Yes, really, a new year. I know you might be fooled because it looks so much like last year. The pandemic is still raging, with hospitals overwhelmed with people still refusing to get vaccinated. Our political divide is just as great, with most Republicans still believing that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, when in point of fact it was Donald Trump who was trying to do the stealing.
We still can't seem to find what really made our country great. In fact we still seem to be on the edge of losing what made our country great. I can only hope that this year will see the United States finding her democratic roots. Because we have many challenges facing us in the future and we can do that better together.
If you have Netflix there is a new movie out, “Don't Look Up”. I will be honest and say that I didn't really like the move that well. But perhaps that was because it was rather painful to watch. It hits too close to home. But if we don't watch, and don't take to heart its message, we may very well suffer the fate of the characters in the movie, as Leonardo points out. Here is Leonardo DeCaprio speaking on the film's message.
Let's hope we make better choices in the New Year.
65 comments:
"…we may very well suffer the fate of the characters in the movie."
Yeah, gettin' harder and harder to maintain a reasonable level of optimism.
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I noticed that, after Schumer keyed up a vote on the Democrats' efforts to protect voting access for Democratic leaning voter populations, Manchin took his first opportunity to tell the press that he was still going to vote against any 'carveout' for protecting the right to vote from the filibuster blockade, effectively dooming that effort.
Also, they've tabled any discussions with Manchin for passage of any part of Biden's 'BBB' agenda. Manchin just wasn't interested in talking to them 'bout that.
And, since nobody's talking to him anymore, he's decided to dangle the thought that he might be open to considering some environmental legislation if they'll just come to him with offers. link (He seems to have figured out that his current West Virginian glow from once again having strung the 'libs' along and then double crossed them will wear out long before his reëlection comes around. He needs something new, something else he can use to string them along again into the future, before he cuts back and leaves them hanging. That move plays well in West Virginia, but it won't resonate for three more years without being refreshed.)
On the other hand, McConnell is still not the Majority Leader in the Senate, so there's still that.
As much as I agree with you on Manchin, I believe the real problem is still the Republicans. Not those who are so far gone they will never see the light of democracy again, but those who still pay lip service to it, and haven't resigned yet. Mitt Romney comes to mind. They could still stand up and do the right thing, if they wanted to. They can still choose country over party. Like McCain did. In this case they could do a thumbs up instead of a thumbs down.
Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the Jan. 6th Capitol riot (insurrection). It's hard to believe it has been a year. And it appears that so little has changed in the minds of those who supported, and still support, Donald Trump.
I would have hope that more information made public by the Jan. 6th commission would wake people up, but my guess is they won't even read, or view, it. Unless it's on the internet under a rightwing banner it is meaningless to them.
Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema both said yesterday that they'd be open to some revisions in the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which directs the sitting Vice-President to preside over the counting of the Electoral College votes. These volunteered revelations from the both of them appear to have been coördinated with each other and with Mitch McConnell's concurrent public announcement that he was willing to consider "some" changes in that law. Quoting McConnell:
"It obviously has some flaws. And it is worth, I think,
discussing [some limited changes]."
The thing that is remarkable here is not that Sineman and Manchin are coördinating their public statements with Mitch McConnell, but that they're being so blatantly obvious about it. They want the right people to notice who they're working with on vote counting issues , and with whom they're not working on the question of protecting voting rights. (The black population percentage of both Arizona and West Virginia are negligible.)
________________________________
"Unless it's on the internet under a rightwing banner it is meaningless
to them."
That's only a fairly accurate assessment of it. (It's also meaningful if it's vouched for by the Australian Murdock clan, via their closely held FoxNews cable network.)
The Trumpkins tend to have what I consider an unusual relationship with to the truth. For them "truth" is a matter of belief (and especially of beliefs, plural), and of loyalty to those beliefs and to the political tribe which professes those beliefs.
They make things "true" by choosing to believe in them, by wishing them to be true with sufficient passion, even if they know the actual facts in the real world are inconveniently inconsistent with their wished "truth". (It is no coincidence that right-wing Protestant evangelicals and Catholic fundies tend to be loyal Trumpkin allies; they are already well versed in 'believing' in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.)
