@raphjd said in 2020 vs 2021 so far - US Covid death figures:

@bi4smooth

You didn't even mention the topic, but being a Democrat, the figures look bad on you and your BFF.

You idiot... I added up your totals - and then pointed out that the numbers look DO bad - 700,000 dead by your own count is BAD!

The question is this: do you really want to take credit for BLOCKING Biden's attempts to manage COVID-19? Is his failure somehow a GOOD think for Republicans?

I'm sorry - I don't see how you're seeing these 300,000 new dead in 2021 - most of which are among the vaccinated, and the vast majority of those being Republican voters...

Where's the win for us?

I'm not seeing what you're seeing...

@raphjd said in 2020 vs 2021 so far - US Covid death figures:

In 2020, even with much looser measurements on how to count Covid deaths, there were 352,000 recorded deaths in the US and that was before we had the vaccine and the science.

As of 17 Oct 2021, with the stricter covid death counting, the science, and the vaccines, there have been 372,300 covid deaths in the US.

700,000 dead in 2 years (and still counting)...

Just another Seasonal Flu.... why all the fuss, right?

On a more serious note: anyone else considering that wearing a mask during flu season (regardless of COVID) wouldn't be such a bad idea? Even (especially) post-COVID?

The same principles apply:

• the virus has to be in a fluid to survive (exposure to pure oxygen in the air is deadly to it)
• those fluid droplets that have the virus in them are pretty easily stopped by masks - even cloth masks - because the droplets are not microscopic
• the virus doesn't survive well on surfaces, so masks that primarily knock-down the droplets (as they are being expelled - through your breath) are efficient, though not perfect.

If we could cut the Flu losses (deaths) each year in half, or better, wouldn't that be worth wearing a mask during those months? It would for me

NOTE: I'm not recommending (nor supporting) mandatory masks for flu season... just thinking that this new COVID habit of wearing a mask might be useful to keep around AFTER COVID!

@raphjd said in 2020 vs 2021 so far - US Covid death figures:

@bi4smooth

You are a totally clueless twat.

You are supporting my claim.

In 2020, the counting was far worse than now by counting anyone who tested positive and later died, regardless of the cause, counts as a covid death.

In 2020, we had no vaccine.

In 2021, we tightened up the way we counted covid death. It went from EVER, to within 9 months, to 6 months, to 4 weeks.

In 2021, we had the vaccines.

You are, without a doubt, fighting a straw man.

What the fuck does the shit you are talking about have to do with what I'm talking about?!

I guess your Chinese handlers won't let you actually respond to the topic.

Yes - I am using your own numbers - because they support my claim... which is to say that I read MORE into the numbers - your numbers (which I don't necessarily agree are correct, but I'm taking at face value because they support my analysis too!) - to come to the conclusion that this is hurting US (Republicans) way - WAY - WAY more than it's hurting the Democrats!

Did the parable of the seatbelt not drive home the point?

YAY! (????) Biden is doing a great job of preventing Democrats from dying of COVID-19 by getting them vaccinated quickly.... but, record numbers of Republicans are dying from it... so the overall numbers are even worse than last year! Great! (really - IS that great? For who, other than the MOST CYNICAL Democrat you could imagine!)

Biden sucks at saving Republicans from COVID-19 - and that's awesome news? For us?

But, oh by the way, the reason he sucks so bad at saving Republicans from COVID-19 is because we refuse to take the vaccines? I ask again:

Just where is this GOOD for us? (as Republicans)

(Look, I understand this is too complicated for @raphjd to grasp - but there are OTHER readers out there... silent ones... who DO get it!

PLEASE: Convince your Republican friends and neighbors that it's time to get the shot! Nearly a BILLION doses have been given world-wide... they aren't experimental, they aren't killing people, they ARE indeed fully FDA approved, and they DO work! They are not perfect - there is no guarantee that the vaccine will protect you personally 100% of the time... but no prior vaccine ever has been, so why is this any different? Play the odds - WITH the shot, the odds become in your favor!

If they're as implacable as @raphjd, don't get mad, but don't stop trying, either! Lives are at risk... needlessly)

@raphjd said in ILLEGAL: NJ Election Worker: ‘I’ll let you[Non-Citizen/Non-Registered Voter] fill out a ballot.':

Youtube Video

Another example of: Look! The SKY is falling! When it's actually just raining.

In most states, anyone who shows up at a polling place can claim to be a voter and obtain a ballot... it's called a "PROVISIONAL BALLOT" - and its validity is determined later - often only if the race is close enough to where the provisional ballots would "made a difference".

