UPDATE...Is it Unamerican to be Conservative?

 

UPDATE: 

In the dead of night the, Texas House approves GOP's gerrymandered map

This is a question that must be asked since it appears to be the goal of Republicans to thwart anything that comes from the Democratic Party, with no consideration as to how that will affect the good of the country. They appear to be anti-anythng good for the United States. Back in May, Senate Minority Leader Moscow Mitch McConnell said that he is...

"100 percent" focused "on stopping" President Joe Biden's administration.

Since Joe Biden is President of the U.S., this statement would indicate to most that Moscow Mitch is more interested in destroying Joe Biden and his administration than he is in helping this country solve its problems. This attitude by the former Senate head compares with another Democratic decree, namely former President Barack Obama, when McConnell said his number one priority was preventing Obama from getting a second term. He didn't, and miserably. Fully unamerican.

And then there is, of course, the administration of Donald Trump, a four-year term

that has no equal in U.S. history when it comes to the near-destruction of the American democracy. The then White House maniac did everything in his power to bring down all the good this country has built and stands for today in favor of an authoritarian state. He almost succeeded but fed up U.S. citizens in 2020 voted to block his evil plans.

But on the absurd side, there are a number of Republican wingnuts out there like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, to name only a few. Their radical-plus- ignorant views illustrate the low mentality that conservatives have lowered themselves to in order to make their points. Points which go nowhere but are a constant barrier in bringing this country back to normal. A major example is the Covid-19 pandemic. The three above are firmly unamerican.

Republicans, led by T-rump's initial assessment of the coronavirus as a "hoax" has matured over the past four-plus years into a major blockade by the right. It is safe to say that anti-vxxers/maskers have been responsible for extending the spread of the virius in America, responsible for a great number of the 739,000 deaths from the disease. And the misinformation specialists, found primarily on social media, can take credit for this contravening movement.

Two of the major proponents against masking and vaccinations are Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. They are the killing machines of the U.S. having combined been responsible for a mjority of 126,000 Covid-19 deaths. This is unconscionable but finally teachers in Florida are rebelling by walking out and Texas businesses like Southwest and American Airlines are ignoring laws against vaccine mandates. Abbott/DeSantis solidly unamerican. 

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, published the 2018 book "How Democracies Die." According to Salon, it is a warning, "of the dangerous signs they saw in Donald Trump's presidency that followed the authoritarian playbook." Here's an update from one of the authors, Levitsky...

"Five years ago I would have laughed you out of the room if you suggested our democracy could die." But today, he added, we see the Republican Party apparently focused on breaking our democracy. In a nutshell, Levitsky believes the threat to our democracy is more acute today than when Trump was in the White House, since the GOP is desperate to retain its fading power in the face of hostile demographic change.

Watch Rachel Maddow: Republicans Are Running Against Democracy Not Democrats...

 CNN's Anderson Cooper calls the state of our losing our democracy, "terrifying." This reaction came, "Tuesday after two Harvard scholars explained how the Republican Party has radicalized itself against democracy." Again, political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt...

"It is pretty dark," said Levitsky. "When we wrote How Democracies Die four years ago, we were worried about the Republican Party because they allowed Donald Trump to be elected. They sort of dropped the ball and failed to protect our democracy from an authoritarian demagogue. But we did not expect that the entire Republican Party would evolve into an anti-democratic force, and that's where they are today."

Now, here is a new question: Are Republicans collectivively committing an act of treason?  But that's another story.

Anti-Vaxxers a Steel-Trap of Misinformation

 

In an earlier post, I mused over a friend who was in contact with an ardent anti-vaxxer/masker person who had recently caught a mild case of coronavirus. This person was implying that their position of having refused the vaccine earlier, subsequently getting the virus, now put them in the position of having the kind of antibodies that would keep them safe from any repeat of the Covid-19. My friend did her best to lay out some scientific facts the denier would have none of.

Like, recent studies suggesting a mild case of coronavirus produced antibodies that lasted for only around three months. The reply was, your science is corrupted and experts like Dr. Fauci are afraid to tell us the truth. You cannot, or, at least, it is useless, to argue with the acuteness this kind of person protects their beliefs. When they search deep down inside, however, they must know they are wrong. If not, you have to question the level of their mentality when the facts are

staring them in the face.

Apparently this group of way-out-withholders skipped the discipline of science in the first 12 grades where factual data proved a point and was generally accepted. A both commonplace and specific questioning of science today comes at a time when the need to respect credible research and development has become imminent due to the fact that over 700,000 Americans have so far died from Covid-19. This need to believe transcends the petty convictions held by these anti-science groupies.

Watch...Having Covid-19 v. getting vaccine

Well, all you rabid deniers, your justifications for delaying, denying, denying, whatever you want to call it could kill you...and other innocent family, friends or just someone you come in contact with. A Yale Univ./Univ. No. Carolina says...

“Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less,” explains lead study author Jeffrey Townsend, the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, in a university release. “Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infection alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections.”

The key here is "long-term," a period not yet specifically determined by the scientific community, but known to be significantly better than the 3 months offered by a mild infection of coronavirus. Added to this are the unknowns centered around the fact that the Delta has not yet been fully vetted so it is impossible to predict where this virus will go. And, of course, there is always the possibility of a new mutation sneaking up from somewhere.

It isn't that Americans should live in constant fear of being infected; Dr. Fauci nor the CDC want that, nor is it recommended. But, in this time of crisis there are simple precautions known to prevent the spread of Covid-19: vaccinate; wear a mask; honor reasonable distancing; and stay away from misinformation. Re. the latter, in a recent The Guardian headline...

