Stop the Idiocracy: August 2021

Monday, August 30, 2021

American withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete. They're on their own, and they can rot

Reuters

Not our problem anymore. All of you who haven’t paid attention to Afghanistan for years but are now suddenly so concerned about the humanitarian situation there, and are so angry at President Biden for doing what everybody wanted him to do, go f**k yourselves! For real. That very much goes for the corporate, pro-war mainstream media, who continue to inundate us with one sob story after another and simply will not let it go. The nationalist populist right, merely seizing on an opportunity to denigrate President Biden, need to practice what they preach and really put ‘America first’ now. Terrible things are happening to people in terrible places all over the world, including in our own country. America is a dysfunctional basket case of a nation and we’re not even capable of taking care of ourselves, yet alone solving the world’s problems.

Kentucky senator accuses the FDA of not studying ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 merely out of ‘hatred for Trump’

Shutterstock

Memo to Sen. Rand Paul and everyone else who needs to hear it: Not everything in the world revolves around Donald J. Trump. Just stop, for the love of God. -

Federal researchers will not objectively study ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19, the Kentucky senator Rand Paul claimed, because “hatred for Donald Trump” has tainted their view of those who say the drug used to deworm horses can aid the fight against the pandemic.
Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic, does have uses in humans, to treat worms, lice and skin problems. But despite it having been discussed by doctors in testimony before Congress, it is not proven to combat Covid-19.
Doctors have also warned against its potential toxicity. Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a terse tweet: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that a meeting with constituents in Cold Spring, Kentucky, on Friday, Paul said: “The hatred for Trump deranged these people so much, they’re unwilling to objectively study it.
“So someone like me that’s in the middle on it, I can’t tell you because they will not study ivermectin. They will not study hydroxychloroquine without the taint of their hatred for Donald Trump.”
Trump both promoted and said he was using hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, when in office. Doctors warned against side-effects and studies said it had little or no effect in preventing hospitalisation or death from Covid-19.
According to the US National Library of Medicine, studies have not produced proof that ivermectin can treat Covid-19. The same source lists 31 completed, withdrawn or ongoing US clinical trials.
The FDA says taking large doses of ivermectin is “dangerous and can cause serious harm” and adds: “Never use medications intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans.” (Read more)

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Deadly Hurricane Ida batters Louisiana and the Gulf Coast

GOES-East NOAA

Prayers for all in the path of Ida ...

The Weather Channel – Continuing coverage

Ongoing coverage from WWL TV in New Orleans

President Biden’s remarks before virtual FEMA briefings on Ida preparation

As Ida arrives, New Orleans veteran meteorologist reflects on Hurricane Katrina 16 years later

Saturday, August 28, 2021

President Biden warns more Afghanistan terror attacks ‘highly likely’ in next few days, vows more airstrikes against ISIS-K

AFP

There was never going to be a good or easy way out. -

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. Another terror attack, he said, is “highly likely” this weekend as the U.S. winds down its evacuation.
The Pentagon said the remaining contingent of U.S. forces at the airport, now numbering fewer than 4,000, had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Biden’s deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.
After getting briefed on a U.S. drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate early Saturday, Biden said the extremists can expect more.
“This strike was not the last,” Biden said in a statement. “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.” He paid tribute to the “bravery and selflessness” of the American troops executing the hurried airlift of tens of thousands from Kabul airport, including the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing at an airport gate.
The evacuation proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another ISIS-K attack.
“Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” Biden said, adding that he has instructed them to take all possible measures to protect their troops, who are securing the airport and helping bring onto the airfield Americans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule. (Read more)

Arkansas doctor under investigation for prescribing ivermectin to his patients, as well as prisoners under his care

KATV

It is absolute lunacy that in America we allow so many unqualified quacks to practice medicine. NBC News -

The Arkansas State Medical Board is investigating a doctor who used ivermectin to treat his patients, as well as inmates at the Washington County jail, suffering from Covid-19.
The board said Friday that it has an open probe into Dr. Robert Karas, who owns Karas Health Care, which has facilities in Fayetteville and Lowell and provides medical services to detainees at the jail.
"Once the investigation is complete, the information will be provided to the full Board to review and to be discussed at the next scheduled Board Meeting," board Director Amy Embry said in a statement. "No additional information is available at this time."
Karas declined to be interviewed Friday because of his schedule but said in an emailed statement that he began using the drug in late 2020 to treat patients and inmates "who had become significantly sick from Covid."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have warned against using ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid. On Thursday, the CDC said that there has been a rise in calls to poison control centers for reports of overdoses after people have taken the drug.
The FDA on Saturday urged people to stop taking it. It said that while FDA-approved ivermectin tablets can treat certain conditions caused by parasitic worms in humans, the drug is not an approved medication for the coronavirus. Generally, ivermectin is used to treat or prevent parasites in animals.
"You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it," the FDA tweeted, alongside a consumer update detailing why the drug can be unsafe for humans. (Read more)

