Vaccination: mandated and/or incentivised

[JimC]

Both environmental and health & safety regulations are under attack by conservatives and corporations the world over. Freedom to make a profit, and to hell with the health of workers and the environment!

[Seabass]

Lots of red states with huge covid surges and low vaccination rates are fighting hard against anything that encourages vaccination or allows vaccine passports to be used. From an ABC article:

New York, America's biggest city and among the most vaccinated, announced this week that people will need to show proof of vaccination to do things like dine indoors or head to the gym.

Some of America's biggest companies are doing the same.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Disney and Walmart have all implemented versions of a vaccine mandate for staff.

And Biden has done the same, with rules now requiring all federal workers to get a vaccine or take regular coronavirus tests.

But well before these fresh efforts to blunt the spread of the Delta variant and preserve America's return to normalcy were rolled out, the opposition to them was in the making.

At least 34 states have introduced laws that would prevent requiring residents to show proof of vaccination and at least 13 have already passed versions of them into law.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis (who features frequently in polls as Republican voters pick who to run for president in 2024 behind Donald Trump) has been vocal in his opposition to anything that resembles a vaccine mandate.

"In Florida, your personal choice regarding vaccinations will be protected and no business or government entity will be able to deny you services based on your decision," he said when signing a bill into law in May.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott (another who is talked about as a potential Trump successor) issued an executive order that introduced $1,000 fines for any businesses that enforce mask or vaccine mandates,

According to NPR, a third of all new COVID-19 cases in the US were in just two states — Florida and Texas.

And then they blame it on immigrants.

"Yes. It's pure hypocrisy. They're seeding people . They're taking kids from down at the border who may have it and their plucking them up and putting them up all over the United States as if they're wishing to seed the country with a new variant... It's an awful thing to do". ―Rand Paul, Republican senator

Preposterous, of course, but it works on the intended audience. Then they say "thoughts and prayers" when a racist gun nut mows down a bunch of brown people down at a Walmart in south Texas. There are no words...

[Seabass]

These people.

GOP Rep. Suing Nancy Pelosi Over House Mask Mandate Gets COVID

After a mask mandate was instituted in July in the not-so-vaccinated House amid the rise of the Delta variant, Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Ralph Norman sued Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the face covering requirement. The latter member of this group, South Carolina Rep. Norman, described Pelosi’s order and others like it as “a harmful combination of virtue signaling and unjustified fear.”

But on Thursday, there was some evidence to suggest the mandate was justified: After experiencing symptoms, Norman announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 and will quarantine for 10 days. The 68-year-old, who states that he was vaccinated in February, thankfully added that his “symptoms remain mild.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08 ... covid.html

[Sean Hayden]

--great fucking plan really

Yep. One of the biggest industries supporting mandatory garbage recycling, and which is largely responsible for those little numbers on the bottom of your plastic bottle? Oil. Why? Because it's a bullshit scam, and only about 10% of all plastic waste is actually recycled, because it doesn't fucking work very well. So we feel all warm and fuzzy about using plastic shit because we have to put it in a separate container, therefore we use more plastic, the oil companies pump more oil to make plastic and get even richer.

We're stupid as shit.

Am I the only one to not buy more stuff packaged in plastic because, you know, plastic is purportedly recycled these days?

It is true that too much plastic finishes up as landfill, littering roadsides or gets swept into the ocean, but in Australia at least the percentage of it being reused keeps increasing.

Queensland achieves first recycled plastic road

Redland City Council is working with Alex Fraser and Suncoast Asphalt to resurface a one-kilometre stretch of road comprising significant amounts of hard plastics and reclaimed asphalt pavement, all while cutting council costs and carbon emissions.

Really, somewhere the little guy doesn't get screwed? I thought even in paradise the rich got richer --no? How does that happen if there aren't artificial barriers to promote one group's interests over all others?

That's not an argument against regulations. It's an argument against bad regulations. Right now tax regulations are indeed tilted in favour of the wealthy. Can you tell me what is improved, and how, if tax regulations were abolished altogether?

I am strongly in favour of regulations that encourage vaccinations. An adequate percentage of vaccinated people can be achieved without regulating "vaccine hesitant" arseholes into concentration camps.

Indeed, I think good regulations are necessary. I'm definitely not making an argument against them or for libertarianism. I simply pointed out a real problem with how things are done.

[Sean Hayden]

Sure, but government and the private sector only ever seem to work against the little guy. I've given thousands to businesses in industries which only exist as a consequence of regulations. Regulations which don't seem to require results. Now, what are the odds that a bit of digging will reveal that there is no separation between the industry and the regulators?

--great fucking plan really

Does Scot Dutchy need to remind you that it's not like this everywhere?

Really, somewhere the little guy doesn't get screwed? I thought even in paradise the rich got richer --no? How does that happen if there aren't artificial barriers to promote one group's interests over all others?

Stop thinking about this in reductive binary terms. Little guy gets screwed vs little guy doesn't get screwed. That's not how the world works.

Relative to the US, nearly the entire developed world is better than us when it comes to inequality, quality of life of the lower classes, happiness, social mobility, etc.

Oh, do tell me how the world works Seabass.

[Brian Peacock]

Sure, but government and the private sector only ever seem to work against the little guy. I've given thousands to businesses in industries which only exist as a consequence of regulations. Regulations which don't seem to require results. Now, what are the odds that a bit of digging will reveal that there is no separation between the industry and the regulators?

--great fucking plan really

Does Scot Dutchy need to remind you that it's not like this everywhere?

Really, somewhere the little guy doesn't get screwed? I thought even in paradise the rich got richer --no? How does that happen if there aren't artificial barriers to promote one group's interests over all others?

Stop thinking about this in reductive binary terms. Little guy gets screwed vs little guy doesn't get screwed. That's not how the world works.

Relative to the US, nearly the entire developed world is better than us when it comes to inequality, quality of life of the lower classes, happiness, social mobility, etc.

Unfortunately the current UK government aspires to US standards in all things.

[Seabass]

Sure, but government and the private sector only ever seem to work against the little guy. I've given thousands to businesses in industries which only exist as a consequence of regulations. Regulations which don't seem to require results. Now, what are the odds that a bit of digging will reveal that there is no separation between the industry and the regulators?

--great fucking plan really

Does Scot Dutchy need to remind you that it's not like this everywhere?

Really, somewhere the little guy doesn't get screwed? I thought even in paradise the rich got richer --no? How does that happen if there aren't artificial barriers to promote one group's interests over all others?

Stop thinking about this in reductive binary terms. Little guy gets screwed vs little guy doesn't get screwed. That's not how the world works.

Relative to the US, nearly the entire developed world is better than us when it comes to inequality, quality of life of the lower classes, happiness, social mobility, etc.

Oh, do tell me how the world works Seabass.

It's called "regulatory capture". It happens. It's not a reason to throw out all regulations.

[Seabass]

Sure, but government and the private sector only ever seem to work against the little guy. I've given thousands to businesses in industries which only exist as a consequence of regulations. Regulations which don't seem to require results. Now, what are the odds that a bit of digging will reveal that there is no separation between the industry and the regulators?

--great fucking plan really

Does Scot Dutchy need to remind you that it's not like this everywhere?

Really, somewhere the little guy doesn't get screwed? I thought even in paradise the rich got richer --no? How does that happen if there aren't artificial barriers to promote one group's interests over all others?

Stop thinking about this in reductive binary terms. Little guy gets screwed vs little guy doesn't get screwed. That's not how the world works.

Relative to the US, nearly the entire developed world is better than us when it comes to inequality, quality of life of the lower classes, happiness, social mobility, etc.

Unfortunately the current UK government aspires to US standards in all things.

Well, at least chlorinated chicken won't be an issue for you...

[Sean Hayden]

Does Scot Dutchy need to remind you that it's not like this everywhere?

Really, somewhere the little guy doesn't get screwed? I thought even in paradise the rich got richer --no? How does that happen if there aren't artificial barriers to promote one group's interests over all others?

Stop thinking about this in reductive binary terms. Little guy gets screwed vs little guy doesn't get screwed. That's not how the world works.

Relative to the US, nearly the entire developed world is better than us when it comes to inequality, quality of life of the lower classes, happiness, social mobility, etc.

Oh, do tell me how the world works Seabass.

It's called "regulatory capture". It happens. It's not a reason to throw out all regulations.

Well, I guess that'll be useful when someone argues for throwing out all regulations.

[JimC]

All that it means is that there should be a robust design of regulatory bodies, to prevent in advance the dangers of them developing unhealthy relationships with the people and organisations they regulate.

[Sean Hayden]

I think it means I oughta be able to bitch and moan about rich assholes and their government backers skimming anything extra the average guy takes home, without being seen as advocating for anarchy.

[JimC]

I think it means I oughta be able to bitch and moan about rich assholes and their government backers skimming anything extra the average guy takes home, without being seen as advocating for anarchy.

Of course you can bitch and moan - that's what Ratz is for!

But, it still remains the fact that poor or compromised (often, actually corrupt) regulation by government of wealthy corporations needs to be first exposed, then altered ASAP...

[Brian Peacock]

And only then you can put the "expert" from the fossil fuel industry in charge of environmental protection.

[pErvinalia]

Scot Dutchy?

[Scot Dutchy]

227104007_604537170528920_3631613861554155777_n.jpgScot Dutchy?

More insults Trailer Boy. You just cant stop can you Trailer Boy!