Covid-19 miscellany

[blastula]

Proposed Georgia law would end all childhood vaccination requirements

17 Georgia state senators have proposed a new bill aimed at getting rid of all routine childhood vaccination requirements.

www.wjcl.com

Today's right, making their kids sick from vanquished diseases to own the libs.

 

[Metaphor]

Today's right, making their kids sick from vanquished diseases to own the libs.

Have you any idea how incoherent your above statement is?

Let's break this down. You believe people want to abolish vaccine mandates for children in order to 'own the libs'. Why wouldn't a more obvious reason be 'they don't want to be forced to give their children the COVID vaccine'? How does abolishing a child vaccine mandate 'own the libs'? It doesn't prevent 'the libs' from vaccinating their children. Hell, it doesn't mean the anti-mandate children can't give their own children the vaccine. If your immediate reaction is "of course they don't want to give their children the vaccine!", it's because they don't believe in giving the vaccine to their children, mandate or not.

In other words, they might be making their kids sick because they don't understand the science of vaccines, but they're not doing it to 'own the libs'. Abolishing or preventing a child mandate doesn't stop them vaccinating their own children.

 

[blastula]

Today's right, making their kids sick from vanquished diseases to own the libs.

Have you any idea how incoherent your above statement is?

Seriously, is English not your first language?

 

[Metaphor]

Today's right, making their kids sick from vanquished diseases to own the libs.

Have you any idea how incoherent your above statement is?

Seriously, is English not your first language?

I came first in English in high school. I understand English.

But I'm talking from a psychological perspective. Your statement makes no sense. The motivations you ascribe to your intellectual enemies make no sense. The actions you think they would take make no sense to fulfill the goals you think they have.

You said 'the right' is 'making their kids sick' to 'own the libs'. For that to make any sense whatever, you would have to believe 'the right' actually believes in the vaccine for their children and would otherwise give it to them, but somehow not vaccinating their children is a higher calling for the satisfaction of 'owning the libs'.

 

[marc]

I'm very concerned that a federally mandated vaccination will result in a big Republican majority come fall and a Trumpista president in 2024.

The thing is, it doesn't matter if there is a mandate or not. Heck, what Biden even put out wasn't a 'mandate' as it allowed people to not get vaccinated, as long as they got regular testing. But that is not how it is sold to republicans. Just like how they warn the Democrats are coming for your guns, despite no gun control legislation even proposed included confiscation. And like how some Democrats said don't vote for Bernie, because the republicans will attack him for being a socialist, yet every moderate or even right-leaning democratic candidate is smeared as being the most extreme socialist eva! And pretty much every other thing the GQP claims the democrats are trying to do.

I'm not saying there wouldn't be some people swayed by an actual mandate, but I don't know if it would be a big enough number to really matter. And I'm tired of democrats not doing the right thing out of fear of the republicans using it to attack them when the republicans will simply lie about it anyway.

 

[Jarhyn]

Trudeau, a virtue signaling horse’s ass.

So you're defending nazi flag wavers, people that attacked others at a homeless shelter, harassed people a food bank, and caused gridlock across the entire city.

So, let me get this straight, people are blocking highways, and now the right is happy about it?

Some people block highways because people are being shot, some people block highways because they don't want to TAKE a shot...

And it's the latter that they defend.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Today's right, making their kids sick from vanquished diseases to own the libs.

Have you any idea how incoherent your above statement is?

Seriously, is English not your first language?

I came first in English in high school. I understand English.

But I'm talking from a psychological perspective. Your statement makes no sense. The motivations you ascribe to your intellectual enemies make no sense. The actions you think they would take make no sense to fulfill the goals you think they have.

You said 'the right' is 'making their kids sick' to 'own the libs'. For that to make any sense whatever, you would have to believe 'the right' actually believes in the vaccine for their children and would otherwise give it to them, but somehow not vaccinating their children is a higher calling for the satisfaction of 'owning the libs'.

You do seem to get it.

Before Covid-19, the anti-vax movement in the US would proudly have Chicken Pox parties. The anti-vax movement used to more be woo'y left-wingers. Now the alt-right / anti-authority are part of the anti-vax movement, doing things like Covid-19 parties for little other reason than because it is anti-authority and in cases, because they view it as a partisan choice.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trudeau, a virtue signaling horse’s ass.

So you're defending nazi flag wavers, people that attacked others at a homeless shelter, harassed people a food bank, and caused gridlock across the entire city.

So, let me get this straight, people are blocking highways, and now the right is happy about it?

Not blocking highways, blocking decent sized portions of a city.

The alt-right is throwing a tantrum protest about liberty... that is impeding the liberty of those living in Ottawa. Last I checked, I didn't recall this level of support from the alt-right for the Occupy Movement, which didn't block off a city, but ruined a lot of bathrooms due to a lack of any sense of foresight.

