;)
June 2, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Christopher Cadelago & Laura Barrón-López of Politico: "President Joe Biden will deliver a special prime-time address on guns Thursday evening amid a slew of mass shootings and as negotiations continue on Capitol Hill to pass even modest changes to the nation's laws. The decision to give the speech was not made until midday Thursday ... underscoring the sense inside the White House that they needed to show more involvement on the issue. The speech will be delivered at 7:30 p.m. The topic, per the White House, will be 'the recent tragic mass shootings, and the need for Congress to act to pass commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day.'"
Julian Barnes & Michael Forsythe of the New York Times: "The U.S. government leveled sanctions against a yacht management company and its owners, describing them as part of a corrupt system that allows Russian elites and ... Vladimir V. Putin to enrich themselves, the Treasury Department announced on Thursday. Imperial Yachts, which is based in Monaco and controlled by the Moscow-born Evgeniy Kochman, caters to Russian oligarchs. The Treasury Department said Mr. Kochman and his company provide yacht-related services to 'Russia's elites, including those in President Putin's inner circle.'"
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Thursday will move to restore authority to states and tribes to veto gas pipelines, coal terminals and other energy projects if they would pollute local rivers and streams, reversing a Trump-era rule that had curtailed that power. For 50 years, the Clean Water Act has given states and tribes the ability to review federal permits for industrial facilities and block projects that could discharge pollution into local waterways. Without their certification, the federal government cannot approve a project. Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency was proposing a rule that 'builds on this foundation by empowering states, territories, and tribes to use congressionally granted authority to protect precious water resources while supporting much-needed infrastructure projects that create jobs and bolster our economy.'"
Kate Kelly & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "A House committee said on Thursday that it was investigating whether Jared Kushner ... traded on his government position to land a $2 billion investment in his new private equity firm from a prominent Saudi Arabian wealth fund. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York Democrat who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, gave Mr. Kushner a two-week deadline in a letter sent on Thursday to furnish documents related to the Saudi fund's investment last year in his firm, Affinity Partners. She also asked for any personal correspondence between Mr. Kushner and the Saudi kingdom's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during or after the Trump administration. The committee, Ms. Maloney wrote in the eight-page letter, is investigating 'whether your personal financial interests improperly influenced U.S. foreign policy during the administration of your father-in-law, former President Trump.'"
Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN: "Within minutes of the US Capitol breach on January 6, 2021, messages began pouring into the cell phone of White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Among those texting were Republican members of Congress, former members of the Trump administration, GOP activists, Fox personalities -- even the President's son. Their texts all carried the same urgent plea: ... Donald Trump needed to immediately denounce the violence and tell the mob to go home....One of the key questions the January 6 House committee is expected to raise in its June hearings is why Trump failed to publicly condemn the attack for hours, and whether that failure is proof of 'dereliction of duty' and evidence that Trump tried to obstruct Congress' certification of the election. The Meadows texts show that even those closest to the former President believed he had the power to stop the violence in real time."
Stephen Fowler of Georgia Public Radio: Georgia "Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is one of the first subpoenaed witnesses to testify in front of a special grand jury impaneled in Fulton County as part of a wide-ranging investigation into efforts by Trump and others to subvert Georgia's election process and undo President Joe Biden's narrow victory. Raffensperger's testimony lasted for four hours and his wife, Tricia, spoke for about 10 minutes, according to someone briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak on his behalf.... The call [in which Trump asked Raffensperger to 'find' 11,780 votes] -- and its aftermath -- is only a fraction of what Willis and the grand jury could look at. In December..., Rudy Giuliani made numerous false and misleading claims to state lawmakers in unofficial hearings about elections. The Georgia GOP held a meeting where fake electors claimed to sign Electoral College documents as alternates. The U.S. Attorney in Atlanta abruptly resigned one day before the January 2021 runoffs. And Raffensperger held another call with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in November 2020 where Raffensperger said Graham asked about rejecting absentee ballots.
Jacob Bogage & Evan Halper of the Washington Post: "The consortium of the world's largest oil-producing countries agreed to boost fossil fuel production faster than expected Thursday as energy prices rise worldwide due to Russia's drawn-out war in Ukraine. The member nations of OPEC+ announced the group would add 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, a modest acceleration of plans that were already in motion to reverse drawdowns related to the pandemic. The boost in production came amid pressure from the White House for OPEC+ to do more to fill the gap created by sanctions on Russia. But while the White House touted the move as a positive step for global energy security, it is unlikely to provide much relief at the pump. Gas prices jumped to another record high Thursday, averaging $4.71 per gallon nationwide...."
