Qanon Anti-Semite Propagandist ‘GhostEzra’ Identified

The Hill: “Researchers at the intelligence firm Logically have identified a key member of the QAnon community who has used his significant platform to spread anti-Semitic conspiracies. In a new report released Friday, the researchers identified the person behind ‘GhostEzra’ as Robert Smart of Boca Raton, Fla. GhostEzra has recently emerged as one of the most influential figures in far-right online spaces, amassing well over 300,000 Telegram channel subscribers since the beginning of the year.”

Tucker Carlson Resorts to Fascist Propaganda on Fox

Baltimore Sun opinion writer: “If not the theme of [Fox News fascist propagandist Tucker] Carlson’s week of broadcasts from Hungary, then the leitmotif was: Look at what a ‘happy’ and ‘orderly’ country Hungary is under Mr. Orbán, as opposed to the chaos and darkness of American life under Mr. Biden. We need someone like Mr. Orbán to lead America out of that darkness. And who would that someone be but Mr. Trump, who was described as a ‘great friend of Hungary’ by the Hungarian leader in an interview with Mr. Carlson last week.”

Newsom: GOP Candidate Larry Elder Will Repeal Popular Laws

LA Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday attacked the Republican topping the field of candidates trying to replace him in the September recall election, calling conservative talk show host Larry Elder a climate change denier who would restrict abortion rights and end the minimum wage if elected. Newsom’s broadside against his opponent comes just a week after a poll showed that likely California voters are almost evenly split over ousting the governor in the Sept. 14 recall election, and showing that Elder leads the pack among the candidates in the race.”

ACA Medicaid Expansion Cuts Medical Debt Nearly in Half

Vox.com: “Medicaid expansion doesn’t just provide more people health insurance — it appears to cut medical debt enormously, a new study has found. The Affordable Care Act offered states a huge infusion of federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults, and about 30 states took that deal right away in 2014. Since then, new medical debt in those states has fallen 44 percent, a dramatically bigger drop than was seen in the states that refused to expand the program over the same period. Those states showed only a 10 percent decline.”

Missouri Doctor: Locals Getting Vaccinated in Secret to Avoid Harassment

CNN: “The Covid-19 vaccine has become so polarizing that some people in Missouri are getting inoculated in secret for fear of backlash from their friends and family who oppose vaccination, a doctor told CNN on Wednesday.

“‘They’ve had some experience that’s sort of changed their mind from the viewpoint of those in their family, those in their friendship circles or their work circles. And they came to their own decision that they wanted to get a vaccine,’ said Dr. Priscilla Frase, a hospitalist and chief medical information officer at Ozarks Healthcare in West Plains, Missouri. ‘They did their own research on it, and they talked to people and made the decisions themselves,’ Frase told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. ‘But even though they were able to make that decision themselves, they didn’t want to have to deal with the peer pressure or the outbursts from other people about them … ‘giving in to everything.'”

Congressional Conserva-Dems Put Democracy at Risk

“[Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten] Sinema seems not to care that her own state is flooding, the West is burning, and infrastructure around the country is crumbling. Sinema is more interested in gaining GOP friends and blocking much needed resources than fighting for her residents’ future. Time for the White House to play hardball. We didn’t elect Sinema as president and we won’t let her obstruction put a Republican in the Oval Office in 2024. It’s the reconciliation bill or GOP controlling every level of government again, period.”

– Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-MI.

GOP Tea Party Caucus Demands Vote to Oust Speaker Pelosi

Politico: “The conservative House Freedom Caucus is urging Kevin McCarthy to try to boot Nancy Pelosi from her position as speaker, a sign of further escalating tensions after the California Democrat vetoed two of the House Minority Leader’s GOP picks from the Jan. 6 select committee.

“In a letter Friday, the far-right group asked McCarthy to file and bring up a privileged motion by July 31 ‘to vacate the chair and end Nancy Pelosi’s authoritarian reign as Speaker of the House.’

“’Speaker Pelosi’s tenure is destroying the House of Representatives and our ability to faithfully represent the people we are here to serve,’ they write. ‘Republicans, under your leadership, must show the American people that we will act to protect our ability to represent their interests.’

“The motion is all but guaranteed to fail in the Democratic House, but it signals a stewing anger on the right towards the speaker. The Freedom Caucus’ letter indicates that McCarthy would need to initiate the motion, and if he were to do so, it would further escalate partisan acrimony in the House that has remained high, and occasionally gotten personal, since Jan. 6.”