The Big Lie Is A Big Deal

May 9, 2021

Dan Rather and Steady Team

This Sunday Essay opens with a fair warning. You may find what I’ve written below to be a little different in tone and style from some of the previous fare on Steady.

For starters, let’s consider the idea of “steady.” I remain committed to the concept and the community we are building here where we try to take a long view on the news of the moment with a sense of, well, steadiness. But being steady doesn’t mean you can’t also get more steamed than a locomotive. And that’s where I find myself today. So usher out the children. Cover sensitive ears. Because this old reporter is full of a little fire.

The topic at hand is the truth, and not some esoteric notion to be debated in a college philosophy seminar. This is a truth so urgent, so important, so obvious, that attempts to undermine it would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous. So here it is.

Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. It wasn’t particularly close. He won the total national vote overwhelmingly and won decisively in the Electoral College. There is no credible suggestion to the contrary. Election officials confirmed it. The courts confirmed it. It is apparent to everyone who doesn’t live in an alternate reality, who doesn’t harbor seditionist impulses, who isn’t a craven opportunist, or who doesn’t marinate in the cesspool of these forces, otherwise known as Fox News. For those who suggest otherwise (who say that Biden is not the legitimately elected President of the United States), many have been deceived and others are willfully deceiving them for their own cynical, and dangerous, ends.

And yet that’s where a majority of Republicans find themselves today, if you believe the polls. And it is certainly where a majority of elected officials are if you just listen to what they say, or more importantly don’t say. Now the origin of this lie-laden authoritarianism is the former president, who couldn’t fall back on his usual playbook of suing, sulking, and skedaddling to get himself out of the loser spotlight. So he decided to do what he does best, the tool he used to propel himself to the presidency. He lied. Not a small half-truth. Not a wee fib. Not even a bald-faced lie. A lie so big it deserves to be written as a proper noun — the Big Lie.

This Big Lie led to violent insurrectionists storming the United States Capitol, attempting to stop final certification of election results. It has led to Republican state representatives falling over themselves to try to cut back on voting rights. And how do they try to justify it? They say their supporters have lost faith in the voting system. But that is because their supporters have been lied to by the same politicians who are now using that as an excuse to stifle democracy. Propaganda and authoritarianism play on in a destructive feedback loop.


Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) speaks during a press conference following a House Republican caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on April 20, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Now to be fair, not EVERY Republican has fallen in line. Take the high-profile case of Liz Cheney, the daughter of former vice president, Dick Cheney. She’s certainly no liberal (her voting record has been solidly pro-Trump), but she has had the temerity to say what her colleagues won’t, that the would-be emperor has no clothes (please spare yourself the mental image). For this act of bravery her fellow House Republicans are coming for her like a political version of Murder on the Orient Express, except in this case they have no problem brandishing their guilt for the world to see.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) stands as she's acknowledged by President Trump as he speaks one day after the U.S. Senate acquitted on two articles of impeachment, February 6, 2020 in Washington, DC.

So who thrives in such an environment? Craven opportunists like Elise Stefanik. You would think this Harvard-educated congresswoman from upstate New York would know better about the Constitution and the ridiculousness of the Big Lie, but she long ago pegged her future to prostrating at the altar of The Donald. And now she is poised to replace Cheney in Republican leadership. Some conservative groups are grumbling that Stefanik’s voting record is far more “liberal” than they would like, but Trump broke whatever tenuous links the Republican Party had to a consistent ideology. It’s now a cult of personality, not a political party. And fealty is prized over all else. Of course as many associates of Trump have learned over the years, loyalty for him is like most streets in Manhattan — it only goes one way.

It brings me no joy in saying that one of the factors that is exacerbating this dangerous era in our national history is a Washington press corps that is struggling to make sense of a disorienting landscape. The bedrock of American democracy, for better and worse, has been a stable two party system — with some notable moments of exception. The press is used to two opposing forces waging battle over policy. At least nominally. Now the no man’s land between Republicans and Democrats is over a belief in democracy itself and not things like taxes or foreign policy.

