the watcher
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23 hours ago, Tracker said:
Anti-vaccine ideology gains ground as lawmakers seek to erode rules for kids’ shots. Bills expanding religious exemptions for childhood vaccine requirements were passed by Kansas state Senate in March
Kaiser Health News.Not long ago, Kansas showed strong bipartisan support for vaccines as a tool to support a robust public health system.
But bills with language expanding religious exemptions for childhood vaccine requirements were passed by the state Senate in March and now face the House when the legislature reconvenes April 25.
They are among the more than 520 vaccine-related bills introduced in statehouses nationwide since Jan. 1, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those bills, 66 specifically relate to childhood vaccine requirements in 25 states.
In Missouri, for example, legislators are considering a measure exempting private school students from vaccine requirements. In Louisiana, a bill in the House would prohibit vaccinations on school property and at school-sponsored events.
Fewer than 10% of the bills will likely gain any traction, but the volume of attempts to roll back vaccine requirements is alarming, said Rekha Lakshmanan, director of advocacy and public policy at the Immunization Partnership, a vaccine education organization.
"Those are all chipping away at one of the end goals for anti-vaccine activists, which is completely doing away with school requirements," said Lakshmanan. "That's what people need to be paying very close attention to."
All states require specific childhood vaccinations for illnesses such as polio, measles, and mumps, but exemptions vary. They all allow exemptions for people with medical concerns, 44 states allow religious exemptions, and 15 allow philosophical exemptions, according to 2021 data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Vaccinations are central to public health efforts at disease control and are foundational to the country's social and economic system, said Brian Castrucci, CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a public health advocacy organization.
"Politicians are poking holes in our public safety net," Castrucci said of the onslaught of anti-vaccine legislation. "Vaccines, in and of themselves, are not medicine. It's all of us collectively protecting each other."
What really bothers me about this is very, very few politicians, etc.. believe all the BS. Almost all of them understand how vaccinations and the vaccination of the vast majority against not only Covid but all contagious diseases are the key to the health and well being of people, countries and the world. But they sell their soul for power, money and popularity.
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I thought I stick this here even though it a " Canada story " it's a world issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/canada-asylum-seekers-numbers-covid-restrictions
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18 minutes ago, Goalie said:
Snow is fine, ice not so much, wind is what really sucks tho.
One of the things I've noticed is alot of big winds the last few years. I'd like to know if that's just my imagination or if we are really getting more due to weather change.
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GCN20 said " disagree that most serious hunters use bolt action, many favor it due to long range accuracy, but many hunters are taught that semi auto is a more ethical choice by many hunter safety instructors. Serious shooters for target practice won't, but many hunters do favor semi auto. I used to guide for goose, bear and deer and the mix was at least 50/50 of what people used. I can tell you with certainty that semi auto shotguns are heavily favored by serious
We will have to agree to disagree. Perhaps it's the group I used to hang with. We were serious hunters/ shooters. Not a semi auto center fire in anyones gun cabinet. Several of them were guides ( big game in northern BC ) several were rifle club instructors and some taught Hunters Safety. Several have now moved into the super long range shooting now. ( 50 cal stuff ) Never have I heard of a hunter Saftey instructor say use a semi- auto centerfire. It's in no way more ethical. Less accurate equals more wounded and more ruined meat. If you cant hit what you shoot at , you need to shoot more targets and not take shots that you know wont kill. Over a year I would fire thousands of rounds ( not an exaggeration) so like I said maybe it was the group I hung with. As far as semi auto shotguns , yes perhaps more are used than I believe but I've seen way, way to many have issues when used in adverse conditions. Almost everyone I shot birds with used pumps.
As far as modifying guns , my only personal experience was glass bedding , filing trigger mechanisms to reduce trigger pull, and a few other minor things for better accuracy. I did have friends of made full autos out of semis but they were rediculously inaccurate and unmanageable. They scraped them fairly quickly. Many built wildcat calibers but I never got into it.
I will add this bit to end my discussion. The last 15 years I hunted deer were my best. I decided to hunt alone. That is when in my opinion I became an elite deer hunter. I watched them. I studied them. Most evenings I just watched. I learned more about deer then than in all my previous years. I'd kill 3 a year for food. Most were standing shots. All but one were one shot kills. My biggest problem those last 15 years were the Yahoo's driving around shooting off the roads at deer on my property and towards me or our buildings.
- Tracker, WildPath and Bigblue204
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So just a bit if background. I was a big time gun guy for decades. I owned my own 22 at age 12. I was on a championship Jr. Rifle club team. Our meat diet was 99% wild game for decades. I use to work crazy hours spring to fall then hunt non stop everyday for 3 or 4 months before heading west for work. I've owned 100s of guns over the years including hand guns at times. I lived to hunt and shoot back in the day. I still have guns but I'm just not into it like I was anymore.
Yes , almost any gun can be turned into a concealed weapon with a bit of work. As far as turning a semi into full auto it was easy with particular gun makes and models but not most.Its tough and makes them pretty much useless. The majority of centerfire hunting rifles are bolt actions. Not to be insulting but most really serious hunters and shooters won't bother with semi auto center fire rifles. We mostly saw them used by casual hunters. .22s are a different story. Tons of .22 semis are used are used for plinking, gophers ..... As far as shotguns it would be pumps, double barrel, semi, single break then the rarely seen bolt action.
I am in favour of gun laws that make a REAL difference. Laws that actually do something not just make uninformed non gun owners happy. I'm a big fan of the PAL licence. Having your background checked by the RCMP before you can own, posses , borrow, use a gun makes a whole lot of sense.
As far as hand guns. My understanding is about %80 - %90 of handguns that are confiscated have come across the border. So an outright ban isn't going to do alot. I'm not sure what has changed I the last 20 years but when I owned them I could only leave my property with a handgun to go to a sanctioned gun range at a particular time. I was required to drive directly there and back with no stops in between. I can't remember the last time I heard of a legal handgun owner shooting someone. I'm sure it must happen but not very often in Canada. I really doubt an outright ban would have any real effect. I suppose it would effect the %10 to %20 of gun crimes that are committed with stolen handguns .I really don't have a dog in that race so it's not all that big of a deal for me.
I see no reason for any Canadian to own military style weapons. Guns designed and made to kill only people belong in the hands of the military only.
I think alot of the American gun idiocy makes non gun owners in this country assume it's the same here. It jades their opinion.
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16 hours ago, Mark F said:
Democrats. Why they lose. Why they do not follow through on promises.
"The campaign apparatus representing Washington, D.C.’s most prominent progressive lawmakers on Wednesday spurned Nina Turner, one of the highest-profile progressive candidates in the country.
The group, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, has painted the decision as a pro forma one. But progressive lawmakers are now intervening in a hotly contested House race to back a corporate-aligned Democrat over a progressive candidate who co-chaired Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and who the party’s conservative wing set out to destroy last year."
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https://www.levernews.com/so-this-is-pramila-jayapals-strategy/
discouraging.
In the US it's all about getting the iffy voters out to vote.
The Republicans in the Trump era are doing that. They are appealing to the far right who want change and it's working.
The Democrats are not appealing to left leaning people who want change. They continue to bend to their financial backers who dont want change. Who dont want ANY shift towards a more socialist system. They aren't getting people who want change out to the poles.
Sometimes I vote for the 3rd party in our system only because it's the 3rd option and it's important to have that. (When the legit contenders are crap )
- Bigblue204 and Mark F
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I read the last few posts and all I can think is ," what a f-ing world. ".
- Tracker and Bigblue204
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My guess is we are in around 30 inches of snow. It's really hard to tell though. I've got drifts right on my lane and in the yard that are 4 to 5 ft deep.( That will work the old blower out ) My son has a house on the property and the drifts are over the hoods of his SUVs .The highway that fronts the property is still closed and I assume blocked as there is no traffic and locals will go even if it is closed. While it wasn't 97 or 66 it was still a heck of a storm.
Edit : I was out on snowshoes today and I could sink a ski pole completely in on the drifts on my lane .
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2 hours ago, Tracker said:
Despite the almost-hysteria from the media, we are still better safe than sorry.
Exactly. Can you imagine the complaints if cars and people were stuck for days in our 4 ft drifts on the highway by my place. Meteorologists and the Highway dept take their best educated guess and always should err on the side of caution.
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Actually they were bang on. They called for 20 +cm for the city and Eastern Red river valley. They called for 40 to 80 for the western edge of the valley and Western MB. In my yard 80 miles sw of the city, I have bare spots and 4- 5foot drifts in other places. So its really hard to tell the actual amount. If I had to guess I'd say 20 in to 24 in. So 50 - 60 cm. And it's not over.
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They are still calling for up to an additional 40cm on top of what we already have here on my part of the escarpment.
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7 minutes ago, iHeart said:
25 to be exact, I was in second grade when the blizzard of '97 happened
Oh, no ! I was in 2nd grade when the blizzard of '66 happened ! Way to make me feel old! I have a distinct memory of tobogganing off the roofs of buildings on our farm in 66.
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I heard a report yesterday that they are finding that unlike previous variants that Omicron and it's subvarient are very good at reinfectng people who have had Covid previously. I believe this was out of Quebec and maybe Ontario.
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1 hour ago, Wideleft said:
Bernie had a lot of things working against him and timing is the main one. The majority of people weren't/aren't ready for "radical" change to the left because progressives suck at selling their good ideas.
Everyone has been convinced since the 70's that taxes are bad and the government is bad. Again, the messaging needs to explain the long-term savings gained by progressive measures. For instance, it's cheaper to educate than incarcerate. It's cheaper to implement environmental controls than clean up the messes left behind.
I also think his supporters rubbed a lot of people the wrong way by attacking fellow Democrats with more ferocity than the Republican Party.
He calls himself (accurately) a Socialist/Social Democrat when a lot of people are scared by "that" word.
The Republicans seem to have a monopoly on anger. It's admirable for Trump/Cruz/Gaetz to be angry, but it's something that makes Sanders "radical".
This will all get better with time (if SCOTUS is corrected), but it's getting there. A politician could not even refer to themselves as a "liberal" during Obama's 1st term and yet it is now acceptable.
Perhaps.I just don't see it changing in the US until a 3rd party emerges that represents a true progressive movement. I have absolutely no faith that there will be significant change under the Democrats. Unfortunately there will be significant changes if the Republicans gain more control of the various levels of government and it won't be good change.
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10 minutes ago, Wideleft said:
I totally get that (and agree with him), but to imply his loss was due to Democratic corruption is a bridge too far for me. It ignores polling, the nature of Primaries as well as reinforces the Republican/Russian propaganda about the Democratic race.
Bernie lost primarily because he cannot attract the all-important black vote in America.
Millions of corporate dollars were dumped into Hillary' campaign at the last when it appeared Bernie had a chance. The Democrats are corrupt .Not as much or as blatantly as the Republicans . To say that doesn't support the Republican BS. It's just the truth. And unless that truth is faced and dealt with true change will never happen.
Edit : I agree that the structure of their system makes change exceedingly difficult.
- Tracker and Bigblue204
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9 minutes ago, Wideleft said:
I am a big supporter of Bernie's ideas, but he was never the front-runner against Clinton.
Progressivism is not an absolute and it's not an either/or. Progress is and can be slower than some of us prefer. That does not mean that their aren't progressive elements, people or laws instated in and from the party at the National, State or county level in the Democratic Party.
Never the front runner but he was a serious threat that was gaining alot of momentum. My son in-law is a young American who was inspired and excited by Bernie as were many many young Americans. He made the effort to vote despite living here in rural MB. He doesn't really even like to talk American politics much now as I think he saw their chance for a more humane country come and go.
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This gets a big WOW from me. So cool ! I look forward to the BBC doc.
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16 hours ago, Wideleft said:
This is exactly what the authoritarian-leaning (Regressives) politicians and their backers want you to think, so congratulations - you've done it! Distrust in government keeps people from voting, participating in - and valuing democracy itself. People who don't know who to trust end up relying on people to tell them who to trust and that makes them ripe for authoritarian leadership.
I'll take this time to remind you that Progressives are the ones trying to get more people to vote, while the Regressives work hard to prevent as many people as possible from doing the same thing. There is a connection that most people capable of critical thought can recognize.
Are the Republicans more corrupt and disgusting than the Democrats ? Absolutely ! Are the Republicans less Democratic? Absolutely ! But to suggest the current Democratic party is anywhere close to progressive is wrong. As I said a short while ago look what happened when a progressive candidate challenged for the leadership of the party backed by a massive ground swell of young, grassroot support. He was squashed by a rush of corporate dollars to Hillary's campaign. I will give you that the world is far safer without a bunch of neo-nazis fascists in power and therefore I'd always rather see the Dems in power. But progressive ? No way.
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5 hours ago, Rich said:
There is a combination of many factors at play that have led to the current state of today’s media.
A large contributing factor is the rise of the internet and the upheaval of their monetization model.
The mass adoption of the internet and eventually social media, while vastly simplified distribution, also came with the expectation of free content (killed news print), and a plethora of news sites and ways to consume media combined with newer generations not even watching TV (killed cable news).
This drove journalism into click bait. Everything is now geared to enrage to get eyes on content and grasp at meager online advertising revenue, and slanted to appeal to the base who reads their site.
That slant is becoming steeper and steeper by the day.
I don’t see a clear way to get out of this tail spin that the West is on right now with their media, but it continues to get more and more polarizing.
There really isn’t even debate of issues anymore. All of that has been replaced with mocking and making fun of “the other side”. Just look at 95% of the posts and news articles in this forum as an example of that microcosm.
Extremes are always highlighted to the point where people think extremes represent the majority, which only feed into the cycle.
All those years in the 70s and 80s worrying about a nuclear war and it's going to be the damn internet that takes us down. I can't decide if I'm joking about that or not ! lol In the least it's a sad state of affairs.
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10 hours ago, GCn20 said:
Problem is that most people are judging the facts they want to hear according to their own biases because that is how they are now presented. It is highly ignorant for anyone to quote CNN or Bloomberg as being more credible than Fox or the New York Post.
BS runs deep on both sides of America's political scene. To say otherwise would be straight up gaslighting.
I think alot of things changed with Trump. His election gave permission for alot of the right to go very hard right and ignore truth and facts. I use to watch a bit of Fox news because I liked to see the right's perspective in the US. But it became unwatchable. They went from being a news station that supported the Republican point of view to a station that is a far right propaganda machine. Any network that would keep Tucker Carlson employed has lost all credibility. In my mind CNN is still back where Fox was 10 years ago when they still had some credibility left. Cnn is still watchable but have a definate slanted view. But to be honest I don't watch them much anymore either.
- Bigblue204 and rebusrankin
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So did no one in the league check out Genius Sports before this deal was signed? Did no one talk about their vision for the league ? I will guarantee that some in the league planned this.I suspect certain teams have pulled a fast one and brought ( snuck, slipped ) in a marketer who shares their vision of playing NFL rules. 4 down football without most of the other NFL. rules would be a joke. 3 downs go, the rest does. ( and so do I )
- rebusrankin and Tracker
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World Politics
in General Discussion
Posted
It's a legit question. Every side in a war will at least twist figures to their benefit. Some blatantly make **** up (weapons of mass destruction as an example ). It doesn't mean a person doesn't recognise a particular side as the aggressor or as responsible for 1,000s of deaths.