Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, November 13, 2014

EBOLA! "Hysteria is impossible without an audience."

Cartoon via Jobsanger



The Stupids on the fringes of the GOP, their pols, pundits, and bloggers (and in some cases, mainstream GOPers) were in a bleeding-eyed frenzy a few weeks ago, declaring that WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE OF EBOLA!

That didn't happen of course.  One unfortunate visitor to the U.S. from Liberia did die, and two nurses in the Texas hospital where he was treated, did contract the disease, and, thankfully, were later declared ebola free.  

At this point, there are no ebola cases in the U.S.  So far, so good.

But, the unending coverage by conservative media and internet outlets that served only to make all unthinking people terrified, plus FAUX NOOZ's Cacaphony of Doom increased exponentially as the midterm elections approached.  

One of FAUX NOOZ's resident idiots, Keith Ablow, a disgraced psychiatrist, claimed that President Obama deliberately brought the ebola virus to the U.S. to kill us all because "his affinities are with Africa."  Yes. That perfidious goblin actually said that on the most watched cable news station in America!  

Ebola won't kill us, but the sort of psychotic flapdoodle from Ablow that mentally challenged people listen to and believe will.


“ 'The U.S. is now free of known Ebola cases.'

That’s not to say the threat is over or that the number of domestic cases will remain at zero indefinitely, but Americans can nevertheless feel good about where things stand. 

 A grand total of two people were infected on U.S. soil and they’re now both healthy and out of the hospital. Dr. Spencer was the only remaining patient – he contracted the virus while treating patients in West Africa – and he’s reportedly being discharged from the hospital today (11/11/2014). 

All of this was accomplished without a congressionally imposed travel ban, new border security measures with Mexico, or a series of tents in New Jersey. Indeed, it’s amazing to pause for a moment to contrast the partisan hyperventilating we heard very recently about Ebola becoming “Obama’s Katrina” and an example of governmental “incompetence.” 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), true to form, started pushing conspiracy theories. 

Rep Peter King (R-N.Y.) suggested the public should no longer trust public-health officials. 

 It was just over a week ago that Sen.-elect Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) went so far as to argue that President Obama “hasn’t demonstrated” that he even cares whether or not Americans get Ebola." 

I don’t seriously expect Republicans to collectively say, “Sorry we tried to scare the bejusus[sic] out of Americans without cause,” but some acknowledgement of the Obama administration’s effective handling of the crisis and the right’s misguided hysteria would be nice. --Steve Benen





Since September 11, 2001, the default reaction to anything that happens in this country is PANIC! Certain elements on the right, with a huge assist from FAUX NOOZ, react to everything with mind-thrashing stupidity.


“Hysteria is impossible without an audience."  ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

18 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

A Chicken in every pot, a car in every garage. Herbert Hoover

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. FDR

A bogeyman under every bed, a scandel every week. Present Tea Party Enthusiasts.

J.M.S. said...

Pew takes the public’s temperature:

As was the case four years ago, the public is divided over GOP leaders’ policy plans.

About as many approve (44%) as disapprove (43%) of Republican congressional leaders’ policies and plans for the future.

J.M.S. said...

"Sixty six percent of Republicans said the they would prefer party leaders “stand up” to Obama “even if less gets done in Washington” while just 32 percent preferred GOP top brass “work with Obama, even if disappoints some GOP supporters.”

That view stands in direct opposition to the view of the broader electorate on that question; 57 percent of all Americans prefer that Republicans work together with Obama while 40 percent favor GOP leaders standing up to the president.

Among Democrats, a majority (52 percent) say that Obama should work with Republicans “even if it disappoints some Democratic supporters” while 43 percent would prefer they “stand up” to Republicans even if it means getting less done.

These numbers vividly paint the challenge before Congressional Republicans as they prepare to take over total control of Capitol Hill next year.

McConnell and Boehner — longtime institutionalists — undoubtedly will feel tugged toward trying to find some common ground with Obama in hopes of proving, on some small level, that they are not simply the opposition but can lead on a policy front too. And yet, there is a clear majority of Republicans who have absolutely no interest in seeing their leaders cut deals — large or small — with the president."


The GOP is still the Party of NO!

Les Carpenter said...

Truly unfortunate. Except for those who feel we need another revolution to refound the USA back to 1787.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Indeed, the timing was unfortunate. Before the election, sensationalized Faux Nooz accounts of Ebola gave every crapola from Osceola to Pensacola what they needed most: A payola of paranoia to smear and jeer the President this year.

The election may be over, but not the newest plague of dimwits and dunderheads who will run amok for the next two years. Let freedumb ring!

If you split the estimated voter turnout of 38%, the latest Republican victory represents a very small minority - less than 20% - of all registered voters. This is no mandate! Furthermore, if you look at the results of Election year 2012, a million more votes were cast nationwide for House Democrats; yet the GOP won a House majority. Why? Redistricting and gerrymandering!

What we now have is tyranny by apathy, tyranny by chicanery and corruption of our election process, a tyranny of dark money, and a tyranny of incompetence by the opposition party.

Democracy: R.I.P.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"What we now have is tyranny by apathy, tyranny by chicanery and corruption of our election process, a tyranny of dark money, and a tyranny of incompetence by the opposition party.

Democracy: R.I.P."

The death of Democracy by the very people who strut and fret about preserving our precious freedumbs. They've been had, of course, by their oligarchical overlords.

As we've pointed out, the states with the poorest standards of living and the most people without a basic human right--affordable health care--are all run by conservative governors and/or legislatures. And yet, these folks not only keep voting for their oppressors to govern them, they now, through voter apathy, have foisted this plague of nincompoops on the rest of us.

We in Massachusetts now have a Republican governor, but like our other Republican governors, Baker is for:

a woman's right to abortion
equality of marriage
sensible gun control
supports our health care system
against marijuana legalization
but he will have to work with our overwhelmingly Democratic legislature.

IOW, Baker is nothing like the crazies that have taken over the GOP. He never would have had a chance in Massachusetts if he were.

Very blue Mass. has a long history of electing liberal Republicans as governors.

Shaw Kenawe said...

RN, the present make-up of the GOP has allowed the nuts to run the party.

GOP = Grand Old Peanuts

Shaw Kenawe said...

J.M.S.

The new people coming into Congress will NEVER work with Mr. Obama. Their oligarchical overlords have declared they are to stonewall anything this president proposed and tries to pass.

We've know that since before he took his oath of office in 2008 when all their leading halfwit pundits in the GOP said they hoped Mr. Obama failed.

Those people are not serious about governing.

They're a plague of nincompoops.

Les Carpenter said...

GOP = Grand Old Peanuts

You're being too kind. I was a Vice Chair of my former town Republican committee, while they could be cantankerous at times none were even close to the national GOP that appaently has been taken over by the 'take us back to 1787' Tea Party.

Today's GOP = Grand Ole Poop

I still have hope. However it is dwindling fast.

Perhaps a third party with intelligent, reasonable, and honest leadership will emerge and edge it to the sidelines?

Infidel753 said...

Furthermore, if you look at the results of Election year 2012, a million more votes were cast nationwide for House Democrats; yet the GOP won a House majority. Why? Redistricting and gerrymandering!

This needs to be said at every opportunity. Like the vote-suppression laws, gerrymandering is a trick to perpetuate minority rule.

Democracy: R.I.P.

I don't think so. The Constitutional order survived a civil war that laid a third of the country in ruins. It survived the Depression and the divisions over Vietnam. It will survive this. Declaring the fight already lost just gives people an excuse to stop fighting.

the national GOP that appaently has been taken over by the 'take us back to 1787' Tea Party.

Yes, back to the days of slavery and the vote limited to white male property owners. That's exactly what they want. Aside from the religious fanatics who want to take us back to 1787 BC.

Ducky's here said...

No question about it, Shaw, they need a new talking point until they can start up a Benghazi hearing (the Ebola hearing is something they probably want filed).

You making book on the next "issue"?
I say they have a problem on their hands with the recent Chinese climate agreement.
Faux Snooze has been able to get a lot of mileage out of the lack of cooperation on climate agreements.
Pollution is so bad in China that they know something must be done and this is a first step.

Watch the Koch's move fast to head this off.

Just my guess.
Since they have 5 members of the court to cripple the ACA (five members who should publicly be called killers), climate seems likely.

What a parcel of rogues.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Next issue, Ducky? I'm not sure, but take a look at this "old" issue:


"...this Fox News story tells us that some on the right now think Obama is actually overdoing the Ebola fight:"


Obama's Ebola plans: A new boondoggle?

The Obama Administration's proposed $6.18 billion emergency package to combat the Ebola epidemic is drawing skepticism from conservative analysts who suggest the crisis is being used to jam a massive dose of spending through the lame-duck Congress before a Republican majority takes over both Senate and House next January....

The amounts are far in excess of the $988 million that the United Nations itself declared was necessary for an emergency response plan that extends from September 2014 to February 2015, and that is already two-thirds funded. (The U.S. has already donated $115 million to the plan.)


I haven't been to any of those Tea Party blogs in weeks. Are they still saying we're all going to die, like they predicted during the Ebola Crisis, when one person in the US died? I remember all the criticism about how Obama handled the "epidemic" and placed America in danger and everything was just horrible. Have they stopped to consider how foolish they all were?

Oh, wait...

Ducky's here said...

Not much of concern, Shaw, other than imminent sharia and beheadings.

There was one about a Satanic Coloring Book that O'Reilly claims is going to be distributed in the public schools.

okjimm said...

RN...Pot in every chicken....makes good broth is what iM thinking.

Shaw:
I haven't been to any of those Tea Party blogs in weeks

well, I have stopped at Free Dinkes...boy&Howdy he sure gets riled up if you criticize his poetic attempts. I think, like RN, I have been banned.

anyways....I polled myself...98% of me disapproves of 74% of republicans...86% of me is not thinking the Dems are active enough. 50% of me likes coffee in the morning and the other 50% likes tea. 100% of me thinks I do not get enough sex, the other 100% thinks it interruts naps.

I doan like polls. they are 125% inaccurate.

Dave Miller said...

I saw the Satanic coloring book... Hysterical.

My favorite line was one that said not all Musims are suspect but that we should be going into their mosques to make sure.

Do folks spend all day looking for stuff to be afraid of?

Channeling Okjim... They shoud get a beer... or some mezcal... And loosen up...

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Octopus: “… a tyranny of incompetence by the opposition party.

Here, my purpose is to embellish this earlier comment. How can you expect voters to support a candidate who acts ashamed of his or her own party! This year, all too many Democrats distanced themselves from President Obama. If I were an undecided voter, I would have a hard time finding good reasons to vote for any person who claimed to be running as a Democrat yet didn’t support the president or his policies. These milquetoast toadies even went out of their way to avoid campaign appearances with the president.

The biggest culprit and hypocrite of all was Alison Grimes who embarrassed herself by tap dancing around this question: Did you vote for the top of the ticket in 2012?

By all accounts, KYNECT, the Kentucky Healthcare Exchange, has been one of the most successful rollouts of ObamaCare in the nation and popular among voters in Kentucky; yet Grimes missed a golden opportunity to remind voters that KYNECT is ObamaCare. Even her opponent, Mitch “Blobfish” McConnell, extolled the virtues of KYNECT while vowing to repeal ObamaCare; yet Grimes missed this opportunity to make her opponent appear foolish.

Speaking of political malpractice, no Democratic candidate took any Republican to task for budget cutbacks at the NIH or the CDC that delayed development of an Ebola vaccine. Nor did any Democratic candidate cite new economic data that showed record improvements in GDP and employment.

Not just political malpractice, but criminal cowardice! When you run and hide from the very same principles and policies you are supposed to represent, you deserve to lose – BIG TIME!

Shaw Kenawe said...

okjimm, great poll and very important poll questions.

I've got a name for your new polling business: Okjimm's Gulp Poll, or OGP: Every time you read it, you have to take a gulp of beer.

(O)CT(O)PUS, agreed. The Democrats who ran away from Mr. Obama deserved to lose, and as we've observed, the Democrats who did not run away, won.

okjimm said...

/Every time you read it, you have to take a gulp of beer./

...now that sounds like a great idea.

I also approve of Octo's premise...the last Campaign run by the Dem's in Wisco was weak and ineffective. As noted in previous posts...we,here in the Congressional 6th, ended up with Prime Idiot Glenn Grothman because of weak campaigning. He refused to speak with journalists, evaded debates and interviews...and relied on those voting (R) with blind allegience.

..and the Fucker won. His Dem oponnet was not very liberal..more of an old fashioned fiscal conservative in the old fashioned Republican sense.

....it was unbelievable the shit he took.

ah, I can hardly think about it. Must go poll myself to think about what I am thinking about and hoping it is 100% beer.