far too much government over-reach.

My "natural selection" comment was geared towards the idiots on spring break that still pack bars.  If they want to make themselves sick let them.

The Constitution was suspended by Trump's National Emergency declaration.

Sarcasm?

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

The Constitution was suspended by Trump's National Emergency declaration.

Sarcasm?

I don't think so.  Check the statutes under which he issued the order.

I believe the Constitution was suspended by FDR in the 1933 bank emergency.  i do not know if it was ever restored.
Same deal after 9/11.  I believe each President since then has extended the emergency order.

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I've done my fair share of finger pointing. Trump and his news outlet are just as much to blame for the situation we're all in now as a result of downplaying the threat of the virus itself as the overreaction from the general public. Only time will tell as to how much damage it'll do to his reelection hopes.

But shifting gears - testing has ramped up, finally. I took my wife to get tested this morning. Expects to hear back within 3-5 days. Her symptoms were shortness of breath, coughing and chills, combined with a couple layers removed exposure to people who have already tested positive. Got approval via teledoc and Ascension.

I can't begin to tell you how terrified she is considering she's a recovering asthmatic. It's shaken me as well. I know I can shrug off flu-like symptoms and be alright in a couple of days, but she definitely can't.

Good luck to you both. Hopefully the test comes back a nothing-burger

As for the virus itself, I am starting to believe either the numbers are severely under-reported or there are two strains of the virus. If the number of people being infected is severely under-reported, that is a very good thing. We could end up burning through this thing in a couple weeks. Something just doesn't pass the sniff test with regards to how quickly China recovered from this. There should reinfections starting to pop back up if the cases aren't far more widespread than previously believed. I really wish the US had proper testing to get some real numbers on this. We may never know until we do a random sample of antibodies in humans, but who knows when that will happen.

I've read lots of speculation lately that there are two strains. One of them, a much milder version, has theoretically more or less circled the globe without anyone noticing. There were lots of reports in the US of particularly bad flu cases, and the working idea is that those may have actually been the more aggressive but less potent strain. If that is the case, it would probably explain a few things.

I'm still more interested in international response to China's newest theory that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 came from snakes, which had likely been infected by bats known to carry SARS. The bats with SARS I buy. SARS tracing back to a bat colony in southern China has been confirmed numerous times. It's just highly suspect to me that this virus, which is in many ways SARS on steroids, just happened to turn up in a marketplace on the doorstep of one of the most advanced virology labs in the world. I continue to believe that COVID-19 was an effort to weaponize SARS that made its way out into the open somehow or another. I wouldn't go so far as to say that China poisoned its own people, but it's an incredible coincidence that the "Enterprise-D" version of SARS just happened to turn up at a busy marketplace right there.

That's wonderful, good for you, enjoy your drink, thanks for killing your grandmother when you bump into her at the supermarket and breath on the bag of oranges she's picking up.

The point of the restrictions isn't to keep healthy individuals like you and me safe. It's to keep us from passing the virus that we're probably already carrying along to people who wouldn't be able to carry it without symptoms. Do I like being cooped up in my home? No. Is it going to stop me from going out for a walk? No. Do I believe that being cooped up is serving any purpose? You know, I have to trust the judgment of those who know far more than I ever will (including direct advisers to the president and his lordship himself) who say that staying as isolated as possible is a necessary precaution right now. If you can't handle skipping restaurants for a couple weeks, [BLEEP] download Uber Eats. If you can't go a couple of weeks without stocking up on booze, see a counselor when this is all over. If you can't handle stepping to the side as a precaution and/or courtesy to others who are susceptible to the virus, stay inside your own home. 

If spending a few seconds of my life waiting a couple of steps off the sidewalk for an elderly person to pass could potentially save their life, [BLEEP] yes I'll step off the sidewalk. [BLEEP] "natural selection". At some point, we're all human beings, we're all along for the same ride, and that dick-first machismo being projected by the "me first" crowd is as sad as it is dangerous.

You are missing the point of what I was trying to say.

First, all four of my grandparents are dead so there is no way that I could "kill" them by bumping into them at the supermarket, but ... whatever.

