Thursday, February 13, 2025

My sincere and public apology to Senator Ted Cruz

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS   "I Have Two Daddies"  



2daddies



Brilliant.   And Alien, Donald and the kid make a new kind of family.  A boy with two daddies is twice as lucky.


Now I need to get serious.  


I am so, so sorry.  I owe a big apology to someone.  Ted Cruz is a US senator out of Texas.  He is a constant embarrassment and I certainly never intended to imply that he wasn't.  Ted, Teddy, I hope you can accept my apologies.  I am so sorry.

Every week for years now, I have picked an Idiot of the Week.  I saw this today:


Cruz released a database of programs he believes have been corrupted by wokeness, and included on that list is physicist Corinne Brevik’s live, interactive broadcast of the 2024 solar eclipse for middle school students.
The project allowed kids living in the path of totality to interact with others across the country who were not in the path. “You can literally watch the kids watching the eclipse and hear that moment of ‘Whoa!’ ” she told NPR. “It got a lot of kids who wouldn’t necessarily have had a chance to see it out to observe.”
Brevik said it’s “frustrating” having her work called out in this manner. “The sole goal was to share what’s happening with everybody. It’s not propaganda; there’s no background or agenda. Our goal is to help educate our youth.”


Ted.  Teddy.  Teddy Bear.  I am so sorry -- so, so sorry. 

All you had to do, buddy, was let me know that you felt slighted, ignored.  I didn't mean to take you for granted.  If I had known you wanted to be named Idiot of the Week, I would've done so years ago.  I had no idea that it was this important to you -- that you would make such a fool out of yourself just to grab this honor?

You know what, Ted.  Pal to pal, I'll do you one better than Idiot of the Week. I'll declare you Idiot of the Decade. 

I hope that helps make it up to you.  

Idiot of the Decade -- you and I both know you earned that.

I feel sad for Miss Sassy as well.  JD should be the focus but these days -- everyone -- everyone gets more attention.  That may be due to the fact that JD looks less crazy and just more hillbilly racist:

Marko Elez, a 25-year-old who has worked with Elon Musk’s DOGE operation, was very busy last week. First, he resigned after the The Wall Street Journal reported that he had made racist remarks on a now-deleted social media account last year. Then, Musk himself said Elez will return to the government. The decision was backed by none other than Vice President JD Vance, who helped Musk out in his agenda by framing it as an attempt to fight cancel culture. The expected rehiring of Elez and Vance’s excuses for him show the lengths the new administration will go to downplay bigotry.  


Just a racist.  Just.  In Chump Land, that's pretty much requirement, right?  Being a racist.  Think how pathetic JD looks to his kids right now.  And think how he's only going to look more and more pathetic with each passing year. 

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Thursday, February 13, 2025.  What the press missed about Chump's announcement in front of King Abdullah II, DSA's gunning for Hakeem Jeffries (and lying again), Jill Stein's campaign has been revealed as the fraud we all knew it was, and much more.


Let's start this morning with the campaign of known grifter Jill Stein. 



It was all performative.  It was all pretense.  And now that they've put Chump back in the White House, they admit to it and see it as a success.

.  

They had so much help . . . from non-Democrats.  Remember when Kyle and Krystal were pimping Jill Stein?  THE VANGUARD boys.  Amy Goodman


So many, many more.  In fact, you just have to look at who trashed Medhi Hasan for asking actual questions in the interview he did with Jill and little "Butchy" Ware -- I forget his real first name but so has he.


Immigrants are suffering now, LGBTQ+ people are suffering now, the country is suffering now and it's only going to get worse but the Green Party, via Jill's campaign manager, has made clear that they did the right thing --- what they'd planned to do all along -- by putting Chump back into the White House.


They are not your friends. 


THE VANGUARD's blowing sloppy kisses to Saagar.  


That's how they're helping the country?


A known homophobe and transphobe and they're blowing kisses to him.


I remember when nut job Marianne Williamson went on Bill Maher's podcast as part of her never ending and always failing bid to be the 2024 presidential nomination.  


I do not watch trash TV.  That's how I have never stumbled across Bill Maher on any network -- not COMEDY CENTRAL, not ABC, not HBO.


But THE VANGUARD boyz watch Bill and they did some clips of Marianne's visit to Bill's podcast and praised her.


For?


When Bill Maher started trashing trans people, Marianne did the right thing.


That's what Zac and Gavin insisted.


The wrong thing?

To defend trans people.  No, Marianne stayed silent and "focused" and ignored it and just made the points she wanted to make.


Zac and Gavin, I try to be kind due to your young age but surely even you now realize that Marianne was never, ever going to get the nomination and that it was surely more important for Marianne to stand up to transphobia in that moment in time.


If she had, she might have even got some support. 


Ava and I covered this at THIRD -- see "Media: Marianne's campaigning for right wingers, Cornel's trying to destroy The Green Party."  How her 2020 effort found her embracing LGBTQ+ rights and doing it over and over -- including on Twitter -- but how in her campaign for 2024, she wasn't just silent in the face of attacks on trans people, she was also silent on Twitter and every platform.  


Let's be really clear that after her actions during the AIDS crisis, Marianne will always have a lot to answer for.  


But she went to Krystal and Kyle's wedding and that's all that mattered, right?


The Green Party has now made clear that the whole point of Jill Stein's campaign was to get Chump back in the White House.


That should lead to outrage.  People should be outraged over the soft ball interview that Amy and Juan conducted with Jill and Little Butchy.

Her whole goal -- as many of us pointed out in real time -- was to hand the White House to Chump.  Her own children who opposed her run noted that was her goal.  Now her campaign manager has admitted it as well.


A lot of people have to answer for that.  


And again don't come at me with numbers.  I hate the stupid idiots who think they understand campaign politics.  How many campaigns have you been a part of?  How many classes did you take in campaign politics (international relations and campaign politics were the two fields of poli sci I emphasized for my undergraduate and my graduate work).  Jill was there to poison perception -- the same thing Amy Goodman did every day on DEMOCRACY NOW!


As I have noted repeatedly: We have the numbers.  Forget the Greens, forget the closet Socialists.  We have the numbers.  We can elect Democrats.  But we have to turn out.


That's why the GOP, every damn year, is focused nation-wide and state-wide on how to reduce our access to the ballot.  Because we have the numbers.


That's why, if we turn out, we win.


Jill Stein's garbage and Rashida's and all the closet case Socialists was about defeating Kamala.  They had to create the perception that she wasn't worth voting for to try to keep some people home.  Voting's hard for a lot of people.  There are those with children -- not just young children, trying having middle school kids in sports and other school activities -- there are those who can't drive themselves, there are those who work the graveyard shift.  There are so many things so many people are dealing with.  


And if I've stayed up all night in the hospital with a loved one and I can now go home to sleep right away or I can go vote?  I'm tired, I'm drifting off and if you're giving me any reason to think my vote doesn't matter or the person's not going to fight for me, I'm going home to sleep.


That's what they did, they poisoned the well.  They screwed with perception.  And still Chump didn't get 50% of the vote.  Because Kamala ran a great campaign and I'm not in the mood for a closet case named Sam Seder to say otherwise.  


Yesterday's snapshot led to whining in the public e-mail.  "So we can't even criticize Hakeem Jeffries?"


If you're asking me, what you can't do is read.  I don't know why that is?  Could be a learning disorder (I'm dyslexic) or maybe you're just too damn lazy.  But clearly you can't read:


You don't think Hakeem is doing all you want?


You're probably right.  So pressure him.

He's in a spot that no one's been in for decades.  Nancy Pelosi is probably on her way out the door and that's probably why he went to Silicon Valley.  He's got to walk.  She can't carry him.  For over two decades, Nancy pulled in the big money.  That's why she ascended to leadership to begin with.  That and some well timed and played blackmail.  (A former Texas House Rep still feels the sting from where she burned him.)  Minority Leader or Speaker of the House, they have to reassure donors.  'We don't need big donors!'  Yes, we do.  As 2024 demonstrated, we really can't count on 'the left.'  Democrats can only count on Democrats currently.  And we need to grasp that and move forward.  


I like Chuck Schumer.  I don't even know Hakeem.  But I like Chuck.  That said, I haven't stepped in to try to defend Chuck.  Chuck has been doing his job for years and I am extremely disappointed with what he's doing currently. I'm also aware that no one's coming to rescue us.  We're going to have to rescue ourselves.  So I don't slam Chuck out of rage.  But, again, he's done the job for years and should know what's needed now.  Hakeem is getting ready to solo.  If Nancy has a popular challenger, she will announce she's not running for re-election in 2028.  (I don't see her dropping out in 2026, but I could be wrong.)  So if you want to make demands on Hakeem, do so.  But I'm not grasping the hatred and I'm certainly recognizing an organized campaign from outside the Democratic Party.


And before 2024, I would've just shaken my head and focused on other things.  But what those who hide in the shadows did to us in 2024 will not be forgotten or forgiven.  We are living under Donald Chump's threats and abuses because of DSA and their trickery.  


We were calling out the trickery that the usual con artists were pulling.  They couldn't attack Hakeem with the truth so they selectively edited a statement from a public press conference.  And this is how stupid the DSA thinks Americans are -- a public press conference.  They didn't expect that anyone would pull it up to see what they done.  Tabitha did right away.  And she documented on camera which is why we put her video in there.


In a minute, we'll be noting an issue regarding Gaza that apparently everyone missed.  My excuse is that I don't cover it anymore.  But every day there's so much to cover.  Yesterday, what I missed was how useless DSA is.


Yes, I noted their edit but I was on the phone with a friend discussing it last night when I talked about how wasteful DSA is (he's a former DSA-er, by the way) and how they distract from real issues and pointed out what a waste of time attacks on Hakeem were.  And how Hakeem is not losing his job and --


Yeah, that's what I forgot in my rush yesterday.


Hakeem is the Minority Leader.  That vote already went down.  They're trying to bloody him -- the DSA is -- and they're pretending that they can take him down.


No, they can't.


And their notion seems to be that AOC then replaces him.


No.


The Democratic Party, bound and determined to win the 2026 mid-terms, is not going to put AOC in charge of the House Democrats.  She's a Socialist.  She and DSA are having problems but she remains a Socialist.  And I'm so sorry for the Ed Wood crowd of the left but Socialism doesn't get votes.


That's your fault if you are a DSA-er because you hide and lie.  It's your job to educate the American people on Socialism, not mine.  You hide and you lie and you trick.  


Again, the SEP doesn't hide in a closet.  Other Socialists don't hide in closets.


But this is one more example of what a waste of time DSA is.  They decided to selectively edit Hakeem speaking to make him look bad and sew dissension and told the idiots stupid enough to believe them that it was time for Hakeem to go!!!!


Hakeem's not going anywhere.  He's the Minority Leader. That could change in a year or two.  But he's the leader.


There's so much that we need to work on to save our country.  Instead, we've got the DSA conning people into believing they can knock Hakeem out and replace him with a Socialist like AOC or Rahsida or Greg Casar. 


And we noted Greg all the time.  The minute Rashida ran into trouble we posted everything her office issued.  When Cori Bush ran into trouble, the same.  


The difference now is that DSA actively worked to destroy to Kamala's campaign.


If they'd done that to Hillary (and to a degree, they did), I would've just shrugged and focused on the next election.  But this wasn't an unknown.  We knew it was Chump or Kamala, we knew Chump was a convicted criminal who led an insurrection against the country and who would rule out of hate and fear and try to destroy our country.


That's the difference now.  I love the Michigan Green Party but I've ignored everything they've sent in the last two weeks.  I'm just not in the mood.  


I was happy to promote all on the left.  Up until you worked to destroy our country.


Chump was not an unknown.  He was a very real threat and when we needed to pull together?  A number of you worked instead to put him back in the White House.


That's unforgivable.  


What you have done to this country is unforgivable.  The lives that are being destroyed because of your actions and lies is unforgivable.


This is not "Oh my preferred candidate didn't win!"  This is: You actively worked to put this country into a dangerous situation that could lead to our destruction.


That is not forgivable. 


Some e-mails to the public account say that Hakeem's got to go because he's complaining in private about pressure being put on him.


Oh, the horror!


He's complaining?


I feel so insulted!!!!


Of course he's complaining.  We're his boss.  We're on his ass.  We're demanding he get to work.


I don't know what kind of Frank Capra lunatic world you live in (one that lets you overlook the fact that Capra was a government snitch, for one thing) but politicians complain about the people they represent all the time.  And that's fine.  As long as they get that we're the boss, not them.


This isn't, 'Hey, if you can, stay about 15 minutes late and try to get three or four calls done.'  This is: You work for us, start defending us.


And if he's pissed -- he may not be, that's an anonymouse story -- great.  And work to get him more pissed so he knows he has to answer to us.  That is politics. 


Let's note Rachel Maddow from last night on MSNBC. 



I'm trying to let the Gaza Freaks cover Gaza.  I did my part and I'm not really in the mood these days.  But I was on the phone last night with a friend (news producer -- not at MSNBC) and he was asking my thoughts on a recent event.  I shared my take.  He said no one covered that.  A huge event at the White House and no one covered it.  So I said I'd mention it here (he's a TV producer, the moment has passed, they've moved on as TV does).  

Pablo R. Suanzes (EL MUNDO) reports:


The US President insists that it is easy, "and two million people is a small number," while Abdullah avoids committing but also contradicting him to avoid losing $1.5 billion in annual aid.

Faces of circumstance, uncomfortable silences, and evasions. King Abdullah II of Jordan traveled to Washington this week, met with Donald Trump at the White House, and has a lot at stake. And that's why the situation could not have been more uncomfortable when the President of the United States, in response to journalists' questions, insisted on his plans for the Gaza Strip, which include Jordan, an important ally in the region, voluntarily or involuntarily hosting millions of Gazans, who would be illegally expelled from their land forever, as Trump said this past weekend, without considering their right to return.

Trump reiterated on Tuesday that Washington will take control of Gaza and will not back down. With what authority will all this be done? "With that of the United States," he stated. "It's not something complex to do. And with the United States in control of that piece of land, a fairly large piece of land, we will have stability in the Middle East for the first time," Trump declared from the Oval Office.

When pressed, given that he described it in terms of real estate operation, if it was part of his plans to do business personally, the President stated that it was not because "I have had a great career in the real estate sector," he said laughing. "We are not going to buy, there is nothing to buy. It is a devastated place. We are going to take control, manage [Gaza], preserve it, and give it value. It could be a diamond," he added, attacking Hamas, whom he described as "bullies and weak" and reiterating that they have a clear ultimatum to continue releasing the Israeli hostages from October 7.

Blah blah blah bulls**t and then some writing about foreign aid money.

Is that how this was covered?
 

I've met and spoken with the current king -- Abdullah the second -- but I actually knew his father.  And I know Queen Noor -- Abdullah II's step mother. So when I saw the footage of Chump's hideous meeting and saw the look on Abdullah's face, I assumed the press would be covering this as the international incident it was.

What Chump did was appalling.

I'm not just talking about his idiotic plan to take over Gaza and expel the Palestinian people.  That's bad and would have been bad with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud seated next to him or Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seated next to him.

But King Abdulla II? 

Queen Rania of Jordan.  Does no one get it?

She's Palestinian.

It was bad for Chