Ashli Babbitt made her own bed, and now she lies six feet under it. She may have served honorably when she wore an Air Force uniform, but her life as a civillian ended dishonorably as she engaged in an ignoble act.
Mythologize her 'till the cows come home; that will not change that fact. And the money her family was awarded for a *wrongful* death settlement is a disgrace, and the military funeral honors an absolute slap in the face to the families of any and all veterans who died actually *defending* this country, not attacking it.
And I don't give a damn what she may have *thought* she was doing, because what she was doing was the absolute antithesis of what she'd sworn an oath to do when she joined the Air Force of her own free will. She was in that Capitol corridor as a part of a violent mob of her own free will as well.
She f**cked around and her family found out what the pain of losing a loved one to a violent - and needless and fully, completely preventable - death is like. And that's a terrible shame. That it was a dishonorable death as well is also a shame, but none the less true and will remain so no matter the efforts of any Trumpist military brass to change the nature of it for the sake of whitewashing dishonor borne of a veteran's misplaced belief in the lies of a scoundrel to whom the brass now answer once again.
I have argued with MAGAs ever since 1/6 about her. For the life of me, I cannot understand how they can't understand that, of course, deadly force was authorized and every single person in the chamber was in fear for their lives. Secondly, no matter how much you bring it up, they simply don't care that somehow she found herself attempting to enter a room in our Capital through a bashed out window near a barricaded door with armed police shouting for no one to attempt to enter.
It has to be a cult. Like brainwashed minions...they now simply say that Ashli Babbitt was the only person's fate that mattered above everything else that happened that day. What????
The MAGA rank and file seem to be short on critical faculties. Top-tier MAGA apologists do have critical faculties, but their ideological agenda - or what they claim to be a higher truth - takes precedence over accepting demonstrable facts.
When I saw "the intellectual case for Trump" and suchlike emerging, I recognized a kind of reverse intellectual snobbery at work. People smart enough to be able to recognize that Trump is ignorant and stupid, as well as aggressively selfish and amoral, pour great energy into sanewashing and sanitizing his words and deeds, as they fancy themselves to be wiser and more perceptive (and more deeply moral) than all his critics, and therefore able to see the virtue and genius that others fail to understand.
That's so spot on. Exploring how a MAGA thinks...is a little like watching a trainwreck that you can see coming. It's enthralling, you see the disaster heading our way, but you can't really do much about it because the forces at play seem greater than you alone can resist.
There are so many curious (to me anyway) aspects of this. 1) Our ability to see that if Obama or Hilary did or said what Trump does...they would be 180 degrees out from what they let Trump get away with 2) Perhaps more importantly....they cannot seem to see this in themselves 3) They accuse of us doing the very same thing without realizing the irony
I'll tell you straight up....that if Obama, Harris or Biden claimed they could lower or have lowered prices by 1500%...I would IMMEDIATELY question their intelligence, competence and skillset for handling the job of POTUS. If they claimed it twice (like Trump has) on completely separate occasions...then I would question the people they've surrounded themselves by who didn't feedback to them that what they're claiming is impossible.
I mean that...and I'm sure you feel the same way. I tried this argument with a MAGA friend of mine...and they simply ignore it and probably claim I'm "just saying that for the sake of winning an argument"
It's both fascinating and horrifying at the same time.
They’re like the Brownshirts who used to sing “We don’t need Jesus/ we have Horst Wessel.” They don’t need Jesus: they have Ashli Babbit dying for Dear Leader.
Five will get you ten that one of the fringe film companies will bring out a biographical movie of Babbit’s life, starring a blonde bombshell dying in the hallway as the pieta de resistance.
Those MAGA freaks support the excessive use of deadly force when the victim is a protester of GOP or conservative issues. Hypocrites all, they are the internal enemy.
It's not too surprising Babbitt turned out the way she did, because you can see it in her mother. Her mother has blamed everyone but the two people most responsible for Ashli's death: Ashli herself, and Donald Trump. Donald Trump is why she came to the Capitol, Donald Trump is why she was convinced of a stolen election, and a stolen election is why she was convinced storming the House chamber was a patriotic act on a par with Lexington and Concord.
It's the same mentality that leads to where we're headed: when the economy and stock market crash because of actual policies of the president of the United States, or when the Epstein Files are covered up, the MAGAs will look everywhere for blame but where the fault lies, and that's just the ones willing to acknowledge some semblance of reality. The rest will deny any of it is happening.
If it's not evident, in this country, we love our rebels, even if they're ones that are attempting to overthrow the United States of America. This is why, to this day, we're still celebrating Confederates who were, for all intents and purposes, traitors to the United States. So...it seems Ms. Babbitt now is lumped in with the same.
The CDC is showing us how to resist. Make them fire you. Walk out en masse and talk about why. Even the NYT can’t pretend this is normal. Some Americans will understand what danger we are in now. Others will find it harder to believe the lies about who was at fault when it all comes crashing down on us.
"We’ve been indoctrinated to believe “fascism” could never happen in America; yet here we are!"
I've been bitchin' about the refusal / reluctance of people to use the "F" word for a long time now instead of insisting on continuing to use the generic weak tea of "authoritarianism" to describe where we are. I think it's a case of them being afraid of saying it out loud because saying something "out loud" makes it *real*, so to speak, and no one wants to admit that it really *can* happen here in spite of the accumulated - and still growing - evidence right in front of them every day.
I've been trying to always use the word "dictator" or "dictatorship" because I don't think many Americans know what "authoritarian" means. They hear the word "authority" and they like the sound of it. When the main stream media uses that term, it has no negative connotation to most Americans, but MSM is too uninterested to realize their mistake. You are right, nobody should be using "authoritarian" to describe the extremes Trump and his goons are going to.
Don’t ever forget that Trump “loves the uneducated” for a reason. If American public education, particularly in red states, hadn’t been so downgraded and starved of resources, more people would have been able to see right through all this bull crap by at least 2022.
My reaction to this (and the Fed) was, pardon my French, F*** yes!
When someone much, much bigger and stronger picks on you, I think the correct answer is "You wanna go?"
You may get curbstomped, but then everyone one around you if forced to reckon with it. Or maybe, the bully is too insecure or nervous to follow through. Or sometimes when the stars align, they lose. All of these options to me are preferable to slinking off like a kicked dog.
Trump appears to be running into some difficulties with his claim of mortgage fraud against Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook. But not to worry. Everybody who’s anybody knows mortgage fraud is the least of Lisa Cook’s problems. I mean, what about her birth certificate? Has anyone seen her birth certificate? I haven’t. And why is that? Why is Lisa Cook hiding her birth certificate? Is it because she wasn’t born in the United States? Is it because she was born (gasp) in Africa? And tell me this: should someone who was born in Africa be allowed to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve? I certainly don’t think so. And then what about her university transcripts? I mean, she claims to be a university graduate. But her very own resume says she earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. Spelman College!! Not Spelman University. Spelman College!! So tell me how is she going to finagle her way out of that? Clearly, she is a bald-faced liar—and now she has been caught red-handed. Bloody red-handed. Claiming she went to university when she clearly did not. And if all that’s not enough, what about that adam’s apple? Don’t tell me you haven’t seen her adam’s apple. Look! Just take a look right there at her official photograph! Yes, yes I know Trump drew in an adam’s apple on her photograph with a Sharpie. But still, there it is. There’s no denying that she now has an adam’s apple. So, is she actually a he? Is she a tranny as well as a granny? America has a right to know these things, don’t you agree? This is serious business, this business of who sits on the board of the Federal Reserve. And Lisa Cook obviously needs to resign her seat while this very very serious investigation of her proceeds. That’s what Trump believes is best for the country. And if Trump believes something, shouldn’t we all believe it? Of course we should—unless we don’t want to suffer the same fate as Lisa Cook. Unless we don’t want the lies and liars to get away with all their lies. Unless we are not willing to accept Trump’s Sharpie as a weapon of mass destruction. Unless, God forbid, we no longer want to live in a free country.
I'd say we forgot Trumpism began with birtherism, but I've seen so few people even clock that in the first place. We didn't forget so much as refuse to admit it.
As a real estate attorney, I've explained this elsewhere. The mortgage fraud they're claiming is known as "occupancy fraud." When a person takes out a mortgage, if they're going to be living on the property, they sign an occupancy affidavit saying they intend to move into the property in 60 days. That gives them a better interest rate on their mortgage. If that person later gets another job and moves out of state - say a person getting a job in Washington, DC in an elected or appointed position, that person can buy a house there and execute an occupancy affidavit if they intend to live there and they are buying the house with a mortgage. Regarding the first house, the person, if they keep it, is not required to refinance because they no longer live there. The mortgage company can't make them sell the property or refinance to an investment (higher rate) mortgage because they no longer live there. The person has done NOTHING illegal.
Thank you for this, for your clear-eyed explanation and clarification. So, Trump is not only fraudulent in his actions, he is fraudulent in his accusations. No surprise. His gains are all ill-gotten, his brains are mush, his trains don’t run on time, but he surely knows how to ruin lives, innocent lives. With any luck, there’s a special place in Hell waiting for him.
Happy too. Very proud to tell you I was a roads scholar at Trump University, with a minor in major highway deconstruction and some credits in the dead end study of cul-de-sacs.
RFK, who has no nursing or medical education, training or experience, claims that he can diagnose mitochondrial defects in children simply through observation of them. Although, I have no medical education, I was once licensed as a nurse. My observation of RFK, including his actions and voice, tell me that he exhibits most signs and symptoms of anabolic and androgenic steroid abuse. I am also willing to bet that his gonads are the size of peanuts. Abuse of these steroids is illegal in most jurisdictions because they are known to cause serious mental health problems in adults including aggression, psychosis, anxiety and depression. AAS abusers also often suffer from hoarseness. They are also known to have a fascination with road kill such as bear cubs and beached whales. So, vaccinations are bad and roids are good? Use of roids is illegal unless one has a prescription. They are Class III controlled substances in most places due to the dangers presented by their use. He will soon melt down and go "postal".
Is that why they want FDA to release medications to the market without testing so that they can legalize Anabolic and Androgenic Steroids? Let patients use drugs and decide for themselves if they are any good.
None of this makes any sense, Mr Kennedy was making a good living on litigation against drug companies that did not advise pts of the risks. Now he wants to remove the laws that would protect patients getting that information?
Please tell me, when we flip the house and senate will we be able to fire any cabinet members that are this dangerous?
I went to nursing school rather than medical school. They are different programs with different skills. I became a lawyer and practiced trial advocacy for 40 years, so I can tell you that nursing is more difficult but not as well compensated.
I see. Though as someone who has herself worked in the medical field (as a social worker) I would argue that nursing school most definately qualifies as a type of medical training. I was really thrown off by the thought that people in some places could get their nursing license with, as you phrased it, "no medical training"!
I didn't want anyone to think that I am a doctor of medicine. I have a great deal of respect for nurses, and I have seen experienced nurses make a diagnosis before a doctor of medicine, particularly in the field of mental health.
Just say you're a nurse and everyone understands the difference and wouldn't confuse an LPN/BSN with an MD.
Meanwhile, thanks for the education on RFK's voice. I'd certainly suspected something was up due to his physique, but didn't understand the impacts on people's voice as a result of such steroid use.
“Distrust in the CDC is not because of Secretary Kennedy or President Trump,” MAHA influencer and Kennedy adviser Calley Means wrote yesterday.”
This is untrue. If you MAHA types want to ignore vaccines, there is nothing that I can do about it. But where do you get off telling me that *I* can’t get one? The problem with these people is that for no discernible reason, they think that they are right. If you want proof that MAGA is a cult, look no further than the fact that they are blithely ignoring decades of science and are listening to people with no credibility outside of social media.
If they want to be ignorant fools, fine. But stop trying to drag the rest of us down to your level. Go chew on some crayons.
Hey, don't tell me to wear a mask, but I'm sure going to decide to tell you you cannot get the shingles vax.
They're stupid and they know it. This is all a move on their part to bring people down to their level in an effort to keep the playing field level. It's much more even odds that way.
Trump also plays a version of that game...he likes to blow things up...and then everybody has to start over and he's in position of power to take advantage of it.
MAGA is certainly a cult and all signs lead to that obvious conclusion--more than that it's a death cult. People continue flying their Trump flags for decades. The cultists are all looking forward to dying for their cult leader; along the way, they want to sacrifice all of the rest of us, too. There are protests planned for labor day--be there, they are important even if they don't seem that way.
With regard to Lisa Cook and alleged mortgage fraud, why hasn't anyone in the MSM pointed out the delicious irony that Trump was actually convicted of the mother of all mortgage frauds (loan frauds but the same thing) in aggrandizing the value of his properties?
Seems like that puts his accusations in perspective.
Exactly what i was thinking.... How ironic. What's a little real-estate fraud among friends. I would have thought that it might endear her to him. But then again there is that whole race thing. Caught being female and black. Can't have that.
I'm told that with hard work and dedication comes set backs but i did not realize we could be set back so far.
The Media is derelict in their duties - why in a Trump presser has no one contradicted any of his lies? They don't want to lose precious access, is why. Shameful.
Also, fear of losing access is the only possible explanation for the MSM's complete silence on Trump's health. Someone made the threat: "Give this story oxygen and you're dead to us forever!"
Experts must always be perfect and are discredited if wrong is an insane standard. People who don’t understand science continue to believe that science is static. The real power of science is the ability to change based on new evidence.
This principle applies to Trump as well. On FB, his supporters will question every single fact that an anti-Trump will bring up...making it seem like you can't be wrong on a single thing, while they will blow off Trump's claim of having reduced prescription drug prices by 1500% and saying that he doesn't have to be perfect because of all of the great other policies and things he says.
There are people who get paid to write articles showing how the experts were not quite accurate in some prediction, but the professional critics can be far more wildly wrong in their own predictions and it's simply forgotten. They've moved on to new targets.
Yeah, that's basically right. I've seen this countless times at work, where people with little to no subject matter expertise are allowed to question/derail/override the work of experts, even when the same acknowledge they don't know much about what they're talking about and feel it best left to those who know. "I'm just asking questions!"
This must be some sort of herd mentality at play. For example, if any zebra brays about a seeing a lion, it's treated as a threat. The heard isn't sitting around thinking, "That's Bob, she wouldn't know a lion if it bit her on the ass. I only move when one of the expert lion watches tells me to run."
And new technology to detect that evidence. When any new strain is discovered, any new mutation occurs, more effective drugs are developed, side effects of current drugs are discovered, there is no end to it. Unless you are cured you are always going to have to look for the most recent findings, treatments, management strategies.
sorry to also disagree with the assumption that most people are dumber " are not interested in understanding" -- vs not taking their time/ effort/ more than what they invest in all the chaotic scary newses - MSM & here also-
they - we - too may be as Sarah emphasized - so word is now repeatable endlessly here again: are "exhausted" ...
so do not do further searches...
& do not read / see/ listen to even More -
that is threatening, intimidating, scary and not wanted -
cuz it's become endless repeated warnings!!!- #$&*T^%*-
to instead just continue to do the basic essentials needed -
of course, admitting again -tho sadly, scarily too- the greatest majority of: 'all the rest of us' TAPs -have No Controls over anything happening - in govt, in corporate machinations, with auto robots [if ever try to call any 'customer non-service' #s or
try to transact off line in PO mail or phone instead]...etc. etc.
does this sound: jaded? tired? futile ? giving Up ? or just surfing this wave too... as we've done before to get here? cuz this also is called: being observant and alert but not emotionally reacting -
we let the Bulwark Substack podsters do it for us.
I don't know. A good fantasy can make life, at least momentarily, more bearable. Any why not? Brain-worm, AAS abuser, see above, delusions of grandeur (I know, that is required to be in the orbit of the Felon).
When I heard the news about Ashley Babbitt my stomach twisted into knots and I immediately thought of Michael Fanone. I honestly don't know how he stays sane. The injustice is off the charts.
It was only a matter of time: first she was pardoned posthumously. Then she received $5 million as part of a wrongful death settlement; even though she stormed the Capitol, kicking her way into the House Chamber. And now she’s getting a military funeral with honors.
I can’t wait for MAGA to honor her with a statue, liking her to Joan of Arc. Perhaps Hegseth can display it right next to his portrait of Robert E Lee in a Confederate uniform.
It's all an obvious attempt at the white-washing of 1/6. The strong consensus of history will be that 1/6 was an attempt to thwart a free & fair election where Biden won.
Of course, Trump's so beyond disordered that he can't handle the truth, and the MAGA go along w his delusions. So history will be a win for the political sane, but in the meantime they (& we) suffer.
RFK fits a perfectly in this administration. Crazy…yep. Total disregard for legitimate expertise. Check. Willing to make up new, baseless claims on the fly. Bingo.
But, but didn't Chris Pratt defend Bobby?! Didn't he say he was a charming friendly guy at Kennedy family get-togethers and why is everybody being so mean? I mean he fought off scary hybrid dinosaurs, didn't he, so we should listen to him.
Yes, sadly she has tried, but has also alienated most of her friends in Hollywood. Every time she seems to make progress defending him, he does something even more egregious, so it's one step forward, 2 steps back.
When you know that your spouse will ultimately be responsible for the deaths of babies, young children, and the elderly, how do you continue to support them? You don't. You cut your losses and leave them. Join the fight and provide the inside truth and proof that will stop him.
Love is blind, and one can overlook a lot when lonely and needy. I think there was plenty of evidence when she committed to this marriage showing what a devious, philandering, controlling, egomaniacal whack job RFK Jr was and is. Forget the dead whale and the bear carcass; just consider what happened with his first wife for starters. Kind of parallels Andrew Cuomo, in a way.
I get that people are frustrated at the CDC, although a lot of the complaints are shallow and misinformed. But the most bat-shit crazy thing is the claim that millions of people have died from the COVID-19 vaccine. Of course, it is BS
But still, some people believe this insanity! I met one such person at a party last year, an educated man, airline plane pilot, engineer (he left before we had enough time to talk more). RFK Jr, or Jay Bhattacharya (director of NIH) or Martin A Makary (director of FDA) have not quite stated this explicitly but they are surfing on the underlying conspiracy to make unjustified criticism of mRNA technology.
In the end, the theory that people will learn their lesson if you tell them that they will burn themselves if they touch the hot stove seems to fail. More people died in Republicans states because they were not vaccinated, and still, they are blinded by their rage and mistrust, denying the plain reality. I am scientist, and I though that dying, as an empirical fact, was a pretty compelling piece of information. Yet, it is pushed aside. What is the next thing, denying the effect of gravity?
We are in Jonestown, stuck in the jungle with the crazies. They are mixing the cyanide with the kool-aid now. What are you going to do? Fight them with all you've got? Try to run away?
I had a guy I've known for 30 years, share a link with a group of us buddies during COVID, that was of an interview between a show host and a lawyer, both of were complete unknowns to me. The lawyer was claiming that he represented a whistleblower from one of the pharma companies making the COVID vaccine. The whistleblower claimed that the pharma was intentionally creating the vaccine to kill people and the justification was something about eliminating witnesses or something. I don't remember exactly the reasoning, but it didn't make sense to me at the time and I do remember questioning him (the guy who shared the link) about a company making a product that kills its consumers. Seemed like a bad business model.
In retrospect and over time...one of the things that maybe is more concerning/baffling than him believing this and sharing it with others...was that....out of the 6 people on the e-mail...I was the ONLY one who pushed back and said something about it.
Silence, these days especially, sure gives off a feeling of, at a minimum, that maybe THEY'RE right or have an opinion to be thoughtfully considered. I don't believe we're in the position of being to afford this much longer. People need to start speaking up before it will be illegal to do so.
Lately I have been reaching out to people I know and trust to talk a bit about what is going on. One person has decided to pigeonhole their angst and upset and focus on what is happening in Gaza. I tried to get them to zoom out but they couldn't.
Another person has decided to stay out of politics entirely. They do not see a way forward. They are fed up with the world and do not see a way forward. They are all criminal no sense in supporting one over the other. They are struggling to make sense of their world locally and just trying to keep things going at home.
There are a great number of people who cannot bear the constant harassment of listening and thinking about 'this stuff'. They have lives to live or so they tell me.
I do too. I have a life to live, and it includes trying to make this a better place. When I see things heading in the wrong direction, I feel compelled to tell people, 'danger ahead' 'pothole' 'elevator's broken' 'that milk is expired' 'there is a lunatic in the white house'. You know just reaching out for each other.
Anyway I hope enough of us get it together and get as many of our friends together to vote and fight for what is right and fair and safe and gets that lunatic out of the white house or at least contains him in a rubber room. they have to have one of those there right? I mean the white house has everything.
Your post was both depressing and inspiring. The people choosing to opt out when we need them the most is depressing, the fact there are people like you prioritizing how bad this is and speaking out is inspiring. Thank you.
I don't know about you, but the weird thing is that before Trump, I was politically knowledgeable, but didn't speak out much. Trump changed EVERYTHING for me.
Same here, always politically knowledgeable, but this has been the impetus of shouting out in pain. I blame the younger generation for not having it as rough, not living without the adversity that many of us in the older generation have firsthand knowledge of. They do not know how free they really are. Although, I will say this, we were a lot freer in that as children, we enjoyed the ability to be gone all day, travel and meet new people in ways today’s youth will only experience on the other side of the cell phone screen.
That is not a before and then after tyrant effect. That I attribute to the slow erosion of community, a turn inwards, isolation. If we had corrected for that and really became accepting of the changing complexions of our neighbors, we would not be where we are right now.
But you can't fight using rational arguments. You have to make people feel how they are being exploited. Trump has made $3 Billion for himself while in office. How much have they made? How much are they willing to pay for healthcare and then find the hospitals are closed or understaffed. How much is the trade war with Canada and Mexico helping the economy of those neighboring states? Can anyone afford to eat in a restaurant? Wait until the next hurricane or flood and see who shows up to help.
Vote them out. Start locally. Preserve your right and the rights of all Americans to vote. Take control and move them out. Expose the hypocracy. Punish them when you can. Run them out of town and seize their assets before they leave town.
I know a guy who refused to get the vaccine, got very sick and was hospitalized. Afterwards all he did was complain that no one would give him ivermectin. These people are nuts.
Bill made Trump sound a little too lucid, but his point about RFKJr consuming too much media oxygen is spot on. Plus, we know most of the non MAHA Trumpers are getting their vaccinations and want to continue to get them.
I remember that he got the vaccine, he told his magats it was safe , but they were not having it. he and his band of sycophants spent too much time and money sowing lies, disinformation, crap about COVID and the vaccines.
Andrew: "In any head-to-head comparison, you’d have to be a maniac to take the latter over the former."
If the goal is to burn the country down to the ground, then RFK Jr. is your guy. Whether or not the person making that choice is a maniac depends on your point of view. JVL's observation aside on the clever mind trick populists use, the voters consciously put us in this predicament last November. They should not be protected from the consequences of their vote.
Some of you know that my son was hospitalized for a while with myocarditis at the beginning of the COVID epidemic, before vaccines had been developed, and suffers long COVID. I hate these people with the power of a thousand suns. They are trying to kill children. The danger of myocarditis is not from the vaccine, it's from the virus, which would make sense to these idiots if they understood the slightest thing about medicine. But all they see are fame and dollar signs. And I don't see anyone following the money. RKF Jr's entire income stream is based on denying vaccines. https://www.statnews.com/2024/12/03/rfk-jr-maha-pay-vaccine-group-childrens-health-defense/
People who support RFK Jr. think that their crazy pontificating is just a game. They're vaccinated, after all. I wish I could say their children are vaccinated like Bill does, but I stopped even having that much faith in these amoral black souls. They're vaccinated - their kids are probably on their own.
Also, forcing kids to drink fluoride and families having less children are among the most important public achievements in modern history. Come at me, reactionaries. You know I'm right.
Fluoride in water costs almost nothing, and saves considerable pain and dental bills. You'd think the people obsessed with government efficiency would be all for it.
