Is The End Of The Pandemic Actually In Sight?
Perhaps it is appropriate that I chose to write about this today, since it is Groundhog Day. Because, much like Bill Murray experienced in the movie, it certainly feels like we've been here before. But maybe this time we'll actually get to continue onwards, instead of reliving the same cycle over and over again. That's my hope, at any rate.
I am speaking of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mainstream media has recently lost interest in the story, but there is some great news they really should be sharing with the American public: we may almost be at the end. We may be approaching endemic status rather than pandemic. We may be approaching the vaunted herd immunity. We may, not to put too fine a point on it, almost be out of the woods.
Of course, as we've seen before (see: Delta, Omicron), this could all prove to be illusory. There may be a new variant lurking out there that will make things much worse in a very short time. That's certainly what both of the previous mutations did. But barring that development (knock wood), America is at least on the brink of the Omicron wave being functionally over.
The numbers have taken a huge dive over the past two weeks. At the peak of Omicron, an average of over 800,000 new cases were appearing each day, which is an astoundingly-high number. Right now that number is fast approaching 400,000 -- and it will likely fall below that mark either today or tomorrow. In other words, the impact has been cut in half in only two weeks' time. When you look at the state-level data, every single state has peaked by now too. Some are further along than others, because some states (New York, Washington D.C.) got hit earlier by Omicron than others. But all of them are over the worst of the crisis by now.
Of course, that doesn't quite mean we can all celebrate yet. Those numbers are still incredibly high. Consider that in last winter's wave (before most people were vaccinated) the peak came at only 250,000 cases per day (average). When Delta hit, it never got above about 165,000 cases per day. So we're still (roughly) around twice as bad off as both of the earlier peaks, just to put things in perspective.
But now most people have been vaccinated, and Omicron is a lot less deadly than the earlier strains. What has happened, in essence, is that Omicron began running out of new people to infect two weeks ago. That is what has caused the collapse in the numbers, and it will likely continue. The numbers should continue to steeply fall for at least another two weeks or so.
That, obviously, is good news. You'd think it'd be good enough to make the evening news on television, but mostly you'd be wrong about that. Back at the Omicron peak, the pandemic led the news each night, complete with frantic scenes from overloaded hospitals. Even when the peak became obvious, they insisted on only reporting: "but cases are still rising in these states," rather than reporting on what was going on in New York and the other early states. Now that things have gotten markedly better, pandemic stories are either just not reported at all or have been relegated to a minor mention rather than the lead story. Progress on vaccines is still reported, but not so much the overall pandemic picture.
But the numbers don't lie. Things are getting better, and fast. Which means by the end of February (or even before, in some places) we may enter into a phase we haven't seen since the start of last summer -- where we can cautiously relax and realize that the worst may be over (at least, for now). Precautionary measures may not be as critical at that point, meaning rules for masks and social distancing and all the rest of it might be safely relaxed. We could even return to some sort of normalcy, although with the threat of another possible variant always looming it will probably be a while before we truly do get back to the normal we all experienced before the pandemic began.
Even so, a return to last July's optimism would be welcome indeed. The public is absolutely exhausted by this whole rollercoaster. And having been optimistic once before (last summer) there will be a certain "once burned, twice shy" aspect to the aftermath of Omicron.
The real question is how low the numbers will go. Where will the downward slide turn into a plateau? New cases are falling fast, but to get back to where we were last July, they'd have to be under 15,000 per day, which seems almost impossible to achieve, at this point. Hospitalizations are falling as well, although this number lags the new cases numbers by a week or so. And deaths are still either climbing or about to hit the peak, but this peak is proportionally a lot lower than it was for the earlier waves (in terms of the percent of people who come down with COVID actually dying of it). Eventually, in a couple of weeks, the death numbers will also come down.
Currently, the number of deaths stands at around 2,500 per day. This is the real number that will dictate when we'll all start using "endemic" rather than "pandemic" to describe the disease. After all, the yearly flu can kill up to 60,000 Americans in a single year. That translates to only about 165 per day. Last July, the COVID death rate fell below 250 per day. Of course, this didn't last, but it shows how the numbers can indeed get that low.
We all want our lives back. We all want normalcy to return. Nobody's rooting for the pandemic era to continue. We still have a ways to go to get anywhere near any of that, but we also may be a lot closer to it than you might think. If the dramatic downturn in the numbers continues throughout February, by the end of the month such things might actually be possible. As long as a new variant doesn't emerge for a few months or so, we could finally reach a point where we put the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror at last -- at least for a while. You'd think that such good news would be a bigger deal, but maybe everyone is exercising an overabundance of caution right now. I for one am going to remain optimistic, though. Like pretty much everyone else, I am more than ready for this all to be over.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
I love your optimism, cautious or otherwise, Chris!
But, this thing is called a Pandemic for a very good reason - it's global in nature.
COVID-19 won't be endemic in America until it is endemic the world over. And, for THAT, there is a very, very, very long way to go ...
Here [science.org] is some good information on Omicron from the blog In The Pipeline with an aside as to why DeSantis is an idiot...
The same author has a series called Things I won't work with if you want an interesting but horrific rabbit hole to go down. They recently changed the entire site and got rid of a side bar with direct links, but put "things I wont work with" into the search function on the site will bring up the full list. My favorite is Dioxygen Difluoride, if you would like to learn about some Satan's Kimchi. But they are all well written.
The WHO pressers are also a great resource and the bonus is that they avoid the politicization the Pandemic ...
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
After clicking this link, just scroll all the way to the bottom. Just like we do here! Heh.
Bashi[2],
What are your takeaways from that science.org piece?
Liz,
The piece is more about the technical aspects of Omicron rather than the direction of the pandemic. The author thinks of all the possibilities of where it came from, an immunocompromised person who fought the virus to draw for months and months and allowed it to mutate a whole bunch of times is the most likely. Also it's a branch off of one of the very early variants and seems to have gotten better at evading the usual antibodies and this is why the monoclonal antibody treatments just don't work on it.
Interesting.
One of the problems in this pandemic is that not too many countries are very good at surveillance and genomic sequencing in the general sense, let alone STRATEGIC surveillance and sequencing. If more countries were doing this effectively we would have a much better idea of how these variants, especially Omicron, have evolved.
What the Florida governor and many people don't realize is that our immune response is very complex and concerns more than just antibodies. It really is amazing how simplistically DeSantis views the science, to the detriment of the health of his fellow Floridians.
DeSantis is pandering. One of his top donors is heavily invested in the company that produces one of the monoclonal antibody treatments. A treatment that is suddenly of little to no use...
Well, that's even worse!
At the WHO press conference today, they were talking briefly about the effort to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine that could be effective against all coronaviruses.
I'd like to learn more about that!
interesting. perhaps we've always been able to cure the common cold, we just haven't been properly motivated.
It occurs to me that Omicron is a blessing in disguise. D'yall remember how scary Omicron's high transmission rate sounded at first?
ut it's symptoms proved so relatively mild that millions of unvaxxed Muricans caught and got over the Covid and left us considerably closer to herd immunity. We have got the good result with low casualties via two radically different methods, eh?
Best of all, herd immunity leaves less opportunity for more dangerous mutations to spread.
(thinking)
Now if only the rest of the world attained comparable herd immunity, because I wonder if we won't be out of the woods until the whole planet attains it. Otherwise more Covid mutations will keep coming to America.
Please, talk me down somebody.
well... maybe not always, but at least for much of the last decade.
@caddy,
didn't CW predict that very outcome just a few weeks ago?
probably not always ... some things are trickier than others to counteract. but, I take your point, Joshua, about the proper motivation and funding ...
