Juliajms

22 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I never liked this guy, even when I tried. Good riddance to him as he heads on the final road to irrelevance. 

 

I hope you're right. I feel so much disdain for anyone who isn't rowing with the team at this moment in history. The last thing we need is this 3rd party bullshit from people on the left.

I wish whoever took the video of that woman coughing had punched her in the face. Of course than that person would be the one charged with assault. I am just so tired of these nut cases.

8 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

^^

I wish I could feel some sort of sympathy for people like that, but I can't. 

I suppose I still do to some extent.  I resent them deeply while still feeling a bit sorry for them. I think I used up all my hate on Trump. Now I just see these antivaxx people as brainwashed and lacking in brain power.

Ingo sounds unhinged. His post was pretty out there.

Here's some great news.

11 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

To think I actually really liked him at the beginning of his GH run.

I've always liked the character, but I'm long over it. Once the Trump stuff started I was out.

17 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

So now, the J&J vaccine which was tested by a large number of South Africans and being bottled and packaged in South Africa, is being shipped off to Europe, while Africa waits? That hardly seems fair.

https://archive.is/KHWQB

It's disgusting.

19 hours ago, Vee said:

The media is going to be talking about it for days, or weeks. But it's not going to matter to the public or the polls, because only the Beltway has these symbiotic relationships with the Pentagon brass where they can never be questioned or challenged on forever needing 'six more months.'

It's tragic what's happening in Afghanistan, but to most of the country this episode is simply the sad end to an ugly pursuit we should never have entered into.

That's exactly how I see it. It is terrible for the people of Afghanistan, but it was arrogant of our government to think we could fix it.

Way to go Netflix. I hope they shamelessly recast or replace anyone who doesn't toe the line.

^ It will be interesting to see how things play out. Maybe they will just let him plead down to a small charge. It does seem like there should be a consequence of some kind for being involved with terrorizing people in this way.

1 hour ago, Errol said:

This is an example of a phrase I loathe, "TL; DR" -- took me forever to figure out what that meant since I don't speak social media slang and I'm not 12. However, the story is juicy, I must admit. It's insane. It deals with high stakes drama, spies, cops and robbers. The works. Perfect movie or TV thriller. 

Here is a more succinct article. It lacks a lot of the drama and detail of course. Needless to say the Chinese government will stop at nothing to bring "criminals" in the U.S. back to China. Bringing that one man's elderly father across the world as a hostage is next level determination.

https://nypost.com/2020/10/28/private-eye-busted-in-chinese-government-plot-is-ex-nypd-sergeant/

I'm not sure I believe he didn't know what was up either. If you read that story, which is a hell of a slough, he makes some jokes about being sent to China.

On 7/24/2021 at 2:24 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

Insightful thread that proposes that we think about anti-vaxx and COVID deniers the way we regard drunk drivers or those who knowingly infect people with HIV.

 

They make some good points. One difference is the amount of disinformation being thrown at people about vaccines though. We have a bunch of actual leaders and public figures encouraging the antivaxx movement. You don't see anything like that with DUI and spreading HIV.  Half our population is actively working against the common good and a lot of them seem to be entirely clueless dupes. The real kicker is how they call the rest of us sheep for getting vaccinated!

6 hours ago, dragonflies said:

I don't count the kids, but other than them, it seems like this virus is truly taking out the ones who mock it and whatnot. Natural selection....

I try so hard not to think about it this way, but honestly, yes.

I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but he was arrested as a foreign agent of China and stalking charges last October. What a story. It's not clear to me how much he knew. He's also just a minor player in this story. Sorry is this has already been posted but I haven't seen it here.

https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-china-exports-repression-using-a-network-of-spies-hidden-in-plain-sight?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Here is one of the relevant parts.

Another defendant pleaded guilty to the foreign agent and stalking charges. McMahon, Jason Zhu and Zheng await trial on both charges.

Six FBI agents and two police officers arrested McMahon at his home in northern New Jersey at 6 a.m. on Oct. 28. His lawyer said that the Fox Hunt team duped the detective and that there is no evidence he knew he was working for the Chinese government. His total profit for a case that has destroyed him was $5,017.98, the lawyer said.

5 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

I understand what you are saying. What is it about that horrible man that so many of his supporters are so willing to lay on their swords for him? 

Sadly, I think they liked his open whit supremacist tendencies. It might not be the only thing, but it's a big part of it. Plus the tendency of a portion of the population to respond to authoritarianism. The kicker is that he was vaccinated pretty early on.

I'm more worried about the reasons other groups aren't getting vaxxed. If it's a matter of accessibility maybe going door to door will help in some cases.

