Tuesday, August 01, 2023

Doo-Doo DeSantis remains a Nazi

Need a smile?  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Alito Does Not Work For Ma Bell" went up a little while ago.


lilyalito


Alito's a moron.  No one respects him -- except professional liar Jonathan Turley.


Meanwhile . . . 


I didn't think Doo-Doo Ron Ron DeSantis was the picture of sanity to begin with but this has me wondering just how crazy he really is:


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended his state's new educational standards teaching that Black people learned valuable skills from slavery by saying that it was created by a work group of respectable Black scholars.



But according to Judd Legum's Popular Information investigative blog, at least one of those scholars has a bizarre past.

William B. Allen, a retired professor with a history of promoting far-right, anti-public school, and anti-LGBTQ causes, previously served as chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1989.

However, writes Legum, "during his time as chairman, Allen was also charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from an indigenous reservation in Arizona. The girl was at the center of a custody battle between her birth mother and a white couple that wanted to adopt her. 'Allen contends that the girl wants to leave the reservation, though the mother has formal custody,' TIME reported in 1989."

Allen ultimately apologized but refused to step down from the commission.

Another controversial member of the work group is National Black Republican Association chair Francis Presley Rice, who has promoted propaganda falsely claiming Martin Luther King was a Republican, said former President Barack Obama was friends with terrorists, defended the racist GOP "Southern Strategy," and claimed in one of her magazine's articles that Democrats "embrace their child molesters."


Is he just extremely stupid or extremely nuts?  Who hires wack jobs like that?  Doo-Doo is a psycho.  And that's how the voters see him:



Republican voters are more likely to back a candidate who thinks government should "stay out of deciding what corporations can support," rather than one that intervenes to combat "woke" companies, according to a new poll.

A Siena/New York Times survey found 52 percent of likely GOP voters would prefer "a candidate who says that the government should stay out of deciding what corporations can support," as opposed to 38 percent for "a candidate who promises to fight corporations that promote 'woke' left ideology." The remaining 10 percent either said they didn't know, or refused to answer.

Ron DeSantis has made his campaign against what he deems "woke" corporations a key plank in his GOP primary campaign, with the Florida governor having stripped Disney of its self-governing status after the company criticized his policies on LGBTQ education in schools. DeSantis is facing off against former President Donald Trump, who enjoys a commanding lead with Republican voters according to recent polling.

The Siena poll also a strong majority of Republican voters would prefer a candidate who focuses on crime and the southern border over fighting "woke" ideology.




He's a loser.  That's all he is.  Philip Bump (WASHINGTON POST) notes:




In 2021, he began doing in earnest the type of things that potential presidential candidates do. He decided that his focus would be on combating “woke”-ism, a vague term he uses to broadly describe efforts to promote diversity or consider America’s racial history with nuance. When Fox News was hammering its viewers over the purported dangers of critical race theory, DeSantis snatched up the banner and pushed his way to the front of the parade. He advocated and signed into law the “S.T.O.P. Woke Act,” which mandated reconsideration of his state’s social studies curriculum.

Then, as the curriculum was being developed, his appointee at the Department of Education nominated six new members for the group writing the standards — six conservatives, often DeSantis allies, who now constituted a majority of members. And the result was a curriculum that — in addition to assiduously weeding out anything that might come within 200 feet of any concepts that could ever be perceived as “CRT” — added the language suggesting that enslaved people might actually have benefited from slavery.

Particularly given how the Department of Education had overhauled its civics curriculum to less-than-rave reviews last year, also downplaying enslavement, this outcome was not a surprise. If anything, it was preordained. And it was preordained because DeSantis wanted to be the guy who, as he says all the time, leads a state where “woke goes to die.”

Baier showed clips of him saying that before asking his question about the curriculum, in fact. But then there was DeSantis — hey, I didn’t choose this fight! Why is the bear swiping at me? All I did was poke it repeatedly!

DeSantis’s initial response to the controversy was similar. Asked about it last month, he told a reporter that “I didn’t do it” and that she should “talk to them about it,” referring to the Education Department.



He's so limp.  The editorial board of THE MIAMI HERALD notes this as well:





Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign recently fired a staffer who reportedly either retweeted or made a video that included Nazi imagery superimposed onto the Florida governor’s face.



Great. That’s a no-brainer. But where’s the denunciation — from a presidential candidate, no less — that surely should accompany that news? We’re still waiting.

It doesn’t matter much whether the staffer, former National Review writer Nate Hochman, made the video, as Axios reported, or just retweeted it on the @desantiscams account. DeSantis’ campaign obviously had to expel anyone pushing something so abhorrent.

In case you’re wondering, this was not a case where the imagery in the video is unclear or open to interpretation. This is awful stuff. The video, first reported by Semaphor, shows DeSantis in front of the Florida state seal that morphs into a red wheel, called a sonnenrad, a symbol that was used in Nazi Germany and, today, by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Silhouetted soldiers march toward DeSantis on both sides.




Even when you know what’s coming, that spinning red wheel is jarring to see, instantly recognizable as a chilling Nazi symbol. So no, this wasn’t a close call.

[. . .]

The campaign, in normal political times, would express horror. Case closed.

Except this is the same DeSantis who has repeatedly failed to denounce, in strong and certain terms, the appearances of neo-Nazi demonstrators in his state. In Orlando last year, a group of about 20 people shouted antisemitic slurs while waving Nazi flags near a shopping plaza and then again on an Interstate 4 overpass.

And in Tampa last summer, neo-Nazis demonstrated at a major Republican conference, Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit. They waved flags emblazoned with swastikas and white-supremacist SS bolts, held up placards with anti-Semitic slurs and someone unfurled a “DeSantis Country” flag.

DeSantis’ pulse, apparently, has been barely raised by the reprehensible actions that have happened on his watch. After the I-4 demonstration, it took him days to respond, and then it was mostly to shrug off the behavior, calling the demonstrators “jackasses.” Then he tried to change the narrative: He went after Democrats for trying to “smear” him by asking about it.




We’re still waiting for the loud condemnation this time, too.


Apparently, Doo-Doo wants to stand with the Nazis.  So shame on any American who is supporting Doo-Doo.  Shame on you.  This is from ROLLING STONE:





As it turns out, the videos were being produced in-house by the DeSantis campaign, and shopped out to influencers in order to give the appearance of organic content creation. Hotchman himself produced the video with Nazi imagery he later boosted via a separate account. The screenshots obtained by Semafor reveal that high level staffers were in the scheme, including Campaign Director of Rapid Response Christina Pushaw and Press Secretary Bryan Griffinwere. The messages originated from a group chat housed on the encrypted communication app Signal, and titled “War Room Creative Ideas.”

“This belongs in the Smithsonian,” one staffer wrote in response to the video containing the Nazi symbol. According to Semafor’s review of the messages, Pushaw encouraged those in the chat to continue to produce meme-able content. At one point, while discussing a clip of Trump, Pushaw asked if members of the chat knew “any Anons who might want it.” A staffer replied that they could potentially shop out the clip to “Proud Elephant,” a heavily pro-DeSantis X account. 

But efforts to keep the campaign’s affiliation with the distribution of the video’s covert have failed, and in the midst of a “campaign reset,” some of those involved in their production have been booted from the team. 

Hotchman was amongst the one third of staffers who were laid off in July, coincidentally his axing came just days after the video he had produced created a storm of controversy for the campaign. Another staffer involved in the chat, Kyle Lamb, was also amongst those dismissed. 

Despite the chaos it’s caused him, DeSantis defended the videos during a Monday interview with Fox News, and made a point to throw his rapid response team under the bus. “These things get shared, or whatever — and look, I’m responsible for it. Don’t get me wrong,” DeSantis told host Bret Baier. “But the idea that I was sitting there, like — oh, share this video? No. It’s a rapid response thing.”




See, it was his campaign.  He is a Nazi.  Shame on any American supporting him.  WWII was about fighting the Nazis -- we shouldn't be getting in bed with them all these years later.  It's a small number to shame.  Most Republicans have chosen Donald Trump over weak Doo-Doo.  MEDIAITE notes:




In an interview with Alisyn Camerota on Monday’s CNN Tonight, the veteran operative — Ed Rollins — was unsparing in his assessment of the Florida governor’s presidential candidacy.

“Presidential campaigns are totally different,” Rollins said. “And it’s about going out and talking to people. It’s not about preaching to people. You’ve got to talk to them. … Political people, particularly in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, they expect you to come out and listen to them.”

From there, the longtime operative went on to criticize the governor’s people skills.

“He’s just not a natural candidate,” Rollins said. And unfortunately, I have nothing against him as a governor. I think we’ve got some great, great governors that are running for president. But I just don’t think he’s the guy that’s going to beat [Donald] Trump, and Trump, at this point in time, is stronger than he’s ever been.”

“So DeSantis is, it sounds like you’re saying, not exactly a people person.” Camerota said.


If you're not getting how bad Ed Rollins' rejection of Doo-Doo Ron Ron is, please note that Ed Rollins was the one who urged him to seek the presidency.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, August 1, 2023.  What's the current state of US-Iraq relations, Turkey continues to assault Iraq, Ron DeSantis continues to burn through (other people's) money, Robert F. Kennedy Jr thinks it's "historic" to lie to Congress, and much more.



Atr OIL PRICE, Simon Watkins offers an analysis of the US and Iraq:


Ever since the U.S. officially ended its ‘combat mission’ in Iraq on 31 December 2021, it has been looking for a way back into the huge but still relatively untapped oil and gas regions of the country, as analysed in depth in my new book on the new global oil market order. Iraq knows this perfectly well and has sought since then to exploit this need for money from the U.S. whilst having no intention of allowing it to return in any meaningful way. Many analysts trace this reluctance back to the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 or to its continued military presence there until 2011, but although neither of these factors helped the U.S.’s ambitions in Iraq, neither of them put the final nail in their coffin either. This came with its unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – or colloquially, ‘the nuclear deal’ – with Iran in May 2018. Iran has wielded enormous power over Iraq for a very long time indeed through its various political, economic, and military proxies and the death knell of the deal with Iraq meant the same for any ambitions the U.S. had in Iraq. The game plays from Iraq and the U.S. around this starting position were seen again last week but, as in the end of Macbeth’s fleeting moment of glory, these threats and counter-threats are ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’: the game is already over, and the U.S. lost.

The last week or so has seen a series of statements from both the U.S. and Iraq surrounding Baghdad’s staggeringly omni-toxic idea that Iraq will pay with its own oil supplies for the gas and electricity that it has long been importing from Iran.

This is less of a slap in the face for Washington than a baseball bat in the crotch, as the U.S. has for years been giving Iraq tens of billions of dollars to help with its finances on the specific condition that the country reduces its imports of gas and electricity from Iran eventually to zero. For the U.S., the ending of Iraq’s reliance on Iran for around 40 percent of its power grid needs (through gas and electricity imports) would have provided an excellent starting point for American companies to move back into Iraq to begin a new commercially-based chapter in the two countries’ history. To encourage Iraq towards this end, the U.S. has granted waivers to it to continue to import gas and electricity from Iran to manage this transition away from dependence on its neighbour. Accompanying these waivers have been massive injections of U.S. funding into Iraq, usually following a visit to Washington in August or September each year by whoever was Iraq prime minister at the time to ask for money to bail out the Iraq budget. The principal reason why the Iraq budget needs bailing out every year is because of the industrial-scale corruption that lies at the heart of its oil sector administration, as also analysed in depth in my new book on the new global oil market order. This offensive manoeuvre from the Iraqi playbook is such a regular annual feature in Washington that for a long time, a very senior U.S. legal source closely connected to such discussions exclusively told OilPrice.com some years ago, it has been known as ‘the Baghdad Ballet’. 

Up until now, the most shocking betrayal of the U.S.’s optimistic trust in Iraq in this context came from the ultra-smooth Mustafa al-Kadhimi. He had danced the usual dance with the U.S. so well that in May 2020 Washington gave him even more money than before and the longest waiver ever given – 120 days – to keep importing gas and electricity from Iran, on the standard condition that Iraq stopped doing it soon. However, once the money had been banked and al-Kadhimi was safely back on home territory, Iraq signed a two-year contract – the longest period ever – with Iran to keep importing gas and electricity from it. Washington let the formidable then-State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, out of her room, and she let fly. Not only was the next waiver to Iraq the shortest ever – 30 days – but also at the press conference in which it was announced, Ortagus let it be known that the U.S. was hitting 20 Iran- and Iraq-based entities with swingeing new sanctions. She cited them as being instruments in the funnelling of money to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) elite Quds Force, which was entirely true. She added that the 20 entities were continuing to exploit Iraq’s dependence on Iran as an electricity and gas source by smuggling Iranian petroleum through the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr and money laundering through Iraqi front companies, which was also true. She also said that Washington was extremely concerned that Iraq was continuing to act as a conduit for Iranian oil and gas supplies to make their way out into the world’s major export markets. This was true as well, as additionally analysed in my new book on the new global oil market order.

On the topic of oil, IRAQI NEWS notes:

Iraq’s economy continued its oil-driven recovery after the sharp pandemic-induced recession in 2020, but non-oil sectors have stagnated, and growth constraints have reemerged. Despite a record oil windfall and a long-awaited new budget, Iraq nevertheless remains at risk of missing the opportunity to push ahead overdue reforms that are critical to boost private sector growth and create the millions of jobs needed in the next decade.

The Spring/Summer 2023 edition of the Iraq Economic Monitor, titled “Reemerging Pressures: Iraq’s Recovery at Risk “, finds that real gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated to 7.0 percent in 2022 driven by the oil sector, but fell to 2.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. Consumer price inflation, which had moderated in 2022, ticked up in early 2023, fueled by the depreciation of the Iraqi dinar in the parallel market. 


Meanwhile Turkey continues to bomb and attack northern Iraq -- home to Iraq's Kurdish population.  They say this is to combat terrorism but combatting terrorism does not allow Turkey to go into Iraq on the ground, conduct attacks and set up military bases -- which it has done repeatedly while the world has looked the other way. The Stockholm Center for Freedom notes:


The UN Human Rights Council has received a formal complaint regarding Turkish airstrikes in Iraq, allegedly targeting a civilian hospital and resulting in the death of eight people, Turkish Minute reported on Monday, citing The Guardian.

The attack, which occurred on Aug. 17, 2021, destroyed the Sikeniye medical clinic in Sinjar and left more than 20 people injured.

This is the first case concerning Turkish airstrikes against the Yazidi people to be brought before the council.

The four claimants, comprising survivors and witnesses to the airstrikes, argue that the attack violated their right to life under international law, as guaranteed by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.


Every now and then, an attack on a medical facility, a refugee camp or a resort will garner a bit of international press attention but that's about it.  Quickly, it's time for the press to move on and to ignore all the attacks on farms and villages that wound and kill so many every month.  And then we get garbate like this from ANTIWAR.COM, "Violence between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) left 17 guerrillas and four Turkish soldiers dead."  Did the press report that 17 'PKK were dead?  No.  That would mean an outlet verified the number and verified that the people killed were PKK.  From the beginning of Turkey's assault on Iraq -- that dates back to the days when Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House -- we've had this same problem with ANTIWAR.COM -- Turkey issues a press release and that's treated as fact.  It's treated as fact by ANTIWAR.COM even when actual reporting reveals it was a farmer or a child.  For an outlet that calls itself "ANTIWAR," they sure are eager to identify with the aggressor.   Amberin Zaman (AL-MONITOR) reports:

Turkey’s military campaign against alleged Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Syria and Iraq is continuing full blast with at least four fighters of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and four others from the outlawed PKK killed in drone strikes in northeast Syria and Kurdish-administered northern Iraq, Kurdish-led armed groups and Iraqi Kurdish security officials said. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and Northeast Syria on Sunday denounced Russia and the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (IS) in a statement over their silence in the face of the attacks.

The assaults continued throughout the weekend when three civilians were injured as a result of Turkish shelling that targeted a village located south of Tell Tamar in northeast Syria, Kurdish media reported. That attack came after Turkish forces carried out 40 artillery strikes against the Kurdish majority enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, which was occupied by Turkey in 2018, Kurdish media said. The claims could not be independently verified; however, a low-intensity conflict between the SDF and Turkish-allied groups has been bubbling since Turkey’s wresting of Afrin from the Syrian Kurds. Dozens of civilians, including women and children, have perished in Turkish drone and air strikes, as previously documented by Al-Monitor. 

The United States and Russia are guarantors of separate cease-fire agreements struck in the wake of Turkey’s 2019 Operation Peace Spring in which it occupied large chunks of SDF-controlled territory and permanently displaced over 200,000 civilians who continue to languish in ramshackle camps. Both wish to pull Turkey to their side as Russia’s war on Ukraine rages on. They have, in turn, grown even more hesitant to rebuke Ankara over its aggression toward PKK-linked Kurdish groups, least of all as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to weigh granting final approval to Sweden’s accession to NATO and despite the fact that Washington rejects Turkey’s characterization of the SDF as “terrorists."

Salih Muslim, co-chair of the Democratic Unity Party that shares power in the Autonomous Administration, said they had no contact with either Russia or the Syrian regime and that “our allies in the coalition say there is nothing they can do to stop Turkey’s attacks.”

“Their silence is nothing new, and we do not know what is going on behind closed doors,” Muslim told Al-Monitor.

 


Just weeks after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) promised a reset on his campaign, it definitely has entered a new phase: the death watch.

DeSantis apparently learned nothing from the humiliation of having to lay off staff this early in the campaign season. A large part of the $8 million he burned through in just six weeks was on travel, thanks to DeSantis and his wife, Casey, believing that they only deserve to fly on private jets. (Most candidates – other than Trump, who has his own plane – fly commercial to save money.)

So are Ron and Casey traveling with the masses to save money? As if you have to ask.

After debuting his “leaner” campaign, Ron hopped on a private jet to make multiple stops around Tennessee for fundraising. He broke out into CEO-speak to justify the expense.

“We do things based on R.O.I. [return on investment] and that’s on everything you do,” DeSantis said. “If it’s not a good R.O.I., then we try something else.” 

The problem that DeSantis is having is that donors are looking at their R.O.I. and deciding that DeSantis is not a good investment. A lot of big donors are sitting on the sidelines, and they don’t mind whispering to reporters about their concerns. Chief among them is whether DeSantis has told the entire truth about his campaign’s finances. A lot of big expenses seem to be missing from the first report, which suggests that things may be even worse than they already appear.

Then there is the other problem with the DeSantis campaign: DeSantis.

DeSantis (along with Casey, who is his primary adviser) seems to believe that the best way to defeat Trump for the nomination is to run as far to his right as possible. But Trump is selling a vibe, not ideas. He traffics in discontent, but he’s intentionally light on details.

DeSantis, on the other hand, is trying to prove himself with details, like his anti-woke curriculum, which describes how African Americans “benefited” from the trades they learned under slavery. When DeSantis was criticized for the sheer offensiveness of the curriculum, he doubled down to the point where he began to attack Black Republicans who dared to suggest in the mildest terms that perhaps the language was a bit off. 


I went to COUNTERPUNCH hoping for some real criticism like the above.  But unless it's Jeffrey St. Clair, no one seems aware that campaigning is going on at COUNTERPUNCH.  I see they have made time for yet another attack on BARBIE -- the doll and the film.  

That confuses me.

There have been three GI JOE films since 2009 and COUNTERPUNCH didn't feel the need to weigh in on one.  I don't remember Barbie promoting empire.  I don't remember Barbie killing people.  I don't remember Barbie treating war as a game.


I must have missed that.  Surely, if the great men of COUNTERPUNCH feel the need to near daily attack Barbie, surely she must be a war toy, right?  

No, this is sexism as usual.

Barbie is a doll and as such she's identified with females.  Now everyone plays with Barbie, it's not just little girls.  And some of the boys that play with Barbie are straight.  But when middle aged men can't get it up anymore and are frustrated they try to tear apart anything identified with the female.

Again, three GI JOE films since 2009 and not one damn word from COUNTERPUNCH.  But Barbie requires their male gaze -- their incessant -- and unwelcome -- male gaze?



Even as his bid to become the Republican presidential nominee circles the drain, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis can take pride in the fact that he is almost keeping pace with his chief rival in having embarrassing Nazi scandals. Earlier this week, in response to continuing lackluster polling, DeSantis fired 38 staffers. Axios noted that one of those staffers was Nate Hochman, a speechwriter who “secretly created and shared a pro-DeSantis video that featured the candidate at the center of a Sonnenrad, an ancient symbol appropriated by the Nazis and still used by some white supremacists.” Earlier, Hochman and other staffers stirred controversy by sharing a bizarre homophobic and transphobic pro-DeSantis ad (presented as a fan creation, even though evidence points to its being another in-house production). This follows hot on the heels of a June scandal when it turned out that Pedro Gonzalez, a pro-DeSantis influencer whose social media voice was being promoted by the Florida governor’s staff, had a record of anti-Semitic, racist, and fascist private direct messages.

Although he’s trying hard, DeSantis still lags behind front-runner Donald Trump—not just in the polls but also in shameless pandering to white nationalists. Trump of course has the advantage of a head start in this competition. His extensive record (crisply catalogued in a 2017 Slate article) includes his numerous sly uses of alt-right memes, his promotion of extremists like Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, and his infamous “very fine people” response to the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. More recently, Trump dined last year with Adolf Hitler aficionado and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

But the GOP’s white nationalist problem extends beyond the Trump/DeSantis race. On Wednesday, Media Matters reported that Matteo Cina, a Fox News staffer and former writer for Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, repeatedly posted anti-Semitic messages on TikTok. One Cina post argued that “it is hard to talk about the Holocaust and rising anti semitism [sic] without discussing Jewish presence in banking.” Arizona Representative Paul Gosar has extensive ties to the racist far right. In 2021, he spoke at a white nationalist rally hosted by Fuentes. Earlier this year, Hunter Walker of Talking Points Memo reported that Gosar’s digital director, Wade Searle, can be linked to an “extensive digital trail” on white supremacist websites, including those that support Fuentes. 