The acceptance of provisional ballots hails from a time where we were more interested in making sure EVERY VOTE COUNTS vs. "finding every way to throw out votes"!

@raphjd said in State Street Global Advisors will need permission to hire White men:

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/state-street-global-advisors-permission-hire-white-men

I would love to know the exact figures that are being demanded for this "diversity" quota.

Will it be like Tony Blair's 35% rule for non-white representation in media, despite that figure being over 3.5 times the non-white figures in the UK population? Now the 35% rule is just under 3.5 times higher than the UK population.

You post this as-if this were some Government rule or law.

This is a company who is challenging their own hiring managers to hire with more diversity.

Is it ham-handed and overkill (IMHO)? Sure! But they could decide to suddenly stop advising people to buy stocks and bonds and invest in Girl Scout Cookies if they wanted to - it's their business! They can run it into the ground if they want to! (No, I don't think hiring minorities and women will run the company into the ground - but I don't think "quotas" are a good start either).

You guys are just awful pieces of shit, aren't you?

Most victims deserved it?

really?

Are you fucking serious?

As for the witness in the Rittenhouse trial - did you actually READ the charges against him? Clearly not!

He has a history of being antagonistic to the local police: his "prowling" charges are for videotaping off-duty cops. His defense in some of these other charges is that he's being targeted by the cops because he's constantly revealing their abuses of power and "blue privilege"...

So, if I can summarize @raphjd: it's GREAT if you go out onto some obscure, dark-web, porn site and RAIL against the cops... but go out and actually REVEAL their bad behavior ... well, then you're a bad-guy?

Talk about (and apparently, that's all you will do) having your cake and eating it too!

Is he some angel? no! But the judge in the Rittenhouse case has a reputation for being a hard-ass, by the book jurist, and both sides (prosecution and defense) have suggested that he has shown that in this case.

The question in Rittenhouse isn't really WHETHER he's guilty of something, but rather WHAT he's guilty of - how LONG will he spend in jail. His claims of self-defense were demolished by his own testimony: he knew the one guy was unarmed, they threatened each other, and out of fear that the other guy would take HIS gun, he killed him? No. Sorry, it's not self-defense when you goad the other guy into being aggressive with you and YOU are the only one with the gun to start with! Things might be different if there had been an actual (non-verbal) struggle... but this wasn't that...

"Honest officer, it was self defense... I poked my gun into his back and told him "Hands up" - but he turned around after he put his hands up, and he had a real threatening look in his eye - I was afraid, HONESTLY afraid - so I shot him right then and there before he could hurt me."

@raphjd said in Facebook bans the truth, yet again:

@bi4smooth

You are in total lockstep with the CCP/DNC when it comes to hating the rights of people, except to riot and loot.

You are a communist! You want the State to enforce your vision of fairness.

Facebook has just as many rights as you - no more, no less. You want to post your stuff, post it! Just not on Facebook!

I don't know what their issue with that story would be - but that's not the point! The issue isn't whether the censorship of that post is MORALLY right or wrong, it's whether it is LEGAL... which it is, and you just get your panties in a wad every time they "decide" against you...

And to that end, I have no problems... you can be a whiny little bitch all day every day... (holding my tongue... physically LOL)

But when you take the NEXT STEP, and propose that they should be FORCED to allow your content - BY LAW.... well, that's communism (the State making decisions about who can do what, where, and when - in the name of the "common good"), and I want no part of it!

@raphjd said in Facebook bans the truth, yet again:

@bi4smooth

Such a dumb ass. A business isn't a person.

And, you don't believe humans have rights. You believe, like your masters, that the unvaccinated should be welded into their homes.

Businesses aren't people (well, in some ways they are - but we'll leave the US Supreme Court to work that one out - THEY opened THAT can of worms!), but they aren't the Government either!

Typical of your Trumpist/Russian ways - you can only see black and white...

I'm sorry your butt aches every time Facebook deletes one of your posts, or Starbucks refuses to make your coffee with deer shit (the way they do it in Mother Russia)... but grow some balls and deal with it! Stop complaining about perfectly legal actions taken by companies.

@raphjd said in Facebook bans the truth, yet again:

@bi4smooth

You are the communist since you don't believe that people have rights.

people have all kinds of rights - mostly equal rights to all of them...