Caddy,
Now if only the rest of the world attained comparable herd immunity, because I wonder if we won't be out of the woods until the whole planet attains it. Otherwise more Covid mutations will keep coming to America.
Precisely!
Liz,
What do you think about that convoy protest in Ottawa?
I've been stuck in a couple of traffic jams on the way to work in the Portland metro as empty logger trucks descend on Salem for various protests...
The "common cold" is actually made up of a whole bunch of different virus only some of them coronavirus, but at least we could knock out a section of them.
I'll tell you what Bashi ... that whole damned Trucker convoy makes my blood boil to the point that if I lived in downtown Ottawa I would probably have already been arrested for vandalizing a truck. Heh. Okay, I exaggerate ... but you get the gist of how I feel.
What makes me angrier still? Ottawa residents getting ticketed for parking and leaving their vehicle to get to work or wherever they need to get to and the truckers get off scot free and handled with kid gloves. AT the Alberta border with Montana, too.
I stopped following the situation yesterday morning so, who knows, maybe they're all sitting in jail as I write.
[4]
After clicking this link, just scroll all the way to the bottom. Just like we do here! Heh.
OMG stop it! You're killing me!
[13]
I wouldn't doubt it. I just smoked some weed.
I'd have to credit EM as the main and consistent voice for this very disheartening apparent reality, here in Weigantia.
Thanks, Caddy. Wait ... WHAT!?
In other words, you've been nagging us about it for, like, ever.
But other that...and your female-Don-Quixote-Adopt-a-troll thing, you're okay.
Nothing to worry about. No, really.
I'm going to bed.
Wouldn't it be a kick if it turned out that lack of global herd immunity forces rich nations to to heal poor nations out of sheer necessity? And that accomplishing such a thing hastened us collectively down the road to some state of Mutually Assured Cooperation?
You know, just in case we have to deal with any "existential threats" someday. Ahem.
G'Nite y'all.
We still have 22% of the population that still refuses to be vaccinated. The only large country that trusts their government’s vaccine less is Russia with 27% refusing to be vaccinated. There are already multiple mutated strains of the Omicron virus making their presence known. I hope that it’s gonna get better soon, but as long as people are trusting infomercial hosts for their medical advice over actual doctors…I am not getting my hopes up.
Liz,
I'll tell you what Bashi ... that whole damned Trucker convoy makes my blood boil to the point that if I lived in downtown Ottawa I would probably have already been arrested for vandalizing a truck. Heh. Okay, I exaggerate ... but you get the gist of how I feel.
What makes me angrier still? Ottawa residents getting ticketed for parking and leaving their vehicle to get to work or wherever they need to get to and the truckers get off scot free and handled with kid gloves. AT the Alberta border with Montana, too.
I stopped following the situation yesterday morning so, who knows, maybe they're all sitting in jail as I write.
You DO realize that EVERYTHING you have is due to truckers, right??
From the food you eat to the device you use to comment on, everything you have and do is because some where, a trucker got something you have from where it was to where it needed to be..
"I think a modicum of gratitude would not be outta line here.."
-Joe Pesci, MY COUSIN VINNY
We still have 22% of the population that still refuses to be vaccinated.
And, for THAT, you can thank the mother and father of vaccine hesitancy..
Joe Biden and Headboard Harris..
Susan Sarandon slammed after sharing post comparing slain NYPD detective's funeral turnout to 'fascism'
The photo used showed cops lining 5th Avenue in NYC to pay their respects for Jason Rivera
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/susan-sarandon-slammed-sharing-post-comparing-slain-nypd-detectives-funeral-turnout-fascism
Once again... To see supposedly intelligent Weigantians™ support the cop-hating cop-killing Democrat Party...
It's both mind-boggling and sad....
@cad
[4]
After clicking this link, just scroll all the way to the bottom. Just like we do here! Heh.
OMG stop it! You're killing me!
That's comment #3, ya frakin' moron! :eyeroll:
Yunno, maybe if ya weren't such a luser druggier, cad... You might actually APPEAR to be more intelligent and less of a moron, eh??
Just a thought... Clean up yer life, dood..
Quit being such a luser...
What the Florida governor and many people don't realize is that our immune response is very complex and concerns more than just antibodies.
What fear-mongering Democrats don't realize is that our economy is ALSO very complex and has been decimated by the complete Dunsel actions of the Democrat Party...
The huge HUGE hole that the Democrat Party is in???
They deserve EVERY bit of it..
It really is amazing how simplistically DeSantis views the science, to the detriment of the health of his fellow Floridians.
At least, DeSantis FOLLOW science..
Democrat "science" is nothing but poorly disguised Anti-America activism...
@cad
But other that...and your female-Don-Quixote-Adopt-a-troll thing, you're okay.
And here is cad, once again "ignoring" me and my comments..
BBBWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ya'all are FINALLY coming to the realization that COVID is, and never was, any big deal..
It was a run o the mill pandemic, albeit a bit more serious than past pandemics, but still just another pandemic in the cycle of pandemics that planet earth goes thru..
At WORST, COVID was a once-a-decade pandemic..
People with more than 2 brain cells to rub together knew this from the start..
It's only after totally decimating our economy and the world economy and putting America in a huge economic hole, are Democrats beginning to come to grips with the facts..
On the plus side, NOW the Democrat Party will have to come to grips with all of their faults..
The blatant racism, the economic devastation.... All of the things that make the Democrat Party what it is today....
November simply cannot come soon enough!! :D
And now let's hear from the ONLY OFFICIAL unbiased and objective news source for Weigantia™..
Is COVID Still a 'National Emergency'? Biden Must Soon Decide
The omicron variant may be nearing its peak in some states, but across the country it’s produced a dizzying array of conflicting signals on whether the nation should remain under a COVID national emergency or move on to an endemic “new normal.”
Comedian Bill Maher’s “I don’t want to live in your mask-paranoid world anymore” monologue went viral last week, just days after the Atlantic, the standard-bearer journal for the liberal intelligentsia, ran a story headlined: “COVID Parenting Has Passed the Point of Absurdity.” Accompanying the article was a black-and-white photo of a woman frozen in a more desperate and primal state of panic than the subject of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/02/01/is_covid_still_a_national_emergency_biden_must_soon_decide__147122.html
So, how are Democrats going to transition from fear-mongering and hysterical panic mode..
It's only hysterical fear mongering that allowed Dems to gain power.. Well, that and a VERY healthy dose of cheating..
So, how are Democrats going to manage now without their boogeymen???
They sure can't run on their COVID-competency laurels.. Because they have none... If it wasn't for the complete politics based incompetence of the Democrat Party, COVID would have been a fading memory a while ago...
But others argue just the opposite – that Biden waited far too long to pivot to more testing, and that the tests the administration is providing every American for free will only reach most people after the omicron peak has subsided.
“The Biden administration has failed its COVID test,” declares a recent headline in the Guardian, a left-leaning British newspaper.
In Europe, where the omicron surges have peaked ahead of the U.S., officials are more optimistic and appear more determined to move on and learn to live with COVID and any variants it spawns. The top European regional official at the World Health Organization recently that “omicron offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalization.”
No matter where you look, there is Biden-Failure after Biden-Failure after Biden-Failure...
Even Left Wing rags are pointing this out...
Liz,
Yer the Biden UberFan here...
I mean, you are the only Weigantian™ who has been pushing for a Biden Presidency since day one... Literally, DAY ONE of Weigantia™..
You simply HAVE to be disappointed by comparing the dreams and aspirations of Day One with the cold hard reality of Democrat incompetence and racism under Biden's administration..
Dream realized... Is it all you thought it would be??
Or is it so much less???
I am sincerely curious...
A PERFECT example of the NO-SCIENCE approach that the Democrat Party has taken to the COVID Pandemic..
There’s no science behind the CDC’s insistence on universal masking in schools
A recent NPR report quotes a Maryland mother who complains that you risk being tarred as “a psychotic, anti-vax right-winger” if you dare to question whether children should be forced to wear face masks in day care and K?12 schools. That attitude is based on the premise that rejecting mask requirements is tantamount to rejecting science.
The truth is closer to the opposite. Supporters of school mask mandates assume they are effective at reducing COVID-19 transmission, then desperately search for evidence to validate that conviction. That process bears little resemblance to science.
NPR says that “mask proponents . . . point to the many studies associating mask mandates with lower COVID-19 rates in schools.” But those studies are mostly imaginary.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending “universal masking” in schools a year ago. At that point, there was no solid empirical basis for the CDC’s advice, and that is still true.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/01/theres-no-science-behind-cdcs-insistence-on-masking-in-schools/
Once again... Proof positive that Democrats don't care about REAL science..
All Democrats care about is Democrat "science"..
Which, as has been proven beyond ANY doubt, is nothing but poorly disguised Democrat Anti-America activism...
JL,
As an aside....
I was surprised not to hear you chime in on the Whoopi/Holocaust discussion yesterday..
I would be VERY interested in your thoughts..
I know there is a lot of conventional support vis a vis Anti-Semitism = racism position even though facts and reality argues against it..
I would be VERY interested to hear where you come down on the issue..
To get yer intellectual juices flowing, take a gander at this:
Are Jews a Race?
Whoopi Goldberg’s Holocaust comments reflect how Jews don’t fit into Western boxes
https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61f992de9277230021ae11f7/are-jews-a-race-whoopi-goldberg-holocaust/
Your thoughts???
But getting back to Democrats and their NO-SCIENCE approach to COVID..
Most of the studies the CDC cited did not even compare schools with mask mandates with schools without them. One exception was a study of Georgia elementary schools published last May, which found that masking of teachers was associated with a statistically significant reduction in COVID-19 transmission, but masking of students was not.
A subsequent study, reported last September, found that “counties without school mask requirements experienced larger increases in pediatric COVID-19 case rates after the start of school compared with counties that had school mask requirements.” But that study did not take into account vaccination rates or other COVID-19 safeguards, both of which are potentially important confounding variables. Since “this was an ecologic study,” the researchers noted, “causation cannot be inferred.”
Cherry picked "science".. That is the Democrat Party MO...
It's how their Global Warming con was able to get such traction...
Cherry pick the "science" that supports the theory and ignore the science that disputes the theory...
It's how Democrats alter the data to fit the theory.. Which is a hallmark of Democrat "science"...
Another study published the same day found that COVID-19 outbreaks were more common in Arizona schools that did not require masks. Again, that study did not control for vaccination rates or other mitigation measures, and critics pointed out various other weaknesses.
“You can’t learn anything about the effects of school mask mandates from this study,” Arizona State University public-health economist Jonathan Ketcham told science writer David Zweig. Noah Haber, a Stanford postdoctoral fellow who had co-authored a systematic review of research on COVID-19 mitigation measures, described the study as “so unreliable that it probably should not have been entered into the public discourse.”
Again, this illustrates perfectly the dangers of cherry picking the science to fit a political narrative..
GARBAGE IN.... GARBAGE OUT....
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky nevertheless repeatedly cited the Arizona study as proof that her agency’s advice was well-grounded, and her slippery response to the criticism was revealing. During a Fox News appearance in December, she said “study after study” has “demonstrated that our layered prevention strategies, including masks in schools, are able to keep our schools safely open.”
While those studies show that schools with mask mandates can operate “safely,” they do not show that mask mandates are necessary to achieve that goal. Data from Florida, Tennessee, North Dakota, Texas, the United Kingdom and Spain suggest they are not.
Laboratory studies provide compelling evidence that masks — especially N95 respirators — can reduce virus transmission, assuming they are used properly. A randomized trial in Bangladesh found that surgical masks reduced COVID-19 cases by 11%, but cloth masks — the kind most commonly used in schools — did not have a statistically significant effect.
And what have Democrats been pushing since day one of their fear-mongering science-less hysterical agenda??
Ineffective masks... :eyeroll:
Let us delve a little bit more into the science... The REAL science, shall we... :D
Johns Hopkins Analysis: ‘Lockdowns Should be Rejected Out of Hand’
The aura of “expert” has lost its luster during Covid, as our supposedly bigger brains have been proved wrong repeatedly.
Two of these have been Ezekiel Emanuel and Anthony Fauci. Both were enthusiastic proponents of societal lockdowns as a means of preventing deaths and the spread of Covid. We now know from a Johns Hopkins blockbuster meta-analysis that “shutting it down,” in Donald Trump’s awkward phrase, did very little to prevent deaths.
https://tinyurl.com/54uhzahd
So, according to science... REAL science, not Democrat "science"...
Masks did very little to prevent deaths.. Shutdowns did very little to prevent deaths...
Did Democrats do *ANYTHING* right in this pandemic???
From the available facts????
Apparently, not... :eyeroll:
Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results are in line with the World Health Organization Writing Group (2006), who state, “Reports from the 1918 influenza pandemic indicate that social-distancing measures did not stop or appear to dramatically reduce transmission […]
In Edmonton, Canada, isolation and quarantine were instituted; public meetings were banned; schools, churches, colleges, theaters, and other public gathering places were closed; and business hours were restricted without obvious impact on the epidemic.” Our findings are also in line with Allen’s (2021) conclusion: “The most recent research has shown that lockdowns have had, at best, a marginal effect on the number of Covid 19 deaths.”
https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf
Hmmmm...
At "BEST", lockdowns had a "marginal effect" on the number of COVID deaths..
Hmmmmmm
Why is that???
Mandates only regulate a fraction of our potential contagious contacts and can hardly regulate nor enforce handwashing, coughing etiquette, distancing in supermarkets, etc. Countries like Denmark, Finland, and Norway that realized success in keeping COVID-19 mortality rates relatively low allowed people to go to work, use public transport, and meet privately at home during the first lockdown. In these countries, there were ample opportunities to legally meet with others.
Keep in mind, people.. This is a JOHNS HOPKINS study..
Yunno...
REAL SCIENCE...
Unintended consequences may play a larger role than recognized. We already pointed to the possible unintended consequence of SIPOs, which may isolate an infected person at home with his/her family where he/she risks infecting family members with a higher viral load, causing more severe illness. But often, lockdowns have limited peoples’ access to safe (outdoor) places such as beaches, parks, and zoos, or included outdoor mask mandates or strict outdoor gathering restrictions, pushing people to meet at less safe (indoor) places. Indeed, we do find some evidence that limiting gatherings was counterproductive and increased COVID-19 mortality
Get that??
Lockdowns actually INCREASED COVID lethality... At the heights of the lockdowns, I railed against closing the beaches..
Hell, in a pandemic such as this one, the BEST place to be is at the beach!!!
Democrats are utterly moronic with their faux-science political agenda based anti America approach to EVERYTHING...
Like I said above and have proved beyond ANY doubt..
Democrats made ALL the WRONG moves over this pandemic..
The use of lockdowns is a unique feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns have not been used to such a large extent during any of the pandemics of the past century. However, lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy. These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.
Of course, Democrats went the WORST POSSIBLE route in addressing the pandemic...
The one blatant and obvious hallmark of Democrat governance??
Incompetence...
We can never squelch free discourse and debate on public-health issues again.
People who argued against the “scientific consensus” about the lockdowns were stifled, censored by Big Tech, denigrated by the media, and mocked by establishment scientists. That was essentially “anti-science.” The scientific method needs diverse voices to speak freely if it is to function properly.
As aptly proven by this whole debacle...
The Democrat Party is the anti-science Party...
This has been established as fact...
Here ya go, Liz...
https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/918/516/CARTOON-2-3-22-XX.jpg?ve=1&tl=1
Yunno it's rather ironic..
Here we are at the beginning of black history month (a completely racist concept by the bi) and the big news is that Biden is using a completely racist process to select the next SCOTUS justice...
You simply cannot make up this level of irony...
Once again, more facts that prove Democrat DEFUND, DEMONIZE, DEMORALIZE THE POLICE policies are alive and well..
In a Time of Rising Crime, Los Angeles Moves to Further Hamstring the Police
Tuesday’s story, by Times writer Kevin Rector, concerned a proposed change to LAPD policy, one that would restrict so-called “pretext stops,” i.e., those in which officers stop someone for a minor traffic violation in order to explore what may be more serious criminal activity. “Such stops have come under intense scrutiny in recent years,” writes Rector, “particularly since The Times reported significant racial disparities in their use by the LAPD in 2019.” He goes on to write that officers assigned to Metropolitan Division “stopped Black drivers at a rate more than five times their share of the city’s population [emphasis added], and that Black and Latino drivers were stopped more often despite being less likely to have contraband on them.”
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jack-dunphy/2022/02/02/in-a-time-of-rising-crime-los-angeles-moves-to-further-hamstring-the-police-n1555655
They are called PC Stops.. Probable Cause Stops..
I used to do those all the time.. I was one of those cops who HATED writing tickets (it was just paperwork) but I would do PC Stops left and right..
If I worked in an area that had a high ratio of colored people then naturally I would pull over more, in my case, hispanic people (in the mid 80s, I was working in San Ysidro) than caucasian people..
It's logical and rational that, if you work an area that has a high concentration of black/hispanic/asian people you are going to pull over more of the prevalent race in your area..
Racism has nothing to do with it.. It's all science.. Facts, statistics, percentages...
Black Americans are around 14% of the US Population yet they commit upwards of close to 60% of the violent crimes..
Even allowing for that national statistic, if a cop patrols areas with a high concentration of colored people then it stands to reason that cops will make more contact with the predominant race of any given area..
It's not racism. It's science.. It's FACT...
Deal with it, people..
First, the ratio of people stopped by police to their share of the overall population is all but irrelevant when discussing policing strategies. As the Times acknowledges, Metropolitan Division officers are deployed to those neighborhoods where violent crime is highest, and in Los Angeles, as in any other city one can name, those neighborhoods are populated largely by blacks and Latinos. According to the Times’s own Homicide Report database, there have been 770 people feloniously killed in Los Angeles County over the last 12 months. Of these, 35 percent were black, 50 percent were Latino, 9 percent were white, and 2 percent were Asian. We know that most murders are intra-racial, thus we can conclude the suspects in these crimes largely mirror the demographics of the victims.
Exactly..
Again, NOTHING to do with racism..
EVERYTHING to do with facts and science...
L.A. County’s population is about 10 million, of whom 8 percent are black, 48 percent are Latino, 25 percent are white, and 14 percent are Asian, so we can see that blacks commit murder far in excess of their share of the population, Latinos about equal to theirs, and whites and Asians less than theirs. In other words, if police stop figures precisely reflected population demographics, as the L.A. Times would seem to wish, it would be evidence that the police were derelict in their duty to address violent crime. This might serve to soothe the fevered minds of the writers and editors at the L.A. Times, but it would be a gross disservice to the law-abiding residents of those neighborhoods most burdened by murders and other violent crime.
Again... Not racism... FACTS... Science.... REALITY...
Secondly, addressing the racial disparity in the discovery of contraband, this is not the red flag of racism the L.A. Times would have you believe. Speaking as one who spent part of my LAPD career assigned to a gang unit in South Los Angeles, while we were eager to discover guns on the gang members we stopped, thereby allowing us to arrest them and avert shootings and robberies, the absence of guns was viewed as evidence of success. It was our mission to have gangsters fearful of leaving their homes while armed lest they be stopped and arrested. Pretextual stops are a valuable tool in this effort, and the denial of this tool as proposed in the LAPD policy change will only embolden those already responsible for so much of the city’s bloodshed.
Democrat DEFUND, DEMONIZE, DEMORALIZE THE POLICE at work..
And there are STILL people of lesser intelligence who actually believe that this obvious and blatant Democrat policy does not exist..
Speaking of those people, where has JM got to??
I mean, I know he was upset about losing our bet... But jeeze...
Homicides in Los Angeles rose 12 percent last year and are up 54 percent from two years ago. The LAPD is already saddled with a “progressive” district attorney bent on emptying the jails and prisons. With this added restriction on what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is lawful police conduct, when this year ends, what is to prevent the grim toll from being even higher?
The simple fact is, proactive policing, broken windows policing, Probable Cause Stops... work...
The were responsible for the HUGE drop in violent crime in past years nationwide..
And their absence is THE major cause of the huge spike in violent crime in the here and now..
The facts that prove this are blatant, obvious, overwhelming and conclusive...
What’s astonishing is, this is not just unprecedented, but unnecessary, for the president to say that he would not consider any other candidate based on their race or gender. He would only consider Black females.
You know, diversity issues have been raised by presidents in the past. But they have been raised as sort of preferences, not exclusionary rules. Indeed, the Supreme Court has declared exclusionary rules like this one to be unconstitutional or unlawful when applied to schools or businesses.
And so you have this inherent conflict that he [Biden] has created, where this nominee will sit and hear arguments in two cases on the constitutionality of this type of exclusionary rule.
Now that doesn’t mean that this can be reviewed, or that his choice can be reversed. But what’s odd is that many of the media outlets are saying, well, other presidents have done this – and that’s just not true.
You know, they say that Reagan did this, that when he appointed O’Connor, Reagan said that he would give one of his first positions, one of the vacancies, to a woman, but the White House stressed that was not a guarantee, and when O’Connor was selected he had a short list with a majority of men on it.
Trump, when he said that he would be putting a woman on the Supreme Court, had already spent months and months with a public short list that they’d been vetting. Barrett had been a frontrunner in the previous nomination. And when he [Trump] said he was going to put a woman on the court, it was days before he was going to announce her name.
What these presidents didn’t do is they didn’t say that they would not consider anyone else beyond people with this race, this gender, as specified in an exclusionary threshold rule.
-Jonathan Turley
I can't believe no one here in Weigantia™ has sounded off on this blatantly racist process that Biden is implementing...
Well, Silence DOES give assent... So agreeing with me silently is not all that out of the ordinary I suppose.. :D
You know, diversity issues have been raised by presidents in the past. But they have been raised as sort of preferences, not exclusionary rules. Indeed, the Supreme Court has declared exclusionary rules like this one to be unconstitutional or unlawful when applied to schools or businesses.
Wouldn't that be a hoot if the Supreme Court Of The United States declared that Biden's racist nomination process for a Justice of the Supreme Court Of The United States is unconstitutional... :D
Irony of ironies... :D
is some good information on Omicron from the blog In The Pipeline with an aside as to why DeSantis is an idiot...
Except, of course, the SCIENCE (real science, not Democrat "science") has proven DeSantis factually accurate and correct time and time again.. And Democrats are proven to be completely incompetent as the FACTS show..
Florida is thriving, it's COVID problem on the ropes and it's economy is BOOMING..
Compare and contrast that to Democrat run enclaves who are getting pummeled by COVID and their economies are in the toilet...
TRUMP/DESANTIS 2024!!! :D
Speaking of incompetent Democrat "leadership"...
Los Angeles’ Garcetti mocked for response to maskless picture
Garcetti was asked about the picture during a press conference about the upcoming Super Bowl to be played in the city.
Bill Clinton didn't inhale and Eric Garcetti held his breath.
The Los Angeles mayor was widely mocked on social media for what some users saw as a stunning response to a question stemming from a photograph that showed him posing maskless with NBA legend Magic Johnson and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
The three were inside a luxury box at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood Sunday to watch the NFC Championship game. Johnson posted the photo on Twitter along with another picture with Gov. Gavin Newsom -- also seen without a mask.
"I’ll take personal responsibility," he said, before telling reporters that "if it makes you and everyone else happy — or even the photographs with people where literally I’m holding my breath for two seconds — I won’t even do that."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/los-angeles-garcetti-mocked-for-response-to-maskless-picture
"I held my breath"
BBBBWWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I swear, Democrat so-called "leaders" have GOT to be the stoopidest people on the planet!!!
Everyone knows this country is on the wrong track thanks to incompetent Democrat governance...
Even the big Democrat water-carrier, MSNBC...
Why everyone agrees that America is on 'the wrong track'
Americans aren’t happy with the way things are going in this country. That’s according to the most recent NBC News poll, released last week, which found that 72 percent of respondents believe that “things are off on the right track.” Only 22 percent answered that things are “headed in the right direction.”
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/why-everyone-agrees-america-wrong-track-n1288206
Almost 3/4ths of the American people agree that Democrats suck... They simply CANNOT govern competently...
Democrat double standards at work..
Whoopi got a 2-week suspension for Holocaust comments—Gina Carano was fired
Gina Carano was fired and run out of Hollywood after comparing COVID restrictions to the way Nazis treated Jews during the Third Reich.
Carano, who has taken a strong line against COVID-inspired restrictions from mandatory vaccinations to business closures, was released from her contract with Disney, parent company of ABC, just one year ago. ABC broadcasts "The View," where Goldberg first made her remarks.
The impetus for the firing of Carano was essentially an Instagram post that received lots of pushback. It read: "Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors … even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views."
https://thepostmillennial.com/whoopi-two-weeks-gina-fired
Hypocrisy... It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature..
Once again from the ONLY acceptable News Source in Weigantia™... Real Clear..
Racially Sensitive 'Restorative' School Discipline Isn't Behaving Very Well
Cops Get the Boot
Last year, Denver doubled down on restorative practices when it expelled police, called school resource officers (SROs), from its schools. Officers ticketed and arrested 4,500 students at school from 2014 to 2019 in a district of about 90,000 pupils. Critics of the use of SROs say many of these incidents, like marijuana possession, should have been handled by restorative conversations.
The Black Lives Matter protests after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 gave the progressive Denver School Board an opening to move against the SROs. When Denver police used tear gas on protesters, Tay Anderson, who joined the board after serving as a restorative coordinator at North High, says he decided to ride the momentum against law enforcement that was sweeping the country. He immediately helped draft a resolution to phase the officers out of schools by the middle of 2021.
Many school leaders, who weren’t consulted about the order, objected. North High Principal Scott Wolf told board members that the role of SROs in schools is misunderstood. He called them an “incredible asset” by building positive relationships with students and helping improve the school’s culture. In the model of community policing, SROs serve mostly to deter crime.
But the board passed the measure unanimously, joining more than 30 districts nationwide in removing police from schools.
In late summer, when Denver students returned to the school buildings after more than a year of remote learning, the police were no longer there to help tamp down the violence. The outbreak in Denver was alarming. In just the first month of instruction, there were 102 student fights, 11 sexual assaults, eight assaults on staff and 29 weapons violations, including four loaded firearms and a stabbing of a student with a knife, according to Boardhawk, a news website that covers the district. Michael Eaton, chief of the Department of Safety for Denver schools, warned in November that he’s never seen such a surge of crime in his 10 years of service.
“The murder of George Floyd had nothing to do with SROs, but for political reasons districts made the decision to remove a very protective element from their schools,” says Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. “We now see that this didn’t make schools safer.”
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/02/02/racially_sensitive_restorative_school_discipline_isnt_behaving_very_well_814382.html
And, once again... Proof positive that Democrats and their DEFUND, DEMONIZE, DEMORALIZE THE POLICE policies are alive and well and at work in this nation's communities...
Health experts respond to Neil Young stance on GMOs after anti-science hit on Joe Rogan
Young once told late night host Stephen Colbert that GMO foods could cause 'terrible diseases'
https://www.foxnews.com/media/health-experts-neil-young-gmos-anti-science-joe-rogan
What IS it about Democrats and their blatant hypocrisy???
Hay cad...
How Republicans are winning over Hispanic voters in Texas: 'Democrat policies are failing them'
The GOP has made serious gains in traditional Democrat areas with high populations of Hispanic voters
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-winning-hispanic-voters-texas-democrats-failing
Wanna make a wager how bad Democrats will do with hispanic Americans in November?? :D
The former Democrat had won his seat by nearly 17 points in the 2020 election and has served in the Texas House for almost two decades. Guillen's switch came amid criticism of the border crisis and Democrats’ embrace of the defund the police movement.
Martinez said one of the biggest drivers of Hispanic voters switching parties has been Biden’s crisis at the southern border. She predicted the crisis will impact the next election, and Texas will see more Hispanic voters casting red ballots.
"What we’ve seen is the Democrats’ constant pandering and constant open borders narrative that does not play out well, especially now," she said. "And I have no doubt that we’re gonna see that phenomenon play out in 2022 during the midterm elections."
Constant pandering is one of the Democrat Party's biggest problems..
They constantly look down their noses at patriotic everyday Americans..
Which is why those same patriotic everyday Americans are going to relegate the Democrat Party to minority Party for the next couple decades...
:D
"And I think nationally that the reason why a lot of Hispanics are leaving are just Democrat policies are failing them across the country," RNC national press secretary Emma Vaughn said.
"The economy is poor, the supply chain crisis, the border. Crisis after crisis, Hispanics are being brought down and being left behind."
"And under President Trump, they saw record-low unemployment, they saw record-high homeownership," Vaughn continued. "So, I think it’s just the stark contrast between those policies is also driving nationally Hispanics moving to the Republican Party."
And this comes from one of those hispanics who USED to be a Democrat..
He realized how badly the Democrats are frakin' up this country...
First of all, we never left that normalcy. The pandemic has just been another issue that the Deathocrats and Republikillers have used to further the Big Lie advancing the divide and conquer strategy the big money interests and politicians use to keep citizens from working together against the big money interests and politicians.
Gotta disagree with ya here, DH..
This wasn't just run o' the mill Demcorat fear-mongering ala the Global Warming con or some such...
Democrats were able to make such strides in decimating our economy because of heretofore unmatched conspiracy of big tech, big media and corrupt politicians..
They got luck and not only decimated an economy but was able to swing a presidential election thru fraud and deceit...
This was beyond any sense of normality..
With all the revelations of how they were able to initiate fraudulent mask and lockdown requirements plus with the cooperation of big tech censor and cancel anyone who spoke of the REAL science???
This was a HUGE boon past ANY sense of normalcy..
They won that battle... But in doing so, exposed plans and procedures that can be combatted now and will ultimately lead to them losing the war...
Republicans Seem to Think Putting a Black Woman on the Supreme Court Is the Real Racism
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/republicans-seem-to-think-putting-a-black-woman-on-the-supreme-court-is-the-real-racism/ar-AAToXDB
Not factually accurate..
Stating that one is going to base the selection SOLELY on the basis of race, as Biden has done, is real racism..
This is simply an undeniable FACT that no one can refute..
Joe Biden hasn’t yet picked a nominee to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, but conservatives already know that the nominee is unqualified. After all, Biden has vowed to nominate a Black woman.
The fact that Biden is limiting his search for a nominee to just 2% of the available selection pool virtually GUARANTEES that the nominee will be unqualified..
Race has nothing to do with that fact.. It's pure statistical probabilities..
Yunno... SCIENCE....
DH,
So your argument against my comment that this was more of the same was an example of Deathocrats and the Big Lie propagandists doing exactly what they have been doing for decades?
What you described is normalcy- not a break from it.
No.. My argument is NOT that recent events are simply an example of Democrats doing what they have always done..
My argument is that they have been so abnormally SUCCESSFUL at doing what they have always done...
But, as we have seen, that success has exposed the procedures and processes that Democrats use to the degree that their successes has succeeded in coming back around and biting them on the arse..
Your conclusion that this will somehow lead to Deathocrats losing the war to Republikillers just exposes that you are buying into the Big Lie that one half of the big money party or the other winning an election cycle means that the other half lost.
It's not a big lie.. It's a fact..
That is not the war. If one half wins they both win because the big money interests win as both halves work for the big money interests.
When either half wins ordinary citizens and democracy lose.
Agree to disagree...
In some ways, you are correct.. Democrats and Republicans are simply 2 sides of the same corrupt coin..
But in some MORE important ways, there is a HUGE difference..
The Democrat Party has always been the Racist Party.. The Democrat Party has always been the Hate America Party..
In those 2 very important ways, the Democrats are the bad guys...
The Republicans are the good guys..
This fact is undeniable...
I might argue that under Trump, who similarly pledged to appoint a woman before selecting Amy Coney Barrett, having a law degree and a crank blog was sufficient qualification for the federal bench. And I could point out the absurdity of arguing that racism is when you first nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court after more than 200 years, not when you exclude Black women from the nation’s highest court for more than 200 years.
Yes, the author of the afore mentioned commentary might argue that..
But, as usual, the author would be factually not accurate..
There has NEVER been an instance where a US President specifically excluded any gender/group/race for SCOTUS consideration..
NEVER....
Until Biden...
ALL US Presidents before Biden stated their preferences but still considered ALL genders/groups/races for their nominee..
Except Biden.. Biden has excluded ALL genders/groups/races except for a black woman..
This blatantly racist/sexist process is unique amongst the SCOTUS nomination process..
This is an undeniable FACT....
How do we KNOW that this is an undeniable fact??
Because no one here has even bothered to deny the fact.. :D
These are all relevant points, but none of them would change anything, because the coordinated attack on the qualifications of a nominee who has not yet been named is not about preventing her from being confirmed. This is a relatively low-stakes judicial battle, because Biden’s choice will not alter the 6–3 conservative majority on the Court, and the Democrats’ slim Senate majority will likely be sufficient to confirm the nominee, barring unforeseen complications. This is not an argument that can be won by facts and logic, because it is not about winning an argument at all.
Once again, the author flits off into flights of fancy that has little to do with facts or reality..
First off, there is a very real chance that the black woman that Biden selects will refuse the nomination.. No one with even an ounce of self-respect or integrity would willingly choose to be a token hire.. An affirmative action hire...
Secondly, even if Biden DOES find someone willing to debase themself and be nothing but a token black on the SCOTUS, by limiting the selectees to 2% of the available pool, it's unlikely that Biden will find a quality nominee that will attract any GOP votes.
And, since it has not been established that the VP can break the tie on a SCOTUS nomination, there is a very real chance that Biden's pick will not pass the Senate..
Further, given the stance that mavericks like Sinema and Manchin have taken in the past, it's entirely possible that Biden's choice will fail by not even attracting enough Democrats...
Biden's racist selection is by no means a guarantee..
And, if the GOP can stall things until the GOP takes control of the Senate, it's a real possibility that the SCOTUS seat will remain unfilled until President Trump returns to the Oval office. It could be PRESIDENT Trump who will be able to have an unprecedented FOURTH SCOTUS pick... :D
I realize ya'all are probably tired of hearing about Biden's racist SCOTUS snipe hunt..
But hay.. It doesn't happen TOO often that I have Democrats so dead to rights on their blatant racism..
And it's also not too often that I have ya'all so unambiguously on the defensive over such a blatant Democrat racism.. :D
It's a win win... :D
Hay DH,
My argument is that they have been so abnormally SUCCESSFUL at doing what they have always done...
But, as we have seen, that success has exposed the procedures and processes that Democrats use to the degree that their successes has succeeded in coming back around and biting them on the arse..
On the other hand, Democrats have a proclivity on doubling down on stoopid...
It's entirely possible that, despite having their hysterical agenda based fear mongering so blatantly exposed for all to see that Democrats might try re-using the hysteria for further ANOTHER one of their crap science-less agendas...
Coming soon: Climate lockdowns?
The past two years have been a checklist for the worst impulses of government and public sentiment. COVID allowed for supposedly temporary measures to morph into two years of “emergency” restrictions. But what if COVID was only the opening act, and another proclaimed crisis is the main event? Implementing significant but partial restrictions, one by one, in the name of the common good can allow for encompassing government control that results in relatively little backlash. Fear over climate change could lead to long-term soft lockdowns, given the precedent of immense growth of government power and significant support for sweeping state actions.
This isn’t a right-wing fever dream. Calls for harsh government measures in the name of saving the environment are already in the parlance of influential organizations and figures. In November 2020, the Red Cross proclaimed that climate change is a bigger threat than COVID and should be confronted with “the same urgency.” Bill Gates recently demanded dramatic measures to prevent climate change, claiming it will be worse than the pandemic. Despite millions of people having died from COVID, former governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney last year predicted that climate deaths will dwarf those of the pandemic. Lockdowns, which significantly reduced carbon emissions during 2020, could be the solution. After all, the EU’s climate service gloated, the first COVID lockdown may have saved 800 lives.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/592011-coming-soon-climate-lockdowns
Democrats might actually be stoopid enough to believe they can get away with more hysterical fear mongering..
After all, Democrats have ALWAYS over-estimated their support and under-estimated the patriotism of everyday Americans...
Michale,
There is a word for what you are doing here and it ain't pretty. But, I don't ever stoop to the level of juvenile name-calling.
DH,
Whether or not the Deathocrats are racist or hate America does not differentiate them from Republikillers.
Actually, yes it does...
Just like GOP support for law and order and Democrats support for criminal rights over victim rights..
Just because you claim, right or wrong, that one half is the bad guy it does not make the other half the good guy by default.
We're not speaking in absolutes here...
But when comparing the sum of their parts, it's clear that the GOP is on the side of the angels, mom and apple pie...
Democrats are the racist communist anti-America groups of the equation..
It is undeniable that your undeniable fact is not a fact. It is clearly nothing more than a dubious conclusion achieved using flawed methodology.
Any facts to support your BS claim??
No?? Of course not.. :D
@m,
here's some more fodder for you, on gerrymandering:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2022/feb/03/new-york-democrats-plan-gain-three-seats-congress
here's some more fodder for you, on gerrymandering:
Not that I need it, but thank you... :D I love all the confirmation bias I can take in!! :D
Whether it be the filibuster or gerrymandering..
Democrats were for it before they were against it.. :D
There is a word for what you are doing here
Yea, it's called engaging debate..
Back and forth discussions.. :D
Don't blame me because ya'all are not holding up ya'all's end of the deal.. :D
I give ya a wide-range of topics..
Pick one and let's have at it.. :D
JL,
here's some more fodder for you, on gerrymandering:
The fact that it comes from a far Left rag is simply more proof on how bad Democrats are losing it... :D
Michale,
Let me be clear.
Stop the asinine name-calling!
Asinine name-calling has no place in the back and forth and engaging debate here, whether it is directed at fellow Weigantians or political leaders.
And, don't wait for anyone else to heed the admonishment. That is also very childish. You can only control how you, yourself, behave around here.
Liz,
Unfortunately asinine name-calling is the norm here in Weigantia™ these days...
When in Rome....
However I will endeavor to be more considerate to you.. I'll probably fail, but I'll do what I can..
Black Lives Matter halts online fundraising after California, Washington threaten legal action: report
States demand group submit delinquent financial disclosures for 2020
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/black-lives-matter-halts-online-fundraising-california-washington-threaten-legal-action
The beginning of the end of the Democrat Terrorist Wing BLM con.... :D
Couldn't happen to a more deserving group of scumbags...
One has to laugh at the greedy corrupt corporations who funded this terroristic group of con artists...
left or right, rag or esteemed publication, gerrymandering sucks everywhere.
left or right, rag or esteemed publication, gerrymandering sucks everywhere.
I remember a while back, you and I were discussing the pros and cons of Partys accepting dark money...
We agreed that it was bad for the country, but you were of the opinion that, since it's legal and "proper" you really won't condemn the Democrats for gaming the system in their own favor..
That's about how I feel about gerrymandering..
It would be better if Partys didn't do it, but I really can't fault the GOP for gaming the system in their own favor..
Again, just because you claim the Deathocrats are racist and hate America does not mean the Republikillers are not.
True...
But I have FACTS that prove that the Democrat Party as a whole, is a racist Party and hates America..
Their policies prove it.. Their governing processes prove it.. Witness Biden's totally racist SCOTUS selection process..
There are no facts that prove the claim that the GOP as a whole is a racist Party and hates America..
In other words, my claims don't make it fact..
The FACTS make it fact..
Spouting propaganda such as the Republikillers are for law and order and Deathocrats are for criminal's rights over victim's rights does not make it true.
Once again.. You are correct.. Me saying it doesn't make it factually accurate...
The fact that I have FACTS that prove the claim is what makes it factually accurate..
You can't fault the Republikillers for gaming the system with gerrymandering because the Deathocrats also do it?
Why not?
I don't fault either Party for doing what is legally permissible to do...
I fault the Democrat Party because they are such hypocrites about it..
Upon further reflection, the discussion between JL and myself on this issue dealt specifically with the CITIZENS UNITED ruling by the SCOTUS..
Democrats were whining and crying about Citizens United, but on the other hand were using the CU ruling to their fullest advantage..
JL defended the Democrats because there is nothing wrong with gaming the system to one's advantage..
The "wrong" comes in with being hypocritical about it..
If it is wrong it shouldn't matter who does it and they should be held accountable for their actions.
"Wrong" is ambigious and equivocal...
In the context of JL's and my discussion, the "wrong" was of a legal issue and LEGALLY what Democrats were doing under the Citizens United ruling was not "wrong"..
It was simply hypocritical...
And the way we hold them accountable for any improper actions whether it is gerrymandering or taking big money is to not vote for them and vote for people that behave properly by not taking big money which is the impetus for actions such as gerrymandering.
You are correct..
But until you can convince a LOT more Americans to see things your way..
It is what it is...
I will endeavor to be more considerate to you.. I'll probably fail, but I'll do what I can..
Don't bother.
You do not have facts.
Yes, I do.. There are some 70+ comments worth of facts..
If you dispute any of them, feel free..
The facts are that both have done some racist policies and some non-racist policies.
Yea?? I have pointed out the Democrat Party's racist policies that are unequivocal..
Your facts that show the GOP racist policies???
Whether or not either is completely or partially racist still has no bearing the the fact that they both work for the big money interests which proves they both hate America.
Big money interests are a means to an end.. Accessing big money does not prove ANYTHING beyond they are accessing big money...
Simply accessing big money does not prove ANYTHING about whether the Partys hate America or not..
So what is stopping you from taking what you said is the correct action and doing your part as an American citizen to change it from what it is to what it could be?
Because before one can do that, one must get the one Party that hates America under control..
After the mid-terms and President Trump returning to the Oval Office will be a good first step in that process...
Once the Democrat Party is relegated to minority Party status where it belongs, then we can take further steps to achieve a world government..
That will be what is required to see your dream become a reality...
Human kind working towards a common goal...
Don't bother.
Oh, it's no bother... :D Just a necessary step on the path of progress.. :D
Republicans push Cardona on reports of 12-year-old's suicide attempt following secret school gender talks
Republicans alarmed that schools may be excluding parents from students' gender transitions
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-push-cardona-reports-12-year-old-suicide-school-gender
Anyone who doesn't believe Democrats are the bad guys here is simply ignoring the facts...
Suppose that 12 yr old above wanted to learn about firearms and learn to shoot..
Democrats would be apoplectic and scream hysterically how 12 years old is TOO young to want to learn about guns..
But a 12 year old who wants to pretend to be a different gender??
Democrats line up to force their ideology on a poor innocent child.. Oh parents?? Don't worry.. We don't have to tell parents!! :eyeroll:
Com'on!! JL yer a teacher... Surely you can't be on board with this?? It's criminal...
70+ comments made up of propaganda is not facts.
Then it's a good thing that my 70+ comments are facts and not propaganda..
But hay, by all means..
Point to a SINGLE one of my comments that are not facts or fact based opinions..
Go ahead... I'll be around..
Bet you can't do it.. :D
A world government is also not required. A world of governments controlled by ordinary citizens is the goal.
Yea, that's been tried before.. It's ALWAYS failed...
What you are talking about is democracy...
Democracy is 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner..
I'll be on hand for ANY facts you have to share.. :D
I have already pointed out why your comments are propaganda and not facts.
No, you have not..
Further you have provided no facts of your own to support ANY of your claims..
In that, you are just like everyone else.. :D
You always criticize other commenters for not admitting when they are wrong, yet you keep trying to dig yourself out of the hole you created instead of taking the ladder offered to help you.
You have yet to provide ANY documentation that I am wrong about ANYTHING...
So, yea.. I won't admit that I am wrong until you can PROVE I am wrong..
To date, you have ZERO proof that I am wrong..
Provide the proof... Show me the facts..
Then we can discuss why you are not factually accurate..
Are you a man or a sheeple?
Asks the man who blindly flails thru life without a SHRED of fact to support ANY of your claims.. :D
You have not provided anything other than your statements to prove the contrary.
Not factually accurate.. I have provide over 15 links to sites and information along with specific quotes attesting to the various facts..
You have yet to provide ANY links or ANY facts..
MORE FACTS.. :D
Biden Repudiates Breyer’s Legacy and Confirms Breyer’s Worst Fears
The scale of the fiasco is astounding. From the leaked process by which a new vacancy on the Supreme Court was announced – in which Justice Breyer was denied the chance to retire on his own terms – to the way in which a campaign promise Biden made to nominate an African American woman to the Court has transformed into a rigid and fixed quota, nothing has gone right for Biden and the Democrats when it comes to the upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court.
But nobody could have imagined such a disaster as we are already seeing. The only person associated with this process who looks in any way dignified is Justice Breyer himself. Breyer’s concern that his departure would appear political if it took place under pressure has been borne out by events. Breyer clearly wished to retire on his own terms. He wanted to set the pubic narrative before retiring from the stage and allowing a free for all to take over.
A hint of why lies in the speech he gave Thursday, whose themes, while liberal, represented a version of liberalism far removed from the progressive worldview that now predominates among left-wing circles.
https://amac.us/biden-repudiates-breyers-legacy-and-confirms-breyers-worst-fears/
Biden could not have screwed this up more if he actually tried...
Breyer talked of teaching his grandchildren the timeless words of the Gettysburg Address: “four score and seven years ago our fathers created here a new country, a country that was dedicated to liberty and the proposition that all men are created equal.” He invoked George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the first now denounced by many progressives as a slaveholder, the latter as a racist.
It was a good look for Breyer. It was also clear that no one, especially on the Left, for whose causes Breyer did so much, was listening. For them, Breyer’s retirement was entirely a political event. At best, his continued presence was an obstacle to getting “another vote” on the bench, reducing Breyer to nothing more than a placeholder until a younger, more liberal justice could take his place. At worst, he was seen as a “selfish old white male” standing in the way of a black female who would function as the instrument and judicial arm of the progressive left.
It is hard to think of anything less compatible with Breyer’s version of liberalism than the spectacle of a Georgetown faculty member being forced to apologize in a desperate effort to keep his job after suggesting that excluding 95% of the population and candidate pool on account of race and gender might be unfair or a poor way to select a nominee.
Seriously...
What kind of MORON ignores 98% of the possibility pool in an attempt to impose a blatantly racist SCOTUS selection..
DH, you claim that GOP and Democrats are equally racist??
Find me something that compares to this blatantly racist process amongst the GOP in the last decade..
You can't because none exists...
But that is precisely what happened to Ilya Shapiro after he posted a tweet saying that “objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid [progressive] and [very] smart. Shapiro went on to say that Srinivasan “even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into last intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?”
Shapiro tweeted a sentiment that an astounding 76% of Americans share. It’s hard for 76% of Americans to agree on anything, even that puppies are cute. Yet 76% believe that “all candidates regardless of background” should be considered to succeed Justice Breyer. Somehow, Biden and Democrats are on the wrong side of such a straightforward belief, and are now embroiled in a controversy over efforts to “cancel” an academic for expressing what three quarters of Americans think.
Biden is going against over 3/4ths of the American people...
DH... Find me something in the last decade amongst the GOP leadership that compares to that..
I'll wait... Well, I won't WAIT... I'll still continue to post the facts..
But I'll be around...
So Elizabeth please tell the class how your female-Don-Quixote-adopt-a-troll project going?
michale,
There is a word for what you are doing here and it ain't pretty.
I will endeavor to be more considerate to you.. I'll probably fail, but I'll do what I can..
Don't bother.
Hmmm. Not so good, eh? Miss Canada, you're heart is in the right place but kumbaya is like bipartisanship: it doesn't happen unless and until both parties want it to, hello?
You've been here so much longer than I that I don't understand what the fuck you don't get about don't feed the trolls.
Watch your gratutitous language, Caddy.
We all have an inner voice, Caddy ... try using it!
Biden shares much of the blame. Having had almost two years to consider how to follow through on his promise without de-legitimizing the serious process of selecting a Supreme Court nominee, Biden seems to have given little thought to an actual person. It was only thanks to Donald Trump’s extensive foresight and preparation that he was able to nominate and confirm Amy Coney Barrett with such short notice in 2020. By contrast, Biden, despite having artificially restricted the candidate pool to the single-digits, appears not to have settled on a single candidate. Had he done so, he could have rushed the announcement and thereby presented the pick as so distinguished by her qualifications that there was no need for a search confined by gender or race. Biden could have claimed that he always had in mind a particular individual, and because that individual just so happens to be black and female, he was able to fulfill his promise.
Not only did Biden limit himself to a single digit percentage, he limited himself to a LOW single digit...
2%!!!
It's frakin' nuts!!
You've been here so much longer than I that I don't understand what the fuck you don't get about don't feed the trolls.
Says the guy who simply CAN'T ignore my comments.. :D
VP Harris continues hemorrhaging staffers as chief speechwriter prepares to leave White House
VP Harris has seen several staffers leave White House amid low morale
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vp-harris-continues-hemorrhaging-staffers-chief-speechwriter-prepares-leave-white-house
The Democrat White House is imploding...
Michale [96]
The counselor had told the father that his daughter did not want to talk about the issue due to her parents being Catholic.
"I took offense because that had nothing to do with it. I mean I don’t even know if she understands our faith," the father said. "That demonstrated she was ignorant about it. Our faith is one of unconditional love for our children."
I’m pretty sure the article left out the part where the father burst into flames immediately after saying the last word of the sentence!
And it would be proper for a counselor to refer to the student by the name they want to be called. We’ve never forced teachers to only refer to kids by their legal first names.
Despite the father’s accusations, there is nothing here to suggest that the school did anything wrong nor that the school’s actions played any role in the student’s suicide attempt.
Should the school have gone against the child’s wishes that they feared how their parents would react to the news? Because parents never beat their children or kick them to the streets when they learn their child claims to be different from what the parents want them to be!
Should the school have gone against the child’s wishes that they feared how their parents would react to the news? Because parents never beat their children or kick them to the streets when they learn their child claims to be different from what the parents want them to be!
And if there was physical abuse that was a possibility, then that would have been different.
But there wasn't..
The teachers purposely hid this issue from the parents and the child almost died because of it..
Of course you support the Democrats in this issue..
I mean, so what if the child had died, right??
There are plenty more kids to indoctrinate right?? So what if a kid dies, right??
:eyeroll:
OK, I am on my wife's time.. :D
Bashi, cad et al.. It's safe to come out now.. :D
You have yet to provide ANY documentation that I am wrong about ANYTHING...
So, yea.. I won't admit that I am wrong until you can PROVE I am wrong..
To date, you have ZERO proof that I am wrong..
You stated that during the failed insurrection attempt on January 6th, Chairperson of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to allow USCP to have back-up to combat the terrorists attacking our Capitol. I pointed out that Mitch McConnell, not Chuck Schumer, was the Senate Majority Leader on January 6, 2020. You were wrong. You were also wrong that either Congressional leader had the authority to order more USCP officers called out.
You also stated that Donald Trump wanted the National Guard called out, but that Nancy Pelosi said “NO” and emasculated the President’s authority by overriding his wishes.
I pointed out that Pelosi has no authority to call out the National Guard and that only the President can order them into DC. If the Guard wasn’t present, that was because Trump didn’t want them there!
You were wrong again.
Heh.
And if there was physical abuse that was a possibility, then that would have been different.
But there wasn't..
And you know this how? For many kids the day they come out coincides with the first time they have been physically abused by their family. The child said that they feared how their parents would react to the news.
The teachers purposely hid this issue from the parents and the child almost died because of it..
So you mean that the parents asked if their child was trans and the school lied to them? No? Because how else could they “purposely” hide something if they aren’t required to inform parents of everything their child says?
And the article fails to state that the parents only learned of their child’s struggle with gender identity AFTER the suicide attempt. I am guessing the parents found out and then the child attempted suicide. No one prevented the child from telling their parents…for whatever reason they didn’t believe it would be safe for them to tell their parents.