Don’t shut down during the early stages of a pandemic, don’t wear masks, don’t socially distance, don’t get the vaccine. And Covid-19 cases are dropping like a stone in largely Democratic areas where most people are vaccinated, and still rising in largely Republican areas where most people are not.
I understand the GOP thinks it can rig the electoral game so they can consistently win with a minority of votes, but they still have to get SOME votes so it seems counter-intuitive to support behavior that will kill off your own base. But who am I to criticize, LOL?
The part that really gets me is I'd bet everything I own that the talking heads telling these schmucks to avoid the vaccine have all been vaccinated themselves. They're evil, not stupid.
Of course they are vaccinated themselves. The only thing that exceeds the message discipline of the conservative establishment is their naked contempt for their own base.
Right, don't take any precautions whatsoever, because it's NBD, nothing more than the common cold and also a BIOWEAPON ENGINEERED BY THE CHINEE TO KILL US ALL.
Lololol forever, boy, but you have just captured the conservative mindset in one simple observation: Is it a fearsome deadly weapon that the treasonous Democrats don't want you to know our enemies sent? Or is it practically harmless, just a lie the tyrannic Democrats made up to scare you? Both can't be true. And yet, if you are Republican, both are true enough at the same time.
It’s just amazing how they do that. It’s the age-old method of demonization: their enemy targets are both incompetent, unintelligent clowns AND all-powerful, Machiavellian geniuses.
"But the people attacking Fauci aren’t interested in your health. They don’t care if they help you in any way. They just want to spread mistrust of our basic institutions and rule the ruins."
Yes. Rule *and* ruin. They don't care how many die so long as it isn't *them.*
“…if you don’t get up and do something there will be no country left for your children, grandchildren and future generations…”
Given the coming Republican neoliberal, anti-democratic, failed state, no one should miss that shithole ceasing to exist.
As for the lab leak scenarios: notwithstanding that without some transparency or whistleblowing from someone in the lab, well never know what happened, so my speculation. My gut — usually wrong! — says an accidental lab leak. Of course, truth-wise, the conservatives’ POV is irrelevant as it’s nearly always fact- and more so truth-free.
But that opined, for the record: TPM has been running a series of opinions from readers who have actual experience with this stuff and they don’t buy the lab leak. Again, all FWIW.
I should add the origins of the China flu of minor, minor significance and relevance to the response or lack of same issue, bad as that looks for Republicans. But, you know, an honest assessment of that makes the media’s GOP buds look bad so…
And as a bioweapon, it's not terribly effective. Only 2- to 3% end up hospitalized, and only 1% die? That's not how you do bioweapons.
And, of course, if it really WAS a bioweapon targeted at America, why didn't Trump respond to this act of war? In fact, if it IS a bioweapon, why are conservatives so focused on making sure the disease spreads as rapidly as possible? Hmmmm . . .
“Well, the Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient.” —American soldier and philosopher William C. Westmoreland (1914-2005)
LOL! But seriously, folks, from Klayman's Wikipedia entry:
In 1998, Klayman sued his mother for $50,000 for the reimbursement for medical care provided to his maternal grandmother. In 2013, Klayman defended his actions in an interview with ABC News and said that it was "essentially a case against my stepfather" and that he named his mother "because legally she was next of kin."
Actually, I think, the best I can hope for is winning the Ohio million dollar lottery, since these kinds of people ceasing to be a factor in American life is pretty, well let's just say not realistic. And to be fair I really do have a chance, however small, to win that million dollars.
The anti-vaxxers are all over FB and there is not any hope for them. There are some leftists in there who have decided that every single thing the government and media puts out is a lie, therefore everything about Covid is also a lie. Therefore, there is no pandemic, and the vaccines are either just evil or dangerous and evil and while Bill Gates may not be chipping you if he likes it it has got to be a bad thing. Unfortunately, the fatality rate for unvaccinated people is not nearly high enough. Or am I just being cruel?
I had forgotten about the underrated gem "Little Murders." Alan Arkin's Detective Practice losing his shit is one of my all time favorite performances.
Little Murders was a great movie! One of Eliot Gould's best performances. And this was in that golden age when most movies, even the shit ones (Kelly Heroes comes to mind) had an awesome Donald Sutherland cameo. Asking has serious directing chops. Plus anything Pfeiffer...
I second and third that remark. I saw it when it was new, when I was an impressionable teen, and it made a major impact on me. Need to find a streaming service that has it.
If The Donald kicks off before both Clintons, all Conservamerica will forever believe one of them slipped a poisoned Big Mac into the Mar-a-Lardo inner sanctum.
