COVID-19 III: No Politics For Thee

[Tom 1960]

Closing in on 200 cases a day up here in Maine. We only hit a record high of 103 just a week ago Friday.

[Justin V]

7 hours ago, GregK said:

I think they (or maybe I read it elsewhere) even break it down by county in some of these Trump-won states, with the rise in cases correlating closely with margin of Trump vote.

I have in-laws who have ignored masking and social distancing and voted for Trump.  I wasn't surprised.  I married the sensible, educated one in the family, who is pretty much Cousin Marilyn from The Munsters.

[jazzbo]

13 minutes ago, Justin V said:

I have in-laws who have ignored masking and social distancing and voted for Trump.  I wasn't surprised.  I married the sensible, educated one in the family, who is pretty much Cousin Marilyn from The Munsters.

LOL. . . I can relate, totally. An Ohio thing, but not just an Ohio thing.

[Rooster_Ties]

Just saw the list of Biden’s Covid team (just announced this morning), and one of the task force members is a friend of ours! — who sings in church choir with my wife (a ‘fellow alto’ who my wife often sings/sits right next to) and me.

(Of course our choir hasn’t been meeting/singing in person since early March.)

We don’t envy their task, but are relived to see an impressive team being assembled.

(Our friend is Executive director and president of the Global Health Council, and she previously served in leadership positions at the American Cancer Society.)

Edited November 9, 2020 by Rooster_Ties

[ghost of miles]

7 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Just saw the list of Biden’s Covid team (just announced this morning), and one of the task force members is a friend of ours! — who sings in church choir with my wife (a ‘fellow alto’ who my wife often sings/sits right next to) and me.

(Of course our choir hasn’t been meeting/singing in person since early March.)

We don’t envy their task, but are relived to see an impressive team being assembled.

(Our friend is Executive director and president of the Global Health Council, and she previously served in leadership positions at the American Cancer Society.)

Between the changing-of-the-guard news in general and Pfizer’s announcement of how promising its vaccine-in-development is, I’m starting to think we may be in a much better place by next summer. It’s gotten really brutal again for the time being, and the next few months will in all likelihood be worse. Hopefully we can ride it out until there’s a more aggressive, coherent, ongoing response in place and an effective vaccine can begin to be distributed. 
 

And that’s really cool about one of the new task-force members being a friend of yours, RT!

[HutchFan]

On 11/7/2020 at 2:37 PM, jazzbo said:

LOL. . . I can relate, totally. An Ohio thing, but not just an Ohio thing.

I can relate too, for sure.  But it's not just my wife's family. It's my own as well. 

To avoid conflict, politics at family gatherings is verboten.  But things that have nothing to do with politics have taken on political meaning.

It's a bummer.  I'm dreading Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  It's a pallor hanging over everything.

 

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

33 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

I can relate too, for sure.  But it's not just my wife's family. It's my own as well. 

To avoid conflict, politics at family gatherings is verboten.  But things that have nothing to do with politics have taken on political meaning.

It's a bummer.  I'm dreading Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  It's a pallor hanging over everything.

Me & my brother have tried to stay away from politics but the election results finally slid into our most recent conversation. We've agreed to disagree.

I just had it out with my cousin on Facebook too. She's been spouting some wacky, almost Q-level stuff recently, and the election results seemed to push her over the edge. I tend to doubt I'll be one of her FB friends soon, especially since I told one of her friends who was joining in with his own wacky take on several topics to stop watching Fox News.

[jazzbo]

26 minutes ago, bresna said:

Me & my brother have tried to stay away from politics but the election results finally slid into our most recent conversation. We've agreed to disagree.

I just had it out with my cousin on Facebook too. She's been spouting some wacky, almost Q-level stuff recently, and the election results seemed to push her over the edge. I tend to doubt I'll be one of her FB friends soon, especially since I told one of her friends who was joining in with his own wacky take on several topics to stop watching Fox News.

I realize more and more that I am very fortunate all my own family are firmly in the same camp. This Q-Anon is awful. It has crept into the Facebook posts of a few of my in-laws, and on the way to and from my weekly grocery store run this morning I saw two Q stickers on SUVs, both driven by . ..the stereotypical little old ladies. Just scary and apalling.

[clifford_thornton]

[JSngry]

14 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

 I saw two Q stickers on SUVs, both driven by . ..the stereotypical little old ladies. Just scary and apalling.

Our generation grew up on conspiracy theories, UFOs, JFK, Viet Nam, on and on and on on and on (it's like the hot butter on the SAY WHAT????). We have lost our collective ability to cull, discern, and just flat out call bullshit when bullshit it obviously is.

Boomers. Again.

I'll call it on mine, all you millXers or whatever, y'all call it on your own.

[ejp626]

19 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

... I saw two Q stickers on SUVs, both driven by . ..the stereotypical little old ladies. Just scary and apalling.

Totally off-topic (or is it?) but I watched Goldfinger for the first time in ages last night.  As Bond tries to outrun some goons at a checkpoint for Goldfinger's Swiss operations, this sweet old lady hauls out a machine gun and fires away at Bond's car!

[jazzbo]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Our generation grew up on conspiracy theories, UFOs, JFK, Viet Nam, on and on and on on and on (it's like the hot butter on the SAY WHAT????). We have lost our collective ability to cull, discern, and just flat out call bullshit when bullshit it obviously is.

Boomers. Again.

I'll call it on mine, all you millXers or whatever, y'all call it on your own.

At least right here where I am this Q conspiracy network is so much larger than any conspiracy theories that we fostered and lived among before, and though in this instance little old ladies were driving the SUVs with the stickers those I actually have heard and read discussing the BS were in their twenties and thirties, definitely not boomers. And it's a nasty and dangerous web of lies, that threatens the distribution of truth and like all good delusions is impervious to "truth" and has its own loop of logic, a circle very hard to be broken.

In my own opinion the challenges of the next decade are to shine disinfecting light on systemic racism and slice up the gap between the haves and have nots in this nation, and this Q is going to be a major hindrance on the journey.

Edited November 9, 2020 by jazzbo

[JSngry]

Oh, it's everywhere. But the natural acceptance of just any damn conspiracy theory has been building for quite a while now. Tabloid journalism opened the door for people being willing to believe any damn thing about anybody "famous", and then "social media" just accelerated it into the negative dissolution zone we're in now. Nobody is who they seem, nobody. Which is of course true. But it doesn't follow that what you don't see is always evil or that not showing you everything is because you're really Satan Come Down, I mean, that's just stupid. Public is where business lives, and business is never 100% transparent. NEVER. So get your heads out of your asses, America.

You want to know how stupid people are? Back in the day, "Illuminati" was, like, Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergers, Rockefellers, Kissingers, etc. World domination, financial manuevering, political malevolence on a global scale, etc. NOW it's fucking Hollywood Satanic Sex Orgies. C'mon motherfuckers THINK.

Both are certainly real, but they are not the same thing.

Critical thinking is, by and large, dead, the digitalization of the brain into "binary choices" is going to go where it goes, which on the current curve is straight to hell, albeit in a very painfully slow motion. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I used to laugh off the Q-anons, thinking that these are like the loonies that everyone crosses the street to avoid. But social media has allowed these pariahs to go mainstream. I see normal-looking people on Facebook, not some drugged-out homeless dude on a milk crate, spouting bullshit about Satanic pedophiles uniting against Trump. I keep hoping to see everyone just laugh at these morons but then, like Lon, I start seeing window stickers and tee shirts. It makes me wonder what would have happened if there was social media when Kennedy was assassinated.

I know one thing, if I see a group of Q-anon protesters while walking down the street, I will still cross the street to avoid them. After all, rabies can kill you.

[BeBop]

One of my very close friends slipped down the QAnon rabbit hole in retirement.  It's very upsetting.  A good guy.  A smart guy.

[Dave James]

QAnon proves once again that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.  

[Kevin Bresnahan]

9 hours ago, BeBop said:

One of my very close friends slipped down the QAnon rabbit hole in retirement.  It's very upsetting.  A good guy.  A smart guy.

I tend to doubt the "smart" adjective still applies.

[sonnymax]

25 minutes ago, bresna said:

I tend to doubt the "smart" adjective still applies.

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."

Edmund Burke

[Kevin Bresnahan]

5 hours ago, sonnymax said:

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."

Edmund Burke

I would think gullibility would be a close second.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The Governor of Florida doesn't like the latest numbers, so he hired someone who makes up stuff for a living to monitor them. So Florida.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/10/florida-gov-hires-conspiracy-theorist-for-covid-19-research/

[Tom 1960]

I keep in contact with a former coworker at the USPS and he tells me pretty much no one wears masks where I used to work. Makes me glad that I retired at the end of last year. Nevermind that the governor has a Statewide mandate for everyone to wear a mask whether inside or outside in public. 

[Michael]

Just found out the husband of a neighbor tested positive for the virus.  He works in a tool/machine shop and its now shut down after several workers tested positive.  was at a restaurant the other night and, in the next room, there was a party of the Gateway High School girls volley ballers having their year end banquet.  66 people including adults and few masks in sight.  That school district is going to a five day shutdwon while on a virtual learning format.  No surprises here in western PA.

Some good news, though.  My daughters boyfriend who recently took a car salesperson position tested negative after several guys at the dealership came down with Covid.

Fun times!!!!

 

[jazzbo]

My streak of good luck concerning my father's assisted living/independent living/nursing complex has ended. Yesterday five residents in his assisted living tested positive! They are isolated and all residents are confined to their rooms. A blow to my Dad who has been enjoying meals in the dining room and exercising at the Nu-Step machine in a common room about fifty steps from his door. . . .

I just pray they can continue to keep him safe!

[Dan Gould]

Everyone at my new job works remotely yet in addition to the loan processor who ended up hospitalized (doing better, on the five day Remsdivir IV treatment), there's a Loan Officer diagnosed, and just found out last night that the boss and his wife (who is also CFO) had been diagnosed.  They decided to keep it to themselves because of fear that Loan Officers would jump ship if they thought the company was headed down the tubes. The boss is doing better and didn't have terrible symptoms, just powered thru, the CFO has a persistent cough still and had worse symptoms earlier. So they should be all right but certainly disconcerting to find out ...

 

[ghost of miles]

Jodi Doering, South Dakota nurse, on Twitter:

“I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm.  They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that ‘stuff’ because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens.  I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them.  And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.”

Jodi Doering on Twitter

Edited November 15, 2020 by ghost of miles