A report card on the Biden administration

[Sandy Shanks]

Please note: Every one of the under-performing states are run by Republicans, every single one!

The Post reports, "More than 600,000 people have died in the United States from covid-19, with nearly 34 million cases reported.

"The government’s effort to vaccinate as many Americans as possible continues to face hurdles, including resistance among people who identify as Republicans, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll shows that while there is room for growth in vaccinations, going well beyond the 70 percent target could prove difficult.

"The differences between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of vaccinations are stark, just as they were about reopening the economy during the worst of the pandemic. The survey finds that 86 percent of Democrats have received at least one shot of a vaccine, compared with 45 percent of Republicans.

"While 6 percent of Democrats say they aren’t likely to get vaccinated, 47 percent of Republicans fall into that category.

"Asked about the accuracy of the warnings about the delta variant, there is a sharp partisan divide, with 57 percent of Republicans saying officials are exaggerating the delta variant’s risk, compared with 39 percent of independents and 12 percent of Democrats.

"There is also an educational divide, with 59 percent of those with college degrees calling the warnings accurate, compared with 38 percent of those who do not have degrees."

The reverse of the last reveals that 62% of those without a college degree think the delta variant which ravaged India is bogus.

Read full results and how the poll was conducted

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The Post reports, "More than 600,000 people have died in the United States from covid-19, with nearly 34 million cases reported.

The government’s effort to vaccinate as many Americans as possible continues to face hurdles, including resistance among people who identify as Republicans.

Vaccine-hesitant Americans -- the majority in the Republican South -- overwhelmingly reject the reported risks of the coronavirus delta variant.

Three in 10 adults in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they have not gotten a coronavirus vaccine and definitely or probably will not get one. In this group, a broad 73% say U.S. officials are exaggerating the risk of the delta variant -- and 79% think they have little or no risk of getting sick from the coronavirus.

About 99.2% of recent COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. involved un-vaccinated people, a "tragic" situation that could easily be remedied, a top infectious disease expert told NBC.

Former President Trump spoke in Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday. There was a massive crowd of patriots ready to Save America!

Go figure!

 

[Sandy Shanks]

More than 600,000 people have died in the United States from covid-19, with nearly 34 million cases reported.

"The government’s effort to vaccinate as many Americans as possible continues to face hurdles, including resistance among people who identify as Republicans, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

"There is also an educational divide, with 59 percent of those with college degrees calling the warnings accurate, compared with 38 percent of those who do not have degrees."

The reverse of the last reveals that 62% of those without a college degree think the delta variant which ravaged India is bogus.

About 99.2% of recent COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. involved un-vaccinated people,

Former President Trump spoke in Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday. There was a massive crowd of patriots ready to Save America!

As shown, a huge number of Republicans do not have enough sense to protect themselves from a killer virus.

What is the significance of all this?

These people are in control of the Republican Party.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The House voted to establish a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol

Republicans no longer declare the Jan. 6 insurrection was caused by antifa. They no longer say it was a peaceful protest. They no longer say the intruders of our capitol were tourists who "stayed between the ropes."

In fact, they don't say anything about the insurrection that resulted in five deaths and over a hundred capitol defenders were injured.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is tasked with selecting five Republicans for the committee. He has failed to do so and has remained silent about the House committee.

Why are Republicans leaders silent about Jan. 6? Their lives were at risk on that day, and all we get from them is silence? That doesn't make sense.

Maybe this does.

In December President Trump, for all practical purposes, circled the date. The Times reports, "For weeks, President Trump and his supporters had been proclaiming Jan. 6, 2021, as a day of reckoning. A day to gather in Washington to “save America” and “stop the steal.”

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted on Dec. 19, just one of several of his tweets promoting the day. “Be there, will be wild!”

Then we come to Jan. 6.

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules."

“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

"Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We are going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
*******************************************************************************Donald J. Trump

Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, chimed in.

“If they ran such a clean election, they’d have you come in and look at the paper ballots. Who hides evidence? Criminals hide evidence. Not honest people. Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. Let’s have trial by combat.”

Little wonder as to why Republican leaders wish to remain silent on the subject.

In the meantime, Trump remains beloved by the members of his cult, grassroots Republicans. That is a dilemma for the Republican Party.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

In fact, they don't say anything about the insurrection that resulted in five deaths and over a hundred capitol defenders were injured.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is tasked with selecting five Republicans for the committee. He has failed to do so and has remained silent about the House committee.

