Ioffe: Ukraine is a wake-up call for Americans

Look how hard Ukraine is fighting for democracy. Americans take it for granted and don't think what's happening there can happen here. And yet that process is already well underway, one example being how NitTwit and the Repugnacon Party are supporting Putin. As Colbert quoted Jefferson: "The price of democracy is eternal vigilance." If we fail in that through complacency we will ultimately lose our  democracy. 

Repugnacons hobbled Ukraine

Aka TrumPutincons, supporting fascism around the world and bringing it home to the US.



 

Meidas Touch: Stand with Ukraine

Defeat Putin. 

Ben and Victoria

At the Pro Show, Budafest 2022. If I ever partner dance again, which is in doubt given this never-ending pandemic, I'll use this to add to my repertoire. That is, if I can even remember what I used to know.

Russia is quoting Tucker Carlson for State propaganda

Snopes fact-checked and verified it with examples. We have Russian agents at Pox Views. No surprise.

"When Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended Russian President Vladimir Putin on his program, his viewers may not have imagined it would be used by Russian state television to help bolster that country’s case for attacking Ukraine. But that is exactly what happened. Carlson spent a number of segments criticizing U.S. President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian government, and then often defending Putin, clips that have become fodder for Russian television."

 

Your hopes and prayers don't mean shit

Stand and fight for what is right.

 


 

Thanks for nothing

I'll do it myself.


 

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Following up on the last post, this song reminds me of that cowardice that enables fascism, particularly these lyrics.

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage? 

Obedience and the rise of authoritarianism

The video below is subtitled "why are people cowards?" It's when we feel powerless and helpless that this occurs. At it's exactly the fascist agenda to make us feel that way. So we respond by accepting our fate through conformity as if that will protect us.  But it will not; it only makes it worse.

"Unless more people can muster up the moral courage to renounce conformity in favor of standing up for freedom and for what is right, and at the very least make a small contribution to combating tyranny, Western societies will continue moving towards" (10:55) authoritarianism and fascism. 

A rebuttal to naive and enabling pacifism

Same goes for that response to current US Repugnacon fascism. Which will turn into the worst kind like this meme given such enabling complicity.


 

Rodrigo y Gabriela - The Struggle Within

A brilliant cover and acoustic interpretation of a Metallica song

Will Russia invade Alaska?

I know, it sounds absurd. But given that Putin is wanting to take back countries that he claims used to be part of Russia, and that Alaska used to be part of Russia,* is it that far fetched?

* The US bought it from Russia in 1867. 


 

Freedom in the World 2021

As discussed by Hartmann and reported by Freedom House: 

"The final weeks of the Trump presidency featured unprecedented attacks on one of the world’s most visible and influential democracies. After four years of condoning and indeed pardoning official malfeasance, ducking accountability for his own transgressions, and encouraging racist and right-wing extremists, the outgoing president openly strove to illegally overturn his loss at the polls, culminating in his incitement of an armed mob to disrupt Congress’s certification of the results. Trump’s actions went unchecked by most lawmakers from his own party, with a stunning silence that undermined basic democratic tenets. Only a serious and sustained reform effort can repair the damage done during the Trump era to the perception and reality of basic rights and freedoms in the United States."

"But President Trump’s attempt to overturn the will of the American voters was arguably the most destructive act of his time in office. His drumbeat of claims—without evidence—that the electoral system was ridden by fraud sowed doubt among a significant portion of the population, despite what election security officials eventually praised as the most secure vote in US history. Nationally elected officials from his party backed these claims, striking at the foundations of democracy and threatening the orderly transfer of power." 

Hartmann concludes:

"Republicans’ plan to gain and hold power falls back on the autocrat’s playbook: purge Democrats from voter rolls and lie about your opponents and the issues while making it really, really hard for average people to vote. All while changing election laws so your legislature can simply throw out votes you don’t like, as more than a dozen Republican states have now done or tried to do. When Republican support for Putin and other autocrats around the world, and CPAC’s decision to hold a conference in strongman Orbán’s Hungary this year, are viewed in this context they make perfect sense." 

 

 

CBO report on single-payer healthcare

The Daily Poster explains the new Congressional Budget Office report. It sounds just awful, right? Yeah, only to vampire health insurance companies that have bought off politicians, including Biden. Under a single-payer healthcare system:

  • “Households’ health insurance premiums would be eliminated, and their out-of-pocket health care costs would decline… Administrative expenses in the health care sector would decline, freeing up productive resources for other sectors and ultimately increasing economy-wide productivity… Longevity and labor productivity would increase as people’s health outcomes improved.”
  • “Workers would choose to work fewer hours, on average, despite higher wages because the reduction in health insurance premiums and (out-of-pocket) expenses would generate a positive wealth effect that allowed households to spend their time on activities other than paid work and maintain the same standard of living.”
  • “That wealth effect would boost households’ disposable income, which they could then split between increased saving and nonhealth consumption. Although hours worked per capita would decline, the effect on GDP would be offset under most policy specifications by an increase in economy-wide productivity, an increase in the size of the labor force, an increase in the average worker’s labor productivity, and a rise in the capital stock.”
  • “States could respond to the (ensuing) budget surplus by growing their rainy-day funds (at least temporarily), reducing state tax rates, increasing spending on government purchases or public services, or a combination of all three.”

 

 

CDC to ease indoor mask recommendation today

The current recommendation was based on "people residing in communities of substantial or high transmission — roughly 95% of U.S." Now it will be based on political considerations that have decided our health and lives are collateral damage for the sake of the economy and getting re-elected. F___ing politics.

Bernie says it out loud

As do some other progressives and some Republicans. The Repugnacon Party though are TrumPutins. And many Democrats don't have the guts to say so.


 

NMDOH COVID report 1/24/22 - 2/21/22

In this 4-week period there were 47,981 new cases, a 1713 per day average. Of those 29.5% were among the vaccinated and 21.6% were among the vaccinated with booster. In those categories 20.1% and 15.6% were hospitalized, while 22.5% and 15.8% died. Pretending the pandemic is over and that we can return to life before it is stupid and dangerous. And the Governor's decision to eliminate the indoor mask mandate was based strictly on political reasons in an election year and not on the above medical statistics.



 

Liberal Redneck: TX targets trans kids

Just the latest in their fascist agenda and Trae is having none of it.

Lincoln Project: Putin's Puppet Pox Views

They are hailing to their Chief. 

Russia invades Ukraine

While fascists in the US invade democracy. It should be clear by now that some people and nations cannot be negotiated with. Case in point, Russia invading Ukraine. 

However it is not as clear to some that Putin's Puppets here at home, like NitTwit, Pox Views and the Repugnacon Party, are rootin' for Putin because they want to see us become just like their hero. And they too are not to be negotiated with but fought. 

At this point it's a war of words in the hopes of preventing the full scale sort of Russian fascism. But make no mistake that is the goal of our domestic terrorists. So quit denying it and take up at the very least your pens and defend democracy before we lose it.

2 Manhattan prosecutors quit NitTwit case

This does not bode well. The resignations come after the new Manhattan DA indicated "that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against" the Twit. Of course the DA denies it so why did the prosecutors quit? As of the writing of the story they did not respond. I hope this is not a case of corruption in the new DA, as there was some hope this case would bring some justice to their crime family. 

These are the kind of lunatics Pox Views interviews

Pox either didn't do any research on this guy before they interviewed him, which is bad enough. But it's likely they knew exactly who he was because he fits right in with their paranoid, racist and fascist worldview. 

Dave Weiman: The Doctrine of Discovery

This is the first part of his presentation to UU of Santa Fe on Sunday 2/20/22.  From the Pope in 1452 giving King Alfonso of Portugal the power to enslave those American heathen pagans and take their land to the present, this heinous Doctrine has continuously and forever stained the great American experiment. Yet to this day so many who have benefited from this Doctrine via white privilege take the time to understand it and fight against its injustice. The current Repugnacon laws to prevent the teaching of this history also for the most part don't reach us through our comfortable denial.

Colbert: Nothing Putin says about Ukraine is true

Likewise, nothing Putin's US Repugnacon puppets say about elections is true. It's all fascist lying propaganda, which is the only thing they are good at.

Dr. Feigl-Ding: The pandemic is far from over

Especially now that we have Omicron sub-variant BA2, which is soon to cause yet another spike. Booster vaccinations really make a big difference. A 2nd booster helps significantly with the elderly. Cases are still really high so mitigating protection measures is medically unsound; keep wearing the masks indoors etc. The increased use of home tests is leading to reduced reports of COVID cases to departments of health. 

