As the GOP turns entirely against vaccination against disease

The GOP is turning against vaccination against disease in general.

The reason I say this isn't just that this professional plague pusher is demanding vaccines be taken off market.

It's because Fox News Agent Tucker _supports this guy's lies_ about vaccines being "ineffective," thus giving credibility to the _rest_ of his evil mendacity to the @GOP.

nikki mccann ramírez - @NikkiMcR · 5:48 PM · Jan 25, 2022
Alex Berenson tells Fox viewers: "The mRNA COVID vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market. No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double boosted. They are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point."

The @GOP's psychotic promotion of plague won't stop with just making vaccines "optional" - they'll _ban_ them.

Here in reality, vaccines make you 19 times less likely to get severe COVID, and statistically speaking _completely prevent_ Long COVID.

They won't just stop with COVID-19 vaccinations, they're already working on dismantling vaccination for things like measles, rubella, and everything else at the state level.

The @GOP are a _disease_ busily promoting _disease_.

I don't want this to be true, but it's a _fact_.

So REMEMBER THIS, I BEG YOU:

When it's time to vote later this year, you have to compare the options you _actually have on the ballot_ and decide whether you want a party you _dislike_, or a party actively working to bring _mass death by plague_.

LITERALLY.

Don't be fooled by "suburban dad in a nice sweater" Republicans like Virginia did.

The _day_ he took office reversed vaccine and mask rules in order to help make the plague worse.

_First day_.

And if you want to make November's choices better?

You need to be working RIGHT NOW.

Primaries are where @TheDemocrats candidates are chosen.

You have to win _those_ elections to get the choices you want on ballots in _November_.

But in November, if it comes down to a Democrat you don't like vs. ANY Republican?

The @GOP are the ones literally working literally every day to BRING. MORE. PLAGUES.

It sounds insane, it sounds _stupid_, it sounds _goofy_. _Saying it_ sounds _mad_.

But it's literally true.

This is the choice the Republicans have chosen - and they've absolutely chosen - to give us.

An authoritarian party of plague, sedition, and madness, vs...

it doesn't matter vs. what.

When you vote in November, you'll have two choices.

A Democrat, or a member of a death cult.

Work NOW to make that "vs." the best you can.

And when it comes to November, remember this moment, because things will be different by election day...

...but this part won't have changed one single goddamn bit.

Choose wisely.

Hell.

Choose _sanity_.

why ukraine matters more than just ukraine

AFP News Agency - @AFP · 11:20 AM · Jan 26, 2022
The United States rejected Russia's demand to bar Ukraine from NATO and said it believed Moscow was ready to invade but offered what it called a new "diplomatic path" out of the crisis http://u.afp.com/wxYC

Good.

Look, there's a reason why this matters on a larger scale, okay? It has to do with authoritarianism and militarism.

That reason is the international consensus after World War II that war was no longer going to be a valid/recognised way to change borders.

Yes, that committment has frayed many times. One could argue it's been observed in the breach as much as the observence.

But it still matters.

The authoritarian movement - and fascists in general - want that committment _gone_.

They want back wars of conquest.

And most importantly what they want isn't to get away with a nibble here and there - they want conquest _recognised_, _accepted_....

...and _normalised_.

"Not stolen - conquered" says the fascist front. They're wrong, it was both, but it says what they want: wars of conquest.

Putin - as an ex-KGB Russian nationalist - wants the Soviet Union back, or as close as he can get to it.

As an _authoritarian_, he wants the ability to have his wars of conquest against neighbour states recognised and accepted.

He is not the only such authoritarian.

Even if he were, it would still matter. But he is _not_.

And - even beyond the plight of Ukraine - _that_ is why it matters.

the worst part about the party of plague

The worst part of Republicans calling for COVID-19 vaccines to be banned - and what you have to understand - is that the @GOP don't need a majority to trainwreck blanket effects of vaccination for diseases like measles and polio.

They only need 10% - 20% tops - to monkeywrench everything and bring back recurring plagues.

With a 20% refusal rate, we will absolutely see waves of measles, polio, who knows what else, if they can pull it off.

They're trying, right now, in Florida, and probably other states. Dismantling childhood vaccination requirements for schools, in particular.

Vaccination will still protect the people who get polio and measles in these new outbreaks from severe disease, like COVID now. But there will be outbreaks, and breakthrough cases again.

Most of these breakthrough cases will be okay. Some won't be, because _literally no vaccines_ are 100% proof against disease, and they never have been.

Particularly but not exclusively amongst the unvaccinated, Long Polio will return.

What makes outbreaks end isn't vaccines stopping 100% of cases. What makes them end is vaccines reducing probability of disease, of case severity, of duration of sickness, and by doing so, reducing contagiousness windows.

With smallpox, we got the odds so far down it died out.

But the higher the unvaccinated rate - the larger number of people who let disease run free - the less possible it becomes to stop outbreaks.

Some anti-vax strongholds were already seeing measles outbreaks _before_ the GOP went all-in on being the Party of Plague.

That was with a much lower refusal rate, mostly of cranks. It wasn't even partisan, I've had my share of fights with anti-vax leftists, mostly trendy new-age assholes and the like.

But now it is partisan, made so entirely by the right.

The GOP are making vaccination denial part of their identity. This won't stop with COVID.

They only need 10-20% to bring back disease outbreaks. When they do, they'll declare vaccination doesn't work, and double down.

Just like Agent Tucker on Fox News, boosting a literal plague by sabotaging not just vaccination, but _every_ attempt to fight the disease.

Doubling down like they always do, every time.

The GOP have become a Party of Plague. They will not stop. Functionally, they can't.

If you give the GOP power, that's what they will do.

If you _don't_ give the GOP power, they'll sabotage to make sure we have plagues anyway, knowing you'll blame whoever _does_ have power..

Just like they've always done.

Just like they're doing right now, with COVID.

The only way out is to deny them the one thing they really want, which is power.

We can't stop the GOP from being the Party of Plague _except_ by starving them of power.

That's what it takes. _Sustained_ removal from power. Because that's really the only thing they care about.

That's their actual guiding light.

Well, that, and having someone to persecute while claiming they're being persecuted, as their cultural and religious beliefs demand.

(If that sounds fascist to you, that's because it is.)

But push comes to shove, it's about having power.

Know this now. Fight the primary fights you need to fight _now_ to get better Democrats.

But whether you win or lose in primaries... remember _all_ this, I beg you, in November.

Any vote for _any_ Republican is a vote for the return of plagues.

Like this one.

But _more_.