It’s time to brand environmental awareness as masculine

Because of news people saying COVID cases on the rise I downloaded Michigan’s data. I hadn’t done that in the last seven weeks. Yes, cases are up, a small but steady rise since the beginning of July (about the last time I checked the data). Over that time the weekly peaks in new cases per day have been 131, 132, 128, 146, 195, 279, 282, 332, and 364. This is much below last December when there were peaks above 2000 and a year ago when there were peaks close to 3000 (and above 23300 just after New Year in 2022). The deaths per day has been in the single digits since about mid May and has been 2 or fewer deaths in the last four weeks. An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reported that though the state of Georgia passed a law to make it easier to ban books out of school libraries, the rate they’re doing so is well below other states with such laws. The reason is that while the process is simpler, it is restricted to actual parents with children in the district. Yeah, parents who join groups such as Mama Bears do challenge books and get them removed. But activist citizens who don’t have children can’t badger schools and libraries. And that makes a big difference. Yesterday I wrote about a CBS poll about nasty guy voters and who they feel is telling them the truth. Today I include another piece of that poll, reported by Kerry Eleveld of Kos. This question asked voters who say honesty is very important who they support. 61%, almost two-thirds, of those who say honesty is important support the nasty guy. In a distant second place is the 17% who support DeathSantis. Yeah, I’m struggling with those who say they value honesty are supporting the guy known for how constantly he lies. The rest of Eleveld’s post is about how convinced the MAGA crowd is that the nasty guy will beat Biden in 2024. And if he’s not the nominee, any Republican will beat Biden.

Only a legitimate cult could believe a guy who twice lost the popular vote, was defeated in 2020, doomed an entire slate of handpicked MAGA candidates in 2022, and is now haunted by four criminal indictments is a shoo-in for 2024.

That may not be such a strange belief when they’re fed a steady diet of videos of Biden stumbling over words and sandbags. If the MAGA crowd is fed a steady diet of a frail and bumbling Biden they could very easily believe that Biden stole the 2024 election too. Joe and Jill Biden went to Hawaii to look over the Lahaina devastation and offer comfort and support. While there he did what Republicans are trying to turn into a scandal. His crime: he petted a dog. Specifically a dog helping to find missing people who might still be under the ashes. That moment, and the Republican reaction to it, prompted Hunter of Kos to review the protocols when a dog presents itself to you. You complement the dog, then you pet it (if the dog is willing). If the dog is accompanied by a human handler you then then acknowledge the handler by complementing the dog. Hunter goes from there. Can’t wait for Republicans to try to broaden the scandal by showing Biden petting dogs. Jen Sorensen of Kos comics noted that conservatives have tried to declare fossil fuels are manly and renewable energy are effeminate. It’s time to flip that script and brand environmental awareness as masculine. One frame says, “Trucks are for wimps. Real men use real muscles.” It shows a man on a bicycle saying to a man in a truck, “Outta my way, softie!” In another pundit roundup for Kos a cartoon by Dennis Goris was posted in the comments. On either side of a child wearing a vest are two women. The kid’s mother tells the other, “I usually don’t like to splurge on back-to-school stuff but it is kevlar.”