Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away

[MoJames 8,241]

I guess the real question is why anyone in their right mind would travel to Norway to go to their beaches.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Captainant said:

 

@slorch did you read my post up the page on why bars are being singled out? I'll post it again for ya:

 

Yes I did and it's still wildly  inconsistent and arbitrary.

 

It's a policy to make certain people feel better, regardless of validity or effectiveness.

Edited October 26, 2020 by slorch

[BradInATX 9,208]

slorch goes to bars and sits at his table with the same three people he came with and never moves from it. Remind me not go to hang out at bars with slorch. That sounds boring as fuck.

[Incredulity 11,541]

5 hours ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Id be interested to see your

[atomheartbevo 89,395]

1 hour ago, MoJames said:

I guess the real question is why anyone in their right mind would travel to Norway to go to their beaches.

Magrathean Slartibartfast has every right to be proud of Norway's coastline.

 

[Guest Lobo]

I get the impression some of you folks see a sign in front of a grocery store that says, "All Shoppers Must Wear Masks"...then you walk in without your mask on, and the manager has to tell you again, "Sir, all shoppers must wear masks."  And then your dumb ass says, "I don't need a mask because I'm not shopping, I'm browsing."  

[workswithseed 2,033]

38 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I get the impression some of you folks see a sign in front of a grocery store that says, "All Shoppers Must Wear Masks"...then you walk in without your mask on, and the manager has to tell you again, "Sir, all shoppers must wear masks."  And then your dumb ass says, "I don't need a mask because I'm not shopping, I'm browsing."  

I never had this thought, but I'm glad you did to dunk on people here.

[Incredulity 11,541]

Especially when literally no one here has argued against masks.

Dude is psychotic 

Edited October 26, 2020 by Incredulity

[52-80 19,076]

2 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

The crazy things is how many deaths could have been avoided: 20-25% of all deaths were in nursing homes for fuck's sake

Aren't nursing homes ground zero for deaths in all times and climates ?

[Okie State 3,788]

slorch goes to bars and sits at his table with the same three people he came with and never moves from it. Remind me not go to hang out at bars with slorch. That sounds boring as fuck.

This is what I do at breweries. I'd have a beer with Slorch.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

slorch goes to bars and sits at his table with the same three people he came with and never moves from it. Remind me not go to hang out at bars with slorch. That sounds boring as fuck.

The notion that a trip to the bar is like hitting every booth at the county fair is just...

strange as fuck.   Nobody does that shit.

[BradInATX 9,208]

13 minutes ago, Okie State said:

1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

slorch goes to bars and sits at his table with the same three people he came with and never moves from it. Remind me not go to hang out at bars with slorch. That sounds boring as fuck.

This is what I do at breweries. I'd have a beer with Slorch.

A bar and a brewery are two completely different things. I don't even go to bars but a few times a year these days. But when I do I don't sit around at a table and not move the entire night. If I wanted to do that, I'd go to a brewery. If I'm at a bar I'm watching some music or playing darts or pool or sitting at the bar itself watching sports. As are most normal human beings.

Acting like people's behavior is even remotely similar at bars and restaurants is one of the most disingenuous bullshit assertions on a thread full of them. GTFO.

Edited October 27, 2020 by BradInATX

[Okie State 3,788]

 

 

 

A bar and a brewery are two completely different things. I don't even go to bars but a few times a year these days. But when I do I don't sit around at a table and not move the entire night. If I wanted to do that, I'd go to a brewery. If I'm at a bar I'm watching some music or playing darts or pool or sitting at the bar itself watching sports. As are most normal human beings.

 

Were breweries not shutdown along with bars? I'm pretty sure they were because they've been jerked around by Abbott and the TABC since the beginning of this and a whole lot will likely not survive the year. Some loopholes allowed them to open a month or so ago if they sold a bag of chips or some shit with each beer.

 

[BradInATX 9,208]

Just now, Okie State said:

 

 

Were breweries not shutdown along with bars? I'm pretty sure they were because a whole lot will likely not survive the year. Some loopholes allowed them to open a month or so ago if they sold a bag of chips or some shit with each beer.

 

Yeah, they were. Which was stupid. 

[Okie State 3,788]

I don't even go to bars. I was really just being a smartass.

 

I take that back, I occasionally go to bars with my wife or brothers when I'm able to ditch the kids for the night. I'm 36 though so the kind of bars I like are quiet beer/wine bars where I go to have a few drinks and bullshit with my wife or brothers. Not exactly the college bar scene.

[52-80 19,076]

2 hours ago, BradInATX said:

slorch goes to bars and sits at his table with the same three people he came with and never moves from it. Remind me not go to hang out at bars with slorch. That sounds boring as fuck.

Sorry some people at bars didn't talk to you.

[BrazilHorn 6,576]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

Aren't nursing homes ground zero for deaths in all times and climates ?

I don’t disagree that nursing homes are places to die, but not to the degree this was and in the time span with which it happened. 
Ultimately how shitty nursing homes are kind of proves my point that the US cares fuck all for its old people. 

[Guest]

54 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

A bar and a brewery are two completely different things. I don't even go to bars but a few times a year these days. But when I do I don't sit around at a table and not move the entire night. If I wanted to do that, I'd go to a brewery. If I'm at a bar I'm watching some music or playing darts or pool or sitting at the bar itself watching sports. As are most normal human beings.

Acting like people's behavior is even remotely similar at bars and restaurants is one of the most disingenuous bullshit assertions on a thread full of them. GTFO.

You're married and go to the bar with 3-4 co-workers to blow off some steam.

Ain't nobody making the rounds at other booths/ tables.   Be fucking real.

Acting like having some coldbeer after work is some grand social occasion is just fucking false.

Edited October 27, 2020 by slorch

[BradInATX 9,208]

5 minutes ago, slorch said:

You're married and go to the bar with 3-4 co-workers to blow off some steam.

Ain't nobody making the rounds at other booths/ tables.   Be fucking real.

Sure, I mean this is a pretty pedantic conversation, I've sat at tables at bars plenty. But how many bars is everyone doing the same thing? Very few. The only places I can think of are also restaurants; places like ABGB or the chain sports bars like Doc's or Third Base, so they fall under restaurant rules anyway. For every old married guy like you or me that's just having drinks with coworkers, there's usually multiple people milling around, bullshitting with bartenders, trying to get laid, playing bar games, etc. 

Bottom line is that people's behavior at bars is much different than at restaurants and you know it. Particularly after happy hour. They should be treated differently. In the real world there should be separate guidelines for restaurants, bars, and breweries, and each of those should be cut into indoors/outdoors as well. But that's a lot of work to expect out of politicians. 

Bars like Moontower should probably be allowed to be open during spikes. Deep Eddy should not.

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by BradInATX

[Guest]

Just now, BradInATX said:

Sure, I mean this is a pretty pedantic conversation, I've sat at tables at bars plenty. But how many bars is everyone doing the same thing? Very few. The only places I can think of are also restaurants; places like ABGB or the chain sports bars like Doc's or Third Base, so they fall under restaurant rules anyway. For every old married guy like you or me that's just having drinks with coworkers, there's usually multiple people milling around, bullshitting with bartenders, trying to get laid, playing bar games, etc. 

Bottom line is that people's behavior at bars is much different than at restaurants and you know it. Particularly after happy hour. They should be treated differently. In the real world there should be separate guidelines for restaurants, bars, and breweries, and each of those should be cut into indoors/outdoors as well. But that's a lot of work to expect out of politicians.

 

stopping covid in its tracks...

 

Only it ain't...

[BradInATX 9,208]

Just now, slorch said:

stopping covid in its tracks...

 

Only it ain't...

I mean, it has slowed it down. That's not even really up for debate. You can make the quality of life vs. effectiveness debate, but saying that shutdown measures didn't slow it down is just plain ignoring the evidence.

[Captainant 27,403]

6 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

I mean, it has slowed it down. That's not even really up for debate. You can make the quality of life vs. effectiveness debate, but saying that shutdown measures didn't slow it down is just plain ignoring the evidence.

[UT_OB1 2,200]

11 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Oofda

Don’t forget to do Italy, Spain, UK, and even Germany. You know, all those places where the bumpkins, muh freedoms, idiot Americans, *insert word for anyone that doesn’t think EXACTLY like me* are fucking things up.  

[Incredulity 11,541]

10 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

Don’t forget to do Italy, Spain, UK, and even Germany. You know, all those places where the bumpkins, muh freedoms, idiot Americans, *insert word for anyone that doesn’t think EXACTLY like me* are fucking things up.  

Argllpljhhkkllrrffrggpp!,,!!! They refuse to wear masks11!!!111!!

