The Good News and the Bad News About Everything

Let' start with some good news:

Scientists found a new species of lizard (left) in Peru, and promptly named it a tongue-twister; the Lioaemus warjantay. Anytime there's a new species discovered its a plus for researchers.

On the flip side:

Say goodbye to the ivory-billed woodpecker, along with 22 other species of birds, fish, mussels and other wildlife that have been officially declared extinct. 

Under Good News:

The Pope set a good example for millions of Catholics by getting vaccinated and encouraging others to do the same.

The Bad News:

Unvaccinated healthcare worker called the Pope a "hypocrite" for getting the shot.

Some Good News:

No one in America has died of rabies in over 70 years.

On The Flip Side:

An Illinois man was bitten by a rabid bat last month...and died.

Under Good News:

YouTube is cracking down on the numerous anti-vaccine videos on it's platform by banning major accounts. #1 internet anti-vaxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is among the most egregious accounts banned.

The Bad News:

It won't make Kennedy, and the other anti-vaxxers, stop spreading their deadly misinformation on other internet platforms.

More Tech Good News

Twitch announced that it's rolling out phone-verified chats, a new safety feature designed to get harassment, malicious users and "hate raids" under control.

The Flip Side:

Although live user attacks are a problem on Twitch, bot attacks are a ferocious problem on the platform without a simple solution.

That's all for today folks. Thanks for stopping by.

Two Americas: A Divide That Kills Facts and People With Impunity

As the country faces a plague of unvaccinated people it's apparent the deaths aren't going to stop soon.

We may never get over the coronavirus that has already taken nearly 700,000 American lives. 

The odds are against it when the nation is divided along political lines so toxic that dying from the virus is almost a badge of honor among Republicans who worship Trump.

CNN's Chris Cillizza recently reported just how bad the situation is in an article titled, "We've Reached the 'Red Covid' Phase of the Pandemic' 

In it he said, "The result of all of this misinformation and politicization of Covid-19 is stark. The 12 states with the highest case rate for every 100,000 people are all run by Republican governors. 

The 13 states with the highest hospitalization rate per 100,000 residents are all run by Republican governors. The 15 states with the highest percentage of deaths per 100,000 are all run by Republican governors."

David Leonhardt of the New York Times dubbed the vaccination rate disparity "Red Covid" for obvious reasons. It's the red states that are fighting CDC guidelines to staying safe.

Leonhardt succinctly summed up the current situation;

"The political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state. 

Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America."

That troubling statement is backed up with the latest data from Gallup.

Thanks to Trump and the right-wing media like Fox and Newsmax, pandemic misinformation continues to be spread like toxic mold with no end in sight.

It's stunning to think that Republicans who are getting sick - and dying - are doing it for political reasons. Facts are discarded like trash in a heap of lies. 

As Chris Cillizza summed it up;

"This isn't complicated. We are not just divided along political lines now. Our political divisions have created two entirely different Americas:

One in which the vast majority of people are vaccinated and hospitalizations are low, and the other where the coronavirus continues to ravage the population."

Was Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito a Key Player in The Jan. 6 Insurrection?

I'm looking forward to Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito's reply to Sidney Powell's claim that he was going to help decertify the 2020 election.

Powell's latest batshit crazy assertion would normally defy belief, but in these chaotic times anything is possible.

She claimed that as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 her team was seeking an emergency injunction to prevent the certification of Biden's win.

Powell said that "We were filing a 12th Amendment constitutional challenge to the process that the Congress was about to use under the Electoral Act provisions that simply don't jive with the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution. And Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that."

Was Alito even aware Powell was throwing out his name as a co-conspirator in the coup attempt? If he was, then we have a real constitutional crisis on our hands that dwarves anything we've seen yet.

It's unthinkable. The idea that Trumpism has infected the Supreme Court is horrifying, if true. Maybe he'll speak up today as his name is trending on Twitter.

According to Powell's feverish ranting the idea was to DELAY the electoral college certification to give time for Alito to intervene on the legal challenge brought by Rep. Louis Gohmert.

So what happened?

Powell alleged that Nancy Pelosi learned about her plot and reconvened Congress to get the vote before Alito could issue an injunction.

Because nearly every word out of Powell's gaping trap is a lie, it may take a while to get to the bottom of this latest bogus attempt at undermining our democracy.

Georgia Is On Trump's Mind: Think Tank Says He Could Be Charged With Multiple Crimes

Trump can't let go of Georgia.

He was in the Peach Tree state yesterday holding a rally and repeating the Big Lie when a report was released by the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank in Washington DC, that suggested he could be tried for multiple crimes there.

Another blow to his Big Lie was delivered with the results of the bogus Arizona audit which showed Biden had won with more votes than initially reported.

Just last week Trump was still pushing for a re-certification of votes in Georgia by openly imploring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn Biden's win.

Trump faces numerous lawsuits but the investigation into his actions in Georgia may be the one that hurts him the most.

According to the report the charges include criminal solicitation to commit election fraud; intentional interference with performance duties; conspiracy to commit election fraud; criminal solicitation; and state RICO violations.

The report also noted that criminal liability could extend to some Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani.

The probe into Trump's actions began in February when Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, launched a criminal investigation into Trump's conduct relating to the election.

One of the most dangerous parts for Trump in this investigation is he's NOT going to be able to use executive privilege to claim immunity.

That's because Trump's actions were "well outside the scope of his official duties" according to the analyses.

At this point in time there's good reason for Trump to have his mind on Georgia; going to prison is a real possibility.

Arizona Audit Finds More Votes For Biden! The Big Lie Loses

An extension of the Big Lie in Arizona suffered a serious setback after a draft of the sham audit was revealed yesterday.

In what has to be described as poetic justice the review found more votes for Biden. The exact opposite of what the schemers behind the audit expected.

Despite the findings that are being released today, this seed of sedition has inspired other red states to consider sham audits too.

States on the verge of fake audits like Texas, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, were inspired by the six month partisan effort in Arizona to discredit Biden's victory in 2020.

Trump's ongoing efforts to overturn a legal election result (considered to be one of the safest elections in memory) has not slowed down since getting booted out of the White House.

From the start it was apparent that the bogus effort at auditing the 2020 election results in Arizona had two aims.

First, to discredit Biden's victory in the key county of Maricopa, that helped Biden become the first Democrat to win the state since 1996.

The second and even more important goal was to appease Trump and curry favor with his core supporters, whose devotion is the driving force with the Republican party today.

The whole shit show was a display of shameless misinformation and an assault on truth driven by a conspiracy-theory driven conservative media.

Predictably, Trump will attack the results after putting so much time and money into discrediting the 2020 election. His spin on it will come from the whole cloth of the Big Lie.

As other states consider "jumping the shark" to perpetuate Trump's attempt to destroy our electoral system, we'll see their efforts end in the same shameful way the Arizona one did.

When Are We Going To Stop Giving Cranks Platforms?

There's platforms, and there's platforms.

One kind provides nothing but misinformation. 

The other kind provides facts and real news...up to a point.

Misinformation has become so popular Trump and his minions have crossed the Rubicon and bled into the mainstream news. People who should be locked up for their own safety, are guest hosts on national news and cable TV outlets.

Go back 20 years ago when someone like the Pillowclown, Mike Lindell, would have been laughed at so hard he wouldn't have been able to show his face in public for the rest of his life without being mocked.

Fast forward to Lindell today, a crazed conspiracist predicting Trump will become the president again on Thanksgiving. His prediction was picked up by the mainstream media.

It's bad enough that the other hate platforms like Fox, Newsmax, Oan, etc., exist to carry outrageous lies to extreme right-wing consumers, but crossing that line between fact and fiction is more than worrisome. It's dangerous to democracy.

Why would any serious news group want to promote a lunatic by giving them airtime?

The cynical answer is that people watch them (for whatever reason) and that equates to money. The almighty dollar gets bowed to more than anybody's god in the 21st century.

As a former newspaper editor and publisher, I've watched with growing dismay as the legitimate news business has become another whore to the bottom line.

What happened to integrity? Using common sense? How have facts suddenly become debatable?

It's not impossible to turn this around. Instead of being carried with the legitimate news, all crank features and Trumpworld news could be broadcast after the serious news is over. 

