Tracker

Gonna be one heckuva retail spending binge when restrictions are lifted.

Apparently the Manchin family is heavily invested in the coal industry to the tune of $145 million. Those people who are getting bent about the Trudeau family receiving honoraria for speaking at events should think about that. More than one billionaire and even evangelicals have said that democracy is incompatible with their goals.

The banks are starting to get skittish about lending to the max. They may be starting to see that the market and house evaluations may be overrated and a "market correction" may be pending.

Trump Says Gen. Mark Milley Should Be ‘Impeached’ Over Coup Fears A heated Donald Trump said in a statement Friday that Gen. Mark Milley should be “impeached” if reports are true that Milley feared that the former president could have been plotting a coup to stay in the White House. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was worried about a “Reichstag moment” in America, referring to Adolf Hitler’s and the Nazis’ power grab in Germany, according to the forthcoming book “I Alone Can Fix It,” by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. Trump and his supporters “may try, but they’re not going to f**king succeed,” Milley reportedly told his deputies. He vowed to military officers and law enforcement leaders before Joe Biden’s inauguration: “We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in,” according to the book, which goes on sale Tuesday. Trump called the report “fake news,” adding that if “‘General Milley’ ... said what was reported perhaps [he] should be impeached, or court-martialed and tried.” Trump Says Gen. Mark Milley Should Be 'Impeached' Over Coup Fears | HuffPost

Sooooo....a love story and a cuisine show in one?

Texas man who called vaccines 'poison' dies from COVID-19 after spending 17 days on a ventilator A 54-year-old Texas man who thought COVID-19 vaccines were "poison" died from the virus last month, and was buried by his wife and three sons on Father's Day. Now, Alan Scott Lanoix's sister is sharing the story of her brother's death to "save a life" — by encouraging others to get vaccinated. "It's hard to believe that one decision can change your whole life," Lanoix's sister Lisa Adler told New Orleans' CBS affiliate. "The kids had to bury their father on Father's day. He thought the vaccine was poison and he was afraid of getting it and there's a lot of people that have that same feeling. "I was scared to get it myself, but you have to worry about what the consequences are," she added. "He was a great person and I urge anybody if they are on the fence about getting the vaccine, do it in my brother's memory." Adler, who lives is Chalmette, LA, said she last spoke to her brother in May, when he called to tell her happy birthday. He also reported that he'd been exposed to COVID at work. Lanoix, who grew up in Louisiana, had relocated his family to Katy, Texas, after Hurricane Katrina. "I kept telling him, 'You'll have immunity now and everything will be okay.' He told me that no matter what happens with his life, he was happy with his life and loved his family," Adler said. Lanoix spent 17 days on a ventilator before his death. Texas man who called vaccines 'poison' dies from COVID-19 after spending 17 days on a ventilator - Alternet.org

Trump's generals weren't the only ones: Did Mike Pence fear a coup too? A new book alleges that Mike Pence refused to get in a car with Secret Service during the Capitol riot Back in 2016, candidate Donald Trump made it very clear that as president he would not hesitate to order the military to torture prisoners. On March 3rd of that year, in a presidential primary debate, Fox News anchor Brett Baier noted that over 100 foreign policy experts had signed an open letter refusing to support him because his "expansive use of torture" is inexcusable, declaring that the military would refuse because they have been trained to refuse illegal orders. Baier asked Trump, "so what would you do, as commander-in-chief, if the U.S. military refused to carry out those orders?" "They won't refuse," Trump arrogantly replied. "They're not going to refuse me. Believe me." He went on to rant about terrorists "chopping off heads" and how he would go beyond waterboarding, ending with this: " And -- and -- and -- I'm a leader. I'm a leader. I've always been a leader. I've never had any problem leading people. If I say do it, they're going to do it. That's what leadership is all about." He walked back his comment the next day with a perfunctory statement promising not to give an illegal order but it was clear that he was utterly ignorant of the president's constitutional limits and saw himself as a would-be dictator. And throughout his presidency, he said over and over again that he had the power to do anything he chose, parroting what one of his flunkies told him about "Article II" of the constitution: Nobody took him very seriously, to be sure, because it was ridiculous. And with the exception of regularly firing members of his administration, until the final year of his term, he tended to push the boundaries of his power mostly by breaking long-standing norms and corruptly abusing his office for political and financial gain which he did frequently. But as he faced re-election in the midst of the COVID pandemic, which he had no idea how to handle, and the humiliating prospect of losing re-election (along with the legal protections the office gave him) it's clear that the people around him started to get worried that he was going to use his very robust and clearly delineated powers as Commander in Chief for political purposes. And it wasn't just Milley and brass who were paranoid about what was happening. In "I Alone Can Fix It" a chilling anecdote shows that Vice President Mike Pence was just as nervous. On January 6th, his Secret Service detail wanted to drive him off the Capitol grounds and he refused saying to his top agent Tim Giebels, "I'm not getting in the car, Tim. I trust you, Tim, but you're not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I'm not getting in the car." The book goes on to describe the man in charge of the Secret Service's movements telling Pence's national security adviser, Gen. Keith Kellogg, they planned to move Pence to Joint Base Andrews. Kellogg told him not to do it saying, "he's got a job to do. I know you guys too well. You'll fly him to Alaska if you have a chance. Don't do it." There are a number of ways to interpret that but MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said on Thursday, "someone familiar with this reporting tells me that Pence feared a conspiracy. He feared that the Secret Service would aid Trump in his ultimate aims that day." Trump's generals weren't the only ones: Did Mike Pence fear a coup too? | Salon.com

'Because they are evil': New book uncovers a post-election plot to bomb Iran Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley was reportedly worried that Donald Trump might declare war on Iran as part of a last-ditch attempt to overturn his election loss, according to a New Yorker report on Thursday. Miley was "engaged in an alarmed effort to ensure that Trump did not embark on a military conflict with Iran as part of his quixotic campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power," journalist Susan B. Glasser wrote. "Trump had a circle of Iran hawks around him and was close with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu," she continued, "who was also urging the Administration to act against Iran after it was clear that Trump had lost the election." The report stems from a forthcoming book by Glasser and her husband, New York Times reporter Peter Baker. It echoes bombshell allegations in another forthcoming book by two Washington Post reporters. According to Glasser, the former president had floated the idea of engaging militarily with Iran on a number of occasions during his final months in the presidency. His proposals, the book's authors wrote, reflected Trump's seeming willingness "to do anything to stay in power." During one meeting in which the president was not present, Milley pressed former Vice President Mike Pence on "why they were so intent on attacking [Iran]." Pence reportedly answered: "Because they are evil." 'Because they are evil': New book uncovers a post-election plot to bomb Iran - Alternet.org Prosecutors shocked as witness directly implicates Trump in "explosive interview": report A witness directly implicated Donald Trump in the tax fraud scheme that landed his family business and longtime accountant under indictment. Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter in law to indicted Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, told investigators last month in New York that Trump personally guaranteed he would pay school tuition for her two children instead of increasing a salary that could be taxed, reported The Daily Beast. "Weisselberg [on June 25] provided key details for investigators," the website reported. "In January 2012, inside Trump's office at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, Jennifer Weisselberg watched as Trump discussed compensation with her husband and her father-in-law, both company employees. Her husband wouldn't be getting a raise, but their children would get their tuition paid for at a top-rated private academy instead." "Weisselberg allegedly relayed to prosecutors that Trump turned to her and said: 'Don't worry, I've got it covered,'" the report added. "Prosecutors were astonished, according to one source." Prosecutors shocked as witness directly implicates Trump in "explosive interview": report | Salon.com

Got my double-double card today, so I'm OK and I'm not even a lumberjack.

Does that spell trouble?

We don't have enough page room.

Its the "frog in a pot of water" scenario. If you drop a frog into a pot of hot water, it ill jump out immediately. If you put the frog into pot of cool water and turn the heat up slowly, the frog will recalibrate again and again until it dies without jumping out.

Donald Trump's military coup didn't (quite) happen — but it was much closer than we knew Ever more damning revelations about Donald Trump's regime began first as a trickle, then became a persistent leak, eventually a torrent and are now seemingly a tsunami. For more than four years, many prominent public voices continued to deny that Trump led a neofascist movement that posed an existential threat to American democracy. Too many Americans, to protect themselves from trauma or to evade personal responsibility for their inaction or indifference or passivity, have also consistently denied the dangers of Trumpism. Even after Trump's attempted coup and his followers' attack on the U.S. Capitol, public opinion polls suggest that tens of millions of Americans would prefer to throw the horrors of Trumpism and the events of that day down the memory well. That will not save them from the reality of what has happened, and is still happening, as Trumpism, the Jim Crow Republican Party and the white right escalate their assault on American democracy and freedom. The proverbial flood waters are getting higher with each set of new "revelations" about the last days of the Trump regime. On Wednesday, CNN published excerpts from "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year," the forthcoming book by Washington Post reporters Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker. A lengthier excerpt followed in the Post on Thursday. CNN's explosive report focused on the possibility that Trump contemplated a military coup: The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that then-President Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN. The book, from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, describes how Milley and the other Joint Chiefs discussed a plan to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out orders from Trump that they considered to be illegal, dangerous or ill-advised. Donald Trump's military coup didn't (quite) happen — but it was much closer than we knew | Salon.com "It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse," Leonnig and Rucker write. ... Milley felt "growing concerns," the report continues, that Trump had placed loyalists in positions of power after the November 2020 election, replacing both Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Attorney General William Barr. He feared these personnel moves "were the sign of something sinister to come":

Gezundheit.

I think that Dean was one of the players that blew out his knee earlier this week.

It has been the hallmark of PC governments that they cannot maintain any degree of integrity beyond one term. The current government of Saskatchewan is an anomaly in that respect, but the arrogance and disdain Conservatives hold the electorate in inevitably, sooner or later- almost always sooner, emerges.

Epidemiologists in the US are grimly expecting another wave in mid-to-late September that will arise in the south of the US, and leak out into the rest of the country as people flee from the plague areas.

In all of our lives, there is usually only one place that feels like home. I have lived in four provinces and Winnipeg is home to me. When we returned after three years in Alberta, the sense of being where I belonged was overwhelming and got better every day. Its an imperfect city in an imperfect province, but its home, now and forevermore.

And here I thought all along that it was alcohol.

'Is this real?': Trump leaves people stunned with 'insane' rant about his aides being 'made of garbage' In his eighth statement of the day, shared by spokeswoman Liz Harrington on Twitter, former president Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon appeared to take aim at associates who've given interviews to authors of several new damning books about his administration. "Nobody had ever heard of some of these people that worked for me in D.C.," Trump wrote. "All of a sudden, the Fake News starts calling them. Some of them — by no means all — felt emboldened, brave, and for the first time in their lives, they feel like 'something special,' not the losers that they are — and they talk, talk, talk! "Many say I am the greatest star-maker of all time," Trump added. "But some of the stars I produced are actually made of garbage." 'Is this real?': Trump leaves people stunned with 'insane' rant about his aides being 'made of garbage' - Alternet.org (If he was referring to his offspring, he may have a point)

Also: Top General Feared Trump Would Use Military To Stay In Power, Compared Him To Nazis: Book Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was deeply worried that then-President Donald Trump would refuse to leave the White House and warned colleagues he was afraid the man would try to use the military to stay in office, according to book excerpts published Wednesday. Milley, the nation’s top military officer, also compared Trump’s actions to the rise of Adolf Hitler, saying he viewed the president as a “classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose” after Democratic rival Joe Biden won the 2020 election by more than 7 million votes, CNN and The Washington Post reported. “This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “The gospel of the Führer.” The excerpts are from the forthcoming book “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year,” written by Washington Post reporters Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker, which is due out July 20. It chronicles the former president’s final year in office and includes several revelations about the chaotic waning days of his tenure. The pair said they interviewed more than 140 people, many of whom had requested anonymity so they could speak candidly about their experiences. Top General Feared Trump Would Use Military To Stay In Power, Compared Him To Nazis: Book | HuffPost ‘This guy’s crazy’: New book claims Nancy Pelosi feared Trump would launch a nuclear attack during his final weeks in office During his four years in the White House, paleoconservatives applauded former President Donald Trump for having an "America first" foreign policy they considered more isolationist and less hawkish than President George W. Bush or President Barack Obama. And when Trump supporters used the word "neocon" to describe Bush-era Republicans, they certainly didn't mean it as a compliment. But according to Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi feared that Trump would launch some type of nuclear attack during his final months in the White House. This revelation comes from Leonnig and Rucker's new book, "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year," due out January 20 on Amazon. Pelosi, according to the book, shared her fears with Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and told him, "This guy's crazy. He's dangerous. He's a maniac." Milley, in response, told Pelosi, "Mam, I guarantee you that we have checks and balances in the system." ‘This guy’s crazy’: New book claims Nancy Pelosi feared Trump would launch a nuclear attack during his final weeks in office - Alternet.org

The absolute worst mass-murdered was Genghis Khan. He and his hordes killed some 40 million people with good old fashioned spears, swords and arrows. It is. estimated that his victims were about 11% of the population of Asia and actually is reflected in the carbon records of that era. Only time and distance stopped his Mongols from rolling right over Europe as well. He was also a prolific breeder- I seem to recall that almost 10% of the population of east Asia are related to him. Makes me wonder when he had time to do all that pillaging.

There are several things going on here that prevent Republicans from believing that Biden legitimately won the election: first, is the "filter bubble" effect — the news conservatives trust tells them that Biden did not win legitimately and the news that they don't trust tells them that he did. It's easy to ignore the news that they distrust, they may never even hear the correct facts. Second, the "illusory truth" effect, which says that if something is repeated enough that people will believe it. Conservatives have heard since 2016 that Democrats cheat at elections, that they can't be trusted and Trump could only lose if they cheat. Third, the "self-sealing" nature of conspiracy in general. Once a conspiracy takes hold it can never be disproven. Fourth, motivated reasoning. Conservatives want to believe that they won, so that means that Biden had to cheat. Fifth, the issue falls into what persuasion theorists call the "latitude of rejection." When people have their minds made up about something, then they aren't open to persuasion — especially if they have their minds made up against something.

This is a shock- that a PC would have a conscience and a backbone.