Where are the ads? We have a pandemic that is one of worse disasters in our nation’s history. And there are very few commercials telling people to get vaccinated. Instead we hear about how fools and charlatans are spreading conspiracy theories with their neighbors. So it would make sense to have educational ads that include celebrities telling us about the need to get vaccinated and wear a mask. During WWII Hollywood stars sold government bonds to get Americans onboard with fighting the external enemy. We should be doing the same now. This is a war against an enemy of a different type–a virus.
Television ads promoting the vaccine for Covid-19 have been airing on television since it became widely available. But a sharp decline in the TV spots appears to correlate to a persistent group of vaccine-hesitant Americans, or so suggests the reporting by CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen.
Appearing on CNN’s New Day Friday morning, Cohen cited data from iSpot that tracks commercials across the broad spectrum of broadcast and cable television. “With nearly a third of Americans opting not to get vaccinated, you would hope the ads would increase, educating people, letting people know the correct information rather than all the misinformation that’s circulating on social media,” she told Brianna Keilar.
She then unveiled a chart that showed a sharp decline in pro-vaccination television spots from the middle of May. “What they found is that the number of Covid-19 vaccine ads viewed on TV peaked in May and then went down steadily,” she noted. “That decline is really quite dramatic,” she added before noting that TV viewing naturally always goes down in the summer.
“Still, that is a decline right at the time that you don’t want a decline because there are so many people who need to hear this message,” she said, before showing the sorts of ads that resonate best with Republicans and Democrats. Turns out that a spot featuring former presidents touting the benefits of the vaccine resonated very well with Democrats but not Republicans. A FedEx advertisement that showed the nation moving forward, not backward, and getting past the pandemic was a favorite among Republicans, according to research provided to CNN from iSpot.
This is for all you suckers who have been drinking the Kool Aid. This is another money-making scam. Are you gonna fall for this one also:
On Wednesday night, Trump’s campaign — which somehow still exists — announced they wanted his supporters to carry “Trump cards” and asked his fans to vote on their favorite design. The cards say OFFICIAL TRUMP CARD on them in big letters and feature the Florida blogger’s illegible signature. One of the designs featured an enormous eagle that prompted many on social media to make comparisons to the sigil of the Nazi Party.
Members of the MAGA cult (including members of Congress) have a problem distinguishing between loyalty to Trump and loyalty to the constitution. They are not the same. It doesn’t help that the leader of the cult has no loyalty to anything but himself:
A federal judge rejected the argument that US Capitol rioters held in jail are being prosecuted for their political views and disavowed attempts to downplay the magnitude of the deadly insurrection during a sentencing on Wednesday.
"You called yourself and everyone else patriots, but that’s not patriotism," Judge Amy Berman Jackson said of defendant Karl Dresch. "Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a head of state. That is the tyranny we rejected on July 4."
Jackson, known for her sharp criticism of the Trump administration’s moves, called Dresch an "enthusiastic participant" in the effort "to subvert democracy, to stop the will of the people and replace it with the will of the mob."
Excellent idea. Most of the guns used to kill hundreds of the innocents in Mexico are obtained in the U.S. By holding gun manufacturers accountable that might make the gun industry hesitant about where their guns go. It worked with the tobacco industry. But it is pathetic that it took a foreign country to do the job that should be done by politicians in America. They won’t do it since they’ve been bought off by the gun lobby–both parties:
The Mexican government sued United States gun manufacturers and distributors Wednesday in U.S. federal court, arguing that their negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico.
The unusual lawsuit was filed in U.S. federal court in Boston. Among those being sued are some of the biggest names in guns, including: Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, and Glock Inc. Another defendant is Interstate Arms, a Boston-area wholesaler that sells guns from all but one of the named manufacturers to dealers around the U.S.
In a country that has suffered more than a decade of violence at the hands of powerful drug cartels, the situation in Zacatecas, as well as violence-plagued states like Michoacán and Tamaulipas, shows that neither the head-on drug war launched by former President Felipe Calderón in 2006, nor the softer “hugs not bullets” approach of current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have managed to break Mexico’s cycle of violence.
Bullet holes scar a home’s exterior wall, on the outskirts of the municipality of Valparaiso, Zacatecas state, Mexico, Wednesday, July 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
And she is right. They put their vacation plans above saving fellow Americans from being thrown out of their homes without a roof over their heads:
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling fellow Washington Democrats “cowards” for failing to extend a moratorium on evicting Americans during the pandemic, which after roughly 8 months of protection has put a reported 11 million Americans in jeopardy of losing shelter.
“The House and House leadership had the opportunity to vote to extend the moratorium and there was, frankly, a handful of conservative Democrats in the House that threatened to get on planes rather than hold this vote,” Cortez said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We have to call a spade a spade. We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority.”
We’ve known for a month that the eviction moratorium would end Sunday. But tonight, Congress adjourned for 7 weeks without doing ANYTHING about it — imperiling the homes & lives of 11 million people behind on rent.
Today Biden announced a new moratorium. Why did it take him 5 days? Well, it took Cori Bush and AOC’s strong words and actions to make him do the right thing. Because on his own Biden won’t ever do the right thing:
President Biden did exactly the right thing in persuading the CDC today to put in place this new, more targeted, eviction moratorium until Oct. 3, giving states and localities more time to distribute available Covid-19 relief funds to cover unpaid renthttps://t.co/76nbeo1zjc
Biden had his ‘mission accomplished’ moment with his dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. And now we have a fourth wave that threatens to stop all the progress made over the last few months.