That's why no amount of evidence seems to have an impact on their chosen beliefs. They do not believe things because they are true. Rather they recreate their world looking at it from the other end of that transaction. They make things 'true' in their fantasy world by believing in them instead of believing in them because they are true. That's why evidence of facts inconsistent with their beliefs is so often simply irrelevant to their 'truth'.
(Not all of them think this way, of course, but enough of them to form a 'base' for Trump to control the direction of the Republican Party, now the Trumpkin/Republican Party, via the American political 'primary' system.)
But, that only gets them about 40% of the American voting population voting their way (counting the believers and the Romneys together--and not letting Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins get forgotten). And they need probably 45% (given their structural advantages woven into the American political system, which amplify their votes). They can pick up that needed extra 5% by politicking for it. Or, they might be denied that extra 5% by things like the current House Select Committee (which is why what it's doing is important--it just might matter, might not, I agree, but it's a close 'nuff call that it just might matter).
"…counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump have had
nearly three times the Covid-19 death rate as counties
that voted for Joe Biden."
NewYorkTimes
I just caught the tail end of Biden's address for the anniversary of the Jan. 6ᵗʰ insurrection, wandered past a TV and there it was. I was surprised to see it carried on-air locally (this is dedicated Trumpkin country and it wasn't on the published schedules) and then I realized that the major channels had simply broken in to their early-morning shows with a 'Special Report' and hadn't given the local channels much choice.
Biden was surprisingly forceful and specific in his denunciations of Trump and the revisionist right-wing propagandists who're trying to rewrite that particular piece of history.
This will not go down well among the FoxNews pundit class, Hannity, Carlson, etc. Nor among the dedicated Trumpkins. (Nor with Trump.)
I was only able to watch the start of Kamala Harris speech live this morning before I left for work and snippets of Biden on the news. When I get a chance i will listen to both. It is disturbing that so many people will ignore their words.
... I realized that the major channels had simply broken in to their early-morning shows with a 'Special Report' and hadn't given the local channels much choice.
Kudos to the major networks. At least they are trying to air the truth.
I finally got a chance to listen to both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. They did a very good job. I thought it was one of the best speeches Joe Biden has given.
But it will take more than their remarks to change people's minds. It will take all of us at every opportunity to clear the blinders that people are wearing. It won't be easy.
Assuming, of course, people are still around. I read somewhere that the people in the counties that voted for Trump are 3 times more likely to die of Covid as those who voted for Biden.
"It will take all of us at every opportunity to clear the blinders
that people are wearing. It won't be easy."
I suppose there are some people who are indeed blindered.
But it's important to remember that the main body of the Trumpkins are not blindered at all. Theirs is a willful ignorance, willingly adopted and held tight, willfully promoted, lest reality dissuade too many of their allies from supporting their goals. And, along with those willfully ignorant, there's the Romneys and the Susan Collins types and the Lindsey Grahams and whole rest of their allies and accomplices, and their voters.
Furthermore, those who are truly blindered are wearing the blinders willingly. Nobody's 'pulling the wool over their eyes' as the saying has it; nobody put blinders on them against their will. They wear the blinders because they want to wear them. They're just not interested in understanding the subject matter, don't wanna be bothered with it.
Need to keep that in mind as well.
________________________________
Now that the Biden administration has come to terms with the death of Biden's ‛BBB’ legislation, Manchin has announced (privately--as in, to other Democrats, but not before the press) the related death of the $1.8 billion dollar 'compromise' legislation that he had drafted up and was dangling to Biden in hopes of keeping the Biden administration negotiating ‛til closer to his reëlection campaign in 2024 (when he intended to double cross them again to the accolades of his West Virginian Republican voters).
________________________________
The legislative agenda underpinning Biden's run for the office is now cold-dead. He's now gotta come up with new goals to keep himself occupied for the next three years. I trust he'll find some projects to promote ‛fore too long. He's got roughly a year before the new Congress is seated. That may force him to review his agenda once again.
