There are lot more important issues today to write about than anything about Maria Bartiromo, but I couldn't resist her latest loaf lunacy, by Hal Brown, MSW

In early June Maria Bartiromo pushed a debunked theory about juror's 'cousin' in Trump trial and yesterday she claimed that a loaf of bread costs $13 under President Biden (read story). 

Excerpt:

In a Thursday Fox News segment about the economy, host Sandra Smith noted that officials in Biden's White House had pointed to improving economic conditions.

"So we've seen this even though the White House keeps touting, you know, economic improvement in economic policies that are working for Americans, the polls still show people are not happy," Smith said.

"You're right," Bartiromo agreed. "And you know why, Sandra? I think it's because the kitchen table issue of everything's too expensive, and that's really what keeps getting in the way."

"In the last few years, real wages have gone down, and inflation has gone up. We're talking about up 20% or so on Joe Biden's watch," she continued. "As someone told me the other day, they spent $13 on a loaf of bread; I thought, what?"

My favorite bread is Jewish seeded rye bread. I have fond memories of my mother taking my sister and I to a local bakery where she'd buy two loaves of fresh-from-the-oven sliced rye bread. Just the aroma of the freshly baked bread had our mouths watering by the time we got to the car. The crust was crisp and the inside melted in your mouth. By the time we got home my sister and I would have almost finished eating one of the loaves. 

You can buy a loaf of gourmet rye bread for $13 or more. I have been tempted to treat myself to the breads shown below just to see if they are worth the price.

As anyone who actually shops knows, a loaf of bread costs between $1.50 and five or six dollars for gourmet breads. 

Still, it is very possible someone did tell Bartiromo that they'd bought a $13 loaf of bread though it is quite possible that they weren't lamenting the high price of groceries. If I decided to spring for a $13 loaf of rye bread I would be telling my friends about it and letting them know if I thought it was worth the price.

You can read this and previous blogs on two websites. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.

Read on the WordPress Stressline.org

or….

Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section which makes it easy to post links and images.

A Mexican died of the bird flu. Let's hope nobody dies here because if it happens you know what Trump will call it. By Hal Brown, MSW

 

The World Health Organization reported earlier this month that the 59-year-old man in Mexico, who had comorbidities and died from the virus in late April, had no known contact with poultry or other animals. (Article)

Trump infamously called Covid-19 the China virus and China wasn't a county he was demonizing for allowing migrants to trek across their country to our border and anti-Asian prejudice wasnt prevalent among his MAGA cult.

His doing this caused immediate backlash but this didn't deter him from continuing to use the term.

Excerpt from above:

Casting the virus “foreign” was not a simple rhetorical flourish. According to the database website Factbase, the president used the expression “Chinese virus” more than 20 times between March 16 and March 30. The deliberateness of the wording was made clear when a photographer captured the script of his speech wherein Trump had crossed out the word “Corona” and replaced it with “Chinese.”

Trump also called Covid-19 the Wuhan virus. I suspect he preferred to call it the China virus because he thought his base wouldn't know that Wuhan was in China.

Bird, or avian, flu probably won't make it to the United States where if will infect a significant number of people, if it infects any, at least not prior to the election. If it does and infects or worse yet, kills, one or more Americans, I have no doubt that Trump will call it the Mexican virus. Politically it would benefit him with his MAGA base if the first person infected with it was White.

While Mexican nationals aren't the only undocumented people trying to enter the country illegally across the border Trump knows that his MAGA base doesn't draw a distinction between Latinos whether they come from Mexico or from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other Central American countries. 

I wrote in a similar vein yesterday (here) hoping that an undocumented person wouldn't commit a horrible crime lest Trump make them into his version of Willie Horton. That could have cost Michael Dukakis the election. (read article)

One could speculate that if Horton had looked like any of these serial killers the GOP using this against Dukakis would have been nearly as effective:

Here's a new story about a daring and heroic woman who caught a rape suspect who was a 25-year-old unauthorized Ecuadorian immigrant. I hope that Trump doesn't take a story like this, use the woman who caught him in his rallies, and turn the perp into another Willy Horton.

Trump and his minions are already trying to do this. Consider: 'Vile smears': Trump's MAGA allies fact-checked for tying Biden policy to brutal murders.

Excerpt:

Trump and his allies, though, responded by trying to tie Biden's policy to brutal rapes and murders allegedly committed by migrants — including the killing of a young woman in Maryland. The former president and sympathetic presenters doubled down on these attacks at a garbled rally in Racine, Wisconsin on Monday evening.

But these "truly vile smears" are nonsense, wrote Sargent.

"There's a key tell in the Fox/MAGA attacks on Biden's policy: They all try to change the subject back to *the border.* Yet this policy is all about immigrants who have lived here for a decade or more," wrote Sargent. "This is ugly stuff. Fox/MAGA personalities are linking Biden's policy to a horrific murder. RNC says the killing was done by a 'BIDEN ILLEGAL.' Fox is juxtaposing the new policy with footage of hordes swarming the border and even migrant mug shots."

Addendum:

The U.S. has two vaccines ready should the strain of bird flu circulating in dairy cows begin spreading easily to people, federal health officials said Wednesday. They could begin shipping doses widely within weeks, if needed.

So far, there’s no evidence that H5N1 is spreading person-to-person, although one dairy worker in Texas who worked closely with infected cattle had a mild infection and developed conjunctivitis, or pinkeye, in April. Read more here.

You can read this and previous blogs on two websites. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.

Read on the WordPress Stressline.orgor….Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section which makes it easy to post links and images.

Compassion doesn't count ballots: Biden does the moral thing on immigration and it will hurt him with many voters. All Trump needs now is his own Willie Horton. by Hal Brown, MSW

In the news today a top story (read article) is that President Biden has once again demonstrated that he has a heart and good sense when it comes to the plight of immigrants who are already living in the United States.

This is Trump's not unexpected reaction:

Of. course what would anyone expect from the president who suggested shooting migrants in the legs and putting alligators in the Rio Grande? There's also this reaction from Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" family separation policy that ripped minor infants and children not only from their parents but even separated them from their own siblings, was outraged.

Polls tell us what we already know:

More than half of Hispanic voters support mass deportation. These are people who are fortunate enough to be citizens and half of them have no compassion for other Hispanics who want what they already have. While 30% of them aren't religious 70% are, and many of them are Catholic (Pew Research article). So much for following the teachings of Jesus.

Hispanic or not, religious or not, these people want to have armed agents round 'em up, line 'em up, march 'em to a bus, and fly 'em outta here. 

It is unfortunate that MSNBC decided to show a man in handcuffs with a tatoo on his wrist. For all anybody knows this is a gang tatoo. Way to go liberal MSNBC, do the MAGA job for us.

They could have used a photo like this:

I am sure that Trump and his minions are hoping to find their own version of Willie Horton in an undocumented (read that as illegal) immigrant who commits a horrendous crime. Read article.

You can read this and previous blogs on two websites. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.

Read on the WordPress Stressline.org

or….

Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section which makes it easy to post links and images.