Mediaboss Marketing

Akron Beacon Journal Editorial Board

Some sad news out of Ohio this week: We lead the nation in per capita COVID deaths. We lag in full vaccination 57% compared to the national rate of 64%.

Its sad, because so many deaths in the past year could have been prevented, if only people had been willing to get vaccinated. More than 33,000 Ohioans have died since the start of the pandemic, nearly 15,000 since vaccines became widely available in April 2021.

Little wonder, with such a low vaccination rate, that hospitalizations started soaring in the fall of 2021.

Fortunately, the worst might be over statewide, hospitalizations have dropped one-thirdover two weeks,from 6,005 on Jan. 18 to 3,968 on Tuesday.

In the Akron area, daily hospitalization levels remain above what they were in the fall and summer, but have sunk from the all-time record of 399 on Jan. 6. Unvaccinated people continue to make up the majority of COVID patients, a Summa Health official says.

Opposition to the vaccine is still strong among many people, often because of misinformation.

But in an interesting development, Donald Trump is promoting the COVID vaccine and booster. He pointed out to a right-wing interviewer that The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take their vaccine.

Later, in mid-January, he went further, saying he believes the vaccines have saved tens of millions throughout the world. He called "gutless" those conservative Republican politicians who won't say whether they've been fully vaccinated.

No doubt this is a not-so-subtle way ofreminding everyone that the Trump administration rolled out Operation Warp Speed to help bring COVID-19 vaccines to the American public. Trump, after all, hasnt ruled out a run for the presidency in 2024.

Unfortunately, Trump spent too much time early in the pandemic talking about unproven and dangerous treatments. The easy solutions and wishful thinking that marked Trumps unwise pronouncementscontinue among those who hope to achieve his popularity numbers.

Nobody liked the lockdowns of 2020 that were seen in Ohio and elsewhere, but with lives on the line, some of us did find comfort in bold moves. There were no vaccines and little information about the emerging disease.

Unfortunately, what began as disagreement over COVID safety measures has turned into political opportunity that Trump and his followers have used to form a bond with extremists.

In Ohio, Republicans hoping to replace outgoing Sen. Rob Portman often sound like the 45th president as they hope to gain Trumps endorsement.

The candidate with statewide name recognition, Josh Mandel, tweeted after a Trump rally last month: Incredible speech and right on target END VACCINE MANDATES NOW! This all-cap tweet sure reminds us of Trump.

Our work force and student populations wouldnt need mandates, however, if more people made vaccine appointments instead of excuses. Those folks need some prodding.

But some people are actively rejecting vaccines and finding receptive lawmakers in Ohio, with one Republicanlawmaker offering a bill that virtually would prohibit all vaccine mandates. The Ohio House ultimately passed a different bill, one that would weaken COVID vaccine mandates by adding broad exemptions for most workers.

What exactly do our politicians stand for? Why cater to people on the fringes of society?

Wed like to see our politicians have real discussions about the best ways to approach a crisis like COVID. Once vaccinations became available and we knew more about COVIDs spread, it was certainly reasonable to discuss whether it was time to return children to in-person learning.

But shouting about how awful mandates are isn't preventing deaths and serious illnesses. This inability to hold a discussion might be why we are also plagued by super-rich candidates who fund their own races.

Five GOP candidates for Ohios Senate seat spent a total of nearly $30 million of their own money on campaigning last year. Investment banker Mike Gibbons led the pack, putting $11.4 million toward his run. Businessman Bernie Moreno loaned his campaign $3.75 million, but on Thursday announcedhes dropping out.

Those numbers give new meaning to the phrase "winning at all costs." The sums are shocking. As is this number:155. That's how many Ohioans are dying each day of COVID-19.

When it's time to vote, that latter number should be the one that matters. Ohioans need to elect candidates who care about lowering the death rate and raising the vaccination rate. Being sensible and finding middle ground on theseand other issues would be for the good of all.

Here is the original post:
Vaccines, mandates, lockdowns and more: Politicians need to avoid fringe messages - Akron Beacon Journal

She is fiercely loyal to Donald Trump. But when the former US president came to her home city and praised coronavirus vaccines, Flora Moore did something she never thought possible. She booed him.

He said take the vaccine but we all booed and said no, she recalled of Trumps event with broadcaster Bill OReilly in Orlando, Florida. He heard us loud and clear because the Amway Center was packed. We let him know no and a couple of us even hollered out, Its killing people!

