Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

No one could have predicted…

The words do not have to be perfect.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Everybody saw this coming.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Friday Evening Open Thread: Capital Incident Update

Friday Evening Open Thread: Capital Incident Update

by | 158 Comments

This post is in: ,

The suspect is reported to have been a follower of Louis Farrakhan, so right-wing social media is already convinced this will be ‘suppressed by the liberal media’ as ‘just another lone wolf crazy person’. However, if current reporting is correct — and that’s not a given! — it really does seem to be an unusually public Suicide by Cop…

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    1. I didn’t realize the nation of Islam was still around.

    2. Glad too see greater diversity among awful people.

  3. 3.

    Brachiator

    The suspect is reported to have been a follower of Louis Farrakhan, so right-wing social media is already convinced this will be ‘suppressed by the liberal media’ as ‘just another lone wolf crazy person’.

    In right wing asswipe land, only white people can be a lone wolf crazy person.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I obviously haven’t the faintest idea what he was like as a person, but in that photo Officer Billy Evans just looks like the nicest, most decent guy you could hope to meet. I believe he was a good man. May he rest in well-earned peace.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Much sympathy to the Capitol Police, who cannot seem to catch a break, and especially the fallen officer. There are far safer places to work and yet they choose to stay there and protect our very important center of government.

  6. 6.

    Baud

     

    @Brachiator:

    In right wing asswipe land, only white people can be a lone wolf crazy person. individuals.

    Everyone else is subject to group accountability based on their worst members.

  9. 9.

    Eric S.

    1 Louis Farrakhan / Nation if Islam follower.
    2. Shit and killed by police.

    This all checks out.

  10. 10.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    The flags were already half-staff, weren’t they?  Quarter staff next?  Too many useless tragedies.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    @debbie

    Layman’s understanding is the outer perimeter has been cleared, inner perimeter fencing still in place. Unsightly police state/prison razor wire topping has been or in is in the process of being removed.

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

    Biden is away at Camp David.

    The Orange Clown hated that place because it wasn’t covered in gold leaf like his tacky properties.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Whoopsie.

    A pressure vessel from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage fell on a man’s farm in Washington State last week, leaving a “4-inch dent in the soil,” the local sheriff’s office said Friday.
    [snip]
    A Grant County, Washington property owner, who told authorities he didn’t want to be identified, found the errant COPV — roughly the size and shape of a hefty punching bag — sitting on his farm one morning last weekend.… Source

  22. 22.

    bbleh

    1. Suicide-by-cop was the first thing I thought when I heard he rammed armed police with a vehicle and then exited with a knife.
    2. Who cares what right-wing social media say?  They are routinely more lunatic even than this guy.  To pay any attention to them, other than as routine threat monitoring or perhaps sociological research, is to both risk your own sanity and risk spreading their lunacy like a contagious disease.
  23. 23.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Stanford and South Carolina in hand to hand combat (48-47) going into the 4th qtr of the Final four

  25. 25.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Assuming this tweet turns out to be true, it sounds like the actions someone who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He’s right in the age range where schizophrenia often becomes evident.

    Noah Green, the suspect in the #CapitolAttack, posted on social media in the weeks before the attack that he had lost his job and suffered medical ailments, and said he believed the federal government was targeting him with “mind control.”
    — Michael Holmes (@holmescnn) April 2, 2021

  26. 26.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Mike in NC: There’s a Maryland State park right there next to Camp David that I like to hike in. It’s beautiful, so of course TFG hated it.

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @Brachiator: In right wing asswipe land, only white people can be a lone wolf crazy person.

    Like the several hundred lone wolf crazy persons who happened to all invade the Capitol on January 6.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    No one in those Ancestry family tree commercials ever learns that their ancestor was a monster.

  31. 31.

    RSA

    @Baud:

    I didn’t realize the nation of Islam was still around.

    I can’t keep up. I looked up what the Southern Poverty Law Center had to say:

    Since its founding in 1930, the Nation of Islam (NOI) has grown into one of the wealthiest and best-known organizations in black America. Its theology of innate black superiority over whites and the deeply racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric of its leaders have earned the NOI a prominent position in the ranks of organized hate.

