Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

youre right

the old guy jokes got old

which is why fish to spinoff never worked

It also made Dietrich a main character and I thought his interactions with the rest of the cast were funnier than Fish.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Former CEO of Colony Capital and the moneyman behind the Trump inauguration, Tom Barrack, arrested on a number of federal charges (Not pertaining to the inauguration which has long been a subject of scrutiny)

Govt claims Barrack and several others were acting as agents of the UAE govt both during the campaign and the early Trump administration to influence Trump's foreign policy. He's also accused of later lying to the FBI and obstructing justice.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/20/thom...al-charge.html

I just read this in my news feeds. I'm not sure that it's just not "business as usual" exposed. The justice Department in their announcement of the arrests made it clear they were putting people who might be involved in this sort of thing in the future on "notice."

I don't think it's beyond crazy to view most of the Trump presidency and now the time leading up to it as one of the most corrupt in US history. You'll recall that early on in his presidency, I supported him overlooking the emerging narcissism that would ultimately deny him a second term. But the straw that broke the camel's back was the Charlottesville catastrophe, I was done with supporting him after that. That's not to say I did not approve of his policies on the climate accords, the nuke treaty with Iran, immigration or the broader ME. It's a shame he's such a dick and surrounded himself with imbeciles and yes men. Now we've got the disaster that is Biden/Harris. Thank God for the filibuster!

Right now and IMO front and center, Trump's prominent legacy is populist anti-vaccine and/or vaccine hesitancy (and don't give me that this isn't Trump's fault it is but the articles I read assinging him culpability on this subject are paywalled so, STFU. JMO, YMMV but I don't give a fuck). Facts: Cases numbers are up - almost all of them in the unvaccinated - and so are, although not as steeply, hospitalizations and deaths. No need to guess who is dying or getting hospitalized. Its a shame that the have- nots are likely to fuck over a strong rebound and the freedoms, restrictions to them wrongly imposed, regained.

You know where I stand on the fear monkey narrative. It's rampant ..... again and it is going to pressure governments to reimpose measures none of us like or probably will tolerate. Resistance and protests will be a limiting factor to potential idiocy but still ......first world problem for sure but travel is going to again get restricted. It's already started. The next love of my life - college football in the BT this fall will succumb to fear. At least the SEC has announced they won't be cancelling any games due to COVID. That's a promise that is going to be hard to keep unless things on the vaccine front change pronto..

Most of the news today is depressing. I need to stop reading it. It puts me in a bad mood and this post reflects that. At least, not surprisingly, the markets rebounded strongly today.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Regarding Barrack I did see someone point out to distinguish what he's accused of doing versus Paul Manafort under FARA. FARA applies more to people acting as an agent of a foreign company or individual without reporting that fact. Barrack is accused of being an agent under a different act, USC 951, which is reserved for someone secretly acting under the direction of a foreign government. In layman's terms, what Barrack is accused of doing is a little bit closer to espionage. I did skim the indictment and didn't see anything saying what he was getting from the UAE in return.

https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara/fara-related-statutes

[Dr. Strangelove]

Tom Brady cracking jokes with the Chairman at you-know-who's expense. This must be the worst day of his post-presidential life. Et tu, Tommy?

[lineygoblue]

The next love of my life - college football in the BT this fall will succumb to fear. At least the SEC has announced they won't be cancelling any games due to COVID. That's a promise that is going to be hard to keep unless things on the vaccine front change pronto..

I was watching Sportscenter tonight and they were talking about the SEC and their commitment to play all games regardless of Covid numbers. One thing that surprised me was they said that many of the teams in the SEC have only about a 60% vaccination rate. I thought they'd be in the 90% range or even close to 100%. I'm surprised that all fall sports athletes are not vaccinated by now. Seems like they'd want to do everything possible to get to play. The Big Ten will likely follow last year's example and cancel games for even the smallest outbreak.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The SEC said they will not reschedule any games because of covid...they didn't promise not to cancel them. The SEC commissioner explicitly said that teams may have to forfeit if they have too many covid-positive players and urged as many as possible to get vaccinated.

https://www.al.com/sec/2021/07/greg-sankey-sec-teams-could-be-forced-to-forfeit-games-this-fall-due-to-covid-19-disruptions.html

[Jeff Buchanan]

The SEC said they will not reschedule any games because of covid...they didn't promise not to cancel them. The SEC commissioner explicitly said that teams may have to forfeit if they have too many covid-positive players and urged as many as possible to get vaccinated.

https://www.al.com/sec/2021/07/greg-...sruptions.html

Good point. I didn't pay much attention to the headline other than to mark it down. Obviously, UFR, the SEC hasn't declared COVID doesn't matter. It will.

