wolfriverjoe

FIFY

Well, the Rs and Rupert Murdoch have done a hell of a job with their propaganda. The number of people who believe the lies they've spewed, even after Fox was found liable for them, even after Fox admitted that a 'reasonable person wouldn't believe them', is depressing. As has been pointed out in another thread, the parallels between Trump and Hitler are frightening. The parallels between Murdoch and Fox and the Nazi propaganda machine has not been made as often, but it's definitely there.

No. You keep wanting to define when the fetus is 'alive'. Well, the sperm cells are alive before fertilization and conception. I'll guess you don't want to go back that far. In ancient times, a baby was considered in various situations after 'quickening'. That is, once it started to move in the womb. There were legal ramifications after that. Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickening That's typically around 20 weeks, roughly halfway. Ironically, modern medicine can keep a premature baby alive from about the same time. I'd be mostly comfortable with free access to abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb. After that, for the health of the mother. Which, despite what all the self righteous morons claim, is how it's been. The idea that people are aborting viable fetuses for 'birth control' is ludicrous. And a lie.

Yeah, the only places I see any story about this are Fox, NY Post and The Washington Times (aka the 'Moonie News').

So Trump's appointee Louis DeJoy's plan to tank the Post Office is working?

Which 'experts'? Please name them. Please link the stories where they are quoted.

Men. Men get to decide. Men get to decide what women can do with THEIR OWN bodies. One of the things I find utterly abhorrent about this whole discussion is that a corpse has more bodily autonomy than a live woman.

Because it got people to pay attention to him and respond.

Fun fact: Inflation in the US is not terribly high at the moment. Compared to the rest of the world, we're kind of in the middle of the pack. https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-says-us-inflation-among-lowest-world-he-right-1880314

Well, then please answer it again. I don't watch random videos. I know you're in favor of 'heartbeat' restrictions, even though it's just cells with electrical impulses, not an actual heart. Personally, I absolutely hate the idea that some people feel it's their prerogative to make medical decisions for other people. The 'funny' part about it is all the 'anti' crowd who pretended to accept abortion if 'the woman's life is in danger', who pretended that the state wouldn't let a woman die when an abortion was desperately needed. And then Texas goes ahead and does it. Or at least tries.

He hasn't been... Yet. That's why I said 'crimes he's accused of'. A lawyer doesn't need to be convicted of anything to get disbarred. The Bar Association filed a complaint. That complaint went to a hearing by a judge (separate from his criminal trials) That judge agreed with the Bar Association and said he'll no longer be allowed to practice law in California. Of course, Eastman plans to appeal. The part I found amusing was that Eastman DIDN'T say he should keep his license because he didn't do anything wrong, or that the trial was 'fake'. He just wants to keep making money.

Eastman has also argued that his law license shouldn't be revoked for the crimes he's accused of because he needs it to make money to pay for... His criminal defense. https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/ex-trump-lawyer-eastman-asks-pause-disbarment-ruling-2024-04-04/

Interesting. I learned something today. Nibling: Gender neutral term for a child of a sibling (traditionally niece or nephew).

Yup. They're refusing to take up a case that has ZERO EVIDENCE to support the allegations. This is what they should do. It would be 'news' if they DID take up the case. And not 'good' news.

So nobody studied masks before the pandemic? Seriously? And as far as 'buried on page 200', this was THIRD on a google search: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8499874/ Admittedly not 'pre-pandemic', but one of the more interesting parts of the abstract is:

That's very true. For much of the pandemic, the US had higher infection rates and death rates than most of the rest of the world

To be fair, mask mandates were pretty ineffective. There was very little difference between infection rates with or without mandates. The problem was lack of enforcement. Or lack of a mandate in the first place. The 'adult toddlers' threw shit fits when told to do something that would help other people. Then all the 'muh freedumbs' idiots combined forces with the MAGA morons and got the courts (the ones the Rs spent the previous 4 year packing with alt-right types) to overturn those mandates that were put in place. The people who understood why masks were important kept wearing them. The fools who never wore them in the first place kept not wearing them. So infection rates never changed much.

Great, you have an impressive resume. (note: I'm not being sarcastic) However, I have yet to see you post ANYTHING that supports your 'masks don't work' assertion. Remember a couple posts back, you asked if I would be able to decide if someone was an 'expert' in their field? One thing I didn't mention was 'supporting data'. A true expert in a particular field can and will provide data supporting their position. This is pretty generic, but it has a fair amount of authority behind it: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/masks.html

Well, yeah. That too. I've seen suggestions that Greene, Johnson and a few others should be prosecuted under the Logan Act.

So 70k people signed something (that, as pointed out, has nothing to do with masks). How many DIDN'T sign it. Somewhat like the "1000 engineers and architects" that signed the thing about the way the WTC towers collapsed being 'wrong', knowing how large the population is counts. And yes, I may not know about the subject, but I know how to apply critical thinking. I can usually do a decent job of sorting out 'real experts' from the frauds. Sources also help. I'm far more likely to believe an 'expert' on NPR/PBS or BBC vs one on Fox. Viruses travel within droplets, which are blasted out of the mouth. Masks reduce droplet expulsion. One of the earliest times I was seriously scared of Covid was when it was discovered there was pre-symptomatic transmission. That people could be contagious before they showed symptoms. There was a story that came out of the Pacific Northwest (Washington? Oregon?) where a church choir had a practice. 2 people were infected and contagious, but not yet symptomatic. 3/4 of the people present contracted Covid. A few died. Along a couple reports of that story was a silhouette picture of a singer. Strongly backlit, you could see the quantity of droplets being expelled. Masks help control that spread. Not 100%, not perfectly. Masking, along with distancing and handwashing, the spread was reduced. One of the best indicators of the effectiveness was the spread of influenza. With the mitigation practices in widespread practice, spread of the flu was sharply reduced. One strain of the flu is now believed to be extinct. Of course, the idiots refused to comply. I've heard the term "Defiant Oppositional Disorder", which is a fancy word for 'acting like a toddler who only says "NO!!!!"'. This was seen a few times when the idiots were refusing to believe that Covid was serious, that masks were effective and (of course) believing that Covid was a Chinese bio-weapon and that the vaccines were either deadly or contained 'tracking chips. My favorite was a schematic of these 'tracking chips' that went around. It was an effect pedal for an electric guitar. https://www.guitarworld.com/news/the-creator-of-the-covid-vaccineboss-metal-zone-pedal-hoax-reveals-all-there-aint-a-lot-of-sane-people-in-this-world Turns out it was a hoax, from a guy who wanted to make the conspiracy idiots look like... Idiots.

Oh, no. They die. Then they get beaten some more. And more. And more. Brent never admits being wrong. Ever. Jakee never lets go. Ever. I'm usually good for a couple smartass comments. And eventually you have a 'horse smoothie'.

Why? They're pretty limited as far as what they can do. They are often necessary for keeping the country operating. You know, like now when the "Freedumb CooCoos" are actively blocking any legislation that benefits Biden in any way. Also, it's kind of funny how loudly the conservatives scream about them when a D is in office, yet how silent they are about them while an R holds the position.

Yup. Like so many other powerful things. Used for my benefit, it's awesome. Used against me, awesomely frightening.

Well, they got it pretty damned close. US intel also got it right when they predicted Putin would invade Ukraine. Few other folks agreed, but it turned out the US was right. The interesting thing is how public this (and the Ukraine invasion warnings) have been. It would have been pretty simple, and pretty standard procedure, for the US to notify Israel quietly. Allow Israel to get advance warning, to be ready and waiting, able to fend off the attack (which they did pretty well). Instead, the US chose to 'go public' with the warning. Telling the whole world that we had advance knowledge of what the Iranians (and the Russians back in 2022) were going to do. Almost as if there's a message in that. "Dear Bad Guys, We know what you are going to do. We know how you are going to do it. We know when you are going to do it. Love, USA."

Right. That's why doctors wear them. And dentists. And tattoo artists. And cancer patients. Your 'training and experience' is... Bullshit. What's next? CO2 poisoning from wearing them?