OldSchoolSnapper

Tucker was a great rental but when you start talking about $10 million a year for a guy that really does nothing except "be feisty" it starts getting silly. Yes Tucker had some great moments in the playoffs but that's now glossed over long stretches of the regular season where the consensus was largely "this guy is our spark?" He cashed in because everybody was watching. It happens every year. Good for him. I'd have liked him back for a hometown discount, but not at market value. Oh well. Have to find next year's Tucker.

Semi is pretty gross.

The USWNT didn't seem like that much of a team. It might be good to have a turnover to get some new talent on the team. That team is old by any measure. This was probably something those closely follow the sport saw coming.

ConnAir

Feels odd. I thought for sure Tucker would be back and Portis was definitely gone. I think this is better though.

Think some are a bit too critical of Westbrook. He's a great player, but like I said, I think the real bonus of that add for LAL is that LeBron can rest and they still have a volume scorer so they won't fade into 9th place again. They are absolutely going to have to find a shot somewhere, though. Westbrook has always been a player that will raise your floor tremendously, but he won't do a whole lot for your ceiling. It may work in LA because their ceiling is already high enough. It could definitely go poorly though if they aren't good filling out the roster.

Giannis's genuine love of MKE is apparently contagious.

We have 70% adults with one shot now. The good news is that there's been a big uptick in vaccinations since this latest wave started. Couple of problems thinking this. To reach 70% of the total population vaccinated, you would need roughly 67% of kids under 18 to get vaccinated, or for example, 80% of adults and 60% of kids under 18. The last figures I saw reported were something like 30% of kids 12-15 had a shot, the numbers increase for 16-17 for 45%, and increase more for 18-24, but they still float around 50% for 18-24. All of those will increase just because they've not had a chance to get it for very long, but it's not promising that so many adults under 50ish still don't care too much. So I think it is quite optimistic to think kids will vaccinate at the rate of adults even once they're allowed to, for several reasons. They don't have the urgency the elderly do to get a shot, elderly people don't have kids in-home to go take to get a shot, there is almost no risk of them getting seriously ill, and anti-vac adults can have multiple kids, and young children is where people are most reluctant to get a shot. The % vaccinated dip by age and once you hit 40-49 the % with one shot drops to 60%. Then 50% for 25-39. Those are the people who have kids. So...30% of the population remaining unvaccinated sounds rather likely, frankly I will be stunned if <25% of the population is unvaccinated at any point. You're not accounting for the fact that "eligible adult population" skews very old and is far more likely to get the vaccine. If no more adults get a vaccine, and 50% of kids under 18 get it...that would put us at right about 65%. Which may not be too far off because while more adults will get it, I'm not sure we ever hit half of kids under 18. My guess would be some mixture of the two has us wind up right around there, 65%.

I'll believe 75% of the US gets vaccinated when it happens. Telling someone on the phone you're going to get it or that you're waiting for the right time to get it isn't the same as getting it.

And I don’t get this. We solved polio. We solved measles, whooping cough, mumps, etc. Then a bunch of discredited docs wrote books questioning vaccines and we now have parts of the country with lower vaccination rates than third world countries. My generation never saw the horrors of those sicknesses because they were eradicated when we grew up, but we were all vaccinated. now those are on the rise because we aren’t learning from history 1. Pre-existing anti-vaccine sentiment that had been steadily gaining popularity even before Covid. 2. Social media/propaganda websites that present as legitimate news, freely spreading false information without repercussions for the last 15 or so years. Unpopular opinion possibly but the Internet has changed the game and the First Amendment is in dire need of revisiting. 3. Legitimate public distrust of the news, which constantly sells one apocalyptic crisis after another without ever seeing these things come to fruition. 4. Politicizing virus prevention like we do with almost everything, pitting one side against the other. If you do this or that, you are "one of them."

I'm out when you start virtue signaling to make an argument. "Are you telling me they don't matter?!" Yawn. The second you do that, there is no path out besides being a terrible person. It's a very poor way to make a point. There has to be a death count that is "acceptable" yet if I use your philosophy here I can make the argument when one person dies that it's too much and the world should close and if you don't agree then you obviously don't care about that one person. So that number exists somewhere, whether it's 50 or 100 or 3000. Again, I ask, what is the solve for this supposed surge? This has to be a world record for moving a goal post. Flatten the curve, wait for the vaccine, this is our shot. Ok, we did all that stuff. The curve is literally a blip from its peak. If that's not good enough for life to go on, it never will be.

Isn't it entirely possible that cases are getting younger because older people are among those most encouraged by the government but also their own friends and family to get vaccinated? And unless 6 year olds are getting hospitalized that doesn't say anything as to delta being harsh on kids, which I looked up again and found nothing to support that, just a bunch of pediatricians reassuring people that school is safe and that delta doesn't really like kids either. Again though, I don't think the vaccination rate is going to take a significant jump outside of some kids under 12 getting it when they can. You've had plenty of time to get it by now and the rate generally is pretty close to the % of Americans who said they don't like vaccines even before Covid was a thing. They're not going to get the shot. And mandates won't do anything because those who oblige are the ones who got the shot. IMO the options here are to get on with your life or the government rounding up people and forcing shots in their arms. I don't understand how anyone who's lived through this can see this another way, at least for America. I really don't understand what path out of this some of you guys see. There are millions dead and you've had a vaccine for like 9 months. They're not gonna change course and get it now.

I'd like a source on delta being significantly worse for kids as I haven't seen anything other than the sort of "doctors say they are concerned how it affects kids" sort of thing. In fact the only study-ish bits I've see say there is still extremely low risk of serious illness in school-aged kids delta or not, or that they have no real concrete data on how it affects them as it's so new. So, yeah, I'm challenging the statement that's it's affecting young people "much more harshly" without defining young people or "harshly." What is an overwhelmed hospital by the way? This is another BS line the news trots out every other day without context as to what capacity a hospital is normally operating at. They'd have you believe hospitals sit half empty most of the time. Telling me that an ICU is at 87% capacity doesn't say anything without saying what it was at last month or last year. And this is how they frame it basically every single article. "Jefferson hospital is at 90% capacity." Followed by a quote from a doctor that says "I am concerned. This isn't good." But let's say it is, what would you like to see done? You can make this out to be the worst thing ever, a surging crisis or whatever you want to call it, and then what? What is the solve? Other than a vaccine for kids 2+ which I last read is a hope for this fall, this is a hamster wheel. Closing school again isn't a solution, empty arenas and restaurants are not a solution. It's been 2 years. When does it stop? When the virus reaches 0? There are going to be "cases" for a long time. A fully vaccinated population isn't ever happening. I'll be surprised if more than 60% of the US ever gets the vaccine. So where do you go from there? Do some of you actually want to see a 5 year mask mandate or something? I'm genuinely wondering how long you anticipate caring about this? At what point do you just accept it as part of the world and move on and realize that half-hearted distancing (that most people ignore as soon as school/whatever ends) and masks at AmFam actually worn for about 3% of the game don't actually do anything?

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html Interpretive Summary for July 30, 2021 COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are once again increasing in nearly all states, fueled by the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, which is much more contagious than past versions of the virus. Now, about that $10K... Increasing relative to what? Relative to moderate variance from week to week, or relative to peak COVID-19? The highest daily death average in a rolling 7 day period in July while Delta has been raging has been 360 deaths/day. The highest daily average in a rolling 7 day period in January of this year was 3,352 deaths per day. The "cases surging" parrot doesn't care about context. Just be afraid. You absolutely never see these data reported in mainstream media with any context that puts it in perspective. It's the same fixation on "surging cases" repeatedly and it never changes. That it's 1/10 of peak death isn't even mentioned. And again, no, Covid deaths are not surging.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html Interpretive Summary for July 30, 2021 . COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are once again increasing in nearly all states, fueled by the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, which is much more contagious than past versions of the virus. Now, about that $10K... I didn't bet that deaths aren't increasing. I said if you asked people on the street if deaths are surging, they would think that they are, when no, they are not. Look at a Covid death chart. It stands to reason that if cases rise, deaths will rise, but hospitalizations and deaths are both low and stable and fewer people who get Covid are dying. If you have a vaccine, that risk is almost nonexistent. Can we stop being intentionally obtuse?