  34. 34.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Holy shit, this is the greatest basketball game evah. complete madness (twist, after twist, after twist) in the final 12 seconds. Stanford survives 66-65 – advances to Women’s Final.​

  36. 36.

    Eric S.

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: i have/had no dog in that fight. I saw SC player Aliyah Boston for the first time a week ago. Beyond just being phenomenal at her craft I love her rainbow hair. I was rooting for her today. She had a last minute chance for a winning bucket. It was a tough put back. She shouldn’t feel upset at all but I bet she’s made similar shots 100 times and I understand why she was upset.

  37. 37.

    Yutsano

    Speaking of oops…the Suez bottleneck gets released JUST IN TIME for the Port of Los Angeles to cause another blockage in trade.

    Quite incredible to see how well reflected anchored ships are in vessel location data. Drifting side to side as the wind changes.The LA & Long Beach ports this past February: pic.twitter.com/etOjA8y28Z— Dylan Moriarty (@DylanMoriarty) March 31, 2021

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    More on Noah Green, the driver in today’s suicide by cop.  From Richmond VA TV station WRIC; original reporting by Hampton Roads station. He was a young Black man. (Photo included.)

    Christopher Newport University confirms suspect in fatal attack at Capitol is a graduate, former football player

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Officials with Christopher Newport University in Newport News Friday night confirmed Noah Green — the man shot and killed by police after he rammed a car into a barricade outside the U.S. Capitol and struck two officers — played football for the school.

    Green graduated from CNU with a degree in finance in 2019, according to Jim Hanchett, CNU chief communications officer.

    Hanchett also said Green played football for the school for the fall 2017 and 2018 seasons. His bio on the 2018 football roster says Green’s hometown is Covington, Virginia. He went to Alleghany High School.

    …. Investigators are digging into Green’s background and examining whether he had any mental health history as they work to find a motive. They were also working to obtain warrants to access his online accounts.

    Authorities said Green did not appear to have been on police radar.

    I wonder why he was originally identified as an Indiana man …

  39. 39.

    Jay

    Because SWMBO is Metis, we are both scheduled to get our Fauchi Ouchies next Friday.

    There is a shit ton of violence, crime, murders and terrorism linked to The Nation of Islam.

  40. 40.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    (ESPN) — Stanford defeats South Carolina in thrilling ending

    Aliyah Boston misses the game-winning putback shot, and Stanford escapes with a 66-65 win to advance to the National Championship.

    UCONN vs Arizona coming up at 9:30 PM – featuring this kid (photo)

  41. 41.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    OT:

    Got a question for you fine folks:

    My parents received their second shots on Wednesday. They’re inviting my grandmother over for Easter dinner (who is already fully vaccinated). By Sunday, it will be almost my full two weeks since getting my second shot (Monday). I’m less worried about this than about my parents wanting to go out to casinos (wearing masks, of course) once their two weeks are up.

    Are these good ideas? I tried convincing them to wait until at least this summer to see what the situation with the pandemic is at that point. Cases are going up now and variants that are more contagious and deadlier are spreading

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    @Sister Golden Bear: +1

    A horrible day.  At least he didn’t have any guns.  :-(

    Meanwhile, in Georgia…

    Georgia lawmaker Park Cannon, who was arrested after knocking on the door where Gov. Brian Kemp was signing the law restricting voting rights, says she is now facing 8 years in prison after being charged with 2 felonies. https://t.co/8f1UV57qwc

    — Taniel (@Taniel) April 2, 2021

    Their behavior is vile. We have to fight them every single day.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    There is a shit ton of violence, crime, murders and terrorism linked to The Nation of Islam.

    What does this have to do with someone who may have been mentally disturbed?

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: FWIW I have ancestors involved in the Pequot War and on all sides of the Salem Witch Trials.  Does that count?

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Baud: It is odd, considering that about 1 in 200 men are descended from Genghis Khan. You’d think one or two of them would have been profiled.

  51. 51.

    Gin & Tonic

    I know it has become common parlance, but to me, an adult saying “Fauci ouchie” just sounds juvenile.

