Weds - Mitch Wants Broke People. TucKKKer wants Quiet Women

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

An alcoholic tried to become a lawyer, but he couldn't pass the bar.
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Sounds Right to Me.  We Know MANY People Who Have Tested Positive in the Last Month



24 > Zero

China’s Covid Zero strategy is being tested anew after a jump in infections across Shanghai raised the specter of another lockdown, while a highly infectious subvariant started spreading in the country for the first time.

Shanghai reported 24 infections for Tuesday, the most in three weeks, with health officials announcing separately on Wednesday that two additional cases were found outside quarantine. While a small number, the detection of infected people outside isolation and across several city districts raises concerns that the virus could already be spreading widely.

That’s prompted a ramp up of mass testing, with 10 districts and parts of two others -- out of the financial hub’s total of 16 -- conducting two PCR tests over three days to stamp out transmission. Concerns about a setback to the city’s reopening helped push China’s CSI 300 Index as much as 2.1% lower, the biggest drop since late May.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Human Trafficking = Social Reallocation

China has suspended two health officials in a southern county for "ignoring" the case of a baby boy who was allegedly abducted from his parents by local officials in the 1990s.

His parents recently petitioned police in Guangxi province to investigate.

But a local health bureau refused to look into the case, saying he'd been taken away due to "social reallocation" under China's former one-child policy.

The case has sparked outrage towards the authorities on social media.

Many online were critical of the strict rules under the one-child policy at the time, calling the incident a "blatant case of human trafficking".

It also comes after recent news of a Chinese mother who was filmed locked up in a village hut, which sparked discussion about human trafficking in China's rural areas.

North Korea = Florida.  Kim Jong Un = DeathSentence

Choi Jung-hun smiled as I read out the latest official Covid-19 figures from North Korean state media: fewer than 5 million cases of “fever” and just 73 fatalities – a fraction of the death toll of every other country in the world.

“North Koreans call them rubber band statistics,” he said, in a nod toward Pyongyang’s flexibility with the truth. “It’s hard even for North Korea to know its own numbers.”

He speaks with some authority. Choi was a doctor for more than 10 years in North Korea, specializing in infectious diseases before he fled his home country in 2011.

He can remember the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004, when he says hundreds of people in the northeastern city of Chongjin, where he was working, began dying after reporting “cold or flu-like symptoms.”

Doctors like Choi could only privately suspect SARS was to blame. North Korea had no ability to test for the disease, so officially it recorded zero infections. Its neighbor China reported more than 5,000 cases and hundreds of deaths.

Choi can also remember dealing with a nationwide measles outbreak in 2006, armed only with a thermometer; and a 2009 flu pandemic in which even “more people died than during SARS” – a situation made worse by an acute shortage of medicine.

In previous epidemics, Choi explains, there was never an incentive for local officials to travel house to house to accurately count cases – they had no masks or gloves and they figured statistics would be massaged by the regime to suit its needs.

He assumes little has changed since he left and that history, if not exactly repeating itself, is at least rhyming.

When the Money Keep Rolling In 

It’s because of laws like HB 233 (Don't Say Gay) that DeSantis has been able to build up such a staggering war chest. According to CNN, the governor is sitting on $111 million and more money is pouring in daily.



Huh?



Mastriano's Plan to End Democracy in Pennsylvania

Those are only the highlights of what Mastriano has done in the past. But what about the future? People like Mastriano are never going to let Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss go. If anything, Trump’s “Stop the Steal” lies provide a pretext for actions intended to ensure MAGA types win in future elections.

How will they do it? Well, Mastriano has some ideas. (Well above and beyond hiring Trump’s throne-sniffing flack Jenna Ellis as his legal adviser.)

Although Mastriano evades scrutiny by blockading typical media interviews, with some help from his insurrection-friendly friends, he doesn’t hesitate to talk about his plans when he feels comfortable. Put those snippets together, and it shows Mastriano has a pretty well-thought-out election takeover plan in mind.

His platform includes the following:

loosening restrictions on poll watchers to make it easier to challenge votes;
repealing vote-by-mail laws;
appointing a fellow 2020 election-denier to be secretary of state who could enable him to decertify every voting machine “with a stroke of a pen”;
forcing all Pennsylvania voters to re-register; and
defunding the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

I've Seen a Few Kids That Seem Like Demons



Somebody is Moving Against Team Previous Guy

Trump’s team is going to get another day in court, but not the day they wanted.

The grand jury has subpoenaed Giuliani, Graham, and Eastman, along Trump advisers Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis. They’ve also subpoenaed conspiracy-mongering podcast host Jacki Pick Deason.

Giuliani, Eastman, Mitchell, Chesebro, and Ellis are all expected to argue attorney-client privilege when it comes to their conversations with Trump. However, this can’t protect Giuliani or Eastman when it comes to their own claims before the legislature, especially since it is now clear they were aware their claims of election fraud were unfounded. When it comes to Graham … well, nothing can justify Lindsey Graham.

State officials who went along with the false elector scheme are also likely to see subpoenas.

An incomplete list of how Trump attempted to overturn the results in Georgia includes:

An “absurd” lawsuit that was blasted by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp as being nothing more than a collection of lies that had been flatly rejected in other states. (That lawsuit was actually withdrawn the morning of Jan. 6.)

Trump’s call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump was caught on tape asking for Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to defeat Biden, and threatening the official if he didn’t come through for Trump.

Giuliani appeared three times before Georgia state legislators, spreading claims of voter fraud he knew were unfounded and encouraging them to take control of the election process and simply ignore the votes.

Eastman also appeared before a legislative hearing and argued that there was “more than enough” evidence of voter fraud and that it was the “duty” of the legislators to appoint alternative electors.

Drafting a slate of 16 fake electors who then pretended to be the “lawfully elected electors” of the state and submitted false documents to Congress.

Sen. Lindsey Graham called Raffensperger and urged him to simply toss out mail-in ballots in counties that favored Biden.

Trump, Giuliani, Powell, and a cast of dozens if not hundreds went on to insist that Kemp and Raffensperger were part of an international plot to deny Trump a repeat visit to the White House.

Russia Isn't Sure They Want to Install Comrade Previous Guy Again



TucKKKer Has Solved the Gun Violence Problem.  Just Get Women to Shut Up.  (And Have Babies).  Don't Many Abusive Men Blame Women?



Two young children were shot while playing in a pair of bouncy houses while attending a Fourth of July celebration, and it's one of several violent incidents that plagued the holiday, prompting one person to declare, "America is a horror movie."

The incident occurred on Monday evening at a cookout gathering held near the Arlington Village shopping center in Indianapolis. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers and medics were dispatched to the scene at around 6:55 p.m. EST after reports came in of a shooting.

First responders found that two children, an 8-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, had been critically wounded in a shooting at the gathering while they were playing in bouncy houses, WISH-TV News reported. Another man, believed to have also been at the gathering, checked himself into a hospital later with a wound he likely sustained during the shooting.

While a suspect has not yet been arrested, authorities currently believe that the shooting was unprovoked and that perpetrator fled the scene shortly after opening fire.

Is It Roe?

State Senator Patty Pansing Brooks shocked the political world when she outperformed all previous Democrats candidates in CD01 going back to 1974. Fellow State Senator Mike Flood (R) narrowly defeated Pansing Brooks (D) 53% to 47% in a congressional district that Trump won 54% to 43% in 2020. In the last open seat House race in CD01 in 2004, Jeff Fortenberry beat Matt Connealy 54% to 43%.

The 2022 race was much closer than the last election. This was a seat that Fortenberry won by 21 points in 2020 over State Senator Kate Bolz, who raised $1 million. What we’re seeing is a massive 15 point swing.

It’s a significant result since this was the first election after the GOP majority on the SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade. Patty’s close loss in a special election means there is no red wave and gives her a good chance to win in November.

Dumb Environmentalist Tricks.  Was It Oil-Based Paint?

A group of climate activists who have disrupted major galleries this week to send a message to the UK government have struck again – this time at the Royal Academy of Art in London.

On Tuesday morning, demonstrators from Just Stop Oil (JSO) glued themselves to a frame housing a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” that is believed to have been painted by two pupils of the Italian Renaissance master. The activists also spray-painted the demand “No New Oil” in white underneath the painting, a spokesperson for the gallery confirmed to CNN.

Leonardo originally created “The Last Supper,” which depicts the moment Jesus tells his 12 disciples that he will be betrayed by one of them, as a fresco in Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie church between 1495 and 1497. The copy of the painting targeted by the demonstrators, credited to Giampietrino and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, was painted around 15 years later.

Just Stop Oil protesters are calling for the UK government to block licenses for future oil and gas extraction and warning of a grim future if action is not taken to slow the effects of climate change.

More People Got Ripped-to Off

Like its namesake, Voyager Digital wanted to go where few crypto trading companies have gone before, to truly make crypto “mainstream” with items like debit and credit cards that earn users crypto rewards. Instead of going “to the moon” and beyond, Voyager is taking a parabolic trajectory back down to where many trading platforms are currently heading: straight into the dirt.

The New Jersey-based company announced early Wednesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, and intends to seek recognition of the case in Ontario Superior Court. Chapter 11 is a classification of bankruptcy that allows companies to “reorganize” or, more succinctly, get their s*** in order while avoiding the pesky demands of creditors.

Documents filed with the New York southern district bankruptcy court Tuesday show that the company had more than 100,000 creditors as well as between $1 and $10 billion in both assets and liabilities. Filings show Voyager’s biggest creditor was Alameda Research Ventures, a crypto trader that holds an over 9% equity stake in the company with a claim of $75 million.

Mitch Wants to See More Broke People.  He Must Have Been a Big Fan of Two Broke Girls

For over a year, lawmakers and businesses have been bemoaning how they can't find workers.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered his own theory as to why at an event in Paducah, Kentucky, on Tuesday.

"You've got a whole lot of people sitting on the sidelines because, frankly, they're flush for the moment," the Kentucky Republican said. "What we've got to hope is once they run out of money, they'll start concluding it's better to work than not to work."

If a Body Sells a Body, Comin' Thro the Rye,



A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court.



Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence on 20 years after Tuesday’s plea, The Daily Sentinel reports. U.S. authorities said that on dozens of occasions, Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families’ knowledge. Hess and Koch were charged in 2020 with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

What Has He Sacrificed to Seek the Truth and Protect the US?



This is Great, But I Wonder What Would Have Happened If He Were Not White.  How Many Black Orphans Because of Guns?

Over the course of the day, strangers found him and mobilized the community of Highland Park to find the boy's family as neighbors shared his photo across social media with pleas to help identify him.

"The North Shore community rallied to help a boy who we knew nothing about," according to a verified GoFundMe page organized for him. "We took him to safety under tragic circumstances, came together to locate his grandparents, and prayed for the safety of his family."

After Aiden was reunited with his grandparents, the child's community was not done — people also organized to raise almost $2 million on GoFundMe by Wednesday morning.

I Want This Shot

Long before COVID-19 transformed daily life, scientists were aware of the possibility that a coronavirus could make the leap from an animal species to the human population.

How different the last few years might have been had a vaccine capable of blocking the SARS-CoV-2 virus been administered to workers at the Huanan Market in Wuhan, China — where, scientists suspect, a raccoon dog infected a vendor and set off a pandemic that has killed more than 6.3 million people around the globe.

A new type of vaccine developed at Caltech aims to ward off novel coronaviruses even before health officials are aware that they exist. When tested in mice and monkeys, it trained the animals' immune systems to recognize eight viruses at once — and induced immunity to viruses they had never encountered.

The findings, published Tuesday in the journal Science, could lead to a powerful tool against a virus that mutates too quickly to be contained with current vaccines. An international vaccine foundation has pledged $30 million to begin clinical trials of the experimental vaccine in humans.

“We’ve had three pandemics or epidemics in the past 20 years: first SARS, then MERS, then SARS-CoV-2," said Caltech biochemist Pamela Bjorkman, who led the new work. More outbreaks sparked by "spillover events" are inevitable, she said, and “we want to protect now against the future spillover.”
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 133

Fighting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said air alerts rang out across almost all of Ukraine on Tuesday night as there were attacks in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, the border region of Sumy, and the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv and its region.

Russian troops are engaged in heavy fighting and making their way into Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said.

The United Kingdom’s defence ministry says the battle for the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region, will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas. According to officials, Russian forces struck a market and a residential area in the city of Sloviansk, killing at least two people and injuring seven.

Russian-backed separatists seized two foreign-flagged ships in the southeast Ukrainian port of Mariupol, saying they are now “state property”, in the first such moves against commercial shipping, letters seen by the Reuters news agency showed.  (Sounds like piracy.)

Diplomacy

A two-day conference aimed at helping Ukraine recover from Russia’s war wrapped up in Lugano, Switzerland, with a top US diplomat urging allies to help the war-battered country meet its “immediate and urgent” needs, not only longer-term rebuilding.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will call on G20 nations this week to put pressure on Russia to support the United Nations’ efforts to reopen sea lanes blocked by the Ukraine conflict, and repeat warnings to China not to support Moscow’s war effort, diplomats said.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on all parties in the world to make efforts to protect international laws as “the world is evolving in a complicated manner”.

The West is seeking to turn Ukraine “into an openly Russophobic, neo-Nazi state, a military foothold” that would threaten Russia’s security, Lavrov said during his visit to Mongolia, according to state news agency TASS.

Economy

Switzerland President Ignazio Cassis cautioned Western allies about the legal complexities of using frozen Russian assets to help pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction, saying “the right of property is a fundamental right – is a human right”.

Shares of Japanese trading firms Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp dropped more than 4 percent on Wednesday after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made comments threatening the loss of oil and gas supply to Japan.

Medvedev said a reported proposal from Japan to cap the price of Russian oil at about half its current price would lead to a market shortage that could push prices above $300-400 a barrel.

Is Putin Trying to Drive Everyone into Aligning With NATO and the EU?



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Hadron is a Smash

Scientists in Switzerland have resumed smashing together the tiny particles that make up the physical properties of the universe, in hopes of better understanding the forces and phenomena that undergird existence.

On Tuesday, the latest round of experiments began at the Large Hadron Collider, a massive apparatus at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) facility in Geneva, following a three-year renovation that scientists say has upped the possibilities for the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

The beginning of the so-called “Run 3” of the collider comes nearly a decade after data it yielded proved the existence of the Higgs boson particle, also known as the “God particle”, a revelatory discovery that scientists say confirmed the “final puzzle piece” of the Standard Model theory, which outlines the fundamental building blocks and forces of the universe.
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Breaking News:  Young People May Not Vote in Big Numbers This Fall



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Has He Ever Heard of "SUPPLY and Demand"?

Despite West Texas intermediate crude oil futures dipping below $100 per barrel on Tuesday, serious gas price relief may be unlikely happen until motorists make adjustments by driving less.

"I think the only thing that's going to make a dent in gasoline or jet fuel prices is demand destruction," Vectis Energy Partners principal Tamar Essner said on Yahoo Finance Live after being asked when gas prices may drop below $4 a gallon (video above). "So we have to push higher until we get to that point."
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