Punshhh

I thought that the market volatility today was due to a row between Saudi and Russia over oil prices. Which in turn was symptomatic of increasing unce...

Agreed, but the issue then becomes how does a country remain free of the virus when other countries have pandemics, or it is endemic? Surely there wou...

I saw someone being interviewed in South Korea today, who had been told by doctors who are treating infected people, that there are some people who ca...

Spot on. The government has a critical negotiation to complete in record time with both the EU and the US, as the UK will leave the EU transition peri...

Johnson (Cummings) is like a rabbit caught in the headlights, as is Trump. The experts are telling him that we can't stop it, I expect they are saying...

Whoossh, the sound of the stock market this morning. The recession is upon us already. Let's see how bad it is a week from now, or a month.

Sounds like the UK these days.

Optimism is probably the wrong approach too. My point is he's going to have to step up to the plate now.

This wasn't supposed to happen, Trump was going to secure his place in history as a successful president. But now we have a global crisis greater than...

I agree with dclements, for example the Italian health service is already struggling and they only have about 6,000 cases so far. It has become such a...

This is the Coronavirus thread. Trump should do the right thing, not worry about his image, or the election.

I don't think I've got it, although I have had a tickly throat and a sore nose. I live in isolation already, well except when I go to Morrisons. So I ...

So will Trump do the right thing and bring all his troops in Asia home, before they get infected? Or will he bottle out and start denying the seriousn...

Oh, those emails, scary stuff. So Trump's Middle East policy has lead to a good place? It won't matter soon once the virus becomes endemic in the Midd...

Now we're getting somewhere, I new if I hung in there a pearl of wisdom would emerge.

I'm a political cartoonist, or hadn't you noticed? This is the only time I have used satire in referring to you. Politics is not about division, it's ...

Looks like being poor is a lifestyle choice, one that holds back the rich from even greater success.

It doesn't surprise me, as the US has a disjointed healthcare system. Boethius gave an exemplary explanation a couple of pages back. I don't follow US...

Why don't you agree with folk on occasion and discuss the issues themselves, rather than this false them and us reactionary rhetoric? You remind me of...

Apologies, looks like I was arguing with the wrong person. My point was only that accepting that money lending isn't necessarily exploitative doesn't ...

I agree with the notion that people should not be used as a means, but again it is not that simple because the species has developed in a way in which...

Many lenders aim at borrowers who are not adding value to the capital. They know how many people find it easier to spend money than make it. Those who...

And what if they are born with flat feet, so the army doesn't want them? I was watching a documentary last night about a specialist children's hospita...

Here in the UK the privelidged classes are of the opinion that the poor choose to be poor, it's a lifestyle choice. If they don't like it well they ca...

Yes interesting, with the UK transitioning form the high welfare provision of Europe to the low welfare provision of the US. The effects of the pandem...

You must have been reading my mind. You are not usually this illuminating.

Normally I would agree with you, but this thread is about certainty. So when you have certainty about an experience, what is it you are certain of?

I agree with you when it comes to questions about the unknown. I don't use the word believe, for the same reasons you give. However I have no issue wi...

Sh*t this might go viral.

I prefer "I think therefore there is something". Because it can be debatable what "I am" means.

The problem is that we can't be certain about what we think we are certain about. Or what it is, or what is real and what isnt real. For example, we d...

I can't see where there is a disagreement between us.

I hear what you are saying about pandemics, but I agree with Benkei, that this virus is so highly contagious that it is different to the other pandemi...

Are you alright, did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning? Firstly I wasn't aware that I was having an argument with Janus. Secondly,...

Yes I agree that one, apparently, can't be mistaken that one is conscious and has a mind and that as an explanation it is generally sufficient. But th...

We can't claim to know what it is that exists. Our experience and knowledge of conscious minds may be naive, mistaken, or a fabrication.

The only thing that anyone can be sure of is that there is something. But they can't be sure what it is, where it is, or how it came to exist.

We have 12 new cases in the UK today, some of whom contracted it in the country, from an unknown source. Apparently there has been a jump to 1,000 in ...

I sympathise with your sentiment, but it is not that simple. Say some regions do that and their enemies don't then their enemies will overpower them i...

Yes and it might sober us up a bit, from this drunken populist malaise.

I hear you, there is the issue of how people and leaders address this crisis. Do they close borders and prevent the spread across the world, while cra...

Thanks for that I'm a big Coltrane fan.

I agree with your observation of an artist not knowing what he/she is creating subliminally. I have an insight with many artists of how they are tryin...

Yes, this nails it, along with the fact that an artist is informed by previously being a viewer of art. So art is a touch stone through which artists ...

I'm surprised he hasn't said it yet, that coronavirus is a Chinese plot. If thousands of US citizens die, what will the spin become. Maybe, it's all f...

Thanks, I get it now. There was a part of me thinking something along those lines. Regarding the 2%, I agree with your view that it is a low mortality...

Here in the UK, the populists most certainly did manipulate the information and media, including social media and persuaded two specific constituencie...

It's known as Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. All the populists are doing it, it's a well known snake oil salesmans trick. To illustrate, I have exper...

I still don't, where is it?

I don't see it as hysterical ( that may be the media I watch), the hysteria spreads readily. I live a long way from the nearest case of the virus and ...