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I am so sorry. Thank you for sharing this story.
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At what point does holding on to propaganda that is literally killing people morph from deluded to deliberate? It seems like people are embracing the live free or die concept. If that’s the case, then many of these people could be seeing themselves as martyrs to an ideal, and thus their death isn’t stupid at all, it’s a proof of belief.
Like the people who embrace a date for the end of the world, sometimes having to admit you were just wrong is too hard.
It’s horrible that so many families are losing loved ones needlessly.
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Imagine this:
In the face of the demonstrable and catastrophic failure of Texas leadership to reduce mass death there are only a couple of options to maintain a justification for holding leadership roles.
The strategy is really obvious. Lionize and play up the heroics of the dead using language people are already primed to accept by shifting to the apologetics of war (martyrs, heroes, dying for freedom) and then boost the signals of those who are willing to champion this language, and even moreso if those voices are unlikable or idiotic (tribal identity around no-masks/no-vaccines, loud idiots that justify contempt for the countless dead who should have known better, refusal of aid, fear of contemptuous “outsiders”).
And what sucks is this bullshit works over and over again on this whole goddamned country.
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His wife and sons gathered to say goodbye on Thursday, and let him go. Thanks to all of you for the kind words. To those struggling to find empathy in the face of such prideful self-destruction, know that I’m right there with you. It’s hard, and I could write books about my muddle of feelings about this place and the people. Thanks again.
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Population of Queensland: ~5.2 million
Deaths from COVID (all time): 7
Population of Cook County, Illinois, USA: ~5.3 million
Deaths from COVID (just yesterday!): 8
Deaths from COVID (all time): 12,094
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And it’s shocking to me how many USians have no idea that other countries have handled this better with far less economic blowout and loss of life. I was talking to someone a few weeks ago and mentioned that a co-worker happened to spend the bulk of 2020 in NZ and how lucky he was because everything stayed pretty much regular after the initial response. She had not heard anything about their successful approach. 
The idea that our current reality was somehow inevitable in the face of a virus like this is BS. 
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Take care of yourself!
It’s difficult, because I know many of us are rightfully deeply angered by what’s happening in our country. As angry as we are, I do think we must hold onto our sense of empathy and not let our humanity slip away like so many of our fellow human beings have in the face of this.
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This seems to be a bug in HumanOS.
Note: bugs are not destiny. Bugs can be worked around. In high-risk environments such as NASA or nuclear reactors, there is often a specification that software must be at least 10 years old. They don’t need their software bug-free; they need to know exactly where the bugs are. The metaphor here is meant to be encouraging, or at least not outright discouraging.
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Visited a cemetery yesterday, in central Texas. There were a heartbreaking number of new graves, within the last year.
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Yeah. I grew up surrounded by these mooks, and I’ve seen their antics and the cost all my damn life. One of the few satisfactions is how quickly you can get their goat by not getting angry, or buying into their drama.
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i don’t doubt it, but in the interest of being totally accurate, is that the total number of Texans who died in the time period the vaccine was available or only just the number who died in that time who were not vaccinated? Because there are some people who die of breakthrough cases (very few) or because the vaccine didn’t work on their wekened immune system (Like colin powell) and it would be slightly disingenuous to include those in that total if the point is to point out the people who died needlessly because of vaccine refusal.
Stay strong. My hope is that what is right and just will win.
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I would feel this way if they were isolating themselves, and weren’t taking out innocent bystanders.
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Legality of physician-assisted suicide by State
8 states (CA, CO, HI, ME, NJ, OR, VT, and WA) and DC legalized physician-assisted suicide via legislation
1 state (MT) has legal physician-assisted suicide via court ruling
34 states have laws prohibiting assisted suicide
3 states (AL, MA, and WV) prohibit assisted suicide by common law
4 states (NV, NC, UT, and WY) have no specific laws regarding assisted suicide, may not recognize common law, or are otherwise unclear on the legality of assisted suicide.
The federal government and all 50 states prohibit euthanasia under general homicide laws. The federal government does not have assisted suicide laws. Those laws are generally handled at the state level.
_
Even in States where physician-assisted suicide is legal, Media Outlets aren’t physicians, & the credentials of the ‘TV doctors’ are suspect.
What various media outlets have done is therefore criminal & should be regarded as such.
Then there are the politicians who are aiding & abetting the continuation of this plague; of course, they themselves are generally vaccinated [even though some won’t admit it].
Genocide & Crimse Against Humanity come to mind…
As with the events of 1/6, their followers are bearing the brunt of the consequences.
My condolences for your & your family’s loss.
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I read that number as total official Covid deaths.
Given that the risk ratio seems to hover around 1:14 (14 unvaccinated deaths per breakthrough death), my guess is that numbers would land somewhere around 1,400 breakthrough deaths and 19,600 unvaccinated deaths. Definitely not worth splitting hairs about; it’s not a line of argument that makes the Texas governor look good.
As has been pointed out up-thread, there are plenty of reasons to believe the 21,000 figure is low; Texas has an unconventional way of counting official Covid deaths.
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In addition, the US death toll is undercounted by ~50% based on excess deaths since the start of the pandemic. So factor that in, too.
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Yeah, I don’t really bring that one up much because I haven’t got a short simple way of explaining excess deaths. Either their eyes glaze over, or it gets derailed into arguing basic stats like a lawyer. Maybe something using sports stats? Do you have one?
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If you’re talking to someone who will take the CDC as a reliable source, that’s all you need. If not, then there’s really no point.
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