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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another One Bites the Dust

Another One Bites the Dust

by @heymistermix.com|  September 13, 20213:34 pm| 97 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Another conservative radio host, Pastor Bob Enyart, just died of COVID. Here’s his Herman Cain Award thread. Pastor Bob was a real sweetheart who used to “gleefully read obituaries of people who died of AIDS while playing ‘Another One Bites the Dust’.” Right back at ya, Pastor Bob.

Bob joins radio hosts Phil Valentine, Marc Bernier, Jimmy DeYoung, Sr., Landy Cason and Jeff LeBlanc in gasping to death slowly after contracting a disease for which there is a safe, effective and free vaccination. (There are probably others — I stopped looking after I found those 5.)

It’s one thing to aspire to be the next Sean Hannity. It’s quite another to have that aspiration without realizing that Hannity is vaccinated. How dumb do you have to be to be a con man who isn’t in on the con? Apparently, the answer is: as dumb as these 6 idiots.

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    September 13, 2021 at 3:36 pm

    gleefully read obituaries of people who dies of AIDS

    Didn’t Rush do that too?

  2. 2.

    Joey Maloney

    September 13, 2021 at 3:36 pm

    “Aspiration” is absolutely le mot juste here.

  3. 3.

    A Ghost to Most

    September 13, 2021 at 3:40 pm

    He was a “pastor”. He was in on the grift.

  4. 4.

    RaflW

    September 13, 2021 at 3:40 pm

    Add Veronica Wolski to the Cain Awards. She’s the one completely bonkers (and goddess willing, soon to be disbarred) Lin Wood got a bunch of people whipped up over to threaten her hospital because it wouldn’t administer a ‘treatment’ that has no proven efficacy (Ivermectin).

    Died of the ronna this morning.

  5. 5.

    Chief Oshkosh

    September 13, 2021 at 3:43 pm

    It would be instructive to also publish the R values for their communities at the time that they were infected and still moving about the community. From that, very rough estimates could be made as to how many people they likely infected. This would highlight that not only did they kill themselves, they very likely harmed X numbers of people and killed Y numbers of people. These would be rough estimates, as noted, but including them in the discussion would remind everyone that the Herman Cain Awardee was not only stupid, but callous and a net negative to his/her community.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    September 13, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    @RaflW: And, of course, the hospital is now getting death threats.

  7. 7.

    germy

    September 13, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    Enyart was also a Meme King, so he had that going for him.

    Louder with Crowder "Change my mind" meme for Biden… #Crowder #LouderwithCrowder @scrowder pic.twitter.com/PAl9UHBXLp

    — Bob Enyart Live (@BobEnyart) January 11, 2021

  8. 8.

    brendancalling

    September 13, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    I just made an Enyart in the toilet. Like it’s namesake, it’s been flushed.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    September 13, 2021 at 3:50 pm

    Today in free-loaders (via NYT):

    ‘Their Crisis’ Is ‘Our Problem’: Washington Grapples With Idaho Covid Cases

    Hospitals in Washington State, already strained, are taking on an influx of Covid patients from Idaho, where the governor has refused to require masks or vaccinations.

    SPOKANE, Wash. — Surgeries to remove brain tumors have been postponed. Patients are backed up in the emergency room. Nurses are working brutal shifts. But at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., the calls keep coming: Can Idaho send another patient across the border?
    Washington State is reeling under its own surge of coronavirus cases. But in neighboring Idaho, 20 miles down Interstate 90 from Spokane, unchecked virus transmission has already pushed hospitals beyond their breaking point.

    “Fuck off, we’re full” would seem to be the appropriate answer to that question.

  10. 10.

    germy

    September 13, 2021 at 3:52 pm

    @brendancalling:

    I thought an enyart is the thing you have to flush twice for.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    September 13, 2021 at 3:53 pm

    @dmsilev: FWIW, I’m not sure eastern Washington is that much less red than Idaho.

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    September 13, 2021 at 3:57 pm

    @Baud: True, but the statewide government is a great deal saner, and that helps even in the Red areas. For instance, Washington accepted Medicaid expansion right from the get-go, and Idaho did so only recently and reluctantly (last year, if I’m reading things correctly on a brief Google), so you might well imagine that the rural hospital systems in Idaho were underresourced compared to similar parts of Washington.

