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Republicans defend Trump ahead of impeachment trial by blaming Nancy Pelosi for Capitol riot GOP shifts blame to Democrats for Capitol riot, call impeachment a “diversionary operation” As Donald Trump's second impeachment trial looms near, bringing the former president's incitement of insurrection into greater focus once again, members of the GOP are –– in another ambitious act of baseless conspiracy –– deflecting blame onto their Democratic counterparts for the riot and framing impeachment as a "diversionary operation" meant to distract from Democratic culpability. The idea that Democrats, who were chiefly targeted by rioters themselves, are responsible for the riot, is not entirely novel. Shortly after the Jan. 6 riot, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, tried to put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, under scrutiny, asking in an interview with Fox News, "Where was Nancy Pelosi? It's her job to provide Capitol security." A month later, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Senator Ron Johnson, R-WI, are now taking Graham's cue, leading the charge to position their Democratic colleagues as enablers of the insurrection. Republicans defend Trump ahead of impeachment trial by blaming Nancy Pelosi for Capitol riot | Salon.com

WHO Says It’s Found No Evidence That the Coronavirus Came From Wuhan Lab Reuters/ World Health Organization investigators working in China say they’ve found absolutely no evidence to support the theory that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan laboratory—and they think it’s such an outlandish theory that they’re going to bring an end to their research into it. Peter Ben Embarek, an animal-diseases expert, announced the decision during a press conference following a long-awaited visit by WHO experts to the city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified. Embarek said it’s “extremely unlikely” that the virus came from a lab, and that the most likely cause of the initial outbreak was the virus jumping from an undetermined “intermediary host species” to humans. The lab-origin theory was fueled by the U.S. State Department under President Donald Trump, which claimed last month that it had obtained intelligence that researchers at the lab became sick with COVID-19-like symptoms in autumn 2019.

I was in BestBuy on the weekend and saw those multi-function remotes on sale. I picked one up and thought to myself, "This changes everything!" "

And it will make little to no difference in Alberta politics.

There is a downside to the Democrats steamrolling the GOP. The GOP and their adherents have been wringing their hands and crying that they have been victimized for decades, even during the Trump ascendancy. They now can amplify their jeremiads and this will likely provoke their rabid followers to even more violence.

New Variants Raise Worry About COVID-19 Virus Reinfections. Scientists discovered a new version of the virus in South Africa that’s more contagious and less susceptible to certain treatments. Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants. People also can get second infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus if they mounted a weak defense the first time, new research suggests. How long immunity lasts from natural infection is one of the big questions in the pandemic. Scientists still think reinfections are fairly rare and usually less serious than initial ones, but recent developments around the world have raised concerns. In South Africa, a vaccine study found new infections with a variant in 2% of people who previously had an earlier version of the virus. In Brazil, several similar cases were documented with a new variant there. Researchers are exploring whether reinfections help explain a recent surge in the city of Manaus, where three-fourths of residents were thought to have been previously infected. In the United States, a study found that 10% of Marine recruits who had evidence of prior infection and repeatedly tested negative before starting basic training were later infected again. That work was done before the new variants began to spread, said one study leader, Dr. Stuart Sealfon of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “Previous infection does not give you a free pass,” he said. “A substantial risk of reinfection remains.” New Variants Raise Worry About COVID-19 Virus Reinfections | HuffPost

At first glance, I wanted to agree with you, but the situation in Vancouver is not good,

With the core of the team returning, the Bombers have to be considered favourites to repeat.

Trump has become lost in his fantasy world. There's enough material here to keep a convention of psychiatrists busy for awhile.

In the next few months we are going to find out if the Democrats and America have the moral grit to put their house in order or if the corruption is so deep and broad that it has infected the whole American political system.

Mutations occur within living hosts- not in the environment. Therefore, if you prevent the initial virus from surviving in the host long enough to mutate, the problem is prevented.

A lot of "ifs", but if we here in Canada vaccinate a high percentage of us, herd immunity will ensure that any inbound transmission will likely die out quickly (poor choice of words) or be very localized.

Legal analyst explains how Trump stepped into a trap with refusal to testify at his impeachment trial Early Saturday morning, MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos suggested Donald Trump walked into a trap with his refusal to appear and testify at his second impeachment trial which starts next Tuesday. Speaking with hosts Kendis Gibson and Lindsey Reiser, the defense attorney stated that House impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin (R-MD) executed "constitutional jiu-jitsu" by asking the former president to appear as opposed to subpoenaing him. "How much could Trump's absence, actually, hurt him, in this case next week?" the attorney was asked. "Jamie Raskin is using a great bit of constitutional jujitsu here," Cevallos replied. "They did not issue a subpoena, they just requested or invited him to come testify and President Trump declined. This is not a subpoena situation, but, you know, in our parallel-judicial courts, we have a principle: in criminal cases only that the prosecution and the judge cannot comment on an accused's silence at a criminal trial. But in civil cases, that comment or that inference, that negative inference from a defendant's silence, is allowed." "Beyond that, the president or former president isn't even being compelled to come speak or testify at this impeachment," he continued. "And the reality is, whereas in judicial court, we have centuries of case law and bound volumes of books like the ones behind me telling today's courts what to do, the Senate is bound by none of that. They are bound by whatever the head count is of their votes in today's Senate." $2.8 Million In Trump Reelection Donations Went To The Trump Organization: Report An estimated $2.8 million in contributions to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign ended up in the coffers of his heavily indebted Trump Organization, Forbes reported Friday. Additionally, $4.3 million raised by his campaign’s joint-fundraising committee, which collected money with the Republican Party, was spent on Trump’s businesses from Jan. 20, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2020, according to Forbes’ examination of campaign filings to the Federal Election Commission. The committee spent $11,000 on Trump hotels days after he lost the presidential election — and an additional $294,000 a week later for lodging, catering and space rental, Forbes noted. Forbes reported mid-year in 2020 that $2.2 million in donations from his campaign alone had already been spent on Trump properties. The Washington Post reported in early December that more than $1.06 million in campaign contributions were spent on Trump businesses in just the last weeks of his race. Trump never contributed “a cent” to his reelection campaign, Forbes reported. Trump raised $76 million after his loss ostensibly to battle the presidential election results and to help the Republican candidates in the vital Senate races in Georgia — but didn’t spend a dime on any of it, HuffPost has reported. “He put nothing back. He didn’t care,” one top Republican familiar with the fundraising operation told HuffPost. “He put all this money in the bank for his own legal fights.” Campaign contribution totals spent on Trump properties during his presidency have ranged from $10.5 million to nearly $17 million. $2.8 Million In Trump Reelection Donations Went To The Trump Organization: Report | HuffPost Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)

That and the park wardens carrying automatic weapons.

I have a problem with anyone who has admittedly drugged and robbed people.

Plummer was suffering from advancing Alzheimer's for the past few years and was terrified of the inevitable end looming. He is now free of the prison that was his body.

Unfortunately, their adherents are even more stoopid.

Its only a matter of degree. Trump and his miscreants are responsible, not only for the deaths at the Capitol, but at least 150,000of the 460,000 COVID deaths where prompt, appropriate action would have saved lives. He exhibits the same psychopathology as the others, with the possible exception of Stalin. BTW; Stalin was so thorough at wiping out doctors (who he considered reactionaries) that he died of pneumonia, which they could have easily treated.

Nzambi Matee of Kenya finds a way to recycle plastic waste into bricks that are stronger than concrete. 333 points · 44 comments0

Not all that surprising, given that Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin have their supporters to this day. And there are those who still revere Steven Harper.

Manitoba has not done "just fine", as the COVID response has shown. It doesn't matter that O'Toole is an Easterner- he walks the party line which is largely set by the Alberta and Alliance people. O'Toole has shown us that he is not a leader who aspires his party to be better, and his tolerance of the nuts in his party and his fawning over Trump proves.

It has come down to the lesser of evils, but it does not take much imagination to visualize what the responses to the COVID pandemic would have been had O'Toole and his merry men had been in charge- Alberta gives a pretty good hint.