Patterico's Pontifications

7/23/2021

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 8:14 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Hello! Welcome to the weekend. So I went to my first dog breed reveal party. Couples who have dog children have these instead of gender reveal parties. It’s apparently a thing now given that when I googled “dog breed reveal party,” 5,710,000 results popped up. And being that it was a dog breed reveal party, the guests’ dogs were also invited. Suffice it to say, the gigantic horse in my house who pretends to be a dog towered above an awfully cute group of small to midsize pups and tried to play with them like a giant carefully dancing amongst furry Thumbelinas. Being a popular giant in the neighborhood, no one was afraid of him, and he had the run of the land. And no one even batted an eye when he rudely stole a cupcake right off of a dessert plate a guest was holding. Those who live with cute little prancing yappers are on a steep learning curve when in the presence of giants who can reach just about anything. You can get dog DNA test kits, which cost around $100, on any number of websites. And for you cat lovers, you can purchase cat DNA test kits as well. While certainly enjoying the fun, I also felt the way I do when I see the unbelievably huge cat and dog food options at Petco: first-world crazy. It’s hard to wrap the mind around it sometimes.

Here are a few news items to chew on. Feel free to share anything you think would interest readers. Make sure to include links.

First news item

As Trumpworld turns:

Donald Trump and his advisers are convinced that if he runs again for president in 2024, the Republican nomination will be his. Their confidence is so supreme that they view almost all of the emerging field not as competition but as possible vice presidential picks.

As things stand now, Trump is extremely unlikely to run again with former Vice President Mike Pence as his number two, advisers say. Some Trump aides have also written off Pence’s political future, at least at the presidential level, privately arguing that he has failed to capture anything close to the same kind of enthusiasm as Trump. They point to anger among the most diehard Trump supporters over Pence’s decision to carry out his Constitutional duty in certifying Biden’s election win. em>Hahaha!

“The vice president is an incredible man and was a great vice president, but he has a huge obstacle — problem — in trying to be the nominee after dealing with what he’s dealt with over the last six months,” said another Trump adviser, pointing to his recent reception at conservative events. Asked specifically if there was a chance Pence could serve as Trump’s number two again, the adviser replied: “zero.”

Second news item

I know a a nonagenarian Native American who thinks it’s silly when sport teams change their names and isn’t the least bit bothered by the Cleveland Indians or the Atlanta Braves or the Washington Redskins. This push is likely a generational thing, as most change is:

Third news item

Oh, come on!:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed on July 15 a case of human monkeypox in a U.S. resident who recently traveled from Nigeria to the United States. The person is currently hospitalized in Dallas. CDC is working with the airline and state and local health officials to contact airline passengers and others who may have been in contact with the patient during two flights: Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, with arrival on July 9; and Atlanta to Dallas on July 9.

Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that typically begins with flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes and progresses to a widespread rash on the face and body. Most infections last 2-4 weeks. Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes a milder infection. In this case, laboratory testing at CDC showed the patient is infected with a strain of monkeypox most commonly seen in parts of West Africa, including Nigeria. Infections with this strain of monkeypox are fatal in about 1 in 100 people. However, rates can be higher in people who have weakened immune systems.

Fourth news item

Enough already -health care workers should be required to get vaccinated or don’t work with vulnerable populations:

A separate American Association of Retired Persons analysis, released last week, showed that only one in five of the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes were able to hit a goal…of vaccinating 75% of their staff by the end of June.

Related:

Nationally about 59% of nursing home staff have gotten their shots, about the same as the overall percentage of fully vaccinated adults — but significantly lower than the roughly 80% of residents who are vaccinated, according to Medicare. And some states have much lower vaccination rates of around 40%.

Fifth news item

What, only six states??

New York is now the sixth state to ban child marriage, after raising the legal age of consent to be married to 18…New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Rhode Island have all implemented laws completely banning minors from marrying. But most states still allow youth under the age of 18 to marry, including youth who are legally emancipated or who have parental consent or judicial approval… Nearly 300,000 minors were legally married nationwide between 2000 and 2018, a recent study by the Unchained at Last found. The majority of those marriages involved 16- or 17-year-olds — but some involved were as young as 10

Sixth news item

Ah:

Hunter Biden is expected to meet with prospective buyers at two art shows where his paintings will be on display later this year, according to a spokesperson for the New York gallery retained to sell art made by the president’s son.

The shows, a small, private affair in Los Angeles and a larger exhibition in New York City, will give Biden an opportunity to interact with potential buyers of his paintings, which the gallery expects to sell for as much as $500,000.

Asked whether Hunter Biden would attend both events, Georges Berges Gallery spokeswoman Robin Davis said, “Oh yes. With pleasure. He’s looking forward to it. It is like someone debuting in the world. And of course he will be there. “

What we were originally told (in the name of ethics):

The White House has established an arrangement that would allow President Joe Biden’s son Hunter to sell his artwork for tens of thousands of dollars without knowing the identity of the purchaser, an agreement established in an attempt to avoid any potential ethical concerns surrounding his sales.

Under the arrangement, a private art gallery owner will set prices for his work and will handle all bidding and sales, but will not share any information about buyers or prospective buyers with Hunter or anyone in the administration. The deal was first reported by The Washington Post.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the gallerist would reject “any offer out of the normal course” and that the administration believes the agreement “provides quite a level of protection and transparency.”

Seventh news item

This is an obscene tweet:

Here’s why:

BuzzFeed News calculated the floor areas of 347 compounds bearing the hallmarks of prisons and internment camps in the region and compared them to China’s own prison and detention construction standards, which lay out how much space is needed for each person detained or imprisoned.

Earlier estimates, including one extrapolated from three-year-old leaked government data, have suggested that a total of more than a million Muslims have been detained or imprisoned over the last five years, with an unknown number released during that time. Our unprecedented analysis goes further, showing that China has built space to lock up at least 1.01 million people in Xinjiang at the same time.

That’s enough space to detain or incarcerate more than 1 in every 25 residents of Xinjiang simultaneously — a figure seven times higher than the criminal detention capacity of the United States, the country with the highest official incarceration rate in the world.

Eighth news item

Liz lays it out, straight-up and without hesitation:

MISCELLANEOUS

We’ve all been there:

Have a happy weekend!

–Dana

364 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (fd537d)

  2. Elaborating on the first news item:

    Few others in GOP politics are willing to say the party would be well served in moving on from Trump. Instead, other potential 2024ers and their aides have begun engaging in a shadow campaign of sorts, presenting themselves as Trump understudies — ready to step in if the former president decides to skip a third White House bid, or serve as a capable VP pick for him.

    The list so far includes lawmakers like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, ex-Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Sens. Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley. Some have been flocking to early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire to make inroads with influential party leaders and activists, or have been criss-crossing the country to speak at events for 2022 candidates and at PAC fundraisers with deep-pocketed donors. None have announced their plans. And according to advisers, most, including Trump, are waiting until after the 2022 midterm elections.
    ……….
    ………. [S]ome are already trying to distinguish themselves from the competition. Noem traveled to Iowa last week to speak to conservatives in Des Moines and took not-so-veiled swipes at DeSantis over his state’s coronavirus restrictions. Noem rose to national prominence during the pandemic for bucking many government health recommendations in the name of freedom. Among all states, South Dakota has the 10th highest death rate from Covid-19.

    Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has fueled speculation he is running by writing another book, “Republican Rescue,” appeared to take a swipe at Haley when he said he’s not going to defer to anyone — Trump included. Haley, who was critical of Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill, deferred to her former boss and said she would not run if Trump did.

    Nevertheless, Trump picked up on her criticism (and not her deference) and barred her from making a trip to Mar-a-Lago. But she’s not entirely on the outs. Haley recently met with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  3. “The Cleveland Guardians.”

    Conjures up the image and charm of a… cigar store indian.

    Oh. Wait.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  4. Pence flatlines as 2024 field takes shape
    ……..
    Many Iowa Republicans had seen the results of the most recent Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, released just days earlier, in which Pence flatlined, drawing no more than 1 percent support. Before that, they’d watched the video of Pence getting heckled and called a “traitor” at a major gathering of conservatives in Florida last month.

    “I don’t imagine he’d have a whole lot of support,” said Raymond Harre, vice chair of the GOP in eastern Iowa’s Scott County. “There are some Trump supporters who think he’s the Antichrist.”
    …….
    At the moment, Pence occupies a political no-man’s land. Vocal elements of Trump’s base remain furious at him for his refusal to reject the results of the November election, despite him having no authority to do so. Moderates, meanwhile, see too little distance between Pence and the president he catered to for four years. They’re wary the association may turn off the independents and suburban women Trump hemorrhaged in 2018 and again in 2020.
    ……..
    “He’s got to justify to the Trumpistas why he isn’t Judas Iscariot, and then he’s got to demonstrate to a bunch of other Republicans why he hung out with someone they perceive to be a nutjob,” said Sean Walsh, a Republican strategist who worked in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush White Houses and on several presidential campaigns
    ……..
    It isn’t only Trump supporters broadly who pose a problem for Pence. White evangelicals, in particular, feel burned by the last election, more likely than members of any other religious group to believe the November contest was stolen. Those voters once constituted Pence’s base.
    …….
    “MAGA is maniacally focused on 3 November, and they understand Pence betrayed them,” said (Steve) Bannon, who was pardoned by Trump as he left the White House. “He is being shunned and erased from the MAGA movement, and it hasn’t even started.”

    He said, “Mike Pence’s political career is over … It’s done.”
    …….
    ……..Election truthers, like those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and chanted “hang Mike Pence,” will remain a segment of the electorate unavailable to Pence.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  5. I have neither children nor pets, but I do have three vehicles. They are my babies, and yes, I spoil them.

    norcal (a6130b)

  6. Conservative radio host, former vaccine skeptic ill with Covid-19
    ……..
    Phil Valentine, who hosts a show bearing his name on WWTN-FM in Nashville, contracted the coronavirus a little more than a week ago and is battling pneumonia, his family said in a statement posted on Twitter.

    “He is in the hospital in the critical care unit breathing with assistance but is NOT on a ventilator,” the family said. “Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an “anti-vaxer” he regrets not being more vehemently “Pro-Vaccine”, and looks forward to being able to more vigorously advocate that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon.

    “Phil & his family would like for all of you to know that he loves ya’ll and appreciates your concern, thoughts & prayers more than you will ever know. Please continue to pray for his recovery and PLEASE GO GET VACCINATED!”
    ……..
    After Phil Valentine tested positive for Covid-19 but before his hospitalization, he told listeners to consider, “If I get this COVID thing, do I have a chance of dying from it?” If so, he advised his listeners to get inoculated. He said he made the decision not to get vaccinated because he thought the disease wouldn’t kill him.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  7. He said he made the decision not to get vaccinated because he thought the disease wouldn’t kill him.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (0d5408) — 7/23/2021 @ 8:49 pm

    It might not kill him but it uses up precious medical resources. It’s easy to make decisions like this when the insurance company underwrites one’s foolery.

    norcal (a6130b)

  8. I, for one, hope that Phil does his first revival in the Oval Office where vaccinations don’t matter so much.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  9. Breast Cancer Patient Attacked by Violent Anti-Mask Protest Outside Clinic
    …….
    Dozens of anti-maskers holding signs with anti-vaxx and QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories amassed on the sidewalk by the Cedars-Sinai Breast Health Services building on Thursday afternoon, and harassed patients and doctors.

    In one exchange captured by local videographer Vishal Singh, a woman who has since publicly identified herself as Kate Burns, a cancer patient, approached the protesters and told them to leave.

    “I get treated here, get the f**k away,” Burns said.

    One protester, who was filming the scene on his phone, asked her why she was so angry, as a man holding a cardboard sign saying “End the Censorship of Vaccine Risks” smirked.

    “Because I’ve just gone through f**king breast cancer,” Burns said. “And you motherf**kers are here.”

    “That has nothing to do with you,” one man replied. “We’re trying to help.”

    “You are protesting a breast cancer f**king center. It has everything to do with me and my community,” Burns said. “Do you know anything about chemotherapy? Do you know what happens to the immune system?”
    ……..
    Tensions continued to rise as more far-right, anti-maskers arrived on the scene. A small group of anti-fascists also arrived, and got into altercations with the far-right. A woman holding a megaphone shoved Burns, and then punched her several times. Burns said, on social media, that the woman hit her in the chest and struck her scars.

    Thursday was the second time that anti-maskers had targeted that particular breast cancer clinic over its mask policy. ……
    ……….
    Video at the link. I really don’t understand why the anti-maskers object to a medical clinic (of all places) has mask requirement. These people are deranged.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  10. With respect due to Congresswoman Cheney, there are some interesting opinions on the topic:

    Dan McLaughlin writes that Aunt Nancy blew it with her hyper-partisan move.

    Kevin Williamson isn’t so sure.

    For my tepid take, I think that the Speaker made the critical error. Partisan Democrats and partisan Republicans aren’t going to change the minds about this, but I am guessing that what the average indepenedent sees (even beyond the friendly coverage that the mainstream media will provide) is the Speaker manipulating the make-up of the committee in order to serve her own purposes. But maybe I’m wrong: we can wait and see.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  11. It should be a criminal offense for a nursing home to employ an unvaccinated individual. It should be felonious assault to work at a nursing home while unvaccinated.

    Don’t like it? Don’t work at a nursing home, or don’t operate one.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  12. Liz Cheney does not honestly represent her constituents. She’s right, of course, but that’s not the point of representative government.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  13. A small group of anti-fascists also arrived, and got into altercations with the far-right.

    So everything was non-physical and non-violent until antifa arrived on the scene? Isn’t that the real point of the vice.com article even if they don’t want to admit it? Sorry that the cancer victim got involved, but — and let me say this again — even the article seems to indicate that it was the arrival of the far left which led to violence.

    If you watched the videos embedded in the link that Rip Murdock provided (and I did in fact watch them), and you are like me you might be left with the following notions:

    * The anti-maskers seem pretty chill and laid back until the woman who identifies herself as a breast cancer survivor gets up into their face and starts screaming at them. She has a right to do so, of course, but it kind of underminds her implied argument that “there I was, minding my own business. . . ”

    * It’s hard to gauge when the contact started, especially since we can’t trust the point when the video starts versus when any physical contact first took place, but what I see is the breast cancer survivor leaning in to intentionally throw a shoulder bump into the (smaller) female protester, after some other anti-protest jerk tries to slap away her bullhorn.

    * This report is from Vice, so it’s not as if it is going to be delivered in an absolutely straightforward and neutral way.

    Sorry, but from what I can see I don’t see the anti-mask protesters here being the villains, even if I don’t necessarily agree with their point of view or their tactics.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  14. Our misguided foreign policy first turns miami into little havana. Then it turns van ayes blvd. into the ho chi minh trail. Now we are turning the south west into cental america except from nicuraga where they fought off ollie north and the cia drug dealers. Soon we will bring afghans to turn detroit into afganistan! Allah akbar!

    asset (5492a3)

  15. 12.Liz Cheney does not honestly represent her constituents.

    Indeed, no, he doesn’t:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrWuMwRKH2c

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  16. @14. ‘Little Saigon’ [aka Westminster] is located approximately 45 miles south of Los Angeles, California. “Little Saigon” is a spread-out community containing a mixture of Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese businesses.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  17. So MLB’s ‘Cleveland Indians’ becomes the ‘Cleveland Guardians’ by replacing ‘Ind’ with ‘Guar’ and keeps the ‘ians?’

    The White Guar

    elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_White_Guar

    ‘The White Guar is a unique white guar. It can be encountered during the quest ” Dreams of a White Guar “, in which the Nerevarine must help the Ahemmusa Tribe to fight against the Blight disease.’

    MLB Racism. Catch it!

    _____

    What they should have done is touched base w/baseball history:

    The Cleveland Blues were a Major League Baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio that operated in the National League from 1879 to 1884. In six seasons their best finish was third place in 1880. Hugh Daily threw a no-hitter for the Blues on September 13, 1883. Besides Daily, notable Blues players included Baseball Hall of Fame member Ned Hanlon. The team was purchased by Charles Byrne in 1885 for $10,000 and folded into his Brooklyn Grays team. -source, wikifoulballs.jockitch

    “The Cleveland Blues”

    A much cooler, if not jazzier, name.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  18. Close the borders and watch the issues go away. Lock em out.

    mg (8cbc69)

  19. Destroying America is what I read here. The progressive slide into world poverty as the gubmint sucks out the available productivity to be repurposed in never ending expanding waste, fraud and abuse. Such an unconscious form of morality. Stay off my lawn.

    mg (8cbc69)

  20. “What StealthCommunist Party of lies and slavery bashed open American skulls and sucked out their freedom, brains and imagination?

    Democrat! Darwinist Solitude! NEA Filth! Pelosi Perversion! Obamunist Onanism. NPR racism! BLM assassins! Recycling Cans to find unobtainable dollars to pay off deficit trillions! Unborn children screaming silent under the D&C! Boys sobbing for fathers! Girls for mothers! Wives for husbands! Husbands for families! Impoverished old men weeping in the parks!

    Democrat! Democrat! Nightmare of Democrat! Democrat the loveless! Gone mental Democrat! Democrat the heavy aggregation of hairy girly men!

    Democrat the incomprehensible African-American electoral plantation system of perpetual ideological slavery! Democrat the skull & crossbones soulless Senate and Congress of corruption!

    Democrat whose headquarters are Fascist overbuilding with gun slits! Democrat the vast bloating stone of Deficit! Democrat the broke government of the pauper nation!

    Democrat whose mind is pure rusted machinery! Democrat whose blood is gushing tax money! Democrat whose skeleton fingers are in your wallet fingering!

    Democrat whose chancred breast is a transsexual dynamo! Democrat whose mouth is a smoking tomb! Democrat of the atheist thumb pulling out a plum and saying what a free to be a very bad boy am I! Democrat whose only god is Dracula!

    Democrat whose eyes are a thousand shattered factory windows! Democrat whose empty skyscrapers smolder in the long Detroit streets like endless Molochs! Democrat whose brains dream Utopia and choke in the fog of their flatulent dementia! Democrat whose fuming bongs and facial piercings crown the crapulous cities!

    Democrat whose love is lust! Democrat whose soul is welfare and affirmative racism! Democrat whose poverty is perpetual servitude to the government salad bar, no seconds!

    Democrat whose only true Doctor and Cure is Kevorkian! Democrat whose foreign policy is a cloud of glowing Iranian hydrogen! Democrat whose whore is BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH!

    Democrat in whom I once sat lonely! Democrat in whom I once dreamt the New Jerusalem! Crazy in Democrat! Sucker of crock in Democrat! Lacklove and lobotomy in Democrat!

    Democrat whose donors of slushcash and vaxplague and fentanyl Frosties is the Communist Party of China!”

    Read it all: https://americandigest.org/democrat-2/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  21. “What StealthCommunist Party of lies and slavery bashed open American skulls and sucked out their freedom, brains and imagination?

    Democrat! Darwinist Solitude! NEA Filth! Pelosi Perversion! Obamunist Onanism. NPR racism! BLM assassins! Recycling Cans to find unobtainable dollars to pay off deficit trillions! Unborn children screaming silent under the D&C! Boys sobbing for fathers! Girls for mothers! Wives for husbands! Husbands for families! Impoverished old men weeping in the parks!

    Democrat! Democrat! Nightmare of Democrat! Democrat the loveless! Gone mental Democrat! Democrat the heavy aggregation of hairy girly men!

    Democrat the incomprehensible African-American electoral plantation system of perpetual ideological slavery! Democrat the skull & crossbones soulless Senate and Congress of corruption!”

    Read it all: https://americandigest.org/democrat-2/

    Colonel Haiku (b6b19d)

  22. California Voters Split on Recalling Governor Newsom
    With less than two months until the California recall election, a new Emerson College/Nexstar Media poll shows voters are split on whether Governor Gavin Newsom should be recalled in September: 43% say they would vote to recall Newsom at this time, and 48% say they would vote to keep him in office. Nine percent (9%) of voters are undecided.……..

    Independent voters are breaking in favor of recalling Newsom, at 54%. Hispanic voters are also slightly in favor of the recall, 48% to 44%. Regionally, support for recalling Newsom is highest in Northern California (52% to recall), Central California (55% to recall), and Southern California (48% to recall).…… Regionally, Newsom has the most support to stay in office among voters in the Bay Area (58% to keep), and Los Angeles (53% to keep).
    ……….

    Governor Gavin Newsom’s general job approval among registered voters is at 49% approve, 42% disapprove, with 10% unsure. Newsom’s approval is underwater with both Independents (28% approval/58% disapproval) and Republicans (18% approval/77% disapproval), but is still high among Democrats in the state (79% approval/13% disapproval).

    Voters were also asked to rate Newsom’s job performance as ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘fair’, or ‘poor’ on key issues facing California: Covid-19, droughts, wildfires, and homelessness. On each issue, a plurality of voters rated his performance as ‘poor’.
    …………
    In selecting the number one issue facing California today, the cost of housing came in first at 19%, followed by homelessness at 19%, and Covid-19 at 16%. Other identified issues included drought (8%), jobs (7%), crime (7%), the environment (6%), healthcare (4%), and education (3%). Eleven percent (11%) said something else.
    ……….
    Cross tabs and methodology not available.

    Related: Larry Elder leads race to replace Newsom in recall election, new poll reveals (Inside California Politics/Emerson College)
    ……….
    Which candidate would you vote for to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom if he is recalled?

    Undecided: 53%
    Larry Elder: 16%
    John Cox: 6%
    Kevin Faulconer: 6%
    Kevin Kiley: 4%
    Caitlyn Jenner: 4%
    Kevin Paffrath: 2%
    Someone else: 8%

    ………
    Cross tabs and methodology not available. My objections to the recall include the fact the new Governor would have less than 2 years to implement their vision in the face of an overwhelming Democratic legislature. The recall candidates have yet to explain how they would do that. In addition, they need to explain how they would have responded differently to the pandemic. Would they have responded like Kristi Noem or Dan Patrick, and let businesses and schools remain open while at the same time limiting masking? Essentially recall proponents have let Newsom do the dirty work of dealing with the pandemic while they carped from the sidelines.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  23. The upcoming recall election could be a tougher fight than originally predicted and, even if he wins, Gavin Newsom may face a difficult battle to keep the governor’s seat in 2022 for a second term.

    That’s according to a new poll that found 43% of California voters are in favor of recalling Newsom in the Sept. 14 special election, while 48% said they would vote to keep him in office, and 9% said they still aren’t sure. The Emerson College/Nexstar Media poll suggested things won’t get easier next year: 58% of voters said they think it’s time for a new governor in 2022, when Newsom is up for a second term. Only 42% said they would re-elect him.

    While the recall effort still appears to be on the losing side, support for booting the Democratic governor from Sacramento appears to have grown significantly from February, when only about 36% of voters surveyed in a poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies said they wanted to remove Newsom from office. A March Emerson poll found 38% supported the recall.

    If voters do oust the governor, the new Emerson poll found a last-minute candidate to replace him appears to be gaining momentum.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-poll-finds-support-climbing-for-gov-newsom-recall/ar-AAMuXoN

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  24. “Democrat the incomprehensible African-American electoral plantation system of perpetual ideological slavery! Democrat the skull & crossbones soulless Senate and Congress of corruption!

    Democrat whose headquarters are Fascist overbuilding with gun slits! Democrat the vast bloating stone of Deficit! Democrat the broke government of the pauper nation!

    Democrat whose mind is pure rusted machinery! Democrat whose blood is gushing tax money! Democrat whose skeleton fingers are in your wallet fingering!”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  25. COVID diminished the Hispanic advantage, but did not destroy it.

    The six largest demographic groups in the United States are: white women, white men, Hispanic women, Hispanic men, black women, and black men.

    Here are the same six groups, arranged in order of the latest CDC life expectancy estimates: black male (68.0), white male (75.0), Hispanic male (75.3), black female (75.7), white female (80.2), and Hispanic female (82.4).

    (Incidentally, if you are in one of those groups, you can look up your own, current life expectancy in the table.)

    Demographers find this Hispanic advantage paradoxical:

    The Hispanic paradox, or Latino paradox, is an epidemiological paradox that refers to the finding that Hispanic and Latino Americans tend to have health outcomes that “paradoxically” are comparable to, or in some cases better than, those of their U.S. non-Hispanic White counterparts, even though Hispanics have lower average income and education. (Low socioeconomic status is almost universally associated with worse population health and higher death rates everywhere in the world.)

    I find that advantage fascinating; journalists mostly ignore it.

    (Prediction: As COVID decreases, the Hispanic advantage will increase back to previous levels. I say that because I think the advantage comes mostly from their stronger families.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  26. “Democrat whose chancred breast is a transsexual dynamo! Democrat whose mouth is a smoking tomb! Democrat of the atheist thumb pulling out a plum and saying what a free to be a very bad boy am I! Democrat whose only god is Dracula!

    Democrat whose eyes are a thousand shattered factory windows! Democrat whose empty skyscrapers smolder in the long Detroit streets like endless Molochs! Democrat whose brains dream Utopia and choke in the fog of their flatulent dementia! Democrat whose fuming bongs and facial piercings crown the crapulous cities!

    Democrat whose love is lust! Democrat whose soul is welfare and affirmative racism! Democrat whose poverty is perpetual servitude to the government salad bar, no seconds!”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  27. Now that House Democrats have created a committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot, most voters believe Congress should also investigate the Black Lives Matter protests that sparked violence in major cities last year.

    A new national telephone and online survey by the National Police Association and Rasmussen Reports finds that 66% of Likely U.S. Voters think Congress should investigate last year’s violent protests, in which more than 2,000 police officers suffered injuries in the line of duty. Twenty-one percent (21%) don’t think Congress should investigate last year’s protests, and 13% were not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

    The survey found strong voter support for law enforcement on issues ranging from display of the “Thin Blue Line” flag to prosecution of so-called “quality of life” crimes.

    According to a study of 68 cities by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, in the summer of 2020, there were at least 574 protests that involved acts of violence, including assaults on police officers, looting and arson. The number of voters who want Congress to investigate last year’s violent protests is higher than the 49% who say they support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select committee investigation of the January 6 Capitol riot. Forty-two percent (42%) say they don’t support the January 6 investigation.

    The survey of 996 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted July 16-18, 2021 by the National Police Association and Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

    Majorities of every racial group and political affiliation support a congressional investigation of last year’s violent protests. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of whites, 64% of black voters, 66% of Hispanics and 62% of other minorities think Congress should investigate the 2020 riots in U.S. cities. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans, 60% of Democrats and 63% of voters not affiliated with either major party say Congress should investigate last year’s violent protests.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/more-voters-want-congress-to-probe-blm-riots-than-jan-6/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  28. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/23/2021 @ 10:46 pm

    You’re really leaning in to the authoritarianism. You should practice your “Papers please” in German. It’s always better in the original.

    frosty (f27e97)

  29. One, Ms. Cheney is a truly brave Republican.
    Two, the ChiCom tweet to their Muslim friends reminds me of the Hotair post about “white monkeys“, because it’s just more bullsh-t propaganda.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  30. Cheney and Pelosi… God love ‘em…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  31. Liz Cheney does not honestly represent her constituents. She’s right, of course, but that’s not the point of representative government.

    Kevin, are her constituents mostly conservative? I would say “yes”. Do her constituents revere our Constitution? Again, yes. Does she support conservative legislative initiatives, including the ones put forward by Trump? Indisputably yes.
    So if she departs from Tribe Trump in really only one aspect, i.e., subjecting oneself to a criminally unfit buffoon who is not conservative temperamentally or traditionally, to me that’s good enough.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  32. the cheney clan hasn’t done one thing for the country in twenty years

    i remember a bumper sticker in california that said cheney/satan 2008

    nothing has changed

    JF (e1156d)

  33. “Liz Cheney does not honestly represent her constituents. She’s right, of course, but that’s not the point of representative government.”

    Like Paul, I think policy-wise Cheney represents her conservative constituents as advertised. But just as I don’t want a representative to traffic false vaccination information because some conspiracy theory is popular in her district, I don’t want her to have to spread destructive lies (or stand by silently abetting those lies) about the election to remain in good standing with the GOP. This is a representative democracy….we vote for representatives in part for their judgment, character, and intellect to do what is right…..when the general population may not have the best facts or understanding of a situation. Trump acted abysmally after the election and especially on January 6th. I don’t believe that he respects the laws, the Constitution, or the political norms that are indispensable to them. This is a question of judgment…and whether a scoundrel like Trump should remain the voice of the GOP. The point of representative government isn’t to assume the all fours position….and take it….that’s something else….

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  34. Read it all: https://americandigest.org/democrat-2/

    I would have, but it hit my daily quota of polemic/hyperbole about a quarter way through.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  35. “the cheney clan hasn’t done one thing for the country in twenty years”

    Who in your estimation has then? Who are your bright lights over the past 20 years? The Trump klan?

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  36. He said he made the decision not to get vaccinated because he thought the disease wouldn’t kill him.

    It might not kill him, but severe Covid will leave several organs in his body irretrievably damaged. Lungs, heart, kidneys for starters. And then there are the blood clots.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  37. The NSA was not spying on Tucker Carlson. However, if he did speak with someone in the Kremlin, like with the Kislyak-Flynn calls, counter-intelligence may have listened in on the conversation because the Putin lackey was the target, not Carlson.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  38. California Voters Split on Recalling Governor Newsom

    Which is why the Covid panic is being played up. If there is enough concern, maybe they’ll “need” to mail out ballots to everyone again. Or at least in SF and LA.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  39. It should be a criminal offense for a nursing home to employ an unvaccinated individual. It should be felonious assault to work at a nursing home while unvaccinated.

    Don’t like it? Don’t work at a nursing home, or don’t operate one.

    It seems pretty clear that the vaccinated can spread covid. What is the punishment for a vaccinated covid carrier? Or do you recommend that every vaccinated employee of a nursing home get tested for covid on a regular basis?

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  40. Close the borders and watch the issues go away. Lock em out.

    So, all our problems come from outside? Good to know.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  41. #33 Paul – You have read enough of that piece to judge, I would guess. Would reading the whole thing be good for one’s health?

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  42. miz liz is auditioning for a msnbc time slot

    mg (8cbc69)

  43. You’re really leaning in to the authoritarianism. You should practice your “Papers please” in German. It’s always better in the original.

    An unvaccinated healthcare worker is about as justifiable as a drunk taxi driver.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  44. So if she departs from Tribe Trump in really only one aspect, i.e., subjecting oneself to a criminally unfit buffoon who is not conservative temperamentally or traditionally, to me that’s good enough.

    But apparently it’s the one thing that moves them. NO ONE they elect will be any different on the other points.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  45. It seems pretty clear that the vaccinated can spread covid

    And sober taxi drives can crash. NOT an argument for it being OK for them to be drunk.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  46. Buduh – Let me pose these questions to you: Suppose a man — let’s call him “Rand” for convenience — suspects he has COVID, and then acts in a way likely to spread the disease to others. If some of those others get sick or die, should they (or their heirs) be able to sue Rand for damages? If you were on a jury, would you vote for, or against, Rand?

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  47. And sober taxi drives can crash. NOT an argument for it being OK for them to be drunk.

    That must be why I didn’t make that argument.

    What I am asking is for your opinion on protecting the vulnerable from nursing home employees that are vaccinated carriers of covid.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  48. Acting with malice is bad, Jim. I don’t support it even if the name you used was Psaki, Pelosi, or any of the Texas Dems in DC.

    That being said I am looking for a thoughtful answer to the protection of the vulnerable.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  49. cheney just wants to find trump’s wmd

    JF (e1156d)

  50. I hear this a lot from anti-vaxxers, who latch upon the much smaller risk of vaccinated Covid carriers to justify their willful endangerment of others. It’s bullsh1t, of course.

    The vaccine makes it far less likely that any exposure will lead to measurable disease. In almost every case, the virus will be stomped before in gets into many cells and will got get to the point where there is enough new virus produced to infect others.

    OTOH, the unvaccinated person will almost always contract disease which can be spread before symptoms appear (which is why all those thermometers and 20 questions sessions were just theater), and will for several days be spreading the virus to all around. Sure, if their victims are vaccinated that’s a lot better.

    Now, I notice that you try to have this both ways: the residents are vaccinated, so what’s to worry AND vaccinating the staff doesn’t protect them.

    As I said BS, and I doubt I’ll want to argue this much more. I really don’t care if you think there’s a pony here.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  51. *will Not get to the point

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  52. Which is why the Covid panic is being played up. If there is enough concern, maybe they’ll “need” to mail out ballots to everyone again. Or at least in SF and LA.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 8:18 am

    Doesn’t matter to me. I’ve always vote by mail. Can’t stand long lines for anything.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  53. @34 the best thing politicians can do for the country is become private citizens, which the trumps are and the cheneys almost never have

    JF (e1156d)

  54. What is the punishment for a vaccinated covid carrier?

    None. It’s the difference between gross negligence and accident.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  55. Liz Cheney understands the argument the great conservative, Edmund Burke, made, in 1774:

    Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

    (I assume at least some of you know that the famous Kennedy/Sorenson book, Profiles in Courage, is a series of examples supporting Burke’s argument.)

    She has been doing the right thing in opposing the swamp-dwelling bullfrog’s effort to overturn an American election. I hope her constituents reward her.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  56. Now, I notice that you try to have this both ways: the residents are vaccinated, so what’s to worry AND vaccinating the staff doesn’t protect them.

    Why would you make that up? I didn’t expect you to get all freaked out over my question.

    I’ll go first since the topic makes you so nervous. I believe that all employees that work with the vulnerable should be subjected to regular covid testing until a peer reviewed double blind study resolves the issue of transmission of covid from vaccinated people to other vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. And by non-vaccinated, I am not suggesting anyone other than someone whose doctor said they are not candidates for the vaccine due to other health conditions they may have.

    I have no idea why this question is stroking your hair backwards.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  57. None. It’s the difference between gross negligence and accident.

    That destroys your taxi cab analogy.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  58. Doesn’t matter to me. I’ve always vote by mail. Can’t stand long lines for anything.

    If they only do this in blue counties, it will skew the vote due to a larger effective “turnout” in those blue counties.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  59. That destroys your taxi cab analogy.

    How so? Nothing you’ve said even TOUCHES upon that distinction.

    Gross negligence is driving drunk or working with vulnerable populations while unvaccinated.

    An accident is what happens when, despite precautions and/or sobriety, something bad still happens.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  60. Because a sober taxi driver who is in an accident that injured someone else has liability, assuming he is found at fault.

    The innocent vaccinated nurse would still be liable. Or you think no lawyer would take up that case? Especially in an environment where the employer refused to test all employees for Covid?

    I don’t think you are being serious and you are more concerned with finding someone to scream at, at the moment.

    Instead of playing with you, I will go make breakfast.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  61. Just like in the Obama administration, Anita Dunn is not long in the Biden administration.
    This takes me back to memory lane when, in 2009, she stated that Mao was one of her two favorite political philosophers, which raised questions about why she admired the philosophy of a guy who killed tens of millions of his own people while in power, more than any dictator in human history. This was bad PR for a communications director, so she ended up spending more time with her family.
    Funny thing, in a poor attempt at political deflection, Charles Johnson at lgf tried equate John McCain to Anita Dunn, which was ridiculous because McCain merely quoted Mao. When I mentioned how ridiculous his equivalency was, Johnson permanently bam-sticked me. Good times.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  62. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 8:30 am

    I’ve seen no reason why you’d stop with healthcare workers. Why not also teachers, barbers/hairstylists, etc? Once you’re passing laws about vaccines why feel constrained?

    If you’re so afraid of the virus you’re wanting to punish the unvaccinated all sorts of things make sense. It’s not like liberty and other nonsense really make sense in the face of a virus.

    You know it won’t get things back to “normal” right? Won’t remove the on again off again mask mandates, etc?

    BTW; the drunk driver analogy is junk. People who don’t get vaccinated aren’t intentionally infecting themselves with the drivers and then choosing to spread it. This is just as much junk as your parachute analogy. You’re understanding of the risks is bad.

    frosty (f27e97)

  63. “Democrat Breakthroughs in suicide machines! Democrat rivers of toxic educational sludge rising to flood levels in the minds of our children! New Orleans Democrat looting! Democrat flips and crucifixions of enemies, enemies, enemies flagged at flag@whitehouse.gov! Bill of Rights flushed down the Democrat cr*pper!”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  64. “Deception of Democrat! Voters broke their backs lifting Democrat to Heaven! Payments fees now for unborn generations mostly to be aborted, for trees, for tobacco, for tilted windmills, for tons of things so bad, very bad for you we know better pay us now for Democrat death panels later! Democrat of Constitution as toilet paper! Democrat of blowing the cities and American land to hell in a hand-basket!”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  65. Democrat whose only true Doctor and Cure is Kevorkian! Democrat whose foreign policy is a cloud of glowing Iranian hydrogen! Democrat whose who0ah is BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARL0TS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH!

    Democrat in whom I once sat lonely! Democrat in whom I once dreamt the New Jerusalem! Crazy in Democrat! Lacklove and lobotomy in Democrat!

    Democrat whose donors of slushcash and vaxplague and fentanyl Frosties is the Communist Party of China!

    Democrat of the Dot.com I’ve Got Mine Now Give Us Yours Centibillionaires! Democrat of Trvmp Der*ngement Syndr0me! Democrat of the dried dugs of Ariana Huffington’s Code Pink Synchronized Men0pause Flasher Brigade known as “The View”!

    Democrat who entered my soul early! Democrat in whom I was sold down the River without Huck or a Jim or a raft and put over the falls of flowing ideological crypto-socialist sewage! Drowned in recycled recycled recycled recycled compost of Democrat! Democrat who frightened me out of my natural freedom and into hive-mind chants of GLO-BA’ALWARMING-GET-YOUR-VAX, GLO-BA’ALWARMING-GET-YOUR-VAX!

    Democrat of the planet has four months to live! Democrat of lies for the common good of Democrat! Democrat of CRAP rappers lies of the soul! Democrat whom I abandon!”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  66. Buduh – You didn’t answer my question, but I’ll answer yours: Yes, I think the staff at nursing homes should be vaccinated, and get regular tests. We know that even the best COVID vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, are not perfect, although they are very good. (Health experts believe that even 50 percent effective vaccines are worth using; the new mRNA vaccines are somewhere between 90 and 95 percent effective.)

    That’s especially desirable now that the Delta variant, which is far more infectious, is spreading over the entire world.

    (I would defer to the judgement of medical experts on whether those tests should be lateral flow or PCR.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  67. #61 Paul, here’s simple comparison for you: Stalin was responsible for about as many deaths as WW I, Mao about as many as WW II.

    (Oh, and since we have been discussing COVID, it looks to me as if the total death toll world wide will be close to the total deaths in WW I. I hope it isn’t closer to WW II.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  68. Not a bad comparison, Jim.

    I was watching Smerconish this AM and he’s making some sense, particularly that the vaccinated should not be penalized for the unvaccinateds’ behavior. Employers and universities and such do have the power to require vaccinations, but I’m still uneasy about unleashing the power of the State to make this happen. If there is to be a mandate, I’d rather have it be about vaccines, not masks, but I’d rather not have a federal mandate, period.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  69. The innocent vaccinated nurse would still be liable. Or you think no lawyer would take up that case? Especially in an environment where the employer refused to test all employees for Covid?

    There is probably a lawyer willing to sue God or space aliens, so long as it isn’t on contingency.

    The question is due diligence.

    As an employee, getting vaccinated is due diligence (and not doing so is gross negligence).

    As for the nursing home operator:

    * Not verifying employee vaccination status — especially after the EEOC says they can mandate it — is negligence.

    * Not providing vaccinations to all residents is negligence.

    * Not isolating (or evicting) any resident refusing vaccination is negligent.

    * Not testing symptomatic employees or residents is negligent.

    Testing everyone every day is, given the above, defensible. If you think it is a problem, why not test them every 5 minutes? There is a point past which we have left “due diligence” and entered the realm of paranoia.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  70. I’ve seen no reason why you’d stop with healthcare workers. Why not also teachers, barbers/hairstylists, etc? Once you’re passing laws about vaccines why feel constrained?

    Are kids, people getting haircuts, etc at specific risk? Is there recent history of mass deaths (due to Covid) in schools and barber shops?

    Are you against laws mandating that food preparation workers wash their hands after visiting the restroom? Do they have a right to have staph-infested hands? Is the restaurant required to test them for bacteria when they leave the loo?

    Your slippery slope is made of straw.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  71. Here’s the thing: There is a difference between “statistically likely” and “statistically unlikely.”

    For example, in a pandemic, a unvaccinated person who takes no precautions is likely to contract the disease and pass it along to another unvaccinated person taking no precautions. At the height of the pandemic, they said that one infected individual would infect 3 or 4 more — which is why it was a pandemic and not just an outbreak.

    OTOH, if only 3% of those contracting Covid were previously vaccinated, then 97% of the carriers at any time are unvaccinated. Insisting that those around you are vaccinated reduces your chance of random exposure by about 30 times. More than that actually as those who are vaccinated will be contagious for a shorter period.

    If you are also vaccinated, you have that same 1-in-30 chance of contracting the virus once exposed.

    Now, this is just a first-order approximation as the statistics are more complicated, but if two randomly selected people come into contact, the chance that one will transmit the virus to the other is almost 1000 times greater if neither is vaccinated than if both are.

    Sure it could happen. But people who think it’s all the same should not play poker.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  72. Trump Inaugural Chair Released on $250 Million Bail

    So much for the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  73. “So much for the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution.”

    Barrack is a billionaire. Proportionally, it’s not unreasonable if you compare it to bail for regular people.

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  74. Kevin McCarthy GOP Press Conference Transcript: January 6 Committee
    ………
    Leader McCarthy : (01:36)
    ………
    Two main questions, why was the Capitol so ill prepared for that day when they knew on December 14th they had a problem? And what have we done to make sure that never happens again? …….. But we think it’s too important, that those two questions, why were we ill prepared? Why did they know on December 14th? Why would they jeopardize the lives of the Capitol police? We will run our own investigation……
    ……..
    Speaker 8: (16:28)
    Leader McCarthy, you said in your statement that Republicans will, Instead pursue our own investigation of the facts,” What does that look like, first off? And secondly, is this your final move, pulling your appointees or is there a chance to reverse this?

    Leader McCarthy : (16:42)
    The only way to reverse is seat these five, that’s the only thing. But I will add to this, to be able to look at the challenge of what happened and answer those two questions, why were we ill prepared and made sure it never happens again.

    Speaker 8: (16:59)
    But in terms of an actual body, what is that investigation?

    Speaker 9: (17:02)
    In addition to those questions, do you intend to look at why this happened? Not the security failure, but why there was an attack on the Capitol and what led up to it?

    Leader McCarthy : (17:09)
    We’ll answer all the questions.

    Speaker 10: (17:10)
    Mr. Leader, I want to know more specifically, what do you say to these families and to these officers, including officers that you’ve met with about this? And more specifically, many of them they’re just frustrated, they see this as politics, but at the end of the day you-
    …….
    Speaker 10: (17:26)
    … and the Speaker are pointing fingers at each other, so how does that help them if you guys are just pointing fingers at each other?

    Leader McCarthy : (17:31)
    What helps them is we will go forward just as I promised them, and we’ll get the answer to those questions.
    ……..
    Speaker 18: (20:52)
    Yes, sir. Will the Republican committee look at President Trump’s actions leading up to and on January 6th?

    Leader McCarthy : (21:00)
    We’ll look at anything that built up of what caused this place to not be protected, and we’ll look to make sure that it never happens again.
    ……….
    Yeah, McCarthy’s “investigation” will be like OJ searching for the real killers. How’s that going?

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  75. @72 & 73-
    Trump’s reaction to Thomas Barrack’s arrest.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  76. Barrack is a billionaire. Proportionally, it’s not unreasonable if you compare it to bail for regular people.

    Somehow Mr. Mason and Mr. Madison failed to mention the idea that “excessive” bail is measured proportionately to one’s wealth when drafting the Amendment. In Stack v. Boyle (1951) the Supreme Court ruled that bail should be “reasonably calculated” to ensure the defendant shows up to trial. Does the judge here really think that Barrack would skip out on $100 million or even $50 million, but is guaranteed to show up for $250 million? And it’s not as if this is a capital crime he is being accused of. I can’t agree with you on this.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  77. …slide into world poverty as the gubmint sucks out the available productivity to be repurposed in never ending expanding waste, fraud and abuse. Such an unconscious form of morality. Stay off my lawn.

    Reaganomics; Reaganoptics; Reaganaurics.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  78. Tom Cotton Accuses ‘Public Health Bureaucrats’ of Doing ‘What They Think Is in the Interest of Public Health’
    ……..
    The shocking allegation was made on Friday’s edition of America Reports with John Roberts, who somehow did not immediately fall out of his chair at Cotton’s claim. ……
    ………
    Roberts turned to Cotton and said, “So you’ve got the governor of Florida saying, ‘I don’t think this is the right thing to do,’ and the White House coming down on him for that. Is that the White House’s role?”

    Not surprisingly Cotton replied, “No,” adding,

    Let me say, nobody elected the CDC. Nobody elected Tony Fauci to make these decisions. Advisers advise, elected officials decide. And the American people elected Joe Biden and the members of Congress and our governors and state legislatures to make these decisions for us. If you just turn these decisions over to a bunch of public health bureaucrats, of course the only thing they’re gonna consider is what they think is in the best interest of public health.

    ………
    Cotton said public officials won’t “balance off interests like whether people can make a living to put food on the table, or their kids can learn at school – an integral part of which seeing each other’s faces and their teachers faces to understand emotion, to be able to see lips, and so forth.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  79. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 8:54 am

    From the CA Secretary of State web site:

    Will every active registered voter be mailed a vote-by-mail ballot?

    Yes. Every active registered voter will be mailed a vote-by-mail ballot for the recall election. Counties will begin to mail vote-by-mail ballots approximately 29 days before Election Day.

    You can find the above statement by searching within the web page.

    https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/2021-ca-gov-recall/newsom-recall-faqs

    JoeH (e9031c)

  80. “the cheney clan hasn’t done one thing for the country in twenty years”

    Debt. Destruction. Death.

    There’s three for a start. Multiple-Deferment Darth and heir to Daddy’s government-war-contracted-Halliburton-fortune Daughter Darth are cut from the same cloth– usually found in the Men’s Department at Washington’s finest haberdashers.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  81. Seems rather pernicious… https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1416101387881046020?s=20

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  82. Ratings of Black-White Relations at New Low-Gallup
    For the second consecutive year, U.S. adults’ positive ratings of relations between Black and White Americans are at their lowest point in more than two decades of measurement. Currently, 42% of Americans say relations between the two groups are “very” or “somewhat” good, while 57% say they are “somewhat” or “very” bad.

    The most recent rating of Black-White relations in the U.S. is not statistically different from last year’s 44%. …….
    ………
    ……… Currently, 10 points separate Black and White adults’ views of race relations — 33% vs. 43%. Each reading is the lowest on record for both racial groups. This gap is identical to last year’s but smaller than in 2018 (14 points).

    …….. Majorities of Americans rate relations between Hispanic and White people, Black and Hispanic people, Asian and White people, and Black and Asian people as good. …….
    ……..
    …….. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults currently say a solution to the problem of Black-White relations will eventually be worked out and race relations will not always be a problem, while 40% disagree and say it will always be a problem. …..
    ………
    ……… Currently, there is a 20-point gap between Black adults (40%) and White adults (60%) that a solution to racial discord in U.S. society is possible. This is the largest gap recorded in Gallup’s three-decade trend, and it is particularly striking given that it comes on the heels of a 10-point uptick in Black Americans’ optimism last year.
    ……….
    Poll details.

    Related: Tarrant, AL Councilman Tommy Bryant: “Do We Have A House N***** In Here?”

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  83. Be careful of gender reveal parties-

    A couple accused of igniting a massive wildfire with a gender-reveal smoke bomb now faces manslaughter charges
    ……..
    The (El Dorado fire) that ripped through San Bernardino National Forest, burning more than 20,000 acres and prompting widespread evacuations, was sparked, prosecutors say, when Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez tried to set off a smoke bomb to announce their baby’s gender. Now the Southern California couple is facing manslaughter charges, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said Tuesday at a news conference.
    ………
    The fire was one of several disasters connected to gender-reveal parties, in which parents announce their baby’s sex during pregnancy. The practice has led to a fatal plane crash, partygoers’ tragic deaths, other wildfires and brushfires, and one massive explosion that rocked a New Hampshire neighborhood and damaged homes.
    ……..
    The fire that allegedly started when the Jimenez family set off the smoke bomb in El Dorado Park, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles near Yucaipa, injured 13 people, including two more firefighters, and destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings. …….
    The Jimenezes also each face three felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, four felony counts of recklessly causing a fire to inhabited structures, and 22 fire-related misdemeanor counts.

    The Jimenezes pleaded not guilty on Tuesday…….
    ………
    (39-year-old firefighter Charles) Morton died Sept. 17 while trying to put out the fire. “It appears he was burned over by the fire and passed away,” an incident report filed by the U.S. Forest Service concluded, the Los Angeles Times reported in October.

    The fire burned for 23 days. At least six fire departments worked to extinguish it…….

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  84. “Somehow Mr. Mason and Mr. Madison failed to mention the idea that “excessive” bail is measured proportionately to one’s wealth when drafting the Amendment.”

    It makes no sense to me that bail should be anything other than proportional to the defendant’s wealth, which means that “unreasonable” would also be proportional. However…

    “Does the judge here really think that Barrack would skip out on $100 million or even $50 million, but is guaranteed to show up for $250 million? And it’s not as if this is capital crime he is being accused of. I can’t agree with you on this.”

    To be clear here, I think the vast majority of bail requirements are unreasonable. People who are unable to pay bail face worse outcomes than those who can. I’m not even convinced that large bail amounts are an significant deterrent to defendants who are flight risks, and at age 74, Barrack is almost certainly not a flight risk. I would love to see the bail system reformed, but I’m not particularly interested in making a special exception for this guy just because he’s rich.

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  85. Apparently London, Paris and Dublin are full of Trump voters!

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  86. @68.

    A Pill to Treat Covid-19? The U.S. Is Betting on It.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/health/covid-pill-antiviral.html

    Dr. Anthony Fauci announced on Thursday that the White House was investing over $3 billion to advance the development of antiviral pills to treat Covid-19 as well as future virus outbreaks.

    The Long Shadow of the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine ‘Fiasco’

    Some, but not all, of the hesitance to embrace vaccines can be traced back to this event 40 years ago.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-shadow-1976-swine-flu-vaccine-fiasco-180961994/

    The Public Health Legacy of the 1976 Swine Flu Outbreak

    ‘As the historian George Dehner wrote in his 2010 review on the lessons learned from the 1976 flu response, The Swine Flu Program was marred by a series of logistical problems ranging from the production of the wrong vaccine strain to a confrontation over liability protection to a temporal connection of the vaccine and a cluster of deaths among an elderly population in Pittsburgh.‘- https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-public-health-legacy-of-the-1976-swine-flu-outbreak?form=MY01SV&OCID=MY01SV

    Philly’s Smersch – which spawned ‘Legionnaire’s Disease’- best review some PA history. Check the Congressional Record, too; ‘here’s the deal’-there was a certain senator from Delaware in office wielding words and power at that time, too.

    They’ve so fouled up and muddled the messaging on this w/t hype of the rushed out one-now-two-now-three-now-who-knows-how-many-booster-shots vaccine brews for a virus that mutates almost mnthly you can’t blame reasonable ‘folks’ for being suspicious or wary of any of President Plagiarist’s proclamations on this– especially given his own history of fabrications and lying. Recall the shuffling, brain-damaged doddering saying if he screws up on anything, he’ll simply say he is ‘sorry’– but that don’t cut any ice and won’t heal the sick or comfort families who’ve lost people. Especially given Biden’s history.

    There’s a tablet for everything in America. Wait. For. The. Pill.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  87. The much nicer Dana posted:

    What, only six states??

    New York is now the sixth state to ban child marriage, after raising the legal age of consent to be married to 18…New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Rhode Island have all implemented laws completely banning minors from marrying. But most states still allow youth under the age of 18 to marry, including youth who are legally emancipated or who have parental consent or judicial approval… Nearly 300,000 minors were legally married nationwide between 2000 and 2018, a recent study by the Unchained at Last found. The majority of those marriages involved 16- or 17-year-olds — but some involved were as young as 10…

    The reason for the vast majority of the under-18 marriages are that the bride is pregnant. Given that the most common age of consent for sex in the United States is 16, not 18, it isn’t too surprising that there are a few knocked up 16 and 17 year olds . . . not that the legal age of consent is of much concern to two teenagers hot to trot.

    If a pregnant teenager cannot be legally married, the only two choices remaining are abortion or bastardy. Does anyone think those are superior alternatives?

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  88. OT: Tom Barrack released on $250 million bail, with his movements restricted by GPS and his passport surrendered. Apparently, the judge has elected to test the limits of the 8th Amendment.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  89. Mr M wrote:

    It should be a criminal offense for a nursing home to employ an unvaccinated individual. It should be felonious assault to work at a nursing home while unvaccinated.

    Don’t like it? Don’t work at a nursing home, or don’t operate one.

    Well, this is a new step for Mr M. This isn’t just the state passing regulations, but Mr M now wants to make it a felony.

    Of course, to make such a thing a felony would require the state legislature to pass such a law and the governor to sign it into effect, or the legislature override his veto. There are currently only 15 states in which the Democrats control both houses of the legislature and the gubernatorial seat as well. Republicans have 23 such ‘trifectas,’ and there are 12 with divided government.

    In one of the divided government states, Alaska, party control of the House is split; the state Senate and gubernatorial seat are Republican. In just three of the divided government states is the legislature under Democratic control, with a Republican governor: Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  90. Mr Snowman wrote:

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/23/2021 @ 10:46 pm: You’re really leaning in to the authoritarianism. You should practice your “Papers please” in German. It’s always better in the original.

    Wir müssen Ihre Dokumente sehen! It more directly translates to “We need to see your documents.”

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  91. Mr Duh wrote:

    It should be a criminal offense for a nursing home to employ an unvaccinated individual. It should be felonious assault to work at a nursing home while unvaccinated.

    Don’t like it? Don’t work at a nursing home, or don’t operate one.

    It seems pretty clear that the vaccinated can spread covid. What is the punishment for a vaccinated covid carrier? Or do you recommend that every vaccinated employee of a nursing home get tested for covid on a regular basis?

    Mr M has gone beyond the need to identify which nursing home employee passed on the virus; he wants them all to be considered guilty.

    He is, I suppose, relying on some form of reckless endangerment argument, but that raises the obvious question: if it is reckless endangerment, why would it not apply, under his reasoning, to every unvaccinated person who leaves his home?

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  92. CA vote-by-mail rules generally do not require a ballot to be sent to everyone.

    Registered voters may apply for a vote-by-mail ballot for an upcoming election at any time.

    https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/vote-mail

    Only Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento and San Mateo counties have opted into a permanent vote-by-mail program. Still, I view this, and all other differring county ballot rules, as likely to produce improper weighting of votes. A subject that will be dealt with eventually when it isn’t a Republican that is harmed.

    But wait: The legislature passed a special law in February to require mailed out ballots in the case of a recall.

    “SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As California Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares for a potential recall election this year, the state Legislature passed a bill on Tuesday that would require all active registered voters get a ballot in the mail ahead of the election even if they didn’t ask for one. Lawmakers’ aim is to slow the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging people to vote by mail rather than show up in person. The Legislature did the same thing last year, back when counties had millions of dollars in federal money to help put on a presidential election during a pandemic.”

    No word on whether the legislature thought it would help Newsome, but clearly they are blaming in on Covid. A I am happy that it will be done the same in all counties, and I hope that the conservative counties are just as flagrant in their acceptance of improbable-provenance ballots as the liberal counties are.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  93. Well, this is a new step for Mr M. This isn’t just the state passing regulations, but Mr M now wants to make it a felony.

    I consider it akin to drunk diving in a school zone.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  94. And Mr M responded to Mr Duh:

    You’re really leaning in to the authoritarianism. You should practice your “Papers please” in German. It’s always better in the original.

    An unvaccinated healthcare worker is about as justifiable as a drunk taxi driver.

    That response pretty much validates my point here: if it is reckless endangerment, why would it not apply, under his reasoning, to every unvaccinated person who leaves his home?

    After all, the laws against driving under the influence of alcohol are not solely directed at taxi drivers!

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  95. Perhaps the judge in the Barrack case was thinking of the Carlos Ghosn precedent.

    In early March 2019, Ghosn was granted a request for bail in a Tokyo court. This was his third bail request, and the first by his new legal team under Hironaka. The court set bail at 1 billion yen (about US$9 million) subject to stringent conditions. He was not allowed to travel abroad, and had to remain at a given address under 24-hour camera surveillance, with no internet access. He was released on 6 March 2019.

    And at the end of December, Ghosn escaped to Lebanon.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  96. why would it not apply, under his reasoning, to every unvaccinated person who leaves his home?

    1) No unvaccinated individual ENTERS my home.

    2) I am not in charge of vaccinating people.

    I think both those reasons are sufficient.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  97. @78 cotton is 100% correct

    shockingly, rip falls for the braindead media narrative

    JF (e1156d)

  98. Mr M wrote:

    Well, this is a new step for Mr M. This isn’t just the state passing regulations, but Mr M now wants to make it a felony.

    I consider it akin to drunk diving in a school zone.

    If an intoxicated driver hits a student just outside of the school zone, rather than a few feet within it, is the student somehow harmed less?

    This is the fault with your argument: it can be extended to all cases, not just the limited ones you have suggested, with no real stretching of logic at all.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  99. If, by “my home” you mean “my nursing home” then I repeat #97

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  100. Mr M argued:

    why would it not apply, under his reasoning, to every unvaccinated person who leaves his home?

    1) No unvaccinated individual ENTERS my home.

    2) I am not in charge of vaccinating people.

    I think both those reasons are sufficient.

    Given that the point was not people entering, or leaving his, Mr M’s, personal home, but working in a semi-public facility, I would have thought that my language was clear enough; in stating “every unvaccinated person who leaves his home?” I was referring to to the unvaccinated person leaving the unvaccinated person’s home.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  101. Buduh – You didn’t answer my question,

    I did answer your question in the first sentence of my response.

    I’ll answer yours: Yes, I think the staff at nursing homes should be vaccinated, and get regular tests.

    Thank you. I don’t understand why Kevin struggled with this.

    Here is another question based on a hypothetical. Assume that the vaccines are past the experimental stage and have achieved full FDA approval:

    If the vaccines were featured in the same style of pharmaceutical commercials as most other drugs that manufacturers advertise to raise your awareness so you can consult your physician, would you think that during the fast talking warnings and disclaimer section the manufacturer would include that you may get Covid and that you may infect others with Covid?

    It seems like every other drug they pitch includes warnings for the most mundane possible side effects.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  102. And at the end of December, Ghosn escaped to Lebanon.

    Japan does not have an 8th Amendment as far as I know. But even then, $250 million is extreme. How would it serve better than $50 million? He is not going to be put to death for his crimes.

    Why would he “escape” the United States (at great difficulty) to end up in some desert hellhole for the rest of his life? If he was concerned about money, he could have moved to somewhere nice and renounced his citizenship years ago.

    Bail that exceeds the purpose of the state’s interests is excessive, and this is just a silly-ass amount.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  103. It takes a village of Democrats… https://t.co/yQKKd5DmiL?amp=1

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  104. I was referring to to the unvaccinated person leaving the unvaccinated person’s home.

    It is not that they leave their own home that I find particularly objectionable (although it remains objectionable), but that they enter a place that has a history of reckless endangerment and death due to employees with Covid, residents whose prognosis following infection are grim, and management with a history of not giving a crap.

    If you want to be fair, I would insist that all visitors are tested. Up until a vaccine was available they were simply banned.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  105. By the way, where did I say that all employees of a nursing home are criminals if one of them is not vaccinated? All I said is that management has a duty to ensure that they do so, and should they fail due diligence in that, they have committed a crime.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  106. Mr M wrote:

    I hear this a lot from anti-vaxxers, who latch upon the much smaller risk of vaccinated Covid carriers to justify their willful endangerment of others. It’s bullsh1t, of course.

    The vaccine makes it far less likely that any exposure will lead to measurable disease. In almost every case, the virus will be stomped before in gets into many cells and will got get to the point where there is enough new virus produced to infect others.

    Are you sure? I have already cited the Fayette County Health Department statistic that 24.3% of new COVID cases in July are among vaccinated individuals. Given that vaccinated individuals would have little reason to be tested unless they felt ill, and the vaccines are supposed to lessen symptoms in those who do contract the virus, it seems probable to me that there are a greater, and perhaps far greater, percentage of vaccinated individuals who have contracted the virus that simply have had no reason to be tested.

    Given that the 24.3% figure is a significant jump from last week’s figure of 19.5%, ‘twould seem to me that there is a significantly growing percentage of vaccinated people who have contracted the virus.

    If this is the case, what would be the reason for allowing the vaccinated any greater access to work and society than the unvaccinated? After all, if the vaccinated are contracting the virus at significant rates, then they can spread the virus as well.

    OTOH, the unvaccinated person will almost always contract disease which can be spread before symptoms appear (which is why all those thermometers and 20 questions sessions were just theater), and will for several days be spreading the virus to all around. Sure, if their victims are vaccinated that’s a lot better.

    Uhhh, you have just claimed that “the unvaccinated person will almost always (the) contract disease,” a statement which, if true, would have meant that almost everyone in the United States would have contracted the virus sometime in 2020, something which did not happen.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  107. For some cheer, here’s how British cartoonists depicted their nation’s attempt to cope with COVID.

    (My favorite? Probably Matt’s “More tea, Mum?”)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  108. Surprisingly unmentioned in this open thread was a tweet from our esteemed host:

    We may get to a point where the big debate becomes: why on Earth didn’t we institute more coercive measures on the unvaccinated in July 2021, when we could have stopped COVID before it mutated beyond the vaccines’ capacity to immunize people against it?

    Our host did not specify what those “more coercive measures” might be, but he was retweeting something from Allahpundit which referenced David Frum’s article in The Atlantic.

    The federal government could use its regulatory and spending powers to encourage vaccination in the same way that Ron DeSantis has used his executive powers to discourage it. The Biden administration could require proof of vaccination to fly or to travel by interstate train or bus. It could mandate that federal contractors demonstrate that their workforces are vaccinated. It could condition federal student loans on proof of vaccination. Those measures might or might not be wise policy: Inducements are usually more effective at changing individual behavior than penalties are. But they would be feasible and legal—and they would spread the message about what people ought to do, in the same way that sanctions against drunk driving, cheating on taxes, and unjust discrimination in the workplace do.

    Neither our host nor Mr Frum suggested making vaccination mandatory, as (purported) conservatives Max Boot and Bill Kristol did, but Mr Frum would use the force of government to push the unvaccinated into poverty.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  109. Related: Tarrant, AL Councilman Tommy Bryant: “Do We Have A House N***** In Here?”

    Rip Murdock (0d5408) — 7/24/2021 @ 11:48 am

    Do you think this is “related?”:

    Report: Professor Tells White Student if He’s Breathing, He ‘May Have Oppressed Somebody’ Today

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  110. Uhhh, you have just claimed that “the unvaccinated person will almost always (the) contract disease,” a statement which, if true, would have meant that almost everyone in the United States would have contracted the virus sometime in 2020, something which did not happen

    Uh, no. You may have been spending 2020 unmasked in a Covid ward, but most of us were taking precautions commensurate with our desire not to get Covid. Outside of the first few weeks, no one I know who got the virus was taking precautions, and everyone who was taking precautions did not get the virus.

    Both people I know who died had spent the last weekends in March 2020 at conventions. The person I know who got very ill had been evicted from a family house after her aunt died and her cousin turfed everyone so she could sell her inheritance. But everyone else was masking up and going to crowded places only with a good reason (and where masks were mandatory).

    Take a look at what happened. The peak of the pandemic happened in the US between Thanksgiving and the new year, when people threw aside precautions to gather with family.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  111. Janice Dean
    @JaniceDean
    A terrible day for thousands of families. In a letter to @SteveScalise, @TheJusticeDept wrote that they were dropping the nursing home investigations in all states including New York. There will be no justice for our loved ones, and it feels like we’ve lost them all over again.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/JaniceDean/status/1418662954304692225

    Maybe Kevin’s unvaccinated drunks will see more justice…

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  112. BTW, Dana, the libertarian, do you think that nursing homes should be required to inform residents and responsible relatives about unvaccinated workers and residents, at least statistically?

    Should the home be responsible for any costs associated with moving a resident to another facility if those statistics do not meet the needs of a given resident?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  113. Maybe Kevin’s unvaccinated drunks will see more justice…

    I see you have no understanding of what I said.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  114. You see me mocking what you said.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  115. Well, since I don’t know, or care, how much Barrack is worth, I have no opinion on whether the bail was excessive — but I do note that he was able to come up with it.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  116. BTW, Dana, the libertarian, do you think that nursing homes should be required to inform residents and responsible relatives about unvaccinated workers and residents and untested vaccinated workers and untested vaccinated residents, at least statistically?

    That sounds better.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  117. Well, since I don’t know, or care, how much Barrack is worth, I have no opinion on whether the bail was excessive

    That’s not the test. The test is whether it is more than it needs to be to ensure he will return to face trial. Note that the judge also froze his accounts.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  118. untested vaccinated workers and untested vaccinated residents

    You seem to place a lot of trust in tests, which only (and poorly) measure a transitory condition. And again, you are spewing the BS about vaccinated carriers, when you and I both know it;’s just a fig-leaf argument for idiots.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  119. You really don’t believe that vaccinated people can transmit the virus?

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  120. Not really. Oh, sure they can, in a statistical sense, be we get back to parachutes that don’t open and how I still want one if I have to bail out.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  121. Ok.

    Thanks.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  122. The reason for the vast majority of the under-18 marriages are that the bride is pregnant. Given that the most common age of consent for sex in the United States is 16, not 18, it isn’t too surprising that there are a few knocked up 16 and 17 year olds . . . not that the legal age of consent is of much concern to two teenagers hot to trot.

    If a pregnant teenager cannot be legally married, the only two choices remaining are abortion or bastardy. Does anyone think those are superior alternatives?

    I think this may have been true at one time, but I don’t think it is any longer simply because social mores have changed. Being single, young, and pregnant no longer has the stigma associated with it as it once did. Also, although I haven’t looked it up, I think the states that don’t require any parental consent for abortion is around 13 or 14. Thus minors could easily get an abortion. Further, given the legality and high rates of abortion, I don’t see a lot of parents wanting to force their daughters to marry when the option to terminate is readily available. Also, it’s not a matter of whether abortion or having a baby out of wedlock are superior alternatives. It’s a matter of what is going to be most convenient for the girl and her family. That’s just the way is, for the most part.

