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9-29 Open Thread

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Get your flu shot. Yes, you. Herd immunity is vitally important. And even if you think you’ll be fine, you never know who you’re passing it along to on the bus, out shopping, at work, etc. So for God’s sake, get a flu shot.

Comments

  1. 1

    Some would call it corruption. Others would call it bribery. Still others would call it draining the swamp. Zinke is the Secretary of the Interior who is pushing a plan to open up National Parkland to oil company exploitation.

    In June, Zinke and his staffers took a four-hour flight from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Mont., aboard a private plane owned by the executives of a Wyoming oil-and-gas exploration firm, aviation and business records show.”

  2. 2

    1,
    one presumes he then charged the cost of the flight back to the taxpayers. Thus fulfilling yet another crucial GOP agenda item: enhancing the efficiency of corruption.

  3. 3

    As long as the Democrats and Republicans have a lock on government, we’ll have to deal with an absolutely shitty situation. It’s time for more political parties with different view points so we can crush the entrenched party bosses. It’s also time for term limits for these professional politicians. Let ’em go to work in the private sector and see what REAL work is!

  4. 4

    @3 that’s a wet dream. Regardless which party you want to blame, each party is made of people, and all people are the same to a great extent. You can have 100 different parties and you will have the same thing to complain about. You are probably better off holding accountable the Democrat and Republican Party. And your actions of typically blaming the Democrats and overlooking Republican’s actions is part of the problem. You seem to only blame Republicans when you can include a Democrat in your sentence.

    You are the problem by thinking you are some independent thinker. @1 shows corruption and you should call it out for what it is without blaming Democrats too….that is no better than Drumpf claiming there are good people on both sides.

  5. 5

    Re 1 and 2: false narratives are fun in their own little two-faced hypocritical way, aren’t they?

    Ah, yet another inconvenient truth…

    In 2012, reports emerged that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had charged the taxpayers at least $800,000 dollars for flights home to California from Washington, DC, every weekend. He “billed the government $32,000 per private flight home,” the Atlantic noted at the time, but only reimbursed the taxpayers $632 per flight. While he “regretted” the cost, Panetta said that he had no intention of stopping the flights. And — in his defense — he was following the procedures required by law since the George W. Bush administration for Cabinet officials’ flights.

    In a rare act of journalism, CNN even pointed out Friday that the Trump administration had approved fewer military flights by Cabinet members than Obama had at the same point in his presidency. The faux outrage among Democrats has absolutely nothing to do with concerns about good governance, and everything to do with politics.

    Furthermore, “Pelosi used the Air Force aircraft for a total of 43 trips, covering 90,155 miles, from January 1 through October 1, 2010. . . . the former Speaker’s military travel cost the USAF $2,100,744.59 over one two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. For example, purchases for one Pelosi-led congressional delegation traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008 included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.”

  6. 6

    Wow. Epic rippling of PLO by former member. The stunned faces of the people listening are priceless. Props to this guy.

    Via Free Beacon:

    “I address my words to the Palestinian Authority, which claims to be the ‘sole legitimate representative’ of the Palestinian people. I ask: where does your legitimacy come from?” Yousef said. “The Palestinian people did not elect you, and they did not appoint you to represent them. You are self-appointed. Your accountability is not to your own people. This is evidenced by your total violation of their human rights.”

    Yousef then pointed out violations of the PLO and other Palestinian organizations.

    “You kidnap Palestinian students from campus and torture them in your jails. You torture your political rivals. The suffering of the Palestinian people is the outcome of your selfish political interests,” Yousef said. “You are the greatest enemy of the Palestinian people. If Israel did not exist, you would have no one to blame. Take responsibility for the outcome of your own actions. You fan the flames of conflict to maintain your abusive power.”

    As Yousef spoke, other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council appeared stunned, including some men sitting in front of Yousef who turned around to face him in disbelief as he called out the PLO.

