Doo-Doo needs a miracle tonight to avoid being flushed
Happy Hump Day.
Ann's covering Senator Bob Menendez's current criminal charges so please
check her out for that. She passed an article over on Shady Menendez, David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement:
U.S.
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is losing support as more of his Senate
Democratic colleagues formally call on him to resign after he was
indicted again, this time on federal bribery charges that included
allegations of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and
gold bars.
As of Tuesday morning, at least nine Democratic U.S. Senators have now
called on the twice-indicted senior Democratic Senator from New Jersey
to resign, as they cite the gravity of the charges against him.
U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) was the first to call on Menendez to resign, on Monday. U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Peter Welch (D-VT) followed later that day.
According to the Dept. of Justice,
Sen. Menendez, along with his wife Nadine Menendez, not only are
alleged to have received bribes, he is charged with doing so in a scheme
“to use his official position to protect and enrich” those he allegedly
accepted funds from, and “to benefit the Government of Egypt.”
Thank you to Ann who's memory is better than
mine. I read it, called her back and said "good article, I'll highlight
it." She said, "You don't remember?" Then I did. I called out a
piece by David before but noted it was not personal and that he seemed
like a good writer and I'd highlight him in the future. I think it was a
month ago. But then life. And I forgot, so thank you to Ann for
remembering for me.
Now let's move over to Doo-Doo Ron Ron DeSantis. You know he hates
masks and you know he hates boosters. You know he's telling everyone
not to get the COVID booster shot. Guess what's now happening in
Florida? Joseph Lysikatos (MAMA SAID WHAT) reports:
Florida’s
Covid-19 hospitalizations have surged to a post-pandemic record. Amid
this crisis, Governor Ron DeSantis and his surgeon general’s
controversial warning against COVID-19 booster shots has sparked intense
debate and concern within the medical community.
Florida
has emerged as the nation’s leader in COVID-related hospitalizations,
and Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration is facing mounting controversy
over its stance on COVID-19 booster shots.
At
a time when the state grapples with a surge in hospital admissions, the
decision by DeSantis’ hand-picked surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, to
discourage those under 65 from receiving mRNA boosters has drawn sharp
criticism from the medical community.
As
of the week ending on September 9th, Florida’s hospitalization rate
stood at 10.65 per 100,000 residents, surpassing Washington, D.C., and
Arkansas.
Doo-Doo is an idiot. Tonight, they're calling it, his
make-or-break moment. The second Republican candidate debate starts
shortly. James Bickerton (NEWSWEEK) reports:
Ron DeSantis has a chance to reignite his stuttering presidential campaign when he appears in the second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday evening, with one political scientist telling Newsweek: "I don't think so many primary voters have made up their minds that the nomination is sealed."
The
event is taking place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi
Valley, California, with seven GOP hopefuls confirming they will be
taking part. Notably Donald Trump,
the current frontrunner, has indicated he won't be participating. He
also skipped the first debate and will instead address automobile
workers in Michigan.
Over
the past few months Trump has built up a commanding lead over DeSantis,
his closest rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, with
the polling aggregate run by polling aggregate website FiveThirtyEight
giving him an average of 54.7 percent support from
likely GOP primary voters, against just 13.9 percent for DeSantis. Thus
Wednesday's debate will give the Florida governor an opportunity to
remake his pitch to Republicans, and try and claw back some of the support he has lost over the past few months.
Doo-Doo needs a miracle tonight. Bet he's praying to Satan and pleading
with Satan, knowing Doo-Doo. His campaign has spent the last weeks
insisting that a second place result in Iowa wouldn't be that bad.
Really? Because he's made Iowa his focus:
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis has barnstormed Iowa in recent months, making the
Hawkeye State, the first to vote in the race for the 2024 Republican
presidential nomination, the focus of his campaign.
But his commitment to Iowa,
where he plans to visit all 99 counties by the end of the fall, has
meant spending less time in another key state, New Hampshire, which
votes second and where experts and allies of the governor suggest his
decreased time on the ground is hurting his chances there.
Some
polling indicates DeSantis has seen a steep drop in his support among
Granite Staters in recent months. He was the first choice of 10% of
likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire, a drop of 13 points since
July, according to a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released last week.
He closely trailed three primary opponents -- entrepreneur and
commentator Vivek Ramaswamy (13%), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley
(12%) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (11%) -- and was 29
points behind former President Donald Trump, who remains the primary
front-runner.
Other polls show DeSantis barely outpacing his non-Trump rivals in New Hampshire but still far behind the former president.
I would love it if someone on the debate stage tonight could send Doo-Doo packing.
By the way, I hope you read "Thoughts on Woke (Ava and C.I.)" already. Ava and C.I. are covering a
huge number of topics. I wish Jim had gone into it in his 'a note to
our readers' but everyone was so tired. But they wrote that trying to
write something different since the writers and actors remain on strike
(they're not covering scripted programming during the strike). In it
they talk about the hate merchants and the way Doo-Doo is ruining
Florida. I thought of that, when I saw Dee Brenner's post at WEALTHY LIVING:
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a number of controversial laws throughout
his tenure, but his recent legislative actions which affected how the
state teaches African-American history and treats its LGBTQ community
appear to do a major disservice to the state when it comes to attracting
visitors.
Florida
tourism officials claim DeSantis’ recent clashes with the LGBTQ
community, Disney, and, migrants are costing the state money.
They say the governor’s rhetoric and policies are hurting the state’s tourism revenue.
Florida’s
Broward County, which includes the resort town of Fort Lauderdale near
Miami, reports increasing losses as Conventions turn their back on the
state.
More
conventions are avoiding the area, concerned about the safety of
diverse attendees in an “unfriendly political environment.” Up
to this point, a total of 14 conventions that were originally planned
for Florida have been relocated to other locations, as reported by the
South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Wednesday, September 27, 2023. Over a hundred dead in Iraq from a fire
at a wedding, Joe Biden takes to the picket line, Moms For Bigotry
continue their attempt to destroy the country, education and democracy,
and much more.
Last week, as Iraq's Prime
Minister addressed the United Nations General Assembly and as he he met
with various leaders, the press largely ignored him and Iraq. This
morning? Iraq's all they seem able to talk about.
A fire at a wedding in northern Iraq has killed at least 100
people and injured 150 others, according to the Iraqi state news agency
INA citing local authorities.
The disaster in the Hamdaniya district of northeast Nineveh
governorate, was set off by fireworks, candles, and other materials used
during the wedding celebration, the Iraqi Civil Defense said.
Nineveh governor Najm Al-Jubouri told the Iraqi state news agency
INA that the injured were transferred to hospitals in Nineveh and the
Kurdistan region.
Kathyn Armstrong (BBC NEWS) notes,
"Footage posted online showed the couple on the dance floor before
flaming chunks begin falling onto the dance floor. Firefighters could
be seen climbing over the wreckage of the building in search of
survivors on Wednesday morning." Farid Abdul Wahed (AP) addds, "Authorities said that flammable building materials also contributed to the latest disaster to hit Iraq’s dwindling Christian minority.
In the fire’s chaotic aftermath, officials offered conflicting death
tolls and security officials said they had detained staff at the wedding
hall as part of their investigation." Holly Johnston, Mina Aldroubi and Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) put the death toll currently at 115 with another 150 injured and Omar Abdulkader (CBS NEWS) notes, "Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the
blaze and asked the country's interior and health ministries to provide
assistance, his office said in a statement posted online."
Biden,
visiting a General Motor redistribution center, said workers deserve
more of a share of the profits from Ford Motor Co., General Motors and
Stellantis. It marked the first time a sitting president has joined a
picket line of workers on strike in the middle of a labor dispute.
Do
you get it? Nope? Let's again note Joni Mitchell, a song I like to retitle "The Last Time I Saw Barack."
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you All those pretty lies, pretty lies When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies? Only pretty lies, just pretty lies"
-- "The Last Time I Saw Richard," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album BLUE.
"All those pretty lies, pretty lies, when you gonna realize they're only pretty lies?"
From
Senator Barack Obama's November 3, 2007 speech in South Carolina while
he was on the campaign trail was full of lies, "just pretty lies." For
example:
One
year from now, we can stop sending hundreds of millions of dollars to
dictators for their oil while we melt the polar ice caps in the bargain.
I will raise our fuel standards, and put a cap on carbon emissions to
reduce then 80% by 2050. We'll tell polluters that they have to pay for
their pollution, because they don't own the skies, the American people
own the skies. And we'll use the money to invest in the clean, renewable
fuels that are our future. That's the change we can offer in 2008.
No,
he did not put a cap on carbon emissions to reduce them by 80% by
2050. Didn't happen. Change you can believe in if you're really
foolish.
When
I am President, I will end this war in Iraq. I will bring our troops
home within sixteen months. I'll finish the fight against al Qaeda in
Afghanistan. And I will lead the world against the common threats of the
21st century - nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and
poverty; genocide and disease.
He
killed more people with drones than anyone before him. He never
withdrew all troops from Iraq -- not in 16 months, not in his first
term, not in his second term. US troops remain on the ground in Iraq.
He didn't finish the fight in Afghanistan and it was Joe Biden, as
president who brought US troops hom.
I
don't want to see that the oceans rose another few inches and the
planet has reached the point of no return because we couldn't find a way
to stop ourselves from buying oil from dictators. I don't want to see
that.
Well
that wasn't a broken promise. He didn't promise to make sure the
oceans didn't rise "another few inches," he just said he didn't want to
see it. By the way, it's risen about three inches since Barack gave
that speech.
"I
don't want to see homeless veterans on the street." Again, not a broken
promise. He just didn't want to see it. It was 2009, after being
elected president, that Barack made the promise to end homelessness.
Spoiler alert: Didn't happen. From the editorial board of THE NEW YORK
TIMES, August 5, 2016, "Broken Promises to Homeless Vets:"
Speaking to disabled veterans on Monday in
Atlanta, President Obama discussed his administration’s efforts to end
“the tragedy, the travesty” of veteran homelessness. He proudly declared
the glass half full. “We have now reduced the number of homeless
veterans by 47 percent,” he said. The number of homeless veterans is now under 40,000.
What
Mr. Obama did not say, in an address that also boasted about the
success of the Department of Veterans Affairs in expanding disability
benefits, cutting health care backlogs and improving mental health care,
was that the upbeat statistic actually reflects shrunken ambition and
mission failure. Mr. Obama’s V.A. has been promising to vanquish the
problem since 2009, the year Eric Shinseki, then the secretary of
veterans affairs, announced a plan to end veteran homelessness by the
end of 2014.
Mr.
Shinseki resigned in 2014, undone by health care scandals on his watch,
but the administration, undaunted, announced another campaign that
year, called the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness. New
name, new strategic emphasis -- enlisting state and local governments and
philanthropies -- but the same promise: a home for all down-and-out
veterans in all 50 states by 2015.
There
is no excuse for that failure. No one twisted his arm for that
promise. Having made it, he should have ensured the issue was
resolved. Instead, he broke a promise to veterans. To be clear, I
don't think veterans are any better than the rest of the population.
And I do believe we should be addressing homelessness throughout the
country -- not just veterans. But the reason I advocate for them with
regards to, for example, healthcare is because the government made a
promise and then it refused to live up to it. It's the same thing with
homeless veterans. They didn't sign up thinking, "I won't be
homeless." If they did, some were mistaken. But in 2009, Barack
promised that veterans homelessness would be ended by 2014. That was a
promise from the sitting president of the United States. He made it and
it's now a debt owed.
The VA claims that, today, there are 67,495 homeless veterans -- that's most likely an undercount.
There
is no excuse for that after Barack's 'promise.' This could have been
dealt with. 68,000 homes being built would have strengthened the
economy -- due to the costs for labor and materials. And who was going
to argue against it? Lauren Boebert or some other idiot. Most
Americans would have said, "Build the damn homes." Because a promise
was made and the government needs to keep it's promises.
But
it was always just pretty words, just pretty words for Barack which is
why we called him "Mr Pretty Words" and why we repeatedly cited "The
Last Time I Saw Richard" when Barack was in the White Hose. From the
November 3, 2007 speech, let's note one more part:
When
I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our
jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working
Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait
ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every
single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to
organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair
of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of
the United States.
So
many lies -- minimum wage was raised only once -- July of 2009. Hasn't
been raised since. "I'll raise it to keep pace every single year."
Just pretty lies, only pretty lies.
And he never put on his shoes and walked a picket line.
Yesterday, Joe Biden walked a picket line and, again, "It marked the first time a sitting president has joined a picket line of workers on strike in the middle of a labor dispute."
One more time from USA TODAY's report:
The
visit followed a public invitation from UAW President Shawn Fain to
Biden last Friday, as UAW expanded its strike to 38 sites across 20
states. Fain greeted Biden at the Detroit airport and rode with Biden in
the president's limousine to greet striking auto workers.
"Our
president chose to stand up with workers in our fight for economic and
social justice," Fain said, thanking Biden. "It’s a historic day, a
historic moment in time.”
It's
no accident that Nazis are growing in numbers in Florida. Many
Republicans here talk the same language and hate the same people.
DeSantis is at war with the LGBTQ community, Black people, and immigrants, and so are they. The same can be said for the most infamous resident of Mar-a-Lago, who put like-minded people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller in the White House.
On
Nazis, in 1988, Lindsay Wagner
made the TV movie EVIL IN CLEAR RIVER. I
thought she gave a praise-worthy performance. But the movie? Well
written but I just didn't see it as realistic. Her character's son is
spouting some fake 'facts' and she discovers the teacher -- a real
'coach' Tommy Tuberville type -- is lying to the students about the
Holocaust. It's realistic today.
Nazis are all over the place and we all have to be Lindsay fighting
them. For example, Katharine Fung (NEWSWEEK) reported earlier this week:
A Holocaust denier is running for a school board election in Minnesota.
Vaughn
Klingenberg, who is a candidate for Roseville Area Schools board, has
made several comments discussing his beliefs that the Nazis did not want
the Holocaust and that they were actually trying to "save" Jewish people.
In
a July appearance on VT Radio's "Uncensored Alternative Foreign Policy
Talk" podcast, Klingenberg described the Holocaust being orchestrated by
"big Zionist Jews" to persecute "little Jews" and claimed that "the
Jewish religion is an ideology based on victimization."
The Holocaust has been recognized as the genocide of European Jews by
Nazi Germany and described by the National WWII Museum as the
"deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and machinelike
murder of approximately six million European Jews and at least five
million Soviet prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovah's Witnesses,
homosexuals, and other victims."
The
hate merchants never give up selling the hate. It can be very
upsetting trying to make it through a day in this country lately. UNBRANDED ENTERTAINMENT notes:
On
a recent episode of Dax Shepard’s 'Armchair Expert' podcast, Jonathan
Van Ness burst into tears defending the transgender community. Shepard
and the hairstylist were discussing The New York Times and Van Ness
called out the publication for sharing anti-trans content. The podcast’s
host said, “Some people are very uncomfortable about teenagers
transitioning… the person’s not gonna change their mind?” He added, “To
even question it makes you an enemy. I don’t think that’s the way
forward." Van Ness said that it felt like they were talking to their
dad. "I’m not calling you a transphobe. You can not be transphobic and
still have thoughts that espouse trans misogyny and espouse transphobic
ideologies or beliefs and not be transphobic", responded Van Ness. Van
Ness began to cry, as they are “emotionally exhausted” from having to
constantly fight for kids who “just wanted to be included”.
It
is upsetting. The hate's made me cry many times out of frustration and
out of sadness for what some people -- who have harmed no one -- have
to live with and live through. But we can push back on the hate
merchants. And some people -- basic citizens as well as politicians --
are showing us how. AP reports:
California
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday to ban school boards from
rejecting textbooks based on their teachings about the contributions of
people from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender
identities.
Newsom called the measure “long overdue.”
“From
Temecula to Tallahassee, fringe ideologues across the country are
attempting to whitewash history and ban books from schools,” Newsom said
in a statement. “With this new law, we’re cementing California’s role
as the true freedom state: a place where families — not political
fanatics -- have the freedom to decide what’s right for them.”
The bill takes effect immediately.
As
part of the effort to spread their hate, Moms For Bigotry and other
hate groups have declared war on education. They ban books, they
rewrite history, they attack education. Katrina vanden Heuvel (THE NATION) notes:
They
don’t just air grievances. Their website offers free trainings for
parents to help them testify to school boards—or even get elected to
them. They advocate for bathroom bills and teacher restrictions and laws requiring school staff to out queer students to their parents. And of course, they’re pushing for book bans—though the organization’s executive director would have you believe these aren’t real bans, because you can still purchase the books in question “via booksellers or the Internet.”
Citizens Defending Freedom is even less subtle—their site boasts
endorsements from disgraced former Trump adviser Mike Flynn and
disgraced current MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. They successfully
campaigned for the Texas State Board of Education to dissociate from the
American Library Association (which they call a “woke organization”), and want other states to do the same. One chapter recently challenged over 100 books as “age-inappropriate” for Fort Worth’s school libraries, including The Handmaid’s Tale—even though banning The Handmaid’s Tale sounds like something out of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Then
there’s Moms for Liberty. When it launched in 2021, the organization
was originally focused on fighting against Covid-19 protections—like
mask and vaccine mandates—in schools. Now they spend their time electing school board members who share their concerns, and flooding board meetings with parents who are outraged that their kids are reading books about interracial relationships, hurricanes, and male seahorses carrying eggs.
When
Moms for Liberty gets a book banned, not only does it deprive one
district of that specific text; it can set a dangerous standard. Earlier this year, the group successfully banned a graphic-novel version of The Diary of Anne Frank from
a Florida high school—which included passages about puberty that other
adaptations omitted. Flash-forward to last week in Texas: a teacher was fired for assigning the same book to her eighth grade reading class.
Never
mind that those eighth graders are the same age Frank was when she
wrote her diary, experiencing puberty themselves and asking similar
questions about their bodies—including, as Frank wrote, curiosities
about “the little hole underneath.” Parents are supposed to pretend that
exposure to that level of graphic detail will permanently warp the
minds of their 14-year-olds.
Meanwhile, in February, a South Carolina high school teacher assigned her AP English students Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me.
Two students objected to the book’s discussion of Blackness in America,
and reported their teacher to a school board member who was endorsed by
Moms for Liberty. Because a state proviso explicitly prohibits lessons
that make students “feel discomfort” about their race, the curriculum
was immediately abandoned, and the books taken away.
You're
supposed to want more for the next generation -- for them to do better,
for them to be smarter and more educated. Not the hate groups. No,
Moms For Bigotry want the US to fall behind every other nation in the
world when it comes to education. They've declared war on the truth and
they throw lies at facts. They'll run this nation into the ground if
they aren't confronted and called out. The sad thing is, they don't
even grasp how ridiculous they look to the children they pretend they're
trying to 'protect.' The kids are starving for knowledge and grasp
that this world has some serious problems to address.
Yet research suggests the learning materials students are consuming in school have in some cases muted their
coverage of climate change. Students told USA TODAY treatment of the
issue has remained limited in schools even as their demands for such
education have grown.
“Everything
I learned about climate change was self-taught,” said Amara Ifeji, 21,
now a senior at Northeastern University in Boston and an environmental
justice advocate. Her low-income high school in Maine didn’t require
climate change instruction for students in her particular science,
technology, engineering and math program, let alone instruction that
addressed the uneven impacts on people of color.
While
a number of states have changed their standards and curricula to
address climate change, she worries about all the students at schools
that lack the resources or the political will to make it a formal and
interdisciplinary part of the learning experience. Polls have found a
majority of teachers still don’t talk about the topic in class, usually saying it's outside their wheelhouse.
