“Taco Bell will be giving out a free Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos if you drop by a participating California location and show your COVID-19 vaccination card on Tuesday, June 15, 2021,” reports Brand Eating.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott tweeted a bodacious claim that he was “asserting Texas sovereignty under the 10th Amendment,” a bold statement that means very little.

I just signed a Resolution asserting Texas sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not granted to the federal government by the US Constitution.

The Resolution officially notifies the President & Congress to cease acts of encroaching upon the powers of states.

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 15, 2021

The 10th Amendment of the US Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  The problem with Abbott’s claim:  He cannot unilaterally decide what the federal government can do.

“America is back on the global scene,” affirmed Charles Michel, president of the European Council, according to the Washington Post. “It’s great news for allies, also great news for the world.”

European leaders have welcomed President Joe Biden, a familiar face from his time as vice president, after having to deal with the the ill-tempered and ill-mannered Donald Trump.  As the Post put it:

For four years, Biden’s fellow transatlantic leaders had braced themselves each time President Donald Trump rolled into town, playing the role of the boorish American who arrives in Paris and is outraged to find he can’t get a Big Mac anywhere near his hotel, and they missed the more steady hand of previous U.S. presidents, both Democratic and Republican.

Biden has taken in their greetings eagerly and gracefully, anxious to show America’s European allies that the United States was ready to resume its leadership role on the world stage. 

“The Manhattan district attorney’s office appears to have entered the final stages of a criminal tax investigation into Donald J. Trump’s long-serving chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, setting up the possibility he could face charges this summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In recent weeks, a grand jury has been hearing evidence about Mr. Weisselberg, who is facing intense scrutiny from prosecutors as they seek his cooperation with a broader investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The prosecutors have obtained Mr. Weisselberg’s personal tax returns, the people said, providing the fullest picture yet of his finances” the New York Times reports.

“Even as the investigation has heated up, it remains unclear whether the prosecutors will seek an indictment of Weisselberg, which would mark the first criminal charges stemming from the long-running financial fraud investigation into Trump and his family company. The investigation into Weisselberg focuses partly on whether he failed to pay taxes on valuable benefits that Trump provided him and his family over the years, including apartments and leased cars as well as tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for at least one of his grandchildren. In general, those types of benefits are taxable, although there are some exceptions, and the rules can be murky. For months, prosecutors working for District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, have sought to pressure Weisselberg into cooperating with their investigation into Trump, and any deal could turn the trusted executive into a star witness against the former president. For now, Weisselberg appears to have rebuffed Vance’s office and continues to work at the Trump Organization.”

Huffington Post: “Leading GOP candidates for Senate seats across the country who once harshly criticized Donald Trump are now jockeying for his endorsement, a display of the former president’s near-total grip over the Republican primary electorate. The candidates include leading contenders for open seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina and a top-tier potential challenger to an incumbent Democrat in New Hampshire. All are likely to see GOP rivals weaponize their past comments to damage them in the eyes of Trump himself, allies who could influence him and Republican primary voters who overwhelmingly approve of the former president. Democrats, who have the smallest possible Senate majority and are likely to lose ground in the midterm elections if historical trends continue, are hoping chaotic intra-GOP squabbles for Trump’s favor alienate swing voters, cause clashes with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) or lead to weaker candidates winning the Republican nomination.”

“‘Across the Senate map, Trump is escalating GOP primaries and making the Republican infighting even worse,’ said David Bergstein, the communications director for Senate Democrats’ campaign arm. ‘In each race GOP Senate candidates are fighting with each other over who can suck up to Trump the most – and whomever emerges from these intraparty fights will enter the general election badly damaged and out of step with the voters who will decide the race in their state.’ Some of the comments are harsh: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, arguably the party’s top Senate recruiting priority, said it was ‘clear’ Trump’s deserved blame for violence on Jan. 6. Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory suggested Trump was ‘destroying democracy’ with his false allegations of voter fraud following his 2020 loss. Other criticisms date back to the 2016 election: Then, venture capitalist and likely Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance said Trump was ‘unfit’ for the presidency, and Pennsylvania candidate Sean Parnell said he was not surprised Trump would not disavow an endorsement from a Ku Klux Klan leader. “

“I have accepted the invitation of Texas Governor Greg Abbott to join him on an official visit to our Nation’s decimated Southern Border on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. The Biden Administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in US history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in U.S history. It’s an unmitigated disaster zone. We went from detain-and-remove to catch-and-release. We went from having border security that was the envy of the world to a lawless border that is now pitied around the world. Biden and Harris have handed control of our border over to cartels, criminals, and coyotes. Drug dealers, MS-13 gang members, human smugglers, sex traffickers, and the criminal elements of the world now have free reign [sic]. Hospitals and schools are getting crushed and public health is being sacrificed all in service of a radical left anti-borders agenda” says the Orange Fat Bastard’s official statement.

Wanted to cut it off there, where Trump says “Hospitals and schools are getting crushed and public health is being sacrificed all in service of a radical left anti-borders agenda” as if the fat fuck didn’t crush all those himself last year with his dereliction in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic. It’s also interesting to note Trump all but completely dropped the southern border in his reelection campaign rhetoric. Whether this was because migration ground to pretty much a complete halt because of the pandemic and the mini-recession it caused or that Trump purposely toned it down to (ultimately successfully) peel off Latino votes (most likely some combination of both) is ultimately moot, because the “Build the Wall” mode Trump is back now.

https://youtu.be/hQ5ZHOMj-kg

Congressman Paul Gosar (Q-Ariz.) repeated pushed FBI Director Christopher Wray for the name of the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, claiming that Babbitt was “executed.” The domestic terrorist was crawling through a broken window to gain access to a hallway where members of Congress, including Gosar, were exiting the House chamber during the attack.  The officer, whose job is to protect the members of Congress, has been cleared in multiple inquiries into the shooting.

Gosar falsely claims that Babbitt wasn’t warned before she was shot.  In recordings of the shooting, the officer can be heard issuing warnings before Babbitt tried climbing through window of doors that were blockaded with desks and other items–as if that weren’t enough of a warning to stay out of that area.

John Solomon’s latest podcast episode featuring an interview with Matt Gaetz is pretty wacky, to say the least. Solomon opens up by playing the audio of a voicemail from a Mother Jones reporter asking one of Gaetz’s aides to comment on all sorts of shit like Gaetz being bisexual, accidentally killing someone in college and hiding the body in Jacksonville, and something about sex tapes. The voicemail is tame in tone if not in content and, while it’s theoretically intimidating for a journalist to say such things about one’s employer, we’re not totally sure it amounts to “literally threatening people to say stuff that isn’t true” as Gaetz claims defensively in the interview.

The interview is about as much as a trainwreck for Gaetz as that infamous Tucker Carlson hit on the day every thing went to shit for him (except Solomon inverts the commiseration by saying he was persecuted by the rest of the journalism profession over the Trump-Ukraine shitshow). Shit like “I’ve never killed anyone”, “not that there’s anything wrong with being a bisexual”, and the story about how Joe Biden raped “Taylor Reade” fly out of Gaetz’s mouth, and we don’t know how much more of this is worth listening to other than for the unintentional comedy – of which there’s a lot. It’s also fun to note how badly shit is going for Matt Gaetz that John Fucking Solomon is the only “journalist” out there still giving this much airtime. Also the vice versa of how few people of actual significance and reputation want to appear in an interview with John Fucking Solomon.

“Senate just passed a bill establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday. Schumer asked for unanimous consent and no senator objected” reports Huffington Post’s Igor Bobic.

CORRECTED: they got it wrong. Notice they dont say we got it right. BUT THAT SAID – respect for the correction. https://t.co/YbmE4tuO6u via @dailycaller

— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) June 15, 2021

Long and stupid story as short as possible: Utah Republican Congressman Chris Stewart was on Chris Cuomo’s show Monday night, taking heat over the GOP’s continued tolerance of insane MAGA bullshit. When Stewart pushed back on Cuomo’s assertion that he and his caucus are “embracing” Marjorie Taylor Greene, Cuomo asked him point-blank “Did you vote to have her removed from the committees?” Stewart responded saying “I actually did” to which Cuomo backed off.

Except that was not true. Stewart voted against stripping Greene of the committee assignments. He just straight up lied on live television and for whatever reason Cuomo’s producers did not get it to his attention before the segment concluded. Naturally the Daily Caller went to dunk on him without even checking it themselves and find themselves being humble-teabagged by one of MAGA Nation’s most hated TV news personalities. Inspiring!

https://youtu.be/9iOlvA6V4NA

Ohio Republican Congressman (and person with a noted aversion to suit coats and exposing sexual abuse) Jim Jordan attempted to make it seem like an everyday occurance for Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff to write a memo to the Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to investigate a series of debunked election conspiracy theories, believing such an investigation would demonstrate Trump was the victim of widespread election fraud and the true winner of the 2020 presidential election.

A little less than one-quarter of people who survived the coronavirus–from those who were hospitalized to those who were asymptomatic–have sought medical care for a group of symptoms, previously unexperienced by the patient, that appear to be common among people who were infected, the New York Times reports.

Based on an analysis of insurance claims data done by the nonprofit FAIR Health group, 23% of all coronavirus patients had a shared set of conditions and symptoms reported weeks or months after the virus cleared their systems.  These conditions can occur singularly or grouped with other symptoms.

The ongoing impact of the coronavirus on patients who have passed the two-week infection period demonstrates the widespread and long-term impact the pandemic will have on patients and the health system.

Daily Beast: “Fox 26 Houston general assignment reporter Ivory Hecker was suspended effective immediately after interrupting a live on-air report to accuse her employers of ‘muzzling’ her. During that segment, Hecker also disclosed that she provided secret recordings to right-wing activist group Project Veritas supposedly proving corruption and censorship. In a phone call recording provided to Project Veritas, Fox 26 assistant news director Lee Meier informed Hecker that she was suspended ‘effective immediately’ and the situation was ‘pending further review.'”

“Furthermore, Meier asked Hecker ‘not to come to the station’ and that they would remain in touch. Shortly after she made her on-air revelation on Monday evening, Project Veritas – best known for its ‘sting’ operations against media outlets and liberal political groups – confirmed that they had interviewed Hecker and that her story would be published on Tuesday evening.”

“Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger will be nominated to be the ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal” Axios reports, listing a number of other ambassadorships.

The Bulwark: “Sometime soon the results of the Arizona audit will be brought forth. It seems quite likely, given the participants, that the auditor ninjas will claim that Donald Trump won Arizona. Or probably won Arizona – who can say! Or would have won Arizona, if not for those meddling kids. And if this happens, the former president and his MAGA media echo chamber will once again stoke the flames of insurrection. Q-adherents will convince themselves that one of the seven seals has been revealed. Millions (tens of millions) of Republicans throughout the country will believe it. And some of them will demand action. So when the Arizona audit bell tolls, what exactly is McConnell and McCarthy’s plan? Because it sure looks as though they are dooming us all to repeat the same history we just lived through, humoring Trump’s delusions and hoping that none of their supporters die in their imaginary fight for freedom this time.”

The head of an Indian sect that allows polygamy and who himself had 39 wives and 94 children has died in the Indian state of Mizoram, NBC News reports.  No cause of death was reported, but exhaustion will likely be considered a factor.

Ziona Chana, who was 76 years old at the time of his death, lived with his family in a four-story, 100 room structure, which had become a tourist attraction in the remote village of Baktawng.  The wives lived in a dormitory on the campus.

In 1942, Chana’s grandfather started the sect, that was largely left undisturbed by legal authorities even though Indian law prohibits polygamy.  Chana said that he married his first wife when he was 17, and bragged that he had married ten women in one year.

Senator Ron Johnson (Q-Tatarstan) on Tuesday released a statement announcing that he is withdrawing his objections to “strange” need to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday, marking the day enslaved Blacks in Texas learned about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, an announcement delayed two and a half years because of the Civil War and the inability of Texas slaves to get news from the North.  The holiday is celebrated June 19th.

Johnson’s announcement:

Resolutions recognizing the significance of, and celebrating, Juneteenth have unanimously passed with my support in Congress every year I’ve been a U.S. Senator. Last year, a bill was introduced to celebrate Juneteenth by providing an additional paid holiday for 2 million federal employees at a cost of $600 million per year.   They attempted to pass the bill without debate or amendment process.  Although I strongly support celebrating Emancipation, I objected to the cost and lack of debate.   While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter. Therefore, I do not intend to object.

“Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he plans to ask for public donations to pay for the Texas border wall“ reports CNN’s Ana Cabrera.