Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Azadina]

It's in the article you linked... 100k was the donation.

100k? Topkek. He wasn't even worth the same as one time with a whore for Trump.

Just goes to show how desperate Trump is for cash. Undercutting whores in selling away his last remaining sycophants.

Wait...her name is Trashelle? TRASHelle. Trashelle the Trump supporter. Not even god could have made this up, it's way too fitting.

[Hollycakes]

Wait...her name is Trashelle? TRASHelle. Trashelle the Trump supporter.

I had to read it again too.
I honestly couldn't believe someone would name their kid that when I saw it.
Somehow, from conception to birth, no one pointed that out to them or if they did, they somehow didn't care.
I'd honestly never seen that name and assumed it was a typo at first.
People name their kids after liquors, what do I know though.

[Benggaul]

Wednesday's report:

123,276 new cases; roughly 13k fewer than last Wednesday.

Top 10:

Fuck Florida.
Texas: 13,800 new cases; 402 deaths
California: 6,849 new cases; 163 deaths
Ohio: 6,463 new cases; deaths not reported
New York: 6,124 new cases; 55 deaths
North Carolina: 4,789 new cases; 159 deaths
Pennsylvania: 4,571 new cases; 98 deaths
Georgia: 4,435 new cases; 176 deaths
Michigan: 4,347 new cases; 55 deaths
Kentucky: 3,872 new cases; 82 deaths

Texas remains the only state with over 10k cases on a regular basis (if Florida is to be believed) but those are dropping. The national trend overall remains positive, but there are still some states on the wrong side of this wave such as in Michigan and Minnesota. Alaska's cases have skyrocketed the past week or so and they're now at about 176 cases per 100k population. California, by comparison, is at around 19 with a much denser population. Alaska done fucked up. South Dakota still has the worst positivity in the nation with around 19% because their testing is garbage--probably because Kristi Noem doesn't want people to realize her continued downplaying of the pandemic is actually harming her constituents much like DeathSantis and Florida.

2,190 deaths is around 200 fewer than last Wednesday and brings the total to 713,953. Texas had yet another 400+ day with Florida and Georgia rounding out the top 3. North and South Carolina both had over 100 and came in just behind California with much higher deaths per 100k pop than the most populous state in the US. The 7-day average is around 1,650 and does still appear to be falling since the end of last week (though I'm sure @PhaelixWW will be along any moment to prove my optimism false).

Related news:

Kids may not be able to get Pfizer shots until November--Disappointing but not unexpected. It does mean it's unlikely kids will be vaccinated in any great numbers before 2022. It's going to be a long Winter.

Masking in classrooms decreases COVID outbreaks, additional research shows--In case anyone needed an extra dose of "No SHIT" today.

A Texas man who said he didn't get vaccinated out of 'stupidity' had both his legs amputated after COVID-19 turned his feet black--One more for the "OMG the side effects of the vaccine are worse than the virus!" crowd. Fuck you. Get your jabs.

Stay safe, folks.

[Breccia]

Masking in classrooms decreases COVID outbreaks, additional research shows

For every 100,000 kids, there were 18 fewer COVID cases per day in counties where schools had mask mandates, although the study's authors did note that it's difficult to conclude masks alone are responsible for that discrepancy when factoring in social behaviors and other potential variables among communities.

See that's the problem: it's not realistic to find enough side-by-side cases where one school masks, one doesn't, and there are no other factors. States or school districts with mask mandates tend to do other things for public safety. Basically, the study asks "what if your raid swaps your 213 casual warrior tank with a 245 DK from the top guild on the server?" and, again to the study's credit, concludes "the DK did better, but not necessarily because of his class alone, also your healer is standing in the fucking fire"

[gondrin]

A Texas man who said he didn't get vaccinated out of 'stupidity' had both his legs amputated after COVID-19 turned his feet black--One more for the "OMG the side effects of the vaccine are worse than the virus!" crowd. Fuck you. Get your jabs.

Stay safe, folks.

Someone should ask this man if he was going to play Lt. Dan for Halloween.

[Edge-]

It's in the article you linked... 100k was the donation.

Damn, must have skipped over that. Corey is fuckin cheap.

[Poopymonster]

Damn, must have skipped over that. Corey is fuckin cheap.

Not all prostitutes are worth paying 130K.

[PhaelixWW]

The 7-day average is around 1,650 and does still appear to be falling since the end of last week (though I'm sure @PhaelixWW will be along any moment to prove my optimism false).

Well, actually...

I had planned to do this later today, once the Thursday backlog had been cleared, but... remember that graph I showed a little while back? It's now showing definite signs of of us rounding the curve at the top of the wave.




In fact, if you compare the "as reported on the same day" 7-day averages from one day to the same day a week prior, the last two days are the first times that number has been lower than the preceding week. So yes, there are signs that the country, as a whole, is coming out of the grip of delta's immense summer wave.

The sobering part is just that we're already heading into October. Will the lateness of this wave help push back the inevitable winter wave? Can the booster shots and a renewed (if only slightly) push for vaccination in general help blunt the winter wave when we actually see it?

One can hope.

[Breccia]

So we have radio recordings from the US Park Police, and they were overwhelmed hours before the Capitol was breached. Smaller mobs were forming at other monuments, requiring reinforcements.

Now maybe that was just a coincidence, but I'm just going to go back to calling it the murderous insurrection since it's no longer clear that this wasn't organized.

[Rasulis]

You don’t quite get the magnitude of how bad some states botched the handling of the pandemic from just looking at the total death. However, when you look at death post-vaccine approval, the magnitude of the fuckupery become obvious.

Covid Death Since April 1, 2021

Florida - 19,950 (36% of total death)

Texas - 14,169 (22% of total death)

California - 6408 (9.2% of total death)

New York - 4,930 (8.7% of total death)

Then we have this to keep in mind also.

Undercounting of Covid-19 deaths is greatest in pro-Trump areas, analysis shows

[Breccia]

So let's talk about consequences.

In a new lawsuit someone in the army is trying to stop the vaccine mandate, claiming -- in his lawsuit filed under oath -- that the vaccine contains antifreeze.

As opposed to, you know, bleach.

Anyhow he's just flat-out objectively wrong. Nor is this an easy mistake to make. The difference is as big as "chlorine" and "sodium chloride".

Funny story: the ingredient that is actually in the vaccines, polyethylene glycol, is literally used to cure people too full of shit.

So @cubby what's the penalty for filing a lawsuit which contains an objective falsehood? "The case is thrown out" doesn't seem strong enough.

[PhaelixWW]

So @cubby what's the penalty for filing a lawsuit which contains an objective falsehood? "The case is thrown out" doesn't seem strong enough.

From what I can see, that's not a part of the lawsuit. It is, instead, a part of an affidavit filed externally in support of the lawsuit. My guess is that the affidavit will be removed from its connection to the lawsuit but nothing else will happen.

EDIT: FWIW, here's the lawsuit and here's the summary of events for the case.

It looks to me, at least, like the plaintiffs' lawyer filed a motion which was granted, yesterday, to remove all the exhibits that were filed in support of the suit. I guess we can probably understand why.

[Breccia]

From what I can see, that's not a part of the lawsuit.

It was when it was filed. An affidavit is a sworn statement. I'll be honest, I didn't know you could "externally" file a sworn statement in support of a lawsuit without being part of that lawsuit, but if the plaintiffs didn't file it themselves I don't have a problem with them scrubbing it from the record. If they did, my question stands.

[PhaelixWW]

It was when it was filed. An affidavit is a sworn statement. I'll be honest, I didn't know you could "externally" file a sworn statement in support of a lawsuit without being part of that lawsuit, but if the plaintiffs didn't file it themselves I don't have a problem with them scrubbing it from the record. If they did, my question stands.

To be honest, I meant externally really in the sense that it was written by people outside the plaintiffs and their lawyer and added outside the official complaint. It may have to be officially added by the plaintiffs' lawyer.

Regardless, if the plaintiffs' lawyer withdraws it before it is considered by the judge, I can't see it as being grounds for being thrown out.

EDIT: But you can have fun reading the affidavit in question, if you want.

EDIT 2: Actually, I just noticed that the affidavit was in support of the preliminary injunction request, and that request was withdrawn, too (they had two injunction requests and were reminded that they couldn't do that). They might very well amend their injunction request and amend the affidavit and re-file both.

[Breccia]

if the plaintiffs' lawyer withdraws it before it is considered by the judge, I can't see it as being grounds for being thrown out.

Yeah, I could see that.

I do wonder what these people hope to accomplish, if they are claiming something is dangerous and clearly don't know what's even in it. You can't win a court case by screaming "antifreeze!" and quite frankly you should be sued or arrested for claiming that.

[PhaelixWW]

You can't win a court case by screaming "antifreeze!" and quite frankly you should be sued or arrested for claiming that.

It actually has pretty broad parallels to screaming "Fire!" in a packed room. Those words will cause a panic that will actually result in death.

But just like yelling "Fire!", it's only really actionable if the person can't persuade a jury that they had sufficient reason to think that there was fire. Whether the court would take "But my right-wing news feed told me so!" as a justification, well...

[Edge-]

Yo, have we talked about how right wingers keep getting hacked?

Oath Keepers apparently got hacked with a lot of emails/messages grabbed. It's already having some results with NYC announcing an investigation since the data appears to show at least two NYPD officers are members - https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...rs-to-link-two

And remember that Epik hack, the one where the hackers got almost everything? Well...it seems like they got the rest of it - https://www.dailydot.com/debug/anonymous-new-epik-leak/

Man, you hate to see awful people/groups with bad cybersecurity get hacked and have their secrets revealed.

[Breccia]

Oath Keepers apparently got hacked with a lot of emails/messages grabbed. It's already having some results with NYC announcing an investigation since the data appears to show at least two NYPD officers are members

I'm lost. Why would someone proud of their principles, behavior, and standards, want to keep their membership in an organization secret? It's not like this is the Mission Impossible NOC list, surely the Oath Keepers are a law-abiding group of people that simply have opinions. I mean, if they really believed in those opinions, why keep that a secret? I mean, it's not like they're plotting to overthrow the government and also known criminals, right? Right?

[Edge-]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...f5e_story.html

Man, remember how Republicans were OUTRAGED that "Biden abandoned our Afghan allies!" and talked about how we need to bring them safely to the US? You know, just not any refugees.

Well, predictably, they were lying about that, too.

The evenly divided Senate narrowly turned back a Republican amendment Thursday that sought to curtail assistance to Afghan refugees who were rapidly evacuated to the United States and that would have made it more difficult for them to obtain Real IDs.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sought to attach the amendment to legislation to fund the government into early December, which is expected to pass later Thursday with bipartisan support. Cotton’s amendment received 50 votes, one short of the number needed to succeed. The tally broke along partisan lines.

In addition to providing stopgap funding to keep the government open, the spending measure includes emergency funding for the resettlement of Afghan refugees who fled amid the takeover of the country by the Taliban and U.S. military exit.

Cotton’s amendment sought to cut off housing, food and medical aid, among other assistance, as of March 31, 2023, for Afghans who were granted parole to quickly enter the United States.

Cotton also sought to delete language from the spending legislation that would allow recent Afghan refugees to get driver’s licenses or identification cards without some documentation typically required.

Republicans have voiced concerns that language in the bill would allow the refugees to get Real IDs, the federally recognized identification cards that Congress mandated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to tighten security checks at airports and federal facilities.

Just a reminder to always remember that Republicans are constantly engaged in bad faith and should not be taken seriously.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2021...w-of-the-land/

Say you don't support marriage equality without saying, "I don't support marriage equality"!

"I support the law of the land."

Man, McCarthy really is just always a massive piece of shit, ain't he.

[cubby]

So let's talk about consequences.

In a new lawsuit someone in the army is trying to stop the vaccine mandate, claiming -- in his lawsuit filed under oath -- that the vaccine contains antifreeze.

As opposed to, you know, bleach.

Anyhow he's just flat-out objectively wrong. Nor is this an easy mistake to make. The difference is as big as "chlorine" and "sodium chloride".

Funny story: the ingredient that is actually in the vaccines, polyethylene glycol, is literally used to cure people too full of shit.

So @cubby what's the penalty for filing a lawsuit which contains an objective falsehood? "The case is thrown out" doesn't seem strong enough.

It will probably be tossed out on the merits, but might have enough "but this is used to make anitfreeze therefore it has antifreeze in it" pseudo science to prevent penalties. Laughable though. And the people doing this should see real jail time - because they know that filing something like this will prevent someone from coming over to the vaxx side.

But of course, it the land of law and order, no one is held accountable.