It also prevents dangerous infections in the mouth, which is right next to the brain. It's not just dental bills. Municipalities that use fluoride reduce pediatric hospitalizations for disseminated infections.
I've designed multiple fluoride feed facilities, and extensively read the AWWA fluoridation manual. I'm very familiar with the dental and bone health impacts of fluoride. I never heard the infection angle. Thank you for the cool new info!
Beats me on this. After WWII, Holyoke and Longmeadow Massachusetts started fluoridating their water. Both were affluent communities then. Holyoke declined in later years and is a poor city. The city could not possibly afford to treat its water today. Their children do not have cavities. Their adults do not have cavities. Over 80 years, no problems with fluoridating water in either community.
I'm so jealous. I grew up without fluoridated water and my teeth have cost me more money over my lifetime than clothing and food combined, probably. But genetics is mostly to blame!
Genetics helped me, but going to an inferior dentist while growing up, and not doing what I should when I was young, I paid a price as you did. Wish I had fluoridated water as a kid. Didn’t know it existed then.
AWWA M4 says the history of artificial fluoridation started in Colorado Springs in 1908 when Dr McKay noticed excessive mottling of teeth. He also noticed particularly strong teeth. Other folks noticed similar things and off we went. The first municipal fluoridation was in Grand Rapids, MI in 1945.
Here's the thing. Some people are hypersensitive to fluoride and get tooth mottling or skeletal fluorosis at the recommended concentration.
When I grew up, my water company (Philadelphia Suburban Water Co) didn't fluoridate. My sister and I took supplement pills every day. Those work, too but fluoridation in water is cheaper and available to everyone.
Sort of like in the Mafia, no one was supposed to use drugs in the upper levels of the mob. And the people whose companies made cigarettes did not smoke cigarettes. Of course these fools are vaccinated as are their children. But if their base realizes that, the base moves on to the next fool who will tell them what they want to hear.
One of the unforeseen future dangers (among many) is that when the next public health crisis arrives, whether a pandemic or a deliberate biological threat, what experts will volunteer to jump in and help this wrong-headed and fairly vindictive crew? Very few, if any, is my guess. I’m sure there’s an old fable out there that explains this serious risk.
My daughter is just starting her career as a teacher after being a special ed aide for years. I asked her to please run a personal role-play, of quitting her new job early in the next health crisis, because they will force schools to stay open, and probably disallow masks.
There will be no “hero” status for the fallen . . . unlike Ashley Babbit.
And if you’re female, under Texas’s new exploration of banning mailed abortion pills as they expand their anti-woman arsenal of laws via tattling meddling neighbors, forced physical exams coming soon! Oh, the “freedom”!
Oh, personal never gets to mean private! It just means you're solely responsible for the bill as opposed to any public support. No, you have no privacy in fascism, unless you're one of the "two legs good" instead of the "four legs bad" members of the animal farm.
Oh well said, Kate! “No Privacy in Fascism!” fits on a hat. Shall we stick with red hats? It matches blood . . . so, yeah. But I could go with black hats; matches darkness.
The problem with vaccines (and meds in general) is that it helps most people in the same way. Cures are to cheap and easy to get. This means, from a eugenics point of view, too many people with "flaws" are surviving too long. They're a burden on society and take up too much land/time/resources/money.
Oh, the rich folks will still get access to vaccines (even if not here). This dislike that anyone, including the rabble, can get them. It chafes the rich and powerful that the peons have access to much of the same things they have, because if everyone has access to them, then these things are not special...including vaccines.
Shix...I'm envisioning a role play of students dying by the 1000's from the measles and RFK jr and Trump joining in a Warp Speed 2.0 endeavor to invent a vaccine...
Remember when Running with Scissors was all we had to worry about? We clapped erasers on the school walls. Had windows that could open. Milk delivered to the classroom.
Ashli Babbitt made her own bed, and now she lies six feet under it. She may have served honorably when she wore an Air Force uniform, but her life as a civillian ended dishonorably as she engaged in an ignoble act.
Mythologize her 'till the cows come home; that will not change that fact. And the money her family was awarded for a *wrongful* death settlement is a disgrace, and the military funeral honors an absolute slap in the face to the families of any and all veterans who died actually *defending* this country, not attacking it.
And I don't give a damn what she may have *thought* she was doing, because what she was doing was the absolute antithesis of what she'd sworn an oath to do when she joined the Air Force of her own free will. She was in that Capitol corridor as a part of a violent mob of her own free will as well.
She f**cked around and her family found out what the pain of losing a loved one to a violent - and needless and fully, completely preventable - death is like. And that's a terrible shame. That it was a dishonorable death as well is also a shame, but none the less true and will remain so no matter the efforts of any Trumpist military brass to change the nature of it for the sake of whitewashing dishonor borne of a veteran's misplaced belief in the lies of a scoundrel to whom the brass now answer once again.
I have argued with MAGAs ever since 1/6 about her. For the life of me, I cannot understand how they can't understand that, of course, deadly force was authorized and every single person in the chamber was in fear for their lives. Secondly, no matter how much you bring it up, they simply don't care that somehow she found herself attempting to enter a room in our Capital through a bashed out window near a barricaded door with armed police shouting for no one to attempt to enter.
It has to be a cult. Like brainwashed minions...they now simply say that Ashli Babbitt was the only person's fate that mattered above everything else that happened that day. What????
The MAGA rank and file seem to be short on critical faculties. Top-tier MAGA apologists do have critical faculties, but their ideological agenda - or what they claim to be a higher truth - takes precedence over accepting demonstrable facts.
When I saw "the intellectual case for Trump" and suchlike emerging, I recognized a kind of reverse intellectual snobbery at work. People smart enough to be able to recognize that Trump is ignorant and stupid, as well as aggressively selfish and amoral, pour great energy into sanewashing and sanitizing his words and deeds, as they fancy themselves to be wiser and more perceptive (and more deeply moral) than all his critics, and therefore able to see the virtue and genius that others fail to understand.
That's so spot on. Exploring how a MAGA thinks...is a little like watching a trainwreck that you can see coming. It's enthralling, you see the disaster heading our way, but you can't really do much about it because the forces at play seem greater than you alone can resist.
There are so many curious (to me anyway) aspects of this. 1) Our ability to see that if Obama or Hilary did or said what Trump does...they would be 180 degrees out from what they let Trump get away with 2) Perhaps more importantly....they cannot seem to see this in themselves 3) They accuse of us doing the very same thing without realizing the irony
I'll tell you straight up....that if Obama, Harris or Biden claimed they could lower or have lowered prices by 1500%...I would IMMEDIATELY question their intelligence, competence and skillset for handling the job of POTUS. If they claimed it twice (like Trump has) on completely separate occasions...then I would question the people they've surrounded themselves by who didn't feedback to them that what they're claiming is impossible.
I mean that...and I'm sure you feel the same way. I tried this argument with a MAGA friend of mine...and they simply ignore it and probably claim I'm "just saying that for the sake of winning an argument"
It's both fascinating and horrifying at the same time.
That's true sadly.
I'd guess most of the MAGA's you argue with just happen to be deeply religious.
They’re like the Brownshirts who used to sing “We don’t need Jesus/ we have Horst Wessel.” They don’t need Jesus: they have Ashli Babbit dying for Dear Leader.
Dude...10 likes for that reference. I don't think I knew about this...thanks for sharing it. Super appropriate for Babbit.
Thanks! You made my day. 😀
The fact that MAGA literally has a Horst Wessel is just a little too on the nose. Like are we being punked?
Five will get you ten that one of the fringe film companies will bring out a biographical movie of Babbit’s life, starring a blonde bombshell dying in the hallway as the pieta de resistance.
Depending upon the perspective...I might be prone to call it "shallowly" religious.
Perhaps superficially?
Yes! Better term!
Thanks.🍻
Fair enough.
But are they? Maybe they are just hypocrites.
Damn…hadn't thought of that.
I’ve noticed that myself.
The video of her is haunting. She looks like a crazed zombie from the Walking Dead.
Looks like the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree either, considering Babbit’s mom wants to lynch Michael Bird and Speaker Pelosi.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ashli-babbitts-mom-cant-stop-fantasizing
Looks like the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree either, considering Babbit’s mom wants to lynch Michael Bird and Speaker Pelosi.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ashli-babbitts-mom-cant-stop-fantasizing
I fear the icing on Trump's cake will be when he posthumously awards her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Bank it !