    Dana (fd537d)

  123. Never forget, the primary objective of Big Pharma is to make a profit. Contracting w/government[s] for multiple shot vaccines, revised vaccines, booster shots and so on is a gold mine for them- and their stockholders- so the longer they can ride this gravy train w/taxpayers paying the fare, the better for ’em.

    Let your fingers do the walking– and talking:

    https://www.yellowpages.com/wilmington-de/pharmaceutical-companies

    Just 30 of the top firms in Wilmington, DE, alone, eh, Joey?! ‘Here’s the deal’– any of them have Hunter on the BoD or consulting– he knows a lot about drugs, don’t he. That outta Pop your Corn.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  124. But the numbers are about 3% in any large group. Sure, there are outliers (or is it outliars) where there are worse statistics, but there are also groups where the number is 0%. Some people also conflate “had one dose” with “vaccinated.” Guess which factoids the deniers use?

    In general, people who have received both doses of the mRNA vaccines re more than an order-of-magnitude less likely to get infected than an unvaccinated person. I say 30 times less, but certainly more than 10 times less, even if allowing for error.

    Once infected, their body IMMEDIATELY starts producing hte antibodies it has been trained to produce. In the unvaccinated person, it takes time for the infection to spread unchedcked before the antibodies are produced. This leads to a more severe disease, almost certainly past the threshold where they are infectuous.

    So, a vaccinated person is much harder to infect and his body starts defending immediately. It is not impossible for him to infect others, but the window, where it exists, is brief.

    Using this, without any qualifications — as if the occurrance of infectuous vaccinated people was what was spreading disease — is dishonest. If this was our only problem, Covid would be as dead as measles.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  125. I guess what pisses me off most is the knowledge that unvaccinated people, as a whole, are the remaining host for Covid. I would like to be effing done with it, but until the size of the available host is reduced to maybe 10% Covid will remain with us. I am not so much worried about myself — I still avoid large crowds and such, and have a working immune system. But I know people who are at risk, who the vaccines did not much help — if your immune system is compromised, training it to fight infection isn’t much use.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  126. BuDuh @110-

    Do you think this is “related?”:

    Report: Professor Tells White Student if He’s Breathing, He ‘May Have Oppressed Somebody’ Today

    No, because it doesn’t speak to the racism toward blacks as individuals demonstrated by the white city council member toward his black colleague as the Alabama story does. The Alabama story ties directly into the Gallup survey story while your does not. If the white professor had called a black student a ni@@@er in class it would be related. Your example is more theoretical (“if he is breathing” “may have oppressed somebody.”) Doesn’t mean the professor isn’t an idiot, though.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  127. You might want to read the article, Rip.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  128. If a pregnant teenager cannot be legally married, the only two choices remaining are abortion or bastardy. Does anyone think those are superior alternatives?

    Bastardy is hardly an issue any longer. There are no legal consequences to being a bastard, unlike in English common law or colonial America, for example.

    Also marriage or bastardy (or abortion) aren’t the only alternatives-adoption is probably the best.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  129. You might want to read the article, Rip.

    I did, I just see it differently from you.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  130. You read all the quotes in an article about a black professor who picked a random white person out of a crowd to publicly debase him strictly because he was white and concluded that it is unrelated to current polling on black/white relations?

    I am thinking I am on the wrong message board anymore.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  131. Also, BuhDuh, I’m not really interested in the CRT debate, if that is what Republicans want to run on in 2022 (along with the “stolen” 2020 election, resisting vaccinations), more power to them. I just don’t see them as winning issues.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  132. I am thinking I am on the wrong message board anymore.

    You might try here.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  133. JD Vance takes aim at culture wars, childless politicians
    ……
    Vance, during the Future of American Political Economy Conference hosted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, said that the left was waging “cultural wars” against the entire country saying, “The left isn’t just criticizing our country, it’s not just making us ashamed of where we came from, it’s trying to take our very sense of national pride and national purpose, away from us because you can’t have one without the other.”
    ……..
    In his speech, Vance also took aim at the Democratic Party, saying that it had “become controlled by people who don’t have children.” He also claimed that politicians running the country do not have a “personal indirect stake” in improving it because they do not have children.

    “And why is this just a normal fact of American life, that the leaders of our country should be people who don’t have a personal indirect stake in it via their own offspring, via their own children and grandchildren,” Vance asked, noting that he was not referring to people who are unable to have children.
    ……..
    Vance said that parents who go to the polls should have more power than adults who do not have children.

    “When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our Democratic republic, than people who don’t have kids,” he said. “Let’s face the consequences and the reality; if you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice.”
    >>>>>>>>>>

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  134. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 1:53 pm

    If I’m understanding you over several threads and comments you think a) there is a close to 100% chance a person will catch the virus absent masks, distancing, lockdowns, and vaccines b) everyone who gets it will probably die and c) everyone who gets it intentionally transmits it to someone else absent (a). Is this correct?

    If you jump out of a plane w/o a parachute there’s is an essentially 100% chance you will die so (a & b). People don’t accidentally get drunk and drive. It’s an intentional act so (c) I’m just trying to piece your analogies together and understand your assessment of the risk.

    I also want to ask about this one

    Are you against laws mandating that food preparation workers wash their hands after visiting the restroom?

    You’re thinking the covid vaccines are as safe as washing your hands? This doesn’t seem like a realistic comparison. Also, yes, I’m against making it a felony like in your example with the unvaccinated healthcare workers.

    If everyone was vaccinated would that resolve your fear of the virus? There’s reason to suspect asymptomatic carriers are underreported. What happens if we mandate 100% vaccination and it doesn’t get the virus under control? What’s the next step?

    frosty (f27e97)

  135. I had never heard of that site, Rip. I found this there:

    LOS ANGELES – As the country continues its push to get more Americans vaccinated, FOX 11 caught up with an elderly couple who caught the virus despite taking their COVID-19 shots.

    FOX 11’s Phil Shuman spoke with 72-year-old Miriam Selivry, who – along with her husband, Nathan, 74, and two other relatives – all tested positive for the virus despite always wearing their masks.

    The couple isn’t sure how they caught the breakthrough case of the virus.

    “I don’t know how, don’t know where,” Nathan said. “But I got it. I called the doctors… he sent us to get the infusion… Thank God, [I am] feeling OK after two or three days.”

    The antibody infusion, recommended by Dr. Thomas Yadegar of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, is one of the steps COVID-19 patients can turn to minimize symptoms. Yadegar says even if you’re vaccinated, you have to ask your doctor for it.

    Fortunately for Miriam and Nathan – parents of three and grandparents of nine – are in relatively good health and do not have serious underlying conditions. As of Thursday, they were in the process of going through of their 10-day quarantine.

    “What do you say to other people who are vaccinated that think they’re protected?” Shuman asked.

    “If it happened to me, can happen to anybody,” Nathan said. “Be careful. That’s the only thing. I did the vaccine, I [wore] masks [but] still get it… so I think everybody can get it.

    https://www.foxla.com/news/vaccinated-california-couple-ages-72-and-74-test-positive-for-covid-19

    https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3978889/posts

    Is FreeRepublic one of those sties that makes the stories posted there false by mere hatred of the FreeRepublic site? Or do you read the stories that they link and decide on the merits of the content of the story?

    Either way, I am happy that the elderly couple had access to therapeutics and a doctor willing to prescribe them.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  136. I just don’t see them as winning issues.

    You may find that the electorate isn’t interested in logic or facts.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  137. You might try here.

    Instapundit has swallowed the Kool-Aid pretty completely.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  138. If I’m understanding you over several threads and comments you think a) there is a close to 100% chance a person will catch the virus absent masks, distancing, lockdowns, and vaccines b) everyone who gets it will probably die and c) everyone who gets it intentionally transmits it to someone else absent (a). Is this correct?

    No, of course not. What I am saying is that the risk to many is so great that they should assume that.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  139. Please allow me to introduce myself
    Depends® collect my waste
    I’ve been ‘round for 78 long years
    Make sure you hide the paste

    https://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/president-biden-i-dont-care-if-you-think-im-satan-reincarnated

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  140. Is FreeRepublic one of those sties that makes the stories posted there false by mere hatred of the FreeRepublic site? Or do you read the stories that they link and decide on the merits of the content of the story?

    BuDuh (7bca93) — 7/24/2021 @ 2:49 pm

    Occasionally I’ll find a news story that interests me, but I’m more interested in their unhinged comments. FR is about the most slavishly pro-Trump, pro-conspiracy theory site you will find. For the Freepers, Trump is G-D, the 2020 election was stolen, George Soros and Jeff Bezos are evil incarnate, COVID-19 is a hoax and the vaccines will change you genetic code, antifa stormed the Capitol (or the Justice Department is torturing political prisoners, they can’t make up their mind), and they have the most bizarre theories of constitutional law.

    I read it for entertainment purposes only.

    Enjoy.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  141. He’s more of a KosKid…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  142. Actually, that’s a bit glib.

    I think that the chance of an unmasked Covid-carrier spreading the virus to another is greater than if they were masked, and greater still if both are unmasked.

    I think that a (real) N95 mask protects from infection, and so does my doctor.

    I think that vaccines are the best defense, providing a 30-1 improvement in statistics for an individual and a 1000-1 reduction in transmission chances between any two peole picked at random if both are immunized.

    I think that intentionally going into an area where vulnerable people are confined, and not taking the most effective measures to ensure that you do not transmit the disease to them is criminally irresponsible, and akin to drunk driving.

    I think that getting a vaccine radically reduces both the chance that one contracts the virus, and if contracted anyway, the chance that one will transmit it.

    I think that people who have not gotten the vaccine are really stupid people, and are so irresponsible that they should never be engaged in any position of trust. But that’s just an opinion.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  143. Occasionally I’ll find a news story that interests me, but I’m more interested in their unhinged comments.

    “Unhinged” comments…. I already have access to that here.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  144. You may find that the electorate isn’t interested in logic or facts.

    None of those issues rank at all in national polling (beyond the Trump base). They were decided at Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  145. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 10:09 am

    Are kids, people getting haircuts, etc at specific risk? Is there recent history of mass deaths (due to Covid) in schools and barber shops?

    We spent last year keeping kids out of school because of the risk to themselves and the risk they would spread covid. We also had a long discussion about who was essential and it’s reasonable to extend your healthcare analogy to anyone coming into extended close contact with people on a frequent basis. I get that you want to limit your analogy but it doesn’t limit as easily as you think.

    Your slippery slope is made of straw.

    Maybe. But we went from 15 days to slow the spread to vaccine passports. When I mentioned this in spring 2020 what we’re talking about now was considered ridiculous. It’s a little late to be accusing someone of a slippery slope fallacy when we’re all 3/4 of the way down at full speed.

    frosty (f27e97)

  146. Come for the repetitive Murdock Democrat news headlines
    Stay for the unhinged comments

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  147. “Unhinged” comments…. I already have access to that here.

    Not like at FR. They are in a class by themselves. By comparison, the discussions here are civil and grounded in reality.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  148. With the exception of you suggesting that I go to an unhinged comment section.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  149. Trump speech soon, carried live from Phoenix, on Newsmax TV– which has apparently hired a few ex-Fox sickos: Heather Childers and Eric Bolling for starts. Media creeps gotta creep.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  150. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 3:06 pm

    I think that people who have not gotten the vaccine are really stupid people, and are so irresponsible that they should never be engaged in any position of trust.

    Are you backing off the felony thing then?

    I think …

    I think that you’re generally correct. I also think you’re taking all items in your favor and overestimating them while discounting everything that might argue against the conclusion you’ve reached. That and fear are making it seem reasonable to mandate all sorts of things.

    frosty (f27e97)

  151. Kevin M – Are you God or do you just play one in your own mind?

    mg (8cbc69)

  152. With the exception of you suggesting that I go to an unhinged comment section.

    I only suggested FR because of your comment “ I am thinking I am on the wrong message board anymore.”

    I thought you might fit in.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  153. Jesus just left Albuquerque
    And he’s bound for East LA
    Well now, Jesus just left Albuquerque
    And he’s bound for East LA
    Yeah, yeah
    Sometimes wrong, never in doubt, don’t matter what you say

    Took a jump through Santa Monica
    Where “muddy water” get dumped in the bay
    Took a jump through Santa Monica
    Muddy water get dumped in the bay
    Yeah, yeah
    Had to leave California, those feet ain’t made o’ clay

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  154. The indefatigable Mr M wrote:

    I guess what pisses me off most is the knowledge that unvaccinated people, as a whole, are the remaining host for Covid.

    But do you actually know that?

    About one-fifth of the new COVID-19 cases in Lexington in July occurred in vaccinated people, according to new data from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.

    Those so-called “breakthrough” cases had accounted for less than 1 percent of Lexington’s reported infections until the last few weeks. In May, less than 10 percent of the month’s cases were breakthrough infections. In June, that number increased to almost 15 percent.

    This month, about 19.5 percent of all cases have been in people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the health department.

    That was based on last week’s numbers. This week, the numbers jumped again:

    The number of “breakthrough” cases, or cases in which a vaccinated person gets infected, have increased in recent months. Breakthrough cases have accounted for about 24.3 percent of cases in July, according to the health department.

    Same newspaper, reporting on numbers from the same health department. At least of the people who tested positive, 24.3% of them were vaccinated. In Lexington, a college town of 330,000 people, with a fully vaccination rate of 56.1%, a quarter of the positive tests are fully vaccinated, and that percentage has been rising steadily. And if the vaccines do make symptoms milder in those who contract the virus, it would seem likely — at least to me — that the Health Department would see a lower percentage of vaccinated people who are actually positive simply because a lower percentage would feel the need to get tested.

    If there’s one thing this ‘pandemic’ has taught us, it’s that the experts don’t always know what they are talking about. It seems at least possible that the vaccines don’t prevent infections at all, but simply lessen or eliminate symptoms; that’s the impression I get from the rapidly rising numbers of ‘breakthrough’ infections. That will require more research.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  155. I think that people who have not gotten the vaccine are really stupid people, and are so irresponsible that they should never be engaged in any position of trust. But that’s just an opinion.

    And a poor one.

    Close friend in a position of responsibility and trust cannot tolerate vaccines or OTC meds. Not even aspirin–and only half a tab of baby aspirin at best. But then, opinions have much in common w/bungholes, don’t they– everybody has one. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  156. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has fueled speculation he is running by writing another book, “Republican Rescue…”

    Pfft. “A Bridge Too Far” is a better title but Cornelius Ryan already had dibs on it. A few videos reminders of that whale beached on the shore outta nail his blubbering to Quint’s shack wall.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  157. The irrepressible Mr M wrote:

    I think that people who have not gotten the vaccine are really stupid people, and are so irresponsible that they should never be engaged in any position of trust. But that’s just an opinion.

    I noted, to pimp my own site here, that a whole lot of people who are trying to persuade those who might be persuadable to take the vaccine really, really don’t know how to sell anything.

    Yeah, I know: saying that here isn’t really addressing an audience which hasn’t already made up its mind, but it’s at least possible that such an attitude carries over into your non-Patterico life, and hardens the hearts of those you encounter in the real world who might be persuaded.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  158. If true — and I have no reason to think it is not — this story tells us something about that Arizona “audit”:

    The Republican overseeing the controversial GOP-backed election audit in Arizona has reportedly been banned from entering the building where the recount process is ongoing, after he shared some data with experts that showed the results match the officially certified numbers in Maricopa County.

    Maybe William Barr was right.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  159. This might help explain Barrack’s high bail:

    The only Emirati charged in the indictment is businessman Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, also known as Rashid Al-Malik, who prosecutors say facilitated Barrack’s communications with UAE officials. Al-Malik left the U.S. in 2017 after he was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. According to the Justice Department, he remains at large and hasn’t been arrested.

    (Whether the bail amount is fair or not, I’ll leave to the lawyers. But I will say that the whole article is worth reading for anyone interested in how Trump allies were digging swamps.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  160. frosty – Do you think Americans could have done as well as Canadians in fighting COVID? Because, per capita, their deaths, so far, are 37 percent of ours. So, if we had done as well as they did, about 400K Americans would now be alive, who died of COVID.

    If so, what are a few of the things you would have done differently?

    For the record: I think the Trump administration did admirably in getting vaccines produced as quickly as they did — and I think those corrupt New York politicians, Andrew Cuomo and Donald J. Trump, are good examples of what not to do, otherwise.

    And, in general, I think there is way more than enough blame to go around. But I also think that, for now, we should be concentrating of defeating the virus, not quarreling with each other. And, if you, or anyone else, has good ideas on how to do that, I’d love to hear them.

    (A few of our states did do as well as Canada, notably Hawaii and Vermont.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  161. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson snubbed of short-lived astronaut titles in rule change

    New requirements set out by regulators the US Federal Aviation Authority make becoming an astronaut something Jeff Bezos – the richest person in the world – cannot buy after all

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/jeff-bezos-richard-branson-snubbed-24608951

    I’m trying to stop laughing about this story… but leave it to the FAA… this is literally out-of-this-world-government-bureaucracy-at-work.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  162. Trump spoke for two hours in Phoenix.

    And ‘here’s the deal’- in complete, coherent sentences w/o falling over.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  163. Who gets to be called an astronaut? It’s complicated.

    ‘Three agencies in the United States can designate people as astronauts: NASA, the FAA and the U.S. military. Each has a different definition of who qualifies for the title, but with NASA and the military, the distinction is reserved for only their employees who meet specific criteria.

    In a policy order that went into effect July 20, the FAA outlined three main eligibility requirements for commercial astronauts. Commercial launch crew members must be employed by an FAA-certified company performing the launch; they must reach an altitude higher than 50 miles above the surface of the Earth during flight; and they must have demonstrated activities during the mission that were “essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.”

    Under these rules, space tourists who pay for suborbital or orbital joyrides are ineligible to receive astronaut wings.

    In Branson’s and Bezos’ cases, however, things are a little murkier because what counts as “essential” activities for public safety or human spaceflight safety is up to the FAA’s discretion.

    Branson’s launch, aboard his own company Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered Unity space plane, was designated a test flight, which could satisfy the FAA’s requirement that crew members perform tasks that contribute to the safety of human spaceflight.

    Branson and his fellow passengers, chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, government affairs vice president, are all employees of Virgin Galactic, and their flight reached an altitude of around 53 miles, which would satisfy the FAA’s other rules.

    Moses already has a pair of commercial astronaut wings, awarded in April 2019, from a previous test flight with Virgin Galactic. She also holds the distinction of being the first woman to fly to the edge of space on a commercial vehicle.

    FAA officials will likely have an easier time ruling out Bezos’ eligibility.

    Bezos launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule July 20 with three other passengers: his brother, Mark, 82-year-old former pilot Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands.

    The New Shepard rocket and capsule are designed to fly autonomously, which means Blue Origin’s passengers don’t perform any essential tasks during the flight. Daemen’s father also paid for his ride to suborbital space, which automatically makes the Dutch teenager ineligible for astronaut status.

    It’s possible, though, that an exception may be made for Funk, whose launch with Blue Origin came 60 years after she was denied the opportunity to go to space as a NASA astronaut.

    The FAA can award honorary astronaut wings to “individuals whose contribution to commercial human space flight merits special recognition.”

    Funk was one of the Mercury 13 women who underwent training in the 1960s to demonstrate that women could qualify for NASA’s astronaut corps. She and the other women were ultimately denied entry because females were not accepted into NASA’s astronaut class until 1978.’ – source, https://todaynewspost.com/news/science-news/who-gets-to-be-called-an-astronaut-its-complicated/

    Ouch.

    Looks like Bezo’s NewShepard One is now BenDover One. But you got plenty of $ to order a large tub of Vaseline via Amazon Prime, space cowboy.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  164. Who gets to be called an astronaut? It’s complicated.

    ‘Three agencies in the United States can designate people as astronauts: NASA, the FAA and the U.S. military. Each has a different definition of who qualifies for the title, but with NASA and the military, the distinction is reserved for only their employees who meet specific criteria.

    In a policy order that went into effect July 20, the FAA outlined three main eligibility requirements for commercial astronauts. Commercial launch crew members must be employed by an FAA-certified company performing the launch; they must reach an altitude higher than 50 miles above the surface of the Earth during flight; and they must have demonstrated activities during the mission that were “essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.”

    Under these rules, space tourists who pay for suborbital or orbital joyrides are ineligible to receive astronaut wings.

    In Branson’s and Bezos’ cases, however, things are a little murkier because what counts as “essential” activities for public safety or human spaceflight safety is up to the FAA’s discretion.

    Branson’s launch, aboard his own company Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered Unity space plane, was designated a test flight, which could satisfy the FAA’s requirement that crew members perform tasks that contribute to the safety of human spaceflight.

    Branson and his fellow passengers, chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, government affairs vice president, are all employees of Virgin Galactic, and their flight reached an altitude of around 53 miles, which would satisfy the FAA’s other rules.

    Moses already has a pair of commercial astronaut wings, awarded in April 2019, from a previous test flight with Virgin Galactic. She also holds the distinction of being the first woman to fly to the edge of space on a commercial vehicle.

    FAA officials will likely have an easier time ruling out Bezos’ eligibility.

    Bezos launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule July 20 with three other passengers: his brother, Mark, 82-year-old former pilot Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands.

    The New Shepard rocket and capsule are designed to fly autonomously, which means Blue Origin’s passengers don’t perform any essential tasks during the flight. Daemen’s father also paid for his ride to suborbital space, which automatically makes the Dutch teenager ineligible for astronaut status.

    It’s possible, though, that an exception may be made for Funk, whose launch with Blue Origin came 60 years after she was denied the opportunity to go to space as a NASA astronaut.

    The FAA can award honorary astronaut wings to “individuals whose contribution to commercial human space flight merits special recognition.”

    Funk was one of the Mercury 13 women who underwent training in the 1960s to demonstrate that women could qualify for NASA’s astronaut corps. She and the other women were ultimately denied entry because females were not accepted into NASA’s astronaut class until 1978.’ – source, https://todaynewspost.com/news/science-news/who-gets-to-be-called-an-astronaut-its-complicated/

    Ouch.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  165. I’d like to save tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of American lives; DCSCA would like to sneer at two people who are trying to bring space travel to the people.

    Well, we all have our own priorities.

