“Vaccine-hesitant Americans overwhelmingly reject the reported risks of the coronavirus delta variant, posing questions for the nation’s pandemic recovery on a Fourth of July the Biden administration has marked as a turning point in the nation’s long public health ordeal,” reports ABC News. “Three in 10 adults in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they have not gotten a coronavirus vaccine and definitely or probably will not get one. In this group, a broad 73% say U.S. officials are exaggerating the risk of the delta variant — and 79% think they have little or no risk of getting sick from the coronavirus.”

“After absorbing nearly half of the destruction caused by the pandemic shutdowns, the leisure and hospitality industry is still in a deep hole, down 2.5 million jobs from early last year,” reports Politico. ‘There simply are not enough workers to fill those slots,’ said Lynn Minges, president and CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, who estimated the industry has about 70,000 openings in the state. ‘And there are a number of factors that contribute to that but obviously one of those is the challenge in getting immigrant workers to fill some of the jobs.'”

Earlier this week the Supreme Court issued an opinion in two cases: BRNOVICH V. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE and ARIZONA REPUBLICAN PARTY V. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE. The opinions from the two cases were consolidated under the Brnovich case. Justice Samuel Alito issued the opinion of the court, with a consenting opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, and a dissent by Justice Elana Kagan. The matter at issue, as summarized by Alito was that: “First, in some counties, voters who choose to cast a ballot in person on election day must vote in their own precincts or else their ballots will not be counted. Second, mail-in ballots cannot be collected by anyone other than an election official, a mail carrier, or a voter’s family member, household member, or caregiver.” Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, 594 U.S. ___ (2021) There are two key issues with Alito’s opinion that I will address in this editorial. The first is that Alito and Gorsuch both demonstrate willful ignorance of how the out of precinct ballot policy could be leveraged by dishonest local election administrators to engage in widespread election fraud. The head of a local board of elections who wanted to tilt an election in his or her party’s favor could impact election results by dragging their feet on the processing of voter registration and change of address forms for members of the opposing political party. Unless there was an investigation of election irregularities after the fact, an average voter who moved and reported to the precinct that would be correct for their new address would have no way of knowing that they were denied the right to vote by an unscrupulous elections administrator who intentionally mishandled their registration or change of address documents.

We already know this can impact House races because such activity has already been documented in the NY-22 House race where Trump loyalist Claudia Tenney beat out Democrat Anthony Brandisi by only 109 votes. The Justice Department is currently suing Oneida County, NY (a rural county in Upstate, NY where Trump beat Biden by 15%) for failure to process voter documents in a timely manner. Recent news reports indicate that there may have been nearly 2400 voter registration and change of address forms that were not properly processed in Oneida county alone. If Trump loyalists were to coordinate that kind of willful negligence on a state-wide basis in other states where elections are much closer than they were in New York State, it could easily impact state-wide elections such as Governor, Senate and Presidential races. The argument that Alito didn’t address the problem of out of district ballots being willfully mishandled because that’s not a Voting Rights issue, but a matter that would most likely be prosecuted under state election codes as well as 18 USC § 595 – Interference by administrative employees of Federal, State, or Territorial Governments, is not an acceptable argument to this author.

Another issue has to do with enforcement of Arizona voting laws on Native American Reservations. There has been a great deal of attention to how the Court’s ruling in Brnovich will affect Native Americans living on tribal lands, where many voters live in extremely remote areas with irregular mail service. Native American tribal lands are regarded as “distinct, independent political communities” Worcester v. Georgia, 1832 Ergo, the state of Arizona does not have standing to attempt to enforce laws regarding the handling of ballots on any tribal lands. As justice Neil Gorsuch cites in McGirt v. Oklahoma, “State courts generally have no jurisdiction to try Indians for conduct committed in “Indian country.” McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. ___ (2020) & Negonsott v. Samuels, 507 U.S. 99, 102–103 (1993).” Any attempt by the state of Arizona to impose conditions for ballot handling on tribal lands would be an insult to tribal sovereignty, a violation of Federal and Native American treaties, and a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. Ergo, the state of Arizona is obliged, by the requirements of Federal Law and existing treaties with Native American tribes, to accept ballots collected on tribal lands as they are delivered. So long as those ballots are handled in accordance with Arizona state law once they leave the reservation and while they are in process of being delivered from tribal lands to state or county election officials, then Native American tribes are in compliance with Arizona law. The state has no authority to attempt to enforce any additional conditions on the handling of ballots initially collected on Native American tribal lands.

