A pair of Trump supporters who helped plan and organize rallies in and around Washington DC prior to the Capitol riot, claim to have attended meetings with certain members of Congress.
Rolling Stone spoke to two January 06 organizers, both of whom have been granted anonymity by Congressional investigators. The pair have accused several pro-Trump members of Congress of helping them to overturn the election and organizing events that led to the riot. These members include, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, and Louie Gohmert.
“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer said. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another, or their staffs.”
These same two sources are also alleged to have helped plan demonstrations in multiple states prior to the election and the events at the Capitol.
“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back,” the organizer continued.
Gosar – who is one of the most extreme Trump supporters in Congress, and of the January 06 riot – has been accused by the pair of offering the possibility of pardons to the organizers.
“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer said. “That he’d spoken with the president about it in the Oval office, in meetings about pardons, and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”
“I would have done it either way, with or without the pardon. I do truly believe in this country, but to use something like that and put that out on the table when someone is so desperate, it’s really not good business.”
He believes in his country so much that he’s willing to believe the election was rigged, based on the rantings of an egotistical con man, who’s attorney’s failed multiple times to present any evidence for their claims in court – further humiliating themselves doing press conferences where they also failed to back up their claims – and then physically act on those claims by attempting to overturn a democratic election by force. Yeah, he sounds like a real patriot.
Nick Dyer, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s communication director, claimed via email that Greene was only involved in planning to object to Joe Biden’s certification. “Congresswoman Greene and her staff were focused on the Congressional election objection on the House floor and had nothing to do with planning of any protest,” he wrote.
Dyer also compared Green’s attempt to object to Biden’s victory with the so-called objections the anti-american Democrats had over Trump’s 2016 election, when they stormed into the Senate with pitch forks and nooses, ready to hang vice president Biden if he didn’t declare Obama the winner.
“She ( Greene ) objected just like Democrats who have objected to Republican presidential victories over the years,” Dyer said in the email. “Just like in 2017, when Jim McGovern, Jamie Raskin, Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson, Raul Grijalva, and Maxine Waters tried to prevent president Trump’s election win from being certified.
It should be noted that none of them incited a mob to storm the Capitol and Congress, desperate to keep a narcissistic con man in power.
Dyer also wrote in the email that real Americans are more concerned about Biden’s socialist agenda than the Republican party’s contempt for democracy, or about dying from a virus ( again, I can’t stress this enough, that has taken the lives of over a half a million people in the U.S. ) because they refuse to get vaccinated. Conservatives would rather die for the sake of partisan politics – to own the libs – than use the God damn common sense they were born with, and get the vaccine. And as a result, they’re risking their own lives and risking the health and lives of others, including their family members and relatives.
“No one cares about Jan. 6,” he wrote peevishly, “when gas prices are skyrocketing, unemployment is skyrocketing, businesses are going bankrupt, our border is being invaded, children are forced to wear masks, vaccine mandates are getting workers fired, and thirteen members of our military are murdered by the Taliban and Americans are left stranded in Afghanistan.”
“The reason I’m talking to the committee and the reason it’s so important is that – despite Republicans refusing to participate – this commission’s all we got as far as being able to uncover the truth about what happened at the Capitol that day,” the organizer said. “It’s clear that’s lot of bad actors set out to cause chaos… they made us all look like shit.”
They named Trump as one of those bad actors that made them “all look like shit,” but they also made it quite clear that they still believe in his agenda, which is an indication of how intelligent they are. After allowing a con man to make them look like shit, instead of being angry, they’re still willing to hold hands with him and sing Kumbaya.
Even though many kids have been back at school for some time, vaccines still are not available for those under 12.
Recently, Pfizer and BioNTech completed a trial showing that a 10-microgram dose of their vaccine was safe and effective for children in the above age groups. They have submitted a request for emergency approval for use in children under 12. The FDA should give its approval by early November.
As soon as FDA approval begins, the White House plans to vaccinate every child between 5 and 12. It plans to make the vaccine available at thousands of doctors and pediatricians offices, pharmacies, hospitals, community health centers and clinics. There are also plans to educate parents on vaccines, all in the effort to reduce the impact of a virus that has taken lives of well over a half a million people in the United States alone.
"If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, I think that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community," Dr. Fauci said at last Wednesday's press briefing at the White House. "That's one of the reasons why we want to do as best we can to get those children 5 to 11 vaccinated."
Dr. Fauci, who is current director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been implicated by delusional Trump loyalists in a conspiratorial cover up – along with mainstream media, i.e., CNN and MSNBC – of creating the coronavirus responsible for COVID, as a bioweapon through gain of function funding, that Dr. Fauci conspired with “the media” to hide the truth of the origin of the virus, and that Trump himself was nothing more than an innocent bystander who just happened to get caught up in all of the melodrama, and that there was nothing or very little that he could do.
This theory has been promoted – without evidence – by not just conservative media figures such as Tucker Carlson and others, but so-called progressives like Joe Rogan, and Krystal Ball on a recent episode of his podcast. This is a conspiracy that has been around since the lab leak theory.
Sources: The Week, Washington Post, Whitehouse.gov.
From the October 21 broadcast of the Mark Levin Show:
"Can you believe the House of Representatives has voted to hold Steve Bannon in Contempt for failing to testify?" Levin screeched in his nasally voice. "You know who I hold in Contempt? The Democrats, that who!
"They want Bannon in prison! In prison for what?! For supporting Donald Trump?! For believing the election was stolen? For believing Hugo Chavez possessed Dominion voting machines to flip votes for Joe Biden?! What's wrong with that?! They didn't want Eric Holder in prison for contempt, when he was involved in Fast and Furious! You know, that scandal where he deliberately sold guns to drug cartels that actually got somebody killed?!WhodiedattheCapitolriot? Nobody! That'swho!
"What's that, Mr. Producer?"
Mr. Producer: "I said, Ashli Babbitt died at the Capitol. And the reason why Eric Holder wasn't threatened with jail time is most likely because he was acting Attorney General, whereas Steve Bannon is a private citizen."
Levin: "Ladies and gentlemen, I have been informed that Ashli Rabbit-"
Mr. Producer: "Babbitt."
Levin: "Babbit... died at the Capitol. Alright, so where's the evidence that Steve Bannon had anything to do with violence at the Capitol on January 6th? There is none! You want to know what violence is? I'll tell you what violence is! Violence is Nancy People clapping sarcastically at president Trump! Yeah, that's right. Don't you think that behavior might give certain people the wrong idea?! Violence is Maxine Waters telling people to heckle Sarah Huckabee Sanders in public! That might give certain people ideas! Violence is putting an orange wig on a dildo and pretending it's Trump! It might give certain people ideas!
"Bannon had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol! We know damn well who it was! It was Antifa and the Democrats! That's who it was! Fox News reported on it! I reported on it! Newsmax reported on it! They're one of the most credible news sources out there! They have news in their name! All they report is the news, none of the nonsense that you see at CNN, that Biden won the election and vaccine mandates really work. Every credible news source reported that it was Antifa and BLM masquerading as Trump supporters just to make them all look bad! The sources that claimed it was Trump supporters, lied! The Clinton News Network and the MSLSD's!
"But the Democrats don't care about that! Because, as you know, prosecuting protesters of a rigged election is more important than BLM and Antifa burning down entire cities!"
Mr. Producer: "No city has been burned to the ground, to my knowledge."
"That's what they want you to think, Mr. Producer!"
Covidiots are everywhere, and it seems America, more than any other nation, is full of them. They’re our friends, our neighbors, and our family members. And unfortunately, all too many of them are either Trump supporters, and/or rabid consumers of far right-wing media such as Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax.
They are also regular consumers of so-called conservative news sites like Breitbart, the Gateway Pundit, World Net Daily, Townhall, and Right-Wing News, all of which are nothing more than sources of misinformation and crackpot conspiracy theories. During the Obama years, the conspiracies ranged from Birtherism and FEMA camps, to complete and total gun confiscation. These days, under socialist Joe Biden, it’s complete and total authoritarian control through vaccine mandates which are designed to strip patriotic Americans – Trump conservatives who love the Constitution – of their right to spread COVID to whomever they please.
On a recent appearance with Brett Baier, the editor of the Federalist blamed the Democrats for prolonging the pandemic.
From Media Matters:
Mollie Hemmingway ( Fox News Contributor ): “We know we want people to be vaccinated and/or have natural immunity in order to slow down the spread as we move from this pandemic being something that’s very horrific to deal with, to just something you deal with every year like the flu.
“That data has not been shared. And I think it’s because it’s been politically advantageous, certainly the Democratic party has benefitted quite a bit from this electorally, being able to push through spending packages, and so you see them trying to continue the pandemic, pushing boosters – again, based on bad data – while the rest of the country is engaging in college football games each weekend and moving on as, you know, we have gotten through a lot of the natural immunity or vaccination with this.”
It’s conservatives like Hemmingway who really want people to be vaccinated and/or have natural immunity to the virus, because it’s the only way to slow down the spread and end the pandemic, or at the very least, if enough people get it, they will develop natural immunity to it, so that it will be no more deadly than the flu. God knows the data really shows that COVID is no different than the regular flu. God knows the CDC is deliberately hiding that information because it benefits the Democrats electorally to prolong the pandemic by trying to cram all of their commie infrastructure bills through Congress, and attempting to cram more booster shots down our throats while they simultaneously force us to wear masks! Meanwhile, the rest of us are calmly moving on, watching football games, stuffing our faces with Pappa John’s Pizza and celebrating freedom and liberty in America while the Democrats try to do everything they can to crash the COVID party!
Hemmingway is an editor of the Federalist, a conservative news publication that has previously published false COVID and election fraud claims.
Last Thursday, president Biden again urged private business owners to mandate vaccinations for their employees.
Speaking from the Data Center, Clayco construction site in Elk Grove, Illinois, he said:
“…The fact is, this has been a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Unvaccinated. The unvaccinated crowd our hospitals, overrunning emergency rooms and intensive care units. The unvaccinated patients are leaving no room for someone with a heart attack, or in need of a cancer operation and so much more because they can’t get into ICU. They can’t get into the operating rooms…
“The unvaccinated also put our economy at risk because people are reluctant to go out.And think about this: Even in places where there is no restriction on going to restaurants and gyms and movie theaters, people are not going in anywhere near the numbers because they’re worried they’re going to get sick.
“I’ve tried everything in my power to get people vaccinated. First thing I did when I was sworn into office back on January 20th, is I bought enough vaccine – right off the bat – to vaccinate every single American. There were only 4 million Americans who had been vaccinated up to that point. Second, we made everyone eligible to get vaccinated and made it easy and convenient for them to get vaccinated – over 80,000 places around the country…
“But even after all these efforts, we still had more than a quarter of people in the United States who were eligible for vaccination, but didn’t get the jab…
“Even – this I always get a kick out of – Fox News ( Insert laughter here ), even Fox News requires vaccinations for all employees. Give me a break, Fox News.”
It has indeed been a pandemic of the unvaccinated. A pandemic of stupidity, is more like it. Unvaccinated idiots who have been lied to by bad faith actors in the media – the Tucker Carlson’s and Alex Jones types, who are more interested in spreading BS conspiracies for ratings to keep the rubes divided and ignorant. And the idiots believing the BS they hear – that COVID vaccines are killing people, making their testicles grow to the size of watermelons ( while their brains shrink from lack of critical thinking ) – so they refuse to get vaccinated, refuse to wear a mask and crowd their unvaccinated asses into school board and city council meetings spreading COVID – while babbling incoherently about the vaccinated being demon possessed – because it’s not really their fault, and it’s not Trump’s fault, who took no responsibility for the pandemic, it’s not their fault just because they refuse to wear masks and get vaccinated. Shit no! It’s that commie Joe Biden’s fault, he’s being a tyrant, a dictator for wanting to get people vaccinated so they don’t get sick. These idiots would rather get sick and die – just to own the libtards – and they are, by the thousands. But hey, that’s great! At least they’re showing the world how stupid the libs are with all this vaccine bullshit, right? Isn’t that worth dying for? Yippee! Go COVID! We’ll show that commie Joe, we don’t need his life-saving vaccine!
In a move that will temporarily raise the debt limit through early December, the Senate voted on legislation to make it possible for the U.S. to avert an economic disaster for the first time in its history – defaulting on its loans.
Democrats in the Senate voted 50 to 48 to support legislation to avert the U.S. defaulting on its obligations to pay its federal debt. The bill will go to the House next week for a vote – where in all likelihood it will pass – and then Joe Biden will likely approve it before signing it with his John Hancock.
“The Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I’m glad that their brinkmanship did not work,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “What is needed now is a long-term solution so we don’t go through this risky drama every few months.”
White House press secretary, Jen Psaki said Thursday, “President Biden looks forward to signing this bill as soon as it reaches his desk. As we approach the coming months, we hope that even more Republicans will join Democrats in responsibly addressing the debt limit instead of choosing default or obstruction.”
The Democrats have been attempting to pass legislation that would prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt through 2022, which Republicans have consistently resisted.
“I can’t vote to raise this debt ceiling,” said Senator Mike Lee. “Not right now, especially given the plans at play to increase spending immediately by another 3.5 trillion,” he said before the vote.
Senator Lisa Murkowski was one of the few Republicans who wasn’t willing to “let this train go off a cliff,” as she put it.
“I thank my Democratic colleagues for showing unity in solving this Republican manufactured crises,” Chuck Schumer said. “Despite immense opposition from Leader McConnell and members of his conference, our caucus held together and we have pulled our country back from the cliff’s edge that Republicans tried to push us over.”
If you’re familiar with Smucker Carlson and can admit that he is America’s premiere propagandist, conspiracy theorist, and race baiter, then you’re among the sane. On the other hand, if you believe everything he says is written in stone… well, you’re exactly the type of person he hopes is enough of a sucker to keep him relevant. And there are plenty of people who fall into that latter category.
Via Media Matters:
From the January 22 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Smucker Carlson: "So, Joy Reid is accusing us of racism. Let's pause for a moment and savor the irony of that. Try to watch her show for 20 minutes, and see for yourself."
Let’s pause for a moment to savor the sweet irony. Why would the “race lady” as he has referred to Reid, accuse Smucker of race baiting? Why would anybody in their right mind accuse Smucker of race baiting? It’s absurd! It’s ridiculous! Smucker loves people of all races. He just believes undocumented immigrants are “plundering the U.S. and want to steal America’s wealth”:
“The American pinata has been getting pummeled for decades and now it has finally come apart. Our national wealth is up for grabs by whomever gets here first – and they are coming. Over just the past year, 1% of the entire population of Guatemala has moved to the United States.”
That immigrants make the U.S. poorer and dirtier:
“Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer, dirtier and more divided.
That undocumented immigrants are polluting the Potomac and all of America:
“It has gotten dirtier, and dirtier and dirtier. I go down there, and that litter is left almost exclusively by immigrants. I’m there. I watch it.”
That the Democrats want to deliberately change the demographics of America with undocumented immigrants in order to vote for them:
“I know the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term “replacement,” if you suggest that the Democratic party is trying to replace the current electorate ( he means white voter ), the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the third world. But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true ( instead of something he made up )… if you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there. So, every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter ( ??? ). I don’t understand why everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it. You know, the white replacement theory? No, no, no, this is a voting rights issue. I have less political power because they’re importing a brand new electorate ( ??? ).”
When Smucker tells his audience that immigration will be the death of western civilization, that the Democratic party has “an open border” policy, that their intent is to import millions of illegals to gain a new electorate, he’s just giving them the cold hard facts that everyone else – including him – are not allowed to talk about. They’re trying to silence and censor him, and anybody else who is brave enough to tell the truth… and yet, somehow they never do get censored or silenced, but that doesn’t stop them from bitching and moaning about it non-stop.
When Smucker told Alex Jones in 2015 when speaking of Obama, who never categorized anyone by race “they categorize people by race in a way that, you know, you can’t even imagine – 30 years ago you would have said, ‘Wait a second, that sounds like Nazi stuff.’ It’s not Smucker who is actually categorizing people by race… it’s his critics. Why would anyone dare accuse him of making anything about race? It was Obama who made everything about race simply for having the audacity of being a black president.
When Smucker told his audience in 2019 – after the El Paso, Texas shooter, Patrick Crusius wrote in a manifesto that his motivation was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” – that the shooting had nothing to do with “invasion” rhetoric from the likes of Smucker himself and that White supremacy was a hoax and a conspiracy theory perpetrated by the Democrats and the “liberal media” to keep a hold on political power… well, again, he was just saying what everybody was thinking, but we’re afraid to say out loud, because liberals have a strangle-hold on the media, academics, the courts, and every institution in America, and are censoring and cancelling all conservative opinion and thought.
"So, when Joy Reid accuses you of harboring racist thoughts, trust me, it's projection. But it's also a political tactic. Reid can't explain why this country so badly needs to import millions of additional poor people. Nobody on the left can explain that, because there's no real answer, so they attempt to short-circuit the conversation with slurs.
When Reid – or anyone else – accuses Smuckers of harboring racist thoughts, it’s not projection. It’s common sense. She doesn’t have to make up absurd conspiracy theories about Democrats opening hundreds of miles of border wall to allow illegals to waltz across by the millions because they’re eager to replace white people as voters. Allowing refugees to seek asylum – whether it be from poverty, the effects of climate change, or fear of persecution – is a virtue America is built upon.
When he’s not fear-mongering about the vaccines or masks being attempts by the “socialist” Joe Biden administration to exert authoritarian control over America, he’s reminding the rubes how anti-American the left is, and how immigration is replacing the white race to create millions of new voters for the Democrats – a white replacement conspiracy theory – to claiming that BLM is fomenting a race war every time they protest police violence – Tucker is there to assure his audience that it’s black and brown people who are the actual racists, and the drooling 50 I.Q. rubes who watch him, are the real victims.
It’s a tried and true tactic conservatives have been using for decades. If you can’t see that the Democrats are conspiring to import millions of foreign illegal voters to add to their voting rolls to replace you, the white voter, and if you dare accuse conservatives of being racist for believing that… well, then , you’re the racist. And your only response is to short-circuit the conversation with false accusations of racism.
Joy Reid may have her own issues, but when it comes to race and conspiracy baiting, there is no comparison between the two. Tucker Carlson metaphorically wears a white hood. If someone offered him an actual white hood, I have no doubt he wouldn’t hesitate to put it on.
On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla told George Stephanopoulos that booster shots can be provided to older Americans, as well as shots for those who have yet to be vaccinated.
“I think it is also not the right thing to try to resolve it with an ‘or’ when you can resolve it with an ‘and,” he said. “It’s not shall we give boosters or give primary doses to other people. I think the answer is let’s give both boosters and doses to other people.”
CDC director Rochelle Walensky agrees with the agency’s advisory panel that medically vulnerable seniors should receive a booster shot of the vaccine, but the panel has rejected the recommendation that frontline workers receive a booster.
“We are looking forward to being able to vaccinate all these vulnerable people so that we can put an end to this pandemic,” Bourla said.
The debate over the need for a booster may seem unimportant, since some countries – poorer countries – have no vaccines at all. Former CDC director, Tom Frieden, criticized Pfizer and Moderna of not doing enough to supply vaccines to poorer nations.
“While focusing on selling expensive vaccines to rich countries, Moderna and Pfizer are doing next to nothing to close the global gap in vaccine supply. Shameful,” Frieden recently tweeted.
Recently, Pfizer released safety date regarding vaccines for children 05 to 11years of age. “I think we are going to submit this data very soon,” Bourla said. “A matter of days, not weeks.”
When the data has been reviewed and the FDA gives it’s approval, Bourla said Pfizer will begin inoculating children in that age group.
Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Brigette has charged the utility company PG&E with manslaughter and other crimes, in relation to the 2020 wildfire that allegedly killed four people.
Thirty-one charges were filed Friday against the California utility company in connection with a northern California fire last year. Eleven charges were felonies, including manslaughter.
“PG&E has a history of repeatably causing wildfires that is not getting better – it’s getting worse,” Bridgett said during a press briefing. “Those who lost loved ones need justice. They need to have those who are responsible for killing their loved ones to be held criminally responsible, especially since this fire was completely preventable.”
The power company pleaded guilty last year to charges of manslaughter that allegedly led to the deaths of at least eighty-four people during a 2018 fire that was sparked by one of its lines coming into contact with a tree.
“I’m here today on behalf of the 23,000 men and women of PG&E to take responsibility for the fire that killed these people,” chief executive of PG&E, Bill Johnson said in a near-empty Butte County Superior Courtroom in June of 2020. “No words from me can ever reduce the magnitude of that devestation.”
In a statement Chief Executive Officer Patti Pope said, “We’re putting everything we’ve got into preventing wildfires and reducing the risk. Though it may feel satisfying for the company of PG&E to be charged with a crime, what I know is the company of PG&E is people, 40,000 people who get up every day to make it safe and to end catastrophic wildfires and tragedies like this. Let’s be clear. My co-workers are not criminals. We welcome our day in court so people can learn just that.”
“It’s time that they change, ” Bridgett said, speaking of PG&E. “Change does not come by doing nothing. We cannot afford do nothing.”
She added, “One of our primary functions here is to hold them responsible and let the surviving families know that their loved ones did not die in vain.”
The company, which has been blamed for a number of California fires, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019, but emerged from bankruptcy in the summer of 2020.
Sources: NY Times, Bloomberg News, The Week, ABC News.
The Biden administration has said it will not withhold records pertaining to the days leading to the Capitol riot, however certain cases may need to be evaluated.
“I would say that we take this matter incredibly seriously,” Jen Psaki said. “The president already concluded that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege. And so, we will respond promptly to these questions as they arise. And certainly as they come up from Congress, and certainly we have been working closely with Congressional committees and others as they work to get to the bottom of what happened on January 06.”
Any questions of executive privilege would be reviewed as necessary. Four former members of Trump’s administration have already been subpoenaed. Those members include former White House advisor, Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Defense Department official, Kash Patel, and former Deputy Chief of staff Dan Scavino. Bannon was fired in 2017, but the two have remained friends.
Bannon had recently admitted on his podcast that he told the former president to “kill this administration in the crib early on by it’s own incompetence and it’s illegitimacy.”
“We said and told president Trump, ‘you need to kill this administration in the crib early on by it’s own incompetence and illegitimacy,” Bannon said on his podcast. “It’s killed itself. Just let this go with what this illegitimate regime is doing. It killed itself. We told you from the beginning. Just expose it. Just expose it. Never back down. Never give up. This thing will implode.”
There was an implosion, but it was not within the Biden administration. The implosion came from within the Trump administration, due to an incompetent president who was unable and or unwilling to pull his own head from his rear end long enough to do anything.
“He’s also someone who we realize was talking to president Trump in the final days,” Robert Costa told MSNBC News of Bannon. “Talking to Trump even on January 05, the evening of the insurrection and telling Trump, based on our reporting, to ‘kill the Biden presidency in the crib.”
White House spokesman, Michael Gwin, told CNN, “As president Biden has said, the events of January 06 were a dark stain on our country’s history and they represented an attack on the foundations of our constitution and democracy in a way that few other events have. The president is deeply committed to ensuring that something like this does not happen again, and he supports a thorough investigation into what occured. That’s why his administration has been engaging with Congress on matters relating to January 06 for several months now and will continue to do so with the Select Committee.”
In August, Trump said he would invoke executive privilege if necessary to stall the investigation, but it seems unlikely anything will come of it.
Before coronavirus was a thing, there was Fart Gate.
In the fall of 2019, during an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, Congressman Eric Swalwell appeared to rip one. The embarrassing event – which was nothing more than the scrape of a mug across a table – was nonetheless so big, it trended on Twitter and all over social media.
It was so big, it out-trended some of the biggest scandals of past administrations.
It was bigger than Water Gate.
It was bigger than Russia Gate.
It was bigger than Obama Gate.
Believe it or not, it was even bigger than COVID Gate, that thing that Republicans insisted that former president Trump handled with admiration and great leadership – unlike Obama who allowed the plague of Ebola to run rampant across America, killing all of two people.
The only difference is, Fart Gate claimed no victims. Unless you include the hundreds or thousands who figuratively died laughing.
In a recent appearance last week on Hannity on the Fox News channel, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee passed explosive wind while bitching about president Biden’s vaccine mandate for businesses with at least one hundred employees to be vaccinated, or submit to weekly testing.
“Here’s the thing, Sean,” Huckabee said. “When my mother wanted me to eat spinach, she didn’t tell me that it was good for me, or that it had vitamin E, or any of that good stuff. She told me that if I ate my spinach, I would look like Popeye and be as strong as he was. Well, I hated spinach. But I really wanted to look like Popeye, and I wanted to talk like him too. So, I ate my spinach, and even though I gagged and barfed every time, I managed to keep it down. But, you know what, Sean? No matter how much spinach I ate, I just couldn’t look like Popeye, or talk like him. I ate and ate and ate, and gagged and threw up and gagged and barfed, and no matter how much I ate, I knew I was never going to be as strong as Popeye!
“Well, you know what, Sean? That made me mad. It made me mad that my mother lied to me when she told me spinach would make me strong like Popeye. The only thing eating spinach did for me, was make a wimp out of me. I got beat up by a girl when I wore my Popeye costume for Halloween when I was ten. God, that was so humiliating. I’ve never lived that down to this day, Sean.
“And you what else makes me mad, Sean? Biden’s vaccine mandates. He needs to tell us the benefits of the vaccines rather than scaring the sh – daylights out of us when he says ‘follow the science.’ He’s not following the science, Sean. If he was, he would admit that the science says wearing a mask doesn’t do anything to prevent the spread of COVID, and vaccines are a way for liberals to control those who doubt their effectiveness. He’s not. And the reason? Because he thinks when he eats beans, he doesn’t flatulate and produce gas like the rest of us. Because he’s the president, he thinks his sh – doesn’t stink. But it does. You know what they say about old people farts, Sean.”
“What? You never smelled the flatulence of an old person, Sean?”
“Not that I can recall, governor.”
“Well I can, and I can tell you it’s the worst smell on earth. My old granny could fart like the wind, and God did it stink! It was the worst stink on God’s green earth! It was so powerful, it could peel wall paper, it could wilt flowers, and it could literally kill. Why, I remember one time she bottled a gasser and used it to kill -“
“Alright, governor,” Hannity said, looking even more uncomfortable. “Let’s move it along here. I think we’re running short on time.”
“Alright, Sean. I just wanted to say that Biden’s vaccine mandates make me as mad as my mother telling me I could be strong like Popeye if I ate spinache, so mad that I want to tell him what I think of his mandates. Are you ready, Sean?”
“Ready for what, governor?”
“This.”
Huckabee tooted. It was a long-winded blast that resembled the tooting of a freight train whistle heard from a distance. Shaking his head, Hannity covered his face with a hand, but it was clear that he was more amused than embarrassed.
“That’s exactly what I think of Biden’s mandates,” Huckabee said. “Oops! I think a little something came out there, Sean.”
On a recent broadcast of his radio show, the Great One told his audience of seven: “This is an American company,” Levin said in the nasally voice that his listeners never seem to get tired of hearing.
“It is founded by and run by an American patriot. His name is Mike Lindell. People think he’s either a drunk, a lunatic or a patriot. I happen to fall into the category that think he’s a patriot. He’s a patriot because he supports Trump. People are trying to take him out because they don’t like his products. Did you know that, Mr. Producer?”
Mr. Producer: “No, I didn’t. Huh, how about that?”
“That’s right, Mr. Producer. It has nothing to do with any of this election stuff and that totally made-up riot at the Capitol. And you know what? It’s not going to work. I’ll tell you that right now. His products are great. He has every right to give his opinion, and I don’t care if anyone doesn’t believe a word he says.
“I don’t care if people believe he’s a liar or a lunatic! I don’t care if he can’t prove a word he says! It’s his opinion. He should be allowed to state his opinion. Shouldn’t he, Mr. Producer?”
Mr. Producer: “Check.”
“And you know what? He’s right. His word should be enough! And we should support him by buying his products.
“I think his six piece towel set is great, by the way. You know what they say? They say Trumpy Bear Won, Not Sleepy-Joe in red, white and blue lettering. They’re billed as patriot towels. How’s that for true American Patriotism? They’re the best towels I ever owned. They get me cleaner and dryer than any towel I ever used. Not like those wimpy towels made by those other guys. I wouldn’t wipe my bottom with those. They remind me of that trash bag commercial making fun of the weaker bags. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.
“My wife loves My Slippers. What’s that, Mr. Producer?”
Mr. Producer: “She loves your slippers?”
“I don’t have a pair of slippers,” Levin said. “My wife has My Slippers.”
Mr. Producer: “Are you trying to tell me your wife stole your slippers and won’t give them back?”
“No, Mr. Producer, you misunderstand. My wife has a pair of My Slippers, another great product produced by My Pillow, which also have the words Trumpy Bear Won, Not Sleepy-Joe in red, white and blue bold lettering. But, you what I like best?”
Mr. Producer: “What’s that?”
“My Teddy Bear Pillow, because whenever I’m upset about something, I get to cry myself to sleep, like I did the night Trump lost the election, and it works every time.”
There have been many idiots at Fox News over the years. They’ve come and they’ve gone. But none of them have been as dumb as Rachel Compost-Duffy. She takes first prize in the category of stupid. Every time she appears on camera, she takes stupidity to a whole new level.
She recently criticized the so-called “vaccine mandate” – that really isn’t a mandate, since anyone is free to refuse a vaccine as long as they agree to get tested regularly – by the tyrannical Biden administration as an all out attack on freedom and the Constitution.
“Make no mistake,” she told the rubes, working them into a frenzy. “Joe Biden has declared war on freedom yesterday and took authoritarianism to a whole new level by forcing vaccines on millions of Americans. Biden threw the Constitution out the window as he issued medical mandates for federal employees, schools and even private businesses, but apparently Kamala Harris didn’t get the memo.”
She played a clip of VP Harris saying, “When people are able to make choices without government interference, for themselves in terms of well-being and the well-being of their family in consultation with whomever they choose – we are a stronger society.”
“Now the vice president wasn’t talking about the vaccines,” Compost-Duffy said, “as she supports those mandates. No, no, no, she was defending abortion and doubling down on the administrations war on the unborn. Now Kamala clearly doesn’t know what is going on at the White House and is incapable of staying on message. But don’t let her incompetence fool you. The Biden administration is fully aware of what they are doing and the malicious intent behind these mandates.”
Apparently it’s Compost-Duffy who hasn’t received the memo, and has no idea herself what is going on at the White House. Again, employees are free to refuse vaccination as long as they are tested, but Duffy neglects to mention this little fact.
Regarding VP Harris’s remarks. She made these at a meeting with the Gender Policy Council, which had nothing to do with vaccine mandates, but fighting unconstitutional laws currently being enacted in Texas and other states.
To Dimwits like Compost-Duffy, refusing to get vaccinated is a noble cause, resisting tyranny from a government, she believes, wants to control you through vaccines, masks, social distancing and lockdowns. The coronavirus, according to experts like her, came from China, so observing any of these health guidelines, will apparently turn us all Chinese.
However, banning abortion is not big government intruding in your privacy, is not government tyranny. The right to refuse to wear a mask so I can cough in your face and spread my germs all over you, without government telling me I can’t, is government tyranny, and trumps your right to an abortion, libtard!
As the coronavirus refuses to go away due to the stubbornness and stupidity of Republicans, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to complained that Democrats have politicized masks for no reason.
The governor’s ratings approval have dropped faster than Floridians are filling up hospitals due to his executive orders banning mask mandates, which have been successfully blocked so far by a Tallahassee court.
“For the life of me, Tucker, I can’t figure out why politics have masks around it,” the governor complained to the host. “We’re currently in a pandemic that won’t go away because Democrats want everyone to wear masks all the time. It’s insane. We all know that masks are ineffective against the virus, because last year Dr. Fauci said that masks don’t work. He lied. First he said they work, and then he said they don’t work. I mean, who are we suppose to trust if they won’t tell us the truth?”
“Well, certainly not Dr. Fauci,” Carlson said. “He lied not only about masks, he lied about the vaccines too. We know for a fact that the vaccines have killed far more than COVID has.”
“We also have onions involved,” DeSantis said. “The same onions that wanted schools closed last year. Remember, we were in court last year at this time because they wanted to sue me to keep the schools closed. We were getting kids back into school because we understood – unlike those clueless libs – how important it was for parents and kids to be learning and all this stuff, instead of playing video games all day, which are also getting people killed.”
Tucker stared at him with that face that progressive commentators have made fun of countless times. “I think you mean, unions, governor.”
“No, I mean those sour pusses, those teachers that form those things that… you know, those what do ya call ’em, those clubs that fight for workers, those thing-a-ma-jigs…?”
