Stephan: It appears that in the push to get to herd immunity, 70% to 80% vaccination rate, we have reached the stupid threshold. We fell slightly short of Biden's goal for this date, and I think the Governor of West Virginia, a state notable for stupidity -- they elected Joe Manchin to the senate -- explains why that has happened. There is a percentage of the population, notably the MAGAts, who think Covid-19 is a fraud, and who refuse to get vaccinated. The only thing as Governor Justice, a Republican, points out likely to get them vaccinated is a high death rate in that community. So be it, and I think we are going to see hotspots in Red States across the country
Republican Governor of West Virginia Jim Justice Credit: AP News
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) said Sunday that those who are still unvaccinated against COVID-19 will be pushed to get the shot only by a “catastrophe” in which “an awful lot of people die.”
On ABC’s “This Week,” host Martha Raddatz asked the governor what would push those who have not gotten vaccinated in the state “over the edge” to change their minds.
The governor, who in recent weeks has called on hesitant constituents to get the shot, responded, “I hate to say this, but what would put them over the edge is if an awful lot of people die.”
Justice said the “only way” he could see the nearly half of adults in West Virginia who have not yet gotten vaccinated alter their thinking would if be “a catastrophe” occurred “that none of us want.”
The governor said that while the state has launched a lottery to give cash, guns, trucks and other prizes to people who have gotten vaccinated, another lottery is happening in his state in which people are gambling with their lives.
Stephan: Here is another view on the stupid threshold trend. It is amazing to me that the MAGAts have reached this level of anti-science hysteria, but apparently they have. This also explains, I think, the wholly inadequate response to climate change one sees in the Red value states. Basically, the net effect of this trend will be some thousands of White people are going to die from stupidity, as many already have.
As formerly Confederate states struggle with low vaccination rates as the Delta variant of coronavirus spreads across America, pastors stuck between the science of what is best for their flocks and superstitions that their congregants believe.
The rampant stupidity the MAGAts. Note that they are all White people.
“Biden administration and state officials hoped that pastors would play an outsized role in promoting Covid-19 vaccines, but many are wary of alienating their congregants and are declining requests to be more outspoken. Politico spoke with nearly a dozen pastors, many of whom observed that vaccination is too divisive to broach, especially following a year of contentious conversations over race, pandemic limits on in-person worship and mask requirements. Public health officials have hoped that more religious leaders can nudge their congregants to get Covid shots, particularly white evangelicals who are among the most resistant to vaccination,” the publication reported Saturday.
“State health officials are conducting informal focus groups and outreach to try to ease pastors’ concerns about discussing vaccination, but progress is often elusive, they said. Many pastors said they have […]
Stephan: Here is some more good news from the Biden administration. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which for more than a decade has been in the pocket of the corporations it was supposed to oversee -- but did not -- under its new chair, Lina Khan, is now going in a new healthier direction.
The Federal Trade Commission’s first meeting under new Chair Lina Khan broke decades of precedent by taking place in public. | Graeme Jennings-Pool/Getty
The Federal Trade Commission’s first meeting under new Chair Lina Khan broke decades of precedent Thursday by taking place in public — something unheard-of for the notably secretive antitrust and consumer protection agency.
Then it pushed through a series of actions on progressive Democrats’ wish list: Fines for companies that lie about products being “Made in America.” Greater latitude for launching antitrust probes and lawsuits. And a wider door to writing new regulations — something else the FTC hasn’t done much of in decades.
All this came despite fierce objections from the commission’s two Republicans, in a sign that partisan rancor is also back in vogue at the Biden-era FTC.
Thursday’s videoconferenced session was the first public glimpse of what may lie in store for the 106-year-old agency under its youngest-ever chair, a former Columbia University law professor who made her reputation as a critic of tech giants like Amazon. And fellow tech critics were particularly thrilled.
Stephan: I wrote this piece for Smithsonian Magazine in 2001. I ran across it looking for something else, read it, and thought Dr. Franklin had it right over two centuries ago, and we would do well to listen to him. I wish all my readers the best for a wonderful July 4th. Spend a little time today thinking about what you can do to keep America's democracy healthy. If you are brave enough, talk about it amongst family and friends. Maybe you could do something together. This may be the most important 4th of July in your lifetime.
Franklin, by the way, usually shown as an elderly man -- because those are the images available -- had you met him would have left you with a very different impression. To begin with, Franklin was physically powerful. He was 5' 9" compared to Jefferson's or Washington's 6' 2" and built like a wrestler with a powerful upper body, big chest. He was charming, friendly, funny, and incredibly knowledgeable. He made a point by telling a story.
The sudden illness of his wife Martha called his travelling companion Thomas Jefferson back to Monticello. So on a Saturday in late October 1776 Benjamin Franklin, almost 70, exhausted and afflicted by gout and boils went aboard without him, and sailed for France in the 16-gun sloop Reprisal.1 He did so in the certain knowledge that if Reprisal was taken by a British warship he would be hanged for High Treason. His name was on the inflammatory Declaration of Independence, a document he had just helped Jefferson to write.
Franklin had been home less than a year, after almost two decades spent in the belly of the most powerful empire in the world representing first Pennsylvania’s and, eventually, America’s case at the court of King George II then, when he died, his grandson George III. The experience had made him more familiar with the ways of Europe than anyone else in the new American government, and he was going to need all the expertise he could muster. If he could not convince the French to fund and […]
Stephan: The three second-raters that Trump and McConnell put on the court, who have aligned themselves with Thomas and Alito two other second-raters appointed by earlier Republican administrations are actively working to render American democracy a pseudo-democracy. I suspect you have already seen several articles from legal scholars making this point in print or on one of the news channels. Here is one that encapsulates an overall assessment. As I have said repeatedly none of this is a coincidence; it is all a carefully planned strategy on the part of Republican White supremacists. We are in a cold civil war, racial in nature as it was in 1861, and the only way to stop this is massive, and I do mean massive, citizen pushback at the ballot box. So which side are you on?
Trump appointed Supreme Court Associate Justices
“The harmful rulings coming out of this court make it critical that Congress pass legislation to protect voting rights and shore up our democracy.” —Ben Jealous, PFAW
Confirming fears progressive critics shared ahead of the confirmations of all three U.S. Supreme Court Justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, an analysis published Friday details the devastating impact of having a GOP supermajority on the nation’s highest court.
“The 2020-2021 term that just ended shows that our rights are not safe at the Supreme Court, and that we must work to change the makeup of the court,” warns the progressive advocacy group People For the American Way (PFAW) in its latest annual report.
This is the first term that includes Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who Trump appointed after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last year. The other two Trump appointees are Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
“This Supreme Court is dominated by Trump-appointed justices, with predictably disastrous results for voting rights as well as workers, consumers, and immigrants this term,” said PFAW president Ben Jealous in a statement Friday.
