I thought after 1/2 a year of 2020 madness I was prepared for most anything and then...

Kanye West running for President.

* Campaign slogan: “YES!”

* Vice presidential choice: Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming.
* Platform: The Wakanda Management Model.
* Party: The Birthday Party.

My brain hurts.

15 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Uh oh.

 

Just one day...but...WorldOMeters' US data is showing almost 1000 new deaths today.  

The daily death counts have been WAY down lately.  There are a couple of strange anomalies around 6/25 and 7/7.  This must have something to do with timing of submissions and paperwork and whatnot because otherwise these weird spikes don't make much sense.

Like 6/25 a huge number of people just died at a rate we haven't seen since March and then less than a week later we're seeing an 89% decrease in fatalities?  Looks odd.

Though as you can see for the last 3 weeks or so the death rate is vastly improved from the 2000 per day in March.  Minus the huge spike on 6/25 and the medium large spike on 7/7.

Certainly paints a different picture than what I've been seeing in the news.  Cases are up, but death is way down.  The data is available in pretty friendly format from covidtracking.com/data.

And the Texas numbers because we are moving in the wrong direction, baby.

Spent most of the weekend with my sleep cycle inverted (going to bed at 6-7AM and napping all day because I can't sleep at night).

Finally started having some success with @Grailknight 's suggestion.

Got a solid 5 hours in last night and it felt great.  Down 25 lbs in 33 days using the "meds make me not want to eat" diet.

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

Joliet Police Sgt., Who Blew Whistle On Death Of Eric Lurry In Police Custody, Stripped Of Police Powers

This, I feel, is one of the most legitimate complaints against police.  When they find a bad apple in their midst the blue wall goes up and nobody will admit anyone did anything wrong.  Going so far as to throw away fellow officers who break rank and point out the bad actors in the bunch.

2 hours ago, Ranxerox said:

 

I'm not finding collaboration that he did not flee the scene or that protesters attacked his car.  Everything that I have read has state troopers claiming to have pulled him over and describing him as “reserved and sullen”.  Maybe the video from the Ian Miles Cheong tweet substantiates the claim, but you posted a screen shot instead of a link.  I don't have a Twitter account, and I am not going to get one just so I can go far enough back in Cheong's Twitter feed to see the 24 second video.

Well, that's what I get for using pictures instead of links.

Here's a site with a functional copy of the video showing the car pulled over until a couple a guy starts trying to break into it.  Dawit then drives off to a safe distance where he is shortly after picked up by police.

https://myv949.com/2020/07/04/man-who-drove-into-black-lives-matter-protesters-in-seattle-is-identified/

On 7/5/2020 at 10:09 AM, Ranxerox said:

Scottish Fox is right about the guy needing psychiatric care, though.  It just needed to start a lot earlier.

From what I've learned so far on this guy.  It seems he entered the freeway through an exit ramp (weird).  It's also possible the police failed to close an on-ramp and aren't admitting it.  He doesn't seem to have the kind of history that would make him *want* to run down protesters.

My guess is he was simply speeding at 1:40am in the morning and then ran into a very strange situation.  Three out of four lanes were blocked off by cars.  Two of the cars were black and all of them had their lights off.  So he probably doesn't see them until he's kind of close and tries to swerve into the only un-blocked lane.  As he does that he probably doesn't see the protesters (all dressed in dark clothes) until he's right on top of them and then swerves to miss as many as possible.  In the video you can hear his tires squealing and see the brake lights glow on the road behind the car for quite awhile.

Additionally, it doesn't seem he fled the scene.  He pulled over just passed the area of impact and the protesters attacked his car so he drove further down the road and waited for the police who then took him into custody.

I found some pictures and that road was a HORRIBLE place to set up.  It's right around a curve in the freeway which further shortens the time the guy had to react.  Though, it does seem he was speeding and, if true, that's on him.  Today the Washington police have announced they won't allow protests on highways anymore ( NOW they get it?? ) and will arrest anyone who tries to do so.

Curvy road: 

Didn't flee the scene:

The Driver:

The case and hospitalization counts continue to climb, but the daily death count continues to drop.

Seems like the time we bought with the shutdowns has resulted in better outcomes.

There's been enough delay since the upswing in hospitalizations we should be seeing an upswing in deaths, but it's currently at the lowest rate it's been in several months.

