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babylonsister

babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
May 25, 2021

How Matt Gaetz Helped Make Ron DeSantis

https://politicalwire.com/2021/05/25/how-matt-gaetz-helped-make-ron-desantis/

How Matt Gaetz Helped Make Ron DeSantis
May 25, 2021 at 6:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 20 Comments


Politico: “Before federal investigators were looking into Gaetz in an ongoing sex scandal, he was a top campaign adviser to DeSantis, who he met while both served in Congress. DeSantis at the time was a little-known GOP congressman in 2018 and needed help navigating Florida’s political landscape as he weighed whether to run for governor. Gaetz, 39, had deep connections to Florida’s political class because of his father, Don Gaetz, a powerful former state senator. Gaetz went on to play roles in DeSantis’ campaign and his early administration.”

“DeSantis’ ties to Gaetz could pressure the governor to answer difficult questions about whether he was aware of any alleged wrongdoing as he seeks a second term as governor and possibly the White House. As an adviser, Gaetz urged the governor to appoint several people who are also now ensnared in the federal investigation. Gaetz was also close friends with Joel Greenberg, the man at the center of a federal investigation into sex trafficking.”

May 25, 2021

"I'm not pro-murdering babies."

Reposted here from GD by request...

"I'm not pro-murdering babies."
Mary Ellen Arbuckle on FB...


I’m not pro-murdering babies.

I'm pro-Barbara who found out at her 20 week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life sustaining organs.

I'm pro-Susan who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later.

I'm pro-Theresa who hemorrhaged due to a placental abruption, causing her parents, spouse, and children to have to make the impossible decision on whether to save her or her unborn child.

I'm pro-little Cathy who had her innocence ripped away from her by someone she should have been able to trust and her 11 year old body isn't mature enough to bear the consequence of that betrayal.

I'm pro-Melissa who's working two jobs just to make ends meet and has to choose between bringing another child into poverty or feeding the children she already has because her spouse walked out on her.

I'm pro-Brittany who realizes that she is in no way financially, emotionally, or physically able to raise a child.

I'm pro-Emily who went through IVF, ending up with SIX viable implanted eggs requiring selective reduction in order to ensure the safety of her and a SAFE amount of fetuses.

I'm pro-Jessica who is FINALLY getting the strength to get away from her physically abusive spouse only to find out that she is carrying the monster's child.

I'm pro-Vanessa who went into her confirmation appointment after YEARS of trying to conceive only to hear silence where there should be a heartbeat.

I'm pro-Lindsay who lost her virginity in her sophomore year with a broken condom and now has to choose whether to be a teenage mom or just a teenager.

I'm pro-Courtney who just found out she's already 13 weeks along, but the egg never made it out of her fallopian tube so either she terminates the pregnancy or risks dying from internal bleeding.

You can argue and say that I'm pro-choice all you want, but the truth is:

I'm pro-life.
Their lives.
Women's lives.


You don't get to pick and choose which scenarios should be accepted.
It's not about which stories you don't agree with. It's about fighting for the women in the stories that you do agree with and the CHOICE that was made.

Women's rights are meant to protect ALL women, regardless of their situation!"
May 24, 2021

"I'm not pro-murdering babies."

Mary Ellen Arbuckle on FB...


I’m not pro-murdering babies.

I'm pro-Barbara who found out at her 20 week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life sustaining organs.

I'm pro-Susan who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later.

I'm pro-Theresa who hemorrhaged due to a placental abruption, causing her parents, spouse, and children to have to make the impossible decision on whether to save her or her unborn child.

I'm pro-little Cathy who had her innocence ripped away from her by someone she should have been able to trust and her 11 year old body isn't mature enough to bear the consequence of that betrayal.

I'm pro-Melissa who's working two jobs just to make ends meet and has to choose between bringing another child into poverty or feeding the children she already has because her spouse walked out on her.

I'm pro-Brittany who realizes that she is in no way financially, emotionally, or physically able to raise a child.

I'm pro-Emily who went through IVF, ending up with SIX viable implanted eggs requiring selective reduction in order to ensure the safety of her and a SAFE amount of fetuses.