U.S. retaliates following Kabul airport attack, at least two ‘high-profile’ ISIS-K targets killed; names of dead American servicemen released

May our lost soldiers rest in peace. -

Two targets were killed and another person was injured in a drone strike against the Islamic State affiliate ISIS-K in retaliation for the Kabul airport attack, the Pentagon now says. And the Department of Defense has released the names of the U.S. troops killed in Thursday's attack.
Department officials announced Friday evening that a drone strike killed an ISIS-K target in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. On Saturday, officials updated that to say that two "high-profile" targets — described as "a planner and a facilitator" — were killed and one other person from the terrorist group was injured in the retaliatory strike.
Pentagon officials offered more information Saturday about continued operations in Afghanistan, including evacuation efforts and the drone strike.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the names of the drone strike targets would not be released. (Read more)

Thursday, August 26, 2021

United only in hatred for humanity: ISIS-K, offshoot of the world’s deadliest Islamist terror group, but also sworn enemy of the Taliban

NYT

Say, didn’t the former administration claim to have destroyed ISIS? What is ISIS-K? The terror group believed to be behind Kabul airport explosions -

Washington: Explosions outside the Kabul airport that have caused multiple casualties come as Biden administration officials have been alarmed in recent days by threats at Hamid Karzai International Airport by IS-K or ISIS-K, a terrorist group that is a sworn enemy of the Taliban.
A senior US intelligence official said while no formal attribution has been made, all signs — and recently gathered intelligence — point to IS-K, an offshoot of Islamic State, as the culprits.
US officials, including President Joe Biden, had been warning of the threat of Islamic State terror attacks at the Kabul airport, which is being guarded by the Taliban as Americans and Afghan allies seek to leave the country.
Douglas London, the CIA’s former top counterterrorism chief for the region, including Afghanistan, said the threat posed by IS-K is now higher because of the vacuum created after the Taliban toppled the Afghan government within a matter of days.
The Pentagon inspector-general, in a report released last week, noted IS-K had lashed out in the last months of the now-ousted Afghan government, seizing on its weakness.
“[IS-Khorasan] exploited the political instability and rise in violence during the quarter by attacking minority sectarian targets and infrastructure to spread fear and highlight the Afghan government’s inability to provide adequate security,” the report said. (Read more)

No more Mr. Nice Guy: President Biden’s hand being forced by out-of-control domestic critics, may have to become more authoritarian in his approach

Getty Images

Seeing a lot of MAGA folk, the left-wing ‘Woke’ mob, and the cretins in the media happily speculating that Kamala Harris will soon be president. F**k you, not even in the mood for any more of this bulls**t. We’re seeing clearly that there are multiple organized efforts to bring down the president, to distort reality and the actual record, and whether those participating realize it or not it is ultimately all for the benefit of true tyrants (Putin, first and foremost.) The brainwashing is working on the American public to an alarming degree, but the actual record shows President Biden is a normal and traditional president, and he has been fairly successful in achieving his goals up to this point. After the last four years, it would appear Americans have forgotten what real leadership looks like, and they’re mighty confused. So, I guess now President Biden is just going to have become more authoritarian and begin demanding the respect he is due from a nation of belligerent, nihilistic, useless idiots. Fine by me if he starts baring his teeth, because the lack of respect is out of control and counter-productive to the extreme, and I’m sick of all those doing the whining and the crying.

Kabul airport bombing; scores killed or injured, including U.S. servicemen

Getty Images

BBC - Kabul airport attack: What do we know?

Finish getting our people out of the s**thole as quickly as possible, and then Afghanistan and everyone left in it can rot for all I care. Americans, among other nations, gave these barbarians twenty years of blood and treasure, and this is the thanks we get. F**k Afghanistan and everyone living in it, they deserve what they got, and that is all there is left to be said. Not our problem anymore.

