Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Drunk man goes missing in woods, then joins a search party without realizing they were searching for HIM

https://www.foxnews.com/world/missing-man-joined-search-party-for-himself

[Obi-Jon]

Tracking military weapons with RFID tags is a double edged sword. At least the Marines opted out.

https://apnews.com/article/rfid-military-weapons-guns-62c88008478f4ac403047c21f3184677

[Dr. Strangelove]

Leaked top secret footage of latest North Korean supersonic weapon

[crashcourse]

well looks like durham probe picking up a little steam
Mollie on Twitter: "Perkins Coie, the firm at which Marc Elias invented the Russia collusion hoax AND Democrats' 2020 mail-in ballot strategy, under additional scrutiny for their 2016 election meddling." / Twitter

[Dr. Strangelove]

Oh wow. Alex Jones has lost 2 Sandy Hook defamation cases by default judgment.

***************************

Infowars host Alex Jones has lost two of several lawsuits filed against him by relatives of Sandy Hook victims after he routinely failed to comply with requests to produce documents related to his involvement in spreading lies about the deadly shooting.

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on Monday issued her ruling for default judgments against Jones in two different cases, which means he and the conspiracy-theory-spewing outlet Infowars have been found liable for all damages and a jury will now be convened to determine how much he will owe the plaintiffs. The new rulings became public Thursday.

In the filings, Gamble eviscerated Jones and reasoned that default judgments should be ordered because “an escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse,” caused by Jones’ unwillingness to turn over documents related to the cases, the Texas judge ruled.

The ruling — which is often referred to in Texas as a “death penalty sanction” for a party unwilling to comply with court orders — is a rarity in the legal world. Jones, who is now on his seventh lawyer in these cases, had years to provide documentation requested by the court, including internal company emails.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alex-jones-lost-two-sandy-hook-cases_n_61561020e4b008640eb1d56a

Crash- You'd better buy up enough brain pills and bone broth milkshakes to last the rest of your life. Alex might not be around much longer

[Kapture1]

Did anyone happen to watch his deposition? Holy shit man

[iam416]

In actual news, Congress, of course, passed a funding bill to keep operating until December. Like that wasn't going to happen.

And, of course, Pelosi had to delay a vote on the infrastructure bill last night, but promises a vote is coming today.

[lineygoblue]

The solution to that whole mess, is for the Dems to go after the numerous RINO's in the Senate, and throw them a few bones, and get their bill passed. Problem is, the infants in the House that they have to pander to, won't let that happen. Dem leaders know if they make AOC cry too much, it won't look good for their image, whatever that may be.

There are a MINIMUM of 10-12 RINOs in the Senate that would LOVE the opportunity to sign on to a "bipartisan" bill for spending. Their agenda matches the Democrats because in finding a compromise, and therefore tossing some mud in Trump's eye is a shared goal.

If Dems were smart, they'd actually BE bipartisan, and throw a few meatless bones to the Repubs, and come off smelling much better than they do now. The Chairman would get his supervised moment with the sharp writing instrument, .. Giggles would get to laugh, and Chuck and Nancy would be able to proclaim their political mandate.

It still might happen.

[Mike]

Ideally, they will pass the $1.2T "hard" infrastructure bill in the House and then one of the D Senators will flip on the reconciliation unicorn package rendering it DOA. But that won't happen.

My prediction: They cater to Manchin on the Hyde Amendment and trim the cost way down but still Trojan horse a bunch of free shit into federal law. It will be a huge win for the Ds but the progressives will piss and moan that they only get to tax and spend an additional $2.7 trillion. The result will be greater inflation, larger debt and deficits, even less participation in the work force, higher energy costs, and American companies moving their HQs off shore.

But hey, maybe it will make it rain in California.

[Obi-Jon]

By my count, I see $2.3T of "free shit" in the second bill. A little more than $1T for actual "roads and bridges". If Biden were smart, he'd tell Pelosi to dump all the free shit as another bill, let the GOP claim victory, and get both bills passed. He, or the presumptive nominee, can claim victory in the '24 election cycle.