NBCNews is touting a new study which finds that most of Trump's support does not come from economically stressed 'working class' white folks. (Hell, I could have told them that. Although he does do better among the economically stressed 'working class' than Republicans have traditionally done, that's not where the main body of his support comes from.)
It's short, but worth the quick read.
We need to mark this day on the calendar. A GOP Senator from South Dakota, Senator Mike Rounds, has admitted that the 2020 election was fair and that Joe Biden won.
Trump, of course, has immediately went on the attack, wondering if he is crazy or stupid. It would be nice to see more GOP elected officials stand up for our country for a change.
They wear the blinders because they want to wear them.
That's what makes this so very dangerous. They are blinded because of something else.
Btw, I just started watching "Women of the Movement". Not quite sure why
the title, but the docuseries is on ABC and is about Emmett Till. I have just seen the first 2 hours of it and it is very good. It is really something that many people who are unfamiliar with Emmett Till's complete story should watch.
I think I would ask those Trump supporters if this is really the type of country they want to live in, still? If their answer is, indeed, yes, then they really have no right to call themselves patriots.
I was surprised that the Ahmaud Arbery verdict came down as it did. Maybe those two Democrats elected to the Senate aren't actually a fluke. Which, of course, is why the GOP is trying to rig the next election down there.
I will give the link a look later...
You know, I think that the only way we will be able to get beyond Jan. 6th is to hold Trump liable to some degree for what happened. Whether it is criminal charges or civil it doesn't matter. We need a judge to rule that he was at least partially responsible.
"I was surprised that the Ahmaud Arbery verdict came down as it did."
It probably mattered that they were not cops. Give them a badge and they'd have been entitled to a jury instruction on the judge-made doctrine bearing the misnomer 'qualified immunity' which tells the jury that no matter Arbery's innocence they were entitled to cut him down as long as they remembered to have their lawyers later say that they 'felt threatened'. (That was the mistake Kim Potter made in her trial--alleging that she made an excusable mistake instead of invoking the magic mantra of 'I felt threatened'.)
By the rules of 'qualified immunity', once a defendant says those magic words, via legal counsel, the burden of proof shifts and the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the cop is lying about how (s)he felt in the moment. (Unless the cops openly gloats on Twitter about killing a black guy and getting away, and then leaves the post up even after (s)he gets charged, that's almost impossible to prove, but prosecutors occasionally take a swing at it anyway.)
________________________________
"I think that the only way we will be able to get beyond
Jan. 6th is to hold Trump liable to some degree…"
I see no reason to think that'll 'get [us] beyond Jan. 6th'. The dedicated Trumpkins will not care. Tucker Carlson will not care. Sean Hannity will not care. And the Trumpkan/Republican politicians will not care so long as the dedicated Trumpkins don't care.
_________________________
(I'll keep an eye out for that ABC series.)
Trump will care. Pushing his buttons may lead to an explosion that will clear the air. No, it won't change the minds of those who refuse to see any type of reality, for whatever reason. But it may firm up wavering support for Democrats by the swing vote or less dedicated Democrats.
"I trust he'll find some projects to promote ‛fore too long."
Lee C. @ Mon Jan 10, 05:54 am ↑↑
Yesterday's speech on voting rights, delivered in Georgia, suggests he's already found at least one new project. (Voting access was on his campaign agenda while he was running for the office, but it's been back-burner since he was sworn in. No more.)
It is significant that many black activists and politicians stayed out of sight, snubbing Biden's appearance, in protest of Biden's delay in taking the voting rights issue off the back burner. Biden's paying an additional price here for his failure to get the 'social infrastructure' bill past his own Democratic holdouts (Manchin and Sinema).
It's amazing how many activists live in fantasy land. Exactly what, pray tell, was Biden supposed to do with people who appear to be Republicans in Democrat's clothing?
The reason the Republicans were able to pass their agenda was that, for the most part, they stuck together. The biggest exception being McCain's thumbs down on the health care issue.
The Democratic tent holds a diverse populace with varying ideas. If the Democrats really want to pass their agenda they need more elected Democrats to give them the clear majority.
In this fight I give the edge to McConnell. He's wily like a fox. Trump is just an ass.
"It's amazing how many activists live in fantasy land."
