*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[Bene Futuis]

It's very upsetting to me that there are those in positions of power who are trying to employ threats in order to force children back into what's an obviously dangerous and uncontrolled or uncontrollable situation. I want my kid to be at school. But I also want my kid to be alive and healthy and for his teachers and family members to be alive and healthy.

[heyelander]

It's very upsetting to me that there are those in positions of power who are trying to employ threats in order to force children back into what's an obviously dangerous and uncontrolled or uncontrollable situation. I want my kid to be at school. But I also want my kid to be alive and healthy and for his teachers and family members to be alive and healthy.

I think we are all in fear or denial right now. I don't know what the solution is, but we really need to start rethinking how we go about conducting life. We are all acting like this is a short term inconvenience still. A vaccine would be great, and we've got a head start on some of it, but from what I gather from my small exposure to companies that make vaccines, the shortest expectation for a new vaccine (in general, not specific here) is 12 years! Even if we have a head start and cut corners, bunkering down until a vaccine comes, especially if it's efficacy is short term, is not a plan. Ignoring it until a vaccine comes is not a plan either. We need to rethink a lot of things.

[chancellor]

It's very upsetting to me that there are those in positions of power who are trying to employ threats in order to force children back into what's an obviously dangerous and uncontrolled or uncontrollable situation. I want my kid to be at school. But I also want my kid to be alive and healthy and for his teachers and family members to be alive and healthy.

Understand and agree.

I will add it's not just people in power - our local school board members who have come out on this issue have been harassed by parents brutally. I realize there's well-intentioned people who believe kids in school outweigh the losses/risks of kids out of school, but all too many are jackasses who just see the school as a place to dump their kids. And that attitude seems to cut across a wide swath of incomes, races, ages, and family makeup. So even well-intentioned local people in power - who couldn't give two rips about what anyone in the Trump administration says - are influenced by local morons who issue varying levels of threats, ranging from the petty to the career threatening to the life threatening.

[DMT]

Understand and agree.

I will add it's not just people in power - our local school board members who have come out on this issue have been harassed by parents brutally. I realize there's well-intentioned people who believe kids in school outweigh the losses/risks of kids out of school, but all too many are jackasses who just see the school as a place to dump their kids. And that attitude seems to cut across a wide swath of incomes, races, ages, and family makeup. So even well-intentioned local people in power - who couldn't give two rips about what anyone in the Trump administration says - are influenced by local morons who issue varying levels of threats, ranging from the petty to the career threatening to the life threatening.

But the threats to local officials are overwhelmingly from idiots taking their cues from the chief idiot. No other leader has politicized this pandemic like Trump and he is the prime reason our country is failing so miserably at containing it.

[Bene Futuis]

Yeah, many parents are abject morons but fortunately the vast, vast majority of them don't get elected President. Also, they may attempt to threaten to withhold funding but they hold no real power so no one cares. Edit: Our board was essentially unanimous in their plan and said that while there would be a reevaluation of the schools' in-person readiness after another several weeks, they didn't believe that the kids would be coming back.

[Bene Futuis]

I think we are all in fear or denial right now. I don't know what the solution is, but we really need to start rethinking how we go about conducting life. We are all acting like this is a short term inconvenience still. A vaccine would be great, and we've got a head start on some of it, but from what I gather from my small exposure to companies that make vaccines, the shortest expectation for a new vaccine (in general, not specific here) is 12 years! Even if we have a head start and cut corners, bunkering down until a vaccine comes, especially if it's efficacy is short term, is not a plan. Ignoring it until a vaccine comes is not a plan either. We need to rethink a lot of things.

Um, I'm pretty sure just like a miracle it will just disappear. At least that's what I heard from one deranged parent who threatened to withhold funding if we don't participate in this kind of denial.


I think you're right. The world has inexorably changed and at least thus far we are essentially unprepared for this change, a fact that's exacerbated by having essentially no functional federal leadership at all right now. I don't know what to do either, so I turn to the experts on these types of things, to the extent they are not being silenced or hidden away from us.

[DMT]

It's just so infuriating that the Senate allowed this totally incompetent sociopath to remain in office. It's gonna feel great when they're swept out of power, but until then so much more needless death and suffering.

[chancellor]

But the threats to local officials are overwhelmingly from idiots taking their cues from the chief idiot. No other leader has politicized this pandemic like Trump and he is the prime reason our country is failing so miserably at containing it.

I'm going to politely disagree - certainly on the anti-mask spectrum, you're right. But our local school board members can't win - if they propose kids staying at home with online learning, they get the same types of threats the board members who support kids going back to school. Oh, and that leaves out the anti-vaxxers who are condemning the requirement that if kids do return to in-person learning that their vaccinations be up to date.

It's total madness in our school district; I'm not sure how yours is. One of our school board members has been labeled "racist" because she's not "indigenous enough" - her mother is Oneida, but her father is Latino. She supports kids going back to school, so naturally, she's trying to "propagate another slaughter of indigenous people".

OTOH, those who advocate for online learning definitely get the brunt of the wackadoodles you and Bene referred to, on top of being labeled "not attentive to the needs of BIPOC single mothers".

And both sides relentlessly assault the others on social media, they call employers of school board members if they have a job, and dox them. And that's just what I'm aware of. I can't imagine what they have to put up with on their phones.

[Kevin Seitzer]

If anyone is trying to view the comet, this is the best resource I've found:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/comet-neowise-dazzles-at-dusk/

No luck viewing it yet for me. I think I need to wait at least 2-3 days for it to get higher above the horizon. I went out of the city a little bit, but there was still a fair amount of haze and light pollution near the horizon.

They say the brightness right now is similar to that of the North Star, and should not decrease too much between now and its point of closest approach to the earth on July 23.

[The Feral Slasher]

If anyone is trying to view the comet, this is the best resource I've found:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/comet-neowise-dazzles-at-dusk/

No luck viewing it yet for me. I think I need to wait at least 2-3 days for it to get higher above the horizon. I went out of the city a little bit, but there was still a fair amount of haze and light pollution near the horizon.

They say the brightness right now is similar to that of the North Star, and should not decrease too much between now and its point of closest approach to the earth on July 23.

Thanks...really cool pictures. I will probably take another look this weekend.

[Bene Futuis]

Comets are fake

[Bene Futuis]

My son is fond of saying that camels are fake, which simultaneously cracks me up and frightens me.

[heyelander]

Why camels? Hoiw does the ABQ BioPark not have camels?

[Bene Futuis]

Why camels? Hoiw does the ABQ BioPark not have camels?

They do! But they're just far enough from the people that you never know.....

Lol, I'm not really sure why he says that. Pretty sure he just thinks it's hilarious to say, which it kind of is. Not sure why he picked camels. He picked another animal, too, but I can't remember which now. Maybe zebras.

[heyelander]

They do! But they're just far enough from the people that you never know.....

Lol, I'm not really sure why he says that. Pretty sure he just thinks it's hilarious to say, which it kind of is. Not sure why he picked camels. He picked another animal, too, but I can't remember which now. Maybe zebras.

From a couple weeks ago in Sacramento radio
Fake zebras... starts for realer around 2:30

https://www.facebook.com/98Rock/videos/miss-todays-live-parody-battle-on-that-damn-show-here-it-is-zebrasarefake/231290767905763/?__so__=permalink&__rv__=related_videos