There's Real Audits...Then There's Election Meddling Audits

Every state in the union was officially audited numerous times after the 2020 election when Biden beat Trump.

Even Trump cronies, like AG Bill Barr, said there was no evidence of fraud in the election. Yet, we're still hearing about so-called "audits."

After watching the audit debacle in Arizona for months it's painfully evident it's anything but a real AUDIT. It's a partisan grift to reinstate Trump and has been a constant source of mockery among the mainstream press.

Even some Republican Arizona lawmakers admit that the whole thing is a farce and nothing more than a right-wing fundraiser.

Kudos to the Philadelphia Inquirer for their recent article about audits - "Why We're Not Calling It an Audit." Take a moment, this is a good read.

Based upon reality, the paper explained that it's because "there's no indication" that this latest "forensic audit" effort in Pennsylvania "would follow the best practices or the common understanding of an audit among nonpartisan experts."

In other words, after months of Trump alleging baselessly that the election was rigged, this effort is just another grift to raise money. There's been no evidence shown to think otherwise.

Pennsylvania's fledgling attempt to conduct a "forensic audit" is based on the months-long partisan review in Arizona, widely regarded as irrevocably flawed and unnecessary to begin with, and initiated by Republican lawmakers carrying water for Trump.

Going forward we can expect more baseless attempts to overturn the 2020 election - it's baked into the base - along with new narratives coming from deep right conspiracy theorists who refuse to acknowledge facts and evidence.

Related: Trump Is Now Backing a QAnon Conspiracy Theorist To Run Arizona's Elections

Jen Psaki Pressers Not As Fun As Sarah Huckabee and Sean Spicer's Were

        Faux News' Peter Doocy and Jen Psake during White House briefing.

White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, is a no-nonsense kind of person who respects the press, but doesn't let some of it's members walk all over her.

Most of her pressers are boring. There's very little action going on, and fewer insults than in the previous administration.

In her defense, Psake doesn't have a lot to work with. If it wasn't for Faux News reporter, Peter Doocy, I wouldn't even watch the White House Q and A exchanges. I can usually count on him saying something stupid and partisan for a good laugh.

There's a few other reporters from right-wing organizations like Chanel Rion, for OAN, Emerald Robinson for Newsmax TV, and Elizabeth Moore for Breitbart, that provide sporadic entertainment.

But I miss the days of Sean Spicer, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders assaulting the press corps and lying about everything.

It was fun watching the pressers with Sean Spicer who often got beet red with anger while ranting at his tormentors who sought the truth. I knew I could count on Saturday Night Live to re-enact those hilarious episodes.

Then there was Sarah Huckabee Sanders. 

Most of the time she kept a straight face while rattling off a string of lies.

Sometimes her face got contorted and looked funny as she tried to defend the indefensible.

Throughout Trump's reign there was always a sense of anticipation at every press conference because you knew it could become a circus in a blink of an eye.

Nowadays, we have stoic Jen Psaki who doesn't speak from both sides of her mouth or asshole. 

Sure, the entertainment value nosedived (nothing for SNL to work with), but it's worth it to hear the truth, and not have to listen to alternate realities.

Trump and Other Right-Wingers Ignore 911 Ceremonies

While most of the nation mourned the loss of 2,977 Americans on Sept.11, Trump and other right-wing toads ignored it.

While family members recalled the names of loved ones lost, Trump was slathering on his orange makeup in anticipation of his gig as a color commentator for a fight in Hollywood, Florida last night.

The "fight" was a joke starring 58 year-old Evander Holyfield fighting a MMA retiree Victor Belfort. Trump's stupid oldest son Don Jr. was also there hinting that his dad knew a lot of secrets about aliens and Area 51.

The farce ended in the 1st round. It was an event where everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.

As crowds gathered in New York and Pennsylvania to honor the dead, right-wing lunatics held a "We the People Reunion" rally in Kentucky.

The event featured the whose who of extreme right-wingers in America, hosting speakers like the MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, Michael Flynn and Pastor Greg Locke.

Promoters expected crowds of around 10,000 people, but a local news station reported less than 300 people showed up for the alternative reality event.

Right-wingers were furious that former President George Bush passionately spoke about threats to America today with a thinly veiled reference to the Jan. 6 insurrection and homegrown terrorists.

"We have seen growing evidence that dangers to our country can come, not only across the borders, but from violence that gathers within," Bush said in a speech marking the anniversary at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In a day that should have united all Americans it didn't. Twenty years ago it did, but now we face an even more dire threat from within.

California Recall Is Facing Another 'Big Lie' By Republicans

The 2020 Big Lie by Trump is surfacing again in the California recall election on Sept. 14th.

The Big Lie will be a Republican mainstay from here on out in any election. The claims of a "rigged election" in California days before the voting even begins heralds a another chapter of corruption in the GOP.

Like Trump, California politicians are claiming the election will be rigged if they lose it. 

For starters; California has nearly twice as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans. Advantage blue.

This fact doesn't even register with right-wing Republicans who are already whining about losing an election that hasn't started yet.

It's important to realize that we now live in the era of the Big Lie. For better or worse, GOP candidates are clinging to the lie in the hope it will get them elected.

Some Republicans have not even bothered to offer a specific explanation for their baseless fraud assertions. 

Faux News commentator Tomi Lahren claimed, "The only thing that will save Gavin Newsom is voter fraud. So, as they say, 'stay woke.' Pay attention to the voter fraud going on in California."

Not to be outdone by Faux, Newsmax television host Grant Stinchfield said, "They're going to cheat to win. The mail-in scheme is rigged."

None of this should come as a surprise. Trump and his minions have planted the lie firmly in the minds of their extreme base.

Like the original Big Lie, this latest attempt to steal an election will probably fail. Newsom is well ahead on the most recent polls.

It won't matter however. I fully expect to see the Big Lie take front and center in next years midterms.

Politics VS Public Safety: Republican Governors Crossing The Line Of No Return

Rhetoric and outright lies are not going to stop the deadly new COVID mutation - the Delta variant - from infecting and killing thousands of Americans every day.

Apparently that doesn't stop eight Republican governors from banning masking in schools and public places in the name of...wait for it...FREEDOM.

Free to die from ignorance and partisanship that has conservatives around the country consuming horse de-wormers or bleach.

Among those science-denying GOP governors there's two that stand out like a pimple on someone's ass; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

DeSantis has been waging war against face masks the moment they were proposed by the CDC. He's threated school districts and even individuals in the education system if they don't comply with his anti-masking demands.

Thus far the courts have held DeSantis back like a rabid dog, but he's not giving up and has filed an emergency appeal in hopes of stopping school masking mandates.

Meanwhile...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his right-wing Attorney General, Ken Paxton, vowed to punish any school district that defied Abbott's ban on mask mandates.

Then something odd happened. Republican lawmakers (who are in the majority) failed to pass a mandate stopping masking in schools. As a matter of fact, they didn't even bother to put up a bill preventing masking after the first one failed.

That left Abbott and Paxton no other recourse than to take their fight to the courts. So far it's resulted in chaos as different judges reached different conclusions about whether to uphold mask mandates or block them.

There's six other governors that have crossed the line between politics and public safety.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is in a standoff with local school officials who want students to wear face masks.

The other five governors that have joined in the culture war are from; Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, South Carolina, and Utah.

All of these governors have one thing in common, they put politics ahead of public safety. 

Texas is the Rape Capitol of the Country and It Just Got Worse

Right-wing maniac, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, is proud of himself for forcing victims of rape and incest to have unwanted babies with the new law he signed.

Let's take a look at three reasons why this new abortion law is such a bad idea:

1.) According to Statista, there were almost 15,000 rapes in Texas in 2019 - the most of any state in the nation.

2.) The new law outlaws abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Many women - including rape survivors - may not even know they are pregnant by that point.

3.) It's worth mentioning that Texas has more than 2,000 rape kits backlogged.

In a press conference yesterday, after Abbott signed the bill into law, he was asked about the rape and incest victims getting no protection.

His reply was a typical right-wing retort; "Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets."

What? Wait a minute. Does that mean the state is not aggressively going after those cretins until just now because of the new law?

And, Abbott said he's going to eliminate all rapes. I wonder how that's possible?

Texas Democrat, Rep. Gene Wu, hit the nail on the head; "Oh really? The governor had a solution to end all RAPE and he sat on it until now? Does it involve horse de-wormer?"

The reality is there's no way to totally eliminate rapes. But there are things Abbott and the state could do to reduce rapes. Passing a law that criminalizes rape survivors is not one of them.

You Pick The Color Of The Sky: It's Optional in America Today

Fact and fiction are being redefined as our society sinks deeper into a rabbit hole of hate.

There is no longer room for compromise among the red and the blue. White and black realities are more stark than ever.

The chaos from the Trump regime continues nearly a year after his loss to Joe Biden. If anything, things are getting worse as voter suppression has become mission number one for Trumpy Republicans.

The Mike Lindell's and Sydney Powell's of the far-right openly lie and laugh at the fools who believe their fever dreams. Reality is no longer recognized by right-wing extremists and their sheep-like followers.

That's the reason QAnon is spreading like noxious mushrooms through rural areas and cities. Followers prefer to be divorced from the real world where their reality sucks.

Anti-vaxxers disavow science and common sense in favor of off-the-wall remedies that often prove fatal.

The color of the sky, or grass, has become questionable as Republican's ask people to not always believe what they see...or hear. Denying facts gets easier every day.

Apparently we've reached a point in our society where questioning reality has become commonplace. Nothing is too far out.

The ramifications of this willing brain drain will become part and parcel of our republic's demise from within. 

There's consequences for denying reality. One of the biggest that comes to mind is denying that climate change is ravaging the planet. 

The forces of nature get deadlier every year with massive droughts, "super-wildfires," monster storms, increased tornados, huge hurricanes, flooding, and rising temperatures across the globe.

If you believe in the real world, in facts, and what you see and hear, stay strong. There's a good chance the odds will catch up (it probably won't be pretty) to those who live with alternative realities.

Insurrection in Brazil? President Bolsonaro is Following Trump's Roadmap for a Coup

Latin America's "Trump" Jair Bolsonaro, must have liked what he saw during the USA's Jan. 6 coup attempt at the Capitol.

Today may see Brazil's coup attempt akin to our insurrection when Bolsonaro's supporters flood the country with mass marchers who want to overturn the country's constitution.

Bolsonaro has been priming his followers with rants about Brazil's congress and supreme court after it allowed an investigation into his unsubstantiated claim that Brazil's electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud.

Sound familiar? It should. Trump's minions claimed Smartmatic and Dominion computers were hacked. We now know that they weren't.

Another Trump Deja vu moment; Bolsonaro is claiming fraud before the general election set for October 2022. This false claim comes as he's up for re-election. 

Back to Today

Twenty former world leaders are warning that Bolsonaro is backing a coup attempt on Tuesday.

If his followers are anything like Trump's - and I suspect they are - expect chaos at the very minimum.

The people of Brazil have struggled for decades to secure democracy from military rule.

It would be a crime to see a Trump wanabee take over the country and take away people's freedoms.

Texas 'Snitch Website' Back: New Home is Provider for Neo-Nazi and Extremist Sites

The controversial Texas abortion "whistleblower" website that was kicked off of GoDaddy's platform is back.

The new host for ProLifeWhistle.com is a far- right platform - Epik - an infamous provider for offering safe harbor to neo-Nazis and other nuts.

Critics have gone online calling the website the "snitch hotline." 

It was created by the anti-abortion evangelical group Texas Right To Life.

From the day the snitch line was created it was flooded with bogus tips and Shrek porn which crashed the site numerous times.

The Catalyst For The Snitch Line

Texas Gov. Abbott passed a near-total abortion ban last week. The Supreme Court did a disservice to women throughout the country by refusing to block the measure.

A good barometer for how extreme the snitch site is the decision to go to a platform of last resort for extremist websites that other domain hosting companies have deemed too toxic is an example of how unpopular the site is.

Epik's infamous sites include the QAnon home base, Alex Jone's conspiracy theory network InfoWars, as well as right-wing social media sites Parler and Gab.

To my utter surprise, there's apparently limits according to the founder Robert Monster (no, I didn't make the last name up), who disabled the snitch site's anonymous tip submission form!

It's ironic that a platform that deals in conspiracies and lies about everything from COVID vaccines to a stolen 2020 election, had to put limits on the Texas Right To Life snitch site for "violating Epik's Terms of Use."

Apparently even the crazies have a problem with Abbott's attempts to pay people a bounty ($10,000) to take away a woman's rights to her body through underhanded means.

Insurrection Inquiry Will Burst The Bubble of 'The Big Lie'

No wonder Republicans are panicking.

Not only is Trump's Big Lie going to be exposed, but Republican Congressmen and other right-wing politicians are facing retribution for their traitorous attempt to steal the 2020 election.

The House Select Committee on Jan. 6 poses such a threat to right-wing politicians that they are now doubling down on their lies and are spreading more myths to muddy the investigative waters.

Trump enabler, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, is busy trying to impede the investigation.

His latest tactic looks like something out of The Sopranos, where McCarthy is the mob boss threatening telecommunications and social media giants with harsh retribution if they cooperate with the inquiry.

Ten other House Republicans have joined him and assert they "will not forget" the companies who comply with the request when they take over the House in 2021 during the midterms.

That threat is bullshit.

In the first place there's no guarantee the Republicans will get the House back, and if they do there's no way they can carry out their threat to strong-arm private companies.

Basically McCarthy's toothless threat is a desperate effort to impede the investigation. Those same companies have always responded to Congressional subpoenas, as Republicans are fully aware of having used them their selves.

It just goes to show the lengths Trump's disciples will go to change the narrative on their coup attempt.

It's important to keep in mind that Trump's assault on democracy is a multi-front attack that also involves rigging state election systems to favor GOP voters.

The insurrection inquiry will expose the Big Lie and those who were involved. What happens after it's finished is the big question.

COVID-19 Madness: Our Prolonged Pandemic is Poisoning People's Minds

After two years of an invisible killer stalking the nation, the terrible mental toll has taken its effect on millions of people.

If there's one thing ALL Americans have in common right now it's experiencing the effects of a fourth virus surge.

Instead of embracing the knowledge our scientists have gained to fight the virus (by developing a vaccine in record time), millions of Americans have turned on science... and sane solutions to staying safe.

Polarized by politics, and massive disinformation campaigns in all medias, there doesn't seem to be an antidote for this crisis.

Initially, people listened to advise and hunkered down everywhere in an attempt to stop the spread of the most deadly virus to hit the country in over 100-years. 

That patience is disappearing.

What little unity to fight the virus has slowly evaporated as the months passed and turned into a year... and beyond. Now, two years later most people's patience has disappeared.

We've gone from fear to anger

Overworked doctor's and healthcare officials are angry and exhausted with the unvaccinated who are filling the hospitals to capacity. That's because they know it doesn't have to be this way.

We have the vaccines to save people. But you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved.

Angry parents in school board meetings over masking are physically assaulting board members, doctors, and other parents. 

Weaponized words are turning into violent actions as anti-vaxxers and right-wing pundits claim the virus is a hoax, and face masks are a violation of their kid's rights.

The only answer to defeating COVID-19's latest mutation the Delta variant, is through universal vaccinations and safety measures like using face masks inside schools and other public places.

The longer it takes to get this pandemic under control so we can return to our {normal} lives, the more the poison will spread.

Ironically, truth deniers and science advocates have a common goal...both sides want the dying to stop.

Personal Freedoms Are Being Used As A Cudgel Against Science

The Republican party's current war about personal freedoms being challenged is the descendent of the 20th century Moral Majority who were always whining about perceived threats to their freedoms.

Writer B.J. Rudell, whose article on The Hill today discusses how "Freedom is good policy and good politics," details how the GOP is luring sane people into it's folds.  

The article, Republicans Cornering the Market on Freedom and Oppression addresses how selling the public on a policy - right or wrong - is key for a corrupt political party's chances of successful indoctrinating voters.

Rudell points out;

"Today's "personal freedom" movement is code for 'Make America Great Again.' Advocates seek to restore America's revolutionary spirit. If you oppose freedom, you support tyranny. There is no wiggle room for nuance or differing opinions. American and God-given rights are intertwined and inalienable."

