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It’s that time of year again. The time of year when everyone and their dog waxes nostalgic about all the shit nobody cares about from the year past, and stupidly predicts the next year in the grim knowledge that when the next New Year comes along, nobody will remember that the dumbass predicted a bunch of foolish shit that turned out to be complete and utter balderdash.
Except this year. NOBODY expects the Spanish In... Oh, wait, that was a century ago. Time flies when you're having fun... but if you're having fun, why would you want to time flies?
A deadly, redundantly named worldwide pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans alone, not to mention the rest of the world, but we're the worst thanks to our cluelessly incompetent leadership. Rather than the Spanish Influenza from a century ago, Covid-19 is far deadlier.
And that ain't all! Murder hornets, record storms and flooding, record setting fires out west, the world's economies collapsing, massive protests against police officers murdering Black people, a defeated American president determined to hold on to power... 2020: Written by Stephen King, directed by Quentin Tarantino, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.
With all of the bars closed for months, I got a lot of writing done.
I might as well go ahead and do it anyway. Just like I did last year (yes, a lot of this was pasted from last year’s final chapter).
Some of these links go to /. (these would be old stuff), S/N, mcgrewbooks.com, or mcgrew.info. As usual, first: the yearly index:
Journals:
Articles:
Driving the Snakes from Ireland
An open letter to my congressman
20 Downsides Of Electric Vehicles: Debunked
The Allegations against Joe Biden
No, We’re Not All In This Together
The Dumbest Word This Century (so far)
Reviews
Science Fiction
Song
I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas
I’m Dreaming of a Wet Christmas
Last years’ stupid predictions (and more):
I predicted that I wouldn’t have a book ready in 2020. I got it right! This year I'm predicting that I will release a book, maybe two.
The monster will be banished on January 20. The plague will take a while longer.
I’ll also hang on to most of last year’s predictions, and add one or two new ones;
Someone will die. Maybe you, maybe me. Not necessarily anybody I know... we can only hope. Unfortunately I hit the nail on the head last year; I lost my mother in October, and a few friends left the earth without a rocket as well.
SETI will find no sign of intelligent life. Not even on Earth.
The Pirate Party won’t make inroads in the US. I hope I’m wrong about that one.
US politicians will continue to be wholly owned by the corporations.
I’ll still be a nerd.
Technophobic fashionista jocks will troll slashdot (but not S/N). I have no idea if that one or the following held up, anybody been there lately?
Microsoft will continue sucking.
The pandemic will continue plagueing us.
Happy New Year! Ready for another trip around the sun?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2020, @03:08PM (12 children)
> we're the worst thanks to our cluelessly incompetent leadership.
This sentiment has been droned on and on ad nauseam by the Trump-haters, lefty "news media" included, for most of 2020. Vague sweeping generalities, and no substance.
What, pray tell, would you have done? Or, what would you have preferred the "leadership" to have done differently?
I'll state my position, not that it will matter: I'm an "American", with my own brain and ability to research and glean good information. Since the pandemic began almost a year ago, I've listened mostly to actual medical workers and researchers. I realize, due to many years of learning and wisdom, that the higher you go in "leadership", there are more and more forces working on and biasing the individuals. No question, from the beginning, that Trump was wrong shunning and downplaying mask wearing. But, remember, (and I know most people's memory fades) at the beginning of the pandemic, Feb, March, April, they said do NOT wear masks because masks were in very short supply and the medical workers could not get enough of them? If you don't remember, you can search for that, or let me know and I'll link countless articles. Also, remember due to excessive (IMHO) "globalization", we (USA) were almost totally dependent on China for those masks, and China restricted the shipments. Not blaming them- they needed them for themselves, but I'm certainly blaming this large-scale machine that allows US manufacturers to close down production- of anything- and cause us to become dependent on China. You may have forgotten, but Trump railed against our dependency on China for critically needed products.
But my main point and position: I'm not a sheep. I have my own brain, and if Trump says "don't bother with masks" even when they're available, I'll wear one if I feel like it (and I have been and do). Hand washing, sanitizer, etc., included. So if Trump told you to jump off a bridge, would you?
Stated another way: I don't take my medical advice from politicians, any more than I'd take it from a car salesperson.
So again, what would you have approved of "our leadership" doing all along? What would you have approved of?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2020, @05:05PM
Well I would probably
Do everything the doctors recommend, and I'm certain Dr. Fauci would help me attain this goal. We would have this thing defeated by June, and then we would have re-opened our big, beautiful economy without masks.
There's a mytho-macho bullshit thing they do with marshmallows in a Calvinist no-go zone. It could be brownies or cookies but the original formula was marshmallows. Personally I think cookies are more effective. They put one in front of you and leave the room. If it's still there when they return in 15 minutes, you get a second cookie. Supposed to teach something about compound interest, but if they wanted to do that, they could have the thing go on all day and I would have been very happy after 8 hours of my cookie supply doubling every hour. Regardless, Trump would have gobbled the frist cookie, blamed it on the democrats, and then would have thrown a tantrum and gone on a firing spree when he couldn't still get the second cookie. Probably would have started borrowing cookies from Russian lenders.
And then after that, you'd be posting comments about how Trump is playing 10-D chess when it looks like to anybody with half a brain that he's just failing massively. Sad!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 31 2020, @06:22PM (3 children)
A competent leader would have ensured more masks were manufactured when it became obvious that more masks were needed.
We're still the second largest goddamn manufacturer on the planet, the US is actually pretty good at this shit and it would have helped with the unemployment. But instead we got lies, denial and failure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2020, @09:39PM (1 child)
"A competent leader would have ensured more masks were manufactured"
How? Any clue about actual manufacturing? Factories closed down, machines all scrapped. Any clue how long it takes to build up new factories, hire and train workers?
