Monday Reading

 

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

As the COVID Delta variant is surging -- "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" -- we're mostly concentrating on that topic this morning.

Infidel 753 argues that the United States, with its surplus of vaccines thanks to an unwilling, mostly right- wing population, should increase its focus on expanding vaccination distribution in other parts of the world:

The objection is sometimes made that allowing covid-19 to fester endemically in a large sub-population will facilitate the continuing appearance of new variants, perhaps eventually one which would be resistant to the existing vaccines and thus threaten the vaccinated population.

Here's the critical thing to remember about that point, though.  To the extent that this is a possibility, it makes no difference whether the unvaccinated people you're talking about are inside the United States or outside it.  The delta variant originated in India and spread very rapidly all over the world, just as the original covid-19 itself originated in China and did the same.  This will be the case with future variants as well.  National borders have proven pretty much irrelevant to the spread of this disease.  If you are a vaccinated American worried about unvaccinated populations fostering the rise of a new variant which could defeat the vaccines, then an unvaccinated individual in Bengal or Ethiopia presents exactly the same risk to you as an unvaccinated individual in Florida or Missouri does.

David Atkins writes about the premature decision by some media (Politico, back in March) to declare Floriduh Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis victorious over COVID and why, now that Floriduh accounts for 1 in 5 new COVID infections, they need to stop getting suckered:

I’ve argued here before that failures of framing in the traditional media are now far less important than the disinformation being peddled on social media. The fact that the top posts on Facebook are consistently from right-wing disinformation channels matters a great deal more to public policy than whether Politico says something dumb and irresponsible. Biden reiterated the point yesterday, much to the amusing consternation of the rightwing disinformation racket itself and its enablers at Facebook.

But traditional media does still set narratives among more informed members of the electorate. How many times do reporters need to be played for fools by too-good-to-be-true rightwing narratives before a greater degree of skepticism starts to set in?

We'll remain skeptical, but hopeful, that anything will be any different in the future.

Will Bunch says there's a Democratic way and a Republican way to do vaccines, and he identifies a major fault line:

There is, we are finding out rather painfully, a Democratic and a Republican way to do vaccines. Just travel to a place like Mountain Home, Arkansas — in a state where Trump got 62% of the vote last year — where the largest medical center is jammed with coronavirus patients, in a county where more than two-thirds of residents aren’t vaccinated and interest in the jab is low. (”It was just terrible,” a 68-year-old widow with chronic pulmonary disease told the New York Times of her COVID-19 ordeal — before adding she still won’t get vaccinated.)

In neighboring Tennessee, the top immunization official was fired last week under pressure from Republican lawmakers because she aggressively promoted vaccines for teens. “I am afraid for my state,” Dr. Michelle Fiscus said in a statement after she was sacked. Health officials in the GOP-dominated state immediately justified her fears by buckling under political pressure and stopping all vaccine outreach to teenagers — not just on COVID-19, but also for flu, measles, mumps, rubella, and human papillomavirus, or HPV, among others.  [snip]

The masses are receptive to misinformation because America is increasingly divided not by its traditional fault lines, but by one huge determining factor: whether or not you attended college. As the U.S. increasingly cleaves into a Democratic Party composed heavily of college grads in cosmopolitan cities and suburbs, and a GOP foaming with anti-elite resentments, Republicans increasingly lack faith in our universities (their confidence dropping sharply from 56% to 39% just between 2015 and 2018) and their science departments. As more and more scientists denounced the right’s hero, Donald Trump, the gulf grew even wider.  [snip]

Now we are witnessing firsthand the consequences of a society that’s chosen to willfully ignore its leading climatologists and infectious-disease experts. The increasing reports from overcrowded ICUs in low-vaccine hotspots like the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas about people fighting — needlessly — for their lives on ventilators are heartbreaking. And news of growing wildfires and drought in the parched, overheated American West is just terrifying, a reminder of our failure to curb greenhouse-gas pollution fast enough.

When 3 in 10 Republicans believe the Federal Government is microchipping us through COVID vaccines, that's the fault line in stark relief.

As the Republican fraudit continues its increasingly bizarre path in Arizona, the Associated Press did a little checking and found what has been true from the beginning:

Arizona county election officials have identified fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud out of more than 3 million ballots cast in last year’s presidential election, further discrediting former President Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election as his allies continue a disputed ballot review in the state’s most populous county.

An Associated Press investigation found 182 cases where problems were clear enough that officials referred them to investigators for further review. So far, only four cases have led to charges, including those identified in a separate state investigation. No one has been convicted. No person’s vote was counted twice.

While it’s possible more cases could emerge, the numbers illustrate the implausibility of Trump’s claims that fraud and irregularities in Arizona cost him the state’s electorate votes. In final, certified and audited results, Biden won 10,400 more votes than Trump out of 3.4 million cast.