  52. 52.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    whether or not he was having mental health issues, a “religion” that encourages violence, crime, murders and terrorism is probably not the best “hang” for anybody.

  58. 58.

    Mike in NC

    @Jay: I suspect in a few more days we’ll be seeing pictures of Gaetz in bed with a live girl and a dead boy, or vice versa.

  59. 59.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “To be clear, when it is reported that Rep. Cannon has been charged, that refers only to the arrest warrants signed by a State Patrol officer. She has not been charged with a crime via accusation or indictment by the DA’s office,” a spokesman for Willis told the Daily Report. “The DA’s office has asked the State Patrol for the relevant information regarding the arrest and is awaiting it to make an evaluation.”

    https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2021/03/30/fulton-da-considering-whether-to-charge-lawmaker-in-capitol-arrest/?slreturn=20210302205757

  60. 60.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Florida prohibits vaccine passports, citing ‘freedom’

    Well, it seems DeSatan is actually going through with it. It wasn’t just him making noises like some here thought. Any lawyers have opinions on the legality/constitutionality of these vaccine passport bans? One of my asshole state reps in OH is a co-sponsor of such a bill. The other local co-sponsor said that vaccine passports “have no place in a free society” or some such idiotic patter

  62. 62.

    Major Major Major Major

    Man, I am still not out of the woods from that second Moderna shot yesterday. I’ll feel better soon enough, I’m sure.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Certainly appropriation of something…

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m not a doctor or anything, but those MRNA vaccines are pretty good and they will likely be fine, that said, lol yeah they should wait a month or two.

    Myself, I’ll be going to the movies as soon as there’s something worth seeing, but I’m young.

  64. 64.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    it’s performative. Both commercial enterprises and Foreign Governments are going to require Vaccine Passports for travel, employment, accomodation.

    the fun part is that a vaccine certification is only good for a certain period.

    So, you get the vax, don’t get the stamp, documentation, etc, as far as many entities are concerned, you arn’t vaccinated and will be denied entrance, employment, access, education.

  65. 65.

    JMG

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No freakin’ way this lasts. “Vaccine passport” is just another version of “no shoes, no shirt, no service.” (Many Mass. stores just put “no mask” on top of their original sign). First company that sues wins.

  66. 66.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @zhena gogolia:

    @debbie:

    I tried telling my mother this and she was having none of it. “We’ve got our shots and we’ll wear masks.” We’ve been waiting over a year to do this.”

    @Major Major Major Major

    Agreed. Though, I don’t think I’ll feel comfortable enough to do anything like that until the majority of the population is vaccinated and the case numbers fall into a lower-level seasonal pattern similar to flu

  67. 67.

    CaseyL

    @Gin & Tonic: ​
     

    I think Genghis Khan gets a bad rap. He established a civil service based on merit, standardized currency (while building a financial system that was centuries ahead of its time), and when he wasn’t out murdering entire populations was said to be a reasonably good ruler. His empire lasted 400 years. Not bad.

  70. 70.

    Amir Khalid

    @RSA:
    The Nation of Islam is not Islam as Muslims like me understand it. If you roughly analogise Sunni Islam to, say, Catholicism, and Shiite Islam to Orthodox Christianity, then the Nation of Islam is like Mormonism, I suppose, and Elijah Muhammed is its Brigham Young.

    The original Nation of Islam is now mainstream Muslim — Sunni, i think — but Farrakhan’s splinter group still holds to Elijah’s teachings, which both Sunni and Shiite Islam consider heretical. I don’t know the numbers, but I suspect they are a dwindling fraction of the Americans who profess some sort of Islam.

  72. 72.

    RSA

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The other local co-sponsor said that vaccine passports “have no place in a free society” or some such idiotic patter

    You know, though, that if there were a bill requiring a vaccine passport for people entering the U.S. (perhaps from specific countries), that sponsor would be on it like white on rice.

  73. 73.

    Jay

    @zhena gogolia:

    Seconded.

    After I am vaccinated, I’m not doing anything different until Covid is in the rear view mirror.

    Being fully vaccinated just means you are significantly less likely to get Covid, spread Covid, get severe Covid, be hospitalized or die.

    roughly less than 10%.

    that’s still a 8% to 5% chance of getting Covid, spreading Covid, being hospitalized for Covid, being crippled for life by Covid or dying from Covid,

    and there will be more variants coming.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    whether or not he was having mental health issues, a “religion” that encourages violence, crime, murders and terrorism is probably not the best “hang” for anybody.

    Yeah, some forms of Christianity are probably bad for people.

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The guy had slightly overtanned skin?  Louis Farakkan mentioned?  Obviously terrorism.

    Hundreds of TFG supporters executing a violent insurrection to “stop the steal”?  Patriots.

    There is so much about organized religion that sucks, regardless of its nominal flavor.

  81. 81.

    NotMax

    @

    Would suggest to them to wait a while until the odds are better that (a) more patrons have been vaccinated and (b) casino workers (whom I suspect tend to skew young) have also been jabbed.

  83. 83.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jay:

    a “religion” that encourages violence, crime, murders and terrorism

    That description could apply to certain sub-groups within any faith community, except maybe the Quakers.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @Amir Khalid: Malcolm left the Nation after he went to Mecca and realized the “White Devil” theory was ridiculous given the millions of white Muslims. Then they killed him.

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    @Amir Khalid:   Yup.  I was wondering about the original supposition (maybe just here) that the driver was white.

    So sad, and it’s always hard and sad to think that Officer Evans left for work this morning and will never return home.  Life can be over so suddenly and the finality of that.

    Same for all the people killed in all our latest killings.  Too many dead before their time.  This time a car; usually a gun.

  89. 89.

    raven

    @dnfree:

    Zen at War

    A compelling history of the contradictory, often militaristic, role of Zen Buddhism, this book meticulously documents the close and previously unknown support of a supposedly peaceful religion for Japanese militarism throughout World War II. Drawing on the writings and speeches of leading Zen masters and scholars, Brian Victoria shows that Zen served as a powerful foundation for the fanatical and suicidal spirit displayed by the imperial Japanese military. At the same time, the author recounts the dramatic and tragic stories of the handful of Buddhist organizations and individuals that dared to oppose Japan’s march to war. He follows this history up through recent apologies by several Zen sects for their support of the war and the way support for militarism was transformed into ‘corporate Zen’ in postwar Japan. The second edition includes a substantive new chapter on the roots of Zen militarism and an epilogue that explores the potentially volatile mix of religion and war. With the increasing interest in Buddhism in the West, this book is as timely as it is certain to be controversial.

  92. 92.

    Stuart Frasier

    @NotMax: In fairness, a lot of people probably do have royal ancestry.  Those fucker did a lot of begetting.

  93. 93.

    raven

    Well, I seen the fires burnin’
    And the local people turnin’
    On the merchants and the shops
    Who used to sell their brooms and mops
    And every other household item
    Watched the mob just turn and bite ’em
    And they say it served ’em right
    Because a few of them are white,
    And it’s the same across the nation
    Black & white discrimination
    They’re yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
    And all the other crap they hand me
    In the papers and TV
    ‘N all that mass stupidity
    That seems to grow more every day
    Each time you hear some nitwit say
    He wants to go and do you in
    Because the color of your skin
    Just don’t appeal to him
    (No matter if it’s black or white)
    Because he’s out for blood tonight

  96. 96.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I suspect you’re right

    @RSA:

    Oh absolutely. One of the co-sponsors wanted to rename a local state park after Trump, so yes probably.

    @JMG:

    @Jay:

    @Jay:

    Thanks for your answers : )

    @NotMax:

    That’s been my suggestion, but they want to do what they want to I guess

  99. 99.

    caphilldcne

    @debbie: no. Do not leave the fencing up. This is literally the people’s land. I live in this neighborhood. I used to go play bocce on the lawn. Kids sled on Capitol Hill. We have lost access to the Capitol balcony after 9/11 which was one of the most glorious places in washington. They need to undertake a security review. They need to take threats of right-wing mass marches and sometimes have temp fencing. We should not duck into a defensive cower. This is unacceptable in a democracy. And frankly they should figure out how to reopen the balcony. Completely unacceptable.

  105. 105.

    Bill Arnold

    @caphilldcne:

    They need to undertake a security review.

    Solid, ram-resistant interior doors would be a big step if it hasn’t already been done. That’s what was done with airliner cockpit doors.

  107. 107.

    caphilldcne

    @Another Scott: thanks. I’m still bitter over the balcony. I went there the day after 9/11 with a guest from the Netherlands. We looked out over the mall. Honestly I cried. I said something like you’ll never see it this way again – mainly due to the lack of air traffic. I didn’t think we’d never actually see it again.  To me, this continually increased security, the ongoing failure to secure space for regular people is a sign that the terrorists did actually win. It’s a goddamn shame. And a blight upon our republic.

  108. 108.

    smedley the uncertain

    @Gin & Tonic: Back in the sixties my  yellow ‘shot card’ was as valuable as my passport.  Needed to get into and out of many developing countries.  Lose it and they shot you all over again,  all at the same time

  110. 110.

    caphilldcne

    @Bill Arnold: yes. Maybe bulletproof glass. I’ve been told the issue with the balcony is a fear that someone with a homemade bomb could blow a hole in the ceiling below the balcony. But the 1/6 rioters climbed all over it and bashed in the windows.  So they didn’t actually prevent what they were trying to prevent. need to do better intel and stop this before it gets there. And yeah temporary fencing if needed. More solid doors. But stop taking away the peoples’ space. They were wrong after 9/11 and they’ll be wrong if they barricade themselves behind a fence with razor wire. That’s not democracy and it’s not the solution to the underlying problem.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    It wasn’t in the original trilogy. Quick Google search suggests that it didn’t show up until Heretics of Dune (1984). Can’t think of a polite way to say this, but it almost sounds like fanfic-level stuff.

    Frank Herbert had one great idea, he did a pretty good trilogy, and then later he (and his successors) kept strip-mining the lode.

  114. 114.

    Woodrow/asim

    Nation of Islam (NoI) has been Bad News for a long-assed time, along with some loosely-affiliated philosophies/groups. It’s exhausting as fuck, because they use the word “Islam,” explaining that these wankers have shit-all to do with anything from that religion.

    They are about as Islamic as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (aka North Korea) is a Republic.

  117. 117.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Steeplejack: IMHO, the latter two of the original trilogy simply do not measure up to the original; it’s like Herbert’s agent encouraged him to write more, and Herbert was only partially into it.

  119. 119.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Major Major Major Major: True fact: My Mom’s old church bought me GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, as an XMas gift, in my early teens.

    For those unaware: it’s an aggressively anti-religious book. Also: I had never read any Dune, nor mentioned wanting to read any…?

    …so far as I can figure, they asked my Mom what to get me, she mumbled something about me liking Science Fiction, they walked into the Waldenbooks at the local mall, saw a book in the SF section with “God” in the title, and said “that’ll do!”

  120. 120.

    caphilldcne

    @debbie: it’s political theater and a bs trade off. I’m sorry but the fences would not have prevented this. Unless you are also proposing a permanent shutdown of both constitution Avenue and Independence avenue. Major streets in Washington. You literally have no idea what you are proposing.

  122. 122.

    JWR

    Aw, Bobo Brooks (on the Snooze Hour) is concerned about the debt created by Biden’s infrastructure plan, but he’s very very concerned about all these corporations bowing down to public pressure to criticize GA over its voter suppression law, when such decisions should be settled at the political, and not at the big business level. Boo f*cking hoo, Bobo. And Capeheart says the infrastructure plan is DOA, just because.

    Also, why is it that Brooks always looks and acts like a little kid holding their bladder for want of a pee break? He shakes a lot. Maybe he fears another unexpected question about Facebook.

    As far as Frank Herbert, is his writing an acquired taste, like maybe Pynchon? I grew up reading all the SF I could get my hands on, but could never get through much of Dune. Another Herbert book I tried reading several times, The Santaroga Barrier, just bored me to death. Oh well. Not my cuppa, I guess.

  123. 123.

    caphilldcne

    BTW this kind of thing happened before 1/6. No one demanded walls. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/us-capitol-locked-down-after-reports-of-shots-fired/1954878/
    you’re proposing a shutoff of democracy and a shutoff in a very literal sense.

    does there need to be an adjustment and taking right wing threats seriously. Yes. Do we need razor wire fences and a security perimeter that shuts off the community?  No.

    PS support DC statehood. Wouldn’t have taken so long to get the national guard on the scene.

  125. 125.

    caphilldcne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    @debbie: you’re right btw. Bocce is a trivial neighborhood issue (but I would argue more important than you think it is). I also used to organize HIV demonstrations on the Capitol lawn (and more). That will now be impossible to do within sight of legislators (and make it harder for  legislators to participate). That’s not trivial.

  126. 126.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    However, if current reporting is correct — and that’s not a given! — it really does seem to be an unusually public Suicide by Cop…

    Which brings up another thing, how people who are depressed or mentally ill are treated. We really need some compassion in our society.

  131. 131.

    Yutsano

    Since the thread be open…

    I came across in USA Today  a decent article outlining where the money is going in the Infrastructure Week Extravaganza. There’s some really good stuff in here. I especially like the support for the caregiver wages.

  132. 132.

    Jay

    @AnotherBruce:

    double mask, a 1000thread count cotton outer, M116 medical filter insert, ( used in Covid wards air filtration), 1000 thread count bamboo inner layer, over top of a disposable N95 medical mask that get’s changed after transit, every two hours at work, and a fresh one for transit home,

    6 feet minimum,

    no more than 10 minutes with a Customer,

    Washing hands a couple hundred times a day,

    no “bubble breaking”, no indoor dining or drinking, other than at home.

    always first car on transit with the windows open,

    don’t touch anything, but if you have to, disposable gloves.

    Since Covid hit, 72 cases in my store, (1/3rd the staff, 6 deaths).

    That ain’t changing after vax.

  134. 134.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Jay:

    Being fully vaccinated just means you are significantly less likely to get Covid, spread Covid, get severe Covid, be hospitalized or die.

    roughly less than 10%.

    that’s still a 8% to 5% chance of getting Covid, spreading Covid, being hospitalized for Covid, being crippled for life by Covid or dying from Covid,

    That’s not how this figure works.

    It means that in a population such as the one enrolled in the trials, with a cumulated COVID-19 attack rate over a period of 3 months of about 1% without a vaccine, we would expect roughly 0·05% of vaccinated people would get diseased. It does not mean that 95% of people are protected from disease with the vaccine—a general misconception of vaccine protection also found in a Lancet Infectious Diseases Editorial.

    …

    Simple mathematics helps. If we vaccinated a population of 100 000 and protected 95% of them, that would leave 5000 individuals diseased over 3 months, which is almost the current overall COVID-19 case rate in the UK. Rather, a 95% vaccine efficacy means that instead of 1000 COVID-19 cases in a population of 100 000 without vaccine (from the placebo arm of the abovementioned trials, approximately 1% would be ill with COVID-19 and 99% would not) we would expect 50 cases (99·95% of the population is disease-free, at least for 3 months).

  136. 136.

    Kay

    According to three people with direct knowledge of the incident: Greenberg visited the Lake Mary, Florida branch of his tax collection agency that weekend. Grainy surveillance footage captured Greenberg standing near a manager’s desk with another man. Greenberg forgot to set the alarm on the way out, which concerned the assistant branch manager when she walked into the office Monday morning. That employee was surprised to find that drivers’ licenses—which are normally turned in when expired at the tax office for shredding—were scattered all over the desk instead of in the appropriate disposal basket. She reviewed the camera footage and alerted her boss, who in turn contacted Greenberg via text.
    “Did you happen to visit the Lake Mary Office on the weekend?” the text message read.
    The image obtained by The Daily Beast shows that Greenberg allegedly responded, “Yes I was showing congressman Gaetz what our operation looked like. Did I leave something on?”

    Fake ID’s! This story just gets better and better.

  138. 138.

    Bill Arnold

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Does that show up in the first book at all?

    Paul wakes up mid book, and it’s not badly described. (Paul never fully accepts it all though.) Don’t know how far into the book the new movie goes. (Wikipedia says half.)

  140. 140.

