The Usual Suspects — Little Prince Rand Paul, Ted ‘Cancun’ Cruz, RonJon and Utah’s Mike Lee:
From @axios this evening, GOP cult caucus says they'll defund government if government tries to fund vaccine work.
If Joe Biden wants to shutdown the virus, the radical GOPers will shutdown government https://t.co/Y8nDL5MjRj pic.twitter.com/Lsx0evfOMA
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) February 3, 2022
— janegray (@ms_sharims) February 3, 2022
Litlebritdifrnt
And those same twats will be demanding to know why Biden hasn’t conquered the virus yet. This is their entire focus, get rid of any anti-virus measures and then blame Biden for not getting rid of the virus. They are so transparent it is not even funny.
brantl
Why can’t these assholes cut out the middle-men and just lemming off a cliff. JJCOAC.
Chief Oshkosh
Combining this post with that of the morning’s post about a National Prayer Fruitloops Marathon Meal, maybe we should all start praying that the GOP Death Cult dies horrific deaths by disease. Covid 19 would be preferable, but I am not picky.
Miss Bianca
Yep. Kay predicted this, didn’t she? They’re not going to stop at one, because they never stop at one. From COVID vaccine to all vaccines. From “cancel culture” whining to book banning and whitewashing history.
They’re never going to stop, so we always have to be prepared to stop them. This is why we can never have nice things – because the minute we get them, the revanchists freak out and start demanding heads on plates.
brantl
If conservatives continue to get their way, soon, we won’t have fire.
Chief Oshkosh
To paraphrase a nasty bug: “Their proposal is acceptable.” Let’s start with Ted! No, let’s do Rand first! Shit, I can’t decide. RoJo? Dammit, when did I become so indecisive?!
Math Guy
How can we be like this, as a species, yet at the same time land robots on Mars, produce inspired art and literature, and probe the fundamental nature of reality? The cognitive dissonance is more than I can stand.
debbie
One of the RWNJs running for Portman’s Senate seat has a new ad featuring the SquirrelTop who resoundingly endorses the RWNJ. Standing side by side in nutjob solidarity.
Roger Moore
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I think a large fraction of the crazy pro-virus people have bought completely into magical thinking. They think the whole problem is that we’re overreacting to the virus. The economic slowdown was because of government restrictions, not because people changed their behavior because there was a new deadly virus. To the extent any problems were because people were changing their behavior, it was because people were scaring and shaming them.
According to this thinking, what we need to do is to return to doing things the way we did before COVID. Yes, everyone will catch COVID pretty quickly after we drop precautions, but that’s good because they’ll then get natural immunity, which is so much better than getting vaccinated. Don’t think about the people who will die if we adopt this policy. Besides, most of them were already sick with something, so they were just going to die soon anyway.
It’s a completely asinine way of thinking, of course. It assumes the person thinking that way is invulnerable, and it devalues the lives of people who get sick and die. IOW, it’s a perfect fit for the way many Republicans already see the world. I don’t know if the Republican legislators who are publicly backing this are true believers or cynically adopting these positions to appeal to the rubes, but it doesn’t matter. They don’t belong within a thousand miles of the levers of power.
Roger Moore
@brantl:
They don’t want to jump off a cliff. They want to push you off a cliff so there’s more good stuff for them.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
Anti vaxx will be mainstream GOP by 2024, and a requirement to win a primary.
Captain C
@Roger Moore: Maybe if we convince them that their good stuff (and icky people-free zone, that is the rest of us) is at the bottom of the cliff and they have to jump to get it…
The Dangerman
Fuck ‘em. Fuck ‘em all.
Sure Lurkalot
OT
In the book club meeting last night, one participant brought up the First Amendment and what it means in terms of, for example, the incitement to violence and attempts to overturn elections.
The Rude Pundit:
Worth reading the whole thing, slippery slope and all.
