Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[crashcourse]

Has a top Chinese official defected to the US? Rumors swirl that diplomat has told DC of Wuhan lab | Daily Mail Online

[Kapture1]

Re Talent, the flip side:

I'm also certain -- probably about 97% -- that for this poll question: Which group is worse off: (A) Uyghurs; (B) dissenters in Russia; (C) Whites in the US -- self-described conservatives would overwhelmingly answer (C).

that makes discrimination ok?

because people are worse off elsewhere? I can't even imagine the atrocities that could be justified with that line of thinking.

[CGVT]

FFS, the "Big Lie" is the one that Orange Jackass has been telling since he was elected. The Big Lie that the right wing nuts believe and have perpetuated.

The rest is just noise.

[iam416]

that makes discrimination ok?

because people are worse off elsewhere? I can't even imagine the atrocities that could be justified with that line of thinking.

He was making a point in response to something I posted. His post more or less supports what I’ve been saying. There are “ big lies” and rubes who believe them on both sides and all over. If you think only one side is guilty of perpetrating “big lies” then you’re just a partisan shill that long ago gave up on actual independent thought.

So, again, if we want to take stock of the various “big lies” and the rubes who believe them including about the legitimacy of both the 2016 and 2020 elections, then let’s make a list.

[Jeff Buchanan]

SARS2 was engineered via GOF experiments and escaped from the Wuhan lab? Fauci was involved in funding this research? We need a Chines defector to confirm this? Really?

JFC ...... the west needs to join ranks and stop tiptoeing around on this. SARS2 came from the Wuhan lab, it was engineered through GOF work, the Chinese government is covering up their disastrous fuck-up.

[iam416]

EFZ. So, I think you're right in your earlier post in that the origins don't really matter that much. It happened. We were all fucked. We probably know how it started. No one will do anything.

That said, I think it's useful to know -- or be fairly sure -- that it's based on research because it ought to seriously make us think about the net value of GOF research.

It ought to also be an opportunity for the US to actually reflect on how such a blindingly obvious explanation became, quite honestly, something you couldn't talk about. (1) PDJT supported it. So, for 35-40% of the people in the country, they couldn't possibly believe it (and still can't); (2) "Science" had a vested interest -- "science" is, like anything else, about the money. And research dollars matter. "Science" had a vested interest in "science" not being the cause of this thing -- and so, you end up with a small group of scientists publishing something that says it couldn't possibly be a lab leak -- couldn't possibly be -- JFC. The Media, who hates PDJT, cites that in his face; and, finally, (3) the final step in silencing opinion is to call the opposing view racist -- and, of course, that's exactly what happened here.

This stuff really isn't that debatable. It's pretty easy to cite article after article after article mocking DJT (or Tom Cotton) about this theory. It's pretty easy to find article after article after article citing the "science" saying there's NO WAY it came from a lab. It's pretty easy to cite article after article after article stating or insinuating that it's a racist theory (as if "China eats bats and that started this shit" is somehow better).

This happened. Whether it matters or not is another story -- the cat was out of the bag. If you don't think that it matters how the cat got out of the bag then you don't care that this happened. But, it did. And it ain't some sort of one-off effort to fix the Narrative.

[Jeff Buchanan]

On COVID ...... there's a good deal of conflicting messaging coming from the MSM. The good news is vaccine roll-outs in the west. The bad news is that in almost 1/2 of the world in the Southern Hemisphere, at least regionally, is experiencing R(0) figures approaching 2.0. Haven't seen that since the virus first started to spread wildly in places like Italy18 months ago.

Why is this? Two major factors: (1) Large numbers of naïve hosts who, because of government pandemic policies and/or isolation policies, are getting infected now. (2) Related - a lack of vaccines.

I'm not including the Delta variant as a major factor because (1) and (2) exceed the impact of that strain on transmission in the Southern Hemisphere. Where there are vaccines and increasing immunity overall, both by vaccination and conferred immunity from pervious infection, Delta is having limited impact on disease burden. The UK is a good example, new cases rising, hospitalizations and deaths continuing to decline. Elsewhere in the EU and US, R(0) is considerably <1 regionally and % positives are regularly approaching 2%. SARS2 is largely controlled in places where economic activity fuels most of the world's needs. That's not to dismiss the suffering that will occur in places that are poor and lack both vaccines and medical care but it is a fact of life and the human condition.

Admittedly, the Delta variant is confirmed to be more transmissible (I've seen figures of 60% or more). It's thought, but not yet proven, that the Delta variant confers more serious illness. This is hard to flesh out though because places that have both increased case numbers and increasing disease burden have shitty healthcare systems, large numbers of displaced persons living in cramped camps - all circumstances that promote disease spread. IOW, is this because SARS2's Delta is a scary new thing that's going to ravage the entire world again? No..... an emphatic no.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So we can trust the CDC? Yes? Fuck no!!!

United States District Judge Steven Merryday just late yesterday afternoon told the CDC in his ruling in FL v. Bacerra and Waleski that the burdens it has inflicted on the Cruise line industry through its No Sail Order (NSO) and subsequently it's Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) is complete bull-shit. Huge win for Desantis, the cruise industry and the growing trend toward the administrative state.

This is a fascinating case because his 124 page ruling extends waaaay past the cruise industry. Merryday spent a good 80 of those 124 pages blasting the CDC for it's over-reach, it's disregard for evolving science and it's hubris in making laws that it had no authority to make. He also wagged his finger at Congress for the trend since the 1930s of deferring it's constitutional role for law making to the executive branch and helping to create a dreaded administrative state run by comfortably secure administrators in Washington DC accountable to no one. He derides this trend that has no place in a Constitutional Republic ..... BRAVO!

Talent, I read the whole thing. It's not the first federal case I've looked at so I kind-of have an idea of how encompassing these opinions contained in them can be. They're actually discussions more than they are concrete rulings although this case has those too. I've already responded to posters in a cruise forum I write in to a post that said, "Merryday didn't rule on anything, he just offered his opinion." Well that poster obviously didn't read the ruling and obviously missed the big picture here. The ruling is a stunning critique of the dangers of the administrative state the US is becoming if it is not already there. He just used the willful arrogance of the Department of Human Services (HHS) in the name of Anthony Becerra and the CDC in the name of Rochelle Walenski in imposing the CSO on the cruise industry - an order that is in fact a law that so clearly was not within their authority to write and enforce.

I found the history of how governments, both federal and state, have dealt with infectious diseases that might be carried by ships entering US ports thereby introducing disease into the US population to be incredibly interesting. The bottom line for Judge Merryday was that sure, that's a noble goal but the executive branch, in that process, can't shut down the entire shipping industry (the cruise ship industry - a commercial enterprise) protecting the public's health without the involvement of Congress - the actual law making authority. Some may like the history and the case law that is the basis for protection of the public health. There's also a good discussion on the authority of the president to, for example, shut down the airlines in a PHE ..... there are appropriate limits to an action like that imposed by law and by extension HHS should have been cognizant of those limits but clearly wasn't in shutting down the cruise lines.

I think this particular case calls into serious question just about everything the CDC and by extension the federal and state governments did from the start of the pandemic up until now. The stuff that involves shutting down whole business enterprises attendant to lock-downs, the questionable restrictions of freedom of movement of US citizens are all raised in this case.

Enjoy (Well, maybe not):

https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...773.91.0_1.pdf

[Da Geezer]

Re Talent, the flip side:

I'm also certain -- probably about 97% -- that for this poll question: Which group is worse off: (A) Uyghurs; (B) dissenters in Russia; (C) Whites in the US -- self-described conservatives would overwhelmingly answer (C).

Well, you would be 100% incorrect. Pure nonsense to think that way. My prescription is for you to actually find a conservative and talk to them.

Here is an article that Talent posted years ago.

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/

What the article said (and things have gone downhill since) was that it is extremely rare for people to socialize with others who disagree with them.

[Kapture1]

SARS2 was engineered via GOF experiments and escaped from the Wuhan lab? Fauci was involved in funding this research? We need a Chines defector to confirm this? Really?

JFC ...... the west needs to join ranks and stop tiptoeing around on this. SARS2 came from the Wuhan lab, it was engineered through GOF work, the Chinese government is covering up their disastrous fuck-up.

Apparently a lot of scientists agree, but they didn't want to say anything because it would make Trump look good. Think about that for a second... fucking scientists doing China (and the democrat's) bidding. The left has politicized science and it can no longer be trusted, kinda like the FBI.

https://news.yahoo.com/scientist-waited-legitimize-lab-leak-162344951.html

Scientist Says Some Colleagues Were Hesitant to Legitimize Lab-Leak Theory Out of Fear They Would Be ‘Associated with Trump’

[Ghengis Jon]

Well, you would be 100% incorrect. Pure nonsense to think that way. My prescription is for you to actually find a conservative and talk to them.

Actually, I was agreeing with Talent on his point that stupid, indefensible lies can be found on either side of the political spectrum. He used an obvious absurdity to illustrate that point (I know, he didn't offer anything remotely balanced, so shocking!!!) but he was pretty clear. I posted the flip side of his obvious tongue-in-check "poll question" to underscore the utter ridiculousness that intellectually stunted political extremists often position themselves. ON BOTH SIDES.

Only a world class imbecile would answer "(C)" to either Talent's or my poll question. You completely missed the gist of the point made. Either that, or you're just one of those aforementioned imbeciles that believe one of those two "poll questions" was actually a reasonable inquiry.

My prescription is for you to actually find someone who is not hung up on politics to the point it is their identity and talk to them.

[foxhopper]

White House smartest resident dies today.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe...y-say-n1271386

[Da Geezer]

Re Talent, the flip side:

I'm also certain -- probably about 97% -- that for this poll question: Which group is worse off: (A) Uyghurs; (B) dissenters in Russia; (C) Whites in the US -- self-described conservatives would overwhelmingly answer (C).

Jon: That is what you said in response to Talent saying

Of course. The(A) treatment of DeSantis vs Cuomo (as an example) and, of course, (B)the entire Lab Leak issue. But, look, if we want to list the "big lies" of the Left (or Right) we'll be here forever.

Again, there's a reason why in polling that that "liberals" vastly (C) overestimate the dangers of Covid and vastily (D)overestimate the number of AAs killed by police. The Left are total fucking rubes guided by their sacrosanct media and The Ds.

I'm also certain -- probably about 97% -- that for this poll question: Which group is worse off: (A) Uyghurs; (B) dissenters in Russia; (C) AAs in the US -- self-described liberals would overwhelmingly answer (C).

All four of Talent's points have been proven true. His basic thesis statement is The Left are total fucking rubes guided by their sacrosanct media and The Ds. Also true, as your post proved.

[Ghengis Jon]

Your descent into tunnel vision political fantasies is unfortunate, but not unexpected given the political dysfunction of the day. I sincerely hope you get the help you need.

[Mike]

A, B, C, & D are indisputable facts. There is plenty of data to support them.

But more importantly, Happy Fathers Day to all you dorks who somehow found a woman who let you knock them up. Well done!