Here’s a link to the June 3 Guardian (support them if you can!) coronavirus world liveblog.
From their latest summary:
John[s] Hopkins university confirmed that more than two billion vaccine doses have been distributed worldwide, with Israel remaining the country with the most vaccinated – as nearly six-in-10 people are fully inoculated against Covid.
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The US is to donate 75% of its unused Covid-19 vaccines to the UN-backed Covax global vaccine sharing program, president Joe Biden announced as more Americans have been vaccinated and global inequities have become more glaring.
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India placed an order for 300m doses of an as-yet unapproved coronavirus vaccine, a day after its Supreme Court criticised the government for bungling the country’s vaccination programme.
The potential Covid treatment based on a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies developed by US drugmaker Regeneron and Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche was purchased by the EU to the tune of about 55,000 doses.
The US embassy ‘strongly suggested that US citizens make plans to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible’ amid spiking reported Covid cases and US citizens reportedly being denied admittance because of a lack of beds, with other concerns unrelated to the virus in the country also growing.
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The head of a Pakistani province decreed that government employees who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid would not be paid from next month.
A cruise ship arrived in Venice, Italy, for the first time in 17 months, signalling the return of tourists after the pandemic but enraging those who decry the impact of the giant floating hotels on the world heritage site.
The European court of justice has dismissed an attempt by Hungary to reverse the outcome of a vote by MEPs that for the first time in the EU’s history triggered a process that could lead to a country being stripped of voting rights in Brussels.
A resolution in 2018 raising concerns over the independence of Hungary’s judiciary, the functioning of its constitution and attacks on freedoms of association, religion and expression passed by a majority of votes cast.
Hungary’s government, led by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán – who last week met Boris Johnson in Downing Street – argued in court that the European parliament had committed a “massive fraud” [yawn] as abstentions should have been taken into account.
A resolution triggering the so-called “nuclear option” of article 7 in the EU treaties, capable of leading to the suspension of certain rights resulting from EU membership, requires a two-thirds majority of votes cast to be passed. Of the votes cast in Hungary’s case, 448 were in favour, 197 were against and 48 MEPs who were present abstained.
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In its ruling on Thursday, the ECJ said the parliament had followed the correct procedures and that MEPs’ abstentions do not have to be counted in determining whether the two-third majority has been achieved.
It said abstention could not be treated in the same way as a vote cast. The MEPs were notified before the vote that abstentions would not be counted.
The court noted that acts adopted by the parliament under article 7 must also obtain the agreement of a majority of MEPs. Abstentions were taken into account in order to ascertain that the vote in favour represented the views of the majority of MEPs, it found. The court’s decision cannot be appealed.
Hungary and Poland are the only two EU member states currently subject to an article 7 procedure, which could theoretically lead to the suspension of the countries’ voting rights in the bloc’s institutions. The 2018 vote was the first time the European parliament had triggered an article 7 procedure against an EU member state.
In reality, the risk to Budapest and Warsaw of losing their voting rights is slight. It takes the support of 26 of 27 member states to suspend rights, and the two countries have pledged to protect each other from censure.
The difficulty in executing article 7 led in part to the EU agreeing on a new rule of law mechanism this year that permits the European Commission to suspend funding from the bloc’s budget to a member state that is found to be in breach of fundamental democratic values.
Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, a Green MEP from France, said: “Today’s ruling once again proves that the European parliament was right to overcome the European Commission’s inaction on the rule of law by triggering the article 7 procedure against the Hungarian government.
“This ruling clearly sets out that the commission is not the only ‘guardian of the treaties’ and when there are serious threats to European values, the parliament can and must act. More than ever, the council urgently needs to take up its responsibility to protect the rule of law and take action on Hungary. The parliament has shown its willingness to act for years, yet the council has not organised a single hearing of Hungary since December 2019.”
By rights, it’s over and in effect it probably is over. Last night Israel’s opposition finalized and formally agreed to create a coalition government that will remove Benjamin Netanyahu from power. The coalition stretches from the right to the left and includes an Arab Israeli Islamist party. The architect of the new government is opposition leader Yair Lapid, whose deftness, patience and self-abnegation in this effort is really hard to capture or overstate. He has the signed document, which will make the right-wing Naftali Bennett Prime Minister for the government’s first two years, and he’s brought that to the country’s President. In the Israeli system, that’s it, all but the formality of the parties who just agreed to the deal voting it into power in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
But Netanyahu isn’t letting go.
The parliamentary vote is a formality but a critical formality.
No two political systems are the same. As a parliamentary system, Israel is fundamentally different from the US inasmuch as a government can ‘fall’ entirely legally and legitimately at any time. It just takes a certain number of the governments parliamentary supporters voting against it. But the January 6th comparison is very apt because Netanyahu is now using various extra-legal and extra-constitutional means to stay in power. How far he will go is unclear.
[…] Over the last week the country has seen a campaign of incitement and incitements to violence against the right wingers who are supporting the new government, particularly against the guy who will be its primary beneficiary, incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. But it’s also against members of his party, several of whom have been granted increased security. Similar threats have gone out against left members of the coalition. As we saw 25 years ago, the Israeli right is quite capable of producing assassins who will change the political equation dramatically and inalterably.
[…] The Speaker of the Knesset is a Netanyahu ally named Yariv Levin and he says he’ll simply refuse to hold a vote to make the new government official. He can’t refuse forever. But this has never happened before so it’s not totally clear how long he can delay. I’ve heard he can do it for a week. But again it’s not entirely clear.
The idea is that each day of delay is a day when mounting pressure could break free more right wing members of the coalition or new events could emerge that break it up on its own. This is quite possible. I mentioned above the campaign of incitements to violence. Beyond that and not entirely distinguishable from that is pressure on these right wing members from friends, family, professional and political associates that they are betraying their movement, their country, themselves etc. The coalition is brittle at every point. If you just keep hitting it there’s a decent chance it will crack somewhere. If it does that will almost certainly force yet another election and that means at least months of Netanyahu remaining in power as caretaker Prime Minister. More days of delay are simply more days to hit it and hope it will crack somewhere.
Netanayhu has created a situation and a mentality in which for a lot of the country his continuance in office is existential. So expect the coming days to be filled with chaos and threats […]
With the Speaker in the way, the logical move is to remove the Speaker. And the architect of all this, Yair Lapid, worked overnight to begin that process. But incoming Prime Minister Bennett’s party, Yamina, won’t give its votes for that. What to do? Another Arab party (not technically a party but a parliamentary list), the Joint List, says it will provide its votes to do so.
This is one of those absurd situations that are rife in Israeli politics. The Joint List won’t join or support the government because it opposes on principle supporting a government with the right wing Bennett as Prime Minister. So the question now is whether Bennett and Yamina will allow the Joint List members to can the Speaker to speed up Bennet becoming Prime Minister.
Did you get the interworkings there? Nonsense. But here we are.
It is oddities like these – the right wing Bennett’s new government relying, even indirectly on another Arab party to birth it into power – that Netanyahu is hoping will break the whole thing apart. And it might.
But the big picture is the most important here. When you lose an election you’re supposed to leave. Netanyahu’s not leaving. He’s not doing anything illegal per se, at least not yet. But it is broadly comparable to the situation from mid-November of last year when it was clear that Trump had lost but he spent two more months refusing to accept that.
Eventually things got dangerously and lethally out of hand. It might here too.
DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was brutally assaulted during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection:
“Here I am escorting the mother of a dead policeman while she and myself advocate for the formation of a commission to investigate the circumstances which resulted in her son’s death — and you have a leader on Capitol Hill who’s making phone calls asking for personal favors and doling out political capital to push for a no vote on that commission,” Fanone said. “It was absolutely disgraceful.”
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama has a lot of questions to answer. Brooks isn’t good at answering questions, but he is good at making wild and baseless statements, and weaving together conspiracy theories that QAnon types find titillating. During the Jan. 6. ‘Stop The Steal’ rally in Washington, D.C.—the one that led to an attempted coup d’etat at our nation’s Capitol building—Mo Brooks stood in front of the crowd and said, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass! Now, our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes, and sometimes their lives, to give us, their descendants, an America that’s the greatest nation in world history. So I have a question for you: Are you willing to do the same? My answer is yes. Louder. Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? [cheers and applause] Louder! Will you fight for America?”
We know he did this because it was recorded and broadcast nationally. Since that time, Brooks, like the rest of the Republican Party, has gone all in, duplicitously telling the American public that the Jan. 6 insurrection wasn’t a big deal while also saying that the November 2020 election results are fraudulent. And while the Republican Senate minority was successful in thwarting the will of the American people and our democracy by filibustering away a commission that would have investigated what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, Democratic officials are not done trying to hold people accountable for their actions. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California is one of those officials trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened—and he has the slimy and wriggling Mo Brooks in his sights.
CNN reports that a new filing by Rep. Swalwell’s attorneys in a lawsuit he has brought against Mo Brooks, as well as the twice-impeached Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., and leaky oil can Rudy Guiliani, gives up some interesting details about how cowardly Brooks is in the wild. Rep. Swalwell’s attorneys have said that they have had such a difficult time trying to serve Brooks with the official lawsuit and papers that they were forced to hire a private investigator for the job. On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the case gave Swalwell’s team 60 days to properly serve Brooks his notice, but “due to separation of powers concerns,” would not allow U.S. Marshals to be used to serve them.
During April and May, Swalwell’s team says they got the run-around from Brooks’ underlings. They also say that Brooks has stonewalled their attempts to contact him via phone and email:
“Plaintiff had to engage the services of a private investigator to attempt to serve Brooks personally — a difficult feat under normal circumstances that has been complicated further in the wake of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol that Defendants incited,” Swalwell’s court filing continued. “Plaintiff’s investigator has spent many hours over many days in April and May at locations in multiple jurisdictions attempting to locate and serve Brooks, to no avail.”
Swalwell’s attorneys have been very diplomatic in the handling of this case, telling CNN, “The problem here is that Mo Brooks’ door is under lock and key … There was just no access to the primary place that he was for much of the day. It just takes persistence and luck sometimes. We’re not claiming Brooks is hiding in a bunker somewhere. But it takes a lot of effort.” Brooks is the only one of the four named in the lawsuit who has yet to respond.
Mo Brooks has been unrepentant about the Jan. 6 catastrophe, first attempting to blame the violence at the Capitol building on antifa, and subsequently decrying all attempts at investigating the events surrounding Jan. 6 as political stunts. It’s pure GOP authoritarianism with people like Brooks. If you want to know what they are guilty of, just listen to what they are accusing others of.
Add The New York Times to the list of media outlets that has now learned that the Trump Justice Department secretly seized phone records of some its reporters. The Times joins The Washington Post and CNN on that list. As in those cases, the Biden Justice Department revealed the seizures, saying that the Times reporters—Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau, and Michael S. Schmidt—were not themselves targets of investigation. Instead, the Trump administration was looking for information on their sources.
The phone records, dating to early 2017, were seized in 2020. The Trump administration also obtained a court order for their email logs, but didn’t follow through and seize those. The Times was not notified of what story the leak investigation pertained to, but, based on the time frame of the records seizures and the reporters involve, believes it’s likely to be reporting about former FBI director James Comey’s decision to publicly announce the FBI’s recommendation against prosecuting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton relating to her private email server. That reporting mentioned a classified document obtained from Russia by Dutch intelligence.
President Joe Biden has said he will ban secret seizures of reporters’ records, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: “It’s simply, simply wrong. I will not let that happen.” And a Justice Department spokesman said after the latest disclosure that “members of the news media have now been notified in every instance” of such records seizures. […]
The problem is that while Biden may ban the practice during his time in office, a future Republican administration is likely to pick it back up, along with the other ways the Justice Department abused power under Trump. Like intervening in a lawsuit on behalf of Rep. Devin Nunes, or trying to seize the profits of a tell-all book about Melania Trump, or trying to step in as Trump’s personal lawyer in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against him. Time after time, the Justice Department treated Donald Trump’s personal interests as government matters while also, we’ve now learned, secretly targeting reporters’ communications in leak investigations. […]
this is another way Trump has chipped away at U.S. democracy, and if there’s no permanent fix to the damage he’s done, the stage is set for more and worse.
“Mansour Abbas is a courageous leader, Naftali Bennett said in an interview with Channel 12 on Thursday night. Bennett apologized for calling Abbas a ‘terror supporter’ in the past. ‘Our new government will be an opportunity to turn the page between Israel and its Arab citizens’.”
The New York Times’ 1619 Project was created in order to refocus American history on its story of race and economics. The 1619 date is a reminder of the first enslaved Africans brought by ship to the early European settlements in North and South America. This is history that has long been available to people to discover, but has also been ignored and frequently hidden or suppressed in our country’s official retellings of our collective story. Conservatives across the country, bereft of any ideas since feudalism, are recasting the 1619 Project and other critical race theory educational initiatives as an attack on our country. In their estimation, only white males like themselves are allowed to feel persecuted […]
On Wednesday, Sen. McConnell took time away from never passing any legislation that wasn’t voter suppression-related or a tax break for the richest amongst us, to speak at a press conference in the Citizens Union Bank in Shelbyville, Kentucky. McConnell’s fellow Kentuckian Republican Rep. Joseph Fischer recently filed Bill Request 60, for the upcoming 2022 state legislature session that would limit how race and the history of racism in our country is taught. […]
On Wednesday, McConnell told the press that the fact the world participated in slavery and the slave trade during the 17th century means that in America historians marking the first enslaved Africans brought to the Americas isn’t important history. That’s what he argued. [video available at the link]
[…] McConnell’s attempt at speaking out of both sides of his mouth included this statement: “I think trying to completely denigrate and downgrade American historical moments like 1776, 1787, 1965—critical moments—is a mistake.” If you want to know what truly denigrates and downgrades our country’s history, and specifically what those dates mark, all you need to see are McConnell’s own actions in orchestrating a filibuster of a commission into the events of Jan. 6—something that had the bipartisan support of his own constituents. As for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Republican Party is in the middle of generating hundreds of voter suppression laws throughout the country.
Here’s McConnell telling people that systemic racism and our country’s use of slavery and racism as a controlling economic foundation is “exotic.” [video is available at the link]
Wonkette: “Shh! Attempted Whitmer Kidnapping Suspect Doesn’t Want You To Know God Told Him To Do It!”
Back in October, several men, many of them militia members, were arrested for their parts in a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, allegedly to put her on “trial” for doing tyranny to the state of Michigan by enacting restrictions meant to stop the spread of COVID-19.
One of those men was Barry Croft Jr.
Croft, a 45-year-old truck driver out of Bear, Delaware, was the official bombmaker of the group, and clearly felt very strongly about not allowing Whitmer to do anything to stop the spread of COVID-19, until he was imprisoned himself and really wanted to be let out for fear he would catch the virus in jail.
Via Detroit News:
Prosecutors portray Croft as a ringleader, writing “he was the prime mover behind the group’s construction, testing and detonation of weapons of mass destruction,” Kessler wrote. The prosecutor also cited evidence revealed during bond hearings in October.
“Evidence adduced at those hearings established that Croft conspired with the other defendants to kidnap the governor … brought materials for an improvised explosive device to a training exercise … participated in the nighttime surveillance of the governor’s home … stopped to inspect a bridge along the way that he planned to bomb … and detonated a second test bomb with shrapnel for use in the plot,” Kessler wrote.
Croft’s worry now, reportedly, is not that he might be required to wear a face mask in the grocery store to prevent someone else from getting COVID-19, or even that he will contract it himself. Instead, he’s moved on to worrying that people might find out that “God” actually gave him permission to violate the Ten Commandments to stop Whitmer from enacting common-sense safety measures. This information comes from some recorded rantings that the judge in his case was allowed to hear, and which led the judge to refuse to let him out on bond.
Via Detroit Free Press:
According to the government, here is some of what Croft does not want the public to hear:
“Croft expounds in an excited tone about his intent to commit acts of terrorism, and claims God has granted him permission to violate His (God’s) commandments,” prosecutors state in court records. “In one particular passage, Croft explicitly states his intent to kidnap Gov. Whitmer — the primary offense with which he is charged.”
The media has been fighting for access to this recording, along with several other known recordings and images that Croft and his lawyers are hoping to keep sealed.
– Photographs of Croft with a “boogaloo” flag, and another with a shotgun.
– Audio recordings of Croft at a “militia” group meeting in Ohio.
– Video recording of Croft firing a semiautomatic rifle at a field training exercise in Wisconsin.
– Audio recording of Croft at a training exercise in Wisconsin.
– A photograph of a highway bridge near Whitmer’s vacation home.
– A photograph of Croft’s modified semiautomatic rifle.
You think they’d also want that picture of him, above, in the tricorn hat [image available at the link] repressed, but that image, and the video interview in which he wore it, remain online for the world to see. But we should probably show you the Boogaloo flag, since we’re here. [Image available at the link]
Boogaloo flag: igloo, stripes, and a hibiscus layer.
YEP. That is it!
Prosecutors argue that releasing this information would not poison the jury pool, “Because Croft’s trial is not until October, and the jury will be drawn from the thirty-four counties … such prejudice is unlikely here.” Media outlets like Buzzfeed have argued that similar information about other defendants has been released and it’s not clear why Croft’s should be any different. It’s not.
[…] absolutely none of these things are remotely unexpected, given who Croft is. Outside of the picture of Whitmer’s vacation home and perhaps the recording about how “God” gave him the thumb’s up on murder, they’re all pretty much what one would assume about the kind of guy who joins militias and wears a tricorn hat.
The defense lawyers in this case are arguing that none of their clients were literally planning on kidnapping Gretchen Whitmer, and that it was all just a bunch of guys engaging in “tough talk.” And sure, fine, that is a thing people do sometimes. We all come up with plans for things we’re never actually get around to […] But generally speaking, once you actually go out and start doing bomb-testing, it goes from hypothetical “What if we did this?” scenario to actual “plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan” scenario.
Frankly, one would think that “I got permission from God to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer” would be the exact kind of thing Croft and his lawyers would want to get out, as it might lead jurors to conclude that he was not all there and thus less culpable than he might be otherwise — but perhaps the whole tape is even more damning than that one clip.
An Alabama man charged with conspiring to interrupt Congress on Jan. 6 brought his 82-pound German Shepard, named “Warrior,” into the Capitol with him, according to a federal indictment.
Jonathan Walden is the 16th person added to a sprawling case docket accusing the Oath Keepers, a nationwide militia group, of conspiring to attack Congress and interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Jan. 6.
Walden’s name was initially redacted in the fourth superseding indictment in the case, but was unredacted Thursday after he was arrested, as the Justice Department announced in a press release. On Tuesday, a federal prosecutor told a judge that they were hoping to make plea offers to Oath Keepers charged in the attack over the next several weeks.
According to the latest indictment, Walden sent an email on or before Jan. 5 stating that he was interested in the “QRF” — quick reaction force. Prosecutors have noted that the Oath Keepers allegedly had men and arms stationed during the attack in a Virginia hotel room, ready to respond to orders to join the fight.
“I am former Firefighter, EMT-B and have a K-9 trained for security patrol (82 lb. German Shepherd named ‘Warrior’),” Walden allegedly wrote. “I have a Jump Bag with Trauma supplies and have ALL the necessary 2A gear that the situation may require. PLEASE ADVISE. As soon as I hear from you I can hit the road to join up!”
The indictment noted that a document on codefendant Joshua James’ phone allegedly stated, “Jonathan Walden below is all clear but when I sent return email with burner phone number it was returned so may have to call him.”
On the day of the attack, Walden allegedly rode with a group of Oath Keepers to the Capitol in a pair of golf carts. They parked near the building and continued on foot, according to the indictment, then “aggressively berated and taunted law enforcement officers” guarding the perimeter of the Capitol before forcibly entering the building about 40 minutes later.
“Walden brought his dog inside the Capitol,” the indictment stated.
The man and his dog allegedly left the building after 20 minutes, joining several other people charged in the conspiracy and Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader, around 100 feet from the Capitol.
Rhodes has not been charged with a crime, but he’s consistently popped up in court filings as “Person One.”
The Biden administration on Thursday announced it will donate 25 million coronavirus doses abroad, with about three quarters of them allocated to the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative, and the rest donated directly to handpicked countries.
“We are sharing these doses not to secure favors or extract concessions. We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic, with the power of our example and with our values,” President Biden said in a statement.
The White House said it will donate about 19 million doses to COVAX, which purchases and distributes vaccines to low-and middle-income countries. Administration officials said about 6 million doses will go to Latin America and the Caribbean, 7 million doses will go to Asia, and 5 million will go to Africa.
Additionally, about 6 million doses will go directly to countries in need, including Mexico, Canada and South Korea, and to United Nations front-line workers.
Pressure has been growing on the White House to develop a plan to donate its excess vaccines to countries that have been hit hard by the virus without the same access to vaccines as wealthier nations. One concern is that without vaccinations, new variants of the virus may arise in those countries that could threaten the rest of the world.
Thursday’s announcement, which comes ahead of the Group of Seven Summit next week, stops short of the 80 million total doses promised by the administration last month. Instead, it focuses only on the authorized vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Biden has said the U.S. will donate “at least” 20 million of those by the end of June.
He has also pledged to donate 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which is not authorized for use in the U.S., but that effort has been hamstrung by manufacturing safety concerns and a related Food and Drug Administration review. It’s still not clear when, or even if, the FDA review will be complete and the doses will be cleared. […]
Absent a concerted global commitment to vaccine equity, the virus will continue to evolve, and humanity may be consigned to a never-ending pandemic.
When Gregg Gonsalves was a young aids activist and researcher, in the nineteen-nineties, he was struck by a pattern that kept showing up in the data: the distribution of antiviral medications fell neatly along socioeconomic and racial lines: wealthy people got them, and poor people, many of them Black or Hispanic, did not. Later, as an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, Gonsalves illustrated the persistence of these kinds of health disparities to his students by overlaying a map of pre-Civil War slave-holdings on a contemporary map of life expectancies, which, not surprisingly, showed that life expectancy was lowest in those regions. “It’s not rocket science that we’re seeing covid-vaccine distribution following those same demographic patterns,” he told me. “We’re just remaining true to form.” According to a recent analysis of C.D.C. data by Kaiser Health News, only twenty-two per cent of Black Americans have been vaccinated, and Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than those of whites in almost every state. Much of what has been called vaccine hesitancy is actually a problem of vaccine access.
As it turns out, vaccine distribution follows a similar socioeconomic pattern all over the world, with most covid vaccines going to what are called high- and middle-income countries. According to Nature, as of mid-March, those countries had secured more than six billion out of 8.6 billion doses. Less than a week later, the Times reported that “86 percent of shots” that went into arms across the globe were “administered in high- and upper-middle-income countries.” […]
There are two reasons that a person in London or Los Angeles should care about vaccination rates in Lagos or São Paulo: simple humanity and simple biology. If left unchecked, the loss of human life for families and societies worldwide will be staggering. Viruses are international travellers, and over time they mutate. Wherever vaccine coverage is patchy, there is selective pressure for the virus to evolve resistance. We’ve already seen robust virus variants from South Africa, Brazil, the U.K., and India spread around the world. So far, the first generation of covid vaccines is holding the line against them, but that protection is not guaranteed. […] some epidemiologists think that we have a year or less before the virus breaks through and renders them less effective. […] “the idea that we could revaccinate the whole country or the whole world annually is not an easy challenge. That’s one of the reasons why many people, myself included, think that we should be exploiting the fact that we have vaccines that are incredibly effective right now.”
[…] A more realistic objective is to use mass vaccination to create a bulwark of resistance to prevent the virus from tearing through populations like wildfire. While there still would be flareups, they would die down once the virus lacked a sufficient number of hosts. But, without a concerted global commitment to vaccine equity, poorer regions will remain vulnerable to ferocious outbreaks, giving the sars-CoV-2 virus the opportunity to evolve and, in a worst-case scenario, result in a chronic, never-ending pandemic.
[…] As soon as the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna proved to be both safe and effective, countries with deep pockets, like the United States, signed contracts to buy hundreds of millions of doses, eventually contracting for far more than they needed. The same thing happened later with the vaccines from Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. […]
It wasn’t as if these disparities were not anticipated. As early as April of last year, Gavi, a twenty-one-year-old international vaccine alliance, partnered with the W.H.O. and the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (cepi) to create covax, an initiative aimed at distributing covid vaccines equitably around the world. Their ambition was to fund vaccine research while also creating mechanisms for any country, regardless of national income, to have access to those vaccines. Participating countries would receive vaccine doses in proportion to their population.
As of mid-May, covax had distributed sixty-eight million doses—a long way from the goal according to the W.H.O. of two billion by year’s end. (Most are formulations of the AstraZeneca vaccine.) The organization has received a pledge for direct donations of more than a billion doses from pharmaceutical companies and three and a half billion dollars from the U.S. When I asked Chris Elias, the president of global development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, what it will take to end the pandemic, getting covax fully funded was one key component. On June 2nd, that goal was reached.
But covax has been stymied by the very thing it was meant to circumvent: vaccine nationalism. One of covax’s biggest suppliers is India’s Serum Institute (S.I.I.), which is partnering with AstraZeneca to manufacture its covid vaccine. covax contracted with S.I.I. to buy more than a billion doses, most of which were slated to go to low- and middle-income countries. But, when the second wave of infections began to devastate India, the Indian government halted vaccine exports. […]
The United States, the biggest donor to covax, has also been under pressure to do more to help countries struggling to get more vaccines. At the end of April, the Biden Administration committed to releasing sixty million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to countries in need. “That’s showing up to a four-alarm fire with an eyedropper full of water,” Asia Russell, the executive director of Health gap, an aids advocacy group, told the Times. […]
Pfizer, which spent two billion dollars to develop its messenger-RNA platform—without knowing whether it would prove safe and effective—expects to make fifteen billion dollars from its covid vaccine this year. Industry representatives point to such gambles when they argue that lifting patent restrictions will discourage companies from investing in research and development. In a letter, obtained by The New Yorker, in response to calls from a group of Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, for vaccine developers to share their intellectual property, Jennifer Walton, Pfizer’s vice-president for U.S. government relations, wrote, “Without a strong IP framework, we would not have mRNA vaccine technology, a breakthrough discovery that is helping to address the global pandemic. We believe the IP system is an essential facilitator to the availability of the vaccine […] Walton also argued that opening up the Pfizer vaccine to other manufacturers ran the risk of shutting down the company’s own production, which is now on schedule to deliver a hundred million doses a month. “Manufacturing of our vaccine involves the use of over 280 materials,” she wrote. “These materials come from 86 suppliers in 19 different countries. If any one of the 280 different components from suppliers, however trivial, is not provided, we cannot manufacture or release the vaccine.”
The C.E.O. of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, took a different tack. […] in October, the company, which, unlike Pfizer, received billions of dollars from the government to develop its vaccine, had announced that it would not enforce its covid-related patents. Having the recipe for making the vaccine, Bancel explained, was not the same as having the ability to make the vaccine. “There is no mRNA in manufacturing capacity in the world,” he told the group. “This is a new technology. You cannot go hire people who know how to make the mRNA. Those people don’t exist. And then, even if all those things were available, whoever wants to do mRNA vaccines will have to buy the machine, invent the manufacturing process, invest in verification processes, analytical processes. And then they will have to go run a clinical trial, get the data, get the product approved, and scale the manufacturing. This doesn’t happen in six or twelve or eighteen months.”
[…] Increasing vaccine production through technology transfers, although crucial, is insufficient for ending the pandemic. […] Those of us in the United States and other wealthy countries may imagine that to mean living with sars-CoV-2 the way we live with the flu. […] We’ve been blessed with vaccines whose effectiveness against this virus is absolutely remarkable. They give us a shot at potentially eliminating the virus right now in very large parts of the world. If we resign ourselves to perennially trying to keep up with the virus, we could have wasted a remarkable opportunity to rid ourselves of this disease.”
“It’s painful to see ‘confessions’ of Raman Pratasevich. His parents believe he was tortured. This is not Raman I know. This man on Goebbels’ TV is the hostage of the regime, and we must make all possible to release him and the other 460 political prisoners.”
Photo at the link. Several people have pointed out the marks on his wrists.
In the eight years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the subtypes of influenza A viruses started acting bizarrely. Flu viruses continuously evolve, to evade the immune defenses humans develop to fend them off. But after 2012, H3N2 started to behave differently.
It was almost as if there was a falling out within a family. The viruses formed into factions — clades, in virologists’ language — drifting further and further apart with each passing year and making the process of choosing the version of H3N2 to include in flu shots an increasingly challenging task.
The greater the genetic distance between the clades, the bigger the cost of making the wrong choice. Vaccine that protects reasonably well against one might perform poorly if the other turned out to be the dominant strain in a given winter. In fact, that’s precisely what happened in the 2017-18 season, when the flu shot failed to protect three-quarters of vaccinated people in the U.S. against the H3N2 strain in circulation.
But an unexpected upside of the Covid-19 pandemic may have solved this problem for us — or at least made flu’s diversity more manageable.
With Covid suppression measures like mask wearing, school closures, and travel restrictions driving flu transmission rates to historically low levels around the world, it appears that one of the H3N2 clades may have disappeared — gone extinct. The same phenomenon may also have occurred with one of the two lineages of influenza B viruses, known as B/Yamagata.
Neither has been spotted in over a year. In fact, March of 2020 was the last time viral sequences from B/Yamagata or the H3N2 clade known as 3c3.A were uploaded into the international databases used to monitor flu virus evolution, Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, told STAT.
If the global pool of flu viruses has truly shrunk to this degree, it would be a welcome outcome, flu experts say, making the twice-a-year selection of viruses to be included in flu vaccines for the Northern and Southern hemispheres much easier work.
“I think it has a decent chance that it’s gone. But the world’s a big place,” Bedford said of the H3N2 clade that may have disappeared.
Florian Krammer, a flu expert at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan, has been scouring genetic databases looking for B/Yamagata viruses. He’s hoping the viruses in this lineage are gone for good.
“Just because nobody saw it doesn’t mean it has disappeared completely, right? But it could,” Krammer said.
…
Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, cautioned that only a portion of flu viruses ever undergo genetic sequencing, so predictions about which flu viruses may have disappeared that are based on what’s in the databases risk being wrong.
But Webby does believe there has been a large reduction in the diversity of the circulating flu viruses, saying it will be interesting to see how that plays out in coming years.
“Without doubt this is definitely going to change something in terms of the diversity of flu viruses out there. The extent to which it changes and how long it stays changed are the big question marks. But we have never seen this before,” said Webby, whose center is based at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis.
His bet is that the B/Yamagata viruses aren’t gone, noting the flu B virus lineages sometimes go quiet for a while, only to reappear later.
“But I do think we’re likely to lose a little bit of the H3N2 diversity. That’s a great thing. … Currently when we sit down to make recommendations for vaccine strains, it’s always the headache virus,” Webby said.
“If we have to pick a [subtype] to lose diversity in, that would be the one.”
You thought Michael Flynn calling for a coup was the most exciting thing to happen at the QAnon conference in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend? Think again, Fever Dreams fans, for just before the wacko retired general longingly wished for a Myanmar-style crackdown here in the U.S. of A., our very own beloved host Will Sommer got kicked out of QCon to a standing ovation. Also on this episode of Fever Dreams, our hosts talk to The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel about the massive GOP push to crackdown on voting rights at the state and local levels, and they discuss how Trump’s associates are trying, and failing, to get the former president to care about encouraging his base to get vaccinated.
(In the last segment, they talk about this guy Owen Benjamin who appears to be trying to build a white-supremacist compound called “Beartaria” in northern Idaho. Here’s an article by the local journalist they mention, Mike Weland: “Former comic riles neighbors with ‘Bearteria’ plans (updated).”)
Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss disgraced general Mike Flynn’s affirmative response to a question regarding why we can’t have a Myanmar-style military coup in the United States. Journalist Justin Glawe…, who was at the Q Anon convention where Mike Flynn was speaking, joins the show to add more context and discuss how widespread this movement is. Jared then sits down with Marc-André Argentino…, one of the foremost researchers of Q-Anon and online conspiracy theorism, to talk about how very real the Q Anon threat is, as its spread to our leaders and poses a serious threat.
(I don’t endorse any mixing in of “fraying of the civil fabric” or “polarization” or hypotheticals about the left with the lucid analysis of what’s happening now, in reality, on the right.)
Three anonymous sources spoke to Julian Feeld about the actor who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Dave Anthony, of the Dollop podcast, joined us for this exploration of Jim Caviezel — from his rise to fame and role in Terrence Malick’s ‘The Thin Red Line’, to his promotion of the QAnon-related Adrenochrome conspiracy theory at the ‘Health and Freedom Conference’, to his bizarre and dangerous behavior on the set of ‘Person of Interest’.
Do you have viruses? Cysts? Cancer? Are you tired sometimes? According to Instagram, the problem might be a lack of liquefied vegetables! This week, Mike and Aubrey take on a troubling taste test, meet a ghost with bad intentions and encounter the longest list of problematic celebrities we’ve ever seen.
Malala Yousafzai says she fears the coronavirus crisis will cause millions of girls worldwide to lose their education.
The activist and Nobel Prize laureate, 23, said the pandemic had “drastically” impacted progress made over 20 years, and many young women were being forced to abandon their education, PA reports. Speaking to Vogue, she said: “We have seen progress over the past 20 years, it has been a steady and slow progress, however, things have changed drastically because of Covid. “It’s because these girls are now in their homes and they now have more family work to do, they’re asked to do family chores, they’re asked to become financial supporters for their family. “All these girls are pushed into early child marriages and many of these girls may never be able to return to school. “This is something that we saw in the Ebola crisis as well and this is the fear that I have for girls – that they will lose their education because of this pandemic.”
Hong Kong police have arrested a prominent barrister for allegedly promoting an unauthorised assembly on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, as thousands of officers were deployed to enforce a ban on protests and gatherings across the city.
Police confirmed that barrister and activist Chow Hang Tung, vice-chairwoman of the group which organises annual vigils for the victims of China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, was arrested. A 20-year-old male was also detained on suspicion of publicising an unlawful assembly through social media posts.
“Their online remarks involved advertising and calling on others to participate or attend banned public activities,” senior superintendent Law Kwok-hoi told reporters.
Discussion of Beijing’s brutal military crackdown on the evening of 3 June and morning of 4 June, 1989 is all but forbidden on the mainland. And Hong Kong’s traditional status as the only place in China where large-scale commemorations were tolerated appeared to be coming to an end.
Thousands of police were deployed on Friday to enforce a ban on the city’s traditional candlelight vigil, which has drawn huge crowds to Victoria Park on 4 June for more than three decades. The day has traditionally served as a display of pro-democracy people power that China has made clear it will no longer tolerate.
Authorities banned this year’s gathering citing the coronavirus pandemic – although Hong Kong has not recorded an untraceable local transmission in more than a month, and held large public events. Police have also cited the national security law in warning people not to gather for unnamed events, and reminded the public of the recent convictions of some activists.
Police say that thousands of officers will be on standby to halt any “unlawful assemblies” while officials have also warned that a sweeping new national security law could be wielded against Tiananmen mourners.
…
Most of the city’s most prominent democracy figures – many of whom would organise and attend the annual Tiananmen vigils – are in jail, have been arrested or have fled overseas, after Beijing imposed a controversial national security law in Hong Kong last year.
…
The threat of mass arrests on Hong Kong has forced those who would normally attend the vigil to think creatively. Activists have called on residents to light candles in their own homes or neighbourhoods on Friday evening, or post commemoration messages on social media.
…
Vigils are planned in cities like Tokyo, Sydney, London, Berlin and Washington.
In mainland China, the Tiananmen anniversary is usually marked with a dramatic increase in online censorship and the square in Beijing being cordoned off.
Ahead of this year’s anniversary, the Tiananmen Mothers support group made new appeal in a statement. It also said that many young Chinese have “grown up in a false sense of prosperous jubilance and enforced glorification of the government (and) have no idea of or refuse to believe what happened on June 4, 1989, in the nation’s capital.”…
Myanmar’s parallel government has urged Rohingya to join with them in fighting the military junta, promising to offer justice and citizenship to the persecuted minority.
The statement has been welcomed by rights experts as “an important and notable step forward” in the movement for full rights for the Rohingya, who have faced decades of discrimination and violence in Myanmar.
Despite roots that go back for centuries, Rohingya are widely seen as foreigners in the country and have been denied citizenship under successive governments, including that of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Her government avoided even using the term Rohingya, instead referring to the minority ethnic group as “Muslims in Rakhine state”. In 2019 Aung San Suu Kyi appalled international observers when she traveled to The Hague to defend the military against allegations of a genocide.
In a statement on Thursday, Myanmar’s national unity government, which includes many NLD politicians, said attitudes were changing.
“The entire people of Burma is sympathetic to the plight of the Rohingya as all now experience atrocities and violence perpetrated by the military,” it said.
“The solidarity of the entire people is now at its best. We are confident that we can build a union that meets the needs of all those in the country who have a stake in its future.”
The statement said the NUG would scrap a 1982 citizenship law that denies Rohingya citizenship, and which has effectively rendered them one of the largest stateless populations in the world. Citizenship would instead be based on birth in Myanmar, or birth anywhere to a Myanmar citizen, the NUG said.
The NUG, which was set up after the military coup, also said it was committed to the safe repatriation of Rohingya who have been forced to flee military violence, and promised to “actively seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya”.
Nearly 900,000 Rohingya refugees remain stuck in squalid, crowded conditions in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. This includes about 750,000 people who were forced to flee over the border in 2017, when the military launched a genocidal campaign of violence, rape, murder and torching homes.
The NUG, which is seeking international recognition, has faced questions, including from the US, over whether it will recognise the citizenship and rights of Rohingya.
…
At least 845 people have been killed by the military since it seized power on 1 February, while thousands remain in detention, including Myanmar’s elected politicians.
Do African Americans have Second Amendment rights? That’s the question Emory University professor Carol Anderson set out to answer in her new book, “The Second,” which looks at the constitutional right to bear arms and its uneven application throughout U.S. history. She says she was prompted to write the book after the 2016 police killing of Philando Castile, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop after he told the officer he had a legal firearm. Anderson says the Second Amendment was always intended to be a means of arming white people to control the Black population. “There was this massive fear about these slave revolts, Black people demanding their freedom, being willing to have an uprising to gain their freedom,” says Anderson. “What I saw was that it wasn’t about guns. It was about the fear of Black people.”
AMY GOODMAN: Gun control advocates are pushing lawmakers to do more to stop a surge in gun violence. A recent study by Everytown for Gun Safety found gun violence took over 19,000 lives in the United States last year — a 25% increase from 2019. Gun sales are also soaring to record levels.
Despite this, Republican lawmakers are pushing measures to loosen gun control regulations. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott is expected to soon sign a recently passed bill which would allow Texans to carry handguns openly in public without a permit. It also allows people without a felony criminal conviction to carry a handgun without a background check. Abbott has praised the bill as the, quote, “strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history.”
Well, today we’re going to take a deep look at the Second Amendment and its racist roots. We’re joined by Carol Anderson, author of the new book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. Professor Anderson details how the Second Amendment was written to empower local militia groups to put down slave revolts and protect plantation owners. She writes the Second Amendment is, quote, “rooted in fear of Black people, to deny them their rights, to keep them from tasting liberty.” Carol Anderson joins us from Atlanta, where she’s professor at Emory University….
Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Not every homecoming video has a happy ending. Watch. Share. Take Action:… #EndGunViolence #NotComingHome #WearOrange
Russian president Vladimir Putin has – perhaps unsurprisingly – praised his country’s response to the pandemic.
Addressing an economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin lauded the efficiency of Russian-designed vaccines and bemoaned what he described as “politically-motivated bans” in some countries on their purchase.
Last year, Russia boasted of being the first in the world to authorise a coronavirus vaccine, but it has since moved slowly in getting its population immunised, AP reports.
The news agency said the slack pace of vaccination has been partly attributed to public skepticism about the vaccines amid controversial signals from the authorities.
Experts have questioned whether Russia will be able to meet the government’s target of vaccinating more than 30 million of the country’s 146 million people by mid-June, and nearly 69 million by August.
Putin today again urged the Russians to move more quickly to get the shots, noting that the Russia-designed vaccines have been “proven to be the safest and most efficient” and emphasising that there have been no fatalities linked to their use.
Putin invited foreign nationals to visit Russia to get the coronavirus shots, saying he would instruct the government to move quickly to facilitate that.
The estimated reproduction “R” number in England remains at over 1 and the epidemic could be growing by as much as 3% each day, the UK’s health ministry has said.
Reuters reports that the estimated R number was between 1.0 and 1.2, meaning that on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 10 and 12 other people. Last week, it was estimated at between 1.0 and 1.1.
The daily case growth was estimated at 0% to +3%, remaining at the same rate as last week.
Former Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn is testifying Friday before the House Judiciary Committee about former President Donald Trump’s attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation, in a closed-door interview that’s the culmination of a two-year court fight Democrats waged against the Trump administration.
The interview is poised to have McGahn put on record with Congress about some of the most pivotal moments of the Trump presidency, such as when Trump directed McGahn to fire then-special counsel Robert Mueller and McGahn refused. These incidents were documented in Mueller’s final report then were nearly eclipsed from public discussion during inter-branch power struggles in 2019 and 2020.
McGahn served as the top lawyer on Trump’s 2016 campaign and was White House counsel until fall 2018. He was one of the most significant witnesses against Trump — sitting for interviews with the FBI and prosecutors five times in Mueller’s investigation as Mueller sought to chronicle the multiple instances of Trump’s obstructive acts.
Between 2017 and 2019, McGahn told the special counsel he refused to follow the President’s directions to fire Mueller “deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre,” Mueller’s report said, referring to one of the darkest periods of the Nixon presidency during the Watergate scandal. Trump also told McGahn to deny he had tried to fire Mueller, but the lawyer wouldn’t do it, according to the Mueller report.
…
Under the agreement for McGahn’s testimony, committee members and staff who interview McGahn behind closed doors can ask him about the incidents documented in the Mueller report of Trump’s attempts to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and block the Russia investigation, and about the Mueller investigation’s accuracy. The Justice Department can assert executive privilege or McGahn can decline to answer on other topics, meaning Democrats would be unable to press McGahn on other scandals that occurred during Trump’s presidency.
While the interview is being held behind closed doors, a transcript will be released in the following days, according to the agreement that was reached. He will be interviewed by both Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, in alternating rounds.
Former VP Mike Pence said this week he and former President Trump may never see ‘eye to eye’ on January 6, but Pence also referred to it as ‘one tragic day’ in the administration. The Morning Joe panel digs into Pence’s remarks.
Notice the intended applause line about how Pence and members of Congress “did our duty under the constitution and the laws of the United States” falls totally flat before the NH GOP crowd.
Then they’re on their feet moments later to celebrate the accomplishments of an administration that presided over the preventable deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. What a strange time this is.
I did notice this. He was clearly hoping for applause there, but the party is too far gone.
“The @Twitter account of @YairNetanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin @Netanyahu’s son, was suspended for 12 hours on Friday after he posted the address of Yamina MK Nir Orbach’s home.”
A nine-year old Asiatic lion has died from coronavirus in a state-run zoo on the outskirts of the south Indian city of Chennai, the zoo has said.
There have been various Covid cases in animals, including two white white tiger cubs thought to have died of Covid-19 in neighbouring Pakistan and lions have also tested positive in Spain and two other cities of India.
Great apes in the US also contracted the virus, and were subsequently given an experimental vaccine.
“A 9-year old lioness Neela succumbed to the disease on the evening of 3 June,” the Arignar Anna zoological park said of the latest incident. The outbreak was first observed yesterday, with most of the lions asymptomatic, it said. They were quarantined and given antibiotics.
“Samples of tigers and other large mammals are being sent for testing,” the zoo’s statement added.
“But “a well-regulated militia” wasn’t, as the story goes, about how valiant and effective the militias were in repelling the British. George Washington was disgusted with their lack of fighting ability and the way the men would just cut and run from battling against a professional army. Nor was the militia reliable as a force to uphold the law. In Shays’ Rebellion, bands of armed white men, who were in the state’s militia, attacked the Massachusetts government because of foreclosures and debt seizures, demonstrating, again, how unreliable the militia were. Boston merchants had to hire mercenaries to put down the rebellion.”
Can’t actually fight, are actually cowards, are in-debt and willing to use violence to get out of it (smells grifter-y)…
If I understand Facebook’s stated reasoning, they kicked him off for inciting violent unrest and in two years they will reassess… whether he’s learned his lesson and won’t do it again?
What Facebook has actually done is created an escape hatch — if Republicans take back Congress and have committee gavels in January, the company can offer up Trump’s reinstated account as a peace offering/tribute.
I think they’re probably hoping events will intervene.
Last month, the Oversight Board upheld Facebook’s suspension of former US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6. But in doing so, the board criticized the open-ended nature of the suspension, stating that “it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension.” The board instructed us to review the decision and respond in a way that is clear and proportionate, and made a number of recommendations on how to improve our policies and processes.
We are today announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, and we are confirming the time-bound penalty consistent with those protocols which we are applying to Mr. Trump’s accounts. Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.
At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded. We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.
When the suspension is eventually lifted, there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.
In establishing the two year sanction for severe violations, we considered the need for it to be long enough to allow a safe period of time after the acts of incitement, to be significant enough to be a deterrent to Mr. Trump and others from committing such severe violations in future, and to be proportionate to the gravity of the violation itself.
We are grateful that the Oversight Board acknowledged that our original decision to suspend Mr. Trump was right and necessary, in the exceptional circumstances at the time. But we absolutely accept that we did not have enforcement protocols in place adequate to respond to such unusual events. Now that we have them, we hope and expect they will only be applicable in the rarest circumstances….
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their respective spouses ate lunch at a French restaurant in Washington DC, on Memorial Day and that has upset right-wing pastor and radio host EW Jackson.
Jackson [bellowed] that the group ate fancy French food on Memorial Day instead of hamburgers and hotdogs, which he said just goes to show how “out of touch” they are with real Americans.
Did you know that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — you know where they chose to go for the Memorial Day dinner? Jackson asked. They went to a French restaurant, and I can’t even pronounce some of this stuff that they ate: steak tartare du parc, escargots à la bourguignonne, foie gras parfait, and gougères. Lord help us. How about some hamburgers and hotdogs and barbecued chicken? These people are just, they are so out of touch it is just sad.
Just like teh food karen, who some years ago decided any ingredient she couldn’t pronounce is bad: “Essentially, she fancies herself a consumer advocate whose job it is to protect you from toxic food ingredients, with said toxicity determined by how scary or unfamiliar the name of the ingredient is.”
Jackson bellows some more (see the linked-to RWW excerpt).
The Biden’s and Harris’s dinner sounds delicious !
When a democracy and its institutions are under attack, it’s a mistake to look away, even when the attackers are ridiculous.
One of the earliest signs came in early February. Donald Trump and his team issued assorted written statements and legal filings which went to comedic lengths to avoid use of the phrase “former president” — suggesting the Republican believed he was still the rightful leader, despite having been rejected by his country’s electorate.
Two months later, Trump sounded like a politician who believed it was still possible his defeat would be reversed and he’d be welcomed back into the White House. Soon after, the former president reportedly told associates he believed Arizona’s indefensible election audit “could undo” the 2020 presidential election.
Last week, he celebrated a poll showing most Republican voters “believe Donald Trump is the true president,” and this week, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman noted that Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated” to the presidency by August.
She’s not alone. National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke, a prominent conservative writer, published this piece yesterday:
…Haberman’s reporting was correct. I can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be “reinstated” to office this summer after “audits” of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed. I can attest, too, that Trump is trying hard to recruit journalists, politicians, and other influential figures to promulgate this belief — not as a fundraising tool or an infantile bit of trolling or a trial balloon, but as a fact.
Last night, CNN ran a related piece, reporting that Trump has “been asking advisers in recent weeks if he could somehow reassume the presidency this year after listening to farfetched suggestions from conservative commentators and allies.”
A former Trump adviser added that the former president has been listening to “the bottom of the bottom of the crazies in the barrel.”
At this point, I can hear some of you shouting at your screens. It doesn’t matter what Trump thinks, the argument goes. He’s irrelevant. His delusions are inconsequential. Our time is better spent focusing on those in positions of power, not former officials slipping deeper into derangement.
I wish it were that simple. The mistake at the heart of that argument is the idea that Trump no longer has power.
To be sure, he lost his bid for a second term by a fairly wide margin, making Trump a civilian with no official authority or responsibilities. That said, the United States only has two major parties, and right now, one of them is becoming a sycophantic personality cult toward a man who is, as National Review’s Cooke put it, actively engaged in “a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government.”
What’s more, Trump fully expects others in his party to climb aboard his train to Bonkers Town. The Washington Post reported this week that the former president is “consumed” with his anti-election lies, which the Republican is turning into “a litmus test of sorts as he decides whom to endorse for state and federal contests in 2022 and 2024.”
[…] The concern is not that Trump will actually reacquire presidential power at some point over the next three-and-a-half years. […]
Rather, the concern is that Trump is deliberately undermining our democracy; few in his party are willing to tell him this is dangerously insane; his party is aggressively pursuing anti-voting and anti-election measures in service of the lies and delusions; and as Rachel explained on last night’s show, it’s an open question as to what the former president’s most rabid followers will be expected to do as Trump maintains the idea that he’s the real president, reality be damned. […]
In the wake of this week’s congressional special election in New Mexico, state GOP officials said yesterday that state Sen. Mark Moores’ (R) loss was due in part to “angry” Republican voters who “questioned election integrity.” There’s reason for skepticism about the explanation, but if GOP officials genuinely believe this, shouldn’t they have an added incentive to stop pushing ridiculous election conspiracy theories?
On a related note, Democratic officials were so pleased with the party’s landslide victory in New Mexico that they believe it will help with the party’s 2022 recruitment efforts.
Donald Trump will speak at the North Carolina Republican Party’s state convention this weekend, delivering what he and his team are describing as an “official presidential speech,” despite the fact that he’s not the president.
Some good news:
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) yesterday signed into law a new measure creating permanent mail-in voting in state elections. Nevada is now the sixth state to adopt such a model.
“First of All, James Ball III, you are full of poop,” wrote one Republican Party functionary to another in a bitter, paramilitary-tinged rift over the future of the GOP in Multnomah County, Oregon.
“That is a legal term used by bible believing Christians,” the email continued, “who want to say something much much stronger but err on the side of caution.”
The author was Tim Sytsma, a precinct committee person, or PCP, for the Multnomah County Republican Party who helped arrange for an associate of the Proud Boys, the right-wing street gang, to provide security for a recent meeting in which the county chair was recalled. The target of his email, Ball, is also a PCP […]
The beef — aired out in a series of stories over the past month by the Portland-based Willamette Week (WW) — is part of a pattern playing out in some form around the country: Fringe and even violent movements like the Proud Boys are muscling their way into internal Republican Party politics.
“I have no fear,” Sytsma wrote in another email reported by WW. “I have friends, neighbors, 3%ers people, my Proud Boy and Plain Clothes ‘security friends’…some who live within 6 blocks of me.…both in Uniform and OUT, I have contacted my local Precinct, they won’t be responding to any ‘Swat calls’…I enthusiastically practice my 2nd Amendment Rights,.…so frankly.…A phone call and I have more pals at my aid in literally single digit minutes than I can ever need.”
On Thursday night, the two sides held dueling Multnomah County Republican Party meetings to elect seemingly dueling party chairs, at hotels two miles apart from each other. […] the May 6 recall vote was unusual.
For one thing, its location, a Portland church, was not publicized ahead of time, WW reported. More suspicious still, an associate of the Proud Boys, Daniel Tooze Sr., provided volunteer security at the door as his associates roamed around the neighborhood.
[…] “We showed up at the recall meeting, and it was odd to see these people that I didn’t recognize in their 20s and 30s, big beards, black jackets, and it was pretty clear that they had firearms under their jackets,” he recalled.
Ball said he didn’t want to pick a fight with people he believed were armed, but that he was upset about the group’s presence.
[…] the intra-party friction didn’t end there. At a subsequent county GOP meeting on May 17, several party members were not allowed into the venue, another church in town. Ball and others said they saw Proud Boy associates providing security for this meeting, as well […]
“The second time, at the May 17 meeting, they were physically keeping people out of the meeting,” Ball told TPM. “Which, again you just can’t do that.”
[…] Undeterred, Ball and nearly 20 others held a meeting in the parking lot — and voted to reelect Lloyd party chair.
[…] At press time Friday, Lloyd was still listed as county GOP chair on the Oregon Republican Party’s website. But the party will need to make a more explicit choice soon, Ball said: On Saturday, the ORP is having a statewide meeting, and will need to determine which Multnomah County Republican Party delegation is legitimate. […]
After a disappointing April jobs report, May looked significantly better with 559,000 new jobs added to the economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s still a little short of the 650,000 jobs analysts predicted, but unemployment ticked down from 6.1% to 5.8%, the lowest since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020. “America is on the move again,” President Joe Biden declared in response to the report. “No other major economy is gaining jobs as quickly as ours, and none of this success is an accident,” he said, crediting the American Rescue Plan with boosting the recovery.
The Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould described the overall report as “a promising sign that the recovery is on track.” Gould continued, ”If this pace continues over the next year, we will likely get down to 4% unemployment by mid-2022 and will be fully recovered before the end of 2022, fully absorbing losses plus population growth.”
Another piece of good news is that women gained jobs after losing massive numbers of jobs throughout the pandemic, accounting for 56.2% of the new jobs in May. It’s just a start—women would need to gain jobs at that rate for 13 months straight to get back to where things stood in the before times, according to the National Women’s Law Center—but a start is better than another month of continuing to fall behind. Women’s labor force participation rose from 57.2% in April to 57.4% in May, still behind the February 2020 rate of 59.2%. […]
It’s a stunning reversal for a brand that once lured the rich and famous willing to pay a premium to live in a building with Trump’s gilded name on it.
The building has stunning Manhattan skyline views, its spa offers deep-tissue massages, and the fancy restaurant off the lobby serves up prime steaks. Best of all, many apartments at the Trump World Tower are selling at a deep discount — assuming the buyer doesn’t mind the name over the door.
“Fifty percent of the people wouldn’t want to live in a Trump building for any reason … but then there are guys like me,” says Lou Sollecito, a car dealer who recently bought a two-bedroom unit with views of the Empire State Building. “It’s a super buy.”
The purchase price was $3 million, nearly a million less than the seller paid in 2008.
[…] An Associated Press review of more than 4,000 transactions over the past 15 years in 11 Trump-branded buildings in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York found prices for some condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more.
That’s a plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago. […]
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.):
I think Facebook was right. I think that they have an absolute right to ban liars and the president — the former president — is an absolute liar. It’s not a question of free speech, because free speech is a question of the government limiting free speech, and there’s no question of that here.
Private companies … can print whatever they want, and I think they’re right to not print lies.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Rachel Maddow in her opening monologue had a longish and informative with Dr. Fauci. Video if posted in the morning.
Gavin Newsom responds after Judge Roger Benitez compares AR-15s to Swiss army knives good for both home and battle
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has slammed a federal judge’s decision to overturn his state’s three-decade-old ban on assault rifles as “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians”.
In a strongly worded attack, the Democrat added: “Comparing an AR-15 to a Swiss army knife is a disgusting slap in the face to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence.”
Newsom issued his stinging statement late on Friday after Roger Benitez, a district judge in San Diego appointed by George W Bush, ruled that the state was unlawfully depriving law-abiding Californians of weapons allowed under US supreme court rulings, denying their right to bear arms.
Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive, Benitez wrote, issuing a permanent injunction stayed for 30 days. The California attorney general, Rob Bonta, called Benitez’s ruling flawed and said it would be appealed.
Assault-style rifles are disproportionately used in crime and have been used in most modern US mass shootings […]
The California assault rifles ban has been in place since 1989. […]
Nonetheless, Benitez said: Like the Swiss army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle.
Hey, nutter: THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE IS NOT A WEAPON, AND IS NEITHERGood for both home [nor] battle. Try to use it as a weapon, and you’ll probably cut your own fingers off.
[…]
Assault weapon restrictions have been upheld by six federal district and appeals courts, the state argued. Overturning the ban would allow things like assault shotguns and assault pistols, it said.
Benitez said: This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of second amendment protection. The banned ‘assault weapons’ are not bazookas, howitzers or machine guns. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes.
[…]
This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes,he wrote. One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles. The facts, however, do not support this hyperbole, and facts matter.
Hey nutter: “AVERAGE PURPOSES” DO NOT INCLUDE homeland defense equipment. Nor, in the hands of an untrained, untested, unlicensed, person, should it include home defense. And even then, there are (supposed-)professionals, such as the police (with caveats if one is black or not a thug-supporting voter).
In California, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle.
I have no idea if that’s true, but (1) In the States as a whole, in 2019, there where c.186,000 firearm assaults, and c.117,000 knife assaults (Number of aggravated assaults in the United States in 2019, by weapon used ). And (2) I suspect murder by rifle is rare with, I suspect, must murder-by-firearms being hand-held guns (pistols, etc.). This is a distinction without a difference since rifles, pistols, assault- and machine-guns, etc. — firearms — are all Shooty McShootfaces, deadly, and frequently designed / intended specifically for use on humans. That is simply not true of knives (look at your table, chef’s, or Swiss Army knives, as some examples — none designed for use on / against humans, and most very unsafe for such a use).
On murders specifically in the States, in 2019, there were c.9,500 by firearms and c.1,500 by knives (Number of murder victims in the United States in 2019, by weapon used). So if the so-called “judge’s” claim is true, California is a significant outlier (ignoring that sneaky qualifier “rifles”).
Apparently, this so-called “judge” has form:
[…]
The state is appealing a 2017 ruling by Benitez against a nearly two-decade-old ban on the sale of magazines holding more than 10 bullets. That decision led to a buying spree before the judge intervened. It was upheld in August but the ninth US circuit court of appeals said in March an 11-member panel will rehear the case.
The state also is appealing an April 2020 decision by Benitez which blocked a 2019 law requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition.
Both measures were championed by Newsom as lieutenant governor — and backed by voters in 2016.
In 2017, Polifact checked this knives kill more than rifles bellowing, and basically found what I suspected above — there are not that many murders specifically by rifle (ignoring all other types of Shooty McShootfaces) — Out-of-context comments inflate stabbing statistics (my added emboldening):
“FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2016 shows more than four times as many people were stabbed to death than were killed with rifles of any kind.”
[…] The data provided by the FBI breaks down murders by types of firearms, and rifles is a subsection of all firearm murders.
When totaling the data from the FBI crime report, we see that 374 people were killed by rifles, while 1,604 were killed by knives or cutting instruments. That means about 4.3 times as many people were killed by knives or cutting instruments as were killed by rifles.
“[Rep Nick Schroer] is comparing a full set of cutting instruments to a partial set of guns which makes cutting instruments look more deadly,” said Dr James Nolan, a sociology professor at West Virginia University.
[…]
“The real story from the data is that the odds of being murdered by a firearm are nearly seven times higher than the odds of being murdered by a knife or cutting instrument,” he said.
When you look at firearms murders overall, the number is staggeringly different: 11,004 murders out of 15,070 total murders were committed with firearms. That is, 73 percent of U.S. murders were committed with firearms — 3.4 percent of firearm murders were committed with a rifle. The other categories are shotguns, handguns and “type unknown.”
[…]
Schroer is cherry-picking data by comparing all people who were stabbed to death versus a small percentage of those that were shot to death. In 2016, 73 percent of U.S. murders were committed with firearms, but while 10.6 percent were committed with some type of knife or cutting instrument, just 2.5 percent were committed using rifles.
[…]
I know of no statistics for number of attempted defensive actions undertaken (successful or not) using a Swiss Army Knife, but suspect it’s essentially zero. The mildly deranged penguin points out flinging spiders, penguin eggs, or even cheese at a would-be attacker is likely to be more effective than a Swiss Army Knife (albeit the attacker may double-up in laughter at the “threat” of being Swiss Army Knifed, allowing the assaultee to run away (albeit running with an open Swiss Army Knife is not recommended).
[…]
When 18-year-old Paxton Smith used her valedictorian address to rail against Texas’s near-total abortion ban last Sunday, she inspired cheers at her Dallas high school, as well as an outpouring of support for her across the country and online.
[…]
“It’s definitely scary to take a stand on such a big stage on such a controversial issue,” she told the Guardian.
Yet her speech has garnered millions of views on social media and won praise from politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Beto O’Rourke. And for Smith, the most meaningful reactions have come from concerned fathers who fear for their own daughters’ futures.
“That really hits me so hard, ’cause of course a parent wants the best for their daughters,” she said. “And they’re allowing themselves to be vulnerable, and say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for protecting my daughter when I haven’t had as much of a chance to.’”
Texas’s new heartbeat[†] measure ranks among the most extreme abortion bans in the US, blocking the procedure as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women and girls even know they’re pregnant. The bill, due to come into force in September, doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest and allows private citizens to enforce its provisions through what could be a torrent of expensive and time-consuming lawsuits.
[…]
She said she had been dreading the address until she walked onstage, when a calm washed over her. Her voice grew stronger and more impassioned as she excoriated those lawmakers who are accused of stealing the bodily autonomy of women across Texas, including her own.
Soon, people started cheering — primarily parents in the audience, she thinks. Despite Texas’s reputation as a conservative bastion, a sizable majority of Texans agree with the US supreme court’s landmark Roe v Wade decision, which established the constitutional right to an abortion nearly 50 years ago.
“I was very surprised,” Smith said. “It was exciting that so many people were excited that I said that up there.”
But Smith remembered far more praise than pushback after her speech and she said she could count on one hand the negative messages she had received.
[…]
From the embedded link:
[…]
Before Smith and other student speakers addressed the crowd, they were warned the microphone would be cut off if they deviated from the messages they’d submitted to Principal Kerri Jones for approval.
“I was concerned the speech wouldn’t go over as I hoped” (if someone turned off the mic), she says. “I thought it was worth taking the risk.”
[… The school district eventually said (in part, after (still?) threatening to review the procedures),] “It is important to note that the following is written on the back of our graduation program, ‘The students who shall be speaking at the graduation ceremony were selected based on neutral criteria to deliver the messages of the students’ own choices. The content of each student speaker’s message is the private, voluntary expression of the individual student and does not reflect the endorsement, sponsorship, position or expression of the District or its employees.’”
Russell Smith says he couldn’t be prouder of his daughter and her actions.
“It was something that she felt was important, and she had the nerve, determination and boldness to put herself out there and say her piece. So few people demonstrate this level of maturity and poise, regardless of age.
[…]
† The Grauniad did, thankfully, put “scare quotes” around heartbeat, since, at 6 weeks, what is being detected is NOT a heartbeat, “Jennifer Keats, an ob-gyn at University of California, San Francisco, stated that the fetus’ cardiovascular system at six weeks is ‘very immature’. Keats described the cardiac activity as ‘a group of cells with electrical activity. That’s what the heartbeat is at that stage of gestation … We are in no way talking about any kind of cardiovascular system'” (Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge). ‘Fetal heartbeat’ in abortion laws taps emotion, not science puts it more succinctly: “[A]t the point where advanced technology can detect that first flutter, as early as six weeks, the embryo isn’t yet a fetus and it doesn’t have a heart.”
[…]
Emails were released this week in which the Republican president of the Arizona state senate said Trump called her after his election defeat last year, to thank her for pushing to prove any fraud.
The emails add to understanding of the evolution of Trump’s “big lie”[† …], and how it fuelled the deadly Capitol assault.
The Arizona emails were obtained by American Oversight, a legal watchdog, via a Freedom of Information request. They showed how Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, pushed officials to act and how a controversial election audit in Arizona’s most populous county came to be set up.
[…]
In one Arizona email released on Friday, dated 2 December, Karen Fann, the Republican state senate president, told two constituents she had spoken to Giuliani at least six times over the past two weeks.[‡]
Threatened later in the month with being recalled from office by the new patriot movement of the United States, Fann wrote that the state senate was doing everything legally possible to get the forensic audit done.
[…]
The emails also show the involvement of Christina Bobb. A reporter[propagandist] for One America News Network, a rightwing TV channel praised by Trump, Bobb has raised funds in support of the Maricopa audit.
[…]
† I have no idea why the Grauniad choose to put “scare quotes” around big lie.
‡ Possibly true, but since it’s uttered by a thug / wannabe-dalek (as in someone who kowtows to hair furor and his Big Lie), that assertion is set in eejit quotes.
Nerd @49, I approve of the way Dr. Fauci dismissed the kinds of attacks being flung at him by rightwing nutcases and by rightwing media: “It’s all nonsense.”
In other news, this is from Politico:
A bipartisan group of lawmakers urged President Joe Biden to immediately evacuate the thousands of Afghans who worked closely with the U.S. government over the past 20 years and will likely be punished by the Taliban once the last American troops leave the country this summer.
A Trump supporter accused of storming the US Capitol and heckling police officers for “protecting pedophiles” previously served jail time after being convicted in the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl, according to court records reviewed by CNN and lawyers involved in the cases.
Federal prosecutors say Sean McHugh of Auburn, California, fought with police as they fended off the massive mob of Trump supporters outside the Capitol on January 6. During the scuffle, McHugh was recorded by police body-worn cameras heckling the officers with a megaphone.
According to prosecutors’ description of the footage, McHugh allegedly shouted, “You guys like protecting pedophiles?” “you’re protecting communists,” “I’d be shaking in your little s–t boots too,” and, “there is a Second Amendment behind us, what are you going to do then?”
[…] McHugh was convicted in 2010 on a state charge of unlawful sex with a minor, according to California court records reviewed by CNN and lawyers involved in McHugh’s cases. McHugh was sentenced to 240 days in jail — though he served less — and got four years of probation.
[…] McHugh has been charged with eight federal crimes tied to the Capitol insurrection, including trespassing charges and the more serious counts of obstructing congressional proceedings and assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon. He hasn’t yet entered a plea in court.
When Mike Flynn took the stage on Wednesday at the World Trade Center, he took the opportunity to extol two things that did not exist: one is Trump’s victory in last year’s election, and the other is an unborn country called the New Federal State of China.
“It took a lot of strategic thought to get to this place,” Flynn said, referring to the nonexistent nation before gesturing towards himself. “Who are your partners? Who are your allies? I can tell you, you’re looking at an ally. This guy personally will ally with you.” The former general added that the nation was on the verge of “a big revival, a big reformation.”
Flynn’s remarks occurred at a one-year anniversary celebration for the fledgling and fictive state, announced last year by exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and former Trump campaign chairman Stephen K. Bannon.
It was a rambling, 12-hour event held on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center, per Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman, who was in attendance.
Guo and Bannon have been working on the New Federal State of China for at least a year. After Bannon’s arrest on Guo’s yacht last year, he thanked supporters of the country for their support.
The project aims to create a government-in-exile that may one day supplant the Chinese Communist Party’s control over China.
In addition to Bannon and Flynn, in attendance were Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO and election myth promoter Mike Lindell.
All four of them drew heavy comparisons between Guo’s New Federal State of China and their own battle to overturn the results of the 2020 election based on the myth that it had been stolen. Bannon referred to the New Federal State as the “deplorables of China,” while Flynn made the comparison more explicit.
“When we talk about the formation of new ideas, of new countries, new nation-states, you have to take a look at yourself, have the conversations in your communities,” Flynn said. “Like the communities that I represent, which are people that care deeply about freedom, and we are not about to give it up.”
[…] “There are hundreds of millions of people around this country that are not about to give this country up,” Flynn added, who are “willing to sacrifice, because we cannot take for granted any of the freedoms that we have.”
The former general made a grinning reference to his remarks last weekend that a Myanmar-style coup “should happen here” to reinstall Trump.
“I’ve been pilloried in the media for things that I may have said or may not have said,” he said with a smile.
[…] Lindell, the MyPillow representative, came later in the day. His remarks were preceded by a music video featuring Guo, combining Backstreet Boys-inspired direction with an anti-CCP message.
He rambled through a series of election fraud allegations before Bannon interrupted him by getting the crowd to chant: “Take Down The CCP.”
Giuliani rounded out the celebration, giving a speech in which he referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as the “Fauci pandemic” and accused the Chinese Communist Party of creating the virus.
“Where were the bats in Wuhan?” Giuliani asked. “They were in the laboratory!”
JFC
Pierce R. Butlersays
blf quoting the Grauniad @ # 51: … she said she could count on one hand the negative messages she had received.
That astounds me – a strong pro-choice message by an 18-y-o in central Texas doesn’t generate ferocious backlash?
I had expected that by now we’d see articles about Paxton Smith & family in hiding as police guarded their home from arsonists. There may be hope for the Lone Star State after all…
So they want to replace the communists with a bunch of fascists?
——————-
The New World Order is back, and it’s bigger than ever!
But there’s no need to be alarmed. Steve Bannon knows only the best Chinese insurrectionists. He just needs several hundred million dollars a year for a few decades.
—————————
“Where were the bats in Wuhan?” Giuliani asked. “They were in the laboratory!”
The bats are in Rudy’s belfry…
———————–
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” —attributed to Eric Hoffer
These Grifters always start at the Racket Phase.
————————
Man, Putin is really getting his money’s worth out of these chaos agents.
[… My children are] also bemused by the past. I expected to have to explain some things to them […] You know, educating them in the exotic linguistic differences: “zee” for “zed” and so on. But I didn’t anticipate that I would be explaining actual ancient history.
[… W]hat is that weird box he’s walking into?
“That’s a phone box. It’s what people used to make calls in before they had mobiles,” I said. They stared at me, as if I spoke of a time before people had oxygen (which doesn’t say great things about how much they see me with my phone, but let’s ignore that). It got worse: what is that book […]?
“That’s a phone book. It’s how people found out other people’s numbers,” I said, suddenly understanding how my grandfather felt that time he told me about growing up without indoor plumbing.
[… O]verall, the world in 1955 is recognisable to a kid from 1985. He knows what a phone box and phone book are, for a start.
To kids born in 2015, however […], both worlds are completely baffling. Why look up someone’s phone number in a book instead of on the phone itself? […] It’s the same thing with Sesame Street (if Bert can’t find Ernie, why doesn’t he just call him?); with The Muppet Show (why can’t Kermit just ask Google where he could find a new theatre?) […]
Mainly, this is down to the rise of the internet and mobile phones, both of which have obliterated things kids in particular relied on for decades, from Encyclopedia Britannicas to actual phone calls […]. How to explain all the Walkmans in 80s movies? The Discmans in 90s movies? And — soon — iPods in 2000s movies? (A phone that doesn’t phone? Genius!) […] I now sound like an 85-year-old: “Gather close, children, as I tell you about something called the PalmPilot…”
blfsays
@56, “That astounds me — a strong pro-choice message by an 18-y-o in central Texas doesn’t generate ferocious backlash?”
It also astonished me. I believe her.
I also did an admittedly quick search for negative comments, indeed comments, from anti-abortionists, etc., but failed to find anything. At all. (I presume that is more to do with me not wanting to spend too much time in going down the rabbitholes, and that there are “the usual” frothing spittle-flecked reactions somewhere, but I’ve no idea where.)
For example, when SC@475(previous page) first posted a link to a twittering-thread with an excerpted video of the speech, I was surprised that then (dunno about now) there didn’t seem to be any trolling or negative comments, etc.
[…]
After five years of sniffing out landmines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, Magawa is retiring.
The African giant pouched rat has been the most successful rodent trained and overseen by a Belgian nonprofit, APOPO, to find land mines and alert its human handlers so the explosives can be safely removed.
Magawa has cleared more than 141,000 square metres of land, the equivalent of some 20 football pitches, sniffing out 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance, according to APOPO.
And for the first time, it won a British charity’s top civilian award for animal bravery last year, an honour so far exclusively reserved for dogs.
“Although still in good health, he has reached a retirement age and is clearly starting to slow down,” APOPO said. “It is time.”
[…]
APOPO also works with programs in Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to clear millions of mines left behind from wars and conflicts.
More than 60 million people in 59 countries continue to be threatened by landmines and unexploded ordnance. In 2018, landmines and other remnants of war killed or injured 6,897 people, the group says.
Giant pouched rats can apparently live toc.8 years. Magawa is around 7 years old. The Grauniad doesn’t say how he will retire, but according to Al Jazeera, ‘Hero rat’ Magawa retires from Cambodian bomb sniffing career, “Magawa will spend more time doing what he loves — eating bananas and peanuts”.
[…] the Dark Energy Survey (DES) isn’t an ordinary experiment. An international collaboration between numerous universities and research labs, the survey harnessed the power of a 570-Megapixel digital camera attached to a 4-meter telescope on a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes, and spent six years scanning the southern skies, generating thousands of overlapping images. While those images covered only a portion of the southern sky, they captured information that can give the best answers yet about the structure of the cosmos, the nature of two mysterious forces, and the ultimate fate of the universe.
Last week, the DES issued its first big update, covering three years spent analyzing that data. Not only does that information contain the location of an incredible 226 million galaxies, the data dump came complete with 30 research papers by scientists who had been working with DES and had early access to this new wealth of information. And some of those papers are already changing our perception on some of the grandest questions imaginable.
THE STRUCTURE OF EVERYTHING
Considering that the Earth is just one planet, around a single star, in a galaxy that contains about 100 billion such stars, it’s understandable that people tend to think of galaxies as rather large objects. Even a ship capable of traveling at the speed of light would require more than 105,000 years to cross the Milky Way. And yet, the best current guess is that there may be two trillion galaxies in the observable universe,
The Dark Energy Survey is about looking at how those galaxies are arrayed across the universe. Are they distributed randomly? Is the distribution “smooth” and regular, or is it “clumpy” and uneven? Are there grander structures of which galaxies are only a part?
Truthfully, we already knew the answers to these questions. Galaxies are not equally spread across the universe, but are grouped into clusters, and those clusters are in turn arrayed in great “strands” that sweep through millions of light years. […] it’s not like any spider web you’ve ever seen. Imagine instead a great mass of sponge. Then imagine all the irregular, unevenly spaced holes in that sponge getting larger and larger, until all that’s left of the sponge are shells and curves that trace the outlines of those voids. […]
DARK MATTER
But while we’ve understood this large scale structure for some time, we also understand that the measurements we make of these not-so-airy halls has a problem. Actually, two problems.
One of these can be seen when we look at galaxies themselves. Just as planets orbit around a star, in most galaxies stars orbit around the center of mass—which is often, or maybe even always—a supermassive black hole. The nearest of these, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is about 25,800 light years from Earth. About every 240 million years, our sun makes an orbit around that central mass … and that’s the problem. It’s too fast.
If we took all the mass of all the stars, planets, nebulae, black holes, and every other object we can see or detect, and added it all together, the gravity it would generate is still not enough to explain how stars move around the galaxy. There simply isn’t enough mass. Based on everything we can see, they should go spinning off into the void.
[…] scientists believe there is something we can’t see: some kind of matter which doesn’t reflect light and doesn’t block light, but which can alter the path of light through the force of gravity. This stuff we can’t see is tagged “dark matter,” and the math indicates that it’s about 85% of all the matter in the universe. The ordinary stuff […] makes up the other 15%.
It’s still possible that dark matter does not exist. There could be something about the nature of gravity on vast scales that we simply don’t understand. But Einstein’s model of relativistic gravity has been so damn good at predicting specific cases, whether that’s planetary orbits or neutron star collisions, that it’s hard to think of how it could be tweaked. […] there are really good reasons to believe that dark matter, strange as it seems, is a real thing which makes up the majority of our universe.
DARK ENERGY
[…] Dark energy is a name applied to a second discrepancy between what scientists expected to find when they focused their instruments on the universe.
Since the time of Edwin Hubble—with a lot of work by […] Alexander Friedman, all of which was based on the “she should be more far more celebrated” Henrietta Swan Leavitt—we’ve understood that the universe is expanding. For decades, astronomers have been looking to find out just how fast that expansion really is.
And they’ve been working to see how quickly that expansion is slowing down. Because of course it would be slowing down. All that matter, dark and otherwise, has to be putting a drag on the system so that eventually there will at least be stasis and … […] The rate of expansion is speeding up?
[…] Despite an ever improving sense of how the universe was formed, and the various expansion phases that happened in the opening milliseconds of reality, measurements continue to insist that things are speeding up out there.
Something is providing a counter-force to gravity. That force is actually greater than all the gravity generated by all the matter. That’s “dark energy,” and there is a lot of it. […] roughly 68% of everything there is.
So 68% percent of the universe is dark energy, and 85% of what’s left is dark matter. Everything we’ve ever touched, seen, or detected in any way […] fits in the < 5% of stuff that isn’t “dark.”
SURVEY
[…] The Dark Energy Survey is designed to help scientists learn about the nature of dark energy (and also dark matter) by obtaining precise measurements giving the relative locations of hundreds of millions of galaxies. Over 400 scientists from over 25 institutions around the world are engaged in this survey […]
[…] what the survey has already announced is three-years worth of data cranking […] There is a wealth of potential information to be gleaned from this information. Looking at the structure can potentially explain much about how dark energy works, about the history of the universe, and about the Ultimate Fate of All Things (which seems like a phrase that deserves caps).
RESULTS AT THE MID-POINT
Three years in the DES has generated a raft of astronomical papers that are already starting to have an impact on our understanding of cosmology.
[…] good on you, calibration teams!
A second group of papers consist of “catalogs.” Running through a list of 200+ million galaxies is bound to generate a lot of examples, as well as more than a few unexpected results and genuine oddballs. These papers are essential for anyone who wants to find an object and trace it back to its source in the vast catalog of images. […]
Several of the papers involve looking for dark matter through gravitational lensing. In relativity, gravity isn’t so much a force as a distortion in space time. Heavy objects, like galaxies, “dent” space time, and everything, including light, is affected by that dent. The result is that light reaching Earth can be shaped by the gravity of a galaxy or star as if it were passing through a lens. By picking out images distorted by by gravitational lensing, researchers were able to not just study the location of the visible galaxies, but also the location of dark matter by looking at how it shaped the light.
[…]. Weak lensing doesn’t cause a galaxy to appear as a ring around another, or cause parts of an image to double up, it just slightly alters the apparent shape. Understanding weak lensing is critical to using the data for dark matter measurements […]
sensitive instruments could pick up fainter, more distant galaxies. Being more distant, those galaxies, and the shapes of which they’re a part, are older than most of the galaxies imaged. That allows a comparison between the structure of the universe over a period of several billion years, showing how the structures we recognize “evolved.” (Though, given the distance to these objects, we can’t really say any of this represents the universe as it is today.) […]
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
We don’t know what dark energy is, and its behavior runs maddingly counter to expectations. Over the last two decades, a number of theories have been proposed and discarded. However, there are a few leading contenders. One of these, due to an unfortunate coincidence of timing between when the theory was first published and the release of a certain Star Wars prequel, is known as “phantom energy.” It postulates not just an expanding universe, but an ever-increasing level of dark energy.
That theory would explain why the observed rate of expansion seems to be picking up, and the suggested solution indicates that it will keep accelerating, ad infinitum. Worst of all, it indicates that ω < -1 […] In this case, that little omega represents the ratio between dark energy pressure, and dark energy density. Which is … really, the rabbit hole is there if you want to climb in.
Without getting too deep into the “equation of state,” just know that ω -1, so you can drop those plans for a pre-rip party in a trillion years or so. However, frustratingly, the value is ω > -1 … which is still messy. Because if dark energy is actually going to play nice with the rest of the universe, and with physical laws as we know them, the real answer should be ω = -1.
Unfortunately, there are now a whole cluster of measures some of which have ω > -1, and some of which have ω < -1, and all of which have supposed ranges of error that don’t overlap ω = -1. […] But the results from the three-year dataset at DES are very close to ω = -1. It seems entirely possible that when the whole thing is on the table, that difference between almost -1 and -1 could disappear.
But for now, the DES vote goes for “no rip.”
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
The answer is … I don’t know. […] This first set of papers suggests not just the universe safe from the Big Rip, it’s also strangely smoother than expected. Not smooth—that big holey sponge still exists—but smoother than any previous model predicted; slightly less clumpy. It also seems to suggest that the relationship between the placement of dark matter and visible matter is more problematic than in previous results.
What’s clear is that the DES is generating a wealth of information that could shed light on the two great mysteries that define most of the universe. The papers that have been released are just the tip of a 226 million galaxy iceberg, most of which serve to define the wealth of data available.
What’s been released so far is likely to overturn a lot of cherished ideas, and generate a million more. And there’s a lot more to come.
[…] I’d always wondered about the kind of mind that could simultaneously believe Trump deserves all the credit for developing the COVID-19 vaccines while also believing that the vaccines are part of a sinister plot to surreptitiously implant nanobots that will make all red-blooded Republican men want to go antiquing with Armistead Maupin and his boyfriend before spending the remainder of the afternoon sipping cosmos at an adorable sidewalk French cafe. Or whatever the conspiracy theory is this week. Maybe the vaccine just makes your balls fall off. […]
Then there’s this guy, who ratchets the cognitive dissonance up to 11: [video available at the link]
WALTER MASTERSON, EXPERT PRANKSTER: “Trump does not get enough credit for rushing the vaccine and getting it on the market.”
TRUMPY MAN: “Oh, he was instrumental in ‘let’s get rid of the red tape and let’s do business and see what we can do’ …”
MASTERSON: “Like you said, like a businessman.”
TRUMPY MAN: “Well, who do you want in charge?”
MASTERSON: “Exactly!”
TRUMPY MAN: “What’s the biggest business in the United States?”
MASTERSON: “The government.”
[Jump cut]
MASTERSON: “You’re not getting the vaccine.”
TRUMPY MAN: “Naw.”
MASTERSON: “I feel like it was a little too rushed.”
TRUMPY MAN: “Yeah. Is it FDA approved and all that yet? You know what I’m getting at.”
MASTERSON: “Yeah, it was rushed out there.”
TRUMPY MAN: “Yeah, usually it takes years and years and years. Yes, hopefully Donald, Mr. Trump there, you know, president, got that through, right, because you know he did. He said he was gonna. If he said he was gonna do this … he does what he says he’s gonna do.”
And … scene.
Take a bow, Trumpy Man. Those were some mental gymnastics worthy of Simone Biles.
I fear for our country as long as people like this walk among us. This is why Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema need to suck it up and get election reform and infrastructure passed—because there’s simply no reasoning with the unreasonable, and if we don’t act now, the unreasonable will soon have a hammerlock on our democracy.
Days after thousands of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci became public through a series of FOIA requests, Republicans are using out of context portions from those emails to ramp up attacks on the long time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Those emails are being conflated with a series of media-hyped articles about the origins of COVID-19, and the result is a genuinely toxic stew that is being used by Republicans ranging from Josh Hawley to Donald Trump Jr. as a way or stirring hate and raking in cash.
[…] those channels have become a 24/7 assault on the 80-year-old doctor […] All of these outlets are in heavy rotation with the idea that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab operated by a friend of Dr. Fauci, that Fauci helped China in covering up that origin, and that this somehow absolves Trump of all responsibility in American deaths.
And that’s the lightweight version. The version being pushed by multiple “guests” and “experts” appearing on these programs is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately engineered to infect people as part of a program that Fauci—and President Obama—approved of and funded. […] others, like Donald Trump Jr., are already chuckling over the idea that Dr. Fauci could be murdered.
On Friday evening, Donald Trump Jr. showed that he wasn’t just expecting Dr. Fauci to be killed by the rabid Trump supporters being pushed to believe that a man who has lived his life in service to medicine and the nation is some kind of monster, Junior is ready to celebrate that murder. In an Instagram post, Trump Jr. posted an image saying “I’m just going to jump ahead on this, and said I don’t think Fauci killed himself.” Those words were pasted over a smiling image of the odious and sadistic slave owner Calvin Candie from the film Django Unchained.
Sen. Rand Paul started the latest edition of the smear train on Thursday when he issued a fundraising pitch insisting that Fauci “must go” and claiming that Fauci — who was forced to correct Paul over and over in Senate hearings — had “continuously and deliberately misleading the public at every turn.” He provided no examples, but insisted that someone must “fire Fauci!”
On Friday, Sen. Josh Hawley explicitly tied together vague claims about Fauci’s emails, with equally vague claims about COVID-19 saying “Anthony Fauci’s recently released emails and investigative reporting about COVID-19 origins are shocking.” Exactly what in Fauci’s emails Hawley found upsetting, he didn’t say. But he did call for Fauci to resign as well as “a congressional investigation” into claims that Fauci somehow covered up the pandemic’s origins.
Also on Friday, Donald Trump issued a statement saying that “After seeing the emails, our Country is fortunate I didn’t do what Dr. Fauci wanted me to do.”
What this means is anyone’s guess, but by Saturday morning Sen. Marco Rubio figured he had his marching orders, so piled on, calling for Biden to remove Dr. Fauci. And again, Rubio’s claim went directly back to the idea that Fauci “dismissed the idea that the virus could have come from a lab.”
Fauci never made such a dismissal. And the “lab escape” origin of COVID-19 certainly isn’t proven. But it has been getting constant fluffing from a series of articles and constant right-wing coverage, all of which features the implication that “Trump was right” about “the China virus.”
[…] Trump intends to make things even worse when he makes his first appearance on Saturday evening at a North Carolina rally. He’s planning to make attacking Dr. Fauci the center of his tirade,
On Friday, President Biden spoke up in support of Dr. Fauci, responding to a question by saying, “Yes I’m very confident in Dr. Fauci.”
But the assault on Anthony Fauci is unrelenting and the level of ugliness demonstrated by the Trump Jr. message is only getting worse. If Republicans have learned anything from January 6, it’s apparently that they really can inspire and direct deadly hate.
blfsays
I haven’t really been following the story, but in March this year, a shady UK-based financial operation called Greensill collapsed. It was basically a ponzi scheme, albeit camouflaged in financial-babble, “Greensill was not lending its own money. It acted as an intermediary, packaging the debt of companies such as Bluestone and selling it on to other investors, such as Credit Suisse. The Swiss bank’s clients bought up the debt, earning interest on their investments.” That Bluestone company is owned by West Virginia governor Jim Justice, and it turns out Justice is personally liable for $700m. (Bluestone is a coal mining company, an example of just how shady Greensill was — from memory, coal operations are having a very hard time getting finance from more reputable sources.) In the best thug tradition, Justice is now trying to weasel out of his personally-guaranteed debt, West Virginia governor sues Greensill over $700m debt:
[…]
The Republican governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, has revealed he is personally liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in loans taken out by his coalmining companies.
In a new court filing on Friday, Justice blamed the collapsed UK- and Australia-based Greensill bank, which has controversial ties to the former British prime minister David Cameron, for $700m of his debt.
Greensill made its profits by guaranteeing loans and providing cash advances. It collapsed in March, leaving Justice liable for the loans in question.
The same month, the Republican sued Greensill in federal court in New York, alleging that Greensill perpetrated a continuous and highly profitable fraud[†] by hiding its own financial risk.
[…]
The latest filing in the case shows that the governor and his wife, Cathy Justice, and son Jay Justice personally guaranteed payment on the loans for Bluestone.
[…]
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority launched a formal investigation into Greensill after allegations of fraud and criminal activity.
Cameron has come under intense scrutiny over his lobbying for Greensill. He has denied any wrongdoing. In late May the British chancellor, Rishi Sunak, denied giving special treatment to the now-collapsed bank following an intensive campaign by Cameron.
Justice is also responsible for a $368m debt to the Virginia-based Carter Bank & Trust. Additionally, his companies could owe $3.2m in federal penalties and lawsuits over claims they failed to deliver coal.
Forbes recently took Justice off its list of billionaires. The governor called the loans a burden on our family beyond belief.
In 2015, Justice announced his candidacy for governor in the 2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election. Although Justice was a registered Republican before running for governor, he ran as a Democrat and defeated the Republican nominee […]. Less than seven months after taking office, Justice switched back to the Republican Party after announcing his plans at a rally with US president [sic] Donald Trump in the state. In the 2020 gubernatorial race, he won re-election [still as a thug].
Also:
Justice’s mining companies have been under the spotlight for alleged cases of safety violation and unpaid taxes; in 2016, NPR called him the “top mine safety delinquent” in the United States. Justice allegedly owed millions of dollars to the government in back taxes, and unpaid coal mining fees and fines: “His mining companies owe $15 million in six states, including property and minerals taxes, state coal severance and withholding taxes, and federal income, excise and unemployment taxes, as well as mine safety penalties, according to county, state and federal records.” Two debt-related lawsuits were settled in 2019, and in 2020 mining companies owned by Justice or his family agreed to pay $5 million in delinquent safety fines.
According to a ProPublica investigation, Justice paid more than $128 million in judgments and settlements over unpaid bills by his businesses.
[…]
As governor of West Virginia, he is in charge of the state agencies that regulate many of his businesses.
[…]
In 2020 Justice signed into law the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, which created felony penalties for protests targeting oil and gas facilities. The law, which was passed with the support of Dominion Energy, the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers trade association, was described by its sponsor John Kelly as having been “requested by the natural gas industry”.
[…]
And so on. Quickly skimming the list of Justice’s positions, it all looked very much what you’d expect from yet another wannabe-dalek (as in hair furor supporter in a position of powerto cause massive damage).
As the Grauniad summarised, the Greensill ponzi scheme’s collapse has gotten a lot of attention in the UK, perhaps mostly due to the involvement of ex-PM David Cameron (the eejit who promised teh brexit referendum), David Cameron lobbied top Treasury official by phone, MPs told (is one article of many of the UK-side of the ongoing situation).
† Justice is a thug, acting like a thug, hence the eejit quotes, albeit since Greensill was basically a ponzi scheme, that quote is not necessarily completely wrong.
UK PM Boris Johnson seems determined to remove all(?) internal(?) restrictions on 21st June, despite growing numbers of delta cases. Because of the worrisome nature of delta, and the rising number of cases in the UK, the EU-as-a-whole is not lifting restrictions on UK travel (albeit several individual countries, such as Spain, apparently intend to allow UK visitors). Apparently, c.75% of all new cases in the UK are delta, [Delta] Covid variant may increase risk of hospital admission, early data suggests (also, UK reports 6,238 daily Covid cases amid fears over Delta variant infectiousness, “The Delta variant of coronavirus is 30% to 100% more transmissible than the previously dominant [alpha] variant”).
[…] The issue is simple: The National Enquirer sought out people who had dirt on Donald J. Trump, paid them for their stories while promising those stories would run, and then spiked the stories, making sure they couldn’t be told to another media outlet without breaking the contract and facing penalties.
The discovery of the concern and the issuance of a fine isn’t surprising, but this paragraph shows exactly the problem that existed within the Trump administration’s department of justice—there was no, you know, actual justice.
The available information indicates that during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, AMI and its executives, Pecker and Howard, paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal to purchase the rights to her claim that she engaged in a relationship with Trump beginning in 2006. AMI enteredinto a Non-Prosecution Agreement with DOJ on September 21, 2018. In that Non-Prosecution Agreement, AMI admitted that it made the payments to McDougal to ensure that she did notpublicize her allegations and “thereby influence [the 2016 presidential] election.”
After receiving all the information needed for this in 2018, the FEC sat on it (and it appears the Department of Justice did as well) until now. While it is certainly possible that the Department of Justice was building a more long-term case and that AIM media has more stories to tell in a broader case, it is more likely that this letter, and the fine, represent the conclusion of the story—after the 2020 election, which denied many American voters the knowledge of exactly how corrupt the 2016 campaign actions were, and the ongoing actions of the Department of Justice doing the slow walk for the Trump campaign.
It’s a new day, however, and AIM media will pay the fine. The $187,000 marks their participation in something illegal. Was that fine, long-delayed, worth it to them to get the electoral results they wanted? My guess is, unfortunately, yes.
It is time for much stiffer penalties and actions to stop this kind of corruption in campaigns.
There was a time when there was reason to be legitimately afraid of Milo Yiannopoulos and his effect on the culture at large. He had a huge platform, adoring fans and acolytes, and a career that seemed to be dovetailing perfectly with the rise of Donald Trump. He was, perhaps more than anyone, made for that moment in time.
And now? Now he’s just some putz who is so desperate for relevance that he decided not only to go ex-gay, but to be extremely weird about it. So why are we covering the stupid shit he does? Because it’s Saturday and it’s also my birthday and honestly this whole thing is too bizarre to pass up.
Because Milo’s latest claim is that, uh, ever since he became ex-gay … dogs have stopped barking at him. [video available at the link]
When I made my announcement, the first thing that happened — which will make you laugh, but it’s true — is dogs stopped barking at me. I am one of those people. You know, everyone’s got that friend that dogs always go nuts around?[…] I was always one of those, and it sounds so stupid, but this is just how I think God reveals himself to us, right?
He really dug his heels into this theory, which made it all the more awkward when one of the TruNews hosts kept blowing up his spot by insisting that his own dog never barked at Milo.
But let’s get this straight, no pun intended. Milo went his whole life with all of the dogs mysteriously barking at him for no reason. Then he decides he’s gonna be straight. And he goes on whatever it is he went on and announces to the world that he is straight and even puts on a baseball cap to prove it.
And God — God goes to himself “Oh boy, how can I get this one guy to know I really approve of his decision to pretend to be a heterosexual? How, oh how do I do this? Do I send a gift basket? Maybe a nice bottle of wine? Do I help him get steady employment so he doesn’t have to scream at whatever fans he has left to give him all their money so he can keep himself in fancy designer clothes? OH. I know. I will get all of the dogs to stop barking at him all of the time. That’s the ticket!”
I admit that I have a highly limited understanding of how Christianity is supposed to work, but that just seems a little “off” to me. It’s almost like he’s trying super hard to pretend he got miracled in some capacity so he can hop on the Prosperity Gospel circuit and go around being a troll for Jesus. Or he’s going off the deep end. One of the two.
Thailand went for months without a single confirmed case of local transmission, but the epidemic has now radiated from nightclubs to areas where social distancing is all but impossible.
When the V.V.I.P. customers disembarked from their limousines at the Krystal Exclusive Club in Bangkok, young women in tiaras, angel wings and not much else sometimes greeted them.
The V.V.I.P. clientele were whisked to the V.V.I.P. rooms, with their padded walls and plush sofas. Thai government bigwigs partied at Krystal — one of its mottos is “the luxury entertainment of night light” — as did diplomats, army officers and businessmen. For much of the pandemic, coronavirus restrictions did not stop the fun.
But this spring, as go-go dancers shimmied, Krystal and another neighborhood nightclub, Emerald, turned into the epicenter of what is now Thailand’s biggest and deadliest coronavirus surge, according to health ministry officials. Scores of people linked to the clubs have tested positive, including an ambassador and a government minister. (The minister’s staff said that he was infected by an aide who frequented Krystal.) Police officers and women who worked at the clubs have been infected, too.
For all the mask-wearing rigor and lockdown obedience displayed by many Thais, the abandon of a privileged few catalyzed Bangkok’s latest coronavirus outbreak, health officials said. The nightclub cluster also highlights the impunity of the rich in a country with one of the largest wealth gaps among major economies.
Thailand went for months without a single confirmed case of local transmission, but the epidemic has now radiated from luxury nightclubs that cater to powerful and wealthy men to the warrens of slums that hug Bangkok’s highways and railroad tracks. In these cramped quarters, social distancing is impossible. Infections have also spread to prisons, construction camps and factories.
“The rich people party and the poor people suffer the consequences,” said Sittichat Angkhasittisiri, a neighborhood chairman in Bangkok’s largest slum, Khlong Toey, where the coronavirus has infected hundreds of people.
After recording fewer than 5,000 cases total through November, Thailand racked up more than 5,800 cases on a single day in late May. The total number of infections is now about 175,000. Gone are the days when the World Health Organization praised Thailand for its coronavirus-fighting prowess.
Thailand’s virus surge, happening just as many Western nations approach a semblance of normalcy, is part of a late-breaking wave that has washed over much of the rest of Southeast Asia, where adequate vaccines are largely unavailable. Thailand is counting on local production this summer of the AstraZeneca vaccine by a company controlled by the country’s king. The company has never made vaccines before.
The phuyai, as the gilded elite of Thailand are known, can book overseas tours to get vaccines unavailable at home; one $7,000 jaunt for jabs in Russia is fully booked until July. But the poor struggle. Many must wait for cots at free government field hospitals set up in stadiums or other areas. The rich with mild cases can convalesce at expensive hotels. […]
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement on Saturday may cement Ms. Wiley as the left-wing standard-bearer in the New York City mayor’s race.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent left-wing leaders in the country, endorsed Maya D. Wiley in the race for New York City mayor on Saturday, urging voters to “come together as a movement.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement represents the most significant development yet in left-wing efforts to shape the June 22 Democratic primary that is almost certain to determine the city’s next mayor.
“If we don’t come together as a movement, we will get a New York City built by and for billionaires, and we need a city by and for working people,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said outside City Hall in Manhattan, as Ms. Wiley waited in the background. “So we will vote for Maya No. 1.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Ms. Wiley, a civil rights lawyer and former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, comes at a moment of extraordinary volatility in the mayor’s race — one week before early voting begins.
Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, has increasingly been seen as the Democratic front-runner in the race, in close competition with Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate. Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, has also demonstrated growing traction. But sparse public polling and interviews with party strategists suggested that there was still a significant number of voters who remained undecided.
Ms. Wiley has generally been considered part of the top tier of candidates, too, but she has not been seen as a front-runner throughout the race. In recent weeks, however, she has landed a growing number of endorsements, especially from the left. […]
[…] Naomi Wolf has been suspended from Twitter after using it to spread myths about the pandemic, vaccines and lockdown.
Wolf […] holds staunch anti-vaccine views. Last month she told a US congressional committee that vaccine passports would re-create a situation that is very familiar to me as a student of history. This has been the start of many, many genocides.
We interrupt this diatribe to point out Wolf is not an accurate historian, not only in this case, but in many cases. A recent example is her book Outrages, which had “[a]n error in a central tenet of the book — a misunderstanding of the legal term ‘death recorded’, which Wolf had taken to mean that the convict had been executed but which in fact means that the convict was pardoned or the sentence was commuted — was identified in a 2019 BBC radio interview with broadcaster and author Matthew Sweet. He cited a website for the Old Bailey Criminal Court, the same site which Wolf had referred to as one of her sources earlier in the interview. Reviewers have described other errors of scholarship in the work” (Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge, my added emboldening). The error was so serious the book was pulled from publication. Wolf is not scholar, is not a historian, but is a frothing-at-the-mouth spittle-flying wobbly-eyed conspiracy loon.
