Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Ghengis Jon]

I have a question for other fellow veterans here, based on shared personal experience.


There are white racists, black racists, brown racists, yellow racists, and red racists. I wish there weren't, but there are. Its my experience that there are fewer racists in the military (%-wise) than there are in the general population. I believe that to be for two reasons. One, that the service enforces brotherhood among all its members. Nowhere else do you stake your life on the performance of your colleagues. Nowhere else do you want/need your colleagues to be at least as successful as yourself. Two, the close proximity of soldiers to each other in all aspects of their lives undercuts the baseless prejudices that people have learned. Prejudice is a learned behavior, is not innate, and can be unlearned.


My question is this: Should military service be made mandatory, in part as a piece of the solution to overcome the racial issues we're seeing?

[iam416]

Buchanan

I think Biden legitimately loves his country and it’s history. I think he’ll be the last D Presidential candidate about whom I can say that. And I’m sure if he can stand up the Marxists in his party.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I have a question for other fellow veterans here, based on shared personal experience.


There are white racists, black racists, brown racists, yellow racists, and red racists. I wish there weren't, but there are. Its my experience that there are fewer racists in the military (%-wise) than there are in the general population. I believe that to be for two reasons. One, that the service enforces brotherhood among all its members. Nowhere else do you stake your life on the performance of your colleagues. Nowhere else do you want/need your colleagues to be at least as successful as yourself. Two, the close proximity of soldiers to each other in all aspects of their lives undercuts the baseless prejudices that people have learned. Prejudice is a learned behavior, is not innate, and can be unlearned.


My question is this: Should military service be made mandatory, in part as a piece of the solution to overcome the racial issues we're seeing?

To your first observation. I agree with it. However, that wasn't always the case and that wasn't going that far back. In 1975 then CNO, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, yep that's his first name, embarked on a major program to end racial and sexual discrimination in the Navy. It was called HUMREL in typical military fashion to stupidly overuse every possible set of letters to describe something.

It was universally laughed at as a huge waste of time, and some of that was because from the sailors and grunts on the ground it was, like you observed, "what race problem?" The other big part of HUMREL, most said the only part, was accepting women in the military and paving the way for them to live aboard ships at sea, pilot aircraft and sit in a fox hole on the front lines. Previously they could only hold rear echelon admin type jobs. To this day I have trouble accepting either I'm going to be a wing man of the lead who's a woman or that I'm going to have a woman on my wing as the lead. That's another story that goes waaaaay beyond mere chauvinism.

It has worked out and some of that has to do with Zumwat's and the other services who followed suit, efforts to change attitudes. Most of it has to do with that women have performed in the cockpit of helos, transport and high performance fighters, in infantry and ship board units and in SOS forces including the Green Barrettes. Interestingly, no woman has been selected to SEAL units although one made it though training just last December, an officer, who after that selected a different community. No details of why that I know of. SEAL units remain all men.

To your question should military service be made mandatory? You imply as a means of improving relations between different ethnic and racial groups. No and there are better ways to change attitudes and behaviors aside from the stupid shit that's going on these days in hopes that is the way to accomplish this goal.

[iam416]

I don’t subscribe to the underlying premise that the US is a “racist” country.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So, ABC news ran a story - one of the worst written pieces of journalism I've read in a while, that Moderna was about to start it's Phase III trial on their vaccine mRNA-1273. It's headline: Coronavirus vaccine developers to launch phase 3 studies in US.

First, I wanted to know in the first paragraph who those companies were so I could go sign up. How stupid I was to think I'd find that. The story was a garbled discussion of testing protocols for new drugs and mostly incorrect. After 1000 words or so, the article gets around to naming the candidates, mRNA-1273 being one of them.

If you've been reading my posts you'd know there are three front runners and Moderna has the poll position. Competition? The WHO says vaccine makers are collaborating ..... that's BS. First to finish and get a product approved by the FDA and the EMA in the EU is going to reap a pile and deservedly so despite the billions that have come from governments to support fast tracking vaccine R&D.

Anyway, the article completely misses that the day before ABC went to press on this article, last Thursday, July 2nd to be exact, Moderna announced that there was going to be a delay in starting the trial scheduled to start on July 7th. So, I look into this further and find that Moderan did infact say the trial was delayed but that there were minor protocol issues with NIH (who is actually running the trial) and these will probably be resolved in less than a week and not more than two. IOW, the Trial will start in July.

