Tracker

Gates intended this as a jab at the conspiracy nuts in the US. It kinda follows that the leader of the Proud Boys in the US was an FBI informer. I like that Gates has a sense of ha-ha.

GOP Lawmakers Seek Tougher Voting Rules After Record Turnout, Election Losses AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country are moving swiftly to attack some of the voting methods that fueled the highest turnout for a presidential election in 50 years. Although most legislative sessions are just getting underway, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, has already tallied more than 100 bills in 28 states meant to restrict voting access. More than a third of those proposals are aimed at limiting mail voting, while other bills seek to strengthen voter ID requirements and registration processes, as well as allow for more aggressive means to remove people from voter rolls. “Unfortunately, we are seeing some politicians who want to manipulate the rules of the game so that some people can participate and some can’t,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center. GOP Lawmakers Seek Tougher Voting Rules After Record Turnout, Election Losses | HuffPost

We already have had a fascist president who was as dumb as a bag of rocks but was a glove-puppet of some people who were smarter than he (not a great feat). There is the Putin scenario- he was installed as a useful fool by powerful men in Russia but was clever enough to outwit, and jail them. I am not sure in the GOP or adherents would fit that description, but many who would try. Trump was undone by his pride and stupidity, but the next one may not be. Top Trump campaign fundraiser played key role in planning the rally that preceded the siege: text messages In the week leading up to the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that exploded into an attack on the Capitol, a top Trump campaign fundraiser issued a directive to a woman who had been overseeing planning for the event. “Get the budget and vendors breakdown to me and Justin," Caroline Wren wrote to Cindy Chafian, a self-described “constitutional conservative," in a Dec. 28 text message obtained by ProPublica. Wren was no ordinary event planner. She served as a deputy to Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, at Trump Victory, a joint presidential fundraising committee during the 2020 campaign. The Justin mentioned in her text was Justin Caporale, a former top aide to first lady Melania Trump, whose production company helped put on the event at the Ellipse. Text messages and an event-planning memo obtained by ProPublica, along with an interview with Chafian, indicate that Wren, a Washington insider with a low public profile, played an extensive role in managing operations for the event. The records show that Wren oversaw logistics, budgeting, funding and messaging for the Jan. 6 rally that featured President Donald Trump. Chafian told ProPublica that Wren and others had pushed her aside as plans intensified, including as a late effort was made to get Trump to speak at the event. On Dec. 29, after receiving the budget, Wren instructed Chafian, via text, to hold off on printing event-related slogans “until we decide what the messaging is and we have no clue on timing because it all depends on the votes that day so we won't know timing for a few more days." The “timing" appears to be a reference to Congress' Jan. 6 vote to certify the election results. Wren's services were enlisted by a major donor to Trump's presidential campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported Saturday that Julie Jenkins Fancelli, the heiress to Publix Super Markets, committed some $300,000 to fund the Jan. 6 rally. Top Trump campaign fundraiser played key role in planning the rally that preceded the siege: text messages - Alternet.org Five attorneys quit days before impeachment trial and his backers turn on him Former President Donald Trump is apparently having some trouble finding legal representation in his upcoming impeachment trial. All five lawyers, including former federal litigators and Trump's anticipated lead attorneys Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, have quit less than two weeks before the trial is scheduled to begin the week of February 8, unnamed sources told CNN. Other attorneys with the good sense to distance themselves from Trump include South Carolina lawyers Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris and Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who worked on the Monica Lewinsky investigation during former President Bill Clinton's time in office, CNN reported. "A person familiar with the situation called it a 'mutual" decision,' New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman tweeted Saturday. "Bowers has been noticeably muted for someone leading a Trump defense, choosing not to talk to most reporters. The person familiar with the situation said there was no chemistry between Bowers and Trump."

This is a probable scenario, but it comes with real risks. If you think the right wingers went nuts over losing the election, both houses and the presidency, what would follow another loss in the mid-terms and the 2024 election is close to outright guerilla civil war. That would fulfill Putin's fondest dreams- a broken and divided America.

At least Bill Gates has a sense of humor about it!

Good enough to challenge for a starting role in Regina.

Florida rabbi arrested in connection with deadly US Capitol riot A rabbi in Florida is now the latest person of interest in connection with the deadly U.S. Capitol riots that erupted on Jan. 6 amid the Electoral College certification. According to WFLA-TV, the U.S. Department of Justice has arrested Michael Stepakoff, of Tampa Bay, Fla., on a string of charges for his role in the U.S. Capitol siege. A criminal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court of Washington D.C., details the incriminating evidence that led to Stepakoff's arrest. Federal authorities have revealed that there is "surveillance video which shows him standing inside the Capitol building during the raid and a Facebook post the FBI says was made by his wife, which states he was inside the building and asks the public for prayers for his safety," according to FOX-13. Florida rabbi arrested in connection with deadly US Capitol riot - Alternet.org Republican accused of threatening AOC after he warns of 'alternative means' to condemn her remarks Horned Viking 'Shaman' Who Stormed Capitol Now Willing To Testify Against Trump The Capitol decked out in a fur hat with horns is now willing to testify against his former hero Donald Trump at the former president’s impeachment trial, according to his lawyer. Jacob Chansley of Arizona, who calls himself the “QAnon Shaman,” feels that he has been “betrayed” by Trump, who failed to pardon him and others who attacked the Capitol, said attorney Al Watkins, The Associated Press reported. Watkins said in a statement Thursday that Chansley is willing to discuss “whether the words of former President Trump were understood by Mr. Chansley to be nothing short of an invitation to go to the Capitol with the president to fight like hell,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Horned Viking 'Shaman' Who Stormed Capitol Now Willing To Testify Against Trump | HuffPost Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)

