My blood sugar has been uncontrolled all day causing me to have periods of extreme tired. As my sugar soars and then the insulin fights to bring it down and then soars again I am seesawing between feeling OK and not able to keep my eyes open. I have been back to bed four times so far today. I feel I have not gotten anything done.
I found out that my part D insurance company wont pay for the insulin my doctor prescribed. Now I have to find what insulin they will cover and see if the doctor thinks that will work for me. It is not about what works best and what the doctor thinks will be the best choice for my medical condition, it is what the insurance company will pay at least part of. I sure could have used that lower drug prices and $15 insulin in the Build Back Better bill that wealthy yacht living Maserati driving Manchin says I don’t need.
In just the first month of 2022, drugmakers have raised the prices of prescription drugs by 6.6%.
Rather than take on Big Pharma's greed, two corporate Democrats and 50 Senate Republicans would rather block Build Back Better and line their own pockets with Big Pharma cash.
Make no mistake: These 52 senators are enabling billion-dollar drug companies to raise drug prices in the middle of a global pandemic. A moral outrage. https://t.co/VIs2KjrLvF
If only the #NYT were this concerned about the debt when #TFG was ramming through tax cuts for corporations and rich people.
What about interest on the W Bush tax cuts and his two endless wars?
They said ‘don’t politicize the bench, no judicial activism’. They lied. It’s what conservatives do.
Most of the braindead Right have no idea of the mission of the Federalist Society. They can’t connect the dots between their grievances with life and a corporate fascist judiciary/SCOTUS.
How do you work for Putin without saying you work for Putin. Hawley is a Russian rat.
If your version of American history is completely positive with all the negative parts whitewashed away, then it's not history — it's propaganda. https://t.co/z46x6YpluP
Too bad he and the legislature spent all that time playing to the all important constituency of fox news’ primetime hosts instead of fixing the power grid. Maybe we can use those critical race theory and abortion bounty laws to keep warm https://t.co/TkufhkhEYR
Always a different set of rules for [mediocre white] men.
Would like to see this broken into Red State and Blue State deaths per capita to compare policies.
NYT avoids telling why the US has such a high death rate: right wing disinformation & Putin
The idea is to walk softly but carry a big stick. I agree with Ukraine on this. Russia would love it if Ukraine’s economy crashed and their businesses closed. That actually could be used by Russia to invade. So world, be ready to act but don’t scream about it world wide.
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
Nope, not even close. What was requested is he stop promoting lies about a health crisis and getting people killed. Even he admitted he had to try harder to give the correct information.
No Biden did not base his pick just on skin color, skin color is just one of the qualifications he requires of the nominee. Those who keep complaining of this see only that he is picking a black woman as if it was a random person he seen on the street. The complainers are not even worth arguing because they are doing it in bad faith, wanting to find some fault with Biden, and fault at all.
What’s that have to do with car crash? he prison system in the US always fails. The reality is that it doesn’t rehabilitate. It teaches people to be better criminals. We have more people in the jail and prison than any other country. Yes, the system has certainly failed.
The right is up in arms because ICE is moving families to new locations. They act as if ICE has never moved people around the country and in the night at that. Well I posted on the many flights they did to hide kids taken from their families in the middle of the night. Companies started to refuse ICE to fly these scared kids who were under orders not to talk and who no one was allowed to talk to. This was the real abuse. These kids were taken from their families and taken across the country to be given to adoption agencies (usually christian adoption agencies)to place in families for money. That is called child trafficking.
So the cartoonist admits the average person in the US can not afford necessities which is increasing petty crimes of theft. I think it is time to tax the wealthy and large corporations the way they were taxed in the best economic times of the US such as the 1950’s so the government can take care of the needs of the people. The government can create programs to insure people have the things they need and are not so deep in poverty that they need to steal to stay warm and clothed.
Whoopi Goldberg made a foolish comment about the Holocaust. She apologized. Mike Lester nevertheless piled on.
Less than a year ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene, an actual member of the U S Congress, made vile comments trivializing the Holocaust in the context of criticizing mask mandates as tyrannous. Even Kevin McCarthy condemned them. Mike Lester bravely and forthrightly responded by . . . publishing cartoons condemning mask mandates as tyrannous.
This is, of course, the same Mike Lester who in October 2018, following the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, published cartoons attacking the criticism of Halloween costumes as cultural appropriation and depicting Stacy Abrams as a common thief. It’s pretty clear what bothers Mr. Lester and what doesn’t.
I remember night flights when ICE took children who had been taken from their parents at the Southern border and taken across the US to mostly Christian adoption agencies to be placed with US families for a price. The frighted kids were not allowed to speak to anyone and ICE agents wouldn’t let anyone talk to the children. This is child trafficking. It was done under the tRump administration and it was because of the tRump separation policy that they had children they had to move around the country.
Complete lie. It is stupid to even promote that idea. Remember the US is a country of laws and the DA and Gov. of Texas along with other states have go to court to block every attempt that Biden has made to change rules at the border. The only one rule change that was made was that families seeking asylum are not detained but verified given ways to track them and sent to family or NGO’s in other parts of the country. There are cities and towns in the US that are welcoming as many immigrant families as they can get. Reality is the US has places dying because of lack of people living there. Immigrants bring life back to these places. But that is the only rule change. The borders are not open, apprehensions are up. Facts matter
‘This bill is white privilege personified and white fragility in legislative form.’
Legislation barring instruction that could cause someone to feel discomfort because of his or her demographics is approaching the end of the House committee process.
The House State Affairs Committee voted 16-8 Tuesday, along party lines, to advance a bill (HB 7) targeting class lessons and corporate trainings that teach cultural guilt, teachings proponents say inserts ideology into history lessons. The legislation, filed in part at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ urging, is Florida Republicans’ effort to quell classroom or corporate training discussions they consider “woke” indoctrinations of cultural guilt or critical race theory.
The House bill, carried by Miami Springs Republican Rep. Bryan Ávila, would prohibit lessons and training which teach that some people are morally superior to members of another race, color, sex or national origin. Additionally, it would ban teachings that an individual is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. The goal would be to promote objective lessons in classrooms and beyond, Ávila said.
Some movements in education and corporate America threaten to undo progress in achieving equality by asking people to consider themselves as groups, not individuals, as assigning traits and experiences to groups rather than highlighting individual experience, he said.
“These movements confuse and muddle important history and civics lessons that should be taught by imposing ideologies that twist reality and fostering stereotypes that take us backward and not forward,” Ávila said.
In classrooms, enforcement would be placed in the hands of parents who could approach teachers to resolve concerns before filing complaints.
Critics argue the measure could effectively ban certain books, classroom materials or classroom discussions if parents believe the content contains subjective spins on historical facts. Some history lessons can’t be taught without possibly making people feel guilt or discomfort, they asserted.
Critics raised its potential impact on the teaching or discussion of other troubling historical events such as slavery or the Holocaust.
Ávila argued that teachers should stick to the curriculum and err on the side of caution when opining on historical events. That drew complaints from North Miami Democratic Rep. Dotie Joseph, who called erring on the side of caution the definition of a chilling effect — signifying a possible First Amendment violation.
“This bill is white privilege personified and white fragility in legislative form,” Joseph said.
“We need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable through reconciliation rather than through silence and suppression,” she continued.
“My fear now as a teacher, as I’m teaching about the Holocaust, is that those Nazis who were on that bridge in Orlando, their children, are in my classroom. And now they go home and say, ‘My teacher told me, look what Nazi Germany did, look what Germans did,’” said Weston Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman.
Joseph and Rep. Daryl Campbell, who is serving his first day in the House, noted Tuesday marks the first day of Black History Month.
“It dawned on me that I am a Black man with locks sitting at this seat, and I don’t recall the last time a Black man with locks was a Representative in the state of Florida,” Campbell said. “It makes me feel quite uncomfortable, sitting here right now.”
The bill also extends the same bans to corporate human resources policies and training to stop what Ávila cited as offensive cultural policies reported for such firms as AT&T, Coca-Cola, CBS, Google, Lockheed Martin and Walt Disney Corp.
To accomplish its goal in the corporate sphere, the bill would expand the Florida Civil Rights Act to consider such teachings as discrimination based on race, color, sex or national origin.
“This bill makes a mockery of the Florida Civil Rights Act, turns it completely upside down,” Orlando Democratic Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith said. “It minimizes the seriousness of real complaints of discrimination — someone who was denied a job promotion, someone who was demoted or fired from their job.”
Despite the heated discussions during the meeting, Ávila told members he loved them. He said both parties always agree to come from an objective point of view during political discourse.
“What makes a classroom different? Being objective, being fair, treating each other with respect, that is the American way of life,” Ávila said. “That is what this bill represents.”
The Senate’s version (SB 148) from Republican Sen. Manny Díaz Jr. got through its first committee vote last month after similar contention. Both bills have one more committee stop in their respective chambers. Díaz’s bill next heads to the Senate Rules Committee while Ávila’s bill heads to the House Education and Employment Committee.
Bill pushing freedom from discomforting lessons in classrooms, businesses heads to final House panel
Unvaccinated adults were 23 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 during the omicron wave than adults who were vaccinated and boosted, according to a new study that further highlights the importance of coronavirus vaccination and booster shots.
The study, released Tuesday, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found by far the highest rates of cases and hospitalizations among unvaccinated people, followed by vaccinated but not boosted people, with vaccinated and boosted people having the most protection.
The study used data from Los Angeles County as of Jan. 8, during the omicron wave.
Hospitalizations were 5.3 times higher among the unvaccinated than vaccinated but not boosted.
“Efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccination and boosters are critical to preventing COVID-19–associated hospitalizations and severe outcomes,” the study states.
While the largest effects were in reducing hospitalizations, the study also shows that vaccines and boosters lowered the chance of getting infected at all. The protection is not total, meaning there are still frequent breakthrough cases, but the severity is far lower among people who are vaccinated and boosted than among the unvaccinated.
Case rates among unvaccinated people were 3.6 times higher than vaccinated and boosted people, and two times higher than vaccinated and not boosted people, the study found.
The study also found that, as expected, there was some drop-off in the performance of the vaccines against omicron compared with the delta variant, given omicron’s increased ability to evade protection.
Gaps between the unvaccinated and vaccinated were even larger with the delta variant, with a hospitalization rate 83 times higher for the unvaccinated compared to boosted people, and a case rate 12.3 times higher.
“Rate ratios indicated continued protection conferred by vaccine against severe disease, especially among those who had received a booster, although reduced for Omicron compared with Delta,” the study states.
Health officials are urging more people to get boosted. About 44 percent of fully vaccinated adults have also received a booster, according to CDC data.
Protesters have been bringing in fuel and supplies to those who are hunkered down in their vehicles Tuesday, while others have been seen playing street hockey throughout the day.
Buttons and badges that were offered for sale at the convoy Tuesday included those with “mask exemption” messaging, offensive imagery and other anti-mandate language. Some child care centres remain closed in the downtown area, and at least one vaccine clinic has shut its doors due to the protest Tuesday, for the fifth day in a row.
Some residents in Ottawa have reported being challenged on wearing masks by protesters and being assaulted while walking in their neighbourhoods. Many businesses in the downtown core will remain closed in light of the protest.
Tensions are rising at one of the US-Canada border’s busiest ports of entry over a vehicle blockade that has halted traffic and disrupted services. The demonstration is tied to the ongoing nationwide “Freedom Convoy” protests over Canada’s new restrictions on unvaccinated cross-border truckers.
Some motorists and area residents have reportedly been stuck in standstill since the protest began on Saturday. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta said the event was “unlawful”. They said extensive efforts to negotiate with protest organisers had failed.
The line-up of trucks in Alberta extends for several miles along the main Highway 4 into the border village of Coutts. Mayor Jim Willett said the protest was blocking residents’ access to the grocery store and the gas station, and playing havoc with mail delivery and school bus pickups.
Anyone standing with his back to the border in the howling winds and blowing snow would come face to face with the headlights of vehicles, two abreast, blocking the highway as far as the eye could see.
Big rigs were also parked horizontally, blocking traffic in both directions. Between lanes, other vehicles and campers were parked haphazardly in the median. Some vehicles were occupied, engines idling, exhaust fumes swirling in the icy wind.
Others sat silent and empty, their drivers seeking comfort and coffee in the nearby Smugglers Saloon. Mounties said late Monday they had been negotiating without success to end the illegal protest and were prepared to make arrests and tow vehicles if necessary.
The blockade at the Coutts Crossing prevents truckers from doing their jobs and has devastating consequences on the essential merchandise they’re transporting. I call on the protestors at the border to let the Canadian truckers thru and let them go home.
