This is a the greatest thing I’ve read in weeks. 
Bravo. Bra. Vo.
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In the first few months of covid, I felt pretty confident that I could at least stay on top of what was going on. Good science was being brought to bear, and the lockdown rules made sense.
But there has been such a fire hose of information that doesn’t quite make it as news, the hysteria coming from other states is breathlessly repeated in mine as if it impacts me… I can’t keep up any more.
State level government is bravely trying to overcome the federal level non-response, but the national news media is going to spew its feed regardless. Multiple narratives just means more drama, better ratings for them.
Meanwhile I see no significant media coverage of how single payer health care would have saved lives, if we had had it in place. That too “socialist” I guess. Better to drown in snot -“Free”- than live healthy under socialist health care… /s
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Another take on this:
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I have a friend I respect greatly that tried to make this point that if you look at European vs US healthcare systems neither were doing well against COVID. This was back in the spring.
But the existence of a national healthcare system indicates a society or country that at some level has more empathy and values the public good.
Those countries have handled the pandemic better.
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Exactly. Before covid, people were staying away from the doctor because we couldnt afford ro have a regular relationship with a consistent medical apparatus. Then after covid, people are afraid to go in because we dont want to catch it. It’s impossible to build any sort of trust under these circumstances.
(The same is true with the economy, for that matter. Until there’s a single narrative of “all clear”, people are not going to be in a spending mood. But the politicians throttling our medical resources seem to think they can lie their way to a thriving economy)
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It’s as much that crackpots have more and more adopted a journalistic style, flooding the internet with flimsy claims that look legit on the surface.
It’s as much that I can’t tell who actually believes themselves anymore… My friends who have gone full Qanon are ‘true beleivers’ and genuinely think their info is real. I read the garbage links they send me, and it’s not obvious at first glance if these articles are written in bad faith or not.
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I realize this is sarcastic, but you’ve hit the truth.
Every gun owner knows you don’t point the muzzle at something you aren’t willing to destroy. To point at children is to acknowledge that you are willing to destroy them, really only justifiable if you can argue that they represent a threat to your life and limb.
So yes. They are frightened of children, and fear being killed by them.
My suggestion: people who fear children peaceably in their own home, are probably not good people to have in positions of authority, or anywhere near firearms.
Just saying…
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It’s from 2014
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A Libertarian is just a neo-nazi who thinks they are being clever
Why not just call them “Nazis”? There’s nothing new about them at all.
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Neo-Nazis is more appropriate. They are the the brain dead inbred successors to the historic followers of Hitler. No need to associate these mooka with the historic genocidal bad guys.
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anyone bringing a gun into a situation elevates the aggression and the negative outcomes. the police included.
worse cops in the us are trained to use “overwhelming force” to control situations which completely changes the mindset from public safety and law enforcement to “warriors against the bad guys”
the safest thing a cop could do is go in with minimal force and deescalate situations precisely because they don’t know who has a gun. instead, they choose to escalate situations because it makes them into heroes.
im not naive in thinking guns are never necessary for law enforcement, but most cops don’t need guns.
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Or just wait. They have all this NSA-clearance-rack surveillance gear. They can just wait someone out. They get paid the same to sit outside someone’s home as they do to sit at a desk. The dramatic SWAT entrances are 99% drama and just cause death, injury, and property damage.
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I think what’s happening is that the conservative economy philosophy includes the idea that a person who can’t pay for their existence deserves to die. They try not to say that out loud, but it informs all their beliefs. I’m not talking about everyone who votes Republican, but Rand Paul kept going to the Senate gym after getting covid and got into a fistfight with a neighbour over leaves or something - some of the leaders of the movement have read so much Fredeman and Laffer that they literally internalized the idea of human life having no value.
If you think that, then the idea that people will stay home rather than go to work because of a pandemic doesn’t really make sense. If you don’t do your job, you starve, which is 100% fatal, much worse than covid. I honestly think that if you got to what Ted Cruz really believes, it would be that people who stay home rather than work during covid, with a full assessment of the risks, are being irrational.
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And it’s not like Laffer has gone away.
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That sounds about right, though it doesn’t justify or explain why it should be necessary to cook the numbers that are publicly available for workers to arrive at their decision.
It wasn’t that long ago that republicans prided themselves on honesty, and would accuse democrats of shading the truth to advance their philosophy.
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Until you’ve seen a gunbarrel stuffed in your face you cannot judge this woman and her children.
Spoiler:
Looks like a cannon. Blow your face right off.
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They cook the numbers because they are on the wrong side of facts, and need to lie to promote their violent and brutal ideology. They do not operate from facts or reality or any kind of scientific basis.
When? Not since Eisenhower, and even then NIXON was his VP… let’s not forget the Checkers speech…
They’ve long since abandoned Honest Abe. We need to stop expecting them to act from honesty and integrity, because that no longer matters to them. Winning matters. Destroying anything that doesn’t align with their world view matters (including and especially other human beings who are not like them). The few Republicans with integrity are not going to all of a sudden rise up and take over the party and return it to some pre-Trumpian eden where Democratic politicians can work with them. They are out to destroy this country if they don’t get their way. We better start acting like that fact is a fact. Or they will win and we’re all fucked.
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If only that one guy on the judge recommendation panel hadn’t resigned in protest, I’m sure he could have somehow prevented this… 
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I’ll bet he feels bad now for not using his superpowers to fix Florida.
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