Posts by boldotter2

briskdrifter3 said:A tragicomedy of sanctions.
As a direct result of these sanctions, the various branches of Russian banks operating within the European Union will take the brunt of the damage—while the central headquarters back in Russia continue to function without missing a beat.
Gas prices are poised to skyrocket across the European Union, whereas in Russia, they’ll likely remain quite affordable...
Food shortages could start hitting the European Union, while Russia will probably feel much less of an impact.

It's a comedy, really...
The main thing is that we have demonstrated our strength and resolve to Putin...

Right, because when you're under sanctions and basically at war with a nation of 40 million people, the economy has no choice but to grow and grow. Just straight to the moon, I guess. Even if it needs to.

Joshua Myers432 said:Stop poking the bear more than necessary. Is that really such a difficult concept to grasp? And yeah, by all means, send the psychiatrist if you can get one through the door.

I’d love to see you out on a street corner, playing the hero when you run into some massive, armed psycho staring you down. I bet all that bravado would vanish pretty quickly.

But what if that huge psycho actually follows you and starts screaming, "You wanna fight?! You wanna fight?!"
What if he shows up right at your front door and starts kicking it in?
What if he breaks into your house?
What if he tries to lay a hand on your kid?

At what point do you finally lose it?

Carl Cook said:Nobody is going to go that far.

Right, because I guess Putin isn't just flexing his muscles before an invasion of Ukraine, right?

Paul Patel95 said:So Zelenskyy is on Twitter claiming Erdogan is gonna shut down the Black Sea access for Russian ships?

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/stat...64078897774598

Talk about the prodigal son returning! I guess he was acting a bit too tough, then his currency and assets took a hit, and now he's crawling back. 👍

And then people have the nerve to say sanctions don't work.

velvetcyclist95 said:No matter how this plays out, NATO needs to be actively working to undermine the Russian Federation and get Putin's regime replaced.

Honestly, I hope Putin lives for at least another 20 years—but only if he's totally helpless, weak, and completely out of it. I want him stuck in the same Gulag where Navalny is today, just watching helplessly as Belarus joins NATO.

William Anderson5 said:From what I can see, this Russian army operates more like a disorganized group of amateurs.

The only way they manage to make any headway is through sheer, barbaric brute force backed by heavy weaponry...

Even that won't work. You have to actually get the heavy stuff into position, dig in, and have solid logistics and air superiority—or at least some protection. So far, Russ has basically NOTHING in those categories.
The Javelin has a 2500m self-guided range, and they’re being delivered to Ukrainians in literal shipping containers. Good luck to Russ with their supply lines. And man, imagine being in a UN vehicle crew when one gets wiped out mid-formation in the middle of the night... you'd be wondering who's next.

rustywalker82 said:Yeah, it could be similar to how the U.S. gives the green light to Israelis during those periodic incursions into Palestine.
My take depends entirely on the body count. If we start seeing mass casualties, then my theory goes out the window and this war won't have an end in sight.

It all comes down to human suffering, and honestly, even more so if things start wrecking the global economy.
I guess what China actually wants is for the West to pivot all that cash toward beefing up NATO and churning out weapons instead of investing in Chinese industry. For example, Americans are asking for $6.5 billion from the budget to help Ukraine. That’s basically $6.5 billion less flowing into China's pockets.

BTW, the Chinese people were pretty restrained at the Security Council today during the vote on the Ukraine resolution. It was a resolution drafted by Americans that mentions the word "aggression" about a million times. Russia used their veto, obviously. Nobody else was against it, though.

rustywalker82 said:The intelligence folks who nailed the timing on when the Russian invasion of Ukraine would kick off were actually predicting that Kyiv would fall in just three days.
It’d be some kind of miracle if that intel meant the madman decides to call an end to the invasion in three days—at least outside those lines in the Donbas. Whatever he's managed to kill out of pure, insane spite in the meantime, he's already done it. Even if he calls it quits now, he's already set Russia on a path toward becoming a permanent criminal state. We're right on the edge here, and I feel like we're getting closer to the drop with every passing hour.

I suspect China gave him a deadline. Basically, grab what you can by then, and then head straight to the negotiating table, while Ukraine stays whole. That means he’s got to install a puppet government and take the capital (whether it's Kyiv or Kharkiv) before that clock runs out.

It seems nobody even talks about an independent Donetsk or Luhansk anymore... everyone is just talking about a unified Ukraine.

That’s probably why they're attempting these suicidal landing operations—it's a total race against the clock.

Today, China released their five-point plan regarding Ukraine:

https://www.axios.com/china-russia-u...7f0c60593.html

Following a call with his British, EU and French counterparts, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi outlined Beijing's position on Ukraine in five points:

1.China "firmly advocates" abiding by the UN Charter and respecting the territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine.
2.The security of one country cannot be strengthened at the expense of another, and Russia is justified to have concerns about five rounds of NATO expansion.
3.China believes "all parties" should exercise restraint and protect civilian life and property to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis.
4.China supports "direct dialogue and negotiation between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible" and believes Ukraine "should be a bridge between East and West, not a frontier of great power confrontation."
5.The UN Security Council should be used to "facilitate a diplomatic solution" and "cool tensions rather than fuel them." China Has always opposed UN resolutions that invoke Chapter VII of The UN Charter, which authorizes military and non-military steps to "restore international peace and security."

Actually, four out of those five points don't really help the Russian aggression. Especially not if they want this to be anything other than a long, drawn-out mess.

mellownomad7 said:Me and my wife have been chewing on this whole delta thing.
There's no way it spread that fast overnight.

In my book, it’s more likely these mutations are popping up everywhere.
We’re just finally getting better at catching them.

Cheers

Well, it hit all the big cities first via air travel, just like every other respiratory virus we've seen. It's just that now, we're catching it much earlier.

In all the states where Omicron is blowing up, the rural areas haven't seen a huge spike yet, but I guess it might happen soon enough.

frozenraven22 said:He holds a Master’s in Public Health (not a doctorate). For the most part, he just summarizes news from the scientific community. My impression is that he knows his stuff, even if the ratio of cases to infections he cites seems off. Still, I wouldn't write him off as unreliable, at least regarding Omicron.

The man has a million videos out there. I’ve only watched a few, so I’ll preemptively throw some ashes on my own head here in case he actually claimed somewhere that alligator testicles can cure cancer, Corona, and laundry stains.

He’s been on YouTube since the pandemic started. I remember watching his stuff back when they were talking about that cruise ship quarantine in the USA. It was fine—pretty concise and objective.

The issue with him, honestly, is the same issue with all social media content. The more views you get through ads, the more money you make. And how do you get views? By being controversial. He can see all those stats YouTube feeds him.
He mentions vaccine benefits in almost every video, but hey, he makes his real money once he brings up things like Ivermectin or myocarditis. He totally gets that, and he plays it pretty slyly.
He’ll never say Vitamin D and zinc are replacements for vaccines or cures for COVID, but he’ll mention there's "strong evidence" they boost your immune response. Which is technically true, I guess, but the way he serves it up is clearly designed to bait clicks from folks looking for conspiracies rather than actually educating people.

Gerald Chavez7 said:We're likely looking at a pretty nasty wave—not necessarily in scale, just because everyone tends to catch it all at once—but it should be over quick. Honestly, I still have a feeling we'll be through the worst of it by March 15th.

Mainly because communication is going to be a total disaster, just like it always is. And obviously, everything will be late.

Right now, I think our biggest headache is that too few vulnerable people and healthcare workers have gotten their third dose.

If most of the medical staff gets hit all at once, it could really mess with the whole system. Not just because of COVID-19, but because everything else might just stop working.
First you get nurses and techs getting sick, then doctors, then patients with mild cases, but then it all spills over into the intensive care units and nursing homes...

And if things get even worse because Delta is still hanging around... The last thing we need is Delta and Omicron hitting an immunocompromised ward at the same time. That’s basically a recipe for disaster and potentially some new mutations.

The early numbers coming out of the UK (even though it's just a tiny sample of about 1,000 patients) seem to back up what we saw in South Africa—the symptoms feel more like a nasty cold. We're talking sneezing, stuffy noses, sore throats, and feeling wiped out. No fever, no losing taste, and losing smell is super rare.
One little update, too—it looks like the incubation period might have dropped to just 2 or 3 days.
Link: https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-...-says-12497094

We'll really need to see how this hits the elderly, people with underlying conditions, or those who aren't vaccinated. And kids, too. South Africa has seen a spike in kids being hospitalized, but honestly, the numbers are still pretty low, so maybe it’s just seasonal bugs or something? A bunch of those kids had bad stomach issues like vomiting and diarrhea before testing positive for Omicron. It could be a COVID thing, or maybe just some other bug going around since it's summer and all.

