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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
May 6, 2021
Judge confirms Barr lied about Mueller report — will New York Times apologize for spreading that lie?
A media low point
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Of course, it wasn't just the Times that fell on its face treating Barr's obfuscation as fact. CNN's Chris Cillizza labeled it, "A credible and well investigated report that [Trump] nor his campaign colluded with the Russians," while NBC's Ken Dilian announced it was a "total exoneration" of Trump.
Journalists who typically demand access to documents when evaluating investigations made sweeping conclusions based on the Barr press release. The "Mueller report is out," CBS News announced, even though nobody at CBS News had read it. Stonewalling Republicans refused to release the Russia investigation findings, but the Washington Post at the time insisted it was Democrats who looked bad because they "boxed themselves in" on the Russia story.
Rather than going with accurate headlines, such as "Trump's Attorney General Claims Mueller Has Cleared the President," newsrooms tossed context aside and embraced GOP-friendly proclamations: "Mueller Finds No Conspiracy" (Washington Post), "Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy" (New York Times)," Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy" (Politico), "Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired with Russia" (Wall Street Journal), "Mueller Finds No Trump Collusion, Leaves Obstruction Open" (Associated Press).
None of those headlines were accurate, and they did extraordinary damage because they allowed the White House to proclaim victory. "This was an illegal takedown that failed," Trump bragged at the time. "It’s complete exoneration. No collusion."
Beltway journalists failed in so many ways during the Trump years. It’s time for them to acknowledge that.
Boehlert: Judge confirms Barr lied...-- will New York Times apologize for spreading that lie?
https://pressrun.media/p/judge-confirms-barr-lied-about-muellerJudge confirms Barr lied about Mueller report — will New York Times apologize for spreading that lie?
A media low point
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Of course, it wasn't just the Times that fell on its face treating Barr's obfuscation as fact. CNN's Chris Cillizza labeled it, "A credible and well investigated report that [Trump] nor his campaign colluded with the Russians," while NBC's Ken Dilian announced it was a "total exoneration" of Trump.
Journalists who typically demand access to documents when evaluating investigations made sweeping conclusions based on the Barr press release. The "Mueller report is out," CBS News announced, even though nobody at CBS News had read it. Stonewalling Republicans refused to release the Russia investigation findings, but the Washington Post at the time insisted it was Democrats who looked bad because they "boxed themselves in" on the Russia story.
Rather than going with accurate headlines, such as "Trump's Attorney General Claims Mueller Has Cleared the President," newsrooms tossed context aside and embraced GOP-friendly proclamations: "Mueller Finds No Conspiracy" (Washington Post), "Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy" (New York Times)," Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy" (Politico), "Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired with Russia" (Wall Street Journal), "Mueller Finds No Trump Collusion, Leaves Obstruction Open" (Associated Press).
None of those headlines were accurate, and they did extraordinary damage because they allowed the White House to proclaim victory. "This was an illegal takedown that failed," Trump bragged at the time. "It’s complete exoneration. No collusion."
Beltway journalists failed in so many ways during the Trump years. It’s time for them to acknowledge that.
May 6, 2021
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
5/05/2021
Liz Cheney Demonstrates the Least You Can Do to Preserve Democracy
snip//
Now, I don't have a lick of pity for Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, she who is one of the loin leavings of the legitimately malevolent Dick Cheney. She's a conservative's conservative, someone who has no problem going full-tilt scorched earth. Shit, in her response to President Biden's speech to Congress last week, she called his plans "dangerous" and "heartless" and that "the far-left is now in control of the Democrat Party." I mean, that's like being the shit-throwingest baboon in the monkey house. But it's not enough unless everything you do as a Republican involves you gently cupping Donald Trump's tiny balls and buffing them to a high sheen.
