Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

When I made my early morning trip to Wal Mart today, I'd guess that there were probably anywhere from 50-70 other shoppers and employees in the store. Out of that group, I noticed 2 people who were not wearing masks. Everyone else was, including me.

I don't believe that everyone not wearing a mask is a "conspiracy believing moron who won't follow simple mitigation measures". I think there are a lot of people who are just getting tired of wearing masks, and politics isn't even in their thinking. I'd daresay there are a few Democrats that have stopped wearing masks.

Even Bill Maher commented on his HBO program that he felt it was time to give the American people a bit of credit, and along with that some permission to be optimistic. If THAT knothead can be optimistic, anyone can.

[Whitley]

BTW---- this happened a few days ago where I live. I was stopping at the gas station atop the hill going to see if the papers were in (it is about 615 in the morning). Ahead of me in line, are two heavyset nurses (that work in an old folks home) wearing masks. The subject of wearing masks got brought up.

One nurse said she was on the fence about if the masks do any good and said she could see both sides of the fence. The other one saw no point in them cause it wasn't going to protect you from getting it.

At work on Thursday night, they were writing down people that want to get the vaccine. I know of 3 people on my shift that were definite NOs on it (it is not required to get the covid 19 vaccine at work)

1) A 21 year old man with a baby and 3 year old son living with his baby mama (of the younger kid). He does wear a mask at work, but said he didn't see much of a point because if someone got in his household they all would get it.

2) a 53 year old woman. She has parents in their 80s she sees at least a couple times a week. She was holding off even putting her parents on a list to get it because she wants to see what the long term effects of the vaccine is. And that what if the worst thing she or her parents do is get the vaccine.

3) a 61 year old grandmother. Her husband (who also works the shift) is getting it because he has underlying conditions. And her granddaughter Emma (8 years old) will get it. But she won't because she doesn't know what is in the vaccine.

That is 3 people, at least, that won't get it out my 11 people on my shift.

[Hannibal]

It was not at all surprising to me that 53% of Trump supporting Rs believe in the shit QAnon is advancing.

https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/storie...ong-us-adults/



I read the whole article, Jeff, and I found nowhere in it anything even hinting at 53% of Trump-supporting Rs believing Qanon. I can see Rs believing a single thing Qanon is advancing such as the election being stolen, but no way the average R buys into Qanon. Ask Hanibal. I'd put it at around 1%. No one believes the business about the world being governed by a bunch of pedophiles.

There are multiple QAnon layers. The main one is that Trump had a secret plan that he was going to unleash at the last second. It was a lie that the most fanatical Trump fans told themselves to come up with an explanation for his ineptitude that didn't directly place the responsibility for that ineptitude directly on him. It was the theory of 4D Chess on steroids. In the circles where I travel, the people who believed this are generally referred to as the "Q Tards".

The QAnon phenomenon is a testament to the power of trolling unsuspecting people who desperately want to believe in something. It was either the greatest troll of all time or a psy-op. The latter is definitely possible as it has a historical precedent. The Bolsheviks created a fake opposition movement that was very similar.

WRT to pedophiles being vastly overrepresented in the halls of power -- that much is obvious without any input from reddit. One only needs glance at the passenger list for Jeffrey Epstein's airplane or some of the WikiLeaks e-mail dumps to see. The billionaire and politician club either attracts sexual deviants or corrupts men into them. This has been true about Hollywood for a long time and, once again, very much evident without any help from the QAnon section of reddit.

If 53% of Republicans believe QAnon theories to be partly true, then I don't see much significance to that.

[UMStan White]

"That is 3 people, at least, that won't get it out my 11 people on my shift."

You work with a bunch of morons

[Dr. Strangelove]

March 4 is the latest, greatest date the QAnon dopes have come up with on which Trump will supposedly unveil his 4-D chess moves. When that doesn't pan out I imagine they'll move on to his birthday or maybe July 2, the "real" Independence Day.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Interesting article on tensions between China and India

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/28/us/politics/china-india-hacking-electricity.html

[Jeff Buchanan]

The QAnon phenomenon is a testament to the power of trolling unsuspecting people who desperately want to believe in something. It was either the greatest troll of all time or a psy-op. The latter is definitely possible as it has a historical precedent. The Bolsheviks created a fake opposition movement that was very similar.