As the pandemic continued, the author variously claimed that vaccines were a software platform that can receive uploads […]
In her most recent post, she argued that vaccinated people’s urine / feces(sic) needed to be separated from general sewage supplies/waterways until its impact on unvaccinated people via drinking water was established.
Her suspension was widely applauded on the social media platform. One tweet read: “Thanks, @Twitter, for finally suspending Naomi Wolf for spreading harmful and floridly delusional anti-vax disinformation.” Others observed: “Never forget. Naomi Wolf’s suspension could not have come any sooner.” Another said: “Congratulations to naomi wolf who is i think the first person to be banned from here for being too stupid.”
The award-winning author Steve Silberman, who is a historian of autism, said: “I’ve been reading vile anti-vaccine propaganda for 20 years, and Wolf’s claims were as out-there and delusional as I’ve ever seen.”
[…] Twitter has said the suspension is permanent and no appeal will be allowed.
In other unsubstantiated claims, Wolf has said the US military was importing Ebola from Africa with the intention of spreading it at home, and that US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden might be a government plant.
Several days ago, twittering deleted an violence-promoting blathering by Nigerian alleged-president Muhammadu Buhari, a war criminal from the 1967 Biafra genocidal atrocity, and suspended his account for a short time, causing his “government” to throw around lots of shite, including banning twittering. He’s still in a snit, and has now decreed it “illegal” to access twittering, Nigerians breaking Twitter ban rules could be prosecuted:
[…]
Nigeria’s Attorney General Abubakar Malami has ordered the immediate prosecution of those who try to circumvent the government’s Twitter ban after all mobile operators in the country were ordered to suspend access to the social media giant.
[… lots of protesting messages, several making the point there is no law (legal framework) to support such an action…]
Twitter can still be accessed through the relatively more expensive fixed broadband, which very few Nigerians use. It is unclear if access through this route will also be blocked. Some users in Nigeria were able to circumvent the ban through the use of a virtual private network (VPN).
Nigeria’s information ministry announced on Friday that the government was “indefinitely” suspending Twitter’s operations. It did not mention Buhari’s deleted tweet, but said the platform was being suspended for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
[…]
Many groups, including the Nigerian Bar Association, have threatened legal action if the government does not rescind the decision to suspend Twitter.
[…]
Buhari referenced his role as a brigade major during the bitter 1967 Biafra war, when an attempted secession for an independent state sparked one of the darkest chapters in Nigerian history. Nigeria’s military was widely accused of potential war crimes and abuses, and millions of people died from hunger and malnourishment after a government-backed blockade was imposed by the army.
Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Biafra war, Buhari wrote. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.
[…]
The painful legacy of the Biafra war runs deep in Nigeria, Those who died are not officially commemorated and the claims of atrocities levelled at the military have never been acknowledged. The war is not taught in schools and cultural depictions of the conflict are tightly censored.
[… Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai] Mohammed said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT [explained below –blf] and social media operations in Nigeria.
[…]
Like Twitter, Facebook has also deleted Buhari ‘s alleged offensive post.
[…]
The [Nigerian] Guardian had sought to know how the Commission intends to implement the directive and whether there are existing laws the NBC could rely on in carrying out the order, especially the licensing of Over-The-Top (OTT), a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet, which bypasses cable, broadcast and satellite television platforms, the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors of such content.
In his reaction to government’s clamp down on Twitter, Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, said, “The evocation of the civil war, where millions of civilians perished, is an unworthy emotive ploy that has run its course, adding, “Finally, the chickens have come home to roost.
“It does not take the formal declaration of hostilities, with or without lethal bombardments, for a nation to find itself shell-shocked. The populace of this nation is already in that shell-shocked condition. So, what is there left to shock?”
While rejecting the ban, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the move as a draconian action and a slide towards a fascist regime.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP said it was appalled that the Federal Government could exhibit such “primitive intolerance and power intoxication because the social media giant demonstrated international best practices in not allowing the Buhari presidency to use Twitter as a platform to propagate and spread the Buhari administration’s hatred towards Nigerians.”
[…]
Also reacting, Amnesty International, Nigeria, […] wrote: “Amnesty International condemns the Nigerian government’s suspension of Twitter @Twitter in #NigeriaFlag of Nigeria, a social media widely used by Nigerians to exercise their human rights, including their rights to freedom of expression and access to information. […] This action is clearly inconsistent and incompatible with Nigeria’s international obligations, including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
[…]
Apparently, all the announcements about the ban on twittering, etc., have done by blatherings on twittering (i.e., by tweets on Twitter). There are multiple quotes in the excerpted article pointing this out, and then typically referring to the so-called “government” as “clueless”.
[…] Republican federal and state lawmakers have no rational incentives to abandon Trump and the big lie about electoral fraud, even if they recognize the falsehood. Most incumbents are nominated through party primaries and hold safe districts due to partisan gerrymandering, so Republican chances of re-election depend on throwing red meat to the Maga base, not building a broader coalition among moderate independents.
What is to be done?
To fix the system, two steps are essential. Both need to be enacted before the November 2022 midterm elections, when the Democrats are likely to lose control of the Senate, if history is any guide.
First, the Senate filibuster has to go as a relic of a bygone era. Worldwide, about 41 national legislatures have some supermajority rules but in nearly all cases these are only used, quite sensibly, for constitutional amendments, not for routine legislation (like establishing the 6 January commission). The rule benefits the opposition party seeking gridlock in DC and stymies effective electoral reform.
[…]
Second, the US Senate needs to pass the HR1 For the People Act. This offers a comprehensive package of moderate reforms designed to protect voting rights in US elections, reduce partisan gerrymandering, make campaign spending more transparent and tighten ethics in public life. Getting rid of extreme partisan gerrymandering and ultra-safe districts is vital to incentivize House candidates to appeal broadly to all citizens well beyond their base. The Senate also needs to pass HR4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, restoring provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring certain states to pre-clear changes to their voting laws with the federal government […].
A series of other reforms are highly desirable in the long term but impractical right now.
One is adopting non-partisan blanket primaries, as in Washington and California, where the two candidates with the highest vote share get to run in the general election, irrespective of their party affiliation. This increases the incentive for all candidates to reach out to a broader constituency than the party base, so it is likely to encourage the election of more moderate lawmakers in Congress.
Another is designed to break the stranglehold on two-party winner-take-all competition, ideally by implementing a mixed-member proportional electoral system for the US House […], or ranked-choice voting in multimember districts.
Yet another reform is adopting a compulsory retirement age for members of Congress, like the minimum age requirement, to increase incumbency turnover, limit gerontocracy and expand representation for the younger generation of leaders, women and minorities.
These are all worthy matters for future debate about long-term constitutional and legal reforms to American elections, a generational project. […]
blfsays
Mysteriously-provided mysterious data mysteriously analyzed and allegedly, and also mysteriously, validated by a mystery expert not-so-mysteriously allegedly shows someone unknown yet mysteriously blamed on “China” untraceably and mysteriously hacked voting machines… yadda, yadda, yadda… and so the Supreme Court will magically restore hair furor. Mike Lindell Is 100 Percent Sure the Supreme Court Will Vote 9–0 to Pull Down the 2020 Presidential Election:
Mike Lindell […] posted a video on his FrankTV platform Thursday presenting his alleged evidence that the Chinese government hijacked the 2020 presidential election by hacking Dominion Voting System machines and other voting machines. Lindell titled the video Absolutely 9–0, reflecting his prediction that when his evidence gets before the US Supreme Court, it will result in a unanimous decision to pull this election down.
Lindell’s 26-minute video features someone Lindell describes as a computer expert who he said has been reviewing millions of lines of data that someone — who, we don’t know — gave Lindell on Jan 9. Lindell claimed that the data proves there were thousands of hacks from China and millions and millions of votes that were flipped in our election by China from Trump to Biden.
[…]
The unnamed expert Lindell hired to review the files, who appeared with his face digitally hidden from view, said the data had been recorded in real time during alleged hacks on election night, akin to capturing a bank robbery on video. They claimed that their analysis of just 20 of the thousands of attacks from China demonstrated enough flipped votes to reverse the election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Lindell asked his expert to verify for viewers that Lindell had demanded that they carefully validate all their evidence, and the expert affirmed that we validated the validation that was validated.
This isn’t subjective,[true — it’s delusional! –blf] Lindell insisted. It is irrefutable, his supposed expert agreed.
[…]
Even the mildly deranged penguin is having trouble following the logic here — or whereever this mysterious alleged logic is hiding…
[…] Lindell offers very little that’s actually intended to serve as direct evidence of malfeasance. There is a lot of hand-waving about questions that had been raised about Dominion’s machines and lots of ad hominem assertions about the company and its employees, but the suit [Lindell’s countersuit against Dominion, filed this(?) week (see below) –blf] introduces very little that might be considered actual, direct evidence that votes were manipulated.
Instead, there’s a lot of circumstantial stuff — like that Dominion wouldn’t turn over proprietary passwords to the team in Arizona that’s working on behalf of the Republican majority in the state Senate — to gin up questions about the election results. This was addressed in a scathing letter from county officials in Arizona explaining that the problem is the “auditors” chosen by the senators lacked the necessary credentials to do the research they wanted to do. The existence of that effort is itself presented by Lindell as evidence that something untoward happened, which is a bit like spending $250,000 on Bigfoot deterrents and then pointing to that investment as evidence that Bigfoot must exist.
The Post using Grauniad-level snark !
[…]
Another bit of evidence presented by Lindell cites a complaint filed by an attorney named Matthew DePerno on behalf of his client in a lawsuit targeting Antrim County, Mich., where a vote adjustment also occurred on election night. Lindell’s lawsuit quotes a determination about Dominion’s machines made by an organization called Allied Security Operations Group [… but] leaves out that Allied Security Operations Group is so unreliable that it was viewed as too partisan even to participate in the Arizona “audit.”
[… other flaws with the lawsuit (and more snarks)…]
The Post then describes what Lindell’s mysteriously acquired mystery data (see @76) seems to be, and cites a twittering thread by a real expert. Basically, what Lindell and his tame and obviously fake expert are all excited about are raw(?) TCP/IP (“Internet”) packet dumps. They aren’t. They can’t be. I’m not a networking expert, but still know roughly what a raw packet will look like — what is shown might be payload, but ain’t packets (and, rather importantly, clearly is not encrypted — very Very weird for highly-sensitive data like actual votes). Another expert points out it seems to be SQL data for a real polling place; indeed, it seems to the (presumably) publicly-available voter roll for a precinct in Pennsylvania.
The post then goes on to describe other alleged data described earlier by Lindell, which seems to be related to some gibberish fake data former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has previously posted.
The Post’s article concludes:
[… M]aybe Lindell’s analyst has some way of verifying that votes were flipped besides literally doing nothing more than claiming that they were. Then the question becomes how: how did this happen without anyone noticing, how did it route through the Internet in a process that’s localized in states and why did it happen in some cases days after the election (purportedly) and from eight different countries?
Oh, and how did someone figure out how to do all this but not figure out how to actually encrypt what they were doing?
The short answer is that there’s simply no reason to assume that this is true. Literally none. It is much more likely that the conspiracy here is that some tech-savvy guys figured out how to bill a credulous billionaire for weeks of work than it is that this unnamed guy found actual evidence of vote-flipping and, instead of going to the police and becoming a celebrity, he went to a pillow salesman.
In other words, one assumes that Dominion’s lawyers aren’t that worried about this lawsuit. Particularly given this new development on Friday afternoon:
Barnes and Thornburg partner out after signing on as counsel in MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell election fraud lawsuit. The Big Law firm says ex-partner was not authorized to put the firm’s name on the filing. https://t.co/yFgYG71IoM
[…]
Bloomberg News reported on Friday that [Mike Lindell’s] attorney Alec Beck was not authorized by Barnes & Thornburg LLP to file the lawsuit in a Minnesota federal court.
In a statement shared with The Hill, the firm said it “became aware of the filing of the complaint which was done without receiving firm authorization pursuant to internal firm approval procedures.”
“The firm has withdrawn as local counsel in this matter and has ended the client relationship. The attorney representing the client in this matter is no longer with the firm,” the statement said.
[…]
The suit alleges that Dominion and Smartmatic are using litigation to suppress evidence that their voting machines were manipulated to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
[…]
The complaint states that the companies are uniting in a common purpose to use the litigation process to attempt to suppress the revelation and public discussion of these truths.
The complaint, which was filled with quotes from George Orwell’s novel “1984,” alleges that Lindell stands to lose $2 billion from the litigation against him.
And the problem is…?
“This meritless lawsuit is an increasingly desperate attempt to distract from the harm Mike Lindell and MyPillow continue to cause Dominion and the democratic process itself,” Dominion said in a statement to The Hill.
It’s not completely meritless — it has identified a sleazy ambulance-chaser, and should cost Lindell yet more… two billion dollars and counting !
Whilst researching this comment, I stumbled on other examples of ultra-absurd analysis about the election. For example, from memory, some supposed-expert did a curve-fit of historical voting data for four(?), then tried to match the curve to another five(?) nearby counties. No idea why. (Trend analysis?) In any case, not too unexpectedly, the curve was a reasonable fit for those other counties. Ergo, concluded the expert, fraud! The voting machines have been preprogrammed!!1!
Pontiff fails to issue direct apology for church’s role in residential schools where children were abused
[… Teh cult’s leader] stopped short of the direct apology many Canadians had demanded from the Catholic church for its role in the residential schools, which operated between 1831 and 1996 and were run by a number of Christian denominations on behalf of the government.
[…]
The residential school system forcibly removed about 150,000 children from their homes. Many were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called “cultural genocide”.
Francis spoke two days after the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the Catholic church must take responsibility for its role in running many of the schools.
Conspiracy theory says people in Italy used military satellites to make US voting machines switch votes for Biden
Donald Trump’s final White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, pressured the acting attorney general to help push the lie of electoral fraud in Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden — even asking him to investigate a conspiracy theory which said people in Italy used military satellites to make US voting machines switch votes for Biden.
[…]
Before he became Trump’s fourth and final chief of staff, Meadows was a hard-right congressman from North Carolina and a loyal Trump supporter. The [New York] Times said he emailed acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen five times in December and January.
One email dealt with the Italygate conspiracy theory, the Times said, adding that Rosen refused to set up a meeting with a former CIA agent pushing the claims online.
[…]
Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent turned CNN analyst and editor for Just Security, tweeted: “We are at a place where Republican voters can more easily be convinced that Italy (?) secretly altered ballots using remote technology than that simply more people voted for a normal candidate from the opposing party.”
The academic and author Norman Ornstein said pushing the Italygate conspiracy theory made Meadows an “unAmerican traitor to our fundamental values {who} does not belong in a civil and democratic society or political system.”
The emails were discovered by the Senate judiciary committee.
[…]
Fortunately, I’d never heard of this conspiracy theory before. Reuters fact-checked the nonsense back in January, Fact check: Evidence disproves claims of Italian conspiracy to meddle in U.S. election (known as #ItalyGate). It’s a complicated story involving theft of data relating to “Europe’s biggest unmanned fighter jet program and aircraft used by the military and police”, unverified documents and recordings, etc., etc. Reuters concluded: “False. There is no legitimate evidence that an employee of the Italian defense company Leonardo SpA interfered in the 2020 US presidential election.” (Apparently, the claim is someone claimed there was a plan “to use the firm’s military satellite uplink to load the software and transfer it over to change the votes from Trump to Biden“, which is bonkers.)
blf @72, “[…] a frothing-at-the-mouth spittle-flying wobbly-eyed conspiracy loon.” LOL. I very much enjoyed that description of Naomi Wolf. And from comments by others that you quoted: “floridly delusional.” That’s apt.
[…]
The supreme court of Virginia will this week hear arguments in legal challenges to Governor Ralph Northam’s plan to take down a 131-year-old statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee, a move met with widespread praise from activists who had long seen it as a symbol of white supremacy.
[…]
Among the central issues to be decided by the court whether the Commonwealth of Virginia is bound by a decision made by state officials more than 130 years ago, or can it undo that decision […]
Separate lawsuits were filed by residents who own property near the statue and a descendant of signatories to a 1890 deed that transferred the statue, pedestal and land they sit on to the state.
In the latter lawsuit, William Gregory argues that the state agreed to “faithfully guard” and “affectionately protect” the statue.
In the other suit, five property owners, including lead plaintiff Helen Marie Taylor, say an 1889 joint resolution of the Virginia general assembly accepting the statue and agreeing to maintain it is binding. […]
Gregory’s attorney, Joseph Blackburn, argues that removal of the statue would cause irreparable harm.
For 130 years, his family has taken pride in the Lee Monument and his family role in the placement of the Monument on land originally belonging to his family and given to the Commonwealth in consideration for the Commonwealth’s guarantee that it would perpetually care for and protect the Monument, Blackburn wrote in a brief.
[…]
Translation of Blackburn’s statement: “For over 130 years the family has taken pride in enslavement, and now views the very concept of BLM as demeaning, democratic — I mean demagogic — and contrary to their perpetual control of the Commonwealth.”
[…]
Benjamin Netanyahu has said a newly formed Israeli coalition that is poised to unseat him as prime minister was the result of the greatest election fraud in the history of democracy.
What, an espionage ring in Italy used satellites to activate the microchips injected with the vaccines ?
[…]
Netanyahu focused his allegations on a broken campaign promise from the man set to replace him as prime minister, nationalist Naftali Bennett.
Bennett had pledged not to partner with leftwing, centrist and Arab parties, but on Wednesday announced with opposition leader Yair Lapid that they had formed a governing coalition with factions from across the political spectrum.
We are witnessing the greatest election fraud in the history of the country, in my opinion in the history of any democracy, Netanyahu said in comments to legislators of his rightwing Likud party.
No, no, stealing the election from hair furor is much hugley bigger. Just ask hair furor.
[…]
On Saturday, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, Nadav Argaman, issued a rare public statement warning of a “severe escalation in violent and inciting discourse” on social media.
“This discourse could be understood by certain groups or individuals as enabling illegal violence that could even cost a life,” Argaman said, calling on public officials to “issue a clear call to stop this discourse”.
Politicians opposing Netanyahu and some local media have interpreted Argaman’s statement as a warning to the premier.
[…]
Last week, for the first time in months, the burning eye of the outrage industry pivoted westwards and came to rest upon the city of Bristol. On Friday, the statue of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, toppled last June during a Black Lives Matter protest, was put on display. To the fury of some, it was not returned triumphantly to its pedestal in the centre of the city, but exhibited in Bristol’s M Shed museum.
My understanding is it’s at M Shed (which postdates my own time in Bristol) to encourage a discussion about what to do with it in the end.
The debate around Colston in the summer of 2020 was largely conducted in a fact-free zone. So it is surely disconcerting for those determined to defend the memorialisation of a mass murderer that in this new setting Colston’s bronze effigy is surrounded by displays that give a detailed history of the slave trader’s grim career and the strange story that explains why, in the 19th century, a cult was created around him and the statue erected.
For most of the 300 years since his death in 1721, Colston was little known outside Bristol. Few would have imagined that his statue would become the totemic image for Britain’s 21st-century history wars. Still, the professionally outraged have never allowed Colston’s relative obscurity to stand in their way as they rushed to his defence, having first looked him up on Wikipedia.
Yet as Colston appeared on display last week, carefully preserved and presented by conscientious curators, it was not obvious what the source of offence would be. The statue has, after all, been retained and with so much actual history included in the exhibit, there was a danger that those sent to report on Colston’s second coming might have to write about the suffering of his victims.
Luckily, two petty grievances were found. The first is that the statue is being displayed at an inappropriate angle. Perhaps there is a perfect angle, as yet unknown to museum professionals, for the public display of mass murderers at which their crimes become more acceptable, perhaps even quaint? The second grievance: that the statue still carries the graffiti sprayed on it during the demonstration of last June.
What the Bristol curators appreciated is what curators anywhere would appreciate — that the graffiti is now an integral part of its story, like the graffiti carved into Stonehenge and the pyramids or daubed on the walls inside the Reichstag by soldiers of the Red Army in 1945. […]
[…]
MailOnline has been criticised for a story claiming there are British towns that are no-go areas for white people, generating particular ridicule for the inclusion of the Manchester suburb of Didsbury.
[…]
The 2011 census showed that Didsbury West was 84.1% white and Didsbury East was 77.9% white. Only last month, MailOnline published a story describing the area as “posh and leafy” with “plenty of pubs”, which presumably do not cater exclusively for Muslims as they are forbidden to drink alcohol under their religion.
[… Didsbury] has a reputation for its cafes and specialist, and expensive, food shops, which many comments humorously referenced as they sought to debunk the Mail article.
[…]
Anne Coates wrote: “For my non Mancunian readers, Didsbury is probably the most expensive place to live in Manchester. If you were to visit, you wouldn’t see many people who weren’t white. It has a shop that just sells cheese.”
Oops. Bad move. The mildly deranged penguin is already en route.
Teh daily heil’s “article is based on a book by former Islamist radical Ed Husain called Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain”.
[…] Sameer Rahim, who reviewed it for the Literary Review, wrote: “It is, by some distance, the worst book I have reviewed in nearly 20 years as a critic — at times laughable, at others frankly sinister.”
Husain, a co-founder of the now defunct counter-terror thinktank Quilliam, is a controversial figure, having previously championed the government’s Prevent programme and declared that spying on British Muslims, whether they were suspected of committing crimes or not, was morally right as the alternative {would be} to let the buggers do what they wish, until they appear on the violence radar, which is too late.
The office my predecessor arrived at hadn’t changed much since CP Scott’s day, with life still revolving around the leader writers’ corridor, sometimes obstructed by an editor’s large and somnolent dog. But the paper was changing, and with it the library.
After winning a battle to have a telephone installed, memos from the Guardian archive reveal a “tart” exchange with management about purchasing a photocopier. Admittedly this was cutting-edge technology at the time, but Whatmore eventually got his way.
Much harder was wresting control of the book collection from an old man who also called himself the librarian. These were kept under lock and key in the corridor and were only to be read by the editor and a few privileged writers. Eventually a spare key was acquired and the collection was supplemented with books scavenged from the pile of review copies — something I still do.
Re: Mike Lindell’s behavior relative to his “evidence”.
Lindell, Trump, and Trump supporters seem to be staying in “gossip mode” making most (all?) of their evidence testimonial evidence at best. Consider Trump referring to “them/they” saying things in his support (or the opposite, a generalized “them” in opponents). In the nextdoor politics board this was very common, link-dumps that posters could not describe making it a “they support me”, and the articles themselves were also references to claims of fraud, none admitted as evidence, and eventually rejected by courts.
It’s like “passing the buck” (passing responsibility) for the story.
That nextdoor politics group has since been deleted. That is not surprising. I’ve been invited to a private version by some of the good members of the previous group, but now all the behavior routines from that board are taking their time settling down. It’s getting easier though.
blfsays
The article I snippeted in @86 is part of a Grauniad series I didn’t know existed, Before My Time, where the present incumbents interview previous incumbents of the same(-ish) position at the Grauniad (as part of their 200 years celebration): “Guardian writers, correspondents and editors interview their predecessors about how the job — and the subject matter — has changed over the years”. Some snippets from another article in that series, ‘Nose to the grindstone’: how Simon Winchester covered Watergate for the Guardian by their current Washington DC correspondent, David Smith:
[Smith:] To attend Trump’s campaign rallies was to be surrounded by a raucous crowd worshipping a demagogue while booing and jeering enemies of the people” like me. To sit in his coronavirus taskforce briefings was to feel like a plane passenger strapped in as the captain announces that he intends to fly blind through a mountain range.
Winchester says: “The sort of Washington WASPy elite were very pro-Guardian. Alastair Hetherington’s editorial denouncing the Suez crisis, which of course lost us 100,000 readers, really appealed to America and so we were quids in in the state department because we were seen to have taken the right approach, and towards Ireland as well. We were a much-loved paper. […]”
[Winchester became a US citizen and is now an elected official in a small Massachusetts town.] “We have 536 people who voted in the election; 200 of them voted for Trump and, looking at the Massachusetts firearms licence applications, a very large number of them are quite heavily armed. The guy that went past a couple of hours ago sanding my road because of the ice and so forth is a Trump supporter and he carries a gun and he knows where I live. That sounds like paranoia speaking, but it’s something I’ve never felt before.
“I know if I went to Ilfracombe or Bideford or Taunton, despite Brexit and the stain Nigel Farage has left on the body politic in Britain, people are not likely to be quite so potentially violent. So that does trouble me a bit.”
“Now comes the Paris week, with the fighting on the stairways, the multilingual shrieking in the salons; a week of over-heating, under-eating, little sleeping; a week of vitiation and dehydration, ineffectively compensated by indifferent champagne.”
In other words, fashion week has barely changed in 61 years. […]
At which point I completely lost it. The mildly deranged penguin, recently returned from Didsbury (see @85), jumped into a pillow-fort and refused to come out until I offered her two whole peices of cheese (still giggling, and by then, also hiccuping).
As a critic [Adburgham ] was not afraid to bite: her review of a 1971 Yves Saint Laurent show (“a tour de force of bad taste … nothing could exceed the horror of this exercise in kitsch”) is the stuff of fashion legend.
Ms Adburgham died in 1997 and so was spared hair furor, who probably couldn’t dress up to that “exercise in kitsch”.
blf @83, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are going to have get in a boxing ring and fight for the claim of having been dethroned thanks to “the greatest election fraud in the history of democracy”. Both have made that claim when the people voted them out of power. Surely there can be only one “greatest election fraud.”
BTW, I enjoyed the snippets from the Guardian series, “Before My Time,” which included several examples of excellent writing, some equally excellent snark, and a bit of dry humor (British style).
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Sunday denied having any delusions of bipartisan compromise in a 50-50 Senate after declaring his opposition to the House-passed For the People Act in an op-ed published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
In his op-ed published hours before his appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Manchin dismissed the sweeping voting rights legislation his Democratic colleagues have pushed as “partisan,” while also reaffirming his refusal to eliminate the filibuster that has presented obstacles in moving Democrats’ agenda forward with its 60-vote threshold. The West Virginia senator, who previously expressed issues with the broad nature of the bill, reiterated his support for the less-comprehensive John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
During Manchin’s interview on “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace asked whether the West Virginia senator’s hopes for bipartisanship is the “wrong” approach heading into negotiations with Republican colleagues in the Senate. Wallace suggested that perhaps if he voted to nuke the filibuster, Republicans would be more incentivized to negotiate due to centrist senator’s role as a key vote in the upper chamber.
Manchin denied that his commitment to preserving the filibuster “empowers Republicans to be obstructionists,” citing the handful of Republican senators who voted to convict former President Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”
“I don’t think so because we have seven brave Republicans that continue to vote for what they know is right and the facts as they see them, not worrying about the political consequences,” Manchin said.
Manchin added that he believes there are a lot more Republicans in the Senate who agree with him.
“I’m just hoping they are able to rise to the occasion to defend our country and support our country and make sure that we have a democracy for this republic of all the people. I’m just very hopeful that — and I see good signs,” Manchin said. “We’re doing more things than ever before. Give us some time. I know everyone’s putting deadlines, got to be done by this, this and this.”
Wallace then brought up Republicans’ use of the filibuster to kill the House-passed bill to create an independent and bipartisan Jan. 6 commission, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) remarks of being “100 percent” focused on blocking President Biden’s agenda, before asking Manchin whether he is being naive by hanging his hopes on bipartisan cooperation in a 50-50 Senate.
Manchin denied having political naivety.
“I’m not being naive. I think (McConnell is) 100 percent wrong in trying to block all the good things that we’re trying to do for America,” Manchin said. “It would be a lot better if we had participation and we’re getting participation.”
Manchin maintained that he will “continue to keep working with my bipartisan friends.”
“There were 33 Democrats in 2017 that signed a letter to please save the filibuster and save our democracy,” Manchin said. “That’s what I’m trying to do.” [Wrong framing of the issue! So, not naive, but perhaps stupid?]
Both Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-AZ) commitment to preserving the filibuster poses obstacles to Senate Democrats’ efforts to abolish the filibuster. […]
This “protecting the filibuster” sounds like an excuse to protect his own conservative, Republican beliefs. He is basically saying that he would allow widespread voter disenfranchisement, blatant racial discrimination in new voting laws and give Republicans leeway to overturn elections that they lose, just to protect the filibuster. Yeah, right. He is protecting his own interests and calling it integrity. In what universe is he a Democrat? [Lynna notes that Manchin does have a record of voting along Democratic Party lines most of the time. I think he is afflicted with a blindspot when it comes to the filibuster.]
—————–
Coming next year, Republican majorities in the House & Senate pass the Protect The Vote bill that prevents the Justice Department in the Biden Administration from investigating naked state attempts to deny the franchise to Democratic-leaning groups.
And the slender Senate majority will gleefully abolish the legislative filibuster to do so.
——————
He’s fooling no one –
“Manchin’s op-ed might as well be titled, ‘Why I’ll vote to preserve Jim Crow,’” tweeted Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.).
“We didn’t need an op-ed to know you’re unwilling to protect our democracy,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) added.
————–
even Chris Wallace on Fox News, of all places, has trouble pointing out to him how counter-productive his “stance” is, and how it just plays into the hands of the Republican obstructionists who are using him for their own completely partisan, and totally NOT “bipartisan” purposes.
Chris Wallace. On FOX.
Three people were killed and five others were wounded in a shooting at a graduation party in the Miami area, The Associated Press reported Sunday.
Miami-Dade police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez told reporters that the shooting happened at 2 a.m., toward the end of a graduation party at a suburban strip mall. A group of vehicles pulled up to the party and opened fire on the gathering, he said.
The vehicles then fled, and one of them crashed into a nearby wall, authorities said. Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue responded to the crash. Two occupants in the vehicle were reported dead, police told the AP.
[…] Several victims drove themselves to a nearby hospital for treatment. Twenty-year-old Tyleisha Taylor, a state corrections officer, was identified as one of the casualties.
“We are devastated to learn a member of our FDC family, Officer Taylor, was killed in a fatal shooting. Our prayers are with her family as they navigate this unimaginable loss,” Florida Secretary of Corrections Mark Inch said in a statement in the AP report.
None of the other people who were killed or wounded have been identified.
This weekend’s shooting follows another last week in which three people were killed and 20 were wounded at a local event during Memorial Day weekend.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava expressed her condolences, adding that she partnered with Miami-Dade police in launching an initiative to combat the ongoing problem of violent crime. […]
Wonkette: “Joe Manchin Can Name 12 Logical Fallacies Preventing Him From Supporting Voting Rights”
This morning, West Virginia newspaper the Charleston Gazette-Mail published an op-ed from Senator Joe Manchin, titled, very simply, “Why I’m Voting Against the For the People Act.”
[…] the way I figure it, if he is going to write an entire article titled “Why I’m Voting Against the For the People Act,” he should at least have the decency to explain why he is voting against the For the People Act.
He does not.
In this op-ed, Manchin spends lots of time explaining why he’s opposed to ending the filibuster, but the only explanation he gives for why he opposes the For the People Act is that it’s “partisan.”
Via Charleston Gazette-Mail:
[W]e now are witnessing that the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it.
As such, congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.
The For the People Act is huge. There is a lot in it. And yet, Manchin does not manage to name one single specific item in the bill that he can say is explicitly “partisan.” He may as well have said that he found the bill “derivative” or claimed that it “insists upon itself.” It means nothing. Given that this is a major piece of Democratic legislation, one would think he could do us all the favor of being a little more specific. Which aspect of the bill does he find “partisan?” Which part of it does he think would be unfair to Republicans? I think we’d all be happy to hear him out were he able to make that known.
Rather than explaining what about it he finds specifically objectionable, Manchin simply assures us that if the bill were good, it would have support from all of the wonderful Republicans in Congress who agreed that the president encouraging a bunch of cafones to storm the Capitol building was maybe bad.
Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act. This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why? Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy? Are these same senators, whom many in my party applauded for their courage, now threats to the very democracy we seek to protect?
Yes?
[…] Democrats winning elections because everyone is able to vote easily and Republicans winning because it is harder for certain people to vote are not equal scenarios. […]
Manchin’s main point of contention seems to be that the Act is simply unfair to Republicans because they did not help to write it. It is unclear, however, who it was that was stopping them. Two Republican House representatives in fact proposed amendments to the bill, and yes, they were voted down, but that’s how things work. Some amendments proposed by Democrats also failed, because that is also the way things work. Republicans could have participated more, they chose not to. […]
I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster. For as long as I have the privilege of being your U.S. senator, I will fight to represent the people of West Virginia, to seek bipartisan compromise no matter how difficult and to develop the political bonds that end divisions and help unite the country we love.
It is a known fact that nothing destroys democracy quite like making voting more accessible.
Even if bipartisanship were the magic path to super great legislation […] it’s not feasible. It is bad for Republicans, electorally, to vote to advance practically any legislation put forward by Democrats. It doesn’t matter how inoffensive it is, they’re not going to do it because their voters do not want them to do it. If they vote for it, they will be swiftly replaced by the closest available Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I do not expect Joe Manchin to agree with me […] on basically anything. I do, however, expect him not to base his opposition to important pieces of legislation entirely on logical fallacies, and I think that is more than fair.
Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, the GOP collectively decided to make Anthony Fauci, MD, public enemy number one, having found in the veteran immunologist the perfect target through which to whip up their base and take the spotlight off the fact that the then president[Wacko House occupant] had let the virus gain a foothold in the country while actively lying about it at every turn. Fauci, of course, is everything conservatives hate: An educated man of science with not one but two degrees, he committed what Republicans believe was a capital offense when he failed to back up everything Donald Trump said about the disease, including the part about treating it by freebasing bleach. While tiresome and dangerous — Fauci and his family required a security detail at one point — the ridiculous attacks and conspiracies, like that Fauci invented the coronavirus and is part of a secret cabal with Bill Gates and George Soros to profit from vaccines have had little impact. […]
But like the living embodiment of a QAnon forum, Republicans, Trump, and Fox News now appear to believe they’ve found some kind of smoking gun showing Fauci is somehow responsible for the virus, based on the fresh interest in the lab-leak theory (which the doctor himself is supportive of investigating, which you wouldn’t think he would be if he was implicated in the whole thing, a slight wrinkle conservatives will probably explain at a time and place TBD). So naturally, they’re amping up their attacks like he‘s the second coming of Benghazi / Hillary Clinton / Pol Pot.
[…]
Incidentally, none of the people calling for the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to basically be tried for war crimes have expressed the slightest interest in any investigation whatsoever into the events of January 6 and in fact have lost their collective shit over the prospect of anyone digging into the that day, and the lead-up, too closely.
[…] As for the possibility he or his organization might actually be responsible for the virus because they provided a small amount of funding to the Wuhan lab, Fauci, like most sane people, believes the idea is absurd. “Are you really saying that we are implicated because we gave a multibillion-dollar institution $120,000 a year for bat surveillance?” he asked.
[…]
Labaly Touré, a doctor of geomatics who teaches at the Sine Saloum Elhadj Ibrahima Niass University in Kaolack in southeast Dakar, posted two photos on June 2 along with the caption: “This morning, I had the pleasure of carrying the baby of one of my students during my class at the university.”
[… Touré:] “A student came to my class with her baby, who was less than a year old, tied on her back. She wasn’t able to concentrate on the course like that. She put the baby on her lap, and when I saw that, I offered to take the baby myself so that she could focus on class. I kept the baby with me for the entire class, he stayed very calm.
“It was a way to help her, but also a nod to all student mothers who are juggling motherhood and higher education. I want to show them that these two roles aren’t incompatible these days. Because I am a father myself, I am sensitive to these issues. And we, as teachers, have a role to play in helping these mothers.
“I don’t know of many women attempting to do this in my university or elsewhere. But when I do encounter a student mother, I’ll do everything I can to support her so that she doesn’t give up her education. I also spoke to my colleagues, telling them that motherhood shouldn’t be a reason for someone to stop their studies.
[…]
“The predicament of these young mothers highlights a problem in Senegal — daycares and nannies are expensive, so they aren’t really an option for everyone, especially when you think about students who, very often, have limited financial means. Obviously, if my student could pay for a nanny, she would. She didn’t have a choice and I wasn’t going to send her away because she came to class with her baby!”
[…]
Joe Biden’s White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, has likened reporters from Fox News and other rightwing outlets to “representatives of the Russian and Chinese media asking questions directed by their government … propaganda pushers” to be treated with extreme caution.
Psaki was speaking to CNN’s Reliable Sources in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Her relations with the media have been smoother — and her briefings more frequent — than any predecessor in the Trump administration. […]
[…]
On CNN, Psaki said: “The things that get under my skin are when the premise of a question is based on inaccurate information, misleading information. That can be frustrating. I try not to show it too much, try not to let people see me sweat too much. But occasionally I have a moment of humanity.”
Host Brian Stelter pointed out that most questions “based on falsehoods come from brands like Newsmax, which does sometimes get called on the briefing room. I know a lot of liberals don’t want Fox News to get called on. I think they should be, but … why do you call on Fox News and Newsmax?”
Psaki said: “My point of view and more importantly, the president’s point of view, is that the story is not about me or a debate with news outlets. The story is about the plans of the administration and what we’re trying to project to the American people.
“And when he pledged to govern for all Americans, that means talking to a range of outlets — liberal, conservative, people who have different areas of interest. So that’s exactly what I try to do every day.”
Stelter asked why some viewers celebrate when the press secretary is seen to “shut down” a questioner such as Doocy.
“I also have a responsibility not to allow the briefing room to become a forum for propaganda or a forum for pushing forward falsehoods or inaccurate information,” Psaki said.
“My best preparation for that was actually serving as the state department spokesperson when there were representatives of the Russian and the Chinese media in the briefing room asking me questions that were directed by their government.”
[…]
Fox News gleefully rounded up conservative criticism of the interview. Verdicts included subservient, obsequious and bootlicking.[† …]
Whilst the Grauniad isn’t completely clear, context suggest that “criticism” is of Psaki’s statements rather than the “reporting”, etc., on faux, newsmin, etc — hence the eejit quotes.
[…]
Joe Biden may be pressing for 2021 to be a transformational year in tackling the climate crisis, but Republicans arrayed in opposition to his agenda have dug in around a unifying rallying theme — that the fossil fuel industry should be protected at almost any cost.
For many experts and environmentalists, the Republican stance is a shockingly retrograde move that flies in the face of efforts to fight global heating and resembles a head in the sand approach to the realities of a changing American economy.
In a recent letter sent to John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, more than a dozen Republican state treasurers accused the administration of pressuring banks to not lend to coal, oil and gas companies, adding that such a move would “eliminate the fossil fuel industry in our country” [and the problem is…? –blf] in order to appease the US president’s radical political preferences.
The letter raised the extraordinary possibility of Republican-led states penalizing banks that refuse to fund projects that worsen the climate crisis by pulling assets from them. Riley Moore, treasurer of the coal heartland state of West Virginia, said undue pressure was being put on banks by the Biden administration that could end financing of fossil fuels and devastate West Virginia and put thousands of families out of work.
It may also cause the W.Virginia alleged-governor, Jim Justice, to lose yet more money (see @64).
[…]
The shunning of banks in this way would almost certainly face a hefty legal response but the threat is just the latest eye-catching[rolling] Republican gambit aimed at propping up a fossil fuel industry that will have to be radically pared back if the US is to slash its planet-heating emissions in half this decade, as Biden has vowed.
In Louisiana, Republicans have embarked upon a quixotic and probably doomed attempt to make the state a fossil fuel sanctuary jurisdiction that does not follow federal pollution rules.
[…]
The messaging appears to be filtering down to the Republican electorate, with new polling by Yale showing support for clean energy among GOP voters has dropped dramatically over the past 18 months.
[…]
A small Texas bakery which lost orders and Facebook followers after posting a message in support of the LGBTQ community sold out its inventory two days in a row over the weekend, after a surge of support from around the world.
Confections, in Lufkin, east Texas, said it had suffered a backlash after posting a photo on 2 June of a rainbow-decorated cookie in the shape of a heart, accompanied by the message: “More LOVE. Less hate. Happy Pride to all our LGBTQ friends! All lovers of cookies and happiness are welcome here.”
The message, marking Pride month which runs through June, was followed up by a more solemn post the next day.
“Today has been hard. Really hard,” Confections wrote. “We lost a significant amount of followers because of a rainbow heart cookie we posted.
“We received a very hateful message on our business page canceling a large order (5dz) of summer themed cookies for tomorrow morning (that we just finished decorating) because of a rainbow heart cookie we posted.”
“My heart is heavy. Honestly I never thought a post that literally said more love less hate would result in this kind of backlash to a very small business that is struggling to stay afloat and spread a little cheer through baked goods.”
The bakery added that it now had “an over abundance” of cookies available for sale, but could hardly have expected what happened next. The post attracted more than 11,000 likes, from people around the world, with people more local to east Texas promising to visit the bakery.
Many duly did attend, and a photo posted by Confections showed a line of customers stretching down the street outside the business. On Saturday, Confections returned to Facebook to share some good news.
“We’ve sold out,” the bakery wrote, adding that the team were “just so humbled and grateful and moved by this outpouring of love”.
Confections said after it sold out of its baked goods, some customers had lingered and donated money, which it said would go towards local animal rescues.
As the company scrambled to respond to the thousands of goodwill messages sent across Facebook and Instagram, co-owner Miranda Dolder wrote a comment to those who had shown support.
[…]
Since 1998, the Hawaiian Tourism Authority (HTA) […] has had its focus largely on marketing Hawaii to the world. But in 2019, when the state hit a record of over 10 million tourists, the milestone taxed residents, and caused significant environmental impacts on trails, beaches and sacred sites.
During the pandemic, the agency’s new leader, John De Fries, called the time a “huliau”, which in Hawaiian means a time of transition. It was one that De Fries, the first Native Hawaiin in the role, felt would be the perfect moment to reset Hawaii in a way that would marry modern technology and Indigenous wisdom to protect the future of the island and promote its state-adopted sustainability goals by 2030.
As the first state in the nation to declare a climate emergency, Hawaii’s residents have long felt an urgency for better tourism management strategies, with a majority of them believing that the island has been run for tourists at the expense of the locals, according to a recent HTA survey. Then, for the first time ever, HTA expanded beyond marketing and came up with the most comprehensive, sustainable and regenerative tourism plan, involving three new focuses that prioritized Native Hawaiian culture, community, and the environment. It cited an increase in $7.5m to support those efforts.
But just as they finally launched their recovery strategies […] the legislature, in a last-minute gut-and-replace move, introduced House Bill 862, stripping HTA’s funding and responsibilities in April. In one of the earlier amended versions of the bill, the legislature cut all of its financing for any Native Hawaiian organizations, cultural programming, and environmental nonprofits it had already been funding for years, causing immediate uproar in the community and over 200 public testimonials in opposition.
“You want to use us, you want to take all you can from our home, our resources, and our way of life and give us little to nothing in return,” testified Mapuana Da Silva, Executive Director of the Kailua-based cultural nonprofit Hika’alani.
According to Maggie Kahoilua, a Kona-based philanthropist, the bill perpetuates the cycle of occupied powers destroying national identity, further erasing knowledge of the Hawaiian kingdom. “A lot of people don’t even know the Hawaiian kingdom exists and that’s what they prefer.”
Senator Glenn Wakai [who is a dummie (democrat), not the anticipated thug (republican) –blf], who is in support of the bill, said that HTA should focus on its original purpose of brand marketing, and that the agency needs to have more accountability with their spending.
[… A]waiting a decision from Governor David Ige [thug], the new bill, if it were to go into effect, would take HTA’s fiscal year 2023 budget to zero, and the agency would have to go through a rigorous process to justify to legislators why it should receive general funds, while also, requiring state approval for all future contracts and purchases. Even if vetoed, another bill, HB200, also threatens to thwart its funding.
This has left the agency scrambling to use special funds for cultural organizations by 1 July, so the money won’t go back to the state. Meanwhile their multi-year plans to protect the environment and communities are now up in the air.
Biden used his weekly address for a brief Zoom chat with Obama to draw attention to the six-month expanded enrollment period that closes Aug. 15. Meanwhile the government released a report that says that nearly 31 million Americans — a record — now have health coverage through Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. “We did this together,” said Obama, whose administration established the health insurance marketplace.
More information from Steve Benen:
[…] HHS has revised the coverage tally to 31 million: 11.3 million through exchange marketplaces, 14.8 million through the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, 3.9 million who became eligible for traditional Medicaid through the ACA’s improved eligibility standards, and 1 million through the Affordable Care Act’s Basic Health Program option.
What’s more, HuffPost’s Jonathan Cohn noted that by some measures, the Biden administration is probably undercounting the most up-to-date figure.
The latest enrollment figures do not include the past few months when Biden reopened enrollment and the Democratic COVID-19 relief bill made that new assistance available. “The actual total as of TODAY could be as high as 33.5 million…or 10% of the entire U.S. population,” Charles Gaba, health care analyst from ACASignups.net, noted on Twitter.
No wonder Biden and Obama looked so happy in the White House video.
All of this coincides with the Democratic president’s special open-enrollment period, which more than a million Americans have already taken advantage of. They can continue to do so: the window doesn’t close until August.
What’s more, this good news coincides with the expansive new ACA benefits included in the Democrats’ COVID relief package: some have seen their premiums cut in half, while millions have seen their premiums fall to literally zero, thanks entirely to the investments in the American Rescue Plan.
As we’ve discussed, the issue is one of political will. Trump and his team could’ve taken these steps more than a year ago. The options were on the table to create new open-enrollment periods, alert the public to the coverage opportunities, make premiums even more affordable, and so on.
But the Republican administration didn’t want to, so it didn’t.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, wants more Americans to get coverage they can afford, and it’s taken effective steps to make that happen. The results speak for themselves.
Postscript: It hasn’t generated much political chatter lately, but we are still awaiting word from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether conservative justices will tear down the ACA system in its entirety. A ruling is expected sometime over the next few weeks
Trump would have his followers believe his attacks on our democracy are really little more than a defense of democracy, which is as twisted as it sounds.
Donald Trump spoke at the North Carolina Republican Party’s state convention on Saturday, delivering what he and his team described as an “official presidential speech,” despite the fact that he’s not the president. Ahead of his spiel, some of Trump’s allies pleaded with him not to dwell on conspiracy theories surrounding his 2020 defeat.
Naturally, he did it anyway. As NPR reported:
“The 2020 presidential election, that election, the 2020 presidential election, was by far the most corrupt election in the history of our country,” Trump baselessly claimed in a speech before the North Carolina Republican Party, continuing his false grievance about an election he lost. He said Democrats “used COVID” and “used mail-in ballots to steal an election.” He called it a “third-world election, like we’ve never seen before.” He derided it as the “crime of the century” and claimed that the “country is being destroyed, perhaps by people who have no right to destroy it.”
It’s worth emphasizing for context that Trump, while suggesting that U.S. elected officials “perhaps” weren’t actually elected, appeared to be reading from prepared text. While the former president is notorious for ignoring scripts during public appearances, in this instance, the Republican was delivering a specific and deliberate message.
In other words, Trump wasn’t just popping off, sharing random thoughts that occurred to him at the time. He and his team wanted his audience to believe the former president questions the legitimacy of their successors.
At the same event, Trump soon after declared, “I’m not the one trying to undermine democracy. I am the one who’s trying to save it.”
The sentiment wasn’t altogether surprising, but it was a peek into a twisted perspective. The failed former president tried to cling to power after losing; he helped inspired an insurrectionist attack on his own country’s Capitol; and he continues to question the legitimacy of the United States’ rightful leaders. Trump would nevertheless have his followers believe his attacks on our democracy are really little more than a defense of democracy — an idea predicated entirely on the idea that his crackpot conspiracy theories are true and he won the election he lost.
Earlier in the day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a new video in which Trump boasted that his party is “going to take back the Senate, take back the House, we’re going to take back the White House — and sooner than you think.” He added, “It’s going to be really something special.”
A generous interpretation of the comments would be that Trump expects Republicans to control the White House “sooner” than, say, 2029. But the former president’s prediction came against a backdrop in which he’s reportedly told associates he expects to be “reinstated” to power later this year, reality be damned.
I realize there’s a school of thought that says it’s better to ignore pitiful tirades from a guy who couldn’t quite cut it as a blogger for a full month. But whether he deserves the influence or not, Donald Trump remains the head of one of the nation’s major political parties, and he’s made attacks against our democracy one of his principal post-presidency hobbies.
[…]
Campaigners who want the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston restored to its plinth in Bristol are urging supporters to block-book tickets to the museum where it is on display daubed with graffiti, in a bid to prevent visitors seeing it.
As the 19th-century bronze memorial went on display in Bristol, the Save Our Statues campaign group, which calls for the preservation of Britain’s precious cultural furniture, mobilised supporters to book tickets to the M Shed museum.
[…]
Some replies to the Save Our Statues Twitter post were critical of the action. One poster, who identified himself as Matt Ray, wrote: “So you’re called ‘Save Our Statues’ and you’ve deliberately stopped people seeing a statue. How does that work? Shouldn’t you call yourself ‘We demand statues on our terms or not at all!’?”
[…]
As a matter of democratic principle, the first step must be to repair and reinstate the statue, and then if the council wants to run a democratic process, it can, the [We demand statues on our terms or not at all!] statement said. Unlike what happened one year ago today, this is a peaceful and civilised way to exercise our democratic right to protest.
[…]
On the day the exhibit opened, the historian David Olusoga said the statue had been transformed from “a mediocre piece of late-Victorian public art” into “the most important artefact you could select in Britain if you wanted to tell the story of Britain’s tortuous relationship with its role in the Atlantic slave trade”.
On Sunday a plaque was placed at the spot where the Colston statue was pushed into the water to mark the anniversary of the incident. According to a statement sent to the Guardian by a group calling itself Guerilla Hiztory, the plaque was designed by John Packer, a Bristol-based artist, and installed by anonymous well-wishers. [image at the link]
An engraving on the plaque described the circumstances in which the statue was pulled down. It also includes an abridged version of the poem Hollow by Vanessa Kisuule, Bristol City poet 2020, which reads: “You came down easy in the end. As you landed / A piece of you fell off, broke away, / And inside, nothing but air. / This whole time, you were hollow.”
A spokesperson for the group said: “The toppling of Colston’s statue was a pivotal moment in a global popular uprising, and the enormous symbolic and historical significance of this event reverberated around the world.
Wonkette: “Mississippi GOP Gov. Has Some Real Wild Ideas About Human Gestation Periods”
On Sunday, Mississippi GOP Governor Tate Reeves appeared on Jake Tapper’s “State of The Union” to discuss his hopes and dreams for his state’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks. It should come as no surprise that his hope is that it will lead to the overturning or at least the erosion of Roe v. Wade. But what Reeves wanted to make most clear to Tapper and to CNN audience was that he wanted it overturned not just because of his personal beliefs about abortion, but because he believes the science has changed, therefore the law must keep up with that.
Here, however, appears to be Governor Reeves’s best guess on what “the science” says. It is very different from what “the science” actually says. [video available at the link]
He said:
REEVES: For people such as myself that are pro-life, I believe that the Supreme Court made a mistake in the 1970s. But that’s not the issue at stake that is before the court, hopefully when the arguments are heard sometime in the fall.
The question that is before the court, and this is something you mentioned earlier, and that’s with respect to understanding and appreciating and respecting science.
The fact is, we know so much more in America today about the formation of young children in the womb than we did when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. We know so much more even than we knew when Casey was decided in 1992, that was 30 years ago. It is not unusual for the court to review cases from the past. And what we know now, Jake, is that we know that the heart has partially formed at 15 weeks. We know that the baby in the womb is practicing breathing. We know that most internal organs have started to form and we believe that child is viable outside the womb.
As it turns out, “we” know exactly none of those things, because Tate Reeves just made them all up as he went along.
The heart is not “partially formed” at 15 weeks. The “heartbeat” that anti-choice zealots like to talk about is fetal pole cardiac activity. “The science” Reeves is so keen on respecting actually says there is “little organization of human heart cells until 20 weeks of pregnancy.”
Fetuses are also not practicing breathing at 15 weeks. The lungs are in fact one of the last organs to fully develop, usually around 37 weeks. The fetus does not “practice” breathing until the third trimester.
The biggest pile of bullshit here, however, is believing a human fetus is viable outside the womb at 15 weeks, when the most premature baby to ever survive was born at 21 weeks and five days. Perhaps he is thinking of chinchillas. Or tigers. Or some other animal with a much shorter gestational period than humans.
Sadly, Tapper did not question him on any of this. Just sort of let it hang there, unchallenged. Instead, he switched the conversation over to how the law included no exceptions for rape or incest, and asked Reeves what he would say to a child pregnant by their father or uncle. Granted, this is certainly the more dramatic approach, but only if you think anti-choicers actually care about that.
Reeves responded by saying “I’m not telling any child in Mississippi anything,” which, to be fair, is probably true. Were such a child anywhere around him, he would likely just ignore them just like he ignores facts about gestational development.
Then he just went on about how he thinks abortion is murder and how very, very much the state of Mississippi cares about babies and human life.
REEVES: What I’m telling everyone is we believe that abortions are murdering literally millions and millions and millions of Americans across many, many years and it’s a sad, sad state of affairs and we’re going to work very hard to make sure that when that baby becomes viable that it is treated as a human life because that is exactly what it is.
Mississippi, for the record, has the worst health care system and the highest infant mortality rate in the entire country.
“If we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero at the earliest possible date,” one top scientist says.
Economies worldwide nearly ground to a halt over the 15 months of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a startling drop in global greenhouse gas emissions.
But that did little to slow the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which reached the highest levels since accurate measurements began 63 years ago, scientists said Monday.
“Fossil fuel burning is really at the heart of this. If we don’t tackle fossil fuel burning, the problem is not going to go away,” Ralph Keeling, a geochemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in an interview, adding that the world ultimately will have to make emissions cuts that are “much larger and sustained” than anything that happened during the pandemic.
Scientists from Scripps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday that levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide peaked in May, reaching a monthly average of nearly 419 parts per million.
That represents an increase from the May 2020 mean of 417 parts per million, and it marks the highest level since measurements began 63 years ago at the NOAA observatory in Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Twice in 2021, daily levels recorded at the observatory have exceeded 420 parts per million, researchers said.
[…] “It’s significant in that it shows we are still fully on the wrong track.”
Tans noted that humans continue to add about 40 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution to the atmosphere each year, and that avoiding catastrophic changes to the climate will require reducing that number to zero as quickly as possible.
“The fact that CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa data are already so high and are keep going up so fast is disturbing but not surprising because the emissions of CO2 continue to be incredibly high,” said Corinne Le Quéré, research professor of climate change science at the University of East Anglia. “The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere will stop rising when the emissions approach zero.”
[…] Even as international borders closed and global economic activity took a massive hit throughout much of 2020, researchers have found that human-caused emissions rebounded fairly quickly after decreasing sharply early in the pandemic.
[…] Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions during 2020 dropped to about the same level of global emissions that prevailed in 2012 — not nearly low enough to change the world’s current trajectory. That reality offers the latest evidence of the stubbornness of human-related emissions, and the difficulty the world faces in making the kind of far-reaching, long-lasting cuts necessary to slow Earth’s warming and avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. […]
Vice President Harris is taking her first step onto the global stage Monday as she meets with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei in an effort to revive U.S. relations with the country and tackle a daunting corruption problem.
Harris is visiting Guatemala, followed by a trip to Mexico on Tuesday, as part of her mission to tackle the root causes of migration from Central America’s Northern Triangle countries by addressing the dire conditions that cause people to flee.
Biden asked Harris in March to spearhead the administration’s efforts to address the conditions driving immigration to the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — in addition to other politically volatile issues in her portfolio, such as voting rights.
But the problems Harris is being asked to address are difficult and long-standing.
Administration officials say they recognize that any government or private investment may take years or even decades to bear fruit in a region where crippling poverty, cartel-linked crime and government corruption have long nudged people toward making a perilous 2,000-mile journey to the U.S. border.
The Biden administration has pledged $310 million in humanitarian aid to the region and has a $4 billion plan to boost development there. Administration officials have also said that Harris is likely to discuss more stringent anti-corruption measures with Giammattei.
But the United States has crafted aid programs in Guatemala for years with the goal of deterring migration. There were efforts to help coffee farmers improve their yields and forestry management programs. There were vocational schools pointedly called Stay Here Centers
.
Through it all, the flow of migrants continued unabated.
Since 2019, about 400,000 Guatemalans have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border — more than 2 percent of the country’s population.
After meeting with Giammattei, Harris was scheduled to take part Monday in a roundtable with Guatemalan community leaders about the root causes of migration. Next on the itinerary was a visit to a local university to see projects created by young female engineers and to talk with the women about the problems faced by female business owners. […]
On Jan. 6, far-right Republicans have a political ally, once again, in Vladimir Putin, who’s only too pleased to amplify their talking points.
The first sign of trouble came a week ago, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sounded a bit like a far-right Republican when talking about the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Lavrov told reporters last Monday that the Kremlin is “following with interest” the “persecution” of those “accused of the riots on Jan. 6.”
If the foreign minister’s name sounds familiar, Donald Trump welcomed Lavrov into the Oval Office in May 2017 for a visit that was never fully explained. It was in this meeting that [Trump] revealed highly classified information to his Russian guests for reasons unknown.
[…] The Daily Beast reported:
During an economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday, [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said the people who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop Congress from certifying Donald Trump’s loss were people justifiably angry with the election results. “They came with political demands,” he told a moderator during a Q&A session.
Putin added that the Jan. 6 rioters “are not looters or thieves.” He went on to say the criminal suspects were slapped with “very harsh charges…. Why is that?”
The broader context is obviously important: Biden is scheduled to meet with Putin in two weeks, and it’s a safe bet the American leader will press his counterpart in Moscow on human-rights abuses — including Putin’s treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The point was hardly subtle: Putin wants to be able to say he’s prosecuting his domestic political opponents, just as the Biden administration prosecutes those responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrectionist riot. As far as the Russian leader is concerned, there’s a moral equivalence, so Biden can’t claim the high ground during their upcoming meeting.
In reality, that’s ridiculous. Alexei Navalny is not a criminal. He did not launch any violent attacks against the Kremlin. He challenged Putin through democratic means and nearly paid with his life. The idea that Navalny has anything in common with insurrectionist rioters in the United States is the opposite of reality: Navalny supports democracy in his country; the Jan. 6 mob tried to derail democracy in their country.
But as relevant as the motivations behind the talking points are, the end result matters just as much. As Rachel noted on Friday night, “It is a remarkable thing to see Russia’s head of state take up the cause of the January 6th attack by Trump supporters who were trying to block the counting of the votes in the last election because they didn’t want it to be so that Trump lost. It’s kind of remarkable to see a foreign head of state to take up that cause, too.”
As things stand, a series of GOP officials are eager to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack, turning the villains into sympathetic heroes, and lashing out at federal law enforcement for prosecuting the rioters. And now they have a political ally, once again, in Russia’s authoritarian president, who’s only too pleased to amplify their talking points.
The makeshift café terraces that sprang up in Paris last year to serve Covid-wary patrons outdoors will become permanent summer fixtures of the capital, city hall announced Monday.
[…]
The city turned over thousands of parking spaces last year to beleaguered restaurant and café owners who were no longer allowed to serve indoors as the pandemic raged.
Outdoor drinking and dining resumed across the country last month as France emerged from its third wave of coronavirus cases […]
Yep burp ! Lunch today was Charcuterie Boeuf, followed by Encornets Farcis, and then Chocolate, all washed down with a local vin rouge.
But while some owners invested in high-quality structures, others did little more than nail together wooden shipping pallets that have not weathered well.
Terraces will have to remain without closed walls and plants and other greenery will be encouraged, with an annual contest for the most attractive designs.
Except perhaps for the contest, open terraces with plants (and, often, patio umbrellas) is what most restaurant terraces here in the village are like.
[…]
Outdoor seating can also be extended on adjacent squares and sidewalks, and also in front of neighbouring businesses if they give approval.
[…]
On Wednesday, restaurants and cafés will be allowed to start serving indoors and the nationwide curfew will be pushed back to 11:00 pm […]
Ah… I vaguely thought there was another week to go.
I just checked the track-and-trace app’s statistics: ICU occupancy is now just under 50%, with slightly more than 1000 new detected cases (probably low due to the “weekend effect” causing under-reporting). R is c.0,8. Nationwide, almost 28m have been vaccinated (at least one jab), out of a total population of c.67m — suggesting France is, finally, within striking distance of “50%”.
The rate of vaccinations has notably increased, and most of the silliness surrounding getting a vaccination has been eliminated. Also, recent polling suggests that famous December result of only c.40% willing to be vaccinated is improving, albeit still far too low, and the problem of moment, too many second jabs are being skipping (appointments missed, etc).
KGsays
Marjorie Taylor Greene has requested that Biden investigate Fauci and she wants answers by June 31st – blf@79
What’s the problem? Biden should promise to give her the answers just as soon as June 31st comes round!
blfsays
Whilst you can certainly get the stuff in various forms in the village where I live, I don’t know if any is commercially grown nearby, Lavender, the blue gold of France’s Provence region (video): “The lavender fields of the Valensole Plateau, in France’s southern Provence region, are an ocean of purple-blue. This is where much of the plant’s global production is grown. Many families in the region have been working with lavender for several generations. There are those who continue their activity in the traditional way and those who have opted for a more industrial method. Either way, these beautiful landscapes attract thousands of tourists from around the world.” (Valensole is roughly 100km inland of where I live.)
blfsays
KG@112, Hee hee. However, what she wrote was by June 31, 2021, which, whilst slightly ambiguous, can easily be read as “before June 31”, or equivalently, “on or before June 30”.
I’ve had to decipher ambiguous dating so often now I notice these things. Waiting until the date is June 31st might make a point, but for anyone with a few brain cells, could also be construed as not responding / obeying. Which suggests trying that strategy could work, she has not got a non-negative number of said cells!
KG @112 and blf @114, Marjorie Taylor Greene has a problem: she does not pay attention to details, to nuance, and to facts; nor does she understand the fact that in the hierarchy of the U.S. Government, she is not qualified to declare arbitrary (and fictional) deadlines to be met by the President of the United States.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is recommending that President Biden nominate to the federal bench two voting rights attorneys who were involved in some of the most pivotal voting rights cases in recent years.
“With the national focus on voting rights now, their elevation is timely, their perspective will be invaluable,” Schumer said Monday, as he announced the recommendations.
For a seat on Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in New York, Schumer is recommending Myrna Perez, a top lawyer at New York University’s Brennan Center, which works on voting rights and criminal justice issues. Perez worked on the blockbuster voter ID case in Texas, which culminated with the most conservative appellate court in the country ruling in 2016 that the requirement was discriminatory towards minority voters.
More recently, she was also involved in the litigation over the end-run Florida’s legislature did around the restoration of ex-felons’ voting rights approved by Florida’s voters in 2018. As Brennan Center’s director of voting rights and election programs, she has had her hand in several other voting rights cases, and if confirmed, Perez would be the only Latina to serving on the 2nd Circuit, according to the AP.
Schumer is also recommending for the U.S. District Court in Manhattan Dale Ho, who is the head of ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. Ho spearheaded the successful legal challenge to the Trump’s administration’s census citizenship question and twice argued census cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also led the charge to defeat the Kansas proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration that had been championed by the former Secretary of State Kris Kobach. […]
Chancellor’s CDU romped home in state of Saxony-Anhalt despite polls suggesting close race with far right.
A resounding victory for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in a small eastern state had German pollsters and pundits posing a big question: Why didn’t we see it coming?
In the run-up to Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt, polls had put Merkel’s CDU and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) neck and neck. Some even had the AfD in first place. That prompted much alarm and angst among mainstream German politicians and media outlets, particularly as a national parliamentary election is little more than three months away.
Yet the final result was not remotely close. The center-right CDU won 37.1 percent of the vote while the AfD came second with 20.8 percent. The CDU’s result was nearly 10 percentage points higher than its score in the polls just a few days before the vote. Its margin of victory was more than 16 percentage points — a world away from the small single-digit lead suggested by the polls.
[…] While voter turnout — at 60.3 percent — was down slightly compared to the last state election in 2016, the CDU was able to attract more than 61,000 voters who stayed home last time. […]
Got some wild-ass news for you, which ties together two other very important news stories we’ve been following.
Crazypants end times pastor idiot Rick Wiles recently got the COVID, after boldly proclaiming he was going to be one of the few survivors of the coming global genocide that is the COVID vaccine. He’s fine, or at least he was last time we checked. Said he was getting out of the hospital. Continued thoughts ‘n’ prayers, etc.
Meanwhile, that batshit Milo character, who says he’s “ex-gay” now, claimed recently on Wiles’s program that because of how the Lord has healed him from the man-on-man sexytimes, dogs have stopped barking at him. We don’t know how these things are correlated, or why dogs were barking at him before, but, just, you know, warmest regards for all these people.
Here’s what ties the two stories together. Lauren Witzke, a batshit QAnon idiot who … yeah, you don’t care who she is. (She’s been on Wonkette before, as a Senate candidate.) Just know that she was guest-hosting Wiles’s TruNews show the same day Milo said the thing about the barking dogs, because Wiles is still out with the COVID. And that day she explained WHY Wiles and the entire TruNews staff got the COVID. Was it because they were busy trying to save themselves from the global genocide of COVID vaccines, by not getting vaccinated? Occam’s Razor might suggest!
But no, she’s done her own research and she doesn’t think it’s any coincidence. It has to do with Milo and how TruNews had previously allowed him to share his story about how he allegedly now refrains from extracurricular dick activities. And that made Satan GRRRR. So Satan retaliated in a really odd way! [video available at the link]
WITZKE: I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the TruNews crew all got deathly ill – got very sick – right after they brought Milo onto their show and he shared his testimony.
Did Milo have COVID? Because that would be a case where it may very well be not a coinkydink! We don’t know if he had COVID, of course, but that wasn’t her point.
The man with the British accent off camera said he didn’t know where this was going, and the man with the British accent off camera was Milo, so …
Witzke continued:
WITZKE: You have to remember that this is a spiritual battle as well and our enemy retaliates. This was retaliation.
It was retaliation.
WITZKE: We constantly battle demonic spirits and demonic attacks on ourselves and we as Christians must stay equipped. And also we must stay prayerful as we walk into these times.
OK. Still not seeing the …
WITZKE: It was no coincidence that Rick and his crew are in the situation they’re in because they stood for Christ and had, you know, the spine to bring Milo on and share his platform and his testimony.
Satan throatcrammed Rick Wiles and his pals with COVID because Milo was allowed to share his story about how he hasn’t had a peener-related incident for however many days? Truly, Satan works in mysterious ways.
WITZKE: Milo was somebody who belonged to the darkness. He was Satan’s favorite sodomite, wasn’t he?
Highly doubt Milo was ever Satan’s favorite sodomite. Not even in the top 100.
The seizure of cryptocurrency paid by Colonial Pipeline to a Russian hacker ring marks a major milestone for Department of Justice.
Federal authorities have recovered more than two million dollars in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to foreign hackers whose attack last month led to the shutdown of a major pipeline that provides nearly half the East Coast’s fuel, according to officials.
The seizure of funds paid by Colonial Pipeline to a Russian hacker ring, DarkSide, marks the first recovery by a new ransomware Justice Department task force. It follows a string of cyber attacks that panicked consumers and led President Biden to warn Russia that it needed to take “decisive action” against the criminal networks.
“Today we turned the tables on DarkSide,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, announcing the recovery on Monday afternoon. “The Department of Justice has found and recaptured the majority of the ransom” in the wake of last month’s attack.
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount told The Wall Street Journal last month that the firm paid $4.4 million in ransom.
“I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” he said. “ … But it was the right thing to do for the country.”
QAnon conspiracy theorist and supposed “prophet” Johnny Enlow […] claimed that continuing to believe that former President[Wacko House occupant] Donald Trump won the 2020 election and is still the legitimate president of the United States is a test of one’s true commitment to God.
Enlow, who is among the various self-proclaimed “prophets” who guaranteed that Trump would win the 2020 election and still refuse to accept that their prophecies were wrong, actually declared that it is not enough for Christians to simply worship God, but rather they must also recognize that Trump has been anointed by God and therefore continue to support him.
[… bellow and blather, prophesies and profits, hair furor and hoary fury, and he still lost bigly!…]
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a federal law that requires only men to register for the military draft.
As is the court’s custom, it gave no reasons for turning down the case. But three justices issued a statement saying that Congress should be allowed more time to consider what they acknowledged was a significant legal issue.
“It remains to be seen, of course, whether Congress will end gender-based registration under the Military Selective Service Act,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the statement, which was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Brett M. Kavanaugh. “But at least for now, the court’s longstanding deference to Congress on matters of national defense and military affairs cautions against granting review while Congress actively weighs the issue.”
The requirement is one of the last sex-based distinctions in federal law, one that challengers say cannot be justified now that women are allowed to serve in every role in the military, including ground combat. Unlike men, though, they are not required to register with the Selective Service System, the government agency that maintains a database of Americans who would be eligible for the draft were it reinstated. […]
[…] “I’m officially very anxious about climate legislation,” Whitehouse tweeted.
Joe Biden remains in discussions with Republican senators as Democrats continue to try to negotiate a bipartisan infrastructure bill, a priority of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). The status of those negotiations remain broadly unclear, though a Republican counteroffer released last month proposed virtually no spending on climate compared to the original Biden proposal.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the GOP proposal currently “did not meet the President’s bar of growing the economy, tackling the climate crisis and creating new jobs.” A $1.7 trillion Democratic counteroffer released on May 21 demanded that Republican negotiators come back with an offer that included more money for electric vehicles, environmental cleanup, and other climate priorities.
Negotiations over the package remain somewhat opaque, as do which provisions may be on the table and which may already have been cast aside.
In the thread, Whitehouse warned that climate had “fallen out of the infrastructure discussion, as it took its bipartisanship detour.” […]
Calling recent speculation “absurd,” Vladimir Putin said that he has “no intention whatsoever” of reinstating Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.
Speaking to reporters, the Russian President bristled at the suggestion that he would reinstall Trump in the White House “this August or any other month, for that matter.”
“I think if I were planning to put Trump back in power, I would know about it,” the visibly annoyed Putin said. “This was all news to me.”
Irritated by the former U.S. President’s “needy” behavior, Putin said that he wished that Trump “would stop texting me.”
“I realize that he’s been banned from Twitter and Facebook and God knows where else, and he’s probably lonely,” the Russian leader said. “But, really, he’s got to get a life. I’ve moved on. Why can’t he?”
The Biden administration announced Friday that it will be reversing several policies put in place during the Trump administration related to endangered or threatened species.
The reviews by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service are aimed at five Endangered Species Act regulations finalized by the Trump administration, including critical habitat designations and rules defining the scope of federal actions on endangered species.
The Trump-era regulations opened the door to consideration of economic factors in decisions for species protections, weakened protections for critical habitat and left threatened species without guaranteed protections, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
Speaking about the Biden administration’s announcement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service principal deputy director Martha Williams said Friday that “the Fish and Wildlife Service is committed to working with diverse federal, Tribal, state and industry partners to not only protect and recover America’s imperiled wildlife but to ensure cornerstone laws like the Endangered Species Act are helping us meet 21st century challenges.”
The U.S. Postal Service is signaling that widespread mail delays prevalent in 2020 and early 2021 are the new normal, setting expectations for the remainder of the year far below historical norms.
USPS expects to deliver less than 88% of regular First-Class Mail on time for pieces slated for a two-day turnaround and less than 69% on time for those in the three-to-five day window. That would mark a decrease from 2020—already a down year—when the agency delivered 91% and 79% of mail on time, respectively. The reduced targets approved last month by the postal board of governors highlighted a significant departure from previous USPS goals, as it expected to deliver more than 95% of mail on time in all recent years.
The Postal Service will have to improve performance to meet even those lower targets, as it delivered just 86% of two-day and 58% of three-to-five day mail on time in the second quarter of fiscal 2021. Postal management announced on Thursday it had improved its overall First-Class Mail on-time delivery to 88% for the month of May. That still remains below its performance in recent years, including pandemic-affected 2020. USPS hopes to avoid delays on 93% and 85% of mail, respectively, for the remainder of fiscal 2021.
“The Postal Service will have to achieve substantial improvement in service performance across all products over the second half of the year in order to meet its end-of-fiscal-year targets,” management said in a recent filing to Congress.
Postal leadership avoided setting performance targets at the outset of the fiscal year as typically required, later saying it needed more time to assess the “ongoing and unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic.” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Thursday there is reason for optimism going forward that mail delays will be curbed. […]
Steve Kearney, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, suggested USPS’ declining targets were a tactical move directly related to the new proposed windows.
“It looks like they’re justifying their proposed slowdown of First-Class Mail with dismal expectations,” Kearney said. […]
“It took a lot of strategic thought to get to this place,” Flynn said, referring to the nonexistent nation before gesturing towards himself. “Who are your partners? Who are your allies? I can tell you, you’re looking at an ally. This guy personally will ally with you.”
…According to the Journal’s account, Trump called for Guo’s deportation in a discussion on policy towards China, describing him as a “criminal” at an Oval Office policy meeting in June, on the basis of a letter from Beijing accusing him of serious crimes.
The report said the letter had been hand-delivered to him at a private dinner by Steve Wynn, a Las Vegas casino magnate and Republican National Committee finance chairman with interests in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, for which Wynn relies on Beijing for licensing.
…
The Journal report said that aides tried to persuade Trump out of going ahead with Guo’s deportation, noting he was a member of the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The aides later ensured that the deportation would not go ahead….
Also:
“When we talk about the formation of new ideas, of new countries, new nation-states, you have to take a look at yourself, have the conversations in your communities,” Flynn said. “Like the communities that I represent, which are people that care deeply about freedom, and we are not about to give it up.”
Keiko Fujimori, one of the two candidates fighting vote by vote for the presidency of Peru, has alleged fraud and irregularities in the count of Sunday’s election as her rival leftist teacher Pedro Castillo widens a narrow lead.
An inter-American observer mission did not report any irregularities and said the ballot passed off correctly, complying with international standards.
With more than 96% of the official vote counted, hard-left candidate Castillo holds a razor-thin lead of about 0.2% over his far-right opponent, an advantage of nearly 100,000 votes.
But at a late press conference on Monday, Fujimori, 46, claimed there had been a “series of irregularities which worry us and we think it’s important to highlight”.
She accused Castillo’s party Perú Libre of using a strategy to “distort and delay the results which reflect the popular will” by challenging ballot tallies which, she alleged, had favoured her party Fuerza Popular.
Later on Monday night, Castillo addressed a large crowd of supporters in downtown Lima and in a tweet called on them to “defend democracy which is expressed in each one of our votes, inside and outside our beloved Peru”.
Fujimori’s remarks have attracted criticism from political figures and analysts who have described it as an act of desperation as she appears to be on the verge of losing her third election runoff in 10 years.
“It’s extremely regrettable that when the result is not favourable, that the candidate talks about fraud. It’s terrible,” Fernando Tuesta, a political science professor at Lima’s Pontifical Catholic University, told national radio broadcaster RPP on Monday night. “They have been talking about fraud because they don’t want to respect the result,” he said.
…
As a candidate, Fujimori’s father – who is serving a 25-year sentence over corruption and death squad murders – and her own record as a politician play against her.
Fujimori has also racked up accusations of graft, accused of receiving more than $17m in illegal campaign funds and heading a criminal organisation, and could face a 30-year jail term if convicted. She denies the allegations, which she describes as politically motivated.
…
The vote in the Covid-battered nation has split the country between the poor, rural Andes and the wealthier and more urban northern coast and capital Lima. It comes amid one of the worst economic slowdowns in the region, which has pushed nearly 10% of Peru’s population into poverty, millions into unemployment and prompted many others to leave major cities and return to their rural villages.
Fears of a confrontation between law enforcement and rightwing militia supporters over the control of water in the drought-stricken American west have been sparked by protests at Klamath Falls in Oregon.
Protesters affiliated with rightwing anti-government activist Ammon Bundy’s People’s Rights Network are threatening to break a deadlock over water management in the area by unilaterally opening the headgates of a reservoir.
The protest has reawakened memories not only of recent standoffs with federal agencies – including the one led by Bundy in eastern Oregon in 2016 – but a longer history of anti-government agitation in southern Oregon and northern California, stretching back to 2000 and beyond.
The area is a hotbed of militia and anti-government activity and also hit by the mega-drought that has struck the American west and caused turmoil in the agricultural community as conflicts over water become more intense. Among the current protesters at Klamath Falls are individuals who have themselves been involved in similar actions over two decades, including an illegal release of water at the same reservoir in 2001.
…
While the protesters claim to represent the interests of farmers, they have been disavowed by agricultural leaders, including Ben DuVal, president of the Klamath Water Users Association, who told the Sacramento Bee that the protesters were “idiots who have no business being here”, who were using the crisis as “a soapbox to push their agenda”.
Whether or not DuVal speaks for the majority of farmers, there is no sign that the so far small protest is catching on like 2001’s anti-government surge, which saw protest crowds in the thousands in the lead up to the breaching of the headgates.
And while the protesters’ placards promise “Ammon Bundy coming soon”, their leader has so far not made the trip to the Klamath camp from neighboring Idaho, where he recently filed to run for governor.
Never-before-heard audio, obtained exclusively by CNN, shows how former President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Rudy Giuliani relentlessly pressured and coaxed the Ukrainian government in 2019 to investigate baseless conspiracies about then-candidate Joe Biden.
The audio is of a July 2019 phone call between Giuliani, US diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The call was a precursor to Trump’s infamous call with Zelensky, and both conversations later became a central part of Trump’s first impeachment, where he was accused of soliciting Ukrainian help for his campaign.
During the roughly 40-minute call, Giuliani repeatedly told Yermak that Zelensky should publicly announce investigations into possible corruption by Biden in Ukraine, and into claims that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to hurt Trump. (These separate claims are both untrue.)
“All we need from the President [Zelensky] is to say, I’m gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he’s gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out,” Giuliani said, according to the audio. “… Somebody in Ukraine’s gotta take that seriously.”
The new audio demonstrates how Giuliani aggressively cajoled the Ukrainians to do Trump’s bidding. And it undermines Trump’s oft-repeated assertion that “there was no quid pro quo” where Zelensky could secure US government support if he did political favors for Trump.
The call was one of the opening salvos in the years-long quest by Trump and his allies to damage Biden and subvert the 2020 election process — by soliciting foreign meddling, lying about voter fraud, attempting to overturn the results, and inciting the deadly January 6 assault on the Capitol.
There is an ongoing criminal investigation into Giuliani and his Ukraine dealings, including whether he violated lobbying laws while coordinating with ex-officials who gave him dirt on the Bidens. The federal inquiry ramped up when the FBI raided Giuliani’s home and office in late April. It’s unclear if the call with Yermak is part of the investigation. Giuliani denies all wrongdoing.
A partial transcript of the Giuliani-Yermak phone call was first published by BuzzFeed News in April, and Time Magazine was first to publish some key excerpts from the call in February.
Over and over, Giuliani pressed for the investigations, according to the audio recording. Giuliani even said the US-Ukraine diplomatic relationship would improve if Zelensky launched the probes. Giuliani and Volker suggested during the call that a public announcement could clear the way for Zelensky’s much-desired visit to the US, or for in-person meetings with Giuliani.
“That would clear the air really well,” Giuliani said, according to the recording. “And I think it would make it possible for me to come and make it possible, I think, for me to talk to the President (Trump) to see what I can do about making sure that whatever misunderstandings are put aside … I kinda think that this could be a good thing for having a much better relationship.”…
We’ve seen lots of fact-checking on this issue before, but Melber does an exceptionally good job here.
A growing number of Republican members of Congress are minimizing, dissembling, and lying about the January 6th insurrection. This fact-check by MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber confronts recent statements by those officials with the factual record, documenting 10 key examples of the Orwellian effort to deny the reality of the insurrection, and debunking each one with documentary footage, evidence from legal cases, and independent reporting.
The video is about ten minutes long. Well worth watching. Neal Katyal is interviewed at the end, and he adds some good analysis and facts. Ari Melber takes on the most prominent liars one by one and busts them for lying.
There was a brief political consensus in the immediate aftermath of the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. As we’ve discussed, the left, right, and center could all agree on a simple truth: participating in a riot inside the nation’s seat of government is a serious attack against our democracy.
It wasn’t long, however, before the consensus broke down. For example, some Republicans started pushing the ridiculous line that the pro-Trump attackers may have been secret liberals. Soon after, Donald Trump, who played a key role in inciting the violence, got in on the game, insisting that the Capitol attackers posed “zero threat,” and were merely “hugging and kissing the police and the guards.”
Last month, multiple Republican House members tried to manufacture an entirely new reality in which the riot’s perpetrators were actually the victims. One GOP lawmaker described the rioters as “peaceful patriots,” and blasted law enforcement for “harassing” them. Another said the Jan. 6 violence more closely resembled a “normal tourist visit” than a deadly attack.
Soon after, Senate Republicans derailed a bipartisan proposal for an independent commission to investigate the insurrectionist assault.
Yesterday, several congressional Republicans went to bat for the rioters once again, this time pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland on whether the Jan. 6 attackers are being treated unfairly. [A line of argument that Putin also put forward.]
The letter, signed by Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, asks Garland to provide information related to what they assert is “unequal justice” being meted out to those involved in the Capitol attack compared with other “mass unrest, destruction and loss of life.”
As the Washington Post report explained, the five conservative Republican senators — three of whom voted against certifying President Biden’s victory in the wake of the Capitol assault — were “specifically referring to the pockets of violence and vandalism in U.S. cities that followed the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a White police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.”
In other words, the GOP senators are deeply concerned about whether federal law enforcement treated racial-justice protesters better than members of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the seat of our democracy in order to hunt American elected officials and derail our system of elections.
Conflating the racial-justice protests with the insurrectionist Capitol riot is difficult to take seriously, but it’s quickly become a staple of Republican politics, as Johnson, Cruz, Tuberville, Lee, and Scott were eager to prove yesterday.
Here’s a link to the June 8 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Many thousands of vaccine doses have been destroyed in African countries after exceeding their expiry dates amid a reluctance to be inoculated and a lack of medical infrastructure, the BBC reports.
Malawi has destroyed almost 20,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while South Sudan said it would safely dispose of 59,000 doses and hand back another 72,000 to the global Covax scheme for poorer countries.
The Democratic Republic of Congo said it could not use most of the 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses it received through Covax, so they were sent to Ghana, Madagascar and elsewhere. Nigeria was also unable to use some doses.
Some vaccines are given with a short shelf life before expiry, such as a batch of one million doses South Africa received from India in February with an expiry date of 13 April. However, the the country’s government opted not to use them due to concerns the jabs did not offer sufficient protection from the prevalent Covid variant.
Malawi virologist Gama Bandawe told the BBC that mistrust of vaccines has played a role in the country being unable to use all the supplies it has received.
A study commissioned by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Covid-19 vaccine perceptions in 15 countries suggests that a significant proportion of people on the continent harbour concerns around vaccine safety.
The Biden White House sees voting rights as a national security issue. That may seem like a stretch. It’s not.
At face value, voting rights in the United States would appear to be an entirely domestic issue. But at a press briefing yesterday, a top member of President Biden’s team made a compelling case for a broader perspective.
The day after the apparent demise of the Democrats’ For the People Act, a sweeping democracy-reform package, a reporter asked White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan whether voting rights is a national security issue. He replied:
“I would say the basic notion of democratic reform and voting rights in the United States is a national security issue. We are in a competition of models with autocracies, and we are trying to show the world that American democracy and democracy writ large can work, can effectively deliver the will of the people. And to the extent that we are not updating, refurbishing, revamping our own democratic processes and procedures to meet the needs of the modern moment, then we are not going to be as successful in making that case to the rest of the world — to China, to Russia, or to anyone else. And so there is a national security dimension to this today.”
[…] There are competing models of government on display throughout the world, and in this White House, it’s a priority to make clear to international audiences that a liberal democracy is the superior governing method. That, in turn, means voting rights and the vitality of our political system has a direct effect on the United States’ global influence and stature.
And that necessarily means that the more our democracy withers, the more it strengthens anti-democratic forces around the world. [True!]
[…] President Biden wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post ahead of his first trip abroad as president, describing the overseas excursion as an opportunity to demonstrate “the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age.”
This is a defining question of our time: Can democracies come together to deliver real results for our people in a rapidly changing world? Will the democratic alliances and institutions that shaped so much of the last century prove their capacity against modern-day threats and adversaries? I believe the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have the chance to prove it.
[…] Authoritarian governments would have the world believe that democracies are slow, messy, and dysfunctional, and Biden is desperate to prove them wrong.
[…] one of the [USA’s] major parties appears a bit too eager to abandon democracy altogether, and one of the senators from his own party is standing in the way of voting rights legislation — not because it’s substantively flawed, but because the party that’s increasingly hostile toward democracy doesn’t like it. […]
Over 100 Water Protectors Arrested in Minnesota as Mass Civil Disobedience Targets Line 3 Pipeline
In northern Minnesota, over 100 water protectors were arrested Monday in the largest act of civil disobedience to date aimed at halting the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. If completed, Line 3 would carry more than 750,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands oil a day through Indigenous land and fragile ecosystems, endangering lakes, rivers and wild rice beds. The day of action began when over 1,000 water protectors blockaded a pipeline pump station north of the town of Park Rapids. Many of the activists locked themselves together or to heavy machinery, including bulldozers and diggers.
…
Protesters are calling on President Biden to shut down the pipeline.
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Hits 420 Parts Per Million, Highest Level in 4 Million Years
New data shows atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached their highest level in over 4 million years. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measured CO2 levels averaging 419 parts per million in May — about 50% higher than pre-industrial levels.
This comes as Amnesty International is blasting the Group of 7 world leaders for failing to meet the challenge posed by the climate crisis. Amnesty said in a statement, “The unambitious climate plans submitted by G7 members represent a violation of the human rights of billions of people. These are not administrative failures, they are a devastating, mass-scale assault on human rights.”
Meanwhile, June temperature records continue to fall in many parts of the world. Five countries in the Middle East have topped 50 degrees Celsius this week — or more than 122 degrees Fahrenheit. And much of the U.S. continues to bake in extreme heat, with weekend highs in parts of South Dakota and Minnesota topping 100 degrees.
…
ProPublica: Vast Trove of IRS Data Shows How U.S. Billionaires Pay Little in Income Tax
ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of IRS data showing how U.S. billionaires pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes even nothing. The data show Warren Buffett paid a true tax rate of just 0.1% on income of $125 million between 2014 and 2018. Over the same period, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Michael Bloomberg all paid a true tax rate of less than 3.5% as their collective wealth grew by over $100 billion. ProPublica says it will use the IRS data in the coming months to detail how the ultra-wealthy avoid taxes, exploit loopholes and escape scrutiny from federal auditors.
Canadian Police Say Hit-and-Run That Killed Four Was Deliberate Islamophobic Attack
In Canada, police say a 20-year-old man who ran down five pedestrians with his pickup truck in London, Ontario, on Sunday targeted his victims because they were Muslim. All five victims were members of a family that immigrated from Pakistan more than a decade ago. Among those killed was a teenage girl. The only survivor was a 9-year-old boy who was hospitalized with serious injuries. The suspect fled the scene but was pulled over and arrested by police a few miles from the crime scene. This is London, Ontario, police chief Stephen Williams.
Stephen Williams: “We believe that this was an intentional act and that the victims of this horrific incident were targeted. We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith.”
Prosecutors are considering terrorism charges. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter, “Islamophobia has no place in any of our communities. This hate is insidious and despicable — and it must stop.”
…
1,100 Alabama Coal Miners Enter Second Week of Strike for Better Wages and Benefits
In Alabama, 1,100 coal miners have entered the second month of their strike against the Warrior Met Coal company. Six years ago, the miners accepted a huge pay cut in order to help their company emerge from bankruptcy. Now they say Warrior Met is failing to repay them as it rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The workers went on strike April 1 after rejecting a contract proposal they say offered too little in wages and benefits. Last month, 11 of the striking miners were arrested as they blocked strikebreakers from entering their worksite.
Striking miner 1: “We don’t feel like we’re breaking the law, when this company is trying to starve our people and their families from their livelihood.”
Striking miner 2: “I’ll die for my family. And I’ll do whatever it takes for this union right here.”
The United Mine Workers says there have been three separate cases of vehicular assault on picketing workers by persons working for Warrior Met Coal in recent days.
A global sting in which organised crime gangs were sold encrypted phones that law enforcement officials could monitor has led to more than 800 arrests in 18 countries.
The operation by the FBI and Australian and European police, ensnared suspects in Australia, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East involved in the narcotics trade.
More than 800 suspected members of organised crime gangs were arrested and $148m (£104m) in cash seized in raids around the world, along with tonnes of drugs, cryptocurrencies, weapons and luxury cars.
The Australian prime minister said the operation “struck a heavy blow against organised crime – not just in this country, but one that will echo … around the world”. “This is a watershed moment in Australian law enforcement history,” Scott Morrison added.
Operation Greenlight/Trojan Shield, conceived by Australian police and the FBI in 2018, was one of the biggest infiltrations and takeovers of a specialised encrypted network.
It began when US officials got involved in the development of An0m, a supposedly secure encrypted messaging app, which was then sold to organised crime networks.
The FBI helped to infiltrate the phones into 300 criminal groups in more than 100 countries, Calvin Shivers of the FBI’s criminal investigative division told reporters in The Hague.
In a pattern repeated elsewhere, one Australian underworld figure began distributing phones containing the app to his associates, believing their communications were secure because the phones had been customised to remove all capabilities, including voice and camera functions, apart from An0m.
As a result, there was no attempt to conceal or code the details of the messages, which police were reading.
“It was there to be seen, including ‘we’ll have a speedboat meet you at this point’, ‘this is who will do this’ and so on,” said the Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw. “We have been in the back pockets of organised crime … All they talk about is drugs, violence, hits on each other, innocent people who are going to be murdered.”…
Organizers told me conflating the holiday celebrating the end of chattel slavery and Covid restrictions was appropriate because ‘we have been enslaved by our government’.”
[…] * Reuters reported yesterday that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) contacted conservative media outlet Newsmax earlier this year about a possible job, but the network rejected the controversial Florida Republican. [So sad.]
* In keeping with the recent trend, the Georgia Republican Party approved a resolution over the weekend censuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) for doing his job too well during the 2020 election cycle
* In Vermont yesterday, Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed into law a bill that would make permanent mail-in voting for all future general elections in the state. Last year, town clerks mailed ballots to all active, registered voters because of the pandemic, and the system proved popular and effective. [Yay!]
* As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) prepares for a 2022 re-election bid, Politico reports that the governor is launching “an aggressive summertime out-of-state fundraising swing, with DeSantis capitalizing on his rising profile to stuff his reelection coffers and cultivate a national donor network that could power a prospective 2024 presidential bid.” [Boo!]
* And USA Today reports that a new political action committee launched yesterday specifically with the goal of defeating Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.). According to the folks behind the PAC, this is “the first time a federal PAC has been formed for the sole purpose of firing a sitting member of Congress.”
The more Jan. 6 defendants say they were victims of a scam, the more obvious the need for an independent investigation into those who did the scamming.
Five months after the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, hundreds of accused rioters are facing criminal charges and making court appearances. The Associated Press reported yesterday on one of the many defendants:
A Des Moines, Iowa, man pictured prominently with a QAnon shirt ahead of a crowd of insurgents inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack asked a judge on Monday to release him from jail, saying “he feels deceived, recognizing that he bought into a pack of lies.”
This is not the first report we’ve seen along these lines. In this case, Douglas Jensen, according to a court filing from his attorney, didn’t mean to harm anyone. As the story goes, he simply went to D.C. at Donald Trump’s urging, carried a “work pocketknife,” and entered the Capitol because he wanted to watch the developments as they unfolded.
Jensen claims he is “a victim of numerous conspiracy theories that were being fed to him over the internet by a number of very clever people, who were uniquely equipped with slight, if any, moral or social consciousness.”
[…] Postscript: This coincides with the release of a new Senate report that concludes that U.S. Capitol Police failed to act on documented threats, as part of a profound intelligence and security failure. The Senate’s findings reportedly had to be watered down to get Republican support at the committee level.
[…] From a distance, it’s easy to imagine Trump surrounded by a small army of sycophantic former White House aides, following a few steps behind him, jotting down his directives as he barks assorted orders.
The truth, however, appears to be far more pitiful. The New York Times reports that the former president slips into Manhattan [from his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey] to work out of Trump Tower at least once a week, but “the place isn’t as he left it.”
Many of his longtime employees are gone. So are most of the family members who once worked there with him and some of the fixtures of the place, like his former lawyer Michael D. Cohen, who have since turned on him. Mr. Trump works there, mostly alone, with two assistants and a few body men. His political operation has also dwindled to a ragtag team of former advisers who are still on his payroll […] Most of them go days or weeks without interacting with Mr. Trump in person.
The article added that some Trump associates joke that “the most senior adviser to the former leader of the free world is Christina Bobb, a correspondent with the far-right, eternally pro-Trump One America News Network, whom he consults regularly for information about the Arizona election audit.”
In other words, Team Trump is noticeably short on team members.
It’s an open question as to why the former president is isolated. Indeed, after raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the wake of his defeat, Trump should have the resources necessary to assemble an impressive crew. At least for now, that hasn’t happened.
But of greater interest is the asymmetry between [Trump’s] paltry operation and the potency of his political reach within his party.
On the one hand we see a former president, who had to shut down his blog because so few people were reading it, standing “mostly alone,” overseeing a “ragtag” political operation. He’s unpopular; he’s facing multiple investigations; and he’s been reduced to muttering absurdities about being “reinstated” to power based on bonkers conspiracy theories and an ignorance about American civics. […]
On the other hand, we see that same former president leading a major political party, wielding considerable power over the GOP’s direction and priorities, and preparing for a possible third national campaign.
[…] It’s an increasingly bizarre dynamic, but it’s one the GOP appears reluctant to abandon.
A Senate investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol found a broad intelligence breakdown across multiple agencies, along with widespread law enforcement and military failures that led to the violent attack.
There were clear warnings and tips that supporters of former President Donald Trump, including right-wing extremist groups, were planning to “storm the Capitol” with weapons and possibly infiltrate the tunnel system underneath the building. But that intelligence never made it up to top leadership.
The result was chaos. A Senate report released Tuesday details how officers on the front lines suffered chemical burns, brain injuries and broken bones, among other injuries, after fighting the attackers, who quickly overwhelmed them and broke into the building. Officers told the Senate investigators they were left with no leadership or direction when command systems broke down.
The Senate report is the first — and could be the last — bipartisan review of how hundreds of Trump supporters were able to push violently past security lines and break into the Capitol that day, interrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. It recommends immediate changes to give the Capitol Police chief more authority, to provide better planning and equipment for law enforcement and to streamline intelligence gathering among federal agencies.
As a bipartisan effort, the report does not delve into the root causes of the attack, including Trump’s role as he called for his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat that day. It does not call the attack an insurrection, even though it was. And it comes two weeks after Republicans blocked a bipartisan, independent commission that would investigate the insurrection more broadly.
“This report is important in the fact that it allows us to make some immediate improvements to the security situation here in the Capitol,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which conducted the probe along with the Senate Rules Committee. “But it does not answer some of the bigger questions that we need to face, quite frankly, as a country and as a democracy.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday the findings show even greater need for a bipartisan commission to investigate the root causes of the attack, referring to Trump’s unfounded claims about the 2020 election.
…
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told colleagues in a letter Tuesday that if the Senate fails to approve the commission, her chamber will launch its own investigations.
…
The committee’s interviews with police officers detail “absolutely brutal” abuse from Trump’s supporters as they ran over them and broke into the building. The officers described hearing racial slurs and seeing Nazi salutes. One officer trying to evacuate the Senate said he had stopped several men in full tactical gear, one of whom said “You better get out of our way, boy, or we’ll go through you to get (the senators).’”
The insurrectionists told police officers they would kill them, then members of Congress.
At the same time, the senators acknowledge the officers’ bravery, noting that one officer told them, “The officers inside all behaved admirably and heroically and, even outnumbered, went on the offensive and took the Capitol back.”
From an American perspective the most interesting thing right now about the political crisis in Israel is how closely it maps to the one in the United States: a right wing political leader who simply refuses to accept losing office. […] Netanyahu and his supporters have continued the campaign of incitement against the right wing members of the incoming government. After the head of the country’s domestic security service issued an all but unprecedented warning about incitement and the risk of civil violence or assassinations, Netanyahu responded with even more incitement. In reply he made a perfunctory statement about incitement and then told his supporters to “let’em have it.” So, not really getting the message. [That’s also very Trumpian: make a cover-your-ass statement, and then repeat and repeat incitements to violence.]
[…] the response in editorials and statements has basically been, it’s too much. You need to let go. Don’t burn the country down on the way out.
At present Netanyahu’s ally, the Speaker of the Knesset, has scheduled the confirmation and swearing in of the new government for Sunday – a date which itself seems timed to engineer a Shabbat from hell for the right wing religious ministers in the new government if they attend services.
A side drama, meanwhile, is unfolding over a nationalist march in Jerusalem which had been scheduled for later this week. The idea is to have right wing Israelis march through Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter. It’s comparable to the Orangemen marches they used to have through Catholic neighborhoods in Northern Ireland before the Good Friday agreements. Israeli police have tried to reroute the path it takes and then canceled it entirely on the pretty straightforward rationale that it’s likely to restart the conflagration that blew up last month. […] Not only is that not great from the point of view of civil violence or another mini-war with Gaza. It also stands a good chance of deepening the electoral/political crisis. And what’s happening right now is that Netanyahu – who still has four or five days left in power – is pushing the police to allow the march or take the decision away from them entirely.
In other words, he’s trying to trigger another crisis out of some mix of a desire to stay in power (by breaking up the right-left, Jewish-Arab coalition) or simply burning things down on the way out.
