Tag Archives: anti-vaxxers

If You Cut Off The Head Of A Snake …

Posted on by under education, Election 2024, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Robert Reich’s piece yesterday titled “When Will the GOP Reach the anti-Trump Tipping Point?” made me think.  Although Reich predicts that the GOP won’t quit Trump just yet, I think his ship is sinking and will be shades of the Titanic by November 2024.  (Note that I predicted he couldn’t possibly win in 2016 and look how wrong I was then!) While I will be happy to see the GOP disavow Trump, they won’t be disavowing the movement he started.  Maga will be, I fear, with us for a long time to come, for like a carnival, people are drawn to it and Trump was, perhaps, only the beginning. And like a carnival, the movement has attracted a fair share of snake oil salesman and carnival barkers. Trump’s arrogance, his oversized ego, and the crimes he has committed against the people of this nation will bring his reign to an end … perhaps already have.  But others have been watching, learning, observing what it was about him that drew people, and they will use their observations to fine-tune maga into something less unsavory on the surface, yet far more dangerous.

Consider, for example, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis who is largely expected to throw his hat into the presidential ring sometime in the not-too-distant future.  DeSantis is ‘trumpian’ in some ways … he knows how to rally the people … but his public demeanor is calmer, he is more literate, able to string entire sentences together, and his ego is not as glaringly obvious.  He doesn’t make ludicrous statements such as “I alone can fix the system” or “I would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!”  DeSantis does, however, indulge in ludicrous behaviour, such as his stunt sending asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.

More recently, he has launched a campaign designed to lure the anti-vax crowd, claiming he will seek a grand jury to potentially prosecute the manufacturers of COVID vaccines.  He further claims he will set up a “Public Health Integrity Committee” to oversee the medical establishment.  What could possibly go wrong when a politician without an ounce of medical knowledge attempts to outwit the experts, the scientists, and play Russian roulette with people’s lives?  DeSantis claims that “our CDC, at this point, anything they put out, you just assume at this point that it’s not worth the paper that it’s printed on,” hence the pseudo-justification for his committee.  Two of the people on his committee are authors of an open letter, the “Great Barrington Declaration”, published in October 2020, that called for achieving “herd immunity” by letting COVID spread naturally, whatever the cost for the vulnerable, rather than implementing shutdowns and lockdowns. At this point, I can only be thankful that I don’t live in Florida!

And then there’s Senator Rick Scott, also from Florida, who is one of the most abominable men on my radar, but he seems to know how to win the maga crowd’s hearts.  During Mr. Scott’s tenure as chief executive of Columbia/HCA, once the nation’s largest private for-profit health care company, the Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.  That, in itself, should make him a political pariah, but not among the maga crowd.  Honesty and integrity are not among their criteria.

So yes, Donald Trump’s days are numbered, as evidenced by his utterly ludicrous scheme to sell digital trading cards with a picture of his head on someone else’s body for $99 apiece, but there are others waiting in the wings to follow the path into the culture war.  According to Christopher Sebastian Parker, professor of political science at the University of Washington and co-author of a recent research paper on maga culture …

“Right now, these people feel like they’re losing their country and their identity. They feel like they’re being displaced by communities of color, by feminists and by immigrants. These people are motivated by what they see as an existential threat to their way of life.”

Translation:  they are seeking to turn the United States into an all-white, straight, male-dominated, gun-totin’ Christian nation.  Any candidate who can convincingly promise that will stand a chance at winning the maga arm of the Republican Party over in 2024.  Governance?  Justice?  Environment?  International relations?  Education?  Civil Rights?  None of that matters to the maga crowd. They have listened to Trump & Co long enough that even when Trump is either six feet under or in a prison cell, the movement will not die out any time soon.

The Virus and Abortion

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Our friend Nan’s post today is spot on. One cannot simply cherry-pick one’s freedoms … if you believe in the freedom to control your own body, then you must also believe in MY freedom to control my own body. Good post, Nan … Thanks!

Nan's Notebook

Does anyone else see the correlation between those who reject COVID-19 vaccinations and those who supportAbortion?

Again and again the anti-vaxxers scream that it’s their PERSONAL RIGHT to reject the vaccine and/or to go maskless. They will frequently provide examples where they attended maskless gatherings of friends … “and no one contracted the virus!”

For some, it has become so important for them to “exercise their rights” (e.g., the Canadian truckers) that they lose all empathy for anyone who might be negatively impacted. Indeed, many are so adamant about enforcing their personal choice that they have physically attacked others and even disrupted public gatherings where masks were required. One individual even encouraged an armed attack against those who supported masks and/or vaccines!

Yet in many cases, these same individuals will attempt to take away a WOMAN’s right to seek an abortion. Even though it is as much HER RIGHT to…

View original post 83 more words

Fools Rush In …

Posted on by under education, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

I have no idea what the numbers are, how many there are, but there are a heck of a lot of damned fools in this nation who have completely misunderstood the concept of ‘individual rights’ or ‘personal freedom’.  These fools have taken those terms to mean they have the right to kill.  Yes, I said kill, for it is certainly killing when a person walks into a store, restaurant or other public venue without being vaccinated and without bothering to wear a mask.

Today at 10:30 a.m., a group of somewhere between 3,000 and 20,000 such fools plan to gather in a march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Their purpose?  To protest against vaccines.  They will waste millions of dollars to travel from as far away as California and are determined to spread Covid wherever they go, sans masks.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Leading the pack is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.  This Kennedy, unlike his father and uncle, is a conspiracy theorist who was once a respected environmental lawyer and activist, winning a $289 million jury verdict against Monsanto and winning multiple cases to protect coastlines and waterways.  But of late, he is the leader of the anti-vaxxer movement.

The permit the group filed with the National Park Service said they expect 20,000. They’re bringing in 97 port-a-potties. Even though D.C. police are expecting closer 3,000 people, it may be the biggest super-spreader event yet.

It is because of these fools that the rest of us, those of us with a functioning brain, have been largely confined to our homes for nearly two years now!  It is because of these fools that more than 1,000 people are still dying nearly every day in the U.S.  On Friday, 2,917 people died from Covid in the United States, and we are expected to have recorded a million deaths by the end of spring.  It is because of fools like those planning to march in Washington this morning that children must risk their lives every day to attend school, many in states that have banned mask mandates.  It is because of these fools that many of us have given up any hope of returning to a normal, functioning society.

Washington D.C. is currently under a vaccine mandate and the people of D.C. are concerned, rightly so, for the safety of those who work in restaurants and other businesses in the city.  One of the organizers of this protest has stated that they fully intend to enter ‘hospitality venues’ in order to protest against the D.C. vaccine mandate that went into effect on January 15th.  My hope is that they will not be allowed to do so, even if it means closing all businesses including restaurants for the day.

I simply cannot understand the mentality of these fools.  Do they also drive at 100 miles per hour down the highway in protest of speed limit laws?  Do they dine out nude in protest of dress codes?  Do they refuse to pay taxes in protest of the laws of the land?  What selfish, greedy bastards they are.  I can only hope that their protest is minimal and that there is no violence, but I’m pretty sure there will be a spike in new cases over the next two weeks, and we’ll know, without a doubt, who caused it.

@#$%&

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, Social commentary

The United States Supreme Court is no longer interested in We the People and our well-being, but instead have an ‘agenda’ that has NOTHING to do with you or me or John Doe down the street!  Yesterday, the so-called ‘Supreme’ Court struck down a vaccine mandate that would have required employees of companies with more than 100 employees to either be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.  IT’S A NO-BRAINER!!!  Every person who deals with the public in any form or fashion should be required to be vaccinated!!!  With this decision, the Court basically said that We the People do not matter, that our lives are without value.  🤬

We should all file a class action suit against the Supreme Court claiming that our rights to live in peace without fear from our neighbor’s breath have been violated!  It isn’t bad enough that some 65 million people in this nation are too selfish and too stupid to do the right thing and get the vaccine.  It isn’t bad enough that if everyone had been vaccinated at the earliest possible date, this nation would now be Covid-free, but instead we are experiencing on average 2,000 deaths from Covid per day!  2,000 human lives that could have been saved if only people hadn’t been such damn fools.  And now, the United States Supreme Court has given these fools carte blanche to continue killing us all!  Many thanks to Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Barrett, and to Chief Justice John Roberts for showing us just how little our lives are valued.

On the other hand, three other Justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomeyer, and Stephen Breyer issued a scathing and appropriate dissent …

“When we are wise, we know not to displace the judgments of experts, acting within the sphere Congress marked out and under Presidential control, to deal with emergency conditions. Today, we are not wise. In the face of a still-raging pandemic, this Court tells the agency charged with protecting worker safety that it may not do so in all the workplaces needed. As disease and death continue to mount, this Court tells the agency that it cannot respond in the most effective way possible.”

I have officially now lost all faith in the branch of our government that was originally intended to be non-partisan and fair.  I think it doubtful that another fair ruling will ever come out of this body, at least until there is a significant turnover of Justices, perhaps in 50 years or so.

From Inside The Bouncing Mind …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, voting rights

I find myself with an excess of angst these days … more than at any other time in my 70 years on this planet.  Yes, much of it is centered around the infamy of Republicans in Congress, but I’m also finding that a relatively large portion of the average Joes in the nation are also angst-inducing.  Some 65 million people are still unvaccinated!  WHO gave them permission to endanger the lives of the rest of us???  I still think we should ship them all off to some island similar to a leper colony until they either die out or decide to do the right thing!  Anyway, here are a few of the issues that are making my poor wee brain bounce around inside my head …

Winner take all … including the bigotry

I haven’t watched Jeopardy in years because I simply don’t watch television … at all.  I do watch one show … Coronation Street, a British soap opera that my daughter got me hooked on a few years ago, but beyond that, I don’t watch television.  Back in the day, however, I was a fan of Jeopardy, though I only came up with the right answers about 50% of the time, not nearly enough to make me think I had what it takes to become a contestant on the show.

Amy Schneider, however, obviously DOES have what it takes, for she recently became the first woman in the history of Jeopardy to win the most consecutive regular season episodes!  Hats off to Ms. Schneider!  Oh, but wait … the bigots of the nation had to speak out against Ms. Schneider because … she is two of the three things they hate the most … a woman and a transgender woman at that.  Imagine if she were Black on top of all else!  On Twitter, transphobic users claimed that transgender women are naturally better at trivia games than cisgender women, so Schneider’s wins aren’t meaningful.  BULLSHIT!  Frankly, I know some straight men who couldn’t compete successfully on any quiz show where education and intelligence are required.

This is just one case of the bigotry that defines an unfortunately large portion of the population in this nation.  What a sad … nay, tragic … state we are in when some people consider themselves more valuable than others because of their skin colour, gender, religion, gender identity, or other so-called criteria.  Wouldn’t you think humans would have learned to be more … human … after centuries of living in communities, living and working side-by-side with people of every race and gender?  Apparently, some people never learn to be human.

Voting Rights???  Did somebody say voting rights?

Two landmark bills have been stalled in the Senate for months: The Freedom to Vote Act would standardize voter ID laws and permanently allow voting by mail, ban partisan gerrymandering, and set national standards for elections. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would reestablish the Voting Rights Act, which was weakened by two Supreme Court decisions in the past decade, by specifically reinstating antidiscrimination protections for voters.  A no-brainer, right?  Well … yeah, unless you’re a Republican.  Not a single Republican senator is willing to vote to pass these two much-needed laws … not a single one!  I’m sick and damn tired of paying taxes to support these assholes who are trying to take away our right to have a voice in our government!!!

What does this say about the Republicans in Congress?  It says they are a bunch of incompetent cowards, that’s what!  They are scared to death that if every eligible person can actually vote, they won’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the next election.  And why, you might ask, can they only win if people of colour, young people, poor people cannot vote?  Because those of us who have a brain and remember how to use it understand that they have NOT been doing their job, that they are no more qualified for a seat in our legislative body than my cat is!

Surely there are at least some Republicans in Congress who know that the right to vote is not to be taken lightly, is guaranteed to each and every one of us.  Surely there are at least a few who understand that their refusal to pass these two very important bills is WRONG!  But, it seems their loyalty to the Republican Party ranks higher in their mind than the oath of office they took. In my book, it is tantamount to treason against We the People!

Guilty!!!

Y’know, folks, if I were to be issued a summons or a subpoena to appear in court, to testify under oath, and if I were to ignore that summons or subpoena, or worse yet openly defy it, it would be only a matter of hours before I would be sitting in a jail cell.  The same can be said for all of you … it is against the law to ignore or defy a subpoena.  Full stop.  So … can somebody please ‘splain to me why people like Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and others are still walking around free, not wearing orange jumpsuits and not looking out from behind a set of iron bars?  I thought that in this nation, the laws applied to everyone, even those elected officials whose salaries we work our patooties off to pay?  I thought that there was … what’s that called … “Equal justice for all”?

WHY are these jerks getting by with willfully interfering with a committee that is investigating an event that caused death and damn near caused the downfall of this nation’s foundation?  Obviously, each one who has defied or ignored a subpoena from the committee is guilty of having a distinct role in the attempted coup, for if they had nothing to hide, they would be more than willing to tell what they know … under oath.  In my book, refusal to even testify is an admission of guilt.  They walk among us … and they shouldn’t … they have no right to.

Filosofa Checks In …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Personal, Random

One of the many things I have learned over the past month or so is that once the body hits the 70-year mark, the warranty expires on all its parts.  I should’a read the fine print.  I keep hoping to be able to start my post with … “Filosofa Rides Again!” … or something equally energetic, but I’m not there yet, folks.  They tell me that patience is the key, that at my age, healing takes time, but patience has never been my strong suit and mine has been stretched beyond its limits, driving my mind into a dark and foreboding place.

Another thing I’ve learned is that healthcare in the U.S. is seriously broken.  It has become so compartmentalized, so ‘specialized’, that the patient is no longer given even minimal consideration.  But I’ll have more on that another time.

Anyway, I really miss my blog, miss my blogging family, miss the interactions among us.  And yes, I have been keeping up with what is happening on the U.S. political scene, and it seems that old adage is true:  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  The same issues are at hand today with the same tired cast of characters as when I first became ill a month or more ago.  And the anti-vaxxers are still mistakenly interpreting their ‘rights’ as being whatever they want them to be at a given time.

Though I’m still far from ‘back in the saddle’, I plan to try to write a short post every other day or so … I think it might help me crawl out of the dark, dark place my mind resides in these days.

And finally, thank you all for the well-wishes and heartfelt concern you’ve sent me via comments and email.  I apologize for not having answered each one individually, but know that your thoughts brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart.

Guns And COVID — Both Murder Weapons

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, guns, Law and justice, Rants, Social commentary

If I owned a retail establishment (a ‘store’, for any Republicans who might be reading), I would be well within my rights to impose and enforce a ban on guns in my business.  I would have a sign on all entrances stating my ‘no gun’ policy and anyone caught bringing a gun into my place would be given a lifetime ban.  No exceptions.  Why?  Because guns kill, because guns are dangerous even in the most well-trained hands.  Because I don’t want to have to hire a crew to clean the blood stains off of my walls.

Murder, by the way, is against the law here in the U.S.  So, if you brought a gun into my establishment, lost your temper with, say somebody who accidentally jostled you, and you shot them … you would go to prison.

Now, the gun rights’ activists will tell me that I’m infringing on their 2nd Amendment rights, but frankly I don’t give a damn and that isn’t how I see it.

So now we have another lethal weapon in the public arsenal, this one less obvious at a glance than a bulky gun:  COVID.  Covid is a lethal killer … to date, 4.5 million people worldwide have died of this disease since its inception and there is no sign that it is slowing down in too many places, most notably parts of the U.S.  So, again, I would be well within my rights to refuse entry to my place of business to anyone not vaccinated and not wearing a mask – the only two tools in our toolbox to fight this killer.

If you wish to visit my store, you will show valid proof of vaccination AND you will wear a mask.  Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass what Governor DeSantis or Governor Abbott have to say about it … I will ban those who cannot follow the rules of public safety.

Today, the vaccine has been widely available and free for a number of months, and this week received full FDA approval, so there is NO remaining excuse for anybody to continue to shun the vaccine.  But if you do, be advised that you, too, will be shunned by good people of conscience.

It seems to me that, Covid being every bit as lethal, though not as obvious, as a gun, then it should be restricted in the same way … that … oh wait, we don’t restrict guns, either do we?  But seriously, folks … the person who refuses to be vaccinated, who refuses to wear a mask in public, is every bit as much a murderer in my book as the person who pulls a gun in a crowded movie theater.  Consider the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally earlier this month.  According to NBC News …

Two weeks after the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, reported Covid infections in the state have risen nearly sixfold.

South Dakota counted 3,819 new cases in the past two weeks, including seven deaths, up from 644 cases in the 14 days preceding it. That makes it the state with the largest percent increase in Covid cases in the past two weeks.

Packed in like sardines and in all the pictures I’ve seen, I did not see a single masked face.

Y’know, my friends, if a person wants to commit suicide, that is his or her business and contrary to what I thought, it is not against the law.  But it does seem that there are more reliable and less traumatic ways to do it than to catch Covid intentionally.  But when we start talking about other people’s lives, then … WHOA!  Put the brakes on, stop sipping that Jack Daniels, stop being stubborn just for the sake of showing the world what an asshole you are, and think for a minute.  Murder, as it happens, IS illegal.  If you intentionally place your unvaccinated, unmasked self into a group of people, you are potentially committing murder.  You may be murdering a two-year-old child or an elderly woman like myself.  You may be murdering a schoolteacher or a nurse.  It’s a game of Russian roulette and I’M TIRED OF IT!

Tell me again, Scott Lawlor, how your right to shun the vaccine overrides my right to life!  Tell us all, you stupid bitches holding up signs reading “My body, my choice”, what you would do if your own child caught Covid and died as a result of your “choice”.

It seems to me that there should be a nation-wide mandate for both the vaccine and masks.  Anybody caught not obeying … there is plenty of jail space.  We could whip Covid in this country in a matter of weeks if EVERYONE did their part … a really simple part, actually.  But no, there are 30% – 40% of the people in this nation who aren’t particularly smart, aren’t at all compassionate, but rather are greedy, selfish bastards.  And governors who would rather see a reduction in the population of their state than make an unpopular decision.  Wow, real tough guys, eh?

Have a safe and happy weekend, my friends, and stay away from covidiots.

The Return Of Snarky!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, voting rights

Snippets, Snippets, have I ever got snippets today!  My body may be feeble, but there’s nothing wrong with my mind!

Today, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) gave full approval for the Pfizer vaccine against COVID.  This does a number of things.

First, it removes the excuse the anti-vaxxers have been using for not getting the vaccine.  They said, “not without full FDA approval!”  Well, folks, now you’ve got that, so get your fat asses out there and get vaccinated … TODAY!

My granddaughter, astute for her young years, said, “I bet now they’ll say it was too fast.”  And lo and behold, just an hour after she said that I read this headline …

Goalposts Moved: Fox News is Now Complaining That FDA Rushed the Vaccine Approval Process

And if Fox says it, you know the nudniks will believe it.

Second, it allowed the Pentagon today to announce it is making the vaccine mandatory for its 1.3 million active-duty service members.  Bravo!!!

The time for argument and delay is past.  This was the last possible hurdle.  Now it’s time to think of others, put petty whining aside just for once, and do the right thing.  If a large portion of the population continue to resist, then I vote we build something akin to leper colonies and house them there until the threat has passed.

In just a few hours, Governor Andrew Cuomo will fade into oblivion … we hope.  Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will take her oath of office at one minute after midnight.  I detest the confrontational attitude that Cuomo has adopted in his last weeks in office, for he is only paying the price for his own actions – nobody forced him to sexually harass women.

That said, all people are some combination of good and bad … well, most people anyway.  While Cuomo’s current crimes must be remembered, must serve as a warning to future politicos, he has also done much good during his decade in office and I think that should be remembered as well.  It is a part of his legacy, just as is his sexual misconduct.  When Pete Rose was banned from baseball for betting on the sport, I thought that right and proper, but when he was denied a well-earned place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, I thought that was wrong.  In the same way, I think it is right for Cuomo to step down, but that it would be wrong to paint Cuomo with only a single, dark brush.

Remember the good as well as the bad and take a lesson from both.

When I was trying to catch up on the news earlier today, I felt as if there were a conspiracy to direct our attention in so many directions that no single news item would stand out, would capture our full attention.  Afghanistan, of course, is at the forefront of our minds, as it should be.  Climate change and the terrible climate-related disasters happening all over the globe – floods, hurricanes, droughts, water shortages, wildfires – are critical to our future on this planet.  Getting vaccines into stubborn mules and masks onto their faces seems a never-ending struggle and is critical, for failure to do so affects the health and well-being of every man, woman and child on earth.  But what seems to have fallen through the cracks may be, at least for the people of the United States, the most important issue of them all:  voting rights.

The U.S. Senate under the minority leadership of the ignoble Kevin McCarthy is somehow determined to draw our attention away from the bills S1 and S4 so that, with our attention elsewhere, they can sweep them under the rug and wash their hands of our voting rights.

Interestingly, Maria Bartiromo of Fox ‘News’ interviewed McCarthy the other day and she surprised me.  Here’s a brief snippet from that interview …

Bartiromo:  “You a moment ago mentioned the HR 1 voting bill. I’ve got to tell you there are viewers of this program who have lost faith in the Republican Party leadership, lost faith in Mitch McConnell and in you because we do not know if you have your arms around free and fair elections.  How come there’s no discussion about all of the states that are changing their voting laws right now?  How come there’s no discussion about the audit going on in Arizona right now? What are you going to do? Can you prove to the American people that you are in control here and able to ensure that we will have free and fair elections in 2022 and 2024?”

McCarthy:  “We’re fighting every single day. Now we’re watching Democrats trying to cheat within elections, inflation at a number we have not seen. This is Jimmy Carter on steroids. And this is just eight months into this administration.  We will fight and we will win and the next century will be the American century because we know how to govern.”

That is a non-answer if ever I heard one!  He did not even begin to answer the question, not even to address the fact that some Fox viewers, according to Bartiromo, have lost faith in the Republican Party leadership, but used his answer as yet another opportunity to criticize the Democratic Party!  Get off your fat ass, McCarthy, and do your job!  We the People want the For the People Act (S1) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (S4) passed and we want it done before the end of this year!!!

Folks … this one is top priority, even though it seems to have faded out of view in light of the chaos of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal.  Let’s keep it hot, okay?  We cannot allow our politicians to simply shrug their shoulders and let these two all-important bills die in the Senate.  Once again, I’m asking you, contact your Senators and let them know you have not forgotten … you will not forget.

We Don’t Need More Babies!!!!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Social commentary

I saw an article headline in the New York Times this morning …

Who Has the Cure for America’s Declining Birthrate? Canada.

A number of things went spinning through my mind, but the dominating thought was – why does our declining birth rate need or deserve a cure???  All things considered, this world does not need any more humans hellbent on destroying our precious resources!  It seems, especially of late, that there is a taint in the gene pool here in the U.S. that more and more of our population are affected with TS – Terminal Stupidity.

Rather than trying to increase an already hefty population, let’s focus on educating the ones we have!  In fact, I would advocate sterilization for every single individual who blatantly refuses to be vaccinated or to wear a mask.  They are the breeders of TS.

And then there’s the environment.  At the current rate which we are ignoring the dire warnings of the scientific community and the IPCC, human life on this planet cannot possibly last past the end of the century, likely not even that long.  So … WHY does anybody think it’s a good idea to bring more lives onto the planet to suffer the devastating effects that are going to take place in the coming years???  What a cruel thing to do!  Over the next generation or two, there will be food and water scarcity, devastating fires, droughts, floods.

Rather than try to boost the birthrate, I say we make birth control free and widely available, same with abortions.  It is unconscionable to keep piling people on top of people who have no future.  We, humans, have no future and we have only ourselves to blame.  Don’t subject even more people to a slow, painful, drawn-out death.

Now, some of you may argue that one of those new lives could be the very person who grows up to find a way to save the planet.  And there was a time that would have been my view as well.  However, as I watch those with TS parading around doing far more harm than good, even to their own loved ones, I realize that if we were handed a solution on a silver platter today, there are far too many affected by TS who would rebel, who would refuse to make whatever sacrifices were needed on their part, for it would, in their book, “infringe on their freedoms”.  They would sooner see this planet crash and burn than to make some small effort to help save it, so no matter how brilliant the plan to save the planet might be, the TS bunch will stomp on it.

