Tag Archives: covid-19

Alex Jones who claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a fraud, wrapped up his second civil lawsuit owing almost $1 billion in damages. He says no way he can pay, but there’s no doubt he has the money. Hopefully the attorneys will hound him until he bleeds out financially (I’ve heard different legal speculation how likely that is).

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the third-class celebrity pretending to be a congresswoman, feigns outrage because “all he did was speak words” so not respecting his freedom of speech is persecution. But there are many situations in which free speech doesn’t protect speaking words: slander, intimidation, extortion, and defamation, which is what they nailed Jones on. While Greene is a dim bulb, I suspect she knows that but she knows her online audience doesn’t care.

Similarly, anti-Muslim liar Laura Loomer says she’ll never pay the damages CAIR won for her lies about them because the money would fund terrorism — another lie.

In other Republicans Lying news:

Republicans talk about how harsh voting rules are necessary to prevent fraud. Turns out Ron DeStalinist is fine with loosening the rules for hurricane-hit counties — but only the ones that vote Republican.

By a great deal of dogged reporting, Christian reporter Mike Hertenstein found a tape of evangelist Billy Graham telling Nixon that while Hitler made some mistakes, he was only trying to free Germany from the control of The Synagogue of Satan. In other words, Graham embraced and spread one of the fundamental anti-Semitic lies.

The single largest source of lying and misinformation about covid? Donald Trump (though Fox News helps). And while his PAC talks big about the importance of winning Congress next month, “the group has contributed about $8.4 million so far directly to Republican campaigns and committees, while devoting $7 million to Trump’s lawyers and another $2 million to the nonprofits, which employ former members of his administration, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.”

Herschel Walker offered to pay for his girlfriend’s abortion, then stiffed her for the money.

Senator Tommy Tuberville says Democrats want to give reparations to criminals. Jennifer Rubin says reporters need to press other Republicans to take a stand on such statements.

Conservative judges are now claiming Yale is so woke, they won’t accept clerks from Yale Law School. Which if you believe their cancel-culture bullshit means they’re punishing conservative students who’ve already suffered persecution at YLS (supposedly).

Misogynist preacher John Piper claims sex is only for Christians — everyone else is just prostituting themselves.

Republicans claim they’re fighting groomers, but as I’ve mentioned before the grooming is coming from inside the house. And this house.

Propagandist Michael Flynn claims that state governors can declare war. I suspect he means “Republican governors.”

Right-wing ex-Dem Tulsi Gabbard (don’t let the door hit you on the way out!) and Seth Rogan spread that bullshit about schools catering to furries.

The obvious conclusion is that measles and other vaccine mandates are unacceptable too. Because vaccine mandates are bad is now an absolute Republican axiom, not to be questioned. And Republican politicians won’t risk re-election by standing up and being the ones who question. Never mind how many children get sick or anti-vaxxers die. Case in point, Kansas state Senator Richard Hilderbrand who wants to eliminate liability for doctors who prescribe ivermectin — where’s the proof it doesn’t work?

It’s true that even the polio vaccine had its anti-vaxxers, but at least they were true believers, not cowards who know the vaccine saves lives (and I’m sure are vaccinated themselves) but don’t have the spine to say so.  Though to be fair, Sen. Ron Johnson says so many idiotic anti-vax things, maybe he doesn’t even feel any pressure on his spine. For example that Fauci overhyped covid like he overhyped AIDS — except overhyping AIDs was the opposite of what happened in the 1980s (check out Randy Shilts’ classic And the Band Played On for a look at how blithely health officials and the government approached the disease).

I doubt Dr. Joseph Ladapo is that ignorant about vaccines — he’s an MD after all — but to get his gig as Florida’s new surgeon general, he’s willing to say maybe vaccines don’t work. After all, Typhoid Ron DeSantis just fired a surgeon general who said the opposite. Likewise I suspect religious conservative anti-vaxxer osteopath Sherri Tenpenny is spewing bullshit (the vaccine will make you a transhumanist cyborg!) because as noted at the link it’s been great for her public profile. But hey, maybe she is batshit delusional.

