Category Archives: Ron Paul

Today is Friday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2021. There are 133 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring liberalization drive.

On this date:

In 1862, the New York Tribune published an open letter by editor Horace Greeley calling on President Abraham Lincoln to take more aggressive measures to free the slaves and end the Souths rebellion.

In 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, months after fighting had stopped.

In 1882, Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture had its premiere in Moscow.

In 1953, the Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

In 1955, hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.

In 1979, swimmer Diana Nyad (NY-ad) succeeded in her third attempt at swimming from the Bahamas to Florida.

In 1986, postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill went on a deadly rampage at a post office in Edmond, Okla., shooting 14 fellow workers to death before killing himself.

In 1988, a cease-fire in the war between Iraq and Iran went into effect.

In 1989, fifty-one people died when a pleasure boat sank in the River Thames (tehmz) in London after colliding with a dredger.

In 2017, actor, comic and longtime telethon host Jerry Lewis died of heart disease in Las Vegas at the age of 91.

In 2019, President Donald Trump abruptly canceled an upcoming trip to Denmark, which owns Greenland, after the Danish prime minister dismissed the idea of the United States purchasing the mostly frozen island.

Ten years ago: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il arrived in Russias Far East on a nearly weeklong visit. Jordyn Wieber won her first title at the U.S. gymnastics championships in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Five years ago: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a rally in Virginia that his party had to do a better job of appealing to African-American voters. At the Rio Games, the U.S. womens basketball team won a sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal, routing Spain 101-72. Allyson Felix and LaShawn Merritt anchored the 4x400 relay teams to victory.

One year ago:Accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden vowed to move the nation past the chaos of Donald Trumps tenure and return it to its leadership role in the world; capping a virtual convention amid the pandemic, Biden spoke to a largely empty arena in Delaware. A federal judge cleared the way for a New York prosecutor to get President Donald Trumps tax returns. Trumps former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was pulled from a yacht and arrested on charges that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall. (Trump, in his final hours in office, would pardon Bannon.)

Todays Birthdays: Boxing promoter Don King is 90. Former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, is 88. Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is 86. Former MLB All-Star Graig Nettles is 77. Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 75. Rock singer Monique Powell (Save Ferris) is 46. Jazz/pop singer-pianist Jamie Cullum is 42. Actor Ben Barnes is 40. Actor Meghan Ory is 39. Actor Andrew Garfield is 38. Actor Brant Daugherty is 36.

Excerpt from:
Today in History: Diana Nyad succeeded at swimming from the Bahamas to Florida - Lompoc Record

Duncanville five-star junior power forward Ron Holland and Plano John Paul II five-star sophomore small forward Liam McNeeley were among 12 players named to the USA Basketball mens under-16 national team Monday.

The team will continue training in Houston through Thursday and will compete in the FIBA Americas U16 Championship that will be played Aug. 23-29 in Xalapa, Mexico. The top four finishers will qualify for the 2022 FIBA Mens U17 World Cup.

The 6-8 Holland helped Duncanville go 29-1 and win the Class 6A state championship last season. He is rated the No. 1 player in Texas and the 13th-best recruit in the nation in the Class of 2023 by 247Sports, and he lists offers from Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Houston, Memphis and SMU.

The 6-7 McNeeley, who transferred to John Paul II from Richardson Pearce in the offseason, is rated the second-best player in Texas and the 12th-best recruit in the nation in the Class of 2024 by ESPN. He lists 10 college offers, including Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Illinois, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and TCU.

Four-star junior power forward Justin McBride, who is from Plano but attends Virginias Oak Hill Academy, was also selected for the team.

Team USAs first three games will be against Puerto Rico on Aug. 23, the Dominican Republic on Aug. 24 and Chile on Aug. 25. The USA is 31-0 in FIBA Americas U16 Championship play and has won the gold medal in all six editions of the tournament since its debut in 2009.

