leh-nerd skin-erd

You asked what I thought, it’s really sort of silly to inquire if you aren’t prepared for the answer. You also asked if I was vaccinated, I extended the courtesy of a reply. If that constitutes being “triggered” in your world, your world is likely painfully small. You’ve stumbled onto a truth here: The bar being discussed is spread of the virus, death and suffering. In this regard, you are correct—Trump did a pretty amazing job all things considered, and Biden is raising the bar on death in spite of the Trump vaccine efforts. I’ve never listened to Joe Rogan beyond short clips on his dismantling of Sanjay Gupta. I don’t watch or listen to Tucker Carlson, I prefer to focus on self-improvement and positivity. It’s why I’m able to read through the vitriol you choose to type, disregard it as a symptom of a fixed mindset individual and push on. It’s interesting (and telling) that you baked in an excuse for Biden’s decision to forgo regular dialogue to deal with the tough issues he promised to tackle. The world has been hyper-partisan for a long, long time—in fact virtually the entire time Biden has been in public office. It seems you’re suggesting he wasn’t ready for the challenge. On the other hand, it seems you’re cool with the commitment of “speaking several times” over a 12 month time frame as the death toll raged on his watch. You should write a book, Billzy, and call it “Every now and again Leadership”. I completely understand your perspective on Harris and spreading vaccine misinformation to the vaccine hesitant. You support misinformation for political gain. “Moot” is a cool word the big kids use. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, you really shouldn’t use the term “Again” for a thought you’re sharing with someone the first time. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re spouting gibberish as you have here, or telling the truth which may even happen on occasion. That’s not your concern, but rest assured I’ve thought about the vaccine “several times” over the past year and a half. What more can one do?

That settles it. They can kiss my @££ if they think they’re asking me.

I did indeed make a point, what I'm trying to ascertain is why you felt compelled to ask me questions about my vaccination status and Biden's ability to block people from getting vaccinated? One has nothing to do with Biden's relative success or failure. The other reflects a clumsy, overly simplistic and pedantic attempt to conflate the fact that Joe Biden didn't park his Hummer in my driveway to block my trip to the Vax Store with success as President during the COVID crisis. It seems that you're touting the Comprehensive One Bullet Point Biden/Harris plan for Pandemic Management: We won't block people from getting Vaccinated! If so, again, just get to the point. There's no need to scheme and ask a series of pedestrian questions designed to lead to what you surely envisioned was a masterful gotcha moment, especially when any reasonably informed 5th grader could see it coming a mile away. I'm sure you're good at something, this just wasn't it. Anyway, to the question you could have asked before wasting our collective precious time playing Words With Friends: The concept of Res Ipsa Loquitor Applies here. Biden ran on a platform of unity, undoing the errors of the Trump agenda, stating the handling of COVID under the Trump admin was "borderline criminal", and on a platform of "shutting down the virus". Well, we have discovered that since taking office in January of 2021, infections have surged, deaths have climbed and when compared to pre-vax option v post-vax option, significantly more American's have died on Biden's watch than when the virus was first identified. I'd think reasonable people would agree that if his stated goal was to 'shut down the virus' and control COVID, reduce infections and death due to the virus---using the tools made available during the prior admin, it's obvious that Biden's pandemic management has been an abysmal failure. Just to be clear--that's based on what he said he would accomplish. As for what Biden/Harris should have done differently, they have been absolutely dreadful at communicating consistently with the American people. He ran on a platform predicated on uniting Americans. It was incumbent on him to take the lead in that regard. Where COVID is concerned, he should have made it quite clear that politicizing COVID was off limits. He had the opportunity to make that point when Harris spoke out against the vax being developed under the prior admin. He did not. With the virus raging, confusion reigning and death count climbing, he should have scheduled regular press conferences to take questions about the science, clarified misconceptions and spoke directly to the American people. Weekly press conferences were in order, though every two weeks probably would have sufficed. Instead, he allowed himself to be managed and virtually invisible--beyond staged and choreographed photo ops, and delegated dissemination to underlings. In his pressers, he should have invited experts from various fields to speak directly to the American people about the evolving COVID crisis; By the time he reached the White House, he should have had a plan to replace Faucci as the face of COVID talking points. Fairly or not, Faucci is viewed by a large portion of the public as unreliable, having provided conflicting information, as having not been completely transparent on his (and the US) affiliation with the lab in Wuhan, and as having significant financial interest in the business side of COVID; Biden's biggest blunder to date was the heavy-handed approach to whatever passed for his so-called mandate. It's offputting, frankly, for thinking people to see the correlation between saving the public, but doing so only at the level where one works for a large company with 100+ employees under the threat of civil penalty for non-compliance. Given that something like 60,000,000 individuals work in businesses other than those targeted, it's fair to stop and wonder "How come this thing only rages at the Pepsi headquarters, or at AT&T?". What about folks not working, or collecting public benefits...were they not important? What about the influx of individuals at the border, those the Biden admin was importing throughout the country--often unvaccinated and left to their own devices? Biden should have worked with congress to develop an action plan and legislation to identify key areas where mandates would apply. Since he was just making it up as he went along, why pu&&yfoot around with some obvious unconstitutional money grab? Biden should have formed a panel, staffed by industry leaders and phycologists, the sole purpose of which was to combat vaccine hesitancy. The members of that panel should by now be household names. In my opinion, treating partially vaxxed folks, the one shot of two, or the non-boosted as 'vaccinated' and celebrating the accomplishment was wrong-headed and silly. Unfortunately, the political side of the pandemic and the need for little victories for the admin prioritizes tiny little trophies over what should constitute the ultimate prize of heard immunity; Biden/Harris completely screwed the pooch on variant management, with conflicting information coming from just about every source. There should have been firm message points indicating that variants were expected and planned for in whatever format they evolved. Instead, the messaging really boiled down to "How were we supposed to know?". Finally, separate yet related, Biden's overall inability to not step on his own &*^% is problematic when it comes to his role as Chief Overseer of the Pandemic. The reality is that he says silly things, he drifts off mid-sentence, and often struggles to make a point that people can follow. That has caused a very predictable decline in his approval rating, which is really just another way of saying "He isn't good and I don't trust him". That’s not a problem exclusively for right leaning voters, the guy is a train wreck at times.As I've said previously, this problem was completely and irrefutably predictable and that's really on the people who voted for him. I will say though, thank God we had the businessman in the White House during development of the vax, I can only imagine what things might have looked like if Biden was wandering around during the initial crisis.

You’re asking me about my vax status, and random questions about Biden being a vax-blocker, and I’m “deflecting”? That’s silly. If you have a point, just make it,

Nothing that I wrote indicates that I suggested anything of the sort. We’re these questions intended for some else? I’m unsure the relevance of this post as I don’t know who this man is. I do appreciate the post nonetheless as I was not as clear as I would have liked to be.

That’s not your business. The decision to be vaccinated is a personal issue for a citizen, perhaps including his/her doctor, and his/her family. I’m not vaccine hesitant, am comfortable analyzing risk and reward, and recognized the danger this virus posed to certain members of the population early on. I also recognize the importance of staying on brand, delivering messages that are consistent, and the dangers of hypocritical behavior when trying to convince people that you have their best interest in mind. I think the leadership of the party in power has been a dismal, an abject failure by any standard.

I definitely want you to know your passion is acknowledged. I feel sorta bad interrupting you mid-rant, but the number of Americans that remain unvaccinated, or only partially vaccinated, or have refused the booster exceeds “hundreds of thousands” by tens of millions. There are many, many reasons people would fall into the “greater than hundreds of thousands” category. Vaccine hesitancy is a phrase bandied about, vaccine skepticism, fear of the vaccine(s) being rushed to market, belief that natural immunity is a better option, confusing and often conflicting guidance from science, hypocritical behavior by politicians, statements by those in power, COVID fatigue and of course your enlightened “dey are dumb” characterization are just some of the reasons why. All I can really tell you is the guy currently running the show has a disaster on his hands and seems completely befuddled as to how to address the crisis. It’s entirely consistent with his character, and allowing his VP to sow misinformation is just another example of why people of all political stripes aren’t necessarily buying what he’s selling.

Oh, there’s a death cult all right. We had Dems supporting, encouraging and in many cases participating in mass demonstrations and gatherings at the height of COVID spread. We had Dems publicly espousing one set of behaviors while encouraging the exact opposite behavior, and then completely disregarding their own mandates. We had the soon to be VP-elect badmouthing the vaccines being developed, telling folks not to trust them. The resultant explosion in death count under the Biden and dem admin was entirely and completely predictable. The only question really is whether or not the messaging was intentionally designed to increase death count.

Agreed, though I think Biden’s massive death count is much more about incompetence than anything else. He really didn’t have to do anything beyond delivery of the vax and not allowing his team to sow seeds of doubt.

Holy crap, at 2:36 of this docudrama a graphic reveals just over 419,000 deaths from COVID. That was before Biden was provided the vaccine, though I can't tell whether or not Kamala and other dems had yet to spread misinformation about the safety of the vaccines developed under the Trump admin. As of today, there are roughly 869,000 deaths attributed to COVID, most of which occurred under the Biden admin with a vaccine ready to be distributed. What a clusterflock of a rollout, hard to imagine he was actually trying to save lives with those numbers. Thanks for sharing--these numbers are shocking.

Agree mostly, but I can understand some folks want the distraction of a Sullivan in the moment and don't necessarily think of that in terms of losers. Some folks like watching The Real Housewives of ________, who am I to say? On the pressure on Mahommes--early on, the D was pressuring him but he was a wizard in the pocket. In that regard, my friend the 9ers fan called him "inhuman" while similarly crediting JA for his wizardry Sunday night. Mahommes was stellar, which makes me so painfully aware of the fact that he was allowed time to complete the throws in the last few seconds. I don't know any NFL qb that couldn't have made those throws. I've had some miscues in life for sure. The mistakes I've made haven't hurt me to any great degree, I've gotten lucky more than a few times and you're right about a guy like JA--fixated on the positive and continuous personal improvement. I'm certain a JS column is not required reading in his house. Oh--btw--I've spent way too much time worrying about officials and their calls at inopportune times. That's my JS-type fix, though I'm working on it.

I don't know enough about x's and o's to contribute all that much here, though I read and pay particular attention to a few posters. I do know, for example, that I cannot understand why there was no defender within tackling distance of Kelce/Hill on those last two painful plays, know that that shouldn't have happened in a perfect world, and would love to hear why things played out that way. I also know I'll never fully be briefed on that. I know that I think McDermott is a very good coach based on his track record here, the focus he seems to bring to the table, and based on the response(s) I see from his players about him. I know I don't care if he claps. I know that in life, there are do-ers, and sometimes where time and or money conspire, there are people that sit in the peanut gallery complaining about what the do-ers do. McD's job is hard, JS's job is easy. I tend to support, or at least empathize, with the guy with the hard job over the guy with the easy job, especially when the easy work is predicated on trashing someone else. All that said, I wanted to fire my cell phone through my television during and after the game Sunday, and Jerry Sullivan had nothing on me in the moment. Btw--spoke with a close friend over the last few days who is a 9ers fan. He's got near total recall of all the heartbreaking losses that have occurred to the 9ers in his 50+ years. He texted me about 7 examples, all of which rival '13 seconds' if taken from the perspective of a 9ers fan. The difference of course is his team has rings, but still, someone's heart is always getting broken. I'm learning that as time goes on. Going to cold af in Mupstate the next few days-- --I wish I was in Florida.

Nah. It's overly emotional drivel designed to tug at the heart strings of the reader and tap into the anger and frustration of a franchise fan base. The fact that the defense failed to make a stop is obvious, and criticism on that point it fair. Words and phrases that characterize---"choke", "hide behind", "self-serving" and "froze" are better suited for middle school playgrounds (or amongst fans desperate to make sense of a heartbreaking loss) than in serious analysis of a professional sporting event by a journalist. That said, this sort of work appeals to some readers for any number of reasons. There's no need to trash the guy, or his column, some people like this sort of thing.

Look Frenchy, you don't see me over here blaming Dudley DooRight for the miscalculations of Justin Trudeau, or actions of foreign aggressors on his watch. Biden has had nearly 50 years of conspiring/working with NATO allies at the highest level of government. Billions of dollars have changed hands and fattened wallets over that time, and all I can tell you is: What is happening now did not happen under Donald Trump; What is happening now is happening under a man who's access to power brokers should be unquestioned. That man is Joe Biden; If they don't trust him, he earned it all on his own.

Jiminy Christmas! He's got it so turned around he's using the wrong words in his press conference! It's a pandemic of miscommunication if you ask me.

Was he defeated? Lots of folks predicted he would not leave. Maybe he's still there? I've never met the man!

This didn’t happen on Trump’s watch, it is happening on Biden’s watch. Whether by chance, divine intervention or because Biden is a career politician who talks of minor incursions and is entirely predictable, I cannot say. However, Biden has been in office a year and it’s certainly not coincidental. He certainly does not inspire confidence with his confusing take on the situation. Btw, it would have been interesting to see the handling of these matters in a second term under Trump. When you remove the concern about being voted out of office, the dynamic changes dramatically.

