Ebola hits US

  On 10/2/2014 at 9:01 PM, olo said:

The Picard facepalm has never been more apt for a thread.

Picard should try to avoid touching his face for the time being.

  On 10/2/2014 at 9:23 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 10/2/2014 at 8:31 PM, olo said:

 

  On 10/2/2014 at 8:17 PM, baph said:

We should all get to Mexico, put our backs against the ocean, and defend ourselves from there.

 

serious lol. deadly serious.

 

I also wonder if ISIS or some other nuts are sitting back & are like "Ah...damn, all we have to do is infect some martyrs & send them packing across the globe." easiest way to make biological weapons, as someone alluded to. So ridiculous, it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Isn't it fun when the fears mainstream media perpetuates combine to form one mega fear?

 

haha yea. I see what you're putting down.

but, perpetuation is imminent.

  On 10/2/2014 at 9:26 PM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 10/2/2014 at 9:01 PM, olo said:

The Picard facepalm has never been more apt for a thread.

Picard should try to avoid touching his face for the time being.

 

serious lol. set limpyloo up & he knocks it down.

  On 10/2/2014 at 9:25 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

this is what they've been saying about every single terrorist group since the 90s, and not once has it come to fruition.

In fact the only time America was ever attacked with a biological weapon was when anthrax was sent from a US government lab in October of 2001, in other words the anthrax was american (it didn't originate nor was sent by any terrorist group, islamic or otherwise).

 

edit: fucking lol at that Fox News clip is an interview with Peter King one of the most irrational, fearful and hawkish neoconservatives still serving in government.

 

Whatever came of that, did they just pin it on that bearded scientist guy? I don't remember the who,what & whys of that.

first the US government tried to blame it on Al Qaeda (the letters said "Death to Israel, Death to American Allah is Great") that didn't work, so they tried to blame it on Iraq. They continued to do both of these things even though only a month after the attack the FBI immediately identified that the anthrax sent in the letters had tell-tale fingerprints of the American Ames strain, a very specific type of anthrax manufactured in US bioweapons labs. Regardless of this finding they let the public believe it was islamic terrorism for months. Eventually they went after a guy named Steven Hatfill and leaked to the press that he was essentially the anthrax killer without bringing charges to him. The accusations held no water so Hatfill sued the US government and got a 6 million dollar settlement (When the government refused to admit who anonymously in the gov leaked to the press Hatfill was the culprit). Eventually in 2007 the FBI turned towards another guy Bruce Ivins, but he allegedly committed suicide before the FBI brought any criminal charges. Even though their case was extremely weak against Ivins, they decided to promote his guilt to the media following his death. "case closed"

  On 10/2/2014 at 9:35 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

first the US government tried to blame it on Al Qaeda (the letters said "Death to Israel, Death to American Allah is Great") that didn't work, so they tried to blame it on Iraq. They continued to do both of these things even though only a month after the attack the FBI immediately identified that the anthrax sent in the letters had tell-tale fingerprints of the American Ames strain, a very specific type of anthrax manufactured in US bioweapons labs. Regardless of this finding they let the public believe it was islamic terrorism for months. Eventually they went after a guy named Steven Hatfill and leaked to the press that he was essentially the anthrax killer without bringing charges to him. The accusations held no water so Hatfill sued the US government and got a 6 million dollar settlement (When the government refused to admit who anonymously in the gov leaked to the press Hatfill was the culprit). Eventually in 2007 the FBI turned towards another guy Bruce Ivins, but he allegedly committed suicide before the FBI brought any criminal charges. Even though their case was extremely weak against Ivins, they decided to promote his guilt to the media following his death. "case closed"

ah yea Hatfill. Coming back to me. Don't remember anything after him though. I don't really remember them tying it to al qaeda/iran at the time though either. Welp, I guess suicide is a guilty verdict eh...

i dont think that just because something hasn't happened yet means it never will. JE you seem to be operating from the idea that organized terrorists don't actually exist. i'm just saying that because i thought to say 'nobody ever attacked the US by flying planes into buildings either, before it happened (and most people never would have even imagined such an idea)', but you don't seem to believe that actually happened so, i guess that point would fall flat.

but the idea of intentionally spreading disease to 'enemies' goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. so you saying 'it hasn't happened in the US ever' has nothing at all to do with whether or not it ever will. what's stopping it, exactly? our secure southern border?

it's all about the power of nightmares. You can imagine thousands of terrifying scenarios, but the likelihood of any of those scenarios actually happening is statistically very low. Not to mention that dispersing biological weapons in any kind of terrorist attack would require an insanely high amount of material. Bioweapons are also a very impractical method of attack. I think these groups most definitely exist, I just don't want people (especially seemingly intelligent people) to be consumed by irrational fear delivered to them by their horrendous government.


It just pains me greatly to know that any American even would have the passing fear of an ISIS bioterrorism. Very very sad

edit: i'll give a pass to like a 70 year old woman who's kooked up in her home watching Fox News all day, but not an educated group of people on an internet forum.

  On 10/2/2014 at 10:34 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

Isn't it fun when the fears mainstream media perpetuates combine to form one mega fear?

 

....

It just pains me greatly to know that any American even would have the passing fear of an ISIS bioterrorism. Very very sad

 

edit: i'll give a pass to like a 70 year old woman who's kooked up in her home watching Fox News all day, but not an educated group of people on an internet forum.

but ISIS has demonstrated that there's no reason to not believe they will do what they say they will... they are an entirely different beast than an actor like kim jong who keeps saying hes gonna bomb countries, but doesnt (or any of the fill-in-the-blank threats that could be used to foster and push fear for the sake of fear). i think it's pretty clear this group is no joke in their intentions, their goals and their actions so far. so far, they've moved quick and exterminated almost an entire people, committed mass atrocities and is now inspiring followers in the west (read somewhere that they may have up to 3,400 recruits per month) to slaughter and behead people... theyve succeeded with building their caliphate they set out to. theyre not a bunch of lone wolf gun-loving psychos. this is real shit.

With that said, of course bio-terrorism has always been one of those cards that that ppl usually freak out over in the west, that usually don't get played... but i think the scenario at hand is that you have: A. a ruthless group like ISIS that has no bounds, has immense recruitment power, and prob now over a billion dollars to purchase deadly shit with. B. a very easy way for the border to be penetrated... (hell we have a white house with that any random knife-weilding psycho could hop the fence and run INSIDE of the white houes. wtf... thats another story but...) and C. the vulnerability of ebola and possibly other chem/biological weapons to be used/manipulated/spread esp with the reality of this current ebola outbreak..

What I find frustrating is that so many anti-government/anti-mainstream media peeps seem to have a tendency to ALWAYS call out people's concerns of any foreign threat as overhyped, retarded, exaggerated, psychotic, delusional reactions to real threat potentials like this one. The idea is to paint out anyone who simply expresses concern and to just say damn, this kinda freaky.. this is pretty fucked up.. as some fear-mongering bloated old conservative glued to fox news. but i don't actually fall for that trap.. i think on the flipside, that it's actually more like the ppl who are always afraid of their government and mainstream media as the true purveyors of fear-mongering (along with of course the other type of purveyors of fear who are the opposite spectrum aka rednecks of middle america with their guns toted calling anything unamerican "communist")... Of course, right? Because our threat here in the US is consistently aaalways our own gov/media/big business, right?.. that is the only true threat, and all other perceived threats from outside of our country are either overhyped bs that's propagated and pushed to us through our internal powers that be ooorrrr it's real buuut.. we created it ourselves by being colonialist, imperialist, etc etc etc all around the world, so it's our fault anyway. essentially, the U.S. is one gigantic brain-in-a-vat.. it's all simulated, right? lol.. ok im going off on a tangent now, sorry..

Anyway, all im saying is that theres nothing wrong with talking about potential situations and agreeing that they are scary... just cuz something's scary doesnt mean we're all in here hyperventilating and running around like maniacs and shuttering in fear lol... i love how every time someone expresses fear, they're immediately casted as such. if every time a scary situation has real potential of happening and people didn't prepare or become vigilant or merely discuss possibilities because of the desire to uphold a certain "coolness" or collected calmness, we'd have a pretty fucked up/chaotic world.

regardless of any of this, i <3 ya JE, you're a super intelligent dude, and always love a good back and forth with you. :D

edit: with all this said, im not in an end-of-world-is-imminent mindset here, im almost always an optimist, and im pretty confident the ebola thing will be contained.. nothing wrong with saying, damn though.. never freakin know..

Is it normal for the department of defense to fund canadian companies for vaccines and whatnot?

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-defense-department-spent-140m-ebola-treatment-research-theyre-getting-close-1566666

Just wondering why the DOD would spend 140 million USD if there wasn't a real threat of weaponized ebola.

Edit: keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about this type of thing. Just legitimately curious.

  On 10/3/2014 at 12:10 AM, StephenG said:

Is it normal for the department of defense to fund canadian companies for vaccines and whatnot?

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-defense-department-spent-140m-ebola-treatment-research-theyre-getting-close-1566666

 

 

Just wondering why the DOD would spend 140 million USD if there wasn't a real threat of weaponized ebola.

 

Edit: keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about this type of thing. Just legitimately curious.

Well an ebola epidemic, whether weaponized or not, has the potential to be significantly disruptive/destabilizing pretty much anywhere it hits, so you could see why DOD would get interested.

140 million is a tiny drop in the bucket for the DOD, mind you.

step 1. invest in companies step 2. get government to spend tons of money on company step 3. be rich as fuck

  On 10/3/2014 at 12:17 AM, baph said:

 

  On 10/3/2014 at 12:10 AM, StephenG said:

Is it normal for the department of defense to fund canadian companies for vaccines and whatnot?

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-defense-department-spent-140m-ebola-treatment-research-theyre-getting-close-1566666

 

 

Just wondering why the DOD would spend 140 million USD if there wasn't a real threat of weaponized ebola.

 

Edit: keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about this type of thing. Just legitimately curious.

