Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

There is a tremendous nurse shortage but instead of it making hospitals overrun it makes them run at a huge operating deficit that they aren't going to be able to pay and will probably need government assistance when it is all said and done. For an example, for the last year I was actively looking for a new job and I get a daily email about open positions. Yesterday's email had 20 positions and 9 of the postings were for Travel Nurse. All COVID related ranging from 3K a week down to 2K a week. My wife cannot get new hires trained fast enough to replace the ones who are taking the money which means the hospital has to up the pay in the short term to keep the existing nurses around. Michigan is doing fairly good so they are getting raided for these types of nurses.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Glad you did well, Liney. Stuff like that can be scary.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump has officially vetoed the NDAA. Congress is coming back next week to attempt to override him. If that fails, the military has no funding beyond Dec 31. It passed with veto-proof majorities the first time but some House Republicans may fear him enough to get cold feet and vote no the second time around. On the other hand, he pretty much just threw them all under the bus on the CR/Covid bill, so maybe the feelings of loyalty are running thin.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It's not hard to understand political theater. That's what this is about. I've read that there is some reasoning behind his veto. Renaming bases currently named after any person that can be connected to slavery is one of them. Trump is swimming upstream on this one against the woke liberals but he has supporters and I don't disagree with calling this renaming BS out as foolish virtue signaling.

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's not hard to understand political theater. That's what this is about. I've read that there is some reasoning behind his veto. Renaming bases currently named after any person that can be connected to slavery is one of them. Trump is swimming upstream on this one against the woke liberals but he has supporters and I don't disagree with calling this renaming BS out as foolish virtue signaling.

That's not the main reason he vetoed. He wants a repeal of Section 230 put in the bill on the extremely flimsy premise that it's "critical" for national security. It's really about him getting "revenge" on Twitter. I'm not even sure why so many Trumpsters are clamoring for this to begin with. It would mean MORE censorship of their stupidity on social media, not less.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think this is a big deal. I'm sure others either don't care or dislike Ron Desantis' pandemic response policies. When you are attempting to look through a lens that accomplishes the prudential balancing of many competing goods (Douthat)........ the Desantis EO he signed about an hour ago that stipulates vaccine priority in FL to be, (1) Front Line HC workers, (2) LTC residents and (3) over 65, the reason is made clear by this graphic:

FL Cases.JPG
His priority is so blitheringly obvious based on the data as to render any criticism of it ridiculous but nonetheless, he's already taking shit. I don't know the age distribution of the "essential workers" that the Federal Vaccine Advisory Group recommended should get the vaccine before 65s and older. I would imagine that it is heavily weighted to under 65s and within that cohort I would imagine the predominant grouping is 35-44.

How the fuck can you justify a group - "essential workers" - that nationwide probably accounts for around 10% of COVID cases that end up hospitalized compared to 65s and older that account for roughly 75% of hospitalizations, getting vaccine priority. Makes no sense and is probably reflective of political pressure.

When I read Douthat describe what it takes to make reasonable pandemic related decisions and responses - Douthat being much better at expressing what I know to be true than I - it resonated with me. He noted that those poor decisions when we look back on this era will be ne of the signal failures of humanity when faced with the COVID crisis. That thinking makes leaders like Desantis stand out among the many cowards in leadership position that either lack the intellect to make sound decisions or are fearful of owning them should something not go right. It's sickening.

[iam416]

The prioritizing “essential” workers over 65-74 is insane. And it’s partially woke motivated. Vaccine distribution is a social “justice” issue for some. It’s unbelievable.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Charles Kushner getting pardoned before Trump was out of office was a slam dunk cinch. Perhaps Chris Christie might have some comment?

Pardoning Manafort is pathetic.

And Trump gives Stone a full pardon where he merely commuted his sentence before.

"For my friends, everything. For my enemies, THE LAW"

[froot loops]

At Thanksgiving I was talking to my brother-in-law about wearing masks, he works in a machine shop about how most of them don't wear masks and they work in close quarters. To me that sounded like madness, but I worked in a warehouse for a company that Trump hates for most of the year and they were slavishly devoted to mandatory masks and the 6 foot rule. The family get together for Christmas was cancelled because he got COVID and their family is in quarantine. So the get together is at New Years I guess.

These vaccines can't get here fast enough.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Charles Kushner getting pardoned before Trump was out of office was a slam dunk cinch. Perhaps Chris Christie might have some comment?

Pardoning Manafort is pathetic.

And Trump gives Stone a full pardon where he merely commuted his sentence before.

"For my friends, everything. For my enemies, THE LAW"

Didn't Obama set a record for most pardons?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Didn't Obama set a record for most pardons?

How many relatives and employees did he pardon?

[froot loops]

The lengths the Trumpers will go to defend the man is astounding.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Charles Kushner found out his sister and brother-in-law were going to testify against him so he hired a prostitute to seduce and fuck his brother-in-law, secretly recorded it, and then sent the tape to his sister to get her to turn on her husband and save him in court.

He got caught giving illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and eventually got convicted for witness tampering and tax evasions to boot.

And he's not even the worst human being of the three prominent pardons Trump handed out tonight.

DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!

[Hannibal]

Good on Trump for pardoning the witch hunt victim Stone. He should have done it a long long time ago. It’s too bad that he tainted it with his crony pardons. Then again, laws and rules never apply for Democrats, so it’s hard to get outraged over it. Unlike Democrat mayors, Trump isn’t letting bloodyhirsty street Communist maniacs go free. Some day, when Antifa goons are all prosecuted appropriately, I’ll feel differently. When everyone associated with the phony pissgate/illegal spying on Trump I’ll feel differently. When the fanatical Democrats imposing mask mandates and lockdowns have to comply with their own rules, I’ll feel differently. It is kind of cute though watching clowns lime DSL feign outrage over it though and pretend to respect the Rule of Law.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Chris Christie called it one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes he ever prosecuted