SteaminWillieBeamin

Here's the thing about democrats - we agree. We don't have parades, flags and Biden trains rolling coal. This is not a good thing happening. This is not how we should be leaving a partner. But I am all ears on who's head you think should roll? (Such violent terms you choose) I never said that Trump would have had the same result - you inserted that. I am laying out that there is over 20 years old collective douchebag ups. All parties.

It was a genuine question. One administration negotiated with the 'great fighters' and 'great negotiators' and set a timeline to get out. Negotiated a release of 5000 Taliban soldiers. Left intel for Russians at abandoned based. Left the Kurds out to dry. Got fired upon by Turkey. Is constantly talking about how they need to get out of this pointless war at all costs - that is is costing us too much money and no one else is helping. The previous administration actually dramatically stopped processing the visas for translator/helper visas.... this administration restarted the visa process and stuck to the timeline that was negotiated. Yes - this is a disaster. One person didn't make this mistake though. I do agree that this is a shitshow, but I also agree that the corruption in Afghanistan has led to this. They aren't willing to fight? The military is trading power for stepping down? What kind of crap is that? So sure, this is ridiculous and innocent people are caught in the cross fire here... but we *never* went into Afghanistan to be a nation builder. Besides, we have a peace negotiated with the Taliban, right? I seem to remember one from the last administration... so we are covered. We are good. But yes, absolutely this is Biden's to own. But let's not clutch our pearls at how this turned out - it was essentially how Trump was saying it would happen for the last 5 years. The immediate pull out option was very popular amongst his GOP. Now they are scrubbing all their websites trying to make that stance go away... but it is well known.

What does 'held accountable' look like? We don't have public floggings here in the states.

Exactly, I definitely would never suggest it. Medicine should be the adult in the room, just like public policy. It's my hypothetical question about "corporations are people too" and medicine not being treated as a public utility, but instead letting the "market decide." That's definitely not how I view the world..

This 'personal choice' theory would really be put the test if hospitals started to only admit vaccinated patients into the hospital to get COVID treatments. Shouldn't the hospital have the ability to protect their resources and (business plan?) to give the greater public the treatments they need? ... but... that certainly would never happen.

I think when other's decisions are impacting my life in a dire way - not just an inconvenient way - then it has some public policy role. The county hospitals, funded by tax dollars, are getting impacted in a huge way. Surgeries are being delays and bumped because of lack of bed available to PACU space or staff availability. Emergency departments are being overrun with covid symptoms that are backing up other emergencies. This is a very public policy debate - not just a personal choice debate. If this were merely the flu, sure, seasonal, predicable, moderate acceptable of vaccines, vaccines available for all ages of people, and only contagious with someone that has active symptoms.. I agree it is a personal choice. But this choice is like deciding to burn your trash on your land while there is burn ban in effect. You likely can control it, but if you don't or it goes wild, you may burn down your neighborhood. Therefore, there is legal authority to stop public fires.

This is pretty cool. I had no idea it existed.

I made this point in the spring about still needing to wear a mask even with the vaccine and all you hoaxdenier evangelicals eye-rolled so hard that it hurt that last few working brain cells in your skulls. But here you are linking this study as proof of... something? Something that is backing up what people were already told? That masking in public is still a good idea while the unvaccinated are providing breeding grounds for the Covid to mutate and spread? I agree. Let's so that. Also, how about everyone get the vaccine so we don't get more aggressively contagious variants? Let's do that too.

Big liberal companies invading the personal lives of their employees.. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/18/media/fox-mandate-vaccine-status/index.html

As for studies that only take the post vaccination months into account (March-July) when looking at hospitalizations (and thus will sway the vaccine 'hesitant') - just released: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7034e2.htm 90% effective at keeping people out of the hospital. In Alabama, just read that of their 800 covid icu patients, 12% are vaccinated. No data on the type of patient that is (co-morbidities). Had more people vaccinated, the ICUs would not be filled. It's really that simple. Then we really could treat this like a bad flu and stop with this "come and take it" macho madness.

I don't get why you deniers don't get it. I really don't. No hospital system is *ever* designed to be filled to capacity by one disease. Filling up the system and resources to combat one disease immediately makes everything else more deadly. The whole "your body is already efficient at not dying - it only kills the weak" logic only applies if those people are getting sick and not going to the hospital and clogging up the whole system. If that were the case though, we'd see a lot more deaths and not so many recoveries. So that 90% stat you are throwing out there would be lower.. by quite a bit. There are 73 kids in the ICU right now - in Dallas. That is *all* of the ICU beds. That is real. if your kid has a nasty bike wreck, hits their head, passes out and has some bleeding on the brain ... well... they are going to be sitting in the ER waiting around and not getting the ICU treatment at the top facility. Why? Partly because of the freedom covid caucus, but also RSV is terrible right now too. A mask would help with that too. However, this is not make believe. Life measurably gets more dangerous without a functioning health system. Also - I've been telling you that percentages of beds available does completely make sense either. You should only look at total bed available. For instance, at the hospital I know best, it was reported they had 5% of ICU beds available... but in reality it is only 1 bed. 1 bed. You have a heart attack while jogging in this heat? You need that ECMO machine that is normally available? good luck, it is definitely taken already. Your chances of survival just got lowered by someone that is unvaccinated. I can say in complete certain terms that the only people in hospitals are unvaccinated or break throughs on older vaccinated people that have major co-morbidities (cancer, COPD, etc). It is not number manipulation. As for the definition of 'vaccine' - it is absurd to try to debate it. it is like Clinton arguing what "is" is... Vaccines do not provide complete immunity, that is not how it works. No one will claim it does or always can. It is provide enough immunity to stop community spread and kick start herd immunity that ultimately will squash the virus. Flu vaccines are a perfect example. But some dolts will try to argue that 'boosters' mean that those vaccines aren't vaccines. Which is just pure idiocy. Dictionary.com vac·cine /vakˈsēn/ noun a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease. "every year the flu vaccine is modified to deal with new strains of the virus"

