Comments

4

@3,

The guy's been dead for nearly 150 years and you pulled out a quote that shows you at least know a part of what Marx worked on.

I'd say you proved Charles' point.

5

Karl Marx was a burnt piece of toast that spawned untold millions of burnt pieces of toast worldwide.

6

Umm...I know it’s the vibe of this author to be pessimistic and often with cause - but there’s no way you can look at that king county Covid data and credibly say - cases are going up, fourth wave is going up. They have clearly stalled, and while we are in a period of uncertainty while we wait for data to come in, potentially trending down.

Hospitalizations are up but deaths have generally remained flat this whole Spring - not suprising because the vast majority of people being hospitalized are relatively younger. Of course no one wants to be hospitalized and plenty of young people are dealing with chronic illness as a result of their infections - but it also appears our icu admissions have remained flat. So on the whole, hospitalizations have been rising but less critical cases than previous waves.

By no means saying this is over and we should all throw away our masks and crowd into busy restaurants once again, but there absolutely is cause for cautious optimism and slapping on more restrictions at this point would be silly.

Hold where we are at and see where things go over the next few weeks is right.

8

Sowell is libertarian shlock only taken seriously by people who do not have fully formed prefrontal cortices.

9

Charles: The US has been spoiled by artificially low food prices for decades - the EU and the rest of the world pay a significantly higher percentage of income on food. There has to be an adjustment more palatable than having "organizations like Northwest Harvest" (read - the government) distribute "non-fancy, non-prepared" food "free". The US government has screwed with food prices way too long already. We can assist the truly needy through bolstering existing food programs and require those with the ability to pay sufficiently higher prices to keep the agricultural and food retail industries viable (and, while we're at it, incentivize and support the small independent farmer.)

10

Karl Marx is alive

11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3loSeT0PiM

Governing dynamics, gentlemen.

12

many peeps
too many peeps
equate socialism with
Authoritarinism. the very
LAST thing Democratic socialists want.

too many peeps want a Strong Daddy
to Decide for them. to keep them Safe
from commies and socialists who wanna
shove Healthcare and Child Care and Parental
Leave and just plain Quality of LIFE down everyones'
throats. oh the fucking Humanity. remamber Karl fucking Marx!

13

Karl Marx was born on this day in 1818. His work remains as relevant as ever.

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy."
-Albert Einstein

14

@10 -- Indeed, Karl Marx is alive.

Among many others, Karl Marx (age 71) lives in Mesa, Arizona ... but he goes by "Carl".

15

Maybe jay decided it makes more sense to hold steady for another two weeks than disrupt the thousands (millions?) of businesses in our state, especially when the trends are so close to the threshold that they'd just be going back to phase 3 again in two weeks. Judging by the trend it looks like this wave is moving more slowly so hopefully we have more time to react. Not that the Stranger will ever think it's safe to reopen of course, as witnessed by the blurb about Seychelles. If you don't think vaccines are the solution I wonder what you think it will take for people to be able to see their loved ones again.

17

@16 Thanks, Cassandra.

18

Forced to agree with @6 and @15. You’re being way too pessimistic, Charles. The fourth wave has indeed flattened and comparisons to the second wave are apples and oranges from a lethality perspective. The cases in the Seychelles are primarily among the undervaccinated, and they are using vaccines known to be significantly less effective than the J&J/mRNA vaccines in use elsewhere, which have shown unswerving effectiveness in other countries with high vaccination rates. The CDC just predicted a sharp decrease in cases by July. I know you’re bummed out about the whole Flowers thing, but maybe you should do some deep breathing exercises before you write your next pandemic-related blurb.

19

@16: You are a very disturbed child desperate for attention.

21

It is quite likely Covid will become endemic - yes.

We really have only eradicated one virus - small pox, the rest still plague us.

But just because Covid will be around, and just because we may need regular boosters, like we do for other seasonal illnesses, that does not mean it will remain a public health menace the way it has been, even if substantial portions remain unvaccinated. And I know variants are a scary threat, and it is likely that the virus will evolve in ways that evolves that eventually evade existing protections - but it’s just as likely to evolve to be less lethal than more. The virus wants to spread and keep spreading, so versions that kill of hosts or that cause us to fundamentally change our behavior to inhibit their spread may in fact be less fit over the long term. We don’t know what will happen. Good to prepare for worse case scenarios but no reason to live as though it’s a forgone conclusion.

