GOP States Moving Fast to Disenfranchise Voters for the 2022 Mid-Terms

The 2021 legislative sessions have begun in most states, and state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills aimed at election procedures and voter access — vastly exceeding the number of voting bills introduced by roughly this time last year.

In a backlash to historic voter turnout in the 2020 general election, and grounded in a rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, legislators have introduced well over four times the number of bills to restrict voting access as compared to roughly this time last year. Thirty-three states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in fifteen states this time last year.  Arizona leads the nation in proposed voter suppression legislation in 2021, with 19 restrictive bills. Pennsylvania comes in second with 14 restrictive policy proposals, followed by Georgia (11 bills), and New Hampshire (10 bills).

Nearly half of restrictive bills introduced this year seek to limit mail voting. Legislators are taking aim at mail voting at every stage, with proposals to circumscribe who can vote by mail, make it harder to obtain mail ballots, and impose hurdles to complete and cast mail ballots.  In addition to restrictions targeting voters, other bills have proposed limits on ballot counting, including more burdensome signature matching requirements, and earlier submission and postmark deadlines in order for votes to count. 

Legislators in eighteen states have introduced 40 bills to impose new or more stringent voter ID requirements for in-person or mail voting.  Many of these states are also trying to slash voter registration opportunities, making it harder to register, restrict who can register, outlawing same day and/or voting day registration, and eliminating automatic voter registration.  Twelve states have introduced 21 different bills that would expand voter roll purges or adopt flawed practices that would risk improper purges.

The Brennan Center for Justice maintains a comprehensive listing of restrictive and expansive state voting legislation by bill number.  You can find the most up-to-date number of voting bills here.

 

Italy's Etna is One Fiery Bastard!

Mount Etna is erupting again, and its hot lava fountains are illuminating the Sicilian sky.  The eruption began about a week ago, and Etna has since been spewing massive orange plumes of gas and thick clouds of ash.

Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and it erupts relatively often. The last major eruption was in 1992.  Its eruptions have rarely caused damage or injury in recent decades - and officials believe this eruption is no exception.  Stefano Branco, the head of the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in the nearby city of Catania, said: "We've seen worse."  I'd hate to see how bad it could be!

Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People

The GOP's New Nutjobs: Part 4

Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville is a rookie on the political scene, but he already has a healthy head start on becoming one of the GOP's latest batch of morons.

A hedge fund Tuberville helped start in 2009 was the subject of a criminal investigation in which Tuberville’s business partner pleaded guilty to fraud. Tuberville, who denied wrongdoing, later settled a lawsuit filed by investors who lost millions.  Tuberville said in a deposition that he had no daily duties with the hedge fund, and was unwitting participant.   Tuberville was also duped into participating in a Ponzi scheme run by a former Georgia football coach Jim Donnan.

In 2014, Tuberville started the Tommy Tuberville Foundation, which has given only a small portion of its money to charity while spending tens of thousands of dollars to stage annual golf tournaments. An Associated Press review of its public tax records showed the foundation reported spending about one-third of the money it raised on charitable giving.

In the lead-up to his Senate campaign, Tuberville became the center of controversy after posting a derogatory message on Facebook about a group of drag queens that took part in a Christmas parade in Opelika.  “Hard to believe that right in my own backyard the city of Opelika allows drag queens in the city Christmas Parade which was held this weekend,” Tuberville wrote on his campaign Facebook page. “What is next?”  In response to the universal condemnation of the post, Tuberville said “Christmas is about celebrating with family. Our public celebrations out to be family friendly for young and old.” 

In an interview after the election, tepid Tommy invited ridicule when he said, “Our government wasn’t set up for one group to have all three branches of government — wasn’t set up that way.” Tuberville continued, saying incorrectly: “You know, the House, the Senate, and the executive.”

He also flubbed up later in the same interview:  “What’s concerning to me, that we’re to the point now where we’ve got almost half the country voting for something that this country wasn’t built on.  I tell people, my dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of socialism.”  Ooops!

Tuberville also inaccurately said that former Vice President Al Gore, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, was called the president-elect for 30 days during the infamous legal battle over a recount in Florida.  Tuberville also asserted that he planned to use his new Senate office to fund raise for the two Republican senators from Georgia-- but it is well know that political fundraising out of a federal office building, and using official federal resources for campaign purposes, is barred by Senate ethics rules.  Hope that he didn't follow through on that one!