 

[TSwizzle]

Kids standing up to the authoritarians in Chicago;

Frustrated Chicago-area students walked out of school Monday after being told they were required to wear masks to attend class, despite an Illinois judge having issued a temporary restraining order against the governor's statewide school mask mandate. The maskless Vernon Hills High School students were denied entry into classrooms and escorted into the gymnasium, where they were instructed to either mask up, leave school and have a parent report the absence, or work on classwork isolated in the gym. Video of the protest shows a throng of students exiting the gym before walking out the school's front doors where they are met with applause and positive remarks including: 'Good job, way to stand up for yourselves.' The students, who were given a mental health day, are angered by the treatment, with one telling The Kerr Report: 'I've been denied access to education.'

Daily Mail

I don't know the specifics of Illinois but here in California, the teachers are a disgrace, refusing to come back to class at one point.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

So, let me get this straight, people are blocking highways, and now the right is happy about it?

When Nazis block off streets we have to respect their freedom but when anti-racists block off streets we have to respect freedom of Nazis to run them over.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Kids standing up to the authoritarians science in Chicago;

Frustrated Chicago-area students walked out of school Monday after being told they were required to wear masks to attend class, despite an Illinois judge having issued a temporary restraining order against the governor's statewide school mask mandate. The maskless Vernon Hills High School students were denied entry into classrooms and escorted into the gymnasium, where they were instructed to either mask up, leave school and have a parent report the absence, or work on classwork isolated in the gym. Video of the protest shows a throng of students exiting the gym before walking out the school's front doors where they are met with applause and positive remarks including: 'Good job, way to stand up for yourselves.' The students, who were given a mental health day, are angered by the treatment, with one telling The Kerr Report: 'I've been denied access to education.'

Daily Mail

I don't know the specifics of Illinois but here in California, the teachers are a disgrace, refusing to come back to class at one point.

FIFY. Small number of teenagers refuse to wear masks in a couple of schools in Illinois. This is news in the UK, apparently.

Maybe they were inspired by the Economists' developed "study" from Johns Hopkins.

 

[repoman]

With flu vaccines they don't need to do an RCT for each years shot before they release it. Because it is a prediction.

So why does Pfizer need to test their Omicron booster?!? This is better than with a flu prediction, they have the exact virus on a major upswing. Two months ago they were seeing the breakthroughs and knew how much fertile field that omicron had. The boosters could have been out in weeks.

The FDA etc.. need to get out of the way and allow updated boosters right away,

I would have taken an omicron booster instead of taking a two year old booster that would get me MORE locked into an outdated immune response

 

[TSwizzle]

Trudeau's smear of the "freedom convoy" are of course false;

Angry truckers have lashed out at Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau after members of their convoy protest were arrested and charged with hate crimes during another weekend of unrest in the country's capital city. They have also strongly denied that they have ties to ultra-right-wing groups, insisting they are just 'ordinary truckers.' 'It's intimidation, nothing else,' Freedom Convoy protestor Guy Meister told DailyMail.com on Monday. 'We are just a bunch of hard working truck drivers who are out here protesting the government's covid mandates.
Since DailyMail.com arrived in Ottawa last week we have seen no indication of violence or vandalism or any extremist political agenda. In fact, the demonstrations have shown the opposite. Apart from the incessant honking of their horns, all has been peaceful. The truckers seem to have united the people of Canada in a common goal, to get rid of government mandates.

Daily Mail

Trudeau really is a sniveling little toady.

 

[bilby]

I think the Canadian government should just suspend the Canadian equivalent of a CDL license if a licensed driver stops their truck on a public road.
No force required. No infringement on anybody's liberty. People who infringe on other people's freedom and safety just lose the privilege of operating their weaponized vehicle on publicly funded roads.
Tom

Sounds like a good plan. I like it in general as a penalty for using your vehicle for blocking. (Don't just suspend the CDL, suspend the DL for a couple of weeks.)

It doesn't sound like a plan at all. It sounds like an emotion; To become a plan it would require a definition of 'blocking', that both expands upon the existing prohibitions on illegal parking of vehicles, and is specifically written to avoid penalising drivers for stopping in unusual circumstances for safety reasons, or due to mechanical issues - but still encompasses the behaviour you are seeking to prevent.

If I stop in the middle of a busy freeway during peak hour and say it was because I thought a red light had appeared on my dash indicating a problem with the braking system, are you going to take my licence and livelihood away because you suspect me of having an ulterior motive?

If so, what long term impact do you think this 'good plan' will have on road safety?

This 'plan' is to allow a bureaucrat to decide in advance, in his comfortable office, that he is in a better position than the licenced operator of a heavy vehicle to decide whether it's safe and reasonable to proceed; And to impose a very significant penalty on any operator who uses his own discretion to make that call themselves in real time and considering the actual conditions in a specific case.

How are you defining 'blocking' that is different from currently unlawful parking, but doesn't limit a driver's discretion to use his professional judgment to keep himself and other road users safe?

