Wednesday, May 24, 2023

They've ruined their reputation

I always loved, in "Two People," the note Tina holds and then bends on "day" three minutes and thirty seconds into the song. If you didn't hear yet, music legend, Queen of Rock, Tina Turner has passed.

I will mourn her passing. But, God, there are some people here on earth that you're welcome to take -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, for example. Satan says he's lonely? Those three are willing to become his best friends. And I bet Ron DeSantis will gladly go with them.

They're ruined their reputation. Devan Cole (CNN) reports, "Americans’ approval of the Supreme Court has fallen since the start of the year, according to a new poll released Wednesday, with 41% of the country saying it approves of the nine justices amid a barrage of media reports and watchdog complaints concerning ethics and transparency at the nation’s highest court. [. . .] The results of the new poll – which found that 59% of US adults disapproved of the court – are similar to those found in a July 2022 iteration of the survey taken days after the court overturned Roe v. Wade, but represent a downtick from more recent versions of the poll. In January, the same poll found that 47% of American approved of the court, while 53% disapproved." That's on them. No one else. Their actions have been appalling.

Clarence Thomas -- Mike covered him Monday in "Nina Turner, Crooked Clarence, Dahlia Lithwick, Idiot Jim Jordan" -- has ruined everything. He will now go down in history as the most corrupt judge of this era. He will be mocked forever more and he is to blame for putting his position up for sale. Becoming a Supreme Court justice is not supposed to be a device/tool to print money. But that's how Clarence has treated it.

In related news, CNN's Tierney Sneed reports:

The issue of so-called judge shopping – the funneling of lawsuits through courthouses where a particular judge is almost guaranteed to hear the case – is the target of another new bill from Democrats unhappy with a practice that gained renewed attention after a blockbuster abortion pill case was filed in a courthouse that would guarantee it would be heard by a very conservative judge in Texas.

Notably, the bill would direct that if a case is seeking court order that would halt a federal policy nationwide or that would deliver a form of other relief that goes beyond the plaintiff bringing the lawsuit, the case must go to a three-judge panel.

North Carolina Rep. Deborah Ross filed the bill in the House on Wednesday. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden will introduce companion legislation when the Senate returns from recess.

“It’s fundamentally unjust for a special interest group to play hopscotch with American courts in search of one biased judge predisposed to rule for them,” Wyden said in a statement.

Wyden was an early and prominent critic of US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the judge appointed by Donald Trump who ruled in favor of halting nationwide access to medication abortion drug and who hears all cases filed in Amarillo, Texas.

It should be illegal to be justice-shopping. Hillary Frey (SLATE) has an article to read:

In early April, three reporters at ProPublica published an explosive story about the friendship between billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski reported that Crow had flown Thomas all over the world for fancy holidays and hosted him in a variety of luxury settings—none of which was disclosed on required financial filings. After publishing the story, tips came in detailing other largesse: In 2014, Crow had purchased the home where Thomas’ mother lived—and continues to live to this day—and also paid for the private schooling of Thomas’ grandnephew, whom he raised as his own son.

These stories have had huge impact: Members of Congress have demanded an investigation into the undisclosed travel of Thomas on Crow’s dime, ethics watchdogs have called for new rules regarding Supreme Court justices and their financial ties to donors, and journalists—notably here at Slate—have begun a conversation about just how important it is to cover the justices as well as the court itself. The rules are changing.

So how did ProPublica get the goods? Reporter Josh Kaplan was kind enough to answer a few questions over email about just how they managed to blow the lid off the troubling connections between Harlan Crow and Justice Clarence Thomas.

Hillary Frey: Disclosure forms filed by the justices were one place you were rooting around, but the “behind the scenes” piece I mentioned above also noted that you hunted in some “obscure corners of the internet.” Can you give a sense of the volume of documents you needed to sift through, and what kind of internet rabbit holes pulled you in?

Josh Kaplan: This story started with a pile of records that had been sitting on the internet for years. Several years ago, a nonprofit called Fix The Court sued the Department of Justice to get a massive trove of highly redacted records related to Supreme Court justices’ travel. The records didn’t tell you that much—even the names of the justices were redacted—but they did tell you that a justice had gone from point A to point B on a given day. Sometimes, they also told you their method of travel, whether it was via Amtrak or on a private jet.

While Fix the Court published the records, it wasn’t clear if any reporter had ever read them that carefully. So we decided to spend a few days sorting through them. For trips that seemed interesting, we filed public records requests to get flight records that might shed more light on what happened. This ultimately led us to Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow. We found evidence that in 2016, Thomas had flown from D.C. to New Haven and back on Crow’s private jet for a trip that lasted roughly three hours. We were told that renting an equivalent plane for that trip could cost about $70,000. It felt to us that wasn’t the sort of trip one would take unless it was a habitual thing. So we decided to keep digging.

Most of our reporting relied on human sources. But this sort of open-source research was also key—everything from the polo shirts Thomas wore in random pictures on Flickr to an old issue of Catholic Cemetery magazine helped us put the puzzle together.

Use the link to read the full interview.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, May 24, 2023.

Today, Ron DeSantis is expected to announce that, like diarrhea, he will run. Soft and fat Ronnie and his butch wife deceived Florida voters last November. Those voters picked him for governor for a second term while, all along, his plan was to use them -- as he's used the state all along -- as a stepping stone. He had no plans to serve out a four year term. And, since the start of the year, he's been campaigning for the GOP's presidential nomination.

While he's convinced he's about to rule the world, he may have to settle for Miss Congeniality in his own party. Bernd Debusmann Jr (BBC NEWS) notes, "Recent polls have shown that Mr DeSantis still lags behind the former president as far as his popularity among US Republicans. Various surveys conducted in mid-May 2023 show him between 28 and 45 percentage points behind."

When not shoveling so much food down that he makes himself sick, Ronnie can be found doing harm to the state of Florida. One lawsuit after another due to his actions and its the people of Florida -- the ones he plans to abandon -- that get stuck paying the legal bills.

Greg Owen (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Hamburger Mary’s, the iconic burger joint found in gayborhoods across America, is suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the state of Florida over the state’s new drag ban.

The Orlando branch of the flamboyant, drag-themed restaurant chain says they’ve been deprived of their First Amendment rights and are already losing customers under the state’s new rules targeting drag shows.

[. . .]

Hamburger Mary’s “simply cannot take the chance that their business or liquor licenses would be suspended for hosting a drag show where children attend,” the lawsuit states. “In addition, the criminal penalties of the law put individuals at risk of prosecution because of the content of their speech.”

The restaurant regularly hosts drag performances that include bingo, trivia, and comedy. On Sundays, children are welcomed at “family friendly” drag shows.

According to the suit, Hamburger Mary’s has lost 20% of their reservations for the Sunday shows and other events since announcing minors could no longer be in attendance while drag performers were present.

A high percentage of wait staff regularly dresses in drag, as well.

“The broad, sweeping nature of the statute, and the vagueness regarding what conduct is and is not prohibited, will have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of the citizens of Florida,” the lawsuit says.

A First Amendment issue. Well then we know Jonathan Turley's covered it! No. No. Since becoming the ugliest whore for FOX "NEWS," Jonathan Swirley Turley only worries about the First Amendment if some right-winger gets booed or yelled at. Actual real life implications on the rest of us? Jonathan can't be bothered. He's far too busy preaching transphobia and disgracing George Washington University.

From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!:

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

The NAACP has issued a formal travel advisory for Florida. In an announcement Saturday, the group said Florida is “hostile to Black Americans” under Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who’s expected to announce his run for the 2024 presidential nomination this week.

The moves comes after Florida passed the Stop WOKE Act to restrict conversations about race in schools and businesses. DeSantis has also attacked the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course and on Monday signed into law a measure that blocks colleges from spending public funds on diversity, equity and inclusion. He also signed a slate of legislation Wednesday targeting the LGBTQ community.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement, quote, “Let me be clear — failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all.”

The NAACP was joined by the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, and the LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida.

The moves comes as tourism is one of Florida’s biggest industries.

Meanwhile, PEN America, the book publishing company Penguin Random House and several other authors and parents are suing the Pensacola, Florida, school board for banning books on race and LGBTQ issues from school libraries, saying they violated the First Amendment.

For more, we’re beginning with Suzanne Nossel, CEO of the free expression group PEN America.

Suzanne, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you explain what this lawsuit is all about?

SUZANNE NOSSEL: Sure. We are suing in Escambia County to challenge the removal of books from classroom and school libraries. There are well over a hundred books that have been put under review and taken off classroom shelves for protracted periods while review processes are underway. That’s in contravention of the best practice guidelines that the American Library Association and others say you should follow, National Coalition Against Censorship, whereby books, if there’s an objection, should remain on the shelves while those objections are adjudicated. And then, there are more than 10 books that have been banned entirely. And this effort disproportionately targets books by and about authors of color, LGBTQ narratives.

And so we’re bringing a challenge under both the First and the 14th Amendments to the Constitution, the First Amendment because these bans and removals violate children’s right to read, and the 14th Amendment because they raise equality concerns. When books are targeted based on the stories told, who’s telling the stories, what the color or the sexual orientation of the characters, that violates our protections for equality in education. And so, we’re asking the school board to put these books back on the shelves, and the court to vindicate children’s right to read.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain really what this Stop WOKE Act says and how it allows for banned books? How specific is it? Or is it that the vagueness is what is so threatening?

SUZANNE NOSSEL: It’s really the vagueness. I mean, this idea that teachings that could create racial tension or make people feel guilty on the basis of their racial identity are prohibited raise all kinds of questions for teachers and librarians about what books might be construed to fall afoul of those restrictions. If a kid reads a book and they ask a question that demands an answer that could touch upon some of those sensitive topics, does the teacher risk being disciplined? Do they risk a complaint from a parent that could run all the way up the chain?

And that’s really the way censorship works deliberately — vague laws that don’t just pinpoint what specifically is out of bounds, but rather cast a broad chill, a pall on education. It’s teaching our children that there are ideas and books that are so dangerous that they ought to be off limits, which runs counter to the very role and purpose of public schools in a democracy, to be an incubator for citizenship, where you learn how to engage with all sorts of people, all sorts of ideas.

AMY GOODMAN: From your press release, in Escambia County, nearly 200 books have been challenged; 10 books have been removed by the school board; five books were removed by district committees; 139 books remain restricted, requiring parental permission. You also write, “Children in a democracy must not be taught that books are dangerous.” Talk more about the specific books that are banned and how exactly you plan to get these books back on the bookshelves.

SUZANNE NOSSEL: Yeah, sure. Look, it’s a long list of books. And it’s quite shocking to see things like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye or Judy Blume’s Forever. You know, that’s a book that I grew up with, that, yes, was a little bit edgy in my time, but decades have passed. These are things that have been on the shelves, that have been treasured by young people for long periods of time, works of literature, Toni Morrison, a Nobel laureate in literature. So, to ban her books, you know, the idea that they have no value, no redeeming value for children, is outrageous.

There are also books like And Tango Makes Three, which is a story about same-sex penguins in the Central Park Zoo that raise a baby penguin, and this is being objected to because it’s seen as promoting LGBTQ lifestyles, or Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, about a child whose uncle gets married to a man. And so, it’s a real effort to both expunge books that are seen as contravening a very traditional, rigid conception of what family life ought to look like in America, and then books that are construed as sexually provocative. They’re being labeled pornography, even though they don’t bear any resemblance to the legal definition of pornography. So, it’s painting with a very broad brush.

And most of these objections have been brought by a single teacher in the school district. This is not a groundswell of parents who are raising these objections. It’s a single individual. And on the basis of that, in many cases, as we outline in our complaint, the school board has overridden the considered opinion of its own review panel. So, it has an empowered review panel of experts that it has designated to read books when there is an objection, to take a look and decide whether there is value for children, whether these books ought to remain in the classroom. And the pattern in Escambia that’s so disturbing is a political override of that expert opinion. So their own designated panel is being brushed to the side, and politics and ideology are ruling the day.

Chris Hayes also covered the issue on his show yesterday.

But again, having traded in legal expertise for the one-dollar-bills FOX "NEWS" slips into his g-string, Jonathan Turley can't cover this issue.

Musical interlude.

That's Tori Amos performing her song "Muhammad My Friend" with Tool's Maynard James Keenan.

Tool performed Sunday at Daytona's Welcome to Rockville festival -- and he did so in drag. John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

“I’ve been cross-dressing since long before these clickbait-junkie dupes were out of diapers,” he told The Messenger. Keenan went on to explain that he was simply riffing on a look he wore onstage in the ’90s. “It’s pretty crazy the technology and the prosthetics nowadays, how they’ve come along, and I just was considering bringing the look back. And that’s really all there is to it. I’m not a political fella -- had nothing to do with Florida.”

