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notalwaysright_feedRead Vocab Vengeance
Me: "Of course, ma'am. What time and for how many?"
Caller: "Ten people on [date] at 10:45 PM."
Me: "Ma'am, we close at 11 PM, so—"
Caller: "—and?! We're making a booking before you close."
Read Vocab Vengeance
icanhascheezburger_feed"Know your place, hooman", is probably what our cats are thinking when they watch us from above their cat tree, observing their kingdom (the house) and their peasants (us). And they'd be right to think this way. All cat pawrents already know - we give our lives to our cats, and happily so. It's not just a thing that happens randomly. No. We want this - we're just waiting for the moment the Cat Distribution System will take the decision "You, mere human, it's your turn to be ruled by a feline overlord. Here's one. Take care of it. Or else."
And we love every second of it. We love that cats rule us with an iron paw. It's not masochism, it's true love. A stranger would never understand. But us, cat people, we understand each other - yes, we might be the peasants in our cats' realms, but we love that our cats love us. We love every cuddle, every soft meow, every loud purr. We just wait for the moment our cats decide to show us their love - and when it comes? It's glorious.
And we can't really have enough cats in our lives. So why not celebrate our fluffy kings and queens with some feline funnies? It's the best that we can do, all day, every day.
dailykos_feedAmericans are bracing for a health care system they increasingly feel is failing them. A new survey from West Health and Gallup finds anxiety over impending medical costs at its highest point since the firms began tracking these concerns four years ago—a sign that health care may once again define a midterm cycle.
For the Democratic Party, the numbers offer something close to validation. During the GOP’s government shutdown, Democrats worked to shore up and extend protections, while Republicans pushed to unwind them. This survey suggests voters noticed, and that the issue isn’t going away.
Almost half of adults—47%—are worried they won’t be able to afford health care next year. That’s the largest share since 2021. Anxiety over prescription drugs has climbed, too, from 30% in 2021 to 37% now.
The daily strain is worsening. Fifteen percent of Americans say medical costs cause “a lot of stress” in their lives, nearly double the rate from three years ago. Three in 10 adults report that someone in their household skipped care because they couldn’t afford it. And the disparities are staggering: Only 18% of Massachusetts residents say a household member skipped treatment due to cost, compared with 46% in Mississippi.
Access problems go beyond money, though. Long waits for appointments are among the most common obstacles, delaying or preventing care for 53% of adults. In Vermont, that figure hits 72%, but even in Nebraska—the state with the best rating on this issue—it’s 46%.
These concerns are already shaping the congressional fight over whether to renew enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits. Only about half of U.S. adults—51%—believe basic health care is affordable and accessible, a 10-percentage-point drop since 2022. The decline is even sharper among Black (-13 points) and Hispanic Americans (-17 points).
Trump, meanwhile, didn’t exactly calm nerves this week for voters staring down rising premiums and deductibles.
On Tuesday, he blasted out a baffling Truth Social post insisting that the only health care plan he’d “SUPPORT OR APPROVE” is one that sends money “DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE,” because “RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES” have “RIPPED OFF AMERICA LONG ENOUGH.”
“THE PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO NEGOTIATE AND BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, INSURANCE,” he continued. “Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else. This is the only way to have great Healthcare in America!!!”
The plan is, of course, nonsensical. Handing people cash to buy coverage would funnel the money back to insurers—the very industry he claims he wants to sideline. And the idea that stressed-out, overworked Americans are eager to cold-call insurance companies to negotiate rates is pulled straight from his “businessman” worldview—entirely unattached from the reality of the U.S. health system and the lived experience of the vast majority of Americans.
It also raises an obvious question: How is a low-income patient supposed to strike a better deal than the federal government?
Trump’s harebrained idea underscores just how far removed he is from the anxieties captured in the West Health-Gallup survey—and why the health care issue may lift Democrats’ chances in the 2026 midterm elections.
West Health and Gallup also tallied self-reported health care experiences in every state and Washington, D.C., and the gaps are striking. Iowa ranks best overall based on the combined ratings for cost, quality, and access. And Alaska falls dead last.
Even in the strongest-performing states, though, cracks show. Iowa’s top overall rating is still just a “C+.” And 15% of adults in the 10 top-rated states say they have forgone necessary prescription drugs in the past three months. In the 10 lowest-ranked states, that jumps to 29%.
Skipping care has become routine nationwide. One quarter of adults in the best-ranked states avoided recommended tests or procedures because of cost in the past year. And in low-ranked places—such as Alaska, Montana, and Texas—the share climbs to 40% on average.
And beyond cost, Americans describe a system buckling under its own weight. Twenty-seven percent of adults blamed work schedules for their restricted access to care—a reminder that insurance alone doesn’t guarantee access. And confusion about where to find providers is widespread: 25% of adults in the top-ranked states and 31% in the lowest-ranked states say they don’t know where to go for care.
All of it adds up to a troubling picture heading into 2026. Enhanced ACA subsidies are set to expire on Dec. 31, while Medicaid work requirements go into effect in January 2027—changes researchers say could cause nearly 5 million more people to go uninsured.
Pair those shifts with a mounting affordability crisis, and the next few years could push millions further from the care they need.
For Democrats, the poll reads like a permission slip to double down. Health care is the one issue they pressed relentlessly during the GOP’s shutdown—both because the stakes were high and because they believed Republicans had left themselves exposed. The new data suggests they were right.
And Trump’s latest musings only sharpen the contrast. While he flirts with a deregulation fantasy that hinges on ordinary people negotiating their own insurance, Democrats are preparing to make rising costs and eroding protections a centerpiece of their midterm case.
If the West Health-Gallup numbers are any indication, voters are primed to hear their pitch.
dailykos_feedRepublican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continued her efforts to rebrand herself as something resembling a moderate on Tuesday, joining a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Speaking alongside survivors, ahead of a vote to release the long-promised Epstein files, Greene was asked about her current feelings toward President Donald Trump and the GOP.
I only take people's actions seriously. No longer words. And I’ll tell you because I wasn't a Johnny-come-lately to the MAGA train. I was Day One, 2015. And there's a big difference in those Americans, and those that decided to support President Trump later on. And I'll tell you, right now, this has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA—is watching the man that we supported early on, three elections for people that stood hours, slept in their cars to go to rallies, have fought for truth and transparency and to hold what we consider a corrupt government accountable—watching this actually turn into a fight, has ripped MAGA apart. And the only thing that will speak to the powerful, courageous women behind me is when action is actually taken to release these files. And the American people won't tolerate any other bullshit. That's where we are today.
Related | Trump is definitely not mad about the vote to release the Epstein files
icanhascheezburger_feedCats are much smarter than we give them credit for, and no, our cat didn't pay us to write that. They are pawsitively primed to their surroundings, even more so than we are. The story below is a purrfect example of that! One pawrent built a bar in his basement and started hanging out down there more, inviting friends and doing other hooman things down there. But, whenever he stayed down there, his normally lazy 13-year-old senior cat went absolutely feral. Bouncing off the walls, meowing, and digging at a certain spot despite his old age and arthritis. His hooman thought he was just being a menace, so he ignored him.
Well, when one purrticular friend was over and noticed his cat's purrfectly strange behavior, he suggested the hooman get a radon detector to check, just in case. He did, and it turns out that the spot where the cat was "digging' was releasing six times the healthy amount of radon into his home. He got it promptly taken care of, and now the senior cat can finally relax downstairs.
We joke a lot here at I Can Has Cheezburger about orange cats having one collective brain cell together, but in this case, we think the hooman was missing a few by not listening to his cat's purrfect pleas to fix something that was clearly wrong. Now go give that cat a nice slab of expensive tuna, he certainly earned it!
notalwaysright_feedRead Unable To Enter Sleep Mode
Me: *Wipes sleep out of eye, gets up, stumbles over to computer.* "What exactly is happening?"
User: "When I press certain keys on the keyboard, that key repeats on the screen."
Me: "You called me about a keyboard not working?"
notalwaysright_feedRead A Clothes Encounter Of The Annoying Kind
She will destroy a tower of folded items, even if the size she wants is near the top of said tower, hold it over herself in the mirror, and if she decides she doesn’t want it (which is 90% of the time), she will just drop it on the floor, standing in place, and move on.
dailykos_feedThe Trump administration reportedly intervened in a federal investigation of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, who are both right-wing influencers who have promoted President Donald Trump.
ProPublica reported on Tuesday that a White House official instructed the Department of Homeland Security to return electronic devices that had been seized by Customs and Border Protection officials from the Tates when they returned to the U.S. in February. The official in question was Paul Ingrassia, who previously worked as a lawyer for the brothers.
An official involved with the case told the outlet, “It was so offensive to what we’re all here to do, to uphold the law and protect the American people.”
The brothers have been accused in Romania and the United Kingdom of luring women to their home, forcing them into debt, and pressuring them into filming pornography that was shared online. The Tates have denied the charges.
Andrew Tate has described himself as a misogynist and has promoted the idea of physically abusing women and forcing them into sex. Tate’s content has attracted a significant following in the right-wing “manosphere” world.
Back in February, the Trump administration pressured the Romanian government to pull back travel restrictions on the Tates, who were under house arrest in that nation. Matthew Jury, who represents four of the alleged Tate victims, told the BBC at the time the women were “absolutely bewildered why the Trump administration has decided to interfere in this way.”
Related | Why is Trump pressuring Romania to go soft on accused rapist Andrew Tate?
In March, the restrictions were eased and the Tates came to the U.S. The allegations against them were so severe that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a staunch Trump ally, said they were not welcome in the state.
The Trump administration’s support for the brothers is in line with Trump’s own history of misogyny and sexual assault. Trump was found liable in 2023 for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Caroll and Judge Lewis A. Kaplan later confirmed in a court filing the jury found that Trump had raped Carroll. Trump has also been accused of sexual abuse by multiple women.
Trump also bragged about committing sexual assault on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, saying, “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Tate and Trump share similar views of women and are fellow travelers in the world of conservative politics. Using the federal government to help out figures like the Tates seems to be standard operating procedure for the administration.
dailykos_feedA group of women who say they were abused by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein spoke out on Capitol Hill Tuesday, ahead of a vote on a bill to release the Justice Department’s files on Epstein. And Jena-Lisa Jones, a survivor who met Epstein when she was 14, had harsh words for President Donald Trump.
Jones: Now that checks and balances of our democracy have worked and the bill is getting passed to release the files, we are hearing the administration say they intend to investigate various Democrats who were friends with Epstein. I beg you, President Trump, please stop making this political. … I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment. It is time to take the honest, moral ground and support the release of these files, not to weaponize pieces of the files against random political enemies that did nothing wrong, but to understand who Epstein's friends were, who covered for him, what financial institutions allowed his trafficking to continue, who knew what he was doing but was too much of a coward to do anything about it.
notalwaysright_feed
Customer: "I want a refund on my repair."
Me: "Has the car broken again?"
Customer: "No, but I just found out that the garage where I got the car from to begin with would have fixed it for free!"
icanhascheezburger_feedPawrenting is hard, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a hooman, but these cats will press your buttons every day, some days to the brink of insanity. When you come home and find your socks all over the floor because your cat cleared them out so they could lie down in "their" favorite drawer for the 40th time, it's natural to lose your cool. Or when you have to take them to the vet because they've stopped eating and you're pawsitively worried sick about them…. only for the vet to tell you that they're just mad you came back late from work yesterday.
But, all that being said, we do love being a pawrent. You have little ones waiting for you at home, who want to snuggle up next to you while you read or watch TV, and they bring a brightness to your home that wouldn't be the same without them. You have to take the good with the bad, and that's life.
To prepare you for your pawrenting journey, or if you're already there, we've found some funnies for you that purrfectly relate to your pawrenting expurrience. These adorable cat memes reflect the highs and lows of caring for cat children, so don't say we didn't warn you. It will be the best and worst thing in your life, but you'll never want to give it up once you start.
notalwaysright_feedRead The Moral Compass Points Toward The Exit
I took [Worker #1] at his word and said I would speak to [Worker #2] and see what was going on.
Well, I did. And [Worker #2] let me have it.
Worker #2: "Absolutely f****** not. You better not have just come here planning to lecture me because of an empty claim like 'he's been avoiding me,' without doing your due diligence."
icanhascheezburger_feedPeople who talk about how aloof cats are have clearly never met a ginger cat before. Of course, all cats have their fun moments, but with most cats, you have to wait, you have to be patient, to see their true chaotic potential. Ginger cats though, they show you their true colors right away. They will surprise you by how fast they can make you laugh. Orange cats are kind of like… the golden retrievers of the whiskered world.
We don't know quite what it is that makes them so different than other cats, but the internet's theory is very simple. Orange cats have one braincell only - to share between all of them. Every once in a while, your orange might be blessed with receiving the braincell, and you will be amazed by their intelligence. But for the most part, orange cats will be their silly selves, and we will be right here, enjoying every second of it.
dailykos_feedPresident Donald Trump's hold on the Republican Party may be slipping as GOP lawmakers at both the state and federal level refused to heed his demands.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are set to vote Tuesday on a bill to release the government’s files on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. This vote will follow Trump’s monthslong pressure campaign to block the bill, which he abruptly flip-flopped on this week. He is pissed Republicans defied his orders on the vote, but he had to change his position when it became clear he'd have some serious egg on his face when the vote took place.
Meanwhile, in Indiana, the GOP-controlled state legislature said it will not redraw the state's congressional districts for the 2026 midterm elections, even though Trump and Vice President JD Vance were pressuring Republican lawmakers there to do so.
That refusal has led to an ugly and public meltdown from Trump, who so fears losing control of the House in 2026 that he's trying to rig congressional districts with mid-decade redraws in GOP-held states.
Trump threatened to recruit primary opponents to Republicans who won’t vote for a new congressional map. But even that isn’t moving the state lawmakers, who have held firm in their opposition to the unusual mid-cycle gerrymander.
Those two rebukes of Trump follow Senate Republicans’ refusal to heed Trump's demand to scrap the filibuster in order to end the government shutdown earlier this month.
What’s more, in October, Trump was met by rare criticism from a group of farm-state Republicans, who were irate about Trump's plan to purchase cheaper beef from Argentina as well as give a roughly $40 billion bailout to the South American nation.
Argentina has capitalized on the trade war Trump launched with China by selling their own soybean crops to China, while China has largely stalled soybean purchases from the U.S.—hurting American farmers.
Ultimately, the defections from Dear Leader are a sign that Republicans know their fate in the 2026 midterms is inextricably linked to Trump's popularity.
Republicans got their first bitter taste of what Trump’s unpopularity could bring for them earlier this month in New Jersey and Virginia. Democrats beat expectations and handily won each state’s gubernatorial election—and picked up up seats in the state legislatures.
And given Trump's second-term approval rating has recently been at its nadir, they are finding areas to buck him in an effort to save their own skins next November.
To be sure, Republican voters are still overwhelmingly supportive of Dear Leader. In a poll released Tuesday, the GOP polling firm Echelon Insights found that Trump’s approval rating among Republicans stands at 87%.
Nevertheless, cracks are forming in his party. And if he doesn't look out, those cracks could turn into deep fissures.
dailykos_feedIn an administration stuffed to the gills with stupid and craven people who shouldn’t be allowed to run a lemonade stand, much less the federal government, FBI Director Kash Patel is one of the stupider and more craven creatures calling the shots.
Even by the low standards of 2025, Patel is embarrassingly bad at his job, and you can see it all over his face. He always looks vaguely consternated at learning he is the FBI director.
Because Patel seems to be aware, in some dim way, of his limitations, he knows he’s got to make the most of his time in the corridors of power. So why not grift for two?
Sure, you’re paying for him to fly on a private FBI government luxury jet from Las Vegas to his job in Washington D.C., where he does not live. And sure, you’re paying for him to fly from Vegas and D.C. to his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins’ house in Nashville, where he also does not live.
And sure, you’re paying for him to fly all across the country to see sporting events and to see Wilkins twangbellow at rubes who paid to attend a fifth-tier pro wrestling event. But what if you had the opportunity to just make sure your taxpayer dollars go directly to Wilkins as well?
Related | Kash Patel continues to disgrace his office in the stupidest ways
Yes, Wilkins and her pretend country singing career apparently require a full FBI SWAT team now—yes, a SWAT team. As in the people who have actual jobs keeping people in Nashville safe during the most critical emergencies. Sure, they wouldn’t be able to respond to a crisis in the Nashville area because of this, but what’s a little terror and trepidation and harm for the citizens of Nashville in the face of Alexis Wilkins needing a babysitter?
The justification is that Wilkins has received death threats because of her relationship with Patel. It comes in handy that since Patel heads the FBI, he gets to decide if his girlfriend needs a little extra protection and assign personnel accordingly.
But let’s pretend for a moment that Wilkins actually is facing threats because she is dating the dimmest man on Capitol Hill. Alexis and Kash—AlexiKash? Kashexis?—could save us all a lot of money by, say, tying the knot and moving to D.C. together. Where his job is. And where he already has a security detail. And wouldn’t need a private plane quite so often.
But per Patel, Wilkins must be protected at all costs because, well, let’s have the diehard romantic explain:
The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis — a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life — are beyond pathetic. She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes. I’m so blessed she’s in my life.
Yes, a random Nashville girl who can’t even break 500,000 streams for one of her tracks on Spotify and hasn’t released any music since 2023 and performs at crappy, low-rent conservative gatherings events like Turning Point USA and pro wrestling events on our dime is basically Abraham Lincoln. You got us there, Kash.
When all of this comes tumbling down, Patel better hope there is still a market in publishing poorly written children’s books about Donald Trump.
Related | Kash Patel can’t get enough of your cash
God, maybe poor Kash will just have to pivot to writing a new, terribly-illustrated hagiography for whoever succeeds Trump as MAGA king? Ugh, the children’s book about how Barron Trump defeated the cruel TikTok regulators is gonna be hard to illustrate.
notalwaysright_feed
Customer: "This is the third time I've noticed my same groceries have gone up in price! I buy the exact same things every week! Every time!"
Me: "I know, ma'am, it is annoying that the prices are going up."
Customer: "How can you let this happen?!"
notalwaysright_feed
She's just finished renovating the guest bathroom, so she's showing me all the curtains and candles and toilet covers, etc.
Me: *Nodding.* "Hmm, looks nice."
Mom: "[My Name], you do not realize all the hard work that was put into this renovation! I'm expecting more than just 'looks nice'!"
icanhascheezburger_feedIt's finally cold outside, and honestly, we cannot be happier. The warm blankets are out, the hot cocoas are being made nearly daily, our cats cuddle us each and every day to get some of our warmth for themselves. Purrfection. But while we and our indoor cats are enjoying the warm weather, the outdoor cats, especially the little kittens, are about to enter the most difficult season of the year. And some of them… might end up in the same position this little kitty was.
The runt of the litter. This little kitten was abandoned by momma cat. We don't know exactly why or when. What we do know is that this tiny fluffball was found half-freezing on top of a CAT forklift by someone who was - thankfully - kind enough to do the right thing and get her out of the cold. There is no telling how long she was there, how long she was sleeping in the cold, but what we know now is that she will not spend another cold night alone ever again.
dailykos_feedThe sprawling scandal over President Donald Trump’s refusal to release the files surrounding accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein exploded back into the national conversation on Nov. 12 following the discovery of an email written by Epstein that said Trump “knew about the girls.” What followed was a frenzy that dwarfed any of Trump’s many first-term scandals.
The media understandably lost its mind, generating a tidal wave of think pieces and hot takes to feed the public’s surging interest in the Epstein files. But some of those pundits should have kept their mouths shut.
That’s especially true of former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who took the occasion to embark on a disgusting and disgraceful rant in which she attempted to argue that Epstein wasn’t definitionally a pedophile because he preferred 15-year-old girls to 5-year-olds. Blech.
Right-wing loudmouths like Kelly are more than willing to sell their souls in a frantic effort to insulate Trump from the growing Epstein fallout. That isn’t just a moral disgrace: It also causes deep and lasting harm to the many victims of child sex abuse who point to Kelly’s callous comments as an example of why so many victims choose to remain silent. Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to two of those victims. Their stories were heartbreaking, but their courage should prompt a moral reckoning among the pundit class.
Related | How Republicans became shameless hypocrites
First let’s take a look at why Kelly’s comments were so harmful. It isn’t just that her remarks minimize the violence and sadism of Epstein’s sex trafficking: She’s also fundamentally wrong on the law. Kelly described Epstein’s teenage victims as the “barely legal type,” but that’s nonsense. There isn’t a single state in America where the age of consent is 15. Those children weren’t “barely legal” women engaging in sex with an older man. They were children who were raped by a predator who leveraged his power to abuse them.
As the mother of a 14-year-old girl herself, Kelly surely knows better.
But, as Kelly said, “he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds.” This is what passes for morality in the broken landscape of today’s Republican Party. The same people who once condescendingly accused Democrats of being dangerous moral relativists are now comfortable drawing an imaginary line between abusing an 8-year-old and abusing a 15-year-old. It’s a level of moral bankruptcy we’ve rarely seen in the history of American politics, and it’s an indication of a deep and highly developed rot at every level of the GOP.
What’s more, sex trafficking is a crime regardless of the age of the victim involved. It’s as much a crime to traffick a 30-year-old or an 80-year-old as it is a teenager, and describing Epstein’s criminal enterprise as nothing more than his personal sexual preference erases the real horror of what he and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell were doing.
It’s easy to forget that what pundits view as political sport actually involves real people like Hannah, a woman from Ohio who called in to the Sirius XM show “Tell Me Everything with John Fugelsang” while I was guest hosting on Nov. 12. Like at least 24,000 Americans in 2024, Hannah was the victim of sex trafficking when she was younger and had remained quiet about her trauma for years—in part because of victim-blaming, rapist-excusing rhetoric pumped into the culture by pundits like Kelly.
“This is happening in every single state, every city and every town. This is not a new problem, we just didn’t call it human trafficking. We called it prostitution, hooking, and hoeing,” Hannah told me. “Nobody thinks it’s a problem, they look at us as women and god forbid teenagers who think we did it for ourselves. They talk about teenage prostitution. There is no such thing. That is a victim.”
In a country where over one-third of Americans allow pro-Trump partisanship to blind them to the suffering of their own neighbors, as Kelly has, victims in need of support often feel it would be less traumatic to simply keep quiet. That’s especially true in families dominated by MAGA fanatics, where a cry for help can often be met with judgment and blame.
“There are MAGA people out there, if this happened to their niece, they wouldn’t care,” Hannah said. “There are people who blame their own flesh and blood because people think they were just prostitutes who wanted this.”
I heard a similar story from Gena, a woman who called into “The Dean Obeidallah Show” when I was guest hosting on Nov. 13. Holding back tears, Gena described how she had only come to realize years later that she had once been raped by a much older man. At the time she had viewed herself as a complicit actor in the abuse, even blaming herself.
“Women are afraid to admit that they’ve been subjected to this in their lives,” Gena told me. “I don’t understand the divisiveness that’s going on. People don’t care about each other … they care more for their pets than they do for their neighbors.”
When women in America feel less valued than the family dog, too often the end result is a cycle of self-harm and self-hate that ends in preventable death. Hannah shared with me the story of a friend who survived a rape only to be dismissed when she came forward. After struggling for years with the trauma, Hannah’s friend succumbed to a drug overdose.
Related | Epstein wasn’t really all that pedophile-y, says Megyn Kelly
Hannah’s friend is just one of too many similar stories. Virginia Giuffre, perhaps the most visible of Epstein’s alleged child victims, took her own life in April after years of attacks on her story and character by conservative Trump defenders.
Carolyn Andriano, who was only 14 when Epstein allegedly trafficked her, also died of an overdose her mother links to the trauma she endured. Now her loved ones are left to process that emotional chasm while pundits like Kelly use their platform to defend her daughter’s victimizer.
People like Kelly can’t recover from the advanced state of moral decay their indefensible comments represent. But Congress can seize this opportunity to pursue justice and accountability not just for Epstein’s victims, but for the growing number of sexual abuse victims who are afraid to speak out for fear of rousing the anger of powerful media figures like Kelly.
Releasing the Epstein files is a great place to start.
dailykos_feedBy Phillip Reese for KFF
More than three-quarters of American adults didn’t get a COVID shot last season, a figure that health care experts warn could rise this year amid new U.S. government recommendations.
The COVID vaccine was initially popular. About 75% of Americans had received at least one dose of the first versions of the vaccine by early 2022, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. But only about 23% of American adults got a COVID shot during the 2024-25 virus season, well below the 47% of American adults who got a flu shot. The vaccination rates for flu, measles, and tetanus are also going down.
Yet COVID remains a serious, potentially deadly health risk, listed as the primary cause of death on roughly 31,400 death certificates last year. By comparison, flu killed about 6,500 people and pneumonia, a common complication of the flu, killed an additional 41,600, CDC data shows.
As millions of Americans decide whether to get a COVID shot this season, public health researchers worry vaccination rates will slide further, especially because Hispanic and Black Americans and those under 30 have lower rates, exposing them to serious complications such as long COVID. Under the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the federal government has narrowed its recommendations on the COVID vaccine, leading to a hodgepodge of rules on pharmacy access, with Americans living in Republican states often facing more barriers to getting a shot.
“A lot of misinformation is going around regarding COVID,” said Alein Haro-Ramos, an assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California-Irvine. “Vaccine hesitancy is going to increase.”
Related | RFK Jr. continues quest to Make America Sick Again, vaccines edition
In August, the FDA narrowed approval for COVID vaccines to those 65 or older and to adults and children with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for serious complications from COVID.
A month later, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend “shared clinical decision-making” on the vaccine, pulling back from advising all adults to get vaccinated. The committee advised doctors to emphasize to adults under 65 and children that the benefits of the vaccine are greatest for those with underlying health conditions.
The guidance is rebutted by infectious disease experts who say most adults and children should get both the flu and COVID vaccines, which are safe, effective, and prevent serious illness. Several independent medical organizations like the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics have reiterated their support for broad adoption of COVID vaccines.
More than two dozen states have taken steps to ensure most people can get a COVID shot at the pharmacy without a prescription, with many states tying their policies to the advice given by medical organizations. And many of those states require insurers to cover vaccines at no cost, according to a KFF analysis. In several other states, predominantly Republican-led, pharmacy access to vaccines may require a prescription.
Among the most commonly cited reasons for COVID vaccine hesitation are fears about side effects, long-term health consequences, and the effectiveness of the vaccine, and mistrust of pharmaceutical corporations and government officials, according to a 2024 review of multiple studies, published in the journal Vaccines.
COVID vaccine hesitancy in the 2024-25 virus season was higher among Latinos, African Americans, men, uninsured people, and people living in Republican-leaning states, CDC data shows.
Latino adults were significantly less likely than adults from most other racial and ethnic groups to get a COVID shot last season, with a vaccination rate around 15%.
Some of that may be due to age: A disproportionate share of Latinos are young. But public policy actions may also be a factor. The first Trump administration, for example, tied Medicaid to “public charge,” a rule allowing the federal government to deny an immigrant a green card or visa based on their dependence on taxpayer-funded programs. Some Latinos may be afraid to sign up for social services even after the Biden administration reversed those first-term Trump actions.
Related | Welcome to MAHA life, where you work until you die of COVID
Haro-Ramos co-authored a study published in 2024 that found many Latinos were hesitant to get vaccinated because of fears about their immigration status, and that experiencing health discrimination, like care denials or delays, increased their vaccine hesitancy.
“Do you trust the health care system, broadly speaking? Do you want to provide your information — your name, your address?” Haro-Ramos said. “Trust is critical.”
Haro-Ramos said the problem has likely worsened since her study was published. The Trump administration revealed this summer that it would give the personal information of Medicaid enrollees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many Latinos are canceling doctor appointments to head off possible confrontation with immigration enforcement officials.
“People are avoiding leaving their homes at all costs,” Haro-Ramos said.
Janani Rajbhandari-Thapa, an associate professor at the University of Georgia College of Public Health, recently co-authored a study of COVID vaccination among nearly 1,500 African Americans living in south Georgia. The study found that participants were more likely to listen to their health care providers than faith leaders or co-workers when seeking advice on getting vaccinated.
More than 90% of those studied had received at least one dose of the vaccine, but those who were unvaccinated were more likely to agree with false statements that tied vaccines to miscarriages, to components’ remaining in the body for a long time, or even to the conspiracy that they implant a computer chip in the body.
“It's the clinicians who can take the messages about vaccination — that these are myths,” Rajbhandari-Thapa said.
Even though COVID hospitalization and death rates have fallen dramatically since the worst days of the pandemic, fatal complications related to COVID remain most common among older people. Around 89% of U.S. COVID deaths last year were among people 65 and older, compared with about 81% of flu and pneumonia deaths.
As the pandemic falls into the rearview, young people have developed a sense of invincibility. Only 11% of Americans ages 18 to 29 received a vaccine during the 2024-25 virus season, the lowest vaccination rate among adult age groups. That’s far below the 70% of young adults who got at least one dose of the initial COVID vaccines by November 2023.
While many people get COVID after receiving a COVID shot, because the vaccine’s ability to prevent infection wears off pretty fast, some misunderstand the purpose of the shot, said Otto Yang, an infectious disease specialist at UCLA Health.
“They think, ‘Well, the vaccine didn’t prevent me from getting COVID, so the vaccine didn’t work,’” Yang said. “And what they're not seeing is that the vaccine prevented them from getting severely ill, which is ultimately the most important thing.”
And the vaccine can help prevent long COVID, which is a problem for all ages, Yang said. A recent Northwestern University study found that younger adults suffer worse symptoms of long COVID than older adults.
Ultimately, Yang said, it is not a consistent choice to get a flu vaccine but forgo a COVID vaccine, since both are safe, effective, and prevent serious illness. It is clear, he added, that people with compromised immune systems and those at higher risk should get a COVID shot. The decision is “a little bit less clear” for others, but “probably most adults should be getting vaccinated, just like it’s recommended for the flu vaccine, as well as most children.”
Phillip Reese is a data reporting specialist and an associate professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento.
cakewrecks_feedIt's a fundamental fact of life that the more ridiculously off base a misspelling, the funnier it is.
So, "Congradulations?" Not particularly funny. "Controdulatior?" Funny.
And this?
HYSTERICAL.
Then there are the times when everything is technically spelled correctly, but...
(I don't know what's happening here, but I "like" it.)
I guess we can't judge this next wreckerator too harshly, since "Bon Voyage" isn't actually English; it's French. And we can't expect bakers to know French, now, can we? OF COURSE NOT. So don't even THINK about laughing. Seriously. It's a simple, honest-to-goodness mistake that ANYONE could easily ma...uh.
Oh, dear.
Never mind.
("Have a nice trip! See you next fail!")
Thanks to Deb, Deborah A., & Terye B. for the stop, drop, and ROTFL.
******
P.S. When you don't have a cake to express yourself, there's always this:
"Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Be Here" T-shirt
That can't be a coincidence that it's in Thanksgiving colors, right? ::evil grin::
Comes in lots more shirt colors and also men's cuts at the link.
*****
And from my other blog, Epbot:
snopes_feedsnopes_feednotalwaysright_feedRead Playing It Fair And Square (Or Diamond)
In the vein of youngest kids, anything my older siblings did was cool, so when one of my brothers started playing baseball, I wanted to play too. This went well for a few years, until my dad noticed that a lot of the coaches were more concerned with winning than with helping kids play baseball.
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