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Here is the original post:
Duncanvilles Ron Holland, John Paul IIs Liam McNeeley named to USA Basketball U16 national team - The Dallas Morning News

By Ryan McMaken*

In early July, Ron Paul penned a column titled Its Saigon In Afghanistan, invoking the imagery of the fall of Saigon in 1975, when US military helicopters scrambled to evacuate personnel from the roof of the US embassy. But Paul suggested that maybe the situation in Afghanistan was perhaps not as dramatic as the situation in Saigon forty-six years ago.

But that was six weeks ago.

Now, it looks like the end of the USs war in Afghanistan may be in many ways every bit as chaotic as the US regimes final defeat in Vietnam.

When Paul was writing his article in early July, we were already getting hints of the direction things were going. USforces abandoned Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night, and the US didnt even tell its allies what was going on. Afghan officials discovered the US was gone hours later. Shortly thereafter, looters ransacked the base.

But that, it seems, was just the beginning. Over a period of a mere ten days, provincial capitals in Afghanistanhave fallen one after the other. On Sunday, the Taliban entered the strategically key capital Kabul. The Talibans reconquest of the country was so fast thateven the US regimes spokesman admitted the militants progress came much more quickly than the U.S. had anticipated.

Now, after spending twenty years implementing regime change in Afghanistan, and after spending more than $800 billionan official figure thats likely far smaller than the real monetary costthe USs strategy in Afghanistan has completely collapsed.

Indeed, for the USs local allies, the situation is far worse now than what it was in 2001. Those who were unwise enough to ally themselves with the Americans over the past twenty years now face reprisals from the Taliban. Death will likely be the result for many.

Not surprisingly, then, Afghanis in recent days have flocked to Kabul International Airport, desperateto find some way out of the countryas the Taliban closes in.

Its doesnt take an immense amount of imagination to recall the images of those who were desperate to escape from the US embassy in Saigon.

So now we reach the stage of figuring out who is to blame for this total strategic failure in Afghanistan.

Some politicians will try and use the US regimes failure in Afghanistan to score points against the Biden administration. We already see it with some Republicans who still havent figured out that the American public long agostopped caring about the war.

Its easy to see the partisan reasons for this, but if we want to honestly focus on whos to blame for the utter waste of time and resources that was the war in Afghanistan, we have to look far beyond just a handful of civilianpoliticians.

Yes,much of the blameshouldgo to the civilianbureaucrats, because they share an immense amount of the blame in bringing about this strategic blunder. George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Madeleine Albrightare just a few of the politicos who encouraged the continuation of this lost war.

But the fact is the civilian war architects were encouraged and enabled every step of the way by Pentagon bureaucrats (i.e., the generals), who were only more than happy to have an excuse to pad their budgets and increase their relevance on Capitol Hill. As Ron Paulput it this week:

The generals and other high-ranking military officers lied to their commander-in-chief and to the American people for years about progress in Afghanistan. The same is true for the US intelligence agencies. Unless there is a major purge of those who lied and misled, we can count on these disasters to continue until the last US dollar goes up in smoke.

And of course, the Pentagon allied itself with the private sector industries that suppled the materiel. Paul continues:

The military industrial complex spent 20 years on the gravy train with the Afghanistan war. They built missiles, they built tanks, they built aircraft and helicopters. They hired armies of lobbyists and think tank writers to continue the lie that was making them rich. They wrapped their graft up in the American flag, but they are the opposite of patriots.

Or, as Timothy Kudodescribes it,

Across two decades, our military leaders presented rosy pictures of the Afghanistan War and its prospects to the president, Congress, and the American people, despite clear internal debate about the validity of those assessments and real-time contradictory information from those fighting and losing the daily battle against the Taliban. Or, to put it in the words of John Sopko, the inspector general who issued a series of reports known asthe Afghanistan Papers: The American people have constantly been lied to.

Nor did the military officers council caution or peace.Douglas MacGregor at theAmerican Conservativecorrectlyrecalls:

All that can be said with certainty is that between 2001 and 2021, none of the senior officers expressed opposition to the policies of intervention and occupation strongly enough to warrant their removal. None felt compelled to leave the service and take their opposing views to the public forum.

When it became clear that the collective strategies and tactics in Afghanistan and Iraq were failing, not only General David Petraeus, butmost of Americas senior military leaderschose to prevaricate and distort facts in public to show progress when there was none. How many American lives might have been saved had someone only told the truth will never be known.

Moreover, Petraeus and countless military technocrats continued to call for more military action while trying to place the blame on others.1Doug Bandowsums it up:

Many of those once responsible for U.S. forces in Afghanistan while in authority have taken the lead in trying to perpetuate the mission. For instance, David Petraeus is busy trying to shield his reputation andshift blame to Bidenas the Afghan project collapses. Joseph Dunford, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, recently co-chaired the congressionally mandatedAfghanistan Study Group, which predictably insisted that the United States should stay in the country. What other conclusion was imaginable? As the entire geopolitical enterprise collapses, its promoters insist that American forces should stick around with no good purpose and no realistic plan of action.

Indeed, the incompetence of the USs military leadership has been on clear display in recent weeks as the US-trained and US-armed military personnel have been impotent in the face of Taliban advances. The USs military hierarchywas specifically tasked with training these Afghan forces, yet its now clear how wellthatdirective was carried out.

The complicity of the military brasss role has always been especially damaging, because the generals have long banked on the unwarranted amount of credibility they enjoy with the public. As Kudo notes:

The promise that victory was just around the corner proved intoxicating to presidents and politicians, not to mention everyday Americans, who blindly trusted anyone with four stars on hisepaulettes. Despite the partisanship and institutional mistrust of the past two decades, the military consistently has been themost trusted institutionin the country, rated highly by roughly 70 percent of Americans. Cloaked in near-universal trust, these officers repeatedly argued that an unwinnable war could be won.

Unfortunately, because of this, military personnel are likely to continue to be shielded from the criticism they deserve.

After all, there is a persistent habit among many Americans to repeat the narrative that all wars will be won if only the politicians listen to the generals, and let the generals do their job. One still hears this today from those who still engage in wishful thinking aboutthe Vietnam War and who still cling to the idea that the war could have been won if only the military experts had been in charge. In actual experience, however, the lost war in Afghanistan is what we get when we listen to the generals.

But dont expect any meaningful reform. In the United States, when bureaucrats fail, they usually get rewarded with larger budgets, such as when the USs intelligence community allowed 9/11 to occur right under its collective nose.The same is likelyat least in the short termfor the Pentagon. The generals will simply pivot to argue for ever-larger military budgets in the name of fighting China, Iran, Russia, and other perceived enemies.

In other words, the generals and the civilian politiciansare hard at work planning the next Afghanistan. Lets just hope the taxpayers who pay for it all may be a little less nave next time.

*About the author: Ryan McMakenis a senior editor at the Mises Institute. Send him your article submissions for theMises WireandPower&Market,but readarticle guidelinesfirst.

Source: This article was published by the MISES Institute

Read this article:
The Pentagon And The Generals Wanted This Disastrous War OpEd - Eurasia Review

Ron Belcourt, 78, died Monday, August 16, 2021, after a courageous battle, succumbing to the injuries he received in a fall in September 2013. Ron peacefully passed away with his daughter Brenda at his side at Peace Hospice in Great Falls.

A Celebration of Life service will be at 7:00 p.m., Monday, August 23, 2021, at the Holland & Bonine Funeral Chapel. His funeral service will be at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, August 24, 2021, at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church with burial to follow at Highland Cemetery.

Memorials in Ron's honor may be made to the Friends of Havre Animal Shelter or Great Falls Peace Hospice.

Ron's family is grateful for the caring staff at Peace Hospice.

Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with services and arrangements.

Please visit Ron's online memorial page at http://www.hollandbonine.com to leave his family a message of condolence.