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

CDC: Unvaccinated are twenty-nine times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID, five times more likely to be infected

AFP

CNBC -

Unvaccinated people are about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, according to a study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that unvaccinated people were nearly five times more likely to be infected with Covid than people who got the shots. The results are based on data from Los Angeles County between May 1 and July 25, the agency said.
“These infection and hospitalization rate data indicate that authorized vaccines were protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 during a period when transmission of the Delta variant was increasing,” the agency wrote in the study.
The data is in line with comments from federal and state health officials, who have been saying for weeks that millions of unvaccinated Americans have been putting themselves at serious risk of the delta variant, the most contagious coronavirus strain yet.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday the data shows that “if you are not yet vaccinated, you are among those at highest risk.”
“Do not underestimate the risk and serious consequences of this virus,” she said during a White House briefing on the pandemic. “Vaccines are the best tool we have to take charge of this pandemic.” (Read more)

Study said to have claimed vaccines are causing new COVID variants to emerge – widely cited by anti-vaxxers – is actually about rare disease in chickens

AFP Fact Check - Vaccinated people are not 'creating' coronavirus variants

Classic deception tactics by the conspiracy theory industry, a prime example of how they hook people - with half-truths, gross distortions, and outright lies that sound plausible to the ears of the target audience (confirmation bias.) It’s almost too easy a way to scam money out of people, and absurdly effective. As Winston Churchill said, ‘a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.'

Proud Boys leader sentenced to five months in prison on weapons and vandalism charges

Getty Images

CBS News -

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced Monday to more than five months in prison for burning a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a church in Washington, D.C., and for carrying two high-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested weeks later, the Department of Justice said.
Tarrio pled guilty to one count of destruction of property and one count of attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device in July. Tarrio said Monday that there was "no excuse" for his actions, adding that he made "a grave mistake" that day.
"I'd like to profusely apologize," he said, adding, "What I did was wrong."
But D.C. Superior Court Judge Harold Cushenberry was not convinced.
"Mr. Tarrio has clearly, intentionally, and proudly crossed the line from peaceful protest and assembly to dangerous and potentially violent conduct," the judge said. "He could not have cared less about the laws of the District of Columbia." (Read more)

Following FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, ‘anti-vaxxer social media influencers and Republican politicians are finding new reasons to oppose the vaccine’

Sen. Ron Johnson. Getty Images

The least surprising news one will come across today. The biggest joke is the contention that somehow approval was rushed. Are you kidding me? It’s been nine months since the vaccines first became available. The anti-vaxxer movement is a giant, deadly scam. -

The Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday has boosted hopes that at least some of the millions of unvaccinated adults in the U.S. would change their minds. But right on cue, anti-vaxxer social media influencers and Republican politicians are finding new reasons to oppose the vaccine.
Even before the FDA gave full approval, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who has for months criticized the outreach campaign to get people vaccinated, argued that the approval process was rushed due to politics.
“I see no need to rush the FDA approval process for any of the three COVID-19 vaccines,” Johnson wrote in a letter to top Biden administration health officials. “Expediting the process appears to only serve the political purpose of imposing and enforcing vaccine mandates.”
Responding to a speech from President Joe Biden calling on American companies to require vaccines, Johnson tweeted: “No one should be pressured, coerced, or fear reprisal for refusing any medical treatment, including the Covid-19 vaccine.” (Read more)

Congressional Democrats need to get it together and pass the president’s infrastructure bill

Reuters

Via NBC News: House Democrats hatch plan to break logjam amid standoff over Biden's agenda -

WASHINGTON — House Democrats regrouped Tuesday after delaying a vote to advance President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill and multitrillion-dollar social safety net expansion, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggled to tame a rebellion from centrist lawmakers.
At a caucus meeting Tuesday, Pelosi told Democrats she was optimistic a deal was close as she eyed an afternoon vote that would include concessions to appease the moderates.
"I’m sorry that we couldn’t land the plane last night, and that you all had to wait. But that’s just part of the legislative progress," she said, according to a Democratic aide. "I think we’re close to landing the plane."
The stakes are high for Biden's top two legislative priorities.
The president and his staff have called a variety of House members, including centrist holdouts, to advocate for Pelosi's plan and stressed that both the infrastructure and budget bills are critical to his agenda, a White House official said.
The House Rules Committee met again Tuesday morning with the aim of setting up votes on the budget resolution that will allow them to begin work on the $3.5 trillion package, as well as tee up votes on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The procedural vote to kick off the process was initially expected Monday night, but Pelosi faced defections from a group of nine moderates who threatened to vote it down. The lawmakers are insisting that the $550 billion infrastructure bill get an immediate vote and be signed into law before they start crafting the larger bill.
Democratic leaders plan to promise that the House will vote on infrastructure bill by Sept. 27, said a leadership aide, who added that this meets the request made by moderates of an assured date for the vote. (Read more)

Centrist Democrats have a valid case. Yes, pass the damn infrastructure bill first and foremost, and the bigger spending bill the progressive wing wants can be negotiated on afterward. An ‘all or nothing’ approach is doomed to failure. Overall, these Democrats are not doing President Biden any favors. I don’t expect or desire they become mindless sycophants like the majority of Republicans toward Trump; but I do expect them to work with him, to put aside their personal agendas and ambitions, and get something done. Repairing our infrastructure is vital.