Those MAGA freaks support the excessive use of deadly force when the victim is a protester of GOP or conservative issues. Hypocrites all, they are the internal enemy.
It's not too surprising Babbitt turned out the way she did, because you can see it in her mother. Her mother has blamed everyone but the two people most responsible for Ashli's death: Ashli herself, and Donald Trump. Donald Trump is why she came to the Capitol, Donald Trump is why she was convinced of a stolen election, and a stolen election is why she was convinced storming the House chamber was a patriotic act on a par with Lexington and Concord.
It's the same mentality that leads to where we're headed: when the economy and stock market crash because of actual policies of the president of the United States, or when the Epstein Files are covered up, the MAGAs will look everywhere for blame but where the fault lies, and that's just the ones willing to acknowledge some semblance of reality. The rest will deny any of it is happening.
To be sure, MAGA's M.O. has always been to assign blame to anyone but themselves for any and every problem that might arise.
If it's not evident, in this country, we love our rebels, even if they're ones that are attempting to overthrow the United States of America. This is why, to this day, we're still celebrating Confederates who were, for all intents and purposes, traitors to the United States. So...it seems Ms. Babbitt now is lumped in with the same.
The veneration of Babbitt does strongly remind me of Confederates publicly honored with statues.
Yup.
Someday when this whole lunacy is over and Trump has gone to his reward to toast hot dogs they should dig up Benedict Arnold and bury him beside her.
Which "him", or do you mean a Threesome in Hell?
Arnold. They can cremate Trump and sprinkle him at the Doonbeg golf course (get him out of the country!).
When it’s over? I’m not that confident.
It may not be over after this 4 year term (Hitler was in power for 12 years), but it will be over someday.
That military funeral thing sickened me. Truly sickened me.
The worst part is that none of this is really about Babbitt. She's just a spectacularly convenient instrument to be applied in rewriting history.
It is impossible for me to draw any moral distinction whatsoever between Ashli Babbitt and Mohamed Atta.
Just ash for Ashli !!!!
The CDC is showing us how to resist. Make them fire you. Walk out en masse and talk about why. Even the NYT can’t pretend this is normal. Some Americans will understand what danger we are in now. Others will find it harder to believe the lies about who was at fault when it all comes crashing down on us.
I think the big issue is “normalcy bias.” We’ve been indoctrinated to believe “fascism” could never happen in America; yet here we are!
And apparently, everyone has still in shock to act. We better wake up soon because all those dreams are slowly turning into nightmares! IMHO…:)
RE: "normalcy bias"
100% agree!
"We’ve been indoctrinated to believe “fascism” could never happen in America; yet here we are!"
I've been bitchin' about the refusal / reluctance of people to use the "F" word for a long time now instead of insisting on continuing to use the generic weak tea of "authoritarianism" to describe where we are. I think it's a case of them being afraid of saying it out loud because saying something "out loud" makes it *real*, so to speak, and no one wants to admit that it really *can* happen here in spite of the accumulated - and still growing - evidence right in front of them every day.
I've been trying to always use the word "dictator" or "dictatorship" because I don't think many Americans know what "authoritarian" means. They hear the word "authority" and they like the sound of it. When the main stream media uses that term, it has no negative connotation to most Americans, but MSM is too uninterested to realize their mistake. You are right, nobody should be using "authoritarian" to describe the extremes Trump and his goons are going to.
Don’t ever forget that Trump “loves the uneducated” for a reason. If American public education, particularly in red states, hadn’t been so downgraded and starved of resources, more people would have been able to see right through all this bull crap by at least 2022.
Very interesting point. Something for Sarah Longwell's focus groups.
Agreed and well said…:)
My reaction to this (and the Fed) was, pardon my French, F*** yes!
When someone much, much bigger and stronger picks on you, I think the correct answer is "You wanna go?"
You may get curbstomped, but then everyone one around you if forced to reckon with it. Or maybe, the bully is too insecure or nervous to follow through. Or sometimes when the stars align, they lose. All of these options to me are preferable to slinking off like a kicked dog.
Make them fire you? The 4 department heads resigned—they were not fired.
I was talkin about the CDC head, Susan…. The others resigned in solidarity, in my opinion.
Trump appears to be running into some difficulties with his claim of mortgage fraud against Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook. But not to worry. Everybody who’s anybody knows mortgage fraud is the least of Lisa Cook’s problems. I mean, what about her birth certificate? Has anyone seen her birth certificate? I haven’t. And why is that? Why is Lisa Cook hiding her birth certificate? Is it because she wasn’t born in the United States? Is it because she was born (gasp) in Africa? And tell me this: should someone who was born in Africa be allowed to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve? I certainly don’t think so. And then what about her university transcripts? I mean, she claims to be a university graduate. But her very own resume says she earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. Spelman College!! Not Spelman University. Spelman College!! So tell me how is she going to finagle her way out of that? Clearly, she is a bald-faced liar—and now she has been caught red-handed. Bloody red-handed. Claiming she went to university when she clearly did not. And if all that’s not enough, what about that adam’s apple? Don’t tell me you haven’t seen her adam’s apple. Look! Just take a look right there at her official photograph! Yes, yes I know Trump drew in an adam’s apple on her photograph with a Sharpie. But still, there it is. There’s no denying that she now has an adam’s apple. So, is she actually a he? Is she a tranny as well as a granny? America has a right to know these things, don’t you agree? This is serious business, this business of who sits on the board of the Federal Reserve. And Lisa Cook obviously needs to resign her seat while this very very serious investigation of her proceeds. That’s what Trump believes is best for the country. And if Trump believes something, shouldn’t we all believe it? Of course we should—unless we don’t want to suffer the same fate as Lisa Cook. Unless we don’t want the lies and liars to get away with all their lies. Unless we are not willing to accept Trump’s Sharpie as a weapon of mass destruction. Unless, God forbid, we no longer want to live in a free country.
I'd say we forgot Trumpism began with birtherism, but I've seen so few people even clock that in the first place. We didn't forget so much as refuse to admit it.
Obama redux, if you have the stomach like Brett Lewis to regurgitate it.
I’m sure Andy Borowitz will be impressed with your sarcasm and sense of humor. It is often more effective than facts and data.
Here’s a sad fact: If recent history is any guide, ultimately Trump will get his way. Which means Lisa is cooked—and all the rest of us too.
You could get a job at fox in two seconds :D
I don’t know about that. But I’m pretty sure I would get thrown out of the building in two seconds. Or less.
Perhaps you can be the MAGA Stephen Colbert during his Comedy Channel days.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a real estate attorney, I've explained this elsewhere. The mortgage fraud they're claiming is known as "occupancy fraud." When a person takes out a mortgage, if they're going to be living on the property, they sign an occupancy affidavit saying they intend to move into the property in 60 days. That gives them a better interest rate on their mortgage. If that person later gets another job and moves out of state - say a person getting a job in Washington, DC in an elected or appointed position, that person can buy a house there and execute an occupancy affidavit if they intend to live there and they are buying the house with a mortgage. Regarding the first house, the person, if they keep it, is not required to refinance because they no longer live there. The mortgage company can't make them sell the property or refinance to an investment (higher rate) mortgage because they no longer live there. The person has done NOTHING illegal.
Thank you for this, for your clear-eyed explanation and clarification. So, Trump is not only fraudulent in his actions, he is fraudulent in his accusations. No surprise. His gains are all ill-gotten, his brains are mush, his trains don’t run on time, but he surely knows how to ruin lives, innocent lives. With any luck, there’s a special place in Hell waiting for him.
Damn. You almost had me thinking that I was reading a MAGAt post.
No worries. Not possible. I am a college graduate. And a university graduate, too!
I have met MAGA post graduate and PhD. Sad!
Are you sure? Show us your papers! /s
Happy too. Very proud to tell you I was a roads scholar at Trump University, with a minor in major highway deconstruction and some credits in the dead end study of cul-de-sacs.
lol 😺
Oh so good! You pass!
