It appears we're moving toward a massive investment in infrastructure. The Senate recently passed a $1.2 trillion "core" infrastructure bill as well as a $3.5 trillion "human" infrastructure budget resolution.

The core infrastructure bill, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed with a supermajority of 69 votes on August 10. This bill provides funding for, among other things, the repair of roads and bridges, an expansion of light rail systems and the modernization of the country's electrical grid. In what was a surprise for many, 19 Republicans voted for the bill, bypassing the threat of a filibuster. This was a small but major legislative victory for the Biden administration.

United States immigration and naturalization history is one of grouping people into "desirable" and "undesirable" immigrants. There was a short period after 1967 when the US accepted refugees outside of this "desirability" framework based on humanitarian concerns. Until the Trump administration, the US was considered a leader in accepting refugees, many years accepting more than all other nations combined. That changed with Trump policies in 2017. Reversing immigration and refugee restrictions should have been an easy decision for the Biden administration, but unfortunately asylum seekers are still facing obstacles to admittance justified through claims of covid safety protocols, and therefore making refugees "undesirable" based on incorrect understandings of disease spread. With our withdrawing from Afghanistan, the issue of refugee admittance has taken on new urgency. We have a general moral duty to accept refugees, but we owe even more to the Afghan refugees who worked with the US military forces and journalists for the last 20 years.

During the Trump administration, refugees and asylum seekers were conflated with undocumented immigrants to the point that people assumed those who crossed the border as asylum seekers were doing so illegally. In order to seek asylum a person must cross the border and claim asylum status within a year of entering. Many held in detention camps crossed the border legally to claim asylum but were held, and separated from their children, while awaiting a hearing. This was a change in policy from earlier administrations when those held while waiting could remain with family and often could be released with the assumption they would return for their court date. Similarly, the past administration contributed to the idea that refugees, any person applying for refugee status must be located outside of the US, were unvetted and the refugee program was a way for criminals or terrorists, or disease carriers, to sneak into the country. Therefore refugees were automatically associated with other "undesirables."

It is increasingly clear that much resistance to vaccination in the United States is driven by partisanship. Fox News has spent months comparing vaccination efforts to apartheid and forced sterilization. Conservative politicians have been vaccinated in private, if at all. GOP voters have declared that their opposition to vaccination is driven by opposition to liberals. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, hundreds of thousands have participated in anti-vaccination protests throughout Europe. Many far-right politicians in Europe have aligned themselves with these movements. In France, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called mandatory vaccination for health workers an "indecent brutality," while her Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, has described vaccination passports as "totalitarian."

This swell of international activity has left some journalists wondering, why is anti-vaccination emerging as a distinctly right-wing phenomenon across the globe?

A federal judge has ordered Capitol rioter Jeffrey Grace to surrender his weapons today in response to a government motion to modify the conditions of his release following his involvement in a clash with antifascists in Portland, Ore. over the previous weekend.

As noted in the motion, Grace traveled from his home in Battle Ground, Wash. to Portland on Aug. 7 to provide "perimeter security" for an event featuring Artur Pawlowski, a Canadian pastor whose arrest for resisting COVID restrictions has recently galvanize the far right across North America. The motion cited videos and photos posted on Twitter and Reddit that indicate "Grace was carrying a firearm and at times holding what appears to be a baton." The government also cited a video posted on Twitter that "appears to depict Grace and his group in Portland confronting another individual under a bridge." The motion alleges that Grace "can be seen shoving the other individual." Returning on Aug. 7 for a second day of clashes between the far-right and antifascists in Portland, the government said Grace "wore a helmet while carrying what appears to be a can of chemical irritant and a wood-colored baton.

Federal investigators appear to be looking into a communications channel used by III Percenter militia extremists that was used to coordinate ground operations at the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

Dozens of federal agents raided the Georgia home of members of the III% Security Force on Wednesday, militia leader Chris Hill claimed in a video posted on the social media app Clapper.

Jeffrey Grace, who faces federal charges related to his involvement in the Jan. 6 breach at the US Capitol, appears to have taken part in a confrontation with left-wing counter-protesters in Portland, Ore. over the past weekend while awaiting trial.