  7. 7

    3,
    well, it’s encouraging to see that one or two of you racist, hillbilly pieces of shit are finally ready to give up on the GOP con. Good for you. You may just possibly have grown the very tiniest little bit.

    I’d recommend you just forget about voting, stay home, and concentrate on beating up your common law wife, drinking watery beer, floating in the Doughboy Pool, and cleaning your loaded guns.

  8. 8

    @5

    Moving the goalposts.

    Both the Secretary of Defense and Speaker of the house are given a security detail that includes non-commercial aircraft. The Speaker of the House is third in line to the presidency and warrants special protection. Paul Ryan has vowed not to use a military plane but quickly amended that statement to say that he would for overseas travel.

    The hay the GOP tried to make of Pelosi using a military jet is that it was larger than the one Pedophile and current Federal Prisoner Ex-Speaker Hastert used. The Airforce stepped in at the time and said they chose the bigger plane because to fly cross country to California instead to Illinois for Hastert would not be possible in Hastert’s plane without refueling.

    Additionally, the President can designate any member of his cabinet as essential and provide them with access to military aircraft. In the current cases, neither cabinet member has been given that designation.

    All this is really easy to see by using the Google instead of being an imbecile in public.

    But leaving all that aside, one thing any lawmaker or cabinet member is not allowed to do is accept gifts. This is clearly stated in law and in each chambers ethics rules. I don’t know about your opinion but a ride on a corporate jet provided by a company who’s interests you are overseeing is a pretty clear case of illegal acceptance of gifts.

    (Good to see you’re quoting a Bretibart opinion piece without attribution. Almost like you don’t want anyone to know what fake news site you’re using. truncated to discourage click through big-government/2017/09/29/democrats-flew-taxpayer-expense-media-didnt-care/ )

  9. 9

    8,
    Nice take down, for whatever good comes of it.
    Let’s face it. These ride-or-die Trumpupblicans are ignorant, primitive, tribalists. Deriving understanding by discerning objective reality is no longer important to them.

    These are people who feel existentially threatened by a few professional athletes kneeling.

    Their fears are so overwhelming that they have literally no choice but to seek refuge in the security and comfort that comes from identifying with in-groups and de-humanizing and targeting out-groups. These people have always been around, passing their fears from one generation to the next. What’s changed in the last fifty years is that they are now out-grouping most of their fellow citizens. I don’t believe they can be reasoned with.

  11. 11

    @10 he first said he was going to repay $500.000. I wonder if he still will or he thought resigning would be cheaper.

  12. 12

    Donnie knows how to pick ’em.

    Shortest term for a Chief of Staff. Preibus.

    Shortest term communications director, The Mooch tried at 10 days but if you remember Reagan’s only last a week before his membership in a Nazi youth organization surfaced. DerTrumper probably tried to see if he was available for a re-boot.

    Shortest term for Press Secretary, Sean Spicer

    National Security Director, Michael Flynn lasted an astounding, and record 24 days.

    Heckuvajob Trumpie

  13. 13

    I have no doubt this will rain verbal fire and abuse down on me but I refuse to get a flu shot.

    I am not an anti-vaxer. I vaccinated my children, my grandchildren are vaccinated and when whooping cough broke out in Seattle 5 years ago I got the vaccination because I had a newborn grandchild. My daughter in law is required by her job to get a flu shot and from what I understand they were included in the required recent vaccinations for the grands, which they just received. Interesting aside: there is a sign in the grands pediatricians office which says they ‘understand you may choose NOT to vaccinate your children but in that case they can not welcome your children as patients to their practice.’ I applaud that sign!

    I do not get flu shots because those pushing them on us never define FLU.

    I believe flu is the virus that causes fever, chills, nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea and lasts about 3 days.

    Those pushing it seem to define it as the common cold.

    I do not get flu shots because those pushing them on us tell us
    1. There is no way to include every kind of “flu”. The makeup of the “flu” shot changes every year;
    2. They don’t KNOW every kind of “flu” and even if they did, couldn’t include them in one vaccine;
    3. They know new mutations of their “flu” are cropping up all the time as well as coming from other countries;
    4. They aren’t all that effective:

    The flu vaccine isn’t as effective as other vaccines. According to the CDC, two doses of mumps vaccine are said to be 88 percent effective at preventing the illness; one dose is 78 percent effective. That means if 100 people were to get a single vaccine, as many as 22 people could still become infected with mumps.

    By comparison, one dose alone of the MMR vaccine is 93 percent effective at preventing measles, according to the CDC, and at least 90 percent effective at warding off rubella, according to the Immunization Action Coalition.

    Frieden says the flu vaccine is closer to 60 percent effective, mostly because of unexpected strains. An advisory committee meets publicly throughout the year to make predictions about which strains will hit each season, and to recommend a vaccine that would address them. But viruses mutate.

    I can’t tell you the last time I had a cold OR the flu. I will admit to 2 mild cases of walking pneumonia a few years ago. I also don’t use … expose myself to public transportation.

    Want to not catch a cold? Stop using disinfecting products which weaken resistance to germs AND give rise to ‘superbugs” AND WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP.

    AND, did you know those Modern hand dryers are much worse than paper towels when it comes to spreading germs, according to new research. Airborne germ counts were 27 times higher around jet air dryers in comparison with the air around paper towel dispensers.?

  14. 14

    Carl can God catch the flu? Why is God concerned with the flu?

    Is this years vaccine also to immunize us against the Zonbie apocalypse virus developed by some secret government sponsored corporation? Like the Umbrella Corporation.

    Will there be a photo op for when God gets his or her flu shot?

  15. 15

    @13 Being a progressive I believe government can actually do things to make lives better. Here is the place to get your basic flu information:

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm

    The CDC or you can go to Wikipedia. The flu is one disease that frightens the CDC for good reason. It can be a killer. I may or may not get a flu shot, but this years potential fly is in the nasty category. Unfortunately the flu vaccine is not the most effective, and you can get the vaccine and still come down with a nasty case of the flu., You may come down with a milder case. If you have come down with pneumonia you are a prime candidate for the flu shot. Please consider getting one. The flu and pneumonia are the elderly’s most deadly friends.

    There are a lot of workers who should probably be required to get a flu shot, and once we actually have a true epidemic chances are after that a lot more people will be required to have an annual flu shot. Which may not prevent an epidemic. The CDC has been successful and lucky in it’s mission that continues every single day. With or without Dustin Hoffman chasing down African monkeys.

  16. 16

    @3 and @4 There is nothing in the American political system limiting the number of parties. Still both parties at the state and federal level act in their best interest to collude to keep other parties and independents out of the state house and the US capital.
    Independents can win. Still to govern they have to cozy up to one or both parties. Small states seem to produce more independents. Perhaps in small states independents can overcome bias by appealing to citizens.
    One of the larger problems is money in politics. There are other ways of doing politics. Such as allowing all candidates up on the dias. All candidates participate in debates., The debates are televised for free to the candidates. Candidates get free advertising on the radio and tv. Equal time. All politicking stops once the polls are open. Election day is a holiday.
    The first past the post way of doing elections maybe in large part responsible for the US having only two major parties. The British and Canadian’s also use first past the post, but they do have more than two major parties. Increasing the size of the house to insure all states have at least three representatives would mean states could adopt a proportional system. Die hard Republican’s and Democrats will not be terrible supportive in our current political climate as they dominate the system.
    Our political system and country would be better served by more varied voices in our state houses and our national capital.

    I do not agree with term limits as voters have the ultimate ability to remove current occupants of an office by voting them out of office. If Americans are lazy and keep returning politicians election after election to office either we are lazy or our politicians are the greatest. They must be swell we say our guys are swell by returning them to Washington or Olympia.

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