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berlinerbaer

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Everything posted by berlinerbaer

  1. It's astounding to me that Taiwan still has territory so close to the mainland. If China was even remotely capable of taking Taiwan, those islands would have been conquered long ago.
  2. Am I the only one who thinks it would be easier for UKR to push Russia out of Crimea than the East? If Kherson get's recaptured, then resupply of Crimea from the North gets much harder and then there's only the Kerch bridge to take out and the canal to dry up.
  3. My mind's kinda blown that anyone cares about Jon Wilner east of the Rockies.
  4. NSIAP, he just ended that state's investigation into the 2020 elections, hopefully crushing to the morale of the most MAGA Wisconsin voters. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/12/wisconsin-assembly-leader-axes-2020-election-investigation-00051512
  5. In all seriousness, Chinese like to poison each other. Even in the US, they aren't comfortable with firearms.
  6. Here is the article linked in the Ukraine thread a few days back. Looks like it'll be about 20,000 spread throughout Europe, bringing the total to 100,000, on rotation. Mea culpa. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-nato-biden-madrid-jens-stoltenberg-de44b391b62aa3b9ccbd37ca12518f26
  7. I'm all for Sweden and Finland joining. That sounds like organic NATO expansion and a real boost in financial and combat capability. I'm also in favor of arming the Ukrainians with pretty much whatever they want. It's a bargain compared to sending our guys over there. Speaking of which... we are now sending tens of thousands of troops to Poland permanently? Fuck that. Is NATO stronger or not? Could we fuck up Russia already as is or not? Weren't our European allies going to double their defense budgets? If we were asked to contribute that many, we should have said no and if we decided without asking then fuck us. Fact is, this conflict seems like an escape from our very real domestic problems for too many politicians (both sides) and, by the looks of it, too many normally liberal posters on this board (myself included).
  8. It's raging through the young population. It ran through my whole family a week ago after my kids brought it home from daycare. Nothing major, but holy shit this thing is contagious. Good news is that like 80% of America has now been inoculated one way or the other. That's why hospitalizations are fairly low and deaths are way down compared to prior waves.
  9. Maybe. This seat is gerrymandered to be safe D and Vicente Gonzalez is a known commodity. Gonzalez' old seat next door (TX-15) is in real danger of flipping, however. It's one of the only competitive districts left in the state. The R candidate came within 4 points in 2020.
  10. All four of us are finally dealing with this. Vaxxed 6 yo son had it over the weekend and had a fever for 12 hours then a headache and chest pains the next day, then all good. 3 yo daughter got it Tuesday with a full blown fever for 24 hours, now lingering at 99 and feeling good. There has been an outbreak at daycare and here we are. That's when I knew I was fucked because there is no avoiding a 3 yo who insists on either climbing into your bed in the middle of the night or making you sleep upstairs with her. I tested positive this morning after being negative Tuesday night. Feels like a flu right now which isn't so bad. My wife has been complaining about her throat and headaches but she' doing the best out of all of us. We are both vaxxed and single-boosted. Time to hunker down for the weekend.
  11. A political position that singlehandedly sets the House agenda, determines when votes can occur, and staffs committees - the second most powerful position in US politics - is prone to backroom deals and special interest. Who knew? Pelosi is no worse than Paul Ryan or John Boehner were. The role essentially requires a giant sign hovering overhead with an arrow pointing down below big red letters saying "I like favors, and stock. Or cash will do."
  12. So much this. Disturbing that some of you would rather move to Belize or somewhere else to be utterly surrounded by poverty. If you look white, are older, male, and in the top 10% economically, America is and always will be structurally built to support you regardless of the status of democracy or how hot it is. Big oceans on both sides to keep the meanies out. A still-growing population that can support the elderly. Think about it. Europe may seem nice, but they are dependent on the outside for energy (Russia and ME), protection (US), and food. When there are global shocks, they always feel it more. I would rather have internal challenges to deal with than be under the thumb of a foreign power or have to worry about asshole neighbors. Besides, if America goes to shit, all the benefits of being American will go with it. Your dollars won't be worth that much anymore.
  13. Down to the wire in the 28th. Cisneros leads Cuellar by just over one point with 70% in.
  14. I was in Boerne and SA a month ago and everything looked bone dry. I haven't been out of SE Texas much in the last year and it was striking.
  15. I think the economic arguments hold water considering coercion was working out just fine for Putin until his buddy in Kiev got the boot in 2014's uprising. One of the things Yanukovich was doing until then, IIRC, was putting development of the country's O&G infrastructure on ice.
  16. From the outside, it may look like China is distancing itself from Russia and choosing the West. Domestically, their media is parroting Russian propaganda, including the latest round of garbage about bioweapons. I don't know which way they've shifted over the last 3 weeks.
  17. Wasn't there a State Department cable put out by Wikileaks that suggested after psych evaluation that Putin might have Asperger's? That would explain the very high competence in many areas and deficiencies elsewhere. It was the Pentagon, actually.
  18. Or just wait for one to inevitably break down. They didn't even leave room to maneuver. Armor is useless in urban combat anyway.
  19. I agree. There is too much military competence spread around the world to make invasions successful. Only if the focus is narrow, which it certainly wasn't for us in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the looks of it the Russians bit of more than they could chew as well.
  20. Agree, but this is the second time the world has seen effective resistance against a superpower just in the last year.
  21. Not sure where you saw this, but it's plausible this combo was a winner in India as it could be in other developing countries, but not by directly treating Covid. It also would have much less success in this country due to overall greater health. Lots of people in India and elsewhere without proper sanitation have parasitic diseases. Worms cause all sorts of systemic havoc and can inhabit the body long-term by suppressing the immune system. Worms plus any viral illness is a really bad combination. To treat Covid it would make lots of sense to first get rid of the worms. Hence Ivermectin. I could see a broad spectrum antibiotic like azithromycin being useful for similar reasons. Even things like tooth abscesses are comorbidities that should be treated to increase the survival rates of Covid patients. Doctors shouldn't just be throwing around antibiotics, but last spring was an extraordinary circumstance, so why not? Worry about resistant germs later. Not sure about vitamin D but much of the world is chronically deficient so it can't hurt. tl;dr Throw that cocktail at your random developing world resident and watch their survivability skyrocket.
  22. Damn. I'm looking at that miniscule Delta wave from Jul - Nov and think NYC deserves some props. Well done. Comparison attached
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