Sunday, January 31, 2021

Epidemiologist On Biden Transition Team Warns Virus Variants Cause An Unprecedented Surge In Cases In Coming Weeks (US Had Nearly 100,000 Covid-19 Deaths In January)

Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the Biden's transition team advising on coronavirus, says he fears the more contagious variants of the virus (specifically B117) could lead to an unprecedented surge in cases "in the next six to 14 weeks . . . something like we have not seen yet in this country".

In January 2021, more than 6,250,000 new cases were reported in the United States (with a high of 308,000 new cases on January 8). There were roughly 98,000 deaths. Back in late May 2020, there was a tremendous amount of media coverage when the US death toll surpassed 100,000. Now that same number of Americans die in only four weeks and it generates a small fraction of the attention.

Osterholm predicts B117, the more contagious strain that has already been detected in 24 of the 50 states, will soon become the dominant strain of the virus in the US. "If we see that happen, which my 45 years in the trenches tell us we will, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country."

The US averaged more than 200,000 new cases per day in January. Osterholm says the country should prepare for twice that number in the coming weeks. In an appearance on Meet the Press yesterday, he said the US should make sure it gets "as many one-doses in as many people over 65 as we possibly can, to reduce serious illness and deaths that are going to occur over the weeks ahead".

The January surge in cases and deaths, caused in part by traveling and gatherings during the holidays, overwhelmed the hospital systems in numerous cities, forcing medical staff to ration care. Nearly one-quarter of US hospitals were facing "critical" staffing shortages before the winter holidays, when there were (only) 73,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations. Last month saw that number rise to more than 130,000, before dropping to just under 100,000 for the first time in more than two months.

If hospitals cannot adequately care for the number of patients who are sick right now, what will happen in a few months when, as Osterholm predicts, those numbers double?

* * *

Also: On November 13, 2020, it was reported that according to one simulation, the US death toll would be 438,000 by March 1, 2021. The US passed that number five days ago (January 27) and the death toll is now more than 452,000.

In South Dakota, one out of every 500 residents died of Covid-19 last year, a mortality rate that ranked among the worst in the world. The state's governor is Republican Kristi Noem, who refused to impose almost all restrictions and is considered one of the Sedition Party's bright lights for the future.
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Rudy Claims The Lincoln Project "Planned" The Capitol Attacks To Hurt Trump;
The Project's Letter In Response Is Hilarious And A Goddamn Work Of Art

Rudy Giuliani, who constant lies and idiocy has burned his chances of being a guest on numerous networks ("All the media!"), including Fox (though that's because he didn't lie enough), found that Steve Bannon's online program was one of the only places left on earth who will listen to him. 

On January 29, Rudy told Bannon's audience that The Lincoln Project was responsible for the domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol. Even Bannon, a certifiable nutjob, didn't buy Rudy's deranged fantasy. 

The Lincoln Project also did not take kindly to this "textbook act of defamation" and fired off a three-page letter, stating that Giuliani has until this Wednesday, February 3, to fully retract his statement and publicly apologize. "Refuse at your peril."

(Giuliani is already being sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems for his false claims about them.)
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Saturday, January 30, 2021

Two Pipe Bombs Found During Capitol Attack Were Placed The Night Before


Pipe Bombs Found Near Capitol On Jan. 6 Are Believed To Have Been Placed The Night Before
Dalton Bennett, Emma Brown, Sarah Cahlan, Josh Dawsey and Joyce Sohyun Lee, Washington Post, January 29, 2021
The two pipe bombs that were discovered on Jan. 6 near the U.S. Capitol shortly before a mob stormed the building are believed to have been planted the night before, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation and video footage obtained by The Washington Post.

The explosive devices, which were placed blocks from one another at the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, have been largely overshadowed by the violent attempted insurrection at the Capitol. . . .

The FBI said its agents are "using every tool in our toolbox" and have interviewed more than 1,000 residents and business owners in the neighborhood where the devices were found. On Friday morning, the FBI released additional information that confirmed The Post's reporting about the timing of the placement of the bombs and raised the reward offered to $100,000. . . .

On Jan. 5 at 8:13 p.m., a security camera captured the suspect carrying a backpack, according to a resident who reviewed the footage and provided a copy to the FBI. The suspect was walking eastbound on C Street SE, headed toward an entrance to an alley that curved toward the Republican National Committee building. . . .

