Stop the Idiocracy: January 2022

Monday, January 31, 2022

Good Carlson, Bad Carlson: Former Fox News anchor gives ‘damning assessment’ of how the network is brainwashing people

Rob Kim/Getty Images

Misinformation and blatant disinformation are the greatest threats to our health, our liberty, our national security, and to America’s continued existence. When somebody who was on the inside is telling them that they are being conned, then I would suggest to all Fox News fans to, at the very least, question their loyalty. As Mark Twain is reputed to have said, ‘it's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.’ Hence, why grifters like the people behind Fox News, and Donald Trump, and so many others in this nationalist populist realm do what they do. Only too easy, and profitable, to fool a bunch of marks and appeal to their various resentments. Stop being a mark. -

Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson offered a damning assessment of the network as she explained just how bad its spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation has become.
During an appearance on the CNN segment, "Democracy in Peril," Carlson discussed many aspects of Fox News' critical role in the spread of misinformation and falsehoods. Since former President Donald Trump took office, conspiracy theories have been on the rise and Fox News has become a driving force for it.
Conservative primetime news anchor Tucker Carlson has been at the center of misinformation and the power of his opinion has begun to influence Republican members of Congress.
"This is the result of fake news," Carlson said. "You know, we're seeing not only the fallout from fake news during the Trump era, but what happened with the insurrection on January 6th. Now it's moving into other areas. Not just news, now it's hitting science with vaccines, and now it's into Cold War politics."
Carlson also touched on another significant topic as she shed light on the actions of her former Fox News colleagues, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. While they reportedly sent pleas to the White House for the violence to stop on Jan. 6, they still put up a united front on-air and circulated a completely different narrative about the series of events that unfolded.
"I think the bigger story coming out of that is how disingenuous it was to be sending those texts of warning while then going on the air to the American people and doing a complete injustice and disservice by saying something completely opposite," Carlson said, "and ginning up this whole reaction that it was just fine and patriotic for people to be there on January 6th."
She went on to express concern about the journalistic state of her former network since the rise of Trump. Carlson also noted how conspiracy theories have become a fallacious replacement for opinion. (Read more)

Sunday, January 30, 2022

At Texas rally, Trump promises to incite his followers to civil war if he Is indicted

Jason Fochtman/AP

All of you still supporting Donald Trump, and spending your days crying about President Biden, better start re-examining your values and beliefs. What am I saying, that’s not going to happen? In 2022, after all that has been said and done, the only reason anyone supports a demagogue like Trump is because they want license to hurt other Americans. Via Will Bunch -

In fact, the man who’d occupied the White House little more than one year ago delivered one of the most incendiary and most dangerous speeches in America’s 246-year history. It included an appeal for all-out mayhem in the streets to thwart the U.S. justice system and prevent Trump from going to jail, as the vise tightens from overlapping criminal probes in multiple jurisdictions. And it also featured a stunning campaign promise — that Trump would look to abuse the power of the presidency to pardon those involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
It’s impossible for me to understate or downplay the importance of this moment, and I hope that my colleagues in the media — who too often over the last year have craved or even pretended about a return to the politics of “normal,” when we are nowhere near normal — will wake up and see this. Of course, Biden’s presidency deserves our full scrutiny, with praise for what’s gone right (an economic boom) and criticism for what’s gone wrong (broken promises on climate and student debt). But while Biden is seeking to restore democratic norms, a shadow ex-president — unpunished so far for his role in an attempted coup on Jan. 6 — is rebuilding a cult-like movement in the heartland of America, with all the personal grievance and appeals to Brownshirts-style violence that marked the lowest moments of the 20th century. On the 89th anniversary of the date (Jan. 30, 1933) that Adolf Hitler — rehabilitated after his attempted coup — assumed power in Germany, are we repeating the past’s mistakes of complacency and underestimation? (Read more)

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Quick thoughts as President Biden marks one year in office

Susan Walsh/AP

One year ago today, grown adults knew that President Biden’s first year in office was going to come with major challenges and growing pains, exacerbated by being in a time of crisis. The rest of an ungrateful country - egged on by a bored news media and the president's political opponents - chose to blame him for all of our woes. Joe Biden is not a perfect man, and things are getting worse in this dying country, but he is doing what he can to keep the lights on just a bit longer. That’s all I expected of him when I cast my vote, and he has delivered to that end. People need to stop whining; they need to realize a president is not a miracle worker, nor is he supposed to be some national father figure, as Joe’s predecessor portrays himself to be. The American people need to realize the ones who have failed them the most are themselves.

