Day: April 6, 2021

Closing Thought–06Apr21

WE get daily reports on the progress of our nation’s attempt to slow and possibly defeat the pandemic that is making its way through our society.

We learn daily how many shots have been given and we hear how many citizens have been jabbed and the pace of the virus has slowed down……all great news…..

But we need to be cautioned.

For a brief moment last week, it seemed as if the CDC was giving us the news we’ve been waiting for: In reference to the real-world study of nearly 4,000 vaccinated individuals, the agency’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said Monday that “our data … suggests … that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick” and thus, as many headlines extrapolated, cannot transmit or spread COVID-19. But scientists quickly pushed back on that assertion to the New York Times, and the CDC itself later walked back Walensky’s comments. The bottom line? We simply don’t know yet, the experts say. While the data is clear that coronavirus vaccines, no matter what the brand, are great at preventing severe illness and death, it’s not clear how well they actually prevent infection—and if a vaccinated person can still get infected, they can still spread the virus.

Experts pointed out that none of the vaccines are 100% effective, and Walensky’s comments could lead some to think that they are. It’s important to get that statistic right, they say, because if people mistakenly believe the vaccines are 100% effective, they may stop engaging in public health measures like wearing masks. And then there’s the matter of variants, which are increasingly spreading around the globe—and, in the case of some of them, may be able to evade the vaccine. At 21 universities including the University of Colorado Boulder, a study aims to determine whether the Moderna vaccine prevents transmission of COVID. An epidemiologist told Quartz last month that he estimates an answer to the question in the “next few months,” and the site offers a rundown of a number of population-level vaccine studies currently ongoing.

Please use caution even if you have been vaccinated…..masks and distancing will help prevent any transmission.

Be well….Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Why Joe Why?

I have been writing about Medicare For All (M4A)….a program that is wildly popular with the people of this country. As an example of the the posts I have already written…..https://lobotero.com/2020/03/04/medicare-for-all-again/

Sadly our president does not support the idea of M4A…he prefers to enrich the health industry instead of thinking about the health and welfare of the American people….or to listen to the desires of the people.

The pandemic has helped make M4A more popular…..Biden taunts his accomplishments (almost daily) in fighting the pandemic and yet his attempts help the industry more than the overall health of Americans.

And the private Insurance industry smiles and counts their money…..

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on people’s lives, President Joe Biden has been on a victory tour to promote the American Rescue Plan, a hefty $1.9 trillion spending package that not only sends direct stimulus payments to struggling Americans, but also greatly expands health care options through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “We’re becoming a nation where health care is a right and not for the privileged few,” said Biden in his remarks at a hospital on the campus of Ohio State University. Eleven years after the ACA was first passed into law as President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform, it has survived relentless Republican attacks in the form of legal challenges and defunding attempts. Preserving and expanding it under Democratic leadership certainly constitutes a win against Republican obstructionism and a refusal to offer better alternatives. But this latest strengthening of the ACA is first and foremost a victory for the health insurance industry.

The American Rescue Plan includes tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to substantially lower premiums for insurance options purchased through the ACA health exchanges. Additionally, it covers 100 percent of the cost of COBRA coverage for those who have been laid off during the pandemic. Even the New York Times characterized it with the headline, “Private Insurance Wins in Democrats’ First Try at Expanding Health Coverage.”

Universal Health Care is a Popular Idea in America, So Why Does Biden Seem Intent on Enriching Private Insurance Companies?

46 million Americans say they cannot afford adequate healthcare…..

A new study released Wednesday morning shows that nearly 50 million Americans would be unable to afford quality healthcare should the need for treatment suddenly arise, a finding seen as further evidence of the immorality of a for-profit insurance system that grants or denies coverage based on a person’s ability to pay.

“People can’t afford their goddamn healthcare,” Tim Faust, a proponent of single-payer healthcare, tweeted in response to the new report. “Families spend less on food so they can make insurance payments. This problem is felt by all, but concentrated among poor people and black people. The American model of health reform—throwing money at private insurers—can not solve it.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/31/outrageous-46-million-americans-say-they-would-not-be-able-afford-healthcare-if-they

That is 46 million Americans.

That amount is unacceptable….or it should be.

You need to make your desires known….he probably will not listen but your health is not stake….do not accept the pittance that Joe is offering.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

An Education Of Lies

It all began with the 1776 Commission Report.

But wait!

What is the 1776 Commission?

First of all this Commission to revise history had NO historians in the make-up….

The “1776 Report,” released on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, followed Donald Trump’s September announcement to form a commission to refute teachings on systemic racism, critical race theory, and deeper examinations of how slavery has affected American society.

The “crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison, that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together, will destroy our country,” he said at the time.

The report is a clear rebuke of the “1619 Project,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning report by the New York Times published in 2019. It argues the true founding of America was not in 1776 as the new nation declared its independence from Britain, but in 1619 when the first enslaved people were brought to the shores of the Virginia colonies. The Times’ report, led by reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, set off a firestorm among conservatives, especially as many educators embraced its overall message, and sought solutions for history lessons that often watered down or ignored parts of American history that grappled directly with oppression and subjugation of people on the basis of race.

