from the who-feels-safe-in-Florida-now? dept.
Armed police raid home of Florida scientist fired over Covid-19 data
Rebekah Jones, the Florida data scientist embroiled in a dispute with the state's Republican governor over the handling of coronavirus figures, had her home raided on Monday by armed police who confiscated her computers.
In a stream of posts on Twitter, Jones posted a video of the raid that showed state police carrying handguns escorting her out of her Tallahassee home. She can be heard saying: "He just pointed a gun at my children," with her husband and two children apparently upstairs at the time.
Jones claimed in her tweets that the raid was the work of Ron DeSantis, the governor with whom she has clashed repeatedly since she was fired by the state's department of health in May in a row over Covid-19 data. She compared the incident to sending "the gestapo", adding: "This is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly. This is what happens to people who speak truth to power."
The Florida department of law enforcement confirmed they had entered Jones's house on a search warrant. But in a statement the department said the action was related to a recent computer hack of the health department website, in which emergency response coordinators were sent an unauthorised message.
Also at CNN, The Verge, and The Hill.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @02:48AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:48AM
You sound like a filthy pseudo-leftie. Swamp Maoism [libcom.org] is Floridaman's best bet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:56AM
I dunno. I think you need to elaborate on this comment a bit more. Just sayin'.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday December 09 2020, @02:57AM (1 child)
FTFY.
Tak, could you please try to not lose links that provide an explanation? (in this case, for the benefit of those unaware of how floridian emergency services work).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 09 2020, @02:59AM
Oh the irony!!!! Let's try again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:13AM (17 children)
Mistake number one. Maybe she has an iphone with good protections? Except, the FBI has demonstrated that they CAN get into an iphone . . .
The hack? Not sure what to think about that. Sometimes, violating a TOS is deemed a "hack" FFS, I'd need to know a lot more before I could have an opinion.
The raid? Stupid broad - she opens her door before looking to see who the hell is out there? That's why they make doors with peep holes, windows, and chains, and deadbolts. I don't open MY door, until I have decided whether I even want to talk to the person on the porch.
Sounds like heavy handed bullshit, unless the state has some real reason to think that Jones "hacked" their computer system.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:25AM (2 children)
Costs them a fair bit, tho'. But, yeah, what are those taxes good for if not to contributing to the a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellebrite">Israeli economy?
---
CNN link in TFS
You were saying...?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:38AM
OK, I didn't click all the links. I'm accustomed to several sites running the same story, so I didn't click the rest to see how the story might be different.
So, Jones is one stupid broad. She's lucky the door wasn't kicked in, and SWAT come storming in. I guess if you're a higher profile near-celebrity, the rules are different.
The Verge supplies a juicy detail about the "hack":
If that is true, then anyone with the will to set Jones up could have parked outside her house for a few moments to send the messages. Nice, easy setup, huh?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:01PM
Except, the FBI has demonstrated that they CAN PAY SOMEONE to get into an iphone . . .
(Score: 2, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:41AM
She's 31: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Jones [wikipedia.org] and so it is possible she's hopelessly addicted to her phone. If everything important and potentially bad enough for criminal charges is on there, that makes it close to a certainty. Smartphones are the new crack in every way -- from addiction to conviction.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:06AM
Runaway 1956, cuck security expert to the stars, I assume? Given Runaway's experience with law enforcement, and his knowledge of the law, well, shut the fuck up, Runaway!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:24AM (3 children)
> Stupid broad
Why the sexist slur? That's beneath you.
> she opens her door before looking to see who the hell is out there?
Maybe that's an American thing? Here in the free world we don't expect armed attackers every time we open our door.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @01:20PM (2 children)
She's not a stupid kid. She's not a stupid dude. She's not a stupid animal. She's not a stupid kitchen range. She's a stupid broad.
The video seemed to show her walking to the door, and opening it wide without looking to see who it is. In retrospect, she's stupider than I thought, for having denied the police entry for several minutes after learning that they had a valid search warrant.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:50PM (1 child)
Right, so I guess her "stupidly" opening the door makes it OK for them to send the Gestaop out to round up inconvenient scientists.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:11PM
I didn't say anything like that. However, in the USA, if law enforcement can get a judge to sign off on a warrant, we have to respect that warrant. Refusing entry to a cop with a warrant in his hand often results in SWAT forcing entry, and killing every living thing as they come in. Refer to Breonna Taylor, in which case the warrant wasn't exactly properly served - "no knock".
You almost never win when resisting the cops, you certainly won't win if the cop has a valid warrant in hand.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:30AM
Stupid flat, Runaway! Where I live, we are not all in bunkers, scared of antifa knocking on our doors! And we expect the police to announce themselves, and produce a warrent, just like in the Fourth Amendment. Why do you hate the Fourth Amendment, Runaway?
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday December 09 2020, @01:34PM (6 children)
Don't open your door and the police can't raid you? Brilliant! Any other gems of wisdom you can dish out?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @02:43PM (5 children)
"gems of wisdom"
Watch the video, without full context. When I watched the video, I hadn't read the article from The Verge, which explained that she already knew who was outside, and knew why they wanted in. And, I responded above, already, explaining that I didn't click all the links.
Want to try again?
But, yes, if you hear a knock on your door, and open the door without looking outside, you ain't real bright. Cops, robbers, just some asshole who wants to kick your teeth in, you check to see who is on the other side of the door before opening it.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:31PM (2 children)
What do you think the cops and swat team will do if you refuse to let them in? Go "aww shucks you got us there" and go home? You'll be buying a new door for sure. Maybe those things happen where you live but I don't have a fear of opening my door if someone knocks.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:15PM
It all depends on who, what, when, where, why and how. I have refused entry to police in the past. You pick your fights, and you accept the consequences if you've misjudged the situation. Always remember, shit happens, and sometimes the dragon wins.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:21PM
American men derive their sense of masculinity in barbaric terms, because they are barbaric people. These are the same people who promote routine male infant genital mutilation then attempt to blame the Jewish peoples when it goes wrong.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:58PM (1 child)
Wow, you must live in a war zone or something! I can't imagine being that frightened all the time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @05:45PM
I haven't locked my front door in years, except while out of town for plural days in a row.
I live in the 'bad' part of town - highest % of PoC, a lot of elderly garbage pickers, fair bit of opiate addiction, not so much upper abuse (that's in the 'worst' part of town, about a km away).
I've had lots of folks go through my garbage bin, but since we set it just outside the fence, the worst has been having to shovel it back in when someone tips it instead of digging.
So far we've had zero theft, zero violence, zero police.
Now, some places, people are harder because there's no food. Here, we have a food bank. I've visited those harder places. Glass shards cemented onto walltops makes sense when there are starving people - when someone's that hungry they act illogically.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:28AM (10 children)
In English, that means pumping shit through a neural network until the desired results come out.
"Truth to power" indeed. As a firee of DeSantis, she's probably on retainer at the Covid News Network, and gets to sing their song for cash.
And let's not forget that apparently there was enough probable cause of wrongdoing, that a judge issued a search warrant as mandated by the constitution.
(Score: 1, Troll) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:33AM
I don't know who she is really or what she is about -- even if we assume she's a Covid-Karen of some type -- Courts give out warrants like pedophiles give out candy, so the fact a judge signed a warrant doesn't mean much.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:03AM (6 children)
Let's say she sent an unauthorized message to state employees urging them to speak up about the death toll in the state. Why is that sufficient reason to conduct a raid on someone's house? That seems unreasonable in and of itself.
As per another source [miamiherald.com], the "messaging system" actually means sending an unauthorized email to state employees. This sounds like a mass email to health department employees. I work for the government in another state and we use distribution groups in Microsoft 365. The alleged hack sounds like sending an unauthorized email to one of these distribution groups. The IP address was likely identified from email headers and perhaps server logs.
Distribution groups can be restricted to users within the organization or anyone can be allowed to send mass emails to anyone in the group. The degree of security depends on the settings and might involve messages being moderated, though that's not necessarily turned on. I haven't tested it out, but it might well be possible to bypass some of the restrictions by spoofing the From: header and send an otherwise unauthorized email.
Even if all that happened, does that justify raiding someone's house? Even if Rebekah Jones did all of those things, this still seems incredibly heavy handed over what is effectively a spam email.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:08AM (1 child)
Of course, what we are all asking ourselves, is why did this happen to her, but it never happens to actual spammers? Hmmm?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:58PM
Of course a "data scientist" would use encryption and have offsite backups.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:55PM (1 child)
If your default answer is to use police to investigate they're going to use police tools and tactics. Especially ones that keep them from getting harmed. There are reports of officers getting shot & killed delivering warrents. Swat teams, not so much. If I were the police & the swat team wasn't busy, I'd use them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:14AM
And I'm sure that, come the revolution, you will make a fine little boot-licking stooge.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:09PM
It's not. This DeSantis guy is using the power of his position to silence opposition, just like in any other police state.
American conservatives often claim to be against that sort of thing, and sometimes claim they need all those guns to prevent it happening, but when one of their own does it apparently it's OK.
As is obvious from reading several of the posts here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:11AM
Indeed. I work for DoD (specifically, USAF). Over the last ten years or so I can't count the number of times I've been spammed (e.g., because some Colonel of General mistakenly hit "Reply All"). By all means, if she inappropriately used an emergency notification system to send out her screed then go ahead and fire her ass. But are we really going down the path now of sending in the SWAT team for this kind of infraction? What the hell is wrong with this country?!?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @09:14AM (1 child)
A civil court judge, appointed by the governor just one month before...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @05:21PM
Still a judge.
Let her contest it in court if she disagrees.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:56AM (103 children)
Gotta make the whole 'COVID-19 pandemic' shtick appear legit. I ain't buyin' it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:20AM (98 children)
Comments like these are why the right cannot be taken seriously.
If you believe that Democrats are using issues like climate change and COVID-19 to institute harmful policies, denying facts is NOT the correct response. The right has reduced themselves to denying facts and science when it's inconvenient.
Kellyanne Conway described the right correctly when she said they provide alternative facts. Of course, the supposed alternative facts aren't facts at all. If the right wants to be taken seriously, they need to accept real facts and provide alternative solutions.
If you don't like the left's ideas about climate change, propose alternative solutions. Don't deny that humans are causing climate change. If you don't like the left's policies about COVID-19, don't deny that COVID-19 is real and serious. Provide alternative solutions that will actually be more effective at reducing deaths and serious illnesses. The right should have embraced masks as an alternative to lockdowns because mask mandates are far less restrictive than ordering businesses closed. If the right doesn't like carbon taxes and cap-and-trade schemes, propose a less restriction that will be effective at mitigating climate change.
I can't take the right seriously until they stop denying facts and stop denying science. As long as the right is in the business of alternative facts, voting for them is a non-starter. Accept the facts, then propose alternative solutions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by helel on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:47AM (21 children)
The problem is that the facts, that is to say reality, only really lends itself to a limited number of solutions. If you don't want masks and you don't want shutdowns and you don't want travel restrictions ... what's left? Only ignoring the problem, that is to say ignoring facts.
Or to put it another way, ignoring facts is the conservative solution.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:40AM (20 children)
Yes, lets insult and attack the conservatives. That's how we'll get them on our side. Brilliant. Maybe a bit short-sighted and ego-serving, but it'll work.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:27AM (16 children)
Fucking stupid and dumb conservatives! But, you see, this is not an insult, nor an attack, it is just a statement of fact. The Gov of Florida is just Florida Man writ large, too stupid to realize that just firing people who report actual data will be enough to hide actual data, and too stupid to realize that sending State Police to point guns at her children (the may have data hidden on them! Cops feel threatened!!) will produce a massive backlash against the stupidity of conservatives, especially the most stupid and idiotic conservatives in Florida, which is saying something.
Conservatives in America deserve every bit of mockery and disrespect that is about to be thrown their way. They earned it, they deserve it, and if they still support the Conspiracy Theory Donald, they deserve far more. Titillation and excitation unto death, comes to mind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:00AM (15 children)
What you "woke" people haven't woke up to is that you're just pawns in their game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:11AM (1 child)
Or, we woke are woke and you who think we are only woke to be pawns are actually the ones who are not woke and playing into the hands of the vast corporate conspiracy that wants you to think that the woke are not truly woke, you know? Do try and keep up. Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @11:12PM
There is no anti-woke corporate conspiracy -- all the largest multi-nationals are aligned with the woke crowd. It's good business sense for them -- especially the open borders part which will only drive wages down and move dollars up the chain to the top faster. Conflating controlled immigration with racism was the corporatocracy's greatest stroke of evil genius.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:32PM (12 children)
Who is this "they" and what, *exactly* is the "game?"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:28PM (11 children)
The political establishment. And the game is nothing more than holding onto an ever loosening grip on power. And what's the oldest way to do so? Divide and conquer. The "woke" serve to effectively divide society to no end. Instead of people, left and right, coming together against the awful people we have in congress - the woke help to create fights and conflicts among the people themselves, ensuring never-ending conflict and division. So people are busy pissing on each other instead of looking where they should.
