The Educated Troll

Let me get this straight:

The House cannot agree on a spending bill partially because some members demand a cut on government spending, and they're willing to allow a government shutdown to happen if they don't get their way. Government shutdowns cost taxpayers money (according to some sources, the last one cost over $3 billion). A government shutdown is an unnecessary expense. It seems counterintuitive to threaten the expense of a government shutdown in order to demand reduced discretionary spending.

If the government shuts down, non-essential federal employees are furloughed, but they will receive backpay once the government is funded again. This means furloughed employees will eventually get paid for time they didn't/couldn't work. Federal employees absolutely deserve backpay for the inability of Congress to agree on spending, but time is money. If the government gets funded, work gets done, and employees get paid for said work. If the government shuts down, work doesn't get done, but employees will still eventually get paid. The inability of Congress to fund the government on time (or pass a continuing resolution) causes the government to spend money on wasted time.

It just so happens that the day the government might shut down is also the day student loan payments resume. Wasn't it Congress who pushed to restart student loan payments in October? Planning it for the start of the government fiscal year is a disaster waiting to happen. Some student loan borrowers are federal employees. If the inability of Congress to agree on spending causes the government to shut down, federal employees with student loans won't get paid for the duration of the shutdown. Not everyone has savings built up, especially those federal employees who are new to the workforce. On top of that, student loan servicers are understaffed and not fully prepared for the restart of loan payments, and a government shutdown will temporarily diminish the number of employees who work with the federal student loan program.

As someone with a medical degree who does research in lung inflammation, I tried to explain that “BAL” is a diagnostic technique that involves placing a small amount of sterile saline into the lungs and then extracting that fluid to test for the presence of bacteria, cells, inflammatory markers, viruses, etc.  It’s not a treatment and cannot be used as a “disinfectant”.  

With the way this post is worded, the average person would be made to believe that BAL and sterile saline are treatments for COVID-19.  When I pointed this out, the person responded and said she was “just quoting the president”.  Even if you are quoting someone else’s words, if you know the information is wrong, you should also correct that information in your post and explain clearly why it is wrong.  After my comment, she did go back to “fix” her post by explaining that she was just quoting the president, but she made no attempt to explain why the information quoted was wrong.  After I pointed this out, she made a comment about how “everyone with a high school degree knows that quotations mean” and blocked me.

Based on her comments to others, I think she is convinced that sterile saline is a treatment for COVID-19, so I don’t think I could have convinced her that her post was misleading.  She backs up her claims by saying she has a biology degree and a mom as a nurse.  Unfortunately, because she is blocking those sharing sound scientific information, there’s no way to stop her misinformation.

Robert S. Young (Source)

I love this particular quote because it describes exactly why I think people mistrust science and those organizations (such as the CDC or EPA) responsible for making health decisions or recommendations.  If you are not a scientist yourself, it’s difficult to understand how research works and how conclusions are made.  If more people understood the ins and outs of scientific research, maybe less people would bash on vaccines and more people would accept climate change.

THIS!  So much of this!  Important!  Read!  Like Seriously!

Anonymous Individual on Facebook

Ummmmm.......we’ve got some seriously flawed logic going on here.  That’s like saying you shouldn’t vote for Trump because the KKK supports him.  :P  See what I did there?

It’s a lie!  It’s not real grilled cheese!!!!  It doesn’t include American cheese, and it isn’t toasted!!!!