I assume it will be Hillary playing the ghost of Salvadore Allende ending Kissinger's life in true Scooby Doo fashion -- Don Jr. playing Freddy, Lara Trump as Daphne, that O'Keefe dude as Shaggy, and nobody can play Velma because she was smart
"-that’s why they’re forcing us to wear masks in grocery stores” etc
I guess there's a second amendment solution to that now.
Say that poor cashier in Georgia had said to the customer/ murderous asshole that refused to wear a mask " One second sir, I'll be right back" gone to the break room, got her gun out of her purse in her locker and returned to the register and shot the asshole who was endangering her life by refusing to wear a mask in a public health emergency. Would the Conservative Industrial Complex celebrate her exercise of her God given freedoms?
I imagine it would depend on the race of the participants involved.
White lady shoots black guy is a totally different circumstance than Black Lady shoots White Guy.
And even if they haven't actually shoplifted, there's always the chance that they will in the future, thanks to their genetic makeup. They can't help it, according to Andy Sullivan.
They can't help themselves. That kind of response is eugenically chiseled into their DNA. It's all right there if you know how to read the lumps in their cranium.
According to Andy Sullivan, if the African American community continues to demand that cops stop shooting them, the end result will be that they kill each other, because they are dumb animals who can't control themselves and will shoot each other thanks to hip hop and basketball.
"So this scenario prompts a question of supreme irony: what if the final legacy of Black Lives Matter is that it actually succeeds in its core goal, and that in the future, far fewer African-Americans are shot by the cops. And what if the price of this symbolic victory is, in fact, a huge increase in the numbers of innocent black lives lost to civilian murder?"
About half a dozen years ago I went to a rally organized by Larry Klayman at Lafayette Square, basically taking a trip to the wingnut zoo. Aside from his vicious nature, he was one of the most pathetic human beings I've ever seen and he had some stiff competition, including the Fonzie of Freedom, Nick Gillespie in his trademark leather jacket. Just a taste of the a$$hole festival to come, I suppose.
"Face it, they’ve gone into the great beyond, and the best you can hope for them and yourself is that they cease to be a factor in American life, and soon."
More likely a million Kyle Rittenhouses will bloom and a lot of motherfuckers will 'cease to be a factor in American life' because they'll be dead. There's a lot of fucking nuts with guns running around - waiting for the reinstatement of Trump or for the next wingnut savior in the Whitehouse to give them the command to begin the purge. 2024 is going to be interesting.
I can't decide whether the people who follow this hard-core stuff do it for reasons of pornography (the vicarious arousal of intense feeling), or team-sport tribalism. Can it be both? Ugh. DON'T ANSWER THAT.
Just the other day, I also read that the Delta variant is both highly transmissible and possibly more lethal than the other variants. So just having recovered from a previous infection, which confers only a limited, short-term immunity anyway won't prevent reinfection with a possible worse outcome. By contrast, scientists have found that the vaccines are highly effective against the variants as well as the original viral strain.
The anti-vaxxers think that they will be protected by surrounding high percentages of vaxxed populations but that's not how it's going to work with the highly transmissible variants. There will be no "herd immunity" for a long time to come.
I think it may depend on the vaccine a little, as J&J has not been tested sufficiently with the variants to knw how effective it is. The Pfizer and one of the other ones are likely 80+% effective
Their faith that 'natural immunity' _must_ be better than a vaccine response is actually pretty hippie-dippy—but then I remember the popularity of 'health food' stores in John Birch territory, hence the whole Precious Bodily Fluids stuff.
(Primed for this: WFMU's "Music of Mind Control" programme featured music from The Farm last night, and I was reminded of a Pacifica station's interview with representatives thereof in which they spent a lot of time sounding like right-wing nuts.)
Don’t shut down during the early stages of a pandemic, don’t wear masks, don’t socially distance, don’t get the vaccine. And Covid-19 cases are dropping like a stone in largely Democratic areas where most people are vaccinated, and still rising in largely Republican areas where most people are not.
I understand the GOP thinks it can rig the electoral game so they can consistently win with a minority of votes, but they still have to get SOME votes so it seems counter-intuitive to support behavior that will kill off your own base. But who am I to criticize, LOL?
The part that really gets me is I'd bet everything I own that the talking heads telling these schmucks to avoid the vaccine have all been vaccinated themselves. They're evil, not stupid.
Of course they are vaccinated themselves. The only thing that exceeds the message discipline of the conservative establishment is their naked contempt for their own base.
Right, don't take any precautions whatsoever, because it's NBD, nothing more than the common cold and also a BIOWEAPON ENGINEERED BY THE CHINEE TO KILL US ALL.