Anti-vaccine protesters in Canada flew Nazi flags and forced a homeless shelter to give them food in Ottawa this weekend.
The protests, continuing on Monday, are over a vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the U.S. border — though about 85% of truckers are already vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/OHrhlJYbkZ
WASHINGTON — A Michigan Republican candidate for governor recently said that rape victims who become pregnant shouldn’t get abortions, according to a video of the comment that went viral Monday.
Garrett Soldano made the remark on the right-wing podcast “Face the Facts with April Moss,” and a liberal news site, Heartland Signal, tweeted a video of the conversation Monday.
Soldano, a chiropractor running in a crowded Michigan race, said that he wants to promote a culture that inspires pregnant women to have their babies and lets them know “how heroic they are and how unbelievable that they are, that God put them in this moment. And they don’t know that little baby inside them may be the next president, may be the next person that changes humanity.”
Soldano shared a story about how one of his mentors was adopted and learned that his birth mother had been raped by several men in a subway station.
“It kind of like tore out his heart when he found that out, but then he started to really appreciate and understand what his birth mother went through, that she had the courage to deliver him,” Soldano said, adding that his mentor went on to help thousands of people improve their lives.
Several Michigan Democratic lawmakers blasted Soldano for his comments.
State Rep. Mari Manoogian tweeted, “This is truly sickening. I have no other words.” State Sen. Erika Geiss called Saldano’s remarks “disgusting.”
“We should be inspiring women who’ve been raped to press charges & we should have a system that takes them seriously,” Geiss tweeted. “We should have a world where men don’t think they’re entitled to women’s bodies. We should have a world where ppl respect #ReproRights.”
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is running for re-election to a second term in November. Her political director, Ron Owens, tweeted that Soldano’s comments were “absolutely disgusting and dangerous,” adding that “every candidate in the GOP primary has said they will undermine a woman’s right to choose.”
Soldano’s remarks on abortion were reminiscent of the late Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s comments during his 2012 Senate campaign that “legitimate rape” rarely results in pregnancy. Akin said “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Although Akin said amid backlash over his remarks that he was wrong, he later retracted his apology in a political memoir that criticized his treatment by his party.
Sounds like a guy only a rapist could love. Michigan GOP governor candidate says rape victims shouldn't have abortions, baby might be 'next president' – NBC News https://t.co/VpYSDi91Wx
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, suffered a stroke in New Mexico last week and is continuing to recover at a hospital in Albuquerque, according to his chief of staff.
He is expected to make a full recovery.
Carlos Sanchez, Luján’s chief of staff, said in a statement that the senator started to feel dizzy and fatigued last week and checked himself into Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Santa Fe. He was transferred to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque where it was determined he had a stroke in the cerebellum, which affected his balance. A decompressive surgery was performed, Sanchez said.
Luján, 49, is resting comfortably and expected to make a full recovery, Sanchez said. He said Luján’s offices will remain open.
Adán Serna, a spokesman for Luján, said the stroke happened last week and Luján remained at UNM Hospital on Tuesday.
“The senator and his family would like to thank the wonderful doctors and staff at both UNM Hospital and Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital for their excellent care during this time,” Sanchez said. “Senator Luján looks forward to getting back to work for the people of New Mexico. At this time, he and his family would appreciate their privacy, and ask for your continued prayers and well wishes.”
Serna said Luján has been able to talk with staff. He said the senator hasn’t suffered any paralysis or loss of speech.
Last week in New Mexico, Luján on Wednesday held a virtual roundtable on the topic of cleaning up orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in the state.
His last public appearance had been scheduled for last Thursday, the same day he went to the hospital, where Luján was to appear at the Albuquerque International Sunport with Sen. Martin Heinrich, Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Mayor Tim Keller and other officials to talk about future projects there funded through a federal infrastructure bill. That event was postponed after Stansbury tested positive for COVID earlier in the week.
Serna said there currently isn’t a timeline for when Luján is expected to be released from the hospital. Proxy voting isn’t allowed in the senate, which is evenly split 50-50.
Luján was elected to the Senate in 2020 and his term runs through 2027. Prior to that, he represented northern New Mexico for six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Luján is the son of Ben Lujan, a long-time member of the New Mexico House of Representatives.
