CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk

[hayden_horn 11364]

i had a broken brain moment that i'm having trouble reconciling.

my wife's aunt was recently in the icu for something that i still don't fully understand, but it's not important. she's okay now.

anyways, we met up for lunch over the weekend, which in stage 5 is problematic to me, but we still did it. hell, i was maskless at the Q2, so who am i to complain about shit. 

anyways, her and her husband are fucking crazy. like ancient aliens crazy. like, for real, ancient aliens crazy.

but they are vaccinated. 

her first comment, though, upon our arrival was something along the lines of "fearmongering about covid"

it was a clear republican talking point, and they are both very much republican. i just set it aside best i could, and we got along with lunch.

my wife's cousin was talking about how her ex was rabidly anti-vax. the same aunt who talked about "fearmongering" was saying things like "well, take him to an icu and see what he has to say then." she was super pro-vax, super anti-mask, and super "BuT tHe LiBrUl NarRaTive" and i didn't know what to do with any of that.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

18 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The GQP has managed to elevate hypocrisy to a fanatical religion.  It would be fascinating to watch....if it were happening in Slovenia or some shit.

 

it has been said already a million times, but the attitudes towards vaccination for a pandemic has really re-emphasized there is no such thing as 'conservative' anymore in terms of mainstream politics.  we obviously know what someone is referring to when they use the term, but it really doesn't apply.  because the most conservative thing one could do would be to get a vaccine if you think about it.  when anti-vaxxers were the purview of jenny mccarthy and the new agers, the conservatives could laugh and call it part of the 'loony left.'  

this isn't a substantive point, i guess.  just another frustrating thought rolling around in my head.

 

[LurkingHorn 1066]

1 hour ago, YChang said:

Big hearty, "Fuck unvaccinated people." Just got my test back—Covid positive. 

For those curious I'm: J/J back in April. Since last Th night I've felt like I had a bad cold. Warm but not feverish. Congested nose but no shortness of breath. No loss taste. Cough was minimal, just clearing out phlegm after taking DayQuil/mucinex. General lethargy. 

On the upside, actually feeling better today. Slowly feeling normal again so thank vaccine for working like it's supposed to!  But still, fuck those unvaccinated idiots.  

Any idea where you caught it? 

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

@Biff Tannen how are you doing these days?  improved?

[CooterBrown 18019]

23 minutes ago, C-Man said:

I think when Abbott says it's time for "personal responsibility" he really means "personal irresponsibility" because that's what is happening. Blah, blah, blah this is why we can't have nice things. You can't trust people to do the right thing so tell them it's get vaxxed or wear a mask. End of story.

Except for personal responsibility when jogging under old decaying trees, amirite?

 

[Biff Tannen 45696]

11 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

@Biff Tannen how are you doing these days?  improved?

Yep.  Today is the first day I really feel back to 100%.  I worked out and went back to work.  That wasn't a fun week though.

[Brian Fantana 6690]

We just had 7 people out of 13 test positive in this ONE class here and now they're sending everyone home. These people fucking talk on the phone for a living, it's not brain surgery, this could all be done at home.

I'm about to tell my boss I'm remote for the foreseeable future. Fire me, bitch, I'll see you in court.

[Don Johnson 4754]

1 hour ago, YChang said:

Big hearty, "Fuck unvaccinated people." Just got my test back—Covid positive. 

For those curious I'm: J/J back in April. Since last Th night I've felt like I had a bad cold. Warm but not feverish. Congested nose but no shortness of breath. No loss taste. Cough was minimal, just clearing out phlegm after taking DayQuil/mucinex. General lethargy. 

On the upside, actually feeling better today. Slowly feeling normal again so thank vaccine for working like it's supposed to!  But still, fuck those unvaccinated idiots.  

What made you decide to get tested?  Did it get worse?  

[Zepol87 9189]

41 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

I had a buddy who had the J/J back when you did get tested positive for covid-19 on Sunday the 1st. He tested negative on Saturday the 7th. Said he never lost taste or smell and was pretty mild-- felt like an allergy cold for a day or two and that was it. I hope yours is as mild, my friend.

That said, of the breakthroughs I've heard about anecdotally from friends and colleagues and family-- 90% are from J/J vax.... y'all mileage may vary. 