Rep. Cheney is facing a likely ouster from her leadership position in the House Republican caucus because she refuses to back down from acknowledging the truth: that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square. That's not praiseworthy. It's literally the least anyone could do to preserve our democracy. It's like giving someone a trophy for not stabbing you in the face or burning down your house when, sure, they could have totally done that, but we generally don't reward people for being basically civilized. All Cheney's doing is saying that reality is real, and the vast majority of Republicans won't even do that. It means that the GOP is a fuck-cluster of batshit conspiracy mongers and cynical pukes who exploit the deranged, all of them varying degrees of fucking racist.
snip//
Imagine being a Republican and given the choice is to go all in with the saggy orange nutsack who rages into the ether on his blog (trust me, I know how that feels) or to change their current platform of tax cuts, racism, and Trump worship, you choose the nutsack. In fact, you choose the nutsack so hard that it completely changes you so that everything you do is so you can keep that nutsack happy, and you feel good about yourself when the nutsack is satisfied. I don't feel sorry for any of these GOP fuckfleas, but, man, sometimes you gotta look up from the meth pipe, glance in a mirror, and ask yourself if you like the toothless bitch you see looking back. Of course, Republicans are so far gone that they'll say they look awesome as they decide to move on to shooting that shit up.
The Republican Party must be thought of and dealt with as an anti-democratic insurgency, one that won't be satisfied until it has eliminated the need for elections in order to maintain power. Without the Liz Cheneys in the GOP, if these fuckers win back the House, it's gonna be crazy shit when it comes time to certify the 2024 election if it's even a little close and the Republican candidate has lost. If that candidate happens to be Trump, they will fucking blow up DC to put his huge ass back in the Oval Office. And I'm not really being hyperbolic with the idea of Republicans blowing shit up.
I keep thinking about this quote from an anonymous GOP official from just after the election in November 2020 on Trump wanting to challenge the results: "What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change." No one, it seems, except the deranged rubes and those who want to win on the backs of the deranged rubes. Oh, and, if you can, take them for every penny they've got to fund whatever bullshit "legal challenge" you want, all the better.
The Rude Pundit: Liz Cheney Demonstrates the Least You Can Do to Preserve Democracy
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/05/liz-cheney-demonstrates-least-you-can.htmlThe Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
5/05/2021
Liz Cheney Demonstrates the Least You Can Do to Preserve Democracy
snip//
Now, I don't have a lick of pity for Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, she who is one of the loin leavings of the legitimately malevolent Dick Cheney. She's a conservative's conservative, someone who has no problem going full-tilt scorched earth. Shit, in her response to President Biden's speech to Congress last week, she called his plans "dangerous" and "heartless" and that "the far-left is now in control of the Democrat Party." I mean, that's like being the shit-throwingest baboon in the monkey house. But it's not enough unless everything you do as a Republican involves you gently cupping Donald Trump's tiny balls and buffing them to a high sheen.
Rep. Cheney is facing a likely ouster from her leadership position in the House Republican caucus because she refuses to back down from acknowledging the truth: that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square. That's not praiseworthy. It's literally the least anyone could do to preserve our democracy. It's like giving someone a trophy for not stabbing you in the face or burning down your house when, sure, they could have totally done that, but we generally don't reward people for being basically civilized. All Cheney's doing is saying that reality is real, and the vast majority of Republicans won't even do that. It means that the GOP is a fuck-cluster of batshit conspiracy mongers and cynical pukes who exploit the deranged, all of them varying degrees of fucking racist.
snip//
Imagine being a Republican and given the choice is to go all in with the saggy orange nutsack who rages into the ether on his blog (trust me, I know how that feels) or to change their current platform of tax cuts, racism, and Trump worship, you choose the nutsack. In fact, you choose the nutsack so hard that it completely changes you so that everything you do is so you can keep that nutsack happy, and you feel good about yourself when the nutsack is satisfied. I don't feel sorry for any of these GOP fuckfleas, but, man, sometimes you gotta look up from the meth pipe, glance in a mirror, and ask yourself if you like the toothless bitch you see looking back. Of course, Republicans are so far gone that they'll say they look awesome as they decide to move on to shooting that shit up.
The Republican Party must be thought of and dealt with as an anti-democratic insurgency, one that won't be satisfied until it has eliminated the need for elections in order to maintain power. Without the Liz Cheneys in the GOP, if these fuckers win back the House, it's gonna be crazy shit when it comes time to certify the 2024 election if it's even a little close and the Republican candidate has lost. If that candidate happens to be Trump, they will fucking blow up DC to put his huge ass back in the Oval Office. And I'm not really being hyperbolic with the idea of Republicans blowing shit up.
I keep thinking about this quote from an anonymous GOP official from just after the election in November 2020 on Trump wanting to challenge the results: "What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change." No one, it seems, except the deranged rubes and those who want to win on the backs of the deranged rubes. Oh, and, if you can, take them for every penny they've got to fund whatever bullshit "legal challenge" you want, all the better.
May 5, 2021
Liz Cheney Failed the Only Republican Purity Test That Matters
Elise Stefanik’s power grab proves that if you support Trump’s worst behavior, nothing else counts.
By Jim Newell
May 05, 20215:04 PM
snip//
By any of the measures the Freedom Caucus cared about before 2017, Stefanik’s leadership bid would be a nonstarter. She has a lifetime score of 48 percent with Heritage Action, the conservative pressure group, compared with the average House Republican’s score of 85 percent; Cheney’s score, meanwhile, is 80 percent. Stefanik voted, most notably, against the Trump tax cut package in 2017, and she has called for a repeal of that law’s cap on the state and local tax deduction. That’s something that plenty of Democrats, too, want to repeal, and because such a restoration would primarily benefit the wealthy, Republicans are planning to hit them hard on it. One might think that Stefanik’s entry into leadership, then, would complicate her ability to carry out that particular message.
Along with her generally shaky conservative credentials, Stefanik was not a notable supporter of Trump’s own policy positions. Throughout the Trump administration, she regularly broke from Trump, while Cheney stayed more or less in lockstep with the president. Stefanik voted to block Trump from breaking from the Paris climate accord, to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank (something conservatives used to get extremely mad about, all of a few years ago), to provide disaster aid for Puerto Rico, and to provide additional money for the Postal Service. She voted for the Equality Act (in 2019, at least). Just this year she voted for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would offer a path to legal status for undocumented agricultural workers and has been derided by the usual suspects as “amnesty.”
The vote that really stands out, though, in this vibe-based discussion of how “Trumpy” a member is, was one she took in 2019. When Trump used an emergency declaration to repurpose otherwise-appropriated money to build his border wall, Stefanik was one of 13 House Republicans who voted to repeal the emergency. Cheney was not.
What does this say about the path to leadership now? You don’t have to be consistently conservative on policy, as Stefanik breaks from the conference consensus more often than Cheney does. Nor does it even mean being there on core motivating issues behind “Trumpism” like the wall and reduced immigration. What the path requires, now, is purely loyalty to Trump himself: at a minimum, to keep your mouth shut about Trump’s worst behavior and—even better—to defend it. That’s where the base energy is to make you a star, and that’s how to get Trump’s support. Stefanik may be off-message on a host of issues that used to matter, but she’s on-message on the only thing that still counts: She’s willing to lie for Trump.
Liz Cheney Failed the Only Republican Purity Test That Matters
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/05/elise-stefanik-trumps-liz-cheney.htmlLiz Cheney Failed the Only Republican Purity Test That Matters
Elise Stefanik’s power grab proves that if you support Trump’s worst behavior, nothing else counts.
By Jim Newell
May 05, 20215:04 PM
snip//
By any of the measures the Freedom Caucus cared about before 2017, Stefanik’s leadership bid would be a nonstarter. She has a lifetime score of 48 percent with Heritage Action, the conservative pressure group, compared with the average House Republican’s score of 85 percent; Cheney’s score, meanwhile, is 80 percent. Stefanik voted, most notably, against the Trump tax cut package in 2017, and she has called for a repeal of that law’s cap on the state and local tax deduction. That’s something that plenty of Democrats, too, want to repeal, and because such a restoration would primarily benefit the wealthy, Republicans are planning to hit them hard on it. One might think that Stefanik’s entry into leadership, then, would complicate her ability to carry out that particular message.
Along with her generally shaky conservative credentials, Stefanik was not a notable supporter of Trump’s own policy positions. Throughout the Trump administration, she regularly broke from Trump, while Cheney stayed more or less in lockstep with the president. Stefanik voted to block Trump from breaking from the Paris climate accord, to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank (something conservatives used to get extremely mad about, all of a few years ago), to provide disaster aid for Puerto Rico, and to provide additional money for the Postal Service. She voted for the Equality Act (in 2019, at least). Just this year she voted for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would offer a path to legal status for undocumented agricultural workers and has been derided by the usual suspects as “amnesty.”
The vote that really stands out, though, in this vibe-based discussion of how “Trumpy” a member is, was one she took in 2019. When Trump used an emergency declaration to repurpose otherwise-appropriated money to build his border wall, Stefanik was one of 13 House Republicans who voted to repeal the emergency. Cheney was not.
What does this say about the path to leadership now? You don’t have to be consistently conservative on policy, as Stefanik breaks from the conference consensus more often than Cheney does. Nor does it even mean being there on core motivating issues behind “Trumpism” like the wall and reduced immigration. What the path requires, now, is purely loyalty to Trump himself: at a minimum, to keep your mouth shut about Trump’s worst behavior and—even better—to defend it. That’s where the base energy is to make you a star, and that’s how to get Trump’s support. Stefanik may be off-message on a host of issues that used to matter, but she’s on-message on the only thing that still counts: She’s willing to lie for Trump.
May 5, 2021
Sen. Sherrod Brown Calls Rand Paul ‘Kind of a Lunatic’
WHAT DO YOU REALLY THINK?
Tracy Connor, Executive Editor
Published May. 04, 2021 9:58PM ET
Sen. Sherrod Brown Calls Rand Paul 'Kind of a Lunatic'
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-sherrod-brown-calls-rand-paul-kind-of-a-lunatic-for-shunning-masks?ref=homeSen. Sherrod Brown Calls Rand Paul ‘Kind of a Lunatic’
WHAT DO YOU REALLY THINK?
Tracy Connor, Executive Editor
Published May. 04, 2021 9:58PM ET
Visiting a COVID vaccination site on Tuesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was asked about colleagues who are not wearing masks. He did not mince words, calling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “kind of a lunatic,” The Columbus Dispatch reported. Paul, he added, “thinks he wants to be different but it doesn't serve the public interest.” The barb brought a muddled response from Paul, who said in a statement: “Vaccine deniers, who dispute immunity after natural infection and after vaccination, should refrain from name-calling and perhaps try to get informed.”
Brown is not a vaccine denier: He has been vaccinated and has been urging his constituents to get inoculated. It appears Paul was referring to Brown calling him out in February for not wearing a mask on the Senate floor. Paul claims he is immune since he already had COVID-19, although many public health experts say mask-wearing after infection or after getting the shot is still prudent.
Brown is not a vaccine denier: He has been vaccinated and has been urging his constituents to get inoculated. It appears Paul was referring to Brown calling him out in February for not wearing a mask on the Senate floor. Paul claims he is immune since he already had COVID-19, although many public health experts say mask-wearing after infection or after getting the shot is still prudent.
May 5, 2021
Judge Rebukes Barr’s Justice Dept. as Misleading on Decision Not to Charge Trump
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in a ruling that the misleading statements were similar to others that William P. Barr, the former attorney general, had made about the Mueller investigation.
By Michael S. Schmidt
May 4, 2021, 7:18 p.m. ET
A federal judge in Washington accused the Justice Department under Attorney General William P. Barr of misleading her and Congress about advice he had received from top department officials on whether President Donald J. Trump should have been charged with obstructing the Russia investigation and ordered that a related memo be released.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court in Washington said in a ruling late Monday that the Justice Department’s obfuscation appeared to be part of a pattern in which top officials like Mr. Barr were untruthful to Congress and the public about the investigation.
The department had argued that the memo was exempt from public records laws because it consisted of private advice from lawyers whom Mr. Barr had relied on to make the call on prosecuting Mr. Trump. But Judge Jackson ruled that it contained strategic advice, and that Mr. Barr and his aides already understood what his decision would be.
She also singled out Mr. Barr for how he had spun the investigation’s findings in a letter summarizing the 448-page report before it was released, which allowed Mr. Trump to claim he had been exonerated.
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/us/politics/barr-trump-obstruction-russia-inquiry.html
Judge Rebukes Barr's Justice Dept. as Misleading on Decision Not to Charge Trump
Judge Rebukes Barr’s Justice Dept. as Misleading on Decision Not to Charge Trump
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in a ruling that the misleading statements were similar to others that William P. Barr, the former attorney general, had made about the Mueller investigation.
By Michael S. Schmidt
May 4, 2021, 7:18 p.m. ET
A federal judge in Washington accused the Justice Department under Attorney General William P. Barr of misleading her and Congress about advice he had received from top department officials on whether President Donald J. Trump should have been charged with obstructing the Russia investigation and ordered that a related memo be released.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court in Washington said in a ruling late Monday that the Justice Department’s obfuscation appeared to be part of a pattern in which top officials like Mr. Barr were untruthful to Congress and the public about the investigation.
The department had argued that the memo was exempt from public records laws because it consisted of private advice from lawyers whom Mr. Barr had relied on to make the call on prosecuting Mr. Trump. But Judge Jackson ruled that it contained strategic advice, and that Mr. Barr and his aides already understood what his decision would be.
“The fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given,” Judge Jackson wrote of Mr. Trump.
She also singled out Mr. Barr for how he had spun the investigation’s findings in a letter summarizing the 448-page report before it was released, which allowed Mr. Trump to claim he had been exonerated.
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/us/politics/barr-trump-obstruction-russia-inquiry.html
May 4, 2021
Posted on Tue, May 4th, 2021 by Alan Ryland
Ex-Bush Speechwriter Says Trump’s Lies About the 2020 Election Have Split Republicans into “Suckers” and “Liars”
There are two camps of Republicans, says Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for ex-President George W. Bush: “suckers” who fell for ex-president Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 general election and “liars” who profit from promoting them.
“To be a loyal Republican, one must be either a sucker or a liar,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
Ex-Bush Speechwriter Says Trump's Lies...Have Split Republicans into "Suckers" and "Liars"
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/05/04/ex-bush-speechwriter-says-trumps-lies-about-the-2020-election-have-split-republicans-into-suckers-and-liars.htmlPosted on Tue, May 4th, 2021 by Alan Ryland
Ex-Bush Speechwriter Says Trump’s Lies About the 2020 Election Have Split Republicans into “Suckers” and “Liars”
There are two camps of Republicans, says Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for ex-President George W. Bush: “suckers” who fell for ex-president Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 general election and “liars” who profit from promoting them.
“To be a loyal Republican, one must be either a sucker or a liar,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
“And because this defining falsehood (about the election) is so obviously and laughably false, we can safely assume that most Republican leaders who embrace it fall into the second category,” he continued. “Knowingly repeating a lie — an act of immorality — is now the evidence of Republican fidelity.”
While Trump’s conspiracy theories aren’t “the moral equivalent of fascist propaganda,” they constitute a “founding lie” that is “intended to remove followers from the messy world of facts and evidence.”
“It is designed to replace critical judgment with personal loyalty. It is supposed to encourage distrust of every source of social authority opposed to the leader’s shifting will,” he observed.
The result, he said, pointing to the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, was a group of followers who seemed “quite sincere” in their belief that the election was stolen despite a lack of any verifiable evidence.
Whether Trump actually believes his own lies remains to be seen: “When a congenital liar surrounds himself with sycophantic liars, he can easily lose radio contact with reality,” he said, adding that Republican politicians who have embraced these lies “have the most to atone for.”
While Trump’s conspiracy theories aren’t “the moral equivalent of fascist propaganda,” they constitute a “founding lie” that is “intended to remove followers from the messy world of facts and evidence.”
“It is designed to replace critical judgment with personal loyalty. It is supposed to encourage distrust of every source of social authority opposed to the leader’s shifting will,” he observed.
The result, he said, pointing to the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, was a group of followers who seemed “quite sincere” in their belief that the election was stolen despite a lack of any verifiable evidence.
Whether Trump actually believes his own lies remains to be seen: “When a congenital liar surrounds himself with sycophantic liars, he can easily lose radio contact with reality,” he said, adding that Republican politicians who have embraced these lies “have the most to atone for.”
May 4, 2021
Don Lemon Loses It Over Rick Santorum’s CNN Return: ‘It Was Horrible and Insulting!’
‘FURIOUS!’
“I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by it,” Lemon said moments after Santorum appeared on Chris Cuomo's program and showed no contrition over his Native American remarks.
Justin Baragona, Contributing Editor
Published May. 03, 2021 11:44PM ET
CNN anchor Don Lemon was absolutely beside himself on Monday night after CNN political commentator Rick Santorum showed no contrition during his first on-air appearance after his offensive remarks about Native American culture. Apologizing to viewers, Lemon said it was “horrible and insulting” that Santorum tried to “whitewash” his comments.
snip//
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/don-lemon-loses-it-over-rick-santorums-cnn-return-saying-it-was-horrible-and-insulting?ref=home
Don Lemon Loses It Over Rick Santorum's CNN Return: 'It Was Horrible and Insulting!'
Don Lemon Loses It Over Rick Santorum’s CNN Return: ‘It Was Horrible and Insulting!’
‘FURIOUS!’
“I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by it,” Lemon said moments after Santorum appeared on Chris Cuomo's program and showed no contrition over his Native American remarks.
Justin Baragona, Contributing Editor
Published May. 03, 2021 11:44PM ET
CNN anchor Don Lemon was absolutely beside himself on Monday night after CNN political commentator Rick Santorum showed no contrition during his first on-air appearance after his offensive remarks about Native American culture. Apologizing to viewers, Lemon said it was “horrible and insulting” that Santorum tried to “whitewash” his comments.
snip//
“I was furious watching that interview in my office. I cannot believe the first words out of his mouth weren’t ‘I’m sorry, I said something ignorant, I need to learn about the history of this country,’” the CNN anchor seethed. “No contrition! Didn’t talk about the suffering that Native Americans have had to deal with in this country.”
“Did he actually think it was a good idea for him to come on television and try to whitewash the whitewash that he whitewashed?!” Lemon exclaimed. “It was horrible and insulting! And I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by it. I was sitting in my office furious because he’s done it so many times! So many times!”
“Did he actually think it was a good idea for him to come on television and try to whitewash the whitewash that he whitewashed?!” Lemon exclaimed. “It was horrible and insulting! And I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by it. I was sitting in my office furious because he’s done it so many times! So many times!”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/don-lemon-loses-it-over-rick-santorums-cnn-return-saying-it-was-horrible-and-insulting?ref=home
May 3, 2021
Posted on Mon, May 3rd, 2021 by Jason Easley
Florida Election Rigging Law Backfires And Makes It Harder For Republicans To Vote
Florida Republicans have realized that their election rigging bill makes it harder for Republicans to vote.
The Washington Post reported:
The election security smokescreen floated by Republicans is a lie. The goal of the election rigging laws is to target voters who are likely to vote for Democrats while leaving Republican voters unharmed. Republicans are attempting to purge the electorate of Democratic voters, but in Florida, they used a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel, and the result is that they may disenfranchise their own voters.
Republicans are writing laws to help them cheat in elections. Their true motive could never be made clearer than their consideration of exempting their own voters from the election rigging laws.
Trump’s Big Lie may have the unintended consequence of gutting the vote by mail system that Republicans depend on to win in Florida.
Florida Election Rigging Law Backfires And Makes It Harder For Republicans To Vote
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/05/03/florida-election-rigging-law-backfires.htmlPosted on Mon, May 3rd, 2021 by Jason Easley
Florida Election Rigging Law Backfires And Makes It Harder For Republicans To Vote
Florida Republicans have realized that their election rigging bill makes it harder for Republicans to vote.
The Washington Post reported:
As Gruters’s Senate Bill 90 was debated in the legislature this year, some Republicans privately expressed worry that it could further undercut the party’s ability to encourage mail voting — particularly among military voters and the elderly, who overwhelmingly use that method to cast their ballots.
One former state party official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private conversations said some Republicans briefly discussed whether lawmakers could exempt those two groups from the provision requiring voters to request mail ballots every election cycle. “Key lawmakers said, ‘You can’t do that,’?” the former official said. “It would raise equal protection problems.”
One former state party official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private conversations said some Republicans briefly discussed whether lawmakers could exempt those two groups from the provision requiring voters to request mail ballots every election cycle. “Key lawmakers said, ‘You can’t do that,’?” the former official said. “It would raise equal protection problems.”
The election security smokescreen floated by Republicans is a lie. The goal of the election rigging laws is to target voters who are likely to vote for Democrats while leaving Republican voters unharmed. Republicans are attempting to purge the electorate of Democratic voters, but in Florida, they used a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel, and the result is that they may disenfranchise their own voters.
Republicans are writing laws to help them cheat in elections. Their true motive could never be made clearer than their consideration of exempting their own voters from the election rigging laws.
Trump’s Big Lie may have the unintended consequence of gutting the vote by mail system that Republicans depend on to win in Florida.
May 3, 2021
The Washington Post owes Biden an apology
Border hysteria
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
One month after falsely blaming the Biden administration for creating a crisis at the southern border, the Washington Post remains oddly reserved regarding good news about the plummeting number of migrant youths now held in U.S. detention centers. The Post for months led the media charge with nonstop, negative coverage about the surge; coverage that often mimics GOP talking points.
But now as conditions at the border improve, much of the media, including the Post, are suddenly less interested in the immigration story.
The good news came on Thursday when CNN published a scoop detailing how the number of unaccompanied children held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "dropped nearly 84% in the span of a month, according to a White House official, underscoring the significant progress made by the administration after reaching record high custody figures." The CNN report quoted an official who spoke anonymously.
snip//
If the Biden administration were to blame for the migrant crisis, if its missteps were the reason for the rising number of border detentions, as the Post insisted in March, doesn't it stand that the Biden administration deserves credit for the sweeping reduction at the border that’s now unfolding? Or does the Post only consider bad news for the White House to be real news? The Post literally ran a border detention story that included this quote in the headline: "No End in Sight." Now, according to the last figures, there is end is sight.
The paper has hardly been alone in echoing apocalyptic GOP rhetoric about the border this year. In a highly unusual move, ABC This Week in late March staged its entire Sunday program from the border in order to focus on the "emerging crisis for the Biden administration." During the president's inaugural press conference that month, he was peppered with questions about the border (a topic the GOP was pushing), and was not asked a single question about Covid-19 (a topic the GOP was not).
In terms of the amount of border news coverage this year, it's been eye-popping, as the press continues to take its cues from Republicans. During Biden's first nine weeks in office, immigration was the third most-common topic of new coverage, according to a new Pew study — and that coverage was overwhelmingly negative. That volume of immigration coverage is especially startling considering the topic didn't really gain traction until six weeks into Biden's presidency. Then the media avalanche arrived.
The press and the GOP helped create the border "crisis" this year. Now they need to acknowledge reality.
Eric Boehlert: The Washington Post owes Biden an apology
https://pressrun.media/p/the-washington-post-owes-biden-anThe Washington Post owes Biden an apology
Border hysteria
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
One month after falsely blaming the Biden administration for creating a crisis at the southern border, the Washington Post remains oddly reserved regarding good news about the plummeting number of migrant youths now held in U.S. detention centers. The Post for months led the media charge with nonstop, negative coverage about the surge; coverage that often mimics GOP talking points.
But now as conditions at the border improve, much of the media, including the Post, are suddenly less interested in the immigration story.
The good news came on Thursday when CNN published a scoop detailing how the number of unaccompanied children held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "dropped nearly 84% in the span of a month, according to a White House official, underscoring the significant progress made by the administration after reaching record high custody figures." The CNN report quoted an official who spoke anonymously.
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If the Biden administration were to blame for the migrant crisis, if its missteps were the reason for the rising number of border detentions, as the Post insisted in March, doesn't it stand that the Biden administration deserves credit for the sweeping reduction at the border that’s now unfolding? Or does the Post only consider bad news for the White House to be real news? The Post literally ran a border detention story that included this quote in the headline: "No End in Sight." Now, according to the last figures, there is end is sight.
The paper has hardly been alone in echoing apocalyptic GOP rhetoric about the border this year. In a highly unusual move, ABC This Week in late March staged its entire Sunday program from the border in order to focus on the "emerging crisis for the Biden administration." During the president's inaugural press conference that month, he was peppered with questions about the border (a topic the GOP was pushing), and was not asked a single question about Covid-19 (a topic the GOP was not).
In terms of the amount of border news coverage this year, it's been eye-popping, as the press continues to take its cues from Republicans. During Biden's first nine weeks in office, immigration was the third most-common topic of new coverage, according to a new Pew study — and that coverage was overwhelmingly negative. That volume of immigration coverage is especially startling considering the topic didn't really gain traction until six weeks into Biden's presidency. Then the media avalanche arrived.
The press and the GOP helped create the border "crisis" this year. Now they need to acknowledge reality.
May 2, 2021
Posted on Sat, May 1st, 2021 by Jason Easley
Rep. Jim Clyburn Rips Mitch McConnell For Trying To Create Ignorant Americans
House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said that McConnell is trying to create ignorant Americans with his opposition to teaching about systemic racism.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1388537910299869190
Clyburn said when asked about McConnell on MSNBC:
Taking history out of context is what Republicans do. Republicans constantly falsely claim that they aren’t racist because it was Southern Democrats who supported Jim Crow, but what they leave out is that those Southern Democrats switched over to the Republican Party after Democrats embraced civil and voting rights.
Mitch McConnell is trying to create and spread ignorance because the Republican Party is an anti-facts party. Republicans are a party that places beliefs over facts. They want to pretend like there is no racism while using racism to divide the country.
Rep. Clyburn was correct. History should be taught with context, but given the changing demographic face of the nation, ignorance might be the only way for Republicans to stay relevant.
Rep. Jim Clyburn Rips Mitch McConnell For Trying To Create Ignorant Americans
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/05/01/jim-clyburn-mitch-mcconnell-history.htmlPosted on Sat, May 1st, 2021 by Jason Easley
Rep. Jim Clyburn Rips Mitch McConnell For Trying To Create Ignorant Americans
House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said that McConnell is trying to create ignorant Americans with his opposition to teaching about systemic racism.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1388537910299869190
Clyburn said when asked about McConnell on MSNBC:
I used to teach history. I studied history every day, and I would tell my kids that were in my class, I would tell them all the time, look, don’t bring this to me. It was introduced to this country, and we know that, and am I not supposed to know that? 1492 wasn’t a year that this country was discovered. That’s when Columbus found his way here. Native Americans were here all the time. We should put history in the proper perspective. You don’t do that by ignoring the fact. He should be ashamed of himself.
If the schools down in Kentucky were to follow his lead, they would turn out a lot of ignorant people, and I would hope that we would do what is necessary so everybody will put history in its proper context.
If the schools down in Kentucky were to follow his lead, they would turn out a lot of ignorant people, and I would hope that we would do what is necessary so everybody will put history in its proper context.
Taking history out of context is what Republicans do. Republicans constantly falsely claim that they aren’t racist because it was Southern Democrats who supported Jim Crow, but what they leave out is that those Southern Democrats switched over to the Republican Party after Democrats embraced civil and voting rights.
Mitch McConnell is trying to create and spread ignorance because the Republican Party is an anti-facts party. Republicans are a party that places beliefs over facts. They want to pretend like there is no racism while using racism to divide the country.
Rep. Clyburn was correct. History should be taught with context, but given the changing demographic face of the nation, ignorance might be the only way for Republicans to stay relevant.
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