Top Items:
Michaeleen Doucleff / NPR:
The Delta Variant Isn't Just Hyper-Contagious. It Also Grows More Rapidly Inside You — After months of data collection, scientists agree: The delta variant is the most contagious version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads about 225% faster than the original version of the virus …
Discussion:
Florida Politics
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Reuters:
Pfizer to ask FDA to authorize booster dose of COVID vaccine as Delta variant spreads — Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) plans to ask U.S. regulators to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine within the next month, the drugmaker's top scientist said on Thursday, based on evidence of greater risk …
Lauran Neergaard / Associated Press:
Pfizer to seek OK for 3rd vaccine dose; shots still protect — Pfizer is about to seek U.S. authorization for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, saying Thursday that another shot within 12 months could dramatically boost immunity and maybe help ward off the latest worrisome coronavirus mutant.
Discussion:
Axios, USA Today, New York Times, Joe.My.God., HotAir, Boston.com and Toledo Blade
Mary Louise Kelly / NPR:
Fauci Says Current Vaccines Will Stand Up To The Delta Variant
Fauci Says Current Vaccines Will Stand Up To The Delta Variant
Discussion:
KOIN-TV
David Hogberg / Washington Examiner:
Pfizer to seek FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccine booster shot
Pfizer to seek FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccine booster shot
Discussion:
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Gizmodo, Politico, TheBlaze and Deseret News
Sky Palma / Raw Story:
Lincoln Project scores a win against the ‘Sedition Caucus’ after latest ad targeting Toyota — This Thursday, the anti-Trump conservative PAC Lincoln Project released a new ad targeting Toyota for being part of a string of corporations “lavishing massive campaign donations on Republicans …
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Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
Toyota to stop donating to GOP lawmakers who objected to certifying Biden's win — Toyota announced Thursday that its political action committee would no longer make donations to Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the presidential election results in January …
Discussion:
YouTube
Sam Vaca / Toyota USA Newsroom:
Toyota Statement on PAC Contributions
Toyota Statement on PAC Contributions
Discussion:
CBS News, NBC News, TheBlaze and Talking Points Memo
Riley Beggin / Detroit News:
Toyota stops donations to election objectors after PAC takes ads out against company
Toyota stops donations to election objectors after PAC takes ads out against company
Discussion:
Dallas Morning News, Raw Story, Breitbart, The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, USA Today, HuffPost and Townhall
David Rutz / Fox News:
Lincoln Project's Steve Schmidt: Capitol riot worse than 9/11 attacks, ‘likely to kill a lot more Americans’
Lincoln Project's Steve Schmidt: Capitol riot worse than 9/11 attacks, ‘likely to kill a lot more Americans’
Discussion:
National Review, The Daily Caller and Twitchy
Lachlan Markay / Axios:
Toyota to cease donations to election objectors
Toyota to cease donations to election objectors
Discussion:
Mediaite and The Daily Caller
Bob Brigham / Raw Story:
‘Call out Fox News!’ Mitch McConnell shredded after saying he's ‘perplexed’ about why GOP voters refuse vaccines — The politicization of coronavirus vaccines in America has created a correlation between vaccination rates and whether or not a state voted for Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
Discussion:
The Hill, HotAir, POLITICUSUSA and FiveThirtyEight
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Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Toyota reverses course, says it will stop donating to Republican objectors
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Toyota halting contributions to U.S. lawmakers who opposed Biden certification
Toyota halting contributions to U.S. lawmakers who opposed Biden certification
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Associated Press and Kyodo News+
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Toyota says it will stop donating to Republicans who contested the election results.
Toyota says it will stop donating to Republicans who contested the election results.
Discussion:
Boing Boing
New York Times:
Scripps Spelling Bee 2021: Live Updates — Zaila Avant-garde spells her way to victory! — The last few words were rattled off fast between the two final finalists, Chaitra Thummala and Zaila Avant-garde. — First was fewtrils (things of little value), which Chaitra got right.
Miami Herald:
Two South Florida men were involved in President Moïse's assassination, investigators say — Two South Florida men have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse, the Miami Herald has learned. — James Solages, of Fort Lauderdale …
Discussion:
Florida Politics, The Western Journal, Palm Beach Post, Insider and Washington Examiner
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Erika Edwards / NBC News:
Unvaccinated hospitalized patients say they regret not getting the shot … To describe Dr. Ryan Dare as frustrated would be a gross understatement. — Dare and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock are dealing with a surge in extremely ill Covid-19 patients …
Henry Olsen / Washington Post:
J.D. Vance is scaring America's elite. Good. — Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance is being attacked by critics on the left and right for his populist economics and his changed views on former president Donald Trump. That's a good sign that Vance's message is getting through and that he can win.
Discussion:
Althouse, HotAir, Yahoo News and TIME
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Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
An ugly new right-wing attack poses a test for populists like J.D. Vance
An ugly new right-wing attack poses a test for populists like J.D. Vance
Discussion:
Digby's Hullabaloo, New York Magazine and Alternet.org
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Tom Cotton's slimy attack on a ‘critical race theory’ professor is full of holes — Sen. Tom Cotton is calling for the firing of a U.S. Air Force Academy professor after she admitted to discussing critical race theory with cadets. But even a cursory look at the Arkansas Republican's slimy argument shows …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Politico, RedState, ArkansasTimes, New York Post, The Western Journal and The American Independent
Wall Street Journal:
‘Financially Hobbled for Life’: The Elite Master's Degrees That Don't Pay Off — Columbia and other top universities push master's programs that fail to generate enough income for graduates to keep up with six-figure federal loans — Recent film program graduates of Columbia University …
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The rapid decline of White evangelical America? — New data suggests a bigger decrease than previously understood — including in the GOP. — If there was an epitome of Donald Trump's hostile and often puzzling takeover of the Republican Party, it might have been his alliance with evangelical Christians.
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA, Digby's Hullabaloo, PRRI, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing and Blue Virginia
Media Matters for America:
Sean Hannity says “it's inevitable” that “America's streets will run with blood” — Tucker Carlson calls jailed insurrectionists “political prisoners” — Tucker Carlson compares vaccine requirements to forced sterilization — Fox host Mark Levin on Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “She's an enemy.
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA
Mica Soellner / Washington Times:
Va. GOP demands ethics probe of polisci heavyweight Larry Sabato's ‘bitter partisanship’ on Twitter — The Virginia Republican Party on Thursday demanded an ethics investigation into the University of Virginia's top elections forecaster, Larry Sabato, over his tweets that they say display “bitter partisanship” in favor of Democrats.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Disgraced Trump foe Michael Avenatti weeps as he is sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for Nike extortion scheme — Michael Avenatti, the brash attorney who became a leading foe of then-President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison for a brazen botched scheme …
Discussion:
CBS News, CNN, Washington Post, New York Daily News, The Wrap, HotAir, Courthouse News Service, The Western Journal, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CBS New York, Breitbart, New York Post, Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, RedState, ABC News, TheBlaze, Talking Points Memo, Associated Press and ProFootballTalk
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Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Tucker Carlson's Extremely Mad That Journalists FOIA'd His FOIA Request to NSA — The idea that reporters would use basic journalistic tools to verify his claims about the NSA set Carlson off on Thursday night—and he took specific aim at Ken Klippenstein. — Fox News host Tucker Carlson …
Discussion:
Fox News and emptywheel, more at Mediagazer »
Richard L. Hasen / Slate:
The Supreme Court's Latest Voting Rights Opinion Is Even Worse Than It Seems — It's been almost a week since the Supreme Court issued its most significant ruling on voting rights in nearly a decade, and each time I read Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the angrier I become.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Insider, New Republic and Raw Story
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Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“There's Going to Be a Blowup”: Trump and DeSantis Are on a Collision Course — In public it's all smiles, but behind the scenes, Republicans are already preparing themselves for a showdown between former president Donald Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
SFGATE:
Too hot to hike? Yosemite to hit 111 degrees this weekend. — The mercury in Yosemite hit 103 degrees Thursday at 2 p.m., and it's still rising. The national park is forecast to hit 106 degrees today at the start of a heat wave that will broil the U.S. West Coast through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Donald J. Trump / Wall Street Journal:
Why I'm Suing Big Tech — If Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can censor me, they can censor you—and believe me, they are. — One of the gravest threats to our democracy today is a powerful group of Big Tech corporations that have teamed up with government to censor the free speech of the American people.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal:
Inside Donald Trump's Last Days in the White House and Plans for a Comeback — The president's effort to overturn the election alienated much of his inner circle—but solidified his dominance of the GOP. Now he's planning his return. — On the morning of Nov. 7, 2020 …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Alternet.org, How To Live BULLSHIT-FREE and Political Wire
Dan Egan / New York Times:
The climate crisis haunts Chicago's future. A Battle Between a Great City and a Great Lake — Chicago has a weakness at its very foundations. The towering skyscrapers and temples of commerce were built upon a swamp. — Chicago has a weakness at its very foundations.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money
The Daily Beast:
Rudy Giuliani's Legal Fund Was a Bust. Now, Its Donation Page Has Disappeared. — The Fundly account raised $9,798 before the page disappeared—far short from its goal of raising $5 million in two months. — After raising a paltry sum of money from supporters and attracting little interest …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Noah Millman / HotAir:
Europe is becoming a right-wing continent — In Europe today, the most viable traditional parties are often mainstream right-wing parties that have sought to coopt the nationalist right's issues — most notably Boris Johnson's Tory Party, which eclipsed UKIP by adopting Brexit for itself …
Reuters:
EXCLUSIVE U.S. set to add more Chinese companies to blacklist over Xinjiang — The Biden administration is set as early as Friday to add at least 10 more Chinese companies and other entities to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang, two sources told Reuters.
The Seattle Times:
Two Seattle officers trespassed on U.S. Capitol grounds during riot and should be fired, investigation finds — Two of the six off-duty Seattle police officers who attended a pro-Trump rally that led to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in January trespassed onto restricted grounds and stood …
Discussion:
The Hill, Raw Story, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, MyNorthwest.com and Snopes.com