Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

Who the hell is Anders Tegnell anyway?

The Japanese epidemiologist that I know told me that she had never heard of him anywhere before.

I relay his statements that I can get off the internet to her sometimes, and she's been consistently amazed. In a bad way. She would often say, "I have no idea what makes him think that."

I mean, for what it's worth. But it really feels like Sweden has been trapped in some bizarre world isolated from the real one.

The issue is not really that people will drop like flies in Sweden because of his nonsense. I mean, there's a bit of that too, as a large number of deaths are probably already baked in over there, but the issue is that he's a fucking CRANK who has international Cranks-Truthers United audience, yet somehow has so much power over the country's policies. He's been proven WRONG already. Why doesn't anyone in the Swedish media mention that? Maybe there are some, but where are they?

In other words, it's an issue of governance, and its negative international effect. It's *possible* that Sweden has been just unlucky compared to its neighbors. It's *possible* that whatever Tegnell did or didn't didn't have much effect on any of what's happening in reality after all. The death count might suddenly drop to zero next week. I mean, it won't, but you know what I mean. And even then he STILL should go. Because he's a fucking crank.

Anyone who still believes that masks give you a "false sense of security" is a crank. You could be skeptical of masks' effectiveness all right, but NOT for that stupid reason, that stupid argument which has been proven false over and over again in sociology.

That man is a fraud.

[miscmisc]

You know I'm no fan of Nancy Pelosi. In fact I said she should retire. But these media fools don't understand it at all. Raju has been doing this for many, many, many years, but he has been paid NOT to understand it.

This happens all the time, but mostly because the Republicans (Read: Mitch McConnell) almost never act in good faith.

Yes, Pelosi's subsequent comment sucks. It's a horrible message to the electorate. That's why she should retire.

But these media hacks are just insufferable.

[miscmisc]

Iowa is such a shithole state.

Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/12/how-iowa-mishandled-coronavirus-pandemic/617252/

It's a sickening story that you probably shouldn't read.

[miscmisc]

Brutal.

[miscmisc]

Seriously, LOTS of people will continue to get infected in the US. If you are in the US, you really should assume that you'll get it at some point, that you won't be able to avoid it. You might not, but you should think you will and be prepared for that. I do suspect nearly 30-40% of Americans will have gotten it after this winter (TONS of asymptomatic cases who won't ever know they already got it, of course).

So, again, stay as far away from elderly people as possible.

[miscmisc]

One fatal flaw of American Psycho (film) is that Bateman's business card was clearly the best, and therefore there was no need for all the trouble.

[miscmisc]

Remarkably yet unsurprisingly, NONE of the people that I know who are into online wellness say they are likely to take the Covid vaccine.

Thank God at least they don't seem to be into QAnon... yet. As far as I know.

[miscmisc]

It's amazing that so many people act like they still don't understand that there is a fundamental difference between a country that starts freaking out when the daily Covid case count hits 300 nationally (e.g. South Korea, population 50M) and one that thinks 300 cases per day means everything is fine (e.g. Italy, population 60M).

There's no mystery. Countries like South Korea act early - more social distancing, testing, contact tracing - which makes it significantly easier to deal with the epidemic. They don't do a national lockdown because it's not necessary.

What was Spain (population 47M) doing when the daily case count hit 300?

It's a trick question because it has never been that low since early March.

I'm not scolding the likes of Italy and Spain here, nor am I saying everyone should act like South Koreans. I'm just saying that it's not fucking rocket science.

[miscmisc]

Glenn Greenwald has regressed into the voice inside his own echo chamber, where the most important issues for the US electorate/Dem primary voters was somehow foreign policies, Deep State and Russiagate.

Can I be brutally frank?

Glenn's problem is that he doesn't understand US politics at all. He really doesn't if he thinks it's "abject subservience" in any shape or form. He has no real-life experience with elections and politicians. It's just an abstraction for him, and he projects way too much of what he learned through his experience with Wikileaks and Assange onto most other things. That's just wrong.

He's very good at analyzing certain things, but this is not it. He's probably better at commenting on Brazilian politics at this point.

[miscmisc]

Unfortunately this has happened to an American that I know. Hasn't been able to get it up since he's gotten Covid back in May, and he's 42.

[miscmisc]

Had the Brits not spent so much energy on destroying Corbyn and his followers once and for all, the UK would be in a different situation on Brexit now.

Basically they just nuked the whole thing, to effectively make sure it was going to be either no deal or joke deal. They are going frantic over which one we are going to get, but does it even matter? It's a Rock-hard Brexit either way, and I don't think anyone truly knows its implications and repercussions yet. British politicians seem to be making tons of assertions, with little actual evidence.

[miscmisc]

OK, sure, Joke Deal is significantly better than No Deal. I was being a dick above, but why are they where they are in the first place? It's just inexcusable.

I always said that there was only one option, and that was Hard Brexit. But there was a window of opportunity to make it rounder and softer. But they blew it as they were busy punching the left.

The UK will have to reinvent itself in 2021 and onward anyhow. The first step should be to discard the idea of the "special relationship."

[miscmisc]

I don't think most sane Americans really understand the mindset of Trumpians.

They believe every single piece of that fucking crap 120% and some more. They not only are sure that Biden cheated on a massive scale, but also believe that it's going to be the Trump 2nd term ANYWAY.

It's impossible to deprogram those people. They are just gone. You certainly can't have "dialogue" with them with your same old civility and liberal talking points.

Those Trumpians are about as massively narcissistic as the stereotypical upper-class liberal (Narcissistic me-ism is a universal American disease), and therefore can't deal with their own ignorance and stupidity, immersing themselves in that toxic victimhood culture. It takes something radical to put some sense into their heads, but Democrats certainly won't go there.

Because this is what the "advice" from the NYT.

"Bring decency back"

LOL

Those fuckers can say such a ridiculous thing because they STILL think they won't be personally affected by this political crisis. They are as delusional as Trumpians.

[miscmisc]

Perdue does this because he's an aristocrat. This kind of disgraceful behaviors will continue to have NO repercussions in the corrupt US political environment, because no one cares.

[miscmisc]

I hope you didn't expect me to suddenly feign concerns over this horrible person's health.

I'd say death would be a cheap way to avoid getting disbarred and disgraced.

I imagine nurses in particular absolutely unwilling to treat this piece of shit who deliberately made it harder for all health workers in America. But of course he will also receive the $2M treatment.