The Post has a long piece about COVID and race. The basic insight is the pandemic death rates by race have flipped. Where once blacks were dying at greater rates than whites, the most recent data shows that whites are dying at greater rates than blacks.
The piece works really hard to show that it’s not just being a white Republican that leads to the disparity, but then, at every turn, relatives of the dead man they’re highlighting (an unvaccinated 59 year-old paramedic in Tennessee) point out that they’re Republicans, and that’s a huge part of their identity.
When the Post has to provide analysis that isn’t words out of other’s mouths, they use relatively wishy-washy phrases like this:
But as the pandemic progressed, the damage done by the virus broadened, and the toxicity of modern-day politics came to the fore.
Ah, yes, the well-know toxicity of Democrats who begged everyone to get vaccinated and wear a mask.
Jonathan Metzl, author of Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland is also interviewed to make the point that there’s something deeper here than party politics going on. Here’s an example from that book:
As Metzl conducted research for his book in 2016, a 41-year-old uninsured Tennessean named Trevor who was jaundiced and in liver failure told him “I would rather die” than sign up for the ACA. When asked why, Trevor, who was identified by first name only, said: “We don’t need any more government in our lives. And in any case, no way I want my tax dollars paying for Mexicans or welfare queens.”
I’m sure Trevor’s MSNBC watching fed his attitudes.
The Post’s piece is correct when it points out that there are deeper reasons than party identification for ignorant, anti-vax, older white folk dying of COVID, but those deeper reasons were cynically harnessed by Republicans. The reporters go out of their way to be sympathetic to these misled fools, but at least they’re willing to also point out that these fools are killing others. For example, the piece covers the case of a vaxxed and boosted 40 year-old PE teacher with COVID who waited in the Emergency Department for 10 hours to be seen because it was full of COVID patients. He arrested, was resuscitated and later died.
Anyway, the piece is pretty good, even though I’m sniping at it a bit. I may be a little critical because I got my flu shot and my COVID bivalent booster yesterday, and I’m going through my 24 hours of shivering and slight flu symptoms. But even that slight sacrifice is too much for these people, so I’m guessing this winter’s flu/COVID season won’t be a March 2020, but it will still be remarkably bad.
Also, has anyone seen any numbers on whether these people will take Paxolvid?
Martin
Been saying it for a while – everything is culture war. Everything. There hasn’t been a policy idea out of the GOP in a decade at least. It’s 100% nonstop culture war on every issue they can find.
The scary part comes when you consider what causes such a culture war to end.
Old Man Shadow
Yeah, I got my flu shot and omicron shot on Saturday. Minor soreness in my shoulder for a couple of days.
I managed to avoid COVID for over 2 years, but got it about three months ago. Took paxlovid as soon as I tested positive and had a minor sore throat. Two days after I was done with it, I developed the worst cold symptoms I’ve ever had in recent memory that lasted eight days. I guess maybe my dosing wasn’t quite on point. I don’t know.
I’m grateful now it wasn’t worse.
But COVID isn’t something anyone should fuck with. Especially now with these two new omicron mutations out there that seem to do a good job evading antibodies.
Martin
Speaking of Covid, I got my bivalent on Monday and it triggered an allergy response. Not that I’m allergic to the vaccine, but my allergies to everything else went into overdrive. Been fucking miserable, but showing signs of it calming down.
Calouste
That’s the problem right there.
People shouldn’t identify with a political party. They should identify with policies, and then vote for a party or politician that has the same policies. I have the impression that it is stronger on the right, where people refer to themselves as “born Republican/conservative”, than on the left.
Betty Cracker
I don’t know if this has been borne out by data, but I think in Florida, summer is probably the riskiest time for catching COVID because everyone is inside with the A/C on, whereas the rest of the year, we can open the windows and enjoy outdoor stuff. Still amazed hubby and I haven’t caught it yet — most people I know have, and I’ve been directly exposed at least twice but did not catch it. Hubby works with unvaxxed wingnuts who’ve all had it, but they all work outside, thank dog.
Old Man Shadow
@Calouste: They literally brainwash it into you as as kid through church, Sunday school, Christian/home schooling, and the media they allow you to consume. It’s all about messaging and making sure you stay a conservative fundamentalist Christian who votes Republican.
Baud
Only the dead have seen the end of government.
eclare
@Calouste: That is a good point about identifying with policies, I could list many policies that I agree with that naturally lead me to vote D. I wonder how many R’s could do the same?
Also, I support Joe/Kamala, but I don’t feel the need to have a dozen bumper stickers saying that or a twelve foot flag in my yard. The other side is a Jim Jones cult at this point.
The Moar You Know
“The White Plague” is flat-out the shittiest novel I’ve ever read by Frank Herbert.
Oh wait, we’re talking about something else:
You just gotta hope he made good on his threat.
Baud
@eclare:
Great, so what am I going to do with all my 12-foot Baud! 20XX! flags now?
Almost Retired
I, for one, will not miss Trevor at all.
eclare
Got my Omicron booster in September, will get the flu shot by the end of this month. Still masked every time I’m in a public place indoors.
geg6
Personally, I hope they all die. I read an article on this very topic a week or so ago (can’t remember where or I’d link it). The study it cited showed pretty definitively that it’s white Republicans who are dying at an alarming rate, still. Fuck ’em. The less of them, the better. I hate them all at this point.
eclare
@Baud: Hahaha…
trollhattan
@Old Man Shadow: Heard an interview a couple weeks ago with one of the head W.H.O. epidemiologists, who said they have IDd more than two-hundred omicron subvariants, and that it would be a higher number if many nations had not stopped reporting.
This thing will be boinging around for years, perhaps forever.
The Moar You Know
@Martin: the last thousand years or so of European history shows that it pretty much always comes down to a “last man standing” situation to resolve this shit. Not good at all.
eclare
@trollhattan: I don’t know that I will ever stop masking indoors in public. When you think about it, breathing a stranger’s expelled air is gross.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
Yeah, but now Europe has free health care.
Betty Cracker
@eclare: Jim Jones was a piker compared to Trump or even DeSantis. How many deaths are on their heads? It’s got to be tens of thousands at this point.
WV Blondie
We live in West Virginia – but in the Eastern Panhandle, which is fairly rural but considered part of the DC metropolitan area (the exurbs, I guess). My husband and I have had every shot, in a timely fashion. We still wear masks when we go into just about any public building, even the pharmacy. And I’ve noticed that we’re almost the only ones. In our local grocery store, it’s the black employees who are still wearing masks; I make a point of thanking them for it.
andy
@The Moar You Know: that’s their whole thing. they’re absolutely delighted to settle for way way less if they can be assured that categories of people they want dead are more miserable than they are.
it’s all the opposite of that video that was going around when Obama was still President- that one where everybody does a little something nice for somebody else and by the end of the video everybody is feeling a little better off. but no, we can’t have that- in redcap world it’s all kissing up and lots and lots of kicking down. a literal death cult where we’re all expected to revel in the misery of others.
RobertB
@The Moar You Know: Tell me you’ve read Dune Messiah without telling me you’ve read Dune Messiah.
eclare
@Betty Cracker: Very true. I’d put excess deaths for TFG in the hundreds of thousands.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Republican politicians have a real problem: they have nothing but culture war issues and demographics are against them.
If they manage to kill democracy there really will be a shooting war and they will lose.
Democracy is the only way to avoid or limit the bloodshed.
CaseyL
I’ve seen reports that one reason RSVs in school-age children are much worse this year because anti-Covid measures also prevented exposure to “ordinary” respiratory viruses (that train the body’s immune response). That actually does make sense, and in fact is something I have been wondering about.
I’m not of school-age, but I do want to keep my immune response strong. Fortunately (?) I go out to restaurants about once or twice per month, where it makes no sense to mask at all. So far, knock wood, I’ve stayed healthy.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker: I’m amazed I haven’t, to my knowledge, had Covid. I work in a library in Florida with 100s of unmasked people and have done for the last couple of years. I think my face is now N95 shaped. Mrs Kalakal is retired so has pretty minimal exposure except me.
Had booster & flu jab on monday, still feel a little rough but nothingterrible
LeftCoastYankee
I got the omicron booster and flu shot the same day (and in the same arm) last month. My arm hurt like I’d been punched there (middle school bully flashbacks…), but otherwise nothing extraordinary (IIRC the first booster was the ass-kicker for me).
I’ve been mask-less since mid-summer, but started carrying them again for crowds, and will probably start with regular use shortly, as our unusually nice “outdoorsy” weather looks to be ending in a few days.
I intended to say something snarky about the evil twits, but thinking about them makes me age more rapidly.
kalakal
@Baud: From the previous thread but it seems there may be a leadership post opening up on the UK soon… a little bit of rebranding, no need to change the colo
ur scheme, promise less pants in power and you’re in. And right now you get a great exchange rateMisterDancer
NOPE. Big, fat, nope.
Love y’all, but if it’s gonna be “wipe out whitey” season here, I’m gonna check the fuck out.
Esp. as that’s not how pandemics work. All you’re really hoping for is more victims, since viruses don’t give a damn what color your skin is; they be all about infecting you, all the same. And every new infection is another vector to infect more people, of all colors.
Even worse: “More of X dying” just gives fuel to another wave of conspiracies among those people, and we sure as hell don’t need that mutation, either.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: Move to Chipping Norton and run for Prime Minister instead?
eclare
@kalakal: IIRC BoJo did change the wallpaper. Yes we can!
Baud
@kalakal:
Baoud! 2022! UK!
MisterDancer
@RobertB: The first and only Dune novel I’ve ever read, is GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE.
Which was given to me, as an Xmas present as a teen, by the church my Mom and I attended at the time.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal:
Baud, seems like an opportunity
You are too fast for me.
Citizen Alan
I’ve never had any meaningful side effects from a vaccination. After my 2nd (of 3) Covid boosters, I felt tired all day afterwards, but that might have been because I stayed up too late the night before.
Bill Arnold
@Betty Cracker:
At one point (omicron?) we were at like 4+ Jonestowns per day. I blame Trump and Republicans for roughly 1/2 of those. (25% is quite defensible, statistically, after the partisan Vaccination Gap started seriously driving much of the difference in SARS-CoV-2 kill rates between Republicans and Democrats, and Republicans normalized killing of their own voters. (Masks and other infection-control precautions are also partisan.)
LeftCoastYankee
@MisterDancer:
I’m honestly surprised this flavor of stupid hasn’t shown up yet. It fits their victim-hood and is backed by “THE NUMBERZ!”
oklahomo
@RobertB: The semi-Dune prequel/sequel shit that his son and someone else wrote take the prize for mega-cringy garbage.
Citizen Alan
@MisterDancer:
There is nothing that can stop that. Roughly 27% of the US population will believe anything so long as it reflects poorly on Democrats and modern civilization. These are the people who think Bette Midler is literally casting satanic spells at them through the TV screen.
...now I try to be amused
@MisterDancer:
Oh man. That is the weirdest Dune novel. I nearly gave up on the series after reading it, but I did read the other Frank Herbert Dune novels and I’m glad I did.
What do you think of it?
taumaturgo
Talk about plagues…
Link
MisterDancer
Deeply confused. I had not seen the movie, barely knew anything about the series (this was the late 1980s), so all of it was just weird and strange and clearly not written to be read stand-alone.
Dan B
I’ve been concerned about the highly infectious variants for several weeks. They’re spreading in a few locations but not worldwide yet, thankfully! I see about a third of people in the store unmasked. It makes me want a flashing sign that says my immune compromised neighbor can’t safely leave her house because of you maskless fools.
Eric S.
@Baud: Wallpaper?
Bill Arnold
@MisterDancer:
Republicans are literally killing more Republican voters than Democratic voters. This is on them. Also, it will matter in some close elections, and pointing this out will be partisan, but if they (GOP) complain, fuck them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WV Blondie:
Hi, 1979 graduate of Martinsburg High School here. My Mom’s family goes back in Jefferson County to dirt (pre-Revolution).
Back when WV was blue, the eastern panhandle was always red. I’ve wondered if it’s gradual move into DC exurb status has changed that. Based on the whackadoodles I went to high school with, most of whom have never left, it’s as red as ever.
All the more reason to always wear a mask.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@MisterDancer: I thought Dune was good, then it was all downhill. I haven’t read God Emperor.
WV Blondie
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: JeffCo had a brief flirtation with Blue in the early 2000s, but it’s been trending Red ever since. Now we’ve got idiots and Trumpkins (not a 100% overlap in a Venn diagram) on the county commission and increasing reports of road rage incidents over “librul” bumper stickers.
geg6
@MisterDancer:
Obviously, I don’t agree with you. But they don’t have to die of COVID. I just hope they all die.
azlib
@…now I try to be amused:
What do you think of it?
@…now I try to be amused:
I read all of the Dune novels by Frank Herbert and, yes, God Emperor of Dune was the hardest to get through.
...now I try to be amused
@Bill Arnold:
Cults don’t mind losing a few members in exchange for strengthening the hold the cult has on the rest.
AWOL
“Where once blacks were dying at greater rates than whites, the most recent data shows that whites are dying at greater rates than blacks.”
Shhhhh . . . let the nazis keep thinking they’re winning.
geg6
@Dan B:
You must live in some kind of all Blue heaven. If 10% of the people in any of our local stores are masked, that’s a good day.
trollhattan
@LeftCoastYankee: Similar. Booster #3 hurt like original jab #2, while the other three had little effect at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
JaneE
@Calouste: I see this a lot in my red part of normally liberal California. The older families here are all Republican and their Republicanism is a family tradition even more than most families who share the same politics.
Considering how red the county is, the number of full MAGA supporters is pretty low. Many of them were on the fringe before, flying the Gadsden flag with and without the American one, etc. They still vote Republican for down-ballot partisan elections, or they did in 2020. I am looking forward to seeing the results of this year’s elections at the county level.
I started out as a Republican myself, but started distancing from the party seriously when Reagan was elected. I have seen far more Republicans leave the party than otherwise for almost the last half century. Every time it was a GOP policy or platform item that was the last straw – something that they felt betrayed their party principles. At this point, the GOP is so radicalized, I have to wonder about the people who still remain. They obviously don’t care about policy or principle or now even basic honesty.
Soprano2
@MisterDancer: I agree, but more because I have friends and co-workers who are Republicans. They are not deserving of death just because they bought a load of crap from huksters. Shoot, one of the few decent things TFG did was try to get them vaxxed, but they ignored even him.
Bill Arnold
@MisterDancer:
The first Dune novel was decent. It touched on things that are rarely tackled seriously, e.g. “precognition” and some of the exotic Bene Gesserit skills. It’s aged pretty well for a 1960s novel, IMO. Frank Herbert had experience with psychedelics (Psilocybin mushrooms, IIRC) and it shows.
lowtechcyclist
I read Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune back in the mid-1970s.
I re-read Dune a few years back, the overseriousness of it – Terrible Purpose, every damn gesture carrying significance, all that – was just too much. And the ending, well fuck that ending. When it isn’t just being appalling, it makes no sense.