"Anti-vaccine chiropractors capitalizing on Covid and sowing misinformation"

That's like having a whole faction of the medical community propagating falsities

that could kill their patients and innocent outsiders. And here's an example of the political right that, God knows, those pathetic followers of the Republican Party will believe right to the death. Former rabid congressman, Allen West, unvaccinated and in the hospital with coronavirus related pneumonia and low oxygen, still rants on his Twitter account debasing the vaccine.  

So, does blogging like this do any good? Probably not for the die-hards. But there might be some of the on-the-fence Anti-All gang who take these facts and decide to get vaccinated, wear a mask, and observe the protocols from the CDC. If not, well, it's your life to kill.

Read more...

Fox News...Just How Fake is Fox Fake News?

 

The half I refer to, of course, is the word "News," with most of the legitimate broadcasting community calling it the "no news network." Their motto used to be "Fair and Balanced," now changed to, "Most Watched, Most Trusted," again, half right. They do have a large audience, which is accounted for by the fact this country suddenly has a large population of idiots. That's what it takes to watch a moron like Tucker Carlson who admitted on the air that he lies.

‘I really try not to..." [to lie] was his comment and my gut tells me that attracted even more of the double-digits that watch him. I worked in television in the early days of the

1950s, produced several news shows, and two of the goals most sought after were accuracy and integrity. Fox has neither. Here's more...

Carlson defended a teenage gunman involved in a shooting during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin and defending white nationalists involved in the storming of the Capitol building.

There are other news blunderers at Fox but no one else has the bold audacity and arrogance to go on the air, day after day, and make a complete fool of himself like Carlson does. Kinda indicates something loose somewhere. Here's a headline from Variety that sums it all up...

"It’s Time for Fox News to Stop Using the Misnomer ‘News’ in Its Channel Name"

I hear Rupert Murdoch is scared of Tucker Carlson? 

The agony of stupidity...Anti-vaxxer on Hollywood Blvd

 

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. 

Covid-19 Mandates targeting Anti-Vaxxers are Coming...And Fast

 

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.

Facebook Compared to Tobacco Cos. killing children

 

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

described it on Vice...

“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...

READ MORE...

NEWS FLASH: Facebook down globally...Anti-vaxxer misinformation a cause?

 

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.

The big news, Facebook and its several apps are down globally.

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.

Republicans continue to dissect the democratic process

 

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...

Trump's Republican-fascists and their propagandists have elevated these hooligans, vandals and (in many cases) terrorists to the status of martyrs and patriots as a way of legitimizing their anti-democratic movement, creating sympathy among Trump's faithful that can be exploited for fundraising and, of course, recruiting and encouraging more extremists to the cause.

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.

The Agony of Stupidity...Covid-19 Weekly Digest of Ignorance

 

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.

Two who lived thousands of miles apart and should 

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 Agony of Stupidity...If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population

 

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."

This is, of course, Florida, where one of the country's preeminent Killing Machines rules, Gov. Ron [demented] DeSantis. Pitts directs his ultimatum to those who have quit their jobs rather than get vaccinated. If you care, here's why people are refusing the vaccines...

Pitts' deniers include...

"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.

The Agony of Stupidity...Dying from overconfidence

 

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!

Read more.

Idiots abound in the world of Republican politics but Matt Gaetz excels in stupidity

 

"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."

 

The Agony of Stupidity...Dying from Misinformation

 

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.

STUPID Republican comments-2

 

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.”

Thanks to Mother Jones

STUPID Republican comments

 

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.)

Thanks to Mother Jones

Stupid Republican comment of the day-2

 

"Mr. Nixon was the thirty-seventh President of the United States. He had been preceded by thirty-six others."
-- Gerald Ford (president, 1974-1977)

Thanks to Penguin Books

IDAHO: Ground zero for latest Covid-19 stupidity...

 

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.

Stupid Republican comment of the day

 

"The American people [is] very supportive of me."
-- George W. Bush (governor of Texas, 1995-), during an interview with Jane Clayson of CBS.

Thanks to Penguin Books

Stupid Republican comment of the day

 

"What does an actor know about politics?"
-- Ronald Reagan, criticizing Ed Asner (then president of the Screen Actors Guild) for opposing American foreign policy.

Thanks to Penguin Books

Idiots abound in the world of Republican politics but Arizona's Karen Fann eclipses the best

 

Senate President Karen Fann has repeatedly insisted the AZ audit isn’t about Donald Trump. No? Well listen to what the former White House maniac has to say...

“The facts are coming out, the truth is being uncovered and the crime of the century is being fully exposed,” Trump declared at [a] rally.

Fann’s “audit,” Trump continued, has discovered “monumental” evidence of fraud.

 Yet...here are the results from PBS...

"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

Two innocent victims murdered by anti-vaxxers

 

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...AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema takes Pharma $ then nixes Biden Prescription Plan...UPDATE

 

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.

Kyrsten Sinema loves filibuster...

That's a major amount and her fight for Pharma coincides with West Va. Sen. Joe Machin who is in the pockets of fossil fuels giant Chas. Koch. She has even talked directly to Biden...

"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. 

Covid-19 deaths passed 1918 flu pandemic-Does anyone care?

 

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.

Republicans accept global warming - Paul Krugman proves them wrong

 

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."

 In a recent post, this headline from Business-Insider, "The companies polluting the

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!