8 hours ago, Badger said:

I agree there is a difference, just worried in the current climate some of the usual public blatherers wouldn't bother with a distinction.

There was an incident with a white vehicle this week where two shots were fired at the vehicle before it even tried to push through the mob.  They have video closeups of the guy firing shots into the driver which caused him to floor it plow through the crowd.  As he did this MORE people ran in front of the vehicle.  Madness.  And then of course someone lined up a shot as the vehicle was driving away.

On this last one - I don't know why it took the driver so long to see the danger, but they clearly hit the breaks and are trying to avoid the cars blocking the road and probably didn't as easily see all the people blocking the only open lane in dark clothes.

Now we've got dead people and a driver who is going to need psychiatric care and/or a lawyer.

Protests are great.  Protesting by blocking a freeway is incredibly dangerous.

Shoulder Update:

It's 5:30 AM and I'm up.  Sleep so far - zero.

Yesterday I couldn't sleep until about 6:30 and then the jackass next door started mowing at 7:00AM.  Popped extra tramadol and slept like Captain America until 4 in the afternoon.

It's moving a lot better during the day with minimal soreness, it hurts just enough to keep me from sleeping.

Also, down 22 pounds in one month.  Meds have obliterated my sense of hunger.  I'm just putting food in my face so I don't pass out or something. 

Granted I could use another 2 months like this so this isn't so bad.  Ok, take 2 on sleepy time.  Hope I don't see you guys for like 1/2 a day. 

Well, I'm up because my shoulder hurts and sleep deprivation is fun, but I did find some interesting good news.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/health/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-detroit-study/index.html

Basically, if the hydroxychloroquine is started early instead of after the severe symptoms kick in the death rate of patients dropped by almost 50%.

Groups that published studies that disagreed with these results - not surprisingly - continued to disagree with the results.

Out in Texas today with our shiny new mandatory mask requirement - Kicked in yesterday at noon - I saw a compliance rate of at least 33-40%.  Signs were up at the store - no entry w/out mask - people just walked in anyway.  Store clerks did not send them out.

Well, in the possibly good news bucket I was skimming data on covidtracking.com and noticed something.

The cases are going way up - which has been highly publicized.

The number of daily fatalities continues to drop.  This isn't getting any media attention that I've noticed and I watch way too much media.

Given the case load starts to really accelerate after June 10th we should have seen a pretty big bump up in fatalities by now.  We'll see how it goes, but maybe this is testing becoming more broadly available and not indicative of a massive surge in fatalities coming up.

In the second chart we do see a bump in hospitalizations and fatalities around July 1st, but this makes me hopeful the worst is over.

On 7/1/2020 at 9:00 AM, Cygnia said:

What Is Happening At Fort Hood?

Looks like they got a serial killer.  6 unsolved deaths in March alone?  That's a murder rate of over 100 per 100,000 if it had kept pace for the year.

On 7/1/2020 at 8:35 AM, Hugh Neilson said:

 

 

It's easy to toss out comments like that.  I wonder what the cost would be if the drug company removed its profit margin.  Would the researchers who developed the drug (and all of those working to develop other treatments) be expected to work for free?  How about the doctors, nurses and support staff at the medical facilities where the treatment will be administered?  Should the components with which the drug is manufactured be donated by their manufacturers (or at least reduced to no profit margin)?  Do you expect the transport companies that ship the drug to do so at no profit, and the employees who transport the drug to donate their time?  Every organization along the chain has premises and overhead costs - should those be donated by landlords, office supply companies, utility companies, etc.?

 

The reality is that nothing is free, and every cost along the chain adds to the cost of the treatment.

The quote from the company that sells it, if I recall correctly, is that they expect hospitals to save about $10,000 in care costs due to shortened stays per person that gets on the medication.  it's a pretty big net savings.

Even if you're the poor schmo paying $1200 for the treatment.  You're still saving your cut of the hospital care which is likely to be $1,000 to $2,000 on most insurance plans.

In related news we can skip trying to contain this epidemic now.  We've raised a generation of kids too stupid to think.

College Kids:  Read 13-15 years of pubic/private education and THIS is their idea of fun.

Have a party full of kids trying to get sick.  First one to pull it off gets the pot o' cash.

1 minute ago, Pattern Ghost said:

You don't have to point a weapon at someone to meet the requirements for brandishing in most places.

