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"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."

~ Thomas Sowell

This is the most dangerous epidemic of them all.

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exactly this.

then centralize that power such that not only are the people making the decisions far separated from the information and expertise to make good decisions and from those the decisions effect, but also from the effects of such actions as they become visible.

what could go wrong?

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Libertate -

The ancient Greeks and Romans thought, no man should be taken seriously if he can act without consequence. Why should a man be listened to and followed if he has no skin in the game?

And yet in the modern world, we operate by the very inverse equation. Those with power and influence issue missives from a safe position far from the front. They risk little to nothing; if they are wrong, they lose little face, and continue on unashamed.

This has always been a problem. However, the difference today is that people don't consider their conscience as skin in the game.

Hence what we're witnessing

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Just so.

Those who are unfamiliar with the ancients are not educated, they are trained.

"Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk."

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Damn you are good

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Thank you mate.

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Agree but on the other hand, look what happened eventually to the once-great Greek & Roman civilizations….

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Well, that's the precipice we stand on right now. We are in late empire decline due to a lack of morals, etc. Any society that prioritize decadence and debauchery and led by Elites who are sucking the middle class dry is doomed to implode. History is 100% on this.

It is hard to watch. The only option is for We The People to take it back.

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WWI comes to mind.

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umm...they need more money?

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Before covid, they were worried about the vaping epidemic. Although all the injuries were linked to black-market products, the CDC decided that they should ban already-legal products that weren't causing any harm at all.

They were doing this instead of restocking the national N95 supply, which is 100% in their purview. The CDC is a perfect example of government mission creep. They're worried about vaping and somehow are able to suspend rent payments? WTF?

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Good luck to anyone who tries to take my raw cookie dough and cake batter away from me...

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8 raw eggs in my yearly egg nog. I haven't died yet. Of course the pint of bourbon helps with sterilization.

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I'm with you on the homemade nog.

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Egg white cocktails FTW.

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Surprised the CDC haven't banned the original Rocky movie yet.

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Ouch...I ht my head on the desk while falling off my chair laughing...guess I should have been wearing my desk helmet ;-).

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Desk helmet *)

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My dad ate raw eggs in a shake every morning. Never hurt him outside of excessive pinfeather growth.

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Me and my brother tried it as little kids after the movie came out. We thought we were on the road to eating lighting and crapping thunder. Instead, we both threw up. Should have listened to the CDC.

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You need to build up to the raw eggs. Chest hair first, then raw eggs. At least that is what the women in our family go by. ; )

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Dry it up! Chase it with whiskey and finish it off with a cigarette. That's what my grandfather would've said

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My mom used to add raw egg to add protein to a vanilla milkshake when we were sick (only time we got milkshakes). No one ever died from her milkshakes. Of course that was after we ate the chicken soup.

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Maybe those evil eggs scrambled in the soup bath. Your mom was awesome. My made sure nobody wanted to stay home sick.

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There's a whole generation of older siblings who were threatened with instant death if they told the younger ones targeted for fattening up about that raw egg slipped secretly into the milkshake.

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Sadly, this was probably all before factory farms where the poor chickens are all jammed in together.

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I bet you most youngsters don't get this quip. Classic

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Lmao. You've been en fuego today between here and Igor

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Turning out to be a good week for involuntary calorie reduction.

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I've been to Cambodia twice. Both times, I've experienced a free Weight Loss Program.

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"Once you've been to Cambodia, you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands."

~ Anthony Bourdain

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True. I went to the land mine museum, prison museum, and walked a mass grave. I saw clothes and bone poking out of the dirt.

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I wonder what Bourdain would think of all this pandemic stuff.

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I don't think I need to go to think that.

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In moderation, diarrhea can be your friend.

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Kind of like the enema of my enemy?

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For these purposes, moderation is easy. Only eat vegetables every three days...

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Nothing like a Ramos Fizz for breakfast.

