Post Everything Here

[#1]

[JMOldeVintage]

These are the other States, that along with Trump's Campaign, apparently feel there is nothing else their AG needs to do: 

..."support of Texas, joined by counterparts from 16 other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia."
CNN also reporting that a Texas GOP Rep. is trying to create a list of others in Congress who support this move by Texas, Trump Campaign & would be willing to add their names to said filing. 

Yes, it will be nice not to have to talk about a POTUS who has apparently sank even further into the deep end. It would be nice to discuss Policy, toss out different ideas for "this problem" or "that problem".

And just a heads up as to the main "talking point" on Faux News tonight: Hunter Biden released a statement regarding a Federal Investigation into his tax returns. 

[PillowDetails]

Anyone in the UK know anyone who has had the vaccine yet?  Is it first come / first served?  I know in the US it's supposed to be healthcare workers, then cares homes.  I've heard Walgreens and CVS (large chain-store pharmacies) will be giving actual shots, once it's available for the general public.

Hopefully, it will be approved soon in the US - meetings today with the FDA, I believe.  FedEx and UPS are set to deliver with special  GPS tracking.  Hoping it goes smoothly.

[JMOldeVintage]

If news reports are correct people in the UK receiving the vaccination are the elderly (so far mostly in Long Term Care, ALF's) and Medical Workers. The medical staff working with Covid patients receiving priority.

Now there may be one good thing about being rural & knowing it will take longer for the vaccinations to reach your area. The reported Allergic Reactions by some medical staff. So far it seems limited to those who have had severe reactions to stuff in their past. But for my own peace of mind, will be prepared with my short list of the one med & "chemical" that has caused issues for me. I think they said the workers were already equipped with Epi-Pens so their allergies must crop up with greater frequency. Mine are "easily" avoided but since I'm not a doctor will go prepared with the information.

[JMOldeVintage]

"No war with North Korea, tamed fighting in Idlib Province and many other places. NO WARS STARTED BY U.S., Troop removals all over, and so much more. Thank you Larry!"

"While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic (at)US FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn (at)SteveFDA. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!"

"The Swine Flu (H1N1), and the attempt for a vaccine by the Obama Administration, with Joe Biden in charge, was a complete and total disaster. Now they want to come in and take over one of the “greatest and fastest medical miracles in modern day history.” I don’t think so!"

"I just want to stop the world from killing itself!"

"Now it turns out that my phone call to the President of Ukraine, which many, including me, have called “perfect”, was even better than that. I predicted Biden corruption, said to call the A.G., who perhaps knew of the corruption during the impeachment hoax?"

"Now that the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what everybody knows has to be done. They must show great Courage & Wisdom. Save the USA!!!"

"Now it turns out that the Democrats want the Pack the Court with 26 Justices. This would be terrible, and must be stopped. Even Justice RBG was strongly opposed!"

These are Trump's tweets over the past two hours or so. Yeah, he's busy "working". Not sure but am thinking he realizes he has to at least "give a nod" to the Coronavirus, since the USA hit record daily deaths of over 3K the other day. Then of course he must plead his case for why he wants to overturn the will of the people. Oh, "scandals", oh my - well lets dig into not only His but His Kids business dealing, especially since Trump became POTUS. After all, parents are responsible for what their kids do, forever, right? Wonder what might be found? And then for good measure throw in a jab against Barr & maybe tell SCOTUS they'll be a less-exclusive group (or some such nonsense?) 

[OwlTalk]

He actually brought up packing the courts? By the Democrats? Hypocritical, much?

And as for keeping the world from killing itself, it's OK with him if Americans kill each other, right?!

When is this goof gone forever?

[JMOldeVintage]

From NBC News:

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday brushed aside the lawsuit filed by Texas that sought to overturn Joe Biden's election victory in four battleground states.

President Donald Trump called the case "the big one", and 126 of the 196 Republicans in the House urged the court to take it. But the justices acted quickly to turn it down.

"Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections," the court said in a brief unsigned opinion.

So the ruling was essentially a unanimous rejection of the Texas claims......

Supporters of the Trump campaign saw the Texas suit as their best hope for derailing a victory for Joe Biden before the actual presidential vote is cast by the Electoral College on Monday.

Never before had any state asked the court to do what Texas proposed, to nullify election results from other states. The lawsuit sought to delay the vote of presidential electors in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, arguing that voting procedures in those states violated their own state laws.....

Both conservative and liberal legal experts alike said the lawsuit had a fatal flaw, because Texas had no authority to claim that it was injured or that its own voters were affected in any way by election procedures in another state.

Pennsylvania made that point in urging the court to dismiss the case.

"Texas has not suffered harm simply because it dislikes the result of the election, and nothing in the text, history, or structure of the Constitution supports Texas's view that it can dictate the manner in which four other states run their elections," Pennsylvania said.

The other battleground states said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would invite lawsuits over virtually any future federal election.

"Texas proposes an extraordinary intrusion into Wisconsin's and the other defendant states' elections, a task that the Constitution leaves to each state," the state said in its response to the suit. "Wisconsin has conducted its election and its voters have chosen a winning candidate for their state. Texas's bid to nullify that choice is devoid of a legal foundation or a factual basis.""

I'm betting that Trump will try and peddle "another law suit" so he can keep collecting donations.

In the meantime when will Congress act to help the millions who literally feel as if they are living in a "third world country" - borrowing those three words from a Trump statement a few days ago - people need help NOW.

[finickypatternshop]

Yikes trumplicans are really not taking losing well. Kind of embarrassed for them.

[JMOldeVintage]

Just starting off? Trump's tweets before he arrives at the Army-Navy Football Game (oh my, no golf today):

"WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!"

"IF Biden gets in, nothing will happen to Hunter or Joe. Barr will do nothing, and the new group of partisan killers coming in will quickly kill it all. Same thing with Durham. We caught them cold, spying, treason & more (the hard part), but “Justice” took too long. Will be DOA!"

Yes, maybe we should feel badly for Trumplicans. First they don't see that Trump is going to milk the donation-cow for as long as he can for his personal benefit. And while I could point out that parents are not held responsible for their adult children's actions am thinking Trump may be trying to blend his "russia, russia, russia" with tax investigation of Hunter? But then, do we really need to remind everyone that being the US AG is not a lifetime appointment & it's a "given" that no matter who Trump's AG is the New Administration always appoints their own AG? So Barr is "scheduled" to go off into the sunset pretty soon.

[JMOldeVintage]

Florida News:

"A White House Coronavirus Task Force report about the state of the pandemic in Florida made public Saturday urges state leaders to take immediate action to slow the virus’ spread. Officials should close or severely limit indoor dining, limit capacity at bars and issue stronger policies around mask wearing, the report states.

Those are the same public health measures that Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly assailed for months as ineffective. While he was making the case for no new business restrictions, DeSantis’ office refused to publicize reports from the task force which recommended a more robust public response."...

Then, for those who think the Coronavirus is no big deal:

Florida basketball star Keyontae Johnson remains in critical but stable condition after he collapsed early in Saturday's game against rival Florida State and was rushed to a nearby hospital....
Like most of his teammates, Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 during the summer. Although the cause of Johnson's ailment was not immediately known, the coronavirus can lead to myocarditis, a viral infection of the heart muscle."...

The article states that he is in critical but stable condition. Also mentioned was that the SEC requires rigorous testing of any athletes who return to sports after a positive covid test. Let us all hope this young man pulls through with no serious after-affects. But if the coronavirus was the cause of this life threatening crisis, well, saying that "young people aren't affected by it" should never, ever be uttered by anyone, ever again.

As for Florida in general, the State is now at 1,116,973 cases, 20,049 Deaths, reported Hospitalizations from yesterday to today jumped by 258.

Everyone please stay safe and healthy. 

[PillowDetails]

I'll admit, I'm an emotional sap, especially around the holidays.  Watching the trucks being loaded with vaccine at Pfizer in Michigan on the news this morning is really turning on the waterworks for me.  So much at stake.  So much hope.  So far to go.  So much loss.

It's been so much, for us all.

[JMOldeVintage]

I took the day off yesterday from most news except for early in the morning. 
I too hope that the vaccine rollout goes smoothly, that people get vaccinated, but, that in the meantime they realize we still need to vigilant.

It really could be that light at the end of the tunnel and eventually we will reach it!

[JMOldeVintage]

Bye, Bye Barr.

[PillowDetails]

Final word on the US election.  We don't need anything more than this, so now we can move on!

https://twitter.com/apipkin11/status/1338854598405140482

[JMOldeVintage]

From local NBC: "Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said there could be an additional delay in getting vaccines to the state.

“Initially we thought we’d get about 200,000 additional Pfizer doses, and the third week of December, or the last week of December, the third week of the shipments, we were scheduled to get about 250,000,” the governor said.

“Those Week 2 and Week 3 shipments of Pfizer are basically on hold right now. We’re just not sure with the production,” said DeSantis."

Now this is disappointing news. Which got me thinking, are there plans to deal with delays in manufacturing? For those who have received the first dose of the vaccination, has "dose two" been put aside, or could there be a complete breakdown in the process? 

[kaslkaos]

Something I've been concerned about since this summer is an increasing "facts don't matter" rhetoric from the left. In the past four years, it's expected and terrifying behaviour from Trumpism but now I'm seeing what I consider trump-like behaviour from both sides (although on the left, its still the extreme end, while on the right, Trump made extreme views mainstream). Seeing Biden won, I finally feel I can talk about this. People on the left are afraid too, for a number of reasons, one of them being not wanting to aid and abet Trumpism, and another is not wanting to be othered. Anyway, refreshingly, the New York Times just published a very coherent piece on this, much better than my word salad.  I've had this bottled up soooo long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/opinion/trump-political-sectarianism.html?smid=tw-share 

[kaslkaos]

a snippet.. 

The foremost political story of the Trump era is not that a person like Trump could be so shamelessly self-dealing, but that Republicans have exhibited such fealty along the way, including a willingness to cripple the founding document they claim to view as sacrosanct.

Political sectarianism, Finkel concluded,

has now grown so severe that it functions as the most serious threat to our political system since the Civil War. And although scholars debate whether one party is guiltier than the other, antidemocratic trends are growing stronger on both sides. If we don’t figure out a way to get this sectarianism under control, I fear for the future of our republic.

[JMOldeVintage]

Will try the link to the Times article in a bit. But from the snippets I too wonder about the future of both Parties.

Biden reportedly stated that the "Defund the Police" movement turned off a lot of people. It may well have, since even many suburban dwellers rarely see a patrol car in their neighborhoods, so the thought unsettling. Yet big-city residents might benefit from some LE Budgets sending some of 'their' money to programs such as Drug Rehab, Mental Health Issues, Battered Women Shelters, etc. etc.

Yet the GOP turned into the "Party of Trump", failing to see that the POTUS they were hanging their hats on is apparently without a moral compass and lacks a "Country First" perspective on many issues. 

Now they both seemingly have reached that fork in the road where they need to decide if they should treat the Country's current situation like a marriage, where compromise can be necessary. Or if they want to act like spoiled children, wanting everything they want "now".

[kaslkaos]

It's seeing what happened to the GOP that makes me think us leftist peeps must hold our own accountable. Trump is what happens when the most extreme voices are allowed to hold power.

[finickypatternshop]

I'm pretty far left and I partly agree but mostly see it as conservatives spinning what is actually said by the left. I think the left is more guilty of 'purity testing' and worrying too much about how the right spins things. Most claims the right make about the left are not even close to what is being said, sadly they rely on uninformed voters and they rarely fail to fall for the spin.

I do see way too many Canadians on the right fall for the same conspiracies as trumplicans and that is concerning. Of course some Con politicians here are skirting very close to confirming those conspiracies and only pull back a bit when called on it. They are not above taking votes from RWNJs if it serves their purpose, very trumpian.

[kaslkaos]

there is some drifting to truth doesn't matter extreme post modern thinking, and it's the liberals and centrists that are getting alarmed, it is my "woke/sjw" friend posting in favour of looting and arson, and physical violence (pro physically attacking non-violent but obnoxious counter-protestors) that started my concern, and people interviewed on cbc calling for literally abolishing police and all private property...2020 is silly season for sure.

[kaslkaos]

from the Globe and Mail, 

Talking to Canadians about America

 

• The Globe and Mail (Ontario Edition)
•  
•  

With the U.S. presidential election finally over – the Electoral College having pressed its rubber stamp and given Donald Trump his notice of termination – pundits have been handed one more opportunity to opine on what the past four years were about, and what the future holds for American politics.

What interests us is something different: What does it mean for Canadian politics?

Let’s start with some breaking news, fresh since 1776: Canada isn’t the United States. Our history, though related and intertwined, isn’t their history. We live in the same neighbourhood, but not the same house. We’re siblings who attended different schools.

That’s why Canadians should be very careful about what they absorb from the political culture – part genius, part bedlam, part freak show – to the south.

Both right and left in Canada can learn from U.S. politics. But a lot of that learning should be a cautionary tale. Because no matter where you sit on the ideological spectrum, the American political diet, whether left or right, contains many ingredients whose regular consumption is certifiably harmful to our country’s health.

Let’s start with Canada’s Conservatives, the federal party and their provincial cousins, and the American dishes they need to think twice before serving at the breakfast table.

Under Mr. Trump, the Republican Party has devolved into an anti-government movement, and COVID-19 exacerbated its worst tendencies. The issue of whether a mask is helpful in combating the virus, which should be a scientific and nonpartisan question, became for much of the Republican Party and electorate an ideological purity test. Many became convinced that wearing a mask, or practising physical distancing, or acknowledging the virus’s gravity, are somehow un-conservative, because they infringe on human freedom.

Those sentiments resonate in conservative America. And because Canada’s cultural diet is largely American-made, that view is widely consumed by Canadians conservatives, too. Many quite enjoy the taste.

But remember, the roots of Canadian conservatism come from a different place. Our Tories were the people who didn’t make a revolution, and who didn’t think shooting your neighbours over a minor tax dispute was the definition of “freedom.” Our original conservatives knew that, while order without freedom is tyranny, freedom without order is chaos.

Canadian conservatism’s cornerstones are things such as free speech and freedom of thought and religion. But the freedom to endanger other people, because you’re a “sovereign individual”? That’s no part of the peace, order and good government conservatism that made Canada possible. It’s an import from a U.S. strain hostile to government itself, and which treats it not as something to be improved, but something to be sidelined.

Canadian conservatism, like Canada, was founded not in opposition to the existence of government, but rather on its necessity. One Canadian conservative who suddenly got oldtime religion in this time of pandemic is Doug Ford.

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Premier has a long history of espousing the rhetoric of government as waste. But when COVID-19 hit, the country’s most prominent conservative immediately realized that government action was a necessity, and that removing government from the equation would not result in more human freedom but more human misery, illness and death. Mr. Ford, to his credit, reacted quickly to the first wave with shutdowns and physical distancing orders. He’s regretted every business shutdown – and they are regrettable – but he’s never backed down from blasting anti-maskers or others who refuse to take simple precautions, despite the fact that many come from his voting base. Ontario has made mistakes in fighting the pandemic. But

Mr. Ford’s errors have never been those of Republican politicians in the reddest U.S. states. The leading right-wing government in Canada hasn’t always made the right choices, but its leader has never been a denialist. Instead, the pandemic-era Mr. Ford has offered a non-Trumpian take on how to be a Canadian conservative populist.

But what about the other side of Canada’ s political spectrum? What should Liberals and New Democrats be learning

– or rejecting – from their siblings in American politics? More on that, later this week.

[finickypatternshop]

I'm not sure who wrote that but I don't agree with most of it, maybe ideally but not in reality. Conservatives are using similar tactics as trump did, doug ford has been terrible during covid and as much as some are trying to see him as a changed person he is the same doug ford who got elected on 'a buck a beer.'

He did nothing to prevent more deaths in the second wave, primarily in long term care homes. He is sitting on 12B dollars from the federal gov't, didn't ramp up inspections of care homes and didn't ramp up testing capacity. He is using the pandemic to push thru crap like removing protections of the Conservation authorities and pushing to give university status to a religious college run by a bigot and his supporter, Charles McVety. A school that doesn't believe in science should not be giving science degrees.

He is no different than trump as far as I'm concerned, a slightly different level but the Canadian version of him. I fear some are buying his folksy daily briefings of him wringing his hands, trying to sound sincere and it will help him get reelected. I really wish the Liberals had a better option, someone with some personality at least, but I will vote NDP if an election gets called.

Edited to add that he is also letting big box stores stay open despite the rising numbers around Toronto. He is basing his decisions on what his donors want and not on science, much like trump. He did the same during the first wave when he didn't include construction sites in the shutdown. He needs to go.

[kaslkaos]

Love to hear your views here, thanks!

[finickypatternshop]

I'm a little cranky so may sound a bit harsh but I'm finding Canadian politics frustrating lately. The conspiracy seeping in is worrying. I hope you're doing well. Stay safe everyone, we have a ways to go before vaccines do their thing : )

[kaslkaos]

Yes, it's that conspiracy creeping in that worries me. We (and me) so rivetted by American news, people are forcing highly polarized American values within their own countries.

About Doug, I'm agreeing with you on so many points, except that I think he's a normal flawed human being that I dissagree with politically on the same points as you.  

I do think citizens are dropping the ball, just hang in there, a vaccine is coming. That said, I need to remember that, thus far, all "my sacrifies" remain petty. I miss meeting friends at coffee shops, going downtown, etc.. but all the important stuff (to me) I still have so it's easy to follow the rules...still, all the mall shopping and regional travelling disgusts me. There's a lot of collective personal responsibility there.