This article is a follow-up to Spartan’s piece on July 30th pondering why GOP Senator Kevin Cramer calling the capitol police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt a “hero” was never picked up and recirculated by the right-wing propaganda mill. My own theory is that the story was killed off because of growing discontent within the ranks of our nation’s police departments, particularly members of the nation’s largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police.

A Washington, DC attorney who volunteered to represent some of the domestic terrorists arrested for their roles in the January 6th insurrectionist attack on the Capitol recommends to her clients that they read history books and the Constitution in the lead-up to their trials.

And as the Washington Post reports, she’s been told by those clients that the Constitution was signed in 1776, and she’s been labeled a traitor, Nazi, communist or worse for her efforts to ensure the insurrectionists get proper legal representation.

Heather Shaner, a 74-year-old Criminal Justice Act panel attorney, put her name into a pool to represent those people charged in relation to the January 6th attacks who needed a lawyer, bu she had one condition:  she would not represent anyone accused of injuring a police officer.

“The District reinstated an indoor mask mandate early Saturday morning. Everyone over 2 is required to cover their face in indoor, public settings,” reports NBC4 Washington.

“COVID-19 cases are on the rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people mask indoors in D.C. due to substantial transmission of the virus. Cases are up about 26% this week. About 61% of residents have at least one vaccine dose, according to CDC data. We will continue to do what is necessary to keep D.C. safe,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference Thursday.”

Republican Florida Congressman and credibly accused child sex trafficker Matt Gaetz, who once mocked the severity of the pandemic by wearing a gas mask onto the floor of the House,

“I mean, you know, you’ve had, you’ve had all the experts say, ‘Well, look out for the delta variant or the lambda variant’,” Gaetz evangelized to a few hundred people in a largely unmasked crowd.  “Next, it’s going to be, like, the Chi Omega variant or the Pi Kappa Psi variant,” he shouted, apparently not knowing a fraternal organization or the Greek alphabet.

“I got the Florida variant,” Florida Man bragged.  “I got the freedom variant.  It affects the brain.  It gets you to think for yourself, where you don’t just surrender to the truth they’re tryin’ to create in corrupt Big Media.”

“Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to federal health data released Saturday, as its theme park resorts again started asking visitors to wear masks indoors,” reports the Associated Press. “The state has become the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the U.S.”

Human traffickers, drug dealers and weapons smugglers are all concerned about new financial transaction reporting requirements that are likely to be included in the new Senate infrastructure bill. Critics of the new regulations are already deriding them as “job killing government regulations” and “an attack on private sector innovation and an attempt at imposing one-world government socialism”.

Lawmakers in Nassau County, on New York’s Long Island, are considering a bill that would allow police officers and other first responders to sue protesters for financial damage if they are harassed, menaced or injured while performing their duties, the Associated Press reports.

The proposal specifies that a lawyer for the county could sue individual protesters for up to $25,000–an assessment that would double if the damages occurred during a riot.  First responders often enjoy qualified immunity that blocks personal criminal charges or civil lawsuits for actions done in the commission of their jobs.

The bill would classify police officers and first responders as a “protected class” under the county’s human rights laws.  The county’s current Human Rights Law provides protection from discrimination based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation.  No professions are listed as a “protected class.”

New York Times: “In the hours and days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, rattled Republican lawmakers knew exactly who was to blame: Donald J. Trump. Loyal allies began turning on him. Top Republicans vowed to make a full break from his divisive tactics and dishonesties. Some even discussed removing him from office. By spring, however, after nearly 200 congressional Republicans had voted to clear Mr. Trump during a second impeachment proceeding, the conservative fringes of the party had already begun to rewrite history, describing the Capitol riot as a peaceful protest and comparing the invading mob to a ‘normal tourist visit,’ as one congressman put it. This past week, amid the emotional testimony of police officers at the first hearing of a House select committee, Republicans completed their journey through the looking-glass, spinning a new counternarrative of that deadly day. No longer content to absolve Mr. Trump, they concocted a version of events in which those accused of rioting were patriotic political prisoners and Speaker Nancy Pelosi was to blame for the violence.”

