SSOTT

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by minn19

I was just doing some more reading on his past, he is a serious piece of shit. Even by politician standards. Eventually something is going to catch up with that guy.

I read a piece on Tucker and it included some quotes from Rachel Maddow - given they both did a more reasonable TV show together years ago, the interviewer asked what she thought of him now; she said something to effect of,

"this is who he is, who he's always been ... we'd talk offline and he sounded exactly like he does now on his show - the only difference is, back then it wouldn't have been acceptable so he toned it down on camera"

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

I read a piece on Tucker and it included some quotes from Rachel Maddow - given they both did a more reasonable TV show together years ago, the interviewer asked what she thought of him now; she said something to effect of,

"this is who he is, who he's always been ... we'd talk offline and he sounded exactly like he does now on his show - the only difference is, back then it wouldn't have been acceptable so he toned it down on camera"

I remember when I used to watch him and James Carville on CNN's crossfire. Carville would eat his lunch every time. It had to be embarrassing.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by Captain Blood

I remember when I used to watch him and James Carville on CNN's crossfire. Carville would eat his lunch every time. It had to be embarrassing.

Man I used to really despise Carville ... but now that he's in his 70s I kinda like him.

He's a weird dude

[CT_M3]

Happy Easter to everyone here!

[GrussGott]

Well, I finally snagged a vax appointment for tomorrow ... damn though, what a crazy shitshow. You gotta go to every pharma site, every health system site, and the county site scavenging for appointments and the sites are all different of course and they mostly suck.

E.g., you'll see there are 2 appointments available, go to sign up for one and by the time you get through all the questions the appointment's gone ... so you gotta think carefully about whether you want to risk trying to sign up for this appointment when that one has slots ... so you basically just gotta set up a bunch of tabs and hit them all over and over 24/7 until you can find one and get through the setup questions. I can't even imagine non-tech savvy 70 year olds trying this ...

Anyway, tomorrow I'm goin in!

[Arcades]

I'm just waiting

[GrussGott]

Welp, I'm all vax'd up on Pfizer - very slight shoulder pain, went away in 10ish min, otherwise nothing yet a few hours later.

Like I said, getting an appointment was fucked up and eventually I got super lucky and snagged one at a drugstore courtesy of this guy at Intuit who wrote a web app to consolidate all the appointments - I watched that for a few days (as well hitting all the sites myself), and then suddenly one popped up right by me.

The other thing is, I didn't want the vax appointment to turn into the where-I-got-covid appointment so I double-masked and used a RespoKare N95 as the bottom layer ... it was the first time I'd used one as I normally just use my cloth mask with Living Guard on it, but I gotta say, HIGHLY recommended! Super easy to wear and excellent sealed fit the first time.

If you're interested, RespoKare's official and only US distributor is here

That said, I got mine here by a Bay Area guy who got tired of trying to find them and started this site - he buys commercially and repackages as necessary. I trust him and mine have been genuine.

IMO, these are the gold standard for masks in you're going somewhere you want extra protection.

[GrussGott]

Hey, check out this fucked up caterpillar:



that turns into a wackadoodle moth:

[GrussGott]

In health news, Moderna re-swizzles its covid vaccine to beat-ass on HIV:

[GrussGott]

This photo of a drone on another fucking PLANET between Perseverance's tracks blows my mind:



here's a rendering of what it might look like when they light it up:

[GrussGott]

In insane conspiracy news, it looks like we finally know who Q is:

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

In insane conspiracy news, it looks like we finally know who Q is:

Ron. I wonder if Marjorie green and general Flynn are disappointed.

[Captain Blood]

I'm in college station for parents weekend......and yes, my hotel room is #420

[minn19]

Lups and GrussGott, when will WW3 start? Unfortunately it’s looking a lot like before WW1 to me. Xi and Putin appear to be coordinating their take overs of Taiwan and Ukraine.

The zillion dollar question is will the US/West really do anything to stop it. And if they don’t, how far will each dictator go?

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by minn19

Lups and GrussGott, when will WW3 start? Unfortunately it's looking a lot like before WW1 to me. Xi and Putin appear to be coordinating their take overs of Taiwan and Ukraine.

The zillion dollar question is will the US/West really do anything to stop it. And if they don't, how far will each dictator go?

More like WW2. Ukraine today and Poland1939 look very similar . Both are/were surrounded by enemies. Ukraine is surrounded by Russia and Belarus, which is basically a Russian satellite state. China and Japan1941 have some similarities.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

In health news, Moderna re-swizzles its covid vaccine to beat-ass on HIV:

One of my biggest regrets in the past year was not buying more Moderna stock last January. I bought a small amount only because I thought it was super risky given that they had not really commercialized anything before. It's up 600% though.

