> someone laying nude in a bed with a particular pose could easily have a tonality and shape match that would trigger a perceptual match against the database of hashes.
You don't know what a hash is, do you?
>> The seven questions I sent should be the STARTING point for authorities (and journalists, sigh) to use to help folks understand exactly and objectively what is happening, and to help US citizens make the best choices for them and their kids in terms of informed consent with respect to vaccination.
I hate to break it to you, but no one on either side of the vaccination question will be moved by your confused jumble of "easily-answerable", "not answerable for years or decades", and "incoherent" questions. Let's pretend your questions are coherent (as they might be in your head), and we suddenly had all the data you wanted. Can you honestly say it would change a single person's mind? I didn't think so.
What do you think is worse? Allowing hundreds of thousands of people to die and further cripple the economy, or making life a little less convenient for those who recklessly spread the virus? (I know you won't answer that honestly, it might puncture your fifth-grade understanding of "freedom").
The vast majority of American anti-vaxxers don't have any generalized vaccine skepticism, they are holding back because they love Trump, and Trump made it a political issue. If we take away their ability to fly, collect Social Security, renew their passport etc they will grumble, then get the shot. And then we can all get on with the rest of our lives.
>> none of my seven basic questions require "years and decades" of comprehensive study
Some of them do, others are easily answered by even the most cursory Google searches. So what is the point of jamming them all together? No need to answer, we already know.
>> but they should ALREADY BE DOING SO to meet their obligation to US citizen's ability to properly decide on informed consent
Now you've turned this into a legal issue. So you despite the OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE that the vaccines are safe and effective, you want to delay even further as the virus spreads and mutates. To what end?
Let me guess, the abstract ideal of "freedom." Which in the real world translates to hundreds of thousands more deaths and permanent illness, and billions of dollars of damage to the economy. No wonder you're trying really hard to hide the motivation behind your questions.
SuperKendall during World War II:
"Why are they rationing gasoline and cigarettes? I thought this war would be over by now. Honestly, it feels like a punishment."
Let me summarize your post for you:
"Hey y'all, King_TJ here! I know nothing about:
- statistics
- the scientific method
- how they create and test the vaccine
- how they test for COVID and its variants
-but I'm gonna post as if my personal ignorance is everyone's ignorance!"
Bit of life advice for you, courtesy of Mark Twain:
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought of as a fool, than to speak and remove all doubts."
"We're closing up shop. A helpful Slashdot user named 'Nickname Unavailable' pointed out that all efforts to preserve human life in the face of bacterial or viral infections are useless, because evolution." - Dr. Anthony Fauci
"freedom of speech does not include the right to knowingly spread lies. "
You had a great argument until you pulled this directly out of your ass. Specifically, which law would you say they are violating?
"If you knowingly spread lies, and those lies hurt people, you are personally responsible for that harm"
That's definitely not true either. Fix those two things and you have a great comment.
Facebook is a cancer and it needs to be broken up under anti-trust laws. Unfortunately, the 35-yr-old Heritage Foundation clowns that were nominated to the bench under Uncle Mitch's Judicial Work Study program have already signaled that they won't allow it.
>> My city gives me a choice of which power generators I can subscribe to: a "green" provider and the incumbent traditional utility. Let's hope that trend continues.
Yeah, it works so well in Texas. We have an unaccountable patchwork of providers, power plants, suppliers, etc with zero incentive to "innovate". Hundreds died during the freeze (including my 5-yr-old nephew's classmate).
I appreciate the thoughtful reply, and for being candid about your political leanings. A few points:
>>The interesting challenge for politicians attempting to court those people, though, is that there seems to be nothing that anyone actually could or should do for them. They are mostly all better off than they were years ago.
They're definitely NOT better off. We've got 2 generations now (millenials and zoomers) who can't afford to marry, buy houses, or have kids. Conservatives typically think this is a moral shortcoming, but it's actually economic. The yawning gap of inequality is turning us into a third-world shithole.
>>Those working-class voters don't want the government to help them, they want the government to make sure they don't need help, by rolling the clock back to a world in which blue collar labor was the core of American prosperity
You'd be surprised. Oklahoma and Idaho just passed Medicaid expansions. Florida overwhelmingly passed the $15 minimum wage. Healthcare and a living wage are consensus issues in this country. The only ones holding us back are our politicians.
First of all, thank you for the thoughtful reply. Allow me to retort:
>> Not clear, especially without detailed knowledge of the Russian hacking, much of which is not fully disclosed. The 2016 election was extraordinarily close; it turns out that pretty much everything mattered that time.
Let's be clear: nothing Russia did affected the outcome of the '16 or '20 election. Sure, they tried to influence it. As they have tried with every election after WWII. You can obsess about Russia all you like, but it just takes focus away from the real culprits: the Electoral College system and the imperious losers at the DNC. The RNC is actually more democratic than the DNC. They allowed the overwhelmingly popular candidate (Trump) to run for president, and were rewarded with a victory.
>> Now you're just parroting Republican talking points. If they don't have anything else to say, they say "oh, that person is senile".
Does it not bother you that the average age of our elected representatives is like 80? We used to call the Soviet Union a geruntocracy when they elected premiers that were in their LATE SIXTIES. Andropov is a spring chicken compared to Trump, Biden, Pelosi, etc. Are you seriously telling me you aren't a little bit worried that all these oldsters are being propped up by their unaccountable and hyper-ambitious staffers?
>> Classic whataboutism. Saying "what about Saudi Arabia and Israel?!?" does not in any way excuse Russia or China.
It helps illustrate who's really driving the boat. We watched China run over peaceful protestors with tanks, but that didn't stop us from outsourcing everything there. NOW all of a sudden we're worried about the Chinese government? Wonder why that is, hmmm? The Endless Warriors in the military/industrial complex realize that the War on Terror isn't enough to justify their giant budgets anymore.
>>Acknowledging the Russian attacks on the US electoral system is nevertheless worth doing.
Not really, obsessing about something that's been at about the same level for decades is just a distraction from the real problems in this country. Don't be complicit in this game. We need to demand real, tangible action from the ruling Democratic party, as they are just fine with being losers and doing absolutely nothing for the working people of the US.
The question is whether a few hundred thousand impressions on Facebook ads caused Hilary to lose the election in '16. And if you believe that, yes, you've been mislead (I hate to say sheep, since it's been promoted by just about everyone in the media).
Democrats have yet to confront the fact that they ran the only person in the world who could've lost to a fucking dim-bulb reality TV show star. If Russia is such a serious threat, why the fuck did the Democrats have 87-yr-old Dianne Feinstein running the Russiagate committees? You know, the lady who loses her train of thought in mid-sentence and often can't find her own office?
Meanwhile, the military/industrial complex is pivoting away from the War on Terror and back to the Cold War, and so we've decided to start caring about Russian and Chinese human rights violations. (But let's not talk about what Saudi Arabia and Israel do constantly, out in the open).
If you want anything to change, you have to stop blaming Russia and realize that Trump won because he spoke to the working-class people that have been hurt by neoliberal policies, which have been pushed by both parties since Jimmy Carter. Now, Trump didn't DO anything for those people, but he at least acknowledged they exist, which is more than we can say for Hilary.
Those policies have to change if we want a functional country again.
Solutions are obvious if one only has the optical power to observe them over the horizon. -- K.A. Arsdall