Charlie Watts, 1941 - 2021

Hayoung Jeon/EPA, via Shutterstock

It’s a sad day. One of the world’s most iconic drummers has left us. Rest in peace, Charlie Watts. Have never thought to do so before, but perhaps I need to make a list of best Charlie Watts performances. ‘Honky Tonk Woman,’ ‘Mother’s Little Helper,’ and ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ immediately come to mind. Without Charlie Watts and his backbeat – to say nothing of his quiet and reserved presence - the Rolling Stones may have become something, but not the all-time great icons they are. He will be missed.

Sunday, August 22, 2021

The president’s approval ratings drop amid crisis, but he is not the problem here

NBC News poll: President Biden’s job approval ratings drop as Covid cases rise and crisis in Afghanistan mounts

Advanced age aside, Joe Biden is the most normal American president in about 30 years. Unfortunately, the American people have changed dramatically in that time and ‘normal’ no longer exists. America is unrecognizable to me from what it was during my youth in the ‘80s and into the ‘90s. We see it all around us: In politics, entertainment, our everyday lives, etc. - Americans of today are ingrateful, unappreciative, delusional, spiteful, close-minded, and hateful people. And big babies, at that.

I am a center-right independent who feels no sense of belonging in the Democratic Party, and I utterly despise what the Republican Party has become. I vowed never to be a sycophant for President Biden or to any politician - a la the sad sacks in #Cult45 or the Bernie Sanders/AOC loons - yet he is a decent man and proven leader who will never be given appreciation or respect in this day and age. Had he served in an earlier, more normal time – prior to when a certain generation took the levers of power and ruined everything – I have no doubt he’d be a widely popular president. But President Biden is a member of the Silent Generation, all of whom are quite old now or no longer with us – and we all know that old people are considered dispensable and unwanted by the rest of society. Joe Biden would not have been elected president in 2020 if he did not have the good fortune of facing the most corrupt, buffoonish president (rather old himself) during a harrowing time in the nation’s history.

Frankly, at this moment I feel as though perhaps this nation of crybabies and malevolent morons are not worthy of President Biden. They better start doing some critical thinking and reassess who this man is, because we just spent four years living under a sociopath, and a whole host of sociopaths are licking their lips in anticipation of Mr. Biden’s demise. Perhaps a certain vice president may be among those, and then you bozos on the far-right (and most of the rest of us) are *really* going to have some things to complain about. Between the GOP and the Democrats, there are very few politicians left in D.C. who are vestiges of moderation and old-fashioned American values, but President Biden is absolutely one of them. The masses have been brainwashed by mass media and the vultures who manipulate the media into giving themselves over to extremism. I went down that road myself for many years, and it was Trump’s arrival on the political scene that ‘scared me straight’ (so to speak.) The majority of people went the other way, but I saw the light concerning populism and extremism. Not certain if that is a blessing or a curse, but I digress, for I never have fit in and ran with the pack. And never do I want to belong among the majority of spoiled rotten, good-for-nothing, ingrates that pollute this country.

I am more supportive of President Biden than ever, because more than ever it is crystal clear that he is not the problem here. He told us pulling out of Afghanistan – something most everyone wanted - was going to be ugly and would come at great cost. He has been telling everyone all along to take the proper precautions against this killer virus. He addressed our crumbling infrastructure and got a major bill passed by a bi-partisan coalition (almost impossible in these days of hyper-partisanship.) As a senator, he was responsible for the 1994 crime bill, and the record shows that overall crime rates in America dropped significantly in the years that followed. Not a single one of his critics – in Congress, in the media, and *especially* among the general public – have a damn solution for any of what ails us. No, in fact, it is they who are abject failures and have the blood on their hands for the terrible shape this country and its culture are in. I am ashamed of my country, but I am proud of its president. Screw what the rest of these jerks think.

Saturday, August 21, 2021

A nation of ingrates: The absurd and flat-out disgraceful finger-pointing on Afghanistan

Most of the very same people who are tearing President Biden to shreds following the fall of Kabul would be defending Trump if this exact situation happened on his watch. And it would have had he been re-elected, don’t believe any of the revisionist bulls**t he and his minions are spewing out now. They are the ones who signed the treaty with the Taliban to begin with, even invited them on American soil at Camp David. Lucky for Donald Trump, he wasn't re-elected, and now Joe Biden has to clean up this s**tstorm while a nation of know-it-alls, malcontents, and f**king ingrates point fingers. Enough already, I’ve never been more disgusted with the state of American politics. #MyPresident #YourPresidentWhetherYouLikeItOrNot #ShowSomeRespect ...