Central Planning
@CaseyL: I contracted RSV the week of Thanksgiving last year. It started out small and got worse over a week. Once I started getting better, it took like two weeks for all the gunk in my chest and nose to clear out. Not a fun thing. I had multiple negative covid tests, but urgent care suggested also testing for RSV and the flu when they did the PCR test. I’m glad they did that.
jonas
I hope ol’ Trevor was at least able to collect his Darwin Award at the very end. Well-earned, sir, well-earned.
randy khan
@Old Man Shadow:
There’s a fairly well documented Paxlovid rebound effect that hits some people – basically COVID comes back after it goes away. It’s fairly unusual (not unusual enough to call rare, though), and I believe that’s what happened when Biden had COVID.
Dan B
@geg6: We’re in a minority majority neighborhood in Seattle and the grocery is a health conscious, mostly organic store. It’s in a gentrified neighborhood. The Safeway a half mile away has one third masked.
kalakal
@azlib: It was Second Cousin Once Removed of Dune that did it for me in the flogging a dead horse stakes
NorthLeft
I consider myself to be a decent human being, but my well of empathy and kindness has run dry over the last thirty months.
If they want to take foolish risks and proudly display their ignorance, then good riddance to bad rubbish.
My one regret is the impact these deplorables have on others who are too young to make their own decisions or are somehow vulnerable to COVID in spite of taking advantage of available vaccinations and precautions.
NorthLeft
@jonas: Yes, can someone point out the hill that Trevor chose to die on?
Possible locations; Mount Stupid, Bigot Hill, MAGA Mountain
Yutsano
I sincerely hope Trevor actually did get some kind of health-care. Preferably Medicaid after he got too sick to work. The poor soul having to be on the same health-care system as “Mexicans and welfare queens” would be even more of a torture for him. Death is letting him off too easy.
Omnes Omnibus
@MisterDancer: There is a contingent here (and elsewhere on the left) that are more comfortable than I would like with language that borders on eliminationist.*
*And no, I have no interest in coddling Republicans or Russians. But we need to be careful about dehumanizing our opponents/enemies.
GibberJack
@Betty Cracker: I figure tfg caused at least a quarter million deaths. That puts him among of the worst mass murderers in human history.
No idea for desantis but since he’s been gov I bet it’s also at least a quarter of fla’s toll.
different-church-lady
That’s the entire ballgame, every single game of the season.
Baud
Via Reddit,
James Webb Pillars of Creation.
https://i.redd.it/cix9juggtru91.png
VOR
I wonder if the higher MAGA death toll could have a marginal impact on the 2022 voting. I doubt it would be big, but could matter in some tight races.
Old School
@Baud: That’s amazing.
Matt McIrvin
I was just noticing this same effect, looking at COVID demographics for recent Massachusetts hospital admissions specifically. It’s really consistent: higher rates for whites, higher rates for non-Hispanics too. It’s the other way around if you look at cumulative cases since the beginning of the pandemic, but for recent times it flipped on its head.
Now it did occur to me that I don’t think that is age-adjusted, and white people in the state are older on average than most other groups, which for COVID is very very significant.
Betty Cracker
@GibberJack: Looking at COVID death rates after vaccines became available is a real eye-opener. Philip Bump at WaPo wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, and one stat suggests your 250K estimate is pretty close.
EarthWindFire
@Yutsano: We have that book. Trevor obliged The Moar You Know and died of his liver cancer.
VFX Lurker
I read the original trilogy before reading God Emperor of Dune. The book takes place 3500 years after the events in the first three books, so it could be read as a standalone book. A weird and strange standalone book.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: In the lore of mid-20th-century science fiction, parapsychology was a real science and psychic powers would be taken seriously by mainstream scientists real soon now. To some extent this was the influence of editor John W. Campbell, Jr., who was an odd duck in many ways. But it was pretty consistent across the genre. It’s also why “psi” is so prominent in media science fiction like Star Trek–a thing that everyone in the future matter-of-factly acknowledges is real.
The Moar You Know
@NorthLeft: I now have a raging desire to have all of these be actual place names. Preferably in Florida.
kalakal
Webb vs Hubble
BBC News – James Webb telescope spies ‘Pillars of Creation’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63319814
ETA Ah, beaten to it by Baud
mutter, mutter
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Bullshit. Wishing them dead is hardly eliminationist. But if they want to eliminate themselves, I’m fine with it.
Baud
@kalakal:
It’s like different art forms.
The Moar You Know
@EarthWindFire: I’ll pour one out for Trevor. I would have frankly preferred that he get a fucking clue at some point and get that shit treated.
Well. Regardless, one less Republican voter.
Baud
@kalakal:
I’d like to see Liz Truss do that.
kalakal
@Baud: It really is. It’s really astonishing when you look at the “non prettified” ones.
I hope I’m still around when Webbs replacement gets going
Geminid
@geg6: When I visit the Great Value grocery store in Stanardsville, only about 10% of the customers are masked, and maybe 20% of the employees are too. But even though Black people comprise maybe 15% of the customers. half the people who mask are Black, including almost all the Black people over age 40.
CaseyL
Has anyone here been following what’s happening in UK Parliament? The last couple of hours were so chaotic it beggars description. Someone likened it to a real-life Spitting Image episode.
Labour demanded a vote on a question whether to debate a ban on fracking. Not an actual ban, mind you: just a debate whether to do so.
