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Nine months after several highly effective coronavirus vaccines started to become available in America, and three to fivemonths after they became available in pharmacies across the country, the pandemic is now as bad as it's ever been in many states. In Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and South Carolina, daily hospitalizations and deaths are at or near the March 2020 peak, while in Florida the previous records have been far surpassed.

At the same time, conservative elites are doing their level best to spread the virus as much as possible, even as COVID-19 is killing conservatives by the thousands. It's willful, malign negligence on a mind-boggling scale.

I can barely keep up with the number of minor conservative figures who have died of COVID after refusing to take the vaccine. The radio host Phil Valentine is dead after having mocked the vaccine, and so is Newsmax host Dick Farell. The same is true of Texas Republican official Scott Apley. South Carolina party official Pressley Stutts continued to post anti-vaccine conspiracy theories from his COVID ICU bed until he died. And among the voting base, it's total carnage.

Yet Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is still in a ferocious dispute with his state's school districts about mask mandates, as his state's pediatric ICU beds are swamped. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently issued an (almost certainly unconstitutional) order banning any institution receiving public funds from requiring vaccines. South Dakota recently held the Sturgis motorcycle rally again with the furious support of Gov.Kristi Noem despite the fact that the state is trailing in vaccination and last year the rally created a pandemic charnel house.Unsurprisingly, cases there are once again shooting through the roof.

The story that might have fully broken my brain for good is the recent plague of conservatives poisoning themselves with veterinary deworming paste. The idea is to get a drug called ivermectin, which has been promoted as yet another coronavirus miracle cure by various fringe quacks. Perhaps the most prominent is the former biology professor Bret Weinstein, who has been publishing anti-vaccine propaganda on a podcast and YouTube in the classic passive-aggressive "just asking questions" fashion.

As Jef Rouner explains at Houston Press, the formula is simple and lucrative: raise fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the vaccines with complicated but false arguments that are hard for a layman to untangle, launder extreme claims by interviewing total lunatics, all while recommending unproven miracle remedies the shadowy Big Pharma conspiracy is supposedly suppressing. Then when you get in trouble for spreading antivaccine lies during a global pandemic, scream that you're being "censored" to get more attention, and watch the subscription numbers jump. Sure enough, Weinstein got on Fox News and other conservative outlets after YouTube demonetized his channel and deleted some videos. He even got a friendly reception from ex-leftist Matt Taibbi, who wrote two articles about ivermectin treating Weinstein as a credible source and a victim of Big Tech censorship.

In terms of science, the story is virtually identical to what happened with hydroxychloroquine promising initial evidence that has crumbled on further scrutiny. One big study was retracted when it turned out much of the abstract was plagiarized and the data was faked. A meta-analysis examining 14 studies published late last month found highly equivocal results: "Overall, the reliable evidence available does not support the use [of] ivermectin for treatment or prevention of COVID-19 outside of well-designed randomized trials."

To answer Taibbi's duplicitous leading question, there are two reasons why it is a bad idea to trumpet the possibility of unproven miracle cures during a pandemic. First, even the promising initial studies did not show ivermectin to be anywhere close to as protective as the vaccines, which are among the most-studied treatments in the history of medicine. Second, spreading overheated rumors about miracle drugs before the evidence is in will lead credulous people to take it without knowledge of proper dosage or considering toxic interactions. Sure enough, deworming paste is flying off the shelves, some doctor in Arkansas is giving it to prisoners, and calls to poison control centers are skyrocketing across the South. Facebook groups are full of stories of poisoned people suffering severe diarrhea and expelling "rope worms," which turn out to be almost certainlyshreds of intestinal lining.

But in terms of politics, the horse paste saga is a perfect window in the conservative mindset that is currently the biggest force fueling the pandemic. The core behavior here is muleheaded, selfish spitefulness, adhered to even at great personal risk. "Freedom" for movement conservatives is entirely one-directional: They get to spray virus fog whenever and wherever they want, and they also get to force you or your kids to not wear a mask.

Because that behavior is so monstrous, there is a large incentive to make up comforting lies about how the pandemic is exaggerated or fake, or the vaccines don't work much facilitated by the fact that consuming right-wing media for very long tends to turn your brain into horse paste. Some right-wing voices pushing this line actually believe it, as shown by the lamented dead above. But others are just cynical Abbott recently came down with COVID, but it turns out he had not only been vaccinated but also had already gotten a booster shot, and was getting daily tests, so had a very mild case.

Finally, because the financial engine of the conservative media complex is tricking gullible retired people into buying brain pills and reverse mortgages, conservatives are easy pickings for cynical and/or deluded grifters hawking snake oil remedies when they do contract COVID after coughing into each other's face at the Cheesecake Factory to own the libs.

Yet another wave of completely pointless death seems to be motivating a lot of people to finally get vaccinated but thus far the procrastinators, not the ideological, hard core antivaxxers. Even when Donald Trump tried to argue for the vaccine at a rally in Alabama recently, he was booed. It seems the pandemic will keep burning out of control until just about every conservative vaccine refusenik has gotten COVID. Another few months ought to do it.

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Death and horse paste - The Week Magazine

The Iowa State Fair is at full boil. Its a little light on the political tourists because its not the summer before a year ending in 0, 4, 8, 12, or 16. Which is not to say that it is entirely devoid of migrant politicians from other states, or the media they drag around in their wake. On occasion, these are politicians you should keep an eye on because they have national aspirations. On other occasions, these are politicians you should keep an eye on to make sure they dont get into the poultry barn and start biting the heads off all the chickens. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Well, thats one way to describe it that begins with an S.

And, dear lord, she brought a friend, someone on whom people are keeping an eye for a whole different bunch of reasons.

Iowa needs to beef up its border security.

Oops, might be too late.

And furthermore:

I dont think MTG is elevating her national profile as much more than a wandering geek show, but her recent travels illustrate certain immutable political realities. One, that the Republican Party is no longer capable of controlling her and the people who follow her, and two, that the Republican Party cannot exist as a national party without them. Shes out there ahead of them, beating them to the freshest corn dogs.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Out of the Republican Party's Control - Esquire

The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or onbangordailynews.com.

Phil Harriman, a former town councilor and state senator from Yarmouth,is the founding partner of Lebel & Harriman, a financial services firm. Ethan Strimling, a former mayor and state senator from Portland,is the president of Swing Hard. Turn Left, which promotes progressive policy at the local, state and national levels.

Ethan: Do you remember back in 2012 when we posted a columnin the Bangor Daily News beginning a bipartisan call for Gov. Paul LePage to apologize for comparing the IRS to the Gestapo?

Phil: I do. I was thankful that within a week of that post he apologized in his weekly radio address. He quickly understood how out of bounds and insensitive his comment was.

Ethan: I believe it was the only time he apologized for one of his off-color remarks, but I thought his words were very helpful: Millions of innocent people were murdered and I apologize for my insensitivity to the word and the offense some took to my comparison of the IRS and the Gestapo.

Phil: I also appreciate that a couple of years later you called outan angry restaurant owner, who had been shut down for health violations, for comparing LePage to those same Nazi police. There is no place for minimizing the Holocaust to simply score political points by Republicans or against Republicans.

Ethan: Agree, and thats why it was so disappointing to recently see two Maine political leaders go off the deep end with similar language. First our political analyst colleague on News Center Maine and conservative talk show host, Ray Richardson, likened a proposed requirement that federal workers receive vaccines to Obama-Bidens brown shirtsand then eight days later Rep. Heidi Sampson claimed Gov. Janet Mills was Joseph Mengele, the Nazi Angel of Death.

Phil: Really disheartening. For our readers who dont know, the Brown Shirts carried out Kristallnacht. Over two days, Hitlers enforcement arm, who were called the Brown Shirts due to the color of their uniforms, marched through the streets of Nazi Germany destroying hundreds of synagogues, thousands of Jewish businesses and arresting up to 30,000 Jewish men who were then sent to concentration camps.

Ethan: And the Angel of Death, Joseph Mengele, was responsible for selecting who would get gassed at Auschwitz, he often administered the gas himself, and he performed experiments on live Jews in his sadistic drive to prove and replicate racial superiority.

Phil: I read one story of how he tortured a 6-year-old twin named Renate(he was obsessed with experimenting on twins). He took blood from her neck, strapped her to a table, cut her with a knife and injected her with chemicals to make her throw up and have diarrhea.

Ethan: Those stories are sadly endless. And they make it so vivid why comparing anything happening today to what was done by the Nazis is very troubling.

Phil: Richardon and Sampsons comments were inappropriate, painful and ethnically insensitive. For those who lost loved ones to the racist hand of Hitlers charges, their comments simply trivialize the pain.

Ethan: And are historically inaccurate. One may believe that federal or state mandates that require a vaccine for employment are a bad idea (I do not), but to trivialize the Holocaust to make that point shows both ignorance of history and a deep insensitivity to other cultures and ethnicities.

Phil: Deciding whether to inject an FDA-approved vaccine into your body to keep your job, is a legitimate public debate. Holocaust comparisons just distract and are insulting. We called on the governor to apologize back in 2012 and within a week he did. Heres hoping these two do, too.

Ethan: Here, here. And let me add a note of thanks for you being the first Republican in Maine to condemn these remarks. You were one of the only to do it against LePage, and you are showing leadership here again. I know how hard it is to take on your own.

