Tracker

Newly released records show the staggering number of Secret Service agents who contracted COVID-19 under Trump In 2020, during the Trump administration, 881 active Secret Service employees were diagnosed with COVID-19. This, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), included a majority, 477, of secret service "special agents," and 249 from the "uniformed division." This follows suit with the scant information that leaked out early on during the pandemic, when it was known that the Secret Service was facing at least 11 active COVID-19 cases and dozens more in quarantine because of exposure. The FOIA documents do not give granular details about which agents may or may not have been in daily contact with Trump or his administration's personnel. Analysis by CREW of the documents obtained does give this peek into how dangerous a job being a Secret Service employee was under a science-denying administration: "The list consists of 477 Special Agents, 249 members of the Uniformed Division, 131 working in Administrative, Professional, Technical Positions, 12 Investigative Protection Officers and 12 Technical Security Investigators." Those 477 "special agents" are employees in the division that "is responsible for protecting the president and vice president, as well as the families of these leaders and other government officials." Newly released records show the staggering number of Secret Service agents who contracted COVID-19 under Trump - Alternet.org

Not if the bible belts in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan have anything to say about it.

Me Like!!!

We need a week of low/declining TP numbers before we can declare that this horror is beaten as a pandemic.

Thank God!! We seem to have passed the critical point where the number of new cases are well under 100. We can all breathe a little easier now.

Trump's former bodyguard becomes latest from Trumpworld entangled by Manhattan DA's probe Report: on New York prosecutors' advice, Trump's former bodyguard lawyer's up New York prosecutors are probing whether a former bodyguard of Donald Trump's benefited from tax-free corporate benefits as part of the city's broader investigation into whether the Trump Organization skirted its tax obligations. According to The Wall Street Journal, which interviewed several unnamed sources, the inquiry is centered on Matthew Calamari, who started working for Trump back in 1981 and now holds a position as a top executive at the Trump Organization. In his 2004 book "Trump: How to Get Rich," the former president claimed that Calamari, then his bodyguard, "had a lot more to offer than his job title warranted." Calamari would be promoted to Chief Operating Officer years later. Calamari reportedly lives in an apartment at Trump Park Avenue and drives a Mercedes leased through the Trump Organization. His son, Matthew Calamari, Jr., currently resides in another Trump-affiliated luxury apartment called Trump Parc East, where his rent is subsidized by the Trump Organization. The young Calamari graduated from college in 2011 and was promoted to corporate director of security six years later. New York prosecutors have reportedly instructed both Calamaris to retain legal services. Trump's former bodyguard becomes latest from Trumpworld entangled by Manhattan DA's probe | Salon.com

Or an Erin O'Toole pep meeting.

DOJ National Security Chief: I Almost Resigned Over Trump’s Election Lies The Department of Justice official who led the crucial national security division has revealed how he almost resigned when his boss came under pressure to investigate Donald Trump’s stolen election claims. Assistant Attorney General John Demers is the most senior DOJ official to have served under both Trump and Joe Biden but is finally moving on this week. In a farewell interview with the Wall Street Journal, Demers said the only time in his three years at the DOJ that he considered resigning was in early January when acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen was in Trump’s firing line, leaving him wondering who would be left to sign requests for foreign intelligence surveillance and handle the espionage threat from China and Russia. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, I thought that there was a real chance that would be my last day in the department,” Demers, 49, told the Journal. In the event, Rosen resisted the pressure from Trump and Demers stayed in his job. DOJ National Security Chief: I Almost Resigned Over Trump’s Election Lies (thedailybeast.com)

Trump wanted DOJ to stop 'Saturday Night Live' from mocking him: report For 46 years, "Saturday Night Live" has lampooned U.S. presidents — and many of them, from Republicans George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Gerald Ford to Democrat Bill Clinton — laughed at the joke. Former "SNL" cast member Dana Carvey even became friends with the Bush family because of his Bush 41 parody. But former President Donald Trump, on the other hand, was furious with "SNL" over Alec Baldwin's impression of him — and according to Daily Beast reporters Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, Trump, in 2019, even wanted the U.S. Department of Justice to look into possible ways to stop "SNL" from mocking him. Suebsaeng and Rawnsley explain, "It was, on its face, a ridiculous question and threat, as 'SNL' is obviously satire and therefore, a form of protected speech in America that pissed-off commanders-in-chief have no authority to directly subvert. However, then-President Trump went farther than simply tweeting his displeasure with the late-night comedians and 'SNL' writers' room. The internal discussions that followed, between the former leader of the Free World and some of his political and legal advisers, once again underscored just how much Trump wanted to use the full weight and power of the U.S. government to punish his personal enemies." Trump wanted DOJ to stop 'Saturday Night Live' from mocking him: report - Alternet.org

And yet the SOB was willing to let the COVID pandemic "just wash over the country" killing millions. That is nothing short of sociopathic. His inaction was the direct cause of the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

Good life lesson!

Trump Wanted to Send COVID-Infected Americans to Guantánamo Bay, Book Says Former President Donald Trump was so frightened that rising coronavirus cases would hurt his polling numbers that he suggested a group of infected Americans being brought home from Asia should be sent to Guantánamo Bay. “Don’t we have an island that we own?” Trump reportedly asked aides in February 2020, at the start of the pandemic. “What about Guantánamo?” The story features in Nightmare Scenario, a new book by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, capturing the chaos of the Trump White House as COVID-19 hit. The pair report that Trump was incensed that official testing was boosting case numbers and shouted at Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar: “I’m going to lose the election because of testing! What idiot had the federal government do testing?” “Uh, do you mean Jared?” Azar responded, referring to the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. According to the Post, the book suggests that the president’s own infection was “far more serious than officials acknowledged.” Read it at Washington Post (unfortunately not serious enough because he survived)

There are so many things about being a dad to an adult son and daughter that I never knew and had to puzzle out. When I think of it, my dad probably had to go through that as well. I also wish he had been around to see how his grandkidlets who he loved turned out. It's been 25 years and I still miss him sometimes , but we are given memory that we might have roses in winter.

Is he going to wear his visor?

Speaking from experience, I want to acknowledge all the Dads out there ("fathers" denotes genetics not commitment and love), that this is a job which is sometimes thankless and always demands much, but pays off when we see what kind of dads, men and husbands our sons become and what kind of moms, women and wives our daughters become. We are one of the two most powerful influences in the lives of our offspring, without the benefit of all the hormones moms have, In recognition of this, I post the best dad joke I could find.

I think the problems arose in the Trump administration when he told his fellow parasites, "Now, don't do anything I wouldn't do" and they took him at his word.

Driver Crashes Into Two People At Pride Parade In South Florida A driver slammed into spectators Saturday at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida, injuring at least two people. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis confirmed the crash occurred Saturday evening at the Stonewall Pride Parade in the nearby city of Wilton Manors, WSVN-TV reported. WPLG-TV reports that the driver of the truck was taken into custody. Authorities did not immediately give details about the victims’ injuries or say whether they believe the crash was intentional. Photos and video from the scene showed Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in tears while in a convertible at the parade. A spokesperson for Wasserman Schultz did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Wilton Manors police tweeted Saturday night that the parade was canceled due to a “tragic event.” The department said the public is not in danger.

Georgia GOP has a new voter suppression tactic: Here's how they are targeting Black election officials Republicans in the state of Georgia are making arduous efforts to further contribute to voter suppression across the state. In addition to enacting laws to make it more difficult for people of color to vote, they are now targeting Black election officials. According to The New York Times, Republican lawmakers are laying the foundation to expand their own power over election processes in states across the country. Lawmakers' actions in Georgia are a prime example of what may be seen in many states in the very near future. Per the publication: "Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their position eliminated, or are likely to be kicked off through local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature. At least five are people of color and most are Democrats — though some are Republicans — and they will most likely all be replaced by Republicans." "Ms. Hollis and local officials like her have been some of the earliest casualties as Republican-led legislatures mount an expansive takeover of election administration in a raft of new voting bills this year." The reports about Georgia's targeting of Black election officials come as similar actions are being taken in other Republican-led states like Arkansas, Kansas, and possibly Arizona. Over the last year, there have been more discussions about Republican lawmakers' efforts to chip away at the United States' democracy. In some states, controversial voting laws have already been passed but what's worse is that some of the bills include provisions that grant election power to politicians; many of whom have biased political agendas. Georgia GOP has a new voter suppression tactic: Here's how they are targeting Black election officials - Alternet.org

Scientists say spider silk could teach us how to replace plastic For all our scientific and technological might, humans struggle to manufacture materials as tensile as a spider's silk. Five times as strong as steel, spiderwebs are a testament to the ingenuity of nature — and particularly to the millions of years of evolution that endowed arachnids with the power to make such miraculous strands of silk. Chemists and engineers have studied spider silk for years to figure out if it could be adapted in developing novel materials. Now, an intriguing new paper has a remarkable proposal: use a biodegradable spider silk-inspired material to replace plastic. Such a concept would have incredible utility in reducing plastic pollution on Earth, which causes myriad health, environmental and ecological problems. The new article in question, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, reveals that Cambridge researchers have managed to create a sustainable material that could theoretically replace plastics but is made from plants and sustainable. As Professor Tuomas Knowles, a chemistry and biophysics professor at the University of Cambridge, wrote to Salon, spider silk is extremely strong even though its molecules are connected together by comparatively weak bonds. The looseness of the molecules makes the molecules more dynamic, and they can be packed together in dense quantities. From a material standpoint, Knowles says spider silk is unique in that spiders create it with protein that can "naturally untangle and restructure" itself, a process known as "protein self-assembly." Knowles and his team followed the same principle. "These interactions are formed in large part through contacts involving the backbone of the molecules; this is the part that all protein molecules have in common," Knowles explained. "As such, we found that it is possible to take molecules which are unrelated to silk, but find conditions where they too can assemble into dense arrays which are held together by backbone interactions." Knowles hopes this knowledge could, quite literally, save the world. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist. "This technology has significant potential to replace plastics in a wide range of applications," Knowles explained to Salon. "Plant-protein materials are high performance, and have a perfect end-of-life. Unlike fossil fuel based materials, no chemicals can be released when the materials degrade. And unlike most other potential replacements for plastic, our materials are 100% natural, with no chemical modification or cross linking." Knowles believes in the new material so much that he and his team have founded a company called Xampla, which plans on launching products based on it in the real world, including a micro plastic application (fabric softeners' fragrance capsules) and a plastic film application (wrappers for dishwasher detergents). "By 2025, we envisage that these materials will be found widely in homes, in personal care, homecare and food packaging applications," Knowles wrote to Salon. If Knowles is correct, the invention will come not a moment too soon. There is a growing body of evidence linking chemicals known as "endocrine disruptors," which are found in many widely-used plastics, to dropping sperm counts among men. Plastic pollution has also seeped into our food and could be causing widespread illnesses like cancers. Large quantities of disposable plastic have found their way into the ocean, bringing considerable suffering to aquatic life and hurting the livelihoods of many low-income individuals. The pandemic has only exacerbated these trends by increasing demand for single-use plastic products and making it cheaper to create new plastic. These are serious problems — but, as Knowles tells Salon, not ones that he had initially set out to solve when he began studying the webs woven by our eight-legged friends. "When we started this research, our goal was to understand the fundamental nature of protein self-assembly," Knowles explained. "We asked the question, 'How does for example a spider make silk so strong?' And as we developed, we realized that that fundamental understanding could be applied to many other proteins as well and thus address one of the principal environmental challenges of our day."

None of this will change so long as money is to be made destroying the Earth with no consequences.

The encouraging thing is that all evidence indicates that two doses of vaccine gives well over 90% immunity against all the COVID viruses.

Infectious Disease Expert Warns ‘We’re Not Done With This Virus At All’ Michael Osterholm doubted there would be future national surges in COVID-19 but said “substantial” local and regional ones were a possibility. Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm warned Friday of the possibility of “substantial” local and regional surges of COVID-19, telling CNN’s Poppy Harlow that “we’re not done with this virus at all.” Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, doubted there would be another national surge because of the scale of the United States’ vaccination program, which to date has seen more than 175 million Americans receive at least one shot. But Osterholm said more localized surges could occur if the highly transmissible Delta variant takes hold in the U.S., where it is now quickly spreading. The variant first identified in India has already become the dominant strain of the virus in the United Kingdom, where rising cases have forced the delay of easing lockdown restrictions. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that the Delta variant will “probably” become the most dominant in America. Osterholm agreed, noting its ability to evade the immunity provided by a single dose of one of the two-dose vaccines.

Arizona election audit takes wild turn: Voter data is transported to a "secret" lab in another state The Republican-led Arizona audit being conducted by the Florida-based tech company Cyber Ninjas took an unexpected turn after voter data was transported to a mystery "lab" in Montana to be "forensically evaluated" by a third party. At some point during the audit, CyFIR — a digital security firm subcontracted by Cyber Ninjas — was enlisted to examine ballots. But it wasn't until Arizona Republic reporter Jen Fifield started digging through a state-run "SOS" website posting audit updates that she noticed "copies" of data were being "sent to a lab in Montana." Upon further research, the Arizona Republic traced the data's whereabouts back to a Montana property whose owner was listed as CyFIR CEO Ben Cotton on public records. Cotten is also the CEO of Cyber Technologies (CyTech), the parent company of CyFIR. Both companies are based out of Virginia, but they also share the same northwest Montana "Bigfork" address on documents. At the time, Ken Bennett, an audit official, informed the Arizona Republic that he wasn't aware of how the data in the hands of Cotton and his firms was being kept safe. Weeks later, Bennett told CNN that CYFIR was allowed to send copies of voter data to Montana on a truck. "Bennett tells us he doesn't know where the so-called 'lab' is," CNN reporter Gary Tuchman said during the televised report. "It is apparently a secret." A request by Salon for comment from CyTech President Timothy Poole and Cotton went unreturned. While local news reports on the matter have been circulating over the past few weeks, the story didn't catch wind until Tuchman took viewers to Cotton's Montana address on Wednesday. While the CNN reporter got within eye-shot of a cabin on the Montana property, he could not walk beyond that point due to a "private property" sign that warned against trespassing. According to additional reporting conducted by CNN, the sprawling property owned by Cotton has numerous structures on site. It remains unclear whether the "lab" is actually located on the property — or if it even exists. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs shared the feature report, which has since caught the attention of many on social media. "You can't make this stuff up," Hobbs told CNN. "If it wasn't happening right in front of our eyes, we wouldn't believe it was happening." Arizona election audit takes wild turn: Voter data is transported to a "secret" lab in another state | Salon.com

Mike Pence Heckled As A ‘Traitor’ On Stage At Conservative Summit Former Vice President Mike Pence received a chilly reception from some when he took the stage at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference on Friday. There were some cheers, but Pence was also heckled by audience members echoing criticisms he had received from former President Donald Trump. “It is great to be back with so many patriots dedicated to faith, freedom and the road to the majority,” Pence said as he began his remarks at the event in Orlando, Florida. Several loud calls then rang out: “Traitor!” Pence gets drowned out by hecklers at the Faith & Freedom Coalition summit, some of whom appear to be chanting “traitor!” pic.twitter.com/pAQxavsK3O Some people yelling at Pence were escorted out of the venue, while others left on their own, according to Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel. Mike Pence Heckled As A 'Traitor' On Stage At Conservative Summit | HuffPost