One would think that would automatically mean arrest for anyone who says these sort of things, but with a lot of cops sympathetic to Qanon, the wheels of justice turn very slowly if at all.

Absolutely, at least many if them did. A large scale uprising would have justified Trump, or rather have given him an excuse to declare martial law.

This makes it both obvious and imperative that the Democrats pursue Trump with all possible and legal vigour and speed. Once Trump is shown up in court and the US Senate as the cowardly racist and would-be tyrant he lusts to become, much of his mystique will vanish But it also follows that the indictment and trial of Trump will absolutely provoke his zealots to violence.

Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot? The night before a mob of Donald Trump's diehard supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, longtime Trump confidant and presidential-pardon recipient Roger Stone made his first public appearance in Washington since his trial, giving a pump-up speech at a Freedom Plaza rally organized by a group called Stop the Steal. In a helpful moment of clarity, the emcee for the evening, Stone associate and fellow convicted felon Ali Alexander (formerly Ali Akbar), a driving force behind the events that led to the attack the following afternoon, noted that "It was Roger Stone who coined the term first: Stop the Steal." Stone did more than coin the term. He registered it with the federal government as a political nonprofit more than four years earlier, in 2016, and appears to have a hand in its successor, which was created less than a month before the 2020 election. But while Alexander went on to claim to be the "father of the movement," that too traces to Stone, who had organized not just the 2016 effort, but another one two years later. All of this traces back deep in Republican dirty-trick history, all the way to the "Brooks Brothers Riot" orchestrated by Stone to interfere with the 2000 Miami-Dade County recount and help make George W. Bush president. When Stone, escorted by bodyguards from the Oath Keepers anti-government militia group, delivered the keynote speech at the Freedom Plaza rally on Jan. 5, after showing off his dance moves, in his pinstripe suit and fedora hat, to a hip-hop remix of a song honoring his innocence, he made clear that Alexander had only "revived the Stop the Steal movement." In other words, all of this was, at its root, a Roger Stone production. It appears that Stone bears as much responsibility as anyone — and quite a bit more than most — for the deadly riot that unfolded the next day, though the extent of his influence has not yet come into public focus. Roger Stone created the first Stop the Steal organization in April 2016, raising and spending tens of thousands of dollars for the anticipated mission of defending Trump through the contested Republican primary and later challenging an apparent Hillary Clinton general election win, neither of which proved necessary. That group was shuttered in 2017, but Stone, a Florida resident, reactivated the movement after the 2018 midterms — specifically to protect then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott's narrow victory in a U.S. Senate race over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. Stone even got help from Alexander, an itinerant provocateur who came aboard to help recruit for the effort, laying out his vision in a Periscope video, as reported in Right Wing Watch, in which Alexander said he hoped to motivate not just Republicans, but QAnon followers, Democrats and "homeless people in all the adjacent counties" to monitor the vote count. Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot? | Salon.com

Whatthehell....there are lots of spare people in Alberta. Nobody is really gonna miss a few thousands. Talk about doubling down.

Gonna be an interesting grievance adjudication.

Two Women in Capitol Riot Were ‘Looking for Nancy to Shoot Her Friggin’ Brain’: Docs Two Pennsylvania women were arrested on Friday after allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6—and expressing their intent to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith are facing three charges including knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. In a criminal complaint, prosecutors allege the pair were seen in a video trying to exit the Capitol after the riots. “We broke into the Capitol…we got inside, we did our part,” Bancroft, who is wearing a MAGA ski-cap, said in the video. “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain but we didn’t find her.” When the FBI questioned Santos-Smith on Jan. 20, she initially said she only attended former Trump’s rally and didn’t physically enter the Capitol. After agents showed her the video of her and Bancroft, Santos-Smith admitted they went inside but didn’t “have a pre-planned agenda” to do so. She added that when she and Bancroft arrived at the Capitol, they heard protesters saying “they’re letting us in,” which she interpreted as being allowed entry. The pair entered through a broken window—which Santos-Smith said she knew they should not have done. Two Women in Capitol Riot Were ‘Looking for Nancy to Shoot Her Friggin’ Brain’: Docs (thedailybeast.com)

