Democracy Has Prevailed.

August 30, 2021

Robert David Steele, Anti-vaxxer, Dead of Covid (A Message To Wendy Bell)

This is not a gloat. I am not gloating. 

This is serious and this is sad. A man has died due to his own stubborn stupidity (or stupid stubbornness - you decide).

One of many conservative pundits recently, it seems.

About 3 weeks ago it was Dick Farrel. Newsweek's coverage of him began with this:

A Florida radio host who was vehemently outspoken about vaccinations died from COVID-19 complications on Friday.

More recently, it was another Florida radio host, Nick Bernier:

Another anti-vaccine conservative radio host has died due to complications from COVID-19. Marc Bernier, who hosted a radio show in Daytona Beach, Florida, passed away Saturday at the age of 65. “It’s with great sadness that WNDB and Southern Stone Communications announce the passing of Marc Bernier, who informed and entertained listeners on WNDB for over 30 years,” read a tweet from Bernier’s affiliate radio station. “We kindly ask that privacy is given to Marc’s family during this time of grief.” Bernier was publicly against the COVID-19 vaccine, comparing the U.S. government to Nazis for urging people to get vaccinated.

And now, Wendy, someone you have probably met - Robert David Steele.

Remember that rally up in Beaver County that you attended/spoke at? That was run by Robert David Steele. He even posted a video of your speech. Remember now?

August 17, he posted this on his blog:

With love to all of you, I survived!  I went in at 77 oxygenation.  I’m up to 94.  I will not take the vaccination, though I did test positive for whatever they’re calling “COVID” today, but the bottom line is that my lungs are not functioning.

The good news is that I will survive with a few days off.  I should be back up and at least functional soon.  This is been a near death experience, very much like a new death experience the whole country is going through right now.  We will never be the same because now we know that we’ve all been lied to about everything.  But,  now we also know that we can trust each other.  I’m alive today because I had a network that put me into a good hospital in Florida.

Still in COVID-denial but also very very sick from COVID (and not "COVID").

Anyway, last night on twitter this hit:

And it was confirmed by Sherri Tenpenny, another anti-vaxxer you've had on your show. (She's the one who's since been banned from twitter after claiming the vaccine magnetizes people.)

Robert David Steele's death is why spreading anti-vaxx misinformation is so dangerous, Wendy. He probably believed it with his last painful dying breath.

Do you remember what Lisa Kellerman (who's not an MD) said at Steele's rally you attended? Let me remind you. She said this:

People are dying from this shot. They're having aneurysm, strokes, [unintelligible] HIV, autoimmune issues, blood clots, miscarriages. That's just a few. These are life threatening serious illnesses from this shot.

For the record, as far as I understand what I am reading from medical experts, none of that is actually true. No one gets HIV from the vaccine, for instance. Whatever side effects one might experience are far outweighed by the risk of contracting COVID. But Kellerman was allowed spewed it all out, unchallenged, to a very amenable crowd. After telling them another mistruth (that the vaccinated pose the read danger here), she offers this "solution":

The first thing you need to do, most important, is get some Pineneedle tea or get some pine essential oil, dilute it and rub it on your ankles and your feet. Ok? There's an ingredient in there that protects against something that may be transmitted from the shot.

How many people in the crowd heard this and thought that pine needle essential oil applied to their ankles would offer them protection from the vaccinated shedding something from the vaccine - like the virus?

How many of them got sick? How many of them are still sick now? How many will get sick thinking they're protected by the pine needle essential oil?

Robert David Steele was unvaccinated and he died of COVID-19. Same with Dick Farrel and Nick Bernier, They all preached on the dangers of the vaccine and prided themselves on being unvaccinated.

And they died of the very thing the vaccine could have protected them from.

Don't you not see a pattern here, Wendy? A cause and effect? Get the vaccine, get protected. Reject the vaccine and risk the fate of Farrel, Bernier and now Steele.

How many more of them are there who aren't prominent (or even semi-prominent) conservatives? How many are people who are just trying to live their lives and take care of their families as best they can with whatever they can scoop up on the way? Like the people who watch your program?

The more you spread vaccine misinformation to them the more you're putting them at risk, Wendy.

They're your folks, Wendy. Your fans. Your crowd. Shouldn't you be doing better by them?

August 27, 2021

Wendy Bell (The A of D) Invites And Dayvoe Responds!

Hey, you remember yesterday, right? When I posted this on this very blog, right?

You can click on that blue link OR you can just scroll down the page to see it.

Anyway, I tweeted the link to the blog post and Wendy Bell herself tweeted back!

This is what she said:

This is very interesting - she's inviting me to be on her show even though I've been blocked from commenting on her FB page. Have been for a while. What's Wendy scared of? Me giving actual factual data to her adoring public? I guess so.

In any case, we've danced this dance before, Wendy and I.

My answer to her angry invitation is the same as it was in April: 

No.

Unlike Wendy, I have to work for a living. I can't take the time off to call-in to her basement bunker broadcast.

Furthermore, (this is from April):

But even if that weren't the case, I'd still not be on your show. Here's the reason: Your radio program is far from being a level playing field. You (and/or your producer) will control the volume and the duration I'd be on. Not only that but after I finish you'll have the rest of your program to deliver your final word on whatever I said.

And as anyone who's ever argued with any other human being ever will undoubtedly know, whoever (whomever?) gets the final word wins the argument.

If she wants to email in any correction to anything I've written, she's certainly free to do so. I'll be happy to post it here - with my corrections of her corrections of course.

But I'd like to address her tweet in some detail.

Here it is again in case you missed it 4 (or so) inches ago:

Let’s do this. I will have you on my show and you can detail my “lies.” Start jotting ALL of them down, with source material to support your case (like I provide.) Facts vs feelings. Which do you suppose will prevail?

Evidently, Wendy Bell doesn't understand how html links work. Perhaps you noticed there's more than the usual amount of blue underlined text at the top of this blog post. Those are all html links. They link this page to other webpages.

See all those links, Wendy? Those are my sources. There's no need for me to jot them down at all. They've always been there for all the world to see. Including you. But, as I infer from your tweet, you never bothered to click on any of them. Or else you would've learned what they are.

For example it's a lie (and not a "lie") whenever you misused the VAERS data to "prove" that the vaccines are dangerous. Like you did on:

There are a few more that I could list but you get the picture. What you do is to quote the VAERS numbers and let your audience infer that that number of incidents prove that the vaccines are dangerous - because those are actual government numbers and they can't be wrong, right?

All the while ignoring the disclaimer that's easily found on the VAERS page:

VAERS accepts reports of adverse events and reactions that occur following vaccination. Healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public can submit reports to VAERS. While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Most reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.

What you said is a lie, Wendy. It's what's known as a "lie of omission."

You lied earlier this month with this story: 

8/6/21 Those of us who don't lie for a living often ask - How Do They Live With Themselves? Being dirty inside and out and purposefully deceiving people is a filthy game that doesn't wash off in the shower. Jump in on today's show as we BREAK SOME NEWS with Attorney Thomas Renz (the lawyer of the CDC whistleblower who says WAY more than 45,000 Americans have died because of the j@b) AND highlight the best audio soundbites from the USA's dirtiest of dirty.

45,000 Americans have not died from "the j@b" - anyone who's looked at the medical science would know that. Perhaps Dr. Joe can explain that to you. He's vaccinated, isn't he?

Wendy, you lie every time you said something like this:

Did you guys hear it? Shouted across the world yesterday that the CDC says that 94% of people who we think died of COVID did not die from COVID but died and happened to have it at the same time.

As you did on September 2, 2020. It's simply not true. Perhaps Dr. Joe can explain that to you, too.

Then there's this from last April when you listed on the BS board 7 completely untrue things about the vaccine that convinced you to not get it. Perhaps Dr. Joe can explain why you're wrong. Again, he's vaccinated, right?

And this is just me sifting through this blog for about 40 minutes. Do you really want me to jot down the evidence for every time you lied for us to discuss on your show?

There aren't enough minutes in a week of your bunker broadcasts to get to them all.

So, no. I'll respond here. Thank you.

August 26, 2021

Wendy Bell. Her BS Board. She's Misleading you. AGAIN.

This time it's a conspiracy theory debunked a year ago.

Were you to saunter over to her FB page, you'd see that Wendy Bell, ultimate source of all things troothfull about COVID, has posted this, her latest BS Board:


First thing to do when Wendy posts "information" is to check her source. This usually gives away the game. 

And today does not disappoint as it's someone named "David Martin, PhD."

This would be the same "David Martin" that Reuters wrote about last February:

A video shared on social media has claimed that the mRNA coronavirus vaccine is not actually a vaccine, but a “device” designed to make people sick. This is false.

The video, which has been viewed more than 11,000 times on YouTube, can be seen (here).

In it a man referred to as “Dr David Martin”, who has been linked to previous misinformation about the pandemic (here , here) is seen speaking on a video call.

And so on.

But that just proves he's an anti-vaxxer who's lied about the vaccine. Wendy's talking about some sort of CDC patent shenanigans, right? So he might be right about that, right?

Wrong.

From Factcheck.org:

Martin claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw “the possibility of a gold strike” when the SARS epidemic arose in 2003.

“They saw that a virus they knew could be easily manipulated was something that was very valuable,” he says, pointing to a patent filed by the CDC that year. The patent covered the isolated virus that causes SARS and ways to detect it.

Skimming across the screen while Martin makes that claim is a headline for a November 2003 news story about the race to patent the virus. However, that story doesn’t support his argument. It actually explains that the CDC wasn’t pursuing the patent for profit. Rather, it was doing so to keep others from monopolizing research.

And so on.

But let's peer into Wendy's patent numbers. Once we do that we see that this whole story line was debunked a year ago:

Since the pandemic started, some public figures with a pronounced distrust of authority have gone on a patent hunt. We have seen Mike Adams, the Plandemic conspiracy film, and a recent French video viewed by nearly 1.5 million people claim that a trail of patent applications prove that scientists created the COVID-19 coronavirus in a laboratory. They also apparently decided to protect their intellectual property along the way.

There are two lessons I want to draw from this on-going patent fear-mongering. The first is that “coronavirus” is not a word that only applies to the agent behind COVID-19. Coronaviruses are a subfamily in the grand classification of viruses. They include our current enemy, SARS-CoV-2, but also a different coronavirus that caused SARS nearly twenty years ago, and the coronavirus that produces the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). This subfamily also contains the coronaviruses that are responsible for 15 to 30% of cases of the common cold in humans. And, importantly, there are many coronaviruses that do not infect us but that cause respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in animals, like birds and pigs.

And:

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States stepped in at the time and filed their own patent on the isolated SARS virus, its genes, its proteins, and the methods to detect it and the infection it was causing (US7220852B1 and US7776521B1). The reason? They wanted to prevent others from “monopolizing the field” and to allow researchers to develop diagnostics and therapeutics to help deal with the SARS outbreak.

Remember this was August, 20, 2020.

USAToday also took a look at this back then. A year ago. In August of 2020:

A new video — entitled "Plandemic II: Indoctornation" — has spread online and on Facebook since Aug. 18, proliferating a baseless conspiracy theory about the nature of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 75-minute documentary is a follow-up to a similar video that went viral in May — and was removed by social media platforms for spreading misinformation. Its description claims it "tracks a three decade-long money trail that leads directly to the key players behind the COVID-19 pandemic."

This theory is explained by David E. Martin, credited as a national intelligence analyst, founder of IQ100 Index and self-proclaimed developer of "Linguistic Genomics" with a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

And:

Based on our research, the claim that the pandemic was "planned" or created by the CDC, NIH, EcoHealth Alliance, or the Wuhan Virology Institute is FALSE.

"Plandemic II: Indoctornation" is based on a number of cherry-picked facts, such as the existence of a patent on the genome of SARS-CoV, and the transfer of funds from the NIH to EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The nefarious extrapolations it makes are unsupported and even disproven by facts.

The CDC did patent the genome of SARS-CoV. But it was legal and intended to ensure open access for all researchers, not for profit. SARS-CoV is not the same virus as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. And the project funded by the NIH at EcoHealth Alliance, in part involving the Wuhan Virology Institute, was to identify and fight coronaviruses, not create them.

This was last year, Wendy. Can't you find any new debunked conspiracy theories?

Is this how deeply you research your "information" for your basement bunker broadcast?

Light years, Wendy. You're light years away from when you were a respected journalist.



August 25, 2021

Wendy Bell, FORMER Journalist, Gets The Facts Wrong. Again.

We'll start with this tweet from Brother Jon:

And yes, Jon is correct about the Angel of Death's 3%-ers flag.

But let's take a look at what Wendy and Brock said:

Wendy: Number two. Hypocritical justice. Isn't it so intriguing to all of you. Did you hear the leader, the lah-, the past leader of the Proud Boys? I'm not some an advocate of the Oath Keepers or the Three Percenters or any fringe group that's militant, and angry and wants to do harm. I don't know if that's their platform. I don't spend a whole lot of time investigating these people.

Anybody who's too far right or too far left I think is a danger to society. 

This dude, who I guess resigned as the head of the Proud Boys, black guy, I don't know his name. I don't care! Was sentenced yesterday for five months in prison!

Brock, do you want to tell everybody what he did that was so egregious?

Because you're thinking, "Holey Moley! That is a serious - five months, a hundred and fifty five days in prison." What?

Brock: He burned a BLM flag and he took a - . He had a clip uh-

Wendy: Couple of magazine rounds.

Brock: Yea.

Wendy: That were actually bought by somebody else who was abs - he was holding them.

Brock: But he gr-. Out of that it was a congruent sentence. I believe he got ninety days for burning a BLM flag. Last time I checked you can burn a flag. Constitutional right.

You'll notice that they're defending the Proud Boys guy. Wendy even calls it "hypocritical justice."

But how much of the story do they get right? (Now, remember, Wendy Bell was once an award winning journalist. Getting the story right should come second nature to an award winning journalist, right?)

They didn't get much of the story right.

From the BBC:

The leader of the far-right Proud Boys group has been given nearly six months in jail for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter flag and a weapons crime.

Enrique Tarrio, 37, pleaded guilty to destruction of property and attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device.

Appearing through video in court on Monday, Tarrio apologised and said there was "no excuse" for his actions.

Wait. So he pleaded guilty and apologized? But Wendy's letting us infer that he's being mistreated by a hypocritical justice system. She got that wrong, didn't she?

Tarrio (who identifies as an Afro-Cuban, Wendy.) even admitted to doing it:

The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, said he participated in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner that had been ripped from the facade of a historic Black church during unrest in downtown Washington following a rally earlier this month for President Trump.

Tarrio, the chairman of the male-chauvinist organization with ties to white nationalism, said in an interview with The Washington Post he would plead guilty to destruction of property, pay the church the cost of the banner and surrender to authorities if that criminal charge is filed.

“I’ll fly there on my own dime,” said Tarrio, who was in Miami on Friday, and spoke in a telephone interview days after D.C. police and the FBI posted rewards in their search for people responsible in the case. “I have nothing to hide.”

Tarrio wrote he was speaking out against the advice of his attorney: “So let me make this simple. I did it.”

And:

D.C. police have classified the burning as a destruction of property, a misdemeanor when damage is under $1,000. It is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. A hate crime can add to the severity of the punishment.

But this was not simply burning a flag, was it Brock? You got this wrong, didn't you Brock?

It's destruction of (someone else's) property. Did you miss that part, Wendy? 

That's right, Wendy. You don't spend a lot of time investigating these stories. But you still felt the need to pass along your "information" to your adoring throng, however. 

You do have every right to burn a flag as a form of protest. You do not have a right to steal someone else's property and destroy it. Do you not understand the distinction?

Wendy Bell, ladies and gentleman. A former journalist misleading the public.

August 24, 2021

FDA Approval (Prepare To See The Goal Posts Move!)

From the Food And Drug Administration

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. The vaccine also continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.

“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated. Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.” [Bolding in original.]

Some extras from the FDA:

Comirnaty contains messenger RNA (mRNA), a kind of genetic material. The mRNA is used by the body to make a mimic of one of the proteins in the virus that causes COVID-19. The result of a person receiving this vaccine is that their immune system will ultimately react defensively to the virus that causes COVID-19. The mRNA in Comirnaty is only present in the body for a short time and is not incorporated into - nor does it alter - an individual’s genetic material. Comirnaty has the same formulation as the EUA vaccine and is administered as a series of two doses, three weeks apart.

“Our scientific and medical experts conducted an incredibly thorough and thoughtful evaluation of this vaccine. We evaluated scientific data and information included in hundreds of thousands of pages, conducted our own analyses of Comirnaty’s safety and effectiveness, and performed a detailed assessment of the manufacturing processes, including inspections of the manufacturing facilities,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “We have not lost sight that the COVID-19 public health crisis continues in the U.S. and that the public is counting on safe and effective vaccines. The public and medical community can be confident that although we approved this vaccine expeditiously, it was fully in keeping with our existing high standards for vaccines in the U.S." [As above, bolding in original.]

And: 

To support the FDA’s approval decision today, the FDA reviewed updated data from the clinical trial which supported the EUA and included a longer duration of follow-up in a larger clinical trial population. 

Specifically, in the FDA’s review for approval, the agency analyzed effectiveness data from approximately 20,000 vaccine and 20,000 placebo recipients ages 16 and older who did not have evidence of the COVID-19 virus infection within a week of receiving the second dose. The safety of Comirnaty was evaluated in approximately 22,000 people who received the vaccine and 22,000 people who received a placebo 16 years of age and older.

Based on results from the clinical trial, the vaccine was 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 disease. 

More than half of the clinical trial participants were followed for safety outcomes for at least four months after the second dose. Overall, approximately 12,000 recipients have been followed for at least 6 months.

And some experts' statements have already arrived.

For example this is from the Johns Hopkins Medical School:

The three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. are safe and effective in helping prevent serious disease or death due to the coronavirus. These vaccines were granted an emergency use authorization, or EUA, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine received full approval by the FDA on Aug. 23, 2021.

Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., senior director of infection prevention, and Gabor Kelen, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, explain what that means.

Specifically, What does full FDA approval of a COVID-19 vaccine mean?

Full FDA approval takes place when enough data demonstrate that the vaccines are safe and effective for most people who receive them, and when the FDA has had an opportunity to review and approve the whole vaccine manufacturing process and facilities. After many months of studies and more than 165 million people having received a COVID-19 vaccine, the FDA has a lot of information on how safe and effective the COVID-19 vaccines are in protecting people, how well they work to prevent severe coronavirus disease, and how the vaccines are safely and consistently manufactured. 