[BradInATX 9,208]

It's embarrassing to the University that we have anti-mask conspiracy theorists openly posting their beliefs here. It will never stop being embarrassing. 

Edited October 27, 2020 by BradInATX

[UT_OB1 2,200]

On 7/10/2020 at 9:13 PM, BradInATX said:

The discussion was about countries who have essentially choked the virus out to being almost negligible by putting in strict lockdowns and having a population that actually follows it. 

We are one of the few first world countries on this planet that has not done that yet: https://www.gzeromedia.com/the-graphic-truth-two-different-pandemics-eu-vs-us-coronavirus-cases-spike-28-june

This is Germany's curve. Almost every other first world country looks like this.

 

This.. is America:

 

 

 

You can talk about death rates based on the very early stages of Covid when nobody knew what it was, and when it hit Europe earlier and harder than the US. But the bottom line is, and there is absolutely no denying this, we as a country have been one of the worst on Earth in terms of mitigating the ongoing presence of Covid.

Almost every other modern country in the world has it down to a manageable number and is slowly getting back to normal. Meanwhile, we've never even gotten past our first wave and we, among such modern stalwarts as Russia and Brazil, are not allowed in to the countries who actually handled the pandemic well. And now, as the country who refused to shut everything down because we're freedom-lovers, we're now having to shut everything back down while the rest of the free modern world is getting back to normal.

You can blame whoever you want. You can blame Bill de Blasio or Andrew Cuomo or Greg Abbott or Donald Trump or the protests or the anti-maskers. Regardless of who you blame, there is no argument as to whether or not we have handled the pandemic poorly as a country. We have. We are an embarrassing example of what not to do for the rest of the world.

 

No one said masks don’t help. Quit making up things.  The constant need to just berate everyone who doesn’t think and act exactly like you (universal, not you specifically, Brad) gets old though.
 

We have people on here that are normally level headed bitching about people at the park because they think that groups is not as responsible as they are. It might be amusing if it was isolated because I’m sure there is someone holed up in their bunker bitching about that person because they aren’t being as cautious. Except it’s not amusing because everyone is just looking for a reason to shit on everyone else that isn’t acting exactly like them, even though they don’t have anywhere near all the information. Maybe that group all lives together in one house. Maybe they formed an isolation bubble. Maybe their 8 year old daughter broke down crying out of nowhere because she hasn’t seen anyone other than her parents for 7 months and the dad said fuck it and found some of her friends to meet. It is a shitty time, it is shitty for everyone in the world, and it’d be nice to see people quit trying to blame things on everyone else.  

[BradInATX 9,208]

Just now, UT_OB1 said:

 

No one said masks don’t help. Quit making up things.  

Did you miss the post directly above mine?

I'm not sure who you're addressing the bunker/finger-pointing melodrama at. The discussion was about creating distinctions in regulation between bars, restaurants, and breweries. I'm also on record saying that most things should be more open than they are now (at least before it looked like we were headed for another spike). So I'm not really sure why you've chosen to cry in my direction. You must have me confused for someone else.

[Incredulity 11,541]

3 hours ago, Incredulity said:

Especially when literally no one here has argued against masks.

Dude is psychotic 

 

11 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Did you miss the post directly above mine?

I'm not sure who you're addressing the bunker/finger-pointing melodrama at. The discussion was about creating distinctions in regulation between bars, restaurants, and breweries. I'm also on record saying that most things should be more open than they are now (at least before it looked like we were headed for another spike). So I'm not really sure why you've chosen to cry in my direction. You must have me confused for someone else.

read it again

[Hate 20,103]

We had a family zoom tonight about Thanksgiving. I threw it out there about canceling, but everyone was absolutely against canceling Thanksgiving. We will spend a lot of time outside and not everyone will be sleeping under the same roof, but there will some close contact. Every single person 70+ knew exactly what I meant when I proposed canceling and flat out refused to do it. The entire family wears masks in public and have been following all other reasonable precautions. We will be as careful as we can, but it seems my family has decided that family is the hill they are ok dying on (maybe).

[MoJames 8,241]

1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

It's embarrassing to be a part of this species.

fify

[drt 637]

1 hour ago, UT_OB1 said:

Don’t forget to do Italy, Spain, UK, and even Germany. You know, all those places where the bumpkins, muh freedoms, idiot Americans, *insert word for anyone that doesn’t think EXACTLY like me* are fucking things up.  

