Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

They don't have the meats!

[Dr. Strangelove]

Senator Lujan of New Mexico had a stroke and is hospitalized. Expected to make a full recovery though. He's only 49. One of the ten youngest Senators, actually.

[Dr. Strangelove]

They don't have the meats!

RIP Potato Cakes. Fuck those crinkle fries.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I wish you would have a stroke.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Dr. Strangelove]

This just in: Donald J. Trump is an abject piece of shit

So our boy wanted DOJ, the Pentagon, or DHS to seize voting machines and either hold a new election or just declare him President for another 4 years on the authority spewed by cokeheads or other moral degenerates, as I understand it.

Bill Barr told him to fuck off and promptly resigned. Leaving career folks in charge of DOJ (can't be trusted!)

Michael Flynn and the other most lunatic members of his advisory panel wanted to use the military but Rudy Giuliani was, for once in his life, the voice of reason in the room and said that would be crazy. Around this time every single living Defense Secretary, Republican or Democrat, including those who worked for Trump, signed a letter saying the military absolutely must stay out of any election disputes. So word had clearly gotten around that Trump was seriously considering ordering the military to occupy states and confiscate voting machines under his authority as...well, they would think of that later.

Giuliani had suggested DHS do it instead. And DHS was headed by a loyal lickspittle, Ken "The Cooch" Cuccinelli, a man illegally appointed to his post and would probably be running a Honda dealership in exurb DC if not for Trump.

But The Cooch let Trump down. Even he balked at sending ICE officers to invade Board of Elections across the country and seize equipment on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Da Boss was most wrathful after this and ready to demand a loyalty test of Mike Pence, who he today says is the REAL person that should be investigated.

[lineygoblue]

But at least his Twitter account has been permanently deleted.

[THE_WIZARD_]

heh

[iam416]

In a move that will surely dampen The Wizard's mornings for a little bit, Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks. She got a little sideways on the Holocaust and, of course, ABC needed to punish her for her hurtful comments because, surely, ABC prides itself in being inclusive. Or some such shit.

What she said was factually incorrect, she later acknowledged as much and it occurred during a live on-air discussion. We've lost our damn minds with this bullshit. I'm at the point where I'm defending Whoopi fucking Goldberg and her right to be wrong. JFC.

[THE_WIZARD_]

She is getting a proverbial slap on the wrist. Imagine a conservative making a gaffe like that...they would have hung. She's getting a 2 week hiatus. I don't think people should be punished for being an idiot...Talent would be under constant punishment if that were the case.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I LOL'ed at these two posts .... both of them are spot on. Outrage is driving national and corporate policy, probably for the long haul. I do see pocket's of hope. Despite massive efforts on the part of black activists to resurrect the outrage over the Floyd killing at the hands of police and other blacks at the hands of citizens, the notion of getting rid of them in civilized society has pretty much been shit-canned.

The only real issue I see on this front is that people of color, they are correctly called these days, do face some difficulties in advancing their standards of living. That issue goes beyond typical stereotypes among this cohort and involves correctable barriers to upward mobility. This is especially true for those barely surviving at lower income levels. This country does a shitty job at removing those barriers through public policy.

[Mike]

"This country does a shitty job at removing those barriers through public policy."

This is mainly due to the fact that the public policies meant to address and correct this issue only exacerbate the problem.

[iam416]

Good lord. You're actually entirely correct.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Of course they do ...... it's what the fucking politically divided and, because of those divisions a hobbled US government, does almost all the time.

My position is that the US Congress rarely finds a balance between runaway free money policies, long lists of freebees and the worst aspects of right wing conservatism.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I apologize for talking about the obvious but reporting on COVID stats has gotten hilariously frustrating ..... the MSM just can't stop. I'm sure you're following your own state's COVID Dashboards - these things becoming more and more useless everyday - but it's habit. Can't stop paying attention if only to see the hilarity in them. Today's mid-week report for FL includes these stats:

The 7-day average for new cases continued its three-week decline, falling to 21,715, its lowest level since Dec. 24. The daily case average in Florida is now lower than the peak of last summer’s delta surge for the first time since Christmas Eve.

COVID in FL 2.3.22.JPG

On Tuesday there were 8,615 patients in Florida hospitals with COVID-19, a 26.8% decline from the omicron surge’s hospitalizations peak on Jan. 18, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There were 1,322 adult patients in intensive care with COVID, the lowest number since Jan. 8. The data combines patients who were admitted with the virus and those who tested positive after admission.

COVID2 in FL 2.3.22.JPG

Testing positivity rates in all three South Florida counties are now below 20% and have the lowest rate of all of Florida’s 67 counties. They also have among the lowest per-capita rate of new daily cases over the past seven days, CDC data shows.

In those graphs is proof that (1) viral prevalence (in FL) will probably be below 5% in 3-4 weeks. (2) Individual risk of catching COVID is going to be low - in the 3% range; the risk of serious illness less that 1%.

Daily new case numbers are still high and I expect that pattern persists in most US states but R(t) is plunging. Only a handful of states have R(t)s > 1.0. Moreover just as in FL, a search of other states that report hospital stats, those numbers are also plunging. That should tell even the most die-hard, COVDI fearful individuals that, hey, it's OK to return to your nomral routines.

The thing that irks me, in a now laughable sort of way, is that this is the headline for FL's COVID stats reported today in the Sun Sentinel:

COVID-19 update: Florida reports 16,883 new COVID cases as vaccination rate falls to lowest level in over a year

Is that a positive message? No, it just promotes fear. Look, I get it, news is news but we're not going to get past the fear mentality that continues to plague too many Americans unless this sort of negative Nancy COVID reporting stops. FL is a state with a Governor that has removed all restrictions and a legislature that has passed bills that ban most all the mitigation measure nonsense in the state (where Federal law doesn't apply, e.g., airports). They are LAW in FL.

Despite that, I still see lots of people down here in masks or I know people who know people that still won't go out to eat at an indoor restaurant. I support each to his own but it's getting ridiculous and such behavior promotes continued COVID Karen behavior.

Stop it.