Still, the father of two made it clear that he opposes drag bans like the one in Florida. “I think limiting people’s access to anything is absurd,” he said. “Good parenting allows you to teach your kids how to be reasonable and reason and puzzle things out and decide for themselves what the f**k they wanna see or not wanna see.”

Asked whether he identifies with drag performers, Keenan said, “I guess so, yeah.”

“On occasion, I am a drag queen; I’ve been a drag queen,” he explained. “I’m casual, so the hardcore people are going to dismiss me as being a tourist.”

He also expressed “solidarity with people who are not afraid to express themselves.”

“People that want to express themselves in whatever f**king way they want to express themselves, as long as they’re not physically directly hurting someone? Yeah, go for it. I’m all for ya.”

Meanwhile, Richard Luscombe (GUARDIAN) reports:

Numerous police officers lured to new jobs in Florida with cash from Governor Ron DeSantis’s flagship law enforcement relocation program have histories of excessive violence or have been arrested for crimes including kidnapping and murder since signing up, a study of state documents has found.

DeSantis, who is expected to launch his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination this week, has spent more than $13.5m to date on the recruitment bonus program, which he touted in 2021 as an incentive to officers in other states frustrated by Covid-19 vaccination mandates.

“This will go a long way to ensuring we can have the best and the brightest filling our law enforcement ranks,” Florida’s Republican attorney general, Ashley Moody, said in April last year as DeSantis announced one-time $5,000 bonuses for new recruits.

However, among the almost 600 officers who moved to Florida and received the bonus – or were recruited in state – are a sizable number who either arrived with a range of complaints against them, or have since accrued criminal charges, the online media outlet Daily Dot has discovered.

They include a former trainee deputy with the Escambia county sheriff’s office charged with murdering her husband; an officer with the Miramar police department fired for domestic battery and kidnapping; and a former member of the New York police department (NYPD) who was hired by the Palm Beach police department having once been accused of an improper sexual proposition.

That officer, named by the Daily Dot as Daniel Meblin, was also part of a $160,000 settlement by the NYPD for violence at a 2020 protest against the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in which officers were accused of beating Black males without provocation.

A Palm Beach police spokesperson told the Daily Dot that Meblin – who had complaints against him including abuse of authority and sexually propositioning a teenager – had disclosed his background during the hiring process, according to the NYPD watchdog 50-a.org.

That's what he wants to impose upon the rest of the country -- failure and danger.

Paul Rudnick is always hilarious and intentionally so. However, we'll wind down noting the unintentionally hilarious who can be found across Twitter this morning trying to inflate their tiny man Ron DeSantis and his 'combat service' in Iraq. Ronnie was a legal adviser, kids. He didn't take part in combat. Quit making idiots of yourself in public. He's a War Criminal -- due to his actions at Guantanamo -- but he is not a combat veteran.

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

How much more does this country has to suffer?

How much more is Ron DeSantis going to destroy Florida:

Florida-born and raised former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) is thinking about leaving the Sunshine State because of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) authoritarian policies.

Jolly, who quit the GOP in 2018, on Sunday said DeSantis’ attacks on migrants, the LGBTQ community and African Americans had left him feeling “unwelcome simply for my embrace of diversity of thought and as an ally” of those groups, even though he’s a “white, evangelical, straight male.”

“Why would I want to raise my kids in an environment in which they’re shamed for embracing diversity of thought and diverse cultures?” Jolly asked on MSNBC.

“I want my children to be exposed to as much diversity as possible and at home my wife and I can orient our family around the value set that’s right for us and prepare our kids to make decisions that are ultimately right for them as adults,” he continued. “That’s not permissible in the state of Florida. You’re shamed for it, you’re unwelcome.”

“So yes, look, we consider every day whether to raise our kids in Florida. And I think it’s representative of thousands upon thousands of Floridians here in the Sunshine State,” Jolly added.

Jolly’s comments echoed those he made to Time magazine, in which he lamented the shift in vibe that Florida has undergone underneath DeSantis’ governorship.

How much more can this country endure? A War Criminal running for president. Let's hope his chances are flatter than his wife's chest. Is that what's behind his attacks on LGBTQ+? He was attracted to a woman who slathers make up on like a drag queen and who has the flat chest of a 14-year-old boy? What's Ron really hiding?

Osamudia James (LAT) notes:

In our country, privilege for one often means oppression for another. The anti-racism movement acknowledges this reality — making the movement a target for politicians such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who last week signed into law a bill blocking public colleges from using federal or state funding on “diversity, equity and inclusion” programming.

This is a shift away from the relatively positive reception diversity efforts have enjoyed over the last two decades. Indeed, diversity initiatives were accepted because they maintained the silence about white privilege. The emergence of an anti-racism movement, however, broke that silence, and now even diversity efforts pose a threat to racial hierarchy in America.

[. . .]

Last year Florida passed the “Stop WOKE Act,” banning public schools from teaching concepts such as white privilege, prohibiting required diversity and inclusion training in businesses, and proscribing instruction that might compel students to feel responsibility, guilt or anguish for benefits incurred from racial injustices, now and in the past.

Earlier this year, the governor characterized a leaked draft of the College Board’s new AP course on African American studies as “indoctrination.” It is no coincidence that the critiqued draft included critical race theory, Black feminism and Black Lives Matter — topics that go beyond demographic representation to raise substantive issues about power and who benefits from it.

The backlash against anti-racism initiatives is a scramble to avoid responsibility for the problem of race. Florida’s new law goes beyond critiquing ideas about race to silencing and censoring discourse about racial history in order to avoid accountability.

Bans on anti-racism education, diversity programming or any other attempts to honestly address race in the United States function by denying marginalized groups opportunities to pursue justice and by ensuring that white Americans don’t have to confront the injustices that have been maintained in their names.

Although Florida’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is a first, given the enduring appeal of white racial innocence, it certainly won’t be the last.

It's amazing he wants to be president when he appears to hate over 70% of the country.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Joe Biden again claims Beau Biden died in Iraq, Marianne Williamson's campaign continues to self-implode, an American is convicted of torture (sadly, it's not Bully Boy Bush who got convicted), and much more.

India's REPUBLIC WORLD notes:

US President Joe Biden has once again come under fire for claiming that his late son Beau "lost his life in Iraq" -- a statement that alludes to the president's long-held view that poisonous burn pits were to blame for the younger Biden's brain cancer death at the age of 46. After making similar remarks at least twice earlier in the year, the president made his most recent ones to US troops stationed in Japan during his visit to the nation.

Yes, we're back to that again.

Erik Uebelaker (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:

Joe Biden recently told Marines stationed in Japan that his son Beau died in the Iraq war—an incorrect statement that the president has puzzlingly made several times in the past. “My son was a major in the U.S. Army. We lost him in Iraq,” Biden told the troops in Iwakuni on Thursday, according to a video obtained by the New York Post. Despite his son actually dying of brain cancer at the Walter Reed military hospital in Maryland, Biden has made the same claim about Beau’s death at least twice before. Last October, Biden told an audience in Colorado that Beau “lost his life in Iraq.” Just weeks later, he said “I’m thinking about Iraq because that’s where my son died,” during a speech in Florida. In reality, Beau died in 2015 after battling stage four glioblastoma—a diagnosis that the president has previously attributed to the “burn pits” in Iraq, which the military used to destroy trash while Beau was deployed from 2008 to 2009.

THE DAILY MAIL points out, "His death may have been linked to burn pits he encountered while serving in Iraq, although Beau did not die while fighting in the Middle East." But Gustaf Kilander (INDEPENDENT) goes full on enabler in "Critics say Biden is lying about how his son Beau died – they are ignoring the full story:"

Right-wing media outlets have attempted to use Mr Biden’s comments on Beau’s death as a sign that the 80-year-old Democrat has memory issues, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

[. . .]

In 2016, then the vice president, Mr Biden said his son’s cancer could have been caused by the toxic burn pits he was exposed to during his service in the Middle East.

The New York Times reported that Mr Biden said he was “stunned” when he read a chapter concerning the death of his son in the book The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers by Joseph Hickman.

First off, it's not a sign of 'cognitive decline.' Or, if it is, it was evident before he was elected. I'm not in the mood to spoonfeed lousy reporters who can't do their job. But Joe made those remarks on the campaign trail. We called it out in real time. And a sign of just how sorry Gustaf is,

Second, Gustaf and other lazies, there's no reason in the world to refer to some stupid NEW YORK TIMES article. THE TIMES has 'reporting issues' to put it kindly. If you want to go to Joe discussing burnpits and Beau, you go to that.

Which is right here, 'journalists.'