But Biden lives in reality most of the time. He'll just let this slide on by; it won't hurt him or his cause to let them blow off a little steam and then claim they made him come around again. Then they can work the 2022 election without apologizing to their more radical followers. Long as they don't carry this on past the 2022 midterms it'll be alright. (The less 'activist' types will remind their people that the activist types were hard on Biden; Biden's stuff is moderate by comparison.)
I am also pleased to see that Biden and Schumer are moving towards dumping the 'don't make 'em take hard votes' strategy that both sides have used for several cycles. Screw that. Tee-up the necessary votes and make those who're gonna vote against popular measures actual vote against those popular measures. Make it a role-call vote; make 'em vote against it in person, on the record, in their own recognizable voice. (Be good practice for a move to bring back the 'talking filibuster' as well--absent unanimous Democratic agreement to dump it entirely.)
Don't-tee up votes you're gonna lose; screw that too. If a bill actually is widely popular with the general population, make 'em vote those down on a role-call vote as well; make 'em vote against it in person, on the record.
Time to make obstruction of governance visible, and they can either win elections on that ground or they'll soon 'nuff quit doin' it.
Possible this will turn out to have been a mistake, but the old practice don't seem to have been working out for us citizens so I'm ready for them to try some new moves here, like makin' 'em take some contested votes on the record.
________________________________
"I give the edge to McConnell."
You're probably right there.
Sean Hannity has been trying to take McConnell down for well over six years now, probably closer to nine or ten. I forget just when he launched that campaign, but it was well over six years ago. Nine/ten years ago Hannity was the Big Giant Talking Head over at FoxNews. This was before the rise of Tucker Carlson ranting even crazier stuff than Hannity. And, even at his peak (long since passed) he had zero success with that campaign.
Trump probably should have given that history more thought before he tried to bulldoze over that same ground.
(Maybe we can hope to get lucky and Trump can make enough trouble for McConnell that McConnell decides to cut him down a bit and bleed him of some of his support. But I ain't holdin' my breath on that one.)
I got a hyphen in the wrong spot up there, but I'm gonna pretend I don't see it.
Today's NewYorkTimes suggests that preliminary data shows an early 'peak' in new omicron-covid cases. Essentially, it burned hot and now it's flaming out. (This comports with case numbers in South Africa where news of the omicron variant first went public, and with Britain, which took the omicron hit several weeks before it got big here.)
Time to make obstruction of governance visible, and they can either win elections on that ground or they'll soon 'nuff quit doin' it.
Agreed. It's something that can then be pointed out in the next election, for those who actually pay attention.
I fear, though, that even that may not work. The reason we are at this impass is that not enough people care enough to pay attention. They don't understand that a democracy needs care and feeding just like a living thing.
DeSantis seems to be taking on Trump, questioning his locking down the economy early on in the pandemic. Although he places much of the blame for that on Fauci he points out that it was ultimately Trump's decision.
DeSantis is serious about running for President in 2024, I'm thinking. It may make for an interesting Republican primary.
The omicron flameout can't come too soon, if it does come. Our hospitals are over worked and over booked.
The Supreme Court did end up shooting down the vaccine requirement for large businesses. But down in the Cities they are starting to require proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test for patrons of places that sell food and beverages. It's coming one way another. If the pandemic continues we may see more of that.
"I fear, though, that even that may not work."
It may not work in time to matter. The younger voters are settling into hard opposition to today's Trumpkan/Republican Party.
"…nearly three-quarters of college-age voters do not think the
Republican Party represents them in any capacity. Sixty-six
percent of students today cannot imagine registering as
Republicans in the next 10 years, when their voices may be
even stronger. And a striking 43 percent of respondents think
the Republican Party is flat-out racist; only 31 percent
disagree."
Politico
But I'm afraid they still don't vote in percentages equivalent to the voting habits of the infamous 'angry old white folks'. Trump now stands a good chance of returning to the White House in 2024 (as the politics stand today). He won't be so easy to get rid of next time.
________________________________
"DeSantis is serious about running for President in 2024…"
Yup.
________________________________
"The Supreme Court did end up shooting down the vaccine
requirement for large businesses."