At this point we have no way of knowing whether Alito’s failure to address the two issues above should be ascribed to malintent, or simple judicial incompetence. Regardless of the cause, there is no question that the issue of willful mishandling of voter documents with intent to sway the outcome of an election, and improper attempts by states to impose conditions on the handling of ballots on tribal lands are both matters that need to be addressed by the courts.

Tyson food announced the recall 4,250 tons of frozen cooked chicken products for possible listeria contamination, the US Department of Agriculture announced per a report from USA Today.  The products are reported to be responsible for three illnesses and one death.

The packaged foods were sold commercially through retail locations as well as institutional outlets such as schools, hospitals, restaurants and nursing homes.  They were sold under the Tyson brand as well as private labels for Jet’s Pizza, Casey’s General Store, Marco’s Pizza and Little Caesars.  The list of outlets and packaging codes can be found at the Tyson Foods website.

According to Tyson Foods, the affected products were produced at one plant located in Dexter, Missouri, between December 26th and April 13th, and they were stamped with the establishment code P-7089.

https://youtu.be/qAEx5v6i8AQ

Claiming “no one wants to go to the Democrat [sic] run cities” where all his American hotel properties are located, Donald Trump whines to the audience at his Sarasota rally that prosecutors only want to pursue Trump allies.

“And yet they go after good, hard-working people for not paying taxes on a company car.  A company car,” Trump repeats before breaking into his screech-speech.  “‘YOU DIDN’T PAY TAX ON THE COMPANY CAR!’  Or a company apartment.  You used an apartment because you have to travel too far where your house is.  You didn’t pay tax.  Or education for your grandchildren.  I don’t even know.  Doesn’t anybody know do you have to pay taxes on that stuff?”

“The YouTube channel of Right Side Broadcasting Network (RBSN), a website best known for hosting feeds of Donald Trump’s rallies, town halls and public appearance since July 2015, was suspended Friday ahead of the former president’s Saturday rally in Sarasota, Florida. Three of the channel’s videos were also deleted by YouTube specifically due to remarks Trump made in those clips,” reports Yahoo News.

https://youtu.be/oaORKB1qkZc

At the rain-soaked rally in Sarasota, Florida attended by a couple thousand people, Florida Congressman (and person who lost four inches of height when his hair got wet) Matt Gaetz said that he would vote for Donald Trump to be Speaker of the House if Republican take control of the chamber.

This assumes neither Gaetz nor Trump will be in jail, and that Gaetz will win re-election.

“Firehouse Subs, surveyed Americans to determine how the masses pronounce the word “gyro” and settle this longstanding food debate in celebration of its newest menu item, the Chicken Gyro Sub,” reports QSR news. The survey of 1,000 Americans, conducted in conjunction with Wakefield Research, uncovered that the majority of Americans (23 percent) pronounce it “guy-rho” (rhymes with pyro), followed closely by the 19 percent that pronounce it “jye-rho” (rhymes with “hydro”),” reports QSR magazine.

“Cobb County police are searching for a suspect after a man was shot and killed Saturday afternoon at a Kennesaw-area golf course,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The deadly shooting occurred at Pinetree Country Club, a private golf course along McCollum Parkway near KSU’s main campus, Cobb police spokeswoman Officer Shenise Barner said.”

Nearly every major American metro area saw an increase in residential home prices in the first quarter of 2021. Many home builders are now complaining of land shortages surrounding major US cities. Interestingly, at the same time that suburbanites are complaining of a lack of housing options, many of America’s large cities are dealing with the issue of abandoned blocks of housing, and declining tax bases. A solution to this problem could be the creation of a Federal program to train urban youth in the construction trades, so they can then find work restoring housing stock in American cities, and an additional program to provide low interest loans for the restoration of homes in blighted city neighborhoods.

The state of Florida has seen a 55% increase in reported cases of Covid19 in the past two weeks, and now has over 2000 state residents hospitalized with Covid19, according to reporting from the New York Times Coronavirus Map and Case Count.

The Palm Beach Post has reported a substantial spike in Palm Beach County in the past two weeks as the number of people seeking vaccinations has plummeted. “The state added just 168,192 residents to its weekly vaccination count Friday, the Department of Health reported, less than at any time since the first week of January.”

“As it has been for nearly 16 months, longer than any time in the nation’s history, the U.S. Capitol is closed to most public visitors,” the Associated Press reports. “As the rest of the nation emerges this July Fourth holiday from the pandemic for cookouts and fireworks that President Joe Biden is encouraging from the White House, the people’s house faces new threats of violence, virus variants and a more difficult moment.”

. @AndrewHGiuliani is the People’s Candidate, not the product of an Albany smoke-filled backroom deal. Let New Yorkers VOTE! https://t.co/LtNYvSooik

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) July 3, 2021

“Far-right parties from 16 EU countries, including Frances’ Rassemblement National, Poland’s PiS, Hungary’s Fidesz and Italy’s Lega, have united on Friday (2 July), with the declared objective of making their voice heard in the context of the debate on the future of Europe. According to press releases, the leaders of ‘right-wing parties’ signed simultaneously in several European capitals a document calling for deep reform of the EU, because in their words, ‘instead of protecting Europe and its heritage, it is itself becoming a source of problems and anxiety'” Euractiv reports.

“The document is reportedly signed by Jarosław Kaczyński (PiS, Poland), Giorgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy), Santiago Abascal (VOX, Spain), Viktor Orbán (Fidesz, Hungary), Matteo Salvini (Lega, Italy), Marine le Pen (RN, France) and several other right-wing parties from Bulgaria (VMRO), Austria (FPÖ), Belgium (Vlaams Belang), Denmark (Dansk Folkeparti), Estonia (EKRE), Finland (Perussuomalaiset), Greece (Ellinikí Lýsi), Netherlands(Ja21), Lithuania (Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija) and Romania (Partidul Național Țărănesc Creștin Democrat). ‘The cooperation of European nations should be based on tradition, respect for the culture and history of European states, respect for Europe’s Judeo-Christian heritage and the common values that unite our nations, and not on their destruction,’ the signatories point out. Leaders of right-wing parties emphasise that the document is a response to the beginning of the debate on the future of Europe.”

“They underline ‘that the use of political structures and the law to create a European superstate and new social structures is a manifestation of the dangerous and invasive social engineering known from the past, which must provoke legitimate resistance’. ‘The moralistic overactivity that we have seen in recent years in the EU institutions has resulted in a dangerous tendency to impose an ideological monopoly,’ reads the statement. The signatories of the document appear to take aim at the EU institutions such as the Commission or the European Court of Justice, which have put pressure on Poland and Hungary on issues ranging from subjugating the judiciary to stigmatising the LGBT community.”

Using the latest, cutting edge browser-inspector element editing techniques, National Zero has pre-created a headline for TheHill.com on what they’re actually almost certainly going to end up reporting on to fill space at some point within the next few days. The MAGA assholes will predictably rip on Cuomo and his daughter, but most likely the comments will total in the low hundreds as there’s not much more they can say that hasn’t already been said about the controversial Democratic New York governor as well as gender identity issues.

This story, first spotted on 1010WINS.com is perfect for The Hill in so many ways. They say let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and we’re casting it without qualm here. Our insipid bullshit non-news articles have at least some value to our audience, that in our judgment there’s some way to find entertainment in the banal. Even banality itself is funny at times.

Meanwhile, this Hill article when published will have none of that. The writing will be garbage, the comments toxic, not a smile or a laugh to be had for anyone outside the cruel chuckles of a handful of incels momentarily distracted from life in the basement. Nothing of value will be gained.

“A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has authorized a criminal investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro’s response to allegations of potential corruption within his Health Ministry involving a vaccine deal. In Friday’s decision, Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said the investigation is supported by recent testimony in a Senate committee investigating the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors will investigate whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of ‘prevarication,’ which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest. Weber didn’t rule out the possibility other potential wrongdoing could be investigated. The inquiry comes after Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Health Ministry’s import division, said he faced undue pressure to sign off on the import of 20 million vaccines from Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech. He said there were irregularities in the invoices – particularly a $45 million upfront payment to a Singapore-based company.”

“Miranda testified before the Senate committee June 25 along with his brother, Luis Miranda, a lawmaker who until recently was allied with Bolsonaro. The Mirandas said they brought their concerns directly to Bolsonaro, who assured them he would report the irregularities to the Federal Police. However, the Federal Police never received any request to investigate, a Federal Police source with knowledge of investigations told The Associated Press. He spoke anonymously for lack of authorization to speak publicly The secretary-general of the presidency, Onyx Lorenzoni, confirmed Bolsonaro met with the Mirandas, but claimed they presented fraudulent documents. Bolsonaro ordered the brothers investigated, he said. The Supreme Court decision greenlighting an investigation came in response to a request filed by three senators. A majority of senators on the investigating committee previously told the AP that, once their inquest concludes, they would vote to recommend Bolsonaro be indicted for prevarication” – AP.

As of the 8am on July 3rd, Hurricane Elsa’s center was at 16.5N and 70.3W, placing it south of the Island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The storm has top sustained winds of 75 mph, and is headed WNW at 31 mph. The current storm track suggests the storm could hook out into the Gulf of Mexico, then curve back to the East, landing a direct hit on the Florida Coast somewhere between the Naples and Tampa areas.

Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic: “During his time in office, Trump did his best to transform the Vance investigation into a referendum on his expansive vision of executive power by challenging Vance’s right to subpoena the financial information of a sitting president. Now, even as Trump has receded into postpresidential life, it’s still tempting to see the Trump Organization indictment as a test of the legal system’s ability to grapple with Trump’s odiousness. But despite Trump’s efforts to flatten the investigation into a plebiscite on whether you like or dislike the former president – he has called the prosecution an attack on the ’75M[illion] Voters and Patriots’ who supported him in November – the case is not a symbol or a metaphor. It’s a criminal prosecution, which will succeed, or not, on the strength of the particular evidence at hand. The more it hardens into a symbol, the more difficult it will be for prosecutors to avoid the perception that they are going after Trump just because he’s Trump. Letitia James’s failure to recuse herself from the investigation, despite comments from before she took office accusing Trump of criminal conduct, add to that complication.”

“Investigators are clearly conscious of the tightrope they have to walk. ‘Politics has no role in the grand jury chamber,’ Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Carey Dunne told the judge on Thursday, ‘and I can assure your honor that it played no role here.’ Would prosecutors have started this investigation, and brought this case, if Trump had not been president? There’s no real way to know: Trump’s presidency inevitably turned a spotlight on his business dealings. Perhaps things might have been different if he had been willing to disentangle his personal financial interests from his role as president. But then, of course, he wouldn’t have been Trump. Seen another way, though, it says a great deal that it took Trump’s elevation to the nation’s highest office in order for anyone to pay attention to the level of apparent grift within his organization.”

pic.twitter.com/u5C5prPr3q

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 3, 2021

ABC News: “A bizarre incident is playing out Saturday morning in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Local police are saying that ‘during a motor vehicle stop, several heavily armed men claiming to be from a group that does not recognize our laws exited their vehicles and fled into the woodline’ near I-95. ‘Approximately 8 males fled into the woods carrying rifles and handguns and appear to be contained in the wooded area adjacent to the highway,’ the Wakefield Police Department said in a statement. ‘No threats were made, but these men should be considered armed and dangerous.'”

“Massachusetts State Police, who are also on the scene, tweeted early Saturday: ‘We have several armed persons accounted for at this scene on Rt 95. They are refusing to comply with orders to provide their information and put down their weapons. We are asking residents of Wakefield and Reading to shelter in place at this time.’ At around 6:40 a.m. ET, state police announced that two suspects were arrested by members of The Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) in Wakefield. Police took them into custody and transported them to one of their barracks. ‘The situation is ongoing w/remaining members of the group. We continue to work to resolve the situation peacefully,’ they tweeted. Police said a ‘heavy police presence’ will remain in the area, and they are asking residents to lock their doors and stay home.”