If the human species doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense, and it cannot last

benfell

And I’m not even talking about the climate crisis, though you should read George Monbiot’s latest.[1] Or even Bernie Sanders’ recent discovery that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class.[2]

I’m just even more flabbergasted than usual.

Donald Trump


Marc Levy, “Court won’t block entire election ‘investigation’ subpoena,” WTAE, January 10, 2022, https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-election-investigation-subpoena/38727643

Katelyn Polantz, “Trump’s potential liability for Capitol riot faces major test in court,” CNN, January 10, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/10/politics/trump-civil-liability-insurrection-court-hearing/index.html

Jan Wolfe, “Trump challenges riot lawsuits, says fiery speech was official act,” Reuters, January 10, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-ask-judge-throw-out-suits-by-lawmakers-police-over-us-capitol-riot-2022-01-10/

Republican National Convention

There is a new blog post entitled, “It just doesn’t get any more delusional than Ed Gainey inviting the Republican National Convention to Pittsburgh.”

Ryan Deto, “Pittsburgh named as finalist to host 2024 Republican National Convention, says report,” Pittsburgh City Paper, January 7, 2022, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/pittsburgh-named-as-finalist-to-host-2024-republican-national-convention-says-report/Content?oid=20886008

Alex Isenstadt, “GOP picks final four in 2024 convention search,” Politico, January 7, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/07/gop-2024-convention-search-526707

Julian Routh, “Gainey, Fitzgerald among group making pitch for 2024 GOP convention,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 8, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2022/01/08/City-county-leaders-make-pitch-2024-GOP-convention-Ed-Gainey-Rich-Fitzgerald/stories/202201080041

Ariel Worthy, “Gainey tells GOP Pittsburgh ‘would be excited to host’ 2024 presidential convention, but not everyone agrees,” WESA, January 9, 2022, https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2022-01-08/gainey-to-national-republicans-city-would-be-excited-to-host-2024-presidential-convention

Chandi Chapman, “Republican National Convention possibly coming to Pittsburgh stirs debate,” WTAE, January 10, 2022, https://www.wtae.com/article/republican-national-convention-possibly-coming-to-pittsburgh-stirs-debate/38727467

Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey supports effort to host national political convention, regardless of party,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 10, 2022, https://triblive.com/news/politics-election/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-supports-effort-to-host-national-political-convention-regardless-of-party/

Pandemic

(Inter)national


The simple truth is that services are breaking down[3] not because we’re being insufficiently aggressive in returning to ‘normal,’[4] but because we’re pushing it much too fast[5] and refusing to take care of people who, for whatever reason, need to stay home.[6]

I don’t care how you excuse this. Whatever social, political, and economic systems we have are all social constructions. They should serve humans, not the other way around. For ideological or, more correctly, religious, or even more correctly, cultish reasons, we’ve forgotten this.[7]

Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, “Supreme Court seems skeptical of Biden’s vaccine rules for businesses, more receptive to policy for health-care workers,” Washington Post, January 7, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-mandate/2022/01/06/93b4d45c-6f2e-11ec-a5d2-7712163262f0_story.html

Angie Schmitt, “Why I Soured on the Democrats,” Atlantic, January 7, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/democrats-botched-public-school-covid-policy/621183/

Will Sommer, “QAnon Star Who Said Only ‘Idiots’ Get Vax Dies of COVID,” Daily Beast, January 7, 2022, https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-star-cirsten-weldon-who-said-only-idiots-get-vaccinated-dies-of-covid

James Tapper, Michael Savage, and Robin McKie, “End mass jabs and live with Covid, says ex-head of vaccine taskforce,” Guardian, January 8, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/08/end-mass-jabs-and-live-with-covid-says-ex-head-of-vaccine-taskforce

Michael E. Miller, “Novak Djokovic wins case against Australia over canceled visa, clearing path for him to play in Melbourne,” Washington Post, January 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/09/novak-djokovic-australia-court-visa/

Patrick Reilly, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tests positive for COVID-19,” New York Post, January 9, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/01/09/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-tests-positive-for-covid-19/

Melanie Evans, “Hospitals Cut Beds as Nurses Call In Sick With Covid-19,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hospitals-cut-beds-as-nurses-call-in-sick-with-covid-19-11641810781

Amy Graff, “Head of COVID response at UCSF: ‘I have not intubated a single COVID patient during this Omicron surge,’ SFGate, January 10, 2022, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/COVID-San-Francisco-staff-shortage-UCSF-16758335.php

Travis Caldwell and Deidre McPhillips, “Covid-19 hospitalizations reach record high, HHS data shows,” CNN, January 11, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html

Pennsylvania region

Justine McDaniel and Erin McCarthy, “About 90% of COVID-19 patients in some of Pa.’s hardest-hit hospitals are unvaccinated,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 7, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-hospitalizations-pa-vaccines-omicron-20220107.html

Erin McCarthy and Justine McDaniel, “Delco hospitals are full and an ER is closing as COVID-19 surge intensifies in Philly area,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/delco-hospital-capacity-omicron-covid-surge-20220110.html

Republican rule


David Daley, “Seven ways Republicans are already undermining the 2024 election,” Guardian, January 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/10/republicans-election-democracy-seven-ways-trump

Jonathan Lai, “Pennsylvania Republicans want a lot more power in redistricting for state maps,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-redistricting-republicans-constitutional-amendment-20220110.html

Jewel Wicker, “Georgia activists warn Biden against a ‘photo-op’ visit that lacks voting rights plan,” Guardian, January 11, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/11/georgia-biden-harris-visit-voting-rights-bill

  1. [1]George Monbiot, “Losing It,” January 10, 2022, https://www.monbiot.com/2022/01/10/losing-it/↩
  2. [2]Steven Greenhouse, “Bernie Sanders says Democrats are failing: ‘The party has turned its back on the working class,’” Guardian, January 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/10/bernie-sanders-democrats-failing-working-class-interview↩
  3. [3]Travis Caldwell and Deidre McPhillips, “Covid-19 hospitalizations reach record high, HHS data shows,” CNN, January 11, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html; Melanie Evans, “Hospitals Cut Beds as Nurses Call In Sick With Covid-19,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hospitals-cut-beds-as-nurses-call-in-sick-with-covid-19-11641810781; Amy Graff, “Head of COVID response at UCSF: ‘I have not intubated a single COVID patient during this Omicron surge,’ SFGate, January 10, 2022, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/COVID-San-Francisco-staff-shortage-UCSF-16758335.php; Erin McCarthy and Justine McDaniel, “Delco hospitals are full and an ER is closing as COVID-19 surge intensifies in Philly area,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/delco-hospital-capacity-omicron-covid-surge-20220110.html; Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin, II, and Emily Alpert Reyes, “Hospitals see big jumps in COVID-19 patients, but this surge is different from last winter,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-04/covid-hospitalizations-top-summer-surge-in-l-a; Sophia Tareen, “Chicago cancels classes after union backs remote learning,” Associated Press, January 5, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-education-chicago-teaching-289f27d91f9c9ed36715577b0b0a6548; Ovetta Wiggins, “Hogan declares 30-day state of emergency as state enters its ‘most challenging time’ of the pandemic,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/04/hogan-declares-emergency-coronavirus/↩
  4. [4]Yasmeen Abutaleb, Sean Sullivan, and Eli Rosenberg, “New CDC guidelines were spurred by worries omicron surge could lead to breakdown in essential services,” Washington Post, December 29, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/28/cdc-isolation-guidelines-rationale/↩
  5. [5]Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, “Supreme Court seems skeptical of Biden’s vaccine rules for businesses, more receptive to policy for health-care workers,” Washington Post, January 7, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-mandate/2022/01/06/93b4d45c-6f2e-11ec-a5d2-7712163262f0_story.html; Molly Osberg, “The CDC Says We’re All Essential Workers Now,” New Republic, December 29, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164898/cdc-ads-essential-workers-isolation; Melody Schreiber, “America Quits the Fight Against Covid,” New Republic, December 31, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164909/america-omicron-surge-quit-covid-fight; James Tapper, Michael Savage, and Robin McKie, “End mass jabs and live with Covid, says ex-head of vaccine taskforce,” Guardian, January 8, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/08/end-mass-jabs-and-live-with-covid-says-ex-head-of-vaccine-taskforce↩
  6. [6]Angie Schmitt, “Why I Soured on the Democrats,” Atlantic, January 7, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/democrats-botched-public-school-covid-policy/621183/↩
  7. [7]David Benfell, “The capitalist death cult,” Not Housebroken, December 29, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/03/27/the-capitalist-death-cult/↩

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