PS

@ The Alarmist

"Oddly enough, the only German politician I really respect is Sahra Wagenknecht, a leftist and former Ossi who more often than not demonstrates more care for the average German than any of the so-called centrists or conservatives who are busy selling Germany to Davos Man."

I like this lady - German MEP Christine Anderson (AfD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7BE_liwBxY

PS: Mr. Ganderson, since you brought that up, I thought about this some more at the grocery store. Outside it, one guy looked like he was going back into his truck to get a medical face mask. (Usually the people wearing those, like me, aren't the ones who take it so seriously - or they'd have their own cloth designer ones - #SoProud.)

Just to be helpful, I told him that this wasn't required anymore. It turned out that he had the face mask in his hand the whole time, so he just said "thanks" nicely. There weren't many people in the store that early, and I saw him wearing that mask once inside.

Here's my thought on this - there are a lot of people that still consider not wearing one rude, because you are not caring that this may make others uncomfortable. I don't believe they really think I'm going around spreading deadly COVID germs, your walkers in Amherst notwithstanding.*

They don't know the half of "being uncomfortable" though. There's a lot more discomfort in living one's life in a Police State than they may have thought ahead about.


* Is it possible those 2 were the super-nice people who walked away from you so that YOU wouldn't be uncomfortable? I wouldn't ask this to them, were it me, as any conversation with people like those 2, whether it turned out they were worried about themselves or you (and maybe your Lab!), would result in my eventually stating that the whole thing is retarded, and the word "hysterical" or "menopausal" would be bound to come out.

BTW, I don't even know what the deal is with menopausal women.. I think ....

PS

Yesterday while walking the dog near the Amherst College campus a couple walking toward left the sidewalk and walked into the middle of the street so as not to come close to me. Surprisingly they were not masked, but perhaps they thought Jasmine the chocolate lab had the ‘Rona

PS

@MrHail, you nailed it, though the comparison to Montezuma’s Revenge is an interesting take.

re Cornell, I guess the icing in the cake is that the migratory birds also aren’t vaxxed, so they had to lockdown really hard. Migratory people on their way up from south aren’t a problem, though.

BTW, the vaxx hesitancy stats suggest some of the most hesitant folks have PhDs, so one might attibute Cornell’s decision to the Admin folks, who we all know are not very bright.

PS: Greetings Mr. Moderator,

“You'd think those high-IQ intellectuals would come to some conclusion about this.”

Yeah, one would think.
But, most academicians, intellectuals, and professionals are not the kind of people who challenge “authority”.

Something about your comment reminded me of this...

https://www.madinamerica.com/2012/02/why-anti-authoritarians-are-diagnosed-as-mentally-ill/

☮

PS: Sorry for the typos: "What these people hate is for other people to "get away" with not following ..." Speaking of typos, my 10 y/o boy noticed that I'd spelled Santa Claus wrong in the title. Fixed. (Oh, and I see one more time in the body.)

PS: Mr. Hail, thank you for the explanation. I am familiar with Montezuma's revenge, the term, that is, not the stomach problems - got a pretty good stomach in this sense. I like your comparison with that to Herr Merkel.

As for the English and that 800 year history of being beacons of liberty, you wonder what happened to the people - was it the best and brightest being killed in the World Wars, as people speculate? This brings me to Massachusetts too, of shot-heard-round-the-world fame. Is there anything left of that crowd? There forefathers would be spinning around in their grave at high rpm.

Adam, the academicians seem to be the first to cave. Yet, with those "superb" vax rates, it's still Condition Red, huh? You'd think those high-IQ intellectuals would come to some conclusion about this.

PS: Good evening everyone...

I don't speak or read German, but I think Mr. Hail pretty well nailed it.
I guessed it to be something like east German retribution weapon or east German retaliatory weapon.

Angela Merkel is Hitler's daughter.
I read it on the internet, so it must be true. 🙃

☮

PS: Mr. Ganderson, those computer jockeys must have run out of time to include what I think would solve the problem, and easy to see "Stop Doing this Shit!" button that ought to be hanging around there like paperclip guy used to.

Some people like the new features, but to me, just make them default OFF, or make the opt-out control obvious. Yes, I hate autocomplete, except when texting, which, yeah, I hate texting.

PS: Mr. Ganderson, I'm listening to the Swedish-performed Norwegian carol now. Thanks.

For you and Bill: I understand that at least Mr. G. read the last words "health-wise" and you probably did too, Bill. Even with all the compliance, and it sounds terrible there in the Communist Republic of Mass, I really don't think there are many people who would actually be scared, heatlh-wise, to be right in front of someone with no mask on. What these people hate if for other people to "get away" with no following those IMPORTANT RULES, important only because someone at some level of government says they are.

BTW, what I see all the time for people that do wear them - for me, at the workplace where required - people will gladly pull them off their faces when they know you can't get what they are saying. It just goes to show the stupidity of the whole thing, because it's when you're talking that viral particles, if a clear and present danger, haha, would go flying out. Yet they tell us that communication is a very, very important part of the job!

PS

RE: Moderator

"Vergeltungwaffe" is the full name of the "V" rockets ("V-1" "V-2") developed by that one guy's government, what's his name, I can never remember. The 1930s/40s Austrian/German version of Donald Trump. That guy.

Sometimes you'll hear the "V" series rockets get translated as "Vengeance Rockets," the vengeance being for city bombing. It never quite panned out for that Donald Trump-like character and his cronies.

"Ossi" is an easily recognizable semi-slur, in some contexts at least, for "Eastern German" (formerly known as Central Germans, before some people did something to the borders, and, yatta yatta yatta, Centrals became Easterns), and more specifically in this case, the people who lived under the communist regime, or even referring to the communist regime itself.

So The Alarmist's portmanteau "Ossivergeltungswaffe" seems to mean that Angela Merkel is an active agent of a process whereby one-time non-Marxist/anti-Marxist[?] West Germany sank/sinks into a Marxist condition. Merkel is depersonified and becomes understandable as a series of angry political rocket attacks by Marxist ghosts against non-Marxists. (iirc, Merkel's father was a Lutheran pastor originally of the West, but was actually or nearly expelled from the church for his pro-Communist beliefs, and then he quasi-defected to East Germany where Angela was born and raised...)

Consider the appellation "Montezuma's Revenge" for a range of ailments Europeans are said to get when they venture down to Mexico. Montezuma was an Aztec king whom the Spaniards overthrew and cast aside, and these pesky diseases afflicting Europeans to this day are like his revenge. Now apply the same to Angela Merkel's long (16+ year!) rule over Germany, except instead of diarrhea it's the head of Europe's largest country.

PS: Alarmist, my basic knowledge of German is only from a few words and then the ones that English took, but I'll guess that something like "warrior from the East"? You or Dieter need to help me out here. The best the web gave me just now was "weapon of the East". I wasn't too far off.

Things sure went to hell in the West after the Cold War ended, but I'm not sure if there is any relationship there. The destruction started in the 1960s.

PS

Cornell Catastrophic Covid Crisis review board chatter:

"Other Employees are seven percent unvaccinated? Hey, problem found, am I right, vaxxed-and-masked-and-distanced brothers and sisters? _They_ are the problem. Our patience has worn out with these monsters."

"But hey, well done to the 100% Professional Faculty. This kin of Corona-loyalty oughta be rewarded, in this life and the next. In the name of The Science. Amen! Just kidding. (Or am I?)."

"Do you believe the 100% numebr? What if some submitted false vaccine papers?"

"Yeah, trust but verify. These Covid-Deniers and the deranged Ant-Vaxx monsters, why wouldn't they lie? These are Covid-Deniers here."

"Solutions, people Forensic audit of all vaccine papers. Who's with me?"

"How about this: 'Any vaccine papers found suspicious shall require teams of Volunteer Covid Marshalls to approach the suspect, alone, and strongly suggest they get re-vaxxed with ample witnesses, or face potential expulsion. Volunteer Cornell Covid Marshalls shall be recruited after vetting for Corona-beliefs to prevent infiltration by Anti-Vaxxers or Covid-Deniers."

"Good idea, hear hear."

"We need contingency plans beyond that. We need to put teeth in this thing. Does Cornell have any out-of-the-way rural locations for use as Anti-Covid Detainment Centers to punish, re-educate, and isolate potential stealth Anti-Vaxxers?"

"I'll look into it. Can we re-direct 10% of the Diversity budget to this task?"

PS: Good evening everyone,

Mr. Hail, about Cornell...
https://covid.cornell.edu/testing/dashboard/

Current Cornell COVID-19 Alert Level - Red!

97% of the on-campus population has registered as vaccinated.

• Professional Faculty 100%
• Other Employees 93%
• Grad or Prof' Students 99%
• Undergraduates 99%
• Total On-campus 97%

Looks like Cornell needs to vaxx harder if they're ever going to defeat the most sinister of viruses.

☮

PS

Mr Anderson, Mr Bill H,

New York, California, many other Big Blue-controlled political jurisdictions of varying sizes, all holding fast to the banner of Corona-Panic...

...And today Cornell reportedly locks down over a rise in so-called "cases" among students. (Even to be as sympathetic as possible to the idiot college admins, one has to say they have learned nothing.)

Also today: England.

The bumbling prime minister there preemptively surrendered to the domestic Pro-Panic coalition and has obediently followed orders to institute their Orwellian/PRC-style vaccine pass system. (Though, interestingly, they exempt church services and weddings, for now.)

Pity the poor Mr Boris. Long ago he waved the white flag, cowered in the face of the Corona-Panic (no DeSantis is he), and is very nearly fully a puppet of the real regime, which is a soft-dictatorship in the name of public health, but with lots of paws in the pie.

The existence of a domestic surveillance system is so outrageous to our ancient liberties --- only eight centuries' worth in England's case if we start counting at Magna Carta in the 1210s AD --- that it inspired his own party to turn on him. The vaccine pass law only passed with support from the Left. Corona coalitional politics remain a curious thing to observe, no matter how much the USA's discourse has tried to cram it into the Red-Blue thing.

PS California has just imposed a state wide requirement for masking at all public indoor spaces, including San Diego where cases are declining. Yes, declining.

Our local teevee station did "man on the street" interviews, and 100% said they didn't like it but were pleased, yes PLEASED, that it was being imposed to "keep us all safe." Even after being told in the interview that cases are currently declining.

The fear is that "Omicron is coming" and that "cases might increase" and so we must go back to hiding our faces from each other, cutting off social contact and communication in the name of safety (faux safety).

PS

So, Mr. Ganderson, it’s a Machiatto town?

Imagine the successor of London Breed.

PS

What computer jockey decided auto complete was a good Idea? I hate the way it changes words, and sometimes I don’t notice.

PS
I always thought of Angela Merkel as “Frau Linkmeyer”

“ I really don't think there are many people left who take the masks seriously, health-wise. ”

Come to my neck of the woods Herr Moderator. There was a long thread this morning on my local NextDoor site about how some woman, while shopping at the local upscale farm to table market, encountered, “gasp”, a mask-less customer. (my latte town, as well as the surrounding municipalities all have indoor mask mandates) I was going to post some think like Adan Corolla’s “ Stay home, hide under your bed and *****your own **** “ , but thought better of it- what’s the point, these people are all crazy. The amount of outdoor mask wearing I see daily is off the charts, and the high schools are still making kids, not just mask up in school, but while playing hockey, basketball and volleyball. No end in site.

Dunno if you all noticed but the idiot interim governor of New York has just decreed a statewide indoor mask mandate. So they ran the evil Cuomo out of down for doing things that everyone has known about since, oh I don’t know, FOREVER, and got someone even more deranged.

St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray has observed that however bad you think a mayor or governor is, his replacement is likely to be worse. Think about the concept of “worse than Jacob Frey or Lori Lightfoot” As the Derb has observed, we are doomed.

As a way to cheer you all up, perhaps, here’s Shawn Colvin’s wonderful rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, followed by an beautiful Norwegian carol, Det Lyser I Stille Grender (approximate translation: The light shines from quiet little villages) by the outstanding Swedish acapella combo The Real Group.


https://youtu.be/qLv_DuUr1GM

https://youtu.be/JruSeJMf0jE

PS

There’s a reason why I refer to Angela “Mutti” Merkel as an Ossivergeltungswaffe.

Western Germany is lost, subsumed into the mouldering hulk of the DDR, which never really died, but lay dormant as its children rose to positions of power.

Oddly enough, the only German politician I really respect is Sahra Wagenknecht, a leftist and former Ossi who more often than not demonstrates more care for the average German than any of the so-called centrists or conservatives who are busy selling Germany to Davos Man.