Six House Democrats known as The "Squad" almost doomed Pres. Joe Biden's $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure bill. They are progressives and, although there is a lot of merit in what progressives stand for, their desires in this case do not justify going against the Democratic Party to condemn its agenda. If it hadn't been for thirteen Republicans voting for the bill, it might not have passed. Here's the current Squad...
Infrastructure Bill, be passed simultaneously. It wasn't up for passage so the gang of defectors balked at giving Joe Biden the big win he needed, but got anyway, no thanks to the faithless six. I was a progressive, supported and voted for Bernie Sanders, and I am very disappointed at his opposition to this bill. There are three years left in Biden's administration, with the hope of some miracles in 2022.
But maybe the Squad, and Bernie Sanders, consider 2022 a lost cause, possibly even 2024, and they are going for broke with the hopes of getting as much done as possible. That makes little sense as well since Biden could have gotten nothing had it not been for the Republican crossovers and everyone, including progressives, lose. We mustn't totally discourage this faction, however, since their fight is for the forgotten group that Democrats used to stand for.
The 13 Republicans who supported Biden's Infrastructure Bill, of course, had to take flak from especially the Terrible Trifecta, consisting of Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Margorie Taylor Greene. These are the original three Republican airheads that have proven just how far off course the right has gone. And this kind of stupidity in the American Congress is why the left must solidify its support and move forward in order to save our country from anti-democracy.
So, do we really need progressives? Perhaps the word "progressive" has overpowered this group and others like them, resulting in action almost like another political party. What the Dems need is for this bloc to merge with moderates and conservative Democrats, but, at the same time, when they push their agenda, there is a need for solidarity. Those conservative Dem could take this advice as well.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida's Ron DeSantis have held the title of "Killing Machines" for over a year now. This is due to the number of residents who have died from Covid-19 as these two dimwits fight masks, vaccines and any other virus protection protocols. The results: Texas 4,259,818 cases, 72,343 deaths; Florida 3,706,356 cases, 60,197 deaths. This qualified the two as the leading killing machines, based on numbers alone. However, there is another similar "killing" faction in motion.
It is Donald Trump and his demented followers, who threaten the opposition with intimidation like this directed against Arizona's Sec. of State, Katie Hobbs...
"I am a hunter — and I think you should be hunted.”
because Donald Trump and his movement continue feeding his lies about the 2020 election." Here's what Trump said to urge supporters to come to Washington for a “Save America March” on Wednesday, when Congress would ceremonially count President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win...
“be there, will be wild!” At a rally just before the violence, he repeated many of his falsehoods about how the election was stolen, then dispatched the marchers to the Capitol as those proceedings were about to start.
These double-digits eventually stormed the U.S. Capitol committing insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Here is an example of one of T-rump's remarks...
"Trump urged his supporters to ‘fight much harder’ against ‘bad people’ and ‘show strength’ at the Capitol."
It is no longer appropriate to ask, 'Oh, is Donald Trump still around?' Of course he is still around, and it is due entirely to these lunatic supporters who continue to goad him on. He barely urged non-violence in this comment...
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Considering, as WaPo put it "The president’s speech was riddled with violent imagery and calls to fight harder than before," the above was definitely not sufficient to sooth a crown he was moving to attack. Here's another threat from the CNN piece...
"Bullet," read one tweet reply to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, in September. "That is a six letter word for you."
Again...
"I'm really jonzing to see your purple face after you've been hanged."
Arizona Sec. State, Katie Hobbs, receives police protection due to threats...
And the threats aren't from just Arizona and Colorado, they come from all over the country, clearly indicating it is a national movement, orchestrated by none other than...Donald Trump. So, what is the solution, and please don't suggest the obvious since this is not how a civilized nation works. There is a way. All you recluses on the left come out of your hiding places and be heard. That goes for 2022 and 2024. Reject conservative anti-democracy and put Democrats back in power.
Since Donald Trump's 2016 election, the left has been wading through a cesspool of GOP anti-democracy, designed to tear this country apart and inaugurate an autocratic government. When you mix that with the radical right's willingness to use racism to fight it battles, like in the recent Virginia gubernatorial election where Salon said voters were "drunk on racist hysterics..."
"The American electoral system is clearly falling apart - as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It's Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don't require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future."
Well, okay, maybe we don't actually have to get down and dirty, but we can no longer allow the radical right to run rampant over all the left stands for. Jennifer Rubin, in the first paragraph of a Washington Post opinion piece says...
"President Biden is on the verge of accomplishing more in his first year than any president in recent memory despite unremitting obstruction from an unhinged opposition."
