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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
December 24, 2021
Manchin Made Out Great On PAC Donations Leading Up To BBB Betrayal
Because OF COURSE, he did.
Manchin Made Out Great On PAC Donations Leading Up To BBB Betrayal Credit: @bluegal (Composite)
By Common Dreams — December 23, 2021
New federal disclosures reveal that major corporations poured donations into West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's political action committee in the weeks leading up to his pivotal announcement Sunday that he would oppose the Build Back Better Act, a stance that progressives argue is motivated by the senator's deference to special interests.
CNBC reported late Tuesday that Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that donors to Manchin's Country Roads PAC raked in 17 contributions from corporations in October and 19 in November as he pared back and repeatedly threatened to tank Democrats' $1.75 trillion social spending and climate legislation.
Manchin donors during that period, according to CNBC, included corporate behemoths such as Goldman Sachs, American Express, UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Lockheed Martin, many of which took part in the massive big business lobbying blitz against the bill, which included key child poverty-reducing benefits and significant investments in clean energy.
"Country Roads raised over $150,000 in October from corporate donors such as Verizon, Union Pacific, Wells Fargo, and PACs tied to the coal and mining industries," CNBC noted.
As founder of the West Virginia-based coal company Enersystems, Manchin is well acquainted with the fossil fuel industry, which donated at least $400,000 to the West Virginia Democrat between July and October as he worked to gut the Build Back Better Act's key climate provisions. The Washington Post reported last week that Manchin's share in Enersystems—currently run by the senator's son—is "worth between $1 million and $5 million."
snip//
Democratic leaders are still working to salvage the Build Back Better Act, but it's unclear how much they would have to water down the already badly weakened legislation in order to win Manchin's support. The death of the Build Back Better package would likely push millions of children back into poverty, potentially blow a $60 billion hole in the U.S. economy, and thwart what advocates see as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass meaningful climate legislation.
Republished from Common Dreams (Jake Johnson, staff writer) under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Manchin Made Out Great On PAC Donations Leading Up To BBB Betrayal
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/12/manchin-made-out-great-pac-donationsManchin Made Out Great On PAC Donations Leading Up To BBB Betrayal
Because OF COURSE, he did.
Manchin Made Out Great On PAC Donations Leading Up To BBB Betrayal Credit: @bluegal (Composite)
By Common Dreams — December 23, 2021
New federal disclosures reveal that major corporations poured donations into West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's political action committee in the weeks leading up to his pivotal announcement Sunday that he would oppose the Build Back Better Act, a stance that progressives argue is motivated by the senator's deference to special interests.
CNBC reported late Tuesday that Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that donors to Manchin's Country Roads PAC raked in 17 contributions from corporations in October and 19 in November as he pared back and repeatedly threatened to tank Democrats' $1.75 trillion social spending and climate legislation.
Manchin donors during that period, according to CNBC, included corporate behemoths such as Goldman Sachs, American Express, UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Lockheed Martin, many of which took part in the massive big business lobbying blitz against the bill, which included key child poverty-reducing benefits and significant investments in clean energy.
"Country Roads raised over $150,000 in October from corporate donors such as Verizon, Union Pacific, Wells Fargo, and PACs tied to the coal and mining industries," CNBC noted.
As founder of the West Virginia-based coal company Enersystems, Manchin is well acquainted with the fossil fuel industry, which donated at least $400,000 to the West Virginia Democrat between July and October as he worked to gut the Build Back Better Act's key climate provisions. The Washington Post reported last week that Manchin's share in Enersystems—currently run by the senator's son—is "worth between $1 million and $5 million."
snip//
Democratic leaders are still working to salvage the Build Back Better Act, but it's unclear how much they would have to water down the already badly weakened legislation in order to win Manchin's support. The death of the Build Back Better package would likely push millions of children back into poverty, potentially blow a $60 billion hole in the U.S. economy, and thwart what advocates see as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass meaningful climate legislation.
"This is the way things work when democracy has been weakened," the Democracy Initiative—a coalition of dozens of civil rights, environmental, and labor groups—said Wednesday. "The powerful get special access to our government, while we're told, 'Sorry, we can't help you.'"
Republished from Common Dreams (Jake Johnson, staff writer) under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
December 23, 2021
When facts have a liberal bias, New York Times editors can get squirmy
By Dan Froomkin -
December 17, 2021 12:49 pm EST
snip//
Simply by describing the facts, Bernstein was making Giuliani’s plan look cruel. And that created problems for her in the newsroom.
“Getting it in the paper involved overcoming lots of editor pushback,” Bernstein recalled. She and I spoke on the phone and exchanged emails.
It was a problem she ran into with some frequency: “To write factually, up close, with what I like to call intelligent compassion about these people’s lives basically invited charges of partisanship.”
The point here is that it is nothing new for editors at the New York Times and elsewhere to be uneasy about calling too much attention to reality — when that reality has a liberal bias. (Stephen Colbert coined the phrase “reality has a well-known liberal bias” during the Bush administration.)
But that friction is particularly at issue today, at the Times and elsewhere, as political reporters and their editors struggle to accurately and sufficiently convey facts about the Republican assault on voting rights and democracy. The fear of taking sides is very obviously holding them back.
more...
https://presswatchers.org/2021/12/when-facts-have-a-liberal-bias-new-york-times-editors-can-get-squirmy/
When facts have a liberal bias, New York Times editors can get squirmy
When facts have a liberal bias, New York Times editors can get squirmy
By Dan Froomkin -
December 17, 2021 12:49 pm EST
snip//
Simply by describing the facts, Bernstein was making Giuliani’s plan look cruel. And that created problems for her in the newsroom.
“Getting it in the paper involved overcoming lots of editor pushback,” Bernstein recalled. She and I spoke on the phone and exchanged emails.
It was a problem she ran into with some frequency: “To write factually, up close, with what I like to call intelligent compassion about these people’s lives basically invited charges of partisanship.”
The point here is that it is nothing new for editors at the New York Times and elsewhere to be uneasy about calling too much attention to reality — when that reality has a liberal bias. (Stephen Colbert coined the phrase “reality has a well-known liberal bias” during the Bush administration.)
But that friction is particularly at issue today, at the Times and elsewhere, as political reporters and their editors struggle to accurately and sufficiently convey facts about the Republican assault on voting rights and democracy. The fear of taking sides is very obviously holding them back.
“Many reporters across the traditional news media are struggling against institutional tics and timidities that make ‘balance’ a false idol,” Bernstein said. The result: “The inadvertent normalization of existential threats to democracy and public health by one party and its right-wing media echo chamber.”
more...
https://presswatchers.org/2021/12/when-facts-have-a-liberal-bias-new-york-times-editors-can-get-squirmy/
December 23, 2021
Kennedy Center Honors on now...
Tune in to the Kennedy Centers Honors broadcast tonight at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
The 2021 Kennedy Center Honors returned to their traditional home and December slot on Sunday night in Washington, D.C. The honorees for the 44th annual event celebrating the arts were Justino Diaz, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, Bette Midler and Joni Mitchell. After four years of no presidential involvement, President Joe Biden was seated with the honorees in the balcony box. The ceremony will be broadcast by CBS on Wednesday, December 22.
Here is the complete list of performers and presenters to be seen on the two-hour program hosted by previous KCH recipient David Letterman. Past honoree Yo-Yo Ma opened the program with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Producers might alter the order as presented to the in-person audience.
more...
https://www.goldderby.com/feature/kennedy-center-honors-2021-complete-list-performers-presenters-1204628870/
December 22, 2021
Eric Boehlert: Obsessing over Manchin, press whitewashes GOP's rabid obstruction
Obsessing over Manchin, press whitewashes GOP's rabid obstruction
Normalizing the outrageous
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
What’s been erased is the big picture — why did losing a single Democratic senator become tantamount to imploding the $2 trillion deal? Why in the U.S. Senate, which compared to the House is known for deal-making and at least occasionally working across the aisle, did one defection kill the sprawling bill, especially when the pending legislation is so popular with the public? In more normal times, if Biden lost Manchin’s support he’d be able to pick up one or two Republicans who would support Build Back Better.
He cannot though, because of the GOP’s unprecedented obstruction, in which the party stands united against Biden — no matter what.
The press in recent years has completely normalized the Republicans’ unheard of worldview, to the point where virtually all of the Build Back Better coverage ignores the fact it’s 50 Republicans who are dooming legislation that would create a universal prekindergarten program, subsidize child care costs, lower prescription-drug costs and offer tax credits for reducing carbon emissions.
