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Florida's COVID case reporting has been attenuated by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
DeSantis of Florida understates the numbers to look good, and to lure people to move there. Pritzker of Illinois overstates the numbers to get more federal money, and to increase government control. Who's more in the wrong? The world may never know.
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 01-15-2021 at 07:15 AM..
DeSantis of Florida understates the numbers to look good, and to lure people to move there. Pritzker of Illinois overstates the numbers to get more federal money, and to increase government control. Who's more in the wrong? The world may never know.
There is no comparability for "who's more in the wrong." Lying is always wrong, and it's especially egregious when done by a person who has been given the public trust.
"Lying is wrong" is a basic rule of decency that most of us are taught as children.
The problem with mask mandates is that they're "easy". That is, easy to implement and/or obey, and virtue-signal about it everywhere. When in practice, they're dehumanizing and create a false sense of security. I'd rather let my immune system, instead of a face condom, protect me. This includes boosting my immune system with a vaccine on taxpayers' dime, although I think it can do just fine naturally. But masks and social distancing? Puh-leeeze! The former is dehumanizing. The latter does more damage to mental health than it adds to physical health.
Masks are very effective if everyone in a store, office, or airplane wears them. Most of the coronavirus beings spread is when people bring it home from work and spread it to family members who aren't wearing masks at home. Your "powerful" immune system won't prevent a new or novel virus from infecting you if you get enough exposure. In fact, that powerful immune system may even result in your death. Many who die from coronavirus experience a "cytokine storm" when their immune system violently reacts against the invasion of the virus. Young people tend to believe they are indestructible. I did when I was thirty. Now that I am sixty-one I know better. Since young people are less at risk from coronavirus than older people are they tend to be the ones who fall apart at the notion they can't go to the bar or crowd into an elbow-to-elbow place to dance. Rest assured, its mostly older people (those 65 and older) who ultimately pay the price for irresponsible behavior. "De-humanizing", huh?" My heart bleeds. In six more months vaccination is likely to bring this mess to an end, but essentially you and others tell me you just can't yourselves for six more months.
It's the same "science" that insists the world is turning into a hot inferno during a -25*F cold snap. I only trust science from conservative sources or from centuries-old common knowledge. Covid may be real, but it's a glorified flu virus, and doesn't deserve the attention the blue states give it. Why can't all states be like South Dakota, 'Rona-wise!
I think the only science you support is that which tells you what you want to hear.
The glorified flu virus is on the verge of killing 400,000 Americans over a ten month period of time. In a bad year, the flu will kill about 30,000 over twelve months. I am not even addressing all the people who will have lung and other permanent problems because of the disease.
I am grateful for the vaccines, I've learned nothing else is going to work. Too many people in this country cannot think beyond their own interests.
And yet our culture is one of the most Imperialist of them all. The conduct engaged in by our military on foreign lands is oftentimes threatening enough that if another country did the same to us as we do to them, they would be viewed as engaging in terroristic threatening. And for what, to prop up the military-industrial complex? Establishing world peace as an ultimate goal is one thing, but proclaimed values mean nothing if your actions betray those proclamations and show where your real priorities are.
Also, even in non-pandemic times, the degree of healthcare and housing inequity in this country far surpasses that in many other developed countries. In the USA you have no guaranteed paid sick leave, no guaranteed paid parental leave, and no guarantee of being able to afford basic healthcare. Much of the rest of the world is far more accepting of basic humanitarian values and social safety nets. Our rugged individualism has resulted in a significant loss of empathy that has made it socially acceptable to simply throw poor and disabled people completely under the bus. People who have lost an arm are not given reasonable accommodation, unless, of course, that arm was lost in service of the War Machine.
The US doesn't want to promote science or public goods, it seems, except when it is used to fight a war. In no way can this be considered to be a continuation of Enlightenment.
Imperialism is the process of territorial acquisition through the use of force. We haven’t done that in eons, and don’t do that now. The conduct of our military on foreign lands is often by invitation or agreement or in support of treaty obligations. Where there is overreach, we should pull back. I prefer semi-isolationism with a huge military budge supporting technical superiority over all other nations. Lots of nukes, biological, chemical capability, and lately, computer and space weaponry.
As far as health care and housing inequity, those are correct. Health care is not a right, it’s a service. Same with housing. There is no right to housing, nor should there be. Housing is a product. You buy it. You trade for it. You don’t take it from someone. We eliminated slavery centuries ago. You don’t get to enslave others to provide you with needed goods and services such as housing and health care.
There should be no guaranteed paid sick leave. You have no right to steal pay from someone for staying home with an illness. Personal savings and disability insurance should cover that. Everyone should have 1-2 years of pay stashed away in the bank. Personal savings is a direct personal responsibility. If you make $50,000 per year, you need to have about $75,000-$100,000 in the bank or in liquid securities. You should also be without major debt. Again, personal responsibility. And focusing on the right objectives. All of that is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS A RATIONAL ANIMAL. Your needs do not create claims and rights to be paid for by others. Slavery is abolished.
There should be no guaranteed paid parental leave. Your decision to have children is yours and yours alone. All costs and obligations created by that decision should be borne by you, at your sole expense. How in hell do you think that your decision to have kids should be paid for by others? Your employer is trading money for your time and talent. If you have kids and need time off, you are not holding up your end of the deal. You are not providing time or talent. THEREFORE YOU ARE ENTITLED TO ZERO DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS. Do you want some children? Excellent! Congratulations! Save money first. They are expensive. And they are YOUR EXPENSE. NO ONE ELSE’S.
The should be no guarantee of being able to afford basic health care. All health care should be paid for using personal assets and health insurance that you pay for. Again, slavery was abolished. You don’t get to enslave others by making their services your right. You have no such right. Health insurance should be paid for right after food, before housing, and long before your smartphone or other personal luxuries.
Empathy is lovely. Have it yourself. With your money. You don’t get to call something a “safety net” and demand that others pay for it.
Compassion ends at the point of a gun. And your “compassionate” safety net system requires you to put a gun to the heads of your fellow citizens and DEMAND that they pay for what you need and want. That’s evil. Your proposed system of enslavement, aka socialism, has been tried and tried again. It fails. And it will always fail. Why? It is based on victimizing one person for the unearned and undeserved benefit of others. That will not fly. It will only crash and burn.
Best wishes on the domestication of America, bunch of dumb cattle that we are.
The mask issue is creating social misfits, as it all but eliminates non-verbal communication.
The beauty of masks is that they have cut way back on the most annoying phenomenon of modern times: The idiot who walks through Shop-Rite on his or her phone, subjecting me to their dumb, boring, banal conversations with whoever is dumb enough to continue having them as friends or family members. Silver linings!
Imperialism is the process of territorial acquisition through the use of force. We haven’t done that in eons, and don’t do that now. The conduct of our military on foreign lands is often by invitation or agreement or in support of treaty obligations. Where there is overreach, we should pull back. I prefer semi-isolationism with a huge military budge supporting technical superiority over all other nations. Lots of nukes, biological, chemical capability, and lately, computer and space weaponry.
As far as health care and housing inequity, those are correct. Health care is not a right, it’s a service. Same with housing. There is no right to housing, nor should there be. Housing is a product. You buy it. You trade for it. You don’t take it from someone. We eliminated slavery centuries ago. You don’t get to enslave others to provide you with needed goods and services such as housing and health care.
There should be no guaranteed paid sick leave. You have no right to steal pay from someone for staying home with an illness. Personal savings and disability insurance should cover that. Everyone should have 1-2 years of pay stashed away in the bank. Personal savings is a direct personal responsibility. If you make $50,000 per year, you need to have about $75,000-$100,000 in the bank or in liquid securities. You should also be without major debt. Again, personal responsibility. And focusing on the right objectives. All of that is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS A RATIONAL ANIMAL. Your needs do not create claims and rights to be paid for by others. Slavery is abolished.
There should be no guaranteed paid parental leave. Your decision to have children is yours and yours alone. All costs and obligations created by that decision should be borne by you, at your sole expense. How in hell do you think that your decision to have kids should be paid for by others? Your employer is trading money for your time and talent. If you have kids and need time off, you are not holding up your end of the deal. You are not providing time or talent. THEREFORE YOU ARE ENTITLED TO ZERO DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS. Do you want some children? Excellent! Congratulations! Save money first. They are expensive. And they are YOUR EXPENSE. NO ONE ELSE’S.
The should be no guarantee of being able to afford basic health care. All health care should be paid for using personal assets and health insurance that you pay for. Again, slavery was abolished. You don’t get to enslave others by making their services your right. You have no such right. Health insurance should be paid for right after food, before housing, and long before your smartphone or other personal luxuries.
Empathy is lovely. Have it yourself. With your money. You don’t get to call something a “safety net” and demand that others pay for it.
Compassion ends at the point of a gun. And your “compassionate” safety net system requires you to put a gun to the heads of your fellow citizens and DEMAND that they pay for what you need and want. That’s evil. Your proposed system of enslavement, aka socialism, has been tried and tried again. It fails. And it will always fail. Why? It is based on victimizing one person for the unearned and undeserved benefit of others. That will not fly. It will only crash and burn.
How would you deal with people born with chronic illness or mental/physical disability? Does society have any obligation to them?
We did not eliminate slavery slavery centuries ago. Once Reconstruction ended, slavery was reinstated in the south in a new form: convict leasing. Southern states enacted Black Codes at the state and local level which made all sorts of things criminal: Blacks could not be in "sundown" towns after dark, not using segregated facelifts, walking on a railroad track; the most widespread use was for peonage. In the end, over an estimated 800,000 were swept up in the system. Arrested people would be leased by the local government to farms, factories and other places. It was finally outlawed in the 1940's.
The beauty of masks is that they have cut way back on the most annoying phenomenon of modern times.
They've also created serious problems for the deaf/hearing impaired, who rely on lip reading.
Masks aside, individualism is what motivates us to question government/the system; who may or may not have our best interests at heart.
Handing $$$ out in an effort to promote socialism(coughs, see new economic impact bill)creates low self-esteem via dependency/lack of meaningful work.
I fear free money to become the norm, in which case what's left of society will become not only apathetic; but pathetic.
How would you deal with people born with chronic illness or mental/physical disability? Does society have any obligation to them?
Voluntary tax. Maybe 1/2% of taxable income. That would easily cover all costs of dealing with people born with long-term birth defects that prevent conventional productivity. Most people would be happy to contribute to the National Congenital Deficit Initiative. We see that some people tithe 10% of their income to their religious institutions. We see endless gofundmes for all kinds of unfortunate events. The evidence indicates people are more than happy to take care of horrific situations like this. People are natively good and want to help others. Especially when they are asked, rather than commanded.
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that insists the world is turning into a hot inferno during a -25*F cold snap. I only trust science from conservative sources or from centuries-old common knowledge. Covid may be real, but it's a glorified flu virus, and doesn't deserve the attention the blue states give it. Why can't all states be like South Dakota, 'Rona-wise!