Antifascists showed up at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Aug. 7 to disrupt a prayer and worship service led by Artur Pawlowski, a controversial Canadian pastor who has in the past claimed God's unhappiness with homosexuals caused a 2013 flood. The Portland Tribune reported that dozens of black-clad antifascists hurled smoke grenades and appeared to dismantle the public-address system for the Aug. 7 religious event in Portland. At the conclusion of the event, the newspaper reported, right-wingers armed with paintball guns, batons and other weapons who had gathered to support the religious event fired a paintball gun in response to an onslaught of pepper-spray from counter-protesters attempting to force them out of the park.

A cult leader who helped plan the Jan. 6 insurrection has so far managed to escape charges in the violent assault -- and so have his followers who participated.

Rev. Sean Moon, head of the gun-worshiping Rod of Iron Ministries and son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, can be seen on video scouting out locations in Washington, D.C., the day before the attack and joined his followers at the insurrection, but none of them have been charged, according to the crowd-sourced investigation Capitol Hunters.

With schools set to reopen in less than a month, the national debate has grown hotter over how public education should respond to the reality of a resurging pandemic.

Among the biggest issues: Should teachers be required to become vaccinated to return to the classrooms? But that's hardly the only raging question.

Do not be alarmed, but consider this article a prediction and a warning. Actually, it's okay to be a little alarmed, because recent events—like the storming of the Capitol—are certainly cause for concern. Let's call it what it is; Donald Trump has created a cult and radicalized its members. QAnon also shares a large part of the responsibility, whoever they are. We may not be able to see it because Trump has been banned from Twitter and Q conversation cleaned from social media, but behind the scenes, this cult is being transformed into an army of soldiers.

How do we know that it is as serious as I say; that this is not just more fear mongering? Well, for one, people have died. Heather Heyer, a counterprotester protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, was run over by a white supremacist, and 19 others were injured. Last year a man drew a hunting bow on protestors in Salt Lake City before being taken out by the crowd, a chilling moment that was captured on video. On the day of the Capitol riot, a pipe bomb was found a few blocks from the Capitol building. In addition to these troubling events, many others who will go unnamed have been the victims of hate crimes that can be traced to the alt-Right, pro-Trump movement.

With just over three weeks to go before the 2020 presidential election, former White House senior counselor Steve Bannon addressed a crowd gathered on the grounds of Kahr Arms/Tommy Gun Warehouse in Greeley, Pa. by video. He warned about a supposed Democratic conspiracy to steal the election from Donald Trump.

"What the left intends to do — and you're seeing it in Pennsylvania right now — use the courts, use social media, use the mainstream media to try to make sure Trump is not declared the winner that night," Bannon said. He went on to promise that the Trump forces would "win this thing," adding: "Pennsylvania is the key that picks the lock for a second Trump term."

Rep. Matt Gaetz kicked off his "Florida Man Freedom Tour" today in an apparent quest to see how low a human being can descend.

Turns out it's pretty low.

A federal judge has ruled that a Virginia police officer who breached the Capitol on January 6th must remain in detention after the FBI discovered he placed orders for 37 rifles valued at more than $50,000 following his indictment, and agents later found silencers, pipe-bomb materials and a M-4 rifle during a search of his property in rural Franklin County on June 29.

A 26-year law enforcement veteran, Robertson and another officer, Jacob Fracker, took part in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol while they were off duty from the Rocky Mount Police Department. Robertson served in the US Army from 1991 to 1994, when he graduated from ranger and sniper school, according to a motion filed by his lawyer. Later, in 2008, he deployed as an Army reservist to Iraq, where he conducted IED and sniper training for the Iraqi Army, and then in 2011 trained Afghan National Security Forces, sustaining severe wounds from gunshot and mortar shrapnel in Logar Province.

The formal Jan. 6 investigation by Congress kicked off Tuesday and was, of course, made almost secondary by fighting over who's doing the investigating.

The first hearing of the new, select, 13-member House committee heard from four police officers who made clear that: