"How a city emerges from a 462-day state of emergency" by Hanna Krueger Globe Staff, June 14, 2021
Depending on their coordinates and crowd, Massachusetts residents have spent early June living in two vastly different realities. One, a post-COVID era of raucous revelry, the opening act of “hot-vax summer.” The other a tenuous toe-dip into the waters where a shark attack once occurred.
Another midnight milestone arrived Tuesday when, as much of the state slumbered, Governor Charlie Baker lifted Massachusetts’ state of emergency, bringing to a close a 462-day era of mandated vigilance sparked by a contagion that last March brought the world to a standstill. Remaining guidance has ceased, including, at least for now, eviction protections, remote public meetings, and even to-go cocktails.
The end of the declaration poses a symbolic question: How exactly do nearly 7 million people emerge from a state of emergency after 66 weeks? How does a state that suffered the third-highest per capita COVID-19 death toll in the nation return to normalcy when the clock strikes midnight? A tour through the streets of Boston reveals the process is a bumpy, boisterous, and bifurcated endeavor, filled with moments of elation and joy, as well as anxiety and grief.
The apprehensive giddiness is most apparent in the spaces that once topped the epidemiologists’ pandemic blacklist.
[They mean the salad bar at Lambert’s Rainbow Market in Dorchester]
The “Twilight Zone” quality of this current moment only grows more acute with a look beyond American borders. As wealthy nations vaccinate their way into normalcy, scores are dying daily in South America and Asia. More people have died globally from COVID-19 already this year than in all of 2020.
“If I cover one eye and look at the situation around Massachusetts, I feel pretty positive, and if I cover the other, I think about the rest of the world and the worrisome delta variant I feel pretty depressed,” Hanage said. “As a colleague of mine put it, it feels like we are in a little mRNA castle, watching all the poor countries burn.”
[I do now think I am going to puke]
There is a puzzle in philosophy called the sorites, or heap paradox. It starts with the assumption that removing a single grain from a heap does not make it not a heap, but, eventually, as more and more grains are removed from the heap, a tipping point occurs.
The same dilemma appears to play out in this last chapter of the pandemic in Boston. At what point does a pandemic come to an end? How few cases? How few deaths? For those chowing down on free popcorn again at dive bars and chanting cheers at TD Garden, the threshold was met at midnight, or soon thereafter, but for others, it may never be achieved. The old world, as Magaly coined it, cannot be restored. Even one grain will still be a heap.....
[The rest is a heap of something, all right]
Related:
"Boston is coming back. After 14 months when many people stayed home most of the time, the city’s streets have started to feel alive again. Groups of tourists are ambling along the Freedom Trail. Restaurants are busier. Even ridership on the T is picking up. Walking around these last few weeks, you can feel Boston blossoming like spring, and the data back it up. Measures of foot traffic, of time spent at home, even of how often we’re looking up directions on our phones ― they all point toward the reopening well underway. Take a look....."
I did and they said:
"Ridership is up roughly 50 percent since the start of the year and is at its the highest since March 2020. Still, with daily commuters and many students yet to return to the city and some still reluctant to board trains, it will be awhile before MBTA ridership completely recovers. We’re going back to the stores, too. The data firm Safegraph tracks foot traffic at many consumer-oriented businesses, including restaurants, drugstores, Target, and Home Depot. As of last Monday, store traffic was essentially back to pre-pandemic levels. Few industries were hit as hard as restaurants. After being closed for almost three months last year, those that reopened labored under an array of restrictions, but as more people got vaccinated this year, business surged, particularly over the past six weeks, when outdoor dining again became appealing. Now the last of the restrictions have been lifted, and the number of restaurant diners is quickly returning to pre-pandemic levels. Accordingly, we’re staying home less. Google has a pretty good idea where people are at any given time, thanks to the supercomputers so many of us carry in our pockets. The number of people staying home all day has been trending down for months. The weather still makes a difference, though. The number of people at home on May 30 bumped up. That was Memorial Day weekend, when the weather was miserable....."
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"As battle against virus ends, mayors confront a new villain: Criminals" by Julie Bosman, Frances Robles and Rick Rojas New York Times, June 14, 2021
CHICAGO — Mayors of American cities have yearned for the moment they could usher in a return to normalcy, casting away coronavirus restrictions on bars, restaurants, parties, and public gatherings, yet now, even with reopenings underway across the United States as the pandemic recedes, city leaders must contend with another crisis: a crime wave with no signs of ending.
They are cheerleading the return of office workers to downtowns and encouraging tourists to visit, eager to rejuvenate the economy and build public confidence, but they are also frantically trying to quell a surge of homicides, assaults, and carjackings that began during the pandemic and has cast a chill over the recovery.
In Austin, Texas, for example, 14 people were injured early Saturday morning in a mass shooting as revelers jammed a popular downtown nightlife district.
[There they go, singling out Texas again.
The axe-grinding agenda of the pre$$ at this point makes one want to vomit, and any excuse at all to explain the coming economic collapse other than the managaemtn of the ruling cla$$ that is meticulously-planned to result in the Great Re$et.]
Some city officials have touted progressive strategies focused on community policing in neighborhoods where trust between police officers and residents has frayed. Others have deployed more traditional tactics like increasing surveillance cameras in troubled areas and enforcing curfews in city parks to clear out crowds, as police did in Washington Square Park in New York City last week.
In Chicago, which fully reopened Friday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot made clear that her focus was on reducing violence over the summer, and that her administration would focus resources on 15 high-crime pockets of the city as part of that effort.
“We owe it to all of our residents, in every neighborhood, to bring peace and vibrancy back,” Lightfoot said.
[The woman is a BULLY and completely unhinged, and it shows. She should be immediately removed from office, and it has been her policies of releasing criminals onto the streets that has caused the problem as she calls for federal help, i.e., a federal police force that advances the communi$t globali$t agenda in the most stringent gun-control city in America. It's so damn transparent now it makes one sick]
Superintendent David Brown, the head of the Chicago Police Department, announced this month what he called a “transformative moment” for the department, a plan to add more officers in the Civil Rights Unit, which is specially trained to work with marginalized residents, including those who are homeless. The plan would also expand youth initiatives in arts and sports.
Other cities, like Miami, are nearly free of pandemic restrictions and booming with tourists. This month, the top prosecutor in Miami-Dade County and local police leaders turned to the issue of public safety, announcing Operation Summer Heat, an initiative to combat a wave of shootings. Homicides in Miami are 30 percent higher this year than in the same period in 2020, according to data from the medical examiner’s office.
The efforts include additional streetlights and surveillance cameras, prosecutors assigned to “hot spot” areas and a code enforcement crackdown on illegal party venues.
“This is something we have never seen before,” Alfredo Ramirez III, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said of the recent surge in violence. “Now they are going to see something they’ve never seen before: They’re going to see the law enforcement community united, working as one.”
[The pre$$ then throws Miami up (sigh), even though the increase is lower there than in other stalwart Democrat cities]
Business owners who are eager to see tourism return have been especially anxious about the persistent violence.
Pete Berghoff, whose family has owned the historic Berghoff restaurant in Chicago’s Loop since 1898, is planning to reopen its doors in July, but he is worried about the unruly gatherings of younger people downtown that have turned violent.
[That's what happens when you are a dumping ground for migrants and the base for Mexican drug cartels.
That's nothing new, of course, and the federal government cooperated with them for years]
Homicide rates in large cities were up more than 30 percent on average last year, and up another 24 percent for the beginning of this year, according to criminologists.
In Milwaukee, where homicides hit a record high in 2020, residents of neighborhoods burdened by gunfire are ready to leave. Asia Flanagan, 40, said that after a year of what has felt like never-ending tragedy on Milwaukee’s North Side, she intended to move out with her infant son.