To explain why CFB teams and the US public haven't gotten closer to a 100% vaccination rate or even 70% and why requiring vaccination is, at best, on shaky legal grounds, I just read a really good article in my NYT's news feed highly critical of the FDA's failure to fully approve the three vaccines that have received EUAs. It concluded "no biologic (vaccines, antibody treatments) have undergone the scrutiny that those introduced to fight the SARS2 pandemic have received." It goes on to point out that the recent approval of the Alzheimer's drug, a drug that has questionable efficacy, got approved while the vaccines, much more efficacious against a much more serious PH risk, haven't been fully approved.

Even though a recent court case affirmed the right of colleges to require vaccination to attend, that the vaccines are not fully FDA approved makes that affirmation tenuous.

Meanwhile the FDA continues to urge people to get vaccinated with a biologic that they have failed to approve. That kind of tells us why there is vaccine hesitancy, right? Just more bad messaging from the federal agencies that ought to be on top of this. It pisses me off. The US is not where it needs to be with vax rates and that's causing COVID case rates to rise. With the Delta variant behind the rise its giving the media the kindling to force PH policy makers to impose more restrictions on our emerging and fragile freedoms.

Here are the facts:

• The Delta Variant is more transmissible
• Rising case numbers globally and regionally are being attributed to growing percentages of Delta
• Around 90% of new COVID cases numbers are among the world's unvaccinated cohort.
• 99% of new COVID cases that result in deaths are among the world's unvaccinated cohort.
• Generally, deaths and hospitalizations from COVID (serious illness) have remained steady. There are regional exceptions and increased disease seriousness tracks inversely with vax rates - the lower the vax rates, the higher the prevalence of serious illness and deaths.

That last bullet item is key. Frankly, given the shit messaging from the CDC and FDA I understand why Americans are hesitant about receiving the vaccine.

My take is that the SARS2 pandemic is being successfully controlled and managed by a combination of immunity gained from previous exposure to COVID, from vaccinations and from responsible SARS2 mitigation measures that look at the cost of such measures versus the PH benefits derived therefrom. What else matters in this equation is the remarkable growth in the capacity of doctors to manage the disease of admitted COVID patients and promote recovery. That is a stunning and mostly unrecognized contribution to the effective management and control of the virus. But, no. The media insists on creating a false narrative of catastrophe.

Because of this, I favor an accommodative approach to new case numbers (Great Britain and others) rather than an elimination through lockdown approach (Australia and NZ). I'll acknowledge both have their place depending on circumstances.

Nevertheless, all forms of media are trumpeting a rise in case numbers as signaling dire consequences, end of times and a resurgence of the pandemic. IOW, things are out of control. IMO, they are not. We are where we should be right now in nations that have secured vaccines. Where nations have not done that things aren't so good, and that needs to be and is being addressed.

Given the media narrative, the potential for the imposition of stricter mitigation measures by policy makers in government is high. Never lose sight of that threat. Pressure should be mounting on the FDA to fully approve the vaccines and it appears that it is. It is estimated that doing that - a completely justifiable action given the scientific evidence and the facts on the ground - that roughly 20% of those who aren't vaccinated would get vaxed. If that were to transpire following official FDA approval, the US would probably reach an 75-80% vax rate, more than enough to blunt rising case numbers and make the press STFU.

[CGVT]

The media's message is "this shit is not under control. Get your fucking shot"

Nothing more. Nothing less. No panic. No shutdown agenda.

BTW, this guy has it right.

220772759_4297641243660332_5960579452136810490_n.jpg

[Tom W]

The media isn't going to STFU regardless of how many people get vaccinated.
They have an agenda to advance and they don't give a damn about being fair and honest to us.

[Kapture1]

[Kapture1]

[Dr. Strangelove]

The statement the family put out didn't give a lot of detail but it sounds like Bobby Bowden doesn't have long to live.

[Mike]

It’s kind of crazy that he’s 91 and coached as recently as 2009. All I found was that he has a “terminal medical condition”.

[Hannibal]

The pandemic is over and has been for some time. It has been well over a month since a US citizen who wants the vaccine has been unable to get it. The fact that new WuFlu victims are overwhelmingly unvaccinated means that they are not a public health threat to the vaccinated. The only function that wearing a mask serves you at this point is to provide comedy value to those of us who are informed and can think critically.

[CGVT]

Why it's not over ^^^^