Politico: “Rep. Chip Roy confronted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday about a new Capitol Police bulletin that suggests congressional staffers and visitors could be arrested if they fail to heed the chamber’s new mask mandate. ‘This is bullshit. We need to lead,’ Roy, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told McCarthy during a brief meeting of GOP lawmakers in a Capitol reception room, according to two sources familiar with the exchange. McCarthy replied to a frustrated Roy that his plan is to win back the majority in 2022 and become speaker, the sources said. Their back-and-forth illustrates the mounting fury on the right about efforts by Capitol officials to enforce mask-wearing rules amid the surge of Covid’s Delta variant.”

“A Capitol Police guidance flier circulated Thursday morning by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) states: ‘If a visitor or staff member fails to wear a mask after a request is made to do so, the visitor or staff shall be denied entry’ to House office buildings or the House side of the Capitol. ‘Any person who fails to either comply or leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for Unlawful Entry,’ the flier continues. The guidance made clear that members who fail to comply with the mask mandate won’t be arrested, but would be ‘reported to the House Sergeant at Arms’ Office.’ Cammack tweeted the guidance and argued that it was an ‘abuse of power’ by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Capitol Police to propose arresting staffers, even those who are vaccinated. ‘The Speaker of the House does not control the U.S. Capitol Police,’ Pelosi deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill said. ‘We were unaware of the memo until it was reported in the press.'”

Lame Duck Speaker Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility for what occurred on January 6th.

We know from reporting that Former Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving had discussions with Pelosi's office regarding using the National Guard "months prior to January 6" and that Pelosi denied it.

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) July 29, 2021

Fox Q13 Iowa: “The farms of Iowa are the nation’s number one supplier of the nation’s corn. But this week, it’s exporting oppressive humidity in large quantities. A phenomenon known as ‘corn sweat’ is combining with a summertime heatwave in the Upper Midwest to make for some unbelievably humid conditions. Clarion, Iowa, reported a dew point of 90 degrees Wednesday afternoon at 2:15 p.m. Central time. The air temperature at that time was also 90 degrees, resulting in 100% relative humidity and a heat index of 132 degrees. Some 130 miles west of Clarion in Maurice, Iowa, an even higher dew point of 91 degrees was recorded Tuesday evening between 5-7 p.m. Central time. The 5 p.m. air temperature was 93 degrees, making the heat index an astounding 141 degrees.”

“Iowa has an abundance of corn fields around the state. Corn (or any plant) pulls moisture out of the soil, and some of that moisture escapes through the corn’s leaves and enters the surrounding air. This is called transpiration. Just as humans sweat, or perspire, to cool down, plants are no different. The higher the air temperature, the more the plant will sweat, or transpire. The transpired moisture will then evaporate off the plant’s leaves to cool it down, just like how sweat evaporates off human skin. Evaporation is a cooling process. Additional moisture also enters the air from lakes and other water sources in the area through evaporation. Combine all of this evaporation and transpiration, and you get evapotranspiration. ‘Corn sweat’ is simply a more colloquial way of referring to evapotranspiration in the vicinity of corn fields. This process of evapotranspiration leads to increased moisture in the air near corn fields as the corn ‘sweats’ to keep itself cool, ultimately leading to higher dew points in many areas surrounding the corn fields.”

“These vaccinations are not approved by the FDA. They are experimental… this is the definition of tyranny” Congressman Scott Perry (R-PA) via ABC News reporter Ben Siegel.

Pic of Former White House Press Secretary and Arkansas GOP front-runner Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a Phish concert in Arkansas. Arkansas Times has more from the show’s VIP tent. There’s not much we can say about the obvious incongruity of an arch-conservative former MAGA Reichsminister of Propaganda attending a concert for a liberal hippie jam band from Vermont where a very good portion of the rest of the crowd stink of patchouli oil and the stage is hardly visible through the fog of weed smoke that these pics don’t already say for themselves, but we sincerely hope she enjoyed the 27 minute rendition of Weekapaug Groove nonetheless.

Public Religion Research Institute published the results of an expansive survey, finding that 42% of vaccine refusers (19% overall of their sample size refuse to ever get vaccinated for COVID-19) and 22% of the vaccine hesitant (15% of their respondent sample say they could be sold on getting vaxed) are QAnon believers. Meanwhile, 24% of White Evangelical respondents will not get vaccinated ever, filling out the other circle in that Venn Diagram of MAGA cultism.

A CBS News/YouGov poll shows 63% of respondents agreed with the statement “Federal rules are necessary to ensure equal access to voting are necessary”. Broken down by affiliation which 91% of Dems, 63% of independents, and 28% of Republicans agreed. Read more here.

NEW!

President Donald J. Trump:

"Under the weak leadership of Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans continue to lose. He lost Arizona, he lost Georgia, he ignored Election Fraud and he doesn’t fight. Now he’s giving Democrats everything they want and getting nothing in return… pic.twitter.com/F8wXj7aYpe

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 29, 2021

“Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola trucks, has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan in connection with their investigation into allegations of fraud and for making false and misleading statements to investors. Prosecutors say that when Milton unveiled their tractor trailer truck it had to be plugged into the wall, the headlamps were activated by remote by a staffer, and air had to be pumped in because there was a slow leak in the air lines of the truck.”

“And yes, prosecutors do say part of Milton’s conduct was video of the Nikola truck in the Super Bowl ad was not in fact of a working truck but was towed to the top of a hill. Breaks were released and it rolled downhill. Prosecutors say in February of 2020 Milton made statements that his pickup truck – called the Badger – would be built with its own parts and frames. Meanwhile they were using Ford F-150 trucks for chassis and frames on their prototypes” reports NBC’s Tom Winter.

Trevor Milton’s donor lookup page on OpenSecrets.org lists a whole shit ton of donations to Republican candidates and the NRCC – and that’s just his public contributions, so who knows what else he’s been up to. Nikola (really stupid name by the way, couldn’t have made it more obvious they were pissed Elon Musk got to Tesla first), is the second American electric pickup truck company born in the era of Trump’s “manufacturing is back” bullshit to turn out to be built on a foundation of lies. Then there’s that little Foxconn clusterfuck in Wisconsin.

CNBC: “The U.S. economy accelerated at a strong pace in the second quarter in a sign that the U.S. has escaped the shackles of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced during the April-to-June period, accelerated 6.4% on an annualized basis. However, the gain was considerably less than the 8.4% Dow Jones estimate. The gain also was a yardstick for how far the economy has come from the shutdowns imposed during the early days of the pandemic, when government across the country halted large swaths of economic activity to combat the Covid-19 spread.”

“A group calling itself an ‘election integrity committee’ drew allegations of voter intimidation after its members reportedly knocked on doors across York County asking about how and for whom residents voted. York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler, who said she received numerous calls about the individuals claiming to be members of the committee, emphasized that they have no affiliation with the county government” The York Dispatch reports.

“The county referred the cases to the Southern York Regional Police Department, said Wheeler, a Republican who was elected to the commission in 2019. The questioning comes as county officials weigh whether to comply with a ‘forensic audit’ of the 2020 election spearheaded by state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin County. ‘There is an intimidation factor, and that’s what their intent is,’ said Chad Baker, chair of the Democratic Party of York County. The individuals claiming to be a part of the committee seem to be targeting Democrats in an attempt to seek out voter fraud, a baseless claim that has cemented itself as a rallying cry for supporters of former President Donald Trump, Baker said. The self-proclaimed committee touring southern York County used tactics that were nearly identical to a forensic audit being conducted by a company hired by state Senate Republicans in Arizona. The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, in a May 5 letter accused the firm Cyber Ninjas of voter intimidation because of its door-knocking practice.”

“A private contractor conducting a Republican-commissioned review of 2020 presidential ballots in Arizona’s largest county announced late Wednesday that it has collected more than $5.7 million in private donations to fund the process. The controversial ballot review, which included a hand recount of Maricopa County’s nearly 2.1 million ballots and a review of ballot tabulating machines, has been underway since April. It was ordered by the state’s Republican-led Senate, which agreed to spend $150,000 in taxpayer money to fund the audit. But the Senate allowed Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based firm hired to lead the process, to collect donations as well.”

“It has been clear for months that the lengthy ballot review, which was conducted by dozens of workers, some working nearly round-the-clock, was being largely financed by allies of former president Donald Trump. The newly released figures put that fact in sharp relief: More than 97 percent of the audit’s costs have so far been shouldered by donations from five organizations led by people who have promoted the false claim that the election was stolen. In a statement, Cyber Ninjas indicated that $3.25 million came from the America Project, a group led by former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne… Another $605,000 came from Voices and Votes, a group led by One America News host Christina Bobb. Bobb has used on-air appearances for the pro-Trump network to solicit donations for the group” – Washington Post.

