More Lies of the Right
The Lie: Quoted verbatim From Trump campaign website, Jan 6, 2023: As president, Donald Trump “marshaled the
full power of government to stop deadly drugs, opioids, and fentanyl from
coming into our country. As a result, drug overdose deaths declined nationwide
for the first time in nearly 30 years."
The truth: while opioid deaths
decreased very slightly in 2018, the deathrate per 100,000 increased in 2019
and, in 2020, took the largest increase in the past 20 years and was at an
all-time high when Trump left office. Meanwhile, the biggest contributor to
opioid deaths — synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl, which Trump
referred to specifically in his statement — rose all four years that
Trump was in office. Surprise, Trump lied! Note that this is a meaningful (apples
to apples) statistic, since it shows deaths per 100,000 population, not
as a percentage if the population as a whole.
We’ve all seen
the fallout from Damar Hamlin’s sudden cardiac arrest following a blow to the
chest in a recent Monday Night Football game. Thankfully he is now recovering,
thanks to professional trainers and immediate CPR. However, ever anxious to
discredit COVID vaccines, Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler tweeted data which,
she claimed, showed Hamlin’s incident was part of a larger trend, linked to
COVID vaccination. She claimed: "1 in 5,000 young men have heart issues
from COVID vax.” “Yearly commotio cordis cases? ~15. (RARELY over age
20)," Note: commotio cordis is what can happen when a blow to the area of
the heart coincides exactly with timing which interrupts the electrical stimulation
of regular function. It can cause ventricular fibrillation and, if not
immediately dealt with, death within minutes. It is NOT a "heart issue", but an externally caused trauma.
Wheeler then proceeded even farther off
the rails as she continued: "1,598 athlete cardiac arrests since Jan 2021.
69% fatal. (Average athlete cardiacs before vax was 29/yr)," Wheeler
tweeted Jan. 3. "‘Science’ ignores this. That’s why people ask questions."
Her obvious
intent here is to have the reader believe her implication that the number of
athlete cardiac arrests has increased by a factor of more than 5,500 percent
due to Covid vaccines. This is a classic example of why Mark Twain famously
said, “There are three kinds of lies; Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics. Ms.
Wheeler has masterfully incorporated all three into one whopper.
The first two data points in
Wheeler’s tweet have some germ of truth, however there are issues even with
that. The 5,000 figure comes from a September 2021 New York Times story. But
the article cited unconfirmed and worst-case assumptions data
used by vaccine regulators to create risk/reward estimates and
worst-case scenarios. She knows these are not real numbers. She just wants the
reader to assume they are.
The statement that what happened to Mr. Hamlin
is rare, is accurate. It is also essentially irrelevant. It (commotio cordis) happens
rarely, but more frequently, to boys playing Little League baseball being
struck in the chest by a pitched ball. Even so, the most recent figures (2020) for
the injury are thirty events annually, not fifteen as Wheeler states. It is
also now more frequently recognized for what it is than even ten years ago.
Even the inference that a vaccine
is responsible for an injury which has happened just once in a violent
sport where currently 1696 and historically, 26,682, NFL players have beat each
other up on a weekly basis, is simply ludicrous. Furthermore, there
have been no identified instances in the currently more than 73,000 NCAA football players,
the vast majority of whom are vaccinated in both cases.
Now for the “Big Lie.” Ms. Wheeler
leads with, “There have been 1,598 athlete cardiac arrests since January 2021,
with 69% being fatal." She wants you to believe that these are all
due to COVID vaccines. This number comes from an unvetted, unconfirmed, list of
global incidents that includes nonathletes of all ages and non-cardiac
injuries and deaths. Numerous
actual medical professionals in the specific field of sports cardiology have
strenuously rejected these figures and consistently reaffirmed that they have
seen no increase in cardiac arrests among athletes in 2021 or 2022
and have found no correlation between cardiac events and the
COVID-19 vaccines.
And another whopper: Congressman
Scott Perry, R(Pa), stated several days ago (early January 2023) that "We're
talking about parents that go to school board meetings for the schools that
they pay for with their taxes and having the temerity to question the
curriculum, and then they're put on, you know, the red flagged, they’re flagged
by the Department of Justice and the FBI for attending a meeting, "That's
not what America is supposed to be about. That sounds like some tinhorn Third
World dictatorship."
No, Jethro, what it actually sounds
like is the reaction to the continued and increasing attacks, extending even to
death threats, on educational services personnel from bus drivers to teachers
to school board members. No one who goes to a school board meeting and engages
in a respectful and meaningful dialog is being “flagged.” If, on the other
hand, their behavior is sufficiently inappropriate to indicate the possibility
of future violent behavior, then that’s a bit different. A great deal of this concern stems from the
deliberate attempts of some, such as our Florida Governor, to generally
discredit public education and as the Soviets did under Stalin, teach
“modified” or sanitized versions of some subjects such as history. This extends
to book banning and simply refusing to allow students to think critically when
presented the opportunity.
Think I’m kidding? This is a note sent to the daughter of a Loudoun
County, Virginia, School Board member: “It is too bad that your mother is an
ugly communist whore.” “If she doesn’t
quit or resign before the end of the year, we will kill her, but first, we will
kill you!”
In Dublin, Ohio, an anonymous
letter sent to the School Board president vowed that officials would “pay
dearly” for supporting education programs on race and mask mandates to stop the
coronavirus. “You have become our enemies and you will be removed one way or
the other,” it said.
Must of this stems from the MAGA
crowd, who first heard the term “critical race theory,” actually taught almost nowhere
but law school, from Trump’s nattering, and definitely not as part of public school
curricula. Like most “dog whistle” phrases this further polarizes those most susceptible
to such drivel. It raises a legitimate concern when these marginalized and
potentially violent folks do things such as rip masks off school officials or other
parents at the same meeting.
In Rochester, Minnesota, members faced
continuing threats and outbursts at meetings over mask mandates, critical race
theory and other hot-button issues. The board president said her son grew so
concerned that he insisted on driving her to board meetings and waiting in the
parking lot to ensure her safety.
Northwest Allen County school board
meetings in Indiana became so heated last fall that police officers assigned to
the district refused to continue providing security unless the board took
action to rein in its increasingly unruly meetings, according to an email sent
by a school resource officer to the board president. Sergeant Kevin Neher wrote
to the board president at the time, Kent Somers, “I truly am concerned for the
safety of everyone at those meetings as are the other officers who have worked
them.”
This is, in my opinion, simply an
extension of the Far Right wing of the GOP weaponizing dissent by fanning the
flames of ignorance with political rhetoric. This was Newt Gingrich’s stock in
trade and Trump’s business methodology even before politics. Those who blindly
follow are easily manipulated by those who know it isn’t so, but want the
reaction they know their exaggerations will evoke within their deplorable and
easily led fan base. In any case, taking precautionary action when confronted
with the very real threat of violence isn’t government overreach, but rather
the fulfillment of its duty to protect its citizens.
How we got here: On Oct. 4, 2021,
Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a five-paragraph memo to the FBI and
federal prosecutors acknowledging a "disturbing spike in harassment,
intimidation, and threats of violence" against school officials. Garland
directed the FBI to hold meetings across the country and bring together
government leaders to discuss strategies to address those threats. In that
directive, Garland specified: "While spirited debate about policy matters
is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats
of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views." The
memo focused on criminal conduct, not parents’ views about COVID-19 policies or
school curriculum. A Trump-nominated judge even dismissed a case by
parents challenging Garland’s memo. The judge concluded that the memo does
not target protected conduct under the Constitution and covers only
criminal conduct. And yet, here we are.
Even earlier, our unindicted
Medicare Fraud perp and now Florida Senator, Rick Scott, said this in October of 2021: "Joe Biden’s attorney general wants the
FBI to go after parents for speaking out at school board meetings to protect
kids from radical curriculum like critical race theory." Again, dog whistle
tactics from a known liar. “Critical race theory” is the new whipping boy. It
isn’t being taught in public schools nor in most non-law school college curricula.
Remember that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the subject of the most
protracted filibuster in the History of the US Congress. Those who opposed it
are the political antecedents of those who now manipulate constituents into open hostility against current social
movements. Thanks Governor DeSantis and Senator Scott.
Finally: Public Education was, at
one time the aspect of our societal culture which set us above much of the rest
of the world. It is indicative of the
effects of the above internal turmoil on Public schools that 46% of teachers
interviewed in a recent survey indicated that they were either already planning
to quit or were open to other, less stressful employment. Make no mistake, the
children of these parents who threaten teachers and school board members are,
themselves, frequently imbued at home with the same predisposition to
inappropriate and, all too frequently, violent behavior.
And I do believe that’s all I have
to say about that.
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