I wouldn't call myself a conspiracist. Far from it. But geopolitics, the conflicts and how those conflicts are waged have changed dramatically in the technical age we've entered. There's what we see and hear about in the open press and then there is an entirely black world of war-fighting going on surreptitiously. It seems to me that QAnon being a psy-op is highly probable. I'd add to that the emergence of the level of right-wing extremism in Western Europe and the US has at it's origin well designed and organized covert foreign war fighting capability.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Interesting article on tensions between China and India

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/28/u...ectricity.html

Beyond "interesting." It's revelatory and speaks directly to the kind of stuff I just posted about - new age warfare in this case in the form of cyber-attacks.

People scoff at US attempts to nail Huawei or wonder why we'd want to discourage the Chinese as they emerge in the free enterprise global market place. Fuck them. I'm not sure enough people fully understand the threat to our nation posed by cyber-warfare, especially that conducted by the Chinese and their proxies. The article DSL posted is an eye-opener and probably represents only a fraction of what the Chinese are up to.

[Whitley]

"That is 3 people, at least, that won't get it out my 11 people on my shift."

You work with a bunch of morons

Maybe. But there are a lot of them. IF that holds you are talking about 27.3% population, assuming that percentage holds then it is very iffy there will be herd immunity in the US.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[WingsFan]

Maybe. But there are a lot of them.

No maybes about it. I know a few people who don't want it at all. I went for my yearly MRI for my head injury's from years ago and 3 or 4 'heath' workers behind the counter were saying we should just "Ride it out because we are all going to get it".

[Jeff Buchanan]

In the end, there will be the usual 30%, maybe not even that high that won't get the vaccines. I've been hearing that the numbers actually registering for the vaccines are much higher than some anticipated. Generally from a virology standpoint, if you get to 70% you'll be fine against the most virulent pathogens. Flu vaccine compliance is about 40-50%. Right now it's just a part of the pessimistic narrative.

In other COVID news, the EU announced today that it is preparing legislation for an electronic vaccine passport to boost inter-EU movement and tourism. As expected there are cries from a few EU member states that such a plan is discriminatory. Vaccinated people will be able to travel across boarders without restriction. It's not clear how US passport holders will be treated but, I assume we'll be welcome to travel as well throughout the EU if vaccinated. The biggest issue for me is that this may be a bit premature if it were to happen within a week or two - and it won't. We still don't know for sure that vaccinated people can't transmit the virus if they knowingly (mild symptoms) or unknowingly (asymptomatic) harbor it.

So far, the Biden administration has said it does not anticipate vaccinations will be required for inter-state travel in the US. That's to sooth those who insist equity over-rides sensibile public health policy. I think that's dumb.

Anyway, its happening and it presages the future of travel. You'll need to be vaccinated. Nothing new really except it's now, with SARS-2, likely to be seasonal, a global requirement rather than, for example, needing a yellow fever vaccination for travel in some countries in Africa.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/europe...r-you-in-march

[Hannibal]

Everyone here ready to pay your slavery reparations?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Think Cuomo is just about done.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So, here we go again. Fauci and Walenski are simultaneously articulating concern about the leveling of and in some cases rising case numbers. May I remind everyone here that case numbers are a shitty measure of where we stand in the pandemic. Why in the hell haven't these two realized that? Oh, they know it but they think we're too stupid to understand the complexity of more data points.

You've already heard me rant about the impact of pessimistic messaging regardless of it's merit or need. Most Americans know how to take care of themselves and protect others and that's good. At this point continually reminding people of staying the course, remaining strong or doing whatever the fuck these people want to tell you to do is counterproductive and becoming more so every day as its obvious that fewer people are dying or getting really sick and being hospitalized and the trends of every one of the metrics that are way more revelatory about the pandemic than new case numbers IS DOWNWARD TRENDING.

Lots of reasons for that and Fauci and Walenski want you to think its mostly because everyone has been good for the last 60d. So, damn it, keep it up and hibernate. They also don't want counties to ease restrictions as that increases mobility and contacts which increases new case numbers. I'm pretty sure we don't need to be too worried about that as I suspect what is happening in FL is being duplicated nationally -- only 16% of new cases are aged 65 and above, the median age is down to 38.

Some of you here are following JHU on their web site so, you may have already seen this. One of the best graphics is the one at the link below. What it tells you is, yep, some states have rising case numbers but lo, % positivity is staying pretty constant at around 6% nationally and mostly in the 4-6% state wide. Yes, there are exceptions but that should NOT prompt worry from the administration's chief public health experts.

In general, we're in good shape and with vaccine administration ramping up, we should feel good not bad like these two knuckleheads think we should feel. What Americans and county public health officials making local mitigation measures decisions need to hear is how to go about returning to activities Americans enjoyed pre-pandemic responsibly and in light of the fact SARS-2 is still with us and will be for a long time to come.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/tracker/overview