Ron was born August 24, 1942, in Fort Belknap, Montana to Edward and Pearl (Wells) Belcourt. After attending Havre High School, Ron immediately chose to enlist in the United States Navy. He was honorably discharged in 1966 after receiving the Good Conduct Medal. Ron was very proud of his service in the Navy and enjoyed traveling overseas - with Japan being a favorite destination.

He met Patricia Lucas in North Long Beach, California, and they were married in 1966. Together they raised three children and made the decision to move to Montana in 1971 to get away from the unpredictable earthquakes in California.

Ron attended Northern Montana College and obtained his bachelor's degree in elementary education and counseling. He was proud of his accomplishment and was the only member of his family to receive a college degree. While in college, he received the Who's Who of American Students Award in 1976.

He graduated college in 1976 and began his career as a high school teacher and guidance counselor with Rocky Boy Schools. Ron impacted many students' lives at the high school over his years of teaching and as a counselor, receiving the Counselor of the Year Award in 1983.

Ron was described as a quiet, gentle, humble, reserved man with a noble spirit, a determined character and an iron will.

Ron was a family man with compassion for animals and people. He always loved music and was an avid reader, with Edgar Cayce being one of his favorites.

Ron loved to golf! His son and son-in-law have good memories of their time on the courses. He was described by his daughters as "grandpa-on-the-go." When he wasn't out and about, he could be found sitting with his animals, visiting his brothers or sisters on the phone and watching football.

Ron was a strong advocate for AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) for over 22 years and it was there that he took a role in mentoring others to overcome their addiction battles as he had proudly overcome his own addiction to alcohol.

Ron also served as an anger management counselor and touched many lives with the various organizations he volunteered with.

Ron was devastated when his wife of 32 years, Patricia, died in 1998. He found solace and comfort in music and became a member of the Other Brothers band as a guitar player and a vocalist. He enjoyed practicing and performing music around the area. He felt it brought joy to others and helped heal his loss. Many people would compare Ron to Elvis Presley.

In September 2013 Ron experienced a life-changing fall and as a result he suffered a traumatic brain injury and was never quite the same. He continued to be honored, loved, and supported by all his family.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Patricia Belcourt; granddaughter Mary Rose; sisters Carol Belcourt and Janice Sargent; and brothers Gary Eagleman, Mike Belcourt and Harvey Belcourt.

Ron is survived by daughters, Angela (Paul) Silvestri of Conrad and Brenda (John) Goulet of Great Falls; son, Curtis (Carrie) Belcourt of East Helena; grandchildren James Gameon, Dr. Julie Gameon, Shawn Paul Silvestri, Jennifer Neiffer Atchsion, and Garret Neiffer; great-grandchildren, Paislee and Bodie Neiffer; brothers Kenny Belcourt, Larry (Georgette) Belcourt and Marvin Belcourt; sisters Donna (Jeff) Sharp, Evelyn Belcourt, and Darla Friede ,; and numerous nieces and nephews and many friends.

"Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9.

Original post:
Obituary - Ron Belcourt - The Havre Daily News

Two outspoken Republican lawmakers were penalized by online platforms Aug. 10 for sharing misinformation about the impact of COVID-19 vaccines and mask-wearing.

Twitter suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for a week after she falsely claimed that the vaccines were "failing," while YouTube suspended Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for a week over a since-removed video that made inaccurate claims about the effectiveness of masks.

Greenes account will be in read-only mode while her suspension lasts, a Twitter spokesperson said. The violating tweet was labeled in accordance with the companys policy for moderating misleading COVID-19 information, including misleading claims about vaccines and masks.

"The FDA should not approve the covid vaccines," Greene wrote in the Aug. 9 tweet. "There are too many reports of infection & spread of #COVID19 among vaccinated people. These vaccines are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks."

Pauls three-minute video violated YouTubes similar policy on COVID-19 misinformation, which prohibits "claims that wearing a mask is dangerous or causes negative physical health effects" and "that masks do not play a role in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19."

In the video, which remains on alternative platforms, Paul said, "Most of the masks you get over the counter dont work. They dont prevent infection." He later claimed "cloth masks dont work."

The Republican lawmakers responded by criticizing the platforms for taking action against their posts, with Paul calling his ban a "badge of honor." But public health experts told PolitiFact that the claims that earned them their respective suspensions strayed far from the truth.

University of Minnesota Medical Schools Dr. Mark Schleiss told PolitiFact Greene and Paul were "promoting dangerous behaviors that will cost lives."

"These comments reflect a complete lack of perspective and understanding of simple scientific and medical principles," he said.

Greenes claim about COVID-19 vaccines

Schleiss and several other experts disagreed with Greenes claim that the COVID-19 vaccines allowed for emergency use are "failing" because there have been some breakthrough infections.

"The vaccines are not failing, by any reasonable definition of that word," said Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine. "Being vaccinated still affords massive protection."

Greenes office did not respond to a request for comment.

Clinical trials and real-world studies have consistently shown that the available vaccines are effective at protecting against infections and severe symptoms. But no vaccine works 100% of the time when it comes to preventing illness, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says breakthrough infections are expected, in part due to the emergence of new variants.

"We now have, in essence, a new virus," Schleiss said, referring to the more contagious delta variant thats been driving recent spikes across the country.

Breakthrough cases have been rare, however, according to analyses from the CDC, Kaiser Family Foundation and other organizations. And while the shots are somewhat less protective against delta, they are still highly effective at preventing severe illness and death, experts said.

As of Aug. 2, over 164 million people were fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. Of those, 7,525 people, or less than 0.005%, had breakthrough infections that led to hospitalization or death.

"Fully vaccinated people are much less likely to be hospitalized or die than people with similar risk factors who are not vaccinated," CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in a statement.

Meanwhile, fully vaccinated people are largely protected against these serious outcomes, said Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida. Other experts agreed.

"The incidence of COVID is lower among vaccinated populations versus unvaccinated, and this is a pattern we see in counties and states across the country," Noymer said, pointing to a chart showing a much higher infection rate for unvaccinated people than for recipients of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. "The pattern is even more stark for severely-symptomatic cases."

Pauls claims about masks

The experts PolitiFact consulted also disagreed with Pauls claim that "most of the masks you get over the counter dont work," as well as his claim that cloth masks are ineffective.

The truth is that masks do work, especially as a method of "source control," or preventing the spread of the virus from one person to another. Each time an infected person breathes, talks, coughs or sneezes, they send respiratory droplets into the air that quickly evaporate into tiny airborne particles unless they are properly wearing a mask, which can reduce that spread.

"The main reason we wear a mask is not to protect ourselves, but to protect others," Schleiss said. In that sense, masks are most effective when everyone wears them, as PolitiFact reported.

Masks can also help to reduce the wearers exposure to the coronavirus, according to the CDC. The level of filtration varies based on the type of mask used, experts said.

The N-95 masks recommended in health care settings are most effective in this regard, filtering out at least 95% of airborne particles, Schleiss said. Cloth masks are less effective. But they do provide some protection, and they remain a tool for source control, despite Pauls claim.

"Its a lie to say they dont work," Schleiss said. "All of these interventions have an impact. They arent perfect, but that doesnt mean that they dont work."

"Some barrier protection (i.e. any mask) is better than none," added Noymer, who said the N-95 masks may be more important "as aerosols become more prominent" with the delta variant.

In the video that earned him his suspension from YouTube, Paul cited a pair of studies, one from Denmark and one from Vietnam, as proof of his claim that besides N-95s, "the other masks dont work." A spokesperson for the senator also pointed to recent comments from a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, who said in an interview that cloth masks are inferior to N-95s.

However, the CDC has addressed both of the studies Paul cited on its website, writing that the Danish studys findings were "inconclusive," and that the Vietnamese study "had a number of limitations," including the lack of a true control group, exposure to unmasked people in a hospital setting and a setup that had users wash and reuse cloth masks.

Both studies "have been improperly characterized by some sources as showing that surgical or cloth masks offer no benefit," the agency said.