The situation regarding McCarthy changed today. He finally realized he had to do something.

The minority leader finally decided he would appoint five Republicans to the Democratic-led select committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection, but he has a problem. He has a choice when it comes to the Democrat-led investigation of the Capitol riot: Get serious or go scorched-earth.

Politico reports, "The House Republicans most eager to serve on the Jan. 6 panel are the party’s firebrands, more practiced at crafting viral clips of verbal attacks than they are at making a sustained, credible case against top Democratic oversight practitioners."

Firebrands like Marjorie Taylor Greene. She made another Nazi-era comparison Tuesday as she railed against the Biden administration’s ramped-up efforts to encourage Americans to get free vaccinations against Covid-19. “People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.”

I keep wondering how this woman got elected to Congress by Georgians, but it is safe to say McCarthy won't pick this fool to be on the committee.

Politico adds, "That leaves McCarthy with the tricky task of tapping the right mix of select committee appointments — and the Republicans he picks must be prepared to go toe to toe with one of their own, savvy conservative Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)."

Meanwhile, more serious House Republicans are not particularly interested. As Politico puts it, “many are reluctant to take on a time-consuming probe they fear will cut into their time to shape legislation.”

Trump remains beloved by the members of his cult, meaning grassroots Republicans. That is a dilemma for the Republican Party.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The leader of the Republican Party, Donald J. Trump, "on Wednesday sued three tech giants — Facebook, Twitter and Google — and the firms’ chief executives after the platforms took various steps to ban him or block him from posting," according to the Times.

the Times continued, "Mr. Trump, speaking from his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, announced that he would serve as the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, arguing that he has been censored wrongfully by the tech companies. Speaking about “freedom of speech” and the First Amendment — which applies to the government, not to private-sector companies — Mr. Trump called his lawsuit a “very beautiful development.”

Almost immediately, Trump made several thousand dollars off the poor suckers who believe him.

CNN reports, "Less than an hour after the event, Trump's team began sending out fundraising appeals related to the lawsuits. The website recruiting participants for the proposed class action suits also featured a link to donate, and the Republican National Committee sent out a fundraising appeal invoking the suit as well.

Maybe Trump forgot he was no longer President. We know he hasn't got over his huge loss in November. On the other hand, he thinks he will be reinstated in August.

Potentially, Trump's lawsuit could provide more information regarding his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection than Pelosi's House committee. Unfortunately, the moment Big Tech asks for depositions from Trump, the lawsuits will be dropped.

This is just another big con. Trump's followers never learn. They don't want to learn.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

For two decades Biden has been a skeptic of the Afghan war.

The Times reports, "President Biden made an impassioned case on Thursday that the United States could no longer afford the human cost or strategic distraction of fighting the war in Afghanistan, arguing that the United States had achieved its initial objective — routing Al Qaeda from the country and hunting down Osama bin Laden — and that Afghanistan’s government and forces must be responsible for their own future.

"In a half-hour long talk, Mr. Biden was by turns defensive about his decision to leave the country and angry at his critics, at one point asking whether they would send their sons and daughters to fight in what has devolved into a civil war. He said all American combat troops would be out of the country by Aug. 31, and made the case that the American drawdown “is proceeding in a secure and orderly way prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart.'”

“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,” Mr. Biden said from the East Room of the White House. “And it’s the right and the responsibility of Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.”

For those who disagree with Biden, consider this. Measure the threat posed by the Taliban to our way of life to the threats posed by Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Should not our Commander-in-Chief concentrate his efforts on the greater threat?

 

[badger2]

Please note: Every one of the under-performing states are run by Republicans, every single one!

The Post reports, "More than 600,000 people have died in the United States from covid-19, with nearly 34 million cases reported.

"The government’s effort to vaccinate as many Americans as possible continues to face hurdles, including resistance among people who identify as Republicans, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll shows that while there is room for growth in vaccinations, going well beyond the 70 percent target could prove difficult.

"The differences between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of vaccinations are stark, just as they were about reopening the economy during the worst of the pandemic. The survey finds that 86 percent of Democrats have received at least one shot of a vaccine, compared with 45 percent of Republicans.

"While 6 percent of Democrats say they aren’t likely to get vaccinated, 47 percent of Republicans fall into that category.

