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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
September 8, 2021
Whatever happened to Kevin McCarthy's Jan. 6 investigation?
Whatever happened to the partisan Jan. 6 investigation that McCarthy said he was launching? Nearly two months later, it doesn't appear to exist.
Sept. 8, 2021, 10:38 AM EDT
By Steve Benen
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's record related to the Jan. 6 attack is deeply unfortunate. For example, the California Republican famously agreed that Donald Trump bore responsibility for the insurrectionist riot, before the congressman ultimately decided that it'd be in his political interests to change his mind.
Similarly, McCarthy initially endorsed an official investigation into the assault on the Capitol before he changed his mind, helped derail the creation of an independent commission that his own point person had helped shape, and tried to sabotage a bipartisan congressional select committee. As of last week, the GOP leader even took steps to obstruct the federal investigation.
It's against this backdrop that a question looms: Whatever happened to the partisan Jan. 6 investigation that McCarthy said he was launching?
As regular readers may recall, it was in mid-July when the House minority leader declared that House Republicans would "pursue our own investigation of the facts." At a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday, McCarthy added, "We will make sure we get to the real answers."
Nearly two months later, The Daily Beast reported that the partisan alternative to the bipartisan select committee does not appear to exist.
more...
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/whatever-happened-kevin-mccarthy-s-jan-6-investigation-n1278696
Whatever happened to Kevin McCarthy's Jan. 6 investigation?
Whatever happened to Kevin McCarthy's Jan. 6 investigation?
Whatever happened to the partisan Jan. 6 investigation that McCarthy said he was launching? Nearly two months later, it doesn't appear to exist.
Sept. 8, 2021, 10:38 AM EDT
By Steve Benen
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's record related to the Jan. 6 attack is deeply unfortunate. For example, the California Republican famously agreed that Donald Trump bore responsibility for the insurrectionist riot, before the congressman ultimately decided that it'd be in his political interests to change his mind.
Similarly, McCarthy initially endorsed an official investigation into the assault on the Capitol before he changed his mind, helped derail the creation of an independent commission that his own point person had helped shape, and tried to sabotage a bipartisan congressional select committee. As of last week, the GOP leader even took steps to obstruct the federal investigation.
It's against this backdrop that a question looms: Whatever happened to the partisan Jan. 6 investigation that McCarthy said he was launching?
As regular readers may recall, it was in mid-July when the House minority leader declared that House Republicans would "pursue our own investigation of the facts." At a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday, McCarthy added, "We will make sure we get to the real answers."
Nearly two months later, The Daily Beast reported that the partisan alternative to the bipartisan select committee does not appear to exist.
[T]here's no sign that McCarthy and the House GOP will make good on that pledge. Several House Republican aides said they hadn't seen any indication that such a probe is imminent. A McCarthy spokesperson didn't answer repeated requests for comment.
more...
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/whatever-happened-kevin-mccarthy-s-jan-6-investigation-n1278696
September 8, 2021
Why Jim Jordan should avoid fights over what's 'un-American'
To hear Jordan tell it, "real" Americans believe that vaccine mandates are at odds with our national traditions, even when history proves otherwise.
Your Video Begins in: 00:04
Sept. 8, 2021, 9:20 AM EDT
By Steve Benen
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has earned a reputation as a highly controversial politician, though I was a little surprised to see him cause a stir this week with a short tweet. As The Washington Post reported:
At this point, we could point to the American tradition and note that George Washington, among others, embraced mandatory inoculations. Indeed, by some measures, the United States might very well have lost the Revolutionary War were it not for a policy that Jordan apparently considers "un-American."
We could also point to many examples throughout American history in which key societal institutions — including public schools and the U.S. military — embraced vaccine mandates as a matter of course. Ohio State required vaccinations for students while Jordan was a coach there, and he didn't seem to care at the time.
We could also note that if we're really going to have a conversation about what is and isn't "un-American," we should probably discuss those who supported efforts to overturn the results of an American presidential election because a group of extremists didn't like voters' judgment. I suspect the Ohio congressman may not like where that conversation ends up.
more...
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-jim-jordan-should-avoid-fights-over-what-s-un-n1278683
Why Jim Jordan should avoid fights over what's 'un-American'
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-jim-jordan-should-avoid-fights-over-what-s-un-n1278683Why Jim Jordan should avoid fights over what's 'un-American'
To hear Jordan tell it, "real" Americans believe that vaccine mandates are at odds with our national traditions, even when history proves otherwise.
Your Video Begins in: 00:04
Sept. 8, 2021, 9:20 AM EDT
By Steve Benen
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has earned a reputation as a highly controversial politician, though I was a little surprised to see him cause a stir this week with a short tweet. As The Washington Post reported:
At a time when the delta variant's summer surge has renewed the nation's divisions over coronavirus vaccines, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Monday said mandates enforcing vaccination do not reflect what it means to be American. 'Vaccine mandates are un-American,' Jordan tweeted.
At this point, we could point to the American tradition and note that George Washington, among others, embraced mandatory inoculations. Indeed, by some measures, the United States might very well have lost the Revolutionary War were it not for a policy that Jordan apparently considers "un-American."
