babylonsister
babylonsister's JournalThe Rude Pundit: Shut the Fuck Up and Get Your Fucking Vaccine
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/04/shut-fuck-up-and-get-your-fucking.html
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
4/15/2021
Shut the Fuck Up and Get Your Fucking Vaccine
A bunch of fanatics are fucking up the vaccination program for everyone. Polls are showing that a significant percentage of people won't get the vaccine. In places where people don't get vaccinated, cases have been on the rise. There are YouTube videos, filled with conspiracy theories, exhorting people to avoid the vaccine. People spread the idea that the vaccine is a way to spy on them, and there has been violence directed against the distribution, with fear that not enough people will get it to eliminate the illness.
Yeah, that's what's going on in Afghanistan as health groups attempt to get people vaccinated for polio.
The rhetoric that's coming from the antivaccine right (and, to a lesser, weirder, but just as dangerous extent, the antivax left) is qualitatively not that different from what the Taliban has been pushing in Afghanistan. This is not to disparage the Afghan people or call them stupid. Far from it. It's to say that fear and ignorance is pretty goddamned universal, and it often is so on the same issues no matter where one is from.
Here in the United States, when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccines, we're swimming in a shit pool of lies and fear. We've got the dumbass white evangelical Christians who believe garbage like "It would be God’s will if I am here or if I am not here." (So, like, if God gave people the ability to create vaccines...fuck it, not worth it.) We've got fucking idiotic conspiracy theories like "A massive death wave will be witnessed later this year among those who took the vaccine," ignoring that it's been a year since the first people were vaccinated, and, oddly, no reports of all of them dying have come out.
And then there's motherfucking Tucker fucking Carlson, who always has the expression of a Victorian gentleman learning that women like sex. Carlson has been coyly and not-so-coyly antivax for the better part of the last few years. With the coronavirus vaccines, Tuckfuck has been vigorously gargling the balls of conspiracy nuts. Wondering why you should still have to wear a mask after getting vaccinated, Carlson's just asking, "What is this about? If vaccines work, why are vaccinated people still banned from living normal lives?" Quite note: You're wearing your fucking mask because you still might be able to spread COVID, even if you can't get it, and you're trying not to be a selfish dickhead, something I'm sure Carlson can't even conceive of.
Carlson, who you know got his vaccine the second he could steal the spot from an elderly person, continued tuckerly, "If the vaccine is effective, there’s no reason for people who’ve received a vaccine to wear masks or avoid physical contact. So maybe it doesn’t work and they’re simply not telling you that. Well, you’d hate to think that especially if you’ve gotten two shots but what’s the other potential explanation? We can’t think of one." Yes, big science wants you to wear masks and not eat indoors at restaurants or go to concerts or movies because...he doesn't say, but I'm guessing socialism or critical race theory or AOC.
snip//
You know what freedom is? Freedom is celebrating that science can actually solve our fucking problems and taking advantage of that so that your superstition and anti-science fuckery doesn't kill the rest of us.
Shut the fuck up already. Get your fucking vaccine, you fucking assholes.
Eric Boehlert: Why there won't ever be another Rush Limbaugh -- thank God
Why there won't ever be another Rush Limbaugh — thank God
A right-wing void
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
Before Fox News there was Rush Limbaugh. Before Breitbart, InfoWars and QAnon, there was Rush, purposefully polluting American minds for profit. Today's billion-dollar, name-calling conservative media traces its origins to the rise of Limbaugh's three-hour radio show. But now, with the host's passing this year, the nationally syndicated program represents a propaganda void that's unlikely to be filled.
That's not to say there will be fewer, less dangerous conservative voices in the media, spreading deliberate lies and dividing Americans. There won’t be a shortage there, particularly on cable TV, online, and with burgeoning podcasts. But it does mean that in the increasingly fractured media landscape that the uniquely powerful and national position that Limbaugh occupied on the AM dial will not be replaced.
snip//
Limbaugh helped save AM radio when he emerged as a talk radio star in the late 1980s at a time when AM stations had lost out to the cleaner, less static sounds of FM radio. At the same time, in 1987, Ronald Reagan's Federal Communications Commission repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which had required stations to present politically “balanced” programming. That meant Limbaugh could bash Democrats for three hours nonstop every day. Fast forward three decades and Limbaugh's death arrived alongside AM's slow motion demise.
"Once a leading platform for popularizing conservative candidates and policies, talk radio is on the verge of becoming background noise, drowned out by a cacophony of voices on podcasts, cable TV and social media," the Washington Post reported this year.
The pandemic also hit talk radio hard. "2020 is the year that in-car AM/FM radio has hit the proverbial iceberg," Radio World reported. "The COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns severely curtailed regular commuting journeys, where much of consumers’ radio-listening originates."
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/why-there-wont-ever-be-another-rush
As luck would have it, Republicans seize on worst possible strategy to oppose Biden jobs plan
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/15/2026116/-Republicans-draw-red-line-at-corporate-tax-increases-broadly-favored-by-public-in-Biden-planAs luck would have it, Republicans seize on worst possible strategy to oppose Biden jobs plan
Kerry Eleveld
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday April 15, 2021 · 8:38 PM EDT
Senate Republicans have seized on opposing one of the most popular elements President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan as a political winner for them—raising the corporate tax rate.
Republicans have convinced themselves that shielding corporations from helping to fund projects that will specifically benefit those very same corporations is a great angle for them. They simultaneously plan to push their unpopular deficit-boosting 2017 tax cut for the rich and corporate-y as essential to a booming economy while refusing to budge at all on corporate tax increases.
The other thing congressional Republicans are whining about while drawing their red lines is the notion that President Biden isn’t sincerely seeking out bipartisan compromise on his $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Of course, nothing says compromise like "red lines." In fact, if Sen. Capito—who Biden has reached out to as a potential deal maker—isn't open to negotiating on tax increases, then any potential deal is already dead on arrival. It’s exactly what Mitch McConnell promised weeks ago even before seeing Biden’s proposal—unwavering GOP opposition.
snip//
There's a reason Biden said last week he was "sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced"—ordinary people are sick of it too. Now it's time for Democrats to make absolutely certain people understand Biden's plan will create millions of jobs along with investing in highly popular initiatives such as: improving highways, bridges, roads, ports, waterways, airports, mass transit, train/bus service, nationwide high-speed broadband internet, caregiving for seniors, public schools, and more.
Fortunately, while Democrats embark on that education campaign, GOP lawmakers are hellbent on relitigating an issue on which the vast majority of Americans already have well-formed opinions.
More power to 'em. Hopefully, Republicans will consistently remind voters they singlehandedly tilted the playing field even more toward corporations while adding nearly $2 trillion to the national deficit.
Proud Boy Who Allegedly Pepper-Sprayed Capitol Cops Catches COVID in Prison
https://www.thedailybeast.com/christopher-worrell-proud-boy-who-allegedly-pepper-sprayed-capitol-cops-catches-covid-in-prison?ref=home
Proud Boy Who Allegedly Pepper-Sprayed Capitol Cops Catches COVID in Prison
LET ME GO
Jamie Ross, Reporter
Published Apr. 16, 2021 6:01AM ET
Cruz joins Paul in ditching mask despite CDC recommendations
Cruz joins Paul in ditching mask despite CDC recommendations
By Ted Barrett and Manu Raju, CNN
Updated 8:38 PM ET, Thu April 15, 2021
(CNN)Sen. Ted Cruz is no longer wearing a face mask as he walks the halls of the Capitol complex or goes to the Senate floor for debates and votes.
"At this point I've been vaccinated. Everybody working in the Senate has been vaccinated," the Texas Republican told CNN, even though many staff members and reporters in the Capitol have not been vaccinated.
Cruz defended his decision to drop using the mask even after being told that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still recommending people who have been vaccinated wear masks in public.
"CDC has said in small groups, particularly with people who were vaccinated don't need to wear masks," he responded as he climbed into a small Capitol elevator with two aides, both of whom were wearing masks.
In fact, the current CDC guidance says because "we're still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19" it's important that "after you've been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautions — like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces—in public places until we know more."
Vaccines are not 100% effective and the CDC and National Institutes of Health say there is no way for a fully vaccinated person to know if they are perhaps carrying an asymptomatic infection that could spread to someone else.
more...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/ted-cruz-no-mask/index.html
MacArthur Grants Community Solutions $100 Million to Address Homelessness
MacArthur Grants Community Solutions $100 Million to Address Homelessness
By Abby Schultz
April 7, 2021 5:39 pm ET
The MacArthur Foundation announced it was awarding Community Solutions with a US$100 million grant at a virtual event on Wednesday, selecting the nonprofit out of six finalists in its global 100&Change competition.
