Latest on anti-vaxxers and the measles outbreak

Doctors being attacked by anti vaxxers

As the anti-vaxxers continue to do their thing, the country is reeling over new measles cases with 75 more this week. "This year's total marks the most U.S. cases since 1994 – and since measles was declared eliminated in the USA in 2000," reports USA Today. The paper added...

"Most of the new cases were in New York City and its suburbs, where hundreds of cases have been reported this year. The area is home to Orthodox Jewish communities where many parents refuse to allow vaccinations for their children. Authorities mandated vaccinations in some ZIP codes."

"Outbreaks are linked to travelers who brought measles back from countries such as Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, where large measles outbreaks are occurring, the CDC said. The travelers spread the disease to unvaccinated people in the USA, the agency said."

The CDC is begging parents to get vaccinations and, "in Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill Friday ending personal or philosophical measles vaccine exemptions for most parents whose kids will attend day care centers or schools. Dozens of parents protested outside the signing." Total reported cases now are 839, but the uninformed anti-vaxxers surge on doing their damage by resisting vaccinations and sending their kids out to mingle with the unexpecting public.

And it's not bad enough that the anti-vaxxers make it impossible for others, especially those who cannot get vaccinations due to valid medical reasons, now doctors are being attacked online for recommending vaccines to patients, according to the Boston Globe. Here's the story...

"Dr. Monique Tello found that she had been peppered with 100 negative reviews and derogatory comments on a number of physician ratings sites for speaking out in favor of vaccines. None of the people who posted reviews were her patients, and only after she threatened a lawsuit did the websites take down the reviews."

 I keep saying this and I will continue to keep saying it...Round up all of the anti-vaxxers, find a remote location, perhaps in the middle of the Sonoran desert, build a compound they can't escape from, and let them infect each other as much as their warped heart's desire.

Although this is the largest measles outbreak since 1900, "The outbreak from 1989 through 1991 was much larger than today's, with more than 27,000 cases in 1990 alone. But the conditions that lead to that outbreak, where children were dying, and what it took to end it are dramatically different from the ones the U.S. is seeing today." Here's why...

"As of Monday, New York City alone reports 498 cases, with 34 people hospitalized. New York state, public health authorities attribute the outbreak to anti-vaccination sentiments among a small subgroup of religious Orthodox Jewish residents among whom the virus has spread."

"The outbreak in the early 1990s hit poor black and Latino communities the hardest, in Central Brooklyn, upper Manhattan and the South Bronx."

The big difference is once the public health officials got involved in the 1900s, and the parents were cooperating, not working against the system by resisting vaccinations. So, the big question today is how many children will die this time around before anti-vaxxers realize that science is right.

And finally, here's a study that illustrates measles outbreaks where you live and ranks places in the U.S. where the risk is highest. This is worth a read to see how your area stacks up.

Please give me your comments on this issue.

Electoral map changes favor Democrats

Me worry about 2020, Naaaaaaaa

Donald Trump barely made it in 2016 with "thin margins" in the swing states. Racing ahead two years, "the shifting trends in the electoral map since his inauguration should make no one confident in his re-election chances" according to Salon. Examining voter preference changes between 2016 and 2019, a study found considerable differences in voters who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and then Trump in 2016. 

While most of the finds were favorable to Trump, one stands out as negative...

"Americans say that it is more important for the next president to have particular policy positions than particular demographic characteristics. For example, Americans say it’s more important that the next president advocate for racial and ethnic minorities (69 percent) than that they are a person of color (19 percent)."

All of this positive stuff was in 2016 and this is 2019. Compared to an 85% voter approval in 2016, today it is just 66 percent of these voters that still approve of Trump, a 19-point drop. Robert Griffin of the Voter Study Group said...

“Even small movement among these voters — who represented 9 percent of voters in 2016 — may prove significant heading into the 2020 presidential election. Obama-Trump voters are also disproportionately white, non-college educated and, as a result, are likely to be well distributed geographically for the purpose of electoral impact."

What is interesting is that both Obama and Trump won victories in the Electoral College, with voters switching from Democrat to Republican in the latter. The inference is that with all the changes in the polls which are significantly more negative for Trump, the switch will go back to the Democrats. In key states where Trump won in 2016, the net positive approval ratings were...

Wisconsin +6, Michigan +7, and Pennsylvania +10. By April 2019, these results change to Wisconsin -13, Michigan -10, and Pennsylvania -7.

Meanwhile, there are other states where Trump is also weak: Ohio -4, Arizona -7, Florida -2, North Carolina -2; Iowa -8. This bodes well for Democrats and since Iowa, with a minus 8 is one of the first indications of where the 2020 election is going with its Caucuses on February 3, 2020, we should have an early compass of where this election is going.

Two valid reasons for Donald Trump's impeachment

There are two issues that clearly lay solid grounds for Donald Trump's impeachment. Neither has been given much play in the media. The first I blogged on May 8: "Trump would be in jail if he wasn't president?" It reported on the 450 ex-prosecutors who indicated they would prosecute him for obstruction based on the Mueller Report saying they...

"have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump — if not for the office he holds."

The number of ex-prosecutors today is over 800, almost doubled, but still growing. My thoughts in the above post were...

Although Mueller didn't commit on whether Donald Trump should be charged, "citing a Justice Department legal opinion that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, as well as concerns about the fairness of accusing someone for whom there can be no court proceeding," he pretty much left it up to Congress to decide. But the cowards they are, led by the lowlife Senate head, Mitch McConnell, have done nothing.

Rudy Giulani's ex-assistant was even among the former prosecutors protesting, signing a statement Monday that Trump would have been charged with obstruction saying...

“Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting President, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice.”

These 800 plus ex-prosecutors are so sure about their conviction it gives credibility and comfort to the fact that Donald Trump could very well be prosecuted when he leaves office.

For number two, my post "Renown Yale psychiatrist: Muller Report proves Trump is mentally challenged" makes a case for the fact that Trump is not mentally capable of holding the office of President of the United States. And that is startling when so many support this maniac knowing from his behavior since entering office that T-rump is definitely a wacko.

Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee, a renowned expert on violence and forensic psychiatry says "It is a mental health analysis of the Mueller report "replete with information for a mental health interpretation." Lee says to Raw Story...

"Seldom do we have such voluminous information on a person’s behavior, verified at the level of sworn testimony. Hence, my colleagues and I saw this as a part of our ongoing, primary professional responsibility to protect society and to warn against potential harm to public health, as our ethics and the law require. The report is an attempt to continue educating the public."

Obviously she refers to the Trump administration and Raw story wanted to know what the report said...

"Our report is quite damning. What the special counsel’s report revealed, through consistent and abundant data, was a pervasive and profound pattern of lack of capacity."

"lack of basic comprehension--faulty information processing--lack of sound decision making--behavior that places oneself or others in danger."

As I said before, this is all very scary! 

Unsung heroes beg for gun control laws to protect others

18-year-old Kendrick Castillo

60-year-old Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed trying to protect her Rabbi when a gunman opened fire in a synagogue in California. The Rabbi survived. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 21-year-old Riley Howell lunged at the shooter taking three bullets that killed him. In Colorado, 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo attempted to stop a gunman to help others get away. He was killed. These are all recent and still being mourned.

The Washington Post feels that the fact these people...

"feel compelled to throw themselves into the line of fire puts to shame our so-called political leaders, who don’t even have the guts to pass sensible gun reform."

Don't you love it, "so-called political leaders," the cowards of Congress that have perpetually been afraid of the NRA and its head gun nut Wayne LaPierre for years while thousands of innocent people have lost their lives from gun violence. Here's an alarming figure that explains this problem...

"America has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world"

WP makes a comparison with the New Zealand shooting where lawmakers jumped right in passing laws to prevent another similar gun massacre. Here in the U.S., urged on by the NRA, the public is led to believe that shootings, including mass gun violence, is commonplace and we just have to live with it. Well, that's bullshit! Especially with the demise of the NRA where Americans are demanding more information on gun ownership.

Just this past week a Michigan man went on a killing spree saying he was "on a mission to rid other women he knew of their 'demons.'" Law enforcement said, "I don’t think there’s any doubt that the suspect was on a killing spree." As usual, the question is where did he get the gun? With some 393 million guns on U. S. streets , that may once again be hard, near impossible, to answer. But the NRA's Wayne LaPierre will tell you, the more guns, the better.

And finally, an article from gun right exclaiming, "3 Ways To Make A Glock Gun Even Better," or interpreted, '3 Ways to kill more innocent people faster.' Those are solely my words but reflect an opinion that all the weapons industry is trying to do is make things easier for people to kill other people, especially in mass murders. Prove me wrong???

Please give me your comments on this issue.

Thank you...Thank you...Thank you

No one said it better

I would like to take a moment to THANK! all my TWITTER, FACEBOOK and PINTEREST viewers for pushing my Nasty Jack Buzz blog over 600 loyal readers a day. For a relatively unknown blogger that is an accomplishment. I do plan to continue my Progressive posting until we are able to clean up Washington and start over with a new administration. With those numbers many of you must agree. but if you are on the "other side," beware!

The NRA and gun violence are inseparable

The NRA has suppressed facts on gun violence for years, actually since the 1990s when the organization...

"used its influence over NRA member and Arkansas Rep. Jay Dickey to insert an amendment into the federal spending bill that has effectively prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding any research on gun violence."

Gun statistics are still hard to come by, with most information coming from private studies done by experts in the field. Because the NRA has bombarded the public with propaganda over the years, and the group repeatedly buys a cowardly Congress with contributions, we now have 393 million guns on the street, resulting in almost 40,000 deaths annually, with over 300 mass shootings in 2018. The NRA's policies are clearly the source of American gun violence.

Before his demise as NRA president, Oliver North warned of financial woes in the organization partly due to $40 million spent on legal fees. There is also the problem of corporate sponsors deserting the group because of their recent notoriety, and banks have said no to working with the NRA. It is clear that part of their financial problem is head gun nut Wayne LaPierre's salary of around $1 million. His side benefits include, according to a leaked letter...

a $39,000 one-day shopping spree for clothes in Beverly Hills, $18,300 for a car and driver while he was in Europe, and $13,800 for a summer intern's rent. The total clothing travel and other expenses were more than $542,000. He also allegedly spent more than $200,000 in air transportation in a one-month period in 2012 and 2013, part of a two-week to the Bahamas over Christmas. 

Showing how low the NRA will stoop in its propaganda, Oliver North replacement, the new president, Carolyn Meadows, said about a leading proponent for gun control in Congress, Rep. Lucia “Lucy” McBath (D-Ga.) that she only won her election because she’s a “minority female.” Great start but this just emphasizes the total sleaziness of this organization.
I have posted on the NRA over the years and actually received death threats for some of my posts. These are obviously the lowlife of the gang of gun nuts, but some members espouse reasonable gun control. Today I join with the gun control advocates who welcome the demise of the NRA. The question is will the congressional gun nuts let their treasure trove go down the tube. The coming months will be interesting.

Weekly wrap up of Donald Trump stupidity

I blogged on Donald Trump considering the Chained CPI in his efforts to further penalize those at the poverty level. My post, "Trump going to penalize those on poverty line even more," quoted a statement from Arloc Sherman of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...

"this change would mean that millions of people eventually could see their benefits either reduced or eliminated because they wouldn't be considered as poor as they were under the old measure."

The Washington Post thinks the Chained CPI is a good idea but in Trump's case would be a bad application. The WP explains that the term...

"refers not to some sort of punishment but to the fact that, for technical reasons, it is more closely linked to people’s buying habits than the version of the CPI the government usually uses to adjust various key program benchmarks for annual inflation."

However you look at it, the move "looks very much like an effort to cut spending on programs for the poor that the Trump administration would be unable to reduce through legislation." And would we expect any less.

Robert Reich in The Guardian exclaims, "There are many reasons not to impeach Trump. The House should do it anyway." It makes sense to me in that it would put the monkey on Mitch McConnell's back and when he obviously votes it down in the Senate, the voters can make their choice in 2020. Much has been said about Democratic efforts backfiring by holding the Oval Office lunatic accountable in the Mueller Report, but sane Americans can see through this.

Reich isn't so sure of my assertion saying it certainly won't get T-rump out of office either before or after the election, and because we won't find out much more about the man than we already know, why go to the effort. Here's why...

"It is whether an action designed to enforce our constitution is important for its own sake – even if it goes nowhere, even if it’s unpopular with many voters, even if it’s politically risky."

We can only hope and keep a close eye on the polls. And on another front, Donald Trump and the miscreants around him "continue to block more than 20 separate investigations by Democrats into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration’s policies, according to a Washington Post analysis." WP sees it this way...

"Trump’s noncooperation strategy has shifted from partial resistance to all-out war as he faces mounting inquiries from the Democratic-controlled House — a strategy that many legal and congressional experts fear could undermine the institutional power of Congress for years to come."

In other words, the maniac in the White house is trying to break up a fundamental provision of constitutional government where Congress acts as checks and balances of the executive branch. That's called tyranny.

Then an Iran commander calls U.S. military in Gulf a target not a threat. CNBC explains...

“In the absence of a serious diplomatic channel, the current maximalist approach from the Trump White House could spark a new cycle of intentional or inadvertent military confrontation in the region.”

Just what we need, a war with Iran during the conflict with China, all on the heels of simmering feelings between the U.S. and No. Korea. Is John Bolton behind all this?