Crisis and Cure: Writing Both Political and Personal

  A victory... or not? You know I have been writing about how I think the Taliban may or may not be able to keep the fruits of their “victory” in Afghanistan? Well, looks like…amazingly enough…even people who actually know what they’re talking about may kinda agree. I mean, not just kooks like me. Real experts. Case in point: check out this article by Abubakar Siddique in a recent piece on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty - Gandhara site, “After Lightning Victory, Taliban Faces Battle To Hold On To Power In Afghanistan.” Mr. Siddique is a long-time observer of Central Asian politics, and in his piece he concludes that the Taliban’s position is shaky, indeed. It has failed to manage Afghanistan’s economy and its foreign relations, and it has failed to gain legitimacy with its own people. It is fighting an increasingly desperate internal war with ISIS-K. It can’t feed its own population. Perhaps worst of all, it has been increasingly divided into hostile factions. Could the Taliban ac

 Found on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYuPf5ipRF0/

 From Instagram... https://www.instagram.com/p/CYuZOthFrxG/

  Wow. Just Wow. This kinda cool. I’m a Texas resident…not entirely willingly (I came to be near family) but I am. And it is nice, now and then, to see my new home state do something rather fine (all too often, in a conservative political climate, it does the alternative). Anyway, according to a recent article on NPR, Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi, a couple of researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital, have come up with an effective, but very inexpensive Covid vaccine. They used relatively old fashioned tools to produce it, and it can be made very cheaply, as in $1 to $1.50 a dose. This means it could be used in countries where otherwise vaccines might be just out of the picture. That’s terrific—particularly since we won’t get the pandemic under control until the whole world have had access to a vaccine. So, three cheers to Hotez and Bottazzi and the Texas Children’s Hospital!   Makes me proud to be a (sorta) Texan. ~mjt p.s. - I've since learned that they didn't patent t

 In just a few months, it will be the mid-terms! Please remember to vote! And vote blue . Vote as if our lives depended on it!

  Become An Organ Donor So here’s an article you ought to check out over on the AP’s web page, “In 1st, US surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient,” by Carla Johnson. It seems that surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a genetically modified pig’s heart into a man who was dying and could not receive a normal human heart. This is vitally important because there is a significant shortage of human organs for transplant purposes. While this particular heart transplant may not save the man who received the organ, it could be the beginning of something vital. If we could breed animals for transplant purposes, countless lives could be spared. This is a cause close to my own heart. My mother was an organ donor. I have carried an organ donor card in my wallet for decades. When the day comes that I shuffle off this moral coil, I hope that my organs can go on and help someone else live a full life. But, better still, would be a world in which there was no sho

 Maybe less (of this) is more (of a good thing). Interesting article by Jon Gambrell over on the AP site recently, “Analysis: As US focus wanes, Mideast turns inward for talks.” In it, Mr. Gambrell looks at how the various nations of the Middle East are hurriedly forging new relationships as the USA pulls out of the region. People who had before been pariahs, like Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam al-Gadhafi, are suddenly major players. Countries which would otherwise never talk to one another, like Iran and the UAE, are quietly having little chats in diplomatic circles. What’s happening, of course, is that the Great Powers, and the particularly the United States, are exiting the region. The USA isn’t as interested in oil as it once was, and we are way more concerned militarily with China and Russia than we are with Egypt and Iran. This has forced the Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations to deal with their own problems as best they can. Maybe this is a good thing. It would be ni

 This is a mid-term election and polling is still months away, but it isn't too soon to start reminding folks. Please vote. The future of democracy could depend on it.

  Those who live by the lie... Interesting article over on the website of RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. It seems that Russia is about to get hit, again, with a truly awful Covid surge. Why? Because vaccination rates there remain “low.”   So why are Russians so resistant to getting vaxxed? Ah, there’s the rub. To discredit the West, Putin’s people have been spreading anti-vaxx propaganda around the world. Only, guess what? Russians themselves are seeing the same propaganda, and so they’re suspicious of vaccines. So…we see it all again…those who live by the sword die by it. And those who live by the lie… Source: “Russia Steels Itself For Omicron 'Tidal Wave' As Vaccination Rates Remain Stubbornly Low,” RFE/RL,  https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-omicron-tidal-wave-vaccination/31652979.html Copyright©2022 Michael Jay Tucker

Peeved, as we all are, about the GOP and certain Democrats' failure to stop the Filibuster? Well, take a glance at the Parody Project's recent video effort, "FILIBUSTER – A Parody of Land Down Under by Men At Work." It is funny, and too true. The Parody Project is a musical group/individual (sometimes one, sometimes the other) that makes inspired fun of American Fascists wherever they might be found. So, check out the Project's web page and consider supporting it/them. Go here:  https://parodyproject.com/filibuster-a-parody-of-land-down-under-by-men-at-work/

 For some reason, QAnoners seem obsessed by vampires.  So I’m fascinated with the QAnon movement, which shows more signs of becoming a religion…or a cult…with every passing day. QAnon is, I think, ridiculous, and on some level, literally insane. But I must give credit where credit is due. It is surprisingly inventive. Or, if not exactly inventive, then it is fabulously acquisitive. It gathers up pretty much anything it finds…myths, fairy tales, horror movies, old scary stories of the “creepy pasta,” sort…and incorporates that material seamlessly into itself. It is the very Blob of popular culture. Case in point: vampires. Lately I’ve been visiting QAnon-oriented sites, just to see what’s happening in that world. And, between the conspiracy theories and anti-vaxx screeds, recently there have been lots of postings about vampires. It seems they infest the New World Order and Satanic Cabal like ticks on a mule deer in March. Here are just some of the titles I’ve seen on Bitchute, which is

  Scary Just in case you missed the news, check out this piece over on the Washington Post's website: " The past seven years have been the hottest in recorded history, new data shows: Global temperatures in 2021 were among the highest ever observed, with 25 countries setting new annual records, according to scientists from NASA, NOAA and Berkeley Earth ," by Sarah Kaplan and John Muyskens. The fact that the world is getting so much hotter is terrifying. Almost as terrifying as the fact that there are still people out there denying global warming. vs Source: "The past seven years have been the hottest in recorded history, new data shows," Sarah Kaplan and John Muyskens, Washington Post, Jan 13, 2022.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/13/global-temperature-record-climate-change/  

 Love this. Found it on Instagram. A genuine hero. Where-as Rand Paul....

  QAnon-ers From Another World Okay, this one too is going to be on both this blog, and on my personal blog at https://www.michaeljaytucker.com/blog The reason for the duplication is simple. I think it is important for us all to everything we can to fight the Trumpsters in the upcoming elections of this year and in 2024. I want to encourage everyone to get out there and fight (non-violently, obviously). That means voting, organizing, donating, volunteering…whatever. And, well, also, it might mean less important things. Including some rather silly ones. Specifically — and I’ve written about this a couple of times before—I’ve been thinking about QAnon. You know about this brand of lunacy, of course. It is a conspiracy theory-qua-religion that says that the world is dominated by a Satanic Cabal of pedophilic cannibals. It further posits that Donald Trump and his crew are leading a brave revolt   against the aforesaid Cabal and therefore should be accorded a semi-divine status. It’s ridicu

 Found on Instagram... And it is entirely true, of course. Funny. The Right is always telling us how liberals are "weak" and "traitorous", but it was the rich and powerful that sold us out to the Chinese. ~vs

 Ted Cruz: "Booger On The Lip Of Democracy" If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check out The Daily Show ’s hilarious but too true portrait of Ted Cruz. It must be seen to be believed. I am, personally, a resident of Texas…not entirely willingly, but I am. Anyway, Ted Cruz is a constant embarrassment to me, and should be an embarrassment to everyone in Texas. The fact that he isn’t, and that there are people who actually vote for him, is truly awful. Anyway, be sure to give the video a glance. A better portrait of the man has never been aired. Go here: https://youtu.be/Uuu9iHCRzj0 ~mjt

 We should all be watching this, very carefully. It is truly terrifying.

  Yes, folks, she is calling for mass violence. And you are the target. Just in case you had any doubts.  From Newsweek:  https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-suggests-second-amendment-rights-should-used-against-democrats-1668286

  We must fight! If you haven’t read it, check out this very powerful, very disturbing article by Nicholas Riccardi on the Associated Press page, “‘Slow-motion insurrection’: How GOP seizes election power.” In it, Mr. Riccardi looks at how the Republican Party is taking control of states’ electoral machinery and thus paving the way to dispense with elections entirely. If the Republicans don’t like the outcome of a particular election, no problem. They’ll simply declare the results invalid (“stop the steal”) and impose their own preferred candidates. This, even more than Trump himself, is the kind of thing to which we must attend. We cannot have a democracy if one side or other has decided that elections, and the will of the voters, is not as important as its own, unrestricted power. And apparently, that is all the GOP cares about now. Power. And money.   Surely, even as we speak, the shades of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt weep. For somehow…somehow… Their heirs have become Fascists and t

  Honestly, there doesn't seem much I can add to this. So, I'll just leave it right here. Three cheers, Mr. President. Link to story on the AP page is here:  https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-capitol-siege-biden-congress-3dd8fd804c857c23f8e0fe2324c9d8a4

  Is what the world will have to look like before they take action? Interesting article over on Grist’s webpage the other day. In “Climate change deniers are over attacking the science. Now they attack the solutions,” Kate Yoder writes that the same folks who used to say that climate change isn’t happening have finally starting admitting that the world really is getting warmer, and that it is probably the result of things like burning fossil fuels.*   But, according to a new study, what they are doing instead is attacking the proposed solutions to the problem. Instead of saying that climate change is “junk science,” or standing in front of Congress with a snowball and claiming that nothing’s wrong with the weather (the way that Senator James Inhofe did in 2015), denialists are now saying that the problem isn’t that bad, and even if it is, well, the solutions would be worse than the disease. They would cost too much, or hurt “working people,” or endanger “the American way.” Of course wh