Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Benggaul]

So this is really late. Still trying to work around the fact I'm back to work full time and am basically a legless pile of mush by the time I get home and gulp down paracetamol. Anyway, here's Tuesday's report:

90,652 new cases; around 13k fewer than last Tuesday.

Top 10:

Minnesota: 7,925 new cases; 21 deaths
Texas: 6,638 new cases; 202 deaths
California: 5,888 new cases; 90 deaths
Michigan: 5,438 new cases; 63 deaths
Ohio: 4,456 new cases; 51 deaths
New York: 4,419 new cases; 56 deaths
Pennsylvania: 3,898 new cases; 151 deaths
Wisconsin: 3,406 new cases; 1 death
Georgia: 3,066 new cases; 65 deaths
Tennessee: 2,639 new cases; 104 deaths

Special mention:

Fuck Florida.

Florida dropped out of the top ten on the day but we all know how I feel about their reporting, so I guess we'll see where they stand today two weeks from now or whatever. Meanwhile Minnesota managed to take the top spot away from Texas with one of their top 5 worst totals ever. Their reporting scheme was changed during the Summer, however, to a format in which every other day includes unreported cases from the day before, so today's total is likely inflated a bit. I'm also not convinced about Texas' total, but I guess we'll see. I did mention last week that the Great Lakes and Northwest regions were currently climbing, so it's not a surprise to see them making it further up the list. I mean, Montana came in 13th and they're one of the least-populous states in the nation, so shit's not great there. Montana, Wyoming and Alaska all are still listed as "Severe" risk with the worst cases per 100k population in the country ranging from 76 in Wyoming to 113 in Alaska.

1,573 deaths is nearly 400 fewer than last Tuesday and brings the total to 737,835. Texas continues adding the most to the total with over 200. Pennsylvania and Tennessee came in second and third. Florida's probably in that mix somewhere still but who the fuck knows anymore. Ask @PhaelixWW. The 7-day average has dipped below 1.5k for the first time since the end of August, though Florida's data dump on Friday might drive it back up again.

Related news:

'Mix and match' Covid vaccine boosters are effective, NIH study finds--I'm still of the mind that only the most vulnerable should be getting boosters and the rest should be put towards vaccinating the completely unvaccinated (in other less fortunate countries--fuck the ignorant dipshits who still refuse it in the States), but it's highly encouraging that people won't have to queue up for a specific "brand" of vaccine if and when they do get boosters, and maybe those J&J shots won't be going to waste anymore.

Maine can bar religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate, judge rules--Fucking good. More of this.

Montana reaches record COVID-19 hospitalizations at 510--Like I said, it's fucking Montana. You have to work pretty hard to avoid socially distancing in that giant-ass state.

Stay safe, folks.

[Kaleredar]

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-...solved-1638730



Please. No. Stop. Don't go. Wait.

I hope the emotion and passion in those words can be heard through the internet.

I do so hope they listen to him in numbers large enough to ignore.

And should they, I hope that a sort of dawned epiphany falls upon McConnell and his ilk about how the rabid, mentally-impaired horse they hitched their wagon to without question has finally kicked them in the balls.

[Poopymonster]

Montana reaches record COVID-19 hospitalizations at 510--Like I said, it's fucking Montana. You have to work pretty hard to avoid socially distancing in that giant-ass state.

Stay safe, folks.

Don't worry. When Montana hospitals are overfull and they're exporting suicide cultists to other states, those deaths become part of that states death toll.

[PhaelixWW]

1,573 deaths is nearly 400 fewer than last Tuesday and brings the total to 737,835. Texas continues adding the most to the total with over 200. Pennsylvania and Tennessee came in second and third. Florida's probably in that mix somewhere still but who the fuck knows anymore. Ask @PhaelixWW. The 7-day average has dipped below 1.5k for the first time since the end of August, though Florida's data dump on Friday might drive it back up again.

Not much to add these days. Florida's in a slow decay, but they're still humping along with around 200 a day. They're not shoveling corpses onto the funeral pyre quite as quickly as they had been, but that's largely because said corpse pile is so huge already.




I said it before and I'll say it again: when it's all said and done, the total deaths during this extremely preventable wave in Florida will likely exceed the death totals for the waves back in summer and winter last yer... combined.

Otherwise, we're definitely on the backside of the wave nationally, as well.




The only remaining questions are: when will the winter surge start and how bad will it get?

Hopefully, we'll have an EUA for the Merck pill so that those people who for some stupid reason don't believe in the efficacy of the vaccine will perhaps consider an alternative to taking horse dewormers. As for the sane people, the kids' vaccine may be here around Halloween and boosters for the elderly and immunocompromised are already going out. I'm starting to allow myself to become slightly and cautiously optimistic about the results this winter.

