After emailing to express outrage over something way back when, I got on Senator Daines's email list

It's infuriating to read these, but also gives a direct window into the propaganda the Republicans have decided to disseminate among their cult members. From this email, it's clear that they're latching onto the "Parents' rights are being taken away!" scare tactic that seems to have won Virginia's governor's seat. Daines also trots out the vintage, tried-and-untrue "Democrats are the tax-and-spend-party!" BS, too:

Think there's a worker shortage now? Just wait until we finally get universal health insurance!

(I said, gleefully)! The only reason millions of Americans are staying in their jobs is for the health insurance (if they are lucky enough to have employer-provided health insurance).

There will be a mass exodus once some form of single-payer-Medicare-for-All-national-health-insurance is finally put into place and people feel it's safe for them to strike out on their own with that business idea they've been longing to attempt.

Plenty of people will remain in their jobs because they are still wary of the job insecurity that being on your own can bring. Or they may not have any desire to have their own business, or may actually like their jobs, or are in a profession in which they cannot be self-employed. But with more workers choosing self-employment, the ones who remain will benefit (hopefully) because employers will have to treat them better with higher wages and better work conditions (you would think, anyway).

So, bring on the Great Resignation, I say! It's time for businesses to start forking over more of their profits to the workers who make those profits possible. And sure, they'll try to pass the cost of increasing wages onto the consumer, but that can only go so far before they out-price themselves and will be forced to accept a lower profit margin.

So that's my totally inexpert take on the worker shortage. Being self-employed for a couple of decades myself, I wish everyone out there who is embarking on their own new business all the very best of luck in your new endeavor!

A proposal to ease the US worker shortage that would make Repubs' heads explode:

My husband pointed out that we have all these people at the southern border trying desperately to enter the United States. He suggested that we should let them in if they agree to enroll in a pathway-to-citizenship worker program and allow themselves to be placed in jobs facing worker shortages. It would be like the current guest worker programs already in place in the US, but would allow workers to actually earn their US citizenship.

It would be fun to float this idea in Congress, just to watch the Repubs' go apoplectic, like the Martians' reaction to Slim Whitman music in Mars Attacks!

[link:

I wonder how many Repube politicians in Texas have invested in the Plan B emergency contraceptive?

On the sly, of course, since to their base, it's still an abortion, even if it's via a pill taken within 5 days of unprotected sex. But I would not put it past many of them to find a way to profit from the new Texas ban on abortions after six weeks.

I bet banning Plan B is next on their agenda, but before they accomplish that, I hope Planned Parenthood is able to educate their patients about this method AND find a way to bring the cost down (google tells me it's about $40-50).

Remember how Republicans terrorized their base over the Obamacare "Death Panels"?

From the Atlantic (May 2014):

How many Kurds did Trump airlift out when he yanked the troops out of Syria in 2019?

Zero, to the best of my knowledge (and googling skills just now). President Biden has evacuated over 28,000 people out of Afghanistan so far. He could have pulled a Trump and just gotten the troops out of there. But he didn't. He's trying to make the best of a horrific situation. He's trying to do the right thing, like he always does.

Why the difference in the two presidents' troop withdrawals? Because Joe Biden has a heart and a soul and Trump has neither.

I just watched Joe Biden's address on the infrastructure bill: How wonderful to have a president

who can field reporters' questions intelligently, thoughtfully, and respectfully.

Love you, President Biden!

Hey! It just occurred to me: Republicans have been trying to kill public education for years.

Maybe this is a secondary reason for Republican governors banning mask mandates in schools (the primary reason being, of course, that they hope to curry favor with Trump's idiot voting base and thus get reelected).

I actually don't think they've thought it through that much (since they never think anything through), but creating public schools that are unhealthy for kids and teachers would fit into their anti-public-education scheme. Too bad if thousands of schoolchildren are killed in the process.

I predict Republican legislation is on the horizon for private school vouchers for parents who pull their kids from public schools due to Covid.

Health insurers to the rescue, as far as encouraging people to get vaxxed?

Maybe we will soon have an ally in encouraging people to get vaccinated.

From the New York Times:

Don't Want a Vaccine? Be Prepared to Pay More for Health Insurance

. . . Insurers could try to do more, like penalizing the unvaccinated. And there is precedent. Already, some policies won’t cover treatment that result from what insurance companies deem risky behavior, such as scuba diving and rock climbing.

The Affordable Care Act allows insurers to charge smokers up to 50 percent more than what nonsmokers pay for some types of health plans. Four-fifths of states follow that protocol, though most employer-based plans do not do so. In 49 states, people who are caught driving without auto insurance face fines, confiscation of their car, loss of their license and even jail. And reckless drivers pay more for insurance.

The logic behind the policies is that the offenders’ behavior can hurt others and costs society a lot of money. If people decide not to get vaccinated and contract bad cases of Covid, they are not only exposing others in their workplace or neighborhoods; the tens or hundreds of thousands spent on their care could mean higher premiums for others as well in their insurance plans next year. What’s more, outbreaks in low-vaccination regions could help breed more vaccine-resistant variants that affect everyone.

I wish, at the very least, that stores would be allowed to have special "Vaxxed Days," even one day

a week when everyone who wished to enter the store had to show proof of vaccination AND wear a mask, plus a photo ID to show that they didn't just borrow someone's vaccination card.

It would just be such a relief to be able to go shopping just one day a week among "my people" (the fully vaxxed mask wearers) and not have to be subjected to the "stink eye" from the anti-vaxxer-anti-maskers, not to mention their Covid germs.

Actually, on second thought, I would like it even better if they would reserve one day a week in which they would allow the anti-vaxxer-anti-masker idiots in the stores. Let the rest of us have the remaining six days!