Too Venal for Words category archive

Lies about the wildfires in the West are spreading on Facebook like, you will pardon the expression, wildfire.

We are a society of stupid.

And gullible.

Addendum:

Will Bunch is distressed by the Americans’ gullibility quotient. Here’s a snippet from his column:

QAnon and its tentacles are perhaps the most overt example of an electorate where suspicion, rage and resentment is far more likely to fuel public reaction to the 2020 election — and all the concurrent crises like COVID-19 or the West Coast wildfires — than the rational responses that political science majors (like me) were wrongly trained to expect.

Aside:

I trained as an historian. I know that societies can go nuts.

But I’m most distressed to witness my own society doing so.

I am not sanguine.

A veteran from Iowa reports on how Donald Trump and Postmaster General DeJoy’s sabotage of the United States Post Office is affecting him directly. Here’s a bit from his article; there’s much more at the link.

I have a condition called dermatomyositis, an autoimmune disease that causes my body to attack my skin and muscles. Left untreated, the disease can lead to discomfort, weakness, or other serious health complications.

To treat it, I receive a 30-day supply of Plaquenil, which I receive through the mail from the Veterans Affairs Department. Like millions of other people, I rely on the mail for my medicines to be delivered on time.

But recently, new delays in postal delivery mean my 30-day supply of Plaquenil is taking two weeks to reach me. As a result, I’ve been forced to ration my medicine while I wait for my refills to arrive a full week later than they used to.

Anyone who has been paying attention has heard reports of persons whose health and livelihood are threatened by the Trump administration’s attempts to destroy the United States Post Office; reports that veterans are not receiving prescription refills from the VA in time have been the most common.

But did you also know that Trumpling the Post Office has also led to cruelty to animals?

Last week Pauline Henderson was shocked when she picked up a shipment of what was supposed to be 800 live chicks from her post office in New Sharon.

Henderson, who owns and operates Pine Tree Poultry, a family farm and chicken meat processing facility that specializes in chicken pot pies, said all 800 chicks sent from a hatchery in Pennsylvania were dead.

Much more at the link.

Aside:

I remember my father, when I was very young and he was still farming, receiving shipments of chicks via railroad postal cars.