[Gorsameth]

I do so hope they listen to him in numbers large enough to ignore.

And should they, I hope that a sort of dawned epiphany falls upon McConnell and his ilk about how the rabid, mentally-impaired horse they hitched their wagon to without question has finally kicked them in the balls.

Didn't that already happen in whatever special runoff election there was shortly after the general election where the Republicans lost because the 'the vote was rigged' propaganda causes Republicans not to bother to go and vote?

[Benggaul]

As for the sane people, the kids' vaccine may be here around Halloween and boosters for the elderly and immunocompromised are already going out. I'm starting to allow myself to become slightly and cautiously optimistic about the results this winter.

This is what I've been telling myself. I still disagree with the experts who say there won't be another wave, but I'm cautiously optimistic that if we do get one this Winter it will be nowhere near as deadly as these past couple.

- - - Updated - - -

Didn't that already happen in whatever special runoff election there was shortly after the general election where the Republicans lost because the 'the vote was rigged' propaganda causes Republicans not to bother to go and vote?

I think you're talking about the Georgia Senate election and I think the efforts of Stacey Abrams had more of a hand in the result there than Trump's bitch-fit.

[cubby]

The Georgia Senate race for 2022 got interesting when a fund raiser for idiot candiate Herschel Walker was canceled because the organizer was discovered to be a Nazi. Here is the picture that caused the domino effect that resulted in the cancelation:



Awwww, look at you, being a Nazi and being the GOP.



But the GOP keeps on trucking, right into Gilead. Praise Be!

[Edge-]

Worth noting: Herschel Walkers campaign initially responded by claiming "That's not a Swastika, that's just anti mandatory vaccine imagery."

Before eventually acknowledging that yes, it's a Swastika, and remembering that he had to talk about how much of a friend he is to the Jewish community and how strongly he supports Israel.

You know, after a few hours of being told that's a fuckin Swastika, dude.

[PhaelixWW]

This is what I've been telling myself. I still disagree with the experts who say there won't be another wave, but I'm cautiously optimistic that if we do get one this Winter it will be nowhere near as deadly as these past couple.

The thing that might tip me over the edge is the Merck pill. The boosters and kid vaccines are great, but... these are the people who were already taking care of themselves.

The really important question is whether or not the horse dewormer crowd will be able to get behind molnupiravir, as they're the ones who will surfing the winter wave otherwise. Which Drake meme frame will we see on this one? Nobody knows yet.

[Benggaul]

The really important question is whether or not the horse dewormer crowd will be able to get behind molnupiravir, as they're the ones who will surfing the winter wave otherwise. Which Drake meme frame will we see on this one? Nobody knows yet.

I think they already are--in a backasswards manner, of course. I read somewhere that they're trying to convince themselves it's ivermectin in pill form or some such bullshit. *sigh* Whatever.

I'm happy about the pill too, but it's only effective within the first week of infection or something like that last I read (I could be wrong or that might have changed since then) and I have no faith in those people coming to grips with the fact they have COVID in that time. Hell, there are still a lot of people fighting medical professionals while on their death beds saying they don't have it.

[PhaelixWW]

I think they already are--in a backasswards manner, of course. I read somewhere that they're trying to convince themselves it's ivermectin in pill form or some such bullshit. *sigh* Whatever.

I'm happy about the pill too, but it's only effective within the first week of infection or something like that last I read (I could be wrong or that might have changed since then) and I have no faith in those people coming to grips with the fact they have COVID in that time. Hell, there are still a lot of people fighting medical professionals while on their death beds saying they don't have it.

The science behind molnupiravir also leaves me just a bit skeptical, as well. It works by basically preventing the virus from replicating without excessive mutations that ultimately render it unsuccessful. Still, the idea of enforced mutation is a little bit concerning, though even an otherwise-successful mutation can't actually be successful without propagation. And if the drug impacts its ability to propagate accurately, then it will have done its job. You have to worry about those one-in-a-million edge cases, though.

The studies so far have not been very widespread with only a few hundred participants, that I can see. I'd feel better about it if that were scaled up to several thousand.

We'll see what the FDA has to say about it, however.

[Edge-]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...why-hes-wrong/

“Because of the ability of bitcoin mining to turn on or off instantaneously, if you have a moment where you have a power shortage or a power crisis, whether it’s a freeze or some other natural disaster where power generation capacity goes down, that creates the capacity to instantaneously shift that energy to put it back on the grid,” Cruz told the Texas Blockchain Summit last week.

