Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

Unknown

As to Afghanistan... We went in to root out the terrorists and punish the Taliban for harboring and supporting them. That mission was accomplished so quickly that it took our breath away. THIS IS WHERE THIS WAR SHOULD HAVE ENDED. Then they put corrupt self serving criminals in charge because the were the ones who would let the NEOCONS make their huge warmongering profits as long as the new government got their fat offshore bank accounts and contractor kickbacks.

This was so predictable it hurt.

Then they started their Iraq war to distract the people from what was going on and set up another war profit making opportunity.

Every expansion of the US mission was a mistake.

No one has ever in history remade Afghanistan to what they thought it should be, ever.

I am disgusted and ashamed by this situation and have been for 20 years.

When they blame President Biden for this disaster remember what all the other leaders of this country including President Obama who didn't heed VP Biden's advice when he continued the surge mentality of the Pentagon did.

I haven't listened to his speech today but with what I know about him I really don't have to.

That is all I'm going to say about it.

Ever...

 Hope? 

I believe I have a personal responsibility to make a positive impact on society.

 Anthony Fauci

As to the latest vaccine news bear in mind that it is a press release by a massive Pharma company who took no government funding thus freeing them of the requirements demanded by accepting such funding of a very short term result of a long term study.

I would note that the vaccine in question requires storage at no less than -94 degrees F. from start to finish to remain effective. Most hospitals have no ability to store at that temperature, or shipping companies for that matter.

Bare in mind that this isn't a scientific study but a press release who's only tangible result has been to boost Pfizer's stock value making their stockholders even richer.

To implement this vaccine will require much longer in depth study to prove the the initial result wasn't a fluke and investigation of side effects both immediate and long term long term.

Even after this it will require a huge investment in time and money to create the infrastructure to distribute and store any vaccine with the storage requirements of this and at least one other of the current promising candidates.

I guess what I'm saying is take any of this with a grain of salt practice social distancing and wear your fucking mask!

Let me tell you a story

"I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system." 

Noam Chomsky

Dr. Faucis a couple of days ago at the Covid-19 press briefing.

Yesterday.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/23/i-know-what-do-you-want-me-do-faucis-honest-review-trumps-coronavirus-response/


https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/doj-suspend-constitutional-rights-coronavirus-970935/

Today's Covid-19 press briefing.
No Dr. Faucis but hey look who's popular again.

Wonder if we will get to vote in November?

MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

The DNC elected a new Chairman a wile back with promises of changing the organization to be more in touch with the people instead of big money donors. They are even courting Bernie Sanders and his voters, (though cynics say they just covet his huge Email list of supporters and donors.) They have, since the Clinton years ignored any race other than President that wasn't a sure thing or big money election, acting like the money they have collected is coming out of their paychecks instead of being some billionaire's pocket change.

In Kansas last week the Democrat in the race asked the DNC to help with $2,500 for a mailer to spread his name in the special election. They turned him down as a lost cause. He lost by only 7 points in an overwhelmingly Republican district.

In the election for the Georgia Congressional seat yesterday the candidate Jon Ossoff raised 8 million dollars from small donors (like Bernie Sanders) and was leading the whole field of 18. The DNC jumped in at the last minute after the race made the national news but didn't persuade any of the other Democrats running to drop out and endorse Ossoff. Though they did fundraise off the contest.

He missed winning outright with 50% of the vote by 2% and has to face former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel in a runoff in June where he is said to have a 50/50 chance.

There are several more special elections this year to replace Republicans that look like there is a strong chance for a Democrat win.

I am not optimistic that the national DNC will help any of them despite the fact that their whole purpose is supposed to be electing people who unlike the power hungry present day Republican politicians actually listen to everyday people and work to defend their freedom and try to make life a little better for all the people.

I may be a gloomy Gus but I haven't seen any signs that the DNC gets that the massive losses that progressives have experienced since 2000 were a direct result of their incompetence in dealing with the 50 state Republican gerrymandering plan, combate the conservative propaganda machine and the failure to recruit, develop and support viable progressive candidates in all states.

If the DNC doesn't wake up and change, then progressives will either abandon them, or not only lose these special elections, but the 2018 elections as well them and more importantly any progressive gains made in the last 60 years.

Then again, I could be full of shit...

GRAND THEFT SCOTUS

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln


Senator Mitch McConnell and his band of merry men have stolen a supreme Court nomination for Trump. That nomination was rightfully President Barrack Obama's to make. 
They stole it using a bullshit argument to justify their blatant obstruction of the most honorable, capable intelligent President we have had in my lifetime.
They did it in part because he had the audacity to hope that he could make life better for all Americans.
Oh, and because he was a half African American man raised by his Caucasian single mother and educated in the Ivy League schools where, in their eyes he should have been taking orders in one of the local fast food joints.
They didn't do this for the good of the American people. 
They didn't do it for the protection of the United States from it's enemies foreign and domestic as they took an to do.
The truth is... 
They did it for greed.
They did it for money.
They did it for power.
Ultimately they did it because they have been bought and paid for by people and organizations who care nothing about making anyone's life better.
They don't care if  the people of the United States (or any other country) live or die. 
They care only that their actions increase their profits and power.
In other words they did it because they are people who embraced the "greed is good" and "the one who finishes with the most toys wins" philosophy of the Reagan era.
They stole it and used the so called nuclear option doing away with the Senate filibuster to confirm Neil Gorsuch, a far right, pro business conservative, who believes that the Constitution should be interpreted as a static document as it was written in the 18th century, instead of the living document it was designed to be. 
A document flexible enough to adapt to the changes that the founders knew, as men who looked toward the future were inevitable.
They stole it and when they were blocked did what they and their masters always do.
They changed the rules to get their way.
Just like a spoiled child who throws a temper tantrum when he doesn't get his way.
Now that it is done any 5-4 decision handed down by the Supreme Court will be tainted for me.
Whether I agree or disagree with it
If President Obama's moderate nominee Merric Garland was given a fair hearing and confirmed as he should have been, about 75% of those decisions would probably go the other way.
I'll go out on a limb and say they would probably be much better decisions for the improvement of the majority of the American people's lives.

This nightmare to be continued...

 Ethical Incompetance

Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates tonight because she stated that she would not defend his executive order closing the nation’s borders to refugees and people from predominantly Muslim countries believing it to be unconstitutional.
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is awaiting confirmation ans the next Attorney General and who knows what he would have done.

Ironically Rachel Maddow found an interesting bit of history About these two.

Sigh...

CIRCULAR HISTORY

 

 Instead of turning away from our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, let us instead learn from our history and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past.
Loretta Lynch







This is Holocaust Remembrance Day and Donald Trump thought it a fine day to ban refugees from entrance into the United States.
The reason we commemorate this day is to atone for the policy that turned Jewish refugees away often at the ports in the early days of Germany's Third Reich.

This is the result of that policy.

St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) | Twitter