Community Solutions, based in New York City, will use the funds to expand its mission of ending homelessness to 75 U.S. communities in the next five years through its “Built for Zero” initiative.
This data-based approach has been successful at ending chronic and veteran homelessness in 15 communities, and reducing its prevalence in 50 others. The organization also has secured homes for 235,000 homeless individuals since 2010.
“You have moved the reality that this is a solvable problem into the mainstream,” Roseanne Haggerty, president of Community Solutions said to the MacArthur staff in a zoom call recorded when they were told of the award, and played at Wednesday’s event.
more...
https://www.barrons.com/articles/macarthur-grants-community-solutions-100-million-to-address-homelessness-01617831575
Lindsey Graham Claims Biden Will Cause "Another 9/11" With Afghan Pullout
STFU, Lindsay. Your fearmongering wears thin. 
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/lindsey-graham-joe-biden-afghanistan-911
Levin Report
Lindsey Graham Claims Biden Will Cause “Another 9/11” With Afghan Pullout
The South Carolina warmonger is not happy with the president’s decision to fully withdraw from the region.
By Bess Levin
April 14, 2021
On Wednesday, Joe Biden announced that after nearly 20 years, the United States will withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, saying in a speech at the White House that staying longer will not end the conflict. “It’s time for American troops to come home,” he told the world from the same room in which George W. Bush announced the war had begun. “We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal, and expecting a different result. I am now the fourth United States president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility onto a fifth.” Noting that the U.S. “went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago,“ Biden argued, “that cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021. Rather than return to war with the Taliban, we have to focus on the challenges that are in front of us.” He added that he’s heard the arguments that the U.S. will lose leverage over the Taliban, but said that staying hadn’t achieved peace anyway. Referencing the fact that the conflict has cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars while often lacking a clear objective, he said: “We delivered justice to bin Laden a decade ago, and we’ve stayed in Afghanistan for a decade since. Since then, our reasons for remaining in Afghanistan are becoming increasingly unclear.”
Not surprisingly, the historic decision has both supporters and detractors. On the supporter side, there are people like senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who praised Biden for ending the prolonged conflict. Also happy about the move is Douglas Lute, a retired lieutenant general who was the coordinator for Afghanistan policy at the National Security Council under both Bush and Barack Obama. On the detractor side, you’ve got some Pentagon officials who, per The New York Times, have “argued for a continued, modest presence in Afghanistan,” and Representative Liz Cheney, who called the decision a “huge propaganda victory for the Taliban, for al-Qaeda.” (Cheney’s father, of course, is a big reason the U.S. is in Afghanistan in the first place and so she would have been on the receiving end of an extremely awkward voicemail if she’d said anything else.)
Seemingly most upset about the decision, though, was warmonger Lindsey Graham, who claims Biden’s decision to withdraw the troops will cause another 9/11. No, literally, he said that. A few times. With props!
On Tuesday, in anticipation of Biden’s announcement, Graham said in a statement, “A full withdrawal from Afghanistan is dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous. President Biden will have, in essence, cancelled an insurance policy against another 9/11.” Later that day, he went on Fox News and told Sean Hannity that Biden is “paving the way for another 9/11,” telling viewers: “To all of you who are listening, you remember where you were at on September 11, 2001. Our military told President Biden that if you withdraw all of our forces, al-Qaeda and ISIS will come roaring back, Afghanistan will disintegrate into civil war. And we can avoid all of that by having 3,000-5,000 American forces making sure that ISIS and al-Qaeda never come back to hurt us. He rejected that advice.”
Apparently not satisfied that he’d made his point, the South Carolina senator then held a press conference on Wednesday in which he (1) warned both women in Afghanistan and the U.S. that the terrorists were coming for them:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1382425921295151106
And (2) pointed to a blown-up photo of the burning Twin Towers, and another of the Pentagon after it was hit by Flight 77, and said, “What makes you think this won’t happen again?”
Barack Obama Praises Joe Biden's Decision To Get Out Of Afghanistan
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/04/14/obama-biden-afghanistan.htmlPosted on Wed, Apr 14th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Barack Obama Praises Joe Biden’s Decision To Get Out Of Afghanistan
Former President Obama praised President Biden for making the right decision and removing US troops from Afghanistan after twenty years.
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, President Obama said:
Since we began to draw down U.S. forces in 2011, the United States made clear to the Afghan government that we would be gradually transitioning responsibility for security while creating time and space for efforts to improve governance and pursue diplomacy. Nearly a decade later, it is time to turn the page to the next chapter of our relationship with Afghanistan. There will be very difficult challenges and further hardship ahead in Afghanistan, and the U.S. must remain engaged diplomatically and through our development efforts to support the Afghan people, particularly those who have taken extraordinary risks on behalf of human rights. But after nearly two decades of putting our troops in harm’s way, it is time to recognize that we have accomplished all that we can militarily, and that it’s time to bring our remaining troops home. I support President Biden’s bold leadership in building our nation at home and restoring our standing around the world.
The Lindsey Grahams and Tom Cottons of the political world hate this decision, but the reality is that outside of the pro-war faction of the Republican Party, the American people are tired, and want the troops to come home.
The term endless war is overused, but in the case of Afghanistan, the United States would have been waiting forever for the perfect time to leave. President Obama was right. There are challenges ahead in Afghanistan, but it time to bring America’s troops home and turn the page because that is the only way to tackle the future.
Eric Boehlert: How the media botched the J&J vaccine "pause" story
https://pressrun.media/p/how-the-media-botched-the-j-and-jHow the media botched the J&J vaccine "pause" story
Headlines matter
Eric Boehlert
10 hr ago
snip//
Unfortunately for Tuesday's J&J breaking news, crucial context was missing from most of the headlines. Instead of stressing that less than one in a million J&J shots had produced the troubling blood clot reaction, the press focused on "concerns" surrounding the "halt," and how the move "threatens to slow U.S. pandemic progress”:
snip//
On Tuesday, the J&J announcement was treated as the biggest Covid news in weeks. The halt came at a time when there had been endless encouraging news about the vaccine rollout during Joe Biden's presidency.
Is it possible the bad-news angle appealed to the press? A recent study found that the U.S. press prefers to lean into bad Covid news:
The important J&J pause story was one that cried out for full context in all aspects of the coverage, including the all-important headlines. Instead, the press bungled the assignment.
UPDATED: “Axios’ Neal Rothschild notes that of the 20 most-engaged stories on social media about the Johnson & Johnson pause, just two headlines included the context that the blood clots were rare occurrences, according to data from NewsWhip.”
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Are Already Working on Their Next Grift
Levin Report
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Are Already Working on Their Next Grift
The duo is advising a new group with “the mission of perpetuating former president Trump’s populist policies.”
By Bess Levin
April 13, 2021
Since departing Washington for Miami back in January, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have maintained relatively low profiles. Oh, sure, Kushner penned an op-ed in which he offered Joe Biden some unsolicited foreign policy advice, and Trump has made herself readily available for the paparazzi to catch her jogging with Kushner, eating ice cream with her kids, and pointing at things with her assistant. But otherwise, it’s been unusually quiet on the Javanka front. And that’s probably by design as the couple attempts to rehab their image and shake off the taint of the last four years in general and the January 6 insurrection specifically, not to mention the unfortunate press that comes after forcing one’s Secret Service detail to go to extreme lengths to “find a bathroom.”
Of course, as a couple of people who see themselves returning to the White House in a presidential capacity—they’ve already determined Trump will be the first woman POTUS—the duo are no doubt planning their next moves behind the scenes, and on Tuesday, one of the projects they’ve been working on was revealed.
Per Axios:
The president and CEO is Brooke Rollins, a Texan who was head of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council. Rollins, who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week to update him on plans for the group, told me the group wants to be “dreamers and…risk-takers.” The board chair is Linda McMahon, who was a member of Trump’s Cabinet as the administrator of the Small Business Administration, after winning fame as a pro-wrestling entrepreneur. The vice chair is Larry Kudlow, Trump’s economic adviser, a longtime CNBC personality who's now a Fox Business host. AFPI—now based in the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia—has been in the planning stages since December. The group will also have offices in Fort Worth, where Rollins remains based, Miami, and New York. Rollins plans to move the group to Washington to be closer to the action.
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-afpi
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