Oh, shit. Now I'm *really* worried! :-)
RFK, who has no nursing or medical education, training or experience, claims that he can diagnose mitochondrial defects in children simply through observation of them. Although, I have no medical education, I was once licensed as a nurse. My observation of RFK, including his actions and voice, tell me that he exhibits most signs and symptoms of anabolic and androgenic steroid abuse. I am also willing to bet that his gonads are the size of peanuts. Abuse of these steroids is illegal in most jurisdictions because they are known to cause serious mental health problems in adults including aggression, psychosis, anxiety and depression. AAS abusers also often suffer from hoarseness. They are also known to have a fascination with road kill such as bear cubs and beached whales. So, vaccinations are bad and roids are good? Use of roids is illegal unless one has a prescription. They are Class III controlled substances in most places due to the dangers presented by their use. He will soon melt down and go "postal".
Nicely done!
Is that why they want FDA to release medications to the market without testing so that they can legalize Anabolic and Androgenic Steroids? Let patients use drugs and decide for themselves if they are any good.
None of this makes any sense, Mr Kennedy was making a good living on litigation against drug companies that did not advise pts of the risks. Now he wants to remove the laws that would protect patients getting that information?
Please tell me, when we flip the house and senate will we be able to fire any cabinet members that are this dangerous?
Only the president may fire members of his cabinet, so the answer is that the Senate does not get another bite at the apple.
This is off topic but I'm curious how one gets licensed as a nurse with no medical training?
I went to nursing school rather than medical school. They are different programs with different skills. I became a lawyer and practiced trial advocacy for 40 years, so I can tell you that nursing is more difficult but not as well compensated.
I see. Though as someone who has herself worked in the medical field (as a social worker) I would argue that nursing school most definately qualifies as a type of medical training. I was really thrown off by the thought that people in some places could get their nursing license with, as you phrased it, "no medical training"!
I didn't want anyone to think that I am a doctor of medicine. I have a great deal of respect for nurses, and I have seen experienced nurses make a diagnosis before a doctor of medicine, particularly in the field of mental health.
Just say you're a nurse and everyone understands the difference and wouldn't confuse an LPN/BSN with an MD.
Meanwhile, thanks for the education on RFK's voice. I'd certainly suspected something was up due to his physique, but didn't understand the impacts on people's voice as a result of such steroid use.
what about his face....his skin is atrocious looking . he looks like he's been ridden hard and put away wet ! ( one of my dad's favorites )
Exactly
To say nurses have "no medical training" is extremely, inexplicably misleading!
Apparently Larry David shoulders much of the blame for getting them together....much to his regret.
Can it be Tuesday? Little news happens on Tuesday.
“Distrust in the CDC is not because of Secretary Kennedy or President Trump,” MAHA influencer and Kennedy adviser Calley Means wrote yesterday.”
This is untrue. If you MAHA types want to ignore vaccines, there is nothing that I can do about it. But where do you get off telling me that *I* can’t get one? The problem with these people is that for no discernible reason, they think that they are right. If you want proof that MAGA is a cult, look no further than the fact that they are blithely ignoring decades of science and are listening to people with no credibility outside of social media.
If they want to be ignorant fools, fine. But stop trying to drag the rest of us down to your level. Go chew on some crayons.
Sort of like Superman...the MAGA will leap over gigantic piles of evidence in a single bound to find the conspiracy theory they prefer to believe.
Hey, what did Clark Kent ever do to you to deserve that analogy???
LOL...I figured if there are broad shoulders that could handle it....he'd have them!
Actually, with his super powers he did not need that kind of build 😏.
Hey, don't tell me to wear a mask, but I'm sure going to decide to tell you you cannot get the shingles vax.
They're stupid and they know it. This is all a move on their part to bring people down to their level in an effort to keep the playing field level. It's much more even odds that way.
Trump also plays a version of that game...he likes to blow things up...and then everybody has to start over and he's in position of power to take advantage of it.
Oh, absolutely. It's the equivalent of a land grab after a disaster. With Trump, he's been granted the power to create the disaster.
MAGA is certainly a cult and all signs lead to that obvious conclusion--more than that it's a death cult. People continue flying their Trump flags for decades. The cultists are all looking forward to dying for their cult leader; along the way, they want to sacrifice all of the rest of us, too. There are protests planned for labor day--be there, they are important even if they don't seem that way.
you write "The problem with these people is that for no discernible reason, they think that they are right" -
have you not seen DT's red cap bragging about 'TRUMP WAS ALWAYS RIGHT'
- the only helpful word is "was" so not predicting nor claiming he still is - tho those are implied too.
all over MSM videos to read this announcement, tho we have not yet read/ heard media comment on this ? or missed those so far ? d.k.
With regard to Lisa Cook and alleged mortgage fraud, why hasn't anyone in the MSM pointed out the delicious irony that Trump was actually convicted of the mother of all mortgage frauds (loan frauds but the same thing) in aggrandizing the value of his properties?
Seems like that puts his accusations in perspective.
Re. Education
And trump had to shell out 25 million to those who paid for his fraudulent university!
Not to mention he cheated his way through Wharton…
It’s his projection-itis rearing its ugly head again. That’s my prognosis because I do have a Psychology degree from a major university.
Exactly what i was thinking.... How ironic. What's a little real-estate fraud among friends. I would have thought that it might endear her to him. But then again there is that whole race thing. Caught being female and black. Can't have that.
I'm told that with hard work and dedication comes set backs but i did not realize we could be set back so far.
don,t forget the fact that she is smarter than him .
THIS! Trump LIED about the size and/or values of multiple properties to get better loan terms (or loans period).
The Media is derelict in their duties - why in a Trump presser has no one contradicted any of his lies? They don't want to lose precious access, is why. Shameful.
Also, fear of losing access is the only possible explanation for the MSM's complete silence on Trump's health. Someone made the threat: "Give this story oxygen and you're dead to us forever!"
Experts must always be perfect and are discredited if wrong is an insane standard. People who don’t understand science continue to believe that science is static. The real power of science is the ability to change based on new evidence.
This principle applies to Trump as well. On FB, his supporters will question every single fact that an anti-Trump will bring up...making it seem like you can't be wrong on a single thing, while they will blow off Trump's claim of having reduced prescription drug prices by 1500% and saying that he doesn't have to be perfect because of all of the great other policies and things he says.
It's friggin' mind blowing.
is that called "cognitive dissonance" or hypocrisy or what word simple enough to repeat again?
There are people who get paid to write articles showing how the experts were not quite accurate in some prediction, but the professional critics can be far more wildly wrong in their own predictions and it's simply forgotten. They've moved on to new targets.
Yeah, that's basically right. I've seen this countless times at work, where people with little to no subject matter expertise are allowed to question/derail/override the work of experts, even when the same acknowledge they don't know much about what they're talking about and feel it best left to those who know. "I'm just asking questions!"
This must be some sort of herd mentality at play. For example, if any zebra brays about a seeing a lion, it's treated as a threat. The heard isn't sitting around thinking, "That's Bob, she wouldn't know a lion if it bit her on the ass. I only move when one of the expert lion watches tells me to run."
funny spelling - but maybe also re-vealing too: heard vs herd ? ha ha
Nah, AI spell correct telling me what it thinks is best. ;)
And new technology to detect that evidence. When any new strain is discovered, any new mutation occurs, more effective drugs are developed, side effects of current drugs are discovered, there is no end to it. Unless you are cured you are always going to have to look for the most recent findings, treatments, management strategies.
Yes, that is so maddening - and certainly do not understand the nature of a virus - and , worse, are not interested in understanding.
sorry to also disagree with the assumption that most people are dumber " are not interested in understanding" -- vs not taking their time/ effort/ more than what they invest in all the chaotic scary newses - MSM & here also-
they - we - too may be as Sarah emphasized - so word is now repeatable endlessly here again: are "exhausted" ...
so do not do further searches...
