Josh Hawley hits a new low for hypocrisy

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If they decide to make flip-flopping an Olympic sport, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley needs to hop on the next plane to Tokyo.

Hawley just attacked President Joe Biden for attacking Facebook. Yes, this excruciatingly annoying preppy man who has staked his repulsive young political career upon crusading against social media — through the use of social media — has decided it’s not cool for Biden to get in Facebook’s face. Really.

In the past week — publicly and without apology — the Biden administration has pressed Facebook (among other social media) to stop facilitating the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. On Friday, Biden claimed Facebook was “killing people.” The company fired back with a dismissive response telling Biden “to move past the finger-pointing.” Continue reading.

‘Death by DeSantis’: Congresswoman attacks governor for making a mockery of Floridians dying in hospitals

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One out of five Americans with COVID-19 are from Florida, according to shocking information revealed this week. The state is one of the worst in the country after the Republican governor celebrated that he was eliminating all precautions employed by other states.

The numbers tracked by the New York Times revealed that Florida is the worst state, followed by regional outbreaks like northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, both of which are experiencing enormous increases in disease spread. 

“I think we have a governor who has not taken covid seriously from the beginning,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “He has campaign merchandise on his website saying ‘Don’t Fauci my Florida.’ And we’ve had nearly 40,000 Floridians die of COVID. We have, we are contributing 20 percent of the COVID diagnosis in the country right now and we’re on the rise. And look, I would rather see us Fauci our Florida than have people go through death by DeSantis. That’s what we’re facing now. He actually had a law pass in Florida to prohibit local governments from being able to enact measures like mask requirements and social distancing to keep people safe. You can’t make this up! That’s where the blame lies. At his feet.” Continue reading.

Trump insiders blasted for ‘convenient Monday morning bravery’ after enabling the former president’s four years of chaos

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In a withering column for the Daily Beast, Erin Gloria Ryan tapped the brakes on the wave of adulation being lavished on former members of Donald Trump’s administrationwho waited to dish to reporters about how dangerous the former president was until after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

While Ryan focused on Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for divulging some of the most frightening tales about the president — Trump’s desire to use the military to quell protests as well as launch a war with Iran to save his presidency — she wrote that the military man is not the only one wanting to whitewash their time in the administration.

Included in her rogue’s gallery of administration officials engaging in “Monday morning bravery” was former Attorney General Bill Barr and ex-senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and even Jared Kushner — all of whom held their tongues while negotiating book deals. Continue reading.

Klobuchar Lays Out New Goals for Often Low-Key Rules Committee

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The panel typically focuses on the Senate’s inner workings, but its chairwoman, Amy Klobuchar, is seeking to transform it into a major force on voting rights.

WASHINGTON — The usually obscure Senate Rules Committee is the most insider of insider panels, typically responsible for doling out precious Capitol office space, keeping the Senate running and handling fights over arcane floor procedures.

But circumstances and the ambitions of the committee’s current chairwoman, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, have thrust the panel into the middle of things. In just six months, she has spearheaded a push for a sweeping voting rights bill sought by Democrats while her committee has investigated failings in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The panel was also in charge of staging President Biden’s inauguration, only two weeks after the deadly riot.

“For so long people have been focused, understandably, on the inner workings of the Senate with the Rules Committee,” said Ms. Klobuchar, who answered with an emphatic “yes” when asked if she was trying to turn the panel into a force. “But the point is we have a bigger jurisdiction, and that’s our democracy.” Continue reading.

Trump infuriated an Aerosmith guitarist with a ‘skeevy’ comment about women in front of his wife: report

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According to a report from Business Insider, fledgling presidential candidate Donald Trump hung out backstage with the rock band Aerosmith before one of his debates with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and proceeded to anger lead guitarist Joe Perry with an offensive remark in front of the band member’s wife.

The report notes that band members scored tickets to the debate in Cleveland and were invited backstage where the New York businessman bantered with members of the group instead of doing last-minute prep before taking on his 2016 Democratic opponent.

According to Business Insider, all went well until Trump made an off-hand comment in front of Perry and his wife that “soured” their relationship with him and later led to them banning him from using their songs at his rallies. Continue reading.

Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide

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NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, licensed to governments around the globe, can infect phones without a click

Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners.

The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found.

The list does not identify who put the numbers on it, or why, and it is unknown how many of the phones were targeted or surveilled. But forensic analysis of the 37 smartphones shows that many display a tight correlation between time stamps associated with a number on the list and the initiation of surveillance, in some cases as brief as a few seconds. Continue reading.

Fauci: US Might ‘Still Have Polio’ If Misinformation Had Hindered Vaccination

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Washington (AFP) – Top US scientist Anthony Fauci on Saturday blasted commentators who sound an anti-vaccination theme, saying America might still be battling smallpox and polio if today’s kind of misinformation existed back then.

The comments from the country’s leading infectious disease expert reflected mounting frustration over the sharp slowdown in the Covid-19 vaccination rate in the United States, even as the disease has been surging in states with low rates.

It also came days after President Joe Biden expressed his own visible frustration, saying social media that carry widely heard misinformation about vaccines are “killing people.” Continue reading.

Feds step up pressure on social media over false COVID-19 claims

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Social media companies are facing new pressure from the federal government to crack down on health misinformation as the Biden administration makes a push to encourage reluctant Americans to get COVID-19 vaccines. 

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Thursday stating that misinformation is an “urgent threat” and called on the tech companies he accused of amplifying the misinformation to take action to fight the false, and often dangerous, claims. 

“Health misinformation didn’t start with COVID-19. What’s different now is the speed and scale at which health misinformation is spreading,” Murthy said at a White House briefing. Continue reading.

Cyber Ninjas Whine As Arizona ‘Audit’ Is Proved Utterly Pointless

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It’s been three weeks since the Arizona “audit”—a process that involved the most partisan of Trump partisans searching for “bamboo ballots” and the ghostly fingerprints of Hugo Chavez, under the supervision of a firm created expressly to bolster conspiracy theories—apparently came to a close. That is, the audit farce is still officially underway, but three weeks ago Cyber Ninjas tweeted out an announcement that they were done pretending to count ballots, and had moved onto the most critical part of the process: terminal whining.

As CBS News reports, Cyber Ninjas is now complaining that they “don’t have enough information” to complete the audit. Because getting to finger every single ballot, take control of the voting machines (which will now be discarded after the auditors did who knows what to them), and initiating a plan to go door-to-door asking people how they voted just isn’t enough. As has happened several times in the process, the Ninjas, along with supporters in the Arizona Senate, are directing fingers at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors—the Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors—for failing to “cooperate” enough in an audit where they’ve turned over every ballot, every machine, and every scrap of paper related to the election. That’s not enough, say the Ninjas. They want … well, it might be easier to say what they don’t want. 

Until they get everything on their unreasonable list, and whatever unreasonable list comes after this, the “auditors” insist that they are not going to issue a report. Since July 2, all the ballots, machines, and accoutrements of Ninjaing have been parked at an unairconditioned building on the Arizona state fairgrounds. It’s unclear whether anyone is actually working there. Continue reading.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump Makes False Claims About Arizona Audit

Former President Donald Trump issued three statements in two days claiming that voting fraud and irregularities cost him Arizona’s electoral votes.

PHOENIX (AP) — Former President Donald Trump issued three statements in two days falsely claiming that voting fraud and irregularities cost him Arizona’s electoral votes.

Trump relied on comments made Thursday by contractors hired by state Senate Republicans to oversee a partisan review of the 2020 vote count in Maricopa County, which includes metro Phoenix.

The “forensic audit,” as Senate GOP leaders are calling their review, is overseen by Cyber Ninjas, a small computer security firm with no election experience before Trump began questioning the 2020 results. Its CEO, Doug Logan, spread false conspiracy theories about the election before he was hired to lead the Arizona review. Continue reading.