Posts Tagged ‘DEMOCRATS’
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 8, 2023 at 12:10 am
The two most murderous tyrants in the twentieth century—Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler—received unexpected cooperation from their victims.
Confronted with the titanic crimes of their persecutors, millions of otherwise intelligent men and women couldn’t believe anyone—even Stalin or Hitler—could be so diabolically evil.
Millions of Jews knew that Hitler had made them pariahs in their own country, subject to arrest and deportation to eastern ghettos. Yet they refused to believe he intended to exterminate every trace of European Jewry.
Adolf Hitler
Similarly, millions of Russians knew that, under Stalin, untold numbers of innocent men and women had been arrested and much of Ukraine had been condemned to starvation through his forced collectivization policies. Yet they refused to believe that Stalin was responsible for this.
Surely, they felt, it was those around Stalin—such as Lavrenti P. Beria, the notorious chief of the secret police, the NKVD—who were responsible for such horrific crimes. “They don’t tell Stalin,” went the pathetic cry.
Joseph Stalin
But Russia and Germany are not the only countries where people refuse to accept the bitter truth about their leaders.
The vast majority of Americans believe that the United States is an “exceptional” nation whose leaders are guided by God. Mormons, for example, believe that the Constitution is a divinely-inspired document.
Thus, most Americans reject the idea that American politicians—especially those on the Right—could ever indulge in the sort of corruptions and atrocities of other world leaders.
On January 11, Iowa House Republicans introduced a bill to drastically eliminate the types of food available to people using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP provides food assistance to more than 41 million people with low or no income.
Under the proposed restrictions, the following staples would be forbidden:
- Fresh meats
- Flour
- Butter
- Cooking oil
- Frozen prepared foods
- Baked, refried or chili beans
- Sliced, cubed or crumbled cheese
- Salt
- Pepper
- Canned vegetables
- Fruit
- Soup
In lieu of fresh meats, Iowans would only be allowed to buy canned tuna or salmon.
The bill would also make it harder for needy persons to qualify for SNAP.
Families would be barred if they had more than $2,750, or $4,250 if someone with a disability or over the age of 60 lives in their family.
Ownership of only one vehicle would be allowed, thus excluding families with two cars.
“It’s almost like we’re trying to make sure that these people don’t get ahead,” said state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell. “I think the job of SNAP is to try and lift people up while they’re down and try and help them get ahead, not take away what they already have, what little they have.”
Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley—who sponsored the bill—complained: “It’s these entitlement programs. They’re the ones that are growing within the budget and are putting pressure on us being able to fund other priorities.”
Pat Grassley
Those “other priorities” ignore the sharp rise in grocery prices owing to the conflict in Ukraine, climate change, the deadliest bird flu in American history, transportation costs and alleged supply chain disruptions.
Iowa isn’t alone in targeting SNAP. The GOP is doing so at a national level.
And yet there are those, even among the most ardent opponents of the proposed bill, who can’t believe the worst of the men supporting it.
One of these is Luke Elzinga, chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition.
“I don’t think the 39 co-sponsors of this bill know just how restrictive this is, and that it would ban meat,” he said. “Under this bill, no ground beef, no chicken, no pork in the state of Iowa. I just can’t believe that they knew that was what it was when the bill was introduced.”
Of course they knew. That’s why they’re fiercely supporting this legislation.
Their support is grounded in history—the history of Nazi Germany.
On June 22, 1941, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler sent three million soldiers smashing into the Soviet Union. During the first six months—June to December, 1941—German armies lured huge Soviet forces into gigantic “cauldron battles,” surrounding and exterminating them.
An estimated 5.7 million prisoners of war fell into German hands. The Germans found themselves surprised and overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of them. But their mandate demanded that they keep marching ever forward.
So they simply imprisoned their captives behind barbed wire and wasted no food or medical care on them. Between starvation, illness and the brutal Russian cold, at least 3.5 million POWs died in captivity.
Soviet POW’s
Republicans have learned a valuable lesson from this: If you simply deprive those you detest of food, clothing, shelter—and medical care—you don’t need gas chambers or firing squads. Or rigged vote-counts.
That’s why, to this day, Republicans are still trying to abolish “Obamacare”—the Affordable Care Act.
Yet Democrats are too naive and/or cowardly to publicly admit this.
Ironically, Democrats could learn a lesson from Ronald Reagan, who dared brand the Soviet Union as “an evil empire.”
His description of Soviet leaders now applies to those of his own party: “The only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 7, 2023 at 12:18 am
What does it take to become a celebrity in Vladimir Putin’s Russia?
If you’re Right-wing Lauren Boebert (R-CO), all it took was to refuse to stand and applaud Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he spoke to Congress on December 21, 2022.
Since February 24, 2022, Zelensky has led Ukraine against a brutal, unprovoked invasion by Russia.
Boebert’s refusal to salute Zelensky got her hailed as “brave” on Russian state TV.
Also up for kudos from the Kremlin: Alleged anti-Communists Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for insulting the man who has been compared with Winston Churchill in resisting aggression.
Referring to the famous sweatshirt worn by Zelensky while addressing Congress, the Right-wing Carlson told his viewers: “As far as we know, no one’s ever addressed the United States Congress in a sweatshirt before, but they love him much more than they love you.”
Volodymyr Zelensky
President Of Ukraine from Україна, PDM-owner, via Wikimedia Commons
After Carlson said that Zelenskyy’s attire made him look like “the manager of a strip club,” Kremlin state TV mocked the Ukrainian president as “a man in cargo pants.”