That's January 10, 2018, THE NEWSHOUR (PBS):

Biden also said that reading “The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers,” a book on the topic by Joseph Hickman, which included a chapter on his son Beau, opened his eyes to the possibility of a link to his son’s cancer.

“There’s a whole chapter on my son Beau in there, and that stunned me. I didn’t know that,” Biden said. He added, the author “went back and looked at Beau’s tenure as a civilian with the U.S. attorney’s office [in Kosovo] and then his year in Iraq. And he was co-located in both times near these burn pits.”

Joe's been making these statements forever. If you're now appalled by it, my big question would be: Where were you when it started?

Because we've called it out all along, long before he became president.

Beau did not die in Iraq. He came back to the US and died six years later.

People shouldn't try to justify it or enable him on this. He needs to be held accountable. But, again, this didn't happen this year or last year or in 2021 for the first time. It may be a sign of something, but it's not a new cognitive decline because, again, he was making the statements that Beau died in Iraq while on the campaign trail.

Since we're discussing presidential campaigns, let me note how I love the liars. Oh those Marianne Williamson freaks. They lie and then they lie again. We told you, before POLITICO ever published the story about Marianne's 'interacting difficulties,' that she was a nightmare to work with and that this went back decades. Then POLITICO does their story about how Marianne terrorized campaign staff during her failed 2020 run fo the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. And The Merry Mariannes rushed to tell you it was lies, all lies. POLITICO did another report about how her current campaign is in shambles and The Merry Mariannes are back insisting it's a lie.

It's not a lie.

The departure came about when Marianne ranted and raved over how her polling was stagnant and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had passed her in the polling from the moment he announced his candidacy. That was the fault, she insisted, of her campaign.

Because 'positive thinking' never allows Marianne to own up to her own failures.

As this very public battle took place -- with four other players present -- it was offered to Marianne that she was ignoring key issues and maybe addressing them would bring her more support. She sneered at the issues (which including that she needed to call out the war on the LGBTQ+ community) and said she was a "big thinking" candidate and these little issues were "beneath" her.

The campaign's not going off the rails, it is off the rails.

This may surprise but, despite her well known vanity, Marianne remains incapable of self-examination. Oh sure, she's always been her own favorite topic. But she can't admit any wrong doing and her own 'introspection' plays out like gushing press releases.

She's killing her own campaign.

More say they will be leaving soon.

The Merry Mariannes throw hissy fits online and have been doing that since day one. Remember Krystal Ball screeching and screaming that everybody get on board with Marianne?

They're idiots. Marianne is not happening and won't ever happen unless the candidate learns to listen.

It'll never happen because the professional 'speaker' doesn't believe listening is part of an exchange since she never got paid to listen.

The Merry Mariannes can lie and spin and even deceive themselves but, currently, the only one who appears to be a viable candidate to rival Joe is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In other news, WFMZ reports:

A Stroudsburg man has been convicted in federal court of torturing an Estonian citizen in 2015 in Iraq.

The U.S. Department of Justice says it was in connection with running an illegal weapons manufacturing plant in Kurdistan.

Ross Roggio, 54, was convicted of torturing an employee who raised concerns about what they were doing.

On the matter, the US Justice Dept issued the following:

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, May 22, 2023

Man Convicted of Torture and Exporting Weapons Parts and Related Services to Iraq

A federal jury convicted a Pennsylvania man on May 19 for numerous crimes, including the torture of an Estonian citizen in 2015 in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in connection with the operation of an illegal weapons manufacturing plant in Kurdistan.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ross Roggio, 54, of Stroudsburg, arranged for Kurdish soldiers to abduct and detain the victim at a Kurdish military compound where Roggio suffocated the victim with a belt, threatened to cut off one of his fingers, and directed Kurdish soldiers to repeatedly beat, tase, choke, and otherwise physically and mentally abuse the victim over a 39-day period. The victim was employed at a weapons factory that Roggio was developing in the Kurdistan region of Iraq that was intended to manufacture M4 automatic rifles and Glock 9mm pistols.

In connection with the weapons factory project, which included Roggio providing training to foreign persons in the operation, assembly, and manufacturing of the M4 automatic rifle, Roggio also illegally exported firearm parts that were controlled for export by the Departments of State and Commerce.

“Roggio brutally tortured another human being to prevent interference with his illegal activities,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Thanks to the courage of the victim and other witnesses, the hard work of U.S. law enforcement, and the assistance of Estonian authorities, he will now be held accountable for his cruelty.”

