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Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II

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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#601 » by Prokorov » Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:20 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:
Prokorov wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:
Yep, which is fantastic news :nod:


Yeah, i mean knock on wood with variants but we are getting closer and closer an endemic. MErc/Moderna already have over the counter and perscription pills to treat covid symptoms and prevent major issue.

This isnt the flu. it never was, but from a risk perspective, we are inching closer to that ballpark. (where its immunocompromized and elderly who are really at risk along with a super miniscule portion of the population)



Right, which is the best case scenario. We've got vaccines that will be consistently updated to counter new strains, and actual prescription drugs that are pretty much a shoe in for FDA approval to treat severe cases in hospitals and at home for mild cases.

Despite the gloom and doom, and horrific politicization of this thing, there is daylight ahead and we're actually going to return to normal life at some point. Yeah, we'll have to probably end up with yearly boosters, but that's a small price to pay.


The mRNA vaccine is brilliant in that it targets the protien for the spike container of the corona virus, making it highly likely to work against most/all strains. instead of other virus signatures that are more prone to change.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#602 » by MrDollarBills » Tue Nov 30, 2021 9:46 pm

Prokorov wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:
Prokorov wrote:
Yeah, i mean knock on wood with variants but we are getting closer and closer an endemic. MErc/Moderna already have over the counter and perscription pills to treat covid symptoms and prevent major issue.

This isnt the flu. it never was, but from a risk perspective, we are inching closer to that ballpark. (where its immunocompromized and elderly who are really at risk along with a super miniscule portion of the population)



Right, which is the best case scenario. We've got vaccines that will be consistently updated to counter new strains, and actual prescription drugs that are pretty much a shoe in for FDA approval to treat severe cases in hospitals and at home for mild cases.

Despite the gloom and doom, and horrific politicization of this thing, there is daylight ahead and we're actually going to return to normal life at some point. Yeah, we'll have to probably end up with yearly boosters, but that's a small price to pay.


The mRNA vaccine is brilliant in that it targets the protien for the spike container of the corona virus, making it highly likely to work against most/all strains. instead of other virus signatures that are more prone to change.



Yep that's why I got an mRNA for a booster. Honestly it's mindblowing stuff when you read about the research behind mRNA and what it can possibly do for the future of humanity.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#603 » by GTR11 » Wed Dec 8, 2021 2:50 pm

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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#604 » by GTR11 » Tue Dec 14, 2021 5:23 pm

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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#605 » by GTR11 » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:16 pm

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We hitting red zone numbers again. It's not sustainable. Data proves that vaccine work, Kyrie and his followers should get vaccinated. They have no idea what type of diversity they creating. This inflation can/will get worse if proper action/decisions won't be made.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#606 » by GTR11 » Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:09 pm

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I heard same thing from a delegate that work at the front desk. They turned multiple visitors to local city hospitals. Private MC not enthusiastic to deal with unvaccinated to say least. Going to ask my mom how city hospitals deal with that. As a nurse she should know more.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#607 » by GTR11 » Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:36 pm

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US open being played in Queens. Some major financial hit will be taken. Hope he made enough money.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#608 » by gigantes » Tue Jan 25, 2022 2:13 pm

Things quickly escalated, and officers wrestled Jaxson Hayes to the ground. One officer then placed his knee into Hayes’ neck while he was on his back. The knee was there for a few seconds before another officer stepped in and told the initial officer to move it. Hayes gasped out at least four times that he couldn’t breathe. He then gasped, “I’m a blessed soul,” after it was removed.

https://sports.yahoo.com/new-orleans-pelicans-jaxson-hayes-12-charges-july-arrest-battery-police-officer-015716063.html

Jesus Christ... ^%@*ing cops have learned so little since the George Floyd murder.

Imagine an NBA player being killed by the same neck-sitting maneuver after all that's passed the last couple years. Must be nicely ego-building to be a police officer making ~$50k on average at taxpayer expense, surrounded by a populace dealing with wage-slave jobs, less and less able to afford food and housing.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#609 » by TheNetsFan » Tue Jan 25, 2022 4:37 pm

gigantes wrote:
Things quickly escalated, and officers wrestled Jaxson Hayes to the ground. One officer then placed his knee into Hayes’ neck while he was on his back. The knee was there for a few seconds before another officer stepped in and told the initial officer to move it. Hayes gasped out at least four times that he couldn’t breathe. He then gasped, “I’m a blessed soul,” after it was removed.

https://sports.yahoo.com/new-orleans-pelicans-jaxson-hayes-12-charges-july-arrest-battery-police-officer-015716063.html

Jesus Christ... ^%@*ing cops have learned so little since the George Floyd murder.

Imagine an NBA player being killed by the same neck-sitting maneuver after all that's passed the last couple years. Must be nicely ego-building to be a police officer making ~$50k on average at taxpayer expense, surrounded by a populace dealing with wage-slave jobs, less and less able to afford food and housing.

I'm not going to justify the move, but I don't think there was any ego building involved. In this case, I think it's a lot of deprogramming that is necessary. Police were likely once taught to do that in order to restrain somebody, and now they're getting reprogrammed to fight that instinct that used to be standard practice.

If you see the body cam footage, Hayes was the initiator of the violence by slamming an officer into the wall. Even after they got Hayes to the ground, he continued to be belligerent & threaten the cops "You're lucky you have a gun." His friend & girlfriend were yelling at him to stop & shut up. Aside from the obviously reckless & dangerous knee to the neck, the officers were calm & justified in every action taken. I applaud them for being as calm as they were, because I sure as hell would be on edge trying to subdue a near 7', peak physical condition athlete who is violent (the reason they were called to the house).
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#610 » by gigantes » Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:15 pm

TheNetsFan wrote:
gigantes wrote:
Things quickly escalated, and officers wrestled Jaxson Hayes to the ground. One officer then placed his knee into Hayes’ neck while he was on his back. The knee was there for a few seconds before another officer stepped in and told the initial officer to move it. Hayes gasped out at least four times that he couldn’t breathe. He then gasped, “I’m a blessed soul,” after it was removed.

https://sports.yahoo.com/new-orleans-pelicans-jaxson-hayes-12-charges-july-arrest-battery-police-officer-015716063.html

Jesus Christ... ^%@*ing cops have learned so little since the George Floyd murder.

Imagine an NBA player being killed by the same neck-sitting maneuver after all that's passed the last couple years. Must be nicely ego-building to be a police officer making ~$50k on average at taxpayer expense, surrounded by a populace dealing with wage-slave jobs, less and less able to afford food and housing.

I'm not going to justify the move, but I don't think there was any ego building involved. In this case, I think it's a lot of deprogramming that is necessary. Police were likely once taught to do that in order to restrain somebody, and now they're getting reprogrammed to fight that instinct that used to be standard practice.

If you see the body cam footage, Hayes was the initiator of the violence by slamming an officer into the wall. Even after they got Hayes to the ground, he continued to be belligerent & threaten the cops "You're lucky you have a gun." His friend & girlfriend were yelling at him to stop & shut up. Aside from the obviously reckless & dangerous knee to the neck, the officers were calm & justified in every action taken. I applaud them for being as calm as they were, because I sure as hell would be on edge trying to subdue a near 7', peak physical condition athlete who is violent (the reason they were called to the house).

I don't disagree with most of that, but let's not forget that these guys are being paid a comparative fortune, are armed to the teeth, and have oodles of backup in order to occasionally deal with situations like the above.

And then, when you finally have the guy under control, for him to say even once "I can't breathe," that should normally be an immediate alarm & red flag that you're doing something very wrong and need to stop doing it.

It's all very well that cops (well, some cops, to some degree) are getting deprogrammed from the neck-kneeling move (which never had any place in law-enforcement to begin with), but cop communities also tend to be incredibly resentful about being told what to do and having their authority challenged in even superficial, hypothetical ways. Ego-building and hubris have all kinds of things to do with being the average cop in the USA, sadly.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#611 » by MrDollarBills » Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:30 pm

DV calls are the worst calls that cops have to respond to because the chances of getting killed skyrocket.

Outside of that idiot using his knee on Hayes and then moving it when told, I don't think the cops handled this poorly at all. Based on the video and details, it looked like Hayes was clearly out of control here and thankfully no one was harmed or killed from this incident. If I thought the cops were doing dirt here I'd be calling them pigs, not but not over this.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#612 » by gigantes » Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:17 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:DV calls are the worst calls that cops have to respond to because the chances of getting killed skyrocket.

Outside of that idiot using his knee on Hayes and then moving it when told, I don't think the cops handled this poorly at all. Based on the video and details, it looked like Hayes was clearly out of control here and thankfully no one was harmed or killed from this incident. If I thought the cops were doing dirt here I'd be calling them pigs, not but not over this.

I'd have no issue with the whole thing outside of the neck-kneeling move, plus the person needing to croak out "I can't breathe" not once, but four times.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#613 » by MrDollarBills » Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:40 pm

gigantes wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:DV calls are the worst calls that cops have to respond to because the chances of getting killed skyrocket.

Outside of that idiot using his knee on Hayes and then moving it when told, I don't think the cops handled this poorly at all. Based on the video and details, it looked like Hayes was clearly out of control here and thankfully no one was harmed or killed from this incident. If I thought the cops were doing dirt here I'd be calling them pigs, not but not over this.