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Holocaust comparisons are insulting and inappropriate. A Republican finally calls them out. - Bangor Daily News

Sarah Huckabee Sanders may not be the White House press secretary anymore, but when an opportunity for some Donald Trump image management presents itself, shes still got it. As the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant and rising caseloads coincides with stagnant vaccination rates and heightened concerns about health misinformation, the Arkansas candidate for governor put her platform to good use in an op-ed Sunday that urged people to get inoculated with the Trump vaccine.

The gubernatorial candidate highlighted how caseloads and hospitalizations are rising exponentially in the state shes running in, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, and cited data about the benefits of getting vaccinated, noting that if getting vaccinated was safe enough for [President Trump and his family], I felt it was safe enough for me. Sanderss persuasion tactics also brought in right-wing talking points politicizing the public health issue, such as through bashing Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration, as well as scorning liberal media outlets that did not give President Trump and his team the credit they are due.

On the downside, Sanderss rhetoric isnt exactly factual, and it will likely add to mistrust of the current administration. But it will likely resonate with her Republican base, many of whom may be resistant to the idea of getting the COVID vaccine. The urgent need for those holdouts to change their mind has necessitated a certain type of strategic communication. What [holdouts] dont want is to be indoctrinatedtheyre willing to be vaccinated, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said on ABCs This Week Sunday, noting one of the places where our leaders have fallen down is theyre not explaining the facts to Republicans hesitant or completely unwilling to get the shot. These folks do not respond to being ordered to do those things, he said, noting its a libertarian type of response to perceived government overreach. You have to walk them through the logic of this, he said.

Some Republican officials are increasingly adopting that approach as parts of the party shift their messaging to promote the vaccine, including some lawmakers who have either actively or passively fueled vaccine reluctance, the Associated Press reports. After holding off on getting vaccinated for months, Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, shared photos of himself receiving his first dose earlier this month and called it safe and effective. The Louisiana congressmans decision comes as his state, where only 36% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, confronts a delta-fueled surge in hospitalizations and infections.

Even conservative leaders now are having a hard time figuring out how to rein in what had primarily been a propaganda campaign, and they are now realizing their constituencies are particularly vulnerable, Eric Ward, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the AP. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida whose 2022 reelection campaign merch includes beer koozies that say Dont Fauci My Florida, recently noted that nearly all COVID-19 hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people and affirmed that these vaccines are saving lives. Theres been an overall shift in some corners of Fox Newsa network that has for months amplified misinformation and politicized the shots.

By now, though, it may be too little, too late. Once you are opposed, it is very hard to change that position. And thats whats happening right now, Republican pollster Frank Luntz told the AP. Some officials are now urging constituents to use common sense, as Alabama governor Kay Ivey did last week, though without indicating that shell impose new safety restrictions in her state. These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain, she said of unvaccinated people. I can encourage you to do something, but I cant make you take care of yourself. Republican Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire seemed similarly resigned to his states diminished vaccination rates, telling the AP that there are no new measures to encourage vaccination on the immediate horizon and its folks individual responsibility. If someone hasnt been vaccinated at this point, theyve made that conscious decision not to.

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The Republican Reckoning on COVID Vaccines Has Finally Arrived - Vanity Fair

Ten years ago, Republicans pulled off what would later be described as the most audacious political heist of modern times.

It wasnt particularly complicated. Every 10 years, the US constitution requires states to redraw the maps for both congressional and state legislative seats. The constitution entrusts state lawmakers with the power to draw those districts. Looking at the political map in 2010, Republicans realized that by winning just a few state legislative seats in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, they could draw maps that would be in place for the next decade, distorting them to guarantee Republican control for years to come.

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Republicans executed the plan, called Project Redmap, nearly perfectly and took control of 20 legislative bodies, including ones in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Then, Republicans set to work drawing maps that cemented their control on power for the next decade. Working behind closed doors, they were brazen in their efforts.

In Wisconsin, lawmakers signed secrecy agreements and then drew maps that were so rigged that Republicans could nearly hold on to a supermajority of seats with a minority of the vote. In Michigan, a Republican operative bragged about cramming Dem garbage into certain districts as they drew a congressional map that advantaged Republicans 9-5. In Ohio, GOP operatives worked secretly from a hotel room called the bunker, as they tweaked a congressional map that gave Republicans a 12-4 advantage. In North Carolina, a state lawmaker publicly said he was proposing a map that would elect 10 Republicans to Congress because he did not think it was possible to draw one that would elect 11.

This manipulation, called gerrymandering, debased and dishonored our democracy, Justice Elena Kagan would write years later. It allowed Republicans to carefully pick their voters, insulating them from the accountability that lies at the foundation of Americas democratic system. Now, the once-a-decade process is set to begin again in just a few weeks and Republicans are once again poised to dominate it. And this time around things could be even worse than they were a decade ago.