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Parent threatens school board members in Massachusetts town with new 'Nuremberg Trials’ following vote to require masks in schools

WCVB

A year-and-a-half into this thing, and I’m still flabbergasted at the lengths people are going to avoid having to wear a piece of cloth. And it’s only getting worse, to the point now where I’m expecting mass violence in the months ahead. Via WCVB -

DRACUT, Mass. — A Massachusetts school committee's vote on mask mandates amid the growing number of delta-variant fueled COVID-19 cases ended with threats and insults.
The Dracut school committee approved masks in schools earlier this week.
Following the 4-1 vote, a person who attended the meeting compared the move to the trials for Nazi war criminals.
"Excuse me, we're not going to like what's coming for us, was that what you just said?" the board member said, addressing the unidentified person in the audience. "Yes, the Nuremberg Trials," the person said. "You're torturing my child."
During the raucous meeting, one parent suggested the state should take cues from places like Florida and Texas, where COVID-19 cases are exploding.
The policy approved will require masks indoors, but not outdoors at Dracut schools.
There is no statewide school mask policy in Massachusetts but state officials have recommended masks for unvaccinated students.

Nationalist populist terrorist is taken into custody following Capitol Hill bomb threat; had ‘demanded’ to speak with President Biden

NYT

Yes, at least a portion of the MAGA crowd are becoming more akin to Islamic Jihadis than Americans. Ironic, considering they hold themselves to be the epitome of what it means to be an American. Thank God nobody got hurt, but this is only the beginning of what is to come. -

WASHINGTON — A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress surrendered to the police on Thursday, after hours of negotiations and evacuations of several government buildings in the area.
The man surrendered peacefully, according to a law enforcement official.
The man drove a black pickup onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress at about 9:15 Thursday morning, and the police responded to a disturbance call, Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Capitol Police said in a news conference.
When the police arrived, the man said he had a bomb and one of the officers observed what appeared to be a detonator in his hand, Chief Manger said.
The police spent hours negotiating with the man, he said. It was unclear whether the man did actually have explosives.
“We don’t know what his motives are at this time,” Chief Manger said. He confirmed that some of those negotiations had been streamed live on social media.
“We’re trying to get as much information as we can to try to find a way to peacefully resolve this,” he said. Chief Manger declined to describe the conversation between the man and the negotiators.
The man, whom officials identified as a resident of Grover, N.C., named Floyd Ray Roseberry, about 50 years old, was making anti-government statements, according to a law enforcement official.
A spokesman for Facebook confirmed that the company had taken down a post with a video broadcast from man in the truck. In the rambling video, he addresses President Biden, demanding to speak with him or a representative, and sometimes shows a metal object in his lap. He describes himself as “a patriot” and expresses grievances with Democrats. He repeatedly says he does not want to die or hurt anyone but warns that the device will explode if the police fire at him, though the man offered no evidence to support that. (Read more)

Alabama doctor announces he will no longer treat unvaccinated patients

Cannot help but love what this doctor is doing. Extreme dogma, lies, and mass delusion do not have to be tolerated. Especially in the midst of a bloody pandemic. Enough already -

In Alabama, where the nation’s lowest vaccination rate has helped push the state closer to a record number of hospitalizations, a physician has sent a clear message to his patients: Don’t come in for medical treatment if you are unvaccinated.
Jason Valentine, a physician at Diagnostic and Medical Clinic Infirmary Health in Mobile, Ala., posted a photo on Facebook this week of him pointing to a sign taped to a door informing patients of his new policy coming Oct. 1.
“Dr. Valentine will no longer see patients that are not vaccinated against covid-19,” the sign reads.
Valentine wrote in the post, which has since been made private but was captured in online images, that there were “no conspiracy theories, no excuses” stopping anyone from being vaccinated, AL.com reported. The doctor, who said at least three unvaccinated patients have asked him where they could get a vaccine since he posted the photo, has remained resolute to those who have questioned his decision in recent days.
“If they asked why, I told them covid is a miserable way to die and I can’t watch them die like that,” wrote Valentine, who has specialized in family medicine with Diagnostic and Medical Clinic since 2008. (Read more)

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Public opinion is not with the anti-vaxxer movement, and that’s bad news for the Republican Party