    Anya

    I wonder if he became a follower of Nation of Islam due to his struggle with mental illness. Often when people are struggling with symptoms they seek ways to make sense of it and usually religion and spirituality are ways to cope with it.

    I feel so sad for the officer and his loved ones. It’s so sad.

    The guy who did this seems like a tortured soul and I feel for him. I wish someone would’ve noticed.

  143. 143.

    Jay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    as the Lancet studies own numbers point out, vaccination doesn’t equal immunity

    and the Lancet studies numbers are at best, simplistic.

    Vaccinated, you can still get Covid. Dependent on both which vaccine you get, and your own physiology, at best, 92% of the time, it will simply be a mild case of covid, with minimal spread, ( lower viral load) , or no Covid at all,

    One of my coworkers got vaccinated in Feb.

    Currently in the ICU on life support.

    Were they one of the 8% to 14% for which the various vaccines offered 0 protection?

    Or were they one of the 16% to 21% for which the vaccines did not provide enough protection.

    Around here we have Vaxholes. People who have had one shot, think they are now immune, Superman. Assholes. Don’t give a shit.

    I am not changing a thing about my PPP until covid is in the rear view mirror, and then during Cold and Flu season, masking up and staying as sterile as I can.

    I am still long hauling, I hope that getting vaxed, knocks some of that shit down. I am not going to take the risk of being in an induced coma and on a ventilator, again.

  145. 145.

    Dan B

    @Jay:  Sorry to hear about your health challenges. Wish I had a more accurate word. And your co-workers horrible illness is a lot to read about, a lot to process. We’ve been fortunate that only a couple acquaintances have been ill. I think having the first known Covid case in the US, the rapid involvement of our local tech companies, and a highly educated and non religious populace made a difference. But luck has played a role.

    We weren’t so “lucky” with AIDS. There are many stories.

  149. 149.

    Another Scott

    @Anya:  I noticed that he played football as well. Maybe had nothing to do with it; maybe brain injuries made it worse.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  150. 150.

    Anne Laurie

    @Another Scott: I noticed that he played football as well. Maybe had nothing to do with it; maybe brain injuries made it worse.

    Leaving aside physical trauma, going from being a school football ‘star’ to just another jobless twenty-something is apparently traumatic for a lot of guys…

  151. 151.

    Sloane Ranger

    Talking about security, I’m probably a member of one of the last generations to have been able to just walk into Downing Street and have their photo taken standing outside No.10.

    The security gates sealing it off to the general public were put up in the late 1980’s as a result of an increase in mainland terrorist incidents by the IRA.

  152. 152.

    germy

    Here’s a conservative opinion piece on the attack:

    A Real Capitol Attack
    And there was an attack on the Capitol today that actually did kill a police officer.
    I’m telling you, folks, people are massively off their nut because of what was done to all of us over the past year.

    (By “what was done to all of us” the blogger means the mandated social distancing and mask wearing)

  153. 153.

    evodevo

    @Baud: ​
      LOL exactly…or on Henry Gates’ program either…MY ancestors (at least back to the 1700’s) were shopkeepers, barkeeps, wheat farmers, insane asylum attendants/prison guards, or gamblers lol – not a princess or a duke among ’em…

  154. 154.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: My mother’s been doing a lot of research into my family history. Can confirm that we’re descended from many lines of mass murderers, slavers and assholes. And, I suppose, some of them are good people.

  155. 155.

    Bnad

    I’m surprised nobody has mentioned CTE. He was a college football player and his behavior and symptoms, at least as described in this story, were classic.
    I read this story before reading anything else about him, and after having received this introduction, I could not believe that any article would lead with the nation of Islam theme. Of course, when I go to the FTFNYT page, that is exactly what they led with.

  156. 156.

    Elizabelle

    @germy: 

    “an attack … that actually did kill a police officer.”

    WTF? Officer Sicknick is not dead? Someone should tell his loved ones.

  157. 157.

    Elizabelle

    @Bnad:   I wondered about that too, but thought he might be too young for that?  Although, maybe not.  Damage done is damage done.

    CTE and schizophrenia.  There would be a combination.

Comments are closed.