Tyson Foods says it will vaccinate 'thousands' of its Iowa meatpacking workers this week

It's about time these workers were protected. Thank you Joe Biden for taking COVID seriously.

Tyson Foods announced Monday that it will vaccinate "thousands" of its employees at Iowa plants this week.

The company said in a news release that a business partner and local health organizations will hold on-site COVID-19 vaccinations at meatpacking plants in Columbus Junction, Council Bluffs, Independence, Perry, Sioux City, Storm Lake and Waterloo.

Many of those plants, where a combined 13,000 employees work, were sites of early coronavirus outbreaks. Tyson Foods partnered with Matrix Medical to administer the vaccine to workers.

“We’re pleased to offer our team members convenient access to the vaccine, and we appreciate the state of Iowa recognizing the essential role they play in feeding the world," Tom Brower, senior vice president of health and safety at Tyson Foods, said in a statement Monday.
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Roger Stone-connected "Stop the Steal" group hasn't filed IRS reports -- and its agent disappeared

Pro-Trump group's registered agent no longer works at her law firm, and her LinkedIn page has been deactivated
By ROGER SOLLENBERGER

A political nonprofit with ties to longtime Trump associate Roger Stone, which was supposedly created to challenge the 2020 election results, has missed two federal deadlines to disclose how much money it spent and received before and after the election. Furthermore, the law firm that employed the group's registered agent told Salon that she no longer works there, and her LinkedIn page appears deactivated.

"Committee to Stop the Steal" was registered with the federal government as a 527 tax-exempt political organization on Oct. 16, a few weeks before the election, by a clerk at a Southern California personal injury firm called Jensen & Associates. The IRS does not require 527 groups to disclose their donors, but it does mandate that they publicize how much money they raise and spend, including in post-election and year-end reports. Committee to Stop the Steal has missed the deadlines for both.

Jensen & Associates is led by Paul Rolf Jensen, a friend of Stone's who has represented the right-wing provocateur in an array of matters for at least two decades. The firm's website appears to have been unattended in recent months, but an archived version from last February does not mention political work. While Jensen himself isn't listed on the IRS registration for the Committee to Stop the Steal, the group's listed address is a UPS Store mailbox located near the firm's physical address, and its custodian of records, Ashley Maderos, worked at Jensen for a time as a post-bar law clerk.
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Tennessee Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Allow Fathers To Veto Abortions

Is there a companion bill to allow the pregnant woman to cut the impregnator's pecker off? That would solve his problem with those uppity women.

A bill introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly this week would allow a man who gets a woman pregnant to request an injunction barring her from having an abortion.

The legislation, SB0494 in the Senate and HB1079 in the House, would require a court hearing to be held within 14 days of a petition being filed by the individual seeking an injunction.

At the hearing, if the man can prove that he is the biological father and that there is a “reasonable probability” that the woman would obtain an abortion, the court shall issue an injunction prohibiting her from terminating the pregnancy. Proof of parenthood requires only that the petitioner acknowledges paternity. A DNA test is not required.

If the woman violates the injunction by obtaining an abortion, the court may hold her in civil or criminal contempt. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

The legislation was sponsored by state Sen. Mark Pody (R) and state Rep. Jerry Sexton (R). . . .

Catholic church in Iowa, state's biggest religious organization, got $50 million from COVID-19 bailo

As a taxpayer, this infuriates me.

The Catholic Church apparently is Iowa's largest recipient of money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program intended to help small businesses, a Des Moines Register review of the program shows.

The finding comes as a new investigation by the Associated Press shows that the U.S. arm of the church received at least $3 billion through the forgivable loan program, even as many dioceses remained financially healthy.

In Iowa, the church's total was more than $50 million, including more than $40 million for the components for the four Catholic dioceses and $8.7 million more that went to four Catholic colleges controlled by other church entities.

Those state and national totals appear to make a church with thousands of employees in Iowa alone the largest beneficiary — both statewide and nationally — of a program intended to help companies with fewer than 500 employees pay workers as the COVID-19 pandemic raged last summer. . . .

Iowa's more than 500,000 practicing Catholics make up the state’s largest religious denomination, according to the U.S. Religion Census, accounting for roughly 1 in 3 Iowa churchgoers,

The total the Paycheck Protection Program paid to the dioceses was roughly the same as to all other recipients listing themselves as religious organizations, combined. Without special treatment, the Catholic Church would not have received nearly so much, the AP found. . . .

Catholic officials lobbied the Trump administration to free religious organizations from the so-called affiliation rule that typically disqualifies applicants with more than 500 workers from being treated as a small business.

Without that break, many diocese would have missed out because — between their head offices, parishes, schools and other affiliates — their employee count would exceed the limit.

The Rev. James Connell, a former administrator in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, was among the experts who reviewed the findings of the AP investigation, and questioned why the church sought the exemption.

“Was it want or need? Need must be present, not simply the want," Connell told the AP. "Justice and love of neighbor must include the common good."

Connell said the AP’s findings convinced him that Catholic entities did not need government aid — especially when thousands of small businesses were permanently closing. . . .

Iowa Gov Reynolds lifting Iowa's mask requirements, gathering limits Sunday

I am so fucking mad at her insanity.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will lift the state's limited mask requirement on Sunday, along with the social distancing requirements and other COVID-19 mitigation measures she had in place for businesses and social gatherings.

Many states had already mask mandates for months before Reynolds ordered Iowans to wear masks in certain social settings in November. According to reports, 36 states still require people to wear masks, although North Dakota's requirement expired last month and Mississippi's mandate only covers counties with high virus infection rates.

Reynolds latest coronavirus emergency proclamation, issued Friday afternoon and effective 12:01 a.m. Sunday, instead "strongly encourages Iowans, businesses and organizations to take reasonable public health measures consistent with guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health," Reynolds' spokesperson, Pat Garrett, said in an email.

A news release from Reynolds' office did not explain why she is relaxing the restrictions.

The lifted requirements come as Iowa's daily reported case numbers and hospitalizations have shown declines since their spike in November, and less than a week after the state opened up vaccine eligibility to hundreds of thousands of Iowans.

Still, the state reported another 804 confirmed cases Friday morning, and on Thursday the state surpassed the 5,000 deaths mark. Meanwhile, the coronavirus vaccine supply remains limited and in high demand, with Reynolds on Thursday saying Iowa ranks 47th in the nation in per capita vaccine distribution from the federal government and 46th in the rate of administering vaccines to residents.

Also, on Monday, state officials confirmed a new, more transmissible version of the coronavirus was now in Iowa.

Lindsey Graham's latest defense of Donald Trump is a racist attack on Kamala Harris

As Donald Trump’s second impeachment approaches, Lindsey Graham has made a series of extremely odd threats. On Tuesday, he suggested that should Democrats call a single witness, Republicans would call in the FBI to give a full accounting of how white supremacist groups had planned for weeks to carry out violent acts on Jan. 6. The reason that Graham thinks that this is a threat which should concern Democrats is because Fox News and other right-wing sources have been working hard to convince their viewers that the entire impeachment is just about things Trump said at the “Stop the Steal” rally just before the assault on the Capitol. So if anyone was doing pre-planning for the insurrection, that lets Trump off the hook. Except that’s not at all what the impeachment documents actually say.

It’s not clear if someone actually made that point to Graham, but when he was questioned about the impeachment on Wednesday, Donald Trump’s most loyal senator was ready to voice an even more obscure response—one that involves a long-running, and racist, Republican lie. If Democrats call even a single witness to discuss events on Jan. 6, Graham promised that Republicans would turn the table and … use the impeachment trial to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

Rep Don Bacon (R-NE) took over MTP Daily

It was a long section where he was allowed to talk without push back or even hard questions about “people want civility”, “Democrats will regret going after Greene because we’ll be back on power in 2 years and go after Maxine Waters for telling people to confront us at restaurants”, “ how he thinks he’s a good guy because he isn’t Qanon and he voted to certify the election”.

Todd thanked him for coming on his show “because it’s important to hear all sides”.

Then he blew him a kiss.

'I have cried. I have begged. I have yelled': Couples clash over COVID-19

by Alia E. Dastagir USA TODAY

Patricia Rust is doing everything she can to stay safe during the pandemic. Her husband, however, is not.

Rust, 68, a retired attorney in Clarksville, Tennessee, is militant about mask-wearing and social distancing. But she says her 71-year-old husband believes COVID is no worse than the flu, often refuses to wear a mask and frequently socializes in large groups.

"We just had a fight the other night where I said, 'That's it, we're going to get divorced. I need to stay safe and you refuse to allow me to be safe or feel safe in my own home,'" Rust said. "I have pleaded. I have cried. I have begged. I have yelled. And he refuses to listen to anything I say."

Here's how you round up the clowns that stormed the Capitol and grind them into dust.

From Daily Kos...

In the post 9/11 world we have become used to the pervasive surveillance that characterizes Total Information Awareness. There’s a reason CIA Director Petraeus was so enthusiastic about the Internet-of-Things. If you want to freak yourself out ask Alexa if it is connected to the NSA.

We don’t need to be so slick when dealing with a group of Neanderthals. They carry their tracking devices with them. I could post a dozen pictures like the one I put up here, but you get the point. You can be sure that most, if not all, of the mob who overran the Capitol on January 6 were carrying cell phones.

If you think I’m going to suggest a geo-fence warrant to scoop up all the phones that were active inside the Capitol yesterday, you’d be wrong. No, that could be legally challenged as unconstitutional. But we don’t need to open that can of worms. What DoJ needs is called a “cell tower data dump.” That gives you all the connections made through a specific set of cell towers during a specific window in time. You don’t need a warrant for that.

Even if you do think a warrant is needed, all you need is one of the arrested individuals to have a cell phone and you use them as the probable cause justification for the warrant.