I'd have no issue with the whole thing outside of the neck-kneeling move, plus the person needing to croak out "I can't breathe" not once, but four times.


And that idiot cop should be disciplined for that.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#614 » by GTR11 » Sat Jan 29, 2022 5:32 am

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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#615 » by gigantes » Tue Feb 22, 2022 3:12 am

Wow, Putin is really doing it.

Just BS'ing, fabricating & brute-forcing his way in to annexing Eastern Ukraine, step-by-step in front of the world's eyes.

I'm still just learning about the situation, but from what I understand, one of the big wins for him is that now he'll have a warm weather port where he can launch all kinds of f-ckery in to the Mediterranean (and the world's oceans) via the Black Sea.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#616 » by MrDollarBills » Tue Feb 22, 2022 1:57 pm

gigantes wrote:Wow, Putin is really doing it.

Just BS'ing, fabricating & brute-forcing his way in to annexing Eastern Ukraine, step-by-step in front of the world's eyes.

I'm still just learning about the situation, but from what I understand, one of the big wins for him is that now he'll have a warm weather port where he can launch all kinds of f-ckery in to the Mediterranean (and the world's oceans) via the Black Sea.


NATO needs to respond with brutal, relentless force, and economic sanctions against Russia must be severe to the point where their populace suffers so badly that it leads to a societal breakdown. Lets see what cracks first, a united NATO front or Russia's economy.

Putin has had a good 10+ years of trolling and murdering people. Its about time he gets put in check.

and no, I am not worried about nuclear warfare at all. He's an ass hole, but he's not stupid.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#617 » by gigantes » Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:14 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:NATO needs to respond with brutal, relentless force, and economic sanctions against Russia must be severe to the point where their populace suffers so badly that it leads to a societal breakdown. Lets see what cracks first, a united NATO front or Russia's economy.

NATO getting involved directly is part of what this is all about I think, as The Ukraine had been inching towards becoming a member, and Putin seems to feel that's disastrous for him. So this gradual move to annex Eastern Ukraine is not just about that vital port he wants, but also to push back on NATO before they have a more legitimate presence. Before NATO can say "Oi, you're messing with one of ours now! Here come reinforcements!" That's why all the pre-invasion reinforcements to Ukraine were so piecemeal, scattered, and completely voluntary coming from other nations around the world.

I think I have all that more or less right, anyway.

Also, in terms of ruining the Russian economy, most of that damage has perhaps already been done. It's a similar playbook to the GOP systematically destroying the American middle class and lower classes IMO. I.e., as long as the oligarchs and rich corporations have freedom to operate with impunity, and to keep their knees on the peoples' necks, then they're perfectly happy to slowly tank the whole situation as long as they can ride it out on top.

It's absolutely bone-chilling to me how the world is shifting in such authoritarian, right-wing directions so quickly. In places like Russia, the USA and other nations, they've monkeyed the situation in enough ways such that even a majority of citizens pushing back for first-world centrist policies is not necessarily enough to restabilise things.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#618 » by MrDollarBills » Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:32 pm

gigantes wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:NATO needs to respond with brutal, relentless force, and economic sanctions against Russia must be severe to the point where their populace suffers so badly that it leads to a societal breakdown. Lets see what cracks first, a united NATO front or Russia's economy.

NATO getting involved directly is part of what this is all about I think, as The Ukraine had been inching towards becoming a member, and Putin seems to feel that's disastrous for him. So this gradual move to annex Eastern Ukraine is not just about that vital port he wants, but also to push back on NATO before they have a more legitimate presence. Before NATO can say "Oi, you're messing with one of ours now! Here come reinforcements!" That's why all the pre-invasion reinforcements to Ukraine were so piecemeal, scattered, and completely voluntary coming from other nations around the world.

I think I have all that more or less right, anyway.

Also, in terms of ruining the Russian economy, most of that damage has perhaps already been done. It's a similar playbook to the GOP systematically destroying the American middle class and lower classes IMO. I.e., as long as the oligarchs and rich corporations have freedom to operate with impunity, and to keep their knees on the peoples' necks, then they're perfectly happy to slowly tank the whole situation as long as they can ride it out on top.

It's absolutely bone-chilling to me how the world is shifting in such authoritarian, right-wing directions so quickly. In places like Russia, the USA and other nations, they've monkeyed the situation in enough ways such that even a majority of citizens pushing back for first-world centrist policies is not necessarily enough to restabilise things.



Don't discount either how Putin has had a clear hand in elevating far right wing movements in Europe/UK/USA. Brexit/Trumpism had the GRU's fingerprints all over them. Even the antivax furor in the USA can directly be linked to Russian intelligence ops. Putin has played a long and dirty game to enrich himself and destabilize western nations.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#619 » by Prokorov » Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:41 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:
gigantes wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:NATO needs to respond with brutal, relentless force, and economic sanctions against Russia must be severe to the point where their populace suffers so badly that it leads to a societal breakdown. Lets see what cracks first, a united NATO front or Russia's economy.