"The Danish study on masks was terrible and was heavily criticized," added Dr. Davidson Hamer, professor of global health and medicine at Boston University.

An author of the Danish study said that it should not be used to discourage mask wearing.

More:
Examining the false claims that got Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene suspended on YouTube, Twitter - PolitiFact

Boxing promoter Don King is 90. Former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, is 88. Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is 86. Former MLB All-Star Graig Nettles is 77. Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 75. Musician Jimmy Pankow (Chicago) is 74. Actor Ray Wise is 74. Actor John Noble is 73. Rock singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 73. Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 69. Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 69. Actor-director Peter Horton is 68. TV weatherman Al Roker is 67. Actor Jay Acovone is 66. Actor Joan Allen is 65. Movie director David O. Russell is 63. TV personality Asha Blake is 60. Actor James Marsters is 59. Rapper KRS-One is 56. Actor Colin Cunningham is 55. Actor Billy Gardell is 52. Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 51. Actor Jonathan Ke Quan is 51. Rock musician Brad Avery is 50. Actor Misha Collins is 47. Rock singer Monique Powell (Save Ferris) is 46. Jazz/pop singer-pianist Jamie Cullum is 42. Actor Ben Barnes is 40. Actor Meghan Ory is 39. Actor Andrew Garfield is 38. Actor Brant Daugherty is 36. Actor-singer Demi Lovato is 29. Actor Christopher Paul Richards is 18.

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Having a birthday today, Aug. 20, 2021 | | gjsentinel.com - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

As the House select committee begins investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, one key line of inquiry will be the role Republican members of Congress played in helping set the stage for the violence.

On Friday, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., recounted how he vented his anger at Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., as the rioters stormed the Capitol and halted the certification of the Electoral College vote. In a video interview posted to Twitter by the Recount, Phillips recalled that Rep. Gosar, from Arizona, was objecting to the Arizona slate of electors when a Capitol Police officer announced that we should take cover.

Phillips said he stood up at the back of the gallery, on the second floor of the House chamber, and at that moment, I simply shouted out at the top of my lungs, This is because of you! I screamed it.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)

Audio of Phillipss outburst was captured on video as members led by Gosar and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had begun debating a challenge to Arizonas 2020 election results.

A Minnesota Reformer article from Jan. 6 described the eruption by Phillips as Capitol Police moved to lock down the House floor.

This has been brewing for four years, Phillips said, according to a pool report, when asked about his comments after he and other lawmakers had been evacuated from the chamber as a pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol. And the collective dereliction of duty manifests itself in that moment for me.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., at a House Oversight Committee hearing on May 12 regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

Trump had publicly pressured Republican lawmakers to help him undo his defeat in the 2020 election by challenging the Electoral College results in six key states. Gosar played a major role in that effort. Before voting to block Joe Bidens electoral victory in Arizona, he repeatedly promoted Trumps baseless claims of election fraud in the weeks following the November election. In December, he attended a Stop the Steal rally at the Arizona state Capitol and promised a crowd of Trump supporters that Once we conquer the Hill, Donald Trump is returned to being the president.

Story continues

On the morning of Jan. 6, Gosar tweeted a photo of a crowd of pro-Trump protesters already gathered in front of the Washington Monument with the message: Biden should concede. I want his concession on my desk tomorrow morning. Dont make me come over there.

In the months since, Gosar has attempted to downplay the severity of the attack on the Capitol and to deflect blame for the violence away from Trump supporters. He has claimed that Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump rioter who was fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer while trying to climb through the broken window of a door to the speakers lobby, was executed. His campaign office has also promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that the FBI might have had a hand in carrying out the riot.

Gosars office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

____

Read more from Yahoo News:

Read more from the original source:
Democratic rep recounts dramatic Jan. 6 confrontation with Republican Rep. Paul Gosar: 'This is because of you!' - Yahoo Singapore News

Before the right embraced Covid denial, there was climate denial. Many of the attitudes that have characterized the right-wing response to the coronavirus pandemic refusal to acknowledge facts, accusations that scientists are part of a vast liberal conspiracy, refusal to address the crisis were foreshadowed in the climate debate.

