Considering the fast-moving news cycles, this DOJ indictment has many elements of seemingly disconnected narratives.  Apparently healthcare workers were not just proficient parading around in their insufferable Tik-Tok videos.

A Seattle healthcare worker -a ‘respiratory therapist’- has been busted stealing COVID-19 supplies, including ventilators, from the VA hospital and selling them on eBay.

WASHINGTON STATE Seattle – A 41- year-old Bonney Lake, Washington, man was charged today in U.S. District Court in Seattle with theft of government property for his scheme to profit by stealing and selling respiratory support equipment from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.

GENE WAMSLEY was employed as a Respiratory Therapist at VAMC until he was placed on leave from VAMC on June 9, 2020. WAMSLEY made his initial appearance on the criminal complaint today in Seattle.

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When this story started exploding on social media, I thought it was a joke… but it is not.

Tulsa Oklahoma Mayor G.T. Bynum has declared a “civil emergency” and signed an executive order (outlined below) creating an immediate curfew and locking-down a six block area in and around the BOK Center venue for the Trump rally in the city.  Any MAGA rally attendee who does not immediately vacate the area is subject to arrest.

(Tulsa, Oklahoma) In a Facebook post Thursday evening, Tulsa police announced that an area of downtown will be off limits from 10 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Saturday ahead of the rally. The curfew will again take effect after the rally until 6 a.m. Sunday.

The curfew is the result of an executive order from Mayor G.T. Bynum, which cites both local and nationwide unrest in recent weeks as the rationale for the curfew.

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In 2018/2019 the roadmap to impeach President Trump was clear; many denied its visibility until it was almost too late.  In the past week several moves within DC present a roadmap to impeach AG Bill Barr.  Could this be the DC defense against USAO John Durham’s findings surrounding the DC soft-coup effort?  You decide.

♦On Monday House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler announced that two former Special Counsel Robert Mueller attorneys, John W. Elias and Aaron S.J. Zelinsky  would be designated as “whistleblowers” to give testimony against AG Bill Barr. (LINK)

♦On Tuesday, the last remaining DOJ advisor to Jeff Sessions, Jody Hunt, announced his intent to leave the justice dept. (LINK) Hunt was Jeff Session’s chief-of-staff, and one of the key advisors responsible for the decision to recuse from the Mueller probe. (LINK)

♦And now today the DOJ is announcing that Solicitor General Noel Francisco will be  departing: “Solicitor General of the United States Noel Francisco announces his departure from the Department of Justice, effective as of July 3, 2020.” (LINK)

With those final two departures there’s no longer any Main Justice leadership in position from the era of Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein.  Seems like quite a coincidence.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley delivered a speech on the floor of the senate that deserves some attention.  The larger issue outlined by Senator Halwey surrounds the recent Supreme Court Bowstock decision authored by Justice Gorsuch.  However, in overlaying the judicial outcome, Hawley hits on the central issue he calls the “conservative bargain.”

The entire speech is worth listening to, as the senator encapsulates many of the frustrations within the recent decision; but the segment at 07:15 cuts to the heart of the distinction between MAGA-Trump republicanism and the pathetic GOPe wing of the Mitch McConnell UniParty. We have previously called this “The Decepticon”  WATCH:

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In his opening monologue today Fox host Tucker Carlson took on the subject of Google and their control over 70% of all on-line advertising revenue.   Within the very accurate segment, Carlson noted that Utah Senator Mike Lee is in charge of the antitrust subcommittee and yet does nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop the authoritarian demonetization and deplatforming action carried out through the monopoly Google holds.

No single issue will do more damage to the reelection efforts of President Trump than allowing Google to carry out their political agenda. However, that accepted, that’s also the motive for the Senate and DOJ to do nothing. This is a good, honest and painful segment:

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Earlier today the DOJ filed a civil action [see pdf here] against former National Security Advisor John Bolton for refusing to comply with the classified intelligence review prior to publishing a book.  [DOJ FILING LINK]  Perpetual warmonger John Bolton worked as NSA to President Trump from April 2018 to September 2019.

Bolton was always an odd pick for National Security Advisor given his propensity to advance mid-east wars and advocacy for military strikes against North Korea.

…”On June 7, 2020, without Defendant giving any prior notice to the NSC, press reports revealed that Defendant and his publisher had resolved to release the book on June 23, without completing the pre-publication review process. Subsequent correspondence with Defendant’s attorney confirmed that public reporting.

Simply put, Defendant struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public.”… (pdf)

An embed of the lawsuit is below:

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NBC News is taking a victory lap after their successful efforts to target their competition, The Federalist website, results in GoogleAds demonetizing the outlet. However, within the article the NBC report also implicates Google in large-scale antitrust violations.

According to NBC the outlet asked Google to take action against the Federalist. Emphasis mine:

(Via NBC News) […] The two sites, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, will no longer be able to generate revenue from any advertisements served by Google Ads.

A Google spokesperson said in an email that it took action after determining the websites violated its policies on content related to race.

“We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing,” the spokesperson wrote. “When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, we’ve removed both sites’ ability to monetize with Google.”

[…] Google blocked The Federalist from its advertising platform after the NBC News Verification Unit brought the project to its attention. (link)

Apparently NBC has a self-admitted division within its news operation that is specifically focused on eliminating any competition.  To accomplish this objective NBC requests Google to target and remove revenue from their competition.  An alignment of self-serving interest based on ideology.  This is only one example of an unlawful antitrust violation.

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Comrade Lightfoot explains why the Chicago Ministry of COVID Compliance needed to cancel the days-off for all police officers, and extend all shifts to 12 hrs per day.

According to the Chicago Mayor, the city will be deploying “Social Distancing Ambassadors” to help citizens accept their social responsibility.  The monitors will assist the public remaining disengaged from human contact as the Ministry begins permitting citizens to exit the confines of their homes.  Drone enforcement could likely assist.

No word on the specifics, but Chicago scientists have apparently identified a hybrid form of the virus that will attack outdoor residents who enter a six foot danger-zone in proximity to another person.  The ministry has determined Blue state residents are safe at distances exceeding 6 feet.  However, inside that zone, at 4 or 5 feet or less, the virus creates a rapid death spiral and attacks with increased ferocity.  It is currently unknown why the proximity strain of the virus responds differently in Red states.

Blue State proximity infection is dangerous. Unless, of course, the proximity variable is influenced by the third factor of vegetables or groceries; which have been identified as generating a safe zone as outlined in local supermarkets.  As a consequence, jogging without groceries requires the proximity police, aka “Social Distancing Ambassadors.”

According to city officials, these new exterior compliance officers should help reduce the influx of residents currently jogging in grocery stores.  Remember, we are all in this together; and to prove how critical this is to the fabric of our society, we must all stay apart.

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There is considerable conversation, on all sides of the issue, surrounding a 6-3 supreme court decision today recognizing “gay” and/or “transgender” persons as being protected by the 1964 civil rights act under the definition of “sex”.  Factually, the decision authored by Judge Gorsuch writes those terms into the legislative definition; that’s a problem.

However, that said, for all practical purposes and intents, sexual orientation has been a protected employment category -as viewed by the Dept. of Labor and EEOC- since the mid-90’s. So some of the over-the-top exclamations, in both directions, are moot amid the world of practical application.

As to the issue of SCOTUS usurping the legislative responsibility for the practical wording of law, yes, this ruling is an issue, and Judge Alito is absolutely correct in all corners of his dissent.  Justice Gorsuch has opened a can of worms for downstream consequences unrelated to employment eligibility; and a myriad of potential future cases based on gender orientation are likely to flow to the court; so the big picture is problematic.

All arguments surrounding the issue of SCOTUS writing legislation through the delivery of opinion are merited and worthy.  However, on the specific application of ‘gender’ to employment eligibility, today’s ruling was already in place.  Amy Howe has a good encapsulation at SCOTUS Blog:

“Today the Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-3, ruled that even if Congress may not have had discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status in mind when it enacted the landmark law over a half century ago, Title VII’s ban on discrimination protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees. Because fewer than half of the 50 states currently ban employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, today’s decision is a major victory for LGBT employees.”

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has previously down-played the violence, looting and riots in the city; while simultaneously telling city aldermen they were over-hyping the problems and issues within the city.  Oddly enough Mayor Lightfoot said this while begging the looted merchants not to abandon the city… so that was always an odd juxtaposition.

Today, the contradiction gets even more weird as the entire Chicago police department; you know, those horrid people Lightfoot previously disparaged and said were unneeded; are now required to work their day’s-off and extend to 12 hour shifts.

CHICAGO – Chicago police officers on Sunday were once again ordered to work 12-hour shifts and have their days off canceled amid some protesting that has persisted in parts of the city following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police nearly three weeks ago.

[…] Until further notice, Chicago officers who are on active duty and not on vacation will have to work the 12-hour shifts — a normal shift is about 8½ hours — and come in on their days off, the Chicago police spokesman, Luis Agostini, said Sunday morning. (read more)

Isn’t the purpose of ‘defunding‘ the police, essentially to have less policing? Apparently Chicago is doing the ‘defunding‘ thing backwards.