  13. 13.

    piratedan

    September 13, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    @Baud: copy that…. it’s not, but Spokane is closer than Boise and Idaho is “full”.  I’m sure that they’re going thru the same local rolodex of hospitals like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi have admitted to….

  14. 14.

    Bex

    September 13, 2021 at 4:00 pm

    @RaflW: Wolski spent her time putting up signs on Chicago expressway overpasses and yammering on about how she never wore a mask because FREEDOM.  She never understood how much the virius didn’t care about her FREEDOM.

  15. 15.

    RaflW

    September 13, 2021 at 4:03 pm

    @dmsilev: One hopes that Lin soliciting death threats gets added to his disbarment proceedings in Georgia. The wheels of justice grind too slowly sometimes.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    September 13, 2021 at 4:07 pm

    @dmsilev: Are higher out-of-network costs still a part of many health plans? I’m wondering whether shifting COVID (and other) patients out of state is going to slam them with unexpected medical bills.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    September 13, 2021 at 4:08 pm

    Maybe the value of broadcast station licenses will begin to drop and the DFHs can start buying them back at ten cents on the dollar from Clear Channel and Sinclair and all those other Konservative propaganda mills who carry these mouthbreathers. Play the Dead 24/7 for all I care, just stop using Our Public Airwaves for broadcasting seditious, anti-American content.

  18. 18.

    Nelle

    September 13, 2021 at 4:09 pm

    @dmsilev: Sacred Heart in Spokane gave my father a job as an orderly during the Depression.  That ended his days of picking apples in exchange for getting the bad ones to eat and washing dishes in a restaurant in exchange for eating the food left on the plates.  I have a surge of gratitude whenever i see the name.

  19. 19.

    smith

    September 13, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    @RSA: I’m sure that if insurance companies can get away with slamming them, them, then slam them they will. It gets mentioned occasionally, but the full brunt of medical costs has yet to be realized. In addition to long covid and lost wages, the surviving anti-vaxxers are facing amazing bills and inevitable medical bankruptcies.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    September 13, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    @RSA: So maybe instead of dmsilev’s “Fuck off we’re full” (which could be read as slightly impolite), the hospital should respond “Sure, if we can bill you for our expenses, and you take care of getting reimbursed from the patient’s insurance.”

  21. 21.

    Mike in NC

    September 13, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    Did anybody ask elderly Larry Elder if he’s vaccinated? He’d probably lie about it if they did.

  22. 22.

    marklar

    September 13, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    “It’s one thing to aspire to be the next Sean Hannity.”

    Aspirations sans respirations lead to funeral preparations.

  23. 23.

    trollhattan

    September 13, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Sac County isn’t at capacity but the healthcare #s are way up since delta hit. They show 370/95 hospital/ICU cases now, where in early summer it was about 60/20 and looking like Covid would soon be behind us (hah). Roughly 100 ICU beds are unused ATM.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    September 13, 2021 at 4:16 pm

    @Mike in NC: Guessing he’s vaccinated. Probably wise since he’s not exactly the picture of good health.

  25. 25.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 4:20 pm

    Welp, I see in the news that no detected cases of covid transmission in San Francisco and some other SF Bay areas at school sites after three weeks of in-person instruction. They are all from home exposures, and from more mixing among adults carting the kids around.

    Seems that research that concluded that covid problems with in-person school instruction can be solved by keeping community transmission among adults as low as possible was correct.

    And that adds indirect evidence that reproduction number among kids up through middle school age is much lower than that of adults and teens. If true that would be very good news for eventual ability to control the disease with a return to a truly normal normal life with high vaccination uptake and some covid specific precautions that should be as unobtrusive as for other infectious diseases like TB and Hep A that we don’t notice much anymore.

    So the mayhem caused by low vax rates is vast and tragic. Low vax rates among adults and > 12 teens are probably causing most of the mess in return to in-person instruction we see in some parts of the country.

    Edit: SF covid control still in many ways a  hot mess, causing much more social and economic disruption than it needs to. But that is another matter. The place did great in preventing death, and much better than US average in keeping spread low and slow. Only places in US we can look to for world class best practices are probably Vermont and some Native American nations (which did well considering many of them in atrocious white man public health neighborhoods and their huge disadvantages in terms of poverty)

  26. 26.

    John Revolta

    September 13, 2021 at 4:22 pm

    How dumb do you have to be to be a con man who isn’t in on the con?

    Well put. If you look around the ICU and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s probably you.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    September 13, 2021 at 4:27 pm

    @jl: LA is doing pretty well. A summary from the LA Times, data current as of Friday:

    As of September 10, there were 1,240 active case detected by the district’s massive testing regimen. Of those, there was one case linked to spread at a school. L.A. Unified serves more than 460,000 students.

    LA Unified requires everyone to be tested weekly, regardless of vaccination status, mandates vaccines for adults, and will be phasing in a mandate for students (ages 12+ of course).

  28. 28.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    September 13, 2021 at 4:27 pm

    Jesús Marimba, another one? How fucking dumb are these guys? This is a running joke at this point. If we were in a movie, the characters would be putting bets down on who the next one would be. It’s so fucking sad it’s become funny.

  29. 29.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 4:28 pm

    @jl: The SF Chron article I read went into some detail about the mitigations the schools are using.  It was pretty clear that

    1. parents are pushing strongly *for* every mitigation they can
    2. schools are required to meet at *least* the guidelines of local health authorities (the same ones that closed down SF early at the start of the pandemic, saving countless lives)
    3. schools are free to go beyond those guidelines, and many are doing so
    4. the only people pushing back are those whose job is to mind budgets

    I don’t know why you’d call it a hot mess: it seems to be working pretty well.  Specifically, I’d point out that given this is a new pathogen and we’re acting in the face of evolving knowledge and an evolving pathogen, it makes sense to err on the side of safety.  And that’s what seems to be happening.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 13, 2021 at 4:30 pm

    I am just appalled that these vile creatures are dying now from COVID, when it would have been much more helpful for them to have died earlier.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 13, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    @Mike in NC: ​
     It’s not “politically correct” for a wingnut politician to admit to being slightly sensible and be vaccinated.

  32. 32.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    @dmsilev:  Thanks. Do you know what kind of testing they are doing? Is it PCR or fast antigen testing.

    I read that CA started a big mass antigen testing, but can’t find much info about it. AFAIK, CA never applied for an exemption to lack of FDA approval for vast number of excellent tests that are used very successfully in dozens of countries by now (over 30 are stuck in FDA which has its head up its ass on how to handle public health testing and public health use of devices in general).

    I know from convos with testing experts that there is fear that using PCRs with long lag times to get results will result in unneeded mass closures, when use of rapid antigen tests would result in a few kids missing a week of school in same situation.

    I’m very confused by how CA is handling testing and so are some of the academic testing experts I talk with.

    If anyone has info let me know. Where is Martin when we need him?

  33. 33.

    Ken

    September 13, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: And when have any of them ever done anything helpful?

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    September 13, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    Terminal pomposity.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    September 13, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like the feds are losing patience with this nonsense, hence Biden’s recent employer mandate announcement. I wonder what more can be done, like pulling the licenses of radio stations that broadcast dangerous misinformation in the middle of a public health crisis.

    Wingnuts are going to squeal about losing their freedom anyway. I hope the feds give them lots more to squeal about.

    My shitty governor seems to be courting a Biden admin smackdown by announcing that the state will start suing local governments that mandate vaccines for employees. Smack that fucker down!

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 13, 2021 at 4:37 pm

    Let America Vote @LetAmericaVote 11m
    BREAKING:
    @SenSchumer has announced that a vote will be held on voting rights legislation next week! In the words of Leader Schumer “Time is of the essence”

    I wonder what the plan is…?

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    September 13, 2021 at 4:38 pm

    @Mike in NC: ​
     

    Did anybody ask elderly Larry Elder if he’s vaccinated? He’d probably lie about it if they did.

    He says he has been vaccinated, and I see little reason for him to lie that way. This is a fairly standard position for a Republican leader. They’ll come out with a tepid endorsement of vaccination and say they’re personally vaccinated, but they oppose any kind of vaccine mandate or even letting businesses exclude unvaccinated people. It lets them play both sides.

  38. 38.