Oh, and DeSantis himself, despite opposing vaccine mandates, masking or anything that makes the pandemic less lethal, is quick to whine about how it’s Democrats who want us to die. And how nurses shouldn’t be forced to get the vaccine because many of them want to have babies (no further explanation).

Patrick Howley, who once claimed the government plans to criminalize checking out women’s breasts, now claims vaccinated people shun him because they can sense he’s not a “Pfizerblood”

Even Dr. Fauci’s feeling the pressure, and who can blame him?

I’m sure some anti-vaxxers are up in arms that getting vaccinated is a prerequisite for heart transplants. They’re perfectly happy to blame people who believe in medicine and say it’s their fault anti-vaxxers are dying.

You’d think the Supreme Court, who have lifetime appointments, would show some sense, but they’re part of the Republican death cult too.

If this were happening in the developing world, you know how the media would cover it. Ignorant superstitious natives, unable to comprehend Western medicine, fearful it will do something evil to their bodies or that it’s the medicines that make you sick! And yeah, that about sums it up. The anti-vax movement is like the witch doctors in countless old jungle movies. Terrified they’ll lose their power if people embrace the “white man’s medicine” they do their best to whip up the equivalent of a torch-burning mob.

In the movies, of course, those guys always lost. In reality, it seems they’re doing pretty damn well.

As I’ve mentioned before Republicans love to talk about killing their opponents but they don’t want to be held responsible for their rhetoric. Case in point, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene declaring Americans must use the Second Amendment to fight liberal tyranny, but of course she’s not suggesting violence, not her!

Conversely, when indulging in heated rhetoric about liberal fascism or the communist takeover, they evoke Stalin while offering tame examples like liberals “manipulating their access to status and comfort.” Stalin did a damn sight more than that, dudes. Likewise, lying Trump toady Matt Gaetz claims that blaming Republicans for 1/6 is the blood libel. Dude the blood libel involved mobs killing Jews for supposedly using children’s blood in their Passover bread; I don’t see mobs coming for your head, The QAnon accusations about cannibal pedophiles are much closer to the blood libel in substance, and they’ve already led to some violent incidents. And they do want people’s heads.

That does not, however, stop them from just making up injustices, like J.D. Vance claiming dozens of 1/6 seditionists have been jailed without charges. It’s a lie. So is Dennis Prager’s claim the 1/6 insurrection was a false flag like the Reichstag fire. Ted Cruz told the truth about 1/6 this month, but then had to walk it back. SC Senator Lindsay Graham has a shit fit that Biden calling out the insurrection as just that is politicizing events. Yes, what could be political about an attempt to overthrow the duly elected president.

By contrast Republicans have no problems with the Republican party committing to the goal of more people dying of covid. And yet some members of the press pretend there are no significant issues in current politics.

Now, to the stupid —

Speaking of covid, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, brings the stupid to his anti-vax arguments with “Why do we think that we can create something better than God in terms of combating disease?” Yes, remember how natural immunity has conquered smallpox, polio, tetanus, measels and flu? Oh, wait, we get shots for those. In Wisconsin state government, nitwit Republican Treig Pronchinske argues that since we can’t see covid virus particles, we can’t tell if anyone has it, let alone treat it. Again, a few centuries of medical history show he’s full of it.

Then there’s anti-vax militant Christopher Key, who says you can beat the Trump virus without a vaccine by drinking your own urine. And the conservative who claims, a la Ron Johnson, that God’s a better doctor: healing through prayer will be like universal health care with no deductibles. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is siding with anti-vaxers on the dubious grounds that workplace safety laws don’t specifically cover pandemics.

And then there’s the guy who said history classes about Nazism and Soviet communism should be impartial.

David Bateman of the Silicon Valley firm Entrata lost his CEO gig after claiming the covid vaccine is part of a Jewish takeover plot (“For 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church and place a Jew covertly at the top. It happened in 2013 with Pope Francis.”).

Returning to  the tough talk, at least a few bullies are getting their comeuppance. Kaleb Cole of the Atomwaffen Division neo-Nazi group got seven years for threatening journalists with death. The leader of the right-wing Oathkeepers has been arrested for his 1/6 role.

The Former Guy has, of course, no interest in facts, only what lie serves him best at the time. So he’s gone from holding up the Sedition Day rioters as wonderful, patriotic people to claiming (along with Candace Owens) they were a false flag operation. Never mind that we know the right-wing, pro-Trump Proud Boys were there — one of them just got more than four years.

And while some pundits have been marveling that TFG has turned pro-vaccine, Roy Edroso points out what he’s really in favor of is getting credit for inventing them (“I came up with a vaccine, with three vaccines … “All are very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed to take five to 12 years.”). He remains anti-mandate and anti-mask. Even so, that’s too pro-vaccine for Alex Jones and others.

The head of Gab says when the Jewish group ADL attacks him he can feel demonic energy coming from them. Meanwhile, TFG tosses out anti-semitic tropes about how Israel controls Congress.

Bullshit historian David Barton lies that so many people die of knife attacks in England it’s obvious banning guns doesn’t save lives.

An “ex-gay” Christian activist insists he’s still an ex-gay Christian even if he keeps having gay hookups.

Rudy Giulani and OAN accused some Georgia election workers of being part of the non-existent election steal. The election workers are suing them. Over in Texas, corrupt AG Ken Paxton has spent more than $2 million fighting non-existent voter fraud.

Tucker Carlson announces we should all stop discussing the Trump Virus because it’s boring.

The religious right has been all about First Amendment Freedom when it comes to exemptions from mask mandates. I’m inclined to agree with NBC News that they won’t be sympathetic to a guy who says he was fired for masking even though his Christian beliefs required it.

Okay, not entirely fair. I think they’d be perfectly happy if we all just gave up masking and distancing and fighting the Trump Virus and accepted that horrific and needless deaths are just a fact of life. That’s how they approach gun deaths, after all. And it’s not just The Former Guy: the entire party is liable.

Republicans in Congress are willing to shut down the government to fight President Biden’s vaccine mandates. As noted at the link, the Democrats have worked out a tentative agreement to keep going until February, but it’s not guaranteed. And shutdowns are bad for Americans in multiple ways, including public health.

In Tennessee they’ve banned medical boards from disciplining doctors who lie about covid (I assume they’re liars rather than just wrong, given how many medical professionals profit from being anti-vaxxers). A federal Trump appointee has blocked the mandate for healthcare workers using brilliant insights such as if the vaccine was any good, it wouldn’t need booster shots! Like his master The Former Guy this judge is a very stable genius (Roy Edroso vents entertainingly as always about this). So is Rep. Ronny Jackson who claims Omicron is a Democratic plot to rig the 2022 election. And isn’t it suspicious it’s all right-wing anti-vaxxers who die of covid, not Democrats?

While Republicans were outraged over generous unemployment benefits supposedly inspiring Americans to stay home and not work, four states so far have expanded benefits for anyone who loses their job for refusing a vaccine mandate.

And despite their denial that covid is a serious threat, anti-vax conservatives keep dying. Too bad The Former Guy, who took no precautions after testing positive (Scott Lemieux suggests he’d have been delighted if debating Biden infected Biden), got the best healthcare on Earth.

Organ transplant candidates who refuse to get vaccinated are also risking their lives for bullshit (“Breen also expressed skepticism over the public campaign for vaccination, saying she questioned the reasoning ‘behind pushing it so hard.'”).

At the nutjob end of the lying right-winger spectrum, Jew-hating preacher Rick Wiles claims covid vaccine changes our DNA.

“Typhoid Ron” DeSatis is a more accepted figure than Wiles, but he does just as much damage.

Marjorie Taylor Greene goes back to the old “traffic accidents have killed more people than Covid” meme by arguing we don’t close schools for cancer. Which, of course, is non-contagious. I seriously wonder why Greene’s even in Congress as she doesn’t do anything but babble bullshit — is the right-wing celebrity an end in itself or does she anticipate a Fox News show down the road?

To end on an up-note, a reminder the pandemic will end, eventually.