For news consumers today awash in Manchin and Build Back Better coverage, Republicans simply do not exist. They’re depicted — if at all — as innocent bystanders whose actions play no role in any of this.
The Times gently noted in passing that, “With Republicans united in opposing the legislation, Democrats needed the votes of all 50 senators who caucus with their party for the measure to pass in an evenly divided Senate.”
Talk about whitewashing radical GOP behavior. Refusing to portray Republicans for the hardcore extremists they are, news outlets also fail to connect the dots between the entire GOP opposing Build Back Better after the entire GOP opposed Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill that sent $1,400 checks to most Americans and hundreds of billions more to help open schools, which Republicans then tried to take credit for.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/obsessing-over-manchin-press-whitewashes
December 21, 2021
I Joined A Far-Right Group Of Moms. What I Witnessed Was Frightening.
"I caught a gleam in the woman’s eye I didn’t like. Was there some flirtation with insurrection being suggested here?"
By Phoebe Cohen, Guest Writer
12/21/2021 07:30am EST
“Look out for the trigger words,” the woman says. She’s perched on a chair in front of the room. She’s well-dressed yet funky with elegant boots, a demure sweater and some colorful jewelry. “‘Equality,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusion,’ ‘marginalization,’... These words are CRT. If you see these words in your kids’ homework, you need to speak out.”
I am in a meeting held by a local right-wing mom’s group. It’s an organization catering to mothers who are bent on protesting at school board meetings to stop the supposedly evil critical race theory agenda from being taught in public schools and address other typically conservative concerns.
snip//
For several years now I have been worried about the increasing right-wing views that I have noticed in my demographic (white suburban women). Before 2016, I always thought of Nazis as mainly historical villains that belonged in Indiana Jones movies or old news reels or the sad stories my grandfather told me. Now, however, as the last Holocaust survivors are dying, I am aware that fascism is creeping back into the world at large in terrifying ways.
I wanted to know how I could fight against the appallingly stupid yet dangerously widespread disinformation that is entrancing many of my friends and neighbors. Basic facts about COVID-19 are being dismissed by whole states as part of the “liberal mainstream corporate media.” Bodies from COVID victims were stacking up in ICUs and filling the morgues back in 2020, yet I was still called a “child abuser” by people on the street because I made my son wear a mask. Why are people going nuts? Why are people dismissing science and history in favor of conspiracy theories? And, most importantly, how could we nudge the nation in a saner direction?
snip//
more...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/far-right-extremist-moms_n_61ba330de4b0456499dcc9bf
"I Joined A Far-Right Group Of Moms. What I Witnessed Was Frightening."
I Joined A Far-Right Group Of Moms. What I Witnessed Was Frightening.
"I caught a gleam in the woman’s eye I didn’t like. Was there some flirtation with insurrection being suggested here?"
By Phoebe Cohen, Guest Writer
12/21/2021 07:30am EST
“Look out for the trigger words,” the woman says. She’s perched on a chair in front of the room. She’s well-dressed yet funky with elegant boots, a demure sweater and some colorful jewelry. “‘Equality,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusion,’ ‘marginalization,’... These words are CRT. If you see these words in your kids’ homework, you need to speak out.”
I am in a meeting held by a local right-wing mom’s group. It’s an organization catering to mothers who are bent on protesting at school board meetings to stop the supposedly evil critical race theory agenda from being taught in public schools and address other typically conservative concerns.
snip//
For several years now I have been worried about the increasing right-wing views that I have noticed in my demographic (white suburban women). Before 2016, I always thought of Nazis as mainly historical villains that belonged in Indiana Jones movies or old news reels or the sad stories my grandfather told me. Now, however, as the last Holocaust survivors are dying, I am aware that fascism is creeping back into the world at large in terrifying ways.
I wanted to know how I could fight against the appallingly stupid yet dangerously widespread disinformation that is entrancing many of my friends and neighbors. Basic facts about COVID-19 are being dismissed by whole states as part of the “liberal mainstream corporate media.” Bodies from COVID victims were stacking up in ICUs and filling the morgues back in 2020, yet I was still called a “child abuser” by people on the street because I made my son wear a mask. Why are people going nuts? Why are people dismissing science and history in favor of conspiracy theories? And, most importantly, how could we nudge the nation in a saner direction?
snip//
“Some of these people literally do not believe white privilege exists because, according to them, the Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War were overwhelmingly white. (No, I don’t understand that argument either.)”
more...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/far-right-extremist-moms_n_61ba330de4b0456499dcc9bf
December 21, 2021
Suddenly, Jim Jordan Hates Congressional Investigations
After Investigating Hillary Clinton for years, Jordan is freaking out that he is in the cross-hairs from a legitimate investigation.
By John Amato — December 20, 2021
Representative Jim Jordan, who conducted faux investigations into Hillary Clinton (Benghazi) for years, is now claiming "the purpose of Congress is not to be a law enforcement entity."
I kid you not.
His hypocrisy is stunning, but unsurprising.
Lies, conspiracies, and deceptions are what Republicans are made of.
Jordan is under suspicion for sending seditious messages to Mark Meadows during the January 6 insurrection. He also called for Vice President Mike Pence to discard valid electoral votes.
He went on Fox, of course, and fumed at Adam Schiff to Dan 'Bongo' Bongino.
Jordan, with no hint of irony, replied to Bongo's anti-Jan 6 Commission rant, "This is nothing new for the Left but it's scary because it's the weaponization of government against their political enemies."
Jordan continued, "There's no real legitimate purpose and oversight involved with this committee but going after your enemies and ultimately going after Donald Trump."
But that's not all.
"Remember, the underlying issue here is trying to put a good man, Mark Meadows in prison," Jordan said.
Hillary used a private server! Benghazi required eight inquiries!
Republicans tried to assist an attempted coup d'etat by Traitor Trump.
Republican members in Congress (like Jim Jordan) and paid right-wing activists conspired to overthrow a free and fair election.
Republicans spit in the face of the Constitution and US Democracy as a whole to keep Trump in office.
I can still hear the "lock her up chants" from Republicans and Trump to this day.
We all know the first chance Kevin McCarthy gets in a leadership position, he will investigate Dr. Fauci and try and put him in prison.
How do we know this? McCarthy has SAID SO. Axios:
Give Republicans the majority in 2022 and it will be two solid years of Hunter Biden's laptop Solyndra Benghazi baby parts pizzagate birther tan suit Christmas card lists and the tarmac.
Suddenly, Jim Jordan Hates Congressional Investigations
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/12/Jordan-hates-investigations-suddenlySuddenly, Jim Jordan Hates Congressional Investigations
After Investigating Hillary Clinton for years, Jordan is freaking out that he is in the cross-hairs from a legitimate investigation.
By John Amato — December 20, 2021
Representative Jim Jordan, who conducted faux investigations into Hillary Clinton (Benghazi) for years, is now claiming "the purpose of Congress is not to be a law enforcement entity."
I kid you not.
His hypocrisy is stunning, but unsurprising.
Lies, conspiracies, and deceptions are what Republicans are made of.
Jordan is under suspicion for sending seditious messages to Mark Meadows during the January 6 insurrection. He also called for Vice President Mike Pence to discard valid electoral votes.
He went on Fox, of course, and fumed at Adam Schiff to Dan 'Bongo' Bongino.
Jordan, with no hint of irony, replied to Bongo's anti-Jan 6 Commission rant, "This is nothing new for the Left but it's scary because it's the weaponization of government against their political enemies."
Jordan continued, "There's no real legitimate purpose and oversight involved with this committee but going after your enemies and ultimately going after Donald Trump."
But that's not all.
"Remember, the underlying issue here is trying to put a good man, Mark Meadows in prison," Jordan said.
Hillary used a private server! Benghazi required eight inquiries!
Republicans tried to assist an attempted coup d'etat by Traitor Trump.
Republican members in Congress (like Jim Jordan) and paid right-wing activists conspired to overthrow a free and fair election.
Republicans spit in the face of the Constitution and US Democracy as a whole to keep Trump in office.
I can still hear the "lock her up chants" from Republicans and Trump to this day.
We all know the first chance Kevin McCarthy gets in a leadership position, he will investigate Dr. Fauci and try and put him in prison.
How do we know this? McCarthy has SAID SO. Axios:
House Republicans have begun mapping aggressive probes of the Biden administration if they win back the majority — including inquiries into the origins of COVID, a leak of IRS data about billionaires, and accusations the NSA spied on Tucker Carlson.
