(click on images to enlarge)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
(Ed Hall, Artizans.com)
(Joe Heller, hellertoon.com)
(David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Daily Star)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)
(Matt Wuerker, Politico)
(Walt Handelsman, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
(Jason Adam Katzenstein, @JasonAdamK)
Republican political activist Kelly Ernby, a fierce critic of mandatory vaccinations in her home state of California, and active in Republican politics, served 10 years as a deputy district attorney in Orange County. That should have given her the benefit of the doubt for some common sense. Nevertheless, Ms. Ernby often weighed in on vaccine mandates, saying:
"I don’t think that the government should be involved in mandating what vaccines people are taking. I think that’s a decision between doctors and their patients. We have evidence that there are side effects and things that happen — not all vaccines are the same. Ultimately, we need to be very careful. If the government is going to mandate vaccines, what else are they going to mandate?”
Ms. Ernby won't have to worry about vaccines these days, since she passed away -- unvaccinated -- from COVID-19, at the early age of 46, but not before she gave an anti-vaxx speech a month ago:
"As recently as Dec. 4, she spoke against them during a rally held outside Irvine City Hall. Organized by the UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton chapters of Turning Point USA, the rally drew dozens in attendance, according to the Daily Titan, a CSUF student newspaper.
'There’s nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,' Ernby said."
Not even death, apparently.
Over the past few months, it's been a wonder to behold the infighting among the crackpots inhabiting the demented world of QAnon. The broadsides going back and forth from the likes of Lin Wood, Michael Flynn, Patrick Byrne and many lesser-known cranks comes as some of the conspiracists (Wood, Rudy "Toot Toot" Giuliani and Sydney Powell) are facing legal peril and hefty financial damages. The various warring loon camps have one thing in common, though: they know there are sheep to be fleeced to cover their bills:
To help cover their legal bills, the factions have set up online merchandise shops targeting their most loyal followers. Fans of Powell’s bogus conspiracy theory can, for instance, buy a four-pack set of “Release the Kraken: Defending the Republic” drink tumblers from her website for $80. On Flynn’s newly launched website, fans can buy “General Flynn: #FightLikeAFlynn” women’s racerback tank tops for $30. And Wood’s online store sells $64.99 “#FightBack” unisex hoodies; the fleece, a listing says, feels like “wearing a soft, fluffy cloud.”
Their arguments increasingly resemble the performative clashes of pro wrestling, said Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theory researcher and author of a book on QAnon: full of flashy, marketable story lines of heroes conquering their enemies. The drama, he said, gives the influencers a way to keep their audiences angry and engaged while also offering them a chance to prove their loyalty by buying stuff.
QAnon is “the easiest money that you could possibly make if you don’t have a conscience, but there’s only a certain number of people you can fleece. It’s not a renewable resource,” said Rothschild (who has no relation to the famous banking family targeted in antisemitic conspiracy theories).
“The fact that they’re all mad at each other, that’s all a byproduct of the fact that they’re just desperate for money, and there’s only a certain amount,” he added. So now, he said, the us-vs.-them argument for many QAnon influencers is: “They’re the pedophiles, the Freemasons, the illuminati. I’m the truth-teller. I’m the one who’s trying to save the world.”
There's always been and will always be an audience for conspiracy theories because they provide an explanation (however bizarre and demented) of the otherwise inexplicable to some portion of the population, many of whom have some mental illness or weakness, who fear change or a perceived loss of status. The QAnon movement exhibits the characteristics of a shared psychosis, and those who take advantage of them (however much we rightfully disdain their dangerous gullibility) for power or financial gain are truly people with no conscience. If these factions of fleecing sociopaths end up cannibalizing each other, so much the better.
