Unmasked, Undaunted, And Unhinged

Such is the state of things in Ontario. Huf Gym, in Mississauga, refuses to close despite the law. Indeed, as the following video report makes clear, the law seems to be abetting this illegal operation:

The Peel police sergeant in the report has now been suspended.

Peel police have confirmed the officer’s badge number as 1889 but didn’t identify his name or what he was doing at the scene.

“Upon learning of the incident, I immediately directed that the Sergeant be suspended and commenced an Internal Affairs investigation,” Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said in his statement.

“Our officers will enforce municipal and provincial regulations as required,” he added.

Good to know the authorities are on the job, eh? 

A Stinging Indictment

The Covid numbers in Ontario today are grim: 4,812 new cases and 25 more deaths.

The following report by the CBC's Ellen Mauro places the blame precisely where it belongs: the massive incompetence/ideological intransigence of the Ford government in dealing with our ongoing Covid disaster.

UPDATED: State Of The Union

I found the following on Facebook, written by a Black man named David Gray. For those interested in going deeper into his post, I have provided links to all the victims of police and/or white violence/racism he cites in his post.

I need to drive my two-year-old to daycare tomorrow morning. To ensure we arrive alive, we won't take public transit (Oscar Grant). I removed all air fresheners from the vehicle and double-checked my registration status (Daunte Wright), and ensured my license plates were visible (Lt. Caron Nazario). I will be careful to follow all traffic rules (Philando Castille), signal every turn (Sandra Bland), keep the radio volume low (Jordan Davis), and won't stop at a fast food chain for a meal (Rayshard Brooks). I'm too afraid to pray (Rev. Clementa C. Pickney) so I just hope the car won't break down (Corey Jones).

When my wife picks him up at the end of the day, I'll remind her not to dance (Elijah McClain), stop to play in a park (Tamir Rice), patronize the local convenience store for snacks (Trayvon Martin), or walk around the neighborhood (Mike Brown). Once they are home, we won't stand in our backyard (Stephon Clark), eat ice cream on the couch (Botham Jean), or play any video games (Atatiana Jefferson).

After my wife and I tuck him into bed around 7:30pm, neither of us will leave the house to go to Walmart (John Crawford) or to the gym (Tshyrad Oates) or on a jog (Ahmaud Arbery). We won't even walk to see the birds (Christian Cooper). We'll just sit and try not to breathe (George Floyd) and not to sleep (Breonna Taylor).

"These are things white people simply do not have to think about."

UPDATE: The perils of walking while Black:

The video, first uploaded to Shirell Johnson's Facebook page, shows a man identified by social media users as U.S. Army sergeant first class Jonathan Pentland walking alongside a young Black male only identified as Deandre, asking him what he's doing in the neighborhood and aggressively telling him to leave. At one point in the video, Pentland pushes Deandre.

 

As If The World Weren't Suffering Enough

Prepare to be tutored about the relationship between Covid swabs and zombies, thanks to the good offices of the most Reverend Jim Bakker:

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Steve Quayle warns Jim Bakker's audience that nasal tests for COVID-19 are part of a plan to obtain DNA samples to be used in the creation of targeted biological weapons that will turn everyone into flesh-eating zombies. https://bit.ly/2PwdRC9

H/t Right Wing Watch

Clearly, there is no hope.

UPDATED: Covidiot Roundup

I see that #COVIDIOTS is trending on Twitter. Here are a few nuggets I gleaned: 

    

H/t @alkorin

H/t DaddY

H/t Sass Chit

Amen, brethren.

UPDATE:  Since actions speak louder than words, I offer this as a further indictment of  covidiocy.

UPDATED: So Little Time, So Many Benighted Souls

As I have written elsewhere on this blog, my patience for those who willfully embrace ignorance, who prefer the blunt hammer of dark conspiracy to the hard work of thinking, is non-existent. And despite well-articulated arguments that the way to reach such people is not through confrontation, abuse or disdain but rather empathy and discourse, the well-entrenched cynic within me suggests that such an approach is both very time-consuming and of very limited efficacy.

Time is not on our side in our current Covid pandemic.

But if one were to judge by anti-vaxxer news reports, it is all much ado about nothing.

Take, for example, the anti-lockdown rally in Brantford Ontario over the weekend, which saw possibly a thousand unmasked protestors, bitter over our current lockdown and standing closely together in their solidarity.

The consequence of challenging such a benighted but obdurate mindset is both ugly and instructive. Last week, Martin Regg Cohn wrote a column advocating mandatory vaccinations:

The logical alternative to never-ending lockdowns is to make vaccinations mandatory. Yes, mandatory — like mask mandates.

No, I don’t mean physically restraining people and forcefully injecting them. After all, we don’t forcefully apply masks to people’s faces, we merely forbid them from forcing themselves upon us unmasked and unasked.

In other words, he says there must be restrictions on the freedoms of those who place their wants and beliefs above the requirements of public health. Those restrictions would include bans on overseas air travel, entry to nursing homes, and crossing the border.

This is the kind of response Regg Cohn received:

• “YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM WILL GO FUCKING HYPERACTIVE UNTIL YOU DIE AND HOPEFULLY FOR YOU THAT WILL BE VERY SOON.”

• “I HOPE YOU AN YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY ARE FIRST INLINE TO GET PUNCTURED WITH THIS EXPERIMENTAL INOCULATION.”

• “How much did you get paid to run that PsyOp? ... End the lockdowns. End the mask mandates. Ban the vaccine.”

• “You sir, are obviously a shill for the pharmaceutical industry and should be shut down.”

• “Nazis didn’t give Jews the right to decide. Are you German? Have you heard of the Nuremberg Code? Created to protect against medical experiments.”

• “Your article of forced vaccines is not only disgusting but actually a crime against humanity! Who the f__k do you think you are? I hope that you get what you deserve, God is always watching for demons like you!”

• “How about we dump you off in a totalitarian country like China, where you can live anong like-minded sheep and dittoheads. In fact, perhaps North Korea is more your style.”

• “This is the largest mass extinction event we can imagine and you are helping pushing along all the lemers until they fall off that cliff.”

• “Do you have a monetary gain? Were you ‘asked’ to write your article by a member of the government or ministry of health to help them push the vaccine?”

• “You are an aggressive participant in slow motion mass murder.... Vaccine dependency is mass murder in slow motion. You are an uneducated buffoon … who is your puppet master?”

Jesus said that we will always have the poor amongst us. It is obvious that today, we must also add a few other categories to that observation.

UPDATE: At least the above-mentioned Brantford rally netted a few arrests.

Police in Brantford have laid 12 charges following large protests held amid the provincewide shutdown over the long weekend and say more charges may be coming.

Where Are you, Evangelicals?

That's the question pundit Roland Martin asks about their uniform silence over the sordid sex scandal engulfing Republican Matt Gaetz, who is a House Representative from Florida. Before getting to the video of Martin's comments, here is a short primer on the scandal.

First and foremost, it has been established that Gaetz is under federal investigation for sexual misconduct. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the justice department (DoJ) is investigating whether Gaetz, 38, “had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him”. If these allegations are accurate, then Gaetz could have violated federal sex trafficking laws.

Adding credibility to the allegation is this little nugget:

Gaetz has faced accusations of disturbing sexual conduct before. In January 2020 Chris Latvala, a Republican congressman, tweeted that Gaetz “created a game where members of the FL House got ‘points’ for sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists, and married legislators”. Gaetz also reportedly bragged of his sexual exploits and showed other lawmakers nude photos of women he’d slept with. According to CNN, he showed his colleagues these photos while he was at work. Gaetz, by the way, was also the only lawmaker to vote against a bipartisan anti human-trafficking bill. A number of his colleagues have also spoken out about “love of alcohol and illegal drugs, as well as his proclivity for younger women”.

If you watch just the first two minutes of the following video, you will see what is sticking in Roland Martin's craw:

One thing that at least can be said about the evangelical set, I guess, is that they are remarkably and consistently selective in their moral outrages.