Cheney calls NitTwit a traitor

And she's right.

 


 

New Zombie movie plot

Brought to you by pandemic zombies, whose only purpose is to make more zombies.



 

Cryptic cryptocurrencies

The epitome of pyramid schemes backed by its own cryptic mumbo jumbo. It is though good for an Invisible Handjob.


 

The problem with theories of everything

The embodied cognition movement claim Wittgenstein as one of their own. 2nd gen cogsci's point is not that they're all wrong or a waste of time but that they are all right within the confines of their preferred premises and inferential structures. It's just that they make the common metaphysical mistake of then assuming that since their program is consistent and coherent then it must apply to everything which can be subsumed therein. 
 
Cogsic has also shown us that there is no one, overriding paradigm to rule them all. And that each, while consistent and coherent within themselves, are inconsistent with each other. So the so-called meta-paradigm which wants to integrate them all under one consistent umbrella is itself part of the same problem. 
 
As I've noted elsewhere, cogsci finds universal grounding in the empirical cognitive structures we use to perceive and interpret the world, not in the preferred premises and metaphors that seek to dominate all of that world. It's very much akin to the Edwards' et al. metatheoretical notion of syntegrity in the space between worlds, which shows how the different paradigms relate instead of how one rules them all.
 

 

 

NYT: Supreme Corp InJustice Thomas' corruption

There simply is not way the Corp can defend itself against charges of political bias with the likes of this Injustice serving thereon. According to this New York Times story, Thomas's wife, Ginni, is a board member of the Council for National Policy (CNP). They spread misinformation about the 2020 election in support of the effort to decertify electoral votes in five swing States. Injustice Thomas supported that effort by echoing the CNP's talking points when the issue came before the Corp. Thomas also strongly criticized the Jan. 6 Committee for "legal harassment to private citizens who have done nothing wrong." 



A slightly less obvious fascism

McCONhell doesn't like it when NitTwit and his militias are overt like that. He prefers to hide it behind manipulative propaganda. Granted taking away the vote isn't that subtle, hence they have to pile on the lies based on their Big Lie. But it is fascism just the same.



 

Reich accurately frames polarization

Polarization is a loaded term that has been falsely framed as both sides becoming extreme or radical. But the fact is that the left has remained pretty much what it has been, pro-democracy, while the right has become radically fascist.  

Meidas Touch: NitTwit is guilty

Good collage of Twit saying those who plead the 5th Amendment are guilty. 

How times have changed

Ah, the good old days before the Repugnacon Party turned fascist.


 

AOC calls Snarlson a pendejo and basura

Translation: He's a trashy asshole. It's ok to name-call when it's true. I won't even say what Snarlson said to elicit these true statements but you can see it at the link.

Putin's hit list

According to US Intelligence, Putin has a hit list of people to arrest and/or kill in Ukraine when he invades. The list includes dissidents and anti-corruption activists. He'll also use lethal measure to disperse peaceful protests. It's no wonder Pox Views and numerous Repugnacons support Putin, as they want to grow up to be just like him and Russia.

Poet's Mask

Looking over some old poems here's something I wrote in '89

Mercurio weaves the web of lies
With words of truth
Exposing what’s behind the mask
By becoming the character that he plays
Dream/drama time
Time enough to take a moment
And turn it into an eternity
To evoke the images that reside
Along cell memory lane
To embody the actual conflicts
Of your organs with mythic ritual
Primal but pounding in our veins
The dance of heinous proportions
Mask removed the poet is just another
Soft-handed sensitive wimp
To your basic callous-hide normalian
But bearing masks of muses
Incarnates them with the invocation 

Complicit enablers

Pretty much sums them up. Same goes if they cannot even recognize a Nazi. Or naively assume one can reason or negotiate with them. 


 

Hartmann: "You're either a progressive Party or you're not"

Thom: Given what you wrote, progressives in the Party, and those running for a place in it, must use your very words and similar rhetoric against the corporatists therein. Call them traitors to freedom and economic royalists. Call out their corrupt triangulation and big-tent you're either with us or against us, blue no matter who BS. As you say:

"You’re either a progressive party or you’re not: you can’t be both, and when you try to straddle that fence you will lose elections more often than not."

AOC: Will the US be a democracy in 10 years?

This clip is with David Remnick of The New Yorker, who interviewed AOC where she responded to the question above saying:

"I think there's a real risk that we will not. I think what we risk is having a government that perhaps postures as a democracy, and may try to pretend that it is, but isn't."

Remnick agrees with AOC and lists the ways in which we are speeding down that road. The other CNN commenters agree. Granted they avoid the fascist label but that's what they're describing.  

You can't play nice with fascism

If you try then you die, literally. This post was motivated by a recent Facebook discussion, as well as by the many well-meaning but naive proponents of a so-called 'more developed worldview' where we can all get along and overcome all of this nasty polarization. 

I maintain that there is no use trying to reason or mediate with fascists. And that's what the Repugnacon Party has become. They must be defeated, not negotiated with, whatever that takes.  How do we do that? My preferred way is via rhetorical framing to motivate voting and activist behavior in the working class. And working in the trenches typically does not lend itself to Robert's Rules. I previously survived on the streets and it has its own ways. My later intellectual pursuits notwithstanding are for a different audience, typically one that cannot understand down and dirty.

Robert's Rules are what the US Congress (and others) use to keep order and civility in debate. In effective street framing/fighting they are inapplicable. But by participating in the dirt doesn't that defeat our higher purpose of a better worldview? Only if that worldview is so idealistic that it thinks we can eliminate all the dirt.

I'll use fighting as a metaphor. I trained in martial arts, which has such high ideals as aforementioned. And yet it is a fighting art. Which means it recognizes that not everyone in this world has such high ideals. And to suppose that we'll create a world where everyone does is naive at best. So it behooves us to know when to fight and how much depending on the context. When we're facing fascism, which doesn't fight by any civilized rules, you fight back with whatever works and save the civilized rules for the civilized. 

At this point the fighting is rhetorical in the hopes of averting the physical. Make no mistake though that if Repugnacon fascism is not curtailed now in a rhetorical war that gets them out of political power then eventually they will revert to the same heinous acts that they have throughout history. Today book-banning and taking away the right to vote. Tomorrow putting journalists in jail? The next day death camps? This is where that road leads and for Repugs it's full speed ahead.

I'm getting old and my physical fighting skills have deteriorated. My words are all I have left, which some say are mightier than the sword anyway. So I do what I can with what I got in the hopes that in some small way we can save democracy from this fascist onslaught. If the intellectuals find my tactics degrading then that's on their naive, cozy and enabling idealism that deprived them of knowing when and how to fight evil. Or even to recognize it.

World Happiness Report 2021

Pretty much consistent with the Democracy Index. You can download it here


 

Learn from Norway

It's why Norway is always in the top rankings of the World Happiness Report and the Democracy Index. Pay attention if you want to be a happy, democratic nation too.


 

There is a big difference

This sign highlights that difference. To just call this polarization as if both sides are equivalent but just disagree is not just naive but enables the problem. Although I would qualify that the establishment Democorp Party is also part of that corruption, but nothing even remotely like the fascism that has taken over the Repugnacon Party. Support progressives like Bernie and AOC if you want to ever see real solutions for we the people.



 

New Age Crap

I wrote this years ago when I was attending a massage therapy school. I had made bodywork my professional career for about 15 years thereafter but just never could accept the hype and the dogma. This sentiment also applies to the self-righteousness I encountered later in other endeavors, like martial arts, dance and philosophy.

Chorus

I really think they miss the point
It’s just another fad
Everybody is doing it
It’s really totally rad
But in the end after all the stuff
When all is said and done
New Age fans are no better off
Than plain folks having fun
It’s just New Age crap
It’s just New Age crap

Verses

Everybody walkin' around, giving me the rap
What to eat and what to drink, showing me their map
Stand this way and walk that way and tuck your pelvis under
Release that block and open up, experience the wonder
Visualize and let it go, breath into the pain
Balance out the energy, imagine you are sane
Chant the sounds and see it now, exercise your spine
Encounter feelings, drop your armor, confront your own stop signs

See the my theory, check my system, it’s obvious that I know
How to reach the higher spaces, while you are really low
You don’t fit into the picture, the one I know is right
What you’re doing ain’t for real, you can’t see the light
You really have to breath this way, or else you got it wrong
You really have to sing this way, or else it ain’t a song
Something needs to be improved, to find a better way
As things are you can’t be right, if so I’d get no pay
 

A new Olympic medal

 This one is for the Olympic Committee.


 

Good question for US Dept. of Justice

And the answer is...?

 



The Twitiot Prayer

Time to wake up and smell your vomit. PS: It ain't roses and puke stinks.


 

CDC mask guidelines

Their latest guideline still recommends indoor masking even for the vaccinated "if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission." Which is still just about everywhere if you look at the chart. So all the States removing the mask mandate is certainly not based on CDC guidelines. WTF is going on?


 

Omicron subvariant more contagious and severe

So why TF has NM and other States lifted their indoor mask mandates? Especially when the vaccinated are having increasing cases, hospitalizations and deaths? Has government decided that our health and lives are irrelevant compared to the economy? Seriously, WTF? According to the latest research

"The BA.2 virus -- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant -- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests. New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta."

 

NY Supreme Court Justice: Trumps must testify in NY case

Conald, Con Jr. and Ivannaw must testify under oath in NY Attorney General James' investigation. We the people might yet see justice served for this criminal family. NY Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who presided over arguments,  wrote: 

"In the final analysis, a State Attorney General commences investigating a business entity, uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud, and wants to question, under oath, several of the entities' principals, including its namesake. She has the clear right to do so."


NM Governor lifts the State's indoor mask mandate today

To me this is absolutely insane given the most recent COVID numbers in NM, especially that the vaccinated (including the boosted) are 48.3% of all new cases. Since this action is not based on sound medical evidence I can only assume we've caved to economic pressures that in effect surrenders our health and lives for money. F___ing crapitalism is itself a major societal illness that figures into this sick calculus.

Benji and Melissa WCS Jack and Jill

At the 2022 Monterey Swingfest. Note that the event required vaccination, masking and negative COVID tests. Kudos for their responsible procedures, unlike the NM Strictly Swing anti-vaxxers. 

Colbert gives NitTwit financial advice

On the only institution that will now take the Twit.


 

NitTwit's finanical problems a national security issue

They always were (remember Deutsche Bank?), but with the news of his former accounting firm not vouching for his finances, and legitimate banks refusing to back Twit, it creates yet another opening for foreign agents to buy national secrets. According to Joseph Cirincione, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft:

"This explodes the national security risk by a factor of 10, because now he's going to be desperate for new loans. Legitimate banks are not going to touch him. So it expands the universe of shady characters who could offer him loans in return for favors that might include disclosing U.S. national security secrets."

Trucker convoy backed by US fascist wing

This story confirms the meme below. Interesting how Repugs frame fascism as freedom. And their sheep eagerly eat it up.

"The Canadians who have disrupted travel and trade with the U.S. and occupied downtown Ottawa for nearly three weeks have been cheered and funded by American right-wing activists and conservative politicians who also oppose vaccine mandates and the country's liberal leader. [...] About 44 percent of the nearly $10 million in contributions to support the protesters originated from U.S. donors, according to an Associated Press analysis of leaked donor files. U.S. Republican elected officials, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have praised the protesters calling them 'heroes' and 'patriots.'"


 

NMDOH COVID report 1/17/22 - 2/14/22

They've starting breaking it down to unvaccinated, vaccinated and vaccinated with booster categories. During these 4 weeks there were 77,845 new cases, 2780 per day. Of those 29.9% were among the vaccinated and 18.4% were among the vaccinated with booster. The hospitalization rates in those two categories were 21.3% and 13.4% respectively, with the death rates being 23.6% and 9.3% respectively. 

While being vaxxed and boosted is still a much better option, it is far from being safe enough to start opening public venues without masks like some States and businesses are doing. Fortunately NM still has a mask mandate, but given these stats it's still insane to eat in public.



Repugnacon civil war

McCONhell, though evil, is smart like the Devil. He knows that NitTwit is losing his grip on many conservatives. (And reality, for that matter. Not that he really ever had one.) So McHell is trying to covertly support Repug candidates and incumbents to challenge Twit. There is a real split in the Party so we need to emphasize and promote their internal Civil War narrative in the hopes of defeating both factions of their fascist agenda. 

Lincoln Project: Rootin' for Putin

It takes one to know one. 

Super Bowl greenwashing

Go electric, be hip, cool, feed your ego. Take public transportation? Hell no, how peon.


 

The Grapes of Wrath banned

The truth about crapitalism cannot be revealed! TFB: It is in this book so read it.



Fascist rationalization

It's what they try to pass off as reason but it's just fascist propaganda.


 

The difference between cognitive linguistics and hierarchical complexity

Sinha's chapter in The Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (2007) explains this key difference. Granted he explains the difference between cognitive linguistics (CL) and classic cognitive science (CCS), but the premises of the latter are also taken by the model of hierarchical complexity (MHC) and hence to me applicable to the latter. This explains a lot toward understanding why CL does not accept the MHC.

CL also finds a basis for progressive "higher mental functioning" but from a different source.  For example:

"'Rule' vs. 'schema.' The single most important theoretical concept in traditional and
formal linguistics is the rule, adopted by CCS in the specific form of the algorithm.
CL is a usage-based, not a rule-based theory. The CL unit of analysis that most
readily corresponds to 'rule' is 'schema,' which is employed in a variety of different contexts (e.g. image schema, event schema, construction schema), and recurs throughout this Handbook" (5).

CL also has roots in Piaget:  

"Piaget’s account of sensori-motor development in infancy is one in which successive re-organizations and co-ordinations of action schemata, arising from bodily movement and interactions with the physical world, lead to increasingly abstract cognitive representations (or internalized operational structures). [...] For Piaget, all schemata originate in basic bodily actions." (12-13).  

A key difference with CL though:

"Piaget believed that perception was subordinate to action, and he downplayed the role of imagery: an assumption which is, of course, not shared by CL. [...]  He regarded what he called 'figurative thought' as non-progressive, and in some sense primitive. This was because he sought to formalize his stage theory of cognitive development in terms of the mathematical theory of groups" (13).

Hence the divergence from Piaget's coordination of action schema into progressive figurative thought instead of strictly abstract, algorithmic, mathematical thought. Granted CL can account for the latter, but from a different basis. Conclusion:

"The philosophical basis of CCS was Objectivist (Lakoff, 1987), based upon the idea of a correspondence mapping between external world and internal mental representation. CCS, even though it claimed to be realist, was in fact hopelessly enmeshed in the insoluble antinomies of Cartesian dualism. G2CS [2nd generation cognitive science] is realist, but not Objectivist. It seeks its grounding of the mind not in 'mental representation,' but in the activity, movement and engagement of the organism with its environment: a point of view which clearly resonates with the pragmatist tradition" (25). 

 Also see this Facecrook thread on the topic. 

NitTwit's accounting firm quits

NY Attorney General James, who is investigating the Twit's finances, released a letter from his former accounting firm saying:

"We write to advise that the Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 — June 30, 2020, should no longer be relied upon and you should inform any recipients thereof who are currently relying upon one or more of those documents that those documents should not be relied upon."

James also released this statement: "As the most recent filings demonstrate, the evidence continues to mount showing that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain economic benefit."

 

Does someone want to come out?


 

Democorp 'reasoning'

Why they lose and take the progressives with them. If only the progressives would wake up and declare war on the Democorps instead of trying to appease them then they just might win enough to replace them.


 

CDC study on booster effectiveness

Here's the article discussing it and here is the CDC study dated 2/11/22. From the former and confirmed by the latter:

"Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines lose substantial effectiveness after about four months — but still provided significant protection in keeping people out of the hospital during the omicron surge, according to a study published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers found the booster shots remained highly effective against moderate and severe covid-19 for about two months after a third dose. But their effectiveness declined substantially after four months, suggesting the need for additional boosters, the study said."

"The vaccine was 91 percent effective in preventing a vaccinated person from being hospitalized during the two months after a booster shot, the study found. But after four months, protection fell to 78 percent. Protection faded more in preventing trips to urgent care and emergency departments, falling from 87 percent in the first two months to 66 percent after four months. After more than five months, vaccine effectiveness fell to roughly 31 percent, but researchers noted that estimate was 'imprecise because few data were available' for that group of people."

 

Repug Sorvo makes case for Medicare For All!

Of course it wasn't his intention, which was to suggest that something is wrong with the vaccines. But the response to his witless Tweet showed what he inadvertently supported, which I'm sure has him aghast in horror. 

If the shots were given away for free because they’re life-saving, why isn’t insulin free? Chemotherapy? Epipens?— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) February 7, 2022 

Endorsing universal healthcare to own the libs. https://t.co/UrUWFvOcEK— Brittany Knupper (@BrittanyKnupper) February 7, 2022 

He's so fucking close to a breakthrough here, don't anyone move https://t.co/1sTD77zOEj— Scott Wampler™ (@ScottWamplerBMD) February 7, 2022

Y'all *Hercules* just Columbused universal health care. https://t.co/WQJWJJImw1— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) February 7, 2022
 
The government should pay for those too, yes. https://t.co/mUlYXLn7wz— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) February 7, 2022
 
Look at Kevin Sorbo making the case that our tax dollars go to universal healthcare! https://t.co/Dva9FMoAtP— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) February 7, 2022
 
Excellent idea, glad to see conservatives coming around on this issue. https://t.co/p5dcc7ciZ9— Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) February 7, 2022
 
*extremely bernie sanders voice* I agree with Her-CUH-leesz! We need a Medicare For All program that ensures all Americans, no matter whether they're rich or poor, get the health care they need https://t.co/ppXhIfzeiP— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) February 7, 2022

 

Right out of the fascist playbook

Our best defense is to call it what it is. And yes, he said it.

 



Kinzinger: Are we headed for civil war?

He sees it as a real possibility. The lies and fascism in the GOP are inciting its militant supporters, who are stockpiling weapons and ammunition. Only Kinz thinks it will be more of a guerilla war with "targeting assassinations" and "armed groups against armed groups." But there is no concerted effort I can see for Democrats to weaponize in preparation. They're still more inclined to bring a covered dish to a literal gun fight.

He brings this to our attention in the hopes that we can avoid it. But the way the GOP is going, and the increased violence and planned violence in their militias, doesn't bode well for that hope.

Sirota: Corporate media is a misinformation machine

It's why we must support independent media like his new venture The Lever, as well as Breaking Points, The Young Turks and so on.

It's all in the inflection

And dogs pick up on it.


 

Gazpacho police?

The difference between a progressive and a Twitiot could not be any plainer. 


 

Williamson on the difference between the Parties

In this clip they're talking about the corruption of where the Covid relief money went. Most of it went to the top 20% of earners. They agree that both Parties are corrupt with this sort of shit. Williamson accurately sums up the situation: 

"The Republicans don't even pretend to care. The main difference is that Democrats do pretend to care" (1:40).

I'd add that true progressives do care. They just have no idea how to wield power when they have it. Bottom line: We the people are f___ed, and not in a good way. 

Candian judge orders police to remove truckers

Finally, some law and order. The police can start towing vehicles if truckers refuse to move. And stubborn drivers could face the loss of their license and a criminal record. It's time to face the consequences of your actions.

I wonder if these truckers approve of the "81 anti-protest bills in 34 States" US Repugnacons have passed, some of which allow motorists to run down protesters or other draconian measures? 

Steve Goodman - Lookin' For Trouble

"If you go lookin' for trouble, trouble will find you.' 

Complexity: Which kind and how much?

I recently watched Soloman's presentation on blue hydrogen to the Progressive Democrats of America, Central NM Chapter. I couldn't find that online yet but here is one he did earlier. It's an example of when our human obsession with complexity creates further harm instead of addressing the problem.

The meme below illustrates this succinctly. Sometimes something as simple as stopping the destruction of forests and planting more trees could go a long way toward the solution. But at this point we'll also need to use our capacity for complexity to create sustainable solar and wind tech. It's not complexity per se that's at issue; it's which kind and how much.


 

Canadian truckers limp wimps compared to their women's hockey team

Those Canadian truckers are clogging roadways between Canada and the US in protest of vaccine requirements. That is, they refuse to give a damn about the health, safety or lives of others. Perhaps Canadian officials need to enlist their women's hockey team to clear them out while wearing masks?


 

Why the book-burning festival was called off

They never read a book in the first place.


 

Randy Rainbow: The Tango Vaccine

 He helps us laugh at the madness.

Songs, lyrics, poems

Songs, lyrics, poems and other writing/media

Here are about a dozen songs I've recorded at YouTube.* And this link is to my lyrics and poems folder at Google docs, mostly from my ...