I think one of the lessons learned from this pandemic will be that SARS-CoV-2 is actually not an "easy" vaccine target like measles. It's just that mRNA vaccines are *that* good. It's a nearly ideal mechanism. I'm not betting anyone will beat HIV with a vaccine, though. They can certainly iterate more rapidly now at least.

[Arcades]

Originally Posted by minn19

Lups and GrussGott, when will WW3 start? Unfortunately it’s looking a lot like before WW1 to me. Xi and Putin appear to be coordinating their take overs of Taiwan and Ukraine.

The zillion dollar question is will the US/West really do anything to stop it. And if they don’t, how far will each dictator go?

Personally it might be between China and US first, that will slowly involve other countries.

It will be up until how far the "president" in China is willing to push his luck regarding Taiwan. He will continue to push it until someone does something stupid.

Could be like Cuban Missile Crisis all over again. All he is doing right now is pushing it as far as he can even though most of my generation in Taiwan see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. It is the same with me. Most citizens from bout countries are fine with each other but it's the leadership that is doing all of this, as always.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by Arcades

Personally it might be between China and US first, that will slowly involve other countries.

It will be up until how far the "president" in China is willing to push his luck regarding Taiwan. He will continue to push it until someone does something stupid.

Could be like Cuban Missile Crisis all over again. All he is doing right now is pushing it as far as he can even though most of my generation in Taiwan see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. It is the same with me. Most citizens from bout countries are fine with each other but it's the leadership that is doing all of this, as always.

I don't have a local perspective, but I think China will stop short of action and just use the threat as leverage in other areas. They know Taiwan is of vital economic importance to the West now, so much so that we wouldn't let it go without a fight. TSMC is a real "eggs in one basket" problem.

[Arcades]

Originally Posted by chris719

I don't have a local perspective, but I think China will stop short of action and just use the threat as leverage in other areas. They know Taiwan is of vital economic importance to the West now, so much so that we wouldn't let it go without a fight. TSMC is a real "eggs in one basket" problem.

lol they already are doing it.

China's been rattling sabers for the past year because the opposite party took control in a landslide for the past two elections. The party in control are for strict Taiwan independence while the former party was the one that was formerly in control of China years before the Civil War.

What happened in Hong Kong will absolutely happen to Taiwan if China ever got their way. There is a reason why the "government" in China is acting the way they are.

Unlike the US, Taiwan has been under constant threat of war from China for years. The citizens who cares in Taiwan, deeply care for their independence and have little care for the Chinese Government. It is our parents, for the most part, that don't care nearly as much. They mostly care for just their living and well being (sound familiar?). Unlike the US though, my generation in Taiwan will probably not let the KMT back in control unless they change their stance completely on "Reunifying with China". KMT has been changing the way they been saying it ever since Hong Kong happened. DPP will be in control unless they mess up hard somehow.

[Lups]

Originally Posted by minn19

Lups and GrussGott, when will WW3 start? Unfortunately it’s looking a lot like before WW1 to me. Xi and Putin appear to be coordinating their take overs of Taiwan and Ukraine.

The zillion dollar question is will the US/West really do anything to stop it. And if they don’t, how far will each dictator go?

Let's calm down here, alright? First of all, let's think of leverage here before we jump into conclusions! So what on earth would russia have on Europe that could keep us silent long enough for them to start a fight? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. With working nato and all, nothing. It's not like we're all dependent on their energy which would make us weak as fuck.

And the same with China. We need no China! Hell no, China got nuthin we want!

In unrelated news a car factory here is laying off folks cuz they can't get chips. Chips, they go with fish, those must come from England, right?

So basically yes, we are so fucked and if the free world doesn't pull their heads from their arses, we are all dead.

I'd like to end my deep diving essay on world peace by stating that this is fucked up.

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by Lups

Let's calm down here, alright? First of all, let's think of leverage here before we jump into conclusions! So what on earth would russia have on Europe that could keep us silent long enough for them to start a fight? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. With working nato and all, nothing. It's not like we're all dependent on their energy which would make us weak as fuck.

And the same with China. We need no China! Hell no, China got nuthin we want!

In unrelated news a car factory here is laying off folks cuz they can't get chips. Chips, they go with fish, those must come from England, right?

So basically yes, we are so fucked and if the free world doesn't pull their heads from their arses, we are all dead.

I'd like to end my deep diving essay on world peace by stating that this is fucked up.

I think we can call that profanity laced tirade a "boehner-ism"? Was there red wine involved?

[Lups]

Originally Posted by Captain Blood

I think we can call that profanity laced tirade a "boehner-ism"? Was there red wine involved?

This might seem like a strange thing to say but I apparently have a belated Boehner. Not sure if the after taste is worth an ism.

Unreal, I miss that dude.