Sunday, January 16, 2022

FBI swat team delivers a peaceful end to hostage standoff inside a Texas synagogue, as hostages are safely freed and Islamist gunman is shot dead

Elias Valverde/The Dallas Morning News via AP

A lunatic holds Jewish congregants hostage at a Texas synagogue, demanding the release of convicted murderer and al-Qaeda sympathizer Aafia Siddiqui. After a long stand-off, four hostages are safe and the gunman has gone to meet his seventy-two virgins. As the details of this terrorist act unfolded on Saturday, nearly everyone I saw on social media was quick to immediately assume it must have been an ultra right-wing, Trump-supporting nationalist that was responsible. Which is really telling about where we are as a country. Left or right, everyone appears to have willfully forgotten the ongoing threat radical Islam poses; more to the point, Americans have decided their domestic political opponents are the real enemy and the Muslim extremists no longer are anything but some minor nuisance. This individual acted alone, but the next attack is likely to be more coordinated, and – once again - result in mass causalities. And all Americans will do afterward is engage in hand-wringing and finger-pointing at ‘the other side’ for allowing it to happen, when there is no shortage of collective responsibility to go around. The tenuous unity we (briefly) had in 2001 is no longer possible under any circumstance. Via the AP -

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — Four hostages are safe and their captor is dead after an hourslong standoff that began when the man took over services at a Texas synagogue where he could be heard ranting on a livestream and demanding the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan.
One hostage held Saturday at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville was released during the standoff; three others got out about 9 p.m. when an FBI SWAT team entered the building, authorities said. The hostage taker was killed and FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said a team would investigate “the shooting incident.”
Video from Dallas TV station WFAA shows people running out a door of the synagogue, and then a man holding a gun opening the same door just seconds later, before he turns around and closes the door. Moments later, several rounds of gunfire can be heard, followed by the sound of an explosion.
FBI and police spokeswomen declined to answer questions about who shot the man.
DeSarno said the hostage taker was specifically focused on an issue not directly connected to the Jewish community, and there was no immediate indication that the man was part of any broader plan. But DeSarno said the agency’s investigation “will have global reach.”
It wasn’t clear why the attacker chose the synagogue.
Law enforcement officials who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity earlier said that the hostage-taker demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of having ties to al-Qaida. He also said he wanted to be able to speak with her, according to the officials. Siddiqui is in federal prison in Texas.
DeSarno said Saturday night that the man had been identified “but we are not prepared to release his identity or confirm his identity at this time.” (Read more)

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Michigan woman arrested outside U.S. Capitol Police headquarters; multiple weapons found in vehicle

ABC7

How long before one of these types ends up being a suicide bomber, or some variety of mass murderer? Thankfully, nobody was hurt this time, but that won’t always be the case as incidents such as these continue to proliferate. -

A woman was arrested Wednesday outside the headquarters for the U.S. Capitol Police after police saw a gun case and the butt of a long gun in her vehicle, the police said. The woman, identified as Kery Lynn McAttee, is facing multiple weapons charges, the police said in a statement to CBS News.
McAttee parked in front of the building and told police she drove to Washington, D.C., from Michigan wanting to talk about "information she had about January 6, 2021," the police said. The arrest came less than a week after officials marked the first anniversary of the insurrection.
"At this time, there is no evidence the 58 year old suspect was coming here to do anything, except speak with our officers," the police said in the statement.
An unloaded .22-caliber rifle, a loaded .410-caliber shotgun and an unloaded .50-caliber muzzleloader, a type of gun loaded through the open end of the barrel, were found in her vehicle along with ammunition, the police said. (Read more)

Delta Airlines reports that 8,000 of its employees have contracted COVID in just the past four weeks

Mario Tama/Getty Images

A staggering figure, but to at least some extent Delta Airlines may have brought this upon itself. -

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said about 8,000 of its 75,000 employees tested positive for Covid-19 over the last four weeks, absences that marred the company’s financial results during a busy holiday travel season.
Delta reported a loss for the quarter and forecast another for the first three months of the year because of the fast-spreading omicron variant, but predicted travel would begin to rebound again in late February.
A series of winter storms and airline crews sidelined by omicron infections contributed to more than 20,000 U.S. flight cancellations industrywide between Christmas Eve and the first week of January. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby on Monday said 3,000 of its close to 70,000 U.S. employees were positive for Covid.
Flight cancellations have eased significantly in the past few days. Delta said that its operation has since stabilized and that 1% of its flights were canceled over the past week because of omicron.
The employees who tested positive had “no significant health issues,” Bastian said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” after releasing quarterly results.
Delta late last year updated its sick leave policy for employees who test positive for Covid-19, providing them five days of pay, outside of sick banks, and an additional two days if they test positive on the fifth day. Previously staff had 10 days of paid leave for Covid infections aside from regular sick days. That came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines for Covid quarantining, halving its recommendation to five days.
Delta and other airlines had urged the CDC to make the change. (Read more)

A 'conservative' court legislating from the bench: Supreme Court rules the Biden Administration overstepped its authority with vaccine and testing requirements for large businesses

Patrick Semansky/AP

The Supreme Court has essentially declared itself more qualified than medical professionals in determining COVID protocol. An outrageous ruling by a partisan, corrupted court. These six Christofascists and three feckless Democrats are really making a good case for a complete revamp of our system of government. Not that they are alone in doing so, of course. -

WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job.
At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S.
The court’s orders Thursday during a spike in coronavirus cases were a mixed bag for the administration’s efforts to boost the vaccination rate among Americans.
The court's conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.
"OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here," the conservatives wrote in an unsigned opinion.
In dissent, the court's three liberals argued that it was the court that was overreaching by substituting its judgments for health experts. "Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies," Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a joint dissent. (Read more)

America does not need another celebrity president: Radio ‘shock jock’ Howard Stern teases 2024 presidential run

Howard Stern: The man appears to be making a lot of good points of late, but holding the right opinions and being a celebrity does not truly qualify one to be president. Perhaps Howard Stern was being facetious, and I hope so, but then many thought the same of Trump before he was elected. Some egos are too large to be contained. Having real world qualifications relevant to the job of the presidency needs to once again be a de facto (or actual) requirement. Fortunately for grifters, Americans as a collective never learn from their mistakes anymore. -

Howard Stern says he could launch a White House bid in 2024 against former President Trump, quipping that he knows he'll "beat his ass."
The SiriusXM host said Tuesday that running for president could be his "civic duty" if Trump, who has repeatedly floated but not confirmed a 2024 bid, sought a second term.
"I would just sit there and play that f---ing clip of him trying to fix the election over and over again," Stern said, referring to Trump's phone call in January with Brad Raffensperger in which the then-president sought to persuade the Georgia secretary of state of evidence of election fraud in the Peach State.
"There’s no way I’d lose," Stern, 67, said.
Stern's comments came as he riffed on topics ranging from Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and vaccine hesitancy to former Trump officials defying congressional subpoenas as part of an investigation into the events surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
"If Trump decides to run again, you have to run against him," co-host Robin Quivers said with a laugh. "That's my plan."
"I know. I'll beat his ass," Stern exclaimed in an amused tone.
"You can't leave it to the Democrats," Quivers responded. (Read more)

Monday, January 10, 2022

‘The United States is coming to an end. The question is how.’ Canadian author outlines scenarios for the coming civil war

Leah Millis/Reuters

Americans damn well better start listening and paying attention, but they will not. Most people in this country today want tyranny, just so long as it is directed toward those groups and individuals one doesn’t like. The rest just demand to be entertained constantly. It appears to me that we have become a nation of pathetic, incompetent, and hateful people, and that’s the perfect recipe for collapse. Abandon all hope, for the biggest problem with America is the American people. As for Canada: When we fall to full-on Fascism, they will likely be invaded or otherwise taken over by Nazi America. Trudeau and his government are powerless, and useless. Sometimes I wonder the same about our current administration, as much as I try to support President Biden. Via Dean Obeidallah -

(CNN) "The United States is coming to an end. The question is how." Those are the jarring opening lines of Canadian author Stephen Marche's new book, "The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future." Released the same week as the anniversary of the January 6 attack on our Capitol that signaled how dangerous our political polarization has become, Marche's book shares different scenarios of how the United States could collapse.
Marche isn't the only Canadian worried about their southern neighbor's future. Just days before Marche's book released, political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon -- the executive director of the Cascade Institute, which focuses on ways to address threats to society -- penned a powerful op-ed in Canada's "Globe and Mail" that begins with a similar warning. "By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence," Homer-Dixon writes. "By 2030, if not sooner," he adds, "the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship."
As Americans, our first instinct when a person from outside of the US says something critical of our nation is often to dismiss the comment (or mock their country; be honest!). In this case, though, neither Marche nor Homer-Dixon wrote their words to belittle America or to make Canadians feel better about their country. (Read more)

Sunday, January 9, 2022

European biologist discovers new ‘deltacron’ COVID strain

Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

At this point, it would be naïve and unrealistic to expect this plague to ever be eradicated. COVID is here to stay. -

A researcher in Cyprus has discovered a strain of the coronavirus that combines the delta and omicron variant, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, called the strain “deltacron,” because of its omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes, Bloomberg said.
So far, Kostrikis and his team have found 25 cases of the virus, according to the report. It’s still too early to tell whether there are more cases of the strain or what impacts it could have.
“We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail” against the two dominant strains, delta and omicron, Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV Friday. He believes omicron will also overtake deltacron, he added. (Read more)