I'm Taking This Personally

1/12/2021

Three Republicans goof on Congressional staffer, offering masks in close quarters, Funny stuff, no?

Hey, you!
The three of you, smirking Republicans, defying Congressional staffers who are trying to get you to wear a mask, to keep from passing around germs. .

Look at you, wearing the same insolent smirk as the still-President of the United States, who looks like he is trying to take us all down.
I take your behavior personally because, maybe you three have heard, there is a pandemic going on – and masks help protect people. You three may also have heard by now that three members of Congress came down with Covid-19 since being sequestered with Republicans when Trump’s Army came calling.

Here’s why I take it personally. We happen to see one of the three -- Rep. Pramila Jayapal from Seattle, knowledgeable and decent -- on the channel we watch.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal

We saw Rep. Jayapal last Wednesday, wedged below a seat in the upper gallery of the House, when anti-social morons were patrolling the hallways, doing Trump’s bidding. There was fear on her face, for what could happen next. The domestic terrorists may not have gotten her, but somebody in a later scrum passed along a little souvenir -- Covid-19.
I don't know if it was the insolent threesome in the photo above, but those three bare-faced wise guys -- Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), Markwayne Mullins (R-Okla.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz) -- are pretty much laughing off the offer of masks in close quarters. They think it’s funny, like Trump at one of his WWE rallies, telling the herd that he’d like to punch somebody in the face.

I don’t know much about them except that Taylor Greene is identified as a follower of QAnon, which, I gather, is a dangerous cult believing in mad fantasy. She’s been in Congress only a few days but she’s already infecting people in her own vicious way.
Here’s why I take this personally. Many of the smartest and kindest authorities on the tube these days, talking about Covid-19, are of Indian descent - like Rep. Jayapal - doctors and academics and politicians. They represent an uptick in the skills and social ethics of our country, balancing the slope-browed thugs wandering the halls of Congress.

It’s about race. But you knew that already. Race.

We have relatives and friends of color. My wife made 14 trips to India a while ago, doing volunteer work with children, and she loves the country and the people. Rep. Jayapal and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris both have roots in Chennai (formerly Madras), the sixth largest city in India – a city known as the health capitol of India, for its skills and services.

Who are these members of Congress who cannot put on a mask as a sign of respect and to avoid spreading germs? In the NYT the other day, Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham wrote about the evangelical Christian base – make that white, evangelical, Christian base – of the armed marauders.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/how-white-evangelical-christians-fused-with-trump-extremism.html

Their version of religion makes them uncomfortable with dark-skinned people as well as knowledgeable people who try to explain the virus to them.
I know a bit about them. Some people I love scurried off to vote for Brother Trump in 2016 because their pastor said Trump was a man of God, and really, what else is there? (My guess is also that the evangelical pastors figured Trump would be good for the economy – their economy. They live pretty well, you know.)

So now we have the man of God telling his people to go storm Congress.
Big man. He would have liked to storm with them but his bone spurs were acting up.
Besides, Trump had other people doing his work for him – people who would breathe on other people.
Diabolical, you could say.
Somebody got Rep. Jayapal, the gentlewoman from Chennai and Seattle.
Like I say, I’m taking this personally.
* * *
Tweet from Rep. Pramila Jayapal: “I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one."

Alan Rubin link

1/13/2021 10:14:51 am

As I watched the events in our Capitol unfold last week in horror and disbelief, I had the feeling of being in a dream where you keep falling with nothing to grab onto. Although this four-year nightmare legally ends on January 20, 2021, the after effects will be with us for quite some time.

A legitimate sense of outrage is developing in congress, but the Ted Cruz’s and Josh Hawley’s will never erase the stain of their actions. Even Moscow Mitch’s belated call for condemning Trump is four years over due and much too late.

As with most historical events, the facts gradually come out over time. I’m expecting a horror story beyond our worst expectations.

It remains to be seen what congress does about removing Trump prior to January 20th, but evoking the 14th amendment to prevent his ever running for public office again seems likely.

ED MARTIN

1/13/2021 03:51:25 pm

You friends know me as an old guy, first presidential vote in 1952, for Ike.

Today, I have had an unbelievable fear/thought, something hard to accept might be reality-based.

I pictured a rocket-propelled grenade or similar weapon being fired into a motorcade between the Capital and the WH. No limo, even bulletproof, could survive, is my layman’s belief.

Can you imagine having this horrible thought in “the land of the free and the home of the brave?” I can’t imagine it, yet I simultaneously can imagine it.

It is a sincere plea from me, God Bless America, and as Quakers say, “In the Light” President Biden and all.

ED MARTIN

1/15/2021 11:49:49 am

Update. I understand no motorcade. No Inaugural Balls, etc. Covid crowd avoidance. But POTUS will be Biden!

bruce

1/13/2021 05:35:48 pm

george,

it's amazing to turn on cnn--jayapal is a regular there too--for the past 10 months or so and see the same old same old EVERY day-- wear a mask, social distance and avoid crowds especially inside.

might as well be talking to potted plants.

you know my family is very multi racial--only in canada, eh!--and i sometimes point that fact out if somebody says something about people of colour.

as for indians....my son in law is one of 'em; my family doctor and several specialists are predominantly indian with another being canadian but of chinese descent.

watched some of the circus today.

dems seemed to concentrate on last week's coup attempt while the repubs were more upset the dems and media said mean things about the cretin in chief.

trudeau isn't as popular as he was, but he should thank his lucky stars he's got an american monster who makes him look more than a little good.

Randolph

1/13/2021 06:48:43 pm

George,
Thank you for this posting: I’m Taking This Personally.
I feel the same.

On Wednesday a terrorist attack took place in our country’s capital. Five people lost their lives, but for me this attack was more dangerous than the attack that took place on September 11, 2001. Not as many human lives were lost, but this attack was perpetrated by American citizens with an intent to over turn a democratic presidential election. It was an attack, from within, on the very fabric of our democracy. And yes, we have elected officials that have contributed to and supported this treason.

Back in 2007, the Bush Administration started a law enforcement training module on domestic terrorism. In 2009, a joint effort from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security resulted in a report titled: "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

What was the reaction to this report? Congressional Republicans and the conservative media went ballistic. GOP members of Congress accused law-enforcement of a witch hunt, Democrats caved in and the report was suppressed. Congressman primarily from Southern states played key rolls in stopping recommended actions to combat domestic terrorism.

11 years later we can see the results. We now have a president who states during a terrorist attack, “ I love you. You are special“. Yet a good number of elected officials will not support the impeachment and removal of this man from office.

We are in a wee bit of trouble!

So I guess I will just do what Tom Waits said in one of his songs:

Oh, you got to hold on, hold on
You gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

RF

bruce

1/13/2021 07:02:38 pm

randolph,

well said.

i think a major weakness of american democracy is that there are only two political parties.

and too much money.

progressive in the usa is nowhere near progressive in any other western democracy i can think of.

there is also a deeper alienation from the political process and a populace that is, too often, gullible/un/malinformed.

hopefully the cretin in chief is going to start getting hammered by charges and lawsuits january 21st.

wouldn't be awful if some family members suffered the same fate.

Jim Henneman

1/14/2021 08:20:47 am

My mind keeps wandering back to the original debate stage with the 17 candidates for the GOP nomination and thinking how cool it wouuld be to play back some comments made then about the eventual POTUS...and comparing them to what some of those people are saying today as they navigate either on or off his coat tails.

George Vecsey

1/15/2021 03:50:16 pm

Jim H: Thanks, The funn thing is, I do see the remarks by -- and about -- Cruz and Graham --get resurrected on the tube sometimes. They all were right, both ways. All despicable.
Ed: I've had those apocalyptic fears or thoughts since 2008. Got through 8 years praying for that lovely family. Then I transferred those concerns to the next President -- who meantime, along with Murdochites -- and worse! -- were stoking up the people we saw Jan. 6.
Randy, often quoted these days is Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo: We have met the enemy and he is us.
GV

ED MARTIN

1/17/2021 02:29:06 pm

Amen George! A friend wrote this morning on FB hoping Biden would make “America Great Again.” My response is anything he does, such as reading the daily intelligence reports again, would be an improvement. Health, Environment, Civil Rights, International Relations, no more government by Twitter, or 1/3 time on his own gold courses, charging the Secret Service. These are essentially, automatic improvements. And for Bruce— restore diplomatic relations with Canada.!

bruce

1/17/2021 04:36:30 pm

ed,

won't be easy.

a little wooing is necessary after being assaulted for four years.

some chocolate, a bouquet of flowers plus a few billion$ might do the trick....even canadian$ would be ok.

ED MARTIN

1/17/2021 07:48:03 pm

Bruce, I have written the Transition team, asking them to eliminate the tariff on Poutine, and Tim Horton donuts. That should do it.

bruce

1/17/2021 07:50:58 pm

ed,

we'll call that a good start.

bruce

Randolph

1/17/2021 04:51:46 pm

Ed and Bruce,
I have written President Biden and requested that he and his cabinet should start reading George’s web posts and reader comments on a regular basis. I told Joe that international and diplomatic relations would quickly improve once they follow our example
RF

bruce

1/17/2021 04:57:31 pm

randolph,

be careful....don't forget i'm from a country of godless socialists.

could stir up a hornet's next with yer fella 'merikans.

perhaps bernie could be named ambassador to canada and we could turn him into a real socialist--not one of them thar fake ones.

ED MARTIN

1/17/2021 07:50:38 pm

Pehaps GV could be named Poet Laureate. (Now called poetry consultant to the Liibrary of Congress.). Not sure that “Country lyrics,” would be acceptable, George.

George

1/17/2021 08:28:41 pm

You-all are so nice, I don't mean for the tone to be so political...given that I like to write about sports and music and life itself. But seeing this creep come lurching into the presidency just makes me want to defend what he is trying to destroy. I have positive feelings about Biden's comments...and about the work that Stacey Abrams and others did in Georgia, I'm hoping to go positive...soon. GV

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

I'm Taking This Personally

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