Complicity is irrelevant. Inflation is very hard to control and the federal reserve will eventually have to enact inflationary policies that comport with the laws of gravity. We will inflate our way out of debt, it may spiral out of control to the point we adopt a new currency (ala Zimbabwe) or we have a couple very high-inflation decades. Either way, invest in capital. Labor and checking accounts are disadvantaged vs capital in high inflation times.
As I recall something almost identical was proposed for the first relief bill.
What I don't understand is how that's possible, given that appropriations bills are, to my knowledge, expressly authorized to allocate money and not create, for instance, new criminalized offenses. But I've only worked for a state legislature and not the federal. Maybe it's different.
Yeah well on the bright side when someone calls you an anti-vaxxer nutjob for not wanting to beta test you can point out that two of the three largest European governments agree with your concerns.
It'll be interesting to get some better numbers on this. The AZ vaccine may prove more risky for younger people than actually getting the disease.
The common refrain is "it's not proven to reduce transmission" not "it does nothing to reduce transmission." Most vaccines reduce transmission, including the flu vaccine, so a reduction in transmission would be completely in line with expectations.
Preliminary studies are already coming in showing the extant COVID vaccines (at least the Pfizer one) reduce secondary transmission.
They're gonna do what they did with masks. Wait until about nine years of studies roll in showing masks don't fucking do anything before finally saying "Oh ok you didn't need to wear a mask that whole time."
It’ll reduce the spread. This is the same pearl-clutching nonsense we saw about whether we should wear one mask or a thousand. Fauci et al are just being obnoxiously cautious without regard for how much their recommendations make people panic and hate each other.
This is what happens when policy makers only listen to one expert in one field rather than take into account the broader implications of one expert’s recommendations.
Hereditary and the VVitch were outstanding, though I've known people to feel they were pretentious. Really depends on your tastes, of course. It Follows was a blast. There's a remake of Suspiria out there that's kind of a head scratcher but it has some great body horror.
I don't really follow horror books or comics, but Clive Barker's older stuff is phenomenal. He's got some of the best prose in horror fiction since Arthur Machen.
You really should read the Exorcist. I think it's every bit as good as the movie. And Exorcist III is a criminally underrated movie, if you haven't seen it.
Angel Heart is one of my favorite movies, and it's a weird hybrid of detective noir, period piece, and horror. Great performances all around. The book it's based on, Falling Angel, diverges from the movie quite a bit and is extremely enjoyable.
Oh and go check out Christopher Odd's channel. He does some great let's plays of horror games like Alien Isolation and Resi 7.
Movies: Any Mel Brooks movie. Almost all of them have offensive, self-aware, and ironic black stereotypes, played smart and to mock racist tropes, but we're not even allowed to have that anymore.
Michael Mann is pretty based. Heat is the greatest movie of all time. Collateral is the only movie where Tom Cruise plays a villain, and he kills it. Thief is the best first-outing of a film director that springs to memory. Great crime stories that humanize all the characters involved.
Where Eagles Dare is a badass WWII movie that also features Clint Eastwood's highest killcount.
Waterloo (1970) I believe still holds the record for largest cast of any movie anywhere. Russia lent a zillion soldiers to the production, and the battles are full scale, fucking amazing, incredible, ball shattering, and nobody's ever heard of it. It will never, ever get made again. Everything will be CG from here on out.
TV:
Becker, with Ted Danson. I've always hated sitcoms but love Becker. Almost every episode he makes fun of a blind black guy.
True Detective season one was pretty based.
Books:
The Complete Works of Plato. About half the Socratic dialogues are transcendentally brilliant, given the time in which they were written, and half are infuriatingly bad (like when he tries to divine the origin of words). Gorgias is probably my favorite dialogue.
Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow is a really fascinating dissection of Three Mile Island, and many preceding complex catastrophes (Apollo 11, Texas City explosion, Teton Dam failure). Probably my favorite book I've ever read.
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. More than anything I'm just awestruck with his writing. The amount of humility, kindness, and gratitude to his colleagues that resonates from his writing is really rare. Really a remarkable man.
Sir Walter Raleigh's Speech from the Scaffold. He was a spy, an explorer, a diplomatic, philosopher, eventually put to the death for treason. His final speech before execution is well attested and documented, and I hope we can even muster a tenth of his courage and eloquence if we ever face the axe.
The Unbelievable Podcast (not the Unbelievers Podcast (or Unbelievable)) ended a few years ago but it was a hysterical takedown of conspiracy theories, aliens, Bigfoot, etc. I'd start about halfway through its run when it gets really good. Oddly, Tim Dillon was there for the first 20-30 episodes.
If you like improv: Teacher's Lounge, Bonanas for Bonanza, Comedy Bang Bang, Mission to Zyxx
Far from debunked. Plenty of good reason to suspect it was lab grown. Nothing conclusive one way or the other at this point.