Daily cartoon / meme roundup: I am a progressive but I believe in things liberals do to help the people.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scottie’s world today

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

People have too much on their minds these days trying to survive to follow what elected politicians are doing. That has allowed corporations to buy those politicians to insure the wealthy get more and more of the countries wealth and to make sure the government never serves the public.

pro tip: if you really need a job you can do this and then not cross the picket line anyways, fuck 'em, lie to your shitty bosses https://t.co/3g9wxkM4mC

— Connie Wants Enrichment (@NagaConnie) December 17, 2021

We need to stop punching down. We need to see that capitalism is failing society. Capitalists should be kept away from government policy.

Congress must never do anything to help the American people. That would be Communism.

Working for his donors against the people who voted for him Manchin killed the BBB bill. Killed it. Now wants to play president some more even though we elected Biden because of what he promised to try to do when he ran, Manchin wants the child credit extended ten years taking all the money he will allow for the bill so that is the only thing in it. Why? Because Manchin pushed a child tax refund when he was governor of West Virginia. Now the Senate has given up on it and decided to try to pass voting rights bill needed if the Democrats hope to stop the Republican rigging of the next election in 2022, yes next year. But that wont happen either as Sinema has already said she wont change the filibuster under any circumstances, which means the bill is dead. Nothing will pass ever with Sinema and Manchin in the pockets of the wealthy donor class. Democracy is already dead.

mr dirt actor Manchin

Never vote for moderate or centrist Democrats. They are malware. Vote for progressives!

holiday from Texas

This is what the common men and women in the forgotten, empty, opioid-ravaged, de-industrialized towns wanted, and how dare the coastal elites notice it https://t.co/tTWL4royho

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 17, 2021

Political Cartoon.

Republicans know they are traitors.

ghost of legal charges

Passing laws like the Stop Woke Act to ban teaching about the existence of racism literally proves a central point of critical race theory—that racism is often built in to our legal system & must be actively purged to achieve true justice.

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) December 15, 2021

https://twitter.com/roderickgraham/status/1471615647834689546?s=20

Kim Potter is a murderer trying to create a situation where her horrible decisions and non-use of training give her power. It’s called white supremacy.

2 of the approximately 1,260 Broadway actors who work each year have deep-flushed their careers by refusing the Covid vaccine. It will make zero difference. 2/1260 is effectively nothing.

2/1260 is a much *higher* percentage than 103 is of the 181,000 Marines on active duty. https://t.co/F29bayH5r4

— Barry makes comics (@barrydeutsch) December 17, 2021

Active duty Marines: 180k
103 out of 180k = 0.06%
I think the Corps will be ok losing personnel who don’t value their fellow Marines’ health, don’t care about military readiness, and believe they’re above following orders. The remaining 99.94% will be able to pick up the slack. https://t.co/yaMF4w48yx

— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) December 16, 2021

Pledge during shooter drill

in between cliimate change

What is Bill 21 Quebec?

Bill 21, also commonly referred to as Quebec’s secularism law, bans some public servants deemed to be in positions of authority — such as teachers, judges and police officers — from wearing religious symbols on the job. Hugs

https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark/status/1471155338502184960?s=20

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

Ted Rall Comic Strip for December 17, 2021

Silly. Comparing apples and bicycles. PS: Also safe for gender discrimination, and you can even decide based on finger length, quality of the smile, who he/she hangs out with, smooth or crunchy… or how they squeeze the toothpaste.

Kate McKinnon won’t hook up with me because I’m male. Gender discrimination!

Billie Eilish won’t date me because I’m older than her grandfather. Age discrimination!

The hot blonde I met in church won’t see me because I’m married. Marital status discrimination.

None of the Kardashians will date me because I can’t come up with enough cash. Economic discrimination.

Lauren Boebert won’t hook up with me because I don’t have a tattoo on my . . . . You know, that’s OK with me. Dating is a rather personal choice. I doubt it would be pleasant for either party if we match a racist white person with a black person. Ted himself would not want to spend an evening with a racist homophobic MAGA cap-wearing hedge fund manager.

Gary Varvel for Dec 14, 2021

At no other time has the jobs been separated by is it a job that existed before or is it something never seen before? We have never asked if a newly hired cook or server was at a place that is new? Weird way to try to attack Biden. Just be happy the jobs are coming back as businesses start opening due to the vaccines / boosters. Think how great the economy would be if everyone would get vaccinated, wear masks when appropriate, and try to slow / stop the spread of the virus.

I have no trouble with this. I have been social distancing and removing my self from personal contact with people since childhood. But especially since about 2014. I am at a point in my life where I am very comfortable with online contact vs in person contact. If I want more there is Skype, text, face time, and I have the computer set up with cameras. If I was a student today I would choose remote learning, I think a lot of kids serious about learning would. A lot of nursing students did their early years of learning online when I was still working back before 2014. So while not everyone can get the social interaction they need online, Ron for example cannot he still likes person to person contact, I and many others find socializing online to be enough.

Then tell the companies to stop inflating their prices. Greed is a choice. We should be doing something about Inflation, then, instead of mindlessly blaming President Biden or the Fed like the Right-Wing Death-Cultists are trying to do. The way to stop this is to restore full and necessary regulation to businesses, including Price Regulations. This inflation is entirely due to the choices that the Private Market Made. It is neither necessary, nor justified. Summers must be happy that the upper 1% have greatly increased THEIR wealth! Summers hates any wage earners being paid more. And he fights like hell to keep billionaires from paying taxes.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And now some for fun

you, boy! What’s today’s online discourse pic.twitter.com/hhIAcRc3kz

— Jamison Webb (@jamisonwebb) December 15, 2021

Shrimp and Grits for Dec 17, 2021

all inferno just like to kid bunch of pollywogs give them hell god makes snakes grim reaper as kid longer than the boat which is which for out loud you forgot again

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: For many their wallets run dry long before the needs do

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scottie’s world today

reason for the naughty list

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The roundup is short and late today because my blood sugar went uncontrolled and I was in bed in bad shape most of the day. Ron started talking at 2:30 PM of either calling my doctor or taking me to the E.R. I nixed both options for having something to eat. Story below.

I have been having trouble with my blood sugar coming down in the morning when I get up. It has been around 190 to 225 when I get up this last week. No idea why, my diet has not changed. It has been climbing for a month from my normal morning reading of 120 to 130 to the 160’s and 180’s. This morning it was 244. All week I would take my medications and every hour check my blood sugar again. Until this morning with in two hours it would be back to normal. This morning it did not come down but instead went up.

One hour after getting up it was 258. The next hour it started to come down. It went to 181 and then at 8 AM it hit 133. I figured everything was fine and back to normal. I was wrong. I had breakfast while Ron was shopping at Walmart because I don’t go there. He was going to come home and I was going out with him to the local two grocery stores. Only when he got home I was in trouble. I was diaphoretic, dizzy, confused, tired. Ron did a blood sugar and I was near 300. He gave me some medications, as much water as I would take and I went to bed. He kept checking me. I woke up around noon, checked the blood sugar and it was still in the low 200’s. It was coming down but too slowly. I went back to bed.

At 2:30 it was back to about 150. Ron still wanted to call my doctor but I said let me eat first and then I will. He fixed me a salad and steak, no carbs to speak of, and none of the ones I wanted. After I ate I again got diaphoretic, shaking, dizzy, nausea. We checked my blood sugar and I was down to 80. I was crashing, my blood sugar was going down too fast too far. Ron was looking for the glucose tablets when I grabbed a MT Dew in the fridge and downed it. Then I followed it up with a few cookies. Not smart. Yes it brought my sugar back up and I started to feel great, then my sugar went to high and I got real tired. So I went back to bed. I just got up at 5:30 PM and I am still tried. I wanted to post what I had gotten done on the roundup, then I am going back to bed I think.

Don’t worry Ron will be perched over my shoulder for the next three days watching everything I put in my mouth. He will want blood sugars if I even look slightly wrong. He has already read me the riot act and told me repeatedly everything I did wrong, repeatedly. And then did it again to make one of us feel better. So that was my day, how was yours? Hugs

almost to the finish line

Where at least three people are known / charged with voting multiple times for tRump. Hugs

long arm of the law meadows

PA's party of individual freedom is trying to use our drivers licenses and partial SSecurity numbers to continue their idiotic efforts to overturn election results. Thanks for strengthening the surveillance state, guys. https://t.co/WLkI9EzJ5u

— Signe Wilkinson (@SigneWilk) December 14, 2021

taxpayers not paying for schooling

Andy Marlette for Dec 15, 2021

““Very frankly,” Ronald Reagan said of Roots, “I thought the bias of all the good people being one color and all the bad people being another was rather destructive.””

— Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 by @rickperlstein https://t.co/LbFl44qIPH

— Seth Cotlar also at sethcotlar@mastodon.social (@SethCotlar) December 14, 2021

bann crt prayers for guns

I am a medic

This enraging and horrific – and exactly the world that many anti-trans activists have been working to create.

These people rip children from mothers and give them to abusive fathers, all the while whining that being asked to use they/them pronouns is creeping totalitarianism. https://t.co/22x3QXWYZ0

— Barry makes comics (@barrydeutsch) December 16, 2021

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

Oh dear me, the cartoonist giggling so hard at Biden’s approval numbers, claiming they are so bad fail to remember their cult leaders approval numbers on the same day in his presidency were worse than Biden’s. The approval numbers for tRump were 36.4 and for Biden were 43.8 on day 330 of their terms. In case you can not count, that means Biden is more popular than tRump was. So if it is bad for Biden then it was worse for tRump. Hugs https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/

When is some other country going to come over here and solve our problems? I didn’t see anyone stepping in to stop trump or the republican terrorist attacks. Where is the UN? Where has the idea of the US as the world police gotten us? A huge bloated military budget and our own problems at home not addressed. It is time to realize the rest of the world are entitled to make their own choices and they don’t have to do what we tell them nor follow our doctrines. The US is the busybody of the world. Time for us to stop and mind our own business. Hugs

The Build Back Better bill was paid for and the original CBO score based on the bill showed that. No debt. Manchin had said he wouldn’t vote for it if it added to the debt. The Republicans couldn’t use this real score to sink the bill as it was showing the bill paid for. So they demanded the CBO do another score, one that they set the parameters, the rules for. For the new score they added a bunch of things not in the bill to what they wanted scored. That added a bunch of debt. So dishonest. It is like you going to the store with a budget and staying to the budget but at the check out I add a bunch more stuff in your cart you did not plan to buy and then I use that to claim you were over budget. I busted your budget and then use that to claim you shouldn’t get any of the stuff you planned for in the first place. Hugs

A trillion dollar millstone around the necks of young adults. Civilized nations make it possible for everyone to access affordable higher education, because it is considered a right and beneficial to society as a whole, not an opportunity to make big bucks on the backs of struggling students. Hugs

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And now some for fun

DeSantis introduces Stop W.O.K.E. Act in new stand against critical race theory in schools

https://www.wesh.com/article/gov-desantis-to-speak-from-sumter-county-wednesday/38524313#

Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke Wednesday fr0m Wildwood in Sumter County.

DeSantis said he is “taking a stand against critical race theory in our schools and in the workplace by calling for the enactment of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.”

He said he was introducing a new piece of legislation: “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act.”

“With the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions,” said DeSantis. “I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism.”

The Governor said his goal is to block activism like critical race theory from classrooms and workplaces. The Florida Department of Education already banned CRT from K-12 public schools last summer at the Governor’s direction. This new proposal would codify that that ban into state law.

What exactly is critical race theory?

“The easiest way to understand it is that it teaches you to understand your state institutions: the Department of Education, the Department of Corrections, from the perspective of race,” said Dr. Eric Smaw.

Smaw is a philosophy professor at Rollins College and teaches CRT.

“The best analogy is to think about it in terms of gender studies,” he said.

According to the Associated Press, critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.

When CRT was banned in classrooms this summer, all Central Florida school districts told WESH 2 News that they don’t teach critical race theory anyway.

Regardless, the governor has continued to wage a war against the teaching of critical race theory.

“Our legislation will defend any money for K-12 going to CRT consultants,” the governor said. “No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country or hate each other.”

DeSantis said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act will give parents “private right of action” to sue if they think their kids are being taught critical race theory. It will also allow parents to collect attorneys fees if they are successful in their suit.

The governor said the rise of “woke ideology” is an attempt to erase the country’s history, referencing the removal of statues in recent years.

“They want to tear at the fabric of our society and our culture,” he said. “They want to delegitimize the founding of the country and the constitution.”

The governor said critical race theory violates Florida standards. He also claimed that people are making a fortune on teaching CRT to schools and businesses.

He said the term “equity” is used to mask CRT and is used by people to “smuggle in their ideology.”

But Aston Mack, a Black Lives Matter activist and founder of Orlando Freedom Fighters, said the Governor’s new proposal poses dire consequences.

“Quite frankly, it’s going to grow up with a lot of black and brown kids disenfranchised for not knowing their history, not having a connection with the past and allowing these repeated patterns and cycles of racism to disproportionately affect them,” Mack said.

The Governor said the legislation would also protect employees from any CRT training at work, though it is unclear how the state will block it from the office.

Mack said this stop sign to CRT is a green light for others.

“It makes those that are already predisposed to racism, so the white nationalists, the KKK members, all of the Neo Nazis, all of them see this as, ‘OK, Florida the place to go.’ That’s where we’re going to be, ” he said. “And that makes our fight tougher because I know I’m going to see them on the street more often.”

Wes Hodge, the chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party said DeSantis’ platform on schools is all politics.

“It’s 100% about getting the Governor into the White House,” Hodge said.

Hodge said that the Governor is staking his claim in the nation’s new political battleground: the classroom.

“This is 100% trying to rally that far right base to get behind him for not only 2022 reelection, but nationwide for a 2024 presidential run,” he said.

While the Governor said he is protecting parents’ rights and workers, Hodge said the anti-CRT proposal is a scare tactic.

“We need to make sure that people realize that they’re being played emotionally to get them to come out to the polls and vote,” he said.

Governor DeSantis said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act will be introduced when the legislature reconvenes next month.

DeSantis introduced the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” during a rally-style event in Central Florida. DeSantis said the legislation would put into law the Florida Department of Education’s prohibition on “critical race theory” in K through 12 schools.
https://t.co/jdgGm6qPcZ
— News4JAX (@wjxt4) December 15, 2021

Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israel’s expansion of Squatter-Settlements on Palestinian Land?

https://www.juancole.com/2021/12/expansion-settlements-palestinian.html

Israeli media have been pointing out that the Biden administration in Washington is not too bothered about the occupation state’s illegal settlement expansion. There is little reason to doubt the veracity of the claim. So far, US President Joe Biden has managed to maintain a fine balance between his agenda in favour of the two-state compromise, and his predecessor’s legacy which promotes Israel’s annexation of more Palestinian land.

As long as Biden adheres to the international consensus about the two-state compromise, all he has to do is issue periodic condemnations and look the other way, turning the proverbial blind eye to Israeli settlement expansion. After all, that is what the UN has been doing ever since it recognised Israel’s colonial existence.

“We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and damages the prospects for a two-state solution,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price in October.

This perpetual “concern” can be seen from this statement as saving and perpetuating the rhetoric of two-state diplomacy. Settlements are not opposed because of the dispossession of the Palestinians from their land; that consequence has already been cloistered within the humanitarian agenda. The international community bases its relevance to the issue upon two-state politics, as does the US. Hence the tactic of opposing just one fragment of the entire series of repercussions as a result of settlement expansion and de-facto annexation. Whenever the two-state compromise is mentioned, the Palestinian people rarely feature. It is safe, therefore, to state that the paradigm does not exist to grant Palestinians their rights, but to maintain international interference so that the Palestinians are forever unable to claim their legitimate rights to their land.

Last week, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz reiterated the Biden administration’s rigmarole. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Gantz said that US officials do not criticise settlement expansion with the same fervour that they speak about the two-state compromise. The US, Gantz said, is concerned mostly with “maintaining a political horizon between us and the Palestinians open, and about not creating a reality that blocks such a horizon from developing.”

Even more telling was Gantz’s statement that that there are “lots of differences between what the US and Israel view as a two-state solution.” Taking into account that the two-state compromise has been declared obsolete and remains relevant only within international diplomacy, any purported differences about which Gantz speaks are purely hypothetical.

If the US does not care about settlement expansion, why would it be concerned about how the two-state paradigm is applied, considering that it is no longer viable and Israel is well on its path to de-facto annexation in any case? If the US and Israel are on the same page when it comes to preserving the Palestinian Authority and its compromised politics (and “sacred” security coordination with the occupation state), there is little difference in terms of the ultimate aim that Israel is aiming for, which is complete control over all Palestinian territory. The US certainly doesn’t seek an alternative reality, not when it is so heavily invested in Israel. It is only that Biden has publicly aligned himself with international consensus, while Israel has been publicly rejecting any political negotiation for a solution, which gives Gantz any reason to claim political divergence with Washington.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.

Thanks to Homeless on the High Desert at https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2021/12/15/tilting-windmills/ for the link. There are other good links in the post at the link. Hugs

Arizona Hospitals Warn They May Have To Triage Care

Arizona Hospitals Warn They May Have To Triage Care

Phoenix-based Banner Health is at its most overwhelmed since the pandemic began, leading the company’s officials to issue a warning Tuesday that its hospital system may have to eventually choose who can receive care. https://t.co/euWCg5iiMQ
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) December 15, 2021

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-arizona-c1b3db28b716c388035ac1e344243717

Banner Health warns Arizona hospitals stretched to limit

Phoenix-based Banner Health is at its most overwhelmed since the pandemic began, leading the company’s officials to issue a warning Tuesday that its hospital system may have to eventually choose who can receive care.

Some of Banner’s hospitals in one of Arizona’s largest health care systems are operating above 100% capacity, said Dr. Marjorie Bessel, the company’s chief clinical officer.

COVID-19 hospitalizations make up one-third of Banner’s hospital patients but there is also an extremely high volume of patients who delayed preventative care or are in the late stages of an illness, she said.

The company has 18 hospitals in Arizona. As of Tuesday, 10 of them were running above 100% of their ICU staffed bed capacity. Five of them were operating 100% above staffed in-patient bed capacity, according to spokesman Corey Schubert.

“We are more stretched now than we have been since the start of the pandemic,” Bessel told reporters. “ICUs are where we are experiencing the most significant strain on our resources.”

Banner has had to postpone medical procedures, new patient visits and non-urgent appointments because of the intensive care unit needs.

Hospital professionals are prioritizing medically necessary surgeries like mastectomies and gall bladder removals. The hospital system — with assistance from over 2,600 travel nurses who travel around the country filling staffing needs — is trying to counter a hemorrhaging of Banner staff nurses who retired, left the field or took non-bedside jobs .

Banner’s modeling predicts that its number of Arizona hospital bed occupancies will escalate and peak in mid-January, Bessel added.

Nearly 90% of Banner patients undergoing treatment for COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Some days, the percentage of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients in intensive care has been 100%. Bessel reiterated that vaccinations were the key to reducing the burden on health care workers.

“My top ask of the community at this time is for all who are eligible to get vaccinated and your booster if you have not yet done so,” Bessel said. “This is the best way to prevent serious COVID illness that requires hospital-level care.”

Banner’s situation echoes other hospitals in the region. Dr. Michael White, of Phoenix-based Valleywise Health, said staff are reporting the same number of COVID-19 infected patients as a year ago. White had hoped that vaccinations would have translated into fewer hospitalizations.

Hospitalizations across the state for COVID-19 overall inched up Tuesday from a day earlier to 2,764 patients as of Monday, according to the Arizona state health department’s coronavirus dashboard.

The dashboard also reported 2,168 additional cases and 203 deaths. Most of the fatalities stemmed from inspection of death certificates going back several weeks.

Since the pandemic started, the state has reported 1,320,748 confirmed coronavirus infection cases and 23,243 COVID-19 deaths.

The delta variant continues to make up the majority of infections. However, Maricopa County Department of Public Health officials said Monday that they identified the newer omicron variant in six people in metro Phoenix.

Tuesday marked a year since COVID-19 vaccines first arrived in Arizona, according to the Department of Health Services.

So far, more than 4.5 million people in Arizona — or 63.8% of the state’s population — have received at least one dose of a vaccine. Over 3.9 million have been fully vaccinated. Of the state’s vaccine-eligible population, 67.8% have received at least one dose.

Public health officials have said that unvaccinated people are 15.2 times more likely to die than those who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: It is not free stuff, it is using government to serve the people, help the public. The people today have a lower standard of living since the New Deal.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scottie’s world today

vaccine for stupid

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Listen up

Time has not been a healer

#PeopleOverProfits

https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/1470882713888788480?s=20

Republican prayer

https://truth-has-a-liberal-bias.tumblr.com/post/670587423673237504

But, but, but …it was antifa. The entire operation was Trump, the Republican Party, and FOX. They all knew. They all lied afterwards.

Andy Marlette for Dec 14, 2021

Republicans want a Civil War, based on lies and conspiracies, based on promises they will never deliver, just to retain power and destroy elections/democracy. Their violence is premeditated. Their base is incapable of independent thought. The losers have united. Instead of owning their growing defeats, they invent excuses. They blame others.

you got nothing on me medows

“He’s is a good man, and he is my friend. In fact, you should see the things that I was texting him on January 6th!! …uh oh did I say that out loud” https://t.co/LWXBqMcWgE

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 14, 2021

Maybe this will make more sense to any Repubs not condemning the events of Jan. 6 pic.twitter.com/u859WACt9H

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 14, 2021

Fox News is Republican state run media. The texts prove it. #FoxNews #MarkMeadows #LockThemAllUp #January6th #GOPTraitors #MeadowsTexts #LauraIngraham pic.twitter.com/VTPEQp3XtI

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 15, 2021

They knew they were guilty. Then they invented an enemy to blame it on. Republican/FOX fascism, writ large.

They knew. They lied. The Right want their ‘lone wolves’ to attack progressives using FOX propaganda.

mark tRump tell people go home

Hannity, Ingraham, and Kilmeade think their viewers are worthless. They lie to their faces.

please turn off the lights

fox news polticize disaster

PA's party of individual freedom is trying to use our drivers licenses and partial SSecurity numbers to continue their idiotic efforts to overturn election results. Thanks for strengthening the surveillance state, guys. https://t.co/WLkI9EzJ5u

— Signe Wilkinson (@SigneWilk) December 14, 2021

In opinion after opinion some of the Justices say it is horribly offensive to accuse someone of being motivated by racially discriminatory intent, but the same Justices frequently hurl accusations of religious bigotry with incredible ease. https://t.co/mLCGe0rs6g

— Josh Block (@JoshABlock) December 13, 2021

Walt Handelsman Comic Strip for December 14, 2021

https://twitter.com/GBBranstetter/status/1470377979175968768?s=20

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

The funny thing about the right attack Biden on crime is that the left attacks Biden for being to strict on crime and punishment. Have all the right forgotten the 1994 crime bill sponsored by Biden that led to a jump in mass incarceration. Biden is historically pro-police, pro-prison, pro-hammer down law and order. However turning the US into a police state wont solve the crime problem. Crime may be rising now but is still less than it has been even in the last decade. Crime has been falling steadily. But there are some who stand to gain by turning the US into a police state. Resist their fear mongering. We can do better, again look at other countries, they solve crime problems with out locking up large segments of the population in prisons designed to be punitive and in inhumane. Hugs

The right likes to call any coverage of the Coronavirus hysterical because they work for the profit of big money. A virus that has killed over 800,000 people in less than 2 years and 1% of people over 65 in the country. Think of that. Why would anyone want to ignore that, because it cuts into profit. If you have take precautions it costs profits. So the right wing makes it seem the virus is no problem at all and any one who wants to fight the virus is wrong. Hugs

Maybe if police were not busy oppressing minorities with the Republicans endless war on drugs they would have time to focus on petty theft. Crime rates in GOP cities are the same as those in Democrat led cities. Crime rates in cities that increased police funding showed increases in crime. By pushing this false Fox News inspired narrative, you ignore the true roots and causes of crime. Typical GOP-posturing. Hugs

I’m not sure of the point. Kentucky officials and citizens have been highly complimentary about the federal response to the disaster. And the Biden admin has been begging people to get booster shots. What is Mr. Lester’s beef? Sen. McConnell went as far to praise the speed and effort the President has made in response to the disaster. No mention was made or Covid-19 vaccinations. Hugs

Again the right wing projects. Blame Biden they shout for taking away something Biden worked hard to give you and the Republicans fought every attempt to keep you having. It is extended in the build back better plan that Manchin, Sinema, and the Republicans are fighting to keep from ever becoming law. This is misdirection in hopes of making the people angry at someone trying to help them by the person trying to hurt them. Hugs

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And now some for fun

No Zuckerberg is the ET. This reminds me of the twilight zone episode where everyone on a bus stopped at a diner in a snow storm. They were scared a escaped prisoner was mixed in with them. After they all got back on the bus and the bus crashed killing everyone one guy returned to the diner where he announced he was from Mars and they were going to invade, but the cook in the diner laughed and told him too late as he was from Venus and they were already to invade. Hugs

Is Jim Jordan Planning To Kill Us All?

https://www.wonkette.com/is-jim-jordan-planning-to-kill-us-all

Robyn Pennacchia

December 07, 2021 09:36 AM

Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, has been on something of a roll lately. Last week, he announced to the world that Real America was done with COVID-19. It was a fairly premature declaration given that the areas of the country Jordan likely considers to be “Real America” have far higher COVID death rates than parts he’d likely consider “Not Real America.”

On Sunday, he made an appearance on Sebastian Gorka’s Newsmax TV show (this is a thing) to talk about what a horrific existential threat the Left is, suggesting that perhaps they may have to kill us all in a brutal war of some kind.

Gorka started things off by kicking it old school and whining about Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals, the very existence of which he and Jordan agreed is solid proof that today’s Democratic Party is “not your parents’ Democrat Party.”

Rules For Radicals was published in 1971, which would actually make it proof, I suppose, that today’s Democratic Party is in fact, many people’s parents’ Democratic Party. Gorka also named Alinsky as the most important of these modern Democratic radicals, which is odd considering he has been quite dead since 1972, the year after the book was published.

Gorka initially tried to use the book to get Jordan to talk about the ways in which the Left had done Rule 12 to him — “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” It seems pretty obvious that Gorka was talking about the myriad accusations that Jordan ignored complaints of sexual abuse when he was assistant coach of Ohio State University’s wrestling team from 1987 to 1995. Alas, Jordan did not seem too keen on talking about that for some reason.

Rather, Jordan pivoted to how incredibly radical the Left is now, erroneously claiming that everyone in the Democratic Party supports defunding the police — possibly getting rid of the police entirely! — and having completely open borders, which he claims we have right now at this very moment. At some point he brought up critical race theory. It is very clear he has no idea what defunding the police or critical race theory entail, he just knows they sound scary.

This was the best he could come up with, because it would probably be less frightening to talk about what Democrats are actually trying to do in Congress right now. Try saying “They’re going to let Medicare negotiate prices with drug companies so seniors don’t have to pay ridiculously high prices for their medications! WoooOOOOoooOOO!” in your spookiest voice. Still not very threatening!

Even the kind of “radical” proposals centrist Democrats shy away from are hard to make sound scary. Like “MUAHAHAHA! They’re going to cancel your student loan debt! And you’ll never pay $1,500 for an ambulance ride again!”

But he needed to make things sound as frightening as possible, because what came next was a highly disturbing monologue about how every third generation, Americans are called upon to “do something big” — citing the American Revolution, the Civil War and World War II.

JORDAN: Every third generation in this country has had to do something big. You think about the Founders and what they did when they declared why we’re going to be an independent country, what they had to overcome, the greatest military in the world. They did it.

Three generations later, Lincoln and the Americans then held the country together, got rid of the evil of slavery. Three generations later, we defeated imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, the evils that those two countries represented and the greatest generation won that war.

Here we are three generations later and the assault is from the radical Left. We have to step forward and do our part like previous generations of Americans have done. I think we’re up to the task.”

Jim Jordan, by the way, was one of the 120 Republicans in Congress who voted against removing Confederate statues from the Capitol building.

The grotesque absurdity of these statements aside, it’s worth noting that he’s talking about wars here. Were conservatives to “step forward and do [their] part like previous generations,” it would involve killing us. “Us” being the actual majority of Americans, whether he considers us to be Real Americans or not.

This isn’t just Jim Jordan being an asshole, this is arguably stochastic terrorism. The January 6 insurrection happened because of rhetoric like this, because these people keep getting told by those with authority and power that they have not just the right but the obligation to use violence to get their own way. People like Jordan say these things because it makes their base feel excited and empowered and important and more likely to vote for them. It also makes them more likely to go to prison.

The fact is, if Jim Jordan gave half a shit about “Real America” he’d tell them to get vaccinated and remind them that it is not actually legal for them to try to overthrow the government or murder people who disagree with them. He doesn’t. He doesn’t care if they die from COVID or wind up in prison so long as they vote for him before they do it.

Call me a radical, but I don’t think that someone who thinks it would be swell to murder half of the country ought to be in Congress. It would be nice if we had a higher bar than that. Apparently we don’t.