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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
April 7, 2021
Russia Might Be Slowly Executing Alexei Navalny in Prison, Says Amnesty International
‘SLOW DEATH’
Jamie Ross, Reporter
Published Apr. 07, 2021 6:44AM ET
**************************************
https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/07/alexei-navalny-seriously-ill-in-prison/
Alexei Navalny ‘Seriously Ill’ In Prison
April 7, 2021 at 10:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Russia Might Be Slowly Executing Alexei Navalny in Prison, Says Amnesty International
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-might-be-slowly-executing-alexei-navalny-in-prison-says-amnesty-international?ref=homeRussia Might Be Slowly Executing Alexei Navalny in Prison, Says Amnesty International
‘SLOW DEATH’
Jamie Ross, Reporter
Published Apr. 07, 2021 6:44AM ET
Amnesty International—the world’s leading human-rights group—said it believes Russia’s treatment of Alexei Navalny is so brutal that it could effectively amount to a long, painful, and slow execution. Navalny, the Putin nemesis who was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent last year, has recently gone on hunger strike in prison in an attempt to force authorities into giving him medical treatment. In recent days, he’s complained of a persistent cough and high temperature, and claimed that there have been cases of tuberculosis in his prison. Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, told Reuters on Wednesday: “Russia, the Russian authorities, may be placing him into a situation of a slow death and seeking to hide what is happening to him... Clearly the Russian authorities are violating his rights. We have to do more... [They] have already attempted to kill him, they are now detaining him, and imposing prison conditions, that amount to torture.”
**************************************
https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/07/alexei-navalny-seriously-ill-in-prison/
Alexei Navalny ‘Seriously Ill’ In Prison
April 7, 2021 at 10:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Alexei Navalny, the most prominent opponent of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is “seriously ill” in prison after contracting symptoms of a respiratory illness in prison, the Financial Times reports.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports Amnesty International says Navalny is incarcerated in conditions that amount to torture and may slowly be killing him.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports Amnesty International says Navalny is incarcerated in conditions that amount to torture and may slowly be killing him.
April 7, 2021
Why are we still seeing Trump Voter stories?
Move on
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Why newsrooms ever thought that ‘Trump Voters Support Trump’ articles made for compelling reading, we'll never know. But they did. And now to be fair they ought to be churning out ‘Biden Voters Support Biden’ dispatches. Biden today is more popular with Democrats than Trump ever was with Republicans, even though the press portrayed Trump as having a magical, unbreakable bond with the GOP "base."
Instead of Biden Voter stories, we get entirely misguided Republican updates like the recent one from the Post.
Let's look at three wrong-headed assertions from the Post piece, crammed into a single paragraph. [Emphasis added]:
But any window for cooperation appears to have already closed for Republicans in Congress — and it may be closing for GOP voters, as well. Interviews with dozens of voters in three swing congressional districts across the country revealed evidence that attacks on the spending push are beginning to take hold, and congressional Republicans said they are well positioned to capitalize on voter doubts and win their way back to power in 2022.
Our political landscape has shifted under the weight of a popular Democratic president. The press needs to drop those old, useless Trump habits, fast.
Eric Boehlert: Why are we still seeing Trump Voter stories?
https://pressrun.media/p/why-are-we-still-seeing-trump-voterWhy are we still seeing Trump Voter stories?
Move on
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Why newsrooms ever thought that ‘Trump Voters Support Trump’ articles made for compelling reading, we'll never know. But they did. And now to be fair they ought to be churning out ‘Biden Voters Support Biden’ dispatches. Biden today is more popular with Democrats than Trump ever was with Republicans, even though the press portrayed Trump as having a magical, unbreakable bond with the GOP "base."
Instead of Biden Voter stories, we get entirely misguided Republican updates like the recent one from the Post.
Let's look at three wrong-headed assertions from the Post piece, crammed into a single paragraph. [Emphasis added]:
But any window for cooperation appears to have already closed for Republicans in Congress — and it may be closing for GOP voters, as well. Interviews with dozens of voters in three swing congressional districts across the country revealed evidence that attacks on the spending push are beginning to take hold, and congressional Republicans said they are well positioned to capitalize on voter doubts and win their way back to power in 2022.
1. Forget about the GOP "window for cooperation" now supposedly closing for the infrastructure plan. The idea it ever existed is pure fantasy. The Post makes it seem like the Republican Party today is stocked with fair-minded men and women who of course, want to give Biden a chance and approach each new initiative with an open mind and the country's best interest at heart. In reality, the Republican Party has embraced a radical strategy where complete obstruction serves as the norm, even on issues where Republican voters support Democrats.
We just saw that with the Covid relief bill, where a clear majority of Republicans nationwide backed the emergency bill — and not one elected Republican in the House or the Senate voted 'Yes.’ Yet just weeks later the Post pretends Republicans are all ears when it comes to listening to Biden infrastructure proposal?
2. The Post didn't interview dozens of "voters" in three swing congressional districts to get the nation's temperature on the proposed infrastructure bill, the Post interviewed Republicans. Of the six voters quoted in the article, not one is identified as a Biden supporter. The Post also quoted four Republican Congressmen — and zero Democratic members of Congress.
3. The Post amplifies the absurd Republican spin that the one-week-old infrastructure proposal is going to cost Democrats control of the House in two years — it's absurd because nobody has any idea what the defining issues of the 2022 midterm election cycle is going to be. Pretending that an infrastructure proposal, which is popular in the polls, is going to be a loser for Democrats is just regurgitating Republican talking points.
We just saw that with the Covid relief bill, where a clear majority of Republicans nationwide backed the emergency bill — and not one elected Republican in the House or the Senate voted 'Yes.’ Yet just weeks later the Post pretends Republicans are all ears when it comes to listening to Biden infrastructure proposal?
2. The Post didn't interview dozens of "voters" in three swing congressional districts to get the nation's temperature on the proposed infrastructure bill, the Post interviewed Republicans. Of the six voters quoted in the article, not one is identified as a Biden supporter. The Post also quoted four Republican Congressmen — and zero Democratic members of Congress.
3. The Post amplifies the absurd Republican spin that the one-week-old infrastructure proposal is going to cost Democrats control of the House in two years — it's absurd because nobody has any idea what the defining issues of the 2022 midterm election cycle is going to be. Pretending that an infrastructure proposal, which is popular in the polls, is going to be a loser for Democrats is just regurgitating Republican talking points.
Our political landscape has shifted under the weight of a popular Democratic president. The press needs to drop those old, useless Trump habits, fast.
April 7, 2021
Share of Democrats in U.S. Spikes After Biden Win
April 7, 2021 at 5:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Share of Democrats in U.S. Spikes After Biden Win
https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/07/share-of-democrats-in-u-s-spikes-after-biden-win/Share of Democrats in U.S. Spikes After Biden Win
April 7, 2021 at 5:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
A new Gallup poll found that 49% of respondents consider themselves Democrats or leaning that way, while 40% consider themselves Republicans or lean that way — the largest gap in almost a decade.
Gallup said the jump comes mostly from Republicans leaving the party at the end of President Donald Trump’s tenure. Only 25% of U.S. adults firmly identify with the Republicans, down from 29% late last year.
Gallup said the jump comes mostly from Republicans leaving the party at the end of President Donald Trump’s tenure. Only 25% of U.S. adults firmly identify with the Republicans, down from 29% late last year.
April 6, 2021
4/06/21 4:34am
GOP Infrastructure Bill Jam Plays Right Into Biden's Hands
President Biden has absolutely no reason to give Republican lawmakers a second thought in crafting his approach to revolutionizing the nation’s outdated infrastructure, thanks to GOP knee-jerk obstructionism.
By Kerry Eleveld
Last week, GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell kicked off the infrastructure debate by promising lockstep opposition to President Joe Biden's $2 trillion proposal. This week, Senate Republicans are suggesting that maybe, just maybe, they could support a plan that's roughly a third of the price, or some $615 billion, but only if the White House finds a way to pay for it without raising the corporate tax rate—because GOP donors, of course.
“There’s an easy win here,” Blunt said on Fox News Sunday.
Riiiiiiight. So easy, in fact, that Republicans took a pass on even trying for a solid four years under Trump. Biden's response? Sorry, fellas, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Biden already redefined so-called bipartisanship while crafting his COVID-19 rescue plan, and Republican lawmakers are giving the president zero reason to reevaluate. In fact, as my colleague Joan McCarter points out, Republicans are simply re-running their last disastrous attempt to mount an opposition to Biden's wildly popular coronavirus relief package.
When asked at a recent press conference about McConnell's suggestion that the White House had rejected bipartisanship, Biden responded that perhaps McConnell should check in with his own base. "What I know I have now is that I have electoral support from Republican voters. Republican voters agree with what I’m doing," Biden said. As for McConnell, Biden added, "He ought to a look at his party,” noting that over 50% of GOP voters supported his COVID-19 relief plan.