[…] Netanyahu’s supporters have pretty much adopted the “stop the steal” terminology from Trump. The particular ‘steal’ theory is that the right-wing parties joining the new government are ‘stealing’ right wing seats that belong to Netanyahu, that are meant to keep him in power.
The oddity of this frenzy was brought into clarifying relief in comments the incoming Prime Minister, Bennett, made a couple days ago. He basically said, this isn’t a tragedy. It’s not something shocking. It’s a turnover of power after an election. No government lasts forever. It’s actually totally normal.
This is really even more the case since the new government is stocked with former Netanyahu proteges and associates. Those who say the incoming government is no different from Netanyahu’s are wrong. About 2/3rds of the MKs are from the center and the left. Even though the right wing Bennett will be Prime Minister for the first two years he’s boxed in by the center and the left. But the center and left folks are too. They can’t do anything meaningfully without the okay of the ministers who are of the right. The point is, even in the most substantive sense, it’s a pretty low risk new government from the perspective of someone with right wing politics in Israel. […]
What is really comes down to is one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. For him, very clearly it’s ‘after me the deluge’. […] A big part of the country feels the same way. And this is what makes this relevant to our politics here in the United States. It’s the same thing. It all comes down to Trump. Not only is Trump losing power an existential development for America in his supporters’ eyes. But his fall from power can only be illegitimate, can only be the product of fraud.
[…] It’s no accident they are playing these roles in the same political era. The logic of strongman-ism is contagious. It grows from similar roots in different political cultures.
In an exciting change, the state Democratic Party of Montana ruled to create a formal, official role for Native Americans based on the tribes’ population ratio in the state. This means that Native folks will have a proportional representative role in official party business. On a literal level, this breaks down to eight Tribal Reservations each having two delegates, with one vote each, at the Montana Democratic Party Platform, Rules, Officers, and Special Nominating Conventions. Representatives would then have the autonomy to create content for their own platforms and choose leaders for both the party and candidates for special elections. The Montana Democratic Party is the first state party in the U.S. to make this change.
In a statement, President Andrew Werk Jr. of the Fort Belknap Indian Community expressed gratitude toward the Committee for its effort toward equalizing representation. Werk stressed that the new rule “allows Indian people to move closer towards equal representation,” per a media release.
[…] In a media statement, Donovan Hawk, treasurer of the Montana Democratic Party, expressed that this step isn’t just about “having a seat at the table” but about the ability to deliver results in regard to the economy, infrastructure, and health care. “Proportional representation for indigenous Montanans is another step toward making sure our communities have the representation they deserve in Helena and Washington, D.C.,” Hawk stated. […]
Countless websites, including major news outlets, were offline after an outage at Fastly, a cloud computing provider.
Swaths of websites went down on Tuesday morning after an outage at the cloud computing services provider Fastly. Internet users were unable to access major news outlets, e-commerce platforms, and even government websites. Everyone from Amazon to the New York Times to the White House was affected.
At around 6:30 am ET, Fastly said it applied a “fix” to the issue, and many of the websites that went down seemed to be working again as of 9 am ET. Still, the outage highlights how dependent, centralized, and susceptible the infrastructure supporting the internet — especially cloud computing providers that the average user doesn’t directly interact with — actually is. This is at least the third time in less than a year that a problem at a large cloud computing provider has led to countless websites and apps going dark.
Fastly is a content delivery network (CDN), which maintains a network of servers that transfer content quickly from websites to users. The company, which counts Shopify, Stripe, and countless media outlets as customers, promises “lightning fast delivery” and “advanced security.” The nature of such a network also means that problems can quickly spread and affect many of those customers at once. In the case of Tuesday’s incident, Fastly says it “identified a service configuration that triggered disruptions” around the globe. It took about two hours from the time the problem was identified until a fix was implemented.
At the moment, there’s no reason to suspect the outage was the result of a cyberattack. […] The site Downdetector, which tracks complaints about website failures, shows a slew of sites received an uptick in complaints this morning, not only for media outlets like the New York Times and CNN but also for Reddit, Spotify, and Walt Disney World. Outages at payments systems like Stripe and e-commerce platforms like Shopify also suggest money could have been lost in transactions that didn’t go through, though it’s so far unclear if that’s the case.
[…] The scale of Tuesday’s outage — and frequency of large outages like this one — is what’s really worrisome. Last July, connection issues between two of the data centers operated by Cloudflare ultimately took many sites, including Politico, League of Legends, and Discord, briefly offline. Then, a data-processing problem for Amazon Web Services last November caused problems for sites like the Chicago Tribune, the security camera company Ring, and Glassdoor. The Fastly outage shows the trend continuing, especially as most of the web remains increasingly dependent on cloud providers.
While the issue seems to be fixed for now, it will take some time to measure the damage caused by even a couple hours of downtime at a major cloud computing provider. And that leaves the world anxiously awaiting the next time this happens. […]
West Virginia’s Democratic Senator Joe Manchin dramatically announced the other day that he still loves the filibuster and he can’t possibly vote for the For The People Act, because — *Wonkette checks stupid Joe Manchin op-ed to see if there are any reasons in it* — ahem, because none of his Republican friends […] like it. (Because they don’t like democracy. […])
Politico Playbook reports that today, Manchin is meeting about voting rights with Black and civil rights leaders including NAACP head Derrick Johnson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill, and Rev. Al Sharpton. Not sure he’s planning on listening very hard. “Those who know Manchin tell us the senator’s mind isn’t exactly open to persuasion on S. 1 as he heads into this meeting.” Will he listen to them when they try to explain that the filibuster is a racist tool for old racists? Does he have a clue that his Republican pals literally hate democracy at this point? Does he even care?
Maybe he’ll tell them how much he likes this other voting rights bill, H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is narrower but still a good bill that addresses some of the problems. Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski is on board with that one, which means that if you do some back of the napkin math, Manchin just has to find … NINE MORE REPUBLICANS who value American democracy more than they value preserving their minority power over an innocent American majority that loathes them. Then in a few months, Manchin can tell these same Black leaders he now opposes that bill because not enough Republicans like it.
Manchin simply refuses to understand that the current GOP isn’t an American political party. His friends on the other side of the aisle are not his real friends, and they don’t share the core values he claims to hold. We don’t have to wonder what Republicans would do if the shoe were on the other foot, because we’re watching them in state after state destroy access to the ballot box on purely party-line votes, wherever they have the majority to do so.
In Manchin’s op-ed, he asked with wide eyes, or maybe he thought he was asking rhetorically:
Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy?
Yes. Also, there weren’t 10 of them, which is the margin he’s decided he needs to see before he’ll let even anything that actually is bipartisan pass.
[…] To be clear, what’s at stake here isn’t just voting rights. It’s gun control. It’s DC statehood. It’s infrastructure and a permanent child tax credit and immigration and abortion rights and gender equality and, and, and! It was an actual congressional investigation into the Trump terrorists who attacked the Capitol on January 6. It’s literally everything Democrats could do to make Americans’ lives better and preserve the republic. Instead, Joe Manchin is fantastizing about a circle jerk of bipartisanship that doesn’t exist anywhere […]
As Manchin’s Democratic Senate colleague Brian Schatz, one of the few to speak out publicly about this right now, said:
“I admire Joe’s optimism but at some point anyone who is defending the 60-vote threshold has an obligation to help the body to get to 60 votes,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii.) “It would be wonderful if we could get 10 Republican votes for democracy reforms. There’s just literally no evidence that it’s going to happen.”
Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post that Manchin “has the right to live in a make-believe wonderland if he so chooses. But his party and his nation will pay a terrible price for his hallucinations about the nature of today’s Republican Party.” […]
Manchin is up for re-election in 2024, and it’s not unlikely his Senate career ends there. West Virginia is one of the Trumpiest of the Trump states, and his approval ratings there are underwater. Find a criminal or a child molester with an “R” next to their name to run against Manchin on a platform of Trump’s Big Lie, and Manchin might be done […]
actually West Virginians don’t hate what the Democrats are selling, AKA what Manchin is opposing. Here are a couple of screenshots from that poll from Rachel Maddow’s show last night: [Chart available at the link]
As you see in that frame, fully 79 PERCENT of West Virginians are just fine with the For The People Act. (The same poll found 84 percent of Arizonans support it too. Of course, Kyrsten Sinema is actually a co-sponsor of the bill, but that doesn’t matter if she keeps clinging to the filibuster […].)
Here’s the partisan breakdown, which shows that it’s … what’s that word that gives Joe Manchin all the groin feelings? Oh yes, it has BIPARTISAN SUPPORT! Just not among the fascist assclowns who serve as Republicans in the US Senate. [Chart available at the link]
There’s not even a partisan divide, really.
They asked if people would be more or less likely to support Manchin if he supported voting rights legislation, and 33 percent said “more,” while only 12 percent said “less.” And the same poll showed that West Virginians don’t give too much of a fuck either way about the filibuster, at least not to the point it’s a hill worth dying on.
Point is, Manchin might very well lose in 2024. Supporting these things might not actually help him in 2024, but it’s doubtful they’d hurt. He can’t even claim he’s doing right by his constituents right now. […]
Here’s what an influential union in West Virginia thinks about protecting voting rights and democracy:
The United Mine Workers of America, an influential group in Manchin’s state, reiterated its support for voting rights legislation on Monday, citing restrictive laws being passed by Republican legislatures in some states. “It is wrong for these states to attack the basic rights of citizens to participate in our democracy,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statement. “Congress should be doing everything possible to not just maintain, but expand voting access and create freer and fairer elections. If only one party is interested in doing that, then so be it.”
[…] Manchin claims he’s already made his choice on the For The People Act and the filibuster, but he’s got a choice yet to make, and it ain’t over until it’s over. And whatever he does, we have a feeling it’s going to end up in the history books.
If he sticks with his current course, he is not gonna like what those history books say about him […].
Donald Trump is a deeply stupid man. Donald Trump is a deeply stupid man and he believes every nutter conspiracy that comes down the pike. […]
So when the long disgraced […] Dick Morris told Trump the shiny conspiracy he had pulled from his own bottom, that Democrats were going to replace Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention if Biden were poised to become the 2020 Democratic nominee, Trump huffed, and he wailed, and he thought very hard, and he made what would be in hindsight a typically stupid decision. See, he wanted to run against Joe Biden, a man he greatly underestimated because he bought the Fox News “senile” spin. […] (To be clear, he was also scared shitless of Joe Biden, and we know this by how he spent over a year trying to get Ukraine to fancy up some dirty dirt on Biden to help take him out. But he was ALSO scared of who they’d replace Biden with, in this fantastical conspiracy theory he had latched onto. […])
And so he directed his idiot staff to hold fire so Biden wouldn’t get knocked out too soon — not until the DNC did his pigs’ blood work for him […]
Vanity Fair: “The president, meanwhile, had often complained that his early attack on [Elizabeth] Warren had damaged her presidential bid, which he regretted because he viewed her as an easier opponent than Biden,” [Wall Street Journal reporter Michael] Bender writes. “Now he worried that a heavy blitz of attack ads would hasten the secret plot being hatched by Democrats, and his mind raced with who they might select in Biden’s place.” During a meeting held the month after the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S., Trump expressed his Biden replacement theory to advisers, saying that Democratic leadership would “realize [Biden is] old, and they’re going to give it to somebody else. They’re going to give it to Hillary, or they’re going to give it to Michelle Obama.”
The first thing you’ll note is this is some dumb fake bullshit […] Michelle Obama couldn’t have said, more times, out loud, with her mouth, that she didn’t want it.
[…] back in 2017, former DNC chair Donna Brazile wrote that she had actually contemplated such an action — except in that case, she had wanted to singlehandedly, with no care for democracy, replace Hillary Clinton with Old Handsome Joe.
In 2017, Brazile explained that she had found a CANCER in the Democratic Party, and it had KEPT BERNIE SANDERS from the nomination. (It hadn’t. It was a joint fundraising agreement with the exact same nominee oversight of the party’s structure that Brazile herself had had when she ran Al Gore’s campaign. […]) And then, in practically the same breath, Brazile wrote blithely in her memoir about her desire to replace Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee.
At the time, Hillary Clinton was suffering from pneumonia — or, as the rightwing media insisted, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s, mental retardation, uranium poisoning, and death. And Brazile was getting some calls from people about replacing Clinton as nominee if she were “incapacitated.”
[…] she seriously contemplated replacing Hillary Clinton as the party’s 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden in the aftermath of Clinton’s fainting spell, in part because Clinton’s campaign was “anemic” and had taken on “the odor of failure.” […]
[…] She was just cold going to replace Clinton with Joe Biden, who had opted out of running after his son Beau’s death, based on her feelings.
To date, a presidential nominee has never been replaced by his or her party in US politics. But Brazile’s 2016 Good Times Fuckaround Jamboree had clearly planted a germ in Dick Morris’s filthy ear. […]
And that is why we may have Donna Brazile and Dick Morris to thank in part for Joe Biden’s 2020 beating Donald Trump […] Trump held fire on Biden because he thought … well, however his brain works, there was “strategy” in there, and it came from Dick Morris […]
Alas, there was no bucket of pigs’ blood poured on Joe Biden at Democrat Prom, and Donald Trump had to return to his Florida trash castle and try to win office the old-fashioned way: inciting a coup.
As the Senate confirms Biden’s first judge, let’s not forget that this same jurist was badly mistreated by Senate Republican leaders five years ago.
Just 10 days after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, NBC News reported that the new White House team and Senate Democrats were “embarking on a mission to shape the courts after Republicans overhauled them in the last four years.”
That mission took an important step forward today.
The Senate is set to approve President Joe Biden’s first judicial nominees this week, marking the start of an ambitious push to make an impact on the federal courts. The Senate advanced the nomination of Julien Xavier Neals to be a district judge in New Jersey by a vote of 66-28 on Monday, setting up a final confirmation vote Tuesday. Next up on Tuesday is Regina M. Rodriguez to be a district judge in Colorado.
Neals was, in fact, confirmed to the federal bench shortly after noon, with a 66-33 vote on the Senate floor.
It was a long time coming. In fact, it was more than six years ago when then-President Barack Obama first nominated Neals for the district court. The respected lawyer received a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and he was so uncontroversial that he cleared the panel in November 2015 with a voice vote.
And then, nothing. Senate Republican leaders weren’t exactly eager to confirm a Democratic president’s court picks, regardless of merit, so Neals’ nomination withered on the vine. He waited nearly 700 days for a confirmation vote that never came.
At least, that is, until this year, when Biden re-nominated him and Senate Democratic leaders confirmed the overdue judicial nominee.
In floor remarks this morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of Neals’ confirmation, “The first, but certainly not the last, not even close.”
[…] As of this morning, there are 80 vacancies on the federal bench — more if we include the Court of International Trade and the Court of Federal Claims — and that number is likely to be around 100 later this year as sitting judges retire and take senior status. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, has said filling every vacancy by the end of 2022 is his party’s “very prudent goal.”
That’s an ambitious target, which will require a concerted effort on the part of Democratic leaders, but so far, the relevant players appear to be taking the right steps in a smart direction.
The dominant performance of Democratic Rep.-elect Melanie Stansbury in last week’s special election for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District held some potential midterm strategies for Democrats, but many Republicans are also airing their takeaways, and they basically boil down to one axiom: Trumpism doomed us.
[…] their candidate, state Sen. Mark Moores, lost by a whopping 25 points—a bigger rout than really anyone imagined. […] when Donald Trump was elected to office in 2016, Republicans were still competitive in the state. GOP Gov. Susana Martinez had recently won reelection, Republicans had gained control of the state House, and Republican Richard Berry was also serving out his second term as Albuquerque’s mayor. Today, Democrats control the governorship and both state legislative chambers by wide margins, along with Albuquerque’s mayoral seat.
Many New Mexico Republicans attribute the state party’s declining fortunes to Trump, and the margin by which Moores lost last week’s special election is yet another sign of how far the party has fallen since Trump became the GOP’s standard-bearer.
[…] According to these Republicans, Moores’ biggest problem wasn’t necessarily his focus on crime and law and order, which didn’t get much traction with voters. Rather, he was caught in a Trump pickle. He couldn’t afford to totally disavow the Big Lie that the election was stolen or heavily criticize the Jan. 6 insurrection, for example, even though every reality-based voter in the district knew that both were driven by delusional right-wing thinking fomented by Trump.
During a debate in May, for instance, Moores refused to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection. “I think everyone deserves, including us, fault for that riot,” he said, noting that he meant “us as a nation.” He did, however, concede that Joe Biden won the election during the debate.
[…] “I think a lot of us—that aren’t saying the election was rigged and that Covid is like the flu, and all the other things that Trump stirred up—are so tired of the Trump message,” said Mark Veteto, a major GOP donor and president of Me-Tex Oil and Gas. “The party’s being ripped down the middle, and I think I’m gonna blame Trump for that,” Veteto added.
Following the GOP’s shellacking last week, the party issued an email statement attributing the loss to depressed Republican turnout due to disillusionment over the 2020 election results. “Republican voters were angry from 2020—many questioned election integrity—and stayed home,” said the statement.
Looks like Republicans repeatedly telling their voters that elections are rigged and 2020 was stolen isn’t a great motivator for the base, not to mention a nonstarter with many swing voters. The notion that Trumpism alienated swing voters along with depressing GOP turnout is also a best case scenario for Democrats next year.
KGsays
If he sticks with his current course, he is not gonna like what those history books say about him – Lynna, OM quoting wonkette@147
That makes the very optimistic assumptions that if Manchin continues on his declared course: (a) there are going to be history books, and (b) they are not going to be written by the fascists he’s enabling.
[…] Stacey Abrams’s group Fair Fight Action on Tuesday unveiled a new campaign aimed at mobilizing youth voters of color to get behind the For the People Act, Democrats’ sweeping election reform bill that’s currently stalled in the Senate.
Dubbed Hot Call Summer, the campaign will run through the end of June and feature a “three-stop regional virtual tour” which Abrams will headline along with election workers, elected officials and other public figures from across the country.
“With voting rights under attack in 48 out of 50 state legislatures across the country, the moment has never been more urgent, and it will take all of us to ensure that Congress passes the voting rights protections our country and democracy desperately need,” Abrams told supporters in an email, according to CBS News, who first reported the campaign.
In a press release, Fair Fight Action said that the aim of Hot Call Summer is “to drive daily phone calls to U.S. Senators from every state in the weeks leading up to the Senate vote on the For the People Act.”
Abrams’ group will encourage these phone calls through “a national digital media buy” as well as by texting “over 10 million voters in the 2022 battleground states that have seen anti-voter bills pushed in state legislatures.” […]
US secretary of state Antony Blinken cast doubt on the methodology of a report on the origins of Covid-19 cited that concluded the hypothesis of a virus leak from a Chinese lab was plausible.
“I saw the report. I think it’s on a number of levels, incorrect,” Blinken told a Senate committee hearing on the State Department’s budget request when asked about the Journal article.
The article by the Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with a classified report by a U.S. government national laboratory as saying it concluded that the hypothesis of a virus leak from a Chinese lab in Wuhan was plausible and deserved further investigation, Reuters reports.
The report said the study was prepared in May 2020 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and referred to by State when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic’s origins during the final months of former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Blinken said that to the best of his understanding, the report originated after the Trump administration asked a contractor to look into the origins of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, with a particular focus on whether it was a result of a lab leak.
“That work was done, it was completed, it was briefed, to relevant people in the department. When we came in, we also were made aware of the findings,” Blinken said.
“The Trump administration, it’s my understanding, had real concerns about the methodology of that study, the quality of analysis, bending evidence to fit preconceived narrative. That was their concern. It was shared with us.”
[…]
Idaho’s Republican lieutenant governor and gubernatorial candidate, Janice McGeachin, attended a gathering where she was endorsed in a glowing introductory speech by a rightwing militia leader, as revealed in a video obtained by the Guardian.
The video shows Eric Parker, who was charged over his role in the standoff in 2014 at Bundy Ranch in New Mexico where he was pictured pointing an assault rifle at federal agents, reminding McGeachin that she told him at an earlier meeting that if I get in, you’re going to have a friend in the governor’s office.
In the same speech, Parker tells the small audience that when he sought McGeachin’s assistance in the case of Todd Engel, another Bundy Ranch attendee who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2019, he showed her sealed evidence from the trial.
[…]
In his endorsement, Parker tells the audience: We need to do everything we can to get her where she can do the most good for us … we got to get her in there for us. A few moments later McGeachin walks into frame and the two embrace.
McGeachin has encountered previous controversies involving links with extremist groups. In 2018 she refused to answer media questions as to whether she was using Three Percenter members as security during her gubernatorial run. In 2019, she was pictured with Three Percenters who were rallying in support of Engel.
She has also offered support to anti-mask and anti-lockdown protesters in the state, who include Ammon Bundy’s Peoples Rights Network.
[… more on Parker and Engel…]
Lindsay Schubiner, program director at the Western States Center, a progressive non-profit whose work includes monitoring extremist groups in the region, said […] McGeachin “has consistently sought the support and backing of extreme, anti-democratic movements in Idaho”, and that “no public official has any business advancing the agenda of an anti-democratic paramilitary group”.
On Thursday, Idaho will see its very own McCarthy hearings begin with the first meeting of Lt Gov Janice McGeachin’s Indoctrination Task Force. One might argue that the name of the committee is a political blunder because it sounds like a task force that is focused on indoctrinating Idaho’s students, but since that is ACTUALLY what it is aiming to do, the title is remarkably accurate.
At the heart of this task force is a significant lie: the lie that students are being indoctrinated in Idaho’s public schools by learning about (gasp) race in America. McGeachin, and the people she hand-picked for her politicized task force, believe that it’s un-American to teach that enslaving Africans was bad, or that we shouldn’t discriminate against people because of their race, or that Native Americans were forced off of their land, or that migrant workers are actually human beings, or that Mormons, at the turn of the 20th century were discriminated against and targeted, in Idaho. The big lie that the Lt Governor is promoting through this committee is that US history is un-American.
[… T]he entire pretext for establishing this Indoctrination Task force was, apparently, based on fabrications and lies as well. The right-wing extremists behind this “Farce Force” accused Boise State University of indoctrinating students and cited a student reporting that they had been bullied for being white. There was even a video, they claimed.
But on Monday, one of Idaho’s most revered and esteemed law firms, Hawley Troxell, found zero evidence of indoctrination in Boise State’s classrooms, found zero evidence supporting the allegation that a white student was bullied, found zero evidence of any student complaining about being indoctrinated, and perhaps most shockingly, found zero evidence that an actual video of the event even exists.
Let that sink in for a moment. This year, Idaho’s Legislature cut university budgets by $2.5 million, rejected $6 million in early childhood education, held K-12 teacher pay raises hostage, and passed an overtly racist bill that directly called out the teaching of critical race theory — teaching about RACE — based on this lie about our country’s history. And we now have a farcical task force filled with right wing extremists looking for new ways to indoctrinate students in their manipulative belief system, and it’s entirely based on an incident and video that the evidence shows, at this point, DIDN’T HAPPEN AND DOESN’T EXIST.
[…]
I know nothing at all about the second source excerpted above (e.g., how reliable they are?). They describe themselves as “Idaho Education News is a comprehensive collection of online sources that provides information about public education in Idaho.”
A snippet from that same site, McGeachin’s political strategy, unmasked, about McGeachin’s quickly-overriden order banning masks (mentioned previously in this series of poopyhead threads):
Schools didn’t know what was coming until the order came down. McGeachin blindsided officials in Idaho’s largest district, the West Ada School District, where a mask mandate remains in place for the waning days of the school year. She also left the Idaho School Boards Association scrambling to make sense of the policy — and eventually, the ISBA said trustees have statutory and constitutional powers that superseded McGeachin’s order.
McGeachin didn’t just disregard protocol. According to Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s office, she ignored the law itself. In an opinion issued Friday, chief deputy attorney general Brian Kane said McGeachin’s order defied school districts’ “express statutory authority to protect the morals and health of their pupils.” And after McGeachin has spent more than a year accusing [Governor Brad] Little of overstepping his executive powers, she found herself on the receiving end of the same criticism.
“There is no existing law prohibiting mask mandates,” Kane wrote. “Thus, rather than ensuring that an existing law is faithfully executed, the acting governor’s (executive order) prohibiting mask mandates has the effect of creating a law through executive order. This likely encroaches on the lawmaking power of the Legislature and violates the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branch.”
That article also mentions “Little has been conspicuously quiet about McGeachin’s hand-picked and ideologically stacked task force to study school indoctrination — another issue that allows McGeachin to energize her base.”
Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party’s efforts to find defectors among opposition forces the latest example of ‘King Bibi’ and his quest for power.
[…]
Ironically, it was Netanyahu who made the next government possible by passing a new law and by ending the tradition of not entering talks with Arab parties, said Donna Robinson Divine, professor of Jewish Studies and Government at Smith College.
“Netanyahu paved the way for the alternate government about to gain power. He introduced a Basic Law allowing for alternative prime ministers; he began to speak to Mansour Abbas about supporting his own coalition,” she told Al Jazeera.
It has become a reoccurring theme in Israeli politics. For years Netanyahu utilised all kinds of political shenanigans and Machiavellian power plays to remain the country’s prime minister. However, Israel has paid for it dearly. Politically, Israel has been paralysed. Even the most basic government responsibilities have been put on hold, Divine said.
“Netanyahu found ways to impose four elections in two years on Israel, with the country having to operate without a budget for the last two,” she noted.
Socially, the country is deeply divided, essentially into pro and anti-Netanyahu camps.
[…]
Asked about whether Netanyahu’s remarks of election fraud are similar to Trump’s playbook, Uriel Abulof, visiting associate professor at Cornell University, told Al Jazeera: “To an extent: Netanyahu was not suggesting that it was rigged [yet! –blf], but that Bennett deceived his voters. However, Bennett did not, as he clearly indicated that he would like to see Netanyahu removed.”
[… argy-bargy about Bennett saying he won’t work with Arab parties…]
Additional fuel was added by the support from an influential group of national-religious and ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who adopted a similar tone by stating everything needed to be done to prevent the new government from being sworn in.
[… argy-bargy about the idea of a term limit law…]
“There will be lots of shouting about the transition of government, but Naftali Bennett is correct — Israel is not a monarchy,” said Divine.
However, the damage has been done. Netanyahu is seemingly inclined to jeopardise Israel’s democracy for the slim chance to somehow remain in power, primarily for personal reasons, Divine said.
“His determination to remain in office as a way of avoiding prison if he is convicted on the charges against him have compromised state institutions.”
Nevertheless, the implications of Netanyahu’s selfish modus operandi are vast and dangerous, according to [lecturer in the Department of Social Science at the University of Roehampton, Maayan] Geva.
“We are witnessing a desperate politician who has been in power for a long time and is fearful of what will happen if he is no longer PM. Netanyahu has a strong support base, and it is possible that some violence will ensue in response to his claims. Possibly some of this violence will be directed at members of the predicted government, in particular members of right-winged parties whom Netanyahu is portraying as traitors.”
Netanyahu, of all people, ought to be cognisant of how swiftly heated circumstances can escalate. In 1995, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by a right-wing hardliner.
Similar to today, Netanyahu played a role and does not seem to have learned. While opposition leader, he was the key speaker at two demonstrations that included chants such as Death to Rabin and generally was involved in the anti-Rabin movement. He has denied the accusations.
“Netanyahu is again playing a major role in fuelling the dangerous idea that the country is under existential threat in an attempt to rally his supporters,” said Geva.
“Therefore, it is easy to compare the present with 1995 based on the concern that people will act on the accusations coming from Netanyahu and his supporters, and use violence in order to save the country.”
Good point. I’d forgotten Netanyahu was behind Rabin’s assassination.
[…]
In essence, the current situation is another test if Israel is becoming a failing state, Abulof concluded.
Dark money groups pushing baseless election claims appear to be playing key role in unprecedented review of 2.1m ballots
[…]
Republicans in the Arizona state senate, which authorized the inquiry[fraudit], allocated $150,000 in state funds to pay for it — just a fraction of the projected overall cost, which is still unknown. The state senate had enough money in its operating budget to pay for the investigation, the Arizona Mirror reported in April, but chose not to pay the full price.
Instead, the effort is being paid for by private donors, who remain hidden from the public, according to a review by OpenSecrets and the Guardian. Arizona Republicans and Cyber Ninjas […], have refused to say who is providing the rest of the money.
[…]
At least $150,000 of the inquiry’s funding has purportedly come from Voices and Votes, a 501(c)(4) run by Christina Bobb, an anchor for the One America News Network (OANN) […]. The group is also run with [OANN’s] White House correspondent[troll] Chanel Rion and Courtland Sykes, Rion’s fiancé. Bobb spoke with Trump about the review, according to the Washington Post, and emailed Fann affidavits on behalf of Giuliani last year, emails show.
Bobb frequently plugs the effort during shows, where she covers the Arizona review, and on social media, but told BuzzFeed that OANN is not in any way affiliated with her fundraising despite the dark money group being run by multiple OANN employees and being promoted on the network. Voices and Votes was incorporated in Wyoming in March, shortly before the inquiry was announced, by attorney Greg Roeberg, an Arizona attorney. A press release from the Trump campaign last year listed a Greg Roeberg as a “key member” of Jewish Voices for Trump. […]
L Lin Wood, the pro-Trump attorney behind a slew of lawsuits seeking to overturn election results last year, told Talking Points Memo that his non-profit, Fight Back, donated $50,000 to Voices and Votes for the review. But it is not clear what the money is actually going to since the groups are subject to few financial disclosure rules.
Wood, who has promoted fundraising efforts for the review on Telegram, also told TPM that Cyber Ninja[s] chief [Doug] Logan worked out of Wood’s home to investigate 2020 election voter fraud claims.
Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com and an ardent Trump supporter, is also leading a group funding the effort. Byrne was involved in what Axios described as the “craziest meeting of the Trump presidency” — a December 2020 summit in the Oval Office that included Michael Flynn, and Sidney Powell, who falsely claimed voting machines had flipped votes for Trump and suggested he use government resources to seize voting machines. Byrne also reportedly screamed at representatives from the White House counsel’s office, saying they were not sufficiently helping to overturn the election.
As briefly mentioned in @77, Byrne is also the source of some gibberish fake data about votes that Mike Lindell and his tame fake expert may be using.
In April, Byrne’s nonprofit, the America Project, launched a Fund the Audit campaign aiming to raise $2.8m. Byrne says he contributed $1m to the effort, but at least another $900,000 has come from unknown sources. Byrne’s non-profit is also helping vet workers who participate in the review, according to the Arizona Republic.
Byrne also served as chief of another dark money group involved in the review, Defending the Republic […]. Created by Powell, Defending the Republic published every Arizona lawmakers’ contact info on their website and promoted a misleading Election Fraud Facts & Details document authored for the Arizona Senate by Cyber Ninja’s Logan prior to the probe. The document contains disproven claims about voting machine software switching votes from Trump to Biden.
And, believe it or not, the story gets even crazier (no, Bigfoot hasn’t been sighted — yet — but probably only because hair furor is a cheapsake and won’t meet their appearance fees):
Powell’s group also previously hired Wake Technology Services, Inc (Wake TSI), a subcontractor to audit election equipment in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, at the request of Doug Mastriano, a state senator who aggressively suggested the election was stolen, according to county documents obtained by the Guardian.
Paula Shives, a Democrat on the three-member county commission, was stunned that the company was allowed to inspect election materials last year. “Who authorized this? When was this scheduled? Who was notified and present during the process?” Shives wrote in a text message to the country’s election director and two commissioners that was obtained by OpenSecrets and the Guardian through a public records request.
Randy Bunch, a Republican county commissioner, replied that the review did not show any problems: “On a good note, they didn’t find one thing wrong and praise our team meaning Patty and our staff on how organized everything was and we come(sic) out with no flaws it all matched up.”
Wake TSI submitted a draft report to county officials in February that appeared to back up that assessment, according to the Washington Post.
But the copy of the that Pennsylvania review uploaded on the county website contended [Fulton County Pennsylvania Election System Analysis (PDF)] Dominion Voting Systems did not meet the state’s certification requirements, documented errors in scanning ballots, and purportedly identified non-certified software installed in the county’s voting system. (Wake TSI did not respond to requests for an interview.)
Wake TSI abruptly withdrew from the Arizona review in May, and it’s unclear why. Mastriano was one of several Pennsylvania lawmakers who visited the audit site in early June, where he was interviewed by Bobb on OANN.
[…]
The influx of private funds comes as Republicans themselves, including in Arizona, have pushed to outlaw the use of private grants for election processes after charities stepped up to fund under-resourced election officials during the pandemic. In particular, Republicans have targeted grants from organizations backed by hundreds of millions dollars of donations from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
In April, Arizona governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed a law prohibiting election officials from accepting private money to help run elections, saying it could weaken confidence in elections. Similar provisions have been enacted in Florida and Georgia this year.
And dark money raised for the review may be going to more than just paying the firms conducting it.
Arizona state representative Mark Finchem, a strong supporter of the review and the Stop the Stealmovement[cult], claimed that his 501(c)(4) Guardian Defense Fund is “paying money for additional security at the site” in an interview with Steve Bannon on America’s Voice News.
Finchem is currently campaigning to be Arizona’s next secretary of state, and claimed he has talked to Trump about the 2020 election in an appearance on the Twitch stream of Redpill78, which the New York Times reported promotes QAnon conspiracy theories. His attorney previously represented Cyber Ninjas.
[… more eejits and fraudsters, including Jovan Pulitzer, the guy who most empathically did not invent the QR code, who is now using some sort of superdooper secret “tech”woo-woo at the Arizona fraudit to find the bamboo which must, just must, be in the ballots…]
Some of the firms and individuals conducting the review also stand to potentially benefit from a proliferation of similar efforts across the country.
A recently dismissed Michigan case that was promoted and fundraised for in the Arizona Telegram channels featured Cyber Ninja’s Logan as an expert witness. Another expert witness in the case was Benjamin Cotton, the founder of CyFIR, a digital forensics firm that is helping conduct the Arizona audit.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Matthew DePerno, raised around $300,000 for an Election Fraud Defense Fund to support the failed case in Michigan.
And while the amount of money raised through online fundraising platforms is publicly available, the total amount of money changing hands between each of the individuals and organizations involved in the efforts is subject to few disclosure requirements.
[…]
A circular frauditing squad of Cyber Ninjas, Doug Logan, OANN, Christina Bobb, L Lin Wood, Patrick Byrne, Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Wake TSI, Mark Finchem, CyFIR, Benjamin Cotton, Jovan Pulitzer … Neither Lindell nor Bigfoot was specifically mentioned in this article, but at least one of those two plausibly could also be involved, especially as they are busily pushing dubious mysterious data which isn’t what it’s claimed to be to claim voting machines were rigged, which is more-or-less the thesis of the Arizona fraudit.
‘Round and ’round we go, sucking in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round we go, sucking in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round…
Dark money groups pushing baseless election claims appear to be playing key role in unprecedented review of 2.1m ballots
[…]
Republicans in the Arizona state senate, which authorized the inquiry[fraudit], allocated $150,000 in state funds to pay for it — just a fraction of the projected overall cost, which is still unknown. The state senate had enough money in its operating budget to pay for the investigation, the Arizona Mirror reported in April, but chose not to pay the full price.
Instead, the effort is being paid for by private donors, who remain hidden from the public, according to a review by OpenSecrets and the Guardian. Arizona Republicans and Cyber Ninjas […], have refused to say who is providing the rest of the money.
[…]
At least $150,000 of the inquiry’s funding has purportedly come from Voices and Votes, a 501(c)(4) run by Christina Bobb, an anchor for the One America News Network (OANN) […]. The group is also run with [OANN’s] White House correspondent[troll] Chanel Rion and Courtland Sykes, Rion’s fiancé. Bobb spoke with Trump about the review, according to the Washington Post, and emailed Fann affidavits on behalf of Giuliani last year, emails show.
Bobb frequently plugs the effort during shows, where she covers the Arizona review, and on social media, but told BuzzFeed that OANN is not in any way affiliated with her fundraising despite the dark money group being run by multiple OANN employees and being promoted on the network. Voices and Votes was incorporated in Wyoming in March, shortly before the inquiry was announced, by attorney Greg Roeberg, an Arizona attorney. A press release from the Trump campaign last year listed a Greg Roeberg as a “key member” of Jewish Voices for Trump. […]
L Lin Wood, the pro-Trump attorney behind a slew of lawsuits seeking to overturn election results last year, told Talking Points Memo that his non-profit, Fight Back, donated $50,000 to Voices and Votes for the review. But it is not clear what the money is actually going to since the groups are subject to few financial disclosure rules.
Wood, who has promoted fundraising efforts for the review on Telegram, also told TPM that Cyber Ninja[s] chief [Doug] Logan worked out of Wood’s home to investigate 2020 election voter fraud claims.
Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com and an ardent Trump supporter, is also leading a group funding the effort. Byrne was involved in what Axios described as the “craziest meeting of the Trump presidency” — a December 2020 summit in the Oval Office that included Michael Flynn, and Sidney Powell, who falsely claimed voting machines had flipped votes for Trump and suggested he use government resources to seize voting machines. Byrne also reportedly screamed at representatives from the White House counsel’s office, saying they were not sufficiently helping to overturn the election.
As briefly mentioned in @77, Byrne is also the source of some gibberish fake data about votes that Mike Lindell and his tame fake expert may be using.
In April, Byrne’s nonprofit, the America Project, launched a Fund the Audit campaign aiming to raise $2.8m. Byrne says he contributed $1m to the effort, but at least another $900,000 has come from unknown sources. Byrne’s non-profit is also helping vet workers who participate in the review, according to the Arizona Republic.
Byrne also served as chief of another dark money group involved in the review, Defending the Republic […]. Created by Powell, Defending the Republic published every Arizona lawmakers’ contact info on their website and promoted a misleading Election Fraud Facts & Details document authored for the Arizona Senate by Cyber Ninja’s Logan prior to the probe. The document contains disproven claims about voting machine software switching votes from Trump to Biden.
And, believe it or not, the story gets even crazier (no, Bigfoot hasn’t been sighted — yet — but probably only because hair furor is a cheapsake and won’t meet their appearance fees):
Powell’s group also previously hired Wake Technology Services, Inc (Wake TSI), a subcontractor to audit election equipment in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, at the request of Doug Mastriano, a state senator who aggressively suggested the election was stolen, according to county documents obtained by the Guardian.
Paula Shives, a Democrat on the three-member county commission, was stunned that the company was allowed to inspect election materials last year. “Who authorized this? When was this scheduled? Who was notified and present during the process?” Shives wrote in a text message to the country’s election director and two commissioners that was obtained by OpenSecrets and the Guardian through a public records request.
Randy Bunch, a Republican county commissioner, replied that the review did not show any problems: “On a good note, they didn’t find one thing wrong and praise our team meaning Patty and our staff on how organized everything was and we come(sic) out with no flaws it all matched up.”
Wake TSI submitted a draft report to county officials in February that appeared to back up that assessment, according to the Washington Post.
But the copy of the that Pennsylvania review uploaded on the county website contended [Fulton County Pennsylvania Election System Analysis (PDF)] Dominion Voting Systems did not meet the state’s certification requirements, documented errors in scanning ballots, and purportedly identified non-certified software installed in the county’s voting system. (Wake TSI did not respond to requests for an interview.)
Wake TSI abruptly withdrew from the Arizona review in May, and it’s unclear why. Mastriano was one of several Pennsylvania lawmakers who visited the audit site in early June, where he was interviewed by Bobb on OANN.
[…]
The influx of private funds comes as Republicans themselves, including in Arizona, have pushed to outlaw the use of private grants for election processes after charities stepped up to fund under-resourced election officials during the pandemic. In particular, Republicans have targeted grants from organizations backed by hundreds of millions dollars of donations from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
In April, Arizona governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed a law prohibiting election officials from accepting private money to help run elections, saying it could weaken confidence in elections. Similar provisions have been enacted in Florida and Georgia this year.
And dark money raised for the review may be going to more than just paying the firms conducting it.
Arizona state representative Mark Finchem, a strong supporter of the review and the Stop the Stealmovement[cult], claimed that his 501(c)(4) Guardian Defense Fund is “paying money for additional security at the site” in an interview with Steve Bannon on America’s Voice News.
Finchem is currently campaigning to be Arizona’s next secretary of state, and claimed he has talked to Trump about the 2020 election in an appearance on the Twitch stream of Redpill78, which the New York Times reported promotes QAnon conspiracy theories. His attorney previously represented Cyber Ninjas.
[… more eejits and fraudsters, including Jovan Pulitzer, the guy who most empathically did not invent the QR code, who is now using some sort of superdooper secret “tech”woo-woo at the Arizona fraudit to find the bamboo which must, just must, be in the ballots…]
Some of the firms and individuals conducting the review also stand to potentially benefit from a proliferation of similar efforts across the country.
A recently dismissed Michigan case that was promoted and fundraised for in the Arizona Telegram channels featured Cyber Ninja’s Logan as an expert witness. Another expert witness in the case was Benjamin Cotton, the founder of CyFIR, a digital forensics firm that is helping conduct the Arizona audit.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Matthew DePerno, raised around $300,000 for an Election Fraud Defense Fund to support the failed case in Michigan.
And while the amount of money raised through online fundraising platforms is publicly available, the total amount of money changing hands between each of the individuals and organizations involved in the efforts is subject to few disclosure requirements.
[…]
A circular frauditing squad of Cyber Ninjas, Doug Logan, OANN, Christina Bobb, L Lin Wood, Patrick Byrne, Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Wake TSI, Mark Finchem, CyFIR, Benjamin Cotton, Jovan Pulitzer … Neither Lindell nor Bigfoot was specifically mentioned in this article, but at least one of those two plausibly could also be involved, especially as they are busily pushing dubious mysterious data which isn’t what it’s claimed to be to claim voting machines were rigged, which is more-or-less the thesis of the Arizona fraudit.
‘Round and ’round we go, pulling in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round we go, pulling in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round…
And it’s French local-ish election time (June 20th / 27th), and the first bit of propaganda has dropped through my letterbox. Not entirely certain which group of nutters this is (except it’s not teh le penazis), but there’s two clews they are loons: (1) Their top — № 1 — “promise” (no translation needed here), « SANS MASQUE — Pour le retour à la vie, le retour de nos libertés et l’accés aux sions pour tous ». And (2) The two individuals pictured look very much like they are in a permanent state of scowl, have only just heard of this “smiling” thing, and have absolutely no idea how to do it. Very creepy!
“There’s absolutely nothing controversial about making sure every worker gets paid fairly for their work,” a Senate Dem said. Her GOP colleagues disagreed.
It was in Bill Clinton’s second term when Democrats first rallied behind the Paycheck Fairness Act, designed to address the lingering gender pay gap. After years of effort, the party very nearly passed the measure in 2010, when 58 senators supported it and 41 opposed it — though thanks to the way the modern Senate operates, that meant the bill failed.
Dems are still trying. Republicans still won’t budge.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked debate on a bill to combat pay discrimination against women and L.G.B.T.Q. workers, the first in a series of votes set up by Democratic leaders this month to highlight the power of the filibuster to stop even the consideration of legislation.
Every Senate Democrat supported the legislation, and they needed at least 10 Senate Republicans to break ranks in order to overcome a GOP filibuster. They fell 10 short: zero Republicans backed the proposal. Even the ostensible “moderates” stuck with their conservative allies.
[…] It was only the second time this year that Republicans successfully derailed legislation that enjoyed majority support. The first came two weeks ago, when GOP senators rejected a bipartisan proposal to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
But let’s not brush past the fact that this bill has real merit. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Barack Obama signed into law in early 2009, was an important step forward when it comes to combating discrimination, but it was also narrowly focused to address a specific problem: giving victims of discrimination access to the courts for legal redress. As regular readers may recall, the Paycheck Fairness Act is a broader measure.
As the New York Times noted, the proposal would require employers “to prove that pay disparities between men and women are job related and would strengthen the hand of plaintiffs filing class-action lawsuits that challenge pay discrimination.”
A recent CNBC report added that the Paycheck Fairness Act would also “make it illegal for employers to ask employees about their salary history in the hiring process” and would “protect workers from facing retaliation if they discuss their salary with co-workers.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who’s helped champion the measure for years, said yesterday, “There’s absolutely nothing controversial about making sure every worker gets paid fairly for their work.”
Yesterday, literally every Senate Republican made clear they disagree.
blf @156, JFC. Batshit bonkers extremist militia supporters get themselves elected in Idaho and things rapidly go from bad to worse. Now one of them is running for governor.
A Nobel prize-winning US biologist, who has been widely quoted describing a “smoking gun” to support the thesis that Covid-19 was genetically modified and escaped from a Wuhan lab, has said he overstated the case.
David Baltimore, a distinguished biology professor, had become one of the most prominent figures cited by proponents of the so-called lab leak theory.
Originally quoted in an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in May, and widely requoted since, Baltimore had appeared to suggest that a specific feature in Covid-19’s genome, known as the furin cleavage site, was the “smoking gun” to the theory the virus had been contained inside a laboratory and then escaped via a leak.
“These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for Sars2,” he said at the time.
In recent days, however, Baltimore has told a fellow researcher, the scientific journal Nature and the LA Times that – while he had been quoted accurately in the bulletin – he should not have used the phrase “smoking gun” and was uncertain what the feature proved regarding the origins of the virus – natural or otherwise.
In an email exchange with the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore conceded he had overstated the case and that he had an open mind on the matter.
“[I] should have softened the phrase ‘smoking gun’ because I don’t believe that it proves the origin of the furin cleavage site but it does sound that way.
“I believe that the question of whether the sequence was put in naturally or by molecular manipulation is very hard to determine but I wouldn’t rule out either origin.”
Baltimore also clarified his stance in an exchange with Nature, saying: “There are other possibilities and they need careful consideration, which is all I meant to be saying.”…
KATIE PAVLICH [Fox host]: “This is what happens when you choose your vice president based on gender and skin color rather than actual talent and expertise. We’re seeing that disaster unfold right now.”
GERALDO RIVERA: “That’s so mean.”
PAVLICH: “Oh, it’s mean? It’s actually true.”
RIVERA: “She was the attorney general for the state of California. She was a United States senator. You can’t demean her.”
PAVLICH: “Well, there’s a reason why she got zero votes and had to drop out of the race before they even started taking votes.” [A reference to Kamala Harris dropping out of the Democratic Primary race]
Commentary:
What have I missed? Did Harris’ work in addressing the border “crisis” cause a horde of troglodytes to ransack the U.S. Capitol or something? The last I heard she’s discussing the root causes of immigration with Guatemala’s president, not daydreaming about lining the border with alligator-filled moats or shooting immigrants in the legs. I’ve no doubt Katie would view these as effective strategies, because her goober god has decreed it.
Also, wasn’t “choosing our vice president based on gender and skin color” what we did the last 48 times? Seriously, fuck you, Katie. Fuck you for implying Kamala Harris didn’t earn her position. She was a fucking U.S. senator, you twit. Donald Trump’s political experience before he became pr*sident was limited to shitposting for hours about things he didn’t understand. You, on the other hand, filled a spot that could have been given to an average-looking person with a brain.
[…]. And check your overt racism. Didn’t you get the memo? You’re supposed to pretend you’re not a total racist shitheel. I’m quite certain you’ll find that somewhere in the Fox employee manual.
Note to journalists: Biden infrastructure talks did not fail. Capito’s effort to shrink the package to the point of inadequacy to meeting our national needs failed. Biden has completed an important step necessary to getting to a 50+1 majority for a substantial, historic package.
Maybe. Still wasted a lot of time talking to Republicans.
Here’s a link to the June 9 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Russia reports highest daily new case figures since early March
Russia has reported 10,407 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, its highest number of daily infections since early March, taking the national tally to 5,156,250 since the pandemic began.
Regular readers will note that I’ve expressed some scepticism about how Russia’s official figures basically haven’t moved for months, which doesn’t feel like how the pandemic has behaved elsewhere.
Reuters said the government coronavirus task force reported 399 people had died, pushing the national death toll to 124,895. The federal statistics agency has kept a separate toll and has said that Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to Covid-19 between April 2020 and April 2021.
One of those stories today that is likely to feature in both Andrew Sparrow’s UK politics live blog, and here on our Covid blog, but a judge has just ruled that the government acted unlawfully when it awarded a contract without a tender last March to a polling company owned by friends of Dominic Cummings, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser.
When the pandemic then hit, Cummings urged civil servants to hire the company Public First to hold focus groups on the government’s Covid-19 health messaging.
Mrs Justice O’Farrell, who gave the ruling on the Cabinet Office contract with the company Public First, said: “The decision of 5 June 2020 to award the contract to Public First gave rise to apparent bias and was unlawful.”
UK facing “substantial third wave”
The UK is facing a “substantial third wave” of infection according to new modelling but its scale will depend on how effective vaccines are against new strains, Prof Neil Ferguson warned.
PA Media reports that Prof Ferguson told a media briefing the new data, compiled by SPI-M – a subgroup of Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) – had been submitted to the government….
…Vaccination Key to Curbing Spread of Delta COVID Variant; CDC Updates Coronavirus Travel Guidance
A more transmissible variant of the coronavirus first identified in India, known as the Delta variant, now represents around 6% of infections in the U.S. In Britain, the rapidly spreading Delta variant is causing officials to weigh whether to fully reopen the country. White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said, however, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine or the AstraZeneca vaccine appear to be highly effective in combating it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new travel guidelines for over 120 countries, with separate advice for vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers. Thirty-three countries, including Israel and Singapore, have been moved to the lowest risk level, while the CDC recommends against nonessential travel for unvaccinated people to countries including Mexico, Russia and Iran. Brazil and India are in the highest threat category, meaning travel should be avoided.
…
U.N. Warns of Mass Deaths and Suffering After Military Attacks Displace 100,000 in Eastern Burma
A United Nations official is warning of possible mass deaths, illness and starvation in Burma after an estimated 100,000 people had to flee military attacks in eastern Kayah State. The U.N. is calling for immediate action to prevent further tragedy as the Burmese military continues its indiscriminate attacks on ethnic groups and protesters who have been taking to the streets since the February 1 coup.
Salvadoran Woman Jailed for Having Miscarriage Freed After 10 Years Behind Bars
In El Salvador, a woman serving a 30-year prison sentence, accused of having an abortion, has been released after nearly a decade behind bars. Sara Rogel was arrested in 2012 after she went to the hospital with bleeding injuries she said she sustained after a fall. Rogel, then a 22-year-old student, was prosecuted and sentenced for terminating her pregnancy. Rogel spoke after her release Tuesday.
Sara Rogel: “I know I am no danger for society. And likewise, I know, as well, that my fellow women who remain in prison aren’t dangers to society, either. And so I demand justice for them, as well, so they can have the liberty that I have today.”
El Salvador has long criminalized abortions, with a total ban since 1998. Dozens have also been convicted and imprisoned after having miscarriages and stillbirths….
“Netanyahu’s only comment on the curses, insults & threats hurled at his opponents is to post a somewhat misleading collage depicting him as victim. ‘We need to fight all incitement to violence– including the incitement my family & I have experienced every day in recent years’.”
Wow: “Cover of the ultra-orthodox magazine @themishpacha, depicting Israel’s incoming Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman made out of dollar bills. It would be considered an outrageously antisemitic caricature anywhere else.”
Photo atl. In light of the attacks on Ilhan Omar after her “all about the Benjamins” remark (for which she unequivocally apologized), it’s wild that they’ve put Franklin’s face right over his nose. (Looks like there are some euros in there, too.)
[…]
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made the declaration yesterday that “the era of bipartisanship is over” as it pertained to the Paycheck Fairness Act, saying that it was clear in the bills that the Democrats were introducing this month that they were going after extreme, left-wing provisions that no Republican could ever support.
“To secure our democracy for all our children, we have to stand up in this defining moment in America,” said Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. “We can’t dance around senate procedure. No senate procedure, no senate rule, is more important than people’s constitutional rights.”
[…]
I presume Manchin will continue his hands over ears, la-la-la can’t hear anything stance.
The political advocacy group backed by billionaire Charles Koch has been pressuring Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to oppose key parts of the Democratic agenda, including filibuster reform and voting rights legislation.
That lobbying effort appears to be paying off. Manchin, in a recent op-ed, wrote that he opposed eliminating the filibuster and that he would not vote for the For the People Act, which, advocates say, would limit the influence of big donors on elections.
…
CNBC reviewed an episode of a Koch policy group Americans for Prosperity’s video series, along with ads crafted by the organization. The network specifically calls on its grassroots supporters to push Manchin, a conservative Democrat, to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.
Americans for Prosperity launched a website titled West Virginia Values, which calls on people to email Manchin “to be The Voice West Virginia Needs In D.C. — Reject Washington’s Partisan Agenda.”
It then lists all of the items Manchin has promised to oppose, including the idea of eliminating the filibuster, the For the People Act and packing the Supreme Court. It then shows everything the group believes Manchin should oppose, including Biden’s infrastructure plan and the union-friendly PRO Act.
Americans for Prosperity leaders took part in one of their video series with their West Virginia state director in May where they praised Manchin for voicing his opposition to abolishing the filibuster….
The video was reviewed by CNBC after it was posted to the group’s Facebook page.
“A wise man once said that it takes a lot of courage to stand up to your enemies but that it takes even more courage up to stand up to your friends,” Ted Ellis, director of coalitions for Americans for Prosperity’s government affairs team, told the audience. “And that’s what Joe Manchin is doing right now. He’s displaying, I think, a lot of courage and we should applaud that.”
“Our grassroots are critically important and it would be difficult to say that they are more important anywhere than West Virginia right now because of the dramatic impact that our grassroots have in West Virginia in encouraging Senator Manchin to stand strong on this point,” Casey Mattox, vice president of legal and judicial Strategy at Americans for Prosperity, said during the presentation.
Ellis is listed on a recent lobbying report as one of the Americans for Prosperity officials who in the first quarter of 2021 lobbied against the For the People Act and Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. The lobbyists targeted House and Senate lawmakers.
…
Americans for Prosperity also launched a radio ad in West Virginia that quotes Manchin himself saying Democrats aren’t for the Green New Deal or Medicare for All. “Encourage Senator Manchin to keep his promise. To reject a partisan agenda that will host West Virginia’s back from meeting their full potential,” the voiceover says in the ad.
The Koch political network is just one of many groups that have orchestrated outside efforts to oppose the Democratic-backed election bill.
The New Yorker reported on a meeting between Koch leaders and representatives from other conservative-leaning groups about how they have tried to stop the bill from passing but that some of their own polling shows the campaign finance elements of the legislation is widely supported.
Heritage Action and other groups organized a rally in March in West Virginia that was meant to pressure Manchin to oppose similar legislation to the For the People Act, , according to the watchdog group Documented[dot]net.
Manchin has defended the Kochs from attacks by his own party.
“People want jobs. You don’t beat up people. I mean, I don’t agree with their politics or philosophically, but, you know, they’re Americans, they’re doing — paying their taxes,” he said in response to questions about party leaders blasting the Kochs.
“They’re not breaking the law. They’re providing jobs,” he said.
FFS.
blfsays
Re Lynna@146, Amusingly, when the outage happened, I was at lunch (see @111) and puzzled when assorted quite-reliable apps began giving sometimes-bizarre connectivity errors. What had me worried is earlier that very morning, there had been a big update to my mobile, around a dozen apps (including some of those which where “failing”) and also the Android OS itself. Everything seemed to check-out Ok after the updates, but then at lunch, well, no… eh? (I have a number of diagnostic and investigative tools / apps installed, and quickly decided the problem was elsewhere, but was definitely concerned for a few moments those very-recent upgrades had badly broken stuff!)
As noted, the problem was fixed quickly, and the first Grauniad article I saw after service was restored was headlined something like “Massive Internet failure takes many sites offline, including Graudian”. Ah!
In a new filing, the DoJ said it believes Oath Keeper Jason Dolan hid multiple firearms — including one he gave to his 7 year old daughter — as well as an Oath Keeper t-shirt, gloves & a gaiter he wore into the Capitol on Jan. 6, all in an effort to “delete or secrete evidence”
A magistrate ordered Dolan’s release after his arrest last week, but prosecutors are moving for that to be revoked & for Dolan to remain behind.
They claim he’s “similarly situated” to Kenneth Harrelson, another defendant in the Oath Keepers case who did not receive bond.
Both Dolan and Harrelson traveled to DC together, appeared to stash weapons in the same Virginia hotel, and entered the Capitol together. But when FBI agents searched Dolan’s house, they found no firearms or ammo whatsoever.
But neighbors told the FBI Dolan had “at least two assault rifles & a 9mm handgun.” The contact photo for Dolan’s wife shows her holding an AR-15 style rifle. And YouTube records show Dolan posted comments about his guns and bragged about buying his 7 year old daughter a gun.
Defense Dept records show Dolan was a marksmanship instructor while in the Marines, prosecutors said. And surveillance photos from the Comfort Inn show Dolan and Harrelson wheeling what appear to be gun cases into the hotel on Jan 5 and out again on Jan 7.
Here are the pics the DoJ included to show Dolan and Harrelson with what it claims are gun cases on a cart in the hotel….
Prosecutors also say Dolan gave an anonymous interview to Gateway Pundit in May claiming someone inside the Capitol released magnetically locked doors, allowing the crowds into the building.
This is the interview:…
Although the interviewee’s voice was masked, prosecutors say they can identify it as Dolan & that he was “espousing a troubling conspiracy-theory belief that the Capitol Police wanted the rioters to come inside the building. That shows “a lack of remorse and continued danger.”
Dolan appears to have deleted all his email on March 10, two days after Harrelson was arrested, prosecutors say. They also rebut claims by Dolan’s attorney* that he had “cut off contact” with the Oath Keepers, but cell phone records show he called Harrelson on March 2, 4 & 9.
*Dolan’s attorney is Michael van der Veen, who was one of Donald Trump’s defense lawyers during his 2nd impeachment trial, as noted yesterday by @ryanjreilly
van der Veen argued for Dolan’s release during a 4-hour detention hearing held last week.
One more interesting thing to note here is that the DoJ claims it has arrested 10 of the 13 people identified as being part of the Oath Keeper “stack” that entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. Three others, it would seem, are still at large.
Here is the full motion, along with a prior detention motion, transcripts of Dolan’s detention hearing (spread over 2 days) and a transcript of the Gateway Pundit interview….
Donald Trump just wishes he had the power of a leader from one of those “shithole countries.”
The former president issued a statement congratulating Nigeria for banning Twitter on Tuesday evening, days after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declared the platform wasn’t allowed in his country because it deleted one of his controversial tweets.
“Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech—all voices should be heard,” Trump said in a statement to reporters that was emailed because he was banned from all major social media platforms for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President,” Trump continued, unironically using the word “dictate” after praising the strongman-like-move from the Nigerian autocrat. He then ends it with a leading question: “2024?”
…
Trump, frustrated that he can’t tweet himself (or post to Facebook or YouTube), seems jealous of Buhari’s power to try to unilaterally ban social media and suppress free speech in his country. Other social media isn’t doing it for him either: He recently gave up on a halfhearted attempt to start his own blog because its traffic sucked.
Nigerians rely on Twitter to spread anti-government protests, and many are using VPNs to try to get around the ban. During the #EndSARS protests last year against a corrupt and violent police unit, the platform was critical for those gathering and disseminating information, a tactic the government hated. Now, Buhari’s government has threatened to arrest and charge anyone they catch using the now-banned platform, even though there’s no actual law on the books banning Twitter; Nigeria’s Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, called for the “immediate prosecution of offenders of the Federal Government’s ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria.”
Trump has a long history of praising autocrats, especially democratically elected ones who’ve pushed their countries towards dictatorship from Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to Turkish President Recep Erdoğan. And his anti-democratic reaction to losing in the 2020 election—a steadfast refusal to accept his loss—showed he’s not that different from them temperamentally. His latest statement shows he’s added yet another democracy-eroding leader to his fanclub.
“SCOOP: The Biden administration is buying 500 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to donate to the world. Biden will make the announcement at the G7….”
“Even more closely related bat CoVs to SARS CoV-2 than RaTG13 for a lot of their genomes. None are the progenitor, but getting warmer…..
Identification of novel bat coronaviruses sheds light on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses”
Link to Cell article atl:
Highlights
-Four novel SARS-CoV-2 related viruses were identified in rhinolophid bats.
-RpYN06 is the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the virus genome.
-A high diversity of bat coronaviruses was present in a very small geographic area.
-Ecological modeling reveals a broad range of rhinolophid bats in parts of Asia.
Summary
Despite the discovery of animal coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2, the evolutionary origins of this virus are elusive. We describe a meta-transcriptomic study of 411 bat samples collected from a small geographical region in Yunnan province, China, between May 2019 and November 2020. We identified 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2 related and three SARS-CoV related viruses. Rhinolophus pusillus virus RpYN06 was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the genome, although it possessed a more divergent spike gene. The other three SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses carried a genetically distinct spike gene that could weakly bind to the hACE2 receptor in vitro. Ecological modeling predicted the co-existence of up to 23 Rhinolophus bat species, with the largest contiguous hotspots extending from South Laos and Vietnam to southern China. Our study highlights the remarkable diversity of bat coronaviruses at the local scale, including close relatives of both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV.
[…]
According to a report by Austin’s KAMR and KCIT, the 1836 Project will initially focus on parks, museums, and landmarks, but some teachers are concerned about the impact it will eventually have on curriculum and classroom teaching.
To keep Texas the best state in the United States of America, we must never forget why Texas became so exceptional in the first place, Abbott said during the signing ceremony. Under the law, every newcomer to Texas who applies for a driver’s license will get an official pamphlet that outlines Texas’s rich history as well as the principles that make Texas, Texas. It also establishes an award that will recognize students’ knowledge of the founding documents of Texas history.
I rather suspect those founding documents (and indeed, the entire whitewashing) won’t include — either at all or unabridged— the Texas Articles of Secession explaining why Texas revolted against the US:
[…] The bulk of the document offers justifications for slavery saying that remaining a part of the United States would jeopardize the security of the two. The declaration includes this extract praising slavery, in which the Union itself is referred to as the “confederacy”:
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. — Texas Secession Convention, A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union (February 1861).
At this time, African Americans comprised around 30 percent of the state’s population, and they were overwhelmingly enslaved. According to one Texan, keeping them enslaved was the primary goal of the state in joining the Confederacy:
Independence without slavery, would be valueless… The South without slavery would not be worth a mess of pottage. — Caleb Cutwell, letter to the Galveston Tri-Weekly (February 22, 1865).
So teh best state in the United States is valueless as there is no (chattel) slavery, and considers Blacks an inferior and dependent race [fit only for enslavement].
Back to RWW:
Historian Seth Cotlar was among those who responded to Abbott’s signing statement with posts about the state’s history of encouraging settlement by slave owners and its decision to secede from the Union in response to northern states’ hostility to the beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery.
Given the long history of organized efforts to imbue Texas textbooks with right-wing political ideology and the current right-wing propaganda campaign against “critical race theory,” it seems likely that this committee will be a vehicle to advance those ideas […]
I cannot find it at the moment, but Doonesbury had a great cartoon some yonks ago about some other proposed / official Texas distortion of history about its succession, where a student in a class reads the actual document. From memory, the student’s comment: This was written by fascists!
[…]
Reporters traveling to the United Kingdom for US President Joe Biden’s first overseas trip were delayed seven hours after their chartered plane was overrun by cicadas.
Even Biden was not spared. The president brushed a cicada from the back of his neck as he chatted with his Air Force greeter after arriving at Joint Base Andrews for Wednesday’s flight.
[…]
The bugs also tried to stow away on Air Force Two on Sunday when Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Guatemala. The cicadas were caught hiding in folds of the shirts of a Secret Service agent and a photographer, and escorted off the plane before takeoff.
[…]
It was unclear how cicadas disrupted the mechanics of the press plane. Weather and crew rest issues also contributed to the flight delay late Tuesday. Ultimately, the plane was swapped for another one, and the flight took off shortly after 04:00 EDT (08:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
“Well, why wouldn’t the cicadas want to go to the UK with the president of the United States?” asked University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp. Periodic cicadas are mostly in the United States with two tiny exceptions in Asia. They are not in Europe. At least not yet.
The good news is, the conservative Democrat was willing to sit down with prominent civil rights leaders. The bad news is, they couldn’t change his mind.
It’s become a parlor game of sorts on Capitol Hill: figuring out who can persuade Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to help protect voting rights from a dramatic Republican assault.
[…] Roll Call reported late yesterday:
Manchin was unmoved on his opposition to the broader bill Tuesday after what those present described as a constructive morning meeting with a group of influential civil rights leaders. “There was nothing basically for or against…. Basically, everyone’s position was discussed,” Manchin told reporters after the meeting.
Asked if the discussion affected his position at all, Manchin replied, “No, I don’t think anybody changed positions on that.”
A Washington Post report added, “According to interviews with several of the civil rights leaders who participated, the discussion was indeed courteous and substantive. But they said it produced little meaningful progress in bridging the gulf between the advocates, who consider the spate of GOP state laws as an assault on American democracy, and Manchin, who has said that any change to federal voting laws must be done in cooperation with Republicans.”
[…] As the process continues to unfold, it’s worth remembering that there are two bills to keep an eye on, and three ways to pass them.
On the legislative front, there’s the For the People Act, which is an expansive democracy-reform package, and there’s the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is designed to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in response to Supreme Court conservatives gutting it in 2013.
They both relate to voting rights, but they’re not the same thing. Manchin intends to help Republicans kill the former, but he supports the latter.
But that support will prove meaningless if the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is derailed by a GOP filibuster. So how do pro-voting advocates get the bill across the finish line? There are really only three options:
– Find 10 Senate Republicans willing to push back against their own party’s anti-voting crusade and support the Democratic legislation.
– Carve out an exception to the Senate’s existing filibuster rules and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act in an up-or-down vote.
– Eliminate the Senate’s existing filibuster rules, return the institution to its majority-rule roots, and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act in an up-or-down vote.
(A possible fourth is that Democratic leaders attach the Voting Rights Advancement Act to some other bill, but that’s probably a long shot.)
Either one of those three scenarios happen, or Congress does nothing to protect voting rights and our democracy suffers. It’s as simple as that.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio is a great example of what the GOP is today. He has found himself in the unenviable position of trying to offer up the bare minimum of public health policy, something that in previous election cycles would not have been considered a partisan issue, in a political climate fraught with the anti-critical thinking fallout of decades of GOP misinformation. His Vax-a-Million program launched in the last weeks of May, in the hopes of using our country’s income inequality desperation to ‘lotterize’ public health—promising those who go and get vaccinated against COVID-19 chances to win million-dollar prizes. One of the problems DeWine and other officials are facing is that some of the hundreds of thousands of vaccine reserves they have are set to expire in the next few weeks, and if arms are not found, they will go to waste.
The other, more pressing problem for Americans in general (and Republican officials like DeWine specifically) is that there is a solid anti-vaccine sentiment that has turned politically toxic among his Republican constituents. This has somehow led to more craven conservative politicians using public health measures as a way to clamber up the GOP ranks. And while Gov. DeWine has attempted to get the Buckeye State’s lagging vaccination numbers up, even pointing out how places like churches can be unsafe if its attendees are unvaccinated, his fellow Republican legislators in Ohio have been working with anti-vaxx groups to turn vaccine mistrust into an all-out public health disaster.
ArsTechnica reports that GOP lawmakers in Ohio have been trying to get legislation through that would end the lottery campaign immediately. They have also introduced legislation that would end all vaccination requirements in the state—not simply any possible COVID-19 vaccination requirements that might come out in the future.
House Bill 248, introduced last month by Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), would allow anyone to decline any vaccine with a simple verbal declaration based on “reasons of conscience.”
Ohio already has very loose vaccination requirements for school exemptions. All a parent needs to do is write out a statement that says they don’t want have their child vaccinated for “reasons of conscience.” But they do have to provide a written statement. Not good enough, apparently! However, the more insidious piece of anti-public health legislation in Rep. Gross’s bill is that “universities and day cares could no longer require students to have vaccinations.” Also, “businesses would not be able ask unvaccinated employees, customers, or clients to wear masks or take other measures to prevent the spread of disease—even if there were high-risk individuals present, like cancer survivors and people who have compromised immune systems.”
This is the context of Republicans in Ohio, allowing people like Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, an Ohio-licensed physician, a chance to utter this statement in a public forum:
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots and now they’re magnetized,” Tenpenny, of Middleburg Heights in Cuyahoga County, said. “You can put a key on their forehead, it sticks. You can put spoons and forks all over and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that.”
[…] The CDC published this announcement on the United States’ official government page on June 3.
Can receiving a COVID-19 vaccine cause you to be magnetic?
No. Receiving a COVID-19 vaccine will not make you magnetic, including at the site of vaccination which is usually your arm. COVID-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that can produce an electromagnetic field at the site of your injection. All COVID-19 vaccines are free from metals such as iron, nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth alloys, as well as any manufactured products such as microelectronics, electrodes, carbon nanotubes, and nanowire semiconductors. In addition, the typical dose for a COVID-19 vaccine is less than a milliliter, which is not enough to allow magnets to be attracted to your vaccination site even if the vaccine was filled with a magnetic metal. Learn more about the ingredients in the COVID-19 vaccinations authorized for use in the United States.
Here’s a 10-minute video from Debunk the Funk with Dr. Wilson, where he goes through Dr. Tenpenny’s wildly inaccurate statements about COVID-19 and the vaccinations created to fight it. [Video available at the link.]
Politically, Gov. DeWine is as conservative as it gets, supporting misogynistic policies like “personhood amendments on abortion” and promoting all of the fascistic voter suppression legislation that one would expect from a Republican politician. […] It’s all standard GOP stuff.
Daily Kos has a policy against using terms that are associated with mental illness or with a disability for someone who has not been diagnosed with one. This is a good policy for any number of reasons, not least of all because it helps guard against the use of lazy, repetitive writing. Over the last five years, the tendency to fall back on ableist terms like “crazy” or “dumb” has been difficult to fight, but doing so not only helps to avoid stigmatizing those genuinely experiencing mental illness or disability, it leads to more precise and informative language.
And that is why, this morning, I have to say that … I have nothing to say about Rep. Louie Gohmert.
Gohmert: I understand, from what’s been testified to, the Forest Service and the BLM, you want very much to work on the issue of climate change. I was, uh, informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they found that the Moon’s orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, we know there’s been significant solar flare activities, um, and so, is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to, uh, change the course of the Moon’s orbit or the Earth’s orbit around the Sun? Obviously that would have profound effects on our climate.
The only thing you really need to know, is that in this clip, Gohmert thinks he is being clever. [video available at the link]
And it is too bad no one followed up by asking what effects he believes altering the Moon’s orbit would bring.
I think Gohmert was referencing the Bureau of Land Management and not Black Lives Matter. Asking if the Bureau of Land Management can move the moon is not less stupid than asking if Black Lives Matter can do it.
blfsays
On 181’s bananas: Ah, but the microchips are inert until activated by a magnet. Once activated, they become themselves magnetic. The intention was for the injected microchips to be activated by EMF from a mobile (e.g.) — 5G is particularly good for this — or by woo-woo from numerous sources. The magnetic activation means the chips in separate vials don’t interfere with each other during transport and storage, and being inert, can survive freezing.
Once activated, the microchips and their magnetism suck in all available woo-woo, and, importantly, bananas. Over time, the woo-woo then turns the vaccinated person into bright yellow fruit. (Being covered with spoons and other ferrous metallic objects probably helps, especially the anvils st(r)uck to the head.) It is thought there is a spacefleet nearby, filled with either chimpanzee-like aliens, or mutant fruit flies, eagerly waiting for Earth to become Totally Bananas.
[…] Remember, nothing is ever Trump’s fault. It was the media’s fault. It was the Democrats’ fault. And now, it’s China’s fault. If only China hadn’t leaked that virus, people wouldn’t have turned against Trump. Or, so Lindsey Graham and MAGA nation believes.
Except, distressingly enough, the pandemic didn’t much change any minds about Trump, and, even if the lab leak (conspiracy?) theory is true, it would paint Trump in even a worse light:
It’s one thing to be unprepared for an unforeseen natural disaster. It’s another to be attacked by a foreign adversary and fail to protect our nation. In other words, if Graham and Trump are right, then Trump didn’t keep us safe.
[…] back to Lindsey Graham, who is claiming: “If Trump was right about the lab leak, it would change the image the public had of President Trump regarding the Coronavirus.”
[…] The MAGA idiots still see [Trump] as blameless for our nation’s mass-death experience, and everyone else realizes that the guy who claimed, on a daily basis, that COVID-19 would disappear within days and wanted us to inject Clorox and shove a UV light up our butts … well, that guy was nothing but a menace. By Trump’s own low standards, he was a disaster. Remember when he said “if we could hold [deaths] down, as we’re saying, to 100,000 – it’s a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 [thousand] and 200,000 – we altogether have done a very good job”?
But Trump supporters don’t hold Trump to his own standards. Neither does Trump. He assumes everyone will forget the stupid shit he says and move on […]
But there’s another subtext to Graham’s quote that is even more ridiculous: that if the Chinese did, in fact, release that virus (whether on purpose or accidentally), then Trump is absolved of all blame! How perfect and convenient would that be?
Except, how does that work?
Do they really think that Trump could be blamed for his pandemic response if it was an unforeseen natural disaster, but he gets a pass if it was the result of another nation’s actions? How does that logic work?
If China was at fault for the pandemic, then Trump failed his No. 1 job as president: to keep this nation safe from foreign adversaries. All he had to do to counter the threat (no matter its source) was to wear a goddam mask, and he couldn’t even manage that!
No matter the source of the virus, American public opinion about Donald Trump is baked in and immovable. No one’s minds will change, because no one’s minds have changed.
But if it was truly China’s fault, Trump failed his most basic responsibility to protect our nation from external threats.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling on the Biden administration to give people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “immediate access” to the COVID-19 vaccine. ICE facilities have had an average infection rate five times that of prisons, yet officials created no vaccination plan for immigration detention sites. There is one for federal prisons.
[…] “ICE’s failure to ensure a coordinated strategy for vaccination continues to endanger people in detention nationwide,” the ACLU said in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and acting ICE Director Tae Johnson. “ICE’s COVID-19 plan has left it to individual detention facilities to ‘contact their state’s COVID-19 vaccine resource … to obtain vaccine.’” But the organization said that this approach “has led to widespread failure.”
”While more than 60 percent of adults in the United States have received at least one dose of a vaccine, the vast majority of people in ICE detention have yet to receive a dose: as of May 7, 2021, less than seven percent of ICE detainees nationwide had received COVID-19 vaccines,” the group continues. […]
While ICE detainees in California became eligible for the vaccine in March, a judge that same month slammed ICE for taking no action to protect detainees at a site in New York. […]
“In contrast to ICE’s failed vaccination strategy, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which worked to secure vaccine doses directly from the federal government, has administered over 184,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to prisoners and staff,” the ACLU continued. “By mid-May, the Bureau of Prisons has offered vaccines to all incarcerated individuals in federal prisons.”
Meanwhile, analysis after analysis has made it clear that ICE always had the power to prevent a health disaster within its facilities, but largely chose not to. Instead, the agency worsened it. The pandemic ultimately contributed to the agency’s highest in-custody deaths in 15 years. Among them was 61-year-old Cipriano Chavez-Alvarez, who was ordered released from prison by a federal judge due to his underlying medical conditions, only to then be snatched up by ICE. He died from COVID-19 in September.
Facility workers have been affected too, with private prison executives telling Congress last July that 900 of their employees had tested positive for the virus. […]
[…] “Given the urgency posed by COVID-19—including the introduction of new variants and continued outbreaks throughout detention centers across the country from increased population numbers—it is imperative that ICE act quickly to provide vaccines to all detained people and staff in all detention facilities nationwide,” the ACLU said.
The gold and copper mine threatens to destroy the world’s most prolific sockeye salmon fishery.
In a major win for conservationists, an Alaska Native corporation that owns 44,000 acres of land near Bristol Bay just voted to sell conservation easements to an environmental nonprofit, likely thwarting efforts to build a gold and copper mine that could destroy the world’s most prolific sockeye salmon fishery.
The potential purchase is the culmination of years of about 40 years of fighting between the mining industry and the people who cherish the salmon in Bristol Bay—Alaska Natives, environmentalists, commercial fishermen, and even the Republican senators who represent them. The 82-mile road for transporting ore and the potential contamination from the proposed Pebble Mine threaten to destroy the salmon’s habitat. But the purchase of conservation easements on a huge swath of land by the nonprofit the Conservation Fund, first reported by the Washington Post, could protect the area against future developments—including the mining operation’s planned road.
Tim Troll, executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, told the Post, “I would say if it’s not the nail in the coffin, it’s just waiting for the last tap of the hammer.”
Caracas is trying to leverage the situation to gain relief from U.S. sanctions, officials said.
The Biden administration is urging Venezuela and Cuba to turn away two Iranian warships believed to be carrying arms intended for transfer to Caracas, while vowing that the U.S. will take “appropriate measures” to deter what it sees as a “threat” to America’s partners in the Western Hemisphere.
The warnings — some public and some private, according to three people briefed on the situation — come as the vessels have traveled a significant distance across the Atlantic Ocean. A senior Biden administration official said the ships are thought to be carrying weapons to fulfill a deal that Iran and Venezuela made a year ago.
The official did not specify the types of weapons involved, but last summer there were reports that Venezuela was considering purchasing missiles from Iran, including long-range ones […]
The intelligence community, meanwhile, has evidence that one of the ships, the Makran, is carrying fast-attack boats, likely intended for sale to Venezuela, according to a defense official and another person familiar with the intelligence. […]
[…] “I know about the criticism,” Garland said in response to a question from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). “The job of a Justice Department in making decisions of law is not to back any administration, previous or present. Our job is to represent the American people and our job in doing so is to ensure adherence to the rule of law.”
“The fundamental rule of a democracy, or a republic, or a republican democracy, and the essence of the rule of law … is that like case be treated alike, that there not be one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, that there not be one rule for friends and another for foes,” Garland told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee.
[…] Garland stressed that while the department was defending some actions by the Trump administration, it had also changed a series of policies since Biden appointees arrived earlier this year.
“We have reversed policies of the previous administration many times over the last three months,” the attorney general said. “We have initiated our own policies.”
Garland also spoke publicly Wednesday for the first time about one of those policy changes: a decision by Biden that federal investigators will no longer seek records from journalists as part of investigations into leaks of classified information.
“This is a very important issue. The president has made clear his views about the First Amendment and it coincides with mine,” the attorney general said. “Going forward, we have adopted a policy most protective of journalists being able to do their jobs in history. … That is going to be our policy.”
Garland asserted that each recent administration added new protections for journalists, although there is no indication the Trump administration did so. The attorney general addressed the issue in response to a question from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who noted that reporters for several news organizations were notified in recent weeks that their phone and email information was sought, and in some cases obtained, during leak probes. […]
Garland’s defense still looks weak to me if you are looking carefully at the DOJ’s defense in a libel case against Trump, including the DOJ filing a brief on Monday continuing the government’s defense of Trump in that defamation lawsuit brought by New York writer, E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s in a Manhattan department store fitting room, after which Trump claimed Carroll was lying and was “not my type.” It is not, in my opinion, an official presidential duty for a president to defame women concerning an interaction that occurred twenty years ago. That’s not an appropriate or official use of the office of President of the United States.
blfsays
Ingenuity, Nasa’s helicopter on Mars, successfully completed its seventh flight yesterday (June 8th) and landed at an “airfield” surveyed only from orbit, similar to the sixth flight. Unlike the sixth flight on May 22nd, there were no anomalies.
That sixth flight is the only time sofar there has been a problem whilst airborne: About halfway into that flight, a single image from the downwards-pointing navigation camera was lost, causing all subsequent images to have the wrong attached time. Hence, Ingenuity was trying to navigate using current images but incorrectly “dated”. This confused it and it began wildly gyrating whilst still in-flight. Nonetheless, due to the safety margins and a previously-mentioned design decision, it still managed to land, safety, within 5 metres of its intended target.
The design decision which helped save Ingenuity is that during landing, it does not use either its altimeter or navigation camera — the concern was enough dust would be thrown up to make the data useless. Instead, Ingenuity lands by the simple method of flying downwards until there is no more vertical motion, and then stops. In the case of the sixth flight, because the navigation camera was deliberately ignored during landing, Ingenuity stopped gyrating (no more bad data) and landed as intended, albeit slightly off-mark.
Opinion | @JoyceWhiteVance: If this case is dismissed, fmr. President Trump will, yet again, have slipped the bounds of the law. That will only further tarnish the reputation of the institution DOJ lawyers are trying to protect. – @MSNBCDaily
A new report from the inspector general of the U.S. park police paints a chaotic picture of law enforcement formulating a plan to clear Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. and put up higher fencing amid protests last summer, a scheme foiled by poor coordination, unauthorized use of tear gas and a surprise visit by […] Donald Trump.
The episode has become one of the most iconic images of the Black Lives Matter protests that roiled D.C. last summer, as protesters were brutally removed from the square shortly before Trump took a photo in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a Bible aloft. Some reporting suggested that then-Attorney General Bill Barr ordered the area be cleared so Trump could take that photo.
The new report from USPP IG Mark Greenblatt found that the square wasn’t cleared for Trump’s photo-op or at Barr’s command — rather, Greenblatt said, plans were already in motion on June 1, 2020 to clear out protesters and ring the park with higher, anti-scale fencing to separate officers and protesters.
At around 6:10 p.m., the report details, Barr stopped by the park, immediately provoking protesters who recognized him. The USPP operations commander told Barr that the area was unsafe, and asked him to move further from the crowd. Barr asked why a crowd remained on H Street, saying that he thought the protesters would be gone by that point.
The operations commander told Greenblatt’s team that Barr asked: “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?”
The operations commander, who hadn’t known that Trump was planning a visit, responded: “Are you freaking kidding me?” according to the report. He then hung his head and walked away. Barr left the park, and the operations commander maintained that Barr did not instruct him to clear the area.
The USPP incident commander too said that the plan was in motion before Barr’s arrival, and that his visit did not alter the operation or timeline.
“This plan doesn’t get developed in 2 minutes,” he said, per the report. “[The Attorney General] might be a very important guy in the government, he’s just not my boss.”
When officers decided to begin clearing the square, things quickly devolved into chaos.
The USPP incident commander planned to give the protesters three warnings to disperse before officers started physically pushing people out. The report details that the warnings were very hard to hear amid a chaotic and noisy atmosphere, and that many protesters expressed confusion at what the commander was saying.
Then, even before the commander had given the final warning, Secret Service, the USPP and Arlington County Police Department civil disturbance units all deployed, visibly surprising many of the protesters. The warnings, hard to hear and incomplete as they were, also did not point protesters towards a safe pathway to exit that would have allowed them to avoid the oncoming officers.
That frenzy intensified when members of the Metropolitan Police Department used chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS) gas, sometimes colloquially called tear gas, which, the report said, USPP had not authorized.
“The MPD assistant chief of police later confirmed that the MPD used CS gas on 17th Street and told us that it did so in response to protesters who engaged in acts of violence against MPD officers after the USPP cleared Lafayette Park and began pushing protesters toward 17th Street,” the report said. “The MPD also told us that its internal investigation determined MPD officers used CS gas on 17th Street on June 1.”
The USPP previously denied that CS gas was used on protesters.
The report details that some USPP officers were also surprised by the MPD’s use of the unauthorized irritant, forced to stop and strap on gas masks as they felt its effect.
In addition, the report found, officers with the Bureau of Prisons may have fired pepper balls into the crowd on June 1, again contrary to the USPP incident commander’s instructions.
Many have criticized law enforcement agencies for charging before the city’s 7:00 p.m. curfew, which Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed as tensions ratcheted up and clashes between protesters and police officers intensified. The report found that officers were eager to get the fencing up as quickly as possible, to put a barrier between officers and protesters before night fell, a time that had marked an uptick in violence during the past few days of protests.
The report ends by recommending that USPP write out more detailed procedures and requirements for situations like the protests in the square, including the number of warnings required and how better to ensure that protesters can actually hear them. The IG also recommended that USPP figure out how to manage multi-agency operations, to make sure they’re all operating under the same rules and expectations.
The House Judiciary Committee has released the transcript of the closed-door June 4 hearing with Don McGahn, the former White House counsel.
“Mr. McGahn provided the Committee with substantial new information—including firsthand accounts of President Trump’s increasingly out of control behavior, and insight into concerns that the former President’s conduct could expose both Trump and McGahn to criminal liability,” said committee chair Jerry Nadler in a release. “Mr. McGahn also confirmed that President Trump lied when he denied the accuracy of the Mueller report, and admitted that he was the source for a Washington Post report that confirmed Trump’s direction to McGahn to remove the Special Counsel.”
[…] House lawyers were constrained by an agreement they reached to secure McGahn’s testimony, after spending two years in court fighting to enforce a congressional subpoena. That agreement restricted McGahn’s testimony to events covered in the Mueller report.
That being said, McGahn said at one point that while counsel he was trying to avoid causing a “chain reaction that would cause this to spiral out of control in a way that wasn’t in the best interests . . . of my client, which was the President.”
In that case, McGahn was referring to a June 2017 call from Trump in which the former president directed the White House counsel to call Rod Rosenstein and have him raise the issue of Mueller supposedly being conflicted out of acting as special counsel.
“I didn’t want to continue having what had been the same conversation on more than one occasion on something that, as counsel, I wasn’t really comfortable doing, raising some kind of personal or business conflict,” McGahn said. The “chain reaction” in that case would have been Rosenstien resigning, McGahn said, adding that it could have been a repeat of the Nixon-era Saturday Night Massacre.
“It was time to hit the brakes and not make a phone call to Rod to raise this issue that the President had continued to raise with me,” he added.
McGahn testified that he was concerned that firing Mueller might constitute obstruction of justice, and that both he and the President were worried about their own liability. He also affirmed that Trump had asked him to put out the false statement that Trump had never asked him to have Rosenstein remove Mueller, knowing that it could expose him to criminal prosecution.
Calling Rosenstein and asking him to remove Mueller, McGahn testified, could have turned him from a witness in the already-ongoing Mueller probe into “an appearance that somehow I was meddling in an investigation.”
At one point, McGahn said he was “disappointed” to see Trump go on TV in June of 2019 and say that he never suggested firing Mueller.
“Well, you know, he certainly entertained the idea,” he testified. “Certainly seemed to ask a number of people about it. Certainly had a number of conversations with me about something along those lines.”
Lynna @ #188, I agree. I’m also angry that they’re not keeping the public up to date on the non-secret parts of the 1/6 investigation, and from what legislators have said in hearings not providing witnesses or documents to congressional committees.
Rachel Maddow reviews the abuse of the Department of Justice by Bill Barr in sacrificing justice to serve the political needs of Donald Trump, and notes that rather than cleaning the department with accountability for indulging that corruption, Attorney General Merrick Garland is apparently punishing none of it and even continuing some of it, risking a precedent that will surely be embraced by the next corrupt president.
Mastercard Inc and drinks company Ambev, major sponsors of South American football, have backed away from the Copa America as players criticised organisers for moving the tournament to Brazil despite one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks.
Last week, the South American Football Confederation unexpectedly relocated the tournament, which kicks off on Sunday, after co-hosts Colombia were dropped because of civil unrest and Argentina withdrew after a surge in coronavirus infections. More than 475,000 Brazilians have died from coronavirus, Reuters reports. The Brazil football team cited “humanitarian” concerns in a statement criticising the organization of the Copa America on Wednesday, but they committed to participating in the tournament after rumors of a potential boycott. Mastercard Inc said it decided not to “activate” its sponsorship of Copa America in Brazil after a thorough analysis, meaning it will temporarily remove its branding from the event it has sponsored since 1992. Ambev SA, a unit of brewer AB InBev sponsoring both the tournament and the Brazilian national team, said “its brands will not be present at the Copa America.”
Some of the UK’s biggest care home operators have told the Guardian they repeatedly warned Matt Hancock’s department about the risk of not testing people discharged from hospitals into care homes in March 2020.
Their claims are likely to increase pressure on the health secretary when he appears before MPs on Thursday to defend his handling of the Covid pandemic to a parliamentary inquiry.
Care England, which represents the largest private chains where thousands of people died in the first months of the virus, told the Guardian it raised “the lack of testing in hospitals and in the care sector” several times in correspondence with the Department of Health and Social Care as well as NHS England in late March 2020.
The Care Provider Alliance also called on the government to prioritise testing for care residents to stop the spread of the virus, warning on 26 March 2020 that without it “there is no way of knowing whether they are going to infect others”.
(I have no idea where he came up with “akathisia, an unbearable shaking [?] disorder known to users of anti-psychotics [sic] who taper their medication [sic] too quickly.” The claim about tapering isn’t in the paper to which he links, which makes plain that this is caused by the drugs – they literally call it “antipsychotic-induced akathisia.” There’s a pattern of this sort of error in discussions of psychiatric drugs.)
Chris Hayes just interviewed Brian Sicknick’s partner (both of them were Trump supporters), who told him that one Senator she went to meet with this week physically pushed her out of their office.
A Moscow court on Wednesday night outlawed the organizations founded by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by labeling them extremist, the latest move in a campaign to silence dissent and bar Kremlin critics from running for parliament in September.
The Moscow City Court’s ruling, effective immediately, prevents people associated with Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his sprawling regional network from seeking public office. Many of Navalny’s allies had hoped to run for parliamentary seats in the Sept. 19 election.
The ruling, part of a multipronged Kremlin strategy to steamroll the opposition, sends a tough message one week before President Vladimir Putin holds a summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva.
The extremism label also carries lengthy prison terms for activists who have worked with the organizations, anyone who donated to them, and even those who simply shared the groups’ materials….
Authoritarianism is so bankrupt.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Rachel Maddow reported that the Keystone pipeline has been terminated by the builder. CNN verification.
The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday it is pulling the plug on the controversial project after the Biden administration revoked its permit in January.
TC Energy, the Canadian company behind the project, said it decided to terminate the project after a comprehensive review of its options and consulting with the government of Alberta, Canada. The company said it would coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to ensure a safe exit from the project.
The cancellation ends more than a decade of controversy over the pipeline and marks a big win for environmentalists who argued the project threatened the environment and would only worsen the climate crisis.
The project aimed to carry oil from the tar sands of Canada into the United States, and it has been a political football for years.
The coronavirus might be receding in much of the United States, but health officials worry that the low immunization rates in parts of the country and the spread of highly contagious virus variants may pose a threat to the nation’s remarkable progress since vaccines were introduced. […]
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez overturned the state’s three-decade-old assault weapons ban. How he shaped his arguments is “incredibly problematic,” one legal expert said.
And that’s not all. Judge Benitez turns out to be a dunderhead on many subjects, including vaccines, the coronavirus, etc.
A federal judge whose ruling last week to strike down California’s three-decade-old assault weapons ban garnered swift backlash is drawing more criticism over his claims about Covid-19 vaccines, firearm injuries and other subjects.
As the state gears up to appeal U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez’s decision Friday, which California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed as “fundamentally flawed,” legal experts say scrutiny of the case goes beyond why he concluded that the state’s prohibition is unconstitutional to another level of concern: how he shaped his argument.
“I think it’s incredibly problematic when a federal judge quotes things that are factually incorrect, because it hurts the integrity of the branch,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University […]
Benitez’s ruling has grabbed attention for how he likened the AR-15 rifle […] to a Swiss Army knife that could be used “for both home and battle.” But tucked within his 94-page decision were other comparisons that critics said were inexplicable.
He wrote that studies prove “that the ‘harm’ of an assault rifle being used in a mass shooting is an infinitesimally rare event,” adding, “More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California.” [WTF!]
Benitez offered no citation for the claim […] An analysis by Newsweek of the last 80 mass shootings in the U.S. found that 26 percent involved the use of AR-15 rifles.
California has had more than a dozen mass shootings this year, the deadliest of them in May, when a gunman killed nine people at a San Jose rail yard before dying by suicide. […] Since 2017, more than 50 people in California have been killed in mass shootings, some of them during a rampage in March at an Orange County business complex, which left a 9-year-old dead, and at a crowded dance hall in 2018 in Thousand Oaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that while it has investigated nearly 4,900 reports nationwide of deaths among people who received Covid-19 vaccines from Dec. 14 to May 24, physicians were unable to establish a “causal link” to the vaccines. There have been extremely rare cases of potentially life-threatening blood clots involving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which led to a temporary pause in its use in April.
[…] In his decision, Benitez also makes a point about firearm injuries by citing an emergency room physician’s testimony. He wrote that “injuries from firearms like the AR-15 which are banned as ‘assault weapons’ are no different from other firearms that are common and lawful to own.”
The experiences of trauma surgeons who have treated victims of mass shootings involving military-style rifles have been documented in recent years, particularly after the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 that left 17 people dead.
Dr. Heather Sher, a radiologist in Broward County who treated victims of the Parkland shooting and other incidents, wrote in The Atlantic about the differences in wounds from AR-15s and handguns.
“Handgun injuries to the liver are generally survivable unless the bullet hits the main blood supply to the liver,” Sher wrote. “An AR-15 bullet wound to the middle of the liver would cause so much bleeding that the patient would likely never make it to the trauma center to receive our care.”
Constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said Benitez’s assertions are “utterly without factual foundation.”
“They are irresponsible in the extreme, whether described as purported ‘facts’ or repackaged as opinions,” Tribe said in an email. “His entire theory about which firearms are protected by the Second Amendment has no basis in the text, history, or judicial interpretation of the Amendment and swallows its own tail by making the circular assertion that the weapons in common use at any given time are those protected by the Amendment.”
Benitez was nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in 2004 by President George W. Bush. His nomination was overwhelmingly opposed by a committee of the American Bar Association, which said other judges and lawyers interviewed about him described him as being arrogant, short-tempered and “altogether lacking in people skills.” […]
The Senate confirmed his nomination 98-1.
In recent years, Benitez, who is based in San Diego but whose rulings could reverberate through several Western states under the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has overseen a number of high-profile gun-related cases. He has opposed California’s ban on high-capacity magazines and its mandatory background checks to buy ammunition in colorful, strongly worded rulings. […]
[…] Benitez stayed his order for 30 days to give the state a chance to appeal to the 9th Circuit.
Observers say the case could land before the Supreme Court, which agreed in April to take up a challenge to New York’s concealed handgun law — the first time in more than a decade that the high court will hear a central issue of the gun rights debate.
Levinson said the potential unraveling of California’s assault weapons ban shows how federal judicial appointments, which are lifelong, can having lasting effects on many issues.
“This should be a lesson to us all. It really matters who’s on the federal bench,” she said.
[…] Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) said in a statement that the city passed San Francisco, which was leading the country in vaccinations.
Sixty-nine percent of San Francisco residents over age 12 have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the city.
Durkan said that 78 percent of Seattle’s population age 12 and older has gotten at least one shot, which is also one of the highest rates in the nation.
[…] Speaking at a news conference, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) congratulated the city and its leaders for doing “everything they can to make” vaccines accessible throughout the city.
“They’ve been very creative, getting to people who might not normally have good access to health care,” Inslee said.
Inslee said that the state is close to being able to begin fully reopening by June 30 if at least 70 percent of the population receives at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. […]
Meanwhile, only 29% of the residents in my county in Idaho have been vaccinated. Sigh.
Here’s a link to the June 10 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Covid-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths are falling fast across Europe but the risk of a deadly autumn resurgence remains high as societies open up and the more transmissible Delta variant advances, the World Health Organization has warned.
Urging people and governments to exercise “caution and common sense” over the summer, WHO Europe’s regional director, Hans Kluge, said community transmission was still widespread and would continue as travel and social gatherings increased.
…
Both officials warned that while the region was now vaccinating at a much faster rate, with 30% of people having received at least one dose and 17% fully vaccinated, coverage “was still far from sufficient to protect the region from a resurgence” and “many among vulnerable populations above the age of 60 remain unprotected”.
…
Thirty-six of the region’s 53 countries were now easing restrictions, he said. “But we are by no means out of danger,” he warned, calling for “everyone to exercise caution, reduce risks and keep safe” while they enjoy the summer….
Here’s a link to their UK blog. Matt Hancock is being questioned by MPs.
Boris Johnson must respect the “rule of law” by fully implementing the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, EU leaders have said ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall.
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said the behaviour of the prime minister was of increasing concern to EU member states. “It’s paramount to implement what we have decided – this is a question of rule of law,” he said.
The prime minister will hold a trilateral meeting with Michel and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Cornwall.
The framing of the dispute between the UK and the EU as one of respect for the international legal order will chime with the US president, Joe Biden, who arrived in Cornwall on Thursday. Biden is expected to call for both sides to respect the Good Friday agreement.
Under the withdrawal agreement signed by Johnson, Northern Ireland in effect remains in the single market and the EU’s customs code is enforced down the Irish Sea to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. But Brussels has complained that these arrangements are not being respected.
The EU has already accused Johnson’s government of breaking international law by unilaterally extending grace periods on a range of controls and border checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
…
The construction of border control posts at ports in Northern Ireland has been suspended, sufficient staff have not been recruited to carry out controls and checks and systems to trace goods have not been built, EU officials complain.
The EU believes the UK’s attitude towards the end of a grace period on a ban on the export from Great Britain to Northern Ireland of chilled meats such as sausages and mince will present a “crossroads” moment.
A further unilateral extension of the grace period would most likely lead to the EU opening a case in the withdrawal agreement’s dispute resolution procedure. That could lead to the application of tariffs on UK goods entering the EU or the suspension of parts of the trade deal.
The EU has not ruled out a jointly agreed extension of the grace period but there is a lack of trust in the UK to help find a permanent solution.
…
During a joint press conference with Michel ahead of meetings with Johnson in Cornwall, Von der Leyen said the UK could not avoid all of the consequences of Brexit.
She said: “We agreed with the United Kingdom that the protocol was the only solution, ensuring the absence of a hard border for Northern Ireland [with the Republic of Ireland], we’ve been really debating that since years and we found the one and only solution.
“Now, we have a treaty on that, the withdrawal agreement, it has been signed by both sides – Pacta sunt servanda [agreements must be kept]. It is important that we now implement the protocol. We have shown flexibility, we will show flexibility, but the protocol and the withdrawal agreement has to be implemented, completely.
“The good part about an agreement, a signed treaty, is that both sides signed up to also a dispute settlement mechanism, and to remedial measures that can be taken. So, there are no unilateral actions, but there is an agreed dispute settlement mechanism with different steps.”
However, Von der Leyen stressed she wanted the protocol to work for “everyone” and added that the commission would be flexible in the coming weeks as solutions are sought.
Rachel Maddow looks at a newly released transcript of last week’s testimony by former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn that affirms findings in the Mueller report that could expose Donald Trump to criminal liability that couldn’t be prosecuted when Trump was president but could be now if a prosecutor was willing to look at the assembled evidence and give the matter honest consideration.
Rachel Maddow highlights passages from a Boston Globe editorial series arguing for corruption reforms and criminal prosecution of Donald Trump to deter future presidents who might be inclined to follow Trump’s example of self-dealing.
About 90% of African countries will miss a September target to vaccinate at least 10% of their populations against Covid-19 as a third wave of the pandemic looms on the continent, Reuters reports.
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said the continent required an extra 225 million doses to be able to vaccinate a tenth of its people by September this year.
Africa has hit 5 million COVID-19 cases, with the southern Africa region the worst affected, accounting for 37% of total cases, according to a Reuters tally. South Africa is the worst affected African country, with about 34% of the total cases and about 43% of all deaths.
FBI director Christopher Wray is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. (The difference between Democratic and Republican members in terms of quality on this committee is extraordinary.)
Americans are effectively being told, “Vote Republican: Workers will make less money, but your next burrito will cost a little less.”
About a month ago, Chipotle announced that it was eager to hire thousands of additional employees, and in response to a complex job market, the chain was increasing its wages to an average of $15 an hour. Yesterday, however, it made a related announcement.
The New York Times reported that Chipotle has also decided to raise its menu prices “by about 4 percent to cover the cost of the increased employee wages.”
And that apparently gave some Republicans an idea. The Hill reported:
House Republicans are blaming Democrats for the rise in Chipotle burrito prices. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued a statement on Wednesday pointing to Chipotle’s recent announcement they would raise prices on their menu products by about 4 percent — and blaming Democrats.
At a certain level, I suppose this is a step up from Republicans talking about Dr. Seuss and imaginary “meat bans,” since there’s at least a policy dimension to the NRCC’s pitch.
But it’s nevertheless a tough sell. To hear Republicans tell it, Chipotle is paying its workers more as a result of the American Relief Plan — the NRCC called the Democrats’ COVID relief package a “socialist stimulus bill” — which in turn means “your burrito just got more expensive.” Not a lot more expensive, of course, but a little more.
The tricky part is what happens when we extrapolate from there. Evidently, the National Republican Congressional Committee would have voters believe that Chipotle workers shouldn’t be making an average of $15 an hour, because it’s more important to prevent a 4% increase in the price of lunch at a prominent fast-food chain. […]
It’s another overly simplistic culture war idea from Republicans.
Everything Trump said about his successes in improving our standing was wrong, and it’s Biden who’s accomplishing what his predecessor lied about.
At a campaign event last summer, Donald Trump turned his attention to one his very favorite falsehoods: “You know, we’re respected again. You may not feel it, although I think you do. You may not see it. You don’t read about it from the fake news, but this country is respected again.”
[…] it has long been foundational to the Republican’s worldview: the United States was an international laughingstock for decades, Trump believes, but thanks to how awesome his awesomeness is, he singlehandedly restored the nation’s global stature. It was a ridiculous idea he brought up constantly, seeing it as one of his most important accomplishments.
Even in his strange farewell address, Trump found it necessary, one last time, to boast to Americans, “The world respects us again.” In an apparent message for Joe Biden, the outgoing president added, “Please don’t lose that respect.”
It was a bizarre challenge from a failed leader who’d done extraordinary harm to the United States’ international reputation. Six months later, a new report from the Pew Research Center suggests President Biden is succeeding in undoing much of the damage.
The election of Joe Biden as president has led to a dramatic shift in America’s international image. Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, publics around the world held the United States in low regard, with most opposed to his foreign policies. This was especially true among key American allies and partners. Now, a new Pew Research Center survey of 16 publics finds a significant uptick in ratings for the U.S., with strong support for Biden and several of his major policy initiatives.
The findings are extraordinary. At the end of Trump’s term, 83% of international respondents did not have confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing regarding world affairs, while 17% did. Now, under Biden, 75% of international respondents do have confidence, while 22% do not.
Similarly, at the end of Trump’s term, 63% of international respondents had an unfavorable view of the United States, while 34% had a favorable view. Under Biden, the results have been flipped: 62% have a favorable view, while 36% do not.
[…] the stain of the Trump era has not been fully erased. For example, whereas the United States has traditionally held itself out as a model for others to emulate, the Pew Research Center’s findings found few abroad who see American democracy as a worthwhile model for other nations to follow.
But the topline takeaways are clearly reassuring: confidence in the U.S. presidency have soared now that Biden has replaced Trump; the United States is now more respected and seen as a reliable international partner; people abroad have greater confidence that the United States can be counted on to do the right thing; and most abroad expect U.S. relations with their respective countries to improve in the near future.
[…] During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, […] Jeb Bush insisted that during the Obama era, “We have lost the trust and confidence of our friends.” Around the same time, Scott Walker and Trump had a chat about “how poorly” the United States was “perceived throughout the world.” (In 2014, Trump also tweeted, “We need a President who isn’t a laughing stock to the entire World. We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect!”)
[…] In reality, the United States’ reputation soared under Obama, repairing the damage done during the Bush/Cheney era. Now, it’s déjà vu all over again, as Biden restores confidence in the wake of Trump.
All of this matters in ways that go well beyond bragging rights. As Rachel explained on last night’s show, Biden is determined to show the world that the United States is back, it’s ready to lead responsibly, and it’s eager to prove that liberal democracy is the superior model that should endure against its authoritarian critics.
[…] the world is listening anew.
The FBI had already shown up at Ken Paxton’s door. Now the Texas bar association has questions about his bonkers pro-Trump efforts from late last year.
[…] It’s hard to believe that a state attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate election results he didn’t like.
But that’s actually what happened. Six months ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued four states that dared to support President Biden — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — arguing that he disapproved of their pandemic-era election procedures. Paxton asked the high court to block those states from voting in the Electoral College.
Reuters’ Brad Heath explained at the time, Paxton was “literally asking the Supreme Court to throw out the results of other states’ presidential elections, set aside the millions of votes cast in states that are not Texas, and have other state legislatures make Trump president.”
It was an utterly bonkers gambit that failed. But the story isn’t quite over: As the Associated Press reported yesterday, Paxton’s ridiculous antics are now the subject of a new investigation.
The Texas bar association is investigating whether state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud amounted to professional misconduct. The State Bar of Texas initially declined to take up a Democratic Party activist’s complaint that Paxton’s petitioning of the U.S. Supreme Court to block Joe Biden’s victory was frivolous and unethical. But a tribunal that oversees grievances against lawyers overturned that decision late last month and ordered the bar to look into the accusations against the Republican official.
It’s the larger context that makes matters considerably worse: Paxton was already under indictment on felony securities fraud charges when members of his own team made multiple criminal allegations against him.
In December, FBI agents arrived at Paxton’s door.
The Texas Republican, who served as the chair of Lawyers for Trump in 2020, is nevertheless running for re-election. He’s facing a primary challenge from state Land Commissioner George P. Bush.
George P. Bush is also a bonkers cult follower of Trump.
Senior US embassy diplomats in London, backed by the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, have directly warned the UK’s Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, that he will inflame tensions in Northern Ireland if he does not compromise over border checks.
A meeting between the US charge d’affaires Yael Lampert, currently America’s most senior diplomat in London, and Frost led to an urging by the US for Britain to come to a negotiated settlement with the EU, according to an internal UK government note.
However, US officials questioned whether a formal d[é]march had been issued by the US to the UK, a rare reprimand between two such close allies. The US has said its role was to urge compromise from all sides.
An often overlooked point (perhaps because it’s a bit obscure (e.g., I myself am uncertain about even the basics, much less the details)) is that, supposedly, the States is a “guaranteer”(? “guarantor”?) of the GFA (Good Friday Agreement). This is hinted at in the Grauniad article, “[the States] has a formal role to uphold the Good Friday deal.”
blfsays
Lynna@213, So where’s the taco trucks at each corner of my street?
Every time bipartisan negotiations collapse, it serves as reminder that making bipartisanship a prerequisite to governing is hopelessly misguided.
It was about three months ago when the Democratic-led House passed a pair of gun reforms, including a bill called the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would require background checks on practically all firearm purchases. It passed 227 to 203, with eight Republicans breaking ranks and supporting the legislation. The response from the political world was muted, and it was easy to understand why.
Sure, the bill would likely make a difference. And sure, it’s popular. And sure, President Biden would gladly sign it into law. But the proposal was headed to the Senate, where it would face an inevitable Republican filibuster, which proponents had no chance of defeating.
That said, as we discussed at the time, the door was not completely closed. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a leading voice on gun reforms, told NBC News in March, “I think a universal background checks bill can get 60 votes.”
Note, he said “a” bill, not “the” bill — suggesting the House version stood no realistic chance of success, but a narrower proposal might have a chance.
To that end, Murphy negotiated with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on a measure to bolster background check rules by tweaking federal rules on who can register as a federal firearms licensee, closing an unintended loophole that allows unlicensed sellers to transfer weapons to dangerous people who skirt the background check system.
Yesterday, those negotiations effectively collapsed. […]
In a written statement, the Connecticut Democrat added, “I have been very open to compromise and I think Senator Cornyn was negotiating in good faith. But we haven’t been able to get to a bill that would meaningfully increase the number of gun sales that require background checks. The good news is that I’m still talking with other Republican colleagues about different proposals to expand background checks, and I’m committed to getting something done.”
[…] what’s notable is the frequency with which these things happen — and the appropriate lessons to be learned from the failures.
Democrats tried to strike a bipartisan deal on COVID relief, but Republicans balked. Democrats have tried to reach a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure, but those talks aren’t going well, either. Democrats made all kinds of concessions during bipartisan talks on forming an independent Jan. 6 commission, but Republicans wouldn’t take “yes” for an answer.
On issue after issue — voting rights, immigration, gun violence, et al. — the relevant players keep sitting down, keep looking for common ground, and keep walking away empty handed.
[…] It doesn’t help that one of the parties has abandoned the pretense of taking policymaking seriously.
But it’s against this backdrop that some believe — and insist — that nothing of significance in Congress can happen unless both parties link arms, put aside their differences, and work cooperatively on consensus solutions.
Every time bipartisan negotiations end in failure, as happened again yesterday, it serves as reminder that such an approach to governance is doomed.
quotetheunquotesays
RE: SC #212, the original Tweet has been deleted, apparently. What’d I miss?
Totally O/T, my Better Half dragged me out of bed at 0415 hrs this morning, so that we could drive to a quiet country road to watch (and photograph) the annular eclipse rising. Glorious.
blf @217, I have the same question! And I live in a state replete with immigrants from Mexico.
SC, LOL. Her demonstration failed. The key wouldn’t stick to her neck even though she claimed that vaccine had magnetized her! Hilarious. She just blithely continued: “Can anyone explain to me why this is happening?” Oh, lord. ROTFL.
In other news,
[…] former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), the big winner in his primary fight this week, appeared on MSNBC yesterday and said, “I don’t think Trump has the courage” to campaign in Virginia for Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin. The former president lost Virginia by double digits last fall.
And just like that, it never happened. Donald Trump and William Barr never ordered an attack on peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020. Mounted federal officers never rode down working journalists and members of the clergy. Heavily armed officers from the Bureau of Prisons and Park Police in riot gear never fired rubber bullets, flash bangs, and tear gas into a chanting crowd and drove them from the area across from the White House generating numerous injuries … all so that Donald Trump could walk across the street, hold a Bible over his head, and conduct a violent, ugly, and utterly disgusting photo op.
Seizing on a report issued on Wednesday by Mark Lee Greenblatt, an inspector general at the Department of the Interior, right-wing media is engaging in a smug round of “I told you so” on Thursday morning, as that report “confirms” that Trump has made from the outset in which he claimed that the square was not violently cleared for the purposes of his self-aggrandizing tough guy march. Instead, says the report, the decision was made two days earlier, to protect the safety of contractors hired to install a new fence. Frustratingly, it’s not just OANN that’s repeating this claim, but ABC News, USA Today, the Chicago Sun Times, and dozens of others.
There’s only one problem with this report. Or two. Or maybe three. Four. There are at least four.
The first of these is that it utterly ignores how Trump appeared in the Rose Garden minutes before the assault began. As he did so, both Barr and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, in full uniform, went to the area directly across from Lafayette Square and were clearly directing the actions of the National Guard and Park Police before and during the assault. Then those same units fell in beside Trump and escorted him for his stroll to St. John’s Episcopal Church where he posed for a photo op with and without his entourage while holding a Bible stiffly—and upside down—above his head.
The report is very precise on the timing of events when it comes to clearing the area across from the White House:
The operation began at 6:23 p.m. and was completed by 6:50 p.m. Shortly thereafter, at 7:01 p.m., President Trump walked from the White House through Lafayette Park to St. John’s Church. At 7:30 p.m., the contractor began assembling and installing the antiscale fence and completed the work by approximately 12:30 a.m. on June 2.
According to the report, it’s that second thing—the installation of the fence—that was the whole purpose of clearing the park. And the entire evidence to support this is that “the USPP did not know about the President’s potential movement until mid- to late afternoon on June 1” while plans to clear the park had been made “hours earlier.” The idea that there could have been plans to clear the park, and that those plans might have been made more urgent and violent by the desire for Trump to make his stroll never seems to have been considered.
Right!
In a whistleblower report from September 2020, National Guard Major Adam DeMarco provided sworn testimony that the decision to conduct a violent assault on protesters was a decision in fact made well in advance. Those plans included not just stockpiling tear gas and other “less lethal” weapons, but acquiring 7,000 rounds of ammunition. Planning for the event even included asking for two other weapons: one that that would have attacked the crowd with sound, and the other that would have literally cooked them with a beam of microwaves.
According to the IG report, all of this was done so that protesters could be cleared from the park, a half hour before curfew began, for the benefit of fence contractors. Contractors who were assembling what was just another barrier in a series of barriers that had already been raised. The report does not provide any other examples in which the federal government suggested the use of heat rays or issued live ammunition for constructing a fence.
Another issue with the “they did it for the fence” scenario is that Trump, Barr, and any number of former White House officials already made the claim that the reason the park was cleared so suddenly and forcefully—claims of violence on the part of protesters. Along with claims that the federal police actions were unrelated to the Bible-waving strut, came the explanation that protesters were engaged in violence, specifically that they were hurling objects at officers, and that was why the Bureau of Prisons and Park Police forces rushed in.
That was also the sworn testimony of U.S. Park Police Chief Gregory Monahan, who, as The Washington Post reported last September, said that “violence by protesters spurred his agency to clear the area ahead of the D.C. mayor’s 7 p.m. curfew … with unusually aggressive tactics.”
So the story of why they cleared the park changed over time. Suspicious.
All these claims of violence are counter to the clear evidence, recorded at the scenes by individuals and news cameras, that showed peaceful protesters chanting in Lafayette Square until the attack takes them by complete surprise […] all the audio recordings of Park Police communications that day gone conspicuously missing.
Someone made relevant evidence disappear!
Finally, just two weeks ago, the Department of Justice asked a federal judge to toss a quartet of lawsuits involving Barr’s ordering a violent clearing of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square. Those requests do not mention a fence. What they do mention is that efforts to clear the square were a matter of “presidential safety” and that “Trump and other U.S. officials are immune from civil lawsuits over police actions taken to protect a president and to secure his movements.”
If the action was actually taken to allow the installation of a fence, why is the DOJ arguing, in court, that this was a police action taken “to protect a president and secure his movements?”
[…] The Department of Justice is engaged in a legal argument that the clearing of Lafayette Square was done specifically to clear the way for Trump.
No one, not DeMarco, not Monahan, not the DOJ, mentioned anything about protecting fencing contractors anywhere in their sworn testimony.
The Secret Service may well have obtained new fencing on June 1, and may have planned to put it up that evening after the curfew went into effect. But none of that had anything to do with the violence assault that began before the curfew. That assault was clearly directed by Barr, planned well in advance to coordinate with Trump’s Rose Garden appearance, and took place in spite of protesters definitively not being violent.
[…] Back in June, 2020 officials from the D.C. Metro Police spoke directly to the issue of whether the square had been cleared for the purposes of building a fence. If that was the plan, they certainly didn’t seem to share it with the people who needed to know the most.
A D.C. Police spokesperson similarly said: ”We knew that they were considering the perimeter expansion, but there was no indication if or when it would happen.” […]
Republicans are pushing revisionist history. Don’t buy the lie.
Kurt Volker said he didn’t know Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden. New audio indicates he did.
The testimony of a key witness in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial is under new scrutiny by the House Intelligence Committee following a report this week that undercuts the veracity of his claim that he was unaware of a Trump effort to pressure Ukraine into mounting a meritless investigation of Joe Biden.
On Monday, CNN reported new details of a July 2019 call between Rudy Giuliani, then–US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During that call, Giuliani, then Trump’s personal lawyer, aggressively pressed Ukraine to announce investigations into dubious accusations about Biden and about alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election. […] The recording of the conversation contradicts Volker’s sworn testimony to Congress that he never witnessed any attempt on the part of Trump and Giuliani to muscle Ukraine into launching an investigation of Biden […]
The discrepancy between Volker’s testimony and the recording of the call has drawn the attention of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who tells Mother Jones that Volker’s assertions to Congress amounted to “a disingenuous revision of history.”
[…] Volker claimed in sworn testimony during Trump’s impeachment proceedings that, even as he helped push Ukraine to look into Burisma and corruption, he did not know that those topics related to Joe Biden—and, consequently, he was unaware that he was assisting in the Giuliani-Trump effort to smear a political rival.
“Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion,” Volker said in an October 3, 2019 deposition before the House Intelligence Committee. He repeated that claim in televised testimony before the committee the following month: “At no time was I aware of or knowingly took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden. As you know from the extensive real-time documentation I have provided, Vice President Biden was not a topic of our discussions.”
CNN’s report on that July 2019 phone call shows that Volker’s account was not true. Giuliani repeatedly urged an investigation targeting Biden during that conversation, which Volker was part of. And Giuliani said that announcing such a probe would help Zelensky improve relations with Trump.
[…] Giuliani also told Yermak that he was eager for Ukraine to look into an allegation that Shokin “was fired because Vice President Biden threatened [former Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko with not getting a [US] loan guarantee that was critical at the time.”
In his October 3 deposition, Volker acknowledged arranging and participating in this call with Giuliani and Yermak, but he insisted it was “just an introductory” conversation. “It was literally, you know, ‘let me introduce, you know, Mr. Giuliani; let me introduce Mr. Yermak. I wanted to put you in touch.’” Volker said. “Blah, blah, blah.” In fact, the lengthy call—which reportedly shocked Ukrainian officials—included an extensive discussion of what Giuliani and Trump hoped to get out of Ukraine.
Volker’s misleading testimony mattered. Republicans including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who argued successfully against the Senate convicting Trump, cited the former diplomat’s claims to defend Trump. “Volker, the special envoy, said there was no quid pro quo,” Graham told reporters in November 2019, adding: “I find the whole process to be a sham and I’m not going to legitimize it.”
[…] Schiff, who acted as lead House Manager during Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial, argues that the information that Volker failed to disclose—Giuliani overtly pressured Yermak for a so-called quid pro quo on the July 19 call—is more evidence that Trump should have been removed from office. […]
Three people are dead including a child following a shooting inside a Publix grocery store in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., with the shooter among those dead, according to police.
The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet that deputies arriving at the scene found three individuals with gunshot wounds, including an adult male, an adult female and a child. […]
This is a developing story. Very few details so far.
Seth Aaron Pendley, a 28-year-old who brought a sawed-off shotgun to the Capitol riots, has pleaded guilty. Though not to that particular crime.
You see, after January 6, Pendley decided that terrorism suited him just fine and decided to step up his game by plotting to bomb the Amazon servers in order to take out “70 percent of the internet.” Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the rest of us, he was actually terrible at terrorism and decided to discuss these plans on a website that anyone can access, called MyMilitia.com.
On January 8, a concerned user on MyMilitia.com contacted the FBI to let them know that someone calling himself Dionysus was going around the site talking about how “he was planning to ‘conduct a little experiment,’ that he said would ‘draw a lot of heat’ and could be ‘dangerous.’ When asked what the plan was, Dionysus said ‘death.'”
Would just like to note what the sidebar on MyMilitia.com says:
Everything you have heard about militias from the media is likely wrong. Main stream news has primarily reported on the negative stereotypes and criminal activity of groups that have nothing to do with militia. The true militia has exactly the opposite purpose; to uphold the law and the Constitution.
Except, you know, for the ones who want to bomb Amazon data centers for being mean to Nazi Friendster.
Via Department of Justice:
In plea papers, Mr. Pendley admitted that he disclosed his plan to blow up a prominent tech company’s data center to a confidential human source via Signal, an encrypted messaging app, in January.
In late February, he sent the source a list of data center addresses and said he hoped a successful attack could “kill off about 70% of the internet.” When the source offered to help him obtain C4 explosives to use in the attack, Mr. Pendley responded, “F*** yeah.”
Mr. Pendley then showed the source a hand-drawn map of a data center on Smith Switch Road in Virginia, featuring proposed routes of ingress and egress at the facility. He later described how he planned to disguise his car to evade detection by law enforcement.
In late March, the confidential source introduced Mr. Pendley to an individual who he claimed was his explosives supplier. In actuality, the man was an undercover FBI employee.
In recorded conversations, Mr. Pendley allegedly told the undercover employee he planned to attack web servers that he believed provided services to the FBI, CIA, and other federal agencies.
“The main objective is to f*** up the Amazon servers,” he said, adding that he hoped to anger “the oligarchy” enough to provoke a reaction that would convince the American people to take action against what he perceived to be a “dictatorship.”
You know, for someone who is supposed to be suspicious of the government and frightened of “the oligarchy” and thinks he is living in a dictatorship, Seth Pendley is not at all paranoid. What kind of paranoid government conspiracy theorist talks about planning to commit crimes on the internet, where anyone can see, and then sets up a meeting with a total stranger to buy some C4? Not a very good one, I will tell you that much.
Pendley’s particular anger at “Amazon servers” likely had much less to do with “oligarchy” than with the fact that, after the Capitol riots, Amazon decided to kick the rightwing social media site Parler off its servers. Parler had served as a major organizing hub for the insurrection, and, as a result, no one really wanted anything to do with them anymore — except for the users of the site who were very, very mad about this, because no one on any other social media site wanted to talk to them.
[…] Pendley is now facing between five and 20 years of prison time he likely thought he’d never serve.
President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have different politics, different styles and some deep differences of opinion, including over Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Biden, when running for president, once even disparaged Johnson as a “physical and emotional clone” of President Donald Trump.
But both leaders underscored the history and durability of ties between their two nations ahead of their first in-person meeting, which took place Thursday. They were expected to focus on common goals such as ending the covid-19 pandemic and combating climate change.
[…] Biden and Johnson, who is hosting the G-7 at a nearby coastal resort,agreed to an updated version of the 80-year-old Atlantic Charter originally signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941 governing technology, travel and some trade ties between the two nations.
[…] “Our revitalised Atlantic Charter, building on the commitments and aspirations set out eighty years ago, affirms our ongoing commitment to sustaining our enduring values and defending them against new and old challenges,” Biden and Johnson say in the new document. “We commit to working closely with all partners who share our democratic values and to countering the efforts of those who seek to undermine our alliances and institutions.”
The new document details eight areas of agreement, expressed mostly in broad strokes with few specifics, starting with a “resolve to defend the principles, values, and institutions of democracy and open societies, which drive our own national strength and our alliances.”
The two leaders also pledge to “strengthen the institutions, laws, and norms that sustain international cooperation to adapt them to meet the new challenges of the 21st century.” […]
It’s an open question what Senate Democrats intend to do with their limited time in the majority. Shouldn’t canceling the August recess be on the table?
[…] Though there’s an annoying myth that Senate Dems had 60 votes for the first two years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the party’s supermajority spanned just four months, during which time Democrats approved the Affordable Care Act. […]
Those who thought at the time that Democrats could be patient, and waste months negotiating with Republicans on possible agreements GOP senators would end up rejecting anyway, were taught a valuable lesson — which seems quite applicable now.
The question, of course, is what Democrats intend to do with the clicking clock.
Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein made a compelling case this week that the party could agree to scrap Congress’ August recess, giving Dems more time to do the people’s business. It’s a provocative point — members have looked forward to their August breaks for quite a while, in part because the Capitol didn’t use to have air conditioning and D.C. summers can get quite unpleasant — but it deserves serious consideration.
Remember, at face value, Senate Democrats have a majority for 24 months — a majority that could evaporate in response to an unexpected resignation or death. Given that Mitch McConnell blocked Dems from taking control for all of January, that lowers the total to 23 months. If members head home this August and next, that’s 21 months. Given that we’re in already in June, we can subtract another four full months from the calendar.
Sure, it’s possible Democrats will do well in next year’s midterm elections and get another 24 months, but historical models suggest the president’s party fares poorly in his first midterm cycle, and there’s nothing favorable for Dems about the 2022 Senate map.
All of which suggests the party has every reason to take seriously the fierce urgency of now.
Capitol Police Officer James Blassingame is one of two officers who filed suit against Donald Trump back in March for the physical and emotional injuries he suffered during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. That suit, which came the same week that Trump claimed his supporters had been just “hugging and kissing the police” during the attack, stated that Blassingame was suffering long-term physical effects and depression from the events of that day.
[…] a PBS interview with Blassingame made clear what happened on that day and spelled out exactly why, even months after the event, the officer had been unable to engage in many of his former duties and why, as his lawsuit stated, he is ”haunted by the memory of being attacked” during the Trump-inspired insurrection.
Right from the start, Blassingame makes it clear exactly what kind of “hugging and kissing” the white supremacist mob was providing. “I have never been called a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to my face in 39 years,” said the officer. “[…] That streak ended on January 6. I was called a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I was called a traitor, I was called various epithets.”
In case there’s any question of exactly which expletive has been deleted above, Officer Blassingame is Black.
On the day of Jan. 6, Blassingame had been with the Capitol Police for 17 years and was serving as the Training Programs Manager. In all those years on the force he had never pulled his weapon, but he says he considered it on that day. “The only reason why I didn’t do it was because the mentality was, this is a four-alarm blaze,” said Blassingame. “And if I pull my gun out and start shooting, I’m throwing kerosene on it. Maybe there’s a chance I survive if I don’t pull my weapon, but, if I do, I’m probably not going to make it out of here alive. You don’t have enough bullets.”
[…] the Trump mob “forced its way over and past the plaintiffs and their fellow officers, pursuing and attacking them inside and outside the United States Capitol, and causing the injuries.”
[…] Blassingame is also a former U.S. Marine. However, that experience did not prepare him for the violence he experienced at the hands of his fellow Americans. After being pushed back from a position outside the Capitol, Blassingame moved to join other officers defending a corridor within the building. It was actually inside on the first floor the Capitol that Blassingame was surrounded by “enraged” Trump supporters, who threw a collection of items at the officers before rushing forward to assault them with fists and flagpoles. Finally, a wave of insurrectionists shoved Blassingame away from the other officers, slamming him against a stone pillar, injuring his back and causing a concussion. During this attack, Blassingame says he lost count of how many times he was called an (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
But the most painful portion of Blassingame’s interview might not be when he discusses his injuries, or even the vile racism of the Trump crowd. It’s when he talks about the Republican legislators who he put himself on the line to protect that day. […] “Something as simple as a commission being passed or trying to take that on, at the end of the day, as bad as it was, like, we did our job,” said Blassingame. “Like, no member of Congress was harmed, you know?”
But that commission was voted down in the Senate by Republicans who filibustered to prevent any investigation into the events of Jan. 6. Now those same Republicans can smugly walk the halls Blassingame and others defended without concern.
“To have to see these people every day, and they don’t have our back. Something as simple as just trying to find out what happened, so that it doesn’t happen again, because my fear is this was the tip of the iceberg.
You have a lot of people that are radicalized, that this is exactly what they wanted to do. And it’s — by there being no accountability, it’s emboldening them.”
Right!
And when it comes to the casual dismissal of Jan. 6 by Republicans in Congress who are determined to brush the violence of that day aside with claims that it was “not an armed insurrection,” Blassingame has a message that should be repeated: “I would think certain things are above politics,” said the officer. “I mean, it’s deplorable to say — as bad as it looks on film, believe me, it was much worse. They can stitch together as much footage as they want to, but I’m telling you, and anybody in that was in that scrum will tell you, it was much worse in person than anything you’re ever going to see on film.”
[…] the efforts of Republicans to dismiss the events of Jan. 6 will have just one outcome: a repeat.
“For the narrative to be modify or changed, so that it’s trying to make it seem something other than what it was, it’s disheartening, especially — we go to work every day and we have to protect members of Congress. And for them to come and say, thank you for your service, and appreciate what you do, but you don’t, because this is very simple, just having a commission to find out what happened, so this doesn’t happen again.”
Florida’s Miami-Dade County city of Doral voted unanimously on Wednesday to officially ban gambling and casinos in the city, potentially putting in jeopardy reported plans for the Trump-owned Doral golf resort to establish its own casino.
With the 4-0 vote from the Doral city council, properties wishing to establish gambling or a casino must get a request approved by residents in a referendum.
[…] Eric Trump, the former president’s son who runs the Trump Doral, indicated earlier this year that the Trump Organization would be interested in establishing a casino at Doral.
“Many people consider Trump Doral to be unmatched from a gaming perspective — at 700 acres, properties just don’t exist of that size and quality in South Florida, let alone in the heart of Miami,” Eric Trump told The Washington Post in March.
However, the Doral city council in May voted in favor of an emergency ordinance banning casinos in city limits, with Wednesday’s vote approving the measure on a nonemergency basis.
Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez told the Miami Herald ahead of Wednesday’s vote that the city “wanted to make sure we weighed in.”
“We will take whatever steps necessary,” he added. […]
Lake Mead provides water to 25 million people in the Western U.S.
Reuters reports Lake Mead hit a record-low around 11 p.m. local time Wednesday, as the surface of the reservoir fell to 1,071.56 feet above sea level.
The previous lowest level had been 1,071.61 feet on July 1, 2016.
Most of the Western half of the U.S. is experiencing drought, with large parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico in extreme and exceptional drought categories.
[…] Lake Mead was formed in the 1930s by the damming of the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona border and is the nation’s largest reservoir by volume.
[…] “We expect it to keep declining until November,” U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Patti Aaron told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Most of the Western half of the U.S. is experiencing drought […]
quotetheunquote @ #220, it was a video by this guy Neil Patel describing “why I don’t read books” – they’re actually written a whole year or more before they’re published, by which time they’re already totally outdated, so people should go to YouTube instead. I’m not surprised he removed it.
Covid-19 cases on the rise in every region in England
Covid-19 case rates have increased across every region in England with a sharp rise in the North West, new figures show.
The latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England (PHE), published on Thursday, shows that rates in north-west England increased to 149.6 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to June 6, up week-on-week from 89.4, PA news reports.
This is the highest for the region since the week ending February 21 and is also the highest of any region in England. South-west England has the lowest rate: 20.8, up week-on-week from 9.7.
Meanwhile, PHE also said that case rates have risen among almost all age groups in England, with a spike in rates amongst 20 to 29-year-olds, going from 54.0 in the week ending May 30 to 121.0 in the seven days to June 6.
This is the age group with the highest rate and the biggest week-on-week increase, while the second highest rate is among 10 to 19-year-olds, up from 73.7 to 99.4.
The latest figures come as Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that the Delta variant first identified in India now comprised 91% of cases of coronavirus in the UK….
Britain said it agreed a partnership with the United States on Thursday to tackle new pandemics by bolstering disease surveillance and genomic sequencing worldwide, on the eve of a G7 leaders’ summit.
Britain used its presidency of G7 to pledge to improve global preparedness against emerging health threats in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports.
The United States will purchase half a billion Covid-19 vaccine doses for lower income countries with no strings attached, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.
“Half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August, as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line,” Biden said at a news conference before the G7 summit in Britain….
Nearly a year after the Trump administration replaced an Obama-era fair housing rule that critics decried as ‘burdensome’ and that President Donald Trump alleged would ‘abolish’ suburbs, President Biden’s housing department is restoring the requirement that communities take steps to reduce racial segregation or risk losing federal funds.
The Senate voted 81-16 on Thursday to confirm Zahid Quraishi as the U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey. […] The vote makes Quraishi, the son of immigrants from Pakistan, the first Senate-confirmed Muslim American to serve as a federal judge and President Biden’s third judicial nominee to be approved by the chamber. […]
If you’re a Republican politician who wants to prove your loyalty to […] Trump and his election fraud lies, a stop at Arizona’s shambolic recount has become a must.
In recent days, state-level candidates for office from all over the country have descended on the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum to observe the partisan recount of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million ballots that was ordered by Arizona’s GOP Senate.
The most recent pilgrim was Virginia State Sen. Amanda Chase (R) who’s embraced the nickname “Trump in Heels” and unsuccessfully sought the state party’s gubernatorial nomination this year.
[…] This week also featured visits by state lawmakers from Alaska and Georgia. The leader of Nevada’s Republican Party visited as well. All told, the MAGA stars of at least six different states have flocked to Arizona to observe the so-called “audit.”
[…] Once they arrive at the recount site, these Republicans have been given a tour by members of the audit team of the recount’s floor, according to the observing reporters, who themselves have had very limited access to the audit site and those leading it. Some of the Republican lawmakers have then stopped to give interviews to the “press,” with Trump-loving platforms One America News Network and Gateway Pundit getting first dibs, while local reporters are blown off.
The first out-of-staters to make a visit to the audit were three Republicans from Pennsylvania’s legislature, including State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Trump ally who attended the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Then came a visit from the Republican party chair and two state Republican lawmakers from Georgia, a battleground that, like Arizona and Pennsylvania, went for President Biden in 2020 and thus became a target of President Trump’s election reversal crusade. Vernon Jones, a Trump-loving former state representative who is now attempting to primary Gov. Brian Kemp, also visited this week alongside the former New York City police commissioner and Trump pardon recipient Bernard Kerik.
After their visits to Arizona, some Republicans have said that they would see the recount effort replicated in their states […]
But the magnetic MAGA pull of the Maricopa recounted has extended beyond the states that contributed to Trump’s defeat, with a Tuesday visit from a Republican lawmaker in Alaska, which went for Trump.
[…] Whether these visits are fundraising gimmicks or will yield new 2020 “audits” elsewhere remains to be seen. A fight is already underway over whether an outside group led by a conspiracy theorist can examine the mail ballots cast in Georgia’s Atlanta area. The Pennsylvania lawmakers who visited Maricopa had previously quietly sought local reviews of the 2020 elections in small towns, the Washington Post revealed after their Arizona trip.
But perhaps the biggest concern, among election experts, is that a model is being developed for undercutting the results of future elections. That fear was laid out recently by Matt Masterson, former Republican appointee to the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission who worked on election security at Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.
“Now we have a playbook out there where if you don’t like the results — by the way in an election that wasn’t particularly close … you just claim you didn’t lose and in fact the process itself was rigged against you,” Masterson, now a policy fellow with the Stanford Internet Observatory, told NPR last week.
Masterson’s concerns were validated in an interview that Mastriano, the Pennsylvania lawmaker who visited Arizona, gave to Steve Bannon.
“I think this is really the model, in the future, for any elections that might be in dispute,” he said.
No real audit permits access to visitors who don’t have a legitimate reason for being on the premises. That’s like a bank giving open tours of in-use vaults or storage areas; it can’t be done in a way that maintains security.
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First, you must touch Donald Trump, then you journey to Arizona and pray to the Audit God, also known as the God of Mischief, AKA Loki.
If unable to travel, you must face in the direction of the audit and say ‘Hail Donald Trump’ seventy-four times.
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It’s the Internet. In the Before Times, your local village idiot couldn’t do too much damage outside the village they lived in. Travel was expensive, long distance phone calls were expensive (remember that, anyone?). Now that all the village idiots are linked together via the Internet nationwide, we have a problem.
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It will never end.
Welcome to the Hotel Maricopa.
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Until the ballots begin to crumble in their hands.
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confederacy of dunces. I guess we’re living through one these mass hysteria events, but on steroids.
As the Republican so-called “audit” of Maricopa County’s election results slithers its way to an eventual close, actual election experts remain uniform in their belief that the weirdos and conspiracy theorists assembled by inexpert company “Cyber Ninjas” do not have the slightest notion of how to actually do an audit. Or how to handle the ballots they are currently “testing for bamboo” in an effort to determine whether they came from China. Or, possibly, how to count.
Another group of experts is calling out Cyber Ninjas, daring them to test their claims against actual experts. As reported by The Arizona Republic, Arizona Republican Benny White, Clear Ballot Group founder Larry Moore, and retired Clear Ballot technology officer Tim Halvorsen are daring Cyber Ninjas to, quote, “put up or shut up” on their ballot-counting claims.
Their proposal is gloriously straightforward: Pick a box, any not-yet-opened box, from the stored archive of ballots the current “audit” team is working their way through. The expert team will then tell Cyber Ninjas and the Republican-held Arizona Senate who set this whole fiasco in motion the exact vote totals they will find in that archived bundle of ballots, in every race—without going to Arizona or even lifting the box’s lid.
Why? Because elections officials archive these ballots in a very specific manner, have compiled a database of the votes on each ballot, and have recorded which ballots have gone into which boxes as matter of standard procedure. It’s all in the systems. This is very basic stuff that is the whole premise of auditable, testable election administration, and any team of actual experts would know all this.
Then, the team challenges, Cyber Ninjas can send the box through their Tilt-a-Whirl of counters and spinning tables and bamboo seances and see what vote they come up with. Will the experts be proven right? Will the Ninjas? Wouldn’t that be a hoot to watch.
While the Republic reports the team has made a formal pitch to Senate President (Republican) Karen Fann—and the Republic kindly went to special effort to make sure Fann indeed saw the proposal—it seems unlikely that Senate Republicans will allow the challenge to take place. It’s been clear from the beginning that Cyber Ninjas has been botching their procedures in ways that are all but assured to result in botched counts and spoiled ballots that will never be able to properly be audited again, and at this point the incompetence of the effort has turned a nationwide embarrassment. There’s no upside to Republicans putting a final capper on things with definitive proof showing their “audit” isn’t even able to count ballots.
It’s likely to be a moot point. The Republic reports that the Ninjas are allegedly only a few days away from completing their “count,” which means they will have opened (and therefore spoiled) every box of votes. Soon after that we can expect the Ninjas to either release their vote totals, which will absolutely not be the same as the counts generated on election night because of their own screw-ups, or issue a statement explaining that because of insufficient bamboo testing, unusual sunspot activity, or an insufficient supply of snacks, they are unable to reach any conclusions unless someone, um, pays them to do it again.
The point was never to “count” the ballots. The point is to produce something, anything, that Republicans can generate new conspiracy theories from. The point is to produce a narrative that can be used by party leaders to nullify future elections that don’t produce the vote totals the party wanted to see.
Still, it seems a shame that the Ninjas will have no opportunity to prove that they are not incompetent scammers. Even if all the boxes are opened and spoiled, a fascinating post-count test might be to put a box of ballots before the Cyber Ninja team, have them count the votes, then put the same box of ballots in front of them the next day and have them recount it. That would go a long way towards settling the question of whether their human counters can even tally the numbers the same way twice.
We’re probably not going to be getting that one, either. The first rule of carnivals is to never let on how the games are rigged, and this game has been rigged since fascism-promoting state Republicans picked a team headed by a conspiracy peddler rather than any of the actual experts who do these things for a living. It is governing by hoax, and Republicanism has lost the ability to govern by anything else.
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star game will remain in Denver after rejecting an effort to move the event back to Atlanta, Reuters reported on Thursday.
MLB moved the summer classic from Atlanta after Georgia’s legislative approved legislation that drew criticism from Democrats, voting rights groups and MLB players, who all said it was designed to reduce access to the polls by minority groups.
A conservative small business group, Jobs Creator Network, sued, arguing its members in Atlanta would be irreparably harmed by the move.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni, an appointee of former President Obama, ruled that the group did not have standing to sue, and that it is “not at all clear why it cares more about small businesses in Atlanta than small businesses in Denver,” according to Reuters.
JCN sued the MLB last week, arguing it should pay $100 million in damages to local businesses in Georgia as a result of moving the All-Star Game to Colorado.
Lawyers of the league said in a court filing on Monday that JCN didn’t provide any evidence for their claims and argued that the court shouldn’t waste their time on “political theatrics.”
The All-Star Game will be played in Denver on July 13.
[…] You know End Times nutbag person Rick Wiles got the COVID, which was shocking since he was actively boycotting the vaccine, since he thinks the vaccine is going to bring about a global genocide. […]
Now Rickles the Clown has solved the science conundrum of how he got the COVID. […]
(Transcript via Right Wing Watch because puh-leeze, we are not in a transcribing mood.)
“There is a medical mafia in this country,” a noticeably hoarse and thinner Wiles said. “I’m suggesting the CCP agents in America struck at me because I am calling for Fauci to be arrested and interrogated.”
The CCP agents — he means the Chinese Communist Party — struck the COVID directly at him! […]
OK, so … China attacked Rick Wiles in his man body because he won’t stop telling his global audience of probably trillions that he wants known Chinese Communist Party Doctor Anthony Fauci arrested. Gotcha.
“I mean this with all my heart,” Wiles continued.
No foolin’.
“If the China Communist Party is not stopped, most Americans may be dead in the next five years.”
Hoo boy. We are no fans of the Chinese authoritarian dictatorship, but we are forced to ask to what end? What would be their point in murdering all of America?
Oh thank goodness, he explains:
“Think about what I just said: a systematic, genocidal plan to exterminate the American population over the next five years through a variety of biological weapons and vaccines, to the point that there’s hardly anybody remaining alive in the country. China is deliberately exterminating the American population for the purpose of migrating hundreds of millions of Chinese settlers to North America.”
They want to move here? All of ’em? Do they have lots of Zillow alerts set up and everything? Has China SEEN what a seller’s market most of America is right now? Because if we were real-estate-advising the entire nation of China right now, we might say wait a sec to see if things cool off. Otherwise all of China gonna be paying $50K over asking with no inspection […]
In summary and in conclusion, Rick Wiles got COVID because he’s a batshit COVID vaccine conspiracy theorist, and we hope that is the end of this story arc about Rick Wiles.
Glad he’s back in the studio and we pray for his continued healing […]
Federal prosecutors have charged six members of the Three Percenters right-wing militia group with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol, the latest in a series of such charges arising from the Jan. 6 riot by former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
The charges against the six men, all from California, were disclosed in an indictment unsealed on Thursday in federal court in Washington. Two of them, Alan Hostetter and Russell Taylor, were seen a day before the riot with Roger Stone, a friend and adviser to Trump, during a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court against the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
About 30 people – including members of two other right-wing groups, The Oath Keepers and The Proud Boys – have been accused of conspiracy, the most serious charges related to the riot. Those pending cases are the largest and most complex of the roughly 500 brought by the Justice Department since the attack.
The other Three Percenters charged were Eric Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio “Tony” Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele.
…
According to the indictment, Hostetter founded a group in 2020 called the American Phoenix Project that protested restrictions on public gatherings imposed as a public health measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. That group became a platform to advocate violence against government leaders, according to the indictment.
Beginning in December 2020, the six men hatched a plan using the encrypted messaging app Telegram to bring weapons to Washington and storm the Capitol, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the men selected Jan. 6 because of a Dec. 19 Trump Twitter post stating: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Prosecutors said that on Dec. 29 Taylor told his accused co-conspirators on Telegram: “I personally want to be on the front steps and be one of the first ones to breach the doors!”…
Jill Biden is sending a sartorial message of “love” as she accompanies her husband President Joe Biden overseas.
The first lady wore a black jacket with the word “love” outlined on the back in silver beading as she and the president met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Thursday. She wore the same jacket more than two years ago to kick off Biden’s presidential campaign.
“We’re bringing love from America,” she told reporters, explaining her fashion choice.
“This is a global conference, and we are trying to bring unity across the globe, and I think it’s needed right now, that people feel a sense of unity from all the countries and feel a sense hope after this year of the pandemic.”
Biden is known for her sartorial choices, often donning bright pastels or eye-catching patterns for her outings on behalf of the Biden administration. She is rarely seen without a kitten heel or stiletto boot, adding height to her petite frame.
And this isn’t the first time she’s sent a direct message with her clothes: During a campaign trip to Iowa late last year, Biden wore black skinny jeans bearing the word “VOTE” down each calf.
Biden’s jacket and pants come in contrast to the last first lady to offer a message with her clothes: Melania Trump wore a jacket that read “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” during a trip to a detention center for migrant children in 2018. She wore a different jacket at the shelter….
“BREAKING:Adam Schiff and House Intel Committee aides — and the aides’ family members, including a minor — had their data from Apple subpoenaed by DOJ in 2017 and 2018.”
NYT link atl. Schiff will be on with Rachel Maddow.
Katie Benner, NYT: “NEW:In hunting for people who leaked Russia investigation intel to reporters, DOJ subpoenaed Apple for data belonging to Adam Schiff, another House Intel Committee Democrat, aides and family members. One was a minor.”
“My colleague Fiona Hill, who staffed the summit for Trump, told the BBC that Helsinki was so bad that she considered faking a medical emergency just to disrupt it.”
A rather belated comment on the MSNBC article Lynna linked to @136. I’d say the rise of Fascism2.0, and in particular of Trump and the Trumpist Party, indicates that liberal democracy is inadequate to the age of the Internet, financial crisis, and looming environmental catastrophe. It has relied, perhaps particularly in the USA, on the bulk of the population being politically passive, and misinformed about who really constitute the “elite” and how they retain their power and wealth. This has allowed elite factions prepared to jettison liberal democracy’s limited but real constraints on executive power to embark on a program of subordinating the judiciary, critical media, educational institutions, and civil society. This is powered, through social media and the likes of the Murdoch press, by scapegoating minorities and a largely invented “liberal elite”. Their followers are fooled into a false sense that they are participants in an existential struggle, while in reality, they are merely spectators – QAnon is the purest example of this so far.
KGsays
Biden, Boris Johnson release updated Atlantic Charter after first meeting – Lynna, OM@227
My hunch is that Biden agreed to this essentially meaningless but (to Johnson) politically valuable “updated Atlantic Charter” in exchange for a promise by Johnson that he would negotiate a UK surrender in the Great Sausage War with the EU, thus protecting the Good Friday Agreement. But as the Sausage War itself demonstrates, Johnson’s promises are worthless – even when they take the form of an international treaty he signed and boasted about.
To hear Joe Manchin tell it, a single-party push on voting rights is a “disaster waiting to happen.” But what if this disaster is already unfolding?
For Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), nothing is more important than bipartisan governing. As the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg put it, the conservative Democrat is part of a tiny contingent committed to the idea of bipartisanship “as a supreme good, which in practice means bowing to the wishes of a party that doesn’t believe Joe Biden is a legitimate president and wants above all to see him fail.”
Given the fact that the Senate is evenly divided, leaving Democratic leaders with literally no margin for error, the implications of the West Virginian’s approach are far-reaching. On every issue, if Manchin isn’t on board with his party’s agenda, the issue dies.
This includes voting rights. The senator told NBC News last week that any voting rights legislation considered by the Senate must be bipartisan to gain his vote, saying that a single-party push on the issue is a “disaster waiting to happen.”
But what if there was already a single-party push on the issue? The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein explained in a newly published piece that the latest research “quantifies how completely Republicans have excluded Democrats from the passage of the restrictive voting laws proliferating in red states.”
In places such as Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana, the most restrictive laws approved this year have passed on total or near-complete party-line votes, with almost all state legislative Republicans voting for the bills and nearly all Democrats uniting against them, according to an analysis of state voting records provided exclusively to The Atlantic by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) told Brownstein that Republicans in her state have not only targeted elections, GOP officials have also “completely shut the Democrats out of the [legislative] process.”
Jennifer Konfrst, the Democratic whip in the Iowa House of Representatives, added, “It is unfathomable to me that we would look at this issue and say we have to bring Republicans along, in this political climate, in order to make true change. I don’t see anywhere where Republicans are inviting Democrats along, or inviting Democrats to the table.”
The Iowa legislator asked, “Why are some Democrats saying, ‘I won’t do this unless it’s bipartisan?'”
[…] To hear Joe Manchin tell it, a single-party push on voting rights is a “disaster waiting to happen.” Reality makes clear, however, that this precise disaster is already unfolding, and has been for months. Republicans in states nationwide are brazenly abusing their positions, undermining democracy by tilting the electoral playing field in their power, confident in the knowledge that voting-rights advocates will receive no federal rescue.
The decision Senate Democrats have to make — in this instance, literally all of them — is whether the “disaster” Joe Manchin fears will continue unchecked.
I agree with Michelle Goldberg: As the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg put it, the conservative Democrat is part of a tiny contingent committed to the idea of bipartisanship “as a supreme good, which in practice means bowing to the wishes of a party that doesn’t believe Joe Biden is a legitimate president and wants above all to see him fail.”
If the current circumstances do not reflect a democracy in jeopardy, what would? What would it take for Dianne Feinstein to be concerned?
As Democratic senators weigh what to do, if anything, about protecting voting rights at the federal level, important legislative questions hang over head. Does the party have the votes to properly respond to the democratic crisis? Are the pending proposals sufficient to bolster democracy while it’s under attack? Do congressional rules need to be altered to respond to the seriousness of the current circumstances?
Each of these questions, and more like them, are predicated on a basic idea: the contemporary Republican Party is moving away from the idea that Americans resolve their differences through free and fair elections, creating a challenge without modern precedent.
But what if there are some officials who simply don’t see the threat?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) broke with colleagues who have said they would “choose democracy” and scrap the filibuster if Republicans tried to block H.R. 1, Democrats’ sweeping election reform bill, telling Forbes, “If democracy were in jeopardy, I would want to protect it,” but “I don’t see it being in jeopardy right now.”
Such complacency is difficult to understand.
Earlier this year, a defeated American president went to great lengths to overturn the results of an American election when he didn’t like the results. Soon after, that same defeated president directed a violent insurrectionist mob to attack the U.S. Capitol — Dianne Feinstein’s workplace — for the express purpose of disrupting the democratic process and the certification of an election.
In the months that followed, Republican officials across multiple states began placing indefensible hurdles between Americans and ballot boxes through voter-suppression measures. At the same time, GOP officials are hijacking election administration systems. And actively undermining public confidence in election results. And positioning far-right, anti-election ideologues to serve as Secretaries of State, whose offices oversee elections. And targeting poll workers. And exploring ways to make it more difficult for Americans to turn to the courts in the hopes of protecting voting rights. And intensifying voter-roll purges. And empowering heavy-handed poll watchers. And preparing to exploit gerrymandering to create voter-proof majorities.
And laying the groundwork to allow officials to overturn election results Republicans don’t like.
It’s against this backdrop that a defeated former president is using his influence to convince as much of the public as he can that the nation’s elected leaders are illegitimate and the only election results that can be trusted are the ones he endorses.
This comes on the heels of a four-year effort in which that same former president, while in office, deliberately tried to weaken the pillars of our democracy, targeting democratic institutions and eroding political norms.
Despite all of this, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein reportedly told Forbes magazine that, as far as she’s concerned, our democracy is not “in jeopardy right now.” […]
Early on in Donald Trump’s presidency, there was considerable reporting about the contacts between the president’s team and their Russian benefactors who helped elect the Republican in 2016. For the administration, the principal problem was not with the interactions, but rather, with the leaks that brought the scandal to the public’s attention.
With that in mind, the Justice Department began an unusually aggressive leak investigation, which ultimately led federal officials to obtain reporters’ records in the hopes of identifying their confidential sources. These efforts remained hidden until very recently.
But as the New York Times reported overnight, these extraordinary steps were part of a larger and more serious abuse.
As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor.
It’s one thing for a president to urge the Justice Department to target his perceived political foes. It’s something else for the Justice Department to actually do it.
According to the Times’ reporting, Trump’s DOJ seized the records of at least a dozen people tied to the House Intelligence Committee, including California Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both of whom were in the congressional minority at the time.
The prosecutorial probe did not pan out, and federal law enforcement under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not find any evidence of leaks from the committee. But then Bill Barr took office, brought in an allied prosecutor with little relevant experience, and “revived languishing leak investigations.”
All of this was kept secret, with the Justice Department securing a gag order on Apple, so that the targeted lawmakers, staffs, and their families wouldn’t know that they’d been targeted.
[…] It’s every bit as extraordinary as it seems: the Republican Justice Department secretly seized communications records from members of Congress. […]
In a press statement, Adam Schiff, now the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said, “President Trump repeatedly and flagrantly demanded that the Department of Justice carry out his political will, and tried to use the Department as a cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media. It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears. The politicization of the Department and the attacks on the rule of law are among the most dangerous assaults on our democracy carried out by the former President.”
The Democratic lawmaker added, “Though we were informed by the Department in May that this investigation is closed, I believe more answers are needed, which is why I believe the Inspector General should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president.”
On the show last night, Schiff went on to note the extent to which the Trump administration took steps to turn the Justice Department into “a fully owned subsidiary of the president’s personal legal interests,” which cannot stand.
“It’s hard to express just how shocking an abuse of power this really is,” Schiff concluded.
Over the past two months of infrastructure talks, there’s been a constant refrain from Republican negotiators: why not just use all the unspent COVID aid money to pay for the bill?
The idea has helped negotiators avoid Biden’s demand for new spending, and has been met with some concessions, even from Democratic senators.
“You need to look at, see what hasn’t gone out the door or what has gone out the door, hasn’t been spent yet or dedicated in any way,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said last month.
But a close look at which COVID relief funds remain “unspent” reveals that the vast majority of money available would come from President Biden’s biggest legislative accomplishment: the American Rescue Plan.
That effectively reduces the negotiations to a debate over how far the Biden administration would be willing to go to strip its signature COVID relief package, passed in March, of resources to fund entirely different priorities.
[…] A group of five Democratic and five Republican senators announced on Thursday that they had reached a deal that includes $579 billion in new spending, out of a total of $974 billion. It’s not yet clear how that would be paid for, and if that proposal would also draw on repurposed COVID funding.
[…] Any new spending in the plan, meant to go to roads, bridges, water pipes and eldercare programs, needs to have new revenue to match it.
But at the same time, the GOP said that it would be opposed to any tax increases — framing that as changes to the Trump tax law.
[…] an impression that the American Rescue Plan left states and cities with too much money — confounding local officials and state legislators who lack projects to spend it on. “The majority of it has not been spent,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-PA) in April. “Perhaps there’s a way to spend that money on infrastructure as part of this legislation.”
[…] it comes as states and cities shore up budgets that were depleted during the pandemic and rehire staff that were laid off because of the virus. It also includes plans for grappling with the longer-term consequences of the pandemic, in the form of programs for those suffering from long COVID, or funding for public health programs.
[…] Irma Esparza Diggs, director of federal advocacy for the National League of Cities, said that for many cities, the narrative of “too much” federal aid was overblown and that officials she spoke to were still searching for more funds to restart programs that were cut during the COVID recession.
[…] Though there is money left in state and local funding, even that would not come anywhere near to the hundreds of billions of dollars on the table.
[…] “The funds are meant to be used to address the short term and long term effects of the economic and health care impacts of the pandemic,” she told TPM. “That this is now being floated as a pay-for is a slap in the face to local leaders who have just really struggled.”
The New York state Senate approved a bill Thursday that could trigger the renaming of a Hudson Valley state park which for years has carried the name of former President Donald Trump.
“New York’s Senate just gave Donald Trump an early birthday present: we’re stripping his name from a state park,” state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a sponsor of the bill said. “Trump has dishonored the state and should not be honored with a state park named for him.”
The New York Daily News reported that the measure directs the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, to launch a legal review into renaming the largely unused “Donald J. Trump State Park,” which straddles the border of Westchester and Putnam Counties along a state parkway.
The review could pave the way for a name change for the park and the installation of new signs.
Lawmakers have sought for years to rename the 435-acre site which Trump donated to the state in 2006 after hitting roadblocks in plans to convert the land into the 18-hole championship golf course and country club he envisioned after purchasing it for $2 million in the early 1990s.
If Trump’s name is eventually blotted from the park, it would appear to be an answer to numerous longstanding public calls for its renaming, including a petition in 2015 that gathered 2,800 signatures on change.org called “Rename Donald J. Trump State Park to… anything else.”
Unfortunately the IRS will not be clawing back the $6.9 billion deduction Trump claimed for donating the land.
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I think there are plenty of sinkholes in Floriduh that would love to have that very fitting name. Or landfills.
——————— There is some reporting that indicates that Trump may have claimed a 26 million dollar value which would have been 10 times what Trump paid for the land and a minimum of 5 times more than it was worth at the time of donation.
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At the rate things are going, his headstone will read [Individual-1].
[…] it’s important to keep up on the right wing media ecosystem to understand what Republican politicians are saying. In this instance, Republicans have galloped far past the possibility that a lab leak may have been the origin point for the COVID. They’re now pushing the idea that Anthony Fauci was involved in the experiments which created COVID and has conspired with the Chinese to cover-up the lab leak which created COVID.
As you can see from this tweet this morning, Sen. Marco Rubio is pushing just that idea.
The Wuhan lab conducts experiments that turn natural animal viruses which aren’t transmissible in humans into new ones that are
Fauci knew this & supports this controversial practice
Which may be why he has always downplayed the lab leak theory
You can see he’s softened it up a bit for general public consumption. But that’s what he’s saying.
Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal leads 60 lawmakers in calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to enact a series of measures to protect immigrant communities, including rolling back the previous administration’s anti-asylum attacks, expanding legal aid, addressing the massive immigration court backlog, and reviewing politicization of that court, a system that falls under the purview of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“In light of the ongoing and irreparable harm that is being inflicted upon immigrant communities, we urge you to implement reforms to the Executive Office for Immigration Review and other Department of Justice immigration policies,” they state. […]
“As you know, the Trump administration took aggressive steps to rewrite asylum law and restrict discretionary decision-making and judicial independence,” they write to Garland. That included former Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III punishing domestic violence survivors seeking asylum and imposing a quota system that one former immigration judge called “an affront to judicial independence.” Legislators write that “[u]ltimately, long-term structural reform is needed, and we look forward to the eventual enactment of legislation to create an independent Article I immigration court.”
Legislators in their recommendations urge a “leadership-driven” review of the enormous 1.3 million cases in the immigration court backlog, as well as to begin a review of immigration judge appointments, writing that the previous administration “politicized the immigration courts by prioritizing individuals with political connections and enforcement-heavy backgrounds.” They write that the previous fiscal year saw a “historic” asylum denial rate of 72%, “as compared to 54.6 percent in FY 2016.”
[…] Legislators further urge the administration to continue its recent efforts to expand legal representation to vulnerable people in immigration courts. Unlike the criminal court system, people in immigration court, including children, are not guaranteed legal help if they can’t afford it.
[…] “We stand ready to work with you to restore the foundational principles of justice, fairness, and transparency to the immigration system, and would appreciate a briefing on these issues at your earliest convenience,” legislators conclude.
[…] While the investigation may not have turned up any evidence against Schiff or Swalwell, it absolutely does serve to indict someone—Barr, who directly lied to the Senate when he testified that he didn’t know of any investigations being conducted at Trump’s direction. […]
Garland seems to have taken his writ as attorney general to be apolitical, but that’s not the effect of what he’s doing. Corruption can’t be ignored, it has to be fought. Merrick Garland is not fighting; He’s sitting back and allowing the corrupt practices put in place under Trump to continue. […]
The DOJ should end its ridiculous attempt to defend Donald Trump against charges of rape [it’s actually charges of defamation, since the charge of rape can no longer be brought … statute of limitations]. The acting head of the DOJ’s Civil Division justified the government’s intrusion into this case by saying that ”Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public concern is undoubtedly part of an elected official’s job,” which should be jaw-dropping in its audacity and ugliness. This is nothing less than another way of saying that occupying the White House is a license to commit slander against private citizens. It’s not just a miserable reading of the law, it’s disgusting. And Garland must end it now. [Right!]
The DOJ should immediately end the investigation still being conducted by former U.S. Attorney and now Special Counsel John “Bull” Durham—an investigation that has now gone on over twice as long as the Mueller investigation, and which has generated only a single minor indictment of a low level official. That investigation has been a genuine “witch hunt” from the outset, and has included efforts to rope allied intelligence agencies into working against the CIA, and is now reportedly involved in examining the records of the Clinton Foundation. There is no possible justification for continuing this “investigation.” And Garland must end it now.
The DOJ must—must—release the full and unredacted Mueller Report, along with the memos showing how Barr and his team worked to subvert the findings of the report and generate a “summary” that was deeply slanted to help Trump. The decision not to charge Trump with obstruction clearly did not grow from the overwhelming evidence for such a charge found in Mueller’s report. That the DOJ is still protecting these documents is nothing less than abetting a cover-up. And Garland must end it now.
Garland is […] not moving to conduct a DOJ investigation of the events leading up to the attack on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square. He’s not just failing to act to put the Department of Justice back on track, he’s continuing to drive it even further into the weeds.
Merrick Garland has to end this now. Or get out of the way for someone who will.
In Idaho, a Trump-era proving ground for feuding Republican factions, Gov. Brad Little faces a fierce primary challenge — from his lieutenant governor.
Gov. Brad Little had only briefly traveled out of state to attend a Republican governors’ conference when his own lieutenant governor made him regret it.
Without warning, GOP Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin took advantage of Little’s absence in late May and issued a statewide order banning any local government from enforcing Covid-prevention mask mandates.
Little rescinded it the next day upon his return, swiping at McGeachin for her “irresponsible, self-serving political stunt.” But the lieutenant governor had already made her point: she would go to almost any length to defy the governor, when it comes to pandemic restrictions.
It’s another messy chapter in Idaho’s 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, the only one in the nation in which a sitting governor is being challenged by a lieutenant governor of his own party.
What’s happening here isn’t simply about an overly ambitious second-in-command. In a deeply conservative state that’s a proving ground for feuding factions in former President Donald Trump’s GOP, the primary revolves around a derivative of Trumpism — resistance to coronavirus-related mandates and restrictions.
[…] “We are one of the big strongholds for the ultra-conservatives and they’re looking to make this their kingdom,” she [Kay Lynn Smith, the GOP chair in rural Butte County] said. “Moderates and a lot of the people who had the money and the power are aging out and losing interest. They’re not interested in supporting a party with radicals.”
In Idaho, as in a handful of other states, the governor and lieutenant governor don’t run on the same ticket — they are separately elected. […]
By at least two key metrics, Idaho was a pandemic success story under Governor Little: It has the sixth-lowest unemployment rate in the nation and ranks 41st in Covid death rate. With the good economy and Republicans largely in lockstep about low taxes, gun rights and fewer regulations, McGeachin’s campaign has instead centered around mask mandates, appeals to personal freedom and bashing the federal government — even when she benefited from coronavirus relief money.
[…] “Half the party or more is on the DeSantis train. We would like a DeSantis,” said Boise County GOP Chair Eric McGilp.
Rebecca Crea, the GOP chair in Lewis County, said there’s a feeling among many in the party that Little was too strict with pandemic restrictions. She said Little was a RINO (Republican in Name Only) who won his office in 2018 thanks to slick ads and a crowded GOP primary that siphoned votes from the more conservative candidate […]
“Everybody says, ‘oh, it’s about the economy, about the economy, about the economy.’ Sure. But it looks as if the Republican Party is moving away from economic issues, because in a place like Idaho, it’s already so strong,” the adviser said. “So where do you go next? I mean, there’s been critical race theory discussions here in Idaho, discussions about diversity programs in Idaho. The conversations are starting to change in this Republican primary. […]”
McGeachin isn’t Little’s only challenger on the right — her message is amplified by anti-government activist Ammon Bundy, a vigorous opponent of Little’s stay-at-home order and other Covid-related legislation. […]
I shudder at the thought of a Governor more conservative than Little.
The Pulitzer Prizes on Friday awarded a special citation to Darnella Frazier, whose 2020 video recording of an officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck before he died rocked the nation and prompted more national conversations around racism and police brutality.
“The Floyd story in particular highlighted not only the essential role of journalists, but the increasing importance of ordinary citizens in the quest for truth and justice,” said Mindy Marques, co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, during the award ceremony.
“We want to note that the board has awarded a special citation to Darnella Frazier, the teenage witness who filled and posted the transformative video that jolted viewers and spurred protests against police brutality around the world,” Marques added.
In an Instagram post in May reflecting on a year since the death of Floyd, Frazier wrote, “Even though this was a traumatic life-changing experience for me, I’m proud of myself. It if weren’t for my video, the world wouldn’t have known the truth.” […]
Re: SC 225
“Operation Underground Railroad”
I’ve been thinking about the the use of pedophilia by the Qanon crowd and how it’s evolved. Actual child abusers shaping the conspiracies making them and people shaped by their propaganda 2 groups. I believe that the whole “pedo joe” thing was because Trump is worse than Biden when it comes to sexual boundaries, and it was useful social manipulation by actual pedophiles and Rs to point the “save the children” instinct at their political enemies.
Fast forward and now you have a bunch of people who have to make that look serious politically, some child abusers, some abusive dupes. The first attempt was the “save the children” protests. Now there are these socially poisoned organizations like “Operation Underground Railroad”. Appropriation of “underground railroad” is standard bigot behavior.
Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out on Friday a muscular approach he says the Justice Department will take to protect the right to vote. In a policy speech at the department’s D.C. headquarters, Garland addressed not only the slew of restrictive voting measures advancing in GOP statehouses, but the harassment of election officials and the recent phenomena of dubious post-election “audits” that cast doubt on the 2020 results.
“We have not been blind to the dramatic increase in menacing and violent threats against all manner of state and local election workers, ranging from the highest administrators to volunteer poll workers,” Garland said. “Such threats undermine our electoral process, and violate a myriad of federal laws.”
As for the drive for more post-election audits, which Garland described as fueled by “disinformation,” their “abnormal” methodologies “may put the integrity of the voting process at risk and undermine public confidence in our democracy.” [About time Garland said something about that!]
For years, Republicans have sought to undermine federal voting rights laws, while GOP state legislators over the last decade have ramped up their push to limit ballot access. On Friday, Garland framed the renewed DOJ focus on safeguarding democracy within the department’s long history of making voting rights a key priority.
“Progress to protect voting rights, and especially for Black Americans and other people of color, has never been steady,” Garland said.”Moments of voting rights expansion have often been met with counter efforts to curb the franchise.”
[…] “To meet the challenge of the current moment, we must rededicate the resources of the Department of Justice to a critical part of its original mission: enforcing federal law to protect the franchise for all voters,” Garland said.
Garland vowed that within the next 30 days, the department would double the enforcement staff in the Civil Rights division. He said that the department will be “scrutinizing” the new laws and existing practices that may infringe on the right to vote.
“Where we see violations, we will not hesitate to act,” he said.
He also previewed plans to publish DOJ guidance on early voting, mail voting, post-election audits and redistricting, as the upcoming redistricting cycle will be the first one without the Voting Rights Act requirement that certain states have their maps vetted by the federal government.
Democrats in Congress are expected in coming months to roll out new legislation to restore the so-called “preclearance” requirement in the VRA, which was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. A separate voting rights bill that would set national standards for ballot access is currently in paralysis in the Senate, where it lacks the votes to overcome a GOP filibuster.
Garland touched on both pieces of legislation, and promised to provide Congress with all “necessary support” as it considers voting measures.
“There are many things that are open to debate in America, but the right of all eligible citizens to vote is not one of them,” Garland said.
A fundraising group led by a host and correspondent from the far-right One America News Network is now covering travel expenses for out-of-state Republican legislators to tour the shambolic “audit” of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election results.
The audit, which was authorized by the GOP-led Arizona Senate and is being led by an inexperienced firm with a CEO who espoused wild conspiracy theories, has become a pilgrimage site for Republican legislators eager to back up Trump’s phony voter fraud grievances — and potentially bring the Arizona model back to their home states.
[…] Voices and Votes is headed up by the former Trump administration official and current OAN host Christina Bobb, who has led the channel’s coverage of the audit, and Chanel Rion, OAN’s White House correspondent. In mid-April, Bobb announced that Voices and Votes had hit its first $150,000 fundraising goal for the audit. A week later, the Arizona Republican Party announced that OAN would provide livestreams of the audit process.
[…] Bobb and Rion’s group hasn’t been shy about its fundraising for the audit, which is accepting private outside donations from the likes of ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and others. As of Friday, donors to Voices and Votes could choose to fund several options on the organization’s website: “General Fund Donation,” “Arizona Election Audit” and simply “Pennsylvania.”
The pro-Trump conspiracy theorist lawyer Lin Wood told TPM in April that his group Fight Back had donated $50,000 to the audit effort through Voices and Votes. Wood also confirmed that Doug Logan, CEO of the audit’s lead contractor, Cyber Ninjas, was at Wood’s home last year “working on the investigation into election fraud” with others. […]
It’s good to know that someone at the Department of Justice is worried about more than whether or not their actions offend Donald Trump. And it’s even better to know that someone can move fast.
On Friday afternoon, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced that the department would open an investigation into the use of subpoenas “and other legal authorities” to obtain phone records of members of Congress. That announcement came just one hour after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who was named to her current position in April after serving as an advisor within the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama, called on the inspector general’s office to investigate. It was also just one hour after Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dick Durbin issued a joint statement calling on former Attorneys General William Barr and Jefferson Sessions to face subpoenas, and to subject themselves to congressional testimony or be “compelled to testify under oath.”
All of this follows news on Thursday evening, that the Department of Justice tried to obtain phone records from the phones of Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Adam Schiff, as well as members of their family. The investigation—supposedly about leaks of classified data from the House Intelligence Committee—came up dry. But that didn’t stop the DOJ from seeking phone records belonging to the representatives’ underage children or their spouses, and it didn’t stop Donald Trump from declaring Schiff guilty despite having no evidence.
Attorney General Merrick Garland is scheduled to meet with leaders of top news organizations on Friday afternoon to discuss both the department’s role in going after Democratic leaders’ records and the ongoing efforts to look into reporters’ phone records. But former Attorney General Barr isn’t waiting. He’s speaking up already—to claim he had nothing to do with it. […]
And there’s this detail:
[…] Despite all the efforts, no evidence was ever found that Schiff or Swalwell ever leaked any information. It’s too bad that as long as the DOJ was deciding to surveil a co-equal branch of government, they didn’t think to look at any Republican members. Because there’s certainly at least one good candidate who has spilled information all over the place.
Mar 22, 2017 — [Devin] Nunes launches the first of several press conferences in which he declares that he has secret information showing that the Obama administration spied on Trump. Then Nunes runs back to Paul Ryan, then he holds a second press conference during which it becomes clear that Nunes is both revealing classified information and sharing that information with the people supposedly under investigation by his committee.
Wonkette: “Is Bill Barr LYING? Or Does He Just Think We’re All Idiots?”
Did Bill Barr lie to reporters just a tiny? Was he less than perfectly honest about his role in wire-tapping Congressmen Schiff and Swalwell in a leak investigation? Would our saintly former attorney general stoop to telling fibs to protect his own reputation?
[…] Here’s how the New York Times described Barr’s role in the inquiry:
But William P. Barr revived languishing leak investigations after he became attorney general a year later. He moved a trusted prosecutor from New Jersey with little relevant experience to the main Justice Department to work on the Schiff-related case and about a half-dozen others, according to three people with knowledge of his work who did not want to be identified discussing federal investigations.
And here’s what he told Politico after the story broke:
In a phone interview, Barr said he didn’t recall getting briefed on the moves.
Uh huh.
NYT:
A CNN report in August 2019 about another leak investigation said prosecutors did not recommend to their superiors that they charge Mr. Comey over memos that he wrote and shared about his interactions with Mr. Trump, which were not ultimately found to contain classified information.
Mr. Barr was wary of how Mr. Trump would react, according to a person familiar with the situation. Indeed, Mr. Trump berated the attorney general, who defended the department, telling the president that there was no case against Mr. Comey to be made, the person said. But an investigation remained open into whether Mr. Comey had leaked other classified information about Russia.
And Politico:
Barr also said that while he was attorney general, he was “not aware of any congressman’s records being sought in a leak case.” He also said Trump never encouraged him to target the Democratic lawmakers in this case.
“He was not aware of who we were looking at in any of the cases,” he said. “I never discussed the leak cases with Trump. He didn’t really ask me any of the specifics.”
UH HUH.
Look, sometimes two things can both be true. But sometimes someone is lying his pathetic ass off and crossing his fingers that the Inspector General will drag this thing out for three years before issuing a report, by which time we’ll all have lost interest.[…]
As for the contention that Barr had NO IDEA whether Trump wanted the DOJ to tapp Schiff and Swalwell’s wires, that’s horseshit on its face.
“Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!” Trump tweeted on February 5, 2018.
And he was still at it two years later on February 22, 2020, snarking, “Just another Shifty Schiff leak. Isn’t there a law about this stuff?”
The man spent his entire presidency howling about leakers and accusing everyone who ever worked for him of revealing classified information based on his own cracked theory that all his utterances were state secrets. Remember that time when the DOJ sued Melania’s former BFF for writing a mean book about her? Are we supposed to believe that Bill Barr never discussed it with anyone at the White House, deciding to devote Department resources to such a pissant garbage claim all on his own? Really? (The suit has since been dropped by Merrick Garland, BTW.)
Barr is the one who parked New Jersey gang prosecutor Osmar Benvenuto over at the national security division so he could work on the leak investigations, and the Times says Benvenuto personally briefed Barr on his progress. Is Jowly Roy Cohn really going with the line that he dispatched this guy to do something, but he had no idea what it was and they never discussed it again?
COME THE FUCK ON, ASSHOLE! Your Wonkette was born on a Tuesday, but it wasn’t last Tuesday.
Wonkette: “Tom Cotton Claims Biden Incited Heretofore Unseen Racism, Sexism In The Military”
Late last month, Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw announced his creation of a “woke ideology whistleblower” site where military personnel could send him their horror stories of being told that racism and sexism exist and are problems for those who experience them.
On Thursday, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas shared some of these findings with the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. With all the heartfelt sincerity in the world, he explained to Lloyd Austin, American’s first black Defense Secretary, that racism and sexism were starting to happen in the military for the first time ever. Why? Because military personnel in some areas are being required to learn about these things and find that uncomfortable.
“We’re hearing reports of plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected retirements and separations based on these trainings alone,” Cotton said to Sec. Austin, hoping for sympathy.
Via Military Times:
Cotton, a former Army infantry captain, detailed a handful of anonymous submissions to the site, set up in partnership with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a retired SEAL lieutenant commander.
One Marine wrote that his unit’s “mandatory military history training was replaced with training on police brutality, white privilege and systemic racism,” Cotton said. “He reported several officers are now leaving this unit citing that training.”
Of course, while service members regularly rotate in and out of units, and sometimes have opportunities to leave a unit early to pursue another role, they are not able to transfer at will.
Continuing, Cotton spoke of a special operations troop who was told “the special operations community is racist”; a soldier who said a general officer referred to “the entire U.S. as racist”; an airman said his or her unit was forced to conduct a “privilege walk,” where troops separated themselves by race and gender to talk about their experiences with privilege; and soldiers “forced to watch videos about systemic racism and “documentaries that rewrite America’s history as a fundamentally racist and evil nation.”
Cotton also cited a response to his website claiming that a freshly recruited Space Force guardian filed separation paperwork saying that joining the armed services amounted to “indoctrination.”
[…] It also seems like they are probably full of shit. As you may recall, no one was required to actually prove that they were in the military in order to fill out this form.
There is, of course, no question that racism and sexism have been very big problems in the military. Notoriously so!
Via Task and Purpose:
Dog whistles aside, there is plenty of evidence that racism and sexism within the ranks actually predates the Biden administration. Task & Purpose has documented 40 cases since 2016 of service members and veterans participating in extremist organizations, such as white supremacist groups.
The Pentagon tried to bury a 2017 survey that found nearly one-third of Black service members who responded said they had experienced racism. Moreover, 30% of Black respondents and 22% of Asian respondents felt their chances for promotion would be harmed if they reported the racial harassment and discrimination that they endured. […]
As for sexism within the military, there are many examples from before Biden took office in January of commands failing to protect female service members from sexual harassment. A review following the April 2020 murder of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén also showed that female soldiers at Fort Hood faced an environment so toxic that they constantly lived in “survival mode”
[…] Racism and sexism are not more rampant now that people have to do diversity training and learn that racism and sexism exist. That is not the issue. The issue is that people who didn’t have to worry about whether or not something they said or did was racist or sexist or consider how something they said might make someone else feel now have to worry about that. And they don’t like it, because having to think about those things makes them uncomfortable […]
This is not a social phenomenon that is unique to the military or even to issues of racism and sexism. We all know people who get away with saying horrible things because no one wants to “make things awkward” by acknowledging it, and we know how aghast those people can get when someone finally does. We’re socialized to feel that the onus for not making things awkward or uncomfortable is on the oppressed or insulted in practically any situation, and people do get uncomfortable when that script is flipped […]
I can only speak to this as a woman, but I know a lot of women who have felt like they had to laugh off sexual harassment, laugh off men groping them or otherwise being grotesque, not only for their own safety, but for everyone’s collective comfort. […] there was a time when women were more likely to plead with me to just let it go than men were. This was a fantastic situation for men, because women were largely policing each other. They weren’t the ones who had to worry about where the boundaries were.
Things like diversity training take away the “Oh, they just don’t know any better” excuse — and with that comes the possibility that people won’t just let things go anymore. Because at the end of the day, what woke means is “paying attention.” And that’s really scary for some people who are used to being able to trust that their comfort will always come first. Because it won’t anymore.
West Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier is speeding up as its ice shelf disintegrates, new research shows.
The Pine Island glacier was already scary. The 160-mile-long river of ice is known as “the weak underbelly” of West Antarctica. It contributes more to sea level rise than any other glacier on the continent and ranks among the fastest melting glaciers in the world.
Unlike other Antarctic glaciers, Pine Island is not sheltered from the warming ocean by a vast expanse of sea ice. The only thing preventing it from flowing directly into the Amundsen Sea embayment is a shelf of floating ice that sticks out from the glacier’s edge. This shelf is like a cork in a bottle, pressing against the stable sides of the bay to contain the tremendous pressure at its back.
But the ice shelf is tearing itself apart. It has lost one-fifth of its mass in the last five years, shedding icebergs the size of cities. Rifts have opened up in the center of the shelf, potentially adding to the instability.
Now the world has a whole new reason to worry about Pine Island. According to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances, the glacier is flowing toward the ocean 12 percent faster than at the start of 2017 — a result of the weakened ice shelf’s inability to act like plug.
If this disintegration continues, “the whole shelf could potentially fall apart in the next few years, which is greatly faster than what we expected,” said Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory who co-wrote the new report.
The loss of the ice shelf would accelerate Pine Island’s decline even further. The faster it flows, the more ice it spits into the ocean, raising sea levels. The glacier already adds a sixth of a millimeter to sea level rise each year; but losing the ice shelf could double or triple that rate, Joughin said. Pine Island contains roughly 180 trillion tons of ice — enough to cause 1.6 feet of sea level rise.
[…] Previously, scientists had focused on the slow but steady thinning of the ice shelf as warm ocean waters seep underneath it. This melting makes ice shelves more vulnerable to collapse during the Antarctic summer, when high temperatures cause melting on the surface. But, since temperatures in West Antarctica are rarely more than a few degrees above freezing, that process was expected to take centuries to unfold.
What’s happening now is much faster and less predictable, Joughin said. It appears that the rapid slide of the glacier is creating fractures in the ice shelf, which leads to more pieces breaking off, or “calving.” […]
Pine Island’s ice shelf used to calve every four to six years, according to NASA, but since 2017 it has lost huge chunks of ice every year. Radar instruments on board the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites capture images of the glacier every six days, even amid the months-long darkness of Antarctic winter. This allows scientists to watch the ice shelf break up in almost real time.
NASA scientists flew over one of Pine Island’s newly formed bergs in 2018. Even from 1,500 feet, the Seattle-sized fragment took up the researcher’s entire field of vision. “It was spectacular and inspiring and humbling at the same time,” Brooke Medley, deputy project scientist for Operation Ice Bridge, said in a blog post from the agency.
Just two years later, more bergs broke off along the ice shelf’s “shear margin,” where it attaches to thicker ice along the sides of the bay.
It’s as if the cork in the bottle containing Pine Island glacier is crumbling. Having lost contact with the sides of the bay, the shelf is giving way to the river of ice behind it. […]
In December, Katie Logan called the police in this Minneapolis suburb to unearth a buried secret: Her high school physics teacher had sexually assaulted her two decades earlier, she said. She was 17 and had just graduated from a school run by a small Christian group called People of Praise. He was 35 at the time, a widely admired teacher and girls’ basketball coach who lived in a People of Praise home for celibate men.
Logan told police she reported the June 2001 incident to a dean at the school five years after it happened. Police records show the dean believed Logan and relayed the complaint to at least one other senior school official.
But the teacher, Dave Beskar, remained at Trinity School at River Ridge until 2011, when he was hired to lead a charter school in Arizona. In 2015, he returned to the Minneapolis area to become headmaster of another Christian school. Beskar denies that any inappropriate sexual activity took place.
“People of Praise leaders failed me,” Logan, 37, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I think they wanted to protect themselves more than they wanted to protect me and other girls.”
Logan was encouraged to go to police by a founder of “PoP Survivors,” a Facebook group formed last fall after the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, who has deep roots in People of Praise and who served on the board of its schools years after Beskar left. Barrett’s ascendancy to the nation’s highest court has forced a painful reckoning in People of Praise, an insular Christian community that emphasizes traditional gender roles. The former members are now demanding that the group acknowledge their suffering and that it mishandled complaints, prompting People of Praise to hire two law firms to investigate allegations of abuse.
The Post interviewed nine people in the Facebook group — all but one of them women — who said they were sexually abused as children, as well as another man who says he was physically abused. In four of those cases, the people said the alleged abuse was reported to community leaders. Logan gave The Post recorded statements and other documents from the police investigation of her complaint.
[…] People of Praise grew out of the charismatic Christian movement of the early 1970s, which adopted practices described in the New Testament of the Bible, including speaking in tongues, the use of prophecy and faith healing. The group says it has 1,700 members across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
Barrett, who was raised in a People of Praise community in Louisiana, has long been active in the branch in the South Bend area, where she was a student at Notre Dame Law School. Barrett lived for a time with People of Praise co-founder Kevin Ranaghan and his wife, Dorothy, Dorothy Ranaghan has confirmed. A People of Praise 2010 directory shows Barrett served as a “handmaid,” a key female adviser to another female member. Barrett served on the Trinity Schools board, whose members must belong to People of Praise, from 2015 to 2017.
[…] “I am not questioning whether she is a brilliant legal mind,” said one former member, Sarah Mitchell Kuehl. “It’s more her association with this repressive organization that worries me and how it will impact her ability to be impartial knowing what I grew up with and the mind-set.”
Kuehl said she was molested as a young child by a man who was staying with her family in the Minneapolis area in the late 1970s. They were members of Servants of the Light, a charismatic Christian group that merged with People of Praise in the early 1980s. Both groups’ practices include communal living, in which single people often live “in household” with families, and families often reside in clusters.
[…] Kuehl filed a civil claim against McAlpin when she was 17 in 1990. The following year, in a psychological assessment required as part of an agreement to settle the case, he acknowledged abusing a minor in the 1970s roughly 20 times. The assessment, which Kuehl provided to The Post, recommended that McAlpin receive treatment for pedophilia.
[…] Women in the Facebook group recalled childhood warnings from parents and teachers that wearing revealing clothing would tempt the opposite sex. They were responsible for warding off sexual advances from men, the women said they were told.
“For so long, I felt like I did something wrong, and that I should be embarrassed and ashamed,” said Grundhofer, 47, who only recently told her parents she was molested around age 4. “I finally realized I didn’t do anything wrong.”
People of Praise is led by an all-male board of governors. Younger adults are assigned a “head” of the same sex to guide them on spiritual and secular matters. Husbands typically take over as heads of their wives; wives do not become heads for their husbands. […]
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has been suspended from YouTube over videos he posted about COVID-19 that violated the company’s policy on medical misinformation.
Johnson made the comments at a Milwaukee Press Club event held earlier this month. He was reportedly suspended from YouTube after uploading clips from the event.
“We removed the video in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don’t allow content that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus,” said a spokesperson for YouTube in a written statement.
YouTube’s company policy bans any content “that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.” The policy specifically bans videos that recommend Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 unless it includes “context that gives equal or greater weight to countervailing views from local health authorities or to medical or scientific consensus.”
Johnson has been a vocal advocate for Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 despite warnings from the medical community that the drugs are ineffective and could have averse side effects….
The full, unedited video of Johnson’s remarks covering a wide range of topics remains on the Milwaukee Press Club YouTube page.
blfsays
Follow-up to @159: Two more electionerroring propagandas plopped through the letterbox recently. One is from teh le penazis, with at least three of their four main “promises” xenophobic (control the border, insult Algiers, and keep Turkey out of the EU), plus a fourth one I haven’t decoded, but which may be save our statues! They are still pushing their twisted version of localism, which, e.g., in the sane world means, regarding food, locally-produced, but in their loony little loos, means no foreigners since they aren’t local. And something about defending xians in the Middles East from rampaging moolsin hordes. Normally I recycle the propagandas, but this one gets shredded. (And in what seems to be this year’s theme, five of the six pictured candidates have no idea at all how to simile — they all appear to scowl all the time — and so look like either vampires crazed by being out in the sunlight, or the stereotypical skulls mounted on posts.)
The other propagandas is from some Socialist-Green outfit (or at least that’s how they refer to themselves), and lists a lot of issues, most of which seem sensible (ecologically-responsible transport and power with lasting jobs, etc.). One individual hasn’t figured out smiling, and another looks like a professor who’d like to be smoking a pipe whilst pontificating.
● Eric Metaxas was booted from YouTube, which he apparently thinks is very similar to what happened to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was killed by the Nazis: I’ve written about so many heroes of the faith that have stood against this, so I cannot shrink from what comes to my doorstep.
● Scott Lively says the rainbow flag is an effort to sanitize the abomination of male homosexuality and that’s why, in the End Days, the association of the rainbow with the Antichrist is so connected.
● Larry Gaiters claims that Tiger Woods’ car accident was an attempted assassination by the deep state, which wanted to silence him before he exposed the Biden family’s ties to GameStop. [one of the comments from the associated twittering thread: “Like if you are going to make up a conspiracy theory at least make it make sense” –blf]
[…]
● Gordon Klingenschmitt warns that the Biden administration is actively recruiting lesbians into the military because they want a demonic military to help the Antichrist rise and take over the world.
Demonic Lesbians world “rulers” (ignoring the military bit) might be worth a try, or possibly a band name.
Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee tabled legislation that would ban tech companies from owning a business that competes with other products or services on their platforms, among other measures.
[…]
“Unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy,” said Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, who led the panel’s 16-month investigation into the power of four giant technology platforms: Apple, Facebook Inc., Amazon and Google.
The panel concluded that the four companies are abusing their dominance in digital markets to thwart competition. “Our agenda will level the playing field and ensure the wealthiest, most powerful tech monopolies play by the same rules as the rest of us,” Cicilline said.
“Big Tech has abused its dominance in the marketplace to crush competitors, censor speech, and control how we see and understand the world,” said Representative Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican.
The bill is part of a package of legislation with bipartisan support aimed at giving antitrust enforcers new legal tools to take on dominant tech firms that have been accused of quashing competition in digital markets.
The measures would also make it harder for large technology companies to win approval for mergers and place additional restrictions on how they run their platforms.
The legislative package was praised by antitrust experts who say tech giants have used their power to insulate themselves from competitive threats and that existing law is inadequate to challenge the companies.
Charlotte Slaiman, competition policy director at Public Knowledge in Washington, said the bills would go a long way toward opening digital markets to competition.
“Now platforms can discriminate in ways where it’s almost impossible to put competitive pressure on them,” she said. “If we take those tools of control away, then they’re not going to to be able to protect their gatekeeper positions and great new products will be able to have a fair shake.”
[…]
The bill targeting mergers would make it much harder for tech companies to win antitrust approval for deals. It would deem acquisitions illegal unless the companies can show the deal isn’t a threat to competition. That’s a significant change to existing law, which puts the burden on the government to prove a deal is anticompetitive. Under the proposal, the onus would shift to the companies and give the government a leg up in winning cases in court.
The proposal on banning some businesses targets one of the main complaints about the big tech companies: that their business models create inherent conflicts by running vast marketplaces that other companies depend on to reach consumers, while at the same time competing against some of those companies with their own offerings.
Cicilline proposed legislation that would impose non-discrimination provisions on the tech platforms preventing them from putting products and services from competitors at a disadvantage. It would also prohibit them from denying rivals access to their platforms.
One of the provisions in Cicilline’s bill appears aimed at Apple and Google’s mobile-operating systems. It bans platforms from making it difficult or impossible for users to un-install software applications that have been pre-installed or to change default settings that steer users to their products.
Complaint by Lebanon-based NGO accuses Ahmed al-Raisi, a candidate for president of Interpol, of playing role in torture of jailed activist Ahmed Mansoor.
An NGO campaigning for human rights in the Gulf has filed a complaint in France against a top UAE official running to be president of Interpol, accusing him of being responsible for the torture of a prominent dissident, its lawyer said on Friday.
The Lebanon-based Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) filed its complaint against Major General Ahmed al-Raisi, inspector general at the UAE interior ministry, at a Paris court on Monday.
The complaint accuses al-Raisi, who is a member of Interpol’s executive committee, of being responsible for “torture and barbaric acts” against the prominent UAE dissident Ahmed Mansoor who it says is being held in an Abu Dhabi jail in “mediaeval conditions”.
Mansoor was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in prison the following year on charges of criticising the UAE authorities and tarnishing the image of the country on social media.
Amnesty International describes Mansoor as a prisoner of conscience.
[… mercifully short description of the horrific conditions of Mansoor’s confinement…]
Al-Raisi was accused last year of being responsible for the torture of a British academic and a football fan.
He is regarded as a possible figure to become president of the France-based global police body, Interpol, when candidacies are presented at its general meeting in November, a prospect that has horrified activists.
In a joint statement last month, Human Rights Watch and the GCHR warned that his candidacy “may jeopardise the global police organisation’s commitment to its human rights obligations”.
[… William Bourdon, lawyer for GCHR,] said an “imminent visit” of al-Raisi to France as “part of his (Interpol) campaign” could make prosecution in France possible on the basis of universal jurisdiction.
French judicial authorities can in theory judge crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture under universal jurisdiction if suspects are on French territory, regardless of where the crimes took place.
[…]
A digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal.
In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support Green party candidates.
Facebook was aware of the true identity of the advertiser — the conservative marketing firm Rally Forge — and the deceptive nature of the ads, documents seen by the Guardian show, but the company determined that they did not violate its policies.
Rally Forge would go on to set up a pro-Trump domestic “troll farm” for Turning Point Action, a “sister” organization of Turning Point USA, in 2020, earning a permanent ban from Facebook.
“There were no policies at Facebook against pretending to be a group that did not exist, an abuse vector that has also been used by the governments of Honduras and Azerbaijan,” said Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower who played a small role in the investigation of the Green party ads.
She added: “The fact that Rally Forge later went on to conduct coordinated inauthentic behavior with troll farms reminiscent of Russia should be taken as an indication that Facebook’s leniency led to more risk-taking behavior.”
[…]
Many many more details at the link, including a highly-dubious non-investigation by the FEC.
[…] Next week, a national online meeting of US bishops will discuss whether the president and other high-profile political figures should be denied the sacraments because of his stance on abortion rights.
How can he say he’s a devout Catholic and he’s doing these things that are contrary to the church’s teaching? archbishop Joseph Naumann, chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) committee on pro-life activities, asked last month. Biden’s position was a grave moral evil which presents a unique problem for the church, Naumann said.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading conservative and critic of Pope Francis, has gone further, saying that politicians who “publicly and obstinately” support abortion are “apostates” who should not only be barred from receiving communion but deserve excommunication.
At this point a reminder that most of the Supreme Court justices are also members of the raping children cult (at least six of the nine). The article and quotes presume the threats are mostly directed at Biden, but…
[…]
Father Gillespie’s [“of Holy Trinity in Washington, the church Biden usually attends in the capital”] public defence of Biden attending Mass has drawn angry phone calls, letters and emails. He told the Guardian it seemed best to refrain from speaking further on the matter, but said the president “has and will be welcomed to receive the Holy Eucharist” at his church.
[…]
Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said […] “The proposal to exclude Biden and all election officials who support legal abortion from communion is an effort on the part of conservative bishops to shore up their base of regular Mass-goers who are the life blood of the church. But exclusionary ecclesial policies will only lead to greater defection from the pews […].”
Michael Budde, professor of Catholic studies and political science at DePaul University in Chicago, said barring Biden from communion “will be rightly seen as a move of desperation, an attempt to coerce what has not been won by persuasion or dialogue”.
[…]
A scathing editorial in the National Catholic Reporter earlier this month said the “tragic reality” of proceeding with the proposal was that “it will seal the deal on the branding of Catholicism in the United States as a culture war project. […]”
Professor Chesnut also ties the move to internal cult politics, in particular, opposition to the Vatican’s “relatively liberal” alleged stance on various issues (i.e., only slightly to the right of, e.g., teh le penazis (see @274), which is far far too leftish).
[…]
A Republican politician who on Thursday became the first representative ever expelled from the Oregon state house said the people he covertly let into the state capitol in December were mostly blue-haired old ladies.
In fact they were far-right agitators, among them members of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group often involved in street violence, and people toting guns and Confederate flags and wearing militia regalia. Some attacked law enforcement officers with bear spray. Outside, reporters were assaulted and doors broken. Police struggled to force the rioters back.
Widely seen CCTV footage from 21 December, when the state legislature was in special session and closed to the public, showed Republican Mike Nearman opening a door for agitators there to protest against coronavirus-related public health measures.
[…]
Representatives of both parties called for Nearman to quit. Then, this month, new video surfaced in which Nearman described how the covert entry would work — and how he would deny knowledge if confronted.
[…]
On Thursday, Nearman was ejected from the state House by a vote of 59–1 [only Nearman himself voted against his explusion –blf]. His seat will probably remain empty until the end of the session, later this month.
In May, he was arraigned on “charges of official misconduct and criminal trespass”.
You’re considering expelling a member, for the first time in history, because he thinks that people should have access to their Capitol, especially during session, Nearman said. After this session, we’re all going to go out to dinner or stop at the grocery store, or maybe tomorrow we’ll shop and buy clothes or get our oil change, because all these places are open, but not this building.
Yes, those are the sorts of thing one does when carrying Shooty McShootfaces, wearing military combat gear, waving pro-slavery flags, and spraying people with bear spray. “Anyone fancy a curry?”
[…] Speaking before the special House committee, the lawmaker[breaker] repeatedly suggested that leading Democrats had violated the constitution by closing the Capitol to the general public; a step meant to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Expelling me will not make the building any safer, Nearman said in a prepared statement. What will make everyone safer is if legislative leadership, beginning with the Speaker and the Senate president, admit that what happened in this building on December 21st was wrong and never should have happened. They never should have excluded the public from the public’s building.
[…]
Americans who survive a terrorist attack should get an automatic one-year deferment on their federal student loan payments, according to a bill introduced by Marco Rubio […]
[…]
Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how “terrorist attack” is defined in the legislation, and which mass shootings or other violent attacks would count as “terrorist attacks”.
Some of the reactions to Rubio’s bill were strongly negative, with commenters suggesting the policy proposal was an insulting response to America’s sweeping student loan crisis.
[…]
More than 40 million Americans have federal student loan debt. They owe an average of $39,406 each, according to EducationData.org.
In recent years, the number of victims killed annually in US domestic terrorism attacks has ranged from 22 to 66 people, according to data assembled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“This is nice, but if Senator Rubio were actually seriously interested in safety and giving relief to survivors, he would back commonsense gun legislation like HR 8,” Christopher Zoeller, 19, the Florida state director for March for Our Lives, a youth gun violence prevention group, said in a statement to the Guardian.
“He didn’t do it after Pulse, he didn’t do it after Parkland, and he still hasn’t done it today. We can see right through this gimmick.”
[… F]rom Hogarth’s Gin Lane, right through to the pasty tax, politicians have scored political points around food, as a distraction from more important matters, such as whether children get fed.
Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple in February 2018 for data on 73 phone numbers and 36 email address as part of the Trump Justice Department’s investigation into leaks of classified information, according to multiple reports.
The New York Times reported on Friday that Apple said it had received the Justice Department’s grand jury subpoena on Feb. 6, 2018, but that the request had not disclosed information about the nature of the investigation or its targets. According to the Times, the company said it was only later that it learned the information it had handed over belonged to at least two Democratic lawmakers, staffers and their families, including a minor.
The new details about just how many phone numbers and emails had been included in the request, come after the Times reported earlier on Friday that the Justice Department had issued the subpoena as part of its investigation into leaks of classified information. Two California Democrats, Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, said they received notice last month that their data had been seized.
They were informed after a gag order that had previously been extended three times, expired this year and the company was finally able to alert the affected customers.
A person familiar with the request told CNN that the subpoena had demanded information from the tech giant beginning with the opening of the targeted accounts through the date of the subpoena. [!!!]
An Apple spokesperson said no information had been provided in the subpoena about the nature of the probe.
“In this case, the subpoena, which was issued by a federal grand jury and included a nondisclosure order signed by a federal magistrate judge, provided no information on the nature of the investigation and it would have been virtually impossible for Apple to understand the intent of the desired information without digging through users’ accounts,” Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said in a statement.
Sainz added that consistent with the request, “Apple limited the information it provided to account subscriber information and did not provide any content such as emails or pictures.”
The statement from Apple comes as the Justice Department’s independent inspector general announced on Friday an investigation into the decision by federal prosecutors to secretly seize the data of House Democrats and reporters amid earlier revelations that the Justice Department had also seized communication records from several journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) demanded on Friday that the former attorneys general William P. Barr and Jeff Sessions testify before Congress about the leak investigations, specifically about the subpoena issued to Apple and another to Microsoft.
I really want to know who in the DOJ persuaded a grand jury to authorize subpoenas against members of Congress who were known political opponents of Trump. There’s a lot here in the background that needs to be made public. DOJ’s inherent tendencies for secrecy.
—————-
Apple is just the tip of the iceberg. Revelations from Microsoft are next. Then Google. And others.
But this was no “leak probe”; it was a political fishing expedition. Barr was after dirt on Trump’s political enemies, and wanted whatever he could get: private gossip, compromising texts, questionable photographs, financial transactions, how much they knew of Nunes’ treachery, even re-electoral strategy and pending legislative maneuvering…
Make no mistake – this was pure political ratf*ckery under the cover story of a leak probe.
The revelations yet to come will shock even those among us who believe their capacity to be shocked has been exhausted.
———————-
No disagreement about it being a fishing expedition, but this was 2018 so it was Sessions as AG until November of that year. Barr picked up the ball and ran with it, but it started with Sessions.
———————
how many Republicans will be targets of the probe? I will venture a guess and say zero.
——————–
The subpoenas were for metadata, date, time, call duration, calling / contacted party, and location. Not content.
So it could be used simply to confirm whether person A ever phoned person B. But the cell tower location is insidious. With a cell location, you can cast a net to figure out, for example, who else has been to the same coffee shop as Adam Schiff. Data companies like Palantir crunch this data for ICE, to track down people through their friend network.
On a fishing expedition, you could look for blackmail fodder. Or simply find more associates to question or intimidate.
I’d like to see what other information was subpoenaed in this so-called investigation.
———————–
Seeking info from account creation through today does seem like a bit of a fishing expedition doesn’t it?
——————
Barr resurrected it all AFTER Sessions DOJ found nothing illegal, and was ready to put it to bed permanently. Barr KNEW definitively, that nothing was amiss. That’s how we know his actions are DEFINITELY abuse of power.
—————–
Massive crunching of metadata is incredibly intrusive. But it flies under the radar, not noticed or understood by the public. I would like people to be alarmed!
When Donald Trump wanted to talk about the investigation being conducted into how his campaign colluded with Russian agents, he used a term that was meant to demean and delegitimize. He called it “spying.” Trump also accused the Obama administration of “wiretapping” his offices, which—no matter what Trump says—was in no sense true. But as more information emerges about the efforts of the DOJ to chase down supposed intelligence leaks, it’s hard to think of more appropriate terms. The Justice Department may not have been technically spying, and seeking to crack open metadata from cell phones isn’t really wiretapping, but the DOJ was absolutely surveilling member of Congress and their families, including their minor children.
Unlike the investigation of Trump, which was begun because the intelligence community was presented with evidence that Trump’s team was engaging in efforts to gain Russian assistance in altering the outcome of the election, the effort to obtain phone data from California Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, as well as members of their families, seems to have been launched for no reason other than because Trump wanted it so. And, despite spending weeks finding no evidence, subpoenas were issued at least three times. Then the effort was revived months later and additional resources were added.
As might be expected, Republicans are already being dismissive about the whole affair, with multiple claims that investigating Congress over potential intelligence leaks is nothing new. However, attempting to obtain phone records of Congress members without their knowledge is certainly a new thing—much less trying to get the records of their spouses and children. It’s clear that the DOJ went to extraordinary efforts to find something they could bring back to Trump as evidence that either Swalwell or Schiff had done something wrong.
[…] Former attorney general Jefferson Sessions says he didn’t start it. Former attorney general Bill Barr says he didn’t know about it. One of these men is absolutely lying. The other may be. But there’s a third man who almost certainly was involved in both the beginning and the end of this effort to … sure, why not … to spy on the families of representatives. That man is former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
[…] The statement from Sessions is vaguely possible. Sessions recused himself from DOJ activities related to the Russia investigation in March of 2017, earning Trump’s undying rage in the process. Since the information released was connected to that investigation, it’s possible that Sessions was not involved. […]
On the other hand, the statement from Barr is, as might be expected, pure bullshit. As has been widely reported, Barr was not only aware of the investigations, he revived them when he took office in 2018. Even though attempts to pin intelligence leaks on Congress had come up dry, and investigators were indicating that the whole thing was a dead end, Barr expanded the investigation. He added more staff and brought in a prosecutor expressly to handle the leak investigations. […]
Like hell, Bill Barr “can’t recall.”
And then there’s Rosenstein. […] Rosenstein has “refused to comment.” […]
There was a time in the spring of 2017 when Rosenstein seemed like the one person at the DOJ who was holding some semblance of justice together. He authorized the Mueller investigation after Sessions recused himself. […]
But by the spring of 2018, Rosenstein appeared desperate to show he was fully on Team Trump. He instructed the DOJ to increase prosecutions of refugee families. […] it was Rosenstein who argued that children should be separated from parents, even if they were infants. That fall, Rosenstein was reportedly crying after a call to Trump and then-chief of staff John Kelly, in which it appeared he might be forced to resign. He begged for his position, telling Trump that “I can land the plane,” and suggested that keeping him in place gave the Russia investigation “credibility.”
Once Barr came on board, Rosenstein was reliably at his elbow, providing cover for Barr’s actions. That included signing off on the conclusion that Donald Trump not be charged with obstruction in spite of the mountains of evidence in support of that charge.
Rosenstein left in 2019, but he didn’t pass into obscurity. He went to work as a partner at white-shoe law firm King & Spaulding, where he is in charge of “special matters and government investigations.” […]
Far from being run out of town, Rosenstein was helped into a nice, soft, lucrative position at a firm with deep connections to Trump. A firm which counts the Trump Organization as one of its largest clients. […]
It’s obvious that Rosenstein must had done a lot to earn that spot. And it’s obvious that he needs to testify.
He can start by answering questions about his knowledge of the effort to secure the phones of sitting representatives and their families. Sessions might claim ignorance. Barr might feign forgetfulness.
The article was written for The Washington Post by Sarah Pulliam Bailey.
Demands for political loyalty. Disputes about racism. A fight between conservatives and ultraconservatives. It sounds like current debates within the Republican Party, but on Tuesday, thousands of Southern Baptists will gather in Nashville to vote on issues that will shape the massive denomination’s future, including the choice of its next president. [And it’s support for Republican politicians.]
[…] infighting at the highest levels of leadership that has become public in recent weeks. New details released to news media outlets have shined a light on the backroom dealings of several of its high-profile leaders.
Russell Moore, who previously led the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm, recently left his position and his church for a new position at Christianity Today magazine. On his way out, two letters he sent to SBC leadership were leaked to media, in which Moore described a culture of racism and mishandling of sexual abuse claims.
[…] The Washington Post interviewed a dozen employees of SBC institutions, as well as five pastors, all of whom said they could not speak openly about what has taken place without jeopardizing their jobs.
One Black pastor has decided to share his removal earlier this year from his job as director of information technology at the SBC’s missions and church planting institution, the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
Tez Andrews, who also serves as an SBC pastor in Atlanta, said that in March, he published a Facebook post about one of the candidates running to be SBC’s president, Mike Stone, who spoke on a podcast against critical race theory (CRT), an intellectual framework used to examine systemic racism in the United States.
NAMB, which poured $130 million into SBC churches in 2020, is a powerful force within the convention, because it decides how to distribute money to things such as relief efforts and church planters […]
Stone compared people who use CRT as a framework to Catholics, Methodists and Pentecostals — Christians with whom Baptists have major theological differences and who cannot be in the SBC. He compared CRT to issues of women’s ordination and LGBT-endorsing churches. […] “If one group in the Southern Baptist Convention believes that critical race theory is a helpful tool but another group believes it is completely incompatible with the Bible and ultimately destructive to our gospel efforts, there can be union, but there cannot be true biblical unity,” Stone said.
Andrews responded to Stone on Facebook: “Critical Race Theory is a theory and a model that helps predict systemic race issues in society. Mike Stone and people like him are afraid of losing their supremacist position.”
[…] “They basically said, ‘You disrespected Mike Stone, so you’re gone,’” said Andrews, who will attend the Nashville meeting. “To me, it’s the good-ol’-boy system.” […]
Andrews said NAMB leaders told him it would invest money in his lower-income community, yet he is still waiting for the money to come through. When Andrews negotiated his severance, NAMB leaders had Andrews sign a nondisclosure agreement and a nondisparagement clause, which Andrews signed. It said he agreed to not say anything bad about NAMB. […]
Another person recently singled out for speaking out about SBC issues is Jamie Ivey, a prominent Southern Baptist Bible teacher and podcaster. […] Two people involved said the decision was made because leaders were concerned that Ivey calls herself a preacher and that she and her husband drink alcohol. (NAMB has a policy that doesn’t allow its church planters to consume alcohol.)
Caught in a culture war, this multiracial family navigates a predominantly White evangelical world.
[…] The transactional nature of the denomination allows pastors and lay members to financially benefit from things such as pastors’ health insurance and reduced tuition rates at its schools. […]
[…] Donald Trump’s Justice Department subpoenaed communications records of federal lawmakers and their families — including those of a minor — in 2017 and 2018, in stunningly aggressive leak investigations targeting prominent Trump critics. This news comes on top of the recent revelations that federal investigators sought similar data about journalists who reported on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and the subsequent investigation into Kremlin meddling. In both cases, the department obtained gag orders preventing the targets from learning that the government was seizing their personal information.
[…] The public is only just learning about the extraordinary aggressiveness with which the department pursued these investigations, with little apparent regard for the separation of powers or press freedom, as Mr. Trump applied pressure on his aides to get tough on leakers. There is a lot the public does not know. But, along with the Justice Department’s secret pursuit of journalists at Trump-disfavored outlets such as The Post, the Times and CNN, the latest revelations indicate that Trump officials used the Justice Department for political purposes to a degree unknown since the Nixon administration. They point to how much worse the abuse of law enforcement powers could have gotten — or could get — in a second Trump term. As his four years wore on, Mr. Trump got better at weeding out or sidelining conscientious officials in favor of those more willing to do his bidding, with results that were both visible and, at the time, invisible.
While in office, Mr. Barr objected to the notion that he helped Mr. Trump’s friends and hounded the then-president’s enemies. “What enemies have I indicted?” he asked during 2020 House testimony. Well, he apparently went after Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee chairman who led the first Trump impeachment. When that is added to the favors Mr. Barr did for criminal Trump allies, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn and presidential confidant Roger Stone, the judgment that Mr. Trump’s Justice Department willingly and crudely served his personal political interests appears more warranted than ever.
Attorney General Merrick Garland should provide further transparency on these subpoenas. Then he must ensure that the right rules are in place to prevent the department’s vast law enforcement tools from being used as cudgels against any president’s political enemies or journalists. Congress may need to legislate to ensure that future attorneys general cannot simply cancel whatever standards Mr. Garland sets. His top priority must be repairing the reputation of the Justice Department after four years of assault on the principle that investigations and prosecutions should be free of political interference.
Germany on Saturday urged parties involved in trying to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to move quickly as indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. over the Obama-era deal resumed in Europe.
“Playing for time is in no-one’s interest,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Reuters in an interview.
The European Union, along with Iran, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany, met in Vienna, Austria for a sixth round of talks on the deal, which limited Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions being lifted.
[…] Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and reinstated sanctions, prompting Tehran to increase its nuclear production.
EU foreign policy official Enrique Mora, who is the lead coordinator of the talks, is serving as the intermediary between Iran and the U.S. as Iran has refused to negotiate with the U.S. in-person, according to Reuters.
An EU spokesperson told reporters that “negotiations are intense” and that several issues, including how to carry out the plan once finalized, still remain, Reuters reported.
Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov said that while he would like to see a plan organized quickly, he wants to make sure the final product is worth the wait.
“All participants reiterated their determination to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion. All of us want to do it ASAP, but the quality of an outcome document comes first,” Ulyanov tweeted on Saturday. […]
Adding to pressures to get an agreement coordinated, GOP senators introduced legislation on Friday that would require Senate approval for any deals done with Iran regarding their nuclear program. If passed, the move could complicate President Biden’s ability to negotiate a deal with Iran through his administration.
[…] Cut to the 2020 presidential election and, according to a forthcoming book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender titled “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” then-President Trump angrily interrupted a policy meeting in the Oval Office to vent about Joe Biden by allegedly asking, “How am I losing in the polls to a mental retard?”
[…] To paraphrase Peter Quill [a character in the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy”]
[…] If Trump truly wants to know why he lost, he must become self-aware enough to point a finger at himself. He has to be willing to accept some of the blame. And if he can get that far — against all evidence to the contrary at the moment — then he must ask himself what percentage of the 2020 vote he might have cost himself. […]
A number of Republicans with whom I’ve spoken believe that Trump’s bombastic, bullying, unpresidential antics probably cost him as much as 10 percent of the vote. […]
In 2020, Trump made the person in the mirror his No. 1 enemy. Because of self-sabotage, he surely knows who and what cost him reelection. He needs to accept that answer and move on with his life.
Last year, […] Donald J. Trump angrily rejected global cooperation on health, pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization and asserting an “America First” approach to the pandemic and other global health concerns.
Not anymore.
At the G-7 summit on Saturday, President Biden pushed for a more unified approach to combating the pandemic, and urged his counterparts to embrace cooperation aimed at building up the world’s health care infrastructure so it will be able to respond more quickly to future emergencies.
One of Mr. Biden’s first actions as president was to rejoin the W.H.O. After more than a year of coronavirus-induced human hardship and economic woes, the leaders gathered at the Group of 7 summit are expected to sign a declaration on global health intended to ensure that the pandemic’s toll is never repeated.
The Carbis Bay declaration, named for the location of the summit, is described by the organizers as a “historic statement setting out a series of concrete commitments to prevent any repeat of the human and economic devastation wreaked by coronavirus.”
It will be one of a series of actions taken during the G7 in response to the pandemic, which has dominated the summit’s agenda much in the way it has loomed over most major events of the last year. As part of their declaration, the seven nations will not only confront the current crisis with one billion doses of vaccine for less developed nations, but they will pledge to take steps to decrease the chances of a future global health crisis.
Those include cutting the time it takes to approve vaccines to under 100 days, a period that is considered critical for containing the spread of a virus, and reinforcing the world’s ability to track and sequence diseases. In addition, Britain will create the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Center to accelerate the creation of vaccines for diseases that are transferred from livestock to humans.
[…] Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, said his organization will welcome the move.
“Together we need to build on the significant scientific and collaborative response to the Covid-19 pandemic and find common solutions to address many of the gaps identified,” he said in a statement, noting that the world needed a stronger global surveillance system to more quickly detect the risks of pandemics.
[…] my main impression or the moral I took away from the story, which was published in Bloomberg. I stopped at, and dwelled on, this passage: “He’ll show up to anything. In recent weeks, Trump has popped into engagement parties and memorial services. A Mar-a-Lago member who recently attended a club gathering for a deceased friend was surprised when Trump sauntered in to deliver remarks and then hung around.”
Sounds to me like a man with an underfed appetite for attention. Sounds like a glutton yanked away from the buffet.
[…] Trump’s is a tale of how much a man will do to be noticed, how much he can do with that notice and — the current chapter — what happens when that notice ebbs. Yes, he personifies the American obsessions with wealth and with power. But more than that, he personifies the American obsession with fame.
It’s an obsession now starved. Facebook revoked Trump’s access. Twitter, too. He no longer leads the news every hour on CNN and MSNBC, and there are now newspaper front pages aplenty without his name in any headline.
So he sates himself with funerals. And he fumes. […]
When Trump ventured south, a stream of family members (literal and figurative) followed. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner bought a $32 million waterfront lot in Miami from the Latin crooner Julio Iglesias and enrolled their kids at a nearby Jewish day school. Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, bought a $9.7 million mansion in Jupiter, Fla. In December, Sean Hannity sold his penthouse not far from former House speaker — and Trump critic — John Boehner’s place along the Gulf of Mexico and bought a $5.3 million seaside home two miles from Mar-a-Lago, symbolically swapping the Boehner Coast for the Trump Coast. Hannity’s Fox News colleague Neil Cavuto joined him, buying a $7.5 million place nearby. “Think about how utterly bizarre that is,” says Eddie Vale, a Democratic strategist. “It’s like if Rachel Maddow and the ‘Pod Save America’ guys all bought condos in Chicago because they wanted to be close to Barack Obama.”
[…] According to an article in The Times by Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman, he has taken to announcing the states he plans to visit before the actual venues and dates have been arranged. In his head he can probably already hear that magic MAGA applause. It’s stuck there like the chorus of a Top 40 song, but he wants it performed live, in an arena as mammoth as his neediness.
[…] His demonization of Liz Cheney for crossing him, his denunciation of Paul Ryan for dissing him and his savaging of any Republican who challenges the Big Lie reflect a ruinous petulance that is bound to wax, not wane, as his exile grinds on. As Jennifer Senior wrote in a column in The Times in January about repudiated narcissists, they “lurch between the role of victim and tormentor,” “howl on and on about betrayal” and “lash out with a mighty vindictiveness.”
[…] Green’s portrait of Trump on the far side of the White House mentions that he’s “taken to wearing the same outfit for days on end.” It’s red (a MAGA hat), white (a golf shirt) and blue (slacks) […]
[…] they’re in jail, because they believed the most prolific liar in American history had an election stolen from him, and would have their six if they just stormed the Capitol to steal it back.
Maybe this dude should just get alleged multibillionaire Donald Trump to send him some Doan’s pills, instead of wailing to the blessed ether about his all-too-preventable fate.
A Kansas Proud Boy charged in the Capitol riot has asked a judge to release him from jail due to chronic back pain – a condition, prosecutors say, which didn’t prevent him from allegedly wielding an axe handle against police outside the Capitol.
William Chrestman, 47, was arrested in February along with four others connected to the Kansas City chapter of the Proud Boys. Photos from the Capitol riot appear to show Chrestman in tactical gear and a respirator and carrying a wooden axe handle. He faces multiple charges, including conspiracy, civil disorder and threatening to assault a federal law enforcement officer.
But … but … but … HE’S WHITE! He goes to backyard barbecues, church potlucks, and county fair truck pulls, and he doesn’t bash cops’ heads in at any of those events.
Not to mention … he has back pain. Back pain, dude! He’s a 47-year-old man with back pain! (Also known as a 47-year-old man.)
And did I mention he’s white?
Chrestman’s lawyers also maintain that Donald Trump ordered him unto the breach, King Henry-like, so he should get a mulligan.
“Interestingly, the defendant’s back pain did not prevent him from storming the United States Capitol while armed with an axe handle, threatening law enforcement officers, and attempting to prevent Congressional proceedings, among other conduct,” stated Justice Department lawyers in their response.
[…] Maybe, one day, white people (and I’m one of them) will understand that being white doesn’t automatically entitle one to legal immunity—even if you are taking your marching orders from your Aryan suzerain.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday decried the Trump administration’s secret seizing of Apple data records of House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) as going “even beyond Richard Nixon.”
“Richard Nixon had an enemy’s list,” Pelosi said. “This is about undermining the rule of law.”
Pelosi then took aim at former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, who denied knowledge of the secret subpoenas targeting Democratic lawmakers as part of a leaks probe during the Trump administration.
The House speaker, who previously described the secret subpoenas as an “egregious assault on our democracy” by the Trump administration, also echoed calls by her colleagues in Democratic leadership demanding that the former attorneys general testify under oath.
“It is beyond belief. So, we will have to have them come under oath to testify about that,” Pelosi said. “Now, how could it be that undermining the rule of law, undermining the separation of power of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and having these just data mining is something new in terms of where technology has taken us, but not new in terms of something that should never have happened?”
Pelosi argued that although the DOJ inspector general’s investigation into the seizure of the lawmakers and reporters’ data by the previous administration is “very important,” it is “not a substitute” for what Congress must do.
“I know that the Senate has called for some review,” Pelosi said. “We will certainly have that in the House of Representatives.”
Asked whether she would consider subpoenas for Barr, Sessions and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to testify before Congress if they don’t voluntarily do so, Pelosi replied that her hope is that they “honor the rule of law.”
“The Justice Department has been rogue under President Trump, understand that, in so many respects,” Pelosi said. “This is just another manifestation of their rogue activity.” […]
To get 70% of the planet’s population inoculated by April, the IMF calculates, would cost just $50 billion. The cumulative economic benefit by 2025, in terms of increased global output, would be $9 trillion, to say nothing of the many lives that would be saved. […]
Text is quoted from The Economist. The article is behind a paywall.
When Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia shot down Democrats’ signature voting rights legislation in an op-ed last week, he said that protecting voting rights “should never be done in a partisan manner.”
But a new Brennan Center analysis of the voter suppression laws sweeping the nation shows what a preposterous and indeed hypocritical position that is. The center’s examination of the 24 state-level voting restriction laws enacted as of early June proves the suppression efforts have been an almost exclusively Republican enterprise.
“Overall, we find that these new laws were enacted as part of an overwhelmingly partisan Republican push,” reads the report. “Republicans introduced and drove virtually all of the bills that impose new voting restrictions, and the harshest new laws were passed with almost exclusively Republican votes and signed into law by Republican governors.”
Still somehow Manchin insists that GOP lawmakers at the federal level are both interested in and fundamental to playing a corrective role to their counterparts in the states. […]
Here’s a snapshot of the Brennan Center findings courtesy of Brownstein:
– 14 states have passed 24 laws restricting voting access so far this year (with dozens still pending in another 18 states)
– 17 of those passed in nine states are deemed “highly restrictive” by the Brennan Center
– All nine of those states are under unified GOP control with the exception of Kansas, where Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the law only to be overridden by the Republican-dominated state legislature
– No Democrat co-sponsored any of the 17 bills
– Not one Democrat voted for 13 of those 17 laws. Another three of those laws drew support from a single lonely Democratic lawmaker in the legislatures of Arkansas, Montana, and Wyoming. (The only highly restrictive bill to receive meaningful Democratic support was a voter ID law enacted in Arkansas)
– Among all the state House/Assembly Republicans who voted on these 17 bills, just 12 of 1,143 voted against them; among state Senate Republicans, just seven of 458 voted no on them.
There’s just no question about this: most Republicans are anti-democracy.
Eight soccer players from Venezuela tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, a day before they were scheduled to play against Brazil in the Copa America tournament.
At least four staff members with Venezula’s team have also tested positive. The infected players and staff have isolated themselves in hotel rooms, Forbes reported. Venezula announced it was naming 15 more players as replacements, The Associated Press reported.
Though the Copa America is considered the most prestigious soccer tournament in Latin America, many Brazilians were not in favor of hosting it. A XP/Ipespe poll found that 64 percent of Brazilians are against holding the Copa America tournament in the country, Reuters reported.
Brazil has seen a worrying number COVID-19 cases, including over 85,000 reported on Friday alone. […]
Apple revealed to Don McGahn, a White House counsel under […] Trump, that the company complied with a 2018 Department of Justice subpoena regarding information on an account of his, according to a New York Times report.
Apple reportedly received the subpoena on Feb. 23, 2018, and turned over information to the government. It did not disclose to McGahn what information was turned over, and it isn’t clear how the information would have been used […]
McGahn’s wife also received “a similar notice” from Apple, the Times reported, though the report does not indicate why. […]
The revelation comes amid news first reported by the Times that former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions had subpoenaed Apple for data on more than a dozen people, including two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, after they heard about leaks within the Trump administration. […]
Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser for the White House coronavirus team, said on Sunday that the Trump administration committed three “deadly sins” in its handling of the pandemic […]
“The first was his power that he believed to deny the very existence of the virus, or the potency of it, and to get his followers to go along with it,” Slavitt said.
“If he simply hadn’t done that and simply said ‘hey we’ve got a problem,’ we would have been in a very different situation,” he added.
Another sin Slavitt said Trump committed was “taking the divisions in the country and playing into them,” which he said was “really almost extra credit.”
Slavitt said being a populist during a pandemic “is really not a great combination.”
“You’re gonna have to make some tough decisions, you’re gonna have to make people unhappy. And I think Trump saw in his base a stirring of anti-left characterizations and other things, and he played into those things because I think he felt like a different route,” Slavitt said.
“And I think those were things that cost us a lot of lives,” Slavitt, who is promoting a new book to be released on Tuesday, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response,” said.
[…] “Early in this pandemic in February they sent out orders, the Department of Health and Human Services, for 45 days they were not even allowed to talk to the press, simply because [former Secretary] Alex Azar wanted to say the expression that things were going fine but could change rapidly,” Slavitt said.
“Anybody that disagreed with the narrative the president wanted was squashed,” he added.
Wonkette: “Susan Collins Wants To Tax Electric Cars For Not Paying The Gas Tax”
Back in 2019, Susan Collins joined a bipartisan group of senators in proposing a bill to expand the tax credit for electric cars, since they are better for the environment and all. Now, Collins has joined a bipartisan group of senators to propose a tax on electric cars to fund an infrastructure bill because of how they don’t pay the gas tax. […]
Speaking on “Face The Nation,” Collins explained that the tax on these cars would be one of the ways to pay for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan backed by the group, which would also include using unused COVID relief funds […]
“There would be a provision for electric vehicles to pay their fair share of using our roads and bridges,” she said, […] “Right now they are literally free riders because they’re not paying any gas tax.
Via Bangor Daily:
[…] The Maine senator seemed to reject the idea of indexing the gas tax to inflation. The tax itself has not been raised since 1993. Indexing has been floated by Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and some Democrats are open to it. But Biden has rejected the idea of raising taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 annually, which could also doom the electric vehicle fee. […]
It’s unclear if this proposal will gain any more traction than others that have failed so far […]
On the surface, this doesn’t seem entirely nonsensical. Gas taxes pay for road repairs and other road-related infrastructure issues, and people who own electric cars aren’t paying those taxes. If they are causing equal damage to the roads, then it would make sense that they pay taxes to fix them.
However, regular cars don’t actually cause any damage to roads in the first place. That damage is done primarily by very heavy trucks, semis and the like. Of course, since we all likely benefit in some way from the roads being fixed as well as from what the very heavy trucks are delivering — including those of us who, like me, rely on public transport — perhaps it would make more sense to spread out some of these costs across the population rather than targeting electric vehicles for not using gas … which is, you know, actually a good thing. It is a thing we want and a thing that will save us all a lot of money in the future […]
Or we could just tax rich people to pay for it, given that they benefit more than all of us, but despite the fact that a very large majority of the country, both Democratic and Republican at this point, is in favor of taxing rich people to pay for things we all benefit from, that doesn’t count as “bipartisan.”
By sheer coincidence, we are sure, the Koch network has been spending millions of dollars a year since at least 2016 to discourage people from buying electric vehicles and to discourage the government from incentivizing their purchase, for reasons of “our money comes from petroleum.” Although Koch industries recently invested in EV charging stations, they know who their daddy is. And so do “bipartisan groups of senators,” who, also by sheer coincidence, always seem to do exactly what the Kochs and Americans for Prosperity want.
For the first time in 12 years, Israeli lawmakers voted Sunday to install a government led by someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu, breaking a two-year electoral deadlock, marking a likely shift toward the political center and ending — for now — the reign of the country’s longest-serving prime minister […]
A raucous parliament, interrupted frequently by shouts of “shame” and “liar” from outgoing conservative lawmakers, voted by a narrow majority to give power to an unlikely coalition of parties from the right, center and left of Israel’s spectrum. The votes elevated Naftali Bennett, an Orthodox leader of Israel’s religious-nationalist movement and a former Netanyahu ally, as the country’s new prime minister.
“We are incapable of sitting together — what is happening to us?” Bennett pleaded over boos and catcalls as his own children flashed him heart symbols from the visitors’ gallery. “I am proud of sitting with people with who have very different opinions. We have decided to take responsibility.”
Several conservative members were ejected from the session. They included extremist right-wing lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, a disciple of the banned Kahane Party who was elected to the Knesset with help from Netanyahu.
Under the coalition’s power-sharing deal, Bennett is to be replaced in the top job after two years by Yair Lapid, a centrist politician and former TV news anchor who clinched the second largest number of votes after Netanyahu’s Likud party in March. […]
A federal judge on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit filed by 117 Houston Methodist staffers over the hospital’s coronavirus vaccine requirement for employees, a decision that could have implications in other battles over such mandates.
The hospital system was among the first in the country to require all of its workers to be inoculated against the virus, which has killed about 600,000 Americans. More than 99 percent of its 26,000-strong workforce complied. But a small fraction refused, and chief executive Marc Boom said Tuesday that more than 170 employees had been suspended as a result.
Among them was Jennifer Bridges, a nurse who became the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit over the vaccine requirement after months of public opposition. The complaint, filed last month, argued that the mandate is unlawful and forces “employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment.”
But U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes rejected that argument. In his ruling, he wrote the lawsuit’s claim that the vaccines are experimental and dangerous “is false, and it is also irrelevant.” The hospital system’s requirement does not violate state or federal law or public policy, he said.
The judge took particular issue with the complaint equating the mandate to medical experimentation during the Holocaust, calling the comparison “reprehensible.”
“Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the covid-19 virus,” Hughes wrote. “It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer. Bridges can freely choose to accept or refuse a covid-19 vaccine; however, if she refuses, she will simply need to work somewhere else.”
In an interview with USA Today, Bridges said she was not surprised by the ruling. The nurse, who has raised more than $100,000 for her legal battle on GoFundMe, said she would not give up despite the case being thrown out.
[…] In a statement released by the hospital system, Boom said the judge’s decision meant Houston Methodist “can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation.”
They came so close. Philip Sardelis already had his vaccine appointment in hand. Cinnamon Jamila Key had just received her first shot. Charles Pryor tried but couldn’t get the coronavirus vaccine in time. Alexey Aguilar had been reluctant to commit to such a new medicine but was coming around to the idea.
And then covid-19 took them. On top of the grief and sorrow, their families now also must deal with the unfairness, the eternal mystery of what might have been.
The Americans who have died of covid-19 in recent days and weeks — the people whose deaths have pushed the total U.S. loss from the pandemic to nearly 600,000 — passed away even as their families, friends and neighbors emerged from 15 months of isolation and fear. The juxtaposition is cruel: Here, masks off; workplaces, shops and schools reopening. There, people struggling to breathe, separated from loved ones, silenced by ventilators.
“The finish line is in sight and if you don’t make it now, it’s like the astronauts who make it all the way home and then their capsule splashes down and sinks,” said Peter Paganussi, an emergency room physician in Ranson, W.Va., who still sees new cases of covid, the illness caused by the coronavirus, every day.
Even as the number of Americans dying of covid has plummeted from thousands to hundreds each day, the death toll keeps climbing.
It has taken about as long to move from 500,000 U.S. deaths to 600,000 as it did to go from zero to the first dark marker of 100,000 — about four months. That’s a huge improvement over the harrowing one month it took for the death count to soar from 300,000 to 400,000 last winter.
Covid deaths are becoming relatively rare in some places, basically tracking the pace of vaccinations, which varies enormously state to state — 70 percent of Vermonters have received at least one dose, compared with only 34 percent of Mississippians.
But rosier statistics are small solace to families who now find themselves living in communities of reborn freedom and optimism, even as they stumble through a crushing grief, burdened by an overwhelming sense of almost having made it through.
Deaths that came so late, so close to the possibility of protection by a vaccine, “eat at people,” said Therese Rando, clinical director of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss in Rhode Island. “It’s such a violation. They were so close, they weren’t doing anything wrong and for death to take them, it adds to our outrage. It’s very distressing because people were assumed to be right on the cusp of being safe.” […]
When Trump ventured south, a stream of family members (literal and figurative) followed. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner bought a $32 million waterfront lot in Miami from the Latin crooner Julio Iglesias and enrolled their kids at a nearby Jewish day school. Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, bought a $9.7 million mansion in Jupiter, Fla. In December, Sean Hannity sold his penthouse not far from former House speaker — and Trump critic — John Boehner’s place along the Gulf of Mexico and bought a $5.3 million seaside home two miles from Mar-a-Lago, symbolically swapping the Boehner Coast for the Trump Coast. Hannity’s Fox News colleague Neil Cavuto joined him, buying a $7.5 million place nearby.
Geniuses buying oceanfront property in southern Florida in 2021. I bet they didn’t have a hard time finding willing sellers.
ravensays
One dead in a right wingnut terrorist attack.
No surprise.
1 Woman Is Dead, Others Injured In Minneapolis After A Driver Plows Into Protesters
June 14, 20216:13 AM ET NPR
One woman is dead after a man drove into a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis late Sunday night. The suspect is in custody, according to the city’s police department.
Demonstrators were gathered to protest the June 3 shooting death of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 33-year-old Black man, by U.S. Marshals in Minneapolis. At approximately 11:39 p.m. Sunday, a car sped into a group of protesters that were standing along Lake Street and Girard Ave. in the Uptown area of the city, hitting and injuring at least three people.
About a month before Election Day 2020, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) raised a few eyebrows by declaring via social media that the United States is “not a democracy.” The Utah Republican added soon after, “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”
Eight months later, the New York Times published a report on the severity of Republican efforts to thwart our electoral system, and it quoted Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) making related comments.
Some other Republicans embrace the notion that they are trying to use their prerogatives as a minority party to safeguard their own power. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said the endeavor was the essence of America’s system of representative democracy, distinguishing it from direct democracy, where the majority rules and is free to trample the rights of the minority unimpeded.
“The idea of democracy and majority rule really is what goes against our history and what the country stands for,” the GOP senator said. “The Jim Crow laws came out of democracy. That’s what you get when a majority ignores the rights of others.”
At face value, it’s both unusual and jarring to see prominent Republican officials such as Lee and Paul expressing public skepticism, not about progressive governance, but about democracy itself.
It’s important to emphasize the relevant context. When Lee, for example, made the case last fall that the United States shouldn’t be seen as a democracy, he wasn’t explicitly making the case for some kind of authoritarian alternative. […]
Rand Paul’s rhetoric was familiar, referencing white-supremacist Jim Crow laws as an example of what happens “when a majority ignores the rights of others.”
There are a few problems with this.
First, the idea that democracy “goes against our history and what the country stands for” is incomplete. Our history has too many examples of the United States falling short of its highest ideals — I’m of the opinion that we weren’t a true democracy until 1965 — but democracy has nevertheless been intertwined with our system of government since its outset.
Second, Jim Crow is not, strictly speaking, an example of democracy run amok. As Cornell historian Larry Glickman explained this morning, Jim Crow, in fact, “came out of the counter-revolution against democracy.” The power structure across much of the South feared a level playing field and a multiracial system, so they went to disgusting lengths to undermine democracy with discriminatory restrictions.
Jim Crow wasn’t emblematic of democracy; it was an attack on democracy.
And third, as a Washington Post analysis added this morning, “Paul’s argument is offered in service to the idea that there should be a check on the power of the population and he uses Jim Crow as an example of why that’s necessary. But Jim Crow actually serves as a more useful analogy to the way in which Republican officials are hoping to maintain power despite votes might be cast in support of policies and candidates with whom they disagree.”
[…] GOP officials, in states across the country, believe the will of the people should be replaced with the will of Republicans — as if the minority should have real power because it represents “real” Americans, unlike those rascally Democrats. […]
Joe Biden was celebrated at the G-7 summit, in part because of his message, and in part because he wasn’t Donald Trump.
As President Biden began his first trip abroad since taking office, the Pew Research Center released a report last week documenting the “dramatic” improvements in the United States’ international stature following the Democrat’s inauguration. With Biden in the White House — and with Donald Trump out of it — global confidence in the presidency has soared; the U.S. is now more respected […]
As it turns out, it’s not just the general public abroad that’s feeling a renewed sense of hope. As was evident at the G-7 summit, many of those citizens’ leaders, who struggled with Biden’s immediate predecessor, quickly recognized the new American president as a trusted partner. Politico described the international gathering a “global win” for Biden.
Overall, the G-7 has delivered a significant win for Biden. While the leaders were panned for not doing enough to vaccinate the world and frequently fell short of consensus on the toughest issues, they’re definitely moving in the same direction, and other leaders fell over themselves to welcome Biden to their table.
At one point on Saturday, reporters asked Biden if he’d convinced his fellow G-7 counterparts that the United States has returned to its previous position as a global leader. The American president demurred and suggested they ask French President Emmanuel Macron.
When reporters directed the same question to the French leader, Macron replied, “Definitely.” He later added, “It’s great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate.”
The implication, of course, was that this marked a change in the United States’ diplomatic posture.
He wasn’t alone in expressing relief. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who struggled to hide her difficulties with Trump, told reporters at the summit, “Being able to meet Joe Biden is obviously important because he stands for the commitment to multilateralism, which we were missing in recent years.”
[…] A Washington Post report added that Biden was “greeted with delight” by G-7 leaders “who are relieved that Trump’s tantrums will be replaced by Biden’s backslapping.”
To be sure, Trump’s stain has not been completely washed off. Nearly all of the reporting from the summit pointed to lingering skepticism about the health of the United States’ political system and ongoing fears that either Trump or someone like him would again rise to power. The Post’s report added;
One senior European official described his horror at the Jan. 6 assault by pro-Trump rioters on the U.S. Capitol — and said he had an even worse feeling reading opinion polls since then showing that a substantial portion of Republican voters believe Biden is an illegitimate president, a baseless claim perpetuated by Trump. “Your democracy is in serious trouble,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about an ally.
Or put another way, some of our most prominent allies are relieved to see Biden in the White House, but they’re concerned about who and what might follow him.
For now, however, the United States has returned to a position of leadership. […]
Nearly three months after the head of Michigan’s Republican Party unveiled an audacious plan that would allow GOP legislators to circumvent the state’s Democratic governor’s veto to pass restrictive voting laws, the contours of the scheme remain murky.
[…]. Republicans and their allies still have time to put their election overhaul plan in motion, but they’ve fallen well behind the expected timeline, leaving their opponents guessing about what exactly they’ll be up against.
[…] Republicans in Michigan’s legislature have introduced scores of bills targeting the state’s election rules, just as Republicans have in states all across the country. Some of them would make it harder to vote. Others would overhaul the process of counting and certifying results in a way that appears to nod to conspiracy theories about […] Trump’s loss in the state and would make it easier for bad actors to disrupt the process going forward.
But unlike the half-dozen or so GOP-controlled states that have made their restrictive proposals law, Michigan has a Democratic governor who has vowed to veto the partisan bills. Enter a scheme first outlined in March by state GOP chair Ron Weiser. Republicans, Weiser said then, intended to take advantage of a process in Michigan law that would allow the GOP legislature to adopt a measure without it going on the ballot, or getting the sign-off of the governor.
Under the process, such an election overhaul would instead just need 340,000 signatures, and then the legislature could make it law without the governor having a say. [WTF?]
[…] having Gov. Whitmer veto such a package first would energize the petition effort. […]
[…] only three of the actual bills — all having to do with voter ID — have made it out of committee. […]
Christopher Thomas, a former Michigan elections director who worked under secretaries of state of both parties, called the measures “suppressive” […]
It’s worth noting, however, that those plotting a petition drive don’t have to wait for the legislature to move, and at least one grassroots group has a plan of its own. A group calling itself the Coalition to Rescue Michigan says it plans to mount a drive with measures that would, among other things, ban ballot drop boxes, give county canvassers the ability to rescind their certification votes, and increase volunteer election challengers’ free rein at polling sites. […]
even if the legislature can’t get a package to the governor for her veto until the lawmakers come back in the fall, that still leaves a window — albeit a tight one — to gather signatures for a measure that the legislature could adopt by the end of the year.
Guillermo Garcia, a soccer coach, was fundraising for his daughter’s soccer team outside of an El Paso, Texas, Walmart on Aug. 3, 2019 when a white supremacist opened fire, killing him and 22 others in what The New York Times called “the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern American history.” El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen told The Dallas Morning News Patrick Crusius, who was 21 years old at the time, purchased a 7.62 mm caliber gun and drove some 10 hours west from Allen, Texas, to carry out the massacre.
But when Lara Trump—former […] Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and former senior adviser to the regrettable ex-president—described potential violence at the southern border, the victims in El Paso apparently couldn’t have been further from her mind. She invoked racist sentiments while describing immigrants in an interview Saturday on Fox News’ Justice with Judge Jeanine. […]
“And I don’t know what you tell the people that live at the southern border,” Lara Trump said. “I guess they better arm up and get guns and be ready, and maybe they’re gonna have to take matters into their own hands.
“It should never happen. These people should never make this dangerous journey here.”
Her remarks follow a warning from Vice President Kamala Harris to Guatemalans on her first trip abroad since being elected to the White House. “I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come,” she said last Monday. “Do not come.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki later clarified Harris’ message. “What the vice president was simply conveying is that there’s more work to be done, that we don’t have these systems in place yet,” Psaki told reporters last Tuesday. “It’s still a dangerous journey, as we’ve said many times from here and from many forums before, and we need more time to get the work done to ensure that asylum processing is where it should be.”
That’s not exactly the message Lara Trump was conveying, and social media users underlined that difference. Russell Foster, who’s running for Congress in Texas, tweeted on Tuesday: “This is dangerous. The former president’s daughter-in-law is calling for people to shoot immigrants. It’s worse after multiple mass shootings over the last few days in Texas & elsewhere. This could lead to an uptick in hate crimes across the country.” Author John Pavlovitz called Lara Trump a “violent” extremist “who belongs in prison” in a tweet Monday.
Read more social media responses to Lara Trump’s remarks below: […]
Here’s a link to the June 14 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
They have a link to this article:
Ministers have been told that a four-week delay to easing all Covid restrictions would probably prevent thousands of hospitalisations, as Boris Johnson prepares to tell the English public they will have to wait up to another month for “freedom day”.
The government roadmap out of lockdown earmarks 21 June for the last remaining coronavirus restrictions to be lifted in England, but the prime minister is expected to announce on Monday that the timetable will be pushed back by two to four weeks amid a rapid rise in cases of the Delta variant first detected in India.
The BBC reported that senior ministers had approved a four-week delay, during which most existing restrictions would remain in place.
The Delta variant is rising across the UK, where it now makes up more than 90% of new coronavirus infectious. Public health officials are concerned about the variant because it partially evades vaccines, is at least 40% more transmissible than the Alpha variant first detected in Kent, and appears to double the risk of hospitalisation.
The prime minister will attend a Nato summit in Brussels on Monday before returning to Downing Street to deliver the news.
Any delay will infuriate lockdown sceptics on the Tory backbenches, who are concerned about the impact on hospitality businesses and have begun to claim they fear the government will never feel confident enough to lift restrictions. On Sunday, Johnson declined to answer the question of whether the delay could be for more than four weeks.
The latest modelling of the Delta variant shared with ministers suggests that even with the rapid rollout of vaccines, the UK will face a third wave of infections mostly among younger people who have yet to receive their immunisations. While many older people are now well-protected from two doses of vaccine, hospital admissions are still expected to rise because not all vulnerable people have had their shots, and some do not mount a robust immune response.
Modelling to be released on Monday shows that a four-week pause on lifting the restrictions would probably prevent thousands of hospitalisations as it would keep the brakes on the pandemic – albeit lightly – while more people receive their second shots. A surge in the coming weeks would hit the NHS as emergency departments warn they are already struggling with intense demand.
“In terms of emergency admissions, last month was the busiest since the start of the pandemic. We are much busier now in emergency departments than at the peaks of either the first or second wave,” said Dr Raghib Ali, an honorary consultant in acute medicine at the Oxford University hospitals NHS trust. “In other parts of the hospital we are catching up with a lot of elective work because of the backlog, so for both of those reasons it’s a very bad time to have additional pressure from Covid.
“Before vaccination, all a delay did was push cases into the future, but we can vaccinate millions of people in those four weeks and that will substantially reduce the size of the peak hospitalisations because of that increased coverage,” he added.
About 44% of UK adults are not yet fully vaccinated against Covid and more than 2 million of these are aged 50 and over. At the current rate of rollout, a delay of four weeks would mean another 9 million people could have their second doses. Half of these would have time to produce a substantial immune response by the end of the fourth week.
…
Postponing step four of the roadmap would also give scientists more time to collect data on some of the most crucial questions around the Delta variant….
The Delta variant of Covid-19, first identified in India, has been detected in 74 countries and continues to spread rapidly amid fears that it is poised to become the dominant strain worldwide.
With outbreaks of the main Delta strain and several of its sub-lineages confirmed in China, the US, Africa, Scandinavia and the Pacific, concern increasingly is focusing on how it appears to be more transmissible as well as causing more serious illness.
In the US, according to the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb, cases of the Delta variant are doubling roughly every two weeks and account for 10% of all new cases, while in the UK it accounts for more than 90% of new cases.
While health authorities around the world are collecting and sharing data on the spread of the new variant, the fear is that in countries in the developing world with less robust monitoring systems, the Delta variant may already have spread much further than has been reported.
Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University’s school of public health in the US, last week called the Delta variant “the most contagious variant we’ve seen so far”.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) announced Monday that Vermont has become the first state in the country to vaccinate 80 percent of its eligible population of people 12 and older, and that as a result of the successful vaccination campaign, all remaining restrictions would be lifted.
“Vermont has been a leader throughout this pandemic, and today, we’re the first state to vaccinate 80% of its eligible population,” Scott tweeted. “Effective immediately, I’m lifting all remaining COVID restrictions. Our work continues, but Vermonters can be proud of what they’ve done.”
[…] “Yes, Vermont is a small state — but even so, the fact that they have gone more than a week without a single COVID death, and have only 2 people hospitalized due to COVID in the state — is a sign of how an aggressive vaccination effort can make a HUGE difference!” tweeted White House chief of staff Ron Klain. […]
That’s some welcome good news. However, I wish we could say the same about other states.
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are at the bottom, with under 50 percent. Idaho is almost as bad.
1) met with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — you know, countries Vladimir Putin thinks he probably still should get to own. It’s one of the many things Biden is doing in advance of his meeting with Putin to demonstrate that the days of Donald Trump cuddling with the Russian president and begging him for treats are over.
2) done the NATO summit, continuing to talk about how America’s defense of NATO should be an absolute given.
3) taken more fun pictures, this time with NATO leaders.
4) met with the authoritarian shitheel president of Turkey, who is still allowed to be in NATO.
And now it’s 6:50 p.m. where he is, and 12:50 on the east coast of America, and he’s doing a press conference.
Friday night, there was another mass shooting. This time it was in Austin, Texas, and 14 innocent bystanders were injured. No one died, so that’s something. No apparent motive has yet been identified for the “isolated incident” between two assholes with guns. Shockingly, random civilians with guns didn’t improve the situation, either, despite Texas’s absurdly lax gun laws. Last month, the GOP-dominated Texas legislature passed a measure allowing people to carry a handgun without a license, background check or training. Texas has higher standards for who’s permitted to smoke a brisket. [Or who is permitted to vote.]
[…] Maybe Governor Abbott might do something if guns were responsible for as many deaths as critical race theory. [snark]
This wasn’t the weekend’s only mass shooting. Chicago, Cleveland, and Savannah, Georgia, also had bloodbaths over the course of six hours on Friday evening through early Saturday morning. The gun spree left 39 people wounded and five dead.
From ABC News:
“It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country. It’s disturbing and it’s senseless,” Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter, Jr. said at a weekend news conference after one person was killed and eight others, including an 18-month-old baby and two teenagers, were wounded.
Georgia’s GOP-controlled legislature is also working to pass legislation that would remove open and concealed carry restrictions for gun owners. There are no recorded deaths from mail-in ballots, but Republicans have curious priorities about which constitutional rights they defend.
Austin’s Democratic Mayor Steve Adler commented “[…] One thing is clear — greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety.”
Adler’s not just some crazy liberal speaking heresy about the sacred gun. Although gun ownership in Texas is well above the national average at an estimated at 35 to 43 percent, not all Texas gun owners are Yosemite Sam. A poll conducted six months after the 2019 El Paso massacre showed that 86 percent of Texans supported background checks for gun buyers, and 65 percent supported “red flag laws,” which would remove guns from people a judge ruled a danger to themselves and others. Perhaps most shockingly, 55 percent of Texans supported a ban on the sale of assault weapons, and 44 percent were OK with a mandatory buyback program. […]
[…] The following bills were especially awful: HB 1143 lets licensed gun owners store guns and ammunition in their vehicles in school parking lots, and school districts are prohibited from stopping them. HB 2363 permits certain foster homes to store guns and ammunition in a locked location. These are both “are you fucking kidding me?” laws. […]
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sat down with Hugh Hewitt this morning and reflected on one of the Republican’s favorite subjects: judicial nominees and moving the judiciary even further to the right.
[…] McConnell boasted to the conservative host “the single most consequential thing” he did during his tenure as majority leader was imposing a blockade against then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.
[…] The gamble was very “consequential,” indeed. McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat from one administration and handed it to another.
And since his scheme was successful, the Kentucky Republican would do it again if given the chance. When Hewitt asked this morning whether McConnell, leading a hypothetical GOP-led Senate in the next Congress, would confirm a possible Supreme Court nominee in 2024. The senator replied: “…I think it’s highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don’t think either party if it controlled, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election.”
Last year, McConnell and Senate Republicans confirmed a Supreme Court nominee eight days before Election Day — in the middle of an election in which millions of Americans had already cast ballots via early voting — but he’s already making clear that if given the opportunity, he’ll do the opposite in response to possible nominees from President Biden.
[…] In other words, McConnell won’t commit to filling a Supreme Court vacancy with a nominee from a Democratic White House, regardless of when that vacancy might occur. It’s entirely possible, if not likely, that a Senate Republican majority would simply impose a two-year blockade […]
At this point, I could rant and rave for a few paragraphs, talking about principles and hypocrisy, the dangers of McConnell’s maximalist partisan tactics, and the tragic consequences of the Kentucky Republican’s approach to politics.
But today, let’s skip those paragraphs and instead consider a different angle: those who need to know what McConnell said this morning.
Justice Stephen Breyer, for example, is a center-left Supreme Court justice who’ll turn 83 this summer. Common sense suggests his retirement should be a no-brainer, but Breyer has resisted, suggesting that he’s so indifferent toward political considerations that Biden’s victory will have no bearing on when he departs from the high court.
If Breyer assumes that a Republican-led Senate would gladly confirm a Biden nominee for the Supreme Court, McConnell is now telling him otherwise.
[…] McConnell is now being even more explicit. Breyer can bury his head in the sand, but the more responsible course is to prioritize his legacy and our collective future.
Postscript: Let’s also hope Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who claim to be deeply concerned with bipartisan comity and the Senate’s cherished traditions, caught McConnell’s on-air comments today, too.
The Biden administration has announced that it will return more than $2 billion in funds swindled by the previous administration for its stupid border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. In a statement Friday, the White House said “[b]uilding a massive wall that spans the entire southern border and costs American taxpayers billions of dollars is not a serious policy solution or responsible use of Federal funds.”
The administration said funds will be restored to dozens of projects both in the U.S. and around the world, including the Spangdahlem Elementary School in Germany. “The school, which currently supports over 600 military children, lacks proper air conditioning, plumbing, and security systems and was due for replacement when the prior administration diverted funds to the wall,” the White House said. […]
The Associated Press (AP) reports that the Biden administration has said it is permanently shutting down the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Victim Of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office, the notorious anti-immigrant propaganda arm backed by former White House aide and noted white supremacist Stephen Miller.
The previous administration claimed it opened the office to aid purported victims of crime committed by undocumented immigrants. In reality, it was created to advance its demonization of immigrant communities (fact check: immigrants have lower crime rates than U.S.-born residents). The AP report said that Miller, a loudmouth supporter of the office, called its closure a “moral stain on the conscience of our nation.” Not the office itself, but rather the office’s closure. […]
But what does raise a possible red flag is what officials plan to put in place of the VOICE Office. “VOICE will be replaced by The Victims Engagement and Services Line, which will combine longstanding existing services, such as methods for people to report abuse and mistreatment in immigration detention centers and a notification system for lawyers and others with a vested interest in immigration cases,” the AP reported.
While mechanisms to hold government offices accountable are necessary, there shouldn’t be any shock at the idea that replacing one ICE office with another ICE office might spark some side-eye, even if its purported goal is to report abuses. Immigrant rights advocates have already been exposing ICE’s abuses for years, including a civil rights complaint filed just last month. Now we’re supposed to believe that ICE will take complaints submitted to ICE about ICE seriously? Especially considering that Tae Johnson, the previous administration’s acting ICE director, is still in that position? […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reinstate a scientific group that looks at air pollution and was disbanded under the Trump administration, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Monday,
EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll said in an email that the EPA’s Science Advisory Board will issue a call “in the next few weeks” for nominations for the Particulate Matter Review Panel.
Then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler disbanded the panel, made up of scientists who are considered experts on particulate matter, in 2018.
It had been tasked with helping the agency to determine a safe level of particulate matter. Long-term exposure to a form of particulate matter has been linked to heart attacks, asthma attacks and premature death.
At the time, critics blasted the move to disband the panel as anti-science.
Monday’s news comes just a few days after the agency announced that it would review the Trump administration’s decision not to tighten air quality standards for particulate matter. […]
Chris Wallace had just interviewed current, competent Secretary of State Antony Blinken. We guess Pompeo thought it was his job to “rebut” whatever Blinken had just said. (It’s Fox News, after all.)
POMPEO: Well, generically, when I hear the administration talking about taking America back, they’re talking about back to what President Obama did for eight years where America was weak.
The alternate timeline where Barack Obama was “weak” on the world stage is always fascinating. President Obama, by most accounts, had a good working relationship with allies like Canada, the UK, Germany and France. Under his presidency, SEAL Team 6 took out Osama Bin Laden (while interrupting an episode of NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice”). Fox News would still be lauding this if it had been Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush or even Donald Trump who did it. Obama did that.
But perpetuating the myth of “soft/weak liberals” is much more important to Republicans. This is further illustrated by Pompeo’s salty, thinly veiled jealousy of the international reaction to President Biden at the G7, and also all the SO FUN pictures that have come out.
POMPEO: We might have been like, they seem — a lot of people talk about how they’re having this really fun time over at the G7, everybody likes President Biden. What’s important is not that they like America but that they respect us, that we deliver good outcomes for the American people.
Hahahaha, how far up Trump’s ass does one’s heat-seeking missile have to be lodged to actually think the world respected America when Trump was president? (They did not.)
Of course, “You don’t have to like me but you WILL respect me” has never truly worked. It’s an excuse assholes and bullies use to justify their actions. In reality, our allies talked about not being able to rely on America anymore while our geopolitical adversaries laughed it up in the Oval Office, and laughed at Trump behind his back.
Pompeo tried to trot out the whole alternate-universe lie about Trump being tougher on Russia than anybody else, in advance of the real American president’s upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin. Chris Wallace helpfully corrected him on a number of points.
WALLACE: Mr. Secretary, let’s look back at the Trump record of — under President Trump, the administration didn’t stop Russia from completing — and they continued during the Trump administration to build the Nord Stream pipeline. By the end of the administration, it was 90 percent completed. And President Trump never condemned Russia for the poisoning of Alexey Navalny or his arrest. And both of those happened on his watch.
Pompeo’s response was laughably absurd.
POMPEO: Well, Chris, you said it yourself, they didn’t complete the pipeline. […] We made clear that that pipeline was not going to be completed. It would not have been completed had we had four more years, I’m very, very confident of that.
Way to play the technicality, Pompeo. So because Russia only completed 90 percent under Trump’s presidency, it counts as Biden’s fault? We are not mathletes, but if Russia completed 90 percent in four years, we bet that last 10 percent would have been achievable had Trump won four more.
But if you thought that answer about Russia was dumb, check this quote:
POMPEO: And with respect to human rights, I — we take a backseat to no one. […] We were tough there too, Chris. I’m proud of the work we did there. It was good work. It was serious work and it made a difference.
Former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is unavailable for comment.
The interview concluded with Wallace confronting Pompeo over the lack of hard evidence provided by the Trump administration to prove that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese lab. […]
WALLACE: You also criticized President Biden for not pushing hard enough on China to learn the origins of the coronavirus. But I want to again go back to your administration and the record there. President Trump and his team, including you, had almost a year after COVID- 19 first came on the scene, to really press Beijing on what the origins were, when the evidence was much fresher. […] But what did President Trump and his administration […] do to press China harder to get the evidence on where the COVID-19 virus came from? Because we still don’t know.
Pompeo’s seemingly tried to “confirm” the lab leak theory, but left a small caveat if he’s proven incorrect once the Biden Administration and the World Health Organization are able to complete thorough investigations.
POMPEO: Chris, the predicate of your question is all wrong. We have a really good idea of what happened here. There’s an enormous amount of evidence that there was a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There’s a — there’s a pile of evidence hundred feet high. I have — I have high confidence that that’s the case.
He has “high confidence.” Sure thing, you bet.
We’ll just wait for the real grownups to let us know what happened, thanks.
Boris Johnson announced a four-week delay to the lifting of coronavirus restrictions. He said the extra delay could prevent thousands of deaths by allowing more vaccinations. No 10 said data indicated two doses of a vaccine were needed for protection against the Delta variant causing a rise in cases.
The main impacts of that delay in England will be pubs and hospitality remain restricted to table service and with social distancing measures in place, people should still work from home where possible, theatres and entertainment venues will have their capacity held at 50% and nightclubs will have to remain closed. The suggestion, however, is that there will be some lifting of the 30-person cap on attendees at weddings in England.
The Delta variant has been detected in 74 countries and is continuing to spread, prompting fears it will become the most dominant strain globally. There is also concern that while data is being shared, countries with weaker monitoring systems may not have detected the strain’s presence.
…
Russia reported 13,721 new coronavirus cases, including 6,590 in the capital, Moscow. Authorities in St Petersburg, which is hosting a series of Euro 2020 matches, said on Monday they were tightening anti-coronavirus restrictions in an effort to curb a new spike in infections. Food courts and children’s play areas in shopping malls in Russia’s second city will be closed, and no food will be sold at Euro 2020 fan zones.
…
A WHO official said Africa will get priority treatment for the 870 million vaccine doses pledged by the G7 because it has emerged as one of “the most vulnerable, under-served (areas)”.
The two main hospitals in Afghanistan dealing with Covid-19 have had to turn away patients, saying they have no more beds and are short on oxygen and medical supplies.
…
Many Indian states eased coronavirus restrictions today. That includes the capital, Delhi, where authorities allowed all shops and malls to open, as the number of new infections dropped to the lowest in more than two months. Tourist sites like the Taj Mahal and Red Fort are also set to begin allowing visitors back in from this week. [seems precipitous]
Experts have warned the US risks seeing a sharp rise in cases caused by the Delta variant, especially in southern states where vaccination rates are lower than the national average. Currently 10% of Covid-19 infections in the US can be attributed to the Delta variant, but that proportion is doubling every two weeks.
…
Germany could soon begin easing rules on mask-wearing as the country enjoys a sharp drop in Covid-19 infections, health minister Jens Spahn said this morning.
Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa pledged no return to Covid restrictions despite growing infections over the past month.
Lebanon administered more than 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in a weekend drive to contain the pandemic.
…
The former head of Myanmar’s Covid-19 immunisation programme has been arrested and faces charges of high treason for colluding with opponents of the military authorities, state media reported. The arrest of Htar Htar Lin and other doctors, following February’s coup, was condemned by the US-based Physicians for Human Rights.
Kayleigh McEnany Lies Like Liar About How Much She Lied
[…] On Sunday […] McEnany spoke to the Turning Point USA Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas. She insisted she’d never lied while working for Donald Trump, himself a singularly graceless liar.
MCENANY: And then there was the question, “Will you ever lie to us?” and I said without hesitation, “No,” and I never did, as a woman of faith.
Don’t bring God into this, lady. […] McEnany then pulled the classic lie maneuver of couching lies within objective truths. […]
MCENANY: As a mother of baby Blake, as a person who meticulously prepared at some of the world’s hardest institutions, I never lied. I sourced my information, but that will never stop the press from calling you a liar.”
The problem is that McEnany’s lies are so virulent they infect any surrounding truths. You’re left wondering if her baby’s name is actually “Blake” or if she’s even a mother at all. You just can’t trust anything she says. […]
CNN’s Jake Tapper correctly described McEnany as someone who “lies the way that most people breathe.” Now that’s the truth. McEnany told big, democracy-shredding lies about the election Trump lost and even small, silly lies about the gender makeup of Trump’s senior White House press staff.
Tapper also said McEnany “can’t acknowledge reality.” She’s in a different headspace than your typical con artist. It’s as if she lives in her own world where people break into musical numbers about how wonderful she is. […]
Remember when Trump claimed the coronavirus would just disappear, like a “miracle”? McEnany earned a “Pants on Fire” rating from Politifact when she said in September that Trump had “never downplayed the virus.” And he was still downplaying it, even as she was speaking.
But to McEnany, the press were the true dissemblers. […]
MCENANY: Because I knew what we were up against. Republicans always get the bad headlines, always get the false stories, always get the lies, if I can use that word, told by the press. There is one standard for Democrats and another for Republicans, and we must be on offense, confident, bold and willing to call it out. We cannot be silent.
McEnany probably has well-muscled arms from bearing all that false witness. She’s now expanding to the other nine commandments, particularly the one against envy. She’s several shades of Kermit over White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who most people like and respect because she’s good at her job and doesn’t lie all the time. […]
When it was announced that Psaki was going to receive a fancy photo shoot courtesy of Annie Leibovitz, McEnany whined about how systemically unfair it was for liberal magazines to shower Democrats with flattering profiles and not Republicans, who have to settle for adoring coverage on Fox News. She complained the other day, “It’s just so sad that you have a fawning press corps like this […].”
More than 50 advocacy groups on Monday sent a letter to President Biden urging him to nominate a candidate to fill an open seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The groups said it is necessary for Biden to appoint a nominee to the FCC in order to start the process to reinstate net neutrality rules rolled back under […] Trump, and underscored their push by noting the additional hurdles posed by the pandemic.
“This is all the more urgent given the fact poor families and people of color are disproportionately disconnected from high-speed internet access, compounding grave inequalities that were made worse during the pandemic,” the groups wrote, according to a copy of the letter. […]
The biotech firm said its Covid-19 vaccine showed 90 percent efficacy in clinical trials. […]
Another Covid-19 vaccine, this one from the biotech firm Novavax, has posted superb results in a phase 3 clinical trial, the company announced on Monday. But with more than half of US adults now vaccinated against Covid-19, the biggest impact of these results may be in other countries.
The Novavax vaccine stands out from other Covid-19 vaccines because it uses a technology that has not been deployed to date. It can also be stored at ordinary refrigerator temperatures, unlike some other vaccines that have strict freezer requirements that complicate distribution.
Novavax said its vaccine candidate was 90 percent effective overall against Covid-19 cases that produce symptoms, and 100 percent effective against moderate and severe disease. […] nearly 30,000 participants across the US and Mexico, […]
But the first approvals of the vaccine will likely come in other countries, Stanley Erck, CEO of the Maryland-based company, told the New York Times. Novavax may not even seek emergency authorization for its vaccine in the US until September. At that point, it may not make much of a difference to the US vaccination effort.
As part of the US government’s Operation Warp Speed, last July Novavax was awarded $1.6 billion for vaccine development and production of 100 million doses. At the time, the 20-year-old company faced skepticism for never having brought a vaccine to market.
Novavax now aims to scale up production, with a goal of 150 million doses per month by the end of the year with factories in the US, South Korea, and India. Its two-dose vaccine comes at an expected cost of $16 per injection. That’s more expensive than the adenovirus-based vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, but around the same price or cheaper than the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
[…] The Covid-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson shuttle genetic instructions to human cells, encouraging them to make a fragment of SARS-CoV-2, but they use a different virus — an adenovirus — that carries a snippet of DNA.
Novavax’s approach blends old and new techniques. To make the vaccine, the company combines another kind of virus — a baculovirus — with the genetic information needed to make a spike protein, a key fragment of SARS-CoV-2. When moth cells are infected with this virus, they manufacture the spike protein. Scientists then harvest and fuse those proteins with a nanoparticle. These nanoparticles combined with spike proteins are what is injected in the Novavax vaccine.
[…] The ongoing evolution and spread of Covid-19 shows that the pandemic is not over, and it’s too early to become complacent. A new way to immunize against Covid-19 is a welcome development — particularly if it can reach the most vulnerable, and quickly.
Guy Branum joins to break down the week’s news. Lovett quizzes Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor to mark 200 episodes of Lovett or Leave It. Tara Houska talks about the end of Keystone XL and the fight against Line 3 in Minnesota. And it’s a very special (and shattering) Rant Wheel as Akilah Hughes, Emily Heller, Travis Helwig, Elisa Gutierrez, and Emily “Jeff Ross” Favreau get too honest about this very podcast. Plus, Naomi Ekperigin, Josh Gad, Langston Kerman, Michaela Watkins, and the Crooked Family call in to wish Lovett a big congrats for his unparalleled accomplishment.
QAnon influencer Liz Crokin: the woman who redpilled sitting congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2017. Liv Agar reveals Crokin’s path to redpilling and the mainstream fallout from the massive QAnon documentary ‘Out of Shadows’….
On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng sit down with Canada-based comedian and “Not Even a Show” host Chris James, a man who spends his days figuring out ways to prank prominent conservatives and MAGA luminaries, such as Rudy Giuliani and Dan Crenshaw, on-air. “These people are in positions of power and they are acting in this incredibly reckless way,” James says. Elsewhere on this episode, Suebsaeng and Sommer dig into how the false idea of Donald Trump’s August “reinstatement” in the White House worked its way up from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, all the way up to the ex-president’s delusional ears. And if you’ve been wondering how Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s new paid-subscriber venture is going… Sommer has discovered that it mostly feels like a lazy effort to prove to his fans just how dumb they are for giving him their cash.
I also recently found out about the 10-episode BBC podcast series The Ratline. It’s excellent.
Brad speaks with Jonathan Krohn ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. Jonathan is an investigative journalist and essayist whose work has appeared at Mother Jones, the Washington Post, and many other outlets. He also grew up in the SBC and was once considered a teenager star in the denomination. He will be covering the annual meeting for the New Republic. He and Brad discuss what he expects will happen at the convention. It appears that the USA’s largest Protestant denomination is going to shift even further rightward by embracing Christian nationalism explicitly, by continuing the demonization of critical race theory, by ignoring sexual abuse allegations, and by cementing even deeper the commitment to patriarchal theologies. All in all, this is a startling window into one of the most influential Christian communities in the country.
Representatives of atheist and secular groups held their first meeting with White House officials last week, marking a willingness by the Biden administration to work with the growing networks of religiously unaffiliated Americans.
The Secular Coalition for America set up the Friday (May 14) meeting with Melissa Rogers, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Leaders of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Secular Coalition for America, American Atheists, Center for Inquiry and Ex-Muslims of North America also attended the virtual gathering that included Josh Dickson, deputy director of the office, and program specialist Ben O’Dell.
“Frankly, it always feels like we are making history when we are included or invited anywhere,” Debbie Allen, executive director of the Secular Coalition, told Religion News Service.
“Historically, organizations like ours that focus on the needs of non-believers, nontheists, atheists, humanists, freethinkers, etc., are often disregarded when it comes to ‘interfaith spaces.’”
…
Allen said staffers who are part of the coalition’s 19 member organizations of freethinkers, agnostics, humanists and other secular Americans have been attending the weekly meetings held by the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Biden restarted the office with a Feb. 14 executive order, revamping it after the initiative went largely unstaffed during the Trump administration.
Allen said the coalition remains concerned about the effect of the previous administration’s policies related to faith-based social services and is urging consideration of new policies to better protect the religious liberty of beneficiaries and to ensure the separation of church and state by government officials.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF, welcomed the first meeting with the new administration.
“With more than a quarter of the population identifying as a ‘None’ (no religion), it’s vital that our community, our voices be heard in favor of reason in social policy and upholding our secular government,” she said in a statement.
…
[Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha:] Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said he considered the latest meeting to be problematic.
“If the Biden administration is going to manipulate the founding purpose of faith-based initiatives by welcoming the advice of militant secularists, it would do us all a favor and simply trash this office,” he said in a statement. “It is obviously a bust.”
The Associated Press (AP) reports that the Biden administration has said it is permanently shutting down the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Victim Of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office, the notorious anti-immigrant propaganda arm backed by former White House aide and noted white supremacist Stephen Miller….
My god. I don’t remember knowing about that one. Sick.
Quoted in Lynna’s #319:
POMPEO: And with respect to human rights, I — we take a backseat to no one. […] We were tough there too, Chris. I’m proud of the work we did there. It was good work. It was serious work and it made a difference.
When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced his Commission on Unalienable Rights, many observers worried, as I did, that he would use it to assert a dogmatic version of religious liberty to justify restrictions on reproductive freedom and the rights of LGBT people. We were right to worry. He has imposed his personal preferences while relying on arguments that pose a profound threat to all human rights as well.
It appears that the USA’s largest Protestant denomination is going to shift even further rightward by embracing Christian nationalism explicitly, by continuing the demonization of critical race theory, by ignoring sexual abuse allegations, and by cementing even deeper the commitment to patriarchal theologies. All in all, this is a startling window into one of the most influential Christian communities in the country.
I hope those moves by the Southern Baptist Convention drive members away in droves.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a revised federal law does not allow prison inmates to seek a reduction in their sentences for possessing small amounts of crack cocaine. The court said the wording of one of the rare bipartisan achievements of the Trump administration, the First Step Act, which made sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, means that the law does not apply to low-level offenders, even though supporters said they intended it to do so.
Its decision was unanimous.
During the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, Congress passed a law providing that someone arrested for possessing a small amount of crack cocaine would receive the same sentence as someone who possessed 100 times that amount of powder cocaine.
In 2010, Congress reduced that disparity for future defendants, but it did not apply the change to those already convicted. The First Step Act, passed in 2018, was intended to apply the reduction to people in prison, allowing them to seek reduced sentences too.
The question for the court was whether the new law applied only to people convicted of possessing larger amounts of crack cocaine or to those arrested with only a small amount as well.
The case was brought by a Florida man, Tarahrick Terry, who was sentenced to 15-and-a-half years in prison for possessing 3.9 grams of crack cocaine — about the same weight as four paper clips. His sentence under the old law was the same as what someone would have received for possessing nearly a pound of powder cocaine. […]
Whoops. I would say Congress goofed up.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
Fortunately, Congress has numerous tools to right this injustice.
Updates on the mass shootings that occurred Friday and Saturday:
* Georgia’s mass shooting: “A shooting into a crowd outside a residence in Savannah on Friday night left a 20-year-old man dead and seven others injured, two critically. Police said during a Saturday news conference that all other victims, including an 18-month-old infant, had non-life-threatening injuries and are expected to recover.”
* Ohio’s mass shooting: “Three people were killed and at least six people were shot in an early morning shooting Saturday in Cleveland, police said.”
* Texas’ mass shooting: “A suspect was in custody and another was being sought Saturday after an early morning mass shooting in a busy entertainment district in downtown Austin, Texas, police said…. Two people were in critical condition and 12 others were stable, [Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon] said. Most of the victims appear to be innocent bystanders.”
Those who decry bitter partisanship need to realize how much bitter partisanship they encourage through their passivity and tolerance of extremist tactics.
[…] The day after Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), whom no one has ever described as a radical ideologue, conceded on The Rachel Maddow Show that it’s time for “a wide-open conversation about how do we rebalance our courts.” The Delaware Democrat added that he wants to see a “re-examining” of “the process, the results, and the consequences” surrounding what Republicans have done to the judiciary.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) added on the Senate floor a day earlier:
“I want to be very clear with my Republican colleagues. You may win this vote. And Amy Coney Barrett may become the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. But you will never, never get your credibility back. And the next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority. You may win this vote. But in the process you will speed the precipitous decline of faith in our institutions, our politics, the Senate and the Supreme Court. You will give an already divided and angry nation a fresh outrage, and open a wound in this chamber that may never heal. You walk a perilous road. I know you think that this will eventually blow over. But you are wrong.”
Schumer’s tone was unmistakable: he appeared to mean every word. The Democrats’ leader seemed genuinely disgusted by Republicans’ antics, and he gave every indication that the GOP should expect consequences for their actions. A few months later, Schumer became Senate majority leader, ostensibly putting himself in a position to follow through on his indignation.
But there’s been no retaliation — not because Schumer has decided to let bygones be bygones, but because some of Schumer’s members believe bipartisanship, on matters large and small, is more important than governing.
This is of renewed interest today because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said publicly that, if given the opportunity, he’ll impose another Supreme Court blockade on President Biden’s nominees.
For some, the first question may be, “Why does McConnell think he’ll get away with such brazenness?” But that gets the dynamic backwards: McConnell starts with the proposition that Democratic judicial nominations don’t count, then dares Democratic officials to do something about it.
Instead of acting, senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema respond by allowing the Senate Republican minority to help dictate the terms of governance, while Justice Stephen Breyer responds by pretending politics doesn’t matter at all. McConnell, naturally, puts their naïveté in his pocket, and explores new ways to pursue even more aggressive maximalist tactics. […]
The state of Texas literally cannot keep the lights on but its political leadership is still focused on solving the voter fraud problem that Trump made up
Legum was responding to this report, posted by Matt Largey:
BREAKING: ERCOT is now asking people to conserve electricity through Friday, saying there are a significant number of power plants offline and expecting possible record use for June.
LOL. (Also, the Pledge of Allegiance has been controversial for decades, and the history of legal cases – continuing through the present – points to its being a site of coercion, especially for children. Performative patriotism, particularly when enforced, should be anathema to the culture of a free and self-governing people.)
[… Rick] Wiles, who has spent the last year spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the virus and vaccine, returned to the air to claim that he had been deliberately infected by the medical mafia for exposing Dr Anthony Fauci’s supposed collusion with the Chinese government to create the virus and unleash the pandemic.
There is a medical mafia in this country, a noticeably hoarse and thinner Wiles said. I’m suggesting the CCP agents in America struck at me because I am calling for Fauci to be arrested and interrogated.
No, no, it wasn’t the Chinese. It was the aliens from the all the flying saucers buzzing around. They ufonapped you and were going to do their usual anal thing, but couldn’t dislodge your head. And, despite being comatose, you were still bellowing. So they gave you Covids-19, -21, -22, and -37 just to shut you the feck up. (At first they wanted to examine your alleged-brain to see how it could be so defective, but where unable to locate it, or indeed any sort of neruo-activity or -system. Weirdly, though, no rabies.)
[…] If the China Communist Party is not stopped, most Americans may be dead in the next five years. [… A] systematic, genocidal plan to exterminate the American population over the next five years through a variety of biological weapons and vaccines, to the point that there’s hardly anybody remaining alive in the country. China is deliberately exterminating the American population for the purpose of migrating hundreds of millions of Chinese settlers to North America.
Yeah, sure, by a virus which was infected the entire world, and where vaccines are being used quite successfully whenever available, and just how did you stuff your head so far up your arse that even the aliens couldn’t remove it?
A coconut-based contender, which got rave reviews for its “neutral taste” (if you’ve tried pea milk, you’ll understand), seemed perfect for the first few mouthfuls, but by halfway through my cup, I was rushing to throw up: not the optimum start to the day.
That’s the only time the p–food, the archenemy of, well, everything, even British tea cooking it seems, is mentioned.
[…]
Tom Hanks remained uncanceled on Tuesday despite a push by Fox News to say he had been […].
Online and on air, Fox News focused on a column by Eric Deggans of NPR, written in response to the actor’s well-received New York Times essay about the Tulsa race massacre and other atrocities and headlined: “Tom Hanks Is A Non-Racist. It’s Time For Him To Be Anti-Racist.”
Hanks’ essay focused on how he was not taught and did not know about Tulsa, in which as many as 300 people were killed in 1921 when a white mob destroyed a prosperous neighbourhood known as Black Wall Street.
[…]
“These are wise words,” Deggans wrote. “And it’s wonderful that Hanks stepped forward to advocate for teaching about a race-based massacre — indirectly pushing back against all the hyperventilating about critical race theory that’s too often more about silencing such lessons on America’s darkest chapters.”
[…]
Deggans said he was not calling Hanks racist. “But … in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a white police officer, I spent a lot of time investigating the difference between being non-racist and being anti-racist. Anti-racism implies action — looking around your universe and taking specific steps to dismantle systemic racism.
“So I am saying it is time for folks like Hanks to be anti-racist.”
Fox News, however, decided that Deggans was calling Hanks racist, and was calling for him to be cancelled — excluded from mainstream culture for holding views deemed unacceptable by the left, a shibboleth of the American right.
[… bonkers quotes from faux & other PutinKKK disciples…]
Deggans said: “Fox News associating my column with cancel culture is disingenuous and inaccurate. And now I have a new deluge of Fox fans who haven’t read my column objecting to something I haven’t said.
“I think it’s obvious that one of the world’s biggest movie stars can make any film he wants to. But my point was that, if he wants to help solve the problem he identified in his own essay, then he can and should take action to do it.”
And of course, NPR, being a free-to-air publicly-supported reality-base genuine-news, etc., organisation, is anathema to teh profit$-for-moriaduck faux.
[…]
Plastic bottles have been converted into vanilla flavouring using genetically engineered bacteria, the first time a valuable chemical has been brewed from waste plastic.
Upcycling plastic bottles into more lucrative materials could make the recycling process far more attractive and effective. Currently plastics lose about 95% of their value as a material after a single use. Encouraging better collection and use of such waste is key to tackling the global plastic pollution problem.
Researchers have already developed mutant enzymes to break down the polyethylene terephthalate polymer used for drinks bottles into its basic units, terephthalic acid (TA). Scientists have now used bugs to convert TA into vanillin.
Vanillin is used widely in the food and cosmetics industries and is an important bulk chemical used to make pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and herbicides. Global demand is growing and in 2018 was 37,000 tonnes, far exceeding the supply from natural vanilla beans. About 85% of vanillin is currently synthesised from chemicals derived from fossil fuels.
[…]
About 1m plastic bottles are sold every minute around the world and just 14% are recycled. Currently even those bottles that are recycled can only be turned into opaque fibres for clothing or carpets.
There’s also the problem that not all plastics can be recycled.
[… T]he scientists will further tweak the bacteria to increase the conversion rate further, he said: “We think we can do that pretty quickly. We have an amazing roboticised DNA assembly facility here.” They will also work on scaling up the process to convert larger amounts of plastic. Other valuable molecules could also be brewed from TA, such as some used in perfumes.
As someone who used to totally dislike perfumes — but after living in France for many many yonks, now realises part of the problem is the cosmetics kind (at least) is applied far too liberally (very much a case of more is not better!) — I’m not totally thrilled by that idea. On the other hand, it does consume plastics, so perhaps has more good than smelly evil going for it.
Ellis Crawford, of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “This is a really interesting use of microbial science to improve sustainability. Using microbes to turn waste plastics, which are harmful to the environment, into an important commodity is a beautiful demonstration of green chemistry.”
Recent research showed bottles are the second most common type of plastic pollution in the oceans, after plastic bags. In 2018, scientists accidentally created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic bottles, and subsequent work produced a super-enzyme that eats plastic bottles even faster.
Howzibout a mutant enzyme that breaks down thugs (Republicans) into compassionate reality-based humans? (Or non-petroleum-based plant fertiliser?)
Mostly unrelated: Back when I was in California (so long ago the San Andreas fault was only a glimmer in Tectonics, teh god of Plates, eye), there was a big problem with a fake vanilla from Mexico (where the real stuff is indigenous). The problem was there was another substance, coumarin, which tasted like vanilla — “more like vanilla than the real vanilla” (paraphrasing), a respected chef of the time said (Narsai David) — but was toxic. A slow-acting poison. It’s found in high concentrations in Tonka Beans (The delicious flavour with a toxic secret, BBC, 2017), and has been technically illegal in the States since the 1950s. Nonetheless, there is still a push to allow the stuff, The Tonka Bean: An Ingredient So Good It Has to Be Illegal (The Atlantic, 2010).
Tonka Beans are related to peas. All the flavour and taste peas lack might be in the toxic Tonka Beans.
Israelis and Palestinians are preparing for possible unrest before a planned march by Jewish ultranationalists through East Jerusalem that could ignite protests and clashes with police only weeks after an an 11-day Gaza war.
The march poses an early test for Israel’s fragile new government, which was sworn in on Sunday and includes parties from across the political spectrum, including a small Arab party.
Cancelling the march would have opened the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, and other rightwing members of the coalition to intense criticism from those who would view it as a capitulation to Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.
Hamas has called on Palestinians to “resist” the march.
Mansour Abbas, whose small party is the first Arab faction to join a governing coalition, told a local radio station he was opposed to any “provocation”, adding that “anyone who has watched and followed this parade knows what its purpose is”.
Police approved a route that will pass by the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, where Palestinian protesters clashed with police over restrictions on public gatherings during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in April and May….
I believe the march is scheduled to begin in an hour (6 PM local time).
The FBI has warned lawmakers that online QAnon conspiracy theorists may carry out more acts of violence as they move from serving as “digital soldiers” to taking action in the real world following the January 6 US Capitol attack.
The shift is fueled by a belief among some of the conspiracy’s more militant followers that they “can no longer ‘trust the plan” set forth by its mysterious standard-bearer, known simply as “Q,” according to an unclassified FBI threat assessment on QAnon sent to lawmakers last week, which was obtained by CNN.
But the report suggests the failure of QAnon predictions to materialize has not led to followers abandoning the conspiracy. Instead, there’s a belief that individuals need to take greater control of the direction of the movement than before.
This might lead followers to seek to harm “perceived members of the ‘cabal’ such as Democrats and other political opposition — instead of continually awaiting Q’s promised actions which have not occurred,” according to the assessment.
“Other QAnon adherents likely will disengage from the movement or reduce their involvement in the wake of the administration change,” it adds.
…
Titled “Adherence to QAnon Conspiracy Theory by Some Domestic Violent Extremists,” the public FBI threat assessment was provided at the request of Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, who earlier this year revealed that the FBI had provided lawmakers with version of the document in February that was designated “for official use only.”
“The participation of some domestic violent extremists (DVE) who are also self-identified QAnon adherents in the violent siege of the US Capitol on 6 January underscores how the current environment likely will continue to act as a catalyst for some to begin accepting the legitimacy of violent action,” the unclassified FBI assessment obtained by CNN says.
“The FBI has arrested more than 20 self-identified QAnon adherents who participated in the 6 January violent unlawful entry of the Capitol. These individuals were charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct in a restricted building and obstruction of an official proceeding, according to court documents and press reporting based on court documentation, public statements, and social media posts,” it reads….
More atl.
blfsays
Not political (except in a loose sense), but I just gave myself a HUGE scare: Tomorrow I’ll very possibly need proof-of-identity, which are my passports, along with other paperwork. No problem with the other paperwork (so of course something will go wrong!), but the passports weren’t “there”. Eh? Check some other places where I knew they were in the relatively-recent past, and, uh… no. WTF? Had a Talisker single malt whisky to calm down and think about it, and deduced the last time I’d “used” them was back in strict lockdown when an Attestation de Déplacement Dérogatoire (plus ID) was necessary to leave the lair. Ah! Maybe in a winter(-ish) coat pocket, then? Yeap… second coat checked, still safely inside a (moisture-)protecting sealed plastic bag.
* Among those who’ll suffer most from Republican-imposed voting restrictions: disabled voters. The New York Times reported yesterday that GOP bills in many states “would restrict voting methods and accommodations that people with disabilities are disproportionately likely to rely on.”
* The Associated Press ran an unsettling report over the weekend, noting the high number of local election officials who are “quitting or retiring” in the face of right-wing threats and/or Republican-imposed punishments for possible mistakes.
* Donald Trump’s political operation is warning Republicans not to pretend to have endorsements from the former president. Politico reported, “[S]ome candidates are taking it too far — and Trump and his team are aggressively letting them know it.”
Maybe Republican candidates should continue to pretend they have endorsements they don’t have. That would devalue Trump’s endorsements, and it would cause trumpian levels of confusion in the Trump base of voters. Besides, what could be more Trump-like than lying during your campaign?
* Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) was sworn in last night as Congress’ newest member. As a result, the House Democratic majority now has 220 members, while the Republican minority has 211. There are four vacancies — two from Democratic districts, two from Republican districts.
* The Democratic National Committee unveiled a new online video yesterday, emphasizing the degree to which President Biden has better relationships with U.S. allies than Donald Trump.
* Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said yesterday that he doesn’t want to intervene in Republican U.S. Senate primary races in 2022, but the Senate Leadership Fund will get involved “if necessary” because he wants nominees who “appeal to the general election audience.”
* Dennis Kucinich (D) has been Cleveland’s mayor, a congressman, and an unsuccessful presidential candidate, and now, at age 74, he hopes to be Cleveland’s mayor once more. Kucinich, who was first elected to the mayor’s office in 1977 at age 31, will be one of several candidates running in September’s non-partisan primary.
* Bridget Anne Kelly, perhaps best known for writing the “time for traffic problems in Fort Lee” email in the Birdgegate scandal, is now the Republican nominee for Bergen County clerk in New Jersey.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) wasn’t too engaged with his state’s bonkers election “audit.” Then he launched a U.S. Senate campaign.
Arizona Republicans’ utterly bonkers “audit” of Maricopa County’s presidential ballots is reportedly nearing completion, but the controversy is far from over.
It was last month when the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division wrote to Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann (R), explaining that federal officials had reviewed “news reports and complaints regarding the procedures being used for this audit” and was first concerned by a number of reports suggesting the ballots, machines and voter information are no longer under the control of state and local elections officials, aren’t being kept secure, and are at risk of “being lost, stolen, altered, compromised or destroyed.”
The Justice Department similarly reminded the Republican leader that “federal law creates a duty to safeguard and preserve federal election records.”
It was no small thing to see federal law enforcement warn Arizona Republicans that their sham “audit” may have violated federal laws regarding the mishandling of ballots and elections equipment. Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared to raise the stakes, at least a little, in remarks last week on voting rights.
Though Garland did not explicitly mention the Grand Canyon State by name, the attorney general did say, in prepared remarks, “[S]ome jurisdictions, based on disinformation, have utilized abnormal post-election audit methodologies that may put the integrity of the voting process at risk and undermine public confidence in our democracy.”
Evidently, this didn’t sit well with Arizona’s Republican state attorney general. The Arizona Capitol Times reported:
State Attorney General Mark Brnovich is warning his federal counterpart to stay out of the way of the current audit of the 2020 election returns. In a letter Monday to Merrick Garland, Brnovich said he is displaying “an alarming disdain for state sovereignty” by suggesting that there may the need for some federal oversight of what is playing out at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. And Brnovich hinted that any intrusion will result in a lawsuit.
“Arizona will not sit back and let the Biden administration abuse its authority, refuse to uphold laws, or attempt to commandeer our state’s sovereignty,” Brnovich wrote, adding that he believes the Justice Department appeared “more interested in supporting the hysterical outcries of leftist pundits on cable television, rather than the rule of law.”
In case that wasn’t quite provocative enough, the state AG added his office “will not tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our State Senate’s audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections. We stand ready to defend federalism and state sovereignty against any partisan attack or federal overreach.”
[…] To be sure, the Republican’s posturing was tiresome and ahistorical, but that doesn’t mean it was irrelevant.
For one thing, the idea that the U.S. Justice Department should look the other way — in the name of “state sovereignty” — as Arizona Republicans mishandle ballots and elections equipment in a federal election is plainly foolish. For another, no serious person could look at the laughable Arizona “audit” and think it’s intended to “reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections.”
[…]: State Attorney General Mark Brnovich launched a U.S. Senate campaign three days before writing this over-the-top letter to Merrick Garland. The biggest hurdle standing in the way of Brnovich’s candidacy? Donald Trump has publicly criticized the Republican for not going far enough to kowtow to the former president’s anti-election nonsense. Trump, in a written statement last month, said Brnovich was “nowhere to be found” in helping spread the former president’s crackpot ideas. “The lackluster Attorney General of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, has to get on the ball and catch up with the great Republican patriots in the Arizona State Senate,” Trump added.
And so the next step was inevitable. Brnovich, needing to please the former president and his followers, has decided to champion his party’s indefensible election scheme, picking a fight with that rascally Biden administration.
It’s pitiful, but that doesn’t mean the efforts will fail.
An hour before […] Trump announced in December that William P. Barr would step down as attorney general, the president began pressuring Mr. Barr’s eventual replacement to have the Justice Department take up his false claims of election fraud. Mr. Trump sent an email via his assistant to Jeffrey A. Rosen, the incoming acting attorney general, that contained documents purporting to show evidence of election fraud in northern Michigan — the same claims that a federal judge had thrown out a week earlier in a lawsuit filed by one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows may have been responsible for sending emails from Trump to Department of Justice personnel.
Commentary:
[…] Soon after, another Trump email to Rosen included a draft brief, pushing nonsensical election claims, the then-president wanted the Justice Department to file to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The layers of madness are head-spinning. Start with the fact that an American president wanted to nullify the results of his own country’s election. Add the steps that the president and his team took to execute their scheme. Then add the utterly absurd conspiracy theories the Republican White House embraced to justify their attacks on our democracy.
And then add the then-president’s willingness to break down the walls that were designed to protect the independence of federal law enforcement.
Republicans were hysterical for years about Bill Clinton exchanging pleasantries with then-Attorney General Lorretta Lynch on a tarmac, seeing it as an outrageous example of a former president trying to interfere with the Justice Department’s actions. But four years later, a sitting president sent emails to an attorney general, lobbying him to bolster a scheme to undermine an American election.
House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said the emails “show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost.”[…]
Former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) acknowledged Monday that he was part of the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6, after a Twitter account devoted to tracking down participants in the attack placed him at the scene.
“I marched to protest, and I thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated, and I wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand,” Rohrabacher told the Portland, Maine Press Herald. “But I was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.”
The Twitter account @capitolhunters, a group effort to identify participants in the Jan. 6 attack, spotted Rohrabacher in several videos that it flagged on Saturday. [photo available at the link]
The Press Herald noted that Rohrabacher was nearly 500 feet beyond the police barriers, inside a restricted zone on the Capitol grounds.
Rohrabacher told the paper he believed “leftist provocateurs” had encouraged people to enter the building, echoing a common, baseless theory that many Capitol rioters themselves rejected following the attack because it took credit away from their actions. [map available at the link]
[…] The @capitolhunters account noted that Rohrabacher spoke at a December rally organized by Alan Hostetter, the ex-police chief turned yogi Trump fanatic who, along with five others, was hit with a conspiracy charge and other offenses recently for his alleged participation in the attack.
“We will not betray the sacrifices of those brave Americans from 1776 to this day by allowing communists to take control of our government!” Rohrabacher said at that December rally.
“And don’t mistake it, what we’ve got now are dedicated Marxist-Leninists who are trying to destroy the integrity of our voting system to make sure that they can overcome the people of this country.” […]
So why hasn’t the old fool migrated to Moscow by now? He loves Putin more than he loves President Biden!
———————-
In an exchange first reported by the Washington Post, McCarthy said: “There’s …there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: [California Representative Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump … [laughter] … swear to God.”
——————-
Leave it to the most pro-Russian/Putin congressman ever to serve to accuse the other side of being communists. [Yes!]
————————
Hell, I remember on the Hill back in the mid-late 1980s, when we were fighting the Evil Empire in Afghanistan using some pretty suspect proxies. At some confab or other, Rohrabacher showed up in Afghan robes and a burnoose!
Now he’s switched sides, supporting the very guys the Taliban was killing.
What a wacko
———————-
It’s a not-so-surprisingly short walk for the former Congressman to have gone from being an ardent supporter of the Taliban whom he regards as “devout traditionalists–not terrorists or revolutionaries” to Putin’s favorite Congresscritter to full-blown insurrectionist.
Capitol police inspector general Michael Bolton plans to say Tuesday that on Jan. 6, rioters stole 12 ballistic vests and 12 ballistic helmets that had been strategically placed around the Capitol in case of an emergency.
The revelation is part of Bolton’s prepared remarks, which he plans to deliver Tuesday afternoon before the House Administration Committee.
“A Department official stated on January 6, 2021, that FRU was tasked with their regular duties and was not provided with any precautionary information,” he wrote of the Capitol police first responders unit. “After FRU officers retreated as a result of the violent rioters, those ballistic vests and helmets were stolen.”
[…] In one standout passage, Bolton details how the officers, lacking training facilities, go to private companies for marksmanship training. […]
While Bolton testifies before the House Administration Committee at 2 p.m., FBI Director Christopher Wray will be appearing before the House Oversight Committee for another Jan. 6 hearing. He will be joined by two Army officials who participated in planning for the influx of Trump supporters. […]
Documents released ahead of the Oversight hearing show officials at the Pentagon continually telling the National Guard to stand by, even while the attack unfolded.
Republican efforts to demonize any teaching about race or racism in U.S. history picked up yet another perfect defining moment recently when a “grassroots” parent group was outed as a Republican astroturf effort. “Prep School Accountability” claimed to be a group of parents concerned about their kids’ education (at New York private schools), but it turns out that notorious anti-union and pro-corporate astroturfer Rick Berman’s lobbying firm was involved in the campaign to keep education racist.
That news followed other key revelations about the Republican fight against the teaching of critical race theory anything about racism such as TV host Marc Lamont Hill revealing that some of the enthusiastic backers of that effort don’t even know what critical race theory means, or former Love Connection host and current right-wing podcaster Chuck Woolery suggesting that it’s too bad Hitler didn’t nip the original critical theory school in the bud.
What would these warriors against what they characterize as indoctrination prefer to see in schools? We know, thanks to the valuable work of The Root’s Michael Harriot, that many of the congressional opponents of the 1619 Project (a target frequently lumped in with critical race theory), learned whitewashed versions of U.S. history, in some cases from textbooks influenced by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. But that kind of history education has not been left in the past.
Check this out:
These two paragraphs, being taught to 8th graders in Louisiana, are appalling.
People are so concerned about critical race theory being taught to kids, but have nothing to say about this
One of Louisiana’s two approved history textbooks for eighth graders is literally teaching the Civil War from the perspective of the slaveholders. “Our cause is just and must prevail,” the slaveholder in question wrote in her diary. But, according to the textbook, she faced a “justified fear that their slaves would abandon the plantation,” and she and her mother became refugees after being “forced” to go to Texas following 120 enslaved people they had first sent there. After the war, though they still had a huge plantation, they had “lost all their property in slaves” and “had to face the reality of planting and harvesting their fields with freed people who, Kate regretted, now demanded ‘high wages.’”
It’s pushback against this kind of history—in which the concerns of a wealthy slaveholder are presented sympathetically while enslaved people are the source of “justified fear” and problematic demands for “high wages”—that Republicans are so worked up about.
Over the weekend, teachers across the country joined a national day of action to underline their commitment to teaching a full version of U.S. history, including the nation’s racial and too often racist history. Thousands of teachers have signed a pledge saying, simply, “We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events—regardless of the law.”
But some teachers say that their colleagues are intimidated by the laws, and that the attacks on “critical race theory,” which no one is actually teaching at the elementary, middle, or high school levels, will have an effect on the teaching of anything about race—exactly as Republicans intend.
”The White teachers who started doing a little bit more teaching about race and racism are now going back to their old way of teaching,” sixth-grade teacher Monique Cottman told Black Lives Matter at School co-founder Jesse Hagopian. “I’ve had conversations with teachers who said things like, ‘I’m getting so much pushback for teaching Alice Walker, I’m going to go back to teaching what I used to teach.’ So all the teachers who would have done a little bit of what I was doing—anti-racism work and culturally responsive teaching—they’re not going to do anything next year. They’re already declaring, ‘I’m not doing nothing,’ or ‘It’s not safe,’ or ‘I don’t want to lose my job.’”
That’s the game. It’s not about the legal academic school of critical race theory. It’s about Alice Walker. Or a history not told from the perspective of slaveholders. It’s about keeping white people on top in the teaching of history and literature, and intimidating anyone who would teach anything else.
It’s not at all surprising that Republicans are using President Joe Biden’s willingness to engage them in infrastructure negotiations to drag the process out until it dies under the weight of lost momentum. It’s slightly surprising that they are talking about it out in the open, basically gloating over the fact that they’ve peeled Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema away, coopting them into doing their dirty work.
Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, explained to Politico all about how it’s going to work. Republicans agree to spend a lot of money—”a massive amount of new spending on infrastructure”—in order to draw Democratic support away from a potential reconciliation bill coming together on a second track. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have started work on that effort, a way that Democrats can pass Biden’s larger agenda without Republicans. Republicans think they can make a deal on physical infrastructure, pull Democratic votes to that, and then pull the rug out from everyone.
[…] Walking right into that trap is Joe Manchin, who declined to say whether he would support a reconciliation bill for the ambitious part of Biden’s agenda. He would just say that “there’s a lot more that needs to be done, so we need to work it the same way we’re working this one.”
Note that there’s no promise from Thune that in the long run, there will be 10 actual Republican votes for the deal that is supposedly being worked on now by the Sinema-led gang. But he’s going to pretend that it could happen, telling CNN “I think there would be substantial Republican support” for a bill that looked something like what some of the group last week said was an agreement. That agreement of course didn’t have much in the way of specifics and certainly didn’t have a means of raising revenue that is real. Republicans are still talking about putting fees on electric car drivers—which would raise a tiny fraction of what’s needed—and stealing money from COVID-19 relief, which has been rejected already by the White House.
[…] Democrats do seem to get what’s going on here. For example, liberal Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says they would need an “irrevocable” commitment from the moderates—the Democrats in Sinema’s “gang”—to agree to use budget reconciliation for a larger bill. Blumenthal considers what he’s seen from the gang “very, very paltry and disappointing” and said he’s “running out of patience” over all this bipartisan foot-dragging. If, however, there’s an “irrevocable commitment” on the next reconciliation package, then, “I could hold my nose and vote for this package.”
[…] One of those five, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, told CNN she would back reconciliation, and believes the others would as well. “It’s my understanding that everybody has said that they can support reconciliation in some form. Now the devil is in the details as we know,” Shaheen said Monday. […]
The White House has informed the Senate “gang” that they have just a week to 10 days to come to some kind of deal. That’s plenty of time for Republicans to blow this all to hell, especially since we’re just a few weeks away from recess for July 4 and then August.
Yeah, Republicans are just dragging this out until they get to go home again for yet another of their scheduled vacations.
This weekend, police officers enforcing a vaping ban violently arrested four Black teens in Ocean City, Maryland.
Police tackled and repeatedly kneed a 19-year-old on Saturday while arresting him for “failure to provide necessary identification” after allegedly vaping tobacco on the Ocean City boardwalk. Video shows police yelling at the man to “stop resisting” even as he lay restrained on the ground by at least two other officers. Police then arrested two other teens for disorderly conduct and one for “standing on private property next to two ‘no trespassing signs.’” [video available at the link]
Videos of the police tasing and kicking the teens have gone viral on social media, leaving many to ask whether the use of force was an appropriate response to one person’s alleged vaping. Ocean City cops defended their actions in a press release, saying, “Our officers are permitted to use force, per their training, to overcome exhibited resistance.”
In May, the Ocean City Council banned smoking and vaping marijuana products in public places, in addition to its existing ban on tobacco use. Ocean City has billed itself as a “family-friendly resort town”—this is another way of saying that Ocean City is 95 percent white—and has taken to passing ordinances against things like vaping to uphold its self-image, as if vaping were more of a civic blight than cops manhandling teenagers. The city is home to many restrictive ordinances, including a ban on skateboarding, cycling, or rollerskating on the boardwalk outside of specific time slots in the summer.
When the city first put in place smoking restrictions on the boardwalk in 2015, the city manager said that police wouldn’t “haul people off to jail for smoking on the Boardwalk.” It seems times have changed.
Wonkette: “Charity To Erase $278 Million Of Medical Debt, In Reminder That US Health Coverage F*cked”
In a first of its kind agreement, a national charity that buys up medical debt and then makes it go away forever will purchase medical debt directly from a hospital chain instead of on the secondary market, which will get the debt relief to people who need it a lot faster. The Wall Street Journal reports the charity, RIP Medical Debt, will buy up and then retire $278 million worth of patient debt from Ballad Health, a “nonprofit” medical chain that operates in Tennessee and Virginia. However, the Journal also notes that many of the 82,000 low-income patients “shouldn’t have been billed at all under the hospitals’ financial-aid policies,” but couldn’t have their medical services covered because they didn’t complete financial aid applications.
In civilized countries, everyone just has medical coverage without having to beg […]
The Journal notes that the specifics of the deal weren’t disclosed, like what percentage of the debt amount RIP Medical Debt will be paying the hospital chain. Currently, the charity buys debt on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar, so we’d assume the Ballad deal is comparable, or even, one hopes, something that would make RIP Medical Debt donors’ dollars go farther. The charity hopes to make more direct deals with hospitals, “to provide debt relief more quickly.”
As the article points out, there’s a serious disconnect between reality and policies that are supposed to help people who can’t afford healthcare get the services they need. Nonprofit hospitals’ financial aid programs receive “federal, state and local tax breaks in exchange for giving back to their communities.” But in reality, low-income patients can have a hard time actually using the programs — starting with whether patients even know help is available. Prepare to feel a little stabby.
“Often you’ll see, ‘You might be eligible for financial assistance’ in tiny print, but it’s pretty hard to find,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York. “It’s like playing ‘Where’s Waldo.'”
[…] Washington state’s attorney general sued hospitals over patients’ access to financial aid. Under a 2019 consent decree, nonprofit hospitals refunded about $1.6 million to patients.
Somehow we doubt this is saving loads of money nationally over a single-payer system that regulates healthcare costs, where people would just show up at the hospital, show their national healthcare card, and not have to be hounded by debt collectors. […]
Unfortunately, nonprofit hospitals are allowed a lot of leeway when it comes to letting patients know financial help is available. Maybe they’ll help patients through the paperwork maze, or maybe they’ll have a statement in fine print on their website and on intake paperwork and leave the rest up to patients and their families.
[…] the agreement with RIP Medical Debt will erase prior bills. “We’re wiping the slate clean,” he said.
That’s very nice for what it is, and it’s certainly better than setting loose the collection agency hounds.
Wonkette: “Loser Trump Can’t Get Book Deal, Can’t Blog, Not Allowed To Tweet, Is Basically Worthless”
Gonna need y’all to suspend your disbelief for a minute, and refrain from saying this post is pointless because Donald Trump is not physically capable of writing a “book.” We know everything he’s ever “written” was ghostwritten by another human. Hell, the person who wrote Art Of The Deal fuckin’ HAAAATES Donald Trump.
At one point Trump tried to get his niece Mary Trump, who also hates him, to ghostwrite a book for him. Trouble was, she couldn’t figure out what the hell it was that he did all day, so we guess the “Donald Trump At Work” chapters presented some challenges. One day he told her he had some TREMENDOUS content to share that she could put in the book, and it was some kind of rambling recorded monologue he made about women he wanted to have sex with, but who rebuffed his advances, replete with commentary about the thickness of Katarina Witt’s calves. (As Wonkette asked at the time, “How dare she have strong legs! What is she, the greatest figure skater of all time or something?”)
So no, Donald Trump will not be writing a book anytime soon, or ever.
But apparently he won’t be having one ghostwritten for him either, because Politico reports that it is a true fact that no actual publishing house is willing to give him a book deal. That’s right, the immediate former president of the United States has been deemed by Big Book to be unqualified for a book deal of any kind.
“[I]t would be too hard to get a book that was factually accurate, actually,” said one major figure in the book publishing industry, explaining their reluctance to publish Trump. “That would be the problem. If he can’t even admit that he lost the election, then how do you publish that?”
[…] Politico notes that this situation is “unheard of,” but then again, America’s never had such a loser for a president. Politico says “absence of Trump’s own words from the literary world,” and then we couldn’t finish reading that sentence because we were laughing too hard.
Noted New York Times reporter Habes McGillicuddy says Trump is very mad about all this, especially the part where Mike Pence gets to write a book — two books, in fact! […]
But no! According to the one-inch mouth-hole of Trump spox Jason Miller, he’s not mad that Pence gets to write down his memoir:
[H]is spokesperson Jason Miller insisted that he was “fine with it” and had “no issues.”
Sure.
The same day, Trump had (almost certainly lied and) said he had so many offers for book deals he was sick of book deals:
“I turned down two book deals, from the most unlikely of publishers, in that I do not want to do such a deal right now. I’m writing like crazy anyway.”
[…]
“When the time comes, you’ll see the book of all books.”
OK.
“Actually, I’ve been working on a much more important project right now!”
Well, we guess he has an extra 15 minutes a day now that he’s shuttered his LiveJournal.
Monday, Trump clarified that “two of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses have made very substantial offers which I have rejected.” Politico checked with the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses and five out of five of them said no, they have not offered Trump a book deal, and “most said they wouldn’t touch a Trump project when he does start shopping a book around.”
Let’s remember, though, that when Trump claims to have gotten offers from BIGGEST AND MOST PRESTIGIOUS publishing houses, this is also a man who refers to people like Rudy Giuliani and the MyPillow guy as “highly respected.” Whenever Trump says somebody or something is HIGHLY RESPECTED, they are usually the absolute laughingstock of their profession, a criminal, or both.
[…] “I’m skeptical,” added another publishing insider when asked if they believed Trump’s statement that he had gotten two offers. “He’s screwed over so many publishers that before he ran for president none of the big 5 would work with [him] anymore.”
Once again, we are talking about the immediate former president of the United States.
Who is banned from Twitter.
And Facebook.
And didn’t have the work ethic for “blog.”
And is under criminal investigation in more than one state.
And is so lonely he’s showing up to memorials at Mar-a-Lago — yes, memorials — to beg for attention. […]
Records are toppling as the extreme heat reinforces a devastating drought. A weather map is available at the link.
More than 40 million Americans are in the crosshairs of triple-digit heat this week, with some spots soaring over 120 degrees as records fall across the West. The heat in many areas is dangerous, prompting excessive-heat warnings in seven states where temperatures will be hazardous to human health.
The heat also reinforces a devastating drought that continues to reshape the landscape of the West while bolstering worries of what lurks ahead in the fall come fire season. More than half of the western United States is gripped by “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the two most severe categories.
In the longer-range, odds continue to favor prolonged hot and dry weather, though some modest relief may arrive this weekend.
But several days of unrelenting, record-threatening heat is predicted to take a toll. Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the United States
[…] On Monday, records were shattered in the desert Southwest and the Rockies, including in Tucson, where highs hit 112 degrees. Las Vegas spiked to 110.
“Temperatures in Las Vegas will reach at least 113 degrees [on Tuesday], and highs are forecast to be at or above 113 degrees through Saturday,” wrote the Weather Service office in Las Vegas. “A five-day stretch of max temperatures at or above 113 has only occurred five times in Las Vegas for the period of record dating back to 1937.”
[…] Highs in Phoenix reached 112 degrees on Monday and didn’t fall below 90 until after 3 a.m. They’re slated to crest at 116 or 117 degrees on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before “only” hitting 114 degrees on Saturday. That would set a record every day through Friday.
[…] Smoke from the wildfires could reach New England by Friday as it surfs the jet stream east.
[…] It’s not just the desert Southwest and California’s inland valleys that are baking. Extreme heat has surged through the Rockies and Intermountain West, reaching as far north as Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.
[…] Billings, Mont., is forecast to hit its highest temperature ever recorded on Tuesday — an astonishing 109 degrees. The city has only reached 108 degrees once before on July 14, 2002.
“PLEASE stay safe from the heat today and be careful not to spark a fire!” wrote the Billings Weather Service office.
[…] The frequency and intensity of heat events, tied to sprawling areas of high pressure colloquially known as heat domes, have been linked to human-induced climate change. While events like this aren’t caused by climate change, they are intensified by it, their magnitudes becoming markedly more severe.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wants to collect donations for a privately funded border wall. This is not a good idea.
It was literally on his Inauguration Day that President Biden halted construction on the so-called “wall” along the U.S./Mexico border. That said, there were still some logistical and administrative tasks to work through.
[…] it wasn’t until last week when the White House announced plans to return $2 billion to the Pentagon — Donald Trump had raided the Defense Department’s budget without congressional approval — which will in turn fund dozens of military projects. The Biden administration also asked Congress to curtail all federal funds for the project.
[…] Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), running for re-election next year and facing at least one primary rival, announced a new plan in which the Lone Star State would build its own wall.
There was no shortage of questions surrounding the initiative, starting with the most obvious: where would the money come from? As the Texas Tribune reported, the Republican governor now has an answer.
Abbott has not fully detailed the plan yet, but he said in a podcast interview released Tuesday that the state will be soliciting donations from across the country to help fund the wall. “When I do make the announcement later on this week, I will also be providing a link that you can click on and go to for everybody in the United States — really everybody in the entire world — who wants to help Texas build the border wall, there will be a place on there where they can contribute,” Abbott said on the podcast, a show about Republican politics called “Ruthless.”
Grifting and scamming!
Evidently, according to Abbott, the governor’s office would collect the private donations and oversee a fund, which would go toward construction. […]
This is not a good plan.
For one thing, Texas does not need a giant border structure. For another, such an initiative will likely be tied up in litigation for the foreseeable future.
[…] it’s hard not to wonder about the implications of a sitting governor raising private funds for his re-election campaign while simultaneously collecting private funds for an unnecessary infrastructure project.
[…] a group called We Build the Wall came into existence a few years ago, ostensibly created to supplement the White House’s efforts to construct giant barriers along the U.S./Mexico border. While the Trump administration used taxpayer money to construct fencing, We Build the Wall announced plans to raise private funds from donors in pursuit of the same goal.
For a while, it worked: We Build the Wall raised $25 million relatively quickly for the private venture.
But as ProPublica and the Texas Tribune reported last year, the group’s efforts struggled when structural issues raised questions about whether the conservative outfit had delivered a defective product. Things got much worse when federal prosecutors alleged that the folks behind We Build the Wall, including Steve Bannon, “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction.”
Trump pardoned Bannon shortly before leaving office, making the wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges disappear […]
Postscript: None of this does Trump any favors. After all, the former president tried to get people to believe he’d already built a wall and gotten Mexico to pay for it. The Texas governor is effectively acknowledging that both claims aren’t based in reality.
New Justice Department emails released by the House Tuesday give a look into the behind-the-scenes machinations around the shady departure of a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in early January.
Byung “BJay” Pak was the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta, which had become ground-zero in President Trump’s flailing attempts to overturn his defeat in the Peach State. On Jan. 4, Pak abruptly resigned from his role, despite previously telling colleagues he wouldn’t step down until the inauguration. Trump bypassed the career prosecutor who would have been in line for Pak’s job and installed another Georgia U.S. Attorney who had reputation for being a Trump loyalist.
It was later reported that the night before Pak announced his departure, he spoke to a top DOJ official, who reached out to Pak on behalf of the White House to express Trump’s displeasure with Pak’s refusal to gin up investigations into supposed voter fraud.
The new email dump hints at the conversation, and shows the DOJ official, Richard Donoghue, emailing Pak at around 10 p.m. on Jan. 3 with the request that Pak call him “ASAP.”
But the newly-released emails reveal that the Jan. 3 phone call wasn’t the only occasion DOJ leadership wanted to get in touch with Pak while Trump and his allies were on an unrelenting campaign to disrupt Biden’s win in Georgia.
On Jan. 1, Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen sent Pak’s phone number to another top DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark. Clark, then the acting head of the civil division, was at the time attempting get DOJ to do Trump’s election-reversal bidding and at one point, according to the New York Times, had plotted with Trump a potential overthrow of the DOJ leadership that was resisting Trump’s demands.
[…] Clark told Rosen in a Jan. 2 email that he had spoken to a “source” and was at that moment “on the phone with the guy who took the video.”
It is not clear what video Clark was referring to, but other emails to the DOJ, according to Tuesday’s release, indicate that Trump-allies were trying to bring to the DOJ’s attention video footage they said warranted fraud investigations. One of the Trump allies pushing the Georgia allegations was Republican superlawyer Cleta Mitchell, who sent a Dec. 30 email to Mark Meadows flagging “video issues” in Fulton County, as well as a petition being filed to challenge the election. Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, forward Mitchell’s email to Rosen and asked “his team” to “look into these allegations of wrongdoing.” Another Jan. 1 email to Rosen from Meadows asked Rosen to “engage” Clark on alleged “signature match anomalies” in Fulton County.
On Jan. 2, the day after Clark was looking to get in touch with Pak, Mitchell and Meadows listened in on Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger […]
[…] By 8 a.m. that morning, Pak had sent resignation letters to Trump and Rosen, which were also included in the new email batch, as was a note Pak sent the other U.S. Attorneys bidding them farewell. Donaghue responded to that note: “You are a class act, my friend. Thank you.”
snarkratessays
Lynna, do you suppose we could get them to build the wall on the northern border of Texas?
“Michael Flynn was honored at an Alabama county GOP dinner in Birmingham over the weekend. He was the event’s keynote speaker & received a ‘certificate of recognition’ from Gov. Kay Ivey. To Flynn’s left is current Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mike Bolin.”
Donald Trump has insisted he is writing the book of all books — even though major figures in US publishing said on Tuesday that no big house is likely to touch a memoir by the 45th president[Wacko House occupant] because it might stoke “a staff uprising” and it would be “too hard to get a book that was factually accurate”.
Tony Schwartz, who wrote Trump’s 1987 hit The Art of the Deal, now says the book should have been called The Sociopath.
snark rates @358, sounds good. However, if we walled Texas in we would trap all the good people in there with the stupid people and I’m afraid weapons-grade stupid would win.
There’s some hope: I have a feeling Abbott’s wall will fail because all the grifters and scammers will steal the money that gullible Trump cult followers donate. Abbott may take some of the funds raised online (from people all over the world! he says) and give it to shady contractors who build a shoddy wall. That’s what Steve Bannon’s group did. Anything they do build will fall down. Kind of a metaphor for rightwing failures in general.
And then there’s the fact that many private landowners will simply have a handy target to sue in court.
The worst sin I see here is that Abbott’s wall is a waste of time. That guy is twiddling his thumbs while the Texas power grid is likely to fail this summer, and people will die.
[…] * A 17-year dispute: “The United States and the European Union reached a deal Tuesday to end a damaging dispute over subsidies to rival plane makers Boeing and Airbus and phase out billions of dollars in punitive tariffs, the U.S. trade envoy said.”
* Asylum policy: “The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will expand the number of Central American children eligible to apply for asylum in the U.S. while still in their home countries.”
* Today’s mass shooting: “Four people were killed and at least four more were wounded Tuesday when an argument escalated into gunfire on Chicago’s Southside, police said. The victims — three women and a man — were at a residence in the Englewood neighborhood when the bullets started flying around 5:45 a.m. CT, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said.”
* The domestic terror threat: “The Biden administration on Tuesday rolled out what it said is a new strategy to counter domestic terrorism: a series of changes to elevate the federal government’s response to an urgent problem, with renewed efforts to deter, detect and prosecute those who would use violence in pursuit of political aims.”
* Ambassadors: “President Biden on Tuesday announced his long-awaited first slate of ambassadors, including his nominees for key posts in Mexico and Israel, as he made his first trip abroad since taking office.”
* Speaking of administrative personnel: “The White House plans to name progressive tech critic Lina Khan become chair of the Federal Trade Commission, according to a source familiar with the matter. The news came just hours after she was confirmed by the Senate to be a commissioner of the agency on Tuesday.”
* A key confirmation: “The Senate voted Monday to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The vote was 53-44.”
* So very unhelpful: “Five House Democrats representing the more moderate end of the caucus threw some doubt on the future of President Joe Biden’s agenda Monday.” Link
* She did not, however, apologize for comparing Democrats to Nazis: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., apologized Monday for comparing mask-wearing requirements at the Capitol to the Holocaust after visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.”
During a House Oversight committee hearing Tuesday, several Republicans spent their speaking time expressing concern for a specific group of people involved in the January 6 attack: the insurrectionists themselves.
Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) was preoccupied with whether any insurrectionists were being held in solitary confinement, pressing FBI Director Christopher Wray on the matter.
“I am troubled that reportedly dozens of individuals from the January 6 riots have been held without bond in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day,” Hice said, noting that “even Elizabeth Warren” called that form of punishment “cruel and psychologically damaging.”
He asked Wray how many insurrectionists were currently held in isolation.
“I don’t know the number that would be held in those conditions,” Wray responded, adding that it’s a “decision made by the court” and that “I don’t keep up on the terms of confinement or detention.”
“There’s a great deal of concern with this,” Hice asserted, before moving on to ask why there haven’t been investigations into the Black Lives Matter protests from last summer.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) took a slightly different tack a few questions later, sowing doubt that some of the people arrested for participating in the insurrection had been innocent bystanders who simply wandered into the building.
“How many people were in the Capitol that day, I mean members of the public?” Grothman asked, looking around. “Does anyone know the answer to the question?”
He threw out numbers like 1,100 and 800, painting a picture of a Capitol buzzing with legions of tourists and visitors. In reality, the Capitol was closed to the public amid the COVID-19 pandemic back in March 2020, and is only now slowly reopening to guests of lawmakers and staff.
“I am under the impression that day, that there are people who clearly, horrifically did wrong things,” he said, mentioning rioters breaking windows to gain entry. “But we also remember seeing people on TV that day that were almost let in the Capitol.”
He went on that perhaps the Capitol police, out of “exhaustion,” just let them into the building.
“People back home are concerned about a certain class of person,” he said. “Were there people allowed in the Capitol that didn’t engage in any physical confrontation or do any damage, and just wound up in the Capitol — breaking the law, but they have no way of knowing if they’re breaking the law?”
Wray pointed out that those who have been prosecuted were found to have violated criminal law, though Grothman waved him off and asked the question again.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), in the same vein, asked Wray whether any insurrectionists are being “held in jail without due process.” [Oh, FFS. Putin’s talking points. QAnon’s talking points. Talking points from rightwing dunderheads.]
His fellow Arizonian Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) chimed in a few questions later, demanding to know who “executed Ashli Babbitt,” the Trump supporter fatally shot by police as she tried to climb through a window into the lobby leading to the House floor, where members were gathered as the insurrection began. Veneration of Babbitt as a martyr began immediately after the insurrection in MAGA circles; some supporters briefly hijacked her Wikipedia page in an attempt to connect her to #SayHerName, a hashtag associated particularly with Black women killed by police.
“Do you approve of the use of lethal force against unarmed citizens, particularly a 110-pound woman with no warning, no use of non-lethal force prior, while lying in wait?” Gosar asked very quickly.
Arms crossed, Wray leaned forward. “I’m not gonna try to answer a hypothetical,” he said.
It started on Friday when the Yavapai County sheriff’s office issued a statement warning that it had received reports of people posing as employees of the county recorder’s office allegedly knocking on doors of residents and asking who they voted for. […]
Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman’s office retweeted the alert on Monday and told TPM she felt compelled to notify the public about the door-knocking incidents after two county residents contacted the Prescott Police Department and the recorder’s office about the potential posers.
A resident in a gated retirement community was allegedly asked who she and others in the area voted for in the last election by the unidentified canvasser, and reported the incident to the Prescott Police Department and the Yavapai County Recorder’s office afterward.
According to Hoffman, a day or two after the first case was reported, another woman living in the county reported a similar incident to the county recorder’s office. But in this case, the resident was asked about different names of people and whether they lived at her home.
Both residents reported that the door-knockers claimed that they were conducting a survey about who residents voted for, but when the residents asked for the solicitors name and identification to prove they worked for the recorder’s office, the canvassers promptly left the scene, according to the county recorder.
[…] Asked whether Yavapai County plans to contact the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division about the incidents, Hoffman said she is waiting to see if similar cases occur before consulting the county’s legal counsel on any potential further action.
The alert in Yavapai County — which is adjacent to Maricopa County where the ongoing sketchy “audit” of the 2020 presidential election is taking place — comes a month after the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division wrote in a letter that canvassing practices like this could potentially violate federal law.
Last month, the Arizona Senate said it would hold off on a controversial plan to knock on voters’ doors as part of a Republican-commissioned election recount in Maricopa County because that type of door-to-door interviewing raised concerns about voter intimidation. As part of the sketchy “audit,” Cyber Ninjas — the Florida-based firm contracted by the state Senate to conduct the recount — tried to introduce plans to “statistically identify voter registrations that did not make sense” and conduct interviews with voters by phone and “physical canvassing.”
[…] Liz Harris, a Republican who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the state House last year, claimed that she has organized a group of canvassers to knock on doors to check voter registration data.
Harris, however, denied in a video posted Monday that anyone in the group that she is leading is behind the incidents in Yavapai County, and decried the county sheriff’s advisory about the canvassing as a tactic that could potentially “scare people” out of joining in on such efforts.
Imagine that you are the sole Democrat among the four most powerful elected officials in your state, and that you worked tirelessly last year to ensure the integrity of your state’s vote through hand recounts in multiple counties.
Imagine that amid the tumult and chaos in your state since Donald Trump lost the election, you and your family have received multiple death threats and have twice been assigned a security detail for your protection.
Imagine that amid a nationwide GOP-led attack on voting rights, your state becomes ground zero for sham GOP-led audits conducted by a private pro-Trump company with no actual experience in conducting recounts.
Imagine that you have spent nearly every waking hour of your life for the last six months trying to combat baseless disinformation about voter fraud in order to ensure that your reality-based constituents—most of whom voted for Joe Biden—continue to feel confident about the integrity of the election in your state.
Imagine that your Republican counterparts used those baseless fraud claims as a justification for, among other things, eliminating one of the state’s most effective voting tools—the Permanent Early Voting List, which automatically sent ballots to signees for every election in which they were eligible to vote.
Now imagine that you have a Democratic colleague in the U.S. Senate with the power to do something about that abuse of power, but who refuses to take action to protect the voting rights of her own constituents because she’s more committed to protecting the veto power of Republicans in the Senate.
Imagine you were forced to watch your Democratic colleague’s insane power trip, where paving the way to autocracy somehow felt particularly compelling and glorious.
Just imagine. That’s the reality Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is living every single day while Sen. Kyrsten Sinema jets off to Texas with a GOP senator and explains how Democrats need to change their “behavior” to better accommodate a party that is currently executing a brazen anti-democracy power grab.
Clearly, it would be maddening, and that’s probably what compelled Hobbs, who has also launched a gubernatorial bid in Arizona, to pen an op-ed for the Washington Post urging congressional action on voting rights legislation.
“I am working with our legislators to defeat those bills, many of which are designed to depress turnout of minority and lower-income voters,” she wrote. “But with Republicans in control of both chambers of our legislature, my options on a state level are limited. So I am sounding the alarm and appealing to my Democratic colleagues in Washington for help.”
In the piece, Hobbs mentions Sinema by name and notes that, since they serve the same state, they both know GOP state legislators there will ultimately suppress access to the ballot box.
“I know—and I believe that U.S. senators know, too—that access to the ballot isn’t a red or blue policy but a basic American value,” she writes. “I am taking what steps I can to fight back on a local level. But I cannot succeed without help from Congress. Please, act decisively and pass the For the People Act. We are running out of time.”
[…] Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border later this month as Republicans seek to cast a spotlight on the Biden administration’s handling of immigration.
Trump in a statement said he would join Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) at his invitation for a tour of the border. The exact location was not immediately clear.
“The Biden Administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in U.S history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in U.S history. It’s an unmitigated disaster zone,” Trump said in a statement.
The Biden administration in its first weeks reversed several Trump-era policies meant to restrict legal and illegal immigration. It lifted restrictions on green card application, undid a travel ban on a handful of Muslim-majority countries, reversed the Trump administration’s public charge rule and ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy that required migrants to await adjudication south of the border.
Republicans blamed Biden’s swift shift in direction when a record setting number of migrants surged to the U.S.-Mexico border in the first few months of his presidency. Those numbers have since abated, but GOP lawmakers have pressured President Biden and Vice President Harris to visit the southern border to assess the situation and show support for law enforcement.
“What Biden and Harris have done, and are continuing to do on our border, is a grave and willful dereliction of duty,” Trump said. “My visit will hopefully shine a spotlight on these crimes against our Nation—and show the incredible people of ICE and Border Patrol that they have our unshakeable support.” [Blah, blah, blah. typical bullshit from Trump]
[…] Trump is expected to hold rallies in Ohio on June 26 and Florida on July 3.
“Do you approve of the use of lethal force against unarmed citizens, particularly a 110-pound woman with no warning, no use of non-lethal force prior, while lying in wait?” Gosar asked very quickly.
The officer was standing in front of her with the gun pointed, and several of the insurrectionists were shouting “Gun! Gun! He’s got a gun!” There were House members – Gosar’s colleagues – behind him still trying to exit the chamber, and she was at the front of a violent mob. She’d also been in the military.
Jeansays
It was nice to Colbert return in front of a live audience but I was quite disappointed with Jon Stewart (who I used to love). I’m not sure if he was trying to be funny and mocking but the way he did the bit about the Wuhan lab was way too close to what the real nut jobs say. Colbert was having fun and still trying to get a few counterpoints in but that will likely help with the stupid messaging about the COVID origin and China’s role in it..
blfsays
I’m one of the people who was very unhappy Mr Colbert was back in front of a live audience. Well, Ok, I am happy it was possible, but disappointed in the actual first day result. During the brief time I time tried to watch, it was nothing but wall-to-wall cheering and (often pointless-seeming) noise-making, frequently interrupting or completely drowning out whatever it was Colbert was trying to say. I gave up after perhaps 5 minutes. Hopefully the crowd will calm down in time and the show become watchable again. (And yes, the Grinch had the right idea, Tom should have caught Jerry, and 1 + 2 = apples if the kracken aren’t flying. (Looks out the window below his feet.) A herd just zoomed by, chased by Danger Mouse.)
For more than a year, people who have wanted to get within breathing distance of Vladimir Putin have performed a ritual, two-week quarantine in Russian hotels and sanatoriums to protect the 68-year-old president from falling ill with coronavirus.
Since March 2020, powerful business people, regional governors, his pilots and medical staff, volunteers at an economic conference, and even second world war veterans have shut themselves away to meet the Kremlin leader or even stand in his general vicinity.
So it will be a rare sit-down when Putin jets into Geneva to meet Joe Biden, who has been on a whirlwind tour through Europe, attending the G7 summit in Cornwall and then flying to Brussels for meetings with EU and Nato leaders before travelling to Switzerland.
Putin has not publicly travelled abroad since the outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020, hosting foreign leaders in Moscow or Sochi and holding most of his meetings with government ministers and regional governors over videoconference.
Critics have chided Putin for sheltering in a “bunker” during the coronavirus outbreak, reportedly protected by medical tunnels of dubious efficacy that sprayed visitors with a cloud of disinfectant.
The Proekt investigative website later claimed the Kremlin had built an identical windowless office in Sochi, a resort city on the Black Sea, where Putin was reportedly holding meetings while he was believed to be in Moscow.
All that was expected to end after Putin was given his first Sputnik vaccine dose in March, a procedure that was not documented on camera but that the Kremlin said the media would “have to take our word for it”.
But the two-week quarantine period has remained for many visitors, including the US television crew who met Putin for an interview before the summit….
…
Slow vaccination rates in Russia have led to “explosive growth in cases”, according to the Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, leading him to declare a week-long business holiday.
Before the trip for the summit, Putin’s spokesperson Dmitri Peskov told journalists he was not vaccinated because he still had a high antibody count from when he had coronavirus last year.
“All safety precautions have been taken extremely seriously,” said Yuri Ushakov, a Putin aide….
Self-made billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk made huge profits during the Covid-19 pandemic but a new report shows there’s no beating family money when it comes to getting – and staying – really, really rich.
Ten of the US’s richest families, including the Walmart family and the dynasties behind industries including candy and cosmetics, also saw their assets balloon over the pandemic, with a shared increase in their combined net worth of over $136bn in 14 months, according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) published on Wednesday.
The report, Silver Spoon Oligarchs, details how these families have not only increased their wealth by billions in the last year, but have also worked to ensure the system supports this exponential growth over decades.
Chuck Collins, a co-author of the report and director at IPS, said: “If the system is functioning as it should, we should not see wealth accelerating over generations, it should be dispersing.” [LOL]
…
Collins, director of the IPS Program on Inequality and the Common Good, said these families weren’t just making more money, they were also getting better at putting it out of reach of taxation.
The report outlines six “habits of highly entrenched dynasties”, which include limiting charitable donations and avoiding taxation through tools such as dynasty trusts, which protect the ultra-wealthy from getting taxed on money transfers over a long period of time.
Another habit is fighting tax increases for the wealthy. The Mars family corporation, Mars Inc, has spent more than $20m in the past 10 years on lobbying, including $720,000 in 2020 on “issues related to estate and gift tax reform”, according to the report.
The report outlined several proposals already under consideration to curb this wealth accumulation, including the Make Billionaires Pay Act, a proposal introduced by several senators to institute a one-time 60% pandemic wealth tax on billionaires’ gains in 2020. There is also a renewed push to increase funding for the notoriously underfunded Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as well as other efforts to increase inheritance and estate taxes.
But even with the proposals, more must be done, said Collins, to stamp out tax loopholes, offshore tax havens and certain types of trusts that allow families to hide their wealth.
“There is a pretty powerful wealth defense industry that has a vested interest in keeping this dynasty system growing,” Collins said.
Just last week, an investigation by ProPublica revealed that the 25 richest Americans paid a “true tax rate” of just 3.4% between 2014 and 2018, despite their collective net worth rising by more than $400bn in the same period.
“One reason we should be concerned about the ProPublica release, the amount of tax avoidance, is that maybe a sliver will end up in philanthropy, but most of it will be passed down the generational line,” Collin said. “So in a sense they are setting up the next generation of inherited wealth dynasties.”
Here’s a link to the June 16 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From their morning summary:
India’s main opposition party, Congress, has questioned the decision by Narendra Modi’s government to double the gap between the doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, asking whether it was prompted by a vaccine shortage.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned about possible food shortages and called for his people to brace for extended Covid-19 restrictions as he opened a major political conference to discuss national efforts to salvage a broken economy.
Authorities in Moscow will make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for 60% of employees in the services sector. Mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, has described the situation in Russia’s capital as “dramatic”, saying there were more than 12,000 people hospitalised with coronavirus.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visits Lisbon and Madrid today where she will begin approving recovery plans submitted by nations seeking funding from the bloc’s coronavirus recovery fund.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that 70% of adults in the state have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, a threshold he said the state would celebrate by easing many of its remaining social distancing rules and shooting off fireworks.
…
China continues to close in on administering 1bn vaccines – official figures reported by Reuters show that yesterday China administered about 19.8m doses. That takes the overall tally to 923m.
An outbreak of Covid-19 in southern China has combined with the rapid reopening of the world economy and a shortage of shipping containers to cause a surge in transport costs that could fuel inflation and cause shortages of goods across the globe.
All care home staff in England should be vaccinated, a senior government minister has urged, saying she would not want her own relatives to be looked after by unvaccinated carers.
The NHS National Booking Service in England has opened up vaccine shots to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time.
A 57-year-old man has been charged after a BBC journalist was confronted and chased by anti-Covid lockdown protesters near Downing Street….
Also from there:
Codogno, the town where the first domestic transmission of Covid-19 was detected in Italy, has registered zero infections among its inhabitants for the first time since February 2020.
Mattia Maestri, 38, tested positive for coronavirus after he was hospitalised with severe pneumonia in Codogno on 20 February, leading the town and nine others in the Lombardy region, along with one in Veneto, to become the first in Europe to be quarantined. Maestri survived the virus after several weeks in intensive care.
Codogno was at the epicentre of the early stages of the pandemic in Italy before the entire country went into lockdown on 9 March.
“For the first time since that terrible 20 February, Codogno has recorded zero Covid infections among residents,” Francesco Passerini, the town’s mayor, wrote on Facebook. “It’s an important milestone and a further step towards the return to normality for our community. The vaccination campaign continues to progress quickly and we have reached a percentage of 63.15% [of the population vaccinated].”
Meanwhile, the Italian government is reportedly considering extending the “state of emergency”, which gives it powers to impose coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns if needed. The state of emergency was declared by Giuseppe Conte’s government in January 2020 and has been extended several times since. It is currently due to expire at the end of July. Italy registered 1,255 new infections on Tuesday and 63 deaths.
Fiona Hill, once then-President Donald Trump’s top Russia adviser, said Tuesday evening that she was so alarmed during Trump’s 2018 press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin that she had looked for a fire alarm to pull and considered faking a medical emergency.
“I just thought, let’s cut this off and try to end it. I couldn’t come up with anything that just wouldn’t add to the terrible spectacle,” Hill told CNN’s Don Lemon on “Don Lemon Tonight.”
Her reflection on the controversial press conference — wherein Trump declined to support the US government’s assessment that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election — comes on the eve of President Joe Biden’s highly anticipated summit with Putin, an event Hill has helped the President prepare for.
…
Officials have said Russia pushed for a joint press conference. But the US resisted because they did not want to give Putin a platform like he had after the summit with Trump in Helsinki, Finland. Officials said they were mindful of Putin’s desire to appear like he’d gotten the better of a US president, and they wanted to avoid a situation that devolved into a tit-for-tat playing out in public.
The decision also came at the advice of a group of Russia experts who met with Biden earlier this month, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
“This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other,” Biden said on Sunday, explaining the decision.
Hill, who remembered the Trump-Putin press conference as “one of those moments where it was mortifying and humiliating for the country,” said Tuesday night that she thought Biden and Putin not holding a joint press conference was “a great idea.”
Authorities in Belarus have paraded the detained opposition blogger Roman Protasevich at a news conference in Minsk, where they gave their version of the Ryanair plane diversion of 23 May.
A BBC reporter who was initially at the media briefing says Mr Protasevich, 26, was clearly appearing under duress.
…
Mr Protasevich, who is being held at a KGB prison in Belarus’ capital, said he was feeling fine and had not been beaten. He also said he had caused damage to Belarus and now wanted to rectify the situation.
Before his arrest he said he feared a possible death penalty as he has been put on a Belarus terrorism list. And he would anyway face a long prison sentence if found guilty of inciting unrest.
At the briefing on Monday the head of state investigations, Dmitry Gora, said [Protasevich’s girlfriend Sofia] Sapega – who is Russian – had been charged with inciting social discord and enmity. She is also in the KGB jail in Minsk.
…
Flatly contradicting independent accounts of what happened, Belarus air force chief Igor Golub told the briefing: “There was no interception, no forced diversion from the state border or forced landing of the Ryanair plane.”…
From BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher’s account: “With Mr Protasevich having been brought from detention to the briefing, and almost certainly having no say in the matter, we decided to leave. Shortly afterwards several of the foreign diplomats also followed suit.”
Alabama pastor Ed Litton will be the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention following a narrow election win Tuesday — a victory for the more moderate establishment against a conservative insurgency in an ongoing fight within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
The vote comes as the SBC has been grappling with questions about racial reconciliation, gender roles within the clergy and how to handle sex abuse cases. Litton defeated the favored candidate of conservative Southern Baptists, Georgia pastor Mike Stone, in a runoff, receiving support from 52% of the delegates (called “messengers”) to the SBC’s annual meeting in Nashville.
“My prayers and congratulations are with Pastor Ed Litton as Southern Baptists continue to serve our churches and our communities,” said Stone in a statement Tuesday evening.
The outcome was uncertain in the days and even hours before the vote, which took place at one of the largest annual meetings in SBC history. More than 13,000 messengers voted in person Tuesday, a year after the 2020 meeting was canceled due to the Covid pandemic. [About 35% of Tennesseans are fully vaccinated.]
…
Despite the talk of unity, Southern Baptists appeared headed for a major split over the sorts of culture-war issues usually reserved for politics, such as race and gender. The internal conflict took on a particularly Trumpian tone, pitting a populist group of self-identifying “real” Southern Baptists against those they say would transform the church into something unrecognizable to many traditionalists.
Beyond the presidential race, the fight over the future of the SBC played out over a series of votes on hot-button issues like the use of critical race theory, which the SBC adopted as acceptable in 2019.
While conservatives had hoped to see language rejecting critical race theory, the SBC’s moderate wing appears to have carried the day here, too, as a resolution was passed to reaffirm the church’s position on racial reconciliation and to condemn racism.
…
The SBC, an evangelical church, is also overwhelmingly White and has become increasingly aligned with political conservatives. Like most Christian denominations in the US, the SBC faces shrinking membership — a frequent topic of discussion during the first day of the meeting, on Tuesday.
But where the church’s moderates have advocated a conciliatory approach on race in an attempt to attract a broader group of adherents, a conservative vanguard has coalesced to beat back what it considers an embrace of “wokeness” by the Southern Baptist establishment.
For months, the organizing energy has been on the side of conservatives. The spirit of revolt against the church’s so-called liberals has been driven largely by the work of the Conservative Baptist Network, which encouraged fellow travelers to register as messengers for Nashville.
Stone, who is closely associated with the Conservative Baptist Network, was these conservatives’ favored candidate….
There have been repeated warnings about domestic violence and a new warning about Q adherents splintering in that direction. There’s reporting about Q people focusing on Arizona, where the “audit” nears completion.
Rachel Maddow shares highlights from a new New York Times report on how Amazon, the company that is likely to soon become the largest private employer in the U.S., treats its workers, guided by a philosophy that workers are inherently lazy and purposely maintaining an extremely high rate of turnover to ensure that disgruntled workers don’t linger.
Away from Geneva, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on the rise in threats against election officials:
One in three election officials feel unsafe in their jobs, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Brennan Center for Justice. One in five election workers said threats to their lives were a concern related to their job.
Nearly 8 in 10 of the election officials surveyed said social media, a hotbed of disinformation about elections, made it harder to to do their jobs. More than half said they believed social media had made their jobs more dangerous. The findings were based on a survey of 233 election officials with an overall margin of error of 6.4%.
The report underscores the enormous pressure election officials across the country came under both during the 2020 election and in its aftermath. As Donald Trump and allies fueled baseless conspiracy theories about the election, the officials responsible for overseeing election administration often became the target of supporters’ rage. Workers were followed, faced death threats, and were harassed at home.
The Brennan Center report recommends that the Justice Department set up a task force specifically focused on protecting election workers. Attorney General Merrick Garland signaled the department was paying attention to the issue during a speech last week.
…
The Brennan Center report also recommends states pass new laws and allocate funding towards protecting election workers. States should also prioritize investigating threats against election officials and pass new laws that protect officials from undue partisan interference, the report says.
tomhsays
The Republican objective of flooding federal courts with partisan judges is paying dividends.
(CN) — Crediting several red states’ claims they stand to lose millions in revenue and thousands of jobs from the Biden administration’s pause of new oil and gas leases on federal lands and offshore waters, [U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Donald Trump appointee], on Tuesday issued an injunction lifting the moratorium.
…Senate Approves Bill Making Juneteenth a National Holiday
The Senate has unanimously approved legislation that would make Juneteenth — the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States — a federal holiday. The celebration dates back to the last days of the Civil War, when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, with news that the war had ended and slaves were free. The measure will now have to pass the House before it can be enacted into law. Lawmakers celebrated the historic move, but some called for further action. Democratic New York Congressmember Jamaal Bowman tweeted, “The Senate continues to be behind the times. Juneteenth has been a holiday for well over 100 years. Let’s bring the Senate into modern times and get unanimous consent on abolishing the Jim Crow filibuster.”
Texas Bans Critical Race Theory in Schools
In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has signed a controversial bill into law that prohibits educators from teaching about the history and social impacts of systemic racism in the U.S. The law also bans teaching of The New York Times’ 1619 Project, for which creator Nikole Hannah-Jones was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2020. Texas joins several other states, including Arkansas and North Carolina, that have passed legislation banning the teaching of critical race theory since the police murder of George Floyd last year. Teachers across the country have been protesting the enactment of such legislation, which they’ve compared to Jim Crow laws.
Reps. Cori Bush and Bonnie Watson Coleman Unveil Bill Decriminalizing All Drug Possession
Democratic House members Cori Bush and Bonnie Watson Coleman introduced a bill Tuesday that would decriminalize all drug possession and put in place a “health-centered approach.” Missouri Congressmember Bush said, “It’s time to put wellness and compassion ahead of trauma and punishment.”
…
Hungarian Lawmakers Advance Legislation Barring LGBTQ Content for Minors
In Hungary, human rights advocates are denouncing new anti-LGBTQ legislation passed by lawmakers yesterday that bans media, advertisers and other outlets from showing children any content that portrays gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, and prohibits teaching about LGBTQ issues at schools. The far-right party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán introduced the legislation, which was attached to a bill that more strictly penalizes child abuse. Opponents of the legislation have compared it to Russia’s so-called gay propaganda law enacted in 2013. Human Rights Watch said the law “is a cynical attack by the ruling party … on the human dignity of LGBT people for political gain. By falsely associating harmful illegal behavior with LGBT people, authorities invite hostility and hatred against them, fueling homophobia and transphobia.”
Arctic Scientists Say We May Have Already Passed Climate Tipping Point
After the largest expedition ever to the North Pole, researchers say Arctic ice is receding faster than ever before and that we may have already passed the point of no return on global heating. The expedition’s leader, Markus Rex, presented the team’s findings on Tuesday.
Markus Rex: “There are several tipping points in the climate system which lead to irreversible, sudden changes, which are triggered when the planet reaches a certain temperature. We have seen that we are on the verge of that tipping point which will lead to the disappearance of the ice in the Arctic summer.”
Indigenous Activists Continue Resistance Against Line 3 After Setback in Court
Water and land defenders in Minnesota are continuing resistance actions against Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. On Tuesday, activists blockaded a semi-truck loaded with drilling equipment, lying on the ground and attaching themselves to the vehicle. At least 30 people were arrested Tuesday. This came a day after a Minnesota court upheld a state approval of the pipeline’s expansion. The Native-led group Honor the Earth said, “Line 3 is a clear violation of human rights + cultural rights to live as Anishinaabe people promised in the #1855Treaty. [President Biden] must #StopLine3.”
…
Biden Administration Lays Out New Strategy to Combat White Supremacist Domestic Terror
The Biden administration announced new measures Tuesday to combat domestic terrorism following a review of extremist threats and in light of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The new approach includes hiring more analysts and prosecutors at the Justice Department and FBI, improving communications on possible threats between the federal government and local authorities, as well as with social media companies. Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke Tuesday after the White House plan was released.
Attorney General Merrick Garland: “The two most lethal elements of the domestic violence extremist threat are racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and militia violent extremists. In the FBI’s view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the white race.”
As US states lift more coronavirus restrictions, experts are worried people who aren’t fully vaccinated could contribute to further spread of the virus.
The Delta variant, first reported in India, currently accounts for nearly 10% of coronavirus cases in the US, according to the CDC.
With concerns it could become the dominant strain soon, medical experts are underscoring the importance of full vaccination.
“I’m worried about those who are unvaccinated,” US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told CNN Tuesday, noting the Delta variant “is rapidly increasing here in the United States.”
The CDC has determined the Delta variant is a “variant of concern,” a designation given to strains of the virus that scientists believe are more transmissible or can cause more severe disease.
…
The good news is that vaccines appear to be effective against the Delta variant.
A new study by Public Health England found that two doses of a coronavirus vaccine is “highly effective against hospitalization” caused by the Delta variant. The study found the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalization after two doses.
Murthy said there isn’t enough data to indicate the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine in regards to the Delta variant, but the vaccine has shown it can help prevent hospitalizations and deaths when people are infected with other strains.
“The key is get vaccinated, get both doses,” Murthy said.
As of Tuesday, 43.9% of the total US population was fully vaccinated while 52.6% has received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the CDC.
This comes on the heels of the US surpassing 600,000 deaths since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That means about one in every 550 people in the US has died from the virus….
Biden-Putin summit concludes after about three hours
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin’s summit has now concluded in Geneva, after about three hours of talks between the US and Russian presidents.
The expanded bilateral meeting, which several of the presidents’ aides participated in, wrapped up after a little over an hour. The smaller first session of talks lasted about an hour and a half.
The White House had initially said the talks would last between four to five hours, so the summit was actually shorter than what Biden’s team was expecting.
Biden and Putin will now hold separate press conferences to take questions about the summit, so stay tuned.
Who is this reporter?: “You didn’t answer my question. If all of your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned, doesn’t that signify that you don’t want a fair political fight?”
“@ABC News’ @rachelvscott to Russian Pres. Putin: ‘The list of your political opponents who are dead, imprisoned or jailed is long…and you have now prevented anyone who supports [Alexey Navalny] to run for office.
‘So my question is, Mr. President: what are you so afraid of?’
MORE: @rachelvscott follows up to Russian Pres. Putin: ‘You didn’t answer my question, sir. If all of your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned—doesn’t that send a message that you do not want a fair political fight?'”
The UK has reported its highest daily total of new coronavirus infections since February, adding to signs that a new, more infectious variant of the disease first found in India is spreading.
The government reported a further 9,055 cases today, the highest since 25 February, and up by almost a fifth compared to a day earlier.
This week, the UK delayed plans to lift most remaining Covid-19 restrictions by a month, saying the extra time would be used to speed up Britain’s vaccination programme – already one of the world’s furthest advanced.
The UK recorded another nine deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik tried to defend secret subpoenas targeting members of Congress. Every element of her defense was wrong.
It seemed like the kind of controversy congressional Republicans would want to avoid. As we’ve discussed, the Trump-era Justice Department secretly seized communications records from at least two Democratic members of Congress, some of their staffers, and even some of their family members. We learned soon after that then-White House Counsel Don McGahn was also targeted after clashing with his Oval Office boss.
As Trump-era scandals go, this is a tough one to defend, so it stood to reason that GOP lawmakers who still carry the former president’s water would simply change the subject rather than engage on the merits.
And yet, there was House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) — who serves on the House Intelligence Committee alongside members who were targeted with secret subpoenas — defending what transpired.
“Having served on the House Intelligence Committee, we’ve seen illegal leaks from our colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, and there have been numerous referrals to the Department of Justice,” Stefanik said at a news conference Tuesday. “So I think it’s important that the Department of Justice determine if there were any illegal leaks, leaks by members of Congress, or their staff members.”
Right off the bat, there is literally no evidence that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are responsible for “illegal leaks.” For a committee member and House GOP leader to publicly and casually argue otherwise is ridiculous.
But just as important is the fact that Trump’s Justice Department didn’t have any evidence of Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell leaking anything when investigators secretly seized their communications records. Indeed, we already know that the probe did not pan out: Justice Department officials did not find any evidence of leaks from the committee.
In other words, every element of Stefanik’s defense is mistaken .[…]
Re the Rachel Scott question, from the Guardian US-politics liveblog:
…Putin responded by equating his jailing of critics like Alexei Navalny to the charges filed against the rioters who participated in the Capitol insurrection, which resulted in five deaths.
The Russian president claimed the insurrectionists had gone to the Capitol with “political demands” and were subsequently jailed for being so.
That is, of course, a gross mischaracterization. Navalny and his supporters are fighting for free and fair elections in Russia, while the Capitol insurrectionists were attempting to overturn the results of a free and fair election in the US.
* Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) announced plans yesterday to veto a new “election overhaul” bill championed by the Republican-led legislature. The proposal would, among other things, impose stricter voter-ID requirements, curtail ballot drop boxes, and make it harder for Pennsylvanians to vote by mail. There were no meaningful problems with the Keystone State’s 2020 elections.
[…] * Roll Call reports that the Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), following allegations that he “misspent campaign funds on personal pursuits and failed to properly report required information in his Federal Election Commission filings.”
* In Iowa, state Rep. Ras Smith (D) launched a gubernatorial campaign yesterday, becoming the first Democrat to join the 2022 race. If elected, the 33-year-old legislator would be Iowa’s first-ever Black governor. It’s not yet clear whether incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) will seek another term.
* In Florida, GOP congressional hopeful Anna Paulina Luna (R), who’s been described as an “up-and-coming Republican,” is now claiming that her local Republican rivals have conspired to kill her and are working to “take me out.” Luna ran a competitive race against Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) last fall, losing by about six points.
* Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is launching a new political operation, called Champion American Values PAC, ahead of a likely 2024 presidential bid. [Yuck. I don’t want to see that.]
* And in Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported that former Gov. Paul LePage (R) is planning to run for a third term next year, and “his launch is widely expected this summer.” The article added that the Maine Republican Party “has worked to clear a path for his nomination.” [Yuck. I don’t want to see that either.]
“A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower,” one observer noted, “and the danger of this is spreading from state to state.”
Arizona Republicans’ utterly bonkers “audit” of Maricopa County’s presidential ballots is reportedly nearing its end, but the damaging effects of the fiasco are just getting started.
The conservative Washington Times reported overnight, for example, on the ridiculous “audit” becoming a “mecca” for Republican officials and candidates nationwide.
Kristina Karamo wants voters to know she made the 2,000-mile trek from Michigan to Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix to get a firsthand glimpse of the Maricopa County election audit that has become a cause celebre for supporters of former President Donald Trump. Ms. Karamo, a candidate for secretary of state, is among a growing number of Republicans running for public office who have made the pilgrimage to Arizona to learn about the process and pay homage to Mr. Trump and his supporters.
[…] Some of this is simply a matter of political posturing, with Republicans showing up in Phoenix simply to show face and tie themselves to the indefensible process in the hopes of advancing their own personal ambitions.
For example, Missouri’s Eric Greitens, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate attempting a comeback after having resigned in disgrace in 2018, recently made an in-person appearance. He soon after published nonsensical content to social media about “decertifying” 2020 results, all as part of an apparent effort to impress far-right elements of the Republican base.
But there’s another dimension to this, which the Arizona Republic highlighted this week:
There are more pleasant months of the year than June to visit Phoenix, but a growing number of officials and Republican legislators from around the country are making a sort of pilgrimage to see and be seen at the state Senate’s ongoing recount of Maricopa County’s general election ballots. An opportunity to get publicity from right-wing media outlets that have followed the effort, some of the visitors say it is also a chance to glimpse a process they would like to replicate in their home states after pushing unsuccessfully to overturn the results of last year’s election.
This is no passing curiosity. Sure, some far-right politicians want to simply check a box — they’ll be able to tell future primary voters they paid homage to the ludicrous process by showing up in Phoenix — but what matters more are the far-right politicians who are eager to export the Arizona fiasco to their home states.
With this in mind, Arizona Republic’s report listed the visitors to Veterans Memorial Coliseum “from nearly a dozen” states. One local GOP candidate told the Washington Times that there have been “delegations and visitors” from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alaska, Michigan, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, Nevada, Virginia, and Colorado — with more “sure to follow.”
On the one hand, a variety of prominent Arizona Republicans are increasingly mortified by this embarrassing debacle, and the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors recently urged the GOP-led state Senate to put a stop to the madness, calling the outlandish process a “spectacle that is harming all of us.” They added, “Our state has become a laughingstock.”
But on the other hand, Republicans from nearly a dozen other states want to become a laughingstock, too. This includes two GOP state legislators from Wisconsin, who returned from Arizona with plans to duplicate the process in the Badger State.
Both of the Wisconsin legislators reportedly visited Arizona thanks to a trip paid for by a non-profit linked to the pro-Trump One America Now (OAN) network, which has been given special access to the “audit” as part of the political crusade.
Charlie Sykes concluded on MSNBC last week, “We can roll our eyes and treat the Arizona audit as a joke, but a clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower, and the danger of this is spreading from state to state.”
Biden’s doing a good job so far, talking about Putin damaging his own global credibility and the standing of Russia in the world by continuing to violate international norms. He’s saying Navalny dying in prison would have devastating consequences for Russia.
“It’s about trust” – other countries won’t work with or invest in Russia if they do these things.
Putin “knows I will take action,” if interference campaigns continue.
“His credibility worldwide shrinks” when Russia interferes. This strategy of naming and shaming is a really good one, gets at the heart of Russian interference goals.
It was one year ago today when Mike Pence took a COVID victory lap, boasting about falling fatality rates. This week, the US death toll topped 600,000.
It was exactly one year ago today when then-Vice President Mike Pence, in his capacity as the head of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on the federal response to the pandemic. The message was simple: Thanks to Donald Trump, Pence argued, “we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”
The Indiana Republican proceeded to take a tragic-in-hindsight victory lap, dismissing “grim predictions of a second wave,” while insisting that the White House’s approach was “a success.” Pence even boasted at the time that “deaths are down to fewer than 750 a day.”
It came on the heels of Donald Trump assuring the public that he expected the overall U.S. death toll from the pandemic to “probably” be around 60,000.
But in the months that followed, U.S. fatalities from COVID-19 soon topped 1,000 per day. And then 2,000 per day. And then 3,000 per day. The cumulative effect led to a staggering total that’s literally 10 times the former president’s prediction from last spring.
More than 600,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University…. It’s a higher death toll than the number of American soldiers killed in combat during the Vietnam War, World War I and World War II combined.
[…] Given the severity of the crisis, it’s not too surprising that there’s growing talk about establishing an investigative commission to review what happened and why. The New York Times reports:
Bipartisan bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate, and have the backing of three former homeland security secretaries — two Republicans and a Democrat — as well as health groups and victims and their families. Unlike the rancorous debate that doomed the proposal for a panel to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, discussion of a Covid-19 commission has not produced partisan discord — at least, not yet.
At the risk of sounding cynical, I have a hunch we know how this will turn out. Indeed, Republicans used to support the creation of an independent Jan. 6 commission, too — right up until they concluded that it might create political problems for Trump and the GOP.
With this in mind, what are the odds congressional Republicans will endorse a commission to investigate a public-health crisis that claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans?
With his “half-term president” rhetoric, Barrasso is giving away the game: the GOP doesn’t want to govern; it’s desperate to stop Democrats from governing.
In 2010, as the nation slowly recovered from the Great Recession, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reflected on his party’s top priorities.
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” the Republican leader declared. […]
More than a decade later, another Senate Republican leader, Wyoming’s John Barrasso, has articulated an eerily similar vision — except now, limiting a Democratic president to one whole term is apparently too generous.
“Mitch McConnell’s come under a lot of criticism for saying, at one point, he wanted to make sure that Barack Obama was a ‘one-term president,'” Barrasso said last Thursday at an event hosted by the Ripon Society, a centrist Republican think tank, which posted the remarks Tuesday. “I want to make Joe Biden a one-half-term president.”
It’s worth noting that the conservative chair of the Senate Republican Conference did not appear to be referring to a plan to remove Biden from the White House prematurely. Rather, in context, Barrasso was suggesting that if Republicans can retake Congress, the GOP can shut Biden down for the second half of his first term.
[…] let’s not lose sight of the larger political landscape. We’ve been told repeatedly in recent months that Democrats have a responsibility to sit down with the Republican minority, offer concessions, make compromises, and earn GOP buy-in on everything from infrastructure to voting rights, immigration to criminal justice reforms.
It’s a perspective rooted in the idea that Republicans care about governing and are prepared to work in good faith with Democrats in pursuit of meaningful policy goals.
Barrasso and McConnell have effectively admitted that this is a sham. Republicans don’t want to help Biden succeed; they want to make every possible effort to ensure his failure. They don’t want to govern; they’re desperate to stop Democrats from governing.
GOP officials don’t want to take control of Congress in order to get things done; they intend to reclaim Congress in order to bring Biden’s presidency to a halt — for two full years.
[…] Democrats can and should learn from their candor. Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema genuinely seem to believe that GOP senators are sincerely interested in crafting bipartisan compromises. […]
Democrats have the procedural wherewithal to advance popular and important legislation without Senate Republicans’ input, and Senate Republican leaders are practically inviting the Democratic majority to do exactly that.
Newly released chat logs show chaos and fear within the Proud Boys in the weeks following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The chat logs, released by lawyers for a Washington-based leader in the group, Ethan Nordean, paint a picture of a street gang buckling under the pressure of federal charges.
“I mean fuck,” one unidentified individual said in recordings obtained by prosecutors from Nordean’s phone. They then referred to anti-fascists, or “antifa”: “‘Tifa looks like professionals compared to us… It’s completely fucked.”
In other audio files from the same day, unidentified speakers worried openly about federal charges. One person mused that authorities don’t prosecute unless they have a “completely locked case.”
“We are fucked,” another person said. “They are coming for us.”
[…] Several messages, including from Nordean, concerned Proud Boys’ rallies, including the disastrous and ultimately criminal events of Jan. 6. At one point, Nordean noted that he has a good reputation for planning rallies in the Pacific Northwest, “but that he didn’t plan the national rallies,” according to the investigators’ notes. “Ethan Nordean comments that he openly stated that they should stop rallying,” another entry noted.
[…] Nordean is one of several Proud Boys facing conspiracy charges for their actions on Jan. 6, which included allegedly encouraging people to travel to D.C., obtaining paramilitary gear and supplies for the attack, scheming to evade law enforcement by ditching the Proud Boys typical black-and-yellow colors and dismantling police barricades before storming the Capitol.
Another investigator’s note seems to sum up the mood: “Individual comments to Ethan that he was mentioned in the Biggs indictment and mentioned others that were arrested/indicted. He doesn’t believe it went well.”
“I understand where we’re at in the frat,” Nordean said in another recording. “I understand that we’ve taken some risks that we shouldn’t have taken. We’ve done some things we shouldn’t have done. Ok but they’ve been done and we need to learn from em.”
Nordean claimed to no longer be a Trump supporter, according to the investigators’ notes, which described him talking about fighting for “some secret plan that didn’t come to fruition.”
Then, another unidentified individual commented that Nordean got “lost in the sauce” and should step down.
Like Breonna Taylor, Johnny Lorenzo Bolton, a beloved worker at a Georgia carwash, had his eyes closed when a SWAT team armed with firearms and a no-knock warrant raided an apartment he shared with two women, attorneys representing Bolton’s family told The Associated Press.
Like Taylor, Bolton was lying down, only he laid on the couch of an unofficial Georgia boarding house instead of in a bedroom. And unfortunately like Taylor, he was shot and killed just after opening his eyes, attorneys said.
They have had to rely on an autopsy of Bolton, warrant affidavits, and limited information provided by Cobb County officials to piece together what happened the day Bolton, 49, was killed on Dec. 17, 2020 in Smyrna, which is about 15 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
Witnesses said he was sleeping when SWAT team members knocked down the door. No sooner than Bolton stood up, responding to the loud noise, than did an officer fire, hitting him in the chest multiple times, Zack Greenamyre, one of his family’s attorneys, told Daily Kos in a phone interview on Wednesday. “He didn’t move toward officers or anything like that,” Greenamyre said.
Even though attorneys sent a letter threatening litigation and a drafted lawsuit to Cobb County officials in mid-April, their efforts have yielded few details about Bolton’s death, only a county attorney’s explanation that officials reviewing the case “believe there are several material inaccuracies” in the draft lawsuit and letter. “For almost six months, we gave them quiet,” Bolton’s sister Daphne Bolton told AP. “That lets me know that’s not what gets a response.” […]
Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have teamed up to make a hugely dangerous claim that the FBI was behind the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
On Tuesday, Rep. Paul Gosar directed a series of questions at FBI Director Christopher Wray in which he accused Capitol Police of “lying in wait” for the Jan. 6 insurgents and “executing” Ashli Babbitt “without warning.” Gosar’s description of the situation may seem to be 180 degrees away from the videos that have been publicly available, and directing these questions at the FBI director, who had absolutely no connection to the officer involved, may seem pointless. However, there’s definitely a reason Gosar is pushing this line, and a reason why he’s pushing it at Wray.
Because the rising conspiracy theory on the right has named the people behind the violence on Jan. 6. They’re not blaming it on the Oath Keepers militia, multiple members of which have been arrested and charged with conspiracy for their role in the insurgency. It’s not the Proud Boys, who helped to form a “nexus” linking other white supremacist militias together for the assault. It’s not the III Percent militia, who are still engaged in planning more violent assaults. It’s not a militia group at all. Republicans are now claiming that the source of violence on Jan. 6 was … the FBI.
Based on a conspiracy theory circulating through the same sites that originally boosted QAnon, and now being widely broadcast on right-wing media, including Fox News, Republicans are claiming that the FBI operatives both “organized and participated in” the insurgency. More than that, Fox is now pushing a narrative that the FBI set up the Jan. 6 insurgency as an excuse to take down Republican members of Congress.
[…] this immensely destructive conspiracy theory would seem to be way, way over the line.
Of course, the leaders of the Republican Party—Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz—are all over it. Gaetz has been retweeting a “breakdown of the involvement of FBI operatives who organized and participated in January 6 Capitol riot.” Greene has tweeted a demand for the names of ”the FBI operatives, who were involved in organizing and carrying out the Jan 6th Capitol riot.” She then goes on to claim that this was a “deep state” attack by the same people behind the Russia investigation.
One thing to note: when they’re blaming someone else, it’s a “riot.” When not blaming someone else, it’s a “visit.” […]
If what Gaetz and Greene are tweeting seems completely overboard and reckless, it’s not even a nit compared to what Tucker Carlson is already pushing on his Fox program. Here’s Carlson directly insisting that FBI operatives planned the insurgency, set up Trump supporters to take the fall, and are being protected by the DOJ. [video is available at the link]
Carlson: Strangely, some of the key people who participated on January 6 have not been charged. Look at the document. The government calls those people ‘unindicted co-conspirators.’ What does that mean? It means that in every single case they were potentially FBI officers. Really. In the Capitol on January 6.
If that seems an amazingly wrong-headed and dangerous statement, just wait. It gets worse.
Carlson: For example, one of those unindicted co-conspirators is someone government documents identify only as ‘person 2.’ According to those documents, person 2 stayed in the same hotel room as a man called Thomas Caldwell, an insurrectionist, a man alleged to be a member of the group the Oath Keepers. … person 2 and person 3 were organizers of the riot, the government knows who they are, but the government has not charged them. You know why. They were almost certainly working for the FBI.”
Person 2, who shared Caldwell’s hotel room and stormed the Capitol with him, was Caldwell’s wife.
What Carlson is purposely ignoring is that 1) many of those who are named but not indicted are those whose involvement was marginal and who have agreed to testify against the insurgents who were more violent or genuinely involved in conspiratorial planning, and 2) many more people are still to be indicted as the DOJ and local law enforcement complete their investigations. The investigation and prosecution of a criminal conspiracy involving an assault on the Capitol that involved literally thousands takes time to complete. Carlson is pushing a narrative that’s intended to short-circuit that investigation and delegitimatize the results.
[…] Carlson’s actions are desperate. They’re also incredibly dangerous and destructive to the rule of law. What he is doing should be completely over the line for anyone. That Green and Gaetz are pushing this ugly claim should be enough to damn their political careers, at the very least. […]
The second step is already in the portion of Carlson’s program that was tweeted by Gaetz. In that section, Carlson includes a snippet from an NBC appearance of former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi. In talking about dealing with the Jan. 6 events, Figliuzzi mentions that the people actually being arrested could be considered “low level” members of the conspiracy, and that to actually prevent further acts of domestic terrorism, “you’ve got to tackle the command and control element of the terrorist group, that may mean people sitting on Congress right now.”
The reference here is clearly to those members of Congress—from Sen. Josh Hawley to Rep. Lauren Boebert—who may have been involved in not just actively encouraging the insurgents, but could have had advanced knowledge about the attack, or even assisted in the planning. In response to the Figliuzzi clip, Carlson does his best imitation of slack-jawed astonishment, and proclaims it worse than anything Putin has done.
But it’s how Carlson phrases this that’s key. Carlson says that looking into how Republicans supported the insurgency amounts to “[rounding up] duly democratic elected members of Congress because they oppose the regime…” Which is, of course, not what anyone is saying.
Carlson is launching two overlapping narratives: that the FBI was actually behind the assault, and that any attempt to investigate involvement of Republican involvement in the insurgency represents President Biden going after political enemies rather than people engaged in criminal conspiracy. The net result of this is a claim that the FBI was setting up Republican members of Congress so that Biden could take them out—which is exactly in line with the claim Greene makes when she likens the investigation into the Russian “witch hunt.”
All of this is clearly a desperate ploy to make genuine investigation into Republicans in Congress and how they assisted the insurgency radioactive. And it should underscore why such investigations are urgent.
“Talk about rounding somebody up,” said Carlson, “why not round up the FBI operatives that rioted on January 6?” That’s where they are now. If this sounds like encouraging further violence, that’s because it is.
Wonkette: “Giant Insurer United Healthcare Generously Delays Death Panel Plan Until Pandemic Over”
You might think having health insurance is pretty cool, since if you have a medical emergency, you’ll be “covered” and won’t be bankrupted by a visit to the hospital. But United Healthcare, the USA’s biggest health insurer, is preparing to roll out an exciting innovation in health coverage, or non-coverage: It’s going to check all its policy-holders’ emergency room visits, and if it decides retroactively that the visit wasn’t due to a real emergency, it’ll stick the patient with some or all of the bill.
[…] And if that means some people die of heart attacks because maybe those chest pains were just heartburn, well, that’ll save even more money because United won’t have to deal with the costs of treating the heart attack. […]
As Ars Technica reports, the proposal didn’t sit well with doctors and hospitals, who say it
sets a dangerous precedent of requiring patients to assess their own medical problems before seeking emergency care, which could end up delaying or preventing critical and even lifesaving treatment.
Happily, United Healthcare says that instead of its planned start date of July 1, the new policy won’t go into effect until the pandemic is over and the medical state of emergency has officially ended. […]
a company flack explained that UHC would use the pause to “continue to educate consumers, customers, and providers on the new policy and help ensure that people visit an appropriate site of service for non-emergency care needs.” […]
When the policy does eventually go into effect, UHC’s forensic bean-counters will
carefully review what health problems led to the visit, the “intensity of diagnostic services performed” at the emergency department (ED), and some context for the visit, like the member’s underlying health conditions and outside circumstances. If UHC decides the medical situation didn’t constitute an emergency, it will provide “no coverage or limited coverage,” depending on the member’s specific insurance plan.
This, as a bunch of doctors have protested, is stupid, because
assessing the necessity of emergency care before it’s actually given is nearly impossible. Many serious conditions have symptoms that overlap with nonserious conditions. For instance, chest pain may simply be a symptom of acid reflux or a panic attack, but it could also be a sign of a life-threatening heart attack. A bad headache could just be a bad headache, or it could signal a dangerous brain bleed.
That’s not just speculation, either. When America’s second-largest health insurer, Anthem (never choose insurance named for an Ayn Rand novel!), put a similar second-guessing policy in place, researchers did an analysis of “probability-sampled” ED visits which found that, using Anthem’s criteria, just under 16 percent of those visits would likely not meet Anthem’s definition of an actual emergency. But instead of getting excited about the potential for big savings, the researchers found that those visits “shared the same presenting symptoms as 87.9% of ED visits, of which 65.1% received emergency-level services.”
[…] Prior to its decision to delay the new policy, UHC said in a statement that it simply had to do something about people seeking emergency care when they didn’t “need” to, because “Unnecessary use of the emergency room costs nearly $32 billion annually, driving up healthcare costs for everyone.”
[…]The ER docs noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only three percent of ER visits are actually “nonurgent,” and stressed that
In many instances, even physicians do not know if a patient’s symptoms require emergency treatment without undergoing medical examination and tests. Our main concern is that dangerous policies such as this will leave millions fearful of seeking medical care[.]
In the minds of the right, the international communist threat is back. And this time, it’s not just personal — it’s genetic.
At least, that’s according to a letter that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent to President Biden this week.
In the letter, Cotton warns Biden that Beijing plans on using the 2022 Winter Olympics as a giant funnel for precious American DNA, harvesting the nation’s fittest and finest for their genomic information as part of a plan to achieve military dominance.
Written in the language of a Cold War-era B-movie and filled with a mixture of sci-fi scheming, eugenics, and stentorian warning, Cotton demands that Biden withdraw American participation from the 2022 winter Olympics absent guarantees from China that it will not collect the data or DNA of visiting American olympians.
“In 2022, thousands of world-class athletes will gather to compete in China,” the letter reads. “Their DNA will present an irresistible target for the CCP.” He added that, “thus, we should expect that the Chinese government will attempt to collect genetic samples of Olympians at the Games, perhaps disguised as testing for illegal drugs or COVID-19.”
[…] his terror that red-blooded American winter athletes could have their genetic information harvested by Communists hell-bent on world domination has a background in the fever swamps of the late Trump period.
Gordon Chang, author of the 2001 book “The Coming Collapse of China,” supports Cotton’s demands […]
“If you want to develop a race of superhuman Chinese, you would certainly want the DNA of the world’s most fit and athletic people,” Chang said. He added that the Chinese could harvest the flood of figure skaters, curling players, and bobsleigh jockeys for their most promising traits, though he said that Beijing would most likely be interested in “superintelligence.”
[…] That strain of thought appears to have made it into the intelligence community itself, with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center in February 2021 releasing a fact sheet cited in Cotton’s letter titled “CHINA’S COLLECTION OF GENOMIC AND OTHER HEATHCARE DATA FROM AMERICA: RISKS TO PRIVACY AND U.S. ECONOMIC AND NATIONAL SECURITY.”
That document informs readers that “your DNA is the most valuable thing you own.” […]
The document is silent on what exact uses the Chinese would have for American genetic material. It cites the country’s sprawling and invasive surveillance system, saying that Beijing includes genomic information to identify its citizens and links the collection of DNA to the mass internment of the Uighur minority.
It’s totally unclear how those abuses relate to a supersoldier program.
But according to Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies whose May column “Is Beijing Planning a Rob, Replicate, Replace Olympics?” was cited in Cotton’s letter, it has to do with war. “There are defensive and offensive aspects to it,” Paskal told TPM. “One is you could understand better the genetics of high performing individuals, lung capacity, heart, the other is that you could figure out how to attack people from a wide range of different genetic profile backgrounds.”
[…] FDD has long distinguished itself as one of D.C.’s most hawkish think tanks among a blob of foreign policy outfits that already make themselves known for favoring military solutions whenever possible.
[…] Chang, the author, took it even further — the offensive capability would not just be supersoldiers, but superweapons: “pathogens that leave the Chinese immune but sicken and kill everyone else.”
When asked whether the technology was there for that, he replied, “I don’t know if they’ve developed those pathogens, but we don’t want the first evidence of that to be 330 million dead Americans.”
What Neanderthal DNA created Tom Cotton?
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Why the dis on Neanderthals? They actually had a larger brain-to-body mass ratio than H. Sapiens.
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Filed under “rejected Bond movie plot ideas”.
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WTF??? Huh???
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Surprised he didn’t mention their secret project to use the reanimated corpses of genetically-modified American Soldiers captured during the Korean War as unbeatable competitors in the Olympics.
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Once again, the commies are after our precious bodily fluids.
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They’re sure as hell not going to harvest GQP politicians DNA for intelligence.
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With all the real problems facing the country and the world,you would think he would want to focus on the treason of his colleagues, the insanity of his fearless leader…perhaps keeping Covid on the wane…stop making shit up!
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He woulda loved the 1950s. In fact, he probably thinks it still is.
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Does Harvard ever rescind its diplomas? I think it might be about time.
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I think the White House should respond as follows: “We appreciate your concerns and we have a plan to foil the Chinese. We will surreptitiously replace the athletes’ DNA with yours in every sample submitted to Chinese officials. When the Chinese replicate it to produce their “Super Soldiers”, all of them will be thin-necked, dimwitted and uncoordinated. Game over.”
The Justice Department thew out a Trump-era ruling that made it virtually impossible for immigrants fleeing domestic violence to seek asylum in the US.
Former attorney general Jeff Sessions had overruled a previous court decision that people facing domestic violence in their home countries were eligible for asylum. Today, the Justice Department “vacated” that decision. Attorney general Merrick Garland wrote that questions about which groups be considered for asylum “should instead be left to the forthcoming rulemaking, where they can be resolved with the benefit of a full record and public comment.”
Garland’s move had been celebrated by immigrant rights advocates. “Around the world, in Central America and elsewhere, women struggle to have governments ensure, or in some cases recognize, their right to protection,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Guardian world liveblog:
UK health secretary Matt Hancock has rejected criticism of his handling of the pandemic after private WhatsApp exchanges emerged in which he appeared to be described as “totally hopeless” by prime minister Boris Johnson.
The PM’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings – who stepped down from the role in December – posted exchanges between himself and Johnson on social media.
After Cummings commented that Hancock was unsure he would reach a target of 10,000 virus tests per week on schedule, the prime minister apparently responded: “Totally fucking hopeless”.
In another message, Johnson blamed Hancock for the UK’s difficulty in getting hold of ventilators. “It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless,” the message said.
Johnson’s spokesman said Wednesday the prime minister had full confidence in the under-fire health secretary but declined to comment on the messages.
Asked whether he believed he had been hopeless, Hancock replied from the backseat of his ministerial car: “I don’t think so.”
The WhatsApp exchanges published by Cummings also appear to show he played a key role in his dealings with Johnson, who at one point asks him: “Wtf do we do?”
blfsays
The French protocol for being vaccinated has been simplified,ad now resembles that of other countries: Make an appointment (for both first and second jab), answer a few questions about risk factors, get jabbed, wait c.15 minutes, and done. (In the past there was, e.g., nonsense about interviewed by your doctor to ensure you understood the importance of being vaccinated, etc.) The difficulty most recently, for me, was the lackadaisical drive, e.g., the local vaccination centre only being only approximately 9am–4pm weekdays. For some time now, the local centre has had no open slots for four or more weeks in advance (which is perhaps a good thing?). I was also concerned about language — “technical” French, including medical terms / questions, is awkward — but as it turned out, almost everyone I spoke to at the local vaccination centre was, not only friendly and helpful (as expected). but also spoke English (somewhat unexpected).
Yesterday, when I checked, there were open slots available today. So I immediately booked one, and now have had my first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, with the second already scheduled. I can already feel those magnetic microchips uploading and rebooting, albeit they are running into determined resistance from the cheeses and Linux.
So I had a grand dinner with lots of alcohol — helps the microchips magnetise something — and will probably be magnetically pulling down flying saucers from the sky by tomorrow.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
blf@420 Conga rats on shot one. Two weeks after the second shot, you will feel like the MDP in sight of a sideboard full of cheese. Enjoy the feeling.
Here’s a link to the June 17 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From their morning summary:
More than 350 Indonesian doctors have contracted Covid-19 despite being vaccinated with Sinovac and dozens have been hospitalised, officials said, as concerns rise about the efficacy of some vaccines against more virulent virus strains.
Indonesia also reported 12,624 new coronavirus infections, the biggest daily increase since 30 January, health ministry data showed.
Japan is set to announce a decision Thursday to ease a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and six other areas this weekend, with new daily cases falling just as the country begins making final preparations for the Olympics starting in just over a month.
…
German biotech company CureVac, considered one of contenders to deliver the first vaccine against Covid-19 a year ago, was dealt yet another setback after the company announced its mRNA-based jab was only 47% effective in a late-stage trial.
The number of new cases in Russia continues at a higher level. Reuters report that today there are 14.057 new cases with 416 deaths recorded. That’s nearly twice the level of new cases that the country was officially recording a fortnight ago.
Ukraine, which has maintained lockdown restrictions though the number of new Covid infections has fallen, has set a record for the daily number of coronavirus inoculations, the health ministry said.
…
Some stocks of PPE in Scotland came within eight hours of running out at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the country’s public spending watchdog.
Football fans who do not have tickets for Euro 2020 games should not travel to London amid ongoing Covid restrictions, a senior police officer has warned ahead of Friday’s match between England and Scotland.
Covid-19 cases are rising exponentially across England driven by younger and mostly unvaccinated age groups, according to scientists.
…
Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, will hold a news conference tomorrow regarding the post-pandemic reopening of Norwegian society….
Also from there:
Previous infection with coronavirus does not necessarily protect against Covid in the longer term, especially when caused by new variants of concern, a study on healthcare workers suggests.
Researchers at Oxford University found marked differences in the immune responses of medical staff who contracted Covid, with some appearing far better equipped than others to combat the disease six months later.
Scientists on the study, conducted with the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium, said the findings reinforce the importance of everyone getting vaccinated regardless of whether they had been infected with the virus earlier in the pandemic.
Drought may be ‘the next pandemic’, warns UN
Water scarcity and drought are set to wreak damage on a scale to rival the Covid pandemic with risks growing rapidly as global temperatures rise, according to the United Nations.
“Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic and there is no vaccine to cure it,” Mami Mizutori, the UN’s special representative for disaster risk reduction said.
AFP reports that droughts have already triggered economic losses of at least $124 billion and hit more than 1.5 billion people between 1998 and 2017, according to a UN report published today. But even these figures, it said, are “most likely gross under-estimates”.
Global warming has now intensified droughts in southern Europe and western Africa, the UN report said with “some confidence”. And the number of victims is set to “grow dramatically” unless the world acts, Mizutori said.
Health officials in Africa have called for an urgent acceleration in the supply of vaccines to the continent to curb a new wave of Covid-19 infections and the evolution of new, potentially dangerous variants.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court throws out the challenge to Obamacare, holding the plaintiffs all lack standing:…
Breyer writes for the court, holding that the states and the individual plaintiffs lack standing. Only Alito and Gorsuch dissent.
Alito, joined by Gorsuch, would hold that (1) the individual mandate is now unconstitutional, and (2) large portions of the ACA must essentially fall with it, becoming “unenforceable” against the state plaintiffs here.
…
In its second opinion of the day, the Supreme Court throws out an Alien Tort Statute lawsuit against Nestle for alleged child slavery, but does NOT immunize corporations from ATS lawsuits in the future. Quite a breakdown.
Remarkably, both Gorsuch and Alito write separately to declare that corporations are NOT immune from suit under the Alien Tort Statute. That is unexpected.
The case in Nestle v. Doe:…
Gorsuch and Alito, dissenters in the Obamacare case, come through in Nestle v. Doe with strong textualist and originalist arguments explaining why corporations CAN be sued under the Alien Tort Statute.
…
The third and FINAL decision of the day is in Fulton v. Philadelphia. SCOTUS holds that Philadelphia’s refusal to contract with the anti-gay foster care agency violates the Free Exercise Clause.
The Supreme Court does NOT overturn Employment Division v. Smith, but instead holds that this case falls outside Smith because Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination law is not neutral and generally applicable because it allows discretionary exceptions.
Incredibly, the judgment against Philadelphia in Fulton is unanimous—in a major coup, Chief Justice Roberts somehow persuaded the liberal justices to sign onto his opinion forcing the city to renew the agency’s contract.
Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch would all overturn Employment Division v. Smith.
Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Breyer are interested in overturning Employment Division v. Smith, but are unsure what to replace it with.
Why did all three liberal justices side against Philadelphia in Fulton? Presumably because they viewed Chief Justice Roberts’ approach as the least bad option. Roberts’ opinion provides the narrowest grounds to rule against Philadelphia, which six justices were sure to do anyway.
tomhsays
Re: ACA
The Court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit at all because they have not shown a past or future injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct. The decision does not reach the other questions (on the validity of the mandate or the severability question).
Have to wonder what the internal arguments looked like to land on a 7-2 ruling on standing alone. Their only way out was to punt on the issues.
A DC Metropolitan Police officer who defended the US Capitol on January 6 blasted GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde on Wednesday evening for what he called “disgusting” behavior during a tense exchange.
Michael Fanone, who was stun-gunned several times and beaten with a flagpole during the riot, told CNN’s Don Lemon on “Don Lemon Tonight” that he had come across Clyde in the Capitol and had been dismissed by the congressman after approaching him outside an elevator Wednesday afternoon.
Fanone’s account comes after 21 House Republicans, including Clyde, voted against legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the officers who had defended the Capitol. The vote stood as the latest reminder that members of Congress still cannot agree on the facts of the deadly January 6 riot, and prompted the officer’s visit to Capitol Hill.
“I was very cordial. I extended my hand to shake his hand. He just stared at me. I asked if he was going to shake my hand, and he told me that he didn’t who know I was. So I introduced myself. I said that I was Officer Michael Fanone. That I was a DC Metropolitan Police officer who fought on January 6 to defend the Capitol and, as a result, I suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as a heart attack after having been tased numerous times at the base of my skull, as well as being severely beaten,” Fanone said. “At that point, the congressman turned away from me.”
Once the elevator doors opened, Fanone said, the congressman “ran as quickly as he could, like a coward.”
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Clyde, a Georgia Republican, has repeatedly sought to downplay the Capitol riot and sugarcoat the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters….
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His false account conflicts with reams of video evidence of the violence that broke out on January 6, criminal charges filed against participants, law enforcement officials’ testimony, police officers’ accounts of the violence and lawmakers’ descriptions of the fear they experienced that day.
Fanone, for his part, suffered a heart attack and a concussion during the insurrection and is dealing with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
He said Wednesday evening that he took the interaction with Clyde “very personally” and saw it as an insult to not only himself but also all law enforcement who had responded to the Capitol on January 6.
A little-known GOP candidate in one of Florida’s most competitive congressional seats was secretly recorded threatening to send “a Russian and Ukrainian hit squad” to a fellow Republican opponent to make her “disappear.”
During a 30-minute call with a conservative activist that was recorded before he became a candidate, William Braddock repeatedly warned the activist to not support GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seat because he had access to assassins. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who is running for governor.
“I really don’t want to have to end anybody’s life for the good of the people of the United States of America,” Braddock said at one point in the conversation last week, according to the recording exclusively obtained by POLITICO. “That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f—ing speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.”
Reached by text message, Braddock refused to say whether he made any threats about Luna to the person who recorded him, Erin Olszewski.
Asked repeatedly via text if he mentioned Russian-Ukrainian hit squads, Braddock wouldn’t give a yes or no answer, saying he had not heard the recording and that it’s “allegedly me … there is no proof of that.” He also suggested the recording “may even be altered and edited.”
“This is a dirty political tactic that has caused a lot of people a lot of stress and is completely unnecessary,” he said.
Olszewski denied editing or altering the recording. She said she made it because she was concerned about Braddock’s “unhinged” dislike of Luna that he had previously expressed. After she made the recording just after midnight last Wednesday, she promptly turned it over to St. Petersburg, Fla., police and gave a heads-up to her friend Luna, who filed a petition for an injunction against Braddock. Luna and Olszewski each received a temporary restraining order against him last week. Braddock filed to run Monday.
In the recording, Braddock early in the call brought up the alleged assassins. He also made rambling statements about getting financial help from fellow Freemasons or by somehow importing millions of dollars from Malta and Gibraltar.
“I have access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians,” he said about three minutes into the call, adding “don’t get caught out in public supporting Luna. … Luna’s gonna go down and I hope it’s by herself.”
Braddock went on to explain that he didn’t think Luna could win in the general election. Luna, an Air Force veteran and former model who went on to become a conservative activist, won a crowded GOP primary in the state’s 13th Congressional District last year but lost the general election to Crist.
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With such a closely divided Congress currently in Democratic control, Braddock said on the recorded call that the “pivotal” St. Petersburg-based district will take on outsized importance in 2022 to keep America from devolving into a “communist-socialist s—hole.” When Olszewski asked him why he had Russians at the ready, Braddock indicated they were to stop Luna.
“My polling people are going to charge me $20,000 to do a poll right before the primary. And if the poll says Luna’s gonna win, she’s gonna be gone. She’s gonna disappear,” Braddock said in the recorded call, pledging Olszewski to secrecy. “For the good of our country, we have to sacrifice the few. … For the better or the good of the majority of the people, we’ve got to sacrifice the few.”
Later in the call, Olszewski asked what would happen if “Luna is gonna win” and Braddock assured her that wouldn’t happen.
“She’s gonna be gone. Period. That’s the end of the discussion. Luna is not an issue,” he said.
Olszewski pushed him, asking “how do we make her go, though? I just don’t understand that.”
“I call up my Russian and Ukrainian hit squad, and within 24 hours, they’re sending me pictures of her disappearing,” he replied. “No, I’m not joking. Like, this is beyond my control this point.”
Asked if the killers were snipers, Braddock described them as, “Russian mafia. Close-battle combat, TEC-9s, MAC-10s, silencers kind of thing. No snipers. Up close and personal. So they know that the target has gone.”
Olszewski said that threats like the ones Braddock made “you can’t take lightly. Normal people don’t say these things.”
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In her petition for the restraining order, Luna made it clear that she took Braddock’s threats seriously.
“I do not feel safe and am currently in fear for my life,” Luna wrote, according to a copy of it.
Olszewski, too, said Braddock sounded dangerous. At one point, Braddock even said he was scared himself.
“Don’t be on the f—ing wrong side of supporting Luna because if you’re near her when the time comes, I just don’t want that to happen to you because you’ve got kids,” Braddock said on the call. “So don’t be associated with Luna under any circumstances. Please. And do not repeat this anybody because both of us will be in jeopardy if you do. I’m not just blowing smoke here. I’m f—ing being dead ass serious and it scares the s— out of me, too.”
‘I did the Heights, I did Jerusalem, and I did Iran… I believe we got 25% of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense. It just seems strange to me’.
Trump added: ‘Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you? I’m not talking about Orthodox Jews’.”
KGsays
SC@401,
There is remarkably little political or media response to the way UK cases of Covid-19 are shooting up. OK, the governments of the UK and Scotland have delayed the next stages of relaxing restrictions – but the current level is clearly inadequate to deal with the delta variant. Hospitalizations are also increasing, and deaths have stopped falling. I have to travel to and spend several days in London for work early in July, and although I’ve had two jabs (AstraZeneca) I’m none too happy about it.
Nearly a dozen of the Fox News guests the network has presented as concerned parents or educators who oppose the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” in schools also have day jobs as Republican strategists, conservative think-tankers, or right-wing media personalities, according to a Media Matters review.
Critical race theory is an academic legal framework which examines the systemic impact of racism in the United States. But “critical race theory,” like “cancel culture” and “political correctness” before it, also functions as an umbrella term the right-wing movement uses to turn its mostly white adherents’ racial anxiety into political energy.
In this case, a sophisticated, nationwide network of conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, media outlets, and GOP officials have seized on the term and, in the words of Christopher Rufo — a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a key player in the effort — sought to render it “toxic” and apply to it “the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.” Republicans have proposed or passed a slew of legislation restricting “critical race theory” and hope to use it as a core part of their political strategy in upcoming local, state, and federal elections.
Fox, the leading propaganda outlet for the GOP, plays a key role in this strategy. The network has mentioned “critical race theory” nearly 1,300 times over the past three and a half months. The purportedly sinister spread of “critical race theory” provides a perfect framework for Fox’s technique of highlighting local concerns to fuel the culture war. The network supercharges the individual, at times dubious, stories that filter up with the help of nationally backed local activists, other right-wing outlets, and social media. Fox has targeted the purported influence of “critical race theory” in corporate America, the military, and particularly schools, hosting parents, teachers, and other educators to talk about how they don’t want it taught in their communities.
In several of those cases, the locals Fox has highlighted are also Republican strategists, conservative think-tankers, or right-wing media figures — ties the network has downplayed or ignored altogether. This trend is particularly notable when Fox covers “critical race theory” controversies in Northern Virginia, a bedroom community for Washington, D.C., in a state where GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin has sought to make his opposition a central issue in the fall.
“The first test will be here in Virginia,” Fox chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel reported last month. “If this issue works in the governor’s race in November, it will likely be part of the GOP campaign playbook in the midterm elections next year.”
Republican strategists have every right to advocate for their children and their communities, if not to manipulate nationwide education priorities. But since Fox has identified opposition to “critical race theory” as central to the party’s political strategy, the network has a responsibility to inform its viewers about exactly who it’s talking to….
Descriptions of several “concerned parents” at the link. One of them, hilariously, is Barry Bennett. He’s a recognizable Trumpworld figure and Republican lobbyist (reportedly under federal investigation) who’s undoubtedly appeared on Fox on numerous occasions in that role, now described by Fox as a “Virginia Little League Parent.” Fox has so much contempt for its audience. He’s also been in politics for like 30 years; it’s certainly possible he has kids in Little League, but I’d need to see the evidence.
…According to data published on Monday by Public Health England, vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca jabs is as effective at preventing hospitalisation in the case of the Delta variant as it is in the case of the Alpha variant.
Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab prevent 96 percent of hospitalisations due to the Delta variant, while the AstraZeneca vaccine prevents 92 percent, according to a study involving 14,000 people.
Previous data released by British health authorities at the end of May come to similar conclusions for less serious forms of the illness.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 88 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant two weeks after the second dose, while the jab is 93 percent effective for cases caused by the Alpha variant.
AstraZeneca shows the efficacy of 60 percent against cases caused by the Delta variant and 66 percent in the case of Alpha.
Scottish authorities published similar data on Monday in The Lancet….
JFC:
Meanwhile, the team behind the Sputnik V jab tweeted on Tuesday that their vaccine was “more efficient against the Delta variant … than any other vaccine that published results on this strain so far”. They did not publish results but said the study by the Gamaleya Center, a Russian research institute, had been submitted for publication in an international peer-reviewed journal.
The US is devoting $3.2 billion to advance development of antiviral pills for Covid-19 and other dangerous viruses that could turn into pandemics.
AP reports that Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, announced the investment at a White House briefing as part of a new “antiviral program for pandemics” to develop drugs to address symptoms caused by potentially dangerous viruses like Covid.
The pills for Covid-19, which would be used to minimise symptoms after infection, are in development and could begin arriving by year’s end, pending the completion of clinical trials. The funding will speed those clinical trials and provide additional support to private sector research, development and manufacturing.
Fauci said the new program would invest in “accelerating things that are already in progress” for Covid-19 but also would work to innovate new therapies for other viruses. “There are few treatments that exist for many of the viruses that have pandemic potential,” he said. But he added, “vaccines clearly remain the center piece of our arsenal.”
The US has approved one antiviral drug, remdesivir, against Covid-19 and allowed emergency use of three antibody combinations that help the immune system fight the virus. But all the drugs have to be infused at hospitals or medical clinics, and demand has been low due to these logistical hurdles.
The US embassy in Afghanistan has ordered a near-complete lockdown because of a spike in coronavirus cases among employees.
AP reports that the embassy in Kabul ordered those staffers remaining, amid the imminent withdrawal of American forces from the country, into virtual isolation to prevent the spread of the virus which has already killed at least one person, sent 114 into quarantine and forced several people to be medically evacuated.
The embassy said in a notice to employees that almost all group activities, including work meetings and recreational gatherings, are banned because intensive care units at military medical facilities in Afghanistan are at full capacity and the number of cases has forced it to establish temporary Covid-19 wards to care for patients requiring oxygen.
It said the restrictions would remain in place until the chain of transmission is broken. The notice said 95% of the cases involved people who have not been vaccinated or fully vaccinated against the virus and urged all staff to take advantage of available vaccines at the embassy.
“We must break the chain of transmission to protect one another and ensure the mission’s ability to carry out the nation’s business,” the acting U.S. ambassador, Ross Wilson, said in the notice. “Restrictions will continue until the chain of transmission is broken … We are all in this together and rely on your cooperation during this difficult time. We can only return to normal operations with the cooperation of everyone.”
blf @420, excellent! Sounds like a good experience all around. Since I’ve had my two shots, I am now fully magnetized. So glad to hear you are on your way to being protected against covid-19. With the Delta variant running around infecting people like crazy, it’s good to get vaccinated.
In other news (not nearly as pleasing as blf’s news):
* In keeping with the national trend, the Republican-led state Senate in North Carolina yesterday approved new conservative election policies yesterday, including a measure making it more difficult to cast absentee ballots through the mail. Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has already announced plans to veto the proposed changes.
* According to a survey commissioned by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, roughly 1 in 3 U.S. election officials have been made to feel unsafe because of their positions, while 1 in 6 say they’ve received threats.
* According to the officials overseeing Arizona’s utterly bonkers election “audit,” the process will “complete the paper examination phase” by Saturday, June 26. I shudder to think what the next phase will entail. […]
* Former Rep. Matt Salmon (R), a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, announced yesterday that he’s running for governor in Arizona next year. Though the former congressman did not mention Donald Trump by name, Salmon’s kick-off video endorsed an “Arizona first agenda.”
* Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel launched a new podcast this week, called “Real America.”
* And Donald Trump announced yesterday he’ll hold “a major rally” in Wellington, Ohio next week. The announcement said the event will be in support of congressional hopeful Max Miller, who’s taking on Rep. Anthony Gonzales in a 2022 Republican primary.
SC @430, I see Trump is still in transactional mode: I do this for you, you vote for me. He ignores all other factors, he’s just into the transaction. Trump is simple minded.
Text quoted by SC @432:
Nearly a dozen of the Fox News guests the network has presented as concerned parents or educators who oppose the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” in schools also have day jobs as Republican strategists, conservative think-tankers, or right-wing media personalities, according to a Media Matters review. […]
Yeah, conservative doofuses have mounted a huge effort behind demonizing “critical race theory.” It doesn’t really matter to them what “critical race theory” is, it only matters that they have a new demon to fight. It’s ridiculous on one level. But on another level, I see the immense organizational structure behind this effort … and I see the amount of repetition already swamping rightwing media and I know where this is going. Most of the people in my neck of the woods will buy into this nonsense, and that will reinforce their idea that they should vote for Republicans. Sheesh.
If GOP conspiracy theorists think the FBI organized the Jan. 6 attack, wouldn’t they want an independent commission to uncover the truth?
On his Fox News program earlier this week, Tucker Carlson raised the idea that the Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol may have secretly been a scheme hatched by the FBI. Yesterday, the day after the broadcast, a group of far-right House Republicans wrote to the FBI, demanding a response to the conspiracy theory.
U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01), along with Reps. Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), and Bill Posey (FL-08), sent a letter this afternoon to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding transparency on the role their operatives potentially had in organizing and participating in the January 6th Capitol riot.
The trajectory of the right’s line has followed a circuitous path, hasn’t it? In the immediate aftermath of the assault from the pro-Trump mob, some Republicans argued that the rioters were secretly Antifa leftists who only appeared to be Trump supporters.
In time, prominent GOP voices switched gears, decided the rioters were actually the victims on Jan. 6, and labeled them “peaceful patriots” whose actions more closely resembled a “normal tourist visit” than a deadly attack.
Now, evidently, some Republicans are switching back, concerned that the entire riot may have been a false-flag attack organized by FBI “operatives.” [Video from Chris Hayes’ “Partners in Propaganda” segment is available at the link. The segment features Tucker Carlson, Vladimir Putin, and others.]
To the extent that such a claim requires pushback, a Washington Post analysis explained yesterday that the conspiracy theory is “baseless,” while MSNBC’s Chris Hayes described the ideas as “crazy stuff,” comparable to other recent far-right conspiracy theories involving Hugo Chavez’s ghost and magical Italian vote-changing satellites.
There’s a related angle to this that also stood out for me. Obviously, there’s no reason to seriously believe that the FBI was responsible for the Jan. 6 attack. But let’s say for the sake of conversation that some Republican conspiracy theorists were inclined to take such an idea seriously.
If so, wouldn’t they want an independent commission to examine the attack and uncover the details? Shouldn’t they be demanding an independent probe to get to the bottom of this?
Or is this a case in which the conspiracy theorists realize they’re peddling nonsense designed to agitate unsuspecting, rank-and-file allies, while rejecting the idea of a commission that would tell the public the truth?
House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told CNN this week that Democrats are still hoping to get enough Republican votes in the Senate for a bipartisan plan for a Jan. 6 panel, despite the fact that a GOP filibuster has already derailed the proposal once.
If these efforts fall short, as seems likely, Smith added that Democrats would proceed with the creation of a select committee. Watch this space.
Republicans can’t help themselves. No matter how big of a loser Donald Trump is, and he’s the biggest of them all, they just can’t quit him. In fact, they’re so desperate to keep him front and center in the electoral debate, that they’re now talking about making him speaker of the House.
And in a little-known quirk of the House’s rules, he wouldn’t even need to be elected to anything to make that happen.
Article 1, Section 2, states, “The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers…” There are no other legal requirements for the position, including age, or actually being elected to anything. For some time in the mid teens, House conservatives actually agitated for Senator Ted Cruz to become speaker. In 2013, former Secretary of State Colin Powell received votes for speaker. In 2015, Sen. Rand Paul got a vote.
Now, in all of American history, the speaker has always been a member of the House. But that’s a norm, a tradition, not an actual requirement. […] And so, a new conservative scheme is born: the drive to make Trump the next speaker. It started with this exchange on wingnut radio:
Speaker of the House Donald Trump? He’s not ruling it out.