The Tories decided to make the vote a proxy confidence vote for Truss as PM. That meant the Tories would “whip it” – ie, a vote in favor of the ban would be considered a vote against the Government (that is, Truss), and any Tory who voted in favor of the ban would be “removed” – I’m not clear on what that means, but I think it means “no longer considered a Tory Member of Parliament.”
The thing is, even Tories don’t like or want fracking. Their constituencies definitely don’t want fracking.
But there were scenes of Tory whips literally manhandling reluctant Tories onto the floor to vote for fracking, to show confidence in Liz Truss.
In the middle of which two of the whips are said to have resigned.
Then a spokesperson for Truss said the vote would no longer be considered a proxy confidence vote, the whip was withdrawn, and people could vote as they wished.
But word didn’t get through to the actual chamber, where Tory MPs still thought it was a whipped vote. So they voted for the government, against their (and their constituents’) wishes.
The government won the vote. But 30-40 Tories voted for the Labour position, against their own government….
…including, it turns out, Liz Truss. Who, we’re told, was so busy chasing the Whip who had resigned out of the chamber that she missed the vote.Nope! Turns out she did vote in favor of her own government, but things were “so chaotic” no one noticed.It’s The Black Mirror as real-life British politics. About as dark comedy as you can get…
…and a portent of what our politics will be like if the GOP takes the majority in House or Senate.
Scout211
Uh, okay. Moving on to something I think we all can agree on. John Eastman is an idiot. Case #infinity. Link
Baud
@CaseyL:
It’s the posh British way of saying killed.
kalakal
@Baud: heh. No danger of that, she’d do a U turn half way through
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: I said what I said. If you want to think I am some sort of squish, that’s fine. I am not interested in giving in to hate. I have my own emotional health and humanity to maintain.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: Good lord, what a mess! I fear you are right about it being a preview of our fate if Repubs win the midterms.
schrodingers_cat
Of course the plague doesn’t distinguish by the color of your skin. Deliberate stupidity is dangerous to one’s health. And listening to the Orange moron or his low rent substitute in Florida is stupid.
kalakal
@Baud: shorthand for “removed with extreme prejudice”
CaseyL
@Baud: So civilized! (Or should I say civilised?)
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. And many of the Twitter arm chair revolutionaries who complain about having to vote think that they have it in them to sustain a guerilla war or an armed revolution. As they say talk is cheap.
Betty Cracker
@The Moar You Know: You’d have to replace “mount,” “hill” and “mountain” with “swamp,” “slough,” “creek,” etc., though. Not that many elevated places in Florida.
There’s an island in the river that runs in front of my house that was unnamed until I christened it “Pendejo Point” in honor of a late neighbor whose property it abuts. No cartographers have made it official, but maybe some day…
schrodingers_cat
BTW I just dropped by to share my latest with watercolor pencils from Johanna Basford’s Enchanted Forest.
Geminid
@CaseyL: So Liz Truss advocates fracking, and ends up fracking her own party.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat: I love the colors!
Bill Arnold
@Omnes Omnibus:
My loathing is reserved mostly for homicidal propagandists, in this case those who worked to make loud opposition to basic public health infection control measures. They killed a lot of innocent people. Not something easily proved in a courtroom, but quite convincing to those who believe in reality.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
👍
Seanly
Finding it very hard to care about middle aged and older white folks passing away. I’m in that cohort, but am so pissed off with the capture of the courts and the increasing attacks & BS laws against LGBTQ+ people. Not even to mention that many of these people are racist asshats.
I know individually that many of these people were wonderful people, loving and caring, etc., but they support such reprehensible politics.
CaseyL
@Geminid: Not fracked fracking hard enough, though.
They’re still crawling around imitating a government.
The devil of it is, there’s no General Election for 2 years, unless the Tories allow one sooner. And they won’t, since they’d get wiped out and they know it. So the UK is stuck with this for 2 more years.
Ryan
@geg6:
With votes!
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I agree with you on everything except calling it a culture war. They want to talk about it as a culture war, but the culture they care about is the Confederacy, which ultimately makes it a race war. It’s about Whites versus everyone else, where “everyone else” includes Whites who don’t want to write discrimination into every law.
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
You can say whatever you want and I can disagree and call bullshit on your judging others by the ridiculously high bar you want to set for yourself. I prefer to be honest and up front about my feelings. And I have no problem with hating those who hate me. It’s way mentally and emotionally healthier than burying those feelings. That’s what is toxic in this world. Pretending and feeling superior about it.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: Just saw this Tory MP on the Twitters — don’t know who he is, but he’s pissed off!
eversor
It wasn’t really Fox New, the GOP, or Trump though. They encouraged it but that wasn’t the core reason.
Before they were pushing it the base was spamming comments that they wouldn’t listen to doctors because they don’t believe in Jesus, don’t support traditional gender roles, don’t support traditional Christian sexual morality, think men can marry men, and boys can be girls.
This yet again was another Christianity caused and Christian run fiasco that is on that horrid ideology that the GOP took advantage of. We can’t stop Trumpism, the GOP, the Republicans, or solve any issues as long as we have Christianity.
kalakal
@CaseyL: It’s unbelievable, literally no one has a clue
as to what’s actually happening. The Haunted Pencil aka Rees-Mogg was just on TV. When asked about the whips he said “it wasn’t clear”. The Tory party does not know wether it’s chief disciplinary officers are sacked, resigned, or still working.
