Let it be known that on this day I triggered a leftist.
(IM conversation at work re: mask mandate being ruled illegal)Her: Trump-appointed judge in Florida. Meh.Me: U.S. Constitution. Separation of Powers. Meh yourself.
It's amazing how many people that trumpeted (heh) judges overruling President Trump are now losing their shit.
Not surprising, just... amazing.
BackgroundNational Park of American Samoa is located some 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii and is one of the most remote in the U.S. National Park System. The site includes sections of three islands—Tutuila, Ta’ū, and Ofu. Almost all of the land area of these volcanic islands—from the mountaintops to the coast—is tropical rainforest. The park’s area totals 13,500 acres, 4,000 of which are underwater.
That's still not the point.
This is the point:
That's right, for 2020, #YearOfTheBlackSwan, #YearOfTheFruitBat, the Year of the Wuhan Flu, the CCPVirus, the year the world learned that some people eat bat soup, rare...
...The US Mint decided to commemorate the home of the Samoan Fruit Bat with a 25¢ piece.
Mind you, the decision was make well before 2020, but, still.
Meanwhile, I had to see this ad three or four times before I realized it was an ad for a mating dating service, not a trailer for a Marvel Supervillain movie.
I have to say, it surprises me not at all that 2020 would best be summed up by an ad for a dating app.
From 11:59 PM on Monday, November 16 through Monday, December 14, all counties in Washington rollback to the restrictions outlined below...
- Indoor Social Gatherings with people from outside your household are prohibited unless they (a) quarantine for fourteen days (14) prior to the social gathering; or (b) quarantine for seven (7) days prior to the social gathering and receive a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 48-hours prior to the gathering. A household is defined as individuals residing in the same domicile.
I foresee widespread civil disobedience.
Also, wide-spread pearl-clutching and calls to snitch hotlines by the "caring."
Also, people thinking "Maybe I should have voted for Culp after all", as well as "This is all #OrangeManBad's fault!"
I gotta get out of this state.
Great Barrington Declaration - As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.
Author Aldous Huxley once said, “A thoroughly scientific dictatorship will never be overthrown.”I must confess, I was surprised, most of the articles I've seen at The Hill.com tend to be more on the Big Government/Social Justice Snowflakery end of the spectrum than in Rugged Individualism's neighborhood, although it is very true that I don't go there enough to be able to say that my impression of their material is conclusive.
Even as we try to battle the COVID-19 pestilence, we may be contracting a more dangerous virus — hygienic fascism. This involves a process when our political leaders defer to a handful of “experts,” amid what Dr. Joseph Ladopo, an associate professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, describes as an atmosphere of “COVID-19-induced terror.”
Ideologically, hygienic fascism is neither right nor left, nor is it simply a matter of taking necessary precautions. It is about imposing, over a long period of time, highly draconian regulations based on certain assumptions about public health. In large part, it regards science not so much as a search for knowledge but as revealed “truth” with definitive “answers.” Anyone opposed to the conventional stratagem, including recognized professionals, are largely banished as mindless Trumpistas, ignoramuses, or worse.
Don’t get out of the hard-learned habit of covering your face, even if you live in a place that will soon no longer require it. Long after the pandemic recedes, we may still need our N-95 respirators, surgical masks and DIY bandana coverings. Marking the triumph over COVID-19, when it finally happens, should not include a bonfire of masks. This symbol of the coronavirus fight may prove just as crucial against a different foe altogether.These pieces are from the Opinion pages of TheHill.com, not "news", but still, I'm surprised.
Also spreading fast, but largely outside of global health debates and meaningful scrutiny, is facial recognition. We’ve had Apple’s handy Face ID since 2017, of course, with its 30,000 invisible facial dots that coalesce into a phone-unlocking faceprint, but potentially more perturbing applications are already here or around the corner. Face-Six wants to reduce medical errors and fraud by promising to help hospitals “identify patients whenever necessary, conscious or unconscious.” ISM Connect has scanned crowds at Taylor Swift’s concerts to weed out stalkers and generate tour promotion metrics. Clearview AI has been used by over 600 law enforcement agencies to solve cases from shoplifting to murder. So private it listed a fake Manhattan address as its business location, Clearview AI sold a product that allows users to take a picture of someone they are curious about and obtain links to public photos and sites pertaining to this person.
The power that such apps must bestow is suggested in another purveyor’s name, iOmniscient. Its site boasts of clients in 60 countries and over 30 industries, including retail, where it measures customers’ footpaths, visit frequency and dwell time. iOmniscient “excels in uncontrolled environments with non-cooperative individuals,” which would explain its suspected use during Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests. In response to the potential surveillance, demonstrators toppled smart lampposts believed to house the technology, destroyed CCTV cameras, hid themselves under umbrellas -- and donned face masks.
Which of course, prompted a revival of the age-old questions"The drones, donated by DJI, a Chinese company, have gone to 43 agencies in 22 states, all to help enforce social distancing rules."
US using Chinese drones to spy on and lecture Americans about a virus caused by communist China
Oh, and DJI "may be sending data to China" pic.twitter.com/LqH6VzonzH— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) April 17, 2020
How do you report places that aren’t enforcing social distancing? It’s simple: just snap a photo and text it to 311-692. #AskMyMayor pic.twitter.com/WQdCcVf1Rl— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) April 18, 2020
It's like Big Brother and Skynet got together, and...Two of the tech industry's biggest players are working together to fight the coronavirus, announcing a new set of tools that could come to a majority of smartphones around the world.The new technology, outlined in white papers published by Apple and Google on Friday and further discussed in a call with reporters Monday, relies on Bluetooth wireless radio technology to help phones communicate with one another, ultimately warning users about people they've come in contact with who are infected with the coronavirus.
Contact tracingThis project brought to you by the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of State Security...
Apple and Google's technology is meant to support contact tracing, which historically has been a manual process in which health care workers painstakingly comb through a patient's history to figure out who they were near and may have exposed to infection.
Apps could potentially speed up that process. People who're marked as having coronavirus in an app on their phone could then wirelessly transmit alerts to anyone they come in contact with, potentially leading people to take extra precautions or self-quarantine to slow any further spread.
Apple and Google representatives said they chose to create this joint technology in part because they wanted to ensure interoperability between different phones. The companies also chose to build the system into their iOS and Android software in order to reduce the impact this technology could have on battery life.
To ensure as many people have access to the technology as possible, Google will include the tracking data in an update to its "Google Play services" feature for phones powered by its Android software. As a result, more people will have access to the technology even if their phone isn't being actively updated by manufacturers anymore.
What the companies didn't know is how many people need to sign up to make the system work, in part because the crisis itself is unprecedented. But together, the companies' software runs nearly all the billions of smartphones and tablets in use today.
1/2 I can't wait for this to be over:— Drang (@DWDrang) March 31, 2020
*We need to get people back to work. The longer the economy is on hold, the longer it will take to fix.
*I despise politicians that tell l Americans what they can and can't do.
It's doesn't help that my job is a critical one, and I still have to go to work. I can telework, but that means that means I simply do my regular duties with different furniture, including cats. Not a lot of sitting back and watching movies, reading, social media, binge-watching trashy shows on Netflix, day drinking...2/2 I can't wait for this to be over:— Drang (@DWDrang) March 31, 2020
*I despise Americans that dime out their neighbors for "unauthorized assembly's" and "conducting non-critical business."
*I need a haircut. I am not a hippie! Open the barber shops already!
The rest of the poem, as well as notes on the text, sources, references, etc., at the link.The Sons of Martha
THE Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.
They say to mountains, " Be ye removèd" They say to the lesser floods " Be dry."
Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd - they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill tops shake to the summit - then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.
Great job!! Now, PLEASE SET UP SHELTER IN PLACE!!!! People aren’t staying home or practicing social distancing! This is at Rattlesnake Ledge today!! pic.twitter.com/S84ewSOPDn— Fledra Hamill (@fledra_hamill) March 21, 2020