Life will get back to a normal - or that is a world where we move through our daily lives without Covid being a front of mind concern. It will still exist, and people will still get sick and die from it, but this pandemic will end just like every other pandemic. It’s not the special a virus. It will survive and be a nuisance but life will go on.

22

@8: "Sowell is libertarian shlock"

He started out as a Marxist. Until he worked as a federal government employee.

24

Charles' Post on Pierce County and Phase 3: 131 words.
Editor's Correction to Charles' Post on Pierce County and Phase 3: 207 words.

Now we know why no one ever tries to edit Charles' posts.

(That, and the whole crawling-away-from-the-screen-clawing-at-eyeballs-and-screaming "MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP!" thing.)

25

@18 - cut Charles some slack. Just when he was running out of reasons capitalism was going to die and our civilization would crumble, the virus came along and gave him hope that he really had us this time. He's just clinging to that as long as he can.

26

@23 - you're right about all of the stupid characteristics of people that work against us. But I think that this pandemic is different in that it is really the first one where we both understand what the hell microorganisms really are and have the ability to rapidly develop vaccines & treatments.

Yes, there is way too much vaccine hesitancy. But in Washington we are already at 59.6% of the adults vaccinated and still going at a pretty good clip. I'd be shocked if we didn't break 70%. Add to that the 30M cases officially reported (which is likely 60 or 90M actually infected) we will have a pretty large fraction of the population immune. The fact that deaths are dropping as fast as they are suggests that the vaccination rate we have achieved in the older populations is enough to make a very serious difference. We should get there with most age groups in the next few months. And I suspect that mandates (the UW has announced they'll require vaccination, and I am waiting for more institutions to do the same) will increase vaccination rates a bit more. As I've said before, a "no vaccine = no airplane trip" policy would help a ton more.

As to variants, news this AM is that the Pfizer vaccine is quite effective against some of the most concerning variants. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/05/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases#pfizer-vaccine-variants-covid

The bigger problem is the countries that have not gotten vaccinations off the ground. We need to dig in and help laces like India all that we can. I believe that the world will begin to do that very shortly. It was really asking too much to expect the US or Britain, for example, to divert a lot of resources to other countries until the pandemic is more or less under control here but now we are in a better position to start helping.

Are we done with this? not by a mile. we are surely going to have to take at least some precautions for the foreseeable future. And there are a few states that don't seem to want to help themselves (hint: Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) by partaking in vaccinations. It may turn out that Trump built the wall a few hundred miles too far south.

28

@23 there is no way we keep up masking and distancing for years. Even if morally we should. Even if that’s the best way to prevent the most deaths.

When case rates start to fall, people will not tolerate these measures when they don’t see it as an acute crisis anymore. And no government on earth will have the political stomach to make us at a certain point, even if public health officials continue to recommend them by reminding BFF us some people are still getting sick, that the virus is still circulating and is mutation. Americans are particularly short on patience, but people everywhere will eventually start to shrug off these measures.

Even if some people continue to get sick and die every year. After all, millions die globally every year from the flu - and that could all be avoided if we all wore masks and socially distanced every winter - but we don’t and we won’t for Covid either. There isn’t universal compliance all winter in places that practice masking more regularly, like Japan or South Korea, outside the pandemic. We have always accepted some level of background death.

Maybe it will become more common to stay home or wear a mask when you feel you might be sick, that would be good, but no way are you going to get the vast majority of people to continue social distancing measures for several years.

And case rates will start to fall globally - to be crass most people will get one antibodies one way or the other sooner rather than later, and those antibodies will be somewhat durable; we know this a year in. So things will slow down.

Obviously getting them via a vaccination is better than getting sick, and would result in far less death or suffering. But we’ll get there either way sooner rather than later.

The Spanish flu lasted a year and a half, then ended. Yes it took fifty million people and it would be a huge moral failing if we get anywhere close to that in an era where we have effective treatments and vaccines. But there will be large numbers of vulnerable people only so long, one way or the other.

I saw this not with optimism or that I condone it but...we live in the world as it is not as it should be. If you think we’re going to be living pandemic style for years - you’re the one that needs to prepare yourself for the reality that you’ll soon be surrounded by people who are about to cast off their masks and get back to it.

29

24
you hate his Chas' writing so much you Research it?
a Word count? I'd likely be inclined to scratch
out my eyeballs out too.

good luck.