    (And I think we all know which priorities “Czar” Putin and “Emperor” Xi prefer.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  166. The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48) — 7/24/2021 @ 4:30 pm

    Try “the head-in-the-sand clutching-at-spurious-factoids Dana”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  167. @169. =yawn= DCSCA is not the FAA, Jimbo.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  168. This refers, of course, to the FBI’s and DOJ’s weighty pronouncement that one of the 1/6 arrestees was in possession of–wait for it!–an assembled Lego model of the Capitol. Except it wasn’t actually assembled. It was still in the box. But still! Obviously he was planning dastardly deeds with Legos! It’s amazing the Republic survived. Thank God the FBI is there to protect us!

    The FBI has of course been going all out to apprehend the trespassers, gapers, gawkers, and other assorted invaders of the Capitol. They announced with pride some weeks back that they had made 535 arrests. (Gee. Why that number?) (And none for sedition. Why is that, if this was a greater threat to “our democracy”–which it ain’t–than the Army of Northern Virginia?)

    But of course the FBI had advanced warning. So why didn’t they stop it?

    Why do I say that they had advanced warning? Because I guarantee that every remotely open access organization or ad hoc grouping is penetrated by the FBI. FFS, the FBI has surveilled the “Concerned Women of America,” as if it’s the ISIS Women’s Auxiliary. What next? Red state sewing circles?

    A necessary–but not sufficient–condition to prevent being infiltrated by the FBI is a classic cell structure. But take-all-comers groups like Proud Boys or Oath Keepers or Concerned Women of America or a bunch of idiots bragging on Twitter will attract FBI agents and/or assets like a dog attracts fleas.

    Oh. And not joining any organization won’t help. The FBI is also deeply concerned about “lone wolf” white extremists. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. (I’m sure I’m already damned, so this post won’t make any difference.)

    So was the FB I complicit in 1/6, or just incompetent in not stopping it?

    One cannot rule out the latter. After all, the FBI had advanced warnings about the Pulse nightclub shooter, the Parkland HS shooter, the Fort Hood shooter, and the San Bernardino shooters. Yet they all blazed away unmolested by our vigilant Federal dicks. (I also wonder about the Las Vegas shooter, whom the FBI cannot even figure out ex post. Or supposedly can’t. Maybe their ex post befuddlement is an attempt to conceal ex ante knowledge.)

    “Any time there’s an attack, our standard at the FBI is we aim to bat 1.000 … you can be darn tootin’ that we are focused very, very hard on how can we get better sources, better information, better analysis’”

    —- FBI Dir. Christopher Wray

    “Darn tootin’”? Are you effing kidding me? “Golly gee willikers Mr. G-man! I’m sure glad we have you to protect us!” “Aw shucks, Jimmy. Just doin’ my job.”

    That performance was so transparently phony that Wray would have earned an F in any community college acting class. But our “elite” eats it up.

    And that’s the point, exactly. The FBI operates as the elite’s political police. Not the president’s–as demonstrated by its concerted campaign to get Trump. The elite’s/oligarchy’s/ruling class’/administrative state’s political police.

    (The FBI also shanked Nixon, BTW. Cf. Mark Felt.)

    What is the FBI good at? Setting up mouth breathers to commit crimes, whom it can then arrest and then claim with great fanfare to have protected us from. If you look at most of the high profile terrorism cases the FBI prosecuted post-911, they were low-IQ losers cajoled by FBI informants (operating, of course, at the direction or at least strong suggestion of FBI agents) into committing crimes.

    Most recently, the hair-on-fire claims about the allegedly dastardly plot to assassinate Wretched Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, appear to be less than a real threat than another prêt-à-porter FBI setup, with 12–12!–FBI informants/provocateurs outnumbering the actual dim bulb alleged conspirators.

    But this is just one part of the bill of particulars against the FBI. It has also proved shockingly inept (to give it the benefit of the doubt) or complicit in some horrible crimes.

    For example, in addition to the terrorism fails mentioned above, it let serial sex offender Larry Nasser operate with impunity for years. Its response to the revelations by the DOJ IG? Not even a “whoops, my bad.” It had copious information on Jeffrey Epstein whom it also allowed to continue his romps for years. (Given Bill Clinton’s and others’ involvement with Epstein, this may have been part of its political police function.) And just recently, FBI agent David Harris was arrested by Louisiana authorities–n.b. state authorities, not the FBI itself–for a sickening trail of child sexual abuse.

    Again, in each case: incompetent, or complicit?

    https://streetwiseprofessor.com/fbi-delenda-est-but-no-cato-or-scipio-are-in-sight/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  169. Maybe. But we went from 15 days to slow the spread to vaccine passports.

    We also went from 0 dead to 600,000. There is a correlation here. If it was 47 million would vaccine passports be OK with you?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  170. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/24/2021 @ 5:25 pm

    I don’t see much value in per capita death numbers at a country level. At least as a single statistic.

    for now, we should be concentrating of defeating the virus, not quarreling with each other. And, if you, or anyone else, has good ideas on how to do that, I’d love to hear them.

    I’m getting a “focus on virus or shut up” sort of vibe. So, good for you. I don’t consider the virus the single most important issue that eclipses all others. I think there are multiple problems and maybe walking and chewing gum at the same time isn’t a bad idea.

    As for what I’d have done differently, this is hard to answer with the way you’ve framed it. I wouldn’t have personally done anything differently. If I could have wished for a different reality? I’d have wished the D’s hadn’t questioned the vaccine for political reasons. I’d have wished the virus wasn’t delayed for political reasons. I’d have wished the media reported objective facts instead of fear mongering and political propaganda. I’d have wished Trump could’ve framed issues better. I’d have wished people like Fauci hadn’t lied. I wish propaganda and gaslighting weren’t the go to thread in every conversation.

    frosty (f27e97)

  171. RIP Jackie Mason

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  172. “..people who are trying to persuade those who might be persuadable to take the vaccine really, really don’t know how to sell anything.”

    If only the country had a world-class marketer who understands how precisely to talk with the GOP base….if only there was something in it for him to do it

    “I’d have wished people like Fauci hadn’t lied”

    Fauci was always in a tough position….and became a convenient fall guy….especially for Trump. I believe Fauci wanted to make sure PPE were available for health workers and that the nature of the virus….asymptomatic transmission…was not known well early. Still, I wonder how many of the Fauci-is-a-liar crowd would have been the first scarfing up N95 masks because the government told them to do it….while other voices were saying “don’t be afraid of coivd”…..it’s just a convenient narrative to point attention in a new direction.

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  173. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/24/2021 @ 6:21 pm

    This is one of favorite pieces of total historical revisionism. Do you even remember the original projections in early 2020? We torched the economy, put ourselves on the path to some serious economic problems down the road, created a huge mental health crisis (at least we avoided the virus right) and just as predicted it wasn’t enough for the authoritarians. If I was prepared for the numbers we were hearing in early 2020 then 600k isn’t that scary.

    But this is also the ridiculous “what number is high enough” / “how many people have to die” bu11s41t. Basically you’re question is what is the number when “just do what you’re told” works. This sort of emotional binary choice nonsense means you aren’t someone who’s making a rational argument.

    Do you know that an estimated 480000 die from smoking each year? If we’re just worrying about numbers why is that still legal at all?

    But to answer your question; I’d never be in favor of vaccine passports or mandated vaccines. They won’t give you the safety you’re looking for and I’d be against them even if they did.

    frosty (f27e97)

  174. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/24/2021 @ 6:14 pm

    I’d like to save tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of American lives;

    We’re always the hero in our own stories. But the road to hell and all.

    frosty (f27e97)

  175. #173 frosty – Just to be clear: “I don’t consider the virus the single most important issue that eclipses all others.” (Emphasis added.) I agree with you on that.

    Because of the horrendous death toll, and the other costs, I do consider COVID the most urgent issue, the one we on which we should be focusing the most attention, right now.

    (As for the per capita comparisons, I don’t know of any better single way to compare nations on COVID, assuming those nations have reasonably honest and accurate counts. (Or that we can get reasonable estimates from “excess deaths”.) For example, comparing Sweden to its neighbors tells us what worked there, and what didn’t. If you have a better way, share it with us.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  176. “Again, in each case: incompetent, or complicit?”

    The party of personal responsibility.

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  177. AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/24/2021 @ 6:54 pm

    Fauci was always in a tough position

    He could have tried the truth. I’m amazed that people will still white knight for this guy solely because they think he stuck it to Trump and righties.

    frosty (f27e97)

  178. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/24/2021 @ 7:16 pm

    I don’t know of any better single way to compare nations on COVID

    I don’t think there is one. The nature of complex problems is they usually require more complex analysis.

    WRT your first to paragraphs; I’m not seeing much distinction between “right now” and “all others”. We’re making decisions right now, driven by covid concerns, that will be hard, if not impossible, to undo. Some that will have extremely serious long term consequences that we’re ignoring because those consequences aren’t “right now”.

    frosty (f27e97)

  179. Please allow me to introduce myself
    Depends® collect my waste
    I’ve been ‘round for 78 long years
    Make sure you hide the paste

    Mick Jagger (b. 7/26/43, turns 78 on Monday) is only eight months younger than Joe Biden (b. 11/20/42).

    JVW (ee64e4)

  180. razor419

    @Patterico

    take the L, patrick. how irresponsible was it to put the name of his church in the headline? what did that add to the story? answer: throw in the name of a megachurch to sensationalize a story. you fell for it.

    Patterico

    “Take the L” is a phrase that invariably results in a mute. Take the M!

    razor419 (0b022e)

  181. Random question of the day; can anyone name a state where a DUI is a felony offense?

    Another random question of the day; anyone know the usual consequences of a felony conviction?

    frosty (f27e97)

  182. “He could have tried the truth”

    What was the truth exactly? What did the data say early on about transmission? Why would other scientists in the know cover for Fauci? He was thrown under the bus…because that’s what team Trump does

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  183. just wanted your readers to know what was so terrible that you needed to mute me. that’s, you know, much better than an actual response.

    razor419 (0b022e)

  184. I’d like to save tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of American lives; DCSCA would like to sneer at two people who are trying to bring space travel to the people.

    Jimbo, you may want to ask yourself why the Biden FAA chose July 20 to institute these new ‘astro-rules’- as it would coincide w/Bezos’ flight attempt; a wealthy individual recently exposed for the years of Amazon tax avoidance- albeit legally– yet an action which goes against President Plagiarist’s repeated cries for billionaires to ‘pay their fair share.’ Or if Musk- who does have a great deal of contracted pull w/t Feds, put any pressure on.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  185. RIP Jackie Mason

    God put the finger on him.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  186. It looks like we’re entering a Golden Age for Democrat Fixers, even the ones who found themselves in hot water the last few years:

    Huawei is hiring Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta as a consultant, according to two people familiar with the matter. Podesta will aim to help the controversial Chinese telecom giant warm relations with the Biden administration.

    Podesta will work to advance a variety of the company’s goals in Washington, according to one of the people. He declined to comment. A spokesperson for Huawei also declined to comment.

    Huawei faces a host of challenges in Washington. In February 2020, the Justice Department charged the company with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO — a key DOJ tool for going after organized crime. DOJ alleged that Huawei helped Iran’s authoritarian government build out its domestic surveillance capabilities and tried to secretly do business in North Korea. The Justice Department has also brought charges against the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou. She was arrested in Canada, where she is fighting extradition to the U.S. Huawei and Meng maintain their innocence. Huawei has said the accusations are an effort to “irrevocably damage” its reputation and business, as CNBC has reported.

    Huawei is not Podesta’s first major China client. Disclosure forms show that his former company also represented the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), which funds a host of activities in the U.S. The University of Texas at Austin in 2018 rejected a funding offer from the foundation because of concerns about its links to the Chinese Communist Party, as Inside Higher Ed has reported.

    Podesta — a colorful K St. personality known for his loud ties and elaborate art and wine collection — previously helmed the Podesta Group, his eponymous lobbying shop. But in 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller scrutinized the firm for its work with Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chief Paul Manafort. Manafort’s team enlisted Podesta Group in its efforts to sanitize the reputation of Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych.

    It’s great that an old Washington fixture like Joe Biden can grease the skids for fellow chiselers and hacks.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  187. multiple DUIs are needed before it rises to a felony in (i believe) every state. felons are restricted from many state licenses (pawnbrokers); most states prevent felons from voting (some permanently); cannot receive federal assistance; cannot possess a firearm; cannot join the military.

    razor419 (0b022e)

  188. He could have tried the truth. I’m amazed that people will still white knight for this guy solely because they think he stuck it to Trump and righties.

    This guy is a classic lifelong government-speak bureaucrat. His spiel reminds me of that babble-that-could-curl-dried-pant-talk from NASA’s Sean O’Keefe back in the day- as noted on another thread.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  189. It’s great that an old Washington fixture like Joe Biden can grease the skids for fellow chiselers and hacks.

    Swamp gas burns. Exactly the catalyst that keeps Trumpsters fired up.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  190. FWIW, basically, the FAA has all but killed the prospect of turning paying ‘space tourists’ who cough up big, big bucks for a commercial ride to the edge of space near ‘X-15 Land’ [and even thse who pay for a ride into orbit] into officially recognized astronauts. So if/when Tom Hanks ever makes good on his reserved seat to ride aboard Unity on a commercial Virgin Galactic flight, he’ll still not be an astronaut– except in the movies.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  191. Random question of the day; can anyone name a state where a DUI is a felony offense?

    Our newest state to the south, El Salvador. It may still be a capital offense, let alone a felony.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  192. I’d have wished the virus wasn’t delayed for political reasons.

    How was the virus delayed and for what political reasons?

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  193. Random question of the day; can anyone name a state where a DUI is a felony offense?

    I think it’s a felony in every state if you kill someone.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  194. Billboard’s U.S. Money Makers: The Top Paid Musicians of 2020

    Taylor Swift’s return to No. 1 on Billboard’s 2020 Money Makers list is one of the few unsurprising results of a ranking that holds many surprises. A year with little touring resulted in many of rock and country music’s regular road warriors giving up their spots to artists with strong 2020 streaming and physical sales performances — many of them hip-hop acts.

    It’s also no surprise that the dearth of live revenue led to a precipitous decline in the paychecks of music’s top earners, who collectively took home $387 million in 2020, down from $969 million in 2019. Even Swift, that rare artist with strong sales, streaming and touring numbers, saw her take-home pay drop from $99.6 million in 2018 — the last time she was on the list — to $23.8 million.
    ………
    The genre with the biggest gains is R&B/hip-hop, which is represented by 12 artists this year, up from three in 2019. When touring is in full bloom, heritage rockers, country artists and jam bands dominate Money Makers because of their concert grosses.
    ………

    1. Taylor Swift: $23.8 million
    ……..

    2. Post Malone: $23.2M
    ………
    3. Céline Dion: $17.5M
    ……..
    4. Eagles: $16.3M
    ……..
    5. Billie Eilish: $14.7M
    ………
    6. Drake: $14.2M
    ……..
    7. Queen: $13.2M
    ……..
    8. The Beatles: $12.9M
    …….
    9. YoungBoy Never Broke Again: $11.9M
    …….
    10. Lil Baby: $11.7M
    …….
    11. The Weeknd: $10.4M
    …….
    12. Aventura: $10.2M
    …….
    13. AC/DC: $10.1M
    …….
    14. Eminem: $9.7M
    …….
    15. Lil Uzi Vert: $9.5M
    …….
    16. Luke Combs: $9.2M
    …….
    17. DaBaby: $9.1M
    ……
    18. Metallica: $9M
    …….
    19. BTS: $8.9M
    ……..
    20. Pink Floyd: $8.8M
    …….

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  195. I think this may have been true at one time, but I don’t think it is any longer simply because social mores have changed. Being single, young, and pregnant no longer has the stigma associated with it as it once did. Also, although I haven’t looked it up, I think the states that don’t require any parental consent for abortion is around 13 or 14. Thus minors could easily get an abortion. Further, given the legality and high rates of abortion, I don’t see a lot of parents wanting to force their daughters to marry when the option to terminate is readily available. Also, it’s not a matter of whether abortion or having a baby out of wedlock are superior alternatives. It’s a matter of what is going to be most convenient for the girl and her family. That’s just the way is, for the most part.

    Dana (fd537d) — 7/24/2021 @ 1:44 pm

    So murdering an innocent unborn child is preferable to getting married and raising a child as has been done all throughout human history?

    How do you reconcile this to Christians and others who know that abortion is murder and all the rest that your remarks entail?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  196. Do you think Americans could have done as well as Canadians in fighting COVID? Because, per capita, their deaths, so far, are 37 percent of ours. So, if we had done as well as they did, about 400K Americans would now be alive, who died of COVID.

    If so, what are a few of the things you would have done differently?

    For the record: I think the Trump administration did admirably in getting vaccines produced as quickly as they did — and I think those corrupt New York politicians, Andrew Cuomo and Donald J. Trump, are good examples of what not to do, otherwise.

    And, in general, I think there is way more than enough blame to go around. But I also think that, for now, we should be concentrating of defeating the virus, not quarreling with each other. And, if you, or anyone else, has good ideas on how to do that, I’d love to hear them.

    (A few of our states did do as well as Canada, notably Hawaii and Vermont.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/24/2021 @ 5:25 pm

    The country that’s gone into a totalitarian lockdown, shut their borders, attacked Christian churches, arresting pastors and burning the churches to the ground? That one?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  197. Huawei is hiring Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta as a consultant, according to two people familiar with the matter. Podesta will aim to help the controversial Chinese telecom giant warm relations with the Biden administration.

    Good to see the Democratic Party continues is 25-year-long tradition of selling the country out to China.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  198. https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/21/house-democrats-block-bill-declassifying-the-origins-of-covid-19/

    Guess they believe China really will nuke us for reporting on the truth of the virus, right?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  199. https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/21/johns-hopkins-study-found-zero-covid-deaths-among-healthy-kids/

    A team of Johns Hopkins researchers recently reported that when studying a group of about 48,000 children, they found zero COVID deaths among healthy kids,

    This complicates things if it was treated honestly instead of selfishly.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  200. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/07/21/bombshell-joe-biden-used-a-hillary-esque-private-email-account-when-he-was-vice-president-n1463538

    Hillary Clinton’s private email server cast a dark shadow over her 2016 presidential campaign, as it became clear she used the private server to thwart government transparency laws and then went to great lengths to destroy evidence—even that which was under subpoena.

    It turns out she wasn’t the only one using a private email.

    According to emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Joe Biden used a private email account to send his son Hunter Biden information from the State Department, according to Just The News, which has reviewed some of the emails.

    While some of the emails were personal in nature, “others were political in nature, and still others clearly addressed business matters, often forwarding information coming from senior officials in the White House, the State Department and other government agencies.”

    Hunter Biden was serving on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings while then-Vice President Biden was the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine matters. Joe Biden infamously bragged about his role in the firing of Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin back in 2016. Shokin was investigating corruption at Burisma Holdings. Biden told Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko he would withhold a $1 billion loan unless Poroshenko fired Shokin—an indisputable quid pro quo.

    It is not yet clear if Biden discussed Burisma or Ukraine matters with Hunter via this private account.

    Think there will be an investigation into this or just another whitewashing like they did with Hillary where they granted all her staff immunity and destroyed all the electronic devices that held the evidence?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  201. https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/21/tom-cotton-arkansas-tucker-carlson-asa-hutchinson-transgender/

    A federal judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of a highly publicized Arkansas law banning transgender procedures for minors.
    Arkansas’ “Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” otherwise known as the SAFE Act, prohibits physicians from performing sex-change procedures, such as puberty blockers or “top” and “bottom” surgeries, on minors.
    Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed the SAFE Act earlier this year, but the state legislature overrode his veto, making Arkansas the first state to ban the procedures for minors.
    “Our legislature made the reasonable decision to protect minors from dangerous and life-altering drugs, hormones, and surgeries,” Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said in a statement.

    Why are so many people desirous of mutilating children?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  202. https://nypost.com/2021/07/23/doj-drops-civil-rights-probe-of-cuomo-nursing-home-covid-scandal/

    The Department of Justice has decided not to investigate whether the civil rights of residents in New York’s government-run nursing homes were violated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial admission policy related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In a letter Friday, the DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs told US Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), ranking member of that House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, that New York was off the hook in connection with potential violations of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.

    Just a fair and unbiased administration as so many promised us when they decided Joe was their man.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  203. https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/investigations/murder-charges-dropped-suspect-freed-kim-gardner/63-40aba7a5-5b36-410c-86bd-59ee93548b64

    St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office has “essentially abandoned its duty to prosecute those it charges with crimes.”

    This according to St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser, who dismissed a murder case Friday after Gardner’s prosecutors failed to appear for multiple hearings on the case.

    Brandon Campbell is accused in the shooting death of Randy Moore back on April 9, 2020.

    St. Louis police told the I-Team murder suspect Campbell is now free, despite a statement from Gardner’s office saying it re-filed the charges and that he is in custody.

    In that statement, Gardner wrote: “Be assured that as the Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis, I am accountable to the public for the actions of the office and remain committed as ever to upholding the highest possible standards and practices of accountability at all levels of this office, particularly the public safety of the residents of the City of St. Louis. As a result, the individual in this case is (sic) custody.”

    Gardner’s office issued a revised statement at about 7 p.m. Tuesday confirming Campbell remains at large and that the office has kept Moore’s family informed about the case. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Wednesday morning issued a news release asking for the public’s help in finding Campbell.

    How did she get elected again? Who funded her campaign? Which party pushed her and promoted her?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  204. https://freebeacon.com/democrats/george-soros-funnels-1m-to-defund-the-police-as-violent-crime-surges/

    George Soros is funneling money to support defunding the police, a cause that cost Democrats politically in the 2020 election as violent crime spiked across the country.

    Soros gave $1 million to Color Of Change PAC on May 14, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. It is the progressive billionaire’s largest political contribution of the 2021 election cycle and his first to the political action committee since 2016.

    The contribution from one of the Democratic establishment’s biggest donors could further undercut the party’s efforts to downplay allegations that it backs defunding police departments. Republicans have hammered Democrats over their position on policing as violent crime has skyrocketed nationwide. As part of the effort to beat back the allegations, the White House has accused Republicans of supporting the defund movement—a claim the liberal Washington Post gave “three Pinocchios” earlier this month.

    Soros doing his part to try and destroy our nation. He’s worked hard at it for decades. May he rot for eternity.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  205. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/21/poll-overwhelming-majority-oppose-vaccine-mandates/

    A majority of Americans oppose being forced or coerced into getting a vaccine for the Chinese coronavirus, a Convention of States Action/Trafalgar Group survey released this week found.

