johnzo

I live right in the middle of the hot zone, and I'm immunocompromised (being medicated for autoimmune hearing loss; my antibodies are apparently coached by Jim Marshall) and I've got a history of some bad lung stuff. I'm not as old as DoD but I'm still pretty old. "fun and satisfying game" is not where I am right now. You are projecting a bit. and hey let's see what those lefty progressives at Business Insider are saying: https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-scrambles-to-clarify-details-on-coronavirus-response-2020-3 I can't imagine why anyone would say that Trump isn't serious about coronavirus. Note that the people walking back the comments were those famous gotcha merchants at DHS. (anticipated response: lewinskyglobalistschappaquiddickdemocratswerepartyofslaveryleagueofnationsglobalistsglobalistsshrilllibrarian)

I can't believe the Woke Basketball Association canceled its season just to own Trump. Sad!

People who have polled on Obamacare are well acquainted with this dynamic. When you describe a lot of the stuff that Obamacare does, people like those things -- preexisting condition coverage, college students stay on their parents' insurance, requiring a basic level of care from an insurance plan, contraception coverage -- this stuff is enjoys a high approval rating. But when you say "are in you favor of Obamacare?" the affirmatives plummet. A lot of that is due to the grotesque romneycare public+private/tax penalty for not buying insurance thing. Fair enough. But still that ridiculous individual mandate is gone now, and many people don't realize that Obamacare survives and has a lot of good and necessary stuff in it .... because it was endlessly marketed to them on its weakest points and also it was named after a scary foreign islamic devil who broke the law by even trying to become president. just gotta figure out how to market social democracy for the American public. Neither "competent middle-aged librarian type who collects plutocrat scalps" or "angry flailing Brooklyn oldster who stokes the hardcore kids" got it done, we'll see what's next.

if globalism caused or complicated pandemics, why haven't they gotten more frequent or more intense in the years since the 90s when Clinton liberalized American trade with China and really kicked off the modern economic age of outsourcing and the freedom of capital? red tape is one thing. The Trump decision to defund pandemic response in 2017 was a different thing, an act of foolish mismanagement akin to Bush's not bothering to read "Bin Laden determined to strike in USA." and yeah, I know that state and local governments have a role to play. but the federal government has/had more resources and better labs. Also state and local governments have no control over airports and airport security, and a large component of an effective pandemic response is to identify high-risk passengers and taking the appropriate precautions with them. so while Seattle is busy outlawing gatherings of 250+ people, setting up quarantine shelters, and working on a business rescue strategy for all the small businesses that can be killed by a bad month, we are also freely exporting our coronavirus load to the rest of the USA and to the world because the people who could help with that don't have a clue, or don't give a ****. people say "oh let's not politicize this" are people who are against accountability. We grant the president near immunity from criminal prosecution and give him a free flop on top of that, why is it so distasteful when we hold him to the low standard of merely doing his job? What's wrong with accountability? I know where the buck stopped in 1948, where does it stop now? TLDR: another typically empty post that reeks of bothsidesism and punches the globalist strawman for good measure. (edit: I guess we're not exporting our coronavirus load to the world anymore. just to africa, asia, australia, and the UK.)

Wrote this on Facebook today, just in case people ever wonder why I engage with political discussions with strangers on the internet, and why these issues are personal to me. Context is a lot of left wingers in my circles being grumpy at Joe Biden's sudden phoenix-like rise in the Dem primary. most of the audience for this is American.

I guess if you think that all problems reduce to just writing a cheque in the right amount, you could believe that. The trouble is, when you're fighting a pandemic, you're not just battling a lack of resources, you're battling a lack of time and opportunities. There are key moments when you can act; afterwards, cleanup and recovery become a lot more expensive. Trump squandered precious time with his feckless management of the White House's emergency apparatus and the starvation of the CDC. Think of it like some idiot who replaces a fuse with a penny because a penny is cheaper than a fuse and the lights still come on with the penny in there. Then his family dies in a house fire, but it's okay because insurance will write a cheque to cover his losses. That idiot is in charge and you're carrying his water. Who hurt you, man?

People in Canada might not realize that in the USA. regulatory capture has led banks to pursue a wide range of unethical and criminal behaviors to keep the bottom line up and to the right. Wells Fargo, one of the biggest banks here, has basically been Saul Goodman Financial for years, with billions in illegal profits. Liz Warren has done way more than most to hold those criminals to account -- you can look it up -- and this is why wingers' talking points about her are so mean and sexist. Wingers love corrupt banks, or at least, they love carrying water for corrupt banks even as they shriek about evil globalists. But I'm surprised to see you (Zontar) repeating that National Review talking points on Warren so uncritically, I didn't think you saw eye-to-eye with the neocons and the globalists.

that's exactly what we need in the USA -- fewer people with healthcare. That covid-19 has to incubate somewhere! Trump has already done his part to damage health care in the USA by firing the CDC pandemic response team, while his justice department argues hard in court that insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. In fact, Trump's most recent budget proposal calls for further cuts to the CDC, and his budget director defended those today to Congress. c'mon, dude. learn to read a room.

c'mon, give the Democrats a break, orchestrating a massive undetectable immigrant voting conspiracy is hard work!

They're all bums, they're all the same, a plague on both their houses! is also a classic Goebbels move. It's a classic because it's a twofer: one, it makes people cynical and disengaged and authoritarians love no one more than the disengaged. two, for more engaged people, it normalizes abnormal behavior by drawing false equivalencies. When someone tells you "it doesn't matter, they're all the same," that's inherently a defensive thing to say; they're acknowledging the wrongness of their position, then dismissing it. Consider why they're being so defensive. (Though I do believe that to a certain degree they are all the same. American politics selects for certain qualities. but that doesn't mean that one side isn't better than the other. when one side appeals to racism and imagined pasts, attacks science, attacks education, felates demagogues, starts credit-card wars, and blames the most vulnerable for all society's ills, there's definitely some daylight there.)

and hey Z while we're talking about your boy Trump and you seem to know how this stuff works, why did he fire the white house pandemic response team earlier in his term?

note how Zontar punches out of the discussion as soon as he's challenged, and changes the channel from "ugh icky gross trans people!" to the old reliable "democrats are hypocrites." It's like watching MJF try to worm his way out of his match with Cody. Still waiting to hear on all those illegal votes, btw. Do you still believe that?

yeah, the ideal response to the troll demonstrates the troll's bad faith to bystanders and doesn't engage the substance of the troll. They're there to reblog the current talking points, which is why they can't engage substantively; they're not capable of it. those talking points are powerful and semi-truthy and they gain power every time they're repeated without challenge. the people who make them are extremely clever and good at hitting people's buttons. Creeps like Goebbels and Atwater and Karl Rove talk openly about this, these techniques are not secret. they're just effective. "conspiracy diarrhea" is a great term, I'm stealing it.

one more thing, to be stupid serious about this story: I kinda like the life lesson being taught here. while it's always super cute to see giant scary wrestling celebrities be gentle and kind to their young fans, I like how MJF's consistent assholery teaches the lesson that there are assholes in the universe and they remain assholes regardless of how tiny and cute and harmless and deferential you are. that's something kids need to understand.

there's an adorable video tweet out there of a little girl getting an autographed MJF headshot as a holiday gift. It says "I'm better than you!" on it, like MJF does. "Happy Hanuukah, you ******," she says on the video. All of wrestling twitter was cheering her on.

I wonder about Stacey Abrams as the VP. She's got the fire and could de-whiten and de-old the Democratic ticket.

yeah, my family was Warren first, Bernie second, and whoever else wins the dem nod third. I will always treasure Warren's singlehanded demolition of the Bloomberg campaign. He looked like Red Light Racicot out there. Biden better be sending her a thank-you card for clearing the billionaire no-hope vanity candidate out from the moderate lane.

We should probably also outlaw vasectomies then. Why do we allow someone to cripple their body's regular function just because they have a mental state that says they don't want to father children? Vasectomies are difficult to reverse and plenty of people regret them. Google "vasectomy reversal" ... seems like there's money in untying those little tubes. (Love that the vasectomy doc in Winnipeg is a big radio sponsor of the Bombers. Dudes need to take ownership of family planning, don't just leave it to women.)

I understand the Democrats were also the pro-slavery party up until about 1960. ps. stop dodging the questions about illegal votes. do you believe that still? if not, what changed your mind?

yup. it's typical GOPness, stoking up fear of a harmless minority to juice the base. In the 2000s it was "OMG the homosexuals are going to make gay marriage mandatory!" That was the way GWB got reelected, many states had "Defense of Marriage" stuff on the ballot to energize the phobe vote. They're running the exact same playbook today but it's the icky ***** trans nonbinary millennials that are the big problem.

"districts that have been purposely flooded with illegal immigrants and allowing them to vote despite lack of citizenship?' Do you still believe that? It's not something you talk about anymore.

for a lot of those bad years, no matter how badly we were getting crushed, there was always hope when Jovon returned a punt. Guy sparked so many rallies over the years. had a huge role in the Casey Printers retirement game .. played out of his mind during that brief hopeful three game win streak of 2009 .. along with guys like Terrance Edwards he was one of the very few reasons to watch the Bombers for a long stretch. Thanks for your time as a bomber, Mr. Johnson and all the best for your next act.

Didn't ever see Darby locally, he was already onto bigger and better things when we got into wrestling. It's unbelievable his first match was only five years ago and he's already world-class.

yeah, that was pretty great. didn't feel three+ hours long. I could watch that tag team match at 0.25x speed and still not catch everything, it was full on cirque de soleil. I think it's one of Darby Allin or Sammy Guevara in the next ppv title match against Moxley. Their match was one of those where it didn't matter who won; the fans won. Just great to watch. Darby fighting Jericho while handcuffed is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and of course he's a Seattle guy who got his start in our local promotions so I have to pull for him. Love that MJF defeated Cody, Cody is like the Charlie Brown of this promotion, he is one of the stars and he gets a lot of love from the camera but he just can't. kick. the. football. Great role for a management wrestler IMO. Wonder what's next for that storyline? They had it at a full boil with all the stipulations, can you crank up the heat any higher or do you backburner it and simmer? Orange Cassidy, yeah, I'm a fan. what a goddamn crazy art form when someone can get over by putting their hands in their pockets. Was disappointed with the women's match, I'll mark out for anyone billed from space and I thought Kris Statlander had moves ... but maybe she needs a smaller opponent to look her best? Match didn't really get off the ground. Also a bit disappointed in the title match, I am pretty new to wrestling but Jericho has always struck me as someone who is not currently a great wrestler but who has great matches nonetheless. I think plodding is a good way to put this. Would love to see the Inner Circle be all about grooming Sammy Guevara to be El Campeón now, with Jericho as his coach/valet because damn Jericho can rock a mic. Missed the opening Jake Hager / Dustin match because of traffic and coronavirus panic buying at the grocery store ... was curious to see it because Hager was the Roman Reigns of Lucha Underground, a guy you hated seeing good wrestlers lose to. I think AEW uses him really well as an attack goon and wanted to see if he'd leveled up since LU ended.