But hey, if things keep going this way—with a shorter incubation period and a quicker window for spreading it—this whole thing might just burn itself out incredibly fast.

frozenraven22 said:Those who survive will have plenty to talk about. 😁

That potential 1% daily infection rate scares the hell out of me too. 🙄

God willing, Omicron turns out to be nothing more than a common cold.🎉

That 1% figure is just totally insane. I mean, it might be possible, but it's crazy! It feels like we're looking at either the virus just collapsing and vanishing, or the end of humanity. It's either us or it. 😬

So far in the EU, maybe 80% to over 90% of the population has some kind of immunity against this thing. If the reinfection rate is sitting around 50% (based on data from South Africa), then I guess Europe is already starting with about 40% immunity.
If herd immunity hits 70-80% and this junk keeps spreading at a crazy speed—maybe not 1% a day, but even 0.1% is super fast—it'll probably just burn itself out in a month or two. It'll run out of hosts and disappear. Unless, of course, it mutates.🕺

velvetranger4 said:If you're going to comment, maybe actually watch the video first. 🐔

She's saying their healthcare system isn't overwhelmed because Omicron is a milder disease; most people just recover at home in five days.

Sure, some people will still need hospital care, but what they're seeing in the USA after four weeks of Omicron sirens is a completely different story than what happened with Delta.

Meanwhile, the media over in the USA has been preaching pure apocalypse lately. 🕺

I guess all this doom and gloom in the USA is just a distraction to move eyes away from those parties at Johnson's place during the lockdown. It feels like nobody else is freaking out or acting like everything is falling apart, though people are still being careful, I suppose.

crimsonhawk20 said:The catch is that Omicron spreads about 3 to 4 times faster. That means we're looking at a massive surge in hospital volume—instead of seeing an extra 100 patients a day, you might see 400, which could basically break any local healthcare system in just a few days.
When that happens, it doesn't just strain the hospitals; it hits primary care and emergency services too, since everyone will need testing regardless of their vaccination status. We're essentially starting from scratch, but with a much heavier wave of sick people hitting us at once.

Anything is possible, I guess, but it doesn't seem super likely.

Take a look at what's happening in South Africa for a hint: even though their infection numbers are higher than ever, the death toll is actually lower than it's ever been! Even considering how long this pandemic has lasted. They’re dealing with record-high infections, but the impact is lower than ever. Plus, it's worth noting that previous waves of cases and deaths lined up pretty clearly, unlike this current wave which hasn't even shown up on the graph yet.
Again, this is just how things look right now. And honestly? Things look better than ever. For them, anyway.

As for what happens in Europe, I guess we'll find out in the next month or two.

Click the image for a better view:

Omicron seems to be hitting way less hard than Delta did. According to Alice: View on twitter
It’s a big deal that this milder trend is showing up across all age groups. Most people, whether they're vaccinated or not—kids or seniors—seem to get out of the hospital within about five days.

So, when you look at that alongside
https://fortune.com/2021/12/13/omicr...irst-surfaced/
the idea that the Omicron wave in New York City might already be peaking,

it gives off some pretty optimistic vibes, I guess.

Dennis Allen said:25x1 = 25%

It’s like looking at a single puzzle piece and ignoring the whole picture! You missed the most important part of the article and just quoted that one sensational last sentence...

0.25x1 = 25%
25x1 = 2500%

#freemathlessons

I guess things are getting pretty wild! Maybe it's just me, but everything feels a bit chaotic right now. It’s definitely intense! kaže:
Hold on a second. Every single top-tier expert agrees that it’s way too early to draw any real conclusions, but I guess the experts over at Reddit already have all the answers figured out!

