Coronavirus COVID-19

  On 9/15/2020 at 7:21 AM, Rubin Farr said:

Sooner or later the world will have to deal with China, and I can’t see how it could go well.

btw.. this looks challenging. 

Vaccination in my ship is gonna start October 4th... 

President of my country just said we are moving to level 1 Corona regulations wise wich means we have a little bit of freedom back

  On 9/17/2020 at 11:43 PM, Tim_J said:

Vaccination in my ship is gonna start October 4th... 

They are testing it on you?

Yeah we're the Guinea pigs... 

  On 9/14/2020 at 5:36 PM, Taupe Beats said:

I saw Harry Wu speak once many years ago (mid-90's). He spent the majority of the lecture emphasizing that China had created a huge industry of imprisoning people and not documenting anything, executing them and harvesting organs. Harry Wu is not a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist and he presented some evidence for his claims that had been smuggled out to him. 

On the basis of that lecture alone (but I could cite other instances of China hiding the tragic plight of large amounts of their people), I wouldn't be surprised if they are doing internal testing within the mainland.

What is with the organ harvesting thing? So grim. I used to walk past the Chinese embassy in London most days, some Falun Gong peeps had set up a permanent peaceful protest opposite (been there for years now)

Apparently if they practice Falun Gong in China they get renditioned and their organs harvested. Just for doing some light Buddhist/ Taoist meditation which was all kosher up till some point in the 90s, when The Party decided actually it's not ok and they're gonna harvest some muhfuckin organs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

Well, because I've had fairly severe allergies to dust at my workplace since 2018 they just officially cut me to 4 hours a week because I'm considered a health hazard.  Also they moved me over to working directly with the stuff I'm allergic to, so that's a good idea too.

  On 9/18/2020 at 12:52 AM, Tim_J said:

Yeah we're the Guinea pigs... 

Well that's exciting! 

  On 9/18/2020 at 1:20 AM, Enthusiast said:

Well that's exciting! 

Nevermind, it's just the common flu shot... 

  On 9/18/2020 at 1:00 AM, Amen Warrior said:

Apparently if they practice Falun Gong in China they get renditioned and their organs harvested. Just for doing some light Buddhist/ Taoist meditation which was all kosher up till some point in the 90s, when The Party decided actually it's not ok and they're gonna harvest some muhfuckin organs.

It’s a bit more complicated than that. Falun Gong was one of many mystic sects operating in China and, like all the other ones, was pretty much left alone.

Then one day they show up on Tian an men square to stage some sort of event which really pissed off the government because they hadn’t seen it coming (to fair, it *is* kind of threatening, to have hundreds of people appear on your doorstep out of the blue).

So now they’re on the Chinese gov’t shit list. Which mean they go to jail and everyone in Chinese jail, not just Falun Gong members, runs the risk of getting their organs harvested.

On the "more complicated than that" front, I don't know about Falun Gong in China, but in the USA they've become a cultlike organization that has amassed a good amount of money since the 90s, engages in a lot of extreme right wing propagandizing, conspiracy theory propagation and political action, and were big doors to the Trump campaign.

Not that that in any way justifies the persecution they're apparently seeing in China, but at least here they're a pretty wretched organization that's comparable to Scientology but with a lower profile.  This has been a known thing for decades.

EDIT: I didn't know it until I jsut did a quick search, but it turns out their publishing arm is now banned from Facebook advertising.

https://www.salon.com/2019/08/24/epoch-times-pro-trump-falun-gong-news-outlet-banned-from-buying-ads-on-facebook/

  On 9/19/2020 at 12:09 AM, TubularCorporation said:

On the "more complicated than that" front, I don't know about Falun Gong in China, but in the USA they've become a cultlike organization that has amassed a good amount of money since the 90s, engages in a lot of extreme right wing propagandizing, conspiracy theory propagation and political action, and were big doors to the Trump campaign.

 

Not that that in any way justifies the persecution they're apparently seeing in China, but at least here they're a pretty wretched organization that's comparable to Scientology but with a lower profile.  This has been a known thing for decades.

 

EDIT: I didn't know it until I jsut did a quick search, but it turns out their publishing arm is now banned from Facebook advertising.

 

https://www.salon.com/2019/08/24/epoch-times-pro-trump-falun-gong-news-outlet-banned-from-buying-ads-on-facebook/

 

 

Expand  

Ok, they're cunts unfortunately but i still don't get the link between political dissidence and organ harvesting. Why do you get your organs harvested in Chinese jail?! Where do all these organs go? Is it the case that people the regime deem fit and proper never have to go on a organ donor list for years because they can just pluck em out of a jailed dissident? Or is 'organ harvesting' a weird synonym for torture? Maybe a bit of both?

  On 9/19/2020 at 10:18 AM, Amen Warrior said:

Ok, they're cunts unfortunately but i still don't get the link between political dissidence and organ harvesting. Why do you get your organs harvested in Chinese jail?! Where do all these organs go? Is it the case that people the regime deem fit and proper never have to go on a organ donor list for years because they can just pluck em out of a jailed dissident? Or is 'organ harvesting' a weird synonym for torture? Maybe a bit of both?

It’s not just dissidents, it’s that the lives of prisoners, political or otherwise, don’t count for much in China.

Organs, in the other hand, can be useful, so do the math.

BTW, I’m not sure if this organ harvesting thing is just a rumor or if it was ever confirmed. Regardless, of course, Chinese prisons are nasty places.

Edit just did a five second Google: it’s true: 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-detainees-uk-tribunal-concludes
 

Yeah, I wasn't throwing that out there as any kind of counterpoint to the Chinese prison system being so horrible it makes the US prison system look almost justifiable, just wanted to balance out the "light Buddhist/ Taoist meditation" same as if someone had said that Scientologists on campuses were "just administering personality tests."

Obviously that doesn't in any way excuse what's happening in Chinese prisons.

  On 9/14/2020 at 5:36 PM, Taupe Beats said:

I saw Harry Wu speak once many years ago (mid-90's). He spent the majority of the lecture emphasizing that China had created a huge industry of imprisoning people and not documenting anything, executing them and harvesting organs. Harry Wu is not a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist and he presented some evidence for his claims that had been smuggled out to him. 

On the basis of that lecture alone (but I could cite other instances of China hiding the tragic plight of large amounts of their people), I wouldn't be surprised if they are doing internal testing within the mainland.

Yeah, look up the Uighur muslims in China. Or watch this...

Anyway, COVID-19 is going nuts here again. I went out to buy dinner earlier and I wore a mask. At the mall I saw maybe thousands of people and no one decides my girlfriend and I and another couple wore masks.

EDIT: haha, ok, so what I meant to say was...

Anyway, COVID-19 is going nuts here again. I went out to buy dinner earlier and I wore a mask. At the mall I saw maybe thousands of people and no one besides my girlfriend and I and one other couple wore masks.

Squee I know this isn’t the time or place, but when you talk my dick listens. Always has, always will. 

  On 9/19/2020 at 5:02 PM, Squee said:

Yeah, look up the Uighur muslims in China. Or watch this...

Anyway, COVID-19 is going nuts here again. I went out to buy dinner earlier and I wore a mask. At the mall I saw maybe thousands of people and no one decides my girlfriend and I and another couple wore masks.

Expand  

That's right, you make your own decisions.

Holy shit, what a bunch of nonsense I wrote. Let me just correct that, hahaha

  On 9/19/2020 at 4:12 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Yeah, I wasn't throwing that out there as any kind of counterpoint to the Chinese prison system being so horrible it makes the US prison system look almost justifiable, just wanted to balance out the "light Buddhist/ Taoist meditation" same as if someone had said that Scientologists on campuses were "just administering personality tests."

 

Oh, yeah, I got that. Falun Gong are dicks *as well* as idiots.

Still, the US doesn’t  harvest Tom Cruise’s organs, so ...

Yeah, of course. The US mostly stopped that kind of stuff after WWII (other than the occasional syphilis or mind control experiment from time to time).

We've been trying to get back in the game lately, though.

Had to tell a guy who came into our work today to wear a mask before entering our building. He came back in with a napkin on his face held up with a pair of sunglasses (no joke).

If I wasn't on the clock I'd probably take photos for meme exploitation.

Seems like Covid-19 is spreading once again more rapidly in some parts of Europe. :(
Possible causes that I can think of:
 • People coming back from their summer-vacation-trips.
 • The re-opening of schools.
 • Relaxation of preventive measures.
 • Disregard of remaining preventive measures; with some people probably:
           • ... being fed up with the remaining preventive measures.
           • ... thinking the pandemic didn't seem all that bad after all.
           • ... reading and believing contradictive news-stories on questionable social media / news-outlets.
           • ... being selfish.
           • ... don't giving a shit.
We're not yet at the number of new infections of the first wave, but this is not really a good sign.
I hope our politicians are not too afraid of the public and of the economic downturn to implement some preventive measures once again.
But I actually fear they might be. (It think they might wait longer, sacrificing lives in return unfortunately.)
Maybe the believe is that most people who were vulnerable to covid-19 already passed away or have built up some form of immunity.
We'll see how this evolves.
Here are the most recent maps of new infections:

(I wouldn't really rely on the world-map: some governments might publish lower numbers than there actually are, but no way to confirm, yet)

  On 9/20/2020 at 12:49 PM, MaartenVC said:

Seems like Covid-19 is spreading once again more rapidly in some parts of Europe. :(
Possible causes that I can think of:
 • Relaxation of preventive measures.
 • Disregard of remaining preventive measures; with some people probably:
           • ... thinking the pandemic didn't seem all that bad after all.
           • ... being selfish.
           • ... don't giving a shit.

These are the reasons why it's spreading here. I guess it's mostly the last two points, because as soon as the bars and clubs opened again those stupid fucking teenagers went back to where they were in the beginning of March.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, people are only wearing masks in situations where they know they'll be fined if they don't. So people will wear their masks on public transportation, but when they go out shopping they won't.

  On 9/20/2020 at 1:01 PM, Squee said:

those stupid fucking teenagers went back to where they were in the beginning of March.

Which makes sense from their point of view because it doesn’t really affect them all that much.

Unfortunately  “stay indoors because if you don’t you will feel really bad for a couple of days and there’s a one in 20 chance you might kill your grandparents” isn’t such a strong public health message, really.