Russian TV host and Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov said: “Congress members Gaetz and Boebert didn’t clap. They demonstratively remained seated and didn’t jump up. You can feel the fatigue in Washington over the boundless aid to Ukraine.”
After Zelensky’s speech, Gaetz wrote on Twitter: The Ukrainian leader should be “commended for putting his country first.” But American politicians “who indulge his requests are unwilling to do the same for ours.”
There was a time—from the end of World War II in 1945 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991—when any Democrat who was praised by Russian authorities was instantly labeled a “Commie,” “Comsymp” or “fellow-traveler” by Republicans.
No more.
Russians—led by Putin—now openly identify with the causes favored by the radical Right. And the Right has enthusiastically responded with gratitude.
On October 9, 2022, Putin expressed anti-gay/lesbian views after he annexed four Eastern Ukrainian regions as Russian territory.
“Do we want to have, here, in our country, in Russia, parent number one, number two, number three instead of mom and dad? Have they gone mad out there? Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on children in our schools from the primary grades?
“To be drummed into them that there are various supposed genders besides women and men, and to be offered a sex change operation? Do we want all this for our country and our children? For us, all this is unacceptable, we have a different future, our own future?”
Vladimir Putin
Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Ron DeSantis—the Florida Governor who has declared war on the state’s gays and lesbians—could not have said it better.
During the Trump administration, Republicans attacked gay marriage as a threat to families, religion, and social order. Republicans have tried to ban any discussion of gays and lesbians from schools and have falsely accused them of preying on heterosexuals like vampires.
Such rhetoric has paid off for Russia. In February, 2022, Steve Bannon, former advisor to Trump, said Americans should support “anti-woke” Putin because of Putin’s long history of anti-gay/lesbian politics
Bannon said that Russian people “still know which bathroom to use,” know that there are only two genders, they don’t fly Pride flags and “they don’t have boys swimming in girls’ college swim meets.”
“There is an attraction to Putin’s hardline authoritarian stance and his aggressive foreign policy,” said Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights.
“Others are attracted to the brand of traditionalist Christianity Putin has expressed. Some like Putin’s attacks on the Russian LGBTQ community.”
The topmost Republican to praise Putin has been Donald Trump—before and after he reached the Presidency. Despite insulting literally hundreds of people verbally and on Twitter, Trump has never given the slightest criticism of Putin.
Donald Trump
On the eve of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—on February 24, 2022—Trump told a gathering at his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida: “Putin is smart. He’s taken over a country for two dollars’ worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart.”
Another Right-winger to praise Russia and damn Ukraine has been Fox News host Tucker Carlson:
“Hating Putin has become the central purpose of America’s foreign policy …Very soon, that hatred of Vladimir Putin could bring the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe,.
“Before that happens, it might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?”
Part of Carlson’s segment was rebroadcast on Russian state television.
Putin has also received strong support from American evangelicals. During the 1990s, they began noticing Russia’s renewed embrace of Christianity in the aftermath of the Cold War.
“Russian leadership post-communism was embracing this idea of Russia as a Christian nation,” said Sarah Posner, author of UNHOLY: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.
Autocrats like Putin, she said, “are seen as model leaders now that America has become too liberal.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on February 3, 2023 at 12:15 am
On June 17, 2021, CNN headlined a story on its website: “Here’s Why Fighting the Affordable Care Act Means So Much to Republicans.”
It opened: “For the third time in the last nine years — and this time by a convincing 7-2 vote—the Supreme Court knocked out a Republican effort to invalidate” the Act.”
The Justices said that the challengers of the law did not have legal “standing” to bring the case.
Opponents of the law were not harmed by the provisions they were challenging, the Justices ruled. The reason: Congressional Republicans had eliminated the penalty for failing to buy health insurance.
The Supreme Court
The law now provides access to healthcare for 31 million Americans, who could not otherwise afford coverage.
In addition, the Act:
- Eliminates the “pre-existing condition” excuse insurance companies had used to deny coverage to those who most needed it.
- Provides a range of no-cost preventive services.
- Allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26.
- Expands the Medicaid program that insures lower-income people access to health insurance markets offering subsidized plans.
Why have Republicans pursued its demise so relentlessly?
The story outlined the reasons that sound good:
“For the GOP base, the ACA is about a view of the country that the government is the answer to all of our problems.
“It’s also tied into their lingering distaste for former President Barack Obama, whose name is literally melded with the law.
“And a belief that the media treated Obama’s ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan’ lie and the disastrous rollout (and repeated crashes) of the website allowing people to sign up for a plan with kid gloves because, well, bias.”
Let’s take a quick look at each of these points.
- Millions of Right-wingers hate the Federal Government and openly call for its overthrow. This they vividly demonstrated on January 6, 2021 when they tried to illegally retain Donald Trump as President. They hoped to prevent the selection of Joe Biden as the legitimately-elected President of the United States by storming the Capitol Building.
- Racism forms a major component of the GOP’s appeal to older, white, Right-wing voters. So having the name of the first black President unofficially stamped on the law (“Obamacare”) serves as a constant spur to their hatred.
Barack Obama
- Obama’s promise that “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan”: The promise backfired because the law stated that those who already had medical insurance could keep their plans—so long as those plans met the requirements of the new healthcare law. If their plans didn’t meet those requirements, they would have to obtain coverage that did.
Now for the real reason Republicans have furiously tried to destroy the Act—one that the writer did not mention.
And like so much else in the Republican agenda, it is rooted in the goals and methods of the Third Reich.
On June 22, 1941, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler sent three million soldiers smashing into the Soviet Union. During the first six months—June to December, 1941—German armies lured huge Soviet forces into gigantic “cauldron battles,” surrounding and exterminating them.
An estimated 5.7 million Russians became prisoners of the Wehrmacht. The Germans found themselves surprised and overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of them. But their mandate demanded that they keep marching ever forward.
So they simply imprisoned their captives behind barbed wire and wasted no food or medical care on them. Between starvation, illness and the brutal Russian cold, at least 3.5 million POWs died in custody.
Soviet POW’s
Republicans have learned a valuable lesson from this: If you simply deprive those you detest of food, clothing, shelter—and medical care—you don’t need gas chambers or firing squads. Or even rigged vote-counts.
This is, of course, a truth that Republicans refuse to admit—even as they pursue this goal.
On January 11, Iowa House Republicans introduced a bill to drastically eliminate the types of food available to people using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP provides food assistance to more than 41 million people with low or no income.
Under the proposed restrictions, the following staples would be forbidden:
- Fresh meats
- Flour
- Butter
- Cooking oil
- Frozen prepared foods
- Baked, refried or chili beans
- Sliced, cubed or crumbled cheese
- Salt
- Pepper
- Canned vegetables
- Fruit
- Soup
In lieu of fresh meats, Iowans would only be allowed to buy canned tuna or salmon.
Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley—who sponsored the bill–complained that the money allocated toward food security could be better spent on “other priorities.”
Those “other priorities” ignore the sharp rise in grocery prices owing to the conflict in Ukraine, climate change, the deadliest bird flu in American history, transportation costs and alleged supply chain disruptions.
Iowa isn’t alone in targeting SNAP. The GOP is doing so at a national level.
Most Americans—owing to naivety or historical ignorance—cannot accept that their politicians can be as evil as those in other nations.
Those who need food or medical care had better learn this truth quickly.
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In Entertainment, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on December 21, 2022 at 12:10 am
Euripides, the Greek tragedian, was right: “When good men die, their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them.“
Two deaths well illustrate the truth of this.
The first—of Rush Limbaugh—came on February 17, 2021.
The second—of Olivia Newton-John—came on August 10, 2022.
Limbaugh hosted The Rush Limbaugh Show, which was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.
Rush Limbaugh
With 15.5 million listeners, Limbaugh’s radio show was the most popular one in the United States. He became one of the most prominent Right-wing voices in the country during the 1990s.
Among his targets: Blacks; liberals; Democrats; gays; lesbians; feminists (whom he called “feminazis”); consent in sexual relations; environmentalism; climate change; abortion rights; Barack Obama; the need for masking and vaccinations against COVID-19.
Among the personalities and causes he championed: The 2003 Iraq war; torture at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison; eliminating taxes on the wealthy; smoking; Donald Trump;
His attack on Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown University law student who testified before Congress on February 23, 2012, was typical Limbaugh.
Fluke said that insurance companies should cover the costs of birth control. As a student at a Jesuit campus that refuses to provide insurance coverage for contraception, birth control costs can be as high as $3,000 during the three years a woman attends law school.
Limbaugh’s response: “So Ms. Fluke and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
Sandra Fluke was among the millions who didn’t mourn when Limbaugh died at 70 on February 17, 2021, of lung cancer caused by a lifetime of cigar smoking.
If the legacy of Rush Limbaugh was darkness personified, the legacy of Olivia Newton-John was one of sunshine and joy.
Olivia Newton-John
Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
She dominated the pop charts of the 1970s and ’80s with mega hits “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “I Honestly Love You,” “Have You Never Been Mellow?” “Magic,” and “Physical.”
Vanity Fair described her thus: “Her angelic beam matched with a clear, sweet-yet-supple soprano was vocal satin, giving her a versatile edge in singing feel-good numbers across genres and styles.”
But her biggest splash came in “Grease,” the top-grossing movie for 1978, where she co-starred with John Travolta. Her role as Sandy, an Australian exchange student, brought her international acclaim and further propelled her musical career. The movie’s soundtrack remains one of the world’s best-selling albums.
“I don’t think anyone could have imagined a movie would go on almost 40 years and would still be popular and people would still be talking to me about it all the time and loving it,” Newton-John said in 2017.
She won four Grammy awards and racked up five number-one hits and another 10 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Having sold more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the most popular singers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
“I love to sing, it’s all I know how to do,” she told CNN in 2017. “That’s all I’ve ever done since I was 15, so it’s my life. I feel very grateful that I can still do it and people still come to see me.”
An animal-rights advocate, she cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets.
Among the charities and foundations she supported: Cure Breast Cancer, Red Cross, Healthy Child Healthy World, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was a performer on the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert for the UN’s International Year of the Child, televised worldwide.
Behind her bright smile and sunny disposition lay the shadow of tragedy. In 2005 Newton-John’s then-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, disappeared at sea while on a fishing trip off the coast of California.
“It’s very hard to live with that,” she told CNN’s Larry King in 2006. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been through a lot of things.”
In 1992, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She recovered, but for more than 40 years she lived with the constant threat of its return.
“I draw strength from the millions of women who have faced this challenge successfully,” she said in a statement. “This has been detected early because I’ve had regular examinations, so I encourage other women to do the same.”
Then, in May 2017, she announced that the cancer had returned and metastasized to her lower back.
Asked during a February 2021 interview if she had contemplated her own death, she replied, “I have quite a few times,” adding it was “sooner than I would have wanted. I mean—we all know we are going to die. I think we spend our lives probably much in denial of it.”
On August 8, 2022, Olivia Newton-John died from cancer at her home in the Santa Ynez Valley of California. She was 73.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on December 16, 2022 at 12:55 am
There are five reasons why millions of Americans refuse to wear masks during a deadly pandemic:
- A feeling of solidarity against authority.
- “If liberals do it, it’s fascistic.”
- Rejection of the death-toll caused by COVID-19.
- Disdain for education in general—and science in particular.
- Religious fanaticism.
To these must be added:
Sixth: Hypocrisy. Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, the Right has demanded that even women who are pregnant due to rape or incest carry the fetus to term.
Yet now that Right-wingers are being asked to wear masks in public—to protect themselves and others from a deadly plague—they’ve suddenly discovered the mantra: “It’s my body!”
Seventh: Identifying with Donald Trump. Trump has made it clear that his followers don’t wear masks. And they have fallen into line, refusing to mask up even in crowded, indoor arenas where infection is most likely.
As winter approaches, more than 80% of hospital beds in the United States are filled—with patients suffering from COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a common virus that causes lung infections.
Nearly 26,000 people were admitted to hospitals with the flu during the week ending December 3, an increase of 32% compared with the week prior.
Hospitalizations of people with Covid have increased about 14% week over week, to more than 4,800 admissions per day on average.
Yet many people refuse to mask up.
During the initial spread of COVID-19, fights erupted before mask-less and mask-wearing customers—and sometimes store employees—who asked them to put on a mask before entering.
- Two men were arrested for felony battery after starting a fight with employees at a Los Angeles Target store over wearing masks inside the store.
- A woman entered Curbside Eatery in La Mesa, California, without a mask, pulling her T-shirt over her face. When the owner told her to mask up or leave, the woman yelled: “This is ridiculous! You’re discriminating against me!’ and threatened a lawsuit.
- In a Costco in Fort Myers, Florida, a masked man asked an unmasked customer to wear a mask. The unmasked man screamed that he was being harassed: “I feel threatened!”
On February 2, 2021, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) required all airline travelers to wear masks. By December, the TSA had logged more than 4,100 mask-related air-rage incidents.
So: How should those who refuse to wear a mask—and thus present a clear and present danger to others—be dealt with?
Ideally, President Joe Biden could issue a mandatory emergency order requiring everyone to wear a mask when in public. But the President lacks the legal authority to do so.
Governors, mayors and business owners should issue emergency orders mandating the wearing of masks in public. And these orders should be forcibly backed up by the following:
- Stop stressing that a mask will protect others from “you.” Most people don’t care about strangers. Emphasize that wearing a mask will protect “you and your family” from others.
- Don’t give tickets to mask-evaders. They will simply ignore them—or consider them a cheap price for going without a mask.
- Major retailers should hire professional guards to arrest mask-evaders—and turn them over to police.
- Police should arrest everyone not wearing a mask in public and jail them—without bond—until the plague is over.
- Create tip hotlines for reporting mask-evaders.
- Offer rewards for tips that lead to arrests.
- Police and prosecutors should publicize these arrests and jailings—to warn other potential mask-evaders.
- Arrest, prosecute and imprison Right-wingers who openly display and/or threaten unarmed civilians with firearms.
- Above all: Stop admitting the unmasked and unvaccinated to hospitals. Forcing them to pay the price for their irresponsible behavior will end hospital overcrowding.
It was the failure of German police and courts to abort Right-wing violence during the Weimar Republic that led to even greater violence through the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party.
This is how United States authorities dealt with “Typhoid Mary” Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938).
Mary Mallon
An Irish-born cook, she was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever and is believed to have infected 53 people, three of whom died. Because she persisted in working as a cook, she exposed others to the disease.
As a result, she was twice forcibly quarantined by authorities, and died after a total of nearly 30 years in isolation at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island, in New York City.
Laws are useless if citizens believe they are unfairly or unpredictably enforced. As Niccolo Machiavelli warns in his classic work, The Discourses:
All those who have written upon civil institutions demonstrate…that whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
If their evil disposition remains concealed for a time, it must be attributed to some unknown reason; and we must assume that it lacked occasion to show itself. But time, which has been said to be the father of all truth, does not fail to bring it to light.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on December 15, 2022 at 12:10 am
Not only did President Donald Trump refuse to wear a mask, but he suspected the loyalty of his staffers and Republican allies who didn’t follow his mask-less example.
On April 28, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence toured the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Pence, who led the White House task force on the virus, refused to wear a mask, even though all the officials and medical personnel clustered around him did.
Pence even visited with a patient who had survived the Coronavirus and was going to give blood.
Mike Pence at the Mayo Clinic
Few White House aides wore masks, although they claimed that Trump hadn’t told them not to wear them. Some Republican allies asked Trump’s campaign how they would be seen by Trump if he saw them wearing a mask.
“It’s a vanity thing, I guess, with him,” Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, said. “You’d think, as the President of the United States, you would have the confidence to honor the guidance he’s giving the country.”
By refusing to wear a mask, Trump convinced untold numbers of Americans—mostly Right-wing males—that ignoring the dangers of Coronavirus was the manly thing to do.
(On July 20, 2020, he tweeted an image of himself wearing a mask and called it “patriotic” to wear one. Hours later, however, he appeared without a mask at a fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington.)
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for President, often appeared in public wearing a mask. During a June 26, 2020 television interview he said that, if he were elected President, he would require wearing face masks in public to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.
“The one thing we do know—these masks make a gigantic difference,” Biden said. “I would insist that everybody out in public be wearing that mask.”
Yet even in states such as California and New York, where that was required, many people still refused to do so.
From May 5 to May 12, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveyed 4,042 adults throughout the country on wearing masks. The agency found that 60.3% of respondents said they always wore a mask when out in public. Another 13.8% said they often wore a mask in public.
But 17.1% said they either rarely or never wore a mask in public.
The CDC found that women were more likely than men to say they always wore a mask in public.
CDC headquarters in Atlanta
There are several reasons why people refuse to wear masks.
First: A feeling of solidarity. According to David Abrams, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU School of Global Public Health: People who don’t wear masks may see it as a sign of solidarity, as if they are taking a stand against authority.
Second: “If liberals do it, it’s fascistic.” Many mask protesters accuse those who wear masks of being fascists. This is a hallmark of Right-wing politics—accusing their opponents of being what they are themselves.
Third: They have utterly rejected the rising death-toll caused by the virus. They claim stories of such deaths are mere “fake news”—the term Trump uses to dismiss any news stories that highlight his mistakes and criminality.
Fourth: Republicans disdain education in general—and science in particular. In March, 2020, an NBC News poll found that only 30% of Republicans said that they would actually listen to the advice of doctors to stay away from large, crowded areas to avoid Coronavirus.
These are the same people who get their version of reality from Right-wing sources like Fox News Network and radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh
On his March 27, 2020 show, Limbaugh—grotesquely fat, suffering from impotence, usually wreathed in polluted cigar smoke—posed as a medical authority.
He dismissed Coronavirus as “the common cold,” then added: “We didn’t elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don’t know.
“And how do we know they’re even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they’ve been in the job for a while, and they’re at the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and they’re at the NIH [National Institutes of Health] and they’re up, well—yeah, they’ve been there, and they are there.
“But has there been any job assessment for them? They’re just assumed to be the best because they’re in government. But, these are all kinds of things that I’ve been questioning.”
In 2015, Limbaugh said: “Firsthand smoke takes 50 years to kill people, if it does. Not everybody that smokes gets cancer. Now, it’s true that everybody who smokes dies, but so does everyone who eats carrots.”
Six years later, on February 17, 2021, Limbaugh—a longtime and heavy cigar smoker—died from Stage Four lung cancer.
Fifth: Religious Fanaticism. Many fundamentalist Christians believe that their faith in Jesus will protect them against COVID-19. They continue to attend services indoors in defiance of CDC warnings by meeting in large numbers indoors.
A female member of the Solid Red Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, told CNN: “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I’m covered in Jesus’ blood. I’m covered in Jesus’ blood.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on December 14, 2022 at 12:21 am
The United States is now entering its third year of COVID-19. As of December 7, 2022, the number of cases stood at 99 million. More than one million Americans have died.
Wearing a mask and “social distancing”—keeping at least six feet between yourself and others while in public—have been the Golden Rules urged by public health officials from the pandemic’s start.
And yet vast numbers of Americans still refuse to do either. Just as they refuse to get vaccinated, despite three vaccines now widely available.
Surgical mask
In the early weeks and months of the pandemic, cloth face masks weren’t universally endorsed, even by public health experts.
“One, we didn’t know whether they were actually helpful, and two, there was a lot of concern that if people were using medical masks then people like myself, were not going to have access to them,” said Dr. Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.
No less an authority than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said in March, 2020, that “people should not be walking around with masks.”
Only in early June, 2020, did the World Health Organization (WHO) urge non-healthcare workers to mask up. The WHO advised people to don masks when social distancing was not possible, such as when visiting stores and using public transportation.
According to Dr. Jeremy Faust, the change in attitudes toward masks should be seen as the nature of science, and not as a flaw.
“That is what experts, in fact, do. They don’t just have an opinion and stick to it,” said Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts. “They actually let their opinions develop and evolve as better information becomes available.”
Only in January, 2022, did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urge Americans to wear N95 masks—the most effective ones available.
In 2020, the CDC had urged Americans to not use N95s. The reason: They feared this would create a shortage of these masks for doctors, nurses and paramedics working closely with COVID patients.
N95 mask
Scientists have learned, for example, that COVID-19 can be spread by those who show no symptom of the disease. And mounting evidence has proven that masks are essential for protecting people from the virus.
Coronavirus is spread by respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks—especially if large numbers of people are packed indoors. The danger goes up if the talker is shouting or singing loudly.
If not blocked by a face covering, the droplets can travel six to 13 feet, and can remain airborne for hours in some cases.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that some masks were more effective than others. One study showed that well-fitted homemade masks with multiple layers of fabric, as well as off-the-shelf cone style masks, were the most effective in reducing droplet dispersal.
Bandannas turned out to be the least effective in reducing transmission.
Coronavirus
So why do so many Americans refuse to wear a mask?
Start at the top: With Donald Trump, the former President of the United States.
From the outset, Trump refused to wear a mask in public.
A colossal egotist, Trump is orange-skinned, morbidly obese and lacking a neck. Yet he still thinks of himself as dangerously handsome. And he feared that covering his face would diminish his power and appeal.
“Appearing to play it safe contradicts a core principle of masculinity: show no weakness,” wrote social sciences professor Peter Glick at Scientific American magazine. “Defying experts’ warnings about personal danger signals ‘I’m a tough guy, bring it on.’”
On May 21, 2020, Trump refused to wear a face mask as he toured a Ford facility in Michigan that was manufacturing ventilators and personal protective equipment. This violated the policies of the facility, the governor’s executive order and warnings from the state’s attorney general.
After a three-month nationwide “lockdown,” states began “reopening.” So Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It was held on June 20 at the BOK Center. Scientists had learned that Coronavirus is more likely to be transmitted indoors than outdoors, when masses of people are packed together, and when people are loudly talking—or, worse, shouting.
Masks were available for those who wanted them. But Trump made it clear that his supporters shouldn’t wear masks, as a sign of support for him. Photos of the rally show men and women densely packed together, with none of them wearing masks.
A Trump rally
The Tulsa event was followed by another indoor rally in Phoenix on June 23. “Students for Trump” featured a packed crowd, with almost no one wearing masks.
After staging COVID-spreading rallies at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Phoenix, Arizona, Trump scheduled another one for July 3 at Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota.
Such rallies had been put on hold since March, due to the issuing of stay-at-home orders across the country by states’ mayors and governors.
Health experts expressed fears about a large gathering during the Coronavirus pandemic. But South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said people would “not be social distancing” during the celebration—nor required to wear masks.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on November 30, 2022 at 12:15 am
As it now operates, Facebook poses a direct threat to the First Amendment, the privacy of its users and democratic elections.
Facebook is the world’s largest social media company. Its social and political influence on the United States is enormous. According to its profile on Wikipedia:
“The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.
“Facebook has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech. Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content as well as exaggerating its number of users to appeal to advertisers.”
To which can be added the following:
- I was sentenced to “Facebook Jail” for two posts. The first of these stated: “Americans are historical illiterates.” This was labeled “hate speech and inferiority.” The fact that the distinguished historian David McCullough had said exactly the same meant nothing to Facebook.
- A second post deleted showed a group of heavily-armed Proud Boys standing around a cross. Above this I had posted the caption: “Proud Boys posing with their latest victim.” This was labeled as “hate speech.”
- Since this post was bluntly critical of the Proud Boys, the question emerges: Does criticizing the Proud Boys—Fascists who played a major role during the January 6 attempted coup against the Capitol Building—constitute “hate speech”?
Proud Boys
Anthony Crider, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- I am currently banned from Facebook for posting the following: A Facebook member had posted this solution for achieving universal peace: All enlisted members of all the world’s militaries should refuse to serve. In 2002-3, I had watched President George W. Bush lie the country into a needless, bloody, budget-busting war in Iraq. Thus, I felt the poster’s “solution” required a serious dose of realism.
- So I posted a meme below that contained an image of Herman Goring—chief of the German Luftwaffe (air force) during World War II. As a convicted war criminal, he should, I felt, have insight into how easy it is to lead a nation into war.
- And he did: “Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in every country.”
- No sooner had I posted this than I found myself once again accused of violating Facebook’s “Community Standards.” As in past cases, Facebook did not deign to state, specifically, what standards I had violated, or how the post endangered other Facebook members. I simply found myself blocked from Facebook.
- Facebook has made its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, worth $40.7 billion. Yet he refuses to provide Facebook users with an 800 number—or even an Instant Messaging service—so they can appeal directly to the Censorship Committee and share their reasons for posting the comments they did.
- And there’s absolutely no point in writing to Zuckerberg or any of his thralls at the corporate address of 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025. With the sheer arrogance only a true billionaire can exude, Zuckerberg refuses to answer (or even open) his mail.
- Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, disclosed tens of thousands of Facebook’s internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Wall Street Journal in 2021. She testified before Congress that Facebook promotes conflict to increase its readership and keep them reading—and buying. So the comment I made fell exactly into that category of exciting controversy.
People who libel and/or harass others should be banned from social media. It’s precisely because Twitter refuses to do so that its reputation is fatally tainted.
But posting a comment that is based on accurate history should not qualify as hate speech. And none of the examples I have cited fits that definition.
Through its worldwide membership, Facebook exerts an influence that rivals—if not exceeds—that of most government institutions. Its greatest infamy: Allowing Russian trolls to play a lethal role in electing Donald Trump President in 2016. And no doubt they are preparing to do so again in 2024.
In a highly polarized political environment, Mark Zuckerberg holds the unique distinction of having infuriated both Democrats and Republicans during his appearances before Congress. His secret: The overweening arrogance he routinely displays to those he considers lesser mortals. His motto is: ““Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.”
It’s long past time for those at the legislative level to show him that some things—such as the First Amendment, the right to privacy and elections free of foreign influence—should not be broken. And that there is a high price to pay for those who do.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Politics, Social commentary on November 29, 2022 at 12:14 am
There is an urgent need for states—and especially the Federal government—to impose serious regulatory controls on Facebook.
Facebook is the world’s largest social media company, with 2.934 billion users by July, 2022. Its social and political influence on the United States is enormous. According to its profile on Wikipedia:
“The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.
“Posts originating from the Facebook page of Breitbart News, a media organization previously affiliated with Cambridge Analytica, are currently among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.
“Facebook has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech. Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content as well as exaggerating its number of users to appeal to advertisers.”
Facebook / Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California
LPS.1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
To which should be added the following:
- Facebook operates as virtually a law unto itself, arbitrarily deciding which posts violate its “Community Standards” and deleting them (and their posters) without warning and right to appeal.
- No details are ever given as to what about the post, specifically, posed a threat to other Facebook members.
- Facebook claims that its users have the right to appeal: “You can disagree with the decision if you think we got it wrong.”
- But then Facebook declares: “We usually offer the chance to request a review and follow up if we got the decision wrong. We have fewer reviewers available right now because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We’re trying hard to priorities reviewing content with the most potential for harm. This means we may not be able to follow up with you, though your feedback helps us do better in the future.”
- Using COVID as an excuse to avoid responsible behavior is despicable. If Facebook is going to ban people for supposedly violating its “Community Standards,” there is a moral obligation—if not a legal one—to give them a chance to share their side of the story.
- Facebook revenues have made its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, worth $71.5 billion. But Facebook refuses to provide its users with an 800 number so they can appeal directly to the Censorship Committee and share their reasons for posting the comments they did.
Mark Zuckerberg
Anthony Quintano from Westminster, United States, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- Nor does Facebook provide even an Instant Messaging capability, so members can do so.
- Facebook’s refusal to provide a contact number for its members exposes them to potential fraud. National Public Radio published a January 31, 2017 article on “Searching for ‘Facebook Customer Service’ Can Lead To a Scam.”
- According to Google data: “‘Facebook customer service’ gets searched, on average, about 27,000 times a month in the U.S.” Yet on its own “Help Community” page, Facebook admits: “Facebook doesn’t offer a phone number for support.”
- Nor do Facebook’s executives deign to respond to letters sent to them. I have sent letters to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and to Sheryl Sandberg, a member of its board of directors. Neither had the courtesy to reply.
- Many of those I know on Facebook have been censored for posts that criticize Donald Trump. Apparently, “freedom of expression” exists only for those who support a man who staged an illegal coup to overturn a totally legitimate election.
- Members can be banned from Facebook for posting entirely legitimate news stories. One such story described how Texas Congressman Joe Burton had sent a series of smarmy emails to numerous women—while posing as a paragon of “family values.”
- The post was removed and its poster was sent the following message: “We removed content you posted. We removed this content because it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.” Then the member who posted it found himself blocked from Facebook.
- One Facebook member posted an innocuous anti-Trump cartoon: A group of children are lined up at a house on Halloween. A woman at the door says: “Oh, look. We have a pirate, a witch and a Trump supporter [a boy wearing a white sheet as a ghost].” The post was removed and the poster blocked from Facebook:
- Many Facebook users have found themselves punished after Facebook’s star chamber censors found a post they didn’t like from four years earlier.
- Facebook’s arbitrary and punitive actions are so notorious they have become grist for countless memes—some of which are hilarious: “Warning: You have violated a rule we haven’t made up yet. Because you’re a known troublemaker you’ve been banned for 30 days. Thank you for using Facebook, have a nice day.”
- I was sentenced to “Facebook Jail” for two posts. The first of these stated: “Americans are historical illiterates.” This was labeled “hate speech and inferiority.” The fact that the distinguished historian David McCullough had said exactly the same meant nothing to Facebook.
- Taken to its logical conclusion, only comments celebrating the ignorance of ignorant people will be considered acceptable on Facebook.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on November 25, 2022 at 12:36 am
“I’ve chosen this life. I know what it is. There are things about it that sometimes are disturbing. But you just focus on the job you have to do. And just put all that other stuff aside.””
The speaker wasn’t a longtime Mafia enforcer turned-State’s-witness. He was Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
And he was speaking with an NBC News reporter about death threats he had received.
At 81, Fauci is getting the sort of protection reserved for organized crime witnesses through the Justice Department’s Witness Security Program.
Dr. Anthony Fauci
The U.S. Marshals Service has deputized nine officers from the Department of Health and Human Services as bodyguards for Fauci.
So what has this man—who has dedicated his entire adult life to protecting Americans against infectious diseases—done to require such protection?
He has merely spoken the hard medical truth about Coronavirus. In doing so, he has at times contradicted former President Donald Trump’s ignorance- and lie-riddled statements.
For example: Trump has loudly touted hydroxychloroquine, used for treating malaria, as a miracle cure for the Coronavirus.
Yet Fauci has dared to point out there have been no scientific trials of the drug for its effectiveness against Coronavirus. Moreover, given the medical condition of some patients, it could even prove fatal.
Statements like this have infuriated Trump’s base of—at best—half-educated fans.
During the 2016 Presidential race, after winning the Nevada primary, Trump infamously celebrated his victory: “We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”
A February 24, 2016 USA Today story covering this event carried the headline: “Donald Trump loves the poorly educated—and they love him.”
And at the bottom of the story came this warning: “Some—journalists, mostly—noted that Trump’s proud embrace of poorly less educated voters and the resulting shock may only cause those less educated voters to embrace Trump all the more.”
And they do.
There has been a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans on the merits of higher education.
An August 20, 2019 story in Forbes noted that a Pew Research survey, conducted in July, had found that “67% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents say higher education is having a positive effect on the country compared to only 33% of Republicans and Republican-leaning participants.”
Furthermore, “the percentage of Republicans attributing a positive effect to higher education has steadily eroded from 58% (2010), 53% (2012), 54% (2015), 43% (2016), and 36% (2017). Among Republicans, 59% now say higher education has a negative effect on the U.S., compared to just 18% of Democrats.”
This disdain for education in general—and science in particular—has led to the following: In March, 2020, an NBC News poll found that only 30% of Republicans said that they would actually listen to the advice of doctors to stay away from large, crowded areas to avoid Coronavirus.
These are the same people who get their version of reality from Right-wing sources like Fox News Network and Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh
On his March 27, 2020 show, Limbaugh dismissed Coronavirus as “the common cold,” then added: “We didn’t elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don’t know.
“And how do we know they’re even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they’ve been in the job for a while, and they’re at the CDC and they’re at the NIH, and they’re up, well—yeah, they’ve been there, and they are there.
“But has there been any job assessment for them? They’re just assumed to be the best because they’re in government. But, these are all kinds of things that I’ve been questioning.”