Colin Moynihan of the New York Times: "In February, [attorney Michael] Avenatti was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a scheme to steal almost $300,000 from [actor Stormy] Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. On Thursday, Judge Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sentenced Mr. Avenatti to four years in prison, saying ... he had ... committed 'brazen and egregious' crimes and 'breached the highest duty a lawyer owes' to a client." CNN's report is here.
Florida. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The Florida Supreme Court refused on Thursday to step into a challenge to a new map of the state's 28 congressional districts approved by the Republican State Legislature, paving the way for November elections to be based on districts that a lower court said diluted the voting power of Black residents in violation of the State Constitution. The court's two-sentence denial said it was premature for the justices to intervene in a suit seeking to overturn the congressional map because the case had not yet wound its way through the state court system, which could take months or years. The new House map, personally ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, dismantles a House district held by Representative Al Lawson, an African American Democrat, and strongly boosts Republican odds of capturing other competitive House seats."
~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden announced new shipments of baby formula from Europe on Wednesday as he prepared to meet with top officials from five baby food companies amid an ongoing shortage that has left parents desperately searching for ways to feed their infants. Enough Kendamil formula to make about four million bottles will be flown to locations across the United States during the next three weeks, White House officials said in a statement. The statement said that United Airlines had agreed to transport the formula from Heathrow Airport in London free of charge for purchase by parents at retail stores.... Two weeks ago, the president responded to severe shortages of baby formula by invoking the Defense Production Act and promising to use the military to speed delivery of baby formula from overseas. Since then, officials said the administration has flown the equivalent of 1.5 million eight-ounce bottles into the United States. Wednesday's announcement is set to more than double that amount, officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Meredith Lee of Politico: "The Biden administration has reached a deal to transport 1.25 million cans of baby formula from an Australian company into the U.S. amid shortages that have sent parents scrambling for supplies. The company, Bubs Australia, will send approximately 4.6 million bottles worth of its infant formula via two flights from Melbourne to Pennsylvania and California on June 9 and 11, respectively, the White House announced Wednesday afternoon.... Formula manufacturers, some of whom met with the president at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, said they knew immediately that the Abbott plant shutdown and recall would create serious supply issues.... Pressed by reporters after the meeting about the White House waiting until spring to respond, despite the fact that formula manufacturers knew right away that there would be problems, Biden responded, 'They did, but I didn't.' He added that he didn't realize the seriousness of the infant formula shortages until 'early April.' According to two Biden officials, the president wasn't briefed on the formula crisis for weeks after Abbott's Feb. 17 recall." ~~~
~~~ A Washington Post story, by Tyler Pager, is here: "It was unclear from the discussion whether the responsibility lay primarily with the industry, for not alerting federal officials of the imminent shortage; or with federal agencies that monitor the industry for not sufficiently conveying the problems to the White House; or with the White House itself, for not reacting faster to the crisis."
Aamer Madhani & Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia -- a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer. The White House is weighing a visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... It comes as overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House."
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "In the Education Department's largest group cancellation of federal student loans, the Biden administration will forgive $5.8 billion in debt held by 560,000 former students of the defunct for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges, the department said Wednesday. The decision covers people who were enrolled in Corinthian schools -- Everest Institute, WyoTech and Heald College -- from its founding in 1995 to its closure in 2015.... 'As of today, every student deceived, defrauded, and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans,' Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a news release.... Vice President Harris, who played an instrumental role in the investigation of Corinthian as California attorney general, is scheduled to join Cardona at the department on Thursday for remarks about the announcement.... The Obama administration ultimately approved thousands of claims before leaving office, but scores of applications languished at the department for years. The Trump administration tried to limit and delay loan cancellations, leading to lawsuits involving Corinthian and other students of for-profit colleges." A Common Dreams story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course the Trump administration tried to limit loan cancellations. The Corinthian schools reminded Betsy De Vos of her own investments in for-profit colleges & of Trump's completely fake "Trump University."
Betsy Swan of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee received materials this week from Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano.... Mastriano's previously unreported cooperation with the Capitol attack probe came in the form of a submission, obtained by Politico, that includes documents about his work to arrange buses that carried pro-Trump protesters to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. But when the select committee subpoenaed Mastriano, it specifically said he didn't need to send any materials related to official actions in his current position as a Pennsylvania state senator. Given that sizable carve-out, the vast majority of the materials Mastriano sent to the committee are public social media posts."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee last week publicly released a long-hidden memo that a federal judge previously determined was evidence of 'likely' felonies by Donald Trump and attorney John Eastman.... It's a Dec. 13, 2020, email from a little-known attorney who had been advising Donald Trump's legal team, Kenneth Chesebro. He sent it to Rudy Giuliani, sketching out a plan for then-Vice President Mike Pence to halt the certification of Joe Biden's victory on Jan. 6, 2021. He dubbed it the '"President of the Senate" strategy.'Chesebro's memo became public last week as >a little-noticed exhibit in a legal battle between the Jan. 6 select committee and John Eastman.... U.S. District Court Judge David Carter ... wrote in his opinion that this memo 'likely furthered the crimes of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.' He ordered it released to the select committee under the 'crime-fraud' exception to attorney client privilege."
Reid Epstein & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "This spring, when Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama was fighting to win over conservatives in his campaign for Senate, he ran a television ad that boasted, 'On Jan. 6, I proudly stood with President Trump in the fight against voter fraud. But when Mr. Brooks placed second in Alabama's Republican primary last week, leaving him in a runoff, he said he was not concerned about fraud in his election.... Many ... Republicans [who objected to the 2020 presidential results] are accepting the results of their primaries without complaint.... This phenomenon was on clear display in 2020, when scores of Republicans who repeated allegations about a 'rigged' presidential race accepted their own victories based on the same ballots." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Democratic Voters Steal Elections; Republican Voters Are as Pure as the Driven Snow. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "... many of the same Republicans who insisted that 'voter fraud' cast doubt on Donald Trump's 2020 loss mysteriously don't see fraud at play in elections that they win.... [This] embodies an actual principle of sorts: that when Republicans lose elections, the voting can be presumed illegitimate or suspect, and when Republicans win them, the voting can be presumed legitimate and above suspicion entirely.... Rep. Mo Brooks has now stepped forward to confirm this.... When the Times [story linked above] questioned Brooks..., he essentially gave away the game: 'Mr. Brooks offered a simple answer to why he's not worried about his race: There's no fraud in Republican primaries, he said.'... Pressed further by the Times, Brooks blithely suggested that in Alabama, the fraud took place 'in predominantly Democrat parts of the state.'... [Brooks' assertion is] meant to give some kind of patina of a public rationale for naked efforts to subvert election losses.... And the Alabama Republican's corroboration is noteworthy in light of emerging details [link is to Politico story by Heidi Przybyla, also linked below] about a complex new GOP plan to make this principle actionable in future elections." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dennis Aftergut in the Bulwark: "John Durham, the special counsel appointed days before the 2020 election by Donald Trump's attorney general William Barr, just lost the only trial he has brought to date in his long tenure.... Durham's loss was one more egg laid in the fetid henhouse where Barr first enlisted Durham to nest in May 2019, tasking him with proving the truth of a lie -- Donald Trump's favorite disinformation campaign at the time, that the FBI's 2016 Trump-Russia investigation was a 'witch hunt.'... As some commentators noted, the indictment [of Michael Sussmann] reeked of non-prosecutorial goals: It seemed that Durham was trying to justify the public money he'd wasted boosting Trump's false narrative that it was the big, bad Clinton campaign behind the Trump-Russia investigation.... Shoddy decisions and the paucity of results characterize Durham's whole tenure. Yet there are no signs that he intends to close up shop anytime soon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "A federal judge said on Wednesday that John W. Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, would be unconditionally released on June 15, according to a lawyer for Mr. Hinckley. Mr. Hinckley has been living in Virginia under various restrictions since 2016. The judge, Paul L. Friedman of Federal District Court in Washington, had set the June 15 release date in September with several conditions, including that Mr. Hinckley, 67, remain mentally stable."
Barbara Orutay & Michael Liedtke of the AP: "Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, who helped turn its business from startup to digital advertising empire while also taking blame for some of its biggest missteps, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public."
Melody Schreiber of the Guardian: "The United States is now in its fourth-biggest Covid surge, according to official case counts -- but experts believe the actual current rate is much higher. America is averaging about 94,000 new cases every day, and hospitalizations have been ticking upward since April, though they remain much lower than previous peaks. But Covid cases could be undercounted by a factor of 30, an early survey of the surge in New York City indicates. 'It would appear official case counts are under-estimating the true burden of infection by about 30-fold, which is a huge surprise,' said Denis Nash, an author of the study and a distinguished professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York School of Public Health."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona Election Fraud! Bob Christie of the AP: "An Arizona woman indicted in 2020 on accusations of illegally collecting ballots apparently ran a sophisticated operation using her status as a well-known Democratic operative in the border city of San Luis to persuade voters to let her gather and in some cases fill out their ballots, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Guillermina Fuentes, 66, and a second woman were indicted in December 2020 on one count of ballot abuse, a practice commonly known as 'ballot harvesting' that was made illegal under a 2016 state law. Additional charges of conspiracy, forgery and an additional ballot abuse charge were added last October.... The records show that fewer than a dozen ballots could be linked to Fuentes, not enough to make a difference in all but the tightest local races. It is the only case ever brought by the attorney general under the 2016 law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.... Although Fuentes is charged only with actions that appear on [a] videotape [of her collecting ballots in front of a San Luis cultural center] and involve just a handful of ballots, investigators believe the effort went much farther. Attorney general's office investigator William Kluth wrote in one report that there was some evidence suggesting Fuentes actively canvassed San Luis neighborhoods and collected ballots, in some cases paying for them." MB: Republicans are thrilled.
Michigan Gubernatorial Race. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "The Michigan Court of Appeals has unanimously rejected a legal challenge from Perry Johnson, a former leading GOP candidate for Michigan governor, who was one of five Republicans disqualified from the ballot because of invalid signatures on their nominating petitions. The Wednesday ruling means Johnson cannot appear on the Aug. 2 primary ballot, and it probably does not bode well for the other would-be candidates -- including former Detroit police chief James Craig and businessman Michael Markey -- who had filed similar legal challenges to try to continue their campaigns.... In a May 23 report, the Michigan elections bureau found that five GOP candidates for the gubernatorial nomination were ineligible to appear on the primary ballot because they had submitted thousands of invalid signatures on their nominating petitions. State investigators identified 36 people who circulated petitions for their campaigns 'who submitted fraudulent petition sheets consisting entirely of invalid signatures,' the bureau said. Democrats criticized the findings as 'proof ,,, of a massive forgery scheme,' while the campaigns for Johnson and Craig cast themselves as victims of signature gatherers...."
New York. Mark Berman & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "The White man accused of killing 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store on May 14 was indicted Wednesday on 25 counts, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime, authorities said. The grand jury's indictment came more than two weeks after police say Payton Gendron, 18, traveled to a Tops Friendly Markets store in a Buffalo neighborhood and shot 13 people -- 11 of them Black. Before the rampage, investigators say, Gendron had said he subscribed to a racist ideology called the 'great replacement' theory." The Guardian's report is here.
Texas Gubernatorial Race. Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: "To loud cheers in a community gym on Wednesday evening, Beto O'Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso and the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, renewed his criticism of Gov. Greg Abbott over the state's gun laws, which he said allowed an 18-year-old in Uvalde to slaughter 19 students and two teachers with a legally and easily acquired military-style weapon. Before an audience of more than 300 people, Mr. O'Rourke lashed out at the governor's decision to sign a law allowing anyone over 21 to carry a handgun without a permit or training. 'Not only did he not take action to save the lives of our kids,' Mr. O'Rourke said, 'he took action to make it more certain that we would lose the lives of our kids.'"
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia accused the United States of escalating the war by sending advanced rocket systems to Ukraine, President Biden's boldest move since the war began Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said on Wednesday that delivering the weapons -- the most powerful provided since the start of the war -- was the United States 'deliberately and painstakingly pouring gasoline on the fire.' At the same time, some military experts said the U.S.'s insistence that Ukraine not fire into Russia with the weapons was an unfair check on the Ukrainian military.... On Wednesday, Russian forces advanced in street fighting in the ruins of the city of Sievierodonetsk, a target of their offensive. A local official said that Russian forces controlled most of the city but that Ukrainian soldiers were continuing to fight on the streets.... Germany on Wednesday promised to supply Ukraine with two more potentially significant donations of heavy weapons: an air-defense system and tracking radar to help the Ukrainian army locate sources of Russian heavy artillery. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the war was most likely far from a conclusion, saying that based on current assessments, 'We are still looking at many months of conflict.'" ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Ukraine is suffering significant setbacks in parts of the country's east, amid grueling street-by-street battles in the key city of Severodonetsk, with the British Defense Ministry saying that most of the city is now in Russian hands. A spokesman for Ukraine's National Guard said Kyiv is 'making every effort to hold back the enemy,' even as up to 100 of its fighters are killed daily. The Russian-backed self-declared Luhansk People's Republic says it now controls all of the Luhansk region except the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. Ukrainian counteroffensives continue to frustrate Russia near Kherson, a southern city captured by the Kremlin in the early days of the war.... Germany said it will deliver the most modern air defense system it has to Ukraine, while Denmark voted to deepen defense relations with the European Union, in the latest sign of strengthening security ties on the continent after Russia's unprovoked invasion.&" ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here.
