Top Items:
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:
Los Angeles Times
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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 …
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 …
Jeffrey H. Anderson / City Journal:
Do Masks Work? — “Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS!” So tweeted then-surgeon general Jerome Adams …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
Rachel Gutman / The Atlantic:
Why Is It Taking So Long to Get Vaccines for Kids?
Discussion:
Human Events, ABC7, Common Dreams and Politico
Charles Gaba / ACA Signups:
U.S. #COVID19 vaccination levels by county OVER TIME
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA, CNN, Townhall and New York Post
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
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
Alison Durkee / Forbes:
Dominion Lawsuits Against Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell And Giuliani Can Move Forward, Court Rules
Discussion:
Insider, Deadline, Joe.My.God., HotAir and Washington Post
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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New York Times:
Texas Hospitals Are Already Overloaded. Doctors Are ‘Frightened by What Is Coming.’ — Across Texas, health officials warned of a growing crisis not seen in months, with more than 10,000 Texans hospitalized and intensive care units stretched thin. — SAN ANTONIO — At least two hospitals …
Discussion:
The Hill, CBS News, RedState, Just Above Sunset, The Texas Tribune and Washington Post
Courtney Kube / NBC News:
Potential Al Qaeda resurgence in Afghanistan worries U.S. officials — With the Taliban steamrolling across Afghanistan, U.S. defense officials are concerned that a Taliban takeover of the country will allow Al Qaeda to rebuild and consolidate, creating security concerns well outside Afghan borders.
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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 …
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 Slate
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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.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Sacramento Bee, Real Clear Politics and Ace of Spades HQ
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:
The Hill, The Western Journal, Raw Story, Popular Information, Tennessee Star and HotAir
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:
The Hill, Raw Story and The Intellectualist
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.
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 …
Discussion:
NBC News, HuffPost, CNN, Mock Paper Scissors, UPROXX, Raw Story, Joe.My.God., New York Post, Slate, The Daily Beast, Zandar Versus The Stupid, ABC News and Washington Examiner
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, Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and The Colorado Sun
Nick Judin / Mississippi Free Press:
UMMC Prepping Garage For Field Hospital, Requesting Federal Support To Staff It (Updated) — The University of Mississippi Medical Center is clearing out space in the bottom floor of a parking garage to prepare for the construction of a field hospital to handle the burden of an overwhelming influx of new COVID-19 patients.
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Ashton Pittman / Mississippi Free Press:
Mississippi's Hospital System Could ‘Fail’ In 10 Days, UMMC Warns As Feds Rush In
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Zandar Versus The Stupid, HotAir and Raw Story
Katie Benner / New York Times:
Former U.S. attorney in Atlanta says Trump wanted to fire him for not backing election fraud claims. — Byung J. Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, told congressional investigators on Wednesday that his abrupt resignation in January had been prompted by Justice Department officials' warning …
Brooke Singman / Fox News:
HHS the latest agency to mandate COVID vaccinations for health care workers — Veterans Affairs expanded its existing vaccine mandate to more workers — HHS chief Becerra claims vaccine status is ‘government business’ — The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced …
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
Josh Boswell / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Russians have videos of me doing crazy f***ing sex!’ Hunter Biden is seen in unearthed footage telling a prostitute that Russian drug dealers stole ANOTHER of his laptops for blackmail while he was close to overdosing in a Vegas hotel room — Hunter Biden claims Russian …
Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
Giuliani told agents it was okay to ‘throw a fake’ during political campaign — Rudolph W. Giuliani's promise of a “big surprise” to help Donald Trump's election in October 2016 led to Democratic accusations the FBI was feeding him secrets about an investigation of Hillary Clinton.
Discussion:
HuffPost, Insider, Politico, Washington Examiner and Raw Story
Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:
Trump Judges Won't Stop Whining About Cancel Culture — Donald Trump and his allies spent much of the 2020 campaign fomenting Republican fear of “cancel culture” to whip up votes against Joe Biden. He decried the alleged crisis in many speeches, accusing Democrats of wielding “cancel culture” …
Hussein Ibish / The Atlantic:
When They Fantasize About Killing You, Believe Them — Decades of living in, studying, and writing about the Middle East have taught me that whenever a political faction becomes obsessed with violent rhetoric and fantasies, brutal acts aren't far behind. And while there's always been a strain …
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:
Insider, Joe.My.God. and Raw Story
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
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