My first brand new home cost less than my 2018 car. Then I could afford a new home, two vehicles, two motorcycles, and other luxuries on one working persons wages. Not now.
A living wage. Housing as a human right. Medicare for All. Building union power. Legalizing marijuana & expunging records. Tackling the climate crisis.
Republican fascism is here. FOX broadcasts the propaganda. Both thought they would restore past glory by scapegoating and violence.
Half the GOP in Congress will be in prison and they will still chant ‘lock her up’ because the brainless have no objective intelligence, just slogans and grievances.
We had all of our major cities BURNED TO THE GROUND!!!
We need to look at this for what it is — they’re trying to keep us from voting with the threat of violence, because they know they can’t win on the issues.
Because of the red states forcing in person schooling with no attempt at all to use precautions or mitigate the spread of Covid, so many teachers are out sick with the virus that there is no one left to watch the kids as the parents work. Think about the sign, it is not about educating the kids, it is about having a place to park them so the parents can make profit for their employers. If it was about teaching kids than the money would have been put into making the kids and adults safe.
Just what we need, a country that can not afford to take care of nuclear weapons and did not have the expertise needed to control them having them. But they are right they should have gotten much better security promises and treaties for giving them up.
Not quite that bad. There has been some hesitation as to how far to go with sanctions on the part of Germany because they get a large part of their natural gas for heating their homes from Russia. In the middle of winter I can see their issue, but I also want to note they have agreed to go along with the sanctions.
Yes they do hate to be called out for what they are. Most racist say they are not racists. The fringe people want or need to think they are the majority and the ones with the truth.
Notice the cartoonist name. This same deep right wing person who fawns over tRump and rants against anything the Democrats want to do while promoting Covid misinformation is supporting the Canadian anti-maskers / anti-vaccine truckers. Do you wonder if there is dark money fueling all these people ranting against governments attempt to slow down and eradicate the virus?
This normally far right cartoonist is sort of correct above. But what it points out is not that Biden has fallen but that there is not one Republican willing to do the right thing for their country. It shows that the right is party first rather than the good of the country. They would see the country destroyed to make Biden fail, regardless of the cost to the nation.
How immature. The US government requires money to operate and provide services. The IRS exists to ensure that those who owe taxes pay the correct amount owed. The problem is that the Republicans have managed to shift the tax burden on to the lower incomes and poor and away from the wealthy. The Republicans have starved the agency so they can no longer go after wealthy people actively avoiding paying the taxes they owe. The wealthy want as much bad press and to demonize the IRS as much as possible so the people will try to do away with the agency in charge of making the wealthy pay their taxes. This is the right wing media doing the bidding of the wealthy to sway public opinion. Don’t fall for it. Don’t give the wealthy a pass from paying their taxes.
I noticed Goodwin never pointed out the injustice of appointing white people over qualified black women. Remember that Reagan promised to put a woman on the Supreme Court if he were elected—and he did. Was that pandering? Trump promised to put anti-abortionists on the Court, and he did. Was that pandering? Conserves are scared of a more balanced court. That’s why they stacked the Supreme Court with single minded simpletons who pander to the ultra right wing evangelicals.
You can no longer be neutral on this issue. You are either against white supremacy and the negation of black history, or, you identify with white supremacy and you require an anti-black agenda to exist.
Your exposure to humanity should make you curious. Tell your parents to open a book.
It is exhausting to see people decrying Biden picking “a less qualified” or “unqualified” Black woman for SCOTUS, without even seeing who the nominee is. You are essentially saying that you think there is literally no Black woman in this country qualified to sit on the Court.
Just a reminder that the Heritage Foundation, a pillar of conservative policy, is actively engaging in spreading anti-vax misinformation.
It boggles my mind that in 2022, with thousands still dying daily, a major think tank is still agreeing "shots don't prevent spread." 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/0fsGi6Lzge
Being a police officer isn’t even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs and it’s far behind such risky ( but genuinely useful ) endeavours as working on a farm and collecting garbage.
Not only that but COVID became the number one killer of cops « in the line of duty » last year.
— Scott #FuckElonMusk AbolishThePolice #ACAB Menor (@smenor) January 30, 2022
Also he’s a fantastic idiot if he thinks that violence against women isn’t a norm in society or that the threat of being punched (or whatever else) by men isn’t an actual risk that women constantly navigate
— E. McCumber @independentpen@mas.to (@independentpen) January 30, 2022
People can still travel by air, they just have to follow the rules as they always have had to follow the rules. The rules now include wearing masks and having the Covid vaccines.
My comment on the above cartoon was deleted as spam. I suspect that the cult followers of the right simply flag any comment that contradicts what they spew. The person writing the comment that was removed doesn’t get notified and has no way to know why it was flagged or who flagged it. There is a request for review and I hit them, but I have never seen the review have any effect. I have had comments on review for over two months with no resolution. So it scam to block non-right wing misleading comments. Below is the comment that was marked spam.
The southern border is secure, one of the most secure of borders. The norther border is not only not secure in many places it is not even marked or patrolled. In fact the northern border often runs through towns, down the center of roads, or is just sections of beach. Why do some people focus on the well patrolled and watched southern border and not the wide open northern one confuses me. There has to be something different about the people crossing them … Oh I got it skin color maybe?
The wall is not practical, it is not effective, and it is easily defeated. We all seen the videos of people scaling the new walls, cutting them with battery operated saws, or using makeshift ladders to go over them. The idea of a wall is only a media gimmick, a political tool, a pretend solution to please the anti-immigration crowd. There are long sections where the wall cannot be built due to terrain, where people don’t want to give up their land, where it is an environmental disaster. It simply is a not needed boondoggle.
Ah healthcare. Republicans have blocked every attempt to lower drug costs and to improve healthcare for the public. Look it up.
Why do we need to rebuild the military? Didn’t tRump brag he did that? Almost over night even. They were out of bullets until him he said. Thing was the military budget increased under Obama, under tRump, and under Biden. Those are facts, look it up.
Infrastructure for political cronies like the one support by Republicans that just passed and was signed into law. Know why that is so popular with corporations and the wealthy? It gives large amounts of public assets to businesses so they can charge the public to use them. That is real crony problem, Republicans giving the country to the wealthy instead of having government working for the public.
Oh I agree that we shouldn’t have bribes to China for Ivanka’s trademarks. That was horrible. She got 18 in two months during first two years when China was on good terms with the former president. Russia got many good deals in the hope of approving serval ventures tRump wanted to in Moscow. He even offered Putin the top penthouse for free. it is a fact look it up.
OK so your opinion host talking points are bull. Go back to what I said, why are the GOP not talking about them? They are not pushing any policies. They argue culture wars, they talk about a kids potato toy not being called Mr. or Misses anymore as it is a national crisis. They screamed for weeks that Dr. Seuss was being canceled because the owners did not want to keep publishing books that were not selling out of the collect of his works. Look at what the Republicans are talking about and see it is fear and outrage they are trying to create. Move past that and they offer nothing to improve your daily life.
We have received your request for review
This was the comment I was replying to.
These are polices the GOP are behind and all make American Lives better: Securing the border. Finish the Wall – the materials are there, awaiting construction, Ensuring we don’t have another chaotic exit, leave folks behind strategy, anywhere else. Improving Heath Care and reestablish Private Insurance with less government. Having Infrastructure that is really Infrastructure and not a money to political cronies bill. Stopping all of the concessions to our enemies in return for a bribe of a relative. Continuing what the new VA gov an other GOP govs are doing by ensuring the lies of CRT are not in school curriculum. Stopping using govt bureaucracies as political tools. Rebuilding the military. Withdrawing from Iran and Paris deals.
None of these divide the people like Dems policies do nor are they designed to keep Dems in power.
There are limits and rules to every right in the US. How is it freedom to push misinformation that is responsible for killing many people and holding back the recovery from a pandemic? It is not anti-freedom to make sure that the public has the correct true information and that misinformation distribution is curbed or labeled as such. Spotify has begun labeling all misleading misinformation about Covid and says they will include links to the correct information. It also is a free market decision for those who disagree with the company to remove their music. Again no violation of freedom.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Canada’s capital on Saturday to protest vaccine mandates, masks and lockdowns.
Some parked on the grounds of the National War Memorial and danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, others carried signs and flags with swastikas and some used the statue of Canadian hero Terry Fox to display an anti-vaccine statement, sparking widespread condemnation.