AP’s findings align with previous studies showing voter fraud is rare. Numerous safeguards are built into the system to not only prevent fraud from happening but to detect it when it does.

Finally, please consider a visit over to the aforementioned Infidel 753's link round- up for a great collection of links to interesting posts from around the Internet.  There's none better in our opinion.

Monday Reading

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

The bombshell reporting on corrupt, dangerous dimwit Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump's call to Georgia officials to pressure them to fraudulently change the results of the election continues to develop. There are some recent updates and reactions here and here.

Meanwhile, all 10 living former Secretaries of Defense -- Democrats and Republicans, including Trump's two SecDefs -- penned an unprecedented op/ed in the Washington Post that was clearly meant as a warning to Mango Mussolini and his sycophants in the Pentagon to stop obstructing the transition to the Biden Administration, saying in part:

Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.

As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, “there’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election.” Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.  [snip]

Given these factors, particularly at a time when U.S. forces are engaged in active operations around the world, it is all the more imperative that the transition at the Defense Department be carried out fully, cooperatively and transparently. Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly. They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.

We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them. This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country.  (our emphasis)

David Atkins writes about the sedition caucus putsch cosplay planned for January 6:

The GOP senators carrying Trump’s water here are using as justification the fact that millions of Americans falsely believe there was election fraud. But the GOP base believes it precisely because the President and his allies in conservative infotainment media have been promoting the lies.

It’s a perfect self-referential paradox of propaganda. Lie to millions of Americans in order to justify destroying democracy, then use the fact that millions of Americans believed your lies as the reason to try to do so, regardless of the validity of the underlying claims.

Technically, the Senators supporting this effort are claiming they are not trying to overturn the election. They say they only want a “10-day audit” of the election results. The problem, of course, is that the results have been checked and double-checked repeatedly. An “audit” (which would not rise even to the level of a full recount) would accomplish nothing that has not already been done. The voting machines have been double- and triple-checked. Mail ballot envelope signatures have been checked and double-checked–and in any case, there is no longer any way to match envelopes to ballots. The Senators involved do know all of this. They just don’t care.

The immediate goal, of course, is to placate Trump and Trump’s base. Some of the Senators supporting this move are presidential hopefuls for 2024. The secondary goal is to blow enough smoke over the issue to justify new voter suppression schemes in future elections, in order to resolve the “doubts about our elections” that they themselves cynically promulgated.  (our emphasis)

In a similar vein, Tom Sullivan writes about Republicans' authoritarian urge to rule:

As others observed before me, Republicans do not want to govern, they want to rule. The first rule once was, heads they win, tails you lose. Now it is heads they win, tails “Nice constitutional republic ya got there….”

“So what’s a plutocrat to do?” asked Paul Krugman at a time before openly rejecting democracy was de rigueur for Republicans. Since they could not come straight out and say only the wealthy should have the franchise, they resort to propaganda about voter fraud, etc. More democracy, better democracy is the last thing they want.

The latest wrinkle in our Trumpist saga is the effort among elected Republicans to raise objections to the decision of voters on January 6 when the U.S House and Senate meet to accept electoral vote certifications from the states. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas proposes a special commission charged with yet another examination of electoral college votes from “disputed states.” [snip]

Anti-democrats do not want a more perfect democratic republic. They want the answer they want. They want to rule or else. Like a former client, like Donald Trump, he of the bottomless cup of lawsuits, they will keep raising objections to the will of the people, they will wear down opponents until they get the answer they want. If they lose, they try to will get even, Donald Trump-style. No presidential commission will remediate that.  (our emphasis)

 

Put succinctly --

"A cult is attempting a coup in America."

Is that the most accurate way to frame what's going on right now? Well, here's how I opened RS today... https://t.co/YpBXIw5tEn

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 3, 2021

 

Former Republican strategist turned Democrat Steve Schmidt has a tweet thread on the sedition caucus, which reads in part:

They are fighting to maintain the power of a defeated President against the sovereign will of the American people as lawfully exercised under the Constitution of the United States. They are fighting to establish a tyranny. They are deliberately poisoning 7/

Faith and Belief in American democracy. Democratic Republic’s cannot survive such a collapse. The system is rooted in the willingness of one side to cede power to another at the will of the people. There are no other systems of government except for this type that are free. 8/

The legitimacy of that system is being strangled by Trumps lies and the lies of his movement. That movement is an autocratic one with fascistic markers. It is hostile to the American Constitution, the rule of law and the highest ideas and ideals of American liberty. 9/

It's a coup that will fail, and those who enabled it will have forever marked themselves as the unAmerican betrayers of our democracy that they are.  We must dedicate ourselves to seeing that they all pay a serious price for their seditious actions.

Finally, a reminder to please go check out Infidel753's link round- up for links to interesting posts from the past week from around the Internet. You can thank us later (or not)!