Coworker tested positive in Phoenix and had the J&J vax. I posted about it another thread but our team meeting today was nothing but the vax is worthless see!!!! I work in Downtown Dallas and way more people than I thought are still against the vaccine in my company. Going to be rough

[DonkeyCigars 143]

1 minute ago, Zepol87 said:

Coworker tested positive in Phoenix and had the J&J vax. I posted about it another thread but our team meeting today was nothing but the vax is worthless see!!!! I work in Downtown Dallas and way more people than I thought are still against the vaccine in my company. Going to be rough

Yea that's tough. I foresee a ton of business back-tracking or further stalling going back to the office now.

[Macanudo 12999]

32 minutes ago, LurkingHorn said:

Any idea where you caught it? 

South Austin's mom.

[YChang 3455]

29 minutes ago, LurkingHorn said:

Any idea where you caught it? 

For me it's likely from the small gym I attend. It's the only place I'm at where I interact with others consistently. 

3 minutes ago, Don Johnson said:

What made you decide to get tested?  Did it get worse?  

Peace of mind mainly just to know so I don't unknowingly spread it to others. And I'm finally feeling better today (~80% normal). 

[Chuckie Finster 22703]

1 hour ago, cactusflinthead said:

Yeah it's a parent's decision unless it's hair length, color, dress code, or speech.

"Now is the time for personal responsibility, and the best way to be personally responsible is to get a vaccine... that these maskless children are not allowed to get."

[kevwun 15812]

Listen, you have the right to not light your own house on fire, but you can't stop your neighbor from spraying gasoline everywhere and playing with matches. 

Greg Abbott wasn't injured by a falling live oak limb that was weakened during a storm.  He broke his back falling off a fence.

Edited August 10, 2021 by kevwun

[jimmyjazz 46001]

8 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

"Now is the time for personal responsibility, and the best way to be personally responsible is to get a vaccine... that these maskless children are not allowed to get."

This is exactly the thing that most grinds my gears.  Come on, Abbott.  At LEAST come out and strongly support (or preferably demand) that all children below the cutoff for vaccination wear a mask to public school.

[Hanrahan 1306]

Apparently, a San Antonio court has issued a TRO on Abbott's mask ban.  I can't find anything in the news yet but that's a government lawyer told me.

[Macanudo 12999]

47 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is exactly the thing that most grinds my gears.  Come on, Abbott.  At LEAST come out and strongly support (or preferably demand) that all children below the cutoff for vaccination wear a mask to public school.

But, my free-dums!

[cactusflinthead 27601]

42 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

Apparently, a San Antonio court has issued a TRO on Abbott's mask ban.  I can't find anything in the news yet but that's a government lawyer told me.

 

[cactusflinthead 27601]

 

[RomaVicta 29952]

I just took a moment to try to envision the citizens Abbott's press release must be aimed at. 

This person:

• Is not rational.
• Cannot follow the simplest line of argument.
• Cannot be expected to choose what is best for himself and his community.
• Is unmoved by a threat to children in school.
• Is convinced he's the best patriot and citizen America has ever known outside of Donald Trump.

We all know this, but it's old knowledge that can drift from focus. 

We have the worst men appealing to the worst in every person they can reach. On a massive scale.

The electorate is the problem. That's not fixed easily if it can be fixed at all.

[Chooky 13317]

Greg Abbott and his team are executing a crisis response to mitigate his self-imposed disaster response that is a direct result of his suck on Trump's taint response. 

[DaysOff 7963]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

Except for personal responsibility when jogging under old decaying trees, amirite?

 

 

With the dearth of icu beds I wouldn't recommend jogging under any trees.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19130]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.

I'll finish my career in Texas, because that's where my business is.  But I can't imagine me spending my retirement years in this state.

I am lucky.  I was able to get the fuck out just in time.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19130]

19 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I just took a moment to try to envision the citizens Abbott's press release must be aimed at. 

This person:

• Is not rational.
• Cannot follow the simplest line of argument.
• Cannot be expected to choose what is best for himself and his community.
• Is unmoved by a threat to children in school.
• Is convinced he's the best patriot and citizen America has ever known outside of Donald Trump.

We all know this, but it's old knowledge that can drift from focus. 