Yet from the response to Covid-19 among Republican officials especially the opposition to lifesaving vaccines its hard to escape the conclusion that the paranoid, anti-rational streak in American politics isnt as bad as we thought; its much, much worse.

On Monday the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report. The conclusions wont surprise anyone who has been following the issue, but they were terrifying all the same.

Major damage from climate change, the panel tells us, is already locked in. In fact, its already happening, as the world experiences extreme weather events, like heat waves in the Pacific Northwest and floods in Europe, that have been made far more likely by rising global temperatures. And unless we take drastic action very soon, catastrophe looms.

We can, however, safely predict how influential conservatives will react to the report, if they react at all. Theyll say that its a hoax or that the science is still uncertain or that any attempt to mitigate climate change would devastate the economy.

That is, theyll react the same way theyve reacted to past warnings or the way theyve reacted to Covid-19. Extreme weather events probably wont change anything. After all, Republican governors like Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas are still opposing virus-control measures not just refusing to act themselves but also trying to block vaccine requirements by local governments and even private businesses as hospitalizations soar.

However, while there are important similarities between the rights response to climate change and its response to Covid-19, there are also some important differences. The pandemic has opened frontiers in destructive irrationality.

You see, while climate denial was intellectually irresponsible and morally indefensible, it also made a kind of narrow-minded sense.

For one thing, warnings about climate change always involved the long run, making it easy for denialists to claim that short-run fluctuations refuted the whole concept: See, its cold today, so global warming is a hoax! This kind of evasion has gotten harder lately, now that were having what were supposed to be once-in-100-years fires and floods every couple of years. But it helped confuse the issue.

Also, there was big money behind climate denial. Fossil fuel interests were prepared to spend large sums creating a fog of skepticism in the expectation that delaying climate action would be good for their bottom lines.

Last and least, but not irrelevant, free-market ideologues didnt want to hear about problems that the free market cant solve.

None of these explanations work for current Covid denial.

Floridas sevenfold increase in hospitalizations since mid-June cant be dismissed as a hypothetical long-run issue.

Businesses may have protested lockdowns that reduced sales, but as far as I can tell, corporations are eager to see maximum vaccination, which would help them get back to business as usual, and a growing number of companies are imposing their own vaccine mandates.

And even die-hard libertarians generally admit that promoting vaccines to stop a plague is a valid role for the public sector.

Yet here we are: Trying to limit a deadly pandemic, even via vaccines that convey huge benefits at little risk, has become a deeply partisan issue.

How did that happen? Id tell the story this way: Americas rapid vaccination pace during the spring was very good news for the nation but it was also a success story for the Biden administration. So influential conservatives, for whom owning the libs is always an overriding goal, began throwing up roadblocks to the vaccination program.

This had far-reaching consequences. As Ive written before, the modern G.O.P. is more like an authoritarian political cult than a normal political party, so vaccine obstruction not necessarily denunciation of the vaccines themselves, but opposition to any effort to get shots into peoples arms became a loyalty test, a position you took to prove yourself a loyal Trumpist Republican.

Presumably, the politicians who made this calculation had no idea that reality would strike back this hard and this fast that Florida would so quickly find itself with almost nine times New Yorks rate of hospitalizations, that cities in Texas would find themselves virtually out of I.C.U. beds. But its almost impossible for them to change course. If Ron DeSantis were to admit the deadliness of his Covid mistakes, his political ambitions would be over.

So Covid denial has turned out to be even worse than climate denial. Weve gone from cynical catering to corporate interests to aggressive, performative anti-rationality. And the rights descent continues, with no bottom in sight.

