We’ve talked at length about QAnon adherents bending reality, believing wild conspiracy theories, being anti-vaxxers, anti-mask, anti-science, and anti-common sense.  Most amazing about this phenomenon, though, is there absolute devotion to their delusion to the point of dying for it.  To wit, I give you Veronica Wolski, a high profile QAnon advocate from Chicago, who publicly protested against masks, vaccines, and against all things not Trump and who died of COVID this week.  Her dying is not the story, though; the story was that Lin Wood (yes, THAT Lin Wood) whipped up a QAnon protest last week in an attempt to force the hospital she was in to administer Ivermectin, the horse de-wormer, as treatment for COVID.  He has now declared that the hospital, Amita Health Resurrection Medical Center, caused her death through…wait for it…malpractice. He’s also made the same claim against the hospitals where Herman Cain died and another right wing activist and GOP party operative Presley Stutts.  Of course, Cain and Stutts died after being infected while not practicing normal masking and distancing protocols.  In fact, it’s likely that Cain was infected at the Trump campaign rally in Tulsa.

In an unrelated story, the fifth hate radio talker died this week.  He was Bob Enyart, an anti-science talking head and bible thumping preacher.  He was a charming fellow who made his career by bashing AIDS patients, calling for the death penalty for women who received abortions, and spreading the lie that the vaccines were made from aborted fetal tissue.  The irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

The stupidity of these people wouldn’t be so bad if they were only killing themselves, but they’re risking the lives of many other people AND stressing the medical staffs who are having to risk their own lives to treat these self destructive idiots.

Jesus.  Literally.

I burst out laughing at this one, and thought you might enjoy it, too.  Bryan Betancur, a self professed white supremacist and member of the Proud Boys, was arrested by the FBI for his role in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th.   That’s not news, since a lot of white supremacists have been arrested for their role in the attack where 5 people died and scores injured.  The news is how Betancur was tracked down…he was wearing an ankle monitor stemming from a conviction for burglary.  That’s right folks, this genius participated in insurrection against the federal government while on probation for a felony conviction.  Sheesh.

It gets even better – he’s from Silver Spring Maryland and lied to his probation officer that he was going to DC to…wait for it…pass out Gideon Bibles.  He’s been tracked to the Trump rally at the Ellipse just south of the White House to the Capitol with the rest of the criminals.  He’s now in FBI custody for not only his role in the attack, but also for violating his probation by lying to his probation officer and his continued participation in several white supremacist organizations.

White supremacists, like gun-nuts, are generally not known for their intelligence, but this guy takes the cake.  If stupidity was a violin, this guy would be the Stradivarius of stupidity.

In an alarming turn of events, management of the Texas Medical Center in Houston has halted the reporting of real time COVID-19 data.  They haven’t reported new data since Thursday.  That’s right, folks; as COVID-19 new case rate goes almost vertical and ICUs are being overrun, TMC has halted real time data reporting.  Why, you ask?  Apparently, the heads of TMC cut a deal with Greg Abbott.  As we know, Abbott awoke from his Stupid Coma on Thursday and shut down all elective surgeries in the state to relieve the load on hospitals in the state.  He also ordered bars throughout the state to close again after he had stupidly allowed them to reopen starting in May.

Doctors within TMC have been ringing the alarm bells for weeks as new case rate increased.  Leadership also provided public warnings about capacity, reporting that they were going to exceed surge ICU capacity by the first week of July.  Late Thursday, though, TMC management reversed themselves, saying they had plenty of capacity.  What happened?  I’m hearing that Abbott built in a huge loophole in his shutdown policy to allow elective surgeries in TMC and affiliates as long as the hospitals have “enough capacity”.  Apparently “enough capacity” is pretty damn vague.  Methodist Hospital even sent out a “don’t worry, be happy” post on Thursday that they had plenty of room and elective surgeries (translated “very profitable”.  As I’m sure is a complete coincidence, TMC simultaneously halted realtime reporting of COVID-19 case rates and ICU capacity utilization in Houston.  Hmm.

All of this is going on as ICU capacity at TMC and other is overrun.  TMC hospitals are even moving adult patients into Texas Children’s hospital, turning kids away.  It’s like we’ve fallen down the rabbit hole into the Greg Abbott version of Trumpland.  I continue to shake my head at the willful ignorance and magical thinking coming from our elected leadership.  It’s an alternate reality where Abbott/Patrick/Paxton & Company run us into a brick wall at 100 miles an hour only for them to say, “Oops, that didn’t work.”  My jaw is aching from dragging on the floor.

Jesus.

It appears that a score of doctors, public health officers, scientists, immunologists, and world leaders have finally broken through Trump’s Big Beautiful Wall of Ignorance and he awoke for a short period of time this afternoon to acknowledge that the Coronavirus pandemic that is overrunning global medical care facilities is “bad”.  Only a few days ago he was blabbering that the virus would just disappear, “like magic” and that people shouldn’t worry about it.  During his mixed word salad serving, he even admitted that the pandemic is not going away anytime soon.  He relapsed almost immediately, giving himself “a 10” for his response to the crisis by managing the entire threat with his head up is ass for months.

If you work hard enough, you can make almost anything funny.

Yes, I’m weary with it.  Most people are numb to it because it doesn’t affect them directly.  Government workers hate it, and business persons should be marching in the streets to demand that it stop being used as a political weapon.  I’m talking about the now frequent use of the government shutdown as a bludgeon to override democracy.  It started in the 70s after passage of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 in response to Nixon impounding funds (refusing to spend) funds appropriated by Congress.  The Congress reasserted its control over federal spending after Nixon (and other presidents) had sought greater autonomy over federal spending.  What this set up, though, was budget showdowns that pitted the Congress against the White House.

The shutdown-as-weapon started in 1976 under Ford when he vetoed a funding bill for the departments of education and labor that had just been established by splitting the old department.  It didn’t last long when Democrats overrode the veto.  The next 4 out of 5 shutdowns were over abortion funding under Carter.  Reagan was the one who started playing brinksmanship with the shutdown, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal employees, mostly demanding deep spending cuts.  He shut down the government eight times, an average of once a year during his terms.  HW Bush shut down the government once in 1990 over deficit spending.

Then came Newt.  After taking the house and becoming speaker, Gingrich used the shutdown to assert control over the entire government.  His shutdowns in November of 1995 and again from December to January of 1996 shattered Americans’ confidence in government and the Republicans.  Clinton’s popularity soared, and he cruised to reelection that year.  Gingrich was hounded out of the speaker’s office not long after.

Gingrich’s stupidity weighed on the Republicans so heavily that they didn’t dare to shut the government down again until 2013, when Ted Cruz used the shutdown in an attempt to strip healthcare from over 20 million Americans who were finally getting it as a result of the Affordable Care Act.  That shutdown lasted 16 days after the Republicans finally caved, but not before costing the US economy an estimated $24 billion dollars.  In between these shutdown attempts, Republicans started playing brinksmanship with the debt limit until finally S&P downgraded the US federal debt rating citing the instability of congressional Republicans and their brinksmanship.

Immune to learning anything from history, Trump has stupidly used the government shutdown to please his base of mouth-breathers, who hate everyone not white and every program that might help them.  This is the third shutdown in a YEAR, and this time during Christmas because Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh demanded their stupid border wall that won’t work.  This one won’t end well for Trump and his merry band of cronies.  The Dems take the House on January 3, and will make Trump’s life a living hell, especially after he has blundered into what is likely his largest mistake (among a legion of mistakes) he’s made since infesting the White House in 2017.  Pelosi and Schumer are going to use this move to their greatest advantage, and will be happy to just sit there and stare at him until the pressure on him becomes so great that either his head explodes or he caves.

If this shutdown wasn’t so destructive it would be entertaining, but Trump’s stupidity will will cost tens of billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and will wreck the holidays for millions of Americans.  I just hope it hurts more Trumpists than it does normal people.