The point of the restrictions is that young people on spring break have been packing bars and pretty much ignoring the recommendation to stay away from large gatherings.  The governor mandating that all night clubs and bars close is far too over-reaching.  Perhaps asking them to restrict numbers of patrons at a time is a better idea.  By closing down businesses for 30 days or more they are putting people out of work and hurting the owners (not to mention the supply chain these businesses use).

Regarding the purchase of alcohol, beer or wine I was referring to the mandate that the city of St. Augustine put out that restaurants that normally serve drinks would be prohibited from doing so.  That has nothing to do with the virus and everything to do with "nanny government" controlling us.

The bottom line is closing bars and night clubs is pretty much a violation of our 1st amendment right (freedom to peacefully assemble).  Telling restaurants that they can't serve a product that they normally serve is far too much government over-reach.

My "natural selection" comment was geared towards the idiots on spring break that still pack bars.  If they want to make themselves sick let them.

First off, an apology. I'm slightly on edge right now with everyone in my immediate family except me in a high risk group, one of them refusing to admit that this is potentially a very big deal, and another clearly not understanding what the word "quarantine" means. So when I see things like large groups of families with their kids swinging around on park equipment, groups of people at a cramped bar for St. Patrick's Day and the [BLEEP] Tide Pod generation not understanding basic courtesies like, "If you're potentially carrying a deadly plague, don't walk 18 inches from the person that might die," I get a little bit heated. "Natural selection" is a defense I've heard from someone who proudly ranted about how they weren't going to follow any government guidelines that tell them how to live their life, and the disease is only killing people who should probably die anyway, so why should they change the way they live?

Yeah, enough.

Under normal circumstances, I'd say yes, closing down restaurants is pushing it Constitutionally, and the burden of making sure that the bar's crowd numbers less than the fire marshal's limit should fall to the owner. Under these circumstances, no. I don't think it's fair to foist that off of proprietors. For one, with the six-foot spacing guideline and limit of ten people per gathering, what's a restaurant owner going to do? Allow two families in and arrange each person at their own booth on the other side of the restaurant? Or, let's say the crowd of ten is nixed, who's going to set capacity rules and how? Will the state say, "Ok, you can have one person for every ten square feet of your building"? And would the owner then have to hire someone to stand outside and perform a count, like a bouncer but at TGI Friday's? That would be a logistical nightmare, and what happens if the owner doesn't have enough employees wanting to put themselves in that environment? Good luck replacing them right now--if you even dare fire an employee for refusing to report to work in a pandemic.

In an environment where things are changing by the day, almost by the hour at times, as much as it hurts my fingers to type this, government intervention is the right thing to do. This is a scenario we've never seen before, and given the likely outcome if we do nothing and allow it to overwhelm the medical system, I think certain specific, limited restrictions, like mandating take-out or delivery service only for bars and restaurants, are warranted. Apply that same government-mandated closure to something like a church and I'm less ok with that, because now the government is treading on the edge of a very slippery slope. To anyone who wants to sue the government for stripping their First Amendment rights by instructing restaurants to close during a pandemic...best of luck.

I'll defer to TrivialPursuit's response to the natural selection comment, because he's right. Natural selection only works like that if it kills the people who do the stupid thing. In this case, the people doing the stupid thing are probably fine, but their parents and grandparents might not be.

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Sarcasm?

I don't think so.  Check the statutes under which he issued the order.

I believe the Constitution was suspended by FDR in the 1933 bank emergency.  i do not know if it was ever restored.
Same deal after 9/11.  I believe each President since then has extended the emergency order.

I understand those things but I would not call them "suspending the Constitution".
Typically, the president needs an act of Congress to change government policy. But Congress over the years has passed many statutes giving the president certain powers when an emergency is declared. 
The president's declarations are constitutional if they are within the bounds of those statutes, and those statutes are constitutional if they are within the bounds of congress's powers as defined in article 1 and certain amendments.
I tend to agree that the Constitution has been reinterpreted beyond the imagination of the people who wrote it and amended it, but I would not say it has been suspended. I would also remind you that there are aspects of our constitution which were never written down. The English have called their system of government a "constitution" for centuries prior to the founding of this country, even though they've never had a written constitution. we wrote down our constitution to make it harder for the executive to arbitrarily change the terms of the Constitution, the way that English and other European kings had done for centuries. But unfortunately it was not impossible for them to change it.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

I don't think so.  Check the statutes under which he issued the order.