Reuters

Aaron Blake -

Mask mandates have fallen in popularity in recent months, apparently thanks in large part to vaccinated people who support the concept but thought getting the shots would absolve them of that responsibility, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially advised.
But when it comes to both vaccine mandates and the methods to fight mask mandates that some Republicans are floating, the verdict is pretty strongly against the GOP.
The Economist and YouGov released a new poll Wednesday asking Americans whether they would support vaccine mandates for a number of groups. And in every case the survey asked about, there was majority — and often 2-to-1 — support:
Medical providers: 65-21 in favor
Teachers: 61-24
Police: 60-25
Military: 59-24
Federal employees: 56-26
College students: 55-27
The survey even tested K-12 students who were eligible for the vaccines, and Americans said 51-30 that they supported a vaccine requirement.
The finding on medical providers is particularly timely, given that the Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will direct all nursing homes to require vaccination or lose their Medicare and Medicaid funds.
That move also comes after Republican governors have sought to use government funding in another way — to fend off mask mandates — with considerably less public support. (Read more)

Anti-vaxxer Florida governor promotes COVID-19 antibody treatment that a top donor has invested millions in

Gov. Ron DeSantis, an absolutely shameless sleazebag. -

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has been criticized for opposing mask mandates and vaccine passports — is now touting a COVID-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars.
DeSantis has been flying around the state promoting a monoclonal antibody treatment sold by Regeneron, which was used on then-President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19. The governor first began talking about it as a treatment last year.
Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc., according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75 million in 2018 and $5 million last April.
It’s not unusual for hedge funds to have a wide range of investments. And BlackRock, which has primarily donated to Democratic candidates, though has also donated substantially to Republicans, has a large holding in the company - more so than Citadel.
DeSantis ramped up the call for Floridians to seek out monoclonal antibody treatments in August as coronavirus cases spiked. He’s held news conferences at treatment sites and a Tampa hospital touting the effectiveness of the drug if people receive treatment soon after testing positive.
“Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies – Regeneron and others – have proven to radically reduce the chances that somebody ends up being hospitalized,” DeSantis said Monday at a treatment site in Orlando. “Reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority.”
Experts agree that keeping people out of the hospital is a top priority, but say vaccines — not treatments for people after they get sick – are the best way to do that. The Regeneron drugs, when given within 10 days of initial symptoms, have been shown to cut rates of hospitalization and death by roughly 70%. The vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. have been proven in large, real-world studies to be 95% effective against hospitalization. (Read more)

Third dose of COVID-19 vaccines to be available starting in September

Reuters

The virus is proving itself to be a most tenacious foe, so shoring up one’s defenses is vitally important. -

Federal health officials said Wednesday that a third dose of the COVID-19 shots developed by Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. will be available in mid-September for Americans who have been fully vaccinated for at least eight months.
They cited waning protection as the reason for a booster shot.
“The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, and in association with the dominance of the delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” the officials said in a statement.
The new plan to administer COVID-19 boosters to Americans is subject to an evaluation from the Food and Drug Administration and a recommendation from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee.
It does not apply to people who got the Johnson & Johnson JNJ vaccine, only those who received the vaccines developed by Moderna MRNA and Pfizer PFE.
Officials said individuals who got J&J’s single-shot vaccine will likely need boosters, but they are waiting on data from the company in the coming weeks and then will set out a plan.
For the people who received the mRNA vaccines, boosters will begin to be available on Sept. 20. The first people to qualify for a third dose will include “many health care providers, nursing home residents, and other seniors,” then “residents of long-term care facilities.” (Read more)

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Jennifer Rubin: President Biden gave the best possible defense of his Afghanistan withdrawal

Washington Post

Much of the news media is irresponsibly second-guessing and blaming President Biden for the debacle in Afghanistan. Just as irresponsible in doing so as the GOP. Are regular Americans capable of seeing through this garbage? Jennifer Rubin -

President Biden’s case for the fruitlessness of a continued military mission in Afghanistan got a boost as the Afghan army melted away, and its leaders fled practically overnight. During remarks from the White House on Monday, Biden made a strong point — one likely to find receptive ears among voters — that he refuses to maintain the lie to Americans that victory is around the corner.
"We gave [Afghans] every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them was the will to fight for their future,” Biden said. He argued, “If Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that . . . one more year, five more years or 20 more years of U.S. military boots on the ground would have made any difference.” Americans who are disgusted watching Afghan forces cut deals with the Taliban and flee will likely share that view.
If Biden got something wrong, it is that he gave too much credence to military leaders who had assured him that the situation in Afghanistan was improving. He wisely conceded the collapse of the Afghan forces happened faster than expected. The assumption that Afghan military forces would survive more than a week was as flawed as the assessments of the 20-year conflict.
The assumption that Afghan helpers are already lost to the butchery of the Taliban, however, smacks of defeatism. The United States must deploy sufficient troops and conduct a massive rescue of the tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans. Indeed, Biden vowed in his address: “We’re taking over air traffic control. . . . Over the coming days, we intend to transport out thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in Afghanistan,” he vowed. “We will also continue to support the safe departure of the civilian personnel of our allies.” The president’s success in pulling this off will determine how history judges his decision.
The pronouncement from many in the media that the United States has abandoned Afghan allies is premature — the sort of snap judgment common on Twitter but utterly inappropriate in assessing a war in which virtually ever actor has been responsible for gross errors. Could the administration at least be given a chance to try to rescue Afghans, in concert with allies? Could it compensate its wrongfully rosy projections on how long Afghan security forces would last by sending additional forces to remain until we remove our Afghan partners? That’s what Biden proposes; we should pray he follows through. (Read more)

