Daily News Dump – February 9

DOJ to ask Trump-appointed US attorneys to resign

“The Justice Department, as soon as Tuesday, is expected to ask US attorneys appointed by former President Donald Trump to submit their resignations, a turnover expected to spare two top prosecutors in Delaware and Connecticut overseeing two sensitive Trump-era investigations, a senior Justice Department official said.

In a call Monday night, acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson asked Delaware US Attorney David Weiss to remain in office, where he is overseeing the tax probe of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. John Durham, appointed as special counsel by former Attorney General William Barr to reinvestigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, will also continue his work, but he is expected to resign as US attorney in Connecticut, the Justice official said.

The resignation request is expected to apply to 56 Senate-confirmed US attorneys appointed by Trump.” via CNN

Angry’s Thoughts: Significant change from the previous administration – Biden *isn’t* firing the people investigating his family. Weird, huh?

Alleged Oath Keeper charged in Capitol riot says he once worked for FBI and holds security clearance

“Thomas Caldwell, a Virginia man whom prosecutors have charged as part of an extremist group’s alleged conspiracy to prepare and attack the Capitol on January 6, said in a court filing Monday night he worked for the FBI from 2009 until 2010 and asserts he has held a “Top Secret” level security clearance for decades.

Caldwell, 65, raised the resume points in a new filing arguing for his release from jail after the Justice Department convinced a judge he should be held pending his trial.

Caldwell’s defense attorney wrote in Monday’s filing that Caldwell “has held a Top Secret Security Clearance since 1979 and has undergone multiple Special Background Investigations in support of his clearance.” via CNN

Angry’s Thoughts: Periodic reminder that having a top secret clearance doesn’t always mean that you’re not a moron.

Pentagon seeks to combat extremism in ranks

“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin faces an early test as he races to advance a major initiative targeting far-right extremism in the ranks, a challenge that officials acknowledge is complicated by the Pentagon’s lack of clarity on the extent of the threat following the U.S. Capitol riot.

Austin’s highly unusual order for a military-wide “stand-down,” slated to pause normal operations in coming weeks so troops can discuss internal support for extremist movements, underscores the urgency of the task ahead for the retired four-star general, who last month became the nation’s first African American Pentagon chief.

The Jan. 6 events at the Capitol, in which Trump supporters stormed Congress in an attempt to prevent President Biden from taking office, laid bare the appeal of white supremacist and anti-government groups among some veterans and, in smaller numbers, currently serving troops. Among the 190 people charged in the siege, at least 30 are veterans. Three are reservists or National Guard members.” via The Washington Post

Angry’s Thoughts: It makes me happy to see someone finally decide to tackle this issue. Pockets of extremism in the rank-and-file military has been a problem for quite some time. This shouldn’t be a surprise; trauma and PTSD can certainly help play a part in radicalization.

Any serious effort to combat radicalization and extremism is going to have to include emotional support. While we’ve gotten better at dealing with the stigma of PTSD in the last decade or so, we are still woefully underserving the men and women of our armed forces.

Lou Dobbs is lashing out at Fox on Twitter for dropping his show

“Lou Dobbs is not taking his cancellation by Fox lying down.

On Friday night, Fox News Media management canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the most-watched show on Fox Business Network. No reason was given, though the network repeated a statement from October that it “regularly considers programming changes” and had been planning to “launch new formats as appropriate post-election.”

But Dobbs, 75, who is one of the network’s most outspoken allies of former president Donald Trump, has been on something of a tear ever since, retweeting dozens of tweets supporting him, including many that criticize Fox. He even boosted a tweet from a supporter suggesting that Fox News viewers “ditch Fox for @OANN,” the far-right network and would-be competitor to Fox News.

“FOX in a tailspin,” radio host Mark Simone said in one of the tweets that was reposted by Dobbs. In another tweet that was shared by Dobbs, conservative Carmine Sabia wrote: “Fox News is desperate to be accepted by people who will not accept them. Cancelling @LouDobbs is not going to satisfy the blood lust of the rage mob.” via The Washington Post

Angry’s Thoughts: Womp womp.

Fox allies are desperately trying to spin this as evidence that Fox News does, in fact, have a conscience and is collectively doing their part to combat disinformation.

…nobody is buying that, right? Fox News is protecting their pocketbooks – and only their pocketbooks – in response to multiple lawsuits targeting their network for spreading dangerous disinformation.

Biden administration to begin shipping vaccines to health centers

“The Biden administration will begin shipping coronavirus shots to community health centers next weekin an effort to reach some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.

The program’s launch comes as White House officials are trying to address inequities in the nation’s vaccination push. Initial data shows Black and Hispanic people are getting vaccinated at much lower rates than are white people.

The background: The administration will allocate 1 million doses to community health centers. Roughly 250 sites will receive the vaccine in the initial phase of the program, which will eventually include any of the nation’s 1,400 centers that want to participate.

The White House will first choose community health centers that serve large populations — such as those that serve more than 2,000 patients who are 65 or older — and facilities with a significant number of patients who are agricultural migrant workers, residents of public housing or are experiencing homelessness.” via Politico

Angry’s Thoughts: I’m really, really pleased with the progress Biden’s team is making with vaccines. Last week, our weekly average of shots administered was 1.53 million per day. Their “rolling stock” strategy has really helped keep vaccine supply moving to states, and this is yet another example of them planning ahead.

Now is the perfect time to be getting as many shots in arms as possible; we’re in the middle of a significant down-turn in cases and Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine appears to be poised to receive it’s emergency use authorization by the end of the month.

The more people we get vaccinated now, the less we have to worry about potentially dangerous mutations and another crippling wave of hospitalizations and deaths.

Trump unhappy with his attorney’s performance

“Former President Trump was unhappy with Bruce Castor’s opening argument on the Senate floor this afternoon, according to two people familiar with his reaction.

Trump was almost screaming as Castor made meandering arguments that struggled to get at the heart of his defense team’s argument, which is supposed to be over the constitutionality of holding a trial for a president no longer in office.” via CNN

Angry’s Thoughts: It’s admittedly a bold strategy, but he could always try 1. actually paying them 2. not resorting to rambling, incoherent, completely insane defenses with no basis in reality.

Could a Single Vaccine Work Against All Coronaviruses?

“The invention of Covid-19 vaccines will be remembered as a milestone in the history of medicine, creating in a matter of months what had before taken up to a decade. But Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, the director of Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Springs, Md., isn’t satisfied.

“That’s not fast enough,” he said. More than 2.3 million people around the world have died, and many countries will not have full access to the vaccines for another year or two: “Fast — truly fast — is having it there on day one.”

There will be more coronavirus outbreaks in the future. Bats and other mammals are rife with strains and species of this abundant family of viruses. Some of these pathogens will inevitably spill over the species barrier and cause new pandemics. It’s only a matter of time.

Dr. Modjarrad is one of many scientists who for years have been calling for a different kind of vaccine: one that could work against all coronaviruses. Those calls went largely ignored until Covid-19 demonstrated just how disastrous coronaviruses can be.

Now researchers are starting to develop prototypes of a so-called pancoronavirus vaccine, with some promising, if early,results from experiments on animals. Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, thinks scientists should join together in another large-scale vaccine-creation project immediately.” via The New York Times

Angry’s Thoughts: Understatement of the week: this would be a total game-changer.

Admittedly, before COVID-19, I hadn’t really thought about coronaviruses at all since MERS. Now, I spend a disproportionate amount of my time both thinking about, and researching coronaviruses and their spread. mRNA vaccines have the potential to change literally the entire planet for the better.