One man, hundreds of children and a burning question: Why?

Just another example of the extreme care that the "premier" "non-profit" giant Aurora Health Care of Wisconsin takes in hiring all its providers; only the finest in pharmacists!

Steven Brandenburg also allegedly carried a handgun to work, and believed the sky was actually a “shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God.”

By Justin Rohrich @ DailyBeast.com, Jan. 31

[...] The warrant application, filed in federal court by FBI Special Agent Lindsay Schloemer, reveals that Brandenburg’s delusions went far beyond doubting the reality of the coronavirus. Not only did Brandenburg insist the “microchipped” vaccine would “turn off people’s birth control and make others infertile,” he was convinced that the physical world around him was not what it seemed, a coworker told investigators [....]

In 1969, an activist set out to build an African-American metropolis from scratch. What would have happened if Soul City had succeeded?

By Kelefah Sanneh @ NewYorker.com, Feb. 1 online (Feb. 8 print)

In the fall of 1968, Jet, the Black weekly magazine, devoted a special issue to the upcoming election. On the cover was a cheerful headline: “how black vote can elect next president.” Inside, the editors were less upbeat, reproaching the candidates for not doing more to “woo actively” the Black vote. In an effort to do some last-minute wooing, both of the major candidates had taken out two-page advertisements in the issue. Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat, was popular with Black voters, and sought to remind readers of something he felt they should already know. “Vote for Hubert Humphrey and you’ll help elect the right man President,” his advertisement said. “Don’t vote and you’ll help elect the wrong one.” The “wrong one”—Richard Nixon, the Republican contender—had a more specific pitch. His ad showed a Black man in a letterman sweater, beneath the exhortation “This time, vote like Homer Pitts’ whole world depended on it.” Pitts, it seemed, was a fictional college student facing an uncertain future. And there was a Presidential candidate who wanted to help him:

A vote for Richard Nixon for President is a vote for a man who wants Homer to have the chance to own his own business. Richard Nixon believes strongly in black capitalism. Because black capitalism is black power in the best sense of the word. . . . It’s the key to the black man’s fight for equality—for a piece of the action.

This was the heart of Nixon’s outreach to Black voters in 1968: “Black capitalism,” an ideal of independence that promised to unite militants and moderates, Black nationalists and white centrists. This sales pitch does not seem to have been a big success. Although Nixon won, narrowly, polls and voting data suggest that Black voters went predominantly for Humphrey. And yet the notion of “Black capitalism” gained influence, prompting an ongoing debate about what it meant, and whether it represented progress. The Black Panther Party often denounced capitalism [....]

Arguments about Black capitalism were often rather theoretical. But there was one place in America where a group of pioneers tried to build a community devoted to it, upholding both Nixonian free enterprise and Black self-determination. The place was Soul City, a settlement in rural North Carolina, near the Virginia border, which was founded in 1969, and which is the subject of a new book by Thomas Healy, a law professor and a former journalist [....]

By Alaa Elassar and Gregory Lemos, CNN Updated 9:34 PM ET, Jan.31

Police in St. Paul, Minnesota, are investigating the fatal shooting of three people, including a child and teenager, who were killed Saturday an hour after police completed a wellness check at the home.

Officers responded to a home in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul around 3 p.m. where they found three people suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, the St. Paul Police Department said in a news release.

Two individuals, an adult female in her 30s and a female in early teens, were pronounced dead at the scene. A third person -- a boy between 8 and 12 years old -- was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries, St. Paul Police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster told reporters.

"It's hard because children died. It's also hard because one of our officers was here an hour before this call. He was called here by a concerned family member from out of state who wanted us to check on the welfare of the supposed victim in this home," Ernster said."Our officer did come here, he did speak with her at the door and explain while he was there, and she looked at him and said, 'I'm OK, tell them I'm OK.'"

Police visited the house one other time before Saturday for a welfare check after receiving a call from someone concerned that the woman could be in danger and "possibly involved in a domestic type situation," Ernster added [....]

GOP fractures Part I, Jan. 11-18, is here====GOP fractures Part II, Jan. 19-23, is here===GOP fractures Part III, Jan..23-31 is here

Publix Super Markets heiress donated about $300,000 to the Ellipse event; far-right show host pledged seed money, organizers say