Since becoming president, Joe Biden has come under full assault by the Republican party and it’s media lapdogs. Much of that assault is attacking him for everything he has done, whether it’s been successful or not, mostly to deflect from the fact that the former president, Donald J. Trump, was a massive failure.
Recently, Biden was able to accomplish something Trump was unwilling to do: getting America out of Afghanistan where it had been for twenty years. The withdrawal had its tragedies: American servicemen were killed in recent suicide bombings in the vicinity of the Kabul airport, as well as Afghan civilians. This likely would have happened had Trump initiated a withdrawal. But conservative media has been in defense mode for the former president, claiming a Trump withdrawal would have been smooth and successful without any deaths. Even Trump himself has made this claim.
As usual, they’re all full of it.
It was Trump who initiated the withdrawal from Afghanistan, by negotiating an agreement to withdraw all military by May of 2021. Joe Biden had the balls to carry through on that agreement. Trump knew this would happen under his presidency, which is why he didn’t do it. It would have shattered the confidence of the lapdogs who lick his boots and kiss his rear end.
In a Fox News op-ed, current chair of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel condemned the Biden administration for having the audacity of getting military troops and personnel from Afghanistan, as if it were a massive failure from start to finish. It wasn’t the war itself that was a massive failure, a war that saw the deaths of more than 2,000 American soldiers. No, that was acceptable to conservatives.
She begins her article by listing the names of the servicemen who lost their lives in the suicide bombing.
Their deaths are heart-breaking. They were also preventable. By haphazardly withdrawing from Afghanistan with no plan and no preparation, president Joe Biden put our troops in harm’s way. Thirteen American families have been devastated as a direct result of Joe Biden’s complete and embarrassing incompetence. There is no excuse for his failure.
By claiming that Biden had no plan for withdrawing from Afghanistan, shows her ignorance. Biden’s plan was to get as many Americans – servicemen, and personnel – out of Afghanistan before the deadline, and to prevent any future deaths of military men and women by prolonging a war with no end in sight. He could have just prolonged the inevitable – the Taliban taking over Afghanistan – by keeping thousands of troops and risking the deaths of hundreds or thousands more American soldiers – which, of course, would have been perfectly acceptable to conservatives like McDaniel who talk out of both sides of their mouths.
This would have happened even had Trump pulled out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan while he was still president. The Taliban would have taken over run the country just as they are now. There would have been suicide bombings – which conservatives would say we’re inevitable – and conservatives would be defending his decision to withdraw the military. Had any of this happened, they would have most likely blamed it on Obama.
Trump put U.S. troops in harm’s way by negotiating a deal with the Taliban, which included the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners. But, for some reason, McDaniel didn’t bother to mention this. I wonder why.
The man who claimed to plan for every contingency left the Taliban billions of dollars of American military equipment – including Blackhawk helicopters. And hundreds of American citizens remain trapped behind enemy lines. The president left American citizens to die in a terrorist-controlled war zone. The scale of Biden’s failure is nearly incomprehensible. It’s been reported that this pathetic excuse for a commander-in-chief even gave the Taliban a list of Americans remaining in Afghanistan, similar to how he commissioned this radical terrorist group to provide security for American citizens. Negotiating with terrorists and losing spectacularly – at the cost of American lives and an entire nation’s future – is unacceptable.
Did she find it unacceptable that Trump negotiated with these same terrorists? Did she – or any of his sycophants in the media or Congress – find it unacceptable when Trump agreed to the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners as part of his peace deal with them? I don’t know, but I doubt it.
It was Biden who specifically left all of that military equipment to the Taliban. It was all donated by Obama, obviously. No past Republican administration had anything to do with providing that equipment, and certainly no Republicans in Congress voted to authorized any of that equipment. It was all Joe Biden and Obama. He just handed everything over as one massive gift to the Taliban, wishing them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year on his way out. Thanks, Obama!
Biden has failed the American people. He lied. He failed, and he has proven himself unfit to serve as our president. If Biden had an ounce of human decency, he would resign. Sadly, he doesn’t. He likely doesn’t fully understand the catastrophic, tragic events that he set in motion. In his few appearances throughout this crisis, he has appeared defiant and without remorse. Our enemies around the globe are taking note. This president is incapable of living up to the gravity of this crisis. Thirteen American soldiers should not have died as a direct result of Joe Biden’s leadership. This tragedy is completely his doing. He has failed our troops, he has failed the Afghan people, and he has failed America. Biden’s Afghanistan crisis proved beyond a doubt that he is not up to the task of leading this nation. He should resign immediately.”
It should be noted that McDaniel is a niece of Mitt Romney. Mitt begs to differ with his niece’s assessment of who shares the blame in this crisis.
In a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Mitt said:
“Leaving Americans behind and leaving our Afghan friends behind who’ve worked with us would put upon us and will put upon us a moral stain. This did not have to happen. It was preventable. We didn’t have to be in this rush-rush circumstance with terrorists breathing down our neck. But it’s really the responsibility of the prior administration and this administration that has caused this crisis to be upon us and has led to what is without question a humanitarian and foreign-policy tragedy.
“If you focus on what we should do right now, recognize that we’re in the position we’re in right now because of terrible decisions made by two administration’s. One, the Trump administration negotiating directly with the Taliban, getting ready to invite them to Camp David, opening up a prison of 5,000 Taliban and probably ISIS-K individuals and letting them free. We don’t know whether some of them were involved in the attack that occured.
“These were decisions that led to what you’re seeing and the danger that exists at the airport. This should not have happened.”
While I don’t agree with much of what he said, Romney was right about one thing. It didn’t have to happen. It was indeed preventable. It would not have happened had we not been there in the first place. The last three administrations share an equal blame. The decision to invade a country with an outcome that was totally predictable – the deaths of American servicemen and women, the deaths of hundreds of Afghan citizens, terrorist attacks – was inevitable. It was preventable. The only thing left to do, was to get out.
It should also be noted, that as a die-hard Trump supporter, McDaniel dutifully played her role in convincing the rubes that Joe Biden and the Democrats unfairly stole the election from Trump. She parroted all of the rhetoric, and even participated in the laughable, embarrassing press conference with Kayleigh McEnany that Fox News refused to air.
The Detroit Free Press refers to McDaniel as one of Trump’s “propagandists” in his election fraud claim. From a recent article:
The tabulation of Michigan’s presidential votes unfolded exactly as veteran election watchers in both parties predicted it would, with Trump winning a majority of same-day votes, and Biden overtaking the president as absentee votes cast disproportionately by Democratic voters were counted.
Yet from the moment Trump’s early advantage began to narrow, Michigan native, McDaniel and state GOP chair ( Laura ) Cox began parroting the president’s assertion that untold thousands of absentee ballots had been fraudulently cast for Biden.
They credulously amplified false reports that corrupt Democrats had smuggled thousands of forged ballots into Wayne County’s counting center in the dead of night, that ballots had been illegally backdated, and that GOP observers had been systematically excluded from monitoring the vote count. Even as Biden’s advantage grew to an insurmountable 150,000 votes, both women urged Republican appointees on the Wayne County and state canvassing boards to withhold certification of Michigan’s election results.
The article also says, “Each bears a responsibility for perpetuating the lies and fueling the outrage that led inexorably to the Capitol rampage. Had they prevailed in their efforts to overturn the election results, those who attempted to derail certification would had effectively disenfranchised more than 81 million Americans, including the 2.8 million Michiganders who cast their vote for Biden.
In closing, it also should be noted that this is a person who defended the Trump administration’s pathetic handling and response to the pandemic. In an appearance on NBC News last September, she said this:
“The president was calm and steady in a time of unrest and uncertainty. And I think history will look back on him well and how he handled this pandemic.”
“I disagree that the president took political calculations in a global pandemic like we’ve never seen before that has decimated not just our country but countries across the world. Think of what would have happened if he’d have gone out and said: ‘This is awful. We should all be afraid. We don’t have a plan.’ It would have been a run on the banks. It would have been a run on the hospitals. It would have been a run on the grocery stores.”
Was she living on the moon at the time? This is exactly what happened. Millions of people lost their jobs as well.
During this interview, she criticized Democrats for politicizing the virus: “The president has led us through uncertain times with a Democrat party who’s politicizing a time of crisis when usually people come together.”
Pointing out that Nancy Pelosi had referred to the coronavirus as the “Trump Virus,” as he had called it the “China virus,” she said, “How is that not a disgusting thing, to say that people are being killed by the Trump Virus? This is something that is affecting every American, Republican, Democrat. I have lost friends to this virus. The president has lost friends to this virus. This is personal. So, to do that, is not in the best interests of this country We are already divided. Usually in crisis we come to together. Let’s show the best of America.”
McDaniel and Trump may have lost friends to the virus, but didn’t stop them from politicizing it, claiming that it was a manufactured crisis, downplaying it, that being asked to wear masks and follow health guidelines was a personal threat to their freedom. The fact that both of them contracted COVID because neither of them could be bothered to act in a responsible manner and wear masks in public, didn’t prevent them from politicizing it.
Unfortunately, Republicans have no interest in showing the best that America has to offer. They are not interested in coming together in unity. Their only interests are keeping the country divided, while ironically blaming the Democrats of being divisive – that wearing masks and following health guidelines are tyrannical, that Trump really won the election, and that their new voting laws are really all about keeping future elections honest and fair.
Ronna McDaniel has no right to criticize Joe Biden for his withdrawing from Afghanistan and the deaths of American soldiers, when she has shamelessly defended and made excuses for Trump’s pathetic handling of the pandemic, a president who failed to lead the American people by example, by convincing them that wearing a mask was the right thing to do, that listening to the experts was the right thing to do. He failed in his responsibilities to lead the nation in a time of crisis, and he failed the American people by refusing to accept that he lost an election.
He nearly succeeded in tearing this country apart, and all of his allies in Congress and in media who willingly played a part in attempting to tear this country apart with their lies and propaganda about the virus, the vaccines, and election fraud – they are all as guilty and as complicit in the deaths of the Americans who died due to those lies and propaganda. Many of these people were threatened with law suits. They have forfeited the public’s trust, they should no longer be given credibility, should not be given platforms to further spread their lies and propaganda. They should all be in prison, or at the very least, ostracized for what they did.
McDaniel should crawl back under the rock she so obviously lives under. After everything this woman has said and done in defense of a pathetic president who himself has no decency, McDaniel has proven that she has no decency. If she did, she would resign as RNC chair and crawl back under that rock in shame. Instead, Fox News and other news outlets continue to give her credence and a platform, as if she has anything important to say.
From the White House Tuesday, Joe Biden called the withdrawal of troops and personnel from Afghanistan, a success.
The invasion of Afghanistan began twenty years ago. It was but one response to 9/11; the other was the invasion of Iraq. Both of which, amounted to nothing good, but countless lost lives.
Twenty years later, the U.S. is no closer to defeating terrorism in the Middle East, or anywhere in the world for that matter. It’s an impossible task to complete.
“Last night in Kabul, the United States ended twenty years of war in Afghanistan. The longest war in American history. We completed one of the biggest air lifts in history with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety…
“They did it knowing ISIS terrorists, sworn enemies of the Taliban, were lurking in the midst of those crowds, and still the women and men of the United States military, our diplomatic corps and Intelligence professionals did their job and did it well…
“Twenty service members were wounded in the service of this mission, thirteen heroes gave their lives…
“In April, I made a decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31st for American troops to withdraw…
“Let me be clear, leaving Afghanistan the 31st, is not due to an arbitrary deadline. It was designed to save American lives. My predecessor, the former president, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove US troops by May first, just months after I was inaugurated.
“So we were left with a simple decision… I was not going to extend a forever war, and I was not going to extend a forever exit…”
Congressional Republicans had some stupid shit to say in criticism of the withdrawal – which included impeaching Biden.
Dan Crenshaw on Fox News: “The war is clearly not ended. You can’t unilaterally end a war. It takes two to tango and these people will never stop fighting us. Their capabilities are still intact. We should retake more airfields throughout the country. It will take troops on the ground and a complete reassessment of our strategy. The military can do it. We need the will politically to do it.”
Former Trump Pentagon chief of staff, Kash Patel: “Air superiority is something we have always had in Afghanistan. And our predator program dominated the skies under president Trump, and we can do it again if we retake Bagram airfield because that is the center country ops.”
Rudy – melting hair dye and all – Giuliani on Twitter: “The terrorist attacks in Kabul were only possible because the Biden administration pulled out our troops, abandoned our air base and left massive armaments for the terrorists to kill us.”
Even Fox News pundits joined in the stupidity. Todd Starnes:
“For every American who is killed, a city in Afghanistan should be wiped off the earth.”
Fox contributor Johnny Jones: “I was an E6 in the Marine Corp and I’ll tell you, the dogs of war are hungry and it might be time to let them eat. I hate that… it’s not woke, but as we would say, stack the bodies up and let them see it.”
House Minority idiot, Kevin McCarthy – the Republican whom Nancy Pelosi recently referred to as a moron – in a statement, criticized Biden’s withdrawal as the “worst foreign policy disaster in decades.”
A worse foreign policy disaster was invading Afghanistan in the first place. Try telling this to a Republican without their brain imploding. To them, staying in Afghanistan indefinitely would have been a success, a success that would have no positive outcome, that would bring no end to terrorism in sight, but would make matters worse, and in the end, take the lives of many more Americans.
Sources: Associated Press, The Week, the Rev, Republican house.gov, Daily Beast.
The House Select committee to investigate the January 06 Capitol riot by Trump supporters, requested documents Wednesday. The request came in the form of a letter sent to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The letter/document, by the Chair of the committee, Bennie Thompson ( D ) says in part:
“The select committee to investigate the attack on the United States Capitol, is to examine the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack. Our Constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned, and recommend laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations necessary to protect our republic in the future.”
The agency has two weeks to respond and produce the requested documents, and the national Archivist, David Ferriero, is expected expedite the request.
The Capitol riot was a serious situation that conservatives in national and social media have downplayed since the beginning. Instead of issues that are important to all Americans – affordable healthcare, education, a clean environment, and a prosperous economy – they have chosen to focus their attention on silly and ridiculous issues like culture wars, CRT as a threat to their children’s future, and cancel culture nonsense.
Despite the fact that the Capitol riot was a riot and not a picnic, conservatives have claimed all along that any investigation of that riot would be – like the impeachment hearings – a witch hunt. No investigation, Trump loyalists in Congress have insisted, would be fair without including investigations into the previous BLM protests, which, by the way, were made possible courtesy of the Minneapolis police department. Those protests, and any ensuing violence, never would have happened had Chauvin not knelt forcibly on Floyd’s neck, killing him.
Trump has also claimed the committee is a witch hunt to bring him down, since, don’t you know, he’s the greatest president to have ever occupied the White House, who single-handedly managed to create the greatest economy ever seen, stopped COVID in it’s tracks, and brought the entire nation together in racial harmony. But then that Joe Biden, added by George Soros, Hugo Chavez, and Dominion, stole the election, and proceeded to f*** everything up he worked so hard to achieve.
On Twitter Trump ranted pathetically.
“The Leftist “select committee” has further exposed itself as a partisan sham and waste of taxpayer dollars with a request that’s timed to distract Americans from historic and global catastrophes brought on by the failures of Joe Biden and the Democrats. Unfortunately, this partisan exercise is being performed at the expense of long-standing legal principles of privilege. Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my administration and the patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the office of the president of the United States and the future of our nation. These Democrats only have one tired trick – political theater – and their latest request only reinforces that pathetic reality.”
Speaking of tired tricks, wasn’t that Trump’s favorite ploy when it came to accepting responsibility for his own failures? ‘I don’t take responsibility at all!’ Nothing was ever his fault. He was never responsible for anything. Everything was Obama’s fault when Trump f***ed up. The hundreds of thousands dead of COVID – that could have been saved – due to his administration’s inability and unwillingness to lead during a pandemic – all Obama and Dr. Fauci’s fault. But especially Dr. Fauci. If only Fauci hadn’t made that confusing statement about face coverings in March of 2020, maybe people wouldn’t have found Trump more credible when it came to the coronavirus. Who knew a rich womanizer turned president could be more knowledgeable on infectious diseases than a guy who is an actual immunologist? You learn something new every day.
Who knows, maybe Fauci also had a hand in helping the FBI stage the Capitol riot, just to make Trump look incompetent, just as he tried to do with the coronavirus? Seems plausible.
Sources: The Washington Post, The Week, U.S. house.gov.
As the U.S. government continues its evacuations from Afghanistan before the August 31 deadline, about 1500 still remain. Since the Taliban were able to seize control of the country in mid-August, approximately 4500 U.S. citizens have been safely evacuated from the Kabul airport. As of Wednesday, approximately 19200 have been hurried out, with thousands more waiting their turn. The airport, according to foreign sources, may no longer be safe. Since two bombings have already been reported within the airport’s vicinity, another within the vicinity of or within the airport itself, is not out of the realm of possibility.
On last night’s edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host informed his viewers that America’s “self-described moral leaders” were denouncing him for pointing out the obvious. The obvious being that the Democratic party had such a powerful hold on not just the country as a whole, but the entire electorate. Through this all-powerful hold, they were forcing demographic changes by allowing immigrants to waltz across the southern border by the hundreds of thousands – like rats deserting a sinking ship – hoping to gain new voters.
“Immediately after I said that, liberals everywhere melted down like the snowflakes they are,” he said. “They became completely hysterical. They cried. They pulled their hair out. They rolled around on the floor pounding their fists like fools. They appeared on their talk shows and called me mean names. They accused me of promoting white supremacist conspiracy theories, the “great replacement” something or other.”
Here he rolled his eyes for dramatic effect, and waved a hand, dismissing the silly, hysterical libs.
“They cried so hard and so loud,” he continued, “they actually succeeded in pulling me off the air. That’s right. After all the years I’ve been telling you on this show how Democrats are destroying our very way of life with everything from immigration, Antifa, and the cancel and the culture wars, the mob have finally succeeded in pulling me of the air, once and for all. How did they do it, you ask? Well, like I said, they screamed and pulled their hair out, and got on their talk shows and denounced yours truly as a big bad racist. They also came here to the Fox studios and burned it to the ground just as they burned down the cities of Portland, and Seattle, both of which, by the way, no longer exist. Today they’re just smoldering ruins.
“As of today, I have been informed by the producers of this show that I will no longer be the host. You heard that right. I’ve been cancelled. I am no longer the host of this show. I am told that I have been replaced by an immigrant – you know, one of those people who they falsely accused me of saying ‘make America dirtier and poorer.’
“Thanks liberals. You’ve finally succeeded in cancelling yours truly.”
After the program aired, liberals cheered at the prospect that Carlson would no longer be on the air. Both MSNBC and CNN did news segments addressing Carlson’s monologue. None of them looked as they had been crying hysterically. None of them looked as if they had been pulling their hair out, or had beaten their fists bloody on the floor in fits of rage. And it was highly doubtful that any of them had recently participated in deliberate acts of arson.
“Tucker Carlson hasn’t been cancelled,” an anonymous insider told the Journal. “Anyone who thinks Fox News will ever fire Tucker, is living in a freaking fantasy land full of rainbows and unicorns. Tucker’s their bread and butter. He makes more money for them and brings in more viewers than any of the other clowns at the network. He could easily draw more viewers than the Pope could ever hope for in a televised broadcast to the masses.
“No one cries hysterically, pulls their hair out, or rolls around on the ground pounding their fists at anything Tucker says,” the insider continued. “If they do, then they really are snowflakes. And they certainly wouldn’t burn down the studio where he does his “show.” Not even BLM would give the schmuck the attention he craves. Tucker is full of shit, but the problem is 99.09 % of the rubes who watch him, believe every word he says.
“When they find out that Tucker was playing them, they probably will cry hysterically, pull their hair out and roll around on the ground pounding their fists like fools, and Tucker will have the last laugh, because to him, that will be the sweetest shit ever – knowing that he triggered the libs – even sweeter than his own bullshit.”
Thousands of people are desperate to leave Afghanistan after the city of Kabul has been taken over by the Taliban. The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani has fled into hiding, and in the ensuing chaos a number of people are reported to have been killed as US troops are currently attempting to assist in evacuation efforts of U.S. embassy personnel and civilians.
According to the Pentagon and State Department: “Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the US mission in Kabul and their families and particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals.”
Since announcing a pullout of Afghanistan, Biden has faced criticisms from the right, including Trump.
“If president Biden Truly has no regrets about his decision to withdraw, then he is disconnected from reality,” Lindsey Graham tweeted.
Jim Banks, who voted to overturn the election of Joe Biden, told Fox News: “We have never seen an American leader abdicate his responsibilities and leadership like Joe Biden.”
If he hadn’t mentioned the president by name, one might think he was talking about Donald Trump.
“He’s in hiding,” Banks continued. “The lights are on at the White House, but nobody’s home. Where’s Joe Biden?,”
Last year, in February, the Trump administration set up a peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban. The agreement stipulated that all U.S. military troops would vacate Afghanistan by the end of 2021.
Trump’s statement: “Had our 2020 presidential election not been rigged and if I were now president, the world would find that our withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a conditions-based withdrawal. I personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable. It would have been a much different and much more successful withdrawal, and the Taliban understood that much better than anyone. What is going on now is not acceptable.”
Via Slate:
“Former President Donald Trump is telling lies about how he would have handled the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, opening a new avenue for Trump-dazed Republicans to attack Joe Biden.
“In other words, there is no evidence that a withdrawal under Trump would have been “much more successful” than it’s going under Biden. Trump’s swift withdrawal of a small contingent of peacekeeping troops from Syria in Oct. 2019, leaving Kurdish allies open to Turkish slaughter, suggests that Trump would have been no more discerning about protecting Afghans. ( The Kurds had been instrumental in helping U. S. troops crush ISIS in northern Syria ).
“The falsehoods not withstanding, Trump’s statement will no doubt be parroted by Congressional Republicans and conservative pundits in the coming weeks and months.
“Now, however, the critics have received the word from their leader-in-exile: withdrawal isn’t a bad thing, but withdrawal under Trump would have been “conditions-based,” and it would have been “much more successful.” When things worsen in Afghanistan, and they almost certainly will, this will be their mantra for attacking Joe Biden’s foreign policy – and for absolving themselves of complicity.”
A group of students at the University of Indiana recently filed a complaint over the school’s oppressive, unconstitutional vaccine mandate.
Justice Amy Coney-Barrett, who is the SC’s justice who oversees that regions emergency petitions, received a request from eight students to block the mandate and on Thursday, rejected the plea.
This past May, the university said that all students, faculty and staff must be vaccinated, unless they have legitimate reasons not to be vaccinated, such as a being a religious fanatic, or having a medical reason.
District judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in his ruling opinion:
“Starting next semester, all students at Indiana University must be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they are exempt for religious or medical reasons. Exempt students must wear masks and be tested for the disease twice a week. Eight students contend in this suit that these conditions of attendance violate due process clause of the Constitution’s fourteenth amendment. The district court denied plaintiffs’ request to a preliminary injunction, and they ask us to issue an injunction pending appeal.”
The application of the students who sued, reads:
“Students are facing IU’s imminent demand that they relinquish their Constitutional rights in order to start school this fall. And that it is coercing students to give up their bodily integrity, autonomy, and of medical treatment choice in exchange for the discretionary benefit of matriculating at IU.”
According to the right students the vaccines may be more dangerous than effects of the coronavirus.
“The risk of serious morbidity and mortality from COVID for those under thirty, ” their attorney, James Bopp, said in their defense, not citing any data to back up his claim, “is close to zero. The known and unknown risks associated with COVID vaccines, particularly in those under thirty, outweigh the risks to that population from the disease itself.”
As with any medication, there are risks involved in using those medications. Side effects are rare. I’ve had both shots of the Pfizer vaccine and have not experienced any side effects.
There is no reason for these students to refuse to be vaccinated. It’s all just a game to them. Everyone has to cater to the anti-vaxxers, the anti-maskers and their nonsense while they throw their public temper tantrums and insist they know what’s best, what’s true, and what the science really says. These people are largely the reason the pandemic is still a serious threat; we have millions of people who believe it’s government tyranny to have to follow health mandates designed to keep others and themselves safe.
Andrew Cuomo, the three-term governor of New York, announced Tuesday that he is resigning amid allegations of multiple counts of sexual misconduct. During the early days of the pandemic, he was seen by some as a hero for regular briefings on his administration’s leadership during the crisis – something that was sore lacking from the Trump administration.
This is not the only controversy the soon-to-be former governor has faced of late. Last year during the height of the pandemic, his administration was accused of severe mismanagement of COVID deaths in nursing facilities in the state of New York.
Como has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, claiming the whole thing is politically motivated. As part of his resignation speech he said:
“New York tough means New York loving, and I love New York. And I love you. And everything I have ever done has been motivated by that love. And I would never want to be unhelpful in any way, and I think that given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is to step aside and let government get back to governing, and therefore, that’s what I’ll do, because I work for you, and doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you. Because, as we say, it’s not about me, it’s about we.”
I will admit that much of his speech was cringey. He could have just said he was sorry and ended it there, instead of allowing his attorney to drone on for nearly an hour just to downplay the situation.
Republicans are thrilled that Cuomo has been singled out as a sexual deviant and a pervert. GOP chair, and Trump butt-kissing bootlicker, Nick Langworthy – who had this to say in February about Trump’s implication in the Capitol riot: “I don’t see where the man incited violence among anyone. We’re the party of law and order, and there was never a call to defy any law enforcement office or trespass or vandalize. He said, ‘let your voices be heard,’ “- said, “This resignation is just an attempt to avoid real accountability.”
Democrats impeached Trump in the House. Republicans let him off the hook in the Senate. That’s what I call avoiding accountability.
If Cuomo had refused to step down, there would have been increased pressure to impeach him, and I have no doubt that the Democrats would have done just that, rather than continue to make excuse after excuse for his past behavior like the majority of the Republican party has for Trump for his own severe mismanagement of the pandemic.
The Mueller report was released in 2018. From the introduction of the first volume:
“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Evidence of Russian government operations began to surface in mid 2016. In June, the Democratic National Committee and its cyber response team publicly announced that Russian hackers had compromised its computer network. Releases of hacked materials – hacks that public reporting soon attributed to the Russian government – began that same month. Additional releases followed in July through the organization WikiLeaks, with further releases in October and November.
“As set forth in detail in this report, the Special Council’s investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 election principally through two operations. First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer intrusion operations against entities, employees and volunteers working on the Clinton campaign and then released stolen documents. The investigation also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in it’s election interference activities.”
The Russian government attempted to interfere in the election to the benefit of Trump. Russian agencies participated in social media campaigns to benefit Trump. WikiLeaks released stolen emails from the Clinton campaign. These are established facts in the report.
When the report was released, conservatives rejoiced. The investigation found no direction links between Trump and the Russian government – no “collusion,” no evidence that he or anyone in his campaign assisted them in their interference. Their beloved president was finally vindicated! For two years Trump and his cronies and allies had suffered the injustices of a witch hunt by Democrats who made the whole thing up as a result of not accepting the fact that Hillary was a horrible person, just horrible, and everyone hated her, which is why she lost. Anti-liberal Progressives sneered and smugly lectured liberals on how wrong they were.
Last year, the final volume of a Senate Intelligence committee investigative report was released. Like the Mueller report, it found troubling evidence of Russia’s involvement in meddling in the 2016 election. Still no evidence of direct “collusion,” by Trump or his campaign, but despite being written about extensively by various news outlets at the time of its release, it too was dismissed by both Trump supporters and smug-ass anti-lib progressives.
During a 2019 segment of The Hill: Rising, Krystal Ball made a fool of herself by comparing Rachel Maddow and her network, to Alex Jones. Maddow, an MSNBC journalist had the audacity to report on a scandal that actually happened. Maddow may have over played her hand when it came to Russia Gate. Some would argue that she had, and others would argue she had every justification for doing so, since an investigation ( the Mueller investigation ) was on-going at the time. I don’t know. That’s not for me to judge. What I do know, is that Russia Gate was not a hoax, as the evidence shows. Anti-liberal progressives can call it Trump-derangement hysteria to their hearts’ content. It happened, and the mainstream media reported on it as was their job. If smug progressives like Ball can’t get over that fact, that’s on them.
“I can no longer avoid pondering a question that honestly gives me no joy to ponder, just to ponder how much damage has MSNBC in particular done to the left,” Ball said smugly. “Now this critique is not meant to be personal to the anchors and commentators there, some of whom are actually close friends having worked at the network for five years, but nearly all of whom got swept up in the ratings bubble that was feverish Russia conspiracy theories.”
After claiming her critique was nothing personal, she then called out one commentator at MSNBC in particular.
“I dare to say some talent did drink more deeply of the Russian conspiracy waters than others. Rachel Maddow, you’ve got some explaining to do.”
She admitted that the Mueller investigation revealed some facts , but added that it “doesn’t feel like a damning set of facts when for months MSNBC built segment after segment , show after show on building anticipation for a big reveal.”
She also mentioned several other reporters who the network brought on to discuss Russia Gate. “Seriously, this is not journalism,” she said. “It is Infowars conspiracy theory.”
Keep in mind that Ball is among a subset of smug, pompous “anti-woke, anti-imperialist” “progressives” – who love to refer to Russia Gate liberals as useful idiots – who see “deep state” conspiracies under every rock. Everything the American government says, is a lie. But other countries whose governments America doesn’t like – Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and China – are more credible and must be defended. With their “force the vote” nonsense on M4All, and then attacking progressives – including those in Congress – who did not fall in line with their demands, as sell-outs and traitors; and their brilliant ideas of forming alliances with right-wing anti-government groups like the Boogaloo Boys – are far more damaging to the reputation of the left than any reporting on the Russia Gate scandal.
They see themselves as saviors of the progressive movement, who think that they, and they alone know what’s best for the American people when it comes to matters of health care and other progressive policies. They pride themselves on being anti-establishment, anti-corporate, and anti-mainstream media, and yet the only “mainstream media” they seem to have a problem with are MSNBC and CNN. Never Fox News, Newsmax or OANN. They posture themselves as brave “truth-tellers” among a vast “corporate media” apparatus that is undermining truth and objectivity, and by watching Breaking Points, Jimmy Dore, and the like, can you be truly informed, because they would never misinform, and they would never engage in partisanship.
This group of “elite” progressives include people such as Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Max Blumenthal, and Matt Taibbi. Many of these people have been accused by other progressives of enabling and promoting Assad, Russia, China, and Venezuela propaganda ( see the Grayzone’s Rationalwiki page here ). Max Blumenthal, the founder of the Grayzone is a contributor of both RT ( Russian television ) and Sputnik radio.
It’s ironic that Ball would accuse centrist Democrats like Maddow as having discredited and done damage to the left due to her overzealous reporting and speculation on the Russia Gate scandal. Ball and her elitist group of useful idiots have done far more damage to the credibility of the left than Rachel Maddow ever could. I’ll get to that in a moment.
Ball has spent the last few years at The Hill: Rising, and now Breaking Points, sitting next to a white nationalist, failing to push back on his conspiracy and fear-mongering, railing against the Democrat establishment as being the cause of all of America’s economic, and class woes, and the answer is a populist uprising, a merger between the populist left, and the so-called populist right. In other words, progressives like Ball would rather unite with fascists because they too see problems with the system, corporations, the government – rather than with liberals. I wish I was kidding.
Nathan J. Robinson, of the magazine Current Affairs, had this to say in his article Debating The Right Rather Than Collaborating With Them:
“I do not want to suggest that Ball and Enjeti are anything but sincere. I have admired much of Ball’s work, if none of Enjeti’s, and I think Rising has produced a lot of excellent material and filled gaps in the media ( I disagree with Robinson, they are not much better ). I do think it’s important to note that the Hill is owned by a close personal friend of Donald Trump. And from what Ball Says about the relative palatability of Enjeti’s politics versus those of the mainstream Democratic party, leftists watching the show could very well get the impression that Donald Trump is more similar to them than Joe Biden. Nationalist racists like Tucker Carlson are presented as preferable to centrists, because they are part of the “populist” movement.”
I have my doubts about Ball’s sincerity. There are plenty of liberals who want the same things Ball supposedly wants: Universal healthcare, a Green New Deal, affordable education, etc.. Is she interested in talking to these people? Is she interested in forming an alliance with them? I don’t see any evidence that she is. They’re liberals. Why would she talk to them? She hates them because they’re liberals. She’s seems more sympathetic to fascists. Her only interest is looking down her nose at liberals, sneering at them. However, she sees no problem giving a wink and a nod to fascists, because they both hate government, and have problems with corporations.
I find Ball’s hypocrisy also problematic. When it came to Russia Gate, she ignorantly buried her head in the sand and sneered at liberals who got it right. She buried her head in the sand and sneered at liberals who were right about the Douma chemical gas attack in Syria. In her video Will Liberals Ever Admit How Wrong They Were About Trump? she smugly lectured the “liberal” media on how wrong they were about Trump, that their concern of Trump interfering in the election, was nothing more than Trump derangement. This video was released prior to the Capitol riot, which they also downplayed.
These days, Krystal Ball is into her own conspiracy theories – something for which she recently sneered at liberals, over Russia Gate reporting. Lately, COVID conspiracies regarding its origin – the Wuhan lab leak theory – have been in the media. This conspiracy theory is not about finding the truth about COVID, but smearing Fauci and using him as a scapegoat to distract from the Trump administration’s massive failure during the pandemic.
Via the Washington Post:
“The central argument from Trump and his allies is that the possibility that the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan or was manufactured there – a claim for which there is no public evidence – as opposed to spreading from an animal to a human, was unfairly dismissed or covered up by scientists and media organizations bent on destroying the former president.”
“The focus of the virus’s origin story also fits a pattern of Trump and his supporters trying to absolve the former president of blame by obfuscating his past actions or words and blaming others , despite his role as the country’s leader.”
“They’re using Dr. Fauci as a way to direct attention from what actually was a massive government failure from the White House and individuals Donald Trump put in place to handle the pandemic,” says Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Last month Dr. Fauci appeared before Congress on the claim of gain of function regarding the coronavirus, and was, of course, accused of lying to cover his and China’s asses. Trump defenders saw it as evidence of his involvement in a world-wide conspiracy. But there was and is no evidence that he lied, other than personal opinion.
Via the Los Angeles Times:
“There is no evidence whatsoever that the virus originated or was warehoused in a Chinese lab, and was released, either inadvertently or deliberately.”
“Most recently, Fauci’s critics have picked over a trove of his emails, released to Buzzfeed and the Washington Post via Freedom of Information Act requests, to search for evidence of Fauci’s duplicity in commenting on the pandemic. They assert that the emails prove their point. In fact, they prove nothing of the kind. Instead, they portray a public servant taking pains to to be judicious about theories for the origin of the virus and about purported remedies.”
Recently, crazy QAnon Congresswoman, Marjory Taylor Greene called for Joe Biden to investigate and hold Fauci accountable for a “manufactured plague,” in a letter she sent to him in June. “Today, I sent this letter to Joe Biden to demand the immediate investigation into Anthony Fauci’s lies and his potential involvement in the cover up of the origins of the China virus,” which she posted along with the tweet.
Last month, Krystal and Saagar appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast, where they wasted no time implicating Dr. Fauci in a world-wide conspiracy to create the virus as a bioweapon, while downplaying the Trump administration’s failures during the pandemic. And, while still at The Hill: Rising, they hosted COVID vaccine conspiracist Bret Weinstein.
This is not the only conspiracy theory these two have dabbled in of late: Russia Gate was a hoax invented by the liberal media as an excuse to explain Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump. However, Obama Gate is totally plausible and should be investigated; the FBI was really behind the Capitol riot, as well as the attempted kidnapping of Gretchen Whitmer.
It’s not just the conspiracy-mongering that I find troubling from serious journalists who supposedly counter corporate mainstream narrative. It’s that they are willing to platform other alleged journalists like Andy Ngo, a known right-wing provocateur – a fascist – who shows up at left-wing protests to instigate violence to make himself a victim. Having him on and failing to push back on his propaganda, is not serious journalism. It is a mockery of journalism. It is no different than MSNBC having on David Duke, and failing to counter his propaganda. And engaging in conspiracy theories while accusing mainstream media figures of doing the same, is a mockery of journalism.
And last, it’s that they spend too much time criticizing and condemning the Democratic party for rightly focusing on the Republican party’s threat to democracy. An alleged conspiracy is more plausible and merits more attention than the fact that the Republican party recently attempted to cancel democracy by subverting an election, and are continuing to subvert democracy through laws to make it more difficult to vote.
But none of this is important to people like Krystal Ball. By entertaining outlandish conspiracy theories, they are not the reputable journalists they pretend to be. They are nothing more than that which they accuse mainstream media. They are a cheap corporate opinion media knock off with their own wealthy donors. They are nothing more than podcasters on a social media platform, sharing a mutual hatred of the Democratic party, and giving their opinions on how bad they are, while ignoring and downplaying any threat from the Republican party. They have become Infowars-style conspiracy theorists. It is them who have drank deeply of the conspiracy waters, much more deeply than Rachel Maddow or anyone else at MSNBC, and it is them who have explaining to do. But they will never be held accountable.
Sources: Mediaite, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times.
Despite a surge with the delta variant, the U.S. has finally reached its 70% vaccination rate for adults who have received one dose of the vaccines. The Biden administration had hoped to reach it before the fourth of July holiday, but given the fact that disinformation about the vaccines have been the norm in right-wing media for months, some might wonder that the goal was reached at all.
I’ve had my own doubts about the vaccines, I will admit, due mainly to possible side effects many have experienced, and for that reason was reluctant to get vaccinated. And since I am an older adult with a pre-existent medical condition, I have no desire get a virus that would, in all likely hood, kill me, so I have always remained responsible, following the recommended restrictions, including wearing a mask when around others.
Recently, I received the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine without experiencing any side effects. What the second shot will bring, we’ll see.
Some states have recently reinstated restrictions in an attempt to counter the surge, which has been attributed to the delta variant, and the reluctance of many who refuse to get vaccinated. Other states like Texas and Florida, have defied reinstating COVID restrictions to own the libs who are, according to governor DeSantis, “Coming for your freedom again.”
“As quickly as we can discharge them, they’re coming in and they’re coming in very sick,” said Dr. Sergio Segarra, the chief officer of Baptist Hospital in Miami. “We started seeing entire families come down.” According to the Florida Medical Center, there has been a 140% increase in the number of hospitalizations due to the delta variant surge.
According to USA Facts, to date approximately 191,498,983 have received one dose of a vaccine, and the overall total of those who have been fully-vaccinated is over 164 million.
Right-wing media has fueled constant mistrust in the vaccines for months, and certain conservative politicians have blamed the Biden administration for its criticism of Trump’s previous vaccine drive. Senator Tuberville of Alabama said some skeptics wouldn’t get their shot until this administration acknowledges the efforts of the last administration.
“Every time Jen Psaki opens her mouth, or Dr. Fauci opens his mouth,” he said, “ten thousand more people say I’m never going to take the vaccine.”
In other words, MAGA lovers hate and distrust Fauci because all he did was lie, whereas Trump did nothing but tell the truth. Vanity Fair says it much better than I can:
“Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, the GOP collectively decided to make Anthony Fauci public enemy number one, having found in the veteran immunologist the perfect target through which to whip up their base and take the spotlight off the fact that the then president had let the virus gain a foothold in the country while actively lying about it at every turn. Fauci, of course, is everything conservatives hate: An educated man of science with not one but two degrees, he committed what Republicans believe was a capitol offense when he failed to back up everything Donald Trump said about the disease, including treating it by freebasing bleach…
“But like the living embodiment of a QAnon forum, Republicans, Trump, and Fox News believe they have found some smoking gun showing that Fauci is somehow responsible for the virus, based on the fresh interest in the lab leak theory ( which the doctor himself is supportive of investigating, which he wouldn’t be if he was implicated in the whole thing, a slight wrinkle conservatives will probably explain at a time to be determined ). So, naturally, they’re amping up their attacks like he’s the second coming of Benghazi/Hillary Clinton/Pol Pot.
Other conservatives are actually enabling common sense, rather than conspiracies. “The way to avoid getting back into the hospital , is to get vaccinated,” said Mitch McConnell. “I want to encourage everybody to do that, and to ignore all these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advise.”
Unfortunately, not everyone will take his advise. Too many will continue to listen to conspirators and doomsayers like Tucker Carlson – who being fully-vaccinate himself – as he sits comfortably in his studio and convinces the rubes who watch him that the vaccines will either kill them, or make them sick.
Sources: The Week, New York Times, Associated Press, CDC.gov.
Through no fault of their own, millions of Americans lost their jobs during a pandemic that was poorly mismanaged by the government. Many of those Americans received some economic and other relief through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Securities Act, and other federal programs. The Cares Act included payments of 1,200 for individuals and 2,400 for couples, which included some unemployment relief.
This year’s EIP’s included 500.00 and 1,400 for individuals. But none of the relief that many have received, has been sufficient to prevent millions from being evicted from their homes once the ban expires. The moratorium by the CDC, which the Supreme Court allowed to continue through July, ended Saturday. Some states have enacted their own bans on evctions.
Both parties are content to blame the other, as well as the president for something that they could clearly do something about. Certain progressives are content to grandstand for now, pointing fingers at the their own party, while other progressives are blaming Pelosi – AKA Mrs. Scrooge – for not waving a magic wand and making everything better.
Protesters gathered outside her home, where they taped a fake eviction notice to her door that would have given anti-Democrat progressives a huge erection. Apparently she is the only politician who is out of touch and the only one to have ever owned a multi-million dollar mansion, and she alone can solve the eviction crisis that both chambers of Congress can do something about if only they can get their heads out of their asses.
“Dear Speaker Pelosi, you are hereby given immediate notice that millions of Americans will face eviction tonight when the eviction moratorium expires. We call upon you immediately to call Congress to session to vote to extend the eviction moratorium and keep people in their homes. We’re in the midst of the second worst COVID surge to date and this is not the time to allow evictions to begin. Housing is a human right #evictionmoratorium #eviction crisis.”
The only thing it didn’t say, is This all your fault! It’s a wonder they didn’t blame her for the Delta variant as well.
One genius told Fox News, “The reason we were at her house is that she has a beautiful mansion in Pacific Heights in San Francisco, and that shows how out of touch she is with the people that are facing a situation of eviction.”
Progressive AOC told Jake Tapper she “could not in good conscious blame the Republicans since the Democrats have a majority in the House.”
Republican lawmaker, Patrick McHenry, of the House Financial Services Committee, blames Joe Biden for the Crisis that Congress could have found a solution to some time ago.
“This is a full-scale failure by the Biden Administration that Republicans have been trying to address for months,” he said. “Now we are three days away from the CDC’S unconstitutional eviction moratorium, and what is President Biden’s solution? Blame the Court and call on Congress to fix it. This is absurd. The Administration is squarely to blame for any American family that loses their home due to the gross mismanagement of the Emergency Rental Assistance programs.”
It is absurd. It’s absurd that everyone is blaming everyone else, while failing to admit that everyone is at fault – Joe Biden, both chambers of Congress, the CDC, and the Supreme Court. The federal government in general, is at fault. It’s shameful that the federal government abandoned the American people in time of need, providing little economic aid and rental assistance during a pandemic, and are playing the blame game.
If Biden had used his authority and extended the moratorium through executive action, most Republicans would probably screech that he was exceeding his executive powers for something they say is unconstitutional, as they often did with Obama.
The truth is, neither party has done much of anything to address this situation, other than extending the moratorium. Neither party has sought a long-term solution. Both parties are out of touch with the American people. Both parties need to get their shit together. However, anti-Democrat progressives will continue to hold Nancy Pelosi and moderate Democrats responsible for not doing their job, something that both parties should be doing. Both parties working together could have addressed this issue earlier this year, or even last year and come up with appropriate legislation that would have provided a long-term solution. Finger pointing solves nothing.
By the end of 2021 the U.S. will no longer have a combat role in Iraq.
Biden met with Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi Monday at the White House, where he said,”Iraq has been a vital partner for the United States for some time now in the middle east and we’ve been engaged deeply in Iraq for my entire career, back in the Senate, as vice president, and now as President…
“Our shared fight against ISIS is critical for the stability of our region and counterterrorism cooperation will continue, even as we shift to this new phase we’re going to be talking about,” Biden said during the meeting.
“Our role in Iraq will be dealing with training, assisting, and help in dealing with ISIS. But we are not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission.”
Both the U.S. and Iraq are allegedly committed to all U.S. troops departing when the coalition to defeat ISIS is allegedly accomplished.
Nasser Al-Shammari, spokesperson for an Iranian-back militia group, the Nujaba Movement, said that the so-called change in mission was just a trick.
“They will not differentiate between advisors of the occupation or soldiers of the occupation, for all of them are important targets for the weapons of the resistance, until the last occupying soldier leaves the land of Iraq.”
Charlie Kirk has had the last laugh. For years, Turning Point USA’s founder and executive director, has been owning the libs in spectacular fashion, just as he did when he put on his first pair of Pampers to own the smug libs in 2017, who were crying for a safe space on the campus of Kent State University because they’re such crybabies.
Kirk, a young leader in the “America First” conservative movement, has been touring America’s college campuses with other leaders in the movement, like Dana Loesch, and Tomi Lahren, warning young conservatives of the dangers of the culture wars perpetuated by liberals who want to ban their free speech, just as they banned Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, Confederate statues, and then shove CRT and the 1619 Project up their rear ends.
In 2018, Kirk tweeted that when Obama was elected, they didn’t cry and burn stuff down, they waited patiently for eight years, acting absolutely civil toward the new president, showing him the utmost respect that liberals refused to show Trump.
This time, Kirk – always the truth-teller – reminds us that the summer protests over the unlawful killing of George Floyd, were really out of control riots by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, who just can’t help but resort to violence when they can’t get their way, as opposed to Trump supporters who descended on the D.C. Capitol for a picnic, or a tour, to calmly convince the Senate that they were wrong to certify the electoral votes for Biden, and should, instead, declare Trump the winner.
“It really had nothing to do with president Trump’s “stop the steal” rhetoric,” Charlie told the Weekly Journal News. “It was all Sleepy Joe’s fault, and George Soros, and Hugo Chavez, Antifa and maybe even Mickey Mouse. Who knows who else was in on it? Casper The Friendly Ghost? That’s not so unbelievable, you know, since it’s been proven that Hugo Chavez had a hand in it. Who else could have been involved? Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids? Alvin and the Chipmunks? Maybe even E.T. for all we know. We’ll never know because the snowflake liberal judges wouldn’t allow any evidence to be presented.”
“And those people who were carrying a gallows chanting to hang the vice president, and the people who were beating up on cops and breaking into the building and defecating? They weren’t Trump supporters. They were Antifa, and Black Lives Matter, or both – trying to make Trump and his supporters look bad. Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity reported on it. Trump would never condone anything like that, and neither would Trump supporters. But Black Lives Matter and Antifa would. They’re all terrorists. They run around rioting and looting and beating and defecating and burning down American cities every day. I’m surprised there are any cities left standing in America.”
Kirk stood up, yanked his pants down, revealing a pair of adult Pampers – his signature brand – with baby duckies on them, and released a large, rather disgusting expulsion of gas. He then grinned and said, “Checkmate, libtards!”
It should be noted that that when Trump failed to win the election of 2020, conservatives didn’t burn stuff down. But they did cry, and they violently destroyed property, assaulted people – killing several, just as they did during the BLM protests – and used certain parts of the Capitol as makeshift toilets.
The brave warriors of the culture wars have found another reason to get triggered. Cleveland’s professional baseball team known as the Indians since 1915, are soon to change the moniker, and conservatives are not happy about it.
The name change was announced Friday via a video on Twitter, narrated by Tom Hanks. However, the change will not take effect until next year, when they will officially be known as The Cleveland Guardians.
The moniker change is allegedly inspired by a state landmark known as the traffic guardians located at each end of the Hope Memorial bridge.
Paul Dolan, the team owner said he was encouraged to change the name of the team after the killing of George Floyd.
“We do feel like we’re doing the right thing,” he told ESPN. “And that’s what’s driving this. I know some people will disagree, but if anything, I’ve gotten more and more comfortable that we’re headed in the right direction. And actually, the selection of the name solidifies that feeling because of the values that the name represents.”
Even though the name is changing, the teams colors will remain the same, as will the smiling caricature logo that fans have come to fondly know for more than one hundred years, and that has been protested by some indigenous groups in the past.
Normal people couldn’t care less about the name change. But depending on whether you consider them normal people or not, conservatives, for some reason, do care, or pretend that they care. Since they have nothing to offer in the way of policy, the culture wars are all they have to live for.
“And just like that, the Indians adopt the dumbest, most pointless name in major professional sports,” the National Review’s Rich Lowry complained about on Twitter.
I don’t know, Rich. I think the Guardians sounds better than the Indians. But that’s just my opinion.
Cancun Ted complained, “Why does MLB hate indians?”
Why do you hate your Texas constituents, Ted? Isn’t that why you ran off to Mexico, so you wouldn’t have to do anything for them?
“I will never call them the Cleveland Guardians,” Newsmax host John Carrillo tweeted, without realizing he just had. “It’s moronic.”
It’s funny that a guy who says he will never call them by their new name, mentions their new name while complaining he will never use it.
Even Fox News has weighed in on the nonsense. Joe Concha, who is allegedly a serious news analyst – in my opinion just a partisan hack – said the Cleveland Indians “caved to the pressure of the woke mob.”
In an appearance on Fox News with Tammy Bruce, he said, “You see the evening news, and you would think that the skyrocketing crime that we’re seeing , violent crime in cities, would be the lead story every night,” he told Tammy Bruce, noting that it took a “shooting in a ritzy district in Washington, D.C. to suddenly get everyone’s attention for something that’s been going on for months and months.”
Try years and years, Joe. The so-called Democrat-soft media has been paying attention to this for years, not ignoring it. Fox News, on the other hand, is too wrapped up in their culture war BS to cover anything else.
“After Concha ticked off a short list of other issues he believes the mainstream media is refusing to cover in any meaningful way, including rising crime rates and inflation, Bruce responded by noting that it is the job of the press to inform their communities.”
Which, I guess Tucker Carlson does every night by informing his viewers that BLM are terrorists and that the Trump Nazis who stormed the Capitol, are the true American patriots.
“If the term Indians is so overtly racist,” Concha asked, “how did it survive for a century. And are the Braves in Atlanta next? Florida State ( Seminoles) next? The Kansas City Chiefs? Maybe it’s just a symbol of pride and tradition, celebrating Indian culture.”
It’s not that the term is overtly racist, but if indigenous activist groups think it might be a problem to some, then maybe it’s time to listen to what they’re saying instead of dismissing their concerns as “caving to a woke mob,” or that it’s “political correctness gone amok.” Some may find it offensive for non-indigenous people to call themselves indians, even if it’s just for a sports team. Would a conservative like Joe Concha get that? Probably not.
Some may also see certain mascots of indigenous characters offensive. But again, to conservatives, it’s nothing more than political correctness.
So, maybe it’s not just a symbol of pride and tradition, and celebrating Indian culture. Since white American culture has been steeped in racism and bigotry for most of its history, I doubt most indigenous Americans see it as “celebrating Indian culture.”
The greatest culture warrior of them all, Donald Trump, complained in a statement:
“Can anybody believe that the ClevelandIndians, a storied and cherished baseball franchise since taking the name in 1915, are changing their name to the Guardians? Such a disgrace, and I guarantee that the people who are most angry about it are the many Indians of our Country. Wouldn’t it be an honor to have a team named the Cleveland Indians, and wouldn’t it be disrespectful to rip that name and logo off of those jerseys? The people of Cleveland cannot be thrilled and I, as a FORMER baseball fan, cannot believe things such as this are happening. A small group of people, with absolutely crazy ideas and policies, is forcing these changes to destroy our culture and heritage. At some point, the people will not take it anymore!”
It’s always an attack on culture and heritage to conservatives, especially on matters that have to do with race. They’re the real victims, after all. And Trump is the biggest victim of them all.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy appointed Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks to the January 06 insurrection probe. They were promptly rejected by House speaker Nancy Pelosi for their involvement in inciting conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election.
The probe had been in the works for some time but had been blocked by Republicans in both the House and Senate. On June 28, Pelosi announced the formation of the committee, and on June 30 a resolution was passed to form the committee by a vote of 222 to 190.
Wednesday, Pelosi rejected the appointments of the two Representatives by McCarthy, to which McCarthy referred to as an egregious abuse of power.
In a press release Wednesday, Pelosi said:
“The violent domestic attack on Congress on January 6th was the worst assault on the Capitol since the war of 1812, and the worst domestic assault on American democracy since the Civil War. We are facing a radically new threat in the kinds of forces that combined to attack our government on January 6th. The future of our democracy is on the line. This assault was an attempt to overthrow the government…
“Monday evening, the Minority leader recommended 5 members to serve on the Select Committee. I have spoken with him this morning about the objections raised about Rep’s Jim Banks and Jim Jordan and the impact their appointments may have on the integrity of the investigation. I also informed him I was prepared to appoint Rep’s Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong, and Troy Nehls and requested that he recommend two other members.
“With respect to the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members, I must reject the recommendation of Rep’s Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee.”
Kevin McCarthy responded with his own statement:
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken the unprecedented step of denying the minority party’s picks for the Select Committee on January 6. This represents an egregious abuse of power and will irreparably damage this institution. Denying the voices of members who have served in the military and law enforcement, as well as leaders of standing committees, has made it undeniable that this panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility and shows the Speaker is more interested in playing politics than seeking the truth.
“Unless speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.”
It’s ironic that McCarthy would accuse Pelosi and Democrats of playing partisan politics regarding an investigation of the events surrounding January 06, when not too long ago McCarthy and his anti-American Trump ass-kissing troglodytes in Congress were busy playing their own partisan games regarding a “stolen” election which Trump insisted that he won by a landslide, which ultimately led to a mob of Trump ass-kissing fascist troglodytes storming the Capitol as they attempted to overturn that election through violence, and their own sham investigations, audits and new voting laws to “preserve voting integrity.”
Fellow Trump ass-kisser Jim Banks had this to say in a previous statement in response to being chosen for the committee by McCarthy:
“If Democrats were serious about investigating political violence, this committee would be studying not only the January 6 riot at the Capitol, but also the hundreds of violent political riots last summer when many more innocent Americans and law enforcement were attacked. And of course, the committee would not overlook the Good Friday murder of USCP officer Billy Evans that was perpetrated by a far-left extremist.
“Make no mistake, Nancy Pelosi created this committee solely to malign conservatives and to justify the Left’s authoritarian agenda.
“Even then, I will do everything possible to give the American people the facts about the lead up to January 6, the riot that day, and the responses from Capitol leadership and the Biden administration. (??) I will not allow this committee to be turned into a forum for condemning millions of Americans because of their political views.”
Those “facts” mentioned by Banks, probably include how Antifa really perpetrated the assault. God knows Trump supporters are all wonderful patriots with the utmost respect for free speech, and fair elections, and it’s a shame they’re all being falsely condemned for their political views.
What Banks fails to understand is that the summer protests, some of which had turned violent, were in response to state violence perpetrated by law enforcement, that further exacerbated the situation, by police being deliberately violent against peaceful protesters, some of which were killed by both police and anti-BLM vigilantes. The Capitol riot, on the other hand, was a response to false claims of election fraud, incited and perpetrated by the former president and his sycophantic supporters in Congress and media.
His press release statement after being rejected from the committee, reads:
“I’m a sitting member of Congress and served my country in Afghanistan and the speaker knows how hard I will fight for my country. We said all along that this was a purely partisan exercise by the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of me and Jim Jordan shows once again she is the most partisan figure in America today.”
“The American people deserve the truth. Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi is afraid of the facts.”
I don’t care whether he served in the military or not. That doesn’t excuse the fact that he failed in his duty to protect the Constitution. His duty was to secure a fair election, not to promote false claims and conspiracy theories. He, and his fellow Trump ass-kissing troglodytes, should be tried for seditious conspiracy for failing to uphold their oath to protect the Constitution from domestic enemies, and barred from Congress. They betrayed the Constitution the moment they voted to overturn the election results.
He says the Democrats are afraid of the facts. But it was the Trump loyalists who opposed a January 06 commission that Pelosi and the Democrats proposed. They opposed it because they wanted it to include investigations into racial justice protests, to which Pelosi refused, wanting the commission to focus solely on the Capitol riot.
They also opposed it because they knew that it would make the party look bad. Republicans are not interested in making themselves look bad, even though they can’t help but do just that through their actions. Their only interest besides owning the libs, is making themselves look like victims, and they play up that narrative with their constant culture war nonsense, their cancel culture BS, while simultaneously playing up the narrative that it’s really the Democratic party that is un-American, while the real America-loving patriotic party does everything in it’s power to shred the Constitution and destroy democracy – to restrict the right to vote, to protest peacefully, to ban Critical Race Theory from being taught, and to criminalize abortion.
Sources: Associated Press, Housespeaker.gov, Republicanleader.gov, The Week, Banks.house.gov.
Last Friday, a federal U.S. District judge in Texas overturned the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – commonly referred to as DACA – ruling it likely to be unconstitutional.
DACA was enacted in 2012 by executive action rather than Congressional legislation, and did not provide a pathway for citizenship, something the Republican party has always opposed for DREAMers. The program’s expansion was rescinded by the Trump administration, and in that same year announced that it would be phased out, which prompted several lawsuits to prevent it.
On his first day in office, Joe Biden issued an executive order fully reinstating DACA. On Friday, July 16, it was ruled to be unconstitutional by federal district judge of Texas, Andrew Hanen, who wrote that “DHS failed to engage in the statutorily mandated process, so DACA never gained status as a legally binding policy that could impose duties or obligations.”
In Hanen’s written opinion, he said, “The executive branch cannot just enact it’s own legislative policy when it disagrees with Congress’s choice to reject proposed legislation.”
In a White House statement, Biden said: “Yesterday’s Federal court ruling is deeply disappointing. While the court’s order does not now affect current DACA recipients, this decision nonetheless relegates hundreds of thousands of young immigrants to an uncertain future. The Department of Justice intends to appeal this decision in order to preserve and fortify DACA. And, as the court recognized, the Department of Homeland Security plans to issue a proposed rule concerning DACA in the near future.
“But only Congress can ensure a permanent solution by granting a path to citizenship for DREAMERS that will provide the certainty and stability that these young people need and deserve. I have repeatedly called on Congress to pass the American Dream and Promise Act, and I now renew that call with the greatest urgency. It is my fervent hope that through reconciliation or other means, Congress will finally provide security to all Dreamers, who have lived too long in fear.”
Indicted criminal, Texas AG Ken Paxton, bragged on Twitter how he had personally defeated Joe Biden on illegal immigration.
“This ruling is wrong and subject to appeal,” said Omar Jadwat, the director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “It’s absolutely urgent that Congress acts now through the budget reconciliation process to provide Dreamers and other undocumented members of our communities with reliable status and a pathway to citizenship.”
Since Congress has proven themselves useless and unwilling to enact laws to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants, immigration activists have been urging the new administration to act through executive action.
If the decision is not appealed, Congress will have to enact legislation, but since an appeal, and any positive action by Congress both seem unlikely to happen, DACA’s fate may be left in the hands of the Supreme Court.
House Democrats in the state of Texas have reportedly flown the coop Monday in an attempt to prevent the passing of alleged Republican voting reform legislation.
“Today, House Democrats left the state and broke quorum to fight back against state Republicans’ continued attack on Texans’ freedom to vote,” the HDC said in a press release on Monday.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner, Mexican American Legislative Caucus Chair Rafael Anchia, Texas Legislative Black Caucus Chair Nichole Collier, Legislative Group Caucus Chair Garnet Coleman and Dean Senfronia Thompson, released the following statement on the decision to break quorum.
“Today, Texas House Democrats stand united in our decision to break quorum and refuse to let the Republican-led legislature force through dangerous legislation that would trample on Texans’ freedom to vote.
“We are now taking the fight to our nation’s Capitol. We are living on borrowed time in Texas. We need Congress to act now to pass The For The People Act’, and The John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect Texans – and all Americans – from the Trump Republicans’ nationwide war on democracy.”
A handful of the lawmakers have gone to Washington to urge other lawmakers to enact voting rights legislation. “We are determined to kill this bill in this special session, which will end on August 07,” said Chris Turner, the Chair of the state House Democrats at a press conference Monday. “And we will stay out until then, in order to do that.”
“Our democracy is on the line,” Representative Trey Martinez Fischer told reporters. “It became very clear to us this weekend that any attempts to negotiate some Democratic concessions were cut off, making it very clear that Republicans were hellbent on having it their way.”
Governor Abbott released his own press statement:
“Texas Democrats’ decision to brake quorum of the Texas Legislature and abandon the Texas state Capitol inflicts harm on the very Texans who elected them to serve. As they fly across the country on cushy private plans, they leave undone issues that can help their districts and their state.
“The Democrats must put aside partisan political games and get back to the jobs they were elected to do. Their constituents must not be denied these important resources simply because their elected representatives refused to show up to work.”
Speaking of partisan political games, it wasn’t too long ago that Abbott played his own political game, blaming green energy for the failure of the states power grid during February’s winter storm, as “Cancun Ted” skipped his responsibilities to head down to Mexico while thousands of Texans froze and more than a few died.
As Ryan Cooper wrote in an article in The Week, about Cruz’s Cancun get-away back in Februrary:
“It was all darkly amusing. But what Cruz did is emblematic of the Republican party’s mode of governance. The reason Cruz felt comfortable leaving Texans to freeze solid on the sidewalks of Houston is the same reason the Texas power grid crumbled under the winter storm. Theirs is a party in which catering to the welfare of one’s constituents, or indeed any kind of substantive political agenda, has been supplanted by propaganda, culture war grievance, and media theatrics. Neither he nor anyone else in a leadership position in the party knows or cares about how to build a reliable power grid. They just want to get rich owning the libs…
“Liberty,” to people like this, means that conservative elected officials never have to use their positions or authority to do anything when their constituents are suffering and dying. That, you see, is “socialism.”
“Whining is the beginning and end of Republican governance.”
Not to mention, the partisan Political games they played during the pandemic to play defense for a president who did virtually nothing while he blamed the Democratic party for his own failures, as hundreds of thousands of people died. It’s the perfect way to own the libs.
Sources: Politico, NBC News, Texas Tribune, texashousedems.com, gov.texas.gov., The Week.
The FDA announced Monday that there could be a possible link between the J&J vaccine and the neuro-disorder known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
So far, prelim reports would seem to indicate that the autoimmune disease GBS, have been detected in at least one hundred recipients of the vaccine. According to the ANA – the American Neurological Association – almost a dozen cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome had been discovered several weeks after recipients had received the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. The cases were from India and England, which involved a variant of the syndrome which involved facial weakness.
People over the age of 50 are alleged to be at a greater risk, with at least two-thirds experiencing symptoms several days to weeks after developing diarreah, sinus or lung illnesses.
The FDA is urging recipients of the vaccine to get immediate medical attention if they have difficulty walking, difficulty with facial movements involving speaking, chewing, swallowing, and or tingling and weakness in the arms and legs, that may worsen and spread to other areas of the body.
According to Jeanne Marrazzo, who is the director of infectious diseases at Alabama University at Birmingham, said the risk of Guillain-Barre is so rare that it should not prevent people from getting vaccinated. She said people can still get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine with virtually no risk, but this news should not be an excuse not to get vaccinated.
With certain voices in media sowing doubt and disinformation rather than information on the effectiveness of the vaccines, it will be difficult for healthcare providers to persuade some of their patients to get vaccinated.
Sources: Washington Post, myana.org, Politico, The Week.
According to updated CDC guidelines, students above the age of twelve will not be required to wear masks during the new school year this fall if they are fully-vaccinated.
However, as vaccines are not available for children below the age of twelve, those students are encouraged to continue safety measures such as wearing masks, hand washing, social distancing, and regular COVID testing.
The updated guideline says students benefit from in-person learning and getting them safely back into the classroom should be a priority.
Masks should also continue to worn indoors by children two years and above, as the correct utilization of masks by those individuals who are not fully-vaccinated is “especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained.”
The updated guidelines are not mandatory. Some states have their own mandates that require every student , whether vaccinated or not, to wear masks while at school. Other states, such as Texas, Iowa, and Arizona, have barred school officials from wearing masks.
The American Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten released a statement praising the updated guidelines as “grounded in both science and common sense.”
“It takes what we’ve learned about COVID transmission in the last few months – from in-school learning, camps and the efficacy of vaccines – and charts a course for schools to fully reopen this fall.
“The guidance confirms two truths: that students learn better in the classroom, and that vaccines remain our best bet to stop the spread of this virus, and get our kids and educators fully back to those classrooms for in-person learning. It also makes clear that masking is important in the absence of vaccination.”
The statue of Robert E. Lee, the treasonous general who led confederate soldiers against the Union in defense of slavery, was removed from its pedestal Saturday.
Erected in 1924, it stood as a reminder that African Americans were no more than second class citizens in their own country. In the summer of 2017, it served as a background for racists of all stripes on the far alt-right to march on Charlottesville, that culminated in the death of liberal activist Heather Heyer.
Activists have been attempting to get the statue removed for years. The most recent attempt to get it removed began in 2016, with a petition by a high school student by the name of Zyahna Bryant. The Charlottesville city council voted to remove it in 2017, but the petition was blocked by a lawsuit.
“To the young people out there, I hope that this empowers you to speak up on the issues that matter, and to take charge in your own cities and communities,” Bryant said Saturday before the statue was removed. “No platform for white supremacy. No platform for racism. And no platform for hate.”
The CCC also voted to remove a statue commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition. Both the Lee Statue and the Lewis and Clark, were donated by Paul Goodloe McIntyre in 1919.
A White House spokesperson said that president Biden was down with the removal of both statues.
“As president Biden has said, there is a difference between reminders and remembrances of history,” the spokesperson said. “The president believes that monuments to Confederate leaders belong in museums, not in public places, and welcomes the removal of the statues today.”
In a Saturday interview with CBS News, Bryant also said she was pleased with the removal of the statues.
“This is only a first step,” she said. “It’s a monumental first step, but only a first step. We’re no longer offering a platform for white supremacy.”
After falling short on his administration’s efforts to have at least more than half of the adult population of the U.S. partially-vaccinated by July 04, president Biden has continued the effort to reach millions who have yet to be vaccinated.
In remarks from the White House Tuesday, president Biden said, “COVID-19 cases and deaths are down by 90% since January. Millions of fully-vaccinated Americans are getting back to living their lives as they did before. Businesses are reopening and hiring and rehiring. And predicted economic growth is the highest it’s been, projected growth is the highest it’s been in four decades…
“But our fight against the virus is not over. Right now, as I speak to you, millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected, and because of that, their communities are at risk. Their friends are at risk. The people they care about are at risk. This is an even bigger concern because of the Delta variant.”
Despite any and all efforts to convince Americans to get vaccinated, conservative media has been effective in pushing misinformation to convince their viewers that vaccines are dangerous, and any safety precautions pertaining to the spread of the virus, are nothing short of authoritarian.
The reasons behind vaccination hesitancy, according to Amanda Marcotte, are conspiracy theories, and right-wing trolling. In her Salon article BidenDidn’tFallShortOfJuly 04VaccinationGoal, HeWasSabotagedByRepublicanTrolls – she makes a case why Republicans are partially responsible for many Americans who have refused to be vaccinated.
“Trump supporters are so angry and bitter at Biden that they have weaponized their own bodies to to sabotage his efforts to end the pandemic,” she writes. “Maybe it feels to them as if refusing the vaccination is a good way to stick it to the liberals – who are admittedly exasperated by this behavior – the main result is that the pandemic is raging out of control in “red” areas of the country, while blue states and regions are getting back to normal...
“To put it even more bluntly, Republicanism is killing people. On the Democratic side of the aisle, polarization is not a problem. If anything, it probably saved lives, because many Democratic voters made it a point of pride to get vaccinated as soon as possible. All of the 18 states that have surpassed Biden’s 70% goal, voted for him in the 2020 election...
“To make things worse, Fox News, eager to find a way to sabotage Biden’s pandemic efforts ( and his entire presidency ), has convinced its viewers that only hated liberals get the shot. So, the vaccines have become aligned with vegan cookery, “Critical Race Theory,” or driving a Prius: Something conservatives are convinced is sinister and will somehow infect them with socialism…
“As long as vaccination rates are tied up with media assessments of Biden’s success as president, Republican voters – and the propaganda of right-wing media – will have an incentive to keep refusing the vaccine. They weren’t quite able to steal the election for Donald Trump, but they can offer their own bodies up as sacrifices to keep the virus circulating in an effort to make Joe Biden look bad…
“This problem falls outside Biden’s power to fix. If anything, the harder he pushes people to get vaccinated, the more Republicans will dig in their heels and refuse. It’s time for the media to stop blaming Biden and put the blame where it squarely belongs: On Trump, on spiteful, embittered Republicans and on right-wing media, which would rather kill off its own viewers than give a Democratic president a legitimate win.”
“The bottom line is, my administration is doing everything it can to lead a government response at the federal, state and local levels to defeat the pandemic,” Biden said. “We need everyone to do their part.”
Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress, and media will do their part to convince the rubes that Biden’s efforts to vaccinate the population, are nothing more than communism, and are to be resisted.
Sources: NY Times, The Week, Salon, therev.com/Biden Transcripts.
The Trump family business, the Trump Organization, was indicted last week on criminal charges relating to tax evasion.
The indictment also implicates Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer of allegedly assisting company executives of evading taxes for personal benefit. The company is also accused of avoiding taxes owed.
The indictment charges that from 2005 to June 2021, the defendants participated in a scheme to defraud federal and state tax authorities, with the intent to benefit Weisselberg and various company executives, that was alleged to be “off the books.”
Weisselberg is alleged to be one of the many beneficiaries of the “scheme” who has been accused of receiving approximately 1.76 million in indirect and hidden compensation, including free rent, cars for his wife and himself, and private bonuses.
Even though the investigation is ongoing, neither Trump or his family have been accused of any wrongdoing, but that’s to be expected.
On January 06, 2021, democracy came under assault from a political party that, ironically often accuses their opponents of being anti-american. A party that continues to persist with the absurdity that it’s really Democrats that are anti-american. As if Americans hadn’t witnessed thousands of Trump enthusiasts marching angrily on the Capitol, many of them calling for the head of the vice president as they carried a gallows, breaking into the Capitol building, destroying government property, assaulting people, and using it as a public toilet – all at the behest of Donald Trump, who for months leading to election day, insisted that Joe Biden and the Democrats had stolen the election.
After the Senate blocked a commission that had Congress’s approval, the majority of the House approved the creation of a committee to investigate the Capitol riot, by a vote of 222-190.
A majority of Republicans were opposed to the the creation of a commission, for fear it would be politicized against them in the up-coming 2022 elections.
“January 06 was a day of darkness for our country,” Nancy Pelosi said, Wednesday in a news conference from the White House. “A day, as you know. that was called for in our Constitution of the United States for us to validate the presidential election. to certify the results of the electoral college. That day, one of the darkest, I say again, I’ll keep saying, days in our history, our temple of democracy was attacked by insurrectionists.
“You know all of this. The gleeful desecration of the Capitol resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 240 members of law enforcement and terror and trauma among staff, workers, and members. That trauma is something I can never forget or forgive.
“The insurrection was called for to impede our Constitutional mandate. But Congress returned to the Capitol to accomplish our Constitutional mandate…”
Only two Republicans have supported the committee: Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney. They were also the only two to vote yes to impeach Trump and form a bipartisan commission.
Many Republicans stubbornly refuse to acknowledge Trump’s role in the Capitol insurrection attempt. Texas Representative Michael Burgess has accused the Democrats of laying the blame for the attack on Trump, as if the former president’s rhetoric had nothing to do with the situation.
“The outcome of this investigation has in fact already been written,” Burgess said. “The Democrats have been publicly excoriating Trump for months.” While many Republicans have been making excuses for him, I might add.
“These investigations have been done and are on-going,” said Minnesota Representative Michelle Fishburne, without noting that the last Senate inquiry failed to examine the role of Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress who knowingly peddled false information about the election. “It appears that this select committee is being done for purely political purposes.”
It’s ironic that she would say it was being done for political purposes, since the attempts to overturn the electoral results by Trump during his phone calls with state governors, and that of his minions who swarmed the Capitol, were themselves political, for the purpose of keeping Lord Emperor Trump in the White House.
Joe Biden and Republicans in Congress have reached an agreement on a watered down infrastructure bill. It would provide 93 billion over five years – 1.2 trillion over eight years – and would be used for rebuilding roads, bridges, transit, and other infrastructure.
From the White House, Biden said, “The investments we’ll be making as a result of this deal are long over-due. They’ll put Americans to work in good paying jobs, repairing our roads, and our bridges. They’ll deliver high speed internet to every home, bringing down the price that people pay now for internet service. And they’ll close the American digital divide that has been driven home by every mother and father with a child at home during the COVID crisis, that is, thank God, abating, and kids not being able to be in school…
“This deal makes key investments to put people to work all across the country, building transmission lines, upgrading the power grid to be more energy efficient and resilient in extreme weather, to be able to sustain extreme weather and the climate crisis. It also builds our natural infrastructure, our coastlines and our levees to be more resilient as well. American workers will be installing electric vehicle charging stations and undertaking critical environmental cleanups.”
The deal, reached Thursday, was led by Republican Rep. Rob Portman, and Democrat Rep. Kristen Sinema, including other lawmakers, some of whom are alleged of going against their party line.
Senators’ Joint statement & framework on bipartisan infrastructure deal:
“Today we’re proud to advance this bipartisan proposal to make a historic investment in America’s critical infrastructure needs, advance cleaner technologies, create jobs, and strengthen American competivness, without raising taxes. This agreement shows that the two parties can still come together, find common ground, and get things done that matter to everyday Americans. We are happy to have president Biden’s support, and will now get to work together enlisting the support of colleagues on both sides of the isle.”
“You know there are many who say bipartisanship is dead in Washington,” Sinema said. “We can use bipartisanship to solve these challenges.”
Republican Rep. Susan Collins said, “It sends an important message to the world as well that America can function, can get things done.”
Sources: The Week, Associated Press, the rev, Portman.senate.gov.
The Hill has reported that former vice president Mike Pence was heckled during a speech at the Faith And Freedom conference last Friday.
“It’s great to be back with so many patriots dedicated to faith and freedom,” Pence said, ironically unaware that many in the audience were anything but patriotic – “and the road to the majority. I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican in that order.”
Then the cries of “traitor” began from the patriots in the audience, who obviously believed it would have been easier had Pence given in to the whim of Donald Trump, and just accepted the fact that Caspar The Friendly Ghost possessed Joe Biden and George Soros from beyond the grave to manipulate every voting apparatus in America. If he had, they never would have threatened to hang him outside the Capitol.
Pence claims both he and Trump have spoken since the embarrassing incident. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day, but I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”
The two accomplished absolutely nothing – at least nothing to be proud of – in four years. Nothing but one scandal, and one national embarasment after another. Not to mention the fact that some of the so-called “patriots” who broke into the Capitol building couldn’t resist using it as a toilet.
Pence is rumored to be eyeing a run for the presidency in 2024. Should he do so, he just may find himself in a primary race with some bats**t crazy competition with Republican lawmakers – Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz – who also objected to the electoral results because they too believe it was influenced by the evil spirit of Caspar The Friendly Ghost.
According to CDC director Rochelle Walenksy, a highly-contagious variant of the coronavirus known as the delta Variant, could very well become a dominant strain in the United States.
The variant, according to the World Health Organization, was identified last October in India, and is reported to be present in approximately eighty countries world-wide. It’s alleged to have now been discovered in forty-one states in the U.S..
The variant has been classified as a “variant of concern,” by WHO. This week the CDC upgraded its classification from “variant of interest,” to “variant of concern.”
“When these viruses mutate,” Walensky told ABC News, “they do so with some advantage to the virus. In this case, it’s more transmissible. It’s more transmissible than the alpha variant, or the U.K. variant, that we have here. We saw that quickly become the dominant strain in a period of one or two months, and I anticipate that is going to be what happens with the delta strain here.”
CDC health officials say they are concerned that the delta strain may mutate to a point where it can evade the existing COVID vaccines.
“That’s what we’re actively trying to prevent,” Walensky said. “Which is why we’re really encouraging people to get vaccinated. I will say, as worrisome as this delta strain is with regard to its hyper-transmissibility, our vaccines work. Right now, they are working, and they require actually two doses or to be fully-vaccinated to work. So I would encourage all Americans to get your first shot, and when you get your second shot, you’ll be protected against this delta variant.”
According to Dr. Ashish Jha, the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, the delta variant is “far more contagious than any variant we have seen throughout this entire pandemic.”
As more Americans continue to get vaccinated, and cases decline, close to 600,OOO have perished from COVID-19.
William Braddock, a GOP Candidate running for a Congressional seat in Florida, was secretly recorded threatening a Republican opponent in a primary. Braddock is alleged of threatening to dispatch a “Russian and Ukrainian hit squad” on Anna Paulina Luna, who is running for the same seat.
Was he serious, or was he just f**king with her? Who knows?
Apparently, Braddock was recorded threatening Luna during a telephone interview with a conservative activist, Erin Olszewski, which took place prior to him becoming a candidate. Luna is also running for the same seat which is soon to be vacated by Rep. Democrat Charlie Christ, who is running for governor.
During the recording, which was obtained by Politico, Braddock said at one point during the interview, “I really don’t want to have to end anybody’s life for the good of the American people of the United States. That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f***ing speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over everyday when you leave the neighborhood.”
Early in the interview, Braddock also said, “I have access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians. Don’t get caught up out in public supporting Luna… Luna’s gonna go down and I hope it’s by herself.”
Braddock refused to confirm whether he had made any threats toward Luna during the interview. He also refused to admit saying anything about a hit squad. He did add that it was “allegedly him, but there is no proof of that.” He also claimed the recording may have been edited or altered.
“This is a dirty political tactic that has caused a lot of people a lot of stress and is completely unnecessary,” he said.
Braddock is also alleged to have said during the interview, “My polling people are going to charge me 20,000 to do a poll right before the primary. And if the poll says Luna’s gonna win, she’s gonna be gone. She’s gonna disappear. And you better not tell anybody that. For the good of our country, we have to sacrifice the few. For the better or good of the majority of the people, we’ve got to sacrifice the few.”
Olszewski asked Braddock what would happen if Luna were to win, and Braddock answered, “She’s gonna be gone. Period. End of discussion. Luna is not an issue.”
Olszewski said threats like this shouldn’t be taken lightly. “Normal people don’t say these things,” she said.
Olszewski contacted the authorities, but Braddock has refused to talk, and instead has played victim and has threaten to sue Olszewski.
Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the emancipation or the end of slavery, has become a federally recognized holiday. The bill, which had Bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, was signed into law on Thursday after being passed by Congress on Wednesday.
From a White House press conference, Biden said, “June 19th, 1865, the major general of the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free the last enslaved Americans in Texas from bondage. That day, as you all know, I’m going to repeat some of what was said, became known as Juneteenth. You all know that…
“This is a day in profound, in my view, profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take. What I’ve long called America’s original sin…
“Today, we consecrate Juneteenth for what it out to be, what it must be. A national holiday…”
Despite bipartisan support, the bill had it’s dissenters, with fourteen Republicans in the House voting against it.
Among the House Republicans who voted against the bill, were Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who said, “I fully support creating a day to celebrate the abolition of slavery, , a dark portion of our nation’s history. However, naming this day, ‘National Independence Day,” will create confusion and push Americans to pick one of those two days as their independence day based on their racial identity.”
According to Massive, black Americans celebrating a day to commemorate an end to the slavery of their ancestors, is nothing more than playing racial identity politics.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy said,”I believe it’s often referred to in our history as ‘Jubilee Day,’ as ‘Emancipation Day,’ as Freedom Day’ – I would be amendable to any of those names. I don’t believe that the title ‘National Independence Day’ works, and I would prefer that we just have a debate on that.”
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar – who has some serious issues dealing with race – said in a written statement:
“Our country is divided, and cultural and political Marxists are continuing their efforts to divide this country further.
“Juneteenth is more debunked Critical Race Theory in action. I reject racism. I reject the racial division people are promoting. I voted no because this proposed holiday does not bring us together, it tears us apart.
“I cannot support efforts that furthers racial divisions in this country. We have one Independence Day, and it applies to all people of all races.”
For someone who has no problem cozying up to white nationalists like Nick Fuentes – who is an actual Nazi – Gosar’s statement is not just ironic, but downright absurd.
It’s ironic and absurd that Gosar would claim that it’s cultural Marxists that are dividing the country, when just five months ago, Gosar and a majority of his party supported and lied about not only the election being stolen from Trump, but the insurrection at the Capitol.
The Republican party is the main reason America is so divided They’ve been promoting division for decades. They did it for eight years, portraying a centrist black president as a radical extremist Marxist, communist, socialist who was out to subvert democracy; they’ve done it continuously with Black Lives Matter, claiming it is a race war against white people; they’ve done it with immigration; they’ve done it with prioritizing policing and downplaying racism and violence against black people and other minorities; they’re currently doing it with the creation of voter suppression legislation to prevent black voters from voting Democrat; and they’re promoting division with their hysterical opposition to CRT.
Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale’s statement is just as absurd:
“Let’s call an ace an ace. This is an effort by the Left to create a day out of whole cloth to celebrate identity politics as part of its larger efforts to make Critical Race Theory the reigning ideology of our country. Since I believe treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences.
“The Left has made up what was primarily a Texas holiday, which they are now acting like they recently discovered, in order to continually make Americans feel bad and convince them that our country is evil. The vast majority of Americans are good and this country is great, although there are certainly imperfections in our history, as there are with any country.
“This isn’t an effort to commemorate emancipation, it’s very clearly tied to the larger hard-left agenda to enshrine the racial history of this country as the prime aspect of our national story. They do not want to highlight all the good this country has brought to the world – flight, the Constitution, the defeat of communism and Nazism, the internet – but instead our racial sins. America is good, and efforts to cast the country as otherwise should be opposed.”
Unfortunately, the intention of the legislation is not to appease the precious feelings of conservatives who would rather not face and accept the fact that their version of America is anything less than perfect.
Get over it. Grow up. Move on. Be an adult about it, and accept reality.
Sources: The Week, NPR, Rosendal.House.gov., Gosar.House.gov, rev.com.
According to CDC data, nearly 600,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. That includes mother’s, father’s, children, sons, daughters, grandparents, cousins, teachers and friends. Millions of Americans have been affected by the pandemic, whether directly, or indirectly.
During yesterday’s press conference at the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, president Biden said:
“We’ve made enormous progress in the United States. Much of the country is returning to normal. And our economic growth is leading the world, and the number of cases and deaths are dropping dramatically, but there’s still too many lives being lost. We’re still averaging in the last even days the loss of 370 deaths per day. That’s significantly lower than at the peak of this crises. But it’s still a tragedy. We’re approaching a sad milestone, almost 600,000 lost lives because of COVID-19 in America. My heart goes out to all those who have lost a loved one.
“That’s why I continue to say, America, if you have not been vaccinated, get vaccinated. Get vaccinated as soon as possible, We have plenty of vaccines. Plenty of sites. We have more work to do to beat this virus, and now’s not the time to let our guard down. Please get vaccinated. There’s been enough pain.“
Texas state Attorney General, Kenneth Paxton, is under investigation by the State Bar to determine “whether his lawsuit to overturn Biden’s electoral win was frivolous, unethical, and filed in bad faith.”
Initially, the Bar refused to take the complaint seriously. The complaint filed by Kevin Moran, the president of the Galveston Island Democrats, has shared the complaint with AP News, with letters from the State Bar, and the Board of Disciplinary Appeals to confirm the investigation. He told AP that Paxton should lose his license for attempting to disenfranchise voters in several states.
“He wanted to disenfranchise voters in four other states,” he told the AP. “It’s just crazy. He wasted my taxpayer money.”
The investigation is the least of Paxton’s troubles. He has found himself facing criminal and ethics charges in the past, which include allegations of using his office and position to help donors, “six- figure contributions to his legal defense fund that he insists do not violate Texas’ anti-bribery laws, and an indictment for felony securities fraud that hasn’t gone to trial in five years. Charges whch did not prevent him from being re-elected in 2018.
“I’ve been troubled from the beginning,” former Texas Attorney General, and current Senator John Cornyn told Austin TV station KXAN last year. “It’s pretty dramatic when his senior staff walk out and basically file a complaint against him. That’s really unprecedented.”
The Bar has given Paxton until the end of the month to respond to the complaint, to prove that the lawsuit was legitimate, rather than filed in bad faith based on lies of a stolen election.
Paxton’s office has not responded to requests for comment.
According to White House sources, The Biden Administration is purchasing up to 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for distribution to other nations that need it. 200 million of those doses will be donated sometime this year, and the remaining 300 million in the first half of 2022.
The doses of the vaccine will be shared by COVAX, a W.H.O backed initiative to share and distribute to third-world countries in need of the vaccines. Pfizer is providing the vaccine doses to the U.S. at an alleged “not for profit” price.
The president is expected to announce the plan during the annual Group of Seven meeting – AKA the G7 summit – in Britain this week, which would likely include Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla.
Some public health officials have praised the decision. “It’s an extraordinary development,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, who is an epidemiologist and senior scholar at John Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It sends a profound signal in terms of U.S. commitment to global health security and willingness to help end this pandemic for the world and the United States.”
According to Thomas Bollyky, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who is also the director of its global health program, the decision “is meaningful, but not sufficient on its own.”
“These Pfizer doses will go to many countries,” he said. “The big question is, in what order and what amount? That will have a significant bearing on what the public health impact of the commitment will be.”
“We won’t end this global pandemic anywhere unless we beat it everywhere,'” says Tom Hart, who is acting CEO of the One Campaign, an org to bring an end to global poverty and disease. “Donating doses to COVAX will save lives, reduce the spread of variants, and help reopen global economy. We urge other G-7 countries to follow the U.S. and donate more doses to COVAX. If there was ever a time for global ambition and action to end the pandemic, it’s now.”
California’s assault weapons ban, which has been in effect for thirty-two years, has just been overturned. A federal judge overturned that prohibition on Friday, which he referred to as “a failed experiment because it didn’t include bazookas, howitzers, machine guns, Swiss Army knives, and Swiss Miss cocoa.”
The last time the law was challenged was 2019 by James Miller, a California resident, and the San Diego County Gun Owners, which is a political action committee.
The federal judge, Roger Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California said that the state’s penal code which defined assault weapons were unconstitutional and would be enjoined. He said the case was about “what should be a muscular Constitutional right and whether a state can force a gun policy choice that impinges on the right of “thirsty American citizens who want their guns and their Swiss Miss cocoa.”
“It should be an easy question and answer,” he said. “Government is not free to impose its own new policy choices on American citizens where Constitutional rights are concerned.”
The ridiculous judge said that none of the weapons banned under state law were “bazookas, howitzers, or machine guns, but “fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles.”
California’s governor Gavin Newsom, criticized the ruling as a “direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians.”
He also criticized the opening lines of Benitez’s decision in which the judge claimed that like the Swiss Army knife – and a cup of Swiss Miss Cocoa – “the AR-15 is the perfect defense combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. As soon as you finish that first cup of Swiss Miss – like Folgers in your cup – you can whip out that Swiss Miss Army knife, and your AR-15, and you’re ready to blow away that liberal p***y who’s trying to break into your house to steal your guns. Then you can cut his heart out with your Swiss Miss Army knife and hang it on your mantle as a trophy. And when you’re done, you can celebrate with another hot, sweet cup of Swiss Miss.”
During a press conference Friday, Governor Newsome said, “Comparing an AR-15 to a Swiss Miss Army knife and a cup of Swiss Miss Cocoa, undermines the credibility of this decision, and frankly makes the honorable judge sound like a f***ing loon. Please excuse my French.
“It’s also a slap in the face to the families who have lost loved ones to this weapon – not to mention the millions of gallons of that God-awful cocoa they consumed.”
California’s Attorney General, Rob Bonta, also criticized Friday’s ruling in a written statement.
“Today’s decision is fundamentally flawed and we will be appealing it. There is no sound basis in law, fact, or common sense, for equating assault rifles with Swiss Army Knives or Swiss Miss hot chocolate, for that matter – especially on Gun Violence Awareness Day, and the recent shootings in California communities. It wasn’t Swiss Miss chocolate that killed those people, it was an ***hole with an AR-15. Please excuse my French.”
Second amendment fanatics all over California celebrated by buying tons of Swiss Army knives and Swiss Miss cocoa. In a matter of days, every store and supply chain that carried the two products , were sold out.
Not too long ago, president Biden pushed his goal to vaccinate at least 70% of the adult population by the July 04th holiday. Previously he had offered incentives to get more people to vaccinate.
Participating businesses are apparently offering all sorts of freebies to get more people who are hesitant about getting vaccinated, to get the vaccine. In some cases, the newly-vaccinated can receive anything from beer to Krispy Kreme Donuts. And according to ABC News, dozens of lucky individuals will become new lottery winners. One young woman from Cincinnati recently became a million dollar winner.
As of now, according to CDC data, at least 51% of the U.S. population has received one shot of the vaccine. 41% of the population are fully-vaccinated.
“In just four months , thanks to the American people, we’ve made incredible progress in getting people vaccinated quickly, efficiently, and equitably,” Biden said Wednesday from the White House…
“52% of adults are are now fully-vaccinated, including 75% of all seniors. Twenty-eight states and D.C. have achieved 50% of adults being fully-vaccinated in their jurisdictions. And it’s clear the more people we get vaccinated, the more success we’re going to have in fighting this virus…
“I promise you, we can do this.”
Will the goal of vaccinating 70% of the population be met in time by July 04? That remains to be seen. But it seems unlikely.
Last Wednesday, the White House released a statement by the president, ordering an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone.
Back in March, Biden had directed the National Security Advisor and the Intel Community to prepare a report on their analysis of the origin of the virus.
“I received that report earlier this month,” Biden said in the statement, “and asked for additional follow-up.”
The report, according Biden, was not clear on how the virus had originated, whether it was natural or man-made.
“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has coalesced around two likely scenarios, but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question. Here is their current position: “while two elements in the IC leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority do not believe there is sufficient information to access one to be more likely than the other.”
Last Thursday, Biden was asked by reporters if he was going to release the report. “Yes, unless there’s something I’m unaware of,” he said.
Via statement last Thursday, Amanda Schoch, spokesperson for the office of the Director of National Intelligence: “The U.S. intelligence community does not know exactly where , when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially. The IC continues to examine all available evidence, consider different perspectives, and aggressively collect and analyse new information to identify the virus’s origins.”
Whether Biden’s decision to investigate the origin of the virus is influenced by the opinion of certain scientists or pressure from Trump allies, is unclear. Republicans have accused Biden and Democrats of refusing to take the conspiracy theory of its origin seriously.
“For over a year anyone asking questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been branded as a conspiracy theorist, Josh Hawley said. “The world needs to know if this pandemic was the product of negligence at the Wuhan lab, but the C.C.P. has done everything it can to block a credible investigation.”
Hawley, who believed the election was rigged in favor of Biden, apparently didn’t feel it was necessary for an investigation into the origin of the virus while Trump held the White House and Republicans controlled the Senate, suddenly now wants an investigation. His priority was playing defense for Trump and the party, spreading conspiracies of a stolen election, and attacking the Democrats and the so-called leftist media for politicizing a virus Republicans and right-wing media downplayed from the beginning.
It should be noted that Hawley and a majority of Republicans have done everything they can to block an investigation into the January 06 insurrection which they incited through incendiary rhetoric, but support an investigation into whether the coronavirus was intentionally or accidentally released from a Wuhan lab, which is, obviously, what they’re hoping for.
President Trump stormed out of an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl at the White House last Tuesday afternoon.
According to CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins, the “drama” occured in the Oval office.
“Apparently there was some drama while President Trump was taping his interview today,” she wrote on twitter. “He abruptly ended the interview after around forty-five minutes and did not return for a scheduled “walk and talk” he was supposed to tape with Pence, I am told by sources.
According to one source, Trump walked out of the interview because it was alleged that he had become frustrated with Stahl’s line of questioning. Another source said that most of the interview was focused on the coronavirus pandemic and he was reluctant to discuss a subject that had caused him so much frustration over the last few months. Still another source said it was because Stahl failed to wear a mask in the White House.
But it wasn’t about Stahl’s questioning or her failure to wear a mask that upset the president. It had to do with his hair. For years people have been making fun of his hair. Some have speculated that it’s the result of one of his parents having cross bred with an orangutan, or that it’s some sort of symbiotic parasite that had attached itself to his scalp.
Stahl attempted to start the interview by bringing up Joe Biden’s alleged connection to the Ukraine controversy involving his son Hunter Biden, but the president wasn’t having it. He wanted to talk about his hair.
“There’s only one thing people want to hear about more than anything else, and that’s my hair, ” he told Stahl.
“Excuse me?”
“Do I stutter, Leslie? You’re not talking to stuttering Sleepy Joe here.”
Stahl stared at him, confused.
“What? You want to talk about your hair?”
“That’s right, my hair. What else is there to talk about?”
“Well… the issues? Aren’t they more important than your hair?”
“Not really,” the president said. “I mean, what would be the point? I’m going to win the reelection anyway, so we may as well talk about something that’s really incredible – like my hair. Look at it, Leslie. Don’t you think it’s incredible?”
He ran a hand through it, then tried to flip it back as if he were a teenage boy with long hair. He looked ridiculous.
Stahl stared at him. She had no idea how to respond.
The president went on praising his hair. “It’s fantastic, it’s stupendous, it’s amazing, it’s fabulous, it’s incredible,” he said, making his familiar hand gestures. “Just ask all my fans. They love my hair.”
“I really don’t care what your fans think of your hair, and I doubt most people – can we just talk about – ?”
” ‘My hair?’ the president interrupted.
Stahl sighed, shaking her head, frustrated with the president’s unwillingness to talk about the issues. Anyone who was familiar with the issues, knew exactly why he was unwilling to discuss the issues. He was a train wreck on every issue and he knew it. Taxes, health care, the economy, the coronavirus response. He was trying to avoid embarrassing himself, which was ironic since talking about his hair instead of the issues would make him the butt of countless memes and jokes – as if it were not already.
At this point, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity – or better yet, Jeanine Pirro, the most enthusiastic Trump sycophant of them all – would be fumbling all over themselves to stroke his ego, and his rug, in addition to burying their noses deep into his rear end.
“Touch it, Leslie,” he said, leaning forward. “You’d be amazed how soft it is. I only use the best shampoos, the softest shampoos, Melanie’s shampoos.” He attempted to flick it back again, and again he looked ridiculous.
“I’m not touching your hair, Mr. President,” Stahl said, feeling creeped out by the president’s behavior.
“Why not?”
“Let’s talk about some of the issues that should be brought up at the next debate.”
“Let’s talk about my hair.”
Stahl tried to ignore him. “The coronavirus. You claim your response to the pandemic was excellent -“
“That’s right. I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault. Next question. Preferably about my hair.”
“Black Lives Matter. You’ve referred to them as a terrorist -“
“I don’t want to talk about people who fry pigs like bacon. Let’s talk about my hair.”
“Antifa. You’ve also referred to them as a -“
“My hair.”
Stahl looked at Trump as if he were losing his mind. Republicans were fond of ridiculing Joe Biden for his occasional mental lapses, but the way the president was behaving, Stahl was having serious doubts about his mental state.
“You’ve referred to Antifa as your hair?” she asked.
“No, Leslie, you’re confused. Why would I call my hair Antifa? My hair is not a terrorist group.”
“You’re right. I am confused. I can’t understand why you won’t talk about the issues that are important to voters.”
“Well, my hair is an important issue that voters are concerned about. Ask anybody.”
Stahl stared at him a moment. The cameraman stared at him. Stahl burst out laughing. The cameraman grinned.
“Nobody gives a s*** about – excuse my French – your hair, Mr. President!” she said still laughing. She had a mental image of Trump supporters being questioned as to whether his hair should be included on the ballot as an important issue, with all of them bobbing their heads in unison. She laughed even harder.
“What’s so funny?”
Stahl was laughing so hard she fell from her chair and onto the floor. When the cameraman saw her hit the floor, he too burst out laughing. The president stared at them, bewildered.
“What the hell’s so funny?”
Both Stahl and the cameraman continued laughing. Without saying another word, the president stood up, unclip his mic from his lapel, flicked back his hair again – looking ridiculous – and walked out of the room shaking his head.
“When he said his hair was an important issue that voters actually care about, I lost it,” Stahl later told the Weekly Journal. “I just lost it. I had an image of Trump supporters fawning over that – whatever it is – on his head. It looks like, I don’t know, like a porcupine or something sitting on his scalp. I also had an image of Rush Limbaugh stroking Trump’s hair telling him that it was as soft and smooth as a baby’s butt, and I couldn’t take it. I not only fell apart, but fell out of my chair.”
The president was upset by Stahl’s unwillingness to talk about his hair, but the producers of 60 Minutes were able to talk him into doing another interview – on one condition. Stahl had to agree to say something nice about his hair in the future, to which she reluctantly agreed.
“It was the weirdest interview I’ve ever been a part of,” Stahl concluded. “I always knew the president was a narcissist, but this was just ridiculous. It was also one of the creepiest. When he asked me to touch his hair, I could imagine how Stormy Daniels and all the other women felt when he told them he wanted to grab them by the p*****s. It was really creepy. But at least I got a good laugh out of it, and to be honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever have anything nice to say about that thing on his head.”
