I lived in Hollywood for a while several years ago and spent many hours on Hollywood Blvd. in restaurants and bars. It was much cleaner then and fewer homeless, although there were several would-be actors that would accost you displaying their talents hoping you might be a producer or director. I wasn't, but they didn't know that so the street-play went on as if I was. My favorite eatery was Musso & Frank Grill where they seemed to congregate in front.
Those were fun days for me but this post is about today, and it is a completely different Hollywood Blvd. Musso & Frank is still there but homeless people have now replaced the would-be actors. Added too are the anti-vaxxing idiots who display their stupid philosophy as if it was an ongoing TV series of morons. It was just this week that one of those deniers of science observed one of these displaced
folk and screamed...
“Do you see all of these homeless people around. Are they dead in the street from Covid? Hell no. Why?”
And here was this retort from the homeless person in question...
A man pushing a trolley walked by and quipped: “Because I’m vaccinated you dumb f***.”
As usual, the anti-vaxxer ignored the reply as the man proceeded down the street. Even on the boulevard of the stars, the bumbling deniers of science are ridiculed.
There are gun nuts, and then there are anti-vax nuts. Right now it is the latter who are killing innocent American citizens. I feel sure all the fair-minded and lucid thinkers of the U.S. wholeheartedly welcome this headline from Daily Beast: "America’s Finally Telling the Anti-Vax Nuts Where They Can Go." Many of us bloggers have ideas of their potential destination and just today I have come up with, outer space, a location befitting their far-out beliefs.
It is perhaps a coincidence that as I began to construct this post, a friend of mine received a phone call from an anti-vaxxer, anti-masker, anti-distancer and anti-anything else that is based in scientific fact. It was a long and frequently confrontational conversation because he is just as sure of his position in intelligence as the anti-everything on the other end. This person is a confirmed know-it-all with a perspective intensified by the defense of her position.
Here's a gaffe made by this person during the debate that throws the whole anti-bunch movement out of kilter. The talker doesn't believe in the science of vaccines but does believe in the fact that, by having had coronavirus, antibodies are created that protect her in the future. Isn't that science? My friend didn't press the point because the opposition throws up a shield for anything fact-based, saying the
people we follow are afraid to tell us the truth.
This individual is living with a built-in obstinance of logic. Science Daily says...
infants are capable of deductive problem solving as early as 10 months of age, a new study by psychologists at Emory University and Bucknell finds.
Is it possible there is a wire loose in the brains of the anti-science group and, if reconnected, it could solve the Covid-19 pandemic? If only it could be this simple, but, no doubt, there would be thousands of excuses to deny surgery. Sometimes I wonder if they enjoy this kind of independent beligerantism. Did I just coin a word? Here's another headline from The Daily Beast...
"One Thing Will Save Us From These Suicidal Lunatics—Mandates"
Here are some examples from New York city, which is supposed to be somewhat sophisticated,,,
One of the points this anti-science person made on the phone was that Covid-19 is no worse than the annual flu. I did some research and re. this she was so far off it is laughable. In the 2019-2020 flu season, according to the CDC, there were 20,000 flu-related deaths. Johns Hopkins Univ. reports there were 352,000 coronavirus deaths in 2020. And already in 2021 353,000 deaths from the virus. Logic would indicate it is downright foolish to compare the two.
The 1918 flu pandemic which killed 50 million was a wake-up call for the treatment of viruses. Covid is brand new with scientists facing a virus so far they aren't even sure where or what it came from. But did you know that misinformation spread during 1918, like in 2020, but at that time they didn't have platforms of social media that are available today. In my wife's discussion, the other side listed the hospital where she worked as her source. Today, misinformation is a business.
And the word is also being spread by politicians questioning the validity of the virus making it near impossible for the uneducated to know what to do. Here is a classic example...
GOP lawmaker says COVID deaths are a Vatican plot — and vaccines contain 'living organisms with tentacles'
This blithering idiot is from New Hampshire and is typical of what some GOP lawmakers in Congress come up with regularly.
Science will prevail, must prevail, if we are to survive this pandemic. One can only wonder if these lunatics will ever realize the truth.
Speaking before Congress, whistleblower, Frances Haugen, did a number on Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Described as "animated" at times by The Guardian, would indicate to me that she is overly enthusiastic to get facts before the public she believes are important and necessary. This is how she
“I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy.”
