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    • Associated Press: “A community in rural east central Mississippi is overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, two weeks after it hosted the Neshoba County Fair that brought thousands of people who lived in cabins, attended shoulder-to-shoulder outdoor concerts and horseraces and listened to political speeches — including one by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who decried federal guidance on mask-wearing as ‘foolish.’”

      This is the guy who was supposed to be so great at containing the virus. Now he’s killing folks.

  2. The aggressive fundraising tactics that former President Donald Trump deployed late in last year’s presidential campaign have continued to spur an avalanche of refunds into 2021, with Trump, the Republican Party and their shared accounts returning $12.8 million to donors in the first six months of the year, newly released federal records show.

    The refunds were some of the biggest outlays that Trump made in 2021 as he has built up his $102 million political war chest — and amounted to roughly 20% of the $56 million he and his committees raised online so far this year.

    Trailing in the polls and facing a cash crunch last September, Trump’s political operation began opting online donors into automatic recurring contributions by prechecking a box on its digital donation forms to take a withdrawal every week. Donors would have to notice the box and uncheck it to opt out of the donation. A second prechecked box took out another donation, known as a “money bomb.”

    Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

    The Trump team then obscured that fact by burying the fine print beneath multiple lines of bold and capitalized text, a New York Times investigation earlier this year found.

    The maneuver spiked revenues in the short term — allowing Trump to spend money before the election — and then caused a cascade of fraud complaints to credit cards and demands for refunds from supporters. The refunded donations amounted to an unwitting interest-free loan from Trump’s supporters in the weeks when he most needed it.

    New Federal Election Commission records from WinRed, the Republican donation-processing site, show the full scale of the financial impact. All told, more than $135 million was refunded to donors by Trump, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts in the 2020 cycle through June 2021 — including roughly $60 million after Election Day.

    “It’s pretty clear that the Trump campaign was engaging in deceptive tactics,” said Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at George Washington University. “If you have to return that much money, you are doing something either very wrong or very unethical.”…

    Shane Goldmacher, The New York Times,
    Sat, August 7, 2021, 11:33 AM

    https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-repeating-donation-tactics-led-153335146.html

  4. Even as many Republicans rail against mask mandates and spread skepticism about vaccines, GOP leaders have settled on one place where they take the spread of Covid very seriously — the border.

    The pivot occurred quickly. This week, one Republican leader after another rushed to blame the spread of the virus, not on the unvaccinated but on immigrants.

    Former President Donald Trump put out a statement linking to a New York Post article claiming that “nearly 7,000 immigrants who tested positive for COVID-19 have passed through a Texas city that has become the epicenter of the illegal immigration surge.” (Actually, migrants who test positive are quarantined. Videos of migrants roaming free and being dropped off at bus stations turned out to be immigrants who had tested negative and were on their way out of the country.)

    But for Trump, who famously launched his presidential campaign by warning about Mexican rapists, the focus on migrants was like playing his greatest hits all over again. Think of it as the 2021 version of the immigrant “caravans.”

    This is all taking place as public health officials are desperately trying to keep the focus on the urgent need for more vaccinations. Some Republicans, including Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell have joined in the chorus urging Americans to get the shots, but the loudest and most popular messaging, from the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, is that there’s no disease dangerous enough that anyone should sacrifice their right to ignore a public health crisis.

    Except when you can blame that disease on someone else.

    With remarkable unanimity — and a stunning lack of actual evidence — conservative media has seized on the specter of disease-infested immigrants as the real danger to public health.

    Fox’s Sean Hannity declared that the border (rather than the lack of vaccinations) is the “biggest super-spreader” event of the pandemic. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire warned of “COVID-Positive Illegal Immigrants Flooding Across The Border.” National Review insisted: “This is the reality: The federal government is successfully terrifying people about COVID while it is shrugging at the thousands of infectious illegal aliens who are coming into the country and spreading the virus.”

    Back in May, the conservative Washington Examiner ran a cover story that declared “COVID Is Over. So, Get Over It.” It was accompanied by a picture of a mask being set aflame. But, like other right-wing publications, the Examiner is suddenly no longer over it, pivoting to focus on illegal immigrants — the issue that they never get over. “Biden hypocrisy endangers American lives on southern border,” read one headline. “This incoherent, contradictory policy undermines both public health and the rule of law. And it will get innocent people killed.”

    A Wall Street Journal columnist chimed in as well: “If Biden Is Serious About Covid, He’ll Protect the Border.” Needless to say, right-wing Twitter is a dumpster fire of xenophobia and hysteria about infections flooding across the southern border….

    Charlie Sykes in Politico
    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/08/07/republicans-unvaccinated-covid-border-502728

    • Nancy Pelosi
      @TeamPelosi

      In 2018, when we won back our House Majority, and 2020 when we flipped the Senate and took back our White House, we promised to create jobs with bigger paychecks #ForThePeople.

      With Pres. Biden’s vision, we just notched 2 of the best months *ever* in U.S. jobs creation history.

  5. Guy who we all thought had Covid was back at work today. As a manager was giving virus updates, the guy was shouting “Fake News.” After about the fourth time, I told him to blow it out his ass and then told the manager to please continue with the update(As the guy continued on). When I shop talked with the manager later on, I suggested the store should fire that loser(amalgamation of my exact words). I’ve likely confirmed myself as one of his many enemies.

    I get a bad sense of what that dude is capable of doing…

  6. Ghost,

    Be careful. As a manager, I would recommend that you ease up a bit. Managers want their employees to get along. Saying once “we want to hear what the manager has to say” and leaving it at that would probably have been optimal.

    • I was a bit blunt. Certainly after that, there is no need for me to register disgust his way once again. I do still wish he’d get himself fired, though.

  8. 3 of the 5 leading contenders for the GOP Senate nomination in Missouri fail to say if they’ve been vaccinated or would encourage Missourians who have not yet been vaccinated to do so.

    Former Gov Eric Greitens and Attorney General Eric Schmitt did not answer questions from the St Louis Post Dispatch on COVID vaccination. Attorney and known gun waver Mark McCloskey said that the info is “private”.

    Representatives Billy Long and Vicky Hartzler both said they have gotten the COVID vaccine and said all Missourians who have not done so yet should do the same.

    https://www.rawstory.com/missouri-senate-2022-midterms/

    • Astonishing that Schmitt is considered something of a “sane” candidate in that race.

      Wouldn’t have expected that posture on vaccines from Hartzler and Long, both rural Congresspeople. Could move tens of people to quit dragging their heels on matters of their health. Likely neither of them will become a Senator, though, barring a Trump endorsement.

      • Schmitt today said he is vaccinated but stopped short of asking unvaxxed Missourians to get a shot–saying it’s a “personal choice”.

        Gotta appease the pro virus GOP base!

  11. Now that Governor Cuomo is out, who will New York have to represent them on the national stage?

    Off the top of my head, Schumer, AOC, and Al Sharpton all have the star power to make runs for higher office as Democrats. Peter King is still young enough to run against Schumer next year or Biden in ’24 and survive a full term.

  13. Rep. Ron Kind, a senior Democrat in one of the most competitive swing seats, will not seek reelection — a gutting blow to House Democrats in their uphill battle to hang onto their majority next November.

    The Wisconsin congressman announced his decision Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters, “I’ve run out of gas” after 13 terms in office.

    “I had to face a serious job review every two years for 26 years,” Kind said, standing beside by his wife and children.

    Kind, who has spent nearly 25 years in the House, faced a closer-than-expected race in his sprawling rural Wisconsin seat last fall. He beat his GOP challenger Derrick Van Orden by less than 3 percentage points in 2020, after winning by nearly 20 points the previous cycle.

    Democrats close to Kind said he acknowledged his reelection would be tougher this year, with Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL, seeking a rematch. The GOP candidate raised a whopping $750,000 last quarter, outpacing the incumbent. Still, Democratic lawmakers and strategists had expected Kind — who serves on the coveted Ways and Means panel — to run again.

    The first word of Kind’s retirement shocked Democrats, his decision representing a disappointing turn for many who believed they had largely dodged a pre-midterm exodus.

    Kind’s now-open seat joins a daunting list of other races Democrats will have to worry about as they head into the 2022 cycle on defense against an emboldened GOP, a potentially perilous redistricting and years of history pointing to the party in power usually losing in the midterms.

    Kind is the latest swing-district Democrat not to seek reelection, including Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who announced his Senate bid last week.

    Kind’s district, which spans southwestern Wisconsin, is one of only a handful of seats nationwide where Trump’s support increased between 2016 and 2020. His seat was not expected to change significantly in redistricting, given that the state is not gaining or losing a district, and there is split partisan control of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion…

    By ALLY MUTNICK, HEATHER CAYGLE and SARAH FERRIS, Politico

    08/10/2021 03:01 PM EDT
    Updated: 08/10/2021 05:45 PM EDT

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/10/kind-reelection-503343

  14. Two Wyoming County Republican parties have “rescinded” recognition of Liz Cheney as a Republican.

    • A third Wyoming County (Fremont) has joined Park and Carbon counties in rescinding the recognition of Cheney as aRepublican .

      Has Trump faded away yet?

        • You have to wait and see if educator’s follow the ‘dumbing down’ of education in their state

          I know several educators across the country will continue to teach about race even if the politician’s don’t want them to

          • Wait?

            U set the standards here Z?

            🙃

            U the thought police?

            People got to check in with You?

              • James, I will let you know if I want to pay your bills. Until then, please behave. Tell us why we should have to put up with this.

                • I’m just messing with ya Z…..

                  We all comment what we want…..

                  You just have to deal with it…..

          • As this is an Open Thread, several different topics are being discussed simultaneously: e.g. Wyoming politics, New York politics and educational standards.

            James says he uses his mobile device, rather than a laptop or desktop, to read, write and edit in the day, so often his response to one topic appears in another, often making zero sense or maximum nonsense in that string of discussion, thus causing befuddlement and impatience in those following that topic.

            It may be hard to do, JB, but there’d be fewer of these exasperated exchanges if you made sure that your response follows the last post in that particular topic rather than in another.

            • Thanks DSD……

              But like u point put

              It’s an open thread

              Z’s entitled to his views

              I and everyone have ours…..

              Gotta have tough skin here

      • Two more Wyoming counties (Uinta and Platte) have rescinded their recognition of Cheney as a Republican. That makes it 5 counties to date.

        • Cheney’s only hope is that all her announced opponents remain on the ballot.

          Then she might be able to slide back in with well under 50% of the vote.(Wyoming has no runoff provision)

          Apparently Trumps people are trying to maneuver it to where their will just be one opponent.

          If they succeed ?

          Cheney’s finished.

          Even in a multi candidate field her chances are still,at best, 50/50.

    • Of course the Wyoming Republican Party had previously censured JoAnn True because she supported the Cowgirl Run Fund – which speaks to increase the role of Women in Wyoming politics – even if they run as a Democrat.

      Republicans who claim to believe in democracy should financially support Democrats in that state,

    • That was a bad move in my view.

      If you can’t read and do simple math?Your job prospects are not very great.

      • I could understand something more piecemeal like dropping the passing GPA to 2.5 and the passing % grade to 60%(Maybe it’s already been done, I don’t know), but skating at zero-point-zero is bull.

        The “logic”(a word thrown around a lot that doesn’t mean what they think it means) behind this is that it helps minority and poor communities. Hell no it doesn’t! If you want to help them get far in life, make learning more achievable and the resources to learning more accessible, don’t just make it easier to pass class. That helps no one.

        Having people who can’t read, write, or think working at a switch making facility is a disaster waiting to happen.

    • I don’t think most states have such a requirement. I don’t recall taking such a test in NJ.

    • Would all of the pdog bloggers be able to pass a test on reading and writing? I am not so sure.

      And why have a test on arithmetic? I was not even aware that some high schools teach arithmetic.

  17. On the Republican Watch…

    Trump rejects pleas to urge supporters to get vaccinated.More interested in promoting domestic terrorism.

    The Republican tax cut,the centerpiece of Trumps legislative accomplishment, enabled 82 multi billionaires to save more than a billion dollars in taxes.As for the average taxpayer?You probably saved enough to buy the family the Wednesday night special at a local hamburger stand.

    In Tennessee Republican legislators ,apparently revealing their inner homicidal tendencies want to hold a special session to make sure local people don’t do anything to prevent the spread of Covid.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is selling “Moron” tee shirts to his supporters.Its alright Kevin most of us know that about any damn fool that would vote for a piece of garbage like you.Hey,Kev did your boss Trump get one?

    Rudy Giuliani told federal agents it was ok to lie.

    As Texas hospitals are on the verge of collapse Gov.Greg Abbot wants a court to strike down mask mandates in Dallas.The Republican obsession with doing anything to maybe save a few lives continues.Abbot is self proclaimed “pro life.”(sic)

    Another day in the life of this trash party 2o21.

  19. Afternoon Republican junk…

    South Dakota Republican Gov, Kristi Noem says Dt. Anthony Fauci is “picking”on Red State Governors.Poor girl!Give her a lollipop or something and tell that big bad doctor to quit being so mean,

    Republican kook Mike Lindell “The my pillow guy” has been holding a symposium to prove the election was stolen .He claims that last night he was attacked by Antifa and they “compromised” his “proof.”Now the question is did those Antifa fellows tell them who they were or is Lindell one of those types who knows Antifa when he sees it!

    Republican Cong. Louie Gohmert appearing on the wacko OAN network says that birds are spontaneously combusting over solar farms in the southwestern US.Louie probably has been watching that old Hitchcock move The Birds.

    Over 800 doctors in Florida have signed a call for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to repeal his anti mask order in Florida schools.Who you gonna believe?A bunch of Damn Lyin doctors or those who attend Trumps hatefests(one cant wait for Rons own hatefests to premier shortly!)

    • And Mississippi is melting down as hospitals are overrun with new COVID cases. Remember when we were told that the State’s Republican Governor was getting high marks for his handling of the pandemic. Tate is in the running to join Abbott and DeSantis as Governor Death.

      • Ah say don’t forget South Cahlina’s Republican drawling Governor Henry McMaster aka Foghorn Leghorn (un affectionately known as Hank Mac the virus spreader ) who opined over at the Republican News Network aka “Fox News” that all these here doctors were engaging in scare tactics and “hyperbole.”

        3000 new cases today and rising.

        It’s a great day in South Cahlina!

        • Abbott will probably get his way…
          But won’t lock up the Democratic lawmakers….
          Not yet at least…

          Judges Block Arrests of Texas House Democrats

          Texas Tribune: “Three state district judges in Houston have signed orders to temporarily protect more than 40 Texas Democrats from civil arrest for being absent from the state House.”

          They cannot be charged with anything
          They would only be brought back to the state ….
          We’ll see if this actually happens since the Wash DC cops probably would not assist or be happy with this happening in their ‘house’ to some of the lawmakers….Some are already back in Texas….

          • Bad Republicans….

            FBI Says GOP Strategist Trafficked Minors for Sex

            Republican strategist Tony Lazzaro was indicted for recruiting six minors to engage in sex for money over several months last year in the Twin Cities, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

            Lazzaro was campaign manager for Lacy Johnson (R), who last fall ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Ilhan Omar (R-MN), and was a delegate to the 2020 Republican convention.

          • Abbott gets his way….
            He appears to own the Texas Supreme Court….

            Texas Law Enforcement Sent to Arrest House Democrats

            Texas Tribune: “Texas law enforcement was deputized Thursday to track down Texas House Democrats still missing from the chamber and bring them to the state Capitol in Austin, a process that Speaker Dade Phelen’s office said ‘will begin in earnest immediately.’”

            “The news came as the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for their civil arrests after it temporarily blocked Harris County judges’ orders protecting 45 Democrats from such a move.”

  20. Here’s a question for the non moderator frequent posters on here: If the 2024 election came down to a choice between James B(Assuming he runs for US House next year, wins, and blows congress away with sheer oratorical skill) as the Democratic nominee and the Republican ticket of Ron DeSantis and Lauren Boebert, who would get your vote?

  21. Trump has decided against doing a pro-vaccine campaign saying he doesn’t want to do any favors for Biden.

    • The American people’s lives and health are of trivial importance to the Former President compared to denying any possible advantage to Joe Biden.

      The man is such a completely selfish, self-centred narcissist for whom others exist only to be used.

  22. We have spent $83 BILLION dollars in Afghanistan over the past 20 years .

    What a total waste, disgraceful really.

    One of the reasons given recently here in a discussion of 24 hour 7 day a week voting was the “cost.”

    Just think, for just a fraction of what we have dumped into that toilet ,we could pay the total cost of staffing every voting precinct in this country for the 24/7 voting proposed by some here.

    • The problem with the money wast theory is it just does NOT wrk that way with the American government…..

      The US treasury has billions setting unspent on things Congress gave the ok to….

      Those billions will NOT be sent elsewhere to ‘social’ programs that sorely need funding

      Congress is ‘funny’ like that
      Things just do not work that way

      It is a shame
      But it just ‘is’

        • The Senate-passed American Rescue Plan will deliver nearly $2 trillion of additional COVID relief on top of the $4 trillion already authorized. Yet, of that $4 trillion already authorized, only about three-quarters has actually been spent up to this point, according to our COVID Money Tracker. This has led some to question why there is still $1 trillion unspent.

          The answer is complicated and requires proper context. For the most part, the unspent funds are either meant to be spent out over time or were authorized under the Response and Relief Act, which was enacted just 10 weeks ago. Some of the money has not been spent due to slow or low demand….

          More…

      • “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road. the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

        — Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address “The Chance for Peace” Delivered Before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 4/16/53

        • The General turned President was prophetic ….

          Still?

          The leakers WILL spend vast sums of money for the Defense budget….

          As I have explained here…

          The Defense budget is NOT just guns and tanks thing for lawmakers to vote on…

          Defense contracts mean $$$$$$$$$…..LOTS of it for American business from giants like B being to Amazon down to food truck driver at the local plants….

          Those workers VOTE….

          So while Eisenhower WAS correct?
          This is another example of answers NOT being so simple and up front….
          Most Defense companies are in the South…
          Need I say more?

      • James’s 12:57 appears to suggest that if government doesn’t spend money on useful things, it should find a way to spend the money anyway.

        • He was apparently responding to my post whereby I mentioned that for a fraction of the money spent on Afghanistan we could easily pay for 24 hour seven day a week voting.

          Just making a rhetorical point.Of course the Republicans would never let that happen and it has nothing to do with the Congressional appropriation process that he is in some manner referring to.

          Anytime one does this ,he feels the need to post some irrelevancy that has nothing to do with the original post.

          Thus my comment bs.

          • Yes Jack. We are in complete agreement.

            James will reply with something that may or may not be true, but almost certainly will be irrelevant to the discussion. How many times in the last month alone have we seen these discussions play out this way? James 4:21 is just another example of this.

            And from past experience, I have no illusions that James even understands this post.

  23. I enjoyed watching the Bears-Dolphins preseason game today. I bet the Bears found their QB of the future, and it sure looks exciting.

  24. PolDog headline ideas…

    “Americans Do Love Their Country”
    “Is the Term Redneck Racist?”
    “The Green New Deal Ain’t Gonna Happen…The Climate is Always Changing”
    “Chuck Schumer to Primary AOC in ’22?”
    “Coco and the Kids…Fruity Pebbles for Breakfast?”
    “How Much Do Cops Like Their Donuts? A Lot, it Seems”

    Bring more to the discussion as the muse inspires…

      • Right, James, forgo being Senate Majority Leader to serve as a freshman in the House.

        Brilliant power play.

        • It was satire that WAS funny….

          I liked it….

          I liked the 180!

          Forgot??????

          He, he, he….

          That’s second funny!

          Good One DSD!

        • When you think about it, it IS feasible, if a very distant possibility.

          Schumer drops down to run, ousts AOC in the Primary, is heralded by the James B Democrats as a “Savior of the American Consensus,” and then wins the district big time.

          At this point, the crony installed in a backroom deal between Governor Hochul, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Schumer steps aside due to “health concerns”(Something to do with Viagra, or the NY Post, perhaps both?) or “a desire to be with family,” and Schumer retakes his current/old seat by Governor’s appointment, vacating the old seat of AOC, whose brand is now fatally tarnished by the big ‘L.’

          Intentionally satire, but distantly plausible.

          • Perhaps not quite so far from reality as one might imagine, considering the acrobatics and musical chairs of Jon Corzine, as he jumped in and out between the New Jersey Governor’s mansion and the U.S. Senate — and then delayed an election of Bob Menendez’s House seat for nearly a year.

            In the Ghost’s scenario, Cong. Schumer would get himself elected Governor in 2024 to replace Kathy Hochul and then reappoint himself to the U.S. Senate.

            (Perhaps AOC’s insurgent comeback campaign might miraculously gain enough support in Upstate NYS to get elected Lt-Gov., from where she would then succeed ex-Gov. Schumer. Joe Crowley then wins back his Congressional seat with the genius campaign management of JBF.)

    • MD-Sen: Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is telling Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) not to lie awake at night thinking about a possible Senate challenge from Hogan. Maryland’s Governor indicates he has no interest in challenging Van Hollen. At this point, Hogan is far more likely to be seen in early 2023 in Iowa or New Hampshire giving Presidential stump speeches. Van Hollen does face a heavy underdog primary challenge from Greenbelt Mayor Colin A. Byrd (D) and with $3 million in his campaign coffers, Van Hollen is definitely sitting pretty….

      RRH….

      • POLITICO
        @politico

        Former Rep. Paul Mitchell, a Michigan Republican who left his party in 2020 in protest of Trump’s baseless election fraud claims, has died at the age of 64 after a fight with renal cancer, his family said in a statement

    • Biden speaks to the public

      I agree he’s RIGHT TO leave

      THATis NOT the issue

      The drop and run IS……

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