Seconds later, in video obtained by The Post, the suspect can be seen in the alley, known as Rumsey Court. The individual is wearing a light-colored sweatshirt and carrying the backpack near their waist, matching photographs that have been released by the FBI, and walking west past a row of homes. The suspect is believed to be walking toward the area behind the Republican National Committee building and the Capitol Hill Club to place the explosive device . . . [video at link]

Another video shows the suspect carrying a backpack near their waist as they approach the area where the bomb was discovered on Jan. 6. They appear to be wearing a mask and gloves. According to the law enforcement official, this is the last known sighting of the suspect before the placement of the bomb. . . . [video at link]

For unknown reasons, the suspect did not immediately leave the area. Another video obtained by The Post shows the suspect retracing their steps on Rumsey Court at 8:16 p.m., again walking westbound toward the RNC building. The individual is moving at a brisk pace and still carrying a backpack near their waist. [video at link]

One minute later, the suspect is seen walking eastbound on Rumsey Court — away from the area where the pipe bomb was discovered. They are wearing the backpack on their back. [video at link]

The same person is suspected of placing the bomb at the Democratic National Committee building, according to the FBI. . . . 

Barry Black, a retired FBI special agent bomb technician, said . . . the individual could have been seeking to kill or injure, or could have simply wanted to "send a message" by targeting the nation's two largest political parties. Steven Sund, who resigned as chief of the Capitol Police in the wake of the riot, has said he suspects the bombs were an intentional effort to draw officers away from the grounds of the Capitol.

The bomb behind the RNC was discovered on Jan. 6 at around 12:45 p.m., about 90 minutes before rioters entered the Capitol. Resident Karlin Younger was on her way to do laundry when she spotted something unusual on the ground between a recycling bin and a rat trap. Younger said in an interview that she bent down to inspect the device, which was attached to what appeared to her to be a kitchen timer. The timer was set to 20 minutes, she said. She did not hear any ticking and could not tell if the timer was active. She alerted a nearby security guard . . .

The device was considered "live," meaning it contained viable explosive material . . . It was disarmed at the site . . . Around 1:15 p.m., officials have said, the second bomb was discovered several blocks away next to a bench outside the DNC. It, too, was live and was disarmed on site . . .

Tucker Carlson Fears Peaceful Protesters Outside His House While Dismissing
Violent Terrorists Inside The Capitol; Infantilizes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez By
Calling Her "Sandy", A Nickname She Used In High School

Rudy Giuliani's Latest Theory Is Too Unhinged For Steve Bannon, Who Proposed
Beheading Dr. Fauci And The Director Of the FBI And Putting Their Severed Heads On
Pikes Outside The White House As A Warning To Those Who Speak Out Against Trump

Citizen's Arrest Of Long-Time Russian Asset
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Friday, January 29, 2021

Republicans' Complete Refusal To Denounce Greene's Deranged, Violent, Racist Comments Means They Are Mainstream Party Positions

Nancy Pelosi, January 28, 2021:

It shouldn't be that not only is the President of the United States inciting an insurrection but keeps fanning the flames, endangering the security of members of the Congress, to the point that they are even concerned about members in the House of Representatives being a danger to them.

[Q: What exactly did you mean when you said "the enemy is within"?]

It means that we have members of Congress that want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on the members of Congress.

* * *

On January 3, 2021, Rep. Lauren Boebert (Seditionist-Colorado) tweeted she "WILL carry my Glock to Congress. Government does NOT get to tell me or my constituents how we are allowed to keep our families safe."

I understand Boebert is an idiot, but can someone explain how her bringing a loaded Glock to her workplace keeps her family (which is presumably many miles away) safe?

Lawrence O'Donnell, The Last Word, MSNBC, January 28, 2021:

[The FBI continues to arrest rioters but] Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today the real problem now is "the enemy within the House of Representatives". [Picture of Marjorie Taylor Greene] This enemy of the House, this enemy of the constitution, is a member of the House of Representatives and she believes all of the worst things that the invaders of the Capitol believe, all of the stupidest things, the racist things, the anti-Semitic things. Marjorie Taylor Greene's public record prior to becoming a member of the House of Representatives was so poisonous that even House Republican leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise actively opposed her candidacy in a Republican primary. She publicly supported assassinating Nancy Pelosi and now she is fully embraced by the Republicans in the House and the Senate. When a poison like that enters your political system and you say and do nothing about it, then you are more than complicit. That means you actually want that poison in your politics because you believe it will help you.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, MSNBC, January 27, 2021:

