Friday, August 04, 2023

Idiot of the week

Idiot of the week goes to . . . Casey DeSantis.  The mannish woman has made so many mistakes -- including marrying Doo-Doo Ron Ron.  But we need to look at this:


As Hurricane Ian devastated parts of Florida, millions of dollars rolled into Casey DeSantis’ relief campaign. Nearly a year later, much of it is sitting unused in a bank account, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel revealed.
The wife of governor and GOP presidential nominee hopeful Ron DeSantis campaigned to raise $63 million in donations for the Florida Disaster Fund as the hurricane destroyed swathes of the state in late September 2022.

“We can take those resources and micro-target them and get them directly to the ground as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” she said at the time.

“We’re going to cut through any red tape and bureaucracy because we know people need those funds and they need help.”

More than 10 months later, about $9 million has not been used, despite many families still struggling to complete repairs or dealing with storm-related damage including black mold, Alan Harris, Seminole County’s emergency management director and vice president of the disaster relief nonprofit organization Seminole Heart, told the Sun-Sentinel.


“If you are one of the families who has black mold or has a damaged roof, it’s something you think about every day,” he said.

Across Florida, 1,082 families are still in RVs or other temporary housing, records kept by the Florida Division of Emergency Management show.


She's a con artist just like her husband.  I want to know who is getting the interest from those millions in the account.  I want to know where she gets off collecting money for relief and then not dispensing it.  She's an idiot who goes around smiling and dragging those three ugly kids around -- including the one that C.I. hilariously noted has "teen pregnancy written all over her" -- when she should be in hiding.  She's a Leona Helmsley.  

A crook and an idiot.  I'd say she's the perfect match for her husband.  Let me note this too:


CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron wants Volunteer Florida to provide more details.

Styron told the Orlando Sentinel, "Those funds can end up benefiting private individuals. The public needs to know who are those private individuals…. People who donate in response to a natural disaster want to ease the suffering of the people affected. That's why they donate. So, if you still have people who are unhoused, buried in debt as a result of disaster losses, or otherwise not back on their feet, it is safe to say that the intentions of donors are not being honored."



As part of his escalating fight with Disney after they criticized his anti-LGBTQ school legislation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies in the state legislature passed a law that let him step in and take over the special taxing district that provides public services to the Walt Disney World resort complex, a move designed to limit the powers of the company as retaliation for criticizing him. One of the steps of that involved hand-picking a new oversight board to manage the district.

According to CNN's KFILE investigative feature, one of the members DeSantis appointed to that board has promoted racist historical myths about slavery.

"The comments were made by Ron Peri, one of five people DeSantis appointed earlier this year to oversee the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace the old board after the company spoke out against what critics dubbed the 'Don’t Say Gay' law in Florida," reported Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Steve Contorno. "Peri, an Orlando-based pastor and CEO of a Christian ministry group called The Gathering, made the comments in an hourlong class for his group posted on YouTube about critical race theory called 'Cunningly Devised Fables,'" purporting to debunk the idea of systemic racism in America.

Among his remarks, Peri claimed that white people were also enslaved, and that specifically there was an "Irish slave trade" in which Irish people were forcibly interbred with Black Africans. This myth has been repeatedly debunked. There were some indentured white servants in early America, in which people were made to work unpaid labor to pay off a debt — but it was not very widespread, and indentured servants had far more rights than chattel slaves, who were heredeterily treated as property, essentially with no more rights than horses or pigs.

Florida must have lost their mind when they elected this incompetent.  Fortunately, America as a whole can't stand him or his mannish wife.


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



Friday, August 4, 2023.  Approximately 300 US service members have returned from Iraq (and many more remain in Iraq), Hunter Biden investigations still lacking any damning information for Joe, Marjorie and the other nutjobs are what's produced when crazy grudge f**ks hate, and much more.



Despite boredom on the part of so much of the US press, all US troops never left Iraq.  Even the drawdown left US troops in Iraq and their number were then increased in 2014.  And they still remain in Iraq.  One group is finally coming home (they've already been replaced in Iraq) and that's a good thing -- but all need to be leaving Iraq and coming home.  Thomas B Langhorne (EVANSVILLE COURIER & PRESS) reports:

It would have been asking the impossible for Lindsey Keene's kids to wait stoically for her to walk into an airport terminal after a year in Iraq. And they didn't.

Oblivious to the hundreds of other people who were at Evansville Regional Airport Thursday to greet returning members of the Indiana Army National Guard, Lindsey and David Keene's three children tapped anxiously on their welcome home signs. Their faces lit up when they thought the 163rd Field Artillery's nearly 100 returnees were about to walk in — and sagged when bemused passengers of an American Airlines flight from Charlotte appeared instead.

Then it happened. Sgt. Lindsey Keene, a combat medic finishing her second deployment, swept in with other soldiers. Son Gerald Oshsner, 11, clapped his hands to his ears and cried out: "Mom!" In an instant the boy and sisters Marley Ochsner, 12 and Kiera Keene, 9, swarmed Keene, pressing their heads into her chest in an embrace charged with a year's worth of longing.


MaCabe Brown has a photo essay for the paper of the return.  Adam Knight (WEVV) notes, "Approximately 300 soldiers with the 163rd Field Artillery Regiment were welcomed home from their deployment on Thursday."  14 NEWS has a video report here.


Again, all should be home.  At some point we also need to be asking why the National Guard is being sent overseas -- to Iraq, to Kosovo, everywhere.  We need to ask when the Guard is allowed to return to their role?  

Questions?  Let's grab a few from the e-mails.


Let's start with Joe Biden.  US President Joe Biden has had his share of stumbles and scandals.  I have an e-mail regarding the recognition of Navy Joan.  Why, I'm asked, have I not called this out?

Called out the Bidens recognizing their granddaughter? 

Uh, because it's good news.  I know this is confusing to some people.  Hate Merchant Jonathan Turley, for example, can't seem to stop Tweeting about this.  

It's over.  The issue has been resolved.  Yes, she was not immediately welcomed.  Yes, that was wrong.  We actually called it out here -- more than once.  We stopped because it was being addressed.  I don't feel the need to do an update on this.  The e-mailer says, "You are just trying to protect Biden!"

Really?  Because I will offer a statement right now if it's that all important to you:  Good for Joe and Jill for welcoming their granddaughter Navy Joan into the family.

Disappointed?  Maybe you are.  Maybe you expect me to obsess over it like Jonathan Turley who has turned himself into an even bigger joke.

Families are messy.  Life is hard.  I thought Navy Joan needed to be recognized.  I said so.  She is.  That's a good thing.  Again, Turley's an idiot who comes across as bitter and obsessed.  It actually appears he wishes Navy Joan were being ignored.  I'm happy for her and happy for the family.

On, Joe, I'm also told that I am looking the other way on the Hunter Biden scandal.  Again, I'm told, this is because I'm protecting Joe.  Protecting him from what?

Ruth covers Hunter at her site.  I did cover it originally -- that would be going back to 2019, not waiting until the moment THE NEW YORK POST published their first story on Hunter Biden's laptop in October of 2020.  I've covered it.  I've done that.  I'm not interested in the plea deal -- the deal that is no more.  Nor is it a story that gets no attention.  

When I covered it, it was being ignored but that's no longer the case. 

I defended NY POST's story, defended the publishing of it, called out NYT's attack article -- I believe we're the only ones who remember that article -- where NYT attacked the POST and insisted that the POST staff was ashamed and embarrassed and opposed to the publication of the laptop story.  It was filled with lies.  If you want to go after the media, that's where you start.  But no one wants to go there.  I don't have to, I know what happened with that article.  

So I haven't run from that.

The e-mailer on this says that I'm ignoring the story and ignoring it because I'm voting for Joe Biden in 2024.

I'm voting Democrat in 2024 -- regardless of who the nominee is.  I made that public here and did so in order that people could factor in what goes up here with that.

If you think it's effecting coverage, there's the answer for you.  

No, I don't think that.  We've covered this and we covered it at length.

The e-mailer notes Tara Reade's reTweets.

I'm so very happy she's found something to do in Russia.  I guess she doesn't have any friends still so she needs to obsess over the country she defected from.  Or maybe she and convicted pedophile Scott Ritter aren't talking these days?  You do realize her online embrace of registered sex offender Ritter is what destroyed her.  Most of us, actual survivors, no longer give a s**t about her.  Even her online We Believe Tara group vanished over that.  And should have.  This was not Donald Duck has been accused of assault/rape by Daisy Duck and we used our own common sense to figure out who we believed.  This was Scott Ritter got arrested three times, had to plea agreements, third time went to court and got convicted in a court of law, sent to prison and had to register as a sex offender.  This is not, Do I believe Donald or Daisy?  No, the court verdict ended it.  (And read the testimony from the police -- especially about him peeling out of the parking lot -- if you really want to know what a liar Ritter is.)  

So I don't care about Tara.  I didn't care about the recent court victory either because the woman said -- on CNN -- that rape was "sexy."  

Don't care.  Can't help the entire world.  Can't cover everything.

Due to the e-mail, I've looked at Tara's reTweets.  They are garbage.  "Devon Archer confirmed Joe Biden was THE BRAND, and he brought the most value to THE BRAND."

Huh?


That was confirmed by Devon Archer?  

Maybe to the brain dead.

Of course Joe was "the brand."  The deals with Hunter were due to the fact that Joe Biden was vice president.  That's not news.  Nor is it even new gossip.  Hunter had no cachet on his own and no value if his father was Generic Smith.  

Hunter traded on dad's name.

We covered all of this at length.  Back when it mattered.  We noted -- and applauded -- back when Sarah Chayes wrote "Hunter Biden’s Perfectly Legal, Socially Acceptable Corruption" (THE ATLANTIC).  

Many people were not having the conversation before the election.  We were and we did.  

I don't do greatest hits.  I've sung that song.  Is there a new reason to sing it?

Tara Reade and Jonathan Turley believe so.  They also believe in supporting homophobes and transphobes and racists.  

At this point, there's nothing there.  Could change, so far hasn't. 


I had no reason to comment because there's nothing there.  This is the same issue that so many of us raised in real time.

Where's Joe's criminal activity?

None has been established -- and as many pointed out in real time, it would be hard to establish criminal activity.

We don't know anymore than we knew in real time.  

And what's especially interesting here is that Jonathan Turley was cautioning that back in 2020 -- of course, he was still posing as a leftist back then.  But today?  Today, he's a screeching reactionary who needs no evidence or proof.  It really has been something watching his madness unspool.

Unethical?  Yes.  Illegal?  No proof of that.  

Grounds for impeachment?  Why would Congress impeach Hunter Biden?  Oh, you mean, Joe.  Again, there's no proof of any crime he's committed -- let alone a high crime or misdemeanor.  I also believe we're speaking of his time as vice president.  I'm not hearing of deals from 2021 forward.  Meaning?

If the GOP wants to re-elect Joe, that's the way to do it.  Impeach him.  They control the House so they could get all their ducks in a row and impeach him.  It's not going to result in any action in the US Senate.  Not because Democrats are in control but due to the fact that they are less crazed in the Senate. The idiots in the House don't get the way they are seen around the country.  Impeaching Joe for something that took place before he was president?  

Really? 

We have that kind of time?  

I liked John Conyers a great deal.  But when he started talking about impeaching Bully Boy Bush after BBB was out of the White House?  I didn't promote that here, I called it out here.  That's nonsense and it's stupid and idiotic.  (I also think it was stupid to impeach Donald Trump repeatedly when Dems controlled the House, and I'm on record here stating that.)

