Octopus Overlords

Cancelled the Easter dinner yesterday. So my first indoor (and unmasked) gathering aside from empty restaurant in and outs a few times is now out off until the 29th. I can only hope they'll cancel that as well or find a way to be mostly out doors on a warm evening, though I'm doubtful. Weather trend suggest we're still looking at freezing night temps coming in to May this year.

Well a federal judge voided the mask mandate for travel. FREEDOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

It's not just freedumb at stake. We're seeing an entire movement to select judges in certain circuits and bring cases to them where the judges rule the administration is overstepping their authority while in reality the judges are wildly overstepping theirs. To put this in context, this mandate has survived several reviews but this particular judge can rule in a way that takes national action that overrules the entire executive branch's judgement? The United States is entering a state of chaos legally.

Edit: By the way, this is how someone from the NYT is basically trying to serve up some context on the judiciary legitimacy argument that is inevitable in these situations. She was also rated unqualified by the ABA upon her nomination. This ruling certainly backs that up.

https://twitter.com/greenhousenyt/statu ... 4480302088

35 dang. Is that a lifetime position?

Edit....Stopped being lazy and ya it is. Awesome. I'm sure he didn't purposely picked the youngest and craziest he could find.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Kimball_Mizelle

The American Bar Association (ABA) rated Mizelle "Not Qualified" to serve as a federal trial court judge, noting that "Since her admission to the bar Ms. Mizelle has not tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel." Before her appointment, the nominee had only taken part in two trials — both one-day trials in a state court conducted while she was still in law school. Mizelle had eight years of legal experience at the time of her nomination; the ABA typically requires twelve years in order to give a nominee a rating of "Qualified". The ABA said Mizelle "has a very keen intellect, a strong work ethic and an impressive resume ... her integrity and demeanor are not in question." But, the committee wrote, "These attributes...simply do not compensate for the short time she has actually practiced law and her lack of meaningful trial experience."

Republicans have been seating Activist Judges. Everything they accuse the Democrats of doing, they’re doing it first.

That’s barely old enough to be partner, let alone a judge.

Zarathud wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:15 pm Republicans have been seating Activist Judges. Everything they accuse the Democrats of doing, they’re doing it first.

"But we're doing it because they did it first!!1!"

Octavious wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 3:17 pm 35 dang. Is that a lifetime position?

And she was 33 when she was appointed.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:37 pm

Octavious wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 3:17 pm 35 dang. Is that a lifetime position?

And she was 33 when she was appointed.

The funny thing is that didn't even cross my mind. That's so freaking nuts. 33 and a gig for life. Must be nice..

It's not really for life, she'll work her way on to the SCOTUS if all goes as planned.

Good lord. The quote below is from the opinion. They found a version of sanitation with a very specific definition to use to justify this abuse of her power.

264(a) indicates that "sanitation" and "other measures" refer to measures that clean something, not ones that keep something clean. Wearing a mask cleans nothing. At most, it traps virus droplets. But it neither "sanitizes" the person wearing the mask nor "sanitizes" the conveyance. Because the CDC required mask wearing as a measure to keep something clean--explaining that it limits the spread of COVID-19 through prevention, but never contending that it actively destroys or removes it--the Mask Mandate falls out side of...

Edit: As an aside, this will cause even more travel chaos than we had before. British Airways removed its mask mandate and now has widespread staffing shortages. I expect the same here...on top of the delays and chaos we are already seeing.

Original tweet deleted - alternate below

https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/statu ... 2890009601

https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/1516153783838937089

Isn't DOJ appealing and seeking a stay of the order? Seems bonkers for the airlines to go ahead with lifting mask mandates before we know what's likely to happen at the Court of Appeals level?

El Guapo wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:32 am Isn't DOJ appealing and seeking a stay of the order? Seems bonkers for the airlines to go ahead with lifting mask mandates before we know what's likely to happen at the Court of Appeals level?

I've seen several references to pilots who announced the change mid-flight to raucous applause and immediate de-masking. That must have been a blast for anyone immunocompromised or traveling with young kids under 5.

I feel like this is the Corona Virus theme song.

Zaxxon wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:37 am I've seen several references to pilots who announced the change mid-flight to raucous applause and immediate de-masking. That must have been a blast for anyone immunocompromised or traveling with young kids under 5.

Yeah, there was one video I saw (American Airlines, I believe) where the flight attendant was going up and down the isle mid-flight to collect the "trash" people were pulling off their faces.

If you put it in a movie, no one would believe it.

It's a total coincidence that my first flight of the COVID era is a month from today.

I am pretty sure I'll have a mask.

Very curious to learn how the airlines would view a half face elastomer N100 now.

Just need to also verify I can wear a hooded cloak and it'll be like living in a post-apocalyptic fantasy.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:49 am Very curious to learn how the airlines would view a half face elastomer N100 now.

Just need to also verify I can wear a hooded cloak and it'll be like living in a post-apocalyptic fantasy.

Is it built into one of these?

Zaxxon wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:37 am

El Guapo wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:32 am Isn't DOJ appealing and seeking a stay of the order? Seems bonkers for the airlines to go ahead with lifting mask mandates before we know what's likely to happen at the Court of Appeals level?

I've seen several references to pilots who announced the change mid-flight to raucous applause and immediate de-masking. That must have been a blast for anyone immunocompromised or traveling with young kids under 5.

I'm having a big meeting today and all the travelers said that is exactly what happened on their flight.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:40 am

Zaxxon wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:37 am I've seen several references to pilots who announced the change mid-flight to raucous applause and immediate de-masking. That must have been a blast for anyone immunocompromised or traveling with young kids under 5.

Yeah, there was one video I saw (American Airlines, I believe) where the flight attendant was going up and down the isle mid-flight to collect the "trash" people were pulling off their faces.

If you put it in a movie, no one would believe it.

I would definitely believe it based on what I’ve seen in airports and airplanes over the last month or so as I’ve begun to travel and do some college scouting trips with my son.

People have seemed really eager to ditch their masks on the whole. And the truth is, despite all the warnings to keep a mask in place when not actively eating or drinking, that just wasn’t being followed or enforced. From what I could see, vast numbers of people were simply “sipping” a drink or gnoshing on a snack for the entire flight. Unmasked. The only times I have seen flight attendants enforce the mask policy was when someone tried to unmask before they had started drink/snack service or when someone had obviously finished their drink/snack and thrown away their trash but still had not replaced their mask.

So, you have large numbers of people trying to comply with the masking rules while equally if not larger numbers — often sitting right next to them — effectively evaded them. Like much of this COVID experience, it just felt absurd.

So, not surprised at all by the reaction to this whack-a-doodle judge’s ruling.

And I’m done with it, too. I’ve got a flight to San Fran this Thursday and then cross-country flights to Philly and D.C. later this month and early next. Unless the mask mandate is reinstated on Alaska, I won’t be wearing one.

The reasoning is absolutely bonkers.

Assuming this ruling doesn't get overturned, I wonder if they could get around it by mandating masks with antimicrobial technology infused into the masks that kills covid, rather than just "trapping" it?

I don't have any confidence that Biden will do anything. They will just shrug and let it go.

SC reported cases up 50% this week - from 1000 last week to 1500 this week.

At a certain point, you just have to give up on people acting like toddlers. Want to crawl into the fireplace? Fuck it, get the popcorn.

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:07 pm At a certain point, you just have to give up on people acting like toddlers. Want to crawl into the fireplace? Fuck it, get the popcorn.

And the burn creme and checkbook for the hospital bills and doctor visits and a lifetime of health issues. Plus the chance the whole house catches on fire.

Not everyone dies from COVID and not everyone who gets it has ignored science.

Octavious wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:03 pm I don't have any confidence that Biden will do anything. They will just shrug and let it go.

I don't have confidence that Biden or anyone in any branch is actually capable of doing anything. That's not snark about incompetence, that's frustration over a system that's made it practically impossible to take proper action once it's been made political.

Joe on CNBC this morning was suddenly praising judicial activism while at the same time using the ruling as a means to attack judicial activism at the Supreme Court. I wanted to break my TV. CNBC is slowly losing me as my primary news source. I don't know what's left for me after this as they become more and more editorialized in the morning.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:58 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:07 pm At a certain point, you just have to give up on people acting like toddlers. Want to crawl into the fireplace? Fuck it, get the popcorn.

And the burn creme and checkbook for the hospital bills and doctor visits and a lifetime of health issues. Plus the chance the whole house catches on fire.

Not everyone dies from COVID and not everyone who gets it has ignored science.

Understood, but those are longer term issues that our populace has no appetite for.

Apparently Omicron is nearly extinct. It's now BA2, and its subsubvariant, BA2121...

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1 ... 5696010243

BA.2 is still a subvariant of Omicron. The OG subvariant was BA.1, IIRC.

Delta calls COVID an 'ordinary respiratory virus'.

For some reason it calls to mind this poorly-aged-but-still-amusing vid...

As so many of my peers have pointed out, the fact that all anyone is talking about today are the planes and all the passengers "partying" over mask removal instead of anyone (like, seriously can anyone find anything?) communicating what this means for cities where marginalized people rely on mass transit - people already at increased risk for the virus - is astounding. Or maybe not. Maybe it's no longer astounding. I need to reset my expectations, I suppose.

And yeah, in a 24 hour period of hot takes, the Delta statement is up there. At every turn, the pandemic finds new ways to crush my soul.

A good takedown of the ruling and it raises the specter of the rise of a juristocracy as yet another threat to our democracy.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SyncPol/stat ... 4745067521

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:01 pm As so many of my peers have pointed out, the fact that all anyone is talking about today are the planes and all the passengers "partying" over mask removal instead of anyone (like, seriously can anyone find anything?) communicating what this means for cities where marginalized people rely on mass transit - people already at increased risk for the virus - is astounding.

Massport and the MBTA continue to require masks at Logan airport and all local public transit.

Kraken wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:40 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:01 pm As so many of my peers have pointed out, the fact that all anyone is talking about today are the planes and all the passengers "partying" over mask removal instead of anyone (like, seriously can anyone find anything?) communicating what this means for cities where marginalized people rely on mass transit - people already at increased risk for the virus - is astounding.

Massport and the MBTA continue to require masks at Logan airport and all local public transit.

About that...

malchior wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:34 pm A good takedown of the ruling and it raises the specter of the rise of a juristocracy as yet another threat to our democracy.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SyncPol/stat ... 4745067521

This is what really gets me about this mess. The lifting of the mask mandate is bad in terms of Covid spread, absolutely, but it was probably doomed in the not too distant future anyway, and compliance with this sort of thing is way down anyway. So it's bad but like, 90% of the damage was already done functionally.

But the fact that it's been done in by a wildly unqualified political hack handed a lifetime appointment to one jurisdiction by someone who became president despite not winning the most votes and confirmed hurriedly by Senators representing a minority of the population but whose decision was nonetheless quickly accepted and seemingly barely opposed...

Not that I didn't know this already, but god damn is our political system broken.

A vindictive and unvirtuous part of me wants so many people to get sick as a result of these bullheaded actions so that everyone in favour of them can see how wrong and stupid they are.

But that's evil as it would require many innocent people to suffer, and it's unlikely that any lesson would be learned anyway. But it's just so frustrating. All over a relatively inconsequential piece of cloth (or fibers) that has the power to save lives, that only needs to be worn in some locations when infection rates are above a certain level. Such a small price to pay to decrease people's chances of becoming seriously ill.

I understand ignorance as a concept. There are many ways in which I'm ignorant; surely many that I'm unaware of. I also have the tendency to be selfish, as all humans do. But I just can't comprehend how we get to this level of ignorance and selfishness that is outright celebrated by a huge portion of the population. It is risk without reward. It's endangering the vulnerable just so you don't have to feel like you're being told what to do.

El Guapo wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 10:35 pm

Kraken wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:40 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:01 pm As so many of my peers have pointed out, the fact that all anyone is talking about today are the planes and all the passengers "partying" over mask removal instead of anyone (like, seriously can anyone find anything?) communicating what this means for cities where marginalized people rely on mass transit - people already at increased risk for the virus - is astounding.

Massport and the MBTA continue to require masks at Logan airport and all local public transit.

About that...

Well, that blows. I was thinking of taking the T into Cambridge within the next few weeks for the first time in over two years, but now that's a Nope.

Kraken wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:48 pm

El Guapo wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 10:35 pm

Kraken wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:40 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:01 pm As so many of my peers have pointed out, the fact that all anyone is talking about today are the planes and all the passengers "partying" over mask removal instead of anyone (like, seriously can anyone find anything?) communicating what this means for cities where marginalized people rely on mass transit - people already at increased risk for the virus - is astounding.

Massport and the MBTA continue to require masks at Logan airport and all local public transit.

About that...

Well, that blows. I was thinking of taking the T into Cambridge within the next few weeks for the first time in over two years, but now that's a Nope.

Honestly, probably fine as long as you wear an N95 and avoid rush hour.