    The survey asked respondents, “Do you believe taking COVID vaccines should be mandatory, or should taking the vaccine be a personal choice?”

    Overall, 71.4 percent said vaccines should be a “personal choice,” 21.8 percent said they should be “mandatory,” and 6.8 percent remain unsure.

    That general sentiment holds across party lines, as 58.7 percent of Democrats believe it should be a personal choice, as do 87.3 percent of Republicans and 67.2 percent of independent voters. However, one-third of Democrats, 33 percent, believe vaccines should be mandatory.

    People choose freedom instead of imagined safety. Go figure.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  206. The way you phrased that implies churches are being burned as part of government action. That’s not correct. It was apparently done as criminal acts of arson. Likely by criminals acting in response to the large number of unmarked children’s graves from the residential school that were recently found at those churches. I believe they’re still be investigated as crimes.

    Time123 (4258aa)

  207. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9821959/Joe-Biden-kept-private-emails-using-pseudonyms-send-receive-correspondence.html

    Joe Biden set up private email accounts using fake names including ‘Robin Ware,’ ‘Robert L. Peters’ and ‘JRB ware’ from which he would send and receive government correspondence, Hunter Biden’s laptop reveals

    No wonder the FBI wanted to avoid looking at Hunter’s laptop.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  208. The way you phrased that implies churches are being burned as part of government action. That’s not correct. It was apparently done as criminal acts of arson. Likely by criminals acting in response to the large number of unmarked children’s graves from the residential school that were recently found at those churches. I believe they’re still be investigated as crimes.

    Time123 (4258aa) — 7/24/2021 @ 9:39 pm

    It’s being done with the tacit support of the government, just like our own is supporting BLM as they commit arson and trash historical monuments.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  209. In reference to 199

    Time123 (4258aa)

  210. Is there evidence the government is tacitly supporting that?

    Time123 (4258aa)

  211. https://spectator.org/trudeau-arson-churches-canada/

    But while indigenous leaders are forceful in their condemnations of the alleged arson, Prime Minister Trudeau’s statements fit more into a “arson is wrong, but … ” category, taking Rahm Emanuel’s advice to “never allow a crisis to go to waste” or President Barack Obama’s penchant for “teachable moments” and preaching a narrative of social justice in response to the destruction.

    Yes, Trudeau condemned the alleged arsons earlier this month as “unacceptable and wrong.” But after a dramatic pause, in the very next sentence, Trudeau said he “understand(s) the anger that is out there against the federal government, against institutions like the Catholic Church. It is real and it is fully understandable given the shameful history that we all are becoming more and more aware of, and engaging ourselves to do better as Canadians” (my emphasis). Trudeau also said that while

    we shouldn’t be lashing out at buildings … we should be, every day, committing ourselves, each and every one of us, to the hard work we need to do to actually rebuild a path forward that reflects the terrible intergenerational trauma and present day realities of suffering that we are all collectively responsible for.

    Just like Democrats giving their support to BLM and antifa.

    Disgusting.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  212. It’s being done with the tacit support of the government, just like our own is supporting BLM as they commit arson and trash historical monuments.

    Another fact-free post from NJRob.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  213. If that’s the total evidence of support it’s not very persuasive.

    Time123 (4258aa)

  214. Time123,

    I’m not trying to persuade you or Rip. Your minds were made up from the beginning. It’s the people who read here silently that can decide for themselves.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  215. What beginning? I’m not Canadian. I’m not at all invested in their politics. It would be news and interesting if there were tacit approval of that type of attrocity but otherwise it’s just a news story to me.

    Time123 (4258aa)

  216. AP-NORC poll: Most unvaccinated Americans don’t want shots
    …….
    Among American adults who have not yet received a vaccine, 35% say they probably will not, and 45% say they definitely will not, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 3% say they definitely will get the shots, though another 16% say they probably will.

    What’s more, 64% of unvaccinated Americans have little to no confidence the shots are effective against variants — including the delta variant that officials say is responsible for 83% of new cases in the U.S. — despite evidence that they offer strong protection. In contrast, 86% of those who have already been vaccinated have at least some confidence that the vaccines will work.

    That means “that there will be more preventable cases, more preventable hospitalizations and more preventable deaths,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.

    “We always knew some proportion of the population would be difficult to persuade no matter what the data showed, (and) a lot of people are beyond persuasion,” Adalja said……
    ………
    The AP-NORC survey found that the majority of Americans — 54% — are at least somewhat concerned that they or someone in their family will be infected, including 27% who are very concerned. ……
    ………
    Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say they have not been vaccinated and definitely or probably won’t be, 43% to 10%. Views are also divided along age and education lines: Thirty-seven percent of those under age 45 say they haven’t and likely won’t get the shots, compared with just 16% of those older. And those without college degrees are more likely than those with them to say they aren’t and won’t be vaccinated, 30% to 18%.
    ………
    ……… A large majority of Americans, 66%, continue to approve of how Biden is handling the pandemic — higher than Biden’s overall approval rating of 59%.

    The difference is fueled largely by Republicans, 32% of whom say they approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19 compared with 15% who approve of him overall. About 9 in 10 Democrats approve of Biden overall and for his handling of the pandemic.
    …..,,..
    Poll top lines.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  217. Cleveland Guardians? What a fakakta name. I wonder how much money they spent coming up with that.

    Another stupid naming decision was not the adoption of a name but the failure to jettison one. In 1979 the New Orleans Jazz NBA team moved to Utah. Instead of changing the name to something more fitting, the new owner decided to keep the Jazz name. Utah is many things, but jazzy isn’t one of them.

    Now, before anyone brings up the Los Angeles Lakers, I should note that there are lakes in L.A. County. Plus, the name has alliteration that just rolls off the tongue.

    norcal (a6130b)

  218. Covid-19 Vaccine Holdouts Face Restrictions in Europe as Delta Variant Spreads
    ………
    The governments have the dual objective of overcoming hesitancy among people who don’t have a hard-core ideological stance against vaccinations, while stemming the need for new lockdowns that would damage European economies. Politicians and public-health officials are pushing the idea that vaccination equals more individual liberty, not less.
    ……….
    The restrictions have had early success, pushing millions of French people to sign up for vaccination appointments in the past week and helping turn around a stalled campaign. …….
    ………
    “We can’t force people to get vaccinated, but those who don’t do it will have fewer opportunities,” Walter Ricciardi, a professor of public health and an adviser to Italy’s health minister, said in a newspaper interview.

    But in deference to one of the daily rituals of millions of Italians, the vaccination requirement for indoor dining and drinking doesn’t apply to people having an espresso or cappuccino while standing at a bar.
    ………
    In Greece and other countries, indoor dining is only open to the vaccinated, recovered or tested. Italy will follow suit on Aug. 6, adding the requirement for those taking part in indoor sports such as swimming, going to a gym and attending large events like concerts, whether indoors or outside. Trade fairs, museums and a host of other venues are on Italy’s off-limits list for the unvaccinated. In France, the government has set restrictions for museums and movie theaters, and plans in August to extend them to venues including restaurants, both indoors and outside.

    In England, beginning in September, proof of full vaccination will be required to get into nightclubs and the government has said the requirement could be added to other venues where large crowds gather. A Covid-19 pass has been added to the state-run National Health Service’s mobile-phone app, allowing users to demonstrate proof of vaccination.

    The clampdown measures on the unvaccinated come as most of Europe grapples with an explosion of infections due to the rapidly spreading Delta variant. The number of daily positive tests in France has more than quintupled since late June and the positivity rate has quadrupled to 3.2%. The increases in Italy have been less dramatic, but the country is bracing itself.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  219. Tearing new ones like it’s the Lord’s work! A tip of the hat to you, Rob!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  220. Hey Colonel,

    It’s nice to see you come back. I always enjoy your haikus and alternative lyrics.

    Somebody said you moved to Utah. Is that true? Whereabouts?

    norcal (a6130b)

  221. Another stupid naming decision was not the adoption of a name but the failure to jettison one. In 1979 the New Orleans Jazz NBA team moved to Utah. Instead of changing the name to something more fitting, the new owner decided to keep the Jazz name. Utah is many things, but jazzy isn’t one of them.

    Utah’s old American Basketball Association team was called the Stars. If there was a national mascot registry, when the Jazz moved to Utah they would have taken the rights to the name “Lakers” from Los Angeles, and in return the Los Angeles franchise could be known as the Stars which is appropriate for Hollywood. Then, when basketball returned to New Orleans, they could have resumed using the name Jazz.

    And the Vancouver Grizzlies moving to Memphis and retaining their mascot is another example of idiocy.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  222. The Cleveland Blues.

    Look’em up.

    They shudda gone w/that name– if only for the sake of baseball history.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  223. Also, it’s not a matter of whether abortion or having a baby out of wedlock are superior alternatives. It’s a matter of what is going to be most convenient for the girl and her family. That’s just the way is, for the most part.

    My comment wasn’t referring my personal beliefs. It was an observation of today’s culture at large. Abortion is convenient and readily available. Therefore, it’s ostensibly the best and quickest solution to the problem..

    Dana (fd537d)

  224. JVW @224,

    I remember going to a Utah Stars game as a kid. Moses Malone was on that team. I wasn’t that into the basketball itself because I was so young. However, I WAS into making a paper airplane that was rather compact and dense (where I learned how, I don’t know, maybe my dad). Anyway, I let it fly, and instead of gliding down the arena, like other paper airplanes I saw, it took a fast dive and probably hit somebody just a couple of rows in front of us. I was very disappointed.

    I like your name swap idea. The Great Salt Lake supports the name Lakers for Utah. Failing that, why not name the Utah NBA team the Stars also?

    Yes, the name Memphis Grizzlies is ridiculous. Curiously, neither the Jazz nor the Grizzlies have ever won a championship. Coincidence? I think not.

    norcal (a6130b)

  225. I prefer the Cleveland Rockers, but that sounds too close to the CO Rockies. Or the Indians.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  226. Pillar Investigates: USCCB gen sec Burrill resigns after sexual misconduct allegations
    Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, former general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference, announced his resignation Tuesday, after The Pillar found evidence the priest engaged in serial sexual misconduct, while he held a critical oversight role in the Catholic Church’s response to the recent spate of sexual abuse and misconduct scandals.
    ……..
    ……..[A]n analysis of app data signals correlated to Burrill’s mobile device shows the priest also visited gay bars and private residences while using a location-based hookup app in numerous cities from 2018 to 2020, even while traveling on assignment for the U.S. bishops’ conference.

    According to commercially available records of app signal data obtained by The Pillar, a mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted app data signals from the location-based hookup app Grindr on a near-daily basis during parts of 2018, 2019, and 2020 — at both his USCCB office and his USCCB-owned residence, as well as during USCCB meetings and events in other cities.
    ………
    Data app signals suggest he was at the same time engaged in serial and illicit sexual activity.

    On June 20, 2018, the day the McCarrick revelations became public, the mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted hookup app signals at the USCCB staff residence, and from a street in a residential Washington neighborhood. He traveled to Las Vegas shortly thereafter, data records show.

    On June 22, the mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted signals from Entourage, which bills itself as Las Vegas’ “gay bathhouse.”

    Commercially available app signal data does not identify the names of app users, but instead correlates a unique numerical identifier to each mobile device using particular apps. Signal data, collected by apps after users consent to data collection, is aggregated and sold by data vendors. It can be analyzed to provide timestamped location data and usage information for each numbered device.
    ………
    The data obtained and analyzed by The Pillar conveys mobile app data signals during two 26-week periods, the first in 2018 and the second in 2019 and 2020. The data was obtained from a data vendor and authenticated by an independent data consulting firm contracted by The Pillar.

    The Pillar correlated a unique mobile device to Burrill when it was used consistently from 2018 until at least 2020 from the USCCB staff residence and headquarters, from meetings at which Burrill was in attendance, and was also used on numerous occasions at Burrill’s family lake house, near the residences of Burrill’s family members, and at a Wisconsin apartment in Burrill’s hometown, at which Burrill himself has been listed as a resident.
    ……..
    Use of location-based hookup apps is inconsistent with clerical obligations to continence and chastity, according to Fr. Thomas Berg, a professor of moral theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York.

    Berg told The Pillar that “according to canon law and the Church’s tradition, clerics are obliged to observe ‘perfect and perpetual continence,’ as a reflection of what should be our lived pursuit of our spousal relationship with the Church and with Christ.”

    Calling it “obviously a scandal” that a cleric would use location-based hookup apps, Berg said there is “a real disconnect between the appearance of a man who presumably is earnestly striving to live the life of chastity, when it becomes glaringly evident that he is dramatically failing at that because he’s gone to hookup apps to look actively for sexual partners — that itself is an enormous scandal.”
    ……….
    Fr. Berg told The Pillar that serial sexual misconduct on the part of clerics, especially those in leadership positions, causes “scandal and confusion, even for other priests. It’s always particularly hard, a punch in the gut, because the hypocrisy is particularly painful and particularly scandalous. And what it also breeds is cynicism. You can breed discouragement, you can breed the idea that this system is so beyond broken why are we even trying? And we forget about the hundreds of folks who are doing their work heroically in many ways to serve the Church in those capacities.”
    ………..
    The real story here isn’t priestly misconduct, but how the Pillar tracked his movements. Using “anonymized” location data from apps is a new tool for government and journalism, given that the data aggregators and sellers are virtually unregulated. The NYT used cell phone data to track the Capitol rioters from the Mall to the Capitol. And in 2019 the Times used this data to track President Trump’s movements. Both the Trump and Biden campaigns used location data to track “anonymous” supporters.

    Related: Inside the Industry That Unmasks People at Scale
    Tech companies have repeatedly reassured the public that trackers used to follow smartphone users through apps are anonymous or at least pseudonymous, not directly identifying the person using the phone. But what they don’t mention is that an entire overlooked industry exists to purposefully and explicitly shatter that anonymity.

    They do this by linking mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) collected by apps to a person’s full name, physical address, and other personal identifiable information (PII). Motherboard confirmed this by posing as a potential customer to a company that offers linking MAIDs to PII.
    ……….
    “We have one of the largest repositories of current, fresh MAIDSPII in the USA,” Brad Mack, CEO of data broker BIGDBM told us when we asked about the capabilities of the product while posing as a customer. “All BIGDBM USA data assets are connected to each other,” Mack added, explaining that MAIDs are linked to full name, physical address, and their phone, email address, and IP address if available. The dataset also includes other information, “too numerous to list here,” Mack wrote.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  227. More pearls of wisdom from the true killer of Jeb!:

    https://news.yahoo.com/chris-christie-suggested-trump-conduct-132248551.html

    urbanleftbehind (d98636)

  228. usa basketball gets smeared by france

    the opportunity to kneel at the podium doesn’t seem to be motivating them

    JF (e1156d)

  229. The magnificent Mr M wrote:

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48) — 7/24/2021 @ 4:30 pm

    Try “the head-in-the-sand clutching-at-spurious-factoids Dana”

    I understand that the statistics I presented, complete with hyperlinked references, don’t square well with your political position, but just how are such statistics “spurious”?

    One point: given that the percentage of ‘breakthrough’ cases increased from 19.5% to 24.3% between the third and fourth weeks of July, and are listed as total July cases, that means that the new COVID cases during the fourth week alone had a 38.7% ‘breakthrough’ rate.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  230. Brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. available here

    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21014766/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization-brief-for-petitioners-final.pdf

    The case is limited to the single question “Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” It will be heard 2021-2022.

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  231. Biden spending over $2B to halt border wall construction amid migrant crisis

    Turns out not building a wall is almost as costly as building one.

    President Joe Biden is spending at least $3 million a day on contractors “to watch steel rust in the desert,” Senate Republicans have found — as he tries to put a stop to former President Trump’s planned wall along the US-Mexico border, despite the ongoing crisis there.

    “President Biden is paying professional construction contractors to babysit metal to the tune of $2 billion and counting, while at the same time we’ve seen a 20-year high number of migrants crossing our open border,” said Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.)

    how many $$$ does that work out for each unvaccinated future democrat he’s welcoming in?

    probably pretty cheap

    JF (e1156d)

  232. The Cleveland Flip Flops

    mg (8cbc69)

  233. AP Interview: Premier: Iraq doesn’t need US combat troops

    Good. Let’s leave immediately.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  234. usa basketball gets smeared by france

    the opportunity to kneel at the podium doesn’t seem to be motivating them

    Don’t worry there’s plenty of games left to fulfill your fantasy.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  235. DCSCA —

    There are dangers in those historic team names. The Braves will certainly be changing their name in the next five years. If they look back in time, they can call themselves the Atlanta Crackers (the old Minor League team name). If they want to honor the african-American affiliate, they can be the Black Crackers.

    If the team wants to look at it’s pretty-Atlanta history, they can call themselves the Bees. (That might even make a few Georgia Tech guys happy.)

    Appalled (1a17de)

  236. Atlanta Plantations

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  237. @240. Danger? In baseball?

    Only on nickel beer nights and from foul tips.

    Nah. Look it up. HoF/no-hitters… The Cleveland Blues oozes class– and baseball history. The Cleveland Guardians conjures up the image and charm of a cigar store indian.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  238. The Atlanta Greys.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  239. Re; 6th news iten:

    There is no contradiction.

    without knowing the identity of the purchaser

    doesn’t mean not knowing prospective buyers.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  240. Pence can do better as a third party candidate.

    But Joe Biden, at this point, is planning on running for a second term.

    https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/981260663/biden-says-he-expects-to-run-for-a-second-term

    Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump may be either hoping or expecting Donald Trump does not run again – but he’s not going to say he won’t until the moment of truth comes, which won;t be till after November, 2022,

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  241. ‘Biden spending over $2B to halt border wall construction amid migrant crisis. Turns out not building a wall is almost as costly as building one.’

    ‘The Peter Principle’ at work; given the VP spot ain’t worth more than a ‘pitcher of warm piss’ anyway, once a senator, always a senator. He’s an incompetent, brain-damaged, doddering plagiarist.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  242. Putin is roflhao

    mg (8cbc69)

  243. Atlanta Fieldhands…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  244. 275. AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/24/2021 @ 6:54 pm

    and that the nature of the virus….asymptomatic transmission…was not known well early.

    That was known right at the begiining, because there were cases that could not be traced back to CChina. That meant “community transmission”

    What I think was not realized, what I think is still not realized is that a symptomtic cases most often can lead to asymptomatic cases, and only after a chain of several successive transmissions do you stat to get more serious cases. This is a virus that most people can handle, * but every successive case starts with a higher dose of virus and so the turning point is later.

    Possible test of this hypothesis: If the first persons in a family to get sick tend to have the least serious cases.

    —–
    * that still adds up to a lot when it infects many people, and you can get into a situation where many people have serous cases.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  245. Marietta Mandingos

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  246. Joe Biden is facing reality – partially.

    His Afghanistan withdrawal is not going to work.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/world/europe/us-airstrikes-afghanistan-taliban.html

    U.S. military aircraft struck a number of Taliban positions this week in support of faltering Afghan government forces, in one of the first significant American reactions to the insurgents’ blistering advance across Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw….

    ….The Taliban called the strikes “disobedience” to last year’s withdrawal agreement with the Americans, and they warned of unspecified “consequences” — an indication that the airstrikes had an impact on the insurgent group.

    The scale and pace of the Taliban advance has provoked alarm among top U.S. military and civilian officials in recent days. The Taliban now threaten most of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and even Kabul, the national capital. The group has overrun more than half of the country’s 400-odd districts, in many cases seizing them without a fight, since it began its offensive in earnest in May.

    The United States and other major powers are pushing for a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but the Taliban believe they are winning the war, leaving little incentive to negotiate.

    “We do have deep concerns about the actions the Taliban is taking, indicating that it may be trying to take the country by force,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Friday on MSNBC. “But were that to happen, Afghanistan would be a pariah state.”

    Now if Pakistan would become a pariah state, that might mean something.

    Biden is trying to get Afghans (on a list) out before the deadline. ‘

    The airstrikes were done quietly and from bases in the United Arab Emirates or from an aaircraft carrier.

    This week’s strikes are a sign that the near-collapse of Afghan forces in the last month has caught the attention of official Washington.
    The United States no longer has combat aircraft stationed in Afghanistan. The planes or drones deployed this week would have been based in the Persian Gulf or on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan nearby.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  247. Vaccine mandates more likely once FDA grants full approvals, health experts say

    The United States could see a wave of Covid-19 vaccine mandates as soon as the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to one or more of the shots, public health experts predicted.
    ……..
    “I think once the vaccines go through full FDA approval, everything should be on the table, and I think that everything will be on the table at the level of municipalities, states, employers, venues, government agencies,” said Andy Slavitt, who stepped down as President Joe Biden’s Covid response coordinator last month and remains in close contact with administration officials.

    Many institutions, including colleges and universities, have long required certain immunizations. Still, the suggestion of Covid vaccine mandates, whether by local governments for school children or by businesses for their customers, has so far been met with sharp resistance — primarily from conservative lawmakers and activists.
    ………
    (Slavitt) said he believes some federal agencies should then begin requiring vaccinations for their employees, including members of the military, health care workers at Veterans Affairs hospitals and nursing homes, and other federal workers in close contact with the public, like airport security screeners.
    ………
    It is unclear how much authority the Biden administration could have as far as requiring vaccinations beyond the federal workforce. No federal vaccination mandate has ever been tested in court and none has ever been issued for the general population. Instead, much of the power to require vaccinations has rested with state and local governments following a Supreme Court ruling in 1905 that upheld a city board of health law requiring all adults get vaccinated against smallpox.

    Just a handful of major companies, businesses and venues have put in place any vaccine mandates so far. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are among the few companies requiring new employees to get vaccinated, but the policy doesn’t apply to current employees.

    Several other companies, like BlackRock, have said only vaccinated employees can return to the office but have yet to say what will happen with unvaccinated ones. Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium have both limited their events to vaccinated attendees, but many other venues have only encouraged guests to get vaccinated.
    ………..
    I doubt that the Biden Administration will issue a nationwide, mandatory vaccination order. Too many legal unknowns for a federal order, though I could see some states doing so if more virulent variants develop that current vaccines can’t handle.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  248. 157. The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48) — 7/24/2021 @ 4:30 pm

    It seems at least possible that the vaccines don’t prevent infections at all,

    How could they?

    Other vaccines probably don’t prevent infections from other diseases also – they only help the body beat it back, sometimes very quickly..

