What part of COVID will kill you did they miss?

A conservative Florida radio host who was dead-set against taking a coronavirus vaccine is now dead. Marc Bernier died Saturday of COVID-19 after a three-week battle, his bereft radio station announced. He was 65. (Daily News)

As of today, Monday, August 30, 2021, more than 630,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, and there are some 38 million reported cases, yet barely half of the United States has been vaccinated. (NY Times) The 14-day rate change for deaths alone is at +96%, with a daily average of 1200 deaths. An estimated 4.1 million people around the world have died from this disease and the current epicenter is the United States.

Yet, individuals like Bernier and his ilk, male and female, continue to deny there is anything to see here. Or that it’s a scam or some federal indoctrination program that can be avoided or cured with Vitamin C and aspirin. Or veterinary dewormers.

If you do not want to get vaccinated for whatever crazy ideal you feel is worth dying for, that is your prerogative. But please, for the love of humanity, stop spouting incorrect, misleading, or flat-out distorted opinions. Too many have died, too many are sick, and too many are struggling to get through their day taking care of those who otherwise might have lined up for the vaccine.

Oh, and the reactions:

Longtime radio show guest and Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood was gutted after learning that the host had died…

We kindly ask that privacy is given to Marc’s family during this time of grief.

Was The US Successful?

Chuck Todd (Meet the Press) on the local NBC station tonight asked was the US successful in training the Afghan defense forces?

Of course they were. Look how fast the Taliban has retaken the country.

Come on folks, if you think that the Afghan defense forces were comprised of any group other than the Taliban, you have not been paying attention to more than 40? 100? years of history in the region. Now the US has trained another force that is capable of kicking the US military’s ass.

Let the GOP Gaslighting Continue

From the Washington Post Daily 202 newsletter round up for 27 July 2021:

House GOP leaders attacked Pelosi before today’s hearing. “House Republican leaders sought to blame Pelosi for the events of Jan. 6, arguing that she was responsible for officers not being sufficiently prepared to repel the pro-Trump rioters,” Wagner and Donna Cassata report. “‘January 6 should have never happened,’ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said outside the Capitol. ‘We should have prepared and been prepared for the officers, made sure they have the training and the equipment that they needed.’ McCarthy and other House GOP leaders also took aim at Pelosi for removing from the select committee Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Jim Bank (Ind.), two of the five Republican members McCarthy selected. McCarthy later withdrew his three other picks in protest.

Excuse me, Mr. McCarthy (and no, I am not sure you deserve any title beyond the Mister, unless it is seditionist.), but what sort of preparations was the Speaker supposed to have made in advance of what the President at the time called a social gathering? Are you implying that the Speaker and the head of the Capital Police should have been expecting an armed attempt on the US Capitol like nothing we have ever seen before because of a disagreement (insert BIG LIE) over a paperwork process that in the last 200 odd years has occurred with little more fanfare than the box scores from the night before?

I am pretty sure that repelling boarders…er…US Citizens from the ramparts like soldiers invading Troy was not in their job description, much less any other training materials they are exposed to on a day to day basis. If so, then the Capital Police were not the right people to guard the Capitol. That should have been the job of the United States Army. However, in the United States we have a law (Posse Comitatus Act) that actually prohibits the Army from enforcing the law. Good thing.

Which brings us back to the core question Mr. McCarthy. What exactly should the Capital Police been trained to do on January 6? Because repelling a horde of brainwashed, misguided, and mislead citizens certainly should not have been it. And that falls squarely on the shoulders of the GOP, their President, and their continued gaslighting of America.

Tyranny of the Majority

AUSTIN, Texas — House Speaker Dade Phelan late Tuesday signed 52 arrest warrants for Democrats who left the state for Washington D.C. in July and have yet to return to the House chamber for the second special legislative session of the year. (Yahoo News)

American political discourse is supposed to be about compromise, give and take, and a collegial spirit of doing what is best for the electorate.

On January 6, 2020, this went out the window, and as we have seen since, it continues to fall by the wayside.

In the latest bout of my way or the highway which has seen disgruntled GOP (and former) GOP lead states strip away powers from their Governor when they lost control (Wisconsinand North Carolina), or when they disagree with the Governor (Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky) and other elected officials (Arizona).

Now Texas issues arrest warrants for the minority power (Democrats) who refuse to vote for what is clearly voter suppression laws. Their option, knowing they do not have the votes to override what is clearly a regressive bill, is to ensure quorum cannot be achieved and left the state.

State Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio highlighted the issue clearly:

Have we got to the point where we believe our own bull shizz so much that we arrest our own colleagues. Civil discourse took a nasty turn today.

Civil discourse is no longer civil. And what is happening in Texas around voting rights is the same level of GOP crap that we have seen in Georgia, and other Republican strongholds where following four years of mismanagement at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the American public said enough is enough. And those voices were loudest in the parts of the country where the GOP is now moving beyond gerrymandering and moving to outright vote restriction so this sort of radical politics never happens again.

Welcome to the new normal.