When I was 25, I worked as a legislative assistant in the Missouri General Assembly.

It was a dream job, honestly.

But that dream dissipated the day the #MoLeg decided to name Rush Limbaugh as an “honorable Missourian” and place his bust in the “Hall of Famous Missourians.”

1/

The Hall of Famous Missourians sits in the Missouri State Capitol.

There are busts of Mark Twain, Dred Scott, Josephine Baker, Harry Truman and other legends of history.

The day I learned Rush Limbaugh would join their ranks, I thought it was a joke.

2/
We received phone calls from constituents appalled that Missouri would honor a man who had become infamous that year for calling a college student a “slut.”

And who just that week had continued spreading the racist birtherism lie about our then-President, Barack Obama.

3/
What I learned that day is that it wasn’t *despite* his racism, but because of it that he received this award.

It’s because he created a universe where it was permissible to lynch with language America’s first black President.

4/
Several State Representatives and their staffers intended to protest the vote and the selection.

By the time we made it to the doors of the House Floor, we weren’t allowed in. It was Republicans only. The doors were locked and secured by the Highway Patrol.

5/
There had been contentious fights before. Debates over important issues happened frequently.

It was highly unusual.

We learned later—it was an “invitation only” event. And despite being elected officials, Democratic State Reps didn’t make the cut.

6/
In fact, part of the reason for the mobilization by staff was that constituents couldn’t be here—and that’s because the entire event was kept under wraps until about an hour before it happened.

They intended to give Rush Limbaugh this great honor in darkness.

7/
Later—because I was not willing to fight the armed guard at the door—I learned that Limbaugh said this:

"They literally are deranged, our friends, so-called friends on the other side of the aisle, are deranged...” in response to the vehement protest against him that day.

8/
The Missouri Republicans forced him on us, against our will, without our knowledge or consent.

And they giggled while they did it. Proud of their superiority. Proud of the force they could exert.

That’s what I remember about Rush Limbaugh.

He empowered + encouraged hate.

9/9

More from Lindsey Simmons

Dear Senator Hawley's Staff--

I'm sure you're loyal to your boss, but this man incited violence and you helped him. There is no "following orders" defense that will save you. You are part of this now.

And it is so much more serious than him simply "raising concerns."

🧵


Prior to November 3rd, Joshua had nothing to say about Pennsylvania's vote by mail legislation.

2/


In fact, Joshua didn't have squat to say about election integrity either.

3/


By November 4th, when it was apparent that Trump would likely lose the election, Joshua--as a sitting US Senator--started tweeting out that Michigan was hiding secrets from the public.

Sowing doubt. Fanning the flames.

4/


So Joshua started this fake call for election integrity--a call he'd never made before.

At first he threw the whole kitchen sink out there--BigTech, ballot harvesting, poll watchers, counting, etc.

Sowing doubt. Fanning the flames.

5/

More from Society

global health policy in 2020 has centered around NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) like distancing, masks, school closures

these have been sold as a way to stop infection as though this were science.

this was never true and that fact was known and knowable.

let's look.


above is the plot of social restriction and NPI vs total death per million. there is 0 R2. this means that the variables play no role in explaining one another.

we can see this same relationship between NPI and all cause deaths.

this is devastating to the case for NPI.


clearly, correlation is not proof of causality, but a total lack of correlation IS proof that there was no material causality.

barring massive and implausible coincidence, it's essentially impossible to cause something and not correlate to it, especially 51 times.

this would seem to pose some very serious questions for those claiming that lockdowns work, those basing policy upon them, and those claiming this is the side of science.

there is no science here nor any data. this is the febrile imaginings of discredited modelers.

this has been clear and obvious from all over the world since the beginning and had been proven so clearly by may that it's hard to imagine anyone who is actually conversant with the data still believing in these responses.

everyone got the same R
Brief thread to debunk the repeated claims we hear about transmission not happening 'within school walls', infection in school children being 'a reflection of infection from the community', and 'primary school children less likely to get infected and contribute to transmission'.

I've heard a lot of scientists claim these three - including most recently the chief advisor to the CDC, where the claim that most transmission doesn't happen within the walls of schools. There is strong evidence to rebut this claim. Let's look at


Let's look at the trends of infection in different age groups in England first- as reported by the ONS. Being a random survey of infection in the community, this doesn't suffer from the biases of symptom-based testing, particularly important in children who are often asymptomatic

A few things to note:
1. The infection rates among primary & secondary school children closely follow school openings, closures & levels of attendance. E.g. We see a dip in infections following Oct half-term, followed by a rise after school reopening.


We see steep drops in both primary & secondary school groups after end of term (18th December), but these drops plateau out in primary school children, where attendance has been >20% after re-opening in January (by contrast with 2ndary schools where this is ~5%).

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