Here’s Liz Cheney’s closing statement in last night’s debate among the Republican candidates for representative from Wyoming.

Watch the whole thing.

(And cf. Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol, Nov. 3,

"I will never put party above my duty to the country. I will never put party above my duty to the Constitution. I swore an oath under God and I will abide by that oath. I won't say something that I know is wrong simply to earn the votes of people, to earn political support."

"So, I'm asking for your vote and I'm asking you to understand that I will never violate my oath of office. And if you're looking for somebody who will, then you need to vote for somebody else on this stage because I won't. I will always put my oath first."

And here's Burke:

"Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a Representative, to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents.

"Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and, above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own.

I spotted the first sign off of 17 in Jacksonville, NC yesterday. The other was seen in Wilmington a few days ago. Anyone know anything about this group?

Please share if you can. Finding anything at all about this group is proving difficult. Thank you!

These big US companies say they'll cover abortion travel for their employees:

JPMorgan

In a test, the @AP found that Facebook removed a post offering to mail abortion pills within one minute. It did not remove similar posts offering to mail a gun or marijuana.

My personal take on what was the craziest part of this hearing:

The Secret Service knew untold masses of people were armed and dangerous and just let them march to the Capitol. The only person they bothered to stop from going to the Capitol was Trump.

So when Trump gets the news that Pence's life is in danger, his security detail has to sneak him into a loading dock, and he's begging the Pentagon to clear the capitol building, the Secret Service ensured that outcome by doing absolutely nothing.

In Uvalde, a county without a medical examiner, this judge had the horrific duty of identifying slain children.
📷@jonjshapley
✏️@serrano_alej
➡️https://t.co/TwAcIp12l7

@serrano_alej As the county’s justice of the peace, his duties usually include court cases and officiating weddings, but his role also includes serving as the coroner.

I like how this guy treats every line of his testimony like he's engraving it on a national monument.

And frankly, he really *is* engraving it for history. And he seems to know it.

I also respect, despite how halting he may sound, that Luttig is not setting himself up to be a mere soundbite maker. He's speaking to history, not TV.

His sobriety, his graveness, his hallowedness, is so foreign to our modern sensibilities - but that's the point. That is the precise point.

I think the media should cover these elections like they do business transactions:

“Billionaire investor Peter Thiel completed a key first step in his purchase of American democracy with the acceptance by the Ohio GOP of his $10M bid for the Republican Senate seat there.

“He hopes to close the deal in November. His reported over $11M in investments in 16 other acquisitions remain in play. The bidding war for the Missouri branch has heated up with packaging magnate Richard Uihlein putting up $2.5M to counter Theil’s faltering effort there.”

“Thiel’s purchase of local AG Eric Schmitt hasn’t been able to counter poison pill efforts of Uihlein and the Missouri GOP with former leader, and illegal photography aficionado, Eric Greitens somehow still not in jail. It’s too early to tell if his investments will pay off.”

“Thiel has kept quiet his plans for American democracy but most analysts expect him to focus on fascism, rolling back rights, ending financial oversight of the rich, and undermining free speech. He will likely install disgraced former celebrity Donald Trump as symbolic CEO.”

“While some on the left accuse him and his competitors of “unethical behavior” and privately worry about what he will do after buying the government experts insist his actions are perfectly legal. Thiel had no comment.”

Are we going to let them do it? Ready to fight?

It's been a while since I've read a COVID19 preprint worth highlighting. I found one today that is *fascinating*

The study compares Delta vs. Omicron in terms of symptoms + rapid test results. Data was collected at a walk-up community testing site in San Francisco

Strap in. 1/n

They collected data from a HUGE study population— 63,277 persons over the course of 1 year (Jan 2021 to Jan 2022)

The other neat thing is that the testing site used the same eligibility criteria throughout and the same rapid test the entire time. 2/n

Another neat thing: the community testing site was located in a part of San Francisco that is predominantly Hispanic.

Yet another neat thing: they collected vaccination status.

Here's a link to the study for anyone who wants to follow along. 3/n

They found that symptomatic COVID-19 cases due to Omicron tended to experience cough (67%) and/or a sore throat (43%) and/or congestion (39%).

They also found that *fewer* persons reported fever and/or loss of smell/taste as compared to the Delta wave.

Another fascinating finding: fevers and body aches were *less* common among persons that had received boosters compared to those who received 0, 1, or 2 doses. 5/n

Yes delete your period app. But also don’t arrange rides for people to get abortions on Facebook. Don’t google “where to get an abortion” if you live in Texas. Don’t go to a protest unmasked. The privacy violations that are coming go so much deeper than period apps.

Use Signal or another encrypted app for communication. Use Duck Duck Go as your browser. Wear a mask. Pay for your pregnancy test in cash and don’t scan your Target circle app at the register.