Tracker

Actual photo from mars landing.

Perseverence pays off!

FYI: On CBC evening news, the premier's claim was challenged on the timeline when the Calgary vaccine will be available. The immunologist interviewed stated that the end of the year was a much more realistic goal for a company that has never produced a vaccine of any sort before.

6 Capitol Police Officers Suspended, 35 Under Investigation After Insurrection Six Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay and 35 others are under investigation following the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol, a spokesperson for the department said Thursday. The police force has received criticism for allowing the rioters to breach the Capitol amid the Electoral College certification of President Biden’s victory over former President Trump. Five people died in the riot, including a Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick; another officer, Howard Liebengood, died by suicide days later. Steven Sund, then the chief of Capitol Police, resigned the day after the riot. “Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman has directed that any member of her department whose behavior is not in keeping with the Department’s Rules of Conduct will face appropriate discipline,” the statement read. 6 Capitol Police Officers Suspended, 35 Under Investigation After Insurrection (thedailybeast.com)

That would have been an improvement- his usual was two chocolate bars plus a can or two of RedBull.

Trump intelligence chiefs hid evidence of Russian election interference Lost in the news on the day of Trump's Insurrection was a devastating new watchdog report to Congress on the politicizing and distorting of intelligence during Donald Trump's time in office. The analytic ombudsman, career intelligence community veteran Barry A. Zulauf, determined that under Trump national intelligence reports had become highly politicized. Important findings were suppressed to appease Trump's refusal to acknowledge Russian interference in American elections. Zulauf's unclassified report paints a frightening picture of just how much the Trump administration skewed intelligence to suppress knowledge of interference by Russia in our 2020 elections. From March 2020, in the critical months leading up to the elections, Zulauf "identified a long story arc of—at the very least—perceived politicization of intelligence." Zulauf works in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a Cabinet-level position created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to oversee all U.S. intelligence operations. Zulauf's job within the ODNI was created by Congress to assist analysts throughout the intelligence community with complaints and concerns about politicization, biased reporting or lack of objectivity in intelligence analysis. This is the first of a two-part series. Coming in Part 2: The intelligence community under Trump was not alone in diverting focus from Russian interference. Zulauf determined that Trump's ODNI took "willful actions that… had the effect of politicizing intelligence, hindering objective analysis or injecting bias into the intelligence process." While Zulauf tried to avoid specifically naming individuals responsible for much of the political heavy-handed rewriting, he repeatedly calls out actions taken by two recent Trump appointees, neither of whom had any chops as intelligence experts. One is former an acting director, Richard Grenell. He had been a Fox News commentator and Trump-appointed ambassador to Germany, and took over the ODNI in February 2020 then relinquished the post the following May. The second was the Texas congressman Trump appointed to replace Grenell, John Ratcliffe, best known as a fervent defender of the ex-president in his first impeachment. Trump intelligence chiefs hid evidence of Russian election interference - Alternet.org

12-16 year-olds can be very trying.

Tough way to die. Of course! It was the kids' fault. Damned kids forcing Cruz to ignore the plight of millions of Texans he swore to serve. Its always the kids.

Trump's 'nasty shot' at Mitch McConnell's wife is a preview of coming 'ugliness': reporter Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night unleashed an angry attack against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in which he called his one-time ally a "dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack." New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman appeared on CNN Wednesday to break down the president's current fight with his own party's leadership, and she said one of the most notable parts of Trump's angry tirade at McConnell was his attack on the senator's wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Trump's own secretary of transportation. Trump said that McConnell has "no credibility on China because of his family's substantial Chinese business holdings," a reference to the business of Chao's father, shipping magnate James S. C. Chao. "Trump took a shot at McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao... and it was a nasty shot," she said. "And it was a sort of threatening shot about how McConnell is conflicted on China because of his family business ties to China." Haberman added "that's the kind of ugliness you're also going to see from Donald Trump going forward" as he seeks revenge on Republicans whom he believes undermined his presidency. Trump's 'nasty shot' at Mitch McConnell's wife is a preview of coming 'ugliness': reporter - Alternet.org

To be clear about the difference: fast relates to top speed, and quick relates to rapid starts and turns.