I believe the Constitution was suspended by FDR in the 1933 bank emergency.  i do not know if it was ever restored.
Same deal after 9/11.  I believe each President since then has extended the emergency order.

I understand those things but I would not call them "suspending the Constitution".
Typically, the president needs an act of Congress to change government policy. But Congress over the years has passed many statutes giving the president certain powers when an emergency is declared. 
The president's declarations are constitutional if they are within the bounds of those statutes, and those statutes are constitutional if they are within the bounds of congress's powers as defined in article 1 and certain amendments.
I tend to agree that the Constitution has been reinterpreted beyond the imagination of the people who wrote it and amended it, but I would not say it has been suspended. I would also remind you that there are aspects of our constitution which were never written down. The English have called their system of government a "constitution" for centuries prior to the founding of this country, even though they've never had a written constitution. we wrote down our constitution to make it harder for the executive to arbitrarily change the terms of the Constitution, the way that English and other European kings had done for centuries. But unfortunately it was not impossible for them to change it.

The world after the "emergency" is always different than the world before it.  Anyone thinking we go back to the same USA as 2019 is kidding themselves.  In 1933 they removed honest money and replaced it with bankster paper.  In 2001 we saw massive intrusion into 4th Amendment protections.  The Feds now claim the Constitution does not apply at the US Border and they consider the US Border anywhere within 100 miles of the actual border.  Your children and Grandma get fondled at the airport.  No telling what the new normal will be after this is over.  In China there are new rules post-COVID.  To board public transport, you must have your health chip scanned, temperature taken, and you can only pay with a special smart phone app.

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Interesting projections from Imperial College in the UK about hospitalization of the elderly and fatalities:



Full report (March 16th publication) here:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperia...3-2020.pdf

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To kind of bring this back around to football, next year's NFL season is going to look very different.
Most likely, the players will be isolated with their teams, and regularly tested.
Most likely, you will have to answer a questionnaire and get a temperature scan before you get to go to the game. You may have to promise to stay away from vulnerable people for 14 days after the game.
There's a small chance that they cancel the season, and a small chance that they choose to play the games, but without fans.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

To kind of bring this back around to football, next year's NFL season is going to look very different.
Most likely, the players will be isolated with their teams, and regularly tested.
Most likely, you will have to answer a questionnaire and get a temperature scan before you get to go to the game. You may have to promise to stay away from vulnerable people for 14 days after the game.
There's a small chance that they cancel the season, and a small chance that they choose to play the games, but without fans.

If were still at this rate of spread in sept.  No one will be thinking about football.  They'll be thinking about food.  

Kickoff is 6 months from now.  Between treatment and containment we should be well on the downslope by then.

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Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

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To kind of bring this back around to football, next year's NFL season is going to look very different.
Most likely, the players will be isolated with their teams, and regularly tested.
Most likely, you will have to answer a questionnaire and get a temperature scan before you get to go to the game. You may have to promise to stay away from vulnerable people for 14 days after the game.
There's a small chance that they cancel the season, and a small chance that they choose to play the games, but without fans.

I think we can do social distancing in our stadium.  Just tell everyone to spread out.  Plenty of space available.

---

Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

Okay, I think we've now officially hit "apocalyptic panic" mode.

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To kind of bring this back around to football, next year's NFL season is going to look very different.
Most likely, the players will be isolated with their teams, and regularly tested.
Most likely, you will have to answer a questionnaire and get a temperature scan before you get to go to the game. You may have to promise to stay away from vulnerable people for 14 days after the game.
There's a small chance that they cancel the season, and a small chance that they choose to play the games, but without fans.

I think we can do social distancing in our stadium.  Just tell everyone to spread out.  Plenty of space available.

---

Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

Okay, I think we've now officially hit "apocalyptic panic" mode.

And it starts getting dangerous because lots of people believe the news and media unquestioningly.

Do we need a temporary suspension of opinion pieces in the news and only allow them to report the facts and not their editorialized version of said facts? Such a slippery slope and I don't want that happening... but I also know people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.