This is the same Rush Limbaugh who said, in 2015: “Firsthand smoke takes 50 years to kill people, if it does. Not everybody that smokes gets cancer. Now, it’s true that everybody who smokes dies, but so does everyone who eats carrots.”
Five years later, in February, 2020, Limbaugh—a longtime and heavy cigar smoker—announced that he had Stage Four lung cancer. He died on February 17, 2021.
And then there is former President Trump—and his chorus of cheerleaders.
On February 25, 2020, Kayleigh McEnany, his fourth press secretary in three years, said on Fox Business: “This President will always put America first. He will always protect American citizens. We will not see diseases like the Coronavirus come here.”
During February and March, she repeatedly downplayed the threat of the disease, even as it spread across the United States.
These, then, are the types of “reliable sources” that millions of Right-wingers take as gospel—while dismissing the warnings of the medical profession as erroneous or, worse, products of a liberal conspiracy.
And by daring to contradict such blatant ignorance—if not outright lies—Dr. Anthony Fauci has made himself a target for Right-wing hatred and death threats.
Their hatred for Fauci proves once again the correctness of Ernest Hemingway’s definition of Fascism: “Fascism is a lie told by bullies.”
By the time Trump left office—on January 20, 2021—more than 400,000 Americans had died of COVID-19.
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TO FIGHT EVIL, YOU MUST FIRST ACKNOWLEDGE IT
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 8, 2023 at 12:10 amThe two most murderous tyrants in the twentieth century—Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler—received unexpected cooperation from their victims.
Confronted with the titanic crimes of their persecutors, millions of otherwise intelligent men and women couldn’t believe anyone—even Stalin or Hitler—could be so diabolically evil.
Millions of Jews knew that Hitler had made them pariahs in their own country, subject to arrest and deportation to eastern ghettos. Yet they refused to believe he intended to exterminate every trace of European Jewry.
Adolf Hitler
Similarly, millions of Russians knew that, under Stalin, untold numbers of innocent men and women had been arrested and much of Ukraine had been condemned to starvation through his forced collectivization policies. Yet they refused to believe that Stalin was responsible for this.
Surely, they felt, it was those around Stalin—such as Lavrenti P. Beria, the notorious chief of the secret police, the NKVD—who were responsible for such horrific crimes. “They don’t tell Stalin,” went the pathetic cry.
Joseph Stalin
But Russia and Germany are not the only countries where people refuse to accept the bitter truth about their leaders.
The vast majority of Americans believe that the United States is an “exceptional” nation whose leaders are guided by God. Mormons, for example, believe that the Constitution is a divinely-inspired document.
Thus, most Americans reject the idea that American politicians—especially those on the Right—could ever indulge in the sort of corruptions and atrocities of other world leaders.
On January 11, Iowa House Republicans introduced a bill to drastically eliminate the types of food available to people using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP provides food assistance to more than 41 million people with low or no income.
Under the proposed restrictions, the following staples would be forbidden:
In lieu of fresh meats, Iowans would only be allowed to buy canned tuna or salmon.
The bill would also make it harder for needy persons to qualify for SNAP.
Families would be barred if they had more than $2,750, or $4,250 if someone with a disability or over the age of 60 lives in their family.
Ownership of only one vehicle would be allowed, thus excluding families with two cars.
“It’s almost like we’re trying to make sure that these people don’t get ahead,” said state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell. “I think the job of SNAP is to try and lift people up while they’re down and try and help them get ahead, not take away what they already have, what little they have.”
Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley—who sponsored the bill—complained: “It’s these entitlement programs. They’re the ones that are growing within the budget and are putting pressure on us being able to fund other priorities.”
Pat Grassley
Those “other priorities” ignore the sharp rise in grocery prices owing to the conflict in Ukraine, climate change, the deadliest bird flu in American history, transportation costs and alleged supply chain disruptions.
Iowa isn’t alone in targeting SNAP. The GOP is doing so at a national level.
And yet there are those, even among the most ardent opponents of the proposed bill, who can’t believe the worst of the men supporting it.
One of these is Luke Elzinga, chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition.
“I don’t think the 39 co-sponsors of this bill know just how restrictive this is, and that it would ban meat,” he said. “Under this bill, no ground beef, no chicken, no pork in the state of Iowa. I just can’t believe that they knew that was what it was when the bill was introduced.”
Of course they knew. That’s why they’re fiercely supporting this legislation.
Their support is grounded in history—the history of Nazi Germany.
On June 22, 1941, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler sent three million soldiers smashing into the Soviet Union. During the first six months—June to December, 1941—German armies lured huge Soviet forces into gigantic “cauldron battles,” surrounding and exterminating them.
An estimated 5.7 million prisoners of war fell into German hands. The Germans found themselves surprised and overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of them. But their mandate demanded that they keep marching ever forward.
So they simply imprisoned their captives behind barbed wire and wasted no food or medical care on them. Between starvation, illness and the brutal Russian cold, at least 3.5 million POWs died in captivity.
Soviet POW’s
Republicans have learned a valuable lesson from this: If you simply deprive those you detest of food, clothing, shelter—and medical care—you don’t need gas chambers or firing squads. Or rigged vote-counts.
That’s why, to this day, Republicans are still trying to abolish “Obamacare”—the Affordable Care Act.
Yet Democrats are too naive and/or cowardly to publicly admit this.
Ironically, Democrats could learn a lesson from Ronald Reagan, who dared brand the Soviet Union as “an evil empire.”
His description of Soviet leaders now applies to those of his own party: “The only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat.”
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