2016 was really the best example of the fruits of this phenomena. How many people voted for Hillary because they genuinely felt she was a candidate that'd make a great president and stood for their values? How many people voted for her because the alternative was just terrifying? And the *exact same* held true for many of those that voted for Trump. It's the fruits of a remarkable degree of social engineering at scale. Politicians managed to get tens of millions of people to vote for people they don't like. And all they had to do was convince their electorate that the alternative was literally Hitler or Mao or whatever. Exact same game this election, and probably for all elections in the foreseeable future now. And you get to play a great role ensuring that same old tired establishment keeps getting elected over and over.
And you'll undoubtedly come to see Biden is about as "progressive" as Bush Senior over the coming years, yet you'll no doubt engage in some sort of crazy ass cognitive dissonance to convince yourself that 2+2=5 and somehow you're not just being used.
(Score: 4, Touché) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:15PM
And yet here we all are commenting on the news that the republican governor of Florida has sent agents of the state into the home of a political opponent.
I'm pretty sure the FBI agent who pointed his gun at a child wouldn't characterise himself as "woke".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:36PM (9 children)
Wow. You just dive right in to attack those who disagree with you, without even trying to see their point of view. Because you're right and they're wrong. And as such, they must be evildoers in thrall to the shadowy powers that rule us all. Sigh.
Those you describe as "woke" aren't your enemy, they're just other *Americans* who mostly want to see the ideals of this nation (equality under the law, maximum liberty) apply to all of us, yet you make them your enemy.
The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one.
I pity you, friend.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @11:21PM (3 children)
You are lying -- they expressly denounce equality and seek to replace it with equity. These are not synonymous terms, and as used politically, "equity" is basically the antonym of equality. Equality is about giving everyone equal opportunity and not using racist criteria in allocation of resources. Equity is about taking from some and giving to others to ensure equal outcomes based solely on racist identity groupings.
Any person who describes themselves as woke and in favor of equality, either doesn't understand woke, or is cynically and treacherously blowing smoke up you ass using the slimy post-modernist trick of the definitional bait and switch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:45AM
Feeling particularly hateful to your fellow Americans today, are we?
Good show, friend! I'd hate it if you were inconsistent.
Carry on!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @05:30AM
Who, *exactly*, said such things? I want *names*. When, *exactly*, did they say such things?
I want actual published quotes. But you won't provide any because you *can't*.
You would be laughable if you weren't such a scumbag.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @06:36AM
Your rage and hate are misplaced, friend.
I don't expect that you will, but perhaps you might read this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/opinion/trump-social-status-resentment.html [nytimes.com]
and think about the mechanisms discussed.
Your fellow Americans aren't you enemies. And we can make our nation better for *all* of us. But only if we work *together*.
As Benjamin Franklin put it (although I'm only being metaphorical, while he was being both literal and metaphorical):
I'd much prefer the former to the latter. How about you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:52AM
You are right, everybody wants what's best for everybody, but maybe you could try to understand the parent post. What makes him say what he does? It's completely true that anyone in power thrives when people aren't able to come together and implement lasting change together. That's what I got from his comment and you're defending against an attack on those labeled "woke" and I get that too, but you might also understand where that attack came from and that it's not ment toward those who want equality. I bet you've met those kind of people who yell a lot about progress, but in the end we're worse of than before because of them. You're so close to actually find some common ground that everyone should be equal and free, from there on you could explore the "how". It's sad to see you fighting over details and terminology. It's clearly a huge stone in the road towards progress that we're divided on ridiculous emotions towards eachother, when we want the same thing.
Palestine and Israel is a handshake away from a final agreement of peace ending decades of violence and death. Just before the handshake they're interrupted by an angry person yelling and jumping up and down. Down with Israel! Free Palestine! The peace progress breaks down and the next day 1000 people die. There is a real world difference between problem solving and being opinionated.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Socrastotle on Thursday December 10 2020, @06:33PM (3 children)
The problem with woke ideology is not the ideology in and of itself. I think people should be able to believe whatever they want to believe - even if I don't have a positive view of it, and I think most other people also feel this way. However, this is where the "woke" become a problem, because a sufficiently large percentage of the "woke" do not, in general, believe this. Not believing in their ideology is now grounds to try to do all you can to destroy a person, their livelihood, their life, and endlessly slandering them all at the same time.
The various racial identity politics are the best example. A man says he's not a racist. The woke response is to very overtly recreate original sin [wikipedia.org]. 'If a man cannot even admit he's racist, how might he ever even to hope to be able to redeem himself?' This sort of rhetoric ends up as unifying as the rhetoric of the religions it emulates. But perhaps the biggest problem is that given that the establishment love this division, they're actively seeking to inject it into society, even as they simultaneously deny them any significant political power. And it's not creating some huge woke army as you might hope. It's just creating a bunch of people that are increasingly agitated at each other from day 0.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @11:22PM (2 children)
As usual, you focus only on the most extreme and ignore the vast majority of discourse around equality and the deeply embedded injustice in our society. Perhaps you might take a few minutes to understand the vast majority of folks you're dismissing, rather than focusing on the most extreme.
Just a crazy thought. I won't hold my breath.
Here are a few resources for you. I'm sure you can find many more on your own.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2020/jan/21/how-the-word-woke-was-weaponised-by-the-right [theguardian.com]
https://newrepublic.com/article/155681/strange-liberal-backlash-woke-culture [newrepublic.com]
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke [merriam-webster.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @03:05PM (1 child)
You're failing to see the issue. Your ideology is not "correct" anymore than any other ideology is. It's simply a entirely subjective worldview as is conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism, anarchism, and any of the hundreds if not thousands of ideologies people adopt or independently develop for themselves. How you see the world is not right, nor is it wrong. It's simple you how you personally feel.
And that's perfectly fine. You're more than free to believe whatever you want. However what is not fine, and where the "woke" become a problem, is when they then go out and attack and try to censor every other ideology in existence. *That* is how you get nearly every horrible big-scale problem we've had in our history. In the absolute best case you get nothing except a deeply divided society ensuring the perpetuation of establishment control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @03:18PM
If you want to call equality under the law for everyone an ideology, that's fine with me.
But don't paint a huge swathe of people with the brush of a tiny but vocal minority.
That's not only flat wrong, but also quite disingenuous.
Not that you really care, as it's always "Trollin', trollin', trollin', got to keep it trollin' Rawhide!" with you.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by helel on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:00PM
I apologize if you feel attacked but my comment was not intended as insult, merely a statement of fact.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:26PM
They earned their reputation fair and square.
Conservatives are getting what they want right now and the fact that their leader, the one guy the United States government will put ALL its resources into protecting, caught it. Oh.. and his family... and a bunch of his staffers... and it's STILL SPREADING FROM THAT POINT TODAY. Despite the proof that the 'conservative way' of fighting COVID is clearly not working at all, they cross their arms and demand more of the same with fewer protections for the rest of the populace!
That said I actually agree with you that it's better for all if we maintain some professionalism and decorum (though I fail to see how 'ignoring facts' is somehow a playground insult), but your whole fantasy that expressing dissatisfaction with the irrational actions from the right is somehow a misguided attempt to restore order is just strange. There is no way to on-board that sort of self-destructive behaviour. If you have a way to bring these people around so they'll do things like wear masks and maintain social distancing then speak the fuck up right now we can avoid a fourth hump.
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:11PM
So conservatives were the real snowflakes the while time!?
Noooooooooooo
As for getting you on our side, you've screamed, whined, and attacked us for every single positive reform we've supported.
Bernie Sanders? SOCIALIST JEW NAZI
Universal Healthcare? SOCUALIST NAZI TAX THEFT
BLM? ALL LIVES MATTER, REFORMING POLICE IS FOR SOCIALISTS!!
There are plenty more, but you should be getting the point. You are whiny little bitches who throw insanely rude tantrums and threaten the lives of others when you don't get your way. Now you're being called out for making the worst decisions that have led us to the worst administration ever and you try to play the high-road card?
Look honey, somehow I just lost even more respect for Republicans!!!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:55AM (21 children)
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm [cdc.gov]
You might find that table informative. The CDC says that the TOTAL number of fatalities for the year stands at 111% of "Expected Deaths". You can scroll down, and look at column 4, and see how that "expected deaths" has gone up, and down. At 111%, I see cause for concern, but not for alarm. If the table said 150%, or 175%, or 200%, then I might see cause for alarm. Fact is, we are only 11% over the number or deaths that the CDC expected for the year 2020.
Do I believe that politicians would use a nice emergency to grab more power for themselves? OF COURSE I DO!! Some are more prone to commit such offenses, others less prone to do so. Dems are notorious for wanting to infringe on people's rights - starting with the 2nd Amendment. Dems talk a big story about protecting rights, but Dems need to feel like they are in control. Give them a pandemic, and they'll make excuses to take control of everything.
Do you wear a mask during sex? Dems want you to!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:38AM (7 children)
Percentages can be deceptive things.
Yes, the death rate is 111% (actually 110.63%) above the expected number. And 11% extra sounds small. But 11% of a really big number is still a big number.
Applying your logic against 9/11 - the death rate that year would've only gone up by 0.1%. Hardly worth worrying about, much less creating the TSA, Patriot Act, 2 wars and other abuses which have been far more costly and rights-infringing than wearing a mask!
Come to think of it, why do Republicans consent to taking their shoes off and being full body scanned at the airport, but refuse to wear a mask? Perhaps the COVID response would've been different if we had told them that the disease was a bio-weapon engineered by Chinese nationalist terrorists who "Hated our freedom"!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:30AM
Runaway don't do math. This is why his log books in his trucker days always got pulled, and cited. Not that he meant to be a criminal, just too stupid to do otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:45AM (4 children)
Are you trying to say that if some of our rights were successfully stolen under a laughable pretext two decades ago, then it is all well and good to steal all that remained, with an equally contrived excuse?
Yes, politicians should have been stopped then, and thrown out of office for trying. Yes, people were stupid and complacent, PR blitz worked, democracy had failed. Yes, naturally they decided to repeat the trick that worked, now on a grander scale. No, two wrongs do not make a right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:04PM (3 children)
I think he is saying, that what we are dealing with now is basically a 9/11 each day.
20 years ago conservatives said that if we didn't take drastic measures to deal with the threat put forth by terrorists, we'd lose all our freedoms. As such they made flying a pain, and started a pair of wars.
Now, we are dealing with something that is killing that many people each day, and is swamping our hospital system to the point where soon it will not be able to treat all the people because there just isn't space or doctors/nurses to go around. The conservative response is, "how dare you tell me that I might need to wear a mask when out in public!" Since the science wont bend their way, they instead go after the facts, so "3 thousand people can't be dying each day, that would imply we are stupid!"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:24PM
4000 people are dying daily from heart disease.
9/11 was a criminal act perpetrated by people. Covid is just a disease, like all the others we always had to live with.
Hospitals are not swamped. No hospital will want to keep ICU occupancy lower than 85%, and they are required to be able to expand to at least 125%. Idaho hospitals have 15% in for covid, 54% of beds are occupied and 74% of ICU beds are. Pennsylvania: 17%, 73%, 82%. Texas: 15%, 73%, 82%. Sources: https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/its-panic-porn-clickbait-media-scare-stories-about-hospitals-are-misleading [zerohedge.com] and https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-capacity [hhs.gov]
Nurses are still being sent home because overall business is depressed in hospitals.
You champagne leftists can be Chicken Littles as long as you want, but your co-religionists in political power are killing this country, rich, poor, old and young, and eventually you too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:07PM (1 child)
Let us not rewrite history. The stupidity that happened following 9/11 was 100% bipartisan. There is always token opposition to things like this, so as to pretend we don't have a uniparty, but it's always only token. For instance when Obama wanted to push the TPP through in an overtly undemocratic fashion, republicans claimed to oppose but then lined up to ensure he always had just enough for a majority when it came vote time. What the uniparty wants, the uniparty gets.
The invasion [wikipedia.org] went 296-133 in the house, with the democrats having had just enough pull to stop the invasion if they came together to vote against it. It went 77-23 in the senate. As the democrats held a majority in the senate they could have also stopped it there.
Where the government really got a hardon though was the Patriot Act [wikipedia.org], though. Taking away civil rights, further bloating the government, and enhancing domestic surveillance? Oh yeah baby, neither party can resist that sort of dirty talk. It went 357-66 in the house, and a whopping 98-1 in the senate.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:04PM
In the runup to the invasion of Iraq, I was the sole voice of opposition in the community I was part of. Everyone wanted to invade it seemed. I was mocked by left, and by right, as well as many Independents. "Gotta make Saddam Hussein pay!" Except, Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. "You're either with us, or against us, you TRAITOR!!"
Ditto with the Patriot Act, ditto with the whole Department of Homeland Security, ditto with the freak brigade making life miserable at the airports today. There was near unanimous support for all that idiocy. It was one of the few times in history when Ds and Rs were all kissy-face with each other.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:48AM
I think this is a good example of why political types, on both sides, have difficulty every coming to any sort of an agreement - instead just ending up in ad hominem and other nonsense. You're saying here that percents don't matter. Imagine now somebody said that BLM is kind of bizarre since more white people, than black, are killed by police. Would you now resort to 'raw numbers don't matter, only percents' without skipping a beat, probably while simultaneously telling the other guy he was being disingenuous? In that case I'd actually agree with you, because it would be disingenuous. But in this case you're taking your turn there. Percents are all that matter - raw numbers are generally just used to mislead.
And yes, you are also absolutely right that our response to 9/11 was beyond retarded. It was politicians manipulating the *emotions* of the public to seize more power for themselves which has still not, and probably never will be, fully relinquished. And guess what's happening exactly again with COVID? A decade from now we're going to look back at all of the liberties we sacrificed, and wonder what in the world we were thinking. Do you think the "travel permits" we're creating today, will go away as COVID does? Passports, as a requirement for travel, were a "temporary war measure". So too will these travel permits be. Gradually your "travel permit" will come to be the equivalent of a domestic passport, necessary to participate in an ever widening range of activities. Oh, you smoked a joint, maybe downloaded a movie or song? Your permit is now revoked for a month - no need to even involve the courts since it's not even going to be an official government requirement, just something corporations will all voluntarily adopt. Fun times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:45AM (4 children)
If you want to rely on individual responsibility instead of regulation, individuals need to be aware of and accept the facts. If you want people to voluntarily wear masks instead of relying on mask mandates, people must accept that masks are a useful and necessary measure to limit the spread of COVID-19. Misinformation undermines these efforts, so you end up with the regulation that you don't want.
The CDC data are incomplete, so the excess death rate is actually higher than 11%. It takes several weeks before the CDC has a complete count of how many people died in a particular week and the causes of death. COVID-19 death rates are at their highest ever in the US, but this isn't yet reflected in the CDC's data. In the first wave of the pandemic, the excess death rate was 42%. There was a second peak during the summer. When final data are in for the past few weeks, we'll likely see that the excess death rate was actually higher than 42% at this point in time. Were it not for the lockdowns in the spring, the excess death rate would likely have peaked well above 42%. At least one study suggests that the excess death rate in New York City this spring was similar to the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic [jamanetwork.com]. It arises from the combination of deaths directly from COVID-19 and from people who aren't receiving care for other treatable conditions because hospitals are overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:32AM (2 children)
"In the Research Letter, “Comparison of Estimated Excess Deaths in New York City During the COVID-19 and 1918 Influenza Pandemics,”1 published on August 13, 2020, in the Figure, A and B, the y-axis label should have been all-cause deaths per 100 000 person-months, not person-weeks. This article has been corrected."
Some quality research you are demonstrating here, indeed.
Now to the content:
"Deaths, all cause (New York City, 1918 H1N1 peak and corresponding periods, 1914-1917)"
"Deaths, all cause (New York City, COVID-19 outbreak and corresponding periods, 2017-2019)"
Why not compare both to 2018 flu peak? To peaks of other flu pandemics in the intervening century?
Comparing peaks to troughs is a well known method of lying with facts and production of FUD. But it is not science, it is a mockery of it.
The more such "research" is produced and promoted, the more suspicion will arise. Even legitimate studies done in good faith, will increasingly be met as more of the same. The people doing these jobs for a quick buck, are busy digging the grave for the whole scientific establishment; once "scientist" and "conman" become total synonyms, what will be the Plan B?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:15AM (1 child)
You compleat idiot!
Covid-19 has not yet peaked. It will get much worse, thanks to an incompetent Republican Administration. Many more will die, while you are trying to fudge figures, and lie. Perhaps you could get Covid-19, and die, as a service to your country? We would all appreciate it.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @01:10PM
France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, and many other places are also seeing a resurgence. Do you also want to attribute juvenile political explanations to all of them too? And your political explanation doesn't even make any sense. In the US how areas handle the virus is almost exclusively a state responsibility. Federal response mostly comes down to providing funding + closing the borders. Both of which we did.
The reality is that we're going through a plague and, for all of our technological bravado, don't really have any especially amazing solutions that were not previously available. It basically comes down to waiting it out. Oh right, we have vaccinations - brewed up in less than a year, using completely untested technology, for a coronavirus (of which there have been numerous attempts but 0 successful vaccines created), under a major commercial motivation with 0 consequences for side effects - literally, governments are agreeing to immunity waivers. Well my friend, you first. If both you and the virus are alive and well in a year or two, I'll happily join in!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:09PM
To paraphrase you, you're perfectly happy allowing people to decide for themselves, but only if you agree with their decisions.
Are you a parent?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by helel on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:10PM (5 children)
It's a little off topic, but remind me which famous democrat said "Take the guns first, go through due process second."? Oh, right, it was President Trump.
It is now, and for the past twenty years always has been, the republicans who are trying to erode the second amendment. They are the ones passing anti-gun laws (such as Trumps bump stock ban) and the democrats who role those restrictions back (Obama removed some of Bushes firearms restrictions).
If you care about your right to bear arms it is imperative you vote democrat - republicans DO NOT want you to have guns.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:30PM (4 children)
Republicans are coming for the guns now? Imagine that. Tell me, who was it that authored the "Federal Assault Weapons Ban" of 1994? Which party held the White House then? The Senate? The House?
Remember the rhetoric during this election's primary races? Some wormy Dem in Texas promised that he WOULD come after the guns, and various Dem potential candidates cheered him on. Joe Biden has told us that no one needs anything more than a double barrel shotgun - walk out on the balcony and fire two blasts into the air.
I'll put my faith in the present justices of the Supreme Court, thank you. I want to see a few more cases like Heller, where the Supreme Court basically told the officials of Washington D.C. to go fuck themselves.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by helel on Wednesday December 09 2020, @04:58PM (3 children)
I don't know if you're aware but 1994 was more than twenty years ago. Since 2000 Bush has taken guns away, Obama returned them, and Trump took gun (accessories) away.
Politicians lie all the time. Judge them by their actions, not their words.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:04PM (2 children)
2020 was less than a year ago, and many of the potential D candidates were running at their mouths about gun control, as late as June, when the field started getting small.
