Some Republicans on Sunday took aim at House Republicans who continued to downplay the violence of the deadly Capitol insurrection during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing last week that happened the same day Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was ousted as House GOP conference chair. Continue reading “‘Absolutely Bogus’: Republicans Blast House GOPers Who Downplay Capitol Attack”
MSNBC Host Fires Back At GOP Rep Who Says Media Should ‘Move On’ From Big Lie
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on Sunday got into a testy exchange with MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd when grilled on the GOP’s embrace of the big lie, following the House GOP’s vote to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as the No. 3 Republican for refusing to buy into former President Trump’s election fraud falsehoods. Continue reading “MSNBC Host Fires Back At GOP Rep Who Says Media Should ‘Move On’ From Big Lie”
CDC Director Defends Lifting Mask Recommendations For Vaccinated People
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Sunday defended the agency’s new guidelines saying that those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely remove their masks in most circumstances. Continue reading “CDC Director Defends Lifting Mask Recommendations For Vaccinated People”
A Restart Coalition
The Jerusalem Post is an English-language Israeli paper which is probably best described as center-right-ish, though it’s hard to use these terms in a way that maps clearly to the way we use these terms in the US. It’s current editor-in-chief is Yaakov Katz who in a addition to being a journalist was at one point a national security advisor to Naftali Bennett, a key player in the current dance over the next Israeli government.
As I mentioned yesterday, the current crisis – really several overlapping crises – has been a boon for Prime Minister Netanyahu. At least in the short-term it short-circuited all efforts to form a government to replace him. A key part of why is the aforementioned Bennett. Bennett is an erstwhile Netanyahu protege or junior ally. He’s part of the Israeli right and comes out of Religious Zionism, basically Revisionist Zionism koshered with Orthodoxy. Before the last week’s cascade of violence he was negotiating joining a government created by opposition leader Yair Lapid. It likely would have involved the two sharing the Prime Ministership and Bennett taking the position first. (Not bad for a guy whose party garnered only 7 seats out of 120.)
Cuomo Accusers Subpoenaed In Sexual Harassment Inquiry
Four women who have accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) of sexual harassment have received subpoenas to testify under oath, intensifying a state inquiry into the governor that got underway in March.
Continue reading “Cuomo Accusers Subpoenaed In Sexual Harassment Inquiry”
Two COVID Americas
COVID vaccination, for all the slowdown, remains fast moving across the United States. It seems likely we’ll see a brief surge in shots as parents bring their 12-15 year olds in for their shots. But we’re already seeing the emergence of what in the later months of 2021 is like to be two separate Americas as defined by COVID.
This is a map from the CDC vaccine data portal.
The Longterm Toll of COVID
I had missed this article about a very sobering study about the post-acute-illness impact of COVID. Most of us are now familiar with ‘long COVID’, people who continue to have various health problems long after they are past the period acute COVID infection. Some people simply don’t fully recover. Other have various knock-on symptoms or what appear to be recurrences of COVID, even if these are not actually new infections and illness. This study catalogs the likely impact of this phenomenon at scale. They say it will be a protracted health crisis for years to come, both in the US and around the world. The study also found that even people with mild cases of COVID have an elevated risk of death in the six months after they recover. This risk increases with the severity of the original illness.
Daily Beast Has New Wild Story Involving Gaetz, Greenberg, And A No-Show Contract
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg is expected to share with investigators the identity of a woman who attended a GOP fundraiser with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in 2019 as one of more than a dozen young women Gaetz paid for sex, the Daily Beast reported on Friday night.
Continue reading “Daily Beast Has New Wild Story Involving Gaetz, Greenberg, And A No-Show Contract”
Miller Muddied The Waters, But Politics Were At Play In Jan. 6 National Guard Delay
During a week of congressional committee hearings seeking to clarify why and how things went so wrong on Jan. 6, the officials testifying passed the buck and confused the particulars much more often than they shed light on what happened that day.
DHS Warns BLM That Protests Are ‘Likely’ Target Of Far-right Extremists
The Department of Homeland Security released a new terrorism bulletin on Friday, warning that far-right extremists are likely to consider attacking protests against police brutality.
Continue reading “DHS Warns BLM That Protests Are ‘Likely’ Target Of Far-right Extremists”