The National Nurses Union, the nation’s largest nursing union with more than 150,000 members, is asking that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reimplement masking recommendations for groups that include non-household members.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the union is making the request because of the sudden spike in new coronavirus cases, particularly among the unvaccinated, the ease of transmission of the delta variant, and the emergence of the new lambda strain.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is far from over,” the union wrote in a letter to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.  “In the United States, the CDC reports a 16.0 percent increase in daily new cases over the previous week. More than 40 states have seen an increase in daily new cases over the previous two weeks, and more than 25 states have seen an increase in hospitalizations. Due to domestic and global travel, the United States cannot be viewed in isolation. Globally, incidence remains high with several regions around the world seeing significant increases in cases and emergence of new variants of concern.”

Three men died and two more were taken to the hospital after the travel trailer they were staying in filled with carbon dioxide overnight while they attended a three-day country music festival in southern Michigan, CNN reports.

A friend of the men’s called authorities after he hadn’t seen them during the final day of the Faster Horses Festival in Lenawee County.  Medical crews found three dead and worked to revive two of the men, who were transported to a local hospital in critical condition.

The county sheriff’s office believes the source of the carbon monoxide was a portable generator located too close to the travel trailer.  “First responders stress the importance of keeping generators away from camping areas, tents, travel trailers, etc. as well as exhaust fumes from running vehicles,” police said.

CNN: “President Joe Biden will welcome the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the White House on Tuesday, an official tells CNN, marking yet another return to normalcy after the coronavirus pandemic and years of tension between the NFL and Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump. The visit marks the first time since 2017 that a Super Bowl champion has visited the White House. In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles were uninvited by Trump, who cited ongoing protests during the National Anthem, calling the player protests ‘disrespectful.'”

“A number of players had already announced they would forgo the visit, and one player told CNN that few of them had planned to attend anyway. The New England Patriots, who won the 2019 Super Bowl, ultimately did not attend the traditional White House ceremony, though both sides said it had nothing to do with politics. At the time, one player told The New York Times they’d rather meet with former President Barack Obama. In 2020, Trump congratulated the Kansas City Chiefs for their Super Bowl win, though he mistakenly tweeted that they hailed from Kansas, not Missouri. The team did not visit the White House to celebrate their win due to the pandemic.”

While a Fox News contributor rolled his eyes, Former Clinton Administration official Matt Bennett correctly stated that places where authorities are not encouraging and supporting vaccination efforts–such as Florida where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is fundraising off of novelties degrading vaccines and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Charlie Hurt, the Fox News contributor, chimed in:  “Misinformation comes when people like you try to politicize a disease that is 99.999%, uh, survivable!”   To correct Hurt’s misinformation, in the United States, nearly 2% of people who contract coronavirus have died.

This is the second essay in the series on the “Initial Stress” phase, the first of four steps in the “ego maintenance” process that leads to fascism. The initial stress is the economic insult that promotes a sense of frustration among non-college educated working class voters. That initial stress is common to all non-college educated workers in the United States at this point in time. It is the combination of that stress, along with underlying authoritarian personality traits that makes an individual receptive to agitative and even fascist political messaging. Further analysis of the political and psyhological aspects of the political radicalization process will be provided in later essays in this series. The first essay on the Initial Stress briefly introduced the concept of “hostage markets”, which refers to how as more of a society’s wealth becomes concentrated in fewer hands, there is less incentive for large companies and the very wealthy to invest in innovative products or services, as the potential return on those investments becomes progressively limited by the diminishing amount of wealth in the hands of the majority of the population.

BBC: “Lewis Hamilton fought back from a 10-second penalty for a crash with title rival Max Verstappen to pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and claim a dramatic British Grand Prix victory. Hamilton was blamed for a collision with Verstappen’s Red Bull at Copse corner on the first lap of the race, which led to the Dutchman crashing out. Verstappen, 23, was taken to hospital for precautionary tests after the accident while Hamilton set about trying to win the race.”

“The Grand Prix was stopped after the incident with Leclerc in the lead from Hamilton and the Ferrari driver held that position until two laps from the end, when the Mercedes driver passed him, ironically, at the same corner at which he had crashed with Verstappen. The controversial win, in front of a crowd of 140,0000, was Hamilton’s eighth in the British Grand Prix and cuts Verstappen’s championship lead to eight points after a race that will go down in the annals of F1 history.”