[sarcasm]Yeah, continue to make policy based on articles on business websites. That's the place to learn all about health policy.[/sarcasm] Yes it is now with us. We will still be affected by it's presence for years. Still need to reduce infections. The classic argument from authority once you can't defend your position. My point was that this isn't some fringe looney thought I had, it's been published a ton and has very respectable folks on its side. The vaccine is doing precisely what it should have done, stave off death and not always prevent cases. I'd be $10k that if you walked down the street and asked 100 people, 80 would say deaths are surging. Which is of course false, but people only know about the cases surging. Odd, huh? Again, 0 Covid is a fantasy, it's never happening. "Preventing infection" at this point is a joke outside of getting the vaccine. It's been almost 2 years you guys. You either get the shot or you don't and the rest of it is just busy ants marching.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-06-21/cases-don-t-matter-like-they-used-to "Now, as governments learn to live with the virus after vaccination and are starting to see them break the link between cases and deaths, Covid is slowly joining the ranks of diseases we’ve lived with for years that governments mostly fret about because they fill up hospital beds and challenge the wider resilience of health-care systems." I stand by what I said. Case counts are the media's favorite thing to keep scaring people and tell us almost nothing. You want to live in fear of mutations, nobody can stop you. But deaths and hospitalizations are what matter and they have remained low. This isn't going away. There will be a new super scary variant in the news every 8 months.

Yes they are. In other words they have given the public WAY too much credit to be able to adapt to a fluid situation. You can't do that. You just can't. Our culture doesn't allow for you to change guidance on something like that. You just get tuned out. You simply cannot go on national TV and say the vaccine is supremely effective against the variant and then 2 weeks later say mask up even if vaccinated. You just can't.

Nobody should even care about cases rising. It's out in the open that cases rising is a nearly useless measure especially considering vaccinated people get "cases" and essentially never get sick or die. We should only care about "flattening the death curve" and not over-running hospitals. Hospitalizations and deaths should be the only thing in the news. But of course CNN can't stop itself from yelling about cases surging every 3 hours. Who cares. Everyone would better to stop obsessing about it.

There's 30-40% of the population who is never getting vaccinated under any circumstances. There is no 100% vaccinated America and no zero Covid ever happening.

Fauci said on national TV it was nothing for Americans to be concerned about in the last week of January 2020. Just a couple of weeks ago, he again on national TV went rambling off about the amazing discoveries as to how effective the vaccine was against the variant and a host of other statements that have been almost entirely walked back by the CDC within like 15 days. The CDC has communicated like they are talking to research scientists about a theory that will be tested and changed later on. You can't put stuff like out for consumption by the general public and then change your mind on it 14 times. People don't trust you anymore and don't care what you have to say. I've also never seen a goal post moved more in my life. Flatten the curve. We can't overrun the hospitals. This our shot. Yadda yadda yadda. I got the shot, time for life and society to move on. I don't know what has to happen or how long this has to drag out for people to realize this is a never-ending cycle of masks and variants and periodic lockdowns. Another 4 weeks of virtual school and 1/4-hearted masks at Brewers games isn't fixing it. The same people who won't get the shot are the same ones who won't wear it anyway.

The government and "officials" (CDC, or whoever) have truly botched this on too many levels to count.

Why? Serious question.

I'm not really blown away by the Lakers getting Westbrook, but it will allow them to win a lot of games when LeBron gets hurt or needs load management. They won't fall off the Earth and essentially out of the playoffs when LeBron is hurt. When, not if. AD and LeBron alone are enough to win a title. Not a guaranteed title, but they're good. They now have no shooters, so that's a problem. They'll need to sort out how those 3 play together, but the big takeaway for me was that is a part-time insurance policy to rest an aging LeBron during the season.

Can't wait to hear about his amazing tags the entire first round of the playoffs.