    Normally a subclinical or relatively mild infection wouldn’t be diagnosed – this is not always the case with Covid. And the PCR test is extremely sensitive.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  249. @238 rip, my fantasy is to come upon a thread you won’t hijack and spam to death

    JF (e1156d)

  250. Joe Biden is facing reality – partially.

    His Afghanistan withdrawal is not going to work.

    The withdrawal has already worked-Americans are no longer in Afghanistan. There is no pretense that withdrawing US troops (which were not involved in combat anyway, just sitting ducks for insider attacks) would change the situation on the ground.

    The Afghan government and people are on their own.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  251. The antibody infusion, recommended by Dr. Thomas Yadegar of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, is one of the steps COVID-19 patients can turn to minimize symptoms. Yadegar says even if you’re vaccinated, you have to ask your doctor for it.

    Unfortunately true, too many times. I think that sentence is abit garbled. It should read:

    The antibody infusion, recommended by Dr. Thomas Yadegar of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, even if you’re vaccinated, is one of the steps COVID-19 patients can turn to minimize symptoms. Yadegar says you have to ask your doctor for it.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  252. @238 rip, my fantasy is to come upon a thread you won’t hijack and spam to death

    This is an open thread, and anyone can post anything they find interesting.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  253. There is no pretense that withdrawing US troops (which were not involved in combat anyway, just sitting ducks for insider attacks) would change the situation on the ground.

    It’s not only pretense, it’s reality. The pretence is that the Afghans can defend themselves, on the grounds that the enemy they are facing is much less of a serious treat than were the Nazi troops in France in 1940, the Chinese Communists in most of China in 1948-9, and the North Vietnamese a,my in South Vietnam in 1975. But the Afghan troops are fearful and surrendering.

    The main way the United States has helped is by giving confidence to Afghans that there will not be a total collapse, and by airstrikes.

    Defeat does not always go to the lesser equipped force.

    Another fantasy is negotiations. The Afghan government won’t even be able to get the kind of agreement that was achieved with the FARC in Colombia.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  254. Obviously the US never believed that the Afghan government could defend themselves, and Trump’s negotiations, like those with North Vietnam, was the US washing its hands of the matter.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  255. I have no respect whatsoever for any person who is not today vaccinated. They are like people who insist on driving drunk and make excuses and rationalizations for their behavior. It’s not liberty they are invoking but libertinism, not freedom but reckless disregard for others. They are, in short, assh0les.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  256. The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48) — 7/24/2021 @ 1:02 pm

    Given that the 24.3% figure is a significant jump from last week’s figure of 19.5%, ‘twould seem to me that there is a significantly growing percentage of vaccinated people who have contracted the virus.

    It might be the Delta variant, or perhaps the Delta Plus, or intensified testing.

    There’s a report from Israel that the Pfizer vaccine is now only 39% effective against detectable level infections, but Fauci is not ready to believe it.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-39percent-effective-in-israel-prevents-severe-illness.html

    Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine is just 39% effective in Israel where the delta variant is the dominant strain, according to a new report from the country’s Health Ministry.

    The two-dose vaccine still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness, according to the Israeli data.

    https://www.newsweek.com/fauci-doubt-study-delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-efficacy-1607534

    Dr. Anthony Fauci has cast doubt on an Israeli study showing the Pfizer vaccine is only 64 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID cases amid the spread of the Delta variant.

    The Delta variant, also known as B.1.617.2, is what experts consider a variant of concern.

    ….On Tuesday, Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, appeared tentative about the findings in an interview with NPR, and said the percentage could be the result of the country testing more people for COVID.

    This could make it appear as if the vaccine is less effective.

    He said: “We don’t have enough data or enough numbers to know what that means.

    “It could mean that they just are testing a heck of a lot more people who are asymptomatically infected, and they’re seeing a larger percentage of people infected. Hence a diminution in the efficacy of the vaccine.”

    Fauci told NPR the apparent decline in effectiveness was “something we would certainly want to pay attention to, but I’m not so sure we can make any major conclusions based on the information we have right now.”

    Indeed, previous data shows that the Pfizer vaccine is not tat much less effective. It’s only on the order of 10% less effective.

    So it’s probably either the Delta Plus or intensified testing. It’s not Delta replacing the others.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  257. I understand that the statistics I presented, complete with hyperlinked references, don’t square well with your political position, but just how are such statistics “spurious”?

    Because you picked out the statistic that you wanted, ignoring others. For example, in the same article:

    “less than 1 percent of [vaccinated people] have had a breakthrough case of COVID-19.”

    But you interpreted the current percentage (of a small number) of hospital admissions to reflect the rate at which vaccinated people get sick. When it clearly is not. It may be that people who get vaccinated also tend to seek out medical care quicker than people who have not. Or are more likely to be insured. Or other factors.

    But the fact remains that EVEN IN THE ARTICLE YOU QUOTED the rate of infection in vaccinated people is ONE PERCENT.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  258. 203

    According to emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Joe Biden used a private email account to send his son Hunter Biden information from the State Department, [more exactly, ” often forwarding information coming from senior officials in the White House, the State Department and other government agencies”] according to Just The News, which has reviewed some of the emails.

    Which means the New York Post, The Daily Mail, and Rudolph Giuliani have those emails.

    In addition to “Just the News”

    It’s not Hunter Biden’s laptop, but data files recovered from his laptop by the computer repairman in Delaware. Hunter Biden was apparently synchronizing his laptops with an iCloud account.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  259. Joe Biden is facing reality – partially.

    His Afghanistan withdrawal is not going to work.

    By his measure, it only fails if he puts troops back in. So he won’t. You may have other criteria, but that’s not Biden’s problem.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  260. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/25/2021 @ 1:16 pm

    EVEN IN THE ARTICLE YOU QUOTED the rate of infection in vaccinated people is ONE PERCENT.

    What’s the rate in unvaccinated people?

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  261. I very much doubt that anyone in Afghanistan, or elsewhere in the Ummah, is going to piss off the USA like OBL did. And least not for quite a while. “Do you want them back?!” will be a winning argument for a while.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  262. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/25/2021 @ 1:22 pm

    By his measure, it only fails if he puts troops back in. So he won’t. You may have other criteria, but that’s not Biden’s problem.

    It also fails if people who worked for the U.S. government get killed. It’s a disaster if the Taliban come back, because he clearly does not want that. His efforts to prevent that are close to pathetic.

    Now the reasoning is that the chances of terrorism coming from Afghanistan are not greater than from five or six other places, which don’t have U.S. troops there.

    He’s also looking for a loophole to keep U.S, troops in Iraq.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/world/middleeast/iraq-biden-us-forces.html

    U.S. to Announce Troop Drawdown From Iraq, but Little Is Expected to Change

    …. American officials say the United States is likely to oblige the request from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, setting a deadline to be announced on Monday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces by the end of the year.

    Pentagon and other administration officials say they will achieve this by removing a small but unspecified number of the 2,500 American forces currently stationed in Iraq, and by reclassifying on paper the roles of other forces. Mr. al-Kadhimi will have a political trophy to take home to satisfy anti-American factions in Iraq and the U.S. military presence will remain.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  263. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/25/2021 @ 1:26 pm

    “Do you want them back?!” will be a winning argument for a while.

    I think tey’;ll be alittle bit more careful, but there]s also the potemtal argument that “The Americans are not coming back, and we’ll prove it by attacking American forces on the way out and taking people hostage.”

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  264. Lets start a list of potentially life threatening transmittable illnesses and infections etc. and require everyone to take all of their prescribed medicines. If we all can make others give up their individual autonomy, we can save millions of lives.

    steveg (ebe7c1)

  265. What’s the rate in unvaccinated people?

    Good question, but it really doesn’t tell what you think it will. The article suggests that the local hospitalization rates (N=38 (small)) may have more vaccinated people in them because they may be less careful. If they follow the CDC suggestions they are not wearing masks or staying out of crowds.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  266. How much would bail be set at for Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk?
    They can flee Earth after all.

    Didn’t someone make a good argument that freezing all accounts can violate a persons right to mount the most effective defense

    steveg (ebe7c1)

  267. Lets start a list of potentially life threatening transmittable illnesses and infections etc. and require everyone to take all of their prescribed medicines. If we all can make others give up their individual autonomy, we can save millions of lives.

    We have done that at times. Smallpox comes to mind. You cannot put a child in school in many states who is not immunized against measles, chicken pox, rubella, etc. There are very narrow exemptions and several doctors who wrote bogus ones have been struck off in CA.

    You cannot teach school (or some other jobs) with TB.

    Can you name a life-threatening transmittable disease that carries with it no restrictions?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  268. It also fails if people who worked for the U.S. government get killed.

    We shall see. I bet you that the press will side with Biden.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  269. Didn’t someone make a good argument that freezing all accounts can violate a persons right to mount the most effective defense

    The court limited his withdrawals from his bank to $50,000 (per unknown period) but made an exception for payments to lawyers.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  270. Apparently libertarians have given up on the old “Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.” Now it’s “My right to swing my fist ends where I say, so stand back!”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  271. Can you name a life-threatening transmittable disease that carries with it no restrictions?

    Liberalism.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  272. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/25/2021 @ 1:49 pm

    Can you name a life-threatening transmittable disease that carries with it no restrictions?

    Covid is not life-threatening for children 11 and under and you are hard put to find (these days) a fatality under age 30).

    I bet you that the press will side with Biden.

    They’ll chase most of the reporters out of Afghanistan. But nit all, at first. We’ll know about it.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  273. errrata at 248:

    asymptommtic cases most often can lead to [other] asymptomatic cases, and only after a chain of several successive transmissions do you start to get more serious cases.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  274. Can you name a life-threatening transmittable disease that carries with it no restrictions?

    Trumpism, and it’s infected the Republican Party.

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  275. Seems to be a restriction then, Rip.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  276. A team of Johns Hopkins researchers recently reported that when studying a group of about 48,000 children, they found zero COVID deaths among healthy kids,

    This complicates things if it was treated honestly instead of selfishly.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/24/2021 @ 9:32 pm
    ……….
    Covid is not life-threatening for children 11 and under and you are hard put to find (these days) a fatality under age 30).
    ………
    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/25/2021 @ 1:56 pm

    As others have pointed out, the JH study only looked at healthy children by reviewing health insurance data. Presumably they did not look at children in foreign countries.

    No Longer ‘Hidden Victims,’ Children Are Dying as Virus Surges in Indonesia

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  277. No Longer ‘Hidden Victims,’ Children Are Dying as Virus Surges in Indonesia
    Hundreds of children in Indonesia have died from the coronavirus in recent weeks, many of them under age 5, a mortality rate greater than that of any other country and one that challenges the idea that children face minimal risk from Covid-19, doctors say.

    The deaths, more than 100 a week this month, have come as Indonesia confronts its biggest surge yet in coronavirus cases over all — and as its leaders face mounting criticism that they have been unprepared and slow to act.
    ……..
    Based on reports from pediatricians, children now make up 12.5 percent of the country’s confirmed cases, an increase over previous months, said Dr. Aman, executive director of the pediatric association. More than 150 children died from Covid-19 during the week of July 12 alone, he said, with half the recent deaths involving those younger than 5.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (0d5408)

  278. Cop caught on camera trying to plant evidence/manufacture probable cause

    https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1419027693530755080

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  279. Have you stumbled upon the complete video, Dave?

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  280. “Have you stumbled upon the complete video, Dave?”

    Do you mean the one from the cop’s POV where he turns his body so the cam doesn’t pick up him tossing the baggie into the car?

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  281. Hahaha!

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  282. What do you think happened, BuDuh?

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  283. From the two body cam videos that have been released it is clear that an empty baggie was taken from the passenger who was sitting in the back of the car. The empty baggy was then put in the back of the car.

    The police have 6hours of video tape to review because there were cameras on all the officers and their squad cars.

    What I don’t think happened was four officers conspired to sting some speeders with an empty baggie.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  284. “What I don’t think happened was four officers conspired to sting some speeders with an empty baggie.”

    Why is the cop putting what the police department describes as drug paraphernalia in the car? Why is the cop putting rubber gloves on after he throws the baggie in the car?

    The cop is obviously attempting to manufacture probable cause. He mentions “specks of green” to his partner prior to tossing in the baggie. The baggie doesn’t belong to the driver, it belongs to the person it was taken from, and as such isn’t probable cause to search, but a baggie on the seat is probable cause.

    Also, some of the dialogue:

    Person in passenger’s seat: “What’s that?”
    Cop: “What’s what?”
    Why is the cop claiming ignorance of what he just did?

    “It was in his pocket and I don’t want to hold onto it”
    He was holding it for like 10 seconds at this point.

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  285. Dave, another officer took that from the pocket of another person in the car abd is on camera telling that to the person in the car. The video you shared is deceptively edited and misrepresented. I Don’t have the link handy but it’s easy to find.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  286. I’ve done all I’m willing to do, Dave.

    BuDuh (ed513d)

  287. “Dave, another officer took that from the pocket of another person in the car abd is on camera telling that to the person in the car. The video you shared is deceptively edited and misrepresented. I Don’t have the link handy but it’s easy to find.”

    All of the quotes and details in my post @288 reference the video you’re talking about, or the official police response.

    Davethulhu (aa6793)

  288. #271
    Flu
    Pneumonia
    MRSA
    C. Difficile
    Rotovirus

    steveg (ebe7c1)

  289. The marvelous Mr M wrote:

    I understand that the statistics I presented, complete with hyperlinked references, don’t square well with your political position, but just how are such statistics “spurious”?

    Because you picked out the statistic that you wanted, ignoring others. For example, in the same article:

    “less than 1 percent of [vaccinated people] have had a breakthrough case of COVID-19.”

    But you interpreted the current percentage (of a small number) of hospital admissions to reflect the rate at which vaccinated people get sick. When it clearly is not. It may be that people who get vaccinated also tend to seek out medical care quicker than people who have not. Or are more likely to be insured. Or other factors.

    But the fact remains that EVEN IN THE ARTICLE YOU QUOTED the rate of infection in vaccinated people is ONE PERCENT.

    If the percentage of new COVID that represents ‘breakthrough’ infections is 24.3%, and the rate of vaccinated people getting these infections is just one percent, that means that infections in the non-vaccinated population is roughly just 3%.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  290. The fantastic Mr Finkelman asked:

    EVEN IN THE ARTICLE YOU QUOTED the rate of infection in vaccinated people is ONE PERCENT.

    What’s the rate in unvaccinated people?

    In Fayette County, from where the statistics came, 56.1% are fully vaccinated.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  291. Gosh darn it; hit the wrong button, and sent my last too early. Out of 100,000 people, that means 56,100 are vaccinated, and 1% of that would be 561 COVID infections. If there are 561 COVID infections among the vaccinated, and the vaccinated are 24.3% of the total infections, that sets total infections at 2309. 2309 – 561 = 1,748.

    If 56.1% are vaccinated, that means 43.9 are not, are are only partially vaccinated. 43,900 unvaccinated/partially vaccinated yields 43,900 persons, of whom there are 1,748 COVID cases. That works out to 3.98%.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  292. Mr M wrote:

    Apparently libertarians have given up on the old “Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.” Now it’s “My right to swing my fist ends where I say, so stand back!”

    Well, yes: if I want to swing my fist, something no stranger can ever know, why are you standing so close to me? Does your right to not have your nose hit include getting in my personal space?

    Remember the initial guidance: you needn’t wear a mask outdoors as long as you remain six feet from people not in your family. While I do have a fairly long reach, if you remain six feet away from me, I can’t punch you in the nose.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  293. #284

    He’s putting the baggie that was found not to contain anything illegal back in the car. He can’t keep it and he can’t decide its trash so it has to go back where it was.
    Maybe if they hurry, Team USA Basketball can get shirts made before they get bounced out of the Olympics.

    steveg (ebe7c1)

  294. Rad Pango

    If you walk in right off the street
    You can shake the tail, they can be beat
    Mama bring the menu to your seat
    But the bill of fare be short & sweet
    Won’t find no etouffe
    Mama never ever would cook that way
    She’s all Commie regime
    Freedom’s kinda lean

    She cook teh Pango
    A mighty rad Pango
    It’s the only way she can go
    Down at the Club Lin Pango

    Now the heads and tails stay in the pot
    Might think it’s possum, but it’s not
    You’ll give thanks you crossed the border
    Man this Pango is made to order
    Two weeds o’jimson finely chopped
    Man this party just can’t be stopped
    Pots are boiling, turn up the fan
    Chopsticks flyin’ just like dat Jackie Chan

    She cook teh Pango
    A mighty rad Pango
    It’s the only way she can go
    Down at the Club Lin Pango

    Oh no, no kung pao shrimp, no cordon bleu
    This ain’t the place to go lookin’ for bat stew
    But if you like Pango heads and rice
    If ya think ya can stand the lice

    She cook teh Pango
    A mighty rad Pango

    Now the people come from miles around
    Dig what Mama’s puttin’ down
    Everybody knows her name
    She in the wet market hall of fame
    I got to steal that recipe
    If it means the death of me
    Get my spyboy to sneak a look
    Into Mama’s book

    She cook teh Pango
    A mighty rad Pango
    It’s the only way she can go
    Down at the Club Lin Pango

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  295. Dave, that seems reasonable, and there were no possession charges.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  296. 276… grand slam, BuDuh!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  297. As people have been complaining that it’s those evil reich wing Trumpelstiltskins who are eschewing the vaccine, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, just yesterday, that black citizens in the city have the lowest vaccination rates, at 49%, compared to 62% for both whites and Hispanics, and 88% for Asians.

    Philadelphians gave just 17.90% of their votes to President Trump, and 81.44% to the dunderhead from Delaware.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  298. Must. Not. Destroy. Teh Narrative.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  299. Here’s a poem that all of us can learn from:

    No man is an island,
    Entire of itself;
    Every man is a piece of the continent,
    A part of the main.

    If a clod be washed away by the sea,
    Europe is the less,
    As well as if a promontory were:
    As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
    Or of thine own were.

    Any man’s death diminishes me,
    Because I am involved in mankind.
    And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
    It tolls for thee.

    (I assume everyone understands how this applies, especially, to infectious diseases.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  300. The left want the vaccine mandated
    Mr M wants insurance pro-rated
    They will all crab
    If you don’t get the jab
    Their arguments are all masturbated!

    The Limerick Avenger (405d48)

  301. Feats don’t fail me now… https://youtu.be/W8u2GfNqaHo

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  302. Could a Simple Pill Beat COVID-19? Pfizer May Have a “Cure” by the End of the Year

    https://scitechdaily.com/could-a-simple-pill-beat-covid-19-pfizer-may-have-a-cure-by-the-end-of-the-year/

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  303. Good news: The COVID vaccines are getting more acceptance, in many nations.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  304. Still no interest discussing the Biden’s fraudulent graft from selling fake art, using hidden email addresses to avoid FOIA requirements, saying that handguns will be banned and on and on.

    No interest in the government protecting their own and shutting down the investigation into Cuomo’s dirty deeds either.

    Why is that?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  305. Covid is not life-threatening for children 11 and under and you are hard put to find (these days) a fatality under age 30).

    In my entiure life, I have personally known only one person who died in a car wreck (my sister-in-law), no one who died in a war, and no one who died from any specific disease (not counting old age, cancer or a heart attack).

    I know two people who died from Covid. Well enough to have spoken to them the day before they went into hospital. Personal experience trumps statistics. It is a deadly disease.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  306. Their arguments are all masturbated!

    It sounds like you are speaking of the deniers as the ones with logic on their side. I’m sure you aren’t that stupid.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  307. But I am done with this useless attempt to fix the arguments of the vaccine opponnets, which would be silly and laughable if they weren’t killing people. I am willing to bet that every person making them is, themselves, vaccinated.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  308. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/25/2021 @ 11:18

    Not one vaccine opponent is killing* any one, Kevin. Not one unvaccinated person who dies from the virus committed suicide*. It is the virus** that kills its dead host. Hyperbole never killed any one, but its use is a negative contribution to both charity and justice.

    * Unless, of course, that person injected the virus with the intention to end a life.
    ** whether man-eating tiger or a virus, death may come to man even though both were a part of creation; in the case of the latter, being altered by man, nature is less culpable for having its function repurposed.

    felipe (484255)

  309. The forensic audit in Windham NH has completed and their final report has been released.
    https://www.doj.nh.gov/sb43/documents/20210713-sb43-forensic-audit-report.pdf

    Long story short, the city used a folding machine from the DMV that folded the ballots in the wrong place and the fold looked like a vote to the optical scanners. This created an over vote condition and a large discrepancy between the machine and hand recounts. It did not affect the outcome of the race.

    Interesting things about the audit

    Audit was based on a demonstrated discrepancy between the machine count and hand count and wasn’t a random fishing expedition. They had a real question to answer.
    Audit team was composed of professionals with relevant experience who were not associated with parties or candidates.
    Audit process was clearly documented
    Audit results and learning were shared in real time. As milestones were met the audit team let those facts be known.
    Audit process was transparent and as open as possible to public viewing and monitoring.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  310. Rob, all of those look interesting, but I haven’t had time to look into them and I can’t rely on the characterizations you present.

    The Canada thing is an example why; In a speech Trudeau condemned arson. He did so clearly and unequivocally. He also expressed empathy to people who were angry at the recently discovered unmarked children’s graves at the residential schools.

    To me this looks reasonable; Arson is bad, burning churches is especially bad. It’s understandable that people would be angry at the recently found graves. That anger doesn’t justify (at all) burning churches.

    You characterized it as tacit approval of burning churches.

    So when you post links and say what they are I want to read the links, they often have new information. But I can’t trust your description of them enough to start reacting or opining without more research.

    Not saying that’s what slows everyone down but it what gives me hesitation.

    That said, the email one about Biden looks very interesting and I’m planning to try and read about that when I have the chance

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  311. NEW YORK (WABC) — As the Delta variant fuels the latest surge in cases, there’s new evidence that the protection the vaccines provide may be on the decline.

    Ugur Sahin, BioNTech CEO, the company that helped develop the Pfizer vaccine, told the Wall Street Journal that “antibody levels are dropping seven months after immunization among some vaccine recipients,” but he added, “Most of them will remain protected against severe disease and might not need a third dose.”

    Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested a booster shot may be needed for people with weaker immune systems.

