The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[W. Niederhut]

4 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

At his rally in Texas, Donald Trump called for "massive protests" in Washington, New York, and Atlanta if the vicious and racist prosecutors do anything illegal against him.

Buckle your seat belts.

Here it comes.

Steve Thomas

Confederate Flags, Conspiracies, and the Ghost of JFK Jr.: What I Saw at Trump’s Bananas Texas Rally

It’s part roadshow and part religious revival, but the show is a grift and the religion being revived is fascism

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-texas-rally-conspiracies-ghost-of-jfk-jr-1292592/

January 30, 2022

Excerpt

Without a hint of irony, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the upcoming elections are a race between “Patriots and Traitors,” suggesting that the side that isn’t on trial for seditious conspiracy is the traitorous one. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said the election was stolen and that Marxists want to “take away the country from us.” Gov. Abbott made an abstruse comparison between Biden’s response to the Russian army at the Ukraine border to the Texas-Mexico border, doubling down on the idea that immigration is a part of a planned invasion.

[Matt Allison]

Yep, that speech was written by Stephen Miller and gone over with a fine-toothed comb by lawyers. Notice how carefully Trump read it off the teleprompter.

People get very desperate when they know they're going to prison, and both Trump and Miller know that prison is their ultimate destination.

[James DiEugenio]

I hope everyone is following what the congressional committee is finding out about the insurrection.  

If you are you will understand why the GOP wants it to go away.

This was a real attempt to subvert the constitution and if it had not been for Pence, it may have succeeded.  The arms were shipped into Virginia and the Oath Keepers had arranged for three Quick Reaction Forces to deploy in and around the capitol. I am about halfway there in thinking that the changes Trump made at the Pentagon were part of an arrangement to delay any National Guard presence and prolong the siege.   By my accounting, there were nine deaths due to this attack both in the assault and in the days that followed.  Trump probably knows he is in real legal trouble on several fronts and he wants to try again for a civil war if he is caught.   If that occurs, I am now beginning to think that he might replace W as the worst president ever in my hall of shame.

Edited January 30, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

Trump probably knows he is in real legal trouble on several fronts and he wants to try again for a civil war if he is caught. 

Jim,

Calling for mass protests in the same speech saying that he will pardon the January 6th rioters if he is elected President in 2024 kind of says it all, don't you think?

Talk about giving someone license...

Steve Thomas

[Kirk Gallaway]

Conservatives rave about Jordan Peterson because they like his instincts.

But then under questioning......

They try to steal elections.

As an impartial referee, I score it Australia 1, Canada 0.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Kirk Gallaway

[Paul Brancato]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:01 AM, W. Niederhut said:

Paul,

     To be honest, I know very little about Joe Rogan.  I did watch his recent interview of Oliver Stone, which was reasonably well done.   To his credit, Rogan had the decency to give Oliver Stone a voice.  And Rogan seems likeable.  He's no Dick Cavett, but at least he did some homework on JFK Revisited.

     As for two of my favorite old hippies, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, I'm sure that our right wing libertarian ideologues around here will agree that they have every right to refrain from doing business with a media corporation that has promoted COVID disinformation.  Right wing libertarians believe in "freedom" and individual rights, don't they? 🤥

     The "cancel culture" that I am most concerned about in the U.S. right now is the right wing Republican censorship of the teaching of true American history in our schools.  It's like something out of N-A-Z-I Germany in the 1930s.  Only white nationalist mythology allowed!   Can't teach about the history of slavery, Jim Crow, our genocidal Manifest Destiny, and the confiscation of half of Mexico in the 19th century by jingoistic white slave owners.

     

That’s all true in my opinion. And Young and Mitchell have every right to refrain from using Spotify. But they turned the focus on Joe Rogan, because they thought maybe they could start a movement. Their desire to strongly point out disinformation is admirable enough. But how does one counter the right wing cancel culture? I don’t think one can equate vaccine hesitancy, or distrust of big Pharma, with White Nationalism or worse. 

[Benjamin Cole]

10 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

I hope everyone is following what the congressional committee is finding out about the insurrection.  

If you are you will understand why the GOP wants it to go away.

This was a real attempt to subvert the constitution and if it had not been for Pence, it may have succeeded.  The arms were shipped into Virginia and the Oath Keepers had arranged for three Quick Reaction Forces to deploy in and around the capitol. I am about halfway there in thinking that the changes Trump made at the Pentagon were part of an arrangement to delay any National Guard presence and prolong the siege.   By my accounting, there were nine deaths due to this attack both in the assault and in the days that followed.  Trump probably knows he is in real legal trouble on several fronts and he wants to try again for a civil war if he is caught.   If that occurs, I am now beginning to think that he might replace W as the worst president ever in my hall of shame.

James D.--

Remember Congressional investigations are not courtrooms.

The old HUAC Committee (Nixon), the Benghazi Committee, even the Clinton Impeachment...they are kin to the Warren Commission---no aggressive counsel for the defense.  

What was on display in the JFKA was a stark public event, and then a “show trial”---the Warren Commission. There was a monopoly on, and a manipulation of evidence by intelligence agencies, and a complicit national media.

In a Congressional investigation, the scheduling and choice of topics, the people subpoenaed or not, the documents subpoenaed or not (all without a warrant, btw)---all controlled by majority staff.

What is investigated? 

This is a pattern that repeats. In the US, the usual format for show trials are Congressional committee hearings, including impeachment proceedings. The WC was something of a one-off, although the 9/11 Commission might be placed on the same ticket.

The 1/6 Commission is yet another show trial.  I have no truck with Trump.

But who believes the 1/6 Committee will aggressively investigate whether federal assets, in provocateurs instigated the 1/6 scrum? Why did the Capital Police not show up on 1/6? (They have 3,500 officers). How deep are federal assets into the Oathkeepers? 

This does not mean Trump engaged in no machinations. Indeed, it appears the Trumpers tried to invent half-baked constitutional and legal theories to thwart the election process. 

But the 1/6 scrum is worth contemplating. 

It is possible for 1. Trump to be a defective character, and 2. for the national security state to have wanted Trump out of office, by means usual or otherwise. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

I don’t think one can equate vaccine hesitancy, or distrust of big Pharma, with White Nationalism or worse. 

I don't think any rational person can lump libertarians in with what some of the forum members call "far right". If you looked outside of the USA, and saw most capital cities in Europe a week or so ago flooded with protestors, you couldn't say they were on the "right" politically. They were protesting against mostly over freedom, perceived pharma corruption and government diktats. For all intents and purposes they are libertarians. You guys are closer to Canada, how would you characterise the supposedly 1.3m who occupied Ottawa, perhaps a 100km convoy of trucks. Has the supposedly friendliest country on earth got a far right problem?!
Trudeau called them a fringe minority. We'll never know the accurate numbers I guess. I did watch many videos from the European protests, it was like a revolution was in the air in some mainland European capital cities. MSM didn't really show it, only some people dressed like Antifa clashing with riot police in Belgium. It was all over Twitter. 

I've said repeatedly that I think the terms of left and right are redundant in our present time. Where did the threat of tyranny come from the lead up to WW2?! 

If you were trying to defeat a challenge to authority, it may well serve you to characterise your enemies as something they are not, something that the public finds unsavoury.  

[Jeremy Bojczuk]

Kirk Gallaway writes:

Quote

Conservatives rave about Jordan Peterson because they like his instincts.

The guy they rave about seems to be a general-purpose reactionary nincompoop. He was recently on the Rogan chat show, spouting nonsense about climate change:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/27/word-salad-of-nonsense-scientists-denounce-jordan-petersons-comments-on-climate-models

Evidently, it's a subject about which he knows next to nothing. Apparently, the host also knew next to nothing about the subject and didn't correct Peterson's errors. Worryingly, millions of equally uninformed listeners might well have believed the nonsense he was spouting, and would have had their ignorance reinforced.

