rjshae

There's no perfect economic system... yet. We keep switching between the two general forms we know, only to rediscover their individual flaws. So it goes.

Looks like Rudy will need to start his own gofundme web site.

They complain about the First world nations monopolizing the vaccines, but there are some issues with that. Namely, the production rate and the delivery. They will need to ramp up production significantly in order to get enough shots in arms. Plus the initial batch have strict temperature requirements that will be hard to satisfy in many parts of the world. It may require something like the J&J vaccine with multiple production sites before we can start en masse injections. As it is, I don't feel too guilty about the First World hogging the vaccine. Without First World resources, expertise, and investment, a vaccine wouldn't have been ready for 2-3 years. Being the early beneficiaries also encourages investment in new vaccination technologies, which ultimately benefits everybody.

Growing your own fruits and veggies is worth it for the flavor alone.

Okay, perhaps it's a regional effect then. I swear though my grocery bills are up 20-25%.

Coming soon: the Trump $-100 bill.

Has anybody else noticed how much food costs have shot up during the pandemic? I haven't heard of it being a political issue yet, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it come up.

Am I the only one wondering whether he'll have medical issues from steroid use? *shrug*

Clearly there's a need for a white hyena poo symbol.

The concept of a vaccine containing a microchip does seem a bit of a lunatic conspiracy. However, I happen to think we aren't far from the availability of robotic technology in your blood stream that can monitor your health and, later on, even repair health issues. The conspiracy gangs are sure to go ape-sh*t crazy at that point.

The asbestos baby powder lads are coming out with a vaccine that is DNA-based and only requires a single dose. Early trials suggest an efficacy of 90%, so comparable to the others. It's currently in stage 3 testing. How Does Johnson & Johnson’s Single-Dose COVID-19 Vaccine Work? No word on whether it contains a microchip.

Is this how QAnon got started? Danger, Will Robinson. Danger.

I'm not sure it's about education. The trend I see is that the Republican party has spent a couple of decades indoctrinating its followers into distrusting the mainstream media. Lacking any other sources of reliable information, they naturally migrate toward (mostly unproveable) conspiracy theories that are easy to package and popularize. Perhaps QAnon was inevitable? I wonder if the fix could be to create reliable information sources that lack procedural bias; just relate the facts for both sides? Maybe we need an AI political bias detector?

Seeing that Snowpiercer is essentially a Generation ship concept, how long until we get an actual Generation ship series on TV?

Well, the Geneva convention should apply to all signatories, even if they don't follow it religiously. Not sure what else you'd call them that isn't a political trigger word. Internment camps can be just as charged.

You can probably trace the need for concentration camps back to the Thirty Years War, when the practice of releasing POWs without ransom at the end of the conflict became enshrined in the treaty language. Prior to that prisoners were often killed, enslaved, and/or held for ransom. Anyway, concentration camps (and refugee camps) are really a logistical necessity.

The big question for me is whether commercial space exploration will have access to nuclear energy.

Every President does this, and they often contain a few controversial picks. Steve Bannon, for example. Technically, he's just releasing his own swamp monsters back into the wild. What I would like to see is a way for Congress to override a pardon.

"As I conclude my term as the 45th President of the United States, I stand before you truly proud of what we have achieved together. We did what we came here to do — and so much more." -- DJT

Funny how McConnell is being more assertive now about Trump. If the Republican congress critters had show more backbone in December, the sack of the Capitol building might never have happened.