President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his administration would make “high-quality masks” available to Americans for free, as the US struggles to contain the new surge of the Omicron variant and hospitalizations from Covid-19 reach new highs.
The President also announced his administration would purchase an additional 500 million Covid-19 tests — on top of the 500 million tests he previously announced — and said the website where Americans can go to get the free tests shipped to them will be rolled out next week.
— Read on www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics/biden-omicron-medical-team-deployments/index.html
Not included: Chicken soup. That’s on your own dime.
National security officials at the White House were recently issued a warning: move away from the immediate area as soon as possible if you ever feel the acute onset of pressure, sound or heat in the head.
In brown bag lunches over the past week, policy staff at the Pentagon have been instructed to report any strange, sudden health symptoms without delay.
The U.S. government is sending a message to diplomats, national security staff and intelligence officers that “anomalous health incidents” — also known as “Havana syndrome” because it was first detected in Cuba — are serious, widespread and pose real danger to their health at home and abroad.
— Read on www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article254754432.html
This interesting report comes a day after global news articles published opinions that the entire syndrome was just imaginary and conflated by attention..
Clearly the government is taking it seriously.
We have previously reported that government buildings including even the White House were targets of the potential attacks..
Senator writes that his suspension from YouTube is a badge of honor..
More..
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has been suspended from YouTube for seven days over a video claiming that masks are ineffective in fighting Covid-19, according to a YouTube spokesperson.
“This resulted in a first strike on the channel, which means it can’t upload content for a week, per our longstanding three strikes policy,” the spokesperson said. “We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views, and we make exceptions for videos that have additional context such as countervailing views from local health authorities.”
Paul has been outspoken over the last year, question Dr Anthony Fauci regular in tense testimony .. Paul also succumbed to a Covid infection in 2020, and argues that his natural immunity is as strong as a vaccine..
This is reporting from the Associated Press from a little small town named Kane, Pennsylvania:
A crank caller ordered an “insurrection pizza” from Pauline Bauer’s restaurant. A profane piece of hate mail addressed her as a domestic terrorist. She even became a punchline for Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show on CBS.
In Bauer’s hometown in rural Pennsylvania, her arrest and that of a longtime friend have rekindled partisan bickering, more often on social media than on street corners, some residents say. As Bauer and William Blauser Jr. fight the charges in court, many in the town of Kane have struggled to comprehend how two of their neighbors could be among the hundreds of Trump loyalists bent on overturning the election that day.
At this juncture, here is what we know: Bauer was heard shouting at police to “bring Nancy Pelosi out” to be hanged during the riot, the FBI says..
Bauer was arrested in May. Video showed her involved with another entering the Capitol through an east Rotunda door where at least three police officers were trying to block entry. Video from a police officer’s body camera captured Bauer saying to bring out Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House.“Bring them out now. They’re criminals. They need to hang,” she said.
Bauer has demanded to represent herself in court, appeared to threaten a court clerk with prison time, and declared herself a “self-governed individual” with special legal privileges.
Bauer does not simply appear in court, she clarified during a June 11 proceeding via Zoom. “I am here by special divine appearance, a living soul,” she told a judge that day, while stating that she did not want an attorney.
“I do not stand under the law,” she said. “Under Genesis 1, God gave man dominion over the law.”
More reporting from the AP on the ongoing legal battle:
Bauer has been combative with the judge presiding over her case and claimed the court has no authority over her. She was jailed for one night in June after she refused to answer a magistrate judge’s routine questions. During a recent hearing, she told U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden that she doesn’t want an attorney to represent her “or any lawyering from the bench.”
“I do not recognize your bar card, sir,” she told McFadden, who appointed a lawyer to act as her standby counsel.
She also told the judge that she wouldn’t allow a pretrial services officer to inspect her home, in person or virtually. The judge warned her that she could be jailed again if she refused to comply. He also denied her request to dismiss her charges, which include obstruction of an official proceeding and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
“On what terms?” she asked.
“You know what? You don’t get to demand terms from me,” the judge replied.
THE DRUDGE REPORT SPLASHED THIS ON WEDNESDAY AROUND NOON:
It was the first official “siren” that Drudge has used in months. This time because the death of a conservative radio icon had occurred. Drudge also appeared as a guest host from time to time through the years on the “EIB” network…
The news has broken.. “El Rushbo” had finally succumbed to cancer.
In his final radio broadcast of 2020, Limbaugh thanked his listeners and supporters, revealing at the time that he had outlived his prognosis.
“I wasn’t expected to be alive today,” he said. “I wasn’t expected to make it to October, and then to November, and then to December. And yet, here I am, and today, got some problems, but I’m feeling pretty good today.”
