Quotes Of The Day -- The Global Villain

 

"... Over the years the United States government and various analysts have labeled a range of designated enemies — Iraq, North Korea, Iran — as not just evil, but irrational, unpredictable, and therefore beyond the reach of diplomacy. As with Bush and Hussein, these characterizations often were as much excuse and rationalization for violence as analysis.

"But we have at last found a global villain who matches the bugbear — an ill-informed violent despot who seems to enjoy carnage for its own sake, and who has the power and the will to project terror and violence anywhere on earth for any reason or for none.

"That global villain is, of course, President Donald Trump..." -- Aaron Rupar, in his "Public Notice" Substack, leading off his essay,"The irrational strongman we've been warned about is here."  As another columnist (and many millions of us) has said, we need regime change ...  in Washington, DC.

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"... The builder, it turns out, is better at demolishing what others created than he is at building. That includes our nation of laws. He is better at slapping his name in gold on once noble edifices than at creating anything worthy of the world’s memory, save for what once was. Trump would rather cart the links at his Mar-a-Lago resort and be feted by Botoxed courtiers as artificial as his ridiculous comb over. [snip]

"Has anyone checked to see if in his temple of honor, Lincoln’s seated statue sheds tears? Such a miracle might at least shock some Americans deadened by Trump’s garish spectacle into shedding their own over what he’s destroyed. Perhaps to mourn. Perhaps to repent. Perhaps to find themselves once again. It’s long been said that with Trump and the party he leads there is no bottom. No ultimate, dark night of the soul from which springs a renewed commitment to clawing back a life (and a country) worth living. Indeed, there seems none.." -- Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo, in "R.I.P. 20th Century," elaborating on a Politico column by Alexander Burns.

Our blood pressure boileth over.

QOTD -- Making America Weak

 

"... A year in to Trump 2.0, it’s clear that Trumpers do, indeed, have a strategy — one intended to weaken America at home and abroad.

"A fully Trumped America will be a diminished nation, having squandered the assets of democracy, the rule of law, and a dynamic and growing economy — along with democratic allies — that have actually made America great, all so Trump can obtain the dictatorial control he craves.

"In recent weeks, we have seen indications that the majority of the American people are beginning to recognize the depth of the threat Trump poses to the United States, let alone the world. But as his popularity diminishes and his political power becomes more contested, he’s likely to become more reckless and more determined to harm the nation he was elected to lead. Americans, therefore, must be prepared to defend their country with only greater vigilance and vigor." -- Aaron Rupar, in his Substack "Public Notice," concluding an essay "Make America Weak" that describes the efforts being made by the Malignant Fascist and his regime to cause grave damage to America and its interests globally.  Good read to share.

QOTD -- The Credulous, Optics-Obsessed Press

 

"... Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination for a third time on July 17 with a rambling, incoherent mess of a speech that offered a terrifying vision for America during its rare moments of coherence. His performance was widely regarded as a disaster. But a range of major newspapers didn’t cover it that way.

"More than a few headlines actually raved about it. The Boston Globe: 'In a departure, Trump calls for unity, healing in America.' The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'Trump urges unity after assassination attempt while proposing sweeping populist agenda.' Baltimore Sun: 'Subdued Trump describes assassination try, accepts nomination.'

"As media critic Parker Molloy pointed out, these papers seemingly reported on Trump’s speech based on the prepared remarks, not the speech as he actually delivered it.

"In reality, Trump’s RNC coronation was a collective failure of our justice system, political process, and a mainstream media ecosystem that has consistently failed to hold him accountable. He still faces a tough challenge to win this election — especially now that Harris is on the top of the ticket — but he got a significant propaganda boost from a credulous, optics-obsessed press..." -- Aaron Rupar, in Public Notice, on the continuing role of the media in portraying the convicted felon Malignant Loser as a near- mythical strongman.  If we survive as a democracy, it will be in spite of the media, not because of it.

Monday Reading

 

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

The UN's International Panel on Climate Change has their starkest warning yet on irreversible climate change approaching (how many more hundreds of stark warnings do we need at this point for meaningful climate action?):

Human activity is changing the Earth’s climate in ways “unprecedented” in thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, with some of the changes now inevitable and “irreversible”, climate scientists have warned.

Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, breaching the ambition of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and bringing widespread devastation and extreme weather.

Only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases in this decade can prevent such climate breakdown, with every fraction of a degree of further heating likely to compound the accelerating effects, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science.

Be mindful of the rotted out party and politicians in this country that would have you believe there's nothing to see here, and who want to create a cynical, false tradeoff between jobs and climate action.

As the pandemic of the unvaccinated surges, public health experts want actions taken at the local level to mitigate the growing disaster:

Public health experts are urging more businesses and local officials to enact mask and vaccine requirements to slow the spread of the coronavirus as the more contagious delta variant drives a fourth surge of covid-19 cases in the United States.

“The time has come,” Anthony S. Fauci, the White House’s chief coronavirus medical adviser, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. “We’ve got to go the extra step to get people vaccinated. You want to persuade them, that’s good … but for those who do not want, I believe mandates at the local level need to be done.”

Fauci also said he hoped the Food and Drug Administration would grant full approval of the coronavirus vaccines — now under emergency use authorizations — within the next month, though he emphasized that FDA officials were operating independently. Once that happens, Fauci said he thinks businesses, colleges and universities, and other local entities would feel “empowerment” to enact more of their own mandates.

Meanwhile, Floriduh Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis continues his furious battle against that same public health advice and common sense, but the push-back is getting stronger:

The battle waged by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) against mask and vaccine mandates is facing challenges on multiple fronts.

His ban on vaccine passports was temporarily blocked by a federal judge late Sunday: Norwegian Cruise Line was cleared to require coronavirus vaccines for guests and crew members after U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams granted the company a preliminary injunction, blocking a Florida law championed by DeSantis that would have fined the cruise company for requiring vaccines.

Coronavirus protocols in schools are also in the spotlight as the head of the country’s second-largest teachers union on Sunday shifted course to signal support for vaccine mandates for teachers to protect students, especially those under 12 who are not old enough to be inoculated.

And a group of parents of disabled children in Florida sued Friday to block the state’s ban on mask mandates in schools. Florida education officials moved the same day to give students access to a state voucher program that helps pay for private tuition if their public schools require masks — an acknowledgment that some schools in the state are moving ahead with mask mandates despite the law.

How bad is it in Florida?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 23,903 new coronavirus cases in Florida on Friday, the state's highest single-day total since the start of the pandemic.

Two days later, numbers from hospitals reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services showed Florida's inpatient beds at more than 83% occupancy. As of Sunday, 13,793 coronavirus patients accounted for 24% of the state's inpatient beds.

Florida has become the new epicenter of the country's coronavirus pandemic, as the highly contagious delta variant triggers a surge in cases nationwide.

COVID-19 patients currently occupy 19% of ICU beds in the U.S.; in Florida, it's almost 44%. And only about 11% of the state's ICU beds are available, for the time being, compared to 26% nationwide.

This ambitious, nihilist sociopath Governor has the same feral instincts as the malignant former guy, but more brains. He's a danger to his state;  at some point, unless he's defeated, he might be a danger to us all someday.

Aaron Rupar gives us a heads- up on the soon- to- wrap- up (?) Arizona Republican fraudit:

Cyber Ninjas — the company running the GOP’s so-called “audit” of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, Arizona — is expected to finally release a report summarizing its findings sometime in the next few weeks. But if past is precedent, the document will likely leave people in a fog of confusion.

That’s because the “audit,” which began in April at the behest of the state’s GOP-controlled Senate and is being paid for by a variety of far-right, pro-Trump sources, was never intended to be a good-faith investigation of election practices. On the contrary, it’s always been about bolstering Donald Trump’s lies about the election with false and misleading claims, then using them as a pretext to impose new voting restrictions aimed at giving Republicans an edge in future elections, including a possible Trump 2024 presidential run.

Inevitably, that means Cyber Ninjas will make claims just plausible enough to get credulous coverage from pro-Trump media, even if the claims can’t withstand scrutiny from impartial fact-checkers. Those claims can then be amplified by elected Republicans who won’t let facts get in the way of their narrative. Consider the dynamic at work in Tucker Carlson’s recent attempts to blame the FBI for the January 6 insurrection — a claim that was quickly debunked but was nonetheless touted by members of Congress like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.

Finally, we conclude by recommending a visit to Infidel 753's link round-up for the best, most comprehensive collection of links to blog posts you're likely to find anywhere.  Be prepared to be enlightened, amused, and possibly enraged (but mostly enlightened).