QPORIT

• of efforts by the GOP and the previous president (and Putin? -- see the story from 3/16 below) to downplay the seriousness of the virus and promote distrust of Biden continues to result in unsafe behavior (as in the story above), and aversion to vaccination, resulting in more illness:
• Cases and hospitalizations have been rising. 
• New mutations are spreading.
• Until most of the population of the US is vaccinated (against all mutations) and cases start dropping (and cases in the rest of world are controlled, so it does not spread back to the US!)
• WEARING MASKS
• SOCIAL DISTANCING
• GOOD VENTILATION
• HAND WASHING
• ARE ESSENTIAL
• Currently
• WORLD: 123.4 Million cases; 2.7 Million deaths and growing
• US: 30.5 Million cases; 555 Thousand deaths and growing.

The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

G. Washington

September 19, 1796

• have given a compelling exposition on how Trump spent months promoting his lie  that the election was stolen, and his meme, "Stop the Steal" in order to steal the election, himself;
• and when all else failed, he incited the violent groups he had been cultivating to storm the Capitol in a last ditch attempt to delay or prevent the certification of Biden.
• It was an attack on democracy:

• Chatter on Reddit has apparently been the factor sending the stock price of several stocks, notably GAMESTOP, soaring amidst wild volatility.
• Chatter on social media sites, some public, some secretive, helped fuel the January 6 assault on the Capitol with false narratives that the election was "stolen".
• Years ago, Orson Welles' radio production of "War of the Worlds", presented as if news commentators were actually describing a real invasion of Earth, terrified many who believed it was real (at least until the commercial break).
• FACTS are what happens - whether you know about it or not.
• FICTION is the stories we tell, sometimes to understand facts, sometimes to imagine what would happen if something was a fact.
• FAKES are statements or media designed to convince people that something is a fact, when it is not a fact, and they know it is not a fact.
• FICTION and FAKES influence how we react to our experience. 
• FICTION prepares us to act wisely. FAKES prepare us to act badly.
• We need to know and understand FACTS in order to make good decisions about real life. 
• Although Orson Welles knew he was doing a fictional story, and said so at the beginning of the broadcast, people who missed that notice were affected in Real Life.
• (Orson Welles, by the way, later made a movie called, "F for Fake".)
• The Internet has proven to be a very efficient method of spreading FAKES.
• People who believed the narrative that the election was stolen were the victims of a FAKE. Those who promoted (or continue to promote) the FAKE were (are) deliberately generating bad consequences in Real Life.
• The motives and story behind the chatter on buying and selling stocks like GAMESTOP are not known, but IF people think they are getting good information, and they are actually being fed FAKES, it could have very serious $$ consequences for some people in Real Life.

• has issued a nation-wide alert:
• "The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security has issued a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin due to 
• a heightened threat environment across the United States, 
• which DHS believes will persist in the weeks following the successful Presidential Inauguration. 
• Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition,
•  as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives,
• could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence. "
• Link:
• https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/ntas/alerts/21_0127_ntas-bulletin.pdf

• President Biden
• Rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO) and is sending Dr. Fauci to the next meeting as head of the US Delegation.
• Rejoined the Paris Climate Accord.
• Directed non-citizens to be included in the census.
• Changed immigration policies, creating a path to citizenship for many immigrants.
• Ended restrictions on travel from "Muslim" countries.
• Canceled the "1776 Commission" and changed some regulatory procedures.
• Halted construction of the "border wall".
• Had a genuine, old-fashioned Press Briefing, handled by the new Press Secretary.
• Vice-President Harris 
• Presided over the Senate for the first time.
• Swore in three new Senators.
• Thereby making the Senate 50-50, and with her tie-breaking vote making the Democrats the majority party in the Senate.
• That made Senator Schumer the Majority Leader, able to set the agenda and schedule for the Senate.