Saturday, July 31, 2021

Tweets Of The Day


Get. The. Damn. Vaccine. --

 

  

The Party of Death -- 


 

 


 

Mental health, male v. female athletes --


 


Fans do it all for the Delta variant nookie in Chicago --  


 

 

Arizona Frauditors Return Ballots To Maricopa Co.




The pawing of 2.1 million 2020 ballots from Maricopa County, AZ for Chinese bamboo fragments and holograms and hell knows what else by deranged Republican Trumpers is over....for now. The frauditors returned the ballots to the control of Maricopa County's board of elections on Thursday:

"Workers at the Arizona State Fairgrounds loaded the ballots onto trucks, which hauled the ballots the 2½ miles back to county property.

For now, all of the ballot boxes will stay in a secure room at the Elections Department that only a few officials from the treasurer's office have access to.

On Monday, officials plan to move the boxes again to the permanent vault in the Treasurer's Office, where they are required to be preserved for two years under federal law, said Elections Department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson."

In an effort to assuage their mentally unstable Dear Leader's bruised and sick ego for having lost Arizona to President Biden, the Republican / Trumpist - controlled legislature ordered the fake audit earlier this year. His cult members are falsely claiming that 275,000 ballots were fraudulent, a claim that's been fact checked and debunked.

In May, the Department of Justice warned the State Senate President and loyal Trumpist Karen Fann that their "audit" may be in violation of Federal election laws, given that the control over the ballots was handed over to a Trump-aligned company "Cyber Ninjas" to manage the fraudit. A proposed door-to-door voter canvassing was also perceived as potential voter intimidation by the Republicans. DOJ has also warned other states about undertaking an Arizona-style fraudit as a potential violation of Federal statutes. So for now the charade has ended, but the lying about the results has just begun.

(photo: "I think I see Jebus' image on this one."  Courtney Pedroza / Getty Images)

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Marc Murphy, Louisville Courier-Journal, KY)

(Ed Hall, Artizans.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)

(Michael de Adder, Washington Post)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

(Peter Kuper, weeklyhumorist.com) 

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)


 

Millions Face Eviction As Moratorium Ends




At midnight tonight, the moratorium on evictions expires, which could result in up to 11 million people being evicted from rental properties in the weeks ahead. Originally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued the ban, but a challenge by landlords to their authority was upheld by the Supreme Court, which ruled that Congress would have to extend the moratorium through legislation. Late yesterday, nihilist Republicans in the House killed a unanimous consent request to extend the moratorium for six more weeks. The House then adjourned for August recess.

The maddening aspect, in addition to the Rethugs' action, is that $46 billion has been appropriated for rental assistance, but only approximately $6 billion has been spent by state and local governments. The dropped ball now is in the hands of state and local governments, who have to find some means of holding landlords at bay until the funds start flowing. The prospects for that to happen aren't good. From the Washington Post article:

"Just 36 out of more than 400 states, counties and cities reporting data to the Treasury Department were able to spend half of the money allotted them by the end of June. Another 49 hadn’t spent any funds at all.

The reasons are manifold. Before the pandemic, the country had no infrastructure to quickly pump billions of dollars of rental relief to those who need it. As states and cities rushed to build their own programs, they were dogged with confusion, glitches and false starts."

With the Delta variant surging, there's not a worst time to be putting people out in the street or filling homeless shelters to the max. As a housing expert said:

“Without swift intervention to scale with the eviction crisis, the rental assistance will arrive too late to prevent widespread housing loss and its damaging effect on the nation’s health," said Emily Benfer, a housing expert at Wake Forest University. "At this moment of uncertainty in the war against covid-19, we can’t afford to drop one of the major primary prevention tools we have.”
With billions allocated for rental assistance, there was no excuse for this to happen. 

Tracking Down The Insurrectionists, Cont.



It was the best of days, it was the worst of days:

A man charged in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 allegedly described his time inside Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office as part of "the best day of his life."

Donald Smith was charged with illegally entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or destructive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and parading, picketing or demonstrating in a Capitol building on Wednesday.

A witness anonymously contacted the FBI on January 9 to inform the agency that Smith was one of the rioters and had been openly bragging about his exploits. A tip that the FBI received days later, from a person who said they were the alleged rioter's coworker, indicated that Smith had shared presumably doctored videos and photos of himself and others "storming the white house" while bragging about being inside Pelosi's office.

"I work with a man who showed up with pictures and video of him and others storming the white house," the witness said, according to the criminal complaint. "He says he was in Nancy Pelosis office and that it was the best day of his life."

Our bet is that Smith still hasn't seen the worst day of his life.



The hypocrites that pray together go to jail together:

Glenn Allen Brooks of Huntington Beach, California has been charged with disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, along with disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

In the criminal complaint against Brooks, the FBI explained how he was identified.