Once again, this is not a theoretical musing. Is it too much to say that giving oxygen to the Big Lie, let alone actively espousing it, is a form of sedition? Full stop. Think about it. Is lying about the truth of last November making a mockery of any pledge of patriotism? No matter how many flag lapel pins you wear or how often you quote the “Founding Fathers,” to deny a fair and honest election and the orderly transfer of power risks placing you squarely in the camp of dictators and autocrats, and helping with the demise of democracy.

The press needs to start taking this even more seriously than it does now. Every elected Republican who has played footsie with the Big Lie should have to defend that record before they can speak on any other topic. They can’t be allowed to dodge. The questions aren’t difficult. Did Joe Biden win the election? Where is your evidence to the contrary? And because there is no such evidence, if they try to quote something, they should be pressed on the truth. Live interviews are particularly problematic because politicians can stretch out a string of lies so long that they can spin their way to a commercial break. Those with a history of such actions should not be given prominent platforms for their performance art.

The Big Lie must be the context for everything that is taking place in Washington, and political stories across the country. It is not old news. January 6 is not old news. This denial of reality is the animating principle driving the Republican Party. We can’t talk about legislation in Washington, immigration, climate change, fiscal policy, foreign policy, civil rights, education, or any other issue politicians are “debating” without talking about the Big Lie. Because if we have roughly half of elected officials espousing rhetoric and taking actions that undermine our elections and the legitimacy of our chosen leaders then our ability to do anything productive, to respond to the needs of the American people, will be undermined.

Republicans desperately want the mainstream press to cover the daily news cycle through the lens of traditional party politics. At the same time, they go on their propaganda channels and stir up their base against the mechanics of fair and open elections. They spread the poison of illegitimacy to attack the Biden Administration. On Fox News you get a concerted and coordinated attack. Outside of that echo chamber you get what was once the normal news diet of a spectrum of different stories. But this is not a normal news environment. This is an attack on American values, and our ability to continue to function as a government that represents the will of the majority of Americans. The Big Lie is everything right now and the press and the American people must not provide safe harbor for it to continue to metastasize.

I want to end with a note of some optimism. I believe the Big Lie is so ludicrous and outrageous that it can be made to collapse under the weight of its own perfidy. If it is put into the proper spotlight, if it becomes so radioactive that big business, the press, and the public at large refuse to bestow any legitimacy to those who traffic in it, then it can and will be defeated. American democracy might even emerge stronger in its wake. That will take perseverance, stamina, and yes, remaining steady.

—Dan

https://steady.substack.com/p/the-big-lie-is-a-big-deal?=&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share

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McConnell Admits He Tolerated Trump’s Election Lies For Political Expediency

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed in an account published Sunday that he declined to publicly confront former President Donald Trump's election lies because he did not want to upset Trump and wanted to win Senate elections in Georgia.

The Atlantic's Jonathan Karl reported that ahead of two January runoff Senate elections in Georgia, McConnell told then-Attorney General William Barr that he wanted Barr to confront Trump over his lies about the 2020 election results and would not do so himself.

"Look, we need the president in Georgia," he said. According to Karl's reporting, McConnell was afraid Trump would "sabotage" the Georgia campaigns if he declared Joe Biden had won the election. "And so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now. But you're in a better position to inject some reality into this situation. You are really the only one who can do it."

Karl said Barr provided the story in an interview and noted, "McConnell confirms the account."

Campaigning for then-Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Trump continued to promote conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the election he had lost to Biden.

"They cheated and rigged our presidential election, but we'll still win," Trump said at a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, on December 5. On January 4, the day before the runoffs, Trump repeated the lies at a rally in Dalton, saying, "By the way, there is no way we lost Georgia. There's no way. That was a rigged election. But we are still fighting it."

Although in a speech in the Senate on December 15, 2020, McConnell did acknowledge that Biden was president-elect, he did not push back against Trump's lies.

On January 6, after Republicans lost both elections in Georgia and Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were declared to have won election to the Senate, Trump appeared at the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., during which he reiterated his lies about the election results.

Trump's comments at the rally were cited as evidence during his impeachment in the House on charges of inciting a mob of his supporters to walk to the Capitol and break in, in an attempt to overturn election results he and they still called fraudulent.

It was only after the attack that McConnell admitted that Trump had circulated "wild falsehoods" and that his incitement of the mob was a "disgraceful dereliction of duty." Nonetheless, McConnell still sided with a majority of Senate Republicans to acquit Trump during his second impeachment trial.

Trump has continued to lie about losing the election. On Sunday, he told supporters at a rally in Ohio that the result of the 2020 election was "the scam of the century and this was the crime of the century."

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

https://www.nationalmemo.com/mitch-mcconnell-trump-election-lies-

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Texas Attorney General Admits Trump Would Have Lost the State in 2020 if He Hadn’t Blocked Mail-In Voting



Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Steve Bannon that Donald Trump would have lost the Lone Star State in the 2020 presidential election if Texans had been allowed to vote by mail.

“Yeah, I think it’s certainly critical to my state and that’s why we fought off these twelve lawsuits,” Paxton said. “We had them in Houston, we had them in San Antonio, we had them in Austin — we had them in the counties where you have the most liberal judges. And it was a concerted effort, nationally, with lots of money going into it.”

“And just knowing that we had twelve lawsuits that we had to win. And if we had lost one of them, if we’d lost Harris County — Trump won by 620,000 votes in Texas. Harris County mail-in ballots that they wanted to send out were 2.5 million, those were all illegal and we were able to stop every one of them,” he explained.

“Had we not done that, we would have been in the very same situation — we would’ve been on election day, I was watching on election night and I knew, when I saw what was happening in these other states, that that would’ve been Texas. We would’ve been in the same boat. We would’ve been one of those battleground states that they were counting votes in Harris County for three days and Donald Trump would’ve lost the election,” Paxton said.

Texas AG Ken Paxton said yesterday that if he hadn’t been successful with lawsuits to block mail-in ballots, Trump definitely would have lost the election in Texas. pic.twitter.com/2dVDiEAY1L

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 5, 2021

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2021/06/texas-attorney-general-admits-trump-would-have-lost-the-state-in-2020-if-he-hadnt-blocked-mail-in-voting/

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Floridatexan wrote:Texas Attorney General Admits Trump Would Have Lost the State in 2020 if He Hadn’t Blocked Mail-In Voting



Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Steve Bannon that Donald Trump would have lost the Lone Star State in the 2020 presidential election if Texans had been allowed to vote by mail.

“Yeah, I think it’s certainly critical to my state and that’s why we fought off these twelve lawsuits,” Paxton said. “We had them in Houston, we had them in San Antonio, we had them in Austin — we had them in the counties where you have the most liberal judges. And it was a concerted effort, nationally, with lots of money going into it.”

“And just knowing that we had twelve lawsuits that we had to win. And if we had lost one of them, if we’d lost Harris County — Trump won by 620,000 votes in Texas. Harris County mail-in ballots that they wanted to send out were 2.5 million, those were all illegal and we were able to stop every one of them,” he explained.

“Had we not done that, we would have been in the very same situation — we would’ve been on election day, I was watching on election night and I knew, when I saw what was happening in these other states, that that would’ve been Texas. We would’ve been in the same boat. We would’ve been one of those battleground states that they were counting votes in Harris County for three days and Donald Trump would’ve lost the election,” Paxton said.

Texas AG Ken Paxton said yesterday that if he hadn’t been successful with lawsuits to block mail-in ballots, Trump definitely would have lost the election in Texas. pic.twitter.com/2dVDiEAY1L

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 5, 2021

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2021/06/texas-attorney-general-admits-trump-would-have-lost-the-state-in-2020-if-he-hadnt-blocked-mail-in-voting/

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Pretty sure Texas Republican hijinks are what helped Cruz defeat Beto in 2018, too.  Texas voting is notoriously scammy.

That's what Republicans are trying to do to the rest of the country -- gerrymander the hell out of it until they rig the game.  I mean, look at Dan Crenshaw's district:



Or how 'bout Justin Holland's?



Or how 'bout this one?



Okay, that last one's actually a Rorschach blot, but it doesn't look a whole lot different, does it? It's from a test for crazy people... and so is Crenshaw's and Holland's district if you look at them and think, "Why, there's nothing wrong with that, that's a fair voting practice!"

Truth is, Republicans don't win anymore unless they rig the system, and they wanna get back in and rig it more. The electoral college has kept them in business in most of the most recent elections, because even when they win they don't get the popular vote. And, as I've stated here before, that stuff about "the electoral college gives the smaller states a voice" thing is just bullshit. It disenfranchises more voters in those smaller states than it enables, AND it disenfranchises voters in larger states, too. Democratic voters in Mississippi and Alabama often don't bother to show up to the polls because we know we'll get drowned out by our idiot neighbors. That said, Democratic candidates still get around 40% of the vote, even in Mississippi and 'Bama. That is not an inconsiderable number. And it would be MORE if more Democrats thought their votes would actually count. Same deal with California. California is a blue state, but around 40% of their vote tends to go Republican. Those Republican voters in California are not really getting heard... and there'd probably be more of them, too, if they didn't know that Cali would likely still stay blue. With the popular vote, Democrats in Mississippi and Alabama count, and Republicans in California and New York count. As a voter, of either party, the electoral college isn't really your friend unless you're with the majority voters in your state. Otherwise, your voice is taken.

This also hurts governance. Because parties think they can "write off" states they'll lose anyway, they don't do as much for states that can't do them as much good. When wildfires were hurting California, Trump shrugged off a lot of federal aid to them because he didn't give a shit -- he wasn't going to win that state, anyway, so fuck 'em. Mississippi and Alabama could get a lot more consideration from Democrats, too, if Democrats had more of a stake here. And nobody's going to write off a state where they can get 40%. Even if you don't "win" the state, 40% is a considerable number -- you'll still fight to get that, and you'll still govern to keep it.

But Republicans have stupidly put all their eggs in one basket -- white evangelicals. That's pretty much what they've got, and not a whole lot else. So that's all they play to anymore. And they even have contempt for that base, which is why they spew so many ridiculous conspiracy theories now. When you consider your base a bunch of stupid troglodytes who can't tell fantasy from reality, you go ahead and feed 'em garbage like "Q" because you don't respect them enough to treat them like adults.

And it gets worse and worse, the more they narrow their base down to idiots they don't respect. That's why you end up with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. You think she's as bad as they get? Oh, idiots like her and Boebert and Cawthorn are just a test of the waters to see what'll appeal to their base. Ever since Republicans cheered for Sarah Palin, they're finding out what level of stupid-and-nasty they can get away with. And now that they know, they're dredging the sewer for candidates and trying to appeal to mean little children.

Here's what's running against AOC now. Meet Tina Forte.



That's a Republican candidate. That's what they're running now.

Honestly, they're not only the dumb party and the cheating party, they're just turning into the troll party at this point. The more they kick out the Adam Kinzingers and the Mitt Romneys, the more they're left with nothing but confused old people, white supremacists, and idiots on 4chan who don't understand government at all but just like to troll anybody they think is a "liberal" because that's who they can get a rise out of. They've abandoned governing and are now just trying to piss "liberals" off because they hate "do-gooders." It's "shock jock" governance. Bread and circus, baby. Amp up the circus enough, you can even cut back on the bread.

I mean, Donald Trump might be a great Howard Stern guest, but as a president he did nothing. He inherited economic trends, everything he actually did slowed them slightly, he made us look like jokes internationally and gave our competition a leg-up in creating new trade alliances that don't involve us. Then he de-railed it altogether by ignoring a pandemic because it didn't flatter him.

But his base still cheers him. Why? Because "the libs" hate him, and that's enough!

Oh, and Dan Crenshaw? The guy with the district that they don't make enough geometry to describe? Here's a little fantasy about himself, which he spends his time doing instead of governing:



He puts out silly childish shit like that because he thinks that's what'll appeal to his base. This is what they've become -- giggleheads who are too mentally-flatlined to be embarrassed by anything anymore. You almost can't parody them anymore. It's become this:



I didn't think they could fall much farther than this guy.



But that guy's probably running for Congress on the Republican ticket now.

Bread and circus. Hold the bread.

I so love Trump thinks he's going to be reinstated in August. I read it's all he talks about. The longer he suffers over his loss the better I feel. Ha ha hoo ha!

So where is everybody? Who's still alive?

So if Americans really want to M.A.G.A., they will have to go back before 2016 to find it.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1425784845494636547

There's good ol' Dan "Gerrymandered To Hell And Back" Crenshaw, reaping what he sowed and wondering what to do about it. He tells the truth for once in his ridiculously narcissistic life (if you haven't seen the videos he got made where he pretends he's one of the Avengers, go look for it, it's saaaaaad) and MAGA sticks a target on him. You're never loyal enough to MAGA if you question anything. Only absolute mindlessness will be accepted.

Republicans are starting to reap what they sowed. So far it's not hurting their power that much, unfortunately, but it's fracturing and branding them as the Loonietoon Idiot Party.

Their whole plan was a recipe for short-term gains and long-term disaster:

-- Blend politics with religion, because religion's where the most gullible, believe-it-on-faith people are. Useful!

-- Create a bunch of propaganda outlets to spread lies for profit: all-hate-all-the-time talk radio to stir people up, "news channels" that aren't really news, websites full of cherry-picked data at best but most often total made-up bullshit packaged for idiots seeking confirmation bias, monetize YouTube jagoffs who radicalize people by telling them horseshit they wanna hear instead of actual facts. And make ALL of it have to keep getting crazier and crazier and crazier so they keep attracting hits, and thus money.

-- End up with a base who "researches" things by going to the total-horseshit websites, "news" sources, YouTube channels, etc. that reinforces their confirmation bias, and glut themselves on total hogwash... and then consider themselves "educated" on the topic, so they think they're smarter than the "un-redpilled" people who don't read/listen to all the propaganda-posing-as-data. This leaves 'em confused, and furious that the world doesn't match their absurd beliefs.

-- Realize you've got a mess on your hands and try to dial them back a bit... and get branded an enemy and a traitor to the cult because, after all, they've convinced themselves that they've seen "proof" of what they believe... because they so badly want to believe it they'll gulp down anything that was prepared for 'em.

And, eventually, you're left with a big crazy-person cult instead of a party, and you can't do anything with it. They start scaring the public because they've gotten so radicalized they do things like storming the Capitol and trying to kill elected officials. Or they look like clowns by doing shit like MikePillow, who touted that he was going to reveal the overwhelming "proof" that he spend millions collecting... and it's going over like a fart in church because he's got nothing. Nothing. The whole thing's silly as a fish with titties. https://www.yahoo.com/news/pillow-ceo-mike-lindell-fled-071620082.html

Even Steve Bannon, the most desperate propagandist alive, who's freely admitted he doesn't mind lying and actually wants to wreck America, has been disappointed in Mike's total lack of delivering any "receipts."



The Trump base will keep believing, though, because they want to. They're willful children and they won't accept any real truth because it contradicts what they've chosen to believe is "the real truth."

It's pretty sad, really, that people can get fooled like this. Most of 'em aren't good people to begin with, which is why they're attracted to this shit in the first place, but watching them drive themselves crazy and make themselves miserable and feel they're being cheated by a country that's given 'em as good a lives as anyone on the globe gets... it's pathetic. They're starving to death in a grocery store because they refuse to believe the food is real.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1425525546566529026

Guy at MikePllow Lindell's symposium yelling:  "I don't know what most of this stuff means... but the CNNs of this world need to start reporting this and stop fact-checking it!"  

He says he's been "researching this election" for months.  It's just like I said -- people are filling their heads with bullshit that's been carefully constructed to keep them stupid and then they think they've done "research" and are "educated" about the topic... when what they are is indoctrinated.   They don't fucking know the difference!  

Anyway, "Start reporting this and stop fact-checking it!" -- that's the MAGA mindset in one neat little sentence.   "Stop thinking and just beliieeeeeve!"  


They've gotten so full-blown cult-driven I won't be too surprised if the crowd starts singing this as Republican rallies soon...



Wonder if Ron DeSantis can play guitar?  He should probably learn and get himself a bus.

Well, I guess I'm just gonna be busy today, but I was talking about people "educating" themselves into a state of insanity... and here's one most definitely for that file.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-dad-killed-his-kids-over-qanon-serpent-dna-conspiracy-n1276611

A California surfing school owner who was charged with killing his two children in Mexico is a follower of QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories who thought the children "were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them," federal officials alleged.

Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was charged Wednesday with foreign murder of U.S. nationals in connection with the death of his 2-year-old son and his 10-month-old daughter, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Authorities said Coleman confessed to the killings and told the FBI that he used a spear fishing gun to stab them.


A criminal complaint alleges that he told the FBI that he killed his children because he believed they "were going to grow into monsters" and that conspiracy theories led him to believe that his wife had passed down her "serpent DNA" to the children.

Coleman's wife, identified only by her initials, contacted Santa Barbara police after her husband had taken the kids out on Saturday but didn't tell her where they were going, the complaint said. She grew concerned after he failed to respond to her messages, and, knowing that her husband didn't have a car seat with him, she called police.

A missing person's report was filed Sunday, and officers asked her to use Apple's Find My iPhone feature to see whether she could find Coleman, the complaint said. The program showed Coleman's last known location in Rosarito, Mexico, it said.

Police alerted the FBI to the investigation as it became a case of suspected parental kidnapping. Coleman was detained Monday after an inspection by border protection agents of his van upon his re-entry into the U.S., where agents didn't see his children and found blood in the vehicle, authorities said.
Image: Forensic technicians work at the scene where two American children were found dead in Rosarito
Forensic technicians at the scene where two young U.S. children were found dead in Rosarito, Mexico, on Monday.Reuters

The complaint alleges that Coleman confessed to the killings upon being interviewed Monday and gave authorities the location of the murder weapon and the discarded bloody clothing. He also identified two bodies recovered by Mexican authorities as those of his children, it said.


A judge ordered that Coleman be held without bond Wednesday and scheduled his arraignment for Aug. 31.

According to the complaint, Coleman said that he knew what he did was wrong but that "it was the only course of action that would save the world."

"Serpent DNA" is a likely to be a reference to the "lizard people" conspiracy theory, which falsely purports that reptilian aliens secretly run the world and have taken over important positions in government, banking and Hollywood.
QAnon followers run for school board, local offices to spread conspiracy-based beliefs


The complaint says Coleman told authorities that he learned about "serpent DNA" through QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories, even though the lizard people conspiracy theory predates both by several decades.

The believers in each conspiracy theory have melded together over the last several years because conspiracy theory influencers and algorithms on social media frequently lump the theories together.

QAnon is a more recent conspiracy theory premised on the belief that a similar global cabal at the top of the U.S. government is secretly murdering and eating children and that Donald Trump was quietly working to defeat them during his time in office.

Anthony Quinn Warner, who bombed his own RV outside an AT&T building in Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Day, claimed that lizard people were taking over Hollywood and the U.S. government. Warner died and three other people were injured.

The whole thing's freakin' horrible. But that's how things like this can snowball. You normalize one level of crazy, and eventually some fuckup's gonna believe it so hard he can kill a toddler and an infant with a spear gun.

It's a sickness, and it's gotta stop, but as long as people are making money feeding these lunatics the conspiracies they want to hear, it's not going to.

How stupid do you have to be to force kids to wear a mask that plainly states on the damn box that it won't stop covid?

Amazingly stupid.

But you should wear one just for drool.

And, the ultimate truth of it all...

Lol... you've got issues. This isn't even science. It's a screen door on a submarine. You must just love authority is the only explanation. You seem legitimately afraid to think for yourself.

"The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you.” Fauci

In other words wearing a mask helps in some cases, like in case you bump into a twice divorced, drug abusing, snot nosed cuck from Michigan who attended Rice university. Carry on.

Filters don't work, everybody knows that, it's just logic!  Scientists are dumb!   I don't know why they waste years and tons of money on educations and labwork and all when they COULD just listen to people on Facebook and internet boards and stuff!  Which are all full of people with great track records for being smart and having great judgment!  I don't know why doctors even wear masks during surgery.  Sure, they minimize risk of infection, but they don't eliminate it, so, what's the point?  Silly medical people!   Roll the dice, take yer chances!  Fuck the patients, you're a free American -- if they get infected that's their fucking problem, amirite?  Weed out the weak!   I don't know why we filter water, either.  If something isn't completely foolproof, that's exactly the same as being no good at all!  Besides, if you filter water you just cheat yourself of the possibility of developing immunity to the toxins in it.  I don't appreciate having my freedom to find out how much strychnine I can handle infringed upon.  Also, people still die in car wrecks even though they have seat belts and air bags, so I'm going to have mine removed.   Think I'll have the brakes taken out, too.  Brakes are for sheep who obey stop signs.  Buncha sissies.   Running headlong into shit, that's the rugged-individual way o' doin'!

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/do-face-masks-actually-protect-me-or-just-those-around-me/

Next week should be fun.  Our boss just came down with COVID.  Her husband, who's a big libertarian smartfella, wouldn't let her get vaccinated because he's real-real-real smart and has principles!   Except not so much smart now.

Hope she'll recover fully, and hope she didn't spread it around to the rest of us.  Most of us are vaccinated, but my co-worker who's been working closer with her is only half-vaccinated.   She just got the first-round jab last week.   She had legit reasons for being hesitant -- she's had very bad reactions to vaccinations before -- but finally decided it was too risky to avoid it.   We're pretty proud of her for that.  Even though she's a right-wing idiot about most things, she's seen too many people dying or getting seriously and possibly permanently messed up from it to buy the horseshit coming out of her party about the virus anymore.  Her neighbor (who didn't even believe the virus actually existed) just died from it, and a niece and nephew have it.   She thinks people avoiding vaccinations and masks are crazy.   So, there are limits to everything.   Anyway, I hope she didn't pick it up from our boss;   she was trying to do the right thing and deserves a break for that.

Wonder if we could all get some Regeneron!  DeSantis is pushing that now, even though he sneered at vaccinations and damn near made it illegal to wear masks.   I wonder -- and this is just completely irresponsible speculation, y'all -- if maaaaaybe DeSantis is trying to keep the virus raging to boost the sales of Regeneron  ($1500 a shot!   Which is WAY better than vaccinations, which are FREE!   I mean better for the makers of Regeneron (and the people who invested in it!), I mean, not the patients... but who gives a shit about patients, the people making cash of Regeneron are the really important people.  The rest are expendable rabble).   Regeneron's makers are rumored to have funded DeSantis, and Trump and some other big Republicans have a lot invested in their stock, so... really, stopping the spread of the virus would just be a conflict of interest.   Wouldn't it?

O' course, like I said, that's just irresponsible speculation.   But, we do that here.  Masks are for wimps!

You just have to parrot the leftist political narrative... don't you. It's a knee jerk.

https://www.wfla.com/community/health/coronavirus/vaccines-are-saving-lives-desantis-stresses-importance-of-shots-as-florida-covid-cases-spike-criticizes-mask-mandates/

“So here’s, I think, the most important thing with the data: if you are vaccinated—fully vaccinated—the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from COVID is effectively zero,” DeSantis said. “If you look at the people who are being admitted to hospitals, over 95 percent of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. These vaccines are saving lives. They are reducing mortality.”

The governor said he’s been urging people to get vaccinated for months because of what he called the “summer season.”

“We have a summer season here, just like last year,” DeSantis said. “It started a little later this year. So you’re going to have higher prevalence for the rest of July, probably into August. And then it goes back and goes the different waves. If you’re vaccinated, those waves are not going to impact you in any significant way and I think that’s the important message for people.”

PkrBum wrote:You just have to parrot the leftist political narrative... don't you. It's a knee jerk.

https://www.wfla.com/community/health/coronavirus/vaccines-are-saving-lives-desantis-stresses-importance-of-shots-as-florida-covid-cases-spike-criticizes-mask-mandates/

“So here’s, I think, the most important thing with the data: if you are vaccinated—fully vaccinated—the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from COVID is effectively zero,” DeSantis said. “If you look at the people who are being admitted to hospitals, over 95 percent of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. These vaccines are saving lives. They are reducing mortality.”

The governor said he’s been urging people to get vaccinated for months because of what he called the “summer season.”

“We have a summer season here, just like last year,” DeSantis said. “It started a little later this year. So you’re going to have higher prevalence for the rest of July, probably into August. And then it goes back and goes the different waves. If you’re vaccinated, those waves are not going to impact you in any significant way and I think that’s the important message for people.”

Oh, horse shit. He's changing his tune because he's losing votes...and voters.