Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

The Delta variant is so contagious, those unprotected will likely get it

Millions of Americans are jeopardizing their health, freedom and finances by not getting vaccinated and putting themselves at risk of the most infectious coronavirus strain yet, current and former federal health officials say.

"Most people will either get vaccinated, or have been previously infected, or they will get this Delta variant," Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

"And for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital," said Gottlieb, who was commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration.

For those not fully vaccinated, "quality of mask is going to make a difference with a variant that spreads more aggressively, like Delta does, where people are more contagious and exude more virus," he said.

In research posted online, scientists examining 62 cases of the Delta variant found viral loads about 1,260 times higher than those found from 63 cases from the early epidemic wave in 2020.

The Delta variant is also sending younger and previously healthy people to hospitals -- the vast majority of which have not been vaccinated, say doctors in several states suffering surges.

"This year's virus is not last year's virus," said Dr. Catherine O'Neal, an infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"It's attacking our 40-year-olds. It's attacking our parents and young grandparents. And it's getting our kids," O'Neal said. She said her Covid-19 unit now has more patients in their 20s who were previously healthy."You have to get vaccinated,"

O'Neal said. "That's the only way to end it. Masks and mitigation, they're not going to take it. It's going to be vaccination."

Since February, 97% of cases and deaths related to Covid-19 in Louisiana were among people not fully vaccinated, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday.

Like with any vaccine, a small percentage of vaccinated people may get a breakthrough infection. But it's literally impossible to get Covid-19 from any of the vaccines used in the US because none of them have any coronavirus in them.

"Even if you do have a breakthrough infection -- which, again, happens in a very small minority of people -- it's likely to be a mild or asymptomatic infection," US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN on Sunday.

But most Americans are not fully vaccinated. As of Sunday, only 48.6% of Americans were fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many Americans have not been vaccinated due to misinformation, which "takes away our freedom and our power to make (educated) decisions for us and our families," the surgeon general said.

Now, infections of the Delta variant have spread to all 50 states.

In Los Angeles County, the rate of new Covid-19 cases has increased 300% since July 4, the county health department said. Covid-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled from the previous month.

The surge in new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations prompted county officials to reinstate an indoor mask mandate.


She was in the best shape of her life,' then died from Covid-19

Rachel Maginn Rosser recently lost her 63-year-old mother to Covid-19. Rosser, a nurse, said she believes her mom would still be alive had she been vaccinated.

"She was in the best shape of her life. She was working out five times a week with a personal trainer," Rossner said Saturday. "She loved to go out and have fun. She was a social butterfly. And she got sick, and it was just a slow decline from there."

Kim Maginn had a sore throat and fever for about a week, said her daughter Rosser, who lives in Arkansas. Maginn was "shocked" when she went to the doctor last month and found out it wasn't strep, but Covid-19.

Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccinations rates in the country, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And with Covid-19 patients filling up hospital beds, Rosser said she felt "helpless" because she wasn't able to visit her mother when she was in an intensive care unit.

"I had to stay outside of her room and call her on her cell phone to talk to her," she said. "She looked really small in the bed. It was hard for her to talk because she was struggling to breathe."

Rosser said her mother didn't get vaccinated because she believed that since she hadn't already been infected, she wasn't going to get sick.

She said she pleaded for her mom to get vaccinated.

"I tried several different tactics. I laid all the facts out for her. I tried to plead to her emotional side of 'What would we do without you? Could you imagine our life without you?'" Rosser said.

"Part of me wishes I had tried harder. But she was really stubborn. She was stubborn, but she wasn't stupid. I think eventually I would have been able to convince her, but she got sick and she got Covid. And so there wasn't any more time to try and convince her."

Rosser said she hopes sharing her family's story will help encourage others who are vaccine hesitant to get vaccinated.

"This virus ... doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care if you're old or you're young, or you're healthy or you're not. Once you get it, it can be devastating to your family," Rosser said.

She encouraged people to "keep talking to their loved ones and keep trying to convince them because I wouldn't want anybody else to have to go through this."


Coronavirus has spread among children at camps

While the chances of children dying from Covid-19 are low, more children and teens are getting hospitalized with Covid-19 or suffering long-term complications.

There have been numerous instances of Covid-19 outbreaks at summer camps.

In Utah, officials are investigating Covid-19 cases at more than a dozen summer camps for children, said Aislynn Tolman-Hill, a spokesperson for Utah County's health department.

"We are hearing and know that there are MANY instances where symptomatic campers are sent home but not getting tested," Tolman-Hill told CNN in an email.

"This is obviously a huge concern. If we are not made aware of these situations, we cannot do contact tracing and notification of those exposed."

Local health records in Utah County showed less than 30% of children 12-18 are fully vaccinated. State law prohibits the Utah County Health Department from requiring camps to follow any coronavirus rules or procedures, Tolman-Hill said.

"All we can do is educate and advocate," she said.

In North Carolina, three out-of-state campers at Camp Daniel Boone Scout Camp in Haywood County tested positive for coronavirus, local health officials said.

The camp canceled its remaining sessions and notified health officials when the trio tested positive on July 14, according to a statement from Daniel Boone Council, Boy Scouts of America. The camp also informed everyone who attended camp during that time of their potential exposure.

The camp had been following its "COVID-19 Mitigation Plan," which was approved by county health officials, the statement said. Mitigation measures included a pre-event medical screening checklist, daily temperature checks, social distancing, a mask requirement for indoor and group settings and handwashing and sanitizing stations throughout the camp.

"These events bring to light that Covid-19 is still prevalent in our community," Haywood County Public Health Director Sarah Henderson said.

"It is not gone, and this is not over. We continue to see an uptick in positive cases as people gather in large groups and remain unvaccinated."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/18/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html

[Rick Plant]

America after Trump: Mental health expert says 'Dystopian science fiction ... is actually happening'




Donald Trump's regime continues to reveal its "secrets." But these are largely confirmations of what was both publicly and privately known for years about Trump and his allies' perfidious and despicable conduct, disregard for human life, and scheming against American democracy.

New reporting has confirmed what was long predicted: Trump was willing to do anything to stay in power after being defeated in the 2020 election, up to and including ordering the U.S. military to turn against the American people.

As detailed in the new book "I Alone Can Fix It" by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along other high-ranking military leaders, feared Trump as a potential Hitler and saw the potential for a "Reichstag fire" incident. Milley reportedly expressed concern in private that Trump would command his neofascist followers, both within and outside the government, to support a coup attempt and otherwise create chaos and violence.

Perhaps most worrisome, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others at the highest levels of government were concerned that Donald Trump would use nuclear weapons in an act of spite, perhaps to create a global disaster that would permit him to remain in power indefinitely.

If Trump had successfully ordered the United States military to keep him in power by usurping the will of the American people, the result could well have been a second American Civil War. The nation was saved from such an outcome, at least for the moment, through good fortune and the choices of a few real patriots such as Gen. Milley and his allies.

Unfortunately, Trumpism was not routed or finally defeated, and the Trump coup is ongoing. Trump remains in firm control of the Republican Party. At least 30 percent of the American people have been seduced by the Big Lie that the 2020 election was "stolen" from Trump and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.

The Jim Crow Republicans are escalating their war on multiracial democracy by proposing laws in numerous states designed to stop Black and brown people and others who support the Democratic Party from voting. The end goal of this anti-democratic campaign is to turn the United States into a plutocratic theocratic fascist state where dissent is not allowed and the Trump-Republican Party rules uncontested.

In a recent interview on MSNBC, historian Timothy Snyder, author of the bestselling book "On Tyranny," described this state of peril: "A failed coup is practice for a successful coup. ... We're now working within the framework of a Big Lie ... so long as we're in that framework of a Big Lie, we can expect one of the parties to try to rig the system."

Like other fascist and fake populist movements, Trumpism draws its power and a type of life force from the slavish loyalty of Trump's followers. Normal politics is fundamentally ill-equipped to grapple with fascism and its commands to ignore reality in deference to the Great Leader, the elevation of that leader into a type of God and extension of the self, and its collective celebration of narcissism and other anti-social behavior including violence and hatred. Ultimately, Trumpism is a cult movement: If Trump and other leaders are the brain and the arms, Trump's followers serve as a hammer meant to smash multiracial democracy.

At the Washington Post, Michael Bender, author of the new book "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost," writes about his interactions with Trump's followers:

They were mostly older White men and women who lived paycheck to paycheck with plenty of time on their hands — retired or close to it, estranged from their families or otherwise without children — and Trump had, in a surprising way, made their lives richer. ...

In Trump, they'd found someone whose endless thirst for a fight encouraged them to speak up for themselves, not just in politics but also in relationships and at work. His rallies turned arenas into modern-day tent revivals, where the preacher and the parishioners engaged in an adrenaline-fueled psychic cleansing brought on by chanting and cheering with 15,000 other like-minded loyalists. Saundra Kiczenski, a 56-year-old from Michigan, compared the energy at a Trump rally to the feelings she had as a teenager in 1980 watching the "Miracle on Ice" — when the U.S. Olympic hockey team unexpectedly beat the Soviet Union. ...

Kiczenski was in Washington with friends for the Jan. 6 rally. She was convinced beyond a doubt that Trump had been reelected on Nov. 3, only to have his victory stolen in what she described as "a takeover by the communist devils." She said she believed that, in part, because she had crossed paths with Corey Lewandowski, a well-known and ubiquitous Trump adviser, in the Trump International Hotel the previous summer. Lewandowski told her, she said, that the only way Trump could lose was if there was massive election fraud.