AFAIK, they did do that. It takes time. Who signed international trade agreements, dropped tariffs to zero (China: most favored nation trade status), globalized? Allowed manufacturers to "offshore" and "outsource"?? While I'm at it, who expanded H1-B and other visa programs? Trump tried to shut them down, and did effectively scale them back, instituted tariffs against China. Biden is set to open the floodgates.
If you're so much better and know how to get it done faster, why didn't you do it? Rather just sit around criticizing Trump et al?
Lazy mouthy asshole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2021, @09:02PM
Factories closed down? Machines scrapped? You know we're not talking about the USPS right?
Mouthy moron
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2021, @04:21AM
> A competent leader would have ensured more masks were manufactured
Agreed that this might have been hard initially.
However, a competent leader would have bargained with international suppliers to get the best price for the whole countrys. Instead what Trump did (by inaction) was let the states bid against each other, bidding the price of masks up into the stratosphere. Same for other PPI, the USA should have been bidding as a bloc, not individual states (and hospitals) against each other for the scarce resource. This is where I see the lack of leadership from Trump and his do-nothings.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 31 2020, @06:22PM (5 children)
Simple. Hopped onto Wikipedia and noticed what worked for the 1918 pandemic. Copied the cities that had low death numbers and a quick economic recovery by doing what they did - mandatory masks backed up by jail terms. Read about the island that banned all external travel by allowing only essential air, sea, and ground travel from outside the country.
Transport trucks coming in? Drop your trailer. Driver doesn't get entry, just the trailer and goods. Truck going out? Drop your trailer, you don't leave to pick up covid.
Anti-maskers? Reckless endangerment, go to jail, do not pass go.
Everything except the trailer-dropping is part of America's history, and that has precedent in the town that ripped up the rails and reqired all goods be dropped off outside city limits.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 31 2020, @10:17PM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 31 2020, @11:43PM (3 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 01 2021, @02:08AM (2 children)
I'm pretty sure I do know.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 01 2021, @07:21PM (1 child)
Do you? Show us. Most Americans don't have a clue what fascism is. There are even morons talking about "fascist socialist" which is like saying a "dry wetness", thery're polar opposites.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Friday January 01 2021, @10:26PM
They're not. Socialism can manifest anywhere along the libertarian-authoritarian spectrum. I don't consider it an indicator of fascism or its absence.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 01 2021, @07:16PM
You're either trolling or blind as hell. We have 25% of the world's deaths but 4% of its population. Trump is like Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned, Trump tweeted that the pandemic was a hoax, that is was no worse than the flu, "it will go away", etc.
The Obama administration had a study done about what to do in a pandemic. Trump threw it away. You talk about the masks made in China, he should have used the act to take over manufacturers in January, not June.
So if Trump told you to jump off a bridge, would you?
You need to stop huffing that toluene, son.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday December 31 2020, @07:03PM (8 children)
Yes, one monster will be.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2021, @07:46AM (7 children)
We chose a person with half a century of pay-for-play corruption over a person who was unjustly accused of corruption. China wanted that.
Step back and think about how candidates get money. If somebody is a senator and VP for all his life, making less than FAANG developer pay, where do the riches come from? If somebody runs a private business before attempting office, then loses a $billion while in office, why is he no longer getting richer? Most politicians get richer while in office; those are the corrupt ones.
We were manipulated in 2020, and we chose corruption. The country is fucked.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 01 2021, @07:27PM (5 children)
We chose a person with half a century of pay-for-play corruption over a person who was unjustly accused of corruption.
One was impeached for the corruption the Mueller Report that you have never read documents. People went to jail, and the monster pardoned them He also executed more people than the US has executed in decades, caged children, slandered damned near everybody, admitted to sexual assault... I could go on and on, the man is a MONSTER without a shred of morals, ethics, or a conscience.
If you support Trump, you support evil. Period.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2021, @08:15PM (4 children)
The only thing the Mueller Report documented was office gossip. That is what they used to impeach him, no receipts, no recordings, no pix, just gossip. Whatever real evidence they do have would hang them all, prosecutor and defendant alike, that's why the delicate dance to avoid bringing any of that to light.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2021, @09:04PM (3 children)
Just some mild coffee gossip treason, no biggie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2021, @11:06PM (2 children)
Gossip is gossip, nothing more. You need tapes! Like the ones they they just posted on Trump v Georgia
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 04 2021, @01:02AM (1 child)
Believe it or not Trump was impeached primarily for abusing his power to coerce a foreign nation to attack his political opponent, and as luck would have it there are recordings of that which Trump tried to hide as a "perfect phone call."
Truly it is amazing how far some people will go to excuse such blatant criminal behavior. In for a penny in for a pound as they say. Not that you would do such a thing, you're just after the truth I'm sure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 04 2021, @05:35PM
You are a moronic fool to believe that I support him, but that's just your partisan hand waving, so I'll blow it off as nonsense. I believe he is a criminal, but I also believe you need evidentiary support to make a case, something you did NOT provide during the hearings.
So, now you can show criminal intent, but once again, nothing will come of it. The collateral damage would burn down the entire house of cards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2021, @08:03PM
*sigh* flamebaiting bullshit. In and out he is just as corrupt as all the other incumbents.
Oh, well, one guy took you seriously. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Thursday December 31 2020, @10:47PM (2 children)
Not deadlier than the 1918 influenza pandemic. It's substantially below what the 1918 pandemic killed nine months in.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 01 2021, @01:19AM (1 child)
Probably it has to do with the ubiquitous availability of syringes to inject bleach nowadays, no?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 01 2021, @02:24AM