The only remorse is the tantrum didn’t lead to the result they wanted

Captain Frogbert of the Daily Kos community discussed an article in this month’s Scientific American that points out that Americans are dying younger than citizens of other industrially advanced countries. I’m not sure what Frogbert discussed next is in the original SA article and what isn’t. Even so, Frogbert does link to sources for his statistics. Frogbert does leave out one statistic (though his image at the top shows it) – since the start of the pandemic life expectancy in America has fallen. That brings us to Frogbert’s thesis: Conservative ideology is causing more Americans to die. There are three primary sources of this death. The first is the conservative response to COVID. The data for this is the falling life expectancy for black people and Native Americans, though also the falling expectancy of white people. For that last one Frogbert points to data from Government Executive:

The study finds that excess deaths during the pandemic were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats in two states, Ohio and Florida. What’s more, the partisan gap in death rates increased significantly after vaccines were introduced.

Frogbert also noted that more men are dying of COVID than women. The second source of death is the ongoing opiate crisis, again made worse by conservative ideology. Frogbert wrote:

It began with the conservative idea that profits trump common sense and medical science, leading physicians, encouraged by pharmaceutical companies in search of profits, to prescribe opiates like they were Tic Tacs for years and years. It ends with America’s studied inability to manage a social or medical crisis without making it all about “how much better I am than you.” Because conservatives insist on treating drug abuse and addiction as a moral issue rather than a medical issue and a social management issue, and because conservatives can’t imagine helping people when they can blame them for problems not entirely of their own making, America simply can’t handle opiate addiction rationally or effectively. As long as we see addiction treatment and recovery as a failure of morality (I’m better than you), and more as a criminal issue to be managed by imprisonment (I’m still out here and you’re in there, so I’m better than you), we will continue to fail to address the opioid addiction issues that plague America.

I’ve been writing a lot about how all of the problems of us humans are because of or made worse through our rampant need to feel superior to others. I’m pleased to see others have come to the same conclusion. The third source of death is guns. Frogbert quoted such statistics as:

In 2019, 316 people of Asian or Pacific Islander origin died by suicide using a firearm in the United States. In that same year, 20,090 White people died by suicide involving a firearm in the United States.

Data from Statista. Gun advocates claim that a gun was used to deter hundreds of thousands of crimes a year. But data from emergency departments does not show hundreds of thousands of criminals with gunshot wounds. Frogbert linked to a study done at Harvard that says victims use guns in less than 1% of contact crimes. That study also shows other that other excuses to own guns aren’t backed by evidence (not that gun enthusiasts pay any attention to evidence). Wrote Frogbert:

The simple fact is, conservatism’s choice to make fetishistic obsession with guns the symbol of their identity is killing more Americans and killing more American conservatives than it ever did.

The lively discussion in the comments wonders if conservatives are dying at a rate faster than they can be replaced. Alas, the problem of letting them kill themselves and each other is that mass shootings take too many innocent lives. Also, maybe the expected Red Wave in November’s election was because too many conservatives were too dead to vote. Commenter Rosencrantz discussed the definition of conservatism, meaning conserving the hierarchy of power. That originally meant royalty, people who thought serfs having a say was obscene.

So the “founding fathers” of conservatism came up with the theory that the problem wasn’t that a handful of wealthy nobles had all the money, power and land…but that they were the wrong nobles. So they came up with the concept that the proper nobles to rule should be determined by markets rather than birth. Hence capitalism is created as a way to virtue signal support for democracy while still ensuring those with the money, power and land still had all those things anyway.

