Originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/06/pennsylvania-debacle-proof-trumpism-entwined-republicanism-all-way-down
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In the sleaze spectrum, Pennsyltucky politics, like any quality turd, can be found floating near the top.
In the last 50-60 years, PA has shifted back and forth from being run by conservative, chamber of commerce backed Catholic democrats, and conservative, big businesses backed Catholic republicans. Both sides have spent the last half century selling the souls of women and girls to misogynistic, anti-abortion Catholic wackos, and the souls of every one else to frackers and hedge fund managers. And in their spare time both sides have done everything they could to destroy union labor in this once proud union state.
Pennsyltucky isn’t Ohio or Indiana yet. But they want to be.
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This was the purpose of the entire “fake election” bru-haha from the gop this election cycle, to open the door to chaos, and denying election losses by gop candidates around the country, no matter the real results.
Pennsylvania and, for some strange reason, Idaho, have been remarkably persistent contenders floating near the top of our digest of Johns Hopkins outbreak stats, for weeks.
STATE COVID-19 OUTBREAKS
Ranking is momentum-based on Johns Hopkins’ test-positivity factored with “per-capita newcases” (daily cases per 100K) & “immediate mortality” (the ratio of death to case tallies, analogous to case-fatality).
> JH per-capita immed
> positivity newcases mortality
> % %% %
> 1. Alabama 45.6 75.8 0.83
> 2. Idaho 53.5 61.5 1.26
> --- --------------------- ---------- ----------
> 3. Tennessee 22.7 103.7 1.10
> 4. Pennsylvania 40.9 64.9 2.11
> 5. Kansas 37.5 72.2 2.08
> 6. Arkansas 22.3 78.5 1.61
> 7. Arizona 16.4 97.8 1.16
> 8. Utah 21.9 78.5 0.48
> 9. Georgia 16.6 67.5 0.59
> 10. Mississippi 22.4 68.9 1.67
> 11. Iowa 41.6 45.9 2.74
> 12. Oklahoma 19.3 79.4 0.72
> 13. California 12.9 95.5 0.71
> 14. South Carolina 14.5 64.8 1.00
> 15. South Dakota 40.4 55.0 2.61
> 16. Ohio 17.6 72.2 0.90
> 17. Texas 18.0 56.5 1.18
> 18. Nevada 16.3 72.5 1.38
> 19. North Carolina 12.8 59.7 0.81
> 20. West Virginia 11.0 73.2 1.57
> 21. Kentucky 17.1 60.2 0.88
> 22. Virginia 13.8 47.0 0.85
> 23. Florida 11.8 54.6 0.87
> 24. Louisiana 12.1 56.8 1.32
> --- --------------------- ---------- ----------
> 25. Delaware 9.7 72.4 0.78
> 26. New Hampshire 12.2 56.7 1.00
> 27. Indiana 12.3 74.0 1.65
> 28. Rhode Island 7.1 99.1 1.46
> 29. Massachusetts 7.2 68.6 1.27
> 30. New York 7.0 59.9 1.11
> 31. Missouri 16.8 47.5 1.89
> 32. New Jersey 9.7 49.8 1.63
> 33. New Mexico 11.0 63.2 2.11
> 34. Connecticut 6.6 63.9 1.56
> 35. Wisconsin 11.3 50.9 1.48
> 36. Maine 6.8 33.9 1.05
> 37. Illinois 8.3 52.9 2.18
> 38. Nebraska 10.0 53.7 1.52
> 39. Maryland 6.7 41.8 1.62
> 40. Colorado 8.2 49.2 1.86
> 41. Montana 11.2 46.7 1.82
> 42. Wyoming 8.4 50.9 2.36
> 43. Michigan 8.9 38.7 2.75
> 44. Washington 9.2 31.1 0.97
> --- --------------------- ---------- ----------
> 45. Alaska 5.3 51.7 0.66
> 46. D.C. 4.0 33.2 1.50
> 47. North Dakota 6.2 43.2 2.98
> 48. Oregon 6.8 27.7 1.43
> 49. Minnesota 6.8 42.4 1.97
> 50. Vermont 2.4 16.7 2.31
> --- --------------------- ---------- ----------
> 51. Hawaii 3.3 8.9 0.66
In today’s digest, Vermont finally slipped out of the only safe category (our group E), leaving Hawaii alone to mark the possibility. JH finally adjusted Mississippi’s weekly positivity below 100% (a recurrent statistical anomaly), leaving Alabama solidly in first place (with Idaho, in group A).
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Where is this Camp Runamock you speak of?
Perhaps near the campus of higher education “WassaMatta U”
Jeered Bullwinkle’s honorary degree campus alma matta.
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It speaks to our Pennsylvania values, doesn’t it?
There have been restaurants and bars that have remained open the entire pandemic in western PA. Ironically and predictably those communities have the highest infection rates.
What this whole Covid debacle has proved is something most of us here in the Pittsburgh area already knew. Yunzers as we call them, are some of the most viscerally dumb, cruel, racist dingbats that you find in the American landscape. The people of nearby Greene, Fayette, Beaver, and Westmorland (and my home Washington) counties largely still believe that Covid is a hoax, even as their local morgues fill to the brim, and hospitals turn people away who aren’t bleeding from their eyes.
What a country we’ve become.
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When I was child I had a “Wassamatta U” t shirt.
I enjoy those cartoons more now than I ever did as a child.
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The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show has been our weekly treat throughout awful 2020 (we have a boxed set of DVDs). Laughter therapy is exactly what USA needs these days, imho, and there are certainly worse institutions at which to matriculate than Wassamatta U.
My lockdown partner and I studied animated film at one of the universities in the Wassamatta conference, believe it or don’t. (I think the name of the place was Euphoric State, but things get a little fuzzy.) UPA and the Rocky folks had a uniquely low-tech approach to the visuals – figuring out how to concentrate on the fun parts. But the voice-talent crew on that show? OMG – they really chew the scenery! My secret guilty pleasure is when one of those folks puts on something ethnic (all their Asian accents sound slightly Korean to me, for some reason). Voice artists aren’t allowed to do that kind of work anymore. I know: for good reason. But are you gonna stand there and tell me it isn’t funny? I damn near bust a gut.
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Please don’t get me wrong. My post was meant more as an oddly profound impossible situation to summarize. Don’t take the discussion off topic with humor. I want to read coherent summaries of Trump’s coup attempt. We must consider what these treacherous bastards from all parties are up to next! You know why chicken coups don’t have “4” doors? That would make them chicken “sedans”
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