Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

[lineygoblue]

Yeah, much to my disappointment.

[froot loops]

Yeah Pelosi had nothing to worry about from the MAGAs , Note also very impromptu as Hannibal likes to point out

Also facing federal charges is Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr., a Georgia man who in the wake of the election had protested outside the home of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, whom Trump had publicly blamed for his loss in the state. Meredith drove to Washington last week for the “Save America” rally but arrived late because of a problem with the lights on his trailer, according to court filings that include expletive-laden texts.

“Headed to DC with a (s—-) ton of 5.56 armor-piercing ammo,” he texted friends and relatives on Jan. 6, adding a purple devil emoji, according to court filings. The following day, he texted to the group: “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi (C——’s) speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” He once again added a purple devil emoji, and wrote he might hit her with his truck instead. “I’m gonna run that (C—-) Pelosi over while she chews on her gums. … Dead (B——) Walking. I predict that within 12 days, many in our country will die.”

[Jeff Buchanan]

In COVID news, the vaccine roll-out has been troubled and that's putting it mildly. Demand has greatly exceeded both supply and the means to administer the vaccinations. Some observers have reported that if you were paying attention, none of the turmoil associated with the roll-out should surprise anyone. As usual, there is a rush to find someone to blame. As well, the media is advancing the idea that your station determines when you get the vaccine. There are isolated incidents of this occurring but I don't think it is wide spread. In FL, Desantis is, once again, the target of the press. Certainly, he must be the one responsible for long lines at vaccine sites, broken phone and web based sign up pages. Is what it is.

The fact of the matter is if you are under 75, nothing really changes after you are vaccinated so, what's the hurry. While for the over 75s administration of a vaccine could be life saving but for the rest, it is less impactful. The whole thing reminds me of the panic run on toilet paper. Humans are predictable. My advice: continue to do exactly what you have been doing to avoid infection; if you've been infected, continue to do what you have been doing to avoid, in this case, reinfection. I've been reviewing the medical literature on this. There are two studies I've reviewed. One concludes once infected, immunity remains for at least 6 months - the time period of the study. Another concluded that immunity as it applies to the adaptive portion of the system wanes and is dependent on the severity of the symptoms experience, i.e., the sicker you get then recover, the longer adaptive immunity remains. There's no consensus.

If you've been paying attention, there's a variant that researchers believe is more easily transmitted. The evidence that there is such a mutation is pretty strong. The impact of this mutation is controversial. Many believe that the surges were seeing globally are nothing more than the impact of exponential growth aided somewhat by the mutated virus' ability to latch on to human cells via an improved spike protein. The most important point though is that the mutation does not impair vaccine effectiveness.

One of the unreported downside implications of the slow vaccine roll-out is that viruses behave in ways that promote their survival when under pressure. Mitigation measures put the virus under pressure. Vaccines put the virus under pressure. The slow roll-out produces a situation where SARS-2 is under some pressure but not enough. The analogy would be bringing a knife to a gun fight. The knife inflects some damage to a bad guy but the gun kills him.The current plan to roll-out the vaccine is what it is but it's not permanently baked in. Things will improve of their own accord but in reading the Biden Administration's plans for the pandemic response things will speed up considerably ..... I hope.

[iam416]

If this were a cattle call distribution, it's not a problem. Prioritized distribution was always going to have bumps. In Ohio, e.g., they learned that lower-than-expected number of long-term care employees wanted the vaccine. So, they had to improvise ways to use the excess. For schools -- they're requiring a survey for an exact number so that they won't have to deal with that.

But, really, the biggest issue for distribution is prioritizing. And the kinks are getting ironed out. We're over 8M shots and, from my following of it, that's roughly 1M in the last two days. We're going to hit the real upslope in distribution pretty soon. And once we get through the 65-yr olds and get to cattle call distribution -- it's going to fly.

[Hannibal]

It sounds like expectations for the roll-out of the vaccine weren't exactly reasonable. The fact that we actually have one at this point is a minor miracle, and these doses don't just get manufactured overnight.

[iam416]

DSL:

One thing that I didn't mention re 230 is that entities like Google and Apple can (and almost surely do) include contractual terms that squarely place all the risk on the App. So, they'll obviously include indemnification terms and they can include requirments that the App carry some sort of commercial liability insurance. The point being that those entities have pretty easy business options to eliminate risk.

Twitter/Parler/YouTube -- they would bear much more risk. I think their exposure is dependent on the circumstances, but it's still there. Now, this would seem to me to square with the notion of being responsible for your own App.

Finally, I'm far more inclined to retain 230 AND treat social media platforms as quasi public fora. If their move is to do things that run counter to 230 -- i.e., censorship -- then my response would probably be to remove it. That way they wouldn't be able to censor on a viewpoint basis. Riots are riots. If you're advocating damage then that creats a liability problem. So, if they remove 230 then they really have to cover their ass in a CONTENT way not merely a VIEWPOINT way.

Again, ideally the quasi-publishers would take their 230 immunity and use it for good. But, if they're going to selectively apply rules then I'm all for removing that immunity.

[iam416]

It sounds like expectations for the roll-out of the vaccine weren't exactly reasonable. The fact that we actually have one at this point is a minor miracle, and these doses don't just get manufactured overnight.

I'd say it's a full-on miracle. I mean, how many quotes do I need to find from #TrustScience people saying it was impossible and mocking PDJT for even suggesting that it could be done by year's end?

The fact that we're running into bumps with a prioritized distribution of a vaccine that requires extremely specialized storage conditions ought not suprise anyone.

If you had told me in March that we'd have over 8M shots in the arm by Janury 10, I'd have been fucking ecstatic.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I read an article from the AP today that reported their investigation had discovered 120 individuals who claimed they were armed or had IEDs, were headed to the Capital and had intentions to inflict damage to federal buildings and/or to harm legislators conducting the certification process of Joe Biden as the rightfully elected President. The investigation reviewed social media posts and interviews..... some of these crazies actually talked to the investigators after learning they were from the AP thinking they'd be calling others to their mission. There is scant evidence, the AP reports, that any of these individuals had the intent of occupying the capital to symbolize or in fact over-throw the government.

I remain convinced there was not an organized plot - a Coup - with Donald Trump or any of his followers as organizers. Because of how the law on incitement of insurrection or violence directed against the government has been written and how the courts have applied it, it's going to be hard to impeach him on the charge Pelosi says she is going to bring. This even though Trump could be tried by the senate after Biden assumes the presidency. The purpose there would be to prevent Trump form holding federal office again.

Biden is going to have a hard enough time unting America as he has pledged to do. A festering senate trial won't help that. Biden's best bet is to get the vaccine and the resources to administer out there. When good things happen, the bad things are quickly forgotten. That should be the sort term goal.

[Hannibal]

There are some more good articles this morning on the fake outrage on the Left vis-a-vis the Capitol riot. The sheer audacity on display on the Left is incredible.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/10/crazy-2020-is-dead-long-live-crazier-2021/

One would have never remembered that leftist protestors were once with impunity beating on the doors of the Supreme Court to get in during and after the Kavanaugh hearings, as others stormed into the halls of Congress and bullied senators. Still others this June lit up a church in their “mostly peaceful” efforts to enter the White House grounds. Very few Democratic senators then called for calm and to take a step back.

A day after Michelle Obama’s call, Trump coincidentally was indeed banned from Twitter “for life,” along with a number of conservatives, and “indefinitely” canceled from Facebook. Trump followers fleeing to alternate social media sites discovered that their apps could be blocked by Apple and Google.

Amazon joined in blocking the servers of one of these, again coincidentally. The Left and a few terrified Republicans planned to impeach Trump even if out of office, sort of like those grotesque stories of those who hang, decapitate, or chop up the corpses of the dead.

The trillion-dollar social media monopolies, on cue from the Obamas and the Left, are now making the necessary adjustments for a hard left-wing controlled presidency and Congress.

Soon, in calmer times, antitrust lawyers will be suing Big Tech for its efforts to destroy its business rivals and ideological opponents as a textbook case of corporate market rigging.

In the 19th century, “progressives” sought to curb the power of monopolies and trusts on the logic that the proverbial people had only the railroads or telegraphs to travel or communicate, and should be freed from their octopus “tentacles.” The railroad argument, “Ride a horse if you don’t like us,” never washed.

Now progressives enlist social media monopolies to ensure that they alone can control, censor, and cancel incorrect communications over the publicly owned airspace. “Just email or use your cell phone, if you don’t like us” won’t wash either. Progressives are no longer the watchdogs breaking up trusts. They are the trusts breaking up watchdogs.

