How some modern Republicans show their respect

 

Dark free hate speech in action

And then disgusting people like this complain that they are being disrespected and their widdle fee-fees are being hurt. What a load of hypocrisy. 

Q: Why aren't T****, Republican politicians, the Proud Boys and other fascist groups on the hit list? 

A: Because Christian nationalist Christofascists like them support Republican Party fascism.

How the radical right sees Democrats

By now it’s obvious to those who can see that we are in the midst of an openly fascist attack on democracy, civil liberties and inconvenient facts, truth and sound reasoning. Republican Party big lies are brazen, being completely contradicted by real facts. Nonetheless, the lies are repeated thousands of times by both cynical, knowing elites, and by the deceived and betrayed rank and file. Decades of divisive Republican Party dark free speech has finally torn this country apart.

What the Republican rank and file believe is reality and what they think about it is of great interest. That drives behavior. It is powering an openly fascist political movement that just might topple democracy and gut the rule of law and civil liberties.  

Writing an opinion piece in the New York Times, columnist Paul Krugman writes:

The Dystopian Myths of Red America

Desensitization is an amazing thing. At this point most political observers simply accept it as a fact of life that an overwhelming majority of Republicans accept the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen — a claim with nothing to support it, not even plausible anecdotes.

What I don’t think is fully appreciated, however, is that the Big Lie is embedded in an even bigger lie: the claim that the Democratic Party is controlled by radical leftists aiming to destroy America as we know it. And this lie in turn derives a lot of its persuasiveness from a grotesquely distorted view of what life is like in blue America.

Urban elites are constantly accused of not understanding Real America™. And, to be fair, most big-city residents probably don’t have a good sense of what life is like in rural areas and small towns, although it’s doubtful whether this gap justified the immense number of news reports interviewing Trump voters sitting in diners.

But I’d argue that right-wing misperceptions of blue America run far deeper — and are far more dangerous.

Let’s start with the politics. The other day The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, reporting from the campaign trail, noted that many Republican candidates are claiming that Democrats are deliberately undermining the nation and promoting violence against their opponents; some are even claiming that we’re already in a civil war.

Some (many?) of these candidates have been winning primaries, suggesting that the G.O.P. base agrees with them. Actually, I’d like to see some surveys along the lines of those showing that most Republicans accept the Big Lie. How many Republicans believe that President Biden and other leading Democrats are left-wing radicals, indeed Marxists?

Relatedly, I’d like to know how many Republicans believe that Black Lives Matter demonstrators looted and burned large parts of America’s major cities.

On the domestic violence front, a study by the Anti-Defamation League found that 75 percent of extremist-related domestic killings from 2012 to 2021 were perpetrated by the right and only 4 percent by the left.

Finally, about B.L.M.: The protests were, in fact, overwhelmingly peaceful. Yes, there was some arson and looting, with total property damage typically estimated at $1 billion to $2 billion. That may sound like a lot, but America is a big country, so it needs to be put in perspective.

Here’s one point of comparison. Back in April, Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, pulled a political stunt at the border with Mexico, temporarily imposing extra security checks that caused a major slowdown of traffic, disrupting business and leading to a lot of spoiled produce. Total economic losses have been estimated at around $4 billion[1]; that is, a few days of border-security theater appear to have caused more economic damage than a hundred days of mass protests.

The fact is that a large segment of the U.S. electorate has bought into an apocalyptic vision of America that bears no relationship to the reality of how the other half thinks, behaves or lives. We don’t have to speculate about whether this dystopian fantasy might lead to political violence and attempts to overthrow democracy; it already has. And it’s probably going to get worse.

Waldman asked about Democratic sentiment toward Marxism, a false allegation the radical right demagogues all the time. Despite radical right lies, e.g., Faux News, about Democrats being socialists, which most are not, public opinion has not changed much in recent years. It is reasonable to think that even fewer Democrats would say they are Marxists.**

** Asking for positive feelings about capitalism and socialism seems inadequate to me. Neither capitalism nor socialism are defined. Who knows what definitions individual people have. It is possible, e.g., me, to have both positive and negative feelings about both. In my opinion, the question alone doesn’t shed much light on how people really feel. It is arguably misleading.

Qs: It is reasonable to believe on the basis of the current situation in American politics and society that decades of divisive, radical right Republican dark free speech is mostly responsible for (i) tearing American society apart (unwarranted distrust and animosity, belief in lies, etc.), and (ii) significantly subverting and corrupting normal functioning of the federal government? 

Footnote: 

1. In addition to the ~$4 billion in damage that the Texas border stunt cost, one source reported that congress approved $521 million to pay for National Guard costs related to T****’s 1/6 coup attempt. Another source reported that D.C. police costs related to the coup attempt were about $71 million. Another ~$30 million was estimated for personnel and physical damage at the capitol building. Who knows what other economic and non-economic damages came from and are still coming from the ‘incident’ on 1/6? It was a fairly expensive but damaging little shindig.