It seems Grant Shapps, he of many names & failed businesses is now Home Secretary. Yep putting a proven liar, who faked his educational records , and used aliases for dodgy business dealings seems to be the very chap to put in charge of the legal system.
This is beyond chaos. It’s a complete collapse of the executive & legislative branches of government
Geminid
@CaseyL: I think the Tories have until January, 2025 to call a general election. Their parliamentary margin is such that they can survive losing by-elections.
Unless they start poisoning each other, which may yet happen
Or maybe enough will resign their seats instead. I think 20 would be enough. That seems unlikely considering their personal interests, but this is an unusual situation.
geg6
@Seanly:
No, they are not wonderful people, loving and caring. They are monsters who have no idea what it means to love or care but mouth the words so as to fool others who are willing to swallow their acts. It is literally impossible to be a wonderful, loving and caring person and advocate for what they advocate. They may have a few family or friends they care for, but so did Hitler and Stalin.
Gravenstone
I’m so sorry for you…
CaseyL
@Geminid: Truss and her Cabinet better not go traveling by private airplane anywhere. Just sayin’.
joel hanes
there’s something deeper here than party politics going on.
Reminder that the Lexicon includes Davis X Machina’s incisive analysis of that “something deeper”.
I think he first made this remark in 2008, in a comment on Obsidian Wings:
kalakal
@Geminid: Short of a major change to the law there are only 2 ways out before 2025. There is a vote of no-confidence and 90 odd Tories vote against the government.
This will never happen as they’d be making themselves unemployed at a time when someone seems to have shafted the economy . Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas .
Or Truss decides to call an election, either in the delusional belief she’d win or as a massive Fuck You All to her loyal & supportive party.
Hmm, you’ve hit a 3rd possibility here, enough tories quit the party and claim to be ‘independant’, trying to distance themselves from the mess, a Liz Cheney stratagem if you will. Wouldn’t work but could force an election
Geminid
@kalakal: Truss acting as political suicide bomber would be fit ending for this debacle.
stacib
@Baud: Make bikinis, head wraps and halter tops. :-) If it’s good enough for the U.S. flag… :-)
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: Meh. I can’t help it if you feel judged.
kalakal
@Geminid: I honestly don’t know wether to laugh or cry at all this. It’s getting worse by the hour
SpaceUnit
NBC wins Olympic Gold in the Shameless Both-Siding Competition:
Covid is Making Us Ungovernable
Assholes.
kalakal
If you want an illustration of how hateful the Tories are and the magnificent fury of the mildest of men whose had enough of the bullshit. The toad speaking first is the Tory leader in Wales trying to blame Tory underfunding of the Health Service on the Welsh Labour party. The second speaker is Mark Drakeford the ( Labour) First Minister of Wales. He is normally the mildest of men but watch till the end. He’s wonderful
https://youtu.be/e4FR4gO8Sio
SiubhanDuinne
@eversor:
Cleaned out the pie filter the other day.
Acted too hastily.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Excellent art work, thanks for stopping by to share!!! Have you ever considered taking a photo and printing it out as B&W image to colorize by hand?
I hope you are doing well up there in NE, where I’m sure it’s now getting much cooler and edging towards fall and winter. It’s much cooler here as well, already, and very colorful. I love fall, just short of spring as my favorite seasons. Summer sweaty season sucks, winter not quite so bad…
I got much more aggressive Michelin tires on the Mazda SUV late last week, hope they do better this winter than the stock Japanese tires that came on the car from Hiroshima.
Roger Moore
@VOR:
It would have to be a very tight race. About 0.3% of the population has died since the pandemic started, and there isn’t that big of a political skew in who it’s killed. At the extreme edge, it might be 0.1%. Very few races are that close.
schrodingers_cat
@J R in WV: You can buy this book, it has this and other illustrations. Thanks for your generous feedback I am glad you liked it!
Enchanted Forest.
Roger Moore
@kalakal:
That’s true of a lot of photographs. There’s a huge amount of work involved in taking what comes straight out of the camera and turning it into something worth looking at. Boosting contrast and saturation, removing image artifacts, etc. are just part of the process, whether it’s “The Pillars of Creation” or “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico”.
SpaceUnit
@schrodingers_cat:
Love it!
Reminds me of the animation in The Secret of Kells and Song of The Sea.
WV Blondie
@Roger Moore: OTOH, if the deaths have been concentrated in particular districts (I seem to recall an article breaking down deaths by county, though not congressional district), it could make a difference.
We can always hope!
Ruckus
@Calouste:
They, republicans/conservatives don’t want others to have freedoms because that supposedly lessens them and their freedoms. Also I believe that they want others to do the work of government because they can’t be bothered past voting. And they think rather highly of themselves – for reasons beyond all rational thought, and far less of others, unless you agree with them 100%. They are always correct doncha know, and anyone who doesn’t agree 100% with them are always 100% wrong. Their world has 2 sides, their side and the wrong side. And their side has absolutely no need to make any actual, logical sense whatsoever no matter what.
J R in WV
@eversor:
My biggest problem with your anti-religion rants, and the reason I only see perhaps 1 in 10 of your posts (thank you Watergirl for the improved Pie Safe work!) is that you think the RWNJ theocrats are really Christian. They are not.