We could also point to many examples throughout American history in which key societal institutions — including public schools and the U.S. military — embraced vaccine mandates as a matter of course. Ohio State required vaccinations for students while Jordan was a coach there, and he didn't seem to care at the time.
We could also note that if we're really going to have a conversation about what is and isn't "un-American," we should probably discuss those who supported efforts to overturn the results of an American presidential election because a group of extremists didn't like voters' judgment. I suspect the Ohio congressman may not like where that conversation ends up.
more...
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-jim-jordan-should-avoid-fights-over-what-s-un-n1278683
September 8, 2021
The American Prospect
Home Housing and Transportation Building Back America
Infrastructure Summer: Joe Manchin’s Symphony of Disingenuousness
He mumbles about inflation to try and stop a bill that’s primarily concerned with reducing inflation.
by David Dayen
September 7, 2021
Let’s say I didn’t know anything about the big budget reconciliation bill working its way through Congress this month. (Believe me, I’d love to say that; things would be much easier if I didn’t.) If non-aware me read through the entirety of Joe Manchin’s op-ed in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, which said that the bill is too expensive and just not right at this time, I wouldn’t know anything more about it. While Manchin ably demonstrates how a conservative Democrat representing a red state can preen about concepts like inflation and the deficit and spending trillions of dollars, he explains nothing about what the bill he opposes actually does, whom it would help, and what specific parts he disfavors.
Evidently, Manchin doesn’t want you to know too much about the bill he’s trying to kill. Or at least, he doesn’t want you to know why he doesn’t like it. Because if Manchin were truly concerned that we’ve let costs for working families run out of control and we must avoid passing a terrible future on to the next generation, he would be the first in line to pass the reconciliation bill.
snip//
The thing about these tax reforms and drug price reductions is that they are extremely popular. Adding tax increases makes the various infrastructure bills under consideration more popular, in fact. Manchin and his Republican colleagues made sure that the bipartisan infrastructure bill had no tax changes of any kind. He’s been murmuring about trimming tax reform for months. But now he doesn’t want to make a frontal assault on behalf of the rich people and corporate executives who fund political campaigns. So he talks about deficits and inflation, which have no real application to this legislation, to hide the ball on his real goal.
President Biden’s American Jobs and Families Plans, which include all the elements in the proposed reconciliation bill, are even popular in West Virginia. In May, Data for Progress found both favored by double digits, despite Biden’s unpopularity in the state. Manchin doesn’t want to actually come out against an unpopular policy in his own state. Instead, he leashes his opposition to some garbled nonsense about inflation, when in fact, this is an inflation-fighting bill. He doesn’t want people to know that he’s trying to prevent his rich pals from having to chip in to allow middle-class families to better keep up with the cost of living.
Joe Manchin's Symphony of Disingenuousness
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/building-back-america/infrastructure-summer-joe-manchins-symphony-of-disingenuousness/The American Prospect
Home Housing and Transportation Building Back America
Infrastructure Summer: Joe Manchin’s Symphony of Disingenuousness
He mumbles about inflation to try and stop a bill that’s primarily concerned with reducing inflation.
by David Dayen
September 7, 2021
Let’s say I didn’t know anything about the big budget reconciliation bill working its way through Congress this month. (Believe me, I’d love to say that; things would be much easier if I didn’t.) If non-aware me read through the entirety of Joe Manchin’s op-ed in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, which said that the bill is too expensive and just not right at this time, I wouldn’t know anything more about it. While Manchin ably demonstrates how a conservative Democrat representing a red state can preen about concepts like inflation and the deficit and spending trillions of dollars, he explains nothing about what the bill he opposes actually does, whom it would help, and what specific parts he disfavors.
Evidently, Manchin doesn’t want you to know too much about the bill he’s trying to kill. Or at least, he doesn’t want you to know why he doesn’t like it. Because if Manchin were truly concerned that we’ve let costs for working families run out of control and we must avoid passing a terrible future on to the next generation, he would be the first in line to pass the reconciliation bill.
snip//
The thing about these tax reforms and drug price reductions is that they are extremely popular. Adding tax increases makes the various infrastructure bills under consideration more popular, in fact. Manchin and his Republican colleagues made sure that the bipartisan infrastructure bill had no tax changes of any kind. He’s been murmuring about trimming tax reform for months. But now he doesn’t want to make a frontal assault on behalf of the rich people and corporate executives who fund political campaigns. So he talks about deficits and inflation, which have no real application to this legislation, to hide the ball on his real goal.
President Biden’s American Jobs and Families Plans, which include all the elements in the proposed reconciliation bill, are even popular in West Virginia. In May, Data for Progress found both favored by double digits, despite Biden’s unpopularity in the state. Manchin doesn’t want to actually come out against an unpopular policy in his own state. Instead, he leashes his opposition to some garbled nonsense about inflation, when in fact, this is an inflation-fighting bill. He doesn’t want people to know that he’s trying to prevent his rich pals from having to chip in to allow middle-class families to better keep up with the cost of living.