Lololol forever, boy, but you have just captured the conservative mindset in one simple observation: Is it a fearsome deadly weapon that the treasonous Democrats don't want you to know our enemies sent? Or is it practically harmless, just a lie the tyrannic Democrats made up to scare you? Both can't be true. And yet, if you are Republican, both are true enough at the same time.
Cognitive dissonance is fun! Everyone should try it!
It’s just amazing how they do that. It’s the age-old method of demonization: their enemy targets are both incompetent, unintelligent clowns AND all-powerful, Machiavellian geniuses.
"But the people attacking Fauci aren’t interested in your health. They don’t care if they help you in any way. They just want to spread mistrust of our basic institutions and rule the ruins."
Yes. Rule *and* ruin. They don't care how many die so long as it isn't *them.*
Correction: They don't care how many die, even if it IS them.
“…if you don’t get up and do something there will be no country left for your children, grandchildren and future generations…”
Given the coming Republican neoliberal, anti-democratic, failed state, no one should miss that shithole ceasing to exist.
As for the lab leak scenarios: notwithstanding that without some transparency or whistleblowing from someone in the lab, well never know what happened, so my speculation. My gut — usually wrong! — says an accidental lab leak. Of course, truth-wise, the conservatives’ POV is irrelevant as it’s nearly always fact- and more so truth-free.
But that opined, for the record: TPM has been running a series of opinions from readers who have actual experience with this stuff and they don’t buy the lab leak. Again, all FWIW.
I should add the origins of the China flu of minor, minor significance and relevance to the response or lack of same issue, bad as that looks for Republicans. But, you know, an honest assessment of that makes the media’s GOP buds look bad so…
Just a reminder Larry Klayman is the guy who sued his own mother.
Also, if COVID was a secret bioweapon, it was pretty damn stupid of the Chinese to unleash it on themselves first.
Ah, you do not understand the deviousness of the oriental mind, or have not watched enough Fu Manchu movies.
And as a bioweapon, it's not terribly effective. Only 2- to 3% end up hospitalized, and only 1% die? That's not how you do bioweapons.
And, of course, if it really WAS a bioweapon targeted at America, why didn't Trump respond to this act of war? In fact, if it IS a bioweapon, why are conservatives so focused on making sure the disease spreads as rapidly as possible? Hmmmm . . .
“Well, the Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient.” —American soldier and philosopher William C. Westmoreland (1914-2005)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZH4ckvXdK8
Did he sue her for birthing him without his consent?
LOL! But seriously, folks, from Klayman's Wikipedia entry:
In 1998, Klayman sued his mother for $50,000 for the reimbursement for medical care provided to his maternal grandmother. In 2013, Klayman defended his actions in an interview with ABC News and said that it was "essentially a case against my stepfather" and that he named his mother "because legally she was next of kin."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Klayman
I would, too. How dare she bring me into the World.
Actually, I think, the best I can hope for is winning the Ohio million dollar lottery, since these kinds of people ceasing to be a factor in American life is pretty, well let's just say not realistic. And to be fair I really do have a chance, however small, to win that million dollars.
The anti-vaxxers are all over FB and there is not any hope for them. There are some leftists in there who have decided that every single thing the government and media puts out is a lie, therefore everything about Covid is also a lie. Therefore, there is no pandemic, and the vaccines are either just evil or dangerous and evil and while Bill Gates may not be chipping you if he likes it it has got to be a bad thing. Unfortunately, the fatality rate for unvaccinated people is not nearly high enough. Or am I just being cruel?
Naaaaah.
I'd say something, but the magnetized metal in my fillings has my mouth permanently shut.
I had forgotten about the underrated gem "Little Murders." Alan Arkin's Detective Practice losing his shit is one of my all time favorite performances.
Little Murders was a great movie! One of Eliot Gould's best performances. And this was in that golden age when most movies, even the shit ones (Kelly Heroes comes to mind) had an awesome Donald Sutherland cameo. Asking has serious directing chops. Plus anything Pfeiffer...
"Arkin " had directing chops.
I second and third that remark. I saw it when it was new, when I was an impressionable teen, and it made a major impact on me. Need to find a streaming service that has it.
I'll be honest, I think " Whorealdo" is pretty funny.
If The Donald kicks off before both Clintons, all Conservamerica will forever believe one of them slipped a poisoned Big Mac into the Mar-a-Lardo inner sanctum.
"Well, courage, guys, Kissinger’s bound to kick soon, and you know whose fault that will be!"
Don't threaten me with a good time, Edbert!
Oh what a Frabjous Day that will be! Imagine if Limbaugh and Falwell had shuffled off the coil at the same time - better than that even.
Callooh! Callay!
I assume it will be Hillary playing the ghost of Salvadore Allende ending Kissinger's life in true Scooby Doo fashion -- Don Jr. playing Freddy, Lara Trump as Daphne, that O'Keefe dude as Shaggy, and nobody can play Velma because she was smart
It sure is taking a LONG time to warm Kissinger’s eternal lodgings to the appropriate temperature.
If Bill and Hillary want to do everyone a solid and add Kissinger to their Death List… I’m cool with that.
Sadly... https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/hillary-clinton-kissinger-vacation-dominican-republic-de-la-renta/
Yeah, I’m aware. At this point… whatever works, tbh.
"-that’s why they’re forcing us to wear masks in grocery stores” etc
I guess there's a second amendment solution to that now.
Say that poor cashier in Georgia had said to the customer/ murderous asshole that refused to wear a mask " One second sir, I'll be right back" gone to the break room, got her gun out of her purse in her locker and returned to the register and shot the asshole who was endangering her life by refusing to wear a mask in a public health emergency. Would the Conservative Industrial Complex celebrate her exercise of her God given freedoms?
I imagine it would depend on the race of the participants involved.
White lady shoots black guy is a totally different circumstance than Black Lady shoots White Guy.
Well the problem is all these shoplifters that Biden keeps appointing to our once-noble courts.
And even if they haven't actually shoplifted, there's always the chance that they will in the future, thanks to their genetic makeup. They can't help it, according to Andy Sullivan.
They can't help themselves. That kind of response is eugenically chiseled into their DNA. It's all right there if you know how to read the lumps in their cranium.
It's science.
BUGS BUNNY: One lump or two?
According to Andy Sullivan, if the African American community continues to demand that cops stop shooting them, the end result will be that they kill each other, because they are dumb animals who can't control themselves and will shoot each other thanks to hip hop and basketball.
"So this scenario prompts a question of supreme irony: what if the final legacy of Black Lives Matter is that it actually succeeds in its core goal, and that in the future, far fewer African-Americans are shot by the cops. And what if the price of this symbolic victory is, in fact, a huge increase in the numbers of innocent black lives lost to civilian murder?"
Yeah, what then, huh, boy?
About half a dozen years ago I went to a rally organized by Larry Klayman at Lafayette Square, basically taking a trip to the wingnut zoo. Aside from his vicious nature, he was one of the most pathetic human beings I've ever seen and he had some stiff competition, including the Fonzie of Freedom, Nick Gillespie in his trademark leather jacket. Just a taste of the a$$hole festival to come, I suppose.
Gillespie appeared with Klayman?
That's affirmative.
and rule the ruins.
Hey, I watched the original Lion King. Scar was not the hero.
Neither was Immortan Joe.
"Face it, they’ve gone into the great beyond, and the best you can hope for them and yourself is that they cease to be a factor in American life, and soon."
More likely a million Kyle Rittenhouses will bloom and a lot of motherfuckers will 'cease to be a factor in American life' because they'll be dead. There's a lot of fucking nuts with guns running around - waiting for the reinstatement of Trump or for the next wingnut savior in the Whitehouse to give them the command to begin the purge. 2024 is going to be interesting.
I can't decide whether the people who follow this hard-core stuff do it for reasons of pornography (the vicarious arousal of intense feeling), or team-sport tribalism. Can it be both? Ugh. DON'T ANSWER THAT.
Just the other day, I also read that the Delta variant is both highly transmissible and possibly more lethal than the other variants. So just having recovered from a previous infection, which confers only a limited, short-term immunity anyway won't prevent reinfection with a possible worse outcome. By contrast, scientists have found that the vaccines are highly effective against the variants as well as the original viral strain.
The anti-vaxxers think that they will be protected by surrounding high percentages of vaxxed populations but that's not how it's going to work with the highly transmissible variants. There will be no "herd immunity" for a long time to come.
I think it may depend on the vaccine a little, as J&J has not been tested sufficiently with the variants to knw how effective it is. The Pfizer and one of the other ones are likely 80+% effective
You're right about the J&J vaccine.
Their faith that 'natural immunity' _must_ be better than a vaccine response is actually pretty hippie-dippy—but then I remember the popularity of 'health food' stores in John Birch territory, hence the whole Precious Bodily Fluids stuff.
(Primed for this: WFMU's "Music of Mind Control" programme featured music from The Farm last night, and I was reminded of a Pacifica station's interview with representatives thereof in which they spent a lot of time sounding like right-wing nuts.)