TO COMMENT CLICK HERE
welcome to reality trivia
reality is the state of things as they actually exist
may 19, 2022
Real News Today
*TRUMP TAINTS PENNSYLVANIA GOP SENATE PRIMARY WITH FRESH FRAUD LIES
(Amerikkkans)
*BABY FORMULA INDUSTRY SUCCESSFULLY LOBBIED TO WEAKEN BACTERIA SAFETY TESTING STANDARDS(Capitalism)
(for previous day's articles see "what's inside" below)
comment/tweet of the day
rob reiner:
a vote for a republican is a vote to destroy democracy
-----
lex: the republican party depends on the stupid and the racists to form their base. What is really a shame is that the stupid and the racists are foot soldiers in destroying our democracy and they don't even realize it. sad!!!
---
NanceGreggs@du
Heads-Up, Republicans
You can rant on about your Great Replacement Theory all you want.
But we have something better than a totally nonsensical theory spouted by spineless sycophants - we have a plan.
The plan is to use our votes, our voices, and our determination to replace every corrupt, lying, traitor currently in office with people of honour and integrity.
We plan to use every resource at our disposal to replace Jewish-Laser-promoting whack-jobs with people of intelligence - and treasonous insurrectionists with people who uphold their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.
We plan to replace representatives who spew self-serving bullshit with people who actually represent the best interests of their constituents - along with replacing so-called "Christian" bigots, racists, and homophobes with people who actually demonstrate real Christian principles - the ones that Christ himself espoused.
We plan to replace anti-science, anti-education, book-burning idiots with people who believe that a well-educated, well-informed voter is a plus-not-a-minus in a democracy.
We plan to replace those who encourage violence with people who understand that dead school children and dead grocery shoppers are not a means to an end, but a symptom of a widespread political disease.
Fear not, Republicans - it's not like you're completely out of the game. At this point, we Democrats don't really care if politicians have an (R) behind their name - as long as they're intelligent enough, honest enough, and patriotic enough to understand that putting America first and putting Trump first are simply incompatible idealogies.
So if your party still has anyone to run for office that doesn't have his/her head up Trump's ass, we're more than happy to hear from them.
Republicans keep talking about revenge should they regain power. Democrats don't DO revenge, they DO justice. And thanks to the January 6th Committee hearings, justice is about to be served.
Stage one of the replacement plan is exposing those who plotted to overthrow our democracy. Stage two will be replacing them - and once their crimes against the nation are exposed, that plan will be that much easier to execute.
---
Coronavirus vaccine could have saved 319,000 people, if they had only taken the shot: study
New York Daily News - raw story
May 17, 2022
About a third of the 1 million lives lost to COVID-19 could have been saved with vaccines, a new analysis shows. Researchers at the Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Microsoft AI for Health analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The New York Times and came up with not only 319,000 needless deaths but also a state-by-state breakdown of where they could have been prevented.
Between January 2021 and April 2022, about every second person who died from COVID-19 since vaccines became available might have lived if they had gotten the shots, the researchers found. Nationwide, about half of the 641,000 people who have died since vaccines became available could have lived if every single eligible adult had gotten jabbed.
“At a time when many in the U.S. have given up on vaccinations, these numbers are a stark reminder of the effectiveness of vaccines in fighting this pandemic,” said Stefanie Friedhoff, associate professor of the practice in Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, and a co-author of the analysis, in a statement. “We must continue to invest in getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted to save more lives.”
They created a dashboard showing the number of vaccine-preventable deaths per 1 million residents in each state and in the U.S. as a whole. Then they created an “alternative scenario” positing what it would look like if the vaccination pace had been sustained at its highest point last spring and stayed aloft long enough for 85%, 90% or even 100% of the adult population to get jabbed.
What it looked like was 319,000 people still being alive, even when variants’ effectiveness on immunity was factored out.
The most lives could have been saved in West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma, the team found. Where vaccination rates were higher, such as Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Vermont and Hawaii, the number of deaths that could have been prevented with vaccines was lower.
For instance, if all adults in Tennessee had gotten vaccinated, there would be 11,047 fewer deaths being mourned, the study found. Likewise in Ohio, where the number stood at 15,875.
“This compelling data illustrates the trajectory of 50 states with 50 different fates during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the important role of vaccines in protecting lives in each state,” said Thomas Tsai, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor in Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Between January 2021 and April 2022, about every second person who died from COVID-19 since vaccines became available might have lived if they had gotten the shots, the researchers found. Nationwide, about half of the 641,000 people who have died since vaccines became available could have lived if every single eligible adult had gotten jabbed.
“At a time when many in the U.S. have given up on vaccinations, these numbers are a stark reminder of the effectiveness of vaccines in fighting this pandemic,” said Stefanie Friedhoff, associate professor of the practice in Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, and a co-author of the analysis, in a statement. “We must continue to invest in getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted to save more lives.”
They created a dashboard showing the number of vaccine-preventable deaths per 1 million residents in each state and in the U.S. as a whole. Then they created an “alternative scenario” positing what it would look like if the vaccination pace had been sustained at its highest point last spring and stayed aloft long enough for 85%, 90% or even 100% of the adult population to get jabbed.
What it looked like was 319,000 people still being alive, even when variants’ effectiveness on immunity was factored out.
The most lives could have been saved in West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma, the team found. Where vaccination rates were higher, such as Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Vermont and Hawaii, the number of deaths that could have been prevented with vaccines was lower.
For instance, if all adults in Tennessee had gotten vaccinated, there would be 11,047 fewer deaths being mourned, the study found. Likewise in Ohio, where the number stood at 15,875.
“This compelling data illustrates the trajectory of 50 states with 50 different fates during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the important role of vaccines in protecting lives in each state,” said Thomas Tsai, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor in Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Tucker Carlson tried to use Hunter Biden to get his son into Georgetown
Emails reveal the ‘extent’ which Carlson was willing to turn on Biden’s son since the 2020 election, Washington Post says
Martin Pengelly
the guardian
Fri 20 May 2022 00.01
As Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help getting his son into an elite Washington university in 2014, the Fox News host’s wife, Susie, reportedly wrote in an email: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”
Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position.
The existence of emails about getting Buckley Carlson into Georgetown has been known for some time, thanks to a laptop once owned by Hunter Biden that was obtained by Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and pushed to media in 2020.
On Thursday the Washington Post revealed new emails and said analysis by security experts confirmed their authenticity.
The emails, the Post said, “reveal the extent to which Carlson was willing to turn on a former associate as he thrives in a hyper-partisan media world in which conservatives have made Biden a prime target for attack”.
“They also show how Carlson once sought to benefit from the elite political circles in Washington that he now regularly rails against as the ‘ruling class’.”
Carlson told the Post that in 2014, when Joe Biden was vice-president, “Hunter Biden was my neighbor. Our wives were friends. I knew him well.
“I talked to him many times about addiction, something I know a lot about. And I’ve said that. I think that Hunter Biden is an addict and that’s why his life is falling apart, and I feel bad for him. I’ve said that many times, and I mean it.”
He also said he would not comment on the emails, as they “were described by our [intelligence] community as Russian disinformation. So why would I? And I read that in the Washington Post”.
The Post said Carlson was “speaking with apparent irony”. He and others on the right charge that mainstream media willfully overlooked the Biden laptop in 2020, amid reports it could contain disinformation planted by Russia or other malign actors.
The Post also said emails showed Carlson helping Biden in 2015, amid reports about the state of Biden’s marriage. Carlson has confirmed doing so.
But the Post focused on Carlson’s apparent hypocrisy.
Quoting Carlson accusing Hunter Biden of getting “lucrative jobs … because he had an important father”, the Post said the Fox News host did so without “disclosing that he had once enlisted Biden to help get his son into a prestigious private university”.
On the same January 2020 show, Carlson said: “In America today, there’s nothing illegal about paying de facto bribes by handing fake jobs to the unqualified family members of powerful people. And since it is perfectly legal, naturally, Hunter Biden isn’t the only one shamelessly cashing in on his family name.”
In another email reported by the Post, Susie Carlson wrote: “Tucker and I would be so grateful if you could write a letter or speak to someone in the Georgetown Admission’s [sic] Office about Buckley.”
Biden reportedly agreed to write to the university president and said: “I will do anything you would like me to do.”
According to the Post, Tucker Carlson wrote: “I can’t thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Bucky’s behalf. So nice of you. I know it’ll help. Hope you’re great and we can all get dinner soon.”
Buckley Carlson went to the University of Virginia. Now communications director for Jim Banks, a House Republican from Indiana, he did not comment on the Post report.
Amid reaction online, the author Radley Balko wrote: “The story here is that Tucker Carlson is the living embodiment of the unearned, privileged elitism that Tucker Carlson derides on his show every night. The Hunter Biden part is just gravy.”
Rightwing accounts pointed to an NBC report which said Biden’s laptop and other sources showed that between 2013 and 2018, he and his company brought in about $11m from work linked to Ukraine and China.
Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position.
The existence of emails about getting Buckley Carlson into Georgetown has been known for some time, thanks to a laptop once owned by Hunter Biden that was obtained by Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and pushed to media in 2020.
On Thursday the Washington Post revealed new emails and said analysis by security experts confirmed their authenticity.
The emails, the Post said, “reveal the extent to which Carlson was willing to turn on a former associate as he thrives in a hyper-partisan media world in which conservatives have made Biden a prime target for attack”.
“They also show how Carlson once sought to benefit from the elite political circles in Washington that he now regularly rails against as the ‘ruling class’.”
Carlson told the Post that in 2014, when Joe Biden was vice-president, “Hunter Biden was my neighbor. Our wives were friends. I knew him well.
“I talked to him many times about addiction, something I know a lot about. And I’ve said that. I think that Hunter Biden is an addict and that’s why his life is falling apart, and I feel bad for him. I’ve said that many times, and I mean it.”
He also said he would not comment on the emails, as they “were described by our [intelligence] community as Russian disinformation. So why would I? And I read that in the Washington Post”.
The Post said Carlson was “speaking with apparent irony”. He and others on the right charge that mainstream media willfully overlooked the Biden laptop in 2020, amid reports it could contain disinformation planted by Russia or other malign actors.
The Post also said emails showed Carlson helping Biden in 2015, amid reports about the state of Biden’s marriage. Carlson has confirmed doing so.
But the Post focused on Carlson’s apparent hypocrisy.
Quoting Carlson accusing Hunter Biden of getting “lucrative jobs … because he had an important father”, the Post said the Fox News host did so without “disclosing that he had once enlisted Biden to help get his son into a prestigious private university”.
On the same January 2020 show, Carlson said: “In America today, there’s nothing illegal about paying de facto bribes by handing fake jobs to the unqualified family members of powerful people. And since it is perfectly legal, naturally, Hunter Biden isn’t the only one shamelessly cashing in on his family name.”
In another email reported by the Post, Susie Carlson wrote: “Tucker and I would be so grateful if you could write a letter or speak to someone in the Georgetown Admission’s [sic] Office about Buckley.”
Biden reportedly agreed to write to the university president and said: “I will do anything you would like me to do.”
According to the Post, Tucker Carlson wrote: “I can’t thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Bucky’s behalf. So nice of you. I know it’ll help. Hope you’re great and we can all get dinner soon.”
Buckley Carlson went to the University of Virginia. Now communications director for Jim Banks, a House Republican from Indiana, he did not comment on the Post report.
Amid reaction online, the author Radley Balko wrote: “The story here is that Tucker Carlson is the living embodiment of the unearned, privileged elitism that Tucker Carlson derides on his show every night. The Hunter Biden part is just gravy.”
Rightwing accounts pointed to an NBC report which said Biden’s laptop and other sources showed that between 2013 and 2018, he and his company brought in about $11m from work linked to Ukraine and China.
What is ‘great replacement’ theory and how did its racist lies spread in the US?
Buffalo gunman is suspected of posting a 180-page racist diatribe in which he repeatedly referenced the extremist conspiracy theory
Ed Pilkington
THE GUARDIAN
Tue 17 May 2022 02.46 EDT
....What is the theory and how did it emerge?
Replacement theory is a set of racist and antisemitic paranoid lies and delusions that has cropped up around the world in the past decade. In the US it is expressed as the false idea that an elite cabal of Jews and Democrats is “replacing” white Americans with Black, Hispanic and other people of color by encouraging immigration and interracial marriage – with the end goal being the eventual extinction of the white race.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) traces replacement theory back to early 20th century French nationalism. It began to receive popular attention in 2011 with the writings of the French critic Renaud Camus.
In the US, the racist ideas were initially adopted by fringe websites including the chat boards 4chan and the technically now defunct 8chan.
How has it spread through US society?
More recently, the idea has been enthusiastically embraced by rightwing news outlets that have injected these hate-infused falsehoods into the mainstream of American public life.
In particular attention is now falling on Tucker Carlson, the most avidly watched host on Fox News. A recent deep exploration by the New York Times found that his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, had on occasion drawn inspiration from white supremacist sites such as the neo-Nazi Stormfront.
The newspaper found that in more than 400 episodes Carlson took up the idea that immigration was being exploited by elites to change the demographics of the US. Last year the ADL called for the TV host to be fired after he accused the Democrats on-air of “trying to replace the current electorate … with more obedient voters from the third world”.
What has the theory done to American political debate?
Having metastasized from fringe websites to Fox News, the idea of the imperiled white voter has spread its tentacles through the nation. An opinion poll last week by the Associated Press and the NORC center for public affairs research found that one in three US adults now subscribe to the false idea that a plot is under way to replace US-born Americans with immigrants, and that those US-born citizens are losing influence and power as a result.
The notion has been taken up by Republican politicians at the highest levels. In the wake of the Buffalo shooting Liz Cheney, the Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, accused the leadership of her own party in the House of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy, and antisemitism”.
Cheney did not mention by name Elise Stefanik, who took over the number three role in the Republican House leadership from her after Cheney was ousted for having criticized former president Donald Trump. Stefanik has promoted a politicised version of replacement theory, claiming that Democrats are attempting a “permanent election insurrection” by seeking citizenship for undocumented immigrants in order to “overthrow our current electorate”.
Other prominent Republicans who have amplified the lie include Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, and far-right members of Congress, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar.
Is pressure mounting for something to be done about this?
Cheney has called for Republican leaders to “renounce and reject” white supremacy. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of Congress from Illinois, has gone further, calling for several top Republicans themselves to be replaced.
“The replacement theory they are pushing/tolerating is getting people killed,” he said.
Charlie Sykes, a moderate conservative commentator who edits The Bulwark, wrote that responsibility for the Buffalo murders “lies with the murderer himself … But as conservatives once understood, ideas also have consequences; and poisonous demagoguery can have deadly results”.
Such comments reflect a growing unease about the accommodation with replacement theory within rightwing politics and media. So far though the criticism is coming from individuals who have been pushed into the margins of the conservative movement, with no sign of change coming from the top.
Replacement theory is a set of racist and antisemitic paranoid lies and delusions that has cropped up around the world in the past decade. In the US it is expressed as the false idea that an elite cabal of Jews and Democrats is “replacing” white Americans with Black, Hispanic and other people of color by encouraging immigration and interracial marriage – with the end goal being the eventual extinction of the white race.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) traces replacement theory back to early 20th century French nationalism. It began to receive popular attention in 2011 with the writings of the French critic Renaud Camus.
In the US, the racist ideas were initially adopted by fringe websites including the chat boards 4chan and the technically now defunct 8chan.
How has it spread through US society?
More recently, the idea has been enthusiastically embraced by rightwing news outlets that have injected these hate-infused falsehoods into the mainstream of American public life.
In particular attention is now falling on Tucker Carlson, the most avidly watched host on Fox News. A recent deep exploration by the New York Times found that his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, had on occasion drawn inspiration from white supremacist sites such as the neo-Nazi Stormfront.
The newspaper found that in more than 400 episodes Carlson took up the idea that immigration was being exploited by elites to change the demographics of the US. Last year the ADL called for the TV host to be fired after he accused the Democrats on-air of “trying to replace the current electorate … with more obedient voters from the third world”.
What has the theory done to American political debate?
Having metastasized from fringe websites to Fox News, the idea of the imperiled white voter has spread its tentacles through the nation. An opinion poll last week by the Associated Press and the NORC center for public affairs research found that one in three US adults now subscribe to the false idea that a plot is under way to replace US-born Americans with immigrants, and that those US-born citizens are losing influence and power as a result.
The notion has been taken up by Republican politicians at the highest levels. In the wake of the Buffalo shooting Liz Cheney, the Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, accused the leadership of her own party in the House of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy, and antisemitism”.
Cheney did not mention by name Elise Stefanik, who took over the number three role in the Republican House leadership from her after Cheney was ousted for having criticized former president Donald Trump. Stefanik has promoted a politicised version of replacement theory, claiming that Democrats are attempting a “permanent election insurrection” by seeking citizenship for undocumented immigrants in order to “overthrow our current electorate”.
Other prominent Republicans who have amplified the lie include Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, and far-right members of Congress, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar.
Is pressure mounting for something to be done about this?
Cheney has called for Republican leaders to “renounce and reject” white supremacy. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of Congress from Illinois, has gone further, calling for several top Republicans themselves to be replaced.
“The replacement theory they are pushing/tolerating is getting people killed,” he said.
Charlie Sykes, a moderate conservative commentator who edits The Bulwark, wrote that responsibility for the Buffalo murders “lies with the murderer himself … But as conservatives once understood, ideas also have consequences; and poisonous demagoguery can have deadly results”.
Such comments reflect a growing unease about the accommodation with replacement theory within rightwing politics and media. So far though the criticism is coming from individuals who have been pushed into the margins of the conservative movement, with no sign of change coming from the top.
from under a rock
THE DAILY TRASH REPORT featuring today's despicables
you cannot measure stupidity!!
Trump-backing Michigan lawmaker implicated in scheme to illegally access voting equipment: report
racist never quit trying: All-white Virginia school board poised to restore names of Confederate generals to schools
Trump-endorsed Ohio GOP candidate urged red states to secede after 2020 loss
Fox News Lies, Says Biden Gave Putin Money To Invade Ukraine
The absurdity of Charles Hurt astounds.
Alex Jones Claims 5 Year-old Girls Are Getting Pregnant
Not only is this false, but the idea that little girls would have to be **raped** for this to happen doesn't faze this lunatic.
Gas lamps
New GOP lie: Fetus-powered street lamps
Fetus-powered street lamps? Republicans ramp up outrageous anti-abortion lies ahead of Roe's demise
During a House hearing, the GOP demonized patients and doctors with QAnon-style conspiracy theories
By AMANDA MARCOTTE - salon
PUBLISHED MAY 19, 2022 12:47PM (EDT)
It was only one half-hour into Wednesday's congressional hearing on abortion access when it became clear that the Republican contributions to the day would be loonier than a QAnon message board.
"In places like Washington D.C.," fetuses are "burned to power the light's of the city's homes and streets," claimed Catherine Glenn Foster, who had, just minutes before, sworn not to lie under oath. The GOP-summoned witness let loose the wild and utterly false accusation that municipal electrical companies are powered by incinerated fetuses.
"The next time you turn on the light, think of the incinerators," she said, apparently repeating a misleading talking point from the same anti-choice activists caught stashing fetuses at home. Everything on the right is psychological projection.
So that's where Republicans are these days: Arguing that we live in a janky version of the Matrix, except powered by fetuses instead of actual people.
Foster is not some random nut that Republicans pulled off a soapbox at a subway station minutes before the hearing started. She is a Georgetown law school graduate who is paid $190,000 a year to be the president of Americans United for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion non-profits in the country. So it's not surprising that Foster believed she would get away with this absurd nonsense. Hers was merely one of a truly overwhelming number of lies that poured out of Republican lawmakers and witnesses alike throughout the course of Wednesday's hearing. When lies are coming out like chocolates on a conveyor belt aimed at Lucille Ball, the liars can be assured they've overwhelmed the fact-checkers beyond any hope of accountability.
The GOP contributions to the hearing were a blizzard of bullshit, meant to totally white out the efforts by Democrats and reproductive rights activists to remind the public of the great human cost that results from banning abortion.
Republicans pretended progressives don't know what a "woman" is. They insisted that the mere existence of abortion shows that birth control efforts are useless. (On the contrary, the abortion rate has gone down as birth control access has improved.) They pretended, over and over, that the issue at hand was only late-term abortions. In reality, the abortion bans being passed start at two weeks after a missed period, if not sooner. And then there was the repulsive contributions of Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who pretended that women wait until they go into labor and then abort the pregnancy right before the baby is born. Having made this lie up, he then berated Alabama-based OB-GYN Dr. Yashica Robinson for the existence of a procedure that, quite literally, only happens in his bizarre fantasies. (Thanks to Charles Pierce at Esquire for the transcript.)
Johnson: Do you support the right of a woman who is just seconds away from birthing a healthy child to have an abortion?
Robinson: I think that the question you're asking does not realistically reflect abortion care --
Johnson: In that scenario, would you support her right to abort that child?
Robinson: I won't entertain theoretical --
Johnson: It's not a theoretical, ma'am. You are a medical doctor.
Indeed it is not theoretical — it is entirely fantastical. Johnson's showboating was the equivalent of berating a doctor over unicorn horn removal surgery. But Johnson, eager to talk about anything but the realities of abortion care, continued to play this game. He went on to insist that Robinson answer for killing a baby "halfway out of the birth canal," forcing her to pointedly remind him that actual murder is already illegal.
Anti-choicers love this hypothetical of a woman who aborts during labor. In reality, it makes about as much sense as banning men from touching their penises out of fear one might one day he might cut his off. But of course, Republicans would rather talk about their lurid fantasy lives than the realities of abortion.
---
As their actual political views become harder to defend on the merits, Republicans increasingly embrace conspiracy theories and urban legends to justify the unjustifiable. Want to ban schoolchildren from reading about Martin Luther King Jr.? Just falsely claim that something called "critical race theory" is being taught to school kids and use that as cover. Want to deny trans kids the right to be treated with dignity in public schools? Roll out some wild story about how kids are now "identifying" as cats and using litter boxes in school. Want to rile up the GOP going into the midterms? Screw making any substantive arguments! Just claim that Democrats are conspiring to "replace" white Christians with people of different races and ethnicities, a conspiracy theory lifted directly from neo-Nazis, with the details barely tweaked before being repeated hundreds of times on Fox News. [...]
"In places like Washington D.C.," fetuses are "burned to power the light's of the city's homes and streets," claimed Catherine Glenn Foster, who had, just minutes before, sworn not to lie under oath. The GOP-summoned witness let loose the wild and utterly false accusation that municipal electrical companies are powered by incinerated fetuses.
"The next time you turn on the light, think of the incinerators," she said, apparently repeating a misleading talking point from the same anti-choice activists caught stashing fetuses at home. Everything on the right is psychological projection.
So that's where Republicans are these days: Arguing that we live in a janky version of the Matrix, except powered by fetuses instead of actual people.
Foster is not some random nut that Republicans pulled off a soapbox at a subway station minutes before the hearing started. She is a Georgetown law school graduate who is paid $190,000 a year to be the president of Americans United for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion non-profits in the country. So it's not surprising that Foster believed she would get away with this absurd nonsense. Hers was merely one of a truly overwhelming number of lies that poured out of Republican lawmakers and witnesses alike throughout the course of Wednesday's hearing. When lies are coming out like chocolates on a conveyor belt aimed at Lucille Ball, the liars can be assured they've overwhelmed the fact-checkers beyond any hope of accountability.
The GOP contributions to the hearing were a blizzard of bullshit, meant to totally white out the efforts by Democrats and reproductive rights activists to remind the public of the great human cost that results from banning abortion.
Republicans pretended progressives don't know what a "woman" is. They insisted that the mere existence of abortion shows that birth control efforts are useless. (On the contrary, the abortion rate has gone down as birth control access has improved.) They pretended, over and over, that the issue at hand was only late-term abortions. In reality, the abortion bans being passed start at two weeks after a missed period, if not sooner. And then there was the repulsive contributions of Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who pretended that women wait until they go into labor and then abort the pregnancy right before the baby is born. Having made this lie up, he then berated Alabama-based OB-GYN Dr. Yashica Robinson for the existence of a procedure that, quite literally, only happens in his bizarre fantasies. (Thanks to Charles Pierce at Esquire for the transcript.)
Johnson: Do you support the right of a woman who is just seconds away from birthing a healthy child to have an abortion?
Robinson: I think that the question you're asking does not realistically reflect abortion care --
Johnson: In that scenario, would you support her right to abort that child?
Robinson: I won't entertain theoretical --
Johnson: It's not a theoretical, ma'am. You are a medical doctor.
Indeed it is not theoretical — it is entirely fantastical. Johnson's showboating was the equivalent of berating a doctor over unicorn horn removal surgery. But Johnson, eager to talk about anything but the realities of abortion care, continued to play this game. He went on to insist that Robinson answer for killing a baby "halfway out of the birth canal," forcing her to pointedly remind him that actual murder is already illegal.
Anti-choicers love this hypothetical of a woman who aborts during labor. In reality, it makes about as much sense as banning men from touching their penises out of fear one might one day he might cut his off. But of course, Republicans would rather talk about their lurid fantasy lives than the realities of abortion.
---
As their actual political views become harder to defend on the merits, Republicans increasingly embrace conspiracy theories and urban legends to justify the unjustifiable. Want to ban schoolchildren from reading about Martin Luther King Jr.? Just falsely claim that something called "critical race theory" is being taught to school kids and use that as cover. Want to deny trans kids the right to be treated with dignity in public schools? Roll out some wild story about how kids are now "identifying" as cats and using litter boxes in school. Want to rile up the GOP going into the midterms? Screw making any substantive arguments! Just claim that Democrats are conspiring to "replace" white Christians with people of different races and ethnicities, a conspiracy theory lifted directly from neo-Nazis, with the details barely tweaked before being repeated hundreds of times on Fox News. [...]
payback is a bitch!!
more 50% of white women voters and 60% of white males vote republican
slavery 21st century!!!
Revealed: Starbucks fired over 20 US union leaders in recent months
Workers at the coffee chain have filed petitions for union elections at more than 250 stores, but chief Howard Schultz publicly opposes the movement
Michael Sainato - the guardian
Thu 19 May 2022 10.53 EDT
Starbucks has fired over 20 union leaders around the US over the past several months as union organizing campaigns have spread across the country, the Guardian can reveal.
The news comes as Starbucks workers have filed petitions for union elections at more than 250 stores, spanning 35 states in the US. Starbucks’ chief executive, Howard Schultz, has led a campaign against the union movement calling it “some outside force that’s going to dictate or disrupt who we are and what we do”.
The US’s top labor regulator, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has issued complaints against Starbucks over many of the firings, demanding reinstatement and backpay for seven fired workers in Memphis, Tennessee, three fired workers in Overland, Kansas, six fired workers in Buffalo, New York, and three fired workers in Arizona. These cases will go before an administrative law judge unless a settlement is reached before those hearings.
The NLRB has accused Starbucks of more than 200 violations of federal labor laws over the course of union organizing campaigns since late 2021. NLRB regional offices have issued complaints in regards to 45 cases against Starbucks, according to the NLRB. Starbucks also incited more legal concerns over recently announcing the rollout of new benefits for all employees, but exempting workers at unionized stores. Workers at several Starbucks stores have held strikes in protest of the company’s behavior toward union organizing.
Laila Dalton, a shift supervisor at Starbucks for about three years in Phoenix, Arizona, was fired the day before her store’s union election ballots were being sent out. Dalton said she started getting write-ups for minor infractions and was interrogated and intimidated by management shortly after her store went public with its intent to unionize.
Dalton filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB before her firing over harassment from management.
“I filed a complaint, an unfair labor practice charge, and that’s when it kind of all started,” said Dalton.
She was fired on 4 April and has since been included in the NLRB complaint calling for reinstatement for her and two co-workers.
“It was the day before the ballots were sent out. It was in front of people I’ve never met before and it was an hour into Howard Schultz being in office and his town hall speech,” added Dalton. “I still can’t believe they fired me since I already had a complaint against them.”
Union organizers at Starbucks have also been fired in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Louisiana and Rochester, New York.
Ashlee Feldman, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks store in St Louis, Missouri, for three years, was fired a few days before her store’s union election ballots were to be mailed out. Feldman said she was fired after she closed the dining area of her Starbucks store to drive-thru only temporarily due to short staffing.
“I believe I was fired for being a shift supervisor who was pro-union,” said Feldman. “I’ve been with Starbucks almost three years and have never had any issues.”
She is in the process of filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board to get reinstated.
“I’m shocked at this firing and all I can think about is my eight-year-old autistic son who needs therapy and care that costs money,” added Feldman. “These higher-ups don’t care about us. They aren’t in the stores busting ass like we are. They don’t connect with the customers like we do.”
In regard to Feldman’s termination, a Starbucks spokesperson said: “A partner’s interest in a union does not exempt them from the standards we have always held. Any claims of anti-union activity are categorically false.”
According to the National Labor Relations Board, as of 13 May, 69 Starbucks stores have voted to form unions, nine stores voted against, and six union elections are still pending an outcome, based on challenged ballots.
The news comes as Starbucks workers have filed petitions for union elections at more than 250 stores, spanning 35 states in the US. Starbucks’ chief executive, Howard Schultz, has led a campaign against the union movement calling it “some outside force that’s going to dictate or disrupt who we are and what we do”.
The US’s top labor regulator, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has issued complaints against Starbucks over many of the firings, demanding reinstatement and backpay for seven fired workers in Memphis, Tennessee, three fired workers in Overland, Kansas, six fired workers in Buffalo, New York, and three fired workers in Arizona. These cases will go before an administrative law judge unless a settlement is reached before those hearings.
The NLRB has accused Starbucks of more than 200 violations of federal labor laws over the course of union organizing campaigns since late 2021. NLRB regional offices have issued complaints in regards to 45 cases against Starbucks, according to the NLRB. Starbucks also incited more legal concerns over recently announcing the rollout of new benefits for all employees, but exempting workers at unionized stores. Workers at several Starbucks stores have held strikes in protest of the company’s behavior toward union organizing.
Laila Dalton, a shift supervisor at Starbucks for about three years in Phoenix, Arizona, was fired the day before her store’s union election ballots were being sent out. Dalton said she started getting write-ups for minor infractions and was interrogated and intimidated by management shortly after her store went public with its intent to unionize.
Dalton filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB before her firing over harassment from management.
“I filed a complaint, an unfair labor practice charge, and that’s when it kind of all started,” said Dalton.
She was fired on 4 April and has since been included in the NLRB complaint calling for reinstatement for her and two co-workers.
“It was the day before the ballots were sent out. It was in front of people I’ve never met before and it was an hour into Howard Schultz being in office and his town hall speech,” added Dalton. “I still can’t believe they fired me since I already had a complaint against them.”
Union organizers at Starbucks have also been fired in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Louisiana and Rochester, New York.
Ashlee Feldman, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks store in St Louis, Missouri, for three years, was fired a few days before her store’s union election ballots were to be mailed out. Feldman said she was fired after she closed the dining area of her Starbucks store to drive-thru only temporarily due to short staffing.
“I believe I was fired for being a shift supervisor who was pro-union,” said Feldman. “I’ve been with Starbucks almost three years and have never had any issues.”
She is in the process of filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board to get reinstated.
“I’m shocked at this firing and all I can think about is my eight-year-old autistic son who needs therapy and care that costs money,” added Feldman. “These higher-ups don’t care about us. They aren’t in the stores busting ass like we are. They don’t connect with the customers like we do.”
In regard to Feldman’s termination, a Starbucks spokesperson said: “A partner’s interest in a union does not exempt them from the standards we have always held. Any claims of anti-union activity are categorically false.”
According to the National Labor Relations Board, as of 13 May, 69 Starbucks stores have voted to form unions, nine stores voted against, and six union elections are still pending an outcome, based on challenged ballots.
Bites from Real News
*5/20/2022*
*She Warned the Grain Elevator Would Disrupt Sacred Black History. They Deleted Her Findings.
A whistleblower says a plan to build a grain elevator on an old plantation would disrupt important historical sites, and that her firm tried to bury her findings.
*Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice, pressed Ariz. lawmakers to help reverse Trump's loss
Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside Joe Biden's popular-vote victory and choose "a clean slate of Elect ... (Washington Post)
*Democratic Leadership Sided With Corporatists to Fight Progressives in Primaries
*Park Outdoors: Ford Recalls SUVs Due To Engine Fire Risk
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is asking the owners of 350,000 vehicles in to take them to dealers for repairs in three recalls, including about 39,000 that should be parked outdoors because the engines can catch fire. Ford says in U.S. government documents pos ... (AP News)
*“Innocent” White People Are Also Complicit in the Anti-Black Murders in Buffalo
We can’t let the more quotidian operations of whiteness, which feed anti-Black violence every day, off the hook.
gestapo usa!!!
Report: Minnesota Police Created Fake Online Accounts to Surveil Black Leaders and Organizations While Ignoring Activities by White Supremacist Groups
Nyamekye Daniel | atlanta black star
May 9, 2022
The Minneapolis Police Department is riddled with racism, according to a state civil rights investigation that found officers surveilled Black leaders and organizations and ignored white supremacist threats online.
The 72-page report details a law enforcement agency imbedded with hatred toward Black people depicted through racist language and disproportionate rates of violence inflicted on African-Americans.
Investigators also found officers created fake social media accounts to spy on and troll the Black community.
The report, constituted after the police killing of George Floyd, said the department maintains a culture where officers “consistently use racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language and are rarely held accountable” and use “higher rates of more severe force” against Black people than white people.
The illegal “pattern or practice of race discrimination” has prevailed in the Minneapolis Police Department for at least a decade, the report by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights says.
The organization is calling for a complete overhaul of the agency where it found “repeated, routine, or of a generalized nature” of “denial of rights” violating the Human Rights Act.
“Without fundamental organizational culture changes, reforming MPD’s policies, procedures, and trainings will be meaningless,” the report says.
The Human Rights agency launched the comprehensive review with help from a policing statistical expert on June 1, 2020. Investigators examined about 700 hours of body-worn camera footage, nearly 480,000 pages of Minneapolis and MPD documents, 87 hours of 2021 police academy training and completed multiple ride-alongs in each of MPD’s five precincts.
They also looked at use-of-force data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020, and traffic stops from January 1, 2017, to May 24, 2020. Investigators interviewed police officers, prosecutors and 2,200 residents as well.
The agency now plans to develop a court-enforceable agreement with the city to identify and implement a timeline for specific changes.
Most notably, the agency recommends that MPD immediately implement proper oversight over officers’ use of covert social media.
Police departments can create bogus social media accounts for an investigation if criminal activity or a public safety issue exists.
However, investigators found that from January 2010 through December 2020, MPD officers monitored members of Black people and organizations, including the NAACP and the Urban League, “without a public safety objective.”
They poised as Black people online and sent messages, made posts and comments that perpetuate Black stereotypes, especially about Black women.
In one instance, an MPD officer sent a message from a fake account to a local branch of the NAACP criticizing the organization. They also used the accounts to troll police critics and local officials, including a city councilmember and a state elected official.
On the other hand, they did not track white supremacist or white nationalist groups. Yet, during the civil unrest following Floyd’s killing, a white member of the Boogaloo Bois shot 13 rounds from an AK-47 into the MPD’s third precinct.
The internal culture at MPD is at the core of the racial discrimination in the report’s findings. Some in the agency refer to Black people as n-words and “monkeys” and Black women as “Black b——-s.” One supervisor referred to Somali men as “orangutans.”
Black officers were not exempted from racial discrimination, often referred to as “nappy head” and “cattle.” Instead of complaining, Black officers would bear the harassment because they believed the city would not address it.
Investigators also found that from January 2010 to April 2021, MPD hardly disciplined officers for using racist, misogynistic, or inappropriate language, the report shows.
Once the culture expanded beyond the agency’s doors and into the field, it created a perilous environment for Black residents, who account for 19 percent of the city’s population but suffered 63 percent of all use-of-force incidents that investigators examined. Some ended in death.
---
About 54 percent of traffic stops involved Black drivers, and 78 percent of Black drivers’ vehicles were searched by police, the report shows. Investigators also found that Black and other minorities were more likely to be pulled over by a police officer in the daytime when officers could see their skin color than at night.
While the Department of Human Rights is working to develop an agreement, it says the city and police officials must complete “comprehensive and non-biased investigations” of cases of police misconduct. The MPD must also improve its training, and city and police officers must start being transparent with residents.
According to the report, officials “have not collectively acted with the necessary urgency, coordination, and intentionality required to create and maintain a non-discriminatory, strong public safety system.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the report’s findings were “repugnant” and “at times horrific” and vowed he would lead the efforts for change. However, the Human Rights agency said the mayor and other city leaders have avoided accountability by claiming not to have the “necessary authority or political will and support to manage the police department.”
“However, the Mayor has held this power for decades,” the report says.
The 72-page report details a law enforcement agency imbedded with hatred toward Black people depicted through racist language and disproportionate rates of violence inflicted on African-Americans.
Investigators also found officers created fake social media accounts to spy on and troll the Black community.
The report, constituted after the police killing of George Floyd, said the department maintains a culture where officers “consistently use racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language and are rarely held accountable” and use “higher rates of more severe force” against Black people than white people.
The illegal “pattern or practice of race discrimination” has prevailed in the Minneapolis Police Department for at least a decade, the report by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights says.
The organization is calling for a complete overhaul of the agency where it found “repeated, routine, or of a generalized nature” of “denial of rights” violating the Human Rights Act.
“Without fundamental organizational culture changes, reforming MPD’s policies, procedures, and trainings will be meaningless,” the report says.
The Human Rights agency launched the comprehensive review with help from a policing statistical expert on June 1, 2020. Investigators examined about 700 hours of body-worn camera footage, nearly 480,000 pages of Minneapolis and MPD documents, 87 hours of 2021 police academy training and completed multiple ride-alongs in each of MPD’s five precincts.
They also looked at use-of-force data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020, and traffic stops from January 1, 2017, to May 24, 2020. Investigators interviewed police officers, prosecutors and 2,200 residents as well.
The agency now plans to develop a court-enforceable agreement with the city to identify and implement a timeline for specific changes.
Most notably, the agency recommends that MPD immediately implement proper oversight over officers’ use of covert social media.
Police departments can create bogus social media accounts for an investigation if criminal activity or a public safety issue exists.
However, investigators found that from January 2010 through December 2020, MPD officers monitored members of Black people and organizations, including the NAACP and the Urban League, “without a public safety objective.”
They poised as Black people online and sent messages, made posts and comments that perpetuate Black stereotypes, especially about Black women.
In one instance, an MPD officer sent a message from a fake account to a local branch of the NAACP criticizing the organization. They also used the accounts to troll police critics and local officials, including a city councilmember and a state elected official.
On the other hand, they did not track white supremacist or white nationalist groups. Yet, during the civil unrest following Floyd’s killing, a white member of the Boogaloo Bois shot 13 rounds from an AK-47 into the MPD’s third precinct.
The internal culture at MPD is at the core of the racial discrimination in the report’s findings. Some in the agency refer to Black people as n-words and “monkeys” and Black women as “Black b——-s.” One supervisor referred to Somali men as “orangutans.”
Black officers were not exempted from racial discrimination, often referred to as “nappy head” and “cattle.” Instead of complaining, Black officers would bear the harassment because they believed the city would not address it.
Investigators also found that from January 2010 to April 2021, MPD hardly disciplined officers for using racist, misogynistic, or inappropriate language, the report shows.
Once the culture expanded beyond the agency’s doors and into the field, it created a perilous environment for Black residents, who account for 19 percent of the city’s population but suffered 63 percent of all use-of-force incidents that investigators examined. Some ended in death.
---
About 54 percent of traffic stops involved Black drivers, and 78 percent of Black drivers’ vehicles were searched by police, the report shows. Investigators also found that Black and other minorities were more likely to be pulled over by a police officer in the daytime when officers could see their skin color than at night.
While the Department of Human Rights is working to develop an agreement, it says the city and police officials must complete “comprehensive and non-biased investigations” of cases of police misconduct. The MPD must also improve its training, and city and police officers must start being transparent with residents.
According to the report, officials “have not collectively acted with the necessary urgency, coordination, and intentionality required to create and maintain a non-discriminatory, strong public safety system.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the report’s findings were “repugnant” and “at times horrific” and vowed he would lead the efforts for change. However, the Human Rights agency said the mayor and other city leaders have avoided accountability by claiming not to have the “necessary authority or political will and support to manage the police department.”
“However, the Mayor has held this power for decades,” the report says.
This Trump-Backed Candidate Wants to Ban Birth Control
WHAT’S NEXT??
Danika Fears
Breaking News Editor
Published May. 20, 2022 1:53PM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
Jacky Eubanks, a Trump-endorsed candidate vying for a Michigan state Senate seat, says she’ll come for your birth control if she can. In a new interview with the Church Militant, Eubanks says she’d absolutely vote to ban contraceptives if the issue ever came to a vote in the Michigan state legislature. “People believe that birth control—it’s better, like you said, oh, because then you won’t get pregnant and you won’t need to have an abortion,” she said. “But I think it gives people the false sense of security that they can have consequence-free sex, and that’s not true and that’s not correct. Sex ought to be between one man and one woman in the confines of marriage.” After a leak of a draft opinion suggested Roe v. Wade could be overturned this summer, some Republicans have moved to birth control as their next target.
Elon Musk Thinks Sexual Harassment Allegation Is Hilarious
‘IT’S KINDA PERFECT’
Rachel Olding
Breaking News Editor
Published May. 20, 2022 10:59AM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
Elon Musk has laughed off a report published late Thursday that he paid a SpaceX flight attendant $250,000 after she accused him of propositioning her for sex, flashing his penis, touching her and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for sex acts. On Friday, the billionaire firebrand retweeted a 2021 tweet in which he’d written, “If there’s ever a scandal about me, *please* call it Elongate.” The retweet said, “Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It’s kinda perfect,” accompanied by a crying laughing emoji. Insider reported Thursday that the flight attendant signed the $250K “restrictive non-disclosure and non-disparagement clause” months before California banned such agreements. In a statement to Insider, Musk called their story a “politically motivated hit piece.” A day before the story came out, he claimed a “dirty tricks campaign” was about to unfold because he stopped voting for Democrats.
*What's Inside*
*TODAY’S ATTACKS ON ABORTION ACCESS HAVE A LONG HISTORY ROOTED IN WHITE SUPREMACY.
(RACE MATTERS)
*EXCERPT: THE LITTLE-KNOWN RACIST ORIGINS OF THE 'PRO-LIFE' ABORTION MOVEMENT
(HISTORY)
*QUALIFIED IMMUNITY IS ROOTED IN WHITE SUPREMACY AND GIVES COPS A FREE PASS TO LYNCH BLACK PEOPLE(RACE MATTERS)
*FIRST QUARTER OF 2022 SEES RECORD $1 BILLION SPENT ON LOBBYING
(CAPITALISM)
*BOTTLED WATER GIANT BLUETRITON ADMITS CLAIMS OF RECYCLING AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE “PUFFERY”(REALITY)
*CORPORATE PROFITEERS BLAMED PRICE INCREASES ON LABOR COSTS — THEN GAVE BIG RAISES TO CEOS(CAPITALISM)
*TOP US CEOS MADE 254 TIMES MORE THAN MEDIAN WORKERS IN 2021, STUDY SHOWS
(SLAVERY 21ST CENTURY)
*AVERAGE US TAXPAYER GAVE $900 TO MILITARY CONTRACTORS LAST YEAR
(CAPITALISM)
“IF YOU’RE GETTING A W-2, YOU’RE A SUCKER”
(REALITY)
*POOREST US COUNTIES SUFFERED TWICE THE COVID DEATHS OF THE RICHEST
(REALITY)
*US OIL FIRMS SET TO REAP UP TO $126 BILLION IN EXTRA PROFITS AMID WAR ON UKRAINE
(OIL)
*NEW RESEARCH ON TRUMP VOTERS: THEY'RE NOT THE SHARPEST TOOLS IN THE BOX
(SUCKERS)
*late news of interest*
A Meditation On Practical Applications Of Stupidity
The Mystery of Anti-Vax & Anti-Mask
Kat Ignatz - DAILY KOS
Sunday August 01, 2021 · 5:00 AM PDT
...“The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” seems as good a way as any to explain the insane situation we’re in. It’s speculative, but in my opinion, guessing is all we’ve really got right now.
In his essay, Cipolla divides human beings into four categories and builds his theory on these characteristics.
His categories are:
And he presents his theory as five laws:
Taking Cipolla’s laws and looking for correlations with anti-vax/mask behavior, you can map out anti-vax/mask actions like this:
And you could do the same matching of Cipolla’s laws with anti-vax/mask actions, and together, we could come up with a big, five-part list of parallels between Cipolla’s theory and the anti-vax/mask movement.
And it would prove nothing.
But looking at it might make you wonder, like me, if there’s anything but dangerous, illogical, and incomprehensible behavior there.
Cipolla doesn’t explain stupid people. He simply says that they exist, and they’re irrational, unpredictable, and hazardous. He states that irrational people can’t be understood by rational minds and cautions against getting involved with irrational people because it always comes with a cost that’s often a big cost.
He says the only hope is for rational people to create more gains than the losses that irrational people cause. He was an economist so his theory is all gains and losses, and another way to think about his four human traits is total gain, loss/gain, gain/loss, and total loss.
And maybe that’s the real answer here. Maybe, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with why anti-vax/maskers act like they do. Perhaps, we should simply accept them as an incredible danger to our country, states, cities, friends, families, and selves, and we should just do everything we can to do more good than they do harm.
I like Cipolla’s theory, and I find it to be a compelling model for many of the problems we’re experiencing—like, for instance, Republicans.
In this writings, Cipolla makes a point of dividing bandits into Intelligent Bandits and Stupid Bandits. Intelligent bandits cause an equal amount of loss and gain, and they get everything they take from others. Stupid bandits cause more loss than gain, and they only get part of what they cause others to lose.
When I read that, I think about how Republicans are actively working to crash the US so they can keep their wealth and power. And then I think that they’re going so far with it that they may have moved from being stupid bandits to fully stupid because it’s irrational to think they’ll keep much of anything if the country collapses.
I also start thinking about how prevalent stupid banditry is in the world—as if it’s the only way to do business. The “bigs” are especially dangerous: big agriculture, apparel, chemical, electronics, oil, pharmaceuticals, retail, etc.
We’re all losing our lives in one way or another to these dubious ventures.
But that’s my mind drifting on to a topic for another diary, and I’ll stop this one here.
In his essay, Cipolla divides human beings into four categories and builds his theory on these characteristics.
His categories are:
- Intelligent People whose actions benefit others and themselves
- Helpless People whose actions harm them but benefit others
- Bandits whose actions harm others but benefit them
- Stupid People whose actions harm others but don’t benefit them and may, in fact, harm them, too
And he presents his theory as five laws:
- Everyone always underestimates how many stupid people there are.
- Stupidity is unrelated to any other human trait.
- Stupid people cause losses to others without gain and, possibly, with losses to themselves.
- Non-stupid people always underestimate how harmful stupid people are.
- Stupid people are the most dangerous type of person.
Taking Cipolla’s laws and looking for correlations with anti-vax/mask behavior, you can map out anti-vax/mask actions like this:
- How many: 30% of the US population is hesitating, resisting, or outright refusing to get a coronavirus vaccine.
- Unrelated to other traits: Health care workers are protesting against getting vaccinated.
- No gain and possible losses: Not even the threat of death is changing anti-vax/mask behavior.
- How harmful: Who would have predicted that Missouri would end up in such terrible condition?
- Most dangerous: Anti-vax/maskers are bringing the systems we rely on for our safety and health to the brink of crashing.
And you could do the same matching of Cipolla’s laws with anti-vax/mask actions, and together, we could come up with a big, five-part list of parallels between Cipolla’s theory and the anti-vax/mask movement.
And it would prove nothing.
But looking at it might make you wonder, like me, if there’s anything but dangerous, illogical, and incomprehensible behavior there.
Cipolla doesn’t explain stupid people. He simply says that they exist, and they’re irrational, unpredictable, and hazardous. He states that irrational people can’t be understood by rational minds and cautions against getting involved with irrational people because it always comes with a cost that’s often a big cost.
He says the only hope is for rational people to create more gains than the losses that irrational people cause. He was an economist so his theory is all gains and losses, and another way to think about his four human traits is total gain, loss/gain, gain/loss, and total loss.
And maybe that’s the real answer here. Maybe, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with why anti-vax/maskers act like they do. Perhaps, we should simply accept them as an incredible danger to our country, states, cities, friends, families, and selves, and we should just do everything we can to do more good than they do harm.
I like Cipolla’s theory, and I find it to be a compelling model for many of the problems we’re experiencing—like, for instance, Republicans.
In this writings, Cipolla makes a point of dividing bandits into Intelligent Bandits and Stupid Bandits. Intelligent bandits cause an equal amount of loss and gain, and they get everything they take from others. Stupid bandits cause more loss than gain, and they only get part of what they cause others to lose.
When I read that, I think about how Republicans are actively working to crash the US so they can keep their wealth and power. And then I think that they’re going so far with it that they may have moved from being stupid bandits to fully stupid because it’s irrational to think they’ll keep much of anything if the country collapses.
I also start thinking about how prevalent stupid banditry is in the world—as if it’s the only way to do business. The “bigs” are especially dangerous: big agriculture, apparel, chemical, electronics, oil, pharmaceuticals, retail, etc.
We’re all losing our lives in one way or another to these dubious ventures.
But that’s my mind drifting on to a topic for another diary, and I’ll stop this one here.
