Twenty years old, full of life, but dumb as a bag of hammers. Tyler Gilreath resisted all efforts by his mother, Tamra Demello, urging him to get the Covid vaccine. Told his mother...
"he was young, healthy and didn’t have any pre-existing conditions, and therefore he didn’t need the vaccine’s protection."
But now, Tyler is dead, from the coronavirus he couldn't possibly catch since he was so " young, healthy and didn’t have any pre-existing conditions." He did give it a shot in the end when he told his mother...
"he would get vaccinated once he reached the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he would be a sophomore and planned to major in computer science."
Never happened. And it is this kind of scenario we revisit daily that sucks the life out of idiots who should know better. No. Carolina's vaccination rate isn't so bad, at 49.6%, but total coronavirus cases are 1,385,700, deaths, 16,285. And daily cases and deaths are higher than they should be.
Howard Stern on denying healthcare to anti-vaxxers...
So how do you get your kids, who are of age, to do the right thing. Upbringing and environment are important, but if the kid wants to be stupid at this age of reasoning, not much you can do. Tsk Tsk!
"Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz endorses Tucker Carlson's "great replacement" theory." Salon says many lawmakers, mostly Republican, I say, are concerned over a growing ethnicity in the U.S. population. Aside from the fact the Republican Party is a racist group of dough-heads, the other side of this is a fear these ethnic groups will be predominantly liberal. Here's an excerpt from Salon...
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on Saturday embraced Fox News host Tucker Carlson's "great replacement" theory, also calling the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) "a racist organization."
Fox's Tucker Carlson has been spewing this garbage since April, " a baseless white supremacist theory." Carlson admitted recently, on the air, that he lies, just to make his point. Yet thousands of double-digits watch him regularly, taking advice from
an admitted phony. This would be Matt Gaetz's kind of person since a recent POLITIFACT found Gaetz "Mostly False" on several of his statements. Here's more on the theory...
"In 2019, the theory inspired a mass shooting in El Paso, as well as the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand that same year, Insider noted. During the 'Unite the Right Rally' in 2017, hundreds of white supremacist protesters gathered in Charlottsville, Virgnia [SP] chanting slogans like 'You will not replace us' and 'Jews will not replace us,' alluding to fears around America's changing ethnic landscape."
Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt explains to Brian Stelter why Fox's Tucker Carlson should be fired...
This adds antisemitism to the issue. And just this last Saturday Gaetz confirmed this theory, tweeting that Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America." There is despicably more...
"Gaetz also added that the ADL – a Jewish non-governmental organization dedicated to combating anti-Semitism and led by Jonathan Greenblatt, a former Obama administration official – is a "'a racist organization.'"
Republicans now fear that, due to the recent census, their gerrymandering strategy will fall short of their normal counterfeit drawing of districts that wins them elections. Now the GOP has picked up the Replacement Theory as a means to gain more seats in both houses. The House is in full swing...
"House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., two weeks ago launched an ad campaign warning their constituencies that Democrats are working toward 'a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION' by expanding pathways to citizenship for immigrants. Last week, Rep. Brian Babin, R-Tex. similarly claimed on Newsmax that the Democrats "want to replace the American electorate with a Third World electorate that will be on welfare."
Two daughters are motherless because their mother, Cori Taylor-Wall, like so many other idiots, believed in the senseless and laughable crackpot misinformation on Covid-19 she got from the Internet. The kids claim they were her life, which makes no sense because, if they had been, she wouldn't have acted in such a foolish way. More from the daughter Kellie...
"described their mother as a “supermom” with a big heart, but had grown unhappy with her anti-vaccine stance."
There is no excuse for a mother with two loving children begging her to save her life, to not take every precaution in the book. "Unhappy with her anti-vaccine stance" came a little late. But it seems it is what all these dumb deniers say in the end. Tsk, Tsk. READ MORE.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) - “You have every right to fear…We should not have a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on Grandma.”
The Republicans’ health care plan “is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” —Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.)
THERE'S MORE: With overflowing morgues and ICUs in Idaho, its imbecile Gov.Brad Little threatens to sue Pres. Biden over his "plan to fine private employers with 100 or more employees that do not mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or routine testing.” Yes, let's kill more Idahoans???
UPDATE: More Idaho Covid-19 health crisis...774 hospitalized, 206 in ICU. Looks like more Idahoans getting vaccinated. READ MORE.