Miss Bianca
@Roger Moore: I think you have hit the proverbial nail on the head, sir.
bluegirlfromwyo
So Biden can redirect defense money for vaccines like TFG did for his wall. amirite? /s
Kay
This would be fun to run against because you’re under no obligation to actually engage on anti-vaxxx theories, the “lab leak theory”, some complex ideological idea about the power of OSHA, whatever the fuck they say. You don’t have to get into it at all.
Whatever they say the Democrat should respond with “I’m pro vaccines- covid, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, the whole set”
debbie
@Roger Moore:
Maybe that’s why they’re so angry when told they have a serious case of COVID and could die.
Anyway
@Roger Moore:
Republican legislators (their friends and family) advocating this have access to monoclonal antibodies and expensive therapies not available to regular folk.
They are covered — as also SCROTUS justices, other rich folk. It’s only the little people who’ll suffer.
laura
Rand Paul doesnt wash his hands when he shits. Same for the other 48 signatories of the right
Prove me wrong.
Bill Arnold
A cause of America’s labor shortage: Millions with long COVID (Aimee Picchi, February 1, 2022, MoneyWatch)
China will essentially not be dealing with these post-acute sequelae, relative to the US and many(most) other countries. (Zero-covid strategy)
Pro-pandemic policies are a huge gift to the Chinese Communist Party! The CCP thanks you, GOP!
(There are similar lines of attack, too).
bluegirlfromwyo
These nimrods never heard of anyone getting COVID twice? Stellar.
VOR
@Kay: 2020 Texas Republican Party Platform:
250.g: We reject any government-mandated treatment, vaccination, or use of controlled substances of any kind.
253: Natural Medical Right: We call for an addition to the Texas Bill of Rights that explicitly recognizes the natural right to refuse vaccination or medical treatment and the right for vaccination or medical treatment to not be a condition of provision of government services.
89. Lockdowns Never Again: The Republican Party of Texas calls upon our elected officials to never again implement mass lockdowns on the people, our businesses, and churches in the name of communicable disease response; nor should Texas officials ever again presume they know better how to treat or prioritize the medical treatment of Texans and to make command and control edicts that dictate to healthcare providers how to do their job. We oppose funding or implementation of any form of contact tracing.
58. Mask Mandates: Government should not be able to force businesses to require face coverings.
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion that my youngest brother is a conspiracy-mongering RWNJ who thinks TFG’s farts don’t stink, and who is not only an anti-vaxxer/Covid-hoaxer, but believes the Earth is flat and the moon landing was a fake.
The rest of the family are all accustomed to getting links to whatever Rick’s latest hobbyhorse is. And today, that hobbyhorse seems to be the Canadian truckers who have swarmed Ottawa. This morning he linked to some sketchy “news” item he found on YouTube. I didn’t link, but my normally placid, even-tempered, supremely tolerant Canadian cousin did — and I guess it was finally a link too far. His rant in response is one of the best things I’ve ever seen:
A cigarette, I need one after reading that.
Kay
@Bill Arnold:
The county where I live is absolutely inundated with covid, and unvaccinated people who are infected don’t all go to the hospital but they get really sick. A week or two off work sick, with no paid sick leave for most of them. They’re taking a real financial hit.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Talk radio today has been blasting the non-peer reviewed Johns Hopkins study claiming that the lockdown did not work.
So, lockdown don’t work, masks don’t work and vaccines don’t work.
Back when this thing started, I expected some fire-breathing minister would be shouting about how the pandemic was punishment for … insert librul cause.
Instead, the right wing drumbeat is “accept death. Only a few old people are dying and they would have died anyway.”
It is crazy, but they are insistent on putting the economy before human life.
Note that their is a faction of Tories also pushing for this in the UK.
It is not just a US thing.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
I think that is exactly what is happening. My middle son has COVID and he is furious because several of his co workers went to work obviously sick and poo pooing my son’s concerns. Now my son and his fiancée are home really sick with COVID.
He describes his anti vaxx COVID hoax colleagues as stupid, sociopathic motherfuckers.
He knows he got it at work because she has been teaching her classes remotely and he was only going to the office. Otherwise they have been home studying.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: This reminds of husband kitteh going off after a particularly stupid WhatsApp forward (the fount of BJP propaganda) from his Muslim hating, Modi worshipping aunt in Delhi
He is normally pretty placid.
Kay
If I read one more article on Denmark dropping covid restrictions with no context I am going to scream.
Denmark is 80% vaccinated, they have universal health care access that while not “no cost” to individuals, it is pretty damn close. 70% of Danes belong to a labor union and 100% of Danes have paid time off when they’re sick. There’s no comparison.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think, after reading that, that “Ricky, just stop” is going to become part of my own personal set of rotating tags for when I’ve just had enough of someone’s moranity.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
A righteous rant from someone who is normally easygoing probably has a lot more impact (certainly more novelty) than if it came from someone who rants all the time. Not saying any minds will be changed, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Yes, I loved that line.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
What lockdown? AFAIK the US never had a lockdown. In some jurisdictions non-essential businesses were ordered closed during and around wave peaks, schools were closed, etc. But I was never able to not travel.
If we’d had real lockdowns combined with general use of N95/KN95 masks, we could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives even pre-vaccines, and incurred many fewer cases of debilitating long COVID. We collectively as a country choose not to do this.
Kay
Arizona Republicans filmed themselves signing the fraudulent electoral certficates they then tried t submit.
I assume they all thought they were really going to install Dear Leader so there would never be repercussions.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Someone needs to look into the qualifications of the study’s authors.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
Currently at home ? sick.
Good news – 1st of 2 Covid tests came back negative – thanks Joe!
Also, ditched Spotify for Tidal and got my playlists imported – thanks Raven!
Now for some chow.
Ruckus
@Math Guy:
Because we aren’t all stupid motherfuckers who think their political conservatism protects them from all risks great and small. And that they belong to a cult of fucking stupidity might also be part of it.
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
Good point on those immediate economic hits.
Would be straightforward for an academic economist to make (and publish!) reasonable estimates of these costs.
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
This is extremely speculative. I heard an expert talking about “permanent damage” from Long Covid, and I wondered how you could talk about permanent damage related to a pandemic which is only in its second year.
And comparing health outcomes in China to the US is a waste of time. No one knows how accurate China figures are. Hell, with the crap reporting from some states, I am not too sure what US figures might be.
Roger Moore
@debbie:
Some of them are mad when they find out they have COVID because they honestly thought it could never happen to them. Getting really sick is a sign of moral weakness. They’re supposed to be protected because they live healthy lives and have strong immune systems. It’s only those degenerates with preexisting conditions who are at risk. It could never happen to me!
Mallard Filmore
@Roger Moore:
I like their morals, they are so delightfully perverse. More than 1 in 400 USA residents are dead from COVID and still climbing.
After thousands of safe flights of the 737-MAX airplane, only 2 crashes and every plane of that type was grounded. Governments all over the world must have over reacted.
If even 1 in 1000 commercial flights dropped out of the sky, I would not fly.
burnspbesq
@Bill Arnold:
Lockdowns work. The evidence from New Zealand is irrefutable.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
Some organs do not repair themselves much. e.g. kidneys, grey matter in brain.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Roger Moore:
In a nutshell: “They despise ‘weakness’ and they are afraid of appearing weak.”
Mallard Filmore
@VOR:
They will need to amend this one to outlaw abortifacients.
Ruckus
@Bill Arnold:
The hell we all did.
Of course if even more than a small percentage did choose to die for their stupidity, many people who didn’t want to die for the most asinine reason possible would also die because it takes a united front to fight a war with an invisible deadly enemy.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
Hope you heal quickly, man.
RSA
@Math Guy:
Not about your comment specifically, but I’m reminded that whenever I hear white nationalists talk about how great their ancestors were, I think, “And what have you accomplished personally?” There’s such a large variance over individual human beings. The flip side of taking pride in the Einsteins and Leonardos is feeling shame about the Hitlers.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
They don’t belong within a thousand miles of the surface of the earth. Either direction would be acceptable.
