The news in brief, like I’m actually capable of providing that
The Department of Justice is now suing the state of Georgia over new voting restrictions, which Republicans have been putting in place since Donald Trump lost the election. According to a story in the Kansas City Star, as of mid-May, 22 restrictive voting laws have been passed in 14 states.
The excuse for passing new laws that make it harder for some people to vote (and by “some” people I think it’s safe to assume that means people who prefer Al Green over Lee Greenwood…and I’m pretty sure those musical references just dated me) is that the Republicans are just trying to stop election fraud, which as pretty much every court that looked at it has confirmed, didn’t actually happen.
Google “how many election” and before you can finish typing, Google will add “lawsuits did Trump lose” because apparently people have been asking that question a lot and according to a February 15th Reuters News Service story, courts have dismissed over 50 lawsuits challenging the election or its outcome.
And…
According to the Washington Post, while making wild Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers-level accusations in public, once they got into actual courts the lawsuits mostly focused on small complaints and even those were thrown out for lack of evidence. As one judge said:
“Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
So the idea that Republicans are trying to prevent the kind of election fraud that didn’t happen in 2020 from ever happening again led to these cartoons on the subject.
Looking for signs
So apparently Trump True Believers have been looking for signs that Joe Biden isn’t actually president and somebody put out a list of those signs on social media.
Like:
Biden flying on a private airplane to get to D.C. for the inauguration (which doesn’t prove anything)…
“Hail to the Chief” not being played on that day (actually it was)…
Biden not being given a 21-gun salute (actually he was)…
The inauguration being live-streamed in Spain 10 hours before it took place (actually it wasn’t)…
And Joe taking his hand off the Bible before his oath was finished (actually he didn’t).
Reuters looked into those Biden’s-Not-Actually-President claims and said six of them were outright lies and three of them were taken out of context which really pisses me off because as we all know, that’s my thing.
Anyway…
What’s interesting in a completely horrifying way is that some people will take any teensy, tiny piece of evidence – even ones that are completely made up and easily disproved – and say they conclusively prove Biden isn’t actually president and ignore the fact that Joe’s living in the White House, flying on Air Force One, issuing executive orders and meeting with foreign leaders which, kinda, sorta, just maybe, indicates Biden is president.
Also…
What kind of overly-flexible logic does it take to believe that everybody— including musicians and military people — is on this Biden’s-Not-Actually-President fraud, and they just couldn’t play “Hail to the Chief” or give him a 21-gun salute because that would be wrong, but it’s OK for Joe take a dump in the Oval Office bathroom.
(And here I’m assuming there is an Oval Office bathroom and Joe has used it. Sorry if that imagery is overly vivid, but I think people in power are put in proper perspective anytime you picture them sitting on the toilet and just in case I haven’t totally ruined your appetite: Lyndon Johnson was famous for making people come into the bathroom while he used the toilet which was his way of showing Who’s Boss and Which President Might Be A Titanic Asshole…so to speak.)
As usual, I provide the link to the article, not because I think you’re going to read it, but to prove I didn’t pull all this out my ass which seems to be the preferred source for many people on social media:
What happens if we don’t reach herd immunity?
Recently a reader asked why should anyone care if someone doesn’t choose to get vaccinated?
As many parents have learned, simple questions – Where do babies come from? – often require complex answers unless you decide to lie to your kids (which we all do at some point because they really can’t be anything they want to be, especially if they’re 5’6” and want to play power forward in the NBA) so you answer “The hospital” which should hold them until about the 5th grade when that one overly-informed kid spills the beans and makes your kid realize his parent are liars and the world is just a bit more complicated than any of us would like.
Anyway…
When enough people are immune to a disease it ceases to spread because it can’t find enough unprotected hosts to carry it.
That’s herd immunity.
It’s also why Joe Biden and the CDC and everybody but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are encouraging people to get vaccinated, which assumes the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does not have a position on COVID-19 vaccination and maybe they do, but at this point in the morning I don’t have enough energy to find out.
According to the UCLA health website, nobody knows for sure how many people have to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity and estimates range from 70-to-85% and according to the internet as of June 24th about 45.6 of Americans have been fully vaccinated so we’re nowhere near crossing the goal line.
We’re stalled on our own 45 because more than half the team has decided they don’t want to play and apparently young people (who will ingest drugs given to them by a complete stranger and I should know because I wasn’t always this old) are a big part of the problem.
But if you’re vaccinated, why should you care?
According to a November, 2020 article in the Miami Herald, vaccine efficacy and vaccine efficiency aren’t exactly the same thing and that made me look up the difference and apparently “efficacy” is how well a vaccine does in controlled clinical trial conditions and “efficiency” is how well it does in the real world.
And…
Until enough people get vaccinated in the real world (which doesn’t seem to include certain Trump supporters) they won’t know how efficient a vaccine is, how long it protects people and whether or not it’s efficient against new strains of the virus.
So 90% efficacy means that in a clinical trial a vaccine reduced the number of expected cases by 90% which it as it turns out, is pretty damn good.
According to the same article, no vaccine is ever 100% effective because some people are not protected by it or their protection wanes over time and the flu shots we get every winter are only 40% to 60% effective, but we still get them because it improves our odds and saves millions of lives.
Now here’s the link to that article:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article247372144.html
To simplify things (which is pretty much my job description) let’s go ahead and say 90% of vaccinated people are safe, but 10% aren’t, so the more COVID-19 virus that’s floating around, the greater the odds that even vaccinated people can get sick.
Without herd immunity the chances for a surge or large outbreak remains and if enough people get sick (and medical experts are worried about areas where people aren’t vaccinated) we might have another economic shutdown or maybe even worse need another economic shutdown and not have the political will to do it.
And that’s why everyone should care about the choice unvaccinated people are making.
Whether we like it or not, we’re all in this together.