Below the fold – June 2, 2021

Below The Fold: The news that do not make the headlines but are important. By PL Hade

1. S1 (Voting Rights Act) will be put to a vote the third week in June. Marc Elias (Democracy Docket) and others who are in the trenches of the voting rights fight are asking that everyone call their Senators to push for passage of the bill. It is important that we do that even though our Senators are in favor of the bill so they have the backing to really fight on this one.
   • If you have property in a state with a GOP Senator please write, call and basically bug them.
   • If you have friends/family in Red States please write, call and bug them to bug their Senators. When Marc Elias says that the bill has to pass or democracy is in danger, we should listen.
2. Texas Democrats did well for their constituents but need the Voting Rights Bill passed.
   • On Sunday night in the Texas State House Democrats walked off the floor denying a quorum so the vote on the Texas voter suppression bill could not take place. The Texas legislature’s session ended on May 31 and they only are in session once every two years. Their next session will begin on January 10, 2023. (Governor Abbott has said he will call a special session of the legislature this fall to take up the bill.)
   • The bill will not only make it harder for black, brown and young voters to vote but gives the legislature the power to overturn an election by lowering the legal threshold to a “preponderance of evidence” that there had been fraud. While that sounds okay they also put a provision in that says that the ballots don’t have to be opened to have a preponderance of evidence. The translation is that a bunch of people can claim fraud and that’s enough for the legislature to overturn the election.https://www.reuters.com/…/texas-legislature-close…/
3. Dan Crenshaw and Tom Cotton have set up a website for “whistleblower” submissions to report “woke ideology” infiltrating the military. Like the Nazi reporting system. Like the Soviet reporting system. The military can’t function if they don’t trust each other – this is designed to see that they don’t.
4. One more in the string of people who seem astonished that there are consequences for actions.
   • NASHVILLE — Hatworks is literally selling Star of David pins that say “Not Vaccinated” hatwrks@gmail.com (615) 678-5690
   • After this was first reported (thank you Tennessee Holler! @TheTNHoller ) the owner posted twice doubling down on using the Star of David/ not vaccinated. By the next day Stetson made the announcement they and their distribution partners will be ending the sale of all Stetson products to the store. Other hat makers followed their lead and suddenly the original Hatworks posts were deleted and the owner apologized. Funny how that works… https://www.wkrn.com/…/nashville-hat-store-issues…/
5. “Employers can require all workers physically entering a workplace to be vaccinated against covid, federal government says in updated guidelines, though there could be exceptions for disability or religious beliefs.” Peter Baker – https://wallstreetjournal-ny-app.newsmemory.com/…
6. This is important because our kids under 12 can’t be vaccinated. Please read.
   • “The country’s declining covid-19 case rates present an unrealistically optimistic perspective for half of the nation — the half that is still not vaccinated.”
   • But adjustments for vaccinations show the rate among susceptible, unvaccinated people is 73 percent higher than the standard figures being publicized.”
   • “In the United States, the current case rate for unvaccinated residents is similar to the case rate for all residents on December 31.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/covid-rates…/…
7. Taxpayers are paying his military pension: Former national security advisor Michael Flynn said at a QAnon convention (yup they have them) that he thinks a coup like the coup in Myanmar should happen in the US. That would be the coup where they arrested the elected officials and declared martial law. (He’s been trying to walk that back.) https://www.huffpost.com/…/michael-flynn-qanon…
8. A very unscientific scan of the GOP sites indicates that the far right favors Singh in the GOP primary and the non-reality right favors Rizzo.
   • Singh has declared that Critical Race Theory is racist, Trump is the best president we’ve ever had and he’d make New Jersey an open carry state. (He loaned his campaign 400,000.00+ so that he qualified for matching funds. I can’t decide if that’s unethical or smart.)
   • Rizzo says that: (1) he’d eliminate the sanctuary state policy, (2) Lift all lockdowns, mask mandates etc. (3) he’ll defund Rutgers University if they keep the Covid19 vaccine policy. He’s also into conspiracy theories. (He’s the one who lives in a 1.6 million dollar home tax free because he sold it to the church he started and claims it as a parsonage. No one knows how the church raised the money to pay for it.) https://www.politico.com/…/pastor-running-for-governor…
9.  The Oath Keepers among us
   • North Jersey Oath Keepers membership includes:
     • a New York Police Officer,
     • a Marine veteran (Northvale),
     • four Navy veterans (Stanhope, Northvale & Little Falls),
     • eight Army veterans (Northvale, Sussex, North Arlington, Emerson, Wayne, Newark, Teaneck, Port Monmouth, Morristown),
     • an Air Force veteran (Freehold),
     • a first aid squad member (Northvale),
     • a firefighter from Verona,
     • a firefighter from Chatham,
     • a former firefighter from Emerson,
     • a current employee of the Essex Department of Corrections (Nutley),
     • two members of the Army National Guard (Montclair, Carteret),
     • and a member of the Clinton Fire Department (Pittstown)
   • The Oath Keepers have been designated a terrorist organization in Canada but not in the US.
   • Four more indicted in alleged Jan. 6 Oath Keepers conspiracy to obstruct election vote in Congress https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/270b1e6a-bf43-11eb…
10. Covid19
    • 598,257 Americans have died of Covid19
    • NJ: 144 lab confirmed new positives (it’s a holiday weekend, numbers will be low)
    • Rate of Transmission 0.79
    • B.1.1.7 variant (UK variant) is the predominant strain of Covid19 in NJ
    • 4,229,214 of us are fully vaccinated.
    • “Watching the variant from India rapidly infect unvaccinated young people in the UK, I would tell unvaccinated people to do it now.” Andy Slavitt
    • Vietnam detects highly contagious new coronavirus variant as infections surge The new variant is a mix of the coronavirus strains first detected in the United Kingdom and India, the country’s health minister said. “The minister said that the new variant was particularly contagious via air and that viral cultures have revealed that it replicates extremely quickly,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/vietnam-hybrid…/…
    • The Chinese government says a 41-year-old man has contracted what might be the world’s first human case of the H10N3 strain of bird flu, but that the risk of large-scale spread is low. China’s National Health Commission said the man is in stable condition. https://apnews.com/…/china-bird-flu-flu-health…

support democracy and election infrastructure? it doesn’t happen without people working on it year in and year out. Please donate to this work.

Download QR