FITFY
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
It’s pretty clear that there is and has been very little COVID in China. They’re so serious about it that they are concerned about the cold chain and imports because they have some cases (all of which are investigated) that be most easily explained by frozen fomites (and I guess people picking their nose after handling them). (TODO how many cases of people traveling from China and being found to be infected have there been? I don’t recall seeing any such reports. )
BC in Illinois
And on a topic completely different:
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks Steep!
So far the worst part of it has been the sore throat that sent me home from work in the first place. By this morning, I sounded like Shohreh Aghdashloo after a couple of packs of heaters…
Cermet
@Math Guy: Easy: Either you accept science (objective reality that is fact based) or are a religious loon that rejects these obvious truths.
WaterGirl
@Math Guy: I feel you. It boggles the mind.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Money has and likely always will be a driving force. It doesn’t really matter what the form is, it’s the quantity that counts. And if you doubt me, check out the Forbes richest list. Been published for decades as you likely know and as we found out with SFB, not always even all that close to accurate. Now the idiots may not be on that list or even within firing range of our longest range missiles but they do seem to worship their ideal of hate creates wealth, and human history has often backed them up on this.
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
Health experts I’ve heard discuss this on US and UK program have not made definitive statements about permanent damage from Long Covid.
One source. Public radio station KPCC which does a daily program on Covid with a rotating panel of health experts.
Kathleen
@debbie: Jim Renacci won endorsement of Clermont County (uber red) Republican Part and chose “Christian filmmaker who made documentary about Trump” for his running mate:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/ohio/articles/2021-12-02/ohio-governor-hopeful-picks-running-mate-with-ties-to-trump
Trump has not endorsed anyone yet.
J R in WV
First amendment doesn’t apply to those rooting for the deadly virus, instead of for people to get treatment to prevent infection and death. I’m in favor of all the vaccines, tetanus, whooping cough — I got vaccinated for that shit when I heard about people breaking their ribs from coughing!!
I’m done with empathy for RWNJs fighting the public health people.
RWNJs fighting the public health system are working against all of America and for the enemies of democracy. The courts, legal system, cops, feds, all need to shut them down, jail them if necessary.
I recently saw video of a Karen woman ranting about mask requirements outside a club that threw her out, she was shrieking, and then two cops took her into custody. You should have heard her screaming — then cuffed in an instant, went speechless when the cuffs went on. You could see her think “You can’t arrest me, I’m a white woman!” but there were those cuffs on her hands behind her back. Oops, bitch !! Went too far when she attacked staff in the place and they called the cops — who came right away.
I’m done with these crazed people, doing their own “research” and finding out that THEY WERE Right [ NOT ] until they catch it and die.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for sharing that. I notice that you haven’t shared the response to the response. Was there one?
edit: I am guessing that Ricky is still sputtering with rage, so no response yet.
gene108
What worries me the most about these conservative reactionary politicians and especially their supporters is these people’s egos and sense of self is explicitly tied to the idea, as Sean Hannity once put it, that “The U.S. is the greatest, best country God has ever given man on the face of earth”.
Everything they do erodes the global perception of American greatness from:
At some point, if Republicans continue being uncooperative science denying reactionaries with the rest of the world, other nations will move on without us, whether on green technology or a reshaping of the international monetary system.
The backlash from conservative Americans and the desire to scape an “other” is going to be frightening, if we fall off our pedestal.
And all these Republican stunts to win the news cycle and next election erode where our pedestal stands a little bit at a time.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
Glad you’re Covid-free, but sorry you’re feeling punk. Swift recovery to you.
Hoodie
@gene108: Another thing that worries me is that, because such a large part of the American public is so easily manipulated, the charlatans and demagogues of the GOP and elsewhere seem to be caught up in an escalating spiral of one-upmanship. You hear about some of these media stunts and party platforms and they reek of “Oh yeah? Top this!” It’s all about grabbing the attention of a bunch of children by seeing who can shout the loudest. It’s mob rule at its worst.
Mallard Filmore
@Bill Arnold:
China has picked up a habit of blaming outsiders for many problems. I put “China COVID blame” into Google to see some theories. China also tried to point at wild deer in the USA, mail from overseas, Main lobsters [!!!], the USA military.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/china-s-covid-blame-game-fizzles-over-infection-by-mail-theory
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china-linked-disinformation-campaign-blames-covid-maine-lobsters-rcna3236
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/06/china/china-covid-origin-mic-intl-hnk/index.html (COVID is from US military lab)
I would go with a Wuhan lab leak before this shit.
debbie
@Kathleen:
Yuck.
The RWNJ I mentioned, Mike Gibbons, is a past NFL player and businessman. He and Squirrel Guy are teaming up to oust and fire (seems redundant to me) Fauci. Gibbons’s tagline in one of his ads is “Let’s make them pay.” ?
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
There is something else at play here. To go from anti-Covid vaxx to anti-vaxx in general will hurt the economy and society. Even if you said that rich fat cats wanted docile workers, sick and dying workers are not productive.
This rejection of public health and retreat from rationality will hurt the rich as well. They cannot effectively hide from the virus.
Also, even though the economy slowed during the pandemic, much of the economy continued to roll along. The wealth of a number of billionaires actually increased.
We appear to have some of the usual suspects, the Kochs, the Murdochs, etc., funding some of the irrational reaction to Covid, but I don’t see how they profit from anarchy. And certainly, the virus don’t care about this foolishness.
Leto
@Ruckus: Personally I’m all for financing sending them on the Musk and Bezos dick rockets to Mars to be the serfs serving their overlords they want to be. Go off and show us just how well you can pick yourself up by your own boot straps. Go off to the new frontier/range and be the “strong people” you always claim to be.
Kalakal
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan: Get well soon
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
@Math Guy: Ruckus put it more nicely than my “Because we aren’t all Dump-humping, fascist dumbfucks.”
matt
‘Death to America’ – your friendly Republican neighbors
Bill Arnold
@Mallard Filmore:
YY_Sima Qian in the morning covid threads has outlined the case for cold chain infection. I’m not convinced, but it’s pretty solid (human) infection investigations by the Chinese where they haven’t found another explanation. And their base rate is really really low, so the usual explanation of undiscovered index patient cases is rather less likely than in e.g. the US.
Agree about the US military lab conspiracy theory stuff that has been spread in China; it looks like it was spun up without evidence and amplified as a counter to the Wuhan lab escape “theories” (also not particularly evidence-based) emerging from the US.
Ohio Mom
Note to self: At next doctor’s appointment, ask how long immunity from childhood diseases and vaccines last, if these nutcases succeed, I might have to update my immune system.
On another note, the Atlantic article on human sacrifice was interesting and somewhat amusing. A reminder that we kid ourselves if we think our society is more advanced than the Aztec’s.
Miss Bianca
@Mallard Filmore: Yeah, I do wonder how they plan to square that particular circle – but have no doubt they will be able to perform the mental gyrations required to do so without breaking a sweat.
brendancalling
@SiubhanDuinne: my son—who is canadian—sent me a very long Twitter thread about all the trouble these dummies are in, as well as how the dummies are being absolutely TORMENTED on Twitter by Zello trolls, who are putting songs like “Ram Ranch” and “Welcome to Cum Town” (please do not Google these, I am warning you) all over their channels.
A lot of these dummies may lose their licenses for using commercial vehicles for personal use. Cops are taking license plate numbers. The Quebec truckers are in particular jeopardy because of how QC regulates the industry. The city of Ottawa may be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of liability claims as well. Meanwhile the truckers are running out of gas and food, they have no place to stay, and many of them don’t even realize that GoFundMe ain’t comin’ through, ever.
Start here for an insane overdose of schadenfreude
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne: Good on your cousin!
I subscribe to some Canadian news on YouTube, and these truckers really should be strangled with moose intestines. Because FREEDOM!
Hooray for morons taking sides in a world war against a virus – AND TAKING THE VIRUS’S SIDE!
mrmoshpotato
@brendancalling: Any idea how much money was thrown at these plague rats before GoFundMe said “Go fuck yourselves!”?
brendancalling
@J R in WV:
“I’m done with these crazed people, doing their own “research” and finding out that THEY WERE Right [ NOT ] until they catch it and die.”
I’m at the point where I’m fine with them dying, and have been for some time now.
Miss Bianca
@BC in Illinois: Ha!
SiubhanDuinne
@brendancalling:
Jesus in an Articulated Lorry, but those dudes are stupid.
Or dumb, one.
SiubhanDuinne
@BC in Illinois:
I’m actually amazed he’s still PM.
brendancalling
@mrmoshpotato: apparently they raised upwards of $9 million, but GFM asked “where’s your plan,” but such didn’t exist.
It was all a grift, and now a bunch of dummies who fucked around are gonna find out. I am absolutely delighted by this. I hope they’re ruined. Flying swastikas, pissing on the grave of the unknown soldier—fuuuuuuuuuck yooooooou!!!
Uncle Cosmo
Maybe people should avoid the term “permanent damage” and speak instead of “long-term damage.” Recognizing that shortfalls in physical and mental capability might, eventually, be recovered but appear to persist for significant intervals after recovery from the infection itself. Y’think mebbe?
mrmoshpotato
@brendancalling:
Wow! Lots of idiots in this world.
schrodingers_cat
Before I got my Green Card, I had to prove that I was vaccinated for a host infectious diseases. And I had to get tested for both HIV and TB. Are these nutjobs going to waive those requirements?
And the physical with all the blood tests and vaccinations cost a pretty packet.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Roger Moore:”….It assumes the person thinking that way is invulnerable”
I think you’ve hit on the appeal right there. It’s wishful thinking where it isn’t projection. Surely if they believe they’re invulnerable, they’ll really be invulnerable, right?
There’s a reason there’s a lot of overlap with the evangelicals.
Brachiator
@BC in Illinois:
RE: And on a topic completely different:
Equally crazy is this BREXIT related mess:
The DUP (Unionist Party) in Northern Ireland is trying to force Boris Johnson to torch the agreements preventing madness and conflict between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
gene108
@Roger Moore:
I have chronic kidney disease. I spent my 30’s watching as my kidneys went into renal failure. At some point, I had to accept this is out of my control. I can do somethings to mitigate it, but I can’t prevent the inevitable.
From this I noticed a few things.
First, most people believe they are mostly in control of their health. It’s not just the CrossFit, Keto diet gym rat or dedicated yoga practitioner, spin class junkie, etc., who feel like this. Pretty much anyone not dealing with a chronic illness of some kind thinks anyone can control their health by something they read in Men’s Health, while in line at the store checkout.
Second, the idea they are not in control is too terrifying to consider. They tune this idea out all together. So much so that they cannot comprehend people with illnesses beyond anyone’s control.
Third, no one likes to deal with the idea of their own mortality and frailty. People assume everything is working just fine and dandy, until one day it isn’t. Routine medical care is something people struggle to accept as a necessity as they go through middle age into old age.
boatboy_srq
@brantl: They’re already basically going after the printing press.
They’ll never give up the wheel, though.
Especially the Catherine wheel.
Miss Bianca
@gene108: I hear you. I resisted the notion that I might need to take statins to control my high triglyceride level, for example – oh, no, not me!
It actually took COVID to get me to take that kind of stuff seriously, to be honest. All of a sudden I was really scared. Scared straight, if you will.
boatboy_srq
@Roger Moore:
This is the perfect medical corollary to Prosperity Gospel magical thinking. If you’re healthy, it’s because you’re Blessed™; if not, it’s because you’re one of those unGodly IslamoFascoSoshulist™ Sinners and deserve all the malaise you’re getting. This (as others have also pointed out) informs their horror and denial when they get diagnosed, because they’re Good Righteous Xtianists who can’t possibly be infected with That Totally Fictitious Disease.
Jeffro
they knew that if America bounced right back from the pandemic under the Biden Administration’s leadership, they would lose the next five elections.
they knew that if they went all-in on anti-vax, anti-mask craziness, they could kneecap the pandemic recovery, regardless of the cost to their own voters.
you watch: when we hit 1M dead Americans in a month or less, the GOP is going to go nuts with “worse than trumpov!’ “so much for leadership!” “how could you, Mr. President, how could you?”
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
There is no telling where this madness might end. They don’t seem to understand the consequences of their actions.
Steeplejack (phone)
@brendancalling:
That thread is hilarious!
Jeffro
Yup. Because calling out one vaccine, and rallying your ‘troops’ to avoid it at all costs, is silly. Especially since we’ve been vaccinating our schoolkids/troops/elders against a dozen viruses for decades. It starts to look like…like you’re only against the vaccine that will get America back on its feet again under a Democratic administration (and more specifically, the Dem administration that booted their orange god-king out of office)
The only way to stay “consistent” is to be against ALL vaccines. Sorry, future measles and rubella sufferers! You’re just gonna have to take one for the GQPTeam.
Ruckus
@Bill Arnold:
Does it really matter if conservative gray matter deteriorates any worse than it already is? I mean really, how much farther can it deteriorate than it already is?
Jeffro
The selfishness and selflessness, in their own way, across time, and with enough people, helped keep the species rollin’.
I think we’re nearing the end of the era where selfishness is a trait that Mother Nature selects for. But I know we’re going to find out.
Jeffro
I remember at the start of this whole damn thing, many actual experts were saying, “If you deal with it correctly, with speed and science and the appropriate measures…it will look like you overreacted.”
I wish our networks had just run it on a loop for a month, back in March 2020.
But then again, Mr. “slow dow the testing, please” and “we HAVE to open up the churches!” was in charge.
I’m not sure why the media, Dems, etc can’t gin up some energy to remind folks that trumpov well and truly fucked us from the start, just by being a complete, and completely corrupt, moron.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@SiubhanDuinne: @Kalakal: Thanks!!
oldgold
Kovid Kim Reynolds, who is in as pitched battle with Kovid Kristi Noem for worst Governor north of the Mason-Dixon Line, today announced she ending the Covid disaster declaration and shutting down vaccination and case count websites
“We cannot continue to suspend duly enacted laws and treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely,” Reynolds said in a statement. “After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly.”
This despite on January 29 Iowa hitting an all-time high of 230,000 active Covid cases.
boatboy_srq
@Kay: Antivaxx is mainstream GQP already. What we’re seeing in public is the Old Guard GOP not grokking that yet. See: DeSantis, Abbott, Noem, Boebert, MTG, Hawley, Cotton, et al.
@Bill Arnold: In all honesty, if there were indeed a “labor shortage” in the US, my highly-skilled and certified-insurance-salesperson housemate would have found decent employment in a heartbeat five months ago, and not have to tell recruiters that he can make better salary than their customer-service jobs working at Five Guys. There is no “labor shortage”: there’s a shortage of laborers so desperate that they’ll take the wages businesses want to go on paying.
Kalakal
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, I remember going through all that. They were particularly keen on checking for TB which annoyed me as I could show them a whacking great BCG scar. The expense was very irritating as they insisted I used a particular private practice rather than the NHS which would have been free.
I’m sure they’ll find a way to justify insisting that dirty diseased foreigners like myself have to undergo every test & vaccine going before being allowed to set foot on Their sacred soil. After all only ‘other’ people get ill due to moral failings and other general untermenschisness. If they get what they wish for in 10 years the death toll will be horrendous
J R in WV
@brendancalling:
Yeah, me too. I thought that was the point I was making.
The sooner the most RWNJs die of Covid the better off we are!
It makes me a little queasy, but there it is — they are useless, evil and harmful.
Ruckus
@gene108:
I am sorry about your ongoing health issues and wish you the best.
When I was a kid I was so used to seeing docs because of a nasty issue I got from my bout with the measles. This “cured” me of ever thinking it couldn’t happen to me bullshit. Because it already had. And not long after that my 6 month old cousin died. This was not all that unusual at the time, healthcare didn’t have the breadth of information it now has, at the time your life expectancy was at least tomorrow. OK that sounds a bit over dramatic but remember that 1918 pandemic? My father was a year old and came out from Kansas City to Los Angeles by horse drawn wagon. Life wasn’t all that grand back a century ago. People died then from things that have now long ago been stopped. People have not lived through things that grand parents and great grandparents had to live through. A friend where I live is 4 months younger than me and got polio at 1 yr old. She’s a great grandmother now, and has to live in a wheel chair. Much of that normal human mortality was because medicine has developed so much in the last 50-60 yrs. And it started accelerating after the end of WWII. We live at a time when even with healthcare being something that costs way too much it is still better and even more of us are getting access. Those that think it can’t happen to them because of politics or their great personalities or hate are wrong about so much it really isn’t worth considering them human, even if that is a human reaction.
Citizen Alan
@Kay: I had a video interview last Monday for a job in Greeneville Fucking Tennessee and I am actually terrified that I’ll get offered the job and half to face the decision of whether to turn down a $103k/year job that I will have until retirement at the cost of living in what appears to be Mississippi With Mountains.
Central Planning
@brendancalling: Noelle is doing god’s work there. That was hilarious.
brendancalling
@J R in WV: if we’re in a war with the virus—and we are—the those folks are soldiers on the wrong side. I don’t feel sorry for them. I also don’t feel sorry for the Germans, Italians, and Japanese post-WW2. Or the Confederate traitors we didn’t punish halfway enough after the Civil War.
Miss Bianca
@Citizen Alan: trust me, friend – mountains make any Redneckistan more bearable. As well as a whopping great salary. Just sayin’.
James E Powell
@Kay:
The American ruling class works very hard to make sure that Americans know almost nothing about how people live in countries like Denmark. We could have all that here & more, but everyone would insist it’s not possible.
Citizen Alan
@Miss Bianca: Yeah, but the judge I interviewed with somewhat sheepishly admitted that literally no one in that area ever wears masks.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: One of the things that annoys me most is when a person looks at a benefit that someone else is getting and says “Why does he have that when I don’t? Take it away!” instead of saying “Wait, why don’t I have it too? I deserve it.”
boatboy_srq
@schrodingers_cat: They are indeed going to waive those requirements, for two reasons.
Ohio Mom
@Citizen Alan: Aren’t there any jobs anywhere else?
Queens, for example? Why move all the way to NYC just to end up more or less where you started from? (as a native New Yorker, all those Southern states are interchangeable to me.)
I wish you could see the alarm on my face.
Kay
@Citizen Alan:
It is alarming to me how many people are sick. Again- not hospitalized, but I’m not sure that’s good because they’re working sick. Of course they are. They can’t miss two weeks work. None of these people are even getting tested. If you’re in a retail store or a restaurant you should assume there are people there with active covid illness, working, because they can’t not work.
Kay
Manchin is upset that he’s not the center of attention so is making some more meaningless promises.
The only people who are still fooled by Joe Manchin are political media. He’s running out the clock to protect the Trump tax cuts.
Steeplejack
@Citizen Alan:
Goddamn it, do we have to remind you of the agony you went through to get out of Mississippi in the first place? What makes you think that you won’t be able to find a good job someplace where you actually want to live? Ditch that negative thinking!
Nettoyeur
@Anyway: except that monoclonals don’t 2ork on Omicron, according to manufacturer.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
??????????
rikyrah
@Kay:
All what you wrote are little details that they would never include in the story??
Paul in KY
@Kay: Excellent advice, Kay!
Paul in KY
@SiubhanDuinne: Was sort of restrained, I thought…