Trump: When they say that the seas will rise over the next 400 years, one-eighth of an inch, you know. Which means basically you have a little more beachfront property, okay? Think of it, the seas are going to rise—who knows? But this is the big threat. I watch Biden the other night. “It’s the greatest existential”—he loves that word because it’s a big word, and he thinks he knows. He doesn’t even know what the hell the word means. He goes, it’s the greatest existential threat to our country. Global warming.
Holy fuck.
A modicum of fact checking:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration currently states that “sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise, on average, 10-12 inches (0.25 – 0.30 meters) in the next 30 years (2020-2050), which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years (1920-2020).”
While Trump will no doubt be able to mitigate some of the most visible damage with his Sharpie, that only goes so far, and the NOAA further warns that “[f]ailing to curb future emissions could cause an additional 1.5-5 feet (0.5-1.5 meters) of rise for a total of 3.5-7 feet (1.1-2.1 meters) by the end of this century.” So an eighth of an inch over 400 years is just sliiiightly off.
Also, rising sea levels wouldn’t actually create more beachfront property, would they? Unless Trump is thinking of 1978’s “Superman: The Movie,” in which Lex Luthor plots to sink half of California into the ocean so inland areas become valuable beachfront (and, let’s face it, there’s at least a 50/50 chance he is thinking along these lines), he clearly has no clue what he’s saying. As anyone not huffing hairspray knows, rising sea levels would devastate coastal areas—and shrink their beaches—not enhance their property values.
[…] in December 2015, Trump said this about regulations banning CFCs in hairspray: “You can’t use hairspray because hairspray is going to affect the ozone. They want me to use the pump because the other one, which I really like better than going ‘bing,’ ‘bing,’ ‘bing,’ and then it comes out in big globs, right? And it’s stuck in your hair, and you say, ‘Oh my God, I got to take a shower again, my hair’s all screwed up,’ right? I want to use hairspray.”
[…] In July 2020, prior to enacting new rules allowing for higher-flow (i.e., water-wasting) shower heads, Trump said this at the White House: “So, shower heads. You take a shower, the water doesn’t come out. You want to wash your hands, the water doesn’t come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair—I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect.”
[…] Wind turbines are an important part of a renewable-energy future, and, if elected, Trump vows to kill all offshore wind projects “on Day One.” He whines constantly about President Biden’s successful green energy initiatives, so those would instantly go up in a wisp of diesel smoke as well. And he’s already withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement once, so expect a reprise of that toddler tantrum, too.
And then there’s the matter of that $1 billion bribe he solicited from the oil industry in exchange for reversing “dozens” of President Biden’s environmental rules—and nixing any new ones. […]
Trump’s “jokes” about climate change are easy enough to dismiss, but behind the jokes are a careless, thoughtless dolt whose ignorance could very well usher in the end of civilization as we know it. Count this as just one more reason we shouldn’t elect a convicted felon who regularly cuts corners to be the next leader of the free world.
“A Trump presidency would risk $1 trillion in clean energy investment, WoodMac says”
A victory by Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election would jeopardize a projected $1 trillion in low-carbon energy investments and carbon emissions would be 1 billion tonnes more by 2050 than under current policies, according to a new analysis by Wood Mackenzie published on Thursday. […]
Wood Mackenzie projects about $7.7 trillion in investment for the U.S. energy sector over 2023-2050 under current policies, which include key incentives enshrined in the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act. It would be $1 trillion less if Republicans reverse key policies bolstering low-carbon energy and infrastructure improvements.
In 2050, Wood Mackenzie projects, net US energy-related CO2 emissions will be 1 billion tonnes higher compared to what they would be under current policies.
StevoRsays
Officially in LEO. Seems all gone well.
StevoRsays
^ Boeing Starliner capsule that is having just lifted off successfully over half an hour ago.
[…] Percent chance that Sandy Hook families are asking a judge to force the sale of Alex Jones’ media company as part of their successful $1.5 billion judgment against him, instead of allowing him to reorganize: 100%
[…] CHEERS to being a normal human American person. The trial of President Biden’s son Hunter began yesterday with opening arguments. The defense and prosecution will then question witnesses in front of a jury, which will then render a verdict based on evidence that will subsequently be presented in a low-key, methodical manner. If they find the defendant guilty, he’ll be sentenced and, in one way or another, be punished for his crime. My apologies for not delivering all this in the form of a profanity-laden, conspiracy-theory-filled MAGA-style rant accusing everyone and their grandmother for rigging the trial and going on a witch hunt. I wrote it with my brain switched on.
CHEERS to getting knocked down a peg. He thinks he’s invincible. He thinks he’s a messiah. He thinks no one can see the horrible shit he’s either done himself or allowed to happen by others while looking the other way. He uses religion as a lethal weapon. And in response, India’s voters sent Prime Minister Narendra Modi a strong message this week: we see you, and you’re on thin naan, buster…
[…] Bill Moyers, turns a year more seasoned today […]
The progressive agenda isn’t “left wing.” (Can anyone using the term even define what “left wing” means anymore?)
The progressive agenda is America’s story—from ending slavery to ending segregation to establishing a woman’s right to vote to Social Security, the right to organize, and the fight for fair pay and against income inequality. Strip those from our history and you might as well contract America out to the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and Karl Rove, Inc.
At their core, the New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society programs were aimed at assuring every child of a decent education, every worker a decent wage, and every senior a decent retirement; if that’s extreme, so are the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. […]
To hear Michael Flynn tell it, he belongs in the pantheon of great American martyrs alongside President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leaders who spoke truth to power and paid for it with their lives. “I’m surprised they haven’t killed me,” the former Trump National Security Adviser says in his new eponymous film. “I’m surprised that they let me continue to live…we’ve gone from a physical assassination of a president of the United States to a character assassination of a national security adviser.”
Flynn: Deliver the Truth. Whatever the Cost. is a two-hour effort to rehabilitate the image of the three-star general who was once considered a brilliant military intelligence officer, but, since getting fired by President Obama in 2014 from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has generated an endless string of scandalous headlines.
Among his greatest hits: Accepting $45,000 to attend a 2015 dinner in Moscow, where he sat next to Vladimir Putin; leading anti-Clinton chants of “Lock her up!” at the 2016 Republican National Convention; working as an unregistered foreign agent for the authoritarian Turkish government while advising Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Then there was his guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, his pardon by Trump, and his attempt to persuade Trump to use the military to overturn the 2020 election results. It’s quite a record, and the reason why a press release for the film describes Flynn as “the most maligned American General in modern US history.”
After the 2020 election, Flynn managed to convert his pariah status into a political movement through his remarkably successful ReAwaken America tour, a series of conferences that resemble a tent revival, only with a mishmash of anti-vaxxers, self-proclaimed prophets, election deniers like MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell, QAnon adherents, and an assortment of Trump family members. […]
Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat, told the AP in 2022 that Flynn is “one of the most dangerous individuals in America today.” She explained, “He is spearheading the attack on our democracy, which is coming from many quarters, and he is affiliated with many of these sectors, from the military to Christian nationalism to election denial to extremist groups. All of this comes together to present a very live threat. And he’s at the center.”
[…] In early May, I drove to Charleston, West Virginia, to see how Flynn’s new film venture was faring […]
I ducked into the auditorium just as someone from Flynn’s crew appeared to be rounding up the few members of the media—not for interviews, as I discovered later, but to chuck them out. Inside, most of the seats had been roped off to force the 50 or so attendees to cluster at the front thereby creating the illusion of a full house.
[…] There was the requisite singing of the national anthem, a plug for the tour sponsor, Beverly Hills Precious Metals Exchange—Flynn’s “gold buyer of choice”—and finally, the film.
[…] Early images in Flynn harken back to the general’s childhood, much of which he spent on the beach in Rhode Island, surfing in the cold water off the Atlantic coast, a passion he still pursues. Copious footage of the shirtless, 65-year-old paddling out to sea evokes a waterborne version of Vladimir Putin’s horseback riding portraits.
[…] On screen, Flynn narrates his personal history from what looks like a home situation room, surrounded by walls covered in maps, a classroom-size whiteboard, and tables big enough to accommodate plans to sack the US Capitol or kidnap Turkish religious leaders. From this retirement command post, the former Army paratrooper recounts an early, formative experience, one in which, he says, “I really learned about being steady.”
Shortly after taking command of a battalion of several hundred people, he was summoned to the site of a fatal helicopter crash. “The smell of the fuel that was burning, the bodies that were burned, you’re standing right there going ‘holy crap,’” he says ruefully. “Nine people.” Flynn doesn’t specify the location of the crash, but his despair over all the senseless deaths he’s witnessed—and participated in—permeates the film.
It’s hard not to wonder whether battlefield trauma lies at the root of whatever set him on his current path. His critique of the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan radiates bitterness. He takes some legitimate potshots at the late Secretary of State Colin Powell, who played a key role in justifying the Iraq invasion. Then again, Flynn just may have been nursing a grudge against Powell, who once referred to him as a “jerk” and “right-wing nutty” in emails leaked in 2016.
The whole film is like that. Just when I thought one of his earnest rants might lead to a genuine insight into Flynn’s psyche, a Google search would expose it as simply a variation on long-simmering and frequently aired grievances by someone who has never forgiven Barack Obama for warning Trump not to hire him.
[…] Flynn embraced the cult-like movement a few years ago, going so far as to post a video of himself in 2020 reciting the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all.”
So many fringe players populate the film that I had to look up the backstory of almost everyone who appeared on screen for a refresher. One character I didn’t have to look up was Tucker Carlson, who calls Flynn’s story “inspiring.” The former Fox News host sees parallels between the general and JFK, who he suggests was killed by the government. If you’re Flynn, he says, “I think it’s fair to expect that they will try to kill you—maybe not shoot you in Dealy Plaza, but put you in prison, impoverish your family, silence you, dismiss you in the eyes of most as ridiculous.”
A triumph of revisionist history, Flynn is another example of just how good right-wing filmmakers have gotten at making these sorts of propaganda films. Producer Scott Wiper does a masterful job of presenting a man who once suggested that Covid vaccines were being secretly distributed through salad dressing as eminently reasonable. Flynn reminded me of Dinesh D’Souza’s latest epic, Police State, […]
in the film, Flynn repeatedly insists that he never discussed easing sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergev Kislyak in the intercepted call that led to his criminal prosecution. Well, here’s the declassified transcript of the call showing that he did indeed discuss sanctions.
[…] How did he get here? Why did a decorated military general known for his brilliance in military intelligence wake up one day and decide to take the QAnon oath? Why did such a renowned straight talker plead the Fifth dozens of times when he was deposed by the House January 6 committee?
People have been asking these questions for years, but as yet, no one has discovered the unifying theory of Michael Flynn that explains his transformation. His film doesn’t provide one either. If Flynn the movie fails to shed much light on the unraveling of Flynn the man, it does succeed as a painful reminder of what the Trump years were like—with all the chaos and corruption—and a foreshadowing of what might happen should he be elected again.
[…]In Charleston, I overheard people chattering about how much they’d like to see Trump pick Flynn as his 2024 running mate now that he’d dumped that traitor, Mike Pence […]
Last year, Trump was speaking regularly about Flynn serving in a second administration. “You just have to stay healthy because we’re bringing you back,” Trump told Flynn in May 2023, when he called a ReAwaken event at the Trump Doral in Miami. “We’re going to bring you back.”
[…] During the Q&A in Charleston, Flynn warned that a Trump victory in the fall “is not a given.” If history is any guide, he added, “we will have about 30 million Christians who won’t vote” in the presidential election. “We just cannot have that.” […]
Interesting in that it is a detailed look into the abyss.
Judge Aileen Cannon is planning on holding a sprawling hearing on Donald Trump’s request to declare Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel invalid, signaling the judge could be more willing than any other trial judge to veto the special prosecutor’s authority.
The planned hearing also adds a new, unusual twist in the federal criminal national security case against the former president: Cannon on Tuesday said that a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in the oral arguments later this month.
It’s an extraordinary elevation of arguments in a criminal case first filed a year ago this week that likely won’t see trial until next year, if at all.
Similar challenges from Trump and other high-level targets of special counsel probes have flopped from coast to coast in recent years: Hunter Biden’s attorney didn’t get anywhere with judges in Los Angeles and Delaware; Paul Manafort’s arguments fell flat when the former Trump campaign chairman challenged special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority; and Andrew Miller, a former associate of Roger Stone, also lost his challenge to Mueller’s authority.
Even with other federal trial-level judges allowing special counsels’ criminal prosecutions, Cannon could rule differently.
Cannon’s signal of willingness to entertain challenges to the special counsel comes in the same week Republicans are bearing down on Attorney General Merrick Garland for his use of special counsels….
Cannon has already taken a drastically different tack from other trial-level federal judges who have handled criminal cases charged by recent special counsel’s offices – of which there have been five since Trump became president.
While others have moved swiftly to trial – including special counsel David Weiss trying his case against Hunter Biden in Delaware this week, eight months after indictment – Cannon has moved slowly on pre-trial issues from Trump and his two co-defendants. Many of the most substantive legal questions to be decided in the classified records case, which the Justice Department first brought against Trump last June, aren’t yet ripe for a decision.
And it is highly unusual for a federal trial judge to allow a third-party group unaffiliated with a criminal case to argue in court as part of a defendant’s legal challenges to the case itself. That work is essentially reserved for defendants’ teams to bring and argue in courts across the country, opposite Justice Department prosecutors. Allowing third parties to argue in court is even rare in appeals situations.
“The fact these motions are even being entertained with a hearing is itself ridiculous. That third parties are being allowed to opine at the hearing is absurd,” Bradley Moss, a national security law expert based in Washington, DC, told CNN…..
Two former Republican-appointed US attorneys general, Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey, are part of the groups of so-called “friends of the court” that side with Trump and whom Cannon will hear from. The three groups will be allowed to argue, in addition to Justice Department and defendants’ lawyers, for 30 minutes each, according to the court record.
Meese and Mukasey have special insight to share with the judge, they say, given their former roles leading the Justice Department.
The Wall Street Journal has done something any reporter would be ashamed to put their byline on, which is why it’s kind of amazing Annie Linskey (who is consistently dishonest and terrible) and Siobhan Hughes did so, instead of resigning and writing a tell-all book about how gross it is that their boss Rupert Murdoch’s 95-year-old penis keeps marrying human women.
“Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” blares the headline [FFS. Did Putin give them a bonus?], and it’s one of those things where the headline graphic takes up the whole page, so it must be important. Have Linskey and Hughes been working on this for a decade, like some kind of fancy New York Times Magazine investigation? Or are they just eager servants of a newspaper that used to be important before Murdoch bought it, but now it’s just the New York Post without booby pictures?
What if we told you their main on-the-record source was Kevin McCarthy, the former Republican House speaker? Also, they found some people who have talked to Mike Johnson, the current speaker. [Classic. Totally unreliable/partisan sources!] Both men of course have a vested interest in their voters thinking Joe Biden is too senile to govern, especially since he’s running against a 34-times-guilty convicted felon who still brags about a dementia test he allegedly passed six years ago.
What if we told you literally all the rest of their sources who say Biden is hopelessly senile are anonymous people who are also Republicans?
What if we told you all the previous reporting about Kevin McCarthy’s private statements about Biden feature him saying — when McCarthy’s behind closed doors instead of on the record — that Biden is sharp and prepared, which happens to be the exact same thing other Republicans say?
Here are the things the article reveals about Joe Biden:
– He speaks softly sometimes. […]
– Sometimes he reads from his notes, like a common person who has notes and reads from them.
– He pauses! Aggravated pauser!
– He closes his eyes during meetings when he’s thinking! Not like a man on trial for porn payoffs in a New York courtroom sleep-farting while he awaits the guilty verdicts or anything, but still!
Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes, everyone. Go ahead and let them hold a Pulitzer before you award it to a real journalist.
Graf two says current Speaker Mike Johnson told six people that Joe Biden made a mistake in a meeting about a recent policy change of his own administration.
Graf three says Kevin McCarthy and two other people said Biden’s “demeanor” and “command of the details” were different on different days during different debt ceiling negotiations last year.
Graf four is a quote from McCarthy saying Biden isn’t the same guy he was when he was vice president, which is a direct contradiction of what McCarthy has said on the subject other times.
Graf five says Joe Biden is old.
Graf six says some people say Joe Biden is older than he used to be, in the past.
So does graf seven.
Graf 10 makes an important confession:
This article is based on interviews with more than 45 people over several months. The interviews were with Republicans and Democrats who either participated in meetings with Biden or were briefed on them contemporaneously, including administration officials and other Democrats who found no fault in the president’s handling of the meetings. Most of those who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges.
[…] headline-chasing hacks.
You can read the rest of the article if you want, if you like epistle-length detail-fests about nothing. It is one million paragraphs long. By the time we finished it, we were older than Joe Biden.
Just kidding, ha ha, we did not finish that dogshit.
The White House pushes back hard, as you might expect, but everybody sees this for what it is.
The flaming woke mob on “Morning Joe” today noted how Kevin McCarthy’s previous statements on the very same meetings featured in Linskey’s and Hughes’s loaded diaper of an article directly contradict the things he says in the article. You’d think somewhere in their 48,000 words Linskey and Hughes might have seen fit to mention that. (White House spox Andrew Bates did, in the article: “Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.”)
Mika Brzezinski was curious why they didn’t just ask Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert their academic opinions.
Joe Scarborough noted that in the same reporting where Kevin McCarthy spoke highly behind closed doors about Biden’s mental acuity, he was simultaneously mocking Biden in public. (McCarthy “mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations,” that’s the exact quote from Politico.)
Do we really think Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes didn’t know all this? That they were being played? That their editors didn’t know?
“GENTLEMAN’S TIME IS EXPIRED,” Jim Jordan yelled, to no one who respects his authority.
“New Zealand, Peru, Phiippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkiye, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and the UK … you might be in a cult.”
On those last 10 countries or so, Jim Jordan was smacking his gavel down rhythmically in an irrelevant fury […]
[…] What was so offensive about Swalwell’s words? All of it, if you are a shame-filled Republican whose life has been reduced to this. And even when Jim Jordan started crying, Swalwell just kept on keeping on.
There just isn’t any respect anymore for Republican white guys like Jim Jordan. And there never will be again.
Good congressin’, Eric Swalwell! No notes, would watch again.
“Sea level” along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is defined as “mean low water” (on the West coast it’s “mean lower low water”). One wonders how much sea level rise it would take for the ground floor of Mar-a-Lago to get wet at high tide…
If sea levels rise just two feet, the estate’s western lawns would completely flood, according to The AP. South Florida roads also already flood periodically during storms or high tides. And in recent years, cities like Miami and Titusville have installed expensive pumping systems to drain the water.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is apparently a contender for her party’s vice presidential nomination, and with that in mind, the New York Republican is apparently trying to corner the market in baseless ethics complaints in the hopes of making Donald Trump happy.
In fact, as regular readers know, Stefanik has specifically gone after a series of law enforcement officials involved in holding the former president accountable, filing official ethics complaints against two judges, a state attorney general, and special counsel Jack Smith. All of this has happened over the course of just six months, as chatter about the congresswoman pursuing national office has intensified.
One of these complaints, however, has apparently already flopped. The Daily Beast reported this week that one of Stefanik’s four stunts “fizzled out quietly months ago,” though this is just now coming to the surface.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur F. Engoron and his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, were cleared by a state commission of allegations of “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance.” … During Trump’s bank fraud trial last year, the former president employed allies to engage in bad-faith attacks on Engoron and Greenfield. The most prominent was an ethics complaint filed by Stefanik to the state’s judicial commission, describing “serious concerns about … inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance shown.”
[…] Stefanik’s office didn’t make much of an effort to deny the article’s accuracy. “New York’s court system is partisan, corrupt, and rigged. Chairwoman Elise Stefanik and House Republicans will continue to expose the blatant illegal lawfare and weaponization of the government and courts against President Trump,” the GOP leader’s executive director told The Daily Beast in a statement.
[…] this was a stunt intended to score cheap points at Mar-a-Lago. If the reporting is correct and her complaint has been rejected, it doesn’t much matter because it wasn’t a serious ethics filing in the first place.
Trump was probably pleased to see that Stefanik made the complaint against the judge that held him accountable for systemic business fraud. The outcome was irrelevant.
I don’t think the outcome was irrelevant. Irrelevant to Trump and Stefanik perhaps, but not irrelevant when it comes to the justice system in the USA.
n recent years, a variety of prominent and powerful Republican officials have become a little too fond of defunding offices and agencies that have bothered them to one degree or another. Some in the GOP, for example, have raised the specter of defunding the FBI. Other congressional Republicans have endorsed the idea of defunding the ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives).
More than a few GOP lawmakers have also talked about defunding the Justice Department. And the IRS. And the Department of Homeland Security. A couple of years ago, one conservative congressman even suggested defunding the Food and Drug Administration.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s criminal conviction, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene even called for Congress to defund the entire state of New York.
By any fair measure, these efforts are foolish stunts with no credible legislative prospects. But there’s a new, related effort that’s far harder to overlook. The New York Times reported:
Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced a “three-pronged approach” for how Republicans on Capitol Hill would push back against the prosecutions of the former president. … “We’re looking at various approaches to what can be done here,” Mr. Johnson said at a news conference, “through the appropriations process, through the legislative process, through bills that will be advancing through our committees and put it on the floor for passage, and also through oversight. All those things will be happening vigorously, because we have to do that because the stakes are too high.”
Just so we’re all clear, the Louisiana Republican’s “three-pronged approach” is, for all intents and purposes, the House GOP’s retaliatory move. A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies; the former president expects his congressional allies to do something in response; and Johnson, instead of defending his own country’s justice system and acknowledging the evidence of Trump’s criminal wrongdoing, has settled on a new plan to “push back against the prosecutions.”
It’s the prong related to “the appropriations process,” however, that’s of particular interest.
We need not wonder what kind of spending cuts House Republicans have in mind because House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has already fleshed them out in writing. Specifically, the right-wing Ohio congressman wants to scrap funding for the FBI’s new headquarters, funding for special counsel Jack Smith’s office, and federal grants to prosecutors’ offices trying to hold Trump accountable. […]
A number of you have asked me to share my thoughts on abrupt shake-up at The Washington Post in which Executive Editor Sally Buzbee was abruptly forced out by turnaround CEO Will Lewis. […] There are a lot of things that look bad and I’m fairly confident they are bad. But I don’t know the backstory or details well enough to do more than repeat widely shared impressions. But I have a few ancillary observations.
The first is a simple pattern […] We’ve seen a series of billionaires get into the news business by purchasing for-profit news entities with what seems like the implicit promise that their vast resources will allow them to focus on journalistic excellence even if that means running losses which the new owner can cover without much difficulty. This seemed like the Bezos concept. He bought the Post when it was seriously on the ropes and when its longtime family owners (the Graham family) simply didn’t have the resources to get the paper back to profitability or to secure its place as one of the 3-to-4 national U.S. newspapers.
This is something like Laurene Powell’s mission with the Emerson Collective, which owns The Atlantic and other publications and Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Network/First Look Media. LA Times’ owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is in the same broad category. To be clear, these are very differently organized efforts. They range from simple for-profit ownership to quasi-non-profithood with “entrepreneurial” sparkle dust thrown on. But none are purely charitable and none of the four got into journalism as a major money maker for their already ample fortunes. Some vision of public stewardship appeared to be involved in each case.
In each we’ve seen a basic pattern: the billionaire eventually gets tired of losing money. [Yep!] On one level, of course they do. That’s just donor fatigue. But not exactly. These aren’t truly charitable efforts. And the funder/owners have more than enough money to sustain the losses forever. But money-losing businesses just don’t sit right with them. It’s not in their DNA. […]
if the Post is really losing $70 million a year, that’s a lot of money. If that’s more than just one really bad year the new execs are right that that is totally unsustainable and they need to make big changes. But the go-go, razmataz word salad from the new bosses doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence that they’re going to do it with good motives or with an attempt to solve the problem in a good way.
Second, the Brits. British journalism is just a very sketchy world. I don’t know how else to put it. I mean this journalistically but also in terms of business, though I’m less versed in that part of it. And this is quite apart from the Murdoch domination of the British journalism world. When I was beginning my journalism career and did a lot more international and national security reporting, I realized very quickly and really to my surprise that even what I had understood to be prestige British dailies routinely crossed all sorts of ethical lines. Some of the big ones were pretty openly known as open for business to foreign intelligence services that wanted to place stories. (The Guardian here seems to be the exception among major British papers, and it’s ownership structure is different. [Important to note!])
[…] I say this with up-close awareness of all the big problems with American journalism. But for all the many problems of American journalism, British journalism is not a pretty picture. You might take your actors and musicians and writers from the UK and think their accents just give them some special edge. Not journalism. Not a pretty picture. An increasing number of major U.S. publications have recently come under executive leadership by Brits, often from the Murdoch world. That’s not a great development. That applies in spades to The Wall Street Journal, to CNN (though perhaps less damagingly) and now the Post. The recent shake-up has put the whole operation under the management of UK newspaper execs.
Again, I’m certainly not saying this is a negative in every case. But suspicion is merited.
Final point. I’ve discussed a lot over the years the core dynamic behind the decline of the American journalism business. It’s not “the internet.” It’s that the Internet robbed American newspapers of their geographical monopolies of commercial speech in their zones of operation. Hard news and certainly political news were essentially loss-leaders funded by the funnies, the crossword, sports, the metro columnists and more. Take away those monopolies and everything falls apart.
The news publications that are now making the finances work at scale are those that can command sufficient time-attention apart from hard news and politics to be able to fund hard news and politics. Last month I saw this post at the gaming site Kotaku which noted that, in terms of time spent, the Times is now more a gaming company than a news company. I found that to be a truly amazing statistic. And it’s a testament to Times news executives in keeping the hoary crossword chunking, making a brilliant strategic investment in Wordle and then adding more similarly addictive things on top of that. Obviously, time spent isn’t the only or best metric. But it’s a pretty important one. If that’s what holding the most Times’ attention-minutes, that must be a huge, huge data point and certainly critical to sustaining lots of subscriptions.
This comes back to the big journalism killer: social media sites created a way of holding readers’/users’ attention time without the need to create any news content at all. We still don’t have a good way of making news widely economically viable in that reality.
Pierce R. Butlersays
GIANT JORO SPIDERS have established beachhead in eastern US, on the march in all directions!
The US north-east is bracing for yet another pest invasion – this time, giant venomous spiders – as scientists warn that the gag-inducing arachnids are set to advance this summer.
The joro spider, an invasive species from east Asia, will be making a larger appearance in New York, New Jersey and other eastern US states as the summer season heats up.
The joro spider measures 4in long and has legs as long as 8in … The spider has been in the US for at least a decade… t the giant spiders are “here to stay” and will be able to “inhabit most of the eastern US” this summer. … Joro spiders are also comfortable with urban environments … joro spiders are not dangerous to humans or pets. … Humans that have been bitten by joro spiders, a rare occurrence, reported mild symptoms…
The photo with the article strongly resembles Argiope aurantia with a bit more color to my amateur eye.
Now that Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying documents to protect his 2016 campaign, his legal team has asked Justice Juan Merchan to lift the gag order that has been in place since March. Merchan put the order in place and expanded it after Trump used public appearances and social media to issue a series of messages critical of those connected with his New York trial.
Trump’s attorneys claim that, with the trial over, “the concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify continued restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump.” They also note that President Joe Biden made a statement concerning the outcome of the trial, making a case that Trump can’t fully respond with the ongoing gag order.
However, the gag order doesn’t keep Trump from going after Biden in any way he pleases—including repeating false claims that Biden was behind the trial. And, even if Trump’s attorneys claim the gag order exists only “to protect the integrity of this criminal proceeding and avoid prejudice to the jury,” this past week has vividly illustrated that Trump and his supporters remain a threat to jurors, witnesses, prosecutors, and officers of the court.>/b>
Trump may no longer be able to intimidate witnesses in this specific case or terrify jurors into voting against conviction. That doesn’t mean the danger is over.
Since the conviction, Trump supporters have attempted to dox jurors. Social media posts reviewed by NBC News not only contained violent threats against jurors, Merchan, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, many of those posts echoed “Trump’s rhetoric and false claims” about the trial.
According to NBC and public interest group Advance Democracy, messages are being passed around by the same groups, and on the same forums, where Trump supporters organized in advance of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Included on some of those forums were the supposed names and addresses of jurors in the trial, along with posts calling for harassment and violence.
Members of Michael Cohen’s family have also been doxed in the past few days. That includes posting phone numbers and addresses for Cohen’s wife and children on a site previously used to target others involved in charges against Trump. Cohen blames these posts, which identify Cohen as someone who “betrayed” Trump, for unwanted calls and text messages directed at his family members.
Retired police officer Michael Fanone, one of the police officers injured when Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol Building, wasn’t directly involved in the trial. However, Fanone’s 78-year-old mother was swatted (a cyber harassment technique with the goal of sending an armed emergency response team to a victim’s location) immediately after he spoke outside the courtroom. A fake “manifesto” from Fanone was posted to multiple sites indicating that Fanone intended to attack a nearby high school. That generated a rapid, armed response by local authorities. Which is exactly the sort of act that has previously ended in the death of innocent victims of swatting.
Jurors may no longer be able to decide Trump’s guilt, but Trump’s words can certainly represent a threat to their lives and those of their family members. Witnesses may no longer be intimidated to restrict what they say on the stand in Manhattan, but there are other trials ahead. Some of these witnesses may be called again. Other witnesses are certainly watching what happens in this case.
[…] Bragg has submitted a letter arguing the gag order should remain in effect through the sentencing of post-trial motions. “The Court’s Orders, however, were based not only on the need to avoid threats to the fairness of the trial itself,” Bragg wrote, “but also on the Court’s broader ‘obligation to prevent actual harm to the integrity of the proceedings’; to protect ‘the orderly administration of this Court’; and to avoid ‘risk[s] to the administration of justice.’ … As the People will explain more fully in our written opposition to defendant’s forthcoming motion, these interests have not abated.”
[…] Even if the order continues until Trump’s sentencing, it will be lifted soon. And Trump supporters are just waiting for orders.
For Democrats concerned about public perceptions of President Joe Biden’s age, today’s front-page Wall Street Journal report must’ve felt like a gut-punch. The headline read, “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping.” The article added near the top:
The 81-year-old Biden is the oldest person to hold the presidency. … The White House and top aides said he remains a sharp and vigorous leader. Some who have worked with him, however, including Democrats and some who have known him back to his time as vice president, described a president who appears slower now, someone who has both good moments and bad ones.
To bolster its thesis, the Journal appears to have relied on assessments from prominent GOP critics of the White House, including Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and his immediate predecessor, former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
In other words, the Journal relied on Biden’s Republican foes — during an election season — to substantiate one of the Republican Party’s core criticisms of the Democratic incumbent.
Hmm.
Recent history also complicates matters. Politico reported late last year, for example, that while McCarthy mocked Biden in public, the then-speaker privately told allies “that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations.”
As for Johnson, the current House speaker couldn’t be too concerned about Biden’s acuity — the president did, after all, recently convince the congressman to support military aid to Ukraine.
A variety of Democratic officials, meanwhile, have come forward this morning with public statements saying that they, too, spoke to the newspaper about Biden and his sharpness — their comments apparently challenged the central thesis of the piece — though their assessments were not included in the published article.
It’s important to emphasize for context that the same Journal article added:
Members of the Biden administration offered numerous examples of other situations that they said showed the president was sharp and engaged, including long hours in the Situation Room in April during and after Iran’s missile attack on Israel, and late nights on the phone with lawmakers from his White House residence.
This, however, was the 19th paragraph in the piece.
I’ve tried to keep an open mind on this issue. […] That said, I know that (a) members of Congress from both parties who’ve interacted with him have praised his sharpness; (b) Biden’s recent work on Ukraine, border policies, and the Middle East suggest he’s tackling and implementing an expansive and ambitious agenda at the White House; (c) questions about Donald Trump’s mental stability seem far more salient right now; and (d) some GOP officials might want the public to believe the worst about Biden and his age, but I’m not inclined to take Kevin McCarthy’s and Mike Johnson’s word for it.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told me this morning, “Literally, the sole on-record critic in the entire story is Kevin McCarthy, whose interview contradicts his earlier public and private statements about finding the President sharp in their private meetings. … It’s a little surprising that The Wall Street Journal thought it was breaking news when congressional Republicans told them the same false claims they’ve spouted on Fox News for years, but it’s also telling that the only individuals willing to smear the President in this story are political opponents afraid to use their names — plus one proven liar.
“President Biden inherited an economy in freefall, fraying alliances, and a spiking violent crime rate, and he turned each around with his experience and judgment, delivering the strongest economic growth in the world, making NATO bigger than ever, and forcing violent crime to a near 50-year low,” Bates concluded.
Donald Trump endorsed Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner in the Republicans’ U.S. Senate primary in New Jersey. She lost, despite the former president’s belief that his support translates to near-automatic primary victories.
Summarized from NBC News:
Nikki Haley appeared on the presidential primary ballot in a couple of states yesterday, despite having ended her 2024 bid months ago. The former ambassador received nearly 9% support in New Mexico, while also winning the GOP primary in the District of Columbia with nearly 63% support.
Summarized from Axios:
[…] the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and the States Project — two influential Democratic groups in state-level elections — “are launching a multimillion-dollar effort this week to flip or hold state legislative chambers in Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson dialed the hypocrisy up to 11 during a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Eamon Javers when the GOP leader whined about how Americans are “losing faith in our institutions” in the wake of Donald Trump’s felony conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records […]
When Eavers asked Johnson about Hunter Biden’s ongoing trial and whether or not the Republican leader would also characterize it as a “banana republic trial,” he was predictably mealy-mouthed.
“I haven’t been able to watch any of that yet. We will see. I hope not,” Johnson responded, before launching into a complaint about Trump’s trial being “a travesty” and “illegitimate” during the Q&A session at CNBC’s CEO Council Summit in Washington, D.C.
“I’m telling you, the American people are upset about it,” Johnson declared. In fact, according to Johnson, he’s traveled all over the country, “[a]nd everywhere I go, East Coast, West Coast, Upstate New York, Deep South, it doesn’t matter, the sentiment is the same. People are losing their faith in our institutions because they see this.”
Johnson was one of the many MAGA minions who played hooky from their jobs as elected officials in order to hold New York City sidewalk press conferences during Trump’s hush money trial and express their outrage over the proceedings.
[snipped more of Johnson’s bloviation]
Of course, Johnson wouldn’t be a GOP leader if he wasn’t spewing misinformation just about every time he opens his mouth. Polling shows that a majority of voters approve of a “jury finding Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts.” The same polling shows that a majority of voters (sans Republicans, of course) believe that Trump received a “fair” trial.
Another poll found voters believed the verdict was the “correct” one […]
During Tuesday’s interview, Javers tried to point out that Johnson’s claims are belied by reality.
“Is the system biased in favor of President Biden when it comes to the Donald Trump trial, but somehow not biased in favor of him when it comes to the trial of his own son?” Javers asked.
“Well, I don’t know. We will see how the trial of his son plays out,” Johnson said. “But you can make an argument there that, I mean, has he had a fair jury that’s been selected? I don’t know. We will see. I haven’t had time to dial in on that.”
Johnson’s defining characteristic at this point is his ability to spout word-salad statements that almost sound like meaningful answers. [video at the link]
Somebody’s got to write about the bullshit surrounding […] Hunter Biden’s trial playing out in Delaware right now, and you know us, never afraid to put on our hip-waders and trudge through the slurry!
It’s been seven years of Republicans desperately trying to find some crime to prove that the Biden family is a corrupt cartel of criminals, unlike the honest, hardworking Trump and his children, who would never use their family name to gain an unfair benefit. [LOL]
Hey, remember when Trump got impeached the FIRST time because he extorted Ukraine with no money to defend Democracy against Communist Russia for them unless they came up with some Hunter Biden FAKE NEWS quid pro quo, Clarice? Even fired the US ambassador when she wouldn’t go along with it? [Snipped more history of criminal or unethical doings.]
Remember how the GOP tried to IMPEACH JOE BIDEN about Hunter something something, and FBI informant/Russian asset Alexander Smirnov got arrested for feeding lies to the FBI about Hunter and Burisma instead? [Yeah, that was good.]
Yep, all of that corrupt criming by all the Russian puppets in Trumpistan trying to find a new HILLARY’S EMAILS, and STILL they could not come up with any more dirt on the Bidens than what Hunter himself openly divulged in a 2017 New Yorker profile: He was a business consultant who’d had an ongoing drug problem and had a dumpster-fire personal life. No bribes to Ukraine, China, or Narnia, nobody coerced into sex with promises of a job, no licking doughnuts and putting them back in the box. [Good summary!]
For all the self-destruction of Joe Biden’s only living son, he had some tax problems, and he allegedly lied on ATF form 4473, the Firearm Transaction Record, when he put an X for “no” when buying a gun in October 2018: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” While MEANWHILE he said in a book that he had an ongoing addiction problem! The conservatives who think guns should be given out as favors at children’s birthday parties are outraged.
[…] How much bullshit is this prosecution? In 2018 when Hunter bought his gun, out of 27 million background checks undertaken for gun purchases, federal prosecutors filed just 298 charges against people for lying on the form, and mostly for straw purchases or lying about being a felon. Hunter owned the gun for 11 days and committed no crimes with it.
Yr Wonkette has yet to see a single example of a person anywhere in the country being prosecuted for that line on the form alone, other than Hunter Biden. In Delaware in 2019 only three ATF Form 4473 cases at all were referred for prosecution in the state and the US attorney did not bring charges for any of them.
And it gets fuckier. Back in July of 2023, Hunter was all set to plead guilty, then special prosecutor David Weiss, hand-picked by Trump’s (fifth? sixth?) Attorney General Bill Barr pulled a sudden switcheroo on the court and said no, taking the plea deal would not end investigations into Hunter after all. Trump-appointed Judge Maryellen Noreika kiboshed the deal, and here we are in federal court, with Hunter facing a max of 25 years in prison, a $750,000 fine, and a trial that’s supposed to take two weeks […]
How’s court going so far? It would seem prosecutors have a problem given how prosecutions based on that line are nonexistent, and it’s never been established what unlawful user really means there. Hunter was never arrested on drug charges, and the question is not “have you ever used a drug?” […]
Also probably not great for the prosecution, four out of 12 jurors said that they had family members with addiction problems. Are they going to want to put a guy in prison half a decade after he’s already turned his life around? […]
Also not a good signs for the prosecution, a juror started weeping during opening arguments hearing about Beau’s concerned widow Hallie Biden taking the .38 in question and disposing of it in a grocery-store parking lot, or how his sister Ashley started choking up and clung to stepmom Jill hearing recordings from Hunter’s audiobook about his descent into addiction after the death of his brother Beau.
[…] Fox’s Jesse Watters is warning that Hunter is going to get off, so guess Trumpistan already knows it’s a nonstarter. Guess why, just guess! Not because this is a bullshit paperwork case targeting a guy who’s doing his best to put his life back together. No, the jury will nullify because they’re Black. Yes, he said that:
“Hunter’s legal team might have an ace up their sleeve: It’s called jury nullification. It’s when you pick a jury that will give you a not guilty verdict. They know you’re guilty, but they just disagree with the law. The strategy plays on the racial makeup of the jury, which is mostly Black, as well as the Bidens’ influence in Delaware. The hope is that this jury won’t convict for a drug-related crime.”
[…] Hunter has been through insane levels of grief, addiction, and targeted harassment, his dick pics displayed by Marjorie Taylor Greene. But he has pulled himself up by his bootstraps, stood up for himself, hasn’t held up any bodegas, or hurt anyone but himself and his family.
The trial is supposed to go on for about two more weeks, and Trumpistan is praying people will pay attention to it and think bad things about Joe Biden for loving his son, and not whatever corruption the presumptive GOP nominee and felon is up to on any given day. […].
President Joe Biden yesterday announced new restrictions on the right to request asylum at the US-Mexico border, citing congressional inaction on the bipartisan immigration bill that Republicans killed in February because Donald Trump told them to. Trump wanted to run on an immigration “crisis,” and damned if Republicans wanted to let Biden have a “victory” on immigration in an election year. Republicans will never fix the border, because it’s their favorite issue forever.
[…] Biden’s executive order will allow the Border Patrol to immediately return most people arrested after crossing the border without allowing them to claim asylum in most cases. It’s a huge reversal of how asylum law works, and when Donald Trump tried to enact similar restrictions on asylum in 2018, that order was struck down by federal courts.
The ACLU has already announced it will sue to block the Biden asylum order from taking effect. Attorney Lee Gelernt, who led the successful challenge against Trump’s 2018 order, said, “The administration has left us little choice but to sue. […] It was unlawful under Trump and is no less illegal now.”
[…] As the AP points out, the last time daily border arrests were below 2,500 was in January 2021, during the COVID pandemic, and the month Biden took office. A weekly average of fewer than 1,500 daily border encounters hasn’t been seen since July 2020, at the very high point of the pandemic, and when summer heat has tended to reduce illegal border crossings anyway.
For the last 44 years, under federal immigration law any person who arrives in the US — “whether or not at a designated port of arrival” — has the right to apply for asylum, including those who cross the border without papers. In recent years, nearly all migrants have turned themselves in immediately to the Border Patrol instead of trying to enter the US surreptitiously.
Once someone requests asylum, they have to demonstrate they have a “credible fear” of torture or persecution if they’re returned to their home country; then they will be given a date for an asylum hearing, but the immigration courts are so backlogged that it can take years for a hearing to be held.
[…] [Rebecca butting in here to opine that the exemption for unaccompanied minors is a terrible idea and last time it led to a humanitarian crisis as babies came across by themselves and tried to turn themselves in to Border Patrol. Desperate parents sent their children off into the world and those children were quickly turned into child labor by supposed caretakers, and even by “relatives.” I’d far rather mandate only families be allowed in.]
About 1,450 appointments for asylum screenings at ports of entry are scheduled each day through the app. So that’s fine! […] actually fine.
Much less fine, guidance for implementation of the order essentially tells border agents not to ask if someone fears going back to their country; the screenings, with new narrower standards, will only be available when someone requests one. And instead of giving someone who requests screening 24 hours to find an attorney — which greatly improves applicants’ chances of passing — they’ll have only four hours. Needless to say, immigrant rights advocates are up in arms about the new rules. [!!! I should say so.]
We should add that most of the new enforcement mechanisms in Biden’s EO were in the bipartisan immigration bill that Republicans killed at Trump’s request. However, that bill also included funding to significantly increase the number of Homeland Security officers to perform initial screenings, and for many more immigration judges to cut down the backlog of asylum hearings.
[…] The one thing that’s sure to happen by shutting down most asylum applications is that we are almost certain to deport people who would have qualified, who will now go back to take their chances in their home countries. People will almost certainly die.
Republicans, of course, are continuing to say that Biden hasn’t done enough. Donald Trump dismissed the order as “all about show, because he knows we have a debate coming up in three weeks,” and other Republicans complained that the order isn’t draconian enough, because they are fucking sociopaths:
In a call organized by Trump’s campaign, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser in Trump’s White House who orchestrated his most polarizing immigration policies, and Tom Homan, former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Trump administration, said Biden’s order essentially would allow 2,500 people into the country a day and legalize the illegal entry into the U.S.
“The only reason they’re doing this is because of the election,” Homan said. “They’ve had three and a half years to take action and done nothing.”
In conclusion, we’re rooting for the ACLU to stop this in the courts […]
An area of high pressure is bringing with it unusually high temperatures, with daytime highs 10 to 25 degrees above the average across the affected areas. [Heat map at the link.]
[…] Municipal leaders and first responders have struggled to find methods — and resources to tackle the effects of extreme heat.
Last year in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, there were 645 heat-related deaths. Contributing to this was a punishing 31-day period when temperatures consecutively reached 110 degrees.
Now, firefighters are using ice submersion techniques pioneered by the U.S. Army to cool heatstroke victims and hopefully save lives. The plan is to place patients inside a blue bag filled with ice while they are being taken to the emergency room.
[…] Authorities are on high alert for fires in the region also, with restrictions on fire usage in place across central and western Arizona. A grass fire near the Central Valley community of Tracy, California, about 65 miles east of San Francisco, grew to more than 14,000 acres over the weekend.
The U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, said Monday that four migrants attempting to enter the country illegally died of heatstroke and dehydration over the weekend.
“We urge anyone considering crossing illegally to understand the severe risks involved. Our agents are working tirelessly to save lives. But the best way to stay safe is not to attempt an illegal crossing,” El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony S. Good said in a statement.
It was incumbent on House Speaker Mike Johnson to choose wisely when filling two open seats on the House Intelligence Committee. He failed spectacularly.
In the wake of some recent congressional resignations, House Speaker Mike Johnson had two open seats to fill on the House Intelligence Committee. These are important slots — the panel’s members have access to some of the nation’s most important and highly sensitive secrets — and it was incumbent on the Louisiana Republican to choose wisely.
He did not. Politico reported this afternoon:
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday tapped two members to serve on the prestigious House Intelligence Committee — and one of them is not only a former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, but also has publicly tangled with the FBI. The GOP leader named Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) to the panel, which has oversight over the intelligence community and access to highly sensitive information, as well as Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas).
The phrase “you’ve got to be kidding me” keeps coming to mind.
Jackson’s name might sound familiar, though not for any flattering reasons. The Texas Republican came to national prominence during his tenure as Donald Trump’s White House physician, when Jackson delivered cringe-worthy, overly effusive assessments of the then-president’s health. [Mike Johnson appointed that doofus?!]
Trump then announced that he wanted Jackson to join his presidential cabinet as the secretary of Veterans Affairs — despite his obvious lack of qualifications — but he faced bipartisan opposition after multiple reports surfaced about Jackson’s alleged pattern of substance abuse, harassing women, and creating a “toxic“ work environment. The White House pulled his nomination soon after.
Jackson was nevertheless elected to Congress, where he immediately became one of the House’s most unhinged members, routinely appearing in conservative media peddling bizarre claims.
Donald Trump, however, reportedly wanted the Texan on the Intelligence Committee, and the House speaker apparently complied.
But Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry is an even more extraordinary appointment.
Perry might not be the highest profile member of the House GOP conference, but when it comes to the party’s 2020 election scandal, it’s difficult to overstate how significant the former House Freedom Caucus chairman’s role has been. Remember the infamous Dec. 21, 2020, White House meeting focused on the Republican scheme to overturn the last presidential election? Perry was among the participants. Remember when the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee pointed to members who allegedly sought presidential pardons? Perry was on that list, too.
Remember when Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Donald Trump talked with allies about going to the Capitol on Jan. 6? She said Perry was among the people the then-president talked to about this. Remember the allegations that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows literally set fire to papers in his office after a meeting with a congressional Republican? The lawmaker in question was Perry.
Remember when the public learned of radical text messages Meadows received from Republican allies in the runup to Jan. 6, including one House member who pushed unusually bonkers conspiracy theories about votes being changed by “Italian satellites”? Perry was that member. [Not just a doofus then, but many-layered doofus. Italian satellites?]
Remember when the FBI seized a member of Congress’ phone as part of the federal election investigation? That, too, was Perry.
Politico reported last month that the idea of Perry joining the Intelligence Committee members was giving the panel’s current members “debilitating heartburn.” Speaker Johnson apparently didn’t care.
PunchBowl News’ John Bresnahan noted that Perry now will have oversight over the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs, even during Perry’s ongoing lawsuit against the Justice Department related to FBI agents seizing his cellphone.
[…] I realized that in spite of myself I’ve stuck with an unmerited inertia to the idea that the [Wall Street] Journal still maintains a high firewall between its news and editorial pages, even though I know, partly from inside accounts, how radically that changed after Murdoch purchased the Journal going on 20 years ago.
[…] The use of Johnson and McCarthy as the two main fact witnesses is extraordinary on a few levels. The first and most obvious is that “Biden archrivals currently running against him say he’s way old and losing his edge” doesn’t have quite the punch of the article as presented. The other is that Biden famously managed to overmatch McCarthy in the debt ceiling negotiations that led to his fall from power and Biden’s personal lobbying seems to have played a key role in the eventual passage of Ukraine aid this spring. In other words, if Biden’s really losing it, he still managed to handle both guys pretty well.
What was most surprising to me though is that if you really had the goods on Biden or really logged a lot of quality interviews for such a piece, why on earth would you sandbag it by leading with the say-so of Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy, two of his biggest political foes who have the clearest of motives for playing the doddering codger card which is a centerpiece of their campaigns? You simply don’t do that if you want your piece to read as credible to a critical reader outside the Murdoch news bubble. Unless, that is, that’s really all you’ve got. And even then it doesn’t even really make sense.
I don’t think I come to this story with crazy expectations. Having recently turned 55 I do not know anyone a day over 80 who is as spry as they were at 50 or 60. But if this is what they’re able to come up with, I’m somewhat reassured.
Sure, the Republican Party wants to convince voters they really aren’t that radical when it comes to reproductive rights. But voting against a bill to protect access to birth control isn’t the way to do it.
On Wednesday, almost every Senate Republican voted to block the Right to Contraception Act—legislation that should be uncontroversial and unobjectionable. Only two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted to let the bill move forward.
“The right to contraception is a fundamental right, central to a person’s privacy, health, wellbeing, dignity, liberty, equality, and ability to participate in the social and economic life of the Nation,” the bill states. So yes, you can see why Republicans—who don’t value any of those things—took issue with it.
Of course, that’s not the justification they’re giving.
“This is a show vote. It’s not serious,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn said. “It’s a phony vote because contraception, to my knowledge, is not illegal. It’s not unavailable.”
Sure, it’s not illegal or unavailable now. But that’s hardly the point.
The point is that there are plenty of Republicans who’ve said it should be illegal or at least unavailable or at least highly restricted.
One of those Republicans is Donald Trump. Perhaps Cornyn’s heard of him? Just last month, Trump said that contraception, like abortion, should probably be decided by the states. He also promised a “very comprehensive” plan he’s yet to deliver.
Another one of those Republicans Cornyn might know? Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has not been quite as explicit as Trump. But pretty close. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health—the case that overturned Roe v. Wade—he wrote that the court should next overturn Griswold v. Connecticut, the case that recognized a right to birth control.
And it’s because of those threats to birth control that Senate Democrats want to act now to protect the right to contraception before it’s too late.
“Today, we live in a country where not only tens of millions of women have been robbed of their reproductive freedoms. We also live in a country where tens of millions more worry about something as basic as birth control,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. “That’s utterly medieval.”
It’s not just utterly medieval; it’s also a threat. First, abortion and next up: birth control.
“If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview. That’s the lesson Democrats have had to learn the hard way.
[…] Senate Republicans are now pretending they don’t have a problem with contraception—they just don’t like the bill to protect it.
“We will have an alternative that will make very clear that Republicans are for contraception,” GOP Whip John Thune said. Yeah, sure they will. And what will make their bill better?
According to Iowa’s Joni Ernst, who’s supposedly working on her own bill, it will be better because it will cover less contraception. No, that’s not a joke. [!!!]
“It does not include Plan B, which many folks on the right would consider abortive services,” she said. The fact that “many folks” consider emergency contraception “abortive services” does not make it so. And that’s according to actual doctors, not radical right-wing activists.
But it’s those radical right-wing activists Republican senators can’t resist, even as they’re trying to convince voters they really aren’t that radical. So they’ve blocked a bill to protect contraception, with only the empty and vague promise to voters that there’s no need to worry, it’s perfectly safe. For now.
A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday paused the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of seeking to subvert the 2020 election while it considers the former president’s bid to disqualify lead prosecutor Fani Willis, a court order showed. The order prevents the sprawling case against Trump and 14 co-defendants from moving toward trial while Trump appeals a judge’s ruling allowing Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, to remain on the case.
House Republicans approved a veterans’ funding bill on Wednesday that would limit abortion access for troops and veterans, setting up another partisan clash with Democrats in the Senate and the White House ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government.
The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. The group of 57 scientists from around the world used United Nations-approved methods to examine what’s behind last year’s deadly burst of heat.
A Donald Trump supporter who assaulted law enforcement officers with bear spray and a metal whip — and who was arrested thanks to a woman’s sting operation on the dating app Bumble — was sentenced to just over six years in prison on Wednesday.
Andrew Taake was arrested in 2021 and pleaded guilty in December to assaulting officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon. Having previously been convicted of a felony — and having been out on bond on a charge of soliciting a minor at the time of the Capitol attack — Taake was one of a small number of Jan. 6 defendants who were held in pretrial detention.
Prosecutors sought a sentence of 6.5 years in federal prison for Taake. A court filing also indicated that prosecutors would highlight a disciplinary investigation that charged Taake “with fighting with another inmate on December 14, 2023″ at the jail in Washington where Taake has been held.
Taake was sentenced Wednesday to 74 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee who questioned the use of an obstruction of an official proceeding charge in Jan. 6 cases, an issue that is now before the Supreme Court. […]
House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election regardless of its outcome.
“Well, I hope so. That’s the intention. I agree with the sentiment,” Johnson said on Tuesday after CNBC’s Eamon Javers’ quoted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s recent statement that “every American should accept the [election] results.”
“I mean, we absolutely have to make sure that it will be a free and fair election,” Johnson added.
Pressed on whether that meant he would vote to certify President Joe Biden if he were to be declared the winner in November, Johnson said, “If it’s a fair election, yes, of course.”
Javers then reminded Johnson that “it is a near certainty that former President Trump, if defeated, will say again that there was some kind of fraud in this election.”
“Listen, we hope that it’s a just and fair and free election. There’s a lot of work being done across the country, in the various states to ensure that that’s true. We hope there’s not fraud. We hope there’s not illegals voting and all the rest, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that happens,” Johnson said. “Look, we’re the rule of law team. I mean, we believe in the rule of law.” [video of the champion slinger of bullshit is available at the link]
Johnson was one of the many Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 elections, citing the same conspiracy theory garbage that Donald Trump continues to push today. Even in his response he cites the profoundly debunked racist mythology that undocumented immigrants have been voting en masse.
As the Brennan Center for Justice found in its 2016 study:
In the jurisdictions we studied, very few noncitizens voted in the 2016 election. Across 42 jurisdictions, election officials who oversaw the tabulation of 23.5 million votes in the 2016 general election referred only an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting for further investigation or prosecution. In other words, improper noncitizen votes accounted for 0.0001 percent of the 2016 votes in those jurisdictions.
Forty of the jurisdictions — all but two of the 42 we studied — reported no known incidents of noncitizen voting in 2016. All of the officials we spoke with said that the incidence of noncitizen voting in prior years was not significantly greater than in 2016.
Johnson’s equivocations match the rest of the GOP. In not committing to the results of the upcoming presidential election, he joins elected officials like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He even used the same “free and fair” terminology that Cotton previously used.
“Look, we’re the rule of law team.” He really said that.
Re: John Morales @ #35…
And for the ones that claim that the vaccine shot will kill you…I’ve had 8 shots so far and have managed to avoid coming down with COVID. Expecting shot number 9 this fall…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@John Morales #35:
What were you wondering that was addressed by SC’s blog circa 2022?
SC dropped in on 2024-01-15 and explained their apparent absence since 2023-10. (You were there.) I think the last post here was 2024-02-08. Pretty active those weeks. Returned to absent or lurking without announcement.
John Moralessays
CA7746, alluding to the fact that she has neither been here nor on her own blog since January 2022.
Busy busy, fair enough.
No news is good news, all that.
birgerjohanssonsays
Mutated tribe can swim to bottom of ocean after developing ‘sea nomad gene’ https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/banjau-tribe-sea-nomad-gene-2668466730
Bajau tribe in Indonesia has enlarged spleens. Interesting example of evolution adapted to relatively recent culture (sea nomads living on houseboats).
KGsays
Can anyone using the term even define what “left wing” means anymore? Lynna, OM@7, quoting Daily Kos quoting Bill Moyers
Easy: “left wing” means favouring economic and social equality.
birgerjohanssonsays
🚀
Starship launch today: revised time one hour 33 minutes from now.
You can watch the show on Youtube.
A rocket bigger than Saturn 5 – Even if this is just a test launch it will be spectacular.
🏥
Africa: “Lifesaving childbirth blood loss intervention is highly cost-effective, finds 78-hospital analysis ” https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-lifesaving-childbirth-blood-loss-intervention.html
StevoRsays
Boeing’s Starliner rocket launch one night, now SpaceX’s Starship launch the next :
Seems the launch will be in about 50 minutes time or less now.. all going to schedule.
StevoRsays
@41. You beat me to it!
@35. John Morales : Thanks.
Anyone know how Wizard1 is?
StevoRsays
Starship is flying! Launch looked great, separation no worries, splashdown of the booster was dramatic and worked. Re-entry? We’ll soon see.. Hopefully..
So far so awe-inspiring. It is a stunning SF vision tuned real.
(I know obligatory fuck Elon Musk! But this rocket and craft they’ve built & flown. Wow.)
birgerjohanssonsays
🚀
Starship made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean 1 h 6 min after takeoff.
Telemetry worked all the way down, despite plasma interference.
🌠
Starship has 14.000 heat shields but 2 were deliberately left off to see if the vehichle could survive losing individual shields. Despite temperatures of 1400°C the vehicle survived.
🔥
A camera covered the whole descent and showed how one of the fins started to get burned through. (Unbelievably the fin stayed on the whole descent despite looking like something bolted on the Terminator after it got burned up in the fuel truck in the first film.)
The starship turned around and slowed down before being allowed to hit the sea , just like the booster stage.
If there had been a ship to receive it, it would have been salvageable but the only payload on this test mission was data.
House conservatives are pressuring Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for a vote on legislation aimed at showing their allegiance to former President Trump after his historic criminal conviction, Axios has learned. … Conservatives want a floor vote on a bill that would allow current or former presidents to move any state case brought against them — such as the one in New York that resulted in Trump’s conviction — to federal court, according to multiple House Republican sources.
Commentary:
[…] For those who still believe that the Republican Party is committed to states’ rights, I have some very bad news.
There’s no great mystery here: Local prosecutors in New York and Georgia indited Trump — among others — and the cases went to state courts. For the former president and his partisan allies, this created an obvious problem: Even if Trump were to return to power, he wouldn’t be able to pardon himself from state charges and/or convictions.
If, however, congressional Republicans were to pass a bill empowering the former president to move the cases to federal courts, it would (a) create an opportunity for the issues to be assigned to Trump-appointed loyalists in the federal judiciary; and (b) open the door to Trump pardoning himself in a prospective second term.
The push comes on the heels of a recent Rolling Stone report that said the former president had spoken to GOP lawmakers about legislation along these lines.
Would the bill be constitutional? Probably not. Could it pass sometime this year? That seems extraordinarily unlikely, given the Democratic majority in the Senate.
But House Republicans appear likely to pursue the plan anyway — a floor vote in the coming months is a safe bet — and if the party is able to seize control of the federal levers of power in the 2024 elections, no one will be surprised if this legislation receives attention in early 2025.
Watching Donald Trump’s interviews with Fox News’ Sean Hannity is a unique viewing experience. […] the host is a close, longtime ally to the former president, so everyone watching understands that the Q&A will not be a contentious grilling.
What makes their chats especially interesting, however, is Hannity’s eagerness to use their interviews to steer Trump in specific directions. It’s something viewers have seen the host do over and over and over again: Hannity has the Republican’s interests at heart, so he makes an effort to guide Trump to specific answers that the host believes will end up helping his friend politically.
The trouble is, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee routinely misses the cues.
Late last year, for example, Hannity asked Trump if he had plans to “abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people.” The obvious point was to have Trump say he had no intention of breaking the law or abusing his authority. The former president, however, missed the point and deflected.
So, Hannity tried again to get his guest to say the sensible thing. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” the Fox host asked. Trump responded by saying he wanted to create a temporary American dictatorship.
Last night, the duo tried again. It went about as well. [video at the link]
“Will you pledge to restore equal justice, equal application of our laws, end this practice of weaponization?” the Fox host asked, pointing to developments that have no basis in reality. “Is that a promise you’re going to make?”
Trump eventually responded, “Look, I know you want me to say something so nice, but I don’t want to look naive.”
[…] The former president explicitly acknowledged, out loud and on camera, that he was aware of Hannity’s efforts — though Trump wasn’t interested in the cue.
In the same on-air appearance, the Fox host also noted those who “want people to believe that you want retribution, that you will use the system of justice to go after your political enemies.” Once again, the former president missed the prompt.
“Look, when this election is over, based on what they have done, I would have every right to go after them,” Trump replied.
[…] It’s not exactly a secret that Trump lies uncontrollably about practically everything, and it’s easy to imagine a scenario in which he offered faux assurances to voters before the election, only to seek retaliatory vengeance against his perceived foes — who, in reality, have done nothing wrong — after Inauguration Day.
But in this instance, he isn’t bothering with the pretense. Trump wants to prosecute his domestic political enemies, and he doesn’t seem especially interested in hiding his intentions. On the contrary, he talks about his desire to abuse presidential powers all the time.
A New York Times analysis, published today, noted that Trump is effectively putting the rule of law “on the ballot.” Hannity wanted to help the former president take the issue off the ballot, but the GOP candidate, hellbent on revenge, simply couldn’t help himself.
Some key Republican officials are concerned about Russian propaganda “infecting” their party. Sen. Tommy Tuberville keeps lending credence to those fears.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul was surprisingly candid a couple of months ago about one of his party’s serious problems. “I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” the Texas Republican lamented.
Five days later, House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, echoed the sentiment, conceding that some of his GOP colleagues are peddling rhetoric that’s “directly coming from Russia.”
The comments came to mind reading this Daily Beast report yesterday.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) argued Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin—who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 while declaring that the country has no claim to independence and that its people are “connected with us by blood”—doesn’t actually want Ukraine because he already has “enough land.”
[WTF?]
The Alabama Republican sat down with Steve Bannon and explained his belief that Putin doesn’t really want to wage war in Ukraine.
After downplaying Russian attacks in Ukraine from recent months, Tuberville said, in reference to Putin, “He doesn’t want Ukraine. He doesn’t want Europe. Hell, he’s got enough land of his own. He just wants to make sure that he does not have United States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow.” [JFC. Tuberville is Putin’s mouthpiece] [video at the link]
In the same interview, the right-wing senator questioned why the U.S. is backing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom Tuberville described as “a dictator.” [OMFG]
All of this echoes the script the Kremlin wants politicians, especially those in the West, to follow.
[…] Two years ago, Tuberville insisted that Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine in order to acquire “more farmland” because “he can’t feed his people.” The idea that Russia was incapable of feeding its population was plainly wrong. The GOP senator either didn’t know or didn’t care — and his new position is that Putin already has “enough land.” [Tuberville seems to just be saying whatever his Russian handlers tell him to say.]
In the months that followed, Tuberville repeatedly said Ukraine couldn’t prevail in a conflict against Russia — another line favored by the Kremlin — so it made sense for the U.S. simply to let Moscow prevail.
[…] He argued soon after that it was the U.S. that “forced” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Around the same time, the Alabaman appeared on a radio show and said, “You can tell Putin’s on top of his game.” After complaining again that the U.S. was responsible for pushing Russia into a military offensive, Tuberville added, “I can understand what he’s talking about,” referring to Putin. [video at the link]
As recently as April, Tuberville also appeared on Newsmax and accused Ukrainian officials of buying luxury goods with American taxpayers’ money, which also happens to be pro-Russia disinformation.
[…] All of which leaves me with a lingering question: Why, exactly, is Tommy Tuberville still on the Senate Armed Services Committee?
Between his 2023 blockade that undermined his own country’s military, Tuberville’s ongoing disparagement of the American armed forces and his apparent willingness to say exactly what the Kremlin wants to hear, it’s hardly outlandish to think senators should have a conversation about whether it’s time to revisit his committee assignments.
The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities.
The 5-4 decision means the government will cover millions in overhead costs that two tribes faced when they took over running their health care programs under a law meant to give Native Americans more local control.
Covering those costs is “necessary to prevent a funding gap,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. Not reimbursing them forces tribes to “pay a penalty for pursuing self-determination.”
The Department of Health and Human Services had argued it isn’t responsible for the overhead costs associated with billing insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.
Paying those costs for all tribes that run their own health care programs could total between $800 million and $2 billion per year, the agency said.
“The extra federal money that the Court today green-lights does not come free,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent, which was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. “In my view, the court should leave those difficult appropriations decisions and tradeoffs to Congress.”
The federal Indian Health Service has provided tribal health care since the 1800s under treaty obligations, but the facilities are often inadequate and understaffed, the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona said in court documents.
Health care spending per person by the IHS is just one-third of federal spending in the rest of the country, the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming said in court documents. Native American tribal populations have an average life expectancy of about 65 years, nearly 11 years less than the U.S. as a whole.
[…] The tribes contracted with IHS to run their own programs ranging from emergency services to substance-abuse treatment. The agency paid the tribes the money it would have spent to run those services, but the contract didn’t include the overhead costs for billing insurance companies or Medicare and Medicaid, since other agencies handle it when the government is running the program.
The tribes, though, had to do the billing themselves. That cost the San Carlos Apache Tribe nearly $3 million in overhead over three years and the Northern Arapaho Tribe $1.5 million over a two-year period, they said. Two lower courts agreed with the tribes.
The Department of Health and Human Services appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that that tribes do get some money for overhead costs but the government isn’t responsible for costs associated with third-party income.
The majority of federally recognized tribes now contract with IHS to run at least part of their own health care programming.
President Joe Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday by saying “we will not walk away” from the defense of Ukraine and allow Russia to threaten more of Europe.
“To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable,” he said during a ceremony at the American cemetery in Normandy. “If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.”
[…] Before Biden’s remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron told U.S. veterans that “you came here because the free world needed each and every one of you, and you answered the call.”
Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to several of them, and he kissed them on each cheek as he pinned on their medals. Biden followed with handshakes and embraces.
Earlier, Biden and first lady Jill Biden met with more than two dozen American veterans near Omaha Beach, where the fiercest D-Day fighting took place. Those who could stand were helped out of wheelchairs to pose for photos. Most shook hands with Biden or saluted; one hugged him.
Biden told a veteran that “you saved the world.” The president led the audience in singing happy birthday to another. Steve Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the Hollywood heavyweights behind movies and television shows about World War II, were nearby.
When Army veteran Robert Gibson approached, the first lady clutched his arm to help him stand next to the president as they shook hands.
“Don’t get old,” the 100-year-old man from New Jersey joked to the 81-year-old president, who was a toddler on D-Day.
This anniversary of the invasion is a particularly somber one because it will be among the last with living veterans. The youngest survivors are in their late 90s. Biden met one veteran who is 104.
In an interview with The Associated Press a few days ago, Gibson described himself as “living on borrowed time.”
He was part of the second wave of troops that landed on Utah Beach. Gibson said he expected this year would be the last anniversary ceremony that he could attend, but he was pleased to be back one more time.
A federal judge ordered Steve Bannon, the one-time adviser to former President Trump, to begin his four-month prison sentence in July as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols agreed with prosecutors at a Wednesday hearing, ordering Bannon must self-surrender by July 1 since his bid to overturn his conviction was rejected by a three-judge appeals panel last month.
“The government’s motion is granted,” said Nichols, a Trump appointee. Bannon had opposed the move, insisting he will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary, and arguing he should remain free in the meantime.
Bannon was found guilty in 2022 of failing to appear for a deposition ordered by the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee and refusing to turn over documents it subpoenaed.
After the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected Bannon’s appeal last month, the Justice Department moved to immediately incarcerate Bannon, saying there was no longer a “substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial.”
[…] Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is currently serving his four-month sentence on contempt charges. He had similarly mounted last-ditch efforts to avoid prison, including unsuccessfully seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
[…] Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, issued a statement announcing that she was officially “bashing” the bill, on account of the fact that it was just a “show vote” meant to allow Democrats to accuse Republicans of opposing access to birth control.
Although she also made it clear that she opposes federally guaranteeing the right to birth control, because that would somehow violate people’s religious beliefs. You know, in case those religious beliefs included wanting to ban birth control.
This all makes a lot of sense if you look at it sideways and squint real hard.
“It’s ‘show-vote’ season in the Senate. This is another example of Democrats bringing forward deeply deceptive legislation to make political points and try to offer cover to vulnerable Democrats. The devil is in the details. This bill isn’t about access to contraception. It’s about pouring more taxpayer dollars to abortion purveyors like Planned Parenthood, while further trampling religious freedoms and parental rights. It would codify the Biden administration’s punitive polices to shut out faith-based providers and organizations that don’t adhere to a pro-abortion agenda,” said Hyde-Smith.
This is partly true, in that Planned Parenthood provides birth control and these “faith-based providers” do not. To be fair, if that is the bar, then it also discriminates against literally every other entity or organization that does not provide birth control.
Hyde-Smith, you may recall, also blocked a bill protecting access to in-vitro fertilization earlier this year, another thing many Republicans keep swearing they’re not against.
[…] Let us take a moment to recall exactly who it is that wants to force 9-year-olds to give birth and who it is that keeps voting against bills banning child marriage, because it sure as hell ain’t us.
The fact is, there absolutely are a whole lot of conservatives out there talking about how much they want to ban birth control, so it’s hardly out of the realm of possibility. In fact, earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas ruled in favor of Alexander Deanda, a creepy father who wanted the right to deny his daughter’s ability to access birth control.
Additionally, in his Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Clarence Thomas was quite clear that Griswold v. Connecticut — the Supreme Court decision that held that married couples have the right to access birth control without state interference — was on the chopping block.
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” he wrote. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous’ … we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
[…] if they think this is just a show vote, why not “show” us all how not opposed to restricting birth control access they are and just vote for it?
A couple people have mentioned a massive judicial conspiracy of everybody going after him. OK, let’s talk conspiracy math here. The sheer number of people who would have to be working together to get something like this working just boggles the mind. And have you ever tried to get four people to agree on what to order for pizza? I just don’t see this working out. And at the end of the day, OK, fine. OK, I’m going to side with Jonathan on this one, saying, what’s the big deal about bribing Stormy Daniels? But I want a president who’s going to be able to cover up a $130,000 bribe to Daniels. If he can’t pull that off, I’m not going to trust him with the nuclear football. This seems like such an easy thing for him to screw up. I’m kind of leaning toward Biden now.
Text above was excerpted from a longer article discussing a Frank Luntz focus group.
A review by NBC News found X running ads on 20 racist and antisemitic hashtags more than 18 months after Musk said that he would demonetize hate posts.
birgerjohanssonsays
Study finds US drug-related infant deaths more than doubled from 2018 to 2022https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-drug-infant-deaths.html
-Hope there is not more bad news today.
Internationally trained female oncologists face many discrimination challenges in the US, find researchershttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-internationally-female-oncologists-discrimination.html
-Goddammit!
Coming to terms with Donald Trump’s position on early voting should be relatively straightforward. It’s not.
A few weeks ago, for example, the former president held an event in Minnesota, where he condemned early voting as “ridiculous.” This week, as a Washington Post report noted, Trump changed his mind again.
The Republican National Committee is launching a campaign to encourage Republicans to vote by mail — something former president Donald Trump has spent years telling his voters can’t be trusted. The RNC — which Trump effectively controls — is starting an effort called “Swamp the Vote” to promote absentee, mail and early voting, Trump’s campaign said Tuesday.
In an online video promoting the initiative, the presumptive GOP nominee said, “Many Republicans like to vote on Election Day, and we must swamp the radical Democrats with massive turnout on Tuesday, November 5th. The way you win is to swamp them. If we swamp them, they can’t cheat. It just doesn’t work out. But if you can’t make it, you need to make a plan, register and vote any way possible.”
For now, let’s put aside the oddity of the project’s name — “Swamp the Vote” isn’t exactly a marketing masterstroke — and instead focus on the fact that Trump can’t seem to make up his mind on the issue.
At a campaign event on May 11, the former president condemned mail-in voting. Two days earlier, the Republican released a video online in which he specifically touted “absentee voting” and “early voting.”
This, however, was the opposite of what he told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly two weeks earlier, when Trump called for eliminating early voting altogether. “You know, in the old days, it was Election Day,” the GOP candidate said. “Now it’s … 48 days; 48 days of cheating.” He went on to endorse “one-day voting.”
Six days prior, Trump said the opposite, publishing a message to his online social media platform endorsing “absentee voting” and “early voting.”
In other words, between April 19 and May 11, the former president was for, against, for again, and against again absentee balloting.
]…] these incoherent shifts have been ongoing for quite a while. After the 2022 midterm elections, for example, Trump wrote via social media, “YOU CAN NEVER HAVE FAIR & FREE ELECTIONS WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS — NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.” (In case that was too subtle, one day later, Trump re-published the missive, adding, “NEVER!”)
For a while, it seemed party officials who had the former president’s ear managed to nudge him in a more sensible direction. In February 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported, “After years of assailing early voting, Donald Trump is having a change of heart.” The article referenced a recent fundraising appeal Team Trump sent to donors, which said the Republicans’ path forward “is to MASTER the Democrats’ own game.”
A month later, the former president told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was time for Republicans to “change our thinking” on early and mail-in voting. In July 2023, Trump even filmed a video for the Republican National Committee in support of the party’s early voting initiative.
And then he switched back to his other position. [eyeroll, LOL]
“Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head,” Trump declared a few months ago, stepping all over his party’s message. “It has to be. The votes. I mean, it has to be.”
He’s since changed his mind — several times.
[…] The Republican base has absolutely no idea what to think about absentee balloting and voting by mail, and the former president’s followers aren’t sure which of his competing messages to believe.
Trump and the RNC are now encouraging the party’s voters to take advantage of early-voting opportunities, but officials shouldn’t be surprised if the base is skeptical. After all, Trump told them to be.
Federal-funded drought adaptation incentives may be failing to equip Colorado River farmers with the tools necessary to adapt to changing climate conditions, a new report has found.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Crop Insurance Program paid farmers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming $5.6 billion for drought-related losses from 2017 to 2023, per the report, released this week by the Environmental Working Group.
At the same time, the agency provided $521.7 million in subsidies to area farmers through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), for the installation of more efficient irrigation technologies, the document noted.
Yet in a region where three-quarters of water withdrawn from the Colorado River is used to irrigate crops, the report argued that these programs are not living up to their potential.
