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.  

Monday Morning Reading

As always, please go to the links to check out the full articles!

The Congressional Budget Office is sounding the alarm on the Senate Republican wealthfare bill:

The Senate Republican tax plan gives substantial tax cuts and benefits to Americans earning more than $100,000 a year, while the nation’s poorest would be worse off, according to a report released Sunday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. [snip] 

By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries, according to the CBO’s calculations.

(To which Republicans say, "And your point is?")

In the recent Virginia gubernatorial and state legislature election, a blue wave started to emerge in a most unlikely area:

In this bastion of Virginia-brand conservatism, dozens of Democratic women roared on a recent night as their organization’s leader crowed over their party’s historic electoral triumph. 

For the first time since 1961, Chesterfield County backed a Democrat for governor — and the driving forces in this Richmond suburb included women who defiantly trumpeted a political label their party has ducked for decades. 

“Are we done?” Kim Drew Wright asked members of the organization that she and her allies christened the Liberal Women of Chesterfield County after President Trump’s election last year. 

“Noooooo!” the women shouted back.  (our emphasis)

No, they're (we're) not done until we take back our government at all levels from the rotted out Republican Party.

Republican strategist Rick Wilson warns about Republican support for Senate candidate and child molester (allegedly!) Roy "Teen Spirit" Moore:

This week, just to prove that its response to hitting rock bottom is to bellow “Keep digging!” the Trump administration sent a clear signal it’s perfectly happy with Moore’s history of serial child sexual assault as long as he’s a solid vote on their tax bill. It started on the weekend politics shows with Mick Mulvaney of the White House Budget office and Mark Short, the White House legislative liaison, rolling out the Team Trump line of “We’ll leave it to the people of Alabama to decide.” [snip] 

For Moore’s defenders, enablers, and the crew of whataboutists, just remember: Some stains don’t wash out. Some actions can’t be forgiven.

Moore is far, far from the only stain on the Republican Party in the last 50 years. Enumerating the legion of others would take time, but not much digging.  However, he just might be the biggest stain so far in that party's decades- long descent into the swamps.

Finally, once again, Infidel 753 has the most comprehensive link round- up known to man (or at least us). Good reading.

Northam Wins In Virginia; Murphy In New Jersey (UPDATED)

Democrat Ralph Northam won a much bigger than expected  victory (53% 54% - 45%) over Republican "Enron Ed" Gillespie in the gubernatorial race in Virginia tonight. Despite foul weather over much of the state and active Republican vote suppression activities, the turnout for Democrats was heavy in vote- rich Northern Virginia, as well as in the Norfolk and Newport News areas. Gillespie ran a nasty, Trump- like campaign characterized by race baiting and smears, which apparently has backfired with voters.

Dems are also expected to sweep the Lt. Governor and Attorney General races as well. In one closely watched race, transgender Virginia Democrat Danica Roem defeated powerful long- time Republican skunk and "chief homophobe" Del. Bob Marshall (see tweet below).  Additional pickups in the Virginia state Senate and House of Delegates are expected tonight as well, possibly flipping the lower chamber to Democratic control.*

As expected, Democrat Phil Murphy won the gubernatorial race in New Jersey, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Well done, Virginia and New Jersey! Suck on that, Republicans!

*UPDATE: David Wasserman at Five Thirty Eight --

Again, I never thought I’d be saying this, but by my back-of-the-envelope count, Democrats are currently in the lead to pick up Virginia’s House of Delegates. They started the night with 34 of 100 seats and have already picked up 12 GOP-held seats. There are eight more GOP-held seats that are still too close to call, and Democrats are currently in the lead in six of them. If those leads hold, the speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates in 2018 will be a Democrat. Given the GOP’s aggressive gerrymander of Virginia’s delegate districts in 2011, this is what you’d call a tidal wave. (our emphasis)

UPDATE II:

Thoughts and prayers to all the Republican politicians who lost their seats today. We won't do anything to prevent it from happening again.

— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) November 8, 2017

UPDATE III: Re the Danica Roem/ Bob Marshall race --

The man who wrote the anti-trans bathroom bill just lost the election to a trans woman. Let that sink in. https://t.co/KFEZXSYvMy

— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) November 8, 2017

Morning Reading

More confirmation of the White (Supremacist) House as an Adult Day Care facility:

Some Trump aides spend a significant part of their time devising ways to rein in and control the impetuous president, angling to avoid outbursts that might work against him, according to interviews with 18 aides, confidants and outside advisers, most of whom insisted on anonymity to speak candidly.  [snip] 

One defining feature of managing Trump is frequent praise, which can leave his team in what seems to be a state of perpetual compliments. The White House pushes out news releases overflowing with top officials heaping flattery on Trump; in one particularly memorable Cabinet meeting this year, each member went around the room lavishing the president with accolades. 

