@drterrysimpson Stop comparing open surgical procedures and casual contact with someone who has a respiratory illness. They are not the same and you know it.
English
lbenson
12.3K posts
Interesting how masks suddenly become useless when discussing public health, yet somehow every surgeon, cath lab team, and procedural cardiologist still masks up when they are standing over an open body or threading wires into a coronary artery.
Medicine understands something the internet often forgets: protection is rarely absolute. Seatbelts do not prevent every death. Gloves do not prevent every infection. Masks are another layer, not magic.
WE do know that reduction of viral load decreases morbidity of disease. Masks reduce fomites. To this day I wear a mask in every healthcare facility I enter - I want to minimize risk.
I doubt this cardiologist wants me to operate on his patient without a mask
Joseph Marine@DrJMarine
“Long before the pandemic, gold-standard randomized controlled trials had repeatedly shown that masks offered little or no meaningful protection against the spread of respiratory viruses. When COVID-19 arrived, fresh trials were launched in hopes of settling the question. Instead, they largely confirmed the earlier findings: Masks produced, at best, marginal reductions in SARS-CoV-2 transmission, if any. Two major Cochrane reviews (in 2020 and in 2023), the gold standard for rigorous medical evidence synthesis, reached the same conclusion. Neither found convincing evidence that surgical masks meaningfully slowed the spread of respiratory viruses in real-world settings.”
English
@Liathetrader @ericlister Stop shopping at whine foods and having it delivered and still complaining about prices. Unbelievable.
English
Groceries for 2 people.
Will last us maybe 5 days.
I don’t know how people do it. This country is becoming unbearably expensive.
2k monthly groceries
Not counting if you want to go to a restaurant once a week, add another 1k.
English
@TheEtherIsFake @TW0HEADEDBEAST Then you are the ignorant one who simply wants to think they have the moral high ground. Check out the hundreds of traffic studies that disagree with you
English
@TW0HEADEDBEAST Oh, I never let these people merge. They had 4 miles of construction signs to get over, and now they're just stopped where the lane ends. They can stay put.
English
or you could just start to merge 2 miles back when the signs start showing up like a goddamn normal person
meowtown@hieywieyneue
i wish american drivers understood the zipper merge and didn’t have this whole thing of getting your ego hurt because someone tries to merge late (aka the actually correct thing to do)
English
@CygnusSlaughter @wisplite @TW0HEADEDBEAST No, you don’t, and they shouldn’t need to accelerate. You are just wrong mate
English
@wisplite @TW0HEADEDBEAST They don't have room to accelerate retard, you have to slow down to let them in.
English
@CygnusSlaughter @TW0HEADEDBEAST Literally every single traffic study ever conducted disagrees with you - zipper merge is the most efficient. And no one in the closing lane is holding up anyone if everyone just merges one by one. It’s not hard
English
@TW0HEADEDBEAST how is merging at the last second the correct thing to do?
Increases the risk of an accident. If one car misses the window, traffic behind has to slow down to accommodate them, making it harder for people to merge even further back, and it compounds.
These people are retarded.
English
@TW0HEADEDBEAST Why would anyone do that, and why would that be considered normal when every single traffic study says that full utilization of all lanes until the point of merge is the most efficient way to do it and allows the best traffic flow
English
@nomadsvibetdr @Smartnetworth1 Congrats - but I guess you aren’t one of the ones complaining about living paycheck to paycheck.
English
@Smartnetworth1 I have the money for it, and it's a $600 a month payment.
English
If you have a $700 car payment, please don’t complain about living paycheck to paycheck.
English
@RealKeithWeiner @ChrisMartzWX They don’t unless they live in a home of the same value
English
@ChrisMartzWX Why do childless couples pay the same as couples with 6 kids?
That's not how a free market would work!
English
My favorite part of property tax defenders’ argument is that “It pays for the schools, police, and firefighters!”
Okay, so if we all (sparingly) use the same services in a community, why aren’t property taxes equal? In other words, you pay the same amount? Instead, you pay whatever the government assesses your property value to be.
Talk about a scam!
Bonchie@bonchieredstate
“But if you get rid of property taxes on primary residences, you’ll have to raise sales taxes!” So what? A consumption tax is always preferable to the state de facto owning your home.
English
@JoeMac7345 @JillFilipovic @shagbark_hick Kristin Noble is a whack job, but she does not define most homeschool parents - but even those who believe that still educate their children better than some inner city schools across the US (ok, NH not in that league, but still)
English
@shagbark_hick I don’t know about other places, but in New Hampshire the home schooling lobby is very clear that their motivation isn’t education, it’s isolating kids from anyone who doesn’t meet their idea of a “real American.” Look up Kristin Noble if you doubt me. @KristinNobleNH
English
Right, if homeschooling is actually super high quality, then homeschooling families should not object to being evaluated, tested, and checked-in-on to make sure their kids are actually learning.
𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗@shagbark_hick
Look, pro-homeschooling people are piling on this guy but he's not wrong at all. I know of families who are straight-up failing to teach their children beyond a 2nd-grade education. Like 16-year-old kids who don't know what the Capital of the US is, have never heard of Toronto, and could not perform a basic algebra problem. While it's true that there are many excellent homeschooling families whose instruction far exceeds that of any public school, the fact is that the American system of "school your kids however you want" does also yield a lot of severely stunted kids who get stuck playing "catch-up" for the rest of their lives. My wife was homeschooled, we might homeschool, I'm not averse to the practice per se, but it's a fact that there's a whole world of multi-generational homeschoolers who are not and will not rise above a 2nd or 3rd grade education level by their own volition. Should the state intervene in these cases? I dunno, the answer to the question is not as "easy" as many make it out to be. The idea of barely getting through 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' at the age of 16 should be appalling, and it IS happening in some American homeschooler families.
English
@JillFilipovic Great, now apply that to ALL public schools in the US - like in large cities where less than half of students are testing as proficient in math or reading. Let’s talk about who is really being neglected and falling behind
English
@jrcobbstr @Mericamemed Not even close. Clearly this guy is operating an under the table charter and trying to hide it. USCG is not stupid. They have the right to board and check every vessel on the water. If you don’t like it, don’t own/operate a boat.
English
@CongruentAlways @Mericamemed He doesn’t have that right. USCG can board and search any vessel at any time. You agree to that by operating a boat in US inland or coastal waterways.
English
@Mericamemed Why didn't he just tell her no you cannot search my boat sorry. Have a nice day
English
@MissJilianne I pay a lot more than that in taxes over my lifetime, so I’m ok with it. They don’t have to come if they don’t want to
English
I think it’s disgusting the United States charges $100 per person visiting our country to enter a National Park. Embarrassing too!
English
@woods_jus @SteveOnSpeed Yes, we know that - but why is that my problem - I disintegrate choose to be a part of it, I was forced by my government to participate and it was them who stole my money instead of leave it untouchable as it was designed to be
English
@SteveOnSpeed Do people think there’s like a bank account at the SSA with all the money they’ve paid in just waiting on them to retire?
Bc, in reality, every dime you’ve paid your entire working life has been paid out to current retirees. It’s a giant Ponzi scheme.
English
If you could opt out of Social Security today, but you lose everything that you’ve paid in so far, would you do it? 
English
@UziCryptoo If you are an adult and you are working at Chipotle full time, perhaps you need to be thinking about getting a roommate and taking the bus. That is unskilled labor, not a career.
English
In my area, In-N-Out and Chipotle are hiring around $20/hour for new workers.
Let’s say you even land full-time at 40 hours/week: $20/hour = $800/week
That’s $3,467/month before taxes.
After just 12% in federal taxes, you’re left with about $3,051/month take-home.
Now here’s the reality: Average one-bedroom apartment is around $2,000/month.
So even working full-time in fast food, 65% of your income disappears to rent alone.
That leaves you with about $1,050/month for:
• food
• transportation
• insurance
• phone
• savings
• emergencies
This isn’t a “budgeting problem.”
This is a cost of living crisis.
Working full time should never mean barely surviving.
English
@bobbysmith12275 @daleaduncan Yes, and when minimum wage was established, “basic housing” did not mean living alone in a luxury apartment building - it meant a room for rent or a place with 3 bedrooms and 2-3 roommates. These days people expect to live alone, have a car and raise a family.
English
@daleaduncan Please read a history book. The minimum was suppose to be a wage that would give a worker, basic housing, food, medical and opportunities for educational advancement. Stop licking the boots of the billionaires who want to disarm you.
English
It’s never been possible to “survive” on minimum wage. Why should it be now? Teenagers living at home work for minimum wage.
Tandy@dantypo
Am I the only one who still views minimum wage as gas money for your car and movie tickets for you and your date while you gain work experience in high school or at the bookstore in college? When did it become a career wage?
English
@Steezehuman They can add up to equal or even more than your mortgage alone.
English
@Steezehuman Did your bank explain to you that in addition to your $1400 mortgage payment you will have insurance premiums that are significantly higher than whatever you paid for renters insurance and you will have property taxes as well? These are usually added as an escrow payment
English
The bank says I can’t afford a $1,400 mortgage… but I’m out here paying $2,200 in rent instead.
Make it make sense 😓
English
@caldodge @caroljsroth So you gave the government an interest free loan? Why
English
@caroljsroth A reminder that a larger tax refund is better than a smaller one. Ours was much larger than we expected.
English
A reminder that a tax refund is just an interest-free loan you gave to the government…
unusual_whales@unusual_whales
Average tax refund is 11.3% higher this year, per CNBC
English
@RealKeithWeiner @ChrisMartzWX Except Paul robbed Peter but it isn’t Peter robbing John, it’s Paul again. The government is the one in the wrong on both sides.
English
@ChrisMartzWX It's not "back".
If Paul robs Peter, Peter can't go robbing John and say he's getting "his" money "back".
English
I understand your argument.
And, I don’t blame you.
My point is that the money you paid into Social Security for x number of years has already been spent. It’s gone.
So, in order for you to get your hundreds of thousands back, realistically, it would have to come from the Payroll taxes of currently working Americans and printing of money by the U.S. Treasury. And, that is already what the existing system does.
The solution to the problem we have with Social Security cannot be what’s causing problem to begin with.
Unless Social Security is privatized such that you have your OWN fund, then any other solution will cause certain people some serious economic pain. This is why this scam should have been dealt with 50 years ago.
da_ultimate_warrior@warrior_da85237
@ChrisMartzWX The boomers/conservatives simply want back what was stolen from them. Nothing wrong with wanting YOUR money back. Social security is a ponzi scheme and should be stopped immediately.
English