"On or about January 30, 2021, the FBI received an electronic tip from Witness #1, who stated that a member of his/her church prayer text group, Glenn Brooks, boasted of his active participation in the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Witness #1 also stated that Brooks sent photos of his attendance at the Capitol to the church text group that included other people at the riots/protest and a selfie photo of himself inside the Capitol," an FBI special agent attested.

During a follow up interview, the witness provided Brooks' address, phone number and email address. The special agent says the Bureau corroborated the information the witness provided.

The witness also provided a photo of Brooks and said a selfie photo taken inside the Capitol also depicted Brooks.  (our emphasis)

Let's identify his co- religionist/ insurrectionists now.

The FBI is still looking for many of the insurrectionists.  Check out their web site to see if anyone looks familiar.

(Photos:  top, Donald Smith/ Saul Loeb, AFP Getty; bottom, Glenn Allen Brooks/ via criminal complaint document)

Friday, July 30, 2021

Tweets Of The Day


If it was good enough for George Washington --

 

 


Homina homina --

 


Dedicated public servant --

 

 


Easy!  The Republican Party!  --

 


Put the next flight of arrows in their asses, An San --

 

 

Happy Friday (except at Merde a Lardo) --

 

 

 

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal, FL)

(Michael Ramirez, Las Vegas Review-Journal)

(Rob Rogers, Counterpoint)

 (John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Rick McKee, Counterpoint)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(John Branch, branchtoon.com)

(Darrin Bell, comicskingdom.com)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)


QOTD -- He Alone Can "Fix" It



"Just say that the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen." -- malignant coup plotter Donald Trump, December 27, 2020, as reported by Katie Benner of the New York Times ($$).  (See HuffPo's account) That's Trump trying (but failing) to establish a "legal" predicate for the events that were to take place on January 6, 2021. 

Doubtless the January 6 select committee will subpoena the Trump Justice officials and the Trump congressional co- conspirators involved, and then let the chips (or criminal referrals) fall as they may.


Weekend Music Twofer

 

New York City's Bleachers, fronted by Jack Antonoff, recently received some added buzz by collaborating with Bruce Springsteen on their 2020 single, "Chinatown."  Now they're out with a new album, "Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night," and a brand new single (co-written with Lana Del Rey), "Don't Go Dark," which we think illustrates Springsteen's influence on the band's music.

Our second song, "Out of Time," appeared on three  Rolling Stones albums:  "Aftermath" (1966 UK release), "Flowers" (1967 US release), and "Metamorphosis" (1975 release, with only Mick Jagger from the Stones performing).  The version from "Flowers" is the one we're most familiar with (and it's shorter by about 2 minutes), and is the one we're using.  Surprisingly, "Out of Time" has never been performed live by the Rolling Stones (along with all the other songs on the second side of the UK version of "Aftermath"!)!  Hope you enjoy the music, with Brian Jones adding a quirky but effective marimba, and set aside the Stones' patented mid-60's macho fronting!

 

 

GA Republicans' First Assault On Voting Rights

 

The ongoing Republican / Trumpist / GQP plans to rig the 2022 elections and beyond is brazenly moving forward in the key state of Georgia. Nationally, the Republicans have several tools to employ in frustrating the will of the voters who don't vote vote for them, like gerrymandering Congressional districts, passing voting laws that clearly discriminate against Dem constituencies, and post-election nullification of votes to ensure that they remain in power. The latter of those tools is being used in Georgia, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"A letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows two dozen state senators support a performance review of Fulton elections chief Richard Barron. The letter was written Tuesday, the very same day a front-page AJC story examined the prospect of a takeover of elections in Fulton, home to a tenth of all Georgians.  [snip]

As written into Senate Bill 202, the State Election Board can replace a county’s election board following a performance review/audit/investigation. Then, a temporary superintendent would enjoy full managerial authority of how the county counts votes and staffs polling places."

That "temporary superintendant" would be under the control of the State's Republican legislature, which could throw out just enough Dem votes to change a statewide election, such as the 2022 elections with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) on the ballot.

Georgia's notorious Senate Bill 202 was the Republican reaction to losing two Senate seats and the Presidential vote in 2020, establishing onerous new requirements for voting that demonstrably will suppress minority and student votes. The Justice Department filed suit last month in response to the law's discriminatory requirements. Also, Fulton County is heavily Democratic and its county leadership and legal team have pledged to fight the action by the Republican state senators. That fight, supported by the Justice Department's suit, needs to be won.

 

Regrets, They've Had A Few

 

America's covidiots -- Trumpers, anti- vaxxers, hesitants -- are paying the price for their decisions not to get vaccinated against COVID, as one might expect (unless you're a covidiot).  Here are three.

