XacerbatedDem
XacerbatedDem's JournalTucker Carlson can't stand Black excellence
From Obama to Ketanji Brown Jackson: Tucker Carlson can't stand Black excellence
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson — the man cheered by white supremacists for repeatedly peddling white nationalist talking points — served up some dog whistle racism on his show Wednesday night with his comments about President Joe Biden’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Carlson simply can’t believe that Jackson — who would make history as the first Black woman to serve on America’s top court if confirmed by the U.S. Senate — really is, as Biden has claimed, one of the “top legal minds in the entire country.”
Let’s cut through the B.S. This has nothing to do with LSAT scores.
Last week, Carlson claimed that Jackson — who served eight years as a federal district judge before being elevated last year to the prestigious U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Washington, D.C. — was not “much of a jurist,” was “simply ignorant of the law” and that her nomination was an effort by Biden to “humiliate and degrade” our nation — turning it into “Rwanda.” (Yes, Carlson actually said “Rwanda.”)
Carlson went further and demanded to see Jackson’s law school admission test scores because he wants his viewers to believe that she’s not qualified to be on the Supreme Court. Carlson even suggested Biden is intentionally shielding Jackson’s LSAT scores from the public: “How did she do on the LSATs? Why wouldn’t you tell us that?” Of course, Carlson never demanded to see the LSAT scores of the three people then-President Donald Trump nominated to the Supreme Court during his term. But then again, those three are white. Let’s cut through the B.S. This has nothing to do with LSAT scores, which law schools consider in addition to an applicant’s grades. I’m a lawyer, and I can tell you that no one speaks of LSAT scores after their acceptance to law school; nor do those scores indicate how good of a lawyer or judge a law school applicant would be.
This is simply Carlson, like so many other white bigots, trying to diminish Black achievement because such achievement is a threat to the myth of white superiority that he peddles. Carlson wants his viewers to believe that Jackson couldn’t possibly have been admitted to Harvard Law School on her own merit — despite the fact she graduated with honors from there as she had as a Harvard undergraduate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/from-obama-to-ketanji-brown-jackson-tucker-carlson-can-t-stand-black-excellence/ar-AAUB3ZJ?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
How a possible cyber-attack could affect Americans and how to prepare
As Russia’s military continues to strike Ukrainian cities, national security officials are keeping eyes on a different battlefield.
Senior U.S. law enforcement and Homeland Security officials have told ABC News that there is growing concern that Russia could launch further cyber-attacks against the West. The potential targets include electrical grids, banking systems and mobile networks, according to the officials.
Currently, there is no cyber threat to the U.S. homeland, according to the Department of Homeland security.
Cybersecurity experts tell ABC News that people shouldn't panic over a potential cyberattack, but they should start preparing for one.
‘snip’
The Department of Homeland Security, the agency tasked with the domestic response to the invasion in Ukraine, has set up a page on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s website specifically warning of cyber-attacks emanating from Russia.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-a-possible-cyberattack-could-affect-americans-and-how-to-prepare/ar-AAUjsSX?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
More at site
updated link
Red State Conundrum 2.0
Recently, I had posted about my frustration of living in a red state where it didn’t seem to matter how I voted as a Democrat as the Republican candidate always seemed to win. Today, I was surprised to find this article from Politico (via MSN) that actually went there.
Opinion | A Power Move for Democrats in 2022: Endorse Some Republicans By Juleanna Glover and Kalee Kreider
The embrace of Donald Trump’s Big Lie by large swaths of the country and much of the Republican Party is a direct threat to free and fair elections in the United States. At such a perilous moment, party labels are less important now; the real bifurcation is between those who are committed to our system of government and those who would see it collapse.
In the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats face a difficult path to holding onto their House and Senate majorities. If they want to improve their odds and deny the Trumpists a toehold back into power, Democratic leaders should join forces with anti-Trump Republicans to outvote the hucksters and fraudsters.
That means Democrats should take what might be an unpalatable course: In states and districts where the party stands little chance of winning in the general election, Democrats should endorse and enthusiastically support anti-Trump Republicans who run as independents. Because what’s really on the ballot isn’t one party or another, it’s democracy itself.
In the 2020 election, some in the GOP showed a willingness to cross party lines, as Republicans like Cindy McCain, Meg Whitman, Jeff Flake and the late Colin Powell endorsed Joe Biden for president. Those endorsements bolstered Biden’s bipartisan bona fides, and Cindy McCain’s support may have helped him win her late husband’s home state of Arizona. In 2022, pro-democracy forces in both parties should consider supercharging an inverse of this strategy.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-a-power-move-for-democrats-in-2022-endorse-some-republicans/ar-AATnh2Z?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
What do you think?
Another AG plays politics with children's lives.
Mo AG sues 45 school districts over mask mandates
Forty-five mask-requiring school districts in Missouri face lawsuits from Attorney General Eric Schmitt, and some school leaders and elected officials are questioning if he really has the best interest of the state at heart.
Schmitt on Friday filed suit seeking to halt 36 districts from requiring masks amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases. On Monday, he added nine more. Most of the districts are in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas.
Schmitt, in a news release, said parents — not bureaucrats — should be making health decisions for children. He questioned the effectiveness of masks, although experts agree that masks slow the virus' spread and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found strong evidence that mask mandates help.
“Masking children all day in school is ineffective and these endless pandemic restrictions lead to lasting, negative psychological impacts on children and teens," Schmitt, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, said. "This is a fight worth fighting, and I’m not going to back down.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/missouri-ag-s-mask-mandate-suits-draw-some-strong-rebukes/ar-AAT8Ciq?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
What a monster, this guy, like schools don’t have enough problems, now they have to spend a lot of taxpayer money in court over this crap. Oh, and then I see why, running for Senate are we, have to please the anti-vax crowd to get your foot in the door, no matter how many children’s or teacher’s lives are lost. What a world, what a f***ing world.
SCOTUS takes up a case, brought by Ted Cruz, that could legalize bribery
The case concerns federal campaign finance laws, and, specifically, candidates’ ability to loan money to their campaigns. Candidates can do so — but in 2001, Congress enacted a provision that helps prevent such loans from becoming a vehicle to bribe candidates who go on to be elected officials. Under this provision, a campaign that receives such a loan may not repay more than $250,000 worth of the loan using funds raised after the election.
When a campaign receives a pre-election donation, that donation is typically subject to strict rules preventing it from being spent to enrich the candidate. After the election has occurred, however, donors who give money to help pay off a loan from the candidate effectively funnel that money straight to the candidate — who by that point could be a powerful elected official.
That decision could potentially enable any lawmaker to make a high-dollar, high-interest loan to their campaign, and then use that loan as a vehicle to funnel donations directly into their pocket.
And even if lawmakers do not enrich themselves by making high-interest loans to their campaign, the fact remains that every dollar a campaign donor gives to help a campaign pay back a loan from the candidate goes straight into that candidate’s pocket. As the Justice Department argues in its brief defending against Cruz’s lawsuit, “a contribution that adds to a candidate’s personal assets (and that can accordingly be used for personal purposes) poses a far greater threat of corruption than a payment that merely adds to a campaign’s treasury (and that can accordingly be used only for campaign purposes).”
https://www.vox.com/2022/1/12/22877010/supreme-court-ted-cruz-fec-campaign-finance-bribery-loan
I had no idea this was a thing.
Red State Conundrum
I live in Missouri (pronounced mis’ery) and every time I vote for a Democratic candidate, his opponent always seems to win, which is, need I say, somewhat disconcerting. A friend of mine feels the same way, but suggested that maybe it would be best if we voted for the repug candidate running against the favored repug candidate instead of seeing our vote go to waste (not in the Presidential elections, of course, but in the local elections). I don’t know, can’t really say I agree with that, but after that damned HEE-Hawley idiot beat out Claire McCaskill, I’m ready to try anything.
What do you think?
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Missouri
Home country: USA
Member since: Mon Jan 3, 2022, 10:52 AM
Number of posts: 511