The one thing that I credit with silencing the Dem anti-gun mob, are the gun sales statistics. Even good Democrats stood in line for the opportunity to buy their own self defense weapon. Women, Blacks, Asians, Latinos, people of all political persuasions, people of all religions, people of all colors, pretty much everyone was represented in those lines. In uncertain times, NO ONE wants gubbermint to restrict his options.
The best metric for probable private gun sales is the FBI's NICS numbers, found here:
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view [fbi.gov]
Note, that there is no reliable metric for sales. Those numbers only indicate how many background checks have been run, they do not indicate completed sales. Possible reasons for non-completion are, failed background check, customer ran short of money, customer simply changed his mind, the desired firearm was not in stock and/or never delivered, customer deceased before sale completed, customer arrested before sale completed, and the list goes on. Still, an average of more than 3 million background checks for the last 12 or 13 months is a helluva an indicator that people demand their own self defense weapons.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:34AM (1 child)
I'm just wondering when you 2A idiots are going to finally realize that that you have been played by the gun manufacturers and the NRA. Yep, all of you 2A types are lining the pockets of the gun manufacturers each time you panic and buy yet more guns.
NB: you might want to stock up on ammo too. I gather that is getting more expensive with each passing week. Hurry before supplies run out!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 10 2020, @04:08AM
No worries. Reloads. You save your brass casing, resize it, press out and press in a primer, pour in a bit of powder, press in a bullet that you made yourself from a chunk of lead. It's all good. Brother in law probably has 50,000 rounds ready to go, mostly in 30-30, .308, and 30-06, but he keeps the nephews stocked in more modern rounds as well. When we can't find lead or powder, we'll know that the shit has hit the fan.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:20PM (1 child)
Here are some of the deadliest days in American history:
Galveston Hurricane – 8,000
Battle of Antietam – 3,675
Battle of Gettysburg – 3,155
September 11 – 2,977
Last Thursday – 2,879
Last Wednesday – 2,804
Last Friday – 2,607
Last Tuesday – 2,597
Pearl Harbor – 2,403
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:37AM
C'mon, everybody! We can do better than this! Let's get the COVID death rates above 8k per day!
USA! USA! USA! America, fuck yeah!!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:03AM (17 children)
Yup, lets lump them all together, even if some of them completely agree with all policies and measures to try to limit COVID-19, regardless of politics. Same goes for environment. There are many many on the right who strongly support, and proactively practice and promote environmental conservation, including buying electric cars, installing solar panels, improving insulation, reusing and recycling properly, and general careful conservation of resources. But it doesn't matter- if you can sniff the slightest hint of rightyness, slam them hard.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:30AM (11 children)
My objection is his denial of the truth. Based on what he wrote, it's a reasonable influence that he's on the right.
Generally speaking, the right says they favor individual responsibility instead of government regulation. If we are to rely on individual responsibility, people must have accurate information upon which to make their decisions. Misinformation and denial of facts actively impede this. For example, if we want people to voluntarily embrace environmental solutions without government regulation, people need to accept the underlying facts about the environment. My objection is not inherently that someone is on the right but the prevalence of misinformation that is promoted by the loudest voices on the right.
If you want individual responsibility to solve our problems instead of government regulations, that requires individuals to both be aware of and accept the facts. Misinformation actively undermines the utility of individual responsibility as a solution.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:03AM (7 children)
Wow, awesome post! Too late / tired for a good reply, but thank you, seriously.
One comment, and you've touched on it: you lefties are like a bunch of mousetraps ready to spring on the righties. There are some good righties you know. Stereotyping all of them and bashing them all isn't the best way to win some to your side. Human nature is to defend against attacks, then herd with others.
I'm an independent, but I'll identify with any group on the left who behave with civility, such as you've displayed. It's that whole thing of sniffing out, labeling, and attacking righties / conservatives that I find to be the beginning of a very annoying and troubling core divisive force today. It 100% reminds me of bullies and a gang beating up a geek. Also, it reminds me of movie scenes where gestapo are looking for Jews to round up, or Armenians, or any targeted group. It's a bit hypocritical. Why can't we all just get along?
It reminds me of Al Gore and his attempts at environmental conservation. He came across as very angry, pompous, condescending, etc. Again, people felt attacked and it's human nature to herd- power in numbers. I've always been an environmentalist because it's the right thing to do- take care of Earth, regardless of global warming.
Thank you again. Awesome post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:50AM (5 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:03AM (4 children)
Yes, just one: who has all the guns?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:18AM
The problem with that assumption: who has all the propaganda?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:22AM (1 child)
Let's consider this. Liberals have more guns. Probably guns per capita. (Oh, sorry, deplorable, I used Latin! "Capita" in Latin means "head", so "per capita" means per head, or per person.) And this is the point. Paranoid Right-wing Nut-jobs probably have far more weapons and ammunition than they could ever use, whereas patriotic American liberals are not stocking up on weapons of death, because they do not have to. Superior marksmanship vastly overwhelms the Religious "spray and Pray" approach of the far right! Liberals are just better shots! So all these "2nd Amendment" types actually do not have a chance in hell. And even if they did, they would turn on each other, like assholes and fascists always do. Proud Boys? Which ones? Anti-Semitic, or Vanilla? Or Canadian?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:18PM
You should search Youtube with terms like "liberal gets a gun" and "liberal firearm training". More conservative people have their share of idiots, we can't deny that. But, watching a bunch of liberals training is like a 3-ring circus.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:15PM
Nobody has all the guns. It used to be mostly conservatives, but the past year has seen millions of people from all walks of life lining up to get a gun. Conservatives still probably outnumber liberals 3 to 1, but no one has a monopoly on guns.
And, I think that's what the Foundling Fathers had in mind. Or the Hobbit Fathers, or something like that.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @12:43AM
Ummm...yeah. Republicans have now shown themselves to be nothing more than easily propagandized sheeple. Awesome. Wow. So much for rugged individualism, I guess. I wish I could say I was surprised by this.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:06AM (2 children)
Which is why any and all links to inconvenient facts on this site are invariably modded Troll by every leftie. Also why said lefties are invariably the most ignorant in every scientific matter discussed.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:25AM (1 child)
I mod you troll for your ignorance. And for your ignorance of science. And, you smell bad. Troll. Your inconvenient "facts" are not facts, that is the disinformation, the lies fed to you that you regurgitate here. You are the ignorant one, and I dare you to prove otherwise!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @04:12AM
Dude. You're the one who eats roadkill, raw, on the side of the road.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:33AM (4 children)
Yep, all of them! If you claim to be a conservative, now is the time to renounce the Republican Party, to denounce the criminal Donald J. Trump, and save your soul. If you cannot do that, we are going to lump you in with the Proud Boys, Oaf Keeblers, 3% Marginal humans, and the Nazi Party. Not hard to understand. The offer is clear. And the ball is in your court. Whose side are you on, America, or the crazies?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:16AM (1 child)
Very divisive of you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:17PM
Hiw so?On one side all the neo-nazi white supremacist hate filled bigots, on the other fiscally and socially conservative rational humans. Choose, Nazis or America?
The use of Nazi is a little bit hyperbolic, but since the rightwing has a fair number of assholes sporting swatikas, and olenty of Proud Boys marched with peoe carring Nazi flags, the hyperbole isn't really stretched that far.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:21AM (1 child)
Don't forget: Liberals get the bullet too.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:27AM
Liberals have the bullet, too. You do know about the "boxes", that conservatives idiots are prone to go on about? You are in the last box, the "crazy box". Good luck getting yourself out of it!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:58AM
Denying that 2+2=15 is not "denying math", it is denying a LIE. (And not the one in a Lie algebra either, but a plain old-fashioned bold-faced untruth.)
PR workers these days are passably trained as misrepresenting facts, but no amount of mental contortions can make a false conclusion "derived" from cherry-picked observations through illogic, bad math, handwaving and shrill screaming, any LESS a lie.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:07AM (12 children)
Yes, this would be a rational and conservative response to the pandemic.
When I saw what the Republican Party's actual response was, it briefly occurred to me that the very rich are actually trying social Darwinism to rid us of right-wing idiots. A noble goal, but of course a fundamentally flawed strategy.
I can't get over how completely unsettling it is knowing that the actual explanation is that a significant number of Americans have the same "Dear Leader" mindset as North Koreans.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:28AM (11 children)
I agree about masks, but you all blame Trump when you're forgetting major timeline facts: there was a major SHORTAGE of masks for the first few months of the pandemic. Forget that did you? Look it up. The govt had to lock everything down because there were not enough masks for the medical workers. Then enterprising people started making and selling masks. Remember that? No? That's okay, I've told you. Yes, at some point I agree: everyone should have been wearing masks. Interesting to see how many lefties / Democrats aren't wearing masks. Something about "those who live in glass houses..."
Rather than spew your vitriol in all directions, you'd do better to actually look at specifics of where the virus is spreading, and how it's spreading, who's carrying it, to whom, who is dying, where, etc. I know, the facts don't fit your agenda of bashing conservatives.
Independent, and I wear mask always in public, around people, etc. And don't forget frequent hand washing, sanitizer, etc.
Do you actually believe that? The kool aid of the left? Are you aware that in North Korea you're "disappeared" and tortured if you don't have a "Dear Leader" mindset? You really compare Trump to that kind of situation? I know your people want you to say that, but don't you feel just a little bit moronic?
I'm much more afraid of the lefties. They're the ones who imprison people for "hate speech". Wake up.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:44AM (2 children)
Masks don't do anything unless you cover both your mouth and nose. I swear I've never seen so many well protected chins as on the lefties. They may as well not wear them.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:32AM (1 child)
Those are righties. You are looking at them upside down!!
And, righties always have bigger noses, if you know what I mean!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @06:51AM
No, the righties aren't wearing masks at all. The well protected chins are lefties.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:43AM (6 children)
Then the message should have been "Make them yourselves from textiles, it will help. Here's how" instead of "Mask don't work, don't bother".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:17PM (1 child)
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/the-mask-wearing-collaborators-are-going-to-kill-us-all_LpclkbUEr7hR3d2.html [brandnewtube.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:48PM
Is that the capo d'opera that demonstrates how surgeons using masks kill their patients for centuries?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Informative) by Socrastotle on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:48PM (3 children)
The messaging that masks don't help didn't come from Trump initially, it came from the CDC and WHO.
In February CDC director Robert Redfield was asked "Should healthy people wear masks?" He said, no. That was not "revised" until April, and recommendations for "universal masking" didn't happen until July.
In case you've forgotten this, here [politifact.com] is some 'fact check' site affirming as much. Just scroll down past where it says "false" and then states, more or less verbatim, exactly what I just said. Modern "fact checkers" in a nutshell.
The WHO said the exact same thing [youtube.com] in March stating that not only should healthy people not wear masks, but that masks themselves might be a source of infection. I guess they were suggesting that the mask itself could more readily accumulate particulate matter and help spread a later infection to the wearer. Whatever.
Anyhow, point being that *everybody* was saying don't wear masks. In general authoritative organizations should not offer advice until they are certain of what they are talking about, because you get what you have now where people end up taking everything you say with a grain of salt, even when you are almost certainly right this time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:01PM (1 child)
In many ways this is why I think decentralized responses are best.
When you have a centralized authority that says "Ok, everybody do this!" and everybody follows... well that is great when they're right. But when they're wrong? Maybe not such a big deal in this case, but in a different case we might be looking at an explanation to the Fermi Paradox. By contrast when you leave it to people to evaluate what's up and make their own decision, you are 100% guaranteed that some people will do dumb things - which kind of sucks. But you're also almost 100% guaranteed that at least some people will adopt the right strategy.
Decentralization is really little more than a microcosm of evolution. Some get it right, some get it wrong, and in the end the winner (and the lucky) move on and repeat the game ad infinitum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:23PM
We on the morally superior right have adopted the right strategy!!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:28PM
This might be confusing for you to follow, but it turns out that when new information became available, the message changed.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:08PM
There was a shortage, but that doesn't excuse them lying about the efficacy of masks for slowing the spread. They had the authority to order factories to produce the masks and limit sales to first responders. There's more blood on their hands from that than just about anything else.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:49AM (7 children)
They also DO NOT WORK. Not in one single place in the whole wide world, not in two weeks, not in a month, not in two, NOT EVER.
Now in December, with months and months of observations, it cannot be denied that your side's obsession with masks is of a totally ritualistic nature.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:54AM
This is why we do not need just mandatory masks, covering your pie hole, we need mandatory butt plugs, especially for conservatives, since this seems to be a vector, with shit-posting, and shit-talking, and shit-super-spreading. And maybe hogtying the conservatives, just to be sure.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:46AM (5 children)
They aren't perfect, but they do work. Couple them with other countermeasures and you can even get rid of Covid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @02:56PM (1 child)
Just believe hard enough.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:06PM
I'm giving her all she's got captain, the irony compensators just will na hold out!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:53PM (2 children)
We do need to be absolutely hones about masks though. There is no evidence that it protects the wearer, but an abundance of evidence that it protects those around people wearing masks. Surgeons have use them for a reason and it's not to protect themselves. People in several asian countries have worn masks as a normal cultural thing to protect others whenever they are sick. They work if we all wear them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @08:36AM (1 child)
Name a country that mandatory masks protected from the "second wave". (No, China is not that thing.)
