Agreed.
I know it’s all conjecture and hypothesis at this point, but it comes up often over dinner in the Linkey household. Despite all the other damaging policies he enacted, if he’d just been slightly less horrible at this one thing, he probably would’ve sailed to a legitimate (in our system) victory.
Kind of makes him seem like even more of an evil fuck-up than he already seemed, if that’s possible. Killing all these people and tanking his chances at re-election just to “stick it to Obama.”
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To some extent, it’s a “frog and the scorpion” thing. Of course he fucked it up as a result of his narcissistic and petty incompetence - that’s the story of his life. The reason he blew it is what his opponents have been warning about since well before he announced his candidacy.
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I hope they stick to their policies and kick them out, then.
To me, that exhibits a mind-set that is unfit to hold those jobs.
Same with all the cops still refusing. It’s all over, but here’s a recent story from CA
And my reminder that cops who get sick or die from COVID get the same disability/death benefits as if they had been shot on duty. Even if they’ve refused to get vaccinated.
No such luck for fast food workers, hotel staff, daycare staff, teachers…
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And according to data obtained by The Associated Press, between 20% to 30% of the Guard soldiers in six states are not vaccinated
I wonder if I can guess which six states?
Well I got 5/6 correct. I expected Florida to make the list.
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The government of Japan is trying to get people to take their masks off outdoors in order to prevent heat stroke. So far, it doesn’t seem like many people are listening.
That’s right, people here are refusing to demask. I am one of them. I feel naked without my mask at this point.
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Decent performance by 
, but not as good as 
in many metrics (Japan had a negative excess death rate), and we took a bigger hit to GDP than many countries. The report didn’t look at 
or 
, although the latter has gone from COVID-free paradise to fairly walloped in the last few months.
News story:
The CBC story also cites the Lancet:
Their study indicates that vaccines saved about 15 million lives globally.
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This is the weirdest thing I’ve read about NK in the article:
Prior to this, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and first lady Ri Sol Ju donated their own household supply of medications to South Hwanghae Province when the intestinal diseases began spreading, while other leading officials like Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, and party department vice director Hyon Song Wol also stepped forward to transfer medications to the province.
How much medication can a family have in their own medicine cabinet?
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In their bunkers? Quite a lot I would think. Can’t have the help infecting you.
But it’s performative.
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All of it… they own the whole country.
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Well, it was the phrasing of the article that was odd. “Household” makes it sounds like they have a stash in one of their cabinets, maybe a closet. If the article just said “their own supply” it would have still made sense.
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I think maybe we should think of “household” in a different fashion, more like a royal household, which in some cases can include hundreds of people. Think of the Saudi king and the “household” attached to him (if you expand that to family, it’s thousands of people), or the queen and her “household”… it wouldn’t just include her immediate family the way ours would, but pretty much the line of succession, and everyone who works for “the firm”.
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Personal note #1:
Several colleagues and friends currently are suffering from COVID. BA.5 seems to cause a sore throat first, according to anecdotes. Also, POC antigen lateral flow tests failed for them until way into the symptoms, and in three cases until major symptoms (i.e., fever and a resting heart rate of around 115 BPM) subsided.
They must have been infectious even before the sore throat, some say, b/c they were in the same car before they even had the slightest symptoms.
Personal note #2:
I’m off to a in-person conference, more than 150 professionals, myself hosting a workshop with about 25 attendees according to plan. Yesterday, I got the news the venue does not require anyone to wear a mask indoors any more, and specifically mentioned that there is no obligation to wear a mask during workshops.
The hosts sent out an e-mail today urging everyone to wear a masks voluntarily.
I considered refusing to hold the workshop without a mask mandate, but will instead ask kindly. My attendees are youngish, educated and I assume also smart and intelligent.
I’ll report next week.
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Speaking from experience, have a stack of disposable masks with you to offer right from the outset. Most people will stop fighting if they don’t have the excuse “I don’t have one”.
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My most recent in-person meeting/conference involved almost everyone else flying in the day before, and I was the only person wearing a mask. Don’t know how many got sick, but I succeeded in staying safe. KN95: don’t leave home without it!
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This is why I was waiting to get the fourth shot, I was hoping they might taylor the shot to existing variants but then at the end of the article was this…
However, Congress has not appropriated money for the U.S. to buy additional vaccines. The White House has warned that without more funding, the U.S. might have to ration shots in the fall for people at highest risk such as the elderly.
Does that mean people who want the shot might not get it? Would they be able to pay out of pocket?
Wtf is wrong with congress?
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I’m gonna guess the answer is Republicans:
from March…
and April…
…to the rationing you mentioned, which has appeared all over the MSM:
Do I suspect this is yet another issue that the GOP is denying, dragging out, and defunding at the cost of people’s lives so they can score political points by blaming the results on Democrats in general (and Biden in particular) before the midterms? Yes, I do. Hope it backfires on them in a major way, because they’ve made it clear they DGAF about anyone except themselves.
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This, exactly.
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