Idaho currently has 249,740 cases of coronavirus, 2,753 deaths. Their total cases and deaths per 1,000 population are closely comparable to Texas and Florida, two of the worst states for Covid-19 in the country. Why? One good reason is the state has vaccinated only 41.3% of its population. Dr. Carolyn McFarlane, medical director, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, muses over their problems...
"To handle all the patients coming in, the hospital has transformed a storage room into more treatment areas inside its emergency department."
More...
"Now it's been rearranged as curtains with tags as room numbers, we staff it with a nurse, two if possible, but we don't always get that," said Michael Young, an emergency room nurse.
Rationale in a state that appears not to want it: Idaho ICU doctor: 'It didn't have to be this way.'
To give you an idea of the background of stupidity in the Idaho crisis, Ashley
Carvalho was a few hours into her night shift as a doctor in a Boise, Idaho, hospital earlier this month. A man in his 40s with Covid-19 was deteriorating and Carvalho was doing her best to keep the family abreast of his condition. She remembered another similar incident, a man with the virus, where she had taken abuse from the family for not treating him with ivermectin.
Ivermectin, of course, has been judged dangerous by the CDC with recommendations never to use. The confrontation continued until police had to remove the man’s family. The reason was...
the son-in-law told her, “If you don’t do this [Ivermectin], I have a lot of ways to get people to do something, and they’re all sitting in my gun safe at home.”
Not only is this doctor dealing with a medical crisis, but she also has now encountered a dangerous gun nut threatening her life. Now here's a reaction from Idaho's governor, Brad Little...
“What is absolutely certain today, may not be certain tomorrow,” said Little when asked what he has learned during his tenure throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that's deep and, if it is what the people of Idaho want to hear, well, no wonder so few are vaccinated, and no wonder the halls of its hospital are lined with dying patients. Good God! The state obviously has no leadership. It's been said hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, but I can't resist saying it again, Little is another Killing Machine in a long line of Republican state heads. And, if the Idaho population has a death wish, just like Ebenezer Scrooge said in the Christmas Carol...
“If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Dreadful advice, but it seems that this is what the anti-vaxxers are searching for.
"What does an actor know about politics?" -- Ronald Reagan, criticizing Ed Asner (then president of the Screen Actors Guild) for opposing American foreign policy.
"A Republican-backed review of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona’s largest county ended Friday without producing proof to support former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election."
Anderson Cooper put Fann on the spot getting...as usual, ridiculous answers...
This is just another example of how the Republican Party misuses supporter efforts and donations to spew its constant crush of misinformation
On Wednesday of last week I did a post on Ray DeMonia, who died in a Mississippi hospital 200 miles from his home in Alabama after his family says the health care facility there "contacted 43 hospitals in 3 states in search of a Cardiac ICU bed." The ICU beds in these 43 hospitals were full because of a bunch of unvaccinated morons who care only about themselves. Ray DeMonia was vaccinated which makes these idiot anti-vaxxers look more like the killers they are.
I commented on the trauma the family must have gone through in their frantic search. I wonder what DeMonia's wife must have thought during those hundreds of miles and if she might have been cursing the imbeciles in the hospitals who were preventing her husband from getting the medical assistance he needed. If it were me and it was my wife who needed the bed, I think I might have just stopped at one of the hospitals, identified an anti-vaxxer, and replaced him or her with my wife.
The next report of murder comes from Chicago by Mercedes Hidalgo whose brother, Daniel Norman Hidalgo, died in a hospital ICU. This expression of grief has not been said any better that I know of during the dreadful coronavirus pandemic...
"I’m so done with all the BS reasons others give for not doing what’s right for their fellow man."
Wisconsin is almost at 60% full vaccination, but there are always those who think
they know better than science. Hidalgo's sister takes another shot at what she considers "fools"...
"My brother, Daniel Norman Hidalgo, is gone because so many people listen to fools and not their own doctors. And because the fools want to make this political instead of caring for others."
The fools she speaks of are the lunatics that lurk around social media sites and spew endless amounts of misinformation that so far accounts for thousands of deaths. The doctors, nurses and other caretakers at the University Of Illinois Hospital in Chicago cried with Mercedes, something those fools responsible for Daniel's death wouldn't understand. He died on September 13, and this article is well worth reading
UPDATE: Increased amount AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema took from pharmaceutical and medical device industries is more than $750,000 in donations. READ MORE
She's against Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure Bill, for the filibuster and against $15.00 minimum wage, as well as recently opposing Pres. Biden's Prescription plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices. AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has taken all these positions in defiance of issues that are basic to Joe Biden's agenda. Okay, maybe the $3.5 T is negotiable but not the rest. As an added fact, in the last couple of years Sinema received $358,452 in donation from the pharmaceutical industry.
