Sunday, April 26, 2020

Coronavirus Is Much, Much Worse Than The Flu


As John McCormack noted:
Although there is still much we don’t know about the coronavirus, we know enough to say that it is far more dangerous and deadly than the flu. It took twelve months and 61 million infections for the H1N1 swine flu to kill 12,500 Americans in 2009–10. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that the seasonal flu killed 34,200 Americans during the 2018–19 flu season. In 2019, car crashes killed 38,800 Americans.
As for the new coronavirus? On March 20, the death toll in the United States was 225. By April 20, the coronavirus had killed more than 42,000 Americans.

Donald Trump, Republicans and the right-wing media have done such a disservice to this country by muddling this discussion with all their lies, misinformation and nonsense. This is the height of irresponsibility for those with a public platform. Turn off Fox News. Turn off Donald Trump. Listen to the experts.

Stick To Manufacturing & Commerce

WMC Unveils It's Plan To Reopen Wisconsin Business

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) - the name says it all. WMC are not infectious disease experts. Why should anyone care what their pandemic-opinion is?

They're more worried about their bottom-line (which is understandable) than the people who help make that possible for them. The WMC is fighting to make it harder for police and fire fighters to get workers compensation. I've had my issues with the pay-structure of police and fire departments. But using a pandemic to suppress others while lobbying for your own pocket-book, that's pretty low.

WMC, stick to manufacturing and commerce. We'll let the scientists, doctors, nurses and experts handle the pandemic. We'll let them decide when things can get back to "normal".

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

More Covid Reading: How Republicans Are Ignoring Experts, Prolonging The Pain And Killing Citizens

Kentucky sees highest spike in coronavirus cases after lockdown protests
We Are Living in a Failed State
Death toll and coronavirus cases continue to rise in Wisconsin as more push back against stay-at-home order
CNN’s Dana Bash Calls Out Trump’s Sexism After Latest Comments To Female Reporter
The social-distancing deniers have arrived
Debt and Deficits with the Coronavirus
What the anti-stay-at-home protests are really about
Three Southern states move to reopen businesses amid coronavirus crisis as experts warn of possible ‘backfire’

Covid Reading: How Republicans Are Ignoring Experts, Prolonging The Pain And Killing Citizens

Heartland hotspots: A sudden rise in coronavirus cases is hitting rural states without stay-at-home orders
Some governors are easing coronavirus restrictions. Experts say it’s too soon. Racine County sheriff will not enforce stay-at-home order, says it will have 'dire lifetime consequences' The coronavirus was not engineered in a lab. Here's how we know. USA: Tests per COVID-19 case
‘We need to be the Rosa Parks’: Trump ally plans Wisconsin protest of coronavirus restrictions House Democrats introduce plan to pay Americans $2,000 a month until economy recovers from COVID-19

Friday, April 17, 2020

Sore Loser

After losing election, state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly signals he will participate in voter rolls case
Days after learning he was losing his seat on the state Supreme Court, Justice Daniel Kelly signaled he would participate in a case over who should remain on Wisconsin's voter rolls after earlier stepping away from the lawsuit.

The case is expected to determine whether tens of thousands of voters who are suspected of having moved can stay on the state's voter rolls. Both sides are watching the case closely because Donald Trump won Wisconsin's presidential election by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016. 
Before last week's election, Kelly said he would be inclined to re-join the case whether he won or lost his bid for a new term on the court.

On Wednesday, he made that clearer with a court order saying it appears he no longer has a conflict in the case. He asked those involved in the case to file briefs by next week on what they think he should do before he makes a final decision.
Now that Justice Kelly has lost his election, where his fellow conservatives tried to suppress the vote, he is more than ready to jump back into the fray to throw thousands off of the voting roll.

Just when you think Republicans can't go lower, they get out their shovels and dig deeper.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Further Proof Trump & His Team Are A Bunch Of Fucking Idiots

‘Ignorant’ Kellyanne Conway ridiculed for scientifically illiterate COVID-19 ran

Kellyanne Conway Raises Eyebrows With 'COVID-1' Remark On Fox News

Obviously they are not listening to experts, reading the news or trying to educate themselves. These are exactly the people you do not want at the helm during an emergency.

Republicans Have Spent 50 Years Building Barriers Between Voters And The Ballot Box

Bill Moyers: Republicans admit they lose when elections are fair and free
Bill’s guest in this episode is the journalist David Daley. His best-selling first book, RATF**KED-WHY YOUR VOTE DOESN’T COUNT showed how Republicans used gerrymandering to lock up control of many state and local government for years, possibly decades – and remains their strategy.


For Further Reading:
Republicans Exploit Coronavirus to Undercut Democracy in Wisconsin
How The GOP Rigs Elections
Wisconsin Gerrymandering Was Awesome
Voter suppression in Wisconsin could go nationwide in 2020
Court ignored its own rules in hearing on postponing election

The Scott Walker Economy

The Scott Walker Economy
The myth that Walker’s policies turned Wisconsin around still evokes emotional support among many ideological conservatives and is therefore dangerous. The more likely story is that Walker took power in the national recovery and rode it all the way up, yet trailed both the nation and nearby states in economic growth and job creation.

Republicans, Please, All Of You, Get Together

Kansas Republicans override Democratic governor’s stay-at-home order in brazen power grab

You know what, Republicans go ahead an get together, mingle in large groups, spread the coronavirus among yourselves and die quickly.

Republicans, I've had enough with trying to reason, be practical, or espouse the advice of medical experts to you. Like everything else in life, you all are completely selfish, stubborn, unreasonable and only care about partisanship and power. You're greedy, stupid troglodytes. 

So, go ahead, get together. But when you're sick, or your family is sick, or your friend is sick, don't you fucking dare call a doctor or go to the hospital. You're on your own. Just hunker down in that doomsday bunker of yours and die.

For Further Reading:
Republican Legislators In Kansas Overturn Governor’s Executive Order On Church Gatherings

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Dirtbags: Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald and Wisconsin Republicans

Republicans propose giving finance committee the power to cut school aid, slash spending as part of coronavirus relief bill

So after Wisconsin Republicans irresponsibly made people go to the polls to vote during a pandemic, now they are trying to use the pandemic to slash school budgets and cut state spending. Well, at least cut state spending on programs that they don't care about.

Wisconsin's number two douchebag, second only to Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald had this to say:
"For almost a month we have been at work on a bill that includes essential provisions dealing with everything from Medicaid to the first week of unemployment," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in a statement. "Millions of relief dollars are at stake for Wisconsin. Suggesting he’ll veto the full bill publicly, while privately we’re still negotiating, is irresponsible.
Um, no. Using a global pandemic to advance your partisan stranglehold and crony policies is a travesty.

Republicans want:
The power they are seeking is vast. It would allow them to reduce aid to schools, local governments and University of Wisconsin campuses. They could also scale back programs aimed at helping the poor and those who have trouble getting health-care coverage.
Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald, Wisconsin Supreme Court conservatives, and their ilk are terrible human beings. And I use the word 'human' lightly. Fuck that hazmat suit wearing dipshit and his know-nothing enablers.


Enough is enough with Republicans using the government as their personal piggy-bank to reward themselves and their cronies. Enough putting their contributors before the people they are supposed to represent. Enough with putting corporate life ahead of actual human life. 

This is no longer a spirited debate among civil, reasonably thinking people. Republicans are nothing more than apparatchiks doing the bidding of their paymasters with no concern for the citizens.

The Republican party is a joke. Individuals identifying themselves as Republicans are a joke.

For Further Reading:
Robin And Michelle Vos: The Most Dysfunctional People In Wisconsin

Monday, April 6, 2020

Please Vote Against Republicans. They Are Trying To Kill Us.

Wisconsin's Governor Tony Evers tried to do the right thing. And, as usual, Republicans did not.

In an effort to allow people more time to vote, Evers tried to extend the period for absentee ballots. You know, since we're in the midst of a pandemic and people have other things on their minds.

Wisconsin's election is still April 7, but a federal judge has extended the deadline for absentee votes to be counted

Evers tried to postpone the election until June. You know, because we're in the midst of a pandemic and it would be foolish and dangerous to go forward with an election.

But, of course, the conservative-stacked courts, at the state and federal level, denied more time for absentee ballots and overruled Evers delay of the election.

High courts block Evers on 2 fronts: Wisconsin justices overturn ban on Tuesday voting, U.S. Supreme Court restricts absentee ballots

I'm sure the Republicans, along with the court justices, that felt we could not dare delay the election, will be working at the polls tomorrow on election day. Yes, I have no doubt that these great public servants will be putting their righteous devotion to democracy above their own health and helping process the thousands of others that will be risking their own health in an attempt to vote, or work the polls, tomorrow. 

This is epic irresponsibility. Republicans should be voted out. Public servants should not be so selfish and short-sighted that they are putting the people, they claim to represent, at risk.

For Further Reading:
Wisconsin's coronavirus case total increases to 2,440, deaths surpass 80
Justice Ginsburg sends out dire warning about the new Supreme Court ruling in Wisconsin election case
Wisconsin Election Back On For Tuesday In The Middle Of Coronavirus Pandemic
The Supreme Court’s disturbing order to effectively disenfranchise thousands of Wisconsin voters
Wisconsin Republicans rebuff governor’s 11th-hour bid to delay Tuesday’s election

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Republicans, You First

Conservative pundits, and other blowhards, are pushing the idea that those that may die from coronavirus should just die and we shouldn't really worry about it because the alternative is a depressed economy.

Here's an idea - Republicans, you first. Please start doing yourselves in. Just go out behind the barn, take one of those many guns you own that you cherish so much, and end it. That will be some that the rest of us won't have to worry about.

Rush Limbaugh and Ron Johnson, why don't you two start this off.

Rush Limbaugh: Economy Being Destroyed ‘Under The Guise’ Of Saving Lives

GOP senator calls on Trump to reopen parts of the coronavirus-stricken economy because 'death is an unavoidable part of life'