CNN: “The Covid-19 vaccine has become so polarizing that some people in Missouri are getting inoculated in secret for fear of backlash from their friends and family who oppose vaccination, a doctor told CNN Wednesday. ‘They’ve had some experience that’s sort of changed their mind from the viewpoint of those in their family, those in their friendship circles or their work circles. And they came to their own decision that they wanted to get a vaccine,’ said Dr. Priscilla Frase, a hospitalist at Ozarks Healthcare in West Plains, Missouri. ‘They did their own research on it, and they talked to people and made the decisions themselves,’ Frase told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. ‘But even though they were able to make that decision themselves, they didn’t want to have to deal with the peer pressure or the outbursts from other people about them … giving in to everything.'”

“In a hospital produced video, Frase said one pharmacist at her hospital told her ‘they’ve had several people come in to get vaccinated who have tried to sort of disguise their appearance and even went so far as to say, ‘please, please, please don’t let anybody know that I got this vaccine.”Frase told CNN if a patient asks for privacy to get vaccinated, the hospital tries to accommodate the request – whether at the drive-thru window or at their cars. ‘Anything we can do to get people in a place that they’re comfortable receiving the vaccine,’ Frase said. ‘It’s not a large number, but every single person that we can reach who wants to get vaccinated and we can provide that for them, that’s a win. And we take every win that we can get.’ Missouri has 41% of its population fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state is one of 49 in the US experiencing at least a 10% surge in new Covid-19 cases over last week, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.”

https://youtu.be/4Uvy-Q5xyss

Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, one of the officers who gave testimony about the January 6th Domestic Terrorist on the Capitol, reacted to anti-police sentiments from Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.

https://youtu.be/qaRI2t_Us7s

Declaring that public health experts are being tuned out by Americans, Fox News host (and Eva Braun wannabe) Laura Ingraham said that they had “nobody to blame but [themselves],” and then went on to claim the police officers who were injured during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack at the Capitol are also to blame for their fate.  “Ditto the Capitol Police, who testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.”  (They testified on Tuesday, and they weren’t all Capitol Police, but you can’t expect Fox News to get facts right.)

When Donald Trump called Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen nearly every day to urge him to investigate various and sundry conspiracy theories he read online regarding claims of fraud in the 2020 election, a Justice Department aide was frequently nearby taking notes.

According to the Washington Post, the notes taken by Richard Donaghue, Rosen’s Acting  Deputy Attorney General, could now become evidence in Congressional investigations into Trump’s action in the weeks after the election leading up to the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.

The Justice Department has told Rosen, Donaghue and other officials who served in the department at the end of the Trump administration that no claims of executive privilege will be honored.  (It’s the duty of the current administration, not the out-of-office officials, to make any such claim.)  This means that if all those people were called before Congressional or judicial hearings, they could not duck out of testifying. 

Saying that he got a tip that there would be violence on January 6th, Republican Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks told a reporter for Slate that he was wearing body armor while he extolled the mob of Trump supporters to “start taking down names and kicking ass!”

“I was warned on Monday that there might be risks associated with the next few days,” Brooks told reporter Jim Newell. “And as a consequence of those warnings, I did not go to my condo. Instead, I slept on the floor of my office. And when I gave my speech at the Ellipse, I was wearing body armor.”

“That’s why I was wearing that nice little windbreaker,” he told Newell with a grin. “To cover up the body armor.”  Photos of Brooks at the event show him wearing a roomy windbreaker as he urged the crowd to violence. 

Perhaps Dr. Fauci should contact his lawyer now.

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order Wednesday allowing Texas Department of Public Safety officers–which includes Texas State Police–to stop any vehicle they suspect having migrants who “pose a risk of carrying COVID-19.”

The officers are empowered “to reroute such a vehicle back to its point of origin or a port of entry if a violation is confirmed.”  No confirmation of infection is required, nor is the basis for pulling over a vehicle that may or may not have migrants in it.  The order does not specify the difference between legal or undocumented migrants or legal resident aliens.

Apparently, Abbott believes his DPS officers not only have X-ray vision to identify groups of migrants in vehicles, but also a new superhero skill of doing an instant viral analysis to identify people at risk of having COVID-19.