The redistricting cycle arrives at a moment when American democracy is already in peril. Republican lawmakers in states across the country, some of whom hold office because of gerrymandering, have enacted sweeping measures making it harder to vote. Republicans have blocked federal legislation that would outlaw partisan gerrymandering and strip state lawmakers of their authority to draw districts.

Advances in mapmaking technology have also made it easier to produce highly detailed maps very quickly, giving lawmakers a bigger menu of possibilities to choose from when they carve up a state. It makes it easier to tweak lines and to test maps to ensure that their projected results will hold throughout the decade.

Im very worried that well have several states, important states, with among the worst gerrymanders in American history, said Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard, who closely studies redistricting. Thats not good for democracy in those states.

In 2019, the supreme court said for the first time there was nothing federal courts could do to stop even the most excessive partisan gerrymandering, giving lawmakers a green light to be even more aggressive. And because of the supreme courts 2013 decision in the landmark Shelby County v Holder case, places with a history of voting discrimination will no longer have to get their maps approved by the federal government for the first time since 1965. Its a lack of oversight that could embolden lawmakers to attempt to draw districts that could dilute the influence of minority voters.

The gerrymandering clock is ticking. There is a consensus that Republicans could use the redistricting process to draw maps that will allow them to retake the House of Representatives in 2022. In state capitols where Republicans have control, there are already discussions about how aggressive lawmakers should be when they carve up districts for the next decade.

Texas, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina are all states where Republicans have complete control over the redistricting process and where experts are on high alert for GOP efforts to gerrymander districts. And even though Democrats are at a severe redistricting disadvantage overall, there are a handful of states Illinois, New York and Maryland where Democrats hold control of state government and can use that control to draw maps to their advantage.

Even though gerrymandering poses a uniquely dangerous threat to democracy, for decades, the process has largely gone under the radar. The mapmaking process is a complex, technical one, difficult to understand for average citizens. While some of the most egregiously gerrymandered districts are obviously contorted, it can be difficult to spot a gerrymander with the naked eye. And even if it were easy, lawmakers have largely taken the process behind closed doors, blocking the public from what they are seeing.

Thats set to change this year too.

Democrats and grassroots groups have spent the last few years educating citizens about the process and building up an army of volunteers across the country to closely monitor mapmaking. Part of that effort has been teaching people how to use publicly available technology to draw their own electoral maps.

Its an entirely new world than 10 years ago in terms of public mapping software. The capacity for the wide public to draw their own maps and identify their own communities, said Moon Duchin, a mathematician who leads the MGGG redistricting lab at Tufts University, which has built publicly available mapping tools.

Empowered with those maps, members of the public can better challenge lawmakers on their justification for drawing strange-looking maps, said William Desmond, a redistricting expert who advised Arizonas redistricting commission in 2010 and is working with Californias this year.

Members of the public and interested parties, theres going to be a lot more avenues open to them if they want to try their hand at drawing their own districts, he said. If they want to test the claims, like, OK you said you can only do this if you split these counties, lets see if I can take a whack at it. Theres lots more ways you can do it this time, and a lot higher level of quality.

Technology aside, theres also some hope that 2021 wont be a repeat of 2011, when Republicans dominated redistricting. While Republicans do have a huge advantage in drawing the districts, its not as severe as it was in 2011. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two of the most gerrymandered states a decade ago, Republicans still control the state legislatures, but now have Democratic governors who will be able to veto egregiously extreme maps.

Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, a GOP group focused on redistricting, downplayed the effects of Project Redmap.

Redmap has kind of taken on this mythos about what it was and what it was not. The reality was Redmap was a campaign to raise money to fund state legislative races around redistricting, he said. The best guardrails for gerrymandering have always been the American electorate. Shifting electorates break gerrymandering.

But critics argue that severe partisan gerrymandering prevents shifting electorates from being heard. In Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Republicans have maintained a majority in the seats in the state legislature for the entire decade even as Democrats have won gubernatorial and other statewide races.

Kincaid agreed there would be significantly more public interest in the process this year than there had been in years past.

A decade ago the number of press calls I got could be counted on one hand. Really on one finger, he said.

Some states are also choosing to strip lawmakers of their ability to draw districts altogether. In Michigan, a group of novice organizers successfully passed a constitutional amendment in 2018 to put redistricting in the hands of an independent commission composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents. The commission has strict partisan fairness requirements it must follow as it draws maps. Colorado and Virginia will also use commissions to draw districts this year, after voters approved ballot initiatives.

The gerrymandering last decade was so extreme that I think it has created this backlash. You see it in the reforms that have passed in a number of states. And you also see it in greater public awareness about gerrymandering, said Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.

At the same time, he added, I think for Republicans they also learned that this actually does work. They actually can do this with micro-precision.

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Republicans poised to rig the next election by gerrymandering electoral maps - The Guardian