I truly do not understand how any of them think this is good political strategy. They feel that pressured by the morons to not even say that each entity can decide their own rules? I guess we know the answer.
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It’s purely a primary strategy, playing to the rubes who disproportionately participate in the Republican primaries. Can’t get elected governor in '22 if you don’t win the GOP primary, and can’t get elected president in '24 if you don’t get reelected as governor first.
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But there’s a word you’re leaving out. It’s spelled b-o-t-h.
The events in Afghanistan are of value in that the president we’re depending on to save us is getting assassinated by the press, and that has potential political consequences which are, I dunno, important? Seems like?
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And those long-standing food safety and premises cleanliness laws - especially those “Employees Must Wash Hands” regulations …
just ignore all that bullshit, too.
Because, Freedumb, Baby! Let’s bring back the rats in the kitchen and storage areas. And salmonella for everyone!
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I know.
Afghanistan is so last week.
Oh wait.
Anyhow every story that can be commented on on the front page right now even if you scroll down a bit is some variant of a Covid-story regarding Republicans.
The only Afghanistan-related stuff is in the left-hand column where it can’t be commented on.
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Your humble opinion could use some adjusting. Major geopolitical moves on the world stage will have much further-reaching effects than whether some dumbasses who can’t be bothered to get vaccinated kick the bucket.
Very real ramifications for places like Taiwan, if China looks at the current mess and decides to just go for it and invade, if they think that the U.S. doesn’t have the appetite to actually stop them.
Just for one example. Y’know, the sorts of things that end up in WWIII.
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From Paul Krugman’s column today basically saying it is passed time for vaccinated people to get pissed off at the anti-vaxxers,
From the column:
So how do you feel about anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers? I’m angry about their antics, even though I’m able to work from home and don’t have school-age children. And I suspect that many Americans share that anger.
The question is whether this entirely justified anger — call it the rage of the responsible — will have a political impact, whether leaders will stand up for the interests of Americans who are trying to do the right thing but whose lives are being disrupted and endangered by those who aren’t.
To say what should be obvious, getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in public spaces aren’t “personal choices.” When you reject your shots or refuse to mask up, you’re increasing my risk of catching a potentially deadly or disabling disease, and also helping to perpetuate the social and economic costs of the pandemic. In a very real sense, the irresponsible minority is depriving the rest of us of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Furthermore, to say something that should also be obvious, those claiming that their opposition to public health measures is about protecting “freedom” aren’t being honest.
So it’s time to stop being diffident and call out destructive behavior for what it is. Doing so may make some people feel that they’re being looked down on. But you know what? Your feelings don’t give you the right to ruin other people’s lives.
Opinion | The Quiet Rage of the Responsible
It’s time to stop being diffident and speak up.
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nope … probably just gas…
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At some point (soon) this diffidence will shift into something more palpable. Right now, the adolescents in the GOP (pols, minions, voters) are having the time of their lives with all the attention.
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The Florida State Board of Education is populated with fascists.
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Krugman is on point. People are damned mad. Everyone I know is mad. I imagine everybody that everybody knows (assuming responsible people of course) is mad.
Let Republicans coddle their idiot voters. We’ve had enough of this shit, really. We’re fed up with them and I personally don’t give a good god damn if they suffer on their health insurance claims, lose their jobs, or (best of all possible worlds) croak. They’re in the way.
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That negative press coverage specific to Biden and Afghanistan has died down substantially in the past couple of days. Yes, it was bad, most of it unwarranted and undeserved, but our withdrawal from Afghanistan and its resulting chaos is not so dominating anymore. From what I see, anyway. I think the press figured out that their audience disagreed with their portrayal of Biden’s responsibility for that crisis, and that their audience is more concerned about immediate events right here in the US, things like Delta and masks and GOP governors preventing sensible precautions to protect ourselves. Again, from what I see.
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I’m not sure what you read or what you watch then. It was brutal today.
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Well, no TV. Just the net.
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Everyone I know is mad.
I was going to write the same thing but then i realized I’ve been staying away from people who don’t wear masks inside and on the rare occasion I run across one I don’t talk to them … so I’m not sure if it means much!
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The Florida State Education Board’s funding threat is pretty granular. They’re demanding that Alachua and Broward Counties provide a list of the annual salaries of all county school board members if they fail to meet Corcoran’s 48-hour deadline to reverse their mask policies.
The orders also identify by name each of those board members who voted for the mandate.
If I were those board members, I would take this order as a badge of honor. Florida’s Department of Exposing kids to COVID has called them out as protecting kids.
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You’ve missed a bit, then. Places like CNN have been getting any individual who will claim that America is abandoning them on the line that they can find.
The reality is just avoiding them, that Monday didn’t lead to total breakdown and chaos, but rather that a strong, forceful and rapid response to secure the airport, get reinforcements in place, and conduct orderly evacuations within the secure zone while leaning on the taliban to stay the fuck out of the way has led to relatively boring lack of news. Sure, there’s tons of crowds around the place, but no ideas about who’s legitimately there to be evacuated, we’ve already begun sending soldiers outside of the walls to scoop up the folks who we can pick out, etc.
If this holds, Biden is going to go down in the history books as having managed an unprecedented evacuation operation from a fully-occupied city. Nobody else has pulled something similar off. When the North Vietnamese took Siagon, that was it, nobody hung around allowing us to remove just a few more planeloads of South Vietnamese.
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Let’s remember his history: he became wheel-chair bound after an accident left him paralyzed at the waist. He sued and was rewarded handsomely. Acting in typical Republican “I got mine, FU”, he worked to pass so-called “tort reform” ensuring that anyone else that landed in the same mess would not have the same legal recourse that lined his pockets.
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I take your point, but there is a hell of a lot of difference between the US finally getting out of an endless, unwinnable situation that it should never have gotten mired in in the first place (i.e., losing focus on going in, getting OBL and then getting the hell out) and giving up on an ally.
There was someone on MSNBC a couple of nights ago who was practically foaming at the mouth - claiming when Vietnam fell, the US airlifted over 100,000 out and “we left no one behind”. Unfortunately, it was as time ran out on the show and it was left pretty much unchallenged.
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