One of my best friends left WV after we graduated back in 1984 for the many IT jobs in Research Triangle Park around Raleigh NC. We’re still pretty close, he is one of my best friends still. We would travel down to the RTP area to visit him, and one day he introduces us to the multi-doctorate holding lady he was to soon marry.
She was a large-animal Vet, specializing on horses until she hurt her back. You have to be in really good shape to work on horses, so she turned her hand to being a epidemiology professor at NC State. Was a deacon in her local Episcopal church, and soon felt a call to serve. So got her third doctorate in theology and became an Episcopal priest in a rural set of churches in a not very prosperous rural NC .
She worked hard to better her parishioners, and soon was promoted (I guess, I’m not a church member so I may get some terminology details wrong here) to a larger church in a more prosperous NC city. Now she is a Bishop in a large square state out west, and works hard for justice for all, and freedom and happiness. My friend B is glad she is fulfilled and happy, has many churches of Native American folks, and had a drum circle at her investiture as Bishop.
She finds the Episcopal church a welcoming structure for her belief structure, and works within that structure to help people grow and develop. Refers to God as her as often as she uses a male pronoun, also too. Most well educated person in my wide acquaintance, and I admire her work greatly.
Most of the RWNJ “christians” don’t actually believe in any of the commands of Christ in their own bible, which they don’t read nearly as much as I do, who doesn’t believe in the Christian fairy tales at all. I do think if one reads the Christian Bible as literature there is a lot of good guidance in there, but as you have said way too often, most Theocratic Fascists don’t believe in any of that good advice at all.
And now I’m done attempting to educate you about the difference between RSNJ Republican Theocracy and actual Christianity as preached by Jesus of Nazareth around 22 AD. Best of luck, wear a mask all the time, keep vaccinations current, take care.
And stop sometime to learn a little about modern religious theory, you can stand way better education about real christianity as opposed to RWNJ theocracy.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
No, no. That would be “Sent to Wisconsin to visit relatives”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That quote of Trevor’s could also be seen as an admission he is up to something illegal and doesn’t want to draw the attention of government. Appalachia is the white ghetto after all.
Tony Jay
@kalakal:
I’ve been busy tonight keeping my better half alcoholically medicated since our little boy is having his first school trip away from home ever and she’s not taking it well.
But tomorrow I’m taking all of this chaos in and fully enjoying your coverage while I’m preoccupied.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Maybe earth/nature has tired of this many humans screwing up everything for limited to no benefit and has decided to rearrange the furniture in a very short time frame. And as it has been doing for all time, modifying the basis of life itself is the go to methodology to accomplish this. It’s actually a simple equation, too many people, get rid of a large portion, problem solved.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Really, I had a horrible time figuring out what the plot was in Chapter House Dune. God Emperor of the Dune seem to me to be Herbet trolling the critics who were harping on Herbet about the sand worms being some Freudian giant penises thing (in retrospect, none of the Fremen took cocaine and began ranting about his anus, so it couldn’t have been Freudian)
...now I try to be amused
@CaseyL:
I’m guessing “remove” is short for “remove the whip”, which means the MP is no longer subject to party discipline — or party support, of course.
Tony Jay
@eversor:
Man, you are so right.
OTOH I’m an atheist pagan and the only time I’m not destabilising societies is when I’m killing for the joy of it.
Have you accounted for that in your thesis?
West of the Rockies
@oklahomo:
Everything post Herbert Sr. is crap.
dr. luba
@eclare: Same here. I got my COVID booster last month, and am getting the flu vaccine tomorrow. I usually get the flu vax through work, but they didn’t have enough earlier in the month, so didn’t do their outreach (come to the floors and vaccinate). I didn’t get a chance to get down to employee health, so will get it all Walgreen tomorrow. It’s required for work (hospital), but they haven’t made it convenient this year.
I still mostly mask in public, and at work (where it is still required but laxly enforced). I’ve noticed that most of the other people I see nowadays with masks are POC, with the occasional older white person. I’m not looking forward to winter.
Note: I’m suspect this varies regionally, but of the pharmacies nearest my house, Walgreen makes it easy to sign up online whereas CVS has so many hoops to jump through that I just gave up.
Tony Jay
@…now I try to be amused:
Yes. Exactly that. They get classed as independents.
BruceFromOhio
Claim your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.
Roger Moore
@J R in WV:
I would say it a little bit differently: nobody gets to define what constitutes a “real” Christian. That means the Evangelicals don’t get to claim your Episcopalian friend isn’t really a Christian, but it also means we don’t get to claim they aren’t real Christians, either. The key point, though, is that it’s wrong to treat the behavior of the worst, most bigoted, most hypocritical Evangelicals as representative of Christianity as a whole. They may be Christians, but they sure as hell aren’t the One Holy Universal And Apostolic Church.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This is starting to feel like Truss is trying to one up Putin on being the most self destructive national leader. How long before Truss orders the invasion of Ireland claiming it’s a breakaway province of the British Empire?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@eversor: Dude, am an avoid atheist who thinks religious belief is utter silly and I still can’t figure your point out. You come across like you think Christianity was imposed upon humanity by a malevolent being and not something we human created for our needs. Remove Christianity from American society and they will simply relabel themselves as Libertarians.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: Other criticisms aside, the commenter’s program just seems so impractical. We have to destroy Christianity in order to win in 2024? How the hell does that work?