The former president called the idea “very interesting” after conservative radio host Wayne Allyn Root pressed him Friday to run for a Florida congressional seat in 2022 with the goal of leading a Republican takeover of the House and supplanting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Why not instead of just waiting for 2024, and I’m hoping you run in 2024, but why not run in 2022 for the United States Congress, a House seat in Florida, win big, lead us to a dramatic landslide victory, taking the House by 50 seats, and then you become the Speaker of the House,” said Mr. Root on his USA Network show […]
“You’ll wipe him [President Biden] out for his last two years, and then you’ll be president. Do it! Do it! You’ll be a folk hero,” Mr. Root said.
Of course, Root clearly doesn’t know about the non-requirements to be speaker. Other conservatives do, and they’re starting to talk. One told The Atlantic’s Peter Nicholas, “If 150 members of Congress went to Trump and said, ‘We want you to be our leader,’ I think he’d do it.”
Of course he’d do it! Could there be a better scenario for Trump than to be handed something without having to do a lick of work? It’s his dream come true! And you know who is really excited at this possibility? Steve Bannon.
Bannon unspooled a wild chain of events to me, to explain away that hurdle: Trump would serve only 100 days, setting in motion the Republican policy agenda and starting a series of investigations, including an impeachment inquiry into Biden. Then, Trump would step down, turn the gavel over to McCarthy, and prepare for a 2024 presidential run. “He’d come in for 100 days and get a team together,” Bannon said. “They’d have a plan. That plan would be to confront the Biden administration across the board. I actually believe that there will be overwhelming evidence at that time to impeach Biden, just as they did Trump. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
“On the 101st day,” Bannon added, “he’ll announce his candidacy for the presidency, and we’ll be off to the races.”
Adorbs.
Bannon thinks that 1) House minority leader Kevin McCarthy would step aside, even for some time, to hand the gavel to Trump, 2) that Trump would have the votes in the House to win a speaker election, 3) that Trump would have enough of his shit together to put together a team in that short time frame, 4) that Trump would have a “policy agenda,” when they couldn’t even bother to have a party platform at the 2020 Republican convention, 5) that they’d have anything to impeach Biden on with supposed “overwhelming evidence,” and 6) that Trump would willingly hand over the gavel once he had it. Though it is nice of him to admit that Democrats did have “overwhelming evidence” against Trump.
Still, rather than mock this, and it is so eminently mockable, it behooves us to encourage this talk. As I’ve written, midterm elections are almost always referendum on an incumbent president, leading to typical losses.
[…] Keeping Trump front and center in the political debate, along with the conservative movement’s inability to get worked up much about President Joe Biden, 2022 threatens to upend the conventional debate, from a referendum on the incumbent, to yet another referendum on Donald Trump. By essentially putting Trump on the ballot—for speaker of the House—Republicans could give liberals yet another reason to turn out in the numbers they did in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. And without Trump being literally on the ballot, the chances of Republicans turning out the hidden deplorables are dramatically lowered.
Right now, this “Speaker Trump” discussion is floating on the edges of the political debate. But with Bannon on board, it shouldn’t be long before Trump himself is promoting the idea. And from there? Who knows. “Will you vote for Trump for Speaker” could be yet another item on the conservative litmus test, to go with “who really won the 2020 election.”
Election data from the politicized “audit” of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election results has made its way across multiple state lines to a secure “lab” — or maybe a cabin — in Montana.
The purported lab location, CNN reported Wednesday night, is the residence of the founder of an audit subcontractor who lives off of a Montana highway.
The Arizona Republic first reported the story two weeks ago: Ben Cotton, the founder of the audit’s tech contractor CyFIR, made copies of Maricopa County’s election server and other data and drove them to what one audit spokesperson described as a “secure lab” in Montana. The spokesperson, Ken Bennett, told the Republic he didn’t have any details on how Cotton was keeping that data secure.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ (D) office had earlier noted the Montana twist on its website: “Observation: On May 24, 2021, Senate Liaison Ken Bennett confirmed that copies of voting system data was sent to a lab in Montana. He did not specify what security measures were in place, or what the lab in Montana will do with the data or how long it will be in possession of the copies.”
The Republic reported that Ryan Macias, an elections expert who’s observing the audit for Hobbs’ office, asked Bennett about the data traveling to Montana after hearing a rumor about it.
The Republic and CNN noted that Cotton, in addition to being the founder of CyFIR, is also CEO of its precursor company CyTech. CyTech’s website, which lists Cotton as CEO, also lists a Montana address off of Montana Highway 83 in Bigfork, not far from Flathead Lake. Records indicate Cotton is the property owner, the Republic and CNN reported. […]
CNN followed up in person, sending reporter Gary Tuchman to the Montana property and capturing what appeared to be drone footage of the land. [video is available at the link. Aerial footage shows the "lab" may be a log cabin.]
Cotton’s audit work was in the news last month after state Senate President Karen Fann (R), who authorized the audit in the first place, claimed that a database directory had been deleted from the information that Maricopa County had handed over to the Senate.
Cotton subsequently reported to Fann that “I’ve been able to recover all of those deleted files, and I have access to that data” — prompting a round of heckling from the county’s Twitter feed.
More like a backwoods bunkum bunker.
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So is the DOJ going to take action on this at some point?
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I personally would like to see the US Department of Justice step in and stop this – the screechers are already screeching at Joe Biden and his administration, USDOJ intervention would at least give Arizona Democrats some cover (particularly Hobbs in her effort to become governor next year).
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I am curious as to why they are dragging out so long. Must be the grift dollars.
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Officials with Maricopa County have directed the Arizona State Senate, as well as the companies it hired for a highly controversial election audit, to preserve documents for a possible lawsuit.
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At the hand-off between MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell, the latter explained there was very serious breaking news: former President Donald Trump finally conceded the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. While it’s been eight months…
At the hand-off between MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell, the latter explained there was very serious breaking news: former President Donald Trump finally conceded the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
While it’s been eight months since the election, Trump has never been willing to admit that he lost. Wednesday night, however, June 16, 2021, Trump finally admitted it’s over and that he wishes Joe Biden a successful presidency.
“And this is big,” O’Donnell prefaced. “Donald Trump finally conceded tonight, he delivered the concession speech. He did. Yes. Not making this up. To Sean Hannity on that hour. Here’s how it went. It’s not the traditional form. First of all, Sean Hannity said to him, more than once, began questions with, ‘if you were still president.’ And Donald Trump did not correct him. Donald Trump went on and said words. I’m not going to say he answered the question, but he said words after the question mark. More than once: ‘If you were still president.’ And then towards the end of the discussion, Donald Trump actually said this about Joe Biden. ‘I want him to do well.’ Now that is — that’s in every concession speech. ‘I want him to do well.’ I mean, that’s it. That — there it is. The concession speech.”
Another video of Trump shows him saying, “we didn’t win but let’s see what happens on that.”
Among the other things Trump talked about, he sang the praises of the vaccine and of birds, which he said are being killed by windmills. Windmills, as you might recall, Trump said cause ear cancer.
[…] even as wildfires continue to roar across thousands of acres in Arizona, state firefighters made a frightening announcement: Because of the low level of water available, the state will no longer be able to scoop up water with planes or helicopters to drop on wild fires. The massive Lake Powell is down over 30’ in just the last year, and is over 120’ below the “full” level it held until only a few years ago. Lake Mead, the reservoir that stands behind Hoover Dam and provides water and power to Las Vegas as well as a number of other cities, is at its lowest level since the dam was completed in the 1930s. San Carlos Lake, the reservoir closest to the current fires in Arizona, has seen its water reduced from 19,500 acre-feet to just 55 acre-feet—a 99.7% decline.
When thinking about the climate crisis, many people first think of rising sea levels. But declining lake and river levels is part of the same package. And that crisis is here. […]
Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters outside their mansion in a gated St. Louis community last summer, on Thursday pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, according to a statement released by special prosecutor Richard G. Callahan. The plea deal will result in fines but no jail time even though Missouri’s misdemeanor statutes could have resulted in time behind bars.
Mark McCloskey, 64, a lawyer, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault as a Class C misdemeanor. He was ordered to pay a $750 fine, Callahan’s statement says. Missouri law authorizes a penalty of up to fifteen days in jail……“[H]e purposefully placed at least one individual in apprehension of immediate physical injury by waving a rifle in the direction of one or more individuals in front of his home,” Callahan’s statement said.
Patricia McCloskey, 62, also a lawyer, pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment, a Class A misdemeanor, and was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, the statement said. Missouri law authorizes a penalty of up to one year behind bars for Class A misdemeanors……“That charge alleges that on June 20, 2020, she pointed a pistol at a group of individuals in front of her home without good cause and with the purpose to cause emotional distress,” Callahan’s statement explained.
“The protesters on the other hand were a racially mixed and peaceful group, including women and children, who simply made a wrong turn on their way to protest in front of the mayor’s house,” Callahan’s statement continued. “There was no evidence that any of them had a weapon and no one I interviewed realized they had ventured into a private enclave…..upon meeting the Association’s security guard further down the street, the followed his directions and peacefully exited the neighborhood through a gate onto Lake Street.”
Mark McCloskey is currently running for U.S. Senate.
“I stood up to the mob,” a campaign fundraising website operated under the Win Red domain name, but using McCloskey’s logo, said shortly after the candidate pleaded guilty. “[N]ow will you stand with me?” it asked while soliciting donations.
Mark McCloskey’s website describes him in these terms:
On June 28, 2020, and then again on July 3, 2020, he and Patty held off a violent mob through the exercise of their 2nd Amendment rights…blah, blah, blah.
tomh @444: Ah, that’s so great. McCloskey is running for U.S. Senate because we need more convicted criminal Republicans in the Senate.
In other news, here is some humor from Andy Borowitz:
Outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to preserve Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, Senator Ted Cruz called the Affordable Care Act “a thinly veiled Democratic plot to keep people alive so they can vote.”
“A long time ago, Democrats figured out that live people were far more likely to vote than dead ones,” Cruz charged. “Make no mistake: the Affordable Care Act is a calculated scheme to increase the number of live people.”
He went on, “Democrats will stop at nothing to get people to vote. They will get them ballots. They will get them bottled water. And, yes, if necessary, they will keep them from dying of a preëxisting condition. It disgusts me.”
Cruz added that, unlike Democrats, Republicans have “no intention whatsoever of keeping people alive,” and pointed to Texas’s new “constitutional carry” gun law as a shining example.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he believed all 50 Republicans would oppose Sen. Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) slimmed-down elections compromise, which focuses on expanding early voting and ending partisan gerrymandering in federal elections. And it’s not clear there’s a single Republican vote to even begin debate on the matter, potentially dooming Manchin’s proposals before they can even make it into the bill.
Both Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said they would likely oppose a procedural vote next week that would bring Democrats’ massive elections reform bill to the Senate floor….
“It needs to be blocked,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who praised Manchin last week for “saving our country” in encouraging bipartisanship….
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who has led the GOP opposition to the elections bill …. said that when “Stacey Abrams immediately endorsed Sen. Manchin’s proposal, it became the Stacey Abram’s substitute, not the Joe Manchin substitute.”…..
“If there is an effort that Joe Manchin leads and he gets a group together on a bipartisan election reform provision I’m happy to work on that or consider it,” Romney said. “But that hasn’t happened yet.”
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Happy Juneteenth, our new federal holiday.
KGsays
SC@433, thanks for your concern! Unfortunately, I expect case numbers to be significantly higher by the time I’m due in London, given that delta-variant cases are currently doubling every 10 days or so, and there are no moves to tighten restrictions. I’ll be as careful as I can.
snarkratessays
A holiday that celebrates the day the country became just a wee bit less hypocritical is a holiday I can get behind!
Mark and Patricia McCloskey were issued fines and ordered to forfeit the firearms they were photographed with, which will now be destroyed, according to their attorney Joel Schwartz.
Associated Press: “Convention circuit of delusion gives forum for election lies”
For a few hours last weekend, thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters came together in a field under the blazing Wisconsin sun to live in an alternate reality where the former president was still in office — or would soon return.
Clad in red MAGA hats and holding “Trump 2021” signs, they cheered in approval as Mike Lindell, the MyPillow creator-turned-conspiracy peddler, introduced “our real president.” Then Trump appeared via Jumbotron to repeat the lie that has become his central talking point since losing to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes: “The election was rigged.”
Lindell later promised the audience that Trump would soon be reinstated into the presidency, a prospect for which there is no legal or constitutional method.
In the nearly five months since Trump’s presidency ended, similar scenes have unfolded in hotel ballrooms and other venues across the country. Attorney Lin Wood has told crowds that Trump is still president, while former national security adviser Michael Flynn went even further at a Dallas event by calling for a Myanmar-style military coup in the U.S. At the same conference, former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell suggested Trump could simply be reinstated and a new Inauguration Day set.
Taken together, the gatherings have gelled into a convention circuit of delusion centered on the false premise that the election was stolen. Lindell and others use the events to deepen their bond with legions of followers who eschew the mainstream press and live within a conservative echo chamber of talk radio and social media. In these forums, “evidence” of fraud is never fact-checked, leaving many followers genuinely convinced that Biden shouldn’t be president.
“We know that Biden’s a fraudulent president, and we want to be part of the movement to get him out,” said Donna Plechacek, 61, who traveled from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, with her sister for the event. “I know that they cheated the election. I have no doubt about that. The proof is there.”
State election officials, international observers, Trump’s own attorney general and dozens of judges — including many Trump appointed — have found no verifiable evidence of mass election fraud. Indeed, Trump’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the election “the most secure in American history” and concluded there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
[…] While Lindell repeatedly described the event as a free speech festival — paid for by him — it had all the trappings of a Trump rally, including several of his frequent warm-up acts and a large American flag hoisted up by cranes.
It was a carnival atmosphere: a face-painting tent for kids; stands selling corndogs, fresh-cut fries and ice cream; a flyover of old military planes. The 2020 campaign lived on, with vendors selling old campaign merchandise — along with Lindell’s pillows. One older man with a cane walked around shirtless, wearing a sparkly cowboy hat and Crocs and using a Trump flag as a cape. One young woman carried a helmet with horns — reminiscent of the headgear worn by an Arizona man who calls himself the QAnon Shaman and who took part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Indeed, several people said they were at the U.S. Capitol that day, though they were vague on their roles.
[…] Again and again, attendees insisted Trump won the election. And several said they sincerely believed that he will be reinstated in the coming months […]
Some suggested the military would be involved; others are convinced he remains in control today.
Most assailed the mainstream media and said they instead got their news from people like Lindell and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, as well as the conservative channel Newsmax, talk radio and social media platforms.
Few have gone to greater lengths than Lindell to convince the American public the election was stolen. By his own account, he has spent millions of dollars staging election-related events, hiring private investigators and creating movies that purport to document the alleged fraud […] the evidence he cites in his most recent film, which features a blurred-out, anonymous cyber expert, has been repeatedly debunked for not demonstrating what he claims.
Still, attendees repeatedly referenced his videos as clear proof of fraud.
“There’s just so much evidence that Mike Lindell has,” said Lynda Thibado, 65, who traveled with her husband, Don Briggs, from Menomonie, Wisconsin, by camper and stayed overnight at an adjacent campground.
Missouri Republicans passed a law to prevent the enforcement of new federal gun laws in the state. The Justice Department reminded them they can’t do that.
President Biden and Democratic congressional leaders would welcome the opportunity to approve safeguards to prevent gun violence, but despite public attitudes on the subject, Republicans refuse to consider any new laws on the subject. […]
there’s a different kind of dispute unfolding in several Republican-led states, where the New York Times reports today on laws designed to “discourage or prohibit the enforcement of federal gun statutes.” One state, in particular,
Missouri has become the latest state to throw down a broad challenge to the enforcement of federal firearms laws, as Republican-controlled state legislatures intensify their fierce political counterattack against President Biden’s gun control proposals. A bill signed by Gov. Mike Parson over the weekend — at a gun store called Frontier Justice — threatens a penalty of $50,000 against any local police agency that enforces certain federal gun laws and regulations that constitute “infringements” of Second Amendment gun rights.
In other words, under Missouri’s new policy, if local police departments enforce a gun law — which is to say, a federal gun law — that Missouri Republicans don’t like, those police departments could face $50,000 fines.
If you’re thinking, “Wait, states can’t do that,” then you agree with the Justice Department, which as the Associated Press reported this week, sent a reminder to officials in the Show Me State.
[…] Justice officials said the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause outweighs the measure that Gov. Mike Parson signed into law Saturday.
[…] acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton reminded Missouri officials that their new measure “conflicts with federal firearms laws and regulation” and federal law would supersede the state’s new statute. […]
In practical terms, the new state law is largely meaningless. As GOP proponents of the policy in Missouri concede, there are few real differences, at least right now, between state and federal gun laws. What Missouri Republicans are apparently concerned about is federal policies that may exist in the future, and their eagerness to ignore them, Constitutional Law 101 notwithstanding.
[…] The effort is generally known as “nullification”: the idea that states can simply nullify national laws that states don’t like and don’t want to follow.
For many years, the idea was espoused by opponents of federal anti-slavery laws and civil rights statutes. Indeed, there was a rather spirited debate in the mid-19th century over whether states could choose to ignore federal laws, and the dispute was resolved by the U.S. Civil War. Nullification advocates lost.
[…] Before her election to the U.S. Senate, Iowa’s Joni Ernst (R) delivered remarks suggesting she believed states can nullify federal laws. “You know we have talked about this at the state legislature before, nullification,” the Iowa Republican said in 2013. “But, bottom line is, as U.S. Senator why should we be passing laws that the states are considering nullifying? Bottom line: our legislators at the federal level should not be passing those laws…. So, bottom line, no, we should not be passing laws as federal legislators — as senators or congressman — that the states would even consider nullifying. Bottom line.”
The fact that such thinking lingers in Republican politics is, to put it mildly, discouraging.
Under Obama, much of the right expressed its admiration for the Russian president. Under Biden, it appears to be happening again.
Early on in his presidency, Donald Trump was reminded in an interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a killer.” The Republican replied, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”
[…] Americans weren’t accustomed to hearing their president be quite this critical of the United States. It was just as odd to see a U.S. chief executive drawing a moral equivalence between us and an autocracy.
Four years later, as Joe Biden’s presidency got underway, the Democrat was asked whether he sees Putin as “a killer.” Biden, unlike his immediate predecessor, replied, “I do.”
This apparently didn’t sit well with the Russian leader, who responded by, among other things, challenging the American president to participate in some kind of televised debate. As Jon Chait noted soon after, it was at this point when Trump’s allies immediately weighed in — “on Putin’s side.”
[…] Conservative media seemed quite excited about the debate challenge — Fox News featured two side-by-side images of Biden and Putin, though the latter wasn’t wearing a shirt — and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) added that he believes the Russian would prevail in the hypothetical showdown. […]
Many Republicans personally trust or admire Putin…. More than 60 percent of Democrats view Putin very unfavorably, but only 30 percent to 40 percent of Republicans do. In two polls taken this week — one by Morning Consult for Politico, the other by YouGov for the Economist — Putin has a better net favorable rating among Republicans than Biden does, by margins of 16 and 22 points, respectively.
[…] it was seven years ago, for example, when then-Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson wrote about how impressed he was with Russia’s direction under Putin’s leadership. “Russians seem to be gaining prestige and influence throughout the world as we are losing ours,” Carson said, describing the exact opposite of reality.
The same month, Mike Rogers, at the time the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, expressed his own admiration: “Putin is playing chess and I think we are playing marbles.” [snipped Sarah Palin’s comments]
In August 2014, Kimberly Guilfoyle — a Fox News personality at the time — went so far as to say she wanted to see Putin serve as “head of the United States,” at least for a little while.
[…] After Republicans offered tacit praise for Putin in Obama’s second term, Donald Trump forged a partnership of sorts with the Russian leader, which predictably affected the attitudes of GOP voters.
With Biden in the White House, the trend continues, with Republican voices looking at Putin, not the American president, as the strong leader. […]
An exclusive from Talking Points Memo: The Template SCOTUS Election-Reversal Lawsuit That Trump Allies Pushed On LA’s AG
Before Texas filed a lawsuit that asked the Supreme Court to block President Biden’s win in four battleground states, a draft of the petition was circulated to the Louisiana attorney general’s office.
The template then was very similar to what was eventually filed by Texas on Dec. 8. Much of the same language proposed in the draft lawsuit made it into the final Texas complaint, and certain sections of the two versions are almost word-for-word the same. But there was one main difference. It was written to be filed by Louisiana, as well as some yet-to-be-determined states, listed as states “A” and “B.” The draft complaint left template language for the future plaintiff state for fill in its lawyer and contact info. It also targeted six battleground states that went for Biden, while the final Texas version only sued four. […]
a group of lawyers seeking to reverse Trump’s loss had turned to Louisiana in late November to bring a case before the Supreme Court, after they had initially been rebuffed by the Texas attorney general’s office. The previously-unreleased draft of the lawsuit they floated to Louisiana’s attorney general was recently obtained by TPM, via a public records request filed by the left-leaning watchdog group American Oversight. Internal communications between the Louisiana office and the Trump-aligned lawyers, which included a former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, were also obtained in American Oversight’s request and shared with TPM.
They show how Kobach repeatedly pestered Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office and what materials were used to pitch Landry on bringing the lawsuit. Much of the content of the emails is redacted. But, as the New York Times reported, the outreach to Attorney General Landry was part of a larger campaign that targeted Republican attorneys general who had previously aligned themselves with Trump. Landry was one of nine attorneys general part of a group called Lawyers for Trump, and at the time also led the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Yet, the newly-obtained emails show how Landry’s associate, Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill, tried to keep at arms’ length the lawyers who were pushing the election-reversal lawsuit.
One of those lawyers was apparently Phillip Jauregui, an attorney who previously represented former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore when Moore was accused of child molestation during his 2017 Senate bid. Jauregui reached out to Murrill, whom Jauregui apparently was in touch with because of an abortion case from Louisiana that had gone to the Supreme Court. Attached to the Nov. 20 email was a document titled “GM State v State Draft 11.20 (002).docx.” […]
The following day, Kobach reached out, emailing Murrill himself and, in a separate email, attempting to make contact directly with Attorney General Landry. Much of the Kobach emails to those officials is redacted but their subjects were “Presidential Election Case” and “Presidential Election Suit.”
Attached to the email Kobach sent Landry was a report by “unpaid citizens and volunteer experts.”
“Unpaid citizens and volunteer experts” is such obvious bullshit.
It alleged “abnormal results” in 11 counties in Pennsylvania — one of the states the Trump allies wanted Louisiana to sue. The materials sent to Landry also included a declaration filed by the former Trump aide Matt Braynard in a seperate lawsuit alleging fraud in Wisconsin, another state whose results were to be challenged in the proposed Supreme Court lawsuit. […]
In her exchange with Kobach, Murrill assured Kobach, “Jeff is reviewing all of it and Texas is too,” but said she was too tied up on other matters to “engage” on the case just yet. […]
Kobach reached out to her again on Nov. 25 to ask her to review a version of the lawsuit that had been “revised and streamlined.”
Murrill deflected: “Have you been in touch with Texas?” she asked.
“Someone else in our group has. But if you want to forward this version to your counterpart in TX, please do so,” Kobach wrote.
Attorney General Ken Paxton did eventually agree to file the lawsuit with the Supreme Court. U.S. Justice Department emails that were released this week by the House revealed that Trump allies had pressured the DOJ to bring its own Supreme Court election-reversal case. The DOJ did not bring such a petition, but Paxton’s lawsuit eventually got the support of 17 GOP state attorneys general — including Landry. […]
Actual emails and draft lawsuit materials are available at the link.
Hours after husband and wife Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge each for brandishing guns while protesters entered their gated St. Louis community, the couple appeared on Twitter — again brandishing weapons.
…a series of tweets, Mark McCloskey, who is running for U.S. Senate, bragged that he would “do the same thing again” if an “angry mob” again “threatened” his life.
“My name is Mark McCloskey,” a campaign video disseminated at 4:05 p.m. begins. “A year ago, an angry mob crashed through my gate and threatened my life, my family, and my home. And I stood on the front porch with my AR-15 and backed the mob down.”
At 11:56 a.m., he attacked the media.
“When the mob attacked my home, the media claimed the gate was open and that it wasn’t torn it down to attack my family,” he said. “A media that constantly deceives Americans and glorifies the mob cannot be trusted.”
Citing legal records, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has long reported that the McCloskeys knew the gate was in a state of disrepair long before protesters entered their neighborhood. The newspaper has also long displayed video of the initial wave of protesters proceeding through what appears to be an intact and unlocked gate.
Citing video from the protest, local NBC affiliate KSDK-TV has also long reported that the gate was intact when the initial protesters passed through it.
On February 26, 2020, Donald Trump uttered a phrase that, even in that moment, was both twisted and ridiculous. Speaking of the number of Americans who had tested positive for COVID-19, he said , “You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” When Trump said this, it was clear that the disease was already circulating within the population, that the number infected was far above 15, and that the only direction things were moving was toward disaster.
A portion of that statement forms the title of author Jonathan Vankin’s new book Close to Zero. Books about Trump’s time in the White House have become common enough that it seems impossible to pass through a bookstore without coming across a stack offering to detail the chaos of dealing with Mr. Coke button on the Resolute Desk. If you want to know about how Trump routinely screams at underlinings, loses track of the subject at hand, or devotes 23.5 hours a day exercising his vengeance gland … you’re covered. But that’s not this book.
As the title implies, this book focuses on Trump’s handling of the 2020 pandemic, if the term “handling,” can be applied to actions that generated at least 400,000 needless deaths. Exactly the tone that Vankin is going to take is evidence right from the subtitle of the book: “How Donald Trump fulfilled his apocalyptic vision and paid his debt to Putin with a devastating biological warfare attack on America.” […] as the contents make clear, Trump’s didn’t just fail to provide for the nation in the face of a deadly pandemic, he deliberately failed. Making this the greatest crime in modern American history.
When Vankin uses the term “biological warfare,” it’s easy to think of the claims circulating on the right about how the coronavirus was supposedly engineered in a Chinese lab. But while that theory is strongly disputed by scientists who have examined the evidence, there are definitely other forms of warfare—like that of someone deliberately failing to take action that would save people under his charge, or spreading propaganda with the sure knowledge that it would create a deadly outcome.
What Vankin lays out in his book—from both the actions Trump took to underplay the threat at the outset of the pandemic, to this efforts to sabotage rational responses—may seem familiar […] There is an official tally of 600,000 dead, and well-researched evidence that the total number of Americans who have died due to the pandemic is actually over 900,000. There are studies showing that at least 400,000 of those Americans could have been saved, not by some miracle, but had the government under Donald Trump simply taken the kind of measures that were taken elsewhere.
Neighboring Canada has seen 682 people die for each 1 million of its population. That’s a tragedy, and it has rightfully brought scorn on officials at both national and provincial levels. But in the United States, 1,848 have died out of each million—almost three times higher. […] Italy was swept up in the initial wave, before the outbreak even began in the United States. It was less prepared, had few hospital beds per citizens, has a less rural population more concentrated in towns and cities, and seemed to be in the midst of an unstoppable explosion of cases. So how is it that the United States managed to have almost twice Italy’s level of cases per capita?
How did it happen that, under Donald Trump, the only thing in which the United States led the world was disease and death?
Vankin is straightforward in building a chain composed of public events and statements that shows how Trump failed to plan, then lied about it. Then when it became clear that ignoring COVID-19 would not make it “magically go away,” Trump listened to another plan: the one where getting as many people sick as quickly as possible was the best way to achieve herd immunity. The “Great Barrington Declaration” was never the official approach of the United States (though, as Vankin notes, they did issue a statement that they were considering it), but it certainly seemed to animate many of those working behind the scenes at the Trump White House, and it absolutely appeared to resonate with Trump. Dallying with that plan took two of the richest nations on the planet—the U.K. and the U.S.—and left them essentially tied in terms of deaths per capita.
What Close to Zero focuses on most thoroughly is the question of why Trump responded as he did to a crisis that took the lives of so many Americans. […]
The other issue that Vankin digs into deeply is how readily the nation, including Democrats, appears to have bought into the excuse of plain incompetence. That is, Trump failed to halt COVID-19 and took actions to promote useless drugs, subvert plans for a national testing strategy, push back against efforts at social distancing, and politicize the wearing of masks simply because he was obstinate, egotistical, and unwilling to look at facts. However, these actions were being taken at the same time Trump was conducting a complex and successful plan that started months in advance of the critical date—the scheme to sow doubt and lay the basis for claims about fraud in the 2020 election.
Close to Zero provides a valuable compendium of the events that happened over the course of 2020, both in the sense of how Trump took every step imaginable to worsen the response to the pandemic, and how he simultaneously orchestrated a multi-pronged attack on the voting system designed to not just support his claims of fraud, but to fundamentally undermine American democracy. The end result is that Trump left behind a nation weaker physically, politically, and spiritually—and a nation that’s intrinsically less capable of responding to the next crisis in anything like a strong or unified manner.
Whether that was all done to serve an even broader purpose, well … read the book.
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is a very well-known dirtbag bigot. […] Gosar has founded the America First Caucus—which is exactly the kind of racist and xenophobic drivel you might imagine it to be. And as terrible as Marjorie Taylor Greene is, Paul Gosar has a very special talent for alienating everyone who has ever been close to him. The entirety of his family has actively campaigned against him for years because of how generally awful he is.
[…] the right wing of the country has moved to not only obstruct any investigations into the events leading up to and during the Jan. 6 Capitol building insurrection; they are openly lying about what happened in the hopes of whitewashing the history of what was an attempted coup. Gosar has been one of the loudest, most hateful voices in this Orwellian caucus. […]
On Wednesday, Paul Gosar’s sister Jennifer went on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show to talk about her estranged brother and his recent casting of the FBI as the true culprits of insurrection, and domestic terrorist Ashli Babbitt as some kind of American hero fighting against … democracy? It was worth the watch.
[…] In April, three of Gosar’s siblings appeared in a video produced by the Trump Accountability Project, calling for Gosar to be held accountable for his part in the insurrection. On Wednesday, brought on and asked by Cooper whether or not Jennifer Gosar thought her brother was guilty of being “partly responsible for the January insurrection,” she replied rather definitively: “Absolutely.”
[…] She also told Cooper after watching the January events unfold live on television, like everyone else did that day, and watching footage in the days following the Jan. 6 insurrection, she is even more disappointed in not only her brother but the entire Republican Party and the institutions that support their lies about this very recent history. “[…] our congressmen are actively trying to erase what is a very documented insurrection—and to know my brother is part of that is not surprising to me, Anderson.”
But Jennifer Gosar isn’t simply blaming her tragically hate-filled brother, she pointed out that the people who fund his campaign should also be held accountable “for not speaking up, not putting on pressure, and to actually investigate what was a criminal act.” She explains that she does believe Paul Gosar was one of the organizers of the events that took place on that sad January day.
Cooper asks the human question: Does Jennifer think Paul actually believes any of the madness he spews or is he just cynically saying what he believes will work up his base?
JENNIFER GOSAR: That’s a rich question, honestly, because I mean, the convenience with which Paul finds stories to fuel his anger, his hate, and his bigotry. Does he believe it all? I think he, probably, doesn’t. But it’s so convenient, and he keeps telling himself that, that he’s able to find the anger, and fuel his rhetoric.
[…] “If this erasure isn’t, you know, successful, then they have to answer to the American public. And the congress—the congress, writ large—has to actually take, make those members that were involved accountable. And all of the organizers and instigators of that insurrection.” And therein lies the rub. Cooper points out how cynical the statements from Republicans like Gosar downplaying the events of that day as a “tourist visit” are and how they sound, to most people, delusional.
Jennifer Gosar sums it up better, calling these kinds of statements “despicable,” but also pointing out that there is more here than simply the words. “Does despicable really capture it? Those are the best words I can think of but to be honest with you, I think it goes to the point of criminal—and that’s why I think the effort is so intense. Because if they are not able to erase—and really gloss over—and if people like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer allow this to continue, if there is not a stronger effort to hold them accountable, like Representative Pramila Jayapal did—asking for an ethics investigation. If efforts like that aren’t taken, if measures aren’t taken, then this campaign will be successful. And these criminal acts will not be held accountable. I think it’s paramount to maintaining the stability of our democracy and I don’t think I have to convince you about that, Anderson, I think it’s something you are well aware of.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on Thursday signed a bill into law that will increase the punishment for protest-related crimes and strengthen legal protections for law enforcement.
The new law, known as the “Back the Blue” bill, will make rioting a felony in Iowa as opposed to a misdemeanor. It will also increase legal penalties for blocking streets or highways, a local CBS affiliate reported. […]
Critics of the new law, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, have said it will serve as a deterrent for people who want to protest legally.
“This law is clearly an effort to shut down well-founded public criticism of abuses by law enforcement and government, especially from Black Lives Matter activists,” the ACLU wrote in a tweet on Thursday. […]
Sidney Powell and other attorneys who defended […] Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election have been summoned for a sanctions hearing in a Michigan federal court.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker ordered the attorneys to appear at a hearing on July 6, according to court documents.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel first asked the court to sanction Powell in late January over a lawsuit challenging the 2020 presidential election results in the state.
The suit, King v. Whitmer, which was filed in November, alleged that President Biden’s victory in the state was the result of fraud. The plaintiffs asked the state’s electors to be disqualified in favor of declaring Trump the winner of the election.
Parker sided with the state about a month later, writing in an opinion that the relief being sought “would disenfranchise the votes of the more than 5.5 million Michigan citizens who, with dignity, hope, and a promise of a voice, participated in the 2020 General Election.”
Nessel also asked the court to sanction Greg Rohl, Scott Hagerstrom and Stefanie Junttila.
Nessel later filed court documents in April to bring forward claims Powell made in a $1.3 billion lawsuit brought against her by voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems.
The attorney general said in a statement at the time that Powell admitted that no reasonable person would have concluded her statements were fact.
“As lawyers, fidelity to the law is paramount,” Nessel said at the time. “These individuals worked to further conspiracy theories in an effort to erode public trust in government and dismantle our systems of democracy. Their actions are inexcusable.”
When Michigan certified its 2020 presidential election results, Biden led by more than 150,000 votes.
Prior to Nessel’s actions, the city of Detroit asked the court to sanction Powell over her election claims.
The thing about suing someone for defaming you by implying that you hired undocumented farm workers is that there’s a high probability that you’re going to have prove under oath that you didn’t actually hire undocumented farm workers. This should have occurred to Devin Nunes’s family before they sued reporter Ryan Lizza and Hearst Media demanding $77 million for defamation over a 2018 Esquire article describing Lizza’s adventures in Sibley, Iowa, where he was tailed all over town by the California representative’s family, including the congressman’s brother Anthony Nunes III, who told Lizza, “I’m taking your license plate down and reporting you to the sheriff,” adding later, “If I see you again, I’m gonna get upset.”
But the discovery process appears to have come as a shock to the family, and also to their razzledazzle libelslander lawyer Steven Biss […]
Since early spring, the media defendants have been trying to depose employees at NuStar Farms, the Nunes family dairy, to determine their immigration status. After first accepting the subpoena on the employees’ behalf, Biss remembered that he didn’t represent them after all. Oooopsie!
Then, on May 12, the parties convened a deposition to question the employees and examine their employment documents, at which point all hell broke loose — although the details of this litigation inferno were obscured in this heavily redacted motion to compel the plaintiffs to cut the shit and let the defense depose the farm workers.
I wrote about it at Above the Law in May:
In an apparent attempt to bollix up depositions of NuStar employees, Biss first asserted that it was illegal to depose them, then claimed to represent the witnesses as employees of the dairy and agreed to accept service of process. At the deposition itself, he decided he did not represent them after all, but then disrupted the proceeding in some fashion so shocking that it is being blacked out of the court filing.
The employees’ testimony as to why they showed up for the deposition without the subpoenaed documents is redacted, but it immediately precedes a section captioned “The Court Should Direct Plaintiffs’ Counsel to Abide by Federal and Ethics Rules.”
It appears that something outrageous or possibly outright criminal happened at that deposition, justifying imposition of an extreme remedy by the court.
Biss responded in typical Biss fashion, filing a motion accusing the defense counsel of harassing NuStar employees and seeking to harm the Nunes family business. He also insists that he never claimed to represent those employees, despite his agreement in a May 6 email to accept subpoenas on their behalf. In this same email, he also wrote to defense counsel, “Finally, your ex-Marshall continue to sniff around Sibley. Please remind them that we are watching everything.” So perfesh, bro!
Yesterday, US Magistrate Judge Mark Roberts gave us some visibility on what went down at that crazy deposition. Apparently, Biss never told the witnesses about the subpoena he’d signed for, so they showed up without the documents. Which is … well, let’s just say it’s not a plus on your legal resumé.
NuStar did get separate counsel for the employees, and that lawyer, Justin Allen, advised his client to take the Fifth as soon as the defense started asking pointed questions about his immigration status. At which point, Biss practically leapt across the table and demanded to “go off the record for just a minute.”
In fact, the deposition was delayed for much more than just a minute. More than two hours later, the deposition resumed. When Defendants’ counsel attempted to make record, Mr. Biss interrupted him several times insisting that Mr. Allen would make a statement and the deposition would be rescheduled.
Once Mr. Biss got his way, Mr. Allen stated, [“]I am not going to allow [dairy worker F.S.D.] to answer that question because when we left it I advised him to invoke his Fifth Amendment right. We took a break. We went off the record, and we’ve had several conversations with lots of people and I’ve talked to [F.S.D.], and as of now I am no longer representing him. I am not his lawyer.[“]
So Biss threw a fit when the witness’s lawyer did his job and told his client to shut the hell up about his immigration status, hauled them both off into the other room, and somehow the witness has no lawyer now?
Judge Roberts described it thusly:
Here, the problem is at least the appearance of an attorney pressuring a witness not to assert a privilege and effectively canceling the deposition to obtain that result. I make no finding based on this record that such pressure did, in fact, occur. Nevertheless, the record lends itself to the appearance that [F.S.D.] may have been subject to pressure not to independently assert his rights.
Ya think? […]
But wait, there’s more!
The depositions were then halted. At the hearing, Mr. Biss stated that a new lawyer had been retained to represent the employee witnesses at their depositions, but he could only identify the new attorney by her first name, Jennifer. Mr. Biss was ordered to provide her name to opposing counsel and the Court. To date, I have not received that information.
Oh, Counselor Jennifer. She’s super highly rated […]
In yesterday’s order, Judge Roberts declined to appoint counsel for the witnesses, although he left the possibility open if it appears that the plaintiff is putting inappropriate pressure on “Jennifer” to stop her client from answering questions. He also declined to accede to Biss’s request that “Jennifer” be barred from communicating with the defense team, lest she be bullied and intimidated by those big city lawyers.
But is the Nunes family any closer to that pot of gold at the end of the litigation rainbow? Only “Jennifer” knows […]
The extreme and unforgiving heat wave in the West, which has set hundreds of records since Sunday, made history again on Thursday as temperatures surged to their highest levels yet. It is poised to maintain its grip on the sizzling Southwest through Saturday before slowly subsiding.
The heat wave, like most, is the result of a sprawling zone of high pressure popularly known as a heat dome. Common in summer, heat domes are often found over the Four Corners region of the Southwest United States, where intense heating occurs over deserts.
However, the heat dome wreaking havoc across the western United States this week is striking for its incredible strength, geographic scope and persistence. Evidence suggests human-caused climate change is making these heat domes more intense over time.
[…] Hot air masses expand vertically into the atmosphere, creating a dome of high pressure that diverts weather systems around them. One way to gauge the magnitude of a heat wave is to measure the height of the typical halfway point of the atmosphere — at the 500 millibar pressure level. For this pressure level to stretch to heights of 600 dekameters, or 19,685 feet, is quite rare, but that marker was forecast for this week, and it was indeed reached in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Tuesday.
Alex Tardy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, noted in an email that what is unusual about this particular heat dome is its strength and size, and the fact that it is only mid-June. A weather balloon in San Diego measured a record temperature of 89.2 degrees in the lower atmosphere on Thursday, which Tardy called a “very significant” reading for this location and time of year. That is translating into scorching temperatures for inland areas and deserts. [image showing how it works is available at the link]
As a high-pressure system becomes firmly established, subsiding air beneath it heats the atmosphere and dissipates cloud cover. The high summer sun angle combined with those cloudless skies then in turn further heats the surface.
[…] the vicious feedback loop doesn’t end there: the combination of heat and drought is working to send this heat wave into truly extreme territory. With very little moisture in soils right now, heat energy that would normally be used on evaporation — a cooling process — is instead directly heating the air and ground surface.
[…] avoiding heat-related disasters also depends on the resilience of the electrical grid, which can fail if electricity demand due to air conditioning use exceeds supply. As a result, there is the double risk of infrastructure failure and health impacts from temperature extremes, as occurred during the Texas freeze of February. […]
[…] The gendarmes appear to be closing ranks around the Florida man best known for his Trumpy veneration and humpy venery. Circumstances have become so fraught for Gaetz that reports now suggest he may be charged in connection with his alleged crimes as early as July. […]
ABC News:
Since federal prosecutors obtained the cooperation of GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz’s once close-ally in May, sources tell ABC News the ongoing investigation, which includes sex trafficking allegations involving Gaetz, has engulfed the tight-knit Central Florida political scene as prosecutors continue their investigation of the Florida congressman.
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who reached a plea deal last month, has been assisting federal agents in the sprawling probe that has recently revved up its focus on alleged corruption and fraud stemming from Greenberg’s time in office and beyond […]
Oooh, that doesn’t sound good.
But here’s the kicker:
Sources told ABC News that prosecutors believe a decision about whether or not to bring charges against Gaetz could come as early as July. Sources said the probe into the congressman has ramped up in recent weeks. Investigators have started interviewing more women who were allegedly introduced to Gaetz through Greenberg, who last month pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl — who later went on to work in pornography — and introducing her to other “adult men.”
[…] The ABC story as a whole is a deep dive into the seamy underbelly of Florida’s frat-boy political scene. Greenberg is apparently a real piece of work, and Gaetz appears to have been marching in lockstep with his BFF. It’s so bad, Gaetz thought touring the country with Marjorie Taylor Greene would be the distraction he needs to throw the media off his scent. Not sure why he’s doing that, unless he thinks faking mental illness will somehow get him a lighter sentence.
Of course, there’s no guarantee Gaetz is going inside. I’ve seen plenty of scurrilous white men skate by on their privilege. But it sure doesn’t look good for him these days. And that’s reason enough to be encouraged. […]
More from the seamy underbelly of the Trump administration … and this story is very appropriate for today, Juneteenth.
[…] The frustration and anguish that had accrued among Black Americans after decades of debasing systemic racism had been emphatically—finally—cracked open by the death of George Floyd, who’d been murdered by police a few weeks earlier. As protesters poured into the streets of the nation’s capital and major municipalities, Trump privately told advisers that he wished he’d been quicker to support police and more aggressive in his pushback against protesters.
Trump had staked nearly his entire campaign in 2016 around a law-and-order image, and now groaned that the criminal justice reform that Kushner had persuaded him to support made him look weak and—even worse—hadn’t earned him any goodwill among Black voters.
“I’ve done all this stuff for the Blacks—it’s always Jared telling me to do this,” Trump said to one confidante on Father’s Day. “And they all f—— hate me, and none of them are going to vote for me.”
The weekend after Father’s Day, Trump canceled a trip to Bedminster at the last minute—after Kushner had already left for the New Jersey golf club—and instead scheduled a round of political meetings at the White House without him.
[…] The story of this month, from the murder of Floyd to Trump’s assertion that his outreach to Black voters wasn’t working, is one of missed opportunities and bungled messaging, even in the eyes of some of Trump’s closest advisers, who described their firsthand accounts with me during the past year. Many of the sources spoke to me on the condition of deep background, an agreement that meant I could share their stories without direct attribution.
Trump had long struggled with addressing the nation’s racial issues, and his senior staff hadn’t included a single Black staffer since he’d fired Omarosa Manigault Newman—a former contestant on his reality television show—at the end of 2017. In August 2018, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway had been asked on NBC’s Meet the Press to name the top Black official in the Trump White House and could only come up with his first name: Ja’Ron.
But Ja’Ron Smith was two pay grades below the top ranks. After Conway’s interview, Smith asked for a promotion to formalize his role as the West Wing’s senior-most Black official and close the $50,000 salary gap. Kushner agreed but then put him off for the next two years.
Still, Smith remained in the White House, where he continued to work on Kushner’s criminal justice issues and played a crucial role in outreach to Black community leaders. In June 2020, Smith was writing a proposal for Trump to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. But the outcry over Trump’s rally on the day that commemorated the end of slavery convinced Smith to shelve the plan.
Trump hadn’t thought to ask his seniormost Black official about holding a rally on Juneteenth. [snipped details of Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” comments after a Nazi-like march, and after a woman was killed in Charlottesville by a white supremacist.]
[…] Ironically, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trump’s team had started picking up positive signals from some Black leaders that they interpreted as potential softening on the incumbent president. The reduction in sentences for crack cocaine offenses, which had disproportionately and unfairly targeted Black offenders, reduced prison time by an average of six years for more than 2,000 prisoners. Of those, 91 percent were Black. Trump’s tax-cut bill included specific incentives for investments in poverty-stricken areas, known as opportunity zones. And those incentives were starting to work, according to a study from the Urban Institute. The administration had also made some inroads with historically Black colleges and universities when it canceled repayment of more than $300 million in federal relief loans and made permanent more than $250 million in annual funding.
[…] The morning after Memorial Day, senior White House staff gathered inside the West Wing for a prescheduled meeting about coronavirus. The death toll was approaching 100,000 in the United States, and the administration was scrambling to address a shortage of remdesivir, the antiviral used to treat Covid.
“We’re getting crushed on Covid,” said Alyssa Farah, the communications director.
Kushner, who seemed distracted and more aloof than usual in the meeting, interrupted her.
“I’m just going to stop you,” he said. “There is going to be one story that dominates absolutely everything for the foreseeable future. I’m already hearing from African American leaders about the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.”
Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, brushed it off.“Nobody is going to care about that,” Meadows told him, according to officials in the room. […]
It took another day for Trump to watch the devastating video of Floyd’s murder aboard Air Force One, where he was returning to Washington from Florida. Trump sat in the president’s suite near the front of the plane. As Trump pressed “play” on the video, he was surrounded by Kushner, social media director and deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and his media team. Trump contorted his face as he watched. He looked repulsed, then turned away. He handed the phone back to his aides without finishing.
“This is f—— terrible,” he exclaimed.
[…] Trump’s compassion quickly evaporated that night as he watched demonstrators torch a Minneapolis police station, and the protests spread to New York City; Denver; Phoenix; Columbus, Ohio; and Memphis, Tennessee
[…] Trump had reached out to the Floyd family four days after his death in a call that relatives later criticized as brief and one-sided. Jackson [Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist] told Trump that it would have been disrespectful to then turn up to the memorial service.
[…] In early June, Trump gathered a dozen of his top White House staffers and campaign aides—plus Mike Lindell, the MyPillow company founder and a vocal Trump supporter—to discuss the campaign’s television advertising strategy and a return to the campaign trail.
[…] Tulsa, Oklahoma had landed on Parscale’s list after he asked Pence earlier that week about which state, governed by a Trump-friendly Republican, had the fewest Covid restrictions in the nation. […]
Parscale recommended holding the Tulsa rally on June 19. No one on Parscale’s team flagged that day—or that combination of time and place—as potentially problematic. […] Tulsa, as most Black Americans are well aware, had been home to one of the bloodiest outbreaks of racial violence in the nation’s history.
[…] The following week, on the afternoon of June 17, my phone vibrated with a call from the White House. It was a few days before Trump’s Tulsa rally, and the president wanted to see me.
In our interview, one year ago this week, Trump tried to put a spin on the controversy. He told me that he had made Juneteenth a day to remember.
“Nobody had heard of it,” Trump told me.
He was surprised to find out that his administration had put out statements in each of his first three years in office commemorating Juneteenth.
“Oh really?” he said. “We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?”
Each statement, put out in his name, included a description of the holiday.
But such details were irrelevant to him. Instead, he insisted, “I did something good.”
“I made Juneteenth very famous,” he said.
[…] “So we begin, Oklahoma,” the president would tell them. “We begin. We begin our campaign.”
But the truth was the campaign had begun long ago. What was actually beginning now, for Trump, was the end.
President Joe Biden marked a milestone on Friday of 300 million vaccine doses administered in the U.S. under his administration.
But he also issued a warning, saying that Covid cases will rise in some areas with lower vaccination rates and that the highly contagious Delta variant will make unvaccinated people even more susceptible to the virus.
[…] Biden warned that with the Delta variant, people could be more likely to die from the virus in areas with lower levels of vaccination. Biden said he didn’t expect the variant to force another lockdown, but said that some places “will be very hurt” by it.
So far, vaccinations have proven effective against the variant, which is spreading overseas and becoming more common at home. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the Delta variant made up nearly 10 percent of U.S. cases this month, compared to 2.7 percent of all cases in May.
Walensky said Friday on “Good Morning America” that the likely more harmful Delta variant will “probably” become the dominant strain in the U.S. in the coming months. Data has shown the variant, which first appeared in India, to be 40 to 80 percent more transmissible and about twice as likely to cause hospitalization as the Alpha variant.
[…] With vaccination rates rising, Covid cases have plummeted around the country, dropping from a seven-day national average of 67,673 cases daily as of April 18 to 11,717 as of Wednesday, according to CDC data.
[…] Biden had set a goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of U.S. adults with at least one dose by July 4, though the U.S. is not expected to reach that goal. Earlier this month, Biden launched a “month of action” to reach that goal, but vaccinations have slowed overall after early high demand for the shots. Governments and companies have offered a host of incentives for vaccination, from free beer to baseball tickets to lotteries.
On Independence Day, Biden is set to proclaim “a summer of freedom” from the virus that has killed more than 600,000 Americans. Biden plans to host more than 1,000 guests for a cookout on the White House’s South Lawn on July 4, with invitees including members of the military, first responders and essential workers.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) criticized the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Friday for advancing a formal statement indicating President Biden should be denied communion, calling the group “hypocrites” over the vote.
The conference voted to proceed with drafting a teaching document on the Holy Eucharist outlining the meaning of communion. The statement will include whether Biden and other politicians should be denied communion based on their abortion stance.
Lieu, a Catholic, criticized the conference on Twitter for being “nakedly partisan” in the vote.He noted that the bishops did not take a similar action against former Attorney General William Barr due to his stance on the death penalty, which the Catholic Church also opposes.
“Dear @USCCB: I’m Catholic and you are hypocrites. You did not tell Bill Barr, a Catholic, not to take communion when he expanded killing human beings with the death penalty,” Lieu said.
“You are being nakedly partisan and you should be ashamed. Another reason you are losing membership,” he continued.
[…] On Monday, Pope Francis warned that communion should not be used as a political weapon by Catholic bishops.
Biden is the second Catholic president in U.S. history after former President Kennedy, and is open about his devotion to his faith.
“That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Biden told reporters when asked about the debate within the Catholic Church on Friday.
States around the country are attempting to make it harder for needy families to access federal food-assistance programs.
Republican lawmakers in Ohio, Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana and others have proposed more restrictive policies to qualify for food assistance, cutting off benefits to those who have saved a little money or who drive a halfway decent car, or adding paperwork requirements to document tiny changes in income and efforts to find work.
The moves come even as more than 20 million adults reported their households sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the week ending June 7, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Federal food assistance for low-income Americans was expanded during the pandemic, with broad bipartisan support for removing barriers to programs such as SNAP (food stamps), WIC (for mothers and young children) and the benefit-card program that took the place of free and reduced-price school meals when schools were not in session.
[…] Republicans in Congress and in these states point to a steadily improving economy and the $5 trillion in federal stimulus that has already been spent supporting families and companies during the crisis.
[…] “We’ve heard it from both Powell and [Treasury Secretary Janet L.] Yellen, that in order to have a robust and equitable recovery there will be a need for a continued fiscal stimulus, and one piece of that is to have additional SNAP benefits,” Vollinger said. She says that beyond worsening food insecurity, states like Ohio will deprive themselves of a “countercyclical tool” to help boost their economies. According to a USDA study, benefits to the local economy extend beyond the initial money provided to recipients.
[…] The law also now requires new reviews of assets, meaning those with as much as $2,250 in checking or savings accounts or those who own cars worth more than $4,650 could lose benefits. [JFC!]
[…] excluding low-income Americans with cars valued at over $5,000 is wrongheaded, because cars are essential tools for re-employment and upward mobility. […]
Tucker Carlson has become a relentless promoter of his twisted version of the white nationalist “replacement theory” of immigration—namely, that Democrats are deliberately opening the national gates to a floodtide of brown immigrants whose primary purpose is to displace and dispossess Republican white voters. With the nodding approval of Fox News executives, Carlson has been repeating the theory, doubling down and characterizing immigration itself as “the most radical possible attack on the core premise of democracy.”
If you pay close attention to these rants, a pattern emerges: Carlson bloviates a lot of important-sounding words, but he almost never actually illustrates his claims with any evidence supporting them. When he actually does so, a little careful examination reveals the evidence actually to be not just ephemera, but classic right-wing up-is-down inversion of reality on its head, revealing his argument for the bad-faith charade in which he specializes. Case in point: Carlson’s tale of immigration in the Mountain West states.
This was Carlson unleashing (or rather, reviving) his running claim that immigration itself is an attack on democracy:
So this matters on a bunch of levels, but on the most basic level, it’s a voting-rights question. In a democracy, one person equals one vote. If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there. So every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter.
Everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it. Oh, White replacement! No. This is a voting rights question. I have less political power because they’re importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that?
What Carlson is spouting is “replacement theory,” a strain of right-wing thought predicated on the “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory claiming that white people are being selectively “replaced” by immigrant of color, a gradual “invasion” intended to wipe out white civilization orchestrated by a cabal of nefarious “globalists” and Jews. It’s a subset of a larger white nationalist belief in “white genocide,” a supposed conspiracy by people of color, leftists, and Jews to destroy “white Western civilization.”
In mid-April, Carlson finally trotted out an illustration of this argument in action:
Montana, Idaho, Nevada—all face similar problems. The affluent liberals who wrecked California aren’t sticking around to see how that ends. They’re running to the pallid hideaways of Boise and Bozeman, distorting local culture and real-estate markets as they do it. Pretty soon, people who were born in the Mountain West won’t be able to live there. They’ll be, yes, replaced by private equity barons, yoga instructors, and senior vice-presidents from Google. Beautiful places are always in danger of being overrun by the worst people. Ask anyone who grew up in Aspen.
As a fourth-generation Idaho native with family in Montana, I can tell you that this is a complete inversion of the historic demographic reality in those places. It could only be accurate if viewed from a very short-term perspective—and even then, it’s wrong.
Idaho and Montana have only become deep-red Republican states in the past decade or two. Prior to that, they were classic “purple” states, electing a mix of Democrats and Republicans. What changed that was an inmigration of right-wing voters, such as those who took over Kootenai County, Idaho, in the 1990s:
Like many other mass movements, this one spread by word of mouth. In 1990, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported that one Orange County family had convinced “half its neighborhood” to relocate to Coeur d’Alene. A pastor told me that “whole (evangelical) ministries” came north together. By the end of the 1990s, more than 500 California police officers had retired to North Idaho, among them Mark Fuhrman, who committed perjury in the prosecution of O.J. Simpson. […]
[…] “They are trying to turn Idaho into Orange County.” Another resident wrote to the Spokesman-Review, “When I moved there in 1976, Coeur d’Alene was a nice, sleepy town, just getting ready to construct its first McDonald’s.[…]
Montana was well-known for electing noteworthy Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. Idaho elected powerful and influential Democrats like Cecil Andrus and Frank Church. […]
When I was a kid growing up in Idaho, anti-California sentiment was a key part of the cultural landscape, largely because urbanites were perceived as clueless idiots. Bumper stickers and T-shirts reading “Don’t Californicate Idaho” and similar sentiments were common. […] The general fear (though not mine; my prejudice was that they lacked common sense) was that Californians would bring their woolly-headed hippie-style liberalism with them. But the reality turned out to be precisely the opposite.
The first notable example of this was when the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian in southern California, a Christian Identity operation, moved its entire operations to the Idaho Panhandle in the late ‘70s and called itself the Aryan Nations (AN).
[…] An important subtext of these stories was that Idaho was a very white state. The image became a national one.
Idaho’s shift began in earnest in the 1990s when “white flight” from California and elsewhere brought hordes of authoritarian conservatives fleeing the brown people. It transformed the region, including eastern Washington State and Utah. A Washington Post piece explained the political ramifications:
Much the same process can be seen in the Intermountain West, where a once thriving two-party system has given way to almost total domination by conservative Republicans. States like Idaho used to occasionally elect liberal Democrats. But liberals from the state have far worse prospects today. […]
In the past, even right-leaning Utah would back moderate Democrat Scott Matheson. But today’s flood of in-migrants, notes the Wayne Brown Institute’s Bertoch, have tipped the scales distinctly toward the right. Utah’s politics, like that in North Carolina, Idaho and other Valhallan states, reflect more a conservative monoculture than at any time in recent history.
Montana, which was still electing Democrats even recently, was hit with this change in the 2000s. These were primarily people who were leveraging the high values of their properties elsewhere to buy much bigger homes for less in the rural West—which in turn drove property values so high that ordinary Montanans no longer could afford them:
Thus, Montana’s rising housing costs, in part, reflect Montana’s desirability to people whose income is not derived from the state’s economy. […]
So what the natives like myself were seeing was the converse of Carlson’s scenario: affluent conservatives fleeing California because of their own white nationalist attitudes and destroying the political landscape as we knew it. They also helped destroy the local economies, driving up property values so that natives could no longer afford to live there. After Idaho’s unions and its schools and colleges were gutted by Republican politicians, that became even more acute.
[…] And it meant a “brain drain” on the state as educated citizens increasingly fled in droves.
[…] Do some Texans think they’re more real than others? I suppose they might. But then, I’ve heard a lot lately about great swaths of rural Texans, incensed at how Texas isn’t the real Texas anymore, have upped and come to Montana. […]
It’s true that in recent years the demographic inmigration has become less red and more purple, enabling Boise to return to electing Democrats, for instance. But the right-wing white flight is still continuing to this day as well. Idaho is growing at a faster rate than any state except Utah and Nevada, according to the U.S. Census. From 2003 to 2014, nearly 97,000 Californians surrendered their California driver’s licenses and applied for Idaho licenses, according to the Idaho Transportation Department.
[…] “They were white-flight people wanting to get the heck out of where there was diversity. They didn’t like the brown people. […]”
A typical new arrival was this lady who moved to Coeur d’Alene in 2016:
Koch instantly felt at home in small town Idaho. She says there are a lot of like-minded Christians. And as she’s gotten older, to her surprise, she’s become more conservative.
“I’ve always been fearful of guns,” Koch says. “However, I am open now to learning, and the gun stores and gun clubs here in Coeur d’ Alene are very warm and welcoming.”
Koch was also struck by just how many ex-pat Californians are here. They are everywhere: the gun shop owners, the retirees at the golf resorts. They hold seats on school boards and in local government.
As a veteran Democrat from Coeur d’Alene, Mary Lou Reed has a very pointed view of all this:
“We’re very, very white up here,” she says. Kootenai County is 95 percent white according to the most recent census, compared with much of California today, where whites are in the minority.
She insists race plays a factor in some people’s decisions to move up here. “No question the white flight is to flee from a multi-racial situation into one into in which everybody looks the same,” she says. “It’s very dull.”
[…] So what Tucker Carlson is describing for places like Idaho and Montana and Utah is in fact the converse of what has happened to those states. It’s a lie.
The reality is that demographic shifts have happened throughout American history, and being able to ride those shifts politically has always been a challenge for parties, which have to figure out how to please changing constituencies. That’s what Democrats are doing.
Republicans, on the other hand, have clearly become so wedded to their white nationalist politics—the ones that drove demographic change in California, Idaho, Montana, and many other places—that they will not adjust their politics to welcome in new brown faces.
Carlson’s “replacement theory” is about gaslighting the public into believing that liberals are manipulating demographic change rather than simply adapting to its realities—giving Republicans an excuse to cling to a political ethos in its death spiral.
At the intersection of irony and schadenfreude you have the tragicomic tale of Mike Pence—the man who carried Donald Trump’s water for four years before eventually being boiled alive in it like a bemused albino lobster.
Every time his choad and savior came around, Pence flushed his dignity like a kilo of black tar heroin at a pop-up DEA convention. So while Rudy Giuliani’s dildo summit was no doubt the highest low point of Donald Trump’s post-election meltdown, Pence’s meticulously nurtured post-Trump political career being run down on the highway like a frightened deer before being dragged into a ditch and beaten to death with a garden shovel has to be the second funniest.
Because Pence didn’t do something that was literally impossible for him to do—i.e., send the election back to the states, or whatever febrile Adderall hallucination Trump had in his head that day—he’s now persona non grata among a large contingent of Republicans.
Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself: [video available at the link]
Forbes:
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s remarks during the conservative Faith & Freedom conference on Friday were briefly disrupted by hecklers, likely over his refusal to help former President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss.
An unknown number of attendees at the conservative Christian event, populated with steadfast Trump supporters, chanted “traitor” as Pence began his remarks.
Pence ignored the shouts and attempted to speak over them, delivering his signature line to raucous cheers: “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.”
That. Is. Fucking. Hilarious. […]
lumipunasays
Happy independence day to all the people of United States of America.
blfsays
Thank you to everyone for the congratulations on being a walking magnet shedding clouds of microchips. Ironically, the day I was shot, France also announced it was reducing the time between shots (from five-ish weeks to the manufacturer’s recommended three-ish), albeit my second round of microchipping is still scheduled on the older five-ish week schedule. I’ve been waiting a few days for any signs of side-effects (e.g., sore arm, joints on fire, dropping dead), but nothing at all… so now I’ll see if I can reschedule my second shot a bit sooner, now that that is allowed.
The reason France dropped the longer schedule (among other steps) is the Delta variant. In comments a few days ago, the Health(?) Minister noted France is where the UK was about three or four weeks ago, with perhaps only 3% of cases being Delta. However, most cases in the UK are now Delta (Delta variant causes more than 90% of new Covid cases in UK (a week ago)), so France (and the EU-in-general) is alarmed. France, having finally gotten its vaccination programme on-track (albeit still behind the UK), with all(?) the numbers headed in the right direction, doesn’t want a derailment. In fact, it’s looking so good at the moment that, as-of tomorrow, there will not be a curfew — there are still some restrictions (e.g., masks on public transport, lower indoor capacity, proof-of-vaccination for “large” events (indoors and outdoors), and so on), but no lockdown, no requirement for masks outdoors (I admit I’m not wearing one due to the heat (almost no-one is)), and so on.
blfsays
Lynna@466, quotes “Pope Francis warned that communion should not be used as a political weapon by Catholic bishops.” So it’s perhaps worth repeating part of @281’s excerpt, including my added boldfacing:
Michael Budde, professor of Catholic studies and political science at DePaul University in Chicago, said barring Biden from communion “will be rightly seen as a move of desperation, an attempt to coerce what has not been won by persuasion or dialogue”.
Also, as I warned in @281, at least six of the current nine Supreme Court Justices are cult members, so the move is very probably also targeting them. Admittedly, no-one(?) has specifically said so (that I am aware of), but nor has anyone explicitly denied it (that I am aware of).
@lumipuna 470
No microchips. Just dermatographia. That could be stress though the timing is right. The second one knocked me out for a day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatographic_urticaria
Seems to be nocturnal. Hopefully it won’t last long.
Tomorrow is the first round of French elections to “the regions”, so teh le penazis stuffed two more propagandas through my letterbox: One for teh nazis in general, and one for their local candidate fascist. It’s the usual shite, e.g., «…éradiquer l’islamiseme », deny benefits to families of delinquents (read: brown and black people) including making them homeless if they happen to live in subsidised housing (you can guess how common that is), and on and on, including « candidats 100% anti-Macron ! » Both are promptly going into the shredder, so as to avoid contaminating the recycling.
tomhsays
Mass delusion runs rampant.
A new Morning Consult/Politico poll shows that 51 percent of Republican voters believe that audits like the one in Arizona will change the outcome.
Three in four Republican voters (74 percent) said they support state-level efforts to review the 2020 presidential election results, and 51 percent think the reviews will uncover information that will change the election’s outcome. The results follow another survey which found that roughly 3 in 10 Republicans say it’s at least somewhat likely that Trump will be reinstated as president this year…
blf @475, that’s certainly something that le penazis and right-wingers in the USA have in common: they seem to take some kind of perverse delight in denying benefits to brown and black people. (See comment 467.)
Right-wing radio host Eric Metaxas interviewed radical right-wing pastor Greg Locke […], where the two agreed that God is allowing Joe Biden to be president to demonstrate to American Christians just how satanically bad things can get, which they believe will then lead to a massive spiritual revival in the United States.
What is coming out of this is revival, Metaxas said.
I believe it’s coming through the back door of persecution, Locke replied, saying that he recently spoke to a Christian from China who said that Chinese Christians are praying for America to see persecution because that will bring the revival.
[… Spittle dribbling down his chins, Locke sputtered] I think it’s been interesting that the last 15 or 16 months have really been a dress rehearsal because now they know who they can control and who’s going to be a problem moving forward. […] [I presume he then broke into hysterically chanting hair furor! hair furor! putin! putin! and began goosestepping about the room –blf]
For those ready to believe that President Trump really won re-election, there’s one particularly fantastical conspiracy theory to hang your hat on.
It’s called ItalyGate, and it offers a simple, direct, and especially implausible claim: An Italian defense contractor teamed up with the U.S. Embassy in Rome to use satellite transmissions to switch millions of Trump votes to Biden votes, thus stealing the election.
What makes this conspiracy theory especially handy among the many whackadoodle Big Lie claims is that it serves to explain why, as the former president has argued, millions of vote batches came in in the middle of the night as overwhelmingly for Biden: they were the product of a “data switch” by Italian operatives with access to advanced satellite technology.
As it turns out, the ItalyGate conspiracy theory wasn’t merely floating in the MAGA ether […] Revelations this week and additional reporting by TPM offer new insights into how ItalyGate sprang into existence and made it all the way to inner sanctums of the Justice Department, the White House, and perhaps to Trump himself.
[…] TPM was able to identify several people and companies that played key roles in promoting the theory.
Among them is a Florida non-profit called Nations in Action, on whose board conservative lawyer and noted voter fraud alarmist Hans von Spakovsky served. […] Two companies controlled by a Virginia realtor and onetime Somali hostage negotiator named Michele Ballarin also played key roles in promoting the theory.
It remains unclear how the theory went from Ballarin and Nations in Action to the White House, though the Nations in Action chief said in an emailed statement to TPM that she told Trump about the allegations at Mar-a-Lago on Christmas Eve. Emails released by Congress this week show then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushing senior DOJ officials to investigate the theory, sending along a YouTube video that elaborated on it as well as an Italian-language letter with a translated copy purporting to back up the allegations.
[…] ItalyGate blew up online in December 2020, weeks after Biden had been declared the winner but as Trump was continuing to contest the results.[…] By early January, a former Air Force lieutenant general-turned-Fox News analyst-turned-Trump campaign adviser was repeating the allegations.
[…] on Dec. 30 Meadows sent an email to top DOJ officials urging them to look into the ItalyGate allegations. They scoffed among themselves at the suggestion. “Can you believe this?” then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen emailed another top DOJ official, forwarding a long email thread of similar Meadows’ mischief.
[…] one of the earliest examples of them spreading […] was in a December 2020 recording of a Florida woman named Maria Zack.
Zack runs Nations in Action, a non-profit that describes itself as devoted to addressing “the collapse of the civil society with families struggling to maintain faith, values and virtues.” A longtime conservative election law firm, Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, incorporated the company. […] Nations in Action became one of ItalyGate’s main proponents.
[…] Zack said that on Christmas Eve she gave Trump a note about an affidavit that supposedly supported the allegations.
Zack denied giving the affidavit itself to Meadows or Trump, but did claim to an interviewer that she told the then-president: “‘This is gonna be the best Christmas you’ve ever had, and the best Christmas gift, because the whistleblower who switched the data for the vote counts across America is going to be providing an affidavit.’”
[…] On Jan. 6, the day of the Capitol attack, Zack traveled to Washington, D.C. to give Congress the affidavit in time to avert Biden’s certification as winner of the Electoral College vote. The group issued a press release saying that it had enough proof “for each state to recall their slate of electors immediately.”
Oh, FFS.
[…] “It is a revolutionary moment,” Zack said in an interview shot from the backseat of a car in D.C. on Jan. 6. It’s not clear how far Zack was from the Capitol during the interview, though it was broadcast live between 4 and 5 p.m., when the building was still occupied. At one point, she refers to the question of “if they regain control of the Capitol.”
[…] “And I believe you’re gonna see — and we are seeing right here in downtown D.C. what’s happening when Americans are awake,” she added.
What was von Spakovsky up to?
A leading architect of the voting restrictions Republicans have pushed around the country over the past 15 years, von Spakovsky served in the George W. Bush DOJ and on the Federal Election Commission in the mid-2000s.
[…] Nations in Action told TPM that von Spakovsky had served on its board since the group’s 2017 inception.
Von Spakovsky told TPM in an email exchange that he had resigned from the group on Jan. 8, two days after the insurrection attempt that cost five lives. “I resigned from the board many months ago and have had nothing to with the organisation or its allegations,” he wrote.
[…] von Spakovsky was apparently on the board of the group as Zack spent December and early January propagating the idea that Italian operatives used satellites to steal the election […]
Von Spakovsky’s presence on Nations in Action’s board appears to have bridged mainstream GOP voter suppression efforts with wild pre-insurrection allegations […]
[…] both Nations in Action’s activism and the letter that Meadows forwarded to Acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen offer a possible clue that leads down another rabbit hole, to a Virginia realtor with a background that’s about as fantastic as the ItalyGate theory itself.
In a Jan. 6 press release calling for Congress to reject the states’ electors, Nations in Action thanked another group called the Institute for Good Governance for partnering on its investigation, which “yielded the long-awaited proof that a flawless plot to take down America was executed with extraordinary resources and global involvement.”
[…] the Institute for Good Governance is registered to a woman named Michele Roosevelt Edwards, who runs another firm called USAerospace Partners that purchased some of the assets of an Icelandic airline in 2019.
It gets stranger.
The letter that Meadows forwarded to Rosen was written by a man named Carlo Goria, who claimed to be an employee of, yes, USAerospace Partners. The letter was written on what appears to be company letterhead […] Someone at a number listed for Goria picked up the phone but hung up after a TPM reporter identified himself, and refused to take further calls.
There was more on Edwards Roosevelt, however. The USAerospace chair also goes by other names: Michele Ballarin, Michele Golden, and Amira Ballarin.
Not suspicious at all. Not one bit suspicious.
[…] She ran for Congress in 1986 in her native West Virginia under the name Michele Golden on the GOP ticket. […]
In a brief phone interview this week, she denied any knowledge of the document that Meadows had forwarded, telling TPM that USAerospace Partners was an American company. When pressed on why a company employee appeared to have written the letter on official letterhead, Ballarin hung up. She did not return emails and calls to multiple addresses, or messages left with her companies.
Zack told TPM in a statement that “we know Michele, we collaborate with her on different projects, but we don’t disclose how we came into possession of evidence or information.”
Ballarin made headlines in 2008 for inserting herself into negotiations with Somali pirates who, at the time, were holding various ships and their crews as hostage. Ballarin’s work incensed the Ukrainian government at one point, according to a 2009 Wikileaks cable, after she became involved in negotiating the release of a ship full of Soviet-made tanks that was being held hostage.
Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Ballarin in a cable to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “becom[ing] an intermediary of the sea corsairs” and of “incit[ing] the pirates to the groundless increase of the ransom sum.”
More recently, Ballarin has begun to work on potential airline acquisitions. WOW, the Icelandic airline that USAerospace purchased, has now ceased operations. […]
It remains unclear how, why, and to what extent Ballarin’s companies got involved in the ItalyGate theory, or whether her business involvement in Italy is at all related to the creation of the theory. […]
Oh yeah, it’s all on the up and up. No problem. Totally believable.
Too bad really that the delusions were not limited to Trump and Mark Meadows.
blfsays
@480, I wonder if I can get the Mediterranean seaside village where I live involved in this new and even more implausible italian job?… hum, ah, yeah, howzibout: The bamboo ballots waiting to be downloaded to States-side election servers were stored in France, disguised as giant wheels of cheese, a known specialty of both the area and the nefarious election-stealers. There, they would go undetected. They choose a village where superyachts are parked over the winter, so to be able to quickly move the ballots to the transmission stations, and also for escape in case Danger Mouse showed up. (The underwater volcano base was full of spiders.)
ravensays
More right wingnut terrorism.
Driver Runs Down Two People at Florida Pride Parade
DEVELOPING Daily Beast June 19
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, who was at the event, called it a “terrorist attack against the LGBT community.”
I was walking with Congressman Ted Deutch, and the parade had just begun, and we saw people lining up, ready to move, and all the sudden this white pickup truck dashed right through the crowd, barely missing Congresswoman [Debbie] Wasserman-Schultz’ car, by inches, and just … smashed through a gate, smashed into a landscaping company, and he hit two people,” Trantalis told WPLG.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was shown in footage from the scene crying
This appears to be deliberate. He almost hit a Democratic Congressperson.
In August 2014, Kimberly Guilfoyle — a Fox News personality at the time — went so far as to say she wanted to see Putin serve as “head of the United States,” at least for a little while.
Wow.
Lynna @ #468, that’s super interesting.
Incidentally, Carlson is from San Francisco, grew up in La Jolla, went to boarding schools in Switzerland and Rhode Island and college in Connecticut, has worked the vast majority of his adult life in rightwing-billionaire-funded coastal media, and lives in DC.
SC @483, “Lynna @ #468, that’s super interesting.” Yep, It’s sort of like self-segregation, with all the white supremacist’s moving to Idaho. (And some to parts of Oregon, Utah, Montana, etc.) I’ve heard people in Idaho say that Californians are fleeing the big cities, which may be true for a few in-migration folks who want more wilderness and mountains around them, (with fewer people), but the writer in 483 is right that some are fleeing black and brown people. They move to a place that is more than 90% white. And then they cut education funds, social safety nets, etc. It’s bad.
In Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) recent memo, where he stakes out his policy positions on voting rights legislation, his alterations to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act were overshadowed by the pages of notes on S.1, the For the People Act.
[…] his proposed changes to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — which he favors over S.1 — would gut the bill, significantly watering down its ability to achieve its primary goal: to identify areas of the country with histories of racially discriminatory voting practices and force them to obtain Justice Department or a federal court’s approval before changing their voting practices. […]
Those potential harms have been lost in the discussion, partly because S.1 is more politically topical: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to bring the bill to the floor next week, and until the memo dropped, it seemed certain that Manchin wouldn’t support it. The memo nudged open a door to compromise, which optimistic Democrats hope is the first step to pushing Manchin to support the filibuster reform necessary to actually pass the bill.
Manchin only wrote about a half page of bullet points on the John Lewis Act, the legislation meant to restore a critical part of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court killed in 2013. Manchin has expressed previously that he supports the John Lewis Act in lieu of S.1, though the two bills do drastically different things.
The Voting Rights Act once included a formula that determined which states and localities had histories of discrimination in voting, and accordingly had to obtain permission — “preclearance” — from the federal government before changing their voting laws and practices. The Supreme Court majority declared that formula unconstitutional, saying it was based on supposedly outdated data that didn’t take into account the strides America has made towards racial equality. The ruling left in place the section requiring states and localities to obtain the preclearance, but until Congress passes a new formula to identify those areas, it’s toothless.
The John Lewis Act, among other things, proposes that new formula. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said that the legislation won’t be ready until the fall — various committees are collecting data and plan to hold hearings, establishing a record to bulwark the bill’s constitutionality as much as possible, as the legislation, if passed, would inevitably be challenged in court.
But Manchin’s changes […]would defang many of the tools the bill provides to identify discriminatory voting practices and force those localities to obtain preclearance. […]
One of those proposed changes would decrease the attorney general’s ability to deem a voting practice discriminatory without a judicial finding.
“Part of the genius of preclearance is that you don’t need judicial finding, the laborious process of going through the courts to determine if something is discriminatory,” Bill Yeomans, a lecturer at Columbia law school who previously worked in the civil rights division the Justice Department, told TPM. “That’s a killer, it just undermines the whole process.”
[…] Manchin wrote that he wanted to take consent decrees off the table, to prevent the risk of “savvy lawyers” going into cash-strapped localities that don’t have the money to fight off lawsuits and forcing them into a consent decree, thereby admitting their violation of the VRA and being bound by preclearance.
[…] In another passage, Manchin calls for vague “objective measures” for determining whether an area has a history of discriminatory practices.
In voting rights, the devil is in the details — details that Manchin hasn’t appeared to have grappled with for most of his time in Congress.
“He doesn’t have a background in racial justice from a voting rights place,” Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law, told TPM. “He’s not a senator who, until now, invested a lot of time in these issues.”
But still, even experts sharply critical of his proposed changes express the same sentiment: relief that he’s at least engaging with the content of the legislation.
“He’s finally being goaded into putting out some policies, and I take that as real progress,” Yeomans said. “In the past, his fallback was that unless it’s bipartisan, he’s not gonna touch it — we were completely stymied before this.”
Late last December, as […] Trump pressed senior officials to find proof of election fraud, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emailed acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen a letter detailing an outlandish theory of how an Italian defense contractor had conspired with U.S. intelligence to rig the 2020 presidential contest.
The letter, which was among records released by Congress this past week, was printed under the letterhead of USAerospace Partners, a little-known Virginia aviation company. In early January, a second Virginia firm, the Institute for Good Governance, and a partner organization released a statement from an Italian attorney who claimed that a hacker had admitted involvement in the supposed conspiracy. [Nicola Naponiello, an attorney for the alleged hacker, told The Post that this was false and that neither he nor his client had ever heard of D’Urso.]
According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election.
Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region. [Ukraine’s foreign minister had complained to U.S. officials that Edwards was hindering efforts to negotiate with Somali pirates who had captured a ship and its crew. One retired naval intelligence officer who partnered with Edwards during the 2008 to 2010 period was quoted in The Post story as saying: “The problem with Michele is separating fact from fiction. What is real, and what is made up?”]
Edwards was formerly known as Michele Ballarin but changed her name last year, court records show. In 2013, The Post’s magazine explored how Edwards, once a struggling single mom, had reinvented herself as a business executive and then as a well-connected horse-country socialite who cultivated ties with senior Somali officials.
The Institute for Good Governance’s registered headquarters since late last year has been the historical North Wales Farm, a 22-bedroom mansion in Warrenton, Va., state records show. The property is listed for sale at just under $30 million.
On the day after the 2020 election, Edwards sat for an interview at North Wales with a television crew from Iceland, where she has business interests. Edwards told the crew that the estate was her property, according to their footage.
“This is my bedroom,” she said, showing the crew around. “This is very private space.”
She was pressed on the lack of personal items in the house.
“So this is where you live?” she was asked.
“Yes.”
“This is your property?”
“Yes.”
When the interviewer noted that website listings showed the property for sale, Edwards said it was a “recent acquisition for us.” She said it was not for sale.
But North Wales was then — and is now — owned by a company formed by David B. Ford, a retired financier who died in September. Ford’s widow said in an interview that she did not know Edwards. The Post showed her the footage of Edwards inside the property.
“She’s in my house,” the widow said. “How is she in my house?” [Almost an LOL scenario.]
The North Wales mansion was for sale at the time, and Edwards was a licensed Realtor in the area, according to the firm’s website. Hers was not the firm Ford’s widow had hired to sell the property. […]
Among other influential figures, the former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos — both of whom Trump pardoned for lying to the FBI during the inquiry into Russia’s 2016 election interference — posted about the conspiracy theory on Twitter. “Italy did it,” Flynn wrote.
[…] “Pure insanity,” Justice Department official Richard Donoghue wrote to his boss, Rosen, after Mark Meadows [Trump’s Chief of Staff] sent his emails containing the claims, the records released by Congress show. […]
Much more at the link. It’s a twisted tale with a lot players, none of them reliable. It’s mostly a tale of making shit up. I am amazed that Michele Roosevelt Edwards claimed a $30 million mansion was hers, and even showed a television crew around the property!
He might not even be the most extreme candidate in the race.
The media often describe Ammon Bundy as an “anti-government activist.” But on Saturday evening, the man Harry Reid once dismissed as a “domestic terrorist” officially announced his plans to try to become the government by running for governor of Idaho. “The establishment is losing their minds right now,” he said with a laugh after making the announcement. “I must be really really scary to these people.”
Bundy is one of 14 children of Cliven Bundy, the famously obstreperous Nevada rancher who, since 1994, has refused to pay his grazing fees to the federal government for the use of public lands. In 2014, Cliven and his family led an armed standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada, with the Bureau of Land Management […] Two years later, Ammon led an armed 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest the incarceration of two Oregon ranchers convicted of arson on public land. The occupation ended when police and FBI ambushed the occupiers, including Ammon and his brother Ryan, as they left the refuge one day to go to a meeting. Police shot and killed one of the occupiers, LaVoy Finicum, after he appeared to reach for a gun. Ryan Bundy was also shot in the shoulder but survived.
[…] The failure of the federal government to hold the Bundys accountable for either episode has earned them a cult following in the West, even as environmentalists despise them for promoting attacks on public lands.
Ammon is not the first Bundy to run for office. His brother Ryan ran for governor of Nevada in 2018, winning less than 2 percent of the vote. The Bundys’ political beliefs are often misunderstood, as they get lumped in with other anti-government militia types who tend to flock to them. But they are devout Mormons. They believe that the Constitution was divinely inspired and that members of the LDS church are charged with protecting it, whatever it takes, including running for office apparently.
Even so, when Ammon first submitted papers to run for office in Idaho, they were rejected because he wasn’t registered to vote in the state. The Republican Party of Idaho has also denounced him and is refusing to support him. “[…]
Nonetheless, Bundy seems to be gearing up for a bona fide campaign, with a fancy new website and some canned campaign videos. His campaign kickoff took place at a park in Meridian, Idaho, near Boise, where his famous father appeared and served “Bundy Beef” to the assembled crowd. [They claimed] that it had drawn more than 700 people. But video from the announcement showed a lot of empty chairs and sparse attendance.
Bundy appeared in the bright sunlight with a stack of notebooks as props […] On one of the notebooks from September 2017, he noted that he had written that “at some time that I should run for governor of Idaho.” Reflecting his religious fervor, he added, “I felt that these thoughts were not my own thoughts,” suggesting that they were a divine intervention. [Oh FFS]
[…] “From here on out I’m going to identify as a man, an American man, using he/him pronouns—a married man, married to a beautiful woman,” he said, making an anti-trans joke that would play well on Fox News. […]
His real announcement of the day was the unveiling of his plan to “keep Idaho Idaho,” which can now be found on his new campaign website.
[…] The specifics in the plan include eliminating income and property taxes, reclaiming federal public lands for the state, promoting “health freedom”—that is, opposing mandatory vaccines and allowing unproven cancer treatments to flourish so anyone can access them—and turning Idaho into a tax haven […] where people can hide their money from prying eyes and state tax authorities.
[…] Drawing on the cult following he developed after defeating the federal government in Oregon and Nevada, Bundy has linked arms with anti-vaccine activists and protested pandemic-related lockdowns and mask mandates.
[…] It’s not clear how all his pending criminal cases will affect his ability to campaign.
Bundy is one of a growing number of Republicans who have lined up to run for the Idaho GOP gubernatorial nomination. He might not even be the most controversial. Also running for governor is the current lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin, who, like Bundy, has a cozy relationship with militia groups like the Three Percenters. […]
The presence of Bundy and McGeachin in the race promises to make the 2022 GOP gubernatorial debate at least as lively as the one in 2014. That year, the field included Walt Bayes, a man with a chest-length beard who talked about Biblical prophecy and whose primary qualification was that he’d once gone to jail for homeschooling his 16 children. Another candidate, Harley Brown, was also one reason that the televised debate was aired with a 30-second delay, in anticipation of what Mother Jones writer Tim Murphy described as “rampant cussin.’”
As Tim wrote back then:
Brown—who wore his customary leather vest and leather hat, has the presidential seal tattooed on his shoulder, two cigars in his right breast pocket, and is missing several prominent teeth—used his closing argument to wave a signed certificate from a “Masai prophet” that confirmed that he would one day be president of the United States.
By 2014 standards, Bundy, with his neatly trimmed beard and happy Mormon family and six kids, seems downright conventional.
On issues like charter schools and sexual misconduct, conservative lawmakers and activists have stepped in to preserve the work of Donald Trump’s education secretary.
The Biden administration is trying to scrub Betsy DeVos’ policy fingerprints from the Education Department on everything from for-profit colleges to sex-based discrimination.
Standing in their way is an array of conservative politicians and advocacy groups eager to keep her policy agenda afloat after she has largely receded from public view.
DeVos’ devotion to using her government position to advocate for charter schools and those accused of sexual misconduct now relies on Republicans like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to defend her turf.
The Education Department in June held a weeklong hearing to begin dismantling DeVos’ regulation on how schools must handle reports of sexual misconduct. It also made its mark on civics education by rejecting […] Trump’s demands for promoting a rosier view of American history and “patriotic” education, by praising The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, which Trump has called “toxic propaganda.” Talk of school choice, a topic that DeVos championed throughout her tenure, has also been placed on the back burner.
[…] Paxton is defending DeVos’ Title IX rule from a barrage of lawsuits, while Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has signed a law creating the “1836 Project,” a reference to the year Texas declared independence from Mexico. Trump’s 1776 Commission, a panel he created after last summer’s civil unrest as a counterpoint to the 1619 Project’s emphasis on American slavery, is still meeting despite being disbanded by President Joe Biden in January. New parents groups are also pushing back on civics education that highlights systemic racism.
West Virginia became the latest state to expand its charter school system. […] “Those of us who’ve worked through all different administrations appreciate when the states step up and take their rightful position, making sure parents are put ahead of bureaucracies,” Allen said.
Here are three policy areas where DeVos’ supporters are hoisting the biggest defenses:
Civics — Larry Arnn and Parents Defending Education
The resurrected 1776 Commission, led by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn, held its first post-election meeting last month with a focus on civic education curricula.
The group has commended conservative states that have turned their attention toward developing “a genuine civics education that will rebuild our common bonds, our mutual friendship and our civic devotion.” The commission is still drawing up a curriculum designed in the “true spirit of 1776.”
Arnn’s group is also urging parents who believe in their cause to run for school board and vote in those elections. […]
Wonkette: “Good Lord, The One Million Moms Are Still So Mad At Cereal.”
On Thursday, I got an email from the One Million Moms, re: cereal. You see, Kellogg’s made a special cereal for Pride Month in collaboration with GLAAD and … it just breaks Monica Cole’s wee little heart to see all of the cereal mascots gathering around a cereal bowl of sin, or whatever it is she thinks is happening here.
It is not the first email I have gotten from “them,” re: cereal. In 2019, they were also upset at cereal for the same reason they are currently mad at cereal. In 2019, the company came out with “All Together” cereal, which consisted of “Raisin Bran, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and Frosted Mini Wheats” all mixed together, and they were very upset about that as well.
This time it is called “Together With Pride” and “features berry-flavored, rainbow hearts dusted with edible glitter,” which sounds a lot more like a thing people would want to actually eat. I mean, the other idea was cute and all but edible glitter is obviously a better time than combining Raisin Bran and Froot Loops, which actually seems kind of terrible.
The One Million Moms Who Definitely Exist And Are Named George Glass are mad because they think Kellogg’s is “targeting” their children and, I guess, trying to turn them gay and/or transgender with supportive mascots and glitter cereal — which their children, for the record, are in no way obligated to eat. It is unclear exactly how they imagine this would happen. Like they’re gonna be walking through the grocery store with their kid and the kid sees the box, is entirely aware of the fact that it is LGBTQ+ pride themed glitter cereal and thinks to themselves “[…] If Tony The Tiger and Toucan Sam say it is okay to be gay and/or trans, I’m gonna go be that.”
[…] Dear Robyn,
Kellogg’s has supported the homosexual community for a long time, and now it is obvious they are going after our children. As part of an effort to say “all are welcome,” Kellogg collaborates with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) advocacy group once again.
Kellogg’s calls it Together With Pride cereal, an exclusive, limited-time offer in which the cereal brand’s famous mascots are promoting sin. The cereal, which “features berry-flavored, rainbow hearts dusted with edible glitter,” was previously only available online but will now be sold in select stores nationwide.
To attract children, the Together With Pride limited-edition box features beloved characters including Mini holding a Pride flag (from Frosted Mini Wheats), Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger, Sunny (from Raisin Bran), Honey Smacks Dig’em Frog, Snap, Crackle & Pop, and Cornelius (from Corn Flakes). But the most disturbing feature is the box top that has a special spot for children to add their own pronouns of choice which encourages children to pick their pronouns.
[…] For every box sold, Kellogg is donating $3 to GLAAD to support the LGBTQ+ community. […]
Kellogg’s needs to hear from you. Supporting the homosexual agenda versus remaining neutral in the cultural war is just bad business. If Christians cannot find corporate neutrality with Kellogg’s, then they will vote with their pocketbook and support companies that are neutral.
The please just remain neutral in the culture war tack is one they’ve been using in practically every one of their campaigns in recent years. It acknowledges the fact that they’ve lost and that no one actually wants to be on their side anymore, while also asking these companies to do the same thing they used to ask them to do, which is to just pretend that LGBTQ people don’t exist.
[…] Oddly enough, OMM is pretty slow on the uptake with this anti-cereal business. Various other right-wing people and organizations started planning to boycott Kellogg’s over this shit months ago. The hilariously named American Society for the Protection of Tradition, Family and Property had their anti-cereal petition out back in May, which is also when Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield went on a weird rant about that and then veered into a bunch of speculation on Lucky the Leprechaun’s sexuality. [video available at the link.]
There is a lot of competition these days for who can say the most asinine things about companies that acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people, and if One Million Moms wants to stay in this game, they’re gonna have to be a little less slow on the uptake.
The latest numbers on vaccination rates are telling: Mississippi has the lowest percentage of vaccinated residents, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Wyoming, Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee. All except Louisiana have both Republican governors and legislatures, as do the next seven on the list. [Idaho is in that infamous list, with 34.61 % of the population fully vaccinated. Ditto for Utah, West Virginia and Oklahoma.] Among the 14 U.S. senators representing the bottom seven, only two (both in Georgia) are Democrats. The Post reports, “Ten states, concentrated in the Deep South and rural West, report fewer than 35 percent of residents are fully immunized.”
Health care in these deep-red states is generally dreadful. Among the 12 states that have neither expanded nor voted to expand Medicaid, all but three have GOP governors and in those three (North Carolina, Kansas and Wisconsin), a Democratic governor faces a GOP legislature.
[…] Republican states are failing to meet the basic needs of their residents. Among unvaccinated Americans, infection rates are climbing. More will get sick in those places, and some will die. Republicans are unwilling or incapable of meeting the challenge
This sorry sight is unsurprising given that Republicans have all but given up on the notion of governance. At the national level, they consume themselves with race-baiting (e.g., scaring Americans about immigration and critical race theory), assailing private companies (e.g., corporations that defend voting rights, social media platforms, book publishers) and perpetrating the most ludicrous and dangerous lie in memory — that the 2020 election was stolen.
As Reason Magazine’s Peter Suderman wrote recently for the New York Times, the GOP “no longer has a cognizable theory of government.” They claim to be economic populists but oppose raising any taxes on the rich and corporations, decry union organizing and attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Freedom” used to be a central theme, but they are on a crusade to criminalize abortion and compel unwilling women to endure nine months of pregnancy — even in cases of rape or incest. They are also in favor of ordering teachers not to teach unfavorable facts about America.
[…] In truth, a great many Republicans simply like to be “important people” with the perks of holding office. It seems the notion of finding other work causes them to break out in a cold sweat, so they adopt insane MAGA positions so as not to offend the mob they helped rile up. Certainly, there are true believers who believe Trumpian rubbish and take right-wing TV hosts’ conspiracies as gospel, but they are a distinct minority. Time and again, we hear from Republican dissenters that most of their colleagues do not really believe the MAGA party lies; what they believe in is the necessity of their own reelection. […]
Apropos of nothing political, earlier in this thread I noted that, after France relaxed its rules, I would try moving my second magnetchips injection to the manufacturer’s recommended three-ish week interval, from the five-ish week interval in effect at the time I booked my first magnetisation. I finally got around to doing that today, and to my complete astonishment, was able to book the appointment three weeks to the minute after the first.
[…]
In several videos of Ingenuity’s flights, planetary scientists have seen dust whirling beneath the helicopter’s rotors — even when Ingenuity is flying as high as 5 metres above the Martian surface. That suggests that dust can get lifted and transported in the thin Martian air more easily than researchers had suspected.
[…]
It was Ingenuity’s fourth flight, on 30&nnbsp;April, that really intrigued scientists. A video, recorded by Perseverance from a vantage point nearby, shows the helicopter rise, disappear from view, and then re-appear while enveloped in an enormous cloud of dust following a 133-metre flight.
The video confirms that Ingenuity was flying along with the 3.5-metre-per-second wind, says Håvard Grip, the helicopter’s chief pilot at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “The dust was getting carried beneath us,” he says.
[A planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, Mark] Lemmon plans to compare tracks on the Martian surface left behind by natural dust devils with those where the helicopter kicked up the most dust. That will help researchers to better understand how winds blowing across Mars can lift dust and spin it into dust devils. The Martian atmosphere is so thin that scientists have had a hard time explaining how so much dust gets aloft, says [a physicist at Boise State University in Idaho who studies Martian dust, Brian] Jackson. “We have to know how that first step in the process works,” he says.
[…]
As the article notes, “Ingenuity is what NASA calls a technology demonstration, whose only goal is to show that flight on Mars is possible. So ‘anything we can learn from it scientifically is icing on the cake’, [said] Jackson”.
[…]
The prospect of the son of illiterate Andean peasants becoming president as his rival cries fraud has shaken Peru’s entrenched class system and its fragile democracy, letting loose a torrent of racism in the bicentennial year of the country’s independence.
With 100% of the official vote counted, leftist Pedro Castillo had 50.12% — and advantage of about 44,000 votes over his far-right rival Keiko Fujimori. But Fujimori has claimed fraud, challenging about 500,000 votes, calling for half to be annulled, and obliging officials at Peru’s electoral board to reexamine ballots — despite the lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
Two weeks after the election, which national and international observers said was transparent, the stance of Keiko Fujimori — the daughter of jailed 1990s autocrat Alberto Fujimori — has emboldened the far right, who have vowed not to accept the election results.
In a move which illustrates the skewed playing field, Fujimori has recruited Lima’s most expensive law firms to quash 200,000 votes, almost all from poor Andean regions which voted overwhelmingly for Castillo.
“The tension has reached a breaking point,” said José Ragas, a Peruvian historian at Chile’s Catholic University. “The Lima elite is not just trying to keep power — it’s not just that they don’t want to recognise the victory of Pedro Castillo — but they are trying to cancel the rural vote.”
The election has unleashed expressions of racism […]
In one ugly but not unusual case, the online news site Sudaca published a private text messages between middle-class white men in Lima who discussed how people from the highlands should die of hunger and called for the return of Alberto Fujimori’s alleged forced sterilisations which mostly targeted indigenous women.
Other social media memes characterised Castillo as a donkey or said Andeans were too ignorant to be allowed to vote. They echo old “racist and classist attitudes ingrained in the national and social debate,” said Ragas. But social media has given such comments a much bigger audience, he said.
[…]
As officials at Peru’s electoral board work overtime to reinspect the disputed ballots, social media and partisan news broadcasters have helped spread fake news stirring up the spectre of totalitarian rule, violence and even mass expropriations if Castillo is declared the winner amid rumblings of coup plots among the far-right.
Apparently inspired by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat at the US elections, Fujimori has led a string of marches against fraud telling supporters at one rally: The election will be flipped, dear friends.
The three-time presidential candidate has already spent more than a year in pre-trial detention, accused of receiving more than $17m in illegal campaign funds and heading a criminal organisation, and could face a 30-year jail term if convicted. She denies the allegations.
On Friday, Peru’s interim president Francisco Sagasti slammed as “unacceptable” a letter signed by nearly a hundred retired military officers urging the armed forces not to recognise Castillo if he takes office. “They want to incite top commanders of the Army, Navy, and Air force to break the rule of law,” he said in an address to the nation.
As tension — fanned by fake news — grows, José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director for the Americas, at Human Rights Watch, called on “all Peruvians — especially the candidates, the public servants and the members of the security forces” to “respect the electoral results which the authorities announce.”
[…]
The president and his government failed to mobilise supporters, with an estimated 68% of voters shunned the polling stations — an unprecedented rate of abstention. If there was any consolation for the ruling party it was that exit polls suggested Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally had failed to garner its expected support.
Macron’s mob never shoved any propaganda through my letterbox.
[…]
The vote was to elect new councils for France’s 13 mainland and one overseas regions as well as 96 departments. Regional councils have budgets running to billions of euros and are responsible for schools, transport and economic development. There were a total of 15,786 candidates standing for 4,108 seats. Winners are normally elected for a six-year term.
[…]
Parties were required to present electoral lists that listed male and female candidates consecutively on their lists. The number of candidates from each list who are elected depends on each party’s score.
Le Pen’s National Rally hopes to win control of a region to boost her decade-long effort to legitimise her party, formerly the Front National. The region thought to most likely to tip into far right hands is the National Rally’s traditional stronghold in the south-east Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azure region which covers Marseille, Saint-Tropez and Cannes. However, the party was strong in five other regions, including the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Centre-Val de Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie and Brittany.
In Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, early estimations suggested the National Rally is jostling neck-a-neck with Les Républicains [a conservative party] after the first-round vote.