"Sinema met with President Joe Biden on Sept. 15 to discuss the social spending package, in which party leaders hope to include the Medicare prescription drug pricing proposal. Sinema has made her resistance to the current House prescription drug negotiation proposal clear to the White House, according to one of the sources, but it’s unclear if she’s completely immovable."
Joe Manchin has called for a pause in the Infrastructure Bill, vigorously opposed by AOC and her people. On the other hand, some Democrats disagree...
"Some in the party have called the bills even more necessary as parts of the country are ravaged by wildfires or affected by flooding."
The left is known for its spending, mostly in needy projects, where Republicans resist to the extent of putting the country in jeopardy. Like right now as Moscow Mitch is refusing to increase the debt limit. This could mean the U.S. goes into default and financial markets experience turbulence. We are certainly not in normal times, especially considering the Covid-19 pandemic, thus, the need for extra revenue.
Sinema votes against $15.00 minimum wage...
And Republicans also must face up to the fact that many of the problems America faces today were caused by one of their own, the former White House maniac, Donald Trump. The fact that the right seems to be doing absolutely nothing about Trump's current bizarre antics is further burden in getting our nation back in order. It's bad enough when you have to deal with an unreasonable opponent, but when you have to fight with fellow party members it becomes absurd.
Sinema does have company within the party, and this does raise questions re. the amount of the Infrastructure Bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the full amount, and he believes even more is needed. I am still a loyal supporter of the Bern, but at the same time wonder if there are parts of the legislation negotiable that would appease the standoff Democrats...
"Congressional Democrats warred with each other on Tuesday over the price tag and policy scope of their roughly $4 trillion economic agenda, raising the potential for a stunning, self-inflicted defeat as the House prepares to vote on one of the measures next week."
It is beyond me how anyone in Congress could oppose Medicare's negotiation for the price of drugs for their constituents. Canada regulates their drug prices and they are 50% to 80% lower than in the U.S. Okay, we've known for years donations buy the votes of Congress. In the beginning, Big Pharma thought they had a friend in the junior Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Now the senior Senator of Arizona, they were definitely right.
The suggested number of deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic is 675,000. At this writing, the Worldometer is reporting 692,899 deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic. I expected the media to jump on this and attempt to explain to the U.S. just how we could have been duped again, after having gone through such a teaching crisis. CNBC has its take...
"In 1918, for example, the U.S. population was less than a third of today’s with an estimated 103 million people living in America just before the roaring 1920s. Today, there are nearly 330 million people living in the U.S. That means the 1918 flu killed about 1 in every 150 Americans, compared with 1 in 500 who have died from Covid so far."
The differences are significant, although I'd like to know more in relation to how the public reacted since there was no flu vaccine then and no CDC or national public health department to guide the public. And, so far I have read nothing of the kind of maniac politicians we are stuck with today, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and So. Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Combined, these Killing Machines have killed 115,458, about 17% of total deaths.
"The pandemic of H1N1 virus in 1918 infected about one-third of the world's population, causing at least 50 million deaths, including more than a half-million in the United States." See more...
Right now only 55% of the U.S. has been fully vaccinated. Anti-vaxxers are running rampant, and threaten the prolonging of the pandemic which will kill scares more Americans. ABC News has an interesting point in the infection evolution of the flu pandemic...
"Something similar happened with the H1N1 flu virus, the culprit in the 1918-19 pandemic. It encountered too many people who were immune, and it also eventually weakened through mutation. H1N1 still circulates today, but immunity acquired through infection and vaccination has triumphed."
In the case of the coronavirus pandemic, so far the virus has "triumphed," with not much hope yet of getting it under control. And, as long as we have scoundrels running major states like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, the U.S is not likely to make the progress we need. In fact, it is the whole of the Republican Party that appears to want to keep the Covid-19 pandemic going for some3 reason. Is this a matter of just stupidity or corruption? Perhaps both.
The GOP calls the obvious threat of global warming "fake news," a hoax. Paul Krugman explains the Republican strategy of picking their denial, based on the issue. Krugman says...