Last week Laura Clawson of Kos reported that the nasty guy and his legal team were ordered to pay $937,989.39 for filing politically motivated lawsuits against 31 people. One of those people was Hillary Clinton. The strange amount, rather than something like $1 million or $938 thousand, is the sum of all the expenses these 31 people had to pay out to protect themselves from these suits. The judge was clear that the nasty guy, not just his lawyers, has to pay part of that fine. He said the nasty guy has repeatedly used the courts to seek revenge for political adversaries. This fine is in addition to the $1.6 million the Trump Organization was fined for tax fraud. Because of this ruling the nasty guy’s lawsuits against the Pulitzer Prize Board, Twitter, and CNN have been withdrawn. Clawson also reported that the nasty guy has withdrawn two lawsuits against New York Attorney General Letitia James. He filed these suits because James is pursuing a $250 million civil lawsuit against the nasty guy and his adult children for fraudulent business practices. Of course, the circus in the US House continues. The big task now is to determine who sits on which committees. Joan McCarter of Kos reported on some of it, though by the time I got to writing about it the details aren’t so interesting. McCarthy wants to keep Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off the Intelligence Committee, partly because they would gum up his (or the maniac’s) plans to retaliate against Democrats and partly because they had been so effective investigating the nasty guy and guiding the impeachment trials. Since Intelligence isn’t a standing committee McCarthy can keep Schiff and Swalwell off. But he has to go to the floor for some of his choices and some of his denials – and his majority is so thin. A couple Republicans have said they won’t approve some of McCarthy’s choices, and Rep. Greg Steube is out for a while because he fell off a ladder while cutting tree limbs. As for other things Republicans have been doing... Georgia Logothetis, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Steve Benen of MSNBC writing about the recent obsession over the thought people are coming for their unhealthy gas stoves.

But the party can’t shake its reliance on juvenile antics. The focus on Dr. Seuss, Potato Head dolls, and inefficient lightbulbs has given way to pointless rhetoric about gas ovens and executive orders about critical race theory in states in which no schools teach critical race theory. Republicans do this for a variety of reasons, none of which is especially compelling: The party enjoys scoring cheap points, keeping activists they see as fools fully engaged, providing fodder for conservative media, and creating the basis for new fundraising gimmicks.

Congressman Bill Foster of Illinois had something to say about George Santos, whose entire life story was shown to be made up:

As the only recipient of the Wilson Prize for High-Energy Particle Accelerator Physics serving in Congress, it can get lonely. Not anymore! I'm thrilled to be joined on the Science Committee by my Republican colleague Dr. George Santos, winner of not only the Nobel Prize, but also the Fields Medal - the top prize in Mathematics - for his groundbreaking work with imaginary numbers.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, included a video from The Daily Show with a hilarious take by people who still support Santos. Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press tweeted a cartoon that says being anti-woke is being asleep at the wheel. Dartagnan of the Kos community wrote about those who attacked the Capitol two years ago and have been facing trials and convictions for their actions. Dartagnan calls them spoiled toddlers. His first point of proof is they had no idea what would come next if their attack had succeeded. Did they intend to go back to their jobs if the nasty guy had been reinstalled? Did they fancy themselves in the menacing role of the nasty guy’s private enforcers, imposing a new social order at gunpoint? That means they were more like deluded minions than warriors. Dartagnan’s other point of proof is the violent rhetoric they used before, during, and after the attack and the meek, stumbling, not quite apologies they are saying before the court. To Dartagnan that means what they did two years ago was throw a tantrum and the only remorse they have is the tantrum didn’t lead to the result they wanted. Marissa Higgins of Kos wrestles with a bit of news from Pope Francis. On the good side Francis has called for the end of laws that ban homosexuality and for his church to be a part of ending those bans. On the bad side Francis still maintains that homosexuality is a sin. And Higgins, a lesbian and former Catholic feels caught in the middle. Yes, it is a help in distinguishing being gay as not a crime, though it is still a sin. Calling for 67 countries to end their bans on homosexuality, especially those that punish the crime with death, is great! Overturning those laws will save lives. Calling on American politicians (perhaps indirectly) to stop their efforts to ban trans people from sports and bathrooms of choice, to ban age-appropriate gender confirming health care, to ban knowledge of LGBTQ people from schools, to ban queer books, is all to the good. We need more voices to remember that sin and crime are not the same thing. But there’s still that thing about the Catholic Church – and many other denominations and religions – saying being LGBTQ is a sin, still denying us the community and comfort religion might bring. Higgins ends with a personal story. She was raised by her very religious grandmother. That grandmother had a brother who was gay and died of AIDS. Every night for the rest of her life that woman prayed that her brother would be accepted into heaven. What Pope Francis said is great and beneficial and a big step forward for the church and not enough.