“The Colorado River region is only going to get hotter and drier, so the government must incentivize growers to make better decisions about what they plant and where,” author Anne Schechinger, Midwest director and agricultural economist for the NGO, said in a statement.
While alfalfa and other forms of hay are responsible for 46 percent of all Colorado River water consumption, farmers of these and other livestock feed crops receive the most drought-related crop insurance payments — at more than $2 billion, per the report.
To provide a clear breakdown of drought-related compensation, Schechinger combined payments for drought, heat, water supply failures and irrigation glitches, as well as for “rainfall index” policies — those that pay out if a farmer’s area receives less-than-average rainfall during the growing season.
Farmers in California collected the most drought-related payments, at $2.1 billion, while those in Colorado received the second highest amount, at more than $1 billion, the report observed.
As far as the EQIP irrigation program is concerned, Schechinger found that implementing more efficient irrigation technologies didn’t necessarily lead to a reduction in overall water use.
She attributed this phenomenon due to the unique concept of Western water rights, in which a priority-based consumption system requires farmers to “use it or lose it” in years to come.
If a water rights holder in the U.S. West fails to put that right to “beneficial use” for a prescribed number of years, then that individual can be forced to abandon the allotment entirely.
Such long-ingrained policies, Schechinger argued, end up encouraging farmers to use their entire water allocation to irrigate their crops — even when their crops don’t require that full supply.
[…] Expressing concern that farmers in the Colorado River states “are on a collision course with the climate crisis,” the report emphasized the need to rethink the types of crops cultivated in the region. USDA farm programs could be instrumental in catalyzing this shift, according to the author.
[…] Stressing that Congress sets subsidy rates and other such parameters, the spokesperson said that the agency “does not have the regulatory authority to restrict where and what producers plant.” […]
One in four menstruating students in the US has missed class due to not being able to afford pads or tampons.
Thanks to inflation and the climate-change-induced increase in the cost of cotton, period poverty — the inability to afford menstrual products — has become a public health crisis in the United States, affecting two out of every five menstruating people. One in four menstruating students have said they have missed class or other school activities as a direct result of not being able to afford pads or tampons. In response to this, 27 states have started making them free at schools, so that students don’t have to worry about needing to run home in their gym clothes with a sweater tied around their waist — and Pennsylvania is (we hope) about to become the 28th.
By a vote of 117 to 85 this week, the Pennsylvania House voted in favor of a bill to establish a grant program to help schools buy pads and tampons for students who cannot otherwise afford them. Isn’t that nice?
Well, we certainly think so, but Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton) has other ideas. In response to the bill passing, Rep. Borowicz openly and publicly fretted that the program was just the first step in the march to communism.
“Just another step by the governor and Democrats to have government provide everything for you, which leads to communism. A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything away,” Borowicz said, […]
Yes, it sure is bad when the government provides people with things — you know, like they do with the entire public school system.
Let me just logic this out though. Under communism, everyone has tampons, and that’s bad — so it’s better for some students to not have tampons than for them to live under the evil communist tampon regime, because if the government gives the students tampons, the government can take them away and then no one will have any tampons and will be forced to just free bleed all over everything in their wake. I don’t know, it seems kind of unlikely.
Or is she suggesting that this will give students a taste for communism and they will start to believe in crazy things like single payer health care?
By that same token, Rep. Borowicz assumes that students who can’t afford to buy tampons or pads will grow up to love the capitalism that led to them not having any tampons or pads and having to miss class because of this. That also seems pretty unlikely. In fact, she might want to consider that this may make those students even more likely to embrace the evil communist tampon regime.
I always wonder what people like Rep. Borowicz think would happen if we got rid of all the social programs and didn’t provide anyone with anything and instead just let them suffer. Because I think it might look a little like the French Revolution. Or the Russian Revolution. Or pretty much any other revolution that started because people were super sick and tired of being very, very poor while others were very, very rich.
Ironically, the full “Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?” poster that I used in the image above actually suggests that “harsh, cheap paper towels” in the washroom is what might cause one’s employees to turn to communism. The text below it reads “Employees lose respect for a company that fails to provide decent facilities for their comfort.” The moral of the story is actually meant to be that spending a little extra in order to make people comfortable is what will keep them from revolting against capitalism.
Luckily, Borowicz is in the minority here — although the bill now moves to the GOP-controlled state Senate, where we can assume there are a whole lot more of her. Hopefully, they can put aside their hatred of “free stuff” and choose to do what’s best for Pennsylvania students.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose proposed budget for 2024-25 includes $3 million to provide menstrual products to schools, praised the vote as a “big step forward,” in general, not towards communism, and indicated that he would sign it as soon as it hits his desk.
birgerjohanssonsays
Scott Manley: “SpaceX’s Starship Literally Melted! But It Kept Flying To A Miraculous [simulated] Landing”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8m0TY6i1Kuo
.
Grumpy old tech nerd writing: The film Ad Astra -despite its big budget- contained catastrophic factual errors even in the first two minutes.
The 1966 b&w German TV series ‘Raumpatrouille’ *had more wilful suspension of disbelief than this SF film.
For the millionth time: A team of 14-year-old nerds would have spotted the plot holes and suggested plausible workarounds.
*it was recorded before the first season of Star Trek and was copmpletely independent and even more progressive. They even had women as admirals.
If we must read the WHATABOUTS of Hunter Biden, currently in a courtroom in Delaware facing a max of 25 years in prison for checking a box on an ATF form, then it’s only fair to give brain space to the latest doings of Vanky’s dead-eyed husband, the waxen slumlord who has been traveling around with Log Cabin Republican and former special envoy to the Balkans Ric Grennell, ISO war-torn death sites to develop with the Saudis’ $2 billion “investment” money.
WHATABOUT how Hunter Biden stepped down from his position on the boards of the China-based private equity fund BHR Partners and the Ukrainian Burisma Holdings before his dad became president to avoid any appearance of impropriety? Even though Hunter never actually even had a job in his dad’s government? Fat lot of good ethics got him!
Kush doesn’t even try to pretend to give a shit while he engages in bald-faced moisturized-with-serums corruption beyond what the US has ever seen before. He’ll take billions from Mohammed Bin Bonesaw, then allegedly WhatsApp him CIA intelligence about his enemies to get them tortured and killed, right up in everybody’s face, and Trumpistan supporters still would not care if the Kush beheaded a journalist on Fifth Avenue. Getting the Qataris to bail out his 666 Fifth Avenue property, why, selling out American interests for a buck is just Kushner doing business good!
Latest update, according to Michael Isikoff’s SpyTalk blog, Kush’s company Affinity Partners has solidified a deal with the Serbian government, a $500 million investment to develop a luxury real estate project in downtown Belgrade on what was the site of Yugoslav Ministry of Defense, which was destroyed by NATO bombing in 1999. What a lovely spot for offices and condos!
And not just that, Kushner’s deal comes with a promise to build a “memorial dedicated to all the victims of NATO aggression.” Because the real war crime there wasn’t the ethnic cleansing, it was NATO stepping in to try to stop it.
Some of you youths of today may actually not remember the 1990s war in what was Yugoslavia, but it was kind of a big deal, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II. Something like 140,000 people died, and 2.2 million were displaced. It started in 1991, when Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence, and went on until 1999, after William Jefferson Clinton got the US involved to support NATO and bomb the shit out of the Serbs and anyone else who happened to be in the way. The US was not hyped to get involved, but it became undeniable that Slobodan Milošević, the then-president, was attempting to genocide ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The war ended with Yugoslavia being literally Balkanized into six countries. Can you name them without looking? Answer at the end! Milošević died during his 2006 war crimes trial at the Hague. […]Slobodan Milošević is not generally considered the good guy.
But Kush has no problem with a little ethnic cleansing. He also has his eyes on building luxury real estate in the beautiful seaside strip of Gaza, as soon as Netanyahu puts the finishing touches on that peace in the Middle East Kushner made for him.
It might un-surprise you to know that the president of Serbia, Aleksander Vučić, is a pro-Russian far-right ultranationalist who once served as minister of information in Milošević’s government. He said after the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, “you kill one Serb and we will kill 100 Muslims.” But mixed-use real estate developments have a way of bringing people together, especially if there’s a Starbucks.
Vučić also wants Serbia to join the EU, while also Putin-hugging, election-fucking, and consolidating power in an authoritarian sort of way.
Does this description of him and Serbia remind you of anyone you know?
The country has fallen into disarray, with the stifling of the freedom of the press, increased poverty, an intense brain drain, and a number of bizarre affairs in which [his] collaborators are often involved. His method of governance has shown to be intrinsically linked to the media, especially dailies that have been, for years, framing him as both being a type of Übermensch, extremely competent, strong and efficient, while at the same time developing a victimhood narrative, via which he is painted as under constant attack, as well as a victim of numerous attempts on his life … even though there was not a single instance in which an assassination was even close to being planned or actually having happened.
Well, there’s one difference: “Vučić is … described as a ‘real man,’ while those who stand against him are dubbed ‘bisexuals.’”
[…] What war-torn right-wing haven will Kush invest in next with his Bonesaw fun money? Can’t wait to find out!
Until next time!
And the answer to our quiz: The countries of former Yugoslavia are Bosnia and Herzegovina (one country, two names!), Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Here’s a colorful map! [map at the link]
Conservative policymakers influential with former president Donald Trump are discussing how to use a little-known labor law to impose sweeping restrictions on private-employer-covered abortions, according to a public statement and two people with direct knowledge of labor policy discussions among Trump advisers.
Trump has not formally committed to anything and talks are ongoing. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has publicly called for using federal labor law to limit the ability of private employers to provide coverage that includes abortions in states with abortion restrictions.
Trump insiders have also discussed these ideas, according to one person with direct knowledge of the talks.
The proposed change could make it vastly more difficult for residents of states with abortion bans to obtain abortions by traveling out-of-state, legal experts say, even as out-of-state travel for abortions doubled between the first half of 2020 and the first half of 2023, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.
More than 170,000 patients traveled across state lines in 2023 to seek abortions, the institute’s data shows.
The Heritage Foundation, which has been heavily involved in policy proposals for a Trump second term, has recommended that the Labor Department and Congress “should clarify” that federal labor regulations for employer-sponsored health-care plans “should not be allowed to trump states’ ability to protect innocent human life in the womb.”
A separate proposal being considered by Trump labor advisers would rescind a new federal rule that takes effect this month requiring most U.S. employers to offer “reasonable accommodations” for their workers related to pregnancy and childbirth, including time off for abortions, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of labor policy discussions among Trump advisers.
[…] Although data is hard to come by, thousands of women are accessing abortions by traveling out of state, and it’s likely that they are using private-employer insurance to do so, said Liz McCaman Taylor, senior federal policy counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights […]
Forcing private-employer insurance to exclude abortion coverage would have a “huge impact on women,” McCaman Taylor added, including “a chilling effect” on those seeking abortions even if they do not have employer-sponsored health care.
[…] About half of companies with at least 200 employees cover some abortion services under health insurance plans, according to a 2023 survey of firms by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization.
[…] Jonathan Berry, the author of Heritage’s proposal to change federal labor law around abortion for private-employer health insurance, and a former assistant secretary in the Labor Department during the Trump administration, is widely viewed as one of Trump’s leading advisers on labor issues. Berry is also a potential candidate for a senior position in the Labor Department under a new Trump administration, according to two conservative policy experts. […]
More at the link.
John Moralessays
“Scott Manley: “SpaceX’s Starship Literally Melted! But It Kept Flying To A Miraculous [simulated] Landing””
Obviously, it did not.
Had it literally melted, it would have been a molten blob, which are not great at flying.
(Stupid clickbait headlines don’t do it for me)
And yes, I remember from earlier in this thread: “A camera covered the whole descent and showed how one of the fins started to get burned through.”
(Fucking stupid clickbait headlines annoy the shit out of me)
—
Bah.
John Moralessays
Grumpy old tech nerd writing: The film Ad Astra -despite its big budget- contained catastrophic factual errors even in the first two minutes.
Did they claim their spaceship literally melted when a part of it got singed?
John Moralessays
Imagine being naive and watching that video to see how the ship literally melted and kept flying.
I know I’d be fucking annoyed and disappointed about the bait and switch.
I suppose, were I that naive in the first place, I’d watch again the next time that Scott “lying headline” Manley puts up another clickbaity title.
The Israeli military launched an airstrike on a school operated by the United Nations agency for refugees in the central Gaza Strip overnight, saying it was targeting Hamas. Local health officials said dozens of displaced civilians, including children, were killed in the attack.
Supreme Court justices have received nearly $5 million in gifts since the early 2000s, and one justice in particular, Justice Clarence Thomas, accounts for nearly all of it. Data released Thursday by watchdog group Fix the Court unveils a list of gifts justices have received since January 2004. The dataset was released ahead of an expected release of the justices’ financial disclosure reports Friday.
President Joe Biden told ABC News in an interview Thursday that he will accept whatever a jury decides in his son Hunter Biden’s criminal trial and that he will not use his presidential power to pardon him if he’s convicted.
Florida’s highest court on Thursday rejected an effort by a suspended state attorney to get reinstated after she was removed from office last year by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in his second suspension of a Democratic prosecutor. Supreme Court justices voted 6-1 to deny a petition from suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell of the 9th Judicial Circuit, which serves metro Orlando.
A man’s death in Mexico was caused by a strain of bird flu called H5N2 that has never before been found in a human, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The WHO said it wasn’t clear how the man became infected, although H5N2 has been reported in poultry in Mexico.
House Republicans are calling out Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas for continuing to wear a Combat Infantryman Badge pin from Afghanistan after a CBS investigation revealed that it was revoked in March 2023. The badge can only be awarded to infantry or Special Forces personnel who have engaged in combat. Nehls served as a civil affairs officer.
“That’s ridiculous. That’s stolen valor,” Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, who wears a similar Combat Action Badge, told NOTUS.
Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, a retired Navy SEAL, added, “It matters what you wear on your uniform. If you didn’t earn it, you shouldn’t wear it.”
[…] NOTUS spoke with a few House Republicans who did not want to be identified but did have some choice words for Nehls’ unearned display.
“It’s really shameful,” one Republican lawmaker said. “It speaks to deep insecurities. Combat Infantry Badges are given out for combat. He didn’t earn it.”
Nehls’ has a history of being an unbelievably dubious character. Last month, an ethics review found that there was “probable cause” to believe that he had misused campaign funds for personal use. Now the House Ethics Committee is investigating these claims.
In 2018, Nehls announced he would not run for Congress. Nehls was a sheriff in Fort Bend County, Texas, at the time and gave a very convoluted reason, involving his twin brother, why. Coincidentally, Nehls’ decision not to run in 2018 came at the exact same time that news broke that Nehls was fired in 1998 from the police department in Richmond, Texas.
[…] Additionally, Nehls was one of 16 Republicans from Texas to vote against the certification of the 2020 election.
Nehls seems to be a perfect encapsulation of the MAGA movement these days, with aspirations to gain power and a poor understanding of why we have laws.
[…] France to send Mirage jets to Ukraine. Reports say it will be within the year. We’ll see. […]
Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s refining capacity continues. Novoshakhtinsk is north of Rostov-on-Don and just a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine. [video at the link]
[…] Another ship that used to float above the water now lies at the bottom of the Black Sea. [video at the link]
[…] Meanwhile, in Vovchansk, Ukraine acquired more prisoner trade fodder.
💪Ukrainian marines defeated Russian assault troops in Vovchansk – two commanders of assault companies and four soldiers surrendered during a counterattack by soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade.
Two Russian assault companies were almost completely destroyed, both company commanders surrendered wounded along with the remnants of their soldiers.
Bit of a shame that the Ukraine war is not normally the headlined news, and by now the Palestinian torture is no longer in the news as the headline, either.
Dorsey gave $10 million to a foundation supporting Nostr [a decentralized social-media protocol] and 14 bitcoins, worth roughly $245,000, directly to Nostr’s founder, who until now was known pseudonymously as Fiatjaf.
[…]
Nostr has a relatively small user base of cryptocurrency and privacy enthusiasts, including Edward Snowden. “We don’t know who the leader is, it’s like this anonymous Brazilian,” Dorsey said.
That anonymous Brazilian is Giovanni Torres Parra, a developer who has also built at least two webpages devoted to disseminating the work of the far-right conspiracy theorist Olavo de Carvalho. Before he died in 2022 after contracting COVID-19, de Carvalho […] praised Brazil’s military dictatorship, claimed that Pepsi-Cola was flavored with stem cells of aborted fetuses, preached that tolerance for homosexuality was “incompatible” with democracy, and had an office in Virginia decorated with portraits of Confederate generals. […] seen by many as former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s “guru” thanks to the influence he wielded
[…]
Parra was frustrated by what he saw as Twitter’s increasing censorship of users and wanted to build a decentralized protocol that would allow people to easily take their social-media profiles and followers to other networks if they disagreed with a platform’s content-moderation policies.
[…]
On Github, he published a timeline of his life showing he enrolled in an online philosophy course on the dangers of “cultural Marxism” that [the guru] began offering in 2009. […] Parra, as Fiatjaf, mused about the likelihood that “Nazis or racists or whatever” could see Nostr as a home for hate speech […] “I want to tell these people to go somewhere else, but I think we need these people, too,” he said.
It marked the first time in the world for a wild bird afflicted with highly contagious and lethal bird flu to be treated with a human medication and successfully recover to a condition suitable for reintroduction to its natural habitat […] was taken into protective custody in Hokkaido, in April 2022. […] received oral doses of the human anti-influenza drug for a duration of one month. […] more than a year of rehabilitation […] the fatality rate of bird flu is about 80% for chickens and is thought to be similarly high for wild birds.
[…]
another white-tailed eagle, which recovered from bird flu after a similar treatment approach, is still undergoing rehabilitation
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
The Colorado Republican Party called for pride flags to be burned this week, while its chair sent gay slurs in fundraising emails just days after the start of Pride Month.
Microsoft’s announcement of CoPilot plus Recall, the product nobody wanted. CoPilot+ is Microsoft’s LLM-based add-on for Windows, sort of like 2000’s Clippy the Talking Paperclip only with added hallucinations. […] a forced update to Windows 11 [that cannot be removed or disabled].
[…]
Recall takes [frequent screenshots of everything] and saves them locally. […] It then OCRs any text in the images, and I believe also transcribes any speech, and saves the resulting output in an unencrypted SQLite database […] there are tools already out there to slurp through the database and see what’s in it
[…]
Surprise! It turns out that the unencrypted database and the stored images may contain your user credentials and passwords. And other stuff.
[…]
this is an utter privacy shit-show. Victims of domestic abuse are at risk of their abuser trawling their PC for any signs that they’re looking for help. Anyone who’s fallen for a scam that gave criminals access to their PC is also completely at risk.
Worse: even if you don’t use Recall, if you send an email or instant message to someone else who does then it will be […] preserved for posterity. Now imagine the shit-show when this goes corporate.
[…]
Suddenly every PC becomes a target for Discovery during legal proceedings. Lawyers can subpoena your Recall database […] It’s a shit-show for any organization that handles medical records or has a duty of legal confidentiality; indeed, for any business that has to comply with GDPR […] or HIPAA in the US.
tomhsays
Re: #80
Your excerpts on MS CoPilot conflate different things. The original CoPilot, a digital AI assisstant released last year, is a feature update and add-on to Windows 11. Although there’s no direct option to turn it off, it can be disabled or removed. You can find instructions here.
CoPilot Plus is only found on CoPilot Plus PCs. It is built into those PCs and marketed as such. Not an add-on. MS ReCall will be integrated only into compatible new CoPilot Plus PCs. It won’t be available as an update to Windows.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@tomh:
Ah. Thanks. Yeah, that article called them both “CoPilot+”, and I tuned out the hardware bit.
The new CoPilot+ branded PCs going on sale later this month are marketed as being suitable for AI (spot the sucker-bait there?) and have powerful new ARM processors from Qualcomm […] having an on-device coprocessor optimized for training neural networks.
Having built the hardware and the operating system Microsoft […] pitched it at the market as a forced update to Windows 11.
[…]
Microsoft is pushing this feature into the latest update of Windows 11 for all compatible hardware and making it impossible to remove or disable
Windows 11 Recall is exclusive to Snapdragon X processors only because Intel and AMD chips do not meet the minimum hardware requirements of [40 trillion operations per second].
Some folks have forced it to run on unsupported hardware and got decent performance, but updates wouldn’t do that.
John Moralessays
CA7746, I saw that.
The claim in the OP there: “a forced update to Windows 11 [that cannot be removed or disabled]”
You can turn on or off saving snapshots at any time by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots. You can also pause snapshots temporarily by selecting the Recall icon in the system tray on your PC and selecting the pause option."
—
BTW, there’s a roughly analogous setting in Win10 for the same thing.
John Moralessays
Charlie is a M$ hater and a lifelong Apple fan.
So bear that in mind.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@John Morales:
Noted. I’d not encountered him before.
An oddly specific confident inaccuracy. One commenter there bent over backward to parse it generously: “FWIW, reports from people who’ve gotten their hands on advance copies is that Recall can’t be disabled at install time. It can be disabled later”
John Moralessays
CA7746, nonetheless, Charlie’s main point remains. Good discussion, there.
President Joe Biden joined a variety of world leaders in France yesterday and marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Evidently Sen. Rick Scott wasn’t impressed.
After a Fox Business host accused the Democrat of “taking veiled shots” at Donald Trump, the Florida Republican reflected on his father’s World War II service before concluding:
“This should not be a political event. This should be a commemoration that people that put their lives on the line. … There shouldn’t be anything political in this at all today. It’s really disgusting what Biden has done.”
For the record, the incumbent president didn’t mention his predecessor. Biden also didn’t reference Republicans or any political party.
Rather, the Democrat emphasized a variety of core principles, including the idea that democracy is worth fighting for.
“In memory of those who fought here, died here, literally saved the world here, let us be worthy of their sacrifice,” Biden said. “Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time — in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now — it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well.
In the same remarks in Colleville-sur-Mer, the incumbent president added, “America has invested in our alliances and forged new ones — not simply out of altruism but out of our own self-interest as well. America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today.”
Biden went on to say, “We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since … these beaches were stormed in 1944. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together? My answer is yes. And it only can be yes.”
[…] given what the Democrat actually said, and the principles the president touted, if Scott sincerely found his speech “disgusting,” that says far more about the far-right senator than it does about the president.
It is telling that whenever President Biden talks about supporting our allies, or about protecting Democracy, Republicans say it is “disgusting” that Biden is attacking Trump. Trump was never mentioned, nor was MAGA, at that event.
There are all kinds of contrasts between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but among the most salient is the difference between their approaches to Jan. 6. The presumptive Republican nominee, for example, has offered Jan. 6 rioters praise, support and vows of future pardons. We’ve reached the point in the cycle in which the presumptive GOP nominee refers to Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages” in practically every public appearance, as he focuses on his bond with suspected and convicted insurrectionists.
In contrast, the incumbent Democrat’s team recently enlisted three police officers from Jan. 6 — Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Officer Harry Dunn and Officer Danny Hodges — to hit the campaign trail as surrogates, warning voters about the threat Trump poses to our system of government.
The result is a dynamic in which the former Republican president is siding with those who committed acts of violence against police officers, while the incumbent Democratic president is aligned with the officers themselves.
It was against this backdrop that two of the officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 spoke — or at least tried to speak — to state legislators in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. As NBC News reported, Republicans in the chamber apparently didn’t want to listen.
Two officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 faced boos and walkouts by Republicans at the Pennsylvania state House as they visited the chamber, according to several lawmakers present. Republicans jeered at [Dunn and Gonell], who were introduced by state House Speaker Joanna McClinton on Wednesday as part of their tour across Pennsylvania to discuss the threat they say former President Donald Trump poses to democracy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson declared this week that voters should see the Republican Party as “the rule of law team.” His timing could’ve been better.
“All Democrats stood and applauded the officers, while a majority of Republicans either remained seated — while not applauding — began booing or left the floor,” said Majority Caucus Chair Mike Schlossberg in a statement. “I do want to be clear, there were absolutely Republican members who did applaud and stand. But a majority did not.” [video at the link]
One of Schlossberg’s Democratic colleagues, state Rep. Greg Scott, said the Republicans jeering the officers left him “in total shock.”
“I hear them speak about being the party of law and order,” Scott added. “They would like the world to think they’re the party that backs the blue — but yesterday they made it clear. They back the orange man only.”
Democrats state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro went so far as to describe Republicans’ conduct as “the behavior of somebody in a cult.” [Yep]
For his part, Dunn said in a written statement that it was “sad though unsurprising that Trump’s allies in the Pennsylvania state House followed his lead in mocking the January 6 attack.”
“The fact they’re scared to listen to those of us who were there and witnessed the political violence of January 6 first hand speaks volumes,” Dunn added.
Gonell, an Iraq War veteran injured by pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, issued a statement of his own that accused Pennsylvania House Republicans of having “abandoned the truth” and “sided with those who attacked us.” [Yep}
The former president’s overt hostility toward law enforcement is well documented, but it appears his posture has been embraced by too many of his GOP allies, as well.
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Thursday moved to liquidate his personal assets, agreeing to demands from the families of Sandy Hook victims whom he owes more than $1.5 billion in damages over his lies about the 2012 school massacre.
The seismic move paves the way for a future in which Jones no longer owns Infowars, the influential conspiracy empire he founded in the late 1990s. Over the years, Jones has not only used the media company to poison the public discourse with vile lies and conspiracy theories, but also to enrich himself to the tune of millions of dollars.
Prior to Thursday, Jones had resisted converting his personal bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation. But facing mounting legal pressure, he reversed course and caved to the demands of the Sandy Hook families, who have still not seen a penny from Jones since juries in Connecticut and Texas found him liable in 2022 for defamation and emotional distress. His lawyers said in a filing that there was “no reasonable prospect for a successful reorganization” and that continuing down the path would only result in additional expenses incurred by Jones.
The legal maneuver ultimately “means [Jones’] ownership in Free Speech Systems is going to get sold,” Avi Moshenberg, an attorney who represents some of the Sandy Hook families, told CNN on Thursday night, referencing the parent company of Infowars.
“Converting the case to Chapter 7 will hasten the end of these bankruptcies and facilitate the liquidation of Jones’s assets, which is the same reason we have moved to convert his company’s case to Chapter 7,” Chris Mattei, another attorney representing Sandy Hook families, told CNN.
Jones technically has not controlled the Infowars business for some time, given that Free Speech Systems has also filed for bankruptcy protection. The company’s business has, thus, been under the supervision of a court appointed restructuring officer.
A hearing is scheduled for next Friday to determine the fate of Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy.
But regardless of what happens in that case, Thursday’s legal move sets the stage for a court-appointed trustee to liquidate Jones’ personal assets, which includes his stake in Infowars.
The liquidation of Jones’ assets does not mean that Infowars will cease to exist. Several outcomes are possible. The court-appointed trustee could sell the business to another owner, for instance.
Now we know why Clarence Thomas didn’t jump on John Oliver’s offer of $1 million dollars a year to step down from his position on the Supreme Court: It might mean he would have to take a pay cut.
A new tabulation from Fix the Court shows the 17 justices who served on the court between 2004 and 2023 knocked down a staggering $4,755,147 in gifts. That’s an average of nearly $28,000 worth of freebies per justice per year.
Except it’s not. Because a jaw-dropping $4,042,286 of that total went into just one pocket. That’s right, America’s biggest fan of Walmart parking lots went home with over five times more money than everyone else on the court combined. That’s not the appearance of corruption. It is corruption.
[…] Thomas’ haul is over 20 times greater than that of runner-up Samuel Alito. Expect Alito to have a chat with Trump’s collection of billionaire donors about that sad imbalance. Maybe they can subsidize his flag supply.
Even so, Alito went home with $170,095. That’s not bad.
It’s hard to think of any other job where such a level of perks is acceptable. Ask any salesperson or product rep what their company says about accepting gifts from clients. Many public school teachers are not allowed to accept gifts from students, no matter how small, to avoid any concern about preference. And every federal judge has to refuse any gift from someone with business before the court or from anyone who could be affected by the results of a court ruling.
Of course, that means every federal judge except those serving on the Supreme Court. That select group is guided only by unenforced ethical guidelines and a chief justice who refuses to meet with the little people in Congress.
But even in the supreme free-for-all, no one comes close to Thomas in soaking up that sweet graft. He seems to only finish behind his peers when it comes to reporting those hefty gifts. Just 8.5% of Thomas’ take appears on the what’s-the-point-anyway disclosure forms.
Fix the Court considers all of these numbers to be “on the low end.” Thanks to the lack of accurate disclosure, it could only guess how many times Thomas dropped in at mega-donor (and Nazi napkin owner) Harlan Crow’s Adirondack resort Topridge or danced around his idols at the all-male Bohemian Club. It also suspects that it missed some “free tickets to Dallas Cowboys and Florida Panthers games.”
It’s not that Republicans don’t recognize what these numbers show about Thomas’ level of corruption. It’s just that this is what they like about him.
Donald Trump held a rally at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday. In a surprise that can only be described as dreadful, the newly convicted felon brought the racist former sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, up on stage.
“I don’t kiss men. But I kissed him,” Trump told the audience before launching into praise of the disgraced former sheriff.
“People said he was too tough,” Trump said. “Now they’re saying, where is Sheriff Joe? You know, he’s 177 years old, but we want him back.”
It wasn’t just people who said Arpaio was too tough; it was the judicial system. Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt in 2017 for refusing to obey a court order that prohibited his cruel and abusive racial profiling practices, terrorizing communities of color in Arizona for years. Arpaio’s racist abuse of power cost Arizona taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in legal expenses.
Arpaio was sentenced to jail, but Trump pardoned him. It was the first of many ill-advised pardons for the twice-impeached Trump. At the time, Arpaio seemed to be unaware that by accepting Trump’s pardon, he was also admitting guilt. Arpaio subsequently tried, and failed, to have his conviction expunged.
At the rally, Trump offered the mic to Arpaio, who started with a classic racist joke.
“I want to see your birth certificate,” he said. [video at the link]
The event, hosted by the conservative college group Turning Point Action, which was founded by Charlie Kirk, was exactly as gross as one might expect.
The U.S. economy added 272,000 jobs in May, and the unemployment rate ticked slightly up to 4 percent, according to new Labor Department data released Friday.
The May jobs report was far hotter than the expectations of economists, who projected a gain of 185,000 jobs and no movement from the April jobless rate of 3.9 percent.
The slight increase in the jobless rate, however, ends the longest streak of sub-4 percent unemployment since the 1960s.
[…] After peaking at 9.1 percent in June 2022, inflation has eased significantly, falling to 3.4 percent in April.
However, as inflation remains stubbornly above target, the central bank has repeatedly held rates steady.
[…] Traders currently expect the Fed’s first rate to come in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
President Biden touted Friday’s strong job numbers — and the 15.6 million jobs added since taking office — while also vowing to continue efforts to bring down prices.
“The great American comeback continues, but we still have to make more progress,” the president said in a statement, adding, “I will keep fighting to lower costs for families […]”
birgerjohanssonsays
Factoid: Carboxylic acids (with a COOH group) excreted by bacteria on the skin are the main reason why mosquitos are particularly attracted to some individuals. Some mixtures of carboxylic acids attract up to 100 times more mosquitos. Source Rockefeller University.
Economy Added 272,000 Jobs In May, Please Cheer Or Panic!
It’s the first Friday of the month, so you know what that means: Dok’s kicking himself for forgetting to buy a bunch of groceries yesterday at the supermarket that gives you 10% off on the first Thursday of the month if you’re over 55. Also it means the Labor Department’s May employment report is out, showing Joe Biden’s economy created 272,000 new nonfarm jobs. That’s up from April’s 165,000 jobs, and quite a bit higher than the Dow Jones forecast of 190,000.
The unemployment rate edged up just a tenth of a percent, from 3.9 percent to four percent, breaking a near-record streak of 27 consecutive months of unemployment below that number. So fine, go ahead and phrase it, as Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers did this morning, as “at or below 4.0% for 30 months, the longest such stretch since 1970.” They managed to get a couple extra months in that way! [Graph at the link]
[…] Some good news for workers, too, as CNBC explains:
[A]verage hourly earnings were higher than expected as well, rising 0.4% on the month and 4.1% from a year ago. The respective estimates were for increases of 0.3% and 3.9%.
When wages rise ahead of the inflation rate — which is the case here — that means more buying power for consumers, at least in the aggregate, although any one person’s situation can vary a lot. Again, those jolly Biden advisers note that we’ve seen “wage growth outpacing inflation for 12 months in a row,” and that while May’s inflation numbers aren’t in yet, “wages likely outpaced inflation over the year in May too.”
Also regarding that wage growth, the New York Times points out that it was especially strong among “production and nonsupervisory workers, at 0.5 percent.” Remember how Joe Biden has said all along that his policies are aimed at growing the economy “from the bottom up, and the middle out”? Here we are again with gains at the lower end of the income spectrum, which has been the trend in this recovery all along. […]
And now, prepare for the heel turn necessary for any report on hot jobs numbers: This month’s report probably means the Federal Reserve, ever worried about inflation, won’t cut interest rates anytime soon. The Fed said in December that it anticipated up to three rate cuts in 2024, but inflation would have to cool its shit before any cuts.
Accordingly, here’s the mandatory quote from an economist from CNBC, since jobs numbers like these are perfect for a bunch of “howevers” and similar hedges.
“One step forward, two steps back. Today’s data undermines the message that other recent economic data have been giving of a cooling U.S. economy, and slams the door shut on a July rate cut,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. “Not only has jobs growth exploded again, but wage growth has also surprised to the upside, both moving in the opposite direction to what the Fed needs to begin easing policy.”
Oh, get out of here with your “exploded.” We’re going to go hang out with Biden’s economic advisers, they’re more fun.
Also, stocks dipped a little after the report was released, but then went right back up again, which must mean it’s Friday, is what we think.
On this week’s edition of “Hoarders: Supreme Court,” we take a look at Justice Clarence Thomas, who has spent 30 years amassing wealthy friends and unreported gifts at a level that might have had King Solomon hollering, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, how about we cool it with the tribute for a while, my palace only has but so many rooms!”
We have been writing about Thomas and his penchant for letting the filthy rich gift him stuff that he then does not report on his financial disclosure forms, thus violating all sorts of ethics rules and common sense, for well over a year. But it was tough quantifying all the graft. Math was always our worst subject, and that was when we were young and had not yet pickled our brain in cheap beer and Makers Mark.
Luckily the folks at Fix the Court have put together numbers and estimated value of all the gifts given to all Supreme Court justices over the last 20 years, both reported and unreported to the Federal Trade Commission. Unsurprisingly, Clarence Thomas tops the list by, to put it delicately, a metric fuck-ton:
Of the $6,592,657 of gifts and “likely” gifts identified by FTC, a WHOPPING $5,879,796 of them went to Clarence Thomas.
Holy crap!!!!!!! and HOLY CRAP!!!!!! and !!!!!!!!!!!!
And this report only goes back over the last 20 years. Add in any gifts Thomas has received since his confirmation in 1991, and that total presumably would jump.
So maybe his first decade on the bench was not bad graft-wise for a guy who was making $173,000 a year in salary when he first joined the Court, we can’t say. But what we can say for sure is that the next two decades were stunningly lucrative for old Clarence and his insane coup-plotter of a wife.
We doubt it is a coincidence that the graft dramatically increased after two events: when Thomas helped put George W. Bush on the bench in 2000, which eventually got his wealthy patrons some huge tax cuts, and when he started complaining to conservative congressmen that his salary wasn’t worth it, which scared his benefactors into thinking he might jump to private practice. So they initiated Operation Kick Up a Taste to Clarence to keep him happy and on the Supreme Court, where he could rule in ways beneficial to them.
Hating your country pays really well! We think Benedict Arnold said that. Or possibly Roger Taney.
For comparison, the next-highest gift number by dollar value for a SCOTUS justice is Antonin Scalia, who accepted $175,861 in gifts since 2004. Though to be fair, he has been dead for nearly half that time. Maybe he would have grabbed another $6 million or so for himself in the last eight years, we’ll never know.
Someone put these dollar amounts in handy chart form for all of our entertainment: [chart at the link]
Or, if you prefer to use pie charts so you can see just how large a percentage of dessert Clarence Thomas is hogging, Quinta Jurecic of Above the Law made this: [pie chart at the link]
And Fix the Court says this is likely an undercount, as the group is mostly relying on reporting by ProPublica and others to try and put together a comprehensive list of all the gifts his wealthy buddies gave Thomas that he did not report on his disclosure forms. It is entirely possible — likely, even — that even with all the reporters who have been digging into this story, there are still some trips on private jets to exclusive resorts that have not yet surfaced.
Clarence Thomas has always wanted to be filthy rich. Part of his origin story is that he was unable to land a job with any big law firms when he graduated from Yale Law School, and so had to settle for moving to Washington DC and becoming a civil bureaucrat. The Supreme Court, it turns out, was sort of a back-up career. It’s a bit like applying to all the PAC-12 state universities while making Harvard your safety school.
As of Friday morning, we have not seen any reaction to this story from Thomas’s usual defenders. This can be interpreted as a) they are all too busy, b) they are all off on luxury vacations without cellphone service, or c) they are all dead. We were going to add d) some semblance of shame finally caught up with them, but ha ha ha, there is no way that is ever going to happen.
Shoot, Harlan Crow is probably flying the Thomases off to the Seychelles right now on an all-expenses-paid trip, where they can recover from this latest revelation of the extent of Clarence’s unbounded and unparalleled grubbiness.
Poor guy getting gaslighted by having his words quoted verbatim, awwwwww.
The Congressional Black Caucus had this to say this week about Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is Black:
“This is a pattern of embracing racist ideologies that we see time and again within the MAGA Republican Party. Rep. Donalds is playing his role as the mouthpiece who will say the quiet parts out loud that many will not say themselves. His comments were shameful and beneath the dignity of a member of the House of Representatives. He should immediately offer an apology to Black Americans for misrepresenting one of the darkest chapters in our history for his own political gain.”
Mouthpiece who will say the quiet parts loud that many will not say themselves. In other words, if we’re interpreting them correctly, they’re saying Donalds is helpful to MAGA because he puts a Black face on white supremacy.
Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries had this to say to Donalds:
“You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
OK, Jeffries had WAY MORE to say than that. If you missed what everybody’s so furious about that Donalds said, let Jeffries explain how Donalds said Black families had it so much better under Jim Crow. [video at the link]
“We were not better off when a young boy named Emmett Till could be brutally murdered without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when Black women could be sexually assaulted without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequences because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when children could be denied a high quality education without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when people could be denied the right to vote without consequence because of Jim Crow.
“How DARE you make such an ignorant observation? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
Well damn.
Let’s look at exactly what Donalds, one of the lowest-integrity Republican congressmen this side of Nancy Mace, actually said, because he is GRRR SO ANGRY that everybody is supposedly misrepresenting him.
This was tweeted by the Biden campaign, because obviously: [video at the link]
DONALDS: During Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative, Black people have always been conservative-minded, but more Black people voted conservatively …
And so forth.
Donalds is all over Twitter and TV scuh-reaming about DON’T CLIP MY WORDS! and YOU TOOK ME OUT OF CONTEXT! and GASLIGHTING!
But if you watch his full comments, all it proves is that Donalds knows exactly how to spout white supremacist talking points.
You see, this is what the Congressional Black Caucus was talking about. He yaps that this is all about Black FAMILIES, he’s bemoaning that black FAMILIES (allegedly) used to be better off during Jim Crow. That’s all he’s saying! Just in this one specific way, Black people did better! (Allegedly.) Meanwhile, he gets to wink at the white racist MAGA voters by saying the words “During Jim Crow” over and over again.
It’s all very …
Here, don’t listen to us, a white boy writer, listen to this Black woman who goes by Candidly Tiff, who stitched Donald’s comments, explaining in great detail how what Donalds said is literally verbatim talking points from white Christian fascist organizations like the Heritage Foundation and other anti-abortion white Christian conservatives, who have been telling Black folks what’s good for them for decades since … well, since literally the fucking birth of this nation if you catch our drift. [video at the link]
She also notes that if Byron Donalds is so concerned about Black families and marriages, then Donalds’s own marriage — to a white woman — was not legal during Jim Crow in Florida, all the way up until Loving. She finishes by saying he’s full of shit and needs some self-awareness. “His goal is to cape for white supremacy, that is his mission. And he’s trying to be VP, which is never gonna happen, but good luck to him.” (Uh oh, sounds like he didn’t make Trump’s short list.)
On CNN the other night, Abby Phillip laid Donalds out on the facts, asking if he regretted tying his comments to Jim Crow. He tried to swear up and down that he never suggested that Black people were better off during Jim Crow because they were together, despite how that is exactly what he said, regardless of if whether he used the exact word “better.”
He also insisted that he is “one of the better communicators in the Republican Party,” so that was LOL.
Here is Phillip explaining that the Black unemployment rate and poverty rate are the lowest in American history under Joe Biden, so you can’t even say it was better under Trump. [video at the link]
On Joy Reid’s show last night, Donalds just screamed a lot, but she didn’t care. When he moaned about people saying he was being “nostalgic” for Jim Crow, she noted it was he who brought up Jim Crow “three times for emphasis.”
She asked if there was a “specific period between 1867 after the Civil War, to 1968, is there a specific period between 1867 and 1968 that you thought was this golden era for Black families, or a time that you thought was good for Black families?” He started yelling that he never said that, but she was like nope, MFer, gonna play the tape now. And she did. [video at the link]
Finally, she made the same point that was made above, that Donalds couldn’t even have been married to his wife during Jim Crow. He agreed with Reid when she said she’s glad she doesn’t live during Jim Crow. “Perhaps don’t bring up Jim Crow when you’re trying to make that example,” Reid said, helpfully.
But remember, when Donalds says things like that to Joy Reid, or even in the parts of the Abby Phillip interview where he was nice, he knows he’s speaking to a CNN or MSNBC audience. Repeating the “Jim Crow” dogwhistle three times isn’t effective with that audience like it is with MAGA voters.
Finish by reading this excellent thread from Black writer Michael Harriot, who painstakingly details what Jim Crow was really about, how Black people were better off in exactly zero ways, and why Donalds is just shilling for white supremacists who believe “Black people are too dumb to know what’s good for them.”
Here are his last couple tweets, but you need to read it all to see how he gets there: [screen grabs of tweets at the link]
This was an exceptionally long post from that coverage. I think it important to recognize that the Trump campaign is using a few black faces to spout white supremacist ideology.
This week, Breitbart interviewed the former Trump official Peter Navarro, one of many criminals in the ex-president’s orbit, from the Miami prison where he is serving four months for contempt of Congress. While life behind bars is difficult, Navarro boasted that his stint has been smoothed by his ties to Donald Trump, which make him something of a made man. The former president, said Navarro, is beloved not just by the guards, but by the “vast majority” of inmates as well. [That’s supposed to be a good thing?] “If I were a Bidenite, things would be a lot tougher here — and yes, they know exactly who I am and respect the fact that I stood up for a principle and didn’t bow to the government,” he said.
One of the more unsettling things about our politics right now is the Republican Party’s increasingly open embrace of lawlessness. Even as they proclaim Trump’s innocence, Trump and his allies revel in the frisson of criminality. At his rally in the Bronx last month, for example, Trump invited onto the stage two rappers, Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow, who are currently facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and weapons possession. (They’ve pleaded not guilty.
During Trump’s recent criminal trial, his courtroom entourage included Chuck Zito, who helped found the New York chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang and spent six years in prison on drug conspiracy charges. (The Justice Department has linked his Hells Angels chapter to the Gambino crime family.) Trump, who has his own history of mafia ties, has repeatedly compared himself to Al Capone. MAGA merchants sell T-shirts — and, weirdly, hot sauce — showing Trump as either Vito or Michael Corleone from “The Godfather” movies, with the caption “The Donfather.”
[…] the disturbing thing about the MAGA movement’s outlaw turn isn’t that it’s failing to live up to its own conservative values. It’s that it’s adopting a sinister set of new, or newly resurrected, ones.
[…] Both Murray Rothbard, a co-founder of the libertarian Cato Institute, and Sam Francis, a white nationalist who has become posthumously influential among MAGA elites, found in “The Godfather” novel and films a vision of a self-governing social order more admirable than our own. […]
Members of the House Intelligence Committee made it painfully clear to House Speaker Mike Johnson that he needed to choose responsibly when filling two vacancies on the panel. The Intelligence Committee has made a deliberate effort to steer clear of partisan food fights lately, and it feared that Johnson would screw this up by imposing rabid ideologues on the panel.
What’s more, the Republican speaker had perfectly credible alternatives from his own party who were interested in the slots. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, for example, has a background as a Navy cryptologist, so it stands to reason that he’d fit in on the Intelligence Committee.
All Johnson had to do was avoid radicals such as Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was demoted by the Pentagon amid scandalous allegations of wrongdoing, and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who was up to his ears in the scandal surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, even having his phone confiscated by the FBI.
This week, Johnson nevertheless named Perry and Jackson to the House Intelligence Committee.
[…] the House speaker didn’t even bother to give a heads-up to Rep. Mike Turner, the House Intelligence Committee’s Republican chairman, and PunchBowl News reported that Johnson’s move “is causing angst across the Capitol,” adding, “Several members of the committee — Republicans and Democrats — say they worry about the integrity of the panel in the wake of Johnson’s appointment of the pair.”
Reporter Jake Sherman added that the speaker “really pissed off the members of the Intelligence Committee, who are dumping on him and [saying] this was a stupid, clownish move.” Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a retired Air Force pilot, described the move as “insane.”
So, why in the world did the House speaker choose two unqualified extremists for the House Intelligence Committee, even after the panel’s members urged him not to? PunchBowl News’ report added this gem:
Johnson told fellow Republican lawmakers and aides that he made the appointments at the behest of Trump, who wanted Jackson and Perry on the panel.
Oh. So, Donald Trump wanted unqualified loyalists to have access to many of the nation’s most sensitive and highly classified secrets, and the House speaker followed the felon’s directive, as if he were an employee of the failed former president instead of Congress’ most powerful member.
[…] Johnson has a responsibility to take such concerns seriously. This week, he failed spectacularly at a basic task.
Now that Donald Trump has been convicted on 34 felony counts, the New York Police Department is poised to revoke the former president’s gun license. President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign responded in a statement, “Good. Most Americans would prefer living in a country where an unhinged felon who has also been found liable for sexual abuse cannot own a firearm.”
Trump is scheduled to speak next week to the Danbury Institute, which is a coalition of groups opposed to abortion in all instances. The Biden campaign was quick to note that the institute’s website says, in reference to abortion, “We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.”
Summarized from an NBC News article:
Trump is all but certain to lose Vermont in the fall, but complicating matters is fact the state GOP’s own written rules prohibit the Vermont Republican Party from supporting a candidate with a felony conviction.
The Constitution gives the power to allocate federal funding to Congress, but Donald Trump isn’t about to let that stop him. Trump has made no secret that he wants to restore presidential impoundment, a power that has been severely limited since 1974, and seize the power of the purse away from Congress.
As The Washington Post reports, Trump’s ambitions go beyond just bringing back a power that was limited after Richard Nixon abused it to shut down programs he didn’t like, such as blocking billions Congress had authorized for subsidized housing. Presidential impoundment is both a sword and a scalpel, capable of eliminating entire departments or taking out individual programs.
Trump has already made it clear he means to purge the federal government, dismantle existing agencies, and replace career federal employees with an army of supporters loyal only to Trump. He’s also determined to turn the Department of Justice and FBI into agents of his retribution, allowing him to round up and imprison political opponents. And those are just a few of the choice pieces of destruction laid out by Trump and his cohorts in their 887-page Project 2025 playbook.
But even with Republicans in Congress shedding every member not committed to the MAGA cause, Trump still would not have every lever of power in his tiny hands so long as Congress can determine the spending. So he wants to end that control.
“Presidential Impoundment”—refusing to spend money authorized by Congress—was a power that had been exercised by many presidents going back to Thomas Jefferson, but most instances involved small amounts and concerns over funds that were duplicated or in conflict. It wasn’t until Nixon began treating the impoundment power as a kind of line-item veto, blocking tens of billions from programs that didn’t fit his agenda, that Congress took action to limit this power by passing the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
Ending this act has become part of the right-wing agenda to create a powerful authoritarian president. The Federalist Society insists that the 1974 act ended the president’s “constitutional spending authority,” though no such authority exists in the Constitution. Bringing back impoundments is also part of Project 2025.
Trump already attempted to violate the Impoundment Control Act during his first time in office. That includes the events leading up to his first impeachment when he illegally impounded funds that had been authorized for Ukraine.
In 2023, Trump gave a speech making clear that he wants to end controls on impoundments to strangle any program he doesn’t like.
“I will then use the president’s long-recognized Impoundment Power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings,” Trump said in a video address now posted to his campaign site.
Unlimited use of the Impoundment Act goes well beyond even the authority of a line-item veto. It would allow Trump to halt funds at any time to inflict pain or apply pressure. It’s easy to see how this program might be used to force a weakened Congress into signing on to legislation provided by Trump, to slice out programs that had fallen out of favor, or to destroy whole departments. It’s hard to see how Congress could negotiate any kind of meaningful legislation when Trump could come in and selectively block funding.
It’s not hard to see how this could be an extension of Trump’s ability to punish his enemies, especially in the wake of calls to “defund” the entire state of New York following Trump’s felony conviction on 34 counts in a Manhattan courtroom. It’s an idea that seems laughable … until you add impoundment.
[…] An unlimited presidential impoundment authority isn’t a “budgetary issue.” It’s full control of the entire government. Which is exactly why it’s on Trump’s agenda.
This would not be a surprising outcome even if he didn’t tell a bunch of anti-vaccine, transphobic jokes.
The Hospitals of Regina Foundation, of Regina, Saskatchewan, issued an apology this week to guests of its Four Seasons Ball for having exposed them to the comedy stylings of Rob Schneider.
This would have been cruel enough even if he was doing his classic “It’s the Richmeister, makin’ copies!” material or yelling “You can do eeet!” but the Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo star instead went with a bunch of anti-vaccine, transphobic, misogynistic “jokes” that so horrified attendees that organizers had to haul him offstage in the middle of his set.
Even for a man who has officially endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president, telling anti-vaccine jokes at a fundraiser for hospitals of all places is some colossally bad judgment.
“Everyone in the room was groaning, saying, ‘What is going on?’ Like whispering to themselves. Not a single laugh at times,” one attendee said. “It was just very apparent how uncomfortable everyone felt and how unacceptable the things he was talking about were.”
Organizers apologized at the event right after booting Schneider offstage, but clearly thought it was enough of a trash fire to necessitate an additional apology.
They wrote:
The event’s main entertainment feature was comedian Rob Schneider, who was booked in 2023, through our booking agent. While we recognize that in a free and democratic society individuals are entitled to their views and opinions and that comedy is intended to be edgy, the content, positions and opinions expressed during Mr. Schneider’s set do not align with the values of our Foundation and team.
We do not condone, accept, endorse or share Mr. Schneider’s positions, as expressed during his comedy set and acknowledge that in this instance the performance did not meet the expectations of our audience and our team.
A decision was, therefore, made to ask Mr. Schneider to end his performance earlier than intended, to which he agreed and immediately left the stage. An unconditional apology was offered right after to our guests and our community. We reiterate this sincere and unconditional apology today, for any offense caused by Mr. Schneider’s recent comedy set, at the Four Seasons Ball.
[…] in the last few years Schneider has gone from doing weirdly racist cameos in Adam Sandler movies to spending most of his time whining about “wokeness” and promoting anti-vaccine nonsense. […]
[…] Hunter Biden’s eldest daughter, Naomi Biden, took the stand in his defense, testifying about visiting him during his rehab stint, borrowing his truck and a late-night text he sent her around when he bought his gun. Her father wiped away tears as she testified about being “proud” of him for trying to get clean. […]
Members of Congress rarely work a full, five-day week, but the schedule on Capitol Hill this week was even more truncated than usual: Bipartisan groups of lawmakers from both chambers were poised to travel abroad as part of the celebrations of the D-Day anniversary.
This was, among other things, an opportunity for policymakers in the United States to demonstrate to our allies that there are still some core principles and values that American officials embrace and share with our partners abroad.
It was against this backdrop that Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed a measure — to cut U.S. support for NATO. Newsweek reported:
A total of 46 House Republicans voted in favor of an amendment to defund NATO introduced on Tuesday night by Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a loyal Donald Trump ally who has long opposed military and financial aid to Ukraine. Greene called for an amendment which would have struck over “$433 million in NATO funding” from the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, she told members of Congress while speaking on the House floor.
The fact that Greene pushed this measure is not, in and of itself, surprising. The Georgian is, after all, one of the most radical members of Congress to serve in recent memory.
What struck me as notable, however, is that 46 House Republicans, each of whom surely knew the measure would fail, nevertheless wanted to go on record in support of the extremist congresswoman’s gambit.
[…] Four members would be too many, but 46 is a reminder of just how far contemporary Republicans — the party’s so-called “Putin wing” — have strayed from where the party stood until the recent past.
Let’s also not forget that this vote, while striking, wasn’t an isolated incident: Roughly two years ago, the House voted to reaffirm its commitment to the NATO alliance, and nearly a third of the House Republican conference opposed the measure.
A Washington Post analysis noted at the time that the GOP was “evolving on this issue — and certainly not in a pro-NATO direction.” This week’s vote offered fresh evidence that bolstered the point.
On Thursday, Donald Trump dropped by tabloid therapist Dr. Phil’s primetime show. That’s when the man who conducted a surprise “intervention” in Britney Spears’ hospital room thought it would be the perfect time to steer the Republican candidate away from devoting the remainder of his life to taking vengeance for every imagined slight.
“I think you have so much to do,” said Phil McGraw. “You don’t have time to get even.”
Trump didn’t exactly agree. “Well, revenge does take time, I will say that,” Trump admitted. “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.”
Anyone who thinks they’re going to talk Trump out of scoring some sweet revenge has somehow missed the fact that vengeance is Trump’s personal philosophy, his campaign theme, and his deepest desire. Vengeance “R” him.
[…]Trump is a man who considers himself the absolute personification of getting back at the other guy.
“I am your warrior. I am your justice,” Trump told his supporters a year ago. “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
[…] Revenge isn’t getting in the way of other things on Trump’s agenda because revenge is Trump’s agenda. His billionaire fan base may be in it for the money, but Trump—along with most of his supporters—is all about vengeance.
The hosts of MAGA and QAnon have been fantasizing about gallows at the White House since 2016. Not just the inefficient single-serve noose that they brought to the Capitol lawn during the Jan. 6 insurrection, but the industrial-sized gallows where Democrats already have been, or soon will be, killed for the crime of not worshiping Trump. This was a recurring theme long before right-wing pundit Laura Loomer started calling for a blanket death penalty.
[…] “One of the things you should do in terms of success: If somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ’em back five times harder than they ever thought possible,” Trump told his audience in a 2012 speech. “You’ve got to get even. Get even.”
[…] Trump’s view hasn’t changed in the dozen years since then. “Look, when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them, and it’s easy because it’s Joe Biden,” he told Sean Hannity on Fox Business.
Dr. Phil isn’t about to talk Trump out of seeking revenge in a brief interview. It’s not even clear that a real, qualified therapist could accomplish that miracle in a lifetime of sessions. And if someone did remove the desire for vengeance from Donald Trump, would there be anything left?
Twice last night a video of the exchange between a D-Day Veteran and President Zelensky of Ukraine resulted in a complete meltdown for me and a flood of tears.
It was first shown toward the end of Lawrence O’Donnell’s INCREDIBLE first segment about D-Day on MSNBC. Then again shown during the closing segment of Stephanie Ruhle.
I apologize for a brief written article, but the video speaks for itself. The entire segment is phenomenal, Hugs and kisses with Zelensky begins at about 14:40.
The Brits are correct, these tabloid-size headlines are easier to write.
Look, it was fine for Jeff Bezos to have a midlife crisis when it mostly involved him wearing too-tight ugly shirts in public or running off to Burning Man to sit in drum circles and work on macramé, or whatever they do at Burning Man, we don’t know, we don’t suck enough to spend a week burning our skin off in the desert with a bunch of tech moguls microdosing ketamine.
But then Bezos turned to his flagship media property The Washington Post to try and answer a question no one was asking: What would America’s major newspapers look like if America had lost the Revolutionary War and its 21st-century print media was all broadsheets that mostly yell at Meghan Markle?
To answer the question, Bezos hired as publisher a Brit, Will Lewis, who used to work for Rupert Murdoch, and that Brit promptly set about driving off the respected American executive editor, hiring more Brits from the Murdoch journalism empire, losing his own newsroom, and then fucking up the damage control when questioned about all of it by his employees.
[…] Lewis was once involved in the phone-hacking scandal that nearly consumed Murdoch’s media properties in Britain a decade ago, a fact that a) permanently calls into question his journalistic judgment, and b) he would prefer no one in American media notice. To that latter end, NPR media reporter David Folkenflik wrote this week, Lewis tried to bribe him a few months ago when he was writing about the hacking:
At that time, Lewis had just been named publisher and CEO by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, but had not yet started. In several conversations, Lewis repeatedly — and heatedly —offered to give me an exclusive interview about the Post’s future, as long as I dropped the story about the allegations.
We are not saying quid pro quos never occur in the lofty spaces where various organs of American media interact. But such arrangements are very much frowned upon. […]
Now, it is bad enough to lean on a reporter at another media outlet to drop a story about yourself. But leaning on editors and reporters at your own media outlet, the one you were just hired to run that has a hundred-plus years of its own traditions and a building full of people already jumpy about your presence and the future of journalism in general? That’s really fucking dumb.
Nonetheless, it is what Lewis reportedly did. And it appears to have led to the sudden resignation of his paper’s executive editor, as rival paper The New York Times reported this week with barely contained glee:
As part of the ruling, the judge was expected to say whether the plaintiffs could add Mr. Lewis’s name to a list of executives who they argued were involved in a plan to conceal evidence of hacking at the newspapers. Mr. Lewis told Ms. Buzbee the case involving him did not merit coverage, the people said.
When Buzbee resisted, Lewis allegedly called her decision “a lapse in judgment.” The story was still published, but Semafor reported that one of the paper’s top editors told other editors to ignore the story and not promote it in any of the newsletters the paper sends to readers.
The whole incident reportedly freaked Buzbee out, and that in conjunction with Lewis’s decision to demote her by reorganizing the newsroom led to her resignation on Sunday night.
Then Lewis attempted damage control in a Monday meeting in which he told all his reporters that he has to make drastic changes because “people are not reading your stuff.” Later, in an email to Post reporters working on their own story about all the doings at the paper, he referred to Folkenflik as “an activist, not a journalist.”
Needless to say, none of this went over well with his employees, who saw it as Lewis shitting on their work and the work of a fellow reporter, while also letting them know there were going to be some major changes at the paper. Considering the precarity of the industry, Lewis did not exactly do wonders for morale.
Lewis violated what Dan Froomkin this week called “a core doctrine of American journalism: that editors and publishers are not supposed to interfere with their own newsrooms’ coverage of issues in which they have a personal conflict of interest.” And this isn’t his first gig in American journalism! He spent several years as publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
The Washington Post is one of the two or three most important newspapers in the country, and the Rupert Murdoch alum now running it has alienated his newsroom while trying to turn it into a Fleet Street tabloid, apparently. […]
John Moralessays
re #110: Alas, not “Video available at the link.” for someone in Oz (well, not without illegally contravening the geoblock).
Joe Biden has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.
A temporary American pier was reattached Friday to a beach in the Gaza Strip, almost two weeks after high seas damaged it and forced the suspension of crucial aid deliveries to starving Palestinians. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of United States Central Command, told reporters that the pier should be delivering aid ‘in the coming days,’ although he did not specify when.
Elephant seals in South America died in massive numbers because the bird flu virus acquired mutations that allowed it to spread among mammals, according to a new study. The research offers the first genetic and epidemiological evidence of bird flu virus transmission among mammals. And the findings hold a warning: The virus, called H5N1, may similarly transform to cause large-scale infections in other mammalian species, including people.
Former Donald Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump 2020 Election Day operations director Michael Roman pleaded not guilty Friday in Phoenix to nine felony charges for their roles in an effort to overturn Trump’s Arizona election loss to Joe Biden.
Elon Musk’s social media app X has been placing advertisements in the search results for at least 20 hashtags used to promote racist and antisemitic extremism, including #whitepower, according to a review of the platform.
In its latest round of eyebrow-raising hires, the Republican National Committee has added a prominent “Stop the Steal” organizer and a former Trump administration official who advocates for Christian nationalism to help craft the party’s increasingly extreme platform.
Ed Martin, an election denier, former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, and current president of the radical Phyllis Schlafly Eagles group, was hired as the deputy policy director of the RNC’s platform committee. Trump’s former Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought joins the cast of extremists as the new policy director on the platform committee.
The new hires are the latest example of Trump’s absolute takeover of the GOP. After getting former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel jettisoned, Trump successfully installed election fraud propagandist Michael Whatley and his meritless daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chairs.
Getting a job at the RNC now requires a blind fealty to Trump and, more importantly, subscribing to the cult-like delusions Trump demands of his subjects. Martin has proven his loyalty through his vocal support of the “Stop the Steal” movement, making a speech at festivities the night before the Jan. 6, insurrection, and marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
While there is no evidence that Martin trespassed on the Capitol building that day, he did tweet out some very sketchy statements during the insurrection. [Tweets available at the link]
Both of those tweets were sent well after the Capitol building had been breached by rioters. Since the failed coup, Martin has been a vocal conspiracy theorist, according to NBC News.
Martin narrated a video in which he said that an individual he dubbed “Mr. Coffee” had set up gallows outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 for a photo-op, suggesting that perhaps “Mr. Coffee” was working for the federal government. The basis of that claim is that the man goes and gets coffee, walking in the vague, general direction of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Martin titled one blog post on the subject “January 6th was Staged by Mr. Coffee.”
Martin earned himself a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, whose members wanted to question him about his part in managing some of the logistics of that terrible day’s events. Martin was a no-show for his deposition to the committee.
Then there is Vought. Beside being the RNC’s new policy director, Vought is also the president of the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank. The organization’s latest mission is to get Trump to adopt “Christian nationalism” during his next administration.
Martin and Vought are just the latest election deniers to be given positions in the RNC. In April, Arizona Republicans tapped state Sen. Jake Hoffman for a position on the RNC. Hoffman is facing multiple indictments for his part in a “fake electors” scheme surrounding the 2020 election.
Trump is a grifter and his takeover of the GOP, and the RNC in particular, is in service of that grift. Recent polling suggests that Republicans are okay with letting the convicted felon use the RNC as a piggy bank for his legal woes, and GOP politicians seem willing to grovel as low as Trump asks them to.
Video: Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms on Panama Every Week (8:17)
Summary: Screw-worms devastate livestock. Female flies only mate once in their lives. So a factory raises male flies, sterilizes them with radiation, and deploys them across Panama to thwart northward expansion out of South America. The contiguous US had initially eradicated them to its southern boarder in the ’50s-’60s, then pushed that south—in collaboration with other nations—for more defensible choke points.
since no legal framework exists to authorize the release of [genetically modified] organisms in nature, sterilization by irradiation remains the most used technique.
KGsays
Further to the comments above about the 80-year commemoration of the 1944 Normandy landings (known in the UK as “D-Day”, and I’m told the initial “D” stands for… “Day”!), Rishi Sunak has made a political blunder so disastrous for the Conservatives that it raises suspicions that he’s a mole for some other party, probably Reform UK Party Ltd. He attended the British D-Day commemoration in Normandy, but then, rather than going on to a gathering of western leaders (including Biden, Macron, Scholtz and Zelensky) at Omaha Beach, flew back to Britain to pre-record a TV interview, which is to be broadcast next Tuesday. He left ex-PM and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron to stand in for him. Personally, I should say, I’m not offended by his action, as I don’t feel he in any sense represents me – but it’s so gobsmackingly stupid as to be well-nigh incredible. Not only its absolutely predictable negative effects – there has been a huge pile-on from all quarters, including some of the surviving British D-Day veterans (all aged around 100 of course) – but in failing to realise that this was probably the biggest opportunity of the election campaign for him – to be seen hobnobbing with fellow “world leaders”, and at an event where there was almost no possibility of overt friction or disagreement. Sunak has apologised, but that can’t begin to undo the damage. This is likely to be particularly acute in the older voters who the Conservatives are relying on to prevent a truly existential collapse at the election. Either of two outcomes would render the party’s survival moot: getting less seats than the Liberal Democrats (who would then become “His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” – an official position which brings considerable advantages in Parliament), or getting fewer votes than Reform Party UK Ltd. (who are not likely to win more than a handful of seats even after this monumental fuck-up, due to the FPTP electoral system). This is a case where the general rule of preferring explanations in terms of stupidity over those in terms of malice is creaking at the seams.
“Study suggests evolutionary basis for male risk-taking behaviors”
. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-evolutionary-basis-male-behaviors.html
(One might also assume that if a group on the savannah loses an adolescent male it is a smaller loss than a female of similar age – women can get pregnant even if there is a shortage of men- so for the group they are more expendable)
The linkage with socioeconomic status is also interesting.
[…] Sen. Johnson spoke recently at an event jointly hosted by American Moment, a think tank and personnel farm for the MAGA youth, and New Saint Andrews College, a Moscow, Idaho institution linked to the burgeoning view on the right that federal policy needs more Christianity in order to be effective. The two have been putting on a series of events titled “Theology of American Statecraft” in which former Trumpworld figures and Republican elected officials gather with others on the right to articulate exactly what that kind of Christianity-influenced vision would be. I wrote earlier this year about former OMB acting director Russ Vought’s appearance at a “Theology of American Statecraft” event devoted to immigration, where he used biblical language to argue for Trump’s border proposals.
Johnson’s talk was titled “Theology of American Statecraft: Just War.” […] This focused on a few key points: Ukraine’s 2014 revolution was “fomented” by the U.S., the regions Russia seized in its aftermath “wanted to be ruled by Russia,” Russia’s invasion was legitimate because of NATO’s eastward expansion (Was Ukraine’s defense a “just war?” That’s left unanswered).
Johnson showed an awareness of the counterarguments to these points in his talk. He claimed that James Baker had promised Russia that NATO would not expand “one inch” eastward, before instantly becoming contrite: “he didn’t exactly say that, but that was certainly the implication.” It’s true. Baker never promised that to the Russians. Later, Johnson suggested that Ukraine’s fight was futile in part because Russia is outproducing the West in artillery shells — this is also true. Both cases are interesting however because they demonstrate that Johnson, and those who agree with him, are assimilating facts given to them as senators, and counterarguments made against them, to make their points. It’s not blithe shouting; it’s a more considered view, even if it’s one that parrots Kremlin talking points while advocating for the U.S. to prod Ukraine into capitulating.
Traditionally, the Supreme Court term ends in June. Tell that to the ~25 outstanding cases, which include the biggest of the term on issues including domestic abusers’ right to have guns, the accessibility of abortion drug mifepristone and Donald Trump’s immunity in the Jan. 6 prosecution.
Some experts contend that this is a sign of a Court too willing to intercede in bombshell, culture war cases that take a long time to decide and often engender many splits. In some cases, like Trump immunity, it’s hard not to feel that the foot dragging is purposeful. And some are just plain alarming: The case concerning whether or not domestic abusers can have firearms was argued on November 7. A seven-month delay does not indicate ringing consensus that such a gun right is, blindingly obviously, catastrophically dangerous.
The Israeli military said it and two other Israeli groups carried out a special operation Saturday, rescuing four hostages.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel Police and Israel Securities Authority rescued Noa Argamani, 25, Almong Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 40, the IDF said in a joint statement with the Israeli Security Agency and Israeli Police.
The agencies rescued the hostages in a special operation from two separate locations in Nuseirat in central Gaza. All four of the hostages were kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival, the IDF said.
“They are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the “Sheba” Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations,” the IDF said.
The operation is the largest recovery of living hostages since the war began, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven individuals, The Associated Press reported. […]
Crom help us, New York Times columnist David Brooks has committed another think piece. The fucker is probably already planning to turn it into a book, too.
His latest jeremiad is a 2,600 word rehash of ideas he just never seems able to stop gnawing on, like Ugolino, condemned to eternally chew the noggin of his archenemy Ruggieri, and there, I’ve thrown in a classical reference to establish my academic cred (Ed Abbey did it better in an essay when he talked about chowing down on a head of iceberg lettuce during a river trip).
So what has Brooks so worked up this time? Educated elites, again.
Let us summarize: Brooks doesn’t like how top-ranked universities keep churning out woke leftists who aren’t good for much of anything. They’re full of rich kids and professors who adopt a guise of radical progressivism to convince themselves they aren’t actually as privileged as they are. Graduates of elite universities go on to run institutions like the government, education, and the media, which have themselves become stew pots of bubbling leftism and groupthink, more focused on promoting far-left woke agendas than actually solving problems.
That’s why ordinary Americans are so disgusted with said institutions that they have turned away from the Expert Class, who sound crazy to them, and have flocked to populist jerks like Donald Trump, who share their disgust at the elites but whose simplistic solutions will only make things worse (and empty followers’ bank accounts), but that’s what happens when elites are so out of touch.
There’s probably something in there about fussy exotic foreign sandwich names, too.
To be fair, I’m paraphrasing a lot here, but we have wasted a perfectly good guest link on Brooks’s column so you can be astonished yourselves. Brooks really does construct an argument here, very tediously, but like so much of Brooks’s tendentious twaddle, it’s grounded in so many generalizations about the supposed ideological rigidity of students at elite schools that it’s hard to take seriously.
[…] David Brooks is far more familiar with academic elite circles than most of his readers, but the people he says dwell in those institutions sound a lot more like two-dimensional caricatures than anything the animators at Warner Bros ever came up with.
By contrast, Brooks, who acknowledges he went to an elite university long ago and flirted with good old working-class progressivism before progressivism moved from the union hall to the elite campuses, explains that sensible centrists are nothing like those awful progressive elites, who sound kind of robotic:
A lot of us in the center left or the center right don’t want to live amid this much conformity. We don’t see history as a zero-sum war between oppressor and oppressed. We still believe in a positive-sum society where all people can see their lives improve together.
I have met very few people who see history that way! [as a zero-sum war between oppressor and oppressed] Heck, a goal of a “positive-sum society where all people can see their lives improve together” sounds like the vision of government and society those crazed leftists at the American Prospect are always calling for.
Perhaps the most irritating of many irritating features of Brooks’s column is his alleged solution to the problems that all these straw elitists have caused. […]
[We] would face up to the fact that all societies have been led by this or that elite group and that in the information age those who have a lot of education have immense access to political, cultural and economic power. We would be honest about our role in widening inequalities.
Oh, so far, so good! It almost sounds like what some lefties would describe as checking one’s privilege, although Brooks might shudder at the phrase. OK, do go on:
We would abhor cultural insularity and go out of our way to engage with people across ideology and class. We would live up to our responsibilities as elites and care for the whole country, not just ourselves.
Oh dear, now we’re back to educated elites as a monolith, which is some bullshit, particularly when the Supreme Court — and Brooks’s fellows at the genteel New York Times — keep shitting uponeth any attempt to broaden the class of people who get into these elite schools. And has David Brooks never heard of service learning, which is all about getting out of the ivory tower and engaging with people where they are? It’s a big thing in universities of all stripes.
Most important, we would dismantle the arrangements that enable people in our class to pass down our educational privileges to our children, generation after generation, while locking out most everyone else.
Tax increases? Yes! Redistribution of wealth! Eat the Rich, but not at a pricey airport restaurant with multiple double whiskeys. Or did Brooks just call for an end to legacy admissions? Well, kind of!
That would mean changing the current college admissions criteria, so they no longer massively favor affluent young kids whose parents invest in them from birth.
That’s literally what all the “woke” college administrators and “woke” students have been trying to do. And then they’re accused of woke, or worse, DEI […] Then come the lawsuits from rightwing assholes who can’t stand the idea that any reasonably bright (but not stellar) white kid might be left behind.
Or how about we tax the rich and use the funds to pay in-state tuition for any public college or university, like we used to until Ronald Reagan set California’s university system on fire? That doesn’t sound like too airy an ivory-tower leftist idea, does it? Maybe ban students taking that deal from majoring in “gender studies,” though, since we hear that’s another source of all of America’s problems.
In conclusion, remind me to punch myself in the face the next time I think it might be “fun” to write about a David Brooks column.
StevoRsays
Scott Manley’s Starship rocket flight analysis which I’ve been looking forwards to since the laucnh t’other night has arrived now here (20 mins length) – hoping I haven’t aleady been beaten to it.
The typical compensation package for chief executives who run companies in the S&P 500 jumped nearly 13% last year, easily surpassing the gains for workers at a time when inflation was putting considerable pressure on Americans’ budgets.
The median pay package for CEOs rose to $16.3 million, up 12.6%, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar. Meanwhile, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers rose 4.1% through 2023. At half the companies in this year’s pay survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale almost 200 years to make what their CEO did.
[…] About two dozen CEOs in the AP’s annual survey received a pay bump of 50% or more.
[…] But Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, believes the gap in earnings between top executives and workers plays into the overall dissatisfaction among Americans about the economy.
“Most of the focus here is on inflation, which people are really feeling, but they’re feeling the pain of inflation more because they’re not seeing their wages go up enough,” she said
Many companies have heeded calls from shareholders to tie CEO compensation more closely to performance. As a result, a large proportion of pay packages consist of stock awards, which the CEO often can’t cash in for years […]
TOP EARNERS
Hock Tan, the CEO of Broadcom Inc., topped the AP survey with a pay package valued at about $162 million.
Broadcom granted Tan stock awards valued at $160.5 million on Oct. 31, 2022, for the company’s 2023 fiscal year. Tan was given the opportunity to earn up to 1 million shares starting in fiscal 2025, according to a securities filing, provided that Broadcom’s stock meets certain targets—and he remains CEO for five years.
[…] Like rival Nvidia Inc., Broadcom is riding the current artificial intelligence frenzy among tech companies. Its chips are used by businesses and public entities ranging from major banks, retailers, telecom operators and government bodies.
[…] Other CEOs at the top of AP’s survey are William Lansing of Fair Isaac Corp, ($66.3 million); Tim Cook of Apple Inc. ($63.2 million); Hamid Moghadam of Prologis Inc. ($50.9 million); and Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix ($49.8 million).