The mounting evidence that many prominent Republican politicians, including a former president, either have Nazi ties or are courting the Nazi vote is unsettling. Frequently, this fact leads to some form of denial or excuse-making—such as the claim that young Republicans are “too online” or just engaging in the familiar puerile prank of adopting rhetoric designed to shock liberals.

There is a smidgen of truth to this argument. Shock Jock mockery and malicious frat boy bigotry are familiar styles of right-wing comedy—a tradition that runs from The American Spectator to Rush Limbaugh to Donald Trump. 


As pathetic as Ron DeSantis?  Little Junior.  Little Robbie Jr.  The latest Team Kennedy missive insists it's found "RFK, Jr.'s Road to the White House 2024" -- and that's how they spelled it -- RFK-- comma-- Jr.  What year are they living in?  1993 or earlier -- that is when the style guidelines said to drop the comma.  Thirty years out of date, that's our Little Junior.

In the e-mail they insist:

Last week the censorship and attacks on RFK, Jr. reached a new low following his historic testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on the weaponization of the federal government.

If you didn’t think things could get any worse than Democrat members of Congress trying to censor a presidential candidate, consider the fact that last week the Biden administration refused a routine request to provide Secret Service protection for RFK, Jr, whose father was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign.

While the Democratic Party is stirring up hate against Mr. Kennedy for running against President Biden, the Biden administration denied Mr. Kennedy's Secret Service protection. Yet, the Secret Service provides his own son, Hunter Biden, with protection.

Despite this bad faith from Democrats, Mr. Kennedy’s popularity keeps rising, as a new Harvard-Harris poll found that RFK, Jr. has the highest favorability rating of any candidate, including President Biden and former President Trump.



So it was "historic," was it?  The lies to Congress were historic.  Because the campaign says so?



Kennedy’s run is also getting plenty of financial support from the right. A super PAC supporting Kennedy’s presidential run, called Heal the Divide PAC, has deep ties to Republicans, F ederal Election Commission records show.

The committee’s address is listed in the care of RTA Strategy, a campaign consulting firm that has been paid for its work to help elect Republicans including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker.

The PAC’s treasurer, who works for RTA Strategy, is Jason Boles, a past donor to Trump and many other Republicans who includes “MAGA” and “AmericaFirst” in his bio on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Kennedy denied knowing Boles or the Heal the Divide PAC when it came up at the congressional hearing, saying, “I’ve never heard of Mr. Boles, and I’ve never heard of that super PAC.”

But video available online shows he was a guest speaker at a Heal the Divide event just two days earlier. The video features a “Heal the Divide 2024” logo with clips of him speaking at length about plans to back the U.S. dollar with bitcoin and precious metals.

Kennedy says that as president, he would fight for government honesty and transparency, heal the political divide, reverse economic decline, end war and preserve civil liberties. He has made freedom of speech a major part of his platform, arguing that the government’s communication with social media companies unfairly censors protected speech.

Kennedy's press office did not respond to several messages asking about his support from the far right.

It also did not respond to questions about whether his stance on bitcoin was at odds with being an environmentalist.

Kennedy lists the environment as one of six top priorities on his campaign website and has spent many years speaking against pollution and climate change as an environmental lawyer. Yet he has made supporting the energy-intensive cryptocurrency bitcoin a key part of his platform.

Bitcoin mining, the process of generating new coins, uses massive amounts of electricity — more than some entire countries use, said Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group.

That’s because it works by tasking a network of supercomputers with solving complex mathematical puzzles — even as some other cryptocurrencies have adopted far more energy efficient mining methods.

“No one who claims to be an environmentalist could support a digital asset that needlessly consumes more electricity than all Americans use to power the lights in our homes,” Faber said. “In fact, bitcoin produces more climate pollution than any other digital asset.”


Oh, Little Junior.  Such a disappointment to everyone.  In her "Isaiah on the boomers and RFK Jr. lies so more," Elaine includes this:


“He’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame,” Jack Schlossberg, President Kennedy’s grandson, said of his cousin in an Instagram video earlier this month. “I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is, his candidacy is an embarrassment.”



Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Pride of the Boomers, Pride of the Senate" went up last night.   The following sites updated:






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