DAMNIT, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur is my “region”. It’s always(?) been a le penazi stronghold, with the über-nazi Marion Maréchal-Le Pen (now known just as Marion Maréchal), the niece of teh le penazi’s current führer, Marine Le Pen, formerly one of the elected officials.
[…]
Analysts said the abstention level threw any political predictions into doubt.
A recent poll for the Journal du Dimanche suggested that 49% of French people considered that any regional win would make National Rally a “danger for democracy”.
Most polls suggest the 2022 presidential race will be a second-round run-off between Macron and Le Pen.
It is Day 8 of former PM Netanyahu’s illegal staycation in the official prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. The “Crime Minister” people say “we’ll stay till he goes.”
Photo atl.
#Breaking: The Israeli civil service has given notice to the staff at the Prime Minister’s Residence effective immediately. As of tomorrow morning, the only personnel on-site will be security. (#exclusive)
Locally, in the French Mediterranean seaside village where I live, in yesterday’s first round regional election, teh le penazis got c.36% (not unexpected), teh conservatives c.30%, and that Socialist-Green group previously mentioned (see @276) c.20%, with no-one else getting more than c.5%, on only c.31% participation. In the “region” as-a-whole (Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur), teh le penazis got c.40%, another c.40% by (two lots of) conservatives, with the Socialist-Green group only c.8%, on a turnout of c.51%. So the second round in a week will be between teh conservatives and teh nazis.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) was hoping to lead in as many as six of mainland France’s 13 regions, putting it on course to win its first-ever region — or more — in the June 27 runoff.
Instead, the party topped just one contest, in the southern Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur region, securing only a wafer-thin lead in a race it had hoped to run away with. With a national vote share of around 19 percent, according to projections, support for RN was nine points lower than the last regional polls in 2015.
A bitter Le Pen promptly blamed the setback on the record level of abstention, so often her best ally. She called the low turnout a civic disaster that deformed the electoral reality of the country, urging her supporters to show up for the second round.
[… P]roximity to the 2022 Elysée race meant would-be presidential hopefuls seized on the regional campaign to test ideas and win followers.
Security issues that tend to dominate national elections played an outsized role in the campaign, despite the fact that regional administrations have little or no policing powers. Macron’s rivals also seized on the opportunity to denounce his government’s handling of the pandemic.
The wrangling appeared to turn off swathes of the electorate and less than 34 percent showed up, according to polling agencies […]
Ha! I’d failed to notice many of the “promises” made in the propagandas shoved though my letterbox were not part of the regional powers. (I’d want to go back and look at that Socialist-Green one again, as far as I can now recall, it did seem to mostly discuss regional issues the regional authority could act on?)
As LREM [Macron’s mob] and the National Rally[teh le penazis] failed in their bids to “nationalise” the election, the old establishment parties of left and right enjoyed a much-needed boost in their still-loyal local bastions.
From Brittany to Occitanie, Socialist incumbents topped the first-round vote across swathes of western France, suggesting the moribund party still has a future in local government. […]
“We have released this region [impoverished northern Hauts-de-France] from the jaws of the National Front,” a triumphant [conservative presidential contender Xavier] Bertrand told supporters on Sunday night, referring to the National Rally by its former name. The fact that Macron’s party failed to even qualify for the runoff in the northern region, despite having five cabinet ministers on the ballot, was the icing on the cake.
After the Hungarian parliament passed new anti-LGBT+ legislation this week, Munich councilors have put forward a motion to light up the city’s football arena in rainbow colors for Germany’s match against Hungary.
Ahead of Germany’s third Euro 2020 group game against Hungary in Munich on Wednesday, city councilors in the Bavarian capital have put forward a motion to have the arena illuminated in rainbow colors.
“[Munich] supports diversity, tolerance and genuine equality in sport and in society,” reads the joint motion from all six factions on Munich’s city council, addressed to Munich mayor Dieter Reiter.
“On the occasion of the match between Germany and Hungary, the council wishes to send a visible message of solidarity to the LGBT community in Hungary which is suffering under recent legislation passed by the Hungarian government.”
On June 15, the Hungarian parliament voted 157-1 in favor of new legislation which outlaws the sharing of information that is considered to promote homosexuality or non-binary gender identities among under-18s.
…
Campaigns and messages in support of LGBT+ rights are commonplace in German football…
Generally, however, the fan culture at domestic games and also surrounding the national team in Hungary is dominated by right-wing ultra and hooligan groups, who have traditionally made no secret of their anti-Semitic and anti-gypsy views.
At each of Hungary’s two group games in Budapest, the fan blocks behind the goal were occupied by the black-shirted “Carpathian Brigade” – a neo-Nazi ultra group made up of members of extreme-right groups from across Hungarian football, united behind the national team.
During the 0-3 defeat to Portugal on June 15, the same day the anti-LGBT legislation was passed, the Carpathian Brigade displayed anti-LGBT+ banners and sang anti-LGBT+ chants inside the stadium, which UEFA are investigating.
Ahead of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with France, members of the group marched to the Puskas Arena behind an anti-kneeling banner, a reference to some national teams, including England, “taking the knee” against racism and discrimination.
Here’s a link to the June 3 Guardian (support them if you can!) coronavirus world liveblog.
From their latest summary:
Guardian – “ECJ rejects Hungarian case against MEPs’ vote to pursue sanctions”:
Josh Marshall:
Link
DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was brutally assaulted during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection:
Blustery insurrectionist Mo Brooks real quiet when private investigator tries to serve him papers
Video snippets are available at the link
Trump administration secretly seized phone records of yet another group of reporters
“Mansour Abbas is a courageous leader, Naftali Bennett said in an interview with Channel 12 on Thursday night. Bennett apologized for calling Abbas a ‘terror supporter’ in the past. ‘Our new government will be an opportunity to turn the page between Israel and its Arab citizens’.”
McConnell giggles as he shares his extremely whitewashed version of U.S. history
Cartoon: A future historian discovers the 1/6/21 insurrection
Wonkette: “Shh! Attempted Whitmer Kidnapping Suspect Doesn’t Want You To Know God Told Him To Do It!”
Link
Latest Oath Keeper Arrested Brought 82-Pound German Shepherd Into Capitol, According To Indictment
White House unveils plan to donate 25 million vaccine doses abroad
Sue Halpern, writing for The New Yorker: The Peril of Not Vaccinating the World
Absent a concerted global commitment to vaccine equity, the virus will continue to evolve, and humanity may be consigned to a never-ending pandemic.
Oh, absolutely not. C’mon, man.
LOL.
“It’s painful to see ‘confessions’ of Raman Pratasevich. His parents believe he was tortured. This is not Raman I know. This man on Goebbels’ TV is the hostage of the regime, and we must make all possible to release him and the other 460 political prisoners.”
Photo at the link. Several people have pointed out the marks on his wrists.
STAT – “A pandemic upside: The flu virus became less diverse, simplifying the task of making flu shots”:
More atl.
Some podcast episodes:
Fever Dreams – “How a Case of Mistaken Identity Got Me Kicked Out of QAnon HQ with Dave Weigel”:
(In the last segment, they talk about this guy Owen Benjamin who appears to be trying to build a white-supremacist compound called “Beartaria” in northern Idaho. Here’s an article by the local journalist they mention, Mike Weland: “Former comic riles neighbors with ‘Bearteria’ plans (updated).”)
The Muckrake podcast – “Q Anon Is More Widespread Than You Think”:
(I don’t endorse any mixing in of “fraying of the civil fabric” or “polarization” or hypotheticals about the left with the lucid analysis of what’s happening now, in reality, on the right.)
QAA – “Episode 143: Jim Caviezel: Enter The Cavortex feat Dave Anthony”:
The latest episode of Maintenance Phase, on celery juice:
Guardian world liveblog:
Guardian – “Hong Kong vigil leader arrested as 7,000 police enforce ban on Tiananmen anniversary protests”:
More atl.
More history I didn’t know – Carol Anderson in the Guardian: “America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery.”
Guardian – “Ousted Myanmar politicians call for Rohingya to join fight against junta”:
More re #21:
DN! – “‘The Second’: Carol Anderson on the Racist Roots of the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms”:
Full interview and transcript atl.
Newtown Action Alliance:
Video atl.
Guardian world liveblog:
CNN – “House Democrats finally get to interview former White House counsel McGahn”:
Morning Joe – “Pence Says He And Trump May Never See ‘Eye To Eye’ On Jan. 6”:
YT video atl.
southpaw on the Pence video:
I did notice this. He was clearly hoping for applause there, but the party is too far gone.
“The @Twitter account of @YairNetanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin @Netanyahu’s son, was suspended for 12 hours on Friday after he posted the address of Yamina MK Nir Orbach’s home.”
Reminder that the whole family is terrible.
Guardian world liveblog:
@SC 21
I think I see why.
“But “a well-regulated militia” wasn’t, as the story goes, about how valiant and effective the militias were in repelling the British. George Washington was disgusted with their lack of fighting ability and the way the men would just cut and run from battling against a professional army. Nor was the militia reliable as a force to uphold the law. In Shays’ Rebellion, bands of armed white men, who were in the state’s militia, attacked the Massachusetts government because of foreclosures and debt seizures, demonstrating, again, how unreliable the militia were. Boston merchants had to hire mercenaries to put down the rebellion.”
Can’t actually fight, are actually cowards, are in-debt and willing to use violence to get out of it (smells grifter-y)…
Facebook: “In Response to Oversight Board, Trump Suspended for Two Years; Will Only Be Reinstated if Conditions Permit”
Matthew Gertz:
I think they’re probably hoping events will intervene.
In addition to controlling slaves. I should have explicitly included the article’s subject.
Ben Collins:
Screenshot atl.
FB statement, by Nick Clegg:
“Prime Minister @netanyahu retweeted a statement on Friday afternoon that said ‘overthrowing’ him would cause the ‘collapse of the global right-wing’.”
Ojalá.
SC @34, we are all grateful for that two-year suspension!
SC @27, Pence has an amazing blind spot, in that he still doesn’t realize how far gone the Republican Party is.
EW Jackson Complains That Biden and Harris Ate at French Restaurant on Memorial Day:
Just like teh food karen, who some years ago decided any ingredient she couldn’t pronounce is bad: “Essentially, she fancies herself a consumer advocate whose job it is to protect you from toxic food ingredients, with said toxicity determined by how scary or unfamiliar the name of the ingredient is.”
Jackson bellows some more (see the linked-to RWW excerpt).
The Biden’s and Harris’s dinner sounds delicious !
Martin Rowson in the Grauniad (please consider supporting the Grauniad if you can), On Israeli opposition plans to oust Netanyahu (cartoon).
SC @16, OMG, he is wounded!
Why Trump’s utterly bonkers ‘reinstatement’ ideas matter
When a democracy and its institutions are under attack, it’s a mistake to look away, even when the attackers are ridiculous.
Steve Benen has this right:
Oh, FFS:
Some good news:
‘You Are Full Of Poop’: A Proud Boy-Fueled Power Struggle Divides Portland-Area GOP
U.S. added 559,000 jobs in May and unemployment dropped to 5.8%
Bargain hunters pounce as Trump condo prices hit decade lows
It’s a stunning reversal for a brand that once lured the rich and famous willing to pay a premium to live in a building with Trump’s gilded name on it.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.):
Rachel Maddow in her opening monologue had a longish and informative with Dr. Fauci. Video if posted in the morning.
Fauci interview with Rachel Maddow
Being Targeted by RWNJs
Progress toward HIV vaccine?
On Covid Origins
On Booster vaccines
The Swiss Army Knife is a (and therefore military Shooty McShootfaces must not be banned)! ‘Disgusting slap in the face’: California governor slams judge as assault rifles ban overturned:
Hey, nutter: THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE IS NOT A WEAPON, AND IS NEITHER Try to use it as a weapon, and you’ll probably cut your own fingers off.
Hey nutter: “AVERAGE PURPOSES” DO NOT INCLUDE . Nor, in the hands of an untrained, untested, unlicensed, person, should it include . And even then, there are (supposed-)professionals, such as the police (with caveats if one is black or not a thug-supporting voter).
I have no idea if that’s true, but (1) In the States as a whole, in 2019, there where c.186,000 firearm assaults, and c.117,000 knife assaults (Number of aggravated assaults in the United States in 2019, by weapon used ). And (2) I suspect is rare with, I suspect, must murder-by-firearms being hand-held guns (pistols, etc.). This is a distinction without a difference since rifles, pistols, assault- and machine-guns, etc. — firearms — are all Shooty McShootfaces, deadly, and frequently designed / intended specifically for use on humans. That is simply not true of knives (look at your table, chef’s, or Swiss Army knives, as some examples — none designed for use on / against humans, and most very unsafe for such a use).
On murders specifically in the States, in 2019, there were c.9,500 by firearms and c.1,500 by knives (Number of murder victims in the United States in 2019, by weapon used). So if the so-called “judge’s” claim is true, California is a significant outlier (ignoring that sneaky qualifier “rifles”).
Apparently, this so-called “judge” has form:
In 2017, Polifact checked this bellowing, and basically found what I suspected above — there are not that many murders specifically by rifle (ignoring all other types of Shooty McShootfaces) — Out-of-context comments inflate stabbing statistics (my added emboldening):
I know of no statistics for number of attempted defensive actions undertaken (successful or not) using a Swiss Army Knife, but suspect it’s essentially zero. The mildly deranged penguin points out flinging spiders, penguin eggs, or even cheese at a would-be attacker is likely to be more effective than a Swiss Army Knife (albeit the attacker may double-up in laughter at the “threat” of being Swiss Army Knifed, allowing the assaultee to run away (albeit running with an open Swiss Army Knife is not recommended).
Follow-up to @477(previous page), about Paxton Smith, who gave a highly-regarded high school graduation speech about anti-abortion laws, ‘People were excited’: Paxton Smith on her valedictorian speech for abortion rights:
From the embedded link:
† The Grauniad did, thankfully, put “scare quotes” around , since, at 6 weeks, what is being detected is NOT a heartbeat, “Jennifer Keats, an ob-gyn at University of California, San Francisco, stated that the fetus’ cardiovascular system at six weeks is ‘very immature’. Keats described the cardiac activity as ‘a group of cells with electrical activity. That’s what the heartbeat is at that stage of gestation … We are in no way talking about any kind of cardiovascular system'” (Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge). ‘Fetal heartbeat’ in abortion laws taps emotion, not science puts it more succinctly: “[A]t the point where advanced technology can detect that first flutter, as early as six weeks, the embryo isn’t yet a fetus and it doesn’t have a heart.”
Arizona emails show Trump pushed before Capitol attack:
† I have no idea why the Grauniad choose to put “scare quotes” around big lie.
‡ Possibly true, but since it’s uttered by a thug / wannabe-dalek (as in someone who kowtows to hair furor and his Big Lie), that assertion is set in .
Nerd @49, I approve of the way Dr. Fauci dismissed the kinds of attacks being flung at him by rightwing nutcases and by rightwing media: “It’s all nonsense.”
In other news, this is from Politico:
Sigh. Alleged US Capitol rioter who heckled police for ‘protecting pedophiles’ served jail time for statutory rape of 14-year-old girl
Chinese Billionaire Hosts Trump Extremist Folk Revival
JFC
blf quoting the Grauniad @ # 51: … she said she could count on one hand the negative messages she had received.
That astounds me – a strong pro-choice message by an 18-y-o in central Texas doesn’t generate ferocious backlash?
I had expected that by now we’d see articles about Paxton Smith & family in hiding as police guarded their home from arsonists. There may be hope for the Lone Star State after all…
Follow-up to comment 55.
Posted by readers of the article:
Not really political, ‘Mum, what’s a phone box?’: watching 80s films with my kids has become a history lesson:
@56, “That astounds me — a strong pro-choice message by an 18-y-o in central Texas doesn’t generate ferocious backlash?”
It also astonished me. I believe her.
I also did an admittedly quick search for negative comments, indeed comments, from anti-abortionists, etc., but failed to find anything. At all. (I presume that is more to do with me not wanting to spend too much time in going down the rabbitholes, and that there are “the usual” frothing spittle-flecked reactions somewhere, but I’ve no idea where.)
For example, when SC@475(previous page) first posted a link to a twittering-thread with an excerpted video of the speech, I was surprised that then (dunno about now) there didn’t seem to be any trolling or negative comments, etc.
I vaguely recall seeing(? making?) a comment in this series of poopyhead threads when he won his award (September-ish 2020), and he’s now retiring, Magawa the mine-sniffing rat ends career in Cambodia on a high (video):
Giant pouched rats can apparently live toc.8 years. Magawa is around 7 years old. The Grauniad doesn’t say how he will retire, but according to Al Jazeera, ‘Hero rat’ Magawa retires from Cambodian bomb sniffing career, “Magawa will spend more time doing what he loves — eating bananas and peanuts”.
A longer read for your Saturday: it’s a celebration of science, sort of, and so far it is not political and not QAnon adjacent. A massive international project just provided results that could redefine the fate of the universe
Trumpy Man who’s concerned that vaccine was too rushed gives Trump all the credit for rushing it
Follow-up to Nerd’s comment 49.
Assault on Dr. Fauci turns even uglier as Don Jr. jokes about murder and Trump promises worse ahead
I haven’t really been following the story, but in March this year, a shady UK-based financial operation called Greensill collapsed. It was basically a ponzi scheme, albeit camouflaged in financial-babble, “Greensill was not lending its own money. It acted as an intermediary, packaging the debt of companies such as Bluestone and selling it on to other investors, such as Credit Suisse. The Swiss bank’s clients bought up the debt, earning interest on their investments.” That Bluestone company is owned by West Virginia governor Jim Justice, and it turns out Justice is personally liable for $700m. (Bluestone is a coal mining company, an example of just how shady Greensill was — from memory, coal operations are having a very hard time getting finance from more reputable sources.) In the best thug tradition, Justice is now trying to weasel out of his personally-guaranteed debt, West Virginia governor sues Greensill over $700m debt:
Justice is apparently a real work. For instance, from Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge:
Also:
And so on. Quickly skimming the list of Justice’s positions, it all looked very much what you’d expect from yet another wannabe-dalek (as in hair furor supporter in a position
of powerto cause massive damage).As the Grauniad summarised, the Greensill ponzi scheme’s collapse has gotten a lot of attention in the UK, perhaps mostly due to the involvement of ex-PM David Cameron (the eejit who promised teh brexit referendum), David Cameron lobbied top Treasury official by phone, MPs told (is one article of many of the UK-side of the ongoing situation).
† Justice is a thug, acting like a thug, hence the , albeit since Greensill was basically a ponzi scheme, that quote is not necessarily completely wrong.
me@63, The correct 2nd link is Ye Pfffft! of All Knowledge on Jim Justice.
me@65, I mean me@64, obviously…
(And for the next correction, I’ll misspell “thug” as “Republican”.)
Chris Riddell in the Grauniad, Going on holiday? Not if the Delta variant has its way (cartoon). Some background: “Delta” is the new WHO-approved name for the Covid-19 variant first found in India, Covid-19 variants to be given Greek alphabet names to avoid stigma. The variant first found in the UK is “alpha”, the one first found in S.Africa is “beta”, and the one first found in Brazil is “gamma”.
UK PM Boris Johnson seems determined to remove all(?) internal(?) restrictions on 21st June, despite growing numbers of delta cases. Because of the worrisome nature of delta, and the rising number of cases in the UK, the EU-as-a-whole is not lifting restrictions on UK travel (albeit several individual countries, such as Spain, apparently intend to allow UK visitors). Apparently, c.75% of all new cases in the UK are delta, [Delta] Covid variant may increase risk of hospital admission, early data suggests (also, UK reports 6,238 daily Covid cases amid fears over Delta variant infectiousness, “The Delta variant of coronavirus is 30% to 100% more transmissible than the previously dominant [alpha] variant”).
National Enquirer hit with $187,000 fine from FEC for hiding Trump’s mistresses during 2016 campaign
Oh, FFS.
Milo Yiannopoulos Claims Going Ex-Gay Made Dogs Stop Barking At Him
Both
After Lavish Nights of Clubbing in Bangkok, a Covid Outbreak
New York Times link
Thailand went for months without a single confirmed case of local transmission, but the epidemic has now radiated from nightclubs to areas where social distancing is all but impossible.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Endorses Maya Wiley for N.Y.C. Mayor
New York Times link
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement on Saturday may cement Ms. Wiley as the left-wing standard-bearer in the New York City mayor’s race.
Notoriously unhinged delusional conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf banned from Twitter for spreading vaccine myths:
We interrupt this diatribe to point out Wolf is not an accurate historian, not only in this case, but in many cases. A recent example is her book Outrages, which had “[a]n error in a central tenet of the book — a misunderstanding of the legal term ‘death recorded’, which Wolf had taken to mean that the convict had been executed but which in fact means that the convict was pardoned or the sentence was commuted — was identified in a 2019 BBC radio interview with broadcaster and author Matthew Sweet. He cited a website for the Old Bailey Criminal Court, the same site which Wolf had referred to as one of her sources earlier in the interview. Reviewers have described other errors of scholarship in the work” (Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge, my added emboldening). The error was so serious the book was pulled from publication. Wolf is not scholar, is not a historian, but is a frothing-at-the-mouth spittle-flying wobbly-eyed conspiracy loon.
She doesn’t seem to have an entry at the Encyclopædia of American Loons, but there is a long rundown of her bellowings at Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge. Also see the 2014 Vox article, The insane conspiracy theories of Naomi Wolf.
Several days ago, twittering deleted an violence-promoting blathering by Nigerian alleged-president Muhammadu Buhari, a war criminal from the 1967 Biafra genocidal atrocity, and suspended his account for a short time, causing his “government” to throw around lots of shite, including banning twittering. He’s still in a snit, and has now decreed it “illegal” to access twittering, Nigerians breaking Twitter ban rules could be prosecuted:
The alleged-president’s abusive blathering “threatened to punish pro-Biafra groups blamed for escalating attacks on government and security authorities”, Twitter deletes Nigerian president’s ‘abusive’ Biafra tweet:
Follow-up to @73 from the Nigerian Guardian (no relationship to the UK’s Grauniad), Outrage as Buhari bans Twitter in Nigeria:
Apparently, all the announcements about the ban on twittering, etc., have done by blatherings on twittering (i.e., by tweets on Twitter). There are multiple quotes in the excerpted article pointing this out, and then typically referring to the so-called “government” as “clueless”.
An opinion column in the Grauniad by Professor Pippa Norris, “a comparative political scientist at Harvard University and founding director of the http://www.ElectoralIntegrityProject.com“, Republicans have no incentive to abandon Trump and the big lie. We must act now. This excerpt skips most of the introductory comments — a description of the flaws — which are presumably well-known to most readers of this blog, and focuses on her suggestions:
Mysteriously-provided mysterious data mysteriously analyzed and allegedly, and also mysteriously, by a mystery not-so-mysteriously allegedly shows someone unknown yet mysteriously blamed on “China” untraceably and mysteriously hacked voting machines… yadda, yadda, yadda… and so the Supreme Court will magically restore hair furor. Mike Lindell Is 100 Percent Sure the Supreme Court Will Vote 9–0 to the 2020 Presidential Election:
Even the mildly deranged penguin is having trouble following the logic here — or whereever this mysterious alleged is hiding…
Follow-up to @76 in the Washington Post, Mike Lindell’s allegations are even more ridiculous than you might think:
The Post using Grauniad-level snark !
The Post then describes what Lindell’s mysteriously acquired mystery data (see @76) seems to be, and cites a twittering thread by a real expert. Basically, what Lindell and his tame and obviously fake are all excited about are raw(?) TCP/IP (“Internet”) packet dumps. They aren’t. They can’t be. I’m not a networking expert, but still know roughly what a raw packet will look like — what is shown might be payload, but ain’t packets (and, rather importantly, clearly is not encrypted — very Very weird for highly-sensitive data like actual votes). Another expert points out it seems to be SQL data for a real polling place; indeed, it seems to the (presumably) publicly-available voter roll for a precinct in Pennsylvania.
The post then goes on to describe other alleged data described earlier by Lindell, which seems to be related to some gibberish fake data former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has previously posted.
The Post’s article concludes:
And The Hill chimes in, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s lawyer leaves law firm a day after filing lawsuit:
And the problem is…?
It’s not completely meritless — it has identified a sleazy ambulance-chaser, and should cost Lindell yet more… two billion dollars and counting !
Whilst researching this comment, I stumbled on other examples of ultra-absurd analysis about the election. For example, from memory, some supposed- did a curve-fit of historical voting data for four(?), then tried to match the curve to another five(?) nearby counties. No idea why. (Trend analysis?) In any case, not too unexpectedly, the curve was a reasonable fit for those other counties. Ergo, concluded the expert,
And again, the raping children cult ducks responsibility, Pope Francis stops short of apology over deaths in ex-Catholic school in Canada:
“Marjorie Taylor Greene has requested that Biden investigate Fauci and she wants answers by June 31st, a date which does not exist“. The letter itself (image at link) bases its demand on the currently-usual distortions and outright lies (e.g., see Lynna@63).
No no, it’s not teh satellite mafia, it’s the microchips in the vaccines ! Trump aide asked DoJ to investigate bizarre ‘Italygate’ claim votes were changed by satellite (Grauniad edits in {curly braces}):
Fortunately, I’d never heard of this conspiracy theory before. Reuters fact-checked the nonsense back in January, Fact check: Evidence disproves claims of Italian conspiracy to meddle in U.S. election (known as #ItalyGate). It’s a complicated story involving theft of data relating to “Europe’s biggest unmanned fighter jet program and aircraft used by the military and police”, unverified documents and recordings, etc., etc. Reuters concluded: “False. There is no legitimate evidence that an employee of the Italian defense company Leonardo SpA interfered in the 2020 US presidential election.” (Apparently, the claim is someone claimed there was a plan “to use the firm’s “, which is bonkers.)
blf @72, “[…] a frothing-at-the-mouth spittle-flying wobbly-eyed conspiracy loon.” LOL. I very much enjoyed that description of Naomi Wolf. And from comments by others that you quoted: “floridly delusional.” That’s apt.
Virginia supreme court to hear cases challenging removal of Confederate statue:
Translation of Blackburn’s statement: “For over 130 years the family has taken pride in enslavement, and now views the very concept of BLM as demeaning, democratic — I mean demagogic — and contrary to their perpetual control of the Commonwealth.”
Netanyahu says Israeli coalition poised to unseat him is result of :
What, an espionage ring in Italy used satellites to activate the microchips injected with the vaccines ?
No, no, stealing the election from hair furor is much hugley bigger. Just ask hair furor.
A year on, the battered and graffitied Colston is finally a potent memorial to our past (great image at the link!):
My understanding is it’s at M Shed (which postdates my own time in Bristol) to encourage a discussion about what to do with it in the end.
The on-line version of the UK’s daily heil is at it again, MailOnline mocked for suggesting Didsbury is ‘no go’ area for white people (Grauniad edits in {curly braces}):
Oops. Bad move. The mildly deranged penguin is already en route.
Teh daily heil’s “article is based on a book by former Islamist radical Ed Husain called Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain”.
An amusing snippet from The Guardian librarian: ‘There was a tart exchange with management about photocopiers’, written by Richard Nelsson, the Grauniad’s current librarian, about the arrival of the Grauniad’s first professional librarian, Geoffrey Whatmore, in the early 1950s:
Re: Mike Lindell’s behavior relative to his “evidence”.
Lindell, Trump, and Trump supporters seem to be staying in “gossip mode” making most (all?) of their evidence testimonial evidence at best. Consider Trump referring to “them/they” saying things in his support (or the opposite, a generalized “them” in opponents). In the nextdoor politics board this was very common, link-dumps that posters could not describe making it a “they support me”, and the articles themselves were also references to claims of fraud, none admitted as evidence, and eventually rejected by courts.
It’s like “passing the buck” (passing responsibility) for the story.
That nextdoor politics group has since been deleted. That is not surprising. I’ve been invited to a private version by some of the good members of the previous group, but now all the behavior routines from that board are taking their time settling down. It’s getting easier though.
The article I snippeted in @86 is part of a Grauniad series I didn’t know existed, Before My Time, where the present incumbents interview previous incumbents of the same(-ish) position at the Grauniad (as part of their 200 years celebration): “Guardian writers, correspondents and editors interview their predecessors about how the job — and the subject matter — has changed over the years”. Some snippets from another article in that series, ‘Nose to the grindstone’: how Simon Winchester covered Watergate for the Guardian by their current Washington DC correspondent, David Smith:
I’m sorry, more snippets from that Gruaniad series (see @89), this one decidedly not political, The Guardian’s first fashion editor: ‘Highbrows no longer ignore high fashion’, about Alison Adburgham by current associate editor (Fashion), Jess Cartner-Morley:
At which point I completely lost it. The mildly deranged penguin, recently returned from Didsbury (see @85), jumped into a pillow-fort and refused to come out until I offered her two whole peices of cheese (still giggling, and by then, also hiccuping).
Ms Adburgham died in 1997 and so was spared hair furor, who probably couldn’t dress up to that “exercise in kitsch”.
blf @83, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are going to have get in a boxing ring and fight for the claim of having been dethroned thanks to “the greatest election fraud in the history of democracy”. Both have made that claim when the people voted them out of power. Surely there can be only one “greatest election fraud.”
BTW, I enjoyed the snippets from the Guardian series, “Before My Time,” which included several examples of excellent writing, some equally excellent snark, and a bit of dry humor (British style).
Oh, FFS.
Link
Follow-up to comment 92.
Posted by readers of the article:
3 dead, 5 injured in shooting at Miami-area graduation party
Wonkette: “Joe Manchin Can Name 12 Logical Fallacies Preventing Him From Supporting Voting Rights”
Link
Republicans Are One Week Away From Starting a Chant for Anthony Fauci:
Senegalese professor holds pupil’s baby during class in show of support for student mothers:
Jen Psaki likens Fox News reporters to Russian and Chinese propagandists:
Whilst the Grauniad isn’t completely clear, context suggest that “criticism” is of Psaki’s statements rather than the “reporting”, etc., on faux, newsmin, etc — hence the .
Republicans pledge allegiance to fossil fuels like it’s still the 1950s:
It may also cause the W.Virginia alleged-governor, Jim Justice, to lose yet more money (see @64).
See Bill seeks to make Louisiana ‘fossil fuel sanctuary’ in bid against Biden’s climate plans (“Republicans and Democrats are introducing bills to push against Biden’s new restrictions on oil and gas companies”).
Texas bakery sells out of goods after backlash for its Pride rainbow cookies (essentilly quoted in full):
Hawaii [sic (Hawaiʻi)] bill seeks to gut funding aimed at protecting environment from tourism:
Wow. More than 30 million.
NBC News:
More information from Steve Benen:
Trump pretends he’s ‘not the one trying to undermine democracy’
Trump would have his followers believe his attacks on our democracy are really little more than a defense of democracy, which is as twisted as it sounds.
Cartoon: Get back to work!
Follow-up to @84, Campaigners try to block Edward Colston display at Bristol museum:
Wonkette: “Mississippi GOP Gov. Has Some Real Wild Ideas About Human Gestation Periods”
Link
Despite pandemic, level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hits historic levels.
Washington Post link
“If we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero at the earliest possible date,” one top scientist says.
Historian David Olusoga has been mentioned / quoted / excerpted several times in this series of poppyhead threads (see, e.g., @105 above), and he’s become a name I recognise (in a good way). The Grauniad has an interview with him, David Olusoga on race and reality: ‘My job is to be a historian. It’s not to make people feel good’. It’s perhaps too long to meaningfully excerpt, but is worth a read.
Link
Putin’s Russia adopts Republican talking points on Jan. 6 riot
On Jan. 6, far-right Republicans have a political ally, once again, in Vladimir Putin, who’s only too pleased to amplify their talking points.
‘Covid terraces’ become permanent summer fixtures in Paris:
Yep burp ! Lunch today was Charcuterie Boeuf, followed by Encornets Farcis, and then Chocolate, all washed down with a local vin rouge.
Except perhaps for the contest, open terraces with plants (and, often, patio umbrellas) is what most restaurant terraces here in the village are like.
Ah… I vaguely thought there was another week to go.
I just checked the track-and-trace app’s statistics: ICU occupancy is now just under 50%, with slightly more than 1000 new detected cases (probably low due to the “weekend effect” causing under-reporting). R is c.0,8. Nationwide, almost 28m have been vaccinated (at least one jab), out of a total population of c.67m — suggesting France is, finally, within striking distance of “50%”.
The rate of vaccinations has notably increased, and most of the silliness surrounding getting a vaccination has been eliminated. Also, recent polling suggests that famous December result of only c.40% willing to be vaccinated is improving, albeit still far too low, and the problem of moment, too many second jabs are being skipping (appointments missed, etc).
What’s the problem? Biden should promise to give her the answers just as soon as June 31st comes round!
Whilst you can certainly get the stuff in various forms in the village where I live, I don’t know if any is commercially grown nearby, Lavender, the blue gold of France’s Provence region (video): “The lavender fields of the Valensole Plateau, in France’s southern Provence region, are an ocean of purple-blue. This is where much of the plant’s global production is grown. Many families in the region have been working with lavender for several generations. There are those who continue their activity in the traditional way and those who have opted for a more industrial method. Either way, these beautiful landscapes attract thousands of tourists from around the world.” (Valensole is roughly 100km inland of where I live.)
KG@112, Hee hee. However, what she wrote was , which, whilst slightly ambiguous, can easily be read as “before June 31”, or equivalently, “on or before June 30”.
I’ve had to decipher ambiguous dating so often now I notice these things. Waiting until the date is June 31st might make a point, but for anyone with a few brain cells, could also be construed as not responding / obeying. Which suggests trying that strategy could work, she has not got a non-negative number of said cells!
KG @112 and blf @114, Marjorie Taylor Greene has a problem: she does not pay attention to details, to nuance, and to facts; nor does she understand the fact that in the hierarchy of the U.S. Government, she is not qualified to declare arbitrary (and fictional) deadlines to be met by the President of the United States.
This sounds like good idea:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/schumer-dale-ho-myrna-perez
Big win for Merkel’s party confounds pundits and pollsters
Chancellor’s CDU romped home in state of Saxony-Anhalt despite polls suggesting close race with far right.
Did Devil Give Rick Wiles COVID For Letting Milo Talk About Giving Up Dong On His Show? Sure Why Not.
Wonkette:
Fed recovers millions in ransomware payments from Colonial Pipeline hackers.
Washington Post link
The seizure of cryptocurrency paid by Colonial Pipeline to a Russian hacker ring marks a major milestone for Department of Justice.
: Johnny Enlow Says Support for Trump Is a Measure of One’s Loyalty to God:
NY Times link
Sen Whitehouse Worries Climate Is Falling Out Of Infrastructure Talks
Humor/satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
USA Today:
Sigh:
Link
Thanks for all of the news and analysis the past few days, everyone!
“#BREAKING: Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin announces the swearing-in of Israel’s new government on Sunday, June 13, 2021.”
Update to #28: “New: Nir Orbach will vote confidence in the incoming government.
Weeks of attacks & threats may have convinced him that the new government will not be worse than what is currently going on.”
Quoted in Lynna’s #55:
Trump tried to deport Guo in 2017:
Also:
Says the agent of…Turkey.
Quoted in blf’s #105:
LOL. How is this not satire?
Guardian – “Peru elections: Fujimori’s fraud claims criticised as rival’s narrow lead widens”:
Guardian – “Rightwing protesters at Klamath Falls threaten to open reservoir headgates”:
More atl.
CNN – “Exclusive: New audio of 2019 phone call reveals how Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate baseless Biden conspiracies”:
Much more atl.
Ari Melber fact checks MAGA riot lies.
We’ve seen lots of fact-checking on this issue before, but Melber does an exceptionally good job here.
The video is about ten minutes long. Well worth watching. Neal Katyal is interviewed at the end, and he adds some good analysis and facts. Ari Melber takes on the most prominent liars one by one and busts them for lying.
Whoops. I need to add a link and a correction to comment 132.
This segment is the follow-up where former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal joins the conversation.
Several Republican senators go to bat for Jan. 6 rioters (again)
Here’s a link to the June 8 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Why it’s sensible to see voting rights as a national security issue
The Biden White House sees voting rights as a national security issue. That may seem like a stretch. It’s not.
From today’s DN! headlines:
Guardian – “Hundreds arrested in global crime sting after underworld app is hacked”:
The DoJ will be announcing this at 12 ET.
“Naomi Wolf is headlining an anti-vax ‘liberation’ event on Juneteenth.
Organizers told me conflating the holiday celebrating the end of chattel slavery and Covid restrictions was appropriate because ‘we have been enslaved by our government’.”
Bits and pieces of news:
Link
Accused Capitol rioter says he ‘bought into a pack of lies’
The more Jan. 6 defendants say they were victims of a scam, the more obvious the need for an independent investigation into those who did the scamming.
Team Trump is noticeably short on team members
AP – “Senate report details broad failures around Jan. 6 attack”:
Josh Marshall:
Link
Good news:
Link
A company you’ve probably never heard of caused half the internet to go dark
Countless websites, including major news outlets, were offline after an outage at Fastly, a cloud computing provider.
Wonkette:
Link
Wonkette:
Link
That Time Trump Believed The DNC Was Going To Murder Joe Biden, Carrie-Style, At Prom!
Wonkette link
LitHub – “Why Fox News Has Blood on Its Hands: Brian Stelter on the Disastrous Downplaying of Coronavirus as a ‘Hoax’.”
Senate Dems get to work confirming Biden’s court nominees
As the Senate confirms Biden’s first judge, let’s not forget that this same jurist was badly mistreated by Senate Republican leaders five years ago.
New Mexico Republicans sound the alarm bells about Trump’s toxic impact on House special election
That makes the very optimistic assumptions that if Manchin continues on his declared course: (a) there are going to be history books, and (b) they are not going to be written by the fascists he’s enabling.
Stacey Abrams calls on young voters of color to support election reform bill
Guardian world liveblog:
Israel updates:
“Acknowledging reality, Netanyahu retweets a former Likud legislator saying ‘Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu! Even your opponents will yet miss you’.”
The new government will be sworn in at 4 PM on Sunday.
The march is now rescheduled for next Tuesday.
Idaho candidate for governor endorsed by rightwing militia leader, video reveals:
More on McGeachin, The sad, dangerous line from McCarthy to McGeachin:
I know nothing at all about the second source excerpted above (e.g., how reliable they are?). They describe themselves as “Idaho Education News is a comprehensive collection of online sources that provides information about public education in Idaho.”
A snippet from that same site, McGeachin’s political strategy, unmasked, about McGeachin’s quickly-overriden order banning masks (mentioned previously in this series of poopyhead threads):
That article also mentions “Little has been conspicuously quiet about McGeachin’s hand-picked and ideologically stacked task force to study school indoctrination — another issue that allows McGeachin to energize her base.”
The Trump method: How Netanyahu jeopardises Israel’s democracy:
Good point. I’d forgotten Netanyahu was behind Rabin’s assassination.
Not exactly a surprise, Arizona ballot audit backed by secretive donors linked to Trump’s inner circle:
As briefly mentioned in @77, Byrne is also the source of some gibberish fake data about votes that Mike Lindell and his tame fake may be using.
And, believe it or not, the story gets even crazier (no, Bigfoot hasn’t been sighted — yet — but probably only because hair furor is a cheapsake and won’t meet their appearance fees):
A circular frauditing squad of Cyber Ninjas, Doug Logan, OANN, Christina Bobb, L Lin Wood, Patrick Byrne, Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Wake TSI, Mark Finchem, CyFIR, Benjamin Cotton, Jovan Pulitzer … Neither Lindell nor Bigfoot was specifically mentioned in this article, but at least one of those two plausibly could also be involved, especially as they are busily pushing dubious mysterious data which isn’t what it’s claimed to be to claim voting machines were rigged, which is more-or-less the thesis of the Arizona fraudit.
‘Round and ’round we go, sucking in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round we go, sucking in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round…
Not exactly a surprise, Arizona ballot audit backed by secretive donors linked to Trump’s inner circle:
As briefly mentioned in @77, Byrne is also the source of some gibberish fake data about votes that Mike Lindell and his tame fake may be using.
And, believe it or not, the story gets even crazier (no, Bigfoot hasn’t been sighted — yet — but probably only because hair furor is a cheapsake and won’t meet their appearance fees):
A circular frauditing squad of Cyber Ninjas, Doug Logan, OANN, Christina Bobb, L Lin Wood, Patrick Byrne, Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Wake TSI, Mark Finchem, CyFIR, Benjamin Cotton, Jovan Pulitzer … Neither Lindell nor Bigfoot was specifically mentioned in this article, but at least one of those two plausibly could also be involved, especially as they are busily pushing dubious mysterious data which isn’t what it’s claimed to be to claim voting machines were rigged, which is more-or-less the thesis of the Arizona fraudit.
‘Round and ’round we go, pulling in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round we go, pulling in millions of dollars, bellowing a Big Lie, legislating massive voter suppression, saying the insurrection is a nothing and doesn’t need investigation (because it was clearly an antifa plot), ’round and ’round…
FSMDAMNIT! I write up a long comment / excerpt from Arizona ballot audit backed by secretive donors linked to Trump’s inner circle, and something in it is triggering poopyhead’s filter, and I don’t have a clew what. What a complete fecking waste of time.
And it’s French local-ish election time (June 20th / 27th), and the first bit of propaganda has dropped through my letterbox. Not entirely certain which group of nutters this is (except it’s not teh le penazis), but there’s two clews they are loons: (1) Their top — № 1 — “promise” (no translation needed here), « SANS MASQUE — Pour le retour à la vie, le retour de nos libertés et l’accés aux sions pour tous ». And (2) The two individuals pictured look very much like they are in a permanent state of scowl, have only just heard of this “smiling” thing, and have absolutely no idea how to do it. Very creepy!
Republican filibuster derails Dem bill to address gender pay gap
“There’s absolutely nothing controversial about making sure every worker gets paid fairly for their work,” a Senate Dem said. Her GOP colleagues disagreed.
blf @156, JFC. Batshit bonkers extremist militia supporters get themselves elected in Idaho and things rapidly go from bad to worse. Now one of them is running for governor.
Guardian – “EU-UK talks to resolve Northern Ireland crisis end without agreement.”
Also in the Guardian – “Leading biologist dampens his ‘smoking gun’ Covid lab leak theory”:
Really irresponsible.
Commentary:
Link
David Rothkopf:
Maybe. Still wasted a lot of time talking to Republicans.
Here’s a link to the June 9 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
From today’s DN! headlines:
“Netanyahu’s only comment on the curses, insults & threats hurled at his opponents is to post a somewhat misleading collage depicting him as victim. ‘We need to fight all incitement to violence– including the incitement my family & I have experienced every day in recent years’.”
Wow: “Cover of the ultra-orthodox magazine @themishpacha, depicting Israel’s incoming Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman made out of dollar bills. It would be considered an outrageously antisemitic caricature anywhere else.”
Photo atl. In light of the attacks on Ilhan Omar after her “all about the Benjamins” remark (for which she unequivocally apologized), it’s wild that they’ve put Franklin’s face right over his nose. (Looks like there are some euros in there, too.)
Tweet o’ the day.
From the Grauniad’s current USAlien politics and pandemic live blog (my added emboldening):
I presume Manchin will continue his hands over ears, la-la-la can’t hear anything stance.
CNBC – “Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him” (could’ve used some more proofreading):
FFS.
Re Lynna@146, Amusingly, when the outage happened, I was at lunch (see @111) and puzzled when assorted quite-reliable apps began giving sometimes-bizarre connectivity errors. What had me worried is earlier that very morning, there had been a big update to my mobile, around a dozen apps (including some of those which where “failing”) and also the Android OS itself. Everything seemed to check-out Ok after the updates, but then at lunch, well, no… eh? (I have a number of diagnostic and investigative tools / apps installed, and quickly decided the problem was elsewhere, but was definitely concerned for a few moments those very-recent upgrades had badly broken stuff!)
As noted, the problem was fixed quickly, and the first Grauniad article I saw after service was restored was headlined something like “Massive Internet failure takes many sites offline, including Graudian”. Ah!
Ken Bensinger, BuzzFeed:
Links and screenshots atl.
Vice – “Trump Congratulates Nigeria’s Autocratic Ruler for Banning Twitter”:
“SCOOP: The Biden administration is buying 500 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to donate to the world. Biden will make the announcement at the G7….”
WaPo link atl.
“Right now we’re all kind of hypothesizing…”
“Even more closely related bat CoVs to SARS CoV-2 than RaTG13 for a lot of their genomes. None are the progenitor, but getting warmer…..
Identification of novel bat coronaviruses sheds light on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses”
Link to Cell article atl:
Texas Creates to Promote and :
I rather suspect those (and indeed, the entire whitewashing) won’t include — either at all or unabridged— the Texas Articles of Secession explaining why Texas revolted against the US:
So teh is valueless as there is no (chattel) slavery, and considers Blacks .
Back to RWW:
I cannot find it at the moment, but Doonesbury had a great cartoon some yonks ago about some other proposed / official Texas distortion of history about its succession, where a student in a class reads the actual document. From memory, the student’s comment:
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
There seems to be a qAnonsense faction within Brood X, ‘Watch out for the cicadas’, Biden warns ahead of Europe trip:
Civil rights groups also can’t budge Joe Manchin on voting rights
The good news is, the conservative Democrat was willing to sit down with prominent civil rights leaders. The bad news is, they couldn’t change his mind.
Follow-up to SC’s link in comment 175.
Ohio Republicans ask conspiracy theorists to speak at anti-vaxx hearing and it goes bananas
“Bananas” is a polite way to put it.
Watch Louie Gohmert ask if BLM can move the Moon
I think Gohmert was referencing the Bureau of Land Management and not Black Lives Matter. Asking if the Bureau of Land Management can move the moon is not less stupid than asking if Black Lives Matter can do it.
On 181’s bananas: Ah, but the microchips are inert until activated by a magnet. Once activated, they become themselves magnetic. The intention was for the injected microchips to be activated by EMF from a mobile (e.g.) — 5G is particularly good for this — or by woo-woo from numerous sources. The magnetic activation means the chips in separate vials don’t interfere with each other during transport and storage, and being inert, can survive freezing.
Once activated, the microchips and their magnetism suck in all available woo-woo, and, importantly, bananas. Over time, the woo-woo then turns the vaccinated person into bright yellow fruit. (Being covered with spoons and other ferrous metallic objects probably helps, especially the anvils st(r)uck to the head.) It is thought there is a spacefleet nearby, filled with either chimpanzee-like aliens, or mutant fruit flies, eagerly waiting for Earth to become Totally Bananas.
Link
Video of Lindsey Graham being annoyingly stupid is available at the link.
blf @183, LOL. That makes so much sense. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny needs to add that explanation to her arsenal.
Speaking of vaccines: ACLU calls on Biden admin to give detained immigrants ‘immediate access’ to COVID-19 vaccine
Major Land Agreement Could Be “Nail in the Coffin” for Alaska’s Pebble Mine
The gold and copper mine threatens to destroy the world’s most prolific sockeye salmon fishery.
Good news.
U.S. warns Venezuela, Cuba to turn away Iranian ships believed to be carrying arms
Caracas is trying to leverage the situation to gain relief from U.S. sanctions, officials said.
More details at the link.
Garland defends Justice Department moves seen as pro-Trump
Garland’s defense still looks weak to me if you are looking carefully at the DOJ’s defense in a libel case against Trump, including the DOJ filing a brief on Monday continuing the government’s defense of Trump in that defamation lawsuit brought by New York writer, E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s in a Manhattan department store fitting room, after which Trump claimed Carroll was lying and was “not my type.” It is not, in my opinion, an official presidential duty for a president to defame women concerning an interaction that occurred twenty years ago. That’s not an appropriate or official use of the office of President of the United States.
Ingenuity, Nasa’s helicopter on Mars, successfully completed its seventh flight yesterday (June 8th) and landed at an “airfield” surveyed only from orbit, similar to the sixth flight. Unlike the sixth flight on May 22nd, there were no anomalies.
That sixth flight is the only time sofar there has been a problem whilst airborne: About halfway into that flight, a single image from the downwards-pointing navigation camera was lost, causing all subsequent images to have the wrong attached time. Hence, Ingenuity was trying to navigate using current images but incorrectly “dated”. This confused it and it began wildly gyrating whilst still in-flight. Nonetheless, due to the safety margins and a previously-mentioned design decision, it still managed to land, safety, within 5 metres of its intended target.
The design decision which helped save Ingenuity is that during landing, it does not use either its altimeter or navigation camera — the concern was enough dust would be thrown up to make the data useless. Instead, Ingenuity lands by the simple method of flying downwards until there is no more vertical motion, and then stops. In the case of the sixth flight, because the navigation camera was deliberately ignored during landing, Ingenuity stopped gyrating (no more bad data) and landed as intended, albeit slightly off-mark.
Follow-up to comment 188.
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1402702382253940740
‘Are You Freaking Kidding Me?’: New Report Paints Trump Surprising Officers Amid Chaos At Lafayette Square
Link
Lynna @ #188, I agree. I’m also angry that they’re not keeping the public up to date on the non-secret parts of the 1/6 investigation, and from what legislators have said in hearings not providing witnesses or documents to congressional committees.
Here’s Rachel Maddow’s segment on it last night – “Trump Corruption of DOJ Lingers Under Garland, Risks Precedent”:
Guardian world liveblog:
Worthwhile piece by Matthew Remski: “The New Age / Medieval Mortifications of Jordan Peterson.”
(I have no idea where he came up with “akathisia, an unbearable shaking [?] disorder known to users of anti-psychotics [sic] who taper their medication [sic] too quickly.” The claim about tapering isn’t in the paper to which he links, which makes plain that this is caused by the drugs – they literally call it “antipsychotic-induced akathisia.” There’s a pattern of this sort of error in discussions of psychiatric drugs.)
Here’s another article with background from a few months ago at MIA: “Beyond Benzos: Jordan B. Peterson’s Trip to Hell and Back.”
(Reading this, I probably thought or said aloud “What? Why?!” a dozen times.)
Both pieces, notably, are based on Peterson’s self-reported history. It’s astonishing that he writes self-help books.
Reuters – “Peru’s socialists lead tight election as battle brews over result.”
Chris Hayes just interviewed Brian Sicknick’s partner (both of them were Trump supporters), who told him that one Senator she went to meet with this week physically pushed her out of their office.
AP – “Russian court outlaws opposition leader Navalny’s groups”:
Authoritarianism is so bankrupt.
Rachel Maddow reported that the Keystone pipeline has been terminated by the builder.
CNN verification.
Caine would be very happy.
NY Times:
Judge who reversed California assault weapons ban faces barrage of criticism
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez overturned the state’s three-decade-old assault weapons ban. How he shaped his arguments is “incredibly problematic,” one legal expert said.
And that’s not all. Judge Benitez turns out to be a dunderhead on many subjects, including vaccines, the coronavirus, etc.
Good news: Seattle is first major US city to see 70 percent of residents fully vaccinated, mayor says
Meanwhile, only 29% of the residents in my county in Idaho have been vaccinated. Sigh.
Here’s a link to the June 10 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Here’s a link to their UK blog. Matt Hancock is being questioned by MPs.
Guardian – “Boris Johnson must respect rule of law and implement Brexit deal, says EU”:
From Rachel Maddow last night:
“Trump, Now Just A Citizen, Could Be Criminally Exposed”:
“Failure Of ‘Norms’ To Restrain Trump Corruption Prompts Calls For Accountability”:
AOC:
Guardian world liveblog:
“Great scoop @thetimes: US issues UK with a d[é]marche over #NorthernIrelandProtocol, a formal diplomatic reprimand without precedent….”
Link atl.
FBI director Christopher Wray is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. (The difference between Democratic and Republican members in terms of quality on this committee is extraordinary.)
Beautiful.
It’s obscene that Matt Gaetz remains on the Judiciary Committee and can sit up on the dais in a hearing and question the FBI director.
LOL.
Why Republicans have taken a sudden interest in burrito prices
Americans are effectively being told, “Vote Republican: Workers will make less money, but your next burrito will cost a little less.”
It’s another overly simplistic culture war idea from Republicans.
With Trump out, US’s global reputation improves ‘dramatically’
Everything Trump said about his successes in improving our standing was wrong, and it’s Biden who’s accomplishing what his predecessor lied about.
Texas’ scandal-plagued state AG faces yet another investigation
The FBI had already shown up at Ken Paxton’s door. Now the Texas bar association has questions about his bonkers pro-Trump efforts from late last year.
George P. Bush is also a bonkers cult follower of Trump.
SC@208, The Grauniad, Biden arrives with demand that UK settle Brexit row over Northern Ireland, suggest the States didn’t issue a formal démarche:
An often overlooked point (perhaps because it’s a bit obscure (e.g., I myself am uncertain about even the basics, much less the details)) is that, supposedly, the States is a “guaranteer”(? “guarantor”?) of the GFA (Good Friday Agreement). This is hinted at in the Grauniad article, “[the States] has a formal role to uphold the Good Friday deal.”
Lynna@213, So where’s the taco trucks at each corner of my street?
I can’t.
The latest bipartisan talks to collapse: background checks
Every time bipartisan negotiations collapse, it serves as reminder that making bipartisanship a prerequisite to governing is hopelessly misguided.
RE: SC #212, the original Tweet has been deleted, apparently. What’d I miss?
Totally O/T, my Better Half dragged me out of bed at 0415 hrs this morning, so that we could drive to a quiet country road to watch (and photograph) the annular eclipse rising. Glorious.
blf @217, I have the same question! And I live in a state replete with immigrants from Mexico.
SC, LOL. Her demonstration failed. The key wouldn’t stick to her neck even though she claimed that vaccine had magnetized her! Hilarious. She just blithely continued: “Can anyone explain to me why this is happening?” Oh, lord. ROTFL.
In other news,
Claims that Lafayette Square was not cleared for Trump don’t hold up to even a cursory examination
Right!
So the story of why they cleared the park changed over time. Suspicious.
Someone made relevant evidence disappear!
Republicans are pushing revisionist history. Don’t buy the lie.
New Giuliani Tape Shows Key Witness Didn’t Testify Accurately in First Trump Impeachment
Kurt Volker said he didn’t know Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden. New audio indicates he did.
Three dead including child in shooting at Florida Publix, sheriff says
This is a developing story. Very few details so far.
Vice – “Operation Underground Railroad’s Carefully Crafted Public Image Is Falling Apart.”
Wonkette:
Link
Biden, Boris Johnson release updated Atlantic Charter after first meeting
Washington Post link
The Democratic agenda and the fierce urgency of now
It’s an open question what Senate Democrats intend to do with their limited time in the majority. Shouldn’t canceling the August recess be on the table?
Capitol Police officer warns that Jan. 6 ‘was the tip of the iceberg’ as Republicans dismiss threat
Right!
Florida city bans gambling amid prospects of Trump-owned casino
Hoover Dam reservoir plunges to record low amid extreme drought
Lake Mead provides water to 25 million people in the Western U.S.
quotetheunquote @ #220, it was a video by this guy Neil Patel describing “why I don’t read books” – they’re actually written a whole year or more before they’re published, by which time they’re already totally outdated, so people should go to YouTube instead. I’m not surprised he removed it.
Your morning drive sounds lovely!
Guardian world liveblog:
“Great news for mRNA vaccine protection against the delta (B.1.617.2) variant, just out @Nature
potent neutralizing antibody response generated @BioNTech_Group/@pfizer which goes along with some clinical effectiveness data”
Also in Nature (free): “The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know.”
Washington Post:
AXIOS:
Link
The Bogus Maricopa Audit Has Become A Mecca For MAGA Politicians Nationwide
Oh, FFS.
Follow-up to comment 237.
Posted by readers of the article:
Actual election experts challenge incompetent Arizona ‘audit’ team: ‘Put up or shut up’
MLB All-Star game to stay in Denver, judge rules
Wonkette:
Link
Reuters – “Three Percenters militia members charged in U.S. Capitol attack”:
NBC – “Message in a jacket: Jill Biden offers ‘love’ during U.K. trip”:
Photo atl. Love it.
More in the “What? Why?!” genre (see #195 above), from Orac: “Del Bigtree could have died because he refused transfusion from donors vaccinated against COVID-19.”
“BREAKING: Adam Schiff and House Intel Committee aides — and the aides’ family members, including a minor — had their data from Apple subpoenaed by DOJ in 2017 and 2018.”
NYT link atl. Schiff will be on with Rachel Maddow.
Katie Benner, NYT: “NEW: In hunting for people who leaked Russia investigation intel to reporters, DOJ subpoenaed Apple for data belonging to Adam Schiff, another House Intel Committee Democrat, aides and family members. One was a minor.”
Link to the same NYT article atl.
Trump again sides with Putin and the Fascist International against democracy and the US.
This DoJ reporting is shocking.
“My colleague Fiona Hill, who staffed the summit for Trump, told the BBC that Helsinki was so bad that she considered faking a medical emergency just to disrupt it.”
MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders), is 50 years old this year, having been founded in 1971 as a result of the Biafra genocide. France24 has an article on their history, Doctors Without Borders: 50 years of ‘French doctors’ providing care, bearing witness.
(Disclaimer: I’m a regular contributor to MSF.)
A rather belated comment on the MSNBC article Lynna linked to @136. I’d say the rise of Fascism2.0, and in particular of Trump and the Trumpist Party, indicates that liberal democracy is inadequate to the age of the Internet, financial crisis, and looming environmental catastrophe. It has relied, perhaps particularly in the USA, on the bulk of the population being politically passive, and misinformed about who really constitute the “elite” and how they retain their power and wealth. This has allowed elite factions prepared to jettison liberal democracy’s limited but real constraints on executive power to embark on a program of subordinating the judiciary, critical media, educational institutions, and civil society. This is powered, through social media and the likes of the Murdoch press, by scapegoating minorities and a largely invented “liberal elite”. Their followers are fooled into a false sense that they are participants in an existential struggle, while in reality, they are merely spectators – QAnon is the purest example of this so far.
My hunch is that Biden agreed to this essentially meaningless but (to Johnson) politically valuable “updated Atlantic Charter” in exchange for a promise by Johnson that he would negotiate a UK surrender in the Great Sausage War with the EU, thus protecting the Good Friday Agreement. But as the Sausage War itself demonstrates, Johnson’s promises are worthless – even when they take the form of an international treaty he signed and boasted about.
The voting rights ‘disaster’ Manchin fears is already unfolding
To hear Joe Manchin tell it, a single-party push on voting rights is a “disaster waiting to happen.” But what if this disaster is already unfolding?
I agree with Michelle Goldberg: As the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg put it, the conservative Democrat is part of a tiny contingent committed to the idea of bipartisanship “as a supreme good, which in practice means bowing to the wishes of a party that doesn’t believe Joe Biden is a legitimate president and wants above all to see him fail.”
Despite threats, Feinstein does not see our democracy ‘in jeopardy’
If the current circumstances do not reflect a democracy in jeopardy, what would? What would it take for Dianne Feinstein to be concerned?
Follow-up to comments 245 and 246 from SC.
Trump’s Justice Dept. targeted congressional Dems in leak probe
Link
Take his name off of everything.
Link
Follow-up to comment 257.
Posted by readers of the article:
Josh Marshall:
Link
Lynna@257 quotes “Rename Donald J Trump State Park to… anything else.”
Seems reasonable to me, Anything Else State Park.
Lawmakers urge Merrick Garland to restore asylum law, enact immigration court reforms
Follow-up to comment 255.
Link
blf @260, LOL. Good choice.
In other news: Coronavirus restrictions spark mutiny against GOP governor
In Idaho, a Trump-era proving ground for feuding Republican factions, Gov. Brad Little faces a fierce primary challenge — from his lieutenant governor.
I shudder at the thought of a Governor more conservative than Little.
Teen who filmed Floyd murder awarded honorary Pulitzer
Re: SC 225
“Operation Underground Railroad”
I’ve been thinking about the the use of pedophilia by the Qanon crowd and how it’s evolved. Actual child abusers shaping the conspiracies making them and people shaped by their propaganda 2 groups. I believe that the whole “pedo joe” thing was because Trump is worse than Biden when it comes to sexual boundaries, and it was useful social manipulation by actual pedophiles and Rs to point the “save the children” instinct at their political enemies.
Fast forward and now you have a bunch of people who have to make that look serious politically, some child abusers, some abusive dupes. The first attempt was the “save the children” protests. Now there are these socially poisoned organizations like “Operation Underground Railroad”. Appropriation of “underground railroad” is standard bigot behavior.
Garland: DOJ Voting Rights Push To Include Focus On Sketchy Audits, Elex Worker Threats
Good.
Oh, FFS.
DOJ inspector general opens investigation into efforts to break into Democratic reps phones
And there’s this detail:
Wonkette: “Is Bill Barr LYING? Or Does He Just Think We’re All Idiots?”
Link
Wonkette: “Tom Cotton Claims Biden Incited Heretofore Unseen Racism, Sexism In The Military”
Link
This melting glacier was already the biggest source of sea level rise. Then things got worse.
Washington Post link
West Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier is speeding up as its ice shelf disintegrates, new research shows.
‘People of Praise leaders failed me’: Christian group tied to Justice Amy Coney Barrett faces reckoning over sexual misconduct.
Washington Post link
Sounds like mormonism.
Republican US Sen. Ron Johnson Suspended From YouTube
Tech Company Cited Wisconsin Senator’s Violation Of Its COVID-19 Misinformation Policy
By Shawn Johnson
Published: Friday, June 11, 2021
Follow-up to @159: Two more electionerroring propagandas plopped through the letterbox recently. One is from teh le penazis, with at least three of their four main “promises” xenophobic (, insult Algiers, and keep Turkey out of the EU), plus a fourth one I haven’t decoded, but which may be They are still pushing their twisted version of localism, which, e.g., in the sane world means, regarding food, locally-produced, but in their loony little loos, means . And something about . Normally I recycle the propagandas, but this one gets shredded. (And in what seems to be this year’s theme, five of the six pictured candidates have no idea at all how to simile — they all appear to scowl all the time — and so look like either vampires crazed by being out in the sunlight, or the stereotypical skulls mounted on posts.)
The other propagandas is from some Socialist-Green outfit (or at least that’s how they refer to themselves), and lists a lot of issues, most of which seem sensible (ecologically-responsible transport and power with lasting jobs, etc.). One individual hasn’t figured out smiling, and another looks like a professor who’d like to be smoking a pipe whilst pontificating.
From RWW, Biden’s Demonic Lesbian Army:
Demonic Lesbians world “rulers” (ignoring the military bit) might be worth a try, or possibly a band name.
US tech titans would have to exit key businesses under House plan:
The title, whilst accurate, perhaps misses the significant point alleged-torturer Ahmed al-Raisi may become president of Interpol, ‘Torture’ complaint filed in France against UAE official:
Rightwing firm posed as leftist group on Facebook to divide Democrats:
Many many more details at the link, including a highly-dubious non-investigation by the FEC.
Teh raping children cult — of whom President Biden is described as a “devout member” — is considering blackmailing him (and very possibly others) for daring to support abortion, : Catholic bishops split over Biden’s support for abortion rights (my added emboldening):
At this point a reminder that most of the Supreme Court justices are also members of the raping children cult (at least six of the nine). The article and quotes presume the threats are mostly directed at Biden, but…
Professor Chesnut also ties the move to internal cult politics, in particular, opposition to the Vatican’s “relatively liberal” alleged stance on various issues (i.e., only slightly to the right of, e.g., teh le penazis (see @274), which is far far too leftish).
Oregon house expels Republican who helped far-right rioters enter capitol:
In May, he was arraigned on “charges of official misconduct and criminal trespass”.
Some snippets from Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), Oregon House expels state Rep Mike Nearman, plotter of state Capitol incursion:
Yes, those are the sorts of thing one does when carrying Shooty McShootfaces, wearing military combat gear, waving pro-slavery flags, and spraying people with bear spray. “Anyone fancy a curry?”
Sadly, surviving terrorism does not include surviving hair furor’s rein, Marco Rubio wants to pause student debt — but only to terrorism survivors:
A snippet from the opinion column Mixing Britons’ food with politics invariably leaves a bad taste:
Trump DOJ Subpoenaed Apple For Data On More Than 100 In Leak Probe
Follow-up to comment 283.
Posted by readers of the article:
Sessions, Barr, and Rosenstein all need to answer for the misuse of the DOJ
Secret recordings, leaked letters: Explosive secrets rocking the Southern Baptist Convention
The article was written for The Washington Post by Sarah Pulliam Bailey.
From the Washington Post editorial board: Another stunning revelation about the Trump Justice Department requires answers — and action
Germany urges quick action as ‘intense’ Iran talks resume
“could complicate” … that’s an understatement!
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/12/world/g7summit
NY Times link
Link
‘Even Beyond Nixon’: Pelosi Swipes At Trump-Era Leak Probe Into Lawmakers
Text is quoted from The Economist. The article is behind a paywall.
Follow-up to comment 253
New Brennan Center study shows Manchin’s insistence on bipartisan voting protections is ludicrous
There’s just no question about this: most Republicans are anti-democracy.
Eight Venezuela soccer players in Brazil for tournament test positive for COVID-19
Trump DOJ subpoenaed Apple for records of White House lawyer
Link
Wonkette: “Susan Collins Wants To Tax Electric Cars For Not Paying The Gas Tax”
Link
Israel approves new governing coalition, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year tenure.
Washington Post link<?a>
Proper link for text quoted in comment 299: Washington Post link
In other news: Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by Houston hospital employees who refused COVID-19 vaccine.
Washington Post link
600,000 dead.
Washington Post link
Quoted in Lynna’s #290:
Geniuses buying oceanfront property in southern Florida in 2021. I bet they didn’t have a hard time finding willing sellers.
One dead in a right wingnut terrorist attack.
No surprise.
Rand Paul latest in GOP to question ‘democracy and majority rule’
On global stage, Biden enjoys respect Trump could only dream of
Joe Biden was celebrated at the G-7 summit, in part because of his message, and in part because he wasn’t Donald Trump.
Republicans Have A Bold Scheme To Hijack MI’s Elections Rules. Will They Pull It Off?
Talking Points Memo link
Lara Trump ‘belongs in prison’: Twitter users call former Trump adviser out on inciting violence
More at the link.
Here’s a link to the June 14 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
They have a link to this article:
Guardian world liveblog:
Vermont governor lifts restrictions as state becomes first to reach 80 percent vaccinated
That’s some welcome good news. However, I wish we could say the same about other states.
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are at the bottom, with under 50 percent. Idaho is almost as bad.
Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/live-from-brussels-its-joe-biden
Quality slo-mo.
Wonkette:
Link
Why McConnell’s plans for future Supreme Court vacancies matter
Saturday’s tweet o’ the day.
$2 billion swindled by the previous admin for border wall construction returned to Pentagon
Biden admin shuts down ICE propaganda office that sought to further demonize immigrants
EPA to reinstate air pollution panel disbanded under Trump
Wonkette:
Link
From the Guardian world liveblog evening summary:
Kayleigh McEnany Lies Like Liar About How Much She Lied
Link
Link
What the Novavax vaccine means for the global fight against Covid-19
The biotech firm said its Covid-19 vaccine showed 90 percent efficacy in clinical trials. […]
Some podcast episodes:
Lovett or Leave It – “Pride Plus Some Wrath (200th episode!)”:
QAA – “Episode 146: Liv Crokin”:
Fever Dreams – “Talk Radio Crank Yankers Feat. Chris James”:
I also recently found out about the 10-episode BBC podcast series The Ratline. It’s excellent.
One more podcast:
Straight White American Jesus with more re Lynna’s #286 above – “Patriarchy, Critical Race Theory, and Christian Nationalism”:
They mention coverage at the Religion News Service. I found this interesting piece there from last month – “Biden White House officials hold first meeting with atheist, secular groups”:
Quoted in Lynna’s #317:
My god. I don’t remember knowing about that one. Sick.
Quoted in Lynna’s #319:
HRW, August 2020 – “Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights Will Endanger Everyone’s Human Rights”:
SC @325, this is such a good summary:
I hope those moves by the Southern Baptist Convention drive members away in droves.
NBC News:
Whoops. I would say Congress goofed up.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
Updates on the mass shootings that occurred Friday and Saturday:
Quoted text is from USA Today and NBC News.
As McConnell effectively dares Senate Dems, will they respond?
Those who decry bitter partisanship need to realize how much bitter partisanship they encourage through their passivity and tolerance of extremist tactics.
Judd Legum:
Legum was responding to this report, posted by Matt Largey:
https://twitter.com/mattlargey/status/1404498195795828746
More at the link. The grid operators are asking people in Austin, Texas to set their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher.
Follow-up to comment 31.
And here’s what Governor Greg Abbott had to say last week: “Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid.”
This is June. What’s going to happen in Texas in August?
LOL. (Also, the Pledge of Allegiance has been controversial for decades, and the history of legal cases – continuing through the present – points to its being a site of coercion, especially for children. Performative patriotism, particularly when enforced, should be anathema to the culture of a free and self-governing people.)
These graphs are amazing.
I keep forgetting to mention – You’re Wrong About has completed their three-part themed podcast set:
“Political Correctness”
The Chicks vs. The Iraq War
Cancel Culture
Anti-Vaxxer Rick Wiles Blames Chinese Agents for His COVID-19 Infection:
No, no, it wasn’t the Chinese. It was the aliens from the all the flying saucers buzzing around. They ufonapped you and were going to do their usual anal thing, but couldn’t dislodge your head. And, despite being comatose, you were still bellowing. So they gave you Covids-19, -21, -22, and -37 just to shut you the feck up. (At first they wanted to examine your alleged-brain to see how it could be so defective, but where unable to locate it, or indeed any sort of neruo-activity or -system. Weirdly, though, no rabies.)
Yeah, sure, by a virus which was infected the entire world, and where vaccines are being used quite successfully whenever available, and just how did you stuff your head so far up your arse that even the aliens couldn’t remove it?
Not exactly political, but it does mention the archenemy of everything which good, has taste, and isn’t in league with the evil equine empire, I’ve been trying milk substitutes in my tea — it’s a stomach-churning experience. A snippet, mentioning the dreadful p–:
That’s the only time the p–, the archenemy of, well, everything, even British tea cooking it seems, is mentioned.
Fox News claims NPR wants to Tom Hanks over Tulsa op-ed (my added emboldening):
The paywalled NYtimes is being awkward, so I cannot access either op-ed directly. Here is the Grauniad’s description of Mr Hank’s, Tom Hanks urges US educators to teach students about Tulsa race massacre. It quotes extensively from his essay.
And of course, NPR, being a free-to-air publicly-supported reality-base genuine-news, etc., organisation, is anathema to teh profit$-for-moriaduck faux.
This isn’t as goofy as it may seem, because the real thing is rare and the current artifical subsistute is made from petroleum, Scientists convert used plastic bottles into vanilla flavouring:
There’s also the problem that not all plastics can be recycled.
As someone who used to totally dislike perfumes — but after living in France for many many yonks, now realises part of the problem is the cosmetics kind (at least) is applied far too liberally (very much a case of more is not better!) — I’m not totally thrilled by that idea. On the other hand, it does consume plastics, so perhaps has more good than smelly evil going for it.
Howzibout a mutant enzyme that breaks down thugs (Republicans) into compassionate reality-based humans? (Or non-petroleum-based plant fertiliser?)
Mostly unrelated: Back when I was in California (so long ago the San Andreas fault was only a glimmer in Tectonics, teh god of Plates, eye), there was a big problem with a fake vanilla from Mexico (where the real stuff is indigenous). The problem was there was another substance, coumarin, which tasted like vanilla — “more like vanilla than the real vanilla” (paraphrasing), a respected chef of the time said (Narsai David) — but was toxic. A slow-acting poison. It’s found in high concentrations in Tonka Beans (The delicious flavour with a toxic secret, BBC, 2017), and has been technically illegal in the States since the 1950s. Nonetheless, there is still a push to allow the stuff, The Tonka Bean: An Ingredient So Good It Has to Be Illegal (The Atlantic, 2010).
Tonka Beans are related to peas. All the flavour and taste peas lack might be in the toxic Tonka Beans.
Guardian – “Israelis and Palestinians brace for unrest over ultranationalist march”:
I believe the march is scheduled to begin in an hour (6 PM local time).
Here’s a link to the June 15 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
CNN – “First on CNN: FBI warns lawmakers that QAnon ‘digital soldiers’ may become more violent”:
More atl.
Not political (except in a loose sense), but I just gave myself a HUGE scare: Tomorrow I’ll very possibly need proof-of-identity, which are my passports, along with other paperwork. No problem with the other paperwork (so of course something will go wrong!), but the passports weren’t “there”. Eh? Check some other places where I knew they were in the relatively-recent past, and, uh… no. WTF? Had a Talisker single malt whisky to calm down and think about it, and deduced the last time I’d “used” them was back in strict lockdown when an Attestation de Déplacement Dérogatoire (plus ID) was necessary to leave the lair. Ah! Maybe in a winter(-ish) coat pocket, then? Yeap… second coat checked, still safely inside a (moisture-)protecting sealed plastic bag.
Bits and pieces of news:
Maybe Republican candidates should continue to pretend they have endorsements they don’t have. That would devalue Trump’s endorsements, and it would cause trumpian levels of confusion in the Trump base of voters. Besides, what could be more Trump-like than lying during your campaign?
Link
Why the Arizona AG’s aggressive Justice Dept pushback matters
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) wasn’t too engaged with his state’s bonkers election “audit.” Then he launched a U.S. Senate campaign.
New York Times:
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows may have been responsible for sending emails from Trump to Department of Justice personnel.
Commentary:
Ex-Rep. Rohrabacher Was Part Of Crowd Outside Capitol Building During Attack
JFC.
Follow-up to comment 347.
Posted by readers of the article:
Link
Follow-up to blf’s comment 338.
Here’s what attacks on critical race theory are defending: History from a slaveholder’s viewpoint
See https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1404400666685157381 to read the two paragraphs.
GOP admits they’re plotting to kill Biden’s infrastructure plans, with Manchin’s and Sinema’s help
Yeah, Republicans are just dragging this out until they get to go home again for yet another of their scheduled vacations.
JFC. Not again.
Link
Wonkette: “Charity To Erase $278 Million Of Medical Debt, In Reminder That US Health Coverage F*cked”
Link
Wonkette: “Loser Trump Can’t Get Book Deal, Can’t Blog, Not Allowed To Tweet, Is Basically Worthless”
Link
Historic heat wave brings 100-degree heat to 40 million people in western U.S.
Washington Post link
Records are toppling as the extreme heat reinforces a devastating drought. A weather map is available at the link.
Texas governor’s not-so-new idea: a privately funded border wall
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wants to collect donations for a privately funded border wall. This is not a good idea.
Grifting and scamming!
New DOJ Emails Include Hints About Atlanta USA’s Abrupt Exit Amid Trump Pressure
Lynna, do you suppose we could get them to build the wall on the northern border of Texas?
“Michael Flynn was honored at an Alabama county GOP dinner in Birmingham over the weekend. He was the event’s keynote speaker & received a ‘certificate of recognition’ from Gov. Kay Ivey. To Flynn’s left is current Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mike Bolin.”
Photo atl.
Quoted in Lynna’s #354:
Phoning it in, I guess, after he announced his departure. Miller’s replacement was announced today. It’s the circle of li…ars.
Follow-up to Lynna@354, Some snippets from Trump insists he’s writing but big publishers unlikely to touch it:
Center for Media and Democracy – “REVEALED: The Federalist Foundation’s Tax Records.”
The 2022 elections will be an existential moment for our democracy.
Tweet (thread) o’ the day.
Update to #340 – the march is over; the new government is still there.
Victoria Nuland will be the only woman at tomorrow’s Biden-Putin summit.
snark rates @358, sounds good. However, if we walled Texas in we would trap all the good people in there with the stupid people and I’m afraid weapons-grade stupid would win.
There’s some hope: I have a feeling Abbott’s wall will fail because all the grifters and scammers will steal the money that gullible Trump cult followers donate. Abbott may take some of the funds raised online (from people all over the world! he says) and give it to shady contractors who build a shoddy wall. That’s what Steve Bannon’s group did. Anything they do build will fall down. Kind of a metaphor for rightwing failures in general.
And then there’s the fact that many private landowners will simply have a handy target to sue in court.
The worst sin I see here is that Abbott’s wall is a waste of time. That guy is twiddling his thumbs while the Texas power grid is likely to fail this summer, and people will die.
Bits and pieces of news:
Link
Oh, FFS.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/yavapai-county-arizona-canvassing
Arizona election hero shows Sinema what it’s like to actually care about democracy
Trump to visit southern border with Texas governor
Stephen Colbert’s first live monologue in 460 days. I cried several times, including during the Vax-Scene dance.
Quoted in Lynna’s #368:
The officer was standing in front of her with the gun pointed, and several of the insurrectionists were shouting “Gun! Gun! He’s got a gun!” There were House members – Gosar’s colleagues – behind him still trying to exit the chamber, and she was at the front of a violent mob. She’d also been in the military.
It was nice to Colbert return in front of a live audience but I was quite disappointed with Jon Stewart (who I used to love). I’m not sure if he was trying to be funny and mocking but the way he did the bit about the Wuhan lab was way too close to what the real nut jobs say. Colbert was having fun and still trying to get a few counterpoints in but that will likely help with the stupid messaging about the COVID origin and China’s role in it..
I’m one of the people who was very unhappy Mr Colbert was back in front of a live audience. Well, Ok, I am happy it was possible, but disappointed in the actual first day result. During the brief time I time tried to watch, it was nothing but wall-to-wall cheering and (often pointless-seeming) noise-making, frequently interrupting or completely drowning out whatever it was Colbert was trying to say. I gave up after perhaps 5 minutes. Hopefully the crowd will calm down in time and the show become watchable again. (And yes, the Grinch had the right idea, Tom should have caught Jerry, and 1 + 2 = apples if the kracken aren’t flying. (Looks out the window below his feet.) A herd just zoomed by, chased by Danger Mouse.)
Jean @ #377:
I read a headline about the Stewart segment and knew how irritated it would leave me, so I decided not to watch it. Not regretting that decision.
blf @ #378, thanks for sharing.
The Biden-Putin summit is scheduled to begin in around 45 minutes (1 PM Geneva time, 7 AM ET in the US).
Here’s a link to the Guardian summit and US-politics liveblog.
Guardian – “Biden meeting marks rare trip out of ‘bunker’ for Covid-cautious Putin”:
Guardian – “Wealth secret of the super rich revealed: be born into a rich family”:
Here’s a link to the June 16 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From their morning summary:
Also from there:
CNN – “Fiona Hill reflects on ‘terrible spectacle’ of Trump-Putin summit ahead of Biden’s meeting with Russian President”:
BBC – “Belarus parades detained journalist Protasevich at media event”:
From BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher’s account: “With Mr Protasevich having been brought from detention to the briefing, and almost certainly having no say in the matter, we decided to leave. Shortly afterwards several of the foreign diplomats also followed suit.”
Update to several comments above – CNN – “Moderates win the day in close vote over Southern Baptist presidency”:
Philip Bump:
WaPo link atl.
Summits bring the worst out of the media commentariat.
Maddow last night – “NYT Report Exposes Amazon’s Low Regard For Workers: ‘Inherently Lazy'”:
Guardian US-politics liveblog:
The Republican objective of flooding federal courts with partisan judges is paying dividends.
Judge Lifts Biden Administration’s Pause on Oil and Gas Leases
June 15, 2021 CAMERON LANGFORD
Details at the link.
From today’s DN! headlines:
CNN – “Cases of a dangerous Covid-19 variant are ‘rapidly increasing’ in US, expert says”:
Guardian US-politics liveblog:
Putin’s is first – to begin any minute now.
LOL.
“What a lame answer from Putin on the ‘Russian citizen’ aka @navalny”
He literally started a response to the question about human rights with “What about…?”
Who is this reporter?: “You didn’t answer my question. If all of your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned, doesn’t that signify that you don’t want a fair political fight?”
I kind of think the question @ #397 threw Putin a bit and now he’s taking more questions than planned to try to try to recover some poise.
“@ABC News’ @rachelvscott to Russian Pres. Putin: ‘The list of your political opponents who are dead, imprisoned or jailed is long…and you have now prevented anyone who supports [Alexey Navalny] to run for office.
‘So my question is, Mr. President: what are you so afraid of?’
MORE: @rachelvscott follows up to Russian Pres. Putin: ‘You didn’t answer my question, sir. If all of your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned—doesn’t that send a message that you do not want a fair political fight?'”
Applause for Rachel Scott!
Apologies – here’s the link (with videos) for #399.
Guardian world liveblog:
Tweet o’ the day.
OMG, the stupidity!
House GOP’s Stefanik tries to defend Trump’s DOJ subpoenas scandal
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik tried to defend secret subpoenas targeting members of Congress. Every element of her defense was wrong.
Re the Rachel Scott question, from the Guardian US-politics liveblog:
Biden’s press conference has begun.
Bits and pieces of news:
Link
Livetweeting of the Biden press conference.
Why it matters that Republicans keep flocking to Arizona’s ‘audit’
“A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower,” one observer noted, “and the danger of this is spreading from state to state.”
Biden’s doing a good job so far, talking about Putin damaging his own global credibility and the standing of Russia in the world by continuing to violate international norms. He’s saying Navalny dying in prison would have devastating consequences for Russia.
“It’s about trust” – other countries won’t work with or invest in Russia if they do these things.
Biden saying the US has “significant cyber capabilities” (and Putin knows it), and will respond to cyber attacks.
From the thread @ #406:
As pandemic claims 600,000 lives in US, talk of a commission grows
It was one year ago today when Mike Pence took a COVID victory lap, boasting about falling fatality rates. This week, the US death toll topped 600,000.
GOP leader vows to make Joe Biden a ‘half-term president’
With his “half-term president” rhetoric, Barrasso is giving away the game: the GOP doesn’t want to govern; it’s desperate to stop Democrats from governing.
‘Tifa Looks Like Professionals Compared To Us’: Chat Logs Show Terrified Proud Boys After Riot
Link
Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have teamed up to make a hugely dangerous claim that the FBI was behind the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Link
Wonkette: “Giant Insurer United Healthcare Generously Delays Death Panel Plan Until Pandemic Over”
Link
Tom Cotton Warns That Chinese Will Use Olympics To Harvest US DNA For ‘Supersoldiers’
Follow-up to comment 417.
Posted by readers of the article:
Guardian US-politics liveblog:
Guardian world liveblog:
The French protocol for being vaccinated has been simplified,ad now resembles that of other countries: Make an appointment (for both first and second jab), answer a few questions about risk factors, get jabbed, wait c.15 minutes, and done. (In the past there was, e.g., nonsense about interviewed by your doctor to ensure you understood the importance of being vaccinated, etc.) The difficulty most recently, for me, was the lackadaisical drive, e.g., the local vaccination centre only being only approximately 9am–4pm weekdays. For some time now, the local centre has had no open slots for four or more weeks in advance (which is perhaps a good thing?). I was also concerned about language — “technical” French, including medical terms / questions, is awkward — but as it turned out, almost everyone I spoke to at the local vaccination centre was, not only friendly and helpful (as expected). but also spoke English (somewhat unexpected).
Yesterday, when I checked, there were open slots available today. So I immediately booked one, and now have had my first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, with the second already scheduled. I can already feel those magnetic microchips uploading and rebooting, albeit they are running into determined resistance from the cheeses and Linux.
So I had a grand dinner with lots of alcohol — helps the microchips magnetise something — and will probably be magnetically pulling down flying saucers from the sky by tomorrow.
blf@420 Conga rats on shot one. Two weeks after the second shot, you will feel like the MDP in sight of a sideboard full of cheese. Enjoy the feeling.
blf, congratulations on your first shot!
Here’s a link to the June 17 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From their morning summary:
Also from there:
The Supreme Court has upheld the ACA, 7-2.
Congratulations to the New Yorker union!
LOL, this is great.
Mark Joseph Stern:
Re: ACA
The Court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit at all because they have not shown a past or future injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct. The decision does not reach the other questions (on the validity of the mandate or the severability question).
Have to wonder what the internal arguments looked like to land on a 7-2 ruling on standing alone. Their only way out was to punt on the issues.
CNN – “Officer injured in Capitol riot blasts GOP lawmaker’s behavior as ‘disgusting’ after tense exchange”:
Politico – “In secret recording, Florida Republican threatens to send Russian-Ukrainian ‘hit squad’ after rival”:
“In interview with @Ami_Magazine published this week, Trump complains about lack of Jewish support in 2020:
‘I did the Heights, I did Jerusalem, and I did Iran… I believe we got 25% of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense. It just seems strange to me’.
Trump added: ‘Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you? I’m not talking about Orthodox Jews’.”
SC@401,
There is remarkably little political or media response to the way UK cases of Covid-19 are shooting up. OK, the governments of the UK and Scotland have delayed the next stages of relaxing restrictions – but the current level is clearly inadequate to deal with the delta variant. Hospitalizations are also increasing, and deaths have stopped falling. I have to travel to and spend several days in London for work early in July, and although I’ve had two jabs (AstraZeneca) I’m none too happy about it.
MMFA – “Fox’s anti-‘critical race theory’ parents are also GOP activists”:
Descriptions of several “concerned parents” at the link. One of them, hilariously, is Barry Bennett. He’s a recognizable Trumpworld figure and Republican lobbyist (reportedly under federal investigation) who’s undoubtedly appeared on Fox on numerous occasions in that role, now described by Fox as a “Virginia Little League Parent.” Fox has so much contempt for its audience. He’s also been in politics for like 30 years; it’s certainly possible he has kids in Little League, but I’d need to see the evidence.
KG @ #431, I’m not happy to hear about your upcoming trip to London. I hope things will be under better control by then.
AJ – “How COVID vaccines work against the Delta variant”:
JFC:
Guardian world liveblog:
Guardian world liveblog:
Afghanistan is going through a terrible wave.
blf @420, excellent! Sounds like a good experience all around. Since I’ve had my two shots, I am now fully magnetized. So glad to hear you are on your way to being protected against covid-19. With the Delta variant running around infecting people like crazy, it’s good to get vaccinated.
In other news (not nearly as pleasing as blf’s news):
Link
SC @430, I see Trump is still in transactional mode: I do this for you, you vote for me. He ignores all other factors, he’s just into the transaction. Trump is simple minded.
Text quoted by SC @432:
Yeah, conservative doofuses have mounted a huge effort behind demonizing “critical race theory.” It doesn’t really matter to them what “critical race theory” is, it only matters that they have a new demon to fight. It’s ridiculous on one level. But on another level, I see the immense organizational structure behind this effort … and I see the amount of repetition already swamping rightwing media and I know where this is going. Most of the people in my neck of the woods will buy into this nonsense, and that will reinforce their idea that they should vote for Republicans. Sheesh.
Follow-up to comment 415.
An unintended problem with the GOP’s new Jan. 6 conspiracy theory
If GOP conspiracy theorists think the FBI organized the Jan. 6 attack, wouldn’t they want an independent commission to uncover the truth?
Oh, FFS.
Unwilling to wait until 2024, ‘Speaker Trump’ is now a thing Republicans want
Arizona ‘Audit’ Contractor Took Election Data To A Montana ‘Lab’… Or Maybe A Log Cabin
What kind of fuckery is this now?
Follow-up to comment 440.
Posted by readers of the article:
‘Donald Trump finally made a concession speech’: MSNBC host says of latest Fox News interview
https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-concession-speech/
Link
Mark and Patricia McCloskey Plead Guilty to Misdemeanors After Brandishing Guns Outside St. Louis Mansion
AARON KELLER Jun 17th, 2021
tomh @444: Ah, that’s so great. McCloskey is running for U.S. Senate because we need more convicted criminal Republicans in the Senate.
In other news, here is some humor from Andy Borowitz:
lew Yorker Link
GOP crushes Manchin’s hopes for elections compromise
Joe Manchin wants to remake Democrats’ sweeping elections reform bill. Republicans plan to take it down before he can try.
Happy Juneteenth, our new federal holiday.
SC@433, thanks for your concern! Unfortunately, I expect case numbers to be significantly higher by the time I’m due in London, given that delta-variant cases are currently doubling every 10 days or so, and there are no moves to tighten restrictions. I’ll be as careful as I can.
A holiday that celebrates the day the country became just a wee bit less hypocritical is a holiday I can get behind!
Follow-up to tomh’s comment 444.
NBC News:
Associated Press: “Convention circuit of delusion gives forum for election lies”
Link
Justice Dept reminds red state it can’t ignore federal gun laws
Missouri Republicans passed a law to prevent the enforcement of new federal gun laws in the state. The Justice Department reminded them they can’t do that.
FFS. The right rediscovers its admiration for Vladimir Putin
Under Obama, much of the right expressed its admiration for the Russian president. Under Biden, it appears to be happening again.
An exclusive from Talking Points Memo: The Template SCOTUS Election-Reversal Lawsuit That Trump Allies Pushed On LA’s AG
“Unpaid citizens and volunteer experts” is such obvious bullshit.
Actual emails and draft lawsuit materials are available at the link.
Follow-up to comment 454.
Posted by a reader of the article:
Followup to Lynna’s followup @ #450
After Pleading Guilty, Mark McCloskey Brags About Making ‘Angry Mob’ Fear ‘Physical Harm,’ Vows to ‘Do the Same Thing Again’
AARON KELLER Jun 17th
New book catalogs how Trump worked to weaken American democracy, and to deliberately spread COVID-19
Jennifer Gosar says what many of us are thinking: Her brother, Paul Gosar, is responsible for Jan. 6
Video is available at the link.
Link
Link
Wonkette:
Link
Washington Post:
Link
Charges against Gaetz may come as soon as July
More from the seamy underbelly of the Trump administration … and this story is very appropriate for today, Juneteenth.
Link
Lieu calls Catholic bishops ‘hypocrites’ for move to deny Biden communion
Washington Post:
Carlson inverts reality of demographic change in Mountain West to promote ‘replacement theory’
World-class lickspittle Mike Pence heckled at Faith & Freedom event over disloyalty to Trump
Happy independence day to all the people of United States of America.
Thank you to everyone for the congratulations on being a walking magnet shedding clouds of microchips. Ironically, the day I was shot, France also announced it was reducing the time between shots (from five-ish weeks to the manufacturer’s recommended three-ish), albeit my second round of microchipping is still scheduled on the older five-ish week schedule. I’ve been waiting a few days for any signs of side-effects (e.g., sore arm, joints on fire, dropping dead), but nothing at all… so now I’ll see if I can reschedule my second shot a bit sooner, now that that is allowed.
The reason France dropped the longer schedule (among other steps) is the Delta variant. In comments a few days ago, the Health(?) Minister noted France is where the UK was about three or four weeks ago, with perhaps only 3% of cases being Delta. However, most cases in the UK are now Delta (Delta variant causes more than 90% of new Covid cases in UK (a week ago)), so France (and the EU-in-general) is alarmed. France, having finally gotten its vaccination programme on-track (albeit still behind the UK), with all(?) the numbers headed in the right direction, doesn’t want a derailment. In fact, it’s looking so good at the moment that, as-of tomorrow, there will not be a curfew — there are still some restrictions (e.g., masks on public transport, lower indoor capacity, proof-of-vaccination for “large” events (indoors and outdoors), and so on), but no lockdown, no requirement for masks outdoors (I admit I’m not wearing one due to the heat (almost no-one is)), and so on.
Lynna@466, quotes “Pope Francis warned that communion should not be used as a political weapon by Catholic bishops.” So it’s perhaps worth repeating part of @281’s excerpt, including my added boldfacing:
Also, as I warned in @281, at least six of the current nine Supreme Court Justices are cult members, so the move is very probably also targeting them. Admittedly, no-one(?) has specifically said so (that I am aware of), but nor has anyone explicitly denied it (that I am aware of).
@lumipuna 470
No microchips. Just dermatographia. That could be stress though the timing is right. The second one knocked me out for a day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatographic_urticaria
Seems to be nocturnal. Hopefully it won’t last long.
I meant blf @ 471
Tomorrow is the first round of French elections to “the regions”, so teh le penazis stuffed two more propagandas through my letterbox: One for teh nazis in general, and one for their local candidate fascist. It’s the usual shite, e.g., «…éradiquer l’islamiseme », deny benefits to families of (read: brown and black people) including making them homeless if they happen to live in subsidised housing (you can guess how common that is), and on and on, including « candidats 100% anti-Macron ! » Both are promptly going into the shredder, so as to avoid contaminating the recycling.
Mass delusion runs rampant.
A new Morning Consult/Politico poll shows that 51 percent of Republican voters believe that audits like the one in Arizona will change the outcome.
blf @475, that’s certainly something that le penazis and right-wingers in the USA have in common: they seem to take some kind of perverse delight in denying benefits to brown and black people. (See comment 467.)
Several days ago, Eric Metaxas Says Biden’s Presidency Is That Will Bring About Revival:
In the Grauniad, Tom Gauld adds literary islands to the government’s safe travel list (cartoon). Considering this is the Grauniad, it’s a shame neither of San Serriffe’s two major islands, Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse, made the list.
ItalyGate Is The Crown Jewel Of Big Lie Conspiracies. And It Just Got A Lot Wilder.
Oh, FFS.
Not suspicious at all. Not one bit suspicious.
Oh yeah, it’s all on the up and up. No problem. Totally believable.
Too bad really that the delusions were not limited to Trump and Mark Meadows.
@480, I wonder if I can get the Mediterranean seaside village where I live involved in this new and even more implausible italian job?… hum, ah, yeah, howzibout: The bamboo ballots waiting to be downloaded to States-side election servers were stored in France, disguised as giant wheels of cheese, a known specialty of both the area and the nefarious election-stealers. There, they would go undetected. They choose a village where superyachts are parked over the winter, so to be able to quickly move the ballots to the transmission stations, and also for escape in case Danger Mouse showed up. (The underwater volcano base was full of spiders.)
More right wingnut terrorism.
This appears to be deliberate. He almost hit a Democratic Congressperson.
Quoted in Lynna’s #453:
Wow.
Lynna @ #468, that’s super interesting.
Incidentally, Carlson is from San Francisco, grew up in La Jolla, went to boarding schools in Switzerland and Rhode Island and college in Connecticut, has worked the vast majority of his adult life in rightwing-billionaire-funded coastal media, and lives in DC.
SC @483, “Lynna @ #468, that’s super interesting.” Yep, It’s sort of like self-segregation, with all the white supremacist’s moving to Idaho. (And some to parts of Oregon, Utah, Montana, etc.) I’ve heard people in Idaho say that Californians are fleeing the big cities, which may be true for a few in-migration folks who want more wilderness and mountains around them, (with fewer people), but the writer in 483 is right that some are fleeing black and brown people. They move to a place that is more than 90% white. And then they cut education funds, social safety nets, etc. It’s bad.
Manchin’s Proposed Changes To The John Lewis Voting Rights Act Would Gut The Bill
Setting low bars for Joe Manchin.
raven@482,
That tragic event now appears to have been an accident.
Follow-up to comment 480.
‘Italygate’ election conspiracy theory was pushed by two firms led by woman who also falsely claimed $30 million mansion was hers.
Washington Post link
Much more at the link. It’s a twisted tale with a lot players, none of them reliable. It’s mostly a tale of making shit up. I am amazed that Michele Roosevelt Edwards claimed a $30 million mansion was hers, and even showed a television crew around the property!
Ammon Bundy Announces Run for Idaho Governor
He might not even be the most extreme candidate in the race.
An embarrassment of whackadoodle-ism.
Betsy DeVos left Washington 5 months ago. Her legacy is alive and well.
On issues like charter schools and sexual misconduct, conservative lawmakers and activists have stepped in to preserve the work of Donald Trump’s education secretary.
More at the link.
Wonkette: “Good Lord, The One Million Moms Are Still So Mad At Cereal.”
Link
“One Million Moms” is really just one person.
Jennifer Rubin:
Washington Post link
Apropos of nothing political, earlier in this thread I noted that, after France relaxed its rules, I would try moving my second magnetchips injection to the manufacturer’s recommended three-ish week interval, from the five-ish week interval in effect at the time I booked my first magnetisation. I finally got around to doing that today, and to my complete astonishment, was able to book the appointment three weeks to the minute after the first.
Ingenuity does science! As per an article in Nature, Mars helicopter kicks up ‘cool’ dust clouds — and unexpected science, a phenomenon has been noticed during Ingenuity’s flights: It is “followed” by a dust cloud:
As the article notes, “Ingenuity is what NASA calls a technology demonstration, whose only goal is to show that flight on Mars is possible. So ‘anything we can learn from it scientifically is icing on the cake’, [said] Jackson”.
In Peru, [Keiko] Fujimori cries electoral fraud — and unleashes torrent of racism:
It’s still early, but the Grauniad is reporting ‘Slap in the face’ for Macron as French voters shun local elections:
Macron’s mob never shoved any propaganda through my letterbox.
DAMNIT, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur is my “region”. It’s always(?) been a le penazi stronghold, with the über-nazi Marion Maréchal-Le Pen (now known just as Marion Maréchal), the niece of teh le penazi’s current führer, Marine Le Pen, formerly one of the elected officials.
Noga Tarnopolsky:
Photo atl.
Yesterday’s tweet (thread) o’ the day.
Locally, in the French Mediterranean seaside village where I live, in yesterday’s first round regional election, teh le penazis got c.36% (not unexpected), teh conservatives c.30%, and that Socialist-Green group previously mentioned (see @276) c.20%, with no-one else getting more than c.5%, on only c.31% participation. In the “region” as-a-whole (Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur), teh le penazis got c.40%, another c.40% by (two lots of) conservatives, with the Socialist-Green group only c.8%, on a turnout of c.51%. So the second round in a week will be between teh conservatives and teh nazis.
Teh le penazi’s führer, Marine Le Pen, is furious, and blamed the voters for not turning out, Le Pen, Macron parties falter as conservatives surge in French regional polls. Some snippets:
Ha! I’d failed to notice many of the “promises” made in the propagandas shoved though my letterbox were not part of the regional powers. (I’d want to go back and look at that Socialist-Green one again, as far as I can now recall, it did seem to mostly discuss regional issues the regional authority could act on?)
DW – “Euro 2020: Proposal to illuminate Munich arena in LGBT+ colors for visit of Hungary”: