At this point

I feel like Biden and other Federal Health Officials need to organize a 50-State Summit with all governors and get on the same page with a few things. We can't keep going about fighting COVID like this. If we can't just get on the same page about wanting to keep the cases, hospitalizations, and deaths down and needing to take some basic NATIONAL precautionary measures to stem the tide of all of those things, then we're basically SOL as a country. I would say that it's a global issue too that we all have to fight together, but we have to get ourselves as a country in order as well.

I understand and share your frustration

But our numbers don't permit a huge amount of flexibility right now. I would be a bit more concerned/frustrated if we had the numbers we had in 2009, however, we don't and I think that Pelosi and Schumer and Biden are probably playing the game as best they can. Our political situation flatly sucks. We have a closely divided Senate, fewer seats in the House than 2019, fewer governorships, fewer state legislatures, and are dealing with a runaway 6-3 RW majority SCOTUS that was achieved by a lot of Republican corruption and keeps throwing sand in the gears everytime we try to make some progress. Add to that we're all suffering under this pandemic, which Republicans, especially in Texas and Florida seem to be trying to needlessly prolong. Add to this the outrageous situation that just happened in Texas with abortion rights. There's no easy way out right now. It would have been better if we had won in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2014, and, especially 2016 but we didn't and now a lot of what we're seeing is a direct outcome of Republican electoral domination, especially at the state and local levels. We're going to have to dig ourselves out of this hole, pretty much an inch at a time, unfortunately.

It would seem

that everybody was geared up for schools to re-open in-person this year and either haven't adjusted or reoriented to the new reality or are refusing to do so, possibly hoping that things settle down. I know that my daughter's school is basing their decisions on whether or not to keep the schools open and in-person on local COVID rates and that they are going to become more virtual/restrictive if and when COVID gets worse in our area. A local school here in Indianapolis recently went back to virtual for a week due to COVID concerns. Also, schools being "open" seems to have become, like with masks and vaccination, another politicized issue, with Republicans demanding that schools open (probably the first and only time they are pretending to care about schools and children's mental health and educational needs) and Democrats (generally) being more cautious about it due to concerns about COVID.

So according to Death Santis

the most effective way to deal with a contagious respiratory disease that's killing hundreds of people is to wait until large numbers of people get sick and then clog up the ERs and ICUs instead of asking people to wear a mask and get a proven vaccine that prevents people from getting sick at all (or at least from severe symptoms)?


I'm glad that Joe is way smarter than that.

If anybody listens to Fox "News", Hannity, Carlson, et. al for any length of time

you would be absolutely convinced that they are from an alternate reality (and just don't realize it somehow), because almost nothing they report is grounded in reality. And there are examples. And examples.

I dunno

Maybe in the near short term but in the long term they're killing off their own anti-mask/anti-vaxx voters, inevitably leaving healthier, more progressive voters, whom are watching all of this unfold and whom will take it out on them at the ballot box. Plus, they're assuming that some of their smarter voters whom are doing the right thing despite the propaganda won't get tired of being in a constant pandemic where there friends, family members, THEIR CHILDREN are getting sick (even a "mild" case of COVID isn't all that much fun- or so I've heard) and potentially even dying. Republicans like Abbott and DeathSantis are playing with fire IMHO if they think that the road to victory will be paved by a needlessly long pandemic.

If people are so sick of the pandemic

they need to stop contributing to it by getting vaxxed, masking up as needed, etc. Dumping or revolting against some leaders like Abbott and DeathSantis would help too. And there is literally only so much Biden/Dems can do. People should be attacking Republicans for their efforts to extend the pandemic.

Just saw this. Speechless

So.....um.....how is Iraq doing nowadays?

Since we're all hyper-focused on Afghanistan, I just began wondering about our other major war in recent years and think it's also worth asking, how did things wind up in Iraq?

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/iraq-travel-advisory.html

As of June 2021, State Department has issued a LEVEL 4 (highest) advisory and is advising to NOT Travel there due to "COVID-19, terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, and Mission Iraq’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens.

Is/was this generally considered to be a "good outcome" in terms of Bush's misguided war of choice there?

And when they get sick with COVID

they reach for non-FDA approved "treatments" for COVID such as Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. Or have to resort to expensive drugs like Remdesavir when 1-2 jabs they could have avoided COVID or had to just deal with a mild case.



Like, who wants to take livestock de-wormer? I mean, really?