Name a country where mandating them, on its own, caused a reduction in daily coronavirus cases.
Absence of such examples, is an abundance of experimental evidence that contradicts your claim. No number of theorizers can beat a worldwide experiment going on for half an year.
And that reason is bacteria. The difference between bacteria and viruses should be well known at this point in time, even to you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @12:55AM
Why? That is not a scientific experiment. A a simple experiment on the filtering efficiency on masks will disprove your irrational thinking. Those are made regularly and the masks that I have has an ~87% filtering efficiency tested by an independet lab. The reason we can't say that they protect the wearer is that particles from the surroundings will stick to the outer surface and transfer to the hands when you touch the mask and particles sticking to the outer surface has a much higher likelyhood of being slowly sucked in. Think about just the act of coughing in your hand/arm which has been in our culture forever, we do that to slow the velocity of the particles and keep them from spreading too far, masks work in a similar, but in a more efficient and controlled way.
When you have the data from those experiments and you still wonder the questions you asked, you should then look for other possible reasons to your observations and test if those hold true. You can't just dismiss scientific tests on masks which are performed every single day in controlled environments, because you feel like it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:10AM (10 children)
"... Don't deny this ... Don't deny that ... Can't take seriously those who deny facts and science" -- without addressing any of your substantive issues, you don't sound ready for a conversation or even ready to discuss what science is (*).
I think it is unfair to label "the right" as the only group take an ideological position on science though. The left has its own sacred cows that could be gored on this topic (literally anything related to sex or gender for example or the importance of rioting during a pandemic). Cherry picking based on ideological position is a bipartisan tendency.
I think the left has forgotten it needs conservatives. When there is balance between those boldly going to new places and those saying "hold on, you haven't even considered how this could have unintended destructive consequences" -- we can make progress in a logical and constructive manner. But when either side wields too much power, the authoritarian instinct tends to take over and you end up with horrific policies, left or right.
As for COVID -- it is valid to ask whether at this point, based on what we know about the disease, including the fact that it hasn't proven to be the Black Plague or anything close -- is the damage worth it? Is the transfer of all business and money to the corporatocracy worth it? Do lockdowns really work or are they being used as political cudgel? Can you really educate kindergartners over the internet? What about other students? For a salient example of how the left is not "following the science", it's pretty hard to justify how outdoor seating of six or seven tables in a parking lot is dangerous, while an area a mere 50' away and 20x the size is not dangerous. If we "follow the science" why do we get this result? What magic in COVID transmission makes one setup safe and the other worthy of destroying a person's life? Show me the actual evidence on this: https://youtu.be/3-86gfJosHc?t=75 [youtu.be]
(*) I don't think "follow the science" makes sense in the way it is used. A science is the study of a specific topic via the scientific method -- in essence science is a verb more than a noun, and when it is a noun, it is the topic of study: biology, physics, chemistry etc. In that vein, it is not exactly accurate to synonomize "science" with "fact" -- science is a practice of the scientific method on a topic which can result in useful findings, but science is itself neither any specific finding nor a specific fact. To think thus is so limiting and worse, it hardens scientific findings into dogma. Engaging in dogmatic thinking is to misunderstand the nature of findings (best current understanding subject to change) and to actually undermine the most powerful tool humans ever invented to understand the world. When people say "Follow the science" they're usually not really saying practice the scientific method, what people seem to mean is "accept this specific finding and never ever question it again." Which is basically putting a sword through the scientific method's heart, usually for left or right ideological purposes.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:40AM (2 children)
Fuck you, hemocyanin, may you contract the plague, and transmit it to some one dear to you. I really hope this does not happen, but after your science-denying far-right conspiracy theory post, well, the death of hundreds of thousands is upon you.
(Score: 1, Troll) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 09 2020, @08:48AM (1 child)
LOL. Keep rioting dude.
(Score: 0, Troll) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:19AM
Safe: https://video.parler.com/sT/2z/sT2zQ4TG5unF_small.mp4 [parler.com]
Safe: https://www.ktvu.com/news/top-brass-at-california-medical-group-joined-newsom-at-french-laundry-birthday-dinner [ktvu.com]
compare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpFfr0niCf0 [youtube.com]
Follow the Science!
(Score: 2) by EEMac on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:06PM
> Cherry picking based on ideological position is a bipartisan tendency.
Most underrated comment of the day.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:35PM (5 children)
🙄
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:45PM (4 children)
Nothing wrong with Conservatives, it's the idiots that call themselves Conservatives that are the problem.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @06:53PM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:28PM (1 child)
Well, we've always known we were talking to children. We've just realized that you are idiot children. All we can do is shake our heads, and count to 100 real slowly, so we don't murder all of youl.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2020, @02:10AM
Your current approach is, instead, disproportionately killing righties.
(Score: 0, Troll) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 09 2020, @10:51PM
The dogmatic scold demeanor has been culturally appropriated by the woke left.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:03PM (2 children)
Right off the bat you have no idea what science is! You are using it in EXACTLY the same way as religious institutions would destroy people who denied God. All science is just MODELS you use them to PREDICT, they are never CORRECT only USEFUL in their ability to predict. What your childish screed about facts is all abut is simple scientific fascism you claim that all the MODELS you have been taught are more useful than alternatives whilst providing zero evidence other than WELL OTHER PEOPLE TOLD ME SO I MUST BE RIGHT. In effect you are anti-science and just a fascist propagandist, using a common trick of projecting your anti-science fascism onto people who oppose you.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @07:46PM (1 child)
Off your meds again?
(Score: 5, Touché) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday December 09 2020, @09:05PM
Ah the usual response from someone who knows he has no basis for his argument, resort to playground insults. Maybe take some logic classes and learn something rather than being a trollish smartarse.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Tork on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:07PM (2 children)
Okie doke, you just bought yourself another lockdown. Want another?
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:27PM (1 child)
"It didn't work so we just have to do it more"
- "sCIeNcE"
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday December 09 2020, @05:51PM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday December 09 2020, @03:51PM
https://brandnewtube.com/@DrVernonColeman [brandnewtube.com]