Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[digitaldog]

To feed your scientific wisdom and quench your thirst for studies of the effectiveness of various types of masks used in various conditions and scenarios, might I suggest using your google machine?

Behind the subscription firewall (I'm a subscriber): The Week, Health and Science section, Aug 20th:

Masks needed to stop variants

Scientists have warned that vaccination
alone won't stop the development of new
Covid variants and that unless mask
wearing and other preventative measures
continue, the vaccine rollout may in fact
accelerate the virus' evolution. The warning
is based on a study that used a mathematical
model to predict mutations. The researchers
found that a speedy inoculation campaign
does decrease the probability of a new,
vaccine-resistant strain evolving. But when
"non-pharmaceutical interventions" were
relaxed at the same time, the probability of
shot-resistant variant emerging "greatly
increased." The findings are in line with epi-
demiologists' understanding of how viruses
mutate. When most people are vaccinated,
a vaccine-resistant variant will have an
advantage over earlier strains. Social distanc-
ing and mask wearing can help prevent the
evolution and spread of such a variant In
largely vaccinated population, co-author
Simon Rella, from the Institute of Science
and Technology Austria, tells CNN.com.
"There is a chance to remove the vaccine-
resistant mutations from the population."
The finding supports the Centers for Disease
Control's recent advice that even fully vacci-
nated people wear masks in high-risk areas.

[Manoli]

CIA’s Former Counterterrorism Chief for the Region:
Afghanistan, Not An Intelligence Failure — Something Much Worse

https://www.justsecurity.org/77801/cias-former-counterterrorism-chief-for-the-region-afghanistan-not-an-intelligence-failure-something-much-worse/

It’s a convenient deflection of responsibility for decisions taken owing to political and ideological considerations and provides a scapegoat for a policy decision that’s otherwise unable to offer a persuasive defense.

[Robert Roaldi]

CIA’s Former Counterterrorism Chief for the Region:
Afghanistan, Not An Intelligence Failure — Something Much Worse

https://www.justsecurity.org/77801/cias-former-counterterrorism-chief-for-the-region-afghanistan-not-an-intelligence-failure-something-much-worse/

Thanks. I haven't finished the article yet but this sentence jumped out at me, "Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the principal architect of America’s engagement with the Taliban that culminated with the catastrophic February 2020 withdrawal agreement, terms intended to get the president through the coming elections.'

I remember from the Ken Burns Vietnam series that government documents showed that the decisions on both Kennedy and Johnson's parts to stay in or increase commitment to that war were based on election considerations. They had to be seen to appease the southern US "anti-communist" voters, a reason to go to war and kill people that can only appeal to a politician.

Isn't this at the crux of it all? Foreign policy is a generations-long responsibility, but politicians never think very far ahead. I guess this criticism does not only apply to foreign policy though.

[Manoli]

… meanwhile our military is still informing people they need to get to the airport themselves.  And then charging them $2K for a flight home …

Is that First Class or Business?
Honestly, Joe, where do you get this nonsense from?

[digitaldog]

Is that First Class or Business?
Honestly, Joe, where do you get this nonsense from?

It's only $1975.00 if you ride in the jets wheel-well 
Just putting that fiction out for Joe who probably will buy that, hook, line and sinker. Then repeat it as fact elsewhere. 🤮

[TechTalk]

I used to think as I watched the US collapse that if it was lucky it would end up as a sort of backwater filled with people bickering with eachother.

That ain't the U.S. you're describing honey; it's this forum thread.

I hadn't counted on the power of your government to control the media and to divide and rule.

Now you're just describing a Trump rally.

Since your last election we are watching the US turn in to a sort of more authoritarian version of Nth Korea.

Those are definitely the wrong kind of mushrooms you're putting in your salads!

A really weird feeling.

I'm guessing you get those frequently—and at a high intensity level. I told you not to eat those mushrooms.

[Chris Kern]

Just putting that fiction out for Joe who probably will . . . repeat it as fact elsewhere.

Apropos of manufactured "facts," I suspect many of you are blissfully unaware that the reason the hurricane currently threatening the eastern coast of the United States has the Frenchified name "Henri" instead of the regionally more appropriate Anglicized "Henry"* is to honor the memory of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who was born 113 years ago tomorrow, Aug. 22.

I know this must be true because I just made it up myself.**

———
* This kind of Francophile snobbery has a long distinguished history in the United States.  The 18th-Century American revolutionary Patrick Henry sneered that Thomas Jefferson had returned from his diplomatic mission in Paris "so Frenchified that he abjured his native victuals."

** "Yossarian knew he was right, because, as he explained to Clevinger, to the best of his knowledge he had never been wrong."  (Joseph Heller, Catch-22.)

[LesPalenik]

The Fox News now recommends a new vaccine alternative - a horse dewormer. No jabs anymore!

https://apple.news/AsMbvGznIQ5-YIlsTxGeC3Q

[digitaldog]

The Fox News now recommends a new vaccine alternative - a horse dewormer. No jabs anymore!

https://apple.news/AsMbvGznIQ5-YIlsTxGeC3Q

OMG! Just watched, just batshit crazy. You can't make this stuff up. My jaw is on the floor after that video.
These morons, yes they really are total morons, if they take this horse dewormer, or inject themselves with bleach, or refuse to get a Covid-19 vaccine, they really deserve what they get.
Thanks Fox 'news'. 
Edit, not able to access Apple news, the video is found here:
https://youtu.be/R7y21yM8wc8

[Robert Roaldi]

The Fox News now recommends a new vaccine alternative - a horse dewormer. No jabs anymore!

https://apple.news/AsMbvGznIQ5-YIlsTxGeC3Q

I watched the 5 min clip of Rachel Maddow's broadcast in which she shows some FOX clips of people advocating the drug. The manufacturer of the drug says not to use it for Covid. Maddow pointed out the deficiencies of the now withdrawn paper that supposedly supported its use. My jaw kind of dropped at all this.

Is it legal for FOX to be broadcasting false medical advice like that? Will we be hearing about multi-million dollar lawsuits about this? This is all way past stupid.

[Peter McLennan]

Astounding.

[chez]

I watched the 5 min clip of Rachel Maddow's broadcast in which she shows some FOX clips of people advocating the drug. The manufacturer of the drug says not to use it for Covid. Maddow pointed out the deficiencies of the now withdrawn paper that supposedly supported its use. My jaw kind of dropped at all this.

Is it legal for FOX to be broadcasting false medical advice like that? Will we be hearing about multi-million dollar lawsuits about this? This is all way past stupid.

Nah, this is not stupid...it's great marketing. What is truly stupid is the ones that will actually believe this BS and use it as a cure for Covid...now that is stupid.

[digitaldog]

Trump booed at Alabama rally after telling supporters to get vaccinated
Trump said: "But, I recommend take the vaccines," "I did it. It's good. Take the vaccines."
Too little, way, way too late.

[Robert Roaldi]

Nah, this is not stupid...it's great marketing. What is truly stupid is the ones that will actually believe this BS and use it as a cure for Covid...now that is stupid.

How does FOX's license not get pulled after broadcasting that crap?

The clowns claimed that other countries were using that dewormer against Covid. A blatant lie. How can you put that shit like that on the air Is this actually going on? I'm not imagining this, am I.

[digitaldog]

How does FOX's license not get pulled after broadcasting that crap?

The question could be, how do Fox's advertisers get away with this? No advertising dollars, no moronic liars telling their moronic sheep to take animal dewormer for Covid-19.   

[LesPalenik]

How does FOX's license not get pulled after broadcasting that crap?

The clowns claimed that other countries were using that dewormer against Covid. A blatant lie. How can you put that shit like that on the air Is this actually going on? I'm not imagining this, am I.

Maybe the horse dewormer helps also with lowering cholesterol. Or IQ.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Certainly IQ.

[Robert Roaldi]

Greene speaks again, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/marjorie-taylor-greene-second-amendment, in yet another golden opportunity to have kept her mouth firmly closed.

The quote in the sub-title is intriguing, "We all love our Second Amendment rights, and we’re not real big on strangers showing up on our front door, are we? They might not like the welcome they get."   Opposition to vaccines aside, is she implying that Americans should be free to shoot anyone ringing at their front doors because they don't like strangers?  American politicians can say this shit out loud in public now? So Trump wasn't just a one-off?

[MattBurt]

Greene speaks again, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/marjorie-taylor-greene-second-amendment, in yet another golden opportunity to have kept her mouth firmly closed.

The quote in the sub-title is intriguing, "We all love our Second Amendment rights, and we’re not real big on strangers showing up on our front door, are we? They might not like the welcome they get."   Opposition to vaccines aside, is she implying that Americans should be free to shoot anyone ringing at their front doors because they don't like strangers?  American politicians can say this shit out loud in public now? So Trump wasn't just a one-off?

Colorado actually has a "Make my day" law that basically says if someone enters your home without your permission you can shoot them.
So MTG naturally would interpret that to mean you can shoot someone for coming to your door as well.
 
I'm not really a fan of the actual law and even less so of her misinterpretation.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Note: Her initials are M. T. Greene, so I like to think of her as "Empty Greene."