Trail Mix

It’s called manslaughter, reckless disregard for life.

“The war has changed” – CDC (Washington Post)

WAPO: Delta variant infections are probably more severe, CDC document says, citing data showing vaccinated people can spread coronavirus. “So contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold or smallpox and just as transmissible as chicken pox”

“Trump bled in Texas, and that sends a big signal to lots of Republicans everywhere, that he’s not bulletproof anymore,” Mark McKinnon says on Republican Jake Ellzey winning a U.S. House seat over his Trump-backed rival Susan Wright.

Trump poured $100k into Wright’s campaign from Club for Growth, did robocalls, and hosted a conference call with his Maga crowd on election eve.

And GOP senators ignore Dear Leader. 17 vote for it. Trump threatens Republicans who may back Senate infrastructure deal. “Don’t do it Republicans—Patriots will never forget! If this deal happens, lots of primaries will be coming your way!” he says in statement

Republicans want more dead so they can blame Biden in midterms… Mitch McConnell tried to pin slowing vaccine rates on Biden, despite conservatives leading efforts that erode trust.

Still trying to figure out this riff from Trump’s Arizona speech last Saturday, like he even knows what a router is: “The county has, for whatever reason, also refused to produce the network routers. We want the routers, Sonny, Wendy, we got to get those routers, please. The routers. Come on, Kelly, we can get those routers. Those routers. You know what? We’re so beyond the routers, there’s so many fraudulent votes without the routers. But if you got those routers, what that will show, and they don’t want to give up the routers. They don’t want to give them. They are fighting like hell. Why are these commissioners fighting not to give the routers?”

At last, the time has come and history textbooks wait to be written. Will they be read or allowed to be read – or even be allowed to be written about what really happened?

‘We have to get it right,’ Dem vows as Jan. 6 probe begins | NEWS10 ABC

“We have to get it right,” Thompson said. If the committee can find ways to prevent anything like it from happening again, “then I would have made what I think is the most valuable contribution to this great democracy.”

Thompson, 73, is a liberal fixture in Congress and longtime champion of civil rights, the only Democrat in the Mississippi delegation, hailing from a majority-black district in the state’s western half. He has avoided the limelight during his more than 15 years on the Homeland Security Committee, notching achievements with careful bipartisan outreach.

Several Democrats and Republicans said Thompson was the right choice to lead an investigation that is certain to be partisan and fraught.

“I’ve dealt with Bennie for 15 years, and we disagreed on a lot, but I don’t think there was ever a harsh word between us,” says former Republican Rep. Pete King of New York, who was the chairman and top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee for years opposite Thompson. “Bennie is low key, he manages his side well. He was a good guy to work with. He was strong and knew what he wanted, but there was very little drama.”

New York Rep. John Katko, who is now the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, gave a similar assessment. Thompson is “a good man, a patriotic American” and a “productive partner,” Katko said in statement.

[stay tuned]