Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

If you do some rough calculation based on the infection rate in the US, and extrapolate those numbers to the actual settings, some things are quite clear even if they aren't super accurate.

If you fly in the US now, you are likely to get close to dozens of infected people (who don't know they are infected, of course). If you go to a restaurant, and if there are 50 people there, one of them is likely to be infected, 60-70% chance.

And if you live in, say, South Dakota, you have to multiply that by 5-ish. That is, in a restaurant with 50 people, there are probably 5 infected people.

But if you live in New York, most likely none of the 50 people are infected, although the probability is never zero.

You have to know these rough estimates if you want to stay safe.

[miscmisc]

Trump - and the GOP - is just trying to steal the election now, like, blatantly. There's no other way to describe it.

I think we've already crossed the Rubicon. Say hello to our new Humongous Banana Republic.

[miscmisc]

What a fucking demented stupid country it is. Deeply shameful.

[miscmisc]

I was talking about this in the previous post:

Is this what a civilized country does?

In the middle of the raging second wave, those Republican right-wing fuckers are having a hearing on fucking hydroxychloroquine.

Who even remembers that crap drug?

Just unfuckingbelievable. Incredibly spiteful, incredibly vengeful.

Seriously, what country does this?

Only in America. Truly, only in America. No matter how loudly Bolsonaro shouts and sings, the Brazilian government wouldn't stoop this low.

Only in America. Shame on them, shame on us.

[miscmisc]

Americans, you think your country is fucked up?

Double it. You still don't understand how fucked-up it is.

The stories that I've been hearing are absolute horror show.

It's just a dysfunctional country.

I don't want to even talk about it. People would walk away from "democracy." They would think it's a mistake.

Those right-wingers are just burning everything down.


I'm just so fucking angry, and scared. A hearing on hydroxychloroquine! Yesterday! When 2,000 Americans are dying every day!

This must be a bad dream.

How is this possible?

[miscmisc]

In many states in the US, if you get Covid and become really sick in the coming weeks, in all likelihood there won't be a hospital bed available for you. Or you will get a bed but be largely left alone to fight the disease by yourself because of the shortage of doctors and nurses.

With that on your mind, carry on.

[miscmisc]

This is a good thread by Edward Norton:

I actually disagree with him on a couple of points, but that doesn't matter. I agree with him on the conclusion:

Call him.

Donald's only got junk.

Call his bluff.

That's what every important man in the real estate world who doesn't have a stake in it is saying.

Call his bluff. He ain't got nothing.

[miscmisc]

It seems that Joe Biden did *pretty badly in the swing states* compared to the trend in the rest of the country. He did win most of the states, but given the national trend and his substantial popular vote lead, they shouldn't have been that close.

That's almost always the case with a Democratic candidate, but this win was a VERY inefficient one for Biden. Dems should analyze why. It looks ridiculous.

[miscmisc]

This guy spends god-knows-how-many words to just say, "I'll just flip the coin and take my chances even though I don't even understand the odds, because, because, my gut feeling, and I love my family (and you probably don't if you stay home)."

It's deeply sad that this extraordinary dumbfuckery can be published on the pages of the NYT.

I Traced My Covid-19 Bubble and It's Enormous
www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/opinion/covid-bubble-thanksgiving-family.html?referringSource=articleShare

This confused moron wrote an article titled "Beware The Pandemic Panic" early in the pandemic, by the way.

[miscmisc]

It's amazing that many people still don't understand this.

A person who carries SARS-CoV-2 is most infectious between the last phase of the pre-symptomatic period and the beginning of the symptomatic period.

Do you understand what that means? Bolded for emphasis.

It means that you could be infected and spread it to others even if you tested negative a few days ago.

It was never the masks that gives you the true "false sense of security."

That's why in every country that has done relative well re: Covid-19, all the "close contacts" of an infected person are quarantined for 10-14 days regardless of their test results.

But you decided to go see your families "because everyone is getting tested."

[miscmisc]

The situation in the US, as bad as it has been, could've been a lot worse if it wasn't for American health workers' tenacity and dedication. They are top-notch. They are the only bright spot in the US's response to the pandemic.

But a majority of Americans are absolutely ungrateful bastards. It's agonizingly unfair. The cruelty is beyond belief.

[miscmisc]

You should never let Andrew Cuomo anywhere near actual power. Just because he gives Trump fits doesn't mean he's any good.

Yes, he can at least listen to the experts and scientists all right. He has said many correct things. But he's a horrendous politician with a hilarious delusion of grandeur. Frankly an idiot too.

THIS is why:

The worst thing that you could do as a political leader is to act the way I (= me, miscmisc) do in this thread. He's yet another moron who thinks leadership is about chest-thumping and occasional "I'll level with you" crap. This kind of shit attitude will erode public trust pretty quickly. But he's too full of himself to understand that. Doesn't know better.

[miscmisc]

Lawyers tend to like conspiracy theories. I personally know quite a few lawyers who are also total fruitcakes. They look and sound normal, respectable, but have a few drinks with them and tickle them a bit - the crazy will come out.

"If only I had evidence!" is what sums up their mentality. They spend so much time trying to build a framework that "makes sense" - since that's their job - that they think any narrative is a few pieces of hard evidence away from being absolutely true, no matter how unmoored from the reality it is.

It's no coincidence that a disproportionate number of early Nazi members were lawyers.

So there's absolutely nothing surprising about Sidney Powell and Rudi Giuliani presumably actually believing that Brian Kemp(!) and Hugo Chavez(LOL) are part of a massive conspiracy to elect Joe Biden through "software algorithm."

Besides, sure, Powell was a federal prosecutor, but that was more than 30 fucking years ago. Giuliani hadn't stepped in an actual federal court since 1992. These two have been bananaheads for longer than I can remember.

Trump hired them precisely because they are conspiracy-theory-addled cranks just like himself.

[miscmisc]

"Serbia"

WTF, LOL.

[miscmisc]

The Phase 3 trial data for the AstraZeneca/Oxford U. vaccine are out, and they look good.

Not as high a humber as Pfizer's and Moderna's, but it seems that you can sort of tweak the efficacy by lowering the first dose.

To be honest, I prefer this one to the two mRNA vaccines despite the lower efficacy. I'm definitely not saying that mRNA vaccines are riskier or anything like that. It's just that the viral vector vaccine seems a lot less complicated. Much easier to store, and substantially cheaper, too. People's vaccine, if you will.

Anyway, it's all going well on the vaccine side. And that's why it's absolutely senseless to lose lives now, but that's where we are and will be for the rest of the year. We will lose/ruin so many lives before the vaccines can do their magic.