Leana Wen, “A former Baltimore public health commissioner who now teaches emergency medicine at George Washington University, Wen has become a prominent commentator on the coronavirus pandemic.“:
The single biggest mistake that the Biden administration made during this entire pandemic response — and I would argue in the entire Biden presidency — was back in May when the CDC said that vaccinated people can take off their mask, but did not have proof of vaccination attached to it. And as a result, people understood the pandemic to be over them. The unvaccinated began behaving like they were vaccinated.
And what did we see? We saw exactly what I and many public health experts predicted at the time. The honor code did not work. Surges have happened because of unvaccinated individuals. Now with the Delta variant, restrictions are coming back, except nobody’s listening anymore.
President Biden absolutely declared a victory too soon.
The problem is Biden’s approach is to let decision making to others (in particular the CDC and Dr.Fauci) rather than taking full command. That has led to mixed messaging. He has allowed Dr.Fauci to become the target of criticism, especially from Republicans. Biden’s hands-off approach was intended to contrast with his predecessor who politicized every aspect of handling the pandemic. Biden’s approach is not much better.
The hands-off approach has at times left his White House scrambling to find its footing in the wake of some of the agency’s most consequential moves.
I can’t tell you how shocked I was by their announcement because the CDC went from 0 to 100.
They went from this overly cautious, nonsensical approach to another nonsensical approach – but one that is dangerous, one that throws caution out the window.
Ironically, I was on CNN just before the announcement and was asked to speculate on what I wished the CDC would do. Previously, I had been very critical of the CDC and their overly cautious approach. Before last week, the agency was saying the vaccines are very effective, but you can’t change your behaviors very much after getting vaccinated. It didn’t make sense and was actually serving as a disincentive to people getting vaccinated.
I explained that I thought it was too soon to be lifting indoor mask mandates overall, but that the CDC could say that fully vaccinated people could be around one another without restriction, including in workplaces and large, public venues like theaters. Also, the CDC could have defined metrics for vaccination that are then tied to lifting remaining mandates. So if a particular region had 70% of its population fully vaccinated – whatever the range is, defined on a region-by-region, community-by-community basis – it could determine when remaining restrictions would be removed.
Another major failure has been the inability to help get the world vaccinated. A major factor in the recent cases of positivity surge has been the highly contagious Delta variant which came from India. It’s no surprise that with less than 1 percent of the earth’s poor population being vaccinated that it would have an impact in the U.S. So it was imperative that we help get other needy countries vaccinated. The Biden administration is either unwilling and/or is incapable of helping other nations.
President Joe Biden came up well short on his goal of delivering 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June as a host of logistical and regulatory hurdles slowed the pace of U.S. vaccine diplomacy.
Although the Biden administration has announced that about 50 countries and entities will receive a share of the excess COVID-19 vaccine doses, the U.S. has shipped less than 24 million doses to 10 recipient countries, according to an Associated Press tally. The White House says more will be sent in the coming days — with about 40 million doses expected to be shipped by the end of the week — and stresses that Biden has done everything in his power to meet the commitment.
It’s not for lack of doses. All the American shots are ready to ship, the White House said. Rather, it’s taking more time than anticipated to sort through a complex web of legal requirements, health codes, customs clearances, cold-storage chains, language barriers and delivery programs. Complicating matters even further is that no two shipments are alike.
It’s the same old story. Democrats are too cowardly and inept too stand up for the voters that courageously came in record numbers to give them control of the Congress and the White House. Now when their voters need them the most they are going on vacation. Democrats are leaving town without passing legislation that would prevent millions of Americans from being kicked to the curb. Because the rent moratorium is expiring today. Meanwhile, Republicans continue to impose their fascist and white supremacist agenda on America without fear from Democrats.
The leader of the movement to save the voting rights of Americas is now being led by Reverend William Barber:
Meanwhile in Washington, Cori Bush is leading the fight to keep Americans from losing their beds:
Good morning. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight.
We could have extended it yesterday, but some Democrats went on vacation instead.
We slept at the Capitol last night to ask them to come back and do their jobs.
That’s because he was in on the insurrection. He knew there would be shooting. Who gave him the tip?
Congressman Mo Brooks during the rally on January 6th that led to the attack on the Capitol, was wearing body armor. He claims he got a “tip” by someone. Who?
During his speech on that fateful day he talked about “taking down names and kicking ass!” Brooks was helping to incite an insurrection that he knew would end in violence.
Just a reminder, it’s been over 6 months since the January 6th insurrection and Donald Trump is still walking the streets a free man despite trying to overthrow the constitution.
You don’t have believe me about Trump’s complicity. Listen to a military man who’s sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution:
Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who was tasked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with conducting a review of the US Capitol’s security after January 6, on Tuesday said President Donald Trump’s White House was complicit in orchestrating the insurrection.
“It’s my personal opinion that the executive branch was complicit in the planning and the delayed response that occurred in bringing in more federal assistance to the Capitol that day,” Honoré said during an MSNBC appearance, underscoring that he had not reached this conclusion from the security review he spearheaded.
“That’s my own perception, based on what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard and by the fact the former president is continuing to tell people, ‘This was not a riot, it meant no harm, it was like a picnic,'” Honoré said, adding, “The last I heard from him, he told them to go to the Capitol and raise hell.”
Will this cop be arrested? No. Will he be fired? Open to question. Certainly he won’t be held accountable unless the public demands it. Guess who gets to investigate. The police department. Business as usual.
They officers knew she was mentally ill. And they also knew she posed no risk to them:
The officers were responding to reports of an armed person on Haygood Avenue in the Peoplestown neighborhood, according to a news release. The caller said a woman was walking in the area and had pointed a gun at several people.
Once the officers detained the woman, they “became concerned with the female’s mental health and requested Grady EMS transport her to the hospital for evaluation,” the news release said. No charges were filed against the woman, and no further updates were provided about her condition.
The 99 Percenters 