American Politics: Discuss and Debate (Page 32 of 57)

That's all very sad.  I liked interacting with Informant, and I wish all of this hadn't changed everything.  Even in Texas, I don't know very many conservatives and haven't lost any friends due to politics.  My friend's mom is into Q but that's probably the closest thing.

I'm glad your mom is set for the shot.  And we'd be happy to have you

It's been sad to see Canadians having to deal with a much greater lag than Americans on vaccines.  Obviously our cultures are very intertwined.  But I guess it's the same or less worse with Mexico in terms of lag (and yet i dont ever think that -- shame on me).

America is doing fairly well on vacinnations but I am not sure Americans  appreciate that what happens in other nations, especially bordering countries, is gonna impact America.  All the mutations that are allowed to happen, it will continue to be a problem for America.  So it's in America's best interest to worry about the rate of vaccination in neighboring countries.

I finally found the perfect mask for my mother: the Kleannara KF94, purchased from the highly prestigious and exclusive supplier that is the Korean grocery store down the street. Earlier, I'd tried KF94 masks on her (a boat style shaped mask), but they still left gaps around her nose just like the KN95 and N95 masks and even larger than the gaps left by a surgical mask (which had smaller gaps than the rest and a larger surface area to compensate). However, the KF94 masks I'd tried before were manufactured in Canada and they had a wider curve for the nosepiece.

The authentic KF94 masks I've found have a much narrower curve for the nose piece that wraps around my mother's face firmly leaving no gap at all. This is the one! Yes! Yes! Yes! And the Kleannara has been reviewed by mask expert tester Aaron Collins who found it to have a 98 per cent level of particle filtration so it's even better than advertised.

Funnily enough -- I've been buying my KN95 masks at a Canadian dollar store, Dollarama, and always had some fears that their supply might not be made to any decent standards. A lot of KN95 masks don't make the 95 per cent filtration grade. I ultimately switched to a Canadian-made InnoLifeCare mask that has a KF94 shape but uses their own filter design that was lab tested to a 98 percent level of particle filtration and also highly fluid resistant -- which isn't important for civilians except the water resistant material also resists wear and tear.

Recently, the CBC news channel reviewed KN95 masks from various retailers. Amazon and Home Depot and WalMart masks were all filtering a lot less than 95 per cent of particles. Amazon's masks ranged from 20 - 95 per cent, WalMart's masks filtered 75 per cent, Home Depot was at 93 - 94 per cent -- and Dollarama's masks (of which I have 25) ranged from 95 - 98 per cent.

I haven't been vacinnated yet.  It's still early for folks in my age bracket.  But America is making a lot of progress.  4m in one day the other day.

Late reply, but often this happens in customs, they open to make sure item is what it's supposed to be.  They're supposed to repackage it but well......

Hmm. I wonder why.

I can report that I too got my first dose of vaccine today. Because I discourage vaccine shopping, I won't specify which one, but yes.  I had some qualifying factors that I also won't put in writing to discourage misuse. I will say that vaccine hunting is really hard in Canada right now because we have no domestic production and it was a lot of work to get myself a shot and get booked for a second dose in four months.

Very busy vaccine hunting for people.

Due to technical limitations, I have to choose one person to help. I have chosen one specific person. (It's not my niece.) This woman is... well, I can tell you that she is married (not to me) and has children (not with me) and... well, imagine Kyle. Keep his pop cultural obsessions. Reverse absolutely everything else. That's who this woman is.

I'll never put another penny in Whedon's pocket for his evil, but... yes.

Hadn’t thought about this in awhile, but it clicked for some reason this morning.  Near the end of his dream, he said he saw Washington on fire and Trump was nowhere to be seen.  Sound familiar?

Trump told the crowd he would be there with them; but he was nowhere to be seen.