Then there's the AMA, AHA, ANA statement

Today’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—the result of many months of work, robust data evaluation, and a thorough, comprehensive review process that has already protected more than one hundred million Americans from severe COVID-19 complications—is a major step forward in the worldwide effort to end this pandemic. The vaccines to prevent COVID-19 are effective; we have known that for months as health care professionals were among the first to get vaccinated and have advocated for our patients to get vaccinated to save lives. But today’s news marks a critical moment for people who were concerned about getting vaccinated due to the vaccines being authorized for emergency use. With millions of data points on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy over nearly nine months of vaccinations, every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed. This vaccine is safe, it prevents severe COVID-19, hospitalization, and deaths, and it will save your life.

Of course, now the anti-vaxxers have to move the goal posts: 

According to an article published Aug. 20 in the BMJ, transparency advocates have criticized the FDA decision not to hold a formal advisory committee meeting to discuss Pfizer’s application for full approval — an important mechanism used to scrutinize data.

Last year the FDA said it was “committed to use an advisory committee composed of independent experts to ensure deliberations about authorisation or licensure are transparent for the public.”

But in a statement to The BMJ, the FDA said it did not believe a meeting was necessary ahead of the expected full FDA approval.

An FDA spokesperson said the agency held numerous meetings of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) related to COVID vaccines in 2020, and did not believe a meeting was needed related to this biologics license application for Pfizer.

And:

[Kim Witczak, a drug safety advocate who serves as a consumer representative on the FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee] said it’s concerning that full approval is based on only six months’ worth of data — despite clinical trials designed for two years — and there’s no control group after Pfizer offered the product to placebo participants before the trials were completed.

So we have the FDA, American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association, Johns Hopkins (by definition, medical experts) on one side saying there's enough evidence and the Children's Health Defense folks (definitely not medical experts) saying there isn't enough evidence yet.

Which would you go with?

Expect more goal-post moving like this in the future.

August 23, 2021

Meanwhile, Outside

While the anti-vaxxers are making the pandemic (even) worse, there's still the matter of climate change.

From the scientists over at NOAA:

As a whole, the July 2021 global surface temperature was the highest for July since global records began in 1880 at 0.93°C (1.67°F) above the 20th-century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F). This value surpassed the previous record set in 2016 (and subsequently matched in 2019 and 2020) by only 0.01°C (0.02°F). Because July is the warmest month of the year from a climatological perspective, July 2021 was more likely than not the warmest month on record for the globe since 1880. Nine of the 10 warmest Julys have occurred since 2010, with the last seven Julys (2015-2021) being the seven warmest Julys on record. July 1998 is the only July from the 20th century to be among the 10 warmest Julys on record. July 2021 marked the 45th consecutive July and the 439th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th-century average.

And as always, there's artwork:


 Happy Monday!

August 22, 2021

PA State Senator Doug Mastriano Helps Spread Medical Misinformation

With this:

See that part w-a-a-a-y up in the upper left hand corner? The part that reads:

Doug Mastriano Retweeted

That's the treason-adjacent PA State Senator Doug Mastriano spreading medical misinformation. 

Why is this misinformation?

There's a hint of this tucked into the bottom of Doug's retweet:

FDA and WHO caution against its use

How many members of Mastriano's Army, do you think, will even bother to dig into that? Or even read the article he retweeted? My guess is that they'll read the part above the image and then consider themselves well informed.

If they do read the article they'll find this:

The FDA said on its website it “received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin.”
 
The “FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans,” it said. “Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an antiviral (a drug for treating viruses). Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.”

 And this is why what State Senator Doug Mastriano did was so dangerous:

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug commonly used for livestock, should not be taken to treat or prevent Covid-19, the Food and Drug Administration said on Saturday.

The warning came a day after the Mississippi State Department of Health issued a similar statement in response to reports that an increasing number of people in Mississippi were using the drug to prevent a Covid infection.

And:

In Mississippi, where only 37 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, more than two-thirds of recent calls placed to the state’s poison control center were related to “ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of Ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centers,” the state department of health said in a news release.

The FDA even tweeted:

We'll note that Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano did NOT retweet the FDA's info on ivermectin.

But let's look at what the FDA does say about invermectin:

FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans. Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses).

And:

Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. In addition, some topical (on the skin) forms of ivermectin are approved to treat external parasites like head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea. 

Some forms of ivermectin are used in animals to prevent heartworm disease and certain internal and external parasites. It’s important to note that these products are different from the ones for people, and safe when used as prescribed for animals, only.

But the treason-adjacent didn't pass this along either, did he?

Here's the thing: There already is something out there supported by a mountain of medical evidence that, by taking it, you'll greatly reduce your chances of getting sick and dying from Covid. It's even free.

It's called the vaccine.

But State Senator Doug Mastriano didn't say that, did he?

August 17, 2021

Newsflash: Disgraced Former Reporter Wendy Bell Misreads Her Own Research. Again

Wendy Bell is on vacation for a couple of weeks, no longer ranting in (as she calls it) her "basement bunker" broadcast center.

I thought I had some time off from the Karen rants, but no.

There was this yesterday. At about 42 minutes in, Wendy speechifies:

Did you guys see the new, um, the new report just put out a couple days ago by the Mayo Clinic and a Cambridge based biotech company called nference?

They looked at twenty-five thousand folks from Minnesota. They compared the – this is for COVID, OK? - they looked at them in July but they looked at them before in January, alright?

To study the effectiveness of these vaccines that you are being implored, as a patriotic American, to get, that you're being told your children should get, that by the way Pfizer itself doesn't require it's own employees to get, but you need to.


This study finds Moderna's MRNA vaccine's effectiveness dropped in July to 76%. Pfizer's dropped to 42%. And so now, the CDC, Rochelle Walensky and Dr Doom himself, Fauci, say, absolutely the booster shot is the only way to go.

How many times are you going to be told something that proves wrong before we wake up and say, I don't believe you any more. You can't lie as often as you do, get caught, back pedal, point fingers and blame other people, so frequently and continue to have the faith and confidence in the American people.

This is where we are.

First error of Wendy's. Pfizer.

Two weeks ago, CNBC reported

Pfizer said Wednesday it will require all its U.S. employees and contractors to get vaccinated against Covid-19 or participate in regular weekly testing.

The new initiative will “best protect the health and safety of our colleagues and the communities we serve,” Pfizer spokesperson Pamela Eisele said in a statement to CNBC.

“Outside the U.S., the company is strongly encouraging all colleagues who are able to do so in their countries get vaccinated,” Eisele added. “Colleagues who have medical conditions or religious objections will be able to seek accommodations. Colleagues are still required to adhere to all COVID-19 state, local and Pfizer safety procedures while engaged in Pfizer work.”

Did you miss that, Wendy? Or were you just lying about it?

But the big lie was about that study. Yea, I found the study. Did you think I couldn't find the study?

Wendy gets it wrong. Badly badly wrong. I've asked this before and I have to ask it again, "Isn't there someone in Wendy's very close circle of friends or maybe even a member of her family with some sort of medical training who can explain these things to her? Isn't there??"

Anyway, here's the title of the not-yet-peer reviewed paper:

Comparison of two highly-effective mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 during periods of Alpha and Delta variant prevalence

Wait, it's comparing the effectiveness of the vaccines during the Alpha and Delta waves? So that if there's a drop in effectiveness, it might have something to do with the new player in the game, the Delta variant?

It even says so in the abstract:

Although clinical trials and real-world studies have affirmed the effectiveness and safety of the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines, reports of breakthrough infections and persistent emergence of new variants highlight the need to vigilantly monitor the effectiveness of these vaccines. Here we compare the effectiveness of two full-length Spike protein-encoding mRNA vaccines from Moderna (mRNA-1273) and Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) in the Mayo Clinic Health System over time from January to July 2021, during which either the Alpha or Delta variant was highly prevalent.

And:

Comparing rates of infection between matched individuals fully vaccinated with mRNA-1273 versus BNT162b2 across Mayo Clinic Health System sites in multiple states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and Iowa), mRNA-1273 conferred a two-fold risk reduction against breakthrough infection compared to BNT162b2 (IRR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.39-0.64).
So we're talking breakthrough infections here?

Did Wendy point out any of this?

No. Wendy lied.

Then there's this part that goes completely unmentioned in Wendy's warning to her adoring crowd:

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected over 190 million individuals, leading to over 4 million deaths attributed to COVID-19. To curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, mass global vaccination efforts have been initiated, with 3.9 billion vaccine doses administered to date. Controlled clinical trials and real-world clinical studies have provided clear evidence of the effectiveness of FDA- authorized COVID-19 vaccines. In clinical trials, BNT162b2, an mRNA vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, showed 95.0% efficacy (95% CI: 90.3-97.6%) in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 with onset seven or more days after the second dose. mRNA-1273, an mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna, showed 94.1% efficacy (95% CI: 89.3-96.8%) in preventing symptomatic infection with onset at least 14 days after the second dose. Additional real-world retrospective studies in major health systems in the United States and Israel further support the effectiveness and safety of these vaccines.

However, only about 50% of the United States population is fully vaccinated as of July 2021, with an even lower fraction fully vaccinated across the globe. Further, there have been reports of reduced vaccine effectiveness against emerging variants and local increases in COVID- 19 cases despite mass vaccination, raising questions about the potential need to administer vaccine booster doses and to develop variant-targeted vaccines in the future.8–10 This evolving state of affairs highlights the need to assess the durability and comparative effectiveness of the FDA-authorized vaccines. Here, we address this need by comparing the rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 associated complications between demographically and geographically matched individuals who were vaccinated with mRNA-1273 versus BNT162b2 in the multi-state Mayo Clinic Health System.
Hey, Wendy! You were once a prize winning journalist, right? Why aren't you telling the truth now?

How many times are you going to say something that proves wrong before people wake up and say, "I don't believe you any more. You can't lie as often as you do, get caught, back pedal, point fingers and blame other people, so frequently and continue to have the faith and confidence of...well anyone?"


August 16, 2021

A Statewide Vaccine Mandate: Is It Constitutional?

If I am reading this correctly, the answer is yes.

Note: I'm not a lawyer, never been to law school, took a law class, read a law book etc.

We'll start with Lawrence Tribe, who is a lawyer, has gone to law school, has taken a few law classes, has read a few law books (he's even written a few, I believe). He tweeted:

You can follow the links to here - Judge Easterbrook's decision in the Seventh Circuit in Indiana. This is the second paragraph of the decision:

Given Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), which holds that a state may require all members of the public to be vaccinated against smallpox, there can’t be a constitutional problem with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 [aka COVID-19].

So what's this Jacobson v. Massachusetts from 1905?

You can read it here. Some highlights:

The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint, nor is it an element in such liberty that one person, or a minority of persons residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have power to dominate the majority when supported in their action by the authority of the State.

It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law, and it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health. [Emphasis added.]

And:

We are not prepared to hold that a minority, residing or remaining in any city or town where smallpox is prevalent, and enjoying the general protection afforded by an organized local government, may thus defy the will of its constituted authorities, acting in good faith for all, under the legislative sanction of the State. If such be the privilege of a minority, then a like privilege would belong to each individual of the community, and the spectacle would be presented of the welfare and safety of an entire population being subordinated to the notions of a single individual who chooses to remain a part of that population. We are unwilling to hold it to be an element in the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States that one person, or a minority of persons, residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have the power thus to dominate the majority when supported in their action by the authority of the State.

The United States Supreme Court, 1905.

August 15, 2021

The Awful Humans At Crack'd Egg

We'll start here:

While this attempt at death-cult humor isn't at their website, it is posted at their Facebook page yesterday. It's there. They own it. And they'll own it for ever.

What awful human beings these people are. 

Remember these are the same people who cheered for the virus, adding:

Covid has been a blessing for me.

But first, what's the latest on the restaurant?

There's this from The Trib:

A Pennsylvania appellate court ruled in favor of the Allegheny County Health Department on Friday, finding that the forced closure of the Crack’d Egg restaurant in Brentwood was appropriate given its owner’s refusal to follow covid-19 mitigation measures.

The decision has no practical effect because Gov. Tom Wolf lifted safety protocols, including the mask mandate, at the end of June.

And:

The lengthy court battle for the Crack’d Egg began in August when the county health department ordered it to close after multiple complaints that its owner, Kimberly Waigand, was not following covid-19 mitigation measures, including masking and social distancing.

Despite the orders, the restaurant continued to operate until Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the county in February following a three-day hearing.

McVay heard testimony from the county health department director and others who said that masks substantially decrease the risk of infection.

Waigand testified during the hearing that she would never require masks at her restaurant, calling them — and the emergency measures through which the Wolf administration implemented them — unconstitutional.

McVay was not swayed.

“If I did not grant the injunction, restaurants that are following the rules will become less likely to do so and thus further increasing public health risks to everyone involved and possibly increasing overall community spread,” McVay wrote in his decision.

Waigand appealed to the state Commonwealth Court, which heard arguments in June.

In its 34-page opinion, the Commonwealth Court found that the restaurant was unable to prove that the lower court’s opinion on the motion for preliminary injunction was in error.

 And finally:

Further, the court found that Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has already upheld the implementation of the emergency code as a valid exercise of police power.

Now let's take a look at the restaurant's death-cult humor:

In the "Commie Specials" section we read:

Delta Waffle - Perfect Comfort Food

This is a reference to the Delta Variant of the Covid-19 virus. This is what the CDC says about Delta (to Waigand "comfort food"):

  • The Delta variant is more contagious: The Delta variant is highly contagious, more than 2x as contagious as previous variants.
  • Some data suggest the Delta variant might cause more severe illness than previous strains in unvaccinated persons. In two different studies from Canada and Scotland, patients infected with the Delta variant were more likely to be hospitalized than patients infected with Alpha or the original virus strains.
  • Fully vaccinated people with Delta variant breakthrough infections can spread the virus to others. However, vaccinated people appear to be infectious for a shorter period: Previous variants typically produced less virus in the body of infected fully vaccinated people (breakthrough infections) than in unvaccinated people. In contrast, the Delta variant seems to produce the same high amount of virus in both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. However, like other variants, the amount of virus produced by Delta breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people also goes down faster than infections in unvaccinated people. This means fully vaccinated people are likely infectious for less time than unvaccinated people.

The New York Times reported on August 1:

The highly infectious Delta variant now accounts for an estimated 83 percent of new coronavirus cases in the United States — a “dramatic increase” from early July, when it crossed the 50 percent threshold to become the dominant variant in this country, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

In some regions, the percentage is even higher — particularly where vaccination rates are low, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said during a Senate health committee hearing.

They've even tweeted it:

Evidently this is funny to them. A variant of a virus that's killed hundreds of Americans and infected tens of thousands and yet to Kim Weigand of the Crack'd Egg (412 881-3000, if you wish to discuss this with her), it's their "perfect comfort food."

What a horrible horrible person this is.


August 13, 2021

HAPPY REINSTATEMENT DAY!

Well, friends. Today is the day.

Today is the day that the Supreme Court will finally rid us of this troublesome fake-news/deep state-"stolen elected" president and reinstate the one true God-endorsed remaker of MAGAmerica, Donald Trump.

Just watch the news today, oh boy.

As surely as there's a pedophile ring run out of the basement of Comet Ping Pong, Donald Trump will be reinstated. Today.

Tony Norman even says so:

Before the end of the day, the twice-impeached abomination of desolation will receive the full constitutional powers accorded every president. He will then pardon his supporters and punish his enemies in the mother of all Twitter rants.

See? 

And in case you think I'm just pulling your leg, Tony says this a paragraph or two later:

This truth has already been confirmed in prophetic utterances on the internet by godly men and women who understand that Trump has been specifically ordained by heaven itself to be God’s instrument in America.

Again, see?

And there's no need, my friends, for you to fact-check with the context of Tony's column from which I so carefully cherry picked these words, you know?

I mean everyone knows that you can completely trust me to tell you the truth when I tell you I am telling you the truth, right?

Every Cretan says so.

On a more serious note, there's this from ABC News:

False claims of fraud in the 2020 election are fueling calls for violence on social media, the Department of Homeland Security is warning local police departments.

“DHS has seen an increasing but modest level of individuals calling for violence in response to the unsubstantiated claims of fraud related to the 2020 election fraud and the alleged ‘reinstatement’ of former President Trump,” a DHS spokesperson told NBC News.

Oh, boy.

August 12, 2021

Video: Candidate Sean Parnell At That QAnon/Anti-vaxx Rally In Beaver County

Hey, you remember that Arise USA! (QAnon/Anti-Vaxx) rally in Beaver County last month?

If you need a primer, there's a good rundown over at Talking Points Memo:

In between the assertions that 9/11 was an inside job, that Zionists aren’t real Jews and that satanic pedophilia fuels world commerce and politics, attendees at the “Arise USA!” tour in recent weeks have heard another pitch: We need to audit the 2020 election.

And so on.

We all know the stories of Robert David Steele's anti-semitism, the tour's anti-vaxx message, the links (via Steele's charges of "Satanic pedophilia") to QAnon and we all know about how the tour has run low on cash and he's now going solo but there's a new wrinkle in that story from TPM:

In recent days, the tour has fizzled out: Where once there were several custom-wrapped tour buses ferrying Steele, Mack and several others all around the country, there is now just Steele and his SUV. Where there were once packed fairgrounds, there are now sparsely attended get-togethers.

Wednesday’s event in Williamsburg, Virginia, according to Steele’s website, will be a low-key affair. “Robert will be at the purple couch at 4 pm and looks forward to a quiet conversation with whoever shows up, 7-10 expected,” the announcement reads.

What happened? Steele has spoken about the troubles on tour. In Kentucky last month, he said “we have expunged from this tour individuals who were Satanic, who were stealing from us.”

“We’ve overcome over $300,000 in theft through the diversion of donations,” he added.

Aww. Couldn't happen to a nicer crazie.

But here's the thing. This is the thing. The thing is here.

A little more than two weeks ago, I blogged on Senate Candidate Sean Parnell's participation in that rally.

Yesterday, I found the video of his speech.

Here's a screen shot:

That's Sean Parnell speaking in front of one of the (now unused) Arise USA! tour buses. The image if Robert David Steele clearly in the upper left hand corner of the image.

To be fair, the speech was a fairly standard stump speech - no mention of vaccines or election fraud and certainly no mention of any Satanic pedophiles running the Deep State.

But still, he was there. Sean Parnell spoke at a rally awash with the medical misinformation regarding Covid vaccines, of election fraud, of "Constitutional Counties" (whatever they are).

All run by an antisemitic nutcase who thinks NASA has a colony of enslaved children on the planet Mars.

Sean, my friend. You've famously said that if you don't denounce something you've endorsed it.

So...what about Robert David Steele? What about QAnon? What about all that anti-vaxx stuff? What about the NASA bullshit?

Your rules, Sean. Denounce or else you've endorsed.

Your call.

August 11, 2021

State Senator Doug Mastriano, IN THE NEWS

And it's not good news for Mastriano.

From the AP (by way of the PG):

A Republican-majority county board in rural northern Pennsylvania on Tuesday accused a state senator of creating “unnecessary chaos” in pushing for a detailed review of how the county collected and counted votes in former President Donald Trump’s reelection defeat last year.

The three Tioga County commissioners all read portions of a statement at a board meeting urging state Sen. Doug Mastriano to reverse his demand that Tioga and two other counties turn over election records and equipment to the Intergovernmental Operations Committee he chairs.

“It is time for Sen. Mastriano to withdraw his demands and to let responsible Republicans get back to work on subjects such as recovering from COVID-19, addressing the opioid crisis and the ‘help wanted’ issue,” the statement said.

Here's the statement, in the event you wanted to read it yourself. 

Here's the result (so far) of Mastriano's quest for that sweet sweet voter info:

Democratic-heavy Philadelphia County’s elections board voted unanimously not to comply. Tioga also turned him down. York County, with a strong Republican majority of voters, raised concerns about his demands but has not expressly said yes or no.

In tiny Fulton County, which did allow third parties to examine its election records and equipment earlier this year, the Department of State has decertified its voting machines, leaving the county with the large and unanticipated expense of replacing them. Other counties have been similarly warned against allowing such access.

So it's a loss for Mastriano, so far.

Let's not forget how entwined he is in Trump's election deception.

When is Trump going to be reinstalled, Doug? Wasn't going to happen this month?

August 10, 2021

Thank You, Big Oil! Thank You, Climate-Sciende Deniers! Thank You, GOP!

From the IPCC Report Summary For Policy Makers:

Observed increases in well-mixed greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations since around 1750 are unequivocally caused by human activities. Since 2011 (measurements reported in AR5), concentrations have continued to increase in the atmosphere, reaching annual averages of 410 ppm for carbon dioxide (CO2), 1866 ppb for methane (CH4), and 332 ppb for nitrous oxide (N2O) in 2019. Land and ocean have taken up a near-constant proportion (globally about 56% per year) of CO2 emissions from human activities over the past six decades, with regional differences (high confidence).

And:

Each of the last four decades has been successively warmer than any decade that preceded it since 1850. Global surface temperature8 in the first two decades of the 21st century (2001-2020) was 0.99 [0.84- 1.10] °C higher than 1850-1900. Global surface temperature was 1.09 [0.95 to 1.20] °C higher in 2011– 2020 than 1850–1900, with larger increases over land (1.59 [1.34 to 1.83] °C) than over the ocean (0.88 [0.68 to 1.01] °C). The estimated increase in global surface temperature since AR5 is principally due to further warming since 2003–2012 (+0.19 [0.16 to 0.22] °C). Additionally, methodological advances and new datasets contributed approximately 0.1ºC to the updated estimate of warming in AR6.

Some assessments from around the globe:

Reuters

HUMANS ARE TO BLAME - FULL STOP

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) used its strongest terms yet to assert that humans are causing climate change, with the first line of its report summary reading: "It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land."

And:

WEATHER IS GETTING EXTREME

Weather extremes once considered rare or unprecedented are becoming more common -- a trend that will continue even if the world limits global warming to 1.5C.

Severe heat waves that happened only once every 50 years are now happening roughly once a decade. Tropical cyclones are getting stronger. Most land areas are seeing more rain or snow fall in a year. Severe droughts are happening 1.7 times as often. And fire seasons are getting longer and more intense.

The New York Times:

The world has already warmed about 1.1 degree Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 19th century. The report concludes that humans have put so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that this warming will continue at least until the middle of the century, even if nations take immediate steps today to sharply cut emissions.

That means some of the noticeable effects the world is seeing now — like extreme droughts, severe heat waves and catastrophic downpours and flooding — will continue to worsen for at least the next 30 years.

Some other impacts will continue for far longer. The enormous ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica will continue to melt at least through the end of the century. Global sea level will continue to rise for at least 2,000 years.

Bloomberg

We can thank decades of science denial from our friends across the political aisle for this.

August 9, 2021

Wendy Bell! You're The One Who's Lying. Again

From Wendy Bell's FB page on Friday:

8/6/21 Those of us who don't lie for a living often ask - How Do They Live With Themselves? Being dirty inside and out and purposefully deceiving people is a filthy game that doesn't wash off in the shower. Jump in on today's show as we BREAK SOME NEWS with Attorney Thomas Renz (the lawyer of the CDC whistleblower who says WAY more than 45,000 Americans have died because of the j@b) AND highlight the best audio soundbites from the USA's dirtiest of dirty.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks (Hamlet 3.2.254).

Look at her first sentence. Then the second. How much projection do you think is stuffed into those three dozen (or so) words? After having written about Wendy Bell for longer than I'd care to admit, I'd have say about 37 words' worth.

But let's wander away from Wendy Bell's dishonesty projection and float over to her actual (purported) statements of fact. Something about Attorney Thomas Renz and the 45,000 Americans who've died of "the j@b) - as Wendy spells it.

But first, let me ask a question: What does this say about all the MAGA folks who want us to praise Trump for Operation Warp Speed?

Like Sarah Sanders, for example:

If President Biden, Vice President Harris, and others on the left truly care about increasing the vaccination rate and saving lives, they should admit they were wrong to cast doubt on Operation Warp Speed and give President Trump and his team the credit they are due for the development of a safe and effective vaccine in record time.

If "the j@b" is responsible for 45,000 deaths, isn't Donald Trump responsible for those deaths as well?

Huh. I hope Wendy will one day explain this profound dichotomy.

But back to the actual statement.

It's false.

Politifact:

An Instagram post claimed, "45,000 confirmed dead from the COVID-19 shots within three days… and they’ve covered it up." 

The number tracks back to a woman who did not reveal her method for calculating the figure and who has not been publicly identified. She based her calculations on reports of deaths in VAERS, according to a lawsuit. But the number does not align with data contained in VAERS — and even the reports of death entered into that system do not prove that those people died as a result of receiving a vaccine. VAERS is an open system that contains reports that can be submitted by anyone and are not verified. 

Finally, the claim was part of a lawsuit by America’s Frontline Doctors, a group that has peddled many false and conspiratorial claims about COVID-19 and vaccines.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Snopes

Despite claiming to have evidence to prove that 45,000 individuals died within three days of receiving their COVID-19 vaccine, our investigation did not reveal a legitimate source to suggest that such allegations are factual. And because our own query into the VAERS system revealed 5,000 deaths following — but potentially unrelated to — COVID-19 vaccination, we rate this claim as “False.”

And so on. 

How do you live with yourself, Wendy? People are suffering because of the misinformation you're spreading. Some of them may even die.

I can understand your need for the projection, if only to protect your ego, but still. 600,000 Americans have died due to the virus. The vaccines are a great weapon in slowing down that number.

Sadly, we're now in the middle of a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

Unvaccinated in part because of people who believe in the drivel you spew.

How do YOU sleep with yourself?

August 8, 2021

MORE Questions For Representative Scott Perry (What Did He Know, How Did He Know It)

You remember Representative Scott Perry, don't you?

He voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the Capital Police for their actions guarding the Capital (and all the people in it, including Perry) during the January 6 Trump-mob insurrection. 

He was also mentioned in that conversation of December 2020 when asked the DOJ to "just say the election was was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen."

He's also the guy link between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Clark, as reported by the NYTimes

It was Mr. Perry, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, who first made Mr. Trump aware that a relatively obscure Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the civil division, was sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s view that the election had been stolen, according to former administration officials who spoke with Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump.

Mr. Perry introduced the president to Mr. Clark, whose openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president’s efforts to undo them.

We're learning more of what Clark did/wanted to do at DOJ and Perry's part in it.

From CNN:

Jeffrey Clark, a Donald Trump-appointed environment law chief at the Justice Department at the center of the former President's efforts to overturn the election, received a high-level intelligence briefing around New Year's 2021 that did little to stop his efforts to prove foreign interference had cost Trump reelection.

Clark is now a major figure in the narrative being written in documents and testimony from former Justice Department officials who were forced to fight off his efforts to orchestrate a coup of leadership at the Justice Department and use it to help the former President.

 And:

By late December, as Trump and his allies pushed conspiracies about alleged irregularities that he claimed stole the election from him, Clark told senior Justice officials that he knew of sensitive information that indicated Chinese intelligence used special kinds of thermometers to change results in machines tallying votes, people briefed on the matter said. The Justice Department by then had made clear it found no evidence of vote-changing in the election.
Watch for that "sensitive information" part. Where did he get it?

After expressing skepticism over the IC's analysis, this happened:

Clark also told colleagues he was in touch with sources who knew more, including someone Justice officials later determined was Rep. Scott Perry, a Trump ally from Pennsylvania who helped Clark get in touch with the former President. Justice Department rules limit contact between department officials and the White House, and Clark's contacts with Trump came as a shock to his superiors. Justice Department officials are also prohibited from discussing investigations with people outside of the department.[Emphasis added.]

Clark asserted that Scott Perry, a Member of the House from Southwestern PA knew more than the Intelligence Community of the United States of America.

And so here are my questions; What did Scott Perry know? How did he come to know it? What did he tell Jeff Clark?

August 7, 2021

Sincere Message To Wendy Bell, The Angel of Death

Wendy,

This is your dear dear old friend Dayvoe over at 2 Political Junkies. Remember me? You invited me onto your program despite the fact that I am blocked from commenting on your Facebook page.

We've never met.

I have no idea anything about you - how you take your coffee, if you're a morning or an evening person, or whether you have any opinion vis-à-vis Kirk vs Picard.

We've never met. I know nothing about you but you're a human being and I'm a human being and that's all I got to go on right now.

Have you heard about Dick Farrel?

From Newsweek:

A Florida radio host who was vehemently outspoken about vaccinations died from COVID-19 complications on Friday.

Dick Farrel, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was beloved by many listeners and supports for his right-wing opinions. Farrel was also known for his thoughts on the COVID-19 vaccine, which he was opposed to taking himself.

Prior to his death, the radio veteran made a number of comments on Facebook regarding Dr. Fauci and the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Fauci, the power tripping lying freak named in the Trump lawsuit," Farrel said in July. "Why take a vax promoted by people who lied 2 u all along about masks, where the virus came from, and the death toll?"

He also had a Facebook page where he posted stuff like this: 


Do any of these ideas look familiar?

Then there's Scott Apley down in the sovereign state of Texas:

A leader of the Texas Republican Party hopped on Facebook in May to post about a “mask burning” party 900 miles away in Cincinnati.

“I wished I lived in the area!” wrote H Scott Apley.

The month before, Apley responded to what Baltimore’s former health commissioner was heralding as “great news” — clinical trials showed the Pfizer vaccine was effective at fighting the coronavirus, including one of the recent variants, for at least six months.

“You are an absolute enemy of a free people,” he wrote in a Twitter reply.

And on Friday, the 45-year-old Dickinson City Council member republished a Facebook post implying that vaccines don’t work.

Two days later, Apley was admitted to a Galveston hospital with “pneumonia-like symptoms” and tested positive for coronavirus, according to an online fundraising campaign. He was sedated and put on a ventilator.

On Wednesday, he died, members of his county’s party announced on social media.

This is that Facebook post he republished:


Do these ideas sound familiar to you?

You said recently that virtually all the members of your extended family have been vaccinated - which is good news as it offers you some amount of protection. How much, no one knows. You're also living in a repetitively well vaccinated state (compared to Florida and Texas, at least). So there's that.

But still. Where do you see your own story ending? Being vaccinated or being intubated in a Covid ward?

How many more people have to suffer and die, Wendy?

Dayvoe