“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision this morning to boot the two Jims from her January 6 select committee was quite the power play. . .”
“The upshot of McCarthy’s decision to withdraw all his nominees from the Jan 6th committee is that the committee will only include people who want to investigate the insurrection. It would have been a mistake not to allow the Republicans to be represented on the committee. But having refused good faith participation, Republicans not being there is a good thing. It’s good that Liz Cheney is there. It would be good if there were other Republicans who were actually in support of a real investigation were there. But McCarthy won’t allow that. So here we are. This is the best outcome.”
The Republican party is on life-support, not unlike the COVID victims who beg for the vaccine just before they are intubated. It is very difficult living without a sense of time and order, unless there is someone giving minute directions. Democracy is based on the presumption that every person has the full complement of common senses. They don't. Republicans are desperate for leadership, even if it takes them over a cliff.
I suspect it is the Republican's belated realization that their vaccine trashing is killing their own voters in massive numbers. They're the ones who turned it into a political issue rather than a medical one. Democrats, being more intelligent (of course) got the vaccine, Republicans, who are not so smart and demonstrate it gladly, did not. Now they're dying and Fox and the Republicans are horrified. They have gleefully destroyed the means of their own survival.
I rather like Marx's application of Hegel's philosophy to political and economic power, that whatever group gains predominant power in a society engenders its own opposition, and therefore its own destruction (or at least amalgamation). Thesis engenders antithesis, which results in synthesis, which engenders a new antithesis, and so on. I sometimes wonder what Marx might have accomplished had he lived longer; not long before he passed away he began work on the problem of what to do when machines take over all the work.
It sort of depends on how you define work. If it is restricted to uniform use of physical energy to produce uniform products, then humans will merely be relieved. If products are to be diverse and unique, humans will have to be employed developing designs. However, I am just rereading Veblen and I am struck by the extent to which economic thinking is male-centered. Male is talking about sabotage being a useful meritorious strategy to be used by employers and workers without giving any consideration to the fact that people have to eat every day. It's as if industrial production were just an alternative to the military or priestly profession.
Witnessing England’s response to Covid at first hand has profoundly shocked me [Click] “On a visit to the UK from the US, I have seen how incoherent government policy is allowing Delta to run rampant. . . William Hanage is a Harvard epidemiology professor.” That certainly isn’t confined to the UK. Vaccination rates remain less than 50% here, and mask guidance is a mish-mash.
Yes but, in my view, the focus on hospitalizations as a significant metric was a mistake from the beginning. In the absence of comprehensive health care system, we have had a large population that have run to the emergency room for every little thing because they had to be seen. So, increased hospital use did not impress the fairly comfortable who are used to getting the flu and taking a few days off work. People found dead in their homes did not get a lot of press. People who got a mild case felt validated and gave not a thought to how many people they infected.
SECOND UPDATE (THURSDAY): He’s out of the hospital, and they seem to be pretending he doesn’t need to do anything else. I could spit nails, but my vote doesn’t count. It truly is out of my hands. So I’ll just wait, put my two cents in from time to time and hope hope hope.
Thanks for all the love, prayers, good thoughts and light--seems to have worked so far, and yes, I feel it! <3
Hoping all continues to go well. I have read that once you are a mother you know what it is to have your heart walking around outside your body. Sure seems true to me.
Thanks for the update, puddle. Heaven knows we would willingly give an arm or a leg for one of our kids, but all too often there just isn't anything we can do that would be helpful beyond just being there for them. And that just doesn't seem like enough.
From Talking Points Memo:
ReplyDelete“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision this morning to boot the two Jims from her January 6 select committee was quite the power play. . .”
“The upshot of McCarthy’s decision to withdraw all his nominees from the Jan 6th committee is that the committee will only include people who want to investigate the insurrection. It would have been a mistake not to allow the Republicans to be represented on the committee. But having refused good faith participation, Republicans not being there is a good thing. It’s good that Liz Cheney is there. It would be good if there were other Republicans who were actually in support of a real investigation were there. But McCarthy won’t allow that. So here we are. This is the best outcome.”
Yeah…but he says they’re going to do their own investigation. A shadow government…? It’s just going to Fam the divisions.
Delete*fan
DeleteThe Republican party is on life-support, not unlike the COVID victims who beg for the vaccine just before they are intubated. It is very difficult living without a sense of time and order, unless there is someone giving minute directions. Democracy is based on the presumption that every person has the full complement of common senses. They don't.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are desperate for leadership, even if it takes them over a cliff.
I suspect it is the Republican's belated realization that their vaccine trashing is killing their own voters in massive numbers. They're the ones who turned it into a political issue rather than a medical one. Democrats, being more intelligent (of course) got the vaccine, Republicans, who are not so smart and demonstrate it gladly, did not. Now they're dying and Fox and the Republicans are horrified. They have gleefully destroyed the means of their own survival.
ReplyDeleteEvil always sows the seeds of its own destruction.
DeleteI rather like Marx's application of Hegel's philosophy to political and economic power, that whatever group gains predominant power in a society engenders its own opposition, and therefore its own destruction (or at least amalgamation). Thesis engenders antithesis, which results in synthesis, which engenders a new antithesis, and so on. I sometimes wonder what Marx might have accomplished had he lived longer; not long before he passed away he began work on the problem of what to do when machines take over all the work.
DeleteIt sort of depends on how you define work. If it is restricted to uniform use of physical energy to produce uniform products, then humans will merely be relieved. If products are to be diverse and unique, humans will have to be employed developing designs.
DeleteHowever, I am just rereading Veblen and I am struck by the extent to which economic thinking is male-centered. Male is talking about sabotage being a useful meritorious strategy to be used by employers and workers without giving any consideration to the fact that people have to eat every day. It's as if industrial production were just an alternative to the military or priestly profession.
Witnessing England’s response to Covid at first hand has profoundly shocked me [Click] “On a visit to the UK from the US, I have seen how incoherent government policy is allowing Delta to run rampant. . . William Hanage is a Harvard epidemiology professor.” That certainly isn’t confined to the UK. Vaccination rates remain less than 50% here, and mask guidance is a mish-mash.
ReplyDeleteI saw a report that coronavirus hospitalizations are increasing locally. Small wonder.
DeleteHere’s the story, without graphs.
DeleteYes but, in my view, the focus on hospitalizations as a significant metric was a mistake from the beginning. In the absence of comprehensive health care system, we have had a large population that have run to the emergency room for every little thing because they had to be seen. So, increased hospital use did not impress the fairly comfortable who are used to getting the flu and taking a few days off work. People found dead in their homes did not get a lot of press. People who got a mild case felt validated and gave not a thought to how many people they infected.
DeleteI take hospitalizations to be a better metric than positive tests, because so few people are tested.
DeleteWhy the Delta Variant Spread So Quickly [Click] Far heavier viral load; I wonder if this explains the severe cases in younger patients.
ReplyDelete[Some] Anti-Vaccine Groups [Evade] Detection on Facebook [Click]
ReplyDeleteLast year in Ohio on this date there were 78,742 recorded cases of COVID-19. Today there are 1,119,298 cases in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteNYT: NASA Releases First Detailed Map of the Insides of Mars [Click]
ReplyDeleteSame story on SFGate.com [Click] No paywall
DeleteSacramento Bee: ‘It is frightening.’ Major Sacramento hospital braces for surge as COVID cases soar [Click] Looks like the early stages of an exponential increase.
ReplyDeleteLatest COVID hospitalization rates in Fresno-area counties [Click]
DeleteIn a unanimous ruling, Missouri high court says Medicaid expansion ‘valid’ [Click]
ReplyDeleteCalifornia prepares to bury 10,000 miles of power lines as wildfires force new evacuations [Click] PG&E has fought against burying big power lines for a long time, but they have a new CEO.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSECOND UPDATE (THURSDAY): He’s out of the hospital, and they seem to be pretending he doesn’t need to do anything else. I could spit nails, but my vote doesn’t count. It truly is out of my hands. So I’ll just wait, put my two cents in from time to time and hope hope hope.
Thanks for all the love, prayers, good thoughts and light--seems to have worked so far, and yes, I feel it! <3
Hoping all continues to go well. I have read that once you are a mother you know what it is to have your heart walking around outside your body. Sure seems true to me.
DeleteThanks for the update, puddle. Heaven knows we would willingly give an arm or a leg for one of our kids, but all too often there just isn't anything we can do that would be helpful beyond just being there for them. And that just doesn't seem like enough.
Delete