September 8, 2021
Sorry Chuck Todd, America is not hopelessly “divided” over Covid
Both Sides nonsense
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Make no mistake, there is a loud and dangerous right-wing minority in this country building roadblocks and creating havoc as we try to put the pandemic behind us. They often stage noisy and demented protests at local school board meetings, leveling unhinged attacks on local officials who are trying to keep children and teachers safe. (In Tucson, police were called when protesters threatened to make a citizen's arrest on a school principal and zip tie her.) The media’s constant desire to portray them as representing half the country is lazy and inaccurate.
Instead of portraying the dangerous zealots accurately, the media downplay the threat by presenting anti-vaccine and anti-mask fanatics as being the mirror opposite of Democrats and progressives who embrace science and common sense. If there’s a “divide,” that means there are two equal, opposing forces, right? The press much prefers to tell the tale of Both Sides facing off over Covid, instead of detailing a deranged and radical minority waging war on mainstream America.
The country as a whole is not divided over Covid in any traditional sense, so how and why does the press keep pushing that narrative? One way journalists pull it off is by using fuzzy math. They do it by pointing to polling data that shows Democrats and Republicans on polar opposite ends of the issue and loudly announcing that America suffers from an incurable political and cultural rift.
snip//
So when the media breathlessly hypes polls that show 70 percent of Republicans oppose mask mandates, that doesn’t mean 70 percent of one half of the country opposes the rule. It means 70 percent of a shrinking minority party in this country stand opposed. (i.e. Roughly 20 percent of the total U.S. population contests mask requirements for schools today.)
We’re only truly “divided” when it comes to the Covid carnage in this country. In blue states in the Northeast the pandemic remains essentially over. That’s where low case, death, and hospitalization numbers remain the norm. In Florida and Texas, the virus is claiming victims at will, as Republican governors do everything in their power to put citizens at risk. Soon, the number of Covid deaths in both Florida and Texas could surpass the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War.
The press ought to focus on that divide, and detail how the Republican Party and its leaders have made a conscious decision to prolong a deadly pandemic, even though a free and effective vaccine is available to stop it. It represents a stunning chapter in American history. Instead of focusing its attention on a conservative movement that is quite clearly killing its own, the press wallows in the shallow confines of its Divided narrative.
Eric Boehlert: Sorry Chuck Todd, America is not hopelessly "divided" over Covid
https://pressrun.media/p/no-chuck-todd-america-is-not-dividedSorry Chuck Todd, America is not hopelessly “divided” over Covid
Both Sides nonsense
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Make no mistake, there is a loud and dangerous right-wing minority in this country building roadblocks and creating havoc as we try to put the pandemic behind us. They often stage noisy and demented protests at local school board meetings, leveling unhinged attacks on local officials who are trying to keep children and teachers safe. (In Tucson, police were called when protesters threatened to make a citizen's arrest on a school principal and zip tie her.) The media’s constant desire to portray them as representing half the country is lazy and inaccurate.
Instead of portraying the dangerous zealots accurately, the media downplay the threat by presenting anti-vaccine and anti-mask fanatics as being the mirror opposite of Democrats and progressives who embrace science and common sense. If there’s a “divide,” that means there are two equal, opposing forces, right? The press much prefers to tell the tale of Both Sides facing off over Covid, instead of detailing a deranged and radical minority waging war on mainstream America.
The country as a whole is not divided over Covid in any traditional sense, so how and why does the press keep pushing that narrative? One way journalists pull it off is by using fuzzy math. They do it by pointing to polling data that shows Democrats and Republicans on polar opposite ends of the issue and loudly announcing that America suffers from an incurable political and cultural rift.
snip//
So when the media breathlessly hypes polls that show 70 percent of Republicans oppose mask mandates, that doesn’t mean 70 percent of one half of the country opposes the rule. It means 70 percent of a shrinking minority party in this country stand opposed. (i.e. Roughly 20 percent of the total U.S. population contests mask requirements for schools today.)
We’re only truly “divided” when it comes to the Covid carnage in this country. In blue states in the Northeast the pandemic remains essentially over. That’s where low case, death, and hospitalization numbers remain the norm. In Florida and Texas, the virus is claiming victims at will, as Republican governors do everything in their power to put citizens at risk. Soon, the number of Covid deaths in both Florida and Texas could surpass the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War.
The press ought to focus on that divide, and detail how the Republican Party and its leaders have made a conscious decision to prolong a deadly pandemic, even though a free and effective vaccine is available to stop it. It represents a stunning chapter in American history. Instead of focusing its attention on a conservative movement that is quite clearly killing its own, the press wallows in the shallow confines of its Divided narrative.
September 7, 2021
America needs to decide how much Covid-19 risk it will tolerate
A realistic Covid-19 endgame requires accepting some risk. The question is how much.
By German Lopez@germanrlopezgerman.lopez@vox.com Sep 7, 2021, 7:30am EDT
This story is part of a group of stories called
Future Perfect
Finding the best ways to do good.
More than a year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, America still doesn’t agree on what it’s trying to accomplish.