"If someone put a gun to my head and said: 'Did Donald Trump win, yes or no? And if you're wrong, we're going to shoot your head off!' I would say yes," Kiczenski told me. "I'm that confident that this stuff is not made up."

Since at least 2015, many of the country's leading mental health experts warned that Donald Trump was psychologically unstable if not sociopathic or psychopathic, that his movement constituted a cult, and if elected he would bring mass death and human suffering to the United States. These mental health professionals (and others who shared similar concerns) were demeaned as "hysterical" or accused of "Trump derangement syndrome." Many were cautioned to be silent for violating the obsolete and misunderstood "Goldwater rule," which held that mental health professionals are not to warn the public about obviously dangerous people if they have not examined them in person.

Dr. John Gartner is one such voice. He is a psychologist, psychoanalyst and former professor at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School and also the founder of Duty to Warn. He was a contributor to the 2017 bestseller "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President," and was featured in the recent documentary "Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump."

In our most recent conversation, Gartner reflects on the uncanny accuracy of his predictions that Donald Trump would unleash death, destruction and mayhem on the United States if elected president. He also explains how the pathological knot of control between Trump and his followers continues to hold because of the deposed president's unique "gift" of being able to stimulate the most primitive and violent parts of the human mind. Gartner reflects on the events of Jan. 6, and discusses why Trump's attack force was so excited and aroused by the violence of that day.

How does it feel to have been right about Donald Trump and all the destruction he has caused? Few people heeded your warnings.

The first word that comes to mind is "exhausting." This has been a long war. We keep thinking that we're going to wake up from this nightmare and we never do.

Why are Trump's followers and other neofascists still energized so right now? On the other hand, it appears the so-called resistance has had its will broken.

Some people's minds are organized in a more primitive way. Such people are more action-oriented, as opposed to being thought-oriented. The primitive-minded do not reflect, they don't consider, they don't create. They live in a world which is black and white. In such a mindset they are threatened by "bad people" and therefore must respond aggressively to protect "the homeland." People whose minds are organized in a more primitive way are essentially on a permanent war footing. Compared to other people, that is actually a type of advantage in terms of raw aggression.

Trumpists and other neofascists are engaged in an existential battle. They are fighting a life-and-death struggle, and will not stop until they win. A person who is committed to "normal" politics and the old ways of "consensus" and "bipartisanship," and who believes that somehow things will always turn out fine because of "the institutions" is not able to understand the peril the country is facing.

For these people it is not situational: it is a type of fundamental orientation. People who are organized at this more primitive level are fundamentally angry people. They are also fundamentally paranoid people, and ethnocentric. People who are organized at this more primitive level, who are closer to their evolutionary roots, have a program that a demagogue can activate.

Reviewing all the predictions that you made regarding the Age of Trump, what is the one you wish people had taken more seriously?

Even the people who believed us about the nature of Trump's psychopathology did not believe our warnings about how far he would go. Trump was so deviant from everything that we have ever experienced in America from a president. I remember saying, "He's going to form concentration camps. He will do that." When I was comparing Trump to Hitler, one of the things that people said was, "Oh, come on, you're going too far."

I was wrong about Trump starting a war. I am grateful to be wrong on that prediction. But what I did not realize then was that Trump would engage in germ warfare. I did believe that Donald Trump was going to kill hundreds of thousands of people, and he has. With COVID-19, Trump has killed more than 600,000 people.

Why are so many Americans still surprised by these "revelations" about Trump's wrongdoing as president? Based on his public behavior and what we already knew about him, none of this is a surprise at all.

In a way, we as a society have been so protected and privileged, and lived such a life of peace and sanity, that we don't believe that the dystopian science fiction that we are living today in America is actually happening. There's a certain default option of normality. Nobody wants to give up that default assumption that we are still living in a world of facts and sanity.

How do you assess the events of Jan. 6, with the attack on the Capitol and Trump's attempted coup?

The four traits of malignant narcissism that I've emphasized in my discussions and warnings about Trump and this era are narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality disorder and sadism. The one trait that is the most important, and the least recognized, is sadism. On Jan. 6, during that attack on the Capitol, there was a sense of carnival for Trump's mob. These people were having fun. There was a weird manic joy, a kind of euphoria, pleasure and excitement at harming other people.

Trump is a sadist, but he's also arousing and tapping into the sadism in his right-wing authoritarian followers. He liberates a level of aggressive energy because one of the beliefs of the right-wing extremist is that aggression should be used for dominance and to enforce conformity and submission. And so aggression is sexualized and celebrated. Freud said there were two kinds of energy, sexual and aggressive. So when you liberate aggressive energy, it's euphoric, elating, you feel alive. So these people felt more alive on Jan. 6 than any other day of their lives.

How does Trump transmit this violence to his followers?

They are already primed for it. Trump just encourages it. The interaction between Trump and the followers creates a whole new state of being. It is almost as if Trump's followers are sleeper cells waiting to be activated by him or some other similarly inclined leader.

