It’s clear that massive gatherings of unmasked, heedless people spread the pandemic. The Sturgis motorcycle rally, for instance, seems to have sown surges of infection all across the midwest, in the Dakotas and Minnesota and elsewhere, but that doesn’t seem to stop Republicans from saying stupid stuff.
Here’s a Fargo city commissioner dismissing the importance of masks in slowing the rate of infection.
We’re doomed.
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) October 18, 2020
The thing is, no one claims that the virus itself is blocked by a mask — what the mask stops are fluid droplets that are spewed out of our mouths and nose when we talk or sneeze or just plain breathe. There is also empirical evidence that states that mandate the use of masks have lower infection rates than our more laissez-faire neighbors. But that twit, Deputy Mayor Dave Piepkorn, thinks the science supports his claim that masks are useless. Great. Fargo, the city only 2 hours north of me, is going to be doing its part to kill me.
I shouldn’t just pick on North Dakota, though. The idiocy has spilled over into Western Minnesota, where we’re afflicted with all kinds of conservative nonsense. Like, for instance, Bill Ingebrigtsen. He’s not my rep, his district is north of mine, but I have heard him speak at political meetings, and he’s a colossal dumbass. Here he is claiming that racism is not a problem in America, because Obama and pro athletes.
“There is going to be some shootings,” he concluded. “That’s really unfortunate. But to sit here and tell and lie to people and say that that we are in a horrible racist situation in this country. I’d have to ask, how did Obama get to where he is? How did these professional sports ever get to where they are. There’s nobody standing in the way of anything in this country.”
His parting shot was the classic, “Well, racism has never affected me,” which is always so convincing coming out of the mouth of a white Republican representing a district that is 0.29% African American.
In his rebuttal, Ingebrigtsen said that he hasn’t seen any instances of racism, and that state offices already have anti-discrimination departments set up to address such issues.
We really have to get these bozos out of office.
It’s good to hear that the Swedes and Norwegians have stopped hating on each other.
interesting/s variation of the Racists saying “my best friend is a ni…person.of.color.” always clear indication of racist thinking, to say “there’s never been any racist incidents around here”
This is the very definition of tokenism. By population averages, there should have been 6 Black Presidents by now, not to mention 8 Hispanic Presidents and 3 Asian American Presidents. Oh, and we should also have had around 23 female Presidents. (And let’s not forget that if there had been no genocide, we should probably have seen around 35 Native American Presisents.) One Obama does not negate 400 years of racial oppression.
And how many sport stars does he think makes up for the 167,000 Blacks incarcerated in the US who would be free right now if they had the same conviction rate as whites (which is still way too high btw)?
LOL.
My grandmother had no use for Swedes but she did think they made good servants.
She was Norwegian.
North Dakota is now the US leader in per capita Covid-19 cases.
I see comments for the GOPers often about how Covid-19 virus is a hoax, nonexistent, or just like the flu.
And then they catch it and sometimes die or are permanently disabled.
Don’t they ever get tired of being maimed and killed unnecessarily?
North Dakota hospitals are almost full right now with Covid-19 patients.
It won’t be too long before they run out.
So what is the plan here by state and local officials?
Looks like time for the neighborhood refrigerated trucks to show up, the ones for all the dead bodies that start piling up.
Post racial. It’s hard to get through to people on this one. Confirmation bias in such a simple idea, it’s like trying to dislodge an ear worm.
Ta-Nehisi Coates video
(Warning! Racially charged language. He doesn’t pull punches.)
which accompanies his article in The Atlantic,
“The First White President.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
Well, of course he does. He heard it from none other than that paragon of public health and infectious disease expertise, Scott Atlas, who is practically a Cabinet-level twit.
the people who claim there is no racism and that they are not racist and the we are post racism all have unfounded judgments about other groups of people. They do not recognize their thinking as prejudging everyone. They just think it is reality and clearly obvious. Even people who are caring , “good-hearted” and educated reflexively react without question with prejudice because people and races are different is so clear.
uncle frogy
For some reason Republicans have a real problem understanding, that two or more things can all be true, at the same time. Sure, he hasn’t seen any evidence of racism in his orbit, but that does not negate the fact that racism still exists.
Some folks just don’t want to take their minds for a walk outside their comfy, little hothouse bubble.