“Today’s guilty verdict demonstrates that Roggio’s brutal acts of directing and participating in the torture of an employee over the course of 39 days by Kurdish soldiers could not avoid justice,” said U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. “We thank all the prosecutors and law enforcement agents who worked tirelessly to address these acts that occurred in Iraq.”

“Today’s milestone conviction is the result of the extraordinary courage of the victim, who came forward after the defendant inflicted unspeakable pain on him for more than a month,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “Torture is among the most heinous crimes the FBI investigates, and together with our partners at the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, we will relentlessly pursue justice.”

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is firmly dedicated to pursuing those who commit human rights violations, like Roggio, to ensure perpetrators face justice for their atrocities,” said Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson of ICE. “Our investigators will continue to work tirelessly with government partners so these horrendous acts do not go without consequence.”

“The illegal export of firearms parts and tools from the United States often goes hand in hand with other criminal activities, such as the charge of torture on which the jury voted to convict the defendant,” said Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Carson of the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Office of Export Enforcement, New York Field Office. “I commend our law enforcement colleagues for their dedication to bringing justice in this case.”

Roggio was convicted of torture, conspiracy to commit torture, conspiring to commit an offense against the United States, exporting weapons parts and services to Iraq without the approval of the Department of State, exporting weapons tools to Iraq without the approval of the Department of Commerce, smuggling goods, wire fraud, and money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 23 and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Roggio is the second defendant to be convicted of torture since the federal torture statute went into effect in 1994.

The FBI and HSI investigated the torture and were joined in investigating the export control violations related to the firearms manufacturing equipment by the Department of Commerce’s BIS Office of Export Enforcement.

Trial Attorney Patrick Jasperse of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, Trial Attorney Scott A. Claffee of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd K. Hinkley for the Middle District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case. The Estonian Internal Security Service, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, and the Pennsylvania State Police also provided valuable assistance.

Members of the public who have information about human rights violators in the United States are urged to contact U.S. law enforcement through the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the HSI tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE, or complete the FBI online tip form or the ICE online tip form.

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Only thing worse than Turley? The thought of Turley having sex

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

ELON MUSK HAS BEGUN FLIRTING WITH SENATOR TIM SCOTT. AFTER PLEDGING HIS EVERYTHING TO RON DESANTIS, THIS TURN OF EVENTS HAS LEFT MANY SURPRISED.

AND NO ONE'S MORE SURPRISED -- OR OUTRAGED -- THAN DESANTIS FAN, TRANSPHOBE AND FOX "NEWS" WHORE JONATHAN TURLEY.

"THIS IS TRIGGERING ME!" SCREAMED TURLEY, TEARS STREAMING DOWN HIS FACE. "RON IS ALL I KNOW! HE IS ALL I WANT! I WANT HIS ARROW HEAD TO PIERCE MY LITTLE PRINCESS AND TAKE MY FLOWER! HE WAS THE ONLY SHOT AT ANYONE TAKING MY FLOWER! MY LITTLE NON-DISNEY PRINCESS IS SO WET!"

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

The American way? I think all the dollars that could have supported that have instead been sent to Ukraine. Barry Grey (WSWS) reports:

At a press conference Sunday following the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, President Joe Biden called on Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to meet face to face to revive talks on a bipartisan plan to slash social spending in return for raising the nation’s debt ceiling and averting a default.

Biden spoke after talks between a team of White House advisers and negotiators named by McCarthy broke off on Saturday. The entire debt limit and budget negotiation process has from the start been heavily stage-managed in an attempt to stampede public opinion.

On Sunday, Biden repeatedly pointed to his proposal to cut more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending as part of a budget deal, making clear that his government is committed to imposing a new wave of austerity measures that will further undermine education, health care, housing, home heating assistance and other vital programs relied upon by millions of working class families.

Biden announced that he would be calling McCarthy from Air Force One while flying back to Washington. Later on Sunday, McCarthy dropped his accusatory tone toward Biden, called the telephone call “productive” and said the two would meet face to face at the White House on Monday. He also said the negotiating teams for each side would resume their talks later on Sunday.

What neither he nor the Republicans nor the corporate media point out is the direct connection between the new austerity drive and the ever-expanding cost of the US-led war against Russia in Ukraine. While Biden was in Japan, the US government announced that it had allotted another $375 million to arm Ukraine, part of a feverish escalation that includes providing the right-wing nationalist government in Kiev with F-16 nuclear-capable jets.