"That’s what we’re seeing now, as conservatives argue against the Biden administration’s push for climate-friendly public investment. As it happens, this push is taking place against a background of unprecedented heat waves, huge forest fires, severe drought in some places and catastrophic flooding in others — phenomena that scientists have long warned would become more common as the planet gets hotter."
In some cases the GOP is backing off slightly from its denials...
"Senator James Inhofe, the author of 2012’s “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” is now claiming that he never called climate change a hoax."
planet have spent millions to make you think carpooling and recycling will save us." My comment was that Chas. Koch, one of America's most profound polluters, was no doubt standing in the front to donate from his ill-gotten gains. As always, supporting Koch to the hilt was the Senate's great protector of slimeballs like Koch, traitor emeritus, Joe Manchin.
Here's a video from seven years ago [still appropriate] featuring Richard Branson taking Chas. Koch to task saying he just "isn't listening" when it comes to global warming...
In closing, Paul Krugman is pessimistic, professing...
"If experience is any guide, this new willingness to accept the reality of global warming won’t last; the next time America has a cold snap, the usual suspects will go right back to denying climate change and attacking scientists."
America must remember that it is clearly Republicans that are leading our country to this catastrophe!
If this isn't illegal corruption punishable with jail time, the legal experts will have to explain to me 'why not.' The demented Florida gov. Ron DeSantis has been pushing the anti-body treatment for some time now. Just recently it was revealed the drug used, Regeneron, is a product of DeSantis' top donor, Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund. The fund owns $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc.
In August DeSantis "ramped up" his recommendation of the drug, while he strongly puts down the virus vaccine along with anti-masking. For the record, Florida has 3,530,742 cases, 50,817 deaths. Haven't seen any figures whether this strategy is working for the state, but Florida regularly disguises or lies about their coronavirus figures. Take a look at DeSantis in this video espousing misinformation accusing others of misinformation...
Did you see DeSantis' bobblehead moron to his left. In summary, when you combine this imbecile's fraudulent act of promoting the product of a political donor who has given him millions, plus the killing machine's Florida resident deaths due to his recommendation to avoid the vaccine, yes, it's time for this moron to go to jail.
Just before entering office, Pres.-elect Joe Biden urged Donald Trump to do the right thing and call off his goons rioting at the U.S. Capitol. Since this incident, a precedent in U.S. history, the American public has come to the conclusion democracy is under attack in this country...
"51% say it is likely that elected officials in the US will successfully overturn the results of a future election because their party did not win."
Here's the video where Pres.-elect Biden appeals to Americans to think about what they are doing and stop the insurrection...
More from the CNN poll...
"Nearly all Americans feel that democracy in the US is at least being tested: 93% total say that democracy is either under attack (56%) or being tested but not under attack (37%). A scant 6% say that American democracy is in no danger."
I did a blog back in February, "America in Conflict," that illustrates the turmoil going on in the U.S., which mirrors the components of the CNN poll. The question is, are we going to let this lawless group of insurrectionists take over our country, or will Democracy and the sanity of a government for the real people prevail?
Rachel Maddow covers a tragedy caused by anti-vaxxer overflow in hospital ICUs. Here's the scenario...
Ray DeMonia, who died in a Mississippi hospital 200 miles from his home in Alabama after his family says the hospital there "contacted 43 hospitals in 3 states in search of a Cardiac ICU bed."
Can you imagine the horror DeMonia and his wife must have been going through feverishly driving from hospital to hospital, and being turned away with a condition the hospitals must have known could kill DeMonia? I find it hard to believe not one of these medical facilities couldn't have saved this man's life??? Here is Rachel Maddow's take...
Anti-Vaxxers killed this man in their cold-bloodied refusal of the Covid-19 vaccine. By the way, Ray DeMonia was vaccinated.
“The vaccine changes your RNA, so for me that’s a problem,” said Darris Friend, a 22-year city employee who is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Gainesville government over its vaccine requirements for all municipal employees. “We don’t want to have the vaccine. It’s about our freedom and liberty.”
Yes, the monkey is on our back to stop the devastating changes taking place in our atmosphere, and according to leading scientists we don't have much time. This is what the scientific experts have to say...
#1 Humans are causing rapid and widespread warming
#2 Extreme weather is on the rise and will keep getting worse
#3 If humans cut emissions, the worst impacts are avoidable
It would seem that number one is a guide to how we can slow, then stop two and three. Greta Thunberg is only 19, but she was an activist against global warming in 2018 when she was only 15, and for her efforts was included in Time's 100 most influential people, the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women (2019), and three consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize (2019–2021). All saving the environment.
