Abbott Puts Out Mandate Banning Vaccine Mandates Because Gov’t Mandates Are Bad

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

Welcome To The Upside-Down

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order yesterday that banned COVID-19 vaccine requirements across the board, including for employees and customers of private businesses.

• Under the order, “no entity” can require the vaccination of anyone who “objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19.”
• The order accused Biden of “bullying” “many private entities” with his sweeping vaccine mandates.
• The vaccine “should remain voluntary and never forced,” Abbott argued, even as he admitted that the shot “is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus.”

Pelosi Tells Dems They’ll Need To Do ‘Do Fewer Things Well’ With BBB

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signaled to rank-and-file Democrats yesterday that they might have to temper their expectations as they try to pass the reconciliation bill in the face of obstruction by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).

• “It is essential that difficult decisions must be made very soon” in order to pass the bipartisan legislation and reconciliation, Pelosi said in a “Dear Colleague” letter.

• The Democratic leader said that the “guidance” she’s receiving from members is to “do fewer things well” so that “we can still have a transformative impact on families in the workplace and responsibly address the climate crisis.”

Allen West Has Been Released From The Hospital

The GOP Texas gubernatorial candidate announced on Monday evening that he’d been discharged from the hospital after being treated for COVID-19 for two days–during which he kept tweeting scaremongering posts about the government promoting the COVID-19 vaccine over the hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin and a monoclonal antibody treatments he was taking.

• West stood by his attacks on vaccine mandates in his announcement video on Monday. “This should not be about forcing people to take a certain shot,” he said.

GOP Lt. Governor Doubles Down On Rank Trans/Homophobia

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) is digging his heels into the comments he made during a church gathering in June deriding “transgenderism” and homosexuality as “filth.”

• Robinson said he “will not be silenced” or “bullied into submission” in a Facebook video he posted on Saturday.

His church rant was posted by watchdog group Right Wing Watch last week:

Saudis’ Fancy Fur Robes To Trump Turned Out To Be Fake

When the Saudi royal family lavished Trump with certain purportedly exotic gifts during his first trip to Saudi Arabia in 2017, they apparently didn’t bother giving him the real thing, according to the New York Times.

• Three of the gifts included robes made of white tiger and cheetah fur. Investigators at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which received the furs from the General Services Administration (after the Trump White House wrongly sent the items to the GSA), found that the furs had been dyed and were fake.
• The fake furs were among the nine Saudi presents (the others being three swords and three daggers) from the trip that the Trump administration failed to disclose as foreign gifts. The White House didn’t send the gifts to the GSA until the very last full day of Trump’s presidency on Jan. 19, 2021.

Stephanie Grisham Super Wanted To Quit Before Jan. 6, You Guys!

Ex-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who’s currently on an apology tour to peddle her new tell-all book about the Trump swamp, claimed during a “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday that she “actually tried to resign a couple of times” six months before the Capitol insurrection (the day she quit).

• Grisham, who was serving as then-First Lady Melania Trump’s top aide during those six months, claimed that she had a “resignation letter written out with some very specific points” that she was “ready to hand over at any moment.”
• The first lady “talked me out of it,” Grisham said.

Lewandowski On The Outs-ky

Corey Lewandowski, who was kicked out of his leadership role at the pro-Trump Make America Great Again Action super PAC after allegedly sexually harassing a Trump donor, has also been blacklisted from the ex-president’s properties and MAGA events, the Daily Beast reports.

• Lewandowski apparently wasn’t aware of his excommunication until the Daily Beast reached out to his team about it. His spokesperson said that Lewandowski never received “any communication consistent with the claim that he has been asked not to go to any Trump property.”

Netflix Suspends Trans Employee Who Criticized Chapelle’s Special

Transgender Netflix software engineer Terra Field, who posted a now-viral Twitter thread speaking out against the comedian’s anti-trans jokes in his special, has been suspended, along with two other employees, for attending a meeting with Netflix executives that they weren’t invited to, according to the Verge and Variety.

• Netflix insisted that it was “absolutely untrue to say that we have suspended any employee for tweeting about this show.”

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