This is the logic of obsession, depression, or both. I am not so much offended by this person as worried for him.
CaseyL
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The best theory I’ve heard is that Truss (who was a Remainer at one point) is really a Labour mole, tasked with the utter destruction of the Tory Party. If so, she’s doing a decent job.
Mart
I just finished the article and could not believe never mentioned the RWNM, danced around ivermectin and hydrchloroquine, and never mentioned Trump by name. Also did not note early in the pandemic front line low wage no benefit workers (disproportionally folks of color) could not work from home, or take time off from work. Well documented Fox was playing the pandemic straight before shifting to conspiracy when data showed mostly killing minorities.
Elizabelle
@Mart: I know. It left a lot of gaps.
For one thing, Skill the firefighter/paramedic died this January. That was not easily clear. There have actually been 3 Januaries with Covid infection. I was thinking that Skill could have been a vector, as well as an EMT.
I would like to see someone break down covid deaths among law enforcement, particularly those that occurred after a vaccine was available. (And remember, vaccines were offered first, if memory serves, to healthcare workers and first responders.)
I think the ‘rona took a significant toll through first responder types. Perhaps even a leading cause of “death in service.”
And, we are sure to have first responders who are less effective now due to long covid and other aftereffects.
kalakal
@Tony Jay: Heh, I feel your pain, it’s quite the milestone with kids is that one.
I just can’t believe this clusterfuck, are they all on acid? Jeremy effing Hunt, Grant ‘whatever he’s called this week’ Shapps? I do take great joy in seeing that viper Braverman crash & burn
They literally can’t organise a
pissupvote in abreweryparliament.I look forward to reading your screed, I’ve been feeling a bit crap all day due to a booster, and I’m sure that will cheer me up
StringOnAStick
@Elizabelle: I’ve read that the number of cops who died “in service” has been far outweighed by the number who died from Covid.
catclub
@eclare:
 
I would put excess deaths for Iraqis (Iraq is much smaller than the US) between 2003 and 2008 at over a million. Thanks to GWBush. Still amazed that trump did not start a useless war somewhere.
Elizabelle
@StringOnAStick: If you find a link, do share it.
I’ve heard that too, but haven’t researched it.
Shana
Haven’t read through the comments but there was a heartbreaking story on This American Life this past weekend about a woman whose father died of covid and then a few weeks later her brother, who lived with the father, died of covid. It turns out they were both deep into covid conspiracy theories and were egged on by a like minded local cousin while she was across the country and couldn’t do much to try to help them.
kalakal
@Elizabelle: here’s one
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072411820/law-enforcement-deaths-2021-covid
Geminid
@catclub: trump has a low cunning, and even he could see how Bush crippled his own presidency with the debacle in Iraq.
I worried some towards the end that he might start a war with Iran, but instead he settled on a course of domestic mayhem in order to steal another term.
schrodingers_cat
@SpaceUnit: Thanks her line work is amazing. These coloring books give a ready made canvas for trying different techniques that I later use in my own work.
Right now I am playing with watercolor pencils, pastels and guache (not in this panel) in my sketchbook.
dr. luba
@catclub:
He probably couldn’t find a way to personally monetize it. Hotels and casinos in war zones? Poor investment.
Kropacetic
@geg6: Bruh, basic empathy for others is not a ridiculously high bar. Also why do comments claiming others are acting superior give the claimant this air of self-superiority
@eversor: As for you, the role of Christianty in out politics is more nuanced than you give it credit for and not so one-way.
I’m a sort of self syled unitarian universalist, but I was raised Catholic and a lot of my beliefs are steeped in what I learned as a Catholic.
The actual toxic Christians aren’t really Christian in any way I recognize.
Seefleur
@geg6: I concur 1000%, and I’ve stopped worrying that I’m burning up karma points. I’d become a dues paying member of this club – and I have family and in-laws who can just diaf based on their stupid reactionary racist stupid (did I already say that?) thinking.
brantl
@The Moar You Know: It was a hell of a premise, though. Just wait until CRISPER hits steroids.
GregMulka
My wife got the bivalent last Thursday. Had what she thought was a bad sinus issue last night. Popped a fever this morning. Took the test, positive in less than sixty seconds. That said she’s just got a nasty cough that comes and goes, didn’t lose taste or smell, and the fever may already have broken. She seems to be speed-running it.
GregMulka
@West of the Rockies:
Can confirm.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Sage words there, Baud.
Paul in KY
@oklahomo: Agree. Couldn’t get through them. Ayn Rand level dreck.
Paul in KY
@…now I try to be amused: If you read that one without reading the 1st 2, you’d have to be WTF!!
Paul in KY
@NorthLeft: Lookout Mountain, on JEF Davis’ left nostril.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: If they literally wish death on me, then I wish death on them, politics be damned.
Paul in KY
@J R in WV: He needs to put quote marks around ‘christians’.
Paul in KY
@…now I try to be amused: Should make up new lyrics to ‘Whip It’ by Devo.
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: I can define what a real christian is. No one may agree with my definition, but I don’t care.