The news platforms could name the program "Today's Crank Fables" with the motto, "Don't Believe What You See and Hear - Unless We Say It."

Fair Warning! Satire Ahead: Things To Do In Florida

Welcome to Florida, the Sunshine State, where science is banned, and no one can tell you what to do.

Attractions 

Watching the Trump supporters line the streets to his beach resort (mar-a-lago) every time his Orangeness is in town. It's free, and you'll get to see deplorables up close.

Take a tour bus that stops at all the locations where Trump held raucous rallies in 2016, and 2020. Vendors will be there offering MAGA gear at a discount.

Eat and Drink

Bon Apitit!  You don't have to worry about COVID masking restrictions when you go out for a meal because the governor doesn't believe in taking safety measures, and fights all attempts to mask anywhere, including the schools.

Outdoors

There's 15 places to find adventure, including the popular guided MAGA walk through the Everglades. The trail will be open all week this fall. Liability release forms for visitors available at numerous kiosks. 

Attend an outdoor lecture in the same Florida swamp that Trump and allies plotted the overthrow of Democracy. The lecture lasts 10 minutes because studies show no MAGA follower could focus any longer than that.

Make sure to take souvenirs from your visit to remind yourself how fun it was experiencing an alternate universe where Trump is still the president.

One of the most popular souvenirs is a T-shirt dissing Dr. Anthony Fauci (Don't Fauci My Florida) by truth denier Gov. Ron DeSantis on his website.

MAGA vendors reported a shortage of the T-shirts last week, but the supply problem was quickly corrected.

To guard against any facts supporting masking and vaccines, DeSantis appointed a State Surgeon General that thinks the earth is flat.

Enjoy your stay by taking a couple of simple precautions:

1. DO NOT wear Biden T-shirts or hats.

2. Avoid wearing too much blue clothing so you don't stand out in crowds and become a target for a right-wing extremist that might think you're a liberal.

Why Trump Didn't Support The Sept. 18 Right-Wing Rally

There was a calculated reason why Trump chose not to get involved in the Sept.18 rally supporting convicted insurrectionists.

He knew that violent rallies were no longer necessary because his fascist political movement is winning.

His minions have been busy changing voting laws in numerous states to promote voter suppression laws that target Democratic minorities.

Republican rallies have morphed into anti-mask rallies and critical-race theory rallies intended to obstruct the electoral process and to introduce chaos into local politics.

It's not so much the followers we should worry about. It's the authoritarian movement growing in what use to be the Republican party. With nearly half of Republicans believing the Jan. 6 coup attempt was legitimate protest the breakdown of reality has been devastating.

In an article by Aymann Ismail for Slate magazine he discusses "How Fascism Works."

"It has to do with follow the leader. So the leader is, by definition, law and order, and so anything that goes against the leader is a violation of law and order.

So if the police go against the leader, they’re not law and order. The fascist leader needs the police on his side because he needs them to crack heads when he seizes the election and does a coup, but if they’re not going to be for him, then the patriotic law-and-order people are the people who are attacking the police."

What's happening now is Trump is playing the long game after nine months of trying to overthrow the election with no results.

By mobilizing grassroots people to attack school boards the Trumpies are creating the type of chaos that benefits them the most. They're even taking over precinct-level positions.

Coupled with an all-out effort to discourage vaccinations for political reasons, the Republicans have decided on a scorched-earth policy of vicious lies to pander to an ever-fearful base.

Naturally, they don't appreciate the irony of literally dying unvaccinated so they can "own the libs."

Republicans are on the wrong side of reality and science, because they've surrendered to a wannabee dictator.

A Politically-Charged Pandemic Is Pummeling America And We're Helpless To Do Anything About It

National medical experts recently announced the current pandemic deaths are about to surpass the death toll of the infamous 1918 Pandemic.

There's a growing concern in the medical community that we're looking at annual pandemics where the COVID-19 virus will continue to mutant into deadlier versions every year because of politics.

Yes, politics. 

Not because we can't develop treatments and vaccines to combat the coronavirus. That was accomplished in record time.

What we can't seem to do is to overcome massive misinformation campaigns about how the whole pandemic is a hoax perpetuated by liberals or some deep state operatives that hate conservatives.

The situation doesn't look to change in the near future. The blue tribes and the red tribes are firmly separated by fact and fiction.

I recently read about two people who went into a restaurant in the South wearing facemasks because they wanted to be protected, but the owner kicked them out.

Why? Because he was one of too many assholes in the country that don't believe the pandemic is real; so he ejected the couple for WEARING facemasks.

A group of Texans went to a restaurant in NYC the other day where masks must be worn indoors. Members of the group assaulted the hostess (sending her to the hospital) and were arrested for assault.

The result is we're living in a "Groundhog Day" cycle where people continue to die needlessly because they won't get vaccinated, preferring instead to use bleach or ivermectin (a horse de-wormer) to combat the virus.

This opposition of facts has crystalized under the Trump regime, and continues to contaminate all attempts to unify people under facts and science. 

This may sound harsh, but needs to be said; if the red tribe wants to reject reality then it's their own damn fault when they die coughing their lungs out in a hospital.

At some point, after culling the herd of disbelievers, we may get a handle on the virus and avoid unnecessary pandemics in the future.

Like I said, 'Putting Up A Fence Is A Declaration of Fear'

Justice for J6 Rally. Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. Less than 200 attended the right-wing event.

I asked the question are we overreacting to J6 Rally two days ago. In it, I asserted putting up a fence around the Capitol was a declaration of fear.

Today's much anticipated right-wing rally was so small (maybe 200 people) the question becomes more loaded. It was a case of bringing a bazooka to a slingshot fight.

There were 20 cops/National Guards for every one protestor. The rally lasted less than 90 minutes after it began around 12 p.m. ET. 

The highlight of the day happened 40 minutes into the rally when Capitol Police arrested a man who had a knife, for a weapons violation.

Other than that it could have just been another day in Portland, Oregon where protests never cease.

Takeaways:

--The potential for chaos made the rally politically toxic for leading Republicans, many of whom maintain the lie at the heart of the assault on the Capitol: that Trump's defeat was the result of election tampering.

--When none of the really crazy GOP senators or House members decided not to appear, or even promote the J6 rally, that was a big clue it wasn't going to be a massive crowd attending.

--Law authorities worked together to establish a game plan. Kudos for that.

--The world is wondering if American democracy can survive the domestic terrorists who've infiltered into the Republican party.

--The good news is protesting for domestic terrorists, and calling them patriots, was very low on everyone's list today. 

The next time there's a rally at the Capitol, I hope we don't have to see that damn fence go up around it making it appear that our nation is under constant siege. 

September Hypocrisy Award Ceremonies Set For Oct. 1

The September candidates vying for this months Biggest Hypocrite award are legion.

The contenders - all politicians or political activists {as usual} - have been summitting videos to a panel of three judges since the start of the month.

With under two weeks remaining, I expect to see a steady tide of hypocrites entering right up until Sept. 30th. 

Program note: This year a new Group Category has been added.

As of this post, the most hypocritical Group is 12 Republican Governors who are fighting-COVID-19 vaccination mandates, despite mandating other vaccines.

Top 4 Individual Candidates:

--Lindsey Graham, last month's winner, is looking for a repeat with accusations that Biden should never have left Afghanistan. It's a complete reversal from his past position, making him a strong contender.

--Mike Pence, continues to kowtow to Trump by being outwardly supportive of him, but in reality Pence is putting together a presidential campaign that would challenge Trump if he did run in 2024.

--Ted Cruz is an accomplished liar, but it's his hypocrisy about Afghanistan, his ill-timed trip to Cancun while his constituents froze their asses off during a major power outage in freezing conditions, that make him a viable candidate.

--Kevin McCarthy, could give a master class in hypocrisy. Thus far his tour-de-force was flip-flopping on Trump's accountability for the Jan. 6 insurrection. This month McCarthy, who is vaccinated, fired off a Twitter message opposing vaccine mandates.

The winner will be announced on Oct. 1st. It should be interesting to see if any of the candidates can crack the top 4 before the end of this month.

The master of ceremonies will be legendary hypocrite Newt Gingrich. 

Location: Guisippi's Pizza Parlor basement, on South Main, Jacksonville, Florida

Related: Social Hypocrisy Group on Facebook