This week, Biden is already laughing off the GOP's knee-jerk criticism of his infrastructure package. Asked on Monday if he worried that raising the corporate rate would send jobs overseas, Biden told White House reporters, "Not at all," adding, "There's no evidence of that," according to the White House pool report.
Biden also said he wasn't going to waste any time bargaining with Republicans over what counted as infrastructure in their view and what didn't. "I'm going to push as hard as I can, to compete with the rest of the world," he said. "Everybody else in the rest of the world is investing billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we're going to do it here."
GOP Infrastructure Bill Jam Plays Right Into Biden's Hands
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/04/gop-infrastructure-obstruction-biden-wins4/06/21 4:34am
GOP Infrastructure Bill Jam Plays Right Into Biden's Hands
President Biden has absolutely no reason to give Republican lawmakers a second thought in crafting his approach to revolutionizing the nation’s outdated infrastructure, thanks to GOP knee-jerk obstructionism.
By Kerry Eleveld
Last week, GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell kicked off the infrastructure debate by promising lockstep opposition to President Joe Biden's $2 trillion proposal. This week, Senate Republicans are suggesting that maybe, just maybe, they could support a plan that's roughly a third of the price, or some $615 billion, but only if the White House finds a way to pay for it without raising the corporate tax rate—because GOP donors, of course.
“There’s an easy win here,” Blunt said on Fox News Sunday.
Riiiiiiight. So easy, in fact, that Republicans took a pass on even trying for a solid four years under Trump. Biden's response? Sorry, fellas, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Biden already redefined so-called bipartisanship while crafting his COVID-19 rescue plan, and Republican lawmakers are giving the president zero reason to reevaluate. In fact, as my colleague Joan McCarter points out, Republicans are simply re-running their last disastrous attempt to mount an opposition to Biden's wildly popular coronavirus relief package.
When asked at a recent press conference about McConnell's suggestion that the White House had rejected bipartisanship, Biden responded that perhaps McConnell should check in with his own base. "What I know I have now is that I have electoral support from Republican voters. Republican voters agree with what I’m doing," Biden said. As for McConnell, Biden added, "He ought to a look at his party,” noting that over 50% of GOP voters supported his COVID-19 relief plan.
This week, Biden is already laughing off the GOP's knee-jerk criticism of his infrastructure package. Asked on Monday if he worried that raising the corporate rate would send jobs overseas, Biden told White House reporters, "Not at all," adding, "There's no evidence of that," according to the White House pool report.
"You're talking about companies in the Fortune 500 that haven't paid a single penny in tax for 3 years," Biden offered, adding his signature catch-all comeback to GOP ridiculousness. "Come on, man."
Biden also said he wasn't going to waste any time bargaining with Republicans over what counted as infrastructure in their view and what didn't. "I'm going to push as hard as I can, to compete with the rest of the world," he said. "Everybody else in the rest of the world is investing billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we're going to do it here."
April 6, 2021
His Patient Refused the Vaccine. She Died of COVID in the ICU.
‘JESUS CHRIST, THIS IS AWFUL’
“Some of these x-rays, with an untrained eye you wouldn’t know there’s a lung that exists in there.”
Michael Daly, Special Correspondent
Updated Apr. 05, 2021 9:42PM ET / Published Apr. 05, 2021 9:06PM ET
snip//
None of the patients had been vaccinated. They either had not yet been able to get a shot or they had declined the opportunity. One clerical worker in her 50s had been given the chance but refused and ended up in the ICU with COVID-19.
The woman’s chest x-ray looked like a white sheet of paper, something increasingly common among recent patients.
“The worst chest x-rays I’ve ever seen in my life,” Haacke said. “Some of these x-rays, with an untrained eye you wouldn’t know there’s a lung that exists in there.”
snip//
On Monday afternoon, the woman took a turn from bad to worse. Haacke and his team spent two hours doing everything they could. Her husband and daughter arrived and were able to say their goodbyes. Then it was over for the woman as it was over for 270 Americans the day before, as it has been over for more than 550,000 of us since the pandemic began.
“The daughter was carried out, physically lifted and carried out because she was so hysterical,” Haacke reported. “Jesus Christ, this is awful.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-all-white-covid-chest-x-rays-this-icu-nurse-is-dreading-after-easter?ref=home
His Patient Refused the Vaccine. She Died of COVID in the ICU.
His Patient Refused the Vaccine. She Died of COVID in the ICU.
‘JESUS CHRIST, THIS IS AWFUL’
“Some of these x-rays, with an untrained eye you wouldn’t know there’s a lung that exists in there.”
Michael Daly, Special Correspondent
Updated Apr. 05, 2021 9:42PM ET / Published Apr. 05, 2021 9:06PM ET
snip//
None of the patients had been vaccinated. They either had not yet been able to get a shot or they had declined the opportunity. One clerical worker in her 50s had been given the chance but refused and ended up in the ICU with COVID-19.
The woman’s chest x-ray looked like a white sheet of paper, something increasingly common among recent patients.
“The worst chest x-rays I’ve ever seen in my life,” Haacke said. “Some of these x-rays, with an untrained eye you wouldn’t know there’s a lung that exists in there.”
snip//
On Monday afternoon, the woman took a turn from bad to worse. Haacke and his team spent two hours doing everything they could. Her husband and daughter arrived and were able to say their goodbyes. Then it was over for the woman as it was over for 270 Americans the day before, as it has been over for more than 550,000 of us since the pandemic began.
“The daughter was carried out, physically lifted and carried out because she was so hysterical,” Haacke reported. “Jesus Christ, this is awful.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-all-white-covid-chest-x-rays-this-icu-nurse-is-dreading-after-easter?ref=home
April 6, 2021
Republicans Switched Votes on Bills They Supported
Hypocrites in action! Since when have they worried about policy or process? 
https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/06/republicans-switched-votes-on-bills-they-supported/
Republicans Switched Votes on Bills They Supported
April 6, 2021 at 7:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“Twenty House Republicans switched from voting ‘yes’ last Congress to ‘no’ this year on Democrat-led bills dealing with issues such as gun sales, women’s rights and immigration,” Roll Call reports.
“The rise in GOP opposition may seem connected to the 2022 midterm elections, when House Democrats’ tenuous hold on power is at stake and Republican moderates may face heat in primaries. But in interviews and statements, the vote-switchers mostly cited policy and process, saying Democrats dropped GOP-backed provisions from some bills and declined to incorporate Republican input into others.”
“Only in one case did a Republican acknowledge changing his view.”
“The rise in GOP opposition may seem connected to the 2022 midterm elections, when House Democrats’ tenuous hold on power is at stake and Republican moderates may face heat in primaries. But in interviews and statements, the vote-switchers mostly cited policy and process, saying Democrats dropped GOP-backed provisions from some bills and declined to incorporate Republican input into others.”
“Only in one case did a Republican acknowledge changing his view.”
April 5, 2021
McConnell declares war on 21st century America
Joan McCarter
Daily Kos Staff
Monday April 05, 2021 · 3:47 PM EDT
Share this article
Mitch McConnell is leading the Republican effort to take voting rights—the very fundamentals of our democracy—and turn the issue into "woke" "cancel culture" fodder, spinning desperate gossamer threads of disinformation to try to scare corporate America back into the Republican fold. The problem for McConnell—for the whole GOP—is that while corporate America loves the tax breaks they get from Republicans, they live in the 21st century along with 21st century Americans who have money to spend on their products. And more and more of those Americans spending money are LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and people of color. All you have to do is turn on broadcast television and see how advertisers are selling their wares. Even pharmaceutical ads have rainbow casts of characters.
So here comes McConnell, issuing a broadside against corporate America and defending White Supremacy—all the while trying to keep on their good side by arguing from the other side of his mouth that corporate taxes can't be raised to pay for infrastructure. "We are witnessing a coordinated campaign by powerful and wealthy people to mislead and bully the American people," says McConnell, who stood by completely mute for months while Donald Trump and congressional Republicans pushed the Big Lie of election fraud.
McConnell promises "serious consequences" if corporate America continues acting like "a woke parallel government." In total outrage, he declares "Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex." That would be the "complex" that adheres to the whole idea of letting everyone who is eligible vote without throwing huge roadblocks in their way. "The President has claimed repeatedly that state-level debates over voting procedures are worse than Jim Crow or 'Jim Crow on steroids.' Nobody actually believes this," McConnell says, ignoring the multitudes of voting rights advocates, historians, good government types who are saying, "yeah, this is Jim Crow all over again."
"Nobody really thinks this current dispute comes anywhere near the horrific racist brutality of segregation. But there’s an old cynical saying that ‘history is just the set of lies agreed upon.’ And a host of powerful people and institutions apparently think they stand to benefit from parroting this big lie." Get that? The "big lie"? Like the Big Lie that Republicans are using to justify all this voter suppression, the one that says that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. This is astoundingly dishonest even for McConnell.
McConnell is really blasting Major League Baseball here, and its decision to take the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia's sweeping new voter suppression laws. The new "big lie" McConnell is trying out is the one that says this new law isn't voter suppression. Which it very much is, as this analysis from The New York Times details: it imposes a number of new limits on vote by mail, it substantially reduces drop boxes and mobile voting units, and bans groups from providing food and water to people in voting lines. The Times says it will make "absentee voting harder," as well as create "restrictions and complications" that will "hamper the right to vote."
And if you want to talk about cancel culture, it gives the state's Republican lawmakers the ability to cancel county elections administrators and rig the vote. As horrifying as the rest of the new Georgia law is, this is the part that is profoundly undemocratic. The Republican state legislator appoints a five-person State Election Board and the law gives that Board the power to remove elections administrators in Democratic counties and replace them with administrators who will be more likely to, say for example, "find 11,780 votes" for Trump.
Though we are pretty used to radical historical and hysterical revisionism from him. After all, he's the guy who said out loud, on camera that the filibuster has "no racial history at all. None. There's no dispute among historians." Historians, of course, immediately disputed that statement en masse.
"From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government," McConnell wrote. "Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box." The last time I looked, what got rejected at the ballot box most recently was McConnell's leadership of the Senate. Oh, and Donald Trump.
Business in America is looking at the people who buy its products. There wouldn't be such a concerted effort for companies to go green (or to see the upside of greenwashing their enterprise) if the bulk of American consumers were not asking for it. We see more people of color on our televisions—often sharing households—because that's where the market is. We see LGBTQ couples and families on our televisions because, again, American society has moved into the 21st century enough to understand all that as normal. And American society as a whole remains absolutely horrified at gun violence and wants government do do something about it.
That's what corporate America is responding to; an American marketplace that is firmly established in the 21st century.
But because of the exploitation of one political party—the Republicans—of the levers of power established in the previous two centuries, we keep getting dragged back. For example, the institution of the Senate, where "the Democratic half of the Senate will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half" but the Republican half can still veto most policy efforts by the Democrats using the Jim Crow filibuster.
Likewise in the House, Democrats received more than 4.7 million more votes than Republicans. Because of Republican gerrymandering—carving up congressional districts to benefit their own party—in 2018, Democrats won 200,000 more votes than Republicans in Wisconsin, but just three out of the state's eight U.S. House seats. Likewise, in Texas Democrats won 47% of the vote, but just 13 of the state's 36 seats. In North Carolina in 2018, Democrats got 50% of the vote for House seats, but gained just 23% of them.
Society has left Republicans in the dust, culturally, and it's only those structural inequities that has allowed Republicans to have the power they wield. McConnell knows that, which is why he's fighting so hard to preserve the filibuster—without it Democrats can enact the election reforms that doom Republicans at the federal level.
McConnell declares war on 21st century America
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/5/2024542/-McConnell-declares-war-on-21st-century-AmericaMcConnell declares war on 21st century America
Joan McCarter
Daily Kos Staff
Monday April 05, 2021 · 3:47 PM EDT
Share this article
Mitch McConnell is leading the Republican effort to take voting rights—the very fundamentals of our democracy—and turn the issue into "woke" "cancel culture" fodder, spinning desperate gossamer threads of disinformation to try to scare corporate America back into the Republican fold. The problem for McConnell—for the whole GOP—is that while corporate America loves the tax breaks they get from Republicans, they live in the 21st century along with 21st century Americans who have money to spend on their products. And more and more of those Americans spending money are LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and people of color. All you have to do is turn on broadcast television and see how advertisers are selling their wares. Even pharmaceutical ads have rainbow casts of characters.
So here comes McConnell, issuing a broadside against corporate America and defending White Supremacy—all the while trying to keep on their good side by arguing from the other side of his mouth that corporate taxes can't be raised to pay for infrastructure. "We are witnessing a coordinated campaign by powerful and wealthy people to mislead and bully the American people," says McConnell, who stood by completely mute for months while Donald Trump and congressional Republicans pushed the Big Lie of election fraud.
McConnell promises "serious consequences" if corporate America continues acting like "a woke parallel government." In total outrage, he declares "Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex." That would be the "complex" that adheres to the whole idea of letting everyone who is eligible vote without throwing huge roadblocks in their way. "The President has claimed repeatedly that state-level debates over voting procedures are worse than Jim Crow or 'Jim Crow on steroids.' Nobody actually believes this," McConnell says, ignoring the multitudes of voting rights advocates, historians, good government types who are saying, "yeah, this is Jim Crow all over again."
"Nobody really thinks this current dispute comes anywhere near the horrific racist brutality of segregation. But there’s an old cynical saying that ‘history is just the set of lies agreed upon.’ And a host of powerful people and institutions apparently think they stand to benefit from parroting this big lie." Get that? The "big lie"? Like the Big Lie that Republicans are using to justify all this voter suppression, the one that says that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. This is astoundingly dishonest even for McConnell.
McConnell is really blasting Major League Baseball here, and its decision to take the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia's sweeping new voter suppression laws. The new "big lie" McConnell is trying out is the one that says this new law isn't voter suppression. Which it very much is, as this analysis from The New York Times details: it imposes a number of new limits on vote by mail, it substantially reduces drop boxes and mobile voting units, and bans groups from providing food and water to people in voting lines. The Times says it will make "absentee voting harder," as well as create "restrictions and complications" that will "hamper the right to vote."
And if you want to talk about cancel culture, it gives the state's Republican lawmakers the ability to cancel county elections administrators and rig the vote. As horrifying as the rest of the new Georgia law is, this is the part that is profoundly undemocratic. The Republican state legislator appoints a five-person State Election Board and the law gives that Board the power to remove elections administrators in Democratic counties and replace them with administrators who will be more likely to, say for example, "find 11,780 votes" for Trump.
Though we are pretty used to radical historical and hysterical revisionism from him. After all, he's the guy who said out loud, on camera that the filibuster has "no racial history at all. None. There's no dispute among historians." Historians, of course, immediately disputed that statement en masse.
"From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government," McConnell wrote. "Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box." The last time I looked, what got rejected at the ballot box most recently was McConnell's leadership of the Senate. Oh, and Donald Trump.
Business in America is looking at the people who buy its products. There wouldn't be such a concerted effort for companies to go green (or to see the upside of greenwashing their enterprise) if the bulk of American consumers were not asking for it. We see more people of color on our televisions—often sharing households—because that's where the market is. We see LGBTQ couples and families on our televisions because, again, American society has moved into the 21st century enough to understand all that as normal. And American society as a whole remains absolutely horrified at gun violence and wants government do do something about it.
That's what corporate America is responding to; an American marketplace that is firmly established in the 21st century.
But because of the exploitation of one political party—the Republicans—of the levers of power established in the previous two centuries, we keep getting dragged back. For example, the institution of the Senate, where "the Democratic half of the Senate will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half" but the Republican half can still veto most policy efforts by the Democrats using the Jim Crow filibuster.
Likewise in the House, Democrats received more than 4.7 million more votes than Republicans. Because of Republican gerrymandering—carving up congressional districts to benefit their own party—in 2018, Democrats won 200,000 more votes than Republicans in Wisconsin, but just three out of the state's eight U.S. House seats. Likewise, in Texas Democrats won 47% of the vote, but just 13 of the state's 36 seats. In North Carolina in 2018, Democrats got 50% of the vote for House seats, but gained just 23% of them.
Society has left Republicans in the dust, culturally, and it's only those structural inequities that has allowed Republicans to have the power they wield. McConnell knows that, which is why he's fighting so hard to preserve the filibuster—without it Democrats can enact the election reforms that doom Republicans at the federal level.
April 5, 2021
In praise of Jen Psaki
#PsakiBomb
Eric Boehlert
The day after President Joe Biden's first press conference last month, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy arrived at the White House press briefing feeling unloved. Having not been called on at the formal Q&A with Biden, and dwelling on his oversized sense of importance, Doocy raised his hand and asked if there as an official White House policy of not calling on him — he wanted to know if there was a coordinated campaign to ignore the Fox staffer constantly in search of a partisan fight.
Looking slightly bemused while giving her patented third-grade-teacher head tilt that conveys a willing patience, but also an unspoken and stinging, "really?", White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki patiently addressed the grievance:
She soon concluded the back-and-forth by complimenting the reporter on his “awesome socks.”
The episode confirmed that Doocy vs. Psaki remains one of the great media mismatches of our time. It also made clear that Psaki's the right woman for the right time, and she's emerged as Biden's silent slayer who carries out covert media missions with a smile. She's our real-life C.J. Cregg who has brought smarts and wits back the White House briefing room, after four years of the Trump infection, where mindless sycophants at the podium waged war on the free press.
In less than three months, Psaki has put her permanent stamp on the job, taking over the high-profile position at a time of national crisis. Working hard to reestablish an open, professional relationship with the Beltway press corps, Psaki has perhaps done more than anyone in the administration — including Biden himself — in terms of changing the tone in our politics, and creating a new path forward towards a transparent form of government, in the wake of the Trump's ransacking of the norms.
snip//
Online, fans refer to those as a #PsakiBomb, the disarming way she dispenses with bad faith or plainly misleading questions. The "bomb" part of that description is slightly off, though. The good-natured Psaki remains a quintessential non-bomb thrower. She’s not trying to tear anything down. But her pointed answers can leave a nasty mark when necessary. That's her super power.
And that’s why she’s the understated rock star of the Biden era.
Eric Boehlert: In praise of Jen Psaki
https://pressrun.media/p/in-praise-of-jen-psakiIn praise of Jen Psaki
#PsakiBomb
Eric Boehlert
The day after President Joe Biden's first press conference last month, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy arrived at the White House press briefing feeling unloved. Having not been called on at the formal Q&A with Biden, and dwelling on his oversized sense of importance, Doocy raised his hand and asked if there as an official White House policy of not calling on him — he wanted to know if there was a coordinated campaign to ignore the Fox staffer constantly in search of a partisan fight.
Looking slightly bemused while giving her patented third-grade-teacher head tilt that conveys a willing patience, but also an unspoken and stinging, "really?", White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki patiently addressed the grievance:
PSAKI: We’re here having a conversation, aren’t we?
DOOCY: Yes, but.
PSAKI: And do I take questions from you every time you come to the briefing room?
DOOCY: Yes, but…
DOOCY: Yes, but.
PSAKI: And do I take questions from you every time you come to the briefing room?
DOOCY: Yes, but…
She soon concluded the back-and-forth by complimenting the reporter on his “awesome socks.”
The episode confirmed that Doocy vs. Psaki remains one of the great media mismatches of our time. It also made clear that Psaki's the right woman for the right time, and she's emerged as Biden's silent slayer who carries out covert media missions with a smile. She's our real-life C.J. Cregg who has brought smarts and wits back the White House briefing room, after four years of the Trump infection, where mindless sycophants at the podium waged war on the free press.
"Press Secretary Jen Psaki is kind of badass at her job, and it's because of the extremely non-combative way she is just FINISHED WITH YOUR SHIT," Wonkette observed. "It's just like ... some kind of assassin thing where some idiot asks her an idiot question and she handles it so quickly and quietly and effectively, the poor idiot's liver is bleeding out before they even feel a thing."
In less than three months, Psaki has put her permanent stamp on the job, taking over the high-profile position at a time of national crisis. Working hard to reestablish an open, professional relationship with the Beltway press corps, Psaki has perhaps done more than anyone in the administration — including Biden himself — in terms of changing the tone in our politics, and creating a new path forward towards a transparent form of government, in the wake of the Trump's ransacking of the norms.
snip//
Online, fans refer to those as a #PsakiBomb, the disarming way she dispenses with bad faith or plainly misleading questions. The "bomb" part of that description is slightly off, though. The good-natured Psaki remains a quintessential non-bomb thrower. She’s not trying to tear anything down. But her pointed answers can leave a nasty mark when necessary. That's her super power.
And that’s why she’s the understated rock star of the Biden era.
April 5, 2021
Still cashing in... Maybe someone will put the kibosh on this. (The Constitution also contains a “domestic emoluments clause” (Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 7), which prohibits the president from receiving any “Emolument” from the federal government or the states beyond “a Compensation” for his “Services” as chief executive.)
https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/05/trump-abandons-his-brand-for-a-number/
Trump Abandons His Brand for a Number
April 5, 2021 at 7:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Trump Abandons His Brand for a Number
Still cashing in... Maybe someone will put the kibosh on this. (The Constitution also contains a “domestic emoluments clause” (Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 7), which prohibits the president from receiving any “Emolument” from the federal government or the states beyond “a Compensation” for his “Services” as chief executive.)
https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/05/trump-abandons-his-brand-for-a-number/
Trump Abandons His Brand for a Number
April 5, 2021 at 7:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“Donald Trump spent a lifetime putting his name on steaks to skyscrapers to stimulus checks, but now, the former president appears to be replacing the gold-plated surname with a number: 45,” NBC News reports,
“Last week, the 45th president launched his new official website, 45Office.com, a URL unlike those of his predecessors, who used their names for their web addresses.”
“Trump’s shift from his name to his digits has been across his political properties.”
“Last week, the 45th president launched his new official website, 45Office.com, a URL unlike those of his predecessors, who used their names for their web addresses.”
“Trump’s shift from his name to his digits has been across his political properties.”
April 5, 2021
Derek Chauvin, George Floyd’s Killer, Wants to Make His Trial About Anyone and Anything Else
WHO’S TRYING WHO?
It’s not uncommon for defense attorneys to suggest a victim brought his death upon himself. This one is also trying to suggest the witnesses to Floyd’s killing are to blame for it.
Ernest Owens
Published Apr. 05, 2021 4:09AM ET
After a week of emotional testimonies and heated cross-examinations, Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd begs the question: Who’s actually being tried right now?
The legal defense team representing Chauvin, the ex-cop who has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, is not only placing blame on the slain 46-year-old Black man, but the bystanders who were present. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, argues that Floyd’s death was caused by his opioid drug use, other underlying health conditions, and the adrenaline flowing through his body.
But in a bizarre twist, Nelson has also pointed the finger at the crowd of innocent Minnesota bystanders who witnessed Floyd’s death on May 25, suggesting that they had made the responding officers fear for their safety and thus distracted them from focusing on the incident at hand.
snip//
It’s a shame to see these bystanders re-traumatized and badgered for a crime they didn’t commit. During similar trials involving the killing of unarmed Black civilians, the slain is typically being tried subliminally before the jury as an aggressor in an attempt by the defense to justify their death. We saw this happen during the George Zimmerman trial, as his attorneys suggested that he was acting in self-defense against 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when Zimmerman shot him in cold blood. In 2013, a six-person jury rendered a not guilty verdict on all counts for Zimmerman.
But I can’t recall a recent case where bystanders were interrogated in such a way to frame them as being more liable for a killing than the person charged with it. Nelson’s aggressive questioning of these witnesses, some of which were underage at the time of the crime, came across as a desperate deflection of the harm done by his client. Regardless of how upset or frustrated these witnesses were, they never physically interfered with Chauvin’s decision to press his knee on an armed Black man in public for over nine minutes. Nor did any of them attack or actively impede the three other officers on the scene—Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter—from doing their jobs.
There’s a reason those four men are being tried in a court of law. Remember as the second week of this trial begins that it is not, as some headlines have had it, the “George Floyd Trial.” Derek Chauvin is on trial here and, absent any serious defense, his lawyer is trying to make this trial about anyone and anything else.
Derek Chauvin, George Floyd's Killer, Wants to Make His Trial About Anyone and Anything Else
https://www.thedailybeast.com/derek-chauvin-george-floyds-killer-wants-to-make-his-trial-about-anyone-and-anything-else?ref=homeDerek Chauvin, George Floyd’s Killer, Wants to Make His Trial About Anyone and Anything Else
WHO’S TRYING WHO?
It’s not uncommon for defense attorneys to suggest a victim brought his death upon himself. This one is also trying to suggest the witnesses to Floyd’s killing are to blame for it.
Ernest Owens
Published Apr. 05, 2021 4:09AM ET
After a week of emotional testimonies and heated cross-examinations, Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd begs the question: Who’s actually being tried right now?
The legal defense team representing Chauvin, the ex-cop who has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, is not only placing blame on the slain 46-year-old Black man, but the bystanders who were present. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, argues that Floyd’s death was caused by his opioid drug use, other underlying health conditions, and the adrenaline flowing through his body.
But in a bizarre twist, Nelson has also pointed the finger at the crowd of innocent Minnesota bystanders who witnessed Floyd’s death on May 25, suggesting that they had made the responding officers fear for their safety and thus distracted them from focusing on the incident at hand.
snip//
It’s a shame to see these bystanders re-traumatized and badgered for a crime they didn’t commit. During similar trials involving the killing of unarmed Black civilians, the slain is typically being tried subliminally before the jury as an aggressor in an attempt by the defense to justify their death. We saw this happen during the George Zimmerman trial, as his attorneys suggested that he was acting in self-defense against 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when Zimmerman shot him in cold blood. In 2013, a six-person jury rendered a not guilty verdict on all counts for Zimmerman.
But I can’t recall a recent case where bystanders were interrogated in such a way to frame them as being more liable for a killing than the person charged with it. Nelson’s aggressive questioning of these witnesses, some of which were underage at the time of the crime, came across as a desperate deflection of the harm done by his client. Regardless of how upset or frustrated these witnesses were, they never physically interfered with Chauvin’s decision to press his knee on an armed Black man in public for over nine minutes. Nor did any of them attack or actively impede the three other officers on the scene—Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter—from doing their jobs.
There’s a reason those four men are being tried in a court of law. Remember as the second week of this trial begins that it is not, as some headlines have had it, the “George Floyd Trial.” Derek Chauvin is on trial here and, absent any serious defense, his lawyer is trying to make this trial about anyone and anything else.
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