I especially like the quote about 19th Century businesses. As I said above, nobody but the most extremist of Libertarians would argue that we should return to a 19th Century regulatory framework, yet here we are, with insanely powerful social media monopolies deciding what is right and wrong for you to publicly say.

[Hannibal]

I read an article from the AP today that reported their investigation had discovered 120 individuals who claimed they were armed or had IEDs, were headed to the Capital and had intentions to inflict damage to federal buildings and/or to harm legislators conducting the certification process of Joe Biden as the rightfully elected President.

Yet despite breaching the capital, they didn't actually use any of those weapons. Not a single bomb exploded. Not a single incendiary device thrown. Not a single cop catching a bullet. Not a single shot of return fire when a security guard shot an unarmed woman who was squeezing through a window. All of these troublemakers plotting to overthrow the government with bombs and automatic weapons, who just changed their minds once they actually got inside the building or something.

The rioters were not stopped by force. They committed acts of vandalism and then quit. That's not a coup. That's a riot. Calling it a coup is retarded.

[Hannibal]

A great column by Andy Ngo, who himself has been a victim of Left Wing violence.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/08/rage-a...e-disgraceful/'

In Portland, Ore., where I’m from, masked extremists from both BLM and Antifa smashed their way into the Multnomah County Justice Center on May 29. The building houses the Sheriff’s Office, a police station and jail. Rioters ransacked the ground floor, hoping to break into the jail to free prisoners. When that failed, they started fires; city and county staff fled for their lives.

But the rioters were just getting started.

For the next four months, BLM-Antifa rioted every night in Portland, setting fire to streets and buildings and assaulting responding officers with concrete and mortar explosives. In July, they tried to storm into a federal courthouse downtown. Night after night, hundreds and then thousands of rioters brought in electric tools, rope and explosives to breach the barrier erected to protect the building.

More than 277 injuries of officers were reported by the Department of Homeland Security in Portland alone. Hundreds of injuries were reported by other police departments in different cities.

Local politicians at the time condemned law enforcement and lionized the criminals. Portland city councilwoman Jo Ann Hardesty spread a conspiracy theory that police were engaging in false-flag arson attacks to frame left-wing protesters. Mayor Ted Wheeler told President Trump in a news conference to take his “troops” and leave. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden called the officers an “occupying army.” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown described them as “secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles.”

[Hannibal]

Great read here...

https://www.americanthinker.com/arti...nary_left.html

But on the strength of their well-orchestrated political lies, the Democrats’ de facto storm troopers destroyed American cities for the better part of 2020, and we watched these same elitist media dunces defend violent arsonists and rioting revolutionaries, presenting them as thoughtful protestors nobly seeking to transform the country. If Trump had been declared the winner of the election, it was fully understood by both sides of the political divide that the Democrats’ storm troopers would have again descended upon American cities, and that we would have again seen the media defend the riots and destruction as justifiable and “mostly peaceful” protest.

Yet when hundreds of thousands of outraged patriots travel to Washington, and some of them unlawfully enter the Capitol building (without setting countless buildings ablaze or looting the businesses of innocent nearby shopkeepers), that same media expects us to accept their indignant demands for us to label them as violent insurrectionists who are acting without provocation?

No, we will not be lectured by the pro-Marxist, anti-liberty Democratic Party or their media apparatchiks. We will not be silenced by their enablers in the GOP, either. We Americans are righteously indignant about the greed and corruption in our government that defiles its constitutional purpose in an effort to rule rather than represent its people. We are outraged at the lack of transparency in the recent elections, and demand investigations to prove their veracity beyond all shadows of doubt. And while I mourn the loss of life that occurred, I’m inclined to agree with Mark Steyn that there is some value in such reminders for the political class as we saw last week:

Best quote from that article (from Mark Steyn)

The political class (represented by a Speaker who flies home to San Francisco on her own government plane) has been largely insulated from the pathologies they have loosed upon the land. For a few hours yesterday they weren't.

[froot loops]

Based on anecdotal evidence I've heard the second dose has a tendency to make people sick for about 12 hours after. Not a big deal, but it screws up scheduling with frontline workers.

[iam416]

My father-in-law received Pfizer (he's a semi-retired OSU doctor and was prioritized in case they needed to call up the calvary). He said they told him to plan on taking the day off after teh 2nd dose and he did, in fact, having mild cold symptoms the following day.