Top Items:
Ed Yong / The Atlantic:
How the Pandemic Now Ends — In September 2020, just before COVID-19 began its wintry surge through the United States, I wrote that the country was trapped in a pandemic spiral, seemingly destined to repeat the same mistakes. But after vaccines arrived in midwinter, cases in the U.S. declined and …
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Washington Post:
A majority of Americans in highly vaccinated counties now live in covid hot spots, Post analysis finds — Two-thirds of Americans in highly vaccinated counties now live in coronavirus hot spots, according to an analysis by The Washington Post, as outbreaks of the highly transmissible delta variant …
Discussion:
Kevin Drum, Los Angeles Times and Political Wire
New York Times:
Why Only 27 Percent of Young Black New Yorkers Are Vaccinated — As the Delta variant courses through New York City, many young Black New Yorkers remain distrustful of the vaccine. — A construction site safety manager in Queens said that as a Black man, he was more worried about the prospect …
Discussion:
Althouse
Jeffrey H. Anderson / City Journal:
Do Masks Work? — “Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS!” So tweeted then-surgeon general Jerome Adams …
Do Masks Work? — “Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS!” So tweeted then-surgeon general Jerome Adams …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Clayton Cramer and Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times:
California doing much better with Delta variant than Florida, Texas. Here's why
California doing much better with Delta variant than Florida, Texas. Here's why
Discussion:
ACA Signups
Drake Bennett / Bloomberg:
Business Is Using Less Carrot and More Stick on Vaccinations
Rachel Gutman / The Atlantic:
Why Is It Taking So Long to Get Vaccines for Kids?
Why Is It Taking So Long to Get Vaccines for Kids?
Discussion:
Human Events, ABC7, Common Dreams, Politico and CNN
Lara Jakes / New York Times:
U.S. Asks Taliban to Spare Its Embassy in Coming Fight for Kabul — The demand seeks to stave off an evacuation of the embassy by dangling aid to future Afghan governments — even one that includes the Taliban. — WASHINGTON — American negotiators are trying to extract assurances …
Discussion:
U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, HotAir, Washington Free Beacon, CNN, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Sputnik News, Twitchy, The Daily Caller, Lenta.ru and Politico
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Saeed Shah / Wall Street Journal:
Afghans Tell of Executions, Forced Marriages in Taliban-Held Areas — In public statements, the Islamist militant group has pledged it wouldn't seek vengeance against government officials and troops — KABUL—Taliban leaders have publicly pledged to be magnanimous in victory …
Discussion:
National Review, Twitchy and Forbes
Craig Whitlock / Washington Post:
The grand illusion: Hiding the truth about the Afghanistan war's ‘conclusion’
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Biden administration tries to mobilize international diplomatic effort to halt Taliban
Biden administration tries to mobilize international diplomatic effort to halt Taliban
Discussion:
Politico, HotAir, Kevin Drum, New York Post, Common Dreams, National Review, Townhall, Wall Street Journal and TheBlaze
Michael Crowley / New York Times:
Taliban Advances in Afghanistan Could Bring Political Peril for Biden
Taliban Advances in Afghanistan Could Bring Political Peril for Biden
Discussion:
The Hill and The Western Journal
Joseph Clark / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Cyber expert says his team can't prove Mike Lindell's claims that China hacked election — SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The cyber expert on the “red team” hired by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell now says the key data underpinning the theory that China hacked the 2020 election unveiled at the Cyber Symposium is illegitimate.
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Katelyn Polantz / CNN:
Judge allows defamation lawsuits against Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO to go forward
Judge allows defamation lawsuits against Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO to go forward
Discussion:
NBC News, Strangely Blogged and The Gateway Pundit
Daniel Villarreal / Newsweek:
‘This Is a Mistake’: Steve Bannon Slams Mike Lindell's Symposium for Not Proving Voter Fraud
‘This Is a Mistake’: Steve Bannon Slams Mike Lindell's Symposium for Not Proving Voter Fraud
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars
Alison Durkee / Forbes:
Dominion Lawsuits Against Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell And Giuliani Can Move Forward, Court Rules
Dominion Lawsuits Against Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell And Giuliani Can Move Forward, Court Rules
Discussion:
The Intellectualist, Insider, Deadline, Joe.My.God. and HotAir
Mary L. Trump / New Republic:
Donald's Plot Against America — I felt as though I had stumbled across a crime scene so violent that I couldn't process it, let alone synthesize the images in front of me. The parts remained stubbornly separate, and there was no way to grasp the meaning of the whole.
Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
Greg Abbott Surrenders to the Coronavirus — A year and a half into the pandemic, Texas is running out of hospital beds. — The Texas Tribune reported on Tuesday that nearly 10,000 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized, and that the state's intensive-care units are being overwhelmed.
Discussion:
Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Tribune, Insider and Off the Kuff
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ABC News:
Gaetz associate providing feds intel, documents as probe into congressman continues: Sources — Former tax collector Joel Greenberg is cooperating with investigators. — As the federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz continues into the summer, sources tell ABC News that Gaetz's …
Discussion:
Insider, Raw Story, The Hill, Joe.My.God., Orlando Weekly and The Intellectualist
Washington Post:
Texas Senate passes bill with new voting restrictions after a Democrat filibustered for 15 hours to try to stop the measure — AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved a bill that contains new voting restrictions after a Democratic senator filibustered for 15 hours to try to stop the legislation …
Discussion:
Mother Jones and National Review
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Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
The GOP strategy for retaking power is about to take an ugly new turn — It is a brutal reality about this political moment that Republicans can capture the House while dwelling almost exclusively in the safe confines of their alternate information environment.
Discussion:
MSNBC, Insider, New York Times, Associated Press, NBC News and Daily Kos
Marc Caputo / Politico:
White House seizes an opportunity to whack DeSantis — MIAMI — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made himself the national face of the anti-Biden Covid-response resistance. — So the president decided to punch it. — For the past two weeks, Biden and his allies have publicly escalated a war …
Discussion:
Trending Politics, The Hill, The Western Journal, Popular Information, Raw Story, Tennessee Star and HotAir
Washington Post:
What Rosen told U.S. senators: Trump applied ‘persistent’ pressure to get Justice to discredit election — Former president Donald Trump's last attorney general has told U.S. senators his boss was “persistent” in trying to pressure the Justice Department to discredit the results of the 2020 election.
Discussion:
The Hill, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Joe.My.God. and The Colorado Sun
Politico:
Emails: Senior DOJ officials wrangled over baseless Trump voter fraud allegations — During Donald Trump's final weeks in office, top Justice Department officials wrangled over how the FBI should handle a particularly wacky voter fraud allegation promoted by the then-president and his allies.
Discussion:
HotAir, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Rumble, a YouTube rival popular with conservatives, will pay creators who ‘challenge the status quo’ — The video site has exploded during the pandemic as a home for anti-vaccine misinformation and conservative complaints about Big Tech censorship — A fast-growing YouTube rival popular …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and The Wrap, more at Mediagazer »
Jake Dima / Washington Examiner:
Biden calls Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ‘Jennifer’ in latest slip — President Joe Biden called Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom he had on a list of potential running mates ahead of the 2020 presidential election, “Jennifer,” marking his latest slip.
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Paul Egan / Detroit Free Press:
Biden calls Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ‘Jennifer’ during meeting on infrastructure package
Biden calls Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ‘Jennifer’ during meeting on infrastructure package
Discussion:
Detroit News, RedState, BizPac Review and Fox News
NBC News:
California dad killed his kids over QAnon and ‘serpent DNA’ conspiracy theories, feds claim — A California surfing school owner who was charged with killing his two children in Mexico is a follower of QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories who thought the children “were going to grow …
David Wallace-Wells / New York Magazine:
Don't Panic, But Breakthrough Cases May Be a Bigger Problem Than You've Been Told Current public-health messaging may understate the scale and risk. — The term itself, perhaps, is a problem. “Breakthrough” sounds bad — implying an immune-escape mutation, likely rare, and therefore alarming.
Discussion:
Tennessee Star
Michael Brendan Dougherty / New York Times:
Pope Francis Is Tearing the Catholic Church Apart — Mr. Dougherty, a senior writer at National Review, has written extensively about faith and the Roman Catholic Church. — In the summer of 2001, I drove up to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to find what we called “the traditional Latin Mass,” …
Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:
‘Everybody I Know Is Pissed Off’ — The vaccinated, across party lines, have kind of had it with the unvaccinated, an array of new polls suggests. — While most state and national GOP leaders are focused on defending the rights of unvaccinated Americans, new polling shows that the large majority …
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Ben Shapiro's Book Is a Glib Rationale for Right-Wing Authoritarianism The Authoritarian Moment is anti-anti-Trumpism distilled. — Like many conservative intellectuals, Ben Shapiro reacted to Donald Trump's rise with horror, declaring, “ I will never vote for this man.”
BuzzFeed News:
The Sunrise Movement's Members Of Color Say The Group “Tokenized” And “Used” Them For Years — As the youth-led Sunrise Movement helped catapult racial justice to the center of the national conversation on climate change, many of its members of color repeatedly charged over the last three years …
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Rand Paul discloses 16 months late that his wife bought stock in company behind covid treatment — An aide to the Kentucky Republican said he prepared the disclosure last year and only recently learned that it was never transmitted — Sen. Rand Paul revealed Wednesday that his wife bought stock …
Cindy Krischer Goodman / Sun-Sentinel:
Broward County hospital admissions lead US, as Florida COVID cases hit another daily high at 24,753 — For the 11th straight day, Florida hospitals set records for the number of COVID patients they are treating, and on Wednesday the state set a new high for daily cases.
Discussion:
Florida Times Union and Orlando Sentinel
The Daily Beast:
Trump Keeps Rejecting Pleas From Allies for Pro-Vax Campaign — Donald Trump's former allies keep pleading with him to aggressively back the COVID-19 vaccine. Trump won't do it. — It's been more than six months since Donald Trump left office and, despite pleas from multiple friends and advisers …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Joe.My.God.