“India’s excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the South Asian country. Most experts believe India’s official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns as exaggerated and misleading. The report released Tuesday estimated excess deaths – the gap between those recorded and those that would have been expected – to be 3 million to 4.7 million between January 2020 and June 2021. It said an accurate figure may ‘prove elusive’ but the true death toll ‘is likely to be an order of magnitude greater than the official count.'”

“The report was published by Arvind Subramanian, the Indian government’s former chief economic adviser, and two other researchers at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, and Harvard University. It said the count could have missed deaths that occurred in overwhelmed hospitals or while health care was disrupted, particularly during the devastating virus surge earlier this year. ‘True deaths are likely to be in the several millions not hundreds of thousands, making this arguably India’s worst human tragedy since Partition and independence,’ the report said. The Partition of the British-ruled Indian subcontinent into independent India and Pakistan in 1947 led to the killing of up to 1 million people as gangs of Hindus and Muslims slaughtered each other. The report on India’s virus toll used three calculation methods: data from the civil registration system that records births and deaths across seven states, blood tests showing the prevalence of the virus in India alongside global COVID-19 fatality rates, and an economic survey of nearly 900,000 people done thrice a year. Researchers cautioned that each method had weaknesses, such as the economic survey omitting the causes of death. Instead, researchers looked at deaths from all causes and compared that data to mortality in previous years – a method widely considered an accurate metric” – AP.

No reporting on the ground available yet, but this looks pretty freaking bad. Twitter users say the embassy is adjacent to the French Prime Minister’s official residence.

Reuters: “The head of the Tokyo Olympics organising committee on Tuesday did not rule out a last-minute cancellation of the global sporting showpiece, which starts on Friday. Asked at a news conference if the Games might still be cancelled amid rising COVID-19 cases, Toshiro Muto said he would keep an eye on infection numbers and hold discussions with organisers if necessary”

Wildfires out west, mostly from Western Canada, have sent smoke all the way to the city. That smoke is creating the haze you're seeing this morning and giving the sun a red tint. 📸: Bronx – Soundview Neighborhood pic.twitter.com/Zx4AwZCOrY

— Erick Adame (@ErickAdameOnTV) July 20, 2021

“Indicted Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg may have offered an unprompted early defense to investigators on the day he was charged in a 15-year tax avoidance scheme involving unreported perks such as free cars and high-end apartments for executives at former president Donald Trump’s company, according to court documents. ‘In sum and substance, defendant Allen Weisselberg stated that the commute to work from Long Island was difficult,’ said a defendant statement disclosure from district attorney investigators Anthony DiCaprio and Ethan Zubkoff that was filed in New York Supreme Court after Weisselberg’s arrest” the Washington Post reports.

“There was no additional context for his apparent words about grueling rush-hour travel in New York City, a remark cited in a publicly filed disclosure from prosecutors, a mandatory notice given to defense attorneys after an arrest. Prosecutors allege a 15-year tax fraud scheme as the Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg are arraigned on multiple criminal charges Weisselberg previously kept his legal address at a small home in the Long Island town of Wantagh, N.Y., until he sold it in 2013. But prosecutors allege he actually lived in a Manhattan apartment paid for by the Trump Organization and avoided several years of New York City taxes by concealing his status as a city resident. He made the comments as he sat for arrest processing with investigators on July 1, hours before he pleaded not guilty to charges including scheme to defraud and grand larceny. The day of his surrender, he also told the arresting investigators that he has lived in his Upper West Side apartment since 2005. The commute from his Riverside Boulevard home is less than two miles – and he was recently seen on multiple weekdays driving a Mercedes to Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the headquarters of Trump Organization, where Trump himself has been spending time in recent weeks. The Trump Organization allegedly footed the bill for the Weisselberg family’s luxury vehicles for many years in lieu of paying him a higher salary, allowing him to claim significantly lower income than he was actually bringing in. The company ‘paid the annual lease expenses on two Mercedes-Benz automobiles for Weisselberg and his wife’ from 2005 to 2017, according to the indictment. It is unclear whether Weisselberg was trying to say that he commuted – at least at some point – to Manhattan from the suburbs, necessitating a vehicle.”

The controversial #COVID19 vaccines should not be forced on our military for a virus that is not dangerous for non-obese people and those under 65.

With 6,000 vax related deaths and many concerning side effects reported, the vax should be a choice not a mandate for everyone. https://t.co/JhYg3acrrK

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) July 19, 2021

The account was suspended for 12 hours, but it is unclear when the suspension started

“Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) plans to support the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to lead the Bureau of Land Management, a spokesperson confirmed Monday, a major boost for the nominee who is facing strong GOP opposition because of her connection to radical environmentalists in the 1980s. Manchin’s support likely ensures the Energy Committee will deadlock on the Stone-Manning selection when it considers the pick on Thursday. All 10 Republicans wrote a letter last week urging Biden to abandon the pick over her role in a tree spiking incident carried out by members of the group Earth First! that was designed to stop logging in Montana’s forests” – Politico.

Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad officers apparently made a “significant” miscalculation that caused a “catastrophic” blast that injured 17 people–including nine LAPD officers and a federal agent–when they tried to set off a contained detonation of fireworks last June, NBC News reports.

Using video from a robotic camera, technicians calculated that they had found 16 pounds of fireworks in a house and attempted to minimize damage from a controlled explosion using a “total containment vessel,” basically an armored truck designed to sustain a blast of 25 pounds of C4 compound.  Instead, they detonated an estimated 42 pounds of explosives, causing a massive blast that rocked a South LA neighborhood.

“We have miscalculations that are significant,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said, summing up the finding of the investigation.  Five members of the bomb squad have been removed from duty, Moore said.

This is it! The company that canceled Mr Potato Head’s evil plans have been revealed by a heroic whistleblower packaging engineer! Critical Race Theory is being hidden in YOUR KIDS’ TOYS!

Right wing Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori (unaffectionately nicknamed “Ivanka Fujimori” here at National Zero) acknowledged on Monday she lost to leftist rival Pedro Castillo, nearly two months after the election, La Republica reports.

“[Peruvian Right Wing political party] Popular Force has activated all the legal resources allowed by law. Meanwhile, Peruvians have seen that [Leftist] Peru Libre has stolen thousands of votes from us on election day” said Fujimori. “The defense of democracy does not end with the illegitimate promulgation of Pedro Castillo. This defense is just beginning” she added, and that probably wasn’t the best auto-translation by Google but we think the point got across alright enough.

Please read the comment section below for jokes about how Peruvian apocalyptic cult QúeAnon will assemble for Fujimori’s “real” inauguration at Machu Picchu on March 4th and that “CyberIncas” are planning to “audit” the votes at a decrepit old soccer stadium in Lima for the next six months.

“We’re not saying there’s no benefit to the vaccine.  [Editor’s note:  Wait for it.]  There may well be profound benefits to the vaccine.  Our mind is open and has been from the first day,” Fox News host (and person who will be proven a hypocrite in 41 seconds) Tucker Carlson says.  “We never encourage anyone to take or not take the vaccine.  Obviously, we’re not doctors.”

Obviously. 

“Why won’t the RINO Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona give the routers? What are they trying to hide? They are fighting for life or death. What is going on? Give the routers! Doesn’t this mean that the voting was, despite their statements to the contrary, connected to the internet? The Voter Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election was monumental, and the facts are coming out daily!” says the Fat Orange Caligula in yet another bullshit statement.

This rant is of an old vintage, the genre in which Trump speaks with implied authority on technology concepts he and the vast majority of his fanbase actually have zero fucking clue about. Like “The Server“, his years-long quest where the Democrats and the FBI or the Deep State or Obama did something with some server that didn’t actually get hacked by the Russian in 2016 because Trump didn’t get to see the server himself, “The Routers” sounds just as ominous and intimidating to a boomer-aged MAGA hatter who calls Verizon FiOS tech support regularly. And while Trump’s at it, he might as well incorporate lyrics from his greatest hits. He should’ve accused Maricopa of “acid-washing” the equipment or warned that they were vulnerable to a “tapp” by Obama.

Still, it’s a far cry from the maddeningly vague “The Cyber” which Trump claimed his son Barron knew all about back in 2016, so he’s been learning some new stuff about technology. Kind of.

The particulate matter in the smoke from forest fires may increase the infection rate of the coronavirus in affected areas, a new study by environmental scientists claims, the Associated Press reports.

The paper, by Desert Research Institute Assistant Research Scientist Daniel Kiser and four co-authors published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, found that coronavirus infection rates jumped in Washoe County, Nevada when smoke from wildfires in western states wafted into the region.

For every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of small particulate matter known as PM2.5 in the air, the positivity rate increased about 6.3% two to six days later, the study found.

“I have accepted Leader McCarthy’s appointment to this committee because we need leaders who will force the Democrats and the media to answer questions so far ignored. Among them, why was the Capitol unprepared and vulnerable to attack on January 6? If Democrats were serious about investigating political violence, this committee would be studying not only the January 6 riot at the Capitol, but also the hundreds of violent political riots last summer when many more innocent Americans and law-enforcement officers were attacked.”

“And of course, the committee would not overlook the Good Friday murder of USCP Officer Billy Evans that was perpetrated by a far-left extremist. Make no mistake, Nancy Pelosi created this committee solely to malign conservatives and to justify the Left’s authoritarian agenda. Even then, I will do everything possible to give the American people the facts about the lead up to January 6, the riot that day, and the responses from Capitol leadership and the Biden administration. I will not allow this committee to be turned into a forum for condemning millions of Americans because of their political beliefs” – Statement from Republican Congressman Jim Banks, R-Indiana.

Banks has John Cougar Mellencamp lyrics in his Twitter bio, just in case anyone’s interested in learning more about his personal taste in music, or lack thereof.

A 72-year-old Texas man was arrested and charged with assault and resisting arrest after he started attacking people at a Turn Rural Texas Blue rally in Burnet County this past Saturday, the Dallas Tribune reports.

Reynol P. Gray faces a class A misdemeanor charge and a state felony charge for assaulting a 68-year-old man who was standing near the stage.  Dressed in pro-Trump and MAGA clothing, Gray pushed his way to the stage where organizers had formed a human wall to prevent him from disrupting the speakers, which included Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Mike Collier and state Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa.

Gray started yelling profanities and organizers called police after threatening the people blocking him from the stage.  Marble Falls Police Sgt. Cory Munoz responded and tried to pull Gray away, but Gray resisted. 

A Henry County (Georgia) court judge threw out on Monday a lawsuit brought by a Fulton County resident seeking to nullify the Senate runoff elections won in January by Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, with the judge ruling that the plaintiff didn’t properly serve notice to the defendants, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

The plaintiff, Michael Daugherty, a Trump supporter, claimed that there was obvious misconduct in the election process, robbing the Republican candidates, Kelly Loeffer and David Perdue of their due victory.  Without providing significant evidence, Daugherty stated that there was malfeasance in counting the ballots in Fulton County, the same “secret ballots” Donald Trump has claimed.

In the nuisance lawsuit, Daugherty sued defendants including Warnock and Ossoff, as well as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the State Election Board, and election boards in Fulton, DeKalb and Coffee counties.

“McCarthy picks for Jan. 6 select committee, via GOP source: Jim Banks (ranking member), Jim Jordan, Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong, Troy Nehls” reports Andrew Solender of Forbes.

Thank you for your patience during that brief stretch of self-inflicted technical difficulties.

“Oklahoma Republican Party members have rejected a resolution to censure the state’s two GOP U.S. senators for not objecting to the Electoral College votes that certified Democrat Joe Biden as president on Jan. 6. In the vote Saturday, 122 members of the Republican State Committee opposed the nonbinding resolution to censure U.S. Sens. Jim Inhofe and James Lankford, while 93 supported it. The resolution also called for them to resign. Lankford was among more than a dozen senators who initially objected to the certification of the 2020 election results.

He changed his mind after insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Lankford, who is up for reelection next year, issued a statement thanking the Oklahomans who have supported his campaign. Newly elected state GOP Chairman John Bennett is personally backing a primary challenger to Lankford. The challenger, Tulsa pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, has been critical of Lankford for what he says is Lankford’s lack of support for former President Donald Trump” – AP.

Washington Post: “Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, pleaded guilty Monday to burning a Black Lives Matter banner stolen Dec. 12 from a historic African American church in Washington during a tumultuous demonstration by supporters of President Donald Trump. Tarrio, 37, who is listed as a Miami resident in D.C. Superior Court records, also pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to possess a high capacity ammunition magazine, which is illegal in the district. Police said four Washington, D.C., churches were vandalized the night of Dec. 12 as the Proud Boys and other groups marched through downtown, supporting Trump’s effort to delegitimize President Biden’s election victory. The BLM banner that Tarrio admitted to burning was taken from Asbury United Methodist Church in the 900 block of 11th Street NW.”