That would be a best-case scenario, but encouraging nonetheless.

Ron DeSantis threatens to pull COVID vaccine from Florida communities accusing him of political favoritism All over the United States, there are still many questions about how and when the various COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed — and in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is drawing criticism for threatening to pull vaccine distribution from counties that say unfavorable things about his plans. According to South Florida Sun Sentinel reporters Skyler Swisher, Steven Lemongello and Richard Tribou, "Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his decision Wednesday to steer COVID-19 vaccine to a planned community with family ties to a Republican power couple, threatening to pull doses if local officials criticize his distribution methods. DeSantis is facing questions over his decision to provide seniors living in two of Manatee County's wealthiest ZIP codes with special access to the vaccine." The Sun Sentinel reporters note that a "pop-up distribution site" is "serving residents of Lakewood Ranch, a planned community in Southwest Florida with family ties to Liz and **** Uihlein" — who the New York Times has described as a "powerful conservative couple." **** Uihlein donated $900,000 to the Friends of DeSantis political committee in 2018, the year he narrowly defeat Democrat and former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in Florida's gubernatorial race, and 2019. The Uilheins were major donors to former President Donald Trump's reelection campaign in 2020. Ron DeSantis threatens to pull COVID vaccine from Florida communities accusing him of political favoritism - Alternet.org

This crap- churches and businesses, will go on until those responsible get sent to jail for repeated violations and/or get charged with criminal negligence when the employees or parishioners get sick.

What is going on in Texas is a parallel to the Enron debacle. Apparently the gas company simply shut down gas-powered generators because the cost of natural gas rose to the point where the company was losing money on the contracts where they had to supply natural gas at fixed prices. the governor has given them permission to renege on the contracts and now will charge exorbitant prices to customers. Capitalism at its finest.

America is entering a period of political and spiritual uncertainty, and that will be stirred up by wanna-be demagogues like Trump in the hopes that he can feast on the bones of the dead and dying. Sociology says that it is probable that a "strongman" or "strongmen" will rise to fill the vacuum and respond to the frightened and angry. They will wrap themselves in the flag and carry a cross all the while subverting all the values that they will claim to champion. There will be skirmishes of increasing violence and these leaders will decry how the innocent are being persecuted. They will develop power bases- states where they can openly preach their gospels of hatred and imagined persecution. It will resemble a slow-motion civil war.

The civil suits will hurt Trump the most. He values money and power above all else, and as the suits go forward, this will panic any potential lenders, except maybe for the Russian money. The Saudis will treat him like the useless former asset he is now.

In the video clips, he flat-outran his pursuers and was pulling away from them every time. His hands are a question mark though.

Dominion Says It Will Sue MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Over Election Fraud Claims Dominion sent letters to Lindell in December and January demanding that he retract false claims about their machines. Instead, the MyPillow CEO doubled down. MAGA diehard and pillow magnate Mike Lindell is the next target of a Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit over his wild claims about nonexistent election-fraud conspiracy, with the lead attorney representing Dominion telling The Daily Beast he expects to file the suit “imminently.” Lindell, a staunch Donald Trump ally and founder of the MyPillow company, became a prominent voice and financial backer in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and, alongside Trumpist attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, made a series of false allegations that China and others somehow hacked voting machines and swung the 2020 election to Joe Biden. “He has doubled down and tripled down. He has made himself a higher public profile with his documentary,” Tom Clare, an attorney representing Dominion, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday afternoon. Clare confirmed in a brief phone call that Dominion would be filing suit against Lindell “imminently.” The suit would make Lindell the third pro-Trump figure sued by Dominion after the company filed $1.3 billion suits against attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. Dominion Says It Will Sue MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Over Election Fraud Claims (thedailybeast.com)

NAACP Sues Trump, Giuliani and Two White Nationalist Groups for Failed Jan. 6 Coup The NAACP, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll figure if Republicans won’t let their ovaries hang and impeach the voice of the insurrection, then they will just have to sue his ass and his supporters’ untanned asses. So a lawsuit was filed Tuesday morning in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming that the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, former President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani incited a riot on Jan. 6 to keep Congress from certifying election results, Politico reports. The lawsuit “claims they did so in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era statute designed to protect both formerly enslaved African Americans and lawmakers in Congress from white supremacist violence,” according to Politico. “If we don’t put a check on the spread of domestic terrorism, it will consume this nation and transform it to something that none of us recognize,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson told Politico. “We must, as a nation, prevent the spread of this type of boldness where [insurrectionists] will go to our U.S. Capitol and seek an act of treason.” Reps. Hank Johnson and Bonnie Watson Coleman are expected to join the litigation as plaintiffs in the coming days.

Despite gloom and doom, I remain optimistic that there will be a 2021 season. Gotta be.

Very very quick, good body control and is 192 lb, so he won't be easy to bring down once he gets up to speed.

Yes. Civil suits in the US require only a majority jury decision, and do not have to meet the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.

Republicans formalize their embrace of American fascism with Trump's acquittal The full malevolence of this new Republican Party nullification of consequences for political corruption—this time, in the form of a president sending a mob to block the certification of the U.S. election that would remove him from power, a president responding to the resulting violence by singling out to the mob his own specific enemies, then sitting back to watch the violence unfold on his television while taking no action to either contain the mob or protect the Congress, is difficult to even grasp. The ultimate irony of the Republican sabotage, however, is that impeachment was unquestionably the most appropriate remedy for Trump's actions. It was an absolute necessity, and now the entire nation will suffer the consequences. Yet again. Whether or not what Trump did was criminal is as yet undetermined, but even Sen. Mitch McConnell himself honed in on the central sin of Trump's actions. It was, at the very least, an unforgivable dereliction of duty. When faced with a clear and present need to defend the country, Trump did not. He betrayed his oath. He proved himself not just unfit for office, but a malevolent figure willing to use even violence against lawmakers as avenue for further political power. Republicans formalize their embrace of American fascism with Trump's acquittal - Alternet.org Lindsey Graham says Lara Trump is the "future of the Republican Party" Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of America's biggest loser, has just been proclaimed the winner of the impeachment trial that resulted in a 57-43 vote to convict husband Eric's dad for inciting insurrection against America. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has somehow decided that Donald Trump's escape means Lara Trump is now certain to become senator of North Carolina. She's expected to seek the seat being vacated next year by Senator Richard Burr, who infuriated the Republican Party Saturday by voting to convict Trump. Burr had announced in 2016 he wouldn't seek another term in 2022. If Graham has a reason to elevate Lara Trump other than her last name, he's keeping it to himself. "The biggest winner I think of this whole impeachment trial is Lara Trump," Graham told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "If she runs, I will certainly be behind her because I think she represents the future of the Republican Party." Lindsey Graham says Lara Trump is the "future of the Republican Party" | Salon.com

As insane as it may seem, most Republicans believe that Trump is their best chance of regaining power in the houses and presidency. With the only sane possible presidency candidate being Mitt Romney, and Trump will do his damnedest to make sure he never gets so much as a whiff of that, there is no real alternative to Trump. Besides, who else would appeal to the Jesus freaks and knuckle-draggers?

Sen. Lindsey Graham Brushes Off Trump's Election Lies: 'I'm Into Winning' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday acknowledged that former President Donald Trump spread lies about the election and could have “done more” to stop the deadly insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol last month. Nonetheless, the GOP senator said he will stick by Trump’s side because he likes “winning.” Asked during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” whether Trump bears any responsibility for the Capitol riot, Graham said “no in terms of the law.” “He bears responsibility of pushing narratives about the election that I think are not sound and not true,” said Graham, who helped peddle Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud and urged him not to concede the race days after President Joe Biden declared victory. “I don’t think that he caused the riot,” Graham added. He conceded, however, that Trump’s behavior after the election was “over the top.” Either way, Graham added, Republicans can’t win back the House in 2022 without Trump, who lost the popular vote to Biden by more than 7 million votes. “To the Republican Party, if you want to win and stop the socialist agenda, we need to work with President Trump,” Graham told Fox News. “We can’t do it without him. ... I’m into winning. And if you want to get something off your chest, fine. But I’m into winning.”