Saturday, May 15, 2021

Mask Restrictions Lifting: So How Do We Prove We've Been Vaccinated?



The long awaited moment has finally arrived; face masks are coming off. Not entirely, and there's the rub.

When President Biden took his face mask off yesterday and announced a loosening of mask restrictions the reactions were immediate; celebration and suspicion.

Joy! Joy! It's now okay to walk around in public without a facemask if you're fully vaccinated... with one caveat - how do you prove your fully vaccinated?

The CDC's announcement on masks creates ambiguity for retailers because it fails to to fully align with state and and local orders.

The result? Retailers are stuck in an incredibly difficult situation between conflicting positions of federal and local guidance.

We're now dealing with an honor system where people who are not vaccinated are walking around without masks, despite the CDC guidance.

So how are people going to prove they're vaccinated? The answer to that is complicated.

Outside a handful of states that have poured resources into piloting so-called "vaccine passport" type systems, most Americans still have few options to prove whether they're fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Providing a public-facing portal for residents to quickly verify each other's vaccination status is far from a priority for some states.

As a matter of fact a handful of states have moved to prohibit businesses from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

Other states have seen a proliferation of forgeries mimicking the simple 4-by-3-inch cards doled out by the federal government.

The Biden administration has made it clear it doesn't plan on creating a national system to track or prove COVID-19 vaccinations.

So where does that leave us?

Many companies and nonprofits plan to launch their own consumer-friendly options.

They're relying on Technical specifications from private sector efforts like the Vaccine Credential Initiative, which promises "open, interoperable standards."

Meanwhile millions of Americans are shedding their masks, whether vaccinated or not, pretending the pandemic is over.

Friday, May 14, 2021

A Bad Makeup Day: Matt Gaetz's Worst Nightmare Is Unfolding

When Rep. Matt Gaetz stumbled into his bathroom upon waking up, the news that his pal Joel Greenberg had made a deal with investigators shocked him.

Trembling with fear he slapped his face makeup on haphazardly as he thought about the 17-year-old girl he was accused of having sex with cooperating with investigators.

In a moment of panic he smeared his lipstick across his face, looking like The Joker in Batman adventures.

Mirrors don't lie. The reflection that came back to him was that of a ruined man expecting the ax to drop.

He knew at that moment Greenberg was singing like a canary and his chances of being indicted had tripled.

He dreaded Monday when Greenberg will plead guilty before a federal magistrate in court. 

It's not entirely clear what charges he'll plead guilty to, or whether prosecutors might substitute other charges as part of his plea deal.

What was clear to Gaetz as he stared into the mirror, was his buddy had made a deal that was going to cause him grief.

After running around for years in Washington D.C. like a frat boy on vacation, he was being humbled and hunted, as prosecutors were preparing charges against him with Greenberg's help.

Turning away from the mirror all he could think about was getting a lawyer, and Roger Stone's help in beating the case.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

A 3rd Party? Republicans Sick of the Big Lie Prepare to Fight Back

A growing number of Republicans are planning on fighting Trump's toxic influence by forming a new political party that recognizes reality.

It's in the early stages, but the idea of breaking away from the Trump cult GOPers is gaining traction daily.

The rebels are preparing to release a letter tomorrow "threatening to leave the party" if it doesn't disavow Trump. 

The letter - titled "A Call for American Renewal" has the support of more than 100  lawmakers, and is growing.

The signers of the letter are a loose collection of former Republican lawmakers and state party leaders that believe the party is broken.

The ousting of Liz Cheney as the #3 Republican today by a group of cowards in the House, may be an impetus for the dissatisfied Republicans to step up their resistance.

The rebels are saying it's time for a resistance of the "rationals'" versus the "radicals"

There doesn't appear to be any current members of Congress willing to break away from Trump's influence. The threat of forming a third party is more symbolic than possible.

However, starting a party, even a national one, could be effective in getting the GOP's attention, but only insofar as it could accumulate leverage by siphoning off votes from the current Trumpies in Congress.

The group's leader, Miles Taylor, is aware of the challenges in mobilizing an infrastructure to field candidates, not nationally, but rather in targeted races. 

"I'm still a Republican, but I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth because how quickly the party has divorced itself from truth and reason," Taylor told reporters yesterday.

Time will tell on how many sane Republicans can be siphoned off to make an impact against the current party of Trump.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

The Big Lie Festers: Looking For Fraud In All The Wrong Places

The Trump inspired hysteria over a "stolen election" continues to fester like an open wound.

As Arizona Republicans continue with their ridiculous and corrupt challenge to the election with a flawed recount - after two official tallies by the state - another recount looms in Michigan.

The Big Lie proponents have another baseless reason(s) for a recount in another state; Antrim County, Michigan. 

Republicans are filling their diapers over so-called "phantom ballots" six months after the election.

Attorneys made arguments in a virtual hearing on Monday over the scope of the lawsuit and whether to dismiss the case in which both sides have issued dueling analyses.

On Phantom Ballots

The source of the GOP case goes back to last December when Joe Biden led Trump in an initial count that was found to have tabulation errors.