I actually sense a profound difference between the Republican caucus of last term, the 115th Congress, and the Republican caucus of this term . . . [L]ast term, the Republican caucus was one of extreme fealty to Donald Trump. There were some that were true believers, others that simply remained quiet out of cowardice and out of fear of the president's retribution. But this term, there are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers that sit at the heart and at the core of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives. . . .
It increasingly seems, unfortunately, that in the House Republican caucus, Kevin McCarthy answers to these QAnon members of Congress, not the other way around. . . . He said he was going to pull Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene aside . . . When I hear that Representative McCarthy is going to pull a member aside who has made white supremacist sympathizing comments, the thing that I think is what is he going to tell them? Keep it up? Because there are no consequences in the Republican caucus for violence. There's no consequences for racism, no consequences for misogyny, no consequences for insurrection. And no consequences means they condone it. It means that that silence is acceptance and they want it. Because they know that it is a core animating political energy for them. And this is extremely dangerous, an extremely dangerous threshold we have crossed . . . now we are talking about fealty to white supremacist organizations.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC, January 28, 2021:

Kevin McCarthy doesn't care what Marjorie Taylor Greene says or believes.  He sees, and this is the hard part, probably rightly, that there is political power, energy as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, to be gained from it. Now, today, Kevin McCarthy even made a deeply humiliating, almost-too-awful-to-watch pilgrimage down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of the twice-impeached, possibly soon-to-be-indicted, ex-president. Because there is no line crossed that goes too far for him or for them or for the party. This is where we are, folks. This is what everyone has to acknowledge. There will be no self-regulation, no self-governance, no "did we go too far?", no mea culpas. There will be no growth. This is what the contemporary Republican party, and conservative movement right now, is.

Zerlina Maxwell (Signal Boost), MSNBC, January 28, 2021:

They are not apologizing because they are not sorry. 

Greene has publicly expressed support (numerous times) for the execution of Nancy Pelosi, she has taunted a teenager, saying the school massacre he survived didn't actually happen, and she has said that she believes Democrats are Satan-worshipping pedophiles who have videotaped themselves skinning infants alive.

As far as I can tell, not one member of her party has said those comments were inaccurate or unprofessional or the deranged ramblings of a severely mentally ill woman who needs to be calmly guided back into the institution. That silent and all-encompassing acceptance of Greene's comments means these unhinged beliefs form the core of the Republican party platform.

Rebecca Traister, (New York Magazine), MSNBC, January 28, 2021:

The thing we have to reckon with, and the Democrats have to reckon with . . . is that this is not a problem that began or is going to end with Marjorie Taylor Greene or even with Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley or Lauren Boebert.

This has been happening . . . the politics of white supremacist resentment and violent misogyny . . . extends decades into the Republican party's past. You could see this building – this exact set of violent antagonism towards democracy itself, towards the United States and its institutions – building during the presidency of Barack Obama. You saw these exact patterns. . . . You could see in the summer of 2016, when you had a New Hampshire lawmaker calling for Hillary Clinton to be taken out on a firing line and shot for treason. He did that three times in public . . . You also saw Trump himself threatening to imprison Hillary Clinton. I mean, absolute violations and antagonism towards the United States' institutions and its electoral practices, building and building.

The Republican party has had a long time to decide what to do with this. With Trump, after a little preformative, window-dressing, 'we-don't-like-him', they accepted him and that open antagonism towards the United States and its electoral processes and towards democracy entered the White House. . . . [I]t's not about the individuals anymore. The party has welcomed them in. It is appointing them to committees. . . . 

McCarthy is not in control of his caucus and I would argue neither is Mitch McConnell . . . [T]hese men are being led by this faction of their party. The party has embraced this.
So how do you treat an entire political party that is working antagonistically, aggressively, and violently against the United States?

Most journalists covering US politics (as opposed to Op-Ed writers) seem incapable of reporting on reality (much like Republicans):

The contempt and harrassment and calls for death continue:
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Thursday, January 28, 2021

Among The Numerous Unhinged, Seditious, Nonsense-Spouting, Reality-Denying Clowns In The Republican Death Cult Calling For The Mass Execution Of Fellow Lawmakers, Marjorie Taylor Greene Stands Out ("A One-Stop Shop For All Things Insane")

Update: More silliness and garbage from the person who (a) called a school shooting survivor a "coward" for ignoring her questions and (b) threatened to have a reporter arrested because she wanted to ignore her questions:

In February 2019, she claimed that then-Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced by a body double, the theory being that she had allegedly died and Democrats decided to trick everyone by using a doppelganger (but for a dead person) to retain her Supreme Court seat. (This subterfuge apparently completely fooled the other eight Justices, several of whom I assume would have been more than happy to blow the whistle. Also, why would the Democrats announce her death with Trump still in office? Why didn't they wait a few months until Biden could fill the seat? And why am I wasting time thinking about this brain-rotting shit?)
* * *
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Representative for Georgia's 14th congressional district:
was one of the 147 representatives who committed sedition on January 7, 2021, by rejecting and attempting to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election

said (July 2020) "children should not wear masks" during the pandemic that has killed nearly 450,000 Americans (and infected more than 25 million) in less than a year

said (September 2020) "Forcing boys to wear masks is emasculating"

said (November 2020) mask-wearing and basic public health precautions were "oppressive" and "Democrat tyrannical control"

believes the "Pizzagate" conspiracy is real (stating in 2017 that Hillary Clinton was guilty of pedophilia and human sacrifice and had murdered her political enemies ("Clinton Kill List"))

believes the Frazzledrip conspiracy is real (stating in 2018 that Clinton and her assistant Huma Abedin videotaped themselves murdering a child in a satanic ritual and that Clinton later ordered a police officer to cover up the crime)

believes the "QAnon" conspiracy is real (stating in 2017 the theory was "worth listening to", adding: "There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president [Trump] to do it."

wrote (in 2018) that the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, was a hoax

stalked (live-streamed in March 2019, posted to YouTube in January 2020) David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, a founding member of "Never Again MSD", and one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018, taunting him and accusing him of participating in a hoax (she has also called him a "coward" and "#littleHitler")

ejected WRCB-TV reporter Meredith Aldis from a town hall event (January 27, 2021) and threatened her with arrest for asking a question about the video showing Greene harassing Hogg

wrote (in 2018) that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax

wrote (in 2018): "I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that 'we need another school shooting' in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control."

believes the 2017 Las Vegas hotel shooting and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand were part of an elaborate plot to eliminate the Second Amendment and outlaw gun ownership

stated (in 2018) that militia groups were "the very definition of our Second Amendment. . . . [W]e're guaranteed the right to bear arms and make a state militia so that they do not run us over."

stated (in 2020) she would never support a law making it harder for people to possess guns ("the government will never tell me how many guns I can own, and how many bullets I am allowed to fire")

said women who oppose school shootings "need to grow some balls. . . . [M]ost dads, unless they're a bunch of beta male, wussy, feminized men, are going to say, 'Yeah, put guys, put good guys, good women with guns at our kids' schools . . ."

shared (in 2018) a video ("With Open Gates: The Forced Collective Suicide of European Nations") outlining the anti-Semitic claim that "Zionist supremacists" want to flood Europe with immigrants to outnumber the "native" white populations in "the biggest genocide in human history" (Greene: "This is what the UN wants all over the world.")

claimed George Soros (a Holocaust survivor) is a Nazi and is "trying to continue what was not finished" by the Third Reich

repeated (in November 2018) the anti-Semitic belief that the deadliest fire in California history was caused by a "space laser so California could build a high speed rail system" (with the involvement of Rothchild Inc.)

called Black Lives Matter a "radical Marxist" group and compared BLM activists to the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia

stated: "The most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males."

stated that Black Americans are "slaves to the Democratic Party"

stated (in 2018) that the election of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to Congress was part of "an Islamic invasion of our government" (her campaign videos in 2019 and 2020 contained numerous racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic statements)

stated (in February 2019) her intention to force Omar and Tlaib, who took their oaths of office using Qurans, to retake their oaths on Bibles. She implied there was a law requiring it, which is completely wrong. Article VI of the Constitution states "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States".

accused Omar of marrying her brother so he could gain US citizenship

posted (September 2020) an image of herself holding a rifle beside photos of Reps. Omar, Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, vowing to "go on the offense" against her future colleagues

defended the United Constitutional Patriots, a vigilante group known for detaining immigrants at gunpoint in Sunland Park, New Mexico

stated (in 2017) that Nancy Pelosi's sympathy for undocumented immigrants and opposition to Trump's border wall made her guilty of treason, "a crime punishable by death"

announced (in February 2019) that Nancy Pelosi would "suffer death or she'll be in prison" for "treason"

announced (in February 2019) that Representative Maxine Waters was "just as guilty of treason as Nancy Pelosi"

expressed support (in 2018 and 2019) for the execution of numerous Democrats, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and any FBI agents who refuse to do the bidding of Donald Trump (in April 2018, she wrote: "Stage is being set" for the hanging of both Obama and Clinton; in 2019, she liked a comment on her Facebook page proposing "a bullet to the head" would be a quick way of getting Pelosi out of office) (Greene also self-identifies as a Christian)

believes Seth Rich, a member of the Democratic National Committee, was murdered on orders from Barack Obama (Fox News agreed to pay millions of dollars to Rich's family to compensate them for false conspiracy claims made by Hannity et al.)

filed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden on January 21, 2021 (his first full day in office), alleging abuse of power

was locked out of her Twitter account for 12 hours on January 17, 2021 "for multiple violations" of the platform's civic integrity policy. Upon her return, Green told Twitter: "Contrary to how highly you think of yourself and your moral platitude, you are not the judge of humanity. God is."

has been recently praised as a "future Republican Star" and "strong on everything" and a real WINNER" by Donald Trump

is now a member of the House Education and Labor Committee (Charles P. Pierce, Esquire: "She's a one-stop shop for all things loony. She's a utility wingnut.")
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Both Sides

Axios is moving up on the New York Times in the media race to the Both Sides Hall of Fame.

R Side:
The Democrats are part of a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles that run a global child sex-trafficking cult and are cannibals who absorb a life-extending chemical by drinking the blood of their victims. They should be put to death immediately.
D Side:
Everyone in the United States should have free access to quality healthcare and be able to earn a living wage.

Because overthrowing the government through violence and murder is as much a "political thorn" as fighting climate change to ensure the viability of the human race.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Is This Supposed To Be A Threat?


* * *

COVIDIOTS

REGULAR GOP IDIOT
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45 Of 50 Senate Republicans Support A President Who Commits Sedition, Tries To Illegally Overthrows A Fair Election, Incites & Encourages An Armed Rebellion Determined To Assassinate The Vice President And Other Lawmakers In Order To Set Himself Up As An Unelected Dictator (This Would Be Very Wrong If Done By A Democrat, Of Course)

Terrorism, sedition, mass death, dictatorship, sadism, and an all-out war against democracy, equal rights, and civility.

That is the platform of the Republican party. (The Republicans also support the deaths of at least 435,000 Americans in less than one year to a virus about which their Lord and Savior* deliberately did nothing for 11 months.)

Support for an armed rebellion against the country's other political party, a mob determined to handcuff lawmakers it believes are traitors and drag them outside to a scaffold for a series of public executions, is not limited to a fringe inside the party. It is the party's core belief.

45 of 50 Senate Republicans believe a president (of their party only) should be able to commit sedition, illegally overthrow a fair election, and set himself up as a dictator. A recently-elected representative from Georgia was demanding the executions of numerous Democrats only two years ago.

[*: A man that many of them believe was anointed by God to lead an apocalyptic battle against an underground cabal of pedophiles and Satan-worshipping Democrats and celebrities.]

Trump's supporters beat a police officer to death during the Capitol attack. And it turns out Trump likes cop killers.

Greene posted these comments to her Facebook page, along with far-right extremist beliefs, such as the QAnon conspiracy, which claims former President Donald Trump was placed in office by God as a messiah to battle an underground cabal of pedophiles and Satan-worshipping Democrats and celebrities.

Greene has "liked" comments stating:
"through removal or death, doesn't matter, as long as she [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] goes"

"HANG that bitch" [referring to either former President Barack Obama or former Secretary of State John Kerry]

"civil war 2.0" should be started

FBI agents not supporting Trump "quite frankly need to be hung for TREASON!" 

"These Traitors need to be put to death as an example of what will no longer be tolerated in our country!!!"

"a bullet to the head would be quicker" to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

"Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H & O ???" [Hillary Clinton and Obama. Greene replied: "Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off."]
Greene also believes the Parkland, Florida school shooting was faked and she referred to David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting, as "#littleHitler" and a "bought and paid little pawn" and actor.

In January 2019, Greene created a White House petition calling for the impeachment of Pelosi for "crimes of treason", because, for one example, Pelosi did not support Trump's border wall. In a posted speech, Greene said:
She's a traitor to our country, she's guilty of treason. She took an oath to protect American citizens and uphold our laws. And she gives aid and comfort to our enemies who illegally invade our land. That's what treason is. And by our law representatives and senators can be kicked out and no longer serve in our government. And it's, uh, it's a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.
In a Facebook Live broadcast on February 22, 2019, Greene said Pelosi will "suffer death or she'll be in prison" for her "treason". CNN points out that Greene never mentions a trial.
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Monday, January 25, 2021

"Growing Evidence" (Just Like The Growing Evidence Of Election Fraud)

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Dominion Brings $1.3 Billion Defamation Suit Against Rudy Giuliani


"After A Fair Trial of Course"
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Friday, January 22, 2021

Trump Plotted With DOJ Lawyer To Oust Acting AG And Force Georgia To Overturn State's Election Results

I wonder how many of these crazy-ass stories are going to emerge.

* * *
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