As the Delta coronavirus variant fuels deadly, preventable outbreaks in under-vaccinated red states, a fully vaccinated Donald Trump has finally stepped up to deliver the message that so many Republicans urgently need to hear: Vaccines are for fraud-loving socialists who think Sleepy Joe actually won the election.
 

• On Sunday, Trump issued a statement in which he affirmed his base’s anti-vax sentiments and sought to further politicize the lifesaving injections that he himself quietly received back in January: “People are refusing to take the Vaccine because they don't trust his Administration, they don't trust the Election results, and they certainly don't trust the Fake News.” In other words, Trump supporters can demonstrate their loyal adherence to the Big Lie by refusing to get vaccinated. A two-for-one alternate reality subscription package!
   
• Trump’s comments signal a dangerous new phase in the GOP effort to slow down vaccinations, which suddenly has a faint whiff of blackmail about it. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), whose political career is based on starting terrible sentences with “as a doctor,” trotted out a similar false narrative on Fox News Sunday, blaming Louisiana’s 36 percent vaccination rate on a distrust of the government stemming from “partisan comments coming out of the White House regarding the next Jim Crow laws.” Some nice uninfected Americans you’ve got here...would be a real shame if Democrats were to keep calling attention to the GOP assault on voting rights, forcing us to further undermine the pandemic recovery.
   
• Cassidy’s explanation conveniently ignores the flood of vaccine disinformation coursing through the right-wing media ecosystem, from messengers who are almost certainly fully vaccinated. In June, as Fox News hosts were throwing on-air shitfits about the idea of showing proof of vaccination status before licking every surface of a cruise ship, the network’s parent company notified all employees about the new Fox vaccine-passport system that would allow them to self-report their vaccinations in order to bypass daily coronavirus testing at the office.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has kept up the pressure on tech companies to get a handle on their own resident fearmongers. 
 

• After Facebook took umbrage at President Biden’s stark assessment of the platform’s vaccine misinformation problem (“they’re killing people”), Surgeon General Vivek Murthy reiterated the administration’s position that tech companies haven’t done enough to combat misinformation, and Biden clarified on Monday that his comment referred to the 12 accounts spreading the bulk of the anti-vax content without interference. At the same time, Biden politely suggested that Facebook grow the fuck up and focus on cleaning up its mess: “My hope is, that Facebook instead of taking it personally, that somehow I'm saying 'Facebook is killing people', that they would do something about the misinformation.”
   
• This is all pretty dark, but the situation isn’t hopeless. A new Kaiser study found three key things that helped changed vaccine skeptics’ minds: 1) Seeing millions of Americans get vaccinated and live to tell the tale; 2) hearing from friends, family, and personal doctors, and, maybe most relevantly at this juncture; 3) finding out about stuff they wouldn’t be allowed to do while unvaccinated. Vaccine mandates could be instrumental in overcoming hardened resistance, and right-wing whining can’t block them: A federal judge has upheld Indiana University’s requirement for all students to be vaccinated, in what seems to be the first ruling on college coronavirus vaccine mandates.

If there’s any silver lining to Republicans further politicizing the coronavirus vaccine at the worst possible moment, it could be this: With the discourse already about as poisoned as it can get, Democrats have nothing to lose by encouraging local vaccine mandates wherever possible, and could save untold innocent lives by doing so now.

This week on Pod Save America, Hawaii Democratic Senator Brian Schatz stops by to discuss Biden’s economic plans, all things Joe Manchin and the filibuster, and the Capitol Insurrection. Plus, they decide on the best method to get Cory Booker’s attention on Twitter. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the Crooked Media YouTube channel today!

Here’s a less-than-optimal sign about the prospects of the Justice Department holding the Trump administration accountable for, uh, anything: DOJ has declined to investigate former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for lying to Congress under oath, after the Commerce Department’s inspector general determined that he had provided false testimony about his agency’s motivations for trying to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. This marks the fifth time that a Trump cabinet secretary has been referred to DOJ prosecutors only for nothing to happen, but it appears to be the Biden Justice Department that chose not to bother this time. A better bit of news: Attorney General Merrick Garland has formally barred prosecutors from seizing journalists’ records in leak investigations, except in a few specific situations.

• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has reportedly filled his clown car to send to the January 6 committee, and it includes: Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) as ranking member, Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), and Troy Nehls (R-TX). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could veto any of those picks—like, say, the three out of five who voted to overturn the election results.
   
• The first Capitol insurrectionist charged with a felony has been sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to obstructing an official proceeding. Prosecutors had sought an 18 month sentence.
   
• A federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday that DACA is illegal, blocking the program from accepting new applicants and underscoring the tenuous situation of more than 600,000 DREAMers without a pathway to permanent legal status. (Yet.)
   
• Senate Republicans have rejected the IRS enforcement plan in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, generously inventing a whole new genre of GOP Soft On Crime midterm ads. 
   
• A shooting outside Nationals Park in Washington, DC, on Saturday night left three people wounded and sent fans scrambling for safety. 
   
• Haiti’s acting prime minister Claude Joseph will step down in favor of Ariel Henry, who was appointed by President Jovenel Moïse before his assassination.
   
• Dozens of people connected with the Tokyo Olympics have tested positive for coronavirus days before the opening ceremony, including an alternate on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team.
   
• In other ill-timed outbreaks, five of the Texas Democrats who flew to DC have tested positive. All have been fully vaccinated, and as of Sunday were all experiencing either no symptoms or mild symptoms. 
   
• Presidential polls in 2020 were the least accurate in 40 years, according to a new report from American Association for Public Opinion Research, but the authors couldn’t pinpoint why polling was so far off the mark.
   
• Do not fall for Olympic Anti-Sex Bed misinformation! Contrary to all appearances, the twin-sized cardboard beds are firmly Sex-Neutral.

Authoritarian governments have used military-grade Israeli hacking spyware to target activists, journalists, and politicians, according to a media investigation into a huge data leak. The Israeli surveillance company NSO Group produces Pegasus spyware, which can infect iPhones and Android devices to collect emails, call records, passwords, social media posts, photos, location logs—you name it. NSO says the software is intended for use only against criminals and terrorists, and licensed only to vetted government clients with solid human rights records. But from a data leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers in NSO client countries, reporters have identified 189 journalists, dozens of human rights activists and business executives, and members of Jamal Khashoggi’s family, suggesting that NSO software might be enabling major human-rights violations. A forensic analysis of 67 smartphones on the list found that the spyware had been used in attempted or successful hacks of 34 of them. Pegasus infections don’t require the phone owner to click on a weird link, they’re difficult to identify, and even the most up-to-date iPhone is vulnerable. Good stuff, no notes!

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Luke Prokop has become the first active player under NHL contract to come out as gay.

California will provide free school meals for all public school students in the 2021-2022 school year.

A federal appeals court has blocked Indiana’s latest attempt to illegally purge voters from its rolls.

The reviews of the expanded child tax credit are in: “I feel like there’s very few good news stories, and this is one.”