If you would like to read this ‘report’ for yourself…..

Click to access The%20President%E2%80%99s%20Advisory%201776%20Commission%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf

Now this pack of BS will be taught to the children of South Carolina (of course it will start there)…..

Republican state legislators in South Carolina on Wednesday introduced a bill that would require public school students to receive conservative historical education consistent with the “principles and concepts” of former President Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission Report, a move that ignores the widespread rebuke of historians and progressive activists that accompanied its initial release.

S. 534, the Restore America’s Foundation Act, would mandate at least 30 hours of “instruction in United States foundational history” for the state’s public middle and high school students, WCSC reports.

“We have, in today’s society, a lot of disrespect for the flag, the national anthem, and that sort of thing,” the bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Dwight Loftis—a Greenville Republican—told WCSC. “The knowledge of where we came from and why our forefathers did what they did, I think it’s important that we know.”

However, critics note that Trump’s 1776 Commission—an 18-member panel that had no historians—whitewashes slavery and asserts universities are pushing anti-Americanism by exploring the nation’s roots of oppression, cruelty, exploitation, and greed.

https://www.rawstory.com/1776-report/

This sounds a lot like the revisionism I got while attending school in Mississippi in the 50s and 60s.

When will we face the truth about our history?

This is nothing but a tool to try and change the way our children view this country…..and the stupid will continue as long as there is NO standardized education.

How far will this ignorance extend?

Thoughts?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Is NATO Involved?

It is no secret that I am no fan of NATO…..its time has passed…..now it is nothing but a sponge that sucks in taxpayer dollars.

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization…..The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 30 countries that border the North Atlantic Ocean.1 The Alliance includes the United States, most European Union members, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Turkey.

NATO’s mission is to protect the freedom of its members. Its targets include weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and cyber-attacks.

If this is for the protection of members then why are they trying to insert themselves in the Far East…there are NO members in that region.

I asked this question because of something I read…..

An article appeared on the website of the Atlantic Council on March 26 entitled Opportunity knocks for NATO and its partners in the Asia-Pacific, which elaborates plans for continuing and qualitatively upgrading the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s steady but largely unnoticed penetration of that region through military partnerships, port visits and exercises with NATO naval groups and the establishment of Asia-Pacific nations’ liaison offices at NATO Headquarters in Brussels among other measures. It came as it did immediately after the recent two-day foreign ministers meeting at NATO Headquarters before and after which NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Anthony Blinken unrelentingly thundered against China and Russia, with Blinken casting them into the same category with Iran and North Korea as threats not only to the Asia-Pacific region where they’re situated but to the entire world.

The Atlantic Council, which is sixty years old this year, is considered to be the world’s preeminent pro-NATO think tank, one which has spawned dozens of mirror organizations in the post-Cold War period, especially in Eastern European nations and former Soviet republics where they have been instrumental in lobbying, almost always successfully, for their host countries’ NATO membership. Despite the Atlantic Council’s name, it has, reflecting and keeping pace with NATO itself, adopted an international purview and mandate over the past thirty years. It now has five regional bureaus: Europe and Eurasia, Americas, Africa, Indo-Pacific and Middle East. The term Europe and Eurasia would not have been employed during the Cold War when the NATO and transatlantic community were understood to be limited to North America and Europe. Similarly, the term Indo-Pacific has recently come to replace Asia-Pacific, as in the Pentagon three years ago changing the name of its largest geographical unified combatant command from Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command.

Upcoming NATO Summit and the Great Game for the Asia-Pacific

I do not think that NATO should have any involvement in the Far East…..that should be up to the countries that feel the threat from China….not to have the US do it for them.

The US is getting ass deep in the Indo-Pacific thing…..so deep that the Pentagon has requested a $27 billion increase to their already bloated budget to deal with the Pacific region…..

The Pentagon recently asked Congress for an astronomical $27 billion budget increase to support a massive military buildup in Asia  as part of its new Indo-Pacific plan, which calls for a substantially more aggressive military stance against China.

With the US already ranking first in military spending worldwide and holding more than 290 military bases in the Asia-Pacific region alone, this aggressive buildup is being proposed at the most financially precarious moment in US history. According to the Congressional Budget Office report released this month, federal debt is projected to reach 102% of GDP by the end of 2021 before surpassing its historical high of 107% in 2031 and going on to nearly double to 202% by 2051. According to Doug Bandow, “Uncle Sam is headed toward insolvency.”

How can the Biden administration sell such an expensive foreign policy proposal to the American public in these economically depressed times? By publicly stoking moral outrage and militarism in the US–as well as throughout the Asia-Pacific region–in the name of launching a crusade ostensibly in defense of human rights. This strategy was on full display when Secretary of State Blinken echoed bipartisan political rhetoric about the “Chinese threat” during his visit to Asia last week. In a stream of condescending self-righteousness, he unleashed a deluge of recrimination against China and North Korea while pontificating on American exceptionalism.

The Real Danger of the Pentagon’s New Indo-Pacific Plan 

Once again the M-IC is pushing the US foreign policy into a new expensive conflict that we cannot afford.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”