Uh, yeah, they are.  A good number of my German coworkers have traveled, attended their local festivals with lots of drinking, and they've reopened most everything including bars.  Acting like Europe is any different than us at this point is disingenuous.  They certainly did better at the start with testing and tracing but people everywhere are just tired of living with restrictions.  Italy even had a little riot when they shut down a town again, maybe Naples?

[Scary Stranger 1,712]

15 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Yeah, that's been my MO since March everywhere I go

March?  That's been my MO my entire adult life.

[South Austin 52,105]

9 hours ago, Hate said:

We had a family zoom tonight about Thanksgiving. I threw it out there about canceling, but everyone was absolutely against canceling Thanksgiving. We will spend a lot of time outside and not everyone will be sleeping under the same roof, but there will some close contact. Every single person 70+ knew exactly what I meant when I proposed canceling and flat out refused to do it. The entire family wears masks in public and have been following all other reasonable precautions. We will be as careful as we can, but it seems my family has decided that family is the hill they are ok dying on (maybe).

My Thanksgiving is much more manageable. Just me, my kids, and my 75+ old parents. I told them that me and the kids will get COVID tests a couple days before Thanksgiving – primarily because my daughter just started in-person high school basketball – and if any one of us tests positive, my parents won’t be able to come over. They seem okay with that plan.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Hate said:

We had a family zoom tonight about Thanksgiving. I threw it out there about canceling, but everyone was absolutely against canceling Thanksgiving. We will spend a lot of time outside and not everyone will be sleeping under the same roof, but there will some close contact. Every single person 70+ knew exactly what I meant when I proposed canceling and flat out refused to do it. The entire family wears masks in public and have been following all other reasonable precautions. We will be as careful as we can, but it seems my family has decided that family is the hill they are ok dying on (maybe).

We're having a get-together in early December and one of the cousins started raising hell about the risk.  I simply said, "If you are concerned in that manner, then don't come.  It's that simple. Protect yourself.  You will be safe. We are not obligated to your FOMO."

Radio silence since then.  No fucks given.  We have had this get together for about 16-17 years in a row.   It ain't stopping now...

[DigglerontheHoof 21,044]

10 hours ago, Hate said:

We had a family zoom tonight about Thanksgiving. I threw it out there about canceling, but everyone was absolutely against canceling Thanksgiving. We will spend a lot of time outside and not everyone will be sleeping under the same roof, but there will some close contact. Every single person 70+ knew exactly what I meant when I proposed canceling and flat out refused to do it. The entire family wears masks in public and have been following all other reasonable precautions. We will be as careful as we can, but it seems my family has decided that family is the hill they are ok dying on (maybe).

This will be almost every family in America, who normally gets together for Thanksgiving, including mine.  It will likely be a massive super spreader weekend.  

At least w/ our group, there isn't anyone over 60 who will attend.  I fear a lot of Nanas and Papas are going to see their last holiday season. 

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

Europe cases exploding

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

13 hours ago, Incredulity said:

Especially when literally no one here has argued against masks.

Dude is psychotic 

Uhh, @dcar00 continues to say mask usage isn’t an effective method to control the spread of this virus. That’s arguing against masks, but he’ll try and convince folks otherwise. 

[SA-KC_Horn 1,293]

My Thanksgiving plans are trashed. A cousin decided to throw her daughter a surprise birthday party which was indoors and no masks. Now my mom is and her sister are positive, along with another cousin and her whole family. These small rural folk in Kansas don't get it. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, SA-KC_Horn said:

My Thanksgiving plans are trashed. A cousin decided to throw her daughter a surprise birthday party which was indoors and no masks. Now my mom is and her sister are positive, along with another cousin and her whole family. These small rural folk in Kansas don't get it. 

Yep, just the hicks spread covid...

[mdmost 42,827]

We're hoping for decent weather so we can do an outdoor Thanksgiving at my brother's. They normally have a huge multi-family get together that evening. Now, it's just going to be our family, his family, and maybe our mom. My wife's sister normally is our lunch appointment but she does not want to host this year because she worries her family won't adhere to being outside or doing things the right way so she's just cancelling outright. Sucks too as she is a fantastic cook and it's about as close to a traditional Thanksgiving as you can get. 

[Newdoc 3,429]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

They seem okay with that plan.