[Mike]

The $3.5T reconciliation bill essentially is the "free shit" bill. The $1.2T "bipartisan" infrastructure bill is supposed to be the actual "roads and bridges" bill, but even in that one there's plenty of non-infrastructure stuff.

[Kapture1]

Eco-terrorist Tracy Stone-Manning confirmed by the Senate to run BLM

[Da Geezer]

You see $ 1T in roads and bridges in the reconciliation bill? Where?

There is about $750B of "roads and bridges" in the bipartisan bill (face value of 1.2T). $ 750B for Common Goods would be a terrific win for the Ds to run on in 2022 and 2024. $ 750B in roads and bridges would look like a win to the Rs also since they "stopped" the "remake America" $3.5T bill. A win for all concerned, so it could never happen.

$ 750B is a lot of money.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've posted about this in the past - months ago actually. It is the drift by governments towards recognizing, in various degrees, that their PH policies need to reflect the reality that the impact of SARS2 needs to be managed because this thing isn't going away. It's happening. Lots of reports of governments removing most mitigation measures ...... notably and commensurate with percent vaccination rates of their citizens.

Another thing I've advocated for is better information from federal, state and local officials on how to asses COVID risks and behave accordingly. This is the best article I've seen out there that provides the tools and context to individually assess COVID risks. It's written by Allison Schragger who writes for Bloomberg Opinion. Of course it's pay walled but, if you're interested enough in hearing a good guide for "......Assessing COVID Risks." It's worth finding a way to get at it. May be in your local news rag you might subscribe to. That's where I found it but a quick search didn't revel a free source.

In short, it's a balanced piece not stressing obvious bias but recognizing it's impact on how we each see COVID risks and how we behave in the face of them. There's strong dose of, "this isn't as dangerous as too many people think it is" ..... and I'd add too many people think there is no to little risk. Take precautions with such precautions being acted upon in context, e.g., looking at regional viral prevalence, age cohort risks, immune system competency or lack of it.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...ing-covid-risk

[Jeff Buchanan]

As I've posted, I'm in Lausanne Switzerland where my daughter, a bio-medcal engineer, lives. She is currently working for an NGO based in Lausanne, supervising the work of other's in her area. She is a cellular bio-medical engineer unlike her husband who designs medical equipment but is also in the same generalized field. My daughter is very up to date on SARS2 and how it affects the human body having access to a lot of research not in the public domain. Her's what she has told me:

First, the tools that are being used to assess SARS2 are new - within the last 2 years. The emergence of COVID is responsible and the speed at which these tools have reached the laboratory and produced information is a continuing reflection of human brain power and ingenuity. Second, the information being obtained reflects the complexity of the immune system's response to an invader like SARS2.

You'll recall the human immune system is composed of two components, the humeral or adaptive immune system and the cellular system, each with it's own players and properties. When the human is attacked by SARS2, the immune system response is hugely variable among the species. That has not been the case in the past with human immune systems, for exapmpl, responding fairly uniformly to H1N1 influenza for example. This is an entirely new ballgame and helps explain two things: 1. the variance in COVID severity and 2. the apparent lack of consistency in the scientific and medical research. It explains somewhat the fence sitting behaviors of respected experts like Fauci.

My daughter took exception to my view that researchers won't take positions for fear of being wrong and losing funding and/or their jobs. What researchers do suffer from is scientific uncertainty about SARS2 and the tendency of non-scientists in the media to latch on to studies that clearly deal with the uncertainty in their conclusions and write stories as if those conclusions are fact. What's frustrating is that it is impossible to educate amateurs without any scientific training or background to the level of understanding and often life long experience PhD's have in the area of Corona Viruses and how they are dealt with at the cellular level by the human immune system. It sounds a bit like scientific elitism. Well, it is. Be glad that there are people in the world who know WTF is going on to a level of certainty that average folks can't hope to understand .... and this crowd doesn't have the time or the patience to bring us up to speed.

Bottom line: we will defeat or learn to live with SARS2 (e.g., like common influenza) within the next 6 months maybe sooner. This reality is being brought to us by scientists and medical researchers that are actually behind the trend we're seeing in governments dropping mitigation measures that are more harmful to life than beneficial to the public health