The plans, obtained exclusively by Axios, show House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy would make muscular use of majority powers for the last two years of President Biden's term if, as expected, the GOP wins the majority in next year's midterms.
McCarthy plans to send a spate of "preservation notices" to departments throughout Biden's Cabinet, ordering them to retain documents that might be needed for future GOP oversight hearings.
Between the lines: Republicans want to deflect attention from the 1/6 commission, a real-time probe of real violence, death and looting in the Capitol.
The plans, obtained exclusively by Axios, show House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy would make muscular use of majority powers for the last two years of President Biden's term if, as expected, the GOP wins the majority in next year's midterms.
McCarthy plans to send a spate of "preservation notices" to departments throughout Biden's Cabinet, ordering them to retain documents that might be needed for future GOP oversight hearings.
Between the lines: Republicans want to deflect attention from the 1/6 commission, a real-time probe of real violence, death and looting in the Capitol.
Give Republicans the majority in 2022 and it will be two solid years of Hunter Biden's laptop Solyndra Benghazi baby parts pizzagate birther tan suit Christmas card lists and the tarmac.
December 21, 2021
Only One Party Is Waging Civil War Against Voting Rights
Carl Bernstein doesn't sugarcoat it: Republicans want a Civil War against voters. Period.
By Frances Langum — December 20, 2021
Carl Bernstein doesn't sugarcoat it.
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," host Brian Stelter asked Bernstein if this week, with "Text-Gate," felt familiar to the OG Watergate reporter. "Did this week feel similar to you at all?"
Bernstein said, "No, because the really important thing to remember about Watergate is that courageous Republicans cast their vote for articles of impeachment in committee against Richard Nixon."
Bernstein didn't stop there:
Stelter then asked, "What do you want the press and the public to do?"
Bernstein said the assault on our democracy has to be covered like the war that it is.
ONE of our two political parties. He left unanswered a really important question: Will the mainstream press get their heads out of their both-siderist butts long enough to cover this accurately?
Only One Party Is Waging Civil War Against Voting Rights
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/12/bernstein-civil-war-against-americans-whoOnly One Party Is Waging Civil War Against Voting Rights
Carl Bernstein doesn't sugarcoat it: Republicans want a Civil War against voters. Period.
By Frances Langum — December 20, 2021
Carl Bernstein doesn't sugarcoat it.
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," host Brian Stelter asked Bernstein if this week, with "Text-Gate," felt familiar to the OG Watergate reporter. "Did this week feel similar to you at all?"
Bernstein said, "No, because the really important thing to remember about Watergate is that courageous Republicans cast their vote for articles of impeachment in committee against Richard Nixon."
Bernstein didn't stop there:
CARL BERNSTEIN: Republicans are doing nothing of the sort in the Trump era, they have become the party of voter suppression, they have embraced a seditious conspiracy, led by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, by his chief of staff, Mr. Meadows, and also by a gang of constitutional thugs, such as Jim Jordan.
So what we have now is ongoing, a conspiracy, looking toward the next election in 2020 for the President of the United States, in which the Republican Party is committed to voter suppression, which is really a seditious enterprise.
So it's becoming a party of sedition, such as we have never seen since the Civil War. And even then, no President of the United States ever committed the kind of seditious acts as Trump did on January 6 and through his -- the end of his presidency.
So what we have now is ongoing, a conspiracy, looking toward the next election in 2020 for the President of the United States, in which the Republican Party is committed to voter suppression, which is really a seditious enterprise.
So it's becoming a party of sedition, such as we have never seen since the Civil War. And even then, no President of the United States ever committed the kind of seditious acts as Trump did on January 6 and through his -- the end of his presidency.
Stelter then asked, "What do you want the press and the public to do?"
Bernstein said the assault on our democracy has to be covered like the war that it is.
BERNSTEIN: I think that we need to start covering the most important story for us to cover. Yes, we need to continue giving huge prominence to COVID and whatever breaking stories there are, but probably, as in World War Two, and as in the Civil War, the coverage has to be of the real war.
And that could be four or five years as it was in World War Two and the Civil War. And that is the fight against Americans who want to vote a party committed to keeping Americans from voting.
I covered the civil -- the Voting Rights Act of 1965, when it -- when it was passed. This party of seditious undermining of American democracy and our electoral system is trying to undo that Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed all Americans the right to vote.