    Another Scott

    September 13, 2021 at 4:38 pm

    Meanwhile, … Science.org:

    “Why not just potty train the cows?” That’s what a radio jockey asked animal behaviorist Lindsay Matthews during a 2007 interview about how cow urine harms the environment. The question was in jest, but it got Matthews—a researcher at the University of Auckland—thinking. Now, nearly 14 years later, he and colleagues have accomplished what many thought impossible: They’ve taught nearly a dozen calves, which normally pee and poop at random, to “hold it” and urinate in a specific location. Yes, dear readers, the bovines learned to use the bathroom.

    The new finding is far from a parlor—or pasture—trick. If applied to the 270 million dairy cows across the globe, it could put a serious dent in the toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases produced by bovine waste.

    […]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  39. 39.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 4:39 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: “I don’t know why you’d call it a hot mess”

    That referred to whole course of SF Bay Area control effort throughout the pandemic since their early great success an early shutdown which was as well timed and implemented given the enormous disadvantages they faced at the time, not what is going on right now with the schools. Looks like they finally are implementing a sound control policy for schools and I hope the success continues.

    Read the WHO’s European Observatory on Health Systems and Policy, check out Reuter’s control policy timelines and Our World in Data covid section to see what I mean by ‘hot mess’ compared to many other far more successful countries. Of course, much of US was far worse, a true shitpit.

    Edit: and very high vax rates in SF, particularly among Hispanic and poor Asian essential workers gives SF Bay Area a huge advantage and lots of wriggle room for inevitable errors in, as you say, a high risk and novel situation.

  40. 40.

    Jeffery

    September 13, 2021 at 4:42 pm

    My mother said always speak good of the dead. Pastor Bob Enyart is dead. Good.

  41. 41.

    dmsilev

    September 13, 2021 at 4:42 pm

    @jl: The school district web site doesn’t say, but the FAQ page does mention a ~2 day turnaround time to get test results, which would suggest that it’s PCR testing rather than antigen.

  42. 42.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 4:45 pm

    @jl: OK, fair enough.  But I’ll note that that’s been true everywhere in CA, and the reason is simple: Patriotic Poujadist Fascist small business owners who care more about their bottom-lines than public health, even in the face of a barely-understood pathogen.

    I note that when Newsom originally reopened the state back in May 2020), Sara Cody (Santa Clara public health director) was quite vocal (and in newspaper columns) about how it was the wrong thing to do, specifically arguing that to reopen so fast and so fully was to fly blind, and that small measures should be taken step-by-step, with 3+ weeks to observe their effects, etc.  I’m not saying that the Bay Area did a great job.  But rather that they did the best they could under the circumstances.

    All that said, the way in which the city pushed-back against teachers’ demands for vaccination priority and various mitigations was *reprehensible*.

    ETA: even after the state “reopened fully” in Jun 2021, SF’s MUNI continued to require masks.  The city’s done what it can, in the face of zero-to-minimal cooperation from business-owners.

  43. 43.

    Ken

    September 13, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: You know, if thirty or so Republican Senators were to “accidentally” get stuck on an elevator for a couple of hours….

    (One of my favorite scenes in Elizabeth is where Walsingham tells the six imprisoned bishops that Elizabeth won the vote, by five.)

  44. 44.

    moops

    September 13, 2021 at 4:48 pm

    ..aren’t the Herman Cain Awards all about gloating over obituaries while humming Another One Bites the Dust?

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    September 13, 2021 at 4:48 pm

    OmarJoe comin’. No chance of seeing him, though.

    President Joe Biden will be in California on Monday, touring wildfire damage before speaking at a rally with Gov. Gavin Newsom on the eve of the recall election.

    Biden will arrive at Mather Airport around 2:15 p.m. following a visit to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, according to a media schedule provided by the White House Press Office. He’ll then receive a briefing on California wildfires at the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services in Mather before departing around 3:30 p.m. for an “aerial tour of hard hit communities in El Dorado County” damaged in the Caldor Fire.

    The president plans to return to Mather Airport around 4:30 p.m. for remarks on his administration’s wildfire response and infrastructure proposals.

    He will then depart for Long Beach, where he plans to give remarks at a campaign rally with Newsom at 7 p.m.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article254199188.html#storylink=cpy

    Eve of the recall, so a two-bird thing.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    September 13, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    @moops: ​
     Gloating strictly optional, but not unwelcome.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    September 13, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    @moops:

    The difference is the existence of a safe and effective vaccine.