 

Well an ebola epidemic, whether weaponized or not, has the potential to be significantly disruptive/destabilizing pretty much anywhere it hits, so you could see why DOD would get interested.

 

140 million is a tiny drop in the bucket for the DOD, mind you.

 

Makes sense.

i agree JE, yeah, governments all have always used propaganda and some or even lots of that falls into the category of fearmongering. i would say though that i think some propaganda is necessary, because the average person just doesn't seem to really care about anything that's actually going on. so i can easily imagine in ancient times, there being a nation where the people become content in times of peace but the leaders get word of some other nation who has a military that's on the move and coming their way, there would be no other way of getting people rallied to prepare to defend themselves, to literally prevent themselves from being raped and slaughtered, besides some form of propaganda.

yeah of course its a 'necessary evil' and an area where it can easily go into fucked up territory, and there isn't anyone over top or to the side of the people 'administering' it to make sure they don't step into that ground. there isn't even a such thing as a consensus about where that ground is or what divides it from 'ok' propaganda. it's all murky. but i do believe that there have been cases where it has actually benefited the people who it was being fed to. like if some ruler of some walled city had to tell his people that the army marching against them was possessed by demons, to get the lazy fucking morons who always seem to infest every population, to actually pull their heads out of their asses and begin working to defend that city so their daughter wouldn't get raped, so fucking be it. and i think its safe to assume that that exact scenario happened countless times across history.

i don't think you specifically (JE) can take a hard philosophical stance against any and all forms of propaganda, because RT would almost have to fall under that umbrella heading, to some degree, wouldn't it? the stated purpose of that channel by founders was to present a more positive idea of russia to the world. i think that qualifies, without even bringing in any of the relevant accusations against it.

have you considered that maybe the strong fear just about this disease spreading, has something to do with WHY it's unlikely to spread? i think it should be factored in. if we could just wipe any and all fears from everyones minds about ebola, and people just acted all casual around it, you don't think it'd have a lot more chances of spreading like wildfire? so imo it makes no sense to say that people being scared about the disease (at least outside of the idea of terrorists using it) is ridiculous because the chances of it spreading are minimal, when people being scared of it probably have a huge part of the reason WHY the chances are minimal. (and here im not so much addressing you JE, as other comments in the thread acting as if any fears of ebola in general are stupid, not that i expect them or anyone to actually read all this shit im typing)

also i think you are making biological warfare sound a hell of a lot harder to pull off than it may actually be. what would stop ISIS or any other group from getting some of their members to intentionally infect themselves, go to mexico, and waltz right up into the US to the nearest mall and cough on everyone they can? nancy pelosi might actually be there at the border welcoming them. how is this so impossible to fathom? 9/11 was a statistical improbability too but it seems like really all it requires is someone crazy enough to actually go through with an idea.

This is the crew today cleaning the bloody vomit from the ebola patient that has been there since SUNDAY

  Quote

 

Couple guys in t-shirts, power washer to aerosol the particles, general public wondering around....no signs of bleach or protective gear.

Yep Texas is on top of this shit alright.

  On 10/3/2014 at 1:35 AM, Hoodie said:

 

 

This is the crew today cleaning the bloody vomit from the ebola patient that has been there since SUNDAY

 

  Quote

 

Couple guys in t-shirts, power washer to aerosol the particles, general public wondering around....no signs of bleach or protective gear.

Yep Texas is on top of this shit alright.

 

Jesus christ

We're doomed

If your avatar is infinitely facepalming itself, then I feel it is very appropriate here:

white house petition to restrict travel from west africa: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restrict-travel-regions-affected-ebola-protect-citizens-united-states-widespread-epidemic/1GmGhBKW

  Quote

 

 

White House: No Ebola travel restrictions

 

The White House said Wednesday it will not impose travel restrictions or introduce new airport screenings to prevent additional cases of Ebola from entering the United States.

Spokesman Josh Earnest said that current anti-Ebola measures, which include screenings in West African airports and observation of passengers in the United States, will be sufficient to prevent the “wide spread” of the virus.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/219492-white-house-no-ebola-travel-restrictions#.VCxm5eMHszc.twitter

the petition is moving pretty quick actually.

I was able to sign and I'm not even American btw?

I went to West Africa to inherent a fortune from a Nigerian Prince, but all I came back with was lousy ebola.

sick

  On 10/1/2014 at 2:05 PM, eugene said:

just remember this golden rule: if you get infected you should infect as many people as possible around you so there will be more of an incentive to find a cure, especially powerful, famous and groups people to whom the public is emotionally attached, like children. basically cum on children in kindergartens if you get it.

AHAHAHA...

  On 10/3/2014 at 2:24 AM, sergeantk said:

I went to West Africa to inherent a fortune from a Nigerian Prince, but all I came back with was lousy ebola.

YOU TOO?!

All he needed was travel funds and a bank account to store the 32 million in Nigerian Oil Money.

Fuck

grrr

Imagine if Ebola hit Bora Bora. In Japanese it could be BORA BORA EBORA.

Aaaaall right, I'll get my cardigan...

I wonder what old Duncan "sheets n towels" the Prideful has to say about the matter.