Marjorie Taylor Greene Warned That Freedom Comes With ‘Price of Blood’ in Pre-Election Video -Getty Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggested that violence was a means for protecting freedom in a video interview shared days before the 2020 presidential election. “If this generation doesn’t stand up and defend freedom, it’s gone,” Greene said in a live-stream interview on the Pennsylvania Firearms Association’s Facebook page. “And once it’s gone, freedom doesn’t come back by itself. The only way you get your freedoms back is it’s earned with the price of blood.” The video, uncovered by Mother Jones, was a 22-minute conversation between Greene and fringe gun activist Chris Dorr in which she said America would “completely end... as we know it” if Trump and Republicans didn’t win. In recent days, social media posts have emerged in which Greene, a staunch gun advocate, has endorsed the execution of Democrats and said school shootings were fake. She once liked a Facebook post saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deserved “a bullet to the head.” Marjorie Taylor Greene Warned That Freedom Comes With ‘Price of Blood’ in Pre-Election Vid (thedailybeast.com)

I'm afraid that many, perhaps even most Americans are afflicted with the "win at all costs/ If you're not cheating, you're not trying" mentality. Societal attitudes take generations to change. Or a widespread catastrophe.

Johnson & Johnson 1-Dose Shot Prevents COVID-19, But Less Than Some Others Johnson & Johnson’s long-awaited vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with just one shot – not as strong as some two-shot rivals but still potentially helpful for a world in dire need of more doses. J&J said Friday that in the U.S. and seven other countries, the single-shot vaccine was 66% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe illness, and much more protective — 85% — against the most serious symptoms. There was some geographic variation. The vaccine worked better in the U.S. — 72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19 – compared to 57% in South Africa, where it was up against an easier-to-spread mutated virus. “Gambling on one dose was certainly worthwhile,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, global research chief for J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical unit, told The Associated Press. With vaccinations off to a rocky start globally, experts had been counting on a one-dose vaccine that would stretch scarce supplies and avoid the logistics nightmare of getting people to return for boosters. But with some other competing vaccines shown to be 95% effective after two doses, at question is whether somewhat less protection is an acceptable tradeoff to get more shots in arms quickly. The company said within a week, it will file an application for emergency use in the U.S., and then abroad. It expects to supply 100 million doses to the U.S. by June, and expects to have some ready to ship as soon as authorities give the green light. (Not sure who is going to fall all over themselves to order this stuff)

To state the obvious: most of these guys, their politicians and the morons who voted them in have the collective intelligence of dryer lint.

Fixed that for you.

This "dilemma" is really a testament to the effectiveness of the Bombers scouting and drafting since the arrival of Walters.

Haven't you been watching Star Trek Discovery? All the dilithium has gone and blowed up.

The probability is that there will be no one panacea to fix everything so that we can carry on as before. There will likely be a mix of old and new energy sources, some of which have not yet emerged, but our future will have to include changes in how we do things- smaller vehicles, more energy-efficient buildings and initiatives such as telecommuting and more localized sourcing. This will not be quick, easy or painless. Some 30 years ago, a Boston-based energy auditing and retrofitting firm approached Hyd0 Quebec with an offer. They offered to audit all commercial buildings for free (!) and recommend efficiencies in exchange for 50% of the savings in electrical consumption. Never got to first base.

The Chinese government has announced that they have developed an almost-instant, 100% accurate swab test for COVID. The bad news is that its a anal swab. The really bad news is that it has to reach the back of your throat.

QAnon and evangelicals: Republicans baptized in crazy Donald Trump is out, but parts of the Republican Party warmly embrace his dark legacy of white supremacy, the crazy QAnon conspiracy and civil war wrapped in faux Christianity. Like Trump, these fake Christians reject turning the other cheek in favor of threatening or promoting violence. The problem here isn't partisan politics, but public mental health. DCReport has covered extensively the mental-health debacle thanks to Dr. Bandy X. Lee, Harper West and other experts on how delusions spread like viruses, with Trump being a carrier. The evidence of craziness seems to be found entirely in the Republican Party. We looked for, but have yet to discover any Democratic Party leaders pushing baseless conspiracy theories or urging civil war. Here are some of the ways that Republican leaders reveal their affinity for the anti-democratic nature of Trumpism and QAnon, its attendant conspiracy theory: In California, the Sacramento County Republican Party elected to its Central Committee a Proud Boys member who has advocated violence. "Illegal immigrants should have their heads smashed into the concrete," a 2018 post by an antifascist group quotes Perrine as saying. Perrine didn't deny this call to violence, he only insisted that he's not a racist. He told the newspaper, "They can call me a Nazi all they want, and I know I have plenty of friends of all races that don't always agree with me, but they still love me. "The Proud Boys that I affiliate with are all working men, all married men, they all have good jobs, they all believe in God." Only after The Bee reported this did some Republicans in the California capital come to their senses and demand Perrine's ouster. Oregon's Republican Party this month aligned itself with conspiracy theories as well as denouncing all 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the murderous attack on our Capitol. Texas' GOP uses a QAnon conspiracy phrase—We Are The Storm—in its new logo. QAnon and evangelicals: Republicans baptized in crazy | Salon.com