  48. 48.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    @dmsilev: OK then, thanks. I’ve been reading contradictory things about state and local testing policies.

    And, apologies to commenters for my repeated harping that US covid control policy has been severely substandard. But look at references I gave above.

    IMHO, the woeful inability of US society  to respond to any social problem is alarming and dangerous. We can’t give in to nihilistic dysfunctional American exceptionalism and say ‘well, that just the way it is here’ anymore. It’s fricken dangerous and I wonder hos sustainable our little American experiment is if things keep going this way.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    September 13, 2021 at 4:50 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Fascinating.

  50. 50.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 4:53 pm

    @jl:

    ‘hot mess’ compared to many other far more successful countries

    I fully agree with you, that nothing in CA (or anywhere in the US) compares well to what other countries accomplished.  100% agree.  But then, it’s morally impermissible to, y’know “dispose” of the “I refuse to comply” 40% of the population, so countermeasures on a par with the rest of the world were impossible.  Manifestly impossible.  And that’s here in SF, as well as everywhere else.  I had long chats with a friend in France about the “lockdown” there, as compared to what our “lockdowns” were like, and there’s just no comparison.

    Actually effective countermeasures to suppress the bug were never on the cards here.

  51. 51.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 4:53 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: thanks for your viewpoint. It’s been a very complicated situation. I think public health authorities and general incapacity of US to take any public action to solve social problems played a big role too.

    This is anecdata, but I try to get info from management I can find at every small business I go into. You are right, some are assholes, but others expressed frustration and fear of ruin from very confusing communications and apparent disorganization of local public health.

    We’ll have to wait until the fog of epidemiological war clears to get a full picture.

  52. 52.

    vhh

    September 13, 2021 at 4:56 pm

    @RSA: Out of network deductibles are often 2-3x higher than in network deductibles. Plus contract discounts likely don’t apply. So yes.

  53. 53.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 13, 2021 at 4:57 pm

    @jl: same as it ever was really, apparently guys with weird blond hair making a mess of disease control are a recurring thing in American society.

    https://youtu.be/VtG_5YHaWms

  54. 54.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 4:58 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    France better than US, and they had stricter shutdowns. Norway and Finland, and early on Estonia managed much softer and shorter and far more efficient shutdowns and figured out a social distancing policy that worked for a mask averse population and kept social and economic life much more intact.  US needs to aim for world best practices. Seems like we can only do that in only a few sectors sealed off and protected from larger society, like high tech basic research and medical sciences and health care, for example.

  55. 55.

    RepubAnon

    September 13, 2021 at 4:58 pm

     

    @Bex:  I guess she didn’t understand that giving the virus FREEDOM might have side effects.

  56. 56.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 4:59 pm

    @jl:

    others expressed frustration and fear of ruin from very confusing communications and apparent disorganization of local public health.

    I watched very carefully the “two-step” these bastards performed:

    1. argue that the rules are complicated, too complicated to follow, so they should be exempt
    2. argue that the rules are oversimplified, and don’t account for the special conditions that obtain for their particular businesses, so they should be exempt.

    I remember very well multiple articles by gym and restaurant owners, arguing that no cases of covid had been traced to their establishments, and so they should be able to operate without restriction.

    Bullshit like that.  Part of my anger at these bastards comes out in a deep and burning desire to see them all go bankrupt.  I did my part and stayed (still staying) indoors to the detriment of my health, so I don’t know which businesses were doing a good job and which weren’t.  So I just want them all to go bankrupt, and be replaced by a new generation of restaurants.

    My gym (the YMCA) was a bunch of cowards, refusing to even start accumulating vaccine records, or use their position in the community to *push* for vaccination, or even advertise how close they were to a fully-vaccinated workplace (basically, they did *nothing*) for months, until the SF city health department instituted a vaccine mandate.  Fucking cowards.  I pushed them multiple times over months, and they always just ducked.  I used to think of them as a worthy charity.  No longer.  They’re a business, and nothing more

    ETA: I remember columns in various SoCal newspapers where local business owners argued that sure, covid was rampant in the next county, but in their county it was all good, so why where they forced to submit to restrictions? [cue incessant whining]

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    September 13, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Yeah, LA county as a whole is doing well.  Countywide cases in children continue to drop despite school starting.  We must be doing something right.

  58. 58.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:03 pm

    @jl:

    US needs to aim for world best practices.

    There came a point where I stopped even reckoning that this was in the realm of the possible.  You don’t shake your fist at the hurricane: it accomplishes nothing, and might result in your getting blown away by a gust.  This was never on the cards, b/c we are surrounded by moral midgets who have no understanding of what their civic duty is, and are only concerned with their own private, short-term, selfish interests.

    ETA: And the real pity is that even here in the Bay Area, we are surrounded by enough such people, that rational public health management is impossible.  Even here in the Bay Area.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    September 13, 2021 at 5:04 pm

    @Chetan Murthy

    The 10 countries reporting the most cases (emphasis mine):

    U.S.
    India
    Brazil
    Russia
    U.K.
    France
    Turkey
    Argentina
    Iran
    Colombia
    .

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    September 13, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: ​
     

    even after the state “reopened fully” in Jun 2021, SF’s MUNI continued to require masks.

    That wasn’t their call. The TSA of all agencies is the one that put the mask requirement in place for public transit, and they still haven’t relaxed it.

  61. 61.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I guess we talk with a different crowd. You in SF Bay or Southern California?

    I do know that in SF Bay early evasion of control efforts was not initiated by small business owners but large real estate interests that pulled strings behind the scenes to get their shopping malls reclassified to evade public health orders.

    It’s just amazing how many places suddenly become essential transit hubs around here in mid 2020

    Edit: OK, I see you are SF Bay. I’ll try to follow up on what you typed here. Thanks for your viewpoint.

  62. 62.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    The TSA of all agencies

    Dayyum. Good on them!  Who’d’a thunk it?

  63. 63.

    Anoniminous

    September 13, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    we are surrounded by moral midgets who have no understanding of what their civic duty is, and are only concerned with their own private, short-term, selfish interests.

    Bingo!

    And the worst are those ignorant hick born-again Evangelical/Fundie assholes.

  64. 64.

    Dan B

    September 13, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    @Baud: People Luke me who survived AIDS are not very surprised by the heartlessness and outright cruelty.  I’m a bit surprised there have not been many calls to quarantine either people with Covid, or people who’ve been vaccinated, or people who support Fauci.  I guess the reason is Covid doesn’t primarily kill a vulnerable minority that has been demonized for decades.  The bullying strategy must be modified.  It’s difficult to demonize people with Covid as spreading pestilence if they’re mostly part of a white majority although the fear mongering about immigrants is altogether typical.

    The fact that patients in ICU remain invisible keeps the horror out of sight.  The stories of the unrecognizable corpses arriving in mortuaries echoes the final moments of AIDS victims.  I’m still rattled by the memories of friends and exes last days.  Our distaste for seeing clear images of our mortality is not always to our benefit.  It’s of no value to swamp people with those images but to completely hide them is criminal.

  65. 65.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    @jl:

    early evasion of control efforts was not initiated by small business owners but large real estate interests

    Nice.  I had forgotten about that.  Falls into a similar bucket: businessmen with not a single concern for the public welfare, just pigs at the trough.

  66. 66.

    Dan B

    September 13, 2021 at 5:11 pm

    @dmsilev: OMG!  Our best friends’ nephew is a Med student at Sacred Heart in Spokane.  He’s a great young guy, just married.

  67. 67.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:12 pm

    @jl: BTW, I *am* aware of just how civic-minded most of my neighbors have been.  Even in June, after the “reopening” it was rare to see someone without a mask at their neck, ready to pull up.  And I never saw a maskless person in a store.

    It’s just that there was that selfish immoral minority, and clearly that was enough to restart the epidemic after it looked like we’d vanquished it.  And here we are, back indoors for months.

    Can you tell I’m frustrated and angry?  Yep.  Still indoors, and I’ll stay here until it’s safe — until case rates are back down to where they were in June.

  68. 68.

    Dan B

    September 13, 2021 at 5:15 pm

    @Baud: SPoland, as a typical metro area, is blue in a sea of red.  Spokane Valley just east of Spokane on the birder with Idaho is very far right, as much so as the worst parts of Northern Idaho.

