Three Things I Learned, August 8

“News is what powerful people want to keep hidden. Everything else is just publicity.” Bill Moyers

1. Dave McCormic is a Republican Senator representing Pennsylvania. He is a former CEO of one of the largest hedge funds in the world. He has a new book out titled “Who Believed in You.” A bookstore in Takoma Park, Maryland, People’s Book, is donating proceeds from sales of his book to a charity that supports immigrants, the nonprofit CASA. “Senator McCormick’s lobbyists asked us to buy 500 copies of his recently published book,” Matt Bormet, the store’s co-owner, says in a press release. “While we don’t want to be in business with someone who is partially responsible for the current crisis, we also don’t support banning books. So we filled the request. But in order to live our values, we’re taking his money and giving it to folks who can do some good with it.” People’s Book calls McCormick “a human rubber stamp for the Trump agenda” and said it encourages the senator to “buy additional books from us so we can give more of his massive piles of wealth to other worthy causes.” That is how you bring good trouble to the right-wing bubble.

2. Representative Mike Flood, Republican of Nebraska, was not even 30 seconds into his prepared introduction at a town hall in Lincoln on Monday evening when the booing and the jeering began. Then it didn’t let up for over an hour. “There’s been a lot of misinformation out there about the bill,” Mr. Flood told a crowd of more than 700 people gathered in a downtown recital hall, referring to the felon’s sweeping domestic policy legislation that significantly cuts Medicaid, food benefits and other programs. “You are a liar!” multiple people shouted back. “Liar! Liar!” Mr. Flood, a second-term congressman who won his district last year by more than 20 points, soldiered through his slide show presentation, saying, “We’re going to see an influx of money into Nebraska hospitals.” I just shake my head. Do idiots like Flood actually believe what they are saying? And why do they put themselves in these situations. Did he really think the crowd would be on his side? When he asked, “Do you really thing that someone who is 29 and not working deserves health care?” he was clearly expecting a loud NO, but instead got a resounding “YES.” One can only hope those in the crowd don’t go out and vote for him again next year, and I’ll believe that when I see it.

3. A decade or so ago, Florida congressman Alan Grayson (who sadly turned out to be a jerk in real life and was soon gone from the House) said one of the truest things ever said about the Republican health care plan: “Don’t get sick! And if you get sick, die sooner!” Well, that still seems to be the Republican health care plan, as RFK Jr. is cutting $500 million in funding for vaccine development. I still don’t get how a cabinet secretary has that power or authority. Oh, right, the Republican weenies in congress and the supreme court that made a felon king, that’s how. “The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a statement Tuesday that 22 projects to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.” Stay well everyone.

And yes, that was the felon wandering aimlessly around the roof of the White House, spouting word salad that would send any other person in the country to the memory care home.

Lake City, Colorado