Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Breaking news this morning that COVID has claimed a prominent American:

Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, has died from complications from Covid-19, his family said on Facebook. He was 84.

"General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19," the Powell family wrote on Facebook.

He was fully vaccinated according to his family. It's reported Powell had an underlying health condition, having been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which made it harder for his body to fight infections.

Evidence is piling up that vaccine mandates are working very well:

At Houston Methodist — one of the first American health-care institutions to require workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus — the backlash was short-lived.

More than 150 employees were fired. There were legal battles and protests. But President and CEO Marc Boom has no regrets: 98 percent of staff have been vaccinated, and they and patients are safer as a result, he said.

Houston Methodist is not alone in requiring its employees to be vaccinated. About 41 percent of hospitals nationwide — roughly 2,570 facilities — have some sort of vaccine mandate, according to data collected by the American Hospital Association, a trade group. Others are expected to follow after President Biden announced last month that he would require most health-care facilities that accept Medicaid or Medicare funding — many of which also treat immunocompromised people who are at high risk of getting severely ill from covid — to vaccinate their employees.

Most health-care systems that require vaccination have touted widespread compliance. In interviews, administrators at some of the nation’s largest hospital systems said the mandates worked: Officials said that they have very high vaccination rates they attributed to the requirement and that they have seen coronavirus infections — and sick leaves — noticeably drop.

At Novant Health, a 35,000-employee health-care system in four Southeast states, more than 99 percent of workers have complied with a vaccine mandate, spokeswoman Caryn Klebba wrote in an email.

Lots more examples at the link.  There's also this:

 

So we’re starting to get a sense of how many people in big organizations will give up their job when faced with a vaccine mandate. From United Airlines, New York-Presbyterian, and NYU Langone the number is consistent. It’s 0.5%. #VaccineMandates https://t.co/jNJ7rOonMQ

— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) October 16, 2021

So when you see the media gravitate toward the loud, ignorant, largely- politically- motivated gaggles of anti- mask, anti- vaxxers, just remember the reality of what a tiny, destructive minority they are.

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe had some help on the campaign trail over the weekend:

Voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams on Sunday urged Black churchgoers to turn out for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in next month’s Virginia governor’s election, saying that what happens in the most watched race this year will “show the world who we are” in future contests with even higher stakes.

Abrams has become a leading national voice in the party since narrowly losing the 2018 race for governor in Georgia. With her appearances at three churches in Norfolk, Abrams is joining other political heavyweights in trying to ensure that a state trending increasingly Democratic in recent years does not flip back to the Republican column on Nov. 2.

McAuliffe, governor from 2014 to 2018 and a former Democratic National Committee chairman, visited separate churches and later led a rally with Abrams outside an early voting station. “We gotta get everybody out to vote,” he said.  [snip]

First lady Jill Biden campaigned with him on Friday. Former President Barack Obama is coming this week. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms visited three Black churches in Richmond on Sunday. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a video to be seen at 300 churches statewide for the next two-plus weeks, calls McAuliffe “the leader Virginia needs at this moment.” Biden is planning his own visit.

Meanwhile, Republican weasel Glenn Youngkin is desperate to keep from being seen with his cult leader, the malignant loser, for fear of driving away independent and suburban voters.  But he can't hide from the crazy, and McAuliffe's campaign is there to remind voters.

A simple reminder of what's at stake in Biden's Build Back Better (reconciliation) bill, most of which is supported by a solid majority of the American people (but is being blocked by two corporate Dems in the Senate):

What’s in Build Back Better

ACA subsidies
Fill Medicaid gap
Medicare dental/vision/hearing
Medicare negotiates drug costs
Elder care $
$250-$300/mo child cash
Universal pre-K
Paid family/medical leave
2-yr free community college
Clean energy money
Tax hikes >$400K + corporations

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 16, 2021

 

And a sizable majority of the public is happy to tax the rich to pay for it all.

Finally, be sure to take time to head over to Infidel 753's round-up of links from around the Internet;  as we've noted before, it's not politics- heavy, it's interesting- heavy.