Yet his poll numbers are plunging and now the Dems suffered a big loss in the
President Joe Biden's accomplishments in less than a year, as documented by Rubin:
Biden’s watch has created nearly 5 million new jobs, reducing unemployment to 4.8 percent.
Despite the right wing’s effort to spread deadly disinformation about vaccinations, 80 percent of American adults — including 98 percent of those older than 65 — have had a least one coronavirus vaccination. Among those age 12 and older, 78 percent have had at least one shot.
Biden passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (including a major increase in the child tax credit that reduced child poverty in half).
Set to pass both a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan and a $1.75 trillion package including investments in green energy, universal prekindergarten, a generous child-care subsidy, improved senior care, expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies, an extension of refundable child tax credits, a significant housing investment, hearing benefits for Medicare and possibly even a prescription drug cost reduction for patients on Medicare.
So why are Biden’s poll numbers down? The cesspool of Republican anti-democracy I cited earlier continues at a frightening pace that would tend to overshadow almost any opposing efforts. Especially when most of the big mouths leading the radical right are in the lunatic fringe. People like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, to name only a few. But this lunatic fringe must have its followers and there are many.
Dan Rather, in the Huff Post, "blasted the anti-Joe Biden chant “Let’s go Brandon” as a sign of the Republican Party’s contempt for democracy." In case you haven't heard...
The phrase has become popular in right-wing circles since a sportscaster, interviewing NASCAR Xfinity driver Brandon Brown at a race, mistook a chant of “Fuck Joe Biden” for “Let’s go Brandon.”
It is this kind of mentality that is driving the GOP in its quest to replace democracy with their imperious style of government that allows their primal instincts to have everything their way. We mustn't let this happen and Joe Biden is the man who can stop these would be despots.
Animals have feelings and if you don't believe it look at his dog who was abandoned in an old partment building, sad, crying alot until it met the rescuer...
He was devoted to his owner, where the dog, AJ, thought he had a forever home. He didn't. All of a sudden, he finds himself in a strange place surrounded by people he doesn't know, so what does AJ do? He cries. Yes, he is heartbroken that he was just left as yesterday's trash. The suddenness of it all places this beautiful animal in a position of refusing to socialize and to eat. Think, folks, if you have this in mind or anything like it.
Some 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year, but there are a total of 70 stray animals making it obvious there is much to be done in finding them forever homes. It was worse ten years ago when the shelters took in 7.2 million animals. It has been challenging recently as animals were adopted for companionship during the pandemic, then returned to the shelter buy things have gotten better.
Shelters across America, and the world, need help. If you think you might want an animal to care for and liven up your household, talk to someone at your local shelter. Take a look around, and if you don't fall in love during your time there, maybe it's not your time yet. Think about it and give these guys and gals another shot later. Whatever you do, you must be sure when you do adopt. If this isn't a move where your new animal is a part of the family, then it's the wrong move.
This, according to the Orlando Sentinel while the Miami Herald reports this loser is descending into 'anti-vaxx Crazyville.' Any way you want to look at it, the state of Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis has had 3,695,945 COVID-19 cases resulting in 59,497 deaths. Here's what the Orlando Sentinel's editorial board hadto say...
"Between the start of July and the end of October, about 21,000 people died of COVID in Florida, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Those four deadly, tragic months accounted for one in every three of the total COVID deaths—nearly 60,000 victims — since the pandemic began 20 months ago," the board wrote.
The Sentinel added, "Compare that to California, a warm-weather state with nearly twice the population of Florida and a governor who believes in public health..." The fact is California had just 8,600 deaths compared to Florida"s 21,000 deaths in the same period, quoting Orwell by describing the Sunshine State as dystopian. There's more from this editorial, "Now, the do-nothing governor is trying to claim credit for this surge coming to an end..."
Florida doctor says Gov. DeSantis not responsible for Covid-19 imptovement...
The newspaper steps up its attack with what I call a comparison with the logic of the New York Times bestseller list. During Florida's summer of record coronavirus cases and deaths, a silent Desantis...
"The governor had nearly nothing to say about his state’s lengthy run as No. 1 in the nation in COVID cases, No. 1 in hospitalizations and No. 1 in deaths."
The Orlando Sentinel reports DeSantis "has the gall" to take a "victory lap" with
this release to the media...
“Florida Reaches Lowest Case Rate in the Nation,” trumpeted the headline of a Wednesday news release, which went on to say, “As a result of Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership and our data-driven approach free of mandates, the State of Florida has one of the lowest COVID-19 daily average case rates in the last 7 days per 100,000 residents in the United States.”
if the above weren't so disgusting, it would be laughable. And DeSantis isn't just deceiving the public on Covid-19, he is a racist reverting to typical radical right tactics preventing the minority vote...
"The University of Florida is prohibiting three professors from providing expert testimony in a lawsuit challenging a new law that critics claim restricts voting rights, saying it goes against the school’s interest by conflicting with the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis."
In some states like California, it is basically illegal to abandon your animal: Penal Code's Section 597 states it's a misdemeanor for an owner of any animal to permit it to be without proper care and attention. Yet people across the country desert their pets when moving, or if they can no longer afford to care for them, or just because they have become tired of them. It's ghastly, inhumane, of course, and these are just a few of the many reasons used to literally dump pets from their forever home.
It is hard to understand how anyone could treat their animal, a family member, like yesterday's trash and just discard them at a whim, with absolutely no regard for their feelings. That's right, animals do have feelings, and some never recover after being deserted on a lonely road in nowhere. The following video is an example...
Anyone who would do something like this borders on purely cruel behavior and should be punished. Fortunately, this little guy was rescued by a shelter but there was still trauma for being abandoned in this way. In my state of Arizona, many animals are left in the desert and their chance of survival is very small. No matter where you are, do the humane thing and take the pet you have decided to give up to a shelter. Everyone will be glad you did.
Kerhsaw County, SC deputies were helping a stranded vehicle, when officers kept hearing noises. As they searched the area, they found a crying kitten who had somehow freed itself from a pillowcase, Still in the pillowcase were two puppies. All had been put in the pillowcase & dumped over the bridge! Animal Control headed out in the middle of the night to get these babies & bring them to the shelter. READ MORE...
This sort of thing happens on a daily basis throughout the U.S. where humans treat
their pets or found animals as if their life does not matter. Well, it does! If you aren't an animal lover like the rest of us, at least have the civility to contact animal care authorities.
In a state that has already experienced over 16,000 deaths from Covid-19, two of its mentally challenged, anti-vaxxing residents have decided to put together a super-spreader event this weekend to celebrate, you guessed it, even more deaths. NPR reports Ty and Charlene Bollinger, known for their position as one of the 12 people...
responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Charlene Bollinger decided, and rightfully so, that Nashville, TN would be the perfect place to hold their "freedom fighting" idiot fest. In the last few years, Tennessee has succumbed to a majority mix of conservative morons who, in 2016, pledged all eleven electoral votes to Donald Trump. This event is called, "The Truth About Cancer," a statement that couldn't be further from the truth. And get this...
The event's lineup will reflect those political views [the Jan 6, Capitol insurrection] and feature Donald Trump's son Eric and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Joe Biden talks about Anti-Vaccine Protesters ‘Threatening’ Doctors And Nurses In Tennessee
Lisa Fazio, a misinformation researcher with Vanderbilt University says, "People like us, believe these things," which sounds like, if the following is correctly understood, means they just believe in conspiracy theories...
Fazio says some people may show up to this conference for one conspiracy theory and learn about another, giving misinformation the opportunity to cross-pollinate.
It sounds to me like all these people have been cross-pollinated with the moron gene, and, as Fazio adds, "If you're part of this community, you believe the entire pot."
My blog post yesterday portrays a U.S. Senator, Joe Manchin from West Virginia, as the heartless lowlife he is for gutting Joe Biden's Child Tax Credit Program which critically affects the children and families at the poverty level in his state. There are a lot of them but the murky Manchin has chosen to favor his fossil fuel friends and donors and let his constituents suffer. I titled the post, "JOE MANCHIN Throws West Virginia Children UNDER THE BUS,"
If you go there you will see some of the most distressing figures you'll find on child poverty in this country. Yet, Joe Manchin continues to oppose everything in Joe Biden's agenda that is designed to help these Americans. Like the Infrastructure bill, which is a bit hefty and Pres. Biden is now negotiating, but with Manchin still holding a heavy hand. This is not what the left is all about and, apparently, Manchin just recently indicated a possible exit from the Democrats. GOOD!
And here is something even more ludicrous, Manchin's daughter is just as bad with this headline in Jacobin Mag: "Meet Joe Manchin’s Appalling Daughter." Apparently the fruit falls right under the tree in the case of this family...
"As if his own record weren’t bad enough, former coal baron and current West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s daughter Heather Bresch — who doubles as a major donor to Joe — is a price-gouging drug profiteer who has played a central role in her father’s destructive political career."
Bresch has a record of success, but, then, so does her father, and look at what he has become. Liza Featherstone, author of this article in Jacobin, adds, "Bresch has had a remarkably horrible impact on society, even by the usual standards of American capitalists." Here's more...