YOU don't get special rights... not because you're white, not because you're male, not because you're queer, not because you're in the UK, not because... well, not because of anything - you are NOT special (unless we're talking special needs here)...

@raphjd said in Facebook bans the truth, yet again:

@bi4smooth

Ok, Feng Feng, whatever you say.

According to the FB auto-ban on the article, it says the moderation staff found it to be a "privacy concern" and "abusive".

I do love how, as a self-proclaimed "libertarian" you don't believe that humans have rights, but businesses do. Whatever, you do you or do the CCP/DNC.

You are butt hurt and screechy about Kyle, but you try to hide Bicep Bitch's crimes. Why is that? It reminds me of how you desperately tried to downplay the summer of love.

You continue to have a problem with the difference:

• Facebook has the right (legal) to delete anything they want - it's their platform
• Facebook is not right (moral) when they choose to delete content for political or other non-safety issues.

In other words: they are wrong to do it (moral), but it is their right (legal) to do wrong (moral) things on their own services!

You have NO right (legal) to use their platform! It is a privilege that they give to you (and they clearly give to a wide swath of people!), and they have the right (legal) to rescind that privilege at a whim!

Look: @raphjd is the Administrator here - on GT.ru. He's the OLNY person I've ever seen with that label, so let's assume he's the ONLY Administrator.

As such, @raphjd has the RIGHT (legal) to censor me, or even ban my account! But exercising that right (legal) - and I am thankful that he does NOT choose to exercise that right (legal) - would be wrong (moral).

Facebook (or Meta) is a little bigger than GT.ru (just a little, tho!) - and so there are LOTS of "administrators" at Meta... EACH OF WHOM have the shared right (legal) to censor (or censure!) content on their site! That doesn't mean it is right (moral) for them to do so - and I've repeatedly said I do NOT agree with their inconsistent and overly partisan application of their own wishy-washy rules.

If understanding the difference between a legal right and a moral one makes me a "liberal elite", then I accept that... just the same as being a supporter of "Law and Order" apparently does too...

If your definition of Conservative is dumb and blindly following Donald Trump, then count me out. But I'm keeping my Republican Party membership (voter registration)...

@raphjd said in Facebook bans the truth, yet again:

@bi4smooth

Umm, why the fuck are you attacking me?

All I said was that Facebook has banned news about Bicep Bitch.

Nice to see you once again siding with the liberal crowd, though. Go back to snortching Pelosi's gin-soaked pussy farts.

If it's a liberal idea to "just say no" to 17 y/o vigilante "justice", then count me in!

But since when were the Libs the "Law and Order" party?

I don't have any idea on what basis Facebook would have denied your story - it's a legit story... the guy is a police antagonist with a long list of "interactions" with the cops. That's (apparently) a fact.

Facebook (or, should i say "Meta") has been a crazy place for a LONG time - I'm not no it, and don't think I ever will be. I'm also not on Instagram, SnapChat, or most of the other social media outlets...

You haven't seen me supporting Facebook's actions - what you've seen me do is say they have the RIGHT to be idiots and assholes on their own platforms! It's a private company, not a Gov't!

@raphjd said in BLM threatens riots if Mayor-elect Adams reinstitutes NYPD anti-crime units:

@bi4smooth

Ok Feng Feng, whatever you say.

Just curious: when I reply to your post, agreeing with much of the story it relays, while also decrying the unnecessary hyperbole, why do you even feel the need to reply to me? Esp. in such a useless way?

You know, one of my daughters - when she was 12 and got her first cell phone - absolutely HAD to be the last-to-text.. "OK", "fine", "Yes", "No" - whatever, she HAD to be the last to text -- if you replied to her "OK" with "Great!", she would reply something else... her older brother tried to see if there was a limit (he could be a douche at that age) - 30+ worthless texts later, he gave up!

Is this you?

@manhandler said in 99.7% Survive, so why a vaccine when TB kills x1000:

Why the hell are we worried about Covid when Tuberculosis is the number one killer? It's ridiculous.

Where do you get your data? Tuberculosis is not even ON THE LIST of major killers in the world... it's a disease caused by a bacteria (not a virus) that is generally treatable by antibiotics. While also highly communicable, TB is seldom deadly in this century - except in parts of the world without access to quality medical care.

Stick that jab right up your ass, big pharma making a killing, literally.

As it was widely publicized during the Trump Administration, 'Bit Pharma' made their profits on the front end here! That is, the US Government paid (handsomely) for the research that resulted in the vaccines, and the companies get to keep the new technologies that resulted. **BUT the COVID-19 vaccine itself has to be sold/given to the US Government - AT COST.