I'll be looking for details as I want that shit. The really good news is that all the vaccine leaders want to test their vaccines in the next 3 month time period in countries that have the highest growth rates. Well, now, now. I'll take that to mean the US, with, right now, the highest growth rate on the globe, is going to have trials run here first. A bit of a silver lining I guess. I have already signed up on the national registry for drug trials. If I meet the medical guidelines to enter a trial, I'll get notified. The downside for me is my age. I doubt I'll be first in the line of recruited drug trial candidates.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/02/...till-possible/

You simply cannot and must not trust your first read of any news article on COVID. Dig.

[Ghengis Jon]

Breaking news from Nathan's in NJ - Joey Chestnut has set a new record of eating 75 hot dogs with buns in 10 minutes.

You may now resume your normal lives.

[THE_WIZARD_]

That's a silly thing to do during Covid/Riot Season! Racist prick!

[lineygoblue]

I have a question for other fellow veterans here, based on shared personal experience.


There are white racists, black racists, brown racists, yellow racists, and red racists. I wish there weren't, but there are. Its my experience that there are fewer racists in the military (%-wise) than there are in the general population. I believe that to be for two reasons. One, that the service enforces brotherhood among all its members. Nowhere else do you stake your life on the performance of your colleagues. Nowhere else do you want/need your colleagues to be at least as successful as yourself. Two, the close proximity of soldiers to each other in all aspects of their lives undercuts the baseless prejudices that people have learned. Prejudice is a learned behavior, is not innate, and can be unlearned.


My question is this: Should military service be made mandatory, in part as a piece of the solution to overcome the racial issues we're seeing?

I can "amen" just about everything you said, Jon. My personal experience was that when I entered, I admit that the thought of serving shoulder to shoulder with black guys did not appeal to me. But, I had no choice. I found out during my military experience that the black dudes I served with were alarmingly a lot like me. We all wanted the same things. We wanted a good, fair paying job, we wanted to take care of our families, live in safe neighborhoods, have a nice car, have a family, and maybe a few extra bucks in our pockets at the end of the month. So that has helped me throughout my life when I entered the civilian job market, and had the same experiences. I learned to leave behind my old feelings, and embraced my personal lessons learned.

As for mandatory military service, I can't say that I'm in favor of that, because the military is not for everyone. It takes a special kind of person to be willing to give their lives for their shipmates, and their country. But, I DO think some sort of national service requirement would do today's millennials a lot of good.

[lineygoblue]

Just in case Canada George and Drok are hanging around. It may be a couple days late, and I could be considered a "racist" to play this, but I'll take that chance.

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors.

[Tom W]

No Jon- I don't favor "military" being mandatory, but it should be highly encouraged and rewarded accordingly. A year or two dose of military discipline/responsibility would be an ideal prep for college, but as liney says, it's not for everyone.

And no, it's not going to solve the "race" issue in this country. That's one where it requires more than addressing any root causes. Hint: follow the money and stop making it profitable.

I do however, think a "Civic Service" requirement should be in order- spend the year after high school doing community service - Helping in parks, neighborhood, senior homes or, gag.. fighting great evils of "climate change". Present these newly legal voters with the options of military service or evoking Green New Dealings. It should be interesting..

[lineygoblue]

I'd even take the civic service a step farther. Forgive a percentage of college student's federal loans for every year of civic service completed, up to 50%. Then waive all interest on the balance of the loan. Allow them to work a required number of hours each month for 1-2 years for a charitable cause of their choice. Yes, religious organizations like Salvation Army and Catholic Relief Services would qualify as a charitable cause organization. Work 1 year, get 25% of your loan forgiven and your loan interest rate cut by 50%. Work 2 years, get 50% of your loan forgiven, and all interest waived on the balance.

I think students would stand in line to get a deal like that.

[foxhopper]

Good idea liney.

[Ghengis Jon]

Oh that jolly GOP.

https://apnews.com/f1cb4583752e02f4984b19ec9c3e7363

[Ghengis Jon]

lincoln.jpg

[Jeff Buchanan]

On COVID, the US reported a slight drop in new cases as of the 4th (52K >> 42K) Whoopee. Even FL had a slight decline. Without context this doesn't mean much. Deaths are continuing to drop viewed on a daily basis or remain about the same over the last 121d (time since first case). The growth rate is flat (1.08) and it had been higher than that flirting with 1.15 in the preceding weeks and back to as late in the game as June 1st. % positive has been hovering over 10% (12% week ending 6/28); the goal is below 10%. I've mentioned this before but there are just a handful of counties in FL's 67 that account for most of the cases. Some counties have under 10 cases and a very low percent +. Do you need to mask in these counties? Close beaches, bars and restaurants? Can't hurt I suppose but studies show when disease prevalence is low, mitigation measures of all types become less effective...... and are economically and socially costly.

In FL, probably nationally but I'm not studying that data like I am in FL, I still believe (hope at this point) that testing is tapping into a huge number of people under 40 who are (1) asymptomatic or (2) have mild symptoms. The off-shoot of that is obvious. If you look at those two data points together, flat or declining CFR and new cases probably made up of folks who aren't going to need hospitalization, you are looking at a locally manageable COVID pandemic situation without the hysteria associated with lock downs. Moreover, there are benefits to keeping testing rates high and if the hypothesis holds - that this is younger people w/o the likelihood of serious disease - and testing continues to go full-bore, that helps to sharpen the picture of where the disease is most prevalent (hot spots) to a granular level (this or that venue). Obviously, there's a poltical cost to this and the press jumps right on high case #s as a sign of malfeasance.

I'm seriously questioning hospital data that is being made public. I've pointed out that along with other data points (context) these are key. I can only believe (again, hope) that PH epidemiologists have better data form hospitals to advise decision makers on openings and closings. For example, how accurate is the admissions data as it relates to COVID management state wide or locally if coders are up-coding by adding an unwarranted or equivocal COVID diagnosis to optimize reimbursement? I know how this works because I've seen it - not with COVID but with plenty of other admissions. So far, just watching PH policy take form at the municipal level, I don't believe these mayors are acting in the dark.

I'm reading that even though trackers are being added to the PH system to facilitate better contact tracing, people who are testing positive are reluctant to share who they were in contact with. Apparently its only running at about a 25-30% rate of failing to cooperate in FL so, the impact of dumb asses may not be that great. Do what you can do.

Other problems officials are dealing with: (1) Aggressive behavior and demonstrations by committed anti-maskers. Small group broke through closure tape in Fort Lauderdale Beach, gathered and taunted police. Those that didn't disperse and leave the beach were unceremoniously arrested and carted off to jail. Still, law enforcement hates this and while they are distracted doing silly stuff, real criminals are breaking into homes and stores. (2) Mask and distancing non-compliance not accompanied by aggressive behavior but by willful disobedience of posted rules. A sort of fuck-you attitude. Seems to be around 25%. You can live with that as 75% compliance is the standard. Still, servers and proprietors trying to keep their restaurants from getting shut down or fined get put in tenuous positions by dumb asses. Sad.

My take from reading is that proprietors if they are not in compliance, honestly are confused by the rules .... .and they differ in specificity (not intent) by locale. Some patrons are in the same boat. Parents know if the rules aren't easy to follow and clear, kids will blow them off. Bad behavior ensues. From the start, they have never been clear, at least in the detail necessary to comply, are hard to find a concise description of them for your locale and if you can find them each rule is fleshed out to great detail, e.g., can you take your mask off as soon as you sit down? Should you wear it after you've given your order and are waiting for it to be served? After it's served and your waiting for your check at the table? Crazy shit.

There's other confusing rules. For example: Can you push two tops up against the bar? Depends on if food is being served. Can a bar tender take a drink order from the two top from behind the bar? No but all he has to do is walk out from behind the bar to the table and take the order, then go back and make it, then reverse the process to serve it. There are two places I frequent that seem to comply with this pretty well. Bartenders are good at what they do and seem to understand if they serve from over the bar top or through a window to customers standing outside, that's a violation. I get it but it really seems silly.

There's a snitch line in Broward Co. The line fielded over 1700 calls since it was set up 2w ago. Over 750 of them were substantiated on investigation. The rest are still under investigation or were thrown out. Enforcement seems to be pretty good but I can't tell in any detail how it's working. Numbers will tell in the days ahead. From news reports, if a code enforcement team shows up, they are friendly, remind offenders what the rules are, go away and come back in 15-20 minutes to see if the deficiencies noted were corrected. If blatantly not, citations are issued. There are fines and the offender has to go to Magistrates Court. Still, they are into education right now more than being ass holes.

I remain hopeful were going to see a down tick of new cases in FL as the protocols implemented mid-last week start to have an impact. Case #s going down seems to me to be more of virtue signal, albeit a politically important one, as I also hope that having a lot of cases - the ones that are asymptomatic or presenting with minor symptoms - presents what amounts to a disease burden non-problem for hospitals. In that case, keep on truckin' - learn to live with this little bastard.