;)
November 13, 2021
Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Biden will convene a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, the White House announced on Friday, a conversation that will take place amid a fresh deal between the two nations to cooperate on climate but persistent tensions over Taiwan, trade, human rights and other issues." CNN's story, which emphasizes, Xi's grip on power, is here.
Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is rescinding a Trump-era rule that broadened religious exemptions for the massive workforce of federal contractors, an effort to bring anti-discrimination protections more in line with previous decades. While there's no record any contractor has tried to use the exemption, advocates on both sides say the push-pull is powerfully important. It comes in an era when some religious conservatives are pushing back against bans on employment discrimination against people on the basis of sexuality and gender identity being put on par with, or above, protections for religious expression and practice. In its proposal published Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor argues that the Trump-era rule 'departs' from standard interpretations of civil rights law banning employment discrimination that have been expanded by presidents for the most part since the 1940s."
The Party of Violence. Lisa Lerer & Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "The Republican Party is mainstreaming menace as a political tool.... From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party. Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power.... Among the most fervent conservatives, who play an outsize role in primary contests and provide the party with its activist energy, the belief that the country is at a crossroads that could require armed confrontation is no longer limited to the fringe.... What has changed [over the course of U.S. history] has been the embrace of violent speech by a sizable portion of one party, including some of its loudest voices inside government and most influential voices outside.... From his earliest campaigning to the final moments of his presidency, Mr. Trump's political image has incorporated the possibility of violence. He encouraged attendees at his rallies to 'knock the hell' out of protesters, praised a lawmaker who body-slammed a reporter, and in a recent interview defended rioters who clamored to 'hang Mike Pence.' Yet even with the former president largely out of the public eye and after a deadly attack on the Capitol where rioters tried to overturn the presidential election, the Republican acceptance of violence has only spread." ~~~
~~~ Paul Waldman: "The thread running through [recent violent remarks,] events and controversies is [Republicans'] belief that liberals are so wicked that violence and the threat of violence are reasonable responses to the possibility of them getting their way. Right along with that belief is a fantasy, that of a man (almost always a man) who rather than being an ordinary schlub at the mercy of a world in which he has no power is actually bursting with testosterone and potency, someone who can and perhaps should become a killing machine.... And, of course, no one embodies that fantasy more than Trump himself. He may be a corpulent senior citizen who dodged the draft, but in his own mind he's Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne, just waiting for the opportunity to display his deadly skills and save the day." ~~~
~~~ Marie: One of the great things about being president* is that you can fantasize & say you would do any number of super-human feats of derring-do without actually doing them because your own life is too important to risk. So you can egg on supporters to storm the Capitol & even tell them you'll be joining them in their siege but you actually get to sit at home gleefully watching the mayhem on the teevee because Secret Service.
** Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: "A federal grand jury has returned an indictment against former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress, the Justice Department announced Friday. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been under tremendous political pressure to indict Bannon since the House referred the Trump ally to the Justice Department for contempt on October 21. Without an indictment, critics have said, there's doubt over how much power the House January 6 committee has to compel cooperation from former White House and Trump administration officials. Friday, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows failed to appear for a deposition, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN, setting up a potential showdown that could lead to the panel beginning a criminal referral process against him. And last week, former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who had been subpoenaed, appeared before the committee for more than an hour but declined to answer questions." ~~~
~~~ A New York Times report by Katie Benner & Luke Broadwater, is here: "A Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Bannon was expected to turn himself in to authorities on Monday, and make his first appearance in Federal District Court in Washington later that day." (An earlier version of this story was linked yesterday.) ~~~
Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law. Today's charges reflect the department's steadfast commitment to these principles. -- Attorney General Merrick Garland ~~~
~~~ The Justice Department's full statement is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marisa Sarnoff of Law & Crime: "Although the indictment was not entirely unexpected -- the House of Representatives voted in late October to hold Bannon in contempt -- an actual conviction would be the first of its kind in almost half a century. The Department of Justice traditionally enjoys wide latitude over whether to convene a grand jury after receiving a contempt referral from Congress.... That a grand jury now has signed off on Bannon's charges sets the stage for a rare prosecution -- said to be the first contempt of Congress case brought after executive privilege was asserted." The post goes into some cases, beginning in the 1970s.
Zachary Cohen & Annie Grayer of CNN: "Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows did not appear for a deposition on Friday in front of the House select committee investigating January 6, sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN, setting up a potential showdown that could lead to the panel beginning a criminal referral process against him. Committee staffers had been prepared to go forward with the interview and waited in a room on Capitol Hill with a stenographer, but started to file out of the room nine minutes after the deadline passed." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ "Chairman Bennie G. Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) [Friday] issued the following statement on Mark Meadows's failure to comply with the Select Committee's subpoena: 'Mr. Meadows's actions today -- choosing to defy the law -- will force the Select Committee to consider pursuing contempt or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena.'" And so forth. An NPR story on the statement is here.
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The most heavily armed man federal authorities charged in the Jan. 6 investigation faces years in prison after pleading guilty Friday to bringing five loaded firearms and 11 molotov cocktails in his truck to Capitol Hill. Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 71, of Falkville, Ala., admitted to one federal count of possessing an unregistered firearm or destructive device -- the molotov cocktails -- and one D.C. count of carrying a pistol without a license. He was the first person indicted in the pro-Trump protests that devolved into violence against nearly 140 police officers and forced the evacuation of Congress as it met to confirm the 2020 presidential election results. Coffman packed a cooler with Mason jars he filled with gasoline and melted plastic foam to produce a dangerous 'napalm-like' explosion of sticky, flammable liquid, he admitted in a two-hour plea hearing in Washington. In his red GMC Sierra truck, the Army veteran also brought a rifle, shotgun, two 9mm pistols and a .22-caliber pistol -- all loaded -- and carried two of the pistols with him as he walked, he admitted." The Huffington Post report, by Ryan Reilly, is here. ~~~
~~~ BUT, according to Donald Trump, Lonnie was just showing some "common sense." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So here's Trump, less than two-and-a-half months after the fact, strong-mansplaining to Karl that the violent insurrectionists/Trump troops were exhibiting "common sense" in their quest to "hang Mike Pence." The triumph of a monarchical dictator is pretty much the opposite of what Thomas Paine had in mind when he wrote "Common Sense," the tract that argued in favor of the first American Revolution.
Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Former 'Apprentice' contestant Summer Zervos on Friday announced that she would drop her 2017 lawsuit alleging ... Donald Trump had defamed her by denying he had sexually assaulted her years earlier. Zervos did not give a reason for ending the case, which had advanced far enough that attorneys were discussing when Trump might be questioned in a deposition.... Her attorneys, Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza, said she had received nothing from Trump in return for dropping the case." ~~~
~~~ Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "Trump also agreed to abandon his counterclaim, according to the just-released stipulation."
Michael Schmidt & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Project Veritas, the conservative group under scrutiny in a Justice Department investigation of how a diary kept by President Biden's daughter Ashley Biden was published days before the 2020 election, has told a federal judge that it received a diary from two people who said they had legally obtained it after she had abandoned it. 'Project Veritas had no involvement with how those two individuals acquired the diary,' lawyers for the group said in a letter dated Wednesday to a federal judge in New York. The group's lawyers were asking U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres for a so-called special master to determine what materials seized by federal investigators could be used as evidence in their investigation.... In contrast with Project Veritas's description in the letter of how the diary was obtained, a warrant used by federal authorities to search the home of the group's founder, James O'Keefe, last Saturday indicated that federal authorities believed the property was stolen." The Raw Story has a summary report here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know anything about Ashley Biden, but it doesn't seem likely that she would "abandon" a personal diary during the height of her father's campaign for the presidency. Moreover, according to an earlier story by Schmidt, Goldman & others, "... a representative of the Biden family reported to federal authorities in October 2020 that several of Ms. Biden's personal items had been stolen in a burglary...."
Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post on Friday took the unusual step of correcting and removing large portions of two articles, published in March 2017 and February 2019, that had identified a Belarusian American businessman as a key source of the 'Steele dossier,' a collection of largely unverified reports that claimed the Russian government had compromising information about then-candidate Donald Trump. The newspaper's executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said The Post could no longer stand by the accuracy of those elements of the story. It had identified businessman Sergei Millian as 'Source D,' the unnamed figure who passed on the most salacious allegation in the dossier to its principal author, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.... An editor's note explaining the changes was added. Other stories [and a video] that made the same assertion were corrected as well.... The Post's reassessment follows the indictment on Nov. 4 of Igor Danchenko, a Russian American analyst and researcher who helped Steele compile the dossier." The Hill's report is here.
Bryce Covert, in a New York Times op-ed, explains how dearly the nation will pay for Joe Manchin's & Kyrsten Sinema's misguided ideas about "fiscal responsibility." (Also linked yesterday.)
** Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times argues that there is a Constitutional Guarantee against extreme gerrymandering & other forms of usurping the one-person/one-vote ideal: Through gerrymandering & seizing control of the administration of elections, "the Republican Party has cleared itself a path to nullifying the votes of millions of Americans.... It is worth looking at one rarely discussed section of the Constitution. In Article IV, Section 4, the Constitution says that, 'The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.'... As James Madison explains it in Federalist No. 43, [this] means that '... the superintending [federal] government ought clearly to possess authority to defend the system against aristocratic or monarchial innovations.'... In his famous dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, Justice John Marshall Harlan cited the Guarantee Clause in his brief against Louisiana's Jim Crow segregation law.... 'Such a system [-- Jim Crow --] is inconsistent with the guarantee given by the Constitution to each State of a republican form of government, and may be stricken down by congressional action, or by the courts....' In this vision of the Guarantee Clause, the touchstone for 'a republican form of government' is political equality...." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Speaking of Plessy. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "On June 7, 1892, a racially mixed shoemaker from New Orleans named Homer Plessy bought a first-class ticket for a train bound for Covington, La., and took a seat in the whites-only car. He was asked to leave, and after he refused, he was dragged from the train and charged with violating the Louisiana Separate Car Act. He pleaded guilty and was fined $25. On Friday, nearly 130 years after the arrest, the Louisiana Board of Pardons voted to clear his record. 'There is no doubt that he was guilty of that act on that date,' Jason Williams, the Orleans Parish district attorney, told the board during a brief hearing on Friday. 'But there is equally no doubt that such an act should have never been a crime in this country.'... The landmark ruling that resulted in the case, Plessy v. Ferguson, came to be regarded as one of most shameful decisions in the court's history as well as one of the most consequential. It endorsed the 'separate but equal' doctrine and gave legal backing to ... Jim Crow laws.... The board's decision was sent to Gov. John Bel Edwards [D], who will decide whether to grant the posthumous pardon." CNN's report is here.
Ben Casselman of the New York Times: "More than 4.4 million workers quit their jobs voluntarily in September, the Labor Department said Friday. That was up from 4.3 million in August and was the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track. Nearly a million quit their jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry alone, reflecting the steep competition for workers there as businesses recover from last year's pandemic-induced shutdowns. There were 10.4 million job openings in the United States at the end of September. That is down a bit from the record 11.1 million posted in July, before the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus led to a slump in sales in some businesses. But demand for labor remains extraordinarily high by historical standards -- before the pandemic, the record for job openings in a month was 7.6 million in November 2018. The Labor Department revised its estimate of job openings in August to 10.6 million."
Joe Coscarelli & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "Nearly 14 years after a Los Angeles court deemed the pop sensation Britney Spears unable to care for herself, stripping the singer of control in nearly every aspect of her life, a judge ruled on Friday to end the conservatorship that Ms. Spears said had long traumatized and exploited her." A Raw Story summary report is here.
Poor, Pitiful Me. Mark Maske & Nicki Jhabyala of the Washington Post: "Jon Gruden, the former coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, filed a lawsuit in Nevada accusing the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell of using leaked emails to 'publicly sabotage Gruden's career' and pressure him into resigning from his job last month. The lawsuit, which alleges that the league and Goodell utilized 'a Soviet-style character assassination' against Gruden, was filed Thursday in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nev.... Gruden resigned Oct. 11 following reports that he used racist, homophobic and misogynistic language in emails over a span of approximately seven years before he agreed to return to the NFL in 2018 as the Raiders coach. The emails were sent to Bruce Allen, the former president of the Washington Football Team, and others while Gruden worked for ESPN as an NFL analyst."
The New York Times' live updates of COP26 developments Saturday are here.
Michael Birnbaum, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.N. climate talks went into overtime on Friday, as U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry defended a draft declaration that would scale back an effort to curb the burning of fossil fuels. As discussions at COP26 entered their frantic final hours, negotiators intensified an effort to create a path to avoid catastrophic global warming. Protesters and frustrated negotiators from vulnerable nations began focusing their anger on the United States, accusing the Biden administration of holding back on cash and the talks' overall ambition.... But a visibly emotional Kerry told a roomful of delegates that wasn't the case, defending U.S. leadership on climate issues even as he explained some of the practical barriers to meeting environmental advocates' highest hopes."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court has kept its block in place against a federal mandate that all large employers require their workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing starting in January, declaring that the rule 'grossly exceeds' the authority of the occupational safety agency that issued it. In a 22-page ruling issued on Friday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, held that a group of challengers to the mandate issued by the Biden administration was likely to succeed in its claim that it was an unlawful overreach, and barred the government from moving forward with it." A CBS News report is here. ~~~
~~~ But Don't Worry about the Mandates, People. Help Has Arrived! Marie: Hope you-all appreciate this handy how-to on de-vaccination. Thanks to Bobby Lee for the link: ~~~
~~~ Ben Collins of NBC News: "In a TikTok video that has garnered hundreds of thousands of views, Dr. Carrie Madej outlined the ingredients for a bath she said will 'detox the vaxx' for people who have given into Covid-19 vaccine mandates. The ingredients in the bath are mostly not harmful, although the supposed benefits attached to them are entirely fictional. Baking soda and epsom salts, she falsely claims, will provide a 'radiation detox' to remove radiation Madej falsely believes is activated by the vaccine. Bentonite clay will add a 'major pull of poison,' she says, based on a mistaken idea in anti-vaccine communities that toxins can be removed from the body with certain therapies. Then, she recommends adding in one cup of borax, a cleaning agent that's been banned as a food additive by the Food and Drug Administration, to 'take nanotechnologies out of you.' In reality, in addition to being potentially harmful as a skin and eye irritant, a borax 'detox bath' will not remove the effects of the Covid vaccine from your body. The video is one of several methods anti-vaccine influencers and communities on social media have in recent weeks suggested to their many followers who have capitulated and received the Covid shot." MB: Wouldn't ingesting bleach work better? Let's ask Donnie. (Also linked yesterday.)
Tiffany Hsu & Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "On a recent episode of his podcast, Rick Wiles, a pastor and self-described 'citizen reporter,' endorsed a conspiracy theory: that Covid-19 vaccines were the product of a 'global coup d'état by the most evil cabal of people in the history of mankind.'... Mr. Wiles belongs to a group of hosts who have made false or misleading statements about Covid-19 and effective treatments for it. Like many of them, he has access to much of his listening audience because his show appears on a platform provided by a large media corporation. Mr. Wiles's podcast is available through iHeart Media, an audio company based in San Antonio that says it reaches nine out of 10 Americans each month. Spotify and Apple are other major companies that provide significant audio platforms for hosts who have shared similar views with their listeners about Covid-19 and vaccination efforts, or have had guests on their shows who promoted such notions.... Audio industry executives appear less likely than their counterparts in social media to try to check dangerous speech."
** Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration repeatedly interfered with efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year to issue warnings and guidance about the evolving coronavirus pandemic, six current and former health officials told congressional investigators in recent interviews. One of those officials, former CDC senior health expert Nancy Messonnier, warned in a Feb. 25, 2020, news briefing that the virus's spread in the United States was inevitable -- a statement that prompted anger from .. Donald Trump and led to the agency's media appearances being curtailed, according to interview excerpts and other documents released Friday by the House select subcommittee on the pandemic. The new information, including statements from former White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx confirms prior reporting and offers additional detail on how the pandemic response unfolded at the highest levels of government." This article is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ A Politico report, by Erin Banco, is here.
Beyond the Beltway
New Jersey Gubernatorial Race. Dareh Gregorian & Jacob Fulton of NBC News: "Republican Jack Ciattarelli conceded in the closer-than-expected New Jersey governor's race on Friday, 10 days after his loss to the Democratic incumbent, Phil Murphy. 'I called Gov. Murphy earlier today and congratulated him on his re-election and wished him well in serving the people of New Jersey,' Ciattarelli told supporters at a news conference. He defended the delay in conceding, and said he decided to call it quits only after it became clear there was no path to victory.... Murphy said in a statement that he'd thanked Ciattarelli and his family 'for a spirited campaign and their commitment to public service' in their phone call." (Also linked yesterday.)
North Carolina. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "Gov. Roy Cooper [D] of North Carolina on Friday granted a pardon to a man who spent more than 24 years in prison for murder before a judge vacated his conviction in 2019, finding that a key witness had 'entirely made up' her testimony. The pardon for the man, Montoyae Dontae Sharpe, clears the way for him to seek compensation from the state and comes after prominent pastors and others had demonstrated outside the governor's mansion in support of Mr. Sharpe.... During the trial [in 1995], Charlene Johnson, who was 15, testified that she saw Mr. Sharpe, who is Black, shoot [George] Radcliffe, who was white, in a face-to-face altercation over a drug deal.... Ms. Johnson recanted her testimony weeks later, and Mr. Sharpe's efforts to overturn his conviction worked their way through the courts until 2019, when a Superior Court judge in Pitt County, N.C., held two evidentiary hearings that destroyed the case.... Judge [G. Bryan] Collins vacated Mr. Sharpe's conviction, released him from prison and granted his motion for a new trial. That same day, the Pitt County District Attorney's Office dismissed the murder charge against Mr. Sharpe and refused to retry the case on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt." A WRAL report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I do not understand why it takes 22 years for a wrongful murder conviction to "work its way through the courts."
News Lede
New York Times: CNN: "One of Blue Origin's newest astronauts, 49-year-old Glen de Vries, survived a ride to space in October alongside actor William Shatner. But less than a month later, he was killed in a small plane crash on Thursday in New Jersey.... The New Jersey State Police says the plane went down in a wooded area Thursday afternoon in Hampton Township, about 40 miles northwest of New York City. FAA records say a Cessna 172 -- a four-seat airplane used for training and recreational flights -- was involved in a fatal crash under 'unknown circumstances in a heavily wooded area' Thursday. The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted Thursday it is investigating the crash. State troopers say de Vries was accompanied on board by 54-year-old Thomas P. Fischer."
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From one of my old favorites:
https://madison.com/wsj/opinion/column/rex-huppke-guilty-or-innocent-kyle-rittenhouse-should-disgust-us-all/article_34766ade-173a-5866-a0cb-64fafcb817d0.html
I don’t listen to Steve Bannon’s podcast (or any others by traitors, liars, white supremacists, and right-wing gangsters), but I’ll bet my kid’s future that he’s wearing his contempt charge as a badge of honor in Trump World.
None of the Trump traitors and co-conspirators are likely to obey the law. Their supporters are fanatical believers in their own ascendancy and their right to ignore, repel, assault, or shoot anyone they consider party to the horrible “tyranny” (aka rule of law, comity, decency, and belief in the (entire) Constitution) that besets them at every turn and attacks their freeeedoms.
Even if they succeed in compelling Bannon, with his three shirt layers and unshaven jowls, to appear before the committee investigating the crimes against the United States, to answer for what he and the rest of the Trump cabal cooked up, there is less than a one percent chance that he will tell the truth.
Don’t forget, Bannon is very much in the Lenin camp of “Burn it all down”. Like Trump, he sees chaos as a useful tool to personal power.
I still don’t think many Democrats (lookin’ at you, Merrick) understand what we’re up against here.
A few random thoughts about the Aaron Rodgers lie fest that has further ginned up the anti-vax crowd.
The right wing cabal - Fox News, the Republicans, right wing Internet and radio screamers, etc., has almost literally come up with helpful “talking points” for vaccine deniers. A) cite “the need for more research”. B) cite concerns about sterility or miscarriages or autism or other completely disproven effects. C) cite concern about actual legitimate side effects (anaphylaxis, myocarditis) that are actually so rare in the general group of vaccine recipients as to be less likely than dying in a car crash. D) use catch phrases like “body autonomy” or even better “woke” or “cancel culture” or “the government can’t force me”. E) say that the government or CDC or someone has lied about the vaccines. F) if all else fails, say you’re allergic - who can prove you’re lying?
They’ve abandoned earlier talking points for the most part - the ones focused on how this was NOT much of a problem, overblown etc. And they’ve been desperately working on Big Lies and manipulations of data to prevent their followers from understanding the overwhelming increased risk the unvaccinated face.
These are not “anti-vaxxers” in the previously understood sense of the scattered people who had weird religious or philosophical opposition to vaccines through the years. The overwhelming majority are taking marching orders from leaders on the right.
The ever-pusillanimous mainstream media, unwilling to call them out, further legitimizes all this by pointing to “people’s growing mistrust in doctors” or “a general distrust of institutions” as the underlying cause of this phenomenon, or some other pile of crap.
No. These people more or less trust doctors and hospitals. They accept - seek out! - all sorts of cutting edge treatments for all sorts of diseases - treatments that weren’t in anyone’s CONCEPTION ten years ago, let alone “knowing the long term effects”. Plus they sue the government to pay for completely wacky unproven cancer treatments. They’ve taken their kids in for every vaccination known to man and gotten their yearly flu vaccines and on and on. And they WANT stuff like monoclonal antibodies or actual proven antiviral treatments.
But a vaccine that doesn’t even contain a weaker version of the deadly virus (as many vaccines do) - that has been used in 4 billion people. - with a side effect frequency known down to the 100th of a percent - well, THAT’S where they draw the line.
Because the cabal has told them to, plain and simple. They’ve made this a crazy litmus test. It’s the new front line in the fight for their freeedoms against the “tyranny” of Joe Biden, Tony Fauci, and the despised liberals.
A cardiologist friend of mine tells me of a patient who rails “don’t let them brainwash you into wearing a mask!” No. THIS is brainwashing.
But let me get back to multi-millionaire sports figures, like Aaron Rodgers and Kyrie Irving (surely one of the biggest whiners in the NBA) who routinely fall back on the idea that they’re doing “research” on the vaccine. What, the game is over and they head to the lab to run some tests? Research, my ass.
Aaron Rodgers goes into this delusional bullshit on a regular basis.
And this idiot thought he’d be a great host for a show about facts? Jeopardy? Now that he’s been outed, he has to find some kind of bullshit scenario to make him look better than the run of the mill moron, so…”Research! Yeah, that’s the ticket! I’ve been doing RESEARCH!” Let’s set aside the fact that “research” consisting of ignoring actual fact based science and instead glomming on to idiot theories based on fantasy, paranoia, and nutcase nightmares, does nothing for his case.
When you eschew facts for jerkoff dumbbell ideas you sound like Bill O’Reilly when he pondered what to him was an impenetrable problem: “The tide goes in, the tide goes out! Wow! Who can explain it?”
How about most third graders, Bill?
When these “research fellows” in professional sports have a torn ACL or broken bone, do they “research” alternative treatments, like rubbing tea leaves on the affected area or checking with some online alt-right screamer? Or do they do what professional medical advisers suggest? Such bullshit.
There are alternate treatments, certainly, for some medical conditions. One might opt for meditation or working out or seeing a therapist when battling depression as opposed to a guzzling a raft of psychotropic drugs. But in many instances there are very specific treatments. You might decide that a warm bath, horse pills and “further research” might be the way to go when you have a heart attack, but I’m guessing none of those will prove very effective in extending your lifespan.
It’s no different with dealing with a deadly virus.
Jesus, these people!
And here’s the last word on this. These sports figures carry a lot of weight in the influence department, especially with kids. Were they to come out in favor of vaccinations, it could mean many lives saved. But selfishness and stupidity reign supreme these days.
I don’t either, Ak. The longer we go with no actual prosecution and conviction of these criminals, the closer we are to bedlam. I am so tired of pansy-a** Dems. Quit dotting i’s and crossing t’s, Garland and company, because at this point I want their heads on pikes. I am quite serious—. It’s war.