Some Covid-19 thoughts
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Monday, September 29, 2025 18:59
VIEWED: 301579
PAGE 214 of 384
Quote:None. By the way, Congress hasn't issued a declaration of war since 1942. But Congress continues to shape U.S. military policy through appropriations and oversight. Unlike any previous president, Democrat or Republican, Trump ran away with $10 billion outside of Congressional appropriations and to do that he had to sneakily evade Congressional oversight.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
How many billions did Obama spend on unauthorized wars that Congress didn't approve?
About Declarations of War by Congress
www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/declarations-of-war.htm
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Unmasked: When Identity Politics Turns Deadly
Will Republican politicians kill some Texans to own the libs?
Relieving yourself in public is illegal in every state. I assume that few readers are surprised to hear this; I also assume that many readers wonder why I feel the need to bring up this distasteful subject. But bear with me: There’s a moral here, and it’s one that has disturbing implications for our nation’s future.
Although we take these restrictions for granted, they can sometimes be inconvenient, as anyone out and about after having had too many cups of coffee can attest. But the inconvenience is trivial, and the case for such rules is compelling, both in terms of protecting public health and as a way to avoid causing public offense. And as far as I know there aren’t angry political activists, let alone armed protesters, demanding the right to do their business wherever they want.
Which brings me to my actual subject: face mask requirements in a pandemic.
Wearing a mask in public, like holding it in for a few minutes, is slightly inconvenient, but hardly a major burden. And the case for imposing that mild burden in a pandemic is overwhelming. The coronavirus variants that cause Covid-19 are spread largely by airborne droplets, and wearing masks drastically reduces the variants’ spread.
So not wearing a mask is an act of reckless endangerment, not so much of yourself — although masks appear to provide some protection to the wearer — as of other people. Covering our faces while the pandemic lasts would appear to be simple good citizenship, not to mention an act of basic human decency.
Yet Texas and Mississippi have just ended their statewide mask requirements. Refusing to wear a mask has become a badge of political identity, a barefaced declaration that you reject liberal values like not peeing in public with everyone watching or moving your bowels in the grocery store aisle next to canned vegetables. Cleanup Trumptard spill on Aisle 7!
More at www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/opinion/coronavirus-masks.html
I don’t know how many people will die unnecessarily because the governor of Texas has decided that ignoring the science and ending the mask requirement is a good way to own the libs. But the number won’t be zero.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Texas Gov. Abbott's deadly pattern of failed leadership
Even in a state that celebrates limited government, most Texans can agree to this much: Gov. Greg Abbott’s top duty is to protect Texans’ lives, and at the very least, do nothing to put them in harm’s way. He has woefully failed.
The governor blindsided the medical community, business leaders and millions of Texans in his decision to drop all state restrictions on Wednesday that had been aimed at slowing the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. While the desire to allow struggling businesses to open fully is understandable on some level, there can be only one motivation for dropping the simple, commonsense requirement that we all wear face masks: the governor is putting politics over people’s lives.
Such recklessness in the service of political expediency has become a pattern for Abbott. His cynical calculations, and the deaths they cause, will define his legacy.
In his latest move, Abbott may be hoping to distract Texans from his equally failed leadership regarding the catastrophic collapse of the state power grid during last month’s deadly winter freeze.
Voters must not allow the diversionary tactic to work. Abbott’s failures related to the power crisis cost lives — dozens and counting — and so will this week’s decision to toss out the only meager tools local leaders had to require Texans to protect each other from a virus that has already killed more than 500,000 Americans and roughly 44,000 Texans. There’s no doubt that some, perhaps many, lives would have been spared had Abbott simply waited a month or two before easing restrictions.
Did Abbott even ask any medical experts to model how many deaths could result? If so, did he deem the losses justified if they would score him temporary political points with Republican voters who have come to equate cloth face coverings with tyranny?
The calculation is beyond chilling. At his press conference in Lubbock last week, Abbott crowed about the state’s reopening like he were announcing a new corporate relocation. A small friendly crowd even cheered him on. All the while, he was completely aware of the facts and the science even as he turned his back on them. Deaths and cases are still increasing in Texas. All five worrying new variants are present in Houston, including one against which the vaccines have proven much less effective. Texas ranks near the bottom in the nation for per-capita vaccinations.
Abbott’s pandemic announcement — modeled after Florida’s months’ long foolishness and mirrored this week by Mississippi — was just the latest in a cynical pattern . . .
More at https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-
Gov-Abbott-s-deadly-pattern-of-16001845.php
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Whatever, Mask Karen.
--------------------------------------------------
A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey. 
Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Deaths
527,917
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
^ Lies.
--------------------------------------------------
" 'You're like the Nazis' is the new 'I don't like you'. That disqualifies her from marching around planet Who-Gives-a-Shit in a helmet? ~Bill Maher 
Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Vaccine Guidance
https://xkcd.com/2434/
I can't wait until I'm fully vaccinated and can safely send chat messages in all caps again.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I'm not getting vaccinated.
And unless you're all going to wear a Star of David saying that you are from now on, good luck stopping me from living a normal life.
--------------------------------------------------
" 'You're like the Nazis' is the new 'I don't like you'. That disqualifies her from marching around planet Who-Gives-a-Shit in a helmet? ~Bill Maher 
Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Deaths
531,398
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Forced Covid vaccination is rape.
--------------------------------------------------
" 'You're like the Nazis' is the new 'I don't like you'. That disqualifies her from marching around planet Who-Gives-a-Shit in a helmet? ~Bill Maher 
Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME