Rural Denial Strikes Home

 

On a lighter note

Maybe folks weren't selfish chickens back then?

Politicians Play as US Totters

towards default and recession.  This comic is SO TRUE...

So what would happen if they fail to act like responsible adults who pay the bills they previously passed?  

I mean the GOP and Trump cut taxes, raised spending, did nothing about entitlements, handed out Trillions of dollars of bailouts, encouraged the FED to print money, etc.  Which of course increased the annual deficits...  And drove us to hit the debt ceiling even sooner...

And now the GOP politicians choose to play chicken with DEMs?

Me Me Me Me Me

Is that all people are concerned about?  I have been exchanging comments with some folks on FB who are skeptical and/or fearful of the COVID vaccines.  Some of their comments were:

• I am not scared of the vaccine.
• I am okay if I get COVID. My choice.
• I may experience long term issues from vaccine.
• I don't trust the main stream media.
• I don't trust the CDC, Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, State Reporting, etc
• I am 99.7% likely to survive COVID
• I should be free to do as I wish. Just lock up the "at risk" and elderly.
• I should get excellent healthcare no matter what choices I make.

Below are some of my responses.  I am still curious how our society became so "ME" centered ???

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 Personally I am not worried about the people who choose to remain unvaccinated. That is their choice and they will need to bear the consequences.

I am concerned that they are

- more likely to be virus carriers

- more likely to be hospitalized

- filling hospitals so they need to ration care

- torturing and burning out healthcare personnel with needless deaths

The simple reality is that COVID Delta is killing people and over whelming hospitals in the states where individuals chose to not get vaccinated. (as shown below) In fact, most of the last 100,000 dead were the unvaccinated.

Thankfully this wave seems to be cresting. Let's just hope the next one will be smaller, not bigger.

How do you think injecting a weakened or dead virus into you is going to kill people decades from now? We are exposed to viruses every day. Please explain. Thanks and stay safe. John

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If by Main Stream Media, you mean the CDC, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, State Case Reporting, etc. Then I am guilty as charged.

So would we have moved everyone with high risk factors into internment camps or something, along with everyone who was need to care for them? Somehow radiated the food and supplies that were delivered to those sites? Stopped people from visiting them? For how long?

It sounds like you support the FL method over the NY method. That test so far has cost a lot of lives. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward. (see below)

Please remember that I am an analyst, not a zealot. If people want to jump off bridges, ride motorcycles without a helmet, smoke a pack a day, drive drunk, text /drive or not get vaccinated.

I am fine with that, though I do not support other citizens suffering or dying because of those choices. In this case the non-vaccinated are still filling hospitals, exposing healthcare workers to unnecessary trauma, delaying treatments / surgeries for other citizens, subjecting their family to unnecessary trauma, etc.

Maybe unvaccinated people could sign a waiver that says "society shall not need to treat me for COVID if I start finding it hard to breathe"? Or "I will be financially liable if it is proven that I have infected others and caused their death"? Then they truly would bear the consequences of their choices.

I assume you think people should be held accountable when they choose to text/ drive or drink/drive, and harm others?

It is truly a worthy discussion to have and thank you for being so polite about it.

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What source would you recommend for the other side?

From South of the Border

 From The Real Inn Tijuana...  Yesterday I flew to San Diego, took a taxi to the border and walked across for a work trip. Now I am settled into my hotel room with this interesting view of Tijuana and the Border Wall.

Coming to Mexico was simple.  It will be interesting to see how walking back on Wednesday will be... :-O 

Maricopa Audit Results

 A Brief Summary of Reality.

And the Spin for the Crazy Person.

More rational coverage.

I am happy to hear the count was pretty gosh darned accurate.

Too bad the folks who want to undermine faith in our country and its election system seem intent on continuing their efforts. :-(

$1 BILLION for Israel Iron Dome. Really?

 What are politicians thinking?   I will never understand why the USA spends SO MUCH MONEY in Israel...  Apparently we gave them $38 BILLION in 2020... Why did we do this again?

How Are Things Going For Biden?

~8 months in...  I certainly like the fact that Biden tells the truth more often than his predecessor.

However he seems SO SCREWED...  He has:

• Progressives demanding over reach on all fronts, even though it will likely cost them the House and Senate in 2022. (ie spending, migrants, police reform, voter rights, etc)
• Republican politicians who seem happy to destroy the US economy just to make Biden look bad.  (cut off nose to spite face)
• Crazy irresponsible anti-vaxxers who seem to be happy supporting the spread of COVID and the death of their neighbors.

Oh well, the DEMs had a chance to show they could manage the country better than the GOPers...  So far it does not seem to be working out very well for them.  Oh Well...

Will GOP Wreck Economy?

By defaulting on US debts just to  make Biden look Bad?

Of course, the hypocrite GOPers never hesitated to raise the debt ceiling while Trump was President and way over spending revenues.

Now I personally would demand that the government raise taxes and cut spending to balance the budget.  Unfortunately I seem to be in a very small minority of fiscally responsible adults.  Most seem fine with living well by heaping debt on their kids.

That is a selfishness I will never understand...

SS Reduction Gets Real

People in 50's to get Less?

I keep covering this topic, so I am happy when the media does so also. :-) 

And yet the politicians and general population keep their heads in the sand. :-O 

SCOTUS Partisan or Perspective

SCOTUS Barrett      SCOTUS Breyer

Both indicate that the court is not partisan, that decision are made because of their interpretation of the Constitution and the Law.

Given that we can tell most of the time how the  court will rule by the topic.  I find this hard to believe.

Though  it is nice that sometimes 1 or 2 of the Justices still surprise us at times.  Thoughts?

COVID vs 9/11 Deaths

 Many more Americans are dying weekly from COVID, and yet many Americans refuse to cooperate with fighting this much more deadly enemy.  It confounds me as usual.

I appreciate people remembering the people who died on and after 9/11.  However, I would prefer if they would show that much concern over saving the lives of 10's of thousands of Americans today.

CDC Excess Deaths Page

"Dr" Noem?

 Thinks she knows better than the FDA. :-O

"In her order, Noem said that the FDA is expected to lift further restrictions on abortion medication beginning November 1 and argued that the move would create "unsafe conditions" and cause "potential harm to women."

It does amaze me when a person who says she believes in personal freedom, trounces on the freedom of women.  What a hypocrite....

Wrong comic...  Similar concept. :-)

Let the Law Suits Commence

Regarding Abortion Rights.  Now I really dislike abortions, but what I dislike even more are

• people who work to prevent unwanted pregnancies by fighting against providing children with a fact based and thorough sex education
• people who work to prevent unwanted pregnancies by fighting against free and readily available quality birth control for all sexually active humans
• people who believe the government should decide when abortion is the best option for a private citizen.
• people who work to fill our court systems with unnecessary and wasteful civil law suits

So needless to say, I am against this terrible anti-liberty Texas law.  Between this and the voting restriction law, I am curious if the state may turn BLUE sooner.

Of course, the reality that the Texas abortion law pretty much only punishes poor women and men goes without saying.  I mean middle and upper class women and families who have no problem affording quality birth control can also afford to travel for an abortion.  

It is only the poorest and most unqualified parents who will bring more poor struggling kids into the state.  Which seems somewhat an appropriate reward for the state for enacting such stupidity.  I mean if you did not know, the Texas foster care system is a DISASTER and the kids suffer because of it.

Remember what I always say about pro-life folks:  Pro-Life folks only support the baby until it passes the CERVIX. Then that life is not important and it is someone else's problem.

Afghanistan Opinions

Do Voters Care?  I liked the title of that piece, you know what they say about "opinions".

And I personally think the whole Afghanistan exit and the resulting Blame Game is some of the most pointless coverage I have ever watched.  Just a bunch of idiots trying score political points with someone.  Or whining about some group of people who put their head in a lion's mouth feeling the lion's teeth nicking their skin.

Here are my random thoughts:

• Yes I wish the USA would have kept a base in Afghanistan, it was a relatively minor cost to keep that region somewhat under NATO control. Now it goes back to the Taliban, ISIS K, Russia, China, etc.  And it is always beneficial to fight terrorist on their property... Not ours.
• Unfortunately most American citizens wanted out and we live in a democracy.
• Biden had the balls to just rip the band aid off, unlike some others.
• Yes I feel bad for the 13 soldiers who died, however unfortunately that happens in war zones. I also feel bad for the 150+ Afghanistan citizens who died. 
• The Afghanistan citizens that worked with US forces were critical to the US mission.
• However they were working for money and to improve their country, not sure where this the "USA owes them and their family a flight out and US citizenship" comes from?
• I mean we already paid a fortune and many American lives in attempt to help them improve their country.
• Then the hypocritical GOPers crying about the poor Afghans stuck in Afghanistan...  These are the same GOPers who have been excited to block all immigrants from Muslim countries.
• And why again is the US government responsible for "saving" US citizens who decided to vacation or work in a war zone?  I will never understand that.
• Its like when Iran arrests American hikers in their border mountains.  I am not a big fan "government" being responsible for saving idiots.

Well I am certain of one thing, the conservatives will keep taking cheap shots at Biden for doing what they did not have the spine to do.  I guess that is the name of the game.

The good news is that I am pretty sure the American's really do not care what happened in Afghanistan, as long as we are out of there.  We tend to be pretty self absorbed.

Of course I am sure the GOP will try to keep it on everyone's mind.

COVID Hospitalizations

An Interesting Map and Graph When evaluating COVID management effectiveness by State or Region, I like to use Jul2020 as a starting point.  I mean by then we all had information and COVID was starting to show up in all states.  Before that the International Travel hubs were worst hit, which makes sense and should not be held against them.  They were the canaries in the coal mine.

Another key date is Jan 2021 because vaccines became available.  Now that we have knowledge and vaccines, the people in States / Regions where the hospitals are full are just idiots and have near criminal politicians in charge. :-O  

I am happy I live in MN. :-)

Amazing that all the states with the highest hospitalizations 

per 100K are COVID deniers and obstructers :-O