Stop being reasonable. This is Surly. Either everyone is going to die or noone is. You either bunker up or get Oktoberfest going. Extremes man, extremes!!!

[Cheeseweasel 26,437]

8 minutes ago, SA-KC_Horn said:

My Thanksgiving plans are trashed. A cousin decided to throw her daughter a surprise birthday party which was indoors and no masks. Now my mom is and her sister are positive, along with another cousin and her whole family. These small rural folk in Kansas don't get it. 

You know Thanksgiving is 4 weeks away, right?

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

20 minutes ago, slorch said:

Yep, just the hicks spread covid...

Slorch’d

[Bill Lumbergh 7,168]

Europe cases exploding
 

This basically proves a false sense of security lulls you to sleep with this thing.

I had friends in New York that were hard core quarantining back when texas was opening up. They had things worse in the first wave, we didn't, so everyone was more relaxed here. Then our numbers got awful.

Now, those same friends in New York are worrying that things have opened too aggressively and that they're going to have a really bad winter. Areas that are spiking in the us now generally have not had bad spikes yet, so people just aren't as likely to have been personally impacted or think this is applicable to them.

Europe clearly thought they'd passed the threat and could get back to normal.

The next few months will be the hardest regardless of where you've been on this spectrum. Everyone is sick of this shit and wants to live normally again. Winter and holidays will highlight all of the hardest parts of being cautious about this. All this data consistently shows is that there's a clear cause/effect with spread of covid that is undeterred by a populations level of exhaustion with preventative measures. Loosen up, and it will spike. It's painful, but pretty clear by now.

Thankfully we do seem to be better at treating it now, but I still worry about overrunning hospitals this winter if we can't keep up with some level of distancing and avoiding large indoor gatherings. I'm personally not at all excited to keep this going, but we'll do what we feel is responsible to do.

[After irth 1,243]

It was sheer parental happenstance that completely fucked up our entire holiday season last year.  Long story not worth going into, but suffice to say that Thanksgiving & Christmas 2019 was just outright cancelled.

This year, my wife begins a full 7-nights of shifts beginning on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so no point in me even bothering to create a holiday out of that week.  She will be off that 24th & 25th only for Christmas, so we will have a very quiet, traditional, romantic Christmas for just the two of us.  

Doesn't have shit to do with COVID.  Just kinda the way it works out.  I guess that's a good thing.  

Remains to be seen what our families think about it.  We're usually the ones that plan the holidays for everyone else, so it will be fun to just sit back, remain quiet, and see how long it takes everyone else to actually think about the holidays on their own.  

[utee94 15,744]

We're planning on Thanksgiving with immediate family, outdoors.  I hope the weather holds up.  

[Guest Lobo]

52 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Uhh, @dcar00 continues to say mask usage isn’t an effective method to control the spread of this virus. That’s arguing against masks, but he’ll try and convince folks otherwise. 

Yeah, nobody really ever says, "I am against masks"...it's usually 'couched' as doubting the efficacy, claiming it inhibits their breathing/liberties/etc., or clutching at the availability heuristic of something to the effect of 'I see lots of people around me not wearing masks and they didn't get Covid.'  Basically, a tacit endorsement of "I'm not against masks like them, but they didn't get it...just saying/notsaying."  

Most people are intelligent enough to know that when they're going against all factual knowledge with their opinion, that they need to frame that incorrect opinion/behavior with some other gentler version.  Even the guys in all these youtube videos of them blowing up in public when asked to put on a mask never come out and say, "I am against masks, fuck all y'all!"  Even the guy in my earlier scenario doesn't say he's against masks, he uses the discrepancy in the store signage about "all shoppers must wear masks" to proclaim he's not wearing one because he's just browsing.  That was the point of the illustration, we're choosing some other technical way to not wear them/oppose them because we know we're wrong. 

[Incredulity 11,541]

Not arguing against masks is the new arguing against masks.  got it.

[Wally Fairway 5,517]

14 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Aren't nursing homes ground zero for deaths in all times and climates ?

yeah - not many get out of those alive.
my Dad didn't and it is very likely Mom won't either
on the other hand my FIL says he won't go into one and that stubborn old fool might out live all of us (along with Willie and Keith Richards - although Pops has a few years even on Willie)

[52-80 19,076]

People, if you want to see if there are more cases or less, you want to look at the time series of test positivity, not number of reported cases