If you wanted to practice, you could do this too.

Just another vote farmer harvesting his crop in CA.

https://twitter.com/blessusa45/status/1311502391557185536?s=21

7. Ivy League, Inc. The eight Ivies received $9.8 billion in federal grants despite having a collective endowment of $140 billion – which was up $20 billion since 2016.

https://www.openthebooks.com/wheres-the-pork-mapping-23-trillion-in-federal-grants-fy2017fy2019--openthebooks-oversight-report/

The ADL may have finally put the nail in the coffin of free speech. They have just persuaded the World Federation of Advertisers and their members to boycott social media platforms if big tech doesn't allow the ADL to directly audit their platforms for hate speech.

https://twitter.com/cursedsalad/status/1310288994983448583

From the team that brought you a very stable genius... Here's All the best people!

Foster is one of the most shameless gasbags in all of podcast-dom…

Which is not to say he's wrong about anything he believes.

He's certainly correct about this.

Hats off to the Irish for realizing that Subway sandwiches aren't made with bread but instead with a sugar-heavy bread-like dough product.

Their subsequent methodology of addressing this important issue - to tax the sandwich - seems very Californian.

• Race statistics.

• Apparently there's a comedy enterprise that only hosts PG acts. (Or at least that was the plan before the global pandemic.) This one's 48 minutes. It drags for ten of them, scattered througout, but he lands maybe five gut punches.

Well, well, well...Donald picked up a spiky hitchhiker.

I probably differ from a lot of liberals in that I’m not actually hoping it kills him, but I have to say it certainly would be fitting if, given his dismissiveness of the virus and his attitude toward masks, it did.

Trump: "I don't wear masks like [Biden]. Every time you see him, he's got a mask,”

How’s that not-wearing-a-mask thing working out for you, Donald?

No matter what their beliefs are, I cannot take pleasure in someone’s physical maladies. Those who do only expose their true character.

Golly!

If only there were some kind of technology… Something lightweight, costing a few pennies, disposable and trivially intrusive, which could prevent transmission of infectious disease to the people in our culture most distantly removed from THE BEST MEDICAL INSIGHT AND HEALTHCARE EVER DEVISED.

Jay, what do you think about Trump’s true character?

Sad that some think the mask is impenetrable.

Or that they think so little of accuracy and so much of themselves not to realize that they aren't.

Now there will be a new sport: determining the decency of a person by what they hope for others.

> Those who do only expose their
> true character.

Great… Have a look.. And learn.

This is beyond ironic. And at this point in USA history — actually at ANY point in USA history — the magnitude and consequence of that office is such that there's absolutely zero allowance to be spared for the pretense of personal fellowship. None. Da Nada del Nopey-nope.

Presidents, and even the attitudes they engender, change, wound and end peoples lives with incidental and unintentional gestures. The polity puts up with it because we have needs for executive authority over our sprawling, and indisputably bloated, regulatory behemoth. But this guy's failure to use the power and opportunities of the office to protect Americans and their interests (even by the mere example of wearing a mask in public YESTERDAY), as he had sworn to do, was entirely deliberate. (In his case, given his featurelessly selfish nature, the decision to reject that responsibility may have been taken in twenty milliseconds… But he took it nonetheless.)

Yes, Jay, GAZE UPON MY TRUE CHARACTER… For compassion is by definition a limited quantity; and because I am cussed and politically displeased, it is especially dear in my case. And I'll need all of it for the millions of Americans made horribly ill whom he ought to have cared about, and for the thousands lost consequent to dissembling and inaction. My heart will always be with them.

Don't EVER expect me to be sentimental about politicians, or ask me to feign affinity with their suffering... Because everybody has plenty of that, including the humblest of among us who work (or used to work) busing tables in shabby diners. They are just as entitled to my fellowship, and it comes to them with infinitely fewer compensations than does the Oval Office.

The sluggish, deceptive and self-dealing policies of this administration have gotten people killed, and it will be very, very, difficult for you engender my sympathies by clucking, like a busty schoolmarm, about the universality of human vulnerability.

> Now there will be a new sport:
> determining the decency of a
> person by what they hope
> for others.

Your pathological attachment to that man is inexplicable; before this hour, it had never occurred to you that perhaps the decency of what Trump 'hopes for others' might be under review, as it has been for each of us since the dawn of Man.

NOW, and only NOW, do you imagine the clock to have started ticking.

“Sad that some think the mask is impenetrable.“

Or that wearing one is completely unnecessary.

If you know you don't have COVID then yes the mask is unnecessary. They don't protect you JD. They protect other people from you.

The mask on the other guy's face has an at best 30% reduction in viral load to you.

The mask on your face has an at best 0.01% reduction in viral load to you.

If you want to know more then look up Crid's 'Damn Ben' series. It is covered quite extensively in there. Too bad Crid never read them.

“Now there will be a new sport: determining the decency of a person by what they hope for others.“

There’s a difference between hoping someone gets hurt/killed or becomes ill/dies and not having much sympathy for them if feeling if something bad happens to them because of something they chose to do.

For example, quite some time ago Conan & I had a discussion about evangelical Christians who handle poisonous snakes, in the belief that God will protect them! Now, I don’t HOPE that any of them get bitten and die but if that does happen, I’m not going to shed a lot of tears for them.

Same for people who choose to not wear seatbelts or motorcycle helmets — because FREEDOM! — and get injured/killed, or those who, contrary to gazillions of warnings about smoking cigarettes, suck on them anyway and then get lung cancer.

Just a reminder to all the snark-mongers: unless you are wearing a perfectly fitted N95 mask (and goggles), a cloth mask will NOT keep you from getting the virus, it will only make it somewhat less likely that you will spread the virus.

If one is ignorant, it is best not to broadcast that fact so loudly ...

Ben,

June 5th, CLEVELAND, Ohio — A face mask may give the wearer more protection from the coronavirus than previously thought, according to a new study commissioned by the World Health Organization.

The updated study alters health experts’ previously held beliefs that a mask helped protect others from the virus more than the person wearing the mask.

August 24th/Johns Hopkins University:

Beyrer, an epidemiologist and professor of public health and human rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, hopes that recent research he conducted with scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, will help change this dynamic. He and his colleagues studied existing data and concluded that wearing a mask not only protects other people—as health officials initially framed it—but also the person who wears it. "That is a very important message," Beyrer says.

Research suggests wearing a cloth face covering could block between 65% and 85% of viral particles, Beyrer says, which increases the chances of experiencing milder disease and the likelihood of having an asymptomatic infection. "Dose matters," he says. "When you wear a mask, you are less likely to get sick, and less likely to experience severe disease."

Good line by a commenter in our local (Seattle) weekly’s (The Stranger) blog, Slog:

“Trump will be fine. The infant mortality rate is low.”

“If one is ignorant, it is best not to broadcast that fact so loudly.”

Trump is never going to heed your advice.

You will need to link to the actual paper for me to believe it JD. A surgical mask has a near zero efficiency at the 0.3um size. Coronaviruses are 0.14um to 0.06um. Even N95 masks are not terribly effective.

It isn't like this is a new experiment. People have tested and retested the efficacy of various masks in both hospital and non-hospital condition for decades. The results have varied from wildly successful (which I guess your preferred study showed) to completely useless. Exactly why there is such a wide variation from study to study isn't known. Which is frikken annoying. Clearly there are unaccounted variables that are very significant.

> If you know you don't have COVID
> then yes the mask is unnecessary.

Bunny, twenty to forty percent of people who have it, and shed it, don't know they're carrying it.

Google asymptomatic influenza transmission, as you should have done in January, if not in seventh grade... We're embarrassed when internet tough guys leave their fly open.

Grandpabunny, the president getting regular covid tests would be normal. Please zip up your fly.

JD, here's another comment from today, though not verbatim - I forget which online newspaper this is from:

"Trump is in three at-risk groups: the overweight, the over-aged and the low-income."

In the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Biden said they're praying for Trump's recovering. Of course they are. Biden could easily lose to Pence.

And yet, Golly!, he's sick... Isn't that something?

It's almost like his proud ignorance didn't protect him!

Perhaps this can be a lesson to those who admire him, if only they can find the humility to reflect upon it.

Siiiiike! We all know that the fanboys on Team Orange are incapable of that kind of reflection. They already know everything they want to know! All of their beliefs are religious that way.

Everyone is going to get it eventually Crid. You. Trump. Biden. Your friends. Your lovers. Your enemies. Even all those people you've never heard of.

The only question is when.

So keep your fly zipped and try covering your nose in the future. After all, covid is never going away.

That’s good, Lenona...thanks.

I’m not so certain that Biden would “easily” lose to Pence but it probably would be a tighter race.

From a post on Slog...