Arnitta Holliman directs Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention, a unit within the public health department that was hailed for its role in the steep decline in homicides from 2016-19. She attributed the current upswing in part to growing access to weapons — Wisconsin shattered its previous record for gun sales last year — and the destabilizing effect of the pandemic.
[It's a GUN GRAB, as usual, and the GOVERNMENT is BEHIND the VIOLENCE, how about that, either by tacit approval or active intervention]
Last month, the City Council in Jackson, Miss., gathered in a church for a special meeting over the gun violence crisis in a city of roughly 160,000 people. There were 130 homicides last year, according to law enforcement statistics, far surpassing the previous record.
“If we don’t save these children,” Kenneth I. Stokes, a city councilman, said during the meeting, “we’re going to keep having these meetings, keep going to the funerals — and wondering why.”
[As they seek to inject them with something harmful that they don't need.
I'm actually tired of having them wave children in my face when they really don't care.
If they did this would be blown wide open rather than be another one-day wonder]
Thus, as scandal swirls around the Boston Police Department, the process of choosing a permanent replacement is just beginning and the case could drag on for years, stalk former mayor Martin J. Walsh as the curtain falls on the drama that has engulfed Boston Police Commissioner Dennis White.
Here is a list of players from top to bottom in the ugly legal and family drama involving suspended Boston Police Commissioner Dennis White as the BPD faces a new credibility crisis and now is the time to remember all the officers wounded in the line of duty as they collected fingerprints.
Amilcar Shabazz, an Africana studies professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, pictured in West Cemetery in Amherst. Some African American soldiers who fought in Texas during the Civil War are buried in the cemetery. Shabazz helped bring the Juneteenth holiday to Massachusetts (Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Boston Globe)
What is with the Masonic hand sign, 'eh?
Related:
"Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered. That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states. It’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, speaking next to a large poster of a Black man whose back bore massive scarring from being whipped, said she would be in Galveston this Saturday to celebrate along with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. The Senate passed the bill a day earlier under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation. It takes just one senator’s objection to block such agreements. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and had 60 co-sponsors. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., said that he would vote for the bill and that he supported the establishment of a federal holiday, but he was upset that the name of the holiday included the word “independence” rather than “emancipation.” “Why would the Democrats want to politicize this by coopting the name of our sacred holiday of Independence Day?” Higgins asked....."
Answer, the scrub history clean like good Marxists and replace it with their own.
It's now a national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Now for the flip side:
"US intelligence report warns of more violence by QAnon followers" by Michael Kunzelman and Nomaan Merchant The Associated Press, June 14, 2021
[Sadly, Q is a government psyop and that has been known for some time]
WASHINGTON — A new federal intelligence report warns that adherents of QAnon, the conspiracy theory embraced by some in the mob that stormed the US Capitol, could target Democrats and other political opponents for more violence as the movement’s false prophecies don’t come true.
[Prepare for false flags galore this summer as agent provocateurs make it a hell of a hot summer]
Many QAnon followers believe former president Trump was fighting enemies within the so-called “deep state” to expose a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring. Trump’s loss to Joe Biden disillusioned some believers in “The Storm,” a supposed reckoning in which Trump’s enemies would be tried and executed. Some adherents have now pivoted to believing Trump is the “shadow president” or Biden’s victory was an illusion.
The report was compiled by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and released Monday by Senator Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat. It predicts that while some QAnon adherents will pull back, others “likely will begin to believe they can no longer ‘trust the plan’ referenced in QAnon posts and that they have an obligation to change from serving as ‘digital soldiers’ towards engaging in real world violence.”
[I never did "trust the plan" and hoped Trump wasn't controlled opposition, but Warp Speed got my mind right.
What they have done with the Satanism and child trafficking is put out truth to discredit that truth because we all know there are no sex-trafficking rings, right?
They are literally laughing in our faces]
As major social media companies suspend or remove QAnon-themed accounts, many followers have moved to less well-known platforms and discussed how to radicalize new users on them, the report says.
The report says several factors will contribute to QAnon’s long-term durability, including the COVID-19 pandemic, some social media companies allowing posts about the theories, societal polarization in the country, and the “frequency and content of pro-QAnon statements by public individuals who feature prominently in core QAnon narratives.”
The report does not identify any of those public individuals, but Trump, who while in office praised QAnon followers as “people that love our country,” has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the election is over and spoken of his victory being “stolen,” despite multiple court rulings and a finding by his own Justice Department upholding the integrity of the election. One longtime ally said that Trump has given credence to a conspiracy theory that he could somehow be reinstated into the presidency in August.
[You know, it SOUNDS GREAT because a WRONG will have been RIGHTED; however, we all know the cities would be destroyed were such a thing to happen -- and it won't! They will charge him with a crime first]
Heinrich pressed FBI Director Chris Wray in April to release an assessment of how the government views QAnon. “The public deserves to know how the government assesses the threat to our country from those who would act violently on such beliefs,” he said then.
The movement around QAnon has already been linked to political violence, notably during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection in which some rioters believed they would reverse Trump’s defeat. At least 20 QAnon followers have been charged with federal crimes related to Jan. 6, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
Some charged in the riot wore attire bearing the telltale letter “Q” when they stormed the Capitol. One of the defendants, Jacob Chansley, calls himself the “QAnon Shaman” and famously wore a furry hat with horns, face paint, and no shirt that day. Others had posted about QAnon on social media before the riot.
The Justice Department has arrested more than 400 people in the insurrection, where pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol, did about $1.5 million in damage and sent lawmakers running for their lives.
Lawyers for some of the defendants have argued their clients were specifically misguided by QAnon.
Related:
The POLITICAL PRISONERS are rotting in jail and no one cares as the media continue to lie about the protest and refuse to release over 14,000 hours of video.
Also see:
That is an absolute bombshell report, and it wasn't just foreknowledge; they PARTICIPATED in the STAGED EVENT!
As it turns out, the "riot" and "insurrection" was directed by government agents after Pelosi and MCconnell told the Capitol Police to stand down, setting the stage for the staged and scripted event. It was all a SET-UP to provide a FALSE NARRATIVE and enable the political persecution to begin:
"Biden’s domestic terrorism strategy details unprecedented focus on homegrown threats" by Hannah Allam and Ellen Nakashima Washington Post, June 15, 2021
WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday released a first-ever national strategy devoted solely to fighting domestic terrorism after more than two decades of successive administrations focusing almost exclusively on the militant Islamist threat.
[The "conspiracy theorist" warned that the GWOT would eventually return home.]
The strategy comes after a deadly assault on the US Capitol and a resurgence in far-right violent extremism that the Trump administration — with rare exceptions — was loath to acknowledge.
For many terrorism analysts, the strategy was long overdue. Violent far-right extremists have posed the deadliest and most active domestic threat for more than 15 years, though federal resources remained heavily focused on countering foreign terrorism.
The 32-page strategy seeks to coordinate efforts across the government in law enforcement and prevention, some of which were already underway. It calls for new spending at the Justice Department and FBI to hire analysts, investigators, and prosecutors; greater information-sharing between the federal government and state and local partners as well as with tech companies; and addressing the factors contributing to the problem, such as systemic racism.
“We cannot ignore this threat or wish it away,” President Biden said in the introduction.
[If only we could wish that demented pedofile away]
The plan gives the White House imprimatur to a shift in counterterrorism priorities that began in recent years in response to a rise in deadly hate-fueled attacks and picked up momentum after the stunning Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol. Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that the bureau had made "close to 500 arrests" in connection with the Capitol attack. Wray has said that the total number of domestic terrorism investigations increased to 2,000 from 1,400 at the end of last year.
The Trump administration was reluctant to confront domestic extremism, or did so by touting a false equivalency between the extreme right and Black Lives Matter, antifa, and other movements on the left. The Trump-era counterterrorism strategy did mention domestic extremism, and a Homeland Security report from that time called violent white supremacy "one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism."
