WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Furious at Representative Liz Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger for participating in the January 6th commission, the G.O.P. leadership in the House is punishing the two rogue Republicans by forcing them to spend an hour with Ted Cruz.

Speaking to reporters, the House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, said that the decision to subject the two dissidents to an hour with Cruz “should leave no doubt about how seriously we take their offense.” “Make no mistake,” he said, “an hour with Ted Cruz is the ultimate punishment.”

According to McCarthy, Cheney and Kinzinger will be locked in a room with Cruz, who will then speak, uninterrupted, for an hour on a topic of his choosing. “Ten minutes in, they’ll come to regret what they’ve done,” McCarthy predicted. “No one has lasted fifteen.”

McCarthy’s decision to subject the two Republicans to an hour of Cruz drew a strong rebuke from Representative Cheney’s father, the former Vice-President Dick Cheney. “Much as I have been a longtime supporter of torture, this goes too far,” he said.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/gop-to-punish-cheney-and-kinzinger-by-forcing-them-to-spend-hour-with-ted-cruz

Source: Washington Post

Lawmakers had hoped to meet self-imposed Monday deadline but disagreements keep piling up.

Negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans over a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package appeared to be in political jeopardy on Monday, as lawmakers continued to feud publicly over how to dole out the money and finance the new federal spending.

The impasse arrives after lawmakers toiled away into the weekend over their proposal to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections. Republicans including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah initially hoped to finalize a more robust blueprint as soon as Monday so that the long-stalled debate could finally start, but the prospect now seems unlikely given the sheer scope of policy obstacles that negotiators must resolve.

Lawmakers must still sort through lingering disputes over how to spend billions of dollars to upgrade the country’s railways, for example, along with thorny policy issues around broadband spending — including efforts by Democrats to ensure Internet access is affordable.

Both sides also have failed to come to terms on the formula for doling out money to improve the nation’s highways, as well as the exact funding available for water improvements. And lawmakers remain at odds over provisions sought by Democrats that aim to ensure any federal spending to improve infrastructure will pay workers prevailing wages to do the job.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/07/26/senate-infrastructure-negotiations/

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Surprise, surprise...

Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler plans to invest more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) by 2030 to be ready to take on Tesla in an all-electric car market, but warned the shift in technology would lead to job cuts.

Outlining its strategy for an electric future, the inventor of the modern motor car said on Thursday it would, with partners, build eight battery plants as it ramps up electric vehicle (EV) production.

From 2025, all new vehicle platforms will only make EVs, the German luxury automaker added.

"We really want to go for it ... and be dominantly, if not all electric, by the end of the decade," Chief Executive Ola Källenius told Reuters, adding that spending on traditional combustion-engine technology would be "close to zero" by 2025.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/daimler-invest-more-than-40-bln-euros-by-2030-electric-vehicles-2021-07-22/

Across the country, GOP lawmakers are rallying around the cause of individual freedom to counter community-based disease mitigation methods, moves experts say leave the country ill-equipped to counter the resurgent coronavirus and a future, unknown outbreak.

In some states, anger at perceived overreach by health officials has prompted legislative attempts to limit their authority, including new state laws that prevent the closure of businesses or allow lawmakers to rescind mask mandates. Some state courts have reined in the emergency and regulatory powers governors have wielded against the virus. And in its recent rulings and analysis, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its willingness to limit disease mitigation in the name of religious freedom.

“The legal framework has evolved in ways that will complicate and perhaps undermine efforts to deal with the next public health crisis or even routine health threats,” said Wendy Parmet, director of the Northeastern University Center for Health Policy and Law, who also said she has been a “long critic of emergency laws and their potential for abuse.”

A key issue, Parmet and others say, is that the legislative backlash is based on partisan assumptions about this pandemic, limiting states’ options in the face of a new threat.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/gop-legislatures-health-laws/2021/07/25/2455940c-db54-11eb-8fb8-aea56b785b00_story.html

There’s no question, a hard day of rioting can do quite the number on even the strongest insurrectionist’s back. But Joseph Hackett, a Sarasota chiropractor, was not at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to perform lumbar adjustments or recommend memory foam mattresses.

He was there to “stop, delay and hinder the certification of the Electoral College vote,” according to charges filed by the U.S. government, and his wife still does not understand why he remains in jail since being arrested at his Sarasota office on May 28.

Deena Hackett appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Thursday to complain of the injustices thrust upon her husband, such as being in jail with “murderers and gang members,” and the financial hardships the family has faced since this whole thing happened to a law-abiding “1/6er.”

Bannon – a former Trump adviser arrested last year, and later pardoned, over a border wall scam along with Sarasota County’s Andrew Badolato – called Joseph Hackett a “political prisoner” and also said “we’re going to take action,” whatever that means.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/columns/2021/07/24/there-chiropractor-house-yes-and-hes-sarasota/8067764002/

The Legislature resents both the intrusion on its authority and the policies advanced by the people of Florida.

The Legislature has had it with intrusion on its power by the people of Florida.

This past session, lawmakers adopted Senate Bill 1890, sponsored by southwest Florida state Sen. Ray Rodrigues. It is a severe measure designed to shut down citizen petition gathering for constitutional amendments by limiting the financial contributions that are the oxygen of political movements.

This latest restriction imposes a cap of $3,000 on contributions to committees working to place a constitutional amendment before the voters or opposing a proposed amendment, is being challenged in federal court.

Not surprisingly, on July 1, the day the law was scheduled to take effect, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction.

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/07/25/the-florida-legislature-has-declared-war-on-direct-democracy-column/

Gov. Abbott rips Biden's 'reprehensible' attacks on Texas voting bill: He's 'willing to lie' to 'get his way'

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday slammed President Biden’s "completely reprehensible" attacks on the Republicans’ election integrity bill in his state, saying the president is "willing to lie" to the American people in order to further his political agenda.

During an appearance on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures," the Republican governor told host Maria Bartiromo that Democrats are "flat-out lying" about what the GOP is doing in Texas, with the media echoing their claims.

"In Texas, we truly have made it easier to vote and harder to cheat," Abbott said. "The one thing that you pointed out that we are cracking down on is mail-in ballots," he continued, stating that a judge who was appointed by former President Barack Obama acknowledged that there voter fraud is a problem when it comes to mail-in ballots.

"We all have to agree that if there’s cheating in the election process, we need to stop that cheating, and the best way to stop that cheating is to tighten up restrictions concerning mail-in ballots," he added.

https://news.yahoo.com/gov-abbott-rips-biden-apos-154320874.html

Source: AP

Incendiary balloons launched from the Gaza Strip on Sunday caused at least three blazes in southern Israel, Israeli media reported, raising the possibility of renewed Israeli strikes on the Hamas-run territory.

Photos and video posted on social media showed Hamas-linked activists launching the balloons. On one of them was written the message: “Time is running out.”

The launches came two months after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. The Islamic militant group is upset that Israel has done little to ease a crippling blockade on the territory since the fighting ended, and over delays in indirect negotiations with Israel to resume Qatari financial aid to Gaza.

Israeli media reported at least three fires set in southern Israel, breaking a three-week lull in the launches of the incendiary balloons.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/pro-hamas-activists-launch-incendiary-163928740.html

The international scheme to obtain a coveted Twitter handle ended on a sleepy, country road in Tennessee when police surrounded the home of Mark Herring and ordered him to come out with his hands up.

Authorities were called to the Sumner County address in April 2020 in response to a report that a woman had been fatally shot and pipe bombs would go off if officers arrived, according to court records.

In the hours before, Herring, 60, and his family had been harassed by several people aiming to acquire and then resell lucrative social media handles through a range of intimidation — from phone calls and text messages to false reports of fires and unexpected, cash-only pizza deliveries at their homes.

But Herring’s refusal to give up his @Tennessee handle, federal prosecutors say, led to police surrounding his home with their weapons drawn, and caused the computer programmer to suffer a massive heart attack that killed him. His death in Bethpage, Tenn., was triggered by “swatting” — the illegal practice of calling in fake life-threatening emergencies to provoke a heavily-armed response from police.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/24/swatting-mark-herring-tennessee-twitter/

Florida tops the nation in new COVID cases. As they spike in its rural Big Bend, many still fear the vaccine more.


BRISTOL, Florida – The calls haven’t stopped.

For the last week, paramedic Melissa Peddie has fielded them back-to-back for cases of COVID-19.

Peddie runs the only ambulance in Liberty County, a sprawling, sparsely populated community in Florida’s rural Big Bend, where as of last week just 23.9% of residents were fully vaccinated. The county has seen a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases during July, mirroring other communities across the nation where many people have not gotten the shot.

Peddie, 51, is among the small minority. For her, vaccination was a “no-brainer.”

“I knew I would get the vaccine,” she said. “Every day I climb in the back of that truck is a risk."

https://news.yahoo.com/florida-tops-nation-covid-cases-151309966.html

No surprise about the COVID surge in Florida's Panhandle. It's the reddest part of the state.