“I am sickened to see protesters dance on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and desecrate the National War Memorial. Generations of Canadians have fought and died for our rights, including free speech, but not this. Those involved should hang their heads in shame,” tweeted Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s Defense Staff chief.
Protestors compared vaccine mandates to fascism, one truck carried a Confederate flag and many carried expletive-laden signs targeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The statue of Fox, a national hero who lost a leg to bone cancer as a youngster, then set off in 1980 on a fundraising trek across Canada, was draped with a upside down Canadian flag with a sign that said “mandate freedom.”
Trudeau retweeted a statement from The Terry Fox Foundation that said “Terry believed in science and gave his life to help others.”
Eric Simmons, from Oshawa, Ontario, said all vaccine mandates should be ended.
“They’re not effective, they’re not working. It’s not changing anything. We can’t keep living like this. People are losing their jobs because they don’t want to get the vaccine,” Simmons said.
The convoy of truckers and others prompted police to prepare for the possibility of violence and warn residents to avoid downtown. A top Parliament security official advised lawmakers to lock their doors amid reports their private homes may be targeted.
Trudeau has said Canadians are not represented by this “very troubling, small but very vocal minority of Canadians who are lashing out at science, at government, at society, at mandates and public health advice.″
The prime minister’s itinerary for the day usually says he is in Ottawa if he’s at home, but on Saturday it said “National Capital Region” amid a report he’s been moved to an undisclosed location. One of Trudeau’s kids has COVID-19 and the prime minister has been isolating and working remotely.
Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and the premier of the province of Quebec who is proposing to tax the unvaccinated is popular.
Some are, in part, protesting a new rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada be fully immunized against the coronavirus. The United States has imposed the same requirement on truckers entering that country.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance said a great number of the protesters have no connection to the trucking industry, adding they have a separate agenda to push. The alliance notes the vast majority of drivers are vaccinated.
The organizers of the protest have called for the forceful elimination of all COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates and some called for the removal of Trudeau.
The Shepherds of Good Hope, which has a soup kitchen for the homeless in Ottawa, reported staff and volunteers “experienced harassment from convoy protestors seeking meals from our soup kitchen. The individuals were given means to defuse the conflict.”
Some opposition Canadian Conservative lawmakers served coffee to the protesters. Conservative party leader Erin O’Toole met with some truckers. The protest has also attracted support from former U.S. President Donald Trump and some Fox News personalities.
“We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way,” Trump said at a rally in Conroe, Texas. “They are doing more to defend American freedom than our leaders by far.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman said the threat against democracy isn’t only happening in America.
“Both the use of the swastika and the confederate flag are symbols of hate. So very sad to see these symbols anywhere and especially in Canada,” said Heyman, who was the U.S. envoy under former President Barack Obama.
The Parliamentary Protective Service expects as many as 10,000 protesters as part of a weekend-long rally.
“I’m locked into my own country right now,” said Tom Pappin, an unvaccinated man who came from just outside Ottawa. “I can’t go on a holiday. I can’t go to a restaurant, I can’t go bowling. I can’t go to a movie. You know, these are things that it’s just gotten out of control.”
The 52-year-old said attendees are likely to stay parked by Parliament until vaccine mandates are lifted.
![trumpgret:
“Tribe always hits the nail on the head with the first swing. Merrick Garland, are you listening? - [ https://i.redd.it/69mpempp22f81.png]
”](https://64.media.tumblr.com/2ab19cd2186252c04617bfab50397eab/e0d2ea66e492c2b8-3c/s640x960/ea662f264e2d294d61f8266c5ad87206856d66d4.png)
Scottie's Playtime 
Whoopi Goldberg made a foolish comment about the Holocaust. She apologized. Mike Lester nevertheless piled on.
Less than a year ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene, an actual member of the U S Congress, made vile comments trivializing the Holocaust in the context of criticizing mask mandates as tyrannous. Even Kevin McCarthy condemned them. Mike Lester bravely and forthrightly responded by . . . publishing cartoons condemning mask mandates as tyrannous.
This is, of course, the same Mike Lester who in October 2018, following the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, published cartoons attacking the criticism of Halloween costumes as cultural appropriation and depicting Stacy Abrams as a common thief. It’s pretty clear what bothers Mr. Lester and what doesn’t.