---

I think we can do social distancing in our stadium.  Just tell everyone to spread out.  Plenty of space available.

---

Okay, I think we've now officially hit "apocalyptic panic" mode.

And it starts getting dangerous because lots of people believe the news and media unquestioningly.

Do we need a temporary suspension of opinion pieces in the news and only allow them to report the facts and not their editorialized version of said facts? Such a slippery slope and I don't want that happening... but I also know people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.

Revoking the First Amendment is WAAAAY beyond "apocalyptic panic" mode.  My answer to that suggestion is

 NO !!!!!!!

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So our first victim of the virus has hit my county. He's a doctor who vacationed in Germany and didn't self-quarantine when he returned because Germany wasn't on a list yet. Panic had already set in here. Now I see it escalating even more.

I wake up every morning and for a blissful few seconds I forget we're all living this nightmare right now. Then it hits me.

---

Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

If these jackholes would stop calling it coronavirus.....

---

To kind of bring this back around to football, next year's NFL season is going to look very different.
Most likely, the players will be isolated with their teams, and regularly tested.
Most likely, you will have to answer a questionnaire and get a temperature scan before you get to go to the game. You may have to promise to stay away from vulnerable people for 14 days after the game.
There's a small chance that they cancel the season, and a small chance that they choose to play the games, but without fans.

I think we can do social distancing in our stadium.  Just tell everyone to spread out.  Plenty of space available.

---

Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

Okay, I think we've now officially hit "apocalyptic panic" mode.

You do know that we have thousands of contingency plans for every conceivable scenario ready to go all the time, yes? Even for relatively minor contagions like this one. You would [BLEEP] your pants if you read what they have planned for when Ebola shows up here.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

So our first victim of the virus has hit my county. He's a doctor who vacationed in Germany and didn't self-quarantine when he returned because Germany wasn't on a list yet. Panic had already set in here. Now I see it escalating even more.

I wake up every morning and for a blissful few seconds I forget we're all living this nightmare right now. Then it hits me.

---

Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

If these jackholes would stop calling it coronavirus.....

The right's new microaggression tactic is an interesting and seemingly effective twist.

---

I'll play you in ping pong. 

There's a small chance that they cancel the season, and a small chance that they choose to play the games, but without fans.

So, basically, business as usual for the Jaguars.

Seriously, if we haven't hit the downslope by August, when a call like this would have to be made, it would be because the American healthcare system has totally buckled under pressure and all of the guidelines designed to slow the spread would have failed. We'd be creeping up on martial law at that point.

Do we need a temporary suspension of opinion pieces in the news

NO. NO NO NO NO NO [BLEEP] NO. There are parts of the Constitution that can be justifiably stretched during a crisis like this, such as the right to peaceably assemble if doing so is a provably unnecessary and major risk to the public good. But jackassing around with freedom of speech, freedom of the press or even freedom of religion? Or, if we're stretching it further, infringing on the Fourth or Fifth Amendments? It's not just a slippery slope. It's jumping off a damn cliff.

If these jackholes would stop calling it coronavirus.....

If it prompts Americans to stop drinking that nonsense and support local breweries, I'm all in favor of calling it the Budweiser strain and the Natty Light strain.

---

And it starts getting dangerous because lots of people believe the news and media unquestioningly.

Do we need a temporary suspension of opinion pieces in the news and only allow them to report the facts and not their editorialized version of said facts? Such a slippery slope and I don't want that happening... but I also know people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.

Revoking the First Amendment is WAAAAY beyond "apocalyptic panic" mode.  My answer to that suggestion is

 NO !!!!!!!

Hey I agree... I'm just saying the media is getting to the point of being the catalyst of panic.

---

Newsweek has a long article about "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-insid...nt-1492878

I got about three paragraphs into this alarmist dreck and had to stop. 

So let me get this straight: We can conduct school classes and doctor visits via technology, but if Congress quarantines we have to “devolve”.

Journalism is dead.

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How is your wife doing, Gabe?

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Testing is SO important to stopping this. I have no idea why this is taking so long. The lack of news on this is also disconcerting.

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