The TSA announces that mask mandate for transportation will be extended through January 18

Reuters

Better safe than sorry -

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration confirmed late on Tuesday it plans to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address ongoing COVID-19 risks.

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson confirmed the extension, first reported by Reuters. "The purpose of TSA’s mask directive is to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation," the spokesperson said

Major U.S. airlines were informed of the planned extension on a call with TSA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday, four people briefed on the matter said.

The current TSA transportation mask order runs through Sept 13. (Read more)

GOP senator told President Biden he only played along with Hunter Biden allegations to placate Trump supporters

Sen. Lindsey Graham has all the integrity of a sewer rat, and is playing everybody for fools. -

The South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham called Joe Biden after his victory over Donald Trump to tell the president he only joined attacks on his son, Hunter Biden, as a “bare minimum” to satisfy Trump supporters.
The detail was included in a lengthy profile of Graham and his Washington manoeuvres published by the New York Times. It said the call, intended to “revive a friendship damaged by [Graham’s] call for a special prosecutor to investigate the overseas business dealings” of Hunter Biden, was “short, and not especially sweet”. (Read more)

Monday, August 16, 2021

Massachusetts reports 2,996 new COVID cases

NIAID

A slight dip, and we could be doing a lot worse. So far, the Commonwealth and the Northeastern states are holding up pretty well to the Delta variant. Still, 3,000 new cases in Mass. in just a three-day period is concerning. WHDH -

BOSTON (WHDH) - Massachusetts health officials on Monday reported 2,996 new COVID-19 cases and six additional deaths as the statewide positivity rate dipped slightly.
Monday’s report included confirmed cases from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Since the state began tracking coronavirus metrics, there have been 689,014 total confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17,778 deaths.
There are currently 402 people hospitalized due to the virus and 82 people in the intensive care unit.
The seven-day positivity rate now sits at 2.74 percent, down from a rate of 2.89 percent that was reported last week. It had dropped well below one percent before the highly contagious Delta variant led to the recent surge in new cases.
The majority of the new confirmed cases in recent weeks have been among people between the ages of 20 and 39.
Eight of the 14 counties in Massachusetts now have high COVID-19 transmission rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of fully vaccinated people across the state currently sits at 4,397,380, public health data shows.

Writer Tom Nichols: The American people bear responsibility for the fall of Afghanistan

Juan Carlos /Hans Lucas /Redux

All the caterwauling going on today over Afghanistan is proof that it’s ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ with a fickle, self-centered, ungrateful, unthinking, and proudly ignorant American populace. Tom Nichols lays his case out very well: This is your fault, America ...

Kabul has fallen. Americans will now exercise their usual partisan outrage for a few weeks, and then Afghanistan, like everything else in a nation with an attention span not much longer than a fast-food commercial, will be forgotten. In the meantime, American citizens will separate into their usual camps and identify all of the obvious causes and culprits except for one: themselves.
Many Americans will bristle at the idea that this defeat overseas can be laid at their feet. When U.S. forces had to endure the misery of the retreat from North Korea back to the 38th parallel, no one made the argument that it had happened because of the voters. No one turned to the American people during the fall of Saigon and said, “This is on you.”
So why would I do that now?
Much of what happened in Korea and Vietnam—ultimately constituting a tie and a loss, if we are to be accurate—was beyond the control of the American public. Boys were drafted and sent into battle, sometimes in missions never intended to be revealed to the public.
Afghanistan was different. This was a war that was immensely popular at the outset and mostly conducted in full view of the American public. The problem was that, once the initial euphoria wore off, the public wasn’t much interested in it. Coverage in print media remained solid, but cable-news coverage of Afghanistan dropped off quickly, especially once a new adventure was launched in Iraq.
In post-2001 America, it became fashionable to speak of “war weariness,” but citizens who were not in the military or part of a military family or community did not have to endure even minor inconveniences, much less shoulder major burdens such as a draft, a war tax, or resource shortages. The soldiers who served overseas in those first years of major operations soon felt forgotten. “America’s not at war” was a common refrain among the troops. “We’re at war. America’s at the mall.”
And now those same Americans have the full withdrawal from Afghanistan they apparently want: Some 70 percent of the public supports a pullout. Not that they care that intensely about it; as the foreign-policy scholar Stephen Biddle recently observed, the war is practically an afterthought in U.S. politics. “You would need an electron microscope to detect the effect of Afghanistan on any congressional race in the last decade,” Biddle said early this year. “It’s been invisible.” But Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden all ran on getting out of the war, and now we’re out.
What the public does care about, however, is using Afghanistan as raw material for cheap patriotism and partisan attacks (some right and some wrong, but few of them in good faith) on every president since 2001. After the worst attack on U.S. soil, Americans had no real interest in adult conversation about the reality of anti-terrorist operations in so harsh an environment as Afghanistan (which might have entailed a presence there long beyond 20 years), nor did they want to think about whether “draining the swamp” and modernizing and developing Afghanistan (which would mean a lot more than a few elections) was worth the cost and effort. (Read more)