The Republican party has hardened in it's views of what personal freedoms mean. Rudell explains:

"Personal freedom fighters in the COVID era believe individual opinions - regardless of their truth - matter more than those of experts, of politicians, or of the dying lying in hospital beds. 

All levels of government constitute "the swamp." "Don't tread on me" has devolved into "No more rules." It is the antithesis of the state control sought by family values. It is instead a battle against society - against the essential frameworks on which civilizations are built.

 This is a point of anarchical pride for the personal freedom brigade, because it doesn't matter who gets hurt, as long as it's not them."

Rudell's summary conclusion:

The GOP has decided it's better to be on the wrong side with millions who adore you, than to be on the right side with millions who don't."

Baby Trump Wannabee Cawthorn Threatens Americans With 'Bloodshed' Remarks

The fight to see who can go the lowest among far right-wing politicians has reached new levels of insanity lately.

The youngest person in Congress, Madison Cawthorn, wants to be just like his idol Trump and is going to great lengths to prove it.

He continues to preach the Big Lie and is threatening Americans who don't agree Trump is still the president.

Despite the fact that the federal intelligence warnings have been coming out warning against rhetoric that could spark another riot, "Baby Trump wannabee" is throwing fuel on the fire.

"Anybody who tells you that Joe Biden was dutifully elected is lying to you," Cawthorn said in a video the party posted on its Facebook page before deleting it yesterday following blowback.

Meanwhile Cawthorn is bragging that he would be willing to take up arms against the government to defend "election security." 

This open admission of treason has become fashionable among the far-right set who are willing to destroy democracy to stay in power.

Cawthorn's little speech came after a joint intelligence assessment that warned "narratives of fraud in the recent general election" and "the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol" would "almost certainly" spark domestic terror attacks."

After his spiel an audience member asked Cawthorn "When are you going to call us to Washington again?"

His reply, "We are actively working on that one. We have a few plans in motion I can't make public right now."

As proof of what a hypocrite and liar he is,  look no farther than when he admitted the election was not fraudulent, and that Joseph R. Biden was our president in January.

When Cawthorn warned that there could be bloodshed in future elections, he was setting the stage for that to happen.

One War Too Late: Jane "Red" Fonda Joins Campaign To Deny Taliban Recognition

 

Before you go any further you should know that I'm a Vietnam veteran who hasn't forgiven Jane "Red" Fonda for her support of the North Vietnamese.

In July of 1972, Fonda earned the enmity of untold thousands of Vietnam veterans and their families (as well as service members for generations to come) when she arrived in Hanoi, North Vietnam and began a two-week propaganda tour there.

It's ironic that the last time the U.S. had to cut and run from a war, Jane Fonda was all over our enemies, but this time she's suddenly not in love with them.

Fonda was given the well-earned moniker of "Hanoi Jane," at the time.

The kicker - for me - was hearing about her latest campaign to deny the Taliban recognition. Why couldn't she have done that with our mortal enemies, the NVA and the VC?

There's a whole new generation who are unaware of her traitorous past. They have been watching her on cable sitcoms for years and think she's a moral person who would never turn on her country for nothing more than the publicity.

They may re-think that opinion if they Google her name and expose her dark past. Some crimes can never be forgotten.

Memories: My Wife and I Have Been Married 47-years Today

 

           Dave and Shirley Stancliff - Married on Aug. 31st, 1974

Despite the chaos we all live in, there's still golden moments in our lives that are worth celebrating.

A wedding anniversary is one of those moments.

Family and friends often ask us how we managed to stay together for so long. In many ways we're polar opposites.

The answer is relatively simple; we respect one another's views, and we both love to joke around. Our sense of humor has gotten us through many iffy situations in life.

We continue to bond regardless of the outside pressures in the world. We both believe in living for the moment and that every day is a precious gift.

Our past is an album of victories and defeats. Challenges met, and accepted. Aware that there are no re-runs in this life, we try to stay true to our values every day.

The fact is we love each other every moment, whether apart or together. 

We're thankful for our three sons, five grandchildren, and the rest of our families and friends.