& do not read / see/ listen to even More -
that is threatening, intimidating, scary and not wanted -
cuz it's become endless repeated warnings!!!- #$&*T^%*-
to instead just continue to do the basic essentials needed -
of course, admitting again -tho sadly, scarily too- the greatest majority of: 'all the rest of us' TAPs -have No Controls over anything happening - in govt, in corporate machinations, with auto robots [if ever try to call any 'customer non-service' #s or
try to transact off line in PO mail or phone instead]...etc. etc.
does this sound: jaded? tired? futile ? giving Up ? or just surfing this wave too... as we've done before to get here? cuz this also is called: being observant and alert but not emotionally reacting -
we let the Bulwark Substack podsters do it for us.
& thank their "service" too. he he
Kristol, don't jerk me around with visions of the end of Bobby junior. I've got enough to deal with already.
I don't know. A good fantasy can make life, at least momentarily, more bearable. Any why not? Brain-worm, AAS abuser, see above, delusions of grandeur (I know, that is required to be in the orbit of the Felon).
When I heard the news about Ashley Babbitt my stomach twisted into knots and I immediately thought of Michael Fanone. I honestly don't know how he stays sane. The injustice is off the charts.
My mind went immediately to Craig Sicknick and Michael Fanone. The indecency stings.
That is it: indecency.
It was only a matter of time: first she was pardoned posthumously. Then she received $5 million as part of a wrongful death settlement; even though she stormed the Capitol, kicking her way into the House Chamber. And now she’s getting a military funeral with honors.
I can’t wait for MAGA to honor her with a statue, liking her to Joan of Arc. Perhaps Hegseth can display it right next to his portrait of Robert E Lee in a Confederate uniform.
Only in Trump’s America!….:)🇺🇸 🏴☠️
Horst Wessel.
Touché!…:)
It’s not even funny how on point that is… I don’t like it
Michael Fanone has a post about it on his Substack.
https://michaelfanone.substack.com/p/military-funeral-honor-for-capitol
Just saw that JVL interviewed Fanone too.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/capitol-police-betrayed-again-w-michael
It's all an obvious attempt at the white-washing of 1/6. The strong consensus of history will be that 1/6 was an attempt to thwart a free & fair election where Biden won.
Of course, Trump's so beyond disordered that he can't handle the truth, and the MAGA go along w his delusions. So history will be a win for the political sane, but in the meantime they (& we) suffer.
Unfortunately viruses and bacteria can't talk or they'd be saying "THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP" a lot!
Make Measles Great Again
I bet Putin, who can talk, is saying it every day.
Absolutely!
,,,with tears in their eyes
RFK fits a perfectly in this administration. Crazy…yep. Total disregard for legitimate expertise. Check. Willing to make up new, baseless claims on the fly. Bingo.
Bobby is a crank's crank.
But, but didn't Chris Pratt defend Bobby?! Didn't he say he was a charming friendly guy at Kennedy family get-togethers and why is everybody being so mean? I mean he fought off scary hybrid dinosaurs, didn't he, so we should listen to him.
Cheryl Hines has helped to normalize her crazy spouse.
Yes, sadly she has tried, but has also alienated most of her friends in Hollywood. Every time she seems to make progress defending him, he does something even more egregious, so it's one step forward, 2 steps back.
a man who has zero medical education or training as he wreaks havoc is a danger to us all.
Cheryl might not have appreciated how batsh*t crazy he is.
When you know that your spouse will ultimately be responsible for the deaths of babies, young children, and the elderly, how do you continue to support them? You don't. You cut your losses and leave them. Join the fight and provide the inside truth and proof that will stop him.
Otherwise, you are complicit.
He and his MAHA cronies are literally endangering children and people with chronic health issues. Maybe she shares some of his views?
Love is blind, and one can overlook a lot when lonely and needy. I think there was plenty of evidence when she committed to this marriage showing what a devious, philandering, controlling, egomaniacal whack job RFK Jr was and is. Forget the dead whale and the bear carcass; just consider what happened with his first wife for starters. Kind of parallels Andrew Cuomo, in a way.
I kind of feel sorry for her. She is in a no-win situation. She was lonely and he was lonely and a Kennedy.
She probably thinks he's funny.
Not anymore.
Making money hand over fist in illegal stock trades from his destruction. Check.
But if you disagree then you are part of the “Deep State.” Heads I win. Tails you loose!
And the belief in bizarre conspiracy theories. That’s another hallmark.
I get that people are frustrated at the CDC, although a lot of the complaints are shallow and misinformed. But the most bat-shit crazy thing is the claim that millions of people have died from the COVID-19 vaccine. Of course, it is BS
https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117456/documents/HHRG-118-JU05-20240626-SD011.pdf
But still, some people believe this insanity! I met one such person at a party last year, an educated man, airline plane pilot, engineer (he left before we had enough time to talk more). RFK Jr, or Jay Bhattacharya (director of NIH) or Martin A Makary (director of FDA) have not quite stated this explicitly but they are surfing on the underlying conspiracy to make unjustified criticism of mRNA technology.
In the end, the theory that people will learn their lesson if you tell them that they will burn themselves if they touch the hot stove seems to fail. More people died in Republicans states because they were not vaccinated, and still, they are blinded by their rage and mistrust, denying the plain reality. I am scientist, and I though that dying, as an empirical fact, was a pretty compelling piece of information. Yet, it is pushed aside. What is the next thing, denying the effect of gravity?
We are in Jonestown, stuck in the jungle with the crazies. They are mixing the cyanide with the kool-aid now. What are you going to do? Fight them with all you've got? Try to run away?
I had a guy I've known for 30 years, share a link with a group of us buddies during COVID, that was of an interview between a show host and a lawyer, both of were complete unknowns to me. The lawyer was claiming that he represented a whistleblower from one of the pharma companies making the COVID vaccine. The whistleblower claimed that the pharma was intentionally creating the vaccine to kill people and the justification was something about eliminating witnesses or something. I don't remember exactly the reasoning, but it didn't make sense to me at the time and I do remember questioning him (the guy who shared the link) about a company making a product that kills its consumers. Seemed like a bad business model.
In retrospect and over time...one of the things that maybe is more concerning/baffling than him believing this and sharing it with others...was that....out of the 6 people on the e-mail...I was the ONLY one who pushed back and said something about it.
Silence, these days especially, sure gives off a feeling of, at a minimum, that maybe THEY'RE right or have an opinion to be thoughtfully considered. I don't believe we're in the position of being to afford this much longer. People need to start speaking up before it will be illegal to do so.
Lately I have been reaching out to people I know and trust to talk a bit about what is going on. One person has decided to pigeonhole their angst and upset and focus on what is happening in Gaza. I tried to get them to zoom out but they couldn't.
Another person has decided to stay out of politics entirely. They do not see a way forward. They are fed up with the world and do not see a way forward. They are all criminal no sense in supporting one over the other. They are struggling to make sense of their world locally and just trying to keep things going at home.
There are a great number of people who cannot bear the constant harassment of listening and thinking about 'this stuff'. They have lives to live or so they tell me.
I do too. I have a life to live, and it includes trying to make this a better place. When I see things heading in the wrong direction, I feel compelled to tell people, 'danger ahead' 'pothole' 'elevator's broken' 'that milk is expired' 'there is a lunatic in the white house'. You know just reaching out for each other.
Anyway I hope enough of us get it together and get as many of our friends together to vote and fight for what is right and fair and safe and gets that lunatic out of the white house or at least contains him in a rubber room. they have to have one of those there right? I mean the white house has everything.
Your post was both depressing and inspiring. The people choosing to opt out when we need them the most is depressing, the fact there are people like you prioritizing how bad this is and speaking out is inspiring. Thank you.
I don't know about you, but the weird thing is that before Trump, I was politically knowledgeable, but didn't speak out much. Trump changed EVERYTHING for me.
Same here, always politically knowledgeable, but this has been the impetus of shouting out in pain. I blame the younger generation for not having it as rough, not living without the adversity that many of us in the older generation have firsthand knowledge of. They do not know how free they really are. Although, I will say this, we were a lot freer in that as children, we enjoyed the ability to be gone all day, travel and meet new people in ways today’s youth will only experience on the other side of the cell phone screen.
That is not a before and then after tyrant effect. That I attribute to the slow erosion of community, a turn inwards, isolation. If we had corrected for that and really became accepting of the changing complexions of our neighbors, we would not be where we are right now.
