“Covid Deaths Surge Across a Weary America as a Once-Hopeful Summer Ends – Cases are starting to fall in some hard-hit Southern states, but nearly half of Americans are not fully vaccinated, allowing the Delta variant to persist.”: https://nyti.ms/3tgbiU2

So this is how it ends, utter chaos.

The same people bitching about the exit from Afghanistan are the same ones refusing to get the vaccine. Never mind that most people are lacking expertise in both areas. Then again, we all agree we’re glad to be out of Afghanistan, enough with endless wars, and we want Covid-19 to be gone, to return to normal life, but that doesn’t seem to be in the offing for eons.

So here’s how it is folks, news is just fodder for discussion. Legitimate news outlets with boots on the ground have had their credibility eviscerated by the right, where it’s all opinion all the time, where what you feel is more important than what is truth. So…

That’s right, the “liberal” newspapers are the ones gathering the news, with boots on the ground, “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post.” Yes, “The Wall Street Journal” can cover business, but it now does that poorly as it tries to be a more general newspaper serving the right, the articles are brief and you’re better off reading the business coverage in the “Times.” As for your local rag, it should go out of business. Why in the hell should I read national news in a local paper, when the true authorities are just a click away. In order to survive newspapers other than the Big Three above have to go hyper-local, but instead we can’t stop hearing journalists bitch like the musicians who decried the internet, wanting to preserve the dominance of the CD when the public had moved on. If you’re trying to gather the news, why are you so damn sentimental and glued to the past? Meanwhile, hedge funds own most of the local newspapers and are cutting staff to maintain margins and in a matter of years they’ll throw the outfits away, or sell their names, like “Newsweek,” which is a nearly worthless rag despite having the moniker of the old “Washington Post” weekly newsmagazine.

And most people don’t subscribe to a newspaper anyway. They get their news online. Where it is tailored by algorithms for them, so they only see what already supports their vision and then they go into the echo chambers of social media where the platforms’ sole desire is to keep you tuned in. That’s what they tell advertisers, how much time people spend on their sites. It’s kind of be like heroin dealers talking about the people they’ve addicted and kept using, social media won’t kill you, but it will deaden your mind. And why are people so uneducated, lacking the power of analysis anyway? We’re so busy fighting culture wars that kids can’t even get a reasonable education anymore, their parents are afraid of anti-religious screeds and critical race theory and…why not pull your kids out of school completely…actually, that’s what so many right wing religious people are doing, home-schooling, the worst effort ever, it separates your kids from the mainstream from the advent, you learn a lot more in school than what is contained in books, the socialization is key. Not only do you have to learn how to get along, you need to be exposed to people of different creeds, who don’t look like you, who are not from the same economic class, who have different opinions. Ain’t that America, where people hate those they’ve never even encountered! The Jews are wrecking America! But they know no Jews. Or they’re afraid of people of color when they know none of them either. But these minorities are subjected to hate and scapegoating from the uninformed, on cable television, and from their peers on social media and it’s more fulfilling to direct your attention to yourself than anybody else. That’s one of the main laughable if it wasn’t so serious characteristics of Trump’s legal team, trying to spread the fiction that he won the election and hand a victory to him. They all stonewalled, none of them showed any chinks in their armor, it was a full court press, they were automatons, utterly ridiculous unless you were a diehard believer in what they were purveying. Getting to the truth is a messy proposition, and if you’re not willing to be wrong, you can never really be right.

So the Delta variant is raging and now Mu has been found in America. Not that most people know about this latest variant, because they don’t follow the news, too often they think Covid is a hoax and that they’re inherently immune. As for all those blowhards who’ve said this and recently died, it makes no difference, because everybody in America thinks the rules don’t apply to them until ultimately they do, like criminals they think if they haven’t been caught yet they’re going to get away with it. But then they get arrested. But even an arrest is better than death.

But now the medical establishment has been discredited. Yes, we are arguing about science, because a nitwit from nowhere knows more than someone who has a decade worth of training, never mind experience thereafter. Why does everybody think they know everything. Would you set somebody’s broken leg? Then why do you think you’re an expert on infectious diseases?

So America ain’t closing down again, no way, it’s not going to happen. It’s only the Democrats who desire said action, as for the Republicans, they’ve already opened the country, there’s freedom in Florida and Texas, the freedom to die, not that that’s part of the promotion. But it should be. Keep telling these yahoos they’ve got the freedom to die and very well might and maybe they’d wake up and get vaccinated. As for the long term side effects of said vaccination… Forget what you read online, that you learned second hand, do you personally know someone who has been harmed by the vaccine, experiencing deleterious consequences beyond the side effects that might last a week? God, these same people wouldn’t dive into a swimming pool, they’re too afraid. Then again, so many are exhibiting inane behavior that is far riskier than a vaccine.

Like congregating in groups.