30

@29: For those of us capable of typing entire whole coherent paragraphs at one go, there is this amazing little application called a "word processor" thingy. First popularized in about, oh, 1982, it AUTOMATICALLY counts the number of words in a document. (Gasp!) And -- get this -- it can do this even if those words were not typed in, but (and here's another new trick for you, sonny!) copied-and-pasted.

But I lost you in the middle of my first sentence, didn't I?

31

@ tense one:
your Pathology
lies deeper than
my rudimentary skills*
can reach. (more) good luck!

*these 'word processors':
do they Active themselves
(expecting at Least another
83ish words in your 'defense')?

33

@29, 31: While you may very well always & forever find yourself helplessly gobsmacked at the sheer volume of intense intellectual effort my highly detailed "Research" required, your problems began even earlier: "hate." Why did you believe I "hate Chas' writing...", then assume this motivated my "Research"?

(You might want to examine your assumption there, before you run 'way ahead, to ask about these newfangled gizmos that have you so flummoxed.)

34

@33 -- tldr

your Word* Count's
slipping. are you ill?

*71? you're not really
Trying are you?

35

@34: you hate my writing so much you Research it?
a Word count?
your Pathology
lies no deeper than
my laughter.

good luck

36

@24 reprised
w/apologies

"Charles' Post on Pierce County
and Phase 3: 131 words."
but who's counting?

"Editor's Correction to Charles'
Post on Pierce County and
Phase 3: 207 words."

thank gawd for them
Word Processessers
eh?

"Now we know why no one ever
tries to edit Charles' posts."

'cause . . . we've all been ... wondering?

"(That, and the whole crawling-away-from-the-screen-clawing-at-eyeballs-and-screaming "MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP!" thing.)"

yeah. way beyond my rudimentary skills.

have you seen your ophthalmologist
(I worry about your eyeballs, tense)
lobotolimnist or pathologist lately?

Remember:
a Healthy brain
is a Happy one!

37

if you 'dislike' Chas' writing
so
why Punish yourself

and Puget Sound proper?

[any fewer than 300 words
will Not be accepted]

38

@36, @37:

you 'dislike' my writing so much you (repeatedly) Research it?
many Word counts?
why Punish yourself
and no one else?
your Pathology and Puget Sound
go no deeper than
my laughter.

goo uck

39

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
OH

word count:
303 & that's
how it's Done.

40

@39: Congratulations! You've dramatically increased both the quantity AND quality of your output -- in the only way available to you, of course. Pity it took you so long to learn this was your sole option. Thanks for the laughs.

41

gotta say tense
I Owe you Big Time
I was down in the dumps
focusing on Minutiae and Little
Picture shit but after wallowing here
with you down at your level it was like
a Wake Up Call. so thank you!

as far as your Self-Abuse peculiarities
forcing yourself to Edit Chas' Work oh so
Diligent;ly counting Every word as if each were
an Offense to your brilliance as a counterpuncher
compelled by ... who knows what but when you reach
out begging for relief from a self-inflicted doggedness nearly
shredding a Precious eyeball or two, I may not be here for you...

sorry bud
but THNX!

42

@41: So, you also don't know what the word "edit" -- sorry, "Edit," means, either. That explains a lot.

My effortless mockery of a truly bad writer who you really admire (no, not yourself, the other one on display here) really riled you, didn't it? I mean, it usually takes more than a mere word count comparison to show just how much b.s. someone is slinging. That's what always keeps me coming back for more of Charles' reliably-amusing output.

(And the only "begging for relief" I'll be doing around here will happen if I do indeed finally bust a gut from laughing so hard at your many other oh-so-pretentious verbal failures. At least Charles can point to the paycheck he gets for his.)

43

okay
you win
Last one:

speaking of 'oh-so-pretentious verbal failures':

"you may very well always & forever find yourself helplessly gobsmacked at the sheer volume of intense intellectual effort my highly detailed... " --@33

yep.
Gobsmacked.

not even gonna Count
'em for ya tense. sorry

44

didn't wanna dissa-Pointchya
here tense:

"(And the only "begging for relief" I'll be doing around here will happen if I do indeed finally bust a gut from laughing so hard at your many other oh-so-pretentious verbal failures." --@Mr. pretentious

is that a Promise?

"At least Charles can point to the paycheck he gets for his.)"

sorry you don't
Understand
'pro Bono'
el tense

but how
Would you?

(Word Count: 74
& your Welcome.]


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