Right To Left

You will likely keep repeating all this as you descend through hell's flames, and collect the just rewards for all of those who choose to serve evil !

You do understand what "TODAY" means, right? Is what you described anything near today's Republicans? And, fwiw - Nixon was an embattled president in his 2nd term, dealing with the Watergate Investigation when he signed on to creating the EPA. Would he have done it otherwise? And when it comes to carbon credit trading, don't make me laugh! That scheme is even worse and more full of holes than carbon taxation schemes! It may be extreme, and like pulling teeth from the people who rule this world today, but there is no way of solving a climate crisis caused by capitalism without ending capitalist motivations and constant economic growth in energy consumption and production. I'll say it again, whether you like it or not: conservatives and libertarians and all forms of radical individualist political theories are where they are today because their brilliant ideas have largely been applied by both right and moderate capitalist parties and the environment has become progressively worse! And then there's the nuclear sword of Damocles that was never dealt with 50 or 60 years ago, and it's crazy American generals and even presidents who are threatening to use it today in nuclear first strike attacks on Russia and/or China! Whether they are serious or are just bluffing is a moot point. Since just making the threat means that America's adversaries have to be on constant hair-trigger alert just in case they are serious, and the big US air assault and invasion begins!

If it was, this Yahoo News piece gives the impression that people living in other countries don't see the big difference between Trump and Biden that Americans seem to believe! Too bad so much of what qualifies as 'journalism' today is stuck behind paywalls. And open sources like Yahoo and MSN only report the briefest takes on the original story, so I can't say you got it wrong here. But, the few comments included in the original show many who answered the polling questions are looking back 20 years or more at the entire "War On Terror" episode, and not just brief snippets about who happened to be in the White House at the time. That's the American obsession! I understand the numbers that agree with US as the greatest threat to democracy is higher than China and Russia, and even slightly higher than a vague "foreign" interference tag, and only slightly lower than "big tech". And did you notice that the #1 threat to democracy according to polled results was economic inequality? NO, read it again! Big Tech was #4, though I would agree with it being higher! Which is also a sign of how stupid Trump and his advisers were! Because he made it possible for them to cash in big time during his four years as president. And only at the end, when it was too late, did he threaten to go after the FAANGS monopolists. Which may have been impossible anyway, cause it would entail an major ideological readjustment or reboot of capitalist dogma. Yes, I get it! That's why they played their cards close until after they stabbed Trump in the back! The poll shows a majority of people in the world can see through the bullshit propaganda that so many people over here are marinating in on an almost daily basis! Maybe because they are further away from our MSM and have some other sources of information. Their concerns are with the threats to democracy in their own countries....not whatever the hell is going on in the US!

I still haven't been able to get vaccinate yet, but was intending to, because the risks and complications from Covid-19 infections are far worse and more prevalent than from the vaccines. I'm sure the 'experts' are still downplaying the possible harms and complications from the vaccines as much as possible, but what do you suggest as an alternative? Most of the rightwing, radical individualist anti-vaxxers are also anti-maskers and want everything opened up so that millions can die! The rightwing approach to Covid-19 is just one more sign that conservatives and libertarians have turned into a death cult in recent years! Not only does the right disregard the risks of nuclear annihilation with a wave of the hand dismissal, they also discount the slowly encroaching carbonizing of our atmosphere as an existential threat to all of us. Or should I say "most of us," cause some billionaires, like that blockhead Elon Musk, think they are going to escape the fate they've saddled this world with, by flying off in a rocket to Mars! It could make a fun fireworks display in a few years!

I can't say I'm surprised that the original horror story of Canada becoming a communist state, would carry on page after page for a good while before lack of any coherence or evidence would lead it to run out of gas, like all the other anti-left themes. How many times do paranoid rightwingers conflate every conceivable adversary who doesn't buy their bullshit, as all being enemies of FREEDUMB and part of the same plot against democracy and FREE enterprize? Too numerous to count, I'm sure! But on that theme you seem to be heading towards: "I don't think there has been a Communistic government," that sounds like the usual trope that anarchists and Trotskyites pull up when confronted about the less than perfect communist governments so far. And as far as I see, all that the Noam Chomsky-inspired critiques do is to serve the ideological rhetoric of our adversaries. The Chomskyists for example, want to have it both ways, and have a safe space to criticize everyone. But I recall that when we still had real Stalinist hardliners making arguments, that their main point was: if you want to do more than just talk, and really want a socialist internationale, you have to start somewhere! That means fighting more than rhetorical battles and confronting real enemies, like the fascists who work on behalf of wealthy oligarchs, who richly reward them for protecting them....and their wealth from the people they exploit! The problem is that, you can end up like Che Guevara, and end up hunted down and shot, if the peasants either didn't understand or weren't willing to put it all on the line for the Revolution! But, I don't believe this is about starting the revolution at the right time or not at the right time and other claptrap from Marxist theories of a science of history. Because I don't believe in the notion of human progress and increased prosperity as history progresses. Prior the the so called 'Age of Enlightenment' most earlier scholars believed that history - especially earth history was a story of cycles, not an endless line of 'progress,' leading towards some kind of materialistic heaven! In that sense, Marxism is not really distinct from other humanistic enlightenment philosophies that developed in Europe 3 to 400 years ago. Both religious or deistic and atheistic humanism, developed from a framework that the human animal was somehow distinct and superior from other life on this planet, and could rule over life on earth. This is primarily why indigenous philosophers from around the world, were not inclined to adopting Marxism, except for the latter part about political and economic organization of workplaces. Marxists come very close to the contemptible attitude towards nature that capitalist adherents of enlightenment values share. And both sides today don't have a good handle on the ecological predicament all of this 'progress' has put us in in recent times!

Exactly how long ago was that? Cause I can think of several times in history when the US overthrew democratically elected governments to install a puppet dictator because of political/business interests: Arbens in Guatemala, Mossadegh replaced with the Shah of Iran, the elected communist government of Salvador Allende in Chile - replaced by the genocidal fascist - Pinochet, which Chileans are still trying to get out from under today....and so many more. They realized it was a good investment to buy up politicians of both parties along with MSM as they worked towards solidifying their monopolies. They're following the principles of capitalism, so it should have been expected! If they were trying to function for the public good, they would have been violating those principles of focusing on shareholder wealth. One party with two faces. But neither one is socialist by any conceivable definition. Since socialism means acting on behalf of the people's best interests/not the profits of a selfish minority. And they have all of these wonderful ideas on how they can 'work with government for mutual advantage.' The GOP has no high ground on any of these issues. When some of their egghead advisers started confronting the leaders with realities from increasingly bad demographics 20 or more years ago - declining white portion of voters, the leaders decided to double down on whiteness instead of looking for ways to enlarge their brand. So, Republican governors all across America crosscheck names off the voter lists who are likely black or brown or some other non-Republican minority to keep their states under Republican control. The poiint mentioned several times is that most people polled in the 53 countries examined don't really see much of a difference other than style, between Trump and Biden. There's been a continuity of governance that betrays the fact that most of the decisions and business of government are made by the legendary "deep state" working in a number of government departments and not subject to public scrutiny or removal like the elected officials are every two to six years.

And you're showing the huge holes in conservative thinking today! You don't accept vaccination as a goal, yet you are against all of the social strategies for reducing and limiting the spread of a highly contagious disease also! It would be interesting to see how many of the people gasping for breath, desperate to enter a hospital emergency room were out there a week or two earlier marching with the anti-maskers and complaining about the restrictions on their freedom of choice and movement! This is why conservativism, libertarianism and other hybrid rightwing ideologies look like death cults today! Why not just tempt fate? Go ahead, just launch the nukes....get it all over with and see if anyone or anything survives. Keep pushing more and more carbon up into the atmosphere because any other course of action might threaten someone's profit expectations. And when the time comes that many climatologists with foresight expect in the near future: uncontrollable positive feedbacks - cascading releases of stored carbon as the planet burns and ocean life dies out, find a scapegoat it can all be blamed on, and look to the sky for a divine savior to rescue the true believers from a fate they deserve!

Isn't that the same song and dance voters hear every four years from politicians and aspiring candidates? Why are most politicians corrupt? Could it have something to do with having rich businessmen dropping by or sending others on their behalf looking to make deals...telling them how they can take a little on the side for all of the hard work they are doing on behalf of the people? So, why have government at all then? We've been moving in this direction ever since the Reagan/Mulroney 80's, and all this political philosophy has accomplished so far, is to poison the attitude a majority of people have towards government workers or public servants of all types. Back when I was in school, I don't recall the general condemnations of public school teachers for example. Teachers were considered a respected profession whose task was to train a new generation to take their place in society. When there were teachers strikes in the 70's, there were complaints starting about how much teachers were earning from what most people perceived as a six hour a day job, but it wasn't like today, where I've known more than a few young people quit teaching after 5, 10, even 20 years because they're sick of complaints coming at them from all sides....school administrators playing CYA and shifting the blame for stuff that goes on, mouthy 13 to 18 year olds who no longer worry about anyone in a position of authority having the right to give them a smack or a backhander in the mouth...like I saw a few times during my schooldays! What I don't recall was parents going to the school, threatening teachers they claim aren't treating their kids right or giving them low grades for being dumb or not turning in homework. And that political party won't be corrupted by multibillionaire banking and tech monopolists? Back 50 years ago, when corporate lawyer, and well compensated member of 11 major corporate boards across America - Lewis Powell wrote up the battle plan for his corporate brethren...a communist manifesto in reverse - The Powell Memo, which was sent out to members of the US Chamber of Commerce, but NOT divulged to mainstream media at large, Powell set out a brief case of how the persecuted minority - corporate CEO's could reverse the gains made by organized labour, consumer rights groups, environmentalists and other class enemies of the rich class. All they had to do was use their money to fight the demographic advantage of the great unwashed multitude of wage earners! At first, Powell's game plan, carried out by stealth through media and public institutions - especially state-funded universities, moved slowly and methodically until 1980, when they had the perfect useful idiot to mouth their propaganda talking points - Ronald Reagan! After all the haranging by Reagan and his repeaters about "tax and spend government" Reagan set out a course of "borrow and spend" so that the 1980's economy grew so fast, it benefited most people a little, along with the rich gaining a whole lot. And the die was cast for more and more pressure to reduce taxes...especially on "job creators" who bid up the values of their own stock portfolios rather than add more jobs. The productive economy in the US was replaced with the finance economy, and it hasn't changed since! The only major manufacturing protected has been the weapons production industries....the largest of which have small divisions in every state in the lower 48 - like Lockheed-Martin and G.E. This way, every time some multibillion dollar boondoggle was being held up by a budget committee in Congress, out would come the hounds baying at the moon and the MSM complaining about certain members 'risking' America's security! And that's how the US got saddled with an expensive, mostly useless arms and weapons industries! And it's also why America has to get more and more creative at creating and increasing conflict around the world - those missiles, jet fighters and carrier fleets can't justify their own existence if a warzone doesn't pop up in the news every now and then to keep the American people living in fear and willing to sign off on anything the Pentagon planners want! Aside from that, as has so often occurred with empires of the past, the people living within the empire end up impoverished almost at the same scale as those nations that have been targeted as economic colonies for the empire. Why should the pattern be any different today?

How is a 'threat to democracy' NOT a perception of a security threat by others living outside of the American bubble? Even a lot of Canadians who, in spite of our controlled corporate media and next to useless CBC, are aware that we are also exploited by US finance and business! Every time a Canadian-based business or industry gains a competitive advantage, the US Chamber of Commerce orders their hounds to go out on the attack, threatening Canadian industries with countervailing sanctions! Then it takes months or years before the sanctions are removed...usually after businesses close down and move, and the unjustified seizure is never returned to Canadian sources. And neither Liberal nor especially CONservative Prime Ministers will make an issue of it. So, every time the US attacks Canadian softwood lumber, for example, for no justifiable reasons other than attempts to protect their declining and less efficient lumber suppliers, the charges are spurious and cost our government big money in legal fees to appeal the case to the WTO and attempt to roll back. And by the time it goes to what passes for a court trial and it's all said and done months or years later, the issue is forgotten and the Canadian firms won't see a dime of the money they've lost, unless they live another 100 years or so! Rinse and repeat! Because US trade negotiators say every time at the end of the WTO hearings that the decision was wrong or unfair...."your subsidies are worse than our subsidies etc." and they are just waiting to spring the trap on us to permanently keep us under their thumb! It won't be lumber this year for sure, but some other Canadian industry will be under attack until lumber's turn comes back up in a couple of years from now! Why didn't we bite the bullet 40 years ago, when all this shit was building up, and pay the cost of having a truly independent nation not controlled by a giant, evil capitalist monster devouring everything in sight!?

Right. And I don't blame those people for wanting to socialize, and spending too much time and getting too close to neighbors living in their buildings. But, I noticed that the front lobby of my in-laws apartment building has removed the chairs and all of the furniture besides posting signs advising residents not to loiter and be on their way quickly...either to their apartments or outside where aerosolized viruses won't build up in the air and pose a danger of spreading. That may not be a perfect solution, but at least it's a start!

Click on the hyperlink "Alliance of Democracies Foundation" in the Yahoo News artiicle and take a look at the chart they posted titled "Threats to Democracy" and look at the ratings of "US influence" and compare with Russian and Chinese influence. The data is available at the download tab that offers a closer look at how they made up their Democracy Perceptions chart. So, whether you agree or disagree, it's all there!

btw I didn't copy the whole article! Just the parts that are relevant to the topic. "truth bombs" sure, call them that if you want to! You think everyone in the world all of a sudden shifted focus from Trump to Biden in Feb. of this year? Your truth bombs are just another sign that the cocoon you've constructed is almost sealed tight with you inside!

Marxists aren't liberals! And I suspect that like most people on the right, you are slashing and flailing, not knowing who you are attacking or who is attacking you! Because although some on the right have figured out that bankers, hedge fund managers and international capital are not their friends, they still won't do anything to stop them from further building up their monopolies or increasing their wealth! So, there are no solutions for our present predicament coming from the right!

No No No No! You and so many other rightwingers are like kids holding automatic weapons and shooting at everything in sight! For the record, the Lincoln Project is a Republican grift, intended to make the Republican Party 'respectable' again' get rid of Trump....and get back all the billionaire donor money that started going to the Democrats in recent years. And seriously, do you think 100 billionaires are going to identify as marxists or even leftists? Liberal.....that's another matter, because liberalism has become just an identity politics grift in recent times, that has nothing to say about class inequalities or even extreme wealth and poverty. That's why the new brand of billionaires out of Silicon Valley feel so comfortable with liiberals and the Democrat Party. And for some reason, you didn't include new kid on the block - Elon Musk! Fresh off his public image retooling by hosting a goddawful SNL show Saturday, that was so bad, most of the blame has to go to the writers and performers there now. The days when SNL was edgy and risky for the political and business establishment are long gone in the past today! And Trump! I think what scares the monied elites and motivated them to pull funding out of the GOP and create a Democrat monopoly was because they consider Trump to be unreliable for their cause. He's too unpredictable and unreliable by just about everybody. I've heard a couple of political scientists say that the shift caused by Trump may lead to a change on the field of politics, like was last seen in 1932, when FDR's Democrats were taking over and intending to move to the left because of the angry mobs of unemployed and farmers forced off their lands because of the dust bowl out west. There was so much anger among the traditional Republican base - farmers, small business owners and progressives, meant they started moving to FDR because he had proposed real plans to act on the growing crisis after the 1929 Stock Market Crash. FDR was seen by the Wall Street brokers and bankers as a traitor to his class, when he told them that they had to make some concessions to the poor or they would risk losing everything they had, even their lives if he wasn't there to do something about it. So, who knows what's next, but the Democrats( including so called progressives) have clearly moved right and betrayed their base of support, and instead of moving further and further right to try to please billionaires, some Republicans may figure out that it's time for another change in polarity like FDR did, going the other way almost 90 years ago!

Well, I shouldn't be the one to get your hopes up, but along with the 22 $Trillion debt bubble Joe is riding and will have to hope interest rates flatline on for the coming years, there is the other problem of Democrat members of the House (including the 'Squad'), is that the self-proclaimed "progressives" have accomplished absolutely nothing on the issues that led a multitude of poor and lower middle class people to fund their grassroots campaigns to get into Congress. A warning bell for the Democrat 'progressives' should be seen in the collapse in donations for the friendly media who have played such a big part in elevating their political campaigns, because most of them like Democracy Now, the TYT network and Majority Report have gotten into the game that the fake left - Jacobin, Intercept and others began with - taking big donor funding that comes with strings attached. And obviously the most important strings are never criticize Democrat leaders who are close friends with the liberal billionaire class! So, AOC & co. may have figured out how to score big campaign donations, but their supporters were expecting them to fight for a $15 minimum wage, Medicare-For-All and an end to state university tuitions. Add in the centrist Dems who don't have much to say besides repeating Trump bad as often as possible and trying to pull up more shards of evidence of some kind of Russian connection that almost certainly now was all fabricated by the Clinton team which extended to allies in the FBI and other government departments. If the Dems can't muster much more than this and the economy tanks once the debt monster becomes recognized by creditors, they will have no way of keeping either the House or the Senate! Like so many other times in history, Washington will turn back to divided government and Republicans coming back into the House as a majority will have their knives out...especially for corrupt, stupid clowns like Hunter! Who left a trail of evidence on a laptop computer he stupidly left at a random computer repair shop when he was on a bender. Once again, US politics may turn interesting again as the next soap opera takes off after the mid-terms!

America got off lightly for a war crime that killed at least 3 million Vietnamese, and is still killing people today with the residues of Agent Orange and landmines in the interior border areas, including Laos and Cambodia. All for nothing! Since it was LBJ who really ramped up the Vietnam War under false pretenses - (The Gulf of Tonkin Incident) a claimed series of attacks on American ships, was a fraud revealed as far back as the release of the Pentagon Papers, revealed by whistleblower - Daniel Ellsberg.

A big concern should be how many people living in those 'densely populated residences' spend a lot of time together socializing in common areas. This was a big problem at first in the seniors buildings, and locally, we have our largest Covid-19 outbreak at a highrise tower that was one of the last of the public housing projects constructed about 30 years ago: 91 cases at Rebecca Towers COVID-19 outbreak

The larger the city, the more likely the higher population densities will be a factor in disease spread. But the differences between Hamilton and Toronto are not that great when it comes to infection rates lately. Hamilton is a fractious combination of Northend poverty around our new rust belt, and the rest is just an expanding, ever growing bedroom community, clear-cutting forests so developer friends of the Tories can keep on building more and more expensive, crappy pre-fab houses without much more than rubberstamp environmental assessments, nor consideration for how much has to be spent on roads, water and sewer for all the people moving in. That all comes after complaints pile up about the gridlock and low water pressure. All this so everyone looking for something cheaper than where they work in Toronto. Incredible that anyone can see $800,000+ as cheap! But maybe thanks to all this new social media crap and 'smart' phones, the younger generations today forget everything real fast, and will be completely wiped out when the next recession and housing market crash happens! Back in the early 70's, the highrise condos started going up in Mississauga along the QEW and 401, because the old Tories were less compliant about re-zoning, so the builders had to build UP rather than further out and create more American-style urban sprawl. All I know is that by about 20 years ago, I was getting so sick of doing a 50 mile (80 km) commute back and forth to work that I talked my wife into moving to Hamilton, just so I would not have to do the late night drives on the QE and risk falling asleep behind the wheel at 3 in the morning... I had a couple of close calls. The long drives may seem like fun and some younger people in their 20's and 30's, even claim it's relaxing. But, after you're in your 50's and you've been doing long drives back and forth to work for 10 or more years, your opinions might change a bit! We'll see what happens after the next recession and housing crash causes a shakeup in the housing markets.

Same here! Although I may vote Green Party if there's (as usual) no chance for the Tories taking my riding. I would be thrilled with the NDP if they would go back to actually standing clearly for workers, promoting/not attacking unions, and not acting like 'Liberal Lite.' Talking about tax cuts, pro-business policies etc.. It seems, at least ever since Ed Broadbent was NDP leader, whenever the Libs are down, the NDP will try to triangulate their way to the center, where the Liberal Party stakes out their turf. The old PC's already did it way too much, so that in typical elections in the 60's and 70's, the only issue separating Libs and Cons was on the unresolved terms of confederation: provincial vs federal powers. There may have once been a time when the majority of Canadians were feeling comfortable with their lives and the kind of government they had...and that benefits centrist Libs...especially like Justin, who can turn into the White Obama when he's answering questions at a news conference and talks out of both sides of his mouth! The only time anyone attempted to hold him to account in 2015, was when some natives who didn't want tarsands and other pipelines running through their territory, confronted him about which side he was on at the time the Government was proposing four new pipelines. And now it's because he's trying to perch on that sharp picket fence again and not take a stand on patent waivers. An issue where it is completely impossible to play rhetoric that will not infuriate either the global oligarchs or billions of people who want something done about a system that allows vaccine hoarding by the US and England, while many poor nations in Africa and Asia still have received nothing! Yet the US is threatening every nation, enemies and allies alike, if they turn to their enemies (Russia, China, Cuba) for cheaper vaccines. Imagine if a Canadian leader had the guts to say 'if you don't tell Pfizer and Moderna to follow through with the deliveries we ordered, we'll cancel them and call one of the nations on your banned list!' I know, it can't happen considering who we're talking about, and the post-NAFTA world we live in now. But back when Trudeau Sr. was the PM, I could easily see it could have happened!

If I can post a clear reason why the rest of the world is sick and tired of US hypocrisy and plundering, Glenn Greenwald captures it today: Antony Blinken Continues to Lecture the World on Values His Administration Aggressively Violates Continuing his world tour doling out righteous lectures to the world, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday proclaimed — in a sermon you have to hear to believe — that few things are more sacred in a democracy than “independent journalism.” Speaking to Radio Free Europe, Blinken paid homage to "World Press Freedom Day”; claimed that “the United States stands strongly with independent journalism”; explained that "the foundation of any democratic system” entails "holding leaders accountable” and “informing citizens"; and warned that “countries that deny freedom of the press are countries that don't have a lot of confidence in themselves or in their systems.” The rhetorical cherry on top of that cake came when he posed this question: "What is to be afraid of in informing the people and holding leaders accountable?” The Secretary of State then issued this vow: “Everywhere journalism and freedom of the press is challenged, we will stand with journalists and with that freedom.” Since I know that I would be extremely skeptical if someone told me that those words had just come out Blinken's mouth, I present you here with the unedited one-minute-fifty-two-second video clip of him saying exactly this: https://youtu.be/jzbJEij9oFs Needless to say - when this shit is on the US/NATO equivalent of Pravda, the host is not going to say "what about Julian Assange?" I had no idea who or what a 'blinkin' was before the big rollout for Biden's cabinet appointments. He was apparently Shillary's most trusted adviser...which means that the other "women in the room" - Susan Rice and Samantha Power were less trusted. Then again, that makes a lot of sense! But who got the idea that this evil looking, black-eyed bastard was the perfect public face for the Biden Administration to represent the US Government to the rest of the world?

If you stopped at "I don't read," that would have been more on point.

So, who is the greatest threat to world peace and security today? Russia, China, Iran, North Korea? NO, not according to most people living outside the US! US is seen as a bigger threat to democracy around the world than Russia or China, new poll finds After four years of Donald Trump and rising political extremism in the United States, America is no longer the beacon of democracy it once was. At least according to a new poll that has found the US is perceived as a bigger threat to democracy than Russia and China. Inequality is believed to be the biggest hindrance to democracy, but in the US, tech companies and their power is also seen as a threat. The poll was commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation and they gathered data from 50,000 people in 53 countries. The survey shows that democracy still gets high marks, even though people who live in democratic nations are more likely to have negative views of their government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, compared to people who live in countries with less democracy. The outcomes of the poll might prove difficult reading for the G7 nations as they conclude their London talks as they perceive themselves to be the guardians of democratic values and those that fight more authoritarian governments. The survey was conducted between February and April, so the results may have been stained by the reputation left by Mr Trump. The survey did, however, acknowledge that the US’ reputation was improving since Mr Trump left office. The most astonishing takeaway was that 44 per cent of those who took part in the survey view the US as a threat to their country’s democracy. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents fear the same from China, and Russia is at 28 per cent. In a year, the view that the United States is a threat to global democracy rose greatly. The highest increase was in Germany and China. Respondents from Russia and China had the most negative view of the US and the supposed threat they represented, followed by European countries. The poll showed that democracy was still important to people across the world, with 81 per cent saying so. Only 53 per cent of people said their country was democratic regardless over whether the country actually was considered as such. Aside from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, each country polled said that inequality was a greater threat than freedom of speech crackdowns. Chair of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, former Nato chief and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, “This poll shows that democracy is still alive in people’s hearts and minds. We now need to come out of the Covid-19 pandemic by delivering more democracy and freedom to people who want to see their countries become more democratic. “The positive support for an Alliance of Democracies, whether it the UK’s D10 initiative or President Biden’s Summit for Democracy, shows that people want more cooperation to push back against the autocrats. Leaders should take note of these perceptions and act upon them.” https://news.yahoo.com/us-seen-bigger-threat-democracy-175547059.html

New Study Estimates More Than 900,000 People Have Died Of COVID-19 In U.S. Publication date: May 6, 2021 In the IHME estimation of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths to date, we have used officially reported COVID-19 deaths for nearly all locations. As of today, we are switching to a new approach that relies on the estimation of total mortality due to COVID-19. A new study estimates that the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is more than 900,000, a number 57% higher than official figures. Worldwide, the study's authors say, the COVID-19 death count is nearing 7 million, more than double the reported number of 3.24 million. The analysis comes from researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, who looked at excess mortality from March 2020 through May 3, 2021, compared it with what would be expected in a typical nonpandemic year, then adjusted those figures to account for a handful of other pandemic-related factors. The final count only estimates deaths "caused directly by the SARS-CoV-2 virus," according to the study's authors. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. Researchers estimated dramatic undercounts in countries such as India, Mexico and Russia, where they said the official death counts are some 400,000 too low in each country. In some countries — including Japan, Egypt and several Central Asian nations — the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's death toll estimate is more than 10 times higher than reported totals. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/06/994287048/new-study-estimates-more-than-900-000-people-have-died-of-covid-19-in-u-s Japan??? Anybody planning to go to the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics later this summer? With the huge homeless and vagrant populations living in major cities in Brazil, India or Mexico, I could see huge real death tolls from Covid-19, but Japan is an advanced first world nation with advanced health care, how could they be so far off the mark? Then again, their Prime Minister keeps insisting every time there is a spike in numbers, that the Games will go ahead on schedule! Maybe they go ahead whether they kill everyone or not! The group reached its estimates by calculating excess mortality based on a variety of sources, including official death statistics from various countries, as well as academic studies of other locations. Then, it examined other mortality factors influenced by the pandemic. For example, some of the extra deaths were caused by increased opioid overdoses or deferred health care. On the other hand, the dramatic reduction in flu cases last winter and a modest drop in deaths caused by injury resulted in lower mortality in those categories than usual. Researchers at UW ultimately concluded that the extra deaths not directly caused by COVID-19 were effectively offset by the other reductions in death rates, leaving them to attribute all of the net excess deaths to the coronavirus. "When you put all that together, we conclude that the best way, the closest estimate, for the true COVID death is still excess mortality, because some of those things are on the positive side, other factors are on the negative side," Murray said. Experts are in agreement that official reports of COVID-19 deaths undercount the true death toll of the virus. Some countries only report deaths that take place in hospitals, or only when patients are confirmed to have been infected; others have poor health care access altogether. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/06/994287048/new-study-estimates-more-than-900-000-people-have-died-of-covid-19-in-u-s

Trump is a buffoon, pure and simple! And that's why all of the nice, rich and educated Republicans have started trying to form groups like the Lincoln Project, to try to win back some of those billionaires who had always considered the GOP to be their political home before the Donald barged in and started saying the quiet parts out loud! That btw, is how he earned the loyalties of his base, who have been losing economically and wanted straight talk instead of the same old warmed over Reagan BS! Even those of us who consider the Donald to be a loathesome creature still have admiration for him that we don't for the likes of Jeb, Marco, let alone chip-off-the-old-block- Liz Cheney.

The link was already in my post! But, I wasn't trying to contend that new, virtually untested vaccines will be completely safe for everyone from now into the future. My point is that we know this disease is highly contagious, and has a great capability to find ways to slip past immune response already. Some of the new Covid variants appear to be causing immune systems of some people to attack body tissues as foreign. And that is how the Spanish Flu of 100 years ago killed a generation of young people across Europe and North America. So, which would you rather do: 1. take your chances with a vaccine? OR 2. take your chances with a contagious disease that present organizations in charge of health are not even trying to make a serious effort to contain worldwide? It's become a game of: take these two vaccines and when the new and deadly strains start invading and increasing numbers of sick in wealthier locales, we'll make sure we have the Covid-19 booster shots ready for you.....and at least every year thereafter, for as long as you can afford to stay among the living!