Read the original here:
Opinion | Climate Denial, Covid Denial and the Rights Descent - The New York Times

EXCLUSIVE: After co-writing Despicable Me and the Apple TV+ musical series Schmigadoon!, Cinco Paul will team with Imagine Kids+Family and Warner Music Group on Winter Wonderland. Paul has created and written a live-action and stop-motion animated family film anchored by the classic holiday song, and featuring original songs written by Paul. Imagine Kids+Family and WMG (the song is controlled by Warner Chappell Music) will co-produce and co-finance the film.

The film will be produced by Imagine Entertainment Chairmen Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and Imagine Kids+Family President Stephanie Sperber, along with WMGs Charlie Cohen, President, TV & Film, Warner Music Entertainment, Meredith Milton, WMG consultant and producer, as well as Kurt Deutsch, SVP, Theatrical and Catalog, Warner Chappell Music.

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Said WMGs Cohen: When it comes to joyful and poignant storytelling, there is no one better than Cinco Paul. We are incredibly excited to have him bring this holiday classic to life with his inspiring talents.

Added Sperber: We couldnt be more excited to embark on this ambitious project with Cinco Paul, an amazing filmmaker with a vision, and someone with whom I had the pleasure of working with for years on the Despicable Me franchise said Sperber. This will be the first feature project from Imagine Kids+Family, and it couldnt be more perfectly tailored. It takes a classic with a twist, and leverages animation with live action to create the next holiday classic for a new generation.

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Paul has a long track record for family blockbusters he co-wrote with Ken Daurio. Their films combined have made over $4 billion at the box office and include titles such as Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Despicable Me 3, Dr. Seuss Horton Hears A Who, Dr. Seuss The Lorax, and The Secret Life of Pets, among others. Paul is currently the showrunner and songwriter for Schmigadoon!, which he and Daurio created.

Having been a massive fan of all the stop-motion holiday specials since I was a kid even the not-so-great ones Im thrilled to be working with WMG and Imagine on this incredibly fun project, said Paul.

Winter Wonderland will be the first project to emerge from Imagines and WMGs multi-year strategic partnership to co-produce and co-finance a slate of music-centered projects across multiple mediums. The concept for this project first came to life at Warner Chappell and was further co-developed by Imagine and Warner Music Entertainment, WMGs TV and Film division, as part of an ongoing effort to create new cultural touch points and opportunities to exploit the Warner Chappell Music catalog. Imagine Kids+Family recently released its first live-action series, The Astronauts, with Nickelodeon, and formed a partnership James Pattersons kids division JIMMY Books, and Lion Forge Animation, the studio behind the 2019 Oscar winning short Hair Love, directed by Matthew A Cherry.

Paul is repped by Gersh.

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Despicable Me Scribe Cinco Paul Teams With Imagine Kids+Family & Warner Music Group For Live Action/Stop Motion Film Musical Winter Wonderland -...

The NFL is back!

While it is a boring, meaningless preseason football game, it is still football and will give us something to enjoy the next couple of weeks as we wait for the regular season to kick off.

The Cardinals and Cowboys are shells of what they hope to be in January, but that doesnt mean it wont be fun.

Depending on the comment section, we may have a second half thread, just depends on if we need it or not.

For now, sit back, relax, and enjoy having Arizona Cardinals football back for the next six months.

Who: Arizona Cardinals vs Dallas Cowboys

Where: State Farm Stadium - Glendale, Arizona

When: August 13, 2021 - 7:00 p.m. Arizona Time

TV: NBC (Local Channel 12) - Dave Pasch (Play-by-Play) Ron Wolfley (Color Analyst)

Streaming: A live stream is available on the following platforms for those in market:*

o Cardinals app (iOS devices)

o AZCardinals.com mobile site (for iOS devices/Safari browser only)

Local Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM - Paul Calvisi (Play-by-Play) Drew Stanton (Color Analyst)

Spanish Radio: KQMR 100.3 FM - Luis Hernandez (Play-by-Play) Rolando Cantu(Color Analyst)

Odds: Cardinals -2Over/Under: 38

Go Cardinals!

Visit link:
Arizona Cardinals vs Dallas Cowboys preseason first half open thread - Revenge of the Birds