"In the case of West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, however, his daughter’s former job — she was president, top lobbyist, and CEO of Mylan, a drug company — represents such a massive conflict of interest, with implications for policy that are shocking and disqualifying even by normal Washington, DC, standards. She’s not only the senator’s daughter, she’s a major donor."
Watch damning evidence against Joe Manchin’s daughter Heather Bresch...
You may not agree with the politics of Jacobin, but you cannot deny the truth. The time has come to start identifying these threats to our democracy, and its sources like Jacobin that aren't afraid to publish the facts. All I can say is 'Give us more!'
According to a West Virginia state site, there are 14,104 adults and children receiving welfare, 137,000 children receiving food stamps. The child poverty rate is 25%, compared to the overall rate of 16% in the United States. There are 4,200 families receiving childcare subsidies, and 213,023, the number of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
Visit one of the poorest places in America...in West Virginia, of course...
Why do the voters of West Virginia continue to elect this demagogue when it is clear that he doesn't give a damn about his constituents, rather seeks out the power to help his big donors like the Chas. Koch gang?
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten [the enema] Sinema continues to string along with West Virginia's coal king and Chas. Koch's pocket change, Joe Manchin, to block Pres. Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Sinema's crusade to try and establish herself as the destroyer of everything Democrat is succeeding as she continues to alienate her base in Arizona. But a liberal polling group, Data For Progress, this month published the following report...
The survey of likely voters for her 2024 Democratic Senate primary showed just 25 percent approval for Sinema's performance in office, as opposed to 85 percent for Arizona's other Democratic senator, Mark Kelly, and President Biden himself. Tellingly, she trailed all four of her hypothetical primary opponents by 29 points or more.
In addition to drinking wine, her other pastime is running, and politically speaking, at this particular time she is headed in the wrong direction. The mock Senator has missed appointments and important meetings for congressional legislation and just recently held her own fundraising get together with industry groups opposed to Biden’s agenda. She might as well have given the President the finger. Sinema loves big pharma, possibly blocking Biden's drug pricing legislation...
Politico and The Daily Poster report that Sinema raised over $1.1 million between July and September, with 90% of the campaign donations coming from outside Arizona. At least $100,000 of those contributions came from individuals or entities linked to the pharmaceutical and financial services industries.
Judy Woodruff at PBS talks to Manchin and Sinema...
Even the Koch gang has recently stepped in to rave about her opposition to taxing the rich, which Chas. Koch definitely is. She's also against increasing taxes on large corporations which is holding up her party's budget reconciliation package. It's hard to find anything Sinema is for on the left side of the aisle, which is prompting calls for the Senate's latest egoist to step across to the other side of the aisle. Might as well considering her voting record.
It has been said that Kyrsten Sinema is attempting to mimick John McCain in his position of maverick Senator. This new kid on the block should realize she comes nowhere close to McCain in any political way I can ascertain. I voted for her, simply because she is a Democrat, or, at least I thought so. Her politics were questionable but we thought she would grow into the job. She didnt! Now it is definitely time to dump this liability as soon as possible.
Abundantly better than the former White house maniac who belittled Colin Powell as the rest of the country praised the former general and diplomat...
Trump criticized Powell's record on the Iraq War and derided the news media for treating the former secretary of state "so beautifully" after his death.
Then T-rump went on to say, "Hope that happens to me someday." Now, I won't come right out and say it but the innuendo is there. However, this post is about Colin Powell and what kind of President he would have made. The former Secretary of State could have been the first black president, but if I recall correctly, his wife was not really encouraging her husband to run, perhaps even the opposite. Thinking she just didn't want Powell to indulge in today's politics?
Watch Rachel Maddow's accolades for Colin Powell...
The Secretary was first approached by William J. Bennett, former Sec. of Education in 1994 for the 1996 election. Considering the Democrat who ran, and won in a landslide, Bill Clinton, it was probably a good decision by Powell. It was Clinton's time and he made the most of his eight years. He was running against Bob Dole and Jack Kemp, but, notably, Ross Perot, running on the Reform Party ticket,
garnered 8.4% of the ticket.
But it was the General's attention to detail that he had used for years in the army and the diplomatic corps that told him that it wasn't his time for the White House. This is how Powell saw it at the time...
If there was a clear major foreign policy question or domestic crisis that he thought he had a solution for, Powell told one friend, he would feel an obligation to run. Those Republicans and others who urged him to run argued that he would be a healer for the nation. But he was not able to define fully what needed healing, and felt he was miles away from having a clear remedy, particularly to the narrow legislative questions of the day.
Powell felt the Republicans were desperate and wanted his popularity to dig them out of a hole. He was right and the hole just got deeper with Clinton's sizable win. In a recent telephone conversation with Bob Woodward, he told him, “I’ve got multiple myeloma cancer, and I’ve got Parkinson’s disease. But otherwise I’m fine,” he said in a July interview. He added...
“Don’t feel sorry for me, for God’s sakes! I’m [84] years old,” said Powell, who died Monday. “I haven’t lost a day of life fighting these two diseases. I’m in good shape.”
Of course he wasn't fine and he wasn't in good shape but this just shows the fighter this great man was. Didn't answer the headline question specifically but believe most true Americans have their own answer.
Borrowing from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the headline should be an awakener for this country that has repercussions for all political beliefs. The primary take-away is that in Lincoln's statement, there is an emphasis on the "people" and their place in the running of the government. What Honest Abe didn't speculate on are the kind of people today on the fringes, attempting to destroy the democracy our 16th President fought so hard to preserve.
It is the founder of the "big lie" who is the abhorrent challenger to Lincoln's words, Donald Trump, 45th in a line of leaders of the United States, who turned out to be anything but a leader, but I have never been able to bring myself to call him...that. Trump's authoritarian reign is over but the singular oligarch continues to rule with thousands of mentally depraved followers. Here is an example of a couple who should know better from election law guru Richard L. Hasen...
two supposedly “responsible” Republicans, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah, had reviewed the disgraced former president’s fraud claims in January and confirmed they were total bunk. Despite this, the senators have refused to separate their party from the instigator of the Jan. 6 insurrection and voted against a bipartisan commission to review the violent day.
Pres. elect Joe Biden's "Soul of the Nation" address from Gettysburg...
It's the election, stupid, and the year 2020 will be forever remembered as the one where American began to take its plunge from democracy. In a Washingon Post opinion coumn, Eugene Robinson said...
T.S. Eliot wrote that the world ends "not with a bang but a whimper,” but I fear our great nation is careening toward a third manner of demise: descent into lip-blubbering, self-destructive idiocy.
Robinson goes on to chide a pathetic gang of blockheads mimicking politicians that fashion themselves “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” which is, in effect, the world's greatest collection of, yes, idiots. Take Moscow Mitch McConnell,known to all as the drim reaper since he is against all...democracy. We needn't go any further to identify a source of the root source in this country's problems but there is
also now the lunatic group of Republicans...
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, WI Sen. Ron Johnson, TX Gov. Greg Abbott, Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis, S.D. Gov. Kristi Noem...and the list goes on.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post labeled this group the "evil lunacy" conjecturing its home is the GOP and not a good place to be. Chas. M. Blow in the New York Times gives America one last chance to save democracy. Preserve the basic right that has made this nation great, the right to vote. Pass the Freedom to Vote Act...
The bill would set national standards for early voting, expand voting by mail, allow the use of more forms of voter identification, make Election Day a federal holiday and institute measures to counter voter suppression tactics. It would also automate voter registration, force states to give voters the option to register on Election Day and offer safeguards against voter purges. Finally, it would overhaul portions of the campaign finance system, prohibit partisan gerrymandering and prevent the politicized removal of election officials, among other changes.
There's more on Joe Biden's fight to defend our democracy in a later blog.
Joe Manchin, the Senator from West Virginia, and the minion to fossil fuel king, Chas. Koch, has decided, or, better yet, been instructed to block Pres. Biden's Clean Energy Performance Program. The gist of the program is designed to...
"reward utilities that increase their clean energy supply by 4 percent each year, while penalizing those that don’t. Lawmakers have included the initiative as part of a multitrillion-dollar tax-and-spending package that aims to advance Biden’s broader economic vision."
But Manchin's state depends heavily on coal, which means he places politics before the health of Americans. Here's what Alecia M. Spooner says, a teacher of Earth and Environmental Sciences...
"Burning coal emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Coal is composed almost entirely of carbon, so burning coal unleashes large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. These emissions have been shown to increase the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere and lead to global warming."
Watch coverage of Joe Manchin destroying Pres. Biden's climate plan...
"The standoff has jeopardized Biden’s pledge to halve emissions by 2030, inspiring a new flurry of last-minute policy proposals just two weeks before the president and other world leaders are set to convene the most important global climate talks in a quarter century."
So, it is safe to say that, not only has Joe Manchin jeopardized the environmental issues in the United States, he also threatens the position of the U.S. as a leader in championing the climate change issue around the world.
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, SenateMinority 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
