Tracker

Generalizations are rarely helpful, but sometimes accurate. Both Left and Right wings have extremists but nowhere have the Left wingers exhibited the propensity towards authoritarianism and violence that the right wingers have.

MY NEW COFFEE MUG:

'Neglect': Unvaccinated people more likely to have serious driving accidents People who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine have a 72 percent higher chance of getting into a traffic crash that requires hospitalization, a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine says. The study looked at data of 11.2 million people taken from 178 medical centers in Ontario, Canada. Researchers found that 84 percent had received a COVID-19 vaccine as of July 31, 2021 while 16 percent hadn’t. Researchers also found that, in a one-month period, 6,682 of all the individuals had received care for serious car crashes. Of those individuals, 75 percent had received COVID-19 vaccinations and 25 percent hadn’t. This may sound like vaccinated individuals were more likely to get into car crashes. But because the 25 percent of unvaccinated crash victims came from a smaller pool of similarly unvaccinated individuals, researchers calculated that unvaxxed people were 72 percent more likely to be in a serious traffic accident when compared to vaxxed`individuals. “We theorized that individual adults who tend to resist public health recommendations might also neglect basic road safety guidelines,” the study’s authors stated. https://www.alternet.org/neglect-unvaccinated-people-more-accidents/

This is not an unmixed blessing. If ever clean energy becomes readily available and cheap, what incentive do people have to insulate their homes and use said energy wisely? Can you imagine what would happen to global warming/change if billions of homes and individuals begin to pour massive amounts of heat and light into the atmosphere?

So now you admit you had accomplices?

Garland is moving with glacial speed, true. But the objects of his prosecution are very rich and therefore can hire the best attorneys and also have enormous demagog appeal to hundreds of thousands. many of whom are prepared to commit violence. Garland has to amass an absolutely air-tight case that will stand up to most public scrutiny, media coverage and analysis and as many appeals as the defendant(s) can stage. The evidence and the legal process must be beyond approach. Trump, his ilk and Faux TV will look for anything they can use and will create no end of lies.

Raising taxes is not the be-all and end-all many would have people believe. The countries which have the highest taxes along with the attendant social programs like subsidized post-secondary education have the most stable democracies and the most contented citizens. When you contrast that against the right-wing governments such as the US, Chin and Russia, where its everyone for themselves, the difference in societal behaviours are stark. The FBI has stated that the largest concerns in the US have arisen from right-wing groups and I defy you to identify left-wing groups that have fomented violence to any degree.

Oooh- on company time......

'Mouth of madness': Meadows texts call into question 'base intelligence' of GOP lawmakers The massive trove of text messages turned over by Mark Meadows to the House select committee show Republican elected officials were willing to violate the U.S. Constitution on "bizarre" and obviously phony evidence. Talking Points Memo reporter Hunter Walker obtained the messages, which show the former White House chief of staff communicating with GOP officials at all levels of government about far-fetched conspiracy theories to justify overturning Donald Trump's election loss, and he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that their lack of sophistication was genuinely shocking. "We're touching on something that is really a central thing here," Walker said. "I covered the Trump White House, and a big question is how many people are in on the joke and how many people are true believers. I first, you know, became familiar with the text log when i was working on my book, The Breach, which is about the Jan. 6 investigation. I co-wrote it with [former GOP lawmaker] Denver Riggleman. He knows a lot of these people, and he was shocked when he opened the text log. He led the [select committee's] phone team, it was like looking into the mouth of madness, and even with that introduction, I had a similar reaction." https://www.alternet.org/meadows-2658957827/

New evidence suggests Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was intentionally destroyed by pilot Opinion by Jamie Johnson • Yesterday 3:00 p.m. 7 16 17 Comments Apilot on the doomed MH370 flight likely lowered the plane’s landing gear just before it plunged into the Indian Ocean, according to new evidence, which suggests it could have been a premeditated act of mass murder. A wall of condolence to the 239 people who were on flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur - Daniel Chan/AP© Daniel Chan/AP The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, dropped off radar screens after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, bound for Beijing on March 8, 2014. The plane took an unexplained U-turn from its planned flight path and headed back across the Malay Peninsula and the Malacca Strait before vanishing. The bodies of those on board have never been found. Little useful physical evidence has been recovered to prove what happened, until last month, when a landing gear door was found by a Madagascan fisherman. Initial analysis shows that the damage was from the interior side to the exterior side of the debris item and leads to the conclusion that the landing gear was highly likely extended on impact. Aviation experts Blaine Gibson and Richard Godfrey said in a new report: “The realistic possibility that the landing gear was lowered shows both an active pilot and an attempt to ensure the plane sank as fast as possible after impact. “The combination of high speed impact and extended landing gear show a clear intent to hide the evidence of the crash.”

Hundreds of Oath Keepers have worked for DHS in recent years: report Hundreds of Oath Keepers said they are or were employed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a report published Monday found—a revelation that comes about two weeks after two leaders of the far-right militia were convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6 insurrection. In a joint investigation with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) found that more than 300 people on a leaked Oath Keepers membership list described themselves as current or former employees of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies including the Border Patrol, Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Secret Service. Experts voiced alarm over far-right extremists—who according to DHS pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat—working at a federal agency responsible for combating extremism. "One active law enforcement official joining a militia group is one too many," Mike German, a former undercover FBI agent who has infiltrated white supremacist and far-right extremist groups, told POGO. "This probably represents that the tip of the iceberg as far as federal law enforcement officers that have been involved in or supported the activities of far-right, militant groups like the Oath Keepers." https://www.alternet.org/oath-keepers-2658957735/

The Left has on occasion said dumb things, but nowhere near the frequency, intolerance or degree of extremism as the Right. Nor has the Left staged such actions as those in Ottawa, Windsor or Coutts, bringing abhorrent Nazi flags, made racist/sexist insults or brought firearms to protests with plans to kill police and public officials.

I think the right-wingers would love to see moderates/progressives stoop to their level of rhetoric. Under those conditions, anything that might be construed as inciting violence against the GOP extremists would justify an escalation of their calls for a violent response. One of the stated goals of the Jan 6th rioters was to provoke an armed response from police and/or the national guard causing injuries or deaths so that Trump could invoke martial law and portray the rioters as martyrs to the cause of "freedom". To the GOP extremists, that would be a "Reichstag moment".

Belarus is sending groups of migrants across the border with Ukraine into minefields and UA guarded positions as a way of scouting out the border regions.

'We would have won': Marjorie Taylor Greene says Capitol rioters should have been fully 'armed' Since being sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2021, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has generated one controversy after another. And once again, the far-right MAGA Republican congresswoman is being slammed by her critics for promoting violence. Greene, if anything, has grown even more cocky since her landslide re-election in the 2022 midterms, which found her defeating Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers by 31 percent in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. The very pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theorist and election denialist expects to become even more prominent in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023 after its new Republican majority is seated, and she isn’t shy about openly calling for violence. On Saturday night, December 10, Greene was among the speakers at the New York Young Republican Club's 110th Annual Gala, where she said that the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building would have been fully “armed” if she had organized it. Greene told the crowd, “Then January 6 happens. And, next thing you know, I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon here. And I will tell you something: If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won — not to mention, it would've been armed. See, that's the whole joke, isn't it? They say that whole thing was planned, and I'm like: Are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, Second-Amendment supporters, went in the Capitol without guns, and they think that we organized that.” https://www.alternet.org/marjorie-taylor-greene-2658951212/

We shall see.

Trump is so ego-driven that he cannot conceive that he could possibly say or do anything that is not intelligent and compelling.

Trump Brags About Turning Down Deal To Bring Paul Whelan Home In a bizarre rant on his social media platform, Donald Trump bragged that he turned down a deal to bring Paul Whelan home from a Russian prison. Trump wrote on Truth Social: I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan. I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals. I would have gotten Paul out, however, just as I did with a record number of other hostages. The deal for Griner is crazy and bad. The taking wouldn’t have even happened during my Administration, but if it did, I would have gotten her out, fast!

And he was Heiligh touted.

The whole Alberta UCP is comedy relief. Unintended, but comedy nevertheless.

She's as good a fall guy as they need. Then the Cons can wring their hands and blame the public for not accepting a woman as premier, and therefore not the fault of their politics.