A good friend of mine got Covid-19 at the Dodger game. He’s vaccinated, he’ll survive, but what about the other 50,000 in attendance every night? Not that anybody’s tracking the numbers, and unless you go to the hospital the government is unaware of most people who get infected. And the fact is most people have not already been infected, otherwise the infection rate wouldn’t be in six digits every day.

But eventually everybody will get Covid. That’s the plan. Yup, infect everybody and then we’ll have herd immunity, at least until the next virus comes along. And while we’re at it, let’s stop vaccines for measles and shingles and everything else. Let your body fight it. So you can tell everybody you don’t need to be inoculated, unless you die of course, and then your voice is not heard anyway. Then again, think of how many people still smoke. Somehow they think they’re going to beat the odds. And some do, but most don’t. But the younger generation has realized smoking is bad and now the only people left puffing cigarettes are the addicted boomers and the uneducated poor, with little respect for their own lives, but it took decades to come this far. We don’t have decades to get people vaccinated against Covid-19.

And then there’s this:

“Oracle Park Concession Workers Threaten to Strike After Many Test COVID-19 Positive – If workers vote to strike on Saturday, they could possibly walk off the job just before the Giants game against the Dodgers that evening”: https://bit.ly/3DPX1SX

Work at the ballpark and get infected, because Covid restrictions are a joke, they say you need to be vaccinated or show a test but they don’t check, this is the same fiction they employ in the concert business, saying they’re doing the right thing when the truth is they’re not doing much of anything and when confronted they point the finger at somebody else.

As for the concession workers above, they worked over the weekend, but 96.7% voted to authorize a strike.

UNIONS SUCK!

Well, without a union these workers would have no chance to stand up to bosses with spreadsheets who are only worried about the bottom line. Like the workers in Amazon warehouses, or the meatpackers who were getting infected constantly because they were forced to work, because you’ve got to feed your family. As for unemployment and other government benefits, many people still don’t want to take lousy jobs that pay little and force you to work hard and be abused. Who wants to work at a fast food joint? People have found better ways to make a living, but the Fortune 500 still believe Americans are captive, needing to work their low rent jobs or starve. Or still starve, working at Walmart while they apply for government assistance.

So we were told to just wait, when Delta accelerated, when the vaccine was approved, the naysayers would get the jab. Well, this was said by people who didn’t know the naysayers. It’s not like the fifties and sixties anymore, the different classes no longer interact. If you’ve got any money you don’t even send your kid to public school, but private. You don’t vacation in the same spots, you don’t even fly on the same planes, so why do you think you know what is going on in the brains of others? As for the underclass thinking they know what the elite do…knowledge has now been branded as negative, better to be ignorant, didn’t Trump say he loved his uneducated voters?

And the truth is it’s a war. You’re either pro or anti-vaccine. It’s a religion. And Covid-19 is just the latest shot. These same people have been anti-vaccine for years, crediting so many illnesses to the shots that they don’t cause. And if these same people get ill, they’re the first ones who run to the hospital, unless they’re self-medicating with Ivermectin, which poisons them and clogs up hospitals. I mean you can’t even trust the science that Ivermectin won’t cure Covid? When you can get monoclonal antibodies? What planet are these people from?

The same one I live on. Where truth is out the window and there’s a chorus of right wing anti-vaxxers little different from fans at a sporting event. Never mind that they can’t spell, it’s all about being on the team, and they can’t be wrong, they can’t look in the mirror and not believe they’re God’s golden child, who will be watched over and saved.

It’s been everybody for themselves for years in America. But now it’s even worse. Because now it’s not just about money or privilege but life or death. If Democrats started lauding smoke alarms you’ve got to know Republicans would stop installing them. And if their house burned down and burned up the neighborhood, well…houses usually don’t catch fire, but when they do…

Which is why in California car insurance is mandatory. Because you might cause an accident and how will the injured party be made whole? Never mind their automobile, but their health? Covid vaccines are the same thing, yet worse. But if you say everybody has to get a Covid vaccine somehow you’re a Nazi, if only these people lived in Nazi Germany. Then again, they’d be the same ones pledging fealty to Hitler, being afraid to go against groupthink, saying nothing as Jews and other minorities were shipped off to camps. And when it’s over they all say it wasn’t their fault, they didn’t pull the trigger, they didn’t know what was really happening, just like with Covid when they get it.

And you need a license to drive, but we can’t have vaccine passports because… Exactly why? The truth is they already know who you are, where you live, what you eat, what you buy. That’s right, unless you haven’t surfed the web ever, and don’t use a smartphone, you’ve coughed up so much data that the social media outfits and the corporations know exactly who you are anyway. And you keep saying the government is bad and private industry is the way to go but the truth is you’re sacrificing much more to private industry than you are to the government.

And if you go to India or even college, you’ve got to have shots. But so many of these idiots have never been anywhere, never mind so many have gotten vaccines before. Why stop at Covid? It’s got nothing to do with it being new, which it is not, mRNA has been around for years, it’s got nothing to do with approval, it’s got to do with the fiction that shots invade your freedom. But I don’t see you refusing to bow to the TSA at the airport, you’re coughing up your freedom on a regular basis, but truth is no longer a defense.

So America is open for business. It’s a game of Russian Roulette. Go out and play and see if you get infected and die. No one is looking out for you, as a matter of fact, just the opposite. If you wear a mask to protect yourself in many communities you’ll be excoriated, despite it being a personal choice, a “freedom.” How come “freedom” only goes in one direction? We don’t get to tell you how to live, but you get to tell us all the time. Just try getting an abortion in Texas, never mind the whole south. And not only is the public pro-choice, but so are many of the Republican elected officials, they just say they’re pro-life so they won’t piss off part of their constituency, which in truth has nowhere else to go, who’ll vote for them anyway.

So forget it. You can talk about vaccines and mandates all day long but it’s never going to happen. Biden could mandate vaccines, and people would bitch to high heaven just like they did when he got us out of Afghanistan, but ultimately they’d be happy and forget about it. But Biden doesn’t have the balls, we’ve got no leadership. And the tail is wagging the dog anyway, how can there be more Democrats yet Republicans rule the country? The Supreme Court is Republican and Biden can’t get his agenda through because his own party members are afraid of blowback. The right doesn’t care about blowback, I’d say it’s their secret weapon, but it’s right out front, everybody can see it!

And we all know Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are evil blowhards spewing false information, but you can complain all day and nothing will change, they’re just leading their lemmings over the cliff, you can bet your house that those two have been vaccinated, no way they’re taking the risk. YOU should take the risk, YOU should protect your freedom, but not THEM!

Nothing anybody can do can shut down the right wing juggernaut. Biden defeats Trump handily and not only do so many Republicans still believe Trump won, they’re still counting votes and bitching about Benghazi. I’m surprised they’re not complaining about Walter Mondale.

It’s frustrating if you have a brain.

It’s frustrating if you got the vaccine. These wankers can infect you and not only can you get sick, you can die. The odds are low, but who wants the risk? Never mind the potential long term side effects of infection.

It’s all about THEIR safety. They want to carry guns to shoot robbers… You’d think they live in the wild west when the truth is crime has crumbled, sure, it ticked up a bit during the Covid era, but no one is stealing your kids, you’re pretty damn safe, but they keep saying cities are hellholes…so why is everybody moving to them? We’re supposed to respect the rural counties, losing residents, when they’ve got no respect for those in the growing metropolises whatsoever. It’s like they want everybody to be Gomer Pyle and live in Mayberry R.F.D. Meanwhile, as for that mail delivery…magazines come so late it’s not even worth subscribing, meanwhile DeJoy still has his position, despite self-dealing and the change of the Board of Governors in the Democrats’ favor. They’ve got the power, but they’re still letting DeJoy wreak havoc. This would never happen in private business, then again, all these people in the government are getting rich on our backs, like faux principled Joe Manchin. He made millions from energy companies, even though coal, fossil fuels, are fading…and this isn’t an opinion, just look at the statistics.

But you won’t. Because you believe you’re right. And you only read news that supports your opinion. These whackos constantly send me links supporting their inanity, and it’s always from sites I’ve never heard of that if you just Google them they turn out to be conservative, oftentimes religious outfits. Anybody can publish online, that doesn’t make what you’re saying right.

I’d say it’s complete gridlock, but the truth is so many are moving, out in society, living it up. Would these same people go for a hike in the snow in their underwear? Why do they respect the weather and not Covid? Oh, they don’t really respect the weather either, do you expect people to care about climate change if they don’t care about infecting you with the virus? But if they have the slightest loss you know they’re looking to the government to make them whole, and Biden doesn’t play favorites, unlike Trump, who was tight with the money for states that didn’t vote for him.

And I’ll sum up by saying there are flaws on the left. Yes, some of the educated left are anti-vax. But the left is nowhere near as bad as the right. All these outfits with their false equivalencies, don’t they know the right has already rejected them? Why are you worried about what they have to say?

But everybody wants to be popular, they don’t want to offend anybody.

Unless you’re an elected official on the right. Then you get to obstruct justice not because it’s right, but because you have the power. McCarthy? Don’t cough up your 1/6 info to Congress. Why? Well, McCarthy’s team might look bad. And if you say no, it’s gonna be hard to get it from you and…

This is America.

I don’t know how you ignore it and go on with your regular life. Politics are your identity, your tribe, it’s the biggest sporting contest in the nation. It’s a fight to the death. And there are no rules. And not really any referees either. So if you’re looking for wise people to make judgments and call out bad behavior, you’re dreaming. Just decide if you want to risk Covid by walking out your front door. And it is a risk, higher than being killed in a car accident, by a huge multiple. But it doesn’t feel that way… Just like it feels like you might be killed in an airplane accident, but the odds are much higher on the highway. And if people can’t accept that, why should they accept that the Covid vaccine will save not only them but their brethren, the country, will even boost the economy. They can’t.