Viral News: Cases of Covid-19 are spiking in areas of the country where the Delta variant is spreading and vast numbers of people are refusing to get vaccinated.

  Medical authorities say a third of new cases are occurring in five hot spots: Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nevada.

  Today, 159.5 million Americans have been fully vaccinated and over 607,000 have died of Covid.

  There’s lots of news on the Covid front. The FDA says it will attach a warning to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that it might cause the rare neurological disorder,  Guillain–Barré  syndrome.

  Across the pharmaceutical street, Pfizer is pushing the notion that people will need a booster shot after having been given their two-dose vaccine. Federal health officials say it’s not necessary now, but Pfizer’s chief scientific officer held a meeting with nearly every top doctor in the federal government to talk about it.

Messing with Texas: Democrats in the Texas legislature left the state and flew to Washington yesterday to deny Republican lawmakers the quorum they need for a vote to pass a restrictive new voting law.

  They may stay out of state until the end of a special session next month. Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News, “Once they step back into the state of Texas they will be arrested and brought back into the Texas Capitol and we will be conducting business.”

  At least 51 of 67 Texas House Democrats hopped on two charter flights to Washington. They are delaying the vote but may be unable to stop the inevitable. The Republicans are determined to pass a law limiting the way a lot of Democrats vote.

  Despite winning Texas by a comfortable margin, Republican legislators are buying into the myth of election fraud and attempting to encode Republican dominance into the law.

  Just one example that characterizes the nature of the law. People who take someone to the polls who is not a relative must fill out paperwork first and they are required to get out of the car if that person is voting curbside from the vehicle. It’s clearly designed to inhibit efforts by Democrats to get out the vote.

  The law also includes new identification requirements for people voting by mail and prohibits local election officials from sending vote-by-mail applications to people who have not asked for one.

  A similar bill died in May, which is why Abbott called the special session.

Cuba Libre: In a rare public demonstration of discontent, thousands of Cubans took to the streets this week to protest a lack of food and medicine as the country undergoes a grave economic crisis aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic and US sanctions. Many chanted for “freedom” and called for President Miguel Díaz-Canel to step down.

  Police used teargas and many protesters were arrested. Some of them threw rocks and turned over a police car.

  On protester told CNN that enduring power outages for a week had “detonated” the growing outrage.

The Spin Rack: The Trump organization has removed its indicted CEO Allen Weisselberg from his positions running dozens of company subsidiaries. They haven’t actually fired him. — An acquaintance of Haitian-American doctor Christian Sanon, who’s accused of leading the plot to kill the Haitian president, says Sanon told him he was “sent by God.” — At least 18 people were killed by lightning strikes in India, 11 of them while, taking selfies at an historic fort which collapsed on them. Seven of the dead were children.

The Obit Page: Edwin Edwards, the four-term old-school Louisiana governor known for his snappy quips, corruption, and randy romantic life, has died at age 93. 

  The Democrat was a political mainstay in Louisiana who servied as governor for four terms at different points between 1972 and 1996. The man known by some as “the silver zipper,” had uncounted flings and three wives. Gov. John Bel Edwards, who’s not related, said, “Our state has lost a giant.” 

  Born in poverty and rising to national notoriety, Edwin Edwards was once  described as a reality show host before there were reality shows. After serving two terms and taking four years off for term limits, Edwards ran for governor again saying, “The only way I can lose this race is to be caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl.” He was found with neither and was re-elected.

  Edwards laughed off his reputation for corruption. He issued a campaign bumper sticker that said, “Vote for the Crook. It’s important.” 

  In the end, at age of 72, he was found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy involving the extortion of  $3 million from riverboat casino operators who needed state licenses. He spent eight years in prison.

The Joke: The Republican Party’s top lawyer warned last November against pushing claims that the presidential election was fixed, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post. 

  It’s proof that there are people in the party who know what’s reality.

  Justin Riemer, the Republican National Committee’s chief counsel, tried to talk a party  staffer out of posting claims about ballot fraud on RNC accounts as challenges to the vote intensified in Arizona and Pennsylvania.  “What Rudy and Jenna are doing is a joke and they are getting laughed out of court,” Riemer wrote ,referring to Trump lawyers Rudolph Giuliani and Jenna Ellis. “They are misleading millions of people who have wishful thinking that the president is going to somehow win this thing.”

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