This clearly puts the monkey on Zuckerberg's back, and should prompt some control on Facebook's wide open permission for the misinformation it spews regularly. One Senator called Haugen's statement, “the big tobacco jaw-dropping moment of truth.” Here's a statement that should get Congress moving...
“Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content,” she said in a voice of authority that may prove a tipping point in government efforts to curb the power of big tech.
Haugen says that the Facebook empire, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp, could be made "safer," but, in fact, FB chooses not to and instead focuses on profits. Haugen continues...
“The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but they won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed. They won’t solve this crisis without your help.”
If the reaction of Senators is any indication of how Congress views this issue--several joined Haugen in "scathing" criticism of Mark Zuckerberg--it would indicate that we might expect some action, and soon. Here's her ammunition...
A former product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, she has come forward with tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company’s civic integrity unit.
This all seems to have surfaced from recent discoveries revealing that...
Facebook knew Instagram was deeply toxic for teenage girls, resisted changes to make its platform safer for fear of reducing engagement, and knew it was openly used by drug and human traffickers.
Frances Haugen was applauded by The Senators, and even Facebook has agreed that something should be done about the openness of the Internet. Now the monkey is on the back of Congress with the future of misinformation hanging in the balance.
Take the time to watch Frances Haugen testify in Congress TODAY...
Recently I googled "facebook anti vaxxer posts," and got almost 13 million hits. Considering it is specific to anti-vaxxers, it shows the activity on Facebook that is centered around the people who spread misinformation on Covid-19. Everything from pushing the drug Ivermectin, a medication for animals, to literally entering
ICU wards and attempting to talk the coronavirus sick into leaving the hospital. Not just misguided advocates, doctors have also joined this gang of imbeciles.
Now you have to wonder at this point if some poor, fed-up family member who lost a loved one due to this stupid misinformation has somehow hacked into Facebook's internal workings and plunged the whole system into chaos. They are saying it is one of the longest outages for this social media site. All of its apps went down simultaneously provoking the possibility, if by design, it certainly was well planned. No one as yet has taken credit.
Some experts are blaming it on DNS and BGP. Don't want to be responsible for a conspiracy theory, but the "haters" are just as vociferous on both sides of this issue. Some are exclaiming it is a "massive hack." And, Mark Zuckerberg, along with the Facebook properties, have been repeatedly under investigation by the feds, alluding to the fact that maybe some of the accusations could be correct. Could the recent 1.5 billion theft of FB files be connected? No one knows yet.
Well, Facebook is back up but its own engineers are still leery whether The DNS and BGP connection are solid. If this was a hack job, well, no one is talking about it yet. If the mishap wasn't malicious, then, does that mean FB's team of supposed technical pros were out to lunch when this happened. Or, has the company simply strung together too many apps, and this is what happens when they can't talk to each other anymore. Whatever, bet Zuckerberg won't sleep tonight.
Richard L. Hasen, is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, and an expert in election law, according to the New York Times, and he is concerned that the GOP is quietly but effectively undermining the democratic voting process. You might recall a few years ago when the radical right, again, quietly and effectively, completely flummoxed DNC head, Debbie Wasserman Schultz in taking over Governors' offices and state legislatures, leading to won elections.
Hansen reminds us of the recent Jan. 6, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, basically for the purpose of denying the validity of the 2020 election, which
The Donald Trump sneer
Donald Trump has continued in a number of ways by energizing his group of double-digit supporters. This, alone, carried into the 2024 election, would be enough to disrupt the democratic process. But, Hansen says the next coup attempt will be executed by “lawyers in fine suits.”
Here are the facts...
"Between January and June, Republican-controlled legislatures passed 24 laws across 14 states to increase their control over how elections are run, stripping secretaries of state of their power and making it easier to overturn results."
And there is, of course, the ever-present Moscow Mitch McConnell, known as the "Grim Reaper," since President Barack Obama he has decreed to block anything "Democrat." His most recent drive against our country is to block "Democrats’ effort to act responsibly and step up to the thankless task of raising the debt limit." Here's the Daily Beast's take...
There are lots of things you can say about Cocaine Mitch, but you can’t say he broke his vow to make stopping Biden “100 percent of his focus.” His willingness to imperil the full faith and credit of the United States to do so is more proof than the country can stand.
Here's a typical Republican quote for you by Sam Brodey: "Republicans Don't Want a Debt Default—Just Democratic Chaos."
But what we must never lose sight of is the fact that Trump supporters are just as
mentally unbalanced as the simpleton they follow. Here's a headline from Salon: "White terror: Millions of Americans say they'd support violence to restore Trump to power." That should scare the hell out of anyone who is in full command of his or her mental faculties. There has even been talk of another civil war like we experienced in 1861, with the Jan. 6, insurrection a preview.
A couple weeks ago the Trump goons held a "Justice for J6" rally, which pretty much fizzled with a very low turnout. Salon's reaction was...
To underwrite this bizarre Trump movement, AlterNet reports there is a group, The Claremont Institute that will tell you...
that Republicans and Democrats aren't just members of competing political parties, but are, in effect, living in two separate countries. Describing Claremont as the "intellectual home of America's Trumpist right," Green notes that Claremont President Ryan Williams and his colleagues "believe that America has" become "two fundamentally different countries, not least because of the rise of secularism."
Can you imagine what Abraham Lincoln would have thought had he been confronted by a bunch of lunatics like this? Racists aren't the most mentally stable individuals, but at least the cause was simpler. The South favored slavery; the North did not. It is no longer simple, but still very similar to 1861, two very different groups that are determined to, each, have its way. Only one side can win, and it is that which will determine the future of democracy.
Harold Blackwell, a father of two girls, was not vaccinated. He died from pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. 48 years old and previously healthy, he changed his tune and just before death began advocation for vaccine.
Unvaccinated family of three passes around coronavirus until 74-year-old mom with a masters degree passed away. Family says don't criticize her; sane individuals would say she is pathetic.
have known better resisted getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for months. Then they realized their stupidity, but it was too late. Too late, the3y already has the virus and after a severe illness, they died. Tsk Tsk.
You gotta see this must-see video, "Infected by Stupid"...
Just be thankful you aren't among the Covid-19 stupid. Or...are you???
The above statement is from A Christmas Carol, said by Ebenezer Scrooge, talking about the poor people of his village. The comment also reflects the latest feelings by a vaccinated public fed up with the anti-vaxxing population. If you are a Cat Stevens fan, here is what he had to say in one of his songs that also applies...
“If you want to leave, take good care, hope you make a lot of nice friends out there.”
If we are to assume "out there" could be death, then the singer would appear to be in agreement with Scrooge. Here's another quote from Leonard Pitts Jr. in an opinion piece from the Tampa Bay Times...
"Your quitting your jobs goes a long way toward purging us of the gullible, the conspiracy-addled, the logic-impaired and the stubbornly ignorant."
"a nearly-30-year veteran of the San Jose Police Department surrendered his badge rather than comply with the city’s requirement that all employees be inoculated against COVID-19. He joins an Army lieutenant colonel, some airline employees, a Major League Baseball executive, the choral director of the San Francisco Symphony, workers at the tax collector’s office in Orange County, Florida, and, incredibly, dozens of health care professionals."
The Daily Beast just published an article under this glaring headline, "Mocking Unvaxxed COVID Victims Is the New Pandemic Blood Sport." They deserve it and that is precisely what this blog post is meant to do, "mock" the looney bins that think they know more than the scientific experts.
I am encouraged by the fact the mock site, Sorryantivaxxer.com, uses my favorite term to describe anti-vaxxers, "They are all idiots.” DB explains...
"The website is indeed likely the most comprehensive repository of one type of now-familiar COVID story: the one where someone who criticized the vaccine ends up dead or hospitalized due to the virus..."
Okay, I live in Arizona, a state that was red when we moved here over twenty years ago. Although it is slowly turning from purple to blue, there are still a number of mentally depraved Republicans. Like Gov. Doug [dufus] Ducey, a sworn Donald Trump mentor, Pres. of the Senate legislature and proprietor of the sham 2020 election audit, Karen Fann, and Kari Lake, former television novice and current political hack who wants to be the next governor.
They, and others like them, are the ones who have perpetuated misinformation like the current craving for Ivermectin, a deworming drug for animals, that these right-wing morons are taking to treat coronavirus. It can sicken you and can cause death. Feed stores in Phoenix have been complaining for some time now they don't have enough of the medication to supply their animal customers. Podcaster Joe Rogan was a big promoter of Ivermectin, as was Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
But returning to Scrooge's proclamation, "If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population," I have said for months now, corral all these anti-vaxxers/maskers in a gulag where they can ply their beliefs between a population of like morons and kill each other. It would save us zillions on healthcare and eliminate having to hear about the latest idiot that refused to get his or her coronavirus vaccine.
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.”