At Apple, Cook’s compensation represented a 36% decline from the year prior. Cook requested a pay cut for 2023, in response to the vote at Apple’s 2022 annual meeting, where just 64% of shareholders approved of his pay package.
The survey’s methodology excluded CEOs such as Nikesh Arora at Palo Alto Networks ($151.4 million) and Christopher Winfrey at Charter Communications ($89 million).
[…] Companies are required to assign a value to stock awards at the time they’re granted. The award given to Elon Musk in 2018 was valued at $2.3 billion. Even if Musk were to cash out portions of those awards—he hasn’t yet—that wouldn’t count as compensation. Musk’s pay package is now estimated to be worth around $45 billion.
CEO PAY VS WORKERS
Workers across the country have been winning higher pay since the pandemic, with wages and benefits for private-sector employees rising 4.1% in 2023 after a 5.1% increase in 2022, according to the Labor Department.
Even with those gains, the gap between the person in the corner office and everyone else keeps getting wider. Half the CEOs in this year’s pay survey made at least 196 times what their median employee earned. That’s up from 185 times in last year’s survey.
[…] The disparity between what the chief executive makes and the workers earn wasn’t always so wide.
After World War II and up until the 1980s, CEOs of large publicly traded companies made about 40 to 50 times the average worker’s pay, said Brandon Rees, deputy director of corporations and capital markets for the AFL-CIO, which runs an Executive Paywatch website that tracks CEO pay.
[…] SAY ON PAY
Despite the criticism, shareholders tend to give overwhelming support to pay packages for company leaders. From 2019 to 2023, companies typically received just under 90% of the vote for their executive compensation plans, according to data from Equilar. [snipped examples]
[…] Anderson, of the Institute for Policy Studies, said Say on Pay votes are important because they “shine a spotlight on some of the most egregious cases of executive access, and it can lead to negotiations over pay and other issues that shareholders might want to raise with corporate leadership.”
“But I think the impact, certainly on the overall size of CEO packages has not had much effect in some cases,” she said.
FEMALE CEOS
More women made the AP survey than in previous years, but their numbers in the corner office are still minuscule compared to their male counterparts. Of the 341 CEOs included in Equilar’s data, 25 were women.
Lisa Su, CEO and chair of the board of chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, was the highest paid female CEO in the AP survey for the fifth year in a row in fiscal 2023, bringing in compensation valued at $30.3 million—flat with her compensation package in 2022. Her overall rank rose to 21 from 25.
The other top paid female CEOs include Mary Barra of automaker General Motors ($27.8 million); Jane Fraser of banking giant Citigroup ($25.5 million); Kathy Warden of aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman Corp. ($23.5 million); and Carol Tome of package deliverer UPS Inc. ($23.4 million). […]
Text quoted above is from an Associated Press article that has been posted by other media outlets.
We’ve been eagerly awaiting an update on that Canadian couple, Arend and Anneesa Feenstra, who sold their farm in Saskatchewan, packed up eight of their nine kids, and moved to Russia, and here it is!
You’ll recall how God, via apocalypse-obsessed conspiracy theorists on the Internet, told them Pride flags fluttering on the streets of Saskatoon were a sign that the dark days of Christian persecution were at hand. And Arend felt targeted for being a white, meat-eating man. “You’ve got the whole woke movement, where a traditional male is seen as toxic in the West. In many jobs it’s a hindrance to a good career, because they’re trying to pick people from colored backgrounds … minorities,” he complained to a Russian YouTuber.
How a non-colored-background man’s career is hindered when he owns his own farm in a place that’s 85 percent un-melanated, unclear. It’s just too much tolerance, and they’ll go to any lengths to not tolerate it!
A plan was hatched for the family to roll into Russia, become citizens, and buy a farm. Easy-peasy pierogi-squeezy, promised expatriate-Russian propaganda YouTubers! Come to white-man paradise! But as five minutes of Googling might have revealed, the reality is not so simple.
To catch up from our previous episodes:
PART ONE: The Feenstras got their bank accounts frozen, endured hours of government-ordered medical tests, and waited around for days to fill out forms with the help of an interpreter. A YouTube clip of Anneesa complaining about how frustrated she was with the country’s bureaucracy was posted, quickly deleted, then replaced with an apology video, and the Feenstras went on a Russian media tour to complain about what a hellhole of degeneracy Canada is.
PART TWO: In which the Feenstras did not realize that they had to pass a Russian language proficiency test to immigrate, and got stuck 10 people in one bedroom with a broken sink and sick kids, “homeschooling.” Arend got hold of a van and they drove around to look at farms, thinking they could buy one, breezily unaware that foreigners can only own a minority — heh, heh — share of any agricultural land there.
Now, their tourist visas have expired. Arend told me via Facebook that they’ve applied for asylum in Russia, though didn’t respond when I asked what grounds they were claiming. Russia also now offers a fast-track to citizenship and waiver of the language requirement if you join the army, but somehow that seemed rude to mention.
[…] “Why are we not farming if we came to Russia to farm? Why are we only vlogging and not farming?” He knows viewers are wondering. “So, we came here over four months ago to farm, but it’s not an easy step, it just doesn’t happen overnight,” he realized. “When my parents moved to Canada [from the Netherlands] in 1988 they had a farm purchased prior to coming.” The elder Feenstras were granted permanent residency at the airport when they arrived, and started farming right away.
[…] understates Arend, “it is not that simple here in Russia.” [video at the link]
“A foreign citizen like me is not allowed to buy agricultural property here in Russia. You have to be a citizen first. […] We have to form a Russian company first […] that company needs to be majority owned by a Russian citizen,” he explained, apparently only recently having heard this for the first time.
Arend says they’ve now formed a company and presumably found one or more Russians to take 51 percent of it, and are hoping to close on a plot of land to build their farm on. He reckons when it comes to achieving the Russian dream they’re “just about there” but registering a company takes time, finalizing the deal takes time. All of the bureaucratic stuff that could be accomplished in a matter of hours in Canada takes months or even years in Russia, not known for its cheerful, efficient, and smoothly flowing bureaucracy.
But Arend is optimistic, letting go and letting God, who has brought them all this far with His plan. “When are we going to start our own farm in Russia? And the answer I would say is very soon, but I actually don’t know. We live day-to-day, and so much of it is out of our control that we have really been learning to live in faith, and not by sight. And just taking each day as it comes, hoping we get one step closer every time. We believe God brought us here, we believe God is making a way, and we will just keep trusting in him.”
God gave you sight and the Internet, my dude! Ye could’ve Googlethed the language requirement and the land law. And the answer to when have your own farm in Russia is the elevendy-eth of nearly never. If an investor owns 51 percent of your farm, it isn’t your farm, my droog, it is theirs. You are not a partner, or a tovarish, you are their employee. Arend plans to build a house and barns on this land, seemingly unaware that any improvements and sweat equity he puts in, or profit he ekes out, will actually be property of the Russian investor and his controlling interest. Disagree and have fun in the Russian court system! Being granted full citizenship, which would actually allow him to buy a farm of his own, could take years. And as for farming, if you want the rubles, you grow what the government tells you to.
[…] They had every personal freedom in Canada, all the civil rights. They owned a picturesque farm all to themselves, where they grew whatever they wanted and vlogged about raising goats and chickens and making kombucha and goat cheese, which they could set their own prices for. They were free to keep anybody off their property they didn’t want to associate with, free to start their own church that’s not Russian Orthodox, free to never vaccinate or take their kids to a doctor
Now they own nothing but their clothes and whatever cash they have left, have no property, […] They’ve gone from independence to being effectively illiterate deaf-mutes, dependent and beholden in every way to the kindness of Russian strangers and their bureaucracy, which is conducted in a language that they don’t understand.
It would be funnier if kids weren’t involved, and one of them didn’t have a seizure disorder.
God says a lot of things to us, too. Like “once you’re in a hole, stop digging” […]
But anyway, best of luck to those Feenstras. We hope they get what they want, and that whoever bought their Canadian farm is enjoying it. Hopefully some nice gay Russian farmers fleeing conscription who also enjoy goat cheese, kombucha, and being left alone to mind their own business, who will set up an organic pierogi stand at the Saskatoon farmer’s market.
California Governor Gavin Newsom joined other political leaders and LGBTQ+ advocates in San Francisco Friday to promote the “Freedom to Marry” ballot initiative.
While same-sex marriages have been happening in California for the last two decades, the state constitution still says that gay couples are not allowed to marry.
The ballot initiative would enshrine in the state constitution that all couples have the right to marry, regardless of gender or ethnicity in addition to repealing 2008’s Proposition 8, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
At the event that was also attended by San Francisco Mayor London Breed and State Senator Scott Wiener, Newsom said this is critically important given the current attempts to roll back LGBTQ+ rights around the country.
“It’s a recognition of the urgency of the moment, and states are the front lines of those rights battles,” said Newsom. “And that’s why it’s imperative that states like us step up and assert themselves at this critical time”
The initiative was announced this past February on a date that coincided with the 20th anniversary of when then San Francisco Mayor Newsom performed California’s first same-sex weddings, kicking off a legal battle to legalize same-sex marriage. More than 4,000 couples were married in just the first month.
Lava has reached Grindavíkurvegur Road just north of the Svartsengi defense walls. The gap that was in the walls has been filled.
This is stated in an announcement from the Icelandic Met Office.
It was reported this morning that lava would begin to flow over Grindavíkurvegur Road and that the Blue Lagoon had been closed.
Blue Lagoon was closed before any guests arrived this morning.
Blue Lagoon was closed before any guests arrived this morning. mbl.is/Kristinn Magnússon
The Blue Lagoon was closed this morning before the first visitors arrived when it was apparent that lava from the volcanic eruption in Sundhnúkagígar crater row would soon flow over Grindavíkurvegur Road.
Helga Árnadóttir, director of sales, operations, and services at the Blue Lagoon, said they decided to close the lagoon before the first visitors arrived, so there were no visitors in the lagoon when it was closed.
However, hotel guests and employees of the Blue Lagoon hotels were allowed to stay in the area until 11 o’clock am.
More at the link, including photos of the lava flow crossing the road.
Right-wing media that became purveyors of misinformation and amplified false claims as Donald Trump undermined the results of the 2020 election are finding themselves on the losing end of legal challenges — or facing new ones.
In just a few months, a handful of high-profile fringe media operations have been hit with courtroom losses.
The Gateway Pundit, an influential far-right news site, filed for bankruptcy in April in the wake of defamation lawsuits that said the company suggested election workers committed fraud during the previous presidential election. That same month, voting machine company Smartmatic reached a confidential settlement in its defamation suit against One America News Network, which allowed false election fraud claims on air, while its pending defamation litigation based on similar vote-rigging allegations continues against Newsmax as well as Fox News, which is being sued for $2.7 billion. […]
Fox News last year paid another company, Dominion Voting Systems, $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. […]
In May, “2000 Mules,” a book and film by right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, was pulled by the publisher, Salem Media Group, and the company issued a public apology to a Georgia man who is suing the author and publisher on defamation claims after he was accused of ballot stuffing. That case is still ongoing.
[…] Meanwhile, federal prosecutors allege a top executive of The Epoch Times laundered millions of dollars.
The Justice Department said the charges against Weidong “Bill” Guan, the company’s chief financial officer, are unrelated to its newsgathering activities, and an Epoch Times spokesperson said it plans to “fully cooperate with any investigation dealing with the allegations.” Still, the indictment brings scrutiny to one of the most popular pro-Trump outlets. […]
“Right-wing media has finally faced the consequences of running disinformation campaigns,” said Yunkang Yang, an assistant professor of communication at Texas A&M University. “Some of them are finally being held accountable for the lies they spread.” [video at the link]
[…] whether that translates to a change in coverage of the November election and post-Election Day results remains to be seen, researchers say.
[…] At a Michigan campaign rally last month, Trump falsely said, “Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020,” adding that “we’re not going to allow them to rig the presidential election” in 2024.
[…] Yang said […] “right-wing media doesn’t have to say the election was stolen, but they can let the readers say the quiet part out loud.”
He said that’s already happening on certain right-wing sites, writing in a 2023 report that they “rely on a small group of highly active commenters to instigate online discussion, draw attention to conspiratorial comments, reinforce conspiratorial beliefs, and drive the sharing of propaganda content on social media.”
[…] One of the suits involves two former Georgia election workers who were the subject of vote-rigging conspiracy theories that were debunked; the suit is headed toward trial. Another suit, filed in Colorado by a former Dominion Voting Systems executive against Gateway Pundit and other prominent defendants, remains ongoing.
[…] Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the prosecution led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was part of an effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to interfere with his election prospects.
The coverage of Trump’s trial and the unprecedented verdict notched Fox News a ratings coup over its competitors.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday forcefully pushed back before a House panel led by Trump’s congressional allies, noting how some Republicans are echoing unfounded conspiracy theories.
To claim that a New York jury’s verdict was “somehow controlled by the Justice Department” is “an attack on the judicial process itself,” Garland said. [video at the link]
[…] With Republican leadership continuing to prop up Trump ahead of the election, Bauer said, the former president doesn’t necessarily need those media outlets that can be “loose with the facts” to boost his beliefs.
Bauer said social media users on platforms like X and internet livestreamers who cover Trump’s events — one prominent YouTube channel, Right Side Broadcasting Network, has more than 1.65 million subscribers — represent another form of broadcasting that’s developed further since the last presidential election. […]
In the meantime, conservative and right-wing news sites have reportedly struggled with traffic amid larger financial struggles across the entire legacy and digital news media industry, as once-reliable traffic sources like Facebook and Instagram limit “political content” to users’ feeds.
On the flip side, the progressive advocacy website Media Matters for America laid off dozens of staffers last month, with its president blaming a “legal assault on multiple fronts,” including a lawsuit filed last fall by X owner Elon Musk over an investigative report about advertising on the social media platform. […]
It’s been a while since President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a chance to talk face-to-face. Their last get-together was when Zelenskyy came to the United States in December last year to press Republicans in Congress to stop blocking military assistance to Ukraine.
The difference between that visit and Zelenskyy’s appearance before a joint session of Congress in 2022 was a shocking demonstration of how many Republicans had moved to support Russia instead. Another four months would pass before Biden was able to make a deal to bring Ukraine assistance in front of the House and start the arms pipeline moving again.
On Friday, Biden and Zelenskyy met in Paris, where both participated in ceremonies connected to the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the allied liberation of Europe. Thankfully, they met with American arms once again on their way to Ukraine, and Biden ready to announce a new $225 million package of ammunition, artillery rounds, and new HIMARS rockets.
However, the crucial meeting may come a week from now when Biden and Zelenskyy will be together again at the G7. That’s when European nations may decide to open the way for Ukraine to access $50 billion dollars in frozen Russian assets.
Under the proposed scheme, Russian money wouldn’t just be shifted directly into Ukrainian accounts. Because, somehow, European governments find seizing Russia’s frozen assets to be “legally risky.”
Something about dozens of nations sweating over the legality of grabbing money left in their banks by a government involved in an illegal, unprovoked military invasion of a neighbor seems all too defining of the state of the world. Russia spent the week lobbing missiles into civilian areas, plunging large areas of Ukraine into darkness with a systematic attack on energy infrastructure.
And still, no one feels like they can touch the money.
The current G7 proposal involved only the profits from seized Russian assets because the profits are apparently less of a legal concern. The European Union would slide these profits into a special fund that Ukraine could use for both weapons and for post-war reconstruction. And, if things go well at the G7, those profits will also be used to back a proposed $50 billion loan that Ukraine could use to fund both military and civilian needs. Further profits from Russian assets would also be used to service the loan, so Ukraine wouldn’t be on the hook for every dollar.
All of this would go a long way to allowing Ukraine to deal with its needs for ammo and basic supplies even if Speaker of the House Mike Johnson decides to go on another six-month vacation from decency.
A quick glance at the maps shows that Russia has gained little, if any, Ukrainian territory over the last week.
West of Bakhmut, where Russia has been trying to capture the strategic high ground at Chasiv Yar, Ukrainian forces managed to retake the area around the intersection at Kalynivka. Other Russian attacks in this area appear to have been ineffective.
On Friday evening, Russian forces claimed to have captured a portion of Chasiv Yar. However, videos supposedly supporting this claim appear to show another location.
North of Kharkiv, the major activity has been around the town of Vovchansk. In the early part of the invasion, Russia used Vovchansk as a major distribution center and its position as both a highway nexus and a rail hub means that control of Vovchansk could be critical to control of the eastern portion of Kharkiv Oblast.
In September 2022, Ukraine liberated Vovchansk as part of the Kharkiv counteroffensive. They drove Russia from the town and raised the Ukrainian flag without breaking out heavy artillery or causing widespread damage. [video at the link]
But Russia’s return to the town has left Vovchansk a ruin; It’s a smaller version of the destruction seen in Bakhmut or Severodonetsk. [video and map at the link]
This week, Ukrainian forces drove hard into the Russian occupiers in the northern part of the town, making Vovchansk, for a few days at least, the burning heart of the war. From the map prepared by analyst Andrew Perpetua, it’s unclear that Ukraine has pushed Russia out of any significant area. But the daily tallies, and reports from soldiers, show Russia has had heavy losses in the area.
The Ukrainian general staff reports that Russian forces continue to probe at other locations in the area north of Kharkiv city, but all attempts to advance have been successfully repulsed by Ukrainian forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron wasn’t without his own announcement.
During the D-Day commemorations in Normandy on June 6, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that Paris would give Kyiv an unspecified number of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets alongside the required training. [X post and photo at the link]
The skies over Ukraine are going to be very interesting in the coming months.
[X post and video from Volodymyr Zelenskyy]
In Paris, I met with bipartisan delegations from the United States Senate and House of Representatives. I appreciate their strong support for Ukraine and important military and financial assistance.
I informed members of Congress about the frontline situation and Russia’s attacks using guided aerial bombs, drones, and missiles. The US authorization for the limited use of US weapons on the battlefield was extremely important. We also discussed specific steps to limit Russia’s ability to target civilian infrastructure.
We paid close attention to the Global Peace Summit. We appreciate the United States’ cooperation in advancing the summit and encouraging a diverse range of states and leaders to attend. [video included]
[…] Proving the old adage that “when the going gets tough, the wimps get desperate,” Trump and his confederates are latching onto a preposterous “news” item that they seem to think will lead to his legal salvation. The story centers around a notice filed by Judge Juan Merchan that a comment was posted on the Court’s Facebook page that the Trump faithful believe is a lifesaver for their Dear Leader. The comment said simply that…
“My cousin is a juror. He says Trump is getting convicted.”
HOLY CRAPOLI! Stop the presses. A weird dude on Facebook made an alarming remark with no evidence that any of it is remotely true. There is no evidence that he has a cousin who is a juror. And no evidence that his alleged cousin told him anything about the trial. So obviously the Trump contingent must drop everything and obsessively promote it.
What there is evidence of, though, is that the whole affair is a hoax. And that’s straight from the person who posted the comment in the first place. This “Michael Anderson” fellow admitted the fraud, referring to himself as a “professional sh*tposter.”
That confession, however, didn’t stop Trump from embracing the bullshittery and linking to it with a hysterical and impotent demand for a “MISTRIAL!” And he wasn’t the only one. His faithful Fox News legal “experts” weighed in with their own demands to erase Trump’s conviction. Fox host Mark Levin advanced the hoax bellowing “Surprise. surprise. Crooked juror in Trump case. How many more?” And Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett discussed the matter with Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Sean Hannity…
Sean Hannity: I assume a motion for mistrial is being written now and going out as we speak.
Gregg Jarrett: Absolutely. If it is true – and that’s a big if – if it is true it is grounds to vacate the conviction and order a new trial.
[video at the link]
Both Levin and Jarrett are allegedly attorneys. And they were both frequently quoted by Trump outside of the New York courtroom as proof of his innocence. Clearly they were wrong about that at least 34 times. And they are wrong about this as well. But Hannity went even further with a declaration that this phony revelation by a shameless Facebook fraudster is “HUGE!” [video at the link]
This mass delusion by Trump and his MAGA media minions on Fox News is emblematic of the lengths they will go to to spread flagrant lies. And despite the facts being readily available, none of these liars have bothered to issue apologies or retractions.
In fact, they have been joined by other Trump cult devotees in Congress such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andy Biggs. So it’s likely that there will be more to follow. This is what happens when a cult leader is threatened by reality and his desperate disciples can’t figure out how to cope.
I have an uncle in the Space Force who says the government knows Trump was kidnapped by lizard aliens some time in 2023. He was replaced by a lizard alien as part of their plan to turn the Earth into a giant farm for raising human meat.
This explains his odd coloring and the fact that his face and hair don’t really seem to fit his head.
This is 100% true.
Of course, this does absolve the creature currently presenting itself as Donald Trump of the crimes for which it was recently convicted. The real Donald Trump committed those crimes before he was kidnapped.
Also, it explains why “Trump” kept falling asleep in the freezing courtroom. Everyone knows lizards are cold-blooded and their metabolism slows down in the cold.
[…] Trump took credit for insulin pricing in a post on Truth Social Saturday.
“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked [President Biden,]” Trump said in the Truth Social post. “He had NOTHING to do with it. It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!”
[fucking liar]
President Biden has hailed the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the law which has a $35 cap on insulin for those with Medicare, as an important achievement.
“Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors on Medicare will only pay $35 a month,” the president said in a post on the social platform X late last year.
Biden’s campaign has made lowering the cost of prescription drugs through the Inflation Reduction Act a key reelection message for Biden, has touted passage of the IRA as one of his top achievements.
The messaging also seeks to draws a contrast with Trump.
“Donald Trump was too weak to take on Big Pharma and lower prescription drug prices for seniors as president — but Joe Biden got it done. As a result, millions are seeing lower prices on the lifesaving medications they rely on,” Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement to The Hill. […]
Interesting Wikipedia article on the Indian election. It turns out the actual shift in vote-shares of Modi’s Hindutva-fascist BJP and the main opposition party the Indian National Congress were small: -0.8% and +1.7% respectively. They had a considerable effect on seats won presumably partly because India uses the undemocratic FPTP system (the BJP formerly had an overall majority of seats on 37.36% of the vote – showing once again how grossly undemocratic FPTP is, and rather undermining the common media narrative of huge popularity), but mostly because the opposition managed to put together an effective alliance (with the acronym INDIA).
birgerjohanssonsays
Congratulations to the Indian opposition for learning to cooperate effectively.
About ethnic & cultural hatred – I have just voted in the EU election. Just to spite a certain party*, I voted for the one that has a Swedish-Turkish (nominally muslim) leader.
*the xenophobic SD party.
🎇
-About the soon-to-happen nova in Corona Borealis. As it is not a supernova it will not stand out by brightness- to identify it it will help if you go out at night and memorise how Corona Borealis normally looks. It is not very bright, you will need more obvious nearby constellations to find it.
Later in the year there is a chance the light refracted through the gas of a passing comet will make it temporarily quite bright in the night sky, but it is not certain.
birgerjohanssonsays
And, thinking about India…
New works celebrate Jewish scientist ‘eliminated from history’ | Vaccines and immunisation | The Guardian
. https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/09/new-works-celebrate-jewish-scientist-eliminated-from-history
.
If one tribe of Europeans lording it over India hate another tribe of Europeans so much they will falsify evidence in a trial to prevent that other tribe from treating Indians from disease, maybe Europeans have no business lording it over India!
birgerjohanssonsays
“Brrraiiins!”
“What Happens When Sunak Goes Quiet?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8bqsWd_zG1M
When the PM avoids the media, they pay attention to the other tory candidates, providing a buffet of stupidity. I like the phrase ‘ brain donors’.
The idea that Trump should pursue “revenge” and “retribution” for prosecutions is everywhere on the right. After a federal judge ordered Steve Bannon to surrender to prison, numerous MAGA influencers, including the MAGA God King himself, angrily vowed such payback. Republicans have said Trump should “fight fire with fire” (Senator Marco Rubio) and that GOP district attorneys should declare open season on Democrats (Stephen Miller). Trump, of course, has offered many versions of this, including to Dr. Phil and Hannity.
In the media, this story tends to be framed as follows: Will Trump seek “revenge” for his legal travails, or won’t he? But that framing unwittingly lets Trump set the terms of this debate. It implies that he is vowing to do to Democrats what was done to him.
But that’s not what Trump is actually threatening. Whereas Trump is being prosecuted on the basis of evidence that law enforcement gathered before asking grand juries to indict him, he is expressly declaring that he will prosecute President Biden and Democrats solely because this is what he endured, meaning explicitly that evidence will not be the initiating impulse.
Joy in Israel was fading on Sunday and giving way to the realities of a war that has dragged on for nine months.
In Israel, the news of four hostages rescued from Gaza was met with cheering crowds and tearful scenes of reuniting families. Officials hailed the operation as miraculous and heroic, and offered a rare win for Israel’s embattled Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
But it came at the expense of hundreds of Palestinians, who suffered one of the bloodiest days in Gaza. Video filmed by an NBC News crew on the ground showed streets scattered with charred bodies, survivors gathering body parts into sacks, rescuers carrying mangled and blood-soaked children into chaotic hospitals overwhelmed with the injured.
By Sunday, joy in Israel was fading and giving way to the realities of a war that has dragged on for nine months and whose fissures and deep divisions remained largely unchanged by the rescue.
“What we saw yesterday is actually failure of the negotiations,” Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, said in a phone interview with NBC News.
[…] United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said in a statement that she was “Relieved that four hostages have been released,” but that “it should not have come at the expense of Palestinians.”
“Israel has used hostages to legitimize killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatizing Palestinians in Gaza,” she said.
At home, opposition leader Benny Gantz was expected to resign from Israel’s war cabinet on Saturday over Netanyahu’s failure to adopt a postwar plan.
[…] As of Sunday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 270 people were killed, pushing the overall death toll past 37,000. Another 700 were injured in the assault and rescue operation, and more were believed to be buried in the rubble. Video from an NBC News crew on the ground captured the aftermath in Nuseirat that included a rush of wounded at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, including the bodies of surviving children wrapped in gauze that was soaked pink.
[…] The rare and limited rescue operation that resulted in mass casualties highlighted that such an approach is not likley to be viable for the 120 or so hostages that remain.
This was acknowledged by IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who said Saturday “we know we can’t do operations to rescue all of them.”
[…] Already there are fresh calls for a cease-fire deal to save the remaining hostages and end the war, but Netanyahu has increasingly distanced himself from a plan announced by President Joe Biden.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also reiterated their calls for a cease-fire and continue to back Biden’s three-part plan to end the war. During his weekly Sunday address, Pope Francis urged Israel and Hamas to accept the peace proposals “for the sake of the Palestinians and Israelis.”
The rescued hostages are Noa Aragmani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40. They were among those kidnapped by Hamas during the Nova music festival on Oct. 7.
After nine months of captivity, some of the reunions were bittersweet. Meir’s father, Yossi, died just hours before his son was rescued.
[…] Aragmani was reunited with her mother, Liora who is suffering from terminal brain cancer. Her father, Yaakov, wept as he described their reunion in an interview this morning with Israel’s Army radio.
“Unfortunately Noa’s mother is in a very bad situation, she hardly looked at Noa, it wasn’t the reaction I was expecting that after eight months this would be their encounter. It was very difficult,” he said.
Netanyahu has also come under fire in Israel for his conduct after he spoke on the phone with Aragmani following her rescue.
Netanyahu “wants to bask in the sun of a success, but when there was an announcement of five soldiers killed weeks ago, he won’t pick up the phone,” Mekelberg said.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid has already called out the Prime Minister for meeting with the families of the rescued while neglecting the families of those who have been killed.
“If you are the prime minister — you are the prime minister of both successes and failures,” Lapid told the Kan public broadcaster. “Disappearing when things don’t go your way is disgraceful, but is this something we didn’t know about before?”
Exit polls are coming in for the elections for the European Parliament. It looks to be a setback for the Greens and (economically) Liberals and a win for the hard right “Identity and Democracy” group and the classic conservatives.
Proper counts will take some hours yet, but the overall picture isn’t likely to change much.
Pierce R. Butlersays
LykeX @ # 162: … elections for the European Parliament.
The authors (a pair of USAian professors) note that while rightist-leaning Euro voters explicitly complain about immigration, many of them live in more rural areas suffering in-country emigration as the younger and more modern-oriented locals move out to metropolitan areas. Those who remain see declining economies and cultures and feel rejected and disrespected, but put the blame in exactly the wrong place:
Ironically, the forces that have increased the appeal of the far right’s anti-immigrant ideologies – falling birth rates, labor shortages and a lack of new businesses and services – are most feasibly addressed by increasing immigration.
By following the right’s lead to tighten borders, parties closer to the center may condemn industrialized nations to a political doom loop.
I strongly suspect a similar study in the US would find parallel results.
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:16 Germany
1:44 The Netherlands
2:38 Belgium
3:23 Spain
4:28 Iceland
5:20 TripleTen
6:28 Norway
6:51 Denmark
7:32 Austria
8:03 Ukraine
8:13 Russia
8:33 Belarus
8:45 Poland
9:19 Czechia/Czech Republic
9:46 Slovakia & Slovenia
10:30 Serbia
11:11 Croatia
12:23 France
13:16 Sweden
14:05 Switzerland
14:36 Romania
15:19 Turkey
15:58 Latvia
16:04 Hungary
16:12 Greece
16:23 Finland
16:35 Estonia
16:48 Bulgaria
16:54 Azerbaijan
17:07 Armenia
17:18 Albania
17:44 North Macedonia
18:17 Montenegro
18:30 Bosnia & Herzegovina
18:49 Moldova
19:27 Portugal
19:58 Malta
20:18 Vatican, Luxembourg & Liechtenstein
20:43 San Marino
20:57 Monaco
21:10 Andorra
21:24 Cyprus
21:55 Italy
22:24 Lithuania
22:43 Georgia
23:13 Ireland & UK
John Moralessays
I should think I had watched for about an hour and a half, when,
suddenly, I heard a faint noise, away up the corridor. I was immediately
conscious of a queer prickling sensation about the back of my head, and
my hands began to sweat a little. The following instant, the whole end of
the passage flicked into sight in the abrupt glare of the flashlight.
There came the succeeding darkness, and I peered nervously up the
corridor, listening tensely, and trying to find what lay beyond the faint
glow of my dark-lamp, which now seemed ridiculously dim by contrast with
the tremendous blaze of the flash-power…. And then, as I stooped
forward, staring and listening, there came the crashing thud of the door
of the Grey Room. The sound seemed to fill the whole of the large
corridor, and go echoing hollowly through the house. I tell you, I felt
horrible–as if my bones were water. Simply beastly. Jove! how I did
stare, and how I listened. And then it came again–thud, thud, thud, and
then a silence that was almost worse than the noise of the door; for I
kept fancying that some awful thing was stealing upon me along the
corridor. And then, suddenly, my lamp was put out, and I could not see a
yard before me. I realized all at once that I was doing a very silly
thing, sitting there, and I jumped up. Even as I did so, I _thought_ I
heard a sound in the passage, and quite _near_ me. I made one backward
spring into my room, and slammed and locked the door. I sat on my bed,
and stared at the door. I had my revolver in my hand; but it seemed an
abominably useless thing. I felt that there was something the other side
of that door. For some unknown reason I _knew_ it was pressed up against
the door, and it was soft. That was just what I thought. Most
extraordinary thing to think.
Presently I got hold of myself a bit, and marked out a pentacle
hurriedly with chalk on the polished floor; and there I sat in it
almost until dawn. And all the time, away up the corridor, the door of
the Grey Room thudded at solemn and horrid intervals. It was a
miserable, brutal night.
Extract from Carnacki the Ghost Finder
By William Hope Hodgson 1910, 1912
Yes, ALS competes with cancer and Alzheimer’s for the title ‘the emperor of maladies’.
I have known three people who died of it. And the Swedish-Canadian hockey legend Börje Salming died of it not so long ago.
The existence of these horrors are a good proof of evolution – they persist as they usually strike after the victims have reproduced.
I hope we will see larger human trials of effective medicines soon.
(Perhaps a bit of filtering? Not everything is what it says on the label)
John Moralessays
Hm. Why the caution about caution?
(I’ll never know… the link is to a YouTube “short”, and fuck if I’m gonna give the algorithm even one click on one of those ever again)
Anyway.
Taking it at its own word, it’s new (math kudos to be gained right there!) but it has to be used with caution.
Me, I reckon if a knot has to be used with caution, it’s perhaps not the best knot.
(Me, I get by with but two knots, but they suffice)
StevoRsays
PBS newshour :
According to the Human Rights Campaign, half of the U.S. states have passed measures restricting treatment for young people with gender dysphoria. But the legislative debate has often been short on science and medicine. Dr. Jack Turban joins John Yang to discuss his new book, “Free To Be,” which takes a researched-based approach to explaining gender identity and treatments for transgender youth.
The knots of mathematical knot theory, and “practical” knots, those that are actually used to hold things together or in place, are only tangentially related. A knot theory knot is just a closed curve in 3D-space, with zero cross-section; a practical knot seldom describes a closed curve, and is made of some specific material, which affects its usefulness or otherwise. The “Bear’s Grip” is clearly a practical knot, so it can be “new” without changing the classifications of knot theory.
KGsays
…A knot theory knot is just an equivalence class of closed curves in 3D-space
John Moralessays
The knots of mathematical knot theory, and “practical” knots, those that are actually used to hold things together or in place, are only tangentially related.
I know that.
A knot theory knot is just a closed curve in 3D-space
Yes, that was the introduction to the link I adduced.
“While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be undone, the simplest knot being a ring (or “unknot”). In mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space”.
So, I know.
The “Bear’s Grip” is clearly a practical knot, so it can be “new” without changing the classifications of knot theory.
It can be, I suppose, in principle, but knots have been around for thousands upon thousands of years, in all cultures all around the world.
So, no. I am not taking a headline for it.
—
Anyway, if it’s a new knot, then it can’t have been documented by knot theory, which is merely an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space.
(Are you gonna watch that video short? Better you than me, KG)
John Moralessays
Principle being: don’t believe something just because a headline makes some claim.
Also, how ‘practical’ is a knot that need to be used with caution?
I reckon knots that do not need to be used with caution would be more practical than those that do.
John Moralessays
A knotty problem, whether a knot is new or not, with such scant evidence.
birgerjohanssonsays
Gynecomastia
“My embarrassing condition needs a simple operation – but in Nigeria few can afford it” | Michael Adebisi | The Guardian
-And this is why welfare states with subsidized health care are so important – it is not only the deadly diseases that hurt people (yes, I agree that in a perfect society this and other diseases with cosmetic results dhould not be a stigma).
birgerjohanssonsays
As I was never in the scouts, knot theory remains a hypothethical problem. But I realise that rope-intense professions require basic knowledge of the subject.
(But if I ever invest time learning it, someone will promptly invent nanotech that turns into ropes and knots making the knowledge irrelevant. That happens to most of my knowledge)
birgerjohanssonsays
The British tories seem to have expelled all the competent professionals since 2019- the last week has been a parade of screw-ups no party wants in an election campaign.
Considering how many they let perish during covid (and patients dying the last 14 years becase of an underfunded national health service) .The shadenfreude I feel is only second to when seeing Trump and others of his ilk stumble over their feet.
The absence from media by the PM means TV and newspapers fill the vacuum with these lesser scandals.
[…] Over the weekend, Trump wrote to his social media platform, “Obviously, I never said that dead Soldiers are ‘losers and suckers.’ Who would say such a thing?” The former president added that the quote is “FAKE,” and it originates from “FASCIST SCUM.”
Soon after, at a rally in Nevada, Trump continued to deny having said what he was quoted saying. In fact, he added that only “a psycho or a crazy person“ would make such a comment.
Perhaps, but after the original Atlantic piece was first published, much of the reporting in the article was corroborated by related reporting from the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and even Fox News.
But it was last fall when the story took an important turn when retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, confirmed the story with on-the-record comments to CNN.
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said in October 2023. Referring to his former boss, Kelly added, “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family — for all Gold Star families — on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason — in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”
What’s more, there are quite a few related controversies surrounding Trump’s willingness to denigrate those who serve, and have served, in the U.S. armed forces.
The former president can certainly keep talking about this — in fact, I suspect it would delight Team Biden if he chose to do exactly that — but his denials are difficult to take seriously.
When it comes to insulin, Donald Trump hasn’t always shown great judgment. At an event four years ago, for example, the then-Republican president said, “I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.”
To this day, I still don’t know what point he was trying to communicate at the time, but the issue has returned to the fore in an unexpected way.
Last week, a Fox News personality noted that American consumers are benefiting from a policy that caps the cost of insulin at $35. That wouldn’t have been especially notable were it not for the fact that Fox’s John Roberts argued that Donald Trump deserved credit for the good news, which didn’t make any sense at all.
The conservative host’s comments, however, apparently gave the former president an idea. On Saturday morning, the [Trump] published this item to his social media platform.
“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it. It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!”
So, a few things.
First, Trump’s creative use of passive voice notwithstanding, the reason consumers are currently benefiting is because the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act included the policy on insulin costs. Biden, not Trump, signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. For the former president to say the current president has “nothing to do with” the lower prices is utterly bonkers.
Second, it’s true that Trump said he’d tackle this issue while in office, but he didn’t. For him to claim credit for his Democratic successor’s breakthrough, while simultaneously accusing Biden of taking credit for Trump’s work, is also stark raving mad.
Third, Trump isn’t just claiming credit for one of Biden’s accomplishments, he’s also planning to undo the Inflation Reduction Act, which would necessarily mean the end of the price caps that the Republican is falsely attributing to himself.
Finally, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the familiarity of the circumstances. During his White House tenure, Trump had an unnerving habit of claiming credit for Barack Obama’s successes, including countless instances in which Trump pretended he was responsible for Obama-era policies related to veterans health care.
Now that he’s out of the White House, Trump appears eager to take credit for Biden’s accomplishments, too.
Former President Trump defended his supporters who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and called them “warriors” at a Nevada rally on Sunday. “Those J6 warriors — they were warriors — but they were really, more than anything else, they’re victims of what happened,” Trump said at the rally, speaking to a crowd of supporters.
Commentary:
[…] He proceeded to say that police officers encouraged the rioters to enter the Capitol — a bizarre and discredited claim — before insisting, “There has never been people treated more horrifically than J6 hostages.”
No, really — that’s what he said. [video at the link]
The result is an increasingly head-spinning political dynamic without precedent in the American tradition: A convicted criminal, who’s surrounded himself with other convicted criminals, is running on a presidential platform of championing the interests of still other convicted criminals.
House Speaker Mike Johnson declared last week that voters should see the Republican Party as “the rule of law team.” The fact that he said this with a straight face continues to be unsettling.
But let’s also not lose sight of the broader contrasts. President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign recently enlisted three police officers from Jan. 6 — Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Officer Harry Dunn and Officer Danny Hodges — to hit the campaign trail as surrogates, warning voters about the threat Trump poses to our system of government.
The result is a dynamic in which the former Republican president is siding with those who committed acts of violence against police officers, while the incumbent Democratic president is aligned with the officers themselves.
What’s more, none of this is being pushed to the background. On the contrary, Team Trump and Team Biden may not agree on much, but it appears both are eager to put the Jan. 6 attack at the center of the 2024 presidential election. Heck, the presumptive Republican nominee isn’t just championing Jan. 6 criminals, he’s also called for prosecutions against Jan. 6 investigators and has expressed support for prosecuting members of the Capitol police.
Let no one say voters aren’t being presented with stark contrasts this year.
[…] throw in misogynist as a special bonus — after Giuliani’s sexualized rant Friday directed at Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis.
In video of his appearance at former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn’s far-right Reawaken America conference, Giuliani played to the crowd in the most base and craven way: [video at the link: Watch "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani call Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis a "ho," and the Christian audience at the ReAwaken America tour go wild for it last night.]
It was Giuliani who famously smeared Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, both Black women. That seems to have been a catalyzing reason that Willis undertook to bring the sprawling RICO case against Giuliani, Trump and more than a dozen other co-defendants. Freeman and Moss subsequently won a nearly $150 million defamation judgment forcing Giuliani into bankruptcy. But he still didn’t stop, continuing to defame them regularly even after losing that lawsuit, until he finally agreed in recent days to cease and desist as part of the bankruptcy settlement.
With Freeman and Moss no longer viable targets, Giuliani has turned his ire to another Black woman. Contrast that with the situation in Arizona, where Giuliani is also facing criminal charges brought by Attorney General Kris Mayes for his effort to subvert the 2020 election. No “ho” comments from Rudy for Mayes, who is a white woman.
Perhaps we’ll eventually get to see whether the criminal justice system will come down as hard on a white man for calling his Black prosecutor a “ho” as we might expect if it were a Black man in the dock.
Giuliani was also wearing lots of makeup for that appearance … not quite as orange as Trump, but edging toward that look.
On May 31, Vanessa Broussard lost her cool. She was reporting live as an anchor for Right Side Broadcasting Network and President Trump was set to hold a press conference to discuss the previous day’s guilty verdict against him or, as Broussard put it, the “horrific outcome in the bogus hush money trial.” To hear Broussard tell it, the gravity of the moment overtook her.
“This is not how I usually start a broadcast — but today’s different, so I’m unapologetic today for this side of me that you’ve never seen before,” Broussard declared to the more than 136,000 viewers. “Today, I am tired, I’m fed up, I’m disgusted, and I’m mad — and you should be too.”
Broussard’s blend of blatant Trump boosterism coupled with a gesture toward some more traditional journalistic separation exemplifies the approach that has helped Right Side Broadcasting go from a small independent operation to one with over 1.65 million subscribers on YouTube. These viewers are generally treated to unedited footage of Trump’s regular rallies and events that is sometimes bookended with supportive introductions from RSBN’s anchors and hosts. The company also re-airs a show featuring Trump’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee chairwoman Lara Trump. But explicit Trump partisanship isn’t the only way RSBN is different from other broadcasters. They are also doing business directly with Trump’s campaign.
Campaign finance reports filed by the Trump campaign show it made eight payments to RSBN between April 2023 and last month totaling $59,000. The company’s leaders, founder and CEO Joe Seales and his wife, Bridgette Seales, explained the reason for the payments in a conversation with TPM last Friday afternoon. According to Bridgette, the campaign paid RSBN for some of the footage that its cameras have obtained from their consistent coverage of Trump’s rallies — and that relationship is ongoing. […]
Along with selling footage, the company brings in donations. Its broadcasts also include sales pitches.
Moments after expressing her anger at Trump’s conviction, Broussard, the RSBN achor, offered some financial advice pegged to the verdict.
“Before we start, we want to remind you that Democrats are in control,” Broussard said, adding, “It’s now crystal clear that they will go to any depth to hurt Americans any chance they get, so don’t let them control you and don’t let them control your finances. That’s why we encourage you to contact the Birch Gold Group. Highly recommended by RSBN, the Birch Gold Group can be trusted with your financial future.”
[…] Trump’s relative [daughter-in-law Lara Trump], who has become a top figure in his party, has her own online show, which is running on a pro-Trump network that also has a deal with the campaign. Mapping these connections reveals the connections and often blurred boundaries between Trump, the official GOP, and the world of right wing MAGA influencers — if there are any boundaries at all.
[…] Last month, Glenn, who is reportedly the boyfriend of far right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and widely seen as a rising star in MAGA media, revealed he was leaving the network. Glenn ultimately announced a move to the far-right cable network Real America’s Voice on June 3. […]
Donald Trump, former Covid-19 vaccine booster, is now the nation’s most high-profile critic of immunization mandates.
The former president has on the campaign trail promised to strip funding from schools with vaccine requirements and lambasted independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “fake” anti-vaxxer, while obscuring his role in speeding the development of the Covid shot when he was president during the pandemic.
Trump’s new anti-vaccine persona could have far-reaching consequences if he’s elected to a second stint as president with far-reaching administrative powers. Public health experts say a White House opposed to immunization mandates could potentially cause upticks in cases of measles, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases, or hamper efforts to fight a future pandemic. [video at the link]
The CDC could pare back the number of vaccines it recommends children receive or eliminate those recommendations entirely. The CDC could change the paperwork required to be shared with parents to make vaccines sound less safe than they are. Or the FDA could increase the number of years of safety testing required for new vaccines and impose other onerous requirements for vaccines to be approved in the U.S.
Trump also could, as a thank-you to vaccine skeptics for their support in November, appoint someone who opposes the government’s traditional role in promoting vaccines, such as Kennedy or Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who called for a pause in the use of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and did not encourage parents to vaccinate their children during a recent measles outbreak. […]
Far-right parties rattled the traditional powers in the European Union and made major gains in parliamentary elections Sunday, dealing an especially humiliating defeat to French President Emmanuel Macron.
On a night where the 27-member bloc palpably shifted to the right, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni more than doubled her seats in the EU parliament. And even if the Alternative for Germany extreme right party was hounded by scandal involving candidates, it still rallied enough seats to sweep past the slumping Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Sensing a threat from the far right, the Christian Democrats of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had already shifted further to the right on migration and climate ahead of the elections — and were rewarded by remaining by far the biggest group in the 720-seat European Parliament and de facto brokers of the ever expanding powers of the legislature.
Undoubtedly however, the star on a stunning electoral night was the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, which dominated the French polls to such an extent that Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for new elections. It was a massive political risk since his party could suffer more losses, hobbling the rest of his presidential term that ends in 2027. [Yikes!]
Le Pen was delighted to accept the challenge. “We’re ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration,” she said, echoing the rallying cry of so many far-right leaders in other countries who were celebrating substantial wins.
Her National Rally won over 30% or about twice as much as Macron’s pro-European centrist Renew party that is projected to reach less than 15%. […]
Overall across the EU, two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remained the dominant forces. The gains of the far right came at the expense of the Greens, who were expected to lose about 20 seats and fall back to sixth position in the legislature. Macron’s pro-business Renew group also lost big. […]
“Right is good,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads a stridently nationalist and anti-migrant government, told reporters after casting his ballot. “To go right is always good. Go right!”
More details about the elections in Germany are available at the link.
Donald Trump’s Las Vegas rally on Sunday included his typical MAGA hallmarks: vastly overstated attendance, incoherent rambling about electric boats and sharks, and an almost unbroken stream of false claims about his accomplishments in the White House.
But he also did something unusual. Between his lies about the Black unemployment rate, jobs created under President Joe Biden, and his calling fallen veterans “suckers” and “losers,” Trump slipped in a moment of truth.
After appearing to express concern about his supporters broiling in the triple-digit heat, Trump quickly made it clear that their health wasn’t his concern.
“We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote,” he said.
Trump followed this up by saying that the media would jump on this statement.
“See now,” Trump said, “the press will take that and they’ll say ‘he said a horrible thing.’”
But that was also a lie, since the press is long past actually reporting what Trump says at his rallies.
As might be expected, Fox News doesn’t mention the statement and instead focuses on how Trump is promising that he won’t charge taxes on tips. Apparently, the solution to America’s tipping problem is to encourage more tipping.
Buf if Fox didn’t acknowledge Trump’s “I don’t care about you” sentiment, surely CNN would, right? Wrong. CNN’s coverage of the rally consisted of a lengthy article that only cites the same line about tipping.
Similarly, neither The Washington Post nor The New York Times mentioned the comment in their reporting.
And none of them discussed what has become, believe it or not, a standard part of Trump’s rally speech for months: [video at the link]
You might think that, over the course of his campaign, someone might have pointed out to Trump that electric boats are common, from massive and pricey yachts all the way down to the electric trolling motors used by many fishers. But then again, why bother introducing reality into Trump’s rallies now?
Even if the media refuses to cover Trump’s usual bits, it might seem that at least one corporate outlet would cover the part of the speech where Trump reads items from a Cheesecake Factory menu.
Trump’s rally speeches never get any better or make any more sense. In fact, they seem to make less sense over time as he forgets key portions of his stories and wanders into pointless asides. But it doesn’t matter, because 99% of what’s said gets left on the cutting room floor by a media that seems dedicated to cherry-picking sentence fragments to make Trump seem halfway intelligible.
The actual speech wasn’t just filled with moments like battery vs. shark, but it also consisted of a series of false claims that went unchecked and uncorrected in national media coverage.
At least the Nevada Current did a decent job reporting on Trump’s staggering list of lies and some of his jaw-dropping moments of dissonance.
“You’re headed to World War III. You are closer now to World War III than you’ve ever been, and this is no longer army tanks going back and forth shooting—World War II, World War … There are nuclear weapons the likes of which and the power of which has never, ever been seen before. So again I want to thank you all. I want to thank all the celebrities for being here. We have great celebrities.”
[video at the link: Thousands of people leaving the Trump cult rally right in the middle of Cheeto Jesus making his speech. Bizarre don't you think? Why are they leaving? Maybe it's because Orange Man is delivering his exact same speech again in 105 degree temperatures with no shade or water?]
Trump to address group that calls abortion ‘child sacrifice’
Donald Trump is scheduled to make a virtual appearance [today] at an event hosted by a Christian nationalist group that describes all abortions as “child sacrifice.”
The Danbury Institute was created in February 2024 to promote “a renewed engagement by Christians in national leadership roles to steer public policy.” It’s headed by evangelical radio host Richard Land, previously known not just for his opposition to both abortion and same-sex marriage, but for his complaints that the murder of Trayvon Martin was getting too much attention. The Washington, D.C., think tank insists that it stands for “defense of our Judeo-Christian foundations.”
[…] Most of all, what the Danbury Institute means to do is establish evangelical Christian control of the nation and reverse a principle that has existed since the nation’s founding. The think tank draws its name from the Danbury Baptist Church. That’s the church that corresponded with Thomas Jefferson in 1801, resulting in what may be Jefferson’s best known letter, in which he describes the “building of a wall of separation between Church & State.”
——————— An incredible week in space
Even if you don’t pay much attention to the growing array of rockets and the increasing pace of space-related news, it’s hard to ignore what happened this week.
On Wednesday, Boeing broke a string of bad luck with the usually reliable Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle and ground control systems to finally loft a crewed flight of the long-delayed Starliner. The flight brings NASA closer to having an alternative to SpaceX for delivering crews to the International Space Station or other destinations in low Earth orbit.
The flight was definitely not without hiccups. Starliner continues to have issues with leaks from helium tanks used to pressurize thrusters, and docking with the International Space Station was made more difficult when some of those thrusters failed to operate properly during the final post. Still, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams reached the station safely and seem to be happy about the ride. [video at the link]
[…] another “star” went up in the form of SpaceX’s fourth test flight of the massive StarShip from their launch site on the south Texas coast. […] As it neared the surface of the sea, protection around the ship’s steering fins broke down. Flames could be seen blasting through the heat shields and the underlying structure glowed cherry red as blobs of molten metal spattered the camera. Despite this, Starship still managed to flip around, restart its engines, and match the booster’s earlier feat by toppling into the sea after coming to a near halt above the water.
The progress represented in this flight shows how close SpaceX is to developing a workable heavy-lift rocket that can be used on multiple flights, which would completely disrupt an industry the company already dominates.
If all that’s not enough for a single week, China landed a probe on the far side of the moon that collected rocks from an area never visited by Apollo, blasted off the lunar surface, and is expected to deliver those samples to Earth before the end of the month.
———————— Electric vehicles are becoming more affordable as options rise
Tesla is having an absolutely terrible year with missed sales targets, rising competition, and one giant jackass of a CEO all combining to make it the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500. The company captured that honor just one week before Tesla shareholders will be asked to give Elon Musk a $50 billion bonus and one day after Musk admitted to diverting computer chips meant for Tesla to one of his other companies.
Peachy.
But outside of Tesla, other EV makers are having a much better year. From Chevy to Kia to BMW, many automakers are now bringing their second generation of EVs to market. That means consumers are seeing a much wider variety of electric cars and trucks on dealer lots. It also means that larger numbers of used EVs are popping up, many of which are quite a bit less expensive than they were a few years ago. And many of those vehicles are being made even cheaper by federal tax credits. […]
——————————
Human trials begin on drug that regrows teeth
Researchers in Japan are preparing to begin human trials on a drug that regrows teeth. Animal trials concluded last July and showed favorable results, with no major side effects reported.
New Atlas reports that the first trial will begin this summer at Kyoto University and that researchers hope to recruit and “treat 30 males aged 30-64 who are missing at least one molar.” Why adult men? Because medicine trials everywhere badly underrepresent women. […]
———————————— What’s gone so wrong in Baraboo, Wisconsin?
Baraboo is a small town in the Wisconsin Dells, about 30 miles northwest of the liberal bastion of Madison. With a population under 13,000, it’s not the kind of place you might expect to make it into the national news twice in a handful of years. And for the residents of Baraboo, these can’t be the kind of stories they would hope to see associated with their town.
On May 31, the graduation ceremony at Baraboo High School was interrupted when the father of one of the graduates rushed the stage and assaulted School District of Baraboo Superintendent Rainey Briggs. [video at the link]
Briggs is Black. The man and daughter are white. Both the father’s actions and his words immediately made it appear that this was a story of blatant racism. […]
the idea that this was not a racist incident might be more believable were it not for the other time that Baraboo made the national news, when a photo surfaced of a group of high school boys giving the Nazi salute. […]
——————————– A new tool spots communities most endangered by increasing heat
The first dangerous heat wave of the year swept across large areas of the United States last week, bringing triple-digit temperatures to much of the Southwest, accelerating fires, and ushering in another brutal summer following a year in which every month has been the record-hottest month.
But not every area and every community is affected by the heat equally. That’s why a new tool for tracking the effects of the climate crisis isn’t found where you might expect at NOAA or NASA. It’s the “Heat & Health Tracker,” and it’s hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. […]
Last year, 2,302 Americans died from issues caused by exposure to high temperatures. That’s far more heat-related deaths than from any other weather-related issues including blizzards, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes. And with every month of 2024 until now being warmer than the equivalent month in 2023, prospects for this summer don’t look good.
————————————– Video: Why even learn things anymore?
Everything that anyone ever knew—or at least everything that anyone bothered to write down in the last few hundred years—is probably in your pocket right now. A quick Google search can find the answer to any question. Of course, that answer may be the hallucination of an AI model or so riddled with bias that it presents a completely warped result.
Still, with all that power at hand, why make students spend years mucking around with math and history and science? Teach them to read, hand them a phone, and walk away. With Republicans pushing to tear up child labor laws that date back more than a century, they’d certainly welcome a few million middle schoolers to the workforce.
The reasons why we shouldn’t do this (and why people who love the poorly educated might want it) may seem obvious. But there’s no guarantee that it will remain obvious. Here’s Joe Scott, who produces the first channel to make a repeat appearance in this series, looking at the future of education in a world where we already “know everything.” [video at the link]
With parts of the Klamath River beginning to flow freely for the first time in 100 years thanks to the largest river restoration effort in American history, Governor Gavin Newsom this week visited the dam removal project that will revitalize nearly 400 miles of historical habitat for salmon and steelhead, when completed.
Last September, the first of the four dams was brought down, and the rest are slated for removal later this year as a result of ongoing collaboration between California and Oregon, the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, PacifiCorp, and fishing and environmental groups.
In December 2022, Governor Newsom joined U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, leaders of the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown to celebrate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s final approval of the project.
As reported by the New York Times, Milred Loving issued this statement on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court announcement of its ruling in her case:
The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry.
I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.
Mildred Loving died 16 years ago at the age of 68. Her statement is good to remember during Pride Month.
(Description): The “Bear’s Grip” Hitch. A new type of “Kamikaze” Remote Release Hitch.
I have decided to call it the “Bear’s Grip” Hitch. And by all technical standards, it’s not a single “knot,” nor is it a single “Hitch” on its own… I don’t think.
I would classify it as a rigging system, similar to a “Truckers’ Hitch,” for instance.
(1:54): Although the kamikaze knots are a really cool concept, they all seem to have their flaws. So I set out to analyze what makes each of them work, and is there a way to make something that’s more secure than the first 3, so that it could be reliably used at a job site […] doesn’t require you to cut your rope every single time
[…]
While it IS more secure than those other hitches, it’s still a kamikaze hitch, so it’s not fundamentally secure; it’s meant to shake loose. So please be cautious
[…]
only by shaking it in combination with slack is it gonna release the first safety, and then doing that again will release the second one.
Defense lawyers rested their case Monday in Hunter Biden’s federal criminal trial over allegations he lied on federal forms about his drug use to unlawfully purchase a gun in 2018.
The president’s son was not called as a witness to testify […]
Now we wait for the verdict.
birgerjohanssonsays
Look! They are doing the ‘Bellamy Salute’!
“Blood Tribe appearing in Deadwood, South Dakota today and taunting Kristi Noem”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=yc1Cy7reZuA
Wasn’t June 6th 1944 about putting an end to these guys?
Hoo boy, the hits just keep on coming from GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, the foulest thing in North Carolina since a possum crawled up and died on Papaw’s engine block.
A new ad from Dem opponent Josh Stein highlights even more hair-raising misogyny from the charmer who called Michelle Obama “a man,” with a clip from 2019:
“For me, there is no compromise on abortion,” Robinson says in the clip. “It makes no difference why or how a child ended up in that womb. […] Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers. It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down. […] It’s not your body anymore!”
[video at the link]
[…] Robinson also spent last Friday speaking to a group called PreBorn that wants to ban birth control and calls it “evil.”
Bold strategy in a purple state where a majority of voters support abortion being legal in “all or most cases,” women somehow still have the right to vote, and that already last year cut the allowable window for abortions from 20 weeks to 12.
Robinson, by the way, admitted to paying for an abortion himself in 1989, though now he says he’s real sorry about it.
[…] The manly head of household was entirely dependent on his wife Yolanda Hill’s income for years, and that income was from a “nonprofit” that’s entirely taxpayer-funded and distributes free lunches to needy kids. […]
And nonprofit is up there in quotes because six figures of money went missing, and Yolanda’s books were somewhere between “sloppy” and “shady.” She used pandemic funds to give herself a raise, and at least $830,000 went to salaries for herself, hubby and other family members. […]
The guy who wants to control North Carolina’s $30 billion budget has also declared bankruptcy twice, and literally stiffed a cancer patient and the Girl Scouts. (What is it about these Republican people stealing from people and dogs with cancer?)
Is Robinson grateful for all those government dollars taxpayers have lined his pockets with? LOL. He’s been hollering that safety nets create a “plantation of welfare and victimhood” that has mired Black people in “dependency” and poverty. (Never mind that most recipients of SNAP benefits are white.)
North Carolina has the ninth-highest poverty rate in the country, but Robinson has other priorities, like quoting Hitler and telling trans people to shit on the street. Trump loves him, of course, and called him “Martin Luther King Junior on steroids.” “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” he gushed, because MLK Jr., Obama and Kanye are the only three Black people Trump can name.
How is Robinson’s brand of ceaseless hatefulness playing with the politically bi-curious? Not well! He’s gone from having a clear lead to being behind the Democratic challenger, Josh Stein […] He’s doing so poorly with fundraising that the NC GOP is trying to change the rules to allow for anonymous donations, because it seems no one wants their name associated with him.
The North Carolina GOP has also picked an absolute wackadoodle as its candidate to head the schools, Michele Morrow, who believes that Jim Carrey drinks the blood of children and that Obama and Biden should be executed.
Hey, are you a North Carolina resident? Let Equality NC help you register to vote, sign up for an absentee ballot or e-mail reminders, find voting locations and stay informed!
whheydtsays
Re: birgerjohansson @ #199…
The Nazi salute and the Bellamy salute are (slightly) different. In the Nazi salute, the palm of the hand faces down. In the Bellamy salute, it faces up.
Over the weekend, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was stumping for Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, when she compared the convicted felon to Jesus. “The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘Oh, President Trump is a convicted felon.’” Greene told the crowd, before launching into what the Bible might characterize as “blasphemy.”
“Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.” Greene added. A member of the crowd can be heard yelling “by the Jews,” which seems to match the brand of Christianity Greene subscribes to. [video at the link]
A quick fact check will tell you that besides our concept of “felony” only dating back to 14th century England, Jesus was arrested and executed by first century Romans. Another quick fact check would show that the scholarly consensus is that Jesus was likely crucified for proclaiming himself “King of the Jews,” and not for falsifying business records in order to hide hush money payments to a woman he had an extra marital affair with.
Unfortunately for humanity, the GOP’s rush to downplay Trump’s felony convictions, and attack our justice system, seems to have been somewhat effective. A recent CBS News/YouGov Poll found that 80% of Republicans believe the Biden administration directed the New York district attorney to bring charges against Trump. The majority of people polled (57%) believe that Trump’s charges are independent of the Biden administration.
The overall results of European Parliament election are indeed concerning. Not only the rise of far right, but also the success of the corporate “centre” right that’s always been all too happy to work with the nazis to avoid working with socialists.
Overall across the EU, two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remained the dominant forces. The gains of the far right came at the expense of the Greens, who were expected to lose about 20 seats and fall back to sixth position in the legislature.
Locally, Im enjoying a little Schadenfreude because the local nazis here in Finland (and in Sweden, reportedly) lost bigly. In both countries, the far right nationalist party has recently been in government, together with the corporate right. In practice, this seems to have meant mostly pro-rich pro-corporate politics and feeding poor people and workers’ faces to corporate leopards. That includes a lot of far-right nationalist voters, who have been bigly betrayed, and were now withholding their vote as a protest. Meanwhile, the rich people and corporate lobbyists seem to have gotten pretty much what they wanted, judging by the election result.
In both countries, surprisingly many of the non-rich non-nazi voters voted for the left party. Or perhaps not surprisingly, considering all the corporate face-eating leopards. In Sweden, the greens also reportedly did pretty well, bucking the common trend. I hope the Nordic socialist MEPs can substitute greens in advocating for the environment and human rights. I also hope they can advocate support for Ukraine withing the leftist block, since concerningly many European socialist politicians are said to be in Russia’s pocket.
For nearly a year, Head of the House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer has used the power of his position to produce an evidence-free investigation into what he has called the “Biden family cover-up.” Warping half-truths in order to drive an investigation into old and debunked conspiracy theories has resulted in virtually no meaningful evidence of wrongdoing by President Joe Biden. It has, however, exposed the world to how much of a raging hypocrite Comer is.
In August, Comer told Newsmax that “Joe Biden was using pseudonyms to hide the fact that he was working with his son to peddle access to our enemies around the world.” The Kentucky congressman has repeatedly implied Biden’s use of aliases, a “common practice” in government correspondence, is proof he was involved in shady activities connected to his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
The Daily Beast reports that when he was Kentucky’s commissioner of agriculture in 2011, Comer was sending pseudonymous emails for government business. In fact, he was bungling hemp seed deals with China, and sending those emails from a government account, named after his 7-year-old son, to a big campaign donor who had a possible interest in the hemp product.
[Yep, Republican doofus James Comer was using pseudonyms to hide the fact that he was working to peddle access to our enemies around the world. Comer seems to have a limited imagination. Comer can only accuse President of Biden of wrongdoing which the Republican doofus has vetted, so to speak, by committing the crimes himself.}
This is just the latest example of how enormous his hypocrisy is in regards to the allegations he levied against President Biden.
Back in November 2023, Comer accused Joe Biden of corruption based on a check for $200,000 he gave to his brother Jim Biden in 2018, which was repaid. Comer called it a “bombshell” piece of evidence. Days later, it was revealed that Comer had also paid his own brother $200,000, in one of many “land swaps” deals the Comers and their businesses had been involved in over the years.
In March 2023, the Congressional Integrity Project—the Democratic-aligned group committed to putting Republicans on the defensive—wrote a letter asking for a Kentucky prosecutor to investigate Comer for possibly committing “at least one, and perhaps multiple, felony offenses during his failed attempt to secure the Republican nomination for governor in 2015.” The motivation for the letter was a New York Times profile on Comer, in which the congressman talked about the tight gubernatorial primary he had lost—which included allegations by a blogger against him that he was abusive to a college girlfriend [excerpt of that text is available at the link].
This tactic by Comer seems to have worked out as well as his investigation into Biden, as Comer’s former girlfriend, angered by the leaked emails, wrote and published a letter detailing what she described as a “toxic, abusive” relationship with Comer.
Recently, reports say Comer spends his days fantasizing about the dead-end Biden impeachment disappearing. The constant humiliation of having failed to actually prove anything against Biden has prompted even right-wing news outlets like Fox News to stop giving him primetime mentions.
However, Donald Trump is running for president again, and the demands to create the semblance of corruption by Biden seems to be Comer’s primary job. On Sunday, Comer told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo he was not done with trying to get Biden, saying “This is just the beginning.”
He’s had almost a year, and all he’s proven is that Biden is a supportive father.
Posted by readers of the article:
Using pseudonyms is clearly suspicious. John Barron, John Miller, and David Dennison all agree!
——————-
I wonder if Gym Jordan’s Weaponization of Government Subcommittee is investigating Jim Comer’s Joe Biden Fishing Expedition?
——————
every accusation is a confession
Benny Gantz’s departure from the war cabinet won’t change much immediately. But it could end up mattering a lot.
On Sunday, Benny Gantz — the leader of National Unity, Israel’s second-largest political party — resigned from the country’s ruling government. His decision made headlines, but its actual effects on the war in Gaza and Israel’s political future remain unclear.
Gantz’s departure was not a surprise. In mid-May, he set out an ultimatum: Either Netanyahu lays out a clear and plausible plan to end the war in Gaza, or Gantz quits the government on June 8. Netanyahu did not do so, and Gantz followed through on his threat (with the announcement delayed a day by Israel’s Saturday raid in Gaza that freed four hostages and killed over 200 Palestinians).
“Netanyahu prevents us from progressing to real victory,” Gantz said in his exit speech.
In the short term, this resignation is likely of little practical consequence.
Though Gantz is correct that Israel’s lack of a defined endgame is strategically disastrous, he simply didn’t have enough influence inside the government to force Netanyahu to adopt one. Indeed, the prime minister still has enough seats in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) to remain in power even after Gantz’s resignation — meaning that there will be no immediate change in government.
To make a truly meaningful change, Gantz and his allies in the opposition would need to persuade five Knesset members to leave the current governing coalition and vote to call new elections. It’s possible that could happen, but there are no guarantees.
Were the government to fall, it would be a really big deal. It’s arguably the most plausible scenario by which the war could end. And we’re definitely somewhat closer to that reality than we were with Gantz in government.
How much closer? We’ll soon find out.
Prior to October 7, Gantz was the leader of Israel’s opposition. He coordinated a broad swath of parties, ranging from the right to the far left, in blocking Netanyahu’s efforts to seize control of Israel’s judiciary and to do potentially fatal damage to Israeli democracy. Opposing Netanyahu — as well as his government of extreme rightists and ultra-Orthodox religious hardliners — was Gantz’s central reason for being in politics. […]
From Gantz’s point of view, being part of the war cabinet was worth partnering with the hated Netanyahu. In this arrangement, he and Gallant could check Netanyahu’s far-right allies and shape Israel’s policy for the better.
“We [joined] because we knew it was a bad government,” Gantz said in his exit speech. “The people of Israel …needed unity and support like they needed air to breathe.” […]
Every so often, we go through a wave of mostly male comedians complaining about “woke” and complaining about “political correctness” and going on and on about what “couldn’t be made today” (certainly A Take in this, the time of reboots).
In recent years, Jerry Seinfeld has grumpily been a part of every one of them — which is actually pretty weird because, for the most part, the things he’s complaining about mostly do not even apply to him, a guy who mostly made jokes about airplane food. He’s out here complaining about how he misses “dominant masculinity” and the concept of “a real man,” when he was never “even that guy” to begin with. In fact, I bet you that if we looked hard enough, we could find some Real Men (TM) complaining about him back in the 1990s. Because guess what? There has literally never been a time when men were not endlessly complaining about the loss of masculinity.
“Whither are the manly vigor and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt …” — A letter to the editor of Town and Country magazine in November of 1771.
Then there’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has inarguably had a stronger and more diverse post-”Seinfeld” career than he has, and who has a far more nuanced take on things.
In an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro published in The New York Times this weekend, Louis-Dreyfus was asked to weigh in on some of Seinfeld’s recent comments about comedy being cruelly murdered by “political correctness.”
If you look back on comedy and drama both, let’s say 30 years ago, through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well. And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result. When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — but to me that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else. I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. I don’t know how else to say it.
Wow, that sure was a well-reasoned and reality-based take. The fact is, there’s not really any point in time where you can go from one point to 30 years before and go “Yes, all of the comedy from this era has aged perfectly, 10/10 no notes.” You couldn’t do that in the 1990s with comedy from the 1960s and you can’t do it now with comedy from the 1990s. I’d say that’s a good thing! It doesn’t mean it’s all bad, it just means that society has evolved.
And she’s not wrong: it is a red flag and it does, often, mean something else.
The impetus for the interview was Louis-Dreyfus’s newest movie, Tuesday, a drama about a mother who struggles with her daughter’s terminal illness. Unlike Seinfeld, her career has evolved and changed throughout the years. She’s diversified. She did a more traditional sitcom with “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” she did a prestige HBO comedy with “Veep,” and now she’s doing dramas.
“I just want to try it all,” she told The New York Times. “It’s good for my brain.”
Eleven days after the first interview, Louis-Dreyfus came back to the question of “political correctness,” explaining that she thought that the real threat to art was not tolerance, which she believes is “fantastic,” but rather the “consolidation of money and power.
“All this siloing of studios and outlets and streamers and distributors — I don’t think it’s good for the creative voice. So that’s what I want to say in terms of the threat to art,” she said.
Garcia-Navarro then asked her if she thinks “it makes comedy better, that people are now more attuned to how some of their comments might be received?”
I can’t judge if it’s better or not. I just know that the lens through which we create art today — and I’m not going to just specify it to comedy, it’s also drama — it’s a different lens. It really is. Even classically wonderful, indisputably great films from the past are riddled with attitudes that today would not be acceptable. So I think it’s just good to be vigilant. I mean, pretend this show, your show, “The Interview,” was being made 40 years ago. I would posit that diversity would not be something you would be considering in terms of the guests that you would bring to the show. So that’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, things have shifted. And in that case, I would say, things have shifted very much for the good. And also, actually, Lulu, probably you wouldn’t be the host.
The interview with Garcia-Navarro ended with Louis-Dreyfus saying that “there’s always room to learn more, and for me, that is an incredibly joyful adventure,” with regards to her comedy.
And that’s kind of the key, isn’t it?
Recently, I found myself briefly stuck in a late-night bar conversation with a guy who said he was “super liberal” but didn’t get “the 72 genders thing.” And every time I started calmly trying to explain that there is a difference between sex and gender, that gender exists on a spectrum and that people are just kind of figuring out what works for them in terms of how they identify on that, he’d demand to know exactly how many genders there were. Because it wasn’t a real curiosity thing, it was supposed to be a gotcha, it was supposed to be an own. I wasn’t supposed to have an answer and so any answer I did have wasn’t going to satisfy him.
Also, let’s be real — anyone who is ever “just asking questions” has the same ability to Google as the rest of us. If they were truly curious, if they really wanted to know about a particular topic, they would read a book about it or read some articles on it. They wouldn’t just ask a random feminist lady about it in a bar at 2:30 a.m.
It seems like the biggest, most glaring difference between the comedians who complain about “political correctness” and the ones who don’t is that the ones who do are still trying to do the same bits they did 30 years ago. They don’t evolve, they don’t try new things, and they’re not excited about learning. Then, they wake up one day to find that the world has passed them by and their immediate take on that is that it must be because the young people are “too woke” and just don’t like comedy anymore. Not, you know, because they stopped being aware of and curious about the world around them — and also stopped being funny at around that exact point.
[…] The New York Times tells us that the “radical right-wing wave dreaded by the political establishment did not fully materialize.” Which is something of a relief. […]
Let’s try and figure out what the key takeaways are, and whether we all need to start brushing up on our German.
“Ze French May Be, How You Say in English, Fucked.” The big earthquake seems to have been in France, where Marine La Pen’s far-right National Rally scored almost a third of the MEP vote to the Renew party of Emmanuel Macron’s paltry 15 percent. That led Macron to dissolve the French Parliament and call for snap elections in three weeks. (Previously, the next parliamentary elections were scheduled for 2027.)
Three weeks! Imagine if America’s congressional campaigns were all of three weeks long. Members of Congress would have more time to do actual work, since they would spend way less time fundraising and campaigning. Doesn’t that sound much better than the eternal treadmill our political system is on now? Curse God for not making us French.
Sunday’s elections had low turnout. Macron seems to be betting that the voters’ minds will be more focused and interested when they have to vote for a new National Assembly, and that they will be so horrified by the prospect of a far-right government that they will turn out to keep Macron and his not-as-crazy faction in power, denying Le Pen and her band of fanatics any kind of claim that they are suddenly ascendant in French politics.
[…] “The Pro-European Center Holds.” Or so the Associated Press tells us. (And the European right underperformed polls, which is an interesting factoid if you’re looking for trends.) Both the AP and the Times say that the European People’s Party, a center-right coalition, will continue to dominate the EU parliament. This may be at least partly because it has adopted more right-leaning policies so voters won’t go looking for those policies with any of the fascist-adjacent parties like Alternative for Germany {AfD). For now.
[…] “Greens Crater but Still Matter.” Aw, isn’t that adorable? You can almost hear the Times writers patting the Greens on the head and calling them good boys. Anyway, in Germany the Green Party’s percentage of seats dropped overall, but it will still have enough to have some say in environmental matters. The Europeans in general are still committed to fighting climate change, but environmentally-friendly policies appear to have hurt the MEPs with rural farmers. […]
So in the race to become more fascist, America actually now has a slight lead over Europe. U-S-A!
The United Nations Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted cease-fire deal aimed at halting eight months of bloody fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The draft of the resolution, which President Joe Biden approved, was finalized Sunday after almost a week of negotiations among members of the 15-member council.
Also from NBC News:
New details emerged Monday about the rescue of four hostages — a high-risk operation that proved to be Israel’s most successful of the eight-month war, but that brought death and horror to the central Gaza refugee camp where they had been held by Hamas.
[…] In the Nuseirat refugee camp, Palestinian families mourned after at least 274 people, including dozens of children, were killed during the raid, according to local health officials. The Israeli military acknowledged there were casualties, but estimated the number was less than 100 and said it did not know how many were Hamas fighters. NBC News could not independently verify the death toll.
An Israeli commando was also killed, the Israel Defense Forces said.
And on Monday the IDF confirmed to NBC News that a vehicle carrying the three male hostages broke down during the rescue operation while under militant fire. Commandos were forced to hastily load the hostages into a separate vehicle under fire before driving them to a waiting helicopter, the IDF said.
The rescue may have been perilously close to going badly wrong, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoyed a rare moment of triumph in the wake of its success. He quickly faced global outrage over the scale of the raid’s destruction in Gaza, however, as well as division at home following the resignation of a key rival from his war Cabinet and renewed concern from the families of remaining hostages.
[…] The two apartments housed civilians in buildings with roughly three to four stories and families living in them, Hagari said, adding that both apartments also had armed guards inside. […]
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Friday that even the combined arsenals of Europe and the United States would be no match for Russia’s in a nuclear confrontation, but that ‘I hope this is never going to happen.’ He reasoned that Moscow’s supremacy in the Ukraine war has made that grim scenario unlikely.
Moderna said on Monday its combination vaccine to protect against both Covid and influenza generated a stronger immune response in adults aged 50 and over when compared to separate shots against the viruses in a late-stage trial.
Donald Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days continue, as Forbes reports that New Jersey’s attorney general is “weighing” whether or not he will revoke the liquor licenses of three of Trump’s golf clubs due to his conviction of 34 felonies. Trump is the sole owner of all three New Jersey golf clubs: Bedminster, Colts Neck, and Philadelphia.
“New Jersey law prohibits issuing a liquor license to anyone who has been convicted of a crime ‘involving moral turpitude.’ A state handbook explains that those sorts of crimes typically involve ‘dishonesty, fraud or depravity’ severe enough to typically be punishable by more than a year in prison,” Forbes reports. […]
Finally! Fox News is calling out a Supreme Court justice who took “eye-popping” gifts from a wealthy benefactor, and it’s well past time the conservative media outlet brought this to light. In addition to making a mockery of good-government best practices and casting a pall of suspicion over the Supreme Court and its decisions, lavish gifts and perks—especially when undisclosed—represent an egregious conflict of interest that erodes Americans’ faith in our judicial system.
So step right up, Clarence Thomas, and take your medicine – – – oh, fuck. They’re talking about Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Yes, it looks like Jackson accepted four concert tickets, valued at $3,700, from pop star Beyoncé, and then disclosed the gift as soon as she was required to do so. (Which, given the recent behavior of some of the conservatives on the court, is sort of “eye-popping” when you think about it.)
[…] In a June 8 story on the Supreme Court justices’ gift disclosures, Fox News somehow managed to ignore Clarence Thomas’ belated disclosure of luxury trips accepted from billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow—and the $2.4 million in gifts he’s received since 2004, which were nearly 10 times more valuable than those of all other justices over that period combined—until the penultimate paragraph.
[…] here’s how the network dealt with the long-delayed disclosure from Thomas, who accepted gifts from an individual with a vested interest in Supreme Court decisions. (This “revelation” somehow didn’t show up until the seventh paragraph.)
Justice Clarence Thomas also amended his 2019 filing to reveal two trips to Indonesia and Sonoma County, California, that he said were paid for by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow after they were “inadvertently omitted” initially.
[…] far from being evenhanded and fair to both sides, much of the media have put their thumbs on the scale for fascism. Perhaps more stories about the real state of the economy and fewer interviews with diner-dwelling MAGA minions about the price of eggs and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s fondness for the music/witchcraft of Beyoncé would be welcome—if not for our sanity, then for the future of democracy itself.
As veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour has said, it’s incumbent on the media to “be truthful, but not neutral.” That’s great and timely advice, of course, but at this point most of us would probably settle for “not intentionally dishonest.”
More at the link, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson receiving and reporting a $1,200 flower display from Oprah Winfrey.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra” just started a second season of Monday episodes.
The RSS feed wasn’t easy to find, so here it is. Plus links for her previous podcasts.
Ultra – Radical right plotting in 1940s-1950s United States
Bag Man – The corruption of Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew
Déjà News – Misc stories from the past and abroad that resemble current politics
StevoRsays
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned a second term as US president for Donald Trump could lead to him being surrounded by more “yes-men” and a shift in US foreign policy. Trump was recently the first US president to have a criminal conviction recorded, when he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Speaking to 7.30, Mr Turnbull, who was Australian PM when Trump was first elected to office, said he feared Trump would only be more emboldened should he defeat President Joe Biden in the race for the White House. “In a second term, Trump will be surrounded by more yes-men and yes-women than ever, and he will feel unassailable, because he will have done the impossible and got himself re-elected,” Mr Turnbull said. He then warned that leaders of nations who were allies with the US would have to stand up to Trump.
They greet each other by intertwining trunks and express strong emotions by trumpeting. They are even thought to send messages over large distances with ground-based vibrations, which could be detected through their feet. Now researchers behind a new study in Nature Ecology and Evolution believe wild elephants may be able to communicate with other members of their group by using sounds akin to names. Dolphins and some birds are reported to develop a signature call which other members of their species can used to identify them or copy to get their attention. But Colorado State University behavioural ecologist Mickey Pardo, lead author of the new study, believes elephant calls are more similar to how humans use arbitrary names rather than imitations used by other species.
Up to 90% of three species killed all at once by hurricane.
New research has found a tropical cyclone effectively wiped out several vulnerable bird populations on a remote island off Australia’s north-west coast. Populations of the masked booby, brown booby and lesser frigatebird were killed when Tropical Cyclone Ilsa struck Bedout Island, off the coast of Port Hedland, about 1,600km north of Perth. The category five system hit the region with record-breaking wind gusts of up to 288 kph in April last year.
A jury panel of 12 Delaware residents on Tuesday found Hunter Biden guilty of three federal gun charges, marking the first criminal conviction of a sitting president’s child.
President Biden’s son was convicted after roughly three hours of deliberation of three felony counts alleging he lied about his use of illicit drugs when obtaining a gun in 2018, and then unlawfully possessed the firearm for 11 days. […]
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said she wants to get back at people who raised a controversy after she and the justice were criticized last month for flying politically affiliated flags at their homes.
“You come after me, I’m gonna give it back to you,” Martha-Ann Alito said in the recording of a private conversation at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner June 3.
“There will be a way. It doesn’t have to be now, but there will be a way. They know,” she added. “Don’t worry about it.”
The remarks were recorded by progressive filmmaker Lauren Windsor, who attended the event as a member of the society under her real name, though she posed as a conservative to elicit answers from Alito and others.
The recordings were published by MSNBC and Windsor’s activist site The Undercurrent — the second set released Monday, after she earlier provided recordings of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Alito to Rolling Stone.
Alito’s flag controversy began last month when it was discovered that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag and an upside-down American flag were flown at the couple’s homes. The symbols have been associated with far-right politics, Christian nationalism and those who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Alito said the flags were not political statements but merely responses from his wife to personal attacks made by a neighbor, though the neighbor has publicly disputed key aspects of the justice’s story. The controversy has sparked widespread criticism from Democrats in Congress, including multiple high-profile members demanding he recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.
In the recording, Martha-Ann Alito also committed to flying a “Sacred Heart of Jesus” flag at her homes this month to protest the display of an LGBTQ pride flag nearby. The Sacred Heart of Jesus flag is a symbol associated with the Christian right wing, specifically used to protest Pride.
She said her husband, the justice, has asked her not to put up flags at their properties.
“I won’t do that because I’m deferring to you,” Alito said she told her husband. “But when you are free of this nonsense, I’m putting it up, and I’m gonna send them a message every day, maybe every week. I’ll be changing the flags.”
Alito added that she has designed her own flag in her head, which she wants to have made and flown. It features the Italian word “vergogna,” which means shame.
Some billionaires are looking at the 2024 presidential race and putting aside concerns about democracy. They ought to know how counterproductive that is.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, there were some prominent billionaires who kept their distance from Donald Trump, but that period has apparently come to an end. As Politico reported this week, many “high-dollar donors at banks, hedge funds and other financial firms” have re-embraced the presumptive Republican nominee, thanks in large part to his plans to cut taxes and weaken financial industry safeguards.
The article included this memorable quote:
Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization that represents the city’s top business leaders, said Republicans have told her that “the threat to capitalism from the Democrats is more concerning than the threat to democracy from Trump.”
[OMFG. How many billionaires are that stupid?]
Before we consider the latter half of that quote, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the oddity of the idea that Democrats represent a “threat to capitalism.”
For those of us who have a passing familiarity with reality, capitalism has done exceptionally well under Democratic administrations of late. In fact, in the last 35 years, there have been six presidents: three Democrats and three Republicans. In each of the GOP administrations, there was a recession. In each of the Democratic administrations, there were far stronger economies: more robust job growth, higher GDP, and healthier stock-market gains. It’s a track record that seems highly relevant to those voting with economic concerns in mind.
But it’s also worth dwelling on those who are willing to discard “the threat to democracy from Trump.”
I’ve had some differences with Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund executive who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director in 2017, but his response to Politico this week rang true.
“You need a democracy to have effective capitalism,” Scaramucci said. “If you don’t, you get cronyism. You get oligarchy. You get crony capitalism. You get arbitrary and capricious administration to the law, which reduces people’s tendency to invest in your country.”
It’s an important point. I realize there will be some — on Wall Street and off — who look at the 2024 presidential race and effectively say, “Democracy is all well and good, but I’m more concerned about my wallet.”
That calculus is misguided, in part because Trump is unlikely to deliver the economic utopia he’s promising — he’s already failed once — and in part because moving away from democracy is inherently bad for the economy.
The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell had a great column on this last month, explaining, “Those who would trade democracy for economic gain would get neither.”
[D]emocracies tend to be better at a whole bunch of things critical to economic flourishing, such as maintaining the rule of law; protecting property rights; providing public goods (education, public health, infrastructure); ensuring policymakers are accountable to all citizens (not just their cronies); and resolving disputes via compromise rather than violence. (Violence, you might have heard, is not great for business.)
“U.S. business titans might think they’re trading democracy for financial gain,” Rampell concluded. “In reality, they’re gambling both.”
The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie came to a similar conclusion in his latest column, adding, “The truth is that regimes of corrupt, personalist rule — in which authoritarians wield the state to reward friends, punish enemies and secure their fortunes — are much less prosperous than the alternative.”
Even if greed were the sole motivating factor for these “high-dollar donors at banks, hedge funds and other financial firms,” the quicker they are to downplay the importance of democracy, the more they’re putting their own bottom lines at risk.
By all accounts, the vice-presidential vetting process is extremely unpleasant. A team of partisan investigators comb through every possible detail of your personal, political, and financial life, looking for potential controversies that could undermine the party’s ticket and its electoral prospects. […]
we know that a small group of Republicans are currently facing this intense scrutiny, hoping to join Donald Trump’s 2024 ticket, and Sen. J.D. Vance briefly shed some light on what this entails during a Fox News appearance yesterday. [video at the link]
[…] Co-host Steve Doocy [on Fox News] asked, “Like your taxes or something?” before quickly adding with a laugh, “Your criminal background?”
Vance went along as if this were a perfectly normal line of inquiry. “I don’t know everything they’ve been asked. Yeah, but certainly like, ‘Have you ever committed a crime?’ ”
[…] Team Trump wants to know about would-be running mates’ criminal background, despite the fact that Trump himself is now a convicted criminal.
In fact, given the circumstances, it’s not altogether clear what answer the GOP operation is looking for to the underlying point of inquiry: The former president is already helping lead a “team of felons,” so it remains an open question as to whether a criminal conviction would help or hurt a candidate’s chances. […]
Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and Donald Trump attorney, was processed Monday in the criminal case over the effort to overturn Trump’s Arizona election loss to Joe Biden, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said.
The sheriff’s office provided a mug shot but no other details. The office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Maricopa County said Giuliani posted bond of $10,000 in cash. […]
So, yeah, we have yet another mug shot for trumpist cult followers, or gang-of-criminals politicians.
A worsening feral swine problem is overtaking Florida and beginning to spread across the U.S.
While they may look harmless, these animals, also known as wild pigs or wild hogs, eat crops and have reportedly even attacked humans, causing $1.5 billion in economic damages per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. [Who thinks they look harmless?]
Additionally, they “carry at least 30 viral and bacterial diseases and nearly 40 parasites that can be transmitted to humans, pets, livestock, and other wildlife,” the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reports.
Wild hogs pose a big threat to the agriculture industry, and this threat isn’t just in Florida. The problem is nationwide, with the USDA even coining the term “feral swine bomb” to describe it.
Officials report at least 35 states are now dealing with feral swine, with their population estimated at over 6 million and “rapidly expanding.”
It’s worth noting that the current numbers are likely higher, as the most recent data is from 2023.
[…] Unlike encounters with bears, making loud noises is not recommended with feral hogs.
[…] Soon after the verdict was announced, President Joe Biden issued a written statement that read, “As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.
“As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”
Note, at no point did the incumbent president lash out at the judge or prosecutors. He did not peddle any conspiracy theories about the case, the jurors, or the verdict. He did not claim to be a victim. He did not condemn the United States’ judicial system or urge Americans not to trust the process.
Joe Biden also did not tell supporters, “They’re not after my son; they’re after you, and my son is simply in the way.”
Instead, the Democrat — who also chose in 2021 to allow Trump-appointed prosecutor David Weiss to continue with the case, even after Trump lost — accepted the verdict while expressing support for his son and the legal process, behaving the way a patriot should.
Imagine that.
I will confess that I did not follow the prosecution of this case closely because Hunter Biden is a private citizen removed from the political arena. That said, it’s always heartening to see evidence that in the United States, the rule of law applies to everyone — even if you’re the son of the sitting president.
What’s more, it’s also worth pausing to appreciate the larger pattern that’s unfolded in recent months. The Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, is:
– successfully prosecuting President Joe Biden’s son;
– prosecuting an incumbent Democratic senator, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, during his re-election bid;
– prosecuting an incumbent Democratic congressman, Texas’ Cuellar, during his re-election bid;
– investigating an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Missouri’s Cori Bush, during her re-election bid.
For good measure, it’s probably worth mentioning that the Justice Department also appears to be investigating Eric Adams, the high-profile Democratic mayor of New York City.
A neutral political observer might see this and be tempted to conclude that Biden’s Justice Department is unfairly targeting Democrats. And yet, one of the animating concepts in contemporary Republican politics is that rascally Democrats have “weaponized” federal law enforcement to punish GOP figures and shield Democrats from accountability.
The Justice Department and the FBI, leading Republican voices insist, are little more than political tools for the Biden White House and its fiendish allies.
As we’ve discussed, Republicans don’t just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, ridiculous idea is at the center of the party’s Trump defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments, and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill.
In 2024, assertions about a “two-tiered” justice system are foundational to Republican politics. They’re also routinely discredited by real-world events.
Indeed, if Biden and his team were trying to weaponize federal law enforcement to benefit Democrats, they’ve proved themselves to be incredibly bad at it.
President Biden, who at 81 is a couple of decades younger than many of the veterans he honored during Thursday’s D-Day commemoration in Normandy, nonetheless found his age and fitness in the spotlight as selectively edited clips of him circulated online to paint the picture of a physically and mentally challenged commander in chief.
The 80th anniversary of D-Day quickly became the latest example of the fast spread of politically damaging manipulated videos, highlighting how the politics of misinformation and conspiracy theories do not stop at the water’s edge — and seem certain to continue through November.
In edited videos, Republican officials and allies of former president Donald Trump repeatedly tried to turn Biden’s Normandy visit into a highlight reel of senior moments and missteps, aimed at showing the president as infirm, addled or out of his depth. Trump, who turns 78 on Friday, has also repeatedly attacked Biden over his age and fitness, and regularly shares videos of the president looking frail.
But an examination of video feeds from the events in Normandy, France, makes clear that the selected clips had been edited to present a particularly damaging — and often misleading — picture.
Such deceptively edited videos — known as “cheap fakes” because they misrepresent events simply by manipulating video or audio, or by leaving out context — have become staples of Republican attacks against Biden. They are easier to make and disseminate than content generated by artificial intelligence and can quickly go viral, allowing Biden’s opponents to take innocuous moments and turn them into attacks on his mental acuity or physical fitness.
“Republicans have resorted to pathetically manipulating and distorting footage of President Biden because they can’t successfully attack his record of delivering results for the American people,” Mia Ehrenberg, a spokeswoman for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement.
[…] Such deceptively edited videos — known as “cheap fakes” because they misrepresent events simply by manipulating video or audio, or by leaving out context — have become staples of Republican attacks against Biden. They are easier to make and disseminate than content generated by artificial intelligence and can quickly go viral, allowing Biden’s opponents to take innocuous moments and turn them into attacks on his mental acuity or physical fitness.
“Republicans have resorted to pathetically manipulating and distorting footage of President Biden because they can’t successfully attack his record of delivering results for the American people,” Mia Ehrenberg, a spokeswoman for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement. [Examples at the link]
The Republican National Committee and right-wing influencers posted a 12-second clip of Biden standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron and appearing to reach down with his hand and bend his knees haltingly. The video ends abruptly with Biden in an awkward position, but some who posted it suggested that Biden was sitting “in an invisible chair,” and Donald Trump Jr. wrote that it was an “embarrassment” that showed American weakness. The full video shows that Biden ultimately sat down shortly after the clip ended, though he appeared to pause briefly while crouched, waiting for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name to be announced before taking his seat. A wide shot of the stage showed that other people also appeared to crouch, as Biden did, before fully sitting down.
In another video disseminated by Biden’s critics, the president appears to be led away from the D-Day ceremony by first lady Jill Biden as the event is ongoing. A Republican National Committee account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, wrote that Biden was being escorted out, and another commenter said Biden was being “pulled away” while Macron was still greeting veterans. In reality, Biden, who arrived at the event before Macron, had already greeted the veterans and was leaving the ceremony at its conclusion to attend another scheduled memorial event. Joe and Jill Biden were holding hands and walking side-by-side, with the president leading the way, shaking hands with veterans and saluting some on their way out, before finally exiting the event. The edited clip only shows Biden leaving the event, not shaking hands and greeting veterans before he exits. [video at the link] […]
It’s been nearly four years since Tina Peters, the elections administrator of Mesa County, Colorado, went rogue, allegedly breaching her office’s own equipment in a bid to investigate Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. She was indicted on state charges in 2022.
Now, as the 2024 election approaches, the county election office she once oversaw is still reeling from her legacy, while dealing with the ideas her allies continue to spread.
“We continue to fight disinformation and misinformation, mainly spread by Tina Peters as she tries to defend herself,” Sheila Reiner, a former Mesa County county clerk and recorder and the current county treasurer, told TPM. “It was heartbreaking and very frustrating to watch her time and time again simply lie about the process.”
[…] Peters, who has now become the de facto face of the Stop the Steal movement in Colorado, allegedly gave an unauthorized individual access to the county’s voting machines; data from those machines was then leaked online. She went on to become a cause célèbre among those who baselessly insist the 2020 election was stolen and a close ally of Mike Lindell. She is currently awaiting trial, which is set for later this summer.
The work for Mesa County election officials in advance of the upcoming presidential election is threefold: implementing practical security measures to prevent future internal threats, like Peters; working to regain public’s trust that another Peters-like insider won’t interfere in the county’s election; and instituting measures to increase transparency to keep conspiracy theories from spiraling out of control.
[…] the “Tina debacle” was a “shock to the system,” leading county clerks statewide to adopt a zero-trust security posture, noting that they had probably been naive in thinking that someone in a position like the one Peters was in would both understand the job and do it well.
[…] “We still have the same bad actors spreading the same garbage that they always have,” Crane [Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association] said. “But these bad actors — I call it the traveling clown show — they’re still going around, especially in these smaller communities, trying to scare people out of using our voting system.”
[…] Documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor attended a meeting of the Supreme Court Historical Society, a charity aimed at preserving the history of the court, and presented herself as a conservative Catholic. She secretly recorded her conversations with Alito, his wife Martha-Ann, and Chief Justice John Roberts, during which she told Alito that “people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that—to return our country to a place of godliness.” […]
Supreme Court Justice Roberts came off in a much better light. When Windsor confronted him with a similar question about how to keep the U.S. a “Christian nation,” Roberts gave a more appropriate response.
“Yeah, I don’t know that we live in a Christian nation,” Roberts said. “I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say maybe not. And it’s not our job to do that. It’s our job to decide the cases as best we can.”
[…] compared to Alito’s, this is head and shoulders—maybe even an entire body—better.
Despite his portrayal in the media, Roberts is no moderate. He’s been at the center of multiple destructive decisions that strengthen corporations and weaken workers’ rights. He has made rulings that made it more difficult for women to sue over unequal pay. Finally and most decisively, Roberts was the author of a concurrence in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.
But when it comes to the basic function of the Supreme Court being discussed in a public forum, Roberts at least goes through the motions of upholding the court’s basic function as an arbiter of constitutional law. Alito does not. […]
Whether Windsor edited these recordings is not yet clear. But based on what has been heard, it appears that Alito is making his court decisions as a Christian nationalist, not as a conservative jurist. Windsor might have misrepresented herself to obtain that information, but she doesn’t appear to have forced Alito into a verbal trap or taken his response out of context.
His answers should be regarded as not only terrifying, but as absolutely disqualifying.
Re: #224 Trump asking would-be VPs about criminal background.
The Trump team may be concerned that if he gets probation for his sentence, he would be subject to NY State Mandatory Conditions of Supervision.
8. You must not communicate or interact with someone you know is engaged in criminal activity. If you know someone has been convicted of a felony, you must not knowingly communicate or interact with that person without first getting the permission of the probation officer.
The Colorado Republican Party last week sent a mass email with the subject line, “God hates Pride.” The missive denounced Pride Month as a time when “godless groomers” attack what is “decent, holy and righteous.” It included a clip of a sermon by a famously misogynist pastor named Mark Driscoll, with thumbnail text proclaiming, in a nod to the slogan of the obscenely anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, “God hates flags.” The party also posted on the social media platform X, “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”
[…] In Colorado, Dave Williams, who was elected party chair last year, embodies the Trumpist takeover of the Republican Party. In 2021, as ProPublica reported, Steve Bannon called on election deniers to flood the party at the local level, and in Colorado as elsewhere, they listened. “There was kind of a movement in the party — I think it was propelled by Steve Bannon — to really take control,” said Chuck Broerman, a longtime Republican official in El Paso County, where Williams lives.
These new party activists, said Broerman, elevated Williams, a hard-right figure known for his anti-gay politics since he was an undergraduate student body president who was impeached for discriminating against an L.B.G.T.Q. campus group.
Williams quickly set about making the state party a tool of the MAGA movement. The party used to stay neutral in Republican primaries, but under Williams, it started endorsing candidates. The party’s candidate questionnaire asks, “Do you support President Trump’s populist, America-first agenda?” Those who want the party’s endorsement must also say whether they “denounce” Americans for Prosperity, the organization established by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which supported Nikki Haley in this year’s Republican presidential primary contest. […]
Chiquita Held Liable for Deaths During Colombian Civil War.
A South Florida jury found the company liable for killings committed by a paramilitary group that was on the banana producer’s payroll. New York Times link
A jury in South Florida has ruled that Chiquita Brands is liable for eight killings carried out by a right-wing paramilitary group that the company helped finance in a fertile banana-growing region of Colombia during the country’s decades-long internal conflict.
The jury on Monday ordered the multinational banana producer to pay $38.3 million to 16 family members of farmers and other civilians who were killed in separate episodes by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia — a right-wing paramilitary group that Chiquita bankrolled from 1997 to 2004.
The company has faced hundreds of similar suits in U.S. courts filed by the families of other victims of violence by the paramilitary group in Colombia, but the verdict in Florida represents the first time Chiquita has been found culpable.
The decision, which the company said it planned to appeal, could influence the outcome in other suits, legal experts said. […]
Pierce R. Butlersays
Please put your irony meters in explosion-proof containers before reading this.
Indian River County School Board members said they disliked how it referenced other books that had been removed from schools and accused it of “teaching rebellion of school board authority.”
The Indian River County School Board voted to remove “Ban This Book” by Alan Gratz from its shelves in a meeting last month, overruling its own district book-review committee’s decision to keep it.
The children’s novel follows a fictional fourth grader who creates a secret banned books locker library after her school board pulled a multitude of titles off the shelves. …
The book, which had been in two Indian River County elementary schools and a middle school, was challenged by Jennifer Pippin. She’s the head of the area’s local chapter of Moms for Liberty…
The school board voted to remove the book by a 3-2 vote, but that could’ve gone in the other direction months before.
Board members Jacqueline Rosario and Gene Posca, who voted in the majority, were backed by Moms for Liberty during their campaigns, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers. The third “yes” vote came from Kevin McDonald, who was recently appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. …
“The ban is unconstitutional.” […] “clear that anti-transgender animus” motivated bill sponsors and some legislators […] the state admitted during the trial that there was no factual basis
[…]
Hinkle also struck down rules that required transgender adults to only get medical treatment from physicians, instead of from other kinds of health providers.
Hinkle last year also struck down Florida’s ban on Medicaid covering treatments for gender dysphoria. The state is appealing that ruling, and […] has been defying Hinkle’s order and still denying Medicaid coverage.
DeSantis’ press secretary […] said that the state would appeal Hinkle’s new ruling, as well.
John Moralessays
“(Violence, you might have heard, is not great for business.)”
The Open Road Fund offers $50,000 grants for Black residents of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Any income. Be age 14+ and descended from enslaved Africans.
Buy a home, pay debt, estate planning, life insurance, tuition, or start a business. The goal is to build intergenerational wealth. 100 grants each summer through 2031. This year, apply from June 19 to July 19.
“In community, people often say, ‘Why not just give it [money] directly to people and let them develop their own strategies?” she said. “And in this case, we’re saying that we trust people to do that.”
[…]
bracing for a substantial increase over last year’s 11,000 applications. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s double this year,”
Applicants will probably find this other project useful.
10 Million Names is a free public database of enslaved people of African descent in what’s now the US (1500-1865). A network of genealogists, cultural orgs, and historians to connect with people inquiring about family history.
Collective Abundance Fund is a similar $25k-$50k grant for Indigenous people. Looks like that’s every spring. Be Indigenous to US/Mexico/Canada & related nations, age 18+, reside in MN/SD/ND.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
^ Archive link to that article without the paywall.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo — who has long been the focus of Trump’s ire, both before and after Justice Juan Merchan entered a gag order — is a longtime public servant and civil litigator.
But his less-than-two-year tenure at DOJ at the outset of the Biden administration and his subsequent move to Alvin Bragg’s office has become the sole basis for what Justice Department leaders have called “conspiratorial speculation” — much of it fueled by Trump himself — that Biden engineered Trump’s Manhattan conviction. House GOP leaders are so enamored of that narrative that Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan requested Bragg and Colangelo testify before Congress, and they’ve agreed to testify July 12 (the day after Trump’s sentencing). But even in advance of that hearing, 80% of registered GOP voters already believe that narrative, according to the CBS News/YouGov poll released on Monday. [Shaky foundation for that conspiracy theory!]
And the notion that Biden is pulling Bragg’s strings, with or without Colangelo, is both demonstrably false and perniciously racist.
After Biden’s inauguration, Colangelo — like dozens of other experienced lawyers — served as a placeholder for the political nominee whom he would ultimately serve as a deputy. Specifically, he was temporarily the acting associate attorney general, and after Vanita Gupta was confirmed, he was her principal deputy until he left the Justice Department in early December 2022.
The idea that Colangelo got anywhere close to criminal law is both bizarre and unfounded. Why? The very nature of the associate attorney general job is to supervise all of the civil and some of the policy/community-facing units in DOJ (e.g., the Office on Violence Against Women, the Office for Access to Justice, the COPS program), but not the criminal ones, as a Justice Department organization chart reflects. Indeed, a letter to Jordan issued Monday by the department’s Office of Legislative Affairs reinforces that Colangelo’s job was “to oversee the civil litigation components that report to the Associate [Attorney General’s] office.” Simply stated, he had no oversight of any of the work of the criminal or national security divisions.
In fact, Colangelo operated so far from DOJ’s criminal work that a colleague remembers his exclusion from conversations about the Trump investigations and therefore believes Colangelo did not even “tangentially know” about any Trump investigations or prosecutions, apart from what was known to the public. Anthony Coley, who was Attorney General Merrick Garland’s chief spokesperson until early 2023, attended the AG’s daily senior staff meeting every day alongside roughly seven others, including Colangelo. Coley recalls that whenever he briefed Garland on press about the various Trump criminal investigations, Gupta and Colangelo left the room. (Coley emphasized that such conversations stopped taking place after special counsel Jack Smith was appointed.) Coley also tells me these “skinny-down” meetings were by design, as Garland operated on a strictly need-to-know basis.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the Justice Department’s letter informs Jordan and his colleagues that “a comprehensive search for email communications since January 20, 2021, through the date of the [Trump] verdict, between any officials in Department leadership, including all political appointees in those offices, and the District Attorney’s office regarding any investigation or prosecution of the former President” turned up “none.” [video at the link]
How, then, did Colangelo end up on Bragg’s team if he has historically been a civil lawyer? For starters, a source who knows Colangelo tells me that, although he had previously worked in DOJ’s civil rights division during the Obama administration, he never intended to stay at the Biden Justice Department for the long haul, as evidenced by the fact that, when he took the job in Washington after years in the New York Attorney General’s Office, his family stayed behind in New York.
The opportunity to join Bragg’s team came about because Colangelo and Bragg were friends from their time together in the attorney general’s office, where Colangelo became something of a Trump World expert. First, under Bragg’s supervision, he worked on the case against the Trump Foundation, in which the attorney general alleged Trump and his children misused charitable funds to benefit his 2016 campaign and to pay off business debts. Following a “drawn-out legal battle” in late 2019, a court order not only forced the foundation to distribute $2 million to several charities but a settlement led the foundation to shutter entirely. Both developments were seen as victories for Attorney General Letitia James and her team.
Colangelo then worked on the investigative phase of what became the Trump civil fraud case, tried last fall. Through both cases, he had become somewhat of an expert on the Trump Organization’s characters, operations and documentation. But Colangelo was never the driving force behind the criminal case; indeed, as has been publicly reported, by the time Colangelo joined Bragg’s staff on Dec. 5, 2022, plans for convening a grand jury in the DA’s criminal case had already been underway for months. The indictment followed four months later.
In announcing Bragg and Colangelo’s decision to testify voluntarily next month, a spokesperson for the district attorney said, “it undermines the rule of law to spread dangerous misinformation, baseless claims, and conspiracy theories following the jury’s return of a full-count felony conviction in People v. Trump.” And that’s especially true when it comes to Trump and his allies’ obsession with Colangelo. There’s nothing about his work for the DOJ, the access that came with it or his past to support the personal attacks on him — or the baseless assertion that he was the conduit through which Biden devised and controlled Bragg’s case.
Will that stop Trump, Jordan and their allies? Don’t count on it.
The number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S., according to a new analysis. Why it matters: Many of those sites are targeted to swing states — a clear sign that they’re designed to influence politics. […]
[…] By the numbers: There are at least 1,265 websites identified as being backed by dark money or are intentionally masquerading as local news sites for political purposes, according to a new report from NewsGuard, a misinformation tracking company.
As of last year, there were only 1,213 daily local newspapers in the U.S. That number may have gone down significantly in the time since, but the researchers who track that data have yet to release an updated figure for 2024.
Nearly half (45%) of the sites observed as part of the study were targeted to communities or regions in swing states, according to an Axios analysis of the sites. The most frequently targeted states are Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Georgia. […]
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce received an $800,000 wire transfer from billionaire donor Hank Meijer days after it endorsed his son, then-Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), in a contentious 2022 primary, according to previously unreported internal emails reviewed by The Hill.
Steve Bannon is due to report to federal prison on July 1 to begin a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. But he clearly has plenty of contempt remaining to give, and he’s directing it at the entire legal system.
On his “War Room” podcast on Saturday, Bannon turned his anger toward former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, threatening both with imprisonment or worse. “Get your passport, get the hell out of the country because hey, we’re coming,” Bannon said, warning that a second Trump term would mean that Comey and McCabe would be targeted for persecution.
Bannon’s statements may seem like a tantrum being thrown by someone about to spend several long weeks in a very small room, but his statements are concerning to law enforcement officials. They serve as a reminder that when Donald Trump and his associates talk about “revenge” and “retribution” they don’t mean seeing that political opponents face the consequences of any illegal actions; They mean going after political opponents simply for being political opponents.
“We will hunt you down,” Bannon said.
Bannon appeared to be angered by an appearance McCabe made on CNN’s “The Source” in which the former FBI deputy director expressed concern over what a second Trump term would mean for the rule of law. In particular, McCabe responded to a question from host Kaitlan Collins about the dangers represented by Trump’s calls for retribution.
McCabe called Trump’s recent comments “offensive and horrendous,” while saying that they were not surprising. “You know him,” McCabe said. “You know what motivates him. He is not a person who is driven by principle or ideology. He is someone, who’s entirely transactional, that if he feels like he’s been wronged, in some way, then he focuses on revenge, and vengeance. And so, he’s made it perfectly clear that that’s what he’s going to do.”
McCabe warned that in his efforts to obtain revenge Trump “runs the risk of really dismantling and greatly incapacitating the Department of Justice and the FBI.”
But for Trump and his supporters, that’s a feature, not a bug. Turning the DOJ into a weapon and the FBI into the police force that can be used against anyone who opposes Trump is exactly what they have in mind.
Bannon didn’t appreciate McCabe pointing out the plan.
“Why is Andrew McCabe, Mr. Tough Guy, Mr. FBI Tough Guy wetting himself on national TV?” Bannon asked. “He’s damn scared because he understands the end is near.”
These threats followed Trump’s appearance alongside “Dr. Phil” McGraw during which the television therapist attempted to get Trump to swear off revenge.
“I think you have so much to do,” said McGraw. “You don’t have time to get even.”
“Well, revenge does take time, I will say that,” Trump admitted. “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.”
During the criminal trial in which he was found guilty on 34 counts, Trump was under a gag order for his attempts to intimidate witnesses and threaten the families of court officials. But even as the judge attempted to protect the justice system—and innocent bystanders—from Trump’s anger, a long line of Republican surrogates made regular appearances outside the courtroom to keep the threats alive.
But if Trump was limiting himself to generating anger against those connected to his case in the hope that his followers would respond with violence, Bannon isn’t being that “subtle.” He’s not being vague either.
He’s just making overt threats.
“Go ahead, go to the ends of the earth,” Bannon said. “We will hunt you down and bring you back and you will stand accountable before the American people.”
Bannon is also not trying to make any pretense that this is about justice. It’s about revenge. It’s about seeing that anyone opposed to Trump is silenced.
Some billionaires are looking at the 2024 presidential race and putting aside concerns about democracy. They ought to know how counterproductive that is. – Lynna, OM@223
Is that concerns about threats to democracy, or concerns about the threat of democracy?
These armoured personnel carriers are getting donated to Ukraine.
“PBV 302 to Ukraine” | Arsenalen Swedish Tankmuseum
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=EWjvRNk5ifY
(The manager of the museum speaks with a very typical Swedish accent)
birgerjohanssonsays
Sri Lanka demands citizens duped into joining Russian army are sent home.
Removing medical debt from consumer credit reports might not be a front-page story, but it’s another example of the Biden administration helping consumers.
By most estimates, roughly one in five American households are living with medical debts, which is a burden that affects families’ finances in a variety of difficult ways. In fact, as CNBC noted last year, medical debt “can lead to a debt spiral for some consumers and narrow their options for housing, loans and credit cards.”
With this in mind, the Biden administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched an effort to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports altogether. The goal was obvious: The Democratic administration wants to help Americans keep unpaid medical bills from affecting their credit scores.
As NBC News reported, that policy is now advancing.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that the proposed rule, released through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, would reduce the number of people in the U.S. with medical debt listed on their credit reports to zero, down from 46 million in 2020. … The administration calculates that if it is implemented, the rule would raise affected people’s credit scores by an average of 20 points and could lead to the approval of about 22,000 additional mortgages every year as a result of the cleaned-up credit reports.
“The CFPB is seeking to end the senseless practice of weaponizing the credit reporting system to coerce patients into paying medical bills that they do not owe,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said. “Medical bills on credit reports too often are inaccurate and have little to no predictive value when it comes to repaying other loans.” [Good to know. I was not aware of that aspect of the problem.]
Given the way the federal rulemaking process works, the change won’t take effect until next year, but it’s nevertheless poised to be an important step that will help millions of U.S. households.
It’s also part of a larger pattern.
There’s a school of thought that says President Joe Biden and his White House team shouldn’t just focus on the major economic statistics — the low unemployment rate, the healthy GDP data, etc. — they also need to emphasize pocketbook issues. Typical Americans, the argument goes, probably have no idea how many jobs the economy created last month, but they have a sense of their own wallet.
[…] the Democratic White House […] finding ways to help consumers. The Biden administration has, among other things:
– created new rules to benefit air travelers;
– made it easier for people to file their taxes for free;
– advanced a policy that would cap credit card late fees;
– taken steps to curtail tens of billions worth of surcharges that Biden accurately describes as “junk” fees,
– canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs;
– pursued policies designed to keep gas prices low.
Removing medical debt from consumer credit reports is very much a part of the larger policy mosaic. Biden can’t snap his fingers and make inflation go away, but he and his administration can — and have — give consumers a break in a variety of other important ways.
[…] worthwhile progressive measures that help regular people and their finances.
[…] Donald Trump didn’t support any of these policies while in office […]
MAGA personalities are already claiming … that this guilty verdict slapped on Biden’s son also proves that the system is rigged against Trump. Which reveals something essential about how dependent the MAGA worldview is on elaborate fantasies about the movement’s alleged persecution.
Commentary from Steve Benen:
[MAGA] Republicans start with the assumption that their conspiracy theories must be true — and cannot be proven untrue. Given that the Hunter Biden case, the Bob Menendez case, the Henry Cuellar case, the Cori Bush case, and the Eric Adams case make it painfully obvious that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department isn’t offering Democrats favorable treatment, it falls on GOP partisans to twist themselves into pretzels to deal with the cognitive dissonance.
“Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is nothing more than the Left’s attempt to create the illusion of equal justice,” Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia wrote online. “Don’t fall for it.”
In other words, reality might give the impression the Biden administration is administering justice fairly, and the facts make it seem as if the Justice Department is honoring the rule of law appropriately, but Americans should perceive this as an elaborate ruse because — well, just because.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, called the guilty verdict “nothing more than a distraction” from what she said are the “real crimes” committed by Biden and his family. Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas called the conviction “smoke and mirrors from the Biden DOJ.” Former White House policy advisor Stephen Miller, indifferent to the apparent irony, argued, “Don’t be gaslit. This is all about protecting Joe Biden and only Joe Biden.”
At a House hearing held soon after the verdict in Delaware was announced, Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern tried to explain to his GOP colleagues how outlandish the party’s thinking has become. [video at the link]
“The only ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ going on around here is on the other side of the aisle,” the Massachusetts congressman explained. “People are saying that Biden orchestrated the conviction of his own son in order to justify the criminal charges against Trump. That is how you think when you are in a cult.” […]
Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are proposing to impose on Supreme Court justices the same $50 cap on gifts that members of Congress are subject to.
Raskin: Under what circumstances would a Supreme Court justice be accepting millions of dollars in foreign travel or paid tuition or a recreational vehicle? We want a $50 gift ban for justices. They make $300k a year. Pay for your own lunch and vacation.
Tensions in Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case are coming to a head, with his creditors hoping for the drastic remedy of having a third party take control of the former New York City mayor’s finances.
Since Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection, spurred by a $148 million defamation verdict, his creditors have accused him of hiding assets and a coffee deal, spending egregiously, and failing to timely file required paperwork.
They have now had enough. On Monday, lawyers representing Giuliani’s creditors will return to bankruptcy court in New York, hoping to convince a judge that the time has come for a trustee to step in.
[…] In December, Giuliani hastily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a jury ordered him to pay two Georgia election workers $148 million for defaming them by spreading a baseless conspiracy on behalf of former President Trump in 2020 that they were involved in mass election fraud. He has vowed to appeal.
Bankruptcy automatically froze the poll workers’ efforts to collect the massive sum. And by filing for Chapter 11 — as opposed to Chapter 7, a more common type of individual bankruptcy that would lead to liquidation — Giuliani has remained in control of his assets, for now.
“Mr. Giuliani went into Chapter 11 because he wanted to retain control. This is the key to Mr. Giuliani’s bankruptcy,” said Daniel Gielchinsky, a partner at DGIM Law who specializes in bankruptcy law.
That soon could change as the creditors hope to take the reins. For months, they have expressed concerns about Giuliani’s genuineness in filing for bankruptcy, casting it as a delay tactic. The election workers believe federal law prevents Giuliani from discharging their nine-figure award in bankruptcy.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane, who oversees the case, expressed frustration at a hearing last month.
“I am disturbed about the status of this case. The question is, as it always is in bankruptcy court, where do we go from here?” Lane said.
In a scorching 55-page motion filed days later, Giuliani’s creditors told Lane that he should take the rare step of appointing an independent trustee, arguing Giuliani has shown a preference for “theatrics over progress.”
WASHINGTON – A North Texas federal judge Tuesday threw out Biden administration guidance saying gender identity and sexual orientation are covered by Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office sued to block the guidance, hailed the ruling.
“Joe Biden’s unlawful effort to weaponize Title IX for his extremist agenda has been stopped in its tracks,” Paxton said in a news release.
Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination at universities and K-12 schools that receive federal money. The U.S. Department of Education issued guidance documents in June 2021 indicating it would interpret Title IX to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
That interpretation was grounded in a U.S. Supreme Court decision the previous year that found a different ban on sex discrimination included those protections….
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth issued Tuesday’s ruling, saying neither Title IX or its implementing regulations provide a basis for the department to define discrimination as it did.
“Nothing in the statute expressly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or other unexpressed grounds,” he ruled. “And where Title IX allows for differentiation based on sex due to biological differences — such as intimate facilities and athletic teams — recipients may treat persons in accordance with their biological sex without regard to subjective gender identity.”
O’Conner is Paxton’s go-to judge when he sues the feds. In 2015, he struck down an Obama administration effort to extend family leave benefits to gay couples. In 2016, it was an Obama administration guideline allowing transgender children to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity. In 2018 it was the entirety of Obamacare that O’Connor struck down as unconstitutional after a Texas-led coalition of 20 states sued to kill it. Since 2015, almost half of challenges to the federal government that Texas filed in district courts landed in O’Connor’s courtroom… He is one of several dozen federal judges of his rank in the state.
O’Conner was on a short list for promotion to Appeals Court when Trump was president, and will probably be top of the list if he is elected in November.
Hey look, it’s the morning after yet another election night in America where Democrats wildly overperformed expectations, leading pollsters and pundits alike to say “WHUT? […]
There was a special election in Ohio’s Sixth Congressional District last evening to replace former Rep. Bill Johnson, who resigned to be a college president. It’s a largely rural district on the east side of the state, and it contains East Palestine, Ohio, the site of the famous train derailment […]
The district is also, if you’ve ever driven through it, full of horses and buggies. (Because it’s Amish country, not because Secretary Mayor Pete stole all the trains.)
Point being, this is a very white Republican district. It hasn’t been represented by a Democrat since 2011. Cook Political Report rates it as R+16. When Johnson won re-election in 2022, he won by 35 points. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 there by 32 points. Trump beat Biden in 2020 by 28.7 points.
The Republican Michael Rulli won last night. By a whole-ass whopping nine points. Congratulations, Speaker Mike Johnson. Your eeny weeny House Majority just got bigger by one.
It gets better, though.
Rulli has quite a bit of name recognition in the district, as his family has a long-established chain of Italian grocery stores in the area. He raised over $700,000.
Rulli’s Democratic opponent Michael Kripchik is a newcomer, a political unknown, literally a waiter. He raised, um, 20 grand or so.
Or as this numbers guru put it: [screen grab of chart is available at the link]
Yeah, if we were Republicans we’d be shitting our pants right about now, again.
As Daily Kos Elections reports, this is the best performance by a Democrat in a special election, when compared to recent past presidential election results. But that’s the best performance out of a long string of really good performances by Democrats in special elections. Overall, they say Dems are outperforming Joe Biden’s 2020 numbers in special elections by an average of 3.8 points.
Chris Hayes has been harping on this. We’ve posted this clip from last year, where he went through the track record at that point. [video at the link]
That track record clearly hasn’t changed.
Maybe some will cling to the notion that OK sure, fine, maybe Dems are doing better than expected in these special elections, but that has nothing to do with Joe Biden, who is old.
Of course, if you look at this another way, perhaps it’s that MAGA Republicans are underperforming, perhaps because they’re lunatics who are obsessed with policing children’s genitals and banning books, and average Americans fucking hate them.
We’ll have to see what happens, but as Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles is fond of saying — and said this week about the presidential race, in fact — I’d much rather be us right now than them.
Prices rose 3.3 percent in the year ending in May, offering a modest sign of cooling even though inflation still hasn’t returned to normal.
Fresh data released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday showed slight improvement from April, when prices rose at an annual rate of 3.4 percent. Prices were flat month over month for the first time in two years. A narrower measure of inflation that strips out volatile categories like food and energy also came in slower than it has for months. The overall report beat analysts’ expectations and suggested that the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight may be back on track after a bumpy start of the year. Major stock indexes flashed green at Wednesday’s open.
The Fed has been putting the economy under pressure through higher interest rates since March 2022, trying to control prices that grew at the fastest pace in four decades. And the latest snapshot will probably be welcomed by central bankers as they wrap up their two-day policy meeting later Wednesday. By the afternoon, they’re all but guaranteed to leave interest rates unchanged, holding them between 5.25 and 5.5 percent — where they’ve sat since July, at the highest level since 2001. [graph at the link]
That lack of action is widely expected. What Wall Street, Washington and business and households around the country will watch eagerly is where Fed policymakers think the economy is headed. Officials are set to release a fresh set of economic projections at 2 p.m. Eastern, laying out their expectations for inflation, the unemployment rate, overall growth and interest rates. [graph at the link]
When the year started, the central bank was looking at three rate cuts in 2024. But because inflation came in hotter than expected from January to March, analysts now bet officials will pencil in only one or two cuts this year. And while the Fed doesn’t react to individual reports, it has been itching for this kind of encouraging data to feel confident that inflation won’t reignite if officials start to cut.
[…] Housing costs continue to be a main driver of overall inflation, as has been the case for more than a year. A key rent gauge carried on a streak of rising 0.4 percent over the previous month. Overall shelter costs were up 5.4 percent over the previous year. Many real-time measures of rent costs show rents easing considerably, or even falling. But those shifts have taken way longer than expected to show up in official data, frustrating Fed officials and economists who fear the rental figures are keeping overall inflation artificially high.
Medical care costs also rose slightly more in May than in April. Costs for prescription drugs rose 2.1 percent, and hospital services increased 0.5 percent.
Yet energy costs index fell 2 percent over the month, led by a 3.6 percent drop in the gas index. Airfare also fell 3.6 percent, following a 0.8-percent decrease in April.
More clarity on how the Fed read the report will come at 2:30 p.m., when Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell appears at a news conference. […]
Donald Trump used to slam cryptocurrencies, calling them a “disaster waiting to happen.” He’s since reversed course, and it’s worth asking why.
Donald Trump’s position on cryptocurrencies seemed relatively clear. For years, the Republican called them a “disaster waiting to happen,” adding that has far as he was concerned, Bitcoin seemed “like a scam.” When it came to crypto, the former president said he was “not a fan,” adding, “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
Then he changed his mind.
Ahead of an appearance at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, the presumptive GOP nominee declared online that he’s now “VERY POSITIVE AND OPEN MINDED” on the issue. My MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones noted a couple of weeks ago that Trump vowed to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving multiple life sentences for running “Silk Road,” a website that operated as a black market for drugs and other illicit items. Ulbricht is also a major promoter of cryptocurrencies.
A week earlier, the former president’s 2024 campaign announced that it would accept donations in cryptocurrency.
It was against this backdrop that Trump published this item to his social media platform around midnight.
“VOTE FOR TRUMP! Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC [central bank digital currency]. Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!”
So much for the “disaster waiting to happen.”
It’s difficult to speculate as to what, exactly, led Trump to change him mind, though it seems unlikely that the former president did his homework and brushed up on the policy details.
The more likely explanation is that some like-minded allies guided him to a position they preferred. The Hill, for example, noted that Trump’s overnight online item “came a day after he met with leaders of several Bitcoin mining companies at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday.”
What do you suppose the chances are that Bitcoin mining company representatives stopped by Trump’s glorified country club, told him what to think, at which point the former president started tweeting about “our last line of defense against a CBDC”?
Mount Everest is known for many things: It’s the world’s highest mountain, an often-deadly climb, the experience of a lifetime, and… the world’s highest garbage dump. The waste situation at the mountain has reached a critical point as more and more high-priced climbing groups flock there, exhibiting, in many cases, little regard for their impact on the delicate and extreme environment. For over a decade, the Nepalese government has coordinated high-risk expeditions to help clean up waste on Mount Everest, but there seems to be a never-ending quantity of discarded cans, bottles, oxygen tanks, tents, ropes, human waste, and even dead bodies. A 2019 cleanup attempt removed 24,000 pounds of trash from the base camps.
This has led to a new mandate set by the local government, the Pasanglhamu rural municipality. Climbers will have to purchase “poo-bags” to carry their own waste, and those bags will be checked upon their return. Although this only addresses part of the problem on the mountain, it focuses on the more hazardous types of waste found around base camps. [Photo of mounds of discarded climbing equipment.]
Decades of commercial mountaineering have turned Mount Everest into the world’s highest rubbish dump as an increasing number of big-spending climbers pay little attention to the ugly footprint they leave behind.
[Photo of sherpa] This picture taken on May 23, 2010 shows a Nepalese sherpa collecting garbage, left by climbers, at an altitude of roughly 26,000 feet during an Everest clean-up expedition. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers, including some top summiteers, collected about 4,000 pounds of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world’s highest peak. Led by seven-time summiteer Namgyal Sherpa, the team braved thin air and below-freezing temperatures to clear the rubbish left behind by mountaineers, including corpses. Since 1953, there have been some 300 deaths on Everest. Many bodies have been brought down, but those above 26,000 feet have generally been left to the elements — their bodies preserved by the freezing temperatures. […]
More photos and more details available at the link.
Inflation slowed in May more than anyone was predicting. The markets soared in response to this latest round of good news, which comes just days after a “blowout” employment report showed broad-based gains in all areas of the job market.
In January, Donald Trump told conservative radio host Lou Dobbs that he was pulling for the economy to crash in 2024. Trump described the economy as “fragile,” said that the nation was about to “hit a wall,” and worried that he’d be left looking like Herbert Hoover if the stock market didn’t crash before the election.
That wasn’t the first time Trump predicted an economic crash. In the 2020 election, Trump centered the potential of a stock market crash if Joe Biden was elected in his campaign speech. He also predicted that Biden would bring on an economic depression, and he’s been making more predictions of doom ever since.
Seriously, for a guy who is supposed to be a wealthy businessman, Trump seems to have no clue how the economy works.
The latest numbers show that inflation plateaued in May, beating estimates and lowering the rate over the last 12 months to 3.3%. That’s still higher than the 2% rate that the Federal Reserve would like to see, so interest rates are likely to remain steady when the Fed meets on Wednesday. Still, May’s 0% increase is a strong indicator that consumers can breathe a sigh of relief.
While this won’t bring down prices at the grocery store, the inflation improvement isn’t completely invisible to consumers this time around. Gas prices are dropping across the nation as the summer travel season begins, with the national average standing at $3.44 and prices below $3 in many areas.
Several factors are contributing to this drop. An increase in electric vehicles, hybrids, and other fuel-efficient transportation is cutting demand for gas while production in the U.S. is at a record high.
There’s another reason that oil prices are dropping around the world: Saudi leader and bone saw enthusiast Mohammed bin Salman has been cutting production in an effort to buoy up global oil prices. But the efforts that he and Vladimir Putin have undertaken to shape the market using OPEC just aren’t squeezing the industry the way they used to. This is also cutting into Putin’s ability to pay for his illegal war in Ukraine.
That’s all because of Biden.
OPEC’s current weakness is directly connected to policies from Biden, who “broke OPEC” through savvy use of America’s oil reserves. Fed up with how the oil cartel continues to manipulate the market and sabotage the U.S. economy, Biden drove down prices, forced OPEC to rethink its policies, and even turned a profit in the process.
This is a triumph of both economic policy and statesmanship that is simply not getting the attention it deserves. [video at the link]
Americans are heading into summer with cheaper gas and more security in an economy that is roaring with low unemployment, rising wages, falling inflation, abundant energy, and massive stock market gains that have created a record number of 401K fund millionaires.
That’s a story no one should be afraid to tell. Trump has been consistently wrong about the economy, and Biden has been consistently right. And for media outlets that insist that the economy is bad with no basis: You know where to stick your “vibes.”
Pete Buttigieg, the secretary of Transportation, who is gay and married to a man, says Pride flags are better than Martha-Ann Alito’s treason flags. He is correct. […]
“I’m often reminded that the most important thing in my life — which is my marriage, and my family and the two beautiful children that my husband Chasten and I are raising — that that marriage only exists by the grace of a single vote on the United States Supreme Court.
Obviously not a vote from the thing Martha-Ann Alito married. He is still very upset about that vote and feels personally persecuted by it.
“ … that expanded our rights and freedoms back in 2015 and made it possible for somebody like me to get married.
“And, you know, Supreme Court justices have an unbelievable amount of power and — by the nature in the structure, the Supreme Court — there’s no supervision over that power. They are entrusted with it literally for as long as they live. And part of that trust is we expect them to enter into those enormously consequential decisions that shape our everyday lives with a sense of fairness.
AKA not like a common whining Alito.
But really, about those flags:
“I also hope that most Americans can understand the difference between a flag that symbolizes, you know, love and acceptance and signals to people who have sometimes feared for their safety that they’re going to be okay — and insurrectionist symbology, I’ll just leave it at that.”
Happy Pride, treason flag lady […]
[…] the wingnut clown site Townhall tweeted this and was very upset about it, bellyaching that Buttigieg had “insinuate[d]” that Sam and Martha-Ann Alito support “insurrectionist symbology.”
Which is pretty funny because what we heard was him saying it outright.
We’d look around the internet for more wingnuts upset about what Pete said, but then we remembered fuck it because who cares.
[…] After a bumpy start to the year, the report brought a welcome dose of encouragement, beating analysts’ expectations and lifting financial markets. And even though Fed officials still don’t know exactly when they’ll cut interest rates for the first time in years, they seem to be getting closer.
[…] Eight officials penciled in two cuts, and four expect no cuts at all. In a sharp pivot from just a few months ago, no one expected three cuts. […]
The nine-member court upheld the decision made by a district court judge in Tulsa last year, ruling that the plaintiff’s grievances about the destruction of the Greenwood district, although legitimate, did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit of the last two survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, dampening the hope of advocates for racial justice that the government would make amends for one of the worst single acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. […]
“Plaintiffs do not point to any physical injury to property in Greenwood rendering it uninhabitable that could be resolved by way of injunction or other civil remedy,” the court wrote in its decision. “Today we hold that relief is not possible under any set of facts that could be established consistent with plaintiff’s allegations.”
[…] The city said in a statement that it “respects the court’s decision and affirms the significance of the work the City continues to do in the North Tulsa and Greenwood communities,” adding that it remains committed “to working with residents and providing resources to support” the communities.
The suit was an attempt to force the city of Tulsa and others to make recompense for the destruction of the once-thriving Black district by a white mob. In 1921 — on May 31 and June 1 — the white mob, including some people hastily deputized by authorities, looted and burned the district, which was referred to as Black Wall Street.
As many as 300 Black Tulsans were killed, and thousands of survivors were forced for a time into internment camps overseen by the National Guard. Burned bricks and a fragment of a church basement are about all that survive today of the more than 30-block historically Black district.
The two survivors of the attack, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, who are both now over 100 years old, sued in 2020 with the hope of seeing what their attorney called “justice in their lifetime.” A third plaintiff, Hughes Van Ellis, died last year at age 102.
The lawsuit was brought under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law, arguing that the actions of the white mob continue to affect the city today. It contended that Tulsa’s long history of racial division and tension stemmed from the massacre.
The city and insurance companies never compensated victims for their losses, and the massacre ultimately resulted in racial and economic disparities that still exist today, the lawsuit argued. It sought a detailed accounting of the property and wealth lost or stolen in the massacre, the construction of a hospital in north Tulsa and the creation of a victims compensation fund, among other things.
In 2019, Oklahoma’s attorney general used the public nuisance law to force opioid drug maker Johnson & Johnson to pay the state $465 million in damages. The Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned that decision two years later.
John Moralessays
Something a bit less momentous, but exceedingly USAnian:
Michael Phelps glides through water. Simone Biles flips through air. Usain Bolt dashes faster than any human—and most animals.
But Joey Chestnut does something arguably more impressive, more impossible, more athletic. Every July Fourth, on the day that America declared independence from the British crown, Joey Chestnut eats hot dogs. Like, a lot of them.
At his peak in 2021, Chestnut shoved 76 dogs and buns down his throat, meat-soaked water splattering out of his mouth, in just 10 minutes. It’s perhaps the greatest individual performance by an American athlete—ever. It’s Muhammad Ali besting George Foreman in the jungle, Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100, Jesse Owens in Berlin.
By our back-of-the-mustard-soaked-napkin math, Chestnut consumed about 20,000 calories in the time it takes most mortals to find what they’re going to watch on Netflix.
But on June 11, tragedy struck the world of sports. Major League Eating, or MLE, one of our most revered sporting institutions, announced that Chestnut will not be allowed to participate in its flagship event, the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest. He won’t be able to go for a ninth consecutive Mustard Belt and warm the hearts of millions watching.
Why? Chestnut struck a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, the plant-based faux-meat company, which Nathan’s considers a rival. “I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years Im banned from the Nathan’s July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest,” Chestnut wrote on X. “I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title.”
Meanwhile, MLE said it’s “devastated” to learn Chestnut would represent a “rival brand” rather than compete in the competition. “MLE and Nathan’s went to great lengths to accommodate Joey and his management team, agreeing to the appearance fee and allowing Joey to compete in a rival, unbranded hot dog eating contest on Labor Day.” Chestnut claims that MLE changed the rules, while the league says it’s had the same “hot dog exclusivity provisions” for decades.
President Joe Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign a bilateral security agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine on Thursday when they meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy, aiming to send a signal to Russia of American resolve in supporting Kyiv, the White House said as Biden was headed to Europe.
New York Times:
President Biden has approved the deployment of another Patriot missile system to Ukraine, senior administration and military officials said, as the country struggles to fend off Russian attacks on its cities, infrastructure and electrical grid.
Commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore is expected to return to normal levels next month, officials said Wednesday, after the channel fully reopened this week for the first time since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
Local television news broadcasters are airing suspiciously similar attacks on Joe Biden’s mental acuity and how it will affect the coming election—and it appears to be part of a coordinated effort.
The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or operates 185 local television stations across the country, and dozens of their stations aired a segment from national correspondent Matthew Galka citing a Wall Street Journal article that makes dubious attacks on Biden’s age and mental awareness. The stations that aired the segment introduced it using startlingly similar, if not identical language, the Popular Information and Public Notice newsletters reported.
It’s not the first time Sinclair, owned by right-wing businessman David D. Smith, has appeared to be running a conservative propaganda campaign. Infamously in 2018, dozens of the company’s TV stations were caught airing an identical editorial about the dangers of biased and false news. This time around, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, as well as Murdoch’s cable news stations Fox News and Fox Business, have gotten in on the act.
[…] It’s quite obvious that Smith, Murdoch, and other conservative millionaires and billionaires are taking over as many media outlets as possible to push right-wing political propaganda, with the Biden age article and subsequent TV segments as examples of the end product they want. They’re finding vast opportunities in America’s declining news deserts, as well as the skeletal newspapers gutted by hedge funds and profit-seeking corporations. It doesn’t just bode well for the next election, but also portends a scary future for American democracy for decades to come. […]
The House voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case, Republicans’ latest and strongest rebuke of the Justice Department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign.
The 216-207 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans coalescing behind the contempt effort despite reservations among some of the party’s more centrist members.
“We have to defend the Constitution. We have to defend the authority of Congress,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference ahead of the vote. “We can’t allow the Department of Justice and Executive Branch to hide information from Congress.” [Total bullshit. Congress has the information. They have a complete transcript of the audio tapes they are demanding.]
Garland is now the third attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress. Yet it is unlikely that the Justice Department — which Garland oversees — will prosecute him. The White House’s decision to exert executive privilege over the audio recording, shielding it from Congress, would make it exceedingly difficult to make a criminal case against Garland.
The White House and congressional Democrats have slammed Republicans’ motives for pursuing contempt and dismissed their efforts to obtain the audio as purely political. They also pointed out that Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, defied his own congressional subpoena last session.
“This contempt resolution will do very little, other than smear the reputation of Merrick Garland, who will remain a good and decent public servant no matter what Republicans say about him today,” New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on Judiciary Committee, said during floor debate.
Garland has defended the Justice Department, saying officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation, including a transcript of Biden’s interview with him. [Correct!!]
“There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department,” Garland said in a press conference last month. “This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just most recent.” […]
The South Australian government plans to introduce what it describes as “world-leading” laws to ban political parties from receiving electoral donations at a state level but concedes the proposed reforms could be subject to a High Court challenge. The draft legislation proposes to ban registered South Australian political parties, members of parliament and political candidates from giving or receiving electoral donations and gifts. Loans to MPs, candidates and parties would also be banned, unless they came from a bank or other financial institution. The proposed laws would allow new political candidates and parties to receive donations of up to $2,700 to ensure they are not disadvantaged when contesting against established parties.
Two years ago, few would have thought Peter Dutton would go to the next election without a 2030 climate target.
Back then, the Coalition was still nursing the bruises of an 18-seat election wipe-out. Six Liberal “heartland” seats were lost to “teal” independents. Two more went to the Greens. Liberals knew climate change was a big driver of the voter exodus in these seats. This was obvious. Dutton initially suggested he would do something about it. …(snip)..
But on Tuesday, midway through a press conference, Dutton announced there would be no interim targets before the next election. The Coalition remains committed to net zero by 2050 and the Paris Agreement, he said, but when it comes to a 2030 target, “we’ll make those decisions when we’re in government”. “We can’t do that from opposition,” Dutton has now decided. The opposition leader’s colleagues still aren’t sure whether this was a deliberate captain’s call or a press conference slip-up. It certainly hadn’t gone to shadow cabinet. And some point out it’s only made the Coalition the issue, rather than keeping the focus on Labor’s struggle to reach 43 per cent.
The (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM – ed) telescope’s main instrument, a soft X-ray spectrometer known as Resolve, is working as expected. The slightly worse news: An aperture door covering Resolve has not opened. Multiple attempts to open the door — or “gate valve” — have failed. Despite reports suggesting JAXA and NASA have decided to “operate the spacecraft as is for at least 18 months,” Yamaguchi told me that “has not been officially decided.” ..(snip)..
With the door closed, an intriguing “What If?” situation for mission specialists and X-ray astronomers presents itself. On one hand, the spacecraft is working superbly and showing it’s capable of delivering a heap of new, exciting data. Trying to open the door risks damaging the spacecraft. On the other hand, opening the door could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe.
Be nice to have astronauts go up and service that wouldn’t it?
John Moralessays
StevoR, please spare me 10 minutes of video; got a quotation from the video you adduced and which you have presumably perused?
See, I have instincts.
And every instinct is screaming ‘bullshit’.
(You too? Just shit that you take as a given purely based on a headline?)
John Moralessays
You do get that 10 minutes of video is around 75Mb at 480p, right?
And who the fuck watches YouTube at 480p?
(Global warming!)
birgerjohanssonsays
Pope Francis To Meet Stephen Colbert | Is Biden’s Youth Outreach Working? / far-right anti-science Americans rejecting pasteurization
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBRPDMdt4Wo
Now, sometimes LegalEagle (the channel, now properly monetised) is good.
But, rather obviously, if (say) my car is stolen, I have no car.
If my dog is stolen, I have no dog.
Etc.
So, presumably, if whatshername’s voice is stolen, she has no voice. Right?
(Bah)
John Moralessays
BTW: “Pope Francis To Meet Stephen Colbert” surely has the meeter and the metee reversed.
Who’s travelling where to meet whom?
Also, does the Pope shit in the woods?
(So many questions!)
birgerjohanssonsays
Where Popes defecate depends on the population density. If there is a big schism (three or more popes) they defecate everywhere to mark their domains.
Also, when I upload myself you do not need to travel anywhere. I will be everywhere just like the AI at the end of Neuromancer.
(You can also go in the other direction, like the AI in Idoru. 3D printing of organic matter is cool)
For Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) the Jan. 6 melee was a blip in American history and the ones facing the worst of it are mostly innocent elderly folks who were randomly in Washington D.C. The lawmaker appeared on Fox Business fuming over federal authorities prowling for January 6 rioters — claiming “grandmas and grandmas” are enduring SWAT treatment.
“We’ve had this massive dragnet, this massive manhunt for grandmas and grandpas that show up on January 6, never enter the Capitol, just happened to be in Washington, D.C. — they are taking agents, SWAT raids to arrest people that are no threat to them whatsoever,” the GOP senator claimed with a straight face. [video at the link]
Johnson went on to insist that the FBI — by most measures, the most politically conservative institution in the federal government, run by Donald Trump’s handpicked director — “has become completely partisan” against Republicans.
[…] law enforcement hasn’t sent SWAT teams after innocent people who “just happened to be” in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021. […] how bizarre it is to see prominent GOP officials whine incessantly about the FBI.
[…] The Wisconsin Republican has falsely told the public that Jan. 6 rioters were unarmed. He’s peddled the ridiculous idea that the pro-Trump forces that launched the attack on the Capitol were secretly made up of “fake Trump protesters.” He’s praised the rioters’ patriotism.
As Charles Sykes wrote for MSNBC last week, Johnson is also up to his ears in the fake electors plot, and as NOTUS reported today, the far-right senator has also rushed to defend attorney Jim Troupis, one of the alleged ringleaders of the legally dubious fake electors scheme in his home state — even after Troupis was indicted. [!!] […]
As Donald Trump prepares for his first Capitol Hill visit since before the Jan. 6 attack, Speaker Mike Johnson set the stage with unbelievable claims.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump desperately wanted to go to Capitol Hill as part of the then-president’s efforts to overturn his election defeat and claim illegitimate power. We now know, of course, that this did not happen, and the Republican was unable to lead a mob into the halls of Congress for a confrontation.
Trump had to settle for a different approach: He fueled a group of violent rioters with anti-election lies and deployed them to attack his own country’s Capitol.
Today, the presumptive GOP nominee will return to the scene of the crime. If all goes according to plan, Trump will make his first visit to Congress since before the insurrectionist violence of Jan. 6, meeting behind closed doors with Republican lawmakers to discuss campaign messaging and legislative strategy.
The intraparty gathering will take place roughly three blocks from the courthouse where Trump was arraigned last summer on alleged felonies related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will also be protected today in part by police officers who faced violent pro-Trump rioters during the 2021 assault that he instigated.
Ahead of the Republicans’ private chat with their presumptive nominee, House Speaker Mike Johnson oversaw a partisan stunt that likely made Trump happy — the House GOP majority voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for defying a misguided subpoena — which followed a Capitol Hill press conference in which the party’s top lawmaker read from a decidedly Trumpian script. [video at the link]
A reporter noted that several House Republicans, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, ignored subpoenas from the Jan. 6 committee, raising the question of why GOP members would try to punish Garland for doing the same thing. The House speaker replied:
“Oh, I’m so glad you brought up the Jan. 6 committee. We’ll be talking a lot more about that in the coming weeks. There’s been a lot of investigation about that committee. I don’t think it was properly constituted. I don’t think it was properly administered and now that apparently some of the evidence was hidden and some maybe even destroyed, so you will hear much more about that in the days ahead.”
As part of the same Q&A, the Louisiana Republican was also asked whether he believes Trump respects the peaceful transfer of presidential power. “Of course he respects that, we all do,” Johnson responded. [permanently raised eyebrows]
So, a few things.
First, the idea that the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee “hid” and “destroyed” evidence is popular at Mar-a-Lago, but there’s no evidence to bolster such a claim.
Second, the idea that the House select panel wasn’t “properly constituted,” rendering its subpoenas meaningless, is belied by multiple federal court rulings.
Third, if Johnson genuinely believes that Trump “respects” the peaceful transfer of presidential power, I’d encourage the speaker to read both the Jan. 6 committee’s report and the Trump indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
And finally, the idea that “all” Republicans respect the process of outgoing presidents transferring power to their successors is also contradicted by Johnson’s own record. He did, after all, help spearhead an ill-fated effort to convince the Supreme Court to keep Trump in power despite the voters’ verdict, before voting with his party to reject certifying the results of a free and fair election.
Johnson also echoed some of the wilder conspiracy theories about the race, and more than three years later, the Louisiana Republican is still reluctant to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 elections.
But while the House speaker’s rhetoric yesterday was literally unbelievable, it also likely impressed Trump, which for the GOP in 2024, appears more important than honoring reality.
As Republicans downplay threats to in vitro fertilization, a growing number of powerful conservatives are pursuing new IVF restrictions.
As Senate Democrats prepare to force a vote on protecting in vitro fertilization, one of the more common complaints from Republicans is that there’s no real need to legislate on the matter. It was just a few months ago when GOP leaders, including Donald Trump, expressed public support for IVF, so as far as Republicans are concerned, both sides are already on the same page.
If IVF is broadly popular and not in danger, the argument goes, then Democrats are engaging in a stunt for no reason.
If only it were that simple.
While it’s true that IVF enjoys broad public support — one recent poll found that a whopping 86% of Americans want the treatments to be legal — many on the right are pushing aggressively in the opposite direction. NBC News reported late yesterday:
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, came out against in vitro fertilization at its annual meeting Wednesday. Delegates in Indianapolis voted for the resolution opposing IVF, which also urged the denomination’s members “to advocate for the government to restrain actions inconsistent with the dignity and value of every human being, which necessarily includes frozen embryonic human beings.”
A New York Times analysis added that the SBC vote was a timely reminder that “ordinary evangelicals are increasingly open to seeing embryos as people.”
Members of the nation’s most politically powerful Protestant denomination aren’t alone. It was, after all, just four months ago when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are actual people, leading several local medical facilities to suspended their in vitro fertilization treatments.
Soon after, a great many prominent opponents of reproductive rights pressured GOP officials not to support any new IVF protections at the federal level.
In April, Politico reported that anti-abortion advocates were “laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.”
Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.
The article added that these activists on the right “want to re-run” the strategy that successfully overturned Roe v. Wade.
In other words, Republicans arguing that new IVF protections aren’t necessary are either peddling false claims or are woefully uninformed.
The Democratic majority in the Senate is scheduled to bring the Right to IVF Act to the floor this afternoon. If approved — a big “if,” to be sure — it would prohibiting states from imposing restrictions on the treatments, while also making IVF more affordable. Watch this space.
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the anti-abortion doctor plaintiffs in a major mifepristone case lack standing to reimpose restrictions on the drug.
The case presented a major risk to the drug’s accessibility, as adding back restrictions that the Food and Drug Administration had previously lifted would apply nationwide, even in blue states with robust abortion rights.
The plaintiffs in the case — represented at oral argument by lawyer Erin Hawley, wife of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) — contorted themselves to try to find some injury that the lifting of various restrictions on mifepristone caused them. They crafted hypotheticals about floods of suffering women being sent to their emergency rooms when they happened to be the only doctor on call; they complained that they had to spend money to drum up opposition to the FDA’s actions. But none of that, Kavanaugh wrote, passed muster.
“Federal courts do not operate as an open forum for citizens ‘to press general complaints about the way in which government goes about its business,’” he said.
Cutting through the plaintiffs’ many speculative theories of how they might, maybe, one day be harmed by the drug, Kavanaugh put it plainly: “Under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.”
That idea — that the anti-abortion doctors’ desire for other doctors not to prescribe mifepristone and for patients not to take it simply does not give them grounds to sue — is both an obvious and basic facet of our legal system, and one that seemed to elude both U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk and the 5th Circuit, both of whom granted the plaintiffs standing in their haste to restrict the abortion drug.
The Court also clearly couldn’t swallow the slippery slope of what granting standing on such tenuous grounds could mean. The floodgates would be opened to an unmanageable wave of litigation: Every doctor would suddenly get the right to sue the FDA for approving virtually any drug with side effects; […]
[Potentially bad, bad news:] As ever, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in concurrence to nudge the decision further to the right: agreeing with the other justices that the anti-abortion doctors don’t have standing in this case, but also trying to seal off an avenue for abortion rights cases in the future (using language lifted from the anti-abortion movement to do so).
“Just as abortionists lack standing to assert the rights of their clients, doctors who oppose abortion cannot vicariously assert the rights of their patients,” he wrote.
Associational standing, the concept Thomas seeks to end, is often used by civil rights groups on behalf of individuals.
[…] it’s a major win for abortion rights nevertheless, showing that there are some limits to the shoddiness of the cases the conservatives will accept to further their ideological and policy aims.
[…] The decision is the latest slap on the wrist for the appellate court and Kacsmaryk, both of whom the Supreme Court has overturned with some frequency.
It looks to me like the conservsatives on the Supreme Court are begging the anti-abortion activists to bring them a better case so that they can rule against distribution of mifepristone.
[…] But while the Alliance decision is a victory against anti-abortion advocates’ attempt to ban mifepristone, it is only a temporary one. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion leaves open two ways that Republicans who oppose abortion could still ban this drug. And it also makes it likely that the Supreme Court will have to hear this case again, despite their initial ruling that the federal judiciary should not have heard this case to begin with.
[…] The plaintiffs were allowed to choose their own judge because Kacsmaryk’s Texas-based court assigns all lawsuits filed in Amarillo, Texas, to him. So all that these plaintiffs had to do to get Kacsmaryk to hear their case was file their suit in his home city.
Kacsmaryk’s opinion was, well, exactly what you would expect from a judge who is determined to fight abortion no matter what the law says. His 2023 decision struck down the FDA’s decision to approve the drug mifepristone in 2000, despite a six-year statute of limitations on such claims. He relied on discredited studies that have since been retracted by their publisher. And he relied on testimony from a “doctor” who isn’t actually a physician at all.
Then his decision was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a court dominated by MAGA Republicans, which narrowed Kacsmaryk’s decision but still effectively banned the drug. It was this decision by the Fifth Circuit that a unanimous Supreme Court reversed on Thursday.
[…] Kavanaugh’s Alliance opinion rests on a legal doctrine known as “standing.” In order to bring a federal lawsuit of any kind, the plaintiff in that suit must show that they were injured in some way by the defendant. As Kavanaugh writes, “for a plaintiff to get in the federal courthouse door and obtain a judicial determination of what the governing law is, the plaintiff cannot be a mere bystander, but instead must have a ‘personal stake’ in the dispute.”
But these plaintiffs were nothing but bystanders. They “do not prescribe or use mifepristone,” and the “FDA is not requiring them to do or refrain from doing anything.” Their sole reason for filing this lawsuit appears to be that they do not like abortions and would like the courts to prevent other people from using a drug that these plaintiffs find objectionable.
[…] To get around this requirement, the plaintiffs’ lawyers devised what Kavanaugh dismisses as “several complicated causation theories to connect FDA’s actions to the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries.” But these complicated theories do not actually show that the plaintiff doctors were injured.
One of their arguments, for example, is that if mifepristone remains readily available, a patient might take mifepristone, might then experience a complication that requires a doctor to complete the patient’s abortion, and that one of the plaintiff doctors might then have to perform this procedure even though it violates the doctor’s conscience.
But, as Kavanaugh notes, “federal conscience laws definitively protect doctors from being required to perform abortions or to provide other treatment that violates their consciences.” So this unlikely chain of events can only occur if a plaintiff doctor fails to assert their legal rights.
So the good news for abortion rights is that mifepristone remains legal for now. The bad news is that Kavanaugh’s opinion lays out two ways that anti-abortion advocates could still try to ban it.
One path flows from a brief line near the end of the Alliance opinion: “[I]t is not clear that no one else would have standing to challenge FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone.” Last January, Kacsmaryk ruled that three red states — Idaho, Missouri, and Kansas — could join this lawsuit and press the claim that mifepristone should be banned.
It is far from clear how these states are injured by the mere fact that mifepristone is legal. But Kacsmaryk’s (and the Fifth Circuit’s) behavior in this case and others shows that he’s willing to bend the law into pretzels in order to rule against abortion rights. It is likely, in other words, that Kacsmaryk will simply make up some reason why the red states have standing to sue and then issue a new order attempting to ban mifepristone.
So this very same case could return to the Supreme Court in a year or two, forcing the justices to, at the very least, determine if these red states have standing.
More ominously, Kavanaugh’s opinion also points to another way that abortion opponents could try to pull mifepristone from the market: “The plaintiffs may present their concerns and objections to the President and FDA in the regulatory process.”
So long as Joe Biden, or any other Democrat, controls the presidency, the administration is unlikely to bow to these concerns. But if Trump (or any other Republican) should occupy the White House in the future, a Republican-controlled FDA could try to rescind the 2000 approval of mifepristone.
So Alliance is a victory for abortion rights and the rule of law, and it is an embarrassing defeat for Kacsmaryk and his fellow abortion opponents. But it is also unlikely to be the last word in the fight over mifepristone.
Yep. I agree with that conclusion. The fight is not over.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Lynna, OM @ # 296, quoting Talking Points Memo: Every doctor would suddenly get the right to sue the FDA for approving virtually any drug with side effects…
Worse yet, every E.R. doctor would have the right to sue anyone involved with selling guns!!1!
Last night, the impotent Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to hand over audio of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with Joe Biden. (Biden has asserted executive privilege, plus Congress has the transcripts already, and also fuck you.)
This morning, fresh off House Speaker Mike Johnson’s victory that’s going absolutely nowhere, and that all the Acela corridor is making universal jerk-off motions at, he is hosting Donald Trump at the Capitol, so Trump can beg Congress to unconvict him of his New York state felonies. Really.
That’s right, Trump is returning to the scene of his January 6 crimes, like Bin Laden hitting up Ground Zero.
Officially, Politico says the agenda is to make plans for his 2025 agenda […]
But unofficially, Politico says, Trump is obsessed and consumed by fantasies of Congress having the courage to make all his New York felony convictions disappear. Is this a thing? LOL, but Speaker Johnson — one of Trump’s primary traitor seditionist coup-plotters, remember — is down to clown.
Playbook reported this morning that it all started just after Trump’s conviction, when he called Johnson. GRRRRR he was mad, GRRRRR. He said “fuck” a lot, right to Mike Johnson, who is holy and does not know such words!
“We have to overturn this,” Trump insisted.
Johnson agreed that they have to overturn this. […]
But remember how Johnson really thought there was a way to overturn the election, based on these legal theories he didn’t actually write himself? (Remember how Liz Cheney laughed at him, because while he may be pious and think he’s chosen by God, he’s kind of a fucking dipshit? Also called him extremely “susceptible to flattery” from Trump.)
The speaker didn’t really need to be convinced, one person familiar with the conversation said: Johnson, a former attorney himself, already believed the House had a role to play in addressing Trump’s predicament. The two have since spoken on the subject multiple times. [Sheesh]
[…] One Republican voted against the contempt of Congress bill, and Johnson had to work hard to get that result. Obviously they don’t have the stamina or intellectual prowess to impeach Joe Biden. Might be kind of hard to get the whole caucus together to do … ??? … to overturn Trump’s conviction in the state of New York.
Playbook says all the House Republicans’ ideas for going after Alvin Braggs and Fani Willises and Jack Smiths “appear to have a wobbly future.”
They have this one bill to ban former presidents from being charged with state crimes. Johnson apparently now thinks maybe it would be cool to try to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith, like Marjorie Taylor Greene has been demanding. But to what end? Democratic Senate gonna LOL at that too.
Plus, House Republicans aren’t even on board, necessarily:
The problem, of course, is that these proposals don’t yet have the votes to pass. One senior appropriator, Rep. MIKE SIMPSON (R-Idaho), told Playbook the idea of defunding Smith was “stupid.” [Wow. And Simpson is usually happy to go along with all kinds of trumpian fuckery.]
“I don’t think it’s a good idea unless you can show that [the prosecutors] acted in bad faith or fraud or something like that,” he said. “They’re just doing their job — even though I disagree with what they did.”
“We accuse Democrats of weaponizing the Justice system,” said another skeptical senior Republican who was granted anonymity to speak with fear of MAGA blowback. “That’s exactly what we’d be doing.”
[…] Trump will meet with members of the House and Senate separately. Mitch McConnell is going to go. Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Susan Collins’s concerns will not be attending, reckon they’re going drinking instead. (Decaffeinated virgin chocolate milk for Mittens the Mormon, obviously.)
At the end of the meeting, and for the rest of his life, he will still be a fucking felon.
A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BloombergNEF) warns that the big boom in EV battery factories worldwide may actually result in far more manufacturing capacity than there will be demand for batteries by the end of this decade. That’s a far cry from the usual rightwing spin that we can never transition away from fossil fuels because there simply aren’t enough raw materials to build all the batteries we’d need. As far as we can tell, BloombergNEF didn’t clear its research with the Heartland Institute. […]
Biden presses to keep reproductive rights in G-7 agreement.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sought to eliminate a statement in the communiqué backing abortion rights. Washington Post link
[…] Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a hard-line conservative, has been intent on changing language that was included in last year’s Group of Seven communiqué to exclude mentions of abortion or reproductive rights, according to officials familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.
But Biden, along with the leaders of France, Germany and Canada, pushed for its inclusion, and Biden threatened to not sign the document if it was not included, the officials said. The debate over the communiqué became a major sticking point, with negotiations lasting until 2 a.m. for several nights over the past week, and the reproductive rights language did not get resolved until the very end, according to one of the officials involved.
Under a tentative agreement, this year’s language will not explicitly mention the word abortion, which Meloni may count as a win. However, it will restate the G-7’s endorsement of last year’s agreement, which did use that term. It will also say that the G-7 leaders support universal health-care access for women, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health rights.
Biden’s aides said the explicit reiteration of support for last year’s communiqué […] will amount to a broad international embrace of abortion rights. […]
The Wall Street Journal reporter, 32, has spent more than a year in pretrial detention. The Biden administration considers him wrongfully detained by President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
American journalist Evan Gershkovich will stand trial in Russia on charges of spying for the CIA, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in March 2023 on what many in the West consider trumped-up charges by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repressive government.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly called on Putin to release Gershkovich, 32, who was arrested while on a reporting trip in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government have all vehemently denied the allegations.
After more than a year in pretrial detention, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday that Gershkovich’s case would be sent to the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, in the city where he was arrested, for trial at an unspecified date.
The prosecutor’s office said that Gershkovich’s indictment on espionage charges had been finalized following an investigation by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.
It said he had “acted on instructions from the CIA” and “collected secret information” about the manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, a facility in the region that produces and repairs military equipment. It added that “illegal actions were carried out by Gershkovich in compliance with careful measures of secrecy.”
Russian authorities have presented no evidence to support their accusations, which were revealed for the first time in Thursday’s statement.
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
In a joint statement, Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker said “we had hoped to avoid this moment.”
“Evan Gershkovich is facing a false and baseless charge,” it said. “Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous. Evan has spent 441 days wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for simply doing his job.”
Gershkovich’s arrest has been condemned by journalists and government officials across the West, who see it as emblematic of the war Putin has waged against freedom of speech both in Russia and abroad.
The U.S. has designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained, with Ambassador Lynne Tracy saying at a hearing in March that “the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue.”
But Putin has signaled he believes a deal could be struck to free Gershkovich.
[…] Since his arrest, another American Russian journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, has also been detained, along with several other U.S. nationals. The U.S. government has said this is a deliberate strategy by Putin to use them as geopolitical pawns.
This is meant to be a power-play by Putin, I think. It is one of several moves Putin has made lately to more-or-less distract from the fact that he is not really winning in Ukraine:
– Putin sent military ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, to Cuba for so-called military exercises.
– Putin expanded Russian efforts to sow disinformation and support for rightwing politicians throughout Europe
– Putin repeated his threats of nuclear war
– Putin arrested more U.S. nationals.
– Putin seems to be going along with Trump’s claim that only he can free Gershkovich (after Trump is reelected)
Several areas in South Florida got 10 to 12 inches of rain Wednesday, with more on the way as 7 million people remain under a flood watch.
A slow-moving storm system infused with deep tropical moisture over South Florida will bring more very heavy rain and thunderstorms Thursday — one day after flash flooding turned streets into rivers and triggered hundreds of flight delays and cancellations. Over a foot of rainfall was clocked in multiple areas.
Seven million people remained under a flood watch Thursday across South Florida for what’s forecast to be a third day of intense deluge.
“Even a small duration of heavy rainfall could lead to more flash flooding!” the National Weather Service office in Miami warned […]
The United States’ economy looks strong compared to recent history, but comparing it to countries abroad, the Biden-era economy looks even more amazing.
When it comes to assessing the strength of the U.S. economy, observers tend to rely on comparisons to recent history. For example, Americans recently saw 27 consecutive months of unemployment below 4% — a streak unseen in the United States since the 1960s. Similarly, 2023 was arguably the best year for U.S. job creation since 1999.
But there’s also an international dimension to this.
In January, The Washington Post reported that Americans were experiencing “the world’s best recovery,” which was “outperforming all of its major trading partners.” Around the same time, an Axios report similarly noted, “The United States economy grew faster than any other large advanced economy last year — by a wide margin — and is on track to do so again in 2024.” The article added that Americans were winning the post-pandemic global economic “war.”
As 2024 approaches the halfway point, the assessments haven’t changed at all. The World Bank this week not only noted that the Biden-era economy is the world’s strongest, it also concluded that the global economy is in better shape in large part because of the United States’ recovery.
“Globally, overall things are better today than they were just four or five months ago,” Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist said. “A big part of this has to do with the resilience of the U.S. economy.” Gill’s report further credited “U.S. dynamism” with helping stabilize the economies abroad.
A Washington Post report added, “The United States is the only advanced economy growing significantly faster than the bank anticipated at the start of the year.”
Also this week, The Atlantic Rogé Karma described the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world.”
If the United States’ economy were an athlete, right now it would be peak LeBron James. If it were a pop star, it would be peak Taylor Swift. Four years ago, the pandemic temporarily brought much of the world economy to a halt. Since then, America’s economic performance has left other countries in the dust and even broken some of its own records. The growth rate is high, the unemployment rate is at historic lows, household wealth is surging, and wages are rising faster than costs, especially for the working class. There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.
The piece quoted Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, saying, “It’s hard to think of a time when the U.S. economy has diverged so fundamentally from its peers.”
As regular readers might recall, ahead of Election Day 2020, Donald Trump repeatedly warned the public that if Joe Biden were elected, the U.S. economy would collapse. The Republican’s rhetoric wasn’t based on anything real or substantive; he just hoped to scare voters into re-electing him.
It led the then-incumbent president to declare at the final debate of the 2020 cycle, “They say the stock market will rule if I’m elected. If he’s elected, the stock market will crash.” Around the same time, Trump also told supporters that Democratic policies would “unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions” and force the country “into depression.”
Everything he said and predicted was wrong — and Trump hasn’t even tried to explain why his predictions were so hilariously misplaced. […]
birgerjohanssonsays
Republicans are deliberately starving elections of funding to create chaos and reduce the trust in the ability to have fsir elections. This paves the way for claiming the coming election is rigged.
Bits of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* Speaking to GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill this morning, Trump said Milwaukee is a “horrible” city. Milwaukee is also hosting the Republican National Convention in August, where the former president will presumably be renominated.
* In Delaware, Democratic congressional hopeful Eugene Young ended his candidacy this week, clearing the way for state Sen. Sarah McBride to win her party’s nomination in a solidly blue district. If successful, McBride will become Congress’ first transgender member.
* Remember Matt DePerno, the Michigan Republican who ran a failed race for state attorney general and was charged with mishandling voting equipment? The accused felon is now running for a seat on the Michigan Supreme Court.
As Trump arrives on Hill, House Republicans sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him and give him game ball and bat from their victory in congressional baseball game last night, per @AnnieGrayerCNN
Donald Trump had pop star Taylor Swift on his mind Thursday during his closed-door meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill. CNN correspondent Melanie Zanona reports that among Trump’s many meandering statements to lawmakers, he blabbered about the singer/songwriter’s apparent Democratic leanings.
“Why would she endorse this dope?” Trump reportedly asked. “He doesn’t know how to get off a stage.” Swift has made no endorsements in the 2024 campaign, but she did endorse President Joe Biden in 2020.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency,” Swift tweeted in May of that year, “you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November.@realdonaldtrump”
Swift added to that sentiment in August 2020.
“Donald Trump’s ineffective leadership gravely worsened the crisis that we are in and he is now taking advantage of it to subvert and destroy our right to vote and vote safely,” she tweeted. “Request a ballot early. Vote early.”
Now that’s some bad blood.
The megastar has clearly been living rent-free in Trump’s head for more than a fortnight. On Monday, Variety published excerpts from a new book about Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice,” in which he shared his thoughts about her.
“I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful,” he said. But he apparently fretted about her politics.
“I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump.”
Trump asked the interviewer if Swift is “legitimately liberal” or whether it’s “just an act.” (It’s not.)
“It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal,” he said.
Last year, Swift launched a campaign asking her fans to register to vote. The success of her campaign—Vote.org said its site “was averaging 13,000 users every 30 minutes”—led to the fragile right-wing-o-sphere spending months attacking her. Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested that Swift was a psy-op campaign by government intelligence agencies to manipulate our country’s elections. The baseless conspiracy theories got so out of hand that the Pentagon put out an official (if tongue-in-cheek) statement on the matter.
Whether or not Swift will publicly weigh in on the 2024 election remains to be seen. But if she does, you can bet Trump won’t just shake it off.
????? — FROM TRUMP to House Republicans — close to exact quote.
‘Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a whacko, her daughter told me if things were different Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though.’
Reply from Christine Pelosi:
Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE. His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House.
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Kari Lake has lost yet another appeal in her effort to overturn the 2022 election for Arizona governor.
Lake lost that election to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes, but never conceded, claiming that malfeasance, incompetence or fraud on the part of Maricopa County led to her loss.
She’s been unsuccessfully fighting the loss in court ever since, but has lost at every turn, in the trial and appeals courts, as well as in front of the Arizona Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel for Arizona’s Division Two Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s rulings on June 11, in an opinion authored by presiding Judge Sean Brearcliffe.
In a hearing before the appeals court panel on May 2, Lake attorney Kurt Olsen focused on what he called “newly discovered evidence” that he claimed showed that Maricopa County didn’t conduct required logic and accuracy testing for its ballot tabulators and ballot-on-demand printers ahead of the 2022 election, leading to issues with those tabulators reading ballots on Election Day.
Maricopa County has repeatedly denied Lake’s allegations that it failed to perform logic and accuracy tests required by law.
The appeals court panel ruled that Lake’s evidence was not, in fact, discovered recently, making it impermissible. Instead, what happened is that the expert Lake hired to analyze the evidence didn’t have time to do so before the trial in May 2023.
The appellate court also agreed with trial court Judge Peter Thompson that Lake did not prove that any misconduct on the part of Maricopa County election officials or workers led to printer and tabulator problems on Election Day in 2022.
Brearcliffe wrote that the appeals court concurred with Thompson that Lake’s “allegation(s) of fraud leap[ed] over a substantial gap in the evidence presented.”
“We noted that Lake had ‘presented no evidence that voters whose ballots were unreadable by on-site tabulators were not able to vote,’ and only ‘sheer speculation’ that issues on election day discouraged ‘a substantial number of predominantly Lake voters’ from voting,” Brearcliffe wrote.
The appeals court also agreed with Thompson that Lake’s expert witness who testified that “‘a population equaling approximately 16% of the total election-day turnout across Maricopa County had been deprived of their right to vote, and that the deprivation derived from printer/tabulator issues’—had no reasonable basis for his claims of disenfranchisement.”
The purported expert based his claims on exit polling following the election, not on any concrete evidence. [laughable]
[…] The appeals court also agreed with Thompson in dismissing Lake’s assertion that 8,000 ballots cast on Election Day that were rejected by tabulators at polling sites were never counted, saying she had tried to “leap a gap in proof with unsupported bare assertions.”
Those ballots were not counted at the polling location, but were instead sent to the county’s elections headquarters, where they were tallied. Brearcliffe also pointed out that, even if Lake were correct that 8,000 ballots went uncounted, and all of them were cast for Lake, it wouldn’t change the outcome of the election in her favor.
[…] The report showed that all of the ballots rejected by tabulators were later counted.
“What Lake needed to do at trial was provide competent evidence that the ballots did not match the canvass in numbers that could have resulted in her election day victory,” Brearcliffe wrote. “She failed to do so.”
Again, the appeals court agreed with the trial court that Lake failed to prove her claims that Maricopa County did not perform voter signature verification on early ballots in 2022.
[…] After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case in April, Lake and Finchem filed a motion on June 5 asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse the trial court’s 2022 decision to dismiss the case. The court had not ruled on the motion as of June 12.
Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose three trips that were paid for by GOP mega donor Harlan Crow, according to new information obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee that were released on Thursday.
According to the panel, Thomas did not disclose information on three trips he took on private jets funded by Crow: A trip from St. Louis to Montana and back to Dallas in 2017, round trip travel from Washington to Savannah, Ga., in 2019 and round trip travel from Washington to San Jose in 2021.
The information was obtained through documents and information that Crow delivered to the committee dating back seven years.
Also included in the trove of Crow’s documents was information about the 2019 trips to Indonesia and California, which included private jet travel for both and an eight-day yacht excursion in Bali. The committee noted that a recent report totaled the gifts Thomas has received at nearly $4.2 million, dwarfing the totals of other justices.
“Nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn’t enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the Committee found that he has failed to disclose to date,” Durbin said in a statement. “The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis is producing new information — like what we’ve revealed today — and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment.”
Durbin also noted that the information from Crow was obtained due to the subpoena the panel moved ahead with over mounting questions about the gifts received by justices.
“As a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public greater clarity on the extent of ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices and the need for ethics reform,” Durbin said.
“Despite an approval rating near all-time lows and never-ending, self-inflicted scandals, Chief Justice Roberts still refuses to use his existing authority to implement an enforceable code of conduct,” the No. 2 Senate Democrat continued. “Until he acts, we will continue our push for the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to become law.”
Shortly before the committee’s revelations were unveiled, Crow issued a statement noting that he agreed to hand over seven years worth of documents and information in exchange for the panel ending its probe into the billionaire Republican donor.
“Mr. Crow reached an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to provide information responsive to its requests going back seven years,” Crow’s office said in a statement. “Despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry, Mr. Crow engaged in good faith negotiations with the Committee from the beginning to resolve the matter.”
“As a condition of this agreement, the Committee agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow,” the statement added.
Mr. Crow threw Clarence Thomas under the bus … or under the oversized recreational vehicle.
Ukraine’s supporters have agreed to move forward with a $50 billion loan to Kyiv, financed by profits from frozen Russian assets in Europe and the U.S., the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries announced Thursday.
The agreement marks a significant achievement for President Biden, with the U.S. spearheading the effort to get the broad grouping of Ukraine’s supporters to agree on seizing Russian assets to support Kyiv and counter Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m very pleased to share that this week … the G7 signed a plan to finalize and unlock $50 billion from the proceeds of those frozen assets, to put that money to work for Ukraine and other reminders to Putin, we’re not backing down. In fact, we’re standing together against this illegal aggression,” Biden said Thursday at a press conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Thank you Mr. President for your leadership in the G7’s decision on $50 billion loan for Ukraine; it’s a vital step forward in providing sustainable support for Ukraine in winning this war,” Zelensky said.
“Russian immobilized assets should be used for defending Ukrainian lives from Russian terror and for repaying the damage the aggressor caused to Ukraine. It’s fair and absolutely right.” […]
Oh dear. [clutch your pearls] JD Vance is being haunted by things he used to like on Twitter. But don’t worry, Elon Musk will try to save him.
It’s well known that at some point after 2016, JD Vance decided to abandon his earlier principles, sell his soul, and embark on a quest to become the most enthusiastic Trump taint-licker in the whole wide world.
[…] These are the kinds of hot tweets JD used to be into, which KFile uncovered. Is he still secretly into them? Only he knows if his entire life is a lie. […]
While promoting his memoir and appearing on news programs in 2016, Vance liked a series of tweets calling then-candidate Trump a “monster” and a “nemesis of the GOP.” He also liked a tweet acknowledging “threats and derogatory terms Trump supporters hurl at Jews.” He even liked a tweet from CNN anchor Jake Tapper criticizing Trump’s tweet about a woman’s appearance amidst then-first lady Melania Trump’s campaign against cyberbullying.
He also liked a tweet that read, “Does any dad (or future dad) want to look his daughter in the eye and explain why he voted for Trump instead of 1st woman president?”
Among the harshest tweets Vance liked was one that called out Trump after the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced, capturing previously unaired lewd and sexually aggressive remarks by the presidential nominee. “Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault,” the tweet read.
Whew.
KFile notes that before publication, Donald Trump Jr. and Jason Miller sent them statements saying how great JD Vance is and what a true MAGA scumbag he is now. That may be true, but we’d still like to watch somebody read the tweets Vance liked aloud to Trump’s face — the way prospective jurors did during his trial — and see what it does to Vance’s running mate prospects. Maybe Vance could read them to Trump himself! [Good idea!]
In related news, Elon Musk has just made everybody’s “likes” private. Obviously, he’s trying to protect all his Nazi friends from losing their jobs or getting outed as Nazis, just because they liked a bunch of Nazi tweets.
He’s not even pretending this isn’t why. [Musk post on X is available at the link.]
It’s just too bad the change didn’t happen before KFile found all JD Vance’s likes. (They note that back before Vance ran for Senate, he deleted all his Trump-hating tweets.) […]
What is that video you’ve adduced @316?
How am I supposed to know what it’s about?
The “scathing” atheist is actually the “vague” atheist.
The uninformative headline atheist.
(Putting the Scat in Scathing!)
StevoRsays
Did I share this already? I can’t remember so apologies if so but The New Largest Star in the Universe 2024! WOH G64 which as it points out is subject a lot of uncertainties and caveats but still intresting.
The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns and was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The high court found 6-3 the Trump administration did not follow federal law when it reversed course and banned bump stocks after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault rifles in 2017. He fired more than 1,000 rounds in the crowd in 11 minutes, leaving 60 people dead and injuring hundreds more.
A Texas gun shop owner challenged the ban, arguing the Justice Department wrongly classified the accessories as illegal machine guns.
The Biden administration said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made the right choice for the accessories that can allow weapons to fire at a rate of hundreds of rounds a minute.
It marked the latest gun case to come before high court, where a conservative supermajority handed down a landmark decision expanding gun rights in 2022 and is also weighing another gun case challenging a federal law intended to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders.
Justices from the court’s liberal wing suggested it was “common sense” that anything capable of unleashing a “torrent of bullets” was a machine gun under federal law. Conservative justices, though, raised questions about why Congress had not acted to ban bump stocks, as well as the effects of the ATF changing its mind a decade after declaring the accessories legal.
[…] Bump stocks are accessories that replace a rifle’s stock, the part that rests against the shoulder. They harness the gun’s recoil energy so that the trigger bumps against the shooter’s stationary finger, allowing the gun to fire at a rate comparable to a traditional machine gun. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have their own bans on bump stocks.
The plaintiff, Texas gun shop owner and military veteran Michael Cargill, was represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group funded by conservative donors like the Koch network. His attorneys acknowledged that bump stocks allow for rapid fire, but argued that they are different because the shooter has to put in more effort keep the gun firing.
Government lawyers countered the effort required from the shooter is small, and doesn’t make a legal difference. The Justice Department said the ATF changed its mind on bump stocks after doing a more in-depth examination spurred by the Las Vegas shooting and came to the right conclusion. […]
Arizona’s Republican-run legislature has approved a ballot measure that would eliminate regular judicial elections, a move designed to insulate two conservative incumbents who recently upheld a near-total ban on abortion from voters this fall.
Those justices, Kathryn King and Clint Bolick, will face retention elections in November, when voters will have the chance to decide whether they merit new six-year terms with a simple yes-or-no vote. But if the GOP’s new amendment were to pass that same day, the results of those judicial elections would be retroactively wiped from the books, even if King and Bolick fail to earn majority support.
In addition, their terms—and those of most other judges in Arizona—would be extended indefinitely, capped only by the state’s mandatory retirement age of 70. Judges would be subject to retention elections only if they fail to demonstrate “good behavior,” a high bar that would be met in very limited circumstances, such as getting convicted of a felony or filing for bankruptcy.
[…] In advancing their amendment, Republicans signaled their desperation to avoid the prospect of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs appointing replacements for King and Bolick, should the justices and the ballot measure all lose.
Judges in Arizona have rarely failed to win retention: Just six have lost at the ballot box since the state adopted the practice in 1974, and none at the Supreme Court level. But three of those judges were ousted recently, when voters denied new terms to a trio of trial court judges in populous Maricopa County in 2022.
That same year, ultraconservative Justice Bill Montgomery survived retention with just 56% of the vote. That tally, according to the Arizona Republic’s Jimmy Jenkins, was the worst-ever performance by a member of the Supreme Court in state history.
Late last year, reproductive rights advocates successfully pushed Montgomery to recuse himself from the abortion ban case after it emerged that he had said Planned Parenthood had perpetrated the “greatest generational genocide known to man.” Notably, his weak showing with voters came before abortion took center stage in Arizona politics. […]
In addition, voters will likely get the opportunity to weigh in on an amendment that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. Organizers said in April that they had already collected a sufficient number of signatures to qualify their proposal, but they have until July 3 to turn them in.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a fiery dissent harshly denounced a Supreme Court ruling Friday that rejected a ban on bump stocks, saying it “eviscerates” the congressional regulation of machine guns.
“Today, the Court puts bump stocks back in civilian hands,” Sotomayor wrote in a dissent joined by fellow liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketenji Brown Jackson. “To do so, it casts aside Congress’s definition of ‘machinegun’ and seizes upon one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and unsupported by context or purpose.”
The court ruled 6-3 against the Biden administration along ideological lines, finding that bans imposed by the Trump and Biden administration, enacted by clasifying bump stocks as machine guns, went too far.
“We conclude that [a] semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machinegun’ because it does not fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger,’” Thomas wrote in his decision.
Sotomayor rejected that reasoning.
“When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck,” she continued.
Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench, a rare move underlining her disagreement. It was the first time she read a dissent this term.
“This is not a hard case. All of the textual evidence points to the same interpretation,” she added, deriding the majority’s interpretation for ignoring common sense and instead relying on obscure technical arguments.
“Its interpretation requires six diagrams and an animation to decipher the meaning of the statutory text,” she wrote.
Sotomayor said the decision “enables gun users and manufacturers to circumvent federal law.”
The federal bump stock ban was first established by the Trump administration in 2017 after a gunman used the device in a Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others. The Biden administration supported and defended the ban in court.
[…] The case did not implement the Second Amendment but instead asked whether the Trump administration, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), stretched the statutory definition of machine guns too far to cover bump stocks.
In the coming days, the Supreme Court is set to hand down another closely watched gun case that does implicate the Second Amendment. The justices are weighing whether a federal statute criminalizing gun possession for people under domestic-violence restraining orders is constitutional.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said former President Trump criticized the $61 billion for Ukraine passed under Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) leadership and signaled his disinterest in sending the war-torn country more support during his Thursday meeting with House Republicans.
“TRUMP ON UKRAINE: ‘They’re never going to be there for us,’” Gaetz wrote in a post on the social platform X, sharing comments from Trump at the morning meeting.
According to Gaetz, Trump also asserted the U.S. should “pay OUR TROOPS” instead of sending billions of dollars to Ukraine.
“Trump trashing the Ukraine Aid to @SpeakerJohnson’s face is so epic,” Gaetz added. […]
Them: SHUT UP, MAGA IS NOT A CULT, WE DO NOT WORSHIP DONALD TRUMP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!
Also them: Ooh, let’s rename the ocean after Trump!
We wish we were kidding. We are sitting here amazed that in the year of our Lord 2024, this is a real story. This is not North Korean shit, as we have never in fact heard of a North Korean congressman suggesting they rename the Pacific for Kim Jong-un. […]
But an American Republican MAGA congressman has made that suggestion for Trump.
Congressman Greg Steube, everyone: [X post is available at the link]
[…] So yeah, Greg Steube wants to rename all the coastal waters — you know, the waters in the oceans that surround the United States — the “Donald John Trump Exclusive Economic Zone,” because we guess it was easier than putting both of Trump’s balls in his mouth without attracting attention.
He’s introducing it today, which is also Trump’s 78th birthday.
[…] We thought that would set the record for grundle-caressing MAGA cult worship toward Trump at least for the week, but six seconds later, Aaron Rupar tweeted this video of Kansas GOP Senator Roger Marshall just absolutely babbling about how beautiful and impressive and athletic Trump’s fastball was during the congressional softball game the other night. OH WAIT JUST KIDDING.
Actually he was just talking about how “electric” Trump and his “fastball” were during their congressional meeting yesterday, the one where Trump showed up to beg Congress to unconvict him of all his New York felonies, which is probably not how anything works, but hey fuck it. [video at the link]
MARSHALL: He’s electric! He’s got an incredible fastball! And I think it was just exciting after all he’s been through, how strong this MAN is, I’ve never seen someone be able to take all the heat that he’s taken and come in there, ready to lead.
[…] Gross.
Rupar also put together this supercut, including Marshall above, of Republicans being visibly emotional after the meeting as they talked about touching the hem of Trump’s garment. Marjorie Taylor Greene was about to cry because he said hello to her. Really. [video at the link]
In summary and in conclusion, no Republicans have proposed renaming planet Earth after Trump yet, but it’s his birthday, the day is young […]
What Has Biden Done For Climate? (In A Musical, We’d Sing About It)
Today’s post is going to start at the very beginning (that’s a very good place to start), with a look at Biden’s overall climate goals. In coming posts, we’ll dive into the real meat of Biden’s more than 300 climate actions, particularly as they show up in legislation and in regulations put in place by executive agencies, including:
– The American Rescue Plan, Biden’s first big stimulus bill. It had climate stuff too!
– The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was about roads and bridges but also about clean water, EV charging stations, electric buses for schools and mass transit, and much more
– The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s signature climate bill, which the head of the International Energy Agency hailed as the world’s “most important climate action” since 2015’s Paris climate agreement. Climate modelers predict that the IRA all on its own should get the US as much as 42 percent of the way to our target of cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030. And yes, it’s already created hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in clean energy investments, with more on the way because it’s a 10-year bill.
– The CHIPS and Science Act, aimed at bringing the computer chip industry back to the US
– A huge pile of regulations that will cut carbon emissions across the economy, from vehicle emissions standards, to coal and gas powerplants (goodbye, coal, goodbye!), to a fundamental rethinking of public land use, to regulations that will upgrade the electric grid to handle all the clean energy coming online in the next decade. Oh, and more. It’s a LOT.
Dang, I’m gonna be busy. With that, let’s start with the basics!
The Day One Agenda
In fact, let’s start right at the start, when on his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order formally rejoining the Paris climate agreement, which Donald Trump had withdrawn from. He also cancelled the KeystoneXL oil pipeline and ordered a review of all of the Trump administration’s executive actions affecting climate.
In his first week, Biden set several goals for US climate policy, targets for action that his administration would pursue.
– Reduce total greenhouse emissions to 50 percent of 2005 emissions by 2030
– Build up clean energy production so the electric power sector will be free of carbon pollution by 2035
– Reach net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050
Spoiler alert: Put together, all of the administration’s actions put us on the road to achieving those goals — but Donald Trump has promised to undo most of that progress if he gets back in office. […]
F.A.A. Investigating How Counterfeit Titanium Got Into Boeing and Airbus Jets
The material, which was purchased from a little-known Chinese company, was sold with falsified documents and used in parts that went into jets from both manufacturers.
Some recently manufactured Boeing and Airbus jets have components made from titanium that was sold using fake documentation verifying the material’s authenticity, according to a supplier for the plane makers, raising concerns about the structural integrity of those airliners.
The falsified documents are being investigated by Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies fuselages for Boeing and wings for Airbus, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration. The investigation comes after a parts supplier found small holes in the material from corrosion.
In a statement, the F.A.A. said it was investigating the scope of the problem and trying to determine the short- and long-term safety implications to planes that were made using the parts. It is unclear how many planes have parts made with the questionable material.
“Boeing reported a voluntary disclosure to the F.A.A. regarding procurement of material through a distributor who may have falsified or provided incorrect records,” the statement said. “Boeing issued a bulletin outlining ways suppliers should remain alert to the potential of falsified records.” […]
A secret society that plans on staffing a future, right-wing government with Christian men is disbanding two of its Idaho chapters, records obtained by TPM show.
TPM found that two Idaho chapters of the Society for American Civic Renewal dissolved themselves in May, corporate records show, several weeks after a report by TPM revealed the group’s mission and the identities of some of its high-profile members.
One of the group’s members, Boise State University Professor Scott Yenor, confirmed to TPM Thursday that the chapter he heads in Idaho’s capital would be dissolved. The Boise chapter would continue to exist as a dues-paying organization, he said, but ending the legal entity would free it from having to do “annual reporting.”
The move to dissolve the chapters adds another layer of secrecy to the group. SACR already shields its membership rolls from the public, even as it seeks to reshape American government and society. Per an internal mission statement first made public by TPM, the mens-only, Christian-only group aims to “act decisively to secure permanently” the “dominance” of “Christendom” and to enshrine their view of America’s founding, bringing together a group of right-wing Christian men to try to ensure that the country is defined and governed as a Christian nation.
TPM was able to reveal the inner workings of the Society for American Civic Renewal in March using emails and documents largely obtained via public records requests that included Yenor’s Boise State email account. These records revealed that the group is not just exclusively Christian and male, it is only open to heterosexual men, “trinitarian” Christians, and “un-hyphenated Americans.” Yenor pitched one potential member by writing in an email that the group offered a means to “secure a future for Christian families.”
TPM’s reporting showed that SACR is composed of influential and wealthy men, including the president of right-wing think tank the Claremont Institute, a multimillionaire Indiana shampoo tycoon, and a Texas venture capitalist, among others.
[…] Yenor has influence as an ultra-conservative scholar; he has courted controversy by demanding that professions like law, engineering and medicine stop recruiting women into their ranks, and is senior director of state coalitions at the Claremont Institute. Charles Haywood, who incorporated the national SACR nonprofit as a 501(c)10, attended University of Chicago law school before developing and selling his cosmetics business.
The 501(c)10 form — described in typically sinister terms on SACR’s website as being “a national superstructure” — is the same used by other lodge-based groups like the Freemasons or the Shriners.
That allows the groups to shield the identities of their members from public scrutiny but, as Yenor told TPM, being a chapter within a larger nonprofit still requires financial reporting.
[…] Corporate filings show that the Coeur D’Alene lodge dissolved itself on May 20; the Boise lodge dissolved itself the next day.
[…] Other publicly listed chapters in Dallas, Texas and Moscow, Idaho were still active.
[…] Claremont President and SACR board member Ryan P. Williams told TPM in March that the total number of chapters was around a dozen or fewer.
Yenor wouldn’t say whether SACR’s other chapters planned to make the change, or whether the national nonprofit would also dissolve itself. He declined to answer questions about the size of the Boise chapter and how often the group meets.
Posted by readers of the article:
It’s a modern day Klan without the silly costumes and a few more college degrees, but all of the traditional hatred and intolerance of The Other + Uppity Women that give these fascists permission to be awful & dangerous elitists. Plus hiding in the shadows
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They read the Bible and say ‘plainly Jesus wants me to be rich’
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It’s the same goddamned situation with Trump. Billionaires love fascism: it’s the way they run their businesses, so why not employ that model for society at large?
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this group is about keeping wealth and through wealth power in the hands of a select few who look and think like them and to hell with everyone else including most White Christian men by having an exclusive club that will only do business with themselves.
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like so many things in the Republican/MAGA/Conservative/Christofascist/Wacko sphere, it is really an attempt at hijack and theft
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A bunch of wealthy, straight, “trinitarian” and “un-hyphenated” Christian men. “Trinitarian” is very weird and creepy, and “un-hyphenated” is a hilariously lame and chickenshit euphemism for white. Seems pretty clear to me that the key term in their list of goals is “domination.” Heavy Handmaid’s Tale vibe.
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The article clarifies that they aren’t disbanding, but merely “dissolving” the legal instrument. They are still going to meet and even pay dues
The race to see who can demonstrate the most cartoonish level of Donald Trump cult worship is unending. It’s only been a few months since House Republicans tried to rename Dulles Airport after Trump, but that seems positively picayune when compared to the bill Rep. Greg Steube of Florida intends to introduce on Friday.
Steube wants to rename the ocean after Trump. Not just one ocean, but the entire shoreline wrapping around the U.S. and covering over 4 million square miles.
His goal is for everyone everywhere—from Maine to Florida, along the Gulf Coast, up the Western Seaboard, all around Alaska, off the islands of Hawaii, and even in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa—to be surrounded by the Sea of Trump. All to celebrate a guy who is terrified of fish.
The Exclusive Economic Zone is a strip of ocean up to 200 miles wide that extends out from all U.S. territories. It’s supposed to be a region where the U.S. holds special privileges on everything from fish and minerals to oil found deep underground. The zone was largely created by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 and was last reauthorized in 2007.
As its history might suggest, the Exclusive Economic Zone has nothing to do with Trump.
Even so, Steube is proposing a bill that aims to rename the entire 4,383,000 square miles the “Donald John Trump Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States.” The bill insists that this name be used on “any applicable laws, maps, documents, and other records.”
It’s not quite stamping every map with Trumplantic, Trumpacific, and Gulf of Trump … but it’s every bit as ridiculous.
Like other Republican efforts to show their loyalty to Trump, this proves that there really is no limit. Now that Steube has raised the ante, stand by for the Trumpissippi River, the great state of Trumpessee, in the United States of Trump, on planet Trump, in the Trumpar System, in the outer arm of the Trumpy Way galaxy of the Trumpiverse.
But it does have its upsides. Think how much easier geography will be when all of the answers are the same. […]
It’s almost as if Republicans don’t remember that the actual Donald Trump is that guy from a second-rate reality show who served a single term in office during which his sole accomplishment was cutting taxes for billionaires. Or that while he was in the White House, Trump drove the nation into a recession, hit the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, lost millions of jobs, bungled a pandemic that killed over a million Americans, and tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.
And that’s leaving out the sexual assault, tax fraud, charity fraud, “university” fraud, money laundering, and discrimination. The only reason Trump hasn’t been in jail for decades is because he was born rich and uses his money to delay justice.
But maybe we really should name something in the ocean after Trump.
… the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, is the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.
The Great Donald J. Trump Garbage Patch. It has a nice ring to it. Someone draft a bill.
Donald Trump’s return to the scene of the Jan. 6 attack that he instigated was a watershed moment in the whitewashing of his failed auto-coup.
Republicans in Congress, many of whom three years ago were running for their lives from the mob Trump unleashed, applauded and celebrated his return in ways that highlighted the party’s cultish, authoritarian turn. It marked a papering over of all the internal divisions and past animosities (which tend to arise when a president of your own party sends over to the Capitol a mob that is intent on hanging his own vice president) in order to rally together to win in November.
All of that is highly newsworthy, of historic significance even.
But the coverage … oh, the coverage.
The AP(!) tweeted this campaign-press-release-quality assessment of the day: [X post and video at the link: “Donald Trump made a triumphant return to Capitol Hill on Thursday, his first with lawmakers since the Jan.6, 2021 attacks, embraced by energized House and Senate Republicans who find themselves reinvigorated by his bid to retake the White House.”]
One Hill reporter couldn’t take it anymore: [X post at the link: “The number of times I’ve been in scrums today with reporters asking Republicans to recount whether Trump did anything “funny” or “did he tell any jokes” during his meetings with lawmakers. I’m transcribing audio and I’ve lost count.”]
Mitch McConnell knows Trump provoked the violent attack on our Capitol and then “watched television happily” as his mob brutally beat police officers and hunted the Vice President. He knows Trump refused for hours to tell his mob to leave and “even then with police officers bleeding…he kept repeating his election lies and praising the criminals.” He knows Trump committed a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and is a danger to our Republic. Trump and his collaborators will be defeated, and history will remember the shame of people like @LeaderMcConnell who enabled them.
Photo of McConnell happily shaking hands with Trump is available at the link.
The House voted Thursday to reject an amendment to restore a racist Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery. The statue depicted a Black “mammy” holding a Confederate soldier’s baby and a Black enslaved person following a Confederate soldier into battle.
In a 230 to 192 vote, only 24 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition to the monument.
The Reconciliation Memorial, also called the “New South” monument, was erected in 1914 by famed white supremacist President Woodrow Wilson. An independent commission recommended the statue for removal in 2022. In December 2023, the Army, which operates Arlington National Cemetery, informed Congress that it intended to remove the statue.
[…] The amendment was brought by Georgia gun shop owner-turned-congressman Andrew Clyde. This was not Clyde’s first time being racist about memorials. In 2022, Clyde led House Republicans in blocking a “routine measure” to name a federal courthouse in Florida after its first Black state supreme court justice, Joseph W. Hatchett.
Thursday’s House vote shows an increase in GOP support for white supremacist symbology since 2021 when only 120 Republicans voted against removing Confederate statues from the Capitol. I guess that’s what the GOP would call progress?
Unfortunately, we all saw this one coming: The US Supreme Court has thrown out the federal ban on “bump stocks,” those delightful devices that allow owners of semiautomatic rifles, which fire a single round with each pull of the trigger, to convert the rifles into real bullet hoses with a rate of fire of hundreds of rounds a minute, just like a machine gun!
Here’s a brief explainer video on how the infernal devices work. [video at the link]
The 64-year-old gun freak who perpetrated the 2017 massacre in Las Vegas used bump stocks on multiple legally-purchased rifles, allowing him to rain .223 caliber high velocity bullets down from his hotel room on a music festival, killing 60 people and wounding more than 400 in just 10 minutes before he shot himself as police closed in. Many witnesses and people who saw video from the scene thought the shooter had to be using a machine gun, because the rate of the gunshots was a steady chatter of fire, not the succession of single shots typical of a semiautomatic weapon.
Thing is, actual machine guns, which start firing when you pull the trigger and only stop when you release it or the gun runs out of ammo, are heavily regulated under the National Firearms Act, which was passed back in 1934 when Americans foolishly thought keeping Al Capone from having a machine gun would be better than letting everyone have one and hoping a good guy would shoot Capone before he shot into a crowd.
Following Las Vegas, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in 2018 issued a rule categorizing bump stocks as devices that convert a rifle into a machine gun, effectively banning them. But thanks to today’s ruling, hooray, bump stocks will now be available to anyone who can legally own a firearm. That includes guys who wanna dress up like Rambo and fire hundreds of rounds for a YouTube video and lulz, or who wanna turn a large number of human beings, including school kids why not, into hamburger. Also for lulz.
Bump stocks were designed specifically to get around a loophole in the 1934 law and a 1986 update, which prohibits converting a semiautomatic gun into a fully automatic one by modifying the weapon to “shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” Keep that phrasing in mind, because today’s whole fucking decision in the case, Garland v Cargill, depended on what exactly a “single function of the trigger” means.
[Bump-stock advocates] like the plaintiff, Austin gun shop owner Anthony Cargill, argue that even though bump stocks can make an ordinary AR-15 shoot nearly as many rounds as a machine gun can, the devices are still legal because they use the recoil action of the rifle to “bump” the user’s finger repeatedly against the trigger, meaning that each shot is the result of a separate “function” of the trigger, even if it’s far faster than any human could move their finger without the device.
Clarence Thomas, writing for the six rightwing justices on the Court, agreed that’s exactly what a bump stock does: several hundred single functions of the trigger, not a modification of the gun’s internal firing mechanism: “With or without a bump stock, a shooter must release and reset the trigger between every shot.”
Who had any idea in grade school that grammar could have such deadly implications?
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, clinging to the quaint old assumption that the intent and potential consequences of laws are as important as parsing the meanings of words to give one side an advantage, read her dissent from the bench, which is what justices do to make clear that they are furious at the majority’s fuckery. As the Washington Post reports (gift link), she said the ruling
would have “deadly consequences,” adding that the court “hamstrings the government’s efforts to keep machineguns from gunmen like the Las Vegas shooter.” She also called the ruling “myopic” and eschewed a “straightforward understanding of the statute.”
[…] As the Post also notes, the ruling didn’t really involve the Holy Second Amendment, but rather the narrow question of how to read words so you can keep the constituency of the Republican party happy, no matter how many people may die or be maimed as a result.
The ruling doesn’t necessarily mean bump stocks will become available everywhere, at least not before more court cases, because as NBC News points out, 18 states have statutes outlawing them, regardless of the ATF’s now-quashed interpretation of the federal law.
And because this ruling doesn’t touch on the ATF regulation’s constitutionality, it would also be possible for Congress ban bump stocks, since laws sometimes get more respect than agency regulations. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said yes let’s do that, and called on Republicans to support a federal ban, as if any of them still had functioning spines.
In conclusion, it is a great day for freedom and for the funeral home industry. Vote blue and get these ghouls out of power, the end.
[…] It is a pretty good bet that if Donald Trump thinks it’s a horrible place, then Milwaukee — or “Milly-Wah-Kay, which is Algonquin for ‘The Good Land’” — is pretty awesome, and Wonkette will not be deterred from partying there next month.
It is also possible that Trump was thinking of Ho Chi Minh City, which is apparently a common mistake in Republican circles, at least according to this reporter from the Boston Globe who recently noticed the RNC had been using a picture of that city’s skyline instead of Milwaukee’s in a background photo on its convention webpage for God only knows how long.
Ironically, Trump will be in Racine, Wisconsin, which is about 20 miles from Milwaukee […].
The Justice Department (DOJ) issued a determination Friday that Attorney General Merrick Garland committed no crime in failing to meet the demand of House Republicans who subpoenaed audio of President Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur.
The determination is in line with a Wednesday memo from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel that stated Biden’s claim of executive privilege over the tapes protected Garland from prosecution. […]
However, such resolutions act as a referral to the Justice Department, which must then determine whether grounds exist for criminal charges — in this case with the DOJ strongly rebuffing the request in a three-page letter. […]
“Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Carlos Uriarte, the DOJ’s head of legislative affairs, wrote in the letter.
Republicans already have the transcript of the conversation, and while they’d publicly sought to connect the tapes to their impeachment probe, the transcript makes clear no items they marked as important to their investigation were discussed.
Garland after Wednesday’s vote had accused Republicans of using contempt as a partisan tool.
“It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon. Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees,” he said.
The refusal is likely to tee up additional action from House Republicans.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said she would file a privileged motion to take up a previously filed inherent contempt resolution – legislation that if approved would greenlight the House sergeant at arms to bring Garland to the House to force him to turn over subpoenaed items. [Oh FFS]
“It hasn’t been done since the early 1900s and was actually a pretty common practice for when people blatantly ignored and disrespected the authority of the House Representatives. So we hope that Garland does the right thing and we hope that the DOJ does the right thing,” she told The Hill ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus. The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phoney internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines — China’s Sinovac inoculation.
Meanwhile good news – abig bklow againts another reichwing Conspiracy Theorist
A US judge has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s personal assets be liquidated in order to pay $US1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) to the families of victims from the Sandy Hook shooting, which he falsely claimed was a hoax. The Infowars creator’s separate company bankruptcy case was dismissed on Friday, local time, but the future of the media platform remains uncertain. Judge Christopher Lopez approved converting Jones’s proposed personal bankruptcy reorganisation to a liquidation, but threw out the attempted reorganisation of his company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems. Many of the Sandy Hook families had asked that the company also be liquidated.
Two severe weather events in May brought the number of billion-dollar disasters for the United States in 2024 up to nearly a dozen. The month began with a tornado outbreak from May 6 to May 10 that stretched across 23 states, going from South Dakota to Florida. There were 167 tornadoes confirmed, including a deadly EF-4 per the Enhanced Fujita Scale, on the first day of the outbreak. ..(snip)..
.. (Snip).. Eleven separate billion-dollar weather and climate events from January through the end of May each resulted in economic losses of at least $1 billion for the nation; combined, the damage cost totaled more than $25 billion. Two of the events were winter storms and the other nine spawned from other severe storms. This adds to the already growing number of billion-dollar disasters that have occurred since 1980, which sums up to 387 events causing more than $2.74 trillion worth of damage.
Donald Trump’s big return to Capitol Hill Thursday morning was supposed to be an opportunity for Republicans to kiss the ring and for everyone to coordinate policy for the election. When he appeared at the gathering, there was plenty of the former, with Republicans who had dared to criticize his attempted coup breaking out their best apologies. But when it came to discussion on policy, Trump mostly just talked about Taylor Swift, Nancy Pelosi, and his good friend Hannibal Lecter.
It’s clear from Trump’s rally speeches that he has become increasingly incoherent and scattered. That’s never been more obvious than when a teleprompter outage in Las Vegas left Trump on an extended rant about sharks vs. batteries that corporate media has been working very, very hard to overlook.
But what Republicans saw on Thursday should have scared them silly. Well … sillier. Because this is a guy who can’t even hold it together long enough to say something reasonable during a gathering in his honor. [video at the link of a rally speech]
As USA Today put it following his post-conviction press conference, “Trump’s cheese slid off his cracker. It ain’t coming back.”
Felon Donald Trump arose glassy-eyed from his crypt of self-pity Friday morning to remind Americans he’s not just the first convicted criminal to run for president – he’s also a rambling, incoherent mess. …
The man some actually believe is qualified to be president of the United States also claimed that witnesses in his trial were “literally crucified,” said President Joe Biden wants to “stop you from having cars” and said the judge who will sentence him on July 11 is “really a devil.”
Trump has lost it. It’s never been clear that he had it. But now he isn’t near it, doesn’t remember it, and wouldn’t even know it if he found it.
During the meeting, Trump congratulated Steve Scalise for having a wife who visited him in the hospital while saying “some wives wouldn’t care.” This is something Trump has mentioned before. He apparently finds a carrying wife to be something of a wonder.
Then Trump complained about Taylor Swift endorsing President Joe Biden. Which she hasn’t.
“Why would she endorse this dope,” Trump said. “He doesn’t know how to get off a stage.”
What that means isn’t clear, but Trump established in his latest biography that he thinks about Swift a lot.
“I think she’s beautiful—very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented,” he said. “I think she’s very beautiful, actually—unusually beautiful!”
Trump didn’t quite break down into sobs of “why doesn’t she like me back?” in front of the congressional crowd on Thursday, but Swift continues to occupy plenty of rent-free space in the Orange Dome.
But that might not be the creepiest moment of his return to the Capitol. Soon after, Trump turned his attention to his obsession with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
“Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a whacko,” Trump reportedly said. But he didn’t stop there.
“Her daughter told me if things were different, Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though,” he added.
The age difference between Trump and Pelosi is only six years, but the sanity difference has to be measured in parsecs.
Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi has responded to Trump’s statement: “Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters, this is a LIE. His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her—or the White House.”
Finally, Trump talked about “good man” Hannibal Lecter. [video at the link]
Like the shark story, the Lecter riff has been a part of Trump’s standard stump speech for weeks. And like the shark story, it has become so tattered around the edges that Trump appears to have forgotten the set up, the punch line, and the point. Though, to be fair, it’s not clear the Lecter story ever had a point. [video at the link]
It’s no wonder Biden can’t wait to get Trump on stage for their June debate so he can be asked a few questions without a teleprompter. And it’s equally unsurprising that Trump is laying the groundwork to back out.
Republicans might have been able to brush off concerns about Trump by keeping him at a distance. But now that they’ve seen the latest iteration of Dear Leader up close, many of them must be desperately breaking out those “thoughts and prayers.”
It’s Flag Day. The Indy Star has a handy article about the origins of the holiday and the proper way to treat an American flag. That includes simple rules like flying it right side up, never putting any other image or text on the flag, and not wearing the flag like clothing.
It doesn’t cover molesting the flag like it’s a blow-up doll, or using the flag as a weapon to beat police officers and smash windows. But maybe the folks who made the rules thought those things went without saying.
As Republicans (including a Supreme Court justice and his ornery wife) are celebrating this day by flying the American flag upside down, the The New York Times is ready to hand the flag over to Donald Trump to fondle as much as he wants. In a nauseating article that can’t stop gushing about how Trump is the “51st star,” the paper is just so overwhelmed by Trump hugging and kissing the flag and the patriotism of his big red tie that they declare the flag the property of just one party.
President Joe Biden doesn’t agree. In a new ad, the Biden-Harris campaign unabashedly celebrates the history and meaning of the American flag— a flag that belongs to everyone.
“The stars and stripes were created to unite us,” the narrator says in the ad. “It is a powerful symbol that Americans stand together.”
After a series of voices recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we hear Biden’s voice.
“I don’t pledge allegiance to red states of America or blue states of America,” he says. “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.”
Biden and his fellow Democrats don’t have to reclaim the flag, because we’re not the ones acting like we’re ashamed of it. We’re not flying it upside down […] We’re not waving around the symbol of a failed rebellion that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of loyal Americans. […] We’re not the ones calling America a “cesspool.”
Hugging the flag while slamming the nation is not patriotism.
To find someone claiming that “the Democrats basically cede the flag to the right,” The New York Times had to seek out a history professor talking about protests from 60 years ago. They don’t seem to have noticed that in the past decade, Republicans have been demeaning not just the flag, but the nation it stands for.
If there’s a flag flying outside the Times headquarters, someone might want to check to see which side is up.
[…] As Biden’s ad says, the flag belongs to all Americans. It’s meant to unite us, not drive us apart. The flag is not something the Republicans can own, or the Times can give away.
A government program gave formerly enslaved people land after the Civil War, only to take nearly all of it back a year and a half later. We used artificial intelligence to track down the people, places, and stories that had long been misunderstood and forgotten, then asked their descendants about what’s owed now.
Black Americans have been demanding compensation and restitution for their suffering since the end of the Civil War.
40 Acres and a Mule remains the nation’s most famous attempt to provide some form of reparations for American slavery. Today, it is largely remembered as a broken promise and an abandoned step toward multiracial democracy. Less known is that the federal government actually did issue hundreds, perhaps thousands, of titles to specific plots of land between 4 and 40 acres. Freedmen and women built homes, established local governments, and farmed the land. But their utopia didn’t last long. After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his successor, Andrew Johnson, stripped property from formerly enslaved Black residents across the South and returned it to their past enslavers.
Over the course of two and a half years, a team of Public Integrity reporters, editors, and researchers identified 1,250 Black men and women who had earned land as reparations after the Civil War. From there, the team conducted genealogical research to locate living descendants of many of those who had received and then lost the land. For the first time, these living Black Americans were made aware of the specific land that had been given to and then taken away from their ancestors.
This project is an unprecedented and innovative use of Freedmen’s Bureau records—an impossible task for most of American history, until recent advances in genealogical research and the digitization of thousands of pages of Reconstruction-era documents made it feasible. […]
After Jim Hutchinson was freed from slavery in 1865, the federal government gave him a land title: 40 acres on Edisto Island, South Carolina. Soon after, that land was taken back. Through his descendants and the descendants of a former slaveholder, we reveal the truth about 40 Acres and a Mule—and how the federal government’s ultimate betrayal fueled a racial wealth gap that persists today. […]
We don’t mean to shock you, but according to Anthony Fauci’s new memoir On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, Donald Trump says some variation of “fuck” a lot.
Joe Biden? “Fucking stupid.” The election? Trump would win it in a “fucking landslide.” The stock market not going up one thousand points in a day because Fauci was not being optimistic enough? He cost the economy “one trillion fucking dollars.” Picture a hailstorm, only the hail is just the word fuck pounding the roof of your house like it’s being fired out of the rotary cannon of an F-35.
The Daily Beast got hold of an early copy of the book, which will be released next week. And hoo boy, does it sound funny:
Fauci describes conversations with Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic in which the then-president would “announce that he loved me and then scream at me on the phone.”
“Let’s just say, I found this to be out of the ordinary,” Fauci writes[.]
[Heh. I like Fauci’s style of understatement.]
Anthony Fauci, dryly summing up how all of us felt watching the four years of the Donald Trump presidency.
There are some other fun nuggets here, like the time that Trump screamed at Fauci because he doesn’t understand how vaccines for viruses work:
“On the evening of June 3 [2020], my cell phone rang,” Fauci writes, “and the caller—the president—started screaming at me.”
Trump was angered by Fauci telling a journalist that immunity to coronaviruses was “usually six months to a year,” meaning that when a COVID-19 vaccine was found, booster shots would likely be needed.
Viruses change and mutate. Why does Donald Trump think you get a flu shot every year? […]
The problem was that what Fauci said to that journalist got misreported and twisted on the Internet as Dr. Fauci says the covid vaccine only offers protection for a short period of time. Naturally, the feral possums of the Right — and we’re including multiple elected officials here — went nuts.
In that call, Trump also told Fauci he was making things worse, presumably because he wasn’t blowing smoke up the public’s ass about how long the pandemic might go on and that many people might still get sick and die. That’s when the stock market came up:
“He added that the stock market went up only six hundred points in response to the positive phase 1 vaccine news and it should have gone up a thousand points and so I cost the country ‘one trillion fucking dollars.’”
Damn. Maybe the government should garnish his pension.
Fauci says Trump apologized to him through an intermediary later on. Since Trump loathes apologizing or admitting to apologizing almost as much as he loathes leafy vegetables, we can expect a full-on diaper explosion on TruthSocial when he hears about this.
Fauci also writes about the last conversation he had with Trump, a 15-minute stream of gibberish two days before the election. The president was upset because Fauci again in speaking to a reporter had not made everything sound all hunky-dory, what with all the people still getting violently sick and then dying:
Trump was upset about Fauci telling The Washington Post that the U.S. was still “in for a whole lot of hurt.” The COVID case count was 9 million, with 230,000 dead.
“Everybody wants me to fire you,” Trump said. “But I am not going to fire you, you have too illustrious a career, but you have to be positive.”
Apparently somewhere along the way, Trump brought on Tony Robbins as an advisor.
Then, Fauci recounts a monologue Trump delivered at the end of the call that reads like the last lines of Sunset Boulevard, if you replaced Gloria Swanson with DiCaprio’s coked-out stockbroker from The Wolf of Wall Street:
“I am going to win this election by a fucking landslide. Just wait and see. I always did things my way. And I always win, no matter what all these other fucking people think. And that fucker Biden. He is so fucking stupid. I am going to kick his fucking ass in this election.”
A near-total abortion ban was defeated in South Carolina with the help of the only three Republican women in the Senate, but after Tuesday’s primary, they’re losing their election bids.
Voters handed the senators—and winners of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for people who risk their careers for the greater good—two losses and a runoff after they joined with Democratic women to defeat the measure, saying a pregnant woman shouldn’t lose control of her body as soon as an egg is fertilized.
But the state had only men in the Senate in 2012 and may end up without a single Republican woman in the chamber in 2025. There are just two Democratic women among the 46 members.
“You can’t tell me that’s not a slap in the face of women,” said Sen. Katrina Shealy who is gearing up for a runoff. “Republican women lose like this over one issue when we fought so hard for other things.”
Voters on Tuesday went against a trend of having second thoughts about more restrictive abortion law.
Statewide polling has indicated a near total ban doesn’t have wide support. But turnout was low and races were in Republican-drawn districts, where experts say voters tend to be more fervent about issues like abortion.
The Republican women had forced a compromise, and the state eventually implemented a ban once cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks after conception.
“It’s easier to fight mini battles than it is to take on a whole statewide war,” said Dave Wilson, a conservative political consultant who has worked with groups opposing abortion. “In the mini battles, voters can turn around and say they aren’t happy with the stance you took and the way you went about it. It doesn’t take a lot of them.” […]
Once upon a time, about 20 years ago, the attorney general of Oklahoma sued Tyson Chicken and 10 other chicken farms for filling the Illinois River with so much chicken shit that it actually smelled, the fish were asphyxiated, and it started to affect drinking water in the area. How much chicken shit you ask? An estimated 354,000 to 528,000 tons of chicken shit, per year. If you are as bad at conceptualizing measurements as I am, that is 13 Statues of Liberty of chicken shit to 19 and a half Statues of Liberty of chicken shit. Or 55,000 to 80,000 elephants worth of chicken shit.
That, friends, is some shit. Personally, I would think the mere thought of this would make anyone gag. But not Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt! No, what really got him was the lawsuit — which Tyson and the other chicken companies lost just last year. He was so upset about this that last week, he signed a new bill into law that would allow poultry farms to pollute to their heart’s content, so long as they don’t break any pre-existing state laws.
“You can’t have a business have a permit, doing what they’re supposed to do and then come in and let a frivolous lawsuit take place and somehow put them out of business. That’s un-American. It’s not going to happen in Oklahoma,” said Governor Stitt, according to KFOR. “We had a former attorney general that sued the chicken industry even though they were following all the rules at the time, saying they should have done something different. Hopefully this will settle this once and for all.”
I don’t know that I would categorize a literal River of Shit as frivolous, would you?
Stitt told the poultry farms that as long as they adhere to a lawful nutrient management plan, they cannot be held criminally or civilly responsible for anything horrible that happens to anyone or any fish as a result of their polluting.
Don’t think there won’t be consequences, though! There will be! The new law does make it a misdemeanor to not follow safety guidelines vis-à-vis chicken waste pollution, whatever those are, for which the punishment is no less than $500 a day, with a maximum of $10,000 a day, if they actually get caught and anyone bothers to charge them with anything. But if they find a new and exciting way to harm people or rivers or fish, then there will be no consequences at all!
The ironic thing is that the whole previous setup was actually very American. You see, it’s very difficult to regulate businesses and large corporations in these here United States, especially as it concerns pollution, because conservatives will throw a temper tantrum. The invisible hand of the market is supposed to fix things like this, by choking the life out of all the people who might complain. Also the fish.
So instead of normal regulations, we have lawsuits. In America, we always like to do things as ass-backwards as humanly possible, in order to put the onus on the harmed person to sue after being harmed, rather than put the onus on a business to not harm them in the first place.
[…] Ideally, there would be some kind of mix. Where we’d have regulations for the obvious things and then lawsuits to cover the less obvious or less predictable things. But that would probably make too much sense.
That’s how this works. But now, in Oklahoma, these chicken companies will be able to do anything they want without fear of being sued by those they harm, so long as it’s not already illegal.
If ever there were a case for age-related diminishment of a candidate, Donald Trump is it. New Yorker link for an article written by Susan B. Glasser
On Thursday, when Donald Trump met with Republicans in Washington, it was the first time he’d visited Capitol Hill in the four years since he pressed Congress to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In a statement, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized him for “returning to the scene of the crime” and warned that he was on a “mission of dismantling our democracy.” Trump’s allies in the Republican Party, meanwhile, suggested that he would be in forward-looking policy mode as he talked about plans for a second term in the White House. Yeah, right.
Trump, it will perhaps not surprise you to learn, has not been reborn as a statesman or a wonk. Reliable accounts suggest that his private remarks before the House Republicans were pretty much in keeping with his public appearances these days—sclerotic, rambling, nasty, and often incomprehensible. Fox News’s senior congressional correspondent reported, rather tactfully, that the ex-President meandered through “lots of tangents”; a small sampling, from the many accounts to emerge of what went on in the room, included Trump sharing his opinion on everything from Taylor Swift’s prospective endorsement of Joe Biden, to the “dirty, no-good bastards” at the Justice Department, to why he is a “big fan” of William McKinley. (Tariffs!) Trump wondered if his close ally Marjorie Taylor Greene was being “nice” to Speaker Mike Johnson these days. He called Biden a “dope” and, in one of those split-screen moments that tells you everything about the stakes of the 2024 election, warned that Ukraine is “never going to be there for us”; Biden, meanwhile, was in Europe, pledging unequivocal support to Ukraine in the form of a ten-year bilateral security agreement. Trump even trashed Milwaukee, where Republicans are soon to meet to nominate him as their Presidential candidate for a third straight election, as “a horrible city.” Once Trump’s comment became public, there were many competing explanations from attendees as to why he might think so; he apparently did not say.
[…] Even among House Republicans, whose ranks have been purged of all but two remaining members who voted to impeach Trump after the events of January 6, 2021, the performance wore thin. “I lost interest after about 45 minutes,” one Republican representative told Chad Pergram, the Fox News senior congressional correspondent. Speaking to reporters after the session, Johnson merely expressed relief that Trump had been so nice to him and his members. Trump “said very complimentary things about all of us,” he recounted. “We’re grateful for that.” A cult of personality, I guess, does not require the object of one’s veneration to be coherent. It is perhaps most telling of all that the packed breakfast meeting began with a chorus of House G.O.P. members singing “Happy Birthday” to their former President.
On Friday, Trump turned seventy-eight years old. If he wins another term in the White House, he would become the oldest President ever—except for the current President. Biden’s eighty-one years tend to get much of the attention these days. But why, exactly, is that?
If there were ever a case for age-related diminishment of a candidate, Trump is it. The ex-President’s bizarre rambles and odd obsessions—remember the whole cancer-causing-windmills thing?—have long characterized his public performances. But, in the 2024 campaign, the weird has got decidedly weirder. Just this past weekend, Trump interrupted a campaign rally in Nevada for an extended discourse on what one should do about a hypothetical shark attack when aboard a hypothetically sinking electric boat, and how he himself would prefer electrocution to being eaten by the shark—a sentence, which, as I am writing it, makes absolutely no sense and yet is a more or less accurate summary of what Trump said.
It’s also worth noting that Trump, pushing eighty, has made so many gaffes involving mixed-up names and places that they are hardly treated as major news—he has confused Pelosi with his Republican primary opponent Nikki Haley, forgotten that he is running against Biden and not Barack Obama, and once thought that he was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when he was in Sioux City, Iowa. Wherever one stands on the broader question of Trump’s mental health, the evident decline in his ability to speak clearly and coherently feels striking. Just look at some of the clips assembled by the health-news service stat back in 2017, when they consulted experts who saw clear evidence, in the course of decades, of Trump’s cognitive “deterioration.” That was seven years ago. When I look back at Trump’s speeches from 2016, or even from 2020, they seem positively lucid compared with his 2024 rallies.
Four years ago, in fact, age was a significant factor that counted against Trump in his first race with Biden. At least in part, that was because of the scrutiny attracted by the man’s own big mouth. Who could forget Trump’s famous brag in the summer of 2020, to a visibly uncomfortable Fox News interviewer, that he had aced a mental-acuity test? “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” He even congratulated himself on air for remembering the five words in the correct order. “It’s actually not that easy,” he said. “But for me it was easy.” Thanks no doubt to such performances by Trump, Biden’s older age did not seem to materially hurt him in that fall’s election.
Not this time. The combination of a years-long barrage by Trump and his allies to brand Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” and the very visible signs of Biden’s physical aging in the past four years, have made the question of the President’s continued fitness for office perhaps his toughest obstacle to reëlection. […] When the Wall Street Journal recently ran a long story about Biden’s age issues, the bulk of the reporting leaned heavily on Republican politicians who have endorsed Trump claiming that Biden was slipping. “He’s not the same person,” the former House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in the story’s lead-off quote. Trump did not make an appearance until well into the piece, in a few to-be-sure paragraphs that also quoted a spokesperson as saying he was “sharp as a tack.” The Journal has not run a similar reported piece about Trump and age, on its front page or anywhere else. [Propaganda from The Wall Street Journal]
[…] The Journal, I should say, is hardly alone on this, and the reasons for the uneven coverage are not necessarily evidence of bias. Trump has so many liabilities as a candidate that it can be hard to single out just this one. How does age rank, after all, against multiple criminal indictments, including for helping to incite an insurrection? For Biden, age is at the top of a much shorter list.
Whatever the rationale, it should not be lost on anyone that deflection has long been one of Trump’s favored tactics for dealing with just about any vulnerability. “He can’t put two sentences together,” Trump complained of Biden earlier this year, on the very same day that he confused Haley and Pelosi. His evident delight in mocking Biden as a doddering old fool has inspired a robust marketplace of Republican imitators, who post clips of Biden’s every halting stutter or blank stare as proof of his senescence, while ignoring the many miscues of their own leader. Among the many political lessons that the right has learned during the Trump era in politics, one of the most successful—and pernicious—is this: With Trump, don’t defend the indefensible; simply pretend it does not exist. [Yes. Accurate.]
No wonder House Republicans kept the birthday celebration for Trump on Thursday morning private. I say: Bring out the cake, strike up the band, let him blow out the candles in public. Trump loves it when he’s the center of attention, and I can think of no better subject for the public’s attention than the fact that Trump is getting another year older.
birgerjohanssonsays
John Morales @ 317
The Scathing Atheist, Skepticrat and God Awful Movies are all podcasts (with different focii) made by the gang of Noah Lugeons, Heath Enwright and Eli Bosnick, notorious stand-up comedians, skeptics and unapologetic SJ warriors.
I sort of assumed they were well known in Merican skeptic circles (if for no other reason that the managers of live events have to start imposing rules on what Eli must wear – and not wear- during live events. Once you have seen Eli in a thong, you cannot unsee it).
birger, it’s not that I don’t know it’s a podcast, it’s that I don’t know what the podcast is about.
The topic, the significance, something that may pique my interest about the content.
See, “Scathing Atheist 590 Falun Gong Show Edition” is pretty obvious.
Topic is Falun Gong. It’s episode 590.
“Scathing Atheist 591 Putting the Ouch in Voucher Edition” is not so obvious.
Topic is the Ouch in Voucher, apparently.
Now, I get you just like the show and you watch all the episodes and so forth, but if you think an episode is interesting enough to share (I already know about Falun Gong and its current status) then perhaps indicate what it is about that episode that makes it interesting.
Doesn’t that make sense to you?
birgerjohanssonsays
John Morales, Yes, but the problem -as nearly always- is time. Writing a post while waiting for a bus, or in between one meeting and the next. I try to keep the posts as brief as possible.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Synthesis process boosts perovskite solar cell performance to near market-ready standards”
.https://techxplore.com/news/2024-06-synthesis-boosts-perovskite-solar-cell.html
This has a real potential to drive down photovoltaic cell costs further (easier manufacturing than silica cells), as well as making them on flexible substrates. Power your AC and charge your Tesla!
(OK, you need a battery to charge the car unless you work from home)
(Maybe start your own business mining bitcoin? Naah! )
birgerjohanssonsays
A question for those more well-informed about organic chenistry.
If cheaper power is abundant, would it be feasible to add hydrogen atoms to hydrocarbons* increasing their energy content without increasing the use of petroleum? I am aware that some hydrocarbons can be made from biomass.
* preferably without using rare elements as catalysts.
birgerjohansson @ # 354: Writing a post while waiting for a bus…
Your buses run too fast and too often.
Import some Republicans &/or Tories to administrate your public transit, and you can write encyclopedic posts every time!
Jazzletsays
birgerjohansson @#354
If your cryptic posts are ignored, as they are by me because they are competing with plenty of other stuff I can be sure will be interesting, there is little point in making them. I have clicked on links of yours – when there was enough information about the link.
Demetri Kofinas came up with the term Financial Nihilism in 2019, describing it as a philosophy that treats the objects of speculation as though they are all intrinsically worthless.
Financial nihilism according to Demetri represents an ideological standpoint that questions the value and legitimacy of financial systems, markets, and even the concept of money itself. It doesn’t involve a simple disregard for fundamental reality but a contempt for all fundamentals. The point of view is that the entire system is a scam, and you should thus only view financial markets and prices as a casino.
The rise of meme stocks like GameStop and cryptocurrencies are symptoms of this point of view, where pumping financial products in a zero-sum game has become a style of investing for many of millennials who view it as a way to get rich in an essentially meaningless world.
John Authers argued in Bloomberg that, the latest bout of speculation, and especially the extraordinary excitement at GameStop, unlike prior bubbles has a different emotional driver: anger.
In today’s video Patrick explores what got us here and how might this idea affect society.
John Moralessays
[Oh, and I particularly like Patrick’s dry witticisms and deadpan delivery]
The Russian navy owns just one aircraft carrier. It’s been out of service since 2019 and may never sail again.
But the “carrier” that dictator Vladimir Putin has bragged about for years isn’t the sad, outdated, and accident-prone Admiral Kuznetsov: It’s Crimea. On the anniversary of the 2014 invasion in which Russia captured the Crimean Peninsula, Putin rolled out an old nickname to describe how a captured Crimea allowed Russia to dominate the Black Sea.
“I recalled that Crimea is often called the unsinkable aircraft carrier,” said Putin. “This is what prompted me to say that Crimea had returned to its home harbor.”
But even if the land that Russia’s Crimean air bases rest on is unsinkable, the planes, buildings, and defenses at those bases are not unreachable. And Ukraine has been reaching them—a lot.
Crimea has already become too dangerous for Russian ships. Now it may also be too dangerous for Russian planes. And soon, it could be too dangerous for Russians altogether.
A Ukrainian attack using ATACMS missiles took out multiple S-400 air defense positions near Sevastopol this week. The same weapon was already successfully striking airfields in Crimea, but with air defenses depleted, if not eliminated, Russian bases in Crimea are now vulnerable to attack by less sophisticated missiles and drones. [XPost nd images at the link]
Russia has reportedly pulled combat aircraft from bases in Crimea and moved it to sites within Russia. But it seems as if they haven’t gone far enough. There were reports on Thursday that aircraft were being pulled from Mozdok airfield, nearly 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine, after the base there was hit by Ukrainian drones. In May, there were reports that Russia had also been forced to pull back aircraft stationed at Kuschevsk military airfield following another drone attack there. That followed an April attack on the Yeysk airbase across the Tahanrozka Gulf from Mariupol.
Ukraine has continually harried aircraft in the south, which not only reduces Russia’s ability to defend its positions in Crimea, but reduces the threat of glide bombs and other air-deployed weapons along the entire southern front.
According to The Telegraph, Russia has lost all its safe spaces from which to operate aircraft in the south of Ukraine.
Crimea itself is now being squeezed—and not just the naval base in Sevastopol. American-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles and President Biden’s eventual lift on the ban from using them to hit targets in Russia (entirely legitimately under Article 51 of the UN charter) means that no place in the theatre is now safe from the Ukrainians.
As of June, there are only two supply lines into Crimea. The Kerch Bridge is still operating, but at a reduced capacity after two attacks. The second route is a refurbished and extended rail line along the north coast of the Black Sea through occupied Mariupol. Russia tried to supplement these routes with ferries, but Ukraine knocked the ferries out.
So why doesn’t Ukraine just go ahead and take out the Kerch Bridge?
It remains unclear whether Joe Biden has allowed the Ukrainians to have unitary-warhead ATACMS which could take the bridges down: but it is clear that no matter what ATACMS they have they can cut the overland railway whenever they like. It could be repaired quite quickly – it is hard to cripple a railway laid over flat country for a long time – but that supply route is clearly no longer to be relied upon.
It’s no longer a question of if Ukraine can take out Russia’s routes into Crimea: It’s a matter of when they do it and how that action fits into a larger plan.
The loss of Russian planes and ships isn’t the only thing making Putin’s position in Crimea precarious. The action the Russians took out of fear that Ukrainians would follow up the liberation of Kherson by pushing across the Dnipro River has had some serious consequences for Crimea’s long-term sustainability. [X post nd images at the link: The damage to the Crimean peninsula from the loss of the Nova Khakovka Dam is evident. With no reservoir to catch the seasonal rain and snow melt runoff, Crimea is left barren and dry.]
The Telegraph even indicates that some analysts are having … that thought. The thought that has come up many times since the illegal invasion began, but which neither side has acted on up to this point.
Some have even started to consider if this might be the moment for an amphibious landing of some sort by Ukraine. The Ukrainians have already made determined efforts to get across the Dnipro river, but the classic use of amphibious assault is to outflank the enemy. A landing in Crimea would avoid the need to attack into prepared defences as on the existing front line.
Ukraine did land a small number of men in Crimea almost a year ago. If that was a test run, it would seem to indicate that, even then, Russia’s coastal defenses weren’t any more reliable than their aerial counterparts.
[…] pulling off an amphibious landing is something like an 11 on a 1 to 10 scale of difficulty. But hey, if Russia doesn’t see it coming and doesn’t have defenses in place, maybe it’s just more of a boat trip.
It would certainly be a shock to all those Russians f-cking around north of Kharkiv.
Speaking of which …[X post and video at the link: Seeing more people on the streets of Kharkiv today. Thanks to the right decisions, this is happening. Kharkiv will never be a buffer zone—it will revive as a Ukrainian fortress.]
Many in Kharkiv seem to be pointing at one change that happened in Washington, D.C., as the turning point for Russia’s attempt to retake northern Ukraine. [X post and image at the link: Since the easing of restrictions on Western weaponry use, life in Kharkiv has significantly improved. While russian missile strikes still occasionally occur, and glide bombs can still approach northern suburbs, it is not entirely safe, but I increasingly venture outdoors. The omnipresent threat has diminished to a tolerable level.
The restrictions, which lasted over two years, left Kharkiv vulnerable and suffering. Despite our pleas, it seemed no one would intervene. But then, you spoke up. Although your leaders may have been deaf to our appeals, they listened to you. I am profoundly grateful for your advocacy; it moves me to the brink of tears. Your voice has been pivotal in making my daily life safer, allowing me to step outside without fear.
Yesterday, i sheltered from the rain in a supermarket without the dread of it being targeted, as was the ‘Epicenter.’
Thank you. Your support truly makes a difference.]
This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is at the annual G7 Summit, meeting with world leaders. Hopefully, he’s getting what he needs for Ukraine. [videos at the link]
Keep your fingers crossed. [X post and image at the link: Ukraine’s Budanov has just confirmed that Russia has deployed its $2.5 billion S500 missile system to Crimea.
Donald Trump went to Detroit. Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post reported:
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump repeated his characterization of Black communities as dangerous and depressed on Saturday, courting voters in a city he has called “hell” and “totally corrupt” as his campaign hopes incremental gains with Black voters could be decisive in swing states.
“Look, the crime is most rampant right here and in African American communities,” Trump said at 180 Church in Detroit. “More people see me and they say, ‘Sir, we want protection. We want police to protect us. We don’t want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread.’”
The audience, which was not predominantly Black, cheered at the remark. He returned to the topic of crime when asked how he would address Black entrepreneurship. “The biggest thing we can do is stop the crime,” he said.
Jaz Brisack, writing for The New York Times, reported a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that makes it harder for the National Relations Labor Board to sanction companies for union-busting activities.
[…] U.S. labor law contains no penalties for firing workers in retaliation for organizing — only remedies. If the courts rule that a worker was unlawfully fired, they are entitled to reinstatement and back pay, minus their interim earnings. In practice, the court process can take years and workers frequently receive significantly reduced back pay.
By making it harder for the N.L.R.B. to obtain injunctions, which are emergency legal measures intended to stop the harm that extreme union-busting actions cause to organizing campaigns, the Supreme Court underestimates the damage that retaliatory firings cause. Even before the decision, injunctions were rare, totaling less than 20 in 2023. The Supreme Court’s action exposes how little relief workers can expect to receive moving forward.
[…] While workers wait for justice, a company that engages in unlawful activity reaps the immediate and desired effects of its actions: the pro-union worker is thrown out of the workplace and those who remain are afraid to speak up lest they suffer the same fate. Not only are the minimal consequences insufficient deterrents, but companies have every incentive to break the law. […]
The advance of ultranationalist and far-right parties has shaken the European Union, but in northern Europe, the far right was badly hurt in Sunday’s election.
Finland and Sweden voted against the current. Extremist parties lost ground, and environmentalists and left-wing groups made important gains, providing a lifeline for their respective groups in the European Parliament. The EU election was also bad for the Portuguese extreme right. Chega, founded in 2019, has entered the European Parliament for the first time with two MEPs, but these results were far from the ambitious objectives it had set itself and far from the historic support it achieved in the general elections in March.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the far-right party of Geert Wilders came in second place in the European elections (behind the coalition of Social Democrats and the Greens). While this defeat is less of a blow — the Party for Freedom will go from having one to six MEPs in the European Parliament — it marks a shift from the November 2023 general elections, when it received the most votes. […]
Maybe Trump was confused because Admiral Ronnie got demoted to Captain. Trump bragged about his cognitive “brilliance” and promptly misidentified his White House Doctor, also current Congressman Ronnie Jackson, as Ronnie Johnson.
[X post and video at the link: Wow while challenging Biden to a cognitive test and bragging that he aced a dementia test, Trump forgets Ronny Jackson’s name: Ronny Johnson]
Trump: I think he should take a cognitive test like I did. I took a cognitive test and I aced it. Doc Ronny. Doc Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history, so I liked him very much immediately. In fact, he said if I didn’t eat junk food, I would live to 200. That’s what he said. But I said, Ronny should I take a test? He said, well, you know, it’s Walter Reed. It’s sort of a public hospital. If you don’t do well, they’re going to find out about it. I said, well, you know, like I’m a smart person and, how tough is it? He said, it gets very tough as you get to the middle of it. And I did something that he’s never seen done. I aced it. I got every question right. I aced it
Reminder: This is the actual story republicans are going with: Trump built the wall and gave us world peace and then Democrats and China (Trump’s pal Xi) made up a phony virus that doesn’t make you sick—and trump caught it and made a beautiful vaccine that kills you and he saved us—before Joe stole the election and trump had to start an insurrection that didn’t happen that Nancy did just so they could make it look like trump did it even though he told the attackers he loved them and would pardon them and Obama secretly runs everything and the CIA and FBI do too and George soros and they started the war Putin started and are behind the Hamas attack as well and trump will stop it all in 24 hours.
[…] CNBC reports that since leaving the White House in 2020, Trump has used an obscure campaign finance law loophole to cover his growing legal costs. Those costs amount to an eye-popping $90,000 per day for the past three years, according to Federal Elections Commission filings.
Ninety-thousand dollars? Every day?! T[…]Fortunately for Trump, Republican donors are paying for most of his criminal and civil shenanigans. And whether they know that or not is largely beside the point—because it’s all perfectly legal. […]
Campaign disclosures show Trump has used a web of political action committees, or PACs, to funnel donor money to a leadership PAC he founded called Save America, which is primarily paying his legal bills. These groups are separate from his official campaign and not subject to the same restrictions by the FEC.
“This has been a problem for years, if not decades,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center. “Leadership PACs are often used by candidates and officeholders as kind of a slush fund to pay for whatever they want without really any oversight.”
[…] In other words, this alleged billionaire is spending a fuckton of other people’s money on things that have very little to do with improving the lives of small-dollar donors, who account for a considerable percentage of his overall campaign funding.
[…] Remember after the 2020 election, when Trump (in)famously solicited donations for an Election Defense Fund that didn’t actually exist? The victims of his Big Lie included everyone who wanted to continue to live in a Western-style democracy, but his phony Election Defense Fund was all about fleecing his friends and supporters.
The Guardian recounts the spate of emails Trump sent out in the aftermath of the 2020 election begging his supporters to keep Democrats from stealing his “victory.” But in what could be seen as an admission that he knew he was lying and there were no nefarious operators to defend his fake landslide win against, he never actually created an election defense fund.
There was only one problem with this epic flurry of emails: the Official Election Defense Fund did not exist. As the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol revealed in a public hearing […] Trump and his allies raised $250m from the emails by persuading loyal followers to donate to a chimera. […]
As Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the House Jan. 6 committee, said at the time this was all revealed, “The Big Lie was also a big ripoff.”
But one grift at a time is never enough for Trump. He needs multiple revenue streams to keep his long con going.
Take Trump Media & Technology Group stock. The company has fundamentals that would suggest it’s worth maybe $2 a share, and yet folks are still scooping those shares up at close to $40 a pop. Many of these investors may simply like Trump and be willing to spend their hard-earned dollars to prop him up—and others are likely betting on Trump winning in November and making Truth Social a de facto state media outlet. […]
Then there are the goofy NFTs, garish golden sneakers, blasphemous Bibles, and endless streams of worthless tchotchkes that Trump continually hawks like a carnival barker […]
Meanwhile, Trump is also dipping his mitts into tills that were never meant for his dainty digits.
The Associated Press, March 22:
Donald Trump’s new joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee directs donations to his campaign and a political action committee that pays the former president’s legal bills before the RNC gets a cut, according to a fundraising invitation obtained by The Associated Press.
The unorthodox diversion of funds to the Save America PAC makes it more likely that Republican donors could see their money go to Trump’s lawyers, who have received at least $76 million over the last two years to defend him against four felony indictments and multiple civil cases. Some Republicans are already troubled that Trump’s takeover of the RNC could shortchange the cash-strapped party.
[…] one seriously hefty tithe for a cult that returns little more than tacit permission to be deplorable racists. […]
Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds on Sunday urged the Supreme Court to take up former President Donald Trump’s New York case in which he was convicted on 34 counts of falsification of business records.
“Speaker [Mike] Johnson, myself included, and many Americans believe the Supreme Court should step into this matter,” Donalds told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
His comments come after Johnson told Fox News that the Supreme Court should look into the case.
“There’s a lot of developments yet to come, but I do believe the Supreme Court should step in. Obviously, this is totally unprecedented,” Johnson told “Fox & Friends” shortly after Trump’s conviction.
Trump’s legal team has promised to appeal his conviction, but there are appellate courts in New York that would have to review the case before it could be brought to the Supreme Court.
Donalds referenced the lengthy appellate process in New York on Sunday, citing it as a reason why the Supreme Court should step in earlier.
He called the case against Trump an attempt to “interfere” in his election campaign.
“This is being done for political purposes. Everybody knows how the court system works in New York. The only ability for this to be overturned is going to be happening two or three years from now,” Donalds told moderator Peter Alexander.
Unfortunately, he left out the details of just how the Supreme Court would “step into this matter.”
[…] The Post Fire has spread to about 12,265 acres and is just 2 percent contained, according to the latest update from Cal Fire as of Sunday afternoon. Cal Fire said that California State Park Services had evacuated about 1,200 people from Hungry Valley Park, where officials say that the fire is moving toward.
There are also evacuation warnings in place for south of Pyramid Lake between Old Ridge Route and the Los Angeles County line, including Paradise Ranch Estate, according to Cal Fire. The Los Angeles Fire Department said its firefighters are “working to construct perimeter fire lines around the flakes of the fire.”
“Slightly higher temperatures and lower humidity are expected to continue through the weekend, residents are reminded to remain vigilant and be prepared to evacuate if fire activity changes. Winds are expected to increase from 9:00 P.M. to midnight. Gusts are up to 30 MPH, with stronger winds at the ridge tops, reaching over 50 MPH,” Cal Fire said in its latest incident summary.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles issued a red flag warning for the I-5 corridor in Los Angeles County until 5 p.m. on Monday due to high wind and low humidity. The service said there could be wind gusts of 45-55 mph on Sunday that increase to 60-70 mph tonight.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services positioned firefighting equipment and personnel around the state to address the fire, the office announced on Saturday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen criticized former President Trump after he suggested replacing some of the United States’s income taxes with higher tariffs on imports to make up for lost revenue.
The former president outlined his idea during a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week. Yellen joined ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, where host Jonathan Karl asked if Trump’s idea would be “remotely feasible.”
“It would require tariffs well over 100 percent,” Yellen said.
“The impact would be to make life unaffordable for working-class Americans,” she continued, adding it “would harm American businesses.”
Trump’s campaign described his tariff as a key feature of their economic strategy, which is focused on domestic manufacturing.
[…] According to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, […] the proposal would cost Americans around $1,500 per year.
The study, like Yellen, says the tariff would be more detrimental to U.S. consumers and importers than it would to foreign adversaries like China.
For example, the tax on imports would translate to an additional $90 per year spent on food, $120 spent on oil, $220 on automobiles, $70 on clothes, $80 on electronics and $50 on furniture and appliances.
Tariffs are currently a small source of U.S. revenues, accounting for 1.7 percent of annual federal income in fiscal 2024.
Both Trump and President Biden say domestic manufacturing is the center of their economic agenda while they campaign across America ahead of this fall’s election. […]
The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle is right around the corner, and CNN announced Sunday that the campaigns of both President Biden and former President Trump have agreed to new debate rules.
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will host the debate, which will take place in Atlanta, Ga., on June 27.
Both candidates agreed to appear at a uniform podium, and their podium positions will be determined by a coin flip, CNN said.
Microphones will be muted throughout the debate except when it’s that candidate’s turn to speak. Tapper and Bash will be able to “use all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion.”
The 90-minute debate will include two commercial breaks, and campaign staff cannot interact with their candidate during the break, the network said.
Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a water bottle, but they cannot bring prewritten notes on stage.
There will be no studio audience, unlike debates in the past, CNN said. […]
NB -If you live in Britain, and know someone who is negative to voting because of the hassle, please help them with the paperwork!
And if necessary, help them get an ID the voting authorities accept.
-Please also keep up with the options for ‘tactical voting’ if your preferred party is unlikely to come first (check legit web sites for information, there are many bogus web sites created by Tories to mislead voters).
NB – if even a modest number of Liberal Democrat voters vote labour in areas where labour is the second largest party, they have the power to wreck so many tory MPs that the Lib Dems become the second largest party!
This is a position that brings several priviliges in parliament, plus more coverage by media. A win-win.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe was in the news for saying something stupid again last week, this time due to leaked footage from a town hall meeting in his rural farming constituency of Rosthern-Shellbrook where he did his best to answer barking mad questions from the audience.
Moe was asked by a concerned citizen about what the provincial government plans to do about the sinister “chemtrails” left by commercial airliners, presumably on the orders of George Soros and/or the Biden Crime Family, in order to turn people gay or into Wi-Fi hotspots or whatever the flavor of crazy du jour is. Possibly trick them into voting for Justin Trudeau or buying Taylor Swift albums.
“Can’t someone else do it?” Moe responded. Lol. Just kidding. That line actually came from Moe the bartender in an old episode of “The Simpsons” where Homer adopted it as a campaign slogan for a foray into populist politics where he successfully ran to replace Steve Martin as Springfield’s Sanitation Commissioner. (Hilarity ensued.)
What Premier Moe actually said in response was:
“I am starting to hear about this through emails into our office the last number of months and I, honestly, I’ll have to do some more work looking into it. … I don’t know if there is as co-ordinated an approach as some folks think, but obviously there are emissions that are coming out of the jets that are flying over and the prospect is, or the projection is, there is going to be a lot more jets flying in the not too distant future than there is today.”
So basically Moe said he is going to do his own research before making any major policy announcements. […] The last time Yr Wonkette wrote about Canada’s only rectangular province was because Elon Musk was showering it with deadly space junk, but evidently some residents are more concerned about imaginary threats from above.
If unfamiliar with the chemtrails conspiracy, it’s about fears the tinfoil hat community have about the puffy white lines sometimes left behind by planes. Contrails are caused when water vapor and soot particulates from burning jet fuel freeze into ice crystals. They generally evaporate in low air humidity but, when the humidity is higher, they don’t and so create the visible wakes in the sky similar to the lines left by the fancy bikes from Tron.
The fever dream that shadowy forces are regularly dousing the planet with bioweapons first took hold in the ‘90s and, like many enduring conspiracy theories, contains a particle of truth. Back in the mid-20th century, parts of Britain actually were sprayed with airborne chemicals in secret germ warfare tests by the Ministry of Defense to see what might happen if the Soviets deployed chemical weapons against the island.
The UK government finally came clean in 2002 with a report detailing their covert Cold War-era callousness towards public safety. As the Guardian reported at the time:
One chapter of the report, “The Fluorescent Particle Trials,” reveals how between 1955 and 1963 planes flew from north-east England to the tip of Cornwall along the south and west coasts, dropping huge amounts of zinc cadmium sulphide on the population. The chemical drifted miles inland, its fluorescence allowing the spread to be monitored. In another trial using zinc cadmium sulphide, a generator was towed along a road near Frome in Somerset where it spewed the chemical for an hour.
While the Government has insisted the chemical is safe, cadmium is recognised as a cause of lung cancer and during the Second World War was considered by the Allies as a chemical weapon.
Not a good look for 007’s employer but militaries pulled all kinds of crazy shit back then. The US Navy even conscripted dolphins! It’s unclear if Moe believes airplane exhaust emissions are something actually worth investigating but my money is on the Hank Hill doppleganger simply pandering to his base, which tends to be Moe’s modus operandi. [comparative image at the link]
Saskatchewan isn’t what anyone would describe as a progressive part of the country. The province is so flat it’s almost understandable it’s produced so many Flat Earth types. The Conservative Party of Canada won every seat there in the last federal election, and that’s before they jettisoned their relatively moderate leader, Erin O’Toole, in favor of the unapologetically vicious Pierre Poilievre.
Moe’s Saskatchewan Party won a majority in the last provincial election four years ago, with 48 out of an available 61 seats to the lefty NDP’s 13, but they’re no doubt worried about potential vote-splitting with emerging lunatic Right parties in the upcoming fall election.
The Buffalo Party, for example, formed in 2020 out of frustration over pandemic restrictions in a province that had the most lax rules in the country. The upstart fringe party nonetheless managed to win 2.5 percent of the popular vote despite only running 17 candidates.
Not to be confused with the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes of “Flintstones” fame, the party took its name from the prairie province’s abundance of American bison, which was 52,860 at last count, or 52,856 more than they currently have at the zoo in Buffalo, New York. The irony is likely lost on them the word is also a euphemism for bullying.
(Side note/fun fact: The longest sentence in English using only one word is “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” Swap in bison and capitalize the word to represent the lakeside city in upstate New York and you’ve got “Bison from New York, whom other New York bison bully, bully other bison from New York.”)
And now there’s the new Saskatchewan United Party, which formed two years ago after MLA Nadine Wilson was either booted from caucus for lying about her vaccination status or resigned on principle to escape the tyranny of Scott Moe, depending on whom you talk to. But expecting low-information voters to differentiate between the far-right Saskatchewan Party and the far-right Saskatchewan United Party is a roll of the dice.
[…] Moe added more fuel to the fire at the same town hall by also promising to “look into” suggestions from the crowd the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) were out to get them, which drew the immediate ire of NDP leader Carla Beck.
“It shouldn’t have been difficult for the premier to simply say, ‘You know what? That’s not the case. Saskatchewan health-care workers and the SHA were not involved in poisoning the population,’” she told the Regina Leader Post.
But the funniest part about this whole mess is it seems to have created a dumb new controversy of its own. Attempting to defuse the situation, the government put out a statement saying Moe “accepted an invitation from the Mayor to attend a town-hall meeting in Speers where he did just that, listening to and responding to constituents’ concerns on a number of different topics.”
But, according to the mayor of the village of Speers, Kenneth Rebeyka, no such RSVP was ever sent, and Moe was forced to admit it was an oopsie to say he’d been invited to speak.
Chances are Mayor Rebeyka and his family are fielding online death threats from engaged and enraged Saskatchewanians as you read this.[…]
there /is/ ARE going to be a lot more jets flying in the not too distant future than there /is/ ARE today.”
———————–
Wait, so Saskatchewan isn’t the woke paradise that those people who moved to Russia claimed it is?? Shocking, I tell you!
More than 50 settlements have burned repeatedly, suggesting “intent” and possible forced displacement, an open source investigator told NBC News.
Hundreds of towns and villages across Sudan have been burned to the ground, and the fires were likely man-made, satellite images and open-source reporting show — the result of a brutal civil war that has been raging in the northeast African nation for over a year.
Bitter fighting between the forces of two rival generals has laid waste to much of the country, thousands have been slaughtered, and 10 million people have been driven from their homes, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the United Nations migration agency.
And as the fighting has spread, homes and aid camps have been burned out by fires that have been started intentionally, experts and analysts say. […]
Pauses will take place from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day until further notice. The humanitarian pauses do not mean the military assault has ended. “There is no cessation of fighting” in Rafah, the military said.
[…] The “tactical pause,” which applies to about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) of road in the Rafah area, falls far short of a complete cease-fire in the territory that has been sought by the international community, including Israel’s top ally, the United States. It could help address some of the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged in recent weeks with Israel’s incursion into Rafah. […]
More at the link.
John Moralessays
“Pauses will take place from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day until further notice.”
↓
“Indiscriminate killing will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. to each day until further notice.”
Oh, good.
John Moralessays
It could help address some of the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged in recent weeks with Israel’s incursion into Rafah.
↓
Some places have business hours, some have killing hours.
Darwin’s War | Inside the secret bunker of Ukraine’s ace FPV drone pilot
[May 20, 2024]
In Real Life journeys into the world of one of Ukraine’s most accomplished FPV drone pilots — a 20-year-old former medical student (he goes by the callsign ‘Darwin’) who personifies the evolutionary leap in drone warfare.
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna, OM @ 380
The international community refused to support the grassroots push for democracy a few years ago, after lobbying by Saudi Arabia and the usual suspects.
Instead the country got a civil war between robber barons. 😡
birgerjohanssonsays
“Come and See” Creepy scene
Partisans question captured SS officer from the Dirlewanger brigade after German massacre. (The Dirlewanger brigade killed more thsn 100.000 civilians)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Im40o004zqs
Rohingya activists fear civilians could be targeted and thousands forced to leave their homes after a rebel group announced plans to attack Maungdaw, a town home to a large Muslim minority population in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. It comes weeks after the Arakan Army was accused of burning down Rohingya homes during an attack on the nearby military government-held town of Buthidaung. The Arakan Army denies the accusations. In a statement on Sunday, the group said all residents “are urged to avoid staying in areas such as roads and houses.”
Rohingya activist Wai Wai Nu said she recently spoke to Maungdaw locals who felt trapped.”The road from Maungdaw to Buthidaung and Sittwe is closed … so they have nowhere to flee,” she told the ABC.Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition advocacy group, also spoke to Rohingya locals in Maungdaw who are living in fear.
..(Snip!).. Wai Wai Nu fears the impending attack on the Rohingya is part of an effort to systematically “erase” the Rohingya.
More than 100 Australians earned more than $1 million in total income yet paid no tax in 2021–22, while Australia’s highest earners live in Double Bay, according to newly released data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). In its latest annual Taxation Statistics, data extracted from tax returns reveals the number of people who earned more than $1 million but paid no tax has climbed to 102 in 2021–22, up from 66 a year earlier. Analysis of the data by the Australia Institute and the ABC shows this cohort of affluent taxpayers earned on average $3.8 million each.Overall, these 102 millionaires claimed $279 million worth of different deductions to reduce their tax bills to zero.
I live in the UK and I’m voting Green. There is absolutely no need for tactical voting to get the Tories out – they are toast. It’s much more important to maximise the Green vote, to put leftward and pro-climate-action pressure on the incoming Labour government than to try (almost certainly unsuccessfully) to push the Tories into third place for number of seats.
StevoRsays
Chyaa-rrrming Chaplain, charming :
An army chaplain, tasked with consoling the families of four airmen who died in the Taipan helicopter crash off Queensland’s coast last year, has denied telling a partner she would “find somebody new”. …(snip).. In the months after the crash, Chaplain Bruce Hammonds — who served as a reservist with the 6th Aviation Regiment — was accused of telling the partner of Lieutenant Nugent, Chadine Whyte, she was “young” and would “find somebody new”.
New international polling confirms that the U.S. under Joe Biden enjoys the kind of international respect Donald Trump talked about but never achieved.
Exactly one year ago this week, Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier, and the host asked the former president what he considers “the most important issue” facing the country. […]
“Basically, respect all over the world,” Trump said. “We don’t have it anymore. We had tremendous respect three years ago. We don’t have respect anymore. … We have to get that respect back. And if we don’t, we’ve got some big problems.”
This has been a rhetorical staple for the presumptive GOP nominee for quite a while. In fact, as recently as April, Trump told a Pennsylvania audience, referring to his White House tenure, “We were the most respected country in the world. We were the most respected that we were ever respected. We were never more respected than we were four years ago.”
Those claims didn’t reflect reality in any way, as we were reminded anew last week in the latest findings from the Pew Research Center.
With many around the world closely following the fiercely contested rematch between U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that, internationally, Biden is viewed more positively than his rival.
There’s quite a bit of data to review in the report, which gauged public attitudes in 34 countries, across several continents, but there were a couple of key takeaways. First, internationally, more people have confidence in Biden to do the right thing regarding world affairs, as compared to Trump.
And second, while confidence in the White House slumped badly, during Trump’s presidency, those numbers have rebounded under Biden.
Not surprisingly, there’s a great deal of variety across specific countries and regions, […]. But it’s nevertheless obvious in the data that Biden enjoys the kind of international respect Trump talked about but never achieved.
[…] Revisiting our earlier coverage, a Gallup report in 2021 found that approval ratings of U.S. leadership around the world had “largely rebounded from the record-low ratings observed during the Trump administration.” […]
A year later, Gallup released another report on the United States’ standing among NATO members, concluding that U.S. leadership in the Biden era “was stronger across much of NATO than it had been in years, after languishing at low levels during the Trump administration.”
The latest Pew Research Center data, in other words, is consistent with the recent trend.
[snipped more details regarding Trump’s nonsensical self-serving comments] The United States was an international laughingstock for decades, Trump has long argued, 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.
[…] If Trump is genuinely convinced that international respect for the United States is “the most important issue” facing the country, I have good news and bad news for the former president. The good news is that the country’s standing has rebounded nicely as compared to four years ago; the bad news is that it’s Biden who’s helped deliver the encouraging results.
There’s not even a time delay between Rick Scott’s displays of obvious hypocrisy.
Last week, Sen. Rick Scott voted against the Right to IVF Act. One day later, the Florida Republican unveiled an ad bragging about his support for IVF. […]
Details at the link, including this line from the ad: “Each of my 7 grandkids is a precious gift from God. But sometimes families need help. You can count on this grandpa to always protect IVF.”
From The New Republic:
The only thing Rick Scott is better at than bad timing is hypocrisy. The Republican senator … released a campaign ad touting his support for in vitro fertilization on Friday — less than 24 hours after voting against the Right to IVF Act.
Steve Benen:
[…] Of course, the larger significance to this goes beyond one senator’s apparent hypocrisy and the gap between what the GOP says and what the GOP does on this issue: Scott’s ad also suggests that Republicans feel vulnerable when it comes to IVF as a campaign issue. […]
If you go on TikTok or Instagram, you’ll see legions of wellness influencers promoting the benefits of unpasteurized “raw” milk, which hasn’t been heated to kill off illness-causing microorganisms. Raw milk is risky business at the best of times, and despite what some influencers claim, there are no nutritional benefits to drinking it, according to the CDC. But it’s now also a vector for H5N1, the new bird flu spreading through cows.
[…] For decades, there have been reports that women outnumber men in American universities and that more women are getting college degrees. Some have fretted about what this means for American men and speculated that it would upend the economic gender gap.
As NPR reports, despite women collecting more college degrees than men since the 1980s, it turns out that three whole generations of women outperforming men still haven’t leveled the playing field.
Women still earn 82 cents, on average, for every dollar earned by men, Pew reports—a figure that is nearly unchanged since 2002.
And after steadily increasing for more than a decade, the proportion of top managers of companies who are women declined last year, to less than 12%, according to the credit ratings and research company S&P Global.
Women are working harder and outperforming men in college by a higher margin than ever, and their reward for this is still to be considered second class in the workplace.
But please, let’s not stop the flood of articles crying for the poor American male.
Sounds both ominous and desperate. From same source :
“People started this catastrophe [in Gaza] and people can stop it … The extra Norwegian contribution is in line with what we always do vis-a-vis UNRWA and we are also lobbying on its behalf with other stakeholders, telling them it’s vital not only for the people in Gaza but also for all Palestinians and there is no alternative for UNRWA,” she said. “A country like Norway will do all it can diplomatically to get aid into Gaza, but we also have to plan for the day after so the international community has to work for a ceasefire and for the day after,”- Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Norway’s international development minister spekaing to Al Jazeera.
Wisconsin Republicans have placed two little-noticed amendments on the Aug. 13 primary ballot that would strip Democratic Gov. Tony Evers of key powers, continuing their long-standing efforts to hobble Evers that began even before he took office six years ago. […]
Republicans commenced this latest effort largely in response to how Evers chose to spend billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief. GOP state Rep. Robert Wittke, who helped author the amendment, explained that it “would restore the balance in how we manage money coming in from the federal government, and take us back to the ‘30s, when we actually changed this because of the Great Depression.”
In addition to their attempts to explicitly undermine Evers’ authority, Republicans have conducted an unprecedented blockade of executive branch appointments by voting to fire his appointees and refusing to confirm others for key offices, such as the board that governs Wisconsin’s university system.
This obstruction has left important positions vacant or occupied by appointees of former Gov. Scott Walker who have refused to leave office despite their terms expiring—a practice the state Supreme Court upheld before conservatives lost their grip on the court last year.
Although liberals gained a historic 4-3 majority on the court after 15 years in the wilderness, undoing the many measures Republicans implemented to sabotage Wisconsin’s democracy will take years. […]
More at the link, including an update on previously gerrymandered maps.
Biden knows ‘exactly what he is doing’ and will likely win election, says German chancellor
In an interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Olaf Scholz made assurances that Biden can provide critical leadership as the group of global leaders faces a complex web of mounting issues.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz indicated strong support and confidence in U.S. President Joe Biden’s leadership amid mounting concerns about Biden’s mental acuity and the specter of former President Donald Trump’s return to office.
In an interview with Axel Springer media outlets on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy on Saturday, Scholz made assurances that Biden “knows exactly what he is doing,” and can provide critical leadership as the group of global leaders faces a complex web of issues, including multiple conflagrations and hotly-contested elections that threaten to upend the international status quo. […]
Commentary from Greg Dworkin:
There are not, in fact, “mounting concerns” about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity. That’s a Republican talking point, raised by House Speaker Mike Johnson and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
An op-ed in The Hill from the right-wing Heartland Institute showcases a new idea that, at first glance, seems like a joke: The U.S. should drop attempts to address the climate crisis because artificial intelligence needs more power.
Millions of Americans are facing record high temperatures as a “heat dome” settles over the East. Not only was 2023 the hottest year in history, but every month in 2024 has been hotter than it was in 2023. A review of the causes of this record heat suggests that 100% is due to human activity.
However, Heartland editor Chris Talgo says that concerns over using coal-fired power plants to feed AI’s mega-watt hunger are the real threat.
“First, we must stop the foolish movement to transition away from a primarily fossil-fuel based energy grid toward one that relies on unaffordable, unreliable, and unscalable wind and solar power,” he writes.
If efforts to save the planet get in the way of whatever it is that AI is maybe, possibly going to do for us … then the world will just have to go.
Talgo’s op-ed is filled with statements that seem like parody, such as the claim that “so-called renewable energy sources like wind and solar poses the largest threat to an AI-based future.”
When it comes down to it, Talgo’s basic argument is so jaw-droppingly awful that it seems like even The Hill, which is a conduit for anything right-wing think tanks want to slip through its dusty mail slot, would be reluctant to publish.
… the massive, ill-advised push by climate alarmists to transition almost overnight from reliable and affordable energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal to not-ready-for-primetime green energy is incompatible with the huge amount of energy that AI will require in the decades to come.
U.S. solar installations skyrocketed again in 2023, as the price of photovoltaic panels continues to plunge. Solar added 32.4 gigawatts of electric generating capacity to the grid in 2023 […]
Right now, there are entire power plants completely devoted to the process of “mining” for Bitcoin. That includes poorly regulated coal plants that would have been closed were it not for the huge power demands of producing a fundamentally useless string of numbers. […]
Coal goes in, energy is produced, but what comes out of the plants are only numbers in a blockchain.
As terrible as that sounds, states aren’t only refusing to regulate it, they are rushing to help.
In 2023, Arkansas passed the “right to mine” bill to protect Bitcoin miners from “discriminatory regulations and taxes.” […]
Arkansas Republicans were thrilled about getting out ahead of other red states, convinced that the state would become America’s crypto hub.
So crypto miners flooded in. A year later, Arkansas is busy trying to regulate the industry it deregulated after finding that people are not thrilled about living next to sheds full of computers mining fake billions for foreign investors. […]
Compared to crypto, AI is much easier to defend. After all, Bitcoin mined in Arkansas might only fatten the wallet of a Russian oligarch, but any common person can reach into their pocket and touch the art-stealing, hallucinatory, artificial girlfriend experience that is AI.
[…] Right now, there is bound to be some state polishing its credentials to become the AI capital of the U.S., and some filthy, unnecessary coal plant at the end of its decades-long life being prepped to generate the text behind a million spambots.
Earlier this month, […] Trump held his first campaign rally as a convicted felon at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted by the arch-conservative student group Turning Point USA. This wasn’t Trump’s first appearance at Dream City Church; he also held a rally there with Turning Point USA in 2020. […] A weekly attendance of around 21,000 believers makes this one of the largest churches not just in Arizona but in the nation.
[…] a mecca for special guests who blur the line between religion and politics. Its annual conference has featured notables like musician and pastor Sean Feucht, who participated in a White House prayer session for Trump in 2019 and is currently leading a tour of prayer rallies at state capitol buildings across the country. The lineup for this year’s event also included David Barton, whose organization, WallBuilders, teaches K-12 students about the supposed Christian origins of America; Jurgen Mathesius, a pastor at San Diego’s far-right Awaken Church, which has become a stop on Mike Flynn’s ReAwaken America tour; and Jentezen Franklin, a televangelist who also spoke at the 2022 Pray Vote Stand Summit, which mobilizes conservative Christian voters to engage in political activism.
In addition to its thrumming weekly worship sessions and its blockbuster events, the church has another project: Dream City Christian Academy. The K-12 private school, which serves nearly 800 students, is part of Turning Point USA’s Turning Point Academy program, a network of 41 schools that describes itself as “an educational movement that exists to glorify God and preserve the founding principles of the United States through influencing and inspiring the formation of the next generation.” Dream City Christian Academy promises to “Protect our campus from the infiltration of unethical agendas by rejecting all ‘woke’ and untruthful ideologies being pushed on students.”
This politically charged approach to education likely isn’t for everyone—and because it’s a private school, it doesn’t have to be. Except for one thing: Dream City Christian Academy is one of a growing number of religious schools that are supported by public funds.
In 2022, Arizona became the first state in which all students are allowed to use state vouchers to cover a portion of tuition at any private school, secular or religious. Through Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, each participating family receives about 90 percent of the money the state would have spent on the child’s public school education—around $7,000 per student per year—for private school tuition. For the 2024-2025 school year, the Dream City Christian Academy annual tuition ranges from $10,450 in elementary school to $13,999 in high school—so families of the school’s nearly 800 students can use state funds to pay for between half and two-thirds of their tuition bill. Dream City Christian Academy received almost $1 million in tuition voucher money last year, the Arizona Republic recently reported.
When Arizona passed the legislation that allowed for private school vouchers, the program was projected to cost $65 million in 2024 and $125 million in 2025. But the most recent estimates put that cost at a staggering $940 million per year, more than 1,000 percent of the initial estimate. The news of the cost overruns came just a few days after two of the program’s leaders resigned, Arizona Public Media reported last July. A report last month from Brookings Institution, the nonpartisan policy think tank, found that Arizona’s program was disproportionately used by wealthy families—even though it was designed to boost the academic achievement of students from families in underserved school districts. As it turned out, families in the highest poverty areas were five times less likely than people in the wealthiest areas to use vouchers.
Dream City Church’s school isn’t the only Christian private school benefitting from Arizona’s new program. Consider Christos Academy, a new project of Great Hearts, a network of public charter schools. […] Another school, Caritas Academy in Chandler, boasts that ESAs are “greatly reducing, and in some cases even eliminating, out-of-pocket costs to attend Caritas Christian Academy.” On its website, Tucson’s Pusch Ridge Christian Academy says that 90 percent of its students utilize state-funded scholarship programs to pay their tuition. […]
Since Arizona passed its universal voucher law, 10 more states have followed suit. According to an analysis by Education Week, 29 states currently have programs that provide such assistance […] When state funds are available for private school choice programs, a recent Washington Post analysis found that religious schools receive upwards of 90 percent of that money.
[snipped history of growth] A prerequisite for students and their families to attend some of the schools that currently receive voucher money is that they accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. In March, the education blog Notes from the Chalkboard highlighted one such school. Students attending North Carolina’s Daniel Christian Academy, are trained to “enter the Seven Mountains of Influence,” a main tenet of a Christian Nationalist movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. Its adherents believe that the faithful are called to seek Christian control of the “seven mountains” of society: family, education, media, government, business, arts & entertainment, and religion. […]
The overarching goal of these initiatives is to “bestow a power and privilege on Christians in our country, at the expense of all the other religions in America.” Meanwhile, public education is robbed “of the funding that it’s entitled to.” […]
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) made history Monday with a mass pardoning of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, a move he said would changes the lives of tens of thousands of Marylanders after the state legalized recreational cannabis last year. […]
From supply side/“trickle down” economics to the Bush and Trump tax cuts to counting votes even for their own House leadership, Republicans are bad at math.
It was a running theme on the Sunday shows this week.
Alternative Math
Normally we don’t cover Fox Business’s MAGA Funhouse “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo, but some things cannot go unmentioned. This time it was former Trump senior counselor and professional liar extraordinaire Kellyanne Conway.
[video at the link]
Conway shared attendance numbers more overblown than old WrestleMania estimates for Trump’s appearance on Saturday at a Black church in Detroit.
CONWAY: Biden’s not doing anything like that, look at the contrast of just this weekend. You’ve got Donald Trump in Detroit talking to 8,000 people at a Black church.
Eight thousand people? Was Kellyanne Conway also counting the victims of the Bowling Green Massacre? (Never Forget.) The only thing more ridiculous than this estimate, as Twitter users pointed out, was the lack of Black people at the Black church for Trump’s visit. [images at the link]
As PatriotTakes on Twitter also pointed out, some of the Black people in attendance were racking up frequent flyer miles. [image at the link]
Income Inequality Only Happens When Democrats Are In Charge
Another mathematical hazard for Republicans is economics. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds was on NBC’s “Meet The Press” to dodge questions on trade while calling for a return to Trump’s economy, something host Peter Alexander pointed out makes zero sense. [video at the link]
ALEXANDER: The debt rose by $8.4 trillion when Donald Trump was in office, and also the Fed chair, who Donald Trump himself selected, has said this week that the economy is “growing at a solid pace” and we have a “strong labor market.”
Republicans, because they were counting on a recession to help them get elected, have desperately resorted to borrowing progressive talking points.
DONALDS: Under Joe Biden’s economy, their purchasing power is being destroyed by Joe Biden’s radical inflation. Prices are up 20 percent across the board. So while unemployment might be low, wages adjusted for inflation are significantly down. How can a Black person get ahead when you have less disposable income today than you had in 2017, in 2018, in 2019?
Why stop there? Why haven’t wages adjusted for inflation for decades and Americans now have less disposable income than previous generations? The answer is because that conversation on income inequality would bring up decades of Republicans destroying unions, tax breaks/loopholes for billionaires and deregulations of corporations. This like when an abuser uses therapy-speak to manipulate and continue abuse.
Donalds also tried to polish Trump’s statement last week about Milwaukee, host of the 2024 Republican National Convention, being a “horrible city,” and Trump’s campaign saying he was talking about crime. After Peter Alexander pointed out that murders are 39 percent lower this year than last, Donalds deflected:
DONALDS: I think it’s important for people to understand your murder rate may be down, but that doesn’t mean that violent crime, et cetera, are also lower. Those are two different pieces of crime. Obviously, murder is the most heinous of them all.
ALEXANDER: Fine, but –
DONALDS: […] The reason why the RNC and President Trump want to go to Milwaukee is because we know there are voters in the state of Wisconsin, like voters all across America, who are frustrated with what has happened to our country under Joe Biden. […]
ALEXANDER: Again I – I apologize for the interruption. A lot to get to. We should note it’s not just the murder rate. The overall violent crime has fallen during Biden’s presidency. It is now at a near 50-year low.
Feelings are more powerful than facts for Republicans. It’s the only way we can explain trotting out the same imaginary crime wave when facts easily debunk it every time. […]
[…] This past week Assistant Principal Tobie McPhail (now formerly) of Glen Cove Elementary school in Roanoke, Virginia, filed a $20 million suit against raging asshole and “real estate broker and Glen Cove parent” Damon Gettier, who may have gone a wee bit overboard at a school board meeting in championing his favorite governor’s anti-trans crusade.
If you remember anything about Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia it’s probably that he’s made school board meetings chaotic hellholes. Youngkin’s rowdy, spite-the-teachers movement ended up a nationwhide story […] Though he tried to pretend he was just organizing a love-in for parents, he encouraged that thoroughly nasty bit of “activism” on the campaign trail and followed it up in office with more divisive, hateful and frankly injurious actions, like that time he drafted model policies for schools on how to fuck trans kids up for life.
[…] Enter Gettier. While Republican right-wingers have long made vague defamation a central part of who they are, defaming vague anybodies or large groups does not a lawsuit make in God America. Gettier, however, was a true believer who actually thinks the worst of the people around him, and never read the fine print about not naming actual names.
So when, at a May 18, 2023, school board meeting (and also on Facebook) he identified specific people he accused of “child abuse, grooming, conditioning, and indoctrination by sexual predators disguised as teachers and staff at Glen Cove Elementary,” he crossed a line of crazy not often crossed by your typical conspiracy theorist. […]
Tobie McPhail […] was one of those people Gettier identified by position and accused of child abuse and grooming. Now she wants to drag him to the end of this book and show him who the monster is. […] In addition to a $10 million action for defamation proper, she has also filed an equally valued claim under Virginia’s “insulting words” statute, which creates liability for insults that risk breach of the peace. […]
this relative rarity of serious defamation cases is a consequence of the First Amendment, and partially it’s a culture where we’re expected to endure anything in the name of free speech, even when there is an actual law against it. […]
Coming after so many high-profile right wing losers have been held accountable for their lies, it raises the real possibility that the people who have been the subject of right-wing attacks are being legally emboldened to wrestle these fuckers […] When even a Black drag queen from the Idaho panhandle can win a case against these paragons of hatred […] it makes your ordinary elementary school teacher think that maybe she doesn’t have to put up with being labeled someone who is conspiring to sexually abuse children.
[…] we could be seeing the start of a long-overdue trend.
The Israeli prime minister is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war Cabinet, an Israeli official said Monday, in a widely expected move that came after one of his key rivals, the centrist former general Benny Gantz, quit the emergency government.
The prime minister informed ministers that he will hold sensitive consultations in a smaller forum dubbed, “the kitchen cabinet,” the official said.
Netnayhu had faced demands from ultranationalist ministers in his coalition including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to be included in the war Cabinet, a move which would have intensified strains with international partners including the United States.
The forum was formed after Gantz joined Netanyahu in a national unity government at the start of the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. It also included Gantz’s partner Gadi Eisenkot and Aryeh Deri, head of the religious party Shas, as observers.
Gantz and Eisenkot both left the government last week, over what they said was Netanyahu’s failure to form a strategy for the war, now in its eighth month.
“I think a lot of this is domestic politics and jockeying for potential upcoming elections but I also feel that Netanyahu is feeling a bit stronger than he did a little while ago,” Paul Salem, the vice president for international engagement at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank.
Netanyahu, who was widely blamed for the security failures that allowed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks to take place, was “making political hay” from his spat with President Joe Biden over elements of Israel’s conduct during the war “and making out like he’s standing up for what the Israelis want and refusing to succumb to pressure,” Salem said.
That has “helped him politically,” he added. With recent polling showing Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party making gains on Gantz’s National Unity Party, Salem said the former army general and defense minister in the last government had faced pressure from his own side to act.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials, since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
On Monday Netanyahu met with Amos Hochstein, the White House official tasked with trying to ease tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Along with France, the U.S. is working on a negotiated settlement to the hostilities along Lebanon’s southern border. […]
“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation, one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a video statement in English.
[…] “Israel will take the necessary measures to protect its civilians — until security along our border with Lebanon is restored,” Hagari said.
Hezbollah has said it will not halt fire unless Israel stops its offensive in Gaza.
The new law would equate the termination of a pregnancy after 22 weeks with homicide. Critics say it would especially hurt child rape victims, as their pregnancies tend to be detected later.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of São Paulo on Saturday as protests sweep across Brazil in opposition to a bill that would further criminalize abortions. If passed, the law would equate the termination of a pregnancy after 22 weeks with homicide.
The bill, proposed by conservative lawmakers and heading for a vote in the lower house, would also apply in cases of rape. Critics say those who seek an abortion so late are mostly child rape victims, as their pregnancies tend to be detected later.
To rally opposition, rights’ groups created the ‘A child is not a mother’ campaign that has flooded social media. Placards, stickers and banners emblazoned with the slogan have abounded during demonstrations. And viral visuals depicting women in red cloaks compare Brazil to Gilead, the theocratic patriarchy Margaret Atwood created in her dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” […]
The Post Fire was 8% surrounded after scorching nearly 23 square miles and forcing the evacuation of at least 1,200 campers, off-roaders and hikers from the Hungry Valley recreation area on Saturday.
More at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
Here is something you can nuke your brains with when anxiety gets higher than usual.
Film review: “Killer Condom (1996) – Now with more teeth!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lpCFxmf8t0o
The visit comes amid growing international concerns about an arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel its war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in North Korea on Tuesday for a two-day visit, his first in 24 years, both countries announced.
Putin is expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for talks focused on expanding military cooperation as they deepen their alignment in the face of separate, intensifying confrontations with Washington.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that Putin will pay a state visit to the North on Tuesday and Wednesday at the invitation of Kim. North Korean state media didn’t immediately provide more details. Russia confirmed the visit in a simultaneous announcement.
The visit comes amid growing international concerns about an arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Putin’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that would enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Military, economic and other cooperation between North Korea and Russia have sharply increased since Kim visited the Russian Far East in September for a meeting with Putin, their first since 2019.
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused the North of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment to help prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in return for key military technologies and aid. […]
In March, a Russian veto at the United Nations ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Putin sent Kim a high-end Aurus Senat limousine, which he had shown to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in September. Observers said the shipment violated a U.N. resolution aimed at pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons program by banning the supply of luxury items to North Korea. […]
birgerjohanssonsays
Rishi Sunak shows what the Normandy landing looks like on reverse.
“Skepticrat 227 Sobs Tory Edition”
(CN) — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a ban on firearm sales at gun shows held on state-owned property, including county fairgrounds.
In their 25-page ruling, the three-judge panel found that a state law, SB 915, which took effect Jan. 1 2023, was not subject to First Amendment scrutiny, because it did not restrict expressive conduct. The panel also found that the Second Amendment does not cover such a narrow sales ban, when guns are still easily purchased elsewhere.
[…]
Many gun laws, including those that mandate background checks and waiting periods before completing the purchase of a firearm, include exemptions for private sales. This has often been referred to, by Democrats, as the “gun show” loophole, since individuals can sell firearms at gun shows…
[…]
….attorney Anna Barvir argued that SB 915 violated the Second Amendment, telling the appellate panel, “You can’t keep and bear arms if you can’t get them.”
But the judges appeared skeptical of the argument, pointing out that guns were still readily available at brick-and-mortar shops near the fairgrounds.
Barvir had also suggested that gun shows were a venue for free speech, and that banning gun show sales was a de facto ban on gun shows themselves.
“Gun shows without the sale of guns are not a thing,” she said. “That is not the business model of my client. Gun shows allow commerce in arms.”
The panel’s sole Republican-appointed judge, Richard Clifton, was blunt in his assessment of that argument, telling her, “Making an offer, that’s commercial speech. Accepting an offer, I don’t know. I haven’t heard commercial speech discussed in those terms.”
In their ruling, authored by Clifton, a George W. Bush appointee, the judges found that the gun show sales bans “solely restrict non-expressive conduct — contracting for the sale of firearms,” and are therefore “not subject to First Amendment scrutiny.” They agreed with the California attorney that the swiping of a credit card was the “acceptance” of an offer, and not the offer itself.
They also found that the Second Amendment “does not cover B&L’s proposed conduct — namely, contracting for the sale of firearms and ammunition on state property.” Clifton added: “B&L made no allegation that a ban on sales on state property would impair a single individual from keeping and bearing firearm.”
Rod Stewart defends support for Ukraine after jeers
Sir Rod Stewart has defended his support of Ukraine, after he was apparently booed at a concert in Germany on Friday night.
The music legend was performing in Leipzig when the Ukrainian flag appeared on a video screen, followed by an image of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Both applause and jeers could be heard from fans, as Sir Rod sang his 1991 hit Rhythm of My Heart, which he says is an anti-war song, and has previously dedicated to Kyiv.
“I have supported the Ukrainian people throughout this war,” he told PA news agency on Monday.
“From arranging for members of my family to take supplies to the country, to renting a house in the UK for a Ukrainian family… So yes, I do support Zelensky and the people of Ukraine, and I will continue to do so.”
Sir Rod, 79, has also made expletive laden comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin during other concerts.
The U.S. military targeted the global leader of ISIS in an airstrike in Somalia late last month but cannot confirm whether he was killed, three U.S. officials say. The U.S. government has publicly identified Abdulqadir Mumin as the head of the ISIS affiliate in Somalia, but two U.S. officials say that last year he quietly became the worldwide leader of the terror group.
Nine people including two children were injured in an apparent random mass shooting Saturday at a city park’s splash pad in Michigan, authorities said. One of the victims, an 8-year-old boy, was struck in his head and hospitalized in critical condition, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a news conference. The other child hit by gunfire was described as a 4-year-old boy struck in the thigh and stabilized at a hospital, he said.
he Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations that expanded protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students have been temporarily blocked in four states after a federal judge ruled that the Education Department overstepped its authority.
Associated Press:
The Biden administration’s effort to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students hit another roadblock Monday, when a federal judge in Kentucky temporarily blocked the new Title IX rule in six additional states.
The IRS estimates it will raise more than $50 billion over the next decade by closing a loophole often exploited by wealthy filers seeking to avoid paying taxes. The loophole allows such taxpayers, as well as businesses, to move assets between entities in a way that authorities say has no economic purpose.
In the recent past, the Republican Party’s culture war crusade included a great many issues, from reproductive rights to LGBTQ+ rights to privatizing public education through school vouchers. Energy efficiency standards for home appliances, however, were not in the mix.
That’s clearly changed.
Congressional Republicans have been unsubtle in their obsession with the issue, hoping to give voters the impression that President Joe Biden is on his way to their home, wrench in hand, desperate to take their appliances away. Donald Trump is engaged on this, too, of course, telling an audience in Michigan over the weekend, “Today you read where they don’t want to have any water in your dishwasher, so your dishwasher won’t work, and they think that’s good.”
But the former president and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill aren’t alone. Reuters had this report late last week:
A conservative think tank has filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Energy’s new energy-efficiency requirements for household clothes washers and dishwashers, arguing the Biden administration lacked authority to adopt the regulations. The Competitive Enterprise Institute on Thursday filed a lawsuit on behalf of two consumers in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, a venue popular among conservative litigants whose sole judge is an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump.
Broadly speaking, there are a couple of angles to this story. The first is the idea that the Biden administration’s energy efficiency standards for home appliances should be blocked, which is awfully difficult to take seriously, Republican hysterics notwithstanding.
But the second is the specific court in which the plaintiffs filed their case.
As regular readers know, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed jurist in Texas, has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s most controversial federal judges. It was, for example, Kacsmaryk who took it upon himself to suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone last year, relying in large part on highly dubious studies — which have since been retracted. (The ruling was ultimately overturned for procedural reasons.)
When a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule in Texas that would require firearms dealers to run background checks on buyers at gun shows, that was Kacsmaryk, too.
Now, a conservative group wants to challenge energy efficiency standards, and wouldn’t you know it, the organization’s lawyers thought it’d be a good idea to file the case in Kacsmaryk’s district. Imagine that.
[…] In Trump’s hush-money case, his GOP allies were invested in the idea that prosecutors engaged in court shopping, pursuing an indictment in a court where a conviction was more likely. That never made any sense: Trump’s crimes were committed in the district in which he was charged.
If Republicans are looking for some actual examples of court shopping, I’d refer them to Kacsmaryk’s docket.
About a week ago, Sen. Tom Cotton appeared on Fox News and said opponents of Russia’s war in Ukraine have nothing to fear from a Donald Trump victory in the fall. “[Former] President Trump has said that he strongly supports Ukraine’s strength and survival,” the Arkansas Republican said, adding that Trump “had a strong relationship when he was in office with President Zelenskyy.”
All things considered, “strong” was probably the wrong adjective. After all, Trump tried to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 — “I would like you do us a favor, though” lingers in the mind — and the resulting scandal resulted in the Republican’s first impeachment.
Three years later, I suspect Zelenskyy was also not altogether impressed when Trump described Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” and “very savvy.”
But I’m also curious whether Cotton saw the former president’s remarks in Michigan over the weekend. Politico reported:
[A]fter the Biden administration at the G7 in Italy this week extended long-term security guarantees to Ukraine, Trump ripped into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him “maybe the greatest salesman of any politician that’s ever lived.”
In context, the Republican was condemning the Green New Deal agenda as “one of the greatest scams in history.” This, evidently, reminded the former president of something else he also considers a scam.
“I think Zelenskyy is maybe the greatest salesman of any politician that’s ever lived,” Trump said. Raising his voice and volume, the presumptive GOP nominee quickly added, “Every time he comes to our country, he walks away with $60 billion.” [Trump sounds jealous.]
Trump interrupted himself to say that he “likes” Zelenskyy before he returned to his critique of the Ukrainian leader. “He just left four days ago with $60 billion, and he gets home, and he announces that he needs another $60 billion. It never ends. It never ends.”
In apparent reference to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trump concluded that he’ll “settle” the crisis during his post-election presidential transition period. “Gotta stop it,” he said. [video at the link]
As for how, exactly, the Republican intends to “settle” the war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Trump in March and said soon after the former American president told him he would cut off U.S. military aid to Ukraine in an effort to end the conflict.
A month later, The Washington Post ran a related report on Trump’s “secret” plan to bring the war to an end, which noted that the presumptive GOP nominee intends to push Ukrainian officials to give Russia parts of their country.
It’s an approach likely to gain favor with the Kremlin, less so with the Ukrainian leader whom Trump allegedly has “a strong relationship” with.
In keeping with Trump’s usual temperament, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee issued a Father’s Day statement that targeted “RADICAL LEFT DEGENERATES THAT ARE RAPIDLY BRINGING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO THIRD WORLD NATION STATUS.”
Here is full text of Trump’s Father’s Day statement:
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE RADICAL LEFT DEGENERATES THAT ARE RAPIDLY BRINGING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO THIRD WORLD NATION STATUS WITH THEIR MANY ATTEMPTS AT TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR SACRED COURT SYSTEM INTO BREAKING TO THEIR VERY SICK AND DANGEROUS WILL. WE NEED STRENGTH AND LOYALTY TO OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS WONDERFUL CONSTITUTION. EVERYTHING WILL BE ON FULL DISPLAY COME NOVEMBER 5TH, 2024 – THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
The decisions came despite the Judicial Standards Commission’s recommendations to publicly reprimand the judges, and these are likely the only times in more than a decade in which the court didn’t follow the commission’s guidance.
Last fall, out of public view, the North Carolina Supreme Court squashed disciplinary action against two Republican judges who had admitted that they had violated the state’s judicial code of conduct, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the decisions.
One of the judges had ordered, without legal justification, that a witness be jailed. The other had escalated a courtroom argument with a defendant, which led to a police officer shooting the defendant to death. The Judicial Standards Commission, the arm of the state Supreme Court that investigates judicial misconduct by judges, had recommended that the court publicly reprimand both women. The majority-Republican court gave no public explanation for rejecting the recommendations — indeed, state law mandates that such decisions remain confidential.
The sources spoke to ProPublica on the condition of anonymity because many of the actions and decisions of both institutions are confidential and because the sources said they feared retaliation.
When it comes to disciplining judges, North Carolina is one of the most secretive states in America, according to data from the National Center for State Courts’ Center for Judicial Ethics. Over half of states make disciplinary proceedings against judges public once charges are filed with their judicial ethics commission. Another dozen make them public if they reach the state’s supreme court. North Carolina is one of only three states, in addition to the District of Columbia, to release information only at the last possible stage of the process — after the Supreme Court orders discipline.
[…] Asher Hildebrand, a professor of public policy at Duke University, explained that in the 2010s, North Carolina had policies designed to keep the judiciary above the political fray, such as nonpartisan judicial elections. However, the gradual dismantling of these policies by the Republican-controlled legislature has driven the court’s polarization, according to Hildebrand.
[…] Bob Orr, a former Republican justice, said partisan disputes over the judicial standards process have intensified in recent years.
[…] Months after the Supreme Court decided in the fall of 2023 to let Hamilton and Burnette off without public consequences, it issued its most recent disciplinary order. In March 2024, the court concurred with the commission’s recommendation for punishment of Angela Foster, a Black Democratic judge who had pressured a court official to reduce a bond for her son and had taken over a courtroom reserved for other court officials, thereby delaying over 100 cases. The Supreme Court suspended her without pay for 120 days.
At the same time as the court was considering how to handle the two white Republican judges, the commission was weighing another fraught matter.
In March 2023, Earls, the Supreme Court’s lone Black justice and a Democrat, received a letter from the commission informing her that she was under investigation. The letter stated that Earls had been accused of disclosing “confidential information concerning matters being currently deliberated in conference by the Supreme Court.” If the commission found evidence of a serious violation, it could send the case to the Supreme Court, which would make a final determination and could go as far as to expel her.
At the center of the anonymous complaint was the allegation that Earls had told lawmakers and state bar members at two different meetings about proposed rule changes that would give more power to the Republican justices. The complaint, which was made after WRAL News published an article describing the meetings, also alleged that she’d provided confidential information to a reporter.
In her response to the letter, which later was filed in court, her lawyer argued that it had been standard practice for justices to discuss the court’s rule changes with affected parties and that no information had been leaked. [snipped a lot details] In January 2024, as Earls’ lawsuit barreled toward a trial, the commission abruptly dropped its investigation. It did not recommend the Supreme Court take any disciplinary action against her.
Sunday was Father’s Day. As might be expected for a holiday devoted to putting things on the grill and trying to figure out where to display a child’s paper-mache artwork, President Joe Biden offered up a decidedly mild-but-warm greeting.
“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, pops, and father figures who have shown us guidance, encouragement, and unconditional love,” Biden wrote.
And, with equal predictability, Donald Trump … didn’t do that. Instead, Trump clamped down on the caps lock and leaned into making this holiday, like every holiday, a day to pry America apart. [See comment 423]
Essentially: America sucks. You suck. Happy Father’s Day! And now that this holiday is sufficiently ruined, let’s look at just a few of the ways that Trump has turned every holiday into an excuse to be awful.
Trump’s holiday greetings tend to follow a pattern. Happy whatever to all, including these terrible people.
The pattern was still being polished in 2013, when Trump remembered 9/11 by saying “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11.” Since then, Trump has made every holiday about his generosity in reaching out to the people he hates.
Happy New Years to…
“… THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA.” (2019)
“… CROOKED JOE BIDEN AND HIS GROUP OF RADICAL LEFT MISFITS AND THUGS” (2023)
Happy Mother’s Day to…
“… RACIST, VICIOUS, HIGHLY PARTISAN, POLITICALLY MOTIVATED, AND VERY UNFAIR RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRAT JUDGES.” (2022)
“… THE MOTHERS, WIVES, and LOVERS OF THE RADICAL LEFT FASCISTS, MARXISTS, AND COMMUNISTS WHO ARE DOING EVERYTHING WITHIN THEIR POWER TO DESTROY AND OBLITRATE OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY. … PLEASE MAKE THESE COMPLETE LUNATICS AND MANIACS KINDER, GENTLER, SOFTER, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SMARTER…” (2024)
Happy Memorial Day to…
“… THOSE … STOPPING THE THREATS OF TERRORISTS, MISFITS AND LUNATIC THUGS WHO ARE WORKING FEVERISHLY FROM WITHIN TO OVERTURN AND DESTROY OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN IN GREATER PERIL THAN RIGHT NOW.” (2023)
“… THE HUMAN SCUM THAT IS WORKING SO HARD TO DESTROY OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY.” (2024)
Happy Father’s Day to…
“… THE RADICAL LEFT, RINOs, AND OTHER LOSERS OF THE WORLD.” (2021)
Happy Thanksgiving to…
“… RACIST & INCOMPETENT ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW YORK STATE LETITIA ‘PEEKABOO’ JAMES, WHO HAS LET MURDER & VIOLENT CRIME FLOURISH & BUSINESSES FLEE; THE RADICAL LEFT TRUMP HATING JUDGE, A ‘PYSCHO,’ ARTHUR ENGORON, WHO CRIMINALLY DEFRAUDED THE STATE OF NEW YORK & ME … CROOKED JOE BIDEN WHO HAS WEAPONIZED HIS DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE AGAINST HIS OPPONENT & ALLOWED OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL; & ALL OF THE THE OTHER RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS, COMMUNISTS, FASCISTS, MARXISTS, DEMOCRATS, & RINOS WHO ARE SERIOUSLY LOOKING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY.” (2023)
Merry Christmas to…
“… THE RADICAL LEFT MARXISTS THAT ARE TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY, THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION THAT IS ILLEGALLY COERCING & PAYING SOCIAL AND LAMESTREAM MEDIA TO PUSH FOR A MENTALLY DISABLED DEMOCRAT OVER THE BRILLIANT, CLAIRVOYANT, AND USA LOVING DONALD J. TRUMP, AND, OF COURSE, THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE, WHICH APPOINTED A SPECIAL ‘PROSECUTOR’ WHO, TOGETHER WITH HIS WIFE AND FAMILY, HATES ‘Trump’ MORE THAN ANY OTHER PERSON ON EARTH.” (2022)
The ability to post—or have your staff do so—holiday well wishes that don’t generate controversy and derision isn’t technically a prerequisite for the Oval Office. And at this point, generating controversy and derision is part of Trump’s brand. Still, it’s nice to have a president who doesn’t do that.
When Trump watched the “Angry Dad” comic episode of The Simpsons he thought it was an instructional film.
.
Dave messed it up for the rest of us for 3000 years (read the line at the bottom of the panel) https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dave
My comment: if you put a lot of white allies in the front of Black Lives Matter demonstrations other white people will probably be less likely to view the movement as violent.
This should not be necessary, but this is where we are.
Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. As Congressional Republicans have continued to put partisan politics ahead of national security – twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades – the President and his Administration have taken actions to secure the border, including:
[…]
– Deploying record numbers of law enforcement personnel, infrastructure, and technology to the Southern border;
– Seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry;
– Revoking the visas of CEOs and government officials outside the U.S. who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully; and
– Expanding efforts to dismantle human smuggling networks and prosecuting individuals who violate immigration laws.
President Biden believes that securing the border is essential. He also believes in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country. The Day One immigration reform plan that the President sent to Congress reflects both the need for a secure border and protections for the long-term undocumented. While Congress has failed to act on these reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen our lawful immigration system. In addition to vigorously defending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals) policy, the Administration has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients and streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.
Today, President Biden is announcing that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together.
This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence – status that they are already eligible for – without leaving the country.
[…] In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements. On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.
Those who are approved after DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application will be afforded a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years. This will apply to all married couples who are eligible.
This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen. […]
More Americans may think President Joe Biden tried to sit on a nonexistent chair the other day than know the boring truth that there was, in fact, a chair.
[…] The Republican National Committee, major conservative media outlets and right-wing influencers have succeeded in blasting out videos that they claim show “proof” of Biden’s wandering off, freezing up or even filling his pants with a substance commonly represented by a brown swirl emoji.
Independent fact-checkers and the Biden campaign have pointed out that the videos, while they are un-doctored by artificial intelligence, tend to crumble under even basic scrutiny, such as when the moments are viewed in context or from wider camera angles.
“Fresh off being fact checked by at least 6 mainstream outlets for lying about President Biden with cheap fakes, Rupert Murdoch’s sad little super PAC, the New York Post, is back to disrespecting its readers and itself once again,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement in reference to a video of Biden at a fundraiser with former President Barack Obama over the weekend that landed on the cover of the Post, a conservative tabloid.
While “deepfakes” are misleading audio, video or images that are created or edited with artificial intelligence technology, a “cheap fake,” according to researchers Britt Paris and Joan Donovan, is a “manipulation created with cheaper, more accessible software (or, none at all). Cheap fakes can be rendered through Photoshop, lookalikes, re-contextualizing footage, speeding, or slowing.”
Still, even if they are deceptive, the videos nonetheless play into voters’ existing concerns about Biden’s age and are tailor-made for internet virality, meaning busy voters may be more likely to encounter the brief incendiary clips than the more rigorous fact-checks that chase them.
“The lie is sprinting the 100-meter dash and the fact-check is taking a stroll on the beach. So it’s never going to catch up. And it’s never going to have the same reach,” said Eric Schultz, a Democratic strategist and Obama spokesperson who on Sunday publicly called out the Post’s characterization of the fundraiser as false.
Last week, Republicans pushed a video of Biden in Europe attending the Group of Seven summit in which he allegedly “wandered off” in a confused haze before Italy’s prime minister pulled him back. Uncut video and shots from wider angles showed Biden was greeting a parachutist who had just landed as part of the ceremony.
The controversy generated by the video grew so large that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked to give his eyewitness account of the moment.
“They had all landed, and he was being very polite. And he just went over to kind of talk to all of them individually,” Sunak told reporters.
[…] At the fundraiser in Los Angeles, Biden and Obama were waving to supporters after having received a standing ovation when Biden stared into the audience for a moment before the more punctual Obama signaled it was time to leave the stage. Several people at the event said they did not recognize the New York Post’s interpretation that Biden appeared to “freeze up.”
[…] Conservative media outlets disseminating such clips include not only famously ideological ones, like Fox News, but also the vast network of local TV news stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, dozens of which re-packaged identical versions of the same headline about Biden’s appearing to freeze. [I saw that clip. Biden appears to briefly acknowledged the applauding audience, then he walks off with Obama. Obama does not lead him offstage. The conservative “cheap fake” is misleading.]
Few in conservative media have offered any resistance to the onslaught of videos. Howard Kurtz, a Fox News host and media journalist, is one of the few notable outliers, having called out the New York Post and fellow host Sean Hannity for their coverage of the G7 video.
And internet platforms’ algorithms and their users’ organic behavior tend to reward the surprising and controversial while ignoring the mundane. [True]
[…] Democrats’ strategy for dealing with the videos is twofold, according to multiple people familiar with the thinking of the Biden campaign, the White House and allied outside groups.
First, they will try to contain them to the conservative media ecosystem and extremely online spaces of political discourse like X, hoping to prevent them from breaking through into the mainstream as much as possible.
By being aggressive in fact-checking, quickly posting fuller video clips with appropriate context and calling out media outlets that report on them, the White House and the Biden campaign hope to stop them from spreading too far.
“We can’t stop them from doing this. What we can do is fight like hell to get fact-checks and to spread those fact-checks,” said a Biden campaign official […]
“The truth is that the way in which we communicate with people these days, there’s very little — there’s so much opportunity to just lie,” Biden said at the fundraiser in Los Angeles. […]
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a week after Donald Trump called Milwaukee, Wisconsin—the site of July’s Republican National Convention—a “horrible city,” one local brewery is showing its civic pride while taking full financial advantage of the Yellin’ Felon’s logorrheic lamentations.
Trump may have created less than zero jobs over the course of his presidential tenure, but he is providing a boost to the fortunes of MobCraft Beer, which has debuted (Not So) Horrible City IPA in direct response to Trump’s witless diss.
“We were just putzing around this morning, talking through our production schedule and kind of heard the news of our city being called horrible and didn’t really like that. Milwaukee is so cool,” MobCraft owner Henry Schwartz told Milwaukee’s WISN-TV.
But while some insults are easier to leverage than others—“Marxist, Fascist, Radical Left Thugs Living Like Vermin” barely even fits on a onesie, for instance—MobCraft’s new brew is part of a long tradition of reclaiming put-downs and using them to rally, and raise up, one’s own people, whether through the power of civic pride or tribal identity.
In fact, the Biden campaign well recognizes this and has already started selling “(NOT) a Horrible City” stickers and T-shirts at its official swag store. It’s reminiscent of the left’s reclaiming of MAGA’s secretly vulgar “Let’s Go Brandon” chant through the sly and sticky Dark Brandon meme, which the Biden campaign has fully embraced and currently uses in fundraising. […]
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
In a post Saturday on Truth Social, [Trump posted]: “The Democrats are making up stories that I said Milwaukee is a ‘horrible city.’ This is false, a complete lie.”
But that came after an interview with Fox in which Trump didn’t deny the remark and said he was commenting on crime and elections in Milwaukee. […]
Republican congressmen in the room confirmed the comment to the Journal Sentinel with different takes on what Trump was talking about, but Trump in his social media post blamed Democrats, none of whom were in the room.
New York’s top court on Tuesday turned away former President Trump’s challenge to a gag order imposed on his public statements in his hush money criminal case.
The gag order, which remains in effect after being imposed weeks before his trial began, blocks Trump from publicly commenting about jurors, witnesses, court staff or the judge’s family, but it does not bar him from attacking the judge himself or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).
[…] The court dismissed Trump’s request to toss out the restrictions in a brief order Tuesday, asserting that “no substantial constitutional question” was raised by the appeal. […]
GOP pick for N.C. governor downplayed Weinstein allegations, assault by Ray Rice
Mark Robinson has spent years repeatedly questioning the veracity of women who accuse prominent men of violence. Washington Post link
Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, has for years made comments downplaying and making light of sexual assault and domestic violence.
A review of Robinson’s social media posts over the past decade shows that he frequently questioned the credibility of women who aired allegations of sexual assault against prominent men, including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, actor Bill Cosby and now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. […]
Robinson also wrote repeatedly of a 2014 domestic violence encounter involving then-NFL star Ray Rice, who was seen on a surveillance video dragging his apparently unconscious fiancée out of an elevator. In a post directed at Rice’s “lady friend,” Robinson suggested the woman was at fault for the physical altercation.
“I’m a 350lb man but aint no way in HELL I’m gonna’ slap no pro football player,” Robinson wrote on Facebook. “I’m to old for an a$$whoopin’.”
Robinson has drawn scrutiny for his incendiary remarks on other issues, including about LGBTQ+ people, religion and other political figures. But his comments on domestic violence and sexual assault stand out for their tone and frequency, as well as Robinson’s repeated questioning of accusers.
While Robinson is, in some ways, emblematic of the Republican Party’s turn under Donald Trump toward rewarding inflammatory, sexist language, his dismissals of women threaten to test Robinson’s appeal with voters troubled by that history, in particular female voters.
[…] Trump and other Republicans have embraced his rhetorical style. Trump endorsed Robinson during his primary for governor, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Trump, who has been working to chip away at Biden’s advantage with Black voters, included Robinson in a Black Americans for Trump coalition that Trump announced Saturday.
[…] Robinson similarly shared memes mocking actress Ashley Judd, who accused Weinstein of sexual assault. And he repeatedly suggested that the sexual harassment claims brought against male public figures was the result of a broader conspiracy, claiming, among other outlandish theories, that the Illuminati were involved in publicizing accusations against Cosby.
[…] In 2022, he suggested at a church that men, not women, are meant to be leaders. Acknowledging that he was “getting ready to get in trouble,” Robinson exclaimed to the congregation: “Called to be led by men!” […]
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna, OM @ 435
Malcolm XXL ?
birgerjohanssonsays
Hossenfelder:
“This New Idea Could Explain Complexity”
In other news: The Gun Lobby’s Hidden Hand in the 2nd Amendment Battle
Case after case challenging gun restrictions cites the same Georgetown professor. His seemingly independent work has undisclosed ties to pro-gun interests. New York Times link
In the battle to dismantle gun restrictions, raging in America’s courts even as mass shootings become commonplace, one name keeps turning up in the legal briefs and judges’ rulings: William English, Ph.D.
A little-known political economist at Georgetown University, Dr. English conducted a largest-of-its-kind national survey that found gun owners frequently used their weapons for self-defense. That finding has been deployed by gun rights activists to notch legal victories with far-reaching consequences.
He has been cited in a landmark Supreme Court case that invalidated many restrictions on guns, and in scores of lawsuits around the country to overturn limits on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and the carrying of firearms. His findings were also offered in another Supreme Court case this term, with a decision expected this month.
Dr. English seems at first glance to be an impartial researcher interested in data-driven insights. He has said his “scholarly arc” focuses on good public policy, and his lack of apparent ties to the gun lobby has lent credibility to his work.
But Dr. English’s interest in firearms is more than academic: He has received tens of thousands of dollars as a paid expert for gun rights advocates, and his survey work, which he says was part of a book project, originated as research for a National Rifle Association-backed lawsuit, The New York Times has found.
He has also increasingly drawn scrutiny in some courts over the reliability and integrity of his unpublished survey, which is the core of his research, and his refusal to disclose who paid for it. Other researchers say that the wording of some questions could elicit answers overstating defensive gun use, and that he cherry-picked pro-gun responses.
“I have been struck by the enormous attention and influence the William English paper has had,” said Joseph Blocher, co-director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University. “It just sort of came out of nowhere, posted online without going through formal peer review, and by a guy most of us had never heard of.”
[…] The lofty-sounding Center for Human Liberty, created just in time to file a 2021 pro-gun Supreme Court brief jointly with Dr. English, has no staff and uses a rent-by-the-hour office provider in Las Vegas. The Constitutional Defense Fund, with a UPS Store in Virginia as its address, has served as a conduit for anonymous donations to Second Amendment groups, law firms and Dr. English.
[…] Dr. English’s work was cited in multiple briefs in that case, as well as in oral arguments and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s concurring opinion.
[…] The Bruen decision in 2022 upended Second Amendment law by sweeping away any modern-day gun restrictions that could not be tied to a historical antecedent. The ruling led to a surge in firearms cases — to an annual average of 680 today compared with 122 in the decade before. Pro-gun rulings have also risen: The 74 issued last year make up a quarter of all such rulings since 2000, according to researchers at the University of Southern California. Courts have struck down restrictions on high-capacity magazines in Oregon, handgun purchases in Maryland and assault weapons in California.
[…] Government lawyers tried to talk with him in December, after his research surfaced in a Firearms Policy Coalition lawsuit seeking to overturn Washington State’s ban on assault weapons. But Dr. English did not respond to emails, phone calls or a certified letter, and a process server bearing a subpoena could not find him at the university or his home, where someone inside “looked at the door, then turned away,” according to court records.
[…] In a 2019 deposition in one case, Dr. English expressed a personal interest in guns that included sports shooting, hunting and a lifetime N.R.A. membership. He also said he had once brandished a gun to scare off an intruder at his home.
[…] Asked whether Georgetown administrators had questioned him about it, he said, “They don’t know about my interests in that.”
In another case, plaintiff’s lawyers asked him to survey Vermont gun owners. The lawsuit, backed by the N.R.A., challenged the state’s ban on high-capacity magazines. The plaintiffs sought to show that such magazines are popular, meeting the Supreme Court’s test of whether a firearm is in “common use” for lawful purposes, making it harder to restrict.
Dr. English, who testified that the plaintiffs’ lawyers paid him about $20,000 for his work, wrote a report in 2019 saying that an online questionnaire he devised showed that high-capacity magazines were popular among gun owners and useful for self-defense. The lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful. But his survey would have far-reaching consequences.
[…] Dr. Matthew Miller, part of a team at Northeastern and Harvard universities that for years has conducted its own firearms survey, said some of Dr. English’s findings on self-defense “strain credulity” and his methodology yielded “absurd” estimates. Another researcher, Louis Klarevas of Columbia University, has criticized Dr. English’s work in expert reports for states defending against gun lawsuits and said he has not followed standard ethics practices for revealing funding sources.
[…] Elsewhere in his findings, Dr. English quotes about 30 gun owners attesting to the usefulness of large-capacity magazines for self-defense — but only two reported actually firing a gun, both at animals. He did not quote any of the hundreds of negative responses from gun owners, including: “There is no reason to have a magazine like that unless you’re fighting in a war.”
[…] During oral arguments in Bruen, after Justice Stephen Breyer worried that creating a sweeping right to carry firearms in public could increase deaths of innocent people, the lead plaintiff’s lawyer, Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general, referred him to Dr. English’s work as a counterpoint.
[…] Justice Alito’s concurrence dismissed the significance of the Buffalo shooting, noting the New York law being overturned did not prevent it, and faulting Justice Breyer for focusing only on research that concluded more guns in public contributed to more crime. There are other studies, Justice Alito said, that suggest the opposite.
“See also Brief for William English et al,” he wrote.
Yep, William English is in the pocket of the gun lobby. Yes, English’s “research” is flawed if not bogus. And yes, yes, yes, Alito and Thomas are gullible … susceptible to taking bogus “research” at face value if it agrees with their ideology.
Last week at a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris said that on June 19, 1865, after Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, “The enslaved people of Texas learned they were free.” On that day, she said, “they claimed their freedom.”
With those words, Harris, who stood alongside President Biden when he admirably signed the legislation that made Juneteenth a federal holiday, expressed a common oversimplification, one born of our tendency to conjugate history’s complexities: Although it’s a mark of progress to commemorate the end of American slavery, it’s imperative that we continue to underscore the myriad ways in which Black freedom was restricted long after that first Juneteenth.
To start, there is some debate over whether most of the estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas at the time didn’t know about the Emancipation Proclamation. As the famed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. told me when we spoke recently, “I have never met a scholar who believes that’s true.”
But more important, emancipation was not true freedom — not in Texas and not in most of the American South, where the vast majority of Black people lived. It was quasi freedom. It was an ostensible freedom. It was freedom with more strings attached than a marionette.
Most Black people couldn’t claim their freedom on June 19, 1865, because their bodies (and their free will) were still being policed to nearly the same degree and with the same inveterate racism that Southern whites had aimed at them during slavery.
The laws governing the formerly enslaved “were very restrictive in terms of where they could go, what kind of jobs they could have, where they could live in certain communities,” said Daina Ramey Berry, the dean of humanities and fine arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara […]
Upon arrival in Galveston, the Union general Gordon Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said “the connection heretofore existing” between “former masters and slaves” would become “that between employer and hired labor” and that “freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.”
The order also had a curious stipulation: that freedmen would “not be supported in idleness.”
A notice from Granger published days later in The Galveston Daily News informed the public that “no persons formerly slaves will be permitted to travel on the public thoroughfares without passes or permits from their employers.” In other words, white people would still dictate where Black people could be.
[…] In 1866, a Texas state constitutional convention adopted the state’s Black Codes, codifying suffocating limits on Black autonomy. As the Texas State Library and Archives Commission describes these laws:
African Americans without jobs often were assigned to white guardians for work without pay. The penalty for quitting often included imprisonment for breach of contract. Other laws prevented freedmen from having free access to public facilities. Stiff fines were levied against African Americans for violating curfews, possessing firearms or displaying objectionable public behavior (harsh speeches or insulting gestures). They were not allowed to testify against whites, serve on juries or in state militias, or to vote.
In this way, the codes “outlined a status for African Americans not too much removed from their earlier condition as slaves.”
[…] As Corey Walker, the director of the program in African American studies at Wake Forest University, emphasizes, the idea of freedom, particularly for Black people in this country, is continuously being negotiated and contested, so “Juneteenth marks a moment in the ever-evolving and expanding project of American democracy.” […]
The Senate Special Committee on Aging is launching an investigation into A Place for Mom, the country’s largest for-profit senior care referral service, which has been accused of steering people toward facilities with documented safety and regulatory violations while collecting lucrative commissions.
[…] Casey’s letter also criticizes A Place for Mom for encouraging families to spend more than they can afford. It cites a frequently asked questions section of the company’s website that encourages facilities not to worry if they charge more than a family’s stated upper limit. According to the FAQ, nearly 40% of families who moved to senior living paid roughly $1,000 more per month than they had budgeted.
“It is clear A Place for Mom is upselling families, and the company ultimately benefits from families spending beyond their means,” Casey wrote.
Assisted living and elder care are part of a booming industry that’s expected to continue expanding in the next two decades. The average monthly cost of assisted living is around $4,500 to $5,300, but it varies depending on location and the level of care required. A majority of the facilities are affiliated with chains or large corporations, and the quality of care has increasingly been called into question as private equity firms have taken greater ownership of the industry.
In 2010, The Seattle Times reported that A Place for Mom referred people to senior living homes without inspecting them for quality or safety, directing families toward facilities with documented abuse and neglect violations. […]
Donald Trump met behind closed doors with congressional Republicans last week, and while everyone kept up appearances before and after the gatherings, some conceded that the former president didn’t exactly impress his audience. One person in the room said it was “like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion.”
The presumptive GOP nominee had another chance to make a better impression later in the day, during a gathering with corporate executives. As NBC News reported, that appearance wasn’t a success, either.
Former President Donald Trump failed to impress everyone in a room full of top CEOs Thursday at the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting, multiple attendees told CNBC. … Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported Friday on “Squawk Box.”
One CEO who attended the closed-door event said plainly, “Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
[Trump] delivers long, meandering remarks; he can’t maintain a straight thought; and no matter the topic, the guy simply can’t overcome his profound ignorance and indifference toward reality.
But on the same day that members of the Business Roundtable were confronted with Trump’s incoherence, The Wall Street Journal published a related report noting that prominent private-sector leaders are nevertheless “flocking” to the Republican candidate.
The obvious question, of course, is why CEOs would flock to a White House hopeful whom they know “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” As it happens, the answer to that question is obvious, too.
“The November faceoff between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump presents big business with a big choice to make over the coming months: support an incumbent who will bring stability but potentially reduced profits or back a loose cannon who might threaten democracy but not its bottom line,” my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown explained in his latest column.
Not surprisingly, the executives’ bottom line is proving to be their top priority, though they might not have fully thought this through.
[…] The idea that Democrats are putting capitalism at risk is plainly bonkers. Indeed, three-and-a-half years into Biden’s term, the United States’ economy is easily the strongest in the world, and international investors are throwing money at American businesses.
[…] private-sector leaders unconcerned about the fate of democracy are misguided.
Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund executive who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director in 2017, told Politico, “You need a democracy to have effective capitalism. If you don’t, you get cronyism. You get oligarchy. You get crony capitalism. You get arbitrary and capricious administration to the law, which reduces people’s tendency to invest in your country.”
[…] Trump is unlikely to deliver the economic utopia he’s promising — he’s already failed once — and moving away from democracy is inherently bad for the economy.
It’s something Business Roundtable members might want to keep in mind as they weigh whether to rally behind a presidential hopeful who “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
The Idaho Republican Party expanded its anti-reproductive health efforts last week during a party convention, affirming its support for the fetal personhood ideology and proclaiming that they oppose “the destruction of human embryos,” a reference to the common practice in in vitro fertilization treatments of creating more embryos than are needed, and discarding those that are not viable or are not used.
“We affirm that human personhood begins at the moment of conception and ought to be protected and cherished from that moment on,” the platform — obtained and published by Idaho Reports — reads. “We oppose all actions which intentionally end an innocent human life, including abortion, the destruction of human embryos, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.”
[…] Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to protect access to IVF nationwide last week, claiming to reporters that there is no real threat to IVF at the state level.
A similar dynamic has played out in Idaho. In fact, earlier this year, dozens of Idaho GOP lawmakers signed letters claiming that IVF was not under any legal risk in the state, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. [Lies, misinformation, and bullshit]
[…] But the Idaho GOP’s new platform suggests the opposite. It is yet another example of how the widely popular procedure is under threat.
At the core of the issue is the concept of fetal personhood — a decades old, conservative belief that fetuses (and, in some cases, embryos) are people, with all the same rights as children or adults. Versions of this idea, which are deeply connected with the anti-abortion movement, have been coming up more frequently in political circles since the Dobbs decision.
Many versions of it — such as the one adopted by the Idaho GOP — clash with IVF. In IVF, patients often create more fertilized embryos than they will use as a part of the medical process because some embryos may turn out to be unviable. Often, leftover embryos are donated for medical research or destroyed, as storing them in facilities indefinitely could be quite expensive.
Currently, at least five states — Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas — already have language around personhood in state law, according to a tally by the legal and civil rights group Pregnancy Justice. And in 2024 alone, at least 12 states have introduced personhood bills that could give some of the same rights to embryos and fetuses that generally protect a person, according to a tally by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Idaho already has a total ban on abortion, and this year Idaho Democratic lawmakers have called on Republican lawmakers to introduce bills to protect access to IVF.
State Democrat Rep. Brooke Green worked to come up with a bipartisan solution but told the Idaho Capital Sun that she did not make progress because her colleagues said there was “no need” for the law. […]
When Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts, the Los Angeles Times had their response ready. “The guilty verdict only makes Donald Trump stronger,” read the headline to the May 30 article by Scott Jennings, a former CNN commentator and special assistant to former President George W. Bush.
“It was jarring to hear my CNN colleague Jake Tapper say ‘guilty’ 34 straight times,” wrote Jennings. “And it was equally jarring to see text after text pop up on my phone from decidedly non-MAGA Republicans, but also not Never Trumpers, all sounding the same note: ‘I don’t like this man, and now I think I have to vote for him.’”
Some ideas get so embedded in people’s heads that even those who should know better start to accept them automatically. One of those ideas is that any time Trump is attacked—whether it is through impeachment, indictment, being held responsible in a civil trial, or being convicted in a criminal trial—it only makes him stronger.
That idea is bullshit. Or to put it in technical terms, colossal bullshit.
I do not think Jennings was getting “text after text” from people who didn’t previously support Trump telling him “now I think I have to vote for him” because he had become a convicted felon.
Again, I call bullshit.
It doesn’t take a lot of searching to find similar opinions to Jennings. One day later, Fox News contributor and CEO of the Harris Poll, Mark Penn, wrote that conviction would make “the right rally and coalesce even more around former President Donald Trump.”
Penn blew off overnight poll results showing that people seemed ready to abandon Trump over the conviction, which seems like a somewhat questionable position for a man who runs a polling organization. Instead, Penn bet that Trump would gain “more energized, angry voters.”
[…] Except that there’s one bit of calculus that Penn and every other Republican seems to be ignoring: the vote of an angry, energized, Trump supporter convinced that their man got a raw deal in court is worth exactly one vote. It’s hard to believe that any of those “angry” or “energized” by Trump’s verdict were not already Trump supporters going in. […]
The idea that Penn and Jennings are selling is the narrative that Republicans, and Trump, want everyone to believe: It’s the “every time he gets knocked down again, he gets up stronger” thesis. And it is, what’s that word again? Bullshit.
[…] Three weeks after Trump’s conviction, the latest poll from The Hill/Ipsos shows that 21% of independent voters are less likely to support Trump following his conviction. Those same voters say that the guilty verdict is “very important” to how they will vote in November.
If Republicans genuinely believed that non-Trump supporters would be angered by the idea that a powerful billionaire might be held to account for a host of crimes—that Donald Trump would not be held to the rules that apply to anyone else—they were wrong.
[…] Earlier this month, an ABC poll of independent voters found a majority wanted Trump to drop out of the race. In fact, 16% of Republicans felt that Trump should withdraw.
I’m guessing that none of those people were texting Jennings to tell him that they guessed they had to vote for Trump.
On Monday, the Trump-worshiping Washington Examiner moved to the next stanza in the Trump Always Comes Back Stronger theme song.
Republicans are warning Democrats that if former President Donald Trump’s sentence in his New York criminal case prevents him from attending the Republican National Committee convention, it will guarantee a red wave for the 2024 election.
They’re “warning” us, are they? I think there’s only one answer to this. And it’s just one word.
emember how former-teen-star-cum-Christian-evangelist-and-professional-grievance-haver Kirk Cameron was pitching an absolute fit about being BANNED FROM THE LIBRARY? (Not to be confused with the time he was complaining about Scholastic books fairs being TOO WOKE!)
Well, surprise, surprise, that was a lie, and Kirk has announced for the occasion of Pride month that he’s planning to hold a second national anti-LGBTQ Library Day in August, in the public libraries he’d claimed he was so CENSORBANNED FROM.
Kirk is big mad about Pride Month, and wants children to know that pride is a terrible thing to have. Unless you’re loud and proud about being a proselytizing Christian who thinks Smithers and Patty should get back in the closet with great vergogna […]
“What we want to shed light on is that pride is not the answer. Pride is dangerous. Love is the answer — which is embracing humility and kindness, faith, hope and self-control. And that’s what we’re going to do on August 24th this summer.”
Also unshocking, it’s all a big grift. Kirk wants suckers, er, concerned very fine Christian citizens, to sponsor a story hour, which requires buying a $175 “kit” of his publishing company’s “Pro-God, pro-America” children’s books, Statue of Liberty stickers, hand-held American flags, bookmarks, and Bible verses from his company, Brave Books, to participate.
Kirk has been known to paraphrase Hitler, and his white-supremacist dog whistles might as well be bullhorns:
As Bibles are literally being removed from schools and libraries — and as Christianity, and faith, and the Ten Commandments are being taken out of schools and replaced with toxic ideas like transgenderism, [critical race theory], and the 1619 Project, I’m looking to fight back,” he told Fox News.
“It’s no coincidence that we’re seeing these dangerous and toxic ideas such as gender theory and CRT and these kinds of things targeted toward our kids. Drag queen story hour and all of that — it’s not a mistake that this is going after the children because everyone understands that whoever controls the textbooks controls the future.”
Lying is a sin, Kirk! Bibles have never been banned from public libraries. A quick search for “the Bible” in the deep-blue Maryland public library system brings up more than 14,000 results. Bible sparknotes, Bible audio, Bible commentary, the King James, New World, Greek, Latin vulgate, Aramaic, even “The Beer Bible.”
And Kirk was never banned from any libraries, his fit-pitching is because the public libraries won’t sponsor and publicly endorse his events to help him shill his books […]
[…] library-going-parents in, say, Scarsdale, are not interested in a program with Kirk Cameron, even if sponsoring a religious revival was not a violation of that whole church/state thing. Kirk’s not an award-winning author, and anyone who remembers him in “Growing Pains” is old enough to be past menopause. Kirk was always able to reserve a room at the library, all along, which is how he has been appearing at libraries in the first place.
Scarsdale Public Library made with the receipts of Kirk’s bullshit: He emailed a request for a story hour, and they sent him a link to fill out the application for a library program. He didn’t submit the form, though, and instead his PR company emailed the library, “We would love to schedule a story hour for Mr. Cameron’s book where we read As You Grow and speak to families about following the wisdom of the Bible, as well as discussing the harmful effects of woke ideologies, specifically CRT and the transgender agenda.”
The library replied, “Thank you for thinking of us, but we are not interested in this program.” The library told the PR company they were welcome to reserve a meeting space, but Kirk and his PR company didn’t bother filling out that form either, and instead immediately went crying to right-wing media that they had been BANNED in what he called an EVIL PLOT.
Kirk’s books are hardly Newbery or Caldecott material, and thousands of quality books still don’t get their own special sponsored library event, much less ones that are like 400,000th on the children’s bestsellers list. Why should Kirk and his company Brave Books’ books get any special treatment?
[…] Brave Books is hoping Fox-watching Meemaws and Peepaws will sign up for a subscription program for their $23 paperbacks, with the enticement of a free book. That sure sounds like the free ice cream Jack Posobiec was warning the children about! And it is! The company’s own website is littered with a complaints from people who were unable to cancel or get refunds, didn’t get books but were charged anyway, and were unable to reach anyone on the telephone to stop the charges!
But all hail free speech and the free market! Well, good luck, Kirk. At least maybe it’ll get some Fox watchers off the couch and into a library for an hour.
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn popped by Fox News to discuss “How Did Republican Women End Up Like This?” Rebecca Traister’s latest New York Magazine article on the inherent contradictions of being a Republican woman running for office and trying to look could-kill-a-puppy tough while also giving Stepford.
Asked by Martha MacCallum what she thought of the article, Blackburn claimed to have “laughed all the way through it” — apparently so fervently that she failed to comprehend any part.
Blackburn said:
“Martha, I laughed all the way through this article because I thought the Left absolutely requires submission of women to their ideology, and their goal is to really erase the lines of gender. And they would love to be able to do that, but they require that you submit. And if you ever challenge them, if you ever push back on them, then they are going to cut you out. They cannot stand strong, conservative, independent-minded women who really like being female, who really like being a mom, who really like being a woman. That does not fit their template. You know, I look at the Left sometimes and I say they are the Stepford Wives of the Leftist ideology because you have to come right into lockstep. You cannot deviate if you’re going to be a female leader on the Left.
You know that thing where, in interviews, you’re supposed to answer the question you wish you were asked rather than the question you actually were asked? I feel like this is what Blackburn is doing here […]
Absolutely no one gives a flying fuck if they “really like being female.” Marsha Blackburn could get up and bust out “I Enjoy Being A Girl” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song and the most she would get out of me would be a scathing critique of her singing voice that had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not she drools over dresses made of lace.
Similarly, no one gives a flying fuck if they want to be wives and mothers. You will notice that in all of Wonkette’s many critiques of Marsha Blackburn, not one had anything to do with her being a wife and mother. Being a senator who just so happens to be a raging bigot? Sure! We’ve got lots on that. But I didn’t even know she had kids until I looked it up a minute ago.
In fact, I can honestly say that I have never criticized anyone for being a wife and mother. I am, however, quite enamored of Blackburn’s assessment that we are Stepford Wives, as it makes it pretty clear that she has never actually read that book.
The idea that women on the Left are in lockstep is hilarious. Sure! We’re all on the same page when it comes to someone like Marsha Blackburn being terrible, but we disagree on things literally all of the time. In fact, we are quite famous for it. I regularly disagree with other feminists and other people on the Left, but not in the same way I disagree with Marsha Blackburn, because mostly we are not saying hateful things. Which is what the primary issue is with her and other conservatives.
MacCallum’s response, naturally, was to “tolerate my intolerance” the whole thing.
“Yeah. I mean, the irony to me has always been that they talk about supporting women, but they only support liberal women. I mean, they should just say that up front because, yes, they are not supportive of women across the board. They are only supportive of women of one political ideology.”
No, we’re not supportive of women who advance terrible and cruel ideologies just because they’re women. That would be stupid. Feminism is not a cheerleading squad.
That being said, I fully support Marsha Blackburn having all of the rights. I believe she should be able to vote, to have her own credit card, to open a bank account, to have a job (though I would certainly prefer she not be a US senator) — that doesn’t mean that I, or anyone else, is obligated to cheer for her when she does and says terrible things. If we did, then all of the stupid things that Republicans say about “identity politics” would be true.
The thing is, in Traister’s article, she also notes the careful lines women in the Democratic Party have felt they had to walk in order to be “electable.” And there are a lot of them! In fact, I have long said that the first female president will probably be a Republican because Democrats scare easily and spend way too much time hemming and hawing about what will hypothetically scare other people. A woman ran for president and lost, which means we are very likely now looking at four decades of running the central-castingest old white men we can find “just to be safe, because what if a man hears a woman’s voice and finds it ‘grating?’” Generally speaking, there’s no good way to be a woman in politics and Traister acknowledges this.
The difference is that we’re at least aware of these issues and work to change them, whereas conservative women just kind of Phyllis Schlafly it out and try to pretend there’s no conflict. They want to build careers and platforms for themselves by feigning the Stepford, and it does not always work out all that well for them. It also doesn’t work out so well when they try to do it for real.
A good example of this is Lilly Gaddis, the unmarried “trad wife” who briefly achieved some notoriety last week (and lost her job) after using the n-word in one of her videos. She really thought she was going to be immediately catapulted into an exciting new career as a cancel-culture darling, only to be criticized by many of the horrible men she had hoped to impress for being a single mother and for not looking sufficiently WASPy. The poor dear.
The contradictions Traister points out are becoming more difficult for Republican women to manage, as the base grows increasingly radical. It’s no longer enough for a Republican woman to run for office while praising “wives and mothers” — a lot of these men don’t want to see women running for office (or even voting) at all, and will get mad about the fact that they are not staying at home caring for their husbands and children. And this is who they have to please. They created a monster and now they have to contend with it.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that business executives and shareholder representatives should “be 100% behind” him or face termination.
“Business Executives and Shareholder Representatives should be 100% behind Donald Trump! Anybody that’s not should be FIRED for incompetence!,” the former president wrote in a post on his social media website, Truth Social. […]
More than 550 hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as temperatures exceed 50C
At least 320 of the dead are from Egypt and Saudi officials report treating more than 2,000 people for heat stress
At least 550 pilgrims have died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.
At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, the two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP.
“All of them [the Egyptians] died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding that the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca.
At least 60 Jordanians have died, the diplomats said, up from an official tally of 41 given earlier on Tuesday by Amman.
The new deaths bring the total reported so far by multiple countries to 577, according to an AFP tally.
birgerjohansson @437, yeah, that went past my feed.
Due to your impetus, I took a look.
Weak as fuck, is that video.
Now, Sabine is fine at physics stuff, even about philosophy of physics.
About math, so-so, about logic, so-so. About philosophy, well.
Anyway. Not impressed. Epiphenomena, levels of abstraction, reflexiveness.
Fluff.
KGsays
I have long said that the first female president will probably be a Republican because Democrats scare easily and spend way too much time hemming and hawing about what will hypothetically scare other people. Lynna, OM quoting wonkette@445
In the UK, there have been three Tory women PMs (admittedly, the last was only there for a few weeks due to steering the economy straight into a ditch), and now have the first PM of colour (admittedly about to be ejected). Labour: none of either – and as has been pointed out, they have now had two leaders called Keir before a single woman leader (unless you count Margaret Beckett who did a brief stand-in stint while a leadership election in which she was not a candidate was in progress). The Tories also had the first (and so far, only) Jewish PM back in the 1800s – Benjamin Disraeli.
John Moralessays
But then, here in Oz we only have had one woman PM — Julia Gillard.
Today is the last day of the swedish training aircraft SAAB Sk 60 in use with the swedish air force. It is designed along the British practice of having trainer and trainee sitting side by side. https://www.facebook.com/share/mVH1tvB9QzhwhZX9/
robrosays
This was in Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter yesterday. This needs to be spread around because of what it says about the “conservative” movement in this country, the secrets lives of evangelicals, and the scheming between religious conservatives and Republicans. What a gross bunch of opportunistic assholes.
At home, news broke on Saturday that Paul Pressler, a major leader of the Southern Baptist Convention and a key Republican activist, died on June 7 at age 94. In 1967, Pressler, a Texas judge, and Paige Patterson, a seminary student, met in New Orleans to plan a takeover of the Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., to rid it of liberals, purging those who believed in abortion rights, women’s rights, and gay rights. By 1979 their candidate was elected head of the organization, and in the 1980s, Southern Baptists, who then numbered about 15 million people, were active in politics and were staunch supporters of the Republican Party.
In Robert Downen’s obituary of Pressler for the Texas Tribune, he notes that as Pressler’s influence in the Republican Party grew, he also allegedly groped, solicited, or raped at least six men, including one who said he was 14 when Pressler first sexually abused him. Pressler denied the allegations, but he and the Southern Baptist Convention settled a lawsuit brought by that accuser just last December. A 2019 investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News inspired by that lawsuit found more than 400 Southern Baptist church leaders or volunteers had been charged with sex crimes since 2000.
In March 2021 the hugely popular leader Beth Moore, herself a survivor of sexual assault, left the church, saying, “You have betrayed your women.” That May, Russell Moore (no relation to Ms. Moore) left the church leadership and then, the following month, left the church itself over its handling of sexual abuse allegations and racism. A 2022 report on the church and sex abuse was so damning that Russell Moore wrote: “I was wrong to call sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention…a crisis. Crisis is too small a word. It is an apocalypse.” The investigation, he says, “uncovers a reality far more evil and systematic than I imagined it could be.”
The patriarchal model of society embraced by the Republican Party in the 1980s enabled the sorts of abuse uncovered in the Southern Baptist Convention, but Pressler’s death suggests that the era might be ending. Today, Robert Morris, the pastor of Texas megachurch Gateway Church, resigned after news broke on Friday that a woman has accused him of sexually abusing her for several years in the 1980s beginning when she was 12.
Across the country, public school districts require children to be fully immunized against, among other things, polio, measles, hepatitis B, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis before they can attend classes. These policies have existed for years; they’ve been incredibly effective; they enjoy the support of public-health officials; and they haven’t been especially controversial.
[…] And yet, there was Donald Trump in Wisconsin yesterday, telling his followers to robust applause, “I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate.” [video at the link]
For those who keep an eye on the former president’s rhetoric, the line was familiar. After all, the Republican recently peddled the identical line in Michigan. And Florida. And Washington, D.C. And Texas, Minnesota, and New Jersey. And Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and Virginia.
And that’s just recently. Trump has made the same declaration, word for word, for over a year.
Every time, his base applauds, offering timely reminders that Trump often takes his cues from his followers, as opposed to the other way around. Far-right voters oppose lifesaving vaccines, so the Republican candidate is only too pleased to tell them what they want to hear.
When Trump first started peddling this vow, there was some discussion about whether he was referring specifically to Covid vaccine mandates or all vaccine mandates, but the presumptive GOP nominee, at least publicly, has ignored the distinction. What’s more, in some instances, Trump has said his policy would apply to all public education, “from kindergarten through college.”
Or put another way, a second Trump administration — if the candidate’s promises are to be believed — would be prepared to cut federal support from every public school district in the United States, as well as most institutions of higher learning. (Remember, all 50 states require vaccinations for students.)
I’m mindful of the fact that some will see this and assume that Republican is just thumping his chest to impress his party’s boisterous anti-science base, and Trump wouldn’t really cut off schools for trying to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. In other words, voters shouldn’t be too concerned, the argument goes, because the former president is probably lying and might not keep his promise.
But this is hardly reassuring. For one thing, it’s hardly comforting to think Americans will hopefully get lucky and the presumptive GOP nominee will abandon one of his key campaign promises after Election Day.
For another, Trump’s defunding promise is part of a larger set of concerns. As Politico reported, if the Republican were to return to power, he’d be able to apply his anti-vaccine posture in a variety of ways.
The CDC could pare back the number of vaccines it recommends children receive or eliminate those recommendations entirely. The CDC could change the paperwork required to be shared with parents to make vaccines sound less safe than they are. Or the FDA could increase the number of years of safety testing required for new vaccines and impose other onerous requirements for vaccines to be approved in the U.S. Trump also could, as a thank-you to vaccine skeptics for their support in November, appoint someone who opposes the government’s traditional role in promoting vaccines.
Politico added, “Public health experts say a White House opposed to immunization mandates could potentially cause upticks in cases of measles, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases, or hamper efforts to fight a future pandemic.”
For those who care about the stakes in the 2024 elections, this probably belongs near the top of the list.
birgerjohanssonsays
Another english-speaking country has the chance of ridding itself of a very similar pack of monsters in just two weeks time.
If there are any Brit readers here, I want you to be aware of “stopthetories.vote” , a resource for finding out the best way to vote away the conservative menber of parliament running in your specific region.
In many places the margins between candidates is quite small, and it can come down to just a hundred votes, or just a dozen.
Therefore it is important to think twice before you cast your vote.
In some places the labour candidate will be best posed to overtake the tory candidate.
In other places the Liberal Democrat is best posed.
Stopthetories.vote can tell you how to vote tactically to reduce the number of tory MPs as much as possible.
In fact, the margins are so small that if a modest number of Liberal Democrat sympathisers vote labour in the places where labour is posed to win over the conservstives – and vice versa – there is a real possibility to make the tories the third largest party with the Lib Dem.leader the official “leader of the opposition” with the privileges of media cover, getting to ask the PM three questions during the question sessions in parliament, etc.
But the most important part is, this will create a real momentum for the voting reform issue, abandoning the obsolete ‘first past the post’ system that has kept a minority of tories in power for so long*.
*And BTW has been used by the Republicans all over USA in a similar way.
It was earlier this month when right-wing operative/podcaster Steve Bannon, after suffering a series of legal defeats, was ordered to report to prison on July 1 to begin a four-month sentence. As Raw Story noted, some of his Capitol Hill allies, however, have an idea to keep Bannon free.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) came out in support of a plan to “rescind” subpoenas for Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro — even though it would not likely have any impact on their prison sentences.
Before digging in on the plan, let’s briefly summarize Bannon’s legal predicament, because it provides some necessary context.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack sent Bannon a subpoena way back in September 2021. Even at the time, the seriousness was obvious: The podcaster was told that this was a legal summons — not a suggestion — and that failure to comply opened the door to meaningful legal consequences.
Bannon nevertheless refused to cooperate. The House then approved a resolution finding the GOP operative in contempt of Congress and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which indicted the former White House strategist. A jury later convicted Bannon — his lawyers struggled to present much of a defense — ultimately leading to his prison sentence.
A couple of weeks ago, Rep. Thomas Massie endorsed a provocative idea: Maybe, the Kentucky Republican argued, the House could keep Bannon free by voting to rescind the subpoena that Bannon chose to ignore.
Yesterday, Marjorie Taylor Greene threw her support behind the idea, vowing to help lead the effort. “[O]ur Republican-led House must nullify any actions taken by the illegitimate J6 committee,” the right-wing Georgian wrote online, adding, “House Republicans need to start taking action!” [eyeroll]
At this point, GOP leaders haven’t given any indication whether such a vote is likely, and given that Bannon’s prison sentence is set to begin in 12 days, the Republican House leadership would have to make up its mind rather quickly.
But even if such a measure were to pass, there’s no reason to assume such a bill would serve as a get-out-of-jail-free card for the notorious podcaster. As a report in The New Republic noted, “Unfortunately for Greene and other House Republicans, rescinding the subpoenas doesn’t magically mean no crime was committed.”
It’s an important point. Bannon ignored a subpoena, was held in contempt, and faced a criminal trial. A jury heard the evidence and convicted him. A judge — a Trump-appointed judge — sentenced him to prison. The Massie/Greene plan is rooted in the idea that if the House were to effectively declare in the coming days, “Never mind!” that would wipe the slate clean for the convicted criminal.
I have a hunch the courts wouldn’t quite see it that way.
Complicating matters, Bannon is also slated to stand trial in New York City in September on charges related to his role in the “We Build the Wall” operation. In that case, he’s accused of helping defraud donors — and there’s nothing his allies in Congress can do about it.
At the second link above, there are also videos of CNN debunking 30 different false claims Trump made at a Wisconsin rally; an interview with the former producer of “The apprentice”; a video of a young woman refusing to kiss Trump; and of Trump calling cheap fakes (deceptively edited videos) “clean fakes.”
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen from a New York Times article:
In Virginia, where Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger is giving up her seat to run for governor, Yevgeny (Eugene) Vindman won a crowded Democratic primary to succeed her. Vindman is perhaps best known to national audiences for his role in exposing Donald Trump’s 2019 Ukraine scandal, which led to the then-president’s impeachment.
New York Times:
Yevgeny Vindman, who along with his twin brother helped expose then-President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joseph R. Biden Jr., won his Democratic primary on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. He will run in the fall to represent the Virginia district of Representative Abigail Spanberger, who is retiring.
Mr. Vindman, who goes by Eugene, had no governing experience, a point his Democratic competitors made in the primary for Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District. But his name recognition, along with that of his identical twin, Alexander Vindman, helped him raise over $5 million, more than the rest of the field combined.
And his message that democracy is at stake in 2024 proved more persuasive than the push of Democratic competitors — such as two Prince William County supervisors, Andrea Bailey and Margaret Franklin — for governing experience.
Two other races featuring “Save Democracy” candidates went the opposite way. Harry Dunn, who rose to prominence as a Capitol Police officer who waged pitched battles with Mr. Trump’s supporters during and after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, lost his Maryland House primary last month to Sarah Elfreth, a state senator who ran on her legislative record.
Mike O’Brien, a former Marine Corps officer and fighter pilot who made the preservation of democracy central to his candidacy, lost a Pennsylvania Democratic primary in April to a newscaster, Janelle Stelson, who used issues like abortion access and the price of gasoline and groceries to win the right to challenge a fierce Trump Republican ally, Representative Scott Perry.
In 2018, the Vindman brothers, both lieutenant colonels in the Army and aides on the White House National Security Council at the time, raised internal alarms about a phone call in which Mr. Trump asked Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to announce an investigation into the business dealings of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter in his country. […]
Ted Cruz messes up the legislative process … again:
[…] Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) says she was forced to postpone the committee markup of legislation to extend subsidies for high-speed internet because Ted Cruz had insisted on modifications that would have “gutted” bipartisan amendments that had been negotiated with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Cantwell said the “hard-won compromise” on the Affordable Connectivity Program to help low-income families afford speedy internet had been “months in the making” and would have provided a “balanced approach to spectrum management.”
And she argued it would have expanded high-speed connectivity for lower income families while “protecting our defense by ensuring our military has telecommunications they need” by preserving spectrum that the Defense Department doesn’t want to auction off.
Cantwell blamed Ted Cruz for “obstructing” the bill’s progress and urged him and other Republicans to “get back to negotiating.”
A Senate Democratic aide said Cruz alone had filed 38 amendments and modified amendments to the bill, as well as 14 amendments or modifications to bipartisan reforms Wicker proposed for the Affordable Connectivity Program.
A Republican source familiar with the internal committee discussion said those figures were misleading and that Cantwell and her staff knew for “months” what changes they wanted to make to the bill.
[…] Cantwell believes Cruz’s ultimate goal was to stop the reauthorization of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) dead in its tracks.
“I definitely don’t think he likes ACP, that’s for sure,” Cantwell told The Hill. “I think they really don’t want to have a bill. I think there are some in the private sector who don’t even want to have a bill because I think they’re not ready to bid.
First, while every other website in the world is getting bought by a hedge fund and then clubbed to death to make muffs of white baby website fur, Wonkette is not that. Because Gawker sold it to Ken Layne who sold it to me, and I will die in this website with my boots on.
Unless you have a million dollars. I’d think about it then.
Second! We are gearing up for the conventions, which are soon upon us! I’m taking Evan, Doktor Zoom, Robyn, and Shy to both Milwaukee and Chicago. There, on July 14 (Milwaukee) and August 18 (Chicago), I shall throw you SUCH PARTIES!
[…] This time we’re leaving the children at home.
What does this mean to you? It means would you like to give us some money?
Seriously, I am about to spend a fortune on flights, rentals, and drinky things. If you’re holding and you want to, we accept!
Third! It’s been 80 years … but I finally FINALLY finally FINALLY got a T-shirt solution I’m willing to sell at you. (The quality for a while was “image falling off the T-shirt in shreds” which is not a thing I am willing to do.) So men’s and women’s T-shirts and women’s tanks are BACK! We’re starting with a small smattering of designs. Just pick men’s or women’s depending if you like them tented or shapely (men’s are crewneck, women’s are V-neck), choose your size Small to 4X, pick black or white, and the image of your choice. Want one of our other beauteous images? We can do that at you too, just drop me a line at rebecca at wonkette dot com, and I will make it happen by which I mean my assistant Felicia will make it happen. [embedded links available at the main link]
Don’t forget your stickers, coffee cups, and temporary tattoos! And shit, we are mommyblog recipe hub. Better get an apron too.
Now we’ve got the commerce out of the way, I want to thank you, again, for keeping us going these [gets out abacus] 12 years and four presidential election cycles since I bought the joint. Thank you for being a happy merry vile snarkmob, murdering each other with kindness in the comments. For keeping me in utterly fantastic writers, your veterans like Dok and Robyn and Evan and Michael, your old friends who are back again like Gary and Sara and Dom, and your new friends like Marcie and Andrew and CripDyke and Cakes We Like and Ziggy and Martini and Hooper, your bartender. For keeping my four generation family in house and home.
I hope you’re able to take today off like we are (mostly) to celebrate Juneteenth. We’re gonna eat some red food up in here and think about freedom, and equality, and these motherfucking times we are motherfucking living in, and we’re going to shake our heads and cluck our tongues and then we’re going to have another drink and rest up. There’s work, forever, to be done.
Thank you for being our friend.
Despite the shameless (though probably necessary commerce aspect) I am looking forward to Wonkette’s reporting from the convention in Chicago.
birgerjohanssonsays
The sequel to Spaceballs will be filmed, the 97-year-old Mel Brooks will be producer.
A major expansion underway inside Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear facility could soon triple the site’s production of enriched uranium and give Tehran new options for quickly assembling a nuclear arsenal if it chooses to, according to confidential documents and analysis by weapons experts.
Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed new construction activity inside the Fordow enrichment plant, just days after Tehran formally notified the nuclear watchdog of plans for a substantial upgrade at the underground facility built inside a mountain in north-central Iran.
Iran also disclosed plans for expanding production at its main enrichment plant near the city of Natanz. Both moves are certain to escalate tensions with Western governments and spur fears that Tehran is moving briskly toward becoming a threshold nuclear power, capable of making nuclear bombs rapidly if its leaders decide to do so.
At Fordow alone, the expansion could allow Iran to accumulate several bombs’ worth of nuclear fuel every month, according to a technical analysis provided to The Washington Post. Though it is the smaller of Iran’s two uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow is regarded as particularly significant because its subterranean setting makes it nearly invulnerable to airstrikes.
It also is symbolically important because Fordow had ceased making enriched uranium entirely under the terms of the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Iran resumed making the nuclear fuel there shortly after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018.
Iran already possesses a stockpile of about 300 pounds of highly enriched uranium that could be further refined into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear bombs within weeks, or perhaps days, U.S. intelligence officials say. Iran also is believed to have accumulated most of the technical know-how for a simple nuclear device, although it would probably take another two years to build a nuclear warhead that could be fitted onto a missile, according to intelligence officials and weapons experts.
Iran says it has no plans to make nuclear weapons. But in a striking shift, leaders of the country’s nuclear energy program have begun asserting publicly that their scientists now possess all the components and skills for nuclear bombs and could build one quickly if so ordered. In the past two years, Fordow has begun stockpiling a kind of highly enriched uranium that is close to weapons-grade, with a purity far higher than the low-enriched fuel commonly used in nuclear power plants. […]
In private messages to the IAEA early last week, Iran’s atomic energy said Fordow was being outfitted with nearly 1,400 new centrifuges, machines used to make enriched uranium, according to two European diplomats briefed on the reports. The new equipment, made in Iran and networked together in eight assemblies known as cascades, was to be installed within four weeks. A leaked draft of the Iranian plan was initially reported by Reuters.
[…] At Fordow, only newer-model machines, known as IR-6s, were to be installed, reports show, a substantial upgrade from the IR-1 centrifuges currently in use there.
[…] Within a month after becoming fully operational, Fordow’s IR-6s could generate about 320 pounds of weapons-grade uranium, Albright said. Using conservative calculations, that’s enough for five nuclear bombs. In two months, the total stockpile could climb to nearly 500 pounds, Albright added.
[…] Iran’s expansion plans for the Natanz plant call for adding thousands of centrifuge machines of a different type, known as the IR-2M. Albright calculated that Natanz’s overall production capacity would increase by 35 percent.
[…] Despite its increasingly provocative behavior, Iran for now appears unwilling to risk a U.S. or Israeli military strike by actually building and testing a nuclear weapon, U.S. analysts say. […]
In a video published Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assailed the Biden administration in the latest public clash between the two allies over the war in Gaza.
[…] The Biden administration on Tuesday rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusation that Washington had been “withholding weapons and ammunitions” from its close ally over the “past few months.” The Israeli leader implied that this was hampering his military’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, now focused on the southern city of Rafah.
“We genuinely do not know what he is talking about. We just don’t,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said as she maintained that only one shipment of heavy bombs had been paused since the war began, while billions of dollars of arms have continued to flow into Israel.
The White House denied reports it had canceled a high-level meeting with Israeli officials on Iran after being enraged by Netanyahu’s accusation. A White House official told NBC News the details of the meeting had not yet been finalized, “so nothing has been cancelled.” But they said meetings with Israeli officials were being held throughout the week “on a range of topics.”
“As we said in the briefing yesterday, we have no idea what the prime minister is talking about, but that’s not a reason for rescheduling a meeting,” the official said.
Also Wednesday, the United Nations human rights office said that the laws of war were likely being “consistently violated” in the Israeli military’s assault on the Palestinian enclave, citing the use of heavy bombs. That new assessment came as some focus was turning north to Israel’s border with Lebanon, where both Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have intensified their exchanges of fire and rhetoric while the U.S. worked to avoid an all-out war.
Netanyahu issued his criticism in a video statement posted on X, saying he had discussed the issue of withheld weapons with Antony Blinken during the secretary of state’s recent visit to Israel. […]
Despite fact checks online, Big Tech platforms continued to spread a misleading video of President Joe Biden.
Misleading videos and false claims that President Joe Biden wandered off aimlessly from the G7 conference last week continued to go viral online for days afterward even after debunkings and fact checks tried to correct the record.
Google recommended false versions of the story as “top stories” and the deceptive videos continued to accumulate millions of views on X. Copies of the videos were replayed on TikTok and YouTube with little context and zero indication that they were part of a concerted disinformation campaign. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, applied fact-checking labels to some posts but not to all.
The long echo of the incident illustrates how Big Tech and partisan media are playing off each other in the 2024 election cycle and keeping viral stories in the news even after they’ve been proven to be false or misleading.
The story revolved around Biden’s attendance at the Group of Seven meeting in Italy, where he and other world leaders were greeted last Thursday by a skydiving demonstration. Video shows that Biden at one point walked toward a group of parachutists who had just landed and gave them two thumbs-up.
But not all videos of the event included the full context. Videos posted by conservative media outlets and the Republican National Committee were shot from angles that cut out the parachutists, and some of their posts said incorrectly that Biden “wandered off.” With no skydivers included in those videos, viewers could be left with the incorrect impression that Biden was walking absentmindedly, with no particular destination.
The misleading videos were an example of so-called cheap fakes, in which low-tech editing or other minor changes to a video can send a false but convincing message.
The White House quickly denounced the misleading videos as a “lie” spread by media outlets controlled by the conservative Murdoch family, and several independent fact-checkers came to a similar conclusion, with debunkings published Friday in NBC News, PolitiFact, USA Today and The Washington Post.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was standing near Biden, said afterward that the president was being polite to the skydivers.
[…] But even with the strong pushback against the videos, the false version of the story has lived on with help from the nation’s largest tech platforms, and right-leaning influencers and media.
Over the weekend, Google’s search engine recommended at least two misleading versions of the story as “top stories” after a search about Biden and the G7. One version was published by the New York Post, a conservative tabloid, and another by New Delhi Television, a news outlet based in India.
Google defended the company’s search results in a statement Tuesday to NBC News, saying that it considers the New York Post one of the “high-quality sources” for its search engine and for YouTube, which Google owns.
[…] One of the posts on X without a community note came from the conservative website TrendingPolitics and had more than 25 million views as of Tuesday. […]
Misleading videos about the G7 event have also garnered millions of views collectively on TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, as well as thousands of engagements on Instagram, a platform that does not disclose view counts.
[…] most videos viewed by NBC News on the platforms Monday and Tuesday did not show a label or note explaining that the topic had been the subject of multiple fact checks.
[…] The episode illustrated the dynamics of the new information ecosystem, in which tech platforms are hesitant to emphasize vetted, factual information during an election year for fear of appearing partisan — even as partisan operatives take advantage […]
Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer sciences at Northeastern University, said that the people behind the misleading claims are benefiting from tech companies’ cost-cutting. In the past two years, companies such as Google, Meta and X laid off large numbers of employees who worked on trust and safety teams, the core of the companies’ efforts to limit the spread of misinformation.
“They eliminated the staffers who were enforcing those policies,” she said. […]
Rob Grigjanissays
John @449:
Now, Sabine is fine at physics stuff, even about philosophy of physics.
About math, so-so
John, I didn’t know you were a mathematician! Do tell where Sabine falls short of your standards.
birgerjohanssonsays
British election (‘A Different Bias’)
“New MRP Poll Has Some Shocking Results”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5K2iFK9er_Q
When you look at the number of seats the tories are certain to win, they are indeed shockingly few.
birgerjohanssonsays
‘Tamil Nadu govt commences archaeological digs at 8 sites to ‘rewrite’ India’s history from Tamil landscape | Latest News India – Hindustan Times’
The not so democratcially inclined LNP stating they will ignore community concerns and wishes if they get elected
The Coalition’s pursuit of nuclear reactors in seven communities would proceed even if locals reject them, despite Coalition MPs previously saying going nuclear would be conditional on obtaining community “consent”.
..(Snip)..Andrew Gee, the former National-turned-independent whose seat of Calare in NSW contains one of the proposed sites near Lithgow, told the ABC’s News Breakfast his community was “shocked” by the lack of consultation and accused his former colleagues of “arrogance”. “This is basically dropped on the community,” he said. “Peter Dutton and David Littleproud must have been working on this for a while but nobody has seen them in Lithgow or Portland … This has come in from out of the blue without a single piece of consultation.
John, I didn’t know you were a mathematician! Do tell where Sabine falls short of your standards.
Give me the set of mathematical-themed videos she has made, and I’ll tell you where she failed to impress me, KG.
Be aware that someone at or below my standard does not impress me — I certainly don’t impress myself, though I clearly can’t fall short of my standard, which is mine. So your insinuation that I consider myself better isn’t warranted.
Mind you, offhand I remember this one made me give up: “Are we made of math?”
Pretty darn waffly, that was.
(Tegmark’s MUH!)
Rob Grigjanissays
John, I’m not KG.
John Moralessays
Uh. No.
Though, in my head, you are both in a very similar category.
(He dislikes me more)
Anyway, seems like quite a bit of effort to go through her corpus of youtube videos (of which I’ve only seen a smallish subset) to answer your question.
Basically, an opinion formed and grown over many years. Not a fresh analysis.
When the subject is physics, I pay attention. Otherwise, well… she’s perfectly entitled to her opinion.
Take that video upon which I commented; if complexity needs explaining, then that explanation must include simplicity, and that means that simplicity needs explaining. No?
“This New Idea Could Explain Complexity” is obvious clickbait.
(Fool me once, etc)
birgerjohanssonsays
Book review in New Scientist
Supercommunicators review: Learning how to change deeply held beliefs
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new pact Wednesday that includes a pledge of mutual defense if either is attacked. The agreement was sealed at a summit in Pyongyang during a rare visit by Putin to the reclusive nuclear-armed state as both countries face growing confrontations with the West.
New York Times:
As Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China deepened their confrontation with the West over the past decade, they were always united with the United States on at least one geopolitical project: dismantling or at least containing North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. That is, until the war in Ukraine broke out two years ago.
A civil war is ripping apart Sudan, one of Africa’s largest countries. Tens of thousands have been killed, millions scattered and an enormous famine looms, setting off one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises. … [A] New York Times examination of satellite imagery and video from El Fasher makes one thing clear: The assault is intensifying.
The combat markings emblazoned on the F/A-18 fighter jet tell the story: 15 missiles and six drones, painted in black just below the cockpit windshield. As the jet sits on the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, its markings illuminate the enemy targets that it’s destroyed in recent months and underscore the intensity of the fight to protect commercial shipping from persistent missile and drone attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. But they also hint at the fatigue setting in, as the carrier, its strike group and about 7,000 sailors close in on their ninth month waging the most intense running sea battle since World War II.
Britons: Go out and vote tactically where the tories still might win! The margins are small. Together, you can reduce the cruel cynical bastards to third place in parliament for the first time in history.
.
If you know some voter who does not intend to vote, please try to persuade him/her. Offer help with the practical things.
birgerjohanssonsays
Stephen Colbert:
“Happy Juneteenth! | Heat Is Bad For The Brain | Trump Tries Being Nice |Vermont’s Watergate”
Britons: Go out and vote tactically where the tories still might win! – birgerjohansson@480
On the contrary, because we already know who is going to form the next government, this is a rare opportunity in a FPTP system to vote positively, for what you actually believe in, rather than against something.
birgerjohanssonsays
Harriet Schlubman!
.
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Trump Has Done More for Black Americans Than Anyone, Don Jr’s Weird “Joe Biden” voice’.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=re51hMix8c4
KGsays
(He [i/e/me] dislikes me more) – John Morales@472
I don’t actually dislike you, John – are you mistaking me for Silentbob? You often annoy me, but that’s different. And you sometimes amuse or inform me.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Polls Predict Worst Conservative Loss In A Century & French Election Takes a ‘Peculiar’ Turn.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=oJIcjrKU6pE
🌨
The tories had an ad showing a roulette wheel and the text “If you bet on Labour, you will never win”. And the next day…
“Sunak Surrounded by Gambling Addicts?” #shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/V-Jr1Y5vLfo
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has failed to qualify for next week’s debate in Atlanta, according to host network CNN, falling shy of benchmarks both for state ballot qualification and necessary polling. […]
He’s also running for president as an independent after being unceremoniously tossed aside by the Democratic Party. So how’s that going for him?
Not well.
Kennedy is a well-known liar, and the saga of his vice-presidential pick is exhibit A. On March 18, he said he would never pick a running mate “based on how much money they have.” A month later, he handpicked philanthropist Nicole Shanahan, ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, based on how much money she had (reportedly over $1 billion). She had already donated $4 million to Kennedy’s super PAC to air that infamous Super Bowl ad that stole from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 ad.
[…] The Washington Post effectively highlighted how irrelevant Shanahan was to the campaign trail, headlining the piece, “RFK’s strange non-relationship with his VP pick.” He had no clue what she was doing, where she was going, what media she was doing, or really, anything about her. The campaign has done nothing to coordinate her message with Kennedy’s, nor apparently even coach her. […] “How do you sell financial support as … inspiring to the general public?”
Thing is, Shanahan’s money didn’t change everything, nor, apparently, anything. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign is on financial life support,” wrote Politico, noting that his campaign would be in debt without a $10 million infusion from Shanahan. But that is far from what he needs to be a proper spoiler.
The campaign started with the raffle program in December, offering a whale watching trip in Hawaii with Kennedy and his wife, Cheryl Hines. Its later offerings included a “Rocky Mountain adventure” and a “VIP sailing experience” at sunset with the couple in California. Those raffle tickets were $10 each and aimed at growing grassroots donations — but the campaign’s small-dollar hauls haven’t grown.
In February, it also spun up auctions aimed at bringing in larger-dollar donors with new items every month. In the latest edition, a “personal phone call with Bobby” and a virtual meeting with Shanahan garnered two bids and a single offer, respectively. Several signed posters of Kennedy got zero bids. Three of the four “zip line with Kennedy” prizes went unsold. And an unopened issue of George magazine, published by Kennedy’s late cousin John F. Kennedy Jr., sold for just $550. The “buy now” price was $2,500.
Damn, just two people bid on a phone call with Kennedy? […]
Kennedy’s super PAC is surviving thanks to $25 million from Republican mega donor Tim Mellon, who clearly is hoping Kennedy siphons support from Biden. Kennedy’s Republican-focused campaign isn’t accomplishing that goal, and polls show that Kennedy is likely hurting Trump more. Deliciously ironic, huh? As for Shanahan, she’s already pissed away $14 million on Kennedy. How much more is she going to throw away on a hopeless cause, especially with a campaign overtly uninterested in lifting her up. This, from The Washington Post article, is brutal:
Kennedy’s communications director, Del Bigtree, put an even finer point on how the Kennedy operation seems to view its vice-presidential pick when asked by a Washington Post reporter who in the campaign might be able to speak on Shanahan’s behalf.
“I’ve never had a conversation with her about who shares her perspective,” Bigtree said. “The only perspective I’m really focused on is Bobby’s.”
Well then.
Daaamn.
The bottom line is that most donors aren’t interested in pissing their money away on a candidate who has zero chance of winning, and Republicans are most likely scared away by the latest polling showing Kennedy hurting Trump. So Kennedy’s best bet now is (free) earned media, and he’s got bad news on that front.
CNN, which is hosting the first presidential debate on June 27 (assuming Trump shows up), announced that it is unlikely any third-party candidate qualifies for the debate. The requirements are being on the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral votes (Kennedy is at 89), and 15% of the vote share in four national polls (he has three).
Kennedy is likely screaming about CIA conspiracies to keep him down, or something. (Oh wait, he is actually claiming a conspiracy!)
[…] The Trump camp can no longer fund Kennedy as a spoiler, as that’s backfiring. The Biden campaign can’t risk Kennedy using his name to draw Democratic votes. Thus, Kennedy can’t expect help from either camp. In fact, the opposite is happening, with both sides relentlessly blasting him. And his merry band of anti-vaccine nuts aren’t enough of a movement to sustain his campaign.
Expect his share of the vote to dwindle as voters begin focusing on the two actual candidates in the race.
As for Shanahan, one final bonus headline, this one from the Wall Street Journal: “Elon Musk’s Friendship With Sergey Brin Ruptured by Alleged Affair: Tesla chief’s liaison with Google co-founder’s wife led to couple’s divorce filing.”
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* The latest national Fox News poll found President Joe Biden with a narrow lead over Donald Trump, 50% to 48%, among registered voters. This is the first time a Fox poll has found the Democratic incumbent ahead of his Republican challenger since last October, although the lead falls within the polls margin of error.
* On a related note, Trump responded to the poll with an item on his social media platform that read in part, “FoxNews Polls are always the worst for me.” Fox News’ primetime hosts, meanwhile, largely ignored the survey’s findings.
* Don Tracy, the embattled chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, resigned Wednesday. A Chicago Tribune report noted that his departure furthers “a chaotic period of leadership for a political organization bordering on irrelevancy” shortly before the party’s national convention.
* For the first time this year, the National Republican Congressional Committee outraised its Democratic counterparts in May, $12.6 million to $11.9 million. The NRCC’s efforts were bolstered by the party’s base responding to Trump’s recent criminal conviction.
* Speaking of fundraising, The New York Times reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign raised just $2.6 million last month, “a paltry sum that speaks to how reliant his bid has become on his running mate, the wealthy Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan.”
* And those waiting to learn the outcome of Rep. Bob Good’s primary fight will apparently have to be patient. Voters weighed in on Tuesday, but a Washington Post report explained, “Starting with a tally of provisional ballots and Election Day-postmarked mail-ins that straggle in by Friday, the effort is likely to expand to a full recount that could take weeks.”
Five months before the election, claims that only fraud could explain a future Trump defeat are already common in the right-wing media ecosystem.
The cycle of lies that drove the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is again underway.
Five months before the 2024 election, claims that only fraud could explain a future Donald Trump defeat are already commonplace in the right-wing media ecosystem. Fox News stars and Trumpist influencers are priming their audiences to listen if Trump once again claims an election was “rigged” against him — and to come to his aid.
Twice last week, Greg Gutfeld told viewers of “The Five,” Fox News’ most-watched broadcast, that the public will only believe the 2024 results are legitimate if President Joe Biden loses.
“If they aren’t that worried that Joe’s going to lose, given his sorry state, what are they planning? What are they doing to save the day?” Gutfeld asked June 13. He added that if “by some weird, miraculous chance” Biden wins, “how do you convince anyone that’s real? Have they even thought of that?” He concluded, “Even the Dems behind the scenes better hope he doesn’t win because no one’s going to believe it.”
Gutfeld reiterated the point the next day, saying that if Democrats “somehow pull this out” by using “shenanigans” to win, “you’re going to deal with a public that doesn’t buy the election.”
That same week, Gutfeld’s colleague Jesse Watters used his prime-time show to call for banning ballot drop boxes on the grounds that they are “ripe for fraud” and to warn of millions of undocumented immigrants voting. “Biden let 10 million illegal immigrants into this country,” Watters claimed (falsely). “How are we ever going to accept the results of the election in this kind of landscape?”
This fear-mongering about the potential for election-changing fraud has been a consistent refrain all year on Fox News. “The Democrats are going to stop at nothing,” host Laura Ingraham declared in January. “If they can, they’re going to game the system or yeah, maybe even cheat.” [Note the endless repetition of lies.]
While the network paid a heavy price for its election denial in 2020 — including a $787.5 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems — its hosts are under constant pressure from other Trumpist competitors who loudly claim that Democratic election-rigging is an indisputable fact. “There are no ‘issues’ with the 2020 election — they stole it,” former Trump adviser and right-wing podcast host Steve Bannon claimed in March. “The only way they defeat Trump is to steal it. The only way they defeat Trump is they steal it. The only way they defeat Trump is they steal it. He is unstoppable.”
We saw four years ago that these disinformation campaigns can trigger horrific results. Trump’s plot to subvert the 2020 vote did not begin when he falsely declared victory in the hours after Election Day. By that point, the then-president and his right-wing media cronies had spent months preparing Republican voters not to accept a result that ended in his defeat. Outlets like Fox News relentlessly bombarded their audiences with misinformation about mail-in voting and election fraud. Trump in turn regularly promoted that bogus coverage, describing it as evidence that “Democrats are Rigging our 2020 Election!”
In fact, Trump had previously offered similar predictions before the 2016 election, only for his unexpected victory to render the argument moot. Four years later, though, the Trumpist base had been carefully readied to reject the truth of a Trump loss, provide cover for Republican politicians to try to reverse the outcome in states Biden won, and march on the U.S. Capitol in his name.
Trump’s election subversion effort failed, in part because Biden’s margin of victory was too large and in too many states, and in part because a handful of Republicans — notably his own vice president, Mike Pence — refused to participate. But November’s election may prove closer, and the allies of the former president — who still claims the 2020 results were “rigged” — have removed many of the guardrails that helped forestall his 2020 plot.
Constant pressure from Bannon and Fox’s stable of stars have both helped to turn election denial from a common GOP view to a core party value, one that would-be leaders must espouse in order to climb the ranks. Anti-election-denial Republicans like Pence are party outcasts; those seeking to replace him on the ticket outbid each other over who can seem most skeptical of American elections and supportive of Trump’s 2020 scheme. The Jan. 6 riot has been re-envisioned as a peaceful tour by American martyrs and patriots.
All this suits Trump’s aims perfectly. Mimicking his right-wing propagandists, Trump told Time magazine in April that the only thing that can prevent him from winning “in record-setting fashion” is if Democrats rely on “the things that they did the last time.” He warned that if that happens, political violence from his supporters may be on the table. In other words, Trump is ready for another Jan. 6-style assault on democracy if one proves necessary. And propagandists in the right-wing media are laying the groundwork to ensure his plot’s success.
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): […] Donald Trump definitely has a real chance to win. And that’s essentially what the polls are saying. But, that is not the case in the echo chamber of Fox News, where the notion that this race is essentially tied or that Joe Biden could win is unthinkable. […]
HAYES: Now they’re telling their audience what they want to hear, which okay. But remember the last time they did that, after the 2020 election? Fox personalities parroted Trump’s election lies suggesting voter fraud was the only way he could have lost, and they ended up getting sued for it by Dominion, the voting machine company. That led Fox to make the largest media defamation settlement of all time, seventy hundred and eighty-seven million dollars. Their coverage also contributed to the atmosphere that gave rise to a violent insurrection and the first attempt to overthrow the constitutional republic since the Civil War. And they’re doing it again, which is dangerous, but also potentially hilarious on nights like this when Fox News’ own polling data from the field gave them an unexpected and for their viewers uncomfortable result. […]
HAYES: Margin of error, folks. Margin of error. Michelle Goldberg is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. Angelo Carusone is the president and CEO of Media Matters for America. And they both join me now. And Angelo, let me start with you because I’ve been — I watch a fair amount of Fox. We have it on and it has been striking to me that inside their programming, the notion this is a tied race is ludicrous. It is just obviously the case that Donald Trump is romping, running away with it. Biden’s gonna collapse. It’s gonna be a 1980 kind of election. Is that a fair characterization?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS): Absolutely. And the thing that I — it’s totally fair. I mean, they really have cemented for their audience. And then by extension, that reverberates to a larger sort of right-wing media consumer, the Trump supporters, that there’s actually no chance that Trump can lose. In fact, one of the Fox hosts even said that there’s no way that anyone would accept the election as legitimate unless Donald Trump is declared the winner. So, I mean, they’ve validated that very observation, and they’ve gone on one step further than that, which is actually to sort of build up his Paul Bunyan sort of chops. Right? Which is to say, not only is he guaranteed to win, but he’s doing it against all of these odds, all of this malfeasance and cheating and other sort of hijinks that the Democrats are engaging in. So it’s sort of a both / and. They reinforce that, and they’re also sort of seeding the ground for any sort of, you know, blips in pulls or anything that comes off expectations. They’re already building the argument for how Trump could be declared, say, not the winner.
HAYES: Yeah. And Michelle, the thing about this unnerves me is that, you know, we’ve seen polling misses in different directions. It’s very hard to get a very tight race, like, exactly correct. And there’s a universe in which, like, Donald Trump is up in the polling average by 2 or 3 points on election day and Joe Biden wins. That is like —
MICHELLE GOLDBERG (NY TIMES): The reverse of what happened in 2016.
HAYES: Exactly. Reverse what happened in 2016 somewhat similar to 2022 in a few of those marquee races the Democrats over-performed what the final polling average was. And under those conditions, it’s like, yeah, our — you’ve already got — Donald Trump’s not gonna accept defeat. We’ve already seen what he’s done. It feels like they’re packing it like gunpowder into an explosive.
GOLDBERG: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And I mean, the 2020 race was a race overseen by Donald Trump’s Justice Department. I mean, the idea that they’re going to accept a race overseen by the Biden administration, at least on the federal level, it seems impossible. And that’s kind of what they’re preparing their people to do. And it’s also that they’ve kept them in — I think that they are themselves and they keep their viewers in such a bubble. Right? So that they’re seeing these clips. Some of them quite doctored, you know. You’ll see kind of Biden wandering off and you don’t see the person he’s wandering off to talk to.
HAYES: Yes.
GOLDBERG: And so —
HAYES: This is at the G7 summit where they had the the paratroopers come down.
GOLDBERG: Right. So to the end, it’s — I mean, politically, it actually makes no sense because the thing that Biden benefits from most is rock bottom expectations.
HAYES: Yes, exactly.
GOLDBERG: I’ve been consistently outspokenly worried about Biden’s age and his performance, but he’s going to be sentient at the debate just as he was at the State of the Union. And people are going to remember like, oh, this isn’t the, you know, sort of, you know —
HAYES: Zombie
GOLDBERG: Right, that I’ve been told to expect. And so what they’re doing makes no sense unless they really either are in that bubble or are so devoted to just kind of stoking the wish casting of the people who are in that bubble.
HAYES: […] it’s pleasant to hear good news about your candidate as just a general thing for everyone. And I think part of it is just this works for them at a ratings level to be like “Donald Trump is winning.”
CARUSONE: Yeah. I mean, we don’t ‚ in some ways, we don’t have to make too many guesses here. I mean, what came out during the Dominion lawsuit was that they didn’t — they felt like they didn’t have a choice. And that was in some ways, it’s even worse and more destructive and that they both knew that they were the only voice that could actually tell the truth to Trump’s people and actually get some of them to believe it or at least, as you note, sort of take some of that gunpowder out of the keg. They were the only ones equipped to do that in 2020. And in fact, they did the opposite. They helped build the scaffolding for the January 6th insurrection by telling 774 segments [774! Wow! That’s a lot, a LOT of repetition of the lies!] explicitly undermining the election results and towing Donald Trump’s lines in the first two weeks after the results came in. So, you know, they sort of — they knew that they’re lying, but they also acknowledge that if they don’t do this, their audience will cannibalize them. And that’s even more so right now because think about it. The right-wing media, which is typically a function as an echo chamber, Fox has always been the center of gravity for that, you know, talk radio as well, but it’s always been pretty concrete. This is the first election cycle of 25 years that Rush Limbaugh is not the single largest get-out-the-vote operation in the country. The entire right-wing media is a jump ball. There is no center of gravity, but they’re at least the loudest voice in the room, and they can’t lose that megaphone. And what that does mean is they not only have to toe the line, but they have to reinforce it because they know that their audience will come at them, but they also know that they’re the only ones that could penetrate. So it’s really terrible.
HAYES: Well, they did they did promote their own poll today. Their polling operation, I think, is, relatively sound. But it also strikes me — we talk about this fair amount, Michelle. […] If you told people, like, Donald Trump might win, they’d be like, yeah. I know that.
GOLDBERG: […] Democrats and liberals are so self-conscious about their own, limitations, you know, their own bubble. […] I mean, JD Vance, who could be the vice president, the thing that has elevated him was that Democrats and, you know, liberals rushed out to buy his book to understand what had happened when Donald Trump was elected. Right? They’re like, you know,” we must understand” — Fox News viewers […] have a sense that they are the quote-unquote real Americans and that either they are a majority or they have a right to be a majority. And so it just kind of could — it almost doesn’t compute the idea that the country at large is not seeing what they’re seeing.
HAYES: Yeah. And I think the thing we saw in 2022, which does keep you a little hopeful, right, is that there was something similar. There was a huge expectation of the big red wave. It didn’t pan out. […] The problem is Donald Trump is a uniquely malevolent figure.
Video is available at the link. The video is nine minutes long. Angelo Carson is persuasive.
StevoRsays
World Refugee Day (Juen 20th) today :
ne out of every 69 people on Earth is now displaced.
That is about 120 million people, or 1.5 percent of the world’s population, who have been uprooted from their homes.
Behind these numbers are countless human stories of families separated, livelihoods lost and communities shattered.
A group of women Democratic senators introduced a repeal of the 1873 Comstock Act Thursday, citing the threat of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a blueprint for the next Republican president. This archaic law needs to go, and talking about it—and the GOP’s plans—is an excellent way to get the word out to voters about Republicans’ radical agenda.
The Comstock Act banned the mailing of contraceptives, “lewd” writings, and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing” that could be used in an abortion. It’s been more or less superseded by the Supreme Court and new laws in the past century and a half, but it remains on the books. Like a dormant volcano, it sits waiting for a shift in the political ground to erupt.
Patty Murray of Washington, one of the co-sponsors, talked about the threat in a press conference Tuesday.
“Donald Trump and his allies are planning a detailed road map, they’ve given it out, to rip away a woman’s right to choose in every single state in America,” she said.
Lead sponsor of the bill, Tina Smith of Minnesota, told The Washington Post that there is “a very clear, well-organized plan afoot by the MAGA Republicans to use Comstock as a tool to ban medication abortion, and potentially all abortions.”
“My job is to take that tool away,” Smith added.
The shift was presaged by the focus of Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in their arguments in Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, in which the court unanimously preserved access to the abortion pill. The ruling wasn’t on the merits of the FDA’s decision to expand access to the drug, but rather on a technicality of whether the physicians’ group bringing the challenge could sufficiently claim that they were harmed by it.
In that case, Thomas and Alito all but told future plaintiffs how to bring back this challenge: by invoking the Comstock Act. They specifically asked the attorneys arguing the case of the FDA’s pandemic-era decision—made permanent in 2023—to use the Comstock Act in their challenges.
Project 2025, in addition to mapping out a fascist autocratic agenda for Republicans in just about every aspect of U.S. government and life, has a long and specific focus on curtailing reproductive rights. Using the Comstock Act is a prominent part of the agenda.
One of the architects of the blueprint, Jonathan F. Mitchell, made that clear in an interview with The New York Times.
“We don’t need a federal ban [on abortion] when we have Comstock on the books,” he said.
That’s not to say that Republicans won’t ban abortion nationally if they sweep the Congress and White House, making it all the more important for Democrats to show voters precisely what’s at stake this election cycle.
It was a year ago this month when Donald Trump’s classified documents case was assigned to, of all people, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, a controversial Trump appointee. According to a striking new report from The New York Times, two of the jurist’s more experienced colleagues on the same court urged Cannon to hand the case off to someone else.
The judges who approached Judge Cannon — including the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, Cecilia M. Altonaga — each asked her to consider whether it would be better if she were to decline the high-profile case, allowing it to go to another judge, the two people said. But Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, wanted to keep the case and refused the judges’ entreaties.
Altonaga, it’s worth noting for context, is a George W. Bush appointee.
[…] if it’s accurate, it’s a rare and important peek behind the curtain.
According to the Times, one judge called Cannon early on in the process, making a logistical argument for her handing off the case to a colleague: Cannon’s courthouse is a two-hour drive from the courthouse in Miami, where the grand jury was located.
When that didn’t work, the local chief judge encouraged the jurist to pass on the case for optics reasons, given a related controversy from months earlier related to Cannon and the underlying Trump investigation, which left Cannon looking incompetent and biased.
This pitch didn’t work, either.
