Category Archives: Democrats

Vaccine Passports: The End Of American Liberty

Argument, Conservatism, COVID-19, Democrats, IMMIGRATION, Individual Rights, Liberty, Republicans

An invasion of bodily autonomy, one of the most fundamental rights we have.–Glenn Greenwald

How disturbing is it when not even Tucker Carlson frames the extent of the violation that is a vaccine passport in severe enough terms.

While Tucker did “call the idea ‘Orwellian,’ [he] asked Glenn Greenwald if he felt like the idea would work to convince more Americans to get the vaccination.”

Utilitarianism is common among the punditry: judge a policy by its aggregate positive outcomes, and not by whether it is just or unjust, violates rights or not.

Sean Hannity reduced the vaccine compulsion to privacy: a matter between a doctor and his patient. This is better than utilitarianism, for at least Hannity pinpointed an individual right.

However, only journalist Glenn Greenwald said what needs saying (this daily Caller report is not good; some of the stuff “reported” or inferred was not said or meant, although this next was):

“Well, I think you have to start with noting how draconian of an invasion this is in three different ways,” Greenwald said. “Number one, coercing citizens to put a substance into their body that they don’t want in their body, a pretty grave invasion of bodily autonomy, one of the most fundamental rights we have. Secondly, gathering a new database that can track people in terms of their health, that can easily be expanded as government programs often do into a whole variety of other uses, and then thirdly, you are restricting people’s movement. Freedom of movement is one of the most fundamental rights we have. It’s actually guaranteed in the Constitution. …

Herd immunity will be arrived at eventually.

“Why is it necessary to stigmatize [those choosing not to vaccinate] and create a caste system?” Greenwald asked. ”

Typically, Sen. John Kennedy, with his contrived Southern act (he’s Ivy League) and rehearsed, overwrought cracks, puts Trump’s party back decades. On March 9, 2021, he told “Fox News Primetime” host Trey Gowdy that Americans love the 1 million legal immigrants coming in annually, and object ONLY to illegal, Biden-created chaos on border.

On vaccine passport, Kennedy “shone” just as brightly. Hannity, who treats his mostly friendly guests as family members, was expecting an erudite objection from Kennedy about the coerced-vaccine plan. The senator representing Louisiana needs to rehearse to disgorge his faux Southern witticisms. Thus was he caught unawares by Hannity, a generally fawning interviewer.

To the question about vaccine passports, Kennedy the cretin replied with a non sequitur:

A vaccine passport would be “terribly unethical,” croaked Kennedy, and not because it would threaten an individual’s dominion over his body, but because “EVERYBODY DOES NOT YET HAVE ACCESS TO THE VACCINE.”

Open Sesame: The Piss-Poor ‘Conservative,’ Immigration Positions That Admit You Into Polite Company

Argument, Conservatism, Democrats, IMMIGRATION, Law, Republicans

2 Replies

On the immigration front, the “Open Sesame” magical phrase that gets you into polite, conservative company is J. D Vance’s “True ‘Compassion’ Requires Secure Borders and Stopping Illegal Immigration.”

Banal. Puke. Yawn.

“True ‘Compassion’ Requires Secure Borders and Stopping Illegal Immigration” is the typically bankrupt, conciliatory, “conservative” argument we’ve come to expect from these quarters, regarding America’s promiscuously loose immigration policy, under Republicans and Democrats alike.

First, the “moral” preening component: “All’s I’m saying, you folks, comes out of the goodness of my hillbilly heart.”

For the second point, allow me to excerpt from my “Immigration Scene,” written in 2006 (has anything changed? why vote?):

Everyone (and his dog) currently concurs that we have no problem with legal immigration, only with the illegal variety. It’s now mandatory to pair an objection to the invasion of the American Southwest with an embrace of all forms of legal immigration.

Vance opposes the rot of our immigration reality simply because he’s so kind, diverse and open, but still law-abiding.

Note the name-dropping from our hoedown Hillbilly, a member of the elite by any other name:

“… my friend (and my wife’s former boss) Brett Kavanaugh [of the] Supreme Court...”