  69. 69.

    jl

    September 13, 2021 at 5:16 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:  I from detailed stats I saw from inside sources, it went like this: you got some big commercial venue you want open and > 2 muni stops at corner across the street, get reclassified. Evade safety precautions for essential workers and get those people working in crowded to-go kitchens and pushing out product from backrooms for curbside retail. Boom! Superspreader event.

  70. 70.

    KrackenJack

    September 13, 2021 at 5:16 pm

    @dmsilev: ​
      I know emergency departments have to accept all patients – and that is appropriate. However, I don’t think they should accept any transfers that weren’t fully vaccinated prior to admission.

  71. 71.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    @jl: Sounds about right. You’re only confirming my worst suspicions, jl . Only confirming.  Sigh.

  72. 72.

    El Cruzado

    September 13, 2021 at 5:19 pm

    I don’t think any SF bay area public transportation systems ever stopped requiring masks through all this.

  73. 73.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:19 pm

    @KrackenJack: IIUC, EMTALA only requires that hospitals stabilize people coming into their ER.  There’s no requirement they give them an ICU bed.  So I’d bet that these interhospital transfers for the purpose of getting an ICU bed don’t fall under that law.  But IANAL, so hey, I could be making this up.

  74. 74.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 13, 2021 at 5:21 pm

    @El Cruzado: That’s what I saw, and from what @Roger Moore: said, it makes sense.  Still impressed that the *TSA* had to stones to do this.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    September 13, 2021 at 5:28 pm

    @Chetan Murthy

    E.O. from Biden’s first full day in office applies.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced a federal mask requirement for transit systems to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 based on President Joseph R. Biden’s Executive Order 13998, issued January 21, 2021. The Transportation Security Administration soon followed with a security directive implementing the CDC order.
    [snip]
    TSA has extended the face mask requirement for all transportation networks, including public transportation, through January 18, 2022. TSA’s initial face mask requirement went into effect on February 1, 2021 with an expiration date of May 11, 2021 and was then extended through September 13, 2021. Source

  76. 76.

    Kay

    September 13, 2021 at 5:32 pm

     

    It’s turning into a genuine ethical question for hospitals and they are going to have to answer it. It simply isn’t fair to people who got vaccinated and need hospital care to take unvaccinated covid patients ahead of them. It isn’t the same as other self-destructive or dangerous behavior because that doesn’t cause masses flooding hospitals all at once.

    They never had to make that decision before, where they would (for example)  have to turn away the drunk driver and let his victim go first, because there was enough capacity for both. If there isn’t enough capacity it’s a completely different question.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    September 13, 2021 at 5:32 pm

    @NotMax

    Neglected to include the link to the complete text of the E.O. from January.

  78. 78.

    Dan B

    September 13, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    @Dan B: Remind self to check for Auto(in)correct and typos.  SPoland for Spokane???

  79. 79.

    Ksmiami

    September 13, 2021 at 6:06 pm

    @Kay: unvaxxed Covid (except kids) patients get tents outside with limited treatment

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    September 13, 2021 at 6:07 pm

    @Jeffery:

    Mine always said never speak bad of the dead. Which of course left off the possibility of actually getting in the last word. I like your version better.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    September 13, 2021 at 6:12 pm

    @Ksmiami:

    They were also told this was the risk. At the beginning of the pandemic (because of the nature of a pandemic) the whole discussion was about reaching capacity at hospitals.

    A pandemic is a one-off. It’s a unique ethical situation. We can handle X amount of self destructive behavior (spread out both geographically and in time) and still provide hospital care to all comers, but there’s a limit. This is the limit. And they were warned.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    September 13, 2021 at 6:14 pm

    @Ruckus

    “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
    – Bette Davis
    .

  83. 83.

    Kay

    September 13, 2021 at 6:23 pm

    @Ksmiami:

    No, because time is what is being taken from the vaxxed needing hospital care. The unvaxxed covids have to travel further, to areas where the hospitals have excess capacity. “State lines” shouldn’t matter. Distance should matter, because there is capacity- it’s just closer or further out.

    I actually had this situation in my office. My client’s elderly father had a serious heart incident and they couldn’t get him admitted. He had to travel 90-some miles because our local critical care beds are full of covid people. That doesn’t even make sense. Now we’re making collateral victims.

  84. 84.

    Frank Wilhoit

    September 13, 2021 at 6:52 pm

    The people racking up the Herman Cain awards are, doubtless, stupid; but this is not what proves it.