[Yeah, when it is left-wing Marxi$t terror it's APPROVED by the Wa$hington Compo$t!]
After "the myopia" of the past decade or so in which the rising domestic threat was ignored, just naming domestic terrorism as a top priority is "groundbreaking," said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who runs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University.
Inauguration Day came two weeks after the Capitol riots, so Biden’s national security team started work with "Jan. 6 fresh in our minds," one senior administration official said.
[Hmmmmmm]
"We need to be able to step up where the threats are, where the threats are made," according to the official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. "There remains consistent, important work to address the international terrorism threat even as we step up against domestic terrorists."
Informing the strategy is a March assessment by the intelligence community that domestic, violent extremism poses an "elevated threat" to the United States. That extremism was fueled by bias against minority communities and perceived government overreach, it said. The assessment said that lone offenders or small, self-organized cells — rather than organizations — were most likely to carry out attacks.
The strategy codifies moves in the past five months that amount to "a sea change in counterterrorism," Carly Gordenstein and Seamus Hughes, researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, wrote in an analysis.
"It is clear that structural changes are under way that aim to root out extremism in and out of government, attempt to concentrate efforts more efficiently, and invest in the issue of domestic extremism at a rate that is unprecedented in the United States," Gordenstein and Hughes wrote.
[It's called a PURGE or POGROM, and is in line with another UNCLE JOE and MAO!]
Miller-Idriss said the steps outlined in the strategy sound encouraging, especially an effort to prevent radicalization by addressing broader societal problems and by encouraging media literacy.
"This brings us in line with what other countries are doing overseas: Understanding you can’t tackle domestic extremism by only paying attention to the fringe," Miller-Idriss said. "You also have to pay attention to what’s happening in the mainstream."
Still, she said, implementation will be crucial. Attempts at a national dialogue about white supremacy, for example, will immediately bump into culture war barriers such as the current uproar among conservatives over teaching about systemic racism. Miller-Idriss said countries including Norway, Germany, and New Zealand have adopted approaches that extend beyond the national security apparatus to include government agencies dealing with culture, education, health, and sports.
[Yeah, Germany is a wonderful example!]
"Here, even prevention is housed within DHS," she said. "If we just frame the whole thing as a security and law enforcement problem, with security and law enforcement experts at the helm, we’re just going to get that outcome."
Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official, said the prevention part is also tricky because of opposition to "investigating people based on ideology or of casting a net too broadly," as US Muslims experienced in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Already, some of the Jan. 6 rioters are casting themselves as political prisoners being unfairly prosecuted for their beliefs.....
[Yeah, violating the Constitution and acting like a tyrannical dictatorship is "tricky"]
I'm told the approach breaks new ground with a broader holistic approach that emphasizes issues of equity and societal resilience as much as immediate terror threats, and one can only hope you get a cellmate like this.
"Military defends Jan. 6 response as House steps up probes" by Mary Clare Jalonick and Nomaan Merchant The Associated Press, June 15, 2021
WASHINGTON — A top Army leader defended the Pentagon’s response to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, telling a House panel Tuesday that the National Guard was delayed for hours because it had to properly prepare for the deployment and that senior military leaders had determined beforehand that the military had “no role” in determining the outcome of an election.
[Unlike Myanmar, where they did the right thing and rounded up the traitors and imprisoned them for vote fraud]
Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, the director of the Army staff, echoed comments from other senior military leaders about the perception of soldiers being used to secure the election process. He said the Pentagon wanted to be careful about their response in part because of concerns about military helicopters that had flown low over Washington streets during protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in the summer of 2020.
It also took several hours for Guardsmen to be equipped and given a plan for how to secure the Capitol, Piatt said. The building was overrun by hundreds of supporters of former president Donald Trump who sought to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Piatt’s testimony comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will step up its investigations into the deadly riots, in which a violent mob overran police, broke into the building and hunted for lawmakers. She said Tuesday that the House “can’t wait any longer” to conduct a comprehensive investigation after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create an independent commission; meanwhile, most Republicans are making clear that they want to move on from the Jan. 6 attack, brushing aside the many unanswered questions about the insurrection, including how the government and law enforcement missed intelligence leading up to the rioting and the role of Trump before and during the attack.