It's not that the issue hasn't gained plenty of attention. In November of 2019...
"The Trump administration formally notified the United Nations on Monday that it would withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change..."
This stupid move by the ex-White House lunatic was quickly righted by President Joe Biden on his first day in office, January 20, 2021. Since then, "some 200 scientists convened by the United Nations all but demanded on Monday [Aug. 9] that the nations immediately band together to cut emissions." When this "ricocheted" around the world...
"it only underscored the challenge ahead: getting the world’s biggest polluters and its most vulnerable countries to cooperate against a grave global threat."
Right now the West is on fire from conditions that stem from a heat wave that can only be said to result in an environmental fiasco culminating in disaster. Lake Tahoe was all but destroyed by fire and the Dixie fire north of Sacramento grew by 22,000 acres overnight on September 10, now a monstrous 950,591 acres. And, the lightning that expanded Dixie has also ignited new fires in the area. California abounds in wildfires with no chance yet of full containment.
"how a series of Atlantic Ocean currents have reached "an almost complete loss of stability over the last century" as the planet continues to warm."
It is the analysis of ocean temperature and salinity that confirms the weakening of circulation concluding...
"If current trends continue unabated, they may slow to a dangerous level or even shut down entirely."
Can you imagine the catastrophe in the complete shutting down of ocean currents? "The series of currents in question is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short." And here is what was found...
"The study reinforces earlier scientific studies which found the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation system to be at its weakest in 1,600 years."
Morning Consult's Lisa Martine Jenkins reports, "Since May, the share of adults who say they are 'very concerned' about climate change has fluctuated between 38% and 42%. In September 2020, 48% of U.S. adults said they were 'very concerned' about the impact of climate change on the environment, and 39% said the same of its impact on the economy. The share who say they are 'very concerned' about the impact of natural disasters on their own communities has hovered between 32% and 39% over the course of the summer."
The conclusion of anyone who has full control of all their senses and a rational
brain that points to all the disasters that are occurring right in front of them has to be immediate action! It is the deniers, however, that we must continue to worry about.
There are several recent articles on climate change worth reading. Here are some:
desperately in need of counseling to determine what happened to his brain. To even consider a bill of this nature reveals the uncertainty Republicans feel in their chances to win an election fairly in Texas. This lunatic is just added to the growing number of GOP in the U.S. who have realized they can't win in a fair and equal competition. They have to cheat.Donald Trump cheated at everything as the worst president this country has ever known. He lost but left behind idiots like Abbott and countless others in offices of power throughout the country. Salon says, "North Carolina has become a laboratory to subvert democracy." With Republicans controlling both houses of the legislature, under a Democrat governor, they have come on strong suppressing the minority vote among other outlandish moves.
They control the legislature by gerrymandering the voting districts to favor the GOP, something that takes place with a new census and partisan control like No. Carolina's legislature. Salon says you can thank David Lewis for the state's "diseased" nature. He was successful in his "partisan design," but recently pled guilty for siphoning funds for personal use. That's another Republican failing, they can't keep their hands off the money.
The Supreme Court recently showed its rightest colors by refusing to act on Texas's new abortion law, allowing the state to proceed with its recognition. Not for abortion, but the U.S. House just introduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, also known as H.R. 4.Slate explains...
"H.R. 4 essentially overturns the Supreme Court’s recent attacks on voting rights: Its central provisions give both the Justice Department and federal courts sweeping authority to block voter suppression laws. But one crucial section takes a more creative approach: The House bill actually repeals the court’s own rules for deciding election-related cases—which strongly favor states’ ability to suppress votes—replacing them with voter-friendly directives that would force the justices to safeguard equal suffrage."
There is, of course, some doubt in its passage through the Senate unless the Dems
can also somehow get rid of the filibuster. The New York Times said, "In the Dead of Night, the Supreme Court Proved It Has Too Much Power," reconfirming a recent notion from the Democrats that now is the time for Biden to pack the court to the left by the addition of justices. Just as Moscow Mitch prevented the appointment of Merrick Garland, Biden must move ahead to right this wrong.
But getting back to the warped reasoning of Greg Abbott, take a look at this ludicrous but laughable retort from Absent Abbott...
“Sometimes, a person is upset with their situation and thinks that voting is the only answer,” the Governor said. “A counsellor can sit with them, pray with them, and help them make the right choice.”