It’s always that same powerful little clique, isn't it? They just have to hijack every single thread on this forum. It’s gotten to the point where almost nobody even posts here anymore... I mean, you could start a topic about literally anything, and before you even finish the first page, someone jumps in to lecture you about how you're just spreading media conspiracies. It's crazy! 🙄

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that whole situation feels pretty diabolical! I guess things are getting a bit wild, huh? Just my two cents! kaže:
I’m already seeing the replies, but honestly, the system isn't overloaded yet. Don't even go there! Actually, it's probably better if it stays this way, because once someone finally snaps, they're just gone. They burn out, and then you guys are on your own to figure it out. But I guess anti-vaxxers don't really see that as an issue. To them, it doesn't matter—they think being at 101% capacity is just a normal day at the office.

Well said. Honestly, back in Washington, D.C., Chase Bank was basically turned into a dedicated COVID hospital last winter, but this year, every single hospital has opened up their own COVID wards. The official line is that they’re just trying to ease the pressure on the system, but if you ask me, the real story is much simpler. After last winter, a ton of doctors and nurses from the suburbs just quit and moved over to private practice. I mean, why would a gynecologist, a dermatologist, or a psychiatrist spend six months sweating in a hazmat suit, risking their own health and their family's safety? They're people too, I guess, and they have every right to say, "Let the government handle this one."

I guess things are getting pretty intense! Maybe just a bit wild, honestly. I don't know! kaže:
What about the media? Honestly, I don't really care for them. When I'm reading the news and see a number like 575 deaths in Germany in a single day, I’m just like, damn, that is a massive number. Or if it says 67 here in the States... man, imagine 67 people gone and everyone just acts like nothing happened. It's just unreal.

The media is really pushing those headlines lately, like "Omicron means the end of the pandemic!" even though Delta is still hitting Europe hard. I guess the forum experts see that as just another conspiracy by the news outlets and global leaders.

Thomas Cook said:A Christmas party in Seattle turned into the biggest hotspot for this new coronavirus variant in all of Europe—it’s actually the largest Omicron cluster outside of South Africa.

But instead of freaking out, health officials over there are saying this might actually be a sign that the pandemic is finally winding down.

That article is super confusing, honestly. It looks like it was rushed together, and the Daily Telegraph link is stuck behind a paywall.

Anyway, I can't quite wrap my head around what the article is actually saying regarding how many people were at that club where 120 got infected, or if everyone there was vaccinated versus just having a negative test.

I guess if there were only 120 people total and EVERYONE was vaccinated and EVERYONE got sick, that would be pretty scary. Delta wasn't even close to being this contagious, it didn't bypass vaccines this much, and it mostly just caused mild symptoms in vaccinated folks.
But then again, maybe it's just bad reporting? I mean, I don't think any respiratory virus is quite infectious enough to hit 100% of everyone exposed.

So far, Omicron seems to show milder symptoms in people being hospitalized, but the wave is just starting and it's summer. They're also seeing a huge spike in reinfections among people who already had it.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world...tl-ldn-vpx.cnn

The only thing we know for sure about Omicron right now is that it basically ignores vaccines and pretty much bypasses natural immunity when it comes to catching it.
The big question, I suppose, is how much it bypasses immunity regarding actual sickness, and whether those milder symptoms come from the vaccine/previous infection or the virus itself.

The real test for Omicron will be during the winter in places with low vaccination rates, like Canada or Bulgaria. If we don't see massive hospitalizations there, then maybe we're in good shape.

Linda Lee4 said:Right now, the trend suggests that unknown is significantly less threatening than delta or alpha... If this holds true over the next few weeks, we should probably just open everything back up and let it spread until it becomes dominant as quickly as possible. At this point, the restrictions are barely doing anything to slow down the momentum anyway.

Let's hope so!

Though, it's summer in South Africa, but here in the States, even the unknown strain this summer felt kind of "milder"...
https://www.telegram.com/politics-crisis-two-weeks/

“Based on what we’ve seen over the last two weeks, there’s a chance this unknown strain currently circulating isn't quite as pathogenic—meaning it might not wreck lungs or cause such devastating pneumonia like the previous ones did,” said Dr. unknown. However, he noted that his theory still needs to be backed up by more research.

Well, yeah, we've already proven that theory wrong with actual data.
And do we even need to bring up all those claims that the virus—basically just like the flu—would just vanish by late spring 2020?
They screwed us over every single time.

So, I guess I'm just trying to stay positive and hope things finally start working in our favor. Maybe after two years, the virus will just get tired of messing with us too.

We'll just keep an eye on what's happening in Europe. The next two weeks will be...