JD Vance says he's wouldn't have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors
The senator also suggested Trump should ignore "illegitimate" court rulings.
Sen. JD Vance on Sunday defended Donald Trump as the former president faces a litany of legal issues amid his comeback campaign for the White House.
In a contentious interview with ABC News "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos, Vance -- a onetime Trump critic -- also doubled down on his views of the 2020 election, saying the results shouldn't have been immediately certified, and he went on to suggest Trump should ignore "illegitimate" U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Vance, an Ohio Republican who has been floated in the media as a potential running mate for Trump, was asked by Stephanopoulos if he would have certified the 2020 election results as vice president, as required by the Constitution and as then-Vice President Mike Pence did.
Vance called it a "ridiculous question" and claimed Stephanopoulos was "obsessed with talking about this" but went on to say he would have liked to see the certification of the 2020 election handled differently.
"Do I think there were problems in 2020? Yes, I do," he said citing a list of issues, including social media restrictions on some content about Hunter Biden and changes in state election laws to accommodate for health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there," he continued. "That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that's what we should have done."
The Constitution makes no such provisions for this. There has been no confirmed evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 race, and the results were affirmed by local officials across the country, including many Republicans.
Stephanopoulos also asked Vance about a September 2021 podcast interview where he said that if Trump is reelected in 2024, he would advise the former president to "fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people" -- and, if and when the courts tried to stop him, "stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'"
"Fire everyone in the government, then defy the Supreme Court? You think it's OK for the president to defy the Supreme Court?" Stephanopoulos asked.
Vance asserted that he "did not say fire everyone in government," but Stephanopoulos pushed back, repeating that Vance said in the podcast Trump should replace "every civil servant in the administrative state."
Vance, however, continued, arguing, "We have a major problem here with administrators and bureaucrats in the government who don't respond to the elected branches. ... If those people aren't following the rules, then of course you've got to fire them, and of course, the president has to be able to run the government as he thinks he should. That's the way the Constitution works."
"The Constitution also says the president must abide by legitimate Supreme Court rulings, doesn't it?" Stephanopoulos pressed.
"The Constitution says that the Supreme Court can make rulings ... but if the Supreme Court said the president of the United States can't fire a general, that would be an illegitimate ruling," Vance said.
Vance separately cast the civil and criminal cases against Trump as biased, including a jury in New York finding the former president liable for sexual assault and another New York jury awarding $83 million in defamation damages to E. Jean Carroll, who says she was assaulted by Trump -- which has been spotlighted in anti-Trump advertising.
Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney warned that GOP Senator J.D. Vance is "unfit" for office because of his remarks about the Supreme Court potentially making an "illegitimate ruling."
Vance is facing scrutiny over comments he made during an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. During the interview, Vance addressed 2021 remarks in which he said Donald Trump should have "replaced" midlevel bureaucrats with individuals "responsive to the administration."
Stephanopoulos pressed the Ohio Republican on whether it would be OK for the president to defy the Supreme Court if it ruled against such a move.
"The Constitution says that the Supreme Court can make rulings, but if the Supreme Court—and look, I hoped that they would not do this—but if the Supreme Court said the president of the United States can't fire a general, that would be an illegitimate ruling. And the president has to have Article 2 prerogative under the Constitution to actually run the military as he sees fit," he said.
Vance's comments drew sharp criticism from Cheney, who represented Wyoming in Congress before losing her primary race in 2022 to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, who now represents the deeply conservative state's at-large district.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Cheney wrote: "Yesterday, @JDVance1 claimed that Trump could defy rulings of the Supreme Court as President. Vance also admitted he would have done what VP Pence refused to do on January 6th—help Trump illegally seize power. That's tyranny. Neither Trump nor Vance is fit to serve."
A Vance spokesman declined to comment when reached by Newsweek. Newsweek also reached out to Cheney's the Great Task PAC for comment via email.
Donald Trump Jr. came to Vance's defense—and recalled Cheney's primary defeat—in a post to X.
"That's funny, because the voters of Wyoming clearly decided that you weren't fit to serve, when they threw you out of office in an embarrassing 50 point blowout," he wrote.
Cheney's status among House Republicans suffered after she turned against the former president following the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters violently protested the 2020 presidential election results.
She was among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president after he was charged in the chamber with "incitement of insurrection." She also served on the House select committee investigating the riot and lost her post in the House Republican leadership. She has continued to speak out against Trump and about the direction she believes the GOP must take.
In 2022, Cheney endorsed Vance's Democratic challenger, then-Representative Tim Ryan. A spokesperson for Vance at the time called her endorsement the "kiss of death" for Ryan's campaign. Vance ultimately won the election by a 6-point margin and has since emerged as an outspoken conservative voice in the Senate.
I can't answer that question 05. I think it was rhetorical in nature anyway. I live in Tennessee. Can you imagine how many questions i have in those same regards?
Trump Now Falsely Claims He Didn’t Endorse Immigration Bill Co-Author
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, who helped draw up the immigration bill that Trump hates, received Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement” in 2022.
Donald Trump said during an interview Monday that he did not endorse Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who won re-election in 2022 and is now one of the architects of the immigration bill that Trump opposes. The problem: Trump did endorse him.
“Just to correct the record, I did not endorse Sen. Lankford. I didn’t do it. He ran, and I did not endorse him,” Trump claimed on The Dan Bongino Show, after the host made Trump aware that some have called attention to the former president's endorsement. “So I’m sure your person will be happy to hear that.”
The truth, however, is easily accessible.
In a statement on Sept. 27, 2022, Trump gave his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to Lankford, and even praised the senator as “Strong on the Border.”
“James was strongly committed to America First, and everything it stood for, and likewise strongly committed to me, as President. Sometimes we didn’t exactly agree on everything, but we do now,” the statement read. “He is a very good man with a fabulous wife and family, loves the great State of Oklahoma, and is working very hard on trying to Save our Country from the disaster that it is in.”
Trump, who also falsely claimed just days ago that he had “won” one of his New York cases in an appeals court, has stated his opposition to the immigration bill that Lankford and Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) drew up, and many Republicans in Congress feel the same. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who admitted last month that he speaks with Trump “pretty frequently” about the border situation, called it “dead on arrival” should it reach the House. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a vocal Trump supporter, likewise bashed it, as did House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA).
Several Republicans, like Rep. Troy Nels (R-TX), have openly admitted that they would prefer not to pass legislation that would help President Joe Biden’s political fortunes. On that note, Lankford said later Monday on CNN that “a chaotic border is helpful to” Trump.
Biden has signaled his support for the bill, urging lawmakers in a statement to “get it to my desk so I can sign it into law immediately.”
Just so I'm sure I understand his thinking, If citizens in (pick your state)were to vote for Joe Biden, JD Vance is saying that we should still allow Trump Electors to be counted?
Just so I'm sure I understand his thinking, If citizens in (pick your state)were to vote for Joe Biden, JD Vance is saying that we should still allow Trump Electors to be counted?
Do I have that right?
Isn't that just like ignoring what the voters are saying? In that case, why even bother to have an election.
If that's the case, then we've been warned about this before. Republicans or should I say, MAGA's don't care about the voters. We don't matter.
Just so I'm sure I understand his thinking, If citizens in (pick your state)were to vote for Joe Biden, JD Vance is saying that we should still allow Trump Electors to be counted?
Do I have that right?
Isn't that just like ignoring what the voters are saying? In that case, why even bother to have an election.
If that's the case, then we've been warned about this before. Republicans or should I say, MAGA's don't care about the voters. We don't matter.
Yes, that is what is he saying. He is telling you the quiet part out loud. They are not hiding it anymore. This is the playbook for 2024
Rush Linbaugh used the beginning of “My city was gone” as a lead in to his radio show. He was forced to pay a licensing fee to continue to use it. Chrissie Hynde donated the money to PETA.
But then he has also compared likened himself to prominent historical figures, including Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, and even Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting.
No, you do NOT look like Elvis nor have anything in common with Elvis. One example is Elvis didn't claim to have bone spurs to dodge the military.
And yet more of them who are "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs".......
Tennessee man who was working with militias planned to act as a sniper and attack Southern border, feds say
Paul Faye was arrested Monday after he allegedly sold an undercover agent working with the FBI an unregistered suppressor for an AK-47, according to federal court records.
A Tennessee man who planned to travel to the southern border with an arsenal of weapons and explosives to “stir up the hornet’s nest” was arrested Monday, federal officials say.
Paul Faye, who told undercover agents that the U.S. was "being invaded" by illegal immigrants, has been charged with selling an unregistered firearm suppressor, according to a criminal complaint federal prosecutors filed this week in Nashville, Tennessee.
Faye faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted. He will appear in federal court Monday for a detention hearing.
Faye’s public defender could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night.
The news of Faye's arrest was first reported by Court Watch.
Faye had been on the FBI's radar for a year, and late last year, he told an undercover FBI agent that he was coordinating with militia groups from Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee and planning to travel to the border, the document says. He said he planned to meet up with a person who could make explosives to take to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the court document.
His aim was to “stir up the hornet’s nest” and garner significant media coverage, the complaint said.
“What I hope happens. Is called a domino effect. I want, I want the news to find out about it,” Faye said, according to the criminal complaint.
Faye also allegedly conveyed to the FBI employee that one of his roles within the group traveling to the border was to serve as a sniper.
He said "his talent was 'sending rounds down range,'" the complaint says.
During a meeting with three undercover employees on April 1, Faye “discussed his belief that the government was training to take on its citizens, and more specifically, that the federal government was allowing illegal immigrants to enter the United States to help the government,” the complaint says.
The next month, on a recorded phone call with an undercover employee, Faye warned, "The patriots are going to rise up because we are being invaded. We are being invaded,” according to the criminal complaint.
On Jan. 11, Faye allegedly sold an undercover FBI employee an AK-47 rifle suppressor for $100 that was not registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Firearm Registration and Transfer Record, the complaint says.
That day, two undercover agents met with Faye at his home, where he showed them his “war room," according to the criminal complaint.
The room was full of “numerous firearms, a large amount of ammunition, radios, and a bulletproof vest,” the complaint says. He invited the undercover agents to hold numerous weapons, including a Creedmoor rifle, multiple AR-15 rifles and a shotgun, the complaint says.
GOP’s Massie: McCarthy ouster ‘has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster’
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last October has been an “unmitigated disaster,” a day after the House GOP twice fell short in floor votes in embarrassing fashion.
“Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster,” Massie wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“All work on separate spending bills has ceased. Spending reductions have been traded for spending increases,” he continued. “Warrantless spying has been temporarily extended. Our majority has shrunk.”
The GOP is dealing with a slender majority in the House, which was also a problem for McCarthy but which has shrunk further since his exit.
On Tuesday, Republicans saw their effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas fall short on the floor, after three of their members defected and one Democrat unexpectedly showed up to vote. They thus fell one vote short of impeaching Mayorkas, a high priority for conservatives.
Immediately after that vote, a bill to provide aid to Israel that was brought to the floor under the suspension of House rules also failed; it needed a two-thirds majority because of the suspension of House rules, but Democrats and Republicans opposed it.
The twin defeats raised questions about the House GOP’s ability to govern — and its ability to count votes.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led the push to unseat McCarthy, pushed back on Massie’s remarks on X.
“McCarthy lied to us, made secret side deals, increased spending, got rolled by Biden and shrunk our majority by quitting when he couldn’t run the place,” the Florida Republican replied. “His removal was warranted.”
In response to a separate reply, Massie asked a commenter to “name one thing that’s improved under the new Speaker.”
Gaetz himself shot back, “Here’s one: we haven’t sent any money to Ukraine (yet).”
The Tuesday losses by the GOP were a significant defeat for the man who succeeded McCarthy, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
He has struggled to unify Republicans around measures to fund the government and will face new challenges in March when deadlines to prevent a government shutdown loom.
The Mayorkas impeachment issue is expected to return to the House. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) missed Tuesday’s vote as he gets treatment for blood cancer. Assuming no one else changes their vote, his presence could be enough to impeach Mayorkas.
Still, Johnson has had to deal with the same threats as McCarthy. Both Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have threatened to offer a motion to vacate the chair against him if he does not meet various demands. Such a motion was used to end McCarthy’s Speakership.
In response to Massie’s post, former Trump administration communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin said Wednesday it’s “only a matter of time” before a Republican member files a motion to vacate the chair against Johnson.
“And it’d be entirely justified,” added Griffin, a high-profile GOP critic of Trump and his allies.
That actually made perfect sense. The two aren’t even close. Hell, many R’s in office are already commending Fetterman.
Hey, I'm glad Fetterman seems like he's coming full circle. I'll commend the heck out of him, he makes more sense and sounds more reasonable than most in the swamp. Most importantly he seems like he's on the way to a full recovery.
But... pushing a stroke victim into office when he looks like he looks like he's a few days away from a life of applesauce and Wapner at 4 was not far from grotesque. And it led directly to severe depression and the dude being outspoken about not caring if he lived or died. I think you're taking a bit too much artistic liberty with 'hindsight' here.
It's odd how he wasn't fit to be in office when he said what people such as yourself didn't like and now he should be commended when he says things you do like. More like to be expected than odd actually.
Hey, I'm glad Fetterman seems like he's coming full circle. I'll commend the heck out of him, he makes more sense and sounds more reasonable than most in the swamp.
While you seem to be having difficulty admitting what it is you posted. First you claim he "sounds" more reasonable and then claim it has nothing to do with what he says. Do you even hear yourself?
That actually made perfect sense. The two aren’t even close. Hell, many R’s in office are already commending Fetterman.
Hey, I'm glad Fetterman seems like he's coming full circle. I'll commend the heck out of him, he makes more sense and sounds more reasonable than most in the swamp. Most importantly he seems like he's on the way to a full recovery.
But... pushing a stroke victim into office when he looks like he looks like he's a few days away from a life of applesauce and Wapner at 4 was not far from grotesque. And it led directly to severe depression and the dude being outspoken about not caring if he lived or died. I think you're taking a bit too much artistic liberty with 'hindsight' here.
LOL, I just want you to look me straight in the eye and tell me you would rather vote for the guy who said "crudité"
In all honesty, I think I would have taken my chances with Fetterman, despite the health issues. Medicine on that front, both the coronary and the mental health side, has gotten a lot better. Oz, if I were a Pennsylvania constituent, was an opportunistic, carpet-bagger who kissed the ring. I just couldn't get over that if I had lived there.
I think the carpet-bagging really did him in, too. You had guys like Steve Van Zant telling him to come back to their home state of jersey so they could go surfing...that was pretty funny.
Lol. I spent my life catering, "crudité" is worth double on the invoice.
I didn't have a horse in that race, but indeed, Oz appeared out of place and exuded a sense of desperation toward the end. I felt terrible for Fetterman as he looked miserable down the stretch. Have you heard him speak recently? Just an amazing turn around.
Texas woman sentenced to 3 years in prison for death threats to judge in Trump’s documents case
Tiffani Shea Gish of Houston had pleaded guilty in November to leaving threatening voicemails for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.
A Texas woman accused of making death threats against the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.
Tiffani Shea Gish, of Houston, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a news release.
“Holding Tiffani Gish accountable for her threats to assassinate a federal judge sends a strong message that we have no tolerance for those — who often hide behind a far-off keyboard or phone line — seeking to undermine our democratic institutions by threatening the safety of the people who help those same institutions thrive,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a statement.
A public defender listed for Gish did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.
Gish pleaded guilty in November to one count of using interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure, after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, according to court documents.
That guilty plea came more than a year after Gish's arrest in Houston in connection with threatening voicemails left for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who is overseeing the case against the former president's handling of classified material after leaving office.
According to court documents, Gish had admitted to federal marshals that she left messages for Cannon, warning the judge that she was “marked for assassination” and that she planned to shoot her in front of her family.
Friday’s sentencing comes as other judges in cases related to Trump have become targets.
A Texas woman was charged last year in connection with threats to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case. Chutkan recently postponed the trial, which was scheduled to begin next month, as Trump appeals rulings that said he is not immune from prosecution.
The classified documents case that Cannon is overseeing is scheduled to go to trial in May.
Trump is accused of willfully retaining national defense information in connection with classified documents that were uncovered at his Mar-a-Lago property more than a year after he left office, and scheming with two co-defendants to delete security video at the property.
Trump and co-defendants Walt Nauta, a top aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance supervisor at Mar-a-Lago, have denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a filing Thursday, special counsel Jack Smith's team asked Cannon to reconsider an order to turn over unredacted documents that Smith' team says identify more than two dozen witnesses and threaten their safety and testimony. Prosecutors noted in a separate filing this week that social media threats received by a potential witness in the case are the subject of a federal investigation.
Well there you have it. Pay up or die. Doing Putins bidding. The USA will probably be attacked by Russia before any other state if trump is POTUS again. Putin saw that it takes trump nearly five hours to take action in a violent insurrection. USA Easy Pickens.
I saw this on the news. How can anyone support such a disgusting human being? He just sent a message straight to Putin that he doesn't value NATO. Between the GOP trying to block funding for Ukraine and now this, how much more clear can they make it that they support Russian aggression?
Trump asks about whereabouts of Nikki Haley’s husband, who’s serving overseas
Feb. 10, 2024, 5:58 PM EST / Updated Feb. 10, 2024, 6:16 PM EST By Sarah Dean, Jake Traylor and Emma Barnett link
Michael Haley deployed with the South Carolina National Guard last year.
CONWAY, South Carolina — Former President Donald Trump made a fresh jab at his GOP opponent Nikki Haley’s husband during a rally Saturday afternoon, questioning his whereabouts as he’s deployed overseas.
While telling a story about Haley previously meeting Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, he lobbed rhetorical and prodding questions to the rowdy crowd referencing Haley’s husband, who is currently on military deployment.
“Then she comes over to see me at Mar-a-Lago. ‘Sir, I will never run against you.’ She brought her husband. Where’s your husband? Oh, he’s away. He’s away. What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone! He knew. He knew,” Trump said.
Shortly after Trump’s remarks, Haley said at a rally in Gilbert, South Carolina, that she was proud of her husband’s service.
“I am proud of Michael’s service. Every military spouse knows it’s a family sacrifice. … If you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don’t deserve a driver’s license, let alone being president of the United States,” Haley said.
The former South Carolina governor issued a challenge directly to Trump.
"Donald, if you have something to say, don’t say it behind my back. Get on a debate stage and say it to my face," she said.
Haley also blasted Trump’s comments in a post on X.
“Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about,” Haley wrote in response to Trump’s comments Saturday. “Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”
Haley did not offer a theory of what Trump meant when he said, “He knew.”
Michael Haley also seemingly responded to Trump in a post on X, tagging him alongside a meme saying, “The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest ones to lead the pack.”
The commissioned officer left for a yearlong deployment in Africa with the South Carolina National Guard last June, something Nikki Haley mentions at every campaign event during her stump speech.
In a speech last month, Trump referenced the state of the Haleys’ marriage to suggest that if the former South Carolina governor held a commanding lead in the GOP primary, Democrats would indict her and say she was having an affair.
“They’ll be indicted, because they’ll say she was having an affair or something, you know. That doesn’t mean it’s lying. But she’ll be indicted for something,” Trump said.
Haley has gone after Trump with new force since the primary’s focus moved to her home state of South Carolina. Earlier Saturday, the Haley campaign debuted a mobile billboard featuring photos of Trump and Biden as “Grumpy Old Men,” which was driven around Trump’s rally in Conway.
While debuting her brand-new campaign bus at its first stop in Newberry, South Carolina, on Saturday afternoon, Haley spoke of both Biden’s and Trump’s confusion.
“Why can’t they let go of the power and let a new generational leader come in there?” she said.
An audience member yelled out, “No grumpy old men!”
Haley responded by saying, “They are grumpy old men. But I’ll tell you: We can do better.”
Trump, the front-runner for the nomination, is polling well ahead of Haley in the South Carolina primary.
NATO leader says Trump puts allies at risk by saying Russia can 'do whatever the hell they want’ VANESSA GERA and LORNE COOK Updated Sun, February 11, 2024 at 12:47 PM EST·4 min read
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The head of the NATO military alliance warned Sunday that Donald Trump was putting the safety of U.S. troops and their allies at risk after the Republican presidential front-runner said Russia should be able to do "whatever the hell they want" to NATO members who don't meet their defense spending targets.
“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Speaking Saturday at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Trump recalled how as president he told an unidentified NATO member that he would “encourage” Russia to do as it wishes in cases of NATO allies who are “delinquent.”
“‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted saying. “‘No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
Trump’s remarks caused deep concern in Poland, which was under Russian control in past centuries, and where anxieties are high over the war Russia is waging just across the Polish border in Ukraine.
“We have a hot war at our border," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday, voicing concerns about whether the United States will show “full solidarity with other NATO countries in this confrontation that promises to last for a long time with Russia.”
“We must realize that the EU cannot be an economic and civilizational giant and a dwarf when it comes to defense, because the world has changed,” he argued in a town hall speech marking the start of his party’s campaign for local elections this spring.
In 2014, NATO allies pledged to move toward spending 2% of GDP on defense by 2024. According to NATO estimates in early 2023, 10 of its 30 member states at the time were close to or above the 2% mark, while 13 were spending 1.5% or less.
No country is in debt to any other, or to NATO.
Stoltenberg said he expects that, “regardless of who wins the presidential election, the U.S. will remain a strong and committed NATO ally.”
The German government did not officially comment on Trump’s remarks, but its foreign office pointed out NATO's solidarity principle in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
“‘One for all and all for one.’ This NATO creed keeps more than 950 million people safe," it said.
Trump's comments were of particular concern to NATO's front-line countries, like Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which were either under the control of Moscow or fully incorporated into the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Fears there run especially high given Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who is allied with the right-wing opposition, and who was seen as friendly to Trump during his presidency, tweeted that the Polish-U.S. alliance must be strong “regardless of who is currently in power in Poland and the USA.”
He warned: “Offending half of the American political scene serves neither our economic interests nor Poland’s security.”
In an editorial Sunday, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also called for European nations to spend more on defense.
It said that if Trump wins the presidency again, statements like the one he made on Saturday night "will increase the risk of Putin expanding his war. Europeans can only do one thing to counter this: finally invest in their military security in line with the seriousness of the situation.”
Trump’s tenure, which was marked by his open admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, became a near-existential challenge for NATO, an organization largely controlled by the United States. The prospect that Trump might return to power remains a deep concern among allies.
Stoltenberg was praised for his diplomatic skills in keeping NATO together during the Trump years, but the former Norwegian prime minister is stepping down. His successor is likely to be announced by the time allied leaders meet in Washington for NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in July.
Under NATO’s mutual defense clause, Article 5 of its founding treaty, all allies commit to help any member who comes under attack. The article has only ever been activated once – by the U.S. in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
NATO has undertaken its biggest military buildup since the Cold War since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
It's totally fine to call out countries that need to meet their obligations. Doing what he did, though, is inexcusable. There is no valid apologist stance for it.
It's also just another data point out of seemingly hundreds at this point that point toward a very concerning dynamic in how he treats/refers to Russia and Putin.
Obviously trump bought into the crazy "Swift will endorse Biden at the SB" BS. Has he ever seen a right wing conspiracy he didn't love? "People are saying."........
Trump to Taylor Swift: Don’t be ungrateful
Endorsing Joe Biden would “be disloyal to the man who made her so much money,” Trump posted.
Hours before the kickoff of Super Bowl LVIII, Donald Trump had a message for Taylor Swift: Don’t endorse Joe Biden.
In a post on social media Sunday, the former president made a backhanded plea to the pop star, who is expected to be featured prominently on TV during the game, which her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, is playing in.
Trump claimed credit for Swift’s financial success, calling a possible endorsement of Biden “disloyal to the man who made her so much money.”
“I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referencing legislation he signed in 2018 meant to modernize copyright laws.
“There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”
Late last month, a New York Times report that Biden’s campaign was looking to court Swift’s endorsement fueled a chain of conspiracies, including one that the NFL postseason was rigged to favor the Chiefs so Swift could deliver the endorsement in front of a massive TV audience at the game.
Swift endorsed Biden over Trump in 2020, but has not given any indication that she’ll weigh in again.
I''m sorry Pit, but I'm having a hard time actually believing that ANYONE can be that freaking stupid.. This has to be a set up.. NO WAY is anyone that stupid. Are you sure it wasn't a video comedy thing from the Comedy channel? Geez.
This is what happens when you put a man in charge who has no idea about history and what the importance of what such an alliance means.
It's not about history Pit, it's about what Putin wants. Dictators want to rule the world and Trump has the mentality of a Dictator so doing the biding of someone he respects is part of the method to his madness.
“During my four years nothing happened,” Trump said. “And there was great pressure on me, having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield.”
From Jan. 20, 2017, to Jan. 19, 2021 – Trump's time as president – the country saw 1,714 mass shootings in which four or more people were killed or wounded, with 1,679 deaths and 7,355 injuries.
What a proud record. Really something to brag about donnie.
If republicans can get Trump back into office, ish will hit the fan from all directions anyway. If Trump and his GOPer cohorts don’t end the country, there will be a huge mess dems will need to fix when moderates and independents voting for Trump wake up. The SOB shouldn’t even be on a ballot.
Amen. I'm again struck by how unbelievably stupid some of our current leaders are---and what they've publicly stated and are not held accountable for-- Trump has thousands- Greene, her endless conspiracies- school schoolings, pentagon not hit by terrorist airliner, space lasers,....the one I've just read about Senator Tommy Tuberville- got elected by hiding away before election and he stated our three branches of government were- House, Senate, and Executive----dear God- a SENATOR who couldn't get basic government question right----HOLY MOSES.
And Trump wants to get us out of NATO- only wants one day as a dictator-----DAMN, ain't our country great we even consider the idiot AGAIN. Pray and vote.
Tucker Carlson Defends Putin, Says ‘Leadership Requires Killing’ | Video Sharon Knolle Mon, February 12, 2024 at 8:20 PM CST·2 min read 2.2k
Tucker Carlson had a curious defense of Vladimir Putin in his first interview since interviewing the Russian autocrat, saying “Every leader kills people, leadership requires killing.”
Carlson’s remarks were made at the 2024 World Government Summit in Dubai, where he was interviewed by Egyptian journalist Emad Eldin Adeeb.
Adeeb asked Carlson why he neglected to ask Putin about such pressing topics as the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. “I’m not going to lecture you, but you should challenge some ideas,” said Adeeb. “You did not talk about freedom of speech, you did not talk about Navlny…”
Carlson replied that other journalists had already posed such questions to Putin, adding, essentially, that it’s not news that Putin has ordered hits on his enemies. “Every leader kills people, leadership requires killing,” said the former Fox News anchor. (Carlson’s comments that “leadership requires killing” appear about 17 minutes into the 26-minute segment.)
Although Carlson did ask Putin about the potential release of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich during the interview that took place in Moscow, he told Adeeb that his primary goal was to “let Putin talk” and “hear his thoughts.” Carlson said that positioning himself as the “good guy” to Putin’s “bad guy” would “not be fruitful.”
When Adeeb asked about Carlson’s response to the criticism leveled at him over his Putin interview, Carlson responded,”I don’t like the internet and I haven’t seen any of the reactions.” Adeeb asked specifically if Carlson had heard Hillary Clinton’s summation that he had proved “a useful idiot” to the Russian dictator and he claimed not to have heard about it.
“She’s a child, I don’t listen to her,” he said of the former Secretary of State.
While Carlson insisted several times that he is “not flakking for Putin,” he did praise Moscow for being better than any current U.S. city. “Moscow is so much nicer than any city in my country, cleaner and safer and prettier. I grew up in a country that had cities like Moscow and Abu Dhabi, and Singapore and Tokyo, and we no longer have them.”
Decrying the “filth and graffiti” found in American cities and people “begging for drugs” in London, Carlson seemed to be saying that if he were in charge, those kinds of things would not happen: “My children don’t smoke marijuana at the breakfast table because I don’t allow them.”
Carlson also has a long history of supporting pro-Putin and pro-Russia talking points on issues like the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine or U.S.-Russia relations, and criticizing Putin’s enemies and people arrested and imprisoned by Russia.
The post Tucker Carlson Defends Putin, Says ‘Leadership Requires Killing’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Because people are not going to watch the video and simply read the chopped up comments......Full quote after being asked why (paparphrasing) he didn't ask questions pertaining to burnings, killings, restrictions on opposition...etc:
I didn't talk about the things every other media outlet talks about because those are covered and because I have spent my life talking to people who run countries and have concluded the following.....That every leader kills people, including my leader. Every leader kills people, some more than others. Leadership requires killing. Sorry. It's why I wouldn't want to become a leader. That press restriction is universal in the United States because I've lived it...ask my former employer. I've had a lot of jobs and I've done this for 34 years and I know how it works. And there is more censorship in Russia than there is in the United States but there is a great deal in the United States. And so, at a certain point, people can decide whether they think what countries are better than others and what systems they think are better. I just wanted to know what he thinks, which was the whole point
To suggest he was 'excusing', 'defending" Putin or "stanning his boy" is ridiculous. And this article, like so many others in the world of journalism, cuts and dices up what they want in a narrative knowing people aren't going to watch the clip. I agree with the interviewer that he SHOULD have asked those direct questions, but to claim (which is being broadly propped up here in the last few posts) that he is defending Putin or idea of killing, is stupid to put it as its mildest. Sorry, dawglover05, I didn't think this would have been something you would post.
Added note and it is sad I need to put there here: I am not a Carlson fan. Just this narrative is worse.
Nope. It is not ridiculous. Not even in the least. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills that he has these apologists. It makes no sense to me. What about that quote absolves him?
If you cannot see the pattern of his Putin/Russia apologism, including where his segments have been re-aired on Russian media airwaves, then there is nothing I can do to help you.
I have followed Tucker for a long time and I cannot stand him. I watched the entire Putin interview and already put my commentary on that thread. Did you watch the whole thing? Have you seen how many times he has undermined and thrown crap at a leader whose country was invaded and has experienced blatant human rights abuses at the hand of a clear authoritarian dictator? Did you not think that Putin went off the rails in that interview? How many times could he have stepped in and asked 1,000 different questions that needed to be asked?
Haha...I'm an apologist now? Because I have come to Carlson's rescue here so many times here! Clearly, your emotions about Carlson are leading you to make this claim so I won't hold you to it.
Calling out a slanted article (which it is) chopping up a quote (that will be blindly accepted by people here because they will never see the clip) that he is 'defending' and 'excusing' Putin is ridiculous. There are things I wished I would have seen differently from that interview. One of the biggest takeaways I took from him interviewing was that Tucker seemed scared or nervous. Scared about what the way he was asking questions. And I think it was that reason why the gently skipped over the hard questions...and the censorship element he made reference to in his clip. That's just a small take among many but it is one.
You insinuate with your comments that he is on Team Putin. That's your opinion but this tone feels like 2016 all over again with past accusations about someone's loyalty that ended up being worth less than the Charmin Ultra I wipe my ass with.
I don't know if you're an apologist or not, but your defense of him, and some others as well, constitute apologism in these instances. I don't think that's arguable.
Like I said, I don't think his interview did much to take away from the point of that article. He has defended Putin on multiple occasions, and did he not, in that same interview talk about Moscow's superiority to U.S. cities. If this instance had been one in isolation, I might be able to see your point, but as I mentioned earlier, when you put Carlson's entire body of work together, and doing things like calling Zelensky "rat-like" (you know, the guy whose country was unjustifiably invaded and whose people were tortured mercilessly and summarily executed), you see a very disturbing pattern. But yeah, Bucha is fine, you know, because being a leader requires killing......
I do have emotions on this topic. That's true. I think they are warranted. People like Carlson and JD Vance are incredibly intelligent. Nobody should say otherwise. But they have painted this whole thing in such an untrue light with so many twists, turns and abundant misframing and misinterpretation that they have dog-whistled to people who really don't know any better at all. THAT is what triggers my anger.
I don't understand your 2016 reference, but if you feel like he hasn't come to Putin's aid, as evidenced by him playing on Russian media, then I don't know what to tell you. It's been a pattern of years now, both with the likes of Putin and Orban. It's not an opinion by the way. It's pretty much out there for everyone to see. Chris Wallace - a former Fox colleague of Carlson - put it correctly when he stated that referring to Tucker Carlson as a useful idiot is insulting...to useful idiots.
I also laugh a little bit at your disappointment in my posts. Should I perhaps resort to things like posting GIFs and memes, and use phrases like "Lolz" instead, to avoid disappointment?
You are 100% correct. What Carslon is basically saying is "I didn't call him out or ask him any tough questions". You know, because other people have brought these things up? And people buy that backtracking. But it does help me to understand why we're where we are.
Then there is no need to call me one. Just because once I refute an article's description of one of his responses, doesn't mean one is an apologist of someone...except for maybe better journalism. Feel free to call me a better journalism apologist.
Originally Posted by dawglover05
I do have emotions on this topic. That's true. I think they are warranted. People like Carlson and JD Vance are incredibly intelligent. Nobody should say otherwise. But they have painted this whole thing in such an untrue light with so many twists, turns and abundant misframing and misinterpretation that they have dog-whistled to people who really don't know any better at all. THAT is what triggers my anger.
Yes, clearly you do. Politics are more emotional than ever and don't disagree that people make many twists and turns and misframing based on their leanings. I just think the article you posted did the very same thing.
Originally Posted by dawglover05
Chris Wallace - a former Fox colleague of Carlson - put it correctly when he stated that referring to Tucker Carlson as a useful idiot is insulting...to useful idiots.
Seems a bit contradictory to an earlier comment. Besides, I'm not really concerned with what Chris Wallace says or doesn't say. I can come up with my own opinions on topics, thank you very much, without needing to have the thoughts of someone else when coming up with my take.
Originally Posted by dawglover05
I also laugh a little bit at your disappointment in my posts. Should I perhaps resort to things like posting GIFs and memes, and use phrases like "Lolz" instead, to avoid disappointment?
Not disappointed in your posts (plural), just disappointed in your post of the article because I find you to be a reasonable, fair poster on political topics on this board in a group of maybe 2-3 other people. But seeing the emotion re: Carlson, I can now see why you did.
1. When did I call you one? You committed an act of apologism. I stated I don't know if you are a Carlson apologist or not.
2. I don't see that in the article. Like I said before, when you extrapolate out that quote, I don't think it helped him at all.
3. I don't see the contradiction you are referring to. I also don't care what your opinion of Chris Wallace is either. I found his quote to be on point. He is worse than useful idiots because he's intelligent and he pretty much controls hoardes of useful idiots. Your point also seems contradictory to me, considering the plethora of tweets, memes, resources and articles you post. Hell, this whole thread is concerning the thoughts of a media personality. So I introduce the viewpoints of another one and it's "I'm not really concerned with what he has to say." Doesn't make sense.
4. The emotion I have on Carlson is based on a set of facts. The frustration comes from the fact that I feel like I need to repeatedly point out something that is obvious in regard to someone who blatantly displays red flags. Feel free to be disappointed. Your disappointment does not sway me, nor should it. This, to me, is a topic that merits passion.
I frequently am disappointed by the rhetoric on these forums that involve mindless meme-sharing and a plethora of phrases such as "Lolz", "your tears taste so good", "Pffft..." and whatnot, which happen constantly, so much that I took a rather extended hiatus from this board, but I guess I try to move on, at the end of the day.
You are 100% correct. What Carslon is basically saying is "I didn't call him out or ask him any tough questions". You know, because other people have brought these things up? And people buy that backtracking. But it does help me to understand why we're where we are.
Not to mention, too, by the way, that he opened up his interview preview, IIRC, by mentioning that nobody has tried to get Putin's point of view or interview him, which is a lie that has been dispelled six ways from Sunday. Thinking about this more, I think I have seen what Tucker Carlson has done to the minds of my own family, who blatantly and parrot parrot the mistruths to me, a person who is far closer to the situation in Ukraine than I let on in here, and I think that triggers me even further.
Trump is now trying to dictate who runs the RNC. Not only is he endorsing a new Chair of the RNC, but the co-chair who just happens to be his daughter in law. Sounds like a rerun of Jared and Ivanka....
Lara Trump says she’d spend ‘every single penny’ of RNC funds to elect father-in-law
At least your emotional disdain doesn't run this deep, dawgtalker05.
The guy is a traitor through and through, but I’m crazy? It’s not hate, it patriotism.
Tucker wants America to be a dictatorship like Russia. He’s praising Putin, supports Trump, and everything that crosses his lips is traitorous poison. I blame him for about a third of America going nuts due to his constant lies and misinformation. Screw him and anyone like him. They can go to hell.
At least your emotional disdain doesn't run this deep, dawgtalker05.
The guy is a traitor through and through, but I’m crazy? It’s not hate, it patriotism.
Tucker wants America to be a dictatorship like Russia. He’s praising Putin, supports Trump, and everything that crosses his lips is traitorous poison. I blame him for about a third of America going nuts due to his constant lies and misinformation. Screw him and anyone like him. They can go to hell.
Read: "He says things I don't agree with", but voiced by someone with the emotional intelligence of a dead fish.
At least your emotional disdain doesn't run this deep, dawgtalker05.
The guy is a traitor through and through, but I’m crazy? It’s not hate, it patriotism.
Tucker wants America to be a dictatorship like Russia. He’s praising Putin, supports Trump, and everything that crosses his lips is traitorous poison. I blame him for about a third of America going nuts due to his constant lies and misinformation. Screw him and anyone like him. They can go to hell.
Read: "He says things I don't agree with", but voiced by someone with the emotional intelligence of a dead fish.
It reads just like I wrote it to read. Screw your MAGA GOPer Feelz.
Conservative group tells judge it has no evidence to back its claims of Georgia ballot stuffing RUSS BYNUM Wed, February 14, 2024 at 4:06 PM EST·3 min read
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A conservative group has told a Georgia judge that it doesn't have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the the 2020 general election and a runoff two months later.
Texas-based True the Vote filed complaints with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2021, including one in which it said it had obtained “a detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta” during the November 2020 election and a January 2021 runoff.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge in Atlanta signed an order last year requiring True the Vote to provide evidence it had collected, including the names of people who were sources of information, to state elections officials who were frustrated by the group's refusal to share evidence with investigators.
In their written response, attorneys for True the Vote said the group had no names or other documentary evidence to share.
“Once again, True the Vote has proven itself untrustworthy and unable to provide a shred of evidence for a single one of their fairy-tale allegations," Raffensperger spokesman Mike Hassinger said Wednesday. "Like all the lies about Georgia’s 2020 election, their fabricated claims of ballot harvesting have been repeatedly debunked.”
True the Vote’s assertions were relied upon heavily for “2000 Mules,” a widely debunked film by conservative pundit and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza. A State Election Board investigation found that surveillance camera footage that the film claimed showed ballot stuffing actually showed people submitting ballots for themselves and family members who lived with them, which is allowed under Georgia law.
The election board subpoenaed True the Vote to provide evidence that would assist it in investigating the group's ballot trafficking allegations.
True the Vote's complaint said its investigators "spoke with several individuals regarding personal knowledge, methods, and organizations involved in ballot trafficking in Georgia.” It said one person, referred to in the complaint only as John Doe, “admitted to personally participating and provided specific information about the ballot trafficking process.”
Frustrated by the group's refusal to share evidence, Georgia officials took it to court last year. A judge ordered True the Vote to turn over names and contact information for anyone who had provided information, as well as any recordings, transcripts, witness statements or other documents supporting its allegations.
The group came up empty-handed despite having “made every additional reasonable effort to locate responsive items,” its attorneys David Oles and Michael Wynne wrote in a Dec. 11 legal filing first reported Wednesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
True the Vote's founder and president, Catherine Engelbrecht, didn't immediately respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment Wednesday. She and another member of the group were briefly jailed in 2022 for contempt for not complying with a court order to provide information in a defamation lawsuit. The suit accused True the Vote of falsely claiming that an election software provider stored the personal information of U.S. election workers on an unsecured server in China.
Prior to the State Election Board's investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation looked into True the Vote's assertion that it was able to use surveillance video and geospatial mobile device information to support its allegations. In a September 2021 letter, Vic Reynolds, who was then the GBI's director, said the evidence produced did not amount to proof of ballot harvesting.
State elections officials opened their own investigation after receiving True the Vote's complaint two months later. When pressed to provide names of sources and other documentation, the group last year tried to withdraw its complaint. One of its attorneys wrote that a complete response would require True the Vote to identify people to whom it had promised confidentiality.
The State Election Board refused to shelve the complaint and went to court to force True the Vote to turn over information.
In addition to names, the judge ordered True the Vote to provide copies of any confidentiality agreements it had with sources.
The group's attorneys replied: “TTV has no such documents in its possession, custody, or control.”
At least your emotional disdain doesn't run this deep, dawgtalker05.
The guy is a traitor through and through, but I’m crazy? It’s not hate, it patriotism.
Tucker wants America to be a dictatorship like Russia. He’s praising Putin, supports Trump, and everything that crosses his lips is traitorous poison. I blame him for about a third of America going nuts due to his constant lies and misinformation. Screw him and anyone like him. They can go to hell.
Read: "He says things I don't agree with", but voiced by someone with the emotional intelligence of a dead fish.
It reads just like I wrote it to read. Screw your MAGA GOPer Feelz.
I think you and I wholeheartedly agree on the reasons why Tucker is a POS, but we don't want to turn into the animals we advocate against.
That post was just me turning those words against him BECAUSE he is scum. It’s not a proposition or request for another’s action, like a Trump tweet. And quite frankly, I don’t look at celebrity hate mongers as people… they foment hate so they should reap their rewards. Same when I say crap to any GOPer, I don’t care if they hate me, they are fascist losers for the most part, they just haven’t realized it and probably never will. Why should I care if I offend them, when everything they say or do is offensive? I mean, I like you, and we get along, but if you take a crap on my doorstep, I’m going to call you out. It’s just in my nature.
My bad. You realize who you're talking to, right? He advocates for the death and destruction of anybody that doesn't agree with him.
I just literally lmao at "we don't want to turn into the animals we advocate against." I thought it was very generous to include yourself, and also thought it was a subconscious effort that one may use on a 4-year-old to get them to understand it was time to leave the beach. "We don't want to get sunburn, do we?"
Sorry, I should have explained that but I was slobbering on my keyboard after reading it.
I still am. I actually don't fully understand why I find this so funny, my apologies. 🤣
Lol. Exactly, to each his own. I mean, you look at this foray and decide that what is "warped" is my sense of humor, when another poster advocates killing a member of the media he doesn't agree with.
Dang, I know Republicans are into lots of conspiracies but I didn't know that one----- if any American is making their decision about who should be President of the United States based on what Taylor Swift thinks...or, just being a Swiftie- thus they have to vote the way she does----WOW.
I'd like to congratulate ex-President Trump and all who support him----another first---- an ex-President of US will be put on criminal trial this March 25 ---- he claims he committed no crime. We've heard it all before---you can do anything you want on financial statements----ANYTHING goes.....sad, even in his distorted world where he claims complete immunity forever as ex-President----him paying off a porn star and a Playboy Playmate while just an average US male citizen- he can spend his money anyway he wants and legally report it anyway he wants......maybe not, he will have his day or days in court. No one is above the law. Keep America great.
Conservative group tells judge it has no evidence to back its claims of Georgia ballot stuffing
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A conservative group has told a Georgia judge that it doesn’t have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the the 2020 general election and a runoff two months later.
Texas-based True the Vote filed complaints with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2021, including one in which it said it had obtained “a detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta” during the November 2020 election and a January 2021 runoff.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge in Atlanta signed an order last year requiring True the Vote to provide evidence it had collected, including the names of people who were sources of information, to state elections officials who were frustrated by the group’s refusal to share evidence with investigators.
In their written response, attorneys for True the Vote said the group had no names or other documentary evidence to share.
“Once again, True the Vote has proven itself untrustworthy and unable to provide a shred of evidence for a single one of their fairy-tale allegations,” Raffensperger spokesman Mike Hassinger said Wednesday. “Like all the lies about Georgia’s 2020 election, their fabricated claims of ballot harvesting have been repeatedly debunked.”
True the Vote’s assertions were relied upon heavily for “2000 Mules,” a widely debunked film by conservative pundit and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza. A State Election Board investigation found that surveillance camera footage that the film claimed showed ballot stuffing actually showed people submitting ballots for themselves and family members who lived with them, which is allowed under Georgia law.
The election board subpoenaed True the Vote to provide evidence that would assist it in investigating the group’s ballot trafficking allegations.
True the Vote’s complaint said its investigators “spoke with several individuals regarding personal knowledge, methods, and organizations involved in ballot trafficking in Georgia.” It said one person, referred to in the complaint only as John Doe, “admitted to personally participating and provided specific information about the ballot trafficking process.”
Frustrated by the group’s refusal to share evidence, Georgia officials took it to court last year. A judge ordered True the Vote to turn over names and contact information for anyone who had provided information, as well as any recordings, transcripts, witness statements or other documents supporting its allegations.
The group came up empty-handed despite having “made every additional reasonable effort to locate responsive items,” its attorneys David Oles and Michael Wynne wrote in a Dec. 11 legal filing first reported Wednesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
True the Vote’s founder and president, Catherine Engelbrecht, didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment Wednesday. She and another member of the group were briefly jailed in 2022 for contempt for not complying with a court order to provide information in a defamation lawsuit. The suit accused True the Vote of falsely claiming that an election software provider stored the personal information of U.S. election workers on an unsecured server in China.
Prior to the State Election Board’s investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation looked into True the Vote’s assertion that it was able to use surveillance video and geospatial mobile device information to support its allegations. In a September 2021 letter, Vic Reynolds, who was then the GBI’s director, said the evidence produced did not amount to proof of ballot harvesting.
State elections officials opened their own investigation after receiving True the Vote’s complaint two months later. When pressed to provide names of sources and other documentation, the group last year tried to withdraw its complaint. One of its attorneys wrote that a complete response would require True the Vote to identify people to whom it had promised confidentiality.
The State Election Board refused to shelve the complaint and went to court to force True the Vote to turn over information.
In addition to names, the judge ordered True the Vote to provide copies of any confidentiality agreements it had with sources.
The group’s attorneys replied: “TTV has no such documents in its possession, custody, or control.”
I've also seen a growing trend on Twitter that talks about her and Ice Spice being part of a satanic cabal. I guess they must also own pizza places for child trafficking, too.
Sucker born every day---True the Vote- she and her cohorts got a 2.5 million dollar donation to force the courts to find the truth.....the truth- 4 of 7 court fillings were made- all four dismissed, but somehow the money disappeared into shell companies she and her cohorts used.....some people have to much money.
They- True the Vote- learned from Donnie Boy. Keep Making America Great - hook up with a porn star and become President.
Now Tucker is stanning Russian grocery stores and talking about how the experienced has “radicalized” him. Sorry, Memphis, the guy deserves all the fire one can bring. Something about this whole thing stinks. I’d love to see a list of his income sources.
I liked that video so much I ordered online from that grocery store and they are shipping it internationally. When it arrives, I'll look at the receipt again and let you know what the Tucker Tax was.....
Now Tucker is stanning Russian grocery stores and talking about how the experienced has “radicalized” him. Sorry, Memphis, the guy deserves all the fire one can bring. Something about this whole thing stinks. I’d love to see a list of his income sources.
What’s hilarious about the glazing right wingers do on Putin and Russia is that in order to defend this clown, they are also admitting that they DO see pros to communism and socialism and heavy handed government tactics, contrary to the rhetoric they spew when talking about American politics.
That’s peak nanny state nonsense that Tucker and now Memphis is defending. But ya know, “that’s different”
And on top of that, right wingers are showing us once again how brain dead they really are. Imagine hyping up Russian grocery stores without taking into consideration the cost of living, income, etc. yea I’m sure if I took my American money to a poor ass country it’s gonna go further. What happens if Tucker actually has to get paid in Russian rubles? All of sudden those grocery store prices just sky rocketed since the purchasing power just plummeted.
I didn't know that was going to expose me to communism. You need to do more to warn people of why there's a trigger warning. I feel like I'm going to pass out...
It’s one brick in a house that Carlson has built. I don’t know how many more examples we need to demonstrate his true colors but apparently it will never be enough.
Now Tucker is stanning Russian grocery stores and talking about how the experienced has “radicalized” him. Sorry, Memphis, the guy deserves all the fire one can bring. Something about this whole thing stinks. I’d love to see a list of his income sources.
What’s hilarious about the glazing right wingers do on Putin and Russia is that in order to defend this clown, they are also admitting that they DO see pros to communism and socialism and heavy handed government tactics, contrary to the rhetoric they spew when talking about American politics.
That’s peak nanny state nonsense that Tucker and now Memphis is defending. But ya know, “that’s different”
And on top of that, right wingers are showing us once again how brain dead they really are. Imagine hyping up Russian grocery stores without taking into consideration the cost of living, income, etc. yea I’m sure if I took my American money to a poor ass country it’s gonna go further. What happens if Tucker actually has to get paid in Russian rubles? All of sudden those grocery store prices just sky rocketed since the purchasing power just plummeted.
I just don’t get it, bro. You’re a smart guy. You use logic. You see it. Other people see it. But so many refuse.
Sadly I think it’ll be a generation or two from now when people go “WTF were they thinking with this guy???” when it all comes to pass.
I guess my biggest hangup is understanding what this means. So many refuse what? To condemn every action? Every word? Any reference to anything positive? If I say I like his tie? If Tucker says a McD cheeseburger is also good in Moscow? Why is everything not in line with total condemnation seen as "supporting this clown"? Like, if I watched an entire interview with Putin and responded to a single sentence with "well, he has a point there", why is that universally condemned as "supporting Putin". Seems like adults with at least average intelligence could do better than that.
And to be clear, I'm not picking on you, you just offered that perfect launching point. I am asking you because you are reasonable and above average intelligence. Is it a thing where everybody truly thinks it's 'dangerous' to express anything but total condemnation?
Hmmm.... In Florida they keep talking about parents rights. While in Tennessee they want to force students to take gun safety courses in schools. Bow we even have schools removing students during the schoo, day to take them to "religion classes" while we have right wingers on another thread complaining about students grades. I'm sure gun safety courses and religious classes are going to help their reading and math grades. The same people that were claiming, "They need to spend more time on reading and Arithmetic are now claiming they should spend more school time on religion and gun safety. Silly right wingers.
Students will get credit for religious courses from Tennessee public school district: 'Slippery slope'
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (CITC) — High school students in a Tennessee public school district will be able to receive graduation credit for religious classes taken outside of school this fall.
The Knox County Schools (KCS) school board approved the policy Thursday after two days of debate. The policy aligns with state legislation amended earlier this year allowing Tennessee school districts to increase the amount of credit received for "released time" courses from half to one full credit.
Tennessee guidance defines "released time" courses as "a period of time during which a student is excused from school to attend a course in religious moral instruction taught by an independent entity off school property." Under KCS's policy, a course is eligible for credit as long as its length of instruction time is equivalent to that in the student's assigned school.
While the policy received nearly unanimous approval by the KCS board, some board members raised concerns ahead of the vote.
"My concern is when you start talking about religious content or denominational affiliation, it's a slippery slope," KCS board member John Butler said. "What one person may consider religious, another person may not."
Butler, who ultimately voted in favor of the policy, also questioned how much "control" KCS might be sacrificing if a student's "released time" course puts their safety at risk.
"What if the instructor is found to have some kind of sexual misconduct?" Butler asked. "Are we not responsible because the parent gave permission? But still, we're giving the credit hour."
Other board members agreed with Butler's concern that the policy may be too vague, so language stating that all courses will be evaluated "neutrally, without any test for religious content or denominational affiliation" was added.
"This issue goes back to students and parents having the right to direct their own educational experience...I'm not sure why we wouldn't want to give credit to a class that would include tests and assignments and course," KCS board member Susan Horn said, telling her peers that "this board does not get into the business of details."
Several other states allow varying versions of "released time" courses, including South Carolina, California and New Mexico.
Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) reached out to KCS for comment, but did not receive a response prior to publication. This story will be updated if a response is received.
I guess my biggest hangup is understanding what this means. So many refuse what? To condemn every action? Every word? Any reference to anything positive? If I say I like his tie? If Tucker says a McD cheeseburger is also good in Moscow? Why is everything not in line with total condemnation seen as "supporting this clown"? Like, if I watched an entire interview with Putin and responded to a single sentence with "well, he has a point there", why is that universally condemned as "supporting Putin". Seems like adults with at least average intelligence could do better than that.
And to be clear, I'm not picking on you, you just offered that perfect launching point. I am asking you because you are reasonable and above average intelligence. Is it a thing where everybody truly thinks it's 'dangerous' to express anything but total condemnation?
Respectfully bro, I think the issue here is you're (a general you) trying to take this specific event at face value, when Tucker has a history of doing this with authoritarian figures. He did the same thing with Viktor Orban in budapest, Hungary a few years ago. These are strongmen with similar rhetoric, actions, and beliefs that happen to line up with a lot of what Tucker has said throughout his career. He has made it clear he's not doing this to be fair and balanced; he's doing it because he ENVY's these styles of government and their leaders.
Witness Told Feds She Was Paid for Sex Parties With Matt Gaetz Roger Sollenberger Fri, February 16, 2024 at 4:27 AM EST·8 min read 783
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
When ABC News reported on Wednesday that the House Ethics Committee had acquired text messages between a young woman involved in the sex trafficking investigation and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a Gaetz spokesperson told ABC that the congressman “does not know anything about the woman you’re referencing.”
That seems extraordinarily unlikely.
The Daily Beast can now report that this woman told prosecutors in 2021 that she had sex with Gaetz at a drug-fueled party that she was paid to attend, according to the woman’s attorney.
Matt Gaetz Privately Told Colleagues His Real Motivation for Kevin McCarthy Ouster Was Ethics Probe
This attorney told The Daily Beast on Thursday that the woman, in fact, received payments in connection with multiple sex parties with people in Gaetz’s circle. Her lawyer said that, in response to a subpoena, she testified about her experiences to the U.S. Attorneys investigating Gaetz. And she turned over text messages, photos, and other evidence to the Justice Department as part of its child sex trafficking inquiry into the Florida congressman, the lawyer said.
The Daily Beast has obtained some of those messages and photos, which match the documents described by ABC News.
While the lawyer said he has not yet been contacted by House investigators, as ABC reported, the House Ethics Committee is now reviewing this evidence as part of its inquiry into whether Gaetz paid for sex with women and with an underage teen. In fact, the Ethics Committee met Thursday afternoon behind closed doors to discuss the Gaetz case, which also involves allegations of public corruption, solicitation of prostitution, habitual use of hard drugs, bribes or impermissible gifts, campaign finance violations, and exhibiting nude photos of sexual partners on the House floor.
The woman’s attorney also told The Daily Beast that, when it became apparent Gaetz was being investigated in 2021, she was contacted by another male party attendee—a Gaetz associate—who pressed her to see if she was speaking to anyone about the congressman or the parties. She felt this meeting was an effort to intimidate her into not describing any of the events related to Gaetz, the lawyer said.
The woman, whose name The Daily Beast is withholding, was older than 21 at the time of the encounters, the attorney said, noting that she emphasized to prosecutors that the sex was consensual.
“She told them that she and lots of girls were provided all kinds of controlled substances at these parties,” the lawyer said, confirming a number of news reports about the gatherings. The heavy use of drugs and alcohol was a hurdle for investigators, he said, since it muddled memories of the events.
“The availability of vast amounts of alcohol and controlled substances gave rise to the lack of control of the hormonal imperative,” this lawyer continued, “which inspired people to engage in intimate behavior that may or may not have been because they were financially remunerated.”
This woman appears in Venmo transactions previously reported on by The Daily Beast. Between March and July 2017, this woman received nearly $2,500 across multiple payments from Gaetz’s then-best friend, locally elected tax collector Joel Greenberg. The descriptions Greenberg entered for her payments included “travel,” “being cool,” “stuff,” and the misspelled first name of another Greenberg associate.
Bombshell Letter: Gaetz Paid for Sex With Minor, Wingman Says
The text messages now in the hands of congressional investigators show Gaetz propositioning the woman for a May 2017 private group flight to the Florida Keys, where they would be joined by three women and one other man.
“Hey—any interest in flying on a private plane to the keys May 19-21?” Gaetz wrote in one message, adding that she would be traveling with “2 guys, 4 girls. A very high-quality adventurous group.”
The woman initially agreed, to which Gaetz replied, “Fantastic.”
“As is true with all time you spend w me, it’ll be fun and chill,” Gaetz wrote. He then asked if she had a passport, and she replied that she did.
The woman ultimately declined to make the trip, her attorney confirmed. She doesn’t appear in Venmo transactions around that time, though two other women do, including one who received a $500 payment described as “Cuba.”
(A person with knowledge of the events told The Daily Beast that Gaetz privately boasted about taking a trip to Cuba around this time.)
The woman invited to the Florida Keys did receive other payments from Greenberg in the months before and after the trip, however. For one $500 charge to Greenberg in July 2017, she entered a police woman emoji—“👮”—in the memo line. (That same weekend, Gaetz and Greenberg each shared a selfie of themselves at dinner with Roger Stone in Miami.)
Although the woman appears to have ultimately declined the trip to the Florida Keys, ABC reported that she posed for a selfie with Gaetz on May 19, the planned departure day. That photo, which The Daily Beast has obtained, was taken at 10:53 p.m. in Winter Garden, Florida, according to metadata on the photo. It shows the attention-grabbing conservative in a T-shirt emblazoned with a quote from former Planned Parenthood vice president Mary Lasker: “If you think research is expensive, try disease.”
A selfie of Rep. Matt Gaetz and woman. Obtained by The Daily Beast. (The Daily Beast has edited this photo to protect the woman’s identity.)
The woman’s attorney told The Daily Beast that her decision to come forward was a difficult and emotionally taxing experience. And the lawyer pointed to the meeting with the Gaetz associate as evidence that those pressures weren’t all purely internal.
At one point, the lawyer said, this person close to Gaetz berated his client for information about what she may tell anyone investigating Gaetz, and she felt that the clear intent was to pressure her to keep her mouth shut.
This Gaetz associate asked to meet the woman for lunch in the spring of 2021, the lawyer said. The setup made the attorney so uneasy, however, that he dispatched a colleague to tag along and monitor the meeting in secret.
“This associate was there asking her over and over and over what she had said, demanding she tell them,” the lawyer claimed. The lawyer reported that the woman felt intimidated but did not concede.
Last year, prosecutors announced they were declining to file charges against Gaetz, while also refusing to publicly offer an explanation. That decision, almost exactly one year ago, gave rise to frustration and outrage among key witnesses in the case, including women who had come forward to provide intimate and detailed accounts of their interactions, according to interviews with lawyers and witnesses in the matter.
“The fact that nothing has come of it has kind of astonished her, who along with all the others had been the focal point of such an intense investigation,” the woman’s lawyer said. “For them to go through all that and then for the target of the investigation to just get a wink and a nod has created for some of them a loss of faith in the system.”
Not long after prosecutors tabled their investigation, the Ethics Committee reopened its own probe, which it initiated in 2021 but quickly put on ice in deference to the DOJ. Since then, the committee has reached out to several key witnesses, including the former 17-year-old at the center of the sex trafficking allegations, Greenberg, and an ex-girlfriend of Gaetz’s, according to news reports and sources familiar with the events.
House Ethics Probe Into Matt Gaetz ‘Zeroes In’ on Sex Trafficking
The Ethics probe appears to have rattled Gaetz. Last month, The Daily Beast reported that he privately told colleagues that the rebooted investigation was the reason he waged his scorched-earth campaign to oust then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The months of infighting destroyed key allegiances within the House GOP, eroding trust and sowing enmity between members, feeding a stream of embarrassing headlines. Republicans still have not recovered from the damage.
Gaetz’s close associate, Greenberg, struck a deal with prosecutors in May 2021, pleading guilty to child sex trafficking, fraud, and an array of other federal offenses. In his plea agreement, Greenberg admitted he had also connected the former 17-year-old to other unnamed “adult men” who had sex with her while she was still underage. After several proffers and deferments, Greenberg was eventually sentenced in December 2022, receiving 11 years in prison.
In a confession letter Greenberg penned in 2020 as part of his pursuit of a pardon from then-President Donald Trump, Greenberg wrote that Gaetz also paid to have sex with the 17-year-old, as The Daily Beast previously reported. In his letter, Greenberg noted the exact date that he accessed a DMV database to learn that the teen in question was underage.
“Immediately I called the congressman and warned him to stay clear of this person and informed him she was underage,” Greenberg wrote. “He was equally shocked and disturbed by this revelation.”
But that new information apparently didn’t scare Gaetz or Greenberg off from the teen. The Daily Beast previously reported about a Venmo payment from Gaetz to Greenberg about eight months later, where Gaetz asked his friend to “hit up” the teen. She had turned 18 just five months prior to that Venmo transaction, and Gaetz was 36 at the time—twice her age.
Asked for comment, a Gaetz spokesperson repeated the statement to ABC: “Rep. Gaetz does not know anything about the woman you’re referencing.”
When The Daily Beast provided the name of the woman in question, the spokesperson simply didn’t reply.
In the meantime, conservatives need to enlighten me on why Lara Trump should be the head of the RNC, like Don wants his daughter-in-law to be. can't wait to read the justifications.
Lol. Exactly, to each his own. I mean, you look at this foray and decide that what is "warped" is my sense of humor, when another poster advocates killing a member of the media he doesn't agree with.
That’s a damn lie! He’s not media, he’s an entertainer; his words, not mine.
Lol. Exactly, to each his own. I mean, you look at this foray and decide that what is "warped" is my sense of humor, when another poster advocates killing a member of the media he doesn't agree with.
That’s a damn lie! He’s not media, he’s an entertainer; his words, not mine.
Lol. Exactly, to each his own. I mean, you look at this foray and decide that what is "warped" is my sense of humor, when another poster advocates killing a member of the media he doesn't agree with.
That’s a damn lie! He’s not media, he’s an entertainer; his words, not mine.
Oooookay... let's say he's a shoe cobbler.
It's sad when the outrage of a "lie" is centered around his title as opposed to advocating of killing another person. Clearly fine with the latter.
Lol. Exactly, to each his own. I mean, you look at this foray and decide that what is "warped" is my sense of humor, when another poster advocates killing a member of the media he doesn't agree with.
That’s a damn lie! He’s not media, he’s an entertainer; his words, not mine.
Oooookay... let's say he's a shoe cobbler.
It's sad when the outrage of a "lie" is centered around his title as opposed to the comment of killing another person.
I never said I’d kill anyone, I just used Tuckems words against him.
I guess my biggest hangup is understanding what this means. So many refuse what? To condemn every action? Every word? Any reference to anything positive? If I say I like his tie? If Tucker says a McD cheeseburger is also good in Moscow? Why is everything not in line with total condemnation seen as "supporting this clown"? Like, if I watched an entire interview with Putin and responded to a single sentence with "well, he has a point there", why is that universally condemned as "supporting Putin". Seems like adults with at least average intelligence could do better than that.
And to be clear, I'm not picking on you, you just offered that perfect launching point. I am asking you because you are reasonable and above average intelligence. Is it a thing where everybody truly thinks it's 'dangerous' to express anything but total condemnation?
Respectfully bro, I think the issue here is you're (a general you) trying to take this specific event at face value, when Tucker has a history of doing this with authoritarian figures. He did the same thing with Viktor Orban in budapest, Hungary a few years ago. These are strongmen with similar rhetoric, actions, and beliefs that happen to line up with a lot of what Tucker has said throughout his career. He has made it clear he's not doing this to be fair and balanced; he's doing it because he ENVY's these styles of government and their leaders.
Well stated, I cannot argue with that. But that's actually part of my point.
DL05 made the point "brick by brick he's built this wall", the same "wall" your speaking of here. So, following that metaphor, why am I (anybody, most recently Memphis) said to be someone guarding the wall if I'm merely questioning or even endorsing a brick?
Memphis commented that recent statements in an article were taken out of context. In my opinion, they were, 100%. The frenzied response was along the lines of "it doesn't matter he's a ____ and a _____ and I just don't see why people can't see that" (and yes DL05, I'm mischaracterizing your comments because I don't feel like searching for them). Memphis was commenting on the brick, not the wall.
Why are people so triggered by that? It's all but characterized as 'dangerous' in many circles. I guess as a free-thinking adult, I don't understand that, certainly not within the setting of DawgTalkers and a bunch of intelligent participants.
And please understand, I'm just using this instance as an example, almost unfairly in the sense that most posts by DawgLover are the exact opposite of what I'm complaining about.
Ex-Illinois lawmaker abruptly pleads guilty to fraud and money laundering, halting federal trial
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Former Illinois lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate William “Sam” McCann abruptly pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine felony counts of wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, halting his federal corruption trial over misusing up to $550,000 in campaign contributions.
McCann, who cut off negotiations over a plea deal last fall when he dismissed his court-appointed attorneys, made the reversal on the third day of a bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Lawless. His latest lawyer, Jason Vincent, of Springfield, asked that he be released from custody as part of the deal, but Lawless nixed the idea, telling McCann his only option was to offer a no-strings open plea.
The seven counts of wire fraud and single count of money laundering each carry a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison. For tax evasion, it’s three. But a complex set of advisory guidelines before Lawless, who set sentencing for June 20, will likely yield a far shorter term.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are in fact guilty?” Lawless asked. The 54-year-old McCann, wearing the gray-and-black striped jumpsuit of the nearby county jail where he’s held, replied, “Yes, your honor.”
Lawless set a hearing for Friday on McCann’s release request, but it’s certain to draw opposition from the government and not just because McCann violated probation last week when he left the state to check himself into a hospital with chest pains. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass told Lawless he would introduce as further evidence of McCann’s unreliability a bizarre social media video posted just this week in which McCann claims a government conspiracy involving an “ungodly pack of lies” is against him.
A state senator from 2011 to 2019, McCann formed the Conservative Party of Illinois to campaign for governor in 2018. A criminal indictment in 2021 outlined numerous schemes McCann employed to convert contributions from his campaign committees to buy vehicles, pay an overdue loan, two mortgages, credit card bills and fund a family vacation, entertainment and other purchases.
For his unsuccessful run for governor, he collected more than $3 million dollars from Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers alone. Despite being questioned four times by FBI and IRS agents in summer 2018 about alleged improper spending, he tore through $340,000 in leftover campaign funds for personal expenses in the year after the election.
McCann’s trial was repeatedly delayed. On the day it was supposed to start last November, McCann announced he had dismissed his court-appointed attorneys and would represent himself, telling reporters afterward, “God’s got this.” The proceeding was reset for Feb. 5, but McCann didn’t show, sending a weekend email that he was in a St. Louis-area hospital.
Back in court Feb. 12, a circumspect Lawless questioned McCann closely when he told her he was “medically and psychologically” unable to go to trial and ceded control of his defense to Vincent.
At that point, McCann told the judge he had very little memory of anything that occurred after his Feb. 7 discharge from the hospital, including a 55-mile (89-kilometer) drive last Friday from his home to Springfield to surrender for skirting probation guidelines. He drove a pickup that matched the description of the one the indictment said he used $60,000 in campaign funds to partially purchase.
On Tuesday, while McCann was in jail, the video appeared on Instagram. McCann was driving what appeared to be a truck and told his viewers he was innocent of the charges. He claimed an “Orwellian” government had attempted to nail him for failing to provide assistance on other investigations, offering an extravagant tale about a probe into McCann’s “unholy alliance” with then-House Speaker Michael Madigan to “rig an election.
“I wouldn’t play ball. They came back to me and said, ‘Well, we have you on this,’” McCann says in the video. “And if you just tell us what we want to hear, we’ll stop digging. And I said ‘No, I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear. I will speak the truth.’”
So federal agents continued digging and, McCann said, managed to “turn everything I’ve ever touched” into “these machinations of wrongdoing.”
Lol. Exactly, to each his own. I mean, you look at this foray and decide that what is "warped" is my sense of humor, when another poster advocates killing a member of the media he doesn't agree with.
That’s a damn lie! He’s not media, he’s an entertainer; his words, not mine.
Oooookay... let's say he's a shoe cobbler.
He’s referencing the quote from Fox’s attorneys in the defamation lawsuit. Paraphrasing now, but the phrase was that no reasonable person would take Carlson’s words as truthful and/or serious.
I guess my biggest hangup is understanding what this means. So many refuse what? To condemn every action? Every word? Any reference to anything positive? If I say I like his tie? If Tucker says a McD cheeseburger is also good in Moscow? Why is everything not in line with total condemnation seen as "supporting this clown"? Like, if I watched an entire interview with Putin and responded to a single sentence with "well, he has a point there", why is that universally condemned as "supporting Putin". Seems like adults with at least average intelligence could do better than that.
And to be clear, I'm not picking on you, you just offered that perfect launching point. I am asking you because you are reasonable and above average intelligence. Is it a thing where everybody truly thinks it's 'dangerous' to express anything but total condemnation?
Respectfully bro, I think the issue here is you're (a general you) trying to take this specific event at face value, when Tucker has a history of doing this with authoritarian figures. He did the same thing with Viktor Orban in budapest, Hungary a few years ago. These are strongmen with similar rhetoric, actions, and beliefs that happen to line up with a lot of what Tucker has said throughout his career. He has made it clear he's not doing this to be fair and balanced; he's doing it because he ENVY's these styles of government and their leaders.
No worries on the misquote. I’ll just say he’s gotten to the point of building so many “bricks” that sticking up for one of them almost doesn’t even make sense. On top of that, I don’t even think the “brick” being discussed was one to defend.
There is no excuse for Clinton...not sure how he wasn't removed. But this is a bit different.
You never saw Clinton rail against the so called Pedophiles within the other party. Comparing Clinton to Gaitz has a hole in it.
I should also point out that the "DUMB" part was Paying for young Hookers with Venmo.. Something that can be traced. Clinton was an ass, but he didn't do that.
I know that Facts don't matter to the MAGA crowd....
“the Gaetz case, which also involves allegations of public corruption, solicitation of prostitution, habitual use of hard drugs, bribes or impermissible gifts, campaign finance violations, and exhibiting nude photos of sexual partners on the House floor.”
Who did Clinton have relations with that was a minor and what did he pay for? I'll help you out. She was a legal adult and he didn't pay her. Not that facts matter to you in your feeble excuse to excuse your pedophile Gaetz. You'll even try to make excuses for a man being a pedophile if he's a Republican. That says a lot about you.
Former President Donald Trump launched a line of sneakers ranging in price from $199 to $399.
If anyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop in the upcoming presidential race, former President Donald Trump just did, launching his own line of tennis shoes on Saturday.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” Trump said when he announced the launch of a sneaker line at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.
“I have some incredible people that work with me on things and they came up with this ... and I think it’s gonna be a big success,” he added.
In his brief remarks at the sneaker launch, Trump indicated the line could be an effort to reach out to younger supporters, saying, “We’re going to turn this country around fast. We’re going to turn it around. And we’re going to remember the young people, and we’re going to remember Sneaker Con.”
He was met with a mostly enthusiastic crowd, though some occasional boos permeated through the cheers.
The line, called Trump Sneakers, is available for preorder online.
It features three different pairs of tennis shoes: a pair of high-tops, a pair of red laceless athletic shoes and a pair of white laceless athletic shoes.
The high-tops, which are gold and emblazoned with a “T” on the outside of each shoe, are called the “Never Surrender High Top Sneaker” and are priced at $399 online. The athletic shoes, which feature a “T” and the number 45 on the sides are priced at $199.
The purchase of a pair of sneakers comes with extra laces and a Trump “superhero charm.”
The website selling the sneakers also features a “Victory47” perfume and cologne for sale at $99 each.
The sneakers, perfume and cologne sales have nothing to do with Trump’s presidential campaign or the Trump Organization. The former president’s name, image and likeness have been licensed to CIC Ventures LLC to sell the sneakers.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign mocked the sneaker launch, with communications director Michael Tyler saying, “Donald Trump showing up to hawk bootleg Off-Whites is the closest he’ll get to any Air Force Ones ever again for the rest of his life.”
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after Trump incurred a more than $350 million penalty for engaging in repeated financial fraud through his family corporation. Trump has said he intends to appeal the order.
This isn’t Trump’s first time licensing his name, image and likeness to sell products. In 2022 and 2023, he struck a licensing agreement to sell NFT trading cards. Those cards were produced and sold by NFT INT LLC, which had a licensing agreement with Trump to use his name and image.
Sneaker Con, the venue where Trump debuted the sneaker collection, is an event that started in 2009 and has become one of the premiere events within the broader sneaker culture that has exploded in recent decades.
With the rise of sneaker culture, signature shoes have moved beyond athletes to musicians, actors and more. Some politicians are now thought of as “sneakerheads,” which is slang for people who tend to rock particularly desirable sneakers. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., reportedly has somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 pairs of collectible sneakers.
Sneakers directly associated with politicians are rare. There are a pair of Nikes designed for former President Barack Obama, but only a couple of pairs are known to exist, and Under Armour made a pair for him with the presidential logo that Steph Curry wore for a game.
"Is a quick getaway from the Capital Building something you think may be in your future? FBI on your trail? Well then Trump Sneakers is the shoe for you!"
Who did Clinton have relations with that was a minor and what did he pay for? I'll help you out. She was a legal adult and he didn't pay her. Not that facts matter to you in your feeble excuse to excuse your pedophile Gaetz. You'll even try to make excuses for a man being a pedophile if he's a Republican. That says a lot about you.
The Epstein rape victim said Bill Clinton prefers young girls. I believe her. She has no reason to lie. Talking [censored] about Clintons will get you killed. She is especially brave.
Did she accuse him of rape? The last time you tried to string something this vague together you claimed a woman who gave birth to a baby was a transsexual. You never learn.
She was one of the minor aged victims at the island, where Clinton was known to go. She said Epstein told her that "Bill likes them young". If youre not bright enough to understand, its not my fault.
Who did Clinton have relations with that was a minor and what did he pay for? I'll help you out. She was a legal adult and he didn't pay her. Not that facts matter to you in your feeble excuse to excuse your pedophile Gaetz. You'll even try to make excuses for a man being a pedophile if he's a Republican. That says a lot about you.
Man, libtards are so clueless. Bill was a pedophile.
And yet you'll defend the guy whose actually on a tape talking about grabbing girls p*ssies without their consent.
Yeah, and another mention of the debunked clinton assassination trail .... Clearly you have the inside scoop. Almost ironic when you run round spamming 'tard' in every other post.
Yet it cannot be refuted that Bill Clinton is a cheating pedophile. Your spaz attack whatabout doesnt change the facts.
Someone said it and you believe them. Great. Just like you believe there is a trail of dead bodies the clintons have had assassinated. Got it. Only person having a spazattack is you.
as for whatabout ??? Yes, your clinton comment was what some might call a whatabout. Maybe it was justified? If it wad, then so was the reference to former Potus on tape bragging of sexual assault.
Who did Clinton have relations with that was a minor and what did he pay for? I'll help you out. She was a legal adult and he didn't pay her. Not that facts matter to you in your feeble excuse to excuse your pedophile Gaetz. You'll even try to make excuses for a man being a pedophile if he's a Republican. That says a lot about you.
Ya gotta love the guy--he throws so much stuff up against the wall---some has to stick and earn him some money.
Get your education at Trump University- oophs- closed, students didn't get what they were promised--Trump steaks- gone, Trump action figures- oophs, seen one, and the latest and greatest.....TRUMP SNEAKERS- only $399, or some lesser ones available-----NOW, that's Presidential-- name another ex-President hawking sneakers----wait for it----none. Let's see how his brand does selling shoes--- WOW, and he expects the American public to vote him in as President---WOW.
She was one of the minor aged victims at the island, where Clinton was known to go. She said Epstein told her that "Bill likes them young". If youre not bright enough to understand, its not my fault.
Ghislaine Maxwell says Bill Clinton was not on Epstein's island but did fly on private jet
'Absolutely 1,000 per cent that is a flat out total fabrication and lie'
From the very source you supplied..................
"He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls," Sjoberg responded. Elsewhere in the deposition, Sjoberg clarified that she never met Clinton or saw him on Epstein's island.
Let me explain just how bright you are. First off Clinton was never on Epstein Island that anyone can verify. Secondly, what you're actually doing is taking Epstein's word for it. A sick pedophile that lived a double life and never told the truth. She only reported what 'Epstein told her'.
Now why on earth would you take that sick pedophiles word for it? Because it's what you want to hear and believe.
Yet it cannot be refuted that Bill Clinton is a cheating pedophile.
First you would have to present some facts. So far all you have is that you believe what Epstein told some young girl. You have decided to trust the word of a known pedophile to base what you call facts on.
No worries on the misquote. I’ll just say he’s gotten to the point of building so many “bricks” that sticking up for one of them almost doesn’t even make sense. On top of that, I don’t even think the “brick” being discussed was one to defend.
This is where I'm at. I don't understand the effort being put forward to go to bat for a guy like Tucker Carlson. Ok fine, you successfully argued against the one brick... isn't this a textbook example of not seeing the forest for the trees? The guy used the argument that what he had said on Fox was for entertainment purposes and no reasonable person would take what he said at face value... and that was back when he was on cable TV.
IIRC, this "brick" we've been talking about is where Tucker was talking about how true leaders have to kill people. The argument is that this was taken out of context (?), and yet here we are a couple weeks later and Putin's main political opponent has died in prison under suspicious circumstances.
IIRC, this "brick" we've been talking about is where Tucker was talking about how true leaders have to kill people. The argument is that this was taken out of context (?), and yet here we are a couple weeks later and Putin's main political opponent has died in prison under suspicious circumstances.
No worries on the misquote. I’ll just say he’s gotten to the point of building so many “bricks” that sticking up for one of them almost doesn’t even make sense. On top of that, I don’t even think the “brick” being discussed was one to defend.
This is where I'm at. I don't understand the effort being put forward to go to bat for a guy like Tucker Carlson.
Effort being put forward to go to bat for Tucker?? Where in the world have you seen this? In this thread??
Originally Posted by oobernoober
Ok fine, you successfully argued against the one brick... isn't this a textbook example of not seeing the forest for the trees?
No, not even close, not by any stretch. Did someone endorse the wall and use the brick as an example? Absolutely not. That would be the only way your statement makes sense. You're actually taking an age-old expression and turning it inside-out.
Originally Posted by oobernoober
The guy used the argument that what he had said on Fox was for entertainment purposes and no reasonable person would take what he said at face value... and that was back when he was on cable TV.
This really has nothing to do with the conversation. I won't put any effort toward defending it, regardless of the fact it's been 'parroted' down to being misleading.
Originally Posted by oobernoober
IIRC, this "brick" we've been talking about is where Tucker was talking about how true leaders have to kill people.
Not at all. The brick is about someone stating the author of an article was taking things out of context, by saying that Tucker was condoning Putin's bad actions by making a vague statement about the history of world leaders.
Originally Posted by oobernoober
The argument is that this was taken out of context (?), and yet here we are a couple weeks later and Putin's main political opponent has died in prison under suspicious circumstances.
Yes. And apples are a healthy snack choice while orange is the color of my favorite team. In other words, the two have nothing to do with each other. I'm not even sure how you think they do.
She was one of the minor aged victims at the island, where Clinton was known to go. She said Epstein told her that "Bill likes them young". If youre not bright enough to understand, its not my fault.
Ghislaine Maxwell says Bill Clinton was not on Epstein's island but did fly on private jet
'Absolutely 1,000 per cent that is a flat out total fabrication and lie'
From the very source you supplied..................
"He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls," Sjoberg responded. Elsewhere in the deposition, Sjoberg clarified that she never met Clinton or saw him on Epstein's island.
Let me explain just how bright you are. First off Clinton was never on Epstein Island that anyone can verify. Secondly, what you're actually doing is taking Epstein's word for it. A sick pedophile that lived a double life and never told the truth. She only reported what 'Epstein told her'.
Now why on earth would you take that sick pedophiles word for it? Because it's what you want to hear and believe.
Who cares what she says. She probably doesnt want to wind up dead. People who worked there said Clinton was a visitor. I believe the victims.
Yet it cannot be refuted that Bill Clinton is a cheating pedophile.
First you would have to present some facts. So far all you have is that you believe what Epstein told some young girl. You have decided to trust the word of a known pedophile to base what you call facts on.
To be fair, Eve is only half wrong,. For sure, Clinton is a cheat. NO question about that., The pedo thing,,, I've not seen proof but honestly, I wouldn't doubt it's true. Clinton was a good president, but damn, he couldn't keep it in his pants,
You believe what you want to based on it fitting your bias.
What you've have stated is you believe in hearsay. From your article: A person who admittedly never met Clinton stating "facts" about what Clinton said/does/likes ....
No-one is saying Clinton is a poster child for virtue. But that doesn't make your leap to 'Pedo' a fact. Not nearly.
She was one of the minor aged victims at the island, where Clinton was known to go. She said Epstein told her that "Bill likes them young". If youre not bright enough to understand, its not my fault.
Ghislaine Maxwell says Bill Clinton was not on Epstein's island but did fly on private jet
'Absolutely 1,000 per cent that is a flat out total fabrication and lie'
From the very source you supplied..................
"He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls," Sjoberg responded. Elsewhere in the deposition, Sjoberg clarified that she never met Clinton or saw him on Epstein's island.
Let me explain just how bright you are. First off Clinton was never on Epstein Island that anyone can verify. Secondly, what you're actually doing is taking Epstein's word for it. A sick pedophile that lived a double life and never told the truth. She only reported what 'Epstein told her'.
Now why on earth would you take that sick pedophiles word for it? Because it's what you want to hear and believe.
Who cares what she says. She probably doesnt want to wind up dead. People who worked there said Clinton was a visitor. I believe the victims.
Do you believe the victim of Trump’s sexual abuse?
Funny thing is, this victim she claims to believe is only repeating what Epstein told her. As far as any claims against Clinton, she hasn't made any. All there is to believe is the words Epstein told her. And Eve is taking the pedophiles words for the truth.
She doesn't believe trump's victims when what he did TO THEM comes from their own mouths.
You believe what you want to based on it fitting your bias.
What you've have stated is you believe in hearsay. From your article: A person who admittedly never met Clinton stating "facts" about what Clinton said/does/likes ....
No-one is saying Clinton is a poster child for virtue. But that doesn't make your leap to 'Pedo' a fact. Not nearly.
Clinton is running for POTUS? OF COURSE NOT, they aren’t even relevant in 2024, but sad ass Trumpians gotta what-about and look for something to attack after putting up the worst POTUS ever! Especially when they are about to double down on dumb Donald.
Their congressional leaders fail daily in front of the world… imagine how embarrassing it must be to be the stupidest person in the room all the time… MTG, Boebert, Gaetz, Jordan, Vance, and Comer all personify classless ignorance and total disregard for reality. I wonder how people like them survived high school, let alone getting elected to the highest offices in the land. And MAGA voters got sold a bill of goods that these people were somehow the RIGHT PEOPLE to save the country… I can’t phathom the level of ignorance and self betrayal it takes to pull the MAGA lever.
Who did Clinton have relations with that was a minor and what did he pay for? I'll help you out. She was a legal adult and he didn't pay her. Not that facts matter to you in your feeble excuse to excuse your pedophile Gaetz. You'll even try to make excuses for a man being a pedophile if he's a Republican. That says a lot about you.
Who did Clinton have relations with that was a minor and what did he pay for? I'll help you out. She was a legal adult and he didn't pay her. Not that facts matter to you in your feeble excuse to excuse your pedophile Gaetz. You'll even try to make excuses for a man being a pedophile if he's a Republican. That says a lot about you.
Man, libtards are so clueless. Bill was a pedophile.
Here is the article again for all the clueless libtards. Interesting how you only believe victims when it suits you. SHAME.
Again, that article doesn't prove anything. as I said, I wouldn't doubt he's done some bad stuff, but again, I've not seen proof. This article doesn't help your case.
Sex crimes are generally he said/she said. You choose not to believe the victim. That's on your conscience. Funny how you believe the victims against Trump but not about your cheating pedo boy.
We believe the victim. We don't believe what Epstein told her was true. You on the other hand have decided to believe what that proven pedophile told her. What part of this is going over your head?
Another L for Republicans who lied about the 2020 election being stolen from trump. This time from a conservatie SCOTUS....
Supreme Court leaves sanctions in place against Sidney Powell and others over 2020 election suit in Michigan
Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up a bid by a group of Trump-allied lawyers who faced monetary and professional sanctions in Michigan as a result of their baseless claims raised in a lawsuit that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud.
The one-line order from the high court rejecting the appeals brought by lawyers Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and five others leaves in place a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit that partially upheld the penalties imposed in the wake of the last presidential contest.
Powell and Wood were among a group of lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump who pushed unfounded claims about the 2020 election in courts in key battleground states. Powell famously pledged to "release the Kraken" after the 2020 election, likening the mythical sea monster to the legal challenge she was pursuing as part of an effort to overturn President Biden's win and keep Trump in power for a second term.
Powell, Wood and the five other lawyers were sanctioned in Michigan as a result of a lawsuit that attempted to reverse the state's election results. A district court ordered them to pay more than $175,000 to cover the legal fees that the city of Detroit and state incurred to defend the lawsuit. In addition to the monetary penalties, Powell, Wood and the others were referred to the bar associations in each of their states for disciplinary proceedings.
The district court said the sanctions were intended to deter future suits "designed primarily to spread the narrative that our election processes are rigged." The 6th Circuit upheld the sanctions, but lessened the amount the lawyers had to pay to over $150,000.
Beyond the sanctions in Michigan, Powell was charged in the sprawling racketeering case brought by the Fulton County District Attorney in August. She reached a plea deal with prosecutors in October and agreed to plead guilty to six misdemeanor counts.
We believe the victim. We don't believe what Epstein told her was true. You on the other hand have decided to believe what that proven pedophile told her. What part of this is going over your head?
We believe the victim. We don't believe what Epstein told her was true. You on the other hand have decided to believe what that proven pedophile told her. What part of this is going over your head?
Politico just put out this report on Trump and goons plan to incorporate Christian Nationalism into our government at all levels. The primary goal is to change all of our laws, institutions, and social programs to reflect Christian Nationalist values… A fascist theocracy, becuse they believe America is a Christian country and Trump will return God to the center of it… smfh.
Politico just put out this report on Trump and goons plan to incorporate Christian Nationalism into our government at all levels. The primary goal is to change all of our laws, institutions, and social programs to reflect Christian Nationalist values… A fascist theocracy, becuse they believe America is a Christian country and Trump will return God to the center of it… smfh.
Every single person who reads this forum knows that 97% of your posts are hate and fear mongering and the other 3% are you threatening to beat up or kill people who disagree with you.
Feel free to give me your money. It says In God We Trust on it. Oh the horror!
To be fair, our for fathers never meant for that to be on legal tender. Added in the 40’s. Just another attack by religious organizations and their continued interference into our government.
Politico just put out this report on Trump and goons plan to incorporate Christian Nationalism into our government at all levels. The primary goal is to change all of our laws, institutions, and social programs to reflect Christian Nationalist values… A fascist theocracy, becuse they believe America is a Christian country and Trump will return God to the center of it… smfh.
Exactly. If you think a guy like Trump, with his history, is going to actually push for Christian values... holy smokes. He's pandering to a sect of Christian's that are fine ignoring a significant portion of the Ten Commandments in order to deify Trump.
If donny sees it’s causing people pain, he’ll move any legislation forward to make it happen. He’s a psychopath that loves nothing more than to cause anguish in others. Especially those that don’t look like him. So abortion bans are fine as he won’t be effected. donny is just a useful idiot to the Christian Nationals in his ear.
Feel free to give me your money. It says In God We Trust on it. Oh the horror!
Yeah, it was passed in 1955 and started being printed on our bills in 1957. It's not like the founders did it or it's on the constitution. It's the same way the religious zealots keep trying to infuse religion into law today. Hopefully this time it can be stopped.
MTG and GOP Reps Lose Battle With SCOTUS Over $500 Mask Mandate Fines
The Supreme Court on Tuesday squashed an appeal from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her two Republican colleagues attempting to overturn their fines for repeatedly opting not to wear face masks on the House floor during the COVID-19 pandemic. The justices left no comment accompanying their decision to decline the appeal from Greene, who was joined in the case by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ralph Norman (R-SC). Their decision allows a lower court ruling to stand, which tossed the Congresspeople’s constitutional challenge and ruled that courts lack jurisdiction to review the mask policy. According to the Associated Press, lawyers for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) agreed with the lower court ruling and urged the court to reject the appeal. The lawyers did make it clear, however, that the entire Republican leadership voted against the mask mandate. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greene racked up a total of more than $100,000 in fines.
I understand this pales in comparison to some random person pushing players to the floor at a basketball game but still........
A Dead Non-Binary Teen and a School Boss’ Cruel Transphobia
Under a law signed two years ago by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, students can only use public school bathrooms that correspond with the gender designation on their birth certificate.
That is why on Feb. 7, Nex Benedict, a non-binary, gender-fluid 16-year-old sophomore at Owasso High School, was in the girls’ bathroom with another student, who is trans.
The pair encountered three older girls, and a physical altercation ensued. In a statement on Tuesday, the school said the incident lasted just two minutes before other students and a staff member intervened. By then, Nex, who used they/them pronouns, had landed on the floor, suffering a blow to the head. Nobody summoned an ambulance.
The school suspended Nex for two weeks and called Nex’s grandmother, Sue Benedict, who told The Independent that she arrived to see Nex’s face was battered.
The grandmother, who had formally adopted Nex, took them to Bailey Medical Center, where they were examined and released. The police had not even been notified of the altercation when the grandmother called them.
As the grandmother told The Independent, Nex complained of a sore head and went to bed listening to music, the teen’s regular balm after being bullied. They got up the next morning, but suddenly collapsed. An ambulance took them back to the hospital, where they died. The state Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to officially determine the cause of death.
“We understand that people are concerned about this incident and we can assure everyone that this incident is being taken seriously and is being investigated thoroughly,” the Owasso Police said in a statement on Tuesday. “Detectives have, are and will be interviewing school staff and students over the course of the next two weeks and in turn will be submitting our investigation to the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution review.”
A funeral was held on Feb 15. Local police and the Bikers Against Child Abuse provided an escort from the Mowery funeral home to Ridgelawn cemetery. Stitt was absent, as was Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public schools.
Last year, Walters released a “public service” video in which he described being trans as “an assault on the truth” and said, “We have injected radical gender theory and telling kids that they might be other genders. It’s dangerous. It puts our girls in jeopardy.”
Just last month, Walters appointed Chaya Raichik, the virulently anti-trans founder of Libs of TikTok, to a state library advisory board.
“Chaya Raichik and I have developed a strong working relationship to rid schools of liberal, woke values,” Walter said in a statement at the time.
Raichik was already well known in the Owasso school system. In 2022, she accused an LGBTQ+ middle school teacher of being a “groomer.” The teacher, Tyler Wrynn, whom Nex and other trans kids deemed “safe,” resigned.
“Nex was very angry about it,” the grandmother told the Independent.
Last summer, Raichik zeroed in on a Tulsa school librarian, and several Tulsa schools received bomb threats over the next few days. Libs of TikTok targeting had similar results in various parts of the country. And in November, Raichik replaced her profile photos with one of her proudly holding a copy of USA Today with the front-page headline “When Libs of TikTok posts, threats increasingly follow.”
Raichik, Walters and Stitt have all said that they are seeking to protect children. They certainly did nothing to protect Nex. And the grandmother says Nex had been bullied since the teen’s arrival at the high school in 2023.
The actual priority of these three bigots is to promote themselves by making parents fear their kids will fall victim to woke indoctrination and sex-crazed groomers. Stitt is a typical right-wing politician, and Raichik is just a craven influencer. But Walters is supposed to do more than seek every opportunity to further his political ambitions. He is directly responsible for the well-being of all the kids in the state’s public schools. He is supposed to actually protect them.
On the day Nex died, Walters said nothing at all about the loss of a bright and big-hearted student who was just what a superintendent should most want in the schools. Walters instead released a letter to U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) saying, “the growing crisis at the southern border puts our kids, our families and all Oklahomans in danger.”
Detectives are now investigating whether a very real danger in one of his high schools left a promising sophomore dead. Walters should in the meantime instruct Owasso High School to change its Principal’s Honor Roll so Nex Benedict is not listed by the teen’s deadname.
In a statement, Sue Benedict noted she had been so lost in grief that she had given the funeral home the deadname for the obituary:
“We are sorry for not using their name correctly and as parents we were still learning the correct forms. Please do not judge us as Nex was judged, please do not bully us for our ignorance on the subject. Nex gave us that respect and we are sorry in our grief that we overlooked them. I lost my child, the headstone will have the correct name of their choice.”
Sex crimes are generally he said/she said. You choose not to believe the victim. That's on your conscience. Funny how you believe the victims against Trump but not about your cheating pedo boy.
Biggest pile of BS you've ever presented. I choose to believe the evidence. Show me the evidence?
There is mounds of evidence against Trump. You don't want to see it. He committed these crimes against women.. For the life of me I don't get why you deny them.
For the record, I did say I felt as if Clinton probably did do some young women. I believe that. But I can't prove it.
The World is just too funny. Conservative Christian groups love Trump who has never asked God for forgiveness because he stated he doesn't need it--when asked about his favorite Bible verses- he changed the subject---JMHO, my understanding is other than God we ALL are sinners and must repent and ask for forgiveness--separate politics and God....OK, all is allowed only by God. Peace. I detest Trump, but I don't hate him. Please God give us a choice not involving only Biden or Trump- we as a nation can't win with either one of them.
Federal judge says MyPillow's Mike Lindell must pay $5M in election data dispute
A federal judge on Wednesday affirmed a $5 million arbitration award against MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell in favor of a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden.
Lindell said he plans to appeal. Asked if he can afford to pay, he pointed out that the breach-of-contract lawsuit was against one of his companies, Lindell Management LLC, and not against him personally.
"Of course we're going to appeal it. This guy doesn't have a dime coming," Lindell said.
Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 election, launched his "Prove Mike Wrong Challenge," as part of a "Cyber Symposium" he hosted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in August 2021. Lindell offered a $5 million reward through Lindell Management for anyone who could prove that "packet captures" and other data he released there were not valid data "from the November 2020 election."
Robert Zeidman entered the challenge with a 15-page report that concluded the data from Lindell don't "contain packet data of any kind and do not contain any information related to the November 2020 election." A panel of contest judges that included a Lindell attorney declined to declare Zeidman a winner. So Zeidman filed for arbitration under the contest rules.
A panel of three arbitrators last April unanimously ordered Lindell to pay Zeidman $5 million, concluding that he had satisfied the contest rules. In Wednesday's ruling, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim expressed concern about how the panel interpreted what he called a "poorly written contract," but said courts have only limited authority to overrule arbitration awards. He ordered Lindell to pay up with interest within 30 days.
Lindell is also the subject of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems in the District of Columbia that says he falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election. He's also the target of a separate defamation lawsuit in Minnesota by a different voting machine company, Smartmatic.
Lindell has conceded that he and MyPillow are struggling financially. Fox News, which had been one of his biggest advertising platforms, stopped running MyPillow commercials in January in a payment dispute. Two law firms that had been defending him against lawsuits by Dominion and Smartmatic quit last fall. He acknowledged that he owed them millions of dollars.
"We're not able to pay — I can't borrow money to pay these attorneys. MyPillow can't pay because of what happened" with lost sales, Lindell said. "I have $10,000 to my name."
Additionally, MyPillow auctioned off more than 700 pieces of company equipment, ranging from forklifts to office desks and cubicles.
At the time Lindell said that the auction reflected a change from big box and mall store sales to a direct-to-consumer approach. He said MyPillow had to work quickly after stores like Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond "canceled" his product and that the company had a large amount of inventory with which to deal.
At one point he was a great story. Former crack addict who turned his life around and did good. Founded the Lindell Foundation to assist drug addicts. Then, he jumped on the trump train. It's been the ruin of many a good man.
Since isolated incidents seem to mean so much to people......
Man who stomped on Asian woman in Times Square attack sentenced to 15 years in state prison
In 2021, Brandon Elliot shouted expletives at the victim, telling her, “You don’t belong here,” before toppling her and stomping on her head and body repeatedly.
A New York man has been sentenced almost three years after he was accused of violently attacking an Asian American woman in Times Square.
Brandon Elliot, 41, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in state prison. He had pleaded guilty to one count of assault in the first degree as a hate crime, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.
In 2021, Elliot attacked Vilma Kari, then 65 years old, when she was on her way to church. Elliot shouted expletives at Kari, telling her, “You don’t belong here,” before toppling her and stomping on her head and body repeatedly.
Elliot’s attorney, Jamie Niskanen-Singer, said in a statement shared with NBC News that his client had "expressed remorse" for what Kari had gone through.
"Mr. Elliot has long suffered from serious and well-documented mental health diagnoses, which was a contributing factor but by no means a blanket excuse," Niskanen-Singer said in the statement. "He has accepted responsibility for his actions and sought to spare Ms. Kari of having to relive the ordeal at a trial."
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said in a statement that he hoped the sentencing would send a message to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
“Brandon Elliot assaulted a 65-year-old woman because of her Filipino descent,” Bragg said. “I hope the closure of this case will allow the victim to continue healing and moving forward, while also sending a strong message that we will seek full accountability for anyone who commits violence against their fellow New Yorkers because of their race or ethnicity.”
Elliot, who had been on lifetime parole for murdering his mother in 2002, approached the victim, who’s Filipino American, on the sidewalk. In addition to yelling racial insults, Elliot kicked her in the torso and knocked her to the ground before kicking and stomping on her head and body, according to a news release from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
At one point, a bystander attempted to intervene, according to the release, but Elliot threatened the man with a knife and fled the scene. Kari, who was taken to the hospital, was diagnosed with a fractured pelvis, forehead contusions and contusions across her body. Elliot was arrested two days later.
Video that captured the attack quickly went viral, prompting outcry from the Asian American community against anti-Asian attacks. The attack left Kari in shock, she previously told NBC News in 2021 via email, but continued to call for greater attention to violence against people of Asian descent.
“I feel that there is now more awareness and consciousness that has developed after my attack,” she wrote. “But there needs to be more support and education about what the AAPI community is facing at this moment, especially since there are cases that have not been reported and classified as hate crimes.”