‘A very indignant (female) caller to C-Span this morning claimed Nancy Pelosi contracted the virus in China last spring, kept it a secret, and deliberately, repeatedly got close to Trump until he too was infected. The caller also worked Biden into the plot somehow, though I had lost her line of reasoning by then. "The Democrats will do ANYTHING to get him out!" she practically spat into the phone.’

• • • • •

Well, duh, of course they’ll do ANYTHING to get rid of him. He’s a heroic figure, the only person willing and able to mount an attack against the elitist, Democratic, Satanic (OK, Democratic & Satanic IS redundant) massive ring devoted to the abduction, trafficking, torture, sexual abuse and cannibalization of children.

I ❤ JD & Lenona. They, like Sully, are better tempered than I —

It’s a terrible thing for an elderly person to get this disease, and Trump’s obesity puts him in an even more vulnerable category. No one deserves this, even those, like Trump, who openly defied prudent measures to reduce risk, and thereby helped infect and kill countless others. The president, like any human being, deserves sympathy and support.

But there is something salutary in the Trump era about reality reasserting itself in this last twist of the viral knife. The man has spent years at war with reality: living in delusions, perpetuating fantasies, imagining hoaxes, constructing conspiracies, accruing debt, rewriting history constantly as self-serving myth. At some point, reality was going to get personal in return.

Well, not "would." Just "could."

> The only question is when.

We've had other ITG's like that on this blog over the years… The pattern seems to be that when plain truth is available at cost of three big paragraphs with at least four big words, even from a single Google or Bing, it's better to just feign wizened cynicism. It's better than homework!

Chicks *dig* wizened cynicism. Carolla used to have a whole melodramatic scenario for it. The fertile young ingenue implores our emotionally remote, sharp-jawed hero, named Skye Falconer—

Skye… You're so COMPLEX…! Why won't you let me IN, Honey??

If Pelosi got it last spring she would already be over it and not contagious by now. It only sticks around for a few weeks. Maybe she borrowed Obama's time machine?

Incidentally Houston is working through the next version of covid. Which probably came up through Mexico. I haven't heard anyone calling it COVID-20, but that is how these things are usually named. The vaccine currently being worked on won't protect you from this version. Just like how the flu vaccine can be hit or miss. If you had v19 then v20 is less bad. But if you didn't it is supposed to be worse.

I've also seen the local covid advertising change. It used to be 'everyone is equally at risk' and now it is 'don't infect the elderly'. I guess too many people got the stuff and realized they were being lied to about it. I've also seen people pushing the 'long covid' stuff. Gotta keep the fear going somehow I guess.

Let me know when you come back to planet earth Crid. My estimate is sometime 2024.

Well, it may not have been Pelosi. Obama could be the one who infected him, because I’m sure that Obama is a member-in-good-standing of the child sex-and cannibalism trafficking ring. Gotta be very careful of people born in Kenya...”kids, yum!!”

Hey, makes as much sense as anything. Maybe Bush can lend Pelosi his hurricane machine.

It is amazing how many people love made up stories no matter the political party.

Ben, I’m sure you greatly discount anything that’s in the NYT but I’ll post this anyway...

“Mr. Trump’s persistent refusal to wear a mask may also change the course of his illness; if he became infected while his face was uncovered, he may have been exposed to a greater concentration of virus, which also raises his risk for severe disease, according to experts who have not examined him but were able to speak generally about patients like him.”

“It is amazing how many people love made up stories no matter the political party.“

Well, that’s one thing we can certainly agree on.

I remember the 9/11 “truthers” on the left who hated Bush & Cheney and believed they were behind the 9/11 attacks. I thought they were a bunch of crazies.

But their crackpot belief didn’t really have legs (as I recall.) The crackpot right-wing QAnon belief, on the other hand, seems to be continuing with a lot of strength.

As I understand the medical literature from reading the actual medical literature that is very unlikely to be true, JD. Dose does matter. And it appears to matter more than usual with COVID. But no, wearing a mask does not appear to be likely to significantly change the dose received.

And for what it's worth no I don't trust the NY Times on complicated medical issues. Nor do I trust Fox. Or USA Today. Or any journalist out there. All journalists are more or less uneducated hicks when it comes to any technical issue, medicine included. It is unfortunate but you may as well read an Ouija Board. They are really that bad. Read the real studies, even if only the abstract and conclusions, or nothing.

As for QAnon having more legs than other crackpot theories, I suspect you think that mainly because it is good advertising for selling newspapers to you. QAnon is famous. But they don't appear to be influential at all.