NATO getting involved directly is part of what this is all about I think, as The Ukraine had been inching towards becoming a member, and Putin seems to feel that's disastrous for him. So this gradual move to annex Eastern Ukraine is not just about that vital port he wants, but also to push back on NATO before they have a more legitimate presence. Before NATO can say "Oi, you're messing with one of ours now! Here come reinforcements!" That's why all the pre-invasion reinforcements to Ukraine were so piecemeal, scattered, and completely voluntary coming from other nations around the world.

I think I have all that more or less right, anyway.

Also, in terms of ruining the Russian economy, most of that damage has perhaps already been done. It's a similar playbook to the GOP systematically destroying the American middle class and lower classes IMO. I.e., as long as the oligarchs and rich corporations have freedom to operate with impunity, and to keep their knees on the peoples' necks, then they're perfectly happy to slowly tank the whole situation as long as they can ride it out on top.

It's absolutely bone-chilling to me how the world is shifting in such authoritarian, right-wing directions so quickly. In places like Russia, the USA and other nations, they've monkeyed the situation in enough ways such that even a majority of citizens pushing back for first-world centrist policies is not necessarily enough to restabilise things.



Don't discount either how Putin has had a clear hand in elevating far right wing movements in Europe/UK/USA. Brexit/Trumpism had the GRU's fingerprints all over them. Even the antivax furor in the USA can directly be linked to Russian intelligence ops. Putin has played a long and dirty game to enrich himself and destabilize western nations.


Yup. I read an industry insider article (I work as a CIO for a large MSP) that over 80% of all social media identities are Fake/Bots. now, not all of those are malicious. Most of it is capitalism/marketing. Using fake accounts an AI to extract data to target ads and get them in your feeds. But alot of those are malicous. outside interests and bad actors manipulating americans to hate each other, preying on the 50/50 divide and our arrogance where we think we are special and all our problems are because of the poor or the other party.

It will be the downfall of western civilization as we have known it. They prey on our egos... they train us to make us think we are intelligent because we googled something. they have for years chipped away at our educaiton system.

Americans are arrogant, ignorant, lazy, and ready to blame anyone but themselves.
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Re: Official Current Affairs & Politics Thread II 

Post#620 » by gigantes » Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:43 pm

MrDollarBills wrote:Don't discount either how Putin has had a clear hand in elevating far right wing movements in Europe/UK/USA. Brexit/Trumpism had the GRU's fingerprints all over them. Even the antivax furor in the USA can directly be linked to Russian intelligence ops. Putin has played a long and dirty game to enrich himself and destabilize western nations.

For sure.

This is why I've been saying amongst friends the past few years that in real-world terms, we (and by extension the West) are in an active war with Russia, China, and even N.Korea to some degree. They are attacking us relentlessly via internet sabotage / IP theft, via internet false actors (both human & bot), via injecting money in to counter-security and treasonous activity taking place inside our borders, and who knows what else.

Not calling it a 'cold war' since that's kind of an antiqued term, but more of a Stealth / Underground war.

Sometimes I wonder if Dems at the national level wouldn't be better off drawing attention to this on a regular basis, because 1) it's real & measurable and 2) exposes what absolute traitors the modern GOP have become, directly in bed with Putin as they increasingly are.

Prokorov wrote:It will be the downfall of western civilization as we have known it. They prey on our egos... they train us to make us think we are intelligent because we googled something. they have for years chipped away at our educaiton system.

Americans are arrogant, ignorant, lazy, and ready to blame anyone but themselves.

Very much this.

The more I learn about Nixon, the more I realise what a huge, dirty step he was towards destroying democracy and laying the groundwork for future destruction, which Reagan of course seized on like the nectar of life, expanding the whole fraud.

Meanwhile, what were Dems and centrists doing in the ~five decades this whole scam was going on? Mostly stuff like futiley (sp?) reaching across the aisle and gently mocking the Right's ridiculousness, hoping both things would lead to an overall correction in an appeal to reason and national conscience. Well, f-ck... how god-awful naive those ideas were.

Like you say, meanwhile most Americans didn't have much clue about the mechanics of how the country was gradually being destroyed, and incidentally learned to get comfortable sniffing the whole 'America is the greatest country on Earth' BS.

Yes, most Americans outside the extreme Right have only themselves to blame for this whole mess, except that it did happen by degree, and the slow scam was likely being conducted by the right's masters of manipulation, like on par with the cigarette and oil industries' best psychological war-masters. Using our own pettier interests against ourselves... that sort of thing.

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