Missouri

Daryl Barker was passionately against a COVID-19 vaccination, and so were his relatives. Then 10 of them got sick and Barker, at just 31, ended up in a Missouri intensive care unit fighting for his life.

It’s a scenario playing out time and again at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, where 22 people died from the virus in the first 23 days of July. Many other hospitals across Missouri are fighting the same battle, the result of the fast-spreading delta variant invading a state with one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, especially in rural areas.

Mississippi

A Mississippi man said he came close to dying after getting COVID-19. Now he’s hoping others will learn from his health journey after going from vaccine skeptic to a vaccine believer.

Bryan Thompson, 43, is married to Audrey. He has a 6-year-old son named Endymion. He works for an IT company from home. He says he’s otherwise a healthy man, but he is unvaccinated against COVID-19.

“I was unvaccinated, yeah, I myself was a little skeptical and I felt it got rushed, I wanted to just make sure it was safe. We were in a low-risk situation. It wasn’t like I was a front-line worker somewhere seeing hundreds of people a day” said Thompson. “So I figured if anyone can take a little bit of a risk it could be us because of our situation.”

That is until he got COVID-19. [snip]

Thompson said he had a fever, which led to pneumonia. He ended up in the hospital.

He said he recovered and was discharged, but once he got home things took a turn.

“During the night, [the] pain increased to a level I have never experienced,” he said. “[The] Worst pain I have ever felt in my life. My foot just... I can’t explain it. Like, screaming-out kind of pain.”

“The whole night he was in excruciating pain, yelling.. just could not get out of pain. I’ve never seen someone be in so much pain,” said his wife Audrey.

Audrey rushed him to the emergency room and that’s when doctors found several blood clots in his leg.

“It eventually got to the point where there was just no hope to save anything,” said Bryan. “I had to have my leg, it’s been amputated from right underneath my knee.”

Nevada

Two weeks ago, life was great for Jessica DuPreez. She was on vacation in San Diego with her fiancé Michael Freedy, (better known as Big Mike at the M Resort where he worked), and their five kids ages 17, 10, 7, 6 and 17 months.

Shortly after their vacation, Freedy went to the hospital for what he thought was a severe sunburn. He tested positive for COVID-19.

Thursday morning, Freedy died with DuPreez by his side.

“He is only 39. Our babies now don't have a dad. You can't say I am young and it won't affect me because it will,” DuPreez said.

Freedy was not vaccinated for COVID-19.

Freedy was not vaccinated for COVID-19.

“We wanted to wait just one year from the release to see what effects people had, but there was never any intention to not get it,” DuPreez said. That is a decision she said she will always regret and has now gotten the shot along with their oldest child.

Freedy sent her a text message while in the hospital it said, ““I should have gotten the damn vaccine.”

Yes, you all should have gotten the damn vaccine.  Instead, you, your loved ones and your community were made to suffer.  Was it worth it?

(h/t Raw Story for the leads)


Thursday, July 29, 2021

Qevin McCarthy Invokes QAnon Term




Moronic blowdried hack and QAnon quackery adherent House minority leader Rep. Kevin "Qevin" McCarthy called the lie-hungry Beltway media together today to vomit out a series of lies, deflection, and at least one infamous term used by QAnon cultists, namely, "the storm is coming":

"There's a greater chance you'd got hit by lighting," McCarthy said. He then took a long pause, and then declared, "But for some reason, Pelosi thinks the storm is coming."

The Republican / Trumpist / GQP's latest faux issue is the House's requirement -- based on the recommendation of the House physician and CDC guidelines -- that masks be worn on the floor of the House. Our suggestion is that Speaker Pelosi urge Republican Congresscritters not to jump off of a tall building, knowing that Qevin and his covidiots will gladly do the opposite just to, you know, show her.

(photo: Qevin whisperer the QAnon shaman. Win McNamee / Getty Images)

QOTD -- Trumpers' "Snowflake Syndrome"

 

"On numerous fronts in our politics — from voting rights to covid-19 to the legacy of Jan. 6 — we’re being told these voters are afflicted with a deeply fragile belief system that must be carefully ministered to and humored to an extraordinary degree.

"We must pass voting restrictions everywhere to assuage these voters’ “belief” that the 2020 election was highly dubious or fraudulent. We must not argue too aggressively for coronavirus vaccines, lest they feel shamed and retreat into their anti-vax epistemological shells.

"And we must allow Republicans to appoint some of the most deranged promoters of the stolen election myth to a committee examining the insurrection so they’ll feel like its findings are credible."  Greg Sargent on Trump voters' disingenuous and dangerous "Snowflake Syndrome".