They did quite a bit more than that. They embraced a long-time discredited "non-delegation" legal doctrine that last saw life in the judiciary during the now disgraced "Lochner era". That's gonna prove to be a big deal in the fairly near future.
Covid is gonna settle into being an endemic plague in the near future. So is the Federalist Society's takeover of the Supreme Court going to prove a persistant plague. I think they're fanatics who won't be able to restrain themselves. I think this time they will eventually force a reorganization of that Court, and a loss of its power for failure to wield that power judiciously. But, that'll be down the road a piece.
"PHOENIX (AP) — A review of potential voter fraud cases in
the 2020 general election in Arizona’s second-largest county
ended Friday with an announcement by prosecutors that
none of the 151 cases they reviewed merited criminal charges.
"The findings in Pima County provide yet another official
rebuttal of former President Donald Trump’s claims that voter
fraud led to his loss in Arizona and other battleground states.
"The announcement by the Pima County Attorney’s Office
closes the book on more than 2/3 of all the cases of potential
voter fraud that were being reviewed by election officials and
prosecutors across Arizona."
AssociatedPress
Just to remind us that terrorism is still a threat there is an ongoing hostage situation at a synagogue in Texas. A man is currently holding 3 people hostage in hopes of getting a woman being held in prison in Texas for attacking members of our military in Afghanistan released.
The younger voters are settling into hard opposition to today's Trumpkan/Republican Party.
It is a sentiment I agree with now. I will not be voting Republican again as long as they are in Trump's pocket.
I saw that earlier about Arizona. It was heartening. There are still people out there who will tell the truth.
A writer, with whom I'm unfamiliar, editorializing in TheNewRepublic agrees with the notion that it's time to put 'on display' who's for and who's against the popular items on Biden's agenda that ain't never gonna pass the 60 vote threshold.
It doesn't matter so much that he agrees, but it makes it clear that we're not the only people who've come to that conclusion.
It won't get 60 Senate votes for Biden's agenda, but ya never know--outside chance it'll help stave off a Trumpkan/Republican legislative takeover. (I ain't holdin' my breath on that one though.)
I'm not quite sure why major votes aren't more publicized so that the public can see, if they so choose, what their elected representatives will or will not vote for. Or maybe it's that a roll call vote takes more time? I know some don't like putting a bill to a vote if they know there is no chance of passage, but we the people do deserve to know why there is no chance of passage. Or more to the point who is making it impossible to pass a bill.
"I saw that earlier about Arizona."
I've been checking in regularly at the FoxNews. It seems the news isn't fit to print on FoxNews. It hasn't shown up yet; not a word about it.
Why does this not surprise me?
I saw that Direct TV is discontinuing the One America News Channel. While I don't like censorship I also don't like a channel that deliberately lies. There should be some accountability.
As has often been observed elsewhere, the First Amendment applies to the governments, not to Direct TV.
That said, in spite of some obvious schadenfreude on the part of some liberal reporters, there's reason to suspect that OAN was dropped for business reasons, profit and loss stuff.
Direct TV was originally owned and operated by AT&T and OAN had been created somewhat 'at the behest of' AT&T management which wanted another 'conservative' news channel to feature alongside FoxNews. AT&T was the biggest single corporate investor in OAN and was the source of ninety percent of the channel's revenues through the Direct TV contract.
AT&T recently 'spun off' Direct TV to a subsidiary corporation (making much of how the new subsidiary would be under completely independent management, to please the federal anti-monopoly investigators who'd been sniffing around too persistently). AT&T is still the major shareholder in Direct TV (at 70%), but supposedly Direct TV is now an independently managed corporation that just happens to be largely owned by it's former sole owner (AT&T).
Meanwhile, AON hasn't exactly caught on with the cable-ready dedicated Trumpkins. Trump loves it, but other folks, apparently not so much.
It is the newly independent management which declined to renew the AON contract. And they aren't giving any reason for the decision other than that they decided to do it. This on the grounds that they don't owe anybody any explanation, other than that they're free to do business or not with whomever they damn well please, and almost any reason they give those who ask is sure to be denounced at a pretext and litigated furiously by the right-wingers' well-funded and over-eager lawfare squadrons.