True, but I doubt they'd successfully convict on that given that the couple said they were threatened, called the police, and only pulled out the weapons after a person in the crowd said they were going to kill the family and their dog and burn the house down.

Not saying their version of events is necessarily true (or not true), but a jury needing to hit a threshold of "beyond reasonable doubt" seems unlikely.

7 minutes ago, csyphrett said:

Gun nuts I know are like he's one pull away from not needing a divorce lawyer

Yeah, the condemnation of the couples firearm handling is almost universal.

4 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

And the couple in the pics needs to have their guns removed until they prove they can handle them safely. They also need brandishing charges.

I could realistically see the wife getting charged for that.  The husband shows he's not skilled with a firearm, but he didn't have his finger on the trigger and he wasn't pointing it at anyone.

The wife on the other hand was finger-on-trigger and waving the pistol around like a magic wand.  She also advanced on the protesters while the husband did not.  If she gets charged it wouldn't be a surprise.

Which is kind of crazy in a domino kind of way.  Had the Mayor not doxxed people the crowd wouldn't have come through there and the couple wouldn't have had their guns out at all.

We could be looking at a situation where the protesters get charged or the couple gets charged - or both - while the mayor walks away without incident despite having caused the whole situation.

9 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

How much of his income goes to other businesses?

Well, 798,000 people work for Amazon full or part time so I'd say a LOT of money of those employees is going to other businesses.

I've had friends work at Amazon and while they had to work VERY hard the money was the best they had seen so far.

I had a work project once that saved my company 8 million dollars.  That was 150-200 people who got to keep their jobs for a couple extra years because of a project my team completed under massive time pressure.  I felt like a champion of humanity getting that done.  That was 200 people who got to feed their families and put Christmas under the tree for their kids for a couple more years. 

Basically nothing at all compared to Amazon.

1 hour ago, Ranxerox said:

Okay, but think of what Mayor Krewson did.  By giving the names and addresses of people who suggested that she defund the police, she ensured that they could not feel safe and their homes and neighborhoods.  Instead they have to worry about reprisal to themselves and family members.  They have to worry no knock warrants and "routine" traffic stops that magically lead to drugs being found in their vehicles.

I couldn't possibly agree with you more.  The Mayor was negligent in a way that should be criminal.  Utterly disgusting behavior.

3 hours ago, Twilight said:

3 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

*Shameless vilification of black people*

If it's a private road then they're scamming money from the city of St Louis because the zoning law says said roads are being maintained by the city of St Louis.  If they city's maintaining it then it's public property plain and simple but there I go being logical rather then mindlessly swallowing whatever story de jour they're using to vilify the black people being threatened by the gun wielding idjits.  

Firstly, I said nothing about race whatsoever.  That is a completely disingenuous misrepresentation of what I said.  I didn't even voice an opinion on the situation only clarified the facts - to the degree I understand them - from news articles.  The one I used has a 92.5 rating on Newsguard so that's pretty solid.

Also, if you read the article I linked earlier you'd know:

1-  Police consider it a criminal trespass and 4th degree assault through intimidation by the protesters.

2-  The crowd of protesters was mixed-race.

3-  One lawyer quoted in the article thinks the home-owners haven't broken any laws.

4-  The circuit attorney for Missouri is looking to see if there's an opportunity to press charges on the homeowners because they didn't like guns being pointed at the protesters and thought it might be a suppression of 1st Amendment rights.

The lawyer for Mr. and Mrs. We-Need-Firearms-Training said:

“Their entire practice tenure as counsel (has) been addressing the needs of the downtrodden, for whom the fight for civil rights is necessary,” Watkins said. “My clients, as melanin-deficient human beings, are completely respectful of the message Black Lives Matter needs to get out, especially to whites … (but) two individuals exhibited such force and violence destroying a century-plus old wrought iron gate, ripping and twisting the wrought iron that was connected to a rock foundation, and then proceeded to charge at and toward and speak threateningly to Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey.”

Yeah, that's a real quote from their lawyer.  Who refers to their own clients as melanin-deficient human beings??

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

Also, Ken & Karen here could not present a better illustration of white privilege--waving their guns around in front of their McMansion, freaking out because OMG BLACK PEOPLE ON THE STREET.

See lawyer quote above.  Also, mixed race group of protesters.  And, I completely agree with you about the Mayor.  Doxxing people on video who disagree with you is pretty messed up in the current climate.