I can't believe you are at the point of trying to re-define what a vaccine is. No, scratch that, I can. I do believe it. I should have predicted this. But this is rich, even for you Lifer, MD.

So sad to see Liberty and University of Phoenix be excluded from the list.

i am not here to comment on people's accents and such... but good god.. mumble mouth.

8/14 is their first pre-season game. I imagine NFL network will be replaying nearly all pre-season games.

University of Phoenix has a huge alumni base too. It's all about online enrollment from the homeschooled and military. Liberty gets 'talked' about for reasons that they are not proud of... and not talked about for things they want to get talked about.

I never hear in real life, anyone, ever, talk about Liberty in any capacity.

Exciting times. I hope he lights it up.

I dunno - I kind of liked her sassy self. She completely half-ass setup all away game tailgates with cold chicken tenders and cold corn, but I still thought she was comical. She never crossed me in any way.

Hey man... I noticed. I hoped everything was going ok in your world. Nice to see you getting some gigs.

That was some spambot that pulls up old posts and brings them back. I don't know what the purpose was.. but the user's email showed up in many spam directories on the interwebz.

I appreciate you answering my other question. Thank you.

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2017/05/05/police-de-escalation-training Interesting report from APM regarding the lack of de-escalation training. The first case they cover the guy was shot dead within 30 seconds of the pull over - then in the video the Sheriff was lamenting that he should have just fought him instead. In the documentary I mentioned above, the non-racist-cop pile drove the ballet dancer/teacher within 10 seconds of the pull over. Instead of slowing down - they speed up. Real question, is there quota or training on how quickly to resolve an interaction on a call? Like for phone banks. Do police need to wrap it up within X minutes? I am for real, curious if there some systemic reason for the police going all gas in the non-normal situations. This was is interesting - on what they trained the officer from the Castille murder. Well trained in how people are motivated to kill him, but little in the way of de-escalating. "During Yanez's five years with the department, he had received 344 hours of training, including a 20-hour course called the "Bullet Proof Mind," which, according to one recording of a session, warns officers that they are "dealing with individuals who are motivated to kill in a way that we have never seen before." Yanez also spent 16 hours on a course called "Street Survival," from the same training company. Conversely, he had obtained just two hours of de-escalation training. Yanez is now facing manslaughter charges."

It's an interesting line of profession - no doubt. One that I can respect, but also heavy eye roll while talking about. Police rightfully talk about their safety and fears. I get it. They are handling some wheels off stuff from time to time. Fatalities on the job don't crack the top 20. https://www.ishn.com/articles/110496-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-us-the-top-20 They are not legally required to "Protect" based on Supreme Court basis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia#:~:text=2d.-,1%2C D.C. Ct.,on the public duty doctrine. And they aren't highly qualified to "Serve" in any real capacity when it comes to civil issues. So it is a grey area where fear and militarization seem to be the daily operation - which leads to all sorts of bad press and bad feelings. I just watched a short documentary on HBO about this case: https://www.courthousenews.com/black-teacher-sues-austin-for-violent-arrest/ ...and I found the teacher to be kind of gruff and whatever during the stop. However it went from 0-60 in the matter of no time (when the cop has ALL the power) and he escalated it and made some hyperbolic claims. She beat the charges, but not he ride and her name was dragged through the dirt. She ended up getting a settlement from the City and the officer later lost is job on a different case about lying about causes. It just doesn't have to happen. Back to the point - in the squad car - a DIFFERENT cop was talking to her while taking her to jail. She was asking about racism in the police force and this dude said that maybe there is and he is not, BUT blacks are violent by nature and that is why she got the reaction she got from the officer. I was slack jawed in amazement. This guy fully thinks he is not racist, but looks at a 95lb ballet dancer and pre-school teacher and sees someone who is inherently violent. Gross.

You can't see the forest through the trees. You focus on one point. Expired tags - he had valid temp tags ( as i understand ) - it was a new purchase. The reason they officially used was the be air freshener. Beyond that though, any non life threatening interaction with the police should not lead to death. Yes - even struggling and making it hard to cuff. You should not be killed. I think everyone should agree on that. Of course Castille is not the same. But it's the same point - enforcement of laws in a discriminatory way leads to more ill interactions with police. Do you not understand or just not agree? After being pulled over 49 times for minor stuff that is ultimately dismissed? I can understand a population having attitudes with police.. there's nothing illegal with being malcontent. But as they say, you can beat the charge, not the ride. The ultimate police mantra.