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The problem is that we have universal free healthcare. Every one of these covidiots who get sick cost the system (and taxpayers) hundreds of thousands of dollars. We need to set up a system like they have in some other countries where people who do not sign they organ donor cards are advised that if they need a replacement organ, they will be put at the bottom of the list. Maybe we could tell antivaxxers that in the event they contract COVID in any of its forms, they will be treated in the parking lot of the hospital.

‘Utterly Deranged’ Trump Has Full Meltdown Over Bill Barr, Mitch McConnell Donald Trump issued a lengthy and rambling statement late Sunday attacking two of his staunchest allies during his one term in office. Trump called former attorney general Bill Barr and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “spineless RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) after Barr told The Atlantic that Trump’s constant claims of election fraud were “bullshit.” Barr also told the magazine that McConnell urged him to “inject some reality” into Trump as he repeated debunked claims of election fraud and baseless conspiracy theories last winter. McConnell confirmed that account, the magazine reported. That was enough to trigger the former president. Trump, who once claimed he would hire only “the best and most serious people,” called Barr a “disappointment in every sense of the word,” much as he has attacked many of the other “best people” he hired, including Jeff Sessions (attorney general), Rex Tillerson (secretary of state), James Mattis (defense secretary) John Bolton (national security advisor), H.R. McMaster (national security advisor) John Kelly (homeland security and chief of staff) and Mike Pence (vice president), just to name a few. ‘Utterly Deranged’ Trump Has Full Meltdown Over Bill Barr, Mitch McConnell | HuffPost

Dire warnings as COVID Delta variant runs rampant in unvaccinated Missouri First detected in India and now present in at least 80 countries across the globe, the ultra-contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 is now running rampant through communities in the United States, with the most devastating impacts occurring in areas with low vaccination rates. Missouri—where less than half of the population over the age of 18 has been fully inoculated—has emerged as the U.S. hot spot for the Delta strain, which officials say is fueling the alarming surge in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations that the state has experienced in recent weeks even as cases decline in the U.S. as a whole. Missouri currently has the highest rate of new Covid-19 infections in the country. Dire warnings as COVID Delta variant runs rampant in unvaccinated Missouri - Alternet.org Josh Hawley demands Canada be added to religious freedom watch list In Alberta, Canada, some pastors were arrested after openly defying COVID-19 restriction, and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is claiming that the pastors, James Coates and Tim Stephens, were victims of religious persecution and is asking the Commission on International Religious Freedom to consider placing Canada on a special watch list. In a letter sent on June 26, the far-right GOP senator wrote, "I am troubled that our Canadian neighbors are effectively being forced to gather in secret, undisclosed locations to exercise their basic freedom to worship. Frankly, I would expect this sort of religious crackdown in Communist China, not in a prominent western nation like Canada." Josh Hawley demands Canada be added to religious freedom watch list - Alternet.org

How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured — And Profited From — the QAnon Conspiracy Theory OF THE MANY mysteries surrounding the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency, few have been more confounding than the connections between former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the QAnon conspiracy theory, and Trump’s #StoptheSteal campaign. Most media outlets treated Flynn’s videotaped oath last summer, in which he uttered a well-known QAnon slogan, as a sort of coming-out story about a onetime Trump insider who had gone off the rails. The video has since become the subject of a lawsuit by members of Flynn’s family who claim that “left-wing media outlets began to spread false narratives” about the Flynn family’s connections to QAnon. An Intercept investigation has found that Flynn’s ties to the QAnon phenomenon stretch back much further than the July 4 weekend last year when the video first appeared, however, to the days immediately following Trump’s 2016 election victory. That November, nearly a year before the first cryptic clue from QAnon’s organizers – known as a “Q drop” — appeared on the online message board 4chan, Flynn told a roomful of Trump supporters that the president-elect had been borne into office by an “army of digital soldiers.” The phrase “digital soldiers,” which Flynn later trademarked, has become a central QAnon rallying cry and a key indicator of the movement’s growing turn toward violent extremism and insurrection. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who once oversaw military intelligence in Afghanistan and led a sprawling intelligence agency in Washington, would go on to become a central hero in QAnon’s conspiratorial narrative. But his move to trademark the term “digital soldiers” — ensuring that only he and others who obtain his express permission can profit from the sale of “Digital Soldiers”-branded merchandise — hints at his attempt to capitalize on a marketing and communication strategy that resonates with the Q community. Flynn hitched his financial fortunes to QAnon at least as early as the summer of 2019, when he was facing a mountain of legal costs, The Intercept’s investigation found. His push to leverage QAnon’s viral popularity with the far-right coincided with his efforts to reverse his guilty plea for lying to the FBI in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. How Michael Flynn Profited From QAnon Conspiracy Theory (theintercept.com)

Trump campaign had paid $2.7M to organizers of rally ahead of Capitol riot: report Former President Trump’s campaign had paid out more than $2.7 million to several individuals and firms behind the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that devolved into a violent insurrection at the Capitol, the Center for Responsive Politics reported on Friday. Several organizers listed on the event permit granted by the National Parks Service (NPS) and posted online by the Center for Responsive Politics previously held positions within the Trump campaign or had ties to those who did. Federal Election Commission filings show that the former president’s reelection campaign made payments to several of those individuals through Nov. 23, the most recent day for which financial disclosures are available. Among those individuals listed on the permit was Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney, who resigned from his role after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Maggie Mulvaney’s LinkedIn profile lists her current position as director of finance operations and manager of external affairs for the Trump campaign. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Mulvaney was paid at least $138,000 by the Trump campaign through last November. Caroline Wren, who served as a national finance consultant for the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee’s joint fundraising operation, was also listed on the NPS permit for the rally as a “VIP advisor.” The Trump campaign paid Wren $170,000 from March to November. Megan Powers, whose LinkedIn profile listed her as director of operations for the Trump campaign as recently as this month, was also among those whose names appeared on the permit. She was paid about $290,000 by the Trump campaign from February 2019 through November, according to the Center for Response Politics. The largest recipient of payments from the Trump campaign was Event Strategies Inc., which received more than $1.7 million from the campaign and the former president’s joint fundraising committee. That firm is owned by Justin Caporale, the Trump campaign’s advance director, and his business partner Tim Unes, who are listed on the rally permit as project manager and stage manager, respectively. Event Strategies Inc. also received $2.1 million from the Trump-affiliated dark money group America First Policies from 2018 to 2019. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, America First Policies also provided funding to Women for America First, a political nonprofit whose leaders are listed on the rally permit as the event hosts. Trump campaign had paid $2.7M to organizers of rally ahead of Capitol riot: report | TheHill

Text messages show Trump aides knew Jan. 6 would likely get out of hand A new investigation shows how Stop the Steal leaders fooled Capitol police and welcomed racists into their midst (This article originally appeared on ProPublica.) On Dec. 19, President Donald Trump blasted out a tweet to his 88 million followers, inviting supporters to Washington for a "wild" protest. Earlier that week, one of his senior advisers had released a 36-page report alleging significant evidence of election fraud that could reverse Joe Biden's victory. "A great report," Trump wrote. "Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" The tweet worked like a starter's pistol, with two pro-Trump factions competing to take control of the "big protest." On one side stood Women for America First, led by Amy Kremer, a Republican operative who helped found the tea party movement. The group initially wanted to hold a kind of extended oral argument, with multiple speakers making their case for how the election had been stolen. On the other was Stop the Steal, a new, more radical group that had recruited avowed racists to swell its ranks and wanted the President to share the podium with Alex Jones, the radio host banned from the world's major social media platforms for hate speech, misinformation and glorifying violence. Stop the Steal organizers say their plan was to march on the Capitol and demand that lawmakers give Trump a second term. ProPublica has obtained new details about the Trump White House's knowledge of the gathering storm, after interviewing more than 50 people involved in the events of Jan. 6 and reviewing months of private correspondence. Taken together, these accounts suggest that senior Trump aides had been warned the Jan. 6 events could turn chaotic, with tens of thousands of people potentially overwhelming ill-prepared law enforcement officials. Rather than trying to halt the march, Trump and his allies accommodated its leaders, according to text messages and interviews with Republican operatives and officials. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign official assigned by the White House to take charge of the rally planning, helped arrange a deal where those organizers deemed too extreme to speak at the Ellipse could do so on the night of Jan. 5. That event ended up including incendiary speeches from Jones and Ali Alexander, the leader of Stop the Steal, who fired up his followers with a chant of "Victory or death!" The record of what White House officials knew about Jan. 6 and when they knew it remains incomplete. Key officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, declined to be interviewed for this story. The second impeachment of President Trump focused mostly on his public statements, including his Jan. 6 exhortation that the crowd march on the Capitol and "fight like hell." Trump was acquitted by the Senate, and his lawyers insisted that the attack on the Capitol was both regrettable and unforeseeable.

We're still flirting with the 100 new case mark. Dammit. So sad that a 10 year old had to die.

Trump has been able to juggle a lot of financial balls in the air for a couple of decades but now his biggest lender (Deutsche Bank) as well as several American banks see Trump's organization as toxic and will not longer touch him. He has only Russian mob money to sustain him and since his properties as been over-leveraged and over-valued, their investments are being devalued along with all of Trump's properties. He may never see jail, but his ride on the gravy train is over. He has probably scammed the Russian mob along with everyone he could, and the Russian mob will not be pleased. No doubt they have a lot of personally embarrassing if not criminally damning stuff on him, which will leak out if they are angry enough. 'Barr belongs in prison': Critics of former AG furious over new behind the scenes Trump revelations Reacting to a series of interviews former Attorney General William Barr gave with the Atlantic's Jonathan Karl, critics of Donald Trump's former AG lashed out at Barr for keeping his true thoughts about Trump's election fraud claims to himself that ended up leading to the Jan 6th insurrection at the Capitol. According to the report, Barr believed Trump's claims of a stolen election were "bullshit," and resisted pleas from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to intercede with the ex-president and force him to tone down his inflammatory rhetoric. 'Barr belongs in prison': Critics of former AG furious over new behind the scenes Trump revelations - Alternet.org

Trump aides prepared Insurrection Act order against BLM protests: report New information is coming to light about the extraordinary actions that almost happened to crack down on Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of Georgia Floyd by Minneapolis police. "Responding to interest from President Donald J. Trump, White House aides drafted a proclamation last year to invoke the Insurrection Act in case Mr. Trump moved to take the extraordinary step of deploying active-duty troops in Washington to quell the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, two senior Trump administration officials said. The aides drafted the proclamation on June 1, 2020, during a heated debate inside the administration over how to respond to the protests," The New York Times reported Friday. (This was a martial law enactment)

Stripping Trump of his wealth and status would be a greater blow than any imprisonment. Moreover, his flunkies did not do this without Trump's direction, so they will roll on him in a nanosecond. "The wheels of the gods grind exceeding slow but they grind exceeding fine".

'Possible crime-a-thon': Experts weigh in on bombshell Trump Org report Experts in the legal and journalism world are weighing in on the bombshell news that the Trump Organization "will be criminally charged" and "will have faced criminal charges" by this time next week, according to an on-air report from MSNBC's Tom Winter reports. The New York Times published a similar report stating charges could come "as soon as next week." "An indictment of the Trump Organization could mark the first criminal charges to emerge from an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into Donald J. Trump and his business dealings," The Times reports. "The Manhattan district attorney's office has informed Donald J. Trump's lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter." 'Possible crime-a-thon': Experts weigh in on bombshell Trump Org report - Alternet.org

And submissive women.

If American justice system history is any indicator, he will get house arrest on weekends for three months.