“A coalition of more than 20 prominent progressive groups and unions are launching a new ad campaign slamming Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., for his response to the Jan. 6 riot and his vote against federal voting rights legislation. They are spending $800,000 on a 30-second television spot and print ad campaign, which kicks off Sunday. The coalition includes NAACP, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Working Families Party and the labor union National Education Association. Called Democracy for All 2021 Action, they advocate for federal voting legislation, District of Columbia statehood, and campaign finance reform. Their first major ad campaign, a million-dollar buy in April, promoted the For the People Act in three states and Washington, D.C.”

“‘You’re failing us, Sen. Johnson. Protecting our democracy has never been partisan and yet you refused to investigate the deadly attack on our Capital,’ the ad begins. It contrasts images of rioters smashing windows at the Capitol with a brief clip of Johnson saying ‘by and large it was peaceful protest.’ His full comments, made on Fox News in May, were, ‘By and large it was all, it was peaceful protest, except for there were a number of people, basically agitators that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol. And you know, that’s really the truth of what’s happening here.’ Wisconsin Democrats are lining up to challenge Johnson for his seat in 2022, though the Republican has not yet said whether he’s running for re-election” – NBC News.

“Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has begun sowing distrust in next year’s elections, alarming lawmakers and the courts alike. In speeches, Bolsonaro, a former military captain, has been questioning the integrity of an electronic ballot system that’s been in place since 1996 and suggesting he might not even allow elections to happen. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is currently the runaway favorite heading into the October 2022 contest” – Axios.

In this editorial I’ll be taking aim at the kinds of misrepresentation demonstrated in a piece published on TheHill.com by Alfredo Ortiz, who is part of a group called the “Job Creators Network“, a right-wing lobbying group created by Home Depot co-founder and ardent Trump loyalist Bernie Marcus. This particular piece demonstrates a number of tactics frequently employed by political agitators to misrepresent political issues and rally the support of low information conservatives.

Republican Florida Congressman and credibly-accused child sex trafficker Matt Gaetz announced the location of the “anti-communism” “peaceful protest” he and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-Georgia) just three hours before the thrice-canceled event.

The site?  The courtyard of the Riverside City Hall in Riverside, California.  Dozens of people shows up at the event, starting at 5 p.m. local time, which was standing room only… because it was held at the courtyard of a government building.

Reality television star and suspended Republican California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner spoke with Fox News host (and person with custom-made straws to fit in a wine bottle) Jeanine Pirro discussed how George Soros is using his wealth to destroy the United States.

A shooting has been reported outside of the Third Base Gate at Nationals Park.

Fans are encouraged to exit the ballpark via the CF and RF gates at this time.

We're working with law enforcement to provide more information as soon as it becomes available.

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 18, 2021

[UPDATE 10:53 p.m. ET:  Reports are that four people were shot outside Nationals ballpark.]

The Major League Baseball game in Washington, DC was halted at the middle of the sixth inning when a shooting was reported immediately outside the ballpark, with dozens of police and medical vehicles responding to the site, the Associated Press reports.

People must really be afraid of what @RepMTG and I have to say?

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 17, 2021

An airborne chemical leak at Six Flags Harbor Splashdown in Spring, Texas outside Houston contaminated at least 34 people Saturday afternoon, NBC News reports.  The park was closed for the remainder of the day and the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office was investigating the source of the leak.

“A small number of guests in a section of the park reported feeling ill with respiratory irritation,” Six Flags spokeswoman Sandra Daniels  said. “The safety of our guests and team members is always our highest priority and the park was immediately cleared as we try to determine a cause.”

“Three fully vaccinated members of the Texas delegation tested positive for Covid-19, the state’s House Democratic Caucus said Saturday,” reports NBC News. The first positive test result came Friday night when a member informed the caucus that they had the coronavirus.”Caucus Members and staff took a rapid test, all of which were negative,” the house said in a statement.”

The Biden Administration is working with Facebook to censor and ban ‘misinformation.'

In other words, they are working to violate the First Amendment rights of the American people.

— Lance Gooden (@Lancegooden) July 17, 2021

This Lance Gooden dickbag is a Congressman, by the way.

“Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington and chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote Friday to the CEOs of American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, Republic, and Allegiant airlines, asking them about reports of pilot, flight attendant and worker shortages and to account for the use of the $54 billion in federal relief to keep workers employed that was contingent on no layoffs,” reports CNN.

“A member of the Nigerian Tokyo Olympics delegation became the first Olympics visitor admitted to hospital with COVID-19, Japan’s TV Asahi reported on Friday, as Japan battles to stem rising local infections with the Games a week away,” reports ChannelNewsAsia. “The person, a non-athlete in their 60s, tested positive on Thursday evening at the airport and had only mild symptoms but was hospitalised because of their age and pre-existing conditions, TV Asahi said, without giving further details.”