Tracker

A sad commentary is that there is a small but vocal segment of Judaism that has been actively supporting Trump and ignoring all the racist rhetoric he and his followers have been spouting- some of it overtly anti-Semitic. A rabbi was even involved in the January 6th insurrection.

Texas Republican Caught on Video Organizing 'Brigade' of Volunteers to Watch Voters in Mostly Black and Latinx Houston Precincts A Republican official in Harris County, Texas, was heard on a video presentation saying that 10,000 volunteers were needed to form an “election integrity brigade” in Houston to fight against election fraud, the Washington Post reports. We know that there is no evidence of election fraud in Harris County, but the person in the video insists that there is. In the video, the unnamed official pulls up a map of the county’s voting locations—basically, the diverse areas where people of color vote—and said the GOP needed volunteers with “the confidence and courage to come down here” to look out for irregularities. “This is where the fraud is occurring,” the official added. Common Cause Texas, a government accountability group, which published the video Thursday, is rightfully claiming that the video is a warning that Republicans are planning to intimidate and suppress voters in metro Houston, where large numbers of people of color live. “It’s very clear that we’re talking about recruiting people from the predominantly Anglo parts of town to go to Black and brown neighborhoods,” Anthony Gutierrez, the group’s executive director, told the Washington Post. Video Catches Texas Republicans' Calling for 'Election Integrity' Brigade in Diverse Harris County (theroot.com)

Tucker Carlson: ‘Obedient Voters From Third World’ Are Replacing Me Tucker Carlson on Thursday served up a blatantly racist hot take on immigration at the border, saying Democrats are trying to “replace the current electorate” with “more obedient voters from the Third World.” (Watch the video below.) “That’s what’s actually happening,” the Fox News host insisted, dismissing suggestions he’s preaching “white replacement theory.” “Everybody wants to make a racial issue out of it,” he said. “This is a voting rights question.” (Sure sounds like a rephrase of the Nazi "we will not be replaced")

The right-wing extremists will fracture and implode, but not before doing a lot of damage and the real concern is whether the damage will be permanent. Newly revealed Trump administration emails show depravity and conspiracy against the country The select subcommittee in the United States House of Representatives that is now investigating how the federal government managed the country's response to the covid pandemic released emails Thursday showing top officials in the Trump administration knowingly, carefully and deliberately sabotaged public understanding of the disease. According to the Post's Dan Diamond, "The documents provide further insight into how senior Trump officials approached last year's explosion of coronavirus cases in the United States. Even as career government scientists worked to combat the virus, a cadre of Trump appointees were attempting to blunt the scientists' messages, edit their findings and equip the president with an alternate set of talking points." Diamond's story is about "political interference" in what should have been the neutral administration of public health policy in the face of a once-a-century plague. That framing of the issue will likely be adopted by the Washington pundit corps. That framing has been adopted by the House investigators, too. "Our investigation has shown that Trump Administration officials engaged in a persistent pattern of political interference in the nation's public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, overruling and bullying scientists and making harmful decisions that allowed the virus to spread more rapidly," said House Whip James Clyburn, the subcommittee chair. But while the press and investigators are right to be careful with language, the court of public opinion, which may be the only court demanding justice in the end, need not be so careful. Let's not obscure the body-count reality of what Michael Caputo and Paul Alexander have done with gauzy abstractions like "political interference." As of this writing, the covid has killed over 573,000 Americans. These men, along with others, including the former president, were engaged in crimes. The question shouldn't be whether this was "political interference." It should be whether this was homicide. Newly revealed Trump administration emails show depravity and conspiracy against the country - Alternet.org

I think that the GOP has become a wing of Fox News and both cater to the worst that human beings can demonstrate. Fox and many of the GOP have sold their souls in exchange for wealth and power. In exchange, the faces of Fox and the GOP validate and empower the racism, sexism and intolerance of their troglodyte followers.