We have the worst men appealing to the worst in every person they can reach. On a massive scale.

The electorate is the problem. That's not fixed easily if it can be fixed at all.

It can be.  Perhaps COVID is God's way of taking these fuckers out.  Worked with the Black Death.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

15 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

I am lucky.  I was able to get the fuck out just in time.

Same, in multiple ways.  After I moved, my company did a round of layoffs that touched my team directly.  Were I still in Austin, that would have scared me into delay.  Then covid hit.  That absolutely would have kept me from moving.   Then a few months later while we are all "how bad is the covid thing going to get"  I put a bid on a house.  Went through incredible fear of "is the market going to crash."   That sounds crazy to say now, but at the time everything was impending doom and there were a lot of "now is the worst time to buy a house" missives to be found.   That Phil mortgage dude on this board graciously let me vent my fears.  Now the house I'm in and location I love would be beyond my ability to afford, which is wild.

I tell my wife all the time how I feel like Indiana Jones sliding under some closing concrete wall of death, reaching back to grab his hat.  Whew, just in time. 

 

[4th&Five 41571]

 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19130]

5 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

[jimmyjazz 46001]

"Alcoholic Mountain Dew".

Schizophrenia in a bottle?

[Nivek 16949]

When you are talking about putting something inside your body-- chemicals, drugs, gene therapy, vaccines, whatever-- it IS personal. You force people to start ingesting things that the government and/or scientists are creating (in good faith, I believe, and with the best knowledge and tools they have at their disposal which is inherently limited and imperfect), then you are creating a very slippery slope that is dangerous if you have a very independent streak. Again, I'm fully vaxxed and think to not be is foolish, but I (and tens if not hundreds of millions of others) have a hard time justifying forcing someone to ingest a vaccine against their will. 

And yet, for decades we have forced children to be vaccinated to attend schools and we all but eliminated some diseases.

And yet we regulate the hell out of the women’s reproductive decisions as well.

But suddenly, this is personal? bullshit. It is political. It is political because Bad actors exploited idiots.

[Bozo_Casanova 26511]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

The GQP has managed to elevate hypocrisy to a fanatical religion.  It would be fascinating to watch....if it were happening in Slovenia or some shit.

You missspelled Hungary

[Brisketexan 105184]

2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

You missspelled Hungary

Naah, Hungary is just doing plain old xenophobic fascism. It doesn't even have a zesty local flavor.  Which is inexcusable, as they have fantastic paprika there.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Brisketexan

[Born to Run 6569]

 

So 4 loko?
The chief dick drawer gonna sue?

[Born to Run 6569]

And yet, for decades we have forced children to be vaccinated to attend schools and we all but eliminated some diseases.

And yet we regulate the hell out of the women’s reproductive decisions as well.

But suddenly, this is personal? bullshit. It is political. It is political because Bad actors exploited idiots.

The bulk of anti vaxers wilfully ingest horrible shit daily against thier own health interest. Shit that was manufactured to be cheap, profitable and addictive.

[babysdaddy 2725]

On 8/9/2021 at 5:08 PM, jimmyjazz said:

I think this is it.  I haven't scoured it, but maybe there's some hope:

Duke study

 

 

[JimmyJames 12271]

2 hours ago, kevwun said:

Listen, you have the right to not light your own house on fire, but you can't stop your neighbor from spraying gasoline everywhere and playing with matches. 

Greg Abbott wasn't injured by a falling live oak limb that was weakened during a storm.  He broke his back falling off a fence.

I figure you are joking. But nevertheless, think it’s a great opportunity to post this article which shows how big of a hypocrite piece of shit our governor actually is.

https://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/04/candidate-faces-questions-turnabout-and-fair-play/

After settling his frivolous lawsuit for 10 million dollars, governor hot wheels embarked on a long and successful career making sure nobody else could ever get what he got. 

[tx 3 putt 77246]

Very long line for the vaccine shot / two free tickets tonight At Minute Maid park 

[Biff Tannen 45696]

3 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Very long line for the vaccine shot / two free tickets tonight At Minute Maid park 

Whatever it takes. 

[tx 3 putt 77246]

1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

Whatever it takes. 

It’s been going on since 5. I’ll guess 500 in line 

[hornmpa96 2619]

Glad to hear it. I went to the game attended by the First Lady earlier this year and listened to about 25% of the fans boo. Hopefully this wave will wake some folks up.

[Telegraph_it 3358]

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.

I'll finish my career in Texas, because that's where my business is.  But I can't imagine me spending my retirement years in this state.

You would be crazy to. It is entirely too humid. Retirement should be in the mountains during the summer and on the beach in the winter.

[pyrohornIII 4817]

 

1 hour ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

It can be.  Perhaps COVID is God's way of taking these fuckers out.  Worked with the Black Death.

I've fought several fights on a local level for things like VFD, school, POA and what I have come to realize that what it's going to take it to have the place burned down, then rebuild.   Sadly common sense or problem solving doesn't make any difference anymore.  It's all about not making changes, not spending money.

 

 So who burns us down first? Plague or Climate Change?  

[heso 2813]

The next school district over from me voted last night to mandate masks across the district. The vote was unanimous in favor of masks, while the asshats booed. Then an asshole flashed a nazi salute as they stormed out. 

This is primarily an affluent, old money Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Vote at 1:30:20, nazi salute at 1:31:30.

 

 

Our school board meets tomorrow. Should be fun (sad). 

[lmao 178]

How many on here would have cleared this advert:

 

[NameAlreadyInUse 5114]

1 minute ago, lmao said:

How many on here would have cleared this advert:

 

If I was an old white man that didn't know any, nor know anything about black people, and I'm thinking I want to talk to the utes, this is the type of commercial I would've come up with.

[Nivek 16949]

This is exactly the thing that most grinds my gears.  Come on, Abbott.  At LEAST come out and strongly support (or preferably demand) that all children below the cutoff for vaccination wear a mask to public school.

Why? His kids are old enough…..

[jimmyjazz 46001]

16 minutes ago, heso said:

The next school district over from me voted last night to mandate masks across the district. The vote was unanimous in favor of masks, while the asshats booed. Then an asshole flashed a nazi salute as they stormed out. 

Textbook case of Karen constituents not understanding that they don't have a vote, along with the meeting manager (superintendent?) doing a horrible job of running the meeting.  The moment she gaveled the vote to a pause to scold the boo-birds should have been the moment that the next boo would result in expulsion.  Instead, she just started jamming (with remarkably steady tempo, I might add) and let them boo over the vote.  Way to stick to your guns, lady.

America is fucked.

[Beau Vine 54323]

Quote

A maskless woman who yelled at a bank worker in New Jersey when she was told to put on a face covering is saying the outburst is protected free speech.

But a New Jersey Superior Court judge on Friday denied her motion to dismiss the lawsuit against her. Citibank worker Sanaa Rami says she suffered emotional distress after the Nov. 27 encounter, when she asked customer Lilach Kuhn to wear a mask, which Kuhn refused to do before complaining.

“I will take this all the way,” Kuhn told Rami in a video recorded by another bank customer. “I’m going now to court to fight masks, and you are not going to tell me what to do.”

“Give me your card with your name because this branch is going to hear your name,” she continued. “You’re going to become famous. Do it now. Do it now. You work for me, I do not work for you.”

Kuhn said that she was a scientist and that “there is no corona,” then she left the bank before police arrived, according to the complaint.

Rami’s attorney Usmaan Sleemi said Kuhn was threatening. The lawyer said his client sought therapy after what he characterized as an assault. He said the civil case is a first in the pandemic, filed by an employee caught between enforcing coronavirus safety policies and contentious customers.

Their spouses died of covid-19 from an unsafe workplace, lawsuit alleges. A new Texas law might block the claim.

“These low-wage workers like my client have to go to work every day for the last 17 or 18 months or however long it’s been, and you know they’re exposed to dangers in the workplace, like covid,” he said in an interview Tuesday, referring to the disease that the novel coronavirus causes. “Then they have to deal with things like this, and why should they? It’s not really fair.”

In court filings, Kuhn’s attorney, Dana Wefer, wrote that what her client said in the video was constitutionally protected free speech and that she didn’t physically assault Rami.

After hearing oral arguments Friday, Judge Robert C. Wilson of New Jersey Superior Court disagreed with Wefer and refused to dismiss the lawsuit.

