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Re: Russia bans 963 Americans, including Biden and Harris — but not Trump - 2 days ago

Quotegraylocks oh crap! There go my summer vacation plans. This wins the internets award for May 22

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: ‘ Pro-Trump counties continue to suffer far higher COVID death tolls ‘ - 5 days ago

It looks like one booster resulted in quite strong immunity, based on the graph. And thanks to pdq for including it.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Oh yeah? “Masks DO NOT PROTECT YOU !!! They protect others FROM YOU“ - 5 days ago

Back when there was a new virus and a lot less information, it seemed plausible that having everybody wear a mask whenever interacting would slow the spread of the virus. And since it would not always be obvious that somebody was infectious, it made sense that we all wore the masks. I don't think the logic has changed all that much, particularly considering that the newer variants can spread w

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: New fast food alternative takes off in Russia - 5 days ago

Are we doing Woody Allen jokes? You know, is it spelled Czar or Tsar?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: NYC enters ‘high’ COVID alert status - 6 days ago

It's curious. In Los Angeles County, the hospitalization rate has dropped more than 6-fold, and the death rate maybe 30-50 fold since February. And as I've mentioned previously, the local population is largely dropping the indoor masking except where it is required. If you look at the graph for death rate on the county website: The curve is an exponential decrease with a half life of two w

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: New poll: big majorities want expanded SCOTUS and term limits for justices - 18 days ago

The congress can change the size of the Supreme Court by legislation. It's been done in the past, including reducing the size. I don't know if they could reduce the current court to, say, 4 members, and those with the least seniority would have to leave. Then the congress could raise the number up to 13 or 15, which would be rational. The language in the Constitution is that judges serve in "

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Judge says MTG (I don't recall anything) is qualified to run for reelection - 18 days ago

I think that the condition that the Constitutional amendment refers to is having been on the Confederate side in the Civil War. It's a big stretch to apply it to somebody who emotionally supports a riot and didn't herself take up arms against the lawful government. I also have a problem with creating a precedent that the Republicans would use to retaliate against anybody they don't like.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Even conservatives seem to have limits. - 18 days ago

Anything involving Monty Python should have been blocked by the Spam filter.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: imo citing 'tradition' as a reason for law basically means 'lets just go with our gut, okay?' - 18 days ago

A large part of liberalism, at least in the old days, involved fighting traditions like segregation, laws against interracial marriage, and so forth. I agree that it's not so much the idea of breaking traditions, but the goal involved in breaking those traditions. Mitch McConnell's violation of the Supreme Court nomination process tradition was to rob an elected president and the majority of the

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: if you build it?!....new erection outside Supreme Court.... - 18 days ago

If it's a non-scalar fence does that mean it's a vector fence?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Hey, Madison Cawthorne, what day is it? - 19 days ago

$tevie wins the internets award of the day for that post. I must say with all humble appreciation that it is truly disgusting.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: ONE MILLION now DEAD from Covid - 19 days ago

I think it's curious that there are highly infectious variants -- which means that most of us are probably being exposed to them -- but the death toll has declined drastically over the past 3 months or so. The Los Angeles County health department has been putting up the numbers for deaths, hospitalizations, the percentage of positives out of total tests, and so forth. When I looked at the death r

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Sheriff Alex Villanueva Vs. “ Enemy of the People “ - 26 days ago

He knew it almost immediately. He just didn't tell the rest of us. The footage has been on the television news recently.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: “ Firearms were leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens in 2020 “ - 4 weeks ago

Is there a downward trend in deaths due to vehicle crashes in this age group? And what is the precise trend in firearm deaths?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: NEJM: 4th shot offers 4 weeks of added protection, then wanes - 6 weeks ago

I wonder if this is because the vaccine is not as effective against the later variants but would have been effective long term against the earlier ones.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Easter/Ramadan/Passover wave is coming-Got my Booster today - 7 weeks ago