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Gotta get orange water and citrus somehow.

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Here's how utterly incompetent, pointless and pedantic the ban on vape cartridges were:

A couple of weeks after they were pulled off the shelves, the FDA then allowed disposable vapes in a panoply of kiddie flavors, imported from China, to be sold at twice the price with three times the nicotine.

That's how you engineer job security. It is a miracle we don’t get more people who become suicide bombers in this unserious slothful work environment.

Meek, myopic, mendacious, mealy-mouthed, mediocrities suckling from the teat of our tax dollars.

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Awesome alliteration in your last sentence.

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Even the squirrel gets the nut sometimes...

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If people are no longer scared and paranoid, they would take issue with Big Gov’t robbing us and spending our own money in the latest grift. Spending trillions on Covid saved humanity. Here, have more money, I don’t need food or gas today.

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Our tax dollars don't actually fund the federal govt. When the govt. spends money it prints (borrows) the money. When we pay taxes, the money goes to the shareholder of the IRS corporation as a dividend (the bank of England). (The USA and IRS are separate corporations both held by the Bank of England) Our taxes fund all those extras that come out of your paycheck: FICA, Medicaid, SS, etc, but our taxes do not fund the federal govt. There is never a dollar going from the IRS to the federal government. Why would there be? Why wouldn't they just print another dollar? (this is my understanding of how it works and there is no source telling me this)

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We're on the same page:

Here's the only chart you'll ever need to look at to understand what's going on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt#/media/File:US_Federal_Debt_Held_By_Public_as_of_Sep._2020.png

How else are we going to pay for the interest on this? It's called inflation...and what we are experiencing is by design. Look at the hockey stick after the pandemic demarcation. The pain and suffering will be of long duration for We the People. For those who are math challenged; that is a tripling of our national debt, in less than 30 years, compared to pre-pandemic levels. We will have learned nothing other than to don and doff our mAskS! Humpty-Dumpty in a million pieces on the ground... We are all in it tOgeThEr!

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I don’t believe the CDC had the power to do a number of things that were attributed to the agency.

At some point I recall a discussion point being that “CDC hasn’t approved (drug X or Y”.

This isn’t a surprise. They do not have the staff, competence, systems or mandate to approve (or not) any new medical intervention.

As for what are clearly political decisions like suspending the rights of a real estate owner to recover their own property in the event of prolonged default on payment of rent, I recall shaking my head, WTH??

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I'm a landlord. I did more than shake my head. There's a reason the courts and creditors allow for bankruptcy. It is so all parties know the "rules" and have some sense of clarity on resolution. A line item for bad debt is better than not knowing how to categorize risk. Otherwise very little risk would be taken.

As with all the mandates in the last two years there was an astonishing lack of weighing conflicting interest and deliberating unintended consequences. Chaos was created by no sense of proportionality.

Virtually all amendments, with the exception of 2A were suspended and rendered impotent, by a cabal of capricious "clerks". An unchecked Clergy anointed with unconstitutional power by feckless politicians - and sadly without much push back from the public.

I can tell you we are going to see the mother of all BK waves with landlords. It will be a free-fall. The majority of which, will come at their expense and no fault of their own, for renter's who have redress - if nothing else from the boob of the government.

This factor has been grossly overlooked. So brace yourself because the carry-on effects are going to have long tentacles.

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Don’t worry about the long term.

The perpetrators expect the vast majority of us to be dead. This entire crusts was rehearsed & manufactured. The end game is totalitarian tyranny & depopulation.

That’s why they’re behaving like children.

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I agree. I feel like we're living in that Macintosh dystopian commercial from the early 80's. They are acting like children indeed. But they will spare no expense at covering this up.

Makes me want to punch them in the face.

We have to FIGHT back though and not resign ourselves to a life of defeat in an atmosphere heavy in a spirit of FEAR. We have no other choice. It has always been binary. I do think some people are waking up to that

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It’s tricky. Many of us aren’t young & fit. I’ve no priors in violence. I’d be good at it only if my life depended upon it. I’m quite certain I could do whatever was necessary with whatever makeshift tool came to have in time of need.

Anyone who underestimated me in a moment like that may find it’s their last act.

For example, if ever there’s an occasion where it looked like I was to be interned, I wouldn’t be going along. Not alive.

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A thousand hills worth dying on

No prisons worth living in.

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Regarding: “Virtually all amendments, with the exception of 2A were suspended and rendered impotent.” And why wasn’t the Second Amendment suspended, you may ask? Simple! Because the vaccinators needed the right to “bare arms.”

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OMG dude. Epic. First thing I read this morning

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Groan!

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I'm sorry, can you clarify what you expect to happen? It sounds like you're expecting a lot of landlords to go bankrupt? What then? What happens to the tenants?

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You answered part of your question. The tenants are just one of the "tentacles". Theres currently no "plan" for them or the landlords or the creditors - which will create a conundrum with the trustees of the BK courts. Clarity for planning was eliminated by virtue of the duration of the moratoriums. The rules were suspended so everyone loses..except instutional investors. Indeed a "beneficiary" will be "created" that only inures to them. Landlords are are levered by debt (often good debt), but more importantly they are levers for the broader commerce of the community.

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Blackrock waiting in the wings

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No shit, right?!

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Ryan you are correct about the conundrum in this particular fall out disaster of government intervention....at every turn government intervention starting with lockdowns and fear mongering to the government payment to landlords that failed in 98% of cases, particularly with small entities. ....leaving everyone literally bankrupt....so now it will pass to the BK courts and more interventions which do not work by well meaning (in their minds) bureaucrats and politicians who do not have either a clue or personal skin in the game.....this aspect of the fallout illustrates the step by step incompetence, utter lack of humility and willingness to be hoodwinked by those who stood to gain

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Yes. agreed. more bad policy to cover ineptitude of prior bady policy. and the largest transfer of wealth in a mere few months.

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Still a little confused. I'm a tenant. I'm a tentacle? Still not sure what you mean. (BTW, I've paid my rent on time since forever, so maybe this doesn't really affect me?)

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Probably not if you have a good landlord that doesn’t have a lot of debt and a stable lessee base. I'm referring more to landlords who own commercial, office, industrial and multipurpose properties. Sorry if i scared you. I didn't mean to.

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If the power brokers say “agency X has such and such authority”, then voila! they have power—evidently.

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Granted. They still don’t have the competence required to discharge their new responsibilities!

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Well, they are incompetent to perform their ostensible responsibilities, as you know better than I do. But as a bludgeon in the hands of the wrecking regime, I think they’ve accomplished quite a lot, lamentably.

I caught your interview with Roman Bamakov. I was glad to see you on video again. I’m grateful to you for speaking up from your garage so early on. And I hope your new residence will prove to have been the best of choices in these terrible times.

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Thank you. I’ve given around 50 interviews I think, though I’ve a copy of less than half of them.

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It’s just that, early on, when I saw what looked like a maniacal push to jab everything that moved—something I had never witnessed before—when I was trying to figure out what the hell was up with all that, those videos from your garage were the information I needed. I’m very grateful.

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The CDC is the perfect way for a corrupt administration to backdoor in any policies it wants, even if they know they are illegal policies. The CDC can declare anything a "public health emergency" and supersede all checks and balances.

How long before climate change is declared a "public health emergency"?

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It was billed in the Tennessee legislature in 2020. It didn’t make headway but that doesn’t mean it’s gone.

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There was a time, in living memory, when it was almost universally understood that anyone who worked for government was an incompetent dumbass. The old saw was that if you’d previously worked in government, there was no way any private employer would hire you, b/c not only were you almost certainly imcompetent, you were likely a lazy sob too. Alas, another piece of time-tested, homespun wisdom has been flushed down the 🚽.

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But they used to pay them accordingly. Now they are the highest paid and get to benefit from bribes and insider trading information with no penalty. And free healthcare and pensions for life (equal to their highest salary not incl OT). Grrr

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"It's a big club and we ain't in it." I did live and work near it for many years, but nowhere near the luxury 1% levels. Some spot checks will be enough to show how the game works. Just research how the children of famous politicians live or "work." To be honest, probably Hunter Biden is not a good example, but how about Chelsea Clinton? Need to do a politician or other powerful person a favor but can't bribe him? No problem! Give his friend or relative a cushy make-believe job at some non-profit. Millions a year in salaries and benefits, for doing some nebulous "job." And no one would dare call this bribery, would they?

Want to ramp it up for maximum effect? Establish a charitable foundation that you can fund with tax-deductible contributions. You still may influence how the "charitable" work is done, how the funds are disbursed. Hypothetically, you can make large investments in pharma, vaccine makers and sundry other commercial firms, owned by the foundation or as side bets in your own or other corporate name. You can "donate" money as you see fit, let's say, to the World Health Organization or any number of NGOs that work toward your goals and most importantly, either buy or can mandate the use of products and services from "your" corporations. Spread some money around as political contributions to keep the pols happy. In some cases, you can even form informal cartels with other billionaires and even top government officials, to influence and in some cases mandate the use of your near-monopoly products, and sometimes even prohibiting any competition. If you're really lucky, you can manipulate the media to tout your message. Of course, that advertising costs some bucks, but it also buys their loyalty and discourages them asking difficult questions. Finally, did I mention that government funding? Governments will buy your products directly, or indirectly require insurance to cover them. The government will even pay for some of your advertising indirectly, via "public service" adverts that, purely by coincidence, advocate products that only you produce.

Yes, it's all quite a racket folks, and the most dismal take-away from this is that all, or nearly all, of what I've described is perfectly legal.

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Oh, if one could only poke around in the nooks and crannies of the Clinton Foundation. If the average citizen only knew....

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I;m average I think. And I know. Been watching it for years with outrage. Because if I tried to take my measly salary and donated it to my own non profit, the IRS would come down on me like a heap of bricks.

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Sorry, I just have to point out the very broad brush being used here. The Government is a huge place (largest employer in the nation?). I know some Forest Service firefighters who are super competent, work their asses off, and get paid shit (and smoke). And I believe their pension is 1% of their "high three" per year (i.e., 25 years = 25%).

The larger point is possibly correct, but at this point let's not get distracted. As a nation, let's sit down and have a talk about the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH. That seems to be the biggest concern right now. If we can handle that, then we can move on to the next triple letter dumpster fire.

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There are not very many of those slink. Yes, of course not every person working for the government are overpaid, underworked, remoras. It seems the firefighters did not have a good union rep where you live - just as a side note. It used to be that because the government did not pay well but got defined benefit pensions which very very few get IRL. Totally unworkable going forward BTW, but reality never comes up (er, ever so rarely if ever, comes up in the govt. They spend what they literally do not have and let the future worry about their very bad behavior.

I lived across the street from a forest svc guy. Washington st. Made good money. Not sure exactly what, but he was well compensated - unless he was independently wealthy or something.

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The exception has always been appointees and elected politicians after they leave the appointed or elected office. Lucrative gigs as lobbyists and/or advisors to lobbyists usually follow.

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This is so true.

They all wore beige head to toe, on the clock and off the clock. Drove wood-paneled station wagons to work, at a nondescript beige cinder block buildings, replete with low hanging crusty drop-ceiling tiles. And filed all the work, they never did, in dull forest green filing cabinets. They drank Folgers coffee diluted to hot brown water with dregs of decades past. And their mommies sent them to work with the crust cut off their Wonder Bread sandwiches.

Who wouldn't put out good work product in that environment?!

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Indeed, the old joke: Close enough for government work....

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Government workers should give up their right to vote while serving the public. And lobbying should be made illegal.

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"Good enough for government work".

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Oh yes, so very true. In CA state government, I worked summers at various places while in college. The very lowest place to work was always said to be the DMV, where the only requirement for a job was to fog a mirror. And you would never be fired. Anyone with half a brain thought it was a fate worse than death to work at the DMV. I never worked there, but I continually heard stories, and of course, everyone experienced the fun when renewing a driver's license. Now I'm convinced that the same DMV level of talent is running our government.

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But never been proved more right at the same time…

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Why are we listening to guidance from the CDC, a private company that owns vaccine patents? Oh right, because the globalist enabling media whores keep pushing the narrative.

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In addition “guidance” &/or “recommendations” are NOT law, & neither are “mandates”. The compliance of the past 2+ years has been nothing less than maddening & @ the same time frightening. All of this & worse may be coming back in Fall, I fear

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Just in time for the midterm elections is my bet.

“Polling is just too dangerous, we need to collect votes by phone.”

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MAJOR! I cannot believe how many dumb sheep there are in society! It’s very maddening…and depressing. Now we understand how it happened in WWII.

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I wear my monkeypox mask every day. Some call my mask “pants.”

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The CDC should have been shut down decades ago.

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Genuinely couldn’t care less if the CDC is run by a bunch of chimpanzee’s fuelled by vodka and cocaine, my only problem with them is that they have the power to foist their ineptitude on me and others that want nothing to do with their continuous idiocy.

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You’re getting the chimpanzees confused with Nancy (burp) Piglosi. 🙊

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If you cut an onion and then cut fruit without rinsing the knife and cutting board, you won't die, but your dinner guests may try and kill you.

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If you cook their steak (or burger) the way the CDC recommends, same thing ;-).

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Yup, it takes a special kind of idiot that doesn’t learn that chopping garlic on the same cutting board used for fruit causes… garlic flavored fruit.

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LoL yeah go figure!

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The CDC is just like the federal reserve system, AMtrak, social security, the military, medicare and the IRs: BLoated incompetent , politicized failed corrupt institutions

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The Karens that screamed about everyone obeying the CDC Covid guidelines ignored the CDC's alcohol guidelines - 1 drink or less in a day for women.

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I would have assumed the boy crying wolf effect would have kicked in a LONG time ago. But today, in 80 degree weather, outside, I have observed many kids at school from kinder to high school wearing masks. Now the littles are just listening to their health illiterate and mass psychosis parents, but these older kids make me 🤦.. Some day soon, these US government educated people will vote. That's terrifying.

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When you think about it, all the wrong, least competent people work in government.

Think about what kind of person it is that SEEKS OUT a job in government. The sort of person who actually enjoys telling other folks what they can and cannot do. That is bad enough.

But now, add to that the fact that these folks know coming out of college or grad school that they can make some good money in the private sector, IF THEY WORK HARD AND ARE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS, or they can join the government bureaucracy where once they are ensconced they will never have to worry about being canned.

And all the incentives in government are to AVOID RISK at ALL COSTS!!!

When we were younger the trade off between private and public sector was known. Lower pay for job security and a great pension. Now it is hardly even that.

My dad instilled in my the principle that people working in government, with a few exceptions, were losers. Folks that wouldn't or couldn't make it in the real world.

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And Joe's vax mandate means the free-thinkers CAN get canned now, which probably just makes it worse.

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So I'm working on a new covering. Take a current one of any sort, put longer straps on it, emboss a picture of a chimp, strap it around your waist, make sure the effective part is covering your derrière, and bingo, you have a monkeypox ass-mask.

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The CDC creates and spreads Karentitis. Fauci, Wallensky, and Jha are worshipped by Karens as deities: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-make-a-parody-song?s=w

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Among the hallmarks of the modern leftist is a pseudo-theological faith in the beneficence, efficacy, and omnipotence of the State.

These are people who mock the faithful for believing in something for which there is no evidence, while wholly trusting an entity with a 10,000+ year, irrefutable track record of mass murder, oppression, impoverishment and other atrocities and crimes too numerous to list.

Just pathologically obtuse.

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Are you still uncertain if the CDC "mandates" were about health or about administrative power?

Consider this:

"but suddenly elevating this house of wrong to prominence and outright dictatorial power expressed as mandate (and about to be appealed in the courts after being struck down) is not."

Since this seems to be a site where facts matter, some facts about the "mask rule" and what the court decided:

What was "struck down" by the court was the way in which the dictatorial mandate was promulgated. The court did not rule on whether the CDC has, under law, the power for such a mandate (really!). The judge noted that since the CDC claimed such power on the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) but did not follow the process required by the APA, she did NOT need to rule on anything else, as the regulation mandating masks was not legal. Lots about how the gov't lawyers argued irrelevant points, too. The bottom line, though....

If masks were really important, then the CDC would have initiated the proper rule making process the very next day. After a 30 day comment period and 15 or 30 day reply period they would have a rule that followed the APA. No need to appeal. The administration has been squawking about "appeal" for longer than it would take to undo the judge's decision by just making a new rule using the APA required process.

No kids, it is about power without bounds.

Just adding my 0.16 Euro....

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Exactly right. What is going to happen is the circuit will overrule the lower court with some mumble jumble about emergencies or whatnot so no need to follow rules. Then it will go to the SC which will overule the circuit with a one page decision basically saying follow the damn rules. The CDC will then follow the damn rules and we'll all be wearing slave masks forever.

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Maybe. Shopping for a judge loyal to The Party is not hard (and has become common). However the judge really covered her a..bases with citations. The decision is basically a page or two, and the other 60 pages are precedents. And it is solid - no honest judge could rule otherwise (the term "honest judge" is the rub, eh?).

She did address the "emergency" argument, in two ways. First pointing out the APA provides for such critical situations, in that a rule can be made effective immediately while the comment process is run concurrently. She noted that the "emergency" argument would have justified following that path provided for in the APA. She also noted that the agency did not feel the need for this mandate for over a year since COVID became a thing nor did they initiate rule making when the mandate was first challenged, so there was no urgency in for 2 years.

She essentially annihilated the gov't lawyers (lame) arguments with fact. Reading through her decision, I have to say the gov't lawyers did not bring their A game. I don't know maybe they plan to appeal on the "incompetent defense"? S

I wonder if the CDC will follow the rules again. It's like a drunk loose in the distillery: they seem so drunk with power and have been getting away with so much for such a long time I'm not seeing a few slaps from a judge or two slowing down the roll. The thing about judges is they really have no power outside the courtroom. The ruling invalidates the particular rule. They can make another - anyway they want - and it stands until someone challenges it, it works it's way through the courts, and maybe gets tossed. This circumvention by repetition has become a standard tactic of both lawmakers who refuse to acknowledge the constitution as well as regulators.

I'm not sure masks matter as much to this administration as finding a way to punish the judge that dared defy them. I expect retribution...that has become the frightening standard of The Party today.

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Some of us might be willing to test the law. If a judge and a jury of my peers really want to sentence me to fines and/or jail time because I refuse to wear a mask, I am -- perhaps -- willing to find out, if it comes to that.

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Okay, a few things: 1) I think you need to make shirts that say Gatopal on it. I'll take one in every color, thanks; and 2) you're gonna have to start sending out invites when you're going to be grilling choice meats. Seeing that perfectly seared steak and not being able to wrap my lips around it is just...it's so cruel! 😩

Anyway, I stopped listening to the CDC (and most other health authorities) in the early '00s, after dealing with my mother's health issues. That's when I saw the man behind the curtain.

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Ditto on the tee idea.

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