Nima Ameri, another attorney representing Kuhn, told The Washington Post that they plan to dispute Rami’s claims, calling her the “aggressor” during the confrontation that began before the video.

“There’s more to this than what was recorded,” Ameri said, adding that his client previously had visited the bank maskless without incident.

“This is not an argument about a mask, and Lilach is not trying to make this an argument about a mask,” he said. “This is about the inappropriate and aggressive conduct of an individual at Citibank.”

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, essential workers have borne the brunt of altercations, both verbal and physical, over pandemic safety measures, exacerbated by mixed messaging and politicization. In some cases, the confrontations turned deadly for workers.

Retail workers are being pulled into the latest culture war: Getting customers to wear masks

Wefer said her client couldn’t have physically assaulted Rami because a plexiglass barrier separated the women.

Sleemi disagreed, saying that, unlike battery, civil assault doesn’t require physical contact. He said Kuhn had threatened his client when she said the dispute would cost Rami her job.

Sleemi said Rami, an immigrant from Morocco, was frightened after Kuhn shouted that she might give her coronavirus for offering her a mask.

“Don’t make me wear your mask,” Kuhn screamed after Rami asked whether she wanted one. “Are you trying to kill me? What happens if you have corona?”

He said that they have not set an amount his client is seeking and that they are focused on having their day in court.

“I hope she gets justice ultimately,” he said. “Whatever that is the jury will decide.”

Ronald K. Chen, a professor and former dean of Rutgers University’s law school, questioned whether Kuhn’s behavior would be considered outrageous enough to meet the legal standard for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Just being inconsiderate “doesn’t cut it,” Chen said.

“It wasn’t the first time, not the last time certainly, over the course of this pandemic or in life,” he said. “We have people being rude all the time.”

Alexis Karteron, director of the Rutgers Constitutional Rights Clinic, agreed with Chen, adding that the standard for intentional infliction of emotional distress is “extremely high.”

She said it remains to be seen whether the content of Kuhn’s speech led to emotional distress, rather than her conduct, which is not constitutionally protected. The lawsuit, filed in December, is in its early stages.

“The big question in this case is whether the dispute was really fundamentally about speech or conduct,” she said.

 

[Deej 76862]

I thought Abbott and his ilk were secretly all about man dates. 

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

Oregon announces a mask mandate tomorrow, most likely.

“The number of hospitalized COVID-19 positive patients has surpassed the previous pandemic high set back in November. This is alarming and an urgent call to action if you have not yet been vaccinated. All three COVID-19 vaccines are extremely effective in preventing severe COVID-19 infection leading to hospitalization. Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 and to keep the virus from spreading among our loved ones, our friends and neighbors and our communities,” said Patrick Allen, Director of Oregon Public Health Authority."

 

The bolded part boggles my fucking mind.  I know it has been expressed already, but still.  To think we have more infected people now, months after the opportunity to vaccinate happened.   I've posted numerous times that I try to be sympathetic to the stupids and only hateful to the politicians/influencers.  I think somewhere in this past week I've run out.  Reading the stories posted here by Trauma Babe and Bama and then the ones I see from medical personnel on reddit doesn't help.  Seeing folks on this board get breakthrough infections and have to worry doesn't help.  Read a tweet about a kid who had appendicitis but couldn't get it treated in a timely fashion because of  the effect of covid patients on his ER.  Kid develops sepsis and now has to be on a special diet/regimen for the rest of his life.  Because of anti-vaxxers.  That doesn't help either.

  I'm to the point where I may re-watch that CNN clip of that regretful Dad and yell obscenities  at the dude instead of feel bad for him as I previously did.  I think I'm done.  Fuck each and every single person who can medically get the vaccine but has made a choice not to do so, no matter their reason.   In my locale, we're not out of ICU beds, we're just of medical personnel to treat people because they've quit in droves.  Maybe I can volunteer to shove a ventillator do-dad down someone's gullet. 

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89762]

5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I'll finish my career in Texas, because that's where my business is.  But I can't imagine me spending my retirement years in this state.

We keep weighing it a lot - wife is in education so her retirement is locked in, and she's got a while before she can retire.

On the flip side, she'll be able to retire when the last (for now) kid is out of high school.

I'm pretty done with the hot summers (this summer is full of lies!), and I'm really done with a state run by absolute dipshits.