[I've seen that movie before, and I don't want to move on from the staged and scripted false flag for truth must out.
The question now becomes will she abide by an agreement she struck with a group of Democratic rebels three years ago to step down by the end of the 2022]
The hazards of investigating the attack in the sharply divided Congress were on full display during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, which was called to examine “unexplained delays and unanswered questions” about the siege.
Several Republicans tried to divert the subject, using their questioning to talk about coronavirus restrictions, the border and Biden's son Hunter, while others played down the severity of the violence.
Democrats shot back that Republicans were trying to obscure the truth.
[The gall!]
As the committee examined the insurrection, the House held a vote to give congressional medals of honor to Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police to thank them for their service that day. Dozens of those officers suffered injuries, including chemical burns, brain injuries and broken bones. Some may never return to work.
Twenty-one Republicans voted against giving the medals to the officers.
[The Wa$hington Compo$t said the vote underscored the still-lingering tensions in Congress amid efforts by some GOP lawmakers to whitewash the events of that day]
Some of the Republicans appeared to defend the rioters, including Wisconsin Representative Glenn Grothman, who grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether some of those who broke into the Capitol were innocent. Arizona Representative Paul Gosar repeated his arguments that a Trump supporter who was shot and killed while breaking into the House chamber, Ashli Babbitt, was “executed.”
“This has got to do with the attempts by people to overthrow the government of the United States of America, something that hasn’t happened in well over 100 years,” said Maryland Representative Kweisi Mfume, “and it’s not something that we can slough off.”
The three witnesses at the hearing — Wray, Piatt, and General Charles E. Flynn, who was previously Army deputy chief of staff — were involved that day as the Capitol Police begged for backup. The National Guard did not arrive for several hours as police were overwhelmed and brutally beaten by the rioters.
[That's the AP narrative and its all bull!]
Piatt insisted that he did not deny or have the authority to deny Guard help during a call with then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has previously said he believed Piatt and other Army leaders were concerned about the optics of soldiers surrounding the building. According to the Defense Department, military leadership approved activation of the full D.C. National Guard at 3:04 p.m., about 40 minutes after the call with Sund.
[Since f**king when?
It's THEIR JOB to SECURE the REPUBLIC -- but they are worried about optics!
Sorry, but this $hitpile doesn't look good!]
Representative Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the committee, criticized Wray for not providing documents her staff had requested and asked him if he believed the FBI should be blamed for the law enforcement failures on Jan. 6. “Our goal is to bat 1.000, and any time there’s an attack, much less an attack as horrific and spectacular as what happened on Jan. 6, we consider that to be unacceptable," Wray replied.
Seven people total died during and after the rioting, including Babbitt, three other Trump supporters who died of medical emergencies, and two police officers who died by suicide in the days that followed. A third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters, but a medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.
[The New York Times lied and said he was beaten to death, then they said he was poisoned]
Related:
"Democrats and Republicans aimed withering questions at the FBI as Director Christopher A. Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, though their concerns diverged significantly along partisan lines. Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, blasted Wray for the bureau’s failure to detect in advance and respond to the mob that attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, while ranking Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio accused the bureau of intruding on Americans’ civil liberties in an eclectic mix of circumstances. The hearing made clear that Democrats and Republicans could hardly be further apart on what the FBI should and shouldn’t be doing, but on this much, they seemed to agree: The nation’s premier federal law enforcement institution had significant problems that needed to be addressed....."
He told Congre$$ they are pursuing potentially hundreds more suspects in the Capitol riot, calling the effort to find those responsible for the deadly assault “one of the most far-reaching and extensive” investigations in the bureau’s history -- which is what they also said about the Warren Report!
Hey, you got lemons, you make lemonade!
Another face in the crowd:
"Former congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, said Monday that he was among the crowds outside the US Capitol on Jan. 6, but claimed that he was there to protest the election and did not join others in storming the building. Rohrabacher acknowledged his presence outside the Capitol in an interview with a Maine newspaper. Over the weekend, social media users began circulating photos that appeared to show the former congressman and an associate standing among the pro-Trump crowd. “I marched to protest, and I thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated, and I wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand,” Rohrabacher, 73, said in the interview with the Portland Press Herald, “but I was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.” Rohrabacher could not immediately be reached for comment. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and dozens of court challenges seeking to overturn President Biden’s victory failed. Nearly 140 police officers were assaulted during the insurrection, authorities said, facing some rioters armed with ax handles, bats, metal batons, wooden poles, hockey sticks, and other weapons. The House last month passed legislation that would form an independent commission to investigate the attack, but the measure failed to advance in the Senate, with nearly all Republicans in the chamber banding together in opposition. During his time as a member of Congress, Rohrabacher earned a reputation as among the most vocal defenders of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. In June 2016, then-House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, asserted in a private conversation with other Republican leaders: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” Rohrabacher served in Congress for 30 years. After losing reelection in 2018, he moved to Maine and has been active in the cannabis industry. He and his wife, Rhonda, have also taken steps toward becoming active in local politics in their new hometown of York. According to the Portland Press Herald, videos of the Jan. 6 riot show the former congressman was nearly 500 feet inside the restricted zone surrounding the Capitol, but there are no signs that he tried to enter the building. In the interview with the newspaper, Rohrabacher also promoted a false narrative about the storming of the Capitol, claiming without evidence that “leftist provocateurs” led the charge. “By going into the building, they gave the left the ability to direct the discussion of what was going on in a way that was harmful to the things we believe in,” Rohrabacher said. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, has made similar false claims about the identities of those who stormed the Capitol. Federal officials have said there is no substantial evidence of left-wing provocation or that anti-fascist activists posed as Trump supporters during the riot."
Would they tell us if there were?
C'mon!
Yeah, anyone who objects to the illegal and illegitimate Biden regime is a Russian stooge!
PFFFFFFFFT!
This is the ultimate goal of the Biden regime regarding its political opponents, as the Supreme Court defers to the dictator and the Globe sees just the latest of several perplexing decisions AG Merrick Garland has taken to support the unjust, or cynical maneuvers of his morally vacant predecessor, Bill Barr.
Time to back down and compromi$e:
"Three senators plan to introduce legislation that would spend $40 billion to make broadband Internet more affordable and accessible under one of the largest bipartisan proposals to address the digital divide. The legislation, cosponsored by Senators Michael Bennet, Democrat from Colorado, Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, and Angus King, a Maine Independent, highlights the growing support in both political parties to boost federal funding to bring more Americans online. The senators say the closure of businesses and schools during the coronavirus pandemic made clear the need for expanded Internet access. They also anticipate that demand will persist even as coronavirus cases subside. Bennet said the funding is urgently needed to support the hybrid school and work environments that are likely to become more common as Americans begin to resume normal activities....."
It's to hook us all up to the global surveillance grid is all.
"Manchin outlines demands on voting legislation, creating an opening for potential Democratic compromise" by Mike DeBonis Washington Post June 16, 2021
Sen. Joe Manchin III, the lone Senate Democrat who is not sponsoring a sweeping voting rights and campaign finance bill, has outlined for the first time a list of policy demands on election legislation — opening the door to a possible compromise that could counter a bevy of Republican-passed laws that have rolled back ballot access in numerous states.
A three-page memo circulated by Manchin’s office this week indicates the West Virginia centrist’s willingness to support key provisions of the For the People Act, the marquee Democratic bill that the House passed in March — including provisions mandating at least two weeks of early voting and measures meant to eliminate partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, but Manchin’s memo also sketches out several provisions that have historically been opposed by most Democrats, including backing an ID requirement for voters and the ability of local election officials to purge voter rolls using other government records.
