Nobody watches Fox and Friends for enlightenment. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch. Obviously, some people watch for enlightenment, but it surely isn’t anyone that is actually enlightened. Brian Kilmeade uttered pretty much the dumbest thing ever on the show and that is saying a great deal. You can enjoy the Seth Meyers video below. The Fox and Friends segment is embedded inside.

For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, I will summarize the brilliant comments from Kilmeade. It seems that his partner in crime was actually throwing out facts on the virus and vaccine. He admitted that 99 percent of the people currently being hospitalized for COVID were people that had not been vaccinated.

This is where Kilmeade pounced on his opportunity to offer his educated opinion. It’s not the government’s job to protect people. Yup, you heard that right. It is not their job to protect us. Somehow, I don’t remember that being the case, but it’s been a hot minute since I’ve sat through a political science class. Let’s double check.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

Preamble to the U.S. Constitution>

Okay, I was right. It’s right there in the preamble to the constitution. They even added promote the general welfare in case there was any confusion. So, let’s say that Kilmeade was right and that it isn’t the government’s job to protect us. Okay, why do we have a defense department? Why do we have branches of the military (including Space Force)?

Moreover, why do we have a Food and Drug Administration. Why do we have a Securities and Exchange Commission? Why do we have an EEOC? Why do we have an FCC? Why do we have a CDC? I could go on and on, but I think most Americans get the idea. Brian Kilmeade is an idiot.

His partner in crime inadvertently admitted the vaccine was effective. So, what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that Fox and Friends, other talking heads at Fox, OANN, and other conservative pundits have spent their time discrediting the vaccine even as they themselves got the vaccine. It’s a staggering example of hypocrisy that you rarely see on this grand a scale.

The goal I suppose is to make sure Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress is ultimately unsuccessful. That sentiment is normal. However, there have always been unspoken rules that both parties used to follow. Politics used to end at our shores and politics used to end when the public was in danger. You know, all the general welfare stuff.

Apparently, there are no more rules of engagement. We are fighting a vaccine we know is effective. We are fighting a 1/6 commission when we all saw a violent insurrection live on television. We are fighting the idea that everyone eligible to vote should be able to vote relatively easily. Kilmeade’s comments fit perfectly. It’s not the government’s job to do the only real job spelled out in the constitution. Makes perfect sense.

It began innocently enough. A disease was spreading overseas and it was killing millions of people. Yet, everyone in America felt secure. These things don’t happen to us. After all, diseases don’t travel across oceans, so that was a problem for other countries to worry about.

Of course, we know that’s not how it turned out. Someone travelled overseas and brought the disease back home. It started with a few cases and quickly began to spread. The government reacted with it’s best advice it could give. They suggested social distancing. They suggested masks. They suggested that people should wash their hands more vigorously.

Unfortunately, some people refused to follow these guidelines. “I’m from ‘Murica” they said. “Nobody tells me what to do.” Others didn’t say those things but they thought they were healthy. Weak people died from that stuff. Old people died from that stuff.

Except, this virus attacked healthy people. Healthy people were vulnerable. Healthy people were the ones hit hardest. When all the dust had settled, 675,000 Americans had died. I’m sure many of you have caught onto the details of the story. This particularly tale involves the 1918 flu pandemic.

That one started in Europe while the current one started in Asia, but otherwise the stories are eerily similar. When we learned about the 1918 flu in history we just chalked it up to people not knowing any better. Medicine was not nearly as advanced and the public was not nearly as educated about disease prevention.

We’re smarter now. We know more about hygiene. We know more about medicine. We have more advanced hospitals that can treat these things. The current pandemic has claimed nearly 610,000 lives in the U.S. alone. Families have been irreparably torn apart.

What’s remarkable is that after 100 years, this story is not all that foreign to us. Millions of Americans could tell a story about someone from their family back then and could tell a similar story today. The opening paragraphs could just as easily describe the current pandemic.

No one would dare deny the Spanish flu. It has become an integral part of our U.S. History curriculum. There are numerous events we don’t cover that we absolutely should. That is not one of them. Anyone who’s family has been in the country for over 100 years probably has their own story to tell. It is impossible to get through history without telling those stories.

Yet, here we are. We still have people denying the virus. We still have people that shunned the suggestions about wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and improving personal hygiene. We still have people that distrust the government enough to deny all kinds of advice and rules.

The sad thing is that those people were not the ones most effected. Somehow you knew that would happen. So, we begin to take stock in what we’ve learned. First, we learn that there are parallels for almost everything in history. Sure, technology improves and knowledge comes with that, but history often repeats itself. Second, even though we discuss these things in history, there will always be those that don’t learn or don’t see the connection.

It seems impossible, but we are destined to pass the 675,000 mark. We are destined to do it because a group of Americans are too stubborn to admit they were wrong. You can hear them cry hoax all the way to their hospital beds and ventilator units. You can hear them cry hoax to their super spreader events. You can hear them cry hoax as they watch yet another loved one or family friend die.

You can also see a high school student 100 years from now learning about COVID. They will think to themselves that it was a shame how ignorant the people were back then. Why didn’t they learn from 1918? It might even be a history they are doomed to repeat themselves.

This is how you do it.  Katie Hopkins, sort of the UK’s version of Tucker Carlson, is very much a controversial personality, first gaining attention as a contestant on the UK version of The Apprentice about 14 years ago.  Since then, she’s been carrying the water for the extreme right in Europe writing columns and talking on radio and television.

As part of a new program to improve the economy by allowing television and movie crews into the country, Hopkins was granted a special visa into Australia to participate in the Australian version of the television show, Big Brother.  Under Australian quarantine rules, she was required to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days.  Under these rules she was to stay in her room and food would be brought to her.  Also under those rules, she was to wait 30 seconds after a door knock and then answer the door wearing a mask to retrieve the food brought to her.  She thought it would be really funny to not do that, but to immediately answer the door sans not only a mask, but also clothing.  AND she videoed herself doing that and then posted the video on social media.  She was trying to attract attention and draw a reprimand so she could then publicize government tyranny.

Well, she drew more than attention and a reprimand.  Officials from New South Wales arrested her, fined her $1,000 Australian dollars, and promptly put her on a plane back to the UK.  Australia is having none of the anti-science, anti-vax nonsense, and is actively working to protect its citizens, especially from idiots like Hopkins.  Oh, and here’s the best part – Big Brother Australia fired her from the show.

Boom.

Impressive video from historic floods in Germany.

https://youtu.be/WBuqQuTfYPo

Okay, campers, we have a plug-in-the-bad-guy game for today’s campfire treat.

With his legal troubles still looming over him, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz’s campaign paid $25,000 last month to a law firm that represented convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Mexican drug lord El Chapo and former mobsters, according to his most recent campaign finance report.

Okay, here’s the deal.  I am not certain that’s a legacy of legal accomplishments that I would want to depend upon for my life and freedom.

I mean, damn, Jeffrey Epstein had so little faith in his lawyer getting him off, that he offed himself, or at the very least, his lawyer was really awful at protecting his client. And El Chapo got sentenced to life in prison.  I’d be all for Gaetz finding the same results, which would be only fitting a serial child predator, especially if they locked him in the same cell as El Chapo.

I’m thinking Gaetz just wanted a lawyer with experience.

But, here’s the catch.

Brett Kappel, a nationally recognized campaign finance expert, said if a criminal case involves bribery or campaign finance violations, then it would be okay to use a campaign account to pay those legal fees.

“They may not, however, use campaign funds to pay legal fees for investigations into personal activities unrelated to their campaigns or duties as a member of Congress,” Kappel said.

So, it seems to me that Gaetz is kinda loudly announcing that we can expect bribery or misuse of campaign funds added to his legal troubles.  It also seems to me that we shouldn’t be surprised.

Every so often, I bring you free entertainment from my friends Vickie and Cecil, who live in small rural counties between here and Austin.

I mean, I’m talking quality entertainment like this.

Yeah, I’ve had days like that myself.