It turned out Trump won when the errors were quickly discovered by officials, and the count was rectified. 

State and county officials blamed human error - a failure to properly update software across the county - for the mishap.

The Trump addled lawyers are continuing the assault against Dominion Voting System machines by claiming they were rigged against Trump.

Despite the numerous lawsuits Dominion has filed against right-wing actors and extremist lawmakers, the attack against the company persists.

After a hand recount in Antrim County officials only found a deviation of just a dozen votes. But that doesn't matter to Trump's minions, who can't accept reality.

The desperation behind this movement to get swing states to recount already officially sanctioned ballots is Trump's latest attempt to subvert our electoral system.

Meanwhile the judge said he will make a decision next week.

Monday, May 10, 2021

Virginia GOP's 'Unassembled' Convention: Fear and Loathing As Candidates Accuse Each Other of Cheating

Trump's Big Lie has come home to roost in the Virginia Governors race as Republican candidates accused each other of rigging the process.

Distrust was so high during the convention that two campaigns even tailed a car carrying ballots from Prince William County to Richmond because they did not trust the two party-appointed couriers.

Results in the attorney general's case race were delayed for hours Sunday after the party and campaign officials realized tape seals on the doors to the ballroom where ballots were stored overnight had been broken.

After a frenzied search they realized that nothing was amiss after discovering the housekeeper had simply carted in coffee, water, and soft drinks, breaking the seal in the process.

The paranoia was palpable. Trump's Big Lie was turned inward to the party's core. Believers in the Big Lie were so mentally crippled they couldn't trust one another in a GOP election.

There were 50 volunteers hand-counting the estimated 30,000 ballots because the vote-tallying software the party had considered could not be trusted.

Fear and loathing stalked the whole messy affair, as Republicans struggled to hold a "fair election" in the shadow of The Big Lie.

Fittingly, the presence of a man dressed up as a circus ringmaster, complete with top hat and red satin tails, oversaw the proceedings.

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Good Bee! Roll Over! Find the COVID-19!

For starters, dogs can detect anything with their superhuman sense of smell, including COVID-19.

Proving Bees have the same superpower, a group of Dutch scientists enlisted the help of bees.

That's the sweet and short summary of this story. A group of scientists trained 150 bees to detect the virus.

They say dogs are man's best friend in the animal kingdom, but perhaps a second look at bees is in order.

"Roll over buzzy!" Now there's a good bee."

What's really amazing is the fact the bees can be trained in minutes. Yes, minutes. Dogs take a bit longer to be trained as we all know.

The simple apparatus - the method of delivery - can achieve a roughly 95 percent accuracy rate by using multiple bees per sample.

The good news is that the scientists developed a prototype machine that can train bees to detect the virus. Bees are everywhere, so low-income countries now would have an alternative to PCR tests.

The internet is abuzz with this latest tool to detect the virus. It's good news in the battle against the pandemic that has affected millions of people.

Friday, May 7, 2021

Trumpies Take On Democracy: A Cult Threatens Our Constitution

The Democrats beef isn't with Republicans per say, but with the Cult of Trump which has effectively castrated the GOP.

The litmus test for Trump supplicants is promoting The Big Lie. That's followed by GOP state lawmakers willing to turn back the results of the 2020 election.

The so-called "audit" in Arizona by a Trump group, and a Trump-loving company, Cyber Ninjas, is a staged event to rally the faithful and make them think there's still a chance to overturn the election results.

Based on a lie, the audit has not conformed to state election rules. The Department of Justice has stepped in to question the methodologies and reasoning for the stunt.

The whole sordid affair is just one example of how Trump's cult is undercutting the foundations of our country by attacking our electoral system.

Then you have hypocritical creeps like Sen. Lindsey Graham who claims the party can't move forward without Trump.

Republican controlled state legislators are busy disenfranchising voters by passing legislation that will make it harder to vote in the 2022 mid terms.

Even the Federal Election Commission has fallen prey to Trump's minions. 

Two Trumpies on the board voted against taking action against Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money payment case.

That left the case deadlocked and Trump got away with more corruption to add to his long list of achievements against Democracy.

The irony is Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, was convicted of being involved with Trump to silence Daniels with a $130,000 payout. But Trump skipped, despite being referred to as the #2 person in the investigation.

Trump's roots are sinking into states that are controlled by his lackeys. The effect on fair elections, and more, could be devastating in the months and years ahead.

There's never been a bigger threat against the United States of America like the one Trump and his acolytes have brought to the table.

The way to fight back is to tell the truth and fight against all the misinformation Trump followers are feeding to the public.

Our Democracy depends upon it.

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Ex-Cheater-In-Charge Tries To Fool Twitter After Facebook Ban Extended

Trump didn't get the message when Facebook extended his ban another six months.

We know this because he immediately tried to launch a workaround with Twitter (who also banned him).

Trump has a website that's essentially a blog for him to perpetuate The Big Lie. Followers can "like" and circulate the posts on social media, but that's as far as it went.

His new Twitter website (an extension of his blog) -  was launched on Tuesday and shut down on Wednesday. In bold headlines Twitter suspended Trump's - @ DJTDesk account - which violated Twitter rules.

Perhaps if Trump and his minions were able to read something other than Dr. Seuss, they would have noticed Twitter's rules and policies page, which leads to their policy forbidding people from circumventing permanent suspensions.

Trump was de-platformed back in January, after his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

There's little doubt that Trump will continue to try to utilize social media in any way possible. He's already tried to get around Twitter by having his supplicants rebroadcast his blog rants.

Those attempts have been plucked from the Twitterverse and suspended. But new ones keep popping up. 

It'll always be a challenge as long as Trump continues to use every resource to circumvent his social media bans. 

As an authoritarian populist, and someone who doesn't believe in Democracy, Trump's legacy will be toxic for years to come.

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

GOP Threatens Facebook After Upholding It's Ban on Trump

After finding out that Facebook was not going to let Trump back on their platform today, Mark Meadows and other Republicans lost their shit!

Moments after the company made the announcement threats poured in, as enraged Trumpies sought revenge for outlawing their idol.

Meadows suggested that retribution will come from Republicans in Congress who'll draw a target on the company by seeking some legislation to hamper it.

Hardline Trump pols and assorted minions in the media want to keep the Big Lie alive and fresh for the 2022 mid term elections.

The Republican strategy of bullying private businesses is a new tactic born of desperation.

McConnell has come out and told corporations that censor the Republican effort to change reality and claim Trump won the election, that he may look for a way to hurt them by using some corrupt legislation.

The new litmus test among the GOP has become "Who won the 2022 election?"

Supplicants have been lining up to claim Trump did. Any member of the GOP that dares to acknowledge reality and Biden's presidency has become an outcast.

The number three Republican, Liz Cheney is a perfect example. She's a real Republican with conservative values and has been calling out Trump's lies. Now she's become an outcast and her seat  is in jeopardy.

For. Telling. The. Truth.

The outside board that recommended Trump not be restored right now, decided to punt the situation back to Zuckerberg.

The board suggested he come up with a decision in six months as to whether to ban Trump for life.

That leaves the issue in limbo. But the possibility that Facebook may change it's mind by then is remote.

This was just another small victory against the worst president this country has ever had. There'll be more coming in the courts.

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Facebook To Announce Whether Trump Can Return To Their Platform

Tomorrow may be a big day for Trump.

Facebook is going to share it's decision on allowing Trump back into the fold. 

It wasn't Trump's favorite attack platform however. That honor was reserved for Twitter (who banned him for life).

Still, it'll open another avenue of attack against our democracy should Facebook decide to let Trump back with his constant lies.

Facebook's own version of the supreme court will deliver its decision on Trump's fate tomorrow morning.

Trump was banned indefinitely from Facebook and Instagram on Jan.7, one day after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to thwart certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory.

Right now the last thing we need is Trump doubling down on lies on any platform. Before his Facebook account was shuttered he had 35 million followers.

It's interesting to see a private company even considering reaping the whirlwind by allowing the biggest troll on the internet access to their domain.

Unlike Republicans supplicants, Facebook doesn't have to worry about being re-elected and there's no good reason to enable a world class liar.

I'm reasonably sure that Facebook will continue on if it maintains it ban on Don the Con. 

The Oversight Board is faced with a decision based on either getting more revenue from Trump minions, or to protect our democracy from the most corrupt president in American history.

Let's hope it's a no-brainer.

Monday, May 3, 2021

After 5 Years a Mystery Illness Is Still Affecting American Diplomats and Spies


It's a mystery to me why American spies and diplomats have been sickened abroad for years now. And, apparently to Congress.

The mystery attacks became known as the Havana syndrome and first appeared in 2016.

Speculation has centered around radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that includes microwaves, as the culprit.

A committee of 19 experts in medicine and other fields cited "directed, pulsed energy" as the most likely reason to explain the illness.

The state department first discovered the illness that struck dozens of C.I.A. officers, first at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and then China followed by other countries.

Complaints by victims:

Many of the officers suffered from dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and loss of hearing, memory and balance, forcing some into retirement.

The committee found the immediate symptoms that patients reported - including strange sensations of pain, pressure and sound that often appeared to come from a particular direction, or occurred in a specific spot in a room - were more consistent with a directed "attack" of radiofrequency energy.

No Action Taken

The Trump administration pretended the attacks weren't happening and dead-ended reports from the state department. 

That's right. We've known for years these attacks have threatened American lives - with the latest just outside of the White House with a security official experiencing the known symptoms.

A report by the National Academies contains a stark warning about the possibility of future episodes, and the U.S. government's ability to detect them, or to mount a response.

Trump officials were pressed by lawmakers who were upset with their secrecy and their inaction. But nothing happened.

Enter Joe Biden whose taking steps to discover how to combat it, and who is responsible.

Biden's state department is currently working on the threat. 

Now there's a chance we'll solve the mystery that's been so shamelessly covered up by the past administration.

Trump's Lowest Grift Ever Saved for Holy Week

This is a story about how the devil's puppet, aka Donald Trump, mocked Christianity by selling a book combining the Bible, the Constitu...