MTG and GOP Reps Lose Battle With SCOTUS Over $500 Mask Mandate Fines
The Supreme Court on Tuesday squashed an appeal from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her two Republican colleagues attempting to overturn their fines for repeatedly opting not to wear face masks on the House floor during the COVID-19 pandemic. The justices left no comment accompanying their decision to decline the appeal from Greene, who was joined in the case by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ralph Norman (R-SC). Their decision allows a lower court ruling to stand, which tossed the Congresspeople’s constitutional challenge and ruled that courts lack jurisdiction to review the mask policy. According to the Associated Press, lawyers for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) agreed with the lower court ruling and urged the court to reject the appeal. The lawyers did make it clear, however, that the entire Republican leadership voted against the mask mandate. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greene racked up a total of more than $100,000 in fines.
I figured this would happen given all the drama regarding the COVID vaccines. Now we're sliding down the slippery slope of stupidity.
I just got an email at work this morning that people who went to the Kroger Marketplace in Englewood, OH between 12:45 and 4 PM were exposed to measles.
Measles is a thing again.......measles.
Hopefully smallpox and cholera don't start springing back up.
Man, if only there were a solution...
Florida surgeon general defies science amid measles outbreak Lena H. Sun and Lauren Weber Updated Fri, February 23, 2024 at 7:01 AM CST·6 min read 1.4k
Florida Surgeon Gen. Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo before a bill signing by Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, in Brandon, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) As a Florida elementary school tries to contain a growing measles outbreak, the state’s top health official is giving advice that runs counter to science and may leave unvaccinated children at risk of contracting one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth, clinicians and public health experts said.
Florida surgeon general Joseph A. Ladapo failed to urge parents to vaccinate their children or keep unvaccinated students home from school as a precaution in a letter to parents at the Fort Lauderdale-area school this week following six confirmed measles cases.
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Instead of following what he acknowledged was the “normal” recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days - the incubation period for measles - Ladapo said the state health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”
The controversial move by Ladapo follows a pattern of bucking public health norms, particularly when it comes to vaccines. Last month, he called for halting the use of mRNA coronavirus vaccines, in a move decried by the public health community.
Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Florida’s guidance flies in the face of long-standing and widely accepted public health guidance for measles, which can result in severe complications, including death.
“It runs counter to everything I have ever heard and everything that I have read,” Hoffman said. “It runs counter to our policy. It runs counter to what the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] would recommend.”
Measles outbreaks have been on the rise in recent years. So far in 2024, at least 26 cases in at least 12 states have been reported to the CDC, about double the number at this point last year. In addition to the six cases confirmed in the Florida school, cases have been reported in Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Experts say the outbreaks are linked to the growing number of parents seeking exemptions from childhood vaccinations in recent years following political backlash to coronavirus pandemic mandates and rampant misinformation about the safety of vaccines.
In January, the CDC issued a warning to health providers to be on alert for more measles cases. Infected people are contagious starting four days before a rash develops and until four days afterward.
Because measles virus particles can linger in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the area, up to 90 percent of people without immunity will contract measles if exposed. People who have been infected or received the full two doses of the MMR vaccine are 98 percent protected and very unlikely to contract the disease. That is why public health officials typically advocate for vaccination amid outbreaks.
“The reason why there is a measles outbreak in Florida schools is because too many parents have not had their children protected by the safe and effective measles vaccine,” said John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College. “And why is that? It’s because anti-vaccine sentiment in Florida comes from the top of the public health food-chain: Joseph Ladapo.”
When asked to comment, the Florida health department responded with a link to Ladapo’s letter.
Ladapo’s unwillingness to use public health tools echoes the movement by conservative and libertarian forces to defang public health’s ability to contain diseases like the highly infectious measles. In a measles outbreak in Ohio that began in late 2022, most of the 85 children infected were old enough to get the shots, but their parents chose not to do so, officials said. The state legislature in 2021 had stripped health officials’ abilities to order someone suspected of having an infectious disease to quarantine.
Ladapo’s letter to parents comes at a time of heightened worry about the public health consequences of anti-vaccine sentiment, a long-standing problem that has led to drops in child immunization rates in pockets across the United States. The percentage of kindergartners whose parents opted them out of at least one state-required childhood vaccinations rose to the highest level yet during the 2022-2023 school year - 3 percent - according to federal data released last year.
Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said Ladapo’s failure to urge vaccination endangers children.
“Is he trying to prove that measles isn’t a contagious disease when the data are clear that it is the most contagious vaccine-preventable disease, far more contagious than influenza or covid?” Offit wrote in an email.
The measles virus is extremely contagious, and infections spread rapidly. Young children are especially vulnerable because the first dose is not given until a child is 12 to 15 months old. The CDC recommends two doses of MMR vaccine, with the second dose at 4 through 6 years old.
A drop below 95 percent vaccination coverage for measles can compromise herd immunity and allow a virus to spread more quickly. Florida’s state vaccination coverage is 90.6 percent, but statewide vaccination coverage does not identify pockets where there may be lower coverage.
The outbreak will explode exponentially, becoming a much bigger community threat, if unvaccinated people exposed to the virus don’t follow public health recommendations and stay home from school during the potentially contagious period, said Patsy Stinchfield, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a nurse practitioner in Minneapolis. She has been involved in controlling three measles outbreaks, including the 2017 outbreak in Minnesota that affected 75 people, most of them unvaccinated, and most of them children.
About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the United States who contract measles is hospitalized, according to the CDC. As many as 1 out of 20 children develop pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. About 1 child out of every 1,000 with measles will develop swelling of the brain that can lead to convulsions and leave the child deaf or with an intellectual disability. For unvaccinated babies who contract measles, 1 in 600 can develop a fatal neurological complication that can lie dormant for years.
Manatee Bay Elementary School, about 20 miles west of Fort Lauderdale, has six confirmed measles cases, school officials said this week. Of the school’s 1,067 students, 33 have not received the MMR vaccine, Broward County Schools Superintendent Peter B. Licata said Wednesday during a school board meeting. A school district official said the district has held “four vaccination opportunities,” including two at the school and two at other locations in the community.
This outbreak and these cases have very little to do with COVID. You could make a case that COVID has hastened vaccine hesitancy, so it will going forward. This has been going on for 25-30 years. I fail to see how it is a Republican thing either. Mostly started with hippies in the sixties and went crazy overseas.
The main culprit here is parents afraid of side effects as the push for more and more inoculations were dealt by the CDC and FDA. It's become a laundry list of recommendations before the age of three. I'm not going to bother researching because nobody here really argues facts anyway, but wasn't there also some big stink about a vax for STDs recommended for children under three? Something like that.
Add in scares (mostly b.s.) about these cocktails causing everything from ADHD to Autism and parents start to question things. Add in the fact that nobody sees these outbreaks anymore and it makes parents question whether they need them (a stupid part of human nature). Add in the fact that schools started accepting religious and other non-medical exemptions for non-vaccinated students.
NOW as a parent, look at the CDC recommendations for 19 shots by the age of 6 months (including COVID and twice-per-year Flu shot) and people may start to question things. Especially when the powers that be are vehement about spacing these out over even just another year of a young life.
Just my .02, I'm sure this is all the fault of the GOP and I'm just blind and dumb.
That's exactly the case I was making regarding COVID. In this case, it's Florida, so the logical follow-on with the administration down there is a furtherance of the vaccine repulsion (I wouldn't call it hesitancy, as Florida seems to have taken it a step further). Hence the slippery slope argument.
Rather than fanning this out to the sixties and whatnot, or whether all things are needed at birth and whatnot (I think you can have a valid discussion there), we are talking about measles and Ladapo's/DeSantis' anti-vax rhetoric that now transcends beyond COVID, combined with the fact we are now having measles incidents countrywide.
If you look at Florida and most of the anti-vax movement today and line it up with political platforms, I don't really think you can blame the liberal crowd or the hippies.
But, again, it's measles. MEASLES. When is the last time you heard widespread news coverage about measles, or received an email saying you might have been exposed if you went to the grocery store? I would also think if such a thing happened, that our public health officials might say things like "Get vaccinated. It's the reason why measles became 'not a thing' for a while.'" Instead, we get Ladapo, who was put into his role for obvious reasons.
Also, I never said you were blind... (that's a joke).
When was the last time? Last year -- in Ohio. 85 Children, 80 were unvaccinated.
Here's the list of most unvaccinated for MMR (latest I could find was 2019)
States With the Lowest Measles Vaccination Rates
Colorado Idaho Alabama Kansas Washington Indiana Hawaii Ohio New Hampshire Oklahoma
If you read the list and percentages, you may tend to surmise, as I did, that a lot may have to do with exemptions. From the 4th worst in the US...
Quote
4. Washington (tie)
MMR Coverage Rate: 90.8%
After measles outbreaks sickened 86 people – most of them unvaccinated minors – in Washington earlier this year, lawmakers removed the state’s personal belief exemption for the MMR vaccine. In the 2018-2019 school year, 5% of kindergartners were exempt from at least one vaccine.
So in Washington, before 2019 I could just say "nah". Seems really stupid.
Here's another morsel, if you're looking for cause...
Quote
The type of exemptions allowed also may pose a problem. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. allow exemptions for medical reasons while 45 states and D.C. grant exemptions on religious grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
However, there are also 15 states that grant philosophical exemptions due to "personal, moral or other beliefs," the NCSL says. This means that parents can ask for an exemption for their child for just about any reason.
My biggest takeaway? The dolt that didn't tell parents to keep their unvaccinated students home should be fired. That's "Florida", that's someone showing his ass because it earns political brownie points. That's also something we see on both sides of the aisle on endless subjects, so I'm not surprised.
There seem to be measle outbreaks every year, anymore. 90-95% of those are unvaccinated. Hopefully parents are learning their lesson without learning the hard way. Hopefully states throw away the 'excuse' list and make it as absolutely mandatory as it used to be.
As of Dec. 7, over 80% of people in the U.S. had received their first shot to guard against COVID-19 and 68.9% were considered fully vaccinated, according to USAFacts and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC distinguishes between being “fully vaccinated” and being “up to date.”
These are the states with the highest full vaccination rates:
1. Rhode Island (87.1%) 2. Vermont (85.0%) 3. Massachusetts (83.6%) 4. Maine (82.8%) 5. Connecticut (82.6%) 6. Hawaii (81.1%) 7. New York (80.2%) 8. Maryland (79.2%) 9. New Jersey (78.6%) 10. Virginia (76.1%)
Who here is about to go get their 7th BOOSTER? Anybody? C'mon, it's a great chance to virtue signal with no accountability for honesty. Let's have a show of hands.
If not -- you're an antivaxer and apparently don't trust science.
My wife, myself and my entire family have had every Covied booster vaccination offered since the beginning. And there haven't been seven of them. You are a prime example of what it looks like to point fingers at people who use common sense. You and your microchip conspiracy theorist friends can pound salt. But hey, maybe thinning the herd isn't such a bad idea.
Circuit court blocks judge's decision to release white supremacist for being 'selectively prosecuted'
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the emergency stay Thursday.
A federal appeals court panel on Thursday moved to stay a district judge's order that cleared the release of an alleged leader of a white supremacist organization who had previously fled the U.S. to evade prosecution.
Robert Rundo, the alleged leader of the white supremacist 'Rise Above Movement,' was released from prison in Orange County Wednesday, before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued their temporary stay. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California confirmed Thursday night that Rundo had been taken into custody.
"Rundo was released from custody at some point yesterday evening. As you may have seen, we petitioned the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the release order, which was granted this morning. Rundo was taken into custody this evening by the FBI," read a statement from the office.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney had earlier dismissed charges against Rundo and a co-defendant, Robert Boman, both of whom were charged in 2018 with conspiracy to violate the Anti-Riot Act, and rioting, for their role in alleged attacks on counter-protesters at political rallies in 2017.
In an extraordinary ruling Wednesday, Carney argued that Rundo and Boman had shown they were "selectively prosecuted" in comparison with members of far-left groups like Antifa, who also physically assaulted supporters of former President Trump at some of the rallies but were not charged with the same crimes.
"By many accounts, members of Antifa and related far-left groups engaged in worse conduct and in fact instigated much of the violence that broke out at these otherwise constitutionally protected rallies to silence the protected speech of the supporters of President Trump," Judge Carney wrote in his opinion. "That is constitutionally impermissible...prosecuting only members of the far right and ignoring members of the far left leads to the troubling conclusion that the government believes it is permissible to physically assault and injure Trump supporters to silence speech."
Carney noted in his opinion that others had argued that the far-left groups "engaged in worse conduct and instigated much of the violence."
"The government cannot prosecute R.A.M. members such as Defendants while ignoring the violence of members of Antifa and related far-left groups because RAM engaged in what the government and many believe is more offensive speech," Carney wrote, referring to the Rise Above Movement, of which Rundo and Boman were members. Prosecutors have described the Rise Above Movement as a "combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement" in a federal indictment.
Carney also rejected a request by prosecutors to stay his order releasing Rundo from custody, ignoring their pleas that he presented a "grave risk of flight" as well as a danger to the community.
Boman had already been released on bond when the charges were dropped, while Rundo remained in custody. Prosecutors had rushed to reverse Carney's order and in the meantime filed an emergency request with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that Rundo was likely to flee the U.S. if released, as he had previously. That emergency order was granted, with the panel writing that "Robert Rundo's immediate release is temporarily stayed pending resolution of appellant's motion to stay release pending appeal."
In their emergency application with the 9th Circuit, prosecutors noted that Rundo fled the U.S. the last time Judge Carney ordered his case dismissed in 2019 on First Amendment grounds. The 9th Circuit later reversed that decision, and the FBI was able to locate Rundo in Romania and secure his extradition in August of 2023.
My wife, myself and my entire family have had every Covied booster vaccination offered since the beginning. And there haven't been seven of them. You are a prime example of what it looks like to point fingers at people who use common sense. You and your microchip conspiracy theorist friends can pound salt. But hey, maybe thinning the herd isn't such a bad idea.
Wow. Somebody needs a diaper change again.
1st, you're supposed to get a booster every 4-6 months, so your math is off #askfauci 2nd, don't know anything about microchips #weakinsultfromaweakmind 3rd, you think people should die if they aren't as gullible as you? You're starting to sound like OCD.
When was the last time? Last year -- in Ohio. 85 Children, 80 were unvaccinated.
Here's the list of most unvaccinated for MMR (latest I could find was 2019)
States With the Lowest Measles Vaccination Rates
Colorado Idaho Alabama Kansas Washington Indiana Hawaii Ohio New Hampshire Oklahoma
If you read the list and percentages, you may tend to surmise, as I did, that a lot may have to do with exemptions. From the 4th worst in the US...
Quote
4. Washington (tie)
MMR Coverage Rate: 90.8%
After measles outbreaks sickened 86 people – most of them unvaccinated minors – in Washington earlier this year, lawmakers removed the state’s personal belief exemption for the MMR vaccine. In the 2018-2019 school year, 5% of kindergartners were exempt from at least one vaccine.
So in Washington, before 2019 I could just say "nah". Seems really stupid.
Here's another morsel, if you're looking for cause...
Quote
The type of exemptions allowed also may pose a problem. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. allow exemptions for medical reasons while 45 states and D.C. grant exemptions on religious grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
However, there are also 15 states that grant philosophical exemptions due to "personal, moral or other beliefs," the NCSL says. This means that parents can ask for an exemption for their child for just about any reason.
My biggest takeaway? The dolt that didn't tell parents to keep their unvaccinated students home should be fired. That's "Florida", that's someone showing his ass because it earns political brownie points. That's also something we see on both sides of the aisle on endless subjects, so I'm not surprised.
There seem to be measle outbreaks every year, anymore. 90-95% of those are unvaccinated. Hopefully parents are learning their lesson without learning the hard way. Hopefully states throw away the 'excuse' list and make it as absolutely mandatory as it used to be.
Thanks, I honestly didn't know that, so I really do appreciate that. I guess that also helps explain the outbreaks in Ohio. I hadn't seen it publicized until more so recently. I think the problem now, like you infer, is that we actually have politicians like Ladapo wading in and actively doing a disservice, and I think the problem will get worse.
Also, it's sad that someone like a surgeon general and also Supreme Court justices have waded more into the realm of being politicians now. It has permeated every sector.
3rd, you think people should die if they aren't as gullible as you? You're starting to sound like OCD.
Bad choices lead to bad consequences. It's their own stupid decisions that decide this. Not me. I guess you missed all of those people in the hospitals who didn't get the vaccine on deaths doorsteps who told everyone they made a mistake and to get vaccinated. But I expect you weren't paying attention then either.
You get boosters as new vaccines come out. Try to keep up.
COVID-19 Vaccines: 2023–2024 Updated, Bivalent, and Original 2023–2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines
As of October 3, 2023, the 2023-2024 updated Novavax vaccine was recommended by CDC for use in the United States.
As of September 12, 2023, the 2023–2024 updated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were recommended by CDC for use in the United States.
The 2023–2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines more closely targets the XBB lineage of the Omicron variant and could restore protection against severe COVID-19 that may have decreased over time. We anticipate the updated vaccines will be better at fighting currently circulating variants.
There is no preferential recommendation for the use of any one COVID-19 vaccine over another when more than one licensed or authorized, recommended, and age-appropriate vaccine is available.
The only one around here who needs their diaper changed is you. When you're so immature you can't admit that people who get these vaccines are using common sense dictates you're certainly not potty broke.
Agreed. One huge area where our 'elected' fail is in their near-sighted approach to everything... and toeing the political line (not that we're much different in the 'what have you done for me lately' department). It's disgusting.
Something like this is the perfect opportunity to actually help flatten a curve that can make a huge difference, a long withstanding difference. This dolt does the opposite. How hard is it for intelligent people to take a look at a single subject and tune out the outside noise for the betterment of society? It surely can't be this hard.
Look, I get human nature and ebb and flow, and the fact that we haven't been worried about this stuff for decades now, but this isn't that hard to figure out. Having states below 90%, even as low as 80% could cause a major outbreak.
Saw Trumps rally moment where he say’s he will restore power to church leaders. Under my administration you will have such great power! And we are going to bring people back to the church (Christian church). He’s out pushing that handmaids tale zealot’s wet dream to low brow christian nationalists pseudo-christians. My question is, where the hell are all the DECENT VALID CHRISTIANS who simply live the lives of good people and don’t weaponize religion? If MAGAts think over 40% of this country, the non-believers, will suddenly lay down for a theocracy, they have another thing coming. And we are the majority when you add in non-christian voters of other religions, true Christians who despise MAGA, and those who do not disclose their beliefs. Nobody but Bubba MAGAt is doing cartwheels for the church cult of Trump.
3rd, you think people should die if they aren't as gullible as you? You're starting to sound like OCD.
Bad choices lead to bad consequences. It's their own stupid decisions that decide this. Not me. I guess you missed all of those people in the hospitals who didn't get the vaccine on deaths doorsteps who told everyone they made a mistake and to get vaccinated. But I expect you weren't paying attention then either.
You get boosters as new vaccines come out. Try to keep up.
COVID-19 Vaccines: 2023–2024 Updated, Bivalent, and Original 2023–2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines
As of October 3, 2023, the 2023-2024 updated Novavax vaccine was recommended by CDC for use in the United States.
As of September 12, 2023, the 2023–2024 updated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were recommended by CDC for use in the United States.
The 2023–2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines more closely targets the XBB lineage of the Omicron variant and could restore protection against severe COVID-19 that may have decreased over time. We anticipate the updated vaccines will be better at fighting currently circulating variants.
There is no preferential recommendation for the use of any one COVID-19 vaccine over another when more than one licensed or authorized, recommended, and age-appropriate vaccine is available.
The only one around here who needs their diaper changed is you. When you're so immature you can't admit that people who get these vaccines are using common sense dictates you're certainly not potty broke.
Let me know if you want me to start a COVID thread. We can cover all of Fauci's admitted lies and the aftermath of the sham part of this pandemic. You want boosters every six months? Go for it. If you think others dying is a 'cool idea', because they don't think like you -- you're a scumbag.
Now I've figured out why you are so afraid of immigrants. The unvaccinated are afraid they will give them Covid. And there's millions of them to give it to you. Hell trump let millions of them in too.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
FATE & I are libtards?
Just you.
Lol, there you have it, people. I'm a libtard now. I better go challenge the Democrats in the Cuckoo Democrats thread so I can go back to being a "GOPer" or whatever I was called.
I appreciate that stretch you did there, by the way. My calling out a Florida health politician who has undercut decades of science, which will worsen the measles outbreak turns into "Libtards are letting in unvaccinated, disease ridden migrants and then complaining about measles." Well done. James Comer, Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz would be proud.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
The diseased mental MAGAts and their disgusting putrid hate speech have been normalized to the point that even here you can blatantly post racist trash with zero repercussions. This place is truly becoming 4chan.
But anyone who believes in science has to be a libtard. Haven't you heard? If you believe in the rights of women you must be a libtard. It's the latest thing.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
FATE & I are libtards?
Just you.
Lol, there you have it, people. I'm a libtard now. I better go challenge the Democrats in the Cuckoo Democrats thread so I can go back to being a "GOPer" or whatever I was called.
I appreciate that stretch you did there, by the way. My calling out a Florida health politician who has undercut decades of science, which will worsen the measles outbreak turns into "Libtards are letting in unvaccinated, disease ridden migrants and then complaining about measles." Well done. James Comer, Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz would be proud.
You are denying being a libtard? You make libtard posts all the time. When you start complaining about the millions of discease-ridden unvaccinated illegals entering the country, maybe your label will change.
Just giving the bird to MAGA fascism and hate. No special tools required to support freedom and democracy. I’m selling we are all ANTIFA buttons at Trump rallies for sits and giggles though, if you want to join. Got the idea from a Chapelle fan in yellow springs. That little town is a bastion of libtards in a sea of duped red.
duped red tends to look a bit ruskie commie pink… don’t you think?
Hey, I just want to make sure I fit in now. If I say "Tax the Rich," will I get 10% off at checkout when I visit my local hemp store?
Nope. But if you served your country you will get 25-30%. And it’s not tax the rich because even the most delusional leftie knows the rich won’t pay their fair share. The saying is eat the rich, because the rich and the right are fear driven beasts that only feel their own pain, and only fear everything they are incapable of understanding.
They still can’t figure out how ANTIFA is an American value and not a liberal terrorist group. They can’t understand how so many would stand behind the name ANTIFA to stop their fascism without having an HQ and leaders they can attack. When they have no target for their threats, violence and hate, they are left with only their fear. And that is good for democracy.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
FATE & I are libtards?
Just you.
Lol, there you have it, people. I'm a libtard now. I better go challenge the Democrats in the Cuckoo Democrats thread so I can go back to being a "GOPer" or whatever I was called.
I appreciate that stretch you did there, by the way. My calling out a Florida health politician who has undercut decades of science, which will worsen the measles outbreak turns into "Libtards are letting in unvaccinated, disease ridden migrants and then complaining about measles." Well done. James Comer, Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz would be proud.
You are denying being a libtard? You make libtard posts all the time. When you start complaining about the millions of discease-ridden unvaccinated illegals entering the country, maybe your label will change.
LOL...it must be 5 o'clock somewhere. I make a lot of posts criticizing Republicans, yes, Eve. Mostly because I believe the MAGA wing of the party, to include Tucker Carlson, is the most immediately dangerous threat to our democracy. I recently had a conversation where I considered Democrats and old-blood Republicans (Mitch McConnell) to be having an "Alzheimers" (no pun intended) effect on our country where it is a slow, but gradual decline from greatness, given all their selfish policies and whatnot. I consider the MAGA wing to have the ASCVD effect, where things like J6 happen and our country could rapidly decline on a dime. So yes, I am harder on them. I'm not quite sure how that makes me a libtard, though, although it feels good to belong somewhere.
You're making this somehow into a border fight. It seems like to distract from a valid point and an excellent conversation I was having with FATE, but regardless, I think the border is absolutely broken. I think everyone has dropped the ball. I actually remember OCD introducing something a year or so ago that made perfect sense. I remember both FATE and I agreeing on it. To date, I haven't seen either party do anything meaningful with the border. I also stay out of that conversation for the most part because I don't know as much about it and I am content reading posts from people like FATE and Pit to inform myself on the topic before I barge in swinging stupidity like some other people around here...
While we're on the topic, I do find it interesting that you condemn my silence while claiming that I make libtard posts all the time. I find it interesting that I haven't seen you chime in on the many valid points that have been raised against Republicans, more particularly the far right ones. I guess this is just about me and my libtardism. Still not exactly sure which one of my posts is a libtard one, considering the consensus FATE and I came to in this thread.
Just giving the bird to MAGA fascism and hate. No special tools required to support freedom and democracy. I’m selling we are all ANTIFA buttons at Trump rallies for sits and giggles though, if you want to join. Got the idea from a Chapelle fan in yellow springs. That little town is a bastion of libtards in a sea of duped red.
duped red tends to look a bit ruskie commie pink… don’t you think?
I forgot you live in Yellow Springs. I'll have to grab a beer with you up there sometime. Maybe during Browns season if you're up for it.
Those are the friends you want? And you complain about the term 'libtard'?
Originally Posted by OldColdDawg
The diseased mental MAGAts and their disgusting putrid hate speech have been normalized to the point that even here you can blatantly post racist trash with zero repercussions. This place is truly becoming 4chan.
OCD talking about "hate speech" when 95% of his posts read like he's a 4chan legend -- priceless.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
FATE & I are libtards?
You think her statement is a joke, but it's not. You can't get all fired up about Florida and ignore the fact that illegals are let into NYC schools by the thousands, by simply giving their word that they will start their child's vaccination process within 30 days. And with no repercussions when they don't... Unless, of course you're a #fakeasslibtard
LOL, nice, you too with the moniker. I need a badge now.
I don't think her statement is a joke. I don't take her seriously, quite often, but I rarely think her citations are jokes.
I absolutely think that's a problem, and I agree with you. I do think it's a problem when the response to a well-pointed article about a surgeon general in Florida undermining vaccinations is "Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve" directed at me, per her statement. I'm not sure how I remotely fit that accusation. In fact, I think it would be fair for both to be true, you know, chewing gum and walking in a straight line.
But that's a problem I think that is pervasive in political discussions. One can raise a valid point, but it's never enough because that person didn't also complain about something else.
But that's a problem I think that is pervasive in political discussions. One can raise a valid point, but it's never enough because that person didn't also complain about something else.
You mean like me having a valid point about vaccinations but it's not enough because I don't complain about republicans? HMMM.
You don't just get badges for a certain level of libtardedness, that's not how things work. These awards are gifted on a case-by-case basis.
Ultra-hate-speech fascist MAGATS like Eve and I would prefer we didn't even have to lob those terms at all. She's mistreated in the last 20 posts (and you're still dealing underhanded, snide, tongue-in-cheek remarks), while raising a pertinent point... one that many good, smart people may be asking themselves.
LOL, nice, you too with the moniker. I need a badge now.
I don't think her statement is a joke. I don't take her seriously, quite often, but I rarely think her citations are jokes.
I absolutely think that's a problem, and I agree with you. I do think it's a problem when the response to a well-pointed article about a surgeon general in Florida undermining vaccinations is "Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve" directed at me, per her statement. I'm not sure how I remotely fit that accusation. In fact, I think it would be fair for both to be true, you know, chewing gum and walking in a straight line.
But that's a problem I think that is pervasive in political discussions. One can raise a valid point, but it's never enough because that person didn't also complain about something else.
The more truth you share and the more you point out how wrong the MAGA right is, the more hate and targeting you’ll recieve. But I’ve learned the stinging truths about MAGA and dear leader will usually shut that down… at least while you are actively posting. They’ll wait until you’re gone a few hours to act out again. I raised four kids, so I recognized petualant childish behavior when I see it. They are so openbook and weak psyche’d, it’s no wonder they are easily mind controlled.
You don't just get badges for a certain level of libtardedness, that's not how things work. These awards are gifted on a case-by-case basis.
Ultra-hate-speech fascist MAGATS like Eve and I would prefer we didn't even have to lob those terms at all. She's mistreated in the last 20 posts (and you're still dealing underhanded, snide, tongue-in-cheek remarks), while raising a pertinent point... one that many good, smart people may be asking themselves.
We crapped the bed and people make fun of the stinch, oh poor us.
But that's a problem I think that is pervasive in political discussions. One can raise a valid point, but it's never enough because that person didn't also complain about something else.
You mean like me having a valid point about vaccinations but it's not enough because I don't complain about republicans? HMMM.
You don't just get badges for a certain level of libtardedness, that's not how things work. These awards are gifted on a case-by-case basis.
Ultra-hate-speech fascist MAGATS like Eve and I would prefer we didn't even have to lob those terms at all. She's mistreated in the last 20 posts (and you're still dealing underhanded, snide, tongue-in-cheek remarks), while raising a pertinent point... one that many good, smart people may be asking themselves.
So far, nobody has called me a MAGAT or whatnot. As far as "friends" go, that was clearly a joke, as I don't consider myself a libtard. I was deemed a "libtard" by Eve and I'm having fun with it. As far as I'm concerned, we're all sitting in a proverbial bar. Yet, when I have fun with being named a "libtard," I am the one doing the mistreating? Last I checked, I never referred to other posters using such pedantic terms, other than to jokingly refer to Eve as one in the other thread. I've even come to your defense before when Perfect started throwing out all his trolling using pedantic monikers and whatnot.
And bro, don't kid yourself, with all the memes and monikers flying around, you love using those terms and ribbing people. The way you raise the point was pertinent, but the way that she raised it about "libtards" and "disease-ridden" aliens and whatnot is a pertinent point? I suppose one is buried in there amongst all the venom.
You don't have the high ground here my friend. Honestly, I have noticed something on this board. Depending on which thread I am in, people get triggered depending on which side of the aisle gets criticized, or which posters of like-minds get criticized. Take it for what it's worth.
Sometimes it is amazing what otherwise rational people will support. I play the game and give what I get. In response to Eve's libtard I use "repugnantcan". Communicating with people on their own level may not be useful per say but a dose of their own medicine has become my rule of thumb. Of course when you give it back in equal measure as you can see, they label you the bad guy.
While we certainly disagree on some issues I find your responses measured and respectful. As such I return it in kind. But don't expect that from the outliers from both sides. Extremism has certainly become far more the norm than the exception. There is no such thing as moderate or moderation left anymore. It has turned into, become an extremist on either the left or the right and hit the paint hard with it or you don't belong anywhere. Sadly that's where we are and the general rules of the game. As such I tend to follow those rules.
But that's a problem I think that is pervasive in political discussions. One can raise a valid point, but it's never enough because that person didn't also complain about something else.
You mean like me having a valid point about vaccinations but it's not enough because I don't complain about republicans? HMMM.
It honestly took me a minute to decipher what your assertions were, but Eve, you're twisting things again, just like you did originally. I'll put the time frame together, as I see it, and I don't want to "mistreat" you even though I didn't charge into this thread and call you names, but anyhow:
1. I cited an article, in a thread about problems with Republicans, about a Republican, who is subverting widely accepted public health protocols.
2. You came in and said I got what I deserved, referred to be as a "libtard" and then said I shouldn't be complaining, because I apparently hadn't also posted anything about vaccinations in the immigration thread.
That is exactly the point I was making about how one can raise a valid point, but it's never enough because that person didn't also complain about something else. Then it gets twisted and now somehow you are the one who "isn't bringing up a valid point because you don't complain about republicans." I'm not quite sure how the aggressor can also be the victim.
Honestly, if you came in and said "The bigger problem is the measles spreading with migrants" and brought in stats or articles to back it up" it may have been a what-about (although not a bad one) and perhaps not pertinent to this thread topic, but I think that would actually spark a decent discussion. Instead, it was "ready, fire, aim" and "now I'm the victim."
Dude. What is with all the whatnots?? 'Gobs' and 'whatnots' for weeks on end now.
Are you saying I get triggered? Or those that OCDC calls MAGATS get triggered more? I think you're exercising some very selective reading.
I was mostly kidding anyway, thought that came across, but now you're going to the "high ground' stuff. Seems like maybe you're triggered, I'll bow out.
Have a great evening, actually nice to speak to someone with some emotional maturity today.
Sometimes it is amazing what otherwise rational people will support. I play the game and give what I get. In response to Eve's libtard I use "repugnantcan". Communicating with people on their own level may not be useful per say but a dose of their own medicine has become my rule of thumb. Of course when you give it back in equal measure as you can see, they label you the bad guy.
While we certainly disagree on some issues I find your responses measured and respectful. As such I return it in kind. But don't expect that from the outliers from both sides. Extremism has certainly become far more the norm than the exception. There is no such thing as moderate or moderation left anymore. It has turned into become an extremist on either the left or the right and hit the paint hard with it or you don't belong anywhere. Sadly that's where we are and the general rules of the game. As such I tend to follow those rules.
Thanks man. Likewise, and that's fair. Usually, I try to avoid such things because I tend to find myself getting dragged into the downward spiral, like I have here, when I'd rather just stick to the issues for the most part. But that has been happening with me more and more, especially lately. Maybe it's me. Who knows...
Dude. What is with all the whatnots?? 'Gobs' and 'whatnots' for weeks on end now.
Are you saying I get triggered? Or those that OCDC calls MAGATS get triggered more? I think you're exercising some very selective reading.
I was mostly kidding anyway, thought that came across, but now you're going to the "high ground' stuff. Seems like maybe you're triggered, I'll bow out.
Have a great evening, actually nice to speak to someone with some emotional maturity today.
LOL, I tend to have words I repeat a lot. Whatnot is the latest. I'm getting over a "however" phase according to my assistant who edits all my stuff. I tend to be good in terms of substance, but expression and wording have always been a struggle.
I'm saying that everyone gets triggered. I think it happens to you. It happened to me in the Carlson thread and it happens to a lot of people on this board in those situations I mentioned.
As far as today goes, I was mostly kidding, too (hence the jokes you and I had back and forth earlier and the bar talk reference). The high ground comment was not said maliciously. It's hard to read emotions through words on a message board, of course. However (there I go again), I get called some pretty nasty things on my day-to-day in negotiations and whatnot (there it is again), so for me to actually get meaningfully upset takes an awful lot.
Haha. I'm good with whatnot, my son uses that alot.
I'm not good with starting every sentence with "So...". Drives me insane. I know people that start nearly every response with that when answering a question. I don't need a heads up that you're about to answer my question, the answer itself will give me everything I need without any unnecessary spoilers. As much as it pains me to say it, I'm pretty sure I would rather have people go back to "Ummm" at this point.
And I do look forward to a beer and a tall glass of Mezcal one day... jackass.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
Again, WAKE UP... The GOP house had the chance to put the most comprehensive border protections in place and refused.. So don't you DARE blame it on Democrats.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
Again, WAKE UP... The GOP house had the chance to put the most comprehensive border protections in place and refused.. So don't you DARE blame it on Democrats.
LMAO Who has been in charge the last 3 years? Who has made 335 executive orders inviting illegal in? You have only yourself to blame. No wait, THIS COUNTRY has only DEMOCRATS to blame.
GOPers bitched about it for 3 years and when they had their chance to help fix the issue, they said nope. We don’t want to give democrats a win. Meaning GOPers really don’t care about immigrants or illegals. It’s just a campaign talking issue for pointing fingers. “See, Biden’s too old” pffft Gopers.
jc Libtards let 7.2 million unvaccinated disease-ridden illegals into the country and now they're complaining about measles. You get what you deserve.
Again, WAKE UP... The GOP house had the chance to put the most comprehensive border protections in place and refused.. So don't you DARE blame it on Democrats.
LMAO Who has been in charge the last 3 years? Who has made 335 executive orders inviting illegal in? You have only yourself to blame. No wait, THIS COUNTRY has only DEMOCRATS to blame.
Oh for goodness sake, the border issue has been bad for 40 years. Who has done what? I can't believe you think this is an issue only in the last 3 years. WAKE UP
Sorry, your timeline is off TOO- Operation Wetback- Eisenhower 1950s- nearly 75 years.
Another first for Trump- he states he has "always the number one" Mugshot T- shirt---He went on to claim that Black people walk around with photos of his mug shot on $19 T-shirts — which he claimed was the "number one" mug shot, followed by Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra's.
Loved by Blacks because he has a mugshot- buy his T-shirt, vote for him because he's always number one......Presidential---WOW.
I wonder if, ya know, maybe that shot of the empty seats was taken way, way before the event started? I wonder that because, later - ya know, when there are speakers on stage, it appears pretty full, with a lot of applause as well.
I bet if you went to a local gym say, a few hours before a game, and you took a picture of the stands, it would look empty. But if you took that same shot at tip off, it would look different, wouldn't it?
Trump says Black people like him now because they relate to his indicments and love his mugshot… they’re selling $19 tee shirts with my mugshot on them.
'Chaotic' US Congress faces whirlwind of shutdown, impeachment, border fights
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress lurches into a new week of political chaos on Monday, as lawmakers struggle to avoid a partial government shutdown in just five days, while pushing for an election-year trial of President Joe Biden's top border official.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is also grasping for a way forward on vital U.S. aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and plans to hear closed-door testimony from Biden's son, Hunter Biden, in an impeachment probe that has failed so far to turn up evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
Congress has been characterized by Republican brinkmanship and muddled priorities over the past year, more so since Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump undermined a bipartisan border deal in the Senate and now wants aid to U.S. allies extended as loans.
Almost two months have passed since Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.
Since then, Congress has failed to follow through with the detailed legislation that would put that agreement into effect.
"It's becoming more chaotic," said Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. "The longer Congress is dysfunctional, the further they fall behind on very time-sensitive, high-priority legislation."
That dysfunction has eclipsed classic partisan bickering between Republicans and Democrats, with hardliners now forming their own opposition party within Republican ranks.
Major ratings agencies say the repeated brinkmanship is taking a toll on the creditworthiness of a nation whose debt has surpassed $34 trillion.
In the latest sign of an ungovernable House Republican majority, some hardliners are threatening to oust Johnson as speaker, if the Christian conservative allows a vote on the $95 billion foreign aid bill that passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
On another front, the White House has stepped up personal attacks on Johnson for blocking bills Biden supports.
Biden plans to meet with Schumer, Johnson and other congressional leaders on Tuesday.
FRIDAY DEADLINE
The most urgent task for Congress is averting a partial shutdown when funding runs out at midnight Friday.
Lawmakers currently do not have a plan to prevent that from happening. Schumer said on Sunday that Republicans need more time to "sort themselves out," while Johnson accused Democrats of imposing new demands.
Representative Tom Cole, a top appropriator, hopes to see as many as four packages with discretionary funding for the entire government. The House is expected to move first, though its rules mean lawmakers might not vote until Thursday — the day before funds expire.
Some lawmakers worry that hardline demands for policy riders that restrict access to abortion, defund diversity programs and promote gun rights could cause further delay.
But Representative Mike Simpson, a senior Republican appropriator, said Congress can steer clear of a shutdown.
"We cannot let unrealistic policy expectations get in the way of effective governing. We must get these bills across the finish line," Simpson said in a statement.
IMPEACHMENT TIMING UNCLEAR
Further complicating the path forward, senators are due to be sworn in as jurors for the trial of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who the House impeached along partisan lines on Feb. 13 on charges that he has failed to enforce immigration law and made false statements to Congress.
But a Senate trial cannot begin until the House delivers the articles of impeachment, and sources said the two chambers have not yet agreed on a delivery date.
To avert a shutdown, Schumer may need unanimous consent from senators, including raucous Republican hardliners, if the chamber is to act on appropriations before the Friday deadline.
"It's going to be difficult to get it done on time," said Senator John Boozman, a senior Republican appropriator. "Hopefully, we won't have a government shutdown. But if we do, just a few days as we're working in good faith to get it passed, that really wouldn't mean much."
The absence of time has led to speculation that lawmakers could opt for a short-term stopgap measure to keep federal agencies open while Congress acts.
Johnson and other Republicans oppose a short-term stopgap, known as a continuing resolution or CR. But circumstances may have the last say.
"If it's an option between a three-day shutdown and a three-day CR, I'd do the CR," said Representative Don Bacon, who would otherwise reject another stopgap.
The House Freedom Caucus has instead urged Johnson to pass a continuing resolution for the remainder of 2024 that would trigger a 1% across-the-board spending cut under a 2023 deal between Biden and Johnson's predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.
Republican Senator Rick Scott, a staunch conservative, favors the same approach, but with U.S. aid to Israel included, along with a full-year defense appropriations bill to protect the Pentagon from spending cuts.
Representative Kelly Armstrong thinks most lawmakers will support the emerging appropriations legislation and avoid a shutdown. But he also sounded a note of skepticism.
"It's 2024, and it's Congress, so we'll see," the North Dakota Republican said. "I've been through enough of this to know that until the ink is dry, I can't guarantee anything."
State Senator calls 2SLGBTQ+ Oklahomans ‘filth’ after question on legislation and nonbinary student’s death
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (KFOR) – During a public forum in Tahlequah, a State Senator referred to the 2SLGBTQ+ community as ‘that filth’ while answering a question on connections between recent legislation and a nonbinary student’s death in Owasso, saying his constituents “don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma,” as recorded by the Tahlequah Daily Press.
According to the Tahlequah Daily Press, Cathy Cott asked the panel – consisting of Rep. David Hardin, R-Stilwell, Sen. Blake “Cowboy” Stephens, R-Tahlequah, Sen. Tom Woods, R-Westville, and Sen. Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee – about the dozens of anti-2SLGBTQ+ bills making their way through the current legislative session.
“A 16-year-old died after being beaten in Owasso High School, what do you think of that?” Cott said. “They were targeted because of some of these bills and some of the things Ryan Walters has said.”
Cott is referring to 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student who died one day after a ‘physical altercation’ in a bathroom at Owasso High School.
Benedict’s cause of death has not yet been determined. Owasso Police say preliminary autopsy reports indicate Benedict’s death was ‘not a result of trauma.’ A search warrant indicated investigators ‘suspect foul play involved.’
After two other lawmakers respond, Sen. Tom Woods, R-Westville, begins his reply.
“My heart goes out to that scenario, if that is the case,” said Woods. “We’re a Republican state – supermajority – in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma.”
Quote
We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state – we are a moral state.
Rep. Tom Woods, R-Westville
Some audience members clap as others question his use of the word ‘filth.’
A national crisis hotline for 2SLGBTQ+ youth says calls have more than tripled following the news of Nex Benedict’s death.
“If you look back to when our crisis hotline began in April of 2022, for about 6 months there, the number one reason for a crisis outreach call was parental rejection, being forced out, scared about coming out,” said Lance Preston, Founder and Executive Director of Rainbow Youth Project USA. “Now, our number one reason is ‘my government hates me,’ ‘my school doesn’t want me,’ ‘they don’t want me to use the bathroom,’ ‘they don’t want me to read a book.’ So it’s really shifted and that’s sad, but that is also across the country.”
Many 2SLGBTQ+ rights organizations and community leaders have spoken out, citing the state’s legislation and government leaders’ rhetoric as leading causes to the circumstances surrounding Benedict’s death.
“We want to be clear, whether Nex died as a direct result of injuries sustained in the brutal hate-motivated attack at school or not, Nex’s death is a result of being the target of physical and emotional harm because of who Nex was,” said Freedom Oklahoma. “This harm is absolutely related to the rhetoric and policies that are commonplace at the Oklahoma Legislature, the State Department of Education, and the Governor’s office, with regard to dehumanizing 2STGNC+ people.”
According to Oklahoma Watch, 40 anti-LGBTQ+ have been filed for the current legislative session, including a bill that would bar state agencies from showing support for Oklahoma’s LGBTQ+ community.
“While the details about the tragic death of Nex Benedict are still being sorted out, one thing is clear: Oklahoma officials failed this teenager. Backed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has launched a crusade to force fundamentalist Christianity into the public schools, with a cruel focus on trans youth. Oklahoma legislators have compounded the harm by passing laws undermining LGBTQ+ rights,” said Americans United. “We hope that Walters, Stitt and other Oklahoma officials learn from this horrific tragedy and pull back on their crusade to devalue LGBTQ+ people and destroy separation of church and state. All decent people must hold these state officials accountable for the consequences of their rhetoric and actions. The memory of Nex Benedict demands nothing less.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has compiled a list of resources for those in need.
In response to the death of Nex Benedict, a non-binary/two-spirit student in Owasso, Oklahoma, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has compiled resources related to mental health and youth crisis services, tools for youth-serving providers, and resources to preventing school-based bullying and violence. HHS stands in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community and reaffirms its commitment to addressing discrimination, bullying, and violence in all its forms.
HHS
On Saturday afternoon, Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd, D-OKC, issued the following statement regarding the comments made at the forum.
As elected officials, we are held to a higher standard. Words have consequences, and this kind of conduct is unbecoming of an elected official. It is our duty to represent and protect everyone, and not make things worse.
GOP governors face pressure campaign to feed kids in the summer
Louisiana and South Carolina are among the states where advocates are pushing hard to change their governor’s mind.
More than a dozen Republican governors have been holding out for months against a bipartisan plan to feed hungry children during the summer. But they are under mounting pressure to reconsider — with one already reversing course.
The program, known as Summer EBT, aims to make it easier for kids to access food when school’s out by providing pre-loaded cards, rather than prepared meals that need to be picked up from select locations. It represents the first major expansion of federal nutrition programs in decades, and the Biden administration estimates it could help feed 30 million eligible schoolchildren in the summer months.
As of the initial deadline, however, 15 states, all GOP-led, had declined to participate in the new program over cost concerns and philosophical opposition to expanding federal benefits. Their decision has outraged anti-hunger groups, rural advocates, teachers and local youth, and prompted intense lobbying efforts to convince the governors to change their minds.
In one case, it’s worked: Nebraska announced earlier this month it was opting into the program, after GOP Gov. Jim Pillen had previously stated he would reject the aid — “I don’t believe in welfare,” he’d said at a press conference in December.
Pillen’s change of heart, as well as USDA’s recent announcement that the agency would consider accepting states into the program for summer 2024 even if they missed the agency’s initial deadlines, has injected new momentum into the pressure campaigns in several of the remaining hold-out states. At stake, according to the Agriculture Department: hundreds of millions in food assistance for as many as 9 million eligible children.
“The fact that our governor changed his mind, … from the day he said it, we were hoping other states will do the same,” said Eric Savaiano, program manager for food and nutrition access with Nebraska Appleseed, an anti-poverty organization that was part of the lobbying campaign that convinced Pillen to reverse course.
In Iowa and South Carolina, advocates are “leveraging that change in Nebraska’s stance” to push their governors to expand summer EBT, said Kelsey Boone, senior nutrition policy analyst with the Food Research & Action Center. She added that during the 2021-2022 school year, 360,000 kids received free and reduced price lunch in Iowa, a marker of eligibility for summer EBT, but just 18,353 kids received summer meals in 2022.
The federal government already funds summer nutrition assistance programs, but they require kids and their families to travel to community centers and other sites to receive their meals. In rural areas, that can be a particular burden, and it’s one of the reasons the existing programs don’t reach even a majority of the kids who are eligible.
After Covid-19 hit, the federal government launched Pandemic-EBT, the precursor to the new Summer EBT, to provide cash to eligible children — $40 per month per child — rather than requiring them to travel to retrieve meals. Initial data and research from earlier pilots have shown the program significantly reduced hunger when school is out. Congress agreed in 2022 to make the program permanent, with the backing of key Republicans like Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the top GOP lawmaker on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
But the bipartisan deal also requires states to underwrite half of the administrative costs for the program, unlike during the pandemic, when the federal government footed the entire bill.
As of Feb. 27, 37 states, five U.S. territories and three tribes have notified the Department of Agriculture they plan to participate in Summer EBT in its inaugural year. That includes 14 Republican-led states. But the GOP governors of the 13 holdout states have remained adamant that Summer EBT was only necessary during the Covid emergency.
In Iowa, where advocates held a rally at the statehouse for summer EBT in January, a spokesperson for Gov. Kim Reynolds told POLITICO the governor remains “firm” in her decision.
“Pandemic-era programs were not intended to be permanent,” Deputy Communications Director Kollin Crompton wrote in an e-mail. “The answer isn’t creating a new government program, instead we should be investing in existing programs that work.”
Advocates for the new program counter that Summer EBT has bipartisan support and is proven effective at addressing the longstanding challenge of feeding low-income kids during the summer months.
“This is not a partisan issue; members of the General Assembly on both sides of the aisle understand that hungry children cannot learn, and hunger does not stop during summer break,” South Carolina state Sens. Darrell Jackson and Katrina Shealy, both Democrats, wrote in a recent Post and Courier op-ed. And they pointed to Gov. Pillen’s about-face in Nebraska to bolster their appeal.
So did Louisiana Democratic Rep. Troy Carter, who issued a statement addressed to the state’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, following Pillen’s announcement earlier this month. “It’s not too late to reverse course and do the right thing for Louisiana’s children. Nebraska showed the way and Louisiana can too!”
Another Democratic in Louisiana, state Rep. Jason Hughes, recently introduced a bill that would force the state to join the program. Hughes said he is in discussions with Landry and also has received assurances from USDA that Louisiana can still participate in 2024, despite missed deadlines.
“Louisiana prides itself on being a pro-life state,” said Hughes in an interview. “Our children do not ask to be born. And so we have an obligation to do all that we can to ensure that our children grow up to be healthy, productive, tax-paying citizens. We don’t do that by denying them food.”
Landry’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has said his state will participate in 2024, but will pull out after this year and rely on their own state programs to avoid “duplicative” programming.
“For me, it was a little bit like a business decision or pragmatic decision except you’re dealing with kids and their ability to eat which is not business and pragmatic. It’s personal and human,” said Lee when asked about his decision at POLITICO’s Governors Summit last week. “For me it’s pragmatic. Make sure kids get fed and then do it the most efficient way possible.”
With just a few months before school lets out for summer, the time for states to develop a working plan to distribute the new benefits in 2024 is fast disappearing.
USDA spokesperson Allan Rodriguez has repeatedly emphasized that the department did not want deadlines to impede kids from accessing critical federal nutrition aid, but also cautioned in a statement that a last-minute rollout would be “very challenging.”
Nebraska’s February decision to join the program, more than a month after the Ag Department’s initial deadline for states to apply, was in part facilitated by ongoing behind-the-scenes preparation even before the governor’s announcement.
“They submitted their plan of action [to USDA] the next day. That took months and weeks of work and willing staff,” said Nebraska Appleseed’s Savaiano.
Anti-hunger advocates continue to press their state leadership to reconsider the program, if not in time for 2024, then ahead of summer 2025. As part of their strategy, they are working to refute some of the arguments governors have cited in declining to participate. In particular, they point to Summer EBT pilot programs USDA conducted as early as 2011, as the federal government sought ways to close the summer hunger gap.
“It’s not some holdover pandemic benefit,” said Carolyn Vega, No Kid Hungry’s associate director of policy analysis. “It is a long-standing policy option to address a very long-standing problem.”
Some advocates are still holding out hope their states will pull a Nebraska this year. South Carolina state Sens. Jackson and Shealy said they are scheduled to meet with the state’s GOP Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
“I am cautiously, somewhat optimistic,” said Jackson. “Both she and I only have one agenda, and that is let’s do right by the children.”
Man pleads guilty to threatening to kill Michigan election worker
An Indiana man has pled guilty to threatening to kill an election worker in Michigan, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday.
Andrew Nickels, 37, of Carmel, Ind., called the clerk of a local election office and left a voicemail threatening to kill the official shortly after the 2020 election.
According to the information released by the DOJ, Nickels said: “We’re watching you … mouth talk about how you think that there’s no irregularities. … You frauded our America of a real election.”
Nickels said the official was “gonna pay for it” and added that “10 million-plus patriots will surround you when you least expect it.” He said the group of patriots would kill the employee and that they “deserve a [expletive] throat to the knife,” adding that the official should watch their back.
Nickels pleaded guilty to one count of threatening interstate communication.
“Election officials and workers play a critical role in safeguarding free and fair elections. The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals who seek to undermine this core tenet of our democracy by threatening election officials with violence,” Nicole Argentieri, the acting assistant attorney general at the DOJ, said in a statement.
Nickels is scheduled to be sentenced July 9 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the DOJ said.
The FBI’s Detroit Field Office investigated the case. The DOJ said Nickels’s case was part of an ongoing Election Threats Task Force created by Attorney General Merrick Garland in June 2021.
Michigan was one of a few swing states in 2020 that turned from red to blue and helped elect President Biden. Michigan, along with other swing states, has been at the center of political controversy as election results have been contested and election workers have faced threats and intimidation.
There you have it. It's not just "Russia, Russia, Russia." He's repeating well-known talking points introduced by Trump, spread through the media, and other subservient politicians. That ish is dangerous. I'd also be curious to see what his Ukraine resources are for them all being Nazis.
There you have it. It's not just "Russia, Russia, Russia." He's repeating well-known talking points introduced by Trump, spread through the media, and other subservient politicians. That ish is dangerous. I'd also be curious to see what his Ukraine resources are for them all being Nazis.
Unbelievable.
10,000 shrinks in 10,000 years couldn’t fix that guy. Dude is lost.
And damned right it’s dangerous. That idiot feels it’s his mission to talk that crap. And it probably would take even less proding for him to act upon his notions.
Lauren Boebert's 18-year-old son Tyler Boebert arrested, faces five felony charges, police say
Tyler Boebert, the 18-year-old son of Rep. Lauren Boebert, was arrested Tuesday in Colorado related to a string of alleged property thefts and vehicle trespasses, police said.
The police department in Rifle, Colorado, posted on Facebook that Tyler Boebert was arrested at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and he faces five felony counts. The charges include four felony counts of criminal possession of identification documents and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a felony, according to police.
According to the Garfield County Jail, Boebert was being held on 22 possible charges, including misdemeanors.
Tyler Boebert was listed as a current inmate at the jail as of Wednesday morning. There was no bond information listed.
In a statement, Lauren Boebert said "I love my son Tyler, who has been through some very difficult, public challenges for a young man and the subject of attention that he didn't ask for. It breaks my heart to see my child struggling and, in this situation, especially when he has been provided multiple opportunities to get his life on track."
Lauren Boebert continued that "as an adult and father, Tyler will take responsiblity for his actions and should be held accountable for poor decisions just like any other citizen." Her office announced in June 2023 that Tyler had become a father to a baby boy.
The arrest is the latest in a string of legal troubles in Boebert's family. In January, her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, was arrested in connection to two separate incidents. Earlier this month, Lauren Boebert was granted a temporary restraining order from Jayson Boebert after alleging he threatened to harm her and entered the family's home without permission.
Lauren Boebert also made headlines last year when she was removed from a Denver theater during a performance of "Beetlejuice." The theater said two patrons were removed for vaping, "causing a disturbance for the area with noise, singing, using their cell phone," and Boebert later apologized.
Boebert is serving her second term as a representative from Colorado's 3rd District, although she recently announced she would be running in a different district for reelection after facing a potentially tough reelection battle.
Did Boebert's son stal these ID's for her? Did Boebert instruct her son to steal these ID's? Has anyone searched her residence to see if she herself had possession of any fake ID's? Did she in any way benefit from these ID's? Although these are merely questions with nothing to back them up, I think the democrats should form a House Subcommittee to try to dig up any dirt possible. Try to find, create or even invent evidence that doesn't exist to make a connection here.
Arthur Engoron, judge in Trump civil fraud case, received envelope with powder, police respond to courthouse
Justice Arthur Engoron was never in any danger, sources said.
The New York City judge who oversaw former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial received an envelope containing a powdery substance Wednesday morning, prompting emergency services to respond to the courthouse, officials said.
The envelope was addressed to Justice Arthur Engoron, who imposed a nearly half-billion dollar judgment against Trump.
Preliminary testing showed the powder was "negative for hazardous substances," a spokesperson for the New York State Unified Court System said. Additional tests are being done out of an abundance of caution, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The letter was received in the operations office of the downtown Manhattan courthouse, and affected staff members were isolated until the powder was tested, the spokesperson said.
Engoron was never exposed to the substance, the spokesperson said.
Additionally, a white powder envelope was received Tuesday at the Albany, New York, office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the civil case against Trump that Engoron oversaw, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The substance inside the envelope tested negative for anything hazardous and nobody was hurt, the source said.
Engoron received multiple threats before, during and after Trump's civil fraud trial, including a bomb threat at his Long Island home on the day of closing arguments.
Engoron imposed a limited gag order on Trump's statements to protect court staff.
A similar gag order is being sought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for Trump's criminal trial, which is set to begin next month at a courthouse two blocks away.
This time, the substance was benign. But- the impulse (and message) that led this person to take these steps still lives out there- in others.
The 'rabbit hole' extends as deeply as fools want to take it. We live among anonymous fools who will act upon their deepest fears and hatreds.
We all should be concerned about s# like this. If it could happen to state Supreme Court judge, it could happen to any one.
Local politicians. Local poll workers (read: your patriotic next-door neighbor). People who do not have the protective resources that currently protect Arthur Engoron.
If my next-door neighbor can't feel safe working the local polls on election day in my own neighborhood, our democracy is in peril. If my elected precinct rep can't do his/her job without mortal fear, our democracy is in peril.
In almost 70 years of life on this planet, I never once feared for the future of the country that raised/protected/sustained me. I can no longer confidently say that now.
There you have it. It's not just "Russia, Russia, Russia." He's repeating well-known talking points introduced by Trump, spread through the media, and other subservient politicians. That ish is dangerous. I'd also be curious to see what his Ukraine resources are for them all being Nazis.
Unbelievable.
That was one brain washed ignorant individual.
I think there have always been people like that - we just see and hear them now. [1] Because of social media and everyone has a camera [2] Because there are a lot more of them [2a] We have a lot more of them because we have politicians like Trump and his ilk who willfully constantly lie with impunity, knowing that somewhere someone like this fool will buy it and spread the same hate and falsehoods.
This is where the notion that all politicians and parties are the same falls down. Yes both sides have corruption. Both sides have politicians out for themselves and try to line their pockets more so than serving the country or their constituents. . . . . What we don't have is both parties with a group of people spewing the outright lies that (as Clem just posted) undermine and erode the very democracy of the country.
This time, the substance was benign. But- the impulse (and message) that led this person to take these steps still lives out there- in others.
The 'rabbit hole' extends as deeply as fools want to take it. We live among anonymous fools who will act upon their deepest fears and hatreds.
We all should be concerned about s# like this. If it could happen to state Supreme Court judge, it could happen to any one.
Local politicians. Local poll workers (read: your patriotic next-door neighbor). People who do not have the protective resources that currently protect Arthur Engoron.
If my next-door neighbor can't feel safe working the local polls on election day in my own neighborhood, our democracy is in peril. If my elected precinct rep can't do his/her job without mortal fear, our democracy is in peril.
In almost 70 years of life on this planet, I never once feared for the future of the country that raised/protected/sustained me. I can no longer confidently say that now.
What a world we have built for ourselves.
WE didn't build that world Clem, Trump and his MAGA hated fools did.
Lauren Boebert's 18-year-old son Tyler Boebert arrested, faces five felony charges, police say
Tyler Boebert, the 18-year-old son of Rep. Lauren Boebert, was arrested Tuesday in Colorado related to a string of alleged property thefts and vehicle trespasses, police said.
The police department in Rifle, Colorado, posted on Facebook that Tyler Boebert was arrested at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and he faces five felony counts. The charges include four felony counts of criminal possession of identification documents and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a felony, according to police.
According to the Garfield County Jail, Boebert was being held on 22 possible charges, including misdemeanors.
Tyler Boebert was listed as a current inmate at the jail as of Wednesday morning. There was no bond information listed.
In a statement, Lauren Boebert said "I love my son Tyler, who has been through some very difficult, public challenges for a young man and the subject of attention that he didn't ask for. It breaks my heart to see my child struggling and, in this situation, especially when he has been provided multiple opportunities to get his life on track."
Lauren Boebert continued that "as an adult and father, Tyler will take responsiblity for his actions and should be held accountable for poor decisions just like any other citizen." Her office announced in June 2023 that Tyler had become a father to a baby boy.
The arrest is the latest in a string of legal troubles in Boebert's family. In January, her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, was arrested in connection to two separate incidents. Earlier this month, Lauren Boebert was granted a temporary restraining order from Jayson Boebert after alleging he threatened to harm her and entered the family's home without permission.
Lauren Boebert also made headlines last year when she was removed from a Denver theater during a performance of "Beetlejuice." The theater said two patrons were removed for vaping, "causing a disturbance for the area with noise, singing, using their cell phone," and Boebert later apologized.
Boebert is serving her second term as a representative from Colorado's 3rd District, although she recently announced she would be running in a different district for reelection after facing a potentially tough reelection battle.
Did Boebert's son stal these ID's for her? Did Boebert instruct her son to steal these ID's? Has anyone searched her residence to see if she herself had possession of any fake ID's? Did she in any way benefit from these ID's? Although these are merely questions with nothing to back them up, I think the democrats should form a House Subcommittee to try to dig up any dirt possible. Try to find, create or even invent evidence that doesn't exist to make a connection here.
We should Impeach Boebert’s son.
And call her to the stand and make her disclose her slutty theatre theatrics, in faux discovery.
Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images
Donald Trump supporters have been creating and sharing AI-generated fake images of black voters to encourage African Americans to vote Republican.
BBC Panorama discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people as supporting the former president.
Mr Trump has openly courted black voters, who were key to Joe Biden's election win in 2020.
But there's no evidence directly linking these images to Mr Trump's campaign.
The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group which encourages black people to vote, said the manipulated images were pushing a "strategic narrative" designed to show Mr Trump as popular in the black community.
A creator of one of the images told the BBC: "I'm not claiming it's accurate."
The fake images of black Trump supporters, generated by artificial intelligence (AI), are one of the emerging disinformation trends ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Unlike in 2016, when there was evidence of foreign influence campaigns, the AI-generated images found by the BBC appear to have been made and shared by US voters themselves.
One of them was Mark Kaye and his team at a conservative radio show in Florida.
They created an image of Mr Trump smiling with his arms around a group of black women at a party and shared it on Facebook, where Mr Kaye has more than one million followers.
At first it looks real, but on closer inspection everyone's skin is a little too shiny and there are missing fingers on people's hands - some tell-tale signs of AI-created images.
"I'm not a photojournalist," Mr Kaye tells me from his radio studio.
"I'm not out there taking pictures of what's really happening. I'm a storyteller."
He had posted an article about black voters supporting Mr Trump and attached this image to it, giving the impression that these people all support the former president's run for the White House.
In the comments on Facebook, several users appeared to believe the AI image was real.
"I'm not claiming it is accurate. I'm not saying, 'Hey, look, Donald Trump was at this party with all of these African American voters. Look how much they love him!'" he said.
"If anybody's voting one way or another because of one photo they see on a Facebook page, that's a problem with that person, not with the post itself."
Another widely viewed AI image the BBC investigation found shows Mr Trump posing with black voters on a front porch. It had originally been posted by a satirical account that generates images of the former president, but only gained widespread attention when it was reposted with a new caption falsely claiming that he had stopped his motorcade to meet these people.
We tracked down the person behind the account called Shaggy, who is a committed Trump supporter living in Michigan.
"[My posts] have attracted thousands of wonderful kind-hearted Christian followers," he said in messages sent to the BBC on social media.
When I tried to question him on the AI-generated image he blocked me. His post has had over 1.3 million views, according to the social media site X. Some users called it out, but others seemed to have believed the image was real.
I did not find similarly manipulated images of Joe Biden with voters from a particular demographic. The AI images of the president tend to feature him alone or with other world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin or former US President Barack Obama.
Some are created by critics, others by supporters.
In January, the Democratic candidate was himself a victim of an AI-generated impersonation.
An automated audio call, purportedly voiced by the president, urged voters to skip the New Hampshire primary where he was running. A Democratic Party supporter has admitted responsibility, saying he wanted to draw attention to the potential for the technology to be abused.
Cliff Albright, the co-founder of campaign group Black Voters Matter, said there appeared to be a resurgence of disinformation tactics targeting the black community, as in the 2020 election.
"There have been documented attempts to target disinformation to black communities again, especially younger black voters," he said.
I show him the AI-generated pictures in his office in Atlanta, Georgia - a key election battleground state where convincing even a small slice of the overall black vote to switch from Mr Biden to Mr Trump could prove decisive.
A recent New York Times and Sienna College poll found that in six key swing states 71% of black voters would back Mr Biden in 2024, a steep drop from the 92% nationally that helped him win the White House at the last election.
Mr Albright said the fake images were consistent with a "very strategic narrative" pushed by conservatives - from the Trump campaign down to influencers online - designed to win over black voters. They are particularly targeting young black men, who are thought to be more open to voting for Mr Trump than black women.
On Monday, MAGA Inc, the main political action committee backing Trump, is due to launch an advertising campaign targeting black voters in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
It is aimed at voters like Douglas, a taxi driver in Atlanta.
Douglas said he was mainly worried about the economy and immigration - issues which he felt Trump was more focused on. He said Democratic messaging about Trump's threat to democracy would not motivate him to vote, because he was already disillusioned with the electoral process.
The US economy is generally doing well, but some voters - like Douglas - don't feel better off because they've also been through a cost of living crisis.
What did he think of the AI-generated image of Trump sitting on a front porch with black voters? When I first showed it to him, he believed it was real. He said it bolstered his view, shared by some other black people he knows, that Trump is supportive of the community.
Then, I revealed it was a fake.
"Well, that's the thing about social media. It's so easy to fool people," he said.
Disinformation tactics in the US presidential elections have evolved since 2016, when Donald Trump won. Back then, there were documented attempts by hostile foreign powers, such as Russia, to use networks of inauthentic accounts to try to sow division and plant particular ideas.
In 2020, the focus was on home-grown disinformation - particularly false narratives that the presidential election was stolen, which were shared widely by US-based social media users and endorsed by Mr Trump and other Republican politicians.
In 2024, experts warn of a dangerous combination of the two.
Ben Nimmo, who until last month was responsible for countering foreign influence operations at Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, said the confusion created by fakes like these also opens new opportunities for foreign governments who may seek to manipulate elections.
"Anybody who has a substantial audience in 2024 needs to start thinking, how do I vet anything which gets sent to me? How do I make sure that I don't unwittingly become part of some kind of foreign influence operation?" he said.
Mr Nimmo said that social media users and platforms are increasingly able to identify fake automated accounts, so as it gets harder to build an audience in this way "operations try to co-opt real people" to increase the reach of divisive or misleading information.
"The best bet they have is to try and land [their content] through an influencer. That's anyone who has a big audience on social media," he said.
Mr Nimmo said he was concerned in 2024 that these people, who may be willing to spread misinformation to their ready-made audiences, could become "unwitting vectors" for foreign influence operations.
These operations could share content with users - either covertly or overtly - and encourage them to post it themselves, so it appears to have come from a real US voter, he said.
All of the major social media companies have policies in place to tackle potential influence operations, and several - like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram - have introduced new measures to deal with AI-generated content during elections.
Leading politicians from around the world have also highlighted the risks of AI-generated content this year.
Narratives about the 2020 election being stolen - which were shared without any evidence - spread online with simple posts, memes and algorithms, not AI-generated images or video, and still resulted in the US Capitol riot on 6 January.
This time around, there is a whole new range of tools available to political partisans and provocateurs which could inflame tensions once again.
Somehow something that happened several years ago I would actually like to see you verify makes it all better. You do realize that just posting some picture and making claims about it doesn't really mean anything, right?
Aren't you the same guy who claims to hate whatabouts when someone other than yourself uses them?
If someone wants to whine about a sweetheart deal, this is what one looks like...........
Ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to perjury, will serve five months in jail
The Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, admitted Monday to lying during the ex-president’s New York civil fraud trial — as he pleaded guilty to perjury in connection with the case.
Weisselberg, 76, copped to two counts of perjury in the first degree — felonies — during a brief hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court, where he appeared in handcuffs, wearing a navy blue suit and a mask.
He conceded to Manhattan prosecutors that he lied to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigators in a May 12, 2023 deposition and on the stand during Trump’s civil fraud trial on Oct 10.
The former Trump confidant will serve five months in jail as part of his plea, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for April 10.
In accordance with the deal, Weisselberg admitted to lying to AG’s office investigators on July 17, 2020, as they looked to assess the value of Trump’s properties and assets.
Weisselberg specifically lied about when he knew that Trump had falsely claimed his Midtown Trump Tower triplex was 30,000 square feet when it was actually just under 11,000 square feet.
He claimed he only found out about the discrepancy in a Forbes article in May 2017, but the outlet had a tape of Weisselberg being told about the actual numbers in an interview before the article came out, according to the plea agreement.
Weisselberg was also informed in an email about the inflated square footage all the way back in 2012, evidence shows.
He also conceded that he provided false testimony during the deposition last May and while taking the stand in October during the civil fraud trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“It is a crime to lie in depositions and at trial – plain and simple. Allen Weisselberg took an oath to be truthful, and then committed perjury both at depositions during the New York State Attorney General’s Investigation and proceeding, as well as at their recent trial,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
“Today, Allen Weisselberg is pleading guilty to this felony and being held responsible for his conduct.”
Weisselberg and his attorneys did not provide any comments when leaving the courtroom.
Weisselberg’s plea comes after a New York judge found Trump liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth, resulting in a $450 million fine against the former president.
The former Trump Org CFO had previously labeled some of his boss’s “exaggerations” regarding his wealth and real estate just minor mistakes.
Monday’s guilty plea will be the second criminal conviction for Trump’s longtime trusted moneyman after he pleaded guilty in 2022 to 15 counts of tax fraud while working at the Trump Org.
He had been sentenced to serve five months in jail at New York’s infamous Rikers Island before qualifying for supervised release.
Donald Trump, Seeking Cash Infusion, Meets With Elon Musk
Donald Trump, who is urgently seeking a cash infusion to aid his presidential campaign, met Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida, with Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, and a few wealthy Republican donors, according to three people briefed on the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private discussion.
Trump and his team are working to find additional major donors to shore up his finances as he heads into an expected general election against President Joe Biden. Trump has praised Musk to allies and hopes to have a one-on-one meeting with the billionaire soon, according to a person who has discussed the matter with Trump.
It’s not yet clear whether Musk plans to spend any of his fortune on Trump’s behalf. But his recent social media posts suggest he thinks it’s essential that Biden be defeated in November — and people who have spoken to Musk privately confirmed that is indeed his view.
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With a net worth of around $200 billion, according to Forbes, Musk could decide to throw his weight behind Trump and potentially, almost single-handedly, erase what is expected to be Biden and his allies’ huge financial advantage over the former president.
Aides to Trump did not respond to a request for comment. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk has long portrayed himself as independent-minded, and like many business leaders he has donated to candidates from both parties over the years. Unlike other U.S. billionaires, he has not spent heavily on a presidential election, and his donations have been fairly evenly split over the years between Democrats and Republicans. Musk’s businesses, Tesla and SpaceX, have benefited from federal government contracts and subsidies.
A person close to Musk said his relationship with the government had historically made him wary about identifying too closely with one political party over the other. In 2017, the billionaire famously stepped away from two business advisory councils when Trump was president over Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.
“Climate change is real,” Musk posted on Twitter in June 2017. “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
The two have had other moments of friction. A few months before the midterm elections, in the summer of 2022, he and the former president traded insults, with Trump calling him an expletive and Musk saying it was time for the former president to “sail into the sunset.”
At the same time, however, Musk was becoming more open about his preference for the Republican Party.
On the eve of the midterms, he told his more than 100 million followers on X — the social media platform that was called Twitter until Musk bought it in 2022 — that they should vote for a Republican Congress. He has railed against what he describes as the left’s “woke” agenda and has attacked Biden over the record number of migrants who have entered the United States during his presidency.
Musk’s comments about immigration have grown increasingly alarmist. He has suggested that the president’s immigration policies threaten the existence of the U.S. itself and have pushed U.S. democracy to the brink. He has suggested that Democrats are “ushering in vast numbers of illegals” to cheat in elections. There is no evidence to support his claim of mass voter fraud.
“America will fall if it tries to absorb the world,” Musk posted Tuesday on X. Earlier in the day, he posted that the Biden administration’s immigration policies amounted to “treason.”
The person close to Musk, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that if he does get behind Trump, his views about immigration will have been a significant motivator.
Musk has previously raised questions over Biden’s age and once echoed one of Trump’s favorite jabs by claiming the president was “still sleeping” after Biden failed to congratulate one of his companies. Musk has also held a grudge against the president after the White House did not invite Tesla to an event on electric vehicles in August 2021.
“Let’s not forget the White House giving Tesla the cold shoulder, excluding us from the EV summit,” the Tesla CEO posted on X in December.
Musk visited the White House in September to discuss matters around artificial intelligence, according to NBC News, which obtained visitor logs. Biden and Musk did not meet during the visit.
After buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk reinstated Trump’s account. The former president had been barred from the platform after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a decision that Musk had previously suggested was a mistake.
Still, it was far from clear that Musk would support Trump’s presidential bid. Musk had indicated before the Republican nominating contest that he was leaning toward backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis kicked off his formal candidacy in a livestreamed audio discussion with Musk on X last May, and there was widespread speculation that a donation from Musk to the super political action committee supporting DeSantis would follow. But it never did.
On Monday, Musk appeared to criticize television host Bill Maher, who said in a clip posted to X that he would vote for Biden over Trump in most any circumstance.
“Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a very real disease,” Musk wrote in response on X.
Even if Musk does not ultimately decide to donate to a pro-Trump super PAC or spend money in other ways to help Trump, his own megaphone is substantial. Musk has 175 million followers on X and has an ability like few others in the U.S. to shape news coverage.
This is what it looks like when you spend over 50 million dollars that were donated to your campaign on legal bills. And I'm sure that number is increasing as we speak.
Remember when one of the right wing know it alls on here told me I was nuts for calling Musk a Right wing nut job? Whoops, I was right, they were wrong.
Yep. Musk runs hot and cold for me. When he’s talking on tech and AI he has some credibility. When he was all out progressive, I actually admired him. But since twitter, Musk has been a right wing troll. I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. And just like the multitude of dumbass trumpians, Elon is lost to weird notions that Trump is something he’s not. A human being? No, Elon is smarter than that. But Elon seems to be down with the fascism, ever since he got high with Rogan his brain has been doing weird things. TDS? It could be real. Elon would know.
YET, we all seem to be missing the point… Donny is broke. Another lie revealed, Trump is not rich, not without selling crap. He’s talking to Elon and other deep GOPer pockets because he knows he’s in trouble. Have you ever seen such an uber rich multitalented genius like Trump beg for money from the real powers that be? Me neither. Self made man my ass. I hope Elon had fun with it. Made Trump get on his knees and plead or something equally as belittling. I would have had fun with it, then turned him down cold.
Man... this is (or should be) an embarrassing scene:
-a self-described 'billionaire' begging from legitimate Billionaires. Billionaires don't need to beg.
Beta behavior on full display. Just like at Helsinki.
If I can see it, world leaders can see it.
The most worrisome aspect of this: a man who is desperate enough to beg for money is a man who can be bought at bargain-basement prices. By anyone with the requisite cash on hand. He'll dance to whatever tune you fiddle.
I don't want someone that venal and vulnerable to be within 250 miles of Washington DC.
trump's plans for office coming from what he has said.
He has called for the termination of the Constitution. He wants the Supreme Court to grant unchecked power to the presidency, which he plans to use in a personal quest for “retribution” against his enemies. He is pledging to gut the civil service in government departments and to fill posts with political operatives. He’s signaled he’d use the Justice Department not as a quasi-independent arbiter of the rule of law but as a personal political enforcement machine. Many of Trump’s former officials fear he’d pull out of NATO, trash the post-World War II international system and side with dictators.
But youre ok with having a man in the white house who is so senile that he cant find his own butt with both hands.
I - for the life of me - will never understand this type of response. This could very easily be flipped the other way, too.
On a basic level, though, for elections such as these, just because one is REALLY bad, doesn't mean that you're okay with the other who is just bad. It just means you don't want the REALLY BAD person in office.
A sad state of affairs, but it's also the reality we're in.
It's the type of thing she posts all of the time. She never says anything about trump not knowing the difference between Nikki Haley or that trump is either a habitual liar or delusional. Take your pick.
And of course magnets don't work when they get wet.
Thinking her "stable genius" is a better option is a figment of her imagination.
AMEN- we are in terrible shape-our choices- reelect a person who doesn't want to admit he isn't up to the job....or elect a criminal former President who has zero moral character and panders to mans worst characteristics. I hope we have a viable third party candidate.
A nation divided can not continue- we, Americans think we are different than Rome, Athens, Holy Roman Empire, English dominance, etc., etc..we aren't. The real scary part comes with what happens to all our nukes and who controls them if the government fails-- couple of individuals loving conspiracies or some other none since sure could make for interesting times. Hell, we have elected officials- our best- believing in witches, baby slaying cults, school shootings staged, space lasers starting fires, the Deep State controls everything...on and on....the fall is coming.
Just the fact that trump won the republican primary says a lot about where we are as a country.
After Jan 6th. one would think that would be impossible. But then you have Mitch McConnell endorsing a guy who he had this to say about trump:
"actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty." He added that there is "no question" that Trump "is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day."
Let's look at the people who actually worked with him in The White House....
Trump secretary of state Rex Tillerson said he was; “the most flawed person I’ve ever met in my life,” and his dishonesty was “just astounding.”
Retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis said he was; “more dangerous than anyone could ever imagine.”
And speaking of McConnell. Here's what he said about trump regarding Jan. 6th; Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on Congress were “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.” He even noted that though Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws.
And then there is trumps comments about McConnell's wife; But while former President Donald Trump’s taunts at Elaine Chao — demeaning her as “Coco Chow” or a variation of Mitch McConnell’s “China-loving wife” — have been mostly met with silence from fellow GOP officials, the main target of them is now speaking out.
“When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation,” Chao said in a statement to POLITICO. “He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”
A flicker of hope remains......as you stated gutless Republicans still march to Trump's pied piper tune---yet, they keep saying good Republicans will stay the course- support the man due to his party. There are hundreds of thousands of former Republicans like this one--- Former Republican lawmaker and State Party Chairman Chris Vance had this to say:
"I was a Republican for 37 years. I served as a Republican lawmaker and the State Party Chairman of Washington state," he said Wednesday. "This year I will once again support Joe Biden for President. The party I belonged to has been transformed into a protofascist disgrace. Country before party."
The Lincoln Project has hurt Trump once- we disenchanted Republicans with independents and Democrats will defeat the Putin lover again.
Bill named for Sharpsville Capitol rioter introduced by Marjorie Taylor Greene Perna, who was convicted of witness tampering, disorderly conduct, and two counts of entering a restricted building or grounds, died by suicide before his sentencing.
A bill named for a Sharpsville man who took part in the January 6, 2021, Capitol Riot has been introduced by Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene introduced the Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2024 on March 1.
Perna, who was convicted of witness tampering, disorderly conduct, and two counts of entering a restricted building or grounds, died by suicide before his sentencing.
According to a release from Greene's office, the Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2024 "ensures that the political persecution witnessed in the aftermath of January 6th is curtailed by the law."
The bill would include several reforms including barring the detention of nonviolent political protesters, ensuring fair and speedy trials, limiting government surveillance and investigation, mandating that judges impose consistent sentences with applicable guidelines for defendants involved in covered political protest offenses, and permitting a transfer of venue in criminal trials for nonviolent political protesters in Washington, D.C.
Perna died at the age of 37. His obituary stated that Perna attended the January 6, 2021 rally to "peacefully stand up for his beliefs," and did not break into the Capitol, but entered through an open door.
The January 6th insurrection was an invasion of the Capitol building as Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 election that sought to interrupt the proceedings based on lies casting doubt on the results.
Proceedings were delayed for hours before being finalized late into the night, certifying the election for Joe Biden, but not before widespread damage and injury.
The obituary said Perna's "heart broke and his spirit died," because he was persecuted by members of the community, as well as repeated postponements in his court case.
In the days following Perna's death, three Republican members of Congress claimed he was an example of Capitol Riot suspects who they said were being persecuted by the Justice Department. Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of the three representatives, along with Louie Gohmert of Texas and Andy Biggs of Arizona.
Perna and six others from the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys were charged in connection to the Capitol Riot.
South Carolina school district reviews, returns dozens of books after ban attempt
Beaufort, South Carolina, is proud of its literary heritage, the home to the late author Pat Conroy and his stories of the Lowcountry. So, when a few parents and residents pushed to ban nearly a hundred books from public school libraries, there was fierce debate. Librarians and educators were threatened and accused of providing pornography to minors. That led the school superintendent to temporarily pull dozens of books from middle and high school shelves while they were reviewed.
Those in favor of a ban wanted 97 books removed from schools in Beaufort County, saying they were concerned about language, depictions of sexual assault, drug use, violence and sex. The district already had a policy in place allowing parents to keep their children from reading certain books, explained high school librarian Karen Gareis, who pointed to the county's opt-out form.
"So, the procedure would be that it's a conversation between myself and the parent," Gareis said. "And if they don't like the book, they have every right to say that their child can't check that book out."
Gareis said she never had a parent come to her and complain about a book.
The school board was blindsided when two people filed complaints calling for bans, school board vice chair Dick Geier said.
"Parents have the right to determine what their children are taught and what they're allowed to read. No doubt about it," Geier said. "But what we're having a problem with is parents that want to determine what other parents' rights are for their children to read what they want."
What happened in Beaufort after the complaints?
The school board wanted to follow the established procedures, but a few activists, agitated by conspiracy theories, threatened librarians and board members calling them "groomers" — extreme rightwing hate speech meant to brand opponents as molesters grooming children for sex.
"We've had a parent come in and tell a librarian that, 'You are violating a state statute by providing pornography to a minor. I'm going to the sheriff. I'm going to have you arrested,' and storm out. Now that's not happened once, that's happened multiple times at multiple schools," Geier said. "I even got an email that said, 'OK, the sheriff said no, the solicitor said no, I'm going to the FBI! And if the FBI doesn't do it, I'm going to the federal district attorney!' I said, 'Go ahead.' Have a good day. Talk's cheap. I'm tired of the threats. Come and get me."
School Superintendent Frank Rodriguez feared violence, so he pulled all the books. A review team later found that one of the 97 books on the list had never even been on school library shelves at all.
The books include best sellers "The Kite Runner'' and "The Handmaid's Tale." Many on the list are young adult novels with minority, gay, lesbian or transgender characters. Some depict sex or violence. The books were mostly on shelves in high schools, with some in local middle schools. Four of the books were part of high school curricula.
Karen Gareis boxed up copies of the listed books in her library at Bluffton High School.
"From someone outside looking in, it's almost obvious that most of the books hadn't been read prior to being challenged, that some other source was used to gather these things together," Gareis said. "And the list is not unlike other lists that have been floating around other districts and been challenged, not in South Carolina but elsewhere as well. So when that happened, I was like, 'OK.' I knew we were in for a rough road."
Why some people are pushing for book bans
Nationwide, there were more than 3,000 instances of books banned in schools last year, according to PEN America. That rise in book bans has been driven, in part, by the self-described parental rights movement.
The book ban movement arrived in Beaufort in 2022, Geier said.
"We got an email from a citizen saying that 'these 97 books that we've heard about online that should be banned in a school. How many of those books do you have in your school?" So we checked," he said. "We had virtually all those books in the school."
Two county residents, one of them a parent and a former member of a group called Moms for Liberty, presented the list of 97 books. It was based on a website called BookLooks, founded in 2022 by another former member of Moms for Liberty. BookLooks is run by a Florida nurse who said via email that volunteers rate books on the site using BookLooks' standards, including those for "explicit sexual nudity" and "gender ideologies."
Nationwide, confrontations with school boards have been driven largely by the BookLooks ratings often promoted by Moms for Liberty volunteers. What is Moms for Liberty
No organization has been more prominent in the "parental rights" movement than Moms for Liberty — a Florida-based conservative group. Its motto is "We do not co-parent with the government."
Moms for Liberty was founded in 2021 by two Florida women with school board experience, Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich. Conservative education activist Bridget Ziegler, who's since left Moms for Liberty, also co-founded the group.
Tiffany Justice, one of the group's founders, told 60 Minutes they're "disrupting the balance of power in American education."
Challenging books which they feel are sexualizing children is just part of their platform. They are against teachers' unions; social and emotional learning programs; and the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
"Parents send their children to school to be educated, not indoctrinated into ideology," said Justice, who added that most public schools are failing at their mission of teaching children to read at grade-level.
"Our moms, over 100,000 members across these United States of America, are disrupting the balance of power in public education," Justice said in a 60 Minutes interview. "For too long, unions have had an undue influence in the decision-making process happening in our local schools. And we see where that has gotten us-- a system that-- protects itself, and oftentimes leaves the needs of students behind. And that has to change."
Justice read some sexually explicit lines from books found in schools. Justice and Descovich pointed to them as evidence that some teachers have an agenda to corrupt children.
Descovich said in an interview with 60 Minutes that "there are rogue teachers in America's classrooms right now."
In the interview, Justice also pushed back against critics who says the group has an anti-gay ideology, "Nothing could be further from the truth. We have gay members. I think it's an effort to really try to marginalize us as an organization because parents are coming together across racial lines, across religious lines, across all of these different ways that we see Americans being divided so often." Charges of grooming
In the 60 Minutes interview, Justice and Descovich were asked about messages from the Moms for Liberty X account. One posting said "If they don't like being called groomers, they should stop trying to groom our kids."
When asked what they were trying to say, Descovich replied, "I'm going to say that if-- we'd have to see the exact tweet. Tiffany manages our Twitter account." Tina Descovich
Another tweet targets a school librarian profiled in a magazine article. "You want to groom our children and we're supposed to give you love?"
When asked what they meant by grooming, Justice replied, "Parents want to partner with their children's schools. But we do not co-parent with the government."
Local chapters of Moms for Liberty set their own priorities, Justice and Descovich said, including whether and how they approach pushing for the removal of books from public schools. Reviewing 97 books
In Beaufort, the proposed bans were largely met by critics who said these books taught valuable lessons to students. Some also said the mass banning of books was an attempt to erase stories about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
Beaufort asked residents to read and review all the books. Over the course of a year, 146 community members — along with teachers, librarians and educators — discussed, deliberated and voted on what had now become 96 books, because of that one on the list that turned out to not be in school libraries.
Each book was read and discussed by a panel, that then voted whether to return it to schools. Every decision had to then be ratified by the Beaufort County School Board, which included Geier.
The final panels met in late November and the last school board vote took place in December. Five books were banned, and the rest were returned to library shelves. Some were approved to be in middle and high schools, while others were approved for high schools.
Geier said Beaufort learned a lesson: diversity is important.
Ruth-Naomi James, a combat veteran who works for the schools and has a 16-year-old, called the review process "phenomenal." She served on four panels and voted to return each book to school library shelves.
"To take away the power that books give you to transform the world that they live in is asinine. There's no way I went to Iraq thinking that when I moved back home, I would have to do this to make sure that the freedom that we fight for in this country [isn't] taken out of the hands of students and parents," the mom said.
Remember when one of the right wing know it alls on here told me I was nuts for calling Musk a Right wing nut job? Whoops, I was right, they were wrong.
Elon already said he is not donating to either party.
Let's look at the people who actually worked with him in The White House....
Trump secretary of state Rex Tillerson said he was; “the most flawed person I’ve ever met in my life,” and his dishonesty was “just astounding.”
Retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis said he was; “more dangerous than anyone could ever imagine.”
And speaking of McConnell. Here's what he said about trump regarding Jan. 6th; Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on Congress were “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.” He even noted that though Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws.
And then there is trumps comments about McConnell's wife; But while former President Donald Trump’s taunts at Elaine Chao — demeaning her as “Coco Chow” or a variation of Mitch McConnell’s “China-loving wife” — have been mostly met with silence from fellow GOP officials, the main target of them is now speaking out.
“When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation,” Chao said in a statement to POLITICO. “He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”
Honestly, that is what I'm talking about when I talk about how horrible of a candidate he is. The sad thing is we live in a media and constituency world that has a Dory-like memory.
Remember when one of the right wing know it alls on here told me I was nuts for calling Musk a Right wing nut job? Whoops, I was right, they were wrong.
Elon already said he is not donating to either party.
He doesn't have to when he uses his platform as a megaphone anyhow.
Speaker Johnson Calls For Defunding Federal Law Enforcement Agencies That Have ‘Turned… Against the American People’ Jamie FreveleMar 6th, 2024, 12:40 pm 876 comments
Republicans often campaign on their commitment to supporting law enforcement, but during a press conference on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared that he will push for cuts to several federal law enforcement agencies.
Johnson spoke on several points including the border, crime, and the State of the Union, and he bemoaned the policies of President Joe Biden. Not unpredictable since Johnson is a Republican and Biden is a Democrat. However, in the same speech he lamented crime rates — even though crime rates are down — seconds before announcing that he’d push for cuts to agencies that exist to fight crime and enforce laws, claiming that they have “overreach[ed]” and even “turned, in some ways, against the American people”:
We have advanced and we also advanced, as you’ve seen the summary, cuts to some of the agencies that we believe are really overreaching and have been turned, in some ways, against the American people. We’re going to cut 3 percent from [the Department of Justice], 7 percent from the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms], 6 percent from the FBI, and 10 percent from the EPA. And that’s just a start.
Then he made it clear what his real priorities were as Speaker:
We have a lot more priorities and things that we need to advance. But the reality is, as we all recognize, is that we have to grow the House majority, take back the Senate for the Republican Party, and win the White House.
I’m glad to see you say that. I had to stop watching it because she was freaking me out. I thought it was an objective observation and seeing you post that confirms it. Don’t know WTF Republicans we’re thinking on that one.
I’m glad to see you say that. I had to stop watching it because she was freaking me out. I thought it was an objective observation and seeing you post that confirms it. Don’t know WTF Republicans we’re thinking on that one.
"We'll contrast Biden's age by putting this young, pretty..."
psychopath out there.
A short time into that mess I began expecting her to 'glitch out' and start bleeding from the eyes.
Politics---ya gotta love it--- and our justice system- example- Korbein Schultz, Sgt. USA sells classified documents at Secret level to Taiwan- for $42,000 - arrested faces life in prison--"career" over.....but, ex-President Trump steals, tries to keep TSI and higher-- he wins Republican nomination for President- with 91 indictments and over 1/2 BILLION dollars of fraud/sex related fines---he could be President--MAKE AMERICA GREAT--- what a country. All people treated equal under the law--- what a joke.
PS- I don't approve of the Sgt's action.....but justice, equality....right.
My guess is that they wanted a younger woman to be out there, especially since they knew Biden would bring up RvW. I just can't believe she was the best option. I think they already have the fundamentalist Christian base in their pocket. I was thinking they would at least try to be more objective to reach out to the undecideds or moderates, with a firm, rational, objective delivery.
Now I'm worried whenever I open a closet door that she'll be in there with a butcher knife.
Wonder how the fundamentalist Christians feel about their leader-- ponying up 91 million plus for his sex slander conviction--- probably send his $ 20 to fund his legal bills--- the poor billionaire.
Politics---ya gotta love it--- and our justice system- example- Korbein Schultz, Sgt. USA sells classified documents at Secret level to Taiwan- for $42,000 - arrested faces life in prison--"career" over.....but, ex-President Trump steals, tries to keep TSI and higher-- he wins Republican nomination for President- with 91 indictments and over 1/2 BILLION dollars of fraud/sex related fines---he could be President--MAKE AMERICA GREAT--- what a country. All people treated equal under the law--- what a joke.
PS- I don't approve of the Sgt's action.....but justice, equality....right.
Not for nothing, bro, but no one will read this. Getting through the first sentence is worse than a toothache.
A deaf person would have better luck clamping their teeth on the table to try to read the morse code machine.
Politics---ya gotta love it--- and our justice system- example- Korbein Schultz, Sgt. USA sells classified documents at Secret level to Taiwan- for $42,000 - arrested faces life in prison--"career" over.....but, ex-President Trump steals, tries to keep TSI and higher-- he wins Republican nomination for President- with 91 indictments and over 1/2 BILLION dollars of fraud/sex related fines---he could be President--MAKE AMERICA GREAT--- what a country. All people treated equal under the law--- what a joke.
PS- I don't approve of the Sgt's action.....but justice, equality....right.
Not for nothing, bro, but no one will read this. Getting through the first sentence is worse than a toothache.
A deaf person would have better luck clamping their teeth on the table to try to read the morse code machine.
More proof you don’t care to talk about justice equality or equality in general. Insults, the template, when that is all you have. Pffft GOPers.
I’m glad to see you say that. I had to stop watching it because she was freaking me out. I thought it was an objective observation and seeing you post that confirms it. Don’t know WTF Republicans we’re thinking on that one.
"We'll contrast Biden's age by putting this young, pretty..."
psychopath out there.
A short time into that mess I began expecting her to 'glitch out' and start bleeding from the eyes.
The best description I read was: "She's like a demon from a Steven King novel that is trying to convince you she is human."
Politics---ya gotta love it--- and our justice system- example- Korbein Schultz, Sgt. USA sells classified documents at Secret level to Taiwan- for $42,000 - arrested faces life in prison--"career" over.....but, ex-President Trump steals, tries to keep TSI and higher-- he wins Republican nomination for President- with 91 indictments and over 1/2 BILLION dollars of fraud/sex related fines---he could be President--MAKE AMERICA GREAT--- what a country. All people treated equal under the law--- what a joke.
PS- I don't approve of the Sgt's action.....but justice, equality....right.
Not for nothing, bro, but no one will read this. Getting through the first sentence is worse than a toothache.
A deaf person would have better luck clamping their teeth on the table to try to read the morse code machine.
More proof you don’t care to talk about justice equality or equality in general. Insults, the template, when that is all you have. Pffft GOPers.
Justice equality? Are you talking about the 85M to a chick that said rape is sexy or the 400M+ for taking loans and paying them back... to people that say they wish he would borrow more?
What would "justice equality" be in these cases? A public hanging?
I don't care what you do. But the fact is a jury found that he did it. What she has said outside the facts in this case has no bearing on the case itself. It's simply a way to undermine her and minimize trump's actions. It's not hard to see it for what it is.
Just like making excuses for trump over inflating his wealth in a fraudulent manner to gain favorable interest rates on loans to the tune of millions. No matter how you slice that or how you try and sugar coat this that is what it is. It's fraud. Somehow you think you know better than the jury who heard the case.
In the E. Jean Carroll case a jury determined that judgement. They heard all of the evidence that found him liable him in the first place and the testimony at the second trial. Unlike yourself, I realize I didn't hear all of that evidence. Unlike yourself, I won't pretend that I know better what the appropriate amount of that judgement should be than a jury who did hear all of the evidence.
So you keep casting shade on the victim and pretend that fraud was okay because he paid the loans back. You know, the loans that were much easier to play back because he lied to get lower interest rates.
1. Didn't say he wasn't guilty. Didn't say they did. Didn't undermine anyone. Her words.
2. Didn't make excuses. Every bank has a right and an obligation to negotiate interest rates and exercise their own due diligence in assessing property value. And in the case of Trump and loans of that value -- everyone all the way to the top is involved. You're talking like he stole those interest rates from someone else and now they can't get them. Ridiculous and mindless at best.
3. Good for the jury. Good for the evidence. I'm glad you think 85M was unfair. I beg to differ.
#sametiredassnarratives are the excuses people use to try and claim they know more than the juries who heard these cases. The way they try to minimize trump's actions. Your theory seems to be, "Yeah he committed fraud but the banks could have negotiated a better deal." Yep, #sametiredassnarratives
When you take something that has zero to do with a case and make a point to bring it up WHILE discussing the case, you just tried to use it to undermine the victim. You know, "it has nothing to do with the facts in this case but did you hear what she said?" Denial seems to be your only course of action at this juncture.
I remember that one time I told the salesman to get me a better rate on financing and he went and talked to the manager.
#fraud
Did you commit fraud by lying about your wealth or income in order to get a better rate? #sametiredassnarratives
WORSE. I threatened to go to their competition. The very thing those banks were thanking their stars they didn't have to witness when Trump signed on the dotted line.
You can ramble on and on about Trump's fraud case. Almost everyone sees it for what it is. And 90% of those that say they don't are believe in unicorns.
90%? Just another made up number in trumpian fashion.
Look, as an example, everyone knows that if you have a home that is 11k square feet and you claim it's 33k square feet to lie about the equity you have in that home to gain a financial advantage, that's fraud.
Y’all remember when conservatives claimed they were tired of political families like the Bushes and Clintons?
Guess that was also a lie. Seem to be all for Lara Trump being the co-chair of the RNC.
Probably shouldn’t call them republicans or GOP anymore. It really is the MAGA party or Trump party. The Republican legacy is over with.
Somehow a large part of the constituency doesn't seem to get that is exactly the case. I don't think Mitt Romney or John McCain (when he was alive) changed much of their viewpoints or platforms. Yet somehow they are were pushed aside and now looked upon with disdain. Did they change, or did the party change?
The GOP is now funded by their parent country...RUSSIA.
Trump just sold the GOP out to Putin and every cent GOP donors pledge goes to Putin's account first, then Trumps accounts to pay his legal bills with the left over crumbs (donations) going to GOP reps and senator to fund their campaigns.
Problem is, how much of Putin's money is being used to blackmail the GOP to vote for Pro Putin legislation that is focused on defeating the Ukraine..?
Nice shell game grifters Putin and the Trumps are executing on the grand ole party..
The day before Trump loses the 2024 election...he will be landing in Moscow.
I have aired my concerns about Trump and Putin for quite sometime now, but I’d like to think it was based on fact (Trump never speaks ill of him -even once, sided with him over the NSA, commended him for being brilliant when he invaded Ukraine, while attacking Zelenskyy, among a host of other things).
What you’re saying however, appears to be a little unhinged…
It's the type of hyperbole that allows someone to dismiss the entire discussion rather than sticking to facts and reasonable positions of debate... The media on both sides do it too. It's part of the problem.
What you’re saying however, appears to be a little unhinged…
05...Facing potential jail time, I have doubts that Trump will allow himself to cornered by the American Justice system.
Chances are Trump's fight or flight response has already been triggered and it appears that he is going to be forced to rely on voters to save him. His plan is to "pardon" himself if he wins the election. If the voters can't save Trump, I would expect him to "flee" to a location where he feels safe.
One of the key factors helping Trump escape the justice system...those attempting to hold Trump liable for his actions constantly UNDERESTIMATE what Trump is willing to do to defeat American justice.
What some might view as "unhinged or unrealistic"... that is how Trump survives..he is not wired to think like a "normal" human...he is obviously "unhinged" and if he is ever going to held accountable for actions, those attempting to do so must reduce their thinking down to Trump's "unhinged" level.
Said another way, sometimes law enforcement is forced to adjust their thinking and reduce their thought process down to a crooks level...to catch a crook, you have to think like a crook.
are you for real?
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Freedumb! Murica!
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