Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"With vaccine hesitancy, Covid Is Here Permanently". 

Originally Posted by James Lacey

I agree, things are looking good. However, I do worry about what is happening in India. I don't think we will see a national surge, but with so many unvaccinated people, we could see some regional problems.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Test kits?! 
Dude, people are dropping in the streets!

Originally Posted by James Lacey

I work with lots of people from India. The current situation is not merely a problem that has before gone unnoticed. It is truly a nightmare for people who live in cities like Bangalore. Bangalore is a mega-city of 8.5Mn people in the city of 273 square miles. There is an additional 10Mn in the surrounding urban area. For comparison, Dallas is a city of 1.1Mn in 383 square miles. Roughly speaking, Bangalore is eight times denser than Dallas. From what they tell me, they are building funeral pyres in every available space, and the smoke and stench are overwhelming. Almost every family is affected in one way or another, and only the truly rich and privileged can access health care under current conditions. India's health care system has never been accessible to the Dalits (the untouchables) and others in the under-class. Obviously, the current situation has made that problem only worse. 

It seems that everyone has a story, and my own boss, who has lots of family in the region, has seen many relatives close and distant pass away. One tragedy that has played out is that the villagers from the surrounding rural areas bring wood into the city to sell for funeral pyres. They then return and infect their village, which has little to no access to health care, and 15-20% of the village is dying. This is what happened to my boss's home village according to him. He lost the Uncle, for example, who recognized that he was talented enough to be in school as a child and paid for and sent him to school in the city. This generosity on the part of his Uncle lead to his eventual rise out of poverty and making the US his home. So, lots of personal tragedies are playing out.

There are of course a variety of reasons why India is now having this terrible surge. But one that concerns me the most is that they have lots of human wood to burn through and create more variants that will undoubtedly spread worldwide. There is not a single significant variant of concern yet, UK, South African, Brazil, etc., that has not escaped its borders. It's foolish IMHO to assume that whatever variant that is driving India's tragedy, or other variants that could arise from it will not eventually make their way to the US. Are we prepared for it? Somewhat I suppose, but we would be better prepared if more people would get vaccinated.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"US Intel Report ID'd 3 Researchers at Wuhan Lab Who Fell Ill in November 2019"
I know, I know, it must be a coincidence!
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/coronavirus/us-intel-report-idd-3-researchers-at-wuhan-lab-who-fell-ill-in-november-2019/2602403/

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

The press and the fact checker sites have proven time after time that the facts dont matter.....only the agenda. Frankly I am a bit surprised to see politifact actually retract something. I get a good chuckle every time Rod posts up his latest links to agenda driven news and "facts" as if they are indeed factual..... At this point I would call it a 50-50 chance lol

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

With regards to your reference to the Russia hoax, again to need to recall Manafort did meet with a Russian official to share internal polling data and that meeting was reportedly at the direction of Putin...

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

That's the problem. It's not a "nit", as you call it. Read the gosh darn link from The Hill:

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/512526-manafort-shared-campaign-info-with-russian-intelligence-officer

Note that Manafort's associate did the same for the Russian intel officer who has subsequently been sanctioned by the US government for the solarwinds hack and the Kremlin's plan to influence US elections:

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/548447-treasury-manafort-russian-intelligence-trump-campaign-2016


And that's what you're calling a "nit"...

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Jim,
I find it hard to believe that you find Trump's claim that he didn't know what his campaign manager was doing on behalf of his own campaign to be credible. 
That aside for the moment, do you think Trump will be criminally indicted by the upcoming grand jury investigation into him and his organization? 

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Steven,

I know the right-wing outrage machine is in full melt-down mode over these Fauci emails but in my humble opinion, anyone who thinks that Fauci is going to jail or that there is some conspiracy where Bill Gates and Fauci were working in cahoots with China to release a virus so they could get rich off a vaccine is quite a bit detached from reality.

I've read some of the emails and watched some of the commentaries and read several articles and fact-checks and what happened as far as I'm concerned is that Fauci changed his mind over time as facts on the ground changed. That's it. It's no more mysterious or nefarious than that.