I have more compassion for the unvaxxed who are dying than I thought I would.  It's not just white Trumpers who aren't getting vaccinated either.  At least Native Americans have a good rate of vaccination. https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210520/racial-disparities-persist-in-vaccinations-cdc-data-shows *

Some people have suggested community leaders should go door to door. I agree with that and after we give people that chance we should donate more of our stockpiled vaccines to developing nations that need them. More people will come around when the numbers become even more undeniable, but we shouldn't let vaccines go to waste in the mean time.

* The study I linked is about two months old so maybe we are making more progress, but still the trends don't look good to me.

This is horrific.  I's sure India is far from the only country with an under count.

On 7/9/2021 at 8:11 PM, marceline said:

I just had dinner tonight with a friend who's a teacher and this is a big concern. The right wing is going to go all in on tearing apart education and trying to indoctrinate kids with white nationalism.

I remember feeling a little guilty when I decided to send my kids to a Jewish day school instead of public school. Now I'm just grateful, especially were we live. Things are getting crazier by the day. I really wish we had a national public school system instead of local schools that are so easily taken over by nutjobs. No masks, no reality based sex ed and fear of historical fact is where we are at in some many school districts.

What's happening in Tennessee is also disturbing. The Republicans are an off the chain death cult. Just when I think things can't possibly get more surreal they do.

Yea I would say we are pretty fucked. When the end of October gets here we are going to see a lot more cases if we don't wear masks and get more of the population vaccinated.

I keep hearing people talking about the virus being over and employees recalled to work. Its like these companies are in some strange denial

.

On 7/7/2021 at 9:56 AM, Ponds said:

The thing that has always puzzled me is, why the need to drug and rape these women?  He should have been able to sex any day of the week with women who adored him  He's definitely sick in the head.

He wanted control. If anything he should have hire a high priced call girl to role play being drugged for him. Maybe he was too far gone even for that.

On 7/1/2021 at 6:21 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

This is something that strangely, didn't surprise me. I have already said that cancel culture doesn't exist. Society will diminish and defame even women who are supposed to be in power, so how do you think it will treat those who are regarded as being without power?

Cosby proves that money makes all the difference in the world, in how people are treated within the criminal justice system. There are non-violent offenders who got out due to COVID-19 running rampant in prisons, who have lived exemplary lives while under house arrest who must now face re-incarceration because the prison industrial complex now says that Covid-19 is over. They do not have money so they have to hope that someone with clout can amplify their cause, if they are lucky.

 

 

 

It's certainly further proof that this hasn't changed. Money, fame and power have gotten so many of these abusive men off.  Hell, just being a man is enough in many cases. No matter how many women come forward, it doesn't seem to be enough.

It's not just that he got off legally either. Someone like Phylicia Rashad feels completely comfortable coming out to support him against 50 women!! Then she gets a leadership position on a campus being a role model to young women. Rape culture in the U.S is an intractable problem. It really is infuriating.

At least he did three years. So many rapists just get away with it without justice finding them at all.  I know I should be more outraged, but as Vee pointed out,  at least everyone with sense knows that he is a disgusting rapist. That's something, anyway.

I wonder if we will ever know the real number of people who have died from this disease world wide? So many countries giving false numbers (Russia, China) or simply don't have the numbers (India).

This stuff just pisses me off so much. Throw the book at them.

3 hours ago, Ponds said:

 

I am having a difficult time actually being around people again....both for my health and fear of coming in contact with an [!@#$%^&*] like that.  It's a good thing I don't carry a weapon, because I believe I could use it on somebody like that.

The place "I'm working" at is a Jewish nursing home. This one lady said she felt like she was in a concentration camp because I asked her the normal screening questions. The old man behind her happened to be a survivor and told me that if she were a man she'd be missing some teeth.  I just don't know what is wrong with people.

On the nice side there is this father and son that come in to visit there mother/grandmother and they sing her show tunes. They could not be nicer. Plus they are surprisingly talented.

@victoria foxtonYeah, this isn't over by a long shot. We can't let our guard down. I'm still masking whenever I'm in public. I hope everyone here is doing the same. It seems pretty clear that Covid will come back hard in the fall since we aren't even at a 50% vax rate yet.

^ Wow. Someone just did that to the volunteer coordinator at the nursing home, I volunteer at. She asked a visitor to pull their mask up (while visiting someone in their 80's) and the woman pulled it all the way down and coughed on her. The woman was banned from the building I'm happy to say. Still, people are crazy. I feel like I'm working a customer service job again. Some people are unbelievable jackasses and then you also meet the kindest people ever!