How do you explain the connections between the Big Lie, Q-Anon and conspiracy theories more generally?

Noted psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton developed the concept of "malignant normality." This explains how a malignantly narcissistic leader can change the reality of the society so that people actually believe the Big Lie or other propaganda. It becomes the new conventional wisdom.

Right-wing authoritarians are fundamentally paranoid. Their paranoia functions such that everything that is "bad" is projected outward. It is like a mirror reality for them. Using the Republican Party as an example, they use projection to gaslight: "Whatever I am doing, I will accuse you of doing." Joseph Goebbels said much the same thing: "Accuse them of whatever you're doing."

For the psychopaths at the top who are perpetrating these things, it is not an unconscious psychological process. Instead, it is an intentional strategy. The people who are vulnerable to such a tactic exist in a social context where they live in a bubble of information. They also have personalities ready to believe any paranoid conspiracy theory. It's fundamental to their personality to believe that other bad people are doing crazy things that need to be defended against, and there's really no limit to what those bad people could be doing or what theories you could have about them — especially if you and your group are doing some of those bad things.

I receive many emails and other messages from people who are upset when I issue warnings about Trumpists, Republicans and the white right and their collective commitment to using terrorism and other forms of violence to achieve their goals. Trump's followers are willing to kill and die for him and his movement. What would you tell such people who, even now, are still in deep denial about the reality of the crisis facing the United States?

They are very serious about hurting people. They are very serious about criminalizing resistance to their fascistic one-party rule over the country.

The new book by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker reveals that during the final days of the Trump regime the highest levels of the military were preparing to disobey Trump's orders in order to save the country's democracy from a coup. They were worried that Trump was behaving like Hitler and could be capable of starting a nuclear war. The Guardian also obtained a document, supposedly from a secret meeting held at the Kremlin, suggesting that Trump was the chosen candidate of Russian leaders because they concluded he was mentally unstable and would be easy to manipulate. I'm wondering how you feel about these apparent confirmations of your warnings?

It's ironic that we were so severely criticized for diagnosing Trump as a malignant narcissist, when it was precisely this diagnosis that proved to the best predictor of his most dangerous behavior. Diagnosis was destiny. If we really allowed ourselves to consider the implications of a leader being this ill, we could have done more to protect ourselves. This would have included invoking the 25th Amendment, which we later learned was widely discussed within his administration.

For example, malignant narcissists don't peacefully transfer power. Period. That's why we warned back in 2017 that there was a high risk that he would initiate a coup or start a war, maybe even a nuclear war, to stay in power. Recent revelations from "Only I Can Fix It" show that both warnings should have been taken more seriously. Gen. Milley felt compelled to take steps to block a coup, and Nancy Pelosi called him to demand a promise that he would not allow "an unstable president" to use the nation's nuclear arsenal.

This alleged Kremlin document also validates our contention that Trump is the real-life "Manchurian Candidate," which many have known for a long time. What's new is that his mental instability was a feature, not a bug, for Vladimir Putin, who assessed Trump as an "impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex" and whose election would lead "lead to the destabilization of the U.S. sociopolitical system." This gives new meaning to psychological warfare. A Russian stooge as president is unthinkable enough, but a a mentally unstable one could bring the whole country down. The result has been to cripple us. We are almost incapable of shared reality-based thinking and collective action in our national interest on almost anything, including areas that always rallied the nation, like public health and national defense.

If Donald Trump somehow returns to office, either by election or through a successful coup, what will happen?

I believe it will make "The Handmaid's Tale" look like a vacation.

https://www.rawstory.com/john-gartner-on-trump/

[Jack Nessan]

Obviously, you have no clue about the disease because you're parroting the same  disinformation that comes from the right wing media. A slight fever is not a "terrible reaction" and it's a lot better than a 104 temperature dying from Covid in the ICU being hooked up to a ventilator.     

And being unvaccinated will allow you to get sick all over again with even worse symptoms. The whole point of the vaccine is not to be put in that situation again to where you can die from it.     

 

There were no "other variants" around before. The reason the Delta variant started is because it mutated from the serious COVID crisis in India and it eventually spread to America. The reason we will need booster shots is because of these anti vaxx idiots who refuse to get vaccinated and the Delta variant will mutate into another more deadly variant so a new booster shot will be needed to combat that strain. If everybody got vaccinated we will reach herd immunity which is why health experts, doctors, and Democrats are trying so hard to get people vaccinated. But with all the vaccine disinformation, especially the nonsense you're parroting it will be more difficult to obtain.           

I already answered your ridiculous question and I can't believe you are even asking something like this.

The vaccine prevents you from dying from COVID-19 and the more deadly Delta variant. If you happen to get COVID and you are vaccinated the symptoms will be extremely mild and you won't die.

Already having COVID does nothing to protect you from not getting it again. That's why you need to get vaccinated so you won't die from the more deadly Delta variant. People who already had COVID are getting it again and dying from the Delta variant.

Lay off the right wing vaccine disinformation.   

You would benefit from talking to people around you about what has happened in the last year and one half and what is happening now. It appears you have locked yourself away and have had no contact with the outside world and people around you, except for news media outlets. Not one thing you have posted is based in the real world.

The vaccine obviously works but has issues and like the "Morning Sickness Pill" the long term effects of it are yet to be known.

[Rick Plant]

You would benefit from talking to people around you about what has happened in the last year and one half and what is happening now. It appears you have locked yourself away and have had no contact with the outside world and people around you, except for news media outlets. Not one thing you have posted is based in the real world.

The vaccine obviously works but has issues and like the "Morning Sickness Pill" the long term effects of it are yet to be known.

You are posting nothing but nonsense.

What has happened in the last year was an absolute disaster with Criminal Donald, his corrupt administration, and the right wing media purposely lying to the American people allowing over 600,000 Americans to die. Now they are purposely pushing anti vaccine propaganda to prevent people from getting vaccinated so more people will die and you're parroting the same lies. You would greatly benefit from not watching blatant vaccine disinformation on Faux Propaganda.   

This is the real world Mr. Nessan, unvaccinated children and people are dying from COVID-19 which is now the more deadly Delta variant. You choose to live in a world of fantasy and make believe from what you hear in the right wing media. If you want to save your life you need to get vaccinated. Lay off the right wing media's bogus propaganda.


15-year-old Colorado girl dies from coronavirus Delta variant

Mesa County, Colorado reported its first child COVID-19 death in May. Shilynne Loux said that girl was her 15-year-old daughter.

Kaci Loux tested positive for the Delta variant and was hospitalized before her age group was eligible for the vaccine, the health department said.

“She was an outstanding girl. Like I said, she loved her music, she loved hanging out with me," her mom said.

Her mother is still in shock over what happened.

"You shouldn't have to lose your own kid over it," Loux said.

Cases of the rapidly spreading Delta variant are skyrocking in several states, including Colorado. The majority of the variant cases have been reported in Mesa County.

Health officials say that the variant is a high risk for young children who are not vaccinated.

Loux said her youngest daughter had coronavirus back in April, and everyone in the family ended up getting it. Only her daughter Kaci was hospitalized.

"It progressed pretty fast," she said. "She was complaining that she couldn't breathe.”

At one point, her mother said it seemed like Kaci was improving.

They're getting ready to put her into recovery and then everything just went to hell," she said.

Her daughter went into cardiac arrest and passed away after nearly a month in the hospital.

She warned other parents that if they believe their child is sick, don't wait to take them to the hospital.

"Take them in ASAP because if you wait it gets 10 times worse and it will shut their lungs down fast," she said.

The 15-year-old girl had so much life ahead of her.

“She was so loved," her mother said.

https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/15-year-old-colorado-girl-dies-from-coronavirus-delta-variant/19778107/


Unvaccinated Man Who Died of COVID 'Never Thought It Could Happen to Him'

The wife of an unvaccinated North Dakota man who died of COVID-19 last month has spoken out, saying her husband thought it "could never happen to him."

Amy Tersteeg told INFORUM that she did not want to push anyone to get vaccinated, but she felt the urge to share her husband's story so people could hear about his experience.

She said her husband, Rob Tersteeg, was open to getting vaccinated but was not in a rush to do so because he had no underlying health conditions.

"He never thought it could happen to him," she told INFORUM. "I want people to see what COVID really does. I want them to know that Rob received every COVID treatment, and it did not save him. "

Rob Tersteeg died on June 3 at the age of 46 after having received weeks of treatment for COVID-19.

As he lay on an ICU bed at Trinity Health in the city of Minot, the devoted stepfather to three children told his wife that she should get the kids vaccinated as soon as possible.

Amy Tersteeg had already received the vaccine earlier in the pandemic due to the fact that she works in an administrative role for Trinity Health.

Aside from not having any underlying health conditions, Tersteeg said that her husband had not prioritized getting vaccinated given that he had made it through more than a year of the pandemic without contracting COVID-19, while also seeing case numbers in North Dakota declining.

In his role as an oilfield safety officer for a natural gas company, Rob Tersteeg had traveled all over the U.S. in 2020 and had never become infected, even after being in states where COVID-19 was running rampant.

But in mid-May this year, Tersteeg began to develop symptoms of the disease, including a cough. Eventually, he began to experience difficulties with his breathing and decided to head to the emergency room. Unfortunately, he would never return home from hospital.

"Nothing had ever taken Rob down before. He just didn't stand a chance against COVID," Amy Tersteeg said.

During his hospitalization, his family was not allowed to be in the room due to COVID protocols.

"He was just so isolated and alone," Amy Tersteeg said.

