January 6th insurrection commission must follow the evidence

"January 6th, Capitol riots at the seat of American democracy embarrassed the United States before the rest of the civilized world – or certainly should have. The Architect of the Capitol reported at least $30 million in damages and increased security costs."

$30 million in damages!

Echo opinion by Sid Salter: Rep. Michael Guest showed courage in his vote about the commission to probe the Jan. 6th insurrection: A guest column published in the Clarion Ledger, a Mississippi newspaper.

Mississippi, a state that gave #FormerGuy Republican Trump 57.8% of the state’s 2016, vote for president and 57.6% in the 2020 presidential election, Republican 3rd District U.S. Rep. Michael Guest found the courage to join 35 other Republican members of Congress in voting for an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

That vote bucked Trump and GOP House Minority Leader Kevin (Maine Writer: aka "the dummy lives.!!!!) McCarthy. 

Not surprising, Guest's vote drew immediate criticism from the #TFG's Trumpzi faction in the national GOP (aka GQP) and criticism on social media in Mississippi.

Guest’s vote aligned him with the state’s only Democratic congressman, 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Bolton – the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee who led negotiations on behalf of his party for establishment of the commission.

Frankly, it’s difficult to see how Guest – a former longtime state prosecutor – could have arrived at a different conclusion on this vote. The insurrectionist's Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol cost five people, including a Capitol policeman, their lives in that disgraceful display. Some 140 people were injured in the fracas.

Representative Michael Guest (R) Mississippi

“We need answers to questions surrounding the events of Jan. 6,” Guest said after the vote. “I believe the long conversations that have happened over the last few months have produced a commission that is fair and is structured to find actions that Congress can take to prevent another such attack.”

Republican (GQP) 1st District U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly of Tupelo voted against establishing the commission along with GOP 4th District U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Gulfport.

The riots at the seat of American democracy embarrassed the United States before the rest of the civilized world – or certainly should have. The Architect of the Capitol reported at least $30 million in damages and increased security costs.

On January 6th, the purpose of all of that violence, chaos, and damage resulted from a misguided effort to interrupt or delay a routine vote to certify the nation’s electoral vote. By that perfunctory act of Congress, the Democratic party returned to power in the executive branch of the U.S. government in the form of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In 232, years of American presidential elections, no candidate in modern history has refused to except the results of the election and recognize the legitimacy of the winner as president. That includes the razor-thin margin of 1960 election between Democrat John Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon.

But #FormerGuy Trumpzi’s myth about the “stolen election” (unbelievably!) endures. That, despite the absence of evidence that held up in multiple courts across the country and the damning Nov. 12, 2020, statement of Trump’s own Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee – Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency:

“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result. When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

In light of that and other unimpeachable evidence and in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Mississippi’s senior U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Tupelo, courageously voted to certify the electoral vote, although his party lost the 2020 presidential election in both the popular vote and the electoral vote. Thompson likewise supported certification.

The rest of Mississippi’s congressional delegation chose another path. Republicans U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Kelly, Guest and Palazzo voted against certifying the electoral vote results even though all six of Mississippi’s electoral votes were awarded to Trump.  (Maine Writer: OMG this makes virtually no sense!)

To be clear, just as Wicker’s vote to certify the 2020, electoral vote was a vote that showed character, courage, and loyalty to the U.S. Constitution – Guest’s politically unpopular vote in favor of a bipartisan commission to probe the Jan. 6th Capitol riots was a courageous and statesmanlike vote that respects the rule of law.

Sid Salter of Starkville, Mississippi is a syndicated columnist. 

Failed Donald Trump! Any former president preferred.

#failedleadership

An echo opinion by Rachel James-Terry, published in the Jackson Mississippi Clarion Ledger 

Self-quarantining, social-distancing, face masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and repeat. 

Our world as we knew it has been dumped on its head.

Well, for people of color, that happened once Donald Trump was elected. (Maine Writer.....I am proud to claim my vote was to elect the winner of the popular presidential vote, Secretary Hillary Clinton!)

Now, in the eye of the coronavirus pandemic crisis, the (fake) leader of the free world (FLOTFW) (impotus45), depending on who you ask, is continuing his routine of deflection, blame, feign intelligence, insults, self-adoration, (narcissism).....repeat.

When will (Trumpzi) America wake up? Americans are, rapidly, becoming as sick and tired of the satire-based reality show dressed up as COVID-19, coronavirus pandemic press briefings, as they are fearful of Trumpzi's failed leadership.


Thank the pandemic gods for Dr. Anthony Fauci. He is a glimmer of sanity amid the hypersensitive minefield that Trump has created in the White House. Still, supporters cling to him in almost David Koresh-cultish fashion. They justify his antics and attempt to piece together a rational thought from his fragmented sentences and limited vocabulary.

After Trump's ramblings about disinfectant and light injections, people were valiantly defending his connect-the-dot phrasing. Granted, Cedars Sinai Hospital is studying UV light therapy, and minuscule measurements of bleach can be used to disinfect drinking water. However, the leader of millions of Americans should articulate his ideas and provide context in a manner that does not increase the number of calls to poison control centers.

It is his lack of comprehension that makes me long for the days when presidents were insightful and astute. At this point, I would almost take any former president.

We have been inundated with sad stories about the deaths of those on the front lines, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and grandparents. I have been moved to tears several times watching wives and husbands break down on national television sharing their coronavirus experiences.

Vaccines - a Mississippi echo opinion: Stop the spread of preventable infectious diseases

Too many states make it too easy for parents to avoid having their kids immunized- infectious disease prevention: 

An echo view opinion published in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger newspaper

Measles outbreaks continue to lacerate communities from coast to coast, and there's absolutely no reason for it. 

The latest involve dozens of new cases in New York and in Clark County, Washington, across the Columbia River from Portland.

These shouldn't be happening. The highly contagious disease — which can lead to pneumonia and, in uncommon cases, to encephalitis or even death — was all but eradicated in 2000.

But many parents, embracing scientifically debunked fears about vaccination health risks, have declined the inoculation of their children with the doses for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

It surely doesn't help when public figures who should know better spread uninformed views. Darla Shine, wife of White House Communications Director Bill Shine, tweeted last week that childhood diseases "keep you healthy & fight cancer" and that "sadly," her children had received the MMR. (! - OMG the flat earth society thrives in the now infected White House, a once hallowed residence now occupied by ghouls and fools.)

Actually, IN FACT! her kids are safer because they've had the vaccine.

The core issue is that too many states make it too easy for parents to avoid having their children immunized. While all 50 require vaccinations, 17 states allow parents to opt out for personal reasons.

Even if their offspring get and survive the illness, they selfishly place at serious risk other children who can't be vaccinated because of legitimate medical concerns such as a compromised immune system. Those children are protected only when virtually everyone else in the community is immunized, breaking the chain of infection.

Even worse, in 2016 scientists found that a deadly measles neurological complication, which lies dormant in children for years, is more common than previously thought, arising in 1 out of 609 cases where unvaccinated babies contract the disease.

Recent outbreaks underscore the risks of allowing nonmedical exemptions.

Forty-seven states let parents opt out for religious reasons. Among them is New York, where there have been more than 70 cases of measles in New York City since October, including cases among unvaccinated children within an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. 

In Rockland County, New York, there have been 135 cases since September. 

The state of Washington allows both religious and personal exemptions. The result is that only 78 percent of children ages 6 to 18 in Clark County have received the necessary two doses of MMR. Almost all of the 62 confirmed cases of measles in that county this year involved no prior immunization.

Three states — California, Mississippi and West Virginia — allow vaccination exemptions strictly for medical reasons. Not coincidentally, their two-dose MMR rates for kindergartners are 96.9 percent, 99.4 percent and 98.4 percent, respectively.

The outbreak in Washington has prompted legislators to consider a measure sponsored by a Clark County Republican state representative that would deny MMR exemptions based on personal beliefs.

For all the sense this makes, hard-core opposition remains fierce. Even as children fell ill, hundreds of naysayers arrived at the Washington statehouse to voice opposition. When California passed an even stricter law in 2015, the sponsor — state Sen. Richard Pan — received death threats.

Despite the blow back, the government requirements are the right things to do, along with public education campaigns. 

Exemptions to state-mandated vaccinations should be granted only for narrowly prescribed medical or religious reasons. The health of children is too important to put at risk.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff.

Trees - an echo commentary about the impact of loosing forests

Georgia fears $1 billion in crop damage as farmers report devastation

Clarion Ledger opinion echo about the eonomic and sentimental impact of loosing valued trees, by Mac Gordon:

The value of a good tree goes far beyond its life-sustaining qualities, which are numerous for all living creatures. Georgia's tree farmers can attest to this fact.

Those folks took emotional and financial whippings estimated at upwards of $500 million as Hurricane Michael came ashore in the Florida Panhandle and moved inward through the Georgia forest, home of some of this nation's largest and most prodigious stands of pines and hardwoods.

I have heard it estimated that the Panhandle-South Georgia region lost perhaps one million trees during the Oct. 10, 2018 storm. It is my own estimation that half of them were in Early County, Georgia, where we live part-time near the county seat of Blakely. 

I know, It just seems that way.

More than a month later, Blakely still looks like the proverbial battleground of war with trees still resting on some rooftops and hundreds of massive trunks and limbs scattered across town. 

Relief workers have cleared many of them, but the number of felled trees seems almost insurmountable.

I was living in the Jackson area when Katrina hit the Mississippi Coast and inland territories on August 29, 2005. I remember that Flowood, 150 miles inland, registered winds at 100 miles per hour.

In the Georgia countryside, I believe Michael's winds matched that velocity. I never thought it could happen there. Most residents of the area could not recall the last such storm hitting this close to home, and say they never heard their forebears talk of such an event.

In Sunday School last week, our teacher talked of having a "servant heart." I have seen hundreds of aforementioned disaster relief workers descend on Southwest Georgia to spread just that — relief. These people from across America — and the utility linemen locally and from afar — definitely have a "servant heart." We can't say "thank you" enough times.


Our row crop farmers, who suffered economic losses estimated by the experts at $600 million for cotton and peanuts alone, had what appeared to be a record harvest in the field on the day Michael roared ashore.

There is a cotton farmer near us who probably thought he had defied the odds that exist when you depend solely on rainfall to nourish a crop. Most farmers these days use extravagant and expensive irrigation systems to help their plantings along. This particular fellow's crop looked better than I had ever seen it because he had enjoyed timely rains all season, and then Michael slammed it down. The odds beat him again.

All told, Georgia's agricultural producers suffered losses on the early estimates at around $2.5 billion. There is not much agriculture as you go northward toward Atlanta, so most of the damages occurred in what is known as "the other Georgia" of field and forest. These areas depend on agriculture for the majority portion of their economies.

Back to these good trees. They all have financial, aesthetical, medical and sentimental values. A few weeks before Michael, another storm brought down a red oak tree on our property estimated to be 150-years-old.

The man whose crew worked to clear the debris said he knew of only one other red oak in the region of similar size. He estimates that other tree to be almost 200-years-old, but that its circumference didn't match ours.

My wife Mary Lee's maternal grandfather purchased the land almost 100 years ago that held our tree. Family members nurtured it on what they consider sacred ground.

We were luckier than many friends and neighbors who saw their grand oaks and majestic pines tumbled by Michael. That tree landed on our driveway. God blessed us and we are thankful.

Mac Gordon is a native and part-time resident of McComb. He is a former reporter for the Clarion-Ledger.  

Mississippi has dismal health and economic data

Mississippi has highest poverty and lowest income

Mississippi again unhealthiest state in the country

It's time again for the United Health Foundation's annual state health rankings report, and like last year, Mississippi comes in 50th.

Despite being a leader in telehealth and, historically, childhood vaccinations, Mississippi's high rate of childhood poverty, obesity and cigarette smoking contributes to it being the unhealthiest state in the country, according to the 2017 America's Health Rankings report.

Of the five categories examined in the report, Mississippi ranked overall 50th for one: clinical care. This has to do with Mississippi's doctor shortage, lack of mental health providers and preventable hospitalizations.

The state ranked 49th for behaviors and 44th for community and environment — both in which Louisiana came in last — 47th for policy and 48th for health outcomes.

Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate of any state with 8.8 deaths per every 1,000 live births.

Of the 35 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only Turkey and Mexico have higher infant mortality rates than Mississippi.

The health ranking report said Mississippi's rate of babies born underweight — still the highest rate in the nation at 11.4 percent of births — decreased in the last year.

However, according to the 2017 March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card, Mississippi's rate of premature births is rising, 13.6 percent this year, up more than half a percent from 2016.

Many of Mississippi's health issues are tied to the state's high rate of poverty.

"Poverty influences a family's ability to meet children's basic needs and may limit access to health care, healthy foods, educational opportunities and physical activity choices. Children living in poverty are three times more likely to have unmet health needs than other children," the report reads.

Nearly one-third of Mississippi children, or more than 220,000 kids, live in poverty. This disproportionately affects African-American children in the state, almost half of whom live in poverty compared to 17 percent of white children.

In the report, Mississippi also came in last for cardiovascular deaths, including heart disease, stroke, hypertension, heart attack and heart failure — 352.5 of every 100,000 people.

"Cardiovascular disease is treatable and may be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight, eating healthy, participating in physical activity, limiting alcohol and avoiding tobacco. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for 17 percent of medical spending and 30 percent of Medicare spending," the report states.

In general, Mississippi had the highest rate of premature deaths, accounting for 10,950 years of life lost per 100,000 people. Mississippi also ties with Mexico for life expectancy at 75 years, the lowest in the country.

More than 12 percent of Mississippians lack health insurance, giving Mississippi the sixth worst uninsured rate in the nation.

Mississippi had the third-highest rate of diabetes and preventable hospitalizations and the fourth lowest number of primary care physicians, 105.9 per 100,000 people versus 149.7 nationally.

Mississippi also ranks 49th for its number of dentists, 42.2 versus the national average of 60.8 per 100,000 people.

"Nearly one-third of U.S. adults have untreated tooth decay, and despite steady growth in working dentists, many areas and populations do not have an adequate supply of dentists to meet current needs," the report states.

The state ranks 45th for its number of mental health providers, 132.6 per 100,000 people compared to a national average of 218.

Mississippi has often received praise for its high childhood immunization rate — 99.7 percent of kindergartners were fully vaccinated in 2014 — which can be partially attributed to the state's strict exemption laws. But in the 2017 health ranking report, Mississippi comes in last for adolescent vaccinations.

A statement from the Mississippi State Department of Health said the rate of Tdap vaccinations have improved since the state enacted a 7th grade entry requirement for the 2012-2013 school year.

"We actually received the CDC Healthy People 2020 Immunization Coverage Award for the most improved coverage among adolescents in September," said the statement from State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers. "While there have also been improvements in the rates for meningococcal vaccination and some improvements in use of the HPV vaccine, HPV has been underutilized in Mississippi for both males and females. For childhood vaccination rates it is important to note that the Mississippi vaccination rate for kindergarten entry is greater than 99% and has been among the highest in the U.S. for a number of years."

Mississippi ranks near the middle for its rate of early childhood vaccinations with just over 70 percent of children between 19 and 35 months receiving all recommended doses.

Mississippi came in second to last for both obesity and inactivity behind West Virginia and Arkansas, respectively. Almost 23 percent of Mississippians smoke cigarettes, "which can damage nearly every organ and potentially cause respiratory disease, heart disease, stroke, cancer, preterm birth, low birthweight and premature death."

The report shows Mississippi with a relatively low rate of drug deaths — ranked eighth in the country — but that could be more indicative of the state's reporting of those deaths. Law enforcement officers have told the Clarion Ledger that overdose deaths in the state are underreported, making the prevalence hard to measure.

Presumably because of its historically high childhood vaccination rate, Mississippi ranked first for having the lowest rate of pertussis (whooping cough) cases in the nation.

Mississippi ranked 15th for a relatively low rate of violent crimes, 281 offenses per 100,000 people.

The state had the highest rate of Salmonella cases in the country.