(Photo: The QAnon shaman / Dario Lopez-Mills, AP)
Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, appearing this morning on MSNBC, speaking to the charges that the malignant former guy might face in connection with the January 6 insurrection:
"We've got this 187 minutes when [Trump] sat and did nothing despite the fact that he knew that this violence and destruction was occurring. Is it because it was all part of a larger plan? So I think, in addition to that obstruction statute that Congresswoman Cheney has mentioned, I think we could also look at conspiracy to defraud the United States -- that just means trying to impede the normal functioning of government -- all the way up to seditious conspiracy. I think all of those potential crimes are in play." (our emphasis)
The seditious conspiracy charge should be a no-brainer, and should apply to all of Trump's henchmen, from Bannon to Giuliani to Meadows, and including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. In other words, his circle of seditionists.
Fascist kleptocrats gotta stick together! --
I don't typically screenshot Trump endorsements but this merits an exception:
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) January 3, 2022
Hungary's Viktor Orbán has Trump's "Complete support and Endorsement" pic.twitter.com/Yymp3uDlOa
The fascist demographic (cont.) --
There’s something seriously wrong with 38% of the country https://t.co/2Hc0nMS0Cm
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) January 3, 2022
Covidiot cop cosplay --
What could go wrong? https://t.co/o2NFGoR5su
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) January 3, 2022
Fighting Republican gerrymandering, one state at a time --
🚨⚖️COURT ALERT: Lawsuits challenging North Carolina's new legislative and congressional maps go to trial today. #ncpol
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) January 3, 2022
Here's what you need to know.👇🧵
Always ageless --
Only President Obama could top Betty White!! This is Awesome!! SOUND UP
— Chuck And Jim 🏳️🌈 👬🐻🌪🌊🌎 #IDWP (@fireman452a) January 2, 2022
pic.twitter.com/KEDisHfSOw
Subpoenas were just issued by the New York State Attorney General's office in the civil fraud investigation into the Trump (crime family) Organization. Not surprisingly, they're not cooperating:
Former President Trump’s eldest son and daughter have refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the New York State attorney general’s office as it conducts a civil investigation into the way the family real estate business valued its holdings.
“A dispute has arisen between the OAG and the Individual Trump Parties regarding the Subpoenas,” a document filed Monday said.
The document, filed jointly by New York Attorney General Letitia James and an attorney for the Trump Organization, said Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump will now be named as respondents in James’ ongoing inquiry, which parallels a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump will file motions to quash the subpoenas as soon as Monday, the filing indicated.
The former president and his company have denied wrongdoing and have attacked the investigation as political.
The ongoing criminal investigation has so far resulted in indictments against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg on tax charges.
Demented Daddy was subpoenaed late last year and is also refusing to comply.
Tick tock...
(Photo: the rotten apples didn't plop far from the tree)
(click on images to enlarge)
(John Buss, @repeat1968)
(John Branch, Houston Chronicle)
(John Cole, ncpolicywatch.com)
(Ellis Rosen, @EllisRosen)
(Bob Eckstein, The New Yorker)
Malignant losing demagogue Donald "Big Lie" Trump likes to use the judicial system to draw out and suffocate legal actions against him. From when he was a crooked, deadbeat developer in New York City to his current status anticipating multiple indictments for fraud, racketeering and obstruction, he will tell his lawyers to go the extra mile in filing appeals and delays. His blatant attempt to block the National Archives from releasing official records of his communications on January 6 is just another example.
Two former longtime U.S. Archivists, Don W. Wilson and John W. Carlin, are certain that Trump is hiding records from that infamous day that will put him in prison:
“'Given how frantic they are... there are things in those records that are going to make real trouble. I’m talking about prison time,' Carlin mused to The Daily Beast. 'It reinforces the fact that they know they’re in real trouble if these things are released—particularly if they’re released soon.'
