When Fox News becomes more reputable than a former president, you know its time to blow up your fucking TV before its too late!
As clueless and defiant as some of the GOP have been, a few finally seem to be ackowledging that the virus is damaging them, both the virus itself due to its morbidity and death and also the ongoing political damage after riding the wave of popularity for being anti-mask and anti-vaccine earlier in the pandemic. Youtube video: MSNBC - Why Some Republicans Changed Their Tune On Vaccines
What has changed is that reasonable people have vaccinated themselves and aren't becoming ill. Many of the Trump mindset haven't. The virus is now injuring and killing mostly people of the Trump mindset. Earlier in the pandemic, morbidity and death were spread more evenly throughout the U.S. population. The pro-Trump GOP had the luxury of scoffing at mask wearing and vaccinations before natural selection had selected the pro-Trump population. Also, the deadly and highly contagious delta variant hadn't yet surfaced.
Natural selection phenomena are at play. The delta variant became 'selected in' due to its contagiousness, and the pro-Trump people have refused to protect themselves, which is part of why more dangerous variants come into existence in the first place. Variants arise while they replicate in people who haven't been vaccinated or who haven't taken precautions such as mask wearing and social distancing. What the GOP has done is create a spiraling condition that creates and selects the more dangerous variants that prey upon the (avoidably) unprotected who helped create them (the GOP). If it keeps up like this, eventually many of the unprotected GOP will become ill or will be killed off and the virus may eventually subside. That's a pathetic way of grappling with a virus when highly effective and safe vaccines are available for free.
Interesting report on NPR that said while some trump supporters, like Gv. Kay Ivey of Alabama, are telling people to get vaccinated, trump has said nothing.Vaccination rates are up in Florida, and Missouri.
Funny to hear the pundits trying to throw Drumph a bone by saying the vaccines were developed under his watch in efforts to get inoculation rates up, as if he had a damn thing to do with their development.
A man in Texas told someone he matched with on Bumble that he attended the US Capitol riot where the FBI says he attacked police with a metal whip. They turned him in. A man in Texas has been arrested after he boasted to a match on an online dating app about attending the January 6 insurrection from "the very beginning." According to a July 21 criminal complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip on January 9 from a person who had chatted on Bumble with Andrew Quentin Taake. In an exchange, Taake described being pepper-sprayed: "I was the very first person to be sprayed that day, all while just standing there," he claimed. Federal authorities accuse him of doing a lot more than that. In the complaint, an FBI agent accuses him assaulting police and storming the US Capitol building. Indeed, images on social media show Taake "using what appears to be a metal whip and pepper spray to attack law enforcement officers," the complaint states.
One of Trump's rioters said everything was fine until the Capitol police started pepper spraying them, making it sound like they were forced to attack the police for pepper spraying them.
At Trump's rally in AZ, as the first speaker Ugenti was leaving the stage early because she was booed off the stage, she declared that she would be the next AZ secretary of state. That tone of voice doesn't sound like democracy, especially after her boo-shortened speech that talked about rejecting King George (which didn't take well with Trump's supporters who are dedicated to embracing a king). Overall, she crippled herself with Trump's fans and with those who embrace democracy.
Kevin McCarthy, who was the House minority leader at the time of Trump's insurrection at the Capitol, is blaming House Speaker Pelosi for insufficient police power to stop Trump's rioters. On the day of the riot, the U.S. Senate was still controlled by Republicans. Mitch McConnell was the majority leader. By McCarthy's logic, he should also be blaming McConnell for not providing enough police power to stop Trump's rioters.
During the second week of January, McCarthy said Trump is at least partly to blame for the riot. McCarthy says Trump ‘bears responsibility’ for Capitol riot The House GOP leader makes clear he does not support impeachment, even as he publicly rebuked the president. By NICK NIEDZWIADEK 01/13/2021 02:15 PM EST McCarthy says Trump ‘bears responsibility’ for Capitol riot
In the last week of January, McCarthy started blaming other people. He's been blaming Pelosi lately as the investigation is being started. Key Republicans went from blaming Trump for the deadly Capitol attack to fighting his impeachment in just 3 weeks John Haltiwanger Jan 26, 2021, 2:30 PM Key Republicans went from blaming Trump for the deadly Capitol attack to fighting his impeachment in just 3 weeks excerpt: "Top Republicans have rapidly shifted from blaming Trump for the Capitol attack to bashing Democrats for impeaching him over it. As the initial shock over the riot has faded, the tone from Republicans has changed dramatically. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went from saying Trump "bears responsibility" to "everybody" has some responsibility."
Officer Injured in Capitol Riot Asks McCarthy to Disavow Lies About It By Luke Broadwater June 25, 2021 Officer Injured in Capitol Riot Asks McCarthy to Disavow Lies About It excerpt: "So on Friday, when Officer Fanone finally got his session with Mr. McCarthy at the Capitol, he had a clear request at the ready: for the minority leader to publicly denounce the lies Republican lawmakers have been telling about the deadly attack. He wanted Mr. McCarthy to push them to stop downplaying the storming of the building, blaming left-wing extremists for an assault carried out by former President Donald J. Trump’s right-wing supporters and spreading the baseless conspiracy theory that the F.B.I. secretly planned it. He came away disappointed. “He said he would address it at a personal level, with some of those members,” Officer Fanone told reporters after the roughly hourlong meeting. “I think that as the leader of the House Republican Party, it’s important to hear those denouncements publicly.” Mr. McCarthy, who phoned Mr. Trump during the riot to plead with him to call off the mob and days later said the president bore responsibility for the rampage, has since swung wildly in the other direction. He later said Mr. Trump was not to blame, led the charge to purge Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from the party leadership for speaking out against the former president and rallied his party to oppose the formation of an independent commission to investigate the assault."