Enough said.

School Boards Have Become Fertile Ground For Conspiracy Loons and Corrupt Politicians

In the ongoing American tragedy of the dumbing down of students (education has been a low priority for decades) politicians, parents and school boards are fighting over science and safety at schools.

Nothing has been more contentious than taking precautions against the surging COVID-19 virus in school districts.

Governors are threatening school superintendents, and teachers, if they enforce mask mandates to protect students who are too young for the vaccine.

Republican politicians running for office are burnishing their crazy creds on resisting masking in the schools. 

One GOP loon - Steve Lynch (some irony in the last name here) is running for a public office in Pennsylvania, and is threatening to use physical force against school officials upholding the CDC guidelines.

Parents who don't believe in science, vaccines, and the CDC, are showing up - and disrupting - school board meetings all over the country.

School board members lives are being threatened by these crazy conspiracy-driven parents that show up in meetings turning them into chaos. 

School board meetings have always had controversies. That's nothing new. But now the meeting places have turned into battlegrounds of science versus fiction.

After surviving four years of the Trump administration's encouragement to conspiracy nuts, they're now as prolific as weeds in the garden of democracy.

The bottom line is students have become political footballs in the fight against the surging Delta variant. 

American politicians have treated education like a poor relative for far too long. School agendas have been watered down. There's less emphasis on a well-rounded education. And teachers are poorly paid.

It looks like this vicious fighting between politicians, school board members, and parents is going to be around for a long time.

It's just not fair for the next generation to have to deal with a lasting legacy of conspiracy theorists and corrupt politicians.

Right-Wing Armchair Quarterbacks Waste Our Time With Ill-informed Opinions

I'm tired of hearing about right-wing TV hosts, podcasters, and assorted minions of Trump opinionate on subjects they know nothing about.

When Fox news host Sean Hannity opinionates about our military actions it's important to understand he has no military background (rumors are he was kicked out of the boy scouts for lying) or even an average understanding of Afghanistan's war-torn history.

The only experience Hannity has is in riling people up with conspiracies and blatant lies about what liberals are doing.

The fact is there's a lot of Americans who follow armchair quarterbacks like they're experts on the subject they're bloviating on in a given day.

Instead of backing Biden's administrations efforts to battle the Delta variant and keep people safe for the common cause, there are people who actively resist the science and become armchair doctors prescribing bleach and animal de-wormer medicine as an alternative cure.

Too many Americans listen to media types who claim to know everything. Just look around at the Bill O'Reilly's, and Tucker Carlson's. They're airheads who know how to get your blood boiling by picking at your fears.

Sadly, talk show hosts have replaced real journalists in millions of households. They tell people what to think. How to react. Where to cause trouble. Who to attack. Not to believe their ears, or eyes.

I like to keep in mind the old adage, "Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one."

All too often opinions get taken for facts. Like author Harlan Ellison once said, "You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant."

The Taliban Have a Major Problem: They're in a Hot Sticky Mess

The Taliban's seizure of Afghanistan reminds me of a fable from the tales of Uncle Remus, where Brer Rabbit always outfoxed Brer Fox in The Man's Garden.

My favorite tale, Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, echoes the current situation that the Taliban are in. They're stuck with the fact that there's no money in the country they just conquered.

Like Brer Rabbit found when he slugged and kicked the tar baby, it made matters worse. The more he kicked and hit the tar baby the more stuck he became.

The Taliban have more to worry about than just having no money (the USA and the rest of the world froze their assets); they have to deal with enemies embedded in the war-torn country.

The northern provinces have seen a gathering of armed Afghans who are intent in overthrowing the Taliban. 

Add having enemies like ISIS-K popping up at the worst times, a massive homeless population (the biggest in the world), dwindling food supplies and cash on hand, and it's a sticky situation...at best.

Unlike Brer Rabbit who got stuck in the tar baby but eventually escaped, it's unlikely the Taliban will be as lucky as the country collapses around the "victors."

Should We Sympathize With Unvaccinated People Who Are Putting Others At Risk?

I've always been of the school that we all make our own beds in life, and have to live (or die) with the results.