The Tyranny of the Stupid

 

Fracking Not Cracked Up to What it Was Supposed to Be

The Ohio River Valley Institute has concluded in a new report that 22 counties that were forecast to be headed for a boom from natural gas extraction. The report—“Appalachia’s Natural Gas Counties: Contributing more to the U.S. economy and getting less in return”—found that what was described by some local officials at the time as a “godsend” and a “game-changer” in the region turned out to be something much different than what was promised. 

A report by the American Petroleum Institute in 2010 offered hope for people in the depressed area. API predicted a giant increase in natural gas production, and it was even bigger than expected, with 90% of fracked natural gas in Appalachia now coming from those 22 counties. 

But the predicted gain of 450,000 new jobs and consequent thriving of local communities didn’t pan out. Not by a long shot. Far fewer people than API claimed were hired. By 2019, the report states, the number of jobs nationally had increased by 10%, but in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, job growth was below 4%. And it was worse in the 22 gas-producing counties in those states. These had a combined job growth of just 1.7%. 

The region's share of the nation’s personal income fell by 6.3%, share of jobs fell by 7.5%, and share of the nation’s population fell by 9.6%. Worse still, while the  gross domestic product tripled in those counties from booming natural gas production, measures showed widespread negative impacts one of which is how awful it can be living near a fracking operation.

The report lays the issue quite starkly: “This extreme disconnect between economic output and local prosperity raises the question of whether the Appalachian natural gas industry is capable of generating or even contributing to broadly shared well-being. And, if it is not, should it continue to be the focus of local and regional economic development efforts?”

 

Greene Is Just the Latest Racist White Woman Looking to Make Her Mark in Politics

While fellow Republicans have tried to paint Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene as an aberration - outside of the mainstream of their party, someone for whom they bear no responsibility - the truth is far blurrier than they are willing to admit. The congresswoman is actually part of a long line of radical far-right White women who have animated American politics dating back to the 19th century. By consequence of their conspiracy theories and extreme rhetoric, they have managed to stretch the margins of what is considered politically respectable. 

One of Greene's most prominent "foremothers" hailed from the outskirts of her 14th congressional district in Cartersville, Georgia.  Rebecca Latimer Felton was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, albeit only for a day. Felton was a suffragist, proponent of public education, opponent of convict leasing and advocate for working-class White women. But she was also a virulent white supremacist who used rumor and fantasy to support her racist politics.

In 1897, Felton told a Georgia farm convention that the most significant problem facing farm women was "Black rapists." She faulted White men for not supporting their wives and leaving them at the mercy of Black men. Her solution: lynching Black men, "a thousand times a week."  This rhetoric from a prominent political leader helped fuel the first violent coup in American history just one year later.  In the fall of 1898, as White North Carolina Democrats tried to defeat interracial fusionists, the speech by Felton appeared in a White Wilmington newspaper. The editor of a Black newspaper responded by suggesting that interracial relationships actually resulted from White women seeking Black men as romantic partners.

White supremacists used this claim as cause for destroying the newspaper and unleashing the terror that became the Wilmington Massacre. They threatened violence to keep Black Republicans from the polls, elected White Democrats and conducted a successful coup against the democratically elected interracial city government. Killing Black Wilmington residents and running off others, white supremacists took over the city.  The violent overthrow received the tacit approval of the federal government. Anti-lynching legislation, introduced more than 200 times, failed to pass the Senate for the entire 20th century. The willingness of a political leader like Felton to traffic in such bigoted and false stereotypes also helped produce a culture in which false accusations of rape led to the murder or imprisonment of Black men and boys - a problem that persists to this day. She helped to pull politics in an extreme, racist direction with long-lasting impact.

Felton would not be the last prominent White woman to help inculcate radical ideas on the right. In 1943, Mississippi newspaper publisher Mary Dawson Cain blamed both the wartime resurgence of lynching and the 1943 insurrection in Detroit on first lady Eleanor Roosevelt for raising expectations for social equality. Cain trafficked in other conspiracy theories and bigotry, as well, joining in anti-Semitic charges against the Anti-Defamation League, accusing the Supreme Court and Congress of being communists, the United Nations of being Godless and Americans of being duped by humanitarianism.

Far from ostracizing her, this incendiary and at times delusional rhetoric landed Cain at the center of right-wing politics. As president of the Congress of Freedom, she honored, among others, Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., Republican Gov. George Wallace of Alabama and John Birch Society founder Robert Welch. Her politics served as a forerunner of the rise of the new right, with everyone from Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., to Goldwater embracing similar rhetoric in the years to come. Within two decades, Goldwater would be the Republican presidential nominee, and future president Ronald Reagan would later receive the award created by Cain.

After World War II, fellow Mississippian Florence Sillers Ogden, sister of Mississippi's speaker of the house, trafficked in similar rhetoric as Mary Dawson Cain. She charged that the United Nations Genocide Convention, which condemned mass murder by national governments, would permit the rape of White women by Black men and then prevent their punishment. Ogden's arguments won over, among others, the Daughters of the American Revolution. In speeches to DAR chapters, Ogden and other radical White women like her claimed that the U.N. meant a "Negro, a Chinese, or a member of any racial minority, could insult you or your daughter. Your husband might shoot him . . .. If so, he could be tried in an international court. It would also make it a crime to prevent racial intermarriage and intermarriage would destroy the White race which has brought Christianity to the world."

 This incendiary rhetoric propelled the Vigilant Women for Bricker movement in the early 1950s. This organization accused internationalist senators of being communists and supported amending the U.S. Constitution to move treaty ratification out of the federal government and into state legislatures. Again, instead of the members of the movement being ostracized, the American Bar Association's president saw fit to speak to the group, which included Cain and a young Phyllis Schlafly. While the latter did not profess to fear the U.N. because of interracial rape and marriage, she happily forged political alliances with White women who did, taking advantage of their political capital as part of her rise to becoming maybe the most prominent female political activist on the right.

Such extremism helped elevate them to prominence in conservative politics. During the 1960s, radicals like Cain and Ogden shifted to colorblind - yet still white supremacist - rhetoric and formed organizations that pledged to "save the Constitution," in response to school busing to achieve racial equality. In the 1970s, they extended this argument to the Equal Rights Amendment, ultimately gaining traction among other conservatives. This language portrayed the right as conservers of constitutional government and the left as its destroyers, but it was rooted in the conspiracy theories and bigotry of decades past.

History has forgotten much of this extreme activism, in part because it has been whitewashed, and in part because of a gender bias that shifts political seriousness away from "nutty" (read: not dangerous) White women. Anti-busing extremists in Boston leveled death threats at elected officials, destroyed cars of "integrationists," called in the Ku Klux Klan and stood outside playgrounds yelling racist epithets at young children. And indeed, they recycled Felton's arguments, expressing fear that their daughters would sit beside Black boys. Yet, history remembers them as anti-busing advocates, not white supremacists.

 

Your Wi-Fi Can Be Hijacked From 8 Miles Away

Early on in the pandemic last, Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum elaborated on what he’s learned about NSA spying tactics and tools during a lecture at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg.  Although the reporting from Sarah Weber on this is nearly a year old, it is nevertheless important to share, as (for the first time) there is documentation of long-suspected spy capabilities that eventually could be used by other countries against U.S. citizens.

Appelbaum co-wrote a Der Spiegel report that sheds light on what spy agencies can access, including your iPhone, your newly purchased laptop computer, and most major security architecture.  But in his lecture, Appelbaum dropped this nugget: The NSA can tap into your wireless signal from up to eight miles away.

As proof, Appelbaum offered up a top secret NSA document detailing the capabilities of “Nightstand,” a wireless exploitation and injection tool that can — undetected — deliver spyware via your wireless card. The document (which was posted on a Wordpress blog called "Leaksource" and since disappeared from the internet along with the blog itself) was originally dated from 2008, so it’s possible the capabilities have been expanded since then.

Even creepier, Appelbaum said he’s talked to NSA sources who told him the devices have been used on drones, but he’s not yet come across documents to back that up.

“That’s a really interesting thing because it tells us that they understand that common wireless cards, probably running Microsoft Windows — which is an American company — that they know about vulnerabilities yet they keep them a secret to use them,” Appelbaum said. “This is part of a constant theme of sabotaging and undermining American companies and American ingenuity. As an American, though generally not a nationalist, I find this disgusting, especially as someone who writes free software and would like my tax dollars to be spent on improving these things.”

Though it seems Appelbaum’s chief complaint with NSA spying is that it’s tyrannical, he said the government’s interest in leaving security weaknesses open for exploit has “retarded the process by which we would secure the internet,” making systems and their users vulnerable to attack.

 

GOP Hypocrisy on Display

 

 

 

 

 

Illegal Squaters in Peru Make Death Threats to Archeologists

 Illegal squatters have invaded the ruins of the oldest city in the Americas, and made death threats against Ruth Shady, the celebrated Peruvian archaeologist who discovered the 5,000-year-old civilization of Caral, about 120 miles northwest of Lima.

Ruth Shady first visited Caral in 1978. But it was not until 1994 that she discovered the ancient city and began to properly excavate the site, which is situated on a dry desert terrace overlooking the Supe river valley.  What she uncovered was the “oldest center of civilization in the Americas” which UNESCO describes as “exceptionally well-preserved” with a complex architectural design with “monumental stone and earthen platform mounts and sunken circular courts”. Organic material found at the site has been carbon-dated to 2,627 years BC.

Shady and her team continue to investigate and excavate a dozen former settlements, half of the 24 situated in the Supe valley which form part of the Caral-Supe civilization. Their findings have revealed musical instruments such as flutes made of animal and bird bones and evidence of the cultivation of multi-coloured cotton used in textiles.

The recent threats came via telephone calls and messages to various workers at the archeological site.  The threats followed reports by the archeologists to the police about the invasion and damage to the ancient ruins.   According to 73-year-old shady, “[The squatters] called the site’s lawyer and said if he continued to protect me they would kill him, along with me, and bury us five metres below the ground.  Then they killed our dog as a warning. They poisoned her, as if to say, look at what will happen to you.”

It is not the first time Shady has been threatened or attacked.  In 2003, she was shot in the chest during an assault on the 1,546 acre archaeological complex which was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2009.

After nine invasions of the sacred city during the pandemic period, Shady and her team have repeatedly asked the authorities to intervene.  “There is a feeling that there is no authority dedicated to the protection and defense of our heritage. It’s a huge worry,” she said.  In July of last year, squatters using a heavy digger knocked down adobe walls and tore up the ground destroying ancient ceramics, tombs containing mummies, textiles and household remains, before police and the site’s staff were able to stop them.

As a result of Shady’s pleas, a police car now patrols the archeological site day and night but nothing has been done to punish or evict the land invaders.  The squatters are believed to belong to a single extended family who claim that the land was given to them in the 1970s during Peru’s controversial agrarian land reform which was pushed through by a leftist military dictatorship.  Shady denies the claim, saying “They do not have a single land title. The owner of the land is the Peruvian state.”

A planned eviction of one of the squatters was thwarted in December when a local prosecutor and official failed to give the order to proceed despite having the support of police officers.  Land prices in the area have risen from around $5,000 per hectare to as much as $50,000 per hectare, as outsiders rush to buy land around the prestigious archaeological site which is surrounded by a 56 sq mile buffer zone.

“We can’t allow archeological sites to continue being invaded and destroyed . .  It is like burning a book which no one will ever read,” Shady recently told reporters.  “I hope we can continue to investigate and continue to recover our history because it has such an interesting message.”

Fireboy DML and Wande Coal - Spell

RIP (Rest in Piss) Rush Limbaugh, You Fat Pig

Rush Limbaugh finally kicked the bucket this week and returned to the pits of hell.  The odious prick dedicated his career to worsening the public discourse, spewing hatred and misogyny, promoting political division, and using his platform to punch down at marginalized communities.  He profited handsomely from that effort and leaves this country worse for his contributions.  Donald Trump even debased the Presidential Medal of Freedom by honoring Limbaugh a year ago during his State of the Union address.  The three-time divorcee had no children and is survived by his fourth wife.

Limbaugh had once condemned illegal drug use, stating that "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."  In 2006, Limbaugh was arrested on drug charges in association with his abuse of oxycodone and hydrocodone.  Later that year, he was detained by the DEA for illegal trafficking of prescription drugs from the Dominican Republic.

A college dropout, Limbaugh was so ignorant of higher education that he once attacked Classical Studies as a socialist plot.  He was instrumental in bringing an extreme anti-intellectualism to the conservative movement, where conspiracy theories and outright lying found full flower under Trump.

Limbaugh had promoted numerous debunked theories, including suggestions that the existence of gorillas disproves the theory of evolution, that Ted Kennedy sent a letter to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov seeking to undercut President Reagan, that a lack of hurricanes disproved climate change, and that President Obama wanted to mandate circumcision. 

Limbaugh also once claimed that actor Michael J. Fox had purposely exaggerated the effects of his Parkinson's disease in a TV ad for political gain. One year later, he categorized Iraq War veterans opposed to the war as "the phony soldiers".  In 2012, he called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” because she supported Obamacare-mandated coverage of contraception.  When rock legend Jerry Garcia died, Limbaugh called him "just another dead doper-- and a dirt bag."

During his time staining our existence, Limbaugh was known by many nicknames, among them:

• Pig Newton 
• Human Hindenburg
  
• COVID Hominid
• Kid  Corona
• Covidiot
• The Hyper Ventilator
• Wuhan Conman 
• Mount Rushbo
• Douche Rimjob
• America's Rancorman
• Mr. Creepypants
• Rush Dim-bulb
• Rush Limburger
• Maha Rushie
• The Surreal O'Reilly
• Oinker Boinker
• The Portly Parrot
• Whoosh Windbag
• Illsbury Dough Boy
• Captain Krispy Kreme
• Flush Gorgon
• The Original Right-wing Megalomaniac
  

Limbaugh also had a long history of homophobic and bigoted comments, railing against gay marriage and claiming that transgender people were mentally ill.  Back in the 90's he had a segment on his show called "AIDS update" that was set to music where he mocked dying gay people and made jokes about a disease that had killed more than 100,000 people in the United States the previous decade.  Limbaugh also had another segment that used former Congressman Barney Frank, a prominent gay politician, as fodder. That segment featured the song “My Boy Lollipop” as slurping sounds played in the background. 

Limbaugh also spread the unfounded claim that gay men practiced “gerbilling” and once said, (according to James Retter’s book “The Anatomy of a Scandal”) that gay men “deserved their fate.”  He even recently made disparaging comments against former Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg.

In 2003, Limbaugh provoked outrage on ESPN when he participated in a segment discussing Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, a black man in the prime of his 6-time Pro Bowl career.  Limbaugh shocked viewers when unexpectedly blurted out, “I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern from the NFL; I think the media has been very desirous that a Black quarterback do well…I think there is a little hope invested in McNabb.”  Limbaugh lasted barely four weeks before he resigned from the network in disgrace.

Limbaugh also infamously slung countless racist attacks at former President Barack Obama (remember the “birther” conspiracy theory?) and also falsely claimed that prominent women of color, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, were not actually women of color.  Limbaugh also rallied endlessly against environmental progress, feminism, and Obamacare.  He used his platform to stoke Islamaphobia, transphobia, and shame people living with HIV. 

In 2015, decades after everyone knew of the dangers of smoking, Limbaugh continued his ill-informed rant and disinformation campaign against anti-smoking efforts.  In an April 17 broadcast, he said about secondhand smoke, "That is a myth. That has been disproven at the World Health Organization and the report was suppressed. There is no fatality whatsoever. There’s no even major sickness component associated with secondhand smoke. It may irritate you, and you may not like it, but it will not make you sick, and it will not kill you."

 In the early days of the pandemic, Limbaugh was one of  the original Coronavirus deniers, saying, "I'm dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks."  Limbaugh's statement was called "wildly irresponsible."

As Trump supporters engaged in the January 6 insurrection, Limbaugh took a dismissive tone to those calling for an end to violence after the ugly scenes played out on television-- comparing the rioters to the colonists who sparked the American Revolution. 

After the Capitol riots, Limbaugh announced that “Republicans do not join protest mobs. They do not loot and they don’t riot.” He blamed the attacks on “antifa Democrat sponsored instigators.” Limbaugh even claimed that the Capitol Police were part of a vast left-wing conspiracy to discredit Trump by letting rioters in: “there was nobody to stop them from breaking in…we got set up again.”

Limbaugh was a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, and an anti-intellectual force who transformed the media, the conservative movement, Republican Party, and ultimately America. The harmful effects of his three-decade-long reign as the king of talk radio will be felt for decades to come, from all the radio hosts and politicians who have imitated his hateful and ignorant rhetoric.  Good riddance!

Myanmar Military Coup Leaders Tightening the Screws

Myanmar's military is beginning to bare its ugly teeth in the weeks following its bloodless coup d'état.  It is now stealing a page from the playbook of the military dictators in neighboring Thailand by introducing oppressive new laws against freedom of speech.  If it wasn't bad enough that they are restricting what Burmese can read (by cutting off the internet), the coup leaders are now warning anti-coup protesters that they could face up to 20 years in prison if they obstruct or speak against the armed forces.

Since the military is also the de-facto police, they are in a position to unilaterally define what it means to "obstruct" the military or coup leaders.  In fact, the new laws also provide for long sentences and fines for anyone found to incite "hatred or contempt" towards the coup leaders. The new laws provide enough latitude for the military to lock up anyone that speaks up against the military coup.

The legal changes were announced as armored vehicles appeared on the streets of several cities.  Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests in recent days.  The demonstrators are demanding the release from detention of their elected leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

 

 

Suu Kyi's lawyer said she would be detained for a further two days, and then tried via video link at a court in the city of Nay Pyi Taw.  Suu Kyi was rounded up with other members of the government by the coup leaders two weeks ago.  The charges against her include possession of so-called "unlawful communication devices"-- which are, in reality, walkie-talkies used by her security staff.

The military government has also given itself the power to make arrests, carry out searches and hold people for more than 24 hours without a court ruling.   It has also told journalists not to describe the military's takeover as a coup. Presumably, any journalist who characterizes the takeover as a "coup" will be arrested under the new law for "inciting contempt" against the coup leader-- which means the new laws also serve to undermine freedom of the press.  

In Yangon, eight-wheeled armored vehicles have been seen trying to navigate the rush-hour traffic, sometimes surrounded by cars honking their opposition to the coup.  Protests are focusing on the central bank building, the U.S. and Chinese embassies, and the city headquarters of Su Kyi's National League for Democracy.

In Mandalay, there were reports of security forces firing rubber bullets to disperse crowds. In footage posted on social media, the sound of what appears to be gunshots can be heard as crowds flee, with several people later appearing to display injuries. Police in the city were also reported to have used sling-shots against protesters and were met with volleys of bricks.

A leading student activist who has gone into hiding, Myo Ko Ko, told reporters why he and others were willing to risk their lives.  "We strongly believe in democracy and human rights. We know that it's risky," he said.  "I have to move to another place day by day because of being searched (for) by police. We hope the international community will help us."

In the city of Myitkyina, in Kachin state, shooting could also be heard as security forces clashed with anti-coup demonstrators. It was not clear whether rubber bullets or live rounds were fired. 

Students also protested in Nay Pyi Taw-- dozens were arrested and later released.  A doctor at a hospital in Nay Pyi Taw told reporters that security forces were carrying out night-time raids on homes.  "I'm still worrying because they [issued] a curfew . . . not to go outside between 20:00 and 04:00.  But this [provides] a time for the police and soldiers to arrest people like us," said the doctor, who cannot be named for safety reasons.  "The previous day they [broke] into the house, cut down the fence, entered and arrested people unlawfully. That's why I'm also worrying."

 

On the Next Episode of Trump World

 

If You Know Any of These Creeps Call the FBI!

The search for the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol last month isn’t your typical FBI manhunt.  They want to make sure the public keeps paying attention after the initial wave of media coverage around the Capitol attack has calmed. There are still a lot of suspects with photos on the FBI’s website who have yet to be identified-- and they need our help to get eyeballs on the new images and help identify them.  You can check out the full site of faces requiring identification by clicking here.  You can call ‪1-800-CALL-FBI (1-‪800-225-5324) if you know any of these people and/or have information related to this Capitol insurrection, or submit at tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

As a reminder, you can check out the full site of faces requiring identification by clicking here.  You can call ‪1-800-CALL-FBI (1-‪800-225-5324) if you know any of these people and/or have information related to this Capitol insurrection, or submit at tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

 

The GOP's New Nutjobs: Part 3

It's hard to figure out what happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene.  By all accounts, she was a decent high school student and earned a degree in Business Administration from the University of Georgia.  Somehow-- between the time she opened a CrossFit gym and when she started to become interested in politics, she turned into an ignorant, racist moron.

During her primary last year, numerous videos documenting her racist views were made public.  She would often characterize the election of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as “an Islamic invasion of our government,” claimed that Black and Hispanic men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs,” and pushed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis. 

Greene also is part of a growing list of candidates who have expressed support for QAnon, a sprawling set of delusional notions centered on the idea that President Trump is leading a fight against a “deep state” engaged in child sex trafficking, cannibalism, and Satan worship. Greene has also falsely linked Hillary Clinton to pedophilia and human sacrifice and suggested that Barack Obama plotted to kill a Democratic operative with the help of MS-13. 

She posted wide-eyed videos on Facebook describing Q as someone who “very much loves his country” and is “on the same page as us,” and she wrote pro-QAnon articles for a far-right Web outlet called American Truth Seekers.  Conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who is known for making his own inflammatory remarks said, “She’s bat-shit crazy,” referring to Greene.

None of Greene's public statements or beliefs seemed to hurt Greene during her primary in the heavily conservative district of northwestern Georgia.  Her successful campaign was heavily self-financed-- thanks to her father, who sold her and her husband his highly successful construction company in 2002. 

Nothing has seemed to change since she took office.  She refused to wear a mask to the swearing-in ceremony, She objected to certifying the Electoral College vote after the January 6 coup, and after Trump was caught on tape trying to shake down election officials in her own state in his quest to find enough votes to overturn Biden’s lead there. She had her personal Twitter feed locked for 12 hours last weekend for continuing to spew nonsense about the election being stolen. And just today, she began a windmill-tilting expedition to impeach Biden.

But Greene may have really outdone herself earlier today. In case you missed it, on Tuesday Media Matters unearthed several old Facebook posts in which Greene called the Parkland shooting a “false flag.” Predictably, a number of Parkland survivors were not amused, and demanded her resignation. Today, Media Matters discovered that in 2018, Greene endorsed claims that 9-11 was an “inside job,” and that Sandy Hook was a false flag.  She also once claimed that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers.  Greene also has repeatedly liked or commented approvingly on Facebook posts that called for the execution of FBI agents, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

Greene responded by saying that "Communists bloggers . . . run the same playbook of lies and smears on people they feel threatened by."   Boy, it's going to be a fun two years!

 

 

 

 

COVID Valentine's Day Reality

 

Trump Defense Lawyer Now Joins the GOP As a Complete Joke

Philadelphia attorney Michael T. van der Veen has taken a starring role in Donald Trump’s impeachment defense over the last two days — and he’s also incurred both ridicule and political backlash. 

In day 1 of the Trump defense, van der Veen shockingly refused to answer questions relating to two key areas: when Trump first learned of the attack on the Capitol and the nature of his response, and whether Joe Biden, in fact, won the 2020 presidential election.

Later on Friday night, vandals spray-painted “TRAITOR” on the driveway of his suburban Philadelphia home, after he spent hours on the Senate floor hurling partisan invective and testily condemning the former president’s second impeachment trial as “constitutional cancel culture.”

A group of demonstrators calling him a “facist” gathered outside his Center City law office chanting, “When van der Veen lies, what do you do? Convict. Convict.”

And when he returned to the Senate podium Saturday for a debate over whether witnesses would be called to testify about Trump’s mindset during the January 6 insurrection, his suggestion that he would seek to depose at least 100 people at his office drew audible, bipartisan guffaws from the room — and set the internet ablaze.

“None of these depositions should be done by Zoom,” he said. “These depositions should be done in person, in my office in Philly-delphia.”

Van der Veen appeared confused by the response that followed his pronunciation of the city and his threat to drag people to his office there.  “I don’t know how many civil lawyers are here, but that’s the way it works folks,” he shouted over the chuckling. “I don’t know why you’re laughing. It is civil process. That is the way lawyers do it.”

His behavior turned himself and Philadelphia  — the place where Trump famously declared that “bad things happen” — into internet fodder.

 

 

 

Convict the Motherfucker Already!

Late yesterday, CNN broke news about a heated phone call between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump that took place as the January 6th mob were storming the Capitol and attempting to break into McCarthy's office.  The existence of the phone call was revealed by GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Butler, whom McCarthy told of the call shortly after it occurred.

During the attack on his office, McCarthy made several attempts to get a call through to Trump.   When he finally was able to reach Trump, McCarthy asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot.  Trump initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol.  McCarthy refuted that assertion and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when Trump responded: "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are."

McCarthy then replied to Trump: "Who the fuck do you think you are talking to?"  The call, confirmed by multiple Republicans briefed on it, provide critical insight into the President's state of mind as rioters were overrunning the Capitol.  The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene. Several said it amounted to a dereliction of his presidential duty. 

Aerial banner flown over Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Beach this morning

The news came on the heels of claims that Trump's defense lawyers lied during the impeachment proceedings when they said that that "at no point" did Trump know Mike Pense was in danger, and that Trump never talked to Senator Tommy Tuberville on the day of the January 6 attack. 

Multiple sources confirm that Trump, shortly after 2 pm on the day of the attack, tried to reach Tuberville and accidentally dialed Senator Mike Lee's number instead. When Lee answered the call, he passed his cell phone to Tuberville.  Late Friday, Tuberville confirned to reporters that he told Trump, "Mr. President, they've taken the vice president out. They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go."

 

Olivio Rodrigo - Drivers License

The GOP's New Nutjobs: Part 2

Second on our list of wayward wingnuts is Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.  Despite a pedigreed education and privileged job opportunities afterward, Hawley never actually practice law or prosecuted a single case before becoming Attorney General of Missouri.

Hawley loves to rage against “coastal elites” despite having attended both Stanford and Yale himself.  He rails against career politicians, despite the fact that before becoming senator, the vast majority of his limited resume included a Supreme Court clerkship (a federal job), working at a state-run school as a professor, and then cashing a paycheck as a public employee (Attorney General)

During his campaign, Hawley was charged by the FEC with an elaborate scheme to illegally coordinate efforts with the National Rifle Association.

Once in office, Hawley’s mismanagement overwhelmed the Attorney General's Jefferson City office. The New York Times thoroughly documented his lack of oversight and organizational skills back in 2018.  The piece highlighted his lack of oversight and organizational skills, which resulted in millions of legal costs for a state that was hovering on the brink of insolvency.

Hawley first attracted controversy by whitewashing the investigation into the former governor's illegal use of self-destructing text messaging app.  Hawley also helped sue the Trump government to overturn protections for overtime pay, costing over a quarter of a million Missourians over $29M in lost revenue.

As Attorney General, Hawley hemorrhaged staff on a scale much greater than any of his predecessors. His teams have been chastised by judges in court for not providing necessary documents to opposing counsel. He is required by law to live in Jefferson City and only after the St. Louis Post Dispatch report on that issue did he acquire an apartment in the state capital. 

After he was elected Senator, Hawley was investigated by Missouri for misappropriating public funds for his Senate campaign, although charges were never brought.  He has also been violating Missouri law by claiming to reside at his sister’s home in Ozark, Missouri, while actually living full time in northern Virginia.

Since the election, Hawley has joined with Trump in various lies regarding the election-- mail-in voting is fraud; sending out universal ballots is fraud; "urban" voting is fraud; all ballots cast in "Democrat run" places are fraud.

On the day of the Capitol Attack, Hawley provide public support for the insurrectionists, leading many major newspapers and peers in the Senate to call for his resignation.  Simon and Schuster cancelled his book deal.  Supporters began canceling fundraisers.  Hawley mentor and former Senator John Danforth said that “supporting Josh Hawley ... was the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.”   Senator Ben Sasse, a fellow Republican from neighboring Nebraska, called Hawley a "dumb-ass."  Revulsion for Hawley is even on the rise in his hometown of Lexington, where support once seemed guaranteed.