Here is a selection of quotes from some of the experts cited in the article:

• "stunningly ignorant"
• "He seems to think we model the future climate the same way we do the weather ... he's completely wrong. He has no frickin' idea."
• "making the ancient climate sceptic error of mixing up weather and climate ... Anyone who has taken an introductory course in climate or atmospheric science would spot this problem"
• "ill-informed ... mixed up weather prediction with climate projections. ... People are entitled to their opinions, but science and climate modelling isn't about opinion. If you're not well informed about how something is done then it's not right to make comments about it on a large platform."
• "a total lack of understanding of how science works"
• "a word salad of nonsense spoken by people who have no sense when it comes to climate. ... To say that climate model errors increase like compound interest is laughable. Jordan Peterson displays a near complete misunderstanding of climate change, and the tools climate scientists use to understand what is happening to our planet. ... It's as if someone, with zero expertise and knowledge, made comments about something he knows little about."

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

I don't think any rational person can lump libertarians in with what some of the forum members call "far right". If you looked outside of the USA, and saw most capital cities in Europe a week or so ago flooded with protestors, you couldn't say they were on the "right" politically. They were protesting against mostly over freedom, perceived pharma corruption and government diktats. For all intents and purposes they are libertarians. You guys are closer to Canada, how would you characterise the supposedly 1.3m who occupied Ottawa, perhaps a 100km convoy of trucks. Has the supposedly friendliest country on earth got a far right problem?!
Trudeau called them a fringe minority. We'll never know the accurate numbers I guess. I did watch many videos from the European protests, it was like a revolution was in the air in some mainland European capital cities. MSM didn't really show it, only some people dressed like Antifa clashing with riot police in Belgium. It was all over Twitter. 

I've said repeatedly that I think the terms of left and right are redundant in our present time. Where did the threat of tyranny come from the lead up to WW2?! 

If you were trying to defeat a challenge to authority, it may well serve you to characterise your enemies as something they are not, something that the public finds unsavoury.  

Hey, there is the world's longest convoy ever, of truckers, in Canada, evidently a vaccine protest of sorts. Play that convoy song!

I am agnostic about a lot regarding C19 vaccines, except I am religious in that people have a right to express their opinions. 

I also wonder if the COVID-19 is the public health sector's Vietnamistan. 

The war goes on and on and on...but the enemy is tougher and smarter. 

Some wars you lose.  

[Paul Brancato]

The way to counter misinformation is with Information, not with repression or shooting the messenger. It’s a sorry day when we try to shut down alternative voices. There is much room for discussion when it comes to Covid 19. There is still much to learn about viral mechanisms and about effective human responses. The Great Barrington declaration is interesting and well reasoned, and pointing out their financial backers doesn’t prove them wrong. That’s a debate we should have, and it worries me that the mainstream shuts them out. If Big Pharma would share MRNA technology rather than horde it for profit I would feel differently. 
the question I have about Jan 6 is where were the guns? I’ve heard the explanation put forth that it was a trial run. I don’t agree with Ben’s analysis. I like the trial run idea. I do think that Trump, and the Proud Boys and others like them are a real danger, much more so than nameless and faceless Antifa, which has now become a parody and a scapegoat and could really be anyone in black doing anyone’s bidding. 

[W. Niederhut]

On 1/28/2022 at 7:00 PM, W. Niederhut said:

Good news and bad on the COVID-19 front, folks.

The bad news is that Omicron is killing people.  Omicron infections are less lethal than Delta, but more prevalent. *

The good news-- from the latest UK data-- is that vaccine boosters have reduced the Omicron death risk by 95% in people over 50.**

This is a subject we were discussing here last month-- i.e., is it worth getting a booster?  The answer is, "Yes."

*Omicron Deaths in U.S. Exceed Delta’s Peak as Covid-19 Optimism Rises in Europe

https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-deaths-in-u-s-exceed-deltas-peak-as-covid-19-optimism-rises-in-europe-11643201653

January 26, 2022

 

**Covid-19 Vaccine Booster Shot Cuts Omicron Death Risk by 95%, U.K. Study Shows

The analysis was done for people 50 and older, the population at highest risk of severe illness and death

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-cuts-omicron-death-risk-by-95-u-k-study-shows-11643302875

January 27, 2022

I'm re-posting this data for Ben-the-Vaccine-Agnostic.

He, obviously, didn't read it or understand it the first time around... 🤥

And, incredibly, Ben is still pushing his debunked Fox News "Patriot Purge"/"scrum" narrative about Trump's January 6th coup attempt.  No amount of contrary evidence seems to dislodge Ben's fixed belief that Trump was not the driving force behind his coup attempt.

This is what "post-truth" politics is all about-- the reliance on "alternate facts," and the absurd notion that, "No one has a monopoly on truth."

It reminds me of the television comedy show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"-- where, "Everything is made up and the points don't matter."

Who was it who said, "Those who can make people believe absurdities can convince them to commit atrocities?"

Edited January 31, 2022 by W. Niederhut

[Paul Rigby]

48 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

The way to counter misinformation is with Information, not with repression or shooting the messenger. It’s a sorry day when we try to shut down alternative voices. There is much room for discussion when it comes to Covid 19. There is still much to learn about viral mechanisms and about effective human responses. The Great Barrington declaration is interesting and well reasoned, and pointing out their financial backers doesn’t prove them wrong. That’s a debate we should have, and it worries me that the mainstream shuts them out. If Big Pharma would share MRNA technology rather than horde it for profit I would feel differently. 
the question I have about Jan 6 is where were the guns? I’ve heard the explanation put forth that it was a trial run. I don’t agree with Ben’s analysis. I like the trial run idea. I do think that Trump, and the Proud Boys and others like them are a real danger, much more so than nameless and faceless Antifa, which has now become a parody and a scapegoat and could really be anyone in black doing anyone’s bidding. 

Try here, Paul, for rapid and lucid updates. The latest variant of Omicron appears set to deliver us from yet another round of excessive, irrelevant and/or wildly counter-productive restrictions. This most conscientious and informative of men boasts the highest recommendation the UK can confer - he was recently smeared by the BBC

https://youtu.be/f9utczapsmI

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Paul Rigby said:

Try here, Paul, for rapid and lucid updates. The latest variant of Omicron appears set to deliver us from yet another round of excessive, irrelevant and/or wildly counter-productive restrictions. This most conscientious and informative of men boasts the highest recommendation the UK can confer - he was recently smeared by the BBC

https://youtu.be/f9utczapsmI

I've been following this Dr for around a year, he is very logical and methodical. 

[Bob Ness]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

The way to counter misinformation is with Information, not with repression or shooting the messenger. It’s a sorry day when we try to shut down alternative voices. There is much room for discussion when it comes to Covid 19. There is still much to learn about viral mechanisms and about effective human responses. The Great Barrington declaration is interesting and well reasoned, and pointing out their financial backers doesn’t prove them wrong. That’s a debate we should have, and it worries me that the mainstream shuts them out. If Big Pharma would share MRNA technology rather than horde it for profit I would feel differently. 
the question I have about Jan 6 is where were the guns? I’ve heard the explanation put forth that it was a trial run. I don’t agree with Ben’s analysis. I like the trial run idea. I do think that Trump, and the Proud Boys and others like them are a real danger, much more so than nameless and faceless Antifa, which has now become a parody and a scapegoat and could really be anyone in black doing anyone’s bidding. 

The problem is Paul that no matter what you present people with they will scrounge around for opinions, often times from people overstating or obfuscating their qualifications on the subject, to confirm what they already want to believe. The Antifa, FBI, False Flag BS is an excellent example. It's the same mentality that makes goose-stepping in Munich possible. Their hind brains respond to messages that are delivered below the level of their intellect and a classic sociopath like Trump understands how to appeal to that end instinctively. I personally have just come to the conclusion that the only functional way of communicating with most of these people is to insult them and move on.

It's exactly what Trump does to his followers. He basically cuckolds them. They don't realize that.

I for one am tired of CV (my wife has to deal with these idiots daily - they often refuse to enter her clinic with masks donned) but have concluded that Darwin is the best arbiter at this point. Anyone who refuses rudimentary hygiene precautions or vaccines are welcome to their outcome. In many ERs that's what they're calling it. The Darwin Variant.

The level of intelligence of these people is why there are signs in bathrooms to instruct people to wash their hands after going potty. Most adults don't have to be reminded.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Bob Ness