Sorry, folks, but my faith in the goodness of human nature is gone.  Done.  When I see a parent ripping the mask off of a teacher, see hordes of people cheering a madman who has done more than his share to add to the destruction of not only this nation, but the world, and see a motorcycle rally where not one lousy person of the thousands in attendance is wearing a mask, despite the surge in both new cases and deaths, despite the new Lambda variant on the horizon, then I know there isn’t much hope for rallying the crowd in a huge effort to save the planet.  Let the birth rate continue to decline.  It’s for the best.

And for those of you who haven’t yet had the joy of grandchildren … buy a puppy.  They’re cuter, much more low-maintenance, cheaper to feed, and loyal.

When Will They Ever Learn???

Posted on by under education, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

I am appalled by the anti-mask, anti-vax bunch and the lengths they will go to in order to ensure that we never come out from under the Covid thumb!  To ensure that their own children have an equal opportunity to die at a young age.  For PETE’S SAKE PEOPLE!!!  Wake the hell up!

There is yet another new variant of Covid just beginning to make the rounds and it is thought to be largely resistant to the vaccines we have today.  It is called the Lambda variant, that started in Peru but is quickly popping up all over the globe.  And so … how are people ensuring that we all keep safe?  By breathing on us, by refusing to wear a mask or to allow their children to wear one.  Damn fools!

On the first day back to school in California this week, a parent assaulted a teacher when he saw his son come out of school with a mask on.  The teacher was not seriously injured, having only some bruises, lacerations, and a knot on his head, but this is horrifying!  The man would, apparently, rather see his son dead than wearing a mask!  I wonder if, when the son is in the hospital on life support, the father will assault the doctors and nurses for putting an oxygen mask on his face?

The anti-life group is now attacking restaurants, as well, even restaurants they have never eaten in.  They are leaving 1-star reviews on sites such as YELP, a restaurant reviewing site, simply because those restaurants require proof of vaccination.  The owners of some restaurants requiring proof of vaccination are being called ‘Nazis’ and ‘communists’ and more.  WTF???

To a large extent, I blame the nation’s Republican politicians for this, as well as the right-wing Fox ‘News’, for far too many of them have often done and said things that the uneducated and the willfully ignorant take to heart.  But let me be perfectly clear here:  lack of education and purposeful ignorance are NOT an excuse for risking the lives of others!  People who claim their ‘rights’ must also accept their responsibility to their own family and to the rest of the world.  No, you do NOT have the right to risk my life or even the lives of your own children.  They are not possessions that you can either care for or toss in the rubbish!

This nonsense has gone beyond ridiculous and those who choose to infect the rest of us may well end up being responsible for the extinction of the human species!  Maybe that’s for the best, since we humans seem to have zero respect for the planet or other species.  Perhaps humans were the worse example of a bad experiment.

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has written a column for The Atlantic titled “Don’t Be a Schmuck. Put on a Mask.”  I strongly urge you to read it, but here are a few snippets from his piece:

Earlier this week, I delivered a simple message: There is a virus here. It kills people. The only way you can prevent it is to get vaccinated, wear masks, and do social distancing.

Some people are complaining, “Well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.” Well, I told them, “Screw your freedom.” You have the freedom to wear no mask. But if you exercise that freedom, you’re a schmuck—because you’re supposed to protect your fellow Americans.

But some of the responses really worried me. Many people told me that the Constitution gives them rights, but not responsibilities. They feel no duty to protect their fellow citizens.

That’s when I realized we all need a civics lesson. I can’t help but wonder how much better off we’d be if Americans took a step back from politics and spent a minute thinking about how lucky we are to call this country home. Instead of tweeting, we could think about what we owe to the patriots who came before us and those who will follow us.

The Constitution aimed to “promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.” It’s right there in our founding document. We need to think beyond our selfish interests.

Our country began with a willingness to make personal sacrifices for the collective good. It’s right there in the closing line of the Declaration of Independence: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Almost two centuries later, John F. Kennedy posed his famous challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Our country became great because every generation before us knew that liberty and duty go hand in hand. I am worried that many of my fellow Americans have now lost sight of that.

Wake up, people.  Were it in my power, I would issue a nationwide mask mandate and have police arrest anybody found in a public venue not wearing a mask.  Alas, nobody asked my opinion.  So, I’ll likely continue to opine here, as the new lambda variant creates surges in hospitalizations and raises the death tolls once again.  Meanwhile, just get vaccinated and wear a damn mask!