Cancellation Nation
It's fascinating when conservatives get their jaws around something and won't let go. This week it's "cancel culture." Every time you look up you see some nut talking about this thing.
So, listen, did cancel culture just start -- is this something new? I don't see anything different but ... maybe I missed it.
It looks to me like cancel culture means that if you screw up at your job you get fired. Producers drop bad products. Bad ideas are shot down. So, okay?
Apparently this is a liberal thing. Conservatives accuse liberals of wanting consequences when somebody does something bad. So, say, Donald Trump was accused of raping a thirteen-year-old girl, then threatening her and her family with physical harm if she told anyone. It was headed for court years later but her lawyer said she had received threats and was afraid to appear.
See, liberals would want to know what happened there, and if an adult man had in fact raped a child they would want to see some accountability. Liberals would expect a child-rapist to withdraw his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States, at least. But that's cancel culture. Conservatives would say he raped the little girl a long time ago, he was young and sowing his wild oats. She came on to him first. Maybe they would point to the girl and say look how cute she was. And why weren't her parents keeping an eye on her? Give the guy a break, he was just joking, this is political correctness run amok. Obviously conservatives would not cancel their golden idol, Donald Trump, over something like raping a child.
Liberals don't seem to mind the accountability thing. The bitter example is Al Franken. He once posed for a photograph with his hands hovering over a woman's breasts, and was forced out of the US Senate. Liberals thought the photo was in bad taste, sexist, undignified. This week Andrew Cuomo might get run out of town for harassing women. He is not meeting the standard we set for Democratic leaders and will be held accountable, one way or the other. He didn't rape a child, but he was disrespectful to some women. Republicans famously don't care about those things.
Conservatives have had hysterical fits over a different "cancel culture" example nearly every day this week. Yesterday it was Doctor Seuss. Nobody is canceling The Cat in the Hat. His publisher decided to stop publishing some of the older books that did not seem appropriate now. Seems to me they run their own business and if they don't want something on the market that's up to them. Loudoun County decided not to include Doctor Seuss in their list for Read Across America Day, they looked over his stuff and decided not to point kids to that content. When President Biden read his reading-day statement he didn't mention Doctor Seuss, one way or the other. Nothing was canceled. There are lots of great authors for kids, and Doctor Seuss is still out there.
Ted Cruz posted an image online of a bunch of Doctor Seuss books that are still in print, and said, "Who knew Joe Biden was such a great book seller." Actually, Joe Biden literally did and said nothing. Literally. But as a liberal he is personally responsible for Dr. Seuss Enterprises' decision to let some books go out of print.
Oh and the Toy Formerly Known As Mister Potatohead -- this one set them off! The company that makes the toy decided to take the "Mister" out of its name. I am pretty sure kids are not going to care. The company reevaluated their marketing strategy and conservatives are going crazy over it. Glenn Beck literally called this "The end of freedom in America."
Again: "The end of freedom in America."
I'm so old I remember when you used a real potato and stuck some eyes and stuff on it. Now America is collapsing because the plastic potato isn't a man any more.
Recently the company that makes Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup decided to change the name and picture and rightwingers went berserk. I don't know why they decided to change it, but Aunt Jemima was surely a stereotype that we don't see any more in the real world, the Black "mammy" who cooked for the (white) family, raised the kids and took care of the house. I'm not saying that Venus and Serena would sell more pancake syrup, but the company has the right to change the name and picture if they want. Actually, Venus and Serena, not a bad idea... I'd buy that.
The Conservative Political Action Conference this year called their event "America Uncanceled." Republicans in Congress want to have official government hearings on "cancel culture." They are sure this is a way to humiliate liberals but it seems to me they are just making themselves look dumber than usual.
Here's the thing: most liberals don't care. Oh, you won't see me sleeping on a My Pillow pillow, and there are no Goya beans in our pantry, but you know, aligning with Trump was just bad advertising. Their marketing lost me as a customer, pure and simple. Sucking up to Trump is about like putting Charles Manson on the can, or a color photograph of vomit; it does not appeal to me. But you can sleep on whatever pillow you want, and eat whatever beans you like, I don't care. I look forward to a world without prejudicial cues everywhere, but I don't work for the companies that make pillows, beans, pancake batter, toys, or books, and I don't make their decisions. That's just the free market working. When bigotry and stereotypes sold products, the companies were on board, and now they're not. A lot of Americans are not into that stuff these days, and it hurts the bottom line.
BREAKING: Jeep might change the name of the Cherokee. You know what that means.
It's quaint how conservatives will find one little thing and try to smear all liberals with it. Recently a hockey team decided not to play the national anthem before their games, and for a long time nobody even noticed. Then somebody wrote an article and conservatives went wild with it. It was not a liberal decision or "cancel culture," the company just figured they could sell beer or whatever instead of having people stand for the anthem. Conservatives love to take something like that and pretend that that is what liberalism is about. But liberals didn't notice the absence of the national anthem any more than they did.
All levity aside, it comes down to this. It wasn't liberals who tried to overthrow the government and kill our elected leaders a couple of months ago, so just STFU. Go home and change your panties and come back with a better attitude.
Coming next -- "Virtue signaling:" how conservatives define good behavior as a bad thing.
posted by JimK at 9:47 AM
200 Comments:
Mississippi legislators have passed a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams in schools and universities -- one of over two dozen similar measures proposed by state lawmakers nationwide this year.
The state House voted 81-28 Wednesday to pass the Mississippi Fairness Act. It passed the state Senate last month, 34-9. The bill now heads to Gov. Tate Reeves for approval.
A growing number of states have proposed legislation that would stop transgender student-athletes from unfairly participating in school sports. As of Feb. 26, the ACLU has tracked 25 states considering such bills this year, compared to 18 last year. This week, Wisconsin also introduced a similar bill.
Idaho became the first state to pass a law banning transgender women from competing in women's sports last year.
State Sen. Angela Hill, who sponsored the bill, said she was inspired to introduce the legislation after learning about two girls' championship-winning transgender high school runners in Connecticut, where state policy allows high school athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify.
"If we do not move to protect female sports from biological males who have an unfair physiological advantage, we will eventually no longer have female sports," she said.
Wyatt/Regina/Bad anonymous said "Priya has a deep-seated anger against Christianity and regularly defames it.".
Anyone who looks at christianity rationally has a deep seated anger against it. The supposed just and loving god eternally tortures people for finite crimes, there couldn't be a greater injustice. I don't defame christianity, it defames itself.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Note that the movement to end slavery began among Christians in England and America.".
That means nothing when everyone was a christian. People didn't oppose slavery because of their christianity, christianity supports slavery, they opposed slavery despite their christinity, just like many christians nowadays support equal rights and fair treatment for harmless lgbt people.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "warning label on human body: This organism is not designed for h*sexual use. Doing so risks disease and dementia.".
Clearly nature intended a minority of the population to be gay. Monogamous same sex relationships are disease and dementia free. Wyatt and Regina don't care about that because due to their religion they want gays to die from AIDS...even though even more heterosexuals die from AIDS.
Wyatt and Regina keep bringing up transwomen in women's sports as though its some sort of big deal - it isn't, its an excuse to attack harmless transpeople instead of dealing with critical issues like COVID.
Transwomen have been able to compete in the Olympics since 2004. No transwoman has won a medal in the Olympics and to date there has yet to be a transwoman even competing in the Olympics. Very few transwomen play competitive sports and the idea that if one wins the win is automatically due to an unfair advantage is false - on a level playing field on occasion of course a transwoman is going to win just like any biological woman might win.
This is a non-issue as more and more transwomen transition prior to puberty and there is no advantage at all from any testosterone boost they would have otherwise had. Its just another example of conservatives pretending there is a problem so they can demonize and attack a minority they don't like instead of actually governing in the best interests of the people.
MAGA Cultist: “I’ll Admit It. I Want to Make It Harder to Vote in America.”
Some Republicans commit voter fraud by saying they’re simply maintaining election security… in ways that make it harder for young people or people of color to vote.
And some Republicans commit voter fraud by actively talking about why they must make it harder for Americans to vote — out loud, where others can hear them — because if more people vote, Republicans will lose.
That second approach was the one taken by right-wing commentator Josh Bernstein, who recently called for the execution of a congresswoman.
Reacting to Donald Trump‘s CPAC speech, Bernstein said Trump didn’t go far enough in calling for voter suppression:
“We cannot have early voting,” Bernstein declared. “We should have one day to vote, and no, it should not be [a day] off, OK? You either go before work, you either go on your lunch break, or you go after work. That’s it. If you can’t get there in that one day, then it wasn’t important enough for you, and to be quite frank, I don’t want you to vote. If you can’t make it in that one day, stay home.”
Bernstein said that only those in the military or who are sick should be allowed to use mail-in voting, but it should only be available the week before the election. He also called for the Constitution to be amended to outlaw the use of mail-in voting for any other reason.
“I’ll admit it,” Bernstein concluded. “I want to make it harder to vote in America, not easier.”
Take a guess as to which populations are more likely to use mail-in voting.
Take a guess as to who can’t take an hours-long lunch break to vote.
Take a guess as to who can’t vote after work because they need to get to a second job or back home to their families.
It’s one thing for someone on the fringe of politics to say this stuff explicitly. But Bernstein’s ideas here aren’t on the fringe. He’s basically parroting the Republican Party’s wishlist. Republicans don’t want you to vote if there’s a good chance you’re going to vote against them. Instead of adapting their ideas to make them more electable, they’re punishing voters who disagree.
And then, because those ideas weren’t enough, Bernstein added that the voting age should be increased to 21 and all voters have to provide “proof of income” — because apparently if you don’t have a job, he doesn’t want you to vote either.
I would say that’s a slippery slope to just allowing white landowners to vote, but it doesn’t even need to be slippery at this point. History hasn’t looked kindly upon those who spend their time debating who is and isn’t eligible to vote instead of modifying their politics to adapt to what the people need. It doesn’t mean voting rights is guaranteed; it means we’ve seen this play out before. Bernstein is no different from the racists of the past. His party is right there with him.
Regarding that "warning label," maybe you can explain why the male human body was designed (evolved, really) in such a way that the prostate is pleasurably, even orgasmically, stimulated by the insertion into the anus of something exactly the size of an erect penis.
JIMK posted "Conservatives have had hysterical fits over a different "cancel culture" example nearly every day this week. Yesterday it was Doctor Seuss....
Ted Cruz posted an image online of a bunch of Doctor Seuss books that are still in print, and said, "Who knew Joe Biden was such a great book seller." Actually, Joe Biden literally did and said nothing. Literally. But as a liberal he is personally responsible for Dr. Seuss Enterprises' decision to let some books go out of print."
I saw some moron on Fox, possibly Tucker Carlson say about this "Look what Democrats are wasting time on!". Democrats literally had nothing to do with this but somehow in conservative "brains" this is the Democrats doing and they need to be condemned for it.
Conservatives are unconditionally opposed to telling the truth if it doesn't make Democrats look bad and Republicans look good.
"Anyone who looks at christianity rationally has a deep seated anger against it."
and Randy, with his long history of mental illness, is among the few that have looked at it rationally?
I don't think so
"I don't defame christianity, it defames itself."
well, as we saw on the last thread, it's you
"That means nothing when everyone was a christian. People didn't oppose slavery because of their christianity,"
actually, they did. your comment, characteristically for you, is ignorant
read up on William Wilburforce, on evangelical Christian who led the abolitionist movement in England
also John Newton, a slave trader who was converted to evangelical Christianity and subsequently renounced the slave trade. he later wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace"
"christianity supports slavery"
no, it doesn't
"just like many christians nowadays support equal rights and fair treatment for harmless lgbt people."
just like that?
I had no idea
share some of your stories about homosexual slaves
"Clearly nature intended a minority of the population to be gay."
interesting that you personify nature, as having intent
"Monogamous same sex relationships are disease and dementia free."
says our commenter with a history of mental health issues who claims monogamy
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/country/united-states/
Christianity and Islam both teach that their just and loving Allah/Jesus eternally tortures people for finite crimes, the most grotesque injustice imaginable - christianity and Islam defame themselves. When the example of "love" your religion gives you to follow responds to minor crimes with the most outsize punishment conceivable its no wonder the adherents to those religions don't believe in fundamental fairness.
Wyatt and Regina give a couple of anecdotes of christians who opposed slavery but of course everyone was christian back then so this means nothing. Some chrisitans opposed slavery despite their christianity, not because of it. The bible condones slavery dozens of times, telling slaves to obey their masters and work hard, telling slave owners they can beat their slave to death as long as it takes a few days for him/her to die.
If you're directly taking guidance from the bible, you're going to support slavery, not oppose it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous asks about gay slaves as though their bible commanding gays be put to death is somehow not a big imposition on gays. Typical hypocrisy from a conservative.
To have the best possible society our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way.
44% of U.S. adults believe their rights are threatened by religious liberty claims
A recent survey from Public Religion Research Institute found that only 22% of U.S. adults support exempting business owners with religious objections to some LGBTQ rights from anti-discrimination rules.
Twice that many Americans (44%) feel their own rights are threatened by other people’s religious liberty claims.
As the weakness of the religious right's arguments has become more and more visible, and as more and more Americans who identify as religious reject the edicts to discriminate, its fearmongering about the dignity of LGBTQ people has shifted, both over the past decades and more recently. These days, it focuses on scaring Americans about transgender people, from their participation in youth sports to the standards of medical care for transgender youth, about which it spouts vicious fictions. All of its fearmongering is based on falsehoods or stereotypes, like those that have been proven incorrect in states that already have nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ youths playing sports.
The vast majority of Americans — 83 percent — favor laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing. That includes majorities of every major religious group in the country, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Even 59 percent of white evangelical Protestants — the largest and most reliably conservative bloc of religious voters — support the type of protections in the Equality Act.
Americans of all religious backgrounds also reject the distorted "religious freedom" framing of the religious right's opposition to the Equality Act, as outlined Wednesday by Greene. When given a choice between these two statements —"Everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in their personal lives, provided they do not cause harm to others," and "Everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in every part of their lives, including performing their jobs, even if that means excluding certain groups of people" — 89 percent of Americans, as well as majorities of all major religious groups, chose the former.
It’s Trump’s refusal to acknowledge reality, combined with the increasingly intricate nature of Republican conspiracy mythology — theories that are becoming more intertwined with the flavor of evangelical Christianity that dominates the GOP — that have extremism experts and former Republicans warning the violent movement centered on the 45th president is not going away. In fact, they say, it will most likely become more violent.
Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at The Soufan Center who studies extremist violence, said the upheaval wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic, the recent presidential election, and the continued prosecution of several overseas wars has created a confluence of circumstances that scholars would consider a perfect incubator for belief in conspiracy theories and apocalyptic mass delusions.
“It’s not going to get better anytime soon, unfortunately… Conspiratorial thinking is very closely associated with high-anxiety situations and endless wars, elections and national tragedies,” he said.
“Religious terrorism tends to be more lethal, because people believe they’re serving a higher purpose by committing acts of violence, as opposed to secular groups or ethno-nationalists who are fighting over territory or land,” he explained. “You can’t negotiate with these people, and you especially can’t negotiate with QAnon, because how do you assuage grievances that don’t exist?”
Clarke also posited that synergies between QAnon and the American anti-abortion movement — another religiously inspired faction that dominates the GOP — could spark extremist violence in the mould of the string of bombings carried out by Eric Robert Rudolph between 1996 and 1998.
Another prominent researcher of extremist movements and disinformation, former GOP Representative Denver Riggleman, said the connections between QAnon and white evangelical Christianity have “metastasized” into something else that is both “messianic” and “apocalyptic”.
“This has grown well beyond just something that we can categorize as QAnon,” said Riggleman, who was defeated by a far-right primary challenger after officiating a same-sex wedding and is now chief strategist with the Network Contagion Research Institute. “It’s almost become a conspiracy industry that is evangelical.”
Like Clarke, Riggleman said there are parallels between the radicalization process that is being driven by QAnon in the evangelical community and the Islamic radicalism that the US has been trying to combat since 2001: “There certainly is radical Islam, but there’s now radicalism on certain evangelical sides, and I think people have been afraid to call it for what it is.”
But Joe Walsh, the former GOP congressman and conservative radio host who mounted a brief primary challenge to Trump during the 2020 election cycle, said such problems go far beyond QAnon believers in the Republican Party.
Walsh said Trump’s insistence that he, not Biden, won the 2020 election, has been eagerly adopted by a Republican base that is more primed for conspiratorial thinking than ever. “When I ask people specifically about QAnon, it’s only a rare Trump supporter that can give me any specifics, but damn near all of them are just general conspiracists,” he added. “There’s just a huge general overlap in that most of the Republican Party base voters now are conspiracy believers… Because the base is evangelical, the base is now conspiratorial, and they are one and the same.”
"Christianity and Islam both teach that their just and loving Allah/Jesus eternally tortures people for finite crimes, the most grotesque injustice imaginable - christianity and Islam defame themselves. When the example of "love" your religion gives you to follow responds to minor crimes with the most outsize punishment conceivable its no wonder the adherents to those religions don't believe in fundamental fairness."
Randy, your ignorance of the concepts and philosophy of Christianity is so deep and pervasive, it can't be dealt with in this type of format
obviously you hate religious belief in general and you have no desire to be disabused but if ever get to that point, go see an evangelical pastor
they would tend to more tolerant, patient, and open-minded in helping you out
"a couple of anecdotes of christians who opposed slavery but of course everyone was christian back then so this means nothing. Some chrisitans opposed slavery despite their christianity, not because of it"
I told you of a guy who was a slave-trader and, being converted to Christianity, couldn't reconcile his life to scripture
he repented and renounced slave trading
but the whole abolition movement took inspiration from Christian scripture
that's why the movement to end slavery started in countries with a reformed Christian perspective - England and America
it didn't start in Muslim or Catholic or Hindu areas
"If you're directly taking guidance from the bible, you're going to support slavery, not oppose it."
no sizable or significant group of Christians interprets scripture that way
for good reason, it's out of context
"asks about gay slaves as though their bible commanding gays be put to death is somehow not a big imposition on gays. Typical hypocrisy from a conservative."
actually, someone threw your own words back at you because you said Christians who believe homosexuality is immoral are "just like" slave-owners
just admit you were wrong and move on
"To have the best possible society our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way."
why don't you do that, then?
"A recent survey from Public Religion Research Institute found that only 22% of U.S. adults support exempting business owners with religious objections to some LGBTQ rights from anti-discrimination rules."
why should anyone need religion as an excuse if they don't want to associate with homosexuals?
the problem is with government managing inter-personal affairs
it won't end well
study the French revolution
a society based on egalitarianism rather than liberty will always result in suffering
it's similar to Marxism
"Even 59 percent of white evangelical Protestants — the largest and most reliably conservative bloc of religious voters — support the type of protections in the Equality Act."
I've been trying to tell you morons this for years
evangelicalism, and black and white doesn't matter, are the most open-minded and ideologically diverse segment of society
it's because their mission is to evangelize so they welcome everyone
"It’s Trump’s refusal to acknowledge reality, combined with the increasingly intricate nature of Republican conspiracy mythology — theories that are becoming more intertwined with the flavor of evangelical Christianity that dominates the GOP — that have extremism experts and former Republicans warning the violent movement centered on the 45th president is not going away. In fact, they say, it will most likely become more violent."
evangelical Christianity doesn't dominate the GOP
"Clarke also posited that synergies between QAnon and the American anti-abortion movement — another religiously inspired faction that dominates the GOP — could spark extremist violence"
there are no such synergies
indeed, that's a conspiracy theory
indeed, much of liberal Democratic thought has conspiracy theories deeply embedded
the Russian collusion theory is the most obvious
but there are many others
indeed, progressivism is based on resentment of others that is only inflamed when confronted with truth
"“When I ask people specifically about QAnon, it’s only a rare Trump supporter that can give me any specifics, but damn near all of them are just general conspiracists,” he added. “There’s just a huge general overlap in that most of the Republican Party base voters now are conspiracy believers… Because the base is evangelical, the base is now conspiratorial, and they are one and the same.”"
completely false
conspiracy theories are just as widespread among progressives as anyone else
That's what you'd like to believe, but the thousands of Red Hatters, Christian warriors, and GQPers storming the Capitol show otherwise.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but the whole abolition movement took inspiration from Christian scripture".
Utter schuck and jive. Nowhere in the bible does it say it is wrong to own humans, in fact the bible regularly instructs on how to properly carry out slavery.
I posted"If you're directly taking guidance from the bible, you're going to support slavery, not oppose it."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "no sizable or significant group of Christians interprets scripture that way".
Not any more, but they sure did 160 years ago. This just proves christians ignore sections of their bible they no longer like. Its time you started ignoring the anti-gay sections.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "for good reason, it's out of context".
LOL, go ahead, try and put these passages "in context" that makes them not horrific:
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”
I posted "To have the best possible society our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "why don't you do that, then?".
I do it every day, I advocate equal rights for you. You do not do that, you see to maximize harm and rejection of innocent lgbt people
I posted "A recent survey from Public Religion Research Institute found that only 22% of U.S. adults support exempting business owners with religious objections to some LGBTQ rights from anti-discrimination rules."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "why should anyone need religion as an excuse if they don't want to associate with h*sexuals? the problem is with government managing inter-personal affairs".
If you want to pick and choose who you associate with, then don't run a business. When you run a business you have a moral obligation to serve all regardless of harmless characteristics like skin colour, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
"Even 59 percent of white evangelical Protestants — the largest and most reliably conservative bloc of religious voters — support the type of protections in the Equality Act."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "evangelicalism, and black and white doesn't matter, are the most open-minded and ideologically diverse segment of society".
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh, that's a good one! You two crack me up!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "it's because their mission is to evangelize so they welcome everyone"
No, they don't welcome anyone who doesn't accept their religion. That is the nature of religion, it is about dividing the world into "us" and "them", the "saved" and the "unsaved". The world can never be united under any religion, it can only be united by the idea of making the world better for everyone.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "evangelical Christianity doesn't dominate the GOP".
Riiiight, just like you're not a Trump supporter. The Republican party is primarily concerned with harming innocent lgbt people, that's due to them being dominated by evangelical christianity.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "indeed, much of liberal Democratic thought has conspiracy theories deeply embedded the Russian collusion theory is the most obvious".
Every American intelligence agency stated that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a massive and systematic way. Trump asked Russia for its help and a few hours later they made the first attempts to hack Hillary's email. Once again, you are the conspiracy theorists who won't accept reality.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "indeed, progressivism is based on resentment of others that is only inflamed when confronted with truth".
Really? How about you give us a couple of specific examples, its not like your word means anything.
"“When I ask people specifically about QAnon, it’s only a rare Trump supporter that can give me any specifics, but damn near all of them are just general conspiracists,” he added. “There’s just a huge general overlap in that most of the Republican Party base voters now are conspiracy believers… Because the base is evangelical, the base is now conspiratorial, and they are one and the same.”"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "conspiracy theories are just as widespread among progressives as anyone else".
Nonsense. There aren't any conspiracy theories associated with liberals, they're all associated with conservatives: "massive voter fraud" "pizza gate", birtherism, you two yourselves even pushed the Seth Rich conspiracy theory that he leaked Democratic emails to wikileaks and Hillary had him killed for it. Even Fox news eventually admitted that was all B.S. made up to try to distract from the truth that the Russians were responsible for the hacking.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "43 days since the White House and Congress went Democratic - and still no COVID stimulus bill enacted".
And that's entirely due to Republicans blocking and delaying it.
If Republicans would have supported this hugely popular bill it would have been passed several weeks ago. Again and again we see the GOPQ blocking laws that have the overwhelming support of the public like universal gun background checks, mail in voting, Obamacare, and anti-discrimination laws that include harmless lgbt people.
"That's what you'd like to believe, but the thousands of Red Hatters, Christian warriors, and GQPers storming the Capitol show otherwise."
it wasn't conservatives that burned down a police station in Seattle and rioted across America last summer
nor did conservatives did make up a conspiracy story about Russia that consumed three years of the last administration and Congress
there have always been conspiracy theories in America on both sides
fifty years ago, it was the Trilateral Commission, then the Illuminati, now QAnon
Dems have developed a new strategy in recent years to take that which has always been and hype it for partisan purposes
Russians have always tried to interfere in our elections, it wasn't new in 2016
all politicians lie, Trump did too but probably less significantly than other politicians
right now, the idea of systemic racism is a conspiracy theory
there's racism in America, like there is everywhere and always has been
but it's not systemic and it has moved in the right direction
minority voting was up in 2016
guess what else was up?
minorities voting Republican
why?
David Shor, of the left-wing nonprofit group OpenLabs, studied election returns and said it was due to two factors:
1. aversion to socialism
2. calls from prominent Dems to defund the police in minority neighborhoods
"Utter schuck and jive."
Randy, the only cure for ignorance is to seek truth
not cut and paste snippets from your favorite anti-Christian bigots
if you really want to know the truth, get the writings of those who stated the abolitionist movement and see how scripture inspired them
"Not any more, but they sure did 160 years ago."
only people rationalizing practices that were ubiquitous through the world and ages
slowly, Christians awake to the truths of scripture
as I said, it didn't start in Muslim, Catholic, or Hindu lands
it started where reformed Bible-believing Christianity is the norm
"This just proves christians ignore sections of their bible they no longer like."
well, yes, many Christians ignore sections of the bible
but you have the process backward
ignoring it is not progress
on the slave issue, Christians didn't find the Bible was wrong, they found they were wrong
this is a regular occurrence in the Christian world
it progresses because self-examination and personal examination of scripture are baked-in
"Its time you started ignoring the anti-gay sections."
that would be going backward
"LOL, go ahead, try and put these passages "in context" that makes them not horrific:
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
in both instances, Paul is advising these guys how best to deal with the situation they were in
Christianity doesn't advocate violent overthrow of systems
it would tend to try to convert the masters by letting nothing hinder that
there's another verse where Paul tells a slave to gain his freedom if he can
btw, in the early church, there is evidence that believing slaves were elders wit spiritual authority over their masters
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "h*sexuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage".
Right, just like an infertile heterosexual couple ain't ever a marriage.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "nor did conservatives did make up a conspiracy story about Russia that consumed three years of the last administration and Congress".
Just stop already, you know Trump conspired with Russia, Mueller documented 190 pages of it. All reputable sources state this happened, you conservatives deceitfully claiming it didn't is the conspiracy theory.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Russians have always tried to interfere in our elections, it wasn't new in 2016".
The scale and depth in 2016 was unprecedented, this had never happened before, especially with a presidential candidate welcoming the interference.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "all politicians lie, Trump did too but probably less significantly than other politicians".
That's an outrageous lie in itself. Trump lied on an unprecedented scale, 30,000 false or misleading statements during his presidency. No politican has lied anywhere near that much and survey after survey shows Democratic politicians lie far less than Republican ones.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "right now, the idea of systemic racism is a conspiracy theory there's racism in America, like there is everywhere and always has been but it's not systemic and it has moved in the right direction'.
Systemic racism is well documented in the U.S. Systemic racism is requiring photo ID to vote when high percentages of black people don't have a driver's license and access to a car to travel to several government offices all over the state to get photo-ID. Systemic racism is making the penalties for possession of crack cocaine used mostly by blacks much harsher than the penalties for powdered cocaine used mostly by whites. There are many other examples.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "it started where reformed Bible-believing Christianity is the norm".
Irrelevant, everyone was a chrisitan then, they opposed slavery despite their religion, not because of it. The bible promotes slavery and never condemns it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "on the slave issue, Christians didn't find the Bible was wrong, they found they were wrong"
The bible supports slavery, if christians now reject slavery it is because they've rejected a part of the bible they don't like, they should do that with the bible's attacks on gays.
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "in both instances, Paul is advising these guys how best to deal with the situation they were in Christianity doesn't advocate violent overthrow of systems".
Bullsh*t. Jesus advised the Israelites to war on the surrounding tribes and to take their land, kill their men and non-virgin and take their women as sex slaves. Nowhere in the bible did Jesus clearly and unequivocally state it is wrong to own humans and should never be done. Instead we see the acceptance and sanctioning of slavery by comparing the authority of the slave owner to the authority of the christian god.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "there's another verse where Paul tells a slave to gain his freedom if he can".
No, it says if "You can be made free", its okay, If the slave owner or society agrees to making you free it is okay. In the context of the dozens of passages sanctioning slavery and praising it this passage is about working within the system of slavery, not rejecting it. Again, nowhere is there a clear condemnation of the practice by the chrisitian god - Paul's statements on slavery are contradictory at best, certainly not any real condemnation of the practice which would mean nothing in any event as he is not Jesus.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "btw, in the early church, there is evidence that believing slaves were elders wit spiritual authority over their masters".
Another story fabricated out of whole cloth, just like your claims that transwomen are safe in the men's bathroom and in danger in the women's or that there was voter fraud.
A prominent American slave owner wrote the christian textbook on converting slaves to christianity as a way to make them more docile and controllable. This text was a smash hit at the time and guided the actions of slave owners throughout the United States. Reminds me so much of Wyatt/Regina suggestions that I debate a preacher and passively accept the second class citizenship and punishments christians like them inflict on harmless lgbt people. Christianity is a tool of oppression for evangelical christians like Wyatt and Regina Hardiman.
There go Wyatt and Regina talking about their religious beliefs again.
And then when someone points out their religion they'll try to pretend they're not christians by saying "I don't believe I've spoken about my religious beliefs here" or "I didn't say I was a christian". They do this to pretend they've got a secular justification for waging war on harmless lgbt people but as we've seen time and time again, there is no secular justification for denying lgbt people equal rights and social acceptance. It's unethical to try and hide what is motivating you. It shows a desire to deceive and that you don't believe you can defend your religious reasons for seeking to harm us.
"No, it says if "You can be made free", its okay, If the slave owner or society agrees to making you free it is okay."
Randy, it is so sad that you hate Christians so much you are willing to lie.
Here is the verbatim text of 1 Corinthians 7:21:
"Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)"
Paul is saying that if someone is stuck in slavery, don't be ashamed. But if you can gain your freedom, do so
my paraphrase "Paul tells a slave to gain his freedom if he can" is accurate
"someone points out their religion they'll try to pretend they're not christians by saying"
never said I wasn't, never said I was
and still haven't
I'm explaining what Christians believe because you've defamed them
The dangerous and idiotic Republican governor of Texas has removed the state's mask mandate and all COVID restrictions despite the rate of death and hospitalizations being currently higher than they were when the measures were first implemented.
This is going to result in needless deaths and worse will result in more people being infected which provides more opportunities for the virus to mutate and become resistant to our present vaccines as well as more infections and deadly. The Republican governors of Alabama and MIssissippi have similarly removed all mitigation measures to make the political point that Republicans don't do COVID mitigation measures.
Again and again we've seen conservatives and Republican politicians pushing the deadly idea that this is a partisan issue and trying to improve the situation is something conservatives should oppose. Republicans are responsible for hundreds of thousands of needless deaths and they continue pretending that ignoring the situation will make it go away.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "gender has consequences"
What they mean by that is that if you violate their strict stereotypical roles for males and females they want society to reject and punish you.
Wyatt/Regina/'bad anonymous said "Here is the verbatim text of 1 Corinthians 7:21: "Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)"
No, that is the reworked New International Version which had many working on it quit because the interpretation was based on policy desires over accuracy. Here's the accurate KJV translation of the passage:
"Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.
It is not a suggestion that the slave escape, it is a suggestion that if the society and slave owner will allow it than you can accept it. Again, Paul compares the authority and moral superiority of the slave owner to the authority and moral standing of Jesus:
“Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
Paul puts them on the same moral plane and nowhere in the bible does god/Jesus condemn the practice - an unforgivable oversight for the supposed authority on morality.
I posted "And then when someone points out their religion they'll try to pretend they're not christians by saying "I don't believe I've spoken about my religious beliefs here" or "I didn't say I was a christian".
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "never said I wasn't, never said I was and still haven't".
You clearly said you were christians at Crismas when you said "...it just shows that the biblical concept of man's total depravity is true it's just another proof of the existence of God".
You just look childish with these "i never said I wasn't and never said I was" lies. You stated these were your beliefs, you left no room for doubt that you are christians. Only christians say "the bible is true" or say "I'm sorry you can't believe in god".
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said I'm explaining what Christians believe because you've defamed them".
I don't defame christians, their bible defames itself. Any religion that teaches people are so worthless and evil they deserve to be eternally tortured for finite crimes is a disgraceful philosophy on the face of it.
Survey: Atheists Are More Likely to Get Vaccinated Than Any Religious Group
According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, atheists are more likely to get the COVID vaccine than any other religious demographic.
White evangelicals, as usual, trail everybody else - they're last in plans to get the vaccine
90% of atheists — not “Nones,” but atheists specifically — say they will “definitely” or “probably” get a vaccine or that they’ve already received one shot. On the other end of the spectrum, only 54% of white evangelicals say the same thing.
10% of atheists say they have no plans to get a shot compared to 45% of white evangelicals.
These answers seem to fall right in line with how the two groups feel about science, medicine, and their understanding of the virus. When you accept the science, and you understand the protection that the vaccine provides, getting a shot is a no-brainer. (Even then, of course, there are a handful of atheists who accept conspiracy theories.) But there are a hell of a lot more white evangelicals who fall for similar nonsense, see science as an enemy of faith, and really don’t trust the Democrats in power to handle this properly. Ask them to explain how the virus works, and many of the answers will range from “sin” to echoing some Donald Trump lie.
But when this pandemic is over, everyone will have the scientists — not preachers and certainly not Republicans — to thank for getting them out of this awful situation.
The Catholic Church Opposes a CO Bill to Let Child Sex Abuse Victims Get Justice
The Catholic church sometimes likes to try to blame its molestation history on gays in the priesthood so they don't have to do anything about it. If the Catholic church wanted to stop gays from joining the priesthood as a way to cope with the shame the Catholic church instilled in them over being gay it would let priests marry. Then becoming a priest wouldn't look like a respectable way to attempt to cope with suppressing one's natural same sex attractions and not be pressured to have relationships with women.
"Atheists Are More Likely to Get Vaccinated Than Any Religious Group"
with Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, and Pol Pot leading the way, atheists have murdered more innocent people than any other religious group in history
Stalin was a christian. No one ever killed in the name of atheism, people kill in the name of religion. And of course nothing any atheist or even Hitler did was ever remotely as evil as Jesus eternally punishing people for finite and trivial crimes.
Religion is a divider, not a uniter.
Wyatt and Regina childishly say "I never said I wasn't or was a christian". I've seen your names and pictures on your church web site. Wyatt is a deacon and Regina is kitchen staff. Just admit the obvious already. Being honest for once will be good for your soul.
Their church talks about how they don't want to just add members, they want to multiply their members. Its a fools errand, they can't keep their own numbers from dwindling due to their anti-gay bigotry, they're obviously never going to convert the muslims to christianity or vice versa.
To have the best possible society our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way. That's something anyone of any religion can agree on :)
Republicans in 20+ states have introduced bills to ban transgender girls from competing on girl's sports teams in high schools. Yet in almost all cases, sponsors can't cite a single instance in their state or region where participation has caused problems.
Lawmakers can't cite local examples of trans girls in sports
I wish GOPers would have this much passion in going after actual REAL predators like Roy Moore, Dump, etc.
While Trump was president EVERY Democrat voted for the $2 trillion CARES Act even though doing so helped Trump.
While Biden is president, ZERO Republicans voted for American Relief Plan, because hurting Biden is more important than helping Americans.
Alabama Senate votes to make hormone therapy and surgery for trans youth a felony [summary of article by Priya]
Under a new law, transgender youth in Alabama could not be treated with puberty-blockers, hormone therapy or surgery. The state Senate voted to make the treatment a felony on Tuesday.
The two bills would make it a felony for medical professionals to treat transgender minors under the age of 19 with gender-affirming care. Violators could face up to 10 years in prison or a $15,000 fine.
The bill also requires school staff in the state to disclose to parents that "a minor's perception that his or her gender is inconsistent with his or her sex." Essentially, teachers would be required to "out" transgender students to their guardians — regardless of whether they are ready to do so.
While similar measures have been considered across the country, Alabama would be the first state to pass such a bill. Parents, members of the transgender communities and medical experts opposed to the bills say it is dangerous, and that lawmakers do not understand the already difficult process to receive gender-affirming care.
The bills run "counter to medical science, prevailing standards of treatment for transgender youth, and basic human dignity," the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama said in a statement.
"Lawmakers are insisting that they know what's best for transgender young people and ignoring the recommendations of medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and more," said Allison Scott, "It's effectively endangering many possible lifelines for a transgender child: Under this bill they can't go to their doctor for help, and they can't seek counsel or comfort from their teachers or school staff."
"This legislation will endanger young trans lives in Alabama. It contradicts the consensus of major medical associations and the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how affirming transgender and nonbinary youth in their identities reduces suicide risk and improves health," said Sam Brinton.
"There's absolutely no 'compassion' in threatening doctors with imprisonment for providing trans youth with the best-practice care they need to survive and thrive," they added. "And there's no 'fairness' in sidelining a group of young people who already face significantly increased risk for rejection, bullying, and suicide."
They failed so spectacularly with their loss in Obergefell that they have put all hands on deck to attack trans folks. It's as contemptible as it is sadistic.
"Under a new law, transgender youth in Alabama could not be treated with puberty-blockers, hormone therapy or surgery. The state Senate voted to make the treatment a felony on Tuesday.
The two bills would make it a felony for medical professionals to treat transgender minors under the age of 19 with gender-affirming care. Violators could face up to 10 years in prison or a $15,000 fine.
The bill also requires school staff in the state to disclose to parents that "a minor's perception that his or her gender is inconsistent with his or her sex." Essentially, teachers would be required to "out" transgender students to their guardians — regardless of whether they are ready to do so.
While similar measures have been considered across the country, Alabama would be the first state to pass such a bill. Parents, members of the transgender communities and medical experts opposed to the bills say it is dangerous, and that lawmakers do not understand the already difficult process to receive gender-affirming care."
this is great news, Randy
thanks for posting!
so glad to hear you say "first state"
because more are to come
young kids should not make these fateful decisions until they are old enough to understand and appreciate the ramifications
transgender misery loves company
"The bills run "counter to medical science, prevailing standards of treatment for transgender youth, and basic human dignity," the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama said in a statement."
no, they don't, you nuts
""Lawmakers are insisting that they know what's best for transgender young people and ignoring the recommendations of medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and more," said Allison Scott,"
unless their recommendations are based on evidence, they have no more wait than anyone else's ideas
"This legislation will endanger young trans lives in Alabama."
no, it won't
it will save kids from making a decision as a minor that they never change
Alabama is protecting kids
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "young kids should not make these fateful decisions until they are old enough to understand and appreciate the ramifications".
This has been repeatedly studied. Trans children do best when they are affirmed in the gender they identify with, forcing them to go through a puberty they don't want increases the rate of suicide.
"The bills run "counter to medical science, prevailing standards of treatment for transgender youth, and basic human dignity," the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama said in a statement."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "no, they don't, you nuts".
So typically childish of you to respond with a knee-jerk "no they don't". By all means, show us some mainstream medical/mental health professional association that disagrees with that. I won't hold my breath.
I posted ""Lawmakers are insisting that they know what's best for transgender young people and ignoring the recommendations of medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and more," said Allison Scott,"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "unless their recommendations are based on evidence, they have no more wait[note the spelling error W&R say this shows the writer is nervous because they know they're wrong] than anyone else's ideas".
Of course they're based on evidence, they don't just make this stuff up like you do. You just make up a story that supports your political agenda and then repeatedly and adamantly insist its true - like the hypocrites you are, you demand evidence, ignore it, and provide no evidence to support your own destructive claims.
The ACLU said "This legislation will endanger young trans lives in Alabama."
Waytt/Regina/bad anonymous said "no, it won't it will save kids from making a decision as a minor that they never change Alabama is protecting kids".
The opposite is true. A rejecting society increases the suicide rate amongst transgender children. Research shows trans children do better after transition care than those who do not receive such care. Alabama GOP is doing this to distract from their failure to govern and to pump up their anti-lgbt voters with an ever popular attack on society's most vulnerable.
Laws like these are a tragedy for trans children. Imagine being born male and feeling that was a mistake and you really should have a female body. To force such a child to go through male puberty results in being taller and bigger than they want, body hair and facial hair that they don't want, a square face and Adam's apple they don't want, a deep voice that can't be undone. All these problems will require extreme interventions to try to undo after they've occurred that wouldn't have been necessary if the child had access to puberty blockers. It is unspeakably cruel to force a child to go through a puberty they don't want.
These laws aren't intended to protect children, they're intended to punish society's most vulnerable and to try to force children to live a life that is making them suicidal and resulting in a lifetime of mental distress.
Speaking as an adult forced to go through male puberty I can attest that that was destructive to me and I have great anger at the society that forced me to go through this. Don't do this to children, let them be who they are, let the child tell you what their gender is.
"Of course they're based on evidence, they don't just make this stuff up like you do."
they didn't say they have evidence
they are just giving a political opinion
not long ago, not accepting your biological was in the DSSM, considered twisted
no new research has contradicted that
"You just make up a story that supports your political agenda and then repeatedly and adamantly insist its true"
that would be you
"I have great anger at the society"
yeah, we noticed
"What they mean by that is that if you violate their strict stereotypical roles for males and females they want society to reject and punish you."
actually, that's not what I mean
the opposite is true
transgenders define gender by sexist stereotypes
"No, that is the reworked New International Version which had many working on it quit because the interpretation was based on policy desires over accuracy. Here's the accurate KJV translation of the passage:"
NIV is a paraphrase, not a translation
I actually quoted ESV, which is currently the most accurate translation
KJV is an accurate translation but not to the language we speak
it's generally understandable to us but no one talks like that today
"It is not a suggestion that the slave escape,"
no it isn't and I never said it was
I quoted only to say that slavery is not a system advocated by Christian scripture, as Randy was suggesting
"Stalin was a christian."
At a young age, Stalin attended seminary and was kicked out when he declared himself an atheist. In Randy mind, that makes one a Christian.
Stalin, after his conversion to atheism, became fascinated by Marx-Leninism and went on to be one of the greatest mass murderers in history. Marx-Leninism thought morality could be defined as maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way. Like Randy, they believed that anyone who didn't agree with their formulation was an enemy, to be attacked.
"Religion is a divider, not a uniter."
Atheism is a religion. It declares, without evidence, that there is no God.
Every atheist who has gained sufficient power for a number of years has eventually became a mass murderer in order to try to eliminate those who don't agree with them.
"To have the best possible society our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way. That's something anyone of any religion can agree on :)"
what the? Randy said religion was a divider, now he says that all religions can agree with his defective formulation
truth is, Randy used to say that morality can be defined as "do whatever you want as long as you don't harm anyone else"
when I showed him he was wrong, he went back to the drawing board and came up with this defective formulation
which is basically a paraphrase of Marxist theory
a theory that has resulted in massive death and suffering over the years
Wyatt and Regina were obviously unable to put these bible quotes about slavery "in context" in a way that makes them any less horrific. Paul equates the slave owner with Jesus, as someone who is to be obeyed as the moral authority over the slave:
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
The christian god never speaks against slavery, never comes out and says its wrong to own humans. The moral failings of the god described in the bible are gigantic and unforgivable.
abolitionists were evangelical believers who say they were inspired to fight slavery by scripture
Randy says they are lying but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution
further, it's clear the two verses were advice to believers who were slaves on how to best deal with the situation they were in, not an endorsement of slavery
I cited another verse that showed the Bible didn't advocate slavery
and, btw, I wasn't referring to these two verses but other comments Randy made concerning sin and condemnation
those comments were indeed out of context and this forum is not sufficient for satisfactory discussion of such matters
Waytt/Regina/bad anonymous said "h*sexuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage".
Right, just like an infertile heterosexual couple ain't ever a marriage.
I posted "Of course they're based on evidence, they don't just make this stuff up like you do."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "they didn't say they have evidence they are just giving a political opinion".
Its a short news article, of course they don't list every bit of evidence and research that shows best practices are to let children decide what gender they are rather than trying to force them into a role they don't want. Go to the web site of the American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association if you want proof, they're not making this up like you two.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "not long ago, not accepting your biological was in the DSSM, considered twisted no new research has contradicted that".
Of course there was new research that showed that was wrong, it wouldn't have been changed otherwise, just like the one time belief that gayness was a mental illness.
Wyatt and Regina just make up a story that supports their political agenda and then repeatedly and adamantly insist its true"
I posted "Speaking as an adult forced to go through male puberty I can attest that that was destructive to me and I have great anger at the society that forced me to go through this.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "yeah, we noticed".
Well, then you should want to help transgender children avoid what I had to go through. Do you think its good for society to make individuals hate that society and its injustice? The research is unequivocal, trans people do better when we are allowed to be who we are and society is supportive of that.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem".
What they mean by that is that they want to get rid of social security, medicare, medicaid and public schools that accept everyone.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Gender has consequences".
What they mean by that is that if you violate their strict stereotypical roles for males and females they want society to reject and punish you.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "actually, that's not what I mean"
It is what you mean, if it wasn't you'd have given a plausible alternative explanation. And childishly responding "I don't have to" proves that.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the opposite is true transgenders define gender by sexist stereotypes".
That's absurd. Males wearing female clothing and vice versa is the exact opposite of sexist stereotypes, its you who wants to punish people for rejecting the ideas that men must be masculine and women feminine.
"No, that is the reworked New International Version which had many working on it quit because the interpretation was based on policy desires over accuracy. Here's the accurate KJV translation of the passage:"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "I quoted only to say that slavery is not a system advocated by Christian scripture"
It clearly IS advocated by christian scripture:
“Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
“All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
It is an unforgivable moral failing of Jesus that he didn't come right out and say its wrong to own people.
I posted "Stalin was a christian."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "At a young age, Stalin attended seminary and was kicked out when he declared himself an atheist."
Never happened, he never renounced his christianity. This is just another example of christians rejecting their own like they try to do with the devout christian Adolph Hitler.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Marx-Leninism thought morality could be defined as maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way"
LOL, *citation required.
Once again we see Wyatt and Regina fabricating a story to support their hate filled agenda and just blindly insisting its true despite having no evidence whatsoever to support their claim.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Like Priya, they believed that anyone who didn't agree with their formulation was an enemy, to be attacked."
I don't believe in attacking anyone other than in self-defence. There is a sacred barrier between words and physical violence, crossing that barrier can never be justified other than in self-defence. You are my enemy because you are attacking harmless lgbt people, not for not agreeing with me. You broke the social contract first, it is up to you to come back into compliance before we are obligated to treat you fairly.
I posted "Religion is a divider, not a uniter."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Atheism is a religion. It declares, without evidence, that there is no God.".
Atheism is a religion like "off" is a TV channel. Logic dictates that you don't believe something exists when there is no evidence for it. The onus is on you the believer to prove your claim, not on us skeptics to disprove it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Every atheist who has gained sufficient power for a number of years has eventually became a mass murderer in order to try to eliminate those who don't agree with them.".
An utterly insane claim. Wyatt and Regina are completely loony tunes. No one ever killed to spread atheism, they killed to spread their religion.
I posted "To have the best possible society our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way. That's something anyone of any religion can agree on :)"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "what the? Priya said religion was a divider, now she says that all religions can agree with her defective formulation"
If you make your religion a lower priority than maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way you prevent religion from being a divider. You have never found a flaw in my "formulation".
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Priya used to say that morality can be defined as "do whatever you want as long as you don't harm anyone else when I showed her she was wrong, she went back to the drawing board and came up with this defective formulation".
Another lie. I firmly stand behind the principle that morality is "do whatever you want, but harm no one". The principle of having the best possible society by making its highest priority maximizing the happiness for all in and equal and fair way goes hand in hand with that. Your unsupported assertions that I'm wrong are meaningless, you have no explanation for how I might be wrong.
The disaster in Texas is a perfect example of where Republican government and their war on regulation go.
This isn't the first time there have been diastrous power outages in Texas due to a winter storm. This happened ten years ago as well. In their drive to end regulations and government involvement Texas seperated their power grid from the national infrastructure so they wouldn't have to follow federal regulations and sold it all off to for profit ventures. Texans have had far higher electrical bills than they otherwise would have due to that privatization, something in the order of 100 billion in excess costs, if I remember correctly.
The Texas power companies put profits first and didn't invest in winterizing their natural gas facilities. The were warned ten years ago when the power went out that it was going to happen again if they didn't force private companies to winterize. Well of course you couldn't have government tell private industry what to do so nothing was done to prevent the disaster this year. And, unbelievably, the Texas government has announced that they will do nothing to force private power companies to winterize this time either - they're just going to keep letting it happen.
Due to the unregulated market the cost of power for those who still had it skyrocketed in many cases leaving consumers with bills as high as $17,000 for a couple of days of power. This is driving many into bankruptcy on top of the humanitarian disaster the Republican government was warned about, did nothing to prevent, and now that its happened again, still refuses to address.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "America is reopening and Dems are furiously seething"
Removing the mask mandates will result in thousands of needless deaths and will result in more infections giving the virus a chance to mutate and become immune to the vaccines. Of course good people are furious about prematurely letting our guard down. Republicans have destructively made rejecting mitigation measures a sign of loyalty to the party and Trump.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "abolitionists were evangelical believers who say they were inspired to fight slavery by scripture".
Obviously not, there is no statement in "scripture" by Jesus saying it was immoral to own people. Quite the opposite in fact, we have the bible equating the morality of slave owners with the morality of Jesus (which is at least somewhat accurate):
“Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Priya says they are lying but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution".
That's another fabricated story without any evidence to back it up. Wyatt and Regina don't know of people of atheists or people of other religions fighting slavery so they just blindly assert its true that they didn't. I'd look up some examples to prove them wrong but they've shown in the past that won't stop them from repeating the same lie again and again. They never argue in good faith.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "further, it's clear the two verses were advice to believers who were slaves on how to best deal with the situation they were in, not an endorsement of slavery"
They compare the slave owner to Jesus and say obey him in the same way - clearly an endorsement of slavery. Again, there is no clear, unequivocal denunciation of slavery from the christian god. Jesus even tells the Israelites to take the virgin women of the cities they conquer as slaves - Jesus clearly endorses slavery!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said 'I cited another verse that showed the Bible didn't advocate slavery".
That verse was in no way a denunciation of slavery, it only said if the slave owner is willing to or obligated to let you go that you can. That was sanctioning slavery, not opposing it.
Wyatt and Regina aren't familiar with any atheists or non-christians that opposed slavery so they think that means its okay for them to assert there were none. We see this again and again with these two, the don't know what the situation is but they know what story helps promote their hateful agenda so they make one up and just repeatedly and adamantly assert its true.
So I spent a few minutes to prove them wrong:
like christians, most muslims at the time supported slavery although there were those who did not. One of the most radical opponents of slavery, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, is called the Islamic William Wilberforce.
There were very few open atheists back in the day but of course there were those who opposed slavery like Jeremy Bentham (15 February 1748 – 6 June 1832) who also called for the decriminalization of gayness. Clearly he was a man of great moral import.
So, again we see, when Wyatt and Regina don't know of any examples, they just assert their ignorance is proof there are none, just like they do with the research showing trying to force trans children into rigid stereotypical gender roles is bad for them. "I'm not aware of it, so there is none!". These are bad people.
Christian Hate-Pastor Brags About Precaution-Free Church Service for Hundreds
Wyatt and Regina like to sometimes deceitfully and absurdly claim conservatives are responsible with social distancing and masks but then they post this "America is reopening and Dems are furiously seething" and show they oppose responsibly mitigating a virus that is still raging. They'll happily contradict themselves if that's what they think works best for their immediate demands. Remember when they said several times there wasn't enough voter fraud to have changed the outcome of the election and that Trump should move on? When I posted about the 165 Republican new voter suppression laws in 33 states in just one month they contradicted themselves by saying "Democrats can't win an election without voter fraud". When I pointed out the contradiction they lamely slunk away with "changed our minds with new information." When I asked them what that "new information" was they ignored my question. There was no new information, they just lie and change their story based on which way they feel the wind is blowing in the moment.
ABC Poll: 68% Approve of Biden’s Pandemic Response
Newsweek reports:
More than two-thirds of Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday. The survey found that 68 percent of Americans support Biden’s COVID-19 response, including 98 percent of Democrats, 35 percent of Republicans, and 67 percent of independents. According to Sunday’s poll, the majority of Americans think that loosening mask mandates and COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings are happening too fast, 56 percent and 50 percent respectively.
Trump's approval rating on the pandemic hovered in the low 40% and high 30% range. The public has hope now with Biden in office!
"aren't familiar with any atheists or non-christians that opposed slavery so they think that means its okay for them to assert there were none"
actually, what I said was that abolition began first in lands where evangelical Christianity was a major force and was inspired by scripture
obviously, subsequent to this beginning in Christian lands, many have since followed the lead of Christian morality
this view of slavery, with Christian origins, predominates today
"they know what story helps promote their hateful agenda so they make one up and just repeatedly and adamantly assert its true."
my view is that the major world religion of Christianity holds that slavery is wrong
and your view is that the major world religion of Christianity holds that slavery is right
so, explain how my view is hateful and yours is sweet and kind
"So I spent a few minutes to prove them wrong:"
so sad
Randy just shoots himself in the foot, again
and again
"like christians, most muslims at the time supported slavery although there were those who did not. One of the most radical opponents of slavery, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, is called the Islamic William Wilberforce."
Khan, whose name you misspelled, did oppose slavery because of his Muslim beliefs BUT
he said that Muslim and Christianity were very close and that the Islam needed to change and become more like Christianity
indeed, based on his views, many Muslims of the time accused him of converting to Christianity
few more items of note:
his heyday about 70 years after Wilburforce's conversion to evangelicalism that marked the beginning of abolitionism in England
he was an Anglophile who urged his countrymen to be loyal to the Raj
most of his comments on "slavery" were about sexual slavery and referred to the state of marital relations in Muslim India
LOL!
maybe you should have picked someone else!
but then, there would have to be someone else!!
"There were very few open atheists back in the day but of course there were those who opposed slavery like Jeremy Bentham (15 February 1748 – 6 June 1832) who also called for the decriminalization of gayness. Clearly he was a man of great moral import."
oh, clearly
indeed Randy's absurd "maximum happiness for the greatest number" was first uttered by him but is more associated with his student, John Mills
it is widely believed to be defective moral reasoning, although communists love it
interestingly, Alan Dershowitz has quoted Bentham's absurd reasoning to argue that torturing terrorist suspects is morally correct
while Bentham was around the same time as Wilburforce, he didn't work to end slavery and had many bizarre ideas
like Lenin, his body is preserved- and on display at his college in London
when he spoke of the rights of black slaves, he usually conflated it the rights of "other inferior species" and was actually much of an animal rights crusader
"just like they do with the research showing trying to force trans children into rigid stereotypical gender roles is bad for them."
transgenderism says certain characteristics, which are gender stereotypes, equate to gender
that's sexism
"These are bad people."
yes, Randy is good people
wants to maximize everyone's happiness
except when someone like Billy Graham dies and he cheers on the internet
yes, that Randy is good people
"deceitfully and absurdly claim conservatives are responsible with social distancing and masks but then they post this "America is reopening and Dems are furiously seething" and show they oppose responsibly mitigating a virus that is still raging."
people can decide when and where it is safe to wear a mask
mask mandates are overkill and a violation of civil rights
that doesn't mean you shouldn't wear them until you get your shots
it's the laws about them that are wrong
same with lockdowns
people can decide for themselves how to stay safe
if they think a business is dangerous, they won't go
"More than two-thirds of Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s response to the coronavirus pandemic,"
I'm one of them
he has impressively increased the supply of vaccine
the Dems will be so sad when the pandemic ends by Memorial Day
btw, the way schools were closed is emerging as a big winner for several GOP candidates running in 2022
and, the two biggest names for Dems, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsome, will soon be out of politics because of how they handled the pandemic and Ron DeSantis will likely be the GOP candidate because of how he handled the pandemic
what are you going to do, Randy?
everything you say turns out wrong
maybe it's time to hang it up and move on
ask your psych what he thinks
I said "Wyatt and Regina aren't familiar with any atheists or non-christians that opposed slavery so they think that means its okay for them to assert there were none."
Waytt/Regina/bad anonymous said "actually, what I said was that abolition began first in lands where evangelical Christianity was a major force and was inspired by scripture".
Actually, what you said at March 08, 2021 2:12 PM was "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution".
Just like I said, you think your not being familiar with any atheists or non-christians that opposed slavery means its okay to assert there were none. Again we see wyatt and Regina lying about not having taken positions they have certainly have taken. Like all liars, they can't keep their lies straight and consistent with each other.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymou said "this view of slavery, with Christian origins, predominates today"
That view of slavery certainly didn't originiate with christianity which says the slave owner has all the moral authority of Jesus, should be respected the same way, and where Jesus orders the Israelites to enslave the virgin women of the cities they conquered. Jesus is obviously pro-slavery!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "my view is that the major world religion of Christianity holds that slavery is wrong and your view is that the major world religion of Christianity holds that slavery is right so, explain how my view is hateful and yours is sweet and kind".
Your view is hateful because its a lie intended to deceive, to falsely make the bible look benign when it is a moral travesty. I never said the truth would always seem sweet and kind to those who want to believe lies. You want to say christianiy opposes slavery, strike the dozens of passages from the bible that sanction slavery and write in that Jesus says its wrong to own humans. Then you can honestly make that claim.
I posted "like christians, most muslims at the time supported slavery although there were those who did not. One of the most radical opponents of slavery, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, is called the Islamic William Wilberforce."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Khan, whose name you misspelled [I didn't , but like who the f cares? only someone who's losing the argument], did oppose slavery because of his Muslim beliefs".
And you falsely earlier claimed "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution". Just like I said, because you can't think of any examples you think its okay to assert there are none, just like you've done with the research showing trans people do better living as the gender we identify with.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "1.6 million didn't die in April 2020"
No one said 1.6 million would die in April 2020. YOU however said in April "this will soon no longer be a pandemic" and that only 60,000 would die. YOU said "take them off resperators and give them hydroxychloroquine and they'll all be fine"
I posted "So, again we see, when Wyatt and Regina don't know of any examples, they just assert their ignorance is proof there are none, just like they do with the research showing trying to force trans children into rigid stereotypical gender roles is bad for them. "I'm not aware of it, so there is none!". These are bad people."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "transgenderism says certain characteristics, which are gender stereotypes, equate to gender that's sexism".
Experts on transpeople say no such thing. It is you who wants to prevent men from expressing themselves in a feminine way, and women from expressing themselves in masculine ways - THAT'S sexism.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous siad "except when someone like Billy Graham dies and she cheers on the internet".
Billy Graham demonized and sought to oppress harmless lgbt people, of course I cheered when he died. Why wouldn't I?
I posted "Wyatt and Regina deceitfully and absurdly claim conservatives are responsible with social distancing and masks but then they post this "America is reopening and Dems are furiously seething" and show they oppose responsibly mitigating a virus that is still raging."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "people can decide when and where it is safe to wear a mask mask mandates are overkill and a violation of civil rights that doesn't mean you shouldn't wear them until you get your shots it's the laws about them that are wrong same with lockdowns.
The government obviously has a right to act in the overwhelming public health interest and to mandate masks and lockdowns. As I showed with the super spreading hate pastor, conservatives won't wear masks or undertake other mitigation measures unless its the law, they obviously are not capable of deciding when its safe to wear a mask or not.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "if they think a business is dangerous, they won't go".
The problem is that without a mask mandate conservatives think they have a right to enter any business without a mask and they often get violent when the business owner demands they wear a mask or leave.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the Dems will be so sad when the pandemic ends by Memorial Day".
Your opinion carries so much weight when you repeatedly told us several months ago the pandemic would be over right away and only 60,000 people would die. You should stop making such a fool of yourself.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "btw, the way schools were closed is emerging as a big winner for several GOP candidates running in 2022".
LOL, the public overwhelmingly opposes Republican policies, they only make elections close by massive voter suppression. The public opposes the ending of mask mandates, the public wants universal background checks on gun purchases, the public wants mail in voting, the public wants obamacare's protections for those with preexisting health conditions. Republicans oppose all of that despite an overwhelming majority of the public wanting it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous, show some integrity for once in your lives and admit you lied when you said "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution".
Its never too late to renounce your evil ways and become honest people who want to maximize the happiness for all in an equal and fair way :)
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "nd, the two biggest names for Dems, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsome, will soon be out of politics because of how they handled the pandemic and Ron DeSantis will likely be the GOP candidate because of how he handled the pandemic".
A typical attempt at gas lighting. California has a lower death rate than Florida but Wyatt and Regina try to con people into believing California governor Newsome was a failure and Florida governor Desantis is a success.
You can pretty much guarantee when Wyatt and Regina say something, the exact opposite is true.
David Roberts said "Yet well over half of Republicans still believe the election was stolen & always will. That belief will fuel their efforts to cheat in 2022 & 2024, which they will frame as necessary reciprocity.
The tools by which fascists justify escalating fascism are always the same.".
You can see it in Wyatt and Regina. Weeks after the election they were saying there wasn't enough voter fraud to have changed the outcome of the election and now they're back to claiming Democrats can't win without cheating. They say they changed their position because of "new information", but, as with their refusal to say what they mean by "gender has consequences", they don't have an answer to what that "new information" is. That's because there is none and they lie as it suits their immediate authoritarian needs.
when you start to see these multiple hysterical posts from Randy, always on the verge of another nervous breakdown, you know that he is quite embarrassed about how utterly he has failed to prove his point
I had originally said that the movement to end the ancient practice of slavery began in lands where evangelical Christianity prevailed, by converted evangelical Christians who took their inspiration from scripture
which is completely true and beyond dispute
Randy came back with, "well they did that in spite of the teaching of scripture" and cited two verses
those verses he cited actually represent advice to slaves who convert to Christianity on the best way to deal with their situation
any plain reading of the verses will verify that
there are no verses telling slave owners they are doing a good thing by enslaving people
indeed, there is an entire book of the Bible, Exodus, telling the story of God delivering slaves out of bondage
furthermore, the abolitionists who began the movement said they were inspired by scripture after converting to Christianity
Randy says they are lying about their inspiration
I then pointed out that no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution
Randy got excited and thought he might be able to redeem himself from the ignorance he had displayed and find someone in all the centuries who wasn't a Christian and opposed slavery
Randy first brought up Syed Ahmad Khan, a Muslim, who, eighty years after Wilberforce, argued that Muslims in India should be more like Christians and, among other things, oppose sexual slavery
not exactly the kind of slavery we were discussing but, in any case, Khan pointed toward Christian scripture
then, Randy mentions Jeremy Bentham, an ardent atheist and a contemporary of Wilberforce, who wrote that slavery was wrong
but Bentham was opposed to virtually every institution of society at the time and also conflated the rights of slaves with animal rights
the larger point, however, is that neither Khan nor Bentham fought and started a movement specifically to end slavery
they couldn't really, even if that had seemed important to them, because they had no way to rally support
the abolitionists, on the other hand, could and did start a movement to end slavery
they could because they could appeal to the masses by using scripture as moral suasion
hence, a TS Eliot said, we end where we began
1. the movement to end slavery began in lands with bible-believing Christians who took inspiration from scripture
2. no one from any other religious tradition fought to end slavery
And we'll just ignore for the moment that it was Christians in Christian nations that developed by far the largest, pan-continental industrial slave trading system the world has ever seen by brutally exploiting non-Christians.
OK, we'll ignore it, at your request
especially since it's a disingenuous statement
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with a former Georgia college student who sued his school after it prevented him from expressing religious views in a free-speech zone on campus.
The decision, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, said that Chike Uzuegbunam -- who was silenced by Georgia Gwinnett College officials even after he had obtained a permit to proselytize and handout religious literature -- can seek nominal damages despite the fact that the school ultimately changed course and Uzuegbunam subsequently graduated.
"It is undisputed that Uzuegbunam experienced a complete violation of his constitutional rights when respondents enforced their speech policies against him," wrote Justice Thomas. "Because 'every violation of a right imports damage,' nominal damages can redress Uzuegbunam’s injury even if he cannot or chooses not to quantify that harm in economic terms."
First Amendment advocates called the decision a win for free speech and religious expression. “When public officials violate constitutional rights, it causes serious harm to the victims," said Kristen Waggoner, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Uzuegbunam in the case. "When such officials engage in misconduct but face no consequences, it leaves victims without recourse, undermines the nation’s commitment to protecting constitutional rights, and emboldens the government to engage in future violations. We are pleased that the Supreme Court weighed in on the side of justice for those victims.”
Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all joined Thomas in the opinion, which reversed two lower court rulings that agreed with the school.
"I agree with the Court that, as a matter of history and precedent, a plaintiff’s request for nominal damages can satisfy the redressability requirement for Article III standing and can keep an otherwise moot case alive," Justice Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion.
Poor, poor Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous, all bent out of shape because they can't defend their bible/god/jesus's position on slavery.
At March 08, 2021 2:12 PM Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution".
I pointed out a muslim and an atheist who did which shows they lied. Now they go off on all kinds of tangents to try and claim they don't count. That's the logical fallacy of "special pleading" - they say there are none, when I give them examples they make up excuses for why they don't count.
The bible and Jesus/God are clearly pro slavery:
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
Jesus told the Israelites to take as sex slaves the virgin women of the cities they conquered, nowhere in the bible does Jesus/god say clearly and unequivocally that its wrong to own humans. This is an unforgivable moral failing on the part of Jesus.
No rational honest person can read the bible and come away thinking it does not endorse slavery. The story about Moses leading the Jews out of slavery, god/Jesus makes an exception for them because they are his chosen people. God/Jesus doesn't believe all people are equal, he believes the Jews are superior to all others. Again and again we see with the christian god his morality is subjective, whether or not something is immoral is determined by who does it or who the victim is, not by the act itself. Just like god says adultery is immoral but he impregnates a woman without her consent who is betrothed to another man. According to God/Jesus adultery is immoral for humans but not god/Jesus.
The whole dogma of christianity is a jumbled mess of contradictions and immorality. No wonder people like Wyatt and Regina come out of it with no concept of equality or fairness, just the idea that people are to be brutally controlled even when they are harming no one.
God/Jesus had a double standard, it was okay to own slaves, but if they were Jewish they got extra consideration like the chance to be freed after 7 years. Non-Jewish slaves were allowed to be treated much more harshly, for example god saying its okay to beat your slave to death as long as it takes a few days for them to die.
The whole "God set the Jewish slaves free" idea is false as well. God hardened Pharoah's heart so he wouldn't let the jews go. It was God/Jesus's fault the Jews were enslaved. So much for free will, eh? God forces Pharoah to keep the Jews enslaved and then punishes innocent egyptians because of his own actions.
This god/jesus character is deeply unethical!
Randy, I know you're embarrassed that you don't know history well
but you aren't helping yourself
Khan's views were based on Christianity
Bentham conflated the rights of black slaves with animal rights
and neither fought against slavery
no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought the ancient institution of slavery
no one
only evangelical Christians inspired by scripture
"No rational honest person can read the bible and come away thinking it does not endorse slavery."
noted that you think the abolitionists were irrational and dishonest
and that you are good people
hahahahahahahahaha!!!!
anyway, Randy has said several times now that the Bible is pro-slavery
when I showed Randy a verse where Paul told a slave to obtain his freedom if he could, he said that was only if his master offered it
how then it explain Deuteronomy 23:15:
“You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you."
how about Deuteronomy 24:7
“If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."
Randy says that "nowhere in the bible does Jesus/god say clearly and unequivocally that its wrong to own humans. This is an unforgivable moral failing on the part of Jesus." Of course, 1 Timothy 1:10 says that enslaving people is contrary to sound doctrine, as bad as things like homosexuality and perjury:
"The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,"
so, again, Randy is wrong
there are tons more verses that condemn enslaving people and advocate treating those who are slaves humanely
truth is, in those times, people became slaves willingly to settle debts
but, even then, in Exodus 21:2, the Bible says you should only keep them as slaves for, at most, six years and then release them
"When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing."
of course, Jesus quoted Isaiah and said he came to free in Luke 4:18:
“He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,"
the bible is chock full of verses favoring freedom and opposing slavery
which is why the abolitionists were inspired to fight against slavery and no one from any other religious tradition did
this is an inconvenient truth for people like Randy who identify so strongly with hatred of Christianity
As christians do when they are trying to defend their god's failure to clearly and unequivocally condemn slavery they conflate the slavery Hebrews were subject to and the slavery non-hebrews were subject to.
God had special instructions for Hebrew slaves, they had the option of being freed after a number of years and so on but non-hebrews didn't have this option and they were slaves for life and treated far worse.
Where the bible says to treat slaves less harshly it is referring to Hebrew slaves, no such considerations applied to non-hebrew slaves.
When it came to non-hebrew slaves god/Jesus had no sympathy. As Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said, when Paul told slaves to obey and honour their owners and that the slave owner should be respected and have the authority of Jesus, he was referring to non-jewish slaves:
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
God/Jesus never clearly condemns slavery, he is perfectly fine with it as long as its non-hebrews - there's that double standard again for his favourite people.
Wyatt and Regina are just mad that they were caught in the lie "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution".
I posted a muslim and an atheist who fought slavery. Wyatt and Regina didn't like that so they lie about them not having fought slavery and deceitfully claim Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who is called the Islamic William Wilberforce was secretly a christian. It's pretty pathetic, but when you've got a pile of crap like the christian/Islamic bible to defend what else can you do?
Jesus told the Israelites to take as sex slaves the virgin women of the tribes they conquered. Jesus/god was clearly pro-slavery.
Moses tells Pharoah to let the enslaved Jews go but god/Jesus "hardens his heart" so he will not so god can show off his powers by punishing the innocent.
Exodus 7:4 God will make sure that Pharaoh does not listen to Moses, so that he can kill Egyptians with his armies.
God shows he favours Jews and everyone else is a second class citizen:
Exodus 11:7 God will kill the Egyptian children to show that he puts "a difference between the Egyptians and Israel."
Exodus 12:29 After God has sufficiently hardened the Pharaoh's heart, he kills all the firstborn Egyptian children. When he was finished "there was not a house where there was not one dead." Finally, he runs out of little babies to kill, so he slaughters the firstborn cattle, too.
What a sick eff god/Jesus is, eh? Makes it so Pharoah won't let the Israelites go and then kiills innocent egyptian children for what he made Pharoah do! Whatever happened to christian excuse for the existence of evil, that people must have free will?
Luke 12:46-47 Jesus says that God is like a slave-owner who beats his slaves "with many stripes."
God/Jesus tells the Israelites to kill everyone in the cities they conquered except the virgin females and to keep them as sex slaves
Numbers 31:18 "But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
Jesus is clearly pro-slavery, don't let the admonitions to go soft on Jewish slaves posted by Wyatt/Regina fool you.
Randy says that "nowhere in the bible does Jesus/god say clearly and unequivocally that its wrong to own humans. This is an unforgivable moral failing on the part of Jesus."
But 1 Timothy 1:10 says that enslaving people is wrong and as bad as things like homosexuality
so, Randy was flat-out wrong
neither Khan or Bentham "fought" to end slavery
so, Randy was flat-out wrong
Randy has repeatedly posted verses directed at those who were already slaves when they were converted to Christianity with practical advice on how to cope with the situation and siad it proved the Bible supports slavery
so, Randy was flat-out wrong
Randy has one thing, and one thing alone against Christianity:
that homosexuality is considered a sin as bad as enslaving people
What have we learned over the past year since the world stopped because of COVID?
1. Lockdowns don’t work: Remember 15 days to slow the spread? Well, since those fateful words were uttered, we have had a year of various efforts to slow down a virus that has an infection fatality rate of less than 1 percent. And what we have learned is that viruses are gonna virus. California, the United Kingdom, Florida and Sweden show the futility of lockdowns. California and the UK locked down airtight, while Florida and Sweden have not. Florida and Sweden have performed better, if you take in the totality of their experiences than either California or the UK.
2. Politicians love power: This virus gave governors and mayors across the country unprecedented power to close down businesses, pick winners and losers, make arbitrary decisions based on personal pique and come up with fantastical rationalizations to impose their will on a largely docile populace. They loved to be the center of attention (New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy come to mind), they loved to appear to be empathetic, they loved to punish those who dissented, and most of all they loved the idea of compelling citizens to show their devotion to the state (hence useless mask mandates). It won’t be easy to seize power back from the greedy political class.
3. Experts lack expertise: The expert class has rarely been right but has never been in doubt. It has embarrassed itself by constantly making predictions that don’t pan out, by unnecessarily scaring a huge percentage of the population, by offering contradictory advice on everything from masks to school openings to gathering outdoors (good for violent protestors, bad for Super Bowl partiers). I suppose we should cut them some slack because this is a novel coronavirus, but, on second thought, we shouldn’t. They have been a disaster.
4. Lockdowns afflict the poor and comfort the wealthy: The last year has been very good for those who don’t have kids, those who can work remotely, those who have a diversified stock portfolio, and those who have a well-stocked refrigerator filled with fancy ice cream. They can do their zoom calls in the pajamas, have their lunch and dinners catered to them through DoorDash, binge watch Disney Plus and Netflix, and they have a great excuse not to visit Grandma. But it hasn’t been so good for those who need their kids to go to school, who lost their jobs in the gig economy, who don’t have any retirement savings to begin with and can’t find a way to make ends meet. Sure, the government has given away some stimulus checks, but that’s not gonna pay the bills in three months. The COVID lockdowns have been an utter disaster for those at the lowest end of the pay scale, but hey, if you have a few million in the bank or better yet a government job, things are just fine.
5. The media is complicit in furthering the Panic: If it bleeds, it leads. Or in the COVID era, if it coughs, we are off, on another eight stories about how you could die tomorrow, from a virus that kills virtually nobody healthy under the age of 70. I initially thought this was a giant conspiracy to kill the Trump reelection campaign but then it dawned on me that scaring people is awesome for ratings and for clicks (as the CEO of Time Warner pointed out last week). This is now an essential part of the media’s business strategy.
6. We need to totally revamp public education: It turns out that many, many teachers don’t really care that much about the kids. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the teachers and their unions in mostly liberal enclaves across the country are refusing to go to work because they say that they fear catching Covid from their students. This has put parents in a tough spot. How can I go to work if my kids don’t go to school? Many Catholic and private schools have figured it out because these schools have to cater to their customers, the parents. And so, they have safely opened. The solution is simple. Public money for education has to follow the students, not prop up a useless bureaucracy.
"Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who is called the Islamic William Wilberforce was secretly a christian"
I never said there was anything secret about it
even a cursory glance at his writings show he believed the Muslim needed to become more like Christians in England
but neither he nor Bentham the nut did anything one could reasonably call "fighting" against slavery
let's her some stories, Randy
how did they "fight" against slavery?
don't pitch a fit
either come up with that, or admit you are wrong
Boy, for a couple that don't want people to think they're christians, Wyatt and Regina sure are hung up on defending the indefensible christian bible!
They pretend none of us have a reason to think they're christians and yet they go on about how a Muslim abolitionist was a secret christian because Muslims aren't as good as christians, and neither are atheists.
They've even told me on a couple of occasions to talk to a pastor despite research showing that increases the suicide rate amongst harmless lgbt people.
Those are not things non-christians do.
Besides, I saw on 4th Presbyterian's web site Wyatt and Regina are part of that church.
Who do they think they're fooling, lol!
Wyatt and Regina are mad that they were caught in a lie when they said " "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution".
I posted a muslim and an atheist which proves them wrong so now they childishly assert the Muslim was a secret christian and the atheist is a bad person so he doesn't count.
Wyatt and Regina think they can fool people into thinking their god's special treatment of Jewish slaves means he opposed slavery. Certainly not for non-jews
So typical of christians who can't defend their god/Jesus telling the Israelites to take the virgin females of the city they conquered as sex slaves - Jesus is clearly pro-slavery!
Leviticus 25:44
Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
Deuteronomy 20:14
But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
'Frightening' New Data Shows Humanity Has Degraded or Destroyed Two-Thirds of World's Rainforest
New data from a Norwegian nonprofit is generating fresh concerns about humanity's destruction of the natural world, revealing Monday that people have ravaged about two-thirds of original tropical rainforest cover globally.
The Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) analysis found that human activities including logging and land-use changes—often for farming—have destroyed 34% of old-growth tropical rainforests and degraded 30% worldwide.
Deforestation accelerates human caused global climate warming as trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We cannot continue to act as though the earth's resources are infinite and survive as a species.
When you understand that under capitalism a forest has no value until it's cut down, you begin to understand the root of our ecological crises.
"but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution"
Randy keeps saying this is a lie
but he has given no example of anyone, other than evangelical Christians, that fought against the institution of slavery
this is all a distraction to hide that he was ignorant of two things:
1. the movement to end slavery was started by people who converted to evangelical Christianity and discovered that Christian scripture was anti-slavery
2. the Bible plainly declares that enslaving people is wrong, even saying it is as bad as homosexuality
Randy, you'll feel better about yourself, and lessen the odds of yet another nervous breakdown, by simply admitting you were wrong
people can read the writings of the abolitionists, and hear how they were inspired by Christian scripture
they can read the writings and biographies of Khan and Bentham and see they didn't try ot overturn the institution of slavery
they can read 1 Timothy 1:10 and see that the Bible condemns the practice of enslaving others
you simply are not fooling anyone
they can read biographies
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "for millennia, society has known that two genders are necessary to make a marriage".
For 300,000 years same sex couples have been forming pair bonds/marrying.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but no one from any other religious tradition, including atheism, fought this ancient institution
The atheist Jeremy Bentham (15 February 1748 – 6 June 1832) fought slavery as did muslim , Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who is called the Islamic William Wilberforce.
Wyatt and Regina are mad that I exposed their lie. Of course they can never admit they're wrong so they just keep lying. I'd debunk their lies again, but they'll just make up some more lies for me to debunk and it never ends.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Bible plainly declares that enslaving people is wrong, even saying it is as bad as h*sexuality".
Wrong. Jesus never spoke against gays. The bible says enslaving Jews is wrong, not non-jews. At best your god is a lying hypocrite who says "have slaves", contradicts himself and says "don't have slaves" with a nod and a wink but then tells the Jews to take slaves. Let's face it, Jesus/god needs the help of mental health professionals!
Jesus never spoke against gays, but he did tell the Israelites to keep all the female virgins of the cities they conquered as sex slaves - Jesus was clearly pro-slavery!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "people can read the writings of the abolitionists, and hear how they were inspired by Christian scripture."
You lied about their being no atheist or Muslim abolitionists, obviously no one should believe what you say about their writings. I'd post the truth again but you'd just tell another lie and it never ends.
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ.”
1 Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honour, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.”"
After the Israelites conquer another tribe god gives them slaves:
Numbers 31:18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Wyatt/Regina, what reason do you have to believe my husband and my marriage is sado-mashochistic? Wyatt and Regina keep asserting that but they never have an explanation for it. They're just prolific liars like Trump.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed into law legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a sweeping measure that will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
Arkansas is one of at least 14 states where legislators have proposed outright abortion bans this year.
Hutchinson said he was signing the bill because of its “overwhelming legislative support and my sincere and long-held pro-life convictions."
The bans were pushed by Republicans in order to force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. The court is more open to striking down the decision following former President Donald Trump's three appointments of originalist judges to the court.
“We must abolish abortion in this nation just as we abolished slavery in the 19th century – all lives matter," Republican Sen. Jason Rapert, the bill's sponsor said in a statement.
"The atheist Jeremy Bentham (15 February 1748 – 6 June 1832) fought slavery as did muslim , Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who is called the Islamic William Wilberforce."
you never gave any example of how they fought slavery
only that they expressed agreement with the Christian abolitionist movement
"I'd debunk their lies again, but they'll just make up some more lies for me to debunk and it never ends."
obviously, as anyone can see, you have no problem with arguments that never end
you simply are losing this one so that's the best you can do
"The bible says enslaving Jews is wrong, not non-jews."
I gave you the verse where the Bible says enslaving people is wrong
I'm sure you already looked it up but for anyone else, it's 1 Timothy 1:10
"You lied about their being no atheist or Muslim abolitionists, obviously no one should believe what you say about their writings."
they don't have to
the writings are available online and I have no doubt you have read them now that I made you aware of them
"I'd post the truth again but you'd just tell another lie and it never ends."
the idea that you won't post something because "it never ends" is laughable
your life centers around ranting on this blog
it looks like we are back to moving you to non-grata status
I did that for two years and you ranted non-stop at what you call me
well, perhaps I'll pick it up during the election next year
until then, your posts will not be responded to
have fun babbling to yourself
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Bible plainly declares that enslaving people is wrong, even saying it is as bad as h*sexuality".
They're lying again, the bible never uses the word "h*sexual", that word was invented in the 1800s. Bigots took the word that said a soft/weak person was bad and substituted in the word "h*sexual" to create the false impression that these passages condemned gays.
Christians have done this throughout the bible to change its meaning to better fit with their political agenda. There are few things christians lie about more than the bible.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonhmous said "you never gave any example of how they fought slavery".
You lied and said they never existed, there's no reason for me to spend time to get examples for you just to have you tell another lie, as you always do.
I posted "The bible says enslaving Jews is wrong, not non-jews."
Wyatt/Regina said "I gave you the verse where the Bible says enslaving people is wrong"
Those passages were refering to enslaving Jews, Jesus had no problem with enslaving non-jews and I gave you the verses where he gifts slaves to the Israelites. Jesus is obviously pro-slavery!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the writings are available online and I have no doubt you have read them now that I made you aware of them".
I haven't wasted any more time debunking your lies that never stop. You lied about Bentham and Kahn not existing, now you're lying about what was written about them.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "your life centers around ranting on this blog".
LOL! As does yours! At least I have a valid reason for this being important to me, you are trying to harm innocent people like us and take away our rights. You have no reason to be here and obsessed with this blog, no one is trying to take away your rights or hurt you. The only reason for your obsession is mental illness and research shows homophobia linked with psychoticism and dysfunctional personality traits
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "until then, your posts will not be responded to".
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You pathetic little weenies! You say that all the time and it never lasts, just like every time 200 comments are made you say "I won't comment further" and then you do.
Wyatt and Regina just can't quit me. Why are two people who claim not to have same sex attractions so obsessed with me and lgbt people? Mental illness, my friends, mental illness - that's what happens when you reject who you are.
I just came across this blog and read through these comments. It looks as though some woman named Priya was not aware that the movement to end slavery was begun by bible-believing Christians and went ballistic when that was revealed to her. Apparently to distract readers of the blog, she has posted several lies and deceits of various kinds. Most have already been discussed but a few from yesterday remain unaddressed.
-English bibles that use the word "homosexual" are not mistranslated. The equivalent of homosexual, in the Greek, was what the Bible uses.
-The Bible does, indeed, say that enslaving people is wrong and clearly referred to people who are not Jews in 1 Timothy 1:10, since the early church of the time already had a significant Gentile component.
-Jeremy Bentham and Sayd Khan did not start a movement, or take any other action, to end slavery.
Well, that's my contribution. Glad to have stopped by to correct the record.
Folks,Wyatt and Regina have said they will no longer respond to me, as they've done many times in the past. At one point they actually went several months,maybe a year or more without responding, but that was due to me revealing their monstrous behavior to the "Family" "Research" Council. The hate group came down on Wyatt and Regina for making anti-gay bigots look bad and they shut up for quite a while.
Since then they've responded most of the time but every now and then they say they won't anymore and stop for a few days or maybe a couple of weeks at most. How long do you think they'll last this time? Let's bet on it. They were pretty upset with me so I think they'll stretch it out to as much as nine days but not ten. What do you think?
Oh, geez, not even a day and Wyatt and Regina are responding to my comments! LOL!
They lied about there only being christians who fought slavery and now they're embarrassed that I proved them wrong by pointing out abolitionist atheist so of course they just come up with a new lie that atheist Jeremy Bentham and Muslim Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan didn't fight slavery. I could spend the time and look up the proof that they did, but as I discovered in years of arguing global warming with them, they argue in bad faith and every time you research their objections and post the truth they come up with another objection, or tell another lie and you're back to square one with them again.
If you try to argue in good faith with Wyatt and Regina you'll end up spending hour after hour answering their objections while they post glib specious theories and lies while you're busy. That's one of their favourite gas lighting tactics, they demand voluminous evidence and proof of their debate opponents but obey no such standards themselves.
So, I don't bother wasting time researching and responding to their every bad faith objection. They lied about only christians opposing slavery. I was very confident that was false so I spent a bit of time to easily prove them wrong. I'm not playing their disingenuous game all day as they come up with new lies every time I rebut their claims.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "English bibles that use the word "h*sexual" are not mistranslated. The equivalent of h*sexual, in the Greek, was what the Bible uses.".
That's a lie. There was no ancient Greek word that is the equivalent of "gay". The references that bigots changed to "h*sexual" were intentionally mistranslated from the greek word that meant soft, weak, lazy. That didn't fit with bigot's anti-gay agenda so their re-wrote their bibles to make it falsely appear it originally condemned gays when it did not. If they can re-write their bible to make it more anti-gay, they can re-write it to take out all the pro-slavery passages and to have Jesus say clearly and unequivocally that its always wrong to own people, even non-Jews.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "The Bible does, indeed, say that enslaving people is wrong and clearly referred to people who are not Jews in 1 Timothy 1:10, since the early church of the time already had a significant Gentile component.".
Another shamless attempt to deceive - 1 Timothy 1:10 says nothing about enslaving people being wrong. In those passages where it did the bible was referring to the milder type of slavery that Jews were subject to, not to the full on slavery that non-jews were subject to.
Jesus tells the Israelites in Numbers 31:18 to take all the virgin females in the cities god told them to conquer as sex slaves. Even if for the sake of argument I would agree that the passages referring to the lighter treatment of Jewish slaves applied to slavery in general, at best you've got a psychopathic god who pays lip service to opposing slavery but then hypocritically supports the Jews enslaving people from neighbouring nations.
There is no clear and unequivocal denunciation of slavery in the bible by god/Jesus. Again and again he sanctions slavery, tells slaves to obey their masters and that the slave owners are to be respected and honoured like Jesus.
Fox News' Tucker Carlson: Only The “Effeminate” Listen To Health Experts
Media Matters has the transcript:
"Meanwhile, in China, where the coronavirus originated, a top adviser to the Chinese government declared that the country was experiencing a very different kind of threat, a more profound threat.
The problem he said, was a national masculinity crisis. Chinese boys, quote, have been spoiled by housewives and female teachers, and they were becoming as a result, quote, “delicate, timid and effeminate.”
In essence, they were becoming people who might listen to someone like Tony Fauci. Left unchecked, said the Chinese government advisor, the feminization of Chinese boys would, quote, “inevitably endanger the survival and development of the Chinese nation.”'.
Again we see the broad conservative movement against COVID mitigation measures, disparaging those who wear masks and socially distance as unmasculine. 500,000 people have died because conservatives decided acknowledging and trying to mitigate the pandemic is a sign of disloyalty to Trump and the Republican party. With the pandemic still raging Republican governors are destructively ending mask mandates and all other mitigation measures. This is no time to let down our guard, the more infections there are the more chances there are for the virus to evolve so that the vaccines are no longer effective. Mitigation measures should not be removed until most of the population is vaccinated.
The Chinese leadership wrongly states that China is suffering from a masculinity crisis due to the strong influence of women on Chinese boys. They call the male personalities they oppose "delicate, timid, and effeminate". That's the negative spin on boys who are considerate, non-aggressive, thoughtful, and non-violent. This is a positve thing in a China ruled by dicatators that seek dominance over the world. This is not something to be opposed, its an example to be spread to the entire world. Boys need to be feminized and made less aggressive and more considerate of others. This is how we reduce violence in the world and make it a better place for everyone.
The last time I checked was in the mid-90's but at that time in Canada there were 20 males in prison for every female. There's a similar pattern around the world and I'm confident these ratios haven't changed significantly since then. Crime is overwhelmingly a male enterprise. Even most of the women in jail now are there due to the actions of their boyfriends or husband who pulled them into criminal behaviour. A comparison of world leaders and how they handled COVID shows that female leaders of nations did far better at mitigating the crisis than male leaders did. Men are about dominating others, women are about making sure everyone is doing well. To have the best possible society we must start socializing men from a very young age to be more pro-social, to be more like women as has been the fortunate situation in China.
It’s convenient for Democrats that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s scandal has shifted from him sentencing more than 15,000 seniors to death by allowing COVID-19 patients access to nursing homes to “Me-too” allegations.
Convenient because Democratic governors in Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania followed the same disastrous coronavirus practices in their nursing homes and would more likely be held accountable by their constituents if it received more air-time by the national media.
Broadcast news networks ABC, CBS and NBC have spent nearly three times as much coverage on allegations from several women that Mr. Cuomo sexually harassed them in recent years than they did on his nursing home scandal, according to a new report from the Media Research Center. The less the press focuses on the nursing homes, the more cover they provide to the likes of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
Ms. Whitmer could be facing criminal charges over her handling of the coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes, as Michigan’s attorney general launched an investigation into the fatalities. She is said to have given former Health Department Director Robert Gordon a $155,000 separation agreement, and the state’s Republicans vowed they will hold hearings on the matter.
Like Mr. Cuomo, Ms. Whitmer forced early coronavirus patients into nursing homes, and state officials have been blocked from getting information about the actual number of deaths because of laws that shield patients’ health care information.
“If we find there’s been willful neglect of office, if we find there’s been reckless endangerment of a person’s life by bringing them in, then we would move forward with charges against the governor. Of course, we would. Nobody’s above the law in this state,” Macomb County prosecutor Peter Lucido told ABC 7 WXYZ on Monday.
In New Jersey, COVID-19 nursing home deaths nearly tripled in December. New Jersey has the most coronavirus-related nursing home deaths per capita in the country — about 45% of its more than 17,000 confirmed cases.
Gannett NJ obtained documents showing that the state Office of Attorney General has convened a grand jury that is investigating the state-run veterans’ homes — where 200 people have died from COVID-19 — for possible criminal charges.
Earlier this year, Mr. Murphy blamed the former Trump administration for the fatalities, saying the state continues “to suffer from the lack of a national strategy to address COVID, and that includes testing.”
Now that President Biden is in office, Mr. Murphy still refuses to take the blame for his earlier mistakes, saying over the weekend that long-term care facilities in his state should “pay the price” if they didn’t follow the guidelines for preventing the disease’s spread.
Nursing home death rates also spiked in Illinois in December, and according to an August report by Illinois Policy Institute, “As COVID-19 was ravaging nursing home populations, which saw over half of the state’s pandemic deaths [early in the pandemic], the Illinois Department of Public Health chose for 3 1/2 months not to investigate 272 complaints of abuse and neglect.”
Paging Gov. J.B. Pritzker — you, too, may be liable for these unnecessary deaths by sending COVID-19 positive patients to nursing homes and then by not responding to the crisis fast enough.
Lastly, in Pennsylvania, more than 12,000 of the nearly 24,000 coronavirus deaths in the state occurred in nursing and long-term care facilities — and that count is most likely conservative.
Republicans lawmakers in the state are suspicious the officially reported numbers are too low and are renewing calls for an investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf dealt with nursing homes, sending early positive patients there to seek treatment.
“Can we trust our numbers? That’s what I’d like to know,” Pennsylvania Rep. Clint Owlett told ABC News 27.
So, it’s not just Mr. Cuomo in hot water.
The Democratic governors in Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania also need to explain to their constituents exactly why they elected the nursing home policies they did and bear liability for the horrific outcomes of those decisions.
Wyatt/Regina, nice attempt to pretend to be someone else in a vain attempt to avoid embarrassing yourselves by responding to me after you (yet again) said you wouldn't. Referring to me as the female named Priya instead of as a male named Randy was a transparent ploy, you certainly didn't fool me with that - I'm too familiar with your "every sentence is a paragraph" style of writing.
Next time try typing full paragraphs and that way you'll have more luck pretending to be someone else on your side.
Joe Biden won the presidency by hiding in his basement and using COVID as an excuse. He' have never been elected otherwise. He would have blown it with one of his stupid remarks.
Now, he's trying the same in the White House. How long will President Joe Biden's handlers keep shielding him from White House news conferences? Just how long will the "Hide Biden" strategy last?
No modern president has gone this far into a term without holding a real news conference, according to The Associated Press.
It is avoidance. And the fact is, he should be having news conferences. And by news conferences, I don't mean questions he can ignore as he's led off the stage by first lady Jill Biden, holding his elbow to direct him if he turns the wrong way.
And I don't mean Biden reading from a teleprompter. He even has difficulty with that lately.
I mean a real honest-to-God news conference where Biden stands and answers hard questions about his policies:
Questions on China. On the Middle East. On the crisis at the southern U.S. border and the surge of immigrants entering the country illegally, including kids and teens, some of whom have been sent to a facility in Texas, which is renewing criticism of kids in cages -- a direct result of Biden's policies and campaign speeches advocating for opening the nation's doors.
And he's the first President to increase the national debt by 2 trillion in his first 100 days. Even wastehog Obama didn't do that!
Question: "Does the Greek word arsenokoitai in 1 Corinthians 6:9 really mean ‘homosexuals’ or something else?"
Answer: There are some interpreters today who say the wording “men who have sex with men” is unclear, and should not be construed as a condemnation of all same-sex activity. In an attempt to make homosexual behavior compatible with Christianity, they attempt to redefine the Greek word.
The phrase “men who have sex with men” (translated “homosexuals”) is a translation of the Greek word arsenokoitai. Those who object to this translation say that arsenokoitai does not refer to all homosexual relationships but only to those involving abuse, coercion, or unfaithfulness. They say the word does not refer to “loving, faithful” same-sex relationships.
Arsenokoitai is a compound word: arseno is the word for “a male,” and koitai is the word for “mat” or “bed.” Put the two halves together, and the word means “a male bed”—that is, a person who makes use of a “male-only bed” or a “bed for males.” And, truthfully, that’s all the information we need to understand the intent of 1 Corinthians 6:9.
The word meaning “bed” carries a sexual connotation in this context—the Greek koitai is the source of our English word coitus (“sexual intercourse”). The conclusion is that the word arsenokoitai is referring to homosexuals—men who are in bed with other men, engaging in same-gender sexual activity.
The notion that some homosexual relationships are accepted is not even hinted at in this passage. The men’s commitment level or the presence of “love” is not addressed. The idea that the condemned same-sex activity is linked to economic exploitation or abuse is also a forced reading with no textual basis.
Paul’s reference to “homosexuals,” together with a reference to “effeminate” men in the same verse, effectively covers both active and passive homosexual behavior.
https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the/greek-word-for-8f6dfdb4ea204804221413ee156a4d75ea52707d.html
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "No modern president has gone this far into a term without holding a real news conference, according to The Associated Press"
Trump went 278 days in 2018 without holding a press conference and now you hypocrites want to criticize him for not holding one for 48 days?!
The hypocrisy of conservatives couldn't be bigger. This kind of double standard is central to the gas lighting Republicans push on the public.
Wyatt and Regina posted the minutia of a word Paul fabricated a compound word seen no where else that means man bed. No one really knows what Paul was getting at.
There are three points here:
1) Wyatt and Regina like to tell people they are not christians - obviously their obsession with the bible and even going so far as to dive into minutia no one cares about is not something non-christians do. Same with the constant fawning over christinity and falsely claiming christians are responsible for every good thing and nothing bad. Stop pretending not to be christians you two, its obvious you are.
2)The bible is completely discredited from end to end due to its foundational belief that humans are so evil and worthless that they deserve to be eternally tortured for finite crimes.
3)The bible is woefully unethical in its passages on gays. It calls for those who harm no one to be put to death.
Back in the 1800's there were many people pointing to the bible to justify slavery and they found a great deal of scriptural support for that position. Wyatt and Regina want to credit only christians with stopping slavery while ignoring the christians who supported slavery quoting the bible. Its just another total distortion of the reality this time ignoring that christians were for slavery before they were against it. If christians can now reject the words of the bible and slavery, they can certainly reject the anti-gay passages in the bible as well and its high time they all did so.
Don't tell me your religion has anything instructive to say about morality as long as you use it ans an excuse to wage war on harmless lgbt people.
It's certainly no more of a stretch to state the bible supports monogamous gay relationships and opposes discrimination against lgbt people than it is to state the bible opposes slavery.
Again we see the double standards of conservatives. Read about right wing authoritarians like Wyatt and Regina in this online book that discusses decades of research on these people.
Trump first news conference as President: Feb 12
Biden first news conference as President: the twelfth of never
To think, Merrick Garland could have been appointed to a lifetime appointment where he could grant special rights to homosexuals.
Instead, he will be in a short-term job regularly abused by all sides, and the people who got the job he wanted can overrule anything he does if they so choose!
He must think, if only Democrats had not nominated the conniving Hillary, I'd be on the Supreme Court now!
But, alas:
The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Merrick Garland as attorney general, handing the reins of the Justice Department to a longtime federal judge who will try his best to repoliticize the agency.
He was confirmed by a vote of 70-30. Among the Republicans who smirked and voted in favor were Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, John Cornyn of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Republicans who voted against Garland included three likely 2024 presidential candidates, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas. "Perfect", one of them exclaimed, with a hearty laugh!
The vote came almost five years to the day since President Barack Obama nominated Garland for the Supreme Court after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Senate, brilliantly controlled by Republicans and led by McConnell at the time, declined to even consider his nomination, and the seat was filled by the noted gay nemesis, Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Donald Trump.
Trump's first press conference as President:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-transcript/index.html
Biden's first press conference as President:
not if I see you first!
Joe Biden: the original American chicken!
An aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the Democrat groped her in the governor's residence, marking the most serious allegation among those made by a series of women against the embattled governor, according to a report published in a newspaper Wednesday.
The Times Union of Albany reported that the woman, who was not identified, was alone with Cuomo when he closed the door, reached under her shirt and fondled her. The newspaper's reporting is based on an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the woman's accusation. The governor had summoned her to the Executive Mansion in Albany, saying he needed help with his cellphone, the newspaper reported.
The three-term governor faces harassment allegations from five other women, including former aide Charlotte Bennett. The 25-year-old's attorney, Debra Katz, said in a statement released Wednesday evening that the latest allegations are “eerily similar” to Bennett's own story.
Bennett has said she was summoned to the Capitol on a weekend and left alone with Cuomo, who asked her for help with his cellphone. She has said Cuomo asked about her sex life and propositioned her.
“The Governor’s sexual harassment, which Charlotte Bennett reported, was buried by his aides and never properly investigated," Katz's statement said. "Because of their enablement, another young woman was left in harm’s way.”
The woman whose account was reported by the Times Union also indicated that Cuomo had touched her and made flirtatious comments on multiple occasions. According to the newspaper, her allegations came to light as Cuomo staffers watched the governor's March 3 press conference, his first after initial sexual harassment claims made in late February.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "To think, Merrick Garland could have been appointed to a lifetime appointment where he could grant special rights to h*sexuals."
Having the same right to marry as heterosexuals and to not be discriminated against as christians have is not special rights, its equal rights.
Christians have protections from discrimination that lgbt do not have - no special rights for christians!
Biden 50 days without a press conference, Trump 278 days without a press conference. And Wyatt and Regina are trying to claim Biden has gone too long without one. Typical Republican gas lighting.
Hey Wyatt/Regina, you said you weren't going to respond to my posts but you didn't even last 24 hours before you had to. All the self control of a five year old. LOL!
Next time you think you're going to ignore me, don't tell anyone, just do it and that way you won't look like quite as big of a fool when you give in to your need for interaction with me.
Trump's first press conference as President, less than a month after inauguration:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-transcript/index.html
Biden's first press conference as President:
not if I see you first!
Joe Biden: the original American chicken!
say what you will about Trump, he wasn't afraid of the press like Biden
Gosh, who could have seen this coming?
American politics in the modern media era are absolutely polluted with useful idiot Republicans who have traded principles for a few “Atta boy!” scratches behind the ears from Democrats and their mouthpieces at The New York Times.
None of them seem to have access to the internet because they all miss the news that virtually every Republican useful idiot ceases to be useful to his or her Democrat masters at some point.
The traveling grift squad known as the Lincoln Project is finding that out the hard way.
Despite being vehemently #NeverTrump, the best case scenario for the Lincoln Project would have been for him to still be in office. If he were, the “useful” part of useful idiots would still be in play. Now they’re just idiots. As soon as Joe Biden was put in the Oval Office to play with his Legos while his puppet masters make policy decisions, the services of the Lincoln Project were no longer needed.
Since then, we’ve seen the group’s fortunes disintegrate rather rapidly.
The onetime Lincoln Project cheerleading squad known as The New York Times has been slowly turning on the group. This week, it made the breakup permanent with an in-depth exposé on just how corrupt the former golden boys were and are. Not only does the Times write about the scandals that have been revealed in recent months, but it goes into the real reason that the LP founders formed the group in the first place: to get stinkin’ rich.
The New York Times:
A few days before the presidential election, the leadership of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project gathered at the Utah home of Steve Schmidt, one of the group’s co-founders, and listened as he plotted out the organization’s future.
None of the dissident Republican consultants who created the Lincoln Project a year earlier had imagined how wildly successful it would be, pulling in more than $87 million in donations and producing scores of viral videos that doubled as a psy-ops campaign intended to drive President Donald J. Trump to distraction. Confident that a Biden administration was on the horizon, Mr. Schmidt, a swaggering former political adviser to John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger, pitched the other attendees on his post-Trump vision for the project over a breakfast of bagels and muffins. And it was ambitious.
“Five years from now, there will be a dozen billion-dollar media companies that don’t exist today,” he told the group, according to two people who attended. “I would like to build one, and would invite all of you to be part of that.”
In fact, Mr. Schmidt and the three other men who started the Lincoln Project — John Weaver, Reed Galen and Rick Wilson — had already quietly moved to set themselves up in the new enterprise, drafting and filing papers to create TLP Media in September and October, records show. Its aim was to transform the original project, a super PAC, into a far more lucrative venture under their control.
This was not the only private financial arrangement among the four men. Shortly after they created the group in late 2019, they had agreed to pay themselves millions of dollars in management fees, three people with knowledge of the deal said.
The fact that these guys were in it for the money is one of the worst kept secrets in American politics. I can almost guarantee you that none of this is news to the Times. When the Lincoln Project was needed to attack Trump before the election no one in the MSM was going to portray Schmidt and Co. as anything but the most principled Republicans on Earth, motivated solely by the fact that they were horrified by all things Donald Trump.
Prior to last November 3rd, the Times did nothing but tell Stevie, Ricky, and the gang that they were the prettiest girls at the homecoming dance.
Now they’re being told never to call again.
A lot of conservatives have waves of schadenfreude washing over them as they watch the Left turn on those who were involved with the Lincoln Project.
in the next election, the dust that is now settling on the fading pandemic will sweep out Democrats across the country
the best known example is that first in deaths per million is the NY-NJ area where the grim reaper predator Cuomo bullied the state while friendly DeSantis in Florida kept things mostly open and came in 27th among states in deaths per million
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/country/united-states/
keep in mind that Florida has more elderly than any other state and that the average age of people dying of COVID was 80
DeSantis pulled off a miracle and is a shoo-in for the GOP nomination
but NY-FL is not the only place that prove lockdowns are malarkey
in New Mexico, the Democratic governor kept schools closed, a couple of miles east, Texas kept schools open with sensible precautions and monitoring
New Mexico is 14th in deaths per million, Texas is 24th
and New Mexico teens lost a year of their lives while Texas teens had education, football, and a social life
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-lost-year-what-the-pandemic-cost-teenagers
when will TTF and teacher unions apologize to teens in blue states?
Dems just passed a 1.9 trillion bill calling it COVID relief but only 900K will go to that
a trillion goes to pay for projects Dems have been pushing for years
https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2021/03/10/1_trillion_in_non-covid-related_coronavirus_stimulus_and_relief_766560.html
the Dems will have one more bill they can deceitfully pass through reconciliation before the next election
they can only do it once a year
and they are doomed in 2022
what they did to America during the pandemic is a catastrophe
Three-quarters of all voters, including 60% of Republicans, support Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan
A majority of all voters, including Republicans, support the passage of President Joe Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package.
Among Republicans, 60% of voters strongly support or somewhat support the bill, with 30% somewhat or strongly opposing the legislation.
The Republican-majority Oklahoma state House passed a bill on Wednesday that would grant immunity to drivers who “unintentionally” run over protesters.
In an early morning vote along party lines, with 79 votes in favor and 18 against, state lawmakers approved legislation that would remove criminal or civil liability for any driver who “unintentionally” injures or kills someone while “fleeing from a riot,” as long as they have a “reasonable belief” that fleeing would protect themselves from harm.
The bill would also allow protesters to be charged with a misdemeanor if they “unlawfully obstruct” traffic, punishable by up to a year in jail and $5,000 in fines.
The legislation follows widespread protests in Oklahoma and across the country last summer against racist police violence. Black Lives Matter protesters have repeatedly been targeted by vehicle assaults.
At one such protest in Tulsa, a truck drove through Black Lives Matter protesters on a highway. Several people were seriously injured, according to The Oklahoman, and the county district attorney did not charge the driver.
Democratic state Rep. Monroe Nichols, who is Black, told his fellow lawmakers that he doesn’t want to have to tell his 12-year-old son that the Oklahoma House “made it so that folks who may advocate for people who look like him can be run over with immunity.”
The bill now heads over to the Republican-majority state Senate.
"Three-quarters of all voters, including 60% of Republicans, support Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan"
they aren't informed
yet
but they will be
in 2022, the epidemic will be over but our kids will still owe over 6 trillion, most of which wasn't for direct assistance
the public thinks it was to send checks to people who need help
that's only a fraction of it
A bunch of white, financially secure liberals who claim to advocate for minorities nonchalantly locked down the economy and destroyed countless lives of minorities. Those minorities may never recover, at least until another true pro-minority President like Trump is elected.
Just as Covid permanently scars lungs, it can damage earnings potential for a lifetime. In February 2020 unemployment rates were just 3% for Whites, 4.4% for Hispanics, and 6% for Blacks. A year later the respective rates were 5.6%, 8.5%, and 9.9%. The longer you’re out of work, the harder it is to rejoin the labor force.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "say what you will about Trump, he wasn't afraid of the press like Biden".
When your metric is how long they went without a press conference, it is Trump who is afraid off the press. Trump 278 days without a press conference, Biden 50. So typical of the deceit of Wyatt and Regina to pretend Biden fears the press when obviously Trump feared it more than five times as much.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "for millennia, society has known that two genders are necessary to make a marriage".
Not true, for 300,000 years same sex couples have been forming pair bonds/marriage.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "they are doomed in 2022".
That's what you told us about Biden's prospects in 2020. Regardless of the truth every election you blindly assert Republicans are sure to win, your predictions mean nothing.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "what they did to America during the pandemic is a catastrophe".
As per usual Wyatt and Regina have been wildly distorting the reality in COVID deaths and who is responsible. New York has the highest death rate not because of mismanagement but because that is where the initial outbreak occurred in the U.S. Trump hid the seriousness of COVID from New York and other governors and refused to take mitigation measures which let the outbreak get out of control. The U.S. has a 5% of the world's population and 25% of its deaths from COVID, markedly worse than average.
Wyatt and Regina keep claiming Florida has been a big success compared to California but as usual the reality is the opposite of their claims. Forida is 25th in death rate per 100,000, California is 34th.
Even if it were true that blue state New York mismanaged COVID, it was up to Trump to step in and take action to rectify the situation as he is the man with the most power, authority and resources in the nation. Trump failed to take a leadership role, instead pushing all the mitigation measures on to the States while at the same time holding COVID superspreader events with no masks and no social distancing, setting a deadly example for his supporters. Trump turned half the population violently against masks and social distancing, making a refusal to accept the seriousness of the situation a hallmark of loyalty to Trump and the Republican party.
Research by health authorities show Trumps failure to act on COVID has resulted in 314,000 needless deaths. The blame for this disaster rests squarely on the shoulders of Trump for initially lying about the seriousness of the epidemic and then not only refusing to implement a national mask mandate but for turning half the country against mitigation measures.
CDC Study: Life Expectancy Lowest In Southern States
Hawaii took the top spot for the state with the highest average life expectancy at 81 years. The Aloha state was followed by California, New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey and Rhode Island to round out the top ten states where you’ll live the longest.
West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina and Missouri all ranked among the bottom ten states for life expectancy, respectively, the CDC found.
Republicans are not the solution, Republicans are the problem.
GOP Senator Celebrates Relief Bill He Voted Against
March 11, 2021 Hypocrisy, Republicans
The New York Times reports:
Before the House gave final approval to a $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Wednesday without any Republican support, Speaker Nancy Pelosi admonished Republicans for their opposition to the measure, declaring, “It’s typical that they vote no and take the dough.”
As if to make her point, Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, tweeted approvingly just hours after the bill passed about the $28.6 billion included for “targeted relief” for restaurants. His post did not mention that he had voted no.
Mr. Wicker’s post received an unwelcome reception on Twitter, prompting thousands of responses, many of them pointing out that he had voted against the measure, known as the American Rescue Plan.
in the next election, the dust that is now settling on the fading pandemic will sweep out Democrats across the country
the best known example is that first in deaths per million is the NY-NJ area where the grim reaper predator Cuomo bullied the state while friendly DeSantis in Florida kept things mostly open and came in 27th among states in deaths per million
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/country/united-states/
keep in mind that Florida has more elderly than any other state and that the average age of people dying of COVID was 80
DeSantis pulled off a miracle and is a shoo-in for the GOP nomination
but NY-FL is not the only place that prove lockdowns are malarkey
in New Mexico, the Democratic governor kept schools closed, a couple of miles east, Texas kept schools open with sensible precautions and monitoring
New Mexico is 14th in deaths per million, Texas is 24th
and New Mexico teens lost a year of their lives while Texas teens had education, football, and a social life
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-lost-year-what-the-pandemic-cost-teenagers
when will TTF and teacher unions apologize to teens in blue states?
WOW!
New Mexico and Texas right across the border and yet New Mexico who shut everything down is number 14 in deaths per million while Texas left it all open and the Lone Star state is 24th.
What kind of a slobbering, obese, deranged lunatic could look at those stats and claim that lockdowns were worth the long-term damage done to the poor?
The New York area of the United States has the highest death rate because as an international travel hub it was the location of the initial outbreak in the U.S. and it has had the longest time for people to become infected.
Red states have no excuse, they were spared the infection for months and yet their infection rates have been a disaster as is the United States as a whole.
Wyatt/Regina keep bragging about how well Florida is doing and how bad California is doing despite Florida being 25th in deaths and California being 34th. Hypocritically Republicans are talking about DeSantis's record being a reason for him to be the presidential nominee in 2024 and Republicans are trying to recall the California Governor despite his having done much better than Desantis.
That's standard Republican gaslighting - the guy that does worse is the hero and the guy that does far better is a disaster. Its the same with Trump, 278 days without a press conference and Republicans are ranting about how terrible it is that Biden hasn't held one in 50 days.
Trump kept the seriousness of COVID secret and allowed it to take hold in New York. He scoffed at the pandemic, called it a hoax, held one super spreader event after another with no masks or social distancing setting a deadly example for conservatives. Trump mocked and disparaged mitigation measures like masks and social distancing. In doing so he turned half the country against mitigation measures which resulted in the U.S. COVID performance being amongst the worst in the world.
Trump was the national leader with the resources to make a difference when state governors were struggling. He failed to lead and health experts say his failure to act resulted in over 300,000 needless deaths.
Introduction: The response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic became increasingly politicized in the U.S. and political affiliation of state leaders may contribute to policies affecting the spread of the disease. This study examines differences in COVID-19 infection, death, and testing by governor party affiliation across 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Methods: A longitudinal analysis was conducted in December 2020 examining COVID-19 incidence, death, testing, and test positivity rates from March 15 through December 15, 2020. A Bayesian negative binomial model was fit to estimate daily RRs and posterior intervals (PIs) comparing rates by gubernatorial party affiliation. The analyses adjusted for state population density, rurality, Census region, age, race, ethnicity, poverty, number of physicians, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, smoking, and presidential voting in 2020.
Results: From March to early June, Republican-led states had lower COVID-19 incidence rates compared with Democratic-led states. On June 3, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had higher incidence (RR=1.10, 95% PI=1.01, 1.18). This trend persisted through early December. For death rates, Republican-led states had lower rates early in the pandemic, but higher rates from July 4 (RR=1.18, 95% PI=1.02, 1.31) through mid-December. Republican-led states had higher test positivity rates starting on May 30 (RR=1.70, 95% PI=1.66, 1.73) and lower testing rates by September 30 (RR=0.95, 95% PI=0.90, 0.98).
Conclusion: Gubernatorial party affiliation may drive policy decisions that impact COVID-19 infections and deaths across the U.S. Future policy decisions should be guided by public health considerations rather than political ideology.
Study Sample
A longitudinal analysis examined COVID-19 incident cases, death rates, polymerase chain reaction testing, and test positivity from March 15 (March 24 for testing and test positivity) through December 15, 2020 for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Based on prior studies,3,4,6,7 it was hypothesized that states with Democratic governors would have higher incidence, death, and test positivity rates early in the pandemic due to points of entry for the virus,11,12 but that the trends would reverse in later months, reflecting policy differences that break along party lines. The IRBs at the Medical University of South Carolina and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health deemed this research exempt.
Measures
Governor party affiliation was documented for each U.S. state; for the District of Columbia, mayoral affiliation was used. Daily incident cases and deaths were obtained from the COVID Tracking Project.13 Polymerase chain reaction testing and test positivity data came from the HHS.14 Potential confounders included state population density,15 Census region,15 state percentage of residents aged ≥65 years,15 percentage of Black residents,15 percentage of Hispanic residents,15 percentage below the federal poverty line,15 percentage living in rural areas,16 percentage with obesity,17 percentage with cardiovascular disease,18 percentage with asthma, percentage smoking,9 number of physicians per 100,000 residents,16 and percentage voting Democratic (versus Republican) in the 2020 presidential election.19
"This study examines differences in COVID-19 infection, death, and testing by governor party affiliation across 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia."
what study?
you need to come up with something quick because Americans can see plainly that blue state governors screwed up big-time!
Statistical Analysis
Bayesian negative binomial models were used to examine incident case, death, testing, and test positivity rates. The models included penalized cubic B-splines for the fixed and random temporal effects. Models adjusted for the above covariates. Ridging priors were assigned to the fixed and random spline coefficients.20 Posterior computation was implemented using Gibbs sampling.18,21 Model details, including prior specification, computational diagnostics, and sensitivity analyses, appear in the Appendix.
Models were stratified by governors’ affiliation, and posterior mean daily rates were graphed with their 95% posterior intervals (PIs). Adjusted RRs and 95% PIs were calculated to compare states, with RRs >1.00 indicating higher rates among Republican-led states. Analyses were conducted using R, version 3.6.
RESULTS
The sample comprised 26 Republican-led and 25 Democratic-led states. Figure 1A–B present incidence trends (cases per 100,000) and adjusted RRs by gubernatorial affiliation. Republican-led states had fewer cases from March to early June 2020. However, on June 3, the association reversed (RR=1.10, 95% PI=1.01, 1.18), indicating that Republican-led states had on average 1.10 times more cases per 100,000 than Democratic-led states. The RRs increased steadily thereafter, achieving a maximum of 1.77 (95% PI=1.62, 1.90) on June 28 and remaining positive for the remainder of the study, although the PIs overlapped 1.00 starting on December 3. A similar pattern emerged for deaths shown in Figure 2A–B. Republican-led states had lower death rates early in the pandemic, but the trend reversed on July 4 (RR=1.18, 95% PI=1.02, 1.31). The RRs increased through August 5 (RR=1.80, 95% PI=1.57, 1.98) and the PIs remained >1.00 until December 13 (RR=1.20, 95% PI=0.96, 1.39). Testing rates (Figure 3A–B) tracked similarly for Republican and Democratic states until September 30 (RR=0.95, 95% PI=0.90, 0.98). By November 27, the testing rate for Republican-led states was substantially lower than Democratic states (RR=0.77, 95% PI=0.72, 0.80). The test positivity rate (Figure 4A–B) was higher for Republican-led states starting on May 30, and was 1.70 (95% PI=1.65, 1.74) times higher on June 23.
DISCUSSION
In this longitudinal analysis, Republican-led states had fewer per capita COVID-19 cases, deaths, and positive tests early in the pandemic, but these trends reversed in early May (positive tests), June (cases), and July (deaths). Testing rates were similar until September, when Republican states fell behind Democratic states. The early trends could be explained by high COVID-19 cases and deaths among Democratic-led states that are home to initial ports of entry for the virus in early 2020.11,12 However, the subsequent reversal in trends, particularly with respect to testing, may reflect policy differences that could have facilitated the spread of the virus.3,4,6–9
Adolph et al.3,6 found that Republican governors were slower to adopt both stay-at-home orders and mandates to wear face masks. Other studies have shown that Democratic governors were more likely to issue stay-at-home orders with longer durations.4,5 Moreover, decisions by Republican governors in spring 2020 to retract policies, such as the lifting of stay-at-home orders on April 28 in Georgia,22 may have contributed to increased cases and deaths. Democratic states also had lower test positivity rates from May 30 through December 15, suggesting more rigorous containment strategies in response to the pandemic. Thus, governors’ political affiliation might function as an upstream progenitor of multifaceted policies that, in unison, impact the spread of the virus. Although there were exceptions in states such as Maryland and Massachusetts, Republican governors were generally less likely to enact policies aligned with public health social distancing recommendations.3
CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that governor political party affiliation may differentially impact COVID-19 incidence and death rates. Attitudes toward the pandemic were highly polarized in 2020.7,9,10,23–25 Future state policy actions should be guided by public health considerations rather than political expedience26 and should be supported by a coordinated federal response within the new presidential administration.
"what study?"
The one that the name links to in each of the posts from the study, very stable genius.
"you need to come up with something quick because Americans can see plainly that blue state governors screwed up big-time!"
Only those that get their info from anonymous right-wing trolls, Q Anon, and DJT.
Donald Trump’s former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller blamed the deadly Capitol riot on Trump’s incendiary speech in Washington before the building was stormed by his supporters, he told Vice News in a startling interview revealed Thursday.
“Would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and overrun the Capitol, without the president’s speech? I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened,” said Miller, a hawkish Special Forces veteran chosen by Trump to replace former Defense Secretary Mark Esper days after the 2020 presidential election.
Asked directly by Vice if he thought the president was responsible for the violence at the Capitol, Miller responded: “It seems cause-and-effect, yeah.”
Miller said, however, that Trump may not have realized how extreme the reaction would be to his speech. As for him, Miller confirmed that Trump’s words set off “alarm bells.” He added: “The question is, did he know that he was enraging the crowd to do that? I don’t know.”
"The one that the name links to in each of the posts from the study, very stable genius."
not where I'd usually look for a link but I guess I don't have that special wisdom gained from a stay at a mental institution!
Thanks for posting the truth in detail, good anonymous!
As we can see, because the initial outbreak was in the New York area and the infection has been spreading for much longer the death rates initially were higher there but as the pandemic spread to red states they've done much more poorly at handling COVID than the blue states.
This reflects the higher percentages of conservatives in red states whom Trump conditioned to respond aggressively against any attempts to stop the spread of the virus.
Republicans have introduced 253 laws in 43 states to restrict the right to vote. The bogus justification for this is "election security" to address the non-existent voter fraud.
Republicans, tell us how cutting early voting days, closing the polls earlier, and removing polling places make the election more secure???
Republicans know they can't win with their policies so they've gone crazy with voter suppression laws in the hope that the perennial popular vote losers can corruptly seize power.
"not where I'd usually look for a link but I guess I don't have that special wisdom gained from a stay at a mental institution!"
If I had known which rock you live under, I could have put the link there where you would find it easier.
Helpful hint: Links show up in orange, regular text in white on the regular pages.
Blue and black respectively on the "Leave your comment" page.
That's all the "special wisdom" you need, genius.
"As we can see, because the initial outbreak was in the New York area and the infection has been spreading for much longer the death rates initially were higher there but as the pandemic spread to red states they've done much more poorly at handling COVID than the blue states."
What we see is that overall, over the last year, NY, NJ, CN, MA, all have death rates exceeding anywhere else. This despite draconian lockdowns and, at least with Cuomo, hiding deaths at nursing homes
Red states made a collective decision to weigh risks and benefits and operate a little more loosely, so you would have expected them to be much higher....if lockdowns worked.
Which they don't.
"Blogger Priya Lynn"
aka persona non grata
"If I had known which rock you live under, I could have put the link there where you would find it easier."
if you're talking about the time I spent on this blog of fools, I live in the comment section
I don't think anyone else has made their name a link
pretty stupid ide, actually
I actually don't follow links, they may have viruses
if you have something to say, say it
With a rising number of migrants arriving at the southern border, pressure is mounting on President Biden from both sides of the aisle.
House Republicans have dubbed the situation “Biden’s border crisis” and suggested that the president’s decision to reverse policies put in place by his predecessor, Donald Trump, has caused chaos. Meanwhile, there is simmering opposition from progressives who feel Biden has not done enough to move away from Trump’s policies.
Speaking outside the Capitol on Thursday, Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., channeled Republicans’ recent focus on the rhyming children’s book author Dr. Seuss to take a shot at Biden’s immigration policies.
“What we are witnessing, of course, is Biden’s border crisis,” Katko said. “If you want to think of it another way, it’s disorder at the border by executive order.”
Katko’s appearance was part of the second event this week where Republican House members sought to highlight “Biden’s border crisis.” His comments referred to a series of executive orders the president has passed since taking office Jan. 20 that have been designed to overturn Trump’s immigration policies.
Specifically, the Republican House members focused on Biden’s decision to end Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to stay outside the U.S. as their cases were adjudicated. As a result of that decision, some 1,500 asylum seekers who were already enrolled in the program have been allowed into the country, according to Customs and Border Protection data released Wednesday. Biden also announced last month that unaccompanied minors will not be immediately turned away at the border.
While some asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors have been allowed to enter the country, many families of migrants and individual adults have been turned away under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Title 42 rule, a move that began under Trump and that the agency has said is designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
A total of 100,441 people attempted without authorization to enter the country along the southern border during February, according to the new CBP data. That is a 28 percent increase from the previous month. Unaccompanied minors — meaning children without lawful immigration status who attempt to enter the country alone or with someone other than a parent or legal guardian — accounted for 9,457 of those people.
That surge has left the Biden administration struggling to safely house the influx of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the southern border. This has forced large numbers of these children to fill bare-bones detention facilities designed for adults. According to data obtained by Yahoo News, as of Thursday morning 2,745 migrant children were detained in Border Patrol facilities. Roughly 200 of those children were apprehended Thursday, though some have been detained since as far back as March 1.
Legally, unaccompanied children should be held in such facilities only for up to 72 hours, after which they must be transferred into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services and placed in an appropriate childcare facility until they can be safely released to a parent or sponsor.
"I don't think anyone else has made their name a link"
There have been a number of posts over the years from other sources where the author's name has been used as the link for the full article that was copied.
"I actually don't follow links, they may have viruses"
If you don't actually follow links, then there was really nothing for you to complain about then. I remember you had said that before - it's a surprise to no one that you don't bother to look up the science and instead just post whatever you pull out from under the rock.
That's fine. The link is there for other people and they can compare the merits of what you say against people who actually know how to do science.
"if you have something to say, say it"
The research paper speaks for itself. It did not need elaboration. I'm just surprised you haven't taken a snippet from it out of context yet to "prove" how "right" you are.
"This despite draconian lockdowns and, at least with Cuomo, hiding deaths at nursing homes"
Meanwhile, the whistleblower for bad numbers in Florida got arrested in her home and thrown in jail. That's a MUCH better way to make your death numbers look good.
"Red states made a collective decision to weigh risks and benefits and operate a little more loosely, so you would have expected them to be much higher....if lockdowns worked."
I see, so those extra deaths were "acceptable losses" since they didn't reach reach the "unacceptable" threshold.
Tell us, very stable genius, what is the acceptable loss threshold and how did you arrive at that number?
Please elaborate on the science and / or math you used to arrive at that number. People are curious, because the US is still #1 in COVID-19 deaths, by a factor of 2 over the next nearest country - Brazil.
While you obviously would have sacrificed more people to try and prop up the economy, that's not a tradeoff everyone else would make. After being #1 for so long, there is only so much "winning" we could take. We got tired of "winning."
""Three-quarters of all voters, including 60% of Republicans, support Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan"
they aren't informed"
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Popular Bible teacher Beth Moore may be the most high-profile Southern Baptist to publicly cut ties with the conservative evangelical denomination in the last year, but she is not the only one to go.
Some say a string of recent departures should serve as a wake-up call for the Nashville-based network of churches.
"Southern Baptists need to do some soul searching of why so many African-American leaders have left and now why their most prominent woman leader has left," said Ed Stetzer, a Southern Baptist pastor and executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.
Southern Baptists are currently grappling with the influence of partisan politics and the treatment of women and people of color within the church. These major tension points contributed to Moore's decision to leave as well as those of Black pastors like the Rev. Joel A. Bowman Sr., who announced in December that he was cutting ties with the convention.
Moore, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse who received pushback for criticizing former President Donald Trump's treatment of women, told the Religion News Service she is no longer a Southern Baptist.
Moore cited white evangelicals' confounding embrace of Trump among her reasons for going, the Religion News Service reported. But Moore holds out hope the convention will one day leave nationalism, political division and sexism behind.
"I do not believe these are days for mincing words. I’m 63½ years old & I have never seen anything in these United States of America I found more astonishingly seductive & dangerous to the saints of God than Trumpism. This Christian nationalism is not of God. Move back from it," Moore said in December on Twitter.
Susan Codone praised Moore's integrity. She called her departure an indictment of the current trajectory of the convention and its leadership. In recent years, Codone, a Southern Baptist sexual abuse survivor, has advocated alongside Moore for added protections and accountability amid the convention's abuse crisis.
Nearly $2 trillion is about to go out the door to tens of millions of Americans across the country — including individual $1,400 checks — and congressional Republicans can't claim credit for any of it to their constituents back home.
With zero Republicans in either chamber voting for the whopping pandemic relief bill just signed by President Biden, GOP lawmakers have backed themselves in a difficult corner, publicly at odds with widely popular legislation among the public.
But now that the bill has become law and financial relief is about to land in the pockets of most Americans, Republicans are starting to tailor their strategy toward gradually chipping away public support.
Republicans, of course, will have ample time to publicly bash the law and potentially twist reality to suit their ends, just as they did after the presidential election, citing concerns about fraud among the public as a basis for contesting the results. Those concerns emerged only after a months-long coordinated effort by Trump and many of his elected Republican supporters, which began long before Election Day.
For now, Republicans are trying to draw attention to anything and everything but the stimulus, given the disconnect between broad public polling for the package and the total absence of GOP backing in Congress.
"I guess their Dr. Seuss approach didn't work, so they've had to change the subject," as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters this week.
When one Republican senator — Roger Wicker of Mississippi — tried to take credit for aid coming to his home state despite his "no" vote, the backlash for his evident hypocrisy came swiftly. In separate tweets, Wicker bragged that "one bright spot" was that his provision for restaurant bailouts had been included and would bring billions in targeted relief to "ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic."
Pelosi, without mentioning names, threw shade at Wicker and any other Republicans who may have tried the same tactic.
"Unfortunately, Republicans, as I say, vote no and take the dough. You see already some of them claiming, 'Oh, this is a good thing,' or 'That's a good thing.' But they couldn't give it a vote," she said. "Anyway, enough of them."
The White House's official response, which was more welcoming, came from press secretary Jen Psaki: "We invite [Republicans] to work with us on the agenda moving forward because clearly the bill that the president just signed into law is something that the American people are excited about."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous, congratulations on almost going one day without responding to my posts!
You actually responded to one of mine I posted under the name Homophobia linked with psychoticism and dysfunctional personality disorder
but we'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you "didn't know" that was me.
So, we'll give you credit for a full 24 hours without responding to my posts as of March 11. I still say you can't make it ten days without simply having to respond :)
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "mail-in voting is the biggest potential source of voter fraud in America - Jimmy Carter"
That was a long time ago and experience since then has shown Carter wrong. Despite insisting there was widespread voter fraud in 2016 and 2020 Trump and Republicans were unable to prove there was significant voter fraud despite several dozen attempts to prove it in court. Mail in voting has been going on for decades in many states without a hitch, there has never been significant voting fraud found.
I posted "As we can see, because the initial outbreak was in the New York area and the infection has been spreading for much longer the death rates initially were higher there but as the pandemic spread to red states they've done much more poorly at handling COVID than the blue states."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "What we see is that overall, over the last year, NY, NJ, CN, MA, all have death rates exceeding anywhere else. This despite draconian lockdowns and, at least with Cuomo, hiding deaths at nursing homes Red states made a collective decision to weigh risks and benefits and operate a little more loosely, so you would have expected them to be much higher....if lockdowns worked.".
The death rate is higher in those states because they were the location of the initial infection and had been dealing with it for months (more time for more people to die) before it got to red states. As the study good anonymous posted shows, the death rates in red states after the infection got going there was higher than in blue states during the same time - the conclusion of the study was that blue states handled COVID better due to the anti-mitigation policies of red states and conservatives.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "I actually don't follow links, they may have viruses".
And yet you demand ever more proof anytime someone disagrees with you! As I've always said, you argue in bad faith, you don't ask for evidence because you sincerely want to consider it, you do it to send people off wasting their time finding you proof you wouldn't admit to under any circumstances. What hypocrisy!
Its been story after story like this of conservatives becoming violent over being asked to wear masks and adhere to other COVID mitigation measures:
The SFist reports:
The woman who yelled at, insulted, coughed on, and assaulted an Uber driver on Sunday because he told her to put on a mask, as seen in widely publicized video of the incident, has been arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of assault and battery, conspiracy, and violation of health and safety code, among other charges.
This is why over 500,000 have died, conservatives think acknowledging the pandemic by adhering to safety measures is to admit the failure of Trump and Republicans. Trump, Republicans and conservatives all own these over 500,000 deaths. They ranted for years about 4 deaths at Benghazi and now they pooh-pooh over 500,000 dead. The gap between the double standards couldn't be wider. Read about the decades of psychological research that show this is true of right wing authoritarians like Wyatt and Regina Hardiman in this online book, The Authoritarians
Anti-gay Christian Death-Cult Leader: Everyone Should Avoid “So-Called ‘Vaccines'”
Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, [a prominent anti-lgbt evangelical christian] is now urging other conservative Christians to avoid the COVID vaccines.
"The so-called “vaccines” against COVID-19 have only been approved for experimental use. Much remains unknown about their safety and efficacy. It not only typically takes years to create a new vaccine, but most often, despite the best efforts of scientists, a successful vaccine proves impossible. For example, scientists (including Dr. Anthony Fauci) tried to create an HIV vaccine for more than 40 years."
The vaccines went through rigorous testing on a condensed schedule precisely because of the danger COVID poses. The only reason the FDA approved them was because of how well they worked. Staver has no idea that the methods to create a vaccine today are different than they used to be when the AIDS crisis was going on… which is to be expected since conservative Christians make it a point to never learn the science they reject.
All three of the approved vaccines in the U.S. are “successful” in every sense of the word. They all prevent death by COVID. And they’re better than anyone expected in terms of people catching COVID after the shot(s).
Staver shows us why white evangelicals have not only perpetuated the pandemic, they’re going to be the reason we can’t get this virus under control. Whether it’s keeping churches open with next to no restrictions or telling Christians they should avoid the vaccine for reasons that make no sense at all, Staver and the rest of his death cult won’t be happy until the body count gets higher. Like so many “pro-lifers,” he doesn’t care if you die once you’re out of the birth canal.
If you belong to a church that’s holding in-person mask-optional services, you’re part of the same cult. Get out while you can. Get the shot when it’s available to you. And never listen to deranged liars like Staver whose entire careers depend on them refusing to accept reality.
"Nearly $2 trillion is about to go out the door to tens of millions of Americans across the country — including individual $1,400 checks — and congressional Republicans can't claim credit for any of it to their constituents back home.
With zero Republicans in either chamber voting for the whopping pandemic relief bill just signed by President Biden, GOP lawmakers have backed themselves in a difficult corner, publicly at odds with widely popular legislation among the public."
oh, Republicans supported the checks at a level that would target people who need the help
that would have been about 10%
if we had a non-partisan press, it would be filled over the next couple of weeks with people who have a boat at the second home on the lake
and they get $1,400
not to mention states like NY getting bailed out for irresponsibly shutting everything down and racking up huge unemployment outlays
and where are the stories comparing the Florida approach to the NY one?
"I see, so those extra deaths were "acceptable losses" since they didn't reach reach the "unacceptable" threshold.
Tell us, very stable genius, what is the acceptable loss threshold and how did you arrive at that number?"
obviously, every community makes their own determination
and every community has
obviously, every blue state could have taken very drastic action to ensure zero deaths
they didn't because they arrived at an acceptable loss threshold
still, it's notable when certain states who have have had extreme lockdowns have higher overall numbers than states that didn't
"Please elaborate on the science and / or math you used to arrive at that number."
please elaborate on what happened to turn you into such a complete jackass
"People are curious, because the US is still #1 in COVID-19 deaths, by a factor of 2 over the next nearest country - Brazil."
we have a lot of blue states
of the 530k that died in the US, 55% were in blue states
while that doesn't sound like much more than red states, remember red states did better, without the drastic shutdowns that have had a catastrophic effect on the poor
when will Dems apologize to America's poor and minorities for the needless devastation of the lives?
"While you obviously would have sacrificed more people to try and prop up the economy, that's not a tradeoff everyone else would make."
actually, we determine such things democratically
in those, citizens are free to take measures to keep themselves safe
"After being #1 for so long, there is only so much "winning" we could take. We got tired of "winning.""
America will win again in 2022 when America's experiment with Dems concludes
it always does
after two years, Bill Clinton became a DINO to survive
after two years, Obama got a "shellacking" and Obamacare was the last time he accomplished anything
Good anonymous posted "With zero Republicans in either chamber voting for the whopping pandemic relief bill just signed by President Biden, GOP lawmakers have backed themselves in a difficult corner, publicly at odds with widely popular legislation among the public."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "oh, Republicans supported the checks at a level that would target people who need the help that would have been about 10%"
Oh, B.S. The Covid relief bill under Trump was larger then the one Democrats just passed and every Democrat voted for it while no Republicans supported Biden's bill which 75% of the public supports.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "still, it's notable when certain states who have have had extreme lockdowns have higher overall numbers than states that didn't".
The research shows Republican led states had worse death rates once they started dealing with the pandemic:
"From March to early June, Republican-led states had lower COVID-19 incidence rates and death rates compared with Democratic-led states. On June 3, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had higher incidence and death rates.
Testing rates were similar until September, when Republican states fell behind Democratic states. Republican governors were slower to adopt both stay-at-home orders and mandates to wear face masks. Other studies have shown that Democratic governors were more likely to issue stay-at-home orders with longer durations Moreover, decisions by Republican governors in spring 2020 to retract policies, such as the lifting of stay-at-home orders in April may have contributed to increased cases and deaths. Democratic states also had lower test positivity rates from May 30 through December 15, suggesting more rigorous containment strategies in response to the pandemic."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "of the 530k that died in the US, 55% were in blue states"
Which was because the outbreak started in blue states and they dealt with it for months longer. Looking at the time when red states started dealing with it blue states had much lower death rates due to actually implementing mitigation measures.
Good anonymous said "While you obviously would have sacrificed more people to try and prop up the economy, that's not a tradeoff everyone else would make."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous "actually, we determine such things democratically in those, citizens are free to take measures to keep themselves safe".
The measures one person takes to keep themselves safe are far less effective when others don't take those same steps. The measures to be taken during a pandemic should not be left up to the will of random people.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "America will win again in 2022 when America's experiment with Democrats concludes it always does"
Every election you rant about how Republicans are sure to win regardless of the reality. Your predictions are childish and meaningless.
Democrats have won the popular vote in 7 out of the last 8 presidential elections - America much prefers Democratic policies to Republican authoritarianism, Republicans can only win by cheating and gerrymandering.
WSJ: Amazon Tells Republican Senators It Won’t Sell Books That “Frame LGBTQ+ Identity As Mental Illness”
The Daily Beast reports:
Amazon has decided that it’s not going to lend a helping hand to Republican senators who are desperate to turn the lives of transgender people into a toxic culture war. The e-commerce behemoth has reportedly informed a cabal of GOP senators that it will no longer sell any books that treat transgender or other sexual identities as mental illnesses. In a response seen by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon exec Brian Huseman wrote: “We have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.”
Read the full article. The senators had sent a letter to Amazon demanding to know why it has removed anti-LGBT activist Ryan T. Anderson’s anti-trans book. The original WSJ report is behind a paywall. This is major.
Amazon will sell Mein Kompf and the Communist Manifesto and Quotations from Chairman Mao and Leadership Lessons by Andrew Cuomo and Fatherhood by Bill Cosby
but not Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition from the American Psychiatric Association?
that tells you all you need to know
fahrenheit 451 is the new Jeff Bezos goal
from the New York Times September 18, 1995
"A continuing rise in average global sea level, which is likely to amount to more than a foot and a half by the year 2100. This, say the scientists, would inundate parts of many heavily populated river deltas and the cities on them, making them uninhabitable, and would destroy many beaches around the world. At the most likely rate of rise, some experts say, most of the beaches on the East Coast of the United States would be gone in 25 years. They are already disappearing at an average of 2 to 3 feet a year."
if you are one of the lucky people to snag a beach rental on the sold-out East Coast this summer, have fun
you don't have much time left!
hey, wait a minute here
25 years would have been last September
maybe Joe Biden's beach house in Rehoboth is under water
I hope Joe knows about this!
if only we had stayed in the Paris accords......
"if only we had stayed in the Paris accords......"
LOL!!!!
right now, schools across America are closed
here in MC, they will soon allow a few kids to return
but the kids will sit spaced apart in large rooms where they will watch a TV which will show the teacher on Zoom
and a monitor will be in he corner to make sure the kids stay seated with masks on
meanwhile, the government allows thousands to stream across the border from the virus-raging country of Mexico
yeah, the Dems are fixing everything up
LOL!!!!
Morons Wyatt and Regina Hardiman are claiming sea levels aren't rising and beaches aren't disappearing. Low lying Florida is being devastated by encroaching seas and that's only going to get worse. The Republicans blocked Florida scientists from even talking about global warming and rising sea levels. Just like with coronavirus, conservatives think "If we pretend it doesn't exist it can't hurt us. The truth is sea levels are rising at an increasing rate
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "gender has consequences".
What they mean by this is that they will try to punish transpeople for breaking the boundaries of stereotypical gender roles. They have gone on at length about how they want to see transfemales attacked for using the women's public bathroom. They want to force us to use the men's room where they also say we'll be assaulted, but that pleases them as well.
A recent survey from Public Religion Research Institute found that only 22% of U.S. adults support exempting business owners with religious objections to some LGBTQ rights from anti-discrimination rules.
Twice that many Americans (44%) feel their own rights are threatened by other people’s religious liberty claims.
As the weakness of the religious right's arguments has become more and more visible, and as more and more Americans who identify as religious reject the edicts to discriminate, its fearmongering about the dignity of LGBTQ people has shifted, both over the past decades and more recently. These days, it focuses on scaring Americans about transgender people, from their participation in youth sports to the standards of medical care for transgender youth, about which it spouts vicious fictions. All of its fearmongering is based on falsehoods or stereotypes, like those that have been proven incorrect in states that already have nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ youths playing sports.
Americans of all religious backgrounds also reject the distorted "religious freedom" framing of the religious right's opposition to the Equality Act, as outlined Wednesday by Greene. When given a choice between these two statements —"Everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in their personal lives, provided they do not cause harm to others," and "Everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in every part of their lives, including performing their jobs, even if that means excluding certain groups of people" — 89 percent of Americans, as well as majorities of all major religious groups, chose the former.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll found 75% of registered voters including 59% of Republicans support the stimulus package. Not a single Republican in Congress voted for it. Again and again we see Republicans opposing the overwhelming will of the people. Just like with Obamacare's protections for those with preexisting health conditions, Medicare, Medicaid, and social security
278 Republicans voted for a tax cut for the rich
147 Republicans voted to overturn hte election results
0 Republicans voted for Covid relief
Need I say more?
"of the 530k that died in the US, 55% were in blue states"
That doesn't take into account that most of the blue state deaths were very early on - like NYC and other parts of the NE where thousands of people got infected before folks even realized COVID had a foothold in the US, and the Rumpster was gaslighting people about how it wouldn't be that bad.
And while the Cheeto Benito was claiming hydroxychloroquine was a magical cure, the doctors and nurses in the northeast were actually figuring out how to save peoples lives when a cure wasn't yet available.
Those folks in blue states were cannon fodder for the pandemic, and the guinea pigs for lots of treatments that didn't work. Meanwhile, the protection measures put in place for the rest of the country kept lots of people safe, despite problems in places like meat packing plants that had more difficulties keeping people apart.
Many of the red states, not being big international ports like NY and Boston, or with the massive public transportation systems those cities have, were not infected by the first round of visitors.
Red states got their doses later, as the virus slowly spread throughout the country. But doctors there had the advantage of working in a system that was already protecting itself with masks and social distancing, limiting the spread and keeping numbers down - unlike what happened in NY.
Those red state doctors also had the advantage of learning what worked and what didn't from the blue state doctors that had already been through the battles.
If you go here:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
and sort by Total Cases per 1M population you get the following result:
# USA Tot Cases/
State 1M pop
1 North Dakota 132,459
2 South Dakota 129,420
3 Rhode Island 123,189
4 Utah 117,747
5 Iowa 117,207
6 Tennessee 115,629
7 Arizona 114,283
8 Oklahoma 109,172
9 Arkansas 108,191
10 Nebraska 105,542
11 South Carolina 103,433
12 Kansas 103,049
13 Alabama 102,527
14 Mississippi 100,995
15 Indiana 99,673
16 Idaho 97,894
17 Wisconsin 97,709
18 Georgia 97,172
19 Nevada 96,951
20 Illinois 95,318
21 Wyoming 95,313
22 Montana 95,180
23 Texas 93,992
24 Louisiana 93,891
25 New Jersey 93,541
26 Kentucky 92,910
27 Delaware 92,333
28 Florida 91,868
29 California 91,582
30 New York 90,927
USA Total 90,665
Red states have done a far worse job of keeping infections down than blue states. It was only demographics, timing, and knowledge gained from blue states that kept their death rates being as bad as their infection rates.
"Red states have done a far worse job of keeping infections down than blue states. It was only demographics, timing, and knowledge gained from blue states that kept their death rates being as bad as their infection rates."
infections aren't relevant
deaths are
most cases in America can be traced to people fleeing Manhattan and spreading across the country
the Northeast didn't get the first cases, the Northwest did
yet, Seattle didn't spread it across the country like Cuomoland did
indeed, Washington has one of the lowest death rates in the country
it's become obvious that the pandemic slows down everywhere, long before herd immunity sets in
when cases go up and hospitals fill in a certain area, people get more careful
they don't need the government to micromanage their affairs
the grim reaper predator in NY is responsible for deaths across the land
and then he wrote a book about his great leadership skills
"infections aren't relevant
deaths are"
I see you still don't understand causality.
Deaths don't happen unless people get infected first.
The more people you have infected, the more likely you are to have cases the require hospitalization.
If you exceed the hospital capacity to care for those patients, and you can't move them elsewhere, more people die than would have otherwise.
"the Northeast didn't get the first cases, the Northwest did
yet, Seattle didn't spread it across the country like Cuomoland did"
No. The first known and documented COVID death in the US was in California on Feb 6th. CA had another death on Feb 17th.
The Washington death didn't occur until Feb 29th. But Rump's CDC didn't get that info out until Apr 21st.
NY had 328 cases tested and confirmed by Mar 12th. Obviously those people were infected before they got sick enough to be tested - meaning they got infected in February - at most a week or two after cases in CA and WA. Given that the illness is not 100% fatal, it could well be that NY got infected at essentially the same time, but it the first death happened to be in CA.
WA had 126 cases on Mar 12th, only 38% of the in NY's numbers on the same day. So it is quite likely NY already had nearly 3 times as many people infected by the time the 1 person died in WA on Feb 29th. Of course these numbers only account for those who were symptomatic, sick enough, and wealthy enough to seek medical attention & get tested.
Did the blue states of CA and WA handle those cases better than NY? Certainly.
CA issued its stay at home order on Mar 19th, the first state in the country to do so.
NY on issued its order on Mar 22nd, and WA on Mar 23rd.
But by Mar 23rd, there were already 45,751 case in the US, and the COVID-19 was already out of the bag. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
COVID had been circulating in the US for several weeks before the first US death occurred.
"it's become obvious that the pandemic slows down everywhere, long before herd immunity sets in"
Yeah - that's because there have been stay at home orders, mask mandates, and social distancing rules in much of the country. They work where they are followed, and the infection rates in red states show that they don't work when you have a bunch of people that don't follow them.
"they don't need the government to micromanage their affairs"
The videos of Red Hatters yelling at people and refusing to wear masks show otherwise.
"the grim reaper predator in NY is responsible for deaths across the land"
At least Cuomo took the health risks seriously.
The Pussy Grabber president didn't and got his whole family infected along with a bunch of people in the Rose Garden and thousands of people at his rallies.
"and then he wrote a book about his great leadership skills"
The Cheeto Benito had to get someone else to write his book because he is barely literate. Just ask him to read "Yosemite" aloud.
"I see you still don't understand causality."
I think your vision may be blurred. I understand better than you if you don't understand that death is not as likely to be caused among all groups. Those places that care for the vulnerable better will have less death.
"Deaths don't happen unless people get infected first."
But not all infections cause death and the risk can be managed by those in authority who aren't playing political games, namely the non-blue.
"The more people you have infected, the more likely you are to have cases the require hospitalization."
It's not quite that simple, which I'm sure you know since you have a PhD in causality. LOL!
Even the chance of hospitalization is variable.
Those, like Ron DeSantis, who took extra steps to protect the elderly wound up in 27th place among deaths per million. Those, like the egregious predator creep, Cuomo, who forced elderly people to live with the infectious wound up getting the prize for causing the most deaths.
And it was that way even before it turned out he was covering up elderly fatalities.
"No. The first known and documented COVID death in the US was in California on Feb 6th. CA had another death on Feb 17th.
The Washington death didn't occur until Feb 29th."
ah, I remember a particular retirement facility in Washington
regardless, it didn't start in NY, as some of you have been saying and the West Coast has done well compared to Cuomo
"But Rump's CDC didn't get that info out until Apr 21st."
oh brother
we all knew this long before April 21st
you're not impressing anyone
"NY had 328 cases tested and confirmed by Mar 12th. Obviously those people were infected before they got sick enough to be tested - meaning they got infected in February - at most a week or two after cases in CA and WA. Given that the illness is not 100% fatal, it could well be that NY got infected at essentially the same time, but it the first death happened to be in CA."
a lot of "could be"s for someone who earlier spoke with such certainty
"Did the blue states of CA and WA handle those cases better than NY? Certainly."
ya think? LOL!
"CA issued its stay at home order on Mar 19th, the first state in the country to do so.
NY on issued its order on Mar 22nd, and WA on Mar 23rd."
so, NY apparently did something wrong
which is the fact you are trying to obscure
"Yeah - that's because there have been stay at home orders, mask mandates, and social distancing rules in much of the country. They work where they are followed, and the infection rates in red states show that they don't work when you have a bunch of people that don't follow them."
actually, wearing face coverings and physical distancing work whether the government tries to impose them or not
and why there isn't any great variability in outcome whether a place had draconian violations of civil liberties or not
people know how to keep themselves safe and don't need the drone of the obvious from overpaid bureaucrats
in mid January, Anthony Fauci, highest paid government worker in America, said that by March, the UK variant would be the dominant strain in America
don't think we're getting our money's worth from that clown
"At least Cuomo took the health risks seriously."
no, he didn't
"The Pussy Grabber president didn't and got his whole family infected along with a bunch of people in the Rose Garden"
none of whom died, or even got very sick
read my lips "deaths are relevant, not cases"
"and thousands of people at his rallies."
no proof of that, his rallies were outdoor
"Those, like Ron DeSantis, who took extra steps to protect the elderly wound up in 27th place among deaths per million."
Ron is hiding the numbers in Florida - we don't know what they really are - and he locked up the whistleblower trying to get the real numbers out.
"a lot of "could be"s for someone who earlier spoke with such certainty"
Like a scientist, I don't make absolute statements unless I have absolute proof. The CDC says "Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus." We also know that a number of people are asymptomatic. So it is very reasonable to expect that people who got sick enough to be tested by Mar 12th had been exposed a week or two before. It is unreasonable to believe that all the people who were tested on the 12th were exposed just 2 days before.
Do I have access to a database that proves some of those people had been exposed weeks before? No. That's why I didn't make an absolute statement and instead used "could." It is a very reasonable presumption given common knowledge disease variability among a population.
I know you like to use absolutes like "John McCain's inevitable win," even though he was consistently behind in most of the polls. "John McCain could win" would be a much more accurate statement, but you prefer absolutes even when they are wrong. I don't.
"no proof of that, his rallies were outdoor"
You're still operating under the mistaken impression that just because you're outdoors you can't get the virus.
That simply isn't the case. The virus doesn't care whether you're indoors our outdoors. It just needs an unobstructed flight path. You have less of a chance outdoors if your upwind of someone rather than downwind, but "outdoors" only reduces the chances, it doesn't nullify them.
Idiots at Rump's rallies bumped their chances back up by not wearing masks as a political statement, and keeping closer together than recommended.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3722299
The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies
Abstract
We investigate the effects of large group meetings on the spread of COVID-19 by studying the impact of eighteen Trump campaign rallies. To capture the effects of subsequent contagion within the pertinent communities, our analysis encompasses up to ten post-rally weeks for each event. Our method is based on a collection of regression models, one for each event, that capture the relationships between post-event outcomes and pre-event characteristics, including demographics and the trajectory of COVID-19 cases, in similar counties. We explore a total of 24 procedures for identifying sets of matched counties. For the vast majority of these variants, our estimate of the average treatment effect across the eighteen events implies that they increased subsequent confirmed cases of COVID-19 by more than 250 per 100,000 residents. Extrapolating this figure to the entire sample, we conclude that these eighteen rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19. Applying county-specific post-event death rates, we conclude that the rallies likely led to more than 700 deaths (not necessarily among attendees).
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Those, like Ron DeSantis, who took extra steps to protect the elderly wound up in 27th place among deaths per million. Those, like the egregious predator creep, Cuomo, who forced elderly people to live with the infectious wound up getting the prize for causing the most deaths."
The federal government is responsible for nursing homes, this was Trump's failure as is the pandemic as a whole. Florida is at 25th place in deaths per million while California is in 34th place yet like the liar you are you claimed Florida was doing far better than California.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "And it was that way even before it turned out he was covering up elderly fatalities.".
Desantis was worse in covering up fatalities. The woman that was running the Florida COVID datatabse quit because DeSantis asked her to fabricate the numbers. He fired her and then proceded to fabricate the numers.
"NY had 328 cases tested and confirmed by Mar 12th. Obviously those people were infected before they got sick enough to be tested - meaning they got infected in February - at most a week or two after cases in CA and WA. Given that the illness is not 100% fatal, it could well be that NY got infected at essentially the same time, but it the first death happened to be in CA."
Good anonymous said "CA issued its stay at home order on Mar 19th, the first state in the country to do so.
NY on issued its order on Mar 22nd, and WA on Mar 23rd."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "so, NY apparently did something wrong which is the fact you are trying to obscure".
Nonsense. The New York area is a travel hub so the infection got a large foothold there first, that's why more people died.
Good anonymous said ""Yeah - that's because there have been stay at home orders, mask mandates, and social distancing rules in much of the country. They work where they are followed, and the infection rates in red states show that they don't work when you have a bunch of people that don't follow them."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "actually, wearing face coverings and physical distancing work whether the government tries to impose them or not'.
That is utter nonsense. Far more people refuse to wear masks when there isn't a mandate. Mask mandates lower the infection rate.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "and why there isn't any great variability in outcome whether a place had draconian violations of civil liberties or not"
Wrong. This study showed the blue states with mask mandates and stay at home orders did better than red states.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "people know how to keep themselves safe and don't need the drone of the obvious from overpaid bureaucrats'.
That's obviously not true given the aggressive refusal of conservatives to wear masks and social distance which has resulted in the United States having handled the pandemic far worse than the average country. Conservatives clearly have no idea how to keep themselves safe, they need to be told how to do so.
John Dean: “Matter Of Days” Until Trump Is Indicted
The Hill reports:
John Dean, the former White House counsel to former President Nixon, on Thursday, predicted that former President Trump would soon be indicted after reports that his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen has met with the Manhattan district attorney’s office for a number of interviews.
On Wednesday, it was reported that Cohen had met with the Manhattan DA’s office for a seventh time as part of a criminal investigation into Trump’s finances. Cohen is expected to participate in an eighth meeting in the near future.
Read the full article.
"From personal experience as a key witness I assure you that you do not visit a prosecutor’s office 7 times if they are not planning to indict those about whom you have knowledge. It is only a matter of how many days until DA Vance indicts Donald & Co." — John W. Dean (@JohnWDean) March 10, 2021
There's nothing "draconian" about a mask mandate. If Trump had issued one early on over 500,000 people wouldn't have had to die. Instead he mocked and scorned mitigation measures turning half the population against them.
"so, NY apparently did something wrong
which is the fact you are trying to obscure"
I'm not trying to obscure anything.
I'm just pointing out that it looks like NYC got the biggest exposure to COVID early on. It may or may not have been "THE" first, but it was certainly one of the first and the numbers show it had nearly 3 times the number of cases in WA.
I didn't compare NY to CA on Mar 12th because CA doesn't show ANY new cases (at least on the Worldometers site) until Mar 26th, where it has 1025. By then NY had 6100. Does that mean NY already had 6 times as many cases as CA on the 12th? Given the exponential growth of the virus, it is probably not a linear relationship. It is fair to say that it most likely had several times more cases than CA. Was it 3x? 4x? It's hard to say without more explicit data and some modeling.
The problem is states didn't start putting out safety measures until the 19th (CA) and the 22nd (NY). By the 22nd, NY had already hit 5442 new cases per day. For comparison, Florida only hit 348 on that very same day.
The point is that shutting things down on the Mar 22nd for NY was already too late - the nursing home order came on Mar 25th - when it was clear they were running out of room for CV patients in the hospitals and needed more acute care beds.
We can say with 20/20 hindsight that was a bad decision. It is not clear however if any other locations were ready or able to take all those patients either - the USNS Comfort didn't arrive until Mar 30th, by which time NY was seeing nearly 7,000 new cases per day, and the Comfort only has 1000 beds. So the question is, where do you put 5 to 10 thousand new patients a day that can provide them some sort of basic medical care? Yankee Stadium doesn't even have a roof, much less beds.
Fortunately other states learned from that mistake and lowered their numbers going forward. But they also had the luxury of time and lower infection numbers that NY did NOT have at that moment.
For NY to have avoided a lot of these deaths, they needed to shut things down even earlier. Would Mar 12th have been early enough? Hard to say as testing was very limited then - what we see in the records is probably only the tip of the iceberg. A week earlier would be Mar 5th, and less than a week after the WA death.
It's just not reasonable to assume that anyone would have gone along with Cuomo shutting things down that early, when only 93 new cases would be reported on Mar 13th. But only 9 days later it was at 5442 new cases a day - an increase of 5,751.6%; in NINE days.
The fact of the matter is, by the time NY shut down on the 22nd, it was already weeks too late to stop a massive spread.
Great analysis, Good Anonymous! Thanks for pointing out the errors in Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous's "logic".
71 Congress Members Got COVID, Two-thirds were Republicans
Roll Call reports:
At least 71 lawmakers had COVID-19 at some point in 2020 or 2021, based on public statements they made about testing or being presumed positive for the virus or testing positive for antibodies, according to a GovTrack database.
Of the aforementioned 71 lawmakers who had COVID-19, two-thirds are Republicans. Eight GOP senators and 39 House Republicans had the virus, compared to two senators and 21 House members among Democrats.
This is no surprise as Republicans have refused to follow mitigation meaures and Democrats have.
KY Senate Approves Bill Making It Illegal To Insult Cops
March 12, 2021 Police, Republicans
The Louisville Courier Journal reports:
The Senate passed a bill Thursday evening to enhance penalties for crimes related to rioting after more than an hour of heated debate, including criticism that it would criminalize insulting police officers and chill protected free speech.
Sen. Danny Carroll [photo], a retired police officer, said his Senate Bill 211 would crack down on and send a message to those who “tried to destroy the city of Louisville” in the civil unrest last year.
The bill passed by a 22-11 vote, with six Republicans joining Democrats to vote ‘no.’ Sen. Gerald Neal, a Democrat who represents a majority-Black district in west Louisville, said he was insulted by Carroll’s bill, which he viewed as a direct attack on his constituents who protest for and demand racial justice.
Read the full article.
‘How dare you’: Democrats lash out over bill criminalizing police insults, but bill passes — Courier Journal (@courierjournal) March 12, 2021
Via email from prominent lgbt hate group leader Mat Staver:
"Years ago, when activists used words such as “tolerance” and “equality” for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” I warned that the goal was to erase Judeo-Christian values and morality."
It's only about erasing Judeo-Christian-Islamic values if your religion is entirely about oppressing harmless lgbt people. I would think even you would see your religion about being more than that.
Staver said "I warned this agenda included “same-sex” marriage, men in women’s facilities and pedophilia."
No, you demonized harmless lgbt people like you are now by calling us pedophiles while you ignore the pedophelia rampant in religious organizations like the Catholic church.
Staver said "And once accepted, there would be NO TOLERANCE for dissent."
Oh. B.S.! Not being allowed to discriminate against the harmless doesn't prevent you from spewing as much hate as you want.
Staver said "Back then, gay and lesbian activists insisted they only wanted “equal treatment.” Those who dared speak out were labeled hysterical. Yet in 2021, LGBT & Q has invaded the sacrament of marriage,"
Having the same right to marry the one you love IS equal treatment. You don't have a right to force the state to discriminate against us just like we don't have a right to force it to discriminate against you.
"men are demanding to enter women’s private rooms and sports,"
The women's public bathroom is where transwomen fit best. Your efforts to force people to use the public restroom of their birth gender forces physically intimidating transmen like Shawn Stimson use the women's bathroom. This terrifies women in the women's public bathroom - you are making things worse!
Staver said "and now the “Q” (standing for “Queer” in the Senate bill) includes pedophilia and more."
You demonize harmless lgbt people with your lies in order to promote violence against us. You are evil people.
Staver said "After years of adding new letters and rearranging them (putting L before G), the “Q” was added for “Questioning,” and now it means “Queer.” The “Q” now includes everything outside of LGBT—it includes all sexual paraphilias.".
LGBTQ includes only people, NOT paraphilias. You lie to demonize us and promote violence against us. You've made your entire religion about this, that's why you erroneously think fairness is about "erasing" your religious values. And any paraphilias that do not harm others are perfectly moral.
Staver said "As we fight the “Equality Act,” we continue to defend pastors and churchgoers. We can only defend freedom because of your support."
No one is forcing pastors or churchgoers to engage in sex they find sinful or a gender expression they don't want - there is nothing to defend them from. Your being prevented from discriminating against lgbt people is a trivial or insignificant imposition on you and as such does not threaten actual religious freedom to do as you wish.
Staver said "I invite you to partner with us in the effort to keep religious freedom free."
Christians are not legally superior in the law, your religious freedom is not absolute, you don't have the right to force the state to discriminate against us.
The New York Times' David Leonhardt summarized the landscape nicely: "Republican legislators in dozens of states are trying to make voting more difficult, mostly because they believe that lower voter turnout helps their party win elections. (They say it's to stop voter fraud, but widespread fraud doesn't exist.) The Supreme Court, with six Republican appointees among the nine justices, has generally allowed those restrictions to stand."
His piece quoted a recent assessment from University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald, who wrote, "I don't say this lightly. We are witnessing the greatest roll back of voting rights in this country since the Jim Crow era."
Much of the recent attention has focused on Georgia, and for good reason: the Republican-led state government responded to some unexpected defeats in last year's election cycle by rushing to pass indefensible new voting restrictions -- scaling back voting-access laws that Georgia Republicans endorsed just a few years ago.
But as we were reminded yesterday, the problem is not limited to Georgia.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law a Republican-backed bill that makes it harder to vote early, potentially eroding a key aspect of Democratic campaigns. Republicans in the House and Senate quickly approved the voting changes over the opposition of all Democratic legislators. Republicans said the new rules were needed to guard against voting fraud, though they noted Iowa has no history of election irregularities and that November's election saw record turnout with no hint of problems in the state.
This is a classic example of Republicans rushing to fix a problem that doesn't exist. The integrity of Iowa's elections is not in doubt, and was never called into question. Indeed, GOP candidates fared quite well in the Hawkeye State in 2020: Donald Trump carried the state easily; Sen. Joni Ernst (R) won re-election by a larger-than-expected margin; and Republicans even flipped two of the state's four U.S. House seats.
There wasn't even a hint of fraud in Iowa. The state's electoral system is sound; it worked just fine; and far-right candidates benefited.
But Iowa Republicans decided success wasn't good enough. Their new law cuts the state's early voting period for no reason, and lowers the amount of time polls will be open on Election Day. As the Des Moines Register explained:
The law cuts Iowa's early voting period from 29 days to 20. Polls will now close at 8 p.m. for state and federal elections instead of 9 p.m. It significantly tightens the rules for when absentee ballots must be received by county auditors in order to be counted. Ballots must now arrive by the time polls close in order to be counted. Previously, ballots placed in the mail the day before Election Day could be counted as long as they arrived by noon the following Monday.
State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R-Iowa), who helped sponsor the bill, recently argued, "The ultimate voter suppression is a very large swath of the electorate not having faith in our election systems, and for whatever reason, political or not, there are thousands upon thousands of Iowans that do not have faith in our election systems."
I wish this made more sense. What the GOP legislator is arguing in effect is that "thousands upon thousands of Iowans" believed lies, so it falls to state government, not to tell people the truth, but rather to make it harder for Iowans to participate in their own democracy.
Reality be damned, Americans should expect considerably more efforts along these lines. Fox News reported yesterday that Heritage Action for America, an activist group tied to the Heritage Foundation think tank, is moving forward with plans "to spend at least $10 million on efforts to tighten election security laws in eight key swing states. "
The report added that Heritage Action is specifically targeting Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Texas, and Wisconsin.
"Like a scientist, I don't make absolute statements unless I have absolute proof."
"absolute proof" is a myth
I didn't fault you for your "would be, could be" schtick but for your earlier statement when you were speaking with great certainty
which is common for TTFer
they think pretending something is certain makes it certain!
why didn't you qualify this?:
"Ron is hiding the numbers in Florida - we don't know what they really are - and he locked up the whistleblower trying to get the real numbers out."
one whistleblower whose charges weren't proven
but you seem certain DeSantis is "hiding the numbers"
and, of course, Cuomo has admitted his cover-up
"I know you like to use absolutes like "John McCain's inevitable win," even though he was consistently behind in most of the polls. "John McCain could win" would be a much more accurate statement, but you prefer absolutes even when they are wrong. I don't."
so pathetic
actually, you use "absolutes" all the time
but your best example of me doing it is when I said someone is going to win an election when everyone knows that the election winner is never certain until the election
it's just rhetoric and everyone knows that - except you and a very creepy foreign troll who no one is responding to right now
just like if I said the Nats are going to win on Opening Day
"You're still operating under the mistaken impression that just because you're outdoors you can't get the virus."
I think the chances are so greatly reduced as to be insignificant
you are under the mistaken impression that the virus cares if you are a BLM supporter or a Trump supporter
there is no sign the protests last summer made rates go up, indeed they began to drop
so why would Trump's rallies, usually much briefer, cause rates to increase?
and don't give us the malarkey about masks
I went to a few BLM protests
they were about 50% masked, at best
"That simply isn't the case. The virus doesn't care whether you're indoors our outdoors."
the virus isn't cognizant
it's potential for infection is indeed much less in the absolutelty ventilates outdoors than the poorly indoors
"It just needs an unobstructed flight path."
it actually needs stagnant air, and large amount of virus
"You have less of a chance outdoors if your upwind of someone rather than downwind,"
even downwind, if the air is moving enough for it to come downwind, it will keep moving and you are unlikely to be infected
"but "outdoors" only reduces the chances, it doesn't nullify them."
same applies to wearing masks and social distancing
the insane idea that we will somehow "nullify" the virus is part of the lunacy keeping schools and businesses and churches closed
until herd immunity is achieved, we can mitigate but never nullify
mitigation measures: wear masks, socially distance, hold large rallies outdoors
"Idiots at Rump's rallies bumped their chances back up by not wearing masks as a political statement, and keeping closer together than recommended."
some BLM protestors did the same
"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3722299
The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies
Abstract
We investigate the effects of large group meetings on the spread of COVID-19 by studying the impact of eighteen Trump campaign rallies."
did you do any studies of BLM protests?
if not, did you do this study with a conclusion you were hoping to get before you started?
if so, your study has no validity
"To capture the effects of subsequent contagion within the pertinent communities, our analysis encompasses up to ten post-rally weeks for each event. Our method is based on a collection of regression models, one for each event, that capture the relationships between post-event outcomes and pre-event characteristics, including demographics and the trajectory of COVID-19 cases, in similar counties. We explore a total of 24 procedures for identifying sets of matched counties. For the vast majority of these variants, our estimate of the average treatment effect across the eighteen events implies that they increased subsequent confirmed cases of COVID-19 by more than 250 per 100,000 residents. Extrapolating this figure to the entire sample, we conclude that these eighteen rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19. Applying county-specific post-event death rates, we conclude that the rallies likely led to more than 700 deaths (not necessarily among attendees)."
this study appears to make unwarranted assumptions and the only actual data is county averages
it's too simplistic to be relied on and it appears to be biased by predetermined conclusions
truth is numbers didn't begin to surge until college kids returned home for Thanksgiving
Trump's rallied didn't cause a surge of cases or deaths
Liberal comedian Sarah Silverman said in a recent podcast that she’s had it with the “absolutist-ness” of the Democratic Party and no longer wants to be associated with it.
“It’s the absolutist-ness of the party I am in that is such a turnoff to me,” Ms. Silverman said in an Instagram video taken from her podcast Monday. “It’s so f—-ing elitist. You know, for something called ‘progressive,’ it allows for zero progress. It’s all or nothing.
“I think I don’t want to be associated with any party anymore,” she continued. “It comes with too much baggage. Every party, it comes with so much f—-ing baggage that no ideas can be taken at face value. And without ideas, what are we? Without a common truth, how can we talk about it?
“We all put too much s—- on this stuff,” she added. “We no longer are able to be a nation of ideas.”
Ms. Silverman has become an outspoken critic of left-wing cancel culture, which she commonly dubs “righteousness porn.”
"there is no sign the protests last summer made rates go up, indeed they began to drop
so why would Trump's rallies, usually much briefer, cause rates to increase?
and don't give us the malarkey about masks"
I went to a few BLM protests
they were about 50% masked, at best"
I don't find your statement about going to BLM protests credible.
Nor is the 50% number.
Do do medical reasons, I have not been able to attend BLM protests, but as far as I can tell from TV clips, BLM protesters were masked more like 80 to 90% of the time, and they were constantly moving, often with space between them.
Rump rallies on the other hand were 80 to 90% UN-masked, and after the media made a big deal out of it, organizers started putting masked rally goers behind Trump in the camera shot while most of the rest of the folks sitting or standing shoulder-to-shoulder were unmasked while cheering and spreading their phlegm all over each other.
"did you do any studies of BLM protests?
if not, did you do this study with a conclusion you were hoping to get before you started?
if so, your study has no validity"
No, I'm not a scientist. I just pointed to the study.
However, you said yourself:
"there is no sign the protests last summer made rates go up, indeed they began to drop"
Do you really need another scientific study to show you that the mask wearing, distancing, and marching the BLM protesters were doing was more effective at avoiding viruses than what the idiots at Rump rallies?
"even downwind, if the air is moving enough for it [the virus] to come downwind, it will keep moving and you are unlikely to be infected"
Not if the virus lands on your face.
You don't seem to understand how wind works - or perhaps its the invisible microscopic droplets of virus that fall out of the air as its traveling that you don't understand.
Moving around outside certainly drops the likelihood of getting infected. Depending on if you are wearing a mask, what the distance is, and possibly sunlight conditions, it may drop the chances down to 60%, 30%, or perhaps even 10 or 5%. You're implicitly contending that it drops to essentially 0%.
There is no reason to believe that is the case. Nor have you elaborated on any reason as to why that may be the case.
"but you seem certain DeSantis is "hiding the numbers"
and, of course, Cuomo has admitted his cover-up"
There was no legitimate reason for DeSantis to throw the whistleblower in jail for releasing data that was intended to be public information. That is that classic maneuver of someone trying to hide damaging evidence. If he wasn't trying to cover up something, that action just makes him look more suspicious. Perhaps he's stupid just enough to do that and he's really innocent. I'm applying Occam's razor here though.
"I don't find your statement about going to BLM protests credible."
well, I took pictures
I went to Lafayette Park on the day when Trump came and walked over to St John Church
I was there for about an hour and it was about three hours before trump showed up
honestly, the crowd was predominated by what looked like white college kids, I assumed from GW University
didn't seem violent at all, more of a party atmosphere
kind of a cleaned-up Woodstock
I will say there were a couple of female clerics in front of St Johns handing out water and masks
also, there were a lot of media and I'd say, maybe, 10% of them were wearing masks
"Do do medical reasons, I have not been able to attend BLM protests, but as far as I can tell from TV clips, BLM protesters were masked more like 80 to 90% of the time, and they were constantly moving, often with space between them."
sorry to hear you have medical issues. but glad to hear you've been able to stay safe during the last year
the media tries to portray constant movement but, in truth, the protestors would typically march a certain distance until they reached a point where they would stand and listen to speeches for hours
"Rump rallies on the other hand were 80 to 90% UN-masked, and after the media made a big deal out of it, organizers started putting masked rally goers behind Trump in the camera shot while most of the rest of the folks sitting or standing shoulder-to-shoulder were unmasked while cheering and spreading their phlegm all over each other."
well, I don't think many were spitting and sneezing on each other
again, the rallies were outside
the air is a natural filter, keeping away the large amounts of virus one needs to be exposed to in order to become infected
"No, I'm not a scientist. I just pointed to the study."
yes, my question was directed to the writers of the study
I realize they likely aren't reading
my question was more a rhetorical device aimed at the propagandists in general
they simply do something like this to prove a preconceived notion, which makes their study suspect
btw, based on what you posted here, I think it would be more accurate to call them "statisticians" than "scientists"
"Do you really need another scientific study to show you that the mask wearing, distancing, and marching the BLM protesters were doing was more effective at avoiding viruses than what the idiots at Rump rallies?"
I haven't seen any stats showing that Trump rallies directly lead to many infections
and, btw, those BLM rallies had a number of idiots
BLM is a very clever phrase and few of us would disagree
but the group called BLM is a Marxist organization that would like tear our society down and replace it with extreme socialism
this is why they find the slimmest excuses to rip down every historical statue and clamor to defund the police
white liberals may not get it but polls show minorities do
"Not if the virus lands on your face."
a single virus landing on your face wouldn't cause infection
it takes exposure to a significant amount of virus over a prolonged period
while, not impossible, it's less likely to happen outside than standing six feet away inside with a mask on
"You don't seem to understand how wind works - or perhaps its the invisible microscopic droplets of virus that fall out of the air as its traveling that you don't understand."
oh, I just know what the scientists says and what I've experienced
I've been at outdoor restaurants and rallies and wineries with concerts and just hanging around the pool with people all around last summer
no virus
"Moving around outside certainly drops the likelihood of getting infected. Depending on if you are wearing a mask, what the distance is, and possibly sunlight conditions, it may drop the chances down to 60%, 30%, or perhaps even 10 or 5%. You're implicitly contending that it drops to essentially 0%."
any source for those percentages?
"There was no legitimate reason for DeSantis to throw the whistleblower in jail for releasing data that was intended to be public information."
I think you're misinformed about that incident
The media describes Jones as a “top scientist” leading Florida’s pandemic response. In fact, Jones has held three jobs in her field; all three have ended in her being terminated and criminally charged.
She has a Master’s in geography from Louisiana State University, where she worked until she was fired. She was arrested in 2016 while, reportedly, trespassing on campus and attempting to steal computer equipment from her former workplace.
She then lectured at Florida State University (FSU) and began researching tropical storms for a dissertation, but never earned a Ph.D. as she was suspended and fired in 2018 after her former student accused her of sexual cyberharassment.
Before her termination from the DoH, she was a geographic information systems manager, overseeing the COVID-19 web portal.
It’s therefore misleading to imply Jones has specialized knowledge of infectious disease. Florida’s top Democratic official calls her “Dr. Rebekah Jones,” but Jones is no doctor. Nor is she an epidemiologist, virologist, statistician, or public health professional; the DoH has a highly qualified team of those. A technical manager, Jones didn’t have the authority or expertise to decide unilaterally how to visualize data. But when experts disagreed with her, she assumed they were wrong—or deliberately deceiving the public.
After she was fired from the DoH for a pattern of insubordination, Jones claimed that Deputy Secretary for Health Shamarial Roberson had asked her to “manipulate data to mislead the public” about the safety of reopening rural counties. According to Dr. Roberson, this is “patently false.” Emails show a state epidemiologist told Jones to temporarily disable data export from the dashboard to verify dates against other official sources. The data was aggregated from local public health authorities in 67 counties; it couldn’t be falsified or hidden. In other words, Jones is no “whistleblower.” She’s a conspiracy theorist.
In amplifying Jones’ story, the media has all but ignored Dr. Roberson, who has impressive experience in epidemiology and a doctorate in public health. As a Black woman from a disadvantaged background, she has risen to the forefront of Florida’s pandemic response. Dr. Roberson deserves the recognition the media has lavished on her ex-employee. But according to The Narrative, serving in a conservative administration disqualifies her.
Unless you think a data manager is more qualified than an epidemiologist to handle a pandemic, Jones’ critique of Dr. Roberson is unconvincing. Those who believe it presume that the epidemiologist would risk her career, and Floridians’ lives, for DeSantis’ ostensibly murderous agenda. Emboldened by credulous media, Jones is now accusing Dr. Roberson of trying to conceal fatalities. “The woman who told me to delete cases and deaths is now blaming DOCTORS for the death backlog,” Jones wrote in a recent social media post accompanying an article about Dr. Roberson. “She’s the most corrupt, lying, incompetent and ignorant person that could be ever be put in charge.”
Since her termination from the DoH, Jones has doubled down on her criticism of prominent epidemiologists—and in doing so, she has revealed serious gaps in her own knowledge of COVID-19. In July, Jones asserted that false negative antibody tests are “worrisome” because “you’re not aware that you have and can spread the virus.” Dr. Natalie Dean, an infectious disease expert, explained that false negative antibody tests carry no public health risk, but false negative antigen tests do. (Antibody tests show past infection, while antigen tests detect active infections that can be spread). Instead of admitting her mistake, Jones blocked Dr. Dean and contacted the epidemiologist’s employer to complain. Yet even after this incident, the Washington Post referred to Jones as a “COVID-19 data scientist.”
Fortunately, a handful of local outlets like Tallahassee’s The Capitolist, Alachua Chronicle, and University of Florida’s Fresh Take have investigated Jones’ claims instead of boosting agitprop. For example, Jones said “at least 1,200 cases” were “deleted” in July under pressure from DoH leadership. According to Fresh Take, Jones later admitted that those cases were out-of-state visitors, recorded separately on Florida’s dashboard. Like other COVID-19 hoaxes, Jones’ conspiracy fantasy poses a real threat to public safety by sowing distrust in public health authorities.
What distinguishes “whistleblowers” from “disgruntled ex-employees” is credibility, and here Jones has a problem. Tabloids have reported on her past encounters with the law, which include arrests for trespassing, theft, and resisting arrest. She has also faced sexual harassment and stalking charges, stemming from an extramarital affair with her former student. Jones’ mainstream media defenders, of course, consider her troubled past irrelevant to the COVID-19 conspiracy. But in the #MeToo era, it’s unusual to ignore sexual misconduct allegations against public figures.
She's another Andrew Cuomo!
Case files allege Jones stalked and robbed her former student, sent explicit photos to his family and employer, and trespassed on his property. Some charges were dropped; the stalking case remains open. In a 342-page manifesto, Jones describes how her victim’s misdeeds—chiefly, ending a relationship with his married lecturer—enraged her enough to harass his mother, violate a no-contact order, vandalize his car, and threaten to fail his roommate in revenge. Jones, in her mind, was the real victim.
Jones’ skewed perception of reality goes beyond her manifesto. Not only does she continue to portray herself as an innocent victim, but she also insists that entire state agencies are now coordinating with Florida’s governor to oppress her.
In December of last year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) executed a search warrant for her latest felony charge. In Jones’ version of events, “Gestapo” raided her home, stole her electronics, and menaced her children with firearms. The governor himself had commandeered the raid to silence a dissident scientist. “DeSantis thought pointing a gun in my face was a good way to get me to shut up,” she Tweeted.
But Rebekah Jones is hardly Andrei Sakharov. The message that prompted the investigation, sent via Florida’s emergency notification service, read in part: “It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead.” This is neither whistleblowing nor a harmless prank. It’s hijacking an official public health communications platform to spread disinformation and fear. Furthermore, the warrant alleges Jones downloaded confidential information about 19,182 employees, including their emergency contacts, personal phone numbers and addresses. Jones denies sending the message and stealing the data, but the search warrant affidavit explains how police traced the IP address behind the criminal activity to her residence.
Jones also challenges the warrant’s legitimacy. Her implication, not lost on the media, is that DeSantis ordered the “raid” and put his crony on the bench to rubber-stamp it. The judge who signed the warrant, Joshua Hawkes, is indeed a recent DeSantis appointee. But that doesn’t prove DeSantis weaponized Florida’s judiciary to persecute a whistleblower, especially because Hawkes isn’t the only judge involved. Judge John Cooper, elected in 2002, affirmed the search warrant’s validity and denied a request from Jones’ attorneys to return electronics seized by police. Judge Nina Ashenafi-Richardson, elected in 2008, signed Jones’ arrest warrant. Like Cooper, Ashenafi-Richardson has no connection to DeSantis. It’s delusional to suspect all three judges, two of whom predate the DeSantis administration by over a decade, of colluding with the governor to plot a Stalinist show trial.
In Jones’ latest tale of oppression—one echoed by media enablers—she’s a victim of “police violence.” On January 16, she announced that she would turn herself in to the authorities “to protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that I’m ready to fight whatever they throw at me.” However, FDLE has released full body camera footage that refutes Jones’ allegations of “violence.”
When officers arrived with a warrant, Jones—whose arrest record includes battery on a police officer—refused to answer the door for 22 minutes. After she finally let them in, FDLE conducted the search with restraint and professionalism. To characterize this as “police violence” is insulting, both to FDLE and to actual victims of police brutality. Such claims from Jones aren’t new. In 2017, she accused police of “kidnapp[ing]” her after being detained under the Baker Act, an involuntary psychiatric hold for people who pose a danger to themselves or others.
Today, Jones awaits trial at her new home in an upmarket DC suburb. She invested part of her crowdfunding proceeds in a for-profit corporation, Florida COVID Action LLC. Its website states: “Reporting data fairly, completely and transparently is of the upmost importance.” Jones vows to campaign for DeSantis’ 2022 Democratic challenger. “If I could have run for office in Florida and not have to worry about my family’s safety, I absolutely would have,” she Tweeted. “But the governor would never let that happen.” She says she’s using donors’ funds “to fight DeSantis, and anything else he throws at me.”
Jones has a platform most politicians would envy. But her “whistleblowing” is a flimsy foundation for a political career. She knew all along there was no cover-up. After her firing, she insisted she “never suggested any conspiracy involving the Governor.” In one mask-off moment, Jones even admitted to CNN that Florida had done “better than expected” controlling the pandemic. She had the right to criticize DeSantis, but not to defame him. Opposing the Governor’s free-market policies, light-touch COVID-19 response, or alignment with former President Trump is fair game. Smearing thousands of dedicated public servants to push a conspiracy theory is unjustifiable.
Those desperate to see DeSantis fail, and Florida become America’s cautionary COVID-19 tale, want to believe Jones. This includes mainstream media acolytes, whose numbers are dwindling: An Edelman poll released in January by Axios found that 56% of Americans think “reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” With the next Rebekah Jones, that proportion will grow.
If Jones is an activist disguised as a scientist, the fawning treatment of her plight is advocacy masquerading as journalism. The left sees Jones as the eye of a perfect storm: the GOP’s war on science, a corrupt Trumpian governor, the foolhardiness of any COVID-19 policy short of Chairman Xi-style lockdowns—and a telegenic “whistleblower” to reinforce these tropes. Reality never stood a chance.
For liberal thought leaders sympathetic to Jones, The Narrative doesn’t merely overpower facts. It supersedes principles. Listen to experts, unless they serve under a conservative governor. Believe survivors, unless they accuse your ideological ally. Trust science, unless it contradicts your political biases.
And above all, never, ever admit you’re wrong.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "h*sexuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage".
Right, just like an infertile heterosexual couple ain't ever a marraige.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said :I didn't fault you for your "would be, could be" schtick but for your earlier statement when you were speaking with great certainty which is common for TTFer they think pretending something is certain makes it certain!"
The hypocrisy! Every election you go on and on about how Republicans are certain to win! You insisted only 60,000 people would die from COVID and that it would be over by memorial day!
Good anonymous said "Ron is hiding the numbers in Florida - we don't know what they really are - and he locked up the whistleblower trying to get the real numbers out."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "one whistleblower whose charges weren't proven".
Weren't proven because Desantis wouldn't let anyone investigate.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but you seem certain DeSantis is "hiding the numbers""
He is, he pressured the woman managing the database to fabricate the numbers, she refused and so he fired her.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but your best example of me doing it is when I said someone is going to win an election when everyone knows that the election winner is never certain until the election".
You never say that though, you insist it is certain Republicans will win every election, that's dishonest and thoroughly typical of you.
Good anonymous said "You're still operating under the mistaken impression that just because you're outdoors you can't get the virus."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "I think the chances are so greatly reduced as to be insignificant".
No you don't. You say that in order to downplay the pandemic and pretend Trump wasn't a disaster at it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "you are under the mistaken impression that the virus cares if you are a BLM supporter or a Trump supporter there is no sign the protests last summer made rates go up, indeed they began to drop.
There was a huge spike in infections three times during the summer, rates only dropped temporarily and then they got even worse each time. The BLM protestors were almost all wearing masks.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "so why would Trump's rallies, usually much briefer, cause rates to increase? and don't give us the malarkey about masks".
Don't give you the truth? You're damn right we'll give you the truth: At Trump's rallies there were no masks or social distancing. Statistics collected after Trump's rallies showed big spikes in infections every where he held them.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "it's potential for infection is indeed much less in the absolutelty ventilates outdoors than the poorly indoors"
Is English your second language? Sure sounds like it.
Good anonymous said "It just needs an unobstructed flight path."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "it actually needs stagnant air, and large amount of virus'.
No it doesn't. If some conservative without a mask is screaming in your face it won't matter if they are outdoors, if they are infected they are going to infect others. There is a large amount of virus in the spittle of screaming infected Republicans
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "even downwind, if the air is moving enough for it to come downwind, it will keep moving and you are unlikely to be infected".
Many people got infected at Trump's events in the Rose garden. There are pictures of people who were infected practically kissing many others there. Masks need to be worn at all outdoor gatherings.
Good anonymous said "but "outdoors" only reduces the chances, it doesn't nullify them."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "same applies to wearing masks and social distancing".
Which is no reason not to wear masks and social distance.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the insane idea that we will somehow "nullify" the virus is part of the lunacy keeping schools and businesses and churches closed'.
No one ever said the virus could be nullified, other than Trump who said it would "disappear like magic". Limiting public gatherings limits the spread of the virus, it needs to be done and has been highly successful where this was done. Fools like you have resulted in millions of needless infections which help the virus mutate and become immune to vaccines. Due to morons like you we may never be rid of COVID.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "mitigation measures: wear masks, socially distance, hold large rallies outdoors'.
NO! Mitigation measures, wear masks, socially disance, do not hold large rallies even outdoors
Good anonymous said ""Idiots at Rump's rallies bumped their chances back up by not wearing masks as a political statement, and keeping closer together than recommended."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "some BLM protestors did the same".
Wrong! BLM protestors were mostly masked and Trump rallies were virtually mask free. BLM protestors were protesting terrible injustice, Trump was turning people against mitigation measures and democracy.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "I went to Lafayette Park on the day when Trump came and walked over to St John Church".
So much for all your B.S. about how conservatives have been responsible, wearing masks, and social distancing - you needlessly out in public helping to spread the virus.
Good anonymous said ""Rump rallies on the other hand were 80 to 90% UN-masked, and after the media made a big deal out of it, organizers started putting masked rally goers behind Trump in the camera shot while most of the rest of the folks sitting or standing shoulder-to-shoulder were unmasked while cheering and spreading their phlegm all over each other."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "well, I don't think many were spitting and sneezing on each other again, the rallies were outside".
When people talk loudly and scream they spit all over each other, it does not matter that the rallies were outside, the studies show they caused big outbreaks in infections after they were held.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the air is a natural filter, keeping away the large amounts of virus one needs to be exposed to in order to become infected'.
That is utter nonsense! The air does NOT filter, it is the transport mechanism for the virus!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "they simply do something like this to prove a preconceived notion, which makes their study suspect'.
There you go again making statements of certainty when there is none. You have no evidence whatsoever that they did this to prove a preconceived notion. There is no reason to believe that is the case, you just yet again fabricate another story to suit your propaganda.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "I haven't seen any stats showing that Trump rallies directly lead to many infections".
They were provided to you here. You just ignored them and now deceitfully claim to not have seen them.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but the group called BLM is a Marxist organization that would like tear our society down and replace it with extreme socialism".
Every time someone stands up for minorities you stupidly call it marxism and socialism. This is about fairness and justice, that's what you oppose, not "marxism".
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "this is why they find the slimmest excuses to rip down every historical statue and clamor to defund the police".
Police budgets need to be rationalized to see that the money is effectively being used to protect the public rather than harm it. Statues of the Confederate historical figures have no place in the democracy of the United States.
Good anonymous said "Not if the virus lands on your face."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "a single virus landing on your face wouldn't cause infection it takes exposure to a significant amount of virus over a prolonged period".
No one ever said an infection would be caused by a single virus landing on your face which would be all but impossible. The point is that there will be millions of viruses in a single spittle fleck from a screaming Trump supporter, that will certainly infect you.
Good anonymous said "You don't seem to understand how wind works - or perhaps its the invisible microscopic droplets of virus that fall out of the air as its traveling that you don't understand."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "oh, I just know what the scientists says and what I've experienced".
Your experience in no way allows you to make scientific conclusions, that takes real data, not personal anecdotes.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "I've been at outdoor restaurants and rallies and wineries with concerts and just hanging around the pool with people all around last summer"
In other words you violated mitigation measures and yet you insisted that conservatives were responsible with the public health and wore masks and socially distanced - non-stop lies from you two.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "no virus'.
Not everyone gets infected, that is a foolish reason to refuse to wear masks, social distance and to make needless public outings. Its fools like you that have cause hundreds of thousands of needless deaths.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said of liberals "And above all, never, ever admit you’re wrong."
That's Trump and Republicans philosophy. Look at how they ranted about the virus being a hoax, look at how they ranted about massive voter fraud and were unable to prove any of it. And yet they still rant on about how the election was "stolen" from Trump.
Trump was president during the pandemic and the sole responsibility for handling it rests with him and his failure to do so. Trump is the national leader with the resources and authority necessary to have prevented hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. Instead he shirked his responsibility and pushed it off on to the states to handle while fighting each other for personal protective equipment and testing supplies which drove up prices so Trump and his cronies could profit off of the misery and death.
Red state governors failed miserably at handling COVID, it was up to Trump to step in and take over and handle it on a national level as only he was capable of doing. Scientific research has shown that his failure to act resulted in 316,477 deaths that wouldn't have occurred if he had acted sooner.
Let's face it, if Trump hadn't been a complete disaster in handling COVID he would have been reelected.
The public elected Joe Biden to clean it up.
Much like TTF, the NY Times owes Ron DeSantis an apology.
Unlike TTF, the NY Times has made at least half of one.
But the New York Times offers it grudgingly. They acknowledge that Florida’s death rate is no worse than the national average despite the state’s more liberalized approach to pandemic restrictions, which had critics predicting a catastrophe for months. In fact, Florida appears to have fared better than several states that imposed much more draconian lockdowns, although the NYT still casts Florida’s decisions as “an unspoken grand bargain”:
"To bask in that feeling — even if it is only that — is to ignore the heavy toll the coronavirus exacted in Florida, one that is not yet over.
More than 32,000 Floridians have died, an unthinkable cost that the state’s leaders rarely acknowledge. Miami-Dade County averaged more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the past two weeks, one of the nation’s most serious outbreaks. And Florida is thought to have the highest concentration of B.1.1.7, the more contagious virus variant first identified in the United Kingdom.
Yet Florida’s death rate is no worse than the national average, and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions, despite its large numbers of retirees, young partyers and tourists. Caseloads and hospitalizations across most of the state are down. The tens of thousands of people who died were in some ways the result of an unspoken grand bargain — the price paid for keeping as many people as possible employed, educated and, some Floridians would argue, sane."
Ahem. If Florida has had better outcomes, as the NYT reports, then what exactly is the “unspoken grand bargain”? That might apply if Florida had worse outcomes than lockdown states, but not if they’re doing just as well or better. National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke points out the fallacy:
It cannot simultaneously be true that “the tens of thousands of people who died were in some ways the result of an unspoken grand bargain” and that Florida’s death rate is “no worse than the national average, and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions.” If it is true that Florida both refused to lock down harshly and kept as “many people as possible employed, educated and . . . sane” and has a death rate that is “no worse than the national average, and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions, despite its large numbers of retirees, young partyers and tourists” — well, then there was neither a meaningful tradeoff nor a “grand bargain,” was there?
It’s not the only point made grudgingly, either. The NYT points out that Florida’s decision to keep beaches open “infuriated many people,” but now “the decision seems obvious in retrospect, given how much safe people are outside.” That decision didn’t seem obvious just in retrospect, however. Florida made that decision based on the science, well-known at that time as well as now, that COVID-19 does not transmit easily outdoors, especially in sunshine. We knew that as early as April of last year, in the first weeks of the pandemic. With that in mind, imposing lockdowns and forcing people to remain indoors is a far worse policy choice, especially in warm-weather states.
Rather than lock down, Florida enforced some social-distancing and mask requirements but allowed venues to operate normally. Now they’re recovering economically much faster, while not suffering worse outcomes from the pandemic. That has other states taking a second look, and the media too, according to Axios:
"After a solid year of living with a pandemic, the national press is beginning to ask the question that even Democrats have been quietly pondering in the Sunshine State: Was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pandemic response right for Florida?
Don’t forget: More than 32,000 Floridians have died, a number the state’s leaders rarely acknowledge, but our death rate is no worse than the national average — and better than some states with tighter restrictions.
Follow the link to the NYT story as well as another grudging look from the Los Angeles Times as well. Thus far, the reluctance to credit Florida for making potentially wiser choices for its entire population appears tied to the political fortunes of its governor, Republican Ron DeSantis. After a year of promoting perhaps the nation’s worst governor in the pandemic, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, as the leader sine qua non of the pandemic, that reluctance to credit Florida’s approach seems at least in part related to the need to explain away a year’s worth of reporting the exact opposite.
Floridians don’t appear reluctant at all to credit DeSantis, not even across party lines:
Ms. García, a 34-year-old Democrat, said she found herself unexpectedly defending Mr. DeSantis’s policies to her friends up north.
“People here, they’ve been able to work. The kids have been able to go to school,” she said. “We have this reputation in Florida of being all Florida Man and crazyland. But I’d much rather be in Florida than California, New York or Chicago.”
In fairness, Florida’s weather allowed for more liberalized restrictions. No one would have argued that opening the beaches on Lake Superior would have been a rational policy in December, for instance. But California has similar weather advantages, and instead of giving people outdoor venues to socialize and conduct commerce, they kept them locked indoors — where the virus can do its worst. Perhaps the leadership of the lockdown states should answer for those choices … and the media should answer for its coverage of them, too
The United States reported a 22% decline in deaths from COVID-19 last week, according to a Reuters analysis of state, county and CDC data.
As of Sunday, 21% of the U.S. population has received the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of new COVID-19 cases being reported each week has dropped for nine straight weeks, falling 10% to just under 378,000 in the seven days ended March 14. Deaths linked to COVID-19 dropped below 10,000 last week, the lowest since mid-November.
Air travel on Friday hit its highest level since the pandemic started, as warmer weather prompted many people to go on spring break.
Some states reported more new infections last week compared with the previous seven days, however, according to the Reuters analysis. New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island had the highest rates of new infections per 100,000 residents.
The average number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals fell 13% to 38,000, the lowest since late October, according to a Reuters tally.
Recently, the NY Times reported that it turns out there are no problems with the tax returns of Donald Trump.
Now, it turns out that the call Trump made to an election official in Georgia was mischaracterized by the press.
Who saw that coming?
President Trump urged Georgia's chief elections investigator to find "dishonesty" that could help overturn the state's election results, framing her work as a matter of national importance, according to audio of a December phone call obtained from the secretary of state's office Monday.
Officials discovered the recording of the conversation between Trump and Frances Watson, the lead elections investigator for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in a trash folder on Watson's device while responding to a public records request, according to a source familiar with the internal process.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the audio.
"You have the most important job in the country right now," Trump told Watson, who was leading an audit of absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County at the time, according to the audio.
"Because if we win Georgia ... the people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me, they know I won," he continued.
"When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised," Trump told Watson at another point in the call, adding, "People will say 'great,' because that's what it's about, the ability to check and to make it right, because everyone knows it's wrong."
Earlier reporting by NBC News and other news organizations, including The Washington Post, misquoted the exact words Trump used to urge Watson to look for fraud based on Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs' account of Watson's recollection of the conversation.
"After hearing the tape, it's clear that Watson's recollection accurately portrayed the president's assertions that there was fraud to uncover and that she would receive praise for doing so," Fuchs said Monday in a statement to NBC News.
In a statement Monday, Trump expressed appreciation for The Post's correction.
The Vatican’s declaration that same-sex unions are a sin the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless stung LGBTQ Catholics in the United States deeply.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, said her organization’s membership includes same-sex couples who have been together for decades, in the face of bias and family rejection.
“The fact that our church at its highest levels cannot recognize the grace in that and cannot extend any sort of blessing to these couples is just tragic,” she said.
She was responding to a formal statement Monday from the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying Roman Catholic clergy may not bless such unions since God "cannot bless sin.” It was approved by Pope Francis.
"Having sin be explicitly included in this statement kind of brings us back to zero,” said Ross Murray, who oversees religious issues for the LGBTQ rights group GLAAD.
He expressed dismay that “the ability for us to live out our lives fully and freely is still seen as an affront to the church or, worse yet, an affront to God, who created us and knows us and loves us.”
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater LGBTQ acceptance in the church, said that if those priests who have already been blessing same-sex unions will now stop doing so.
The Rev. Bryan Massingale, an openly gay Catholic priest and professor of theology and social ethics at Fordham University, said “For those who are oriented toward members of the same sex ... to have it being described as inherently or innately sinful without any qualification, that is crushing.”
The Rev. James Martin, another priest who advocates for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the Catholic church, said in a post on Twitter that he received dozens of messages from LGBTQ people on Monday saying they were discouraged by the Vatican’s pronouncement.
Vatican doctrine holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered” and that same-sex unions are sinful.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said “It boggles the mind that the hierarchy can affirm that LGBTQ+ persons are made in the image of God but that their unions are a sin. Are they made in God’s image with the exception of their hearts? With the exception of their abilities and inclinations to love?"
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the U.S.-based NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, said she was relieved the Vatican statement wasn’t harsher.
The Vatican's pronouncement was celebrated by church traditionalists, however, such as Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League.
“There will be no recognition of homosexual unions or marriage by the Catholic Church. It is non-negotiable. End of story,” he said.
“Pope Francis has been under considerable pressure by gay activists, in and out of the church, to give the green light to gay marriage,” Donohue added, calling Monday’s statement “the most decisive rejection of those efforts ever written.”
Joe Biden doesn’t get out much, and it shows.
The other night, the president addressed the nation in his first prime time address, on the anniversary of the COVID lockdowns. His speech was at times dismal, at times boastful, but the sum of his remarks was entirely at odds with the mood of the nation.
Biden assured Americans that the new vaccines were safe and urged people to take them. But at the same time, his promise of deliverance from these miraculous inoculations was laughably meager.
Maybe, Biden said – but only if we’re good and follow the directives of the sainted Anthony Fauci and get vaccinated and wear masks and behave – maybe we can gather on the Fourth of July with friends.
Not "large events with lots of people" he hastened to say. No, not large groups, but rather "small groups will be able to get together." But, only maybe.
Is Biden aware that we are not waiting for his or Fauci’s approval before moving on with our lives? Does he know that restrictions have been lifted in 40 states, and have been entirely scrapped in four? That governors are under pressure to let businesses re-open and to force teachers to go back to work?
Does the president know that even in deep blue Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont has recently changed the rules, eliminating capacity limits on restaurants, gyms, amusement parks and churches? In that Democrat-led state, events with up to 10,000 people can be held outside and the authorities "are planning ahead in hopes to see summer camps and summer festivals open this season."
Lamont is not the only blue-state governor softening the rules to win over voters. Embattled Gov. Andrew Cuomo shifted gears recently, ditching the requirement that visitors to New York quarantine upon arrival. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, facing a recall effort, has also succumbed to reasonableness, and allowed some indoor dining.
Rules or no rules, Americans are on the move. In all but five states, mobility indicators show people leaving their homes more; one state where that was not true was Florida, but people there have been out and about for months.
Apple’s "GDP weighted" mobility is only 8% below pre-pandemic levels. TSA checkpoint crossings are surging. The Dallas Fed’s mobility readings are back to the level recorded in mid-March of last year and rising rapidly.
The surge in activity isn’t "reckless" – it makes sense. Cases have fallen 80%, people are getting vaccinated at a rapid rate and there is a growing sense that the lockdowns, while necessary in some instances, have gone too far and are now more harmful than helpful. People have had enough.
Either President Biden doesn’t understand the mood of the nation, or he is ignoring it. Both could be true. After all, he and his fellow Democrats still find COVID useful. It just allowed them to pass the $1.9 trillion "relief" bill that funneled hundreds of billions of dollars to profligate blue states and Democrat-favored groups like the teachers’ unions, all under the guise of combating the virus. No COVID, no bailouts for New York or California.
COVID gave Democrats an excuse to hand out $1,400 checks to 90% of the country, the most blatant vote-buying effort in our nation’s history, aimed at keeping control of Congress in 2022. To make sure voters get the message, the DNC and the White House are gearing up for what’s being called the "Biden Blitz" – a mammoth publicity campaign denoting a new, more "public-facing phase of his term," as Politico dutifully reported.
The messaging plan itself is pure genius. No word could be more dissonant when contemplating our frail, tentative president than "Blitz." Blitz conjures up wartime London, and an indominable Winston Churchill watching from the rooftops while German planes bombed that city to smithereens.
It does not conjure up Joe Biden.
But Politico, CNN, the New York Times and nearly every liberal media outlet on earth fell in line, promising the Biden Blitz. It is too funny.
The PR effort is to make sure that the bill remains popular, even as Americans find out what’s in it. Biden is convinced that in addition to being too small, the $800 billion stimulus plan he presided over while Barack Obama was president turned sour because it wasn’t sold properly. Not because it was badly organized and extraordinarily wasteful. No, the problem, says Biden, was the messaging.
He wants to correct that issue with a full-court press of media appearances. The only teeny problem is that Biden himself will be the bill’s principal cheerleader, and that his public appearances tend to be soporific, not rousing.
The public will soon tire of hearing how dreadful the past year was. They know. They lived it and are ready to move on.
Biden’s speech was not only gloomy – it was also full of lies and exaggerations. Even the New York Times cited numerous outright falsehoods, like Biden claiming that months of "silence" greeted the pandemic and that "this country didn’t have nearly enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all or anywhere near all of the American public."
The Biden Blitz will certainly be a departure. So far, Biden has made no unscripted public appearances, including no press conferences. Twice the White House has cut his TV feed when he volunteered to take (unrehearsed) questions. What are they afraid of? Why can’t he mingle with the public? People are taking note.
You begin to wonder whether the fence around the White House is to keep protesters out, or Biden in.
Monday's news that the Catholic Church won't bless same sex unions did not go unnoticed by Elton John.
The singer, who married longtime partner David Furnish in 2014, was quick to point out that while the Vatican's official response to a question about whether clergy are allowed to perform such acts was negative, it reportedly supported Rocketman, the 2019 movie about his life. He posted side-by-side shots of stories about both events.
"How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they 'are sin', yet happily make a profit from investing millions in 'Rocketman' — a film which celebrates my finding happiness from my marriage to David??" John asked. He labeled the alleged actions of the church "#hypocrisy."
someone needs to put the gay agenda on a ventilator
Over the weekend, the two-hundred-and-forty-second woman to accuse Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment came forward. That number is no less true for being inaccurate. It seems you can’t open a newspaper these days without reading about some horrible Cuomo come-on at an Albany Christmas party or a Manhattan cocktail hour. How’s it going for Democrats seeking a left-wing foil to Donald Trump? They seem to have gotten all of the vices with none of the humor.
Of course, Cuomo deserves his due process like everyone else. But the accusations do seem credible and certainly fit with his hard-charging bull-in-a-bodega persona. There’s also the matter of the governor’s other scandal, which has been swept under the rug despite it involving the mass death of old people. After a Cuomo aide was caught on tape admitting to concealing the COVID-19 death toll in New York nursing homes, Cuomo came forward and admitted as much. The fatality count in those facilities was not 8,500, as the state health department had initially claimed, but more than 15,000.
All this will come as a shock if you’ve been reading only the Huffington Post style section for the past year. Conservatives have been grousing about the New York nursing home massacre since last summer, when even the state health department acknowledged that thousands of COVID-19 patients had been transferred into nursing homes under a Cuomo directive. Yet the story was largely ignored outside of the right-wing press. Instead Cuomo was given a primetime speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention. He landed a lucrative book deal. His press conferences about the coronavirus became fireside chats for elites. Instead of coming clean on the nursing home issue, he trashed the Post for reporting on it.
The Champagne flutes were clinking right up until Democrats in Albany decided to turn on their governor. It’s understandable that Cuomo was initially cast into the limelight, given that New York was the state hit hardest by the coronavirus. And some of this was routine partisan politics, Democrats defending one of their own and leveraging him against Republican governors who took more lenient approaches to lockdowns. But there was something else at work here too. Lurking beneath the Cuomo phenom was one of America’s most persistent and grating features: her celebrity culture.
Cuomo, after all, was almost tailor-made for modern show business. Here was a guy who looked like a Batman villain just as antiheroes were all the rage. His discursive, slightly whinnying manner of speaking, with each hard New York vowel fired at your face like a Yankees fastball, was reminiscent of Trump, yes, but also of Goodfellas and the Corleones. And he deployed all this in the service of good. Of science. Cuomo was in the same pantheon as Dr Fauci, a public servant turned cult figure who reinforced that you really were superior to that neighbor next door who refused to triple-mask while jogging. Cuomo even had his own TV gig, courtesy of his meathead brother over on CNN with whom he would appear and scat like dueling Anthony Scaramuccis.
That these exchanges were absolutely cringeworthy should have been a warning sign. Watching them inspired little except a hope that they would one day degenerate into a Punch and Judy show. But the rise of Andrew Cuomo never had anything to do with reality. The fact that the man presides over a state where almost 50,000 people have died from COVID ought to be proof enough of that. It had to do with his being a jumbo-size personality who said all the right things about masks and lockdowns. We Americans are so in thrall to our celebrity culture that even scrubbing with hand sanitizer requires affirmation from under the kliegs. We want not only to be entertained but to feel good about being entertained, to hear our entertainers asseverate our mundane actions and opinions into the stuff of humanitarian righteousness. That’s what Cuomo did.
Such vicarious national therapy is the same reason that Princess Diana was so beloved (though to her credit, she had far more dignity and class than Cuomo has ever mustered). And just as the facade of Diana Spencer concealed a darker reality, so too with the grunting governor of New York. The press deferentially ignored his scandals for months, swept up in left-wing COVID-era hero worship. Now they’ve suddenly noticed that Cuomo left an almost empty medical ship lolling in New York Harbor for weeks on end. It’s a fickle thing, celebrity, and a very poor bedmate for public policy. One is fleeting and skin-deep, the other enduring and sometimes tragically consequential.
With Cuomo falling from grace, the eye now turns west, where another pandemic royal, Her Excellency the Queen of Michigan, sits radiantly ensconced. Like Andrew Cuomo, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been touted as a COVID hero. Also like Andrew Cuomo, she forced coronavirus patients into nursing homes and covered up the death toll. Will she now be held accountable? That depends on the answer to another question: are we at last willing to stop regarding even political crisis managers as celebrities?
More than half of Senators agree that Joe Biden's handling of immigration has created a crisis!
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is calling the wave of immigrants, including many children, arriving at the border a "crisis."
President Biden and the White House have avoided the use of the word "crisis" to describe the border situation. A growing number of people have been arriving at the border and Republicans have gone on the attack, saying Biden is to blame for drawing back former President Trump's more restrictive policies.
Manchin in comments to CNN agreed the Biden administration has sent the wrong message to immigrants.
"Whatever message was sent — it was sure interpreted the wrong way," Manchin said during an interview with CNN this week. "It's a crisis — oh it's a crisis."
Last month, the administration rolled out a comprehensive immigration plan that would give 11 million undocumented people a path to legal U.S. citizenship, ahead of those who have followed the rules.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said during a visit to the border with other Republican lawmakers on Monday that Biden needs to change his rhetoric on immigration.
“I know the president is going to travel this week. This is where you should bring Air Force One. This is where he should look the people in the eye. This is where he should talk to the border agents, and let them know that this is beyond the crisis,” McCarthy said.
Other Republicans at the border this week called on Biden to "admit" he "made a mistake with this policy."
Much ink has been spilled warning of the ramifications should Democrats pass their election “reform” package, HR1 -- and for good reason, given how the bill would upend our nation’s electoral system. Democrats claim HR1 is aimed at maximizing voter participation and ending corruption in our election systems, but the truth is that the legislation would do neither. Instead, it will only serve to open up our states’ elections to fraud and public mistrust at a time when we need to bolster voter confidence. Let’s look at just a few of the many areas where HR1 would nationalize elections and cancel out state integrity and confidence-building measures.
First, the measure voids dozens of longstanding state voting procedures, many of which are relatively non-controversial and serve to give voters confidence in the accuracy and integrity of our elections process. HR1 would invalidate photo ID requirements -- such as those in Indiana -- that the Supreme Court have found constitutional and important confidence builders. These laws are popular with large majorities of Americans, and despite critics’ fearmongering they have not negatively impacted voter participation.
HR1 would also force states to allow ballot harvesting, a practice where third parties, usually political operatives, collect and return marked mail ballots. Laws restricting harvesting, which are also popular, deter fraud because they preserve a marked-ballot chain of custody and prevent coercion and undue influence on the elderly and other voters. Yet Democrats want to override these laws and normalize harvesting.
Just last week we saw additional criminal charges against candidates in an all-mail city council election in Paterson, N.J., for vote fraud related to harvesting and tampering with ballots. The fraud was so pervasive that a local judge voided the election and ordered a new one. There was also the infamous congressional race in North Carolina in 2018, when the election had to be thrown out because of fraud initiated through ballot harvesting. The good news is that ballot harvesting bans help prevent and detect these exact types of crimes. But if Congress nationalizes ballot harvesting through HR1, these stories may go from being cautionary tales to the new norm.
To date, the Republican National Committee has been successful in beating the Democrats in court challenges to harvesting bans and has been vocal about the need for bans. And they are not inherently partisan since many states, both blue and red, either prohibit harvesting or severely restrict it. Now, after losing in the courts, Democrats seek to impose the practice from Washington, D.C., with the arrogant belief that they know better than state legislatures about the election integrity measures their states require.
HR1 will also further restrict states from cleaning up their voter rolls. Under current federal law, a state must stop programs that remove ineligible voters from the rolls within 90 days before a federal election. This blackout period already significantly limits a state’s ability to remove voters who may have moved away, died, or are otherwise ineligible to vote because it applies to periods before both primaries and general elections. The Democrats propose expanding that blackout period for many programs to six months before any federal election. Not only will this prevent states from cleaning up their rolls in a federal election year, it will expand that period for many states into the off years.
Voter roll maintenance not only enhances election integrity by ensuring only eligible voters can cast ballots, it also promotes access by ensuring voters are properly registered when they do go to vote, thus preventing lines and provisional ballots that may not count. No wonder both parties have historically agreed on the importance of voter registration list upkeep. HR1’s restrictions make Democrats’ intentions clear: They have abandoned any pretense that they still care about this issue that was once welcomed as reasonable and routine.
Cynics say that Republicans oppose this legislation because we want to restrict people from voting. This could not be further from the truth. The reality is that we want all eligible voters to be able to vote and vote easily — but voters must also have confidence that our elections systems have safeguards to prevent fraud and ensure accuracy. Previous federal election legislation such as the NVRA and HAVA made some attempt to balance the interests of voter integrity and access. But HR1 eliminates any pretense altogether by invaliding states’ reasonable ID requirements, mandating ballot harvesting, and enacting obstacles to critical voter roll maintenance.
The American people do not want a Washington takeover of their elections at the hands of congressional Democrats. They want election transparency and confidence in their future elections restored. These motives are exactly what the RNC will continue to fight for, both in the lead-up to the critical midterms and ahead of all elections to come.
How green with envy is Donald Trump?
President Biden has him begging for attention.
Since Biden’s inauguration, the COVID-19 infection rate has been cut by well over half.
And last week congressional Democrats passed Biden’s popular COVID-19 relief bill. The economy is rebounding, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 19 percent since Election Day.
Poor Trump. All he can do is put out a whiny statement.
“I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you would be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”
We remember the shortage of vaccine when he left office.
We remember there was no plan for getting Americans vaccinated.
And who can forget that Trump lied from the start about the severity of the virus and later promoted a quack, phony cure?
The bottom line is that he produced the greatest failure of presidential leadership in history.
In January, Trump’s last month in the White House, the nation had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. Shortly after he left office, the virus death toll topped 500,000.
With Biden in the White House, the nation has turned that around in 50 days.
COVID-19 infection rates and deaths are sharply down while the number of people getting shots has more than doubled to over 2 million a day.
Biden promised 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office. He is on track to do it.
And now Biden says there will be enough vaccine for all Americans by the end of May.
Trump and his aides are reduced to complaining that Biden’s team is “using our playbook every step of the way.” They correctly note that Trump got vaccine production started. But people outside of politics say there is no comparing the administrations.
“Corporate, state and federal officials agree Mr. Biden’s White House has been more active than his predecessor’s in trying to build up the nation’s vaccine stock,” The New York Times reported last week.
The American public agrees.
Biden’s approval rate was 60 percent last week in both a CBS poll and a Morning Consult-Politico poll.
Trump left office in January with a 34 percent approval rating, according to Gallup. He is the only president who never reached a 50 percent approval rating in a Gallup poll.
Biden’s COVID-19 aid bill is also a winner with public opinion.
Despite not a single Republican in Congress supporting the bill, the Biden coronavirus relief package won approval from both Republican and Democratic voters.
In the Morning Consult poll, 75 percent of the nation supported Biden’s $1.9 trillion package. Even 59 percent of Republicans supported the bill, the poll found.
Just as importantly, Americans are happy with Biden’s response to the pandemic, with more than 60 percent approving, according to polling by NPR, CBS and Pew Research.
Oh, and this has to burn Trump:
In the NPR poll, Biden’s handling of the virus got the approval of 22 percent of people who say they voted for Trump. Overall, about one-third of Republicans approved.
Biden’s positive poll ratings on handling the virus are almost the exact opposite of Trump’s. In October, a month before the election, 59 percent of Americans disapproved of how Trump was dealing with it, according to a Reuters poll.
Trump’s own pollster said the negative public reaction to Trump’s approach to the virus cost him the November election.
Tony Fabrizio, his top pollster, said the coronavirus was the top issue in the presidential contest. A majority of voters who ranked the virus as the top issue disapproved of how Trump handled the crisis. Fabrizio found those voters favored Biden by a margin close to 3 to 1.
It is a rule of politics that in any crisis there is a rally-around-the-leader surge in public support. But Trump’s response to the COVID-19 crisis was so bad that his approval numbers went down.
A year ago, Trump gave an Oval office speech to the nation in which he said “the risk is very, very low” that the virus was a threat to kill a large number of Americans.
Now, Trump insists on credit for starting vaccine production. But he has nothing more to contribute about dealing with the fallout from the pandemic.
At the moment, most of his statements are attacks on Republicans he views as not loyal to him.
In one statement, he ridiculed Republican political strategist Karl Rove as a man who “has been losing for years, except for himself.”
In another statement, Trump trashed the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page. He said the Journal’s editorial support for moderate Republicans had “so badly hurt the Republican Party,” adding, “Fortunately, nobody cares much about The Wall Street Journal editorial anymore.”
In yet another statement, Trump asked his supporters to send their political donations to his political action committee and not to the Republican National Committee.
Trump will get his wish to be remembered. He will be remembered for his jealous rage.
"Biden’s COVID-19 aid bill is also a winner with public opinion."
a lot of people don't remember inflation
Ronald Reagan defeated it 40 years ago and we have held off progressive Keynesians since
when it soars back to the days of Nixon, Ford, and Carter, we'll start seeing "don't blame me" bumpstickers
already, car prices have jumped 20% in the last year, gas prices are up, housing prices are up, food prices are up
once it gets started, inflation will be very painful to stop
"Despite not a single Republican in Congress supporting the bill, the Biden coronavirus relief package won approval from both Republican and Democratic voters."
most of the Biden bill had no more to do with coronavirus than WMD had to do with the war in Iraq
remember how popular that was at first?
"Just as importantly, Americans are happy with Biden’s response to the pandemic, with more than 60 percent approving, according to polling by NPR, CBS and Pew Research."
pure delirium
the way the vaccine has been rolled out has everyone griping
won't be long before they make the Biden connection
"Tony Fabrizio, his top pollster, said the coronavirus was the top issue in the presidential contest. A majority of voters who ranked the virus as the top issue disapproved of how Trump handled the crisis. Fabrizio found those voters favored Biden by a margin close to 3 to 1."
the pandemic actually affected the election in a way not completely appreciated yet
Biden, a notoriously bad campaigner, is the first person to win the presidency without leaving his house for most of the campaign
you may remember he was losing the Dem nomination, badly, until the COVID shutdown
then, everyone coalesced around him as "electable"
wouldn't have happened if he was still campaigning
the more people see of him, the less they like him
which is why he's afraid to hold press conferences
from an objective point of view, Kamala Harris is a greatly superior leader
"It is a rule of politics that in any crisis there is a rally-around-the-leader surge in public support."
oh yeah, like Katrina and the 2008 recession and the Tet offensive
you've got it figured out
LOL!
"Now, Trump insists on credit for starting vaccine production."
he deserves some
"But he has nothing more to contribute about dealing with the fallout from the pandemic."
his biggest mistake was not to push back more against the lockdown assault on civil liberties and the welfare of the poor
"In another statement, Trump trashed the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page."
the best editorial page in America
"Trump will get his wish to be remembered. He will be remembered for his jealous rage."
he'll be remembered as a petty and puerile bully
the examples will be from his presidency, not now
the Post this morning says infection numbers are creeping up again in NYC, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest
places that had strict lockdowns
why?
probably because people in such places rely on government to take care of them too much
the second a lockdown is lifted, they assume they don't need to use common sense anymore
sad...
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Montgomery County might be about to get a lot easier.
Montgomery County officials said Tuesday that the Maryland Health Department will open a mass vaccination site at Montgomery College’s Germantown campus in the next few weeks. It will be run in partnership with Holy Cross Hospital.
Montgomery County Council President Tom Hucker tweeted the news Tuesday morning. “The squeaky wheel finally gets some oil!” he wrote, referencing repeated demands from county officials in recent weeks for such a site in the state’s most populous jurisdiction.
The new county-run site has a goal of administering 3,000 doses per day, which will require the state to increase the number of doses allotted to the county. Over the weekend, National Guard members and officials from the Maryland Department of Health did a walk-through of the new site.
“It’s very good news,” County Council member Nancy Navarro (D-District 4) tells DCist/WAMU. “It’s something we have been requesting for quite a long time, given our size, our level of diversity, and also the issues around equity.”
At a press conference last week, Hucker said the current system has failed to equitably distribute shots.
“Sadly, Montgomery County has lost more of our residents to COVID than any other jurisdiction in the state. We’re second behind Prince George’s in the number of cases,” he said. “But the state response has not recognized this reality.”
"Getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Montgomery County might be about to get a lot easier.
Montgomery County officials said Tuesday that the Maryland Health Department will open a mass vaccination site at Montgomery College’s Germantown campus in the next few weeks."
last night, the state was saying this is not set in stone yet
also, the earliest it will in place is the second half of April
"“Sadly, Montgomery County has lost more of our residents to COVID than any other jurisdiction in the state. We’re second behind Prince George’s in the number of cases,” he said. “But the state response has not recognized this reality.”"
so many self-entitled Montgomery County residents have flocked to the PG County site that citizens there have only gotten 11% of the shots there
It is remarkable to see how the news media gaslights around the transgender issue. You cannot believe a thing you see, hear, or read, because it is all shaped not by facts, but by Narrative.
On Sunday, I was driving and listening to Sunday All Things Considered on NPR. They touted an upcoming story in which Dr. Eric Vilain, an expert in transgender participation in sports, was going to separate fact from fiction in the debate, but asking what the science says. I thought, this expert is going to say that people who insist that this is unfair to biological female athletes are worried about nothing, and that we should celebrate diversity. There is no way NPR would have on an expert who would reach any other conclusion.
Sure enough, that’s what happened. From the report:
MARTIN: As we said, these – there are a number of these bills making their way through state legislatures. Moving forward, how would you like people to think about this debate? Is there something you would encourage people to think about? Or…
VILAIN: I would encourage parents and people interested in sports to look at all the sides of the issue and not being fixated on the sole issue of gender. There are so many different attributes for an athlete that make them so diverse, so interesting, so different. Some will be good at one sport. Some will be good at other sports. And we should just celebrate this diversity.
Of course! Celebrate diversity! Diversity is our strength! Never mind that female athletes are at a tremendous disadvantage against male-to-female transgenders. NPR called Science to ask, and now Science has spoken.
Or take the Washington Post‘s profile of Chloe Clark, a male-to-female transgendered 15 year old who, according to the Post, is bearing up as “lawmakers attack her right to exist.” Oh? Republican state legislators are trying to have Clark killed? No. Lawmakers are debating whether or not to outlaw prescribing cross-sex hormones to juveniles, and whether or not to ban transgendered females (“females”) from competing against biological females. But the Washington Post wants people to believe that these Republicans would just as soon see Chloe die:
Fourteen was the exact age at which Chloe, her doctors and her parents made the decision for her to begin taking estrogen, following the medical guidelines for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria and understanding the high rates of suicide for transgender youth who don’t receive the care they need. But that private choice in Chloe’s doctor’s office was now the subject of legislation across the country, with 17 states weighing bills that would bar or criminalize gender-affirming care for kids. Two of these bills are in Chloe’s own state of Missouri.
The 10th-grader knew the country was debating her right to play sports, to get medical care — debating her right to exist —but she couldn’t bring herself to read the news coverage or to speak out against the legislation.
“Debating her right to exist” — this is straight-up propaganda. If you disagree with the pro-trans narrative on hormones and surgeries for minors, or on MtF athletes, then you want to see trans people eliminated, and murdered by their own hand.
Now comes a new NBC News piece about transgender murders that is straight-up gaslighting:
Two hundred and sixty-six percent?! Wow, that’s horrible. A national epidemic! But you know what that really means? There have been eleven trans murder victims this year, over three in the same period last year. From the story:
Braxton is one of at least 11 transgender people murdered so far in 2021 — a 266 percent increase from this point last year, when three trans people had been murdered. More than half of the victims so far in 2021, including Braxton, are Black trans women. According to a Thursday news release from the National Black Justice Coalition, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, the most recent known victim was Diamond “Kyree” Sanders, who was shot and killed March 3.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, has called violence against transgender people “a national epidemic” and requested in a list of policy recommendations released in November that the Biden administration form an interagency working group to address anti-transgender violence.
Advocates say preventing anti-trans violence requires a comprehensive approach that spans many sectors, but it also requires governments and law enforcement to better understand the trans community.
According to police, Braxton was murdered inside their apartment. NBC reports that Braxton used to be involved in prostitution, and was planning to create an account online with OnlyFans, where Braxton could share nude images of himself with paying customers. Police have given no further details on this killing — such as, if it had to do with prostitution, as so many transgender murders do. There is no reason at all to believe at this point that Braxton’s murder was a hate crime. But of course the LGBT activist organizations pump it up, and the media go along with it.
Let’s see who the eleven dead transpeople are so far this year.
Diamond Kyree Sanders was killed in Cincinnati in a robbery the other day. Again, no reason to believe Sanders was killed for being transgender. It’s a robbery. But that does not stop the activist and sympathetic media from saying, See! See! A national epidemic of anti-trans violence!
On March 3, police in Jacksonville found the body of Jeremy “Jenna” Franks, a male-to-female transgender, in a ditch. Franks had been murdered. Once again, police have released no evidence that this murder had to do with Franks’s transgender status. NBC’s story says Franks was a homeless drug addict. But … you know. Never let a homeless trans drug addict’s killing go to waste when it can be spun as anti-trans violence.
Teenager J.J. Bright, a female-to-male transgender, was killed by their mother in Ambridge, Pa., recently. The mother also killed her 22-year-old nonbinary daughter, Jasmine Cannady (the Human Rights Campaign counts Cannady as part of its 11, because she was gender-nonconforming). Police have not released a motive for the shooting. The mother is said to have been struggling with mental health issues since her discharge from the military. A neighbor said she recently was hospitalized for psychiatric issues. A family member said that the alleged killer has not committed a hate crime, as she supported equal rights.
There have been two murders of transgendered people in Puerto Rico this year. One, of a homeless MtF transgender, looks like a clear case of murder because the person was trans. The second, of a FtM trans, is unclear.
Chynaa Carrillo, a MtF transgender, was beaten to death in Pennsylvania earlier this year. Police shot and killed Carillo’s attacker, a former Marine and convicted murderer who was out on parole. No motive has yet been released by police for the killing. We have no reason to believe that it had anything to do with Carrillo’s gender identity. Maybe the two were dating, and the killer got violent in the same way he had with his murdered wife. Maybe the violence was triggered by the killer discovering that Carrillo was really a biological man. Or maybe it was just a robbery. We don’t know. But of course the Human Rights Campaign is waving the bloody flag.
Dominique Jackson was shot to death in Jackson, Miss., last month. Police have arrested a man in the case. They have said nothing about a hate-crime motive.
Tyianna “Davarea” Alexander was shot in the head, along with a male companion, on the street on Chicago’s South Side. No indication that this drive-by shooting was a hate crime. Might have been, might not have been. They were out on the street at 5 a.m. Was Alexander a prostitute, out on the street that early in the dead of winter? No more details have been made available yet.
Here in my own city, a MtF transgender called Fifty Bandz was shot to death by their male lover in a domestic dispute.
In Atlanta, a MtF transgender who went by the name of Bianca Bankz was found shot to death in their apartment, alongside the body of their male killer. Police say it was a murder-suicide. No indication of a hate crime.
So, of the eleven US murders of trans or gender-nonconforming people this year, only two — the ones in Puerto Rico — appear to have been probably motivated by anti-trans hatred. They are still horrible — no one deserves to be murdered — but the killings do not have the meaning that are being attributed to them. NBC News puffs this as “anti-trans violence,” but has almost no evidence for that claim. Not all violence victimizing trans people is “anti-trans,” just as not all violence victimizing black people is “anti-black.” The LGBT lobby Human Rights Campaign says this about its list:
These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners or strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim’s transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into unemployment, poverty, homelessness and/or survival sex work.
While the details of these cases differ, it is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color — particularly Black transgender women — and that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and unchecked access to guns conspire to deprive them of employment, housing, healthcare and other necessities.
Incredible. Any time a trans person is involved in deadly violence, HRC assumes it has to do with bigotry. If they engaged in extremely risky behavior, such as street prostitution, well, that’s the fault of bigotry too.
NBC News is only repeating what activists say — this, to create a phony crisis demanding government intervention. It is surely no coincidence that these fake-news stories are appearing while the Equality Act is before Congress.
Again: whenever the national media report anything about trans issues, you’re safe to assume that they are lying or otherwise spinning advocacy journalism, unless you can verify otherwise
The blue states have the blues...
New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s political problems mounted Tuesday as the State Senate majority leader now says she thinks an impeachment trial would result in conviction for the three term chief executive.
President Biden says Biden should be not only impeached but have criminal charges brought.
California
A review kicks off Wednesday to confirm what appears inevitable: California Gov. Gavin Newsom will face a recall election that will oust the Democrat before his first term ends.
The announcement Monday that Newsom was beginning to raise money to defend his seat seemed to confirm that he believes organizers behind the recall have collected sufficient petition signatures to place the proposal on the ballot.
A series of bureaucratic checkpoints must be cleared before the secretary of state’s office determines that the requirements for scheduling a recall election have been satisfied. The agency is headed by Shirley Weber, a former Democratic legislator Newsom appointed in December.
Recall supporters are required to submit nearly 1.5 million signatures to place the proposal before voters.
Organizers say they have collected more than 2 million signatures since June. Collections surged in the fall and winter as anger intensified about Newsom’s handling of the pandemic. So far, more than 80% of the signatures turned in have been validated.
Michigan
A Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson broke the law by making up her own rules about how to validate mail-in votes.
Ralph Fiennes was stunned by the backlash against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over her comments on the transgender community.
"I can't understand the vitriol directed at her," Fiennes, who played the evil Lord Voldemort in four movies about the boy wizard, told The Telegraph. "I can understand the heat of an argument, but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational. I find the level of hatred that people express about views that differ from theirs, and the violence of language towards others, disturbing."
Rowling has upset people — including some of her readers — for her public statements on the subject, which have been called out by LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD. In June 2020, for example, Rowling shared an opinion piece that someone had written referring to "people who menstruate," captioning it, "I'm sure there used to be a word for those people."
After she received backlash, the writer responded by saying that she loves trans people, but that "erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives." She described herself as a person who'd "been empathetic to trans people for decades."
LGBTQ supporters saw it much differently, and they continued to push back, as Rowling kept serving up equally controversial views on the subject. For instance, she expressed concern about the number of young women seeking to transition. As a result, Rowling said she experienced "death and rape threats."
Well, we're at 200 and it looks like the hateful bigots have eaten up all the available slots.
See everyone at the next post!
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