Put more simply: Pfizer made their profits from COVID-19 vaccine in 2020. They are required (by contract - and Trump knows contracts!) to sell their vaccines (whether 1 does, or 100 billion doses) at NO PROFIT. That was the trade-off for taking the Government money up-front!

Such morons... No word about Tuberculosis. No word about heart disease. Nothing about the actual things that are killing people... No... just take this vaccine so pharmaceutical companies can make billions in profits. You guys are dumb.

COVID-19 has killed more than 4 million people world-wide - and the numbers continue to rise, EVEN in countries like the US that have easy (and free) access to vaccines... vaccines that are over 90% effective at preventing hospitalization from the disease.

If you think its bad now - with the DELTA variant so much more virulent (and affecting kids) - just wait a few more months. Mother Nature altered COVID-19 to create the DELTA variant so that the virus could survive better.... there's already a LAMBDA variant that we don't know much about.... but there's BOUND to be a new variant soon - what with the virus spreading so widely already - and it could (one eventually will) make the DELTA variant look like a walk-in-the-park.

Mother Nature never sleeps, and she does what she can to help ALL species evolve and proliferate on Her planet! She will, given the opportunity, improve on the COVID-19 virus yet again!

How do we stop it? Vaccines and masks.... DOH!

@raphjd said in Pfizer Confirms COVID-Vaccinated People Can ‘Shed’ Spike Proteins And Harm The Unvaccinated:

https://www.nationaltimesaustralia.com/health/pfizer-confirms-covid-vaccinated-people-can-shed-spike-proteins-and-harm-the-unvaccinated/

What a piece of shit "reporting"... this is a right-wing Australian publication who is twisting a report of "all claims" as somehow a "confirmation" from Pfizer...

Once again, just a little "critical thinking" debunks some of these baseless claims:

• Your body is bombarded with billions of random "spike proteins" (and with certainty: deadly bacteria & active viruses themselves!) every minute of every day. But you have a natural protection barrier: your skin (though I suspect your's is so thin as to offer little, if any protection IRL!).
• For the COVID-19 spike proteins to cause a reaction in your body, they have to be INSIDE the body - where they themselves are completely harmless!
• The way the vaccine works is that these spike proteins trigger an immune response - that's the inflammation people report.
• You could literally drink a QUART of the vaccines and it wouldn't harm you... your digestive system is well accustomed to killing off bacteria and viruses, and digesting proteins - which is why this isn't an ORAL vaccine!
• The vaccine doesn't "course through your body" - it pretty much stays put in your arm muscle (where its been injected), which is why the inflammation and soreness typically linger there - at ther injection site.
• IF the vaccine NEEDED to "course through your body" to work, it would be injected into your blood stream, not a muscle - the way most antibiotics and drugs (not vaccines) are administered in hospitals. (IV drug users know the difference!).

Vaccines are not DRUGS - they are "cheat sheets" for your immune system. YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM HAS TO DO THE WORK - which is why the vaccines don't work well (in some cases, at all) for immuno-compromised people.

Really people: take - just a little - time to learn HOW these things work, and the fucking magic disappears - and with it, the booga booga attempts to scare you!

@raphjd said in Is FOX even "news" anymore?:

@eobox91103

Hillary had more Russian collusion than Trump did.

It was the FBI that repeatedly lied to the FISA court. One FBI agent even illegally altered an official email to further the anti-Trump agenda.

Hillary Clinton was an awful candidate for President - I voted against her, and would again (gleefully!). That said, she didn't have any ties to Russians - or any other Foreign Governments - in the 2016 election cycle. And neither did her campaign.

Why? Because they were "old school" politicians who knew and understood the rules-of-engagement.

Trump and the Trump campaign did not - so when the Russians came a knockin' they didn't report it to the FBI (the way they were supposed to), they jumped at the chance! It was wrong of them, and it nearly got Trump impeached! (That is not what the first impeachment trial was about - the Dems never did get any evidence that Trump himself colluded - or even met with or talked to - actual Russians himself - so there were never any actual charges raised... and the "Special Prosecutor" admitted that he didn't file any charges against Trump - not because he was guilt-free, but because as the sitting President, he was untouchable.

But why let FACTS get in the way of your argument - you never have before! Hell, you've made them up before! I'm sure you'll make up some more now!