Ted Cruz may be the most terrifyingly stupid man alive. Apparently bitcoin mining...generates energy too? Host sounded like he tried to clean that up a bit in my brief listen of the video itself, but jesus christ. Take two of the dumbest things around right now - Ted Cruz and the Bitcoin fanaticism - mash them together and it's all kinds of stupid.

[Breccia]

Ted Cruz may be the most terrifyingly stupid man alive

He knew enough to flee to Mexico.

I think he's trying to say, "if there's a shortage we can just ask the people mining bitcoin to please stop now please while people get heat, running water, and the ability to receive life-saving instructions via TV or internet, surely they'll pause making money for a few short hours to help save lives please".

...so yeah, that's pretty stupid. And yes, if the power is completely off, either the bitcoin miners have their own generators, which ends that part of the discussion, or use the power grid, which ends that part of the discussion.

[cubby]

Worth noting: Herschel Walkers campaign initially responded by claiming "That's not a Swastika, that's just anti mandatory vaccine imagery."

Before eventually acknowledging that yes, it's a Swastika, and remembering that he had to talk about how much of a friend he is to the Jewish community and how strongly he supports Israel.

You know, after a few hours of being told that's a fuckin Swastika, dude.

Really only a closet/outed Nazi can look at that symbol and say it's not a swastika. The whole page looks like a modern tribute to the Third Reich with updated contact info.

[Hollycakes]

they're trying to convince themselves it's ivermectin in pill form.

It's so funny, I was just driving home thinking about this and that they would do this.
All that needs to happen is for it to be called something like Ivermectin 2.0.
Ditto on the vax.
Call it the space laser deflecting border wall building anti 5G super juice and they're all in.

I can see it now...

"Is your freedom shrinking?
Pesky immigrants not mowing your lawn?
Worried when that next laser will burn your house down?
Shhhh, it's the pill Dems don't want you to have!
Introducing;
The Patriot Pill"*


*Only in suppository

[Kaleredar]

It's so funny, I was just driving home thinking about this and that they would do this.
All that needs to happen is for it to be called something like Ivermectin 2.0.
Ditto on the vax.
Call it the space laser deflecting border wall building anti 5G super juice and they're all in.

I can see it now...

"Is your freedom shrinking?
Pesky immigrants not mowing your lawn?
Worried when that next laser will burn your house down?
Shhhh, it's the pill Dems don't want you to have!
Introducing;
The Patriot Pill"*


*Only in suppository

Not for nothing, they should have called the shot the "patriot shot"

[Breccia]

Arkansas passes two laws that allow people to opt out of mandates because they just don't want to.

The governor does have veto power, but by not using it, he gives Biden 90 days to challenge the laws in court. He criticized these bills heavily, but they became law without his signature. He's been vocal that he disagrees with Biden's mandate, but at the same time, doesn't want to get in the crossfire when these bills become law and the anarkansists just start showing up to work unvaccinated anyhow.

By doing this, the governor has basically tried to just stand aside of all this and let Biden and his own legislature fight it out. He knows he can't challenge the Trump death cult, but he also knows he probably can't beat Biden either. Having placed himself in a no-win situation, yeah this is your fault governor Hutchison, he simply has a poll drop to look forward to and a challenger in 2022 who will have something both negative and true to say.

[Endus]

Worth noting: Herschel Walkers campaign initially responded by claiming "That's not a Swastika, that's just anti mandatory vaccine imagery."

Before eventually acknowledging that yes, it's a Swastika, and remembering that he had to talk about how much of a friend he is to the Jewish community and how strongly he supports Israel.

You know, after a few hours of being told that's a fuckin Swastika, dude.

Like, the only response that deserves is to call them Nazis.

They can suck it up and be recognized as Nazis, and every time they try and argue otherwise, they're just lying about being Nazis because in addition to being Nazis, they're chickenshit about it.

Chickenshit cowardly pants-wetting Nazis. Nobody but a Nazi would've used that symbol like that, and nobody but a chickenshit coward would try and deflect and whine rather than admit the truth when confronted about it.

[Kaleredar]

Worth noting: Herschel Walkers campaign initially responded by claiming "That's not a Swastika, that's just anti mandatory vaccine imagery."

Before eventually acknowledging that yes, it's a Swastika, and remembering that he had to talk about how much of a friend he is to the Jewish community and how strongly he supports Israel.

You know, after a few hours of being told that's a fuckin Swastika, dude.

Reminds me of this:

[Breccia]

Yeah, gotta wonder if that person doesn’t get fired.

Why would he? It was clearly approved.