Gareth

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

 

So she delivered one project, an easy sell with the public, in an area she would have some previous experience in (having worked in healthcare administration), in 8 years?  

That is so many levels below president its absurd to even raise it, I can't be commissioner because i did some good Inspector work, its a totally different level of responsibility and competence. 

Not sure if you are rewriting history or didn't paid attention to U.S. politics at the times.  During the Obama administrations, the GOP did everything to obstruct or stone-wall any agendas coming out of the White House, regardless of how popular or "easy sell" it was.   The Tea party started the tribal mentality of what you see now in Congress.  Its hard to get anything done back then and even more so now.  

On 1/6/2024 at 11:01 PM, BigFatCoward said:

She is infinitely more qualified than most, yet still not qualified in the slightest. 

 

One way to judge Michelle Obama's qualification would be to look at her initiatives or agenda while as the first lady.  Michelle Obama's main agenda as FLOTUS was childhood obesity.  This is a tough health issue to take on.  Her agenda required the coordination of multiple federal departments (agriculture & education),and numerous federal programs.  It also required getting a crucial bill, the Healthy, Hungry-Free Act, thru Congress.  I think what Michelle Obama did with her Let's Move initiative to fight childhood obesity is a testament for her qualification for POTUS.  She demonstrated that she can enact an agenda, which to me is an important qualification for POTUS.

8 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Those are some bloody deep trenches. 

Gotta go deep to recruit mobilize Kong from Hollow Earth.  

19 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

That’s kind of amusing. Do you think if countries didn’t ask for negative tests China would start being more transparent with information? Do you think the country that locked foreigners in their apartments for months at a time would consider a request for a negative test from travelers to be too burdensome?

I don't know what China will do but like I said before, after travel ban and testing requirement for negative tests for African countries due to omicron, majority of African countries are not sharing data anymore.  These kind of comfort measure behaviors by countries like the U.S. and Canada are impeding transparency and data sharing.  The first step to data sharing and transparency is to stop comfort measure behaviors that do nothing to eradicate this pandemic except to make the public feel like the government is doing something.

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

I think Public Health was trying to be reasonable by saying it’s for 30 days (which can be extended, for sure) because of a lack of data coming out of China. And while you might cry “punishment” or even “racism”, I suspect health officials don’t want to be lashed with the same criticism they got back in 2020 that they hadn’t acted fast enough.

Thats the issue.  Its already too late.  From WHO reports, the variants that are surging through China are not new variants but variants that are already in Canada, the U.S., Europe, etc.  It would be different if the COVID surge in China is due to a new variant.  Requiring a negative test from just China when someone infected with BF7 traveling from Europe, the U.S., or any other countries entering Canada w/o a required test doesn't make sense.  If the Public Health are really trying to do their due diligence to protect Canadians, they should require a negative test for everyone entering Canada.  Even then, historically that has not shown to be effective...ie see Japan, Taiwan, USA, etc.  I'm surprised that countries continue to do the same things over and over again even though empirical evidence don't support these measures.  Government should stop with comfort measures that empirically have been shown to be ineffective.  

Like I said at this point, the world has to be more transparent and willing to share data with each other.  Alienating 1 country is the wrong step to promote this. 

53 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Some professors here in Canada have accused the government of being wrong headed by announcing visitors from China will need to have a negative Covid test to enter the country. They say testing didn’t work before and won’t work now. No quarantine provisions because people who test positive won’t be allowed to enter the country. Public Health says it’s a 30-day temporary measure because of the lack of information about what’s going on in China.

It depends on the intent or what Canada is trying to achieve.  If the intent of requiring negative COVID test to enter the country is to slow or prevent transmission of COVID then it is pointless since COVID is already circulating through Canada.  Likewise, if it is to prevent a certain variant from China then that is also pointless since the BF.7 variant has been detected in Canada since August I think. 

I heard a decent podcast about how many countries see negative covid test for entry as a form of punishment.  This perception stemmed from when most countries required a negative test for entry for South Africans because they were the first to identify the omicron variant (even though it was first detected in Botswana).  Singling a country out doesn't make sense at this point and just stymie data sharing and transparency.  

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on

Robert Frost.

Lately, I have been reminding myself at work of the polish expression:  Not my circus, not my monkeys.