"Universal day care" is class war against normal people.

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 29, 2021

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra: “Today the Food and Drug Administration announced the launch of proposed rule-making to remove menthol from cigarettes and flavor additives from cigars. This science-based decision reflects the Biden Administration’s commitment to improve the health of all Americans and to tackle health disparities in our most marginalized communities. Tobacco-related death and disease must become a part of America’s past. These public health measures will save lives. Banning menthol in cigarettes and flavors in cigars will decrease the appeal of these tobacco products and strengthen health equity. Together, these actions represent powerful, science-based approaches that over time will help end the cycle of children becoming the next generation of smokers and eliminate long-perpetuated health disparities.”

“The family of Ashli Babbitt – the only person shot during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol – plans to sue the U.S. Capitol Police department, and the officer who shot her, for at least $10 million, their attorney said. The civil suit will follow a decision by federal prosecutors not to seek criminal charges against a plainclothes police lieutenant whose single shot killed Babbitt, who was unarmed. Babbitt, a decorated U.S. Air Force Gulf War veteran, was struck in the shoulder while attempting to illegally enter the Speaker’s Lobby, an area near to the House floor, through a smashed window beside a barricaded door. It is unclear whether she heard shouted warnings over the crowd around her before she climbed within view of the lieutenant, who drew his gun and fired.”

“Smartphone video shows Babbitt being struck in the shoulder and falling back onto a patterned marble floor, bleeding. Police quickly summoned medical help and evacuated her on a stretcher. She was pronounced dead at Washington Hospital Center, leaving behind a husband, Aaron, and four younger brothers. The police lieutenant who shot Babbitt has yet to publicly provide his side of the fatal encounter, and law enforcement officials have not released his name” – Newsweek.

“President Biden tells NBC he learned about Giuliani raid ‘when the rest of the world learned about it.’ ‘I had no idea this was underway,’ he says, adding he hasn’t asked to be briefed on any investigations. ‘This last administration politicized the Justice Department so badly’” reports CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

“We write to request that you deploy federal monitors to the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where agents of the Arizona Senate are reviewing ballots as part of a so-called audit of votes cast for federal office in the 2020 general election in Maricopa County. This work is being conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a firm retained by the state senate, along with its subcontractors, as part of a review of election results, or ‘audit, commissioned by the state senate. It includes the handling and review of approximately 2.1 million ballots and other election materials, which a court compelled Maricopa officials to transfer into the senate’s custody after the senate issued a subpoena for them.”

“We are very concerned that the auditors are engaged in ongoing and imminent violations of federal voting and election laws. Specifically, we believe that the senate and its agents, including Cyber Ninjas, are violating their duty under federal law to retain and preserve ballots cast in a federal election, which are and have been in danger of being stolen, defaced, or irretrievably damaged. They failed to ensure the physical security of ballots by keeping doors unlocked and allowing unauthorized persons to access the ballot storage facility. They also risk compromising the integrity of the ballots themselves, using materials and technologies that will cause the ballot paper and marks to deteriorate, such as holding ballots to ultra-violet light without gloves. And, by restricting access to the audit by nonpartisan observers, election administrators and voting machine experts, they are failing to ensure that the audit is transparent” – Letter from the Brennan Center to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division.

Biden calling 1/6 the worse attack on America's democracy is a slap in the face to every American who's had to endure the trauma of REAL, past attacks.

Also – oh the irony: him being in that chamber, giving that speech, IS the result of one the biggest attacks on US democracy.

— Noor Bin Ladin (@NoorBinLadin) April 29, 2021

Huffington Post: “The white nationalist featured in an infamous, viral photograph from the 2017 ‘Unite The Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, joined the U.S. military, HuffPost has learned, but was kicked out before he could attend basic training. Peter Cytanovic, 24, was expelled from the Nevada National Guard in December after officials learned of his extremist ties through a Defense Department background check, authorities confirmed. His relatively swift dismissal from the National Guard appears to be a rare example of military officials taking proactive, decisive steps to keep an extremist out of the armed services. On Aug. 11, 2017, Cytanovic was photographed holding a flaming tiki torch and screaming as he and other white nationalists marched in Charlottesville. The picture went viral and continues to haunt and shape Cytanovic’s life. His face of fury quickly became emblematic of the bloody and historic weekend, when a resurgent American white nationalist movement went mask off.”

“Tim Scott ain’t MAGA…. nuff said”

– The current top comment on the Gateway Pundit article “After Tim Scott’s GOP Rebuttal, ‘Uncle Tim’ Trends by Racist Leftists on Twitter“, posted Thursday morning.

“Leading up to Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, Justice Department officials had spent months gathering evidence to indict the ex-Minneapolis police officer on federal police brutality charges, but they feared the publicity frenzy could disrupt the state’s case. So they came up with a contingency plan: If Chauvin were found not guilty on all counts or the case ended in a mistrial, they would arrest him at the courthouse, according to sources familiar with the planning discussions.”

“The backup plan would not be necessary. On April 20, the jury found Chauvin guilty on all three murder and manslaughter counts, sending him to the state’s most secure lockdown facility to await sentencing, and avoiding the riots many feared could engulf the city once again. Now, with Chauvin’s state trial out of the way, federal prosecutors are moving forward with their case. They plan to ask a grand jury to indict Chauvin and the other three ex-officers involved in George Floyd’s killing – J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao – on charges of civil rights violations, a source said. If the grand jury voted to indict, the former officers would face the new civil rights charges on top of the state’s cases, meaning all four could be headed toward yet another criminal trial in federal court” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Axios: “Most people who watched President Biden’s maiden address to a joint session of Congress approved of the message and were left feeling optimistic, according to two polls taken immediately following the speech. Those polled signaled they felt more optimistic about the country after watching the speech, during which Biden laid out a progressive vision for big government. Data in both polls suggest the speech had a more friendly, Democratic viewership.”

“85% of those who watched the speech approved of it, while 15% disapproved, per a CBS News poll. 78% of viewers said they came away feeling more optimistic about the country. 74% of people in the poll said they believe the plans Biden laid out would help them, while 85% said they like his plan to create jobs. A CNN Poll conducted by SSRS found that 51% of respondents said they had a very positive reaction to the speech, fewer than any other modern president in the same poll. But 71% in the poll said they felt more optimistic about the country after watching it.”

“Former US president Donald Trump has claimed that he is “the father of the vaccine” for coronavirus, attacking his successor Joe Biden for taking credit for the much-improved US response to the crisis. Mr Trump was speaking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business in response to Mr Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday evening marking his first 100 days in the White House. Mr Trump wasted little time in calling in to his favourite network broadcaster to offer a revisionist history of his administration’s bungled response to the pandemic, which was characterised by dysfunction, disorganisation and Mr Trump himself publicly speculating that bleach injections could fight the virus. The ex-president, now a private citizen in Florida, also said Mr Biden is ‘destroying our country’ with his policy on immigration at the US-Mexico border, warning falsely that ‘murderers’ are flooding in from Central America, and said that it was ‘unfair’ that federal prosecutors had executed a search warrant at the apartment of his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, a grievance he returned to repeatedly.”

“After once more blaming Beijing for the spread of the ‘China Virus’ and again insisting that November’s presidential election was ‘totally fraudulent’, Mr Trump also gave his clearest indication yet that he intends to run for the presidency again in 2024, saying he is ‘100 per cent thinking about running again’ and promising: ‘We will be very successful.’ He told his loyal supporters to ‘have faith’ in his failed Make America Great Again movement and bemoaned ‘ridiculous’ political fundraising rules when pressed for more details of his future campiagning activities. But perhaps his most bizarre claim over the course of a characteristically long and rambling interview light on specifics was that Democratic lawmakers had appeared to be ‘choking’ on their face masks during last’s night’s presidential address to Congress, noting that House speaker Nancy Pelosi was wearing one of the biggest he had ever seen” – The Independent.

CNN: “Federal agencies are investigating at least two possible incidents on US soil, including one near the White House in November of last year, that appear similar to mysterious, invisible attacks that have led to debilitating symptoms for dozens of US personnel abroad. Multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that while the Pentagon and other agencies probing the matter have reached no clear conclusions on what happened, the fact that such an attack might have taken place so close to the White House is particularly alarming. Defense officials briefed lawmakers on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on the matter earlier this month, including on the incident near the White House. That incident, which occurred near the Ellipse, the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House, sickened one National Security Council official, according to multiple current and former US officials and sources familiar with the matter.”

“Bill DeBlasio announces that New York City plans to fully reopen by July 1st. That means 100% capacity everywhere from restaurants and bars to gyms to athletic stadiums” – Weijia Jiang, CBS.

“Zero Trump fans will agree, but the radical lurch to the left we are witnessing is wholly attributable to Trump’s choices. A modicum of responsibility and none of this would be happening. Hope triggering the Left was worth it to everyone. It only cost trillions, and worse. Rhetorical bombast coupled with policy lassitude and ineptitude makes today’s bureaucratic speak and hard left policy seem moderate or at least normal. To say nothing of pissing away the Senate majority out of personal grievance” – Gregg Nunziata, former GOP Senate staffer.

Fortune: “The U.S. government told its citizens to leave India as soon as possible because of the country’s escalating COVID-19 crisis. In a Level 4 travel advisory – the highest issued by the Department of State – U.S. citizens were told ‘not to travel to India or to leave as soon as it is safe to do so.’ There are 14 direct daily flights between India and the U.S. and other services that connect through Europe, the department said.”

“Indian authorities and hospitals are struggling to cope with record COVID-19 infections and deaths. Official data on Wednesday showed new infections rose by 360,960 in the prior 24 hours, while 3,293 additional lives were lost – both a record for the country. India has the world’s fastest-growing caseload. Australia earlier this week banned all flights from India to relieve pressure on the nation’s system of mainly quarantining returned residents from overseas in inner-city hotels, after a jump in infections. The U.K. has barred any visitor who’s been in India in the previous 10 days from entering. British and Irish nationals arriving in England from India must quarantine in a hotel.”

Pillow maven (and man who suddenly thinks making bed sheets gives him some kind of cyber sleuth superpowers) Mike Lindell appeared on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show Wednesday night, and while the appearance wasn’t completely batshit crazy, it was filled with a lot of the easily-disproved conspiracies he’s become famous for.

Kimmel–always straightforward and earnest in talking to Lindell–said that he read Lindell’s new book and the new book by Hunter Biden and noticed a lot of similarities given that the two are admitted recovering addicts.

“Paranoia,” Lindell acknowledged, before confirming to Kimmel that he hasn’t stayed at his home because he’s received “many, many, many threats.” 

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, his eyes rolled back into his head, was caught on camera sleeping during the portion of President Joe Biden’s address to Congress where he was talking about border policy and immigration, as seen in the video on WTEN ABC-10 in Albany.

Cruz then went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News where–not kidding–Hannity called the speech “low energy” and Cruz used a Latin phrase to claim that when Biden said the government was made of “the people,” he was actually claiming that he (Biden) was the entire government and therefore a tyrant.

Stephen Colbert had the best line, saying Cruz explained “that he was only escorting his daughters to Dreamland, and he was planning on coming right back.”

South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, the designated cannon fodder taking on a task that has frequently led to the speaker’s political downfall, recited a series of popular Republican talking points without outlining a single Republican policy to pursue going forward.

In a slight to President Joe Biden, Scott began his response by saying, “Our president seems like a good man,” before claiming that Biden has failed to reach out to Republicans in a show of unity.

“Our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes,” Scott continued before embarking on a series of platitudes about how he wanted to “have an honest conversation” and transitioning to his origin story as he grew up poor and became a member of the Senate.  (See previous SOTU responses from Nimrata Haley, Joni Ernst and Piyush Jindal.)