Political Roundtable Part XXX

[Ruzious]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/02/politics/us-afghan-interpreters-central-asia/index.html
Legislation in the House passed to try to expedite getting visa's to the Afghan translators who are now at risk to be hunted down by the Taliban - it was a bipartisan effort, but there were 20 or so Republicans that voted against it - all of the usual suspects. They are all pieces of human garbage - is the nicest thing I can say about them.

[Zonkerbl]

Ok... so... the Cleveland Guardians logo is getting called racist by a smattering of people on Twitter. The only "history" you can get on the intertubes is a sentence or two:

https://www.ideastream.org/news/exploring-the-history-and-popularity-of-cleveland-s-guardians-of-traffic

The new logo is clearly not white and may be a kind of white-washed native american face, so I can see the point. Question is, what did the person who did the "art deco" statue model the faces off of?

[Zonkerbl]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco

Hm, it's Mayan.

"the exoticized styles of China and Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt and Maya art"

[Zonkerbl]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/22/what-the-fight-between-anthony-fauci-and-rand-paul-is-really-about/

If this is true, the real issue here is that China took money that was supposed to be used for disease research and used it to build a secret military lab. The allegation is that COVID is a weapon that leaked from that lab, but tbh that's not really the main issue here.

I agree, if the concern is that COVID leaked from a secretly built bioweapons lab, then just say that. "We've never wanted China to have a secret bioweapons lab, we told them not to do it, and if they built that lab using WHO money, and COVID [edit: was an engineered bioweapon that] leaked from that lab, we would be justified in [insert nasty threat here, like "nuking China back to the stone age"]" seems like a more transparent way to put it

[queridiculo]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/22/what-the-fight-between-anthony-fauci-and-rand-paul-is-really-about/

If this is true, the real issue here is that China took money that was supposed to be used for disease research and used it to build a secret military lab. The allegation is that COVID is a weapon that leaked from that lab, but tbh that's not really the main issue here.

I agree, if the concern is that COVID leaked from a secretly built bioweapons lab, then just say that. "We've never wanted China to have a secret bioweapons lab, we told them not to do it, and if they built that lab using WHO money, and COVID leaked from that lab, we would be justified in [insert nasty threat here, like "nuking China back to the stone age"]" seems like a more transparent way to put it

I mean, suppose China is heavily vested into bio weapons research, would they really need WHO money to facilitate it?

[Zonkerbl]

Well the point is the existence of the secret bio weapons lab. Using WHO funds for it (when, right? you probably didn't even need to) is just the slap in the face that gets our attention. If that part is true, who cares where COVID came from (except that that seems to be how we found out about... this). Shut down that lab now or we're bringing the hammer down.

I imagine the truth is more nuanced than that but if this is even partly true... wow. What an insult. An insult while committing basically a war crime. I can't imagine anything ... yeah I hope it's not true. Because damn.

I guess I should point out that this is from the opinion section of WaPo. So as far as we know these are just baseless accusations at this point.

[pancakes3]

MTG and other GOP congress critters (as DB would say) citing HIPPA as why they won't confirm or deny their vax status is not only dumb because that's not how HIPPA works, but extra dumb because THEY'RE THE FREAKING LEGISLATURE.

In not knowing the law (either actually not knowing or lying about it) is arguably worse than the isolated fact of refusing the vaccine.

[Zonkerbl]

MTG and other GOP congress critters (as DB would say) citing HIPPA as why they won't confirm or deny their vax status is not only dumb because that's not how HIPPA works, but extra dumb because THEY'RE THE FREAKING LEGISLATURE.

In not knowing the law (either actually not knowing or lying about it) is arguably worse than the isolated fact of refusing the vaccine.

Also spreading the falsehood that HIPAA is a get out of jail free card for anti vaxxers

[dckingsfan]

That you have the staff of Fox News immunized and only allowing immunize individuals on campus and still railing against the vaccine is all that needs to be known to understand the situation.

Add to that this non-sense with the GOP not disclosing their vaccine status - and that pushes it over the edge.

What is interesting to me is that when we cross the 70% vaccinated, I believe the unvaccinated will become vilified. And there will be little sympathy for those folks. At that time government can apply mandates. All in the healthcare field must be vaccinated. All associated with senior care must be vaccinated. All those in the travel industry must be vaccinated. All those that attend public schools must be vaccinated. There will be pushback but these measures will be widely supported.