President Biden still does not get it

The New York Times writes:

Biden Lashes Trump Over Jan. 6, Saying He ‘Lacked the Courage to Act’

President Biden on Monday denounced former President Donald J. Trump’s refusal to decisively intervene to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, declaring that his predecessor “lacked the courage to act” and betrayed the police officers he claimed to support.

Evidence the 1/6 Committee laid out in public made what T**** was doing plain and clear to everyone who can see. T**** did not lack the courage to act. He had the courage to not act in the hope that certifying the election would be subverted. That was T****’s intent. The 1/6 coup attempt was planned, not some spontaneous outburst. 

That Biden cannot see that simple, plain reality says about all anyone needs to conclude he should not run for re-election. He just doesn’t get it. He is not up to the job. At this point, we would probably be better off if he resigned and let Harris finish out the rest of his term. She cannot be worse than he is at this point.

The climate and the human condition

The human condition includes many or most people on planet Earth (1) living on the edge of survival, and (2) allowing corrupt demagogue tyrants to lead their societies to ruin if they believe there is profit enough in it. That includes essentially all or all laissez-faire capitalists everywhere. These days, corrupt demagogue tyrants and laissez-faire capitalists are leading us all to hell on Earth.

The New York Times writes:

Congo to Auction Land to Oil Companies: ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’

Peatlands and rainforests in the Congo Basin protect the planet by storing carbon. Now, in a giant leap backward for the climate, they’re being auctioned off for drilling.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, home to one of the largest old-growth rainforests on Earth, is auctioning off vast amounts of land in a push to become “the new destination for oil investments,” part of a global shift as the world retreats on fighting climate change in a scramble for fossil fuels.

The oil and gas blocks, which will be auctioned in late July, extend into Virunga National Park, the world’s most important gorilla sanctuary, as well as tropical peatlands that store vast amounts of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and from contributing to global warming.

“If oil exploitation takes place in these areas, we must expect a global climate catastrophe, and we will all just have to watch helplessly,” said Irene Wabiwa, who oversees the Congo Basin forest campaign for Greenpeace in Kinshasa.

Congo’s about-face in allowing new oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas comes eight months after its president, Félix Tshisekedi, stood alongside world leaders at the global climate summit in Glasgow and endorsed a 10-year agreement to protect its rainforest, part of the vast Congo Basin, which is second in size only to the Amazon.  

Congo has taken note of each of these global events, said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, the nation’s lead representative on climate issues and an adviser to the minister of hydrocarbons.

Congo’s sole goal for the auction, he said, is to earn enough revenue to help the struggling nation finance programs to reduce poverty and generate badly needed economic growth.  

“That’s our priority,” Mr. Mpanu said, in an interview last week. “Our priority is not to save the planet.”

One thing that is pretty certain, oil companies (OCs) could not care less about anything that impairs profits. If an OC sees enough threat to profit, then they will probably take the minimum action necessary to relieve the threat. In America, taking minimum action mostly means quietly bribing politicians ("campaign contributions") and hiring public relations firms (sophisticated professional liars). That is the most profitable way forward.

In jolly old America, OCs always act to subvert any government effort to serve the public interest by defending the environment. OCs also routinely try to deceive the public into a false belief that they are on our side. The OCs are on their side, not ours.

It's always a discouragingly huge, effective con job by pro-pollution interests. In America, our government gets subverted and the public gets deceived and screwed. It's a win-win for polluter OCs. OCs profit from polluting. The environment and non-wealthy people get poisoned. It's also a win for corrupted politicians who get re-elected, e.g., corrupt Joe Manchin and the almost the entire Republican Party in congress.

For what it is worth in terms of corruption, Transparency International ranks Congo as 162 out of 180 countries on Earth. It's a kleptocracy.

Why it is so hard to trust polls

 TALK ABOUT A CONTRADICTION! 

ON 7/21/22

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would both beat the two favorites for the GOP

nomination in 2024—Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis—in either hypothetical

matchup, according to a new poll.

An Echelon Insights survey found that if the next election were being held today,

voters would narrowly back Biden (46 percent) over Trump (44 percent), 

with the president also the preferred choice when up against the Florida governor 

(45 percent to 41 percent).

https://www.newsweek.com/2024-odds-biden-harris-trump-desantis-1726687

ON 7/23/22 

Former President Donald Trump is still favored to defeat President Joe Biden 

in a 2024 rematch if both politicians ultimately become their respective party's 

nominees, despite the evidence and testimony presented in televised hearings 

by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the 

U.S. Capitol.

The current Real Clear Politics average of recent national surveys, which includes 

four separate polls from June 28 through July 20, shows Trump ahead by about 

2 points.

The most recent poll, carried out by Emerson College from July 19 to 20, showed 

Trump ahead of Biden by 3 points.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-still-beats-biden-2024-rematch-despite-jan-6-hearings-polls-1727393

Either way, too close for comfort I would say. Maybe time for Biden to heed what 

Democrat voters want?

Most Democrats Would Prefer Biden Not Run Again in 2024, 

Poll Finds

https://www.voanews.com/a/most-democrats-would-prefer-biden-not-run-again-in-2024-poll-finds/6654889.html

House Hearing on Long Covid Reveals Widespread and Serious Crisis in US

 

How widespread is long COVID? It’s put millions of US adults out of work, expert says By Julia Marnin July 19, 2022 5:31 PM (Fr. Miami Herald)

How widespread in long COVID? It’s put millions of U.S. adults who were previously infected with COVID-19 out of work, an expert testified at a House hearing. If you have heard about long COVID — a condition in which symptoms of a coronavirus infection can linger for weeks, months or years — you may wonder how widespread it is.

By February, more than half of the U.S. population was estimated to have already been infected with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long COVID may occur at least four weeks after a COVID-19 infection, the agency notes.

About 28 million working-age adults in the U.S., and likely more to date, have developed the condition after testing positive for the virus, workforce expert Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, testified at a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, July 19.

“Long Covid is leading millions of Americans to reduce their work schedules or stop working,” Bach wrote in testimony ahead of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing.

Currently, about 16 million people in the U.S. are estimated to have long COVID, according to federal data, and 3.3 million adults are estimated to be out of work full-time because of how the condition has affected their health, Bach said. This is 2.4% of full-time workers in the U.S.

Additionally, an estimated 2.6 million more workers dealing with long COVID symptoms have had their work hours reduced by 25%, Bach testified.

Among affected workers are those in health care, according to written testimony by Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, a physiatrist and professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, who spoke at the hearing.

Verduzco-Gutierrez said she has treated a number of nurses and physicians experiencing long COVID, including some who “have not been able to return to the operating room or to the frontline or the patient bedside.”

Meanwhile, Bach said “the number of people not working due to long COVID will likely continue to grow as more people become infected.”

The hearing was held as the infectious omicron subvariant BA.5 made up roughly 78% of COVID-19 cases nationwide for the week ending July 16, CDC data estimates show. UC Davis Health has described it as the “most easily transmissible” subvariant.

In May, the CDC estimated 1 in 5 adults may develop at least one post-COVID symptom following a COVID-19 infection, McClatchy News previously reported. For those 65 and older, the risk is slightly higher.

 Of the Americans currently out of work because of long COVID, “many of these impacted families lose necessary income and employer-based health insurance at a time when they need it the most,” House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., the subcommittee chairman, said in his opening remarks at the hearing.

Symptoms of Long COVID

 “Each of these persons with Long COVID are suffering and has a story that needs to be heard. Each of them has a different course – some even starting as asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 – with lingering and debilitating symptoms,” Verduzco-Gutierrez wrote.

Most people diagnosed with long COVID were never hospitalized due to their initial infection, a study published as a white paper in May found, McClatchy News previously reported.

Long COVID patients can have “a wide range of symptoms,” according to the CDC, and some include:

Fatigue

Fever

Breathing troubles

Cough

Chest pain

Heart palpitations

Brain fog

Headache

Dizziness

Digestive issues

Depression or anxiety

Muscle pain

“I have had cancer survivors get Long COVID. They tell me that their post-COVID fatigue is 100-times worse than their cancer fatigue ever was,” Verduzco-Gutierrez said.

Another witness at the long COVID hearing, Cynthia Adinig, who described herself as a formerly “mulitasking supermom,” said before her COVID-19 infection in March 2020, she ran two businesses while homeschooling her child, was involved in her local church and volunteered for a charity, according to her written testimony.

“Unfortunately, I can no longer be part of those spaces in the capacity that I used to because from time to time now my body becomes overwhelmed with nausea, dizziness, intermittent paralysis, fluctuating oxygen levels, crippling joint pain and unexpected high heart rate.”

‘Immediate changes’needed

Another witness who testified at the hearing, Hannah Davis, a co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, called for “immediate changes” when it comes to long COVID, according to her written testimony.

“We need an urgent public information campaign on Long Covid, to explain that it happens after mild cases and to all ages, is debilitating, and requires immediate pacing and rest.” In terms of lessening long COVID’s “economic burden,” Bach named at least “five critical interventions that the government can support.” They include:

Better long COVID treatment

Improved sick leave

Greater access to Social Security Disability Insurance benefits

Improved employer accommodation

Better data collection

“To fully assess the labor market impact of long Covid, and to track the efficacy of any interventions, better data collection is required,” Bach wrote.

In Clyburn’s opening statement, he acknowledged that there is still more to learn about long COVID.

“The millions of Americans experiencing Long COVID, and their families, are desperate for answers and support,” he said

 

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article263619353.html