U.K. The New York Times is liveblogging the hoohah celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 70th year doing the U.K.'s top job. "Queen Elizabeth celebrates 70 years on the British throne -- her Platinum Jubilee -- with four days of festivities that begin Thursday with a military parade featuring hundreds of Army musicians, 240 horses, a Royal Air Force flyover, a gun salute and the royal family's appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace." ~~~
~~~ The Times has seven decades of photos of Elizabeth's reign here. Live video of the ceremonies appears on the Times' front page. The Washington Post also has live video on its front page.
News Ledes
New York Times: "A man carrying a rifle and a handgun opened fire in a medical office building in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday afternoon, killing four people and injuring several others before apparently taking his own life in the latest mass shooting to shock the country, the authorities said. In an interview late Wednesday night, Capt. Richard Meulenberg of the Tulsa Police Department said the attack was not random." This is a liveblog. CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ New York Times Update: "A man who underwent back surgery last month stormed a Tulsa, Okla., medical building on Wednesday and killed four people, including the doctor who performed the surgery, with two guns he had purchased in recent days, the authorities said. His weapons included an AR-15-style rifle he bought just hours before the killings. Chief Wendell Franklin of the Tulsa police said officers arrived at the medical office building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital just before 5 p.m., within minutes of the gunfire starting, and rushed toward the site of the shooting. Chief Franklin said they found four victims, including two doctors. The gunman, who the chief said fatally shot himself, had been carrying a letter saying he blamed his surgeon for continuing back pain and intended to kill him and anyone who got in the way." CNN's report is here.
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Fake Meat Update!
Just in on the fake meat front. Gazpacho police have raided one of Bill Gates’ fake meat factories after trying to zap it from outer space with Jewish space lasers. What they found proves that ol’ Margie’s claim of Bill using peach tree dishes to manufacture his nefarious vittles is dead wrong. Think about it. Gates does big things. He thinks big. He is big. He don’t use no teeny peach tree dishes. He uses redwood tree dishes. And redwoods from forests that have been cleaned by imported forest rakers from Finland. And the best redwood tree forest rakers get invited to cocaine sex parties hosted by Rudy Giuliani at the Four Seasons Landscape warehouse, catered by Hillary’s Child Sex Ring Pizza. Tin foil hats not included.
A mass shooting at a medical office building. That was one of the
places on my list of "I feel safe here".
That leaves lumber yards, the post office, wine shops and garden
centers.
But I guess Jewish space lasers could wipe out any of those places.
@Akhilleus: But how come I haven't seen this report in the New York Times? It all sounds reasonable to me. I am upset, though, that I have to bring my own tinfoil hat to the cocaine sex parties.
@Forrest Morris: Forget about the post office. There's a reason for the expression, "going postal." Back in the day, disgruntled postal workers sometimes would barge into the local Post Office, indiscriminately shooting their coworkers & perhaps a few customers. And you never know when some unhappy oenophile will let his AR-15 speak for his disappointment with the Scarecrow Cabernet 2013. Better stick to the garden centers.
Garden centers?
With their truckload stores of nitrate-based fertilizers that have me remembering Tim McViegh and cowering in fear?
Oops. My fingers ignored the old standard: "I before e except after V."
McVeigh.
Forrest,
Yup. Just another day in GOP Murder Land.
No place is safe from the NRA all stars.
I read a newspaper article yesterday while at the library, an update
on mass murders. So far this year there have been 233 mass murders
(4 or more victims) in this country.
That's 1 a day and 2 on weekends. Evidently this info isn't being
widely reported. Only half a dozen come to mind, but then I don't
watch TV news anymore. It's all depressing and irrevilant, irevelant,
irravilant, whatever.