Province of Manitoba | Immunization Record (gov.mb.ca)

Capitol rioter attempts to downplay her actions after giving apology in court The first individual sentenced in connection with the Capitol insurrection attempted to downplay the deadly event just days after sharing an apology before a federal judge. Anna Morgan-Lloyd, who pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor trespassing charge for illegally entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, appeared on Fox News for an interview where she offered her real opinion on the U.S. Capitol riots and those who participated. Although multiple people died as a result of the insurrection, Morgan-Lloyd claimed most rioters were "polite as they attacked the Capitol." Capitol rioter attempts to downplay her actions after giving apology in court - Alternet.org DOJ Sues Georgia, Says GOP-Backed Restrictions Unlawfully Target Black Voters. The Justice Department has made its first move against one of the voting laws passed in the wake of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. The Justice Department is suing the state of Georgia, it announced Friday, over a restrictive voting law passed in response to former President Donald Trump’s lies about mass voter fraud in the 2020 election. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Mother Jones, will allege that the Georgia law was enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the rights of Black voters in the state. The Justice Department alleges that Georgia’s law was passed through a rushed process that departed from normal procedure, and contained provisions ― including limits on drop boxes for absentee ballots and on providing food and water to voters waiting in long lines ― that were passed with unlawful discriminatory intent. A New York Times analysis of the law, which was signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), found 16 key provisions that limit ballot access in the state, particularly in urban and suburban counties that lean Democratic. The lawsuit is being filed eight years to the day after the Supreme Court, in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those provisions required states with a history of racist voting laws to get preclearance from the federal government before implementing new voting laws. DOJ Sues Georgia, Says GOP-Backed Restrictions Unlawfully Target Black Voters | HuffPost Donald Trump Reportedly Wanted Military To ‘Beat The F**k’ Out Of George Floyd Protesters Former President Donald Trump wanted a violent military response to civil rights protesters who took to the streets following the police killing of George Floyd last year, according to a new book. Trump reportedly told advisers that he wanted soldiers to “beat the ****” out of the mostly peaceful demonstrators, according to an excerpt from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender’s “‘Frankly, We Did Win This Election’: The Inside Story Of How Trump Lost” that was published by CNN on Thursday. “Just shoot them,” Trump reportedly repeatedly demanded. He is also quoted as saying he wanted to “crack their skulls.” Donald Trump Reportedly Wanted Military To ‘Beat The F**k’ Out Of George Floyd Protesters | HuffPost

This sort of thing and more extreme weather events has been predicted for 2-3 decades, and should be no surprise. Moreover, Southern California, Phoenix, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Texas have become "Cadillac deserts"- artificially hydrated areas which steal water away from other areas, making them de facto deserts and reducing the Rio Grande (Big River) to a trickle. They have borrowed against their futures and defied nature, and now the bills are due.

'Growing tension' and 'vitriolic threats' rock Michigan GOP as Trump supporters demand Arizona-style election audit On October 8, 2020, it was obvious how severe political tensions had become in Michigan when the FBI announced that 13 men had been arrested in connection with a domestic terrorist plot to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, subject her to a "trial" and execute her if found guilty. Those behind the kidnapping plot were angry over the restrictions she had imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the political climate in that midwestern state hasn't grown any less tense since then. Washington Post reporter Tom Hamburger, in an article published on June 23, describes the tensions that continue to rock Michigan five months into Joe Biden's presidency. "As Michigan State Rep. Donna Lasinski got out of her car at the state Capitol in Lansing on a sunny morning last week," Hamburger reports, "she was greeted by two people carrying what she described as assault rifles while protesters outside the building called for an audit of the 2020 election. Such disconcerting encounters are not uncommon in Lansing — a reflection of persistent and growing tension gripping Michigan eight months after Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump." 'Growing tension' and 'vitriolic threats' rock Michigan GOP as Trump supporters demand Arizona-style election audit - Alternet.org

There seems to be so much hatred and anger in the US- most of it from the right-wing/fascist side, that I cannot see how the US can survive as a country. If the country fragments, we inevitably will be collateral damage. So many Americans are totally oblivious to the threats posed by the neo-fascists and seem to be unable to grasp that their country could slide into dictatorship, as happened fairly recently in Hungary. The playbook is clear: demonize minorities such as immigrants and people of colour, proclaim that the country is going to Hell and that only a strong leader can save it, repeat endlessly videos of unruly or violent demonstrations and crimes committed by the "evil people", muzzle and bribe the media, restrict voting access, claim illegal actions every time a loss or setback happens in the polls or courts, and stack the courts and civil service with compliant people.

Charges may be near for Roger Stone over Jan. 6 Capitol riot, legal expert says. "Could it progress to potential charges? You bet," former U.S. Attorney-turned-LA Times columnist Harry Litman said Longtime Republican operative Roger Stone, who allegedly owes nearly $2 million in back taxes, is reportedly still on the Justice Department's radar for his purported role in organizing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Alongside right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Stone is now being investigated by federal prosecutors over his role in organizing and inciting the attempted Jan. 6 insurrection — an allegation he refutes. News that was previously reported by The Washington Post near the end of February found new life on Twitter early this week when former United States Attorney-turned-Los Angeles Times legal affairs columnist Harry Litman tweeted, "Just wouldn't be a real scandal and outrage without the presence of, you guessed it, Roger Stone, whom DOJ now investigating for his role in 1/6 insurrection." Charges may be near for Roger Stone over Jan. 6 Capitol riot, legal expert says | Salon.com

DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state. Universities may lose funding if staff and students' beliefs do not satisfy Florida's GOP-run legislature Public universities in Florida will be required to survey both faculty and students on their political beliefs and viewpoints, with the institutions at risk of losing their funding if the responses are not satisfactory to the state's Republican-led legislature. The unprecedented project, which was tucked into a law signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, is part of a long-running, nationwide right-wing push to promote "intellectual diversity" on campuses — though worries over a lack of details on the survey's privacy protections, and questions over what the results may ultimately be used for, hover over the venture. Based on the bill's language, survey responses will not necessarily be anonymous — sparking worries among many professors and other university staff that they may be targeted, held back in their careers or even fired for their beliefs. According to the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, faculty will not be promoted or fired based on their responses, but, as The Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday, the bill itself does not back up those claims. DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state | Salon.com What would America be like if Trump's coup had succeeded? Suppressing SNL is only the start The "revelations" continue about the Trump regime's abuse of power, lawbreaking, crimes, corruption, general disregard for democratic norms and institutions and overall perfidy. We now know that Donald Trump wanted to use the Department of Justice, the FCC and other federal agencies to silence dissent and criticism — specifically, to clamp down on the mockery of late-night TV hosts and the venerable "Saturday Night Live." In case you didn't know this yet, Trump was and is an authoritarian and a fascist who holds utter contempt for the Constitution and democracy. On Tuesday, Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast reported that Trump had gone much further than "simply tweeting his displeasure with the late-night comedians and SNL writers' room," and "wanted to use the full weight and power of the U.S. government to punish his personal enemies." According to two anonymous sources, Trump asked his advisers in 2019 whether the FCC, the federal courts or the DOJ could do anything to suppress SNL, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and others. He was apparently disappointed to learn that the "devastating retribution" he hoped for was not possible in a democracy, even an enfeebled one: What would America be like if Trump's coup had succeeded? Suppressing SNL is only the start | Salon.com

QAnon fans thrilled after OAN host floats mass 'execution' for people who 'stole' election from Trump Believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory are enthusiastically circulating a video of a contributor at the Trump-loving One America News calling for the mass execution of the former president's enemies. Via The Daily Beast's Will Sommer, an OAN contributor this week went off on a rant in which he falsely claimed that "voter fraud" cost former President Donald Trump the 2020 election, and said it was time to think about how to deal with the purported perpetrators.

He has nothing else to kvetch about, and attacking anything that sounds even vaguely unpatriotic and completely inane will be applauded by his base.

Reports say that he caught a virus that was not blocked.

‘MASSIVE WIN’: Capitol Rioters Breathe Sigh of Relief After Slap on Wrist Anna Morgan-Lloyd was sentenced to probation Wednesday in connection to Jan. 6, the first rioter to get her punishment. Lawyers for the accused are celebrating.