Yeah, "help them" as in guaranteeing a vote for Republicans. What has this country come to???
To say the least, Texas is an undemocratic state with a ruthless authoritarian ruling over a coronavirus pandemic that has killed 57,921 Texans. Today there were 18,573 new cases and 297 deaths. Yet lamebrain Greg Abbott keeps telling his constituents he has everything under control. And apparently they believe him since there is no robust recall in progress. More from Change.org...
"Governor Greg Abbott is getting Texans killed daily in record numbers because he has failed to listen to the scientists in regards to the Covid-19 Pandemic."
It's a sign of the new "Republican Times" that you stick your head in the sand and ignore science from every angle possible, just to appease some moronic supporters. Here's the Washington Post's take on how Abbott's Texas is showing us what post-democracy America would look like...
"Thanks to a series of actions by the Texas legislature and governor, we now see exactly what the Trumpified Republican Party wants: to take us to an America where women cannot get abortions, even in cases of rape and incest; an America where almost everybody can openly carry a gun in public, without license, without permit, without safety training and without fingerprinting; and an America where law-abiding Black and Latino citizens are disproportionately denied the right to vote."
Neither I nor most all of my liberal friends want an America as described above. If
you are a balanced, intelligent, fair-minded individual, you consider these dictatorial attributes right out of the dark ages. But not Greg Abbott who seems to have returned to that period in the way he is running the state of Texas. The new abortion law will certainly be challenged since it is, in effect, illegal according to Roe. v Wade. Pres. Biden has stepped in and said as much.
Change.org is on the attack to remove Greg Abbott with a petition you can sign here...
"By signing this petition, you are urging the Texas Senate to investigate and remove Governor Abbott based on the Chapter 665 of the Texas Government Code."
You can add to the above a new gun law that is perhaps one of the most positive in the U.S. allowing literally anyone to buy a gun with virtually no restrictions on the purchase. Finally, the state passed a bill restricting the voting rights of people of color and others in general when it comes to voting by mail. I like to view the latter with the observation that the only way Republicans can win an election is to control it with ridiculous laws like this.
Right now Joe Biden doesn't have the horsepower with a close Senate and House to do damage on the Republicans. Add to that "supposed Democrats" like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, misguided mavericks in the Senate who have their own agenda, one that isn't compatible with the Democrats' mission. But, if--and I say this "if" optimistically-- 2022 yields the results that will solidify the left, it could be the time to change the GOP to the FOP, Former Old Party. Peace
The coronavirus snuck up on us and established its unchallenging position that required the immediate actions of the healthcare community. There has been considerable success, even though Republicans, especially, governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis and Texas' Greg Abbott who oppose any precaution recommended by the CDC. These heads of states are responsible for horrific numbers of death and suffering in their states, yet they refuse to back down.
Climate change has also been creeping along at a slow yet enduring pace that has produced calamities of excessive rainfall and heat hardships like we are experiencing this summer. And then there are the dry areas that have spawned wildfires like those recently in California, particularly the one in Lake Tahoe currently threatening thousands of people and homes and the resort areas hotels. Republicans swear that climate change is a myth, refusing to address the problem.
Just recently there was the New York times headline: "Governors DeSantis and Abbott, ‘Undermining Public Health’" Now this is a mandate that should unravel the residents of Texas and Florida, but so far, very little from the ranks. School districts are defying DeSantis regularly on his ban of mask mandates, and Abbott has taken a few hits on his regulations from the courts. But new Covid-19 cases and deaths just keep piling up. Texas, as an example, had 257 deaths today.
This country has other problems like gun violence and immigration reform, both with figures like immigrant encounters are at a 21 year high, and 29,759 deaths using guns since the first of the year. There are more and with all the dilemma facing us, one might think we are approaching apocalypse. Study after study proves that masks prevent the spread of the virus, and environmental groups have shown the value of clean energy to stave of atmospheric nightmares. Go figure.
And then the NYT opinion page asks, "What if the Coronavirus Crisis Is Just a Trial Run?" After all, this country is wallowing in a good life that has recently lost sight of the future and what could happen to our children if we don't put the brakes on excesses of all kinds. But the children themselves are being taught they can have whatever they want with no consequences for their destiny. There is a certain amount of innocence here but there is also willful participation.
In summation, if we are in as bad a shape as the media reports in fighting future viruses as well as stopping changing weather patterns that kill, as an example the recent Ida hurricane that hit Louisiana, are we, in fact, heading for an apocalypse?