Even Derek Jeter admitted after he cheated and successfully claimed that a foul ball actually hit him on the hands... the real fault was, after all, the umpires, no? (that's an open question for Sports Fans to argue about for decades to come!)... the point is, mistakes happen... the real question (in my mind) isn't so much whether the amateurish Jared Kushner actually MET with the Russians (he did)... the real questions are:

• Did he know it was illegal when he did it?
• When did he learn/discover that it was illegal?
• Did he do it again after this discovery?
• How much and when was Trump himself involved.

Some of that may have been uncovered in the special prosecutor's investigations, but it hasn't been made public.

But this "our hands are clean" act - after SO MANY have been charged and convicted - is not fooling anyone!

To be perfectly clear: Kyle Rittenhouse absolutely DID kill 3 black men.

What he did NOT do, according to the jury, was murder them.

Facts and word choice matters!

@raphjd said in Waukesha Christmas Parade SUV Attack:

...
He only killed 2 people, lawfully.

Re-read your own post... he didn't kill... he only killed...
Why... you're Humpty Dumpty!

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
- Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, ca. 1871

YES! He (Rittenhouse) most certainly DID kill those men. But, YES, he was justified in doing so - according to the jury! Thus, it was not murder (nor manslaughter)... in legal terms, it was "justifiable homicide."

And in our legal system, THEIRS (the jury's, not yours, and not mine) is the decision/opinion that matters!

That he (Rittenhouse) killed them was never in doubt! There was plenty of evidence of that. The trial was about whether it was justified, not whether it ever happened!

If you believe in the jury system (and I do), then you have faith that the Rittenhouse jury got it right, and you equally must have faith that the Arbery jury did so as well!

Proof positive that the Republicans (Q-Anon & Trumpites) DO NOT have a lock on insane extremism! Dems have them too!

@raphjd said in Waukesha Christmas Parade SUV Attack:

@bi4smooth said in Waukesha Christmas Parade SUV Attack:

To be perfectly clear: Kyle Rittenhouse absolutely DID kill 3 black men.

What he did NOT do, according to the jury, was murder them.

Facts and word choice matters!

I'm quoting this for posterity, in case you try to edit your post claiming you never said this.

Kyle, despite what your liberal "news" outlets want everyone to believe even after the trial, DID NOT kill 3 black men.

He lawfully killed 2 white men and shot another white man.

Either you are a blatant liar, or you are just a tool who listens to liberal "news" and repeats the bullshit lies they spew.

Dude... you've done it again... He did not kill... followed by he did kill -- unless your issue is with 3 vs 2... so he killed 2 and nearly killed the 3rd... again, tho. the point of the trial was NEVER whether he shot at and killed anyone - he did.. the question at trial was: was it legal for him to have done so.

In Illinois, it was perfectly legal for him to do so (and in the same breath, you want to blame the Chicago (IL) mayor for all the homicides in her city! You kill me (jokingly) with the situational ethics!)

@raphjd said in Liberals are child and animal rapists:

@bi4smooth

Blah Blah Bloviated Blah...

So, you are saying it's the conservatives that are the ones that are once again pushing for pedo and animal rapists to become mainstream.

Define again - and show me a single mainstream politician (national) that is proposing to legalize pedo- or zoo-ophilia... EITHER PARTY!

That's as stupid as you claiming that Kyle Rittenhouse killed 3 black men in Illinois.

Sigh - that discussion was about using the word KILL vs MURDER, not about the race of the victims... leave it to you to focus on something non-salient to distract from your idiocy...

As for that book, you would have seen the video of the mother reading from the said book at the school board meeting and understood how pornographic it actually is.

I DO NOT CARE how "pornographic" you (or the mother) thought it was... that's not the point. Again, you never let facts get in the way of your moral outrage!

I do love how you play the victim. Even when I make a normal post that doesn't mention you, you have to get your panties in a bunch and attack me, then play the victim. Even if I do mention you, but just about how long I remember you posting here, you go all spastic and lose your rag. But you're the victim. Typical liberal.

ROFL - I am the one complaining (and even starting separate threads) to complain about being called names? I don't think so! Me thinks the lady (and I use the term VERY loosely) doth protest too much!

Just to summarize about 30% of your posts in the past year:

• You, being a white man, are constantly being persecuted by the liberal society

My own personal stance on that is:

• Me, being a white man, have continuously benefited from White Privilege - even when I didn't know it at the time. This fact was made especially clear to me once I became engaged to a Black man - and was exposed to the "same world" from his viewpoint.