Beyond Ukraine this morning, but still on just how extremely awful are Republicans and why we’ll probably never get a true handle on the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a problem not of the so-called, and touted ‘misinformation’ tactic, but of plain-old out-n-out lying.

Vaccines with boosters prevent serious illness, and even death — pure fact. Not a fantasy, no bullshit, but a medical/health-care fact.

However, MAGA hatters continue being hard-headed stupid, which makes life for the rest of us shitty, too (h/t tweet Balloon Juice):

It's been so for months, but the #Trump vs #Biden voter survival rates in the American #COVID19 epidemic are widening. (And "purple" regions fall in between.)
In June: https://t.co/n1chzt1W3m
Now?? pic.twitter.com/HrfsHmQCQZ

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 22, 2022

Noted just how shitty are Republicans and the massive-lying hypocrisy, an explanation of how blind the cult and how deadly the reaction — via the Guardian yesterday:

The Fox anchor Neil Cavuto returned to the air on Monday, to say he nearly died from a second bout with the coronavirus and to tell detractors including those who sent death threats over his support for vaccines: “So sorry to disappoint you.”

More than 935,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 in the last two years. The seven-day average daily death rate is just under 2,000 – the vast majority unvaccinated.

Fox has strict vaccination requirements for staff. But hosts, prominently including Tucker Carlson, have spread misinformation about vaccines and resistance to Covid-19 public health measures including vaccination mandates.

Cavuto is immunocompromised, with multiple sclerosis and having survived heart surgery and cancer.

After his first positive Covid test, in October, he implored viewers: “My God, stop the politics. Life is too short to be an ass. Life is way too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that is helping people worldwide. Stop the deaths, stop the suffering, please get vaccinated, please.”

Some viewers did not stop the politics. Cavuto revealed that he received disturbing messages, including death threats.

On Fox Business on Monday, Cavuto said he had been hospitalised for weeks but Fox had not publicised his condition out of respect for his privacy.
His second Covid case, he said, was a “far, far more serious strand” because of his immunocompromised status. He had, he said, been in “intensive care for quite a while”.

“It was really touch and go,” he said.
“Some of you who’ve wanted to put me out of my misery darn near got what you wished for. So sorry to disappoint you.”

Cavuto also said: “Let me be clear: doctors say had I not been vaccinated at all, I wouldn’t be here.
“This was scary. How scary? I’m talking, ‘Ponderosa suddenly out of the prime rib in the middle of the buffet line scary.’ That’s how scary.”

He also dismissed the idea the vaccine caused or contributed to his second Covid bout.

“No, the vaccine didn’t cause that,” he said.
“That ‘grassy knoll’ theory has come up a lot. Because I’ve had cancer, and right now I have multiple sclerosis, I am among the vulnerable 3-percent or so of the population that cannot sustain the full benefits of a vaccine.”

In October, Cavuto described some of the threats he received for taking and advocating the shot.
He also said: “I cannot stress this enough: it’s not about left or right. This is not about who’s conservative or liberal. Last time I checked, everyone regardless of their political persuasion is coming down with this …

“Take the political speaking points and toss them for now, I’m begging you. Toss them and think of what’s good not only for yourself but for those around you.
“I dare say people who experienced this and see loved ones who have been affected by this or have died from this are not judging the wisdom of mandates.
“They’re wishing they got vaccinated, and they didn’t.”

And on a wider, international scale going well past the virus and another ‘red‘ zone:

Republicans view Putin more favorably than they do leading Democrats https://t.co/sN2PKDqEK8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2022

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs — anti-American key point via The Washington Post this morning:

That’s a more useful indicator when we look at the views held by Republicans. With Republicans, Putin is viewed far less positively than is Trump — but more positively than sitting Democratic leaders.
Interestingly, only Obama matches Putin’s favorability among Republicans, certainly in part a function of his being out of office.

When we see poll results like this, the appropriate question is whether the difference between Biden and Putin is significant.
In other words, the difference between the two presidents might simply be an artifact of the margins of uncertainty built into the poll. But it’s very clear that Republicans aren’t significantly more likely to approve of Biden.
It’s just a question of whether they’re significantly more likely to approve of Putin.

One area in which there’s no statistical question: Republicans are far less likely to say they view Putin very unfavorably than they are to say the same of Biden or other leading Democrats.

We’re in a hard-pressed pickle.

Yet here we are once again…

(Illustration out front: ‘This Is Why Nurses Do What They Do,’ by visual journalist Emily Thomas, and found here)