By any fair measure, the judges who encouraged Cannon to do the responsible thing were offering sound advice. The Trump-appointed conservative really did lack the relevant experience to oversee such a case, and she really was on record leaving little doubt about her ideological pro-Trump disposition.
What’s more, we now know with the benefit of hindsight that those who urged Cannon to hand the case off to someone better suited to hear it were right. The Times’ report added, “Judge Cannon has exhibited hostility to prosecutors, handled pretrial motions slowly and indefinitely postponed the trial, declining to set a date for it to begin even though both the prosecution and the defense had told her they could be ready to start this summer.”
She’s also, incidentally, repeatedly given observers reason to question her competence, lent credence to questions that legal experts consider absurd, and justified procedural delays by pointing to logjams that she created.
I’m reminded anew of an infamous quote attributed to Roy Cohn: “Don’t tell me what the law is, tell me who the judge is.”
Holy fuck.
A modicum of fact checking:
Link
Reuters:
Officially in LEO. Seems all gone well.
^ Boeing Starliner capsule that is having just lifted off successfully over half an hour ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Crewed_Flight_Test
in Low Earth Orbit and heading towards the International Space Sation now.
SapceX Starship launch scheduled for 20 hours time from now too.
For the convenience of readers, here are a few links back to the previous set of 500 comment on The Infinite Thread:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/comment-page-4/#comment-2223333
A newly released report details how white nationalist groups and other hate groups are seeing an increase in their numbers and boldness, including Arizona.
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/comment-page-4/#comment-2223301
Confirmation that Modi’s Hindutva-fascist BJP has lost its parliamentary majority.
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/comment-page-4/#comment-2223295
Rent monopoly crackdown continues as FBI raids corporate landlords
Link.
Oh FFS.
Disgraced General Michael Flynn Has Made a New Movie—About Himself
Interesting in that it is a detailed look into the abyss.
CNN:
Judge Cannon expands hearing on Trump’s request to declare special counsel’s appointment invalid
By Dan Berman and Katelyn Polantz, CNN / June 5, 2024
Wall Street Journal Finds Brave Whistleblower (Kevin McCarthy) Willing To Say Joe Biden Old
Resign in shame, hacks.
Excerpt from a description of recent hearings by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/eric-swalwell-makes-jim-jordan-big
Video is available at the link.
“Sea level” along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is defined as “mean low water” (on the West coast it’s “mean lower low water”). One wonders how much sea level rise it would take for the ground floor of Mar-a-Lago to get wet at high tide…
Got at least a partial answer to my own curiosity….
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-climate-change-sea-level-rise-south-florida-mar-a-lago-2017-7
To impress Donald Trump, Elise Stefanik has filed four ethics complaints, including targeting two judges. One has reportedly already flopped.
I don’t think the outcome was irrelevant. Irrelevant to Trump and Stefanik perhaps, but not irrelevant when it comes to the justice system in the USA.
Following Donald Trump’s conviction, key House Republican leaders are on board with cutting federal funding for prosecutors the GOP doesn’t like.
The WaPo Blow Up And the Ongoing Riddle of Newspaper Decline
GIANT JORO SPIDERS have established beachhead in eastern US, on the march in all directions!
The photo with the article strongly resembles Argiope aurantia with a bit more color to my amateur eye.
Trump wants out of his gag order, but the threat of harm remains
whheydt @12, thanks for that additional information.
In other news, here is a followup to comment 9. Dems push back against Wall Street Journal report on Biden’s acuity
Summarized from Politico:
Summarized from NBC News:
Summarized from Axios:
Warning: the threat is real.
WaPo: GOP plans aggressive ‘weaponization’ investigations in wake of Trump conviction
NYT: The G.O.P. Push for Post-Verdict Payback: ‘Fight Fire With Fire’
Axios: MAGA’s jail plan
Watch GOP House speaker load a dump truck’s worth of malarkey into 2 minutes
https://www.wonkette.com/p/its-whatabout-hunter-biden-time
What The Biden Asylum Order Means And How It Will Work Until It’s Struck Down In Court.
We’re not big fans!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/what-the-biden-asylum-order-means
Triple-digit temperatures and heat warnings hit 29 million people from California to Texas
Speaker Johnson makes outlandish picks for key intelligence posts
It was incumbent on House Speaker Mike Johnson to choose wisely when filling two open seats on the House Intelligence Committee. He failed spectacularly.
Followup to comment 9 and 18.
Josh Marshall:
Link
GOP senators become even more radical with vote against birth control
Cartoon: Yes he did
Reuters:
Bad news.
NBC News:
Associated Press:
NBC News: Andrew Taake was out on bond on a charge of soliciting a minor when he attacked law enforcement on Jan. 6. A young woman launched a sting operation that got him caught.
House speaker might refuse to certify the election results—again
Trump’s gun license expected to be revoked after conviction in hush money trial
The former president’s gun license was suspended when he was indicted, a NYPD spokesperson said.
I was wondering, so I took an instant.
For anyone else: https://saltycurrent.blogspot.com/
Re: John Morales @ #35…
And for the ones that claim that the vaccine shot will kill you…I’ve had 8 shots so far and have managed to avoid coming down with COVID. Expecting shot number 9 this fall…
@John Morales #35:
What were you wondering that was addressed by SC’s blog circa 2022?
SC dropped in on 2024-01-15 and explained their apparent absence since 2023-10. (You were there.) I think the last post here was 2024-02-08. Pretty active those weeks. Returned to absent or lurking without announcement.
CA7746, alluding to the fact that she has neither been here nor on her own blog since January 2022.
Busy busy, fair enough.
No news is good news, all that.
Mutated tribe can swim to bottom of ocean after developing ‘sea nomad gene’
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/banjau-tribe-sea-nomad-gene-2668466730
Bajau tribe in Indonesia has enlarged spleens. Interesting example of evolution adapted to relatively recent culture (sea nomads living on houseboats).
Easy: “left wing” means favouring economic and social equality.
🚀
Starship launch today: revised time one hour 33 minutes from now.
You can watch the show on Youtube.
A rocket bigger than Saturn 5 – Even if this is just a test launch it will be spectacular.
🏥
Africa: “Lifesaving childbirth blood loss intervention is highly cost-effective, finds 78-hospital analysis ”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-lifesaving-childbirth-blood-loss-intervention.html
Boeing’s Starliner rocket launch one night, now SpaceX’s Starship launch the next :
https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-fourth-test-flight-webcast
Seems the launch will be in about 50 minutes time or less now.. all going to schedule.
@41. You beat me to it!
@35. John Morales : Thanks.
Anyone know how Wizard1 is?
Starship is flying! Launch looked great, separation no worries, splashdown of the booster was dramatic and worked. Re-entry? We’ll soon see.. Hopefully..
So far so awe-inspiring. It is a stunning SF vision tuned real.
(I know obligatory fuck Elon Musk! But this rocket and craft they’ve built & flown. Wow.)
🚀
Starship made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean 1 h 6 min after takeoff.
Telemetry worked all the way down, despite plasma interference.
🌠
Starship has 14.000 heat shields but 2 were deliberately left off to see if the vehichle could survive losing individual shields. Despite temperatures of 1400°C the vehicle survived.
🔥
A camera covered the whole descent and showed how one of the fins started to get burned through. (Unbelievably the fin stayed on the whole descent despite looking like something bolted on the Terminator after it got burned up in the fuel truck in the first film.)
The starship turned around and slowed down before being allowed to hit the sea , just like the booster stage.
If there had been a ship to receive it, it would have been salvageable but the only payload on this test mission was data.
Axios:
Commentary:
Link
Republicans are really all in on helping Trump escape accountability for his criminal actions.
Fox’s Sean Hannity tried to get Donald Trump to say he wouldn’t try to prosecute his foes in a second term, but the Republican just couldn’t help himself.
GOP’s Tommy Tuberville keeps saying what Russia wants to hear
Some key Republican officials are concerned about Russian propaganda “infecting” their party. Sen. Tommy Tuberville keeps lending credence to those fears.
Supreme Court sides with Native American tribes in health care funding case
Biden calls for solidarity with Ukraine at D-Day anniversary ceremony
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug presents a Calvinesque and Hobbesian look at being convicted 34 times
Steve Bannon ordered to report to prison by July 1
GOPers Who Voted Against Contraception Bill Appalled Anyone Would Think They Are Against Contraceptives!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/gopers-who-voted-against-contraception
Former Trump voter:
Text above was excerpted from a longer article discussing a Frank Luntz focus group.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-too-stupid-to-pay-off-porn
Elon Musk’s X app ran ads on #whitepower and other hateful hashtags
A review by NBC News found X running ads on 20 racist and antisemitic hashtags more than 18 months after Musk said that he would demonetize hate posts.
Study finds US drug-related infant deaths more than doubled from 2018 to 2022https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-drug-infant-deaths.html
-Hope there is not more bad news today.
Internationally trained female oncologists face many discrimination challenges in the US, find researchershttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-internationally-female-oncologists-discrimination.html
-Goddammit!
Trying the links again
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-drug-infant-deaths.html
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-internationally-female-oncologists-discrimination.html
Donald Trump has flip-flopped more on absentee and mail-in voting than practically any other issue. The result is a Republican base that’s … confused.
Report calls for revamp of federal farming subsidies in drought-ridden Colorado River basin
[Yep. Time for a change.]
PA State Rep Scared Free Tampons At Schools Will Turn Kids Communist
https://www.wonkette.com/p/pa-rep-scared-that-free-menstrual
One in four menstruating students in the US has missed class due to not being able to afford pads or tampons.
Scott Manley: “SpaceX’s Starship Literally Melted! But It Kept Flying To A Miraculous [simulated] Landing”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8m0TY6i1Kuo
.
Grumpy old tech nerd writing: The film Ad Astra -despite its big budget- contained catastrophic factual errors even in the first two minutes.
The 1966 b&w German TV series ‘Raumpatrouille’ *had more wilful suspension of disbelief than this SF film.
For the millionth time: A team of 14-year-old nerds would have spotted the plot holes and suggested plausible workarounds.
*it was recorded before the first season of Star Trek and was copmpletely independent and even more progressive. They even had women as admirals.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jared-kushner-to-build-memorial-for
Conservatives tied to Trump want to limit insurance coverage for abortions.
The proposal could make it more difficult for those with private-employer insurance to get out-of-state abortions, legal experts say.
Washington Post link
More at the link.
“Scott Manley: “SpaceX’s Starship Literally Melted! But It Kept Flying To A Miraculous [simulated] Landing””
Obviously, it did not.
Had it literally melted, it would have been a molten blob, which are not great at flying.
(Stupid clickbait headlines don’t do it for me)
And yes, I remember from earlier in this thread: “A camera covered the whole descent and showed how one of the fins started to get burned through.”
(Fucking stupid clickbait headlines annoy the shit out of me)
—
Bah.
Did they claim their spaceship literally melted when a part of it got singed?
Imagine being naive and watching that video to see how the ship literally melted and kept flying.
I know I’d be fucking annoyed and disappointed about the bait and switch.
I suppose, were I that naive in the first place, I’d watch again the next time that Scott “lying headline” Manley puts up another clickbaity title.
I mean, I know some people do exactly that.
(“literally melted” — oh, wait: )
Anyway. Scott Manley is literally lying, there.
(Not the most reliable narrator, is he?)
[It’s 0709 and all I’ve drunk is a cup of tea, for those who have little fantasies about me]
NBC News:
The Hill:
NBC News:
Associated Press:
Those justices had been appointed by DeSantis
Associated Press:
‘Stolen valor’: GOP blasts one of their own for military pin he didn’t earn
Link
Bit of a shame that the Ukraine war is not normally the headlined news, and by now the Palestinian torture is no longer in the news as the headline, either.
Jack Dorsey gave $10 million to an anonymous founder with a deep devotion to a fascist ‘guru’
White-tailed eagle treated with human drug returns to wild
The Colorado Republican Party called for pride flags to be burned this week, while its chair sent gay slurs in fundraising emails just days after the start of Pride Month.
Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide?
Re: #80
Your excerpts on MS CoPilot conflate different things. The original CoPilot, a digital AI assisstant released last year, is a feature update and add-on to Windows 11. Although there’s no direct option to turn it off, it can be disabled or removed. You can find instructions here.
CoPilot Plus is only found on CoPilot Plus PCs. It is built into those PCs and marketed as such. Not an add-on. MS ReCall will be integrated only into compatible new CoPilot Plus PCs. It won’t be available as an update to Windows.
@tomh:
Ah. Thanks. Yeah, that article called them both “CoPilot+”, and I tuned out the hardware bit.
Microsoft confirms Windows 11 Recall AI hardware requirements
Some folks have forced it to run on unsupported hardware and got decent performance, but updates wouldn’t do that.
CA7746, I saw that.
The claim in the OP there: “a forced update to Windows 11 [that cannot be removed or disabled]”
Comment #2 on that thread: “It can be disabled – https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/privacy-and-control-over-your-recall-experience-d404f672-7647-41e5-886c-a3c59680af15
You can turn on or off saving snapshots at any time by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots. You can also pause snapshots temporarily by selecting the Recall icon in the system tray on your PC and selecting the pause option."
—
BTW, there’s a roughly analogous setting in Win10 for the same thing.
Charlie is a M$ hater and a lifelong Apple fan.
So bear that in mind.
@John Morales:
Noted. I’d not encountered him before.
An oddly specific confident inaccuracy. One commenter there bent over backward to parse it generously: “FWIW, reports from people who’ve gotten their hands on advance copies is that Recall can’t be disabled at install time. It can be disabled later”
CA7746, nonetheless, Charlie’s main point remains. Good discussion, there.
Wake up, sheeple!
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxkk56QxyzepZ_3iT1duWdVt2jizUIYCJ9
Contradict-head
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=wpfcRFz5Ht4
Rick Scott described Joe Biden’s D-Day remarks in France as “disgusting,” which says far more about the Republican senator than the Democratic president.
It is telling that whenever President Biden talks about supporting our allies, or about protecting Democracy, Republicans say it is “disgusting” that Biden is attacking Trump. Trump was never mentioned, nor was MAGA, at that event.
Oh my. Well that was rude.
Two officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 tried to address legislators in Pennsylvania. They faced boos and walkouts from Republican members.
Alex Jones agrees to liquidate his assets to pay Sandy Hook families, in move that would end his ownership of Infowars
Cartoon: Does an ankle monitor count as pants?
Link
Link
Cartoon: Judge Judy
US adds 272,000 jobs in May, blowing past expectations
Factoid: Carboxylic acids (with a COOH group) excreted by bacteria on the skin are the main reason why mosquitos are particularly attracted to some individuals. Some mixtures of carboxylic acids attract up to 100 times more mosquitos. Source Rockefeller University.
Followup to comment 96.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/economy-added-272000-jobs-in-may
Economy Added 272,000 Jobs In May, Please Cheer Or Panic!
Followup to comment 93.
Clarence Thomas Leads All Other Justices In Grifting Sweepstakes By A F**kload
Everybody In This Post Completely Over Rep. Byron Donalds’s Bullsh*t
Poor guy getting gaslighted by having his words quoted verbatim, awwwwww.
This was an exceptionally long post from that coverage. I think it important to recognize that the Trump campaign is using a few black faces to spout white supremacist ideology.
Mob rule … some of the mob’s made men in prison:
New York Times link
Followup to comment 25.
Donald Trump demanded that unqualified loyalists have access to many of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. House Speaker Mike Johnson acquiesced.
Summarized from an NBC News article:
Summarized from a Washington Post article:
Summarized from an NBC News article:
Trump plans to grab the power of the purse from Congress
Giant Vaudeville Hook Comes For Anti-Vaxxer Rob Schneider At Hospital Fundraiser
This would not be a surprising outcome even if he didn’t tell a bunch of anti-vaccine, transphobic jokes.
Link
JFC.
Roughly a fifth of the House Republican conference thought it’d be a good idea to defund NATO as members prepared to recognize the anniversary of D-Day.
Trump has super healthy conversation about revenge with Dr. Phil
Link
Video available at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/washington-post-in-disarray
Washington Post In Disarray!
The Brits are correct, these tabloid-size headlines are easier to write.
re #110: Alas, not “Video available at the link.” for someone in Oz (well, not without illegally contravening the geoblock).
Here’s an accessible version for OZ — just remember, for all such videos there are usually multiple versions around: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8x3lpLW5bOw
In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/07/joe-biden-apologises-zelenskiy-delay-us-military-support
No way Trump would have done that.
Thanks, John @112, for providing that link.
In other news, as reported by NBC:
New York Times:
Politico:
NBC News:
Link
Video: Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms on Panama Every Week (8:17)
Summary: Screw-worms devastate livestock. Female flies only mate once in their lives. So a factory raises male flies, sterilizes them with radiation, and deploys them across Panama to thwart northward expansion out of South America. The contiguous US had initially eradicated them to its southern boarder in the ’50s-’60s, then pushed that south—in collaboration with other nations—for more defensible choke points.
Wikipedia – Sterile insect technique
Further to the comments above about the 80-year commemoration of the 1944 Normandy landings (known in the UK as “D-Day”, and I’m told the initial “D” stands for… “Day”!), Rishi Sunak has made a political blunder so disastrous for the Conservatives that it raises suspicions that he’s a mole for some other party, probably Reform UK Party Ltd. He attended the British D-Day commemoration in Normandy, but then, rather than going on to a gathering of western leaders (including Biden, Macron, Scholtz and Zelensky) at Omaha Beach, flew back to Britain to pre-record a TV interview, which is to be broadcast next Tuesday. He left ex-PM and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron to stand in for him. Personally, I should say, I’m not offended by his action, as I don’t feel he in any sense represents me – but it’s so gobsmackingly stupid as to be well-nigh incredible. Not only its absolutely predictable negative effects – there has been a huge pile-on from all quarters, including some of the surviving British D-Day veterans (all aged around 100 of course) – but in failing to realise that this was probably the biggest opportunity of the election campaign for him – to be seen hobnobbing with fellow “world leaders”, and at an event where there was almost no possibility of overt friction or disagreement. Sunak has apologised, but that can’t begin to undo the damage. This is likely to be particularly acute in the older voters who the Conservatives are relying on to prevent a truly existential collapse at the election. Either of two outcomes would render the party’s survival moot: getting less seats than the Liberal Democrats (who would then become “His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” – an official position which brings considerable advantages in Parliament), or getting fewer votes than Reform Party UK Ltd. (who are not likely to win more than a handful of seats even after this monumental fuck-up, due to the FPTP electoral system). This is a case where the general rule of preferring explanations in terms of stupidity over those in terms of malice is creaking at the seams.
Cancer and bartonella
“Bartonella bacteria found in hemangiosarcoma tumors from dogs”
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-bartonella-bacteria-hemangiosarcoma-tumors-dogs.html
My cat Oscar died of hemangiosarcoma 2009. This makes the threat from bartionella bacteria downright personal.
…fewer seats than… My apologies!
KG, :)
No need, though I of course noticed.
Follow-up: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/microsoft-makes-recall-feature-off-by-default-after-security-and-privacy-backlash/
More consevative screw-ups!
“This Week Was Worse for Tories Than You Think”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=6FmQcpwDwo0
“Study suggests evolutionary basis for male risk-taking behaviors”
.
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-evolutionary-basis-male-behaviors.html
(One might also assume that if a group on the savannah loses an adolescent male it is a smaller loss than a female of similar age – women can get pregnant even if there is a shortage of men- so for the group they are more expendable)
The linkage with socioeconomic status is also interesting.
Israelis Look Like Us’: (VAlUes!~`wise to be fair) Bill Maher Wields IDENTITY POLITICS To Defend Israel: Briahna Joy Gray – The Hill (22 minutes length.) WARNING : Some powerful moving, distressing words and photos. War, afternath of war. Impact of war on children..Bill Maher.
Values. ^ Fcks sake, keyboard and fingers..
Something for your vacation?
“Provincial Spanish town challenges cities by showing 120 Renaissance works” | Spain | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/08/left-behind-spanish-town-challenges-cities-by-showing-120-renaissance-works
Seen worse? It’s not hard to see worse. Can we see better please instead?
Humanity?
Link
Well, Fuck – just seen there’s a sequel to #129 & it ain’t good – Briahna Joy Gray FIRED After Criticising Israel by Novara Media (15 mins.) Really diarrhœally? Fucks sake.
Oh & okay, not that exact, do you say, episode or clip or whatever but rather a different one I haven’t yet seen yet still.. Dafuck?
Cartoon: In Trump’s future
Oh and tis – Honest Government Ad | the state of Democracy™ – is loody depressing too.
^ Whatever happened to the ‘h’ in this & ‘B” in bloody? Could swear I pressed those keys..
4 hostages recovered in largest rescue since Gaza war began: Israeli military
Okay, Which Of You Educated Elites F*cked David Brooks’s Wife
‘I’ll make fun of David Brooks!’ I told myself. ‘It’ll be fun!’ I told myself.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/okay-which-of-you-educated-elites
Scott Manley’s Starship rocket flight analysis which I’ve been looking forwards to since the laucnh t’other night has arrived now here (20 mins length) – hoping I haven’t aleady been beaten to it.
K2-18b: did JWST really find evidence of life on this (Hycean / mini-Neptune / Venus atmosphere over Mustafar lava -ed) exoplanet? by Dr. Becky
(17 min long.)
One intriguing distant world larger than ours that we know exists but really not too much more about.. but are learning.
Ammarently, a lot of virus species in the human digestive tract are keeping the bacteria in check. I will try to find an english-language link.
“British student sprinter Louie Hinchliffe shatters 10-second barrier in US” | Athletics | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jun/08/british-student-sprinter-louie-hinchliffe-shatters-10-second-barrier-in-us
CEOs got hefty raises in 2023. Now the pay gap with workers is even wider
Text quoted above is from an Associated Press article that has been posted by other media outlets.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/why-would-canadian-couple-who-dragged
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/newsom-promotes-freedom-to-marry-ballot-initiative-at-san-francisco-event/
YES! It’s about time to repeal Prop. 8.
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2024/06/08/lava_has_reached_grindavikurvegur_road_and_the_blue/
More at the link, including photos of the lava flow crossing the road.
Link
“Scott Manley’s Starship rocket flight analysis”
Already know about it from #61; the ship literally melted.
“Scathing Atheist 590 Falun Gong Show Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=RV7mMduxZDo
Minutes 18-22 is about the “modernisation” of mormon missionary conditions. Much recommended
Ukraine Update: More planes, more ammo, more money flowing to Ukraine
Link
Posted by a reader of the article:
Link
Interesting Wikipedia article on the Indian election. It turns out the actual shift in vote-shares of Modi’s Hindutva-fascist BJP and the main opposition party the Indian National Congress were small: -0.8% and +1.7% respectively. They had a considerable effect on seats won presumably partly because India uses the undemocratic FPTP system (the BJP formerly had an overall majority of seats on 37.36% of the vote – showing once again how grossly undemocratic FPTP is, and rather undermining the common media narrative of huge popularity), but mostly because the opposition managed to put together an effective alliance (with the acronym INDIA).
Congratulations to the Indian opposition for learning to cooperate effectively.
About ethnic & cultural hatred – I have just voted in the EU election. Just to spite a certain party*, I voted for the one that has a Swedish-Turkish (nominally muslim) leader.
*the xenophobic SD party.
🎇
-About the soon-to-happen nova in Corona Borealis. As it is not a supernova it will not stand out by brightness- to identify it it will help if you go out at night and memorise how Corona Borealis normally looks. It is not very bright, you will need more obvious nearby constellations to find it.
Later in the year there is a chance the light refracted through the gas of a passing comet will make it temporarily quite bright in the night sky, but it is not certain.
And, thinking about India…
New works celebrate Jewish scientist ‘eliminated from history’ | Vaccines and immunisation | The Guardian
.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/09/new-works-celebrate-jewish-scientist-eliminated-from-history
.
If one tribe of Europeans lording it over India hate another tribe of Europeans so much they will falsify evidence in a trial to prevent that other tribe from treating Indians from disease, maybe Europeans have no business lording it over India!
“Brrraiiins!”
“What Happens When Sunak Goes Quiet?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8bqsWd_zG1M
When the PM avoids the media, they pay attention to the other tory candidates, providing a buffet of stupidity. I like the phrase ‘ brain donors’.
80 years on. Franz Gutentag aka Lt. Slechnacht meets Mr Herbert.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdbyB3kF3_o
Greg Sargent of The New Republic:
‘Failure of the negotiations’: Israel’s hostage rescue leads to one of the bloodiest days in the war
Joy in Israel was fading on Sunday and giving way to the realities of a war that has dragged on for nine months.
The ‘Benefits’ of Climate Change
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KINGeP0f4lM
Yes, a small subset of people will get some benefits.
Exit polls are coming in for the elections for the European Parliament. It looks to be a setback for the Greens and (economically) Liberals and a win for the hard right “Identity and Democracy” group and the classic conservatives.
Proper counts will take some hours yet, but the overall picture isn’t likely to change much.
LykeX @ # 162: … elections for the European Parliament.
Y’all might find some worthwhile insights in a recent theconversation.com article, Emigration: The hidden catalyst behind the rise of the radical right in Europe’s depopulating regions.
The authors (a pair of USAian professors) note that while rightist-leaning Euro voters explicitly complain about immigration, many of them live in more rural areas suffering in-country emigration as the younger and more modern-oriented locals move out to metropolitan areas. Those who remain see declining economies and cultures and feel rejected and disrespected, but put the blame in exactly the wrong place:
I strongly suspect a similar study in the US would find parallel results.
Scientists report that new gene therapy slows down amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease progression (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-scientists-gene-therapy-amyotrophic-lateral.html
-From my own Umeå University!
.
Potential path to cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-uncovers-protein-interactions-potential-path.html
Re: birgerjohansson @ #164…
Good the hear about something that works against ALS. Alas, too late for my wife…
For something slightly different:
Extract from Carnacki the Ghost Finder
By William Hope Hodgson 1910, 1912
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10832/pg10832.txt)
Educational videos are normally not this entertaining
“The Simple Secret of Runway Digits”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=qD6bPNZRRbQ
Whheydt @ 165
Yes, ALS competes with cancer and Alzheimer’s for the title ‘the emperor of maladies’.
I have known three people who died of it. And the Swedish-Canadian hockey legend Börje Salming died of it not so long ago.
The existence of these horrors are a good proof of evolution – they persist as they usually strike after the victims have reproduced.
I hope we will see larger human trials of effective medicines soon.
A new knot!
‘Use this with CAUTION ⚠️ “The Bear’s Grip”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/Y_C0wDqm06o
You sure it’s a new knot?
I mean, it says it is… but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory is not exactly a new field.
(Perhaps a bit of filtering? Not everything is what it says on the label)
Hm. Why the caution about caution?
(I’ll never know… the link is to a YouTube “short”, and fuck if I’m gonna give the algorithm even one click on one of those ever again)
Anyway.
Taking it at its own word, it’s new (math kudos to be gained right there!) but it has to be used with caution.
Me, I reckon if a knot has to be used with caution, it’s perhaps not the best knot.
(Me, I get by with but two knots, but they suffice)
PBS newshour :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/
^ Dóh! Make that :
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-book-free-to-be-dives-into-medical-science-of-gender-identity-for-young-people
John Morales@171,
The knots of mathematical knot theory, and “practical” knots, those that are actually used to hold things together or in place, are only tangentially related. A knot theory knot is just a closed curve in 3D-space, with zero cross-section; a practical knot seldom describes a closed curve, and is made of some specific material, which affects its usefulness or otherwise. The “Bear’s Grip” is clearly a practical knot, so it can be “new” without changing the classifications of knot theory.
…A knot theory knot is just an equivalence class of closed curves in 3D-space
I know that.
Yes, that was the introduction to the link I adduced.
“While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be undone, the simplest knot being a ring (or “unknot”). In mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space”.
So, I know.
It can be, I suppose, in principle, but knots have been around for thousands upon thousands of years, in all cultures all around the world.
So, no. I am not taking a headline for it.
—
Anyway, if it’s a new knot, then it can’t have been documented by knot theory, which is merely an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space.
(Are you gonna watch that video short? Better you than me, KG)
Principle being: don’t believe something just because a headline makes some claim.
Also, how ‘practical’ is a knot that need to be used with caution?
I reckon knots that do not need to be used with caution would be more practical than those that do.
A knotty problem, whether a knot is new or not, with such scant evidence.
Gynecomastia
“My embarrassing condition needs a simple operation – but in Nigeria few can afford it” | Michael Adebisi | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/10/my-embarrassing-condition-gynecomastia-needs-a-simple-operation-nigeria-few-men-can-afford-it
-And this is why welfare states with subsidized health care are so important – it is not only the deadly diseases that hurt people (yes, I agree that in a perfect society this and other diseases with cosmetic results dhould not be a stigma).
As I was never in the scouts, knot theory remains a hypothethical problem. But I realise that rope-intense professions require basic knowledge of the subject.
(But if I ever invest time learning it, someone will promptly invent nanotech that turns into ropes and knots making the knowledge irrelevant. That happens to most of my knowledge)
The British tories seem to have expelled all the competent professionals since 2019- the last week has been a parade of screw-ups no party wants in an election campaign.
Considering how many they let perish during covid (and patients dying the last 14 years becase of an underfunded national health service) .The shadenfreude I feel is only second to when seeing Trump and others of his ilk stumble over their feet.
The absence from media by the PM means TV and newspapers fill the vacuum with these lesser scandals.
Meidas Touch:
“Trump Loses His Mind as Major Cracks Start Showing”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2LK4hoB4w7Q
Link
After claiming credit for Obama’s feats, Trump eyes Biden’s wins, too
The Hill:
Commentary:
Link
Rudy G Gets Big Guffaws At Far-Right Confab For Calling Fani Willis A ‘Ho’
Giuliani was also wearing lots of makeup for that appearance … not quite as orange as Trump, but edging toward that look.
The Trump Campaign Has Made A Deal With An Online ‘Propaganda’ Network
Trump has morphed into an anti-vaxxer.
Link
Far-right gains in the EU election deal stunning defeats to France’s Macron and Germany’s Scholz
More details about the elections in Germany are available at the link.
Mark Sumner:
Link
Additional embedded links are available at the main link.
Cartoon: Spot the mistakes
Good news from Bill McBride at Calculated Risk:
Good news, as reported by https://www.gov.ca.gov/:
As reported by the New York Times, Milred Loving issued this statement on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court announcement of its ruling in her case:
Mildred Loving died 16 years ago at the age of 68. Her statement is good to remember during Pride Month.
@John Morales #171:
From the full video (7:24)
Thank you CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @197 for that additional information. Now I get it.
In other news: Defense rests in Hunter Biden trial
Now we wait for the verdict.
Look! They are doing the ‘Bellamy Salute’!
“Blood Tribe appearing in Deadwood, South Dakota today and taunting Kristi Noem”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=yc1Cy7reZuA
Wasn’t June 6th 1944 about putting an end to these guys?
Republican NC Gov Wannabe Mark Robinson Tells Women To Keep Their Skirts Down
Real piece of work, this one.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/republican-nc-gov-wannabe-mark-robinson
Re: birgerjohansson @ #199…
The Nazi salute and the Bellamy salute are (slightly) different. In the Nazi salute, the palm of the hand faces down. In the Bellamy salute, it faces up.
Marjorie Taylor Greene says Donald Trump is just like Jesus
Re: 190
The overall results of European Parliament election are indeed concerning. Not only the rise of far right, but also the success of the corporate “centre” right that’s always been all too happy to work with the nazis to avoid working with socialists.
Locally, Im enjoying a little Schadenfreude because the local nazis here in Finland (and in Sweden, reportedly) lost bigly. In both countries, the far right nationalist party has recently been in government, together with the corporate right. In practice, this seems to have meant mostly pro-rich pro-corporate politics and feeding poor people and workers’ faces to corporate leopards. That includes a lot of far-right nationalist voters, who have been bigly betrayed, and were now withholding their vote as a protest. Meanwhile, the rich people and corporate lobbyists seem to have gotten pretty much what they wanted, judging by the election result.
In both countries, surprisingly many of the non-rich non-nazi voters voted for the left party. Or perhaps not surprisingly, considering all the corporate face-eating leopards. In Sweden, the greens also reportedly did pretty well, bucking the common trend. I hope the Nordic socialist MEPs can substitute greens in advocating for the environment and human rights. I also hope they can advocate support for Ukraine withing the leftist block, since concerningly many European socialist politicians are said to be in Russia’s pocket.
GOP congressman caught again doing same thing he accuses Biden of.
Posted by readers of the article:
Cartoon: Debate Us You Cowards!
CA7746, I don’t dispute that whoever made the video thinks it’s a new knot.
That’s not the same thing as it being a new knot.
(knew not new knot)
Israel’s “war cabinet” just fell apart. What happens now?
Benny Gantz’s departure from the war cabinet won’t change much immediately. But it could end up mattering a lot.
More at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/julia-louis-dreyfus-throws-bucket
European Parliament Elections Verdict: Democracy Still In Charge, Just
NBC News:
Also from NBC News:
New York Times:
NBC News:
Trump’s losing streak continues with New Jersey liquor license in jeopardy
Link
More at the link, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson receiving and reporting a $1,200 flower display from Oprah Winfrey.
Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra” just started a second season of Monday episodes.
The RSS feed wasn’t easy to find, so here it is. Plus links for her previous podcasts.
Ultra – Radical right plotting in 1940s-1950s United States
Bag Man – The corruption of Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew
Déjà News – Misc stories from the past and abroad that resemble current politics
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-10/malcolm-turnbull-donald-trump-emboldened/103961550
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-06-11/african-elephants-greet-talk-names-rumble-communication/103944758
Up to 90% of three species killed all at once by hurricane.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-07/seabird-populations-on-bedout-island-decimated-by-cyclone-ilsa/103911638
“Sunak Has to Deny Being a Salad”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=yd8zjvZIY8A
According to BBC Russia 20,000 mercenaries from the Wagner group died during the fighting in Bachmut.
Hunter Biden guilty on all three felony gun charges
More at the link.
Link
In 2024 race, billionaires willing to discard democracy concerns
Some billionaires are looking at the 2024 presidential race and putting aside concerns about democracy. They ought to know how counterproductive that is.
Sen. J.D. Vance conceded that Team Trump is asking would-be running mates whether they have criminal backgrounds. The irony was (and is) rich.
Rudy Giuliani processed in Arizona in fake electors scheme to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss to Biden
So, yeah, we have yet another mug shot for trumpist cult followers, or gang-of-criminals politicians.
Cartoon: Clarence Thomas’ sugar daddy
Link
Research signals major milestone in cutting harmful gases that deplete ozone and worsen global warming
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-major-milestone-gases-deplete-ozone.html
.
New discovery reveals that ocean algae unexpectedly help cool the Earth
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-discovery-reveals-ocean-algae-unexpectedly.html
God Awful Movies find a Christian claymation film. Heath Enwright is traumatized.
“GAM460 Hoomania”
Followup to comment 221.
Link
How Republicans used misleading videos to attack Biden in a 24-hour period.
Such deceptively edited videos, known as “cheap fakes,” have become staples of Republican attacks against the president.
Washington Post link
More at the link.
Followup to comment 222.
Link
Re: #224 Trump asking would-be VPs about criminal background.
The Trump team may be concerned that if he gets probation for his sentence, he would be subject to NY State Mandatory Conditions of Supervision.
That probation officer is going to be busy.
New York Times link
Well, maybe they’ll drive some of their own Republican voters away.
Chiquita Held Liable for Deaths During Colombian Civil War.
A South Florida jury found the company liable for killings committed by a paramilitary group that was on the banana producer’s payroll.
New York Times link
Please put your irony meters in explosion-proof containers before reading this.
School board in Florida bans book about book bans
Florida ban on medical treatments for trans kids struck down by judge
“(Violence, you might have heard, is not great for business.)”
The military-industrial complex is big business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures
Kidneys, ribs and even testicles: The extra body parts you might not know you have
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-kidneys-ribs-testicles-extra-body.html
Some people really should have a spare brain, but no such luck.
Not reparations, but it helps.
The Open Road Fund offers $50,000 grants for Black residents of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Any income. Be age 14+ and descended from enslaved Africans.
Buy a home, pay debt, estate planning, life insurance, tuition, or start a business. The goal is to build intergenerational wealth. 100 grants each summer through 2031. This year, apply from June 19 to July 19.
An article about it
Applicants will probably find this other project useful.
10 Million Names is a free public database of enslaved people of African descent in what’s now the US (1500-1865). A network of genealogists, cultural orgs, and historians to connect with people inquiring about family history.
Collective Abundance Fund is a similar $25k-$50k grant for Indigenous people. Looks like that’s every spring. Be Indigenous to US/Mexico/Canada & related nations, age 18+, reside in MN/SD/ND.
^ Archive link to that article without the paywall.
Positive story about people leaving conspiracy theories.
Positive story yet also propaganda. Awareness-raising, call it what you want.
But yes, I too think it positive.
Sheesh. More conspiracy theories to debunk. Lisa Rubin does the debunking.
The narrative that Biden is pulling Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s strings through a civil litigator who left DOJ for Bragg’s team is as false as it is racist.
Reportingt from Axios:
Dark money “news” outlets outpacing local daily newspapers
The Hill:
Link
Yeah, that’s a lot of bluster. I still think Bannon is on his way to being no longer relevant.
MAGA Consensus: Hunter Biden’s Felony Convictions Just Prove Trump Is Innocent
https://www.wonkette.com/p/maga-consensus-hunter-bidens-felony
Is that concerns about threats to democracy, or concerns about the threat of democracy?
Millions of insects migrate through 30-meter Pyrenees pass
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-millions-insects-migrate-meter-pyrenees.html
Also; Study finds human-caused nitrous oxide emissions grew 40% from 1980–2020, greatly accelerating climate change
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-human-nitrous-oxide-emissions-grew.html
New drug candidates targeting blood clots developed through computer-aided drug design
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-drug-candidates-blood-clots-aided.html
This would be much better than the blood-thinning drugs currently used.
“GOP Gets Stunned in Special Election in DEEP RED DISTRICT”:
Going from +29% to just + 8% despite spending 700.000 $ . The Democrat spent just 24.000 $ and got 45-46%.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=J2HXlCpwWKE&si=a4aAd1qzURRB0QvG
A missing link in the timeline of Earth’s geochemistry found | Space.com
https://www.space.com/earth-modern-biochemistry-timeline-metabolic-reactions
These armoured personnel carriers are getting donated to Ukraine.
“PBV 302 to Ukraine” | Arsenalen Swedish Tankmuseum
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=EWjvRNk5ifY
(The manager of the museum speaks with a very typical Swedish accent)
Sri Lanka demands citizens duped into joining Russian army are sent home.
“Putin Loses a CRITICAL Recruitment Source”
Why Biden’s big move on medical debt and credit reports matters
Removing medical debt from consumer credit reports might not be a front-page story, but it’s another example of the Biden administration helping consumers.
Summarized by The New Republic’s Greg Sargent:
Commentary from Steve Benen:
Link
Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are proposing to impose on Supreme Court justices the same $50 cap on gifts that members of Congress are subject to.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1800694124351463867
Video at the link.
Cartoon: Free Hunter
One could see this coming: Giuliani bankruptcy hits breaking point as creditors seek takeover
The Dallas Morning News:
Federal judge strikes down Biden administration guidance meant to protect LGBTQ students
By Joseph Morton / June 11, 2024
O’Conner is Paxton’s go-to judge when he sues the feds. In 2015, he struck down an Obama administration effort to extend family leave benefits to gay couples. In 2016, it was an Obama administration guideline allowing transgender children to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity. In 2018 it was the entirety of Obamacare that O’Connor struck down as unconstitutional after a Texas-led coalition of 20 states sued to kill it. Since 2015, almost half of challenges to the federal government that Texas filed in district courts landed in O’Connor’s courtroom… He is one of several dozen federal judges of his rank in the state.
O’Conner was on a short list for promotion to Appeals Court when Trump was president, and will probably be top of the list if he is elected in November.
Followup to birgerjohansson @254.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-ohio-republican-victory-thats
Inflation eases as Fed debates interest rate cuts.
Washington Post link
Replicating altruism is more important than making another crap AI.
“What is the neural mechanism behind helping someone at your own cost?”
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-neural-mechanism.html
You know, if HAL could be made kind and considerate I would vote for him.
Trump touts Bitcoin mining, completes cryptocurrencies flip-flop
Donald Trump used to slam cryptocurrencies, calling them a “disaster waiting to happen.” He’s since reversed course, and it’s worth asking why.
Mount Everest, World’s Highest Garbage Dump, Sets New Waste Removal Mandates For Climbers
More photos and more details available at the link.
Biden wins again as Trump’s economic forecast turns out to be pure garbage
Mark Sumner:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/secretary-mayor-pete-says-pride-flags
Followup to comment 265.
Fed holds interest rates steady, as officials eye one cut this year.
The move, which was widely expected, came on the heels of fresh data showing inflation cooled in May.
Washington Post link
Oklahoma Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit of last Tulsa Race Massacre survivors
The nine-member court upheld the decision made by a district court judge in Tulsa last year, ruling that the plaintiff’s grievances about the destruction of the Greenwood district, although legitimate, did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute.
Something a bit less momentous, but exceedingly USAnian:
The Fall of the House of Chestnut
America’s greatest sport lost its greatest athlete over “hot dog exclusivity provisions.”
PBS:
New York Times:
Associated Press:
Link
More at the link.
Followup to comment 276.
Sinclair injects deceptive attacks on Biden’s age into dozens of local broadcasts
This is how they launder hit pieces into the news cycle.
House votes to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt
“You’re not as progressive as you think you are” | Jim Jefferies
.https://youtube.com/shorts/fQt1mUiDkXQ
Charlie Kirk Calls For STONING GAYS TO DEATH | The Kyle Kulinski Show – Secular Talk 10 mins long.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-13/south-australia-electoral-donation-ban/103970046
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-13/dutton-climate-2030-target-emissions-uturn/103970166
Source : https://www.space.com/xrism-jammed-gate-door-jaxa
Be nice to have astronauts go up and service that wouldn’t it?
StevoR, please spare me 10 minutes of video; got a quotation from the video you adduced and which you have presumably perused?
See, I have instincts.
And every instinct is screaming ‘bullshit’.
(You too? Just shit that you take as a given purely based on a headline?)
You do get that 10 minutes of video is around 75Mb at 480p, right?
And who the fuck watches YouTube at 480p?
(Global warming!)
Pope Francis To Meet Stephen Colbert | Is Biden’s Youth Outreach Working? / far-right anti-science Americans rejecting pasteurization
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBRPDMdt4Wo
Here’s a stupid, stupid YouTube title:
Now, sometimes LegalEagle (the channel, now properly monetised) is good.
But, rather obviously, if (say) my car is stolen, I have no car.
If my dog is stolen, I have no dog.
Etc.
So, presumably, if whatshername’s voice is stolen, she has no voice. Right?
(Bah)
BTW: “Pope Francis To Meet Stephen Colbert” surely has the meeter and the metee reversed.
Who’s travelling where to meet whom?
Also, does the Pope shit in the woods?
(So many questions!)
Where Popes defecate depends on the population density. If there is a big schism (three or more popes) they defecate everywhere to mark their domains.
Also, when I upload myself you do not need to travel anywhere. I will be everywhere just like the AI at the end of Neuromancer.
(You can also go in the other direction, like the AI in Idoru. 3D printing of organic matter is cool)
Exploring online morality in the context of evolved human responses
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-exploring-online-morality-context-evolved.html
Common sense suggests Sen. Ron Johnson should stop saying weird things about the Jan. 6 attack, but the Wisconsin Republican apparently can’t help himself.
Returning to the scene of the crime: GOP welcomes Trump to Hill
As Donald Trump prepares for his first Capitol Hill visit since before the Jan. 6 attack, Speaker Mike Johnson set the stage with unbelievable claims.
Southern Baptists’ IVF opposition part of an unsettling pattern
As Republicans downplay threats to in vitro fertilization, a growing number of powerful conservatives are pursuing new IVF restrictions.
Good news: Unanimous Supreme Court Shoots Down Bid To Restrict Abortion Drug Mifepristone
It looks to me like the conservsatives on the Supreme Court are begging the anti-abortion activists to bring them a better case so that they can rule against distribution of mifepristone.
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug asks whether American can survive the Biden disaster
Followup to comment 294.
The decision is unanimous, but it leaves open two routes Republicans could take to pull mifepristone from the market.
Yep. I agree with that conclusion. The fight is not over.
Lynna, OM @ # 296, quoting Talking Points Memo: Every doctor would suddenly get the right to sue the FDA for approving virtually any drug with side effects…
Worse yet, every E.R. doctor would have the right to sue anyone involved with selling guns!!1!
Trump At Capitol Begging Mike Johnson To Overturn His Felonies, Probably Planning Some New Ones
They always return to the scene of the crime.
Pierce @297, good point!
In other news:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/oh-so-now-were-gonna-have-too-many
Biden presses to keep reproductive rights in G-7 agreement.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sought to eliminate a statement in the communiqué backing abortion rights.
Washington Post link
Lynna, OM @ 292
“Trump Crashes And Burns in Off The Rocker DC Meeting With Republicans
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=0QdYmYHPRoc
Great! Let him have as many meetings and speeches as he wants!
This is terrible.
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich to stand trial in Russia on charges of spying for the CIA
The Wall Street Journal reporter, 32, has spent more than a year in pretrial detention. The Biden administration considers him wrongfully detained by President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
This is meant to be a power-play by Putin, I think. It is one of several moves Putin has made lately to more-or-less distract from the fact that he is not really winning in Ukraine:
– Putin sent military ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, to Cuba for so-called military exercises.
– Putin expanded Russian efforts to sow disinformation and support for rightwing politicians throughout Europe
– Putin repeated his threats of nuclear war
– Putin arrested more U.S. nationals.
– Putin seems to be going along with Trump’s claim that only he can free Gershkovich (after Trump is reelected)
Florida braces for more rainfall after days of intense downpour and flash flooding
Several areas in South Florida got 10 to 12 inches of rain Wednesday, with more on the way as 7 million people remain under a flood watch.
Video at the link.
Under Biden, U.S. economic growth becomes the ‘envy of the world’
The United States’ economy looks strong compared to recent history, but comparing it to countries abroad, the Biden-era economy looks even more amazing.
Republicans are deliberately starving elections of funding to create chaos and reduce the trust in the ability to have fsir elections. This paves the way for claiming the coming election is rigged.
“Five-alarm fire”: Attorney exposes Republican “national scandal”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=9MM9VuYkt30
Bits of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Link
Furthermore, are bears Catholic? You certainly never hear them deny the Pope’s infallibility or the transubstantiation of the Eucharist!
As Trump arrives on Hill, House Republicans sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him and give him game ball and bat from their victory in congressional baseball game last night, per @AnnieGrayerCNN
Haters gonna hate: Trump rants about Taylor Swift to GOP lawmakers
Reply from Christine Pelosi:
https://x.com/sfpelosi/status/1801260770560221221
Kari Lake fails again to convince a court she should be Arizona governor
Trumpian levels of delusion.
Cartoon: Electric boats and MAGA sharks
Yep, the story of Clarence Thomas’ corruption continues: Clarence Thomas fails to disclose 3 Harlan Crow trips, Senate records show</a<
Mr. Crow threw Clarence Thomas under the bus … or under the oversized recreational vehicle.
G7 agrees on $50 billion loan for Ukraine from frozen Russian assets
More at the link.
Oh dear. [clutch your pearls] JD Vance is being haunted by things he used to like on Twitter. But don’t worry, Elon Musk will try to save him.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-real-jd-vance-must-really-hate
I think it is too late for Elon Musk to save JD Vance.
“Scathing Atheist 591 Putting the Ouch in Voucher Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KDiN-Ae5tNw
birgerjohansson, why so coy?
What is that video you’ve adduced @316?
How am I supposed to know what it’s about?
The “scathing” atheist is actually the “vague” atheist.
The uninformative headline atheist.
(Putting the Scat in Scathing!)
Did I share this already? I can’t remember so apologies if so but The New Largest Star in the Universe 2024! WOH G64 which as it points out is subject a lot of uncertainties and caveats but still intresting.
Wonder if wikipedia has caught up yet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_stars
Yup, seems so.
Also on matters astronomical :
https://www.space.com/exoplanet-sulfur-dioxide-gj3470b
A sulfur dixide exoplanet
Pikaia revisited
“New research suggests prior studies of ancient sea creature Pikaia had it upside down”
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-prior-ancient-sea-creature-pikaia.html
Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on gun accessories used in 2017 massacre
Morning Digest: Arizona GOP seeks to end judicial elections after unpopular abortion ruling
Followup to comment 320.
Sotomayor rips Thomas’s bump stocks ruling in scathing dissent read from bench
Trump trashed Ukraine aid during House GOP meeting
https://www.wonkette.com/p/mercury-venus-trump-and-mars-these
https://www.wonkette.com/p/clip-and-send-to-your-great-grandchildren
Much more at the link.
F.A.A. Investigating How Counterfeit Titanium Got Into Boeing and Airbus Jets
The material, which was purchased from a little-known Chinese company, was sold with falsified documents and used in parts that went into jets from both manufacturers.
New York Times link
More at the link.
Men-Only, Christian-Only Secret Society Gets More Secret
Posted by readers of the article:
The GOP takes its Trump cult worship to a whole new level, by Mark Sumner
These news warm my cold evil heart 😃
“Sunak Facing Canada ’93 Wipeout”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Va4iaZw8pcs
Link
Followup to comment 330.
Liz Cheney:
Photo of McConnell happily shaking hands with Trump is available at the link.
https://x.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1801357007707898160
Louisiana has become the sixth red state to allow controversial videos from “PragerU” into public schools.
Washington Post link
Link
Followup to comments 320 and 322.
Supreme Court, Nostalgic For Las Vegas Massacre, Rules Bump Stocks Perfectly Cromulent
https://www.wonkette.com/p/in-which-donald-trump-shts-on-milwaukee
DOJ declines to prosecute Garland after congressional contempt vote
“New study reveals Viagra improves brain blood flow and could help prevent vascular dementia”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-reveals-viagra-brain-blood-dementia.html
I lost my mother to vascular dementia. I wish this knowledge had been available 20 years ago. Below is another article.
“Researchers investigate the aging brain and peripheral vascular dysfunction”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-aging-brain-peripheral-vascular-dysfunction.html
Posting this for the good vibes.
“Sixteen more foxes off the Fur Farm! June 11th”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=YQYNFe5C8FU
Well, this is fucking appalling :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-15/pentagon-ran-secret-anti-vax-campaign-to-undermine-china-during-/103982430
Not too surprising recall –Russell Brand Goes FULL MAGA | The Kyle Kulinski Show by Secular Talk just over a dozen minutes long.
@ ^ That’s “really” not recall.. Sigh.
Meanwhile good news – abig bklow againts another reichwing Conspiracy Theorist
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-15/alex-jones-infowars-creator-allowed-to-liquidate-assets/103982356
Source : https://www.space.com/united-states-severe-weather-events-may
The Daily Show
“Jon Stewart on Corporate America’s Values & Klepper on SCOTUS’s Abortion Pill Decision”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=K7AZc826lBg
The madness of King Donald should terrify Republicans
Flag Day:
Link
40 ACRES AND A LIE
Much more ar the link.
Fauci Memoir Portrays Trump As Lousy Profane Boss With Volcanic Temper, Surprise!
Link
More details at the link.
Way too much chicken shit. Not enough regulation.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/oklahomas-kevin-stitt-just-a-gov
If ever there were a case for age-related diminishment of a candidate, Donald Trump is it.
New Yorker link for an article written by Susan B. Glasser
John Morales @ 317
The Scathing Atheist, Skepticrat and God Awful Movies are all podcasts (with different focii) made by the gang of Noah Lugeons, Heath Enwright and Eli Bosnick, notorious stand-up comedians, skeptics and unapologetic SJ warriors.
I sort of assumed they were well known in Merican skeptic circles (if for no other reason that the managers of live events have to start imposing rules on what Eli must wear – and not wear- during live events. Once you have seen Eli in a thong, you cannot unsee it).
A reminder of US presidents past.
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxR40jcU3IWA2NWXDsZL4tHgdEmxL2Z1Du
How the Tories Fared With Sunak’s Third Absence
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TdwIEh6Y7XU
birger, it’s not that I don’t know it’s a podcast, it’s that I don’t know what the podcast is about.
The topic, the significance, something that may pique my interest about the content.
See, “Scathing Atheist 590 Falun Gong Show Edition” is pretty obvious.
Topic is Falun Gong. It’s episode 590.
“Scathing Atheist 591 Putting the Ouch in Voucher Edition” is not so obvious.
Topic is the Ouch in Voucher, apparently.
Now, I get you just like the show and you watch all the episodes and so forth, but if you think an episode is interesting enough to share (I already know about Falun Gong and its current status) then perhaps indicate what it is about that episode that makes it interesting.
Doesn’t that make sense to you?
John Morales, Yes, but the problem -as nearly always- is time. Writing a post while waiting for a bus, or in between one meeting and the next. I try to keep the posts as brief as possible.
“Synthesis process boosts perovskite solar cell performance to near market-ready standards”
.https://techxplore.com/news/2024-06-synthesis-boosts-perovskite-solar-cell.html
This has a real potential to drive down photovoltaic cell costs further (easier manufacturing than silica cells), as well as making them on flexible substrates. Power your AC and charge your Tesla!
(OK, you need a battery to charge the car unless you work from home)
(Maybe start your own business mining bitcoin? Naah! )
A question for those more well-informed about organic chenistry.
If cheaper power is abundant, would it be feasible to add hydrogen atoms to hydrocarbons* increasing their energy content without increasing the use of petroleum? I am aware that some hydrocarbons can be made from biomass.
* preferably without using rare elements as catalysts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-neutral_fuel
birgerjohansson @ # 354: Writing a post while waiting for a bus…
Your buses run too fast and too often.
Import some Republicans &/or Tories to administrate your public transit, and you can write encyclopedic posts every time!
birgerjohansson @#354
If your cryptic posts are ignored, as they are by me because they are competing with plenty of other stuff I can be sure will be interesting, there is little point in making them. I have clicked on links of yours – when there was enough information about the link.
TL;DR I’m with John on this.
Here’s a notion I found of interest:
[Oh, and I particularly like Patrick’s dry witticisms and deadpan delivery]
Cartoon: In bed with the GOP
Ukraine Update: Russia’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ is going down
Black Music Sunday: Celebrating Father’s Day and Juneteenth
The post features lyrics and videos from several genres and artists, including Bill Withers, Oscar Brown Jr., Gil Scott Heron, The O’Jays and more.
Donald Trump went to Detroit. Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post reported:
Jaz Brisack, writing for The New York Times, reported a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that makes it harder for the National Relations Labor Board to sanction companies for union-busting activities.
New York Times link
Sweden, Finland and Portugal: The three defeats of the far right in the European elections
More at the link.
Cartoon: Trump train
Cognitive tests?
Link
More at the link.
Luke Zaleski @ZaleskiLuke
Link
Trump, of course, is holding auditions for his VP slot. Here’s Rep. Byron Donalds making a strong case for himself.
NBC News:
Rep. Byron Donalds urges Supreme Court to ‘step in’ on Trump conviction
Unfortunately, he left out the details of just how the Supreme Court would “step into this matter.”
How an American dream of housing became a reality in Sweden
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/headway/how-an-american-dream-of-housing-became-a-reality-in-sweden.html
-But can the houses be barricaded against the baddies in Signs?
Cartoon: Viva la s—hole
At least 1,200 evacuated as wildfire near Los Angeles spreads to 12,000 acres
Yellen criticizes Trump’s idea to replace income taxes with tariffs
Biden, Trump accept CNN debate rules, including mic muting
“New MRP Poll Brings Tory Wipeout A Step Closer”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2RqK_sigZR0
The deadline for registering for voting is June 18th.
The deadline for registering for a postal vote is june 19th.
NB -If you live in Britain, and know someone who is negative to voting because of the hassle, please help them with the paperwork!
And if necessary, help them get an ID the voting authorities accept.
-Please also keep up with the options for ‘tactical voting’ if your preferred party is unlikely to come first (check legit web sites for information, there are many bogus web sites created by Tories to mislead voters).
NB – if even a modest number of Liberal Democrat voters vote labour in areas where labour is the second largest party, they have the power to wreck so many tory MPs that the Lib Dems become the second largest party!
This is a position that brings several priviliges in parliament, plus more coverage by media. A win-win.
From the crazy part of Canada:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/saskatchewan-premier-promises-to
Posted by readers of the article:
Fire used as ‘weapon of war’ in Sudan as entire towns and villages burned to the ground
More than 50 settlements have burned repeatedly, suggesting “intent” and possible forced displacement, an open source investigator told NBC News.
More at the link.
Israeli military announces ‘tactical pause’ to try to increase aid flow into Gaza
Pauses will take place from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day until further notice. The humanitarian pauses do not mean the military assault has ended. “There is no cessation of fighting” in Rafah, the military said.
More at the link.
“Pauses will take place from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day until further notice.”
↓
“Indiscriminate killing will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. to each day until further notice.”
Oh, good.
↓
Some places have business hours, some have killing hours.
Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WipqeFgzdTc
Lynna, OM @ 380
The international community refused to support the grassroots push for democracy a few years ago, after lobbying by Saudi Arabia and the usual suspects.
Instead the country got a civil war between robber barons. 😡
“Come and See” Creepy scene
Partisans question captured SS officer from the Dirlewanger brigade after German massacre. (The Dirlewanger brigade killed more thsn 100.000 civilians)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Im40o004zqs
Galactic bloodlines: Many nearby star clusters originate from only three ‘families’
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-galactic-bloodlines-nearby-star-clusters.html
-Looking up to 40 million years back. That is more than a sixth of a ‘galactic year’.
Fox News is going after Dolly Parton
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxaUrHdWFvkle_1WmWfJFcXFvALhOEHtXD
@387. birgerjohansson : Cheers!
.***
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-17/fresh-attacks-violence-against-rohingya-in-rakhine-myanmar/103988740
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-17/millionaires-paid-no-tax-and-richest-and-poorest-postcodes-ato/103987158
birgerjohansson@378,
I live in the UK and I’m voting Green. There is absolutely no need for tactical voting to get the Tories out – they are toast. It’s much more important to maximise the Green vote, to put leftward and pro-climate-action pressure on the incoming Labour government than to try (almost certainly unsuccessfully) to push the Tories into third place for number of seats.
Chyaa-rrrming Chaplain, charming :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-17/qld-taipan-military-helicopter-crash-inquiry-widow-chaplin-adf/103988008
The Chaplain denies it but then Mandy Rice-Davies applies. (“Well he would, wouldn’t he?”)
@ ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_he_would,_wouldn%27t_he%3F
Global polling: Support for U.S. stronger under Biden than Trump
New international polling confirms that the U.S. under Joe Biden enjoys the kind of international respect Donald Trump talked about but never achieved.
There’s not even a time delay between Rick Scott’s displays of obvious hypocrisy.
Link
Details at the link, including this line from the ad: “Each of my 7 grandkids is a precious gift from God. But sometimes families need help. You can count on this grandpa to always protect IVF.”
From The New Republic:
Steve Benen:
Mother Jones:
WARNING – sexual abuse & assault references : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-17/bishop-saunders-court-alleged-sexual-offences/103985984:
Powerful interview on DW news with UNICEF person James Elder (spelliong?>) just seen on TV now.
Link
Embedded links within the article lead to additional data and analysis.
Cannot yet see it ontheir website tho’ ^
Meanwhile AJ notes among other things:
Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/6/17/israel-war-on-gaza-live-five-more-children-killed-in-israeli-attacks
Sounds both ominous and desperate. From same source :
Wisconsin GOP advances little-noticed measures to strip Democratic governor’s power
More at the link, including an update on previously gerrymandered maps.
Politico:
Commentary from Greg Dworkin:
Say what now?
Link
Embedded links within the article lead to additional information.
Joe Biden has a new ad labeling DJT a felon
Ad video is available at the link. The video is 30 seconds long.
Christian Nationalists Are Opening Private Schools. Taxpayers Are Funding Them.
Link
Sunday Shows: Republican Math Never Adds Up
We watch so you never have to.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/sunday-shows-republican-math-never
More at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/one-of-glenn-youngkins-concerned
Netanyahu disbands his war Cabinet
The Israeli prime minister is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers.
Brazilian women protest bill that would equate late abortions with homicide
The new law would equate the termination of a pregnancy after 22 weeks with homicide. Critics say it would especially hurt child rape victims, as their pregnancies tend to be detected later.
California firefighters gain ground against big wildfires after hot, windy weekend
The Post Fire was 8% surrounded after scorching nearly 23 square miles and forcing the evacuation of at least 1,200 campers, off-roaders and hikers from the Hungry Valley recreation area on Saturday.
More at the link.
Here is something you can nuke your brains with when anxiety gets higher than usual.
Film review: “Killer Condom (1996) – Now with more teeth!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lpCFxmf8t0o
Putin to visit North Korea starting Tuesday for talks with Kim Jong Un
The visit comes amid growing international concerns about an arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel its war in Ukraine.
Rishi Sunak shows what the Normandy landing looks like on reverse.
“Skepticrat 227 Sobs Tory Edition”
Courthouse News Service:
Ninth Circuit upholds California’s ban on gun show sales
The decision will likely mean the end of large gun shows held on county fairgrounds in the state.
Hillel Aron / June 11, 2024
In the news: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pp1rk21dyo
NBC News:
NBC News:
New York Times:
Associated Press:
NBC News:
Link
Trump publicly mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, likely pleasing observers in Russia.
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Here is full text of Trump’s Father’s Day statement:
JFC
North Carolina Supreme Court Secretly Squashed Discipline of Two GOP Judges Who Admitted to Violating Judicial Code
The decisions came despite the Judicial Standards Commission’s recommendations to publicly reprimand the judges, and these are likely the only times in more than a decade in which the court didn’t follow the commission’s guidance.
Followup to comment 423.
Mark Sumner:
Link
When Trump watched the “Angry Dad” comic episode of The Simpsons he thought it was an instructional film.
.
Dave messed it up for the rest of us for 3000 years (read the line at the bottom of the panel)
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dave
NB
University of Exeter;
“Specialist training transforms football coach attitudes towards intervening to prevent violence and abuse, study shows”
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-specialist-football-attitudes-intervening-violence.html
Hebrew University of Jerusalem;
“Study investigates the role of allies in advancing social movements”
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-role-allies-advancing-social-movements.html
My comment: if you put a lot of white allies in the front of Black Lives Matter demonstrations other white people will probably be less likely to view the movement as violent.
This should not be necessary, but this is where we are.
The Guardian
“Thailand passes historic bill recognising marriage equality”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/18/thailand-same-sex-marriage-equality-vote-bill-legislation
Seth Meyers: “Trump Glitches, Gets Ronny Jackson’s Name Wrong While Bragging About Cognitive Test”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=GLiFmKMDuEw
Link
Misleading GOP videos of Biden are going viral. The fact-checks have trouble keeping up.
Trump trashed their city. One brewery is making it a badge of honor
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
New York’s high court dismisses Trump’s gag order challenge
GOP pick for N.C. governor downplayed Weinstein allegations, assault by Ray Rice
Mark Robinson has spent years repeatedly questioning the veracity of women who accuse prominent men of violence.
Washington Post link
Lynna, OM @ 435
Malcolm XXL ?
Hossenfelder:
“This New Idea Could Explain Complexity”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9sr05Vtso
Remember the term ‘lumpability’.
birger @436, LOL.
In other news: The Gun Lobby’s Hidden Hand in the 2nd Amendment Battle
Case after case challenging gun restrictions cites the same Georgetown professor. His seemingly independent work has undisclosed ties to pro-gun interests.
New York Times link
Yep, William English is in the pocket of the gun lobby. Yes, English’s “research” is flawed if not bogus. And yes, yes, yes, Alito and Thomas are gullible … susceptible to taking bogus “research” at face value if it agrees with their ideology.
New York Times Link
Link
[head/desk]
Link
Idaho GOP Becomes Latest To Embrace Fetal Personhood Ideology, Threatening Access To IVF
Mark Sumner: No, bad news for Trump does not make him stronger
Kirk Cameron Hosts ‘Stay In The Closet’ Library Day For Pride
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kirk-cameron-hosts-stay-in-the-closet
I Do Not Think Marsha Blackburn Has Read ‘The Stepford Wives’
Or seen it.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/i-do-not-think-marsha-blackburn-has
Say what now?
Link
What a surprise: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/18/hundreds-of-hajj-pilgrims-die-in-mecca-from-heat-related-illness
I was momentarily curious.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/school-shootings-by-country
Yup. As I thought. Quite the outlier.
birgerjohansson @437, yeah, that went past my feed.
Due to your impetus, I took a look.
Weak as fuck, is that video.
Now, Sabine is fine at physics stuff, even about philosophy of physics.
About math, so-so, about logic, so-so. About philosophy, well.
Anyway. Not impressed. Epiphenomena, levels of abstraction, reflexiveness.
Fluff.
In the UK, there have been three Tory women PMs (admittedly, the last was only there for a few weeks due to steering the economy straight into a ditch), and now have the first PM of colour (admittedly about to be ejected). Labour: none of either – and as has been pointed out, they have now had two leaders called Keir before a single woman leader (unless you count Margaret Beckett who did a brief stand-in stint while a leadership election in which she was not a candidate was in progress). The Tories also had the first (and so far, only) Jewish PM back in the 1800s – Benjamin Disraeli.
But then, here in Oz we only have had one woman PM — Julia Gillard.
(Labor)
Engineers in Luleå, Sweden learn how to recycle concrete without carbon dioxide emissions. Most of the talking is in english with swedish subtitles.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/norrbotten/forst-i-varlden-nu-ska-ltu-atervinna-cement-med-vatten
Today is the last day of the swedish training aircraft SAAB Sk 60 in use with the swedish air force. It is designed along the British practice of having trainer and trainee sitting side by side.
https://www.facebook.com/share/mVH1tvB9QzhwhZX9/
This was in Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter yesterday. This needs to be spread around because of what it says about the “conservative” movement in this country, the secrets lives of evangelicals, and the scheming between religious conservatives and Republicans. What a gross bunch of opportunistic assholes.
The more Donald Trump vows to defund schools with vaccine mandates, the more the public-health stakes in the 2024 election come into sharper focus.
Another english-speaking country has the chance of ridding itself of a very similar pack of monsters in just two weeks time.
If there are any Brit readers here, I want you to be aware of “stopthetories.vote” , a resource for finding out the best way to vote away the conservative menber of parliament running in your specific region.
In many places the margins between candidates is quite small, and it can come down to just a hundred votes, or just a dozen.
Therefore it is important to think twice before you cast your vote.
In some places the labour candidate will be best posed to overtake the tory candidate.
In other places the Liberal Democrat is best posed.
Stopthetories.vote can tell you how to vote tactically to reduce the number of tory MPs as much as possible.
In fact, the margins are so small that if a modest number of Liberal Democrat sympathisers vote labour in the places where labour is posed to win over the conservstives – and vice versa – there is a real possibility to make the tories the third largest party with the Lib Dem.leader the official “leader of the opposition” with the privileges of media cover, getting to ask the PM three questions during the question sessions in parliament, etc.
But the most important part is, this will create a real momentum for the voting reform issue, abandoning the obsolete ‘first past the post’ system that has kept a minority of tories in power for so long*.
*And BTW has been used by the Republicans all over USA in a similar way.
“Immune response study explains why some people don’t get COVID-19”
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-immune-response-people-dont-covid.html
Oh FFS.
House Republicans eye new plan to keep Steve Bannon out of prison
Trump calls President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness “vile” and vows to reinstate student debt on millions of Americans.
https://x.com/BidenHQ/status/1803169110211137911
Video at the link. Video also available here.
At the second link above, there are also videos of CNN debunking 30 different false claims Trump made at a Wisconsin rally; an interview with the former producer of “The apprentice”; a video of a young woman refusing to kiss Trump; and of Trump calling cheap fakes (deceptively edited videos) “clean fakes.”
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen from a New York Times article:
New York Times:
Ted Cruz messes up the legislative process … again:
Link
Hey, What Is Wonkette Even Up To? So Much! A Lot!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hey-what-is-wonkette-even-up-to-so
Despite the shameless (though probably necessary commerce aspect) I am looking forward to Wonkette’s reporting from the convention in Chicago.
The sequel to Spaceballs will be filmed, the 97-year-old Mel Brooks will be producer.
Iran signals a major boost in nuclear program at key site.
Hundreds of new centrifuges would triple Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity at a deeply buried underground nuclear facility.
Washington Post link
Tropical Storm Alberto, first of the season, threatens Texas with severe flooding
The storm is expected to bring heavy rains, coastal flooding and gusty winds along the coasts of Texas and northeastern Mexico through Thursday.
New WTF moment from Netanyahu.
U.S. says it doesn’t know what Netanyahu is talking about after he attacks Biden for ‘withholding weapons’
In a video published Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assailed the Biden administration in the latest public clash between the two allies over the war in Gaza.
The deceptive Biden G7 video was quickly debunked. It kept going viral anyway.
Despite fact checks online, Big Tech platforms continued to spread a misleading video of President Joe Biden.
John @449:
John, I didn’t know you were a mathematician! Do tell where Sabine falls short of your standards.
British election (‘A Different Bias’)
“New MRP Poll Has Some Shocking Results”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5K2iFK9er_Q
When you look at the number of seats the tories are certain to win, they are indeed shockingly few.
‘Tamil Nadu govt commences archaeological digs at 8 sites to ‘rewrite’ India’s history from Tamil landscape | Latest News India – Hindustan Times’
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/tamil-nadu-govt-starts-archaeological-digging-at-8-sites-101718740408444.html
“Chief minister MK Stalin” ???
The not so democratcially inclined LNP stating they will ignore community concerns and wishes if they get elected
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-20/coalition-backs-away-from-nuclear-consent-community-call/103998784
Give me the set of mathematical-themed videos she has made, and I’ll tell you where she failed to impress me, KG.
Be aware that someone at or below my standard does not impress me — I certainly don’t impress myself, though I clearly can’t fall short of my standard, which is mine. So your insinuation that I consider myself better isn’t warranted.
Mind you, offhand I remember this one made me give up: “Are we made of math?”
Pretty darn waffly, that was.
(Tegmark’s MUH!)
John, I’m not KG.
Uh. No.
Though, in my head, you are both in a very similar category.
(He dislikes me more)
Anyway, seems like quite a bit of effort to go through her corpus of youtube videos (of which I’ve only seen a smallish subset) to answer your question.
Basically, an opinion formed and grown over many years. Not a fresh analysis.
When the subject is physics, I pay attention. Otherwise, well… she’s perfectly entitled to her opinion.
Take that video upon which I commented; if complexity needs explaining, then that explanation must include simplicity, and that means that simplicity needs explaining. No?
“This New Idea Could Explain Complexity” is obvious clickbait.
(Fool me once, etc)
Book review in New Scientist
Supercommunicators review: Learning how to change deeply held beliefs
“In Charles Duhigg’s new book, we discover why some people are great at getting others to alter entrenched views, where conversation fits in and how neuroscience underpins it all”
.https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134793-800-supercommunicators-review-learning-how-to-change-deeply-held-beliefs/
A paywalled book promotion. Great.
NBC News:
New York Times:
New York Times:
Associated Press:
Wipeout of British conservatives: “Poll Shows Just How Close We Are”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_PKol4jc5YI
Britons: Go out and vote tactically where the tories still might win! The margins are small. Together, you can reduce the cruel cynical bastards to third place in parliament for the first time in history.
.
If you know some voter who does not intend to vote, please try to persuade him/her. Offer help with the practical things.
Stephen Colbert:
“Happy Juneteenth! | Heat Is Bad For The Brain | Trump Tries Being Nice |Vermont’s Watergate”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HeJH28Zs1iM
Dr. Fauci Vs Trump
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxeEeyvwtwBIWh87dMCYiGIBdcQ_yfHkoV
Seth Meyers:
“House Ethics Committee Reviewing Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Matt Gaetz, 105-year-old woman gets masters degree.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=X7p_CnStKZ4
About those ten commandments….
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxjHpjOHzsbIdjUXuXW83SFNJhMvesu040
On the contrary, because we already know who is going to form the next government, this is a rare opportunity in a FPTP system to vote positively, for what you actually believe in, rather than against something.
Harriet Schlubman!
.
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Trump Has Done More for Black Americans Than Anyone, Don Jr’s Weird “Joe Biden” voice’.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=re51hMix8c4
I don’t actually dislike you, John – are you mistaking me for Silentbob? You often annoy me, but that’s different. And you sometimes amuse or inform me.
“Polls Predict Worst Conservative Loss In A Century & French Election Takes a ‘Peculiar’ Turn.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=oJIcjrKU6pE
🌨
The tories had an ad showing a roulette wheel and the text “If you bet on Labour, you will never win”. And the next day…
“Sunak Surrounded by Gambling Addicts?” #shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/V-Jr1Y5vLfo
RFK Jr. fails to qualify for first presidential debate
Cartoon: MAGA fanatic
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug calls in The Justice Conservatives of America to the rescue!
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a bad person, and his campaign is broke
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Fox News is helping Trump plan another Jan. 6-style assault on democracy
Five months before the election, claims that only fraud could explain a future Trump defeat are already common in the right-wing media ecosystem.
Followup to comment 494.
On MSNBC’s All in, Angelo Carusone discusses Fox News priming its audience to believe the 2024 election is rigged against Trump
Video is available at the link. The video is nine minutes long. Angelo Carson is persuasive.
World Refugee Day (Juen 20th) today :
Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2024/6/20/the-faces-behind-the-numbers-120-million-displaced-people-worldwide
Then there’s how we treat them when they come to us hoping for help and shelter and safety.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2024/6/20/the-faces-behind-the-numbers-120-million-displaced-people-worldwide
Senate Democrats seek to repeal archaic law that could squash abortion rights
Two weeks before the election:
“Tory Gambling Scandal Running Away From Sunak”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=aKdIbDwuYlw
“More than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die amid temperatures approaching 52C in Mecca” | Hajj | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/more-than-1000-hajj-pilgrims-die-in-mecca-as-temperatures-hit-high-of-51c
Two of Judge Aileen Cannon’s colleagues reportedly urged her to hand off Donald Trump’s classified documents case to a different jurist. She refused.