The Worst People in the World...

[Deleted User 289]

Grandma's experience about an hour ago.....

Mobile ordered McFatty's. Was jonesing for a double Quarter Pounder. No Cheese - of course.
The restaurant has signs posted outside that clearly say MASKS/FACE COVERINGS REQUIRED. The person who entered right before me was NOT wearing a face covering. He was allowed to stay in the restaurant. The person right after me entered without wearing a shirt - and was literally dripping with sweat.
I politely asked the Manager (Oliver) why he allowed the first man to stay in the restaurant and order without a face covering and why he allowed the 2nd man to stay without a shirt on.
I swear I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. I wanted him to be aware that he needs to be more cautious if he values his job because someone else could cause a major problem for him.
Oliver said, "I didn't want to be rude". I told Oliver it wasn't a question of his being rude and that it is a requirement to for people to wear a mask/face covering - and a shirt while in the restaurant.
I explained the person who walked in before me and the person who walked in after me didn't abide by the requirements. Nor did Oliver - by serving them. I then explained to Oliver that these requirements are in place for MY safety and well being, other customer's safety and well being, and HIS and HIS employee's safety and well being. He apologized to me and I told him thank you for apologizing but it's unnecessary. I told him to please understand, I in no way want him to get in "trouble" for this but to please be more careful - for his sake, his employee's sake, and his customer's sake.

Moral of this story is - WHY? Why did the guy come in without a face covering? Why did the guy come in without a shirt on? Why did Oliver allow them to stay in the restaurant (He didn't want to be rude? - eye roll). Why did I feel the need to say something to Oliver? Why do so many people in this country simply not give a fuck about rules?

[pdub]

More importantly, did your quarter pounder have cheese on it?

[Deleted User 289]

Nope! Oliver's peeps got my order right. I probably should have gone around the counter and elbowed bumped them.

[Shirley]

[DCHawk1]

You know what else they don't do in South Korea? Hire failed novelists whose brothers run a network news department to serve as senior foreign policy advisers.

[Shirley]

You know what else they don't do in South Korea? Hire failed novelists whose brothers run a network news department to serve as senior foreign policy advisers.

You seem triggered, again.

[DCHawk1]

Perhaps.

But no more than Ben.

And significantly less than anyone who would post Ben's brain droppings.

Unless you intended to use this thread as a confessional.

[Shirley]

Perhaps.

But no more than Ben.

And significantly less than anyone who would post Ben's brain droppings.

Unless you intended to use this thread as a confessional.

South Korea, which had its initial COVID-19 diagnosis the very same day the US did, has had ~ 300 deaths, and the US has had ~ 99,000.

99,000/300 = 330 times fewer deaths in South Korea, your petty grievances, notwithstanding.

All things considered, I understand why you'd rather talk about something else.

[DCHawk1]

Perhaps.

But no more than Ben.

And significantly less than anyone who would post Ben's brain droppings.

Unless you intended to use this thread as a confessional.

South Korea, which had its initial COVID-19 diagnosis the very same day the US did, has had ~ 300 deaths, and the US has had ~ 99,000.

99,000/300 = 330 times fewer deaths in South Korea, your petty grievances, notwithstanding.

All things considered, I understand why you'd rather talk about something else.

Likewise, I understand why you'd wish to conflate a society with a radically different conception of civil liberties and personal responsibility, plus the experience of MERS, with tRUmP!

After all, when the only rhetorical tool you have is a hammer, you hammer in the morning, you hammer in the evening, all over this land, until you're so fixated on nails that you can hardly think straight.

[seahawk]

About Korea. A friend whose dad was career military, lived in Japan for 3 years during the late 60s and early 70s. She said one thing she remembered was that they used masks a lot more during ordinary times. It was not unusual to see people with a cold or flu symptoms wearing masks. Perhaps that's made it easier to accept the restrictions that go with this current pandemic. I've read all the stuff about masks and what they do and don't do.

What I do think is that if you wear whatever kind of cloth mask you've come up with, it reminds you, "Oh, social distancing." It's like if you grew up in the South and some part of your brain always warns you, "Snake." when you're near the water, or turning over a board in the yard, or watching your golf ball disappear under the giant Yucca plant and immediately pulling another from your bag.

[Shirley]

Perhaps.

But no more than Ben.

And significantly less than anyone who would post Ben's brain droppings.

Unless you intended to use this thread as a confessional.

South Korea, which had its initial COVID-19 diagnosis the very same day the US did, has had ~ 300 deaths, and the US has had ~ 99,000.

99,000/300 = 330 times fewer deaths in South Korea, your petty grievances, notwithstanding.

All things considered, I understand why you'd rather talk about something else.

Likewise, I understand why you'd wish to conflate a society with a radically different conception of civil liberties and personal responsibility, plus the experience of MERS, with tRUmP!

After all, when the only rhetorical tool you have is a hammer, you hammer in the morning, you hammer in the evening, all over this land, until you're so fixated on nails that you can hardly think straight.

I think it's interesting that you take it personally whenever I point out how other societies have handled the pandemic better than the US has.

Pro tip: Not every post here is about you.

But, very telling. Very

[Shirley]

[DCHawk1]

I think it's interesting that you take it personally whenever I point out how other societies have handled the pandemic better than the US has.

Pro tip: Not every post here is about you.

But, very telling. Very

Ah. I see.

You're under the misimpression that I care what "you" think.

My apologies for whatever I did that gave you that mistaken idea.

In truth, I care when shitty partisan hacks like Ben Rhodes politicize and weaponize the virus, just as some posters on this board care when shitty partisan hacks like Donald Trump do the same.

I'd say I don't care what you think, but I don't actually know what you think. I know a helluva lot about what Miss Betty Bowers and muh Aaron Rupar think, but I'm not even sure you have thoughts about this or anything else.

[Geezer]

What makes you think that your thoughts are important?

[DCHawk1]

What makes you think that your thoughts are important?

She's a doctor.

Leave her alone.

[CrimsonNBlue]

South Korea, which had its initial COVID-19 diagnosis the very same day the US did, has had ~ 300 deaths, and the US has had ~ 99,000.

99,000/300 = 330 times fewer deaths in South Korea, your petty grievances, notwithstanding.

All things considered, I understand why you'd rather talk about something else.

Likewise, I understand why you'd wish to conflate a society with a radically different conception of civil liberties and personal responsibility, plus the experience of MERS, with tRUmP

These factors absolutely played a role in the Korean government's ability to implement a response plan, especially the SARS experience and MERS response debacle. But make no mistake, their government response was much better than the US's. (Which, is something you've acknowledged many times.)

But, something that hasn't gotten a lot of run is that the rest of the world, the US included, had blueprints for success that places like Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. help create that had nothing to do with the rest of the world's belief that East Asian cultures are all just a bunch of herd following authority-bowing sheep. The US had that blueprint and was too slow to implement, which to me is probably the most frustrating part of it.

edit: But, agree the Rhodes tweet is just obnoxious political baiting.

[DCHawk1]

South Korea, which had its initial COVID-19 diagnosis the very same day the US did, has had ~ 300 deaths, and the US has had ~ 99,000.

99,000/300 = 330 times fewer deaths in South Korea, your petty grievances, notwithstanding.

All things considered, I understand why you'd rather talk about something else.

Likewise, I understand why you'd wish to conflate a society with a radically different conception of civil liberties and personal responsibility, plus the experience of MERS, with tRUmP

These factors absolutely played a role in the Korean government's ability to implement a response plan, especially the SARS experience and MERS response debacle. But make no mistake, their government response was much better than the US's. (Which, is something you've acknowledged many times.)

But, something that hasn't gotten a lot of run is that the rest of the world, the US included, had blueprints for success that places like Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. help create that had nothing to do with the rest of the world's belief that East Asian cultures are all just a bunch of herd following authority-bowing sheep. The US had that blueprint and was too slow to implement, which to me is probably the most frustrating part of it.

edit: But, agree the Rhodes tweet is just obnoxious political baiting.

Yes.

Our government has been exceptionally and inexcusably bad during (and before) the pandemic. And even if you acknowledge the failures of the American bureaucracy -- which have largely been repeated throughout most of Europe, suggesting a systemic cultural issue -- Trump has been at his Trumpiest, meaning that he has been petty, childish, self-absorbed, and woefully and willfully ignorant. Moreover, I think the smartest and most effective thing he has done, allowing an incredibly diverse nation of more than 330 million people to handle many aspects of the crisis at the state and local levels, is a plan he stumbled bassakwards into while trying to dodge responsibility.

That said, the reason the Rhodes stuff chaps my ass is that it's part and parcel of the same gaslighting bullshit that has accompanied every aspect of the Trump presidency, i.e. "it's him! It's all him! Anyone else would have done it better! And oh yeah, we love George W. Bush now!" This practically guarantees that the fixable aspects of this clusterfuck will go unfixed, because fixing them could compromise the "Yay Team!" narrative.

As for the Asian countries' response to the pandemic, I'm most curious about Japan. I know the official numbers are undercounts -- due to lack of testing and intentional misreporting of cause of death. But even if you assume the worst, that ALL the excess deaths since mid-February were COVID deaths, that's still fewer than 2000 dead, in a country that didn't lock down, that didn't aggressively track and trace, and that didn't test.

[zsn]

“ in a country that didn't lock down, that didn't aggressively track and trace, and that didn't test.”

I don’t know about the tracking, tracing or testing but they were locked down at least since mid-February. We work closely with a Japanese company and they were WFH since mid-Feb. All non-essential travel was stopped in mid-January. I know because a bunch of them were supposed to be here in early February and they kiboshed.

Maybe the government didn’t drop the hammer but they were shutdown, maybe by companies (which I suppose are de facto omnipotent collectively). Also this Japanese coworker of mine telling me that when a national call is put out the people listen and respond. So similar to SKorea the government didn’t have to do much to get the people to hunker down.

I suppose the Japanese have a better social sense than to storm local government officials armed with military style weapons and it shows

[DCHawk1]

“ in a country that didn't lock down, that didn't aggressively track and trace, and that didn't test.”

I don’t know about the tracking, tracing or testing but they were locked down at least since mid-February. We work closely with a Japanese company and they were WFH since mid-Feb. All non-essential travel was stopped in mid-January. I know because a bunch of them were supposed to be here in early February and they kiboshed.

Maybe the government didn’t drop the hammer but they were shutdown, maybe by companies (which I suppose are de facto omnipotent collectively). Also this Japanese coworker of mine telling me that when a national call is put out the people listen and respond. So similar to SKorea the government didn’t have to do much to get the people to hunker down.

I suppose the Japanese have a better social sense than to storm local government officials armed with military style weapons and it shows

No restrictions were placed on residents’ movements, and businesses from restaurants to hairdressers stayed open. No high-tech apps that tracked people’s movements were deployed. The country doesn’t have a center for disease control. And even as nations were exhorted to “test, test, test,” Japan has tested just 0.2% of its population — one of the lowest rates among developed countries.

https://time.com/5842139/japan-beat-cor ... lockdowns/

[ousdahl]

"One widely shared list assembled 43 possible reasons cited in media reports, ranging from a culture of mask-wearing and a famously low obesity rate to the relatively early decision to close schools. Among the more fanciful suggestions include a claim Japanese speakers emit fewer potentially virus-laden droplets when talking compared to other languages...."

The article also mentions Japan employs nurses trained in "infection tracing" that the U.S. is just getting around to hiring, "an easy-to-understand message of avoiding what are called the “Three C’s” — closed spaces, crowded spaces and close-contact settings," not treating the virus like it was "someone else's problem," and what the article generally describes as an "expert-based approach."

but yeah, sounds like a combination of factors, with no silver bullet.