Random Rant Thread

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LOL #2

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Seriously, I'm curious to see how far Republicans are willing to go to try to steal this election. They will have to make a massive, massive number of votes null and void to make the race any close. Unprecedented suppression of votes in the key states, absolutely unprecedented scale.

A Republican operative that I know told me months ago that they will have to steal this one, and when I asked him if they could, he said probably not.

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McEnany has tested positive too.

This one below was done before the test result came back.

There's clearly a cluster in and around the White House, yet she takes off her mask for no reason at all and gives lots of sweet saliva to the press like she couldn't care less.

These people simply don't deserve to be anywhere near any public office, ever.

McEnany in particular is such a typical morally bankrupt overachiever in the Republican grift world whose only strength is her menacing fake eyelashes.

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I can assure you that Trump would be in a worse condition than Boris Johnson was in the spring - which could very well mean that he would've been dead instead of being doped up and juiced up like he is now - if he had been infected around the same time. The treatment has vastly improved since then. 

It's improving every month, every week even. Trump is correct on that. And that's exactly why he's such a gigantic failure. He proved that by getting Covid-19 himself, although that fool certainly doesn't understand that inevitable logic.

And that's why delaying the spread as best one can was very important, as some German top officials said back in March. They said that they would need to buy time until we learn more about the virus and the treatment improves. "Flattening the curve" wasn't just about hospital capacity.

Most of the people who passed away in Spain, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium etc. back in the spring wouldn't have to die if they were infected now. I didn't mention Italy, because I still kind of feel sorry for them getting sucker-punched like that, even though the government did make a number of errors.

And I don't even want to mention countries like the US and Brazil and Russia, who have not succeeded in really suppressing the virus even once.

The countries who recognized the danger early and threw a kitchen sink to try to delay the spread ended up saving TONS of lives.

That's what "the second wave isn't killing nearly as many people" actually means. The countries who failed to act early and decisively in the spring must silently apologize to all the deceased.

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Two more White House staff tested positive.
 
People at the White House completely misunderstand Covid-19 at the fundamental level.

They seem to think "I was tested, and the result was negative yesterday" somehow allows them to stop caring.

Incredibly dense people.

Testing cannot suppress the virus. I told you the system that relies solely on testing was bound to collapse sooner or later.

And it's not just the White House that seem to have this strange belief in the all-purpose power of testing.

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Remember Trump is on dexamethasone now. High as fuck. You normally give dex to horses.

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I guess the ability to keep writing columns based on the blandest possible takes is talent.

But it must be considered some kind of a theft to actually make money off these drivels. I usually don't read Guardian columns at all, but every single column by this Zoe Williams person that I've ever glanced at was an utterly banal waste of time, and this is no exception.

Covid knocked the stuffing out of Johnson. Will it do the same to Trump?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/05/covid-boris-johnson-donald-trump-strongman-politicians

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France's fatalities have been relatively low as it's still too early for the number to spike given the time lag, and nevertheless more than 2,000 people have already passed away in the second wave.

And it's steadily getting worse.

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In case you misunderstand me with the "treatment has improved" comment, I would bet that Trump will get sick again one way or another. Of course it's a reckless move no matter what. But I would say he had no other choice.

The doctors will be extremely busy anyhow. It's all Soviet in America, you know.

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I'm not picking on Boris Johnson here. This Johnson impersonation from several months ago was meant to emphasize the confusion that he was causing, but we must admit that it's not just Boris Johnson. Many other countries in the world have been acting this way. And what this kind of messaging causes at this point isn't really confusion, but fatigue.

"Go shopping!"
"Oh No, stay home!"
"Enjoy nice dinner with friends! You earned it!"
"Oh No, only up to three people! Three!"
"Take off your masks! Back to normal!"
"Oh No, mask up! People, mask up!"

Like I said, this is just tiring and tired. I see Europeans in particular getting absolutely fatigued and apathetic.

Just tell people things aren't going to be back to "normal" no matter what until there's a real game changer like some killer treatment or/and effective vaccines. Make some of those "emergency" policies semi-permanent, especially stuff like masks. A vast majority of people will adapt in no time.

We can't keep doing this on-and-off thing. This will end up costing A LOT more than being semi-permanently vigilant and making some sacrifice on the consistent, long-term basis.

Let's try to keep it under control at all times.

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The "false sense of security" revisited...

It's hard to believe there are otherwise fairly intelligent people who still believe this crap. With no evidence.

And the problem is not just the lack of evidence; It wouldn't add up either.

OK, let's simplify it with very basic arithmetics: Let's say there is the risk factor - of people hanging out and not social-distancing - at 100 by default.

And let's say a mask can reduce the infection by 60%. It should be way higher than that, but I'm just being generous here.

And let's say masks give people the "false sense of security," which results in 100% more people hanging out and not social-distancing, with masks. Again, there's no evidence this is even remotely true, but for the sake of argument.

What's the risk factor of people wearing masks? It's: (100 + 100) x 0.4 = 80. Which means 20% reduction compared to no masks.

20% is obviously huge, and remember, masks can most likely reduce the infection by much more than 60%, and the assumption that twice as many people would violate social distancing rules due to masks is just laughable. Even with these stupid assumptions, it's STILL 20% reduction overall.

It makes much more sense to describe the "wash your hands" policy as promoting the "false sense of security." You can wash and disinfect every object as much as you want, but in all likelihood it does little to keep you from getting infected since there has been no indication that fomite transmission is a main source of infection.

I know you're sick of this topic, but this needs to be repeated. It's a zombie idea.

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Again, Spanish data are useless.

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And Swedes are still laughably wrong on masks. Good timing to remind you of that because of the Nobel. Thoroughly unscientific attitude that relies solely on anecdotal counter-evidence, which is their own non-success success.

I wonder how they think SARS-CoV-2 are transmitted. If their answer is anything other than "via surfaces," they are awfully inconsistent. It surely isn't aerosols, is it? That something that physically blocks aerosols and droplets remarkably well doesn't work against aerosols and droplets would be an extremely weird idea, wouldn't it? And trying to argue with the world's fastest computer on basic physics calculations on top of it.

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The truth is that both Sweden and Japan did what they did in the beginning because of their own unique circumstances and constraints, their initial policies being markedly different from other countries' was largely just an accident, and they have been stuck with it and refused to back down ever since.

I'd say that Japan has done a lot better *so far* (the jury is still out, if only barely, also vis-a-vis the internationally "standard" policies), but again, largely by accident.

The difference, though, is that the Japanese don't support the Japanese policies nearly as much as Swedish people do their country's despite having done a lot better than Sweden (fatality rate less than 1/45 of Sweden's).

A lot of things around this pandemic are so random and strange.

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Today, again, nearly 1,000 Americans lacked the strength that Our President showcased and ended up letting the virus dominate them and being dead now. That's just life, I guess.