That’s not what you said though. Did you forget what you wrote? I think in this case, big picture, she’s actually a better citizen than those who got vaxxed and boosted, assuming of course she gets past COVID unscathed. There is likely only a 99+% chance of that occurring, multiple comorbidities notwithstanding. prayers up of course. #loveall#respectall

So, you’re laughing because she got the virus because she may not have gotten the booster shot? That seems odd, given that the virus spreads to the vaccinated and boosted. At the same time, the science dudes now seem to suggest someone like Sarah Palin will likely be in a much better position to fight the virus in the future than someone like you or me. Btw, I can’t say for sure in Sara Plain’s case, but it seems likely that the Biden approach to marketing vaxx and booster is a huge part of the problem. CDC numbers indicate nearly 37% of Americans have not received the booster shot. This is a stunning indictment of the admin and has nothing at all to do with SP, other than she doesn’t trust what they say it would seem.

Look, what’s really important is that your true beauty likely lies within, but have you ever stopped to consider all these folks are just tossing signs up when they see you coming? I think you should consider this.

If the gym is only making you wear one, you could be hideous.

What is making you laugh here? That Sarah Palin was infected by a novel virus that likely originated in a lab in China, has infected hundreds of thousands of people, or that many Americans—of all political stripes—-are apparently unwilling to trust the government and it’s response to a virus they apparently had a hand in developing?

A lot is being made here about standing with Ukraine, but I’m sure the concern is less “Who is hashtag standing with us in Washington?”, and more “Who will stand with us physically in Ukraine?”. Unfortunately for the Ukrainians, Biden has already signaled his intent, and trusting his administration for anything beyond hashtag support would be a mistake.

What we've got here is the typical political posturing. Remember when Obama/Biden took strong action against Russia for meddling in our election process? That was December 29, 2016. At that point, Obama had been in office 2900 days out of the 2922 days he would be president. That was 1739 days after Obama assured Dmitri Medvedev he'd have much more flexibility to work with Putin once the election was over. So, the dems went from mocking Willard Romney about concerns of Russia being a geopolitical threat, to Obama and Biden working with Russia to working with Putin to Obama/Biden casting Russia in the role of clear and present danger to our way of life, the offshoot of which was to to expel diplomats three weeks before turning over the keys to the White House. From there there was 4 year investigation that yielded nothing of value with respect to Putin/Trump/Treason, but under the current administration we see record levels of crude oil imported from Russia. In the meantime, we have a president who seems quite willing to allow Russia leeway for an incursion into Ukraine but only on an as-yet unspecified level of hostility. This is the same president that threatened to rough up Ukraine, economically speaking, back when he was VP looking for them to play ball with him. I think where dem voters are concerned, it's an awful lot to ask them to think outside the box, mostly because they have no idea the box exists to begin with. But hey--exiling those diplomats was harsh, man.

If he did something illegal, he should be investigated and prosecuted. Seems simple enough. I wish that was the standard for all politicians. You know, guys like Eliot Spitzer and so on. Personally, I’m not all that enamored with the Rolling Stone as a bastion of journalistic integrity. The editorial team has had some issues in the past, one example here: https://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php Admittedly, that story was only written to destroy lives, reputations and leveraged the emotional trauma of victims past to pursue a quasi-social-justice narrative but it still has application here. The suggestion that “everyone should be trying to hold this guy…accountable” sounds great in theory—and I’ll join you on your quest for justice should the facts play out that way—but you suggestion is damn near infantile in reality. All we have is a perpetually evolving shell game. I won’t bother linking, but every mainstream dem made comments suggesting or declaring that the election of DJT was illegitimate, stolen, a coup or in one case, an act of “treason”. Presidential candidates Warren and Klobbie on election security pre Biden victory: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democratic-senators-warned-of-potential-vote-switching-by-dominion-voting-machines-prior-to-2020-election I won’t bother linking Trump and senior Rs on thoughts on election security post 2020. Joe Biden just last week, setting the stage for litigation and russia#2 should the midterms go the wrong way later this year: https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/biden-is-hardly-the-first-democrat-to-try-to-delegitimize-elections/ This is big business, ugly though it may be. I’d have a bit more respect for those hand-wringing about the assault on democracy (R version) should they stop and acknowledge that Russiagate was simply a precursor to Stop the Steal. On a brighter note, The Rolling Stone links did provide options for flavor-infused rolling papers should I ever revisit the days of my wayward youth, so it wasn’t a total bust. God bless them for that.