Note:  COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective and protect recipients from contracting the virus or greatly reducing symptoms if they did.  Serious reactions to the vaccines are very low.  The risk of serious illness or death from the virus far outweighs the risk of serious negative reactions to the vaccine.  The vaccine is our only hope for coming out of the endless waves of infection as the virus mutates.

Yesterday, Kay Ivey, conservative Republican governor of Alabama, finally said it:

There’s not much that Ivey says that I agree with, but I do agree 100% with this.  She along with many other governors, public health officials and the millions of responsible vaccinated people are fed up with the idiocy and irresponsibility of other millions of Americans’ not doing their part to stop the pandemic that has killed 600,000 Americans and infected millions.

I’m certainly fed up and believe it’s long past time to start shaming people who cling to bullshit conspiracy theories, religious dogma, and just plain old garden variety stupidity in resisting receiving the vaccine which is safe, effective, easily obtainable and FREE.  For fuck’s sake, folks, we’re now well into the fourth wave of infection and death and almost ALL of those falling ill and dying are unvaccinated.  What else do you need to convince you to get the vaccine?

We all know who to blame for politicizing science, vilifying scientists, and fomenting all of the divisiveness and fear.  It ranges from right wing talking heads, governors, local and state representatives, national representatives, and religious nuts, ending up at the feet of Trump.  The anti-vaccine hysteria will always be with us, especially with liars like Joseph Mercola, an Osteopath and the largest individual purveyor of vaccine lies to sell his “natural” cures.  He is number one in the “Disinformation Dozen”, the 12 most prolific spreaders of lies about COVID-19 and the vaccines.  Their misinformation is cynical, immoral, and is getting people killed.  The fact that they are profiting from it is inexcusable.

It’s time for normal, responsible Americans to start calling out and shaming those who peddle or support the spread of bullshit and who refuse to be vaccinated.  We need to stop the soft-peddling of “vaccine hesitancy” because that hesitancy is based on lies, distortions, and outright falsehood and it’s simply got to stop.  If you know someone you do business with is anti-vax, stop doing business with them and tell them why.  I recently did that with my dentist when I discovered he’s anti-vax.  If you have a family member who refuses, tell them you won’t see them until they get vaccinated.  If nothing else has worked, maybe this will.  If not, you don’t need to be exposed to that kind of stupidity.   I know it’s hard, but it’s time.  We’re not coming out of this until we get to herd immunity, and worse, the virus will continue to mutate into more contagious and possible deadly strains as it propagates.

Societies who don’t look after one another die.  Our society is in danger of suffering years of infection, economic strife and death driven by anti-vaxxers who callously inflict their stupidity on everyone else.

For Republicans who believe in market forces, this has got to be very disappointing. It appears that their heroes are not so much in demand.

Matt Gaetz and Majorie Taylor Greene joined up with perpetual Washington insider, Load O. Crap, to complete their three ring circus road fundraising tour.  They made big stops around the country and set out to raise money for Gaetz’s creepy state of affairs and Greene’s peroxide.

Not so successful.

But new campaign filings show that not only did the gamble not pay off, but that the much-maligned Republicans actually spent four times as much as they raised.

The actual numbers break down to $59,345.54 raised up against $287,036.19 spent. That’s a $227,691. loss. It appears that their skank quotient didn’t cover their basic necessities.

Their trip included several stops in California.  During the first stop, Greene screamed on about the vaccine and then they told supporters to “fight in the streets.”  Three successive venues in California canceled after that.

The tour started in Florida. It should have stayed there. Any news story that starts with “Florida man …” is going to involve an alligator, and large caliber gun, the drinking kind of alcohol, a woman over the age of 60, a juke box, missing body parts, and a carton of American Spirit cigarettes, not necessarily in that order.

I know y’all have had a very hard time forgetting Ken Cuccinelli and now that you’re like 80% over him, I’m gonna push you back to square one.

Cuccinelli was Acting Director of Homeland Security under Trump because everybody knew he could never pass senate confirmation, mainly because he’s a far right weirdo. In 2020 a federal judge ruled that he was illegally acting as acting director which didn’t even seem weird under Trump because so damn many people were acting at some damn thing.

Well, he’s back.  Now he’s a lawyer.

Okay, remember back in February when Louie Gohmert of Texas and Andrew Clyde of Georgia were both fined $5,000 because they tried to enter the House chamber without going through a security check?  Well, they have decided to appeal it.  No, seriously.

So, they have hired Ken Cuccinelli. Well, in all honestly, I use they term “they” very loosely. Although they both hired him, only Clyde has paid for it.

Louie hasn’t paid his share yet and, gee, he probably never will.  He’s well known as the biggest moocher in Washington.

This will be a fun one to watch.

Now, here’s the fun part.  I wonder if either Cuccinelli or Clyde has realized that they just made Cuccinelli’s home address a part of the public record?  Hell, a fifth grader can now take a picture tour of both the inside and outside of the Cuccinelli home. I’m sure you can figure it out for yourself.

And this guy was Acting Director of Homeland Security.  Dude, if you’re going to work out of your house, get a post office box.

I’ve run out of colloquialisms about how mad I am at the Texas Government. Y’all give me your best in the comments if you don’t mind me using them in the future. I’m madder than ….. (fill in the blank)

The Texas Observer ran this story. I’ll do my best to sum it up but y’all go read the details over there- it’s good work.

Let’s review the facts:

• Texas power grid fails and hundreds of Texans die
• Texans who live suffer billions of dollars in damage from broken pipes and water damage (My personal number was $3,544.00)
• Kelcy Warren’s company, Energy Transfer Partners, makes $2.4 Billion in that same week
• Greg Abbott assures Texans all that can be done to fix the grid is done (you be the judge – here’s what they did)
• Kelcy Warren donates a cool $1 million dollars to Greg Abbott’s re-election campaign.

I assumed it was some kind of violation of election finance law for any one person to donate such a huge sum to a campaign. I checked and sure enough, as of May 2015 an individual can make a donation of any amount to a campaign. (Who was governor in May of 2015? Greg Abbott).

The blatant corruption is exhausting. I’m more tired than a one-legged woman in an ass-kicking contest.

We’ve covered this ground before, but three separate incidents this week came together in my mind to solidify one point. Essentially, the pro gun crowd loves to separate people into a good guy with a gun as opposed to a bad guy with a gun. Supposedly, the good guy with the gun will negate the bad guy with the gun.

Well, I was perusing through HEB the other day and minding my own business (a personal favorite phrase of mine) when I strolled down the periodicals aisle. I noticed eight different magazines dedicated to guns and ammo. That was more than fashion magazines. It was more than the football, basketball, and baseball magazines. It was more than the bridal magazines. It was more than the Texas themed magazines or magazines about food. Apparently, guns are more popular than just about anything else.

While it wasn’t immediately related, I thought to our experience this past weekend an earlier in the week. My wife’s cousin came down to vacation in Galveston. We are only 30 miles away, so we decided to join them for a “quick” dinner. We left the house with plenty of time to spare. An hour and a half later we had travelled three miles.

The same thing happened when we took our daughter to a summer camp. The same thing happened on a different highway when we returned. The delays weren’t as heinous, but the fact that they were occurring on three different highways and different points of the highway was telling.

The coup de grace came when her cousin (we will call him Eugene) announced at dinner that he had built his own AR-15. Eugene is what you might call a computer geek. He has always been socially awkward. He also bragged that he had not connected with one target since he had gone out target shooting with his work friends. Yup, he’s the guy I want having an AR-15.

This isn’t to say I would perform any better. It never occurred to me to try. We’ve discussed abortion in the salon. We’ve discussed voting rights in the salon. We have also discussed guns in the salon. It took my wife’s cousin Eugene to crystallize the slogan we need moving forward. Yes, there are bad people with guns. Yes, there are good people with guns. Unfortunately, there are also idiots with guns.

Eugene is not an idiot in the literal sense. He is somewhat educated and has a professional job. He’s an idiot because he has no idea how to use a gun or how dangerous they can be. His reasoning for doing it is also idiotic. It’s not about protection, sport, or even hobby collection. He wants to belong. He wants other men to see him as manly. The sad thing is that possessing that AR-15 doesn’t change anyone’s opinion. It just makes him seem more pathetic.

In a similar way, posturing about guns, walls, bathroom bills, and voter suppression laws don’t make Greg Abbott seem like a stronger leader. Fixing our roads, schools, and energy grid would do that. Yet, here we are in crumbling schools, inadequate roads, with promises of a useless border wall. It isn’t even so much that he wants all these stupid things. It is that he wants them before fixing the stuff actually broken. We might freeze to death next winter but at least Eugene will have his AR-15 to keep him warm at night.

The National Center for Health Studies just issued it’s life expectancy report for 2020.  Not surprisingly, life expectancy in the US fell in 2020 fueled by COVID-19 deaths.  The shocking thing is how much in fell, by 1.5 years from 2019, from 78.8 to 77.3 years.  75% of those deaths were directly attributable to COVID-19.  This is the largest single year drop in US life expectancy since WWII. Trump’s incompetence, repeated all over the country by Trump Mini Me governors, caused millions of unnecessary infections and hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.  The US has 4% of global population, but over 20% of COVID infections and deaths.

There’s simply no excuse for it, but the predictable result of the election of incompetents to high office.  Electing Donald Trump to the presidency was the single largest mistake made by voters in our entire history, and we have paid for it in treasure and deaths; even worse, we will continue to pay for this bumbling for generations to come.