Fox News host Tucker Carlson is billed as a speaker at a far-right conference in Hungary on Saturday, according to a flier for the event. The appearance will come days after the Fox host met with the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Blagojevich Fights To Overturn Ban On Running For Office: It’s A ‘Voting Rights’ Violation
Disgraced ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) — who was kicked out of office in 2009 before being convicted and sentenced to prison for more than a decade over corruption charges — is filing a federal lawsuit claiming his removal and the subsequent ban on him running for office was unconstitutional.
The Battle To Vaccinate
A few weeks ago in my off-air brainstorming I had thought about simply paying people $100 to get vaccinated. It’s almost certainly a good investment for government. I mean, we’ve paid many thousands of dollars to individuals to maintain the economy through the stresses of COVID and other outreach efforts cost significant amounts of money too. The idea had occurred to me when reading articles about how many people have not gotten vaccinated simply because it requires taking time off work or having the risk of a couple days downtime from side effects. So I was excited to see that people at the White House were thinking along the same lines.
It is a good reminder that the vaccine ‘hesitancy’ issue is really two different issues, and they’re not even both hesitancy.
Welcome To (Actual) Infrastructure Week!
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Drumroll Please…
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unveiled the text of the long-awaited bipartisan infrastructure bill Sunday night.
- With $550 billion in new spending, the bill “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” runs more than 2,700 pages.
- We’ll assume you don’t have the time to go through all that, so here are some of the highlights, courtesy of CNN and the Associated Press:
- $110 billion for major infrastructure projects, including road and bridges
- $11 billion for transportation safety
- $39 billion for public transit
- $66 billion for rail (congratulations, Amtrak)
- Schumer predicted that the chamber would pass the bill “in a matter of days.”
Pelosi Punts
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is putting the onus on the Biden administration to extend the now-expired federal eviction ban after the House failed to do so on Friday.
- Pelosi argued in her statement that House legislation to continue the ban “will not be sufficient” because the Senate, largely hamstrung by the filibuster, is unlikely to take it up. Progressive Democrats, including Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), held a protest over the ban’s expiration at the Capitol this weekend:
Housing is a human right. ? Thank you for leading the way @CoriBush ? pic.twitter.com/AwmEJoU5kv
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 1, 2021
The Making Of A Jan. 6 Mythology
- “How Ashli Babbitt went from Capitol rioter to Trump-embraced ‘martyr’” – The Washington Post
- “Already Distorting Jan. 6, G.O.P. Now Concocts Entire Counternarrative” – The New York Times
Why The Mastermind Is More Culpable Than The Killers
“Trump and the Capitol riot ‘hitman’ analogy” – MSNBC
A Cautionary Tale
A Tennessee GOP lawmaker who fought COVID-19 for eight months after flouting masks urged people to get vaccinated last week in his harrowing account of becoming so ill his family actually planned his funeral.
- “I have never been against taking the Covid-19 vaccine, but I understand the concerns of those who are hesitant,” state Rep. David Byrd wrote. “To them, I would say Covid is real and it is very dangerous.”
Flying Under The Radar
Tennessee’s Rhodes College is putting the burden of testing for COVID flatly on unvaccinated students, who will be required to pay $1,500 per semester for the school’s weekly testing program if they don’t have a medical or religious exemption for not getting the vaccine.
COVID By The Grim Numbers
Florida broke its record for COVID hospitalizations on Sunday. The previous record was set before vaccines became widely available.
Must-Read
“The Big Money Behind The Big Lie” – The New Yorker
Biden Admin v. Abbott Throwdown
The Justice Department is suing to put the kibosh on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) Trumpian order for state troopers to stop vehicles they suspect of carrying migrants.
Festering Wounds In Trump’s War Against Science
The mass exodus of demoralized government scientists during the Trump era has kneecapped Biden’s climate agenda–and the administration is struggling to bring them back after Trump’s blatant politicization of federal scientific work.
Biles Is Back
Simone Biles, who withdrew from the US gymnastics team final at the Tokyo Olympics for her mental health, will compete in the balance beam final, the last event in the gymnastics competition.
The Tragedy Of Trumpland Social Media Platform Knockoffs
GETTR, the social media platform launched by Trump’s allies, has GOTTen swamped with ISIS propaganda.
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Fauci Warns ‘Things Are Going To Get Worse’ As Unvaccinated Prompt COVID Spikes
Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical adviser, on Sunday issued a dire warning as the country experiences spikes in COVID-19 cases amid the spread of the Delta variant, especially amongst the unvaccinated. Continue reading “Fauci Warns ‘Things Are Going To Get Worse’ As Unvaccinated Prompt COVID Spikes”
Kinzinger Backs Subpoenas For McCarthy And Jordan In Jan. 6 Probe
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on Sunday said that he expects that the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 will issue “a significant” amount of subpoenas, which include his Republican colleagues in Congress. Continue reading “Kinzinger Backs Subpoenas For McCarthy And Jordan In Jan. 6 Probe”
House Dems Blast McCarthy For Joking About Violence Towards Pelosi If He Is Speaker
House Democrats urged Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to apologize to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) after joking that it would be “hard not to hit” her with a gavel if Republicans take back the House in midterm elections next year, during a speech on Saturday night. Continue reading “House Dems Blast McCarthy For Joking About Violence Towards Pelosi If He Is Speaker”
Collins And Manchin See Light At End Of Infrastructure Bill Tunnel This Week
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), both of whom are part of the bipartisan group of senators who have worked throughout the weekend to finalize the text of the infrastructure bill, on Sunday expressed confidence that the deal is on its way towards passage by the end of the week. Continue reading “Collins And Manchin See Light At End Of Infrastructure Bill Tunnel This Week”
For Your Weekend Reading Pleasure #2
An essay on building a small sailboat by hand.
For Your Weekend Reading Pleasure
For your weekend reading pleasure ‘History’s Heroic Failures‘, stories of kings from the distant past who rescued their kingdoms in historic victories only to lose everything to new foes, leaving the earlier triumphs all but forgotten.