"Asked about the accuracy of the warnings about the delta variant, there is a sharp partisan divide, with 57 percent of Republicans saying officials are exaggerating the delta variant’s risk, compared with 39 percent of independents and 12 percent of Democrats.

"There is also an educational divide, with 59 percent of those with college degrees calling the warnings accurate, compared with 38 percent of those who do not have degrees."

The reverse of the last reveals that 62% of those without a college degree think the delta variant which ravaged India is bogus.

Read full results and how the poll was conducted

That’s going to make the Lambda variant, a variant of Delta, even harder to believe in Appalachia.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

A huge number of Republicans do not have enough sense to protect themselves from a killer virus.

What is the significance of all this?

These people are in control of the Republican Party.

Someone explain to me why Republicans are so stupid.

ABC reports "President Joe Biden's push to enlist volunteers, including local doctors and pastors, to go "literally knocking on doors" to encourage vaccinations in some states sparked an outcry this week among Republicans, who mischaracterized the effort as the deployment of government agents to strong-arm reluctant Americans."

The White House responded by explaining any door-knocking efforts will be locally led by community volunteers, not government agents. That was clear in Biden's message. All Republicans had to do was listen to it.

“People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment,” Marjorie Taylor Green, House Republican from Georgia.

"How about don’t knock on my door," tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican. "You’re not my parents. You’re the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose. Why is that concept so hard for the left?"

Crenshaw and Greene do not understand this simple concept. Americans are free to be stupid, free to refuse a cure for a deadly virus. They are free to be hospitalized, even die.

But they are not free to spread this deadly disease to their children, close relatives, and friends. They are not free to remove the freedoms of others -- the freedom to be free of the deadly virus.

Why is that concept so hard for the right?

One possible answer is, the right is stupid. Are there any other possible explanations?

 

[Sandy Shanks]

On June 16, President Biden said he warned his Russian counterpart that the U.S. would use offensive cyber operations in the future unless the Kremlin clamps down on cyber strikes against the U.S., including ransomware attacks and election interference.

"He knows there are consequences," Biden told reporters in Geneva following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "He knows I will take action.”

For three weeks we have heard the same theme from Biden. The U.S. will respond to ransomware attacks originating from Russia, and the Russian government's involvement was not a factor. The ransomware attacks must stop Biden told Putin or there will be consequences, so said Biden in various press conferences.

Today, Biden warned Putin again. He spoke to Putin by phone. In the call on Friday, Biden told Putin “about the ongoing ransomware attacks by criminals based in Russia that have impacted the United States and other countries around the world,” according to a readout provided by the White House.

As Biden pointed out to Putin, the ransomware attacks have continued with no abatement. How much longer will Biden be telling us the U.S. will respond without any response?

 

[Sandy Shanks]

One possible answer is, the right is stupid. Are there any other possible explanations?

Guess not.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Republicans who refuse to come to grips with reality -- as seen by this thread -- are in the grip of a myth.

It really is a joke -- the intelligent Republicans know that -- but they still embrace the "Big Lie," and they contribute millions to the cause.

One such cause is the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, and it is attended by elected Republican officials.

Business Insider reports, "Attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas have been presented with a strategy outlining a 7-point-plan to reinstate Donald Trump as president 'in days, not years.

I said it was a joke.

Business Insider continues, "The outlandish plan involves ousting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and eventually installing Donald Trump in her place.

"Donald Trump as Speaker would then call for a vote to impeach, charge, and remove "imposters" President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As the Speaker of the House is third in the line of presidential succession, Trump would then take up the presidency again in this highly improbable scenario.

"The plan hinges upon Republicans regaining control of the House, which they plan to do by pulling back the curtain on "the horror show" of the Democrat Party, causing groups such as the Black Caucus to "flip" sides."

Alabama Republican Representative Mo Brooks asked audience members at CPAC) if they would be "willing" and ready "to fight" for America, echoing his controversial remarks ahead of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Brooks, who is running for the U.S. Senate with Trump's backing, said during his speech Friday, "Our choice is simple: We can surrender and submit, or we can fight back" against "dictatorial socialists" and Democratic control.

This is today's Republican Party.

You will get no argument to that statement from today's Republicans.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

This is today's Republican Party.

Former President Trump will speak on Sunday at 3:35 p.m., conference officials said.

I will be looking forward to this.

 

[ChemEngineer]

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Fox News reports, "Former President Donald Trump easily won the 2024 GOP presidential nomination poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering this weekend in Texas.

"Trump, who’s repeatedly flirted with making another presidential run in 2024 to try and return to the White House, captured 70% of ballots cast in the anonymous straw poll, according to results announced by CPAC on Sunday afternoon."

Those familiar with Trump may be puzzled by this. At Helsinki, Trump rejected American intelligence and said he believed Putin instead. The Russian helped Trump win in 2016. Trump destroyed the nuclear agreement with Iran, and that enemy is closer to a nuke than ever. He once suggested the injection of disinfectant to kill the coronavirus. Trump led an insurrection against our government on Jan. 6. For this, and countless other reasons, Trump lost his reelection by over seven million votes. He claims without evidence that the election was stolen from him. This is know as the Big Lie.

So, how in the world did he win the straw vote by 70%? Republicans on this forum won't tell us because, although they strongly support Trump, they avoid him. True, that's beyond comprehension, but there it is. It has something to do with the intelligence level of Trump's followers.

The answer is, CPAC has become a fringe group of the GOP that favors Trump and the Big Lie. The leadership of the Republican Party stays away from CPAC.

CPAC Texas 2021 | Speakers shows a list of the speakers. There are only two Senators, one from Florida, the other from Tennessee. The rest stayed away. There are a large number of Republican House members on the speaker list, but that is to be expected.

On Jan. 6, as a part of the the Trump-led insurrection, 147 Republicans voted to void the results of the Constitutionally mandated Electoral College. 139 of them were from the House.

Senator Rick Scott, one of the speakers at CPAC, voted to scrap the election results.

CPAC is not the Republican Party. The problem is, how many will be able to make that distinction? Americans will only remember that the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, was favored by 70% of Republicans attending CPAC.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Trump on the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“There was such love at that rally. You had over a million people there. They were there for one reason…. We had a corrupt election. We had a rigged election. We had a stolen election. It was a lovefest….They were peaceful people. These were great people.”

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Trump on the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“There was such love at that rally. You had over a million people there. They were there for one reason…. We had a corrupt election. We had a rigged election. We had a stolen election. It was a lovefest….They were peaceful people. These were great people.”

CPAC is not the Republican Party. The problem is, how many will be able to make that distinction? Americans will only remember that the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, was favored by 70% of Republicans attending CPAC.

Capturing the Presidential preferential contest at CPAC by a whopping 70%, Donald Trump is the anointed leader of the Republican Party.

Strange how his followers on this forum are avoiding him. Maybe this is why.

The Independent writes, "The conference, once a high-profile stage to glimpse the state of the contemporary GOP, has become a clearinghouse for online-drive conspiracy theories, self-righteous delusions, and culture war grievances. CPAC attracted far-right militia, violent reactionaries and QAnon proponents."

Fox News on Sunday aired a disclaimer concerning comments made by Trump during CPAC.

To understand Trump, one has to understand that he considers lying a legitimate tactic in politics. It is particularly useful in the case of gullible followers.

He calls his lying Truthful Hyperbole and he defines it in the book, The Art of the Deal.

“The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration—and a very effective form of promotion.”

At CPAC this weekend, his loyal, gullible followers enjoyed and absorbed these whoppers from the leader of their party.

“No evidence? There’s so much evidence,” Trump insisted, although in eight months he has not provided evidence. Lying about evidence is not evidence.

Trump vowed that once Republicans take back Congress in the 2022 midterms, “We will take back that glorious White House that sits so majestically in our nation’s capital.”

“Look at all those fake news people back there,” he said, peering at the bank of TV cameras. To Trump, every responsible news source is "fake news" because they record Trump's comments for the record.

Following his speech that touched off the Jan. 6 insurrection -- or lovefest Trump prefers to call it -- he was banned from social media for instigating violence against our government. “We are taking Mark Zuckerbucks ... and the other Silicon Valley billionaires to court ... until we have restored the sacred right of freedom of speech for every American,” Trump told the crowd. “I was banned by sleazebags.”

There is so much more, but the reader gets the point.

Republicans, this is your leader. Little wonder as to why you avoid him.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

President Biden gave a great speech today on voting rights, but provided little in the way of achieving the goals he has set.

Maybe that is unfair, but Americans today are yearning for action on his goals, not flowery rhetoric.

That said, here is small review of what our President said.

He "decried Republican efforts to limit ballot access across the country as a "21st century Jim Crow assault," while warning Americans that the GOP push to restrict voting and "selfish" challenge of the 2020 election results were "the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War," according to ABC.

"There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections, an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an assault on who we are as Americans," Biden said.

He wasted no time taking a shot at former President Donald Trump and his supporters, homing in on the 2020 election as the "most scrutinized election in American history."

"More than 80 judges, including those appointed by my predecessor heard the arguments. In every case, neither cause nor evidence was found to undermine the national achievement of administering the historic election," he said.

"The big lie is just that -- a big lie!" he declared.

Of course, we all know that, including Trump, but the big lie is great for fund raising from the poor souls who believe the lie.

Unfortunately, Biden stopped short of endorsing changes to the Senate filibuster rule that would allow Democrats to pass voting rights measures with a simple majority vote -- something advocates, and many Democrats have begged him to support.

Consequently, the voting rights bill is at a standstill.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Now this is interesting.

NBC reports, "A prolific, Russian-speaking ransomware gang has suddenly disappeared from the internet months after executing some of the most high-profile cyberattacks on U.S. targets.

"It is unclear why the group's online footprint, including its blog and payment-processing infrastructure, have gone offline, but its absence has prompted questions about whether the U.S. took action just days after President Joe Biden promised consequences for a string of cyberattacks. But ransomware gangs have also been known to voluntarily disband, only to return under a different name.

"The group, REvil, is one of the most prolific cybercriminal organizations in the world. It hacked more than 360 U.S. targets in 2021 alone, part of an extortion spree that locks up victims' computers, leading to demands of payment in exchange for a decryptor program and a promise to not leak sensitive files.

"The group disappeared from the dark web early Tuesday morning without leaving any known indication why, and the timing is noteworthy. Biden has repeatedly insisted he plans to take some action against ransomware hackers, many of whom are believed to reside in Russia. On Friday, Biden told reporters the U.S. may attack the "servers" used to carry out attacks, but he didn't give specifics."

Spokespeople for both Cyber Command and the White House National Security Council declined to comment on REvil's disappearance.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Why is the Republican Party sponsoring a program of discouraging vaccinations against a deadly virus?

We will never know because Republicans on this forum never discuss what their party is doing.

In any case, the program is successful. Republican-led states rank at the bottom of vaccination rates, and Republicans cheered when Biden didn't reach his goal of 70% which involved a plan to save American lives. 99.5 percent of all covid-19-related deaths in the United States occur among unvaccinated people -- the bulk of those deaths occurring in Republican-led states.

Michael Gerson writes, "The recent outbreak of applause at the Conservative Political Action Conference for the United States’ failure to meet its vaccination target was macabre."

The Tennessean reports, "The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails.

"The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property. These changes to Tennessee’s vaccination strategy illustrate how the state government continues to dial back efforts to vaccinate minors against coronavirus."

The Tennessee Department of Health fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the top vaccine official in the Tennessee state government becuase of her efforts to vaccinate teenagers.

Why? Ignorance. Apparently, the Republican Party attracts the ignorant. If there is another explanation, I would love to hear it.

Gerson offers this. "Some people are just badly misinformed. They think the vaccines come with itsy-bitsy tracking chips, or make you magnetic, or render you infertile. Ignorance is a form of moral mitigation, but it is still, well, ignorance.

"Some oppose vaccination out of a tragically misapplied libertarianism. They somehow think the defense of freedom requires the rejection of sound medical advice from the government. They seek liberation from rational rules, prudent precautions, scientific reality and from moral responsibility for their neighbors’ well-being [and their children]. This is the degraded version of a proud tradition: Live free and let someone else die."

Gerson adds, "In the case of Fox News celebrities in particular, they must know that discouraging vaccination — by exaggerating risks, highlighting unproven alternative therapies and normalizing anti-vaccine voices — will result in additional, unnecessary deaths."

For rational Americans -- presumably this would exclude most Republicans -- all of this makes no sense. Will encouraging the spread of a deadly virus win votes in Republican states? Is that possible?

We will never know the answer. Republicans remain silent on the issue almost like they know they are acting stupid but do it anyway. They are so pathetic they can't even defend themselves.