There is no scientific basis to the claim that the vaccines are killing people. In fact, they have demonstrably saved thousands of lives. But Moore is indicative of the extreme anti-vaccine sentiment consuming the base of the Republican party a monster that Trump himself can no longer control.

America is exhausted by a pandemic still killing more than 2,400 people a day, the overwhelming majority of whom are unvaccinated, bringing the total death toll to 900,000.

In more conventional times, Trumps Operation Warp Speed, which developed vaccines in record time, would be a source of pride for his voters. Even his successor, Joe Biden, has praised the initiative, stating: Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America was one of the first countries to get the vaccine.

But Trumps eagerness to claim credit has been undone by conservatives backlash against Bidens efforts to legally require worker vaccinations, which they cast as a threat to individual freedom. The ex-presidents customary applause turned to jeers when he encouraged supporters to get vaccinated and told OReilly that he received a booster himself.

What was arguably Trumps most important legacy from an otherwise disastrous pandemic response, and a divisive four-year presidency, has turned into a political liability, threatening to turn his own fans against him. Laurie Garrett, an award-winning science writer, observed: Its probably the only time his base has ever booed him about anything. If he can no longer brag about Operation Warp Speed, what can he brag about regarding how he handled Covid?

The anti-vaccine fervor has been stoked by some Republican politicians as well as rightwing media. Last month, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a notorious sceptic, gave writer Alex Berenson a platform to baselessly proclaim, The mRNA Covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double-boosted.

The web has also become a place for unscientific conspiracy theories to thrive. Moore, the Trump supporter in Florida, said she gets her information from her 30,000 followers on Facebook as well as Telegram, Twitter and YouTube.

She said: I dont trust the government. I dont trust the pharmaceutical companies. Im active in politics here and found out lots of people were having complications and dropping dead. Theres a lot of jobs I wontt even take because they want me to get a vaccine.

The commercial analyst, who is in her 40s, refuses to wear a face mask in restaurants or at work. Her radical views on the issue outweigh even her faith in Trump.

I trust him on certain things, but hes not my God, she said.

Trump appears to have heeded the shift and recalibrated. At a rally in Conroe, Texas, last Saturday, where anti-vaccine views were again rampant, he channeled the crowds anger towards Bidens mandate for federal government workers (a similar mandate for businesses was rejected by the supreme court).

It is time for the American people to declare independence from every last Covid mandate, Trump said to cheers. We have to tell this band of hypocrites, tyrants and racists that were done with having them control our lives, mess with our children and close our businesses. Were moving on from Covid.

He then added briskly: We did a great job. Operation Warp Speed has been praised by everybody but its now time to move on. Notably in the remarks he did not use the word vaccines at all. It was a pivot that appeared to acknowledge the political threat and it is enough to satisfy voters such as Moore.

She commented: I think hes gotten the message that he can say he took the vaccine and nothing happened to him and if you desire to take it, take it, but if you dont want to, leave it alone.

The number of anti-vaxxers in the Republican base is hard to estimate. The Guardian interviewed half a dozen Trump rally attendees last week and found that most had got the shots. They included Jered Pettis, from Phoenix, Arizona, who had changed his mind on the topic.

We were totally anti-vaccine, didnt really believe in it, didnt want to get it, he said. Then a friend got it pretty severe: he could hardly breathe and felt like his head was going to explode. He didnt go to the hospital but he was very, very sick to the point where he told me, Hey, Jered. Im very thankful for every breath of air that I get now. After I had seen and heard one of my best friends go through that, I changed my mind in a heartbeat.

Pettis received two Pfizer doses, then caught the virus just over a month ago. So thank God, because I would have been a lot sicker than I was. It was almost like a mild cold. I could just imagine if I was not vaccinated.

The 50-year-old exterior designer describes the recent booing as absolutely ridiculous and believes that Trump deserves credit, not criticism, for the vaccines. Even though you may be anti-vaccine, youll change your mind if you get sick or you get somebody around you that dies.

Even so, deep-seated suspicion of the vaccines could deprive Republicans of what might have been a powerful boast going into Novembers midterm elections. Garrett, author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, points out that counties that voted for Trump in 2020 have a far higher mortality rate than counties that voted for Biden.

The Republicans are in a bind, she said. They are experiencing a higher death rate in their ranks and it is directly linked to their positions on Covid. The one thing they could claim as a great benefit that was saving lives, vaccination, theyre now being compelled by their own base to renounce.

Vaccine scepticism has never been a solely rightwing stance. Some libertarians on the left have opposed profit-driven big pharma and championed holistic alternatives. But on Covid-19, at least, this group appears to be significantly smaller than the conservative holdouts.

Garrett said: All the polls are showing tremendous partisan differential in everything to do with vaccines and it has been increasing steadily for the last two years. Its very much driven by the rightwing myths and narratives around Covid.

There still are some of those ex-hippie types that dont want to get vaccinated, but if you look at the breakdown on political sentiment about vaccination, willingness to get a third booster or even a fourth if it becomes available, its so Democrat. Its incredible Garrett said. I never thought in my life I would see something like this. It is an absolute partisan divide and its widening.

About nine in 10 Democrats and six in 10 Republicans have been vaccinated, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, while 62% of Democrats and just 32% of Republicans have been both vaccinated and boosted. The trend suggests that Republican candidates for the midterm elections are likely to follow Trumps lead in attacking Bidens mandates rather than celebrating Trumps vaccines.

But if any Republican can outflank Trump on the issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election, it may be the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who has refused to say whether he received a booster. The New York Times reported that Patrick Ruffini, a Republican pollster, found Trumps lead over DeSantis closing to just nine points among party members who like both men.

Monika McDermott, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York, said: They can get disgruntled with Trump, certainly, and DeSantis is the obvious choice for people who are anti-vax. But giving up on Trump is like giving up on their dreams at this point. Trump was their savior. Trump brought about the wholesale remasculization of that portion of the American psyche.

Indeed, despite the possible split with his Make America Great Again movement on vaccines, Trump remains by far the biggest beast in the Republican jungle and this week announced that he is entering 2022 with a staggering $122m in campaign funds.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman active on social media, said: I talk to the extremists all the time and I agree with Trumps people that theyre locked with him. Theyre not going to anybody else.

Walsh finds that 90% of the base are anti-vaccine, do not believe Biden won and either have no problem with the 6 January insurrection or regard it as a patriotic day.

You could not as a Republican candidate run for office if you told people to get vaccinated or if you said Joe Biden won fair and square, he added. If you said either one of those two things, you couldnt win a Republican primary.

See the original post:
Trump is not my God: how the former presidents only vaccine victory turned sour - The Guardian

Something youve probably picked up on during the last few cursed years is that Donald Trump demands complete and total subservience from everyone in his life, the kind generally reserved for the relationship between a man and his dog. No oneand we mean no onecan ever cross him and God help the person who even entertains the idea of leveling the absolute mildest criticism, even if said person has historically treated him like an emperor king. So it wasnt surprising in the slightest that after Senator Lindsey Graham suggested that maybe it wasnt a great idea to dangle pardons for the violent rioters involved in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the ex-president completely flew off the handle, accusing one of his most loyal followers of being a RINO and not knowing what the hell hes talking about. Nor was it surprising that his eldest son, clearly angling for a fatherly pat on the head because thats how sad their relationship is, has joined the pile-on.

Appearing on Newsmax on Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. offered that while he like[s] Lindsey and thinks hes a funny guy, hes got a good personality, in the Senate hes a RINOin terms of government, in terms of those things hes going to roll over every time and thats unfortunate because well be right on the issues and so many Republicans and the weak establishment Republicans will roll over each and every time. I think we need to elect people that wont do that. Unfortunately, the Senate is filled with a lot of Republicans that way now. I just want to make sure we bolster and help those who are actually going to fight for conservative values, not talk about it in sound bites and then roll over and die when theres actual pressure.

Just so its clear, according to Junior, Graham isnt a real Republican because he thinks people who waged a violent insurrection that left five people dead in the hopes of overturning the results of an election should not be let off the hook, or that other people considering similar acts should have it put in their heads that theyll be able to get away with it. Which, according to Donny, is going against conservative values, for which Graham and others like him should apparently be voted out of the Senate.

(Incidentally, as many have pointed out, Donald Trump may be a Republican now, but hes reportedly changed his party at least five times over the years, so the RINO disses are extremely rich.)

Anyway, wed like to say the Trump attacks will cause Graham to rethink his fealty to the family, but thats about as likely as his dead friend rising up from the grave and saying, Hey, why the f--k arent you defending me to this clown? Last week, the GOP lawmakersaidin an interview that hed spent the whole weekend with Trump and suggested that he was all in if the former president should make another run for the White House. He will be the nominee in 2024 if he wants it. Stay tuned, Graham said, adding: From my point of view, theres nobody thats going to beat Donald Trump if he wants to run.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.s Unlikely Rise and Precipitous Fall at Liberty University Eric Adams Pulls Crypto-Paycheck Stunt Hours Before Bitcoin Crash Dave Chappelle and the Black Ass Lie That Keeps Us Down Trumps January 6 Cover-Up Is Unraveling Fast Florida Man Has Growing God Complex In 2024, Mike Pence Is Gearing Up to Go Rogue New York Attorney General to Trump, Ivanka, and Don Jr.: Dont F--k With Us Inside This Cable News Giants Streaming Dreams From the Archive: It Came From Wasilla Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.

Originally posted here:
Donald Trump Jr., Gunning for First Fatherly Hug of 2022, Joins War on Lindsey Graham - Vanity Fair

Theres a brand of misinformation that spreads widely on social media that falsely suggests Donald Trump is not the former president, but the current one. Weve checked some of it, such as this claim that Trump signed the Insurrection Act and is still president, or that he was secretly inaugurated as the president of the "restored Republic."

Neither statement is accurate, and neither is the title of this video shared on Facebook on Feb. 2. "Trump is in position," it says. "He never left."

This post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

RELATED VIDEO

The video offers no evidence to support this claim.

While Trump is active in politics issuing statements, holding rallies, giving interviews he is no longer the president. He left the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, and hasnt returned.

We rate this post Pants on Fire!

Read this article:
It's not true that Donald Trump never left the White House - PolitiFact

Whatever else it is, this old honor culture has deepened todays identity politics. Ostracized from the genteel establishment, many working-class Wyomingites see themselves in these new shows of Trumpian bravado. Like other Americans, they feel a sense of kinship with those who act like them. As Ms. Stubson lamented, We had never been able to connect to the larger community. Her husband, Tim Stubson, a former Wyoming representative, admitted that there was a current there that we were not aware of.

Honor culture isnt about just identity, though. This primitive code also seems indispensable to those Republicans radicalized by todays polarized politics. If one is persuaded that the left is on the verge of destroying American civilization, then electing as many fearless fighters and strongmen as possible is the order of the day. That is why a prominent MAGA donor like Tom Klingenstein said he sees Mr. Trump as just what the doctor ordered in these revolutionary times.

Enter Harriet Hageman, Mr. Trumps proxy candidate in his war against Ms. Cheney. A lawyer who once aligned with the old guard, Ms. Hageman broke from Ms. Cheneys clique to pursue power. Attuned to Wyomings new right, her first campaign ad is already appealing to the states deeply rooted honor culture. It accuses Ms. Cheney of breaking the code of the West, one that requires loyalty, honor and a willingness to fight for compatriots.

Ms. Cheney, though, is fighting on behalf of her own code of honor. Hers is driven by a fidelity to what the Yale political theorist Steven Smith calls enlightened patriotism, one that insists on loyalty to a particular constitutional form that we call liberal democracy or constitutional democracy.

Such patriotism has always been in tension with the motto my country, right or wrong, because it is beholden to abstract, creedal principles, such as equality, individualism and the rule of law. And because these principles are open to interpretation, patriotism in the United States has long had a distinctly critical, questioning character. Mr. Smith even suggests that it birthed the nation, since the American revolutionaries regarded themselves as the true British patriots, not traitors.

Not unlike those British subjects facing a subversive king, Ms. Cheney had no real choice when faced with Mr. Trumps assault on our constitutional order. To Ms. Cheney and her Republican supporters in Wyoming it would have been shameful to remain loyal to Mr. Trump. This is why, on the first anniversary of the Capitol invasion, she admonished on Twitter, Anyone who denies the truth of what happened on January 6th ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Beneath the surface of their honor feud lurk clashing understandings of political ambition. Unlike Mr. Trump, Ms. Cheney is seeking the esteem of future generations by doing whats in the public interest even if she is cast out of office for doing so. Ms. Cheney told a Wyoming paper that just moments before her fellow Republicans pushed her out of House leadership, she warned them that history was watching.

Read the rest here:
Opinion | Why Donald Trump and Liz Cheney Are Locked in an Endless Feud - The New York Times