Let another country impose a vaccination restriction and then reciprocate. As soon as that happens - anyone that wants to travel internationally will need to be vaccinated.

Then increase the rates for Medicare for those that aren't vaccinated. Pretty soon you will be crossing 85% vaccinated.

[verbal8]

That you have the staff of Fox News immunized and only allowing immunize individuals on campus and still railing against the vaccine is all that needs to be known to understand the situation.

Add to that this non-sense with the GOP not disclosing their vaccine status - and that pushes it over the edge.

What is interesting to me is that when we cross the 70% vaccinated, I believe the unvaccinated will become vilified. And there will be little sympathy for those folks. At that time government can apply mandates. All in the healthcare field must be vaccinated. All associated with senior care must be vaccinated. All those in the travel industry must be vaccinated. All those that attend public schools must be vaccinated. There will be pushback but these measures will be widely supported.

Let another country impose a vaccination restriction and then reciprocate. As soon as that happens - anyone that wants to travel internationally will need to be vaccinated.

Then increase the rates for Medicare for those that aren't vaccinated. Pretty soon you will be crossing 85% vaccinated.

I wonder if potential restrictions for the unvaccinated might be driving the sudden reversal on vaccination from a lot of the GOP and their propaganda wing. They don't care if Grandparents die, but their donors care if the economy is affected.

[Zonkerbl]

No, just take a look at deaths from COVID. They're starting to rise again. Combine that with more than 90% of cases coming from unvaccinated folks, and it's clear that, for the first time in the pandemic, the majority of people dying from COVID are Trump supporters. GOP is fine with pretending COVID is a Democrat hoax as long as it's Democrats who are dying. Once Republican voters start dying, all of a sudden the GOP gets religion.

Or did I say this already? Sorry if I'm repeating myself. It may be some other things but this is the most evil explanation for me so I bet that's it.

[dobrojim]

Just finished the introduction to Dying of Whiteness by
Jonathan Metzl. I expect to continue reading.

[url]Dyingofwhiteness.com[/url]

[Ruzious]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-jr-tops-most-popular-republican-figure-in-new-poll/vi-AAMCikA

There's zero chance of Dems and Republicans working together in the future.

[dckingsfan]

So much for the both side issue...

Biden Takes Two Paths to Wind Down Iraq and Afghan Wars

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/us/politics/biden-iraq-afghanistan.html

[Zonkerbl]

There need to be more hysterical op eds about how right wing extremism is pushing the Dems to the left

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Ruzious]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Completely disgraceful shyt like that actually happened to real Americans actually serving their country, but what people like McCarthy focus on is the horrors of Congressmen possibly having to... wear masks(!!!). How horrible for McCarthy & his gang! So brave to fight for what's... right!

[penbeast0]

There's zero chance of Dems and Republicans working together in the future.

For me, as an economic and social libertarian who has been identified as a conservative most of his life, I rejoined the Republican party to try to vote for people who actually care about the Constitution and take back the party from the Trump supporters.

I had switched to Dem because Florida is a closed primary state and I wanted a say in who would face Trump in the last Presidential election. If you are a moderate or conservative who quit the party over its behavior during the Trump presidency, I would recommend rejoining and fighting for the definition of the party as there does not seem to be a convincing 3rd party alternative.

[Zonkerbl]

yeah, the rioters leading the charge were Proud Boys and other proto-Klan groups, doesn't surprise me.

This is what we were warning about the entire four years, if you keep nodding and winking at the klansmen, eventually bad things are going to happen. And they did - that one guy sent pipe bombs to all the Dems on Trump's hit list back in 2018.

I don't think the Republicans are going to stop. I think this is it - the end of this logical chain is violent overthrow of the government, dictatorship. And there's pretty much nothing we can do to stop it now. Trump has *much* more support than Hitler did in the 1930s.

[dobrojim]

There's zero chance of Dems and Republicans working together in the future.

For me, as an economic and social libertarian who has been identified as a conservative most of his life, I rejoined the Republican party to try to vote for people who actually care about the Constitution and take back the party from the Trump supporters.

I had switched to Dem because Florida is a closed primary state and I wanted a say in who would face Trump in the last Presidential election. If you are a moderate or conservative who quit the party over its behavior during the Trump presidency, I would recommend rejoining and fighting for the definition of the party as there does not seem to be a convincing 3rd party alternative.

Probably not news to many here but VA does not have party registration for voters.