It’s just interesting seeing how this dream did hit on some things that were fairly specific.  Of course, the human mind can play tricks.  The reason that conspiracy theories are attractive is because the brain starts tying all sorts of things together to force a thought to work.  It’s a slippery slope.

Interesting news here in Canada. My mother's second dose of vaccine was originally booked for end of July; now it's been moved to 48 hours from now. My second dose was booked for the second week of August; now it's going to be in seven days' time.

I hope this annoys an anti-vaxxer somewhere out there.

I had my second dose on Tuesday morning and experienced every flu symptom side effect possible and effectively lost a week of my life (and spent most of it watching MACGYVER). Still. I hope it bothers that anti-vaxxer I know.

This is why you get vaccinated...

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/only-per … 19627.html

6 cases in one department, 5 sick, 4 hospitalized, 2 dead, all unvaccinated.  One person unscathed, was vaccinated.  It's Florida so no mask requirement for unvaccinated despite 700 people working in the building.

Really behind but really glad you got your shot and feel better now.  I have a friend of mine who hasn't gotten the shot.  He's not a Trump guy but his mom is.  She's a borderline QAnon type.  I know my friend didn't vote in 2020 out of deference to not making her too mad (and in Texas it wouldn't have mattered, it turns out).  It upsets me that he's not doing it.  I know if he got the virus the odds are really high that he'd survive.  And, heck, it's possible he already had it and was fine.

But I just think it's so stupid to just not get it.  Get it and don't tell his mom.  He's too rational to really believe that there's anything to fear from the vaccine, but maybe he sees the stats and thinks it's enough.  I don't know.  I want to tell him he's being an idiot, but it's so hard to maintain friendships during this pandemic.  I've been terrible at it, as you all have seen

crazy...

Me neither! I think the whole thing sounds very shady!

JWSlider3

Bitcoin is a great idea but some people think it will be used for money in the future and it almost certainly will not. Gold equivalent perhaps. The transaction speeds are so slow and the fees to create a transaction are too high. It some cases it's the current software developers fault in another case it was technically flawed to begin with. It uses POW Proof of Work aka mining, all the while there are faster and more energy efficient systems emerging called POS Proof of Stake.

Really, the only reason anything has value is because enough people believe it has value.  It’s all based on confidence.

Gold has value because it’s rare, it’s pretty and it’s physical - things that made it a symbol of power.  In the modern age, it also has usefulness in the physical ability to make technology work.

Paper money (like the US Dollar) had value initially because people had faith that the US government had enough gold (i.e. Fort Knox) to back up the dollar’s value.  In modern times, the dollar was unpegged from gold and took on a floating value.  But again, that value is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government (realistically based on perception of military might, industrial complex, alliances, etc).  Basically, the world believes the US is “good for it” (a belief that is eroding).

And now we have Bitcoin.  Can it have value?  Certainly - if enough people believe it does.  My concern is that I can’t see what’s backing it up.  All it seems to be is an exercise in how much electricity you can pump through a computer to do useless work.

I think people are more drawn to the idea of Bitcoin being a one world currency that governments can’t devalue through their action or inaction.  The worth of Bitcoin seems to be more as an aspirational philosophy; and that’s just not enough for me to believe in as a way to buy and sell goods and services.  I believe the value of Bitcoin is something as whimsical as the hippie movement (which largely faded from history and lost most of what faith it had).

There's only like 2 million left to be mined out of 21 million. Which really causes another problem imo. Bitcoin has been so unevenly distributed to the world. Essentially 1 -2% of the world has Bitcoins I'm guessing, making the other 99% left out which makes no sense as a currency.

Yeah if a bitcoin millionaire died no one could recover his coins unless you had his password which is a private key/mnemonic seed. It's like having money in the bank but if no one knows your password there's literally nothing no one can do to recover it. Which tends to cause another problem with custody. How many people nowadays can responsibly take control of their own money. I'd say there's few. Everyone is always 'losing' paperwork or forgetting their password. However I think banks are slowly trying to integrate custody of cryptocurrency for customers, which is essentially an oxymoron to the concept of Bitcoin and decentralization.

I'm not sure we will truly know how effective vaccines are against the Delta variant until well into the fourth wave. Currently, I've seen MRNA vaccines described anywhere from 65 - 95 per cent effective against Delta. The data is all over the place. In addition, it seems those who are vaccinated and infected are just as contagious as the unvaccinated.  Misinformation Warning: Hi, this is ireactions here correcting my own post. Since originally writing the previous words, it's become apparent that vaccinated individuals are less contagious because they shed less virus and for a shorter period of time.

However, vaccinated individuals have lesser symptoms, are hospitalized in smaller numbers if at all and largely don't die from COVID-19, Delta or not.

A certain deranged segment of the world declare that vaccines should be avoided because it impedes their individual choices; that dewormer medication for horses are effective -- except that unvaccinated COVID-19 patients overwhelm health care systems while vaccinated COVID-19 patients can form a viable immune response. Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients are have no defense against COVID-19, can't produce the antibodies to fight off COVID-19 and provide the virus with the opportunity for further replication and mutation into deadlier variants while vaccinated COVID-19 patients are infected in far fewer numbers and a vaccinated population has fewer COVID-19 patients and offer fewer opportunities for new variants to emerge.

Such people don't care about any of that, however; they are largely entitled, white men who believe that any impulse or inclination they have -- to ignore social distancing, to refuse vaccination -- cannot be questioned. They also enjoy the outrage and sense of power that they feel when they declare they will not prevent themselves from spreading a deadly disease.

It is entirely possible that new variants will be vaccine resistant. It is also entirely possible that the deaths of the fourth wave will be primarily among people who refuse to vaccinate or wear masks. Until then, we have to get vaccinated to avoid crashing our hospitals. And we have to wear masks, assume every stranger is unvaccinated and only have close and unmasked social outings that are with people we know to be fully vaccinated.

In addition, with the massive viral load of the Delta variant, it's important that we wear proper masks. Purely cloth masks won't cut it, haven't for a long time. We have to wear masks with electrostatic filters and a nose wire to fold the the filtration layer around your nose (like surgical masks). We have to make sure these masks don't leave large gaps for unfiltered air; a surgical mask often doesn't wrap fully most people's faces, but this can be amended by buying cord locks to tighten the earloops to your ears and ensure that the seal around your nose and mouth is firm.

I hope you're right about the vaccines versus the Delta. They definitely keep you out of the hospital and out of the grave, but the reports of contagion among the vaccinated have rattled me a bit.

You seem to equate cloth masks with surgical masks. That simply isn't true.

Cloth is indeed near-useless as a filtration medium, but surgical masks are made from meltblown polypropylene. They have a water-resistant filter, an electrostatic layer and an inner layer for skin comfort can filter viral particles. But to protect, a mask with these layers must firmly adhere to the face and leave no gaps around the nose and mouth. Masks with these filters fail to protect not because of the filtration but because of the fit, and fit can be amended.

I have reviewed and personally taken apart N95 masks, KN95 masks, KF94 masks and surgical masks. The N95 is the gold standard because it wraps around the back of the head and clamps to the face to seal off the nose and mouth -- but aside from that, the filtration, while heavily layered (five layers), is ultimately acting on the same principle of the KN95s, KF94s and surgical masks: a water resistant layer to block droplets and an electrostatic layer to ensnare viral particles.

KN95s have the same number of layers and the same filtration, but Chinese manufacturers have had a lot of trouble meeting N95 filtration standards because many of these plants were previously making T-shirts and socks. These masks often break easily or have massive gaps in the electrostatic filtering or don't have all the layers of an N95.

KF94s have four layers and the same filtration, they seal firmly to the face, and they are extremely reliable because South Korea actively inspects manufacturers and fines any business with substandard output and poor quality masks never make it out of the country. However, the filtration rates have proven to be the same; the extra layers of an N95 make it harder and more resilient to wear and tear but adding a fourth and fifth layer only provides diminishing returns.

The material used in surgical masks have nearly the same filtration levels as N95 masks despite only three filters. They have an outer water resistant layer, an inner electrostatic layer and a layer for facial comfort. The problem is not the material; it's that surgicals are shaped like flat rectangles and can't align to the three dimensional shape of a human face. They don't seal firmly, at least not out of the box, and because they leave gaps at the sides, their filtration is estimated at 60 - 80 per cent depending on the face.

However, a surgical can be amended with putting cord locks on the earloops to tighten the surgical mask's grip against the face. They can be further augmented by adding an additional PM2.5 filter inside the mask which can be firmly pressed against the mouth and nose by a tightly fitting surgical.

I don't see anything in your original post about fit, just a blanket remark that anything less than an N95 doesn't protect. And that simply isn't true.

But on the subject of cloth and surgical masks: I've seen some very impressive results with people wearing a surgical mask (with its somewhat loose adhesion to the face) but then wearing a cloth mask on top. While the cloth mask adds only miniscule filtration, most cloth masks I've seen with nose wires and earloops and a triangular shape do a nice job of conforming to the face. This seals the surgical mask where the surgical alone fails.

Personally, I am not a fan of double-masking for myself. It works, but I would rather wear one good mask than a mask that lacks filtration over a mask that lacks a seal. I'm currently using boat-shaped ASTM Level 3 masks because I've found that the seal is best on my face. They're kind of expensive, though, so I only allow myself to rotate between five every month, and I also have a lot of surgical masks with added cord locks as backups.

The only quote I can find from Osterholm on the subject is his appearance on CNN saying that cloth masks are ineffective and N95 masks are his preference; I see no comments on surgical masks from him, although all the search results are inundated with anti-maskers citing Osterholm to bolster their lies that all masks are useless. https://thehill.com/changing-america/we … rotect-you

Regardless, Duke University's tests have shown that surgical mask materials have nearly the same filtration as N95s. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/36/eabd3083 However, surgical masks require either a second cloth mask on top to ensure a firm fit or cord locks to tighten up the earloops for the individual wearer.

Why would someone buy something other than an N95? They can be costly. In my city, N95 masks cost about $1.88 USD per mask. In contrast, a KF94 costs $1.04 USD per mask, and my mask of choice costs $0.77 USD each. My mother, in the hot summer air, cannot breathe through any of these masks and can only stand to wear a $0.40 USD surgical mask. I have added cord locks to each of the earloops ($0.12 USD a pair) to ensure a tight seal to her face for those masks.

Masks aren't infinitely reusable; they'll endure about 40 hours of wearing before the filtration diminishes. People may need to buy masks in high quantities at lower price points and my 77 cent ASTM3 mask with a 360 seal is equal to any N95. Also in my case, I find that most duckbill style masks like KN95s and even the N95 leave some slight gaps whereas the boat style mask I have chosen leaves no gaps at all and the ASTM Level 3 protection boasts splendid filtration.

ASTM Level 3 filters 98 per cent of particles down to 0.1 microns whereas N95 is rated for 95 per cent of particles down to 0.3 microns (although N95 certification tests fit and ASTM does not, but these ASTM3 masks fit my face better than any alternatives I've tried and I've tried a lot).

N95 is an excellent standard. But N95 is only one manufacturing standard of certification from the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH does not review every mask in existence. Numerous countries have their own certification standards. Countries that aren't America are perfectly capable of manufacturing and certifying masks with electrostatic filtration. Americans don't have a monopoly on meltblown polypropylene.

Other certification standards for electrostatic filtration include the international ASTM (formerly American), the European Union's FFP2, the KF94 of South Korea and the Chinese KN95. Each standard and testing process is slightly different and the KN95 has proven lax, but mask standards are not the sole domain of the United States or NIOSH or China.

Mechanical engineer Aaron Collins has tested KF94 masks and found that they match and exceed N95 standards. https://news.yahoo.com/one-man-is-on-a- … 56926.html

NIOSH has not reviewed KF94s. But mask filtration is not affected by whether or not one American body put their stamp on the box.

Now, to be clear: Grizzlor's preference for only wearing N95 masks is safe and sets a high target for protection. Anyone who adopted it would be well-protected. N95 masks are an industry standard of high performance. It is the most resilient and most stringently tested respirator technology on the market. Nobody should ever perceive an N95 mask to be anything less than excellent. And Grizzlor is entirely correct to present Osterholm as a source of knowledge as Osterholm has warned that cloth masks are pretty much useless.

However, there is also excellence to be found in ASTM Level 3 masks, KF94 masks, and properly fitted electrostatic surgical masks as well. Once the filtration is good, the key concern is fit.

Mechanical engineer Aaron Collins has done a lot of tests of KF94s and KN95s and recommends wearing them for 30 - 40 hours. This applies to any mask that uses meltblown polypropylene that filters through an electrostatic charge which includes N95s, KN95s, KF94s and surgical masks. The electrostatic charge dissipates as it goes to work in catching particles from air going in and out; in addition, earloops on masks stretch over time and what starts as a firm seal can become less firm after 30 - 40 hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_In-nBP6WkQ

At the start of each month, I set aside five boat-shaped ASTM Level 3 masks, one designated for each day. After a wearing, I put the worn mask in a paper envelope (marked with the day of the week) and let it sit for four days while moving onto the next mask. During those four days, any droplets will evaporate and any virus will become inactive. I also have surgical masks (with cord locks and PM2.5 filters) as backups, and those are also put in the paper envelope for four days after a wearing.

At the end of the month, I throw out the five ASTM3 masks and start on a new set of five. The surgical masks, however, I wear a lot less, so I use for two months before throwing them out and moving to a new set of backup surgicals. (I keep the cord locks, though.)

And as I've mentioned, KN95 manufacturing standards have proven extremely poor with at least 70 percent of KN95s in North America filtering less than the advertised 95 per cent, some filtering as little as 20 per cent. Whenever starting on a new brand of masks (three packs of KF94s, 10 packs of surgicals, 50 packs of ASTM3 boat shape masks), I always cut one open and check to make sure that there is a filtration layer inside with a static charge. I also put water in this test mask to ensure that fluids (and droplets) don't soak through.

I'm afraid that my ASTM Level 3 masks are a Canadian product delivered within Canada only (and they seem to have sold out anyway at present on innolifecare.com). However, the mask that I have my mother wear is the Kleannara KF94 and Kleannara has an Amazon store.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/KLEANNARA … C97B9972D?

I've taken apart my ASTM3 mask and taken apart the Kleannara mask and the Kleannara mask is actually a bit better. Under the Kleannara's outer layer of water resistant non-woven layer is a high density filtration layer on top of the electrostatic layer followed by the soft-on-skin layer. In contrast, my ASTM3 mask has the water resistant material on as the first and third layer with the electrostatic filter in the middle. But my ASTM3 mask has a closer fit on my nose, so I use those instead.

Aaron Collins, the mechanical engineer whose videos provide me with all knowledge of masks, has reviewed the Kleannara as well with his equipment and he measured filtration at 98.7 per cent, so it is a very fine mask. https://youtu.be/Z93BoeCuIE4?t=1992

My mother says she can't wear the Kleannara right now as it's very hot outside and she is struggling to breathe through the four layer mask. I have put her back on three-layer surgicals with cord locks. If you already have surgical masks and just want to close the gaps, you could try spending $7 on 100 cord locks.

https://www.amazon.com/Adjuster-Silicon … ref=sr_1_2

I don't believe anything can preserve the static charge aside from not wearing it. The reason a paper envelope is best for storage after wearing: moisture can evapourate from the mask and through the paper. The mask will dry, any virus lodged in the mask will become inactive, and the mask can be worn again after 72 hours (although I give it 96 to make it easier to keep track). A plastic ziplock bag won't allow moisture to lift off the mask; it will stay in the bag and on the mask.

Under various tests, the electrostatic charge has mostly broken down due to liquid, aerosol and particle exposure from inhaling and exhaling. Air exposure in storage has proven to be irrelevant at least within a four month period.

When an electrostatic layer gets soaked, it loses its static properties. (This rarely happens because a mask has an outer water resistant layer.) But every time you breathe through a mask, you are expelling moisture in your breath. The moisture goes through the mask. This is a very low level of moisture, but the droplets in your breath which will gradually cause the charge to lessen over time.

The other charge-reducing factor is particle exposure. As you breathe in and out, every particle that your mask filter catches with its static charge is a reduction in that static charge.

According to Collins' tests, after 38 hours in a "clean office environment," a mask with 99 per cent filtration would go down by 3 - 4 per cent. That's not bad, but that filtration level will only get lower and lower. If you're regularly passing through environments with lots of particles in the air, that charge will drop even more severely.

However, leaving a mask sitting unused didn't seem to cause the filtration to degrade within the four months Collins was testing this. Air is not being forced in and out through the filter when the mask isn't worn. You have to breathe through it to wear the filter down.

N95 masks are sold with an expiry date of five years after they were produced, presumably because the electrostatic charge can't last indefinitely.

Well obviously the lead story is the total mess in Afghanistan.  Not much to say other than the US Military is incapable of a mass/hasty withdrawal like this following what is obviously defeat.  Frankly, I don't think any military is capable of keeping order in this type of scenario.  I do not quite understand why the administration seemed to ignore calls for an earlier evacuation?  My personal feeling is that Biden expected that would require taking tens of thousands of Afghans on as refugees, for which every GOP politician would have screamed bloody murder over.

Ultimately the Afghani "leadership" is to blame for the Taliban's quick retaking of the country. The US left them with a significant advantage in manpower and equipment, twenty years of training, and control of all the major cities. Maintaining a hold over the country shouldn't have been that difficult.

Awesome.  I bought some of these yesterday and they'll be my primary mask.  I really only leave the house to get groceries and pick up take out so I think a good reliable mask will be a key part of staying healthy.

My only concern now is that we have grandparents coming over semi-regularly to help with the kids and my oldest is in daycare.  But I think it's impossible to have zero risk.  I'm just doing what I can.

ireactions.....I'm about 99% certain I know the man who spoke of as "Francisco Herrera" LOL as he's pretty active on the Sliders FB group.  I get into it frequently with him, because he's quite the "know-it-all" and his new crusade is to complain about anything woke.  Suffice to say he doesn't have much reverence for any of us who've been in the Sliders online community for over 20 years.  Which is fine.

Moving on, guys the sad fact is you will not find one instance in the history of mankind where an occupying army completely withdraws from a war it has effectively lost, and there is no chaos.  There is always chaos, and there are always huge numbers of people left behind who fought/aided that same army.  It is unavoidable, and is not the fault of the military leadership.  The media is full of Monday morning QB's from right to left, but none of them have a reasonable alternative plan for what's happening there. 

The only alternative is to redeploy probably 100K US forces on the ground, a level we have not had in a decade or more.  Biden is trying to avoid having US Marines having a firefight with Taliban.  That is his goal here, get Americans and Western nationals out.  So that's where we are.  If he can accomplish that to a satisfactory level, great.  Doesn't seem like it right now though.  For those who will start screaming Al Qaeda will return, or they won't let girls go to school, whatever, enough already.  We cannot be at war.  The Afghans largely gave up when Trump made that deal in February 2020, it is what it is.