crimycarny
crimycarny's JournalA very interesting thread on the history of Afghanistan and emergence of the Taliban
I found this thread very informative. It talks about the various factions (if that's the right term)Taliban vs Mujahideen vs Pashtu vs Afghan. Saudi Arabia's involvement. How the Taliban came to be, etc.
https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1427237414112792576?s=20
I want to be a dog
I just started taking pictures again after a long hiatus, probably at least 3 years. Dealing with some depression and then COVID came along and--bam!--no energy to do anything creative. Been a member of DU forever but never thought of subscribing to the Photography forum (no idea why). Anyway, got out my camera and tried to take some pictures of my labs doing their favorite activity--chasing the tennis ball. Sort of hard to throw the ball and then try to focus the camera, but it's a start. Glad I found this group.
Biden signs bill to award Congressional Medal to US Capitol Police--now this is a real President
Today President Biden signed a bill to award Congressional Gold Medals to the US Capitol Police. Below is a live stream of the whole event but what really touched my heart was the way President Biden interacted with the families, especially the children afterward. That happens around the 17:00 mark. Made me tear up seeing a real human President with empathy. What this country truly needs.
Same video on Biden twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1423390532064194561?s=20
Lol--Sir Anthony (Canadian comedian posing as Trump Supporter)
I've been following this guy on twitter for a while now. He's so good with his sarcasm that many take him seriously and get offended (and that's also an indication of just how extreme Trump supporters that people don't catch that it's sarcasm.)
This one is pretty clearly sarcasm but one of his best so far. "We won't be gestopped" (as in gestapo)"
https://twitter.com/anthonycwalker/status/1423344687642038278?s=20
Antiviral cocktail for COVID-19
I’ve been keeping a close eye on COVID-19 antivirals these last few months as I feel they will be key to fighting COVID due to its ability to mutate so rapidly. I ran across an interesting paper which suggests combining two types of antiviral meds—the new polymerase inhibitors being developed for COVID and existing antivirals used to fight Hep C—might be the key.
I don’t pretend to understand all the science presented in this article, but sort of reading between the lines it seems Hep C antivirals attack one critical replication method of RNA viruses and the COVID-19 antivirals in clinical trials attack a different mechanism. Together they may effective at stopping COVID-19. At least that’s the way I read it. Someone much smarter than me may be able to decipher the information in this article more clearly.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34312622/
Interesting response to anti-mask--would this work?
Ran across this on FB. Who knows if the person really did use this response but it's brilliant. (Can't find the link to the original FB post as it's not on my timeline anymore, but it amused me so much I had made a screenshot).
"Yesterday I was standing in line at a local store. I was wearing a mask, but the woman behind me wasn't. "Those masks don't prevent COVID," she said. I told her, "Not really, but didn't you hear about the new spy technology Biden has enacted to keep track of all of us? The mask blocks that facial recognition software and the government can't track us." She said "really? Where'd you find that out?" "I saw it last night on Fox News. They had the machines on there and everything and showed how wearing a mask makes it useless. We can really prevent Biden's plans if we wear a mask." As I left I heard her on her phone telling someone. "
Biden doesn't want to give student loan relief to kids who went to private schools?
I hope this was just a poorly worded statement:
“ In reference to student loan cancellation, Biden said “it depends whether or not you went to a private or public university.” Specifically, Biden referred to potential student loan cancellation at schools like “Harvard and Yale and [the University of Pennsylvania]”
My daughter worked her *ss off and got into Stanford. We’re in that dreaded income range that it’s towards upper middle class so we’re always barely above the income cutoff for stimulus, etc. We live in a very expensive state (CA) and we have 3 kids we’re helping put through school. All three had to take out loans and we’re dipping into our savings. But because my kid got into Stanford by busting her butt she will be penalized? That isn’t right. Not every kid that got into a private school is high income. Wow.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2021/02/17/what-biden-actually-said-about-student-loan-cancellation/?sh=51fa2bfb2751
I take major issue with Joe Biden's work visa plan
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually agreed with something Trump did which was to severely restrict H1B visas and to change the lottery system with a wage based system. Joe Biden states he will overturn all of that.
I'm in IT and I can't tell you the number of times that I or someone I know (including my husband) has been laid off and replaced with a cheaper H1B worker. To add insult to injury, in order to get severance we've had to train our replacements. The whole idea behind H1B visas was to allow companies to hire foreign workers WHEN THEY COULDN'T FIND THE EXPERTISE IN THE U.S. So why is the person being replaced by the H1B worker training them?
Well, it just happened again. The company I work for, a major hospital chain, just laid off 75% of IT and outsourced them to foreign workers. We are all training these new workers, many of which lack the experience to do the job. We're talking a hospital and patient safety, not just lost revenue if a system goes down.
Corporations blatantly abuse the H1B visas and it hurts US workers as well as the H1B workers replacing them. The idea behind a wage based system was that an H1B worker had to be paid the same, or more, than his US counterpart. This makes sense to me because if the purpose of the H1B visa is to fill a need that can't be filled by a US worker, then why not pay them a fair wage? Using a wage based system prevents corporations from replacing US workers to please their shareholders, and it prevents the Corporations from grossly underpaying their H1B workers.
Sorry, just so tired of this.
Interesting podcast from lawyer who sued hospital on behalf of 80-yr old COVID patient - Ivermectin
I just stumbled across this podcast with the lawyer who sued on behalf of the family whose 80-year old mother was in the ICU with COVID, given a 20% chance of living. Family wanted doctors to administer Ivermectin but the hospital refused after initial dosage (after which she improved enough to be taken off ventilator but started going downhill when her second dose was refused).
Very interesting insider details on the timeline of events. The lawyer also mentions another patient who family had to sue to get Ivermectin prescribed. In this case the hospital called the husband in as the patient was dying and wasn't expected to live. Finally got the Ivermectin administered and the patient stabilized within a few hours.
https://www.heartland.org/multimedia/podcasts/covid-19-patient-takes-hospital-to-court-to-continue-ivermectin-treatment
Here's what I don't understand. Ivermectin isn't something new. It's been used in humans for over 30 years. It's routinely used "off label" for scabies treatment. Why not allow "off label" use for COVID?
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Member since: Fri Oct 19, 2018, 08:49 PMNumber of posts: 1,813