7 Things: State Rep. Whorton files first anti-vaccine mandate bill, 2021 COVID-19 deaths surpass 2020 deaths in Alabama, outrage over DOJ decision to use Patriot Act on parents and more …

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October 6, 2021

7. Hillary Clinton continues her life as a fictitious storyteller

Former multi-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has “written” a book. Instead of a book of more lies about her life, this time, she has put her name on a mystery novel called “State of Terror,” which could be based on her honeymoon. When announcing this, Clinton hilariously told another lie and called this book her “first foray into fiction.”
This book is yet another opportunity for Hillary Clinton that she wouldn’t have if she hadn’t allowed her husband to be a terrible person and treat her like garbage.

6. A new issue has emerged for Democrats’ spending battle: abortion

Democrats are in disarray as President Joe Biden traveled to Michigan to pitch his “Build Back Better” plan and get U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on board. Manchin’s insistence that the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal spending on abortion, be part of the bill is upsetting Biden’s progressive supporters.
Manchin said the spending bill is “dead on arrival” if it is not included, but U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other progressives have pledged to continue fighting the amendment. Biden, who has historically supported the Hyde Amendment, has flip-flopped on this after being criticized from his left, which is odd seeing how he has been in politics at the federal level for almost 50 years.

5. Iran and China are doing things U.S. Senators want to do

While the Kabuki theater of the latest Facebook “whistleblower” hearing continued on Capitol Hill, a continuing theme of how much our democracy is in danger because your grandmother is sharing misinformation on Facebook, many members of Congress and the “whistleblower” want legislators to regulate the speech of people they disagree with on Facebook.
Strangely, the plight of Iranian and Chinese dissidents has come up under the premise that the authoritarian governments in those countries are using Facebook to spy on those movements. After the meeting, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke gleefully of getting this “whistleblower” in front of other committees, including the partisan committee looking at the U.S. Capitol riot.

4. Hawley and Cotton question the decision to go after parents

Since it’s been released that the Department of Justice plans to target parents who are vocally opposed to members of their school board due to coronavirus mitigation mandates, some are raising concerns over the memo due to the vague use of “intimidation” and “problematic.”
U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) both questioned Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on the issue, with Hawley asking “where the line is with parents expressing their concerns.” Monaco said that “spirited debate” is allowed. After the National School Boards Association asked President Joe Biden to possibly use the PATRIOT Act to respond to “threats or actual acts of violence against our school districts,” Cotton asked if it’s “domestic extremism for a parent to advocate for their child’s best interests?”

3. Some deadlines in vaccine mandate have been released

While there has been minimal public guidance on when people have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus since President Joe Biden’s mandate, the Pentagon will require all civilian employees to be fully vaccinated no later than November 22.
To be considered fully vaccinated, an individual has to receive their final dose of the vaccine two weeks previous to November 22. More than 93% of active duty military have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Employees have also been told to expect to provide proof of their vaccination status. Biden’s executive order on civilians has not been issued yet; it may never come at all.

2. More people have died from the coronavirus in 2021 than 2020 in the state of Alabama

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, there have been more deaths from the coronavirus in the state in 2021 than there were in 2020. So far this year, 7,283 people have reportedly died from the virus, while 7,188 people died from the virus in 2020.
The state has dealt with multiple surges of the coronavirus through the Delta variant, and many of the cases and deaths at the beginning of the year came after the holiday surge of cases. Coronavirus cases have been falling in the state, but Dr. Karen Landers of the ADPH has said, “When an individual dies due to COVID-19, it takes a median of 25 days for the death to be reported to ADPH. As deaths are reported, each death is investigated to determine if it was a COVID-19 death.”

1. Bill pre-filed to fight Biden vaccine mandate, but the regular session will be far too late

In an effort to protect small businesses and individuals, State Representative Ritchie Whorton (R-Owens Crossroads) has pre-filed a bill to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. If legislators wait until the 2022 regular session, this will mean nothing at all.
The “Alabama Health Freedom Act” would also work to protect employees from any vaccine mandate put in place by their employer. The bill would make it illegal to discriminate against a person due to their vaccine status. When speaking about the vaccine mandate, Whorton said, “[I] t’s going to kill small businesses if we enforce this.”