How can any law that prohibits stopping for nefarious reasons, but doesn't limit operator discretion and judgement for safety reasons, ever be enforceable?

 

[TomC]

How are you defining 'blocking' that is different from currently unlawful parking, but doesn't limit a driver's discretion to use his professional judgment to keep himself and other road users safe?

I'm confident that even Canadians are capable of making a distinction between a mechanical issue and a deliberate act.

Just as I'm sure that there were some ordinary tourists in the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan 6 of last year. Doesn't mean nobody can distinguish a tourist from a treasonous insurrectionist.
Tom

 

[bilby]

How are you defining 'blocking' that is different from currently unlawful parking, but doesn't limit a driver's discretion to use his professional judgment to keep himself and other road users safe?

I'm confident that even Canadians are capable of making a distinction between a mechanical issue and a deliberate act.

Just as I'm sure that there were some ordinary tourists in the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan 6 of last year. Doesn't mean nobody can distinguish a tourist from a treasonous insurrectionist.
Tom

Well, as it's easy, you won't mind setting it out here for me.

If I stop a truck somewhere extremely inconvenient, what exactly do you do to determine that I am lying when I claim that in my professional judgement, it was necessary to do so? Why would a court of law place your unqualified confidence above my hard earned license and experience as a heavy vehicle driver?

I'll wait.

 

[TomC]

How are you defining 'blocking' that is different from currently unlawful parking, but doesn't limit a driver's discretion to use his professional judgment to keep himself and other road users safe?

I'm confident that even Canadians are capable of making a distinction between a mechanical issue and a deliberate act.

Just as I'm sure that there were some ordinary tourists in the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan 6 of last year. Doesn't mean nobody can distinguish a tourist from a treasonous insurrectionist.
Tom

Well, as it's easy, you won't mind setting it out here for me.

If I stop a truck somewhere extremely inconvenient, what exactly do you do to determine that I am lying when I claim that in my professional judgement, it was necessary to do so? Why would a court of law place your unqualified confidence above my hard earned license and experience as a heavy vehicle driver?

I'll wait.

Give a ticket to everyone blocking traffic with a vehicle. Starting with the biggest vehicles.
Give everyone an opportunity to show that they had a mechanical issue. If you're not driving, or willing to drive the vehicle, you don't need a license anyway.
And frankly, 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated and legal to drive anywhere, including across the border. If your truck is blocking traffic, interfering with other people's rights, you lose the privilege of risking other people's freedom to use the road.
This really isn't hard to grasp.

Unless you prefer not to understand the concept that nobody has unrestricted rights to use public infrastructures.
Tom

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trudeau's smear of the "freedom convoy" are of course false;

Angry truckers have lashed out at Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau after members of their convoy protest were arrested and charged with hate crimes during another weekend of unrest in the country's capital city. They have also strongly denied that they have ties to ultra-right-wing groups, insisting they are just 'ordinary truckers.' 'It's intimidation, nothing else,' Freedom Convoy protestor Guy Meister told DailyMail.com on Monday. 'We are just a bunch of hard working truck drivers who are out here protesting the government's covid mandates.
Since DailyMail.com arrived in Ottawa last week we have seen no indication of violence or vandalism or any extremist political agenda. In fact, the demonstrations have shown the opposite. Apart from the incessant honking of their horns, all has been peaceful. The truckers seem to have united the people of Canada in a common goal, to get rid of government mandates.

United Canada? Polling indicates that over 2 in 3 don't agree with the protesting Truckers. About 9 in 10 truckers in Canada are vaccinated as well. So these people haven't even united truckers, forget Canada.

The people of Ottawa have had it with this tantrum being thrown by a group of people that want to be thought of representing more people than they actually are. The businesses of Ottawa want to be open and make money. The people want to get around... you know, liberty and stuff.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I think the Canadian government should just suspend the Canadian equivalent of a CDL license if a licensed driver stops their truck on a public road.
No force required. No infringement on anybody's liberty. People who infringe on other people's freedom and safety just lose the privilege of operating their weaponized vehicle on publicly funded roads.
Tom

Sounds like a good plan. I like it in general as a penalty for using your vehicle for blocking. (Don't just suspend the CDL, suspend the DL for a couple of weeks.)

It doesn't sound like a plan at all. It sounds like an emotion; To become a plan it would require a definition of 'blocking', that both expands upon the existing prohibitions on illegal parking of vehicles, and is specifically written to avoid penalising drivers for stopping in unusual circumstances for safety reasons, or due to mechanical issues - but still encompasses the behaviour you are seeking to prevent.

So, what if we just say they stop the truck in such a position, or sets of positions, over a period of over one week?

 

[TomC]

So, what if we just say they stop the truck in such a position, or sets of positions, over a period of over one week?

Or ask, "To whom did you report the issue, mechanical or whatever?".

Honestly, I could see an honest trucker caught in a traffic jam caused by other ideological truckers. It is a big problem.
Tom