An outgoing president’s White House records go straight to the National Archives and Records Administration, where they could be kept away from the public for up to 12 years. However, President Joe Biden waived that presidential privilege when he allowed the bipartisan House Jan. 6 Committee to request some documents about Trump’s final weeks in office. Trump sued to block that, and his odd claims of 'residual' executive privilege got knocked down by a federal judge who noted 'presidents are not kings' and an appellate panel that found his argument has 'no basis.' This epic fight over records is now reaching the Supreme Court." (our emphasis)
The records are expected to include Trump's attempts to use the Justice Department to force States to invalidate the 2020 election results, and to mobilize his fanatical followers in the House and Senate to block the electoral vote certification. Then there's the question of communications with the so-called "war room" at the Willard Hotel, staffed with seditionists like Steve "Loose Cannon" Bannon and his ilk who may be shown to have directed or coordinated with the rioting domestic terrorists that day. The January 6 Congressional committee will get those records if the Supreme Court, as expected, rejects Trump's obviously flawed claim.
Ironically, it's widely known that Trump wanted to remain as President to claim immunity from prosecution and stay out of jail, when his actions toward that end may eventually send him there.
(photo illustration: New Year's wish)
As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
The New York Effing Times, where there is a cognitive dissonance between the editorial page and the news pages, had an editorial on the existential threat to our democracy posed by the Trump Republican Party:
It is regular citizens who threaten election officials and other public servants, who ask, “When can we use the guns?” and who vow to murder politicians who dare to vote their conscience. It is Republican lawmakers scrambling to make it harder for people to vote and easier to subvert their will if they do. It is Donald Trump who continues to stoke the flames of conflict with his rampant lies and limitless resentments and whose twisted version of reality still dominates one of the nation’s two major political parties.
In short, the Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends. No self-governing society can survive such a threat by denying that it exists. Rather, survival depends on looking back and forward at the same time.
Truly grappling with the threat ahead means taking full account of the terror of that day a year ago. Thanks largely to the dogged work of a bipartisan committee in the House of Representatives, this reckoning is underway. We know now that the violence and mayhem broadcast live around the world was only the most visible and visceral part of the effort to overturn the election. The effort extended all the way into the Oval Office, where Mr. Trump and his allies plotted a constitutional self-coup. [snip]
This is where looking forward comes in. Over the past year, Republican lawmakers in 41 states have been trying to advance the goals of the Jan. 6 rioters — not by breaking laws but by making them. Hundreds of bills have been proposed and nearly three dozen laws have been passed that empower state legislatures to sabotage their own elections and overturn the will of their voters, according to a running tally by a nonpartisan consortium of pro-democracy organizations. [snip]
Thus the Capitol riot continues in statehouses across the country, in a bloodless, legalized form that no police officer can arrest and that no prosecutor can try in court.
The Times being The Times, no ink or electrons are expended examining the blame the media in general or The Times in particular shoulders for the current state of affairs. Until and unless they come to grips with that and make changes, they're part of the problem, not the solution (not holding our breath).
As The Times editorial notes, the reckoning is underway in the form of the January 6 committee's upcoming must- see- tv:
They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.
Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.
In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.
But the nine lawmakers — seven Democrats and two Republicans — are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.
Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.
Let's also get those criminal referrals ready to go, please.
On the COVID-19 front, keep your eye on the hospitalization numbers:
As the United States continues to see a huge spike in coronavirus cases driven by the omicron variant, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, says the better way to track the variant’s impact is to look at growing hospitalizations.
The United States was averaging more than 400,000 new cases each day as of Monday, double the previous week’s rate, according to Washington Post data, and is expected to soon hit as many as 1 million cases per day. Fauci, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, said “the real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is: Are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalization?”
Hospitalizations are up 31 percent from last week, and deaths increased by 37 percent, with about 1,500 Americans dying of covid-19 each day. Experts have warned that this surge will be driven by the unvaccinated, as those who are vaccinated and boosted would have considerable protection from serious illness.
Fauci warned of the broader dangers on CNN: “Even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with omicron than it is with delta, there is still the danger that you will have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the health-care system.”
Where is the problem most acute? Why, mostly in Republican- governed anti-vax, anti-mask states, of course:
Lower vaccination rates and fewer mask and vaccine mandates have created a much different environment for the omicron variant to spread in the South, leaving experts unsure whether outbreaks will end up deadlier than in the North.
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi are among the states experiencing the sharpest increases in covid-19 hospitalizations since Christmas, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. And the situation may only get worse, as initial outbreaks in metropolitan areas spread to more poorly vaccinated rural regions.
The unvaccinated are causing great harm to the health care system in this country, as they play a major role in perpetuating the pandemic. At this point, we're losing interest in what harm they're doing to themselves and their families.
What happens when a cosseted pro football player is humored and enabled rather than helped? This:
Coach Bruce Arians announced afterward that Brown no longer plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which Brown had already declared with his behavior. That Brown, 33, could choose the time and manner of his departure, no matter how bizarre, should shame the Buccaneers and many others across the NFL. All the times Brown should have received serious help or significant punishment over the past three years, he received more chances to play football.
Each time one team grew tired of his antics, another clamored to sign him. When two women accused Brown of sexual assault and the NFL suspended him for half a season for a separate battery charge involving a moving company employee, Tom Brady leaped to rehabilitate him. When he used a fake vaccination card this year, the NFL slapped his wrist with a three-game suspension and Arians allowed competitive desperation to trump his zero-tolerance vow about Brown.
Well, any league that will tolerate the on-going shame of having Li'l Danny Snyder as an owner is pretty much capable of tolerating anything.
"Now, for something completely different,"* please head over to Infidel 753's link round-up to interesting posts he curated from around the Internet. There's plenty to interest even the most jaded reader. Also check out his ten most important stories of 2021 -- hard to argue with his choices!
* Yes, that was a Monty Python reference.
(click on image to enlarge)
From NASA/ESA, December 27, 2021: The lonely spiral galaxy UGC 9391 is shown in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3. This galaxy resides 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco near the north celestial pole. The star-studded spiral arms stand in splendid isolation against a backdrop of distant galaxies, which are only visible as indistinct swirls or smudges thanks to their vast distances from Earth. The image also features some much brighter foreground stars closer to home. These bright nearby stars are ringed with diffraction spikes — prominent spikes caused by light interacting with the inner workings of Hubble’s complicated optics.
This image is from a set of Hubble observations which astronomers used to construct the “Cosmic Distance Ladder” — a set of connected measurements allowing the distances to the most distant astronomical objects to be determined. Astronomical distances are only directly measurable for relatively nearby objects — closer than 3000 light-years or so. For distances beyond this, astronomers rely on a set of measured correlations calibrated against nearby objects. UGC 9391 helped astronomers improve their distance estimates by providing a natural laboratory in which to compare two measuring techniques — supernova explosions and Cepheid variables. Improving the precision of distance measurements helps astronomers quantify how quickly the Universe is expanding — one of Hubble’s key science goals.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
January 6 committee has the receipts --
On ABC, Liz Cheney says Jan 6 committee has first-hand testimony that Trump watched assault on the Capitol on TV & resisted pleas from McCarthy & Ivanka asking he call for a stop to the violence.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2022
Cheney adds that she thinks Trump returning to office could be the end of democracy pic.twitter.com/iz8Ibydb3u
Of course he was.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 2, 2022
Corrupt obstruction of a congressional proceeding by deliberate inaction is a serious federal felony. https://t.co/3GOUFUCsrb
Chilling Trump Letter Calling For 'Seizure' Of Election Material Revealed In Log To Jan. 6 Probers
— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) January 2, 2022
https://t.co/XCUjvxbaaD
The on-going coup --
NYT editorial: “Thus the Capitol riot continues in statehouses across the country, in a bloodless, legalized form that no police officer can arrest and that no prosecutor can try in court.” https://t.co/V997WonIST
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 2, 2022
The fascist demographic --
A majority of Republicans say the people involved in the attack on the Capitol on January 6 were "mostly protecting democracy" https://t.co/PlxBFzmmHy
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) January 2, 2022
Poll details: https://t.co/tVUSKchPLu pic.twitter.com/BPygKaZL8o
Hypocritical sociopath/ demagogue Gov. Greg Abbott --
Hours apart. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/o2px27JHcZ
— Nathaniel Horadam, 2022 Edition (@NW_Horadam) January 1, 2022
"Hi, my name is Karen, I'm white and I have a complaint" --
A white lady called into the news station to complain that her local news anchor (Michelle Li) was being “very Asian” over dumplings on New Year’s day.
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) January 2, 2022
Imagine walking around this world with these kinds of thoughts banging around in your head.
Bless you, Michelle… https://t.co/TBsPcaRBtk
Surprised it took this long to bounce fascist nut job Rep. Marjorie Traitor Greene from the Twitter machine, but better late, etc.:
"Twitter suspended Ms. Greene’s account after she tweeted on Saturday, falsely, about 'extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.' She included a misleading chart that pulled information from a government database of unverified raw data called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a decades-old system that relies on self-reported cases from patients and health care providers.
Twitter said that Ms. Greene had a fifth 'strike,' which meant that her account will not be restored. The company had issued her a fourth strike in August after she falsely posted that the vaccines were “failing.” Ms. Greene was given a third strike less than a month before that when she had tweeted that Covid-19 was not dangerous for people unless they were obese or over age 65, and said vaccines should not be required." (our emphasis)
"Fifth strike?" That's not exactly hardball.
The unhinged Georgia COVIdiot has maliciously spread lies about public health measures meant to curb the virus, even after her adored Dear Leader started touting the vaccines, angering his most rabid, Q-cult followers. Unfortunately, she still has her Congressional Twitter account to spew her dangerous death cult thoughts.
Just last week, Greene was floating the idea on Twitter of a "national divorce" (read: secession) that would divide majority Dem states from majority Republican / New Confederate states in separate countries. Treasonous talk suggesting violent secession should earn her a "strike" from Twitter, but it won't, given the spread of that particular virus among the far right in America.
(photo: Someone just smelled herself. Reuters/USA Today Network)
We're animal lovers with mixed pet cat/ dog families, but we feel obliged to alert the public to this potential threat:
“Cat-started fires are continuing to be reported these days," Chung Gyo-chul, an official working at the department told the Korea Herald. "We advise pet owners to pay extra attention as fire could spread widely when no one is at home.”
According to the Seoul organization, 107 fires sparked by felines were recorded between January 2019 and November 2021. Over half of the fires recorded were started when the owners were out of the house, officials said.
Of the recorded incidents, four people were injured.
Fire-starting pets are not just a problem in South Korea: In the United States, almost 1,000 home fires each year are started by pets, according to the National Fire Protection Association, although it remains unclear what percentage of these blazes were started by cats. (Ed.: all of them, Katie!).
But, if you're lucky, there'll be a good boy or two to come to the rescue:
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." -- former AZ Senator and ultra conservative Barry Goldwater, in accepting the 1964 nomination from the Republican Party for President.
Of course, it depends on what you interpret as defending liberty. Unlike his orthodox conservative Republican predecessors, Goldwater, born 120 years ago today, represented more of the "libertarian" brand in his party and paved the way for such ultra conservatives as Ronald Reagan. His ideology infuses much of what we now see in the Republican / New Confederate / Active Shooter party: fetishizing gun "rights" over public safety, rejection of any government "solutions" to economic / social problems, deregulation that serves corporate interests, promoting selfishness over common purpose, etc. Although it's likely he would have been disgusted by Trump personally, Goldwater's subjective "extremism" as expressed in his speech helped spark the movement that eventually put Trump in power, and threatens democracy today.
The BBC's tour of New Year celebrations around the globe:
