Stories & Opinions Worth Knowing but Maybe Not Quite Threadworthy 7/30

[SVPete]

CNN STILL Pushing COVID Fear in 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/07/29/cnn-still-pushing-covid-fear-in-2023-n1714562

Imagine being so soulless as to be a CNN editor still pushing COVID fear in this, the Year of Our Lord 2023.

Imagine being gullible enough, as a non-ironic consumer of corporate state media, to take it all in.
...
Via CNN (emphasis added):

It’s time to stock up on tissues, bingeable TV options and Covid-19 tests. Yes, many signs are pointing to a Covid-19 summer surge – although one that’s far less intense than what emerged the past few summers.

Experts say they do not expect that cases will be severe or that the uptick will be prolonged, and there are early signs from wastewater data that this wavelet may already be leveling out.

Looking at Daily New Cases here, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ (and correcting a comment I've made previously), the daily numbers for the US are so low that it's hard to mouse-over the line and see the numbers. The numbers have been under 10K, consistently, since mid May, with num summer bump. Daily Deaths have been under 100 per day since the end of May. Anyone who fantasized, even in January 2020, that what came to be called Covid would magically disappear was fooling themselves. What has happened is that vaccine and recovery resistance plus virus mutation have, like the "Spanish Flu" of 1918, have made Covid  much like modern influenza, unpleasant to most, deadly to a very few.

But CNN longs for the "Good Old Days" when Covid-lies helped defeat Donald Trump and Covid-hype was a tool to try to boost Brandon's public image.

If they haven't picked up on it already, someone should troll DU with this CNN story, https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/health/summer-cold-covid-19/index.html .

[Old n Grumpy]

I think it’s a diversion to take our attention off of the hunter / big guy scandal 

[ADsOutburst]

I think it’s a diversion to take our attention off of the hunter / big guy scandal 

So is talk of UFOs. So is.. well, pretty much everything not related to Big Guy-gate.

[SVPete]

We're too far past the stage when wolf-crying would work. Unfortunately, I don't think there a real wolf to eat CNN.

[Eupher]

Pretty sure I scanned a headline earlier today that the CDC is considering a recommendation to pimp Wuhan Virus shots every year, just like they do when they pimp flu shots.

So yeah, leftists aren't done with the pandemic. 

[Eupher]

Transsexual Requests Euthanasia in Canada over Pain from Sex Change Surgery

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/07/30/transsexual-requests-euthanasia-in-canada-over-pain-from-sex-change-surgery/

A post-operation transsexual Canadian has requested that the socialised healthcare system provide an assisted suicide lethal injection in order to end long-term suffering and pain from a surgery to manufacture a “neo-vagina”.

Lois Cardinal, a self-described “sterilized First Nations post-op transsexual”, has expressed immense regret over a 2009 surgery to create an imitation vagina out of an inverted penis, saying that euthanasia would be preferable to the constant pain from the novel operation. The aftermath of the surgery often leaves many in pain, with the resulting “neo-vagina” effectively being an open wound that needs to be dilated daily to prevent it from closing.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Cardinal said: “I’m in constant discomfort and pain… It’s taking this psychological burden on me. If I’m not able to access proper medical care, I don’t want to continue to do this.”

Cardinal applied for Canada’s MAiD (medical assistance in dying) euthanasia programme, however, despite the progressive socialised healthcare system being one of the most liberal in providing assisted suicide, the 35-year-old Alberta resident has initially been rejected.

“Based on current clinical information and consultations [the patient] does not meet current MAiD criteria,” the doctor wrote.

In medical documents released by Cardinal on social media, a doctor wrote that “Based on current clinical information and consultations [the patient] does not meet current MAiD criteria.”

It is believed that the transsexual individual did not qualify for the euthanasia programme, which is open to those who are suffering from incurable diseases or disabilities, as there are options to mitigate the pain from the sex change surgery.

The case has, according to opponents, demonstrated the pitfalls of not only transgender surgery but of the 2021 liberalisation of the euthanasia laws in Canada, which has opened the way for an estimated record of 13,500 state-backed suicides last year, up from 10,064 in 2021. Campaigners have raised concerns that more people like Cardinal will apply for the programme rather than the traditionally terminally ill patients.

These are truly sick people. Since Canadians have decided to play God and off themselves in record numbers, there probably aren't enough insane asylums in Canada to handle the demand.

Beyond that tepid observation, my Give-A-Shit Meter broke on all of this woke stuff long ago. The lesson for adults waltzing down this path should be, "Cutting your balls off is kinda like getting a tattoo, just in reverse. You ain't gettin' 'em back once they're gone."

[Eupher]

'Obstruction of Justice': DOJ Sends Letter on Archer's Jail Time Just Before Meeting With House Oversight

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2023/07/30/doj-letter-on-devon-archers-jail-sentence-comes-just-before-hes-set-to-testify-for-oversight-committee-n2626393

Devon Archer, the former friend and business partner of Hunter Biden, is set to testify for a closed door meeting before the House Oversight Committee on Monday. This comes after Archer had already canceled many other opportunities. Now that he appears ready to finally do so, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter on Saturday asking for a date on when Archer is supposed to start his prison sentence for defrauding Native American tribes.

A report from POLITICO looked to emphasize that the letter won't impact such testimony, but it's still a pretty big coincidence:

On Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York wrote to trial judge Ronnie Abrams and asked her to schedule a date for Archer to report to prison, after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals finalized an order days earlier upholding his one-year sentence.

The court isn’t expected to make a decision before Archer will meet behind closed doors with the House Oversight Committee, meaning that even if the court ultimately sides with the request Archer wouldn’t have to report to prison before the meeting. And his attorney said in a statement that he will move forward with his planned appearance Monday.

A spokesperson for the office of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on the filing or the timing of the letter. But according to the one-page letter, filed by assistant U.S. attorney Negar Tekeei, prosecutors had asked Archer’s attorney to recommend a reporting date in light of the Second Circuit ruling but were rebuffed.

Archer’s counsel, according to the DOJ letter, said it was “premature” to set a sentencing date because Archer was considering further appeals and intended to raise an “error” in the sentencing process. Archer’s lawyer plans to file a response to the U.S. attorney’s demands by Wednesday.

Matthew Schwartz, Archer’s attorney, also rejected the notion that there’s any connection between Archer’s tiff with the Justice Department and his potentially imminent jail time.

“We are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice’s weekend request to have Mr. Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee,” Schwartz said in a statement. “To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation. In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to do all along, which is to show up on Monday and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by the Congressional investigators.

Although a statement from Archer's attorney wishes "[t]o be clear" that he "does not agree with that speculation," the timing is awfully convenient. The POLITICO report goes on to mention how "the latest turn in the long-running conflict creates an odd backdrop."

Speculation still abounds, even with the statement from Archer's attorney. The New York Post's Miranda Devine tweeted out the letter from U.S. attorney in the SDNY Damian Williams, calling it "highly unusual," and adding it "Intimidates the witness" and "Discredits him by highlighting fraud conviction."

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took notice of Devine's tweet. "The DOJ is now actively committing the crime of obstructing a congressional investigation," he noted in part of his retweet, also pushing for action if Archer does not show up for Monday's meeting, and tagging Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).

In the replies, Stephen Miller noted that the DOJ's action constituted felonies, with Gaetz asserting in subsequent tweets that Biden's DOJ "is creating a Constitutional Crisis."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) retweeted Gaetz, pointing to how the situation "is getting to be Banana Republic territory."

During his Sunday morning appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures," Chairman Comer emphasized to host Maria Bartiromo how unusual it is for the DOJ to send such letters on a Saturday.

"Never. Never. This is the first time I have ever heard of the Department of Justice doing anything on a Saturday," Comer said in response to Bartiromo's question of "do you usually see the DOJ send letters like this out on a Saturday?"

In explaining what the letter entailed, Comer described it as "trying to nudge the judge to go ahead and sentence Devon Archer for something unrelated to what we're going to be talking to him about tomorrow," adding that he felt odd. "It's odd that it was issued on a Saturday. And it's odd that it's right before he's scheduled to come in to have an opportunity to speak in front of the House Oversight Committee and tell the American people the truth about what really went on with Burisma," he said.

"So, I don't know if this is a coincidence, Maria, or if this is another example of the weaponization of the Department of Justice, but I can tell you this," Comer continued, as he warned further just what the DOJ under President Joe Biden is trying to do. "The lengths to which the Biden legal team has gone to try to intimidate our witnesses, to coordinate with the Department of Justice, and to certainly coordinate with the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to encourage people not to cooperate with our investigation, to encourage banks not to turn over bank records. To encourage Treasury not to let us have access to those suspicious activity reports, it's very troubling," he added.

While Comer believes that this constitutes "obstruction of justice," he vowed that "nevertheless, we're going to continue to move forward and try to present the American people with the facts and the truth about this president and his family."

Comer also indicated during the interview that "I know he's been intimidated by the Biden legal team," speaking about Archer. While he said "I don't want to put words in Devon Archer's mouth," Comer did offer what he's hoping Archer will bring to the meeting.

"He has an opportunity to come tomorrow to the House Oversight Committee and tell the truth," Comer said about Archer. "He has an opportunity to be a hero, like the two whistleblowers were, like the judge in Delaware was, who rejected the sweetheart plea deal from the Department of Justice to Hunter Biden. Devon Archer could be in that category of Americans that just come and tell the truth. That's all we want."

To recap in a sense, Comer added "we know that Devon Archer was on the board of Burisma with Hunter Biden. We know that Devon Archer has met and communicated many, many times with Joe Biden about Burisma and other things. So this is going to be an opportunity for Devon Archer, just to tell the truth. We have other bank statements that we've obtained that we have questions about pertaining to countries that we believe Archer may have knowledge of. "

Comer has been looking to get to the bottom of Hunter Biden's shady business deals and how it could implicate his father, as part of keeping promises to the American people following Republicans taking control of the House after the November 2022 midterm elections.

As Devine also previewed, Archer's testimony is expected to shed some light on how Hunter Biden put his father, then the vice president, on the phone with foreign business partners or potential investors. Archer said he witnessed this two dozen times.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been quite testy in insisting that the narrative that the president was not involved in his son's business deals has not changed, when in fact the narrative has changed, as it previously involved fierce insistence that Biden did not talk to his son about his business deals.

"Devon Archer" and "Epsteined" have both been trending over Twitter on Sunday, with regards to concerns of what could happen to Archer and the testimony he looks to provide.

I'll have my Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn out tomorrow. 

DOJ's getting desperate to resort to sending letters to pending congressional witnesses on a Saturday.