By the end of the month, her husband's condition had worsened and he was intubated. He was eventually airlifted to another hospital in Minneapolis to receive specialist treatment. However, medical staff could not save him and he died in the early morning of June 3.

Dr. Casmiar Nwaigwe, an infectious disease specialist at Trinity Health, said some people think that they will not be severely affected by COVID-19 because they are relatively young and healthy. But Rob Tersteeg's story demonstrates that even seemingly healthy people can die from the disease.

"People feel that as long as they don't have any underlying medical conditions that they are not at risk of COVID. In my experience, it is not true," Nwaigwe told iNFORUM.

As of July 11, more than 184 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine—roughly 55 percent of the population—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 159 million Americans have been fully vaccinated.

https://www.newsweek.com/unvaccinated-man-died-covid-north-dakota-1608794

[Rick Plant]

We all know what happened. Criminal Donald refused to call in the National Guard because he wanted his MAGA domestic terrorists to overthrow the US Government to keep him in power and they covered it up which is why important items are omitted. All of these anti American seditious traitors need to be brought up on treason. And hopefully the judge will throw the book at this MAGA thug because they don't care they tried to overthrow the US Government and all feel they are above the law.   


New book about Trump reveals Pentagon omitted things from Jan. 6 timeline — and ex-special counsel wants to know why

Another book about the final year of Donald Trump's presidency will be released Tuesday. This one, by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, is extensively well researched and goes into much greater detail about interactions between the Trump White House and members of the House, Senate and Pentagon.

"I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" reveals a key piece to the ongoing questions about the failures on Jan. 6 and failures at all levels of government to protect the U.S. Capitol.

A former special counsel for the Department of Defense, Ryan Goodman, outlined how the book exposes discrepancies in the Pentagon's timeline for that day. Goodman placed the two side-by-side revealing some omissions that the Washington Post reporters were able to uncover.

"Despite Milley recommending that the Pentagon call up neighboring National Guard units immediately, Ryan McCarthy hadn't gotten around to it until more than 2 1/2 hours after the Capitol was breached. About 750 Guard troops from Maryland would soon begin arriving, along with 620 from Virginia," the book says.

McCarthy was serving as Secretary of the Army at the time. In a January statement to Congress, he claimed that the National Guard that was on hand in Washington on Jan. 6 had "no contingency" in place if things escalated. As CNN reported, McCarthy also "told Congress that alternate plans would only have happened if the US Capitol Police or local authorities in Washington requested it."

Goodman reveals that the book has a reference to a 2:30 p.m. meeting in which Milley recommends officials "send out a call for National Guard reinforcements from the nearby states." The Pentagon's timeline shows that at 2:30 p.m. there was a meeting about the Washington, D.C. Guard. The timeline then reveals that there was a 4:18 p.m. meeting about other states' Guards.

The DOD also omitted from their timeline a 4:39 p.m call between Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows along with Mitch McConnell, who joined the call sounding "furious." The item is in the Rucker/Leonnig book but doesn't appear in the Pentagon timeline.

Goodman said that those "egregious omissions" already raise questions.

One, he said is: "Does Army Secretary McCarthy finally get around to calling Maryland's Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) at 4:40 p.m. only after 4:39 p.m. call where McConnell sounds furious about DoD lack of action?"

Another question he had was if McConnell's request to the Department of Defense "to clear the building incongruent with what DoD ultimately does, which is deploy the Guard only to the perimeter (and late in the day)?"

Acting Secretary of Defense's chief of staff, Kash Patel, told a reporter: "I was talking to Meadows, nonstop that day," so it raises even more questions.

He noted that it should cast doubts on the Pentagon's report, which could necessitate an investigation into what else might be omitted by the Pentagon and why.

See his full thread on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1417147781270097920



MAGA rioter's hearing turns 'ugly' after she yells at judge while declaring herself a 'sovereign citizen'



A court hearing for MAGA rioter Pauline Bauer went off the rails on Monday after she began yelling at the judge while declaring herself a "sovereign citizen."

NBC 4 Washington's Scott MacFarlane reports that Bauer, who infamously called for the hanging of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during the Capitol riots, immediately went off the deep end by telling the judge that she is not subject to American laws.

According to MacFarlane, Bauer during her court hearing repeatedly interrupted the judge while also demanding that the court recognize her own personal judicial authority.

"Every man is independent of all laws, except those of nature," declared Bauer, who decided to represent herself in court.

The judge at one point asked Bauer if she wanted to reconsider her decision to forgo legal representation by professional legal counsel, and she again declared that the court had no authority over her.

According to MacFarlane, the hearing got even crazier from there.

"This case... is going off-the-rails," he reported on Twitter. "January 6 defendant Pauline Bauer says she won't let pre-trial services come into her home, won't turn over her passport, calls the search of her home 'illegal'' -- and refuses to let judge move forward and get her lawyer. Ugly."