So there! Take that to court!
(I've never seen AON, but I've read that their production quality leaves much to be desired, irrespective of the content.)
TheAtlantic: Governments across Europe are instituting polices of discrimination against the unvaccinated. (Restricting access to public places for the most part.) Unfortunately, it's likely that such measures would not survive an encounter with our Supreme Court.
(Short for an 'Atlantic' piece.)
They are starting to require proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test at venues down in The Cities that serve food and drink. They have been doing the same in theaters that I frequent for plays for some time now. I have no problem with it. As someone who wrote in to the Star Tribune said, actions should have consequences.
But the problem I am seeing is that many people are getting Covid multiple times, even when vacvinated. It makes it seem less likely that these restrictions will keep us totally virus free.
I am really not sure how we get beyond this unless the virus mutates into a mild form for even the unvaccinated.
"It makes it seem less likely that these restrictions will keep us
totally virus free."
I don't think anything's going to "keep us totally virus free". I never did think that. (I am disappointed with the performance of the vaccine against the omicron variant; I was hoping for better than that. But, that's another subject for another time.) Very few vaccines provide 100% protection (in fact, I can't think of a single one that does that). Vaccines work by limiting the spread of the vaccine to less than the 'replacement' value for those who fall victim to the virus; i.e. a person who gets sick is more likely to either die or get well without passing on the virus than (s)he is to infect further persons. (The virus will have an "R Number" of less than one.) link
If the population is 100% vaccinated (or near'bouts) then the odds of passing on the virus to those now vaccinated people drops significantly. If the population is 100% vaccinated then the odds of encountering the virus when one is at a diminished state of resistance also drops significantly. The virus gets fought from both ends--those who are contagious encounter resistant people during the course of their day--less likely to pass it on even if they have a "breakthrough infection"--just as they were less likely to have met someone currently contagious in the first place.
Thus the virus eventually dies out in the population. It cycles through a few 'generations' of new victims, fewer each generation, and it eventually dies out from what would be known as 'loss of habitat' in a higher life form.
That's how we get beyond this.
That's how it's supposed to work anyway, widespread vaccination reduces the "R Number" to less than one*. (Absent widespread vaccinations, accumulating deaths will thin out the available prime habitat for the virus and we'll get 'beyond this' the same way we got beyond the last global pandemic, by burying a lot of corpses.) That's why widespread vaccination is so important to containing the virus.
That's why the Trumpkan/Republican resistance to vaccinations has been so destructive to the national effort to beat the virus down. (The smart ones know this; they know they are contributing to the spread of the virus; they chose this course specifically and intentionally, because the failure to contain the virus damages the credibility of our public institutions and even our public spirit. (And, not incidentally, damages the credibility of the Biden administration.) This is not an accident. Their leadership knows what they're doing. The run-of-the-mill dedicated Trumpkins may not understand, but their congressional leaders know how it works; the Murdock clan knows how it works. They're doing this on purpose.)
_________________________
* Wikipedia has a more detailed explanation of "the R Number".
Post Script:
Your question did cause me to recollect some of our history. It brought back to my mind the stories of Franklin Roosevelt's 'fireside chats', usually concerning subjects of some complexity.
I wonder if Biden (and America) would benefit from a modern equivalent?
I realize that Biden still suffers from stuttering, suppressed for the most part but never conquered. So, he might want to 'introduce' experts to explain the details so that his speech impediment wouldn't detract from the presentation (and maybe he might want to admit up front that's why they're coming in to aid his presentation). Maybe even bring the now hated (on the right-wing) Anthony Fauci. (It is no accident that they've chosen to add Fauci to their list of hated enemies. That was a preëmptive strike. Biden might want to acknowledge that up front as well.)
They're doing this on purpose.)
They may shake people's confidence in our system, but they are also risking losing a lot of supporters along the way. Hard to vote when you're dead. (No, I don't believe Trump's lie about dead people voting.)
There are also a lot of people getting seriously ill who, if they survive, realize that they should have gotten vaccinated.
But perhaps I am still hoping people will wake up.
Interesting aside, there was a walk out at some of our schools by students protesting the lack of proper safety precautions against Covid. Now if we can just make the connection for people that the reason we are seeing lax protection has a great deal to do with the protests by the anti-vaxxers at those school board meetings.
am disappointed with the performance of the vaccine against the omicron variant; I was hoping for better than that.
I am a little disappointed at the number of reinfections in vaccinated people. But I suppose with the amount of virus still spreading it is hard to avoid. We will never know if having a population that was fully vaccinated would have forced the virus to die out or if it would have mutated to survive, circumventing the vaccine.
We all can't go the way of China. We are all suffering from virus fatigue, even those of us trying to do the right thing.
I wonder if Biden (and America) would benefit from a modern equivalent?
I have heard of a community in Minnesota that is fully vaccinated. They listened to their medical professionals, trusting their advice. Their Covid numbers are miniscule.
Too many people are taking their cues from the internet, which is full of garbage.
"…there was a walk out at some of our schools by students
protesting the lack of proper safety precautions…"
I've read about student walk outs in other cities as well. Haven't had anything like that locally.
"We are all suffering from virus fatigue…"
Maybe not all. I'm still taking the same precautions with about the same enthusiasm, or lack thereof. Got to be habitual with me I suppose.
"Too many people are taking their cues from the internet,
which is full of garbage."
They want garbage; they seek it out. They know what they're doing. I know what they're doing. They're looking to justify 'believing' what they wish were the truth.
________________________________
Follow up comment on the issue of vaccine efficacy: I'm thinking that there's a potential for better, more long lasting vaccines based on inducing an immune response to other viral proteins than just those making up the 'spikes'. I may just be wishing there, but, well, I am doing that much at least. But is possible that better vaccines are still waiting to be teased out in the medical labs.
Word's going around Washington that Manchin is trying to negotiate a comeback on a smaller version of Biden's moribund "BBB" initiative and, perhaps surprisingly, he's found somebody who'll still talk to him--Nancy Pelosi.
I wouldn't bet on Manchin bein' able to string Pelosi along further than maybe a short afternoon.
What are the odds that Russia invades Ukraine?
"What are the odds…?"
The State Department has ordered the Embassy cleared out to skeleton staff and ordered the diplomats' families to leave the county while they still can. They've further recommended that all other Americans likewise flee while they still can.
What's that tell ya?
"Public approval of the Supreme Court is down to 40 percent,
a new low. A poll last year on individual justices’ approval
ratings is even more interesting. The three liberal justices were
all above water by six to 10 points. The conservatives were all
in negative territory, except Samuel Alito, who was +1"
Michael Tomasky, writing in the NewRepublic
We have a new omicron 'subvariant', designated as 'BA.₂' loose in the wild; it does not appear significantly different from the original omicron (henceforth to be officially known as 'BA.₁'). WaPo But it's still early; significant differences could yet be discovered.
What's that tell ya?
*sigh* Yeah, That's what I was afraid you'd say. We are sending more troops to neighboring countries too.
Why do i get the feeling the whole world is falling apart? And we have barely touched on the beginning of climate change.
The three liberal justices were
all above water by six to 10 points. The conservatives were all
in negative territory, except Samuel Alito, who was +1"
If people would vote like that we wouldn't be in the trouble we are in!
So I went out to eat in a restaurant Sunday for lunch. It was early and there weren't that many people there. We also were in direct line with the outside door so got the breeze when it opened. The employees weren't wearing masks though. We'll see.
My brother and sister-in-law have been sick. She tested positive and he just assumed he would. He didn't bother with a test. They both had mild cases and are both vaccinated and boosted. My two niece's families each had a kid test positive with mild cases. None of them are vaccinated.
"If people would vote like that…"
I was thinking about Amy Coney Barrett's public denial that they were 'partisan hacks' (as if denying it is gonna make it go away). Similar public protestations against the image they've created have been made by Clarence Thomas, Bret Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice Roberts (just to name a few I can think of right off the top of my head). It seems that they really do think that denying it will make the problem go away. They don't seem to comprehend that they are the ones convincing the public that they are indeed 'partisan hacks'.