Greenberg's deal is 'devastating' for Matt Gaetz and could 'destroy' all his defenses: Florida prosecutor On Thursday, following the news that former Florida tax official Joel Greenberg had cut a plea deal in the case that led to the sex trafficking investigation of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Florida attorney Dave Aronberg broke down why Gaetz could now be in serious trouble. "This is devastating news for Matt Gaetz," said Aronberg. "Matt Gaetz's defense is number one, he has never paid for sex, number two, he has never had sex with an underage girl. Greenberg's testimony could totally destroy those defenses, especially if he has incriminating messages from Gaetz." "When it comes to child sex trafficking, the laws are so broad, powerful, and the sentences are so harsh, so tough," said Aronberg. "And rightly so, because we're talking about a very serious crime. You don't even need to show sex with a minor. It's enough if Gaetz enticed a girl to have Greenberg. It's enough if he paid for the hotel room. It's enough if he provided her with the drug ecstasy. It's enough if he stood at the airport with a sign with her name and drove her to the hotel. Any of those things would be enough to charge and possibly convict Matt Gaetz of child sex trafficking." Greenberg's deal is 'devastating' for Matt Gaetz and could 'destroy' all his defenses: Florida prosecutor - Alternet.org

My apologies for misunderstanding you.

Suspect Found In South Carolina Killings Of 5 Was Former NFL Pro Phillip Adams: Source COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The gunman who killed five people including a prominent doctor in South Carolina was former NFL pro Phillip Adams, who killed himself early Thursday, according to a source who was briefed on the investigation. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said Adams’ parents live near the doctor’s home in Rock Hill, and that he had been treated by the doctor. The source said Phillips killed himself after midnight with a .45 caliber weapon. The York County Sheriff’s Office said they had searched for hours before finding the suspect in a nearby home. The York County coroner’s office said Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69, were pronounced dead at the scene along with grandchildren Adah Lesslie, 9, and Noah Lesslie, 5. A man who had been working at the home, James Lewis, 38, from Gaston, was found shot to death outside, and a sixth person was hospitalized with “serious gunshot wounds,” York County Sheriff’s Office’s spokesperson Trent Faris said.

I am truly sorry to see that you have such a fatalistic view of people. The hard reality is that the more often and longer that people get sent to jail, the more likely they are to re-offend. In sending people to jail, all we are doing is gaining a temporary sense of safety and increasing the likelihood that our children and grandchildren will inherit even greater problems.

If you want to over-simplify the issue of criminality, you will miss a lot of truths. I have worked with those who have committed serious crimes, and almost all have come through horrible childhoods and adolescences. This does not justify them committing crimes, but it does underscore that unless we intervene with people who have been brutalized, we will continue to fill our courts and jails. In Holland where non-violent offenders are not sent to jails but to alternate measures, the crime rates have fallen so far that they have been closing jails. That said, there have been a few that scared the poop out of me, even in a closed setting. These few need to be incarcerated for the rest of their lives.

It seems that an increase in the variant infections, and a sharp increase at that, is pretty much inevitable here. How bad it gets is the only question.

Video emerges of Trump and Ron DeSantis meeting man being investigated for human trafficking with Matt Gaetz On Wednesday, CBS News revealed that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) went to the Bahamas in late 2018 or early 2019 with a marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon that ultimately triggered a sex trafficking investigation.' The man, named Jason Pirozzolo, "allegedly paid for the travel expenses, accommodations, and female escorts," the report revealed. Whether the escorts were hired for sex across state or international lines is part of the investigation by the Justice Department, and it includes both Gaetz and Pirozzolo as part of that probe. A new development occurred Thursday when an old video was unearthed of then-President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump meeting Pirozzolo as they landed in Orlando in June 2019, months after the now-infamous Bahamas trip. Trump was there to launch his 2020 presidential campaign with a large rally. He, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Casey DeSantis were the only three guests waiting on the tarmac in Orlando that day. It's unknown who helped Pirozzolo score the unique opportunity to greet the president. https://t.co/jtW0Y1K3qe

Trump is intimately acquainted with the concept of blackmail.

The CDC in Atlanta is reported by CNN as stating that "long-hauler" COVID victims who have recovered but are still feeling dysphoric are feeling better after the second vaccination. Not all but about 30-40%. No reason has so far been identified.

Apparently not. Tom Selleck's arthritis has progressed to the point where he is almost immobilized. All of the bad press police have been receiving in the media haven't helped their image, either.

There is an unconfirmed report/rumour out of the US that the US only offered the vaccines to Canada after Canada approached Russia.

Apparently about a quarter of all the new cases reported yesterday are the variant(s). The enemy is within our gates.

U.K. Variant Now the Dominant Strain of COVID in United States: CDC -Reuters The U.K. variant of COVID-19 is now making up the majority of new coronavirus cases in the United States, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday. “Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B.1.1.7 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States,” she said. There are 16,275 confirmed cases of the strain, according to the CDC. The U.S. has seen a surge in cases in the last few weeks, partly because of the U.K. variant, Walensky said. Some research suggests that the strain is said to be more contagious, and possibly more deadly than other coronavirus mutations. Last month, experts anticipated that the variant would become dominant if it had not already taken over. At the time, the CDC did not release any information regarding the prevalence of the strain, but did agree that it was only a matter of time before it made up the majority of cases.

I am more concerned now than I have been in the past 12 months. There is so much unknown about the variants, but what there is known is scary.

The 9 biggest grievances in Ray Fisher's interview about Joss Whedon's "Justice League" misconduct Details have emerged about the obstacles Ray Fisher, Gal Gadot & Jason Momoa faced on set & with the investigation On Tuesday afternoon — after months of competing tweets and statements between actor Ray Fisher and WarnerMedia — The Hollywood Reporter released an in-depth bombshell of a story in which Fisher fully explains the alleged racist and abusive behavior he experienced on the set of 2017's "Justice League" at the hands of director Joss Whedon, as well as several studio executives, including producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg. Fisher, who plays the character Cyborg in the film, first tweeted about Whedon's "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable" behavior last summer (Whedon had taken over directing "Justice League" after the original director, Zack Snyder, exited the project). This eventually laid the groundwork for an investigation into Whedon's behavior by the studio, which later said that "remedial action has been taken," though no further details were provided due to legal reasons. Whedon has faced increased criticism in recent months as actors are speaking up about the allegedly hostile work environments he perpetuated. In February, "Buffy" star Charisma Carpenter cited his "hostile and toxic" behavior on her sets. "Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working together on the sets of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel,'" Carpenter wrote in a social media post. "While he found his misconduct amusing, it only served to intensify my performance anxiety, disempower me, and alienate me from my peers." The 9 biggest grievances in Ray Fisher's interview about Joss Whedon's "Justice League" misconduct | Salon.com

Agreed, but it is difficult for many to escape the trap. On the flip side, there are also those who have every advantage, yet still live and end their lives in tragedy.

At this point, with the breadth and depth of hatred and fear between political and economic opposites in the US, I cannot see how the country can survive much longer.

It is very difficult for us "normies" to understand the mindset created by centuries of poverty, abuse and neglect. One one occasion, I had to interview a black male who had grown up in south Chicago and was facing serious charges. At one point, I asked him what his reaction was to what he was accused of (and had admittedly done). His reply still sends chills up my spine: "I don't care if I live or die, so imagine how little I care if you or anyone else dies".

That would require both intelligence and effort. so.......

'Inmates run the asylum': Political observers stunned by QAnon congresswoman’s massive fundraising haul On Wednesday, POLITICO reported that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the famously QAnon-sympathetic conspiracy theorist congresswoman who lost her House committee assignments after social media activity endorsing the execution of prominent Democrats in Congress, raised $3.2 million in the first quarter of 2021 — a huge amount of money for a freshman lawmaker in a district that is almost certainly too Republican-leaning to field a competitive race in the midterms anyway. Political observers on social media quickly reacted to the news of Greene's fundraising haul, many of them expressing dismay and disgust that so many people endorse Greene's brand of politics. Republicans are the party of QAnon. They can deny it, but it's true. The inmates run the asylum and have for years. https://t.co/1FQpsoVn6H — Emily C. Singer (@Emily C. Singer)1617800521.0 Just a reminder that the Republican base *wants* their leaders to act like Marjorie Taylor Greene. https://t.co/68QIcsqYXY — Renato Mariotti (@Renato Mariotti)1617800963.0 'Inmates run the asylum': Political observers stunned by QAnon congresswoman’s massive fundraising haul - Alternet.org