We have fewer people wearing masks here in LA now, but the hospitalizations and daily deaths are way down. I attribute it to the large number of people who have been vaccinated (in the elderly population it is close to ninety percent) and to the substantial number of people who have had the infection, particularly since the Omicron surged up. I would guess that we have some partial herd immunity

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: any word on improved covid vaccines? - 8 weeks ago

I chatted with a young man who is in a double blind test of some new vaccine, but it might be a Covid version of the old fashioned inactivated virus type. The thought is that when you are challenged with the whole virus, you will still be resistant to a slight mutation in the spike protein gene. Shorter answer: We'll see. I'm kind of waiting and wondering for something like a quadrivalent m

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: So how are you feeling about the CDC these days? - 8 weeks ago

I haven't changed my view of the CDC. I do know what my view is of those who have attacked it for purely partisan reasons.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: a 2min video explaining why Odessa is very well defended and hard to breach - 2 months ago

Based somewhat on D.W. Griffith's scene of the steps of Babylon in Intolerance. But much stronger emotionally and cinematically.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Is anyone listening to Short Wave Radio? - 2 months ago

I have an old Hallicrafters that a friend picked up for me at the TRW swap meet for $15 I think. It has tubes and an earphone jack. The last time I tried it, it picked up stations from other countries, but I can't remember which direction worked best. To get short wave stations at long distance, there has to be a sufficient level of ionization in the Heaviside layer well above the surface of t

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: Banned words - 2 months ago

I once mentioned a website that begins with Qo and somehow I got the same rejection. I had to write to the administrators to find out which word I was using that was banned, and they politely explained.

by Ca Bob - Tips and Deals

Re: The Russians are literally digging in - 2 months ago

I assume this means that they will be able to use artillery with less danger of their guns being blown up by shoulder fired weapons, and that therefore this is bad for the Ukrainians. On the other hand, it also shows that Plan A did not work. Any military minded people here to explain this?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: random photos - 2 months ago

Curious on this: Do you know how old the Muscle Beach photo is?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Why don't we (USA/NATO) unleash Cyber-Truth on Russia? - 2 months ago

Ham radio is just one set of bands that are fairly narrow and in the short wave region don't use AM modulation much anymore. There are lots of other commercial broadcast stations using a lot more power which can be heard for long distances. I suspect that there are multiple methods to get the message through to the ordinary Russian. It merely depends on what the message is going to be. I ha

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Today's events vs the Cuban missile crisis - 2 months ago

I was about 12 when the Cuban missile crisis happened. I remember we watched JFK's speech and continued to listen to comments on the radio for hours after. Then there were days of crisis news and finally -- finally, the news that the Russian ships turned back from the American blockade. There was a lot of drama although out here on the west coast I think we felt a little less of the tension becau

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Russian autarky - 2 months ago

What does it say?

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Riddle me this: a super-long convoy, unprotected - 2 months ago

That convoy is the stuff of nightmares, but it also has some potential vulnerabilities, doesn't it? I don't think that those Molatov cocktails we see being made on the tv news are going to be that effective, but artillery could do some damage.I've been following the discussion on Lawyers Guns and Money and they aren't talking about it much, other than that Farley (a military expert) points out th

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: Putin waited until the Olympics were over, didn't he? - 2 months ago

I don't think this is his first time.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” - 2 months ago

There are more Russians than Ukrainians, but they are not all going to Ukraine. There are a lot more Ukrainians -- admittedly mostly unarmed and untrained -- then there are Russian soldiers in the Ukraine and around its borders, and enough of them could make Ukraine into Russia's Viet Nam, just as Afghanistan was for Russia a few decades ago.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting

Re: If Putin's head were in a guillotine, would/could you pull the lever? - 2 months ago

Enough Russians creating a general strike could cause him to be removed, particularly if they get hungry enough and when their children start coming home in body bags. The anti-Putin rebels should screen some old Serge Eisenstein films where the peasants arise and defeat the overlords.

by Ca Bob - 'Friendly' Political Ranting