Varia on Covid and Politics in the United States.

Another JuicyLesson from 🇨🇦 jerry 🇨🇦 .
It’s been a while since my last JuicyLesson and now seems to be the time for my next one, this one. What with the Delta variant causing a significant increase in Covid infections and deaths south of the border with something like 99.5% of people affected by what looks more and more like a fourth wave, unvaccinated. This is beyond my understanding. Why would any sane person make a conscious choice not to get a couple of jabs which pretty well ensure that one will not be hospitalized or die? Many on the right argue that the science is uncertain as to the long term effects of the Covid vaccines. I have no idea where such an idea originates, not from a reputable news sources for sure. In the final analysis, it is possible to argue that all individuals have the right to freely choose not to get vaccinated but given the fact that the unvaccinated will not lead hermit-like existences, they will be going out in public, and being more susceptible to catching Covid, will endanger not only their lives, but the lives of those with whom they interact. It’s bullshit to argue that the unvaccinated have a right to that kind of behaviour.

Some doctors and scientists have stated unequivocally that if there had been a similar degree of pushback against the vaccine back in history, we would still be dealing with smallpox and polio – perish the thought. Even though vaccines have pretty well eliminated these diseases as well as cholera, contemporary anti-vaxxers don’t seem to either make the connection or if they do, they simply don’t care.

Saying that the jury’s still out is simply a made up story. On-going research has come up with no negative trends or implications. These people have no right to infect others – Covid is an extremely contagious disease which vaccines have seemed to counteract – that’s the bottom line here. The behaviour of the anti-vaxxers really pisses me off. Just thinking about this situation makes me angry. It’s important to note here, in the interests of fairness, that around 3500 vaccinated people, mostly older than sixty-five, have actually succumbed to the virus in the United States.

Softball and soccer have started and thus begin the Summer Olympics in Japan. Empty stands except for journalists plus there are increasing cases of Covid in the country and the Japanese themselves have been demonstrating against the Games, wanting to see them cancelled. Five Americans have quarantined after testing positive and will be sent home once their isolation period concludes. These people, in other words, will not be participating in the Games this year.

Regardless, it looks like the Games will be going on, regardless of the health risks involved. Money talks and big money screams. Ridiculous.

Ridiculous as well, and extremely wasteful were the extremely brief – twelve minutes in one case – trips by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos into space. Bezos thanked Amazon workers and customers for “paying for” his trip. No fucking kidding. Workers pay due to the fact that they are underpaid and suffer from poor working conditions, with no unions to protect them. Not to mention that the billions these guys spent on these experiments could have been put to good use right here on earth by helping the unemployed, the homeless and the working poor. But oh no. Fuck them and the spaceships they came in on.

As for politics in the good old US of A … Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, has decided to pull the remaining four Republican members from the supposedly bipartisan committee, struck to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol. He took this action after Speaker, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, refused to permit two Republicans – Jim Jordan, the jacketless one, and Jim Banks – to be seated as members of the committee, thus vetoing these two McCarthy picks. Pelosi believes that the seating of these two members would have been counter-productive given previous statements by these jerks that this investigation was just a way to sully the name of Donald J. Trump, the previous president, as if the actions and statements of the latter hadn’t sullied his name and administration enough. Jordan and Banks, by the way, had both voted against certifying the results of the November 2020 election which saw Trump defeated and brought the Democratic administration of Joe Biden to power, with these votes having been cast in the immediate aftermath of the aforementioned insurrection, in the early morning of January 7th.

Jordan and Banks are idiots in my opinion. Choosing them in the first place was a mistake by Kevin McCarthy, given their extreme views. I believe that their presence on the committee would not have been in the least bit productive. They probably would have used their presence there to get on their soapbox and expound theories about the fraudulent election, the rigged vote in other words, that saw Trump going down to an ignominious defeat, a well-deserved one I might add. Instead of genuinely attempting to fathom the causes of the so-called insurrection as well as to recommend action to ensure that this type of thing would not and could not recur, Jordan and Banks would most likely have taken the opportunity to attack Democrats and to praise the actions of the moron-in-chief’s presidency. Rather than having “broken the system” as McCarthy had stated that Pelosi did, I think that she did the right thing.

That’s it for now. Peace and love, people.