In the barrage of propaganda over the supposed necessity to slash social programs to avert the nation’s first-ever default on its debt obligations—which, according to Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, could come as early as June 1—nothing is said about the role of military spending in driving up the debt.

In fact, social spending as a percentage of GDP has declined sharply since 2011, when the last Democratic administration, headed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, followed its multitrillion-dollar bailout of the banks after the financial crash of 2008 with the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. That measure imposed a decade-long cap on discretionary spending, sharply reducing in real terms government outlays for education, health care and other vital social needs.

Military spending, however, has exploded. Last year, the Biden administration allocated $113 billion for the war in Ukraine and enacted a record $1 trillion defense budget.

How far in do you think the Soviet Union was on Afghanistan before the people realized that the sink hole was going to cost them their country? From Boston University's GUIDED HISTORY:

During the 1970’s, Soviet-American relations underwent a thawing period, known as the Detente. This period witnessed the cooperation of the two nations in space, strategic arms limitation talks (otherwise known as SALT), and multiple summits and discussions. This period was abruptly ended in 1979 when the Soviet Union, under the orders of its leader Leonid Brezhnev, led an invasion of Afghanistan after internal political tensions between the Afghan Communists and the Mujahideen rebels threatened the stability of the region.

The historical significance of this event is mainly embodied in the collapse of the Soviet Union twelve years after the invasion of Afghanistan. The war put immense stresses on the faulty, centralized economic system of the nation, and along with the radical social reforms set by Mikhail Gorbachev, led to the collapse of the nation. This war would be known as the equivalent to the Vietnam War for the United States, both in economic stresses brought upon by the war, and by the social discontent that it caused.

Meanwhile, the American Taliban works in this country to destroy rights and democracy. The Dodgers won't allow a drag group, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, to participate at a Pride event. Why? A right-wing group -- yes, it is right-wing, look at its board of advisors -- The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is having a fit that this drag group dresses up as nuns -- and has done that for years, Grasp that. We tend to look amazed when, in other countries, people have hissy fits over cartoons or artistic renderings that send their religious idiots into states of violence. But what's the real difference between that and attempting to disinvite this group to a Pride event? There is none. They are the American Taliban and they and their board of advisors -- Brent Bozell, Linda Chavez, Mary Ann Glendon, Alan Keyes, Tom Monaghan, and George Weigel -- pretend to want to protect children. But they do nothing to protect them from priests.

The American Taliban is destroying the country.

Florida is the most obvious spot. It's where the goon Ron DeSantis just cost the state 2,000 high paying jobs due to his never ending war on DISNEY. On Saturday, The NAACP issued the following travel alert:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 20, 2023

Contact: Chyna Fields cfields@naacpnet.org

WASHINGTON – Today, the NAACP Board of Directors issued a formal travel advisory for the state of Florida. The travel advisory comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.

The formal travel notice states, "Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color."

"Let me be clear - failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all," said NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson. "Under the leadership of Governor Desantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon. He should know that democracy will prevail because its defenders are prepared to stand up and fight. We're not backing down, and we encourage our allies to join us in the battle for the soul of our nation."

The travel advisory was initially proposed to the Board of Directors by NAACP's Florida State Conference. NAACP's collective consideration of this advisory is a result from unrelenting attacks on fundamental freedoms from the Governor and his legislative body.

"Once again, hate-inspired state leaders have chosen to put politics over people. Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida have engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion and rejected our shared identities to appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority," said Chair of the NAACP Board of Directors, Leon Russell. "We will not not allow our rights and history to be held hostage for political grandstanding. The NAACP proudly fights against the malicious attacks in Florida, against Black Americans. I encourage my fellow Floridians to join in this fight to protect ourselves and our democracy."

Following Gov. DeSantis' so-called leadership in driving the state to reject students' access to AP African American studies course in March, the NAACP distributed 10,000 books to 25 predominantly Black communities across the state in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers's Reading Opens the World program. The majority of the books donated were titles banned under the state's increasingly restrictive laws. The NAACP continues to encourage local branches and youth councils to start community libraries to ensure access to representative literature.

The NAACP encourages Florida residents to join this effort to defeat the regressive policies of this Governor and this state legislature. Interested residents and supporters can visit www.naacp.org for additional information and updates.

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The American Taliban is carrying out a war on democracy.

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