COVIDIOCY in the medical field: Nurses in Kentucky stage protest against vaccination requirement

WLWT

Just a little concerning that, apparently, so many health workers in America are so ignorant to - and contemptuous of - science. Does one really want such malevolent people caring for them? Any wonder the overall state of health care in America is so poor? Via WLWT -

EDGEWOOD, Ky. — A homemade sign, with the words "Don't Fire Our Heroes," captured the message of a protest on Sunday outside a Cincinnati-area hospital.
"It's about rights. It's a right to choose. I respect your right to have it and you should respect my right not to," Chris Kerns, a nurse for more than three decades, said.
Kerns spent her Sunday outside the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Edgewood, Kentucky talking about why she thinks it's wrong for hospitals in Greater Cincinnati to require that workers get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"This is American rights," Kerns said. "We have rights, and they're taking them away."
Sister station WLWT asked Kerns if she faces an early October deadline to get vaccinated.
"Yes," Kerns said. "And they can fire me. I don't care."
Karla Griffin, a medical office worker, said her career is equally uncertain because she, too, opposes vaccine mandates.
"Are you facing a deadline as well?" WLWT asked Griffin.
"I am," she said. "Oct. 1st I lose my job. But it is what it is."
Heather King, a healthcare worker, worries the vaccine requirement will hurt hospital patients the most if people like her choose not to take the shot.
"I’m still undecided. It's a personal choice," King said. "We have to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1 or we lose our jobs. And unfortunately, the people that are going to suffer the most are our community and our patients because there's not going to be anyone to take care of them properly."
Whether that's true remains to be seen. But Rachel, who's not a health care worker, was glad to support medical professionals who may or may not get vaccinated because they've been on the pandemic's front lines.

Windbag Catholic cleric finds out the truth the hard way, re: COVID

If karma is a real thing, then here we have a surefire example of it. Cardinal Raymond Burke – former archbishop of St. Louis, now based in Rome – is on a ventilator after having spent the past year-and-a-half speaking out against masks, social distancing, and vaccine mandates. The Washington Post -

Most days during the coronavirus pandemic, Cardinal Raymond L. Burke could be found strolling down the streets of Rome maskless and carrying rosary beads. The 73-year-old conservative cardinal was an early critic of social distancing and, later, an unabashed skeptic of the vaccine.
On Tuesday, Burke announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Now, the cardinal is in a hospital bed in his native Wisconsin, breathing with the help of a ventilator.
“Doctors are encouraged by his progress,” Burke’s press team tweeted Saturday night. "[His Eminence] faithfully prayed the Rosary for those suffering from the virus. … Let us now pray the Rosary for him.”
The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Sunday.
A former archbishop of St. Louis, Burke made a name for himself as an outspoken conservative figure in the mid-2000s. In 2004, he refused to give Communion to then-Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry because the Democrat was an abortion rights advocate. In 2007, Burke resigned from the board of a Catholic hospital in protest of its invitation for Sheryl Crow, who is also an advocate, to play at a benefit concert.
Two years later, he excoriated the University of Notre Dame for giving former president Barack Obama an honorary degree. In an interview, Burke said that Catholics who voted for Obama “collaborated with evil.”
During the global pandemic, Burke spoke out against vaccine mandates, claiming the practice “violates the integrity of its citizens.”
“While the State can provide reasonable regulations for the safeguarding of health, it is not the ultimate provider of health. God is,” he said during a May 2020 address.
Burke also repeated false information about vaccines, claiming that some believe there should be a “microchip … placed under the skin of every person, so that at any moment he or she can be controlled by the state regarding health and about other matters which we can only imagine.” (Read more)