    They’re performing, and they’re assuming that the stage manager has a handle on the props.

  85. 85.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    September 13, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    @moops: The Herman Cain Awards are for people who have spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID and who have died despite many opportunities to get one of the free and widely available vaccines which could have prevented their death.

    If you see gloating, it’s because the rest of us are frustrated with these idiots. I’m personally not a big fan of it, but dear lord am I sick of these people.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    September 13, 2021 at 8:51 pm

    @NotMax:

    The population of India is 1 billion more than we have.

    Brazil is 2/3 of our population.

    Russia is less than 1/2 of ours.

    UK is approx 1/5 of ours

    France is approx 1/5 of ours

    I’m not checking how they are doing with Covid but India seems to be doing not all that bad considering, although there seems to be some discussion if they are actually accounting for all the deaths. Still, they would have to be undercounting considerably to be second to us with that much population.

  87. 87.

    joel hanes

    September 13, 2021 at 9:04 pm

    @Another Scott:

    It’d be a whole lot easier, and a good starting move, to just fence cattle out of all watercourses, and provide them with water at troughs 100 feet or more from creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes.

    Cattle destroy riverbank vegetation, and trample the soil into mud, which makes the banks erode, which makes the water turbid, which prevents bottom-rooted plants from growing, which makes the water more turbid.  Cow shit and urine in the water fertilizes the hyper-growth of algae that die and eutrophicate, making the water anoxic, which kills fish and insects.

    Cattle are locusts with hooves.

  88. 88.

    joel hanes

    September 13, 2021 at 9:06 pm

    @Ruckus:

    Do not trust the numbers produced by Modi’s government.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/07/20/1018438334/indias-pandemic-death-toll-estimated-at-about-4-million-10-times-the-official-co

  89. 89.

    Don K

    September 13, 2021 at 9:06 pm

    As a person living with HIV, I read of Pastor Bob’s death with some satisfaction. HA HA HA, asshole! I’m alive and you’re fucking dead!!

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    September 13, 2021 at 9:07 pm

    @NotMax:

    Exactly!

    Now mind you I never met Joan so I’ll have to take Bette’s word for it.

  91. 91.

    CODave

    September 13, 2021 at 9:08 pm

    @Dan B: My mother was taken by COVID May 4, 2020. I had the responsibility to identify her from her mortuary photo. I’ve lost track of it but I’m sure I can find it if I want to. People need to see and understand the reality of death.

    And I have no issue with the nursing home. They sent out weekly reports of infections, etc. And they were doing what the meager science of the time told them to do.

    She had a target on her back. 90, with tons of health issues. While I didn’t KNOW this would happen, I was far from surprised.

  92. 92.

    joel hanes

    September 13, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I’m starting to see significant decay in mask discipline in my Santa Clara Safeway.   Masks below the nose.  Masks as chinstraps.   People who think that they should unmask to talk to the checkout clerk.   A defiant few with no mask at all.

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    September 13, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): It’s kind of like an even more morbid version of the exploding drummers in Spinal Tap.

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    September 13, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    @joel hanes:

    My point – Made. I wonder if percentage wise they really are massively worse off than many or about the same. I would expect worse because so many have zero health care and making 2.8 billion shots is going to take a bit of time. Also Modi.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    September 13, 2021 at 9:19 pm

    @joel hanes:

    I wrote elsewhere on BJ that I went to Lowe’s today and all the staff was masked – properly. Most of the customers were masked – properly. But 3 had no mask in sight. And there is a mask mandate for any public indoor spaces. Went to the grocery store last night and the mask wearing there was about normal for grocery stores in my area. Most wearing masks, only saw a couple of noses, and that’s pretty much how it goes in the 3 different stores and Target, that I shop at.

  96. 96.

    BethanyAnne

    September 13, 2021 at 10:11 pm

    My brother is in a hospital on ECMO with Covid. He’s a follower, and his wife is a nurse who didn’t want them to be “government guinea pigs” for the “untested vaccine”. He’s been there maybe 6 weeks now, and we barely get news, because they barely communicate with us. He’s dumb, but he’s my brother. /sigh Fucking fundies.

  97. 97.

    No One You Know

    September 14, 2021 at 1:59 pm

    @Ken: 

    One of my faves, too.

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