According to two Democratic aides familiar with Manchin’s views, he has also signaled to colleagues that he opposes a public financing system for congressional elections that has emerged as one of the most controversial parts of the For the People Act. The aides spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe Manchin’s private communications with other lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that the Senate will take an initial vote on the legislation next week.
The list of demands is, on one hand, good news for congressional Democrats, who have been seeking a way forward by perhaps passing a narrower piece of legislation more closely targeted to the GOP-passed state voting restrictions, but Manchin’s demands — particularly his support for mandatory voter ID laws — could alienate fellow Democrats and create divisions in his party.
In any case, uniting Democrats is not Manchin’s concern. He told reporters Wednesday that he thought Republicans could support a voting rights bill, and he has started trying to jump-start discussions with GOP colleagues on a potential compromise. Manchin hosted a Zoom meeting Monday with several Republican senators and some civil rights leaders, according to a person familiar with the meeting, which was first reported by Politico.
Before detailing his policy views on the For the People Act, Manchin had cited the lack of GOP support for the legislation in explaining his misgivings, and, on Wednesday, he told reporters that he continued to think that Republican support was necessary. Manchin also said Wednesday that he has not changed his views against eliminating the filibuster, the 60-vote supermajority requirement for most Senate bills, meaning the bill would have to garner some GOP support to be viable.
Other Democrats are deeply skeptical that Republicans will ever join them in enacting new voting legislation. Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have uniformly opposed the For the People Act as an unwarranted federal overreach into state affairs, but there has also been no substantial recent attempt by either party to open bipartisan negotiations on the issue.
Schumer lambasted the Republican state voting laws Wednesday as a starkly partisan endeavor — a day after he hosted at a Senate Democratic lunch a delegation of Texas Democrats who worked to block GOP voting restrictions in their state.....
Manchin is the fulcrum and under a lot of pressure.
I would have to be crazy to continue so I will just declare victory and depart the field before I boil over and $tart $wearing about a golden ticket to Communi$m:
"Legislative leaders rushed Monday to extend a long list of pandemic-era rules and relief measures but were unable to finish their work before time ran out and Governor Charlie Baker’s state of emergency expired at the stroke of midnight. The Senate had adopted a bill last week that would extend a range of provisions that were tied to the state of emergency, from virtual notarizations to allowing restaurants to sell “cocktails-to-go.” The biggest uncertainty may be around timing. Chef Jody Adams said she was happy to see the House plan emerge at the eleventh hour that would extend them through the end of December, to buy time for a permanent solution for the restaurant sector. The battered industry simply needs more time to recover from the financial ravages of COVID-19, she said...."
They didn't finish in time because Speaker of the House Mariano was hospitalized after “experiencing some medical discomfort,” and that is what corruption (or the vaccine?) will do to you.
What was he doing out of state anyway?
"Remember when it was hard to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine? For millions of US residents, it still is. That’s why health professionals have created an online tool to help public health officials identify the nation’s “vaccine deserts” — places where a person would have to drive more than 15 minutes to be vaccinated. The creators of the Vaccine Equity Planner estimate that 10 percent of the US population lives in vaccine deserts. Their project identifies these spots by combining survey data with mapping and travel time information from Google. “The only way to actually truly control the pandemic is if we get equitable access across this country,” said John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and codeveloper of the website. He partnered with Ariadne Labs, a joint venture of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Their website displays these regions on a color-coded map, as well as nearby health care facilities, churches, and schools where public health agencies could set up additional vaccination sites....."
You may want to hold your breath for this:
"Philips recalled roughly 3.5 million ventilation devices used to treat sleep apnea and increased its cost estimate for addressing a defect that may cause cancer. The company said some of its ventilators use sound-abatement foam that may degrade into particles that could be ingested or inhaled and potentially have toxic and carcinogenic effects. Philips doubled its provision for expected costs related to the issue to $605 million. The recall is a setback for Philips as it shifts to focus entirely on health care products."
Never mind those who hyperventilated to death?