So this is the big story that we cannot lose sight of. We need to cover it like the war that it is, every day, every important battle.
Yes, we need to cover all stories. But this story is ongoing and must be the focus of our attention because it is about the undermining of American democracy at its most basic level. And it's been embraced by one of our two political parties.
And that could be four or five years as it was in World War Two and the Civil War. And that is the fight against Americans who want to vote a party committed to keeping Americans from voting.
I covered the civil -- the Voting Rights Act of 1965, when it -- when it was passed. This party of seditious undermining of American democracy and our electoral system is trying to undo that Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed all Americans the right to vote.
So this is the big story that we cannot lose sight of. We need to cover it like the war that it is, every day, every important battle.
Yes, we need to cover all stories. But this story is ongoing and must be the focus of our attention because it is about the undermining of American democracy at its most basic level. And it's been embraced by one of our two political parties.
ONE of our two political parties. He left unanswered a really important question: Will the mainstream press get their heads out of their both-siderist butts long enough to cover this accurately?
December 21, 2021
Dallas QAnon ‘Cult’ Is Now Drinking Terrifying Chemical Cocktail, Family Says
CHEMICAL KOOL-AID
“She was proud to tell us that she was the one mixing it up and giving it to everybody,” a member’s relative said.
Justin Rohrlich
Reporter
Updated Dec. 20, 2021 6:39PM ET / Published Dec. 20, 2021 6:34PM ET
QAnon acolytes in Dallas are now drinking toxic chemicals from a communal punch bowl, according to the family of a woman who joined the Texas “cult” that’s waiting for the supposed resurrection of President John F. Kennedy and his late son, JFK Jr.
Numerous members of the Leek family told the Dallas Observer that the woman, who reportedly abandoned her husband and children in Delaware last month to follow Trump-supporting QAnon leader Michael Brian Protzman to Dallas, has been quaffing a mixture containing chlorine dioxide—industrial bleach—which she apparently distributes among the group.
“She was proud to tell us that she was the one mixing it up and giving it to everybody,” one of her relatives told the outlet.
The woman got into the QAnon movement back in 2018, said her son, Sean Leek, who was unable to be reached by The Daily Beast on Monday. While the family didn’t specify why the group was drinking the potent chemical mixture, they said their relative is an ardent anti-vaxxer.
“She’s always been into, you know, natural remedies, getting aluminum out of deodorant, things like that,” Leek said in a Dec. 10 interview. “But that led to anti-vaxxing, and anti-vaxxing led to QAnon.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dallas-qanon-cult-is-now-drinking-terrifying-chemical-cocktail-to-fight-covid-family-says?ref=home
Dallas QAnon 'Cult' Is Now Drinking Terrifying Chemical Cocktail, Family Says
Dallas QAnon ‘Cult’ Is Now Drinking Terrifying Chemical Cocktail, Family Says
CHEMICAL KOOL-AID
“She was proud to tell us that she was the one mixing it up and giving it to everybody,” a member’s relative said.
Justin Rohrlich
Reporter
Updated Dec. 20, 2021 6:39PM ET / Published Dec. 20, 2021 6:34PM ET
QAnon acolytes in Dallas are now drinking toxic chemicals from a communal punch bowl, according to the family of a woman who joined the Texas “cult” that’s waiting for the supposed resurrection of President John F. Kennedy and his late son, JFK Jr.
Numerous members of the Leek family told the Dallas Observer that the woman, who reportedly abandoned her husband and children in Delaware last month to follow Trump-supporting QAnon leader Michael Brian Protzman to Dallas, has been quaffing a mixture containing chlorine dioxide—industrial bleach—which she apparently distributes among the group.
“She was proud to tell us that she was the one mixing it up and giving it to everybody,” one of her relatives told the outlet.
The woman got into the QAnon movement back in 2018, said her son, Sean Leek, who was unable to be reached by The Daily Beast on Monday. While the family didn’t specify why the group was drinking the potent chemical mixture, they said their relative is an ardent anti-vaxxer.
“She’s always been into, you know, natural remedies, getting aluminum out of deodorant, things like that,” Leek said in a Dec. 10 interview. “But that led to anti-vaxxing, and anti-vaxxing led to QAnon.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dallas-qanon-cult-is-now-drinking-terrifying-chemical-cocktail-to-fight-covid-family-says?ref=home
December 20, 2021
Posted on Mon, Dec 20th, 2021 by Jason Miciak
Schumer Promises Build Back Better Vote Early Next Year: Wants Everyone on Record, Especially Manchin
In one of the most offensive political moves the Democratic Party has seen in a long time, Sen. Joe Manchin used Fox News Sunday to announce that he just cannot support Build Back Better, despite the fact that as of last week, the White House was listening to his concerns and working with him on the changes he wanted to see.
If it were not for the fact that it would make Mitch McConnell Majority Leader in the Senate, many people believe that if Manchin is determined to be a Republican (Stab Biden in the back and go on Fox News to announce it), then let him go be the single most irrelevant Senator in that grotesque caucus. After all, he is doing more harm to the Democrats than good right now.
But Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is not going to make this easy. He plans on holding the vote, perhaps more than one, to possibly move Manchin to the yes side:
According to Reuters:
Exactly. Make him stand up there and vote against some of the most popular programs to be proposed in a long time. And if he votes no, hold another vote the next week, continue to make Manchin vote no as pressure continues to ramp up.
snip//
There will be further threats, and it seems plainly obvious that the DNC (or someone) must flood West Virginia with commercials and videos regarding exactly what Manchin is opposing. It may even be worth buying him off, this one time, by shoveling more pork into West Virginia than originally announced, to make it near impossible to say “no” to the legislation.
But if he remains a “No” vote through all of that, it is time to have a real primary and force Manchin to change parties, and fund out how irrelevant he might be in a party that is so much further right than him.
Schumer Promises Build Back Better Vote Early Next Year: Wants Everyone on Record, Especially Manchi
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/12/20/schumer-promises-build-back-better-vote-early-next-year-wants-everyone-on-record-especially-manchin.htmlPosted on Mon, Dec 20th, 2021 by Jason Miciak
Schumer Promises Build Back Better Vote Early Next Year: Wants Everyone on Record, Especially Manchin
In one of the most offensive political moves the Democratic Party has seen in a long time, Sen. Joe Manchin used Fox News Sunday to announce that he just cannot support Build Back Better, despite the fact that as of last week, the White House was listening to his concerns and working with him on the changes he wanted to see.
If it were not for the fact that it would make Mitch McConnell Majority Leader in the Senate, many people believe that if Manchin is determined to be a Republican (Stab Biden in the back and go on Fox News to announce it), then let him go be the single most irrelevant Senator in that grotesque caucus. After all, he is doing more harm to the Democrats than good right now.
But Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is not going to make this easy. He plans on holding the vote, perhaps more than one, to possibly move Manchin to the yes side:
According to Reuters:
On Sunday, moderate Democrat Senator Joe Manchin dealt a potentially fatal blow to Biden’s $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, telling Fox News he would not vote for the measure.
The Build Back Better plan codifies many of Biden’s signature domestic policies, aiming to expand the social safety net and tackle climate change. Many Democrats have said the bill is essential to the party’s chances in next year’s midterm elections.
Ironically, with West Virginia being one of the poorest states in the Union, Manchin’s constituents are likely among the most in need of the relief provided within this bill, which forces one to ask exactly who Manchin considers his constituents. Build Back Better contained a lot of global warming measures. Coal-extraction backs Manchin, so does the Koch enterprise.
A vote would force Manchin to publicly record his objection to the bill ahead of the elections, in which Democrats seek to keep control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives.
The Build Back Better plan codifies many of Biden’s signature domestic policies, aiming to expand the social safety net and tackle climate change. Many Democrats have said the bill is essential to the party’s chances in next year’s midterm elections.
Ironically, with West Virginia being one of the poorest states in the Union, Manchin’s constituents are likely among the most in need of the relief provided within this bill, which forces one to ask exactly who Manchin considers his constituents. Build Back Better contained a lot of global warming measures. Coal-extraction backs Manchin, so does the Koch enterprise.
A vote would force Manchin to publicly record his objection to the bill ahead of the elections, in which Democrats seek to keep control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives.
Exactly. Make him stand up there and vote against some of the most popular programs to be proposed in a long time. And if he votes no, hold another vote the next week, continue to make Manchin vote no as pressure continues to ramp up.
snip//
There will be further threats, and it seems plainly obvious that the DNC (or someone) must flood West Virginia with commercials and videos regarding exactly what Manchin is opposing. It may even be worth buying him off, this one time, by shoveling more pork into West Virginia than originally announced, to make it near impossible to say “no” to the legislation.
But if he remains a “No” vote through all of that, it is time to have a real primary and force Manchin to change parties, and fund out how irrelevant he might be in a party that is so much further right than him.
December 20, 2021
Chasing clicks — the media’s Trump slump and shoddy journalism
Bored with Biden
Eric Boehlert
3 hr ago
snip//
Here’s the fundamental problem: Following Trump’s chaotic and radical presidency, news consumers have changed their behavior, but the press — addicted to the high of the Trump bump — has been slow to adjust. After Biden’s inauguration, many Americans decided they no longer have to monitor the news throughout the day, every day; they don’t have to doom scroll late at night because there is now an adult in the White House.
That has translated into fewer news clicks and viewers. And that’s a good thing. Large chunks of the population should not live in fear of what their out-of-control president will do, and forced to tune into the news out of a sense of daily panic.
The glitch has been that the press doesn’t want to go back to ‘normal’ because the press became addicted to that incessant sense of Trump theater. (Not to mention the lucrative book deals.) Rather than viewing the Trump bump as an anomaly that does not need to be repeated, the press longs for that era’s constant drama.
That’s been the hurdle — Biden is the anti-Trump. He’s a polite, professional, and effective politician. He doesn’t surround himself with sycophants, he doesn’t fire staff at a record pace, he doesn’t get impeached, and there aren’t nonstop leaks about the daily chaos unfolding inside the West Wing. The Beltway press though, suddenly has little patience for a “boring” president.
snip//
Last week, when a CNN.com poll showed Biden with a solid 49 percent approval rating (essentially unchanged since the summer), the network made sure to bury that fact in the seventh paragraph, while stressing all the bad news in the poll about inflation. Days later, Fox News did CNN one better. When Biden’s approval climbed four points in the network’s poll, Fox News made no mention of it until the 13th paragraph in its online write-up.
This doesn’t happen by accident. If Biden had done poorly in both those polls, that fact would have been prominently placed in the headline and in the very first paragraph. This happens when the press becomes wed to a story — a story they think will generate clicks and draw eyeballs.
Eric Boehlert: Chasing clicks -- the media's Trump slump and shoddy journalism
https://pressrun.media/p/chasing-clicks-the-medias-trump-slumpChasing clicks — the media’s Trump slump and shoddy journalism
Bored with Biden
Eric Boehlert
3 hr ago
snip//
Here’s the fundamental problem: Following Trump’s chaotic and radical presidency, news consumers have changed their behavior, but the press — addicted to the high of the Trump bump — has been slow to adjust. After Biden’s inauguration, many Americans decided they no longer have to monitor the news throughout the day, every day; they don’t have to doom scroll late at night because there is now an adult in the White House.
That has translated into fewer news clicks and viewers. And that’s a good thing. Large chunks of the population should not live in fear of what their out-of-control president will do, and forced to tune into the news out of a sense of daily panic.
The glitch has been that the press doesn’t want to go back to ‘normal’ because the press became addicted to that incessant sense of Trump theater. (Not to mention the lucrative book deals.) Rather than viewing the Trump bump as an anomaly that does not need to be repeated, the press longs for that era’s constant drama.
That’s been the hurdle — Biden is the anti-Trump. He’s a polite, professional, and effective politician. He doesn’t surround himself with sycophants, he doesn’t fire staff at a record pace, he doesn’t get impeached, and there aren’t nonstop leaks about the daily chaos unfolding inside the West Wing. The Beltway press though, suddenly has little patience for a “boring” president.
snip//
Last week, when a CNN.com poll showed Biden with a solid 49 percent approval rating (essentially unchanged since the summer), the network made sure to bury that fact in the seventh paragraph, while stressing all the bad news in the poll about inflation. Days later, Fox News did CNN one better. When Biden’s approval climbed four points in the network’s poll, Fox News made no mention of it until the 13th paragraph in its online write-up.
This doesn’t happen by accident. If Biden had done poorly in both those polls, that fact would have been prominently placed in the headline and in the very first paragraph. This happens when the press becomes wed to a story — a story they think will generate clicks and draw eyeballs.
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