    “Those are the kind of individuals that if there’s going to be a third booster, which might likely happen, would be among first, the vulnerable,” he said.

    https://abc7ny.com/covid-case-increase-coronavirus-cases-usa-50-percent-unvaccinated-americans/10909870/

    GET. THE. VACCINE. BOOSTER. ALREADY.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  312. That is weird. The headline at the link is :” Coronavirus Updates: Vaccine protection may wane after 7 months, BioNTechCEO says,” bit the text within the link is different. It is closer to a sub headline.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  313. Mr M wrote:

    But I am done with this useless attempt to fix the arguments of the vaccine opponnets, which would be silly and laughable if they weren’t killing people. I am willing to bet that every person making them is, themselves, vaccinated.

    That’s just it: I’m not a vaccine opponent, and yes, I’m vaccinated. What I am opposed to is the government forcing people to take the vaccine, or penalizing those who do not.

    Yes, I think it wiser to choose to get vaccinated, but I’m not willing to impose my judgement on other people.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  314. “If it’s true they are saying anti-government right-wing groups or domestic extremist groups are THE greatest threat to national security, which is what Biden and the intelligence community are saying… greater than ISIS or al Qaeda or China or Russia, why do they need to manufacture a plot — and put in people’s heads — the idea let’s go kidnap Governor Whitmer? There should be tons of plots that they are detecting? That leads to the question people on your network and others have asked to the horror of the liberal sector of the corporate media, which is: What did the FBI know about the planning of the January 6 attack? How embedded were they in these groups? Because what happens is when these kinds of attacks happen, the FBI and the security state seize on them to say See? there are grave dangers, we need more money, more power, more surveillance authorities in order to keep you safe. And so if they are the ones driving it, it leads to the question of what those motives are.”

    Says Glenn Greenwald talking to Fox New’s Jesse Watters. Video at Real Clear Politics, with a transcript that I’ve touched up based on the video.

    https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/07/if-its-true-they-are-saying-anti.html

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  315. Dana the Libertarian,

    That’s just it: I’m not a vaccine opponent, and yes, I’m vaccinated. What I am opposed to is the government forcing people to take the vaccine, or penalizing those who do not.

    I’m interested in your thoughts now where encouragement ends and coercion starts. Not looking to pick a fight, but it’s a question I’ve struggled with. It seems to me that the contagious nature of the disease justifies more coercion than a STD would but I’m sympathetic to the slippery slope argument.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  316. Still no interest discussing the Biden’s fraudulent graft from selling fake art, using hidden email addresses to avoid FOIA requirements, saying that handguns will be banned and on and on.

    No interest in the government protecting their own and shutting down the investigation into Cuomo’s dirty deeds either.

    Why is that?

    Apparently the group feels the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cleveland team name change, and Tom Barrack’s bail are more interesting issues. Unlike Hunter Biden, how “anonymized” cellphone data is marketed, and the California gubernatorial recall.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  317. Oh, the time will come up
    When the winds will stop
    And the breeze will cease to be breathin’
    Like the stillness in the wind
    Before the hurricane begins
    The hour that the ship comes in

    And the seas will split
    And the ship will hit
    And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
    Then the tide will sound
    And the wind will pound
    And the morning will be breaking

    Oh, the fishes will laugh
    As they swim out of the path
    And the seagulls they’ll be smiling
    And the rocks on the sand
    Will proudly stand
    The hour that the ship comes in

    And the words that are used
    For to get the ship confused
    Will not be understood as they’re spoken
    For the chains of the sea
    Will have busted in the night
    And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean

    A song will lift
    As the mainsail shifts
    And the boat drifts onto the shoreline
    And the sun will respect
    Every face on the deck
    The hour that the ship comes in

    Then the sands will roll
    Out a carpet of gold
    For your weary toes to be a-touchin’
    And the ship’s wise men
    Will remind you once again
    That the whole wide world is watchin’

    Oh, the foes will rise
    With the sleep still in their eyes
    And they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’
    But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal
    And know that it’s for real
    The hour when the ship comes in

    Then they’ll raise their hands
    Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands
    But we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
    And like Pharaoh’s tribe
    They’ll be drownded in the tide
    And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered

    —- Bob Dylan, “When the Ship Comes In”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  318. 50 years ago today, July 26, 1971, Apollo 15 was launched on a hazy, muggy morning from Cape Canaveral, FL destined to land on Luna at Hadley-Rille- which I personally believe was the most diverse and picturesque landing site of the Apollo program. Remember it as if it were yesterday. Aboard were Jim Irwin, Al Worden – who are no longer with us- and Commander Dave Scott, now 89.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI53Ed2nS5w

    Met and chatted w/Scott several years ago about the moon flight, their discoveries and his skill at punctuating the techy lunar language with some very down-to-Earth English phrasing for average viewers following the explorations on TV.

    Fifteen- the first of the ‘J’ moon missions- brought the first lunar rover [LRV] to the moon as well as a then new remote controlled RCA color television camera. The TV system used a then new technique called ‘computer enhancement’ to remove video noise and sharpen imagery producing some of the cleanest and clearest televised pictures of the lunar surface activities of the Apollo program. Scott famously performed an experiment on camera in the lunar vacuum, dropping a feather and hammer which hit the ground at the same time demonstrating the theory that all objects in a given gravity field fall at the same rate, regardless of mass, in the absence of aerodynamic drag. Scott also captured the most comprehensive image of the Apollo program-that Jim Irwin, the U.S. flag, the LM, the lunar rover nd the mountains of the moon behind them. And the TV camera, left behind on the rover, captured the first TV images of a lunar liftoff.

    The crew discovered and returned some of the oldest lunar samples, among them an anorthosite, nicknamed ‘The Genesis Rock’ dated at over 4 billion years old. And as they returned for a safe splashdown in the Pacific, one of the three parachutes inadvertently collapsed after deploying, due to the jettisoning of some excess RCS fuel, demonstrating the engineering redundancy of the Apollo system- designed to land safely using just two chutes.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  319. “What I am opposed to is the government forcing people to take the vaccine, or penalizing those who do not”

    But at some level of pandemic harm, that opinion changes, right? If enough people are dying and the personal threat is high enough, few would argue with mandated vaccinations. The question is here, how long do we want Covid to linger….and is there enough societal benefit to get to herd immunity numbers? One of the problems with always casting the government and its experts as untrustworthy….the cynicism becomes ideological vs what’s the best public policy. I tend to refrain from being too much of a scold in this case…because even though the risk is pretty small….there is a risk and it’s darn near impossible to precisely quantify how many lives could possibly get saved if herd immunity can even be reached. My opinion…of course…is get the vaccination.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  320. SAN DIEGO — Four San Diego County treatment centers have been busier lately as more residents test positive for COVID-19 and sick people try to avoid a more serious bout with the illness.

    The sites are called Monoclonal Antibody Regional Centers and they’re used to treat people with COVID who are at higher risk for a severe case. That includes people over 65, those with diabetes, kidney disease or high blood pressure, and those who are obese.

    “Amazing results are keeping people out of the hospital, giving them that immune system boost they need,” said Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego.

    The treatment uses monoclonal antibodies — which are proteins made in a lab – that help boost the immune system to attack the virus. Dr. Ramers says the key is to act fast.

    “They have to get the treatment early. This really only works if its within the first ten days of symptoms. So that means people need to get tested early and get in touch with us as soon as they can,” the doctor explained.

    It’s a one-hour infusion, followed by a one-hour observation period — and it’s free.

    As cases dipped in May and June, so did demand for the treatment. But now its picking back up, as the county sees a “significant spike” in cases. The county reported 1,264 new coronavirus cases Friday afternoon, the highest number on a single day since Feb. 5.

    “We are actually quite busy. In fact, we’re scheduling out about two to three days at this point. We’re essentially reaching our capacity, which is a good thing. It’s an incredibly effective therapy,” Ramers said.

    Dr. Ramers says the therapy delivers a 75-85% reduction in the risk of hospitalization. And those who are already vaccinated but still have symptoms can still get the treatment.

    “We’re not using this for asymptomatic people at this point. And we know from in-vitro lab experiments, the combination we’re using, the Regeneron cocktail — is still very active against the delta variant. So it should work just fine,” Ramers explained

    https://fox5sandiego.com/news/covid-19-treatment-clinics-busier-with-spike-in-cases/

    Effective against Delta? I am relieved that the vaccinated are eligible for sensible treatments for when they contract covid.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  321. But at some level of pandemic harm, that opinion changes, right? If enough people are dying and the personal threat is high enough, few would argue with mandated vaccinations. The question is here, how long do we want Covid to linger….and is there enough societal benefit to get to herd immunity numbers? One of the problems with always casting the government and its experts as untrustworthy….the cynicism becomes ideological vs what’s the best public policy. I tend to refrain from being too much of a scold in this case…because even though the risk is pretty small….there is a risk and it’s darn near impossible to precisely quantify how many lives could possibly get saved if herd immunity can even be reached. My opinion…of course…is get the vaccination.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 7/26/2021 @ 9:22 am

    When you don’t count those who have actually recovered from the virus as part of the herd immunity, it skews your numbers.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  322. P.S. David French went full racist and claimed America is full of systemic and structural racism and we should be held to account for our ancestors sins like they were in the Bible pre-Christ.

    Truly a demented person.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  323. https://www.foxnews.com/media/students-told-to-hide-equity-survey-questions-from-parents

    The social justice brainwashing starts early. And told to hide it from their parents. Let me guess, “it takes a village.”

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  324. Cameras in the Classroom NOW!

    It’s the only way to be sure.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  325. Well, I assume that everyone knows that states have been mandating vaccines for school children for decades. Here are the rules for Washington state. They were recently tightened, after a measles outbreak, but still allow religious exemptions, even for measles. (As far as I know the Washington rules are reasonably typical.)

    I think it reasonable for the states, and local governments, to have similar requirements for their employees — if those employees are in frequent contact with the public.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  326. How many covid fatalities and seriously ill in the school age category in Washington, Jim? Has it reached WWII levels?

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  327. Colonel Haiku will like this cartoon.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  328. #336 BuDuh – I don’t know whether that information is available, but you can search for it, if you are interested. Washington has done better than the national average for COVID deaths per million, currently 804, versus 1894, in spite of it being first identified here. (And I say that as someone who did not vote for Democrat Jay Inslee for governor, or anything else.)

    There is still much to learn about COVID. According to a weekend WSJ article (behind the paywall), the British have found that about 30 percent of those who have recovered from COVID have serious long-term COVID symptoms — and that the problem seems to be worse for younger people.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  329. More about Afghanistan:

    There are elite units of the Afghan army, which are good (say as good as American Marines) but there are not enough of them. When they take back territory and turn it over to the police, or to the regular Afghan army, it quickly gets retaken.

    The U.S. is making airstrikes, but the Biden Administration is being very very low key and vague about it. It’s not exactly classified top secret but reporters have to dig it out by questioning their sources and the details are secret. The U.S. had been trying to reduce the number of strikes.

    After August 31 it is currently the policy that airstrikes are to be done only on targets that pose a threat to the United States.

    The battle is particularly severe around Kandahar. The Taliban may not yet want to take Kandahar but do want to cut it off fro its air base. General Frank McKenzie, the U.S. military commander in charge of Middle East and Afghanistan said Kandahar is critical for both sides. I don’t think the Taliban intend to take Kandahar itself until September – meanwhile they are weakening its defenses and surrounding it and planning to cut it off.

    The Taliban are committing atrocities, with some videos surfacing but responsibility is being denied by high Taliban officials. Probably they only want to do it where they think they have permanently gained control. In other places they turn people back at roadblocks. Other priorities for the Taliban are controlling the country’s external borders.

    Pakistan has said they are not going to take any more refugees. People from Afghanistan can escape by airplane to a number of other countries, especially maybe Turkey. The Taliban priority is probably cutting off Afghanistan from the world.

    Many of the Taliban fighters have crossed over from Pakistan. Thousands of them.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  330. NJRob: “David French went full racist and….”

    Of course he didn’t…here’s the article: https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/structural-racism-isnt-wokeness-its

    His basic argument is either from a scriptural perspective or a conservative perspective, justice is required….meaning, you can’t simply ignore racial inequality that was previously baked into society via racist intent.

    French: “First, let’s go back to scripture and recognize that the obligation to “act justly” is intergenerational. If there is injustice that predates our personal power, it is still our obligation to do what we can to set it right.”

    And from the perspective of conservatism:

    French: “Years ago, my friend Rod Dreher wrote that “the business of a conservatism with integrity is not to impose an idealistic ideological narrative on reality but rather to try to see the world as it is and respond to its challenges within the limits of what we know about human nature.”….In other words, a conservative might have a different conception of “what works.” Progressive-dominated institutions haven’t cracked the code.”

    He then applies this analysis to NIMBY zoning restrictions and policing. It seems odd to call him a “Truly demented person” but I suppose such is where public discourse is at…..

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  331. Mr 123 wrote:

    Dana the Libertarian,

    Please! That’s libertarian, not Libertarian! I very much support basic libertarian ideas, but the Libertarian Party in the United States is an absolute joke.

    That’s just it: I’m not a vaccine opponent, and yes, I’m vaccinated. What I am opposed to is the government forcing people to take the vaccine, or penalizing those who do not.

    I’m interested in your thoughts now where encouragement ends and coercion starts. Not looking to pick a fight, but it’s a question I’ve struggled with. It seems to me that the contagious nature of the disease justifies more coercion than a STD would but I’m sympathetic to the slippery slope argument.

    The Constitution of the United States guarantees us our freedom of speech and of the press; it also guarantees our right to privacy, or so Griswold v Connecticut told us. With our freedom of speech and of the press, everyone has an absolute right to say, encourage, cajole, even demand that other people take a particular action or refrain from a particular action.

    But our right to privacy, to our bodily integrity requires that we cannot force people into taking the vaccines, regardless of how great a good we might believe them to be, any more than we can demand that all girls under 18 use contraceptives, or outlaw tattooing, or anything like that.

    Freedom and liberty do have a cost. We pay that cost by guaranteeing due process of law before we simply lock up, or hang, criminals we know — but might not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt — committed crimes. We pay that cost by allowing bad people as well as good to exercise their First Amendment rights. We pay that cost by having the Second Amendment.

    Yes, there is a cost to not forcing everyone to take the vaccines, but there is also a cost in doing that. COVID-19 will not be with us forever, but losing our liberties will do far more, and far longer lasting, damage to our country than this disease.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  332. Colonel Haiku:

    Read this from the esteemed Mr Greenwald:

    Fear is crucial for state authority. When the population is filled with it, they will acquiesce to virtually any power the government seeks to acquire in the name of keeping them safe. But when fear is lacking, citizens will crave liberty more than control, and that is when they question official claims and actions. When that starts to happen, when the public feels too secure, institutions of authority will reflexively find new ways to ensure they stay engulfed by fear and thus quiescent.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  333. “antibody levels are dropping seven months after immunization among some vaccine recipients,”

    This is irrelevant.

    1) The antibody levels after vaccination are very high.

    2) This also happens with vaccines that are known to work for a lifetime.

    3) What counts is memory T-cells and memory B-cells.

    4) This is playing on peoples’ ignorance.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  334. Mr Liberty wrote:

    “What I am opposed to is the government forcing people to take the vaccine, or penalizing those who do not”

    But at some level of pandemic harm, that opinion changes, right? If enough people are dying and the personal threat is high enough, few would argue with mandated vaccinations. The question is here, how long do we want Covid to linger….and is there enough societal benefit to get to herd immunity numbers? One of the problems with always casting the government and its experts as untrustworthy….the cynicism becomes ideological vs what’s the best public policy. I tend to refrain from being too much of a scold in this case…because even though the risk is pretty small….there is a risk and it’s darn near impossible to precisely quantify how many lives could possibly get saved if herd immunity can even be reached. My opinion…of course…is get the vaccination.

    Well, other people’s opinions might change, but I doubt mine would.

    We could take the Chinese route, and force vaccinations, impose quarantine to the extent of killing those who might break it, and do all sorts of other things, but that would make us, well, China.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48)

  335. This is irrelevant.

    Tell it to the people pushing the booster shot.

    This is playing on peoples’ ignorance.

    The pharmaceutical company is playing on people’s ignorance?

    Either you or I read that article completely incorrectly.

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  336. 294.

    EVEN IN THE ARTICLE YOU QUOTED the rate of infection in vaccinated people is ONE PERCENT.

    SF: What’s the rate in unvaccinated people?

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48) — 7/25/2021 @ 3:47 pm

    In Fayette County, from where the statistics came, 56.1% are fully vaccinated.

    The rate of INFECTION among unvaccinated people. (to compare with the rate of infecton among vaccinated people)

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  337. Or maybe we agree?

    BuDuh (7bca93)

  338. 335. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/26/2021 @ 10:24 am

    Well, I assume that everyone knows that states have been mandating vaccines for school children for decades.

    Not because children are at strong risk of getting serious cases of measles, mumps etc, but because that’s the time to catch them, so that by the age 20, they will have antibodies.

    Children around ages 5 to 10 are very good at creating antibodies to pathogens they have never experenced before. Not so much, later.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  339. 346.

    Tell it to the people pushing the booster shot

    That’s who said

    “antibody levels are dropping seven months after immunization among some vaccine recipients,”

    and why they said it.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  340. 331 NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/26/2021 @ 10:01 am

    When you don’t count those who have actually recovered from the virus as part of the herd immunity, it skews your numbers.

    They do count them.

    Pne problem: It may not be possible to achieve herd immunity, dpending on what you mean by herd immunity.

    Herd immunity could mean no cases exceot imported cases, which infect ad maybe kill a few people frrm time to time but don;t get far.

    OR

    No cases at all.

    There is a limit to the size of a population that can have the second kind of herd immunity. With measles it was about 500,000. Over 500,000 there were always enough uninfected people around somewhere to keep the disease alive.

    In smaller populated islands, with not too much travel, the disease could be wiped out, but 15 or 20 years later you could get an epidemic which was much more serious than measles was everywhere else because people who had never been exposed to it as children were getting infected with measles.

    We could vaccinate people against Covid at age 12 without real problems.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  341. 345. The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (405d48) — 7/26/2021 @ 11:08 am

    We could take the Chinese route, and force vaccinations, impose quarantine to the extent of killing those who might break it, and do all sorts of other things, but that would make us, well, China.

    We could also genetically engineer a milder form of the coronavirus and haave it soread naturally, “vaccinating” most of the unvaccinated.

    Or wait for God to do it.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  342. 311. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/25/2021 @ 11:13 pm

    In my entiure life, I have personally known only one person who died in a car wreck (my sister-in-law), no one who died in a war, and no one who died from any specific disease (not counting old age, cancer or a heart attack).

    I’ve known one person who died in a car wreck (my father’s aunt’s nephew’s wife, whose air bag failed to inflate); three people who were run over by a car, and two people who were murdered (one I learned of belatedly a former boss

    I know two people who died from Covid. Well enough to have spoken to them the day before they went into hospital. Personal experience trumps statistics. It is a deadly disease.

    I know someone who was in the hospital in a ventilator, although I didn’t know while it was happening, and I knew one who died. I think he was 24 and he caught it from his parents with whom he lived, according to my information.

    He needed assistance and a caretaker. I hadn’t seen him in a while – more than a year I am sure, maybe two or three years.

    I’ve known people with diseases. I’ll have to think what wasn’t old age, cancer or circulation problems.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  343. An example of Long COVID: From the same WSJ article (by Denise Roland) I mentioned #339:

    Harry Boby, a 23-year-old former member of the British judo team, worked out at the gym five times a week before coming down with a mild Covid-19 infection in September. Now, a few pull-ups can floor him for days. . .

    He has also suffered neurological issues ranging from memory loss to episodes where he feels paranoid and sometimes tearful.

    He’s missed work twice, each time for three months.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  344. #339 – Sammy – thanks for adding that. Here’s an example:

    The likelihood of developing paralytic polio increases with age, as does the extent of paralysis. In children, nonparalytic meningitis is the most likely consequence of CNS involvement, and paralysis occurs in only one in 1000 cases. In adults, paralysis occurs in one in 75 cases.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  345. Kevin – I am so sorry about your losses.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  346. Jim Miller #355. I think you mean #349.

    This is infectious diseases 101.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  347. 344… the Other Dana… after 9/11 – when the surveillance bureaucracy was created – I recall all of the warnings about the likelihood of abuse by our federal government. Not in our country, I thought. Americans are above all of that, I said.

    That was well before this bureaucratic bunch and all of their fiendish, anti-American, unconstitutional plans and actions made everything clear.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  348. And there’s no point (besides it being dangerous) in giving a vaccine to a baby under 6 months old if the mother is immune because the mother’s antibodies continue circulating in the baby’s blood till about that point, and if the baby is nursing, the mother gives antibodies in the milk even later. (of course, she’s got to be exposed to the pathogen to manufacture antibodies against it)

    It’s bad to get cow’s milk before about six months of age, because something in cow’s milk is very similiar to something in the insulin producing cells and till 6 months, it is absorbed into the blood (not later)

    This primes the body for juvenile (Type I) diabetes which can be triggered some years later by something stimulating the immune system.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  349. Small l libertarian Dana, that’s pretty clear. Thank you for answering. It feels like there aren’t many circumstances where you would require vaccine usage by the government?

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  350. Sammy – Yes, #349.

    And, unfortunately, there are far too many people who don’t understand infectious diseases 101, so it is good that you explained those basics.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  351. Oh, this is one of the obscure things.

    The CBS Ebening News had a story or stoties that made the same mistake two times.

    They featured patients with Covid who said now they’ll get the vaccine. As son as they get out of the hodspital or recover.

    Now that they had a severe case, they don’t need the vaccine!

    Although the CDC is very quiet about that and they are telling people it doesn’t matter, get the vaccine. I suppose they are relying on their doctor to tell them when they shouldn’t. I think the usual recommendation s to wait three months.

    It is useless within a short time after recovery. The body is full of antibodies already, whether they were infused through an IV or their body made them itself. The body won’t be stimulated to make more.

    Meanwhile, the BS Evening News also reported there’s a bad cold going around that’s not Covid. A Covid test can tell them apart. Or using your sense of taste or smell of that happens. They had an expert on who attributed it mainly to people not getting infected with anything and so their immune system is not up to speed. Probably not the reason this cold may be different,

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  352. It’s starting to rain. It won’t be a long lasting rain.

    I made a typo in the previous comment. I meant CBS News. I haven’t heard any more about that cold that could be mistaken by some people for Covid. But maybe I could look it up.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  353. The phrase goes:

    “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table.”

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)


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