Forrest,
What saves the supporters and enablers of gun violence in the the United States of Amnesia, is the short attention span of voters and the media. The GOP knows that they can get by with their usual “thoughts and prayerz” pap, blame everything on Democrats who want to steal their freeeedoms, immigrants, and mental illness. They lay low for a few days, the evil Turtle sez “maybe we can do something” and gloats while the president calls him rational, knowing he has no intention of doing a goddam thing, he’s just running out the clock. And a few days later, there’s another massacre and Buffalo and Uvalde and Tulsa fade away into the morass of murder and mayhem.
Besides, Republicans have more important stuff to do, like gaming the midterms, so they can steal more elections.
Both Sides
On the topic of gun violence, there is a reason to blame both sides. The right? Of course. They support mass murder. Nuff said.
Democrats don’t, but they don’t do shit about it, at least the Democratic leadership. Biden calling the Treason Turtle and John fucking Cronyn rational, floating the idea that these supporters of treason, insurrection, and guns for every whack job out there is completely delusional. And yes, I get it, he’s trying to do a little political jiu-jitsu, but that old school application of pressure only works on people with a conscience who can be shamed. Has he not been paying attention? These people are beyond shameless.
And Rs don’t play by the rules. Never have. Not in decades. Democrats are constantly thinking if we play nice with the traitors, they’ll return the favor.
The R idea of returning the favor is to kick you in the teeth, set fire to your house, then sell your kids and knife your grandma in the back.
Enough of that shit!
And Chuck Schumer? Christ on an ammo dump! He thinks it’s 1973. He needs to call for an immediate vote to do something, ANYTHING! And he needs to drag Manchin and Sinema in and tell them to stfu and vote yes, or their committee assignments end immediately and the DNC will primary their asses.
We’re always playing nice with these evil, evil, evil murdering pig fuckers, and I’m goddam sick and tired of it. This has to happen NOW. In a week, no one will remember Uvalde.
The midterms are imminent and the traitors are gleefully piling on the “Democrats can’t get anything done” bandwagon. It doesn’t matter that they’re to blame, the media is already eating out of their hands. An EZ story line. I’m reminded of that line from “Jaws” where Richard Dreyfus chuckles darkly at the island’s mayor opting to do
nothing while a gigantic shark gobbles up his constituents. “There’s no use talking to a guy who’s lining up to be a hot lunch!”
And here’s the other thing: the Traitors listen to their base and do whatever it takes to keep those motherfuckers happy.
Democrats give their base the finger and say “Well, let’s not be hasty. Maybe we can find common ground here.”
Common ground? With baby killers? Are you daft?
In that respect, it’s not “both sides”. Only one side acts on what their base demands.
The Democratic Party needs to fire up the base prior to these historic midterms. Republicans are doing that. Our guys are calling for kumbaya with murderers. This is a momentous opportunity. And Democrats are saying “Hold on. Maybe in a couple of years.”
I’m a couple of years we’ll be lucky to have any possibility of passing laws against jay walking.
Fuck me.
Andrea Mitchell had an exchange with Jay Johnson re: gun control. Jay suggested that perhaps if those in Congress with lead feet on this issue were shown a picture of what these guns do to a person–-especially a child–-it would change their minds. Andrea then showed the 60 minutes segment last Sunday where they showed what these kinds of assault weapons do in a simulated experiment. Emmitt Till's mother wanted an open casket in order to show what his murderers had done to him. How many parents today would agree––would I? I think, yes, my fury over this would help with the decision––and yet......
Just listened to an interview with historian Jon Meacham during which he posits that yes, things are bad, but if both sides respect one another, all will be well.
BIG sigh.
This sounds very nice, Jon, but the movers and shakers on the right would rather chop your head off and shit down your throat than respect you, unless you kowtow to their every racist, violence supporting, LGBTQ-hating screed.
They will NEVER return respect unless they can see that you are willing to hand everything over to them and admit that you and all your friends are child molesting, immigrant loving, socialist, ‘ merica hating terrorists.
And even after that there will be no respect. They can’t afford it. It’s all a zero sum game for them. Respect means meeting someone halfway. That will NEVER happen.
I don’t know what people are thinking. Meacham might be an award winning whatever, but he has not been paying attention. For these people, it’s win or die. And winning means destroying your enemy.
Respect? Is he kidding? And what, may I ask would it take for me, let’s say, to respect these people for their political views? Frontal lobotomy? Six quarts of Jack a day? Brain and heart transplant?
Do you hear anyone, ANYONE, on the right saying “Well geez guys, we need to respect these Democrats.”
Fuck NO! Their most salient question is “How can we eviscerate these bastards in as quick a time as possible?”
Grow up.
Yup…what he said—