Bauer first gave hints of her purported "sovereign citizen" status when she filed a bizarre motion to dismiss her case in which she described herself as "I, Me, Pauline Bauer the Living Soul, A Creation of God."

The filing went on to demand that the court "drop all Charges against my VESSEL - PAULINE BAUER and Dismiss the Case."

Bauer has been charged with multiple counts of violent entry, disruptive conduct, and obstruction of Congress for her role in the deadly January 6th Capitol riots, in which she was heard yelling, "bring Nancy Pelosi out here now… we want to hang that f***ing b*t*h."

https://www.rawstory.com/sovereign-citizen-in-court/

[Rick Plant]

So, the lying right wing propaganda hacks at Faux have to abide by strict COVID-19 orders at their headquarters but come on the air each night and tell their sheep viewers that wearing masks, social distancing, and vaccine passports are "unconstitutional". These frauds even tell the viewers (or suckers as I call them) not to follow mask mandates, social distance, or to get vaccinated which is killing the people who watch them.

So, these lying fraudsters have to follow these strict orders themselves at Faux, but tell their brainwashed cult followers on t.v. it's "unconstitutional" and not to follow orders in their community or place of work.

Frauds like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham are wearing masks at work if they are unvaccinated, but rail against masks on the air. So, why aren't these frauds refusing to wear masks like they tell their sheep viewers to do on the air?

If these frauds are vaccinated, they know themselves all the outright lies they spew to the sheep that watch them each night is total b.s. while pumping them with false vaccine disinformation as they are catching COVID-19 and dying. This propaganda network needs to have their broadcasting license revoked until they stop pushing outright lies that are killing Americans each day.       


Fox News has a strict COVID-19 policy that includes the kind of vaccine passport Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and other right-wing hosts have railed against

The Fox Corporation has a return to office protocol involving voluntary proof of vaccination.

Top host Tucker Carlson has compared vaccine passports to "Jim Crow" racial segregation laws.

Fox Corp employees who don't submit their status must continue masking and social distancing.

The Fox Corporation has instituted a strict COVID-19 policy that includes a vaccine passport, allowing only the company's fully-vaccinated employees to work in their offices without wearing a mask or social distancing.

But a slew of the parent company's Fox News personalities, particularly two of its highest-paid and most influential primetime hosts, have railed against exactly this kind of vaccination policy, also known as a "vaccine passport."

Beyond increased vaccine hesitancy among conservative men — a major share of the network's audience — polling shows Fox News viewers are less likely to say they have gotten or plan on getting the vaccine compared to the general population.

Many of the network's daytime anchors have said on-air that they've gotten vaccinated and have encouraged viewers to do the same, but in primetime, hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have both frequently dismissed the science around the vaccine and featured guests making misleading and false claims about the shots' high level of efficacy.

Carlson, Fox's top rated host and the centerpiece of its growing streaming service, has compared vaccine passports to "Jim Crow" racial segregation laws and likened asking someone about their vaccination status to asking them whether they've been infected with HIV or what their favorite sex positions are.

"Medical Jim Crow has come to America," Carlson claimed last month. "If we still had water fountains, the unvaccinated would have separate ones."

Both the host and network will not say whether he's been vaccinated.

A Fox News spokesperson pointed Insider toward a Fox Corp. memo from June on return to office procedures. A Fox Corp. spokesperson confirmed the rollout of the voluntary proof of vaccination system to Insider in an email.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-covid-protocols-vaccination-passport-memo-tucker-carlson-2021-7

[Joe Elliott]

You would benefit from talking to people around you about what has happened in the last year and one half and what is happening now. It appears you have locked yourself away and have had no contact with the outside world and people around you, except for news media outlets. Not one thing you have posted is based in the real world.

The vaccine obviously works but has issues and like the "Morning Sickness Pill" the long term effects of it are yet to be known.

Question:

In the long history of vaccines, which vaccine was used, which seemed to have rare serious side effects, was discovered, six months later, to have serious long term side effects.

That is, rare serious side effects in the first six months, but common serious long-term side effects discovered later.

Give us your best example from the history of medicine.

On the other hand, the long-term effects of not getting a vaccine, are well known. At least a 1 % death rate, possibly higher with the Delta variant. Not one in 500,000. Not one in 100,000. It is more than one in 100.

Also, for those who survive the infection, it is common for them to become “Long Haulers” who perhaps will neve recover their sense of smell and have other health complications.

[Rick Plant]

Wouldn't you think a Catholic school would be "Pro Life" by wearing masks to protect kids and save their lives? Instead, they want living and breathing kids to get sick and die from COVID-19 but they fight tooth and nail to whine about abortion. They want to force a child to be born, so they can sacrifice it to the virus, which is aborting a human being. So much right wing hypocrisy and their actions are killing people. And in Tennessee, Republican leadership is killing more of their residents.     

