We coups are a sneaky bunch!

Last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press had an opinion piece by Rex Huppke. He describes himself as a “noted hypocrisy enthusiast.” I didn’t find the piece online on the Free Press website. I did find it on Huppke’s home newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. I can get the link to the article, but can’t read it there because it is for subscribers only. I was able to see it online on the syndication site ArcaMax. In his column Huppke takes the voice of last January’s failed coup. This coup wonders why no one is afraid of him. He’s feeling ignored. One might fear him more if we knew him more. So take a look at the PowerPoint presentation that Mark Meadows gave to the Jan. 6 Commission. So why wasn’t the news and content of that presentation splashed across page one of every newspaper in the country? Very few, if any, did. The response was a yawn. Why isn’t the coup the topic of conversation in every diner in the country? From the article:

Democrats should be talking about me on 27/7 television ads, the media – folks who won’t fair too well once democracy crumbles – should be helping people understand just how serious I am. You notice I used the present tense at the end of that last sentence. We coups are a sneaky bunch! I say “how serious I am” because I ain’t done yet. You all might not be making me famous right now, but that just helps me prep for the next round. I came one malleable vice president’s unexpected moment of courage away from working. If you all keep downplaying me, next time there won’t be anything to stand in my way!

I also found on ArcaMax Huppke’s article pretending to be the COVID omicron variant introducing itself to the world. He wrote it just after omicron was discovered and announced. An excerpt:

I want to take a moment to thank my agent, my entire team at Pandemic Works Inc., the unwitting host who gave me the opportunity to mutate, the internet for allowing anti-science rhetoric to spread like a me, and the whole crew over at Fox News for darn near bending over backward to fan the flames of vaccine hesitancy. This was a team effort and I wouldn’t be standing here with more than 30 mutations in my spike protein if it weren’t for all of you.

Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist, responded to the CDC’s new guidance on shortening the number of days a person must isolate after being exposed to COVID.

CDC’s new guidance to drop isolation of positives to 5 days without a negative test is reckless Some ppl stay infectious 3 days, Some 12 I absolutely don’t want to sit next to someone who turned Pos 5 days ago and hasn’t tested Neg Test Neg to leave isolation early is just smart I am 100% for getting people to drop isolation early. Heck, I formally recommended it to CDC in May 2020 and Published the recommendation in J of Clin Infectious Diseases in April 2020. But it was always with a negative test. What the heck are we doing here? This is the part that hurts the most. The reason they are doing this: "The change is motivated by science demonstrating... SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs... generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after" That was BEFORE OMICRON. Today, it is OBVIOUS the situation has changed. Ppl are testing earlier b/c symptom onset is early - no longer two days after people are infectious. So now people are staying positive even longer after testing positive, because they find out earlier they are positive.

A couple weeks ago there was a minor scandal in Washington with the release of which members of Congress owned how much stock in many big corporations. Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, quoted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying one reason for owning stock is because members of Congress aren’t paid enough. They pay two rents, aren’t getting cost of living adjustments, and more. So they make up for it by trading stock. Shaub added:

She’s right. When they considered the 1989 Ethics Reform Act, congressional salaries were at issue. It’s an equity issue. Keeping salaries down is fine if you want to be ruled by the wealthy. But banning stock trades for members and raising salaries is the better answer. A member warned in the 1980s that, if they didn’t raise congressional salaries, the govt would be filled with Donald Trumps. Quite the prophetic warning. You can side with Trump if you want, but I’m with @AOC on congressional salaries.

In response to Pelosi saying it’s a free market and members and staff shouldn’t be prohibited from trading stock Shaub tweeted:

GOOD GRIEF! NO! She's wrong. She is 100% wrong. Nobody put a gun to anyone's head and said "you must be a member of Congress." Want to trade stocks? Do it. Want to be a member of Congress? Do it. But you have NO BUSINESS doing both! This is the opposite of government ethics.

James Connor added: “Fact Check: It's not a free market when Congressional reps are trading on inside information and making laws that impact stocks.” Darrell Lucus of the Kos community wrote about the Christian right’s support of the nasty guy. Yeah, it is something I’ve written about many times. The question Lucus ponders is “how could rolling back abortion and marriage equality be so important” that they are willing to make a Faustian deal with the nasty guy? Lucus wrote of Christian right they are ignoring Jesus’ command to care for “the least of these” (Matthew 25 in the Bible). They want to make America Christianist again. Examples of that mentality come from two books by James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. In his 1983 book Love Must Be Tough he describes Laura who is in a horribly abusive marriage. Dobson, a psychologist, should know the solution is for Laura to get out now. Instead, Dobson suggests Laura move out, yet try to change her husband’s behavior. Ain’t gonna work. The other book, The Strong Willed Child, included how he took a belt to his dog for refusing to go to bed. We see who Dobson is. And Dobson is one of the powerful voices of the Christian right. So why do they like the nasty guy? Because he promised to restore their power in America. The right’s support was in full display when Brent Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court. All of Kavanaugh’s alleged abuse of Christine Blasey Ford was simply dismissed. And why does the Christian right want power? Demographics are moving against them – since 1984 white people have dropped from 80% of the population to 60%. I add that even many white people have moved away from the conservative Christian church and even from the church in general. I’ll add one more thing. The Christian right has moved away from the teachings of Jesus (see that bit about Matthew 25) to become a supremacist organization, demanding they be at the top of the social hierarchy. Many say the Southern church was always a supremacist church. And in the nasty guy, also a supremacist, they found one of their own. This fun post got lost in my browser tabs way too long. Rebekah Sager of Kos wrote about a video featuring the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences choir. This young group sang a version of “One Nation Under A Groove” written by George Clinton back in 1978. Clinton approves of this version. The video was sponsored by the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. It features the choir performing in the Rivera Court of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford, at Eastern Market, and several other landmarks. The instrumentalists are also shown at the Charles Wright African American Museum and other venues. The music and visuals, definitely a professional job, brought a smile to my face. I had to watch three times. DAAS is small, just under 700 students. The school is 100% black and 80% of the students live in poverty. In 2001 the choir was a small after school club. In 2020 students enroll in DAAS for a chance to sing in the choir.