Posts by Brock Talon

28

Looking back a year at Covid

by pistolpete in

march of last year covid was declared a pandemic that would take hundreds of millions of lives world wide.. here are the facts after a year.. the world population is 7,800,000,000 (billions).

114,770,269 millions of people have caught the virus as of today.

aprox 91 million recovered from the virus,.

Slimboyfat, I agree that the statement you highlighted was probably exaggerated. I don't recall anything official that declared that "hundreds of millions" of lives would be taken by COVID in early prediction models. But let's not get hasty and dismiss this out of hand before considering this:

Early models DID predict 2.2 million in the U.S. alone. They also thought Great Britain would lose half a million. Here is one example of such a report. You can easily google search to find this 2.2 million in the U.S. COVID death prediction all over the internet:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf

https://www.cato.org/blog/how-one-model-simulated-22-million-us-deaths-covid-19

The thing is, some people took these figures and decided to extrapolate for a worldwide prediction: if the U.S. is 328 million and the world is 7.6 billion, then given the same ratio dying of COVID as the U.S. that would mean 50 million deaths due to COVID worldwide.

The thinking continued that this 50 million would be a MINIMUM, because most of the 7.6 billion would be in third world countries and would probably die at even higher rates than the U.S. 100 million deaths would not be out of the question.

I'm not saying I agree with any of that, it is just the thinking that people had based on actual prediction models.

Of course, we know now that third world country numbers are WAY better than first world countries. See the post I shared earlier about COVID deaths so far, by country. Why is that so? Well, see my previous rants on the completely illogical and dishonest way COVID deaths are counted in the first place. Some countries just do it way differently than others. Some can't (or don't) count accurately at all.

Consider China: an amazing COVID story of less than 6,000 COVID deaths total, with a population of 1.43 billion people or over one fifth of the entire world's population.

56

Do You Get Easily Offended By What People Do or Don’t Do?

by minimus in

jw
friends

does using uncle ben’s food products offend you?.

are you offended if you see a flag?

what about a confederate flag?.

Brock Talon

I find this offensive. Quakers do NOT look like that today. This is stereotypical hogwash and clearly anti-Quaker! I should know, some of my best friends are Quakers!

56

Do You Get Easily Offended By What People Do or Don’t Do?

by minimus in

jw
friends

does using uncle ben’s food products offend you?.

are you offended if you see a flag?

what about a confederate flag?.

Brock Talon

I find this offensive. It stereotypes bald men with white eyebrows who wear earrings.

54

Will Governor Cuomo be the Next President?

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

trying to put politics aside (even though that won't really work), but ny governor andrew cuomo is blowing the other politicians out out the water (orange man [trump] and the lizard [biden]).. i don't know if cuomo has a usb port in the back of his head plugged into a hard drive but the guy speaks, analyzes and talks coherently.

the orange man always passes difficult questions to someone else.

the lizard can't comprehend what the question is but tries to answer something.. cuomo comes out with facts, analysis and direction on what needs to be done.

Brock Talon

I wanted to bump this thread because the title is a bit funny. "Will governor Cuomo be the next President?"

Ha! Good one... at least now it is funny. At the time, RubaDub had a legitimate question. After all, the Lefties were literally going nuts over this guy. How many dumb celebrity women went on record as "Cuomo-sexuals?"

Now? Not so much.

The main things I noticed about Andrew Cuomo being in hot water now seems to be:

1. He is CLEARLY disliked by his Democratic colleagues and they smell blood in the water and benefit for themselves to pile on. We already knew Mayor Bill De Blasio HATES the guy, though it wasn't clear that he was hated by so many others.

2. The polls show it to be favorable for them to attack Cuomo, so they do it. Should the polls not be in favor, they would be saying nothing, just as was the case was during the Trump administration. During that time, Cuomo could do no wrong because their unified focus was on the bad Orange Man.

3. It is clear that the Left is more upset over Cuomo being "inappropriate" with women than his indirectly (or even directly) causing the death of thousands at nursing homes. Killing the elderly in droves? Meh. No biggie. But talk dirty to your co-workers and then not be in political favor? We want you out!

33

Would you leave the Watchtower if you woke up at age 80 plus, or just stay in for the rest of your life.

by pistolpete in

so yesterday while i was doing some work for a customer, i noticed the wt mags on the sofa.

and i asked the elderly man if he was a jehovah witness?.

he said that he and his wife and all his children were raised in the religion, but only he and his wife attend the meetings or zoom.

Brock Talon

For me the answer is "It depends."

Scenario #1 is the one that has been told on this thread, where you have too much to lose to leave and you just grin and bear it, doing as little as possible and accepting the few friends or family relationships that you can, living with retired submission and hidden regret, but unable to do much of anything about it.

But scenario #2 is that perhaps it could be that I am still vital at age 80, my spouse has died (or divorced me) my children are not in and don't care for the religion, and I have somehow not alienated myself from them and other extended family. In that case, I would come clean to my remaining family about my finally coming to my senses, bolt from the religion like a bat out of hell, find myself a hot lady 20 years my junior to shack up with, and enjoy the few Christmases, birthdays and such as I have left with my remaining family. Heck, I might take up martial arts, buy a pistol and a shotgun and shoot 'em off every month, smoke a box of Cubans, go to Vegas and play the slots and see a fight and check out a slew of strip clubs. Then maybe I'd build a bar in my house and stock it with everything I've ever wanted to drink, wear T-Shirts with catchy phrases from Rap stars and pictures of classic rock album covers, play rap music loudly with explicit lyrics, watch any darn R or Mature Audience movie I want to, not shave for days or even weeks at a time, wear an earring when I feel like it, and buy lottery tickets for the huge mega million jackpots, start voting in local and national elections and even make friends with my city's Mayor and have him and his wife over my home for the huge parties I host with all the new friends I am now making... Wheeee!

Oh yeah, wait, I already did that.

24

Harry, Meghan the Royal Apostates

by Slidin Fast in

jw
friends

i just watched the oprah interview.

i know that many view them with little interest as just entitled wastes of space and i get that.. however, the description of how they were "trapped" and silenced and forced into perpetuating the system with little or no personal freedom rang bells for me.

they are effectively shunned, estranged and disparaged by their family and cut off from support.

Brock Talon

I did not watch the interview, but my wife did. The few minutes I was in the room with her during I heard Harry say he learned about racism from watching what his wife went through. Hmmm. You mean he didn't learn about racism when he received all the grief from the free world when he walked around with a swastika on his shoulder?

https://www.aiga.org/the-prince-and-the-swastika

34

Speedy Gonzales and Pepe The French Spunk And Others Are Offensive!

by minimus in

jw
friends

these cartoons have been labeled by the venerable new york times newspaper as offensive.

they offend mexicans and pepe is a womanizing french skunk too handsy enabling the “rape culture “.

this stuff is getting so ridiculous it isn’t funny.

Brock Talon

While I too am concerned about all the "cancel culture" shenanigans going on in the world today,, we ex-JWs know that being "cancelled" because of some perceived moral failing comes not only from the left, but the right as well. How many are disfellowshipped (cancelled) because of a perceived moral failing? Does that come from the right or the left?

The most extreme on either side come from not a live and let live mentality, but rather a mentality of "hey, you're wrong and I will cancel you for it."

From the right comes groups like "the Moral Majority" that attempts to quash based on religious ideology. The humorous thing to me with groups like that are these always pick and choose the sins they want to focus on. "Gay marriage will destroy marriage itself and ruin the family unit!" they cry. Completely ignoring that it is the heterosexuals themselves, with their cheating and beating, their casual marry/divorce/remarry again and again attitude who are the ones destroying marriage and the family unit. JW elder excel in this hyprocacy: sex sin = instant DFing while overeating means you have a "glandural problem," that is, if their own spouses struggle with it. (The Bible clearly says "greedy persons" will not inherit God's kingdom.) Drink a little too much? Oh, just look the other way unless it becomes a problem. An elder is abusive in speech? Well, that's just the way he is, he means well.

Even the latest example of Colin Kaepernick being "cancelled" because of his perceived moral failing as a properly patriotic citizen. As the former president recommended for all who decided to kneel during the national anthem: "Fire those sons of bitches!"

Anyway, yes, the far left have lost their collective minds. I won't argue with it at all. But let's not blame on this cancel culture on them. It is just that now the right and the conservative groups have been extremely weakened (at least for the time being) and the far left are having a field day.

Get used to it; it's going to be happening for awhile.

37

Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Dress Up For Meetings?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

library.

books & brochures.

who are doing jehovah’s will today?.

Brock Talon

The comments from Biahi and LongHairGal make me sad because it brings back memories of when I was in.

My JW wife and I were in our late twenties. She was busty and curvy in all the right places. Having strawberry blonde hair, some called her "Jessica Rabbit" or "Lonny Anderson" behind our backs with a snicker. She was friendly and outgoing and would give the food off her plate and the shoes on her feet to anyone, but she was ALWAYS the subject of criticism regarding her clothing no matter what she wore. She could never win. It was impossible to please the elders because behind the scenes it was the elders wives who were always finding fault with her. Thus I received regular "council" on "controlling my wife" on the subject of blouses that were "too tight" or skirts that were too high, or too snug, etc. In actuality, anything that fit her properly simply showed her curves. What they really wanted was for her to wear a gunny sack around her neck, straight down and hide what nature gave her. In lieu of that, she was always deemed "immodest" simply because she did go out of her way to hide her figure. It was a constant struggle for us.

I will never forget two incidences I had with the knucklehead elders where I pushed back.

The first time was when one elder in particular came to me and pulled me into our back room. He said my wife's blouse was "showing off her breasts too much." I marveled at that because they were completely covered (no cleavage) and the blouse was made of material that was actually quite thick on that day. Sure, the blouse fit her, but it wasn't like it was pulling at the buttons or anything like that. It wasn't like she was in a thin silk blouse, like the ones that particular elders wive always wore. At that moment, through the glass in the back room where we were meeting (and could see into the Kingdom Hall) I noticed his wife talking to mine. On that day his wife had on loose thin, silk blouse that was cut down low enough to see a lot of cleavage. Enough to show a necklace she was wearing that had a charm between her breasts. I told this hypocrite "I can't believe you of all people would say that. Look at [the elder wife's name] right now. Your wife has a flimsy silk blouse on, cut down to here with a gold medallion on it between her boobs. I realize your wife is modestly endowed and a bit overweight as a mother of four with hips and thighs that betrays that fact, but her breasts are showing WAY more than my wife's. Just because [my wife's name] is young and pretty and well endowed, doesn't give you permission to pick on her for that reason alone, especially since your wife always shows off WAY more than mine. Same goes for her skirt lengths. Your wife always wears dresses and skirts that show off way more leg than mine does." He never bothered me with that again.

The second incident came when there was a congregational pool party at someone's house. Now, I knew this could turn into a disaster so I asked my wife, "Please honey, wear your most modest one-piece bathing suit. No two piece suit, OK? We do not need a hassle about this." She responded, "what about my bikini?" We both laughed at that thought. Anyway, she agreed and we went. Once people started actually swimming at the pool party, many of the sisters (not all) who got in the pool wore T-shirts over their bathing suits. I noticed that the ones who did were mostly those who had bodies they were embarrassed to show. Look, I don't judge. I'm older now myself and I don't like my own body all that much compared to back then, so I get wearing a T shirt to a pool party. It is a personal choice there and I don't say this to be cruel. I thought nothing of it. Many of the younger females (little girls on up into the early twenties) did not wear T shirts and a lot of them wore two piece suits. No problem. My wife gets into the pool with her one piece suit, one that completely covered everything, no cleavage at all mind you, and there's a problem. One of the more annoying, sanctimonious elders pulls me aside and says "why isn't your wife wearing a T shirt?" I respond, "why does she need a T shirt? Not everyone is wearing one. Why aren't you asking this about every adult female across the board? Why just my wife?" He stammers, "uh... well.. she.. looks too...uh..." he couldn't even explain it. I look at him and sarcastically finish his statement... "good? attractive? sexy? what?" Awkward silence. He looks over at his homely wife who is frowning at him. I realize the dynamics now. His wife told him to tell me to get my wife to wear a T shirt so she didn't have to look at my wife's body, covered up completely in a modest one piece swim suit. They couldn't actually complain about the suit, because no swim suit available in the world was more modest than that. They were actually complaining about my wife's body. Period. So, I finally put that stupid elder out of his misery and said, "Look [elder's name] I realize all you elders and your wives constantly look at my wife with criticism because God gave her a lovely face and a beautiful body. I made sure she wore the absolutely most modest bathing suit that is available for her to wear today, just to prevent you from complaining. Yet you still do. You have always made this issue my problem or my wife's problem, but today it finally dawned on me clearly: It's your own insecurities that are driving this. Let me put it to you this way: If any skin at all offends you, even modestly covered up skin with nothing private at all showing, THEN DON'T GO TO A POOL!"

I walked away and never concerned myself about what my wife wore ever again.

Of course, neither was I given "privileges" in the congregation ever again.

28

Looking back a year at Covid

by pistolpete in

march of last year covid was declared a pandemic that would take hundreds of millions of lives world wide.. here are the facts after a year.. the world population is 7,800,000,000 (billions).

114,770,269 millions of people have caught the virus as of today.

aprox 91 million recovered from the virus,.

Brock Talon

When you actually read the CDC report on the 6% who died of COVID with "no underlying condition" and dig into what an "underlying condition" can actually mean, they include Pneumonia and the Flu. Since the majority of COVID deaths have been in the elderly, I ask you: how many elderly people have died of the Pneumonia and Flu every year that were NEVER reported before this COVID mess started last year? This "underlying condition" is enough to kill the sick and elderly all by itself. How are these "underlying"?

Others listed are heart failure and cardiac arrest. OK, again, how many have died of some form of heart disease every year, year after year of these conditions? This has always been one of the biggest killers of U.S. citizens, mainly because we are as a group obese and out of shape. But don't put that all on COVID.

My favorite category in this list is "Intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning and other adverse events"... oh, you mean like an automobile accident where your chest is caved in? Or when when a wife finds her spouse cheating and stabs him with a kitchen knife? If you go to the hospital with one of these "underlying conditions" (i.e. a huge knife hanging out of your back) and die from it and then are tested for COVID and are found to have had it, BINGO! COVID death. Yay. More money for the hospital.

Others are: renal failure, respiratory disease, diabetes and the like. Again, these are all killers by themselves.

https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/cdc-94-of-covid-19-deaths-had-underlying-medical-conditions-08-30-2020

Trying to snarkily dismiss this as a "conspiracy" is lazy and dishonest. Thinking people see the nuance in this. Granted, it is impossible to know if ANY of the deaths that had those underlying conditions would have not been deaths had the patient not had COVID. I don't know that, you don't know that. But an honest person has to admit that there has to be some percentage of the reported COVID deaths that are not really because of COVID.

To me there is a HUGE difference between dying BECAUSE of COVID vs. dying WITH it. Sure, COVID may finish you off, but if you are lying in a hospital bed with stage 3 cancer and COVID finishes you off, how is that COVID death? We don't do that with AIDS. Technically, no one really dies of AIDS. You always die by the complication that comes from you immune system being ruined by it. But when someone dies of AIDS, we say that. We list the thing that finishes them off as a "complication" or we say they died of the complication, DUE TO AIDS.

Yet with COVID, we do it backwards. If a patient has a heart attack and dies, sure, maybe COVID finished them off. But they died because of the heart attack, with a complication of COVID. Just like we would say about AIDS. But that is NOT how it is reported and counted by the media and the medical community.

This is not conspiracy. It is fact and logic.

28

Looking back a year at Covid

by pistolpete in

march of last year covid was declared a pandemic that would take hundreds of millions of lives world wide.. here are the facts after a year.. the world population is 7,800,000,000 (billions).

114,770,269 millions of people have caught the virus as of today.

aprox 91 million recovered from the virus,.

Brock Talon

It is so amusing to see the media, the CDC and most Lefty braintrusts repeat over and over again that they have "debunked the myth" of exaggerated COVID deaths in the U.S. "If anything," they spout, "COVID deaths have been under reported!" Most of the sheeple seem to accept this as fact, and many blame Trump for spreading the lie about COVID deaths being exaggerated.

However, actual THINKING people ask themselves these questions:

Why is the United States (and its soul mate, the UK) so bad off vs. the rest of the entire free world when it comes to COVID death rates? (China and India numbers were already posted on this thread, but heck, the U.S is 7th out of 152 countries as worst per capita in COVID deaths. The UK is 4th worst in the entire world!)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/

Is the U.S. really that clumsy and careless with how it handled COVID?

Putting aside the criminal way Lefty Governors like Andrew Cuomo handled nursing homes, did the U.S. not lock down hard enough and long enough? Did the U.S. not mandate wearing masks enough? Did the U.S. media not engage in enough daily hand wringing, advice giving and dire warning sounding?

Is the U.S. that backwards in the methods of treatment, hospital staffing and skill, general healthcare and the like?

Is the country that actually produced the vaccines for COVID (in record time mind you) THAT inept in preventing it's citizens from dying from it in the first place?

Is the U.S. population just that plain reckless and stupid, vs. the rest of the savvy smart countries who "know how to follow the rules"? (I actually heard one lunkhead on CNN explain why the U.S. fairs so badly in COVID deaths... "we just don't follow the rules like other countries..." )

Are the U.S. citizens perhaps more sickly, obese and pre-existing conditioned than the rest of the world? Maybe we are just older and frail than everyone else, so COVID just finishes us off more easily?

...or...

Could it be something else?

Could it perhaps be that hospitals were incentivized to report as many deaths as possible as COVID? (What, you mean if money is involved, that might affect things?)

Could it be that the Lefty powers that be (including regular and social media) Hollywood, the universities, etc. knew that the worse we had it with COVID deaths, the more Trump could be weakened and blamed? (What, you mean if politics is involved, that might affect things?)

Could it be that being labeled an "essential worker" who "put themselves in harms way for us" was a badge of honor that only grew with each COVID case and especially COVID deaths? (I met a young man at the hardware store last year who was wearing his working every day at the store as a badge of honor, because, and I quote him "I put myself in harms way for the public to be able to get what they need for their homes so they can be safe in them." I kid you not. He was deemed an essential worker and he was proud of it, and at the same time was gravely concerned for his own safety. This was not an act, he actually saw himself that way.)

Could it be that Fauci and other even more morose medical doomsdayers who predicted "Millions of COVID deaths" early on had to have higher numbers so they did not look so ridiculous? (What, you mean if ego and professional credibility is involved, that might affect things?)

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

It makes ZERO SENSE that the U.S.should have so high a COVID death rate compared to Trinidad, Botswana, Mexico and 142 other countries. Forget their blabbering nonsense; use your own thinking ability to figure this one out.