Michigan Catholic school says making students wear masks would be a direct affront to God

The Resurrection School in Lansing, a Catholic elementary school, argues the mandate is unconstitutional.

"The school says such a rule would violate 'sincerely held religious beliefs' because they say humans were made in the image of God, and masks shield that image from being seen," Michigan Radio reports. "They also allege requiring masks poses a health or learning problem for students who have allergies, difficulty breathing, or trouble being understood when they talk through a face covering."

There is not currently a statewide mask mandate in Michigan, although that hasn't stopped the school from continuing to pursue its case.

On Monday, a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled a university can mandate vaccinations in another case testing the ability of educational institutions to respond to the pandemic.

https://www.rawstory.com/mask-mandate-2653853187/


Tennessee vaccine summit 'indefinitely postponed' even as state COVID hospitalizations surge

Tennessee's vaccine skepticism under Republican Gov. Bill Lee continues to impact state policy.

"The Tennessee Department of Health abruptly postponed a virtual vaccine summit intended to provide training to medical professionals across the state as the agency continues to dial back its vaccination outreach despite widespread condemnation," the Nashville Tennessean reports.

The Department of Health website for the Tennessee Immunization Summit says the event has been "POSTPONED until further notice."

"The summit was intended to be a repeat of a virtual conference launched last year that featured local and national experts on immunizations and vaccine advocacy," the newspaper writes. "More than 350 medical professionals attended the event, and 'the reviews were overwhelmingly positive,' according to a description of the event previously posted on the health department's website but has since been removed."

The move to shut down the summit came even after Tennessee coronavirus hospitalizations rose 45.7% from last week.

Tennessee has been making multiple moves to end its promotion of vaccinations in the state, and last week the Tennessee Department of Health shut down all efforts to promote vaccinations to adolescents, while also firing Tennessee's top vaccine official for what she claimed were her efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccinations for teenagers.

On Friday, Republican former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a doctor, blasted Tennessee's "deadly" approach to the pandemic.

It should be the top priority of our state’s leadership to lead – to unambiguously lead each and every day – in encouraging #Covid and childhood vaccinations, especially in the midst of a pandemic where infections and new variants continue to spread

https://www.rawstory.com/tennessee-republican-2653850878/



Ozark, Mo. woman urges vaccinations after losing her husband to COVID-19: “I’m just thinking how lucky I was to have him, even for a short amount of time.”

COVID-19 spreads across southwest Missouri, it’s taking more lives in our community.

54-year-old Richard Glenn died on July 7 from COVID-19. Glenn tested positive for the virus at the end of May. At first his symptoms were mild, with fatigue, tiredness and a slight fever. His wife, Teresa Glenn, says his oxygen levels started declining and that’s when she took him to the emergency room.

“His lungs had just been so brutally beaten by the COVID,” Teresa says. “He was a healthy man before all of this.”



As time passed at Cox South Hospital, he wasn’t getting better. Teresa says they had to put Rich on a ventilator. She says nurses told her it was the only thing that could save his life.

“He couldn’t even talk to me so I never got to hear his voice again,” She says. “I mean he could hear mine but I couldn’t hear his.”

The couple attended Ozark High School together. They reconnected on Facebook a few years ago and married in 2018.

“I’m just thinking how lucky I was to have him, even for a short amount of time,” She says.

Their love story waited decades to unfold and for her it was cut too short, too soon.

“He always counted the days that we were married because he said it made him sound like he loved me longer,” she says. “Instead of saying oh it’s a one month anniversary or a one year anniversary, it was oh that’s my bride of 365 days. I was lucky to be his bride for 1,252 days.”

For those not lucky enough to have known him, Teresa describes Rich as someone who always put others before himself. Rich loved his job as a commercial trucker, often considered a workaholic.

However, they were able to take one last trip together in April and for that, Teresa couldn’t be more thankful.

“To get him to slow down and actually enjoy relaxing, resting and experiencing sights he had never seen before,“ she says. “It was fun to watch through his eyes.”

She received her COVID-19 vaccine early on, but she says he had reservations.

“I was protected and I just kept thinking God is protecting me so I can take care of him,” She says.

By the time he changed his mind, it was too late. His busy work schedule kept him from having time to make a vaccine appointment. Then, he contracted the virus.

“It might have kept him out of the ICU,” Teresa says. “It might have kept him from being gone now.”

That’s why she is encouraging people to get the vaccine. She is hoping others can learn from her story.

“I no longer have this man here with me,” Teresa says. “I no longer have this man to share my life with.”

Teresa is relying on her faith to help her through. Church and faith was something not only important to her, but to Rich.

“I know someday I will see him again,” Teresa says. “Heaven was always something to look forward to but it really is now because I can’t wait.”

Teresa is encouraging people to appreciate their loved ones daily, knowing that tomorrow isn’t promised.

https://www.ky3.com/2021/07/20/ozark-mo-woman-urges-vaccinations-after-losing-her-husband-covid-19/