iNow

Perhaps relevant here to this thread, there is however an "I" in both Singles and Tennis

We cannot assume it's never happened nor wouldn't (magma flowing into/through oil deposits) as that's entirely possible. It's just less likely, however, because magma tends to sit higher / closer to the crust than oil deposits which generally are much deeper. It's a bit like placing a rock at the bottom of our cup and asking why the marshmallow you set floating on top isn't interacting directly with that rock. It's not that it's impossible, just that it's unlikely.

Russia has begun evacuating its people from their Ukrainian embassy

My wife just stopped and said, ”You weren’t even listening were you?” I thought… “That’s a pretty weird way to start a conversation.”

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but in the US our vaccination rate is all the way up to 63%, and in my current home state of Iowa we’re doing even better with 59% of the population fully vaxxed. I know you’re jealous though and hate us for our free-dumbs. I return you now to your tennis tournament travails.

Having just left Afghanistan after 20 years and trillions spent to basically lose a war, the appetite for entering another conflagration in the US is low to nonexistent… even if we’re differently badged or dressed I guess keep wishing

I’m sure they saw it previously, but they also saw their own political power waning if they did anything to make fuel more expensive in the present. Looks to me like Ukraine will be included as a part of / state within Russia by this same time next year. Hopefully I’m wrong

Those are all fine ideas, but I reckon their impact will be more on conflicts in the 2030s than on those in the coming weeks

It looks like a cyber attack also began 2 or 3 days ago where Russia deployed a massive destructive malware program across Ukrainian government systems focused on executive and emergency responses. It also hit a private IT company that manages sites for the gov. It allows the attackers to edit what is shown across these sites and even completely shutdown these systems from afar. Microsoft cyber security experts flagged it last night https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/microsoft-says-it-observed-destructive-malware-systems-belonging-several-ukraine-2022-01-16/

Well, they did recently remake Westside Story 🤷‍♂️

It sounds more like preaching than opening of a discussion. What do you wish to discuss, exactly? Two maybe. 😂

Humans are dumb sometimes often and frequently

Your graph lacks labels on the axes or even a source to go find out. Are we looking at revenues? Rates? Number of people paying? Online submissions? Other?

Worse, they were cheerleading the vaccine when Trump pushed project warp speed to get it out sooner, then the moment Biden “won” the election they started poo pooing it. Now most try to walk a tightrope and say they support the vaccine but are against mandates. Maybe they’ll eventually progress to where progressives began. That’s what usually happens anyway

I’m good with effective response. That was my intended meaning anyway

And I’m appalled by how specious and bothersome your OPs so frequently are, but you don’t see me posting about it! Oh. Wait…. Nvm

Exactly, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany seems to be the flashpoint right now in that space. It’s being politicized within the US by the likes of Ted Cruz saying it should be off the table in terms of sanctions. Yet another reason to move to clean energy I suppose. That’s my understanding, yes. It’s a bit like when far right activists pretended to be antifa and started vandalizing property during BLM protests. It allows for a narrative that big responses were justified because someone needed to stop those reviled antifa people. Well, same thing here. By sending in their own people, Russia sets a pretext for invasion. They’ve setup camps of operatives within Ukraine border to engage in “attacks” against Russian troops and even the Russian speaking / Russian supporting residents of Ukraine. On that basis, Russia can go in to stop those evil doers (who are, in fact, their own agents). As I noted above, Russian trolls are also already fabricating stories across social media suggesting they’re being provoked to going in by Ukrainians. It’s basically a chess move. They make it look like Ukraine deserved invasion so when they actually invade they can pretend their cause is juste. After all, they know the rest of us as John Q. Public will just argue about it endlessly since we can’t even agree on basic facts like the sky is blue or Biden actually won the US election online anymore. Indeed. Hell have some pissed off oligarchs max about losing a few billion rubles, but all will be fine whilst the common man takes the brunt. But better solutions seem to be in short supply since escalations too quickly go nuclear

How is this politics

Appreciate your read of the history jimmy, but this thread is intended more for forecasts of the future, specifically how the US might respond should these incursions happen. To that broader thread purpose: Yesterday there were several false flag operations conducted by Russia where they entered Ukraine and pretended to be Ukrainians acting in provocative ways (being denied of course, but intelligence across countries agrees that’s what happened). Internet troll traffic from Russia in parallel has heightened and is spreading disinformation in predictable ways. When this has happened in the past, it was usually less than 7 days away from more kinetic/real-world events starting. Tl;dr - It looks rather likely that something bigger will happen this week.

Yes

People who have been vaccinated seem to have a stronger immune response to the virus and that response appears to last longer over time. People who got the virus without vaccine and gave a natural immunity (not due to vaccination) seem to have a weaker immune response overall and that response doesn’t last as long over time… the immunity seems to fade. People who donate blood are more likely to be vaccinated than the general population overall. When we see vaccinated people still getting infected, it seems related to their body having a weaker immune response than their fellow vaccinated peers.

We can disagree about how much questioning there was, but cannot agree there was none. Safe drivers without vehicle accidents get better insurance rates. Medical insurance is similar. Consciously choosing behaviors like smoking or taking horse dewormer or avoiding vaccines is unsafe and it should be unsurprising that there are negative consequences for making such choices.

The difference is in intensity, not so much likelihood of infection. Boosted? You suffer a strong cold / flu and generally feeling like total crap for a few days. Unvaxxed? You likely will need ventilators and fluids to avoid death… IF there’s room in the local hospital to accept you.

3 distinct households / friends down the street from me have it right now. All were vaxxed and boosted

Indeed. The president of our state senate, in fact, is right now pushing legislation to jail teachers who happen to have a copy of one or two specific books in the library... saying teachers have a "sinister agenda" all because 2 or 3 books happen to be on the shelves in 1 or 2 libraries on topics harsh views of slave life and LQBTQ self-acceptance, but are instead being boogeyman'd with the base as "attempts to normalize sexual deviance, pedophilia, and incest." Lots of forward thinking stuff happening where I live, all while pig farms and agri-corporations keep dumping trash and chemicals into our waterways. Sorry... still off topic, but things aren't exactly awesome with our GOP leadership right now.