Category: National Issues

White nationalist booted from US Air Force shortly after bombshell investigation

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A well-known white nationalist has been booted from the U.S. military shortly after an investigation uncovered his enrollment in the U.S. Air Force and graduation from basic training. 

An investigation conducted by The HuffPost revealed Shawn McCaffrey’s status. On Thursday, July 22, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek released a statement confirming McCaffrey had been kicked out.

“Information brought to the attention of his command after Mr. McCaffrey’s enlistment led to an entry-level separation due to erroneous enlistment,” Stefanek said without disclosing any specific details. Continue reading.

New details revealed in Florida Republican’s plot to disrupt the 2020 election

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New details have been released in the investigation of former Florida State Sen(.) Frank Artiles (R) over his involvement in running “scam” campaigns in an attempt to disrupt the 2020 election.

With his trial expected to begin August 30, prosecutors are firming up their case against the former GOP lawmaker in a political corruption case the Tampa Bay Times reports, “has roped in prominent players across Florida over the last several months, including a GOP-linked research firm in Gainesville, a top not-for-profit Miami hospital network and a veteran Republican operative who leads a Tallahassee-based political organization.”

According to the Miami Herald, new revelations show that Florida political operative Alex Alvarado — linked to Artiles — was funneling money to sham campaign officials in an effort to disrupt key 2020 state Senate elections. Continue reading.

Anti-Mask Protester Assaults Breast Cancer Patient At Los Angeles Hospital

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Anti-mask protesters brawled with a breast-cancer patient outside a Los Angeles hospital Thursday, with one anti-masker shoving and punching the woman.

The right-wingers swarmed Cedars-Sinai Breast Health Services to protest the hospital’s mask policy, Vice reported. Patient Kate Burns told them to go away.

“I’ve just gone through f—ing breast cancer,” Burns said in footage captured by local videographer Vishal Singh. “And you motherf—— are here.” Continue reading.

The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online

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Researchers and regulators say Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines.

SAN FRANCISCO — The article that appeared online on Feb. 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines. Then over its next 3,400 words, it declared coronavirus vaccines were “a medical fraud” and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease.

Instead, the article claimed, the shots “alter your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch.”

Its assertions were easily disprovable. No matter. Over the next few hours, the article was translated from English into Spanish and Polish. It appeared on dozens of blogs and was picked up by anti-vaccination activists, who repeated the false claims online. The article also made its way to Facebook, where it reached 400,000 people, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool. Continue reading.

Republicans increasingly look to ballot initiatives as way to enact voting measures

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Voting rights advocates say they fear the efforts in three states will prove successful and spread to others where such initiatives are legally possible.

Republicans seeking to change state voting laws in the face of opposition from Democratic governors or unwilling legislatures are zeroing in on another path — enacting fresh restrictions via ballot initiatives.

In Michigan and Pennsylvania, key battlegrounds that President Joe Biden flipped back blue in 2020, as well as in Massachusetts, Republicans are at the beginning stages of a lengthy process to put proposed limits directly to the voters.

Voting rights advocates who connect the moves to the proliferation of restrictive voting laws advanced in states where the GOP enjoys total control say they fear those efforts will prove successful and spread to other states where such initiatives are legally possible. Continue reading.

CDC: Vaccinated people in COVID hotspots should resume wearing masks

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance on Tuesday recommending that vaccinated people wear masks in indoor, public settings if they are in parts of the U.S. with substantial to high transmission, among other circumstances.

Why it matters: The guidance, a reversal from recommendations made two months ago, comes as the Delta variant continues to drive up case rates across the country. Millions of people in the U.S. — either by choice or who are ineligible — remain unvaccinated and at risk of serious infection.

Details: Community leaders in areas with high transmission rates should encourage vaccination and masking, the agency says. Continue reading.

‘Some are still suffering’: Months after Capitol riot, police who fought the mob contend with physical, psychological pain

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More than six months after Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell battled the mob that stormed the Capitol, he remains hobbled, a hand scarred, a shoulder aching, recovering from surgery to an injured foot that swelled so large it no longer fit his shoe.

The 42-year-old Capitol Police officer and Army reservist is also seeing a therapist to help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), first diagnosed after he served in the war in Iraq.

He said bouts of anxiety returned after his battle on American soil in the Jan. 6 riot. Continue reading.

Commentary: Inside observers say the Arizona ‘auditors’ are backtracking — and the reality only supports Biden’s win

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The “big lie” that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected is not going away. One reason is Americans who care about their democracy are not learning how votes for president in 2020 were counted and verified — neither from the big lie’s promoters nor from most of its fact-driven critics.

Most visibly, the absence of a clear and accurate explanation can be found among former President Donald Trump’s ardent supporters. As seen in a July 15 briefing in Arizona’s legislature, the contractors hired by the state Senate to assess the 2020 election’s results unleashed a new thicket of finger-pointing and innuendo that fans doubts about Maricopa County’s election administration and votes for Biden.

Critics of the big lie, who range from state officials (including Republicans) to voting rights advocates — and, of course, Democrats— have mostly emphasized that the Arizona Senate’s inquiry and copycat efforts in other states are bad faith exercises led by Trump supporters who lack election auditing experience. Continue reading.

Virus resurgence menaces economy just as rescue programs unravel

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A new wave of cases followed by the looming expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, a ban on evictions and other rescue programs is sparking concern among lawmakers and economists.

The resurgence of the coronavirus is threatening to undercut the U.S. economic recovery and upend Americans’ plans to return to work just as the sweeping social safety net that Congress built during the pandemic is unraveling.

That one-two punch — a new wave of cases followed by the looming expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, a ban on evictions and other rescue programs — is sparking concern among lawmakers and economists who say that while widespread business shutdowns are unlikely, renewed fears of the virus alone can slow the economy just as it’s getting back on track.

That could dampen hiring and keep some workers on the sidelines of the job market — stalling or even reversing the labor recovery, the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. New unemployment claims jumped last week to 419,000, well above expectations and the highest since mid-May, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. Continue reading.

Republicans kick Arizona audit ‘director’ out of the building as GOP chaos escalates: report

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Republicans once referred to Ken Bennett as the “director” of their widely-panned audit of votes in Maricopa County, but he has reportedly lost his privileges to even enter the building where the fiasco is taking place.

Bennett, who served as Arizona’s Secretary of State and president of the state Senate, was the one person associated with the recount with experience in elections. He was officially listed as the liaison to the state Senate, which paid $150,000 of the $9 million the audit is reportedly costing.

“Questions are mounting about who is in control of the long-running partisan review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results — the Arizona Senate, which ordered it, or the outside firms that are running it,” The Arizona Republic reported Friday evening. “On Friday, Ken Bennett, the Senate liaison to the audit, was not allowed into the building at the state fairgrounds where the audit is taking place, a day after he shared data with outside critics from an ongoing ballot count.” Continue reading.