leh-nerd skin-erd

Who are you responding to? I said nothing about this, or “discrediting Trump’s own lawyers”? Oh, snap!!! Is this gaslighting, @Tiberius? Tarry forth, pequeña soldado.

Chi dude, take a breath and lay off the Caramel Macchiato with three shots of mocha swirl. I understood what you wrote the first time. Historically, when speaking about Mueller, you rif endlessly about things that happened and your perception of what they mean, how they should be interpreted, and how hard the law is. Do I roll up on you like your Biggie and I’m Tupac busting a strawman cap in yo’ a$$? Who cares? I’m neither prosecutor nor victim, I’m just a guy pointing out something that is painfully obvious to see. Trump created his own problem here, again exposing himself his enemies who previously showed a willingness to tear the country apart to “get him”. He should have known they would do it again, up to and including the armed raid, seizure of personal items, seizure of confidential atty-client documents and tax returns. I believe the guilty are not always guilty, the innocent not always innocent, the law is not always just, people are targeted at times, and politics play a huge role in that. I believe you believe that too, mostly because I’ve read your posts, though usually only once. Carry on, Big Pappi.

I, of course, would have no idea what other presidents may/may not have done. I’m an end user, like you, and know only what is reported, leaked or insinuated. We both know, generally, that blind trust in government/media is a very bad idea. The only disagreement comes when your team is in power, or my team holds the upper hand, and which media outlets we prefer. The scenario laid out summarizes the typical view of Biden apologist and his handling of classified documents. Carry on little soldier.

Here’s the liberal response in order: It was only Trump who did this obviously. No President never did nothing like this. It was only Trump and DOJ personnel literally had to go and find the documents because he wasn’t responsive. Oh, yeah, I mean, sure maybe it wasn’t only Trump but Biden didn’t know he had material secreted away in his office because someone else did it, and they’re not at fault either. Oh, sure, the problem was discovered before the midterms and news not released until after all the voting was in. These are confusing times and Biden in his zeal to make things right probably just forgot about the election cycle. Oh yeah, well sure it turns out Biden had classified documents in multiple places, he was victimized by multiple individuals over multiple years including probably 3 or 4 Penske drivers. Plus he told the DOJ about the material he held in secrecy for many, many years and they came and got it…end of story. Well, sure, yeah the DOJ actually found more documents that he and his team had turned over, in a separate location, that he and his team hadn’t found first. That happens when you don’t know where documents are—who would have thought they would be in the freaking garage??? That’s not on him, or anyone really.

In fairness, the other day I quoted directly from Mueller and the response seemed imply that he didn’t mean what he said, that he only said it because he couldn’t say anything else, and that when you’re trying to reach a predetermined conclusion sometimes the facts don’t cooperate.

Of course it makes very little sense that Biden is a victim of a series of unfortunate events spanning his various roles in government, likely with a multitude of different personnel involved, and classified documents held at multiple locations. That he spoke about this very sort of instance prior to the documents being discovered implies it was top of mind, and certainly his feigned ignorance of wrongdoing is laughable. It’s fun though to watch true Biden acolytes thread the needle, especially where the garage/corvette is concerned. The image of a pretentious narcissist who cared more about his dopey car than national secrets says an awful lot about his state of mind. Anyway, that said, the key to finding the truth here is for the SC to investigate, find out who the people are that Biden and his legal team suggests are responsible for this critical lapse, consider charges against them and see what shakes out. Someone, somewhere f@cked up, and the list of people responsible has to be very short given the nature of the job and the people they worked for. Sadly, that won’t happen because as it has been suggested, just about every President from Reagan on—and likely every high ranking Senator or Congressman—would be similarly exposed by a deep dive into this.

Go, in a two sided conversation I can only control what I say to others. That rabbit hole is one that I never go down. Actually that’s 4 rabbit holes in an 18 word sentence. Idiotic is in play though.

It’s funny because that particular wascal wabbit will use the line, take a solitary victory lap in the empty stadium of his mind….then lob an accusation 3.5 minutes later. 🤣

The Jim Jordan story is most likely fiction, designed to derail political aspirations, though who really knows? Politics is loaded with these stories, it’s a blood sport. However, I continue to be fascinated by reactions here. RedTail, the good Biden apologist that he is, responds to a post about Biden with the old down thumb emoji. Joe Biden has acknowledged and apologized for inappropriately touching women. What’s the issue here? Can you see something I’m missing?

Why not just deal with the obvious? Joe Biden is President after acknowledging inappropriate touching of women.

We're all God's children, Mup...I just may be his favorite. 🤫

That's beautiful.

Wait...we can all...do better...by ourselves? 😏 Or...we can all do better by ourselves!😇

Boozer

Oh gosh no, I feel like I was pretty clear on that in my reply. I would say my experiences tend toward thoughts centered on leadership and human behavior. The problem with Faucci wasn't his genius in virology, epidemiology, infectious disease or medicine--he was uniquely qualified to speak at length about the nature of the virus and it's potential. The problem was his inability to inspire or articulate key message points on a consistent basis, and thus creating confusion on the pandemic mitigation side of the ledger. When the political factions are at war, and you're the person in the hot seat, its best to stand up and take charge. He didn't, couldn't, or wouldn't. Seems to me if the world is at risk, and he wasn't up to the challenge, surely there must have been another person to step into that role, understanding of course that would have neutered him in some respects. To be candid, it seems like the same problem you had with your suggestion and the CEO response. If the plan was to save lives, it actually sounds sort of...sad... that it was scuttled due to concerns about the likability of the CEO, shrugged shoulders and "not how it works". Maybe next time, skip the email and call the guy, Doc. Better yet, a face to face meeting can pay dividends.

People were scared everywhere. Early on (like maybe a day or two before the lockdowns were mandated) I met with a gentleman I know who was healthy on a Tuesday, and a friend shared a Fb post from his wife on that Saturday that he was in the hospital on copious amounts of oxygen. I thought I had killed my entire family. He survived, thankfully. By the nature of their inaction, the flood gates were opened, Frank. That's exactly my point. People do not gather in large groups without coming from somewhere--they drive in cars, take public transportation, use bathrooms, shop at the 7-11, buy takeout, sit down in the occasional restaurant, sleep indoors, cohabitate, travel through airports and bus terminals and so on. If I know this, surely 'they' know this. As a leader, who the *&^% keeps their mouth shut in this scenario? Well-meaning people complied with the lockdowns orders, Frank. They were the compliant. This isn't a conspiracy, Frank, history reveals how this played out. I don't even fault protestors--they were generally young and like most, likely felt they safe. Still...Mass gatherings during a virus with the potential to kill millions. Silence from leadership. The future VP spread fear about vaccinations, Frank. Imagine how well we might have done without abdication of responsibility during those crucial summer months in 2020.

Thank you for the kind words. I always appreciate your perspective on things.

No, I've never been in a meeting in a health system exec suite. I have, however, met and interacted with executives from Fortune 50 companies, a substantial number of wealthy and powerful people, a former governor of NY, and some high-ranking folks in NYS government. On the other hand, I've met with people struggling to get by, those solidly in the middle class, people who were were subsequently the victim of violent crime, reformed criminals, and in at least one case, a guy caught up in a murder for hire scheme. My experiences are diverse, and my opinions shaped by my experience. I'm happy to leave it at an impasse on Faucci's role in all this. We'll not agree, and that's fine.

Thanks for the measured response. I get your perspective and believe it or not, I attempt to be reasonable in my assessment of the parties involved. I initially thought Andrew Cuomo was doing a good job handling NY--I mean, who really wants to be a position where the world is at a tipping point? As I said, I followed the rules, followed protocol, masked up, maintained distance and avoided people at risk. I listened to Faucci, listened to the science, closed my office to walk in clients, paid for my employees to work remotely, and so on. I got vaxxed when I could...vaxxed/vaxxed/boosted. I watched the democrats attempting to blow up the Trumpian response knowing full well that Republiacns would have done their level best to blow up a Dem response under the same scenario. That said...a glass is half-full ideology does not preclude me from calling out obvious and systemic hypocrisy, nor the fallout that surely follows. Quite the opposite, in fact, my job is to protect and guide my family in spite of my own shortcomings. I've said a lot on this issue, but it comes down to this: Those leaders (medical, cultural, political) who called for lockdowns while looking the other way on social protests/inaug/etc were either grossly incompetent, and should not be trusted in the future; or Those same leaders knew more than they lead on, continued to support lockdowns for the compliant long after they knew they were unnecessary, and should not be trusted in the future; They knew the virus would spread and desired the transmission and death that would follow for political reasons, and obviously should not be trusted in the future; I'm open to other glass-half-full explanations, but being an optimist and belief in humanity as a whole does not negate the necessity of applying critical thinking skills to something a scenario like this. Big picture--when the next pandemic hits, there is ample blame to be laid at the feet of 'leaders' for the cynicism that surely follows.

Again, I’ll repeat myself. When people are told to hunker down, stay home and shelter in place, under threat of arrest or detainment if they choose to go to church, it is completely reasonable and understandable when they see people completely and repeatedly violate said protocol that they get suspicious. In fact, it’s the people that don’t go “Huh, that’s odd!” that reveal on some level how authoritarian regimes take hold. The virus oddly seemed to hover a lot over the right types of gatherings. The Biden inauguration is a fine example of that, and there were many more.

There are a lot of people out there, we certainly agree on that.

What exactly is this an example of—apathy? I’ll give you a better example by changing the facts slightly. You call the the CEO, you tell him that the certain actions of the public pose a massive threat to the citizens of the county. You believe that because the science tells you so, and you preach a lockdown mentality to every patient you encounter. You suggest in the same video docs getting shots and speaking poignantly about how the virus spreads, that mass gatherings are guaranteed to cause spread, suffering and death on a global scale. The CEO says, “I don’t know, it seems like a lot of work. I don’t think it’s the role of the medical profession to spread the word about virus, transmission and death.” You say “Yeah, it’s the politicians job anyway.”

Sure, a virus is burning through the planet, Trump has been accused of being an agent of Russia, his opponents routinely dismiss his commentary, his opponents $hittalk the vax developed on his watch, and the man you describe as the foremost expert on infectious disease—including one he should have had intimate familiarity with due to his association with the lab—uses his thin-white-coat-line pass to avoid responsibility. Docs close ranks for other docs, but this is silly. He was a huge part of the COVID problem, and the reason people are cynical of the entire thing to this day. That goes for Dems, Rs, and independents.

I don’t think you’re stupid, I don’t think you’re insane, I think you’re naive and easy to influence. I think you’re like the kid in the Pink Floyd song told he can’t have his pudding if he doesn’t eat the meat first. I think you’re like, damn, that makes sense. “The British spy thing….”, I have to admit I have no idea what you’re saying here. You’re saying it’s acceptable to work with foreign nationals to mislead the public and spread election misinformation so long as….what, an investigation was already underway when the malfeasance was discovered? What on earth…. I can’t keep posting Mueller’s words. You’re making up a narrative that doesn’t exist to suit your bias.

Sure you are, you’ve done it a couple times lately. Doctors are too busy to help out on the community…they’re overworked and exhausted….blah blah blah. A gifted doctor—and you, your colleagues and our boy @Doc may well fall into that category. I understand that, you’re like most folks who claim that others don’t know how tough things are for you. It’s natural. Still, many are average, having average conversations, providing average service and ***** average work. That’s not even a reflection on the medial profession, it’s just the way life works. I like my doctor, and have been generally very healthy over my life time, but it wouldn’t take much of a nudge to get me to a new provider. My guy seems hard to reach, hard to see, and rescheduled me a few times to the point it got frustrating. Now, you’re in the Faucci camp, that’s fine. Lots of people are. I can only tell you from my perspective that the cynicism that followed his handling of the pandemic is warranted if you don’t call in the “doctors used to be revered” category. I’ll ask you this—-why would I trust him without verifying when he was completely impotent and tepid on mass gatherings and the spread of the virus? As for Faucci and his brilliance, no argument from me at all. He’s obviously an accomplished human being, and with that likely comes a healthy degree of narcissism. You want to put him on a pedestal above reproach, go ahead and kneel. All I can tell you is that a man universally revered for his brilliance in his field should have been using his platform to say: ”I understand why you’re gathering and protesting, but for the love of humanity, each gathering comes at tremendous cost to your friends, neighbors and family members. You are literally killing people—-children, parents, grandparents and so many more. Let’s come together by staying apart.”. He didn’t, leaders in the political realm didn’t, and people can smell even distinguished old scientist bs a mile away. As for his knowledge on infectious disease, you’re probably right, but there are serious concerns for all his knowledge that he and his &$@7ed up basic protocol. Maybe job one should be to ensure that said infectious diseases stay contained? I learned that watching World War Z.