Maybe I'm old fashioned or tempered by living in very diverse cities for most of my life, but I didn't see a couple pulling their guns out because "OMG BLACK (and white) PEOPLE ON THE STREET".  I saw an old, rich, white couple who have no knowledge of firearms safety whatsoever pulling their guns out when a crowd broke through the gate right outside their home and came towards their house - on private property.

Rather than assume they're racist I'll wait for some follow-up investigations.  The reality is - none of us know.  Maybe they are and maybe they aren't, but my psychic powers don't exist.

40 minutes ago, Twilight said:

Only the house is private property, the street and the sidewalk are maintained by the city and are thus public property.  So long as they didn't actually walk onto the front yard of the house, which they clearly didn't, they're not trespassing.

It was a gated community and my understanding is the road was private and there was a sign posted to that effect.

I'll see if I can find the post...

Not the one I was looking for, but here you go.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/couple-points-guns-at-protesters-marching-to-st-louis-mayor-s-home-to-demand-resignation/article_9edc57ed-c307-583f-9226-a44ba6ac9c03.html

You can see the private street sign on this one.  It was not a public road.

Quote from article: 

40 minutes ago, Twilight said:

But they're not defending their home.  The black guys are walking by on the sidewalk and there's no indication that they have any intention of causing trouble for these people.  They'd probably have walked on by if this nitwits hadn't utterly failed at trying to appear badass.

It was private property and the protesters had to break a gate to get onto the private street leading by that residence.  Everyone in that crowd was criminally trespassing.

I would have preferred they kept their weapons out of sight until it became clear they would need them to defend their homes.  Those two were so incompetent with their firearms handling they were as likely to kill themselves or someone in the crowd with no intention of attacking their property as not.  Bad-ass is not the term that comes to mind.

On 6/26/2020 at 2:12 PM, Dr. MID-Nite said:

 

I think this nails it on the head. For me, I've thought this about American society for a while now. Capitalism has created a country where most get very little while others get everything and are expected to be okay with that.

Man, I don't know.  I work a pretty middle class job and live in a middle class neighborhood and own two-thirds of my house now.  And it puts me about double of what I'd need to be in the top 10% of all people on Earth.  And between my wife, daughter and I I'm sure we've spent a LOT over the years on medical bills (after insurance) so it would be quite easy to have more with a little luck in the health department.

Middle class.  House not even paid off (single story, nothing special).

If you have a net $4,300 in assets - not cash - assets.  You're richer than half the planet.

Even the poor in America have it pretty good compared to the rest of the planet.  We have had it really good for a few decades in America.  REALLY good.

15 hours ago, Cygnia said:

 

Even conservative talking heads are dismayed by the complete and utter lack of firearm safety displayed by these two.  The first time I saw the video I was all, "Good, defend your home - only right." which rapidly turned into "Jesus, dude!.  Stop pointing your gun at your wife.  OMG she's never actually held a gun before!  You're going to kill each other!  Stop!".

On 6/24/2020 at 1:41 PM, Starlord said:

Do you tear down Lincoln statues because he allegedly jury-rigged the 1860 Presidential nomination?  No human is perfect and everyone has made bad decisions or took part in things that were wrong. 

Really good post and, in fairness, some of the mob has attacked statues that actually support their cause.  Knocking over the statues of abolitionists??  The guy that freed the slaves?  The guy that multiple times tried to free the slaves legislatively and failed?

If the purity test becomes too strict then nobody can pass it and we're going to have a country devoid of statues.

21 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

“Because [of] the economics of our industry, most airlines have a break-even load factor of 75 to 80 percent, so clearly capping flights at 55 to 60 percent, which is what we’re doing right now … is not sustainable.” – gives us an idea what the next few months will hold. 

They're not the only industry in this bucket.  Throw in bars, restaurants (mitigated a little by food delivery services), movie theaters, any public sporting events, etc.

Granted, the death rate is still quite low in Texas, but we're definitely moving upwards.

Case count is skyrocketing.  Our daily rate is about 10x of what it was a month ago.

On the plus side I did *not* get COVID-19 from the surgical center.

On 6/24/2020 at 8:18 PM, Cancer said:

Like the 30 C in Siberia a couple weeks back

 

That's 86F for the USers.

Eventually we'll realize the massive economic boom made possible by growing crops - in Siberia.  Win, win?