Is the goal to completely eradicate Covid-19? Is it to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed? Is it hitting a certain vaccine threshold that mitigates the worst Covid-19 outcomes but doesn’t prevent all infections? Or is it something else entirely?
At the root of this confusion is a big question the US, including policymakers, experts, and the general public, has never been able to answer: How many Covid-19 deaths are too many?
The lack of a clear end goal has hindered America’s anti-pandemic efforts from the start. At first, the goal of restrictions was to “flatten the curve”: to keep the number of cases low enough that hospitals could treat those that did arise. But that consensus crumbled against the reality of the coronavirus — leaving the country with patchwork restrictions and no clear idea of what it meant to “beat” Covid-19, let alone a strategy to achieve a victory.
The vaccines were supposed to be a way out. But between breakthrough infections, the risks of long Covid, and new variants, it’s becoming clear the vaccines didn’t get rid of the need to answer the underlying question of what the Covid-19 endgame is.
America is now stuck between those two extremes: The country wants to reduce the risk of Covid-19, but it also wants to limit the remnants of social distancing and other Covid-related restrictions on day-to-day life.
more...
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22651046/covid-19-delta-vaccines-social-distancing-masking-lockdowns
America needs to decide how much Covid-19 risk it will tolerate
America needs to decide how much Covid-19 risk it will tolerate
A realistic Covid-19 endgame requires accepting some risk. The question is how much.
By German Lopez@germanrlopezgerman.lopez@vox.com Sep 7, 2021, 7:30am EDT
This story is part of a group of stories called
Future Perfect
Finding the best ways to do good.
More than a year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, America still doesn’t agree on what it’s trying to accomplish.
Is the goal to completely eradicate Covid-19? Is it to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed? Is it hitting a certain vaccine threshold that mitigates the worst Covid-19 outcomes but doesn’t prevent all infections? Or is it something else entirely?
At the root of this confusion is a big question the US, including policymakers, experts, and the general public, has never been able to answer: How many Covid-19 deaths are too many?
The lack of a clear end goal has hindered America’s anti-pandemic efforts from the start. At first, the goal of restrictions was to “flatten the curve”: to keep the number of cases low enough that hospitals could treat those that did arise. But that consensus crumbled against the reality of the coronavirus — leaving the country with patchwork restrictions and no clear idea of what it meant to “beat” Covid-19, let alone a strategy to achieve a victory.
The vaccines were supposed to be a way out. But between breakthrough infections, the risks of long Covid, and new variants, it’s becoming clear the vaccines didn’t get rid of the need to answer the underlying question of what the Covid-19 endgame is.
America is now stuck between those two extremes: The country wants to reduce the risk of Covid-19, but it also wants to limit the remnants of social distancing and other Covid-related restrictions on day-to-day life.
“We’re not trying to go for zero Covid,” Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told me. “The question becomes: When do, in most communities, people feel comfortable going about their daily business and not worrying, excessively, about doing things that are important and meaningful to them?”
more...
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22651046/covid-19-delta-vaccines-social-distancing-masking-lockdowns
September 7, 2021
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
9/03/2021
Have You Read That Destructive Texas Anti-Choice Law? It's Hot, Harmful Garbage
First and foremost, this is a tragedy for women in Texas. The incredibly cruel, physically and mentally harmful, and intentionally divisive anti-abortion law that the Supreme Court allowed to go into effect on Wednesday night will end up with women being maimed or killed or forced to be vessels for fetuses that they do not want to carry, including the products of rape and incest (which, let's be clear, is almost always rape no matter what other word you wanna use), including the fetuses of abusive men. They will be forced to carry those fetuses when they know that they cannot afford the baby (and one reason they cannot afford the baby is because those who are forcing them to carry the fetus provide almost nothing to support the baby). It is a tragedy because it tells a woman that whatever existence she thought she might have, it must become secondary to "mother" once she gets pregnant and doesn't abort the fetus prior to six weeks of gestation, before many women even know they're pregnant. The mostly men who passed this law are savages who cannot wait to bathe in the blood of botched abortions. That will sanctify their brutal, backwards actions and satisfy their desire to kill those who oppose their Christian extremism.
snip//
Not dickish enough? Not only can the random, greedy fucknut win at least $10,000 from you for showing that you intended to drive your friend to get an abortion, but you have to pay fucknut's legal fees.
Not dickish enough? If greedy fucknut sues you and loses, you are still stuck with your legal fees. That's right. There is no disincentive for just bringing a whole bunch of lawsuits and seeing what the fuck sticks. How many skeevy lawyers are gonna make bank on this?
The goddamn law just goes on and on, foreclosing nearly any avenue that might show even a bit of compassion for women. The bounty hunters have up to four years from the date when anyone did anything to help a woman get an abortion after six weeks. And you can't bring up that Roe v. Wade is allegedly still the law of the land as a defense.
It's a fucking mess. It purposely turns citizens against each other. It pays people for playing Abortion Batman. It victimizes the women of Texas who were already being victimized by some of the most blindingly dickish anti-choice laws in the country. I mean, why would you talk to your friends about your choices after you find out you're pregnant? You'd be completely justified in thinking that you might get them in trouble or they might turn against you. Shit, a rapist can sue anyone who would try to help his victim get an abortion if he impregnated her as a result of the, you know, rape. Goddamn, fuck you, Greg Abbott and the Texas legislature. Just fuck you.
more...
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/09/have-you-read-that-destructive-texas.html
The Rude Pundit: Have You Read That Destructive Texas Anti-Choice Law? It's Hot, Harmful Garbage
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
9/03/2021
Have You Read That Destructive Texas Anti-Choice Law? It's Hot, Harmful Garbage
First and foremost, this is a tragedy for women in Texas. The incredibly cruel, physically and mentally harmful, and intentionally divisive anti-abortion law that the Supreme Court allowed to go into effect on Wednesday night will end up with women being maimed or killed or forced to be vessels for fetuses that they do not want to carry, including the products of rape and incest (which, let's be clear, is almost always rape no matter what other word you wanna use), including the fetuses of abusive men. They will be forced to carry those fetuses when they know that they cannot afford the baby (and one reason they cannot afford the baby is because those who are forcing them to carry the fetus provide almost nothing to support the baby). It is a tragedy because it tells a woman that whatever existence she thought she might have, it must become secondary to "mother" once she gets pregnant and doesn't abort the fetus prior to six weeks of gestation, before many women even know they're pregnant. The mostly men who passed this law are savages who cannot wait to bathe in the blood of botched abortions. That will sanctify their brutal, backwards actions and satisfy their desire to kill those who oppose their Christian extremism.
snip//
Not dickish enough? Not only can the random, greedy fucknut win at least $10,000 from you for showing that you intended to drive your friend to get an abortion, but you have to pay fucknut's legal fees.
Not dickish enough? If greedy fucknut sues you and loses, you are still stuck with your legal fees. That's right. There is no disincentive for just bringing a whole bunch of lawsuits and seeing what the fuck sticks. How many skeevy lawyers are gonna make bank on this?
The goddamn law just goes on and on, foreclosing nearly any avenue that might show even a bit of compassion for women. The bounty hunters have up to four years from the date when anyone did anything to help a woman get an abortion after six weeks. And you can't bring up that Roe v. Wade is allegedly still the law of the land as a defense.
It's a fucking mess. It purposely turns citizens against each other. It pays people for playing Abortion Batman. It victimizes the women of Texas who were already being victimized by some of the most blindingly dickish anti-choice laws in the country. I mean, why would you talk to your friends about your choices after you find out you're pregnant? You'd be completely justified in thinking that you might get them in trouble or they might turn against you. Shit, a rapist can sue anyone who would try to help his victim get an abortion if he impregnated her as a result of the, you know, rape. Goddamn, fuck you, Greg Abbott and the Texas legislature. Just fuck you.
more...
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/09/have-you-read-that-destructive-texas.html
September 7, 2021
The Latest COVID-19 Surge Is Just the Start of a New Nightmare
ENDGAME
With schools reopening and hospitals buckling again, an exhausted, defiant, and heavily unvaccinated nation is entering a new and scary phase.
Peter J. Hotez
Updated Sep. 07, 2021 2:52AM ET / Published Sep. 06, 2021 9:51PM ET
snip//
For the U.S., the latest University of Washington-Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projections forecast that by the fall, we could hit over 2,400 deaths per day, and reach between 700,000 and 800,000 Americans dead by Dec. 1. In so doing, we will have exceeded the estimated number of Americans who died from the Spanish flu.
Reaching these grim milestones will have a profound and adverse impact on the health and security of the nation. There are two major attendant concerns, and while they echo problems since the pandemic began well over a year ago, they are specific to this moment.
Since the beginning, we have seen how hospitals and ICUs can struggle when overwhelmed with a surge of COVID-19 patients, which in turn is increasingly impacting everyone else—even vaccinated people who are not infected, but need other care. Such findings are confirmed by a recent NIH study.
But in this latest phase, it’s not only an influx of patients but also the accumulating losses of trained health professionals that is so worrisome. Burnout has been a problem throughout the pandemic. Yet overwhelmed nurses and other hospital staff are leaving the profession and their posts due to a combination of factors that include exhaustion and the demoralization of taking care of so many dying young and middle-aged patients who refused vaccines. As The New York Times reported this past week, there were some 2,000 fewer nurses working in the state of Mississippi—currently deep in the throes of a COVID-19 explosion—than there were as recently as Jan. 1 of this year.
snip//
Even these measures may not get us to the last mile. It’s hard to estimate the number of last holdouts who are deeply suspicious and resentful of vaccinations, but we must recognize that this group will likely become the ones responsible for both continuing this current surge and even the potential evolution of new virus variants, and that some might even act on their anger and resentment. While we need a more assertive White House making the case to the American people that full and complete vaccinations are essential to our safety, we also need to brace for an even uglier wave of pandemic backlash.
The Latest COVID-19 Surge Is Just the Start of a New Nightmare
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-latest-covid-surge-is-just-the-start-of-a-new-nightmare?ref=homeThe Latest COVID-19 Surge Is Just the Start of a New Nightmare
ENDGAME
With schools reopening and hospitals buckling again, an exhausted, defiant, and heavily unvaccinated nation is entering a new and scary phase.
Peter J. Hotez
Updated Sep. 07, 2021 2:52AM ET / Published Sep. 06, 2021 9:51PM ET
snip//
For the U.S., the latest University of Washington-Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projections forecast that by the fall, we could hit over 2,400 deaths per day, and reach between 700,000 and 800,000 Americans dead by Dec. 1. In so doing, we will have exceeded the estimated number of Americans who died from the Spanish flu.
Reaching these grim milestones will have a profound and adverse impact on the health and security of the nation. There are two major attendant concerns, and while they echo problems since the pandemic began well over a year ago, they are specific to this moment.
Since the beginning, we have seen how hospitals and ICUs can struggle when overwhelmed with a surge of COVID-19 patients, which in turn is increasingly impacting everyone else—even vaccinated people who are not infected, but need other care. Such findings are confirmed by a recent NIH study.
But in this latest phase, it’s not only an influx of patients but also the accumulating losses of trained health professionals that is so worrisome. Burnout has been a problem throughout the pandemic. Yet overwhelmed nurses and other hospital staff are leaving the profession and their posts due to a combination of factors that include exhaustion and the demoralization of taking care of so many dying young and middle-aged patients who refused vaccines. As The New York Times reported this past week, there were some 2,000 fewer nurses working in the state of Mississippi—currently deep in the throes of a COVID-19 explosion—than there were as recently as Jan. 1 of this year.
snip//
Even these measures may not get us to the last mile. It’s hard to estimate the number of last holdouts who are deeply suspicious and resentful of vaccinations, but we must recognize that this group will likely become the ones responsible for both continuing this current surge and even the potential evolution of new virus variants, and that some might even act on their anger and resentment. While we need a more assertive White House making the case to the American people that full and complete vaccinations are essential to our safety, we also need to brace for an even uglier wave of pandemic backlash.
September 6, 2021
Eric Boehlert: We still don't know who paid Kavanaugh's $92,000 country club fee
We still don’t know who paid Kavanaugh’s $92,000 country club fee
An incurious press
Eric Boehlert
By joining his fellow conservatives on the Supreme Court in declining to block one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, a Texas statute that bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy, Justice Brett Kavanaugh made good on his unspoken pledge to demolish Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh’s actions could change the fabric of this country for decades, and empower radicals within the Republican Party to strip away more rights of Americans.
Against that dystopian backdrop let’s not forget two crucial historic facts. Kavanaugh lied his way through his confirmation hearings. Facing multiple and credible allegations of sexual assault, Kavanaugh lied about witnesses; he lied about corroboration; he lied about friendships; he lied about parties. He also lied about an array of other topics, including state drinking ages, vomiting, his yearbook, and his accusers. Kavanaugh lied about his grandfather, federal judges, warrantless wiretaps, and stolen emails.
Second, some deep-pocketed patron, or patrons, over the years have clearly covered Kavanaugh’s personal finances. Someone erased all of the many financial pitfalls he faced, including tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, while setting up him for a luxurious lifestyle well beyond what he could afford on the salary of a federal judge. We still don’t know which benefactors paid for Kavanaugh’s $92,000 country club initiation fee in 2016 for the Chevy Chase Club while he was making $225,000 a year, had two children in private school, and was saddled with the most debt of his life, approximately $100,000.
The staggering country club fee, which Kavanaugh plainly could not cover himself, represented the most egregious hole in Kavanaugh’s make-no-sense financial disclosure made during his nomination. For instance, in 2006, he bought a $1.2 million home in a tony suburb of Washington, D.C. and made tens of thousands of dollars of upgrades while earning $175,000 and sitting on a modest savings account.
The disclosures should have been a huge red flag for the press. “The personal finances of Supreme Court nominees regularly come under scrutiny during the congressional vetting process,” the Washington Post reported in 2018. And Kavanaugh’s finances were by far the most befuddling of any Supreme Court nominee in modern history. But the press mostly yawned through the story.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/we-still-dont-know-who-paid-kavanaughs
September 5, 2021
9/05/21 6:30am
Media Keeps Repeating Forced Birthers' Lies About Basic Biology
At six weeks, an embryo does not have a heart. Period.
By Joan McCarter
Wednesday night, the PBS News Hour's John Yang said this in a news story about the U.S. Supreme Court's shadow docket overturning of abortion rights by refusing to stop the Texas law, the most punitive in the country, from going into effect: "[T]he new law bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women are even aware they are pregnant."
Part of that is true, the part where most women are not aware that they are pregnant. The other part, the heartbeat part, is pure spinning from the far-right extremist forced birthers. But it appears in national news story after story after story after story. That's a massive failure on the part of, well, everybody—but particularly the reporters telling these stories—to get their facts straight.
They are accepting without question the definition the forced birthers have given to these efforts, a term used precisely because it sounds sciencey and medical and real. It is not. There's just so much wrong here that there's a lot to unpack, from "six weeks" to "fetal" to "heartbeat. The part that Yang and almost all the others get right is that most people don't know that they're pregnant at this point, but there's even so much more than that.
First, the "six weeks." Because the moment of conception is an elusive thing to pin down in most cases, doctors use the first day of the last menstrual period as the starting point for counting. They've been using that calculation for nearly 200 years, since Franz Karl Naegele, a German obstetrician, came up with it in 1830. The calculation: establish the first day of the woman's last menstrual period, count back three calendar months, and then add one year and seven days to that date. Which is confusing as hell and is based on a 28-day cycle which many women don't have at all, and which is subject to change due to all kinds of factors from illness to stress.
Providers in Texas estimate that 85% of their patients are going to be denied care because of this law, because vanishingly few people are aware they are pregnant and able to schedule appointments to confirm that and able to schedule the procedure by the six-week mark. That's something Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent, and proof that the Supreme Court needs more women of color, since she was the only one to use that fact to show just how extreme this thing is.
But the confusion about just how pregnant a pregnant person is is one of the things the forced birthers intended, and one reason they lit on "fetal heartbeat" as the point in time when abortion should be banned. So let's break that down. First, at this point the mass of cells in question is actually an embryo, not a fetus. It doesn't become a fetus for another month or so, according to medical science.
It certainly doesn't have a heart, or a heartbeat at six weeks. It has cells that are starting to organize. What can be detected at six weeks is not a heart. “At six weeks, the embryo is forming what will eventually develop into mature systems. There’s an immature neurological system, and there’s a very immature cardiovascular system." The rhythmic sound that can be heard is "a group of cells with electrical activity. That's what the heartbeat is at that stage of gestation … We are in no way talking about any kind of cardiovascular system." That's all from Jennifer Kerns, an ob-gyn at University of California, San Francisco and director of research in obstetrics and gynecology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Early cardiac activity—cells vibrating with electrical currents as they start to develop—is what is happening at six weeks. "What's really happening at that point is that our ultrasound technology has gotten good enough to be able to detect electrical activity in a rudimentary group of cells." That's from Sarah Horvath, an ob-gyn with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Or in ob-gyn Jen Gunter's words, it's "fetal pole cardiac activity." It's not a heart.
But calling it heart makes people imagine an infant. "Using the word heartbeat here is an intentional obfuscation," Kerns says. "Hearing the word heartbeat plays upon people’s emotions … when in fact what it does is effectively ban abortions for many people, because many people don't even know they're pregnant at six weeks."
Horvath adds, "I do think there’s a deliberate conflation of terms going on in legislation in order to try to co-opt the science, or at least the scientific language. […]These bans are really just arbitrarily chosen points in time in a pregnancy that are strictly there because they want a complete ban on abortion care." Bingo.
Most reporters have been great at getting the "before a woman knows she's pregnant" part down, because that's easily understood and a widely shared experience. But using the word "heartbeat," saying as PBS's Yang did that the law "bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually after about six weeks of pregnancy," is just perpetuating bad science, bad medicine, and extremely deceptive politics.
We're going to be hearing a lot about this ban, especially when the look-alike laws start proliferating through Republican states. It would be a great service to everyone if the traditional media stopped accepting the deceptive, loaded, and false terms of the far right in talking about it.
Published with permission of Daily Kos.
Media Keeps Repeating Forced Birthers' Lies About Basic Biology
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/09/forced-birthers-heartbeat-lie9/05/21 6:30am
Media Keeps Repeating Forced Birthers' Lies About Basic Biology
At six weeks, an embryo does not have a heart. Period.
By Joan McCarter
Wednesday night, the PBS News Hour's John Yang said this in a news story about the U.S. Supreme Court's shadow docket overturning of abortion rights by refusing to stop the Texas law, the most punitive in the country, from going into effect: "[T]he new law bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women are even aware they are pregnant."
Part of that is true, the part where most women are not aware that they are pregnant. The other part, the heartbeat part, is pure spinning from the far-right extremist forced birthers. But it appears in national news story after story after story after story. That's a massive failure on the part of, well, everybody—but particularly the reporters telling these stories—to get their facts straight.
They are accepting without question the definition the forced birthers have given to these efforts, a term used precisely because it sounds sciencey and medical and real. It is not. There's just so much wrong here that there's a lot to unpack, from "six weeks" to "fetal" to "heartbeat. The part that Yang and almost all the others get right is that most people don't know that they're pregnant at this point, but there's even so much more than that.
First, the "six weeks." Because the moment of conception is an elusive thing to pin down in most cases, doctors use the first day of the last menstrual period as the starting point for counting. They've been using that calculation for nearly 200 years, since Franz Karl Naegele, a German obstetrician, came up with it in 1830. The calculation: establish the first day of the woman's last menstrual period, count back three calendar months, and then add one year and seven days to that date. Which is confusing as hell and is based on a 28-day cycle which many women don't have at all, and which is subject to change due to all kinds of factors from illness to stress.
Providers in Texas estimate that 85% of their patients are going to be denied care because of this law, because vanishingly few people are aware they are pregnant and able to schedule appointments to confirm that and able to schedule the procedure by the six-week mark. That's something Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent, and proof that the Supreme Court needs more women of color, since she was the only one to use that fact to show just how extreme this thing is.
But the confusion about just how pregnant a pregnant person is is one of the things the forced birthers intended, and one reason they lit on "fetal heartbeat" as the point in time when abortion should be banned. So let's break that down. First, at this point the mass of cells in question is actually an embryo, not a fetus. It doesn't become a fetus for another month or so, according to medical science.
It certainly doesn't have a heart, or a heartbeat at six weeks. It has cells that are starting to organize. What can be detected at six weeks is not a heart. “At six weeks, the embryo is forming what will eventually develop into mature systems. There’s an immature neurological system, and there’s a very immature cardiovascular system." The rhythmic sound that can be heard is "a group of cells with electrical activity. That's what the heartbeat is at that stage of gestation … We are in no way talking about any kind of cardiovascular system." That's all from Jennifer Kerns, an ob-gyn at University of California, San Francisco and director of research in obstetrics and gynecology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Early cardiac activity—cells vibrating with electrical currents as they start to develop—is what is happening at six weeks. "What's really happening at that point is that our ultrasound technology has gotten good enough to be able to detect electrical activity in a rudimentary group of cells." That's from Sarah Horvath, an ob-gyn with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Or in ob-gyn Jen Gunter's words, it's "fetal pole cardiac activity." It's not a heart.
But calling it heart makes people imagine an infant. "Using the word heartbeat here is an intentional obfuscation," Kerns says. "Hearing the word heartbeat plays upon people’s emotions … when in fact what it does is effectively ban abortions for many people, because many people don't even know they're pregnant at six weeks."
Horvath adds, "I do think there’s a deliberate conflation of terms going on in legislation in order to try to co-opt the science, or at least the scientific language. […]These bans are really just arbitrarily chosen points in time in a pregnancy that are strictly there because they want a complete ban on abortion care." Bingo.
Most reporters have been great at getting the "before a woman knows she's pregnant" part down, because that's easily understood and a widely shared experience. But using the word "heartbeat," saying as PBS's Yang did that the law "bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually after about six weeks of pregnancy," is just perpetuating bad science, bad medicine, and extremely deceptive politics.
We're going to be hearing a lot about this ban, especially when the look-alike laws start proliferating through Republican states. It would be a great service to everyone if the traditional media stopped accepting the deceptive, loaded, and false terms of the far right in talking about it.
Published with permission of Daily Kos.
September 4, 2021
It’s Time to Put the Right-Wing Zombie Death Cult on Trial
TO THE MATTRESSES
This isn’t a “both sides” problem. And Joe Biden is just scratching the surface so far.
Wajahat Ali
Updated Sep. 04, 2021 3:21AM ET / Published Sep. 04, 2021 12:06AM ET
opinion
snip//
This isn’t a “both sides” problem. Of the 10 states with the most COVID-19 cases per capita, as of Wednesday, nine of them were led by Republican governors—surprise!—and voted for Trump in 2020, as The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, 16 Democratic states have statewide mask requirements for schools. Tennessee, one of the five states being sued, just set a new record for COVID hospitalizations, and previously moved to cut off all vaccine outreach to students and young adults.
Now, thousands of its school-aged kids have COVID-19 with no end in sight. Some school districts in the United States are even leaving it up to parents to decide if they will quarantine their exposed child or send the child to school to spread the disease to other unvaccinated children.
Meanwhile, conservative radio hosts and influencers who peddled anti-vax misinformation are winning Darwin Awards and dying weekly from the coronavirus.
However, this doesn’t stop the right-wing hate machine. Onward they persist with their nihilistic, counter-majoritarian death march.
snip//
Our kids are simply the bait and collateral damage.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-time-to-put-the-right-wing-zombie-death-cult-on-trial
It's Time to Put the Right-Wing Zombie Death Cult on Trial
It’s Time to Put the Right-Wing Zombie Death Cult on Trial
TO THE MATTRESSES
This isn’t a “both sides” problem. And Joe Biden is just scratching the surface so far.
Wajahat Ali
Updated Sep. 04, 2021 3:21AM ET / Published Sep. 04, 2021 12:06AM ET
opinion
snip//
This isn’t a “both sides” problem. Of the 10 states with the most COVID-19 cases per capita, as of Wednesday, nine of them were led by Republican governors—surprise!—and voted for Trump in 2020, as The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, 16 Democratic states have statewide mask requirements for schools. Tennessee, one of the five states being sued, just set a new record for COVID hospitalizations, and previously moved to cut off all vaccine outreach to students and young adults.
Now, thousands of its school-aged kids have COVID-19 with no end in sight. Some school districts in the United States are even leaving it up to parents to decide if they will quarantine their exposed child or send the child to school to spread the disease to other unvaccinated children.
Meanwhile, conservative radio hosts and influencers who peddled anti-vax misinformation are winning Darwin Awards and dying weekly from the coronavirus.
However, this doesn’t stop the right-wing hate machine. Onward they persist with their nihilistic, counter-majoritarian death march.
snip//
Our kids are simply the bait and collateral damage.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-time-to-put-the-right-wing-zombie-death-cult-on-trial
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