Here’s a quick tip for any governors with presidential ambitions who can’t seem to stop using their power to hurt people: Make sure you’re registered with the party where having an unchecked sadistic streak is a feature, not a bug.
 

• Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), a sex pest hiding under an Italian flag, begrudingly announced his resignation on Tuesday under tremendous pressure from within his own party: “In my mind, I've never crossed the line with anyone. But I didn't realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.” Cuomo will leave office in two weeks, at which point Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) will become the state’s first female governor, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will triumphantly grow another two inches in height.
   
• Meanwhile, the Republican governors with their beady little eyes on the White House are competing to see who can send the most kids to the hospital, without a whiff of GOP pushback. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has refused to budge on his mask-mandate ban, even as coronavirus cases once again overwhelm Texas ICUs. Instead, Abbott asked hospitals to postpone elective surgeries and said that Texas would bring in out-of-state health-care workers to help deal with the surge he’s actively exacerbating. If you listen very quietly, you can hear exactly zero Texas Republicans calling for his resignation.
   
• As a result, Texas school districts have the pleasure of choosing between obeying state law and protecting vulnerable children from the Delta variant. The Austin and Dallas Independent School Districts have each announced that they’ll defy Abbott’s ban and require masks anyway, and the superintendent for Houston ISD, the state’s biggest district, said he’s in favor of a mandate as well. Abbott’s executive order is also facing legal challenges from local officials and a nonprofit education group.

Not to be outdone, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has threatened to impose financial penalties on any officials who don’t help him infect the children of Florida.
 

• After some of Florida’s largest school districts announced that they would require masks in spite of DeSantis’s No Variant Left Behind order, DeSantis’s office released a statement threatening to withhold the salaries of any superintendents and county school board members who issued mask requirements for students. That warning came as infections in the state rose 51 percent in the span of a week, with 4,615 Florida children admitted to the hospital last week. “I think if Florida were another country, we would have to consider banning travel from Florida to the United States,” said CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner on Sunday.
   
• Abbott’s and DeSantis’s bans on public-health measures would be dumb as hell at the best of times, but they’re downright ghoulish in light of the increasing evidence that the Delta variant poses more of a threat to children than the original strain. In the last week of July, children under 12 (who can’t yet get vaccinated) accounted for 19 percent of the country’s new reported cases. And while there’s not yet enough data to say whether Delta causes more severe illness in children, it sure is sending more kids to the hospital. On Tuesday, Anthony Fauci said that “critical situation” warranted making vaccines mandatory for teachers. 

It’s to Democrats’ credit that a high-profile governor with a horrific pattern of sexual harassment wasn’t able to escape consequences just because of his party affiliation. But some of the biggest psychopaths in governors’ offices are in fact doing the GOP proud by throwing children to the wolves to prolong the pandemic, and it’ll be up to the left and the media to frame that as the scandal it is.

This week on America Dissected, host Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is joined by Dr. Angela Rasmussen of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization to discuss the latest developments around the Delta variant. Check it out and find more conversations like these by subscribing to America Dissected wherever you get your podcasts.

Folks…..we have BIFtoff. The Senate passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Tuesday with a vote of 69 (nice) to 30, sending it to the House for eventual approval. Nineteen Republicans—including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—supported the bill in spite of disgraced former president Donald Trump’s furious efforts to derail it, adding a nice little Trump-humiliation cherry on top of billions in funding for expanding broadband access and rebuilding roads, bridges, and water systems. With the first phase of President Biden’s infrastructure agenda finally over its biggest hurdle, Senate Democrats immediately turned to their even better $3.5 trillion budget resolution, kicking off a vote-a-rama on dozens of amendments that will continue through Tuesday night.

• The Texas Supreme Court has halted a lower court’s ruling that protected Texas Democrats from arrest upon their return from Washington, DC. A chunk of the delegation has already gone back to Texas, but as of Tuesday, the Texas House was still eight Democrats short of a quorum.
   
• Dominion Voting Systems has sued Newsmax, OAN, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne over their 2020 election lies.
   
• Twitter has suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for a week after she tweeted that coronavirus vaccines are “failing” and ineffective at reducing the spread of the virus. According to Twitter’s coronavirus-misinformation policy, a one-week suspension is the punishment for violating that policy four times—a fifth violation would (in theory) get Greene banned for good.
   
• Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) announced he won’t seek re-election in Wisconsin’s most competitive district, adding a big hurdle on the road to keeping Democrats in the House majority.
   
• Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who’s already questioned prosecutors about whether they’re going too easy on January 6 insurrectionists, asked on Monday about why they were seeking to have the mob pay just $1.5 million in restitution when taxpayers are shelling out more than $500 million to cover the costs of the attack.
   
• The Department of Homeland Security has warned state and local authorities about a rise in online calls for violence related to 2020 election conspiracy theories.
   
• A black market for fake vaccine cards has sprung up as more colleges start requiring proof of vaccination, because why get a safe, life-saving vaccine for free when you can pay $400 for a card that claims you got one?
   
• A better question: Why are the vaccine cards just slightly too big? The answer will shock you! (Nobody really thought about it.)
   
• In our hyper-polarized political environment, where Americans are at each other’s throats and airline passengers are attacking flight attendants with increasing regularity, what this country needs is something grounding, something soothing, something to bring the national temperature down. Introducing alcoholic Mountain Dew.

Michigan’s independent redistricting commission looks poised to hire a law firm infamous for defending outrageous GOP gerrymanders, which doesn’t seem like the best sign. BakerHostetler, the partisan firm behind stunningly unconstitutional gerrymanders in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, is the leading applicant to help Michigan’s independent commission draw new maps, and the commission could vote on the contract as early as Thursday. Thursday’s also when the Census Bureau plans to release the data that states use for redistricting, marking the deadline for Congress to do something about gerrymandering in time for the midterms. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to force votes on the Manchinized-For The People Act later this week, as well as additional votes on measures to end partisan gerrymandering and combat dark money in elections, but there's been no visible movement towards a filibuster carveout to make any of that possible.

In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.  

Millions of people are trying and loving online therapy. It doesn’t have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

So, what is therapy, exactly? It’s whatever you want it to be.

You can privately talk to someone if your stress is too much to manage, you’re battling a temper, having relationship issues, anxiety, depression, etc… Whatever you need, there’s no more shame in these normal human struggles. We take care of our bodies, why not our minds, too? Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD.

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.

It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.

The average pace of new vaccinations has climbed above 500,000 per day for the first time since June.

The Charlotte, NC, city council has voted to add sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, familial status, pregnancy, and natural hairstyle as protected classes against discrimination.

The Education Department has ditched a Trump-era policy that protected student loan companies from state regulation.

The American Medical Association’s LGBTQ advisory committee has advised the organization to push for removing sex labels from birth certificates.