I'm pro-Jessica who is FINALLY getting the strength to get away from her physically abusive spouse only to find out that she is carrying the monster's child.

I'm pro-Vanessa who went into her confirmation appointment after YEARS of trying to conceive only to hear silence where there should be a heartbeat.

I'm pro-Lindsay who lost her virginity in her sophomore year with a broken condom and now has to choose whether to be a teenage mom or just a teenager.

I'm pro-Courtney who just found out she's already 13 weeks along, but the egg never made it out of her fallopian tube so either she terminates the pregnancy or risks dying from internal bleeding.

You can argue and say that I'm pro-choice all you want, but the truth is:

I'm pro-life.
Their lives.
Women's lives.

You don't get to pick and choose which scenarios should be accepted.
It's not about which stories you don't agree with. It's about fighting for the women in the stories that you do agree with and the CHOICE that was made.

Women's rights are meant to protect ALL women, regardless of their situation!"
May 24, 2021

Biden increases funding to prepare for extreme weather events ahead of hurricane season

REALLY nice to have a president who is thinking ahead!


Biden increases funding to prepare for extreme weather events ahead of hurricane season
Biden will also announce a new climate data systems by NASA to help understand and track the effects of climate change, the White House said.
May 24, 2021, 12:21 PM EDT
By Shannon Pettypiece


WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will double funding for communities to prepare for extreme weather events ahead of a hurricane season that meteorologists warn will bring above normal activity to the Atlantic.

The announcement comes ahead of a visit by Biden on Monday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters where he will be briefed on projections for the hurricane season. Biden will also announce a new climate data systems by NASA to help understand and track the effects of climate change, the White House said.

NOAA has predicted an “above-normal Atlantic hurricane season," the agency said last week. But forecasters don’t anticipate the historic level of storms seen last year.
Biden: 'When I think climate change, I think jobs'

The administration has been taking a number of steps to address the effects of climate change on weather and is aiming to take a more proactive rather than reactive response. Biden signed an executive order last week directing federal agencies to identify and disclose how their programs will be impacted by the changing climate.

more...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-increases-funding-prepare-extreme-weather-events-ahead-hurricane-season-n1268337

May 24, 2021

Eric Boehlert: Incoming Washington Post editor leaves behind an AP debacle

https://pressrun.media/p/incoming-washington-post-editor-leaves

Incoming Washington Post editor leaves behind an AP debacle
Caving in to GOP trolls
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago

snip//

The episode is not only troubling for the AP, it’s also a problem for the Post, as it prepares for Buzbee’s arrival. The last thing the paper wanted during this key transition period, which followed an extensive, high-profile search for a new leader, was to be grappling with doubts about Buzbee’s leadership. But after watching the Winter debacle unfold last week at the AP, it’s impossible to not question the editor’s newsroom guidance. Post reporters must be wondering how many of them will soon be thrown under the bus by management if GOP activists target them with bogus claims of “bias.”

The stunning termination of Wilder came just 16 days after the Stanford University graduate was hired. Her AP bosses told her she had violated the company’s social media policy, although they would not detail how. Her college tweets became newsworthy when conservative news outlets, including Federalist, Washington Free Beacon, and Fox News, began highlighting them and accusing AP of having an anti-Israel bias. Note that the entry-level Wilder was working out of the AP’s Arizona bureau and her journalism output had nothing to do with the Middle East.

Wilder was initially assured that her previous tweets were not a problem and that the AP would stand by her, but was subsequently fired. The move came just days after the AP’s bureau in Gaza was bombed by the Israeli military as part of the May fighting that erupted in the Middle East. The Israeli government insisted the building housed Hamas operatives, but has not provided definitive proof in order to justify leveling the AP building. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) pointed to Wilder’s employment and tweeted, “Not a surprise from a media organization that shared office space with Hamas." He also suggested the AP colluded with Hamas and allowed reporters to be used as “human shields.”

It’s clear the AP found itself in the middle of a contentious, international national standoff when the Wilder story, and the manufactured claims of bias, began to gain traction. Rather than defend its targeted reporter, AP caved to the right-wing mob, thereby encouraging to take aim at more journalists in the future.

snip//

And soon, the AP’s executive editor will be taking over the Washington Post newsroom.
May 24, 2021

Biden Moves to Make Remote Work Permanent for Many

https://politicalwire.com/2021/05/24/biden-moves-to-make-remote-work-permanent-for-many/

Biden Moves to Make Remote Work Permanent for Many
May 24, 2021 at 7:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard


“As the Biden administration contemplates how to return the massive federal workforce to the office, government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent by allowing more employees than ever to work from home — a sweeping cultural change that would have been unthinkable a year ago,” the Washington Post reports.

“The shift across the government, whose details are still being finalized, comes after the risk-averse federal bureaucracy had fallen behind private companies when it came to embracing telework — a posture driven by a perception that employees would slack off unless they were tethered to their office cubicles.”
May 24, 2021

Democrats: Roe v. Wade blow would fuel expanding Supreme Court


Democrats: Roe v. Wade blow would fuel expanding Supreme Court
By Alexander Bolton - 05/24/21 06:00 AM EDT


Democratic senators say if the Supreme Court strikes a blow against Roe v. Wade by upholding a Mississippi abortion law, it will fuel an effort to add justices to the court or otherwise reform it.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority this week agreed to hear the Mississippi case, which could dramatically narrow abortion rights by allowing states to make it illegal to get an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“It will inevitably fuel and drive an effort to expand the Supreme Court if this activist majority betrays fundamental Constitutional principles,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It’s already driving that movement,” he added.


more...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/554843-democrats-roe-v-wade-blow-would-fuel-expanding-supreme-court
May 24, 2021

Ted Cruz knocks MSNBC's Brian Williams over 'Kremlin Cruz' label


Ted Cruz knocks MSNBC's Brian Williams over 'Kremlin Cruz' label
By Dominick Mastrangelo - 05/23/21 08:20 AM EDT


Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tore into journalist Brian Williams after the MSNBC anchor dubbed the lawmaker "Kremlin Cruz" during a segment last week.

The dust-up came after Cruz criticized a video put out by the Pentagon telling the story of a recruit who marched for marriage equality before joining the armed forces. The senator called it "woke" and "emasculating" to the U.S. military and shared his comment along with a Russian propaganda video depicting members of its military as strong and masculine.

Williams called the tweet a "remarkably stupid lapse of judgment" and displayed the nickname "Kremlin Cruz" on an on-air graphic below him as he spoke during the segment on his weeknight show on MSNBC.

snip//

"Is there a more pitiful example of corrupt corporate media than Brian Williams?" Cruz asked. "Now, he’s throwing a hissy fit that I criticized the ridiculously woke video that the Biden admin put out. Williams accidentally told the truth, when he describes it as 'a video meant to diminish the U.S. military.' TRUE. That’s the problem. (The Pentagon put it out.)."


The Republican senator also rejected the nickname Williams gave him, saying, "I hate communists, my family was imprisoned & tortured by communists, and Brian is a shameless apologist for Russian (and Chinese and Cuban) communists."

more...

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/554948-ted-cruz-knocks-msnbcs-brian-williams-over-kremlin-cruz-label
May 23, 2021

Kinzinger Predicts GOP Terrorist Insurrection Will Impact Midterms

https://crooksandliars.com/2021/05/kinzinger-jan-6th-will-impact-midterms
5/23/21 12:18pm
Kinzinger Predicts GOP Terrorist Insurrection Will Impact Midterms
Rep. Adam Kinzinger warned the GOP that the MAGA sedition riot will impact midterm elections, regardless of if there's an independent commission, and "particularly if us as Republicans don't take ownership for what happened."
By Heather
Video at link~


Rep. Adam Kinzinger warned Republicans that the MAGA sedition riot on January 6th will have an impact on the midterm elections, regardless of whether there is an independent commission or not, and "particularly if us as Republicans don't take ownership for what happened."

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Kinzinger was asked by host Chris Wallace what the commission hoped to learn that Congressional committees looking at the matter couldn't answer already.

Kinzinger told Wallace that we need "a comprehensive look at what happened that led up to January 6th, who was talking to who? What were the lies?"

"My party to this point have said things like it was hugs and kisses" Kinzinger continued, "it was Antifa and BLM, it was anything but what it was, which was a Trump-inspired insurrection on the Capitol. And people deserve to hear the truth."


Kinzinger warned that if this commission fails, "Nancy Pelosi will run a select committee and this could go all the way to 2024."

Wallace asked whether McConnell might be able to block the commission, and Kinzinger rightfully pointed out that they're not going to be able to run away from the issue in the midterm elections.

"Well, you know, here's a revelation, this is going to the 2022 midterms anyway, particularly if us as Republicans don't take ownership for what happened" Kinzinger warned, "if every other day, there's a new conspiracy theory about what happened at the Capitol, anybody but what it was. And so, yeah, that I think it will go to 2022. And we'll look like we are just sitting here denying reality and facts."

"I get it, it may have a political impact" he continued, "but I'm going to tell you what had a political impact on 2022, if anything does, it's going to be the attack on January 6th and then the subsequent denial to look in the mirror, tell the truth, take ownership for what we've done and recommit to tell the American people and Republican voters the truth."


They haven't paid a political price for their lying yet, so time will tell as to his predictions on the midterms. His party is busy doing their best to rig the next one rather than address the concerns that any of their voters might have.

Kinzinger went onto ding Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for failing to "tell the truth to the Republicans and to the American people" and promoting the lie that the election was stolen from Trump.

Sadly, as long as Kinzinger remains a voice in the wilderness in his party, there will be no accountability for any of them.
May 23, 2021

Republicans Are In Thrall Of A Demented Madman

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/05/23/opinion-republicans-are-in-thrall-of-a-demented-madman.html


Posted on Sun, May 23rd, 2021 by Rmuse
Opinion: Republicans Are In Thrall Of A Demented Madman


It is likely no American will ever fully comprehend why Republicans pledged their fealty to a nasty incompetent fool like Donald Trump, but it is clear that they have a good reason to remain loyal to a demented madman who hates them as much as he hates America.

History will not be kind to Donald Trump whether it is as a business man, a second-rate game show host, a fake big-time wrestler, or as leader of the right-wing fascist political party. However, it is crystal clear that history will not be kind to the sycophants in the Republican Party either; because they are, at least, cognizant of the kind of tyranny Trump attempted to unleash on the American people as well as his gross incompetence as the occupant of a place he had no right occupying.

One can understand why the ignorant racist and religious fanatic class of America love Trump, but it will forever remain a mystery why Republicans abandoned any semblance of loyalty to the U.S. Constitution or the nation they claim to love to serve an honest-to-dog maniac.

It is safe to say that except for a minuscule number of Republicans in Congress and the states, Republicans willingly fell in line to support anything Trump dreamt up in his egomaniacal mind. Now that he is no longer in charge of decimating everything good about America, one might think Republicans would shake the putrid Trump stench off their pathetic selves and return to just being dirty conservatives; but that simply isn’t the case.

snip//

It cannot possibly be that all Republican voters approve of an insurrection against the government of the United States, so the oft-mentioned fear of the base just doesn’t make sense. And it’s not that Trump has any executive power to damage Republicans like Mitch McConnell and his leadership position in the Senate or Kevin McCarthy in the House. Still, they serve Trump as if he is a god with the power to snuff the life out of them.

It is likely that Republicans in Congress, and the states for that matter, agree with everything Trump did while in the White House including inciting a rebellion to install Trump for a second, and likely third term. As this column has repeated ad nauseam, Republicans support Trump not because they are afraid of him, but because they support every bad thing he stands for if it means they get to hold on to power. And if it means being publicly condemned as weak and hopeless, they will take it as the price they have to pay to continue advancing their fascist agenda.

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Hometown: NY
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Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
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