 

Tweets Of The Day


Covidiots --

 

 

 

 


Extreme gerrymandering's threat to our democracy --

 


Dipshits criticizing the G.O.A.T. --

 

 

 

The U.K.'s Trump also has difficulties with umbrellas (someone needs to add "Yakety Sax" to this)--

 

 

 

Infrastructure: What Was Left Out




The New York Times carried an article and a useful set of graphs illustrating just what the Dems ended up with in their negotiations with a handful of Republican Senators on President Biden's signature infrastructure proposal. To say that a lot more needs to be done in the upcoming 2022 budget reconciliation process is an understatement (click to enlarge):



The amount of new funding in the "bipartisan" plan is less than a quarter of the President's original proposal. Given the conserva-Dems who volunteered to cut a deal, it's not surprising that clean energy, in-home care, and innovation were left out, among other priorities. Details will be filled in, and amounts negotiated, when the full Senate and the House weigh in. According to the article cited:

"Three major areas of President Biden’s original proposal were not included in the bipartisan deal: buildings, in-home care and innovation. The bipartisan plan also left out $363 billion in clean energy tax credits."

Despite that, the White House lauded the "bipartisan" deal, despite the dramatic reductions in the amounts to be spent on Biden's priorities, which may suggest they weren't the priorities after all, or they so overinflated the numbers that future spending proposals (e.g., on the things left out this time) will be viewed as full of fluff. The fulsome praise by the White House for the deal also suggests that Biden placed good ol' fashioned "bipartisanship" to "get things done" over his supporters' needs, and the imperative of modifying or eliminating the filibuster to get the right things done. Stay tuned.

(photo: Grasping his arm, Sen. Sinema (?-AZ) looks adoringly at Sen. Rob Portman (Sedition-OH).  Scott Applewhite / AP)

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Nick Anderson, Counterpoint)

(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Bruce Plante, caglecartoons.com)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Jason Adam Katzenstein, @JasonAdamK)

(Mike Thompson, USA Today)


The Return of the "Lost Cause"

 

One of the more heinous myths in American history is that of the "lost cause" created after the Civil War by Confederate  sympathizers. The hard truth is that several southern states committed treason by taking up arms against the United States in order to preserve the vicious practice of human slavery. In today's increasingly radical and racist Republican / Trumpist / GQP party, with their attacks on critical race theory and embrace of their white supremacy followers, that "lost cause" myth is rearing its ugly head. Charles Blow writes in the New York Times:

"When the South lost the Civil War, revisionists there invented the propaganda narrative of the “Lost Cause,” positing that the fight had been honorable and righteous and not about maintaining slavery but maintaining a superior way of life. In this narrative, slavery had been good and the enslaved treated relatively well, with many of the enslaved happy workers. [snip]

We are in the midst of another Lost Cause moment. Conservatives in this country lost a battle in the racial war after the publication of The 1619 Project by The Times and after the historic protests that engulfed the country and the world in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

I’m not sure that I would call it a racial reckoning, but it was definitely a racial rousing.

America seemed willing to at least adjust the narrative about the country, how it was born and how it grew, who belongs and to whom a debt is due. But to many, this was the greatest of threats."

All of the agitation from the right-wing over the academic explanation of how racism has been imbedded in our institutions over time is a manifestation of the threat to their cherished white supremacist myth. It's become the rallying cry of Republicans who want to appeal to the basest racist elements in our culture in order to strengthen their base of support.  Blow concludes:

"So Republicans are on a political crusade to protect lore and lies. They know that many Americans, many of them their voters, will take a lie over guilt and atonement, every day of the week. Many are lost causes in the morass of political tribalism, which makes them all the more open to Lost Cause propaganda." 

That's what the rest of us are up against, and must fight. 

 

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Stats Of The Day -- Natural Selection In Action

 

"... In the past two weeks, there have been about 237,000 new coronavirus cases recorded in counties that voted for President Biden last year — and 388,000 in counties that voted for Donald Trump. Adjusted for population, there have been about 126 new cases per 100,000 residents of blue counties and 278 new cases per 100,000 residents of red ones. On average, blue counties are seeing 10.2 new cases for every 100,000 residents, while red counties are seeing 19.5 new cases per 100,000 residents." -- Philip Bump in the Washington Post, on the effects of letting a deadly virus run wild in order to own the libs.


Tweets Of The Day


The "party of life and of un-intrusive gummint" --

 

 


Rules and laws meant for thee, not for me --

 

 

 

Advice not likely to be taken --

 

 

Goats going after the G.O.A.T --

 

 

 

 

Trash people -- 


 

 

Today's Cartoons -- Insurrection Edition

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)

(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Steve Breen, San Diego Union- Tribune)

(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)


(Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Marc Murphy, Louisville Courier-Journal, KY)