Ooh. Impressive. While Vance forgot to brag directly about having married an Indian-American lady, who “Rid Him of His Hillbilly Ways“; he brought her up indirectly while touting his elite credentials.

Then there’s the shtick that is the constant mentioning of his “working-class background.” Once they’ve “arrived” in the power zone; conservatives like Vance are as good at lefty elitists at assuring us of their (manifestly fake) authenticity.

By the way, Appalachian folks, whom Vance depicted in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, say justifiably that “Vance was not an authentic hillbilly or an example of the working class.”

Cassie Chambers Armstrong, an Appalachian and author of Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains, tells why her Aunt Ruth didn’t think much of JD Vance’s endeavor:

Hillbilly Elegy’s

portrayal of Appalachia is designed to elevate Vance above the community from which he came. Remember that it seeks to tell his story in a way that aligns with a simplistic rags-to-riches narrative. Think critically about how that narrative influences the way we are taught to think about poverty, progress, and identity.

When all is said and done, J. D. Vance utters the code words at the door of the Establishment, Left and Right, when discussing immigration–and has been allowed in.

The right answer, the one J.D. Vance wouldn’t dare give, is this:

Vance and his phony conservative friends misplace compassion. Their job is not to flaunt their virtue to The World currently on its way to America.

True compassion demands that American politicians and policy makers stick strictly to their mandate—and that is looking out ONLY for their American constituents, and sending all the rest THE HELL HOME. These politicians are hired hands: hired by the American electorate to do its bidding, alone.

Except for a tiny elite, Americans are struggling. But the political class, Dem & Republican, has developed crooked ways of virtue signaling about immigration, using these safe words: Humanitarian crisis! The Kids are in cages. Trafficking. Cartels. Sex.

See:

Do We Still Have A Country? Part I
“We Aren’t Americans; We ARE The World (Part II)”

UPDATE:

The GOP is RIP to me: Typically, Sen. John Kennedy, with his contrived Southern act (he’s Ivy League) and rehearsed, overwrought cracks, puts Trump’s party back decades, tells “Fox News Primetime” host Trey Gowdy that Americans love 1 million legal immigrants coming in annually, object ONLY to illegal, Biden-created chaos on border. (3/9/021)

* Image attribution

Cryptocurrency’s Max Keiser Vs. Gold’s Peter Schiff

Argument, Debt, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Republicans, Russia

3 Replies

I’ve never known what to make of the financial expert RT has stuck by, Max Keiser of the eponymous Keiser Report.

I had been more of a Peter Schiff gold devotee. Thing is, the devotion was not returned. Most of Schiff’s clients, especially the small fry, fared poorly over time and seldom or never heard from the money maestro (who himself is very wealthy; broker fees and all).

Schiff is still calling “Bitcoin the latest iteration of fool’s gold and anybody buying it [the] ultimate fool.” Keiser, the choice on the business page of RT (Russia Today), is a Bitcoin guy. Bitcoin is holding the value of assets and then some. Gold? It has been fractionalized (spelling?)—fractional reserve banking has bad connotations!—and manipulated by the brokerages.

Speaking of RT (which once published this writer’s weekly column): Republicans, like the Democrats, speak of that TV station as an arm of the Kremlin (presumably nothing like CNN or MSNBC or WaPo which are never an arm of the Democratic Party).

In truth, Trump conservatives never defended President Trump’s conciliatory position toward Russia and Vladimir Putin. Rather, Republican defense of Trump’s correct stance toward Russia consisted of bolstering his alleged anti-Putin credentials, and boasting that he was ACTUALLY tougher on Russia than the Dems. So weak. So dumb.

It’s never about principled argument with Republicans. In their narrow little minds, the American Empire is supposed to war with Russia. That Trump came to power opposing that position was no reason to reexamine their asinine assumptions.

Since they invariably always fall in-line with neocon and neoliberal foreign-policy orthodoxy—Republicans and conservatives only ever tried to nudge Donald Trump toward America’s wrongheaded, Russia monomania.

*Image courtesy of RT.