The American people will not stand for that sort of overreach.  So let Marjorie and her other crazies do that.  It will please their rabid base while turning off many others -- that's Dems, moderates and, yes, some Republicans.  


Crazy grudge-f**ked hate and left us in the 21st century with a lot of insanity.  Take the fired postal worker who's showing up to scream her hate while wearing Blackface. Jovonne Ledet (BLACK INFORMATION NETWORK) reports:



A woman wearing blackface went on anti-LGBTQ and pro-Trump rants at a Target store and Starbucks in Colorado.

In one video posted on social media, the woman in blackface, identified as Ersilia Campbell, approached employees at a Target in Aurora, Colorado, demanding they direct her to the Pride section of the store, per TMZ.

When an employee informed her that Pride month was over, the woman suggested the LGBTQ community hijacked the American flag with the Pride flag. A worker also called her out for wearing blackface in the middle of the store, but the woman claimed her actions were no different than Lester Holt dressing up as a white woman.


This insane hate has been encouraged by the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Ron DeSantis, John Stauber, Matt Taibbi, and many, many more.  Ronald's built an entire campaign around it.





Florida is one of the top states with the most new leprosy cases in the country, according to a new research letter from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There definitely is leprosy in the United States,” said Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist and an infectious disease physician at the University of Florida.

For many, leprosy may seem like a problem from biblical times. But Iovine said the disease is very much still around. In fact, the CDC letter said leprosy could now be endemic in Central Florida.

“Endemic means something that is circulating and is present at all times. And it can be at a low level,” said Iovine.




The ancient disease leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, named for the Norwegian physician Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who first identified the causative agent in 1873, may be endemic in Florida. A report published in the current (August) edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), draws this alarming conclusion.

Although many news outlets have stated that the CDC is warning people regarding travel to Southeastern US states, the public health agency released a statement on August 2 saying it had “not issued a travel advisory for Florida, or any other state, due to Hansen’s disease.”

In an email, the CDC wrote, “[We] do not believe there is a great concern to the American public,” noting that the number of cases remain very small.

However, the endemic nature of a disease that usually affects “persons who had immigrated from leprosy-endemic areas” raises significant concerns about the general state of public health in the United States, and the outright dismissal on the part of the CDC is extremely problematic. Moreover, the concerns about leprosy come on the heels of recent reports by the CDC of endemic malaria in Florida and Texas.

[. . .]

Specifically, leprosy cases in Florida account for 20 percent of all national cases, and 81 percent of these have been reported in central Florida. One-third of new cases between 2015 and 2020 were acquired locally. The report notes: “Several cases in central Florida demonstrate no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure or traditionally known risk factors.”

In its report, the CDC highlights the case of a 54-year-old man, landscaper by trade, who sought medical attention at a dermatology clinic with a complaint of a painful and progressive red rash involving his hands, trunk and face.

The patient reported no significant travel history, having resided in Florida his whole life. He was eventually diagnosed with leprosy, though he reported no contact with immigrants from endemic regions nor anyone with leprosy. He had never had exposure to armadillos, which are known as zoonotic sources.

He was referred to an infectious disease clinic, where he began prolonged therapy with a triple regimen of dapsone, rifampin and clofazimine, which has been the mainstay of treatment for more than four decades.

The authors of the article observed: “Our case adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that central Florida represents an endemic location for leprosy... travel to this area, even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy in the appropriate clinical context.”



So instead of dealing with that, Ronald's trotting around the country?  Guess it's no worry for the COVID sneering DeSantis couple but, unlike Casey, not everyone in the country is so 'tough' that they use Naugahyde tampons. 


Tacky Onassis and her husband wanted to lead Florida.  So get your ass back to the state and do so.  And it shows real gall on Ronald's part that he criticizes Vice President Kamala Harris for visiting Florida when he can't seem to find his own way back to the state he's supposed to be governing. 

On the topic of crazy grudge f**king hate, their offspring Marjorie Taylor Green just gets more and more demented.  Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) reports:


Drawing many conspiracy theories and rightwing myths together into a grand, unified rant, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claimed that Donald Trump’s third criminal indictment for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election is something that “they” are using to distract the American people from how kids are being brainwashed into being transgender.

Trump was indicted on four counts related to an alleged plot to overturn the 2020 elections and install himself as president for another term. His actions culminated in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection, where five people died as a result of a mob of Trump supporters breaking into the Capitol and trying to kill Mike Pence for presiding over the Senate as it ceremonially accepted each state’s electoral votes.

Greene, a loyal Trump Republican, couldn’t handle her golden calf being held accountable for his alleged actions, and she blamed, well, everyone and everything. She ranted on Twitter about a variety of topics that she suspected “they” – used in the way conspiracy theorists use that word – are trying to distract the American people from, claiming that there are “record numbers” of homeless people now (homelessness is down since the mid-2000s, according to the 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report), that 63 million abortions occur in the U.S. (an outlandish rightwing myth), that the U.S. is “number one for child pornography and sex trafficking,” and several other topics.

“They tell women abortion is healthcare & birth control – killing over 63 million, that men can get pregnant, they brainwash children they can change their gender and amputate their growing body parts,” she said. It’s not clear who “they” is in this context and most transgender people’s experience is the opposite – they had to either hide their trans identity from intolerant adults as children or they came out and had to fight for even basic recognition as their gender. No one is brainwashing kids into being transgender and no one can be brainwashed into changing their gender identity. Moreover, trans men can get pregnant.


This week, REBEL HQ noted some of Marjorie's many incoherent ravings.



Let's note Paul Rudnick.  






+ There’s some comfort in seeing how badly DeSantis is getting crushed by Trump (54% to 17%). But it’s pretty cold: “Mr. Trump still received 22% among voters who believe he has committed serious federal crimes — a greater share than the 17% that Mr. DeSantis earned from the entire G.O.P. electorate.”

+ In Iowa, a 15-year-old interested in military service told DeSantis, “I can’t vote, but I struggle with major depressive disorder.” DeSantis interrupted the teenager with a bizarre joke: “It’s never stopped the other party from not letting you vote.”

+ Some New Hampshire residents were stunned to hear DeSantis vow “we are going to start slitting throats [of federal bureaucrats] on Day One.” Throat-slitting seems to be a favorite metaphor (assuming it is a metaphor) for the man who as a JAG at Gitmo mocked detainees as they were being tortured. The Florida governor also claimed that he wanted a Defense Secretary with “a sharp blade” and a “killer instinct” who would have to be willing to “slit some throats.” DeSantis also said that under his administration the Mexican drug cartels would be “shot stone cold dead.”

+ DeSantis reminds me of Phil Gramm, the TX politician who amassed millions from banks and oil companies and seemed to be the prohibitive favorite in ’96 GOP primaries, but was soon exposed as just a mean SOB with no real political skills at all other than shaking down corps for PAC $$$.

+ When DeSantis’ campaign ran low on money and he began firing staffers, he hired them to fill government-funded positions in Florida instead.

+ More than half ($5 million, in fact) of the funds in RFK, Jr’s SuperPAC came from Timothy Mellon, scion of the Mellon banking fortune, who has denounced social spending as “slavery redux,” donated $53 million to state of Texas border wall construction fund, and gifted $1.5 million toward the legal defense of Arizona’s vicious anti-immigration law.

[. . .]

+ DeSantis claims the new history standards for Florida schools, the one’s that proclaim the benefits of slavery, were needed to prevent the indoctrination of school kids. Yet, some of the materials which will now be inflicted on Florida students are produced by Prager U., whose founder, Dennis Prager, openly brags about indoctrinating children:

+ Florida has now effectively banned AP psychology in the state. A lot of students hoping they’ll ban Trigonometry next!


Let's wind down with this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:


The Black Commentator is now in our annual August Hiatus

We will return Thursday, Sept 7th

Meanwhile, please drop by our archives:

Past Issues

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Read issue 966

Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com

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Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Trump Charges Result In A GOP Slap Fight" went up last night.   The following sites updated:
 




Posted by at

Thursday, August 03, 2023

How badly will he destroy Florida?

Another comic!!! Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Trump Charges Result In A GOP Slap Fight" went up tonight. 


slapfight


Next, check out this video regarding the Carlee Russell story.




And before I go further, read Ruth's "THE BLUE ALBUM: 1967 - 1970" about the Beatles.

Doo-Doo Ron Ron DeSantis continues to struggle.  THE MIAMI HERALD notes:




Gov. Ron DeSantis, it turns out, is no political genius.

Credited for his ability to sniff out conservative cultural grievances like no politician since Donald Trump, DeSantis became known for fighting drag queens, critical race theory and Disney. Buoyed by a landslide reelection last year, and his sense of self-importance, DeSantis based his presidential campaign in great part on his approach to the pandemic and being a culture warrior.

He miscalculated his appeal.

His polling numbers have sagged — they are worse than they were before he entered the GOP primary. His campaign has burned through cash and recently laid off 38 employees. National media that, after last year’s midterms crowned DeSantis Trump’s heir apparent, discuss his lack of charisma these days.

DeSantis has hit the reset button, shifting his focus to economic issues, as the Herald reported this week. He’s still rallying against what he describes as “woke,” but he’s poised to show his populist and sympathetic side. On Monday, he announced a set of conservative run-of-the-mill economic proposals, vowed to cut spending and even talked about the country’s wealth gap and college debt. He told reporters he would not answer questions on “anything that’s not about the economy.”

While some may welcome his sharpened attention to pocketbook concerns, we know better.

Even if DeSantis magically transforms into Ronald Reagan, the damage he’s done has been enshrined into every facet of Florida law and policy.

He has censored what teachers can say in classrooms about LGBTQ+ Americans and race. He’s railed against educators trying to “indoctrinate” kids while doing his own brainwashing. The Florida Department of Education has allowed schools to use teaching materials for children created by nonprofit PragerU. Founder and conservative radio host Dennis Prager has been blunt about the mission of PragerU Kids, the Herald reported.




“It’s true we bring doctrines to children.” Prager said at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia. “But what is the bad about our indoctrination?”




It really is winding down for him.  He is disgusting.  I agree with C.I. (see snapshot below), Dems should not be getting on stage with him to debate.  All it will do is elevate him and treat his absurd, racist, homophobic idiocies as worthy of debate.  They don't need to be debated, they need to be called out.



Just when you think that Governor Ron DeSantis' government in Florida has hit a new low, they sink even deeper.

Florida's new 2023 standards for social studies education include teaching that "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." You read that right. Florida public schools could soon be teaching students that slavery benefited Black people.

Even worse, the statement released by the Florida Department of Education defended the teaching point by listing a number of Black historical figures who were examples of enslaved people who "developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted." One problem, a number of these supposed examples were never actually enslaved at all. The first name they listed, blacksmith Ned Cobb, was born in 1885, decades after slavery. The second name listed, Henry Blair, was not enslaved either. It's shocking ignorance of Black history by those purporting to write curriculum standards.


During the long history of slavery in this country, millions were enslaved; they were beaten, raped, separated from their families, bartered, and sold. It is unthinkable to look at that mountain of suffering and ask young people to consider some of the benefits. The specious argument about gaining skills gets it exactly backwards—one of the fundamental sins of slavery was that it denied people their humanity, ignored their skills, ignored their talents, and denied them control over their lives.

What's happening in Florida is part of an ongoing, and far from new, effort across the country to erase, distort, and deceive people about Black history and American history overall. Earlier this year, Florida's Department of Education banned an Advanced Placement course on African American studies and the state implemented new laws—championed by Governor DeSantis—that have led to more than 300 books being banned by local school districts. That includes literature related to Black history, from the novels of Toni Morrison to nonfiction books about Black life, culture, and the impact of racism.




To make sure we are all on the same page here, let us recall that slavery involved over 12 million Africans being dragged from their homes and thrown onto ships headed to the Americas. The bodies of the nearly 2 million of those men, women, and children who died during the treacherous Middle Passage journey were thrown overboard to feed hungry sharks. Those who reached American shores were rewarded with a lifetime of hard labor, abuse, degradation, and violation.

In her Nobel Prize-winning novel, Beloved—which is now banned in libraries and schools across Florida—Toni Morrison describes slavery as a jungle that spread so horribly that even white folks were “so scared…of the jungle they had made.” This jungle has since evolved into a system of oppression so pervasive that years later, we can spot signs of it in every corner of society: mass incarceration, economic inequality, racial disparities in education, and more.

How then can anyone argue that enslaved people benefited from their bondage? For some, this egregious bastardization of history is driven by a blind sense of so-called patriotism that forbids the acknowledgment of any wrongdoing on the part of the United States. (These are the same folks who proclaim, “America is not a racist country” to shut down uncomfortable conversations regarding structural inequality, privilege, and inevitably, slavery.) Others believe that since slavery was abolished over 150 years ago, it should cease to be a topic of conversation altogether. And then there are those who would rather dilute the horrors of slavery than acknowledge the truth: that white people—not enslaved people—benefited and continue to benefit from the institution of slavery.

While Black people were run into the ground, white people (specifically white men) were running their respective races to advance their educations, further their careers, and build generational wealth. Even after slavery, formerly enslaved people and their descendants received reparations in the forms of convict leasing, Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, and other discriminatory practices that have caused existing inequities to grow even deeper.

Today, there are Republican politicians in Florida—as well as states throughout the country—who hope that we will forget about the story of the jungle. But because they know that will not just happen, they are doing everything in their power to erase it from the minds of young leaders by erasing it from lesson plans and curricula. However, as Vice President Harris declared in Jacksonville in July: we will not have it. We know that revising—or even worse, denying—the history of slavery is erroneous and dangerous. When that occurs, our nation’s future leaders are hoodwinked and hamstrung in their ability to fix what is broken in this country. For that reason, we continue to speak out against these efforts and demand that students have the freedom to learn—and teachers have the freedom to teach—the full, accurate history of our nation, no matter how painful and shameful some of that history might be. In so doing, we allow our fellow citizens to grapple with that history and channel their emotions toward progress.




Statewide policies under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prompted the nation’s oldest Black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, to pull its 2025 convention out of the state as a form of protest. But now, the group’s president, Willis L. Lonzer III, said he thinks his fraternity’s decision may galvanize other Black organizations to ditch Florida for their major events, particularly after the approval of a new educational curriculum that includes points indicating that some Black people benefited from slavery.


Lonzer said officials from each of the eight other Black fraternities and sororities, and leaders of other organizations have reached out to say they stand with the Alphas and are committed to not scheduling any additional events that would bring significant revenue to Florida. Even before the Alphas made their announcement, the National Society of Black Engineers last month pulled its scheduled convention from Orlando, with plans to move it to Atlanta in March for the same reasons the fraternity cited. 

“This is a multi-pronged armamentarium that we have to provide to attack racial prejudice and policies that are white supremacist in nature,” Lonzer said. “We have here, a situation where Jim Crow has morphed from what it was 40, 50 years ago. And we’re in the process of developing new tactics to attack this.”


Good for groups that are fighting back.  I think we all need to be doing that, working with one another to send a clear message that we do not support people lying that slavery was good or helpful.  It was torture and there's no justification for it.  And there's no justification for the people of Florida to let Doo-Doo keep destroying their state.  THE HILL reports:


The College Board announced Thursday that Florida has banned Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology from its schools over lessons pertaining to gender identity and sexual orientation. 


That is beyond stupid and is leaving children behind in Florida.  AP class?  High schoolers can take that to get a headstart on college.  But they can't do it in Florida thanks to Doo-Doo.  He's f**king with people education and future employment.  You should have run that trash out of town on a rail but instead you made the lunatic governor.  Too bad for you, we're not going to let you shove him off on the United States.  


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


Thursday, August 3, 2023.  The sinking Ron DeSantis is desperate for someone to elevate him -- no one should -- and much more.




The clash between Vice President Harris and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is heating up over education standards for teaching slavery, giving the vice president a hot-button topic to take on during the campaign and an enemy No. 1 in the GOP primary.

DeSantis earlier this week suggested the two debate the topic of teaching slavery, prompting the vice president to bash the idea and attack the education standards head-on during one of her recent trips to Florida on Tuesday.

While former President Trump, the GOP front-runner, is enemy No. 1 for President Biden, Harris is making a point to keep DeSantis and his policies in the spotlight as the governor fights to close the polling gap between him and Trump.

“Right here in Florida, they plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris said Tuesday in Orlando.

“I’m here in Florida and I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery,” she said.


Good.  She needs to keep speaking out against Ron DeSantis' racism.  I also agree with Marcia that she doesn't need to debate him.  DeSantis has already attacked history.  We do not need to pretend that slavery is up for debate.  It is not.  History has spoken.  The world has spoken.  We're going to listen to him mock or belittle and pretend that he has some standing or special education that justifies his speaking on this issue.  He is a liar and he's trash.  And we're not going to entertain the lie that there were benefits to slavery.  I know Gavin Newsom and I like Gavin but I'm not even thrilled with Gavin debating DeSatan on non-slavery issues.  

DeSantis is desperate for any life preserver to save his sinking campaign.  No doubt, he's praying harder than anyone in the country that Donald Trump is found guilty of something.  









Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on four felony charges stemming from his illegal and corrupt efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Trump will be arraigned Thursday before Federal District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan.

