Trump's recent political strategy on the pandemic has been to claim the credit for the vaccine being developed while he was occupying the White House. You'll recall that last week he told MAGA sociopath Candice Owens that "I came up with a vaccine, with three vaccines. All are very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed to take five to 12 years... Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine."
This flies right in the face of the MAGA grift machine and the QAnon ideology, which is pushing a very different collection of fact-base-- probably free base-- narratives, about how the vaccines take over your brain and are poison and kill you. There are Trump supporters who have reinvested themselves around this new identity of vaccine-fighter.
Over 40% of Republicans are unvaccinated-- as opposed to around 10% of Democrats. Most people being hospitalized with COVID and most people dying are Trump supporters. Counties the voted most heavily for Trump are filled with people refusing to get vaccinated. Counties that voted least for Trump are the most vaccinated. For example, the strongest Trump county in Ohio is Holmes (83.2%), which is also the least-vaccinated county in the state (17%). It's the same in state after state-- Cimarron County in Oklahoma (92.0% Trump and just 30% fully vaccinated); Garfield County in Montana (94.0% Trump, 19% fully vaccinated); Winston County in Alabama (90.3% Trump, 21% fully vaccinated); Crook County Wyoming (88.6% Trump and 28% fully vaccinated). Vermont gave Trump his weakest showing of any state-- 30.7% and has the highest rate of fully vaccinated people, 77%. Wyoming was Trump's most supportive state-- 69.9% and it is grossly under-vaccinated (just 47%). But the Wyoming County where the fewest people voted for Trump-- Teton County (29.6%)-- is the county with the highest vaccination rate, by far: 89%. In California, 3 counties are over 80% vaccinated:
Marin- 84% fully vaccinated (15.8% Trump)
Santa Clara- 81% fully vaccinated (25.2% Trump)
San Francisco- 80% fully vaccinated (12.7% Trump)
And the California county that gave Trump his biggest win? Backward Lassen County (74.5%), which also has the lowest vaccination rate in the state, 36%.
The most recent YouGov poll for The Economist found that 75% of unvaccinated Trump voters say they don’t plan to ever be vaccinated. This question was asked only of people who had said that they are entirely unvaccinated:
One has to wonder if Trump wishes he had never weighed in in favor of vaccinations. The push-back from MAGA-world has been brutal. Yesterday, Zach Petrizzo reported that Alex Jones is virtually in a full scale war against Trump. Last week he said Trump is either a moron or evil. Apparently, that tested well with his audience.
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is threatening to “dish all the dirt” on Donald Trump to get back at the ex-president over his endorsement of the COVID-19 vaccine. “Ya, we all wish Trump would do the right thing,” Jones said on his Wednesday afternoon InfoWars program, before urging his listeners to “move on” from Trump due to his glowing endorsement of the vaccine. “In fact, maybe-- you know what-- to get Trump’s attention,” he continued, “maybe I should just dish all the dirt-- you know what, you know what-- I am going to dish it all on Trump next hour.” Jones added: “It’s not to hurt Trump, it’s so people can know how pathetic he is when you think he is playing 4D chess, going to save you and he’s not!” The vague threat comes amid Trumpworld’s continuing meltdown over Trump’s backing of the COVID-19 vaccine, and pro-Trump radio host Wayne Allyn Root subsequently calling for an “intervention” to be staged for the ex-president. (Jones didn’t return the Daily Beast’s request for comment late Wednesday night.)
On Tuesday, the U.S. reported 335,037 new cases and yesterday that number shot up to 465,670 new cases (and 1,777 deaths). Florida reported 46,923 new cases yesterday (a record one-day high) and Governor DeathSantis had disappeared. He hasn't made a public appearance in almost 2 weeks and people are starting to wonder if Mini-Trump has COVID. He seems to have said-- for political reasons-- that he's only had one (Johnson and Johnson) shot. So he isn't protected from Omicron. Maybe he's dead. American would be way better off if he were.
to refute the alleged "pickle", I ask the following:
1) did not their jesus character give the sermon on the mount and beatitudes?
2) when did the "followers" of that character jesus EVER ponder those "teachings" as they acted on greed and hatreds, tortured, prosecuted wars and, sometimes, committed genocide?
there is no pickle. never was one. never will be. and it doesn't even require that the worshippers realize their fuhrer is lying. again. still.