From the Atlantic (May 2014):



[link:https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/death-panels-will-be-sarah-palins-greatest-legacy/371888/|

How prescient of them to have foreseen the looming specter of death panels! Turns out, the death panels, which they feared would lay waste to the nation's grandmothers, was another case of Republican projection, since it is now Republican governors like Ron DeathSentence who are imposing death sentences on not our grandparents alone, but on everyone, including children, by refusing to mandate masks, vaccines, or vaccine passports.

They are the death panels they warned us about.

Zero, to the best of my knowledge (and googling skills just now). President Biden has evacuated over 28,000 people out of Afghanistan so far. He could have pulled a Trump and just gotten the troops out of there. But he didn't. He's trying to make the best of a horrific situation. He's trying to do the right thing, like he always does.

Why the difference in the two presidents' troop withdrawals? Because Joe Biden has a heart and a soul and Trump has neither.

who can field reporters' questions intelligently, thoughtfully, and respectfully.

Love you, President Biden!

Maybe this is a secondary reason for Republican governors banning mask mandates in schools (the primary reason being, of course, that they hope to curry favor with Trump's idiot voting base and thus get reelected).

I actually don't think they've thought it through that much (since they never think anything through), but creating public schools that are unhealthy for kids and teachers would fit into their anti-public-education scheme. Too bad if thousands of schoolchildren are killed in the process.

I predict Republican legislation is on the horizon for private school vouchers for parents who pull their kids from public schools due to Covid.

Maybe we will soon have an ally in encouraging people to get vaccinated.

From the New York Times:

Don't Want a Vaccine? Be Prepared to Pay More for Health Insurance

. . . Insurers could try to do more, like penalizing the unvaccinated. And there is precedent. Already, some policies won’t cover treatment that result from what insurance companies deem risky behavior, such as scuba diving and rock climbing.

The Affordable Care Act allows insurers to charge smokers up to 50 percent more than what nonsmokers pay for some types of health plans. Four-fifths of states follow that protocol, though most employer-based plans do not do so. In 49 states, people who are caught driving without auto insurance face fines, confiscation of their car, loss of their license and even jail. And reckless drivers pay more for insurance.

The logic behind the policies is that the offenders’ behavior can hurt others and costs society a lot of money. If people decide not to get vaccinated and contract bad cases of Covid, they are not only exposing others in their workplace or neighborhoods; the tens or hundreds of thousands spent on their care could mean higher premiums for others as well in their insurance plans next year. What’s more, outbreaks in low-vaccination regions could help breed more vaccine-resistant variants that affect everyone.

[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/opinion/health-insurance-unvaccinated.html|

a week when everyone who wished to enter the store had to show proof of vaccination AND wear a mask, plus a photo ID to show that they didn't just borrow someone's vaccination card.

It would just be such a relief to be able to go shopping just one day a week among "my people" (the fully vaxxed mask wearers) and not have to be subjected to the "stink eye" from the anti-vaxxer-anti-maskers, not to mention their Covid germs.

Actually, on second thought, I would like it even better if they would reserve one day a week in which they would allow the anti-vaxxer-anti-masker idiots in the stores. Let the rest of us have the remaining six days!

Where is Trevor Noah when you need him??? He would have had a heyday with THAT one!

(I guess Trevor is on hiatus until September. Hurry back, Trevor, we miss you!)