The prosecution and imprisonment of Trump for his actions leading up to and during the fascistic insurrection of January 6, 2021 is entirely justified and necessary. The charges brought by a Washington D.C. grand jury convened by Special Counsel Jack Smith are presented in cautious and legalistic language, but the indictment is nonetheless damning.

However, it details only a fraction of Trump’s crimes and is silent on his greatest crime: the attempt to overthrow the government by force and maintain himself in the White House as president-dictator.

The four charges detailed in the indictment are: conspiracy to defraud the federal government (through filing false slates of electors in seven closely contested states won by Democrat Joe Biden); conspiracy to violate the rights of the American people (the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted); conspiracy to obstruct a federal proceeding, namely the certification of the Electoral College vote by Congress on January 6, 2021; and actual obstruction of the federal proceeding, since the mob which he summoned to Washington and then unleashed on the Capitol did actually delay the congressional certification by many hours.

Nearly all 123 paragraphs of the indictment are concerned with Trump’s efforts to substitute bogus Trump electors for the Biden electors chosen by the voters in seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This involved various illegal backroom maneuvers devised by his lawyer co-conspirators, involving state legislators, the Department of Justice and Vice President Mike Pence.

These actions have become widely known over the past two years: setting up phony slates of Trump “electors,” who submitted false affidavits to Congress; seeking to induce state legislatures to claim the right to appoint electors to replace those elected in November; asking the Justice Department to send out letters to state legislatures saying that the DOJ was investigating credible claims of election fraud in their states; and finally, having Pence use his ceremonial position, presiding over the counting of the Electoral College votes on January 6, to block certification of Biden electors, either substituting Trump electors outright or sending the issue back to the states where Republican-controlled state legislatures would do the dirty job.

The indictment makes clear that Trump’s actions were an attack on democracy: “on the pretext of baseless fraud claims, the defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately, cause the ascertainment of and voting by illegitimate electors in favor of the defendant…”

The indictment lists six unindicted co-conspirators only by number, although the description of their activities is so detailed that at least five have been identified, all lawyers: Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, all working for Trump and his reelection campaign; and Jeffrey Clark, who was an assistant attorney general at the time.


They discussed this yesterday on BLACK POWER MEDIA's THE REMIX SHOW.




Again, no one wants to see Donald convicted more than the short man from Florida with the flat chested wife.

Let Ron sink.  I don't think Gavin should be debating him, I don't think any Democrat should be sharing a stage with him right now.  Let him sink and let him and his ugly wife go back to their hellish lives.  


He's desperate to get traction and have one of his many reboots finally succeed.  Let him sink.  There is no debate for slavery and he doesn't need to be humored, he needs to be called out repeatedly.



The tide of freedom in America is receding.  Reproductive rights, affirmative action, lgbtq+ rights and the accuracy and integrity of Black history have been crippled for the comfort and convenience of a radically conservative minority. A minority disproportionately represented in our highest court.

Since the abolition of slavery the fight for racial equality has moved at a glacial pace. Despite periods of stagnation, there has been relatively consistent forward motion.

Now, three rapid-fire reversals of Supreme Court precedents based on religious dogma and bigotry have set equality back decades for people of color, women and the lgbtq community. (Since its inception the court has reversed legal precedents in less than one half of one percent of its decisions) In its wake, the stench of newly created, whitewashed standards for teaching Black History have been passed by Florida’s Board of Education. Middle school students must now be taught the “benefits” of slavery such as, “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

These new standards are not just ignorant, they open generational wounds and incite rage among people of conscience. Forcing a false narrative upon a new generation undermines 250 years of hard-fought progress.

In my fifty years of social justice advocacy, from an early 1970s internship at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to serving as founding board president of Philadelphia’s 30 year old lgbtq youth center, The Attic, I’ve seen my share of social justice setbacks, but none so blatantly created by harnessing fear and hate. The atmosphere created by Ron DeSantis’ “war on wokeness” is rancid to the point of enabling the whitewashing of slavery. So let’s examine the source. Fear and hate. We know it’s learned. Can it be unlearned?

He is right.  This is a dangerous time.  20 years ago, did you think we'd have to be using public square time to call out slavery?  Didn't it seem like we were all agreed on this?

Yet here we are thanks to hate merchants.  They've worked very hard to mislead and to lie.  They've lied in court, they've lied to the court and this nonsense of a 'debate' with Ron?  No, there are no two-sides to this.  There is right and there is wrong and slavery is wrong.


We have some very dangerous people in Congress right now.  They are Republicans but they're the kind that their own party would have rejected even a few years back.  They preach hate, they lie about history and we're indulging these crazies at our expense, at risk to our own lives and liberty.  For example, just last week, Eric Hanonoki (MMA) reported on Paul Gosar:


Rep. Paul Gosar yesterday used his House.gov newsletter to promote USSA News, a fringe site that has posted content calling the Holocaust “the Holohoax” and telling readers to “stand up for Hitler.” Gosar’s promotion of the antisemitic outlet comes just months after he sent followers to a different site that has also denied the Holocaust and praised Adolf Hitler. 

Gosar has frequently promoted antisemitic media in recent years. He has met with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and repeatedly spoke at his conferences; and he’s promoted virulent antisemite Vincent James Foxx.

Gosar drew criticism in April after he used his newsletter to direct people to a story that praised him for attacking “Jewish warmongers” for their support of Ukraine. Gosar linked to Veterans Today, an antisemitic website that has called the Holocaust a “lie” and a “hoax” and praised Hitler as a “great man” and “a man of valor.” TPM reported in May that Gosar has employed an aide that's connected to Fuentes and the white nationalist movement.

In his July 23 newsletter, under the section “Gosar in the News and Other Must-Read Stories,” Gosar wrote: “USSA News: Biden White House Out To ‘Censor’ Press, ‘Silence’ Opponents, Lawmakers Charge” and sent readers to USSANews.com. Gosar was linking to the site even though the article is a repost of a piece from The Heritage Foundation publication The Daily Signal. (Elsewhere in the newsletter, Gosar writes that “there is zero room in our society for these vile, hateful and bigoted comments in the Halls of Congress” and “anti-Jewish and anti-Israel statements by members of Congress must be condemned.”) Gosar previously linked to USSA News on April 2 and August 7, 2022. 


How does garbage like that get into Congress?  

He needs to be called out and publicly rebuked.  There is no excuse for what he's done.  It goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for.  He's insulting survivors, he's insulting veterans, he's just a hate merchant.  

We do not elevate his hate by treating it as something worthy of a debate.  There is nothing to debate. 


Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Junior Topless, Nips To The Wind" went up last night. 


junior



We don't have time for crackpot crazy from the GOP or the Democratic Party side.  Junior's just another nut-job who has nothing to offer the American people.  Put a shirt on, your boobs are sagging.







A Super Pac affiliated with Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist running for president as a Democrat, owes half its cash to a longtime Republican mega-donor and Trump backer, according to campaign finance reports filed on Monday.

The group, American Values 2024, reported receiving $5m from Timothy Mellon, a wealthy businessman from Wyoming, according to NBC News and Politico. It registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in April, days before Kennedy officially launched his campaign, according to FEC records.

Mellon, 81, is the grandson of Andrew Mellon, a former US treasury secretary who made his fortune in banking. The Texas Tribune reported that Mellon, a top donor to Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort, supported controversial immigration laws and was responsible for 98% of the contributions to the Texas governor Greg Abbott’s fund to build a border wall. Mellon, who twice gave $10m to the Trump-aligned America First Action Super Pac in 2020, also used racist stereotypes to describe Black people in an autobiography he self-published in 2015.
[. . .]

The Super Pac, which described federal policies aimed at containing Covid-19 as “draconian”, received nearly all of the rest of its funding from another billionaire donor, Gavin de Becker, an author and security specialist associated with Jeff Bezos. De Becker has given to both Republican and Democratic candidates, according to FEC records, more recently including Ron Johnson, a Republican senator of Wisconsin, and businessman and the failed 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Together, Mellon and De Becker account for about 97% of total donations to the Super Pac.


Junior always dances with those who 'brung' him -- and he lets them lead.  Jon Jackson (NEWSWEEK) notes:


Steve Bannon has joined a growing number of conservatives who have suggested that a 2024 presidential ticket with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could find success with voters.



Bannon, a one-time senior adviser to Trump, discussed the possibility during Sunday's episode of his War Room podcast. Though he noted the chances of Kennedy, a Democrat, running with the Republican former president would be a "long shot," Bannon said the pairing could win in a "massive landslide."
Kennedy, who has been accused by critics of promoting conspiracy theories, including those about COVID-19, has found favor with many conservatives. Federal Election Commission filings show he has received large contributions for his presidential campaign from donors who typically give to GOP candidates.




Elaine slid this over:


Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggested congressional leaders conspire to "trigger" her in hearings.

During an interview on Real America's Voice, Greene attacked Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) after he pointed out that Devon Archer, a business associate of Joe Biden's son, could not connect the president to any wrongdoing.



Although Goldman has held a job as a prosecutor, she claimed he "never worked a day in his life."

"And he uses his job every single day to continue to prosecute President Trump in our committee hearings, no matter the issue, no matter the topic," she complained. "He finds any way possible to attack President Trump in the five minutes that he's given on our very important committee hearings. Not only does he attack President Trump, he attacks me much of the time."


Greene said the Republican-controlled committees often scheduled Goldman to speak before or after her to make her look bad.



Elaine covers crazy MTG but she said, "You can note Chelsea Handler again."  Indeed we can so let's do it.


 




Marjorie Taylor Greene: I have people come up to me and say crazy things to me out of the blue in public places that they believe because they read it on the internet.

Chelsea Handler:  Well if that's not the pot calling the kettle QAnon.  This woman thought 9/11 was a hoax, that the Clintons killed JFK Jr. and that Jews are in charge of space lasers.  But please, don't come at her with some crazy ideas -- she might believe them. 




Okay, now Marjorie's being triggered, remember.  Now.  


They keep letting Dan Goldman  "speak before or after her to make her look bad."  The Republicans are doing that?  I don't have my decoder ring set to "crazy" so I may be missing something here.  But Crazy Marjorie has been in Congress since January 2021.  That's over three years.    And the idiot didn't notice that there's a rotation that's always followed?  It goes Chair, Ranking Member, and then party to party based on seniority.  I'm sorry she suffers from derangement.  Since Chelsea outlined the many problems with MTG, Marjorie has announced that the government is attempting to spy on her through her TV because it keeps acting weird and acting like it's just being turned on.  It's all a conspiracy against her, file it under FROM THE MIXED-UP MIND OF MS. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE.

Repeating.  There.  Is.  A.  Scheduled. Rotation.  In.  Every.  Congressional.  Hearing.  

The only way it changes is if someone has to step out.  So if Jim Jefferson is the Chair of the Jock Itch and Pervy Coach Wants To Inspect Your Crotch Committee and has to step out for a floor vote, he can designate Josh Hawley the acting chair and Josh would then speak in Jefferson's place.  The same is true for the Ranking Member.  As for the other Committee members, the rotation is the same unless people are leaving for floor votes.  So if Marjorie is so triggered by speaking before/after Dan, she could create her own safe space by stepping out of the hearing to make a vote (or for any reason) and then rejoin the hearing 15 or so minutes later and -- provided it wasn't winding down -- speak then.  


But there is no nefarious plot to gaslight Marjorie and drive her crazy by having Dan speak before or after her.  

Is it time to institute sanity tests for members of Congress?


Or maybe, (to the tune of John Lennon's "The Ballad of John & Yoko"),  Marjorie can just sing: "The way things are going, they're going to institutionalize me."

Let's all hope she gets the help she so desperately needs.  Before she further harms herself and/or others.  


There is no time to indulge hate merchants like Ron DeSantis and their desperate craving for attention.  Senator Patty Murray's office notes:


ICYMI: Murray Leads Senate Democrats in Pushing Commonsense Bills to Protect Women’s Fundamental Freedoms; Speaks on Senate Floor About Dobbs Fallout – MORE HERE

Pullman Planned Parenthood clinic has seen a 47 percent jump in patients since the Dobbs decision; Planned Parenthood Greater Washington and Northern Idaho has seen a 20 percent increase in patients overall

Senator Murray: “As long as I’m in DC, I’m going to keep fighting as hard as I can and at every single opportunity to protect abortion access from Republicans’ continued attacks, introduce new legislation that will help women and providers, and get the votes to reinstate Roe so we can guarantee that every woman in every state has the right to make her own health care decisions.” 

***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL OF THE EVENT HERE***

Pullman, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), hosted a roundtable on women’s reproductive health and the challenges facing providers in East Washington in the post-Dobbs landscape. Senator Murray met with providers and staff from Planned Parenthood Greater Washington and Northern Idaho, as well as staff from WSU’s Women’s Center and a student from the University of Idaho. In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, clinics in Eastern Washington have seen a more than 20 percent jump in patients, many of them from neighboring Idaho, which now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation. The Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman alone has seen a 47 percent increase in patients over the last year.

At the roundtable, Murray heard from providers about the challenges they are facing and the federal support that would help, and spoke about her continued fight to reinstate Roe and protect women’s reproductive health care at every possible opportunity from Republican attacks—including as she works to write and pass the nation’s government funding bills.

“Since the Dobbs decision, 14 states, including Idaho, have passed total bans on abortions, and more than a dozen other states have severely limited abortion access or had their abortion bans blocked in court. This is not just harming people in other states—women and providers in Washington state are also really suffering the consequences,” said Senator Murray. “That’s why I’m here: to get a better sense of what you’re seeing and hearing on the ground, so I can take that back with me as I keep up the fight for women’s health care freedom in the other Washington. As long as I’m in DC, I’m going to keep fighting as hard as I can and at every single opportunity to protect abortion access from Republicans’ continued attacks, introduce new legislation that will help women and providers, and get the votes to reinstate Roe so we can guarantee that every woman in every state has the right to make her own health care decisions.”

“We want to thank Senator Patty Murray for meeting us here at the Washington-Idaho border at our Pullman health center where some of the greatest disparities in abortion access currently exist,” said Lindsay Johnson, Chief External Affairs Officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho. “Our health center staff are delivering care to people every day who are experiencing the fear, chaos and confusion caused by the ban on abortion in Idaho.  It is more important than ever that we continue being there for local patients and those forced to travel outside of their communities for the care they need and deserve. We are grateful to Senator Murray for being a champion for reproductive health and rights in Washington and nationwide.”

Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, she has led Congressional efforts to fight back. Murray led her colleagues at the very outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’ continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing now. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; she also co-led introduction of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide.

Ahead of the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senator Murray led Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms. After Senate Republicans blocked every single bill, Senator Murray spoke on the Senate floor about the health care crisis Republicans have created, and how Senate Democrats are standing with Americans across the country to fight back.

###


There are so many serious issues to address, we do not have time to legitimize hate merchants and their revisionary history by joining them onstage.


Molly Sprayregen (LGBTQ NATION) reports that DeSatan is now insisting that he's never demeaned anyone -- not as governor:

DeSantis’s claim that he has not demeaned anyone since his time in office is a direct contrast to the video’s message, which brags about the barrage of legislation he has signed decimating LGBTQ+ rights.

The ad opens with several clips of Trump expressing support for LGBTQ+ people, framing these comments as damning. After the clips of Trump – most of which came from before he was elected president in 2016 – the video abruptly shifts to intense music and a photo of DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, followed by snapshots of headlines about the anti-LGBTQ+ laws DeSantis has passed.

The video proudly shares that DeSantis has been called “evil,” “dangerous,” “draconian,” and “public enemy no. 1” and even includes a clip accusing DeSantis of passing legislation “that literally threatens trans existence.” It also contains images of shirtless buff muscle men inter-spliced with these statements about how DeSantis is hurting LGBTQ+ people in his state.

DeSantis was universally mocked for the ad, but initially defended himself by saying, “Identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants — I think that’s totally fair game. Because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite.”

While the video appeared to come from a supporter outside the campaign, it has since been revealed that staffers were involved in its creation and dissemination.

Despite it being “the weirdest ad in American political history,” as The New Republic called it, the video is nonetheless an accurate portrayal of DeSantis’s time in office – which he has devoted to attacking – or perhaps one could describe it as demeaning – LGBTQ+ equality, as well as the rights of people of color.

DeSantis has gone to war with Disney over its opposition to the Don’t Say Gay law, has launched numerous blindsides attacking “woke indoctrination” in schools, and has taken control of the state’s education system with handpicked administrators and the power of the bully pulpit. His staff has regularly smeared LGBTQ+ people and allies on social media with vile slurs and insinuations of sexual abuse.

The Don’t Say Gay law – which has been expanded to all grades – has led to the banning of LGBTQ+ books in schools and the forced outing of students to their parents by school administrators. 

In 2021, DeSantis signed a bill banning trans students from participating in school sports.

DeSantis has ranted against “woke gender ideology” and once claimed, “In the state of Florida, we are not going to allow them to inject transgenderism into kindergarten.”

LGBTQ+ students in Florida have been so scared of repercussions that many have refused to speak with LGBTQ Nation about their experiences. Earlier this year, a non-LGBTQ+ student told us that terrified queer students are learning to “shut up and keep their head low.”



Ron DeSantis is America's Moqtada al-Sadr.  And, yes, I saw the news of how Moqtada's again trying to alarm and enrage Iraqis.  


The following sites updated:




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