"Know Nothing" Republicans Must Be Held Responsible for the Death and Suffering They've Caused
By Thom Hartmann A...
The GOP's lies should land them in the dustbin of historyTwo weeks ago Jerry Schneiderman, my best friend for 50 years, didn't answer my call when I phoned his home to say hi. Instead, his stepson told me he'd been taken by ambulance to the hospital with Covid pneumonia.
When I finally got through to him at the hospital ER, he told me between gasps for breath that the doctors "aren't optimistic," that he missed his beloved wife, and his final words to me that day were, "I don't want to die here all alone."
It's hard to describe the pain and fear you feel when your best friend, a person you've shared most of your life with, tells you he may be dead within a day or two. Louise and I were shell-shocked. Jerry survived, at least so far, but many more have not.
A half-million Americans are dead from Covid.
No other country in the world has seen this kind of death. None.
America has lost more people in the last year then we lost in all the wars of the 20th century combined. More than those who died in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam war, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq, combined.
With 4 percent of the world's population, we have more than a fifth of all the Covid deaths on the planet. And, given how most GOP-run states refuse to compile and report clean statistics, it's probably worse than that.
None of this was necessary.
Countries whose leaders cared about the lives of their people and listened to scientists have a fraction of our deaths, both per-capita or as total numbers.
Only America has this kind of horror, because only America had a monster as president who surrounded himself with other monsters. In the developed world, only America has a major political party that embraces lies as its primary way of conducting politics.
America is 4% of the worlds population and we have 1/5 of all the world's Covid deaths.
There's a joke circulating on the Internet: "Why is it that America can land a helicopter on Mars, but can't keep power on in Texas?" Answer: "The Mars project was run by scientists, but Texas is run by Republicans."
Ever since Ronald Reagan refused to even mention the word AIDS for the eight years of his presidency as a shout-out to his "Christian" base, the Republican Party has embraced know-nothingism.
There was a similar movement toward the end of the 19th century when a similarly idiotic party rose up and took over Massachusetts: they were known as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, and their slogan was "I know nothing."
Their singular focus was nativistic racism. Famous newspaper editor Horace Greeley called them "The Know Nothings" and without a trace of irony they called themselves The American Party.
The Republicans have inherited their mantel.
They don't want to know anything about science, be it the science of public health or the science of economics.
They don't want to know anything about the science of human reproduction or the reality that all human beings of all skin colors are simply human beings, but instead cling to their anti-abortion misogyny and vicious racism.
They put wealth and power above decency and humanity: As a result, a half million of us died in less than a year.
They lied to us that Covid was "just like the flu" and "like magic, will soon disappear."
They lied to us about "voter fraud" to hang onto their political white power.
They lied to us about "trickle down economics" to hang onto their vast wealth.
They lied to us that student debt "builds character" when in fact it has wiped out an entire generation of young people, preventing them from buying homes and starting small businesses or families.
They lied to us saying that America has the best healthcare system in the world, when in reality tens of thousands of people every year die in this country for lack of healthcare and we have the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the developed world.
They lied to us that guns keep us safe, when in reality they've produced an epidemic of school shootings and suicides.
They lied to us that tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations help out the little guy.
They lied to us that unions hurt working people.
They lied to us about global warming, saying it's caused by natural phenomena as their friends made trillions of dollars pumping carbon poison into our atmosphere.
They lied to us that massive military spending, greater than the next 10 nations combined, provides "security" for our people, but a national healthcare system, free college education and decent wages for workers don't.
They lied to us that a robust minimum wage hurts business, when all around the world countries with much higher minimum wages have vibrant economies. Our own economy, in fact, was at its most vibrant when our minimum wage was over the equivalent of $15 an hour in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Republican lies have brought us amplified racism and misogyny, an impoverished working class, a dirtier environment, and an entire generation of young people paralyzed by debt.
Now, on top of that, these Republican lies have killed half a million of our fellow citizens and our economy is once again in utter shambles, much like it was one Republicans ran things in 1929.
It's time to end the lies and consign today's Republican Party to the dustbin of history.
-Thom
Originally posted on thomhartmann.medium.com.
Comments
#2
Rebulicans are the sewer nut neo liberal dems are also halfway there ......Seems social media creates a slew of new nuts each day.
#3
The Know Nothing Party a/k/a American Party was more mid-19th century. The movement was founded as the Native American Party in 1844 by Lewis Charles Levin of Pennsylvania.
In 1855, the Native American Party changed its name to the American Party. Former President Millard Fillmore ran as their candidate for President in 1856.
The American Party emphasized that it was neutral regarding slavery. The Party dissolved in 1860.
The Whig Party dissolved in 1856, unable to define a shared position concerning American slavery. Assorted former Whigs became Know Nothings; others in the Deep South became Constitutional Union Party members; and various former Whigs joined the Republican Party.
Journalist Horace Greeley, noted by Thom Hartmann for calling them the Know Nothings, died Nov. 29, 1872.
#4
The Covid-19 vaccine was made in a laboratory and funded by the rich globalists, like for example Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci to deliberately kill off most of the world's population and decrease it from 7 - 8 billion to 500 million, because they steadfastly believe that the Earth cannot sustain more than that many people, that it doesn't have enough resources. That's what they ordered written on the Georgia Guidestones in Atlanta, Georgia. They are also responsible for decimating and plundering the Earth's atmosphere, rivers, & soil. They are causing the methane gas to bubble up from the bottom of the oceans, causing them to warm up quicker and rendering 72 % of the Earth's animals to become extinct, the ozone layer in the atmosphere to be eaten up & more. Dane Wiggington of geoengineeringwatch.org says by 2025, there'll be no more ozone layer, which will make it impossible to grow food in direct sunlight. This cabal wants most of us dead. They want to take over our planet & track the 500 million survivors like animals.
#5
no
#6
Listening to Jen Psaki stammer and stumble through the press conference yesterday when questioned why the Biden administration was detaining immigrant children by putting them into shipping containers on the border was beyond bizarre and just points out how the new administration is running rudderless on so many fronts. Why they would copy the previous administrations' policy and why the press so ignores that practice is comical.
I believe President Biden is the first president in modern times that has not given a State of the Union speech this far into taking office.
So far this administration's ability to cover up Biden's dementia is failing. He needs to step up to the plate quickly and show America he is competent.
I suspect this is the answer to my continuing question as to why Thom refuses to get off the Trump train and celebrate the successes of the Biden administration.
#7
You can read Cuz's press conference here. Nothing about shipping containers. The explanation is clear. If you are a negative person you can make anything negative. I think that it is nice to have daily honest briefings from the White House. Also a President that is working for the country and not playing golf every other day. Or tweeting lies. The Republican Party is falling apart. CPAC should be good for a laugh this weekend. Another Republican Super Spreader event.
Later I found the reference to the "Shipping Containers". Actually they are portable air conditioned office type structures like you would see on many construction sites in America. This is all from an article posted by The Federalist. A site that is known for false claims.
#8
Let's dumb it down for the fools attempting to defend the President's actions, the very same actions taken by the previous two administrations and condemned as horrible and uncivilized by most of the media for the last four years.
https://news.yahoo.com/not-kids-being-kept-cages-195348598.html
Snippet from the WaPo,
Bold type mine for those who can't read.
The WaPo:
"But immigration lawyers and advocates question why the Biden administration would choose to reopen a Trump-era facility that was the source of protests and controversy. From the “tent city” in Tornillo, Tex., to a sprawling for-profit facility in Homestead, Fla., emergency shelters have been criticized by advocates for immigrants, lawyers and human rights activists over their conditions, cost, and lack of transparency in their operations.
“It’s unnecessary, it’s costly, and it goes absolutely against everything [President] Biden promised he was going to do,” said Linda Brandmiller, a San Antonio-based immigration lawyer who represents unaccompanied minors. “It’s a step backward, is what it is. It’s a huge step backward.”
We have to agree that these containers look horrible. The problem is that until the children are placed, you can’t just let them roam around unaccompanied and unsupervised. They could get hurt."
#9
I encourage anybody to read Cuz's reference and the ones that I posted. Kids in cages.
#10
The Keystone pipeline upon completion would carry more than 800 000
barrels or 33.6 million gallons of oil through the pipeline per day. With no
harmful emissions.
A Barrel of Oil is 42 gallons, not to be confused with a Drum which is 55
Gallons.
Because a gallon of oil weighs between 7.5 and 7.8 lbs per gallon, most
trucks can only carry 130 barrels of oil at a time without violating our
department of transportation laws of 80 000 lbs on our roadways. That's
truck and cargo weight.
It would take 6,154 more trucks going just from Canada to the Gulf Coast to transport that same amount of oil and that's every single day.
Now, one of Warren Buffett's rail cars holds approx. 30.000 gallons or 700 barrels per car.
It would take trains every day pulling 1 143 more rail cars per day just to move
that oil from that pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
Follow the money people and pretend you are not being fleeced.
#11
Why use tar sands at all? They are an evironmental nightmare. It is Canada's problem. The remaining Koch Brother is about the only one that benefits from it. Seems like it is the last source for oil that you would want to use. Basically, it costs more to produce than it is worth. Just for starters:
#12
lifesizedolls4company the rich don't want to reduce the population. Our economic model, from which they profit, is based on continuous growth. They may carelessly reduce the population and kill off the planet, but not by deliberately reducing our numbers.
#13
Great links, Legend, for correcting delusional disinformation parroted by Limbaugh dead-enders suffering from an inability "to cover up dementia" -- so far, a glaring failure of self-awareness.
The difference between listening to Biden haters "stammer and stumble" through the programmed talking points -- i.e., lies -- of a rudderless Republican Party that lost its demented Dear Leader and listening to the other far-out, looney-tune conspiracy theories propagated by the far-far-right (some of which are similarly on proud display in post #4) is only a matter of degree in the value of comic relief.
As "for the fools attempting to defend" the indefensible, "who can't read" or absorb the larger countervailing truths of human-caused climate destruction, "let's dumb it down" even further by reviewing the basics yet again, for the umpteenth time. Follow the science and the economic facts, ditto-head people, "and pretend you are not being" a typical Republican lost in fossil-fuel-industry lies:
- What Is the Keystone XL Pipeline?
- Key Facts on Keystone XL
- As fossil fuel jobs falter, renewables come to the rescue
- US green economy has 10 times more jobs than the fossil fuel industry
- Clean energy is building a new American workforce
As Thom said, "It's time to end the lies and consign today's Republican Party to the dustbin of history."
#14
cuz' family used to be tobacco farmers and he doesn't understand why he can't be one too.
#15
Frequently, an outgoing President will deliver the State of the Union message. Sometimes, especially in recent decades, the new President delivers it. There's nothing firm about which President will deliver it when there's a transition in January.
#16
#17
Jesus, that McCain/Psaki exchange!
These people will add turds to the punchbowl anytime they get a chance won't they?
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I dont see how they can be stopped. They are to imbedded in our government.