If this sounds like a lack of empathy, it's not. It's just a practical reality. A lot of people don't believe in science and would rather take a medicine for animals (cows, horses, etc.) than something approved for humans.

I'm trying to refrain from calling these people who think bleach, or put light up their body cavities, as a way to fight the new deadly Delta variant of the killer virus plaguing our country, stupid... but it's not easy.

Everyday, I read and see examples of the unvaccinated dying in record numbers in states (particularly the ones with Republican governors). It's discouraging.

Here's four current stories about the unvaccinated that are admittedly sad, but that illustrate my point.

-- Caleb Wallace, who helped organize the "Freedom Rally" on July 4, 2020 for those "sick of the government being in control of our lives," is now on a ventilator after becoming infected with the virus, according to his pregnant wife who consented to a "do not resuscitate order."

-- Phil Valentine a conservative talk radio host from Tennessee who had been a vaccine skeptic died in a hospital gasping for air.

Ironically, after testing positive for the virus he told his listeners he didn't get vaccinated because he thought he'd die.

But after moving into the critical care unit his brother Mark said he regretted he wasn't a more vocal advocate of the vaccination. It was too late by then.

-- Dick Farrel, a former Florida conservative talk show host died from COVID-19, once called Dr. Anthony Fauci a "power-tripping freak" and urged people not to get vaccinated.

The radio station he worked for called him a pioneer "shock talk host" who pulled no punches. 

-- In a heartbreaking story a middle-aged couple who waited to get vaccinated until they thought it was safe, both became infected from the virus.

Lisa Steadman had spent more than a week in a central Florida hospital recovering from a serious case of COVID-19, while Ronald Steadman, who had also contracted the coronavirus, battled a milder case from home.

Lisa kept in contact with check-in phone calls. Before she checked of the hospital the last thing he said was that "he was improving."

When she came home it was like a scene from a horror movie; she found Ron unresponsive on his side of the bed. Their three barking dogs led her to him. He was dead.

She explained to reporters that it wasn't like they were against a vaccine. They just thought it was developed too rapidly.

It would be easy to go on. Even easier to judge each of these unnecessary deaths. Every victim chose not to be vaccinated, either because of their radical ideology or they just didn't trust getting the shot because of all the disinformation circulating online.

I would be remiss if I didn't admit that it pisses me off that people go unvaccinated during a pandemic. They're killing other people, regardless of their reasoning.

Democracy in Peril: Minority Party's Assault On America

(Photo of Republican California recall candidate, John Cox, with his bear talking to a crowd of about 12 people. Just think, he could be California's next governor!)

Amazing as it may seem, a minority party is do a pretty good job at trying to seize power in the United States of America.

GOP members of Congress are stopping any legislation that doesn't meet their approval using the filibuster. Despite being the minority in both the House and the Senate, Republicans have been the one's calling the shots.

It doesn't stop there. One of the tactics the self-proclaimed Party of Trump uses is to take control (from governor to city dog-catcher) of every state by whatever means possible.

Using an arcane law to game the system, California Republicans have gathered enough signatures to file for a recall election, which is just around the corner.

Thank The Terminator, aka Arnold Schwarzenegger, for paving the way to a successful recall (for the first time in the state's history) in 2003.

It was the first time anyone managed to get the required signatures of 12-percent of the turnout in the previous election.

This time - with the help of a three-month extension granted by a judge - the organizers were able to deliver; forcing a recall election.

If the current governor, Gavin Newsom, fails to get 51 percent of the vote he WILL BE DEFEATED while whichever of the 46 clowns on the ballot gets the most votes becomes the new governor.

To break that down further - someone could become governor of the biggest state in the USA with only 10 percent of the vote!

The system is insane, and needs to be tossed in the garbage.

People have been talking about off-year elections like this where voter turnout is normally low unless one party is seriously motivated to vote.

Such as the Republican minority in California that may be on the brink of taking over the Democratic majority, and putting a right-wing troll in the governor's mansion. 

It could happen. If Newsom is defeated it'll be an anti-democratic, legal coup in the most liberal state in the nation.

Democratic voters are going to have to turn out in record numbers in every state. Otherwise the majority of people in America are going to be controlled by a minority of radical racists' and white supremacists.