Senior administration officials call this speaking to an “audience of one.” 

Is it possible Virginia voters might not be bothered to come out and vote in the November gubernatorial election, where Republican "Enron Ed" Gillespie is running a patently Trump- style racist campaign? Yes, it is:

Virginians speak of being exhausted by events. They say that they have only so much bandwidth and that President Trump takes up most of the space they allot to politics. They say they haven’t heard much about the governor’s race in the news, which seems devoted mainly to the president’s doings and sayings. 

As the nation’s only competitive statewide contest this year, the Virginia race has been viewed by people in the politics business as a crucial bellwether, an early measure of whether voters are motivated to push back against an unpopular president or double down on their drive to disrupt Washington and “drain the swamp." 

But far fewer Virginia voters are closely following the campaign than at similar stages in the past three gubernatorial elections, according to Washington Post polling. 

FFS, Virginia. (Today is the last day to register to vote there).

Finally, Infidel 753 has his usual amazing link round-up.  Prepare to spend some time being entertained and enthralled.

Ewww, Not Again

Virginia's Rethuglican candidate for Lieutenant Gov. and crackpot extremist E. W. (Ewww) Jackson has announced that he's fine with his running mate's plan to undermine public schools in Virginia by privatizing them and promoting education in private institutions, including churches, through tax-subsidized vouchers.   Eww's running mate, gubernatorial candidate Ken "Cooch" Cuccinelli has long supported the unconstitutional mix of Church and State, which would currently violate Virginia's own constitution not to mention the U.S. Constitution.  However, as the linked article notes, Cooch might want to reexamine his proposed education policy, now that Ewww has endorsed it:

"If crackpot poster child E.W. Jackson is for something, you probably want to be against it. If E.W. Jackson says your plan for changing how education works is good, you should probably assume that it is bad. If E.W. Jackson says you should jump off a particular bridge because the water is fine, you should probably assume that it is not fine. And if E.W. Jackson says all the fine young children of his state should come get in his van because he has got some free education in there, you should probably not let your child do that."

Ewww says not to laugh at him, therefore....Bwahahaha.

UPDATE: The latest polling is encouraging:

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has a 48 - 42 percent lead over Republican State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the race to become Virginia's next governor, according to today's Quinnipiac University poll, the first survey in this race among voters likely to vote in the November election.

Cuccinelli Wants Northern Virginians To Think He's A Democrat

Ultra-right culture warrior, transvaginal probe enthusiast and Rethuglican nominee for Governor of Virginia Ken "Cooch" Cuccinelli has had an ad playing in the Northern Virginia market for a couple of weeks now,  apparently with the intention of making those folks think he's running on some Democratic rather than theocratic Rethuglican principles:



Um, sorry, Cooch.  That dog isn't hunting. 

Macaca!

The lead of Rethug candidate for Virginia Governor Bob "Stealth" McDonnell has dropped in recent polling by half (down to 7 percent over Democrat Creigh Deeds). One reason to hope this "New Nixon"-type candidate will continue to plummet is a master's/law thesis he wrote 20 years ago, when he was a mere lad of...34. Seems the thesis, which McDonnell brought up himself to reporters, is full-bore American Taliban. (McDonnell, a long-time social right-winger who attended Pat Robertson's Regent "University", has been trying to tack to the center in the hopes of convincing enough inattentive voters that he's no threat to them.)

As Ruth Marcus points out, the "93-page, 176-footnote 'macaca' moment" presents all the ugly Christian right ideology made famous by Robertson and Jerry Falwell: anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-working poor. The thesis itself is a plan which McDonnell lays out for Republicans to use government to "strengthen the family." Hopefully, the Democrats will take this and run with it, ironically (as Marcus points out) using social wedge issues against a person and party that have long done the same. Turnabout is fair play, and all.

(Photo: "Stealth" McDonnell)

Deeds Over Words

We think it's good news that the most electable Democrat running for Virginia governor, Creigh Deeds, won yesterday's primary by a large majority. Deeds racked up about 50% of the vote, against fellow State Senator Brian Moran and moneybag motormouth Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe, who just a few years ago was contemplating running for governor of Florida, was trying to buy the governorship with significant advertising, along with name recognition. Unfortunately, name recognition worked against him, particularly in Northern Virginia, where voters rejected him by double digits. Deeds won 10 of 12 Congressional districts in a display of statewide strength. He now faces Rethuglican weenie frat boy Bob McDonnell in November.