He died Wednesday at the age of 70 after a battle with lung cancer, his family announced.Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, made the announcement on his radio show…
Former President Trump honored him with a medal of freedom during the 2020 State of the Union Speech, something that rallied the base but made the rest of America recoil.
Rush Limbaugh had been one of the most controversial figures in media and politics in a generation. His 1990s “AIDS update” featured gags in which he made jokes about gay people catching the virus. Many accused him of hatred .. Hillary Clinton accused him of being the head of the ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ that was trying to take her husband Bill Clinton out of the presidency. (And you thought our current time was divisive!)
The legacy of Rush can be written in two chapters. One would focus on the political rhetoric. The other would focus on his ascension to the great halls of radio.
There was always something magical about the Rush Limbaugh program on radio. He tried the same thing on syndication in the 1990s but it ended up failing, despite having a live audience and trying the same bits he used on his AM show.
We are students and lovers of radio. It is a dying art. The stars of yesterday are quickly leaving, or at least leaving radio. Rush Limabaugh among a very famous pack of people in the 1980s and 1990s keeping AM alive years longer than expected. You can platy it all day and keep every hour occupied. Howard Stern, Rush, Dr. Laura, and Art Bell to round out the night with alien life.. It was a grand heyday for terrestrial talk. Long form radio.
Rush had defenders and those offended. But during his prime, he was the “must listen” to show both the Newt Gingrich-led Congress and the Clinton White House. Rush Limbaugh often set the agenda or at least regurgitated the talking points in a different way that appealed to the “Dittoheads” that listened.
During his lifetime he rose in prominence from just a few stations to hundreds. He wrote two books.. he had a TV show. And he never stopped radio. He made Manheim Steamroller famous at Christmas. He had public bouts with painkillers.. he almost went deaf. And he clearly got a new set of choppers in the mean time. Rush had a life.
The aftermath of his death is predictable. People who love him are venerating him as a saint. While those who opposed are dancing on his body as it assumes room temperature. It is better to wait to comment on something these days than immediately react.. the herd mentality becomes a feeding frenzy of commentary. A tower of babble. Everyone is babbling.
The President himself had a response to the death of Rush Limbaugh that was communicated by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki:
x x x
60 MINUTES did a piece of Rush Limbaugh in 1991.. it is fascinating to go back 30 years to hear of how Rush was proud to be called the most dangerous man in politics…
The minority Republicans lost their argument yesterday.. they said the Senate should not be permitted to go through with an impeachment proceeding against a former president.. A dangerous precedent they argued.. The attorneys for Donald Trump–presumably these are being paid at this point–etched out a terrible argument. So bad, many sources told the media, that Trump was left fuming in Florida. Angry and loudly screaming at his television set..
It must have felt just like the old Oval Office days again, as that is what many said occurred regularly during mundane meetings or staff briefings..
Ensconced in his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., the former president has spent his days golfing. He has rolled through his phone, calling old friends and allies simply to check in. He has dined on the patio of his lush retreat, often accompanied by a coterie of political aides still on his payroll.
And, as Congress on Tuesday took up a second Senate trial for Trump almost exactly a year after his first, Trump has remained sanguine that an evenly divided Senate will acquit him of charges of inciting an insurrection – despite his egging on of an angry crowd that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Yet despite his overall confidence, Tuesday’s opening arguments did not unfold as Trump or his allies had hoped. Trump was especially disappointed in the performance of his lawyer Bruce Castor, who gave a rambling argument, wore an ill-fitting suit and at one point praised the case presented by the Democratic House impeachment managers, two people involved in the effort said. The former president – monitoring the trial on television from Florida – had expected a swashbuckling lawyer and instead watched what was a confusing and disjointed performance.
The Democrats opened Impeachment II up with a video comprised of known footage of the Capitol insurrection, along with never before seen clips showcasing the brutality that police were victims of that day, along with several Trump fans who would presumably ‘back the blue’ calling police “pigs” and other derisive expletives.
The footage plays out almost like the plot of a horror film.
It was like the world witnessed and lived through a real life PURGE film..
A video showing events from the Jan. 6, 2020 Capitol riot was produced by the U.S. House Democratic impeachment managers for their case against former President Donald Trump. The video was played at the beginning of the Senate impeachment trial of Trump on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2020.
Meanwhile, as the messy defense book ends what was a messy four years of American life, Senate Republicans are left with a vote of their own conscience.. Their own morals. Their own futures..
The drama continues as the climactic series finale of the Trump administration gets ready to air.
Trump has become the only president now impeached twice, Mitch McConnell hints the trial could be January 19, only hours before the inauguration of Joe Biden!
There is a good chance that the trial will occur in full AFTER Trump leaves office.. Creating an interesting beginning for the initial days of the new Administration..
The impeachment passed the House with 10 Republicans voting in favor of it, compared to 2019 in the last impeachment trial no Republicans voted for it..