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Robert Reich takes a shot at explaining Manchin and Sinema in TheGuardian.
I think he's got Sinema fairly closely pegged. Manchin's a bit more complicated than just the ego that the Reich notes. (I'd not take exception to Reich's point, but there's more to Manchin's contrarian activities than the simple ego display that Reich discusses.)
(Short piece; quick read.)
Russia is threatening to cut off natural gas to Europe if they invade Ukraine and are hit with sanctions. Right now they have closed the spigot enough to raise prices a good amount. I have always thought relying on Russia was a mistake. How people could not have foreseen something like this happening is beyond me.
And kind of related is the reliance on manufacturers in China for critical things like computer chips. I always worried about some kind of instability there interfering with economic activity, not a virus.
"How people could not have foreseen something like this
happening is beyond me."
That's because they did foresee the problem, but they did it anyway. You maybe didn't consider that, or, if you did, you decided to not believe it.
Short-term thinking. Next election, next quarterly profit report. Hope to take their profits and move on. Hope the consequences hit the next guy in charge, after they've moved on, with their profits. Let the next guy deal with it. Eventually the time comes; somebody takes the hit they knew was comin'.
"And kind of related is the reliance on manufacturers in China
for critical things like computer chips."
Quite a bit more than just 'kinda' related.
(I still consider myself a free market capitalist at heart, but I could go on quite a dark rant about the corporate capitalism and monopoly tolerance that's created a 'captured' market for us in the place of a free market, and probably end it up on the consequences for global warming. )
Article in the WashingtonPost takes note of the fact that many police forces across the country have quit training their own officers--closed their police training facilities, and have 'outsourced' the training of their officers to private 'police academies' which (as they allege) tend to teach the new recruits how to be the next Derek Chauvin and how to well and truly enjoy their ability to inflict violence and mayhem upon the civilians they meet and greet in the course of their day at work.
And those citizens are paying for this training.
Noticed a slogan this morning that'll probably work its way into my discourse in the future.
"Voter suppression for adults; history suppression for the kids"
Time magazine (online) has an article suggesting that omicron might indeed turn out to be the viral strain you were hoping it to be, the one that seldom kills people, and that we can learn to live with like we live with the flu.
Pushing against a deadlime at work, so haven't been able to respond to your comments.
That's because they did foresee the problem, but they did it anyway.
That seems to be the default for many of our major decisions in our history. Yup, cash is King.
Quite a bit more than just 'kinda' related.
lol! I'm from Minnesota, we tend to be understated. Of course, there are some exceptions, like the Pillow Guy. Who will be forever known as the Pillow Guy.
Article in the WashingtonPost takes note of the fact that many police forces across the country have quit training their own officers--closed their police training facilities, and have 'outsourced' the training of their officers to private 'police academies'...
Kind of reminds me of the private security forces our military was relying on for force projection in various places. Look how well that worked for them. So why not bring it back to the homeland? (Yes, we do tend toward sarcasm at times as well.)
Time magazine (online) has an article suggesting that omicron might indeed turn out to be the viral strain you were hoping it to be, the one that seldom kills people, and that we can learn to live with like we live with the flu.
I'm thinking of a Covid post again. It may comment on this theory, or not.
"Voter suppression for adults; history suppression for the kids"
The slogan may be new, but the thought really isn't.
"The slogan may be new, but the thought really isn't."
More's the pity. No matter how many times we beat it down, it always comes back--always.
The part I find most curious is that it keeps comin' back first and fiercest in the Old South. I've got no good theory for why that ought to be. Happenstance maybe. Or maybe I just need to ponder on that some more.
Or maybe I just need to ponder on that some more.
You and the Old South.
Some people in the Old South are pondering it already. They wanna pull it off next, not swing and miss again. Whether that chance comes in 2024 or 2028, they wanna pull it off next time.
They wanna pull it off next, not swing and miss again.
It's not going to help that Biden's rating is rivaling Trump's for the basement spot. Republicans are enthusiastic about voting in the midterms and Democrats are kind of languishing again. Democracy may not die with a scream but with a whimper.
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