About Last Week...

The Schloss-Blog is actually looking back this week, slightly, and seeing calls for what I wrote about the dangers to our democracy and how they should be screamed from the rooftops.

But first...

Am I the only one who has noticed the hypocrisy going on in the world? Probably not.

Like, Putin says he's trying to stamp out Nazism in Ukraine when he's the one who's the communist acting like a Nazi.

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Hypocrisy: Republicans who don't want Title XLII ended, the privilege of turning away immigrants at the Mexico border on the basis of prospective COVID infection, are the same ones campaigning for and enacting laws, Red State to Red State, that prohibit mitigation of COVID, like mandates for masking, quarantining, testing or especially vaccination.

In other words, and we quote from Title XLII, "...whenever the U.S. surgeon general determines there is a communicable disease in another country, health officials have the authority, with the approval of the president, to prohibit “the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places” for as long as health officials determine the action is necessary."

If only we could apply it so that people who are not allowed to take mitigation measures, by law, in places like Arizona, can't travel to New York, Pennsylvania or California, etc., if they test positive. But you can;t force a test upon them. And now COVID is ticking up - hospitalizations from COVID are up 18 percent nationwide now.

Thanks to the #COVIDiots who refuse to mitigate against it - except at the Mexico border.

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Hypocrusy: We keep hearing that so many people are so comfortable working from home now as the pandemic winds down (it is winding down, right?) that they don't want to go to the office anymore to protect from getting COVID.

However, those same people keep showing up at sold-out concerts and sporting events. Hmm... speaking of hypocrisy.

And now there are reports of a spike in positive tests after the White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington, D.C., last week.

Well, at least Trevor Noah killed it there. 

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Hypocrisy: Everyone is taking seriously what should be an the investigation into how the Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion was leaked but no one is taking seriously a prospective investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas' opinions relative to his wife's radical behavior in the insurrection and overturn-the-vote conspiracies and movements.

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Hypocrusy: Now that Roe v Wade is expected to be struck down, what's even scarier is what could be next: gay marriage; interracial marriage; LGBTQ rights; voting privileges; and so much more.

If the minority is allowed to rule, we are in trouble. Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans favor pro-choice.

But the Supreme Court's choice is not to be pro-choice. In the separation of powers between branches of government, the Supreme Court has become anything but separate, wielding political influence, as state politicians in Mississippi predicted it could and Justice Sonia Sotomayor feared it would.

Oddly enough, and hypocritically enough, Justices Gorsuch, Coney Barrett and Kavanaugh all said in their confirmation hearings that they would not break with heretofore established court precedent.

Like Roe v. Wade.

They lied.

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To go back where I started today, last week, I called for shouts from rooftops to combat the ever-increasing assaults on our democracy.

A columnist I so greatly admire and read regularly, E.J. Montini, noted last week that an Arizona congressman (Andy Biggs) and the former White House chief of staff (Mark Meadows) traded text messages calling for the replacement of the legitimately elected Arizona electors with ones who would vote not to certify Biden's election.

That makes them traitors. By law.

And USA Today columnist Jill Lawrence wrote of author Don Winslow's movement to energize the Democratic Parties' efforts to call out these 2020 election lies and now the 2022 and 2024 election restrictions. He's also calling for Democratic to shout out their achievements in the economy, which is roaring, employment and infrastructure, which passed on a strong bipartisan effort.

And in case you haven't seen Michigan legislator Mallory McMorrow's speech on the underhandedness of the Republicans, here's a link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLWo8B1R0MY). Worth a watch.

For our freedom. Our democracy. Our country.

Ironic how much we have poured into saving Ukraine's democracy, on a bipartisan basis, but we are watching our own slip away. prospectively in the dangerous hands and minds of J.D. Vance, Mehmet Oz and Kari Lake.

Wake up, America. We're in trouble.

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Speaking of trouble, the NY Times makes a very interesting case for why COVID is responsible for Biden's tumble in popularity ratings, to his current 42% (inching up from 39%).

Remember last summer? Biden promised that COVID would be far back in the rearview mirror very soon, as millions of Americans continued to get vaccinated. Then the Delta variant happened,

The Times argued that COVID began Biden's drop in approval, subsequently, not the soon-to-be-botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which didn't help his approval ratings, to be sure.

His ratings have never recovered, and the approval ratings for the CDC plummeted the same, what with its inconsistent and confusing messaging.

People don't trust government (see Gate, Water), and still don't. Now, the very thing that sunk Trump, #COVIDiots who refused to get vaccinated, is doing the same to Biden.

And America. Which is in trouble.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Coo, coo, ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. You never know who gets a shout-out. Maybe you.