“Their new claims, some voiced from the highest levels of House Republican leadership, amount to a disinformation campaign being promulgated from the steps of the Capitol, aimed at giving cover to their party and intensifying the threats to political accountability. This rendering of events – together with new evidence that Mr. Trump had counted on allies in Congress to help him use a baseless allegation of corruption to overturn the election – pointed to what some democracy experts see as a dangerous new sign in American politics: Even with Mr. Trump gone from the White House, many Republicans have little intention of abandoning the prevarication that was a hallmark of his presidency. Rather, as the country struggles with the consequences of Mr. Trump’s assault on the legitimacy of the nation’s elections, leaders of his party – who, unlike the former president, have not lost their political or rhetorical platforms – are signaling their willingness to continue, look past or even expand his assault on the facts for political gain.”

“The Senate convened for a rare weekend session on Saturday, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their bill so that senators can begin offering amendments,” reports CBS News.

“Susan Wright’s campaign had reasons to feel good Tuesday morning, coming off a tele-rally with former President Donald Trump the night before and armed with internal polling showing she had a comfortable lead over her fellow Republican opponent. But anxiety set in as the day went on and her campaign saw higher-than-expected turnout. Then, a couple hours before polls closed, her consultant, Matt Langston, got a call. It was from a campaign worker at a polling place, and they said the kinds of voters who were showing up had ‘definitely changed.'”

“How do you know that? Langston asked. ‘Because they’re all wearing masks,’ the worker replied.”

“Data is not immediately available on exactly who voted in the special election runoff to replace Wright’s late husband, U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, R-Arlington – including how many Democrats, more concerned about COVID-19, may have turned out. But at the end of the day, Wright’s coveted endorsement from Trump – which appeared so powerful in propelling her to the top in the initial election – may have contributed to her undoing in the runoff where state Rep. Jake Ellzey benefited from a more bipartisan appeal, coupled with a more positive, energetic campaign. The bipartisan appeal was driven not just by Ellzey’s campaign but also by at least one outside group that explicitly targeted Democrats for him. ‘This was not a surprise,’ said Sarah Chamberlain, president of the super PAC Defending Main Street. Ellzey’s campaign and its supporters saw Wright as using Trump’s endorsement as a crutch, running an otherwise lackluster campaign that was propped up by a big-spending outside group, the Club for Growth. Her campaign denies that” – Texas Tribune.

“TALLAHASSEE – Amid a COVID-19 surge in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged Friday that he will block any effort to impose mask mandates, touting a forthcoming executive order to stop counties from requiring them in schools,” reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

“The announcement comes just “[d]ays after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance that everyone in K-12 schools should wear a mask regardless of their vaccination status.”

Many corporate stakeholders in the retail and service industries are bemoaning a shortage of new job applicants that has left them short-staffed. This phenomenon should have been obvious to companies years ago, and they really only have themselves to blame for a shortage of workers. When one starts assembling a list of all the factors contributing to this trend, the reality of a decline in the working class labor force should have been obvious to all.

“Conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine remains hospitalized in his battle with COVID-19. According to a tweet from SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, he was placed on a ventilator earlier this week ‘out of an abundance of caution.’ His brother, Mark Valentine, shared an update on his condition on Friday, saying he needs to be placed on an ECMO machine. ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and is said to be similar to the heart-lung by-pass machine used during open-heart surgery. ‘Phil made it through the nite [sic]. He needs to be on an EKMO [sic] machine which is lung part of a heart/lung machine. We’re trying to get him to a hospital with that equipment via helicopter. The protocol requires he be able to be on his back for several hours which I didn’t think he could do… but he did! We’re checking bed availability now and if he is a candidate for transport. It ain’t over,’ Mark Valentine wrote” – WTVF.

NPR Austin: “It took a lengthy court battle, but the Texas Department of Safety has been allowing voters to update their voter information at the same time they update their driver’s license information online. The Texas Civil Rights Project filed a federal lawsuit against the state on behalf of three voters in Texas who thought they had updated their addresses on their voter registration through the DPS website. They later found out that never happened because online voter registration is illegal in Texas. The plaintiffs in the case were Jarrod Stringer, Nayeli Gomez and John Harms, as well as two organizations, MOVE Texas and the League of Women Voters of Texas. The lawsuit claimed Texas was violating the National Voter Registration Act – which includes federal motor voter laws – and the US Constitution. The Texas Civil Rights Project first sued the state five years ago, but the lawsuit was thrown out on a technicality. The group sued again shortly after.”

“As a result of that lawsuit, a federal judge ordered the state to change its practices last year. This forced Texas to ‘create the first-ever opportunity for some Texans to register to vote online’ starting in September, the group said in a press release. Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told KUT the DPS data shows that about a million voter registration transactions have occurred in the past 10 months. ‘That means that’s an average of a 100,000 Texans per month are now registering to vote – or updating their voter registration – with their online drivers’ transaction,’ she said. ‘That’s a lot of people.'”

“Madison Cawthorn, the Republican congressman representing Western North Carolina’s 11th District, had his gun taken by airport police and will likely face a federal fine and loss of a special security status, local and federal officials said” USA Today reports.

During day three of the Olympics, many spectators were delighted by the sight of what looked like a little robotic van chasing rugby balls that had flown out of bounds. The little device, which had glowing led “eyes” similar to the characters in the Disney “Cars” series, was developed by Toyota Motor Company and is designated as a “Field support robot”, and was “one of a handful of robots designed to streamline the Tokyo Olympic Games,” reports NPR.

Wall Street Journal: “Growing numbers of people are getting vaccinated in areas hit hard by the Delta variant, offering a glimmer of hope but still falling far short of what is needed to fight Covid-19, public-health officials say. Several factors are driving the increase in vaccinations, including worries about the infectiousness and severity of the Delta variant, growing confidence in the safety of vaccines and the influence of family and friends, health officials and residents say. More employers are implementing vaccine mandates, including a Walmart Inc. requirement for corporate staff announced Friday.”

“Some states with soaring case counts and hospitalizations have logged upticks in their low vaccination rates. In Alabama, where 35% of people are fully vaccinated, the seven-day average of daily vaccinations reached 10,732 on July 28, more than double the figure on July 7, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In Arkansas, where 37% are fully vaccinated, the seven-day average more than doubled to 8,676 over that period, and in Missouri, where 41% are fully vaccinated, it more than doubled to 13,103. In the U.S. as a whole, 50% of the population is fully vaccinated. The seven-day average of daily doses climbed to about 535,000 on July 27, compared with a recent low of around 431,000 on July 8, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘As the cases are spreading, it gets people’s attention that I guess this isn’t over,’ said Dr. John Waits, chief executive of Cahaba Medical Care, a community health center with locations across central Alabama. ‘It’s forcing people to take a second look’ at vaccinations.”

Thanks to the SolarWinds hack, Russian hackers were able to access the email accounts of 80% of employees in four federal prosecutors offices in New York in 2020, the Department of Justice announced Friday.

According to the Associated Press, the DOJ says the systems were being compromised from May 7 to December 27, 2020; the SolarWinds breach was announced in December of last year.  The hack allowed the Russian hackers to access hundreds of SolarWinds clients and at least nine federal Cabinet departments.

The Trump administration didn’t enact any sanctions against Russia; the Russian government has denied it had any role in the hacks.  The Biden administration, however, in April expelled Russian diplomats, in response to the SolarWinds hack and Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

• Let’s just pretend that Donald Trump’s Big Lie is inexplicably true.  That would mean Trump, as president, allowed the biggest successful attack on our Democracy in the history of our nation without so much as the smallest effort to stop it.  And the GOP wants him back in office… why?
• You can’t be both pro-police and pro-Trump.  You can’t be both pro-Constitution and pro-Trump.  You can’t be both pro-reality and pro-Trump.  After this week, Trump supporters must remove those terms from their lexicon.
• Simone Biles was a hero for what she did on the gymnastics mat.  Now she’s a hero for not being on the gymnastics mat.  She’s a fantastic example for young athletes to follow on how to succeed and take care of yourself.  
• I’m sure Kevin McCarthy has been called a moron before, but he probably has mixed feelings because it wasn’t his mother this time.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume XXX”

Three Republican members of Congress will face ethics charges for more than $22 million in stock trades for which they had failed to file the required under the STOCK Act for financial transparency, Slate reports.

Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Congressman Pat Fallon of Texas and Congressman Blake Moore of Utah–all first term members of Congress–all freshmen members–failed to report within the required 45 days.  Fallon’s case is exceptionally egregious:  he dumped $250,000 in Microsoft stock days before it was announced that the company lost the exclusive contract for the $10 billion Pentagon Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing system.  Falloon sits on the House Armed Services Committee’s brand new Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, which oversaw the contract.

“When members of Congress trade individual stocks and fail to disclose those trades, they break the law and diminish the public’s trust in government,” the complaints, filed by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, states.  “The recent prevalence of STOCK Act violations in the House shows that merely the threat of a fine is not deterring members of Congress from breaking the law; real accountability is necessary.”