Covid is fertile ground for bizarre conspiracy theories. You can’t argue with them either.
But you can't fight using rational arguments. You have to make people feel how they are being exploited. Trump has made $3 Billion for himself while in office. How much have they made? How much are they willing to pay for healthcare and then find the hospitals are closed or understaffed. How much is the trade war with Canada and Mexico helping the economy of those neighboring states? Can anyone afford to eat in a restaurant? Wait until the next hurricane or flood and see who shows up to help.
Vote them out. Start locally. Preserve your right and the rights of all Americans to vote. Take control and move them out. Expose the hypocracy. Punish them when you can. Run them out of town and seize their assets before they leave town.
I know a guy who refused to get the vaccine, got very sick and was hospitalized. Afterwards all he did was complain that no one would give him ivermectin. These people are nuts.
Pity they didn’t. Might have killed his brain parasites !
From Bill’s lips to the “greatest president, no the greatest leader of all time, now and until the heat death of the universes”’s ears. 🙏
Bill made Trump sound a little too lucid, but his point about RFKJr consuming too much media oxygen is spot on. Plus, we know most of the non MAHA Trumpers are getting their vaccinations and want to continue to get them.
I remember seeing a quote that Kennedy had vaccinated his children. SO yes they probably are trying to cull the herd.
remember that Trump was hospitalized for covid ? then he w/ family DID get vaxed..quietly. no bragging then.
look it up. contradictions are his usual.
I remember that he got the vaccine, he told his magats it was safe , but they were not having it. he and his band of sycophants spent too much time and money sowing lies, disinformation, crap about COVID and the vaccines.
Re. Education:
Trump had to shell out 25 million to those who signed on to his fraudulently trump university….
God Awful himself...
Andrew: "In any head-to-head comparison, you’d have to be a maniac to take the latter over the former."
If the goal is to burn the country down to the ground, then RFK Jr. is your guy. Whether or not the person making that choice is a maniac depends on your point of view. JVL's observation aside on the clever mind trick populists use, the voters consciously put us in this predicament last November. They should not be protected from the consequences of their vote.
I have to start thinking about a will.
Trump would want your assets shoveled directly to himself. Wills may not apply much longer. Nobody left to administrate. Or collect.
Some of you know that my son was hospitalized for a while with myocarditis at the beginning of the COVID epidemic, before vaccines had been developed, and suffers long COVID. I hate these people with the power of a thousand suns. They are trying to kill children. The danger of myocarditis is not from the vaccine, it's from the virus, which would make sense to these idiots if they understood the slightest thing about medicine. But all they see are fame and dollar signs. And I don't see anyone following the money. RKF Jr's entire income stream is based on denying vaccines. https://www.statnews.com/2024/12/03/rfk-jr-maha-pay-vaccine-group-childrens-health-defense/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk-jr-hes-anti-vaccine-profit-off-vaccine/story?id=118137375
People who support RFK Jr. think that their crazy pontificating is just a game. They're vaccinated, after all. I wish I could say their children are vaccinated like Bill does, but I stopped even having that much faith in these amoral black souls. They're vaccinated - their kids are probably on their own.
Also, forcing kids to drink fluoride and families having less children are among the most important public achievements in modern history. Come at me, reactionaries. You know I'm right.
Fluoride in water costs almost nothing, and saves considerable pain and dental bills. You'd think the people obsessed with government efficiency would be all for it.
It also prevents dangerous infections in the mouth, which is right next to the brain. It's not just dental bills. Municipalities that use fluoride reduce pediatric hospitalizations for disseminated infections.
I just pulled out my copy of AWWA Manual M4. No mention of infections. Again, thanks for the info.
I've designed multiple fluoride feed facilities, and extensively read the AWWA fluoridation manual. I'm very familiar with the dental and bone health impacts of fluoride. I never heard the infection angle. Thank you for the cool new info!
Yeah, it's tough because you have to compare similar places with and without fluoridation and compare hospitalization rates. Here's a study in Israel: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002817714001159
I think Canada had a similar situation where they could compare similar provinces.
Beats me on this. After WWII, Holyoke and Longmeadow Massachusetts started fluoridating their water. Both were affluent communities then. Holyoke declined in later years and is a poor city. The city could not possibly afford to treat its water today. Their children do not have cavities. Their adults do not have cavities. Over 80 years, no problems with fluoridating water in either community.
I'm so jealous. I grew up without fluoridated water and my teeth have cost me more money over my lifetime than clothing and food combined, probably. But genetics is mostly to blame!
Genetics helped me, but going to an inferior dentist while growing up, and not doing what I should when I was young, I paid a price as you did. Wish I had fluoridated water as a kid. Didn’t know it existed then.
AWWA M4 says the history of artificial fluoridation started in Colorado Springs in 1908 when Dr McKay noticed excessive mottling of teeth. He also noticed particularly strong teeth. Other folks noticed similar things and off we went. The first municipal fluoridation was in Grand Rapids, MI in 1945.
Here's the thing. Some people are hypersensitive to fluoride and get tooth mottling or skeletal fluorosis at the recommended concentration.
When I grew up, my water company (Philadelphia Suburban Water Co) didn't fluoridate. My sister and I took supplement pills every day. Those work, too but fluoridation in water is cheaper and available to everyone.
Thanks Mike. Didn’t realize how the two communities I wrote about were on the front line fighting tooth decay.
Sort of like in the Mafia, no one was supposed to use drugs in the upper levels of the mob. And the people whose companies made cigarettes did not smoke cigarettes. Of course these fools are vaccinated as are their children. But if their base realizes that, the base moves on to the next fool who will tell them what they want to hear.
Some believe it. Rush Limbaugh doubted that smoking caused lung cancer and continued to smoke. He died of lung cancer.
One of the unforeseen future dangers (among many) is that when the next public health crisis arrives, whether a pandemic or a deliberate biological threat, what experts will volunteer to jump in and help this wrong-headed and fairly vindictive crew? Very few, if any, is my guess. I’m sure there’s an old fable out there that explains this serious risk.
No kidding. Most of them now blame all of the bad things that happened during Covid were Fauci and the blue state Governors' fault.
It's maddening.
My daughter is just starting her career as a teacher after being a special ed aide for years. I asked her to please run a personal role-play, of quitting her new job early in the next health crisis, because they will force schools to stay open, and probably disallow masks.
There will be no “hero” status for the fallen . . . unlike Ashley Babbit.
Under fascism, getting sick is a personal problem and an individual failing.
And if you’re female, under Texas’s new exploration of banning mailed abortion pills as they expand their anti-woman arsenal of laws via tattling meddling neighbors, forced physical exams coming soon! Oh, the “freedom”!
Oh, personal never gets to mean private! It just means you're solely responsible for the bill as opposed to any public support. No, you have no privacy in fascism, unless you're one of the "two legs good" instead of the "four legs bad" members of the animal farm.
Oh well said, Kate! “No Privacy in Fascism!” fits on a hat. Shall we stick with red hats? It matches blood . . . so, yeah. But I could go with black hats; matches darkness.
Exactly. It's also a personal flaw.
The problem with vaccines (and meds in general) is that it helps most people in the same way. Cures are to cheap and easy to get. This means, from a eugenics point of view, too many people with "flaws" are surviving too long. They're a burden on society and take up too much land/time/resources/money.
Oh, the rich folks will still get access to vaccines (even if not here). This dislike that anyone, including the rabble, can get them. It chafes the rich and powerful that the peons have access to much of the same things they have, because if everyone has access to them, then these things are not special...including vaccines.
Shix...I'm envisioning a role play of students dying by the 1000's from the measles and RFK jr and Trump joining in a Warp Speed 2.0 endeavor to invent a vaccine...
Sounds like an appropriate skit for a Cabaret.
"People are saying it's the greatest vaccine ever"...could be one of the songs.
I’m sure Randy Rainbow could work up something clever and hilarious and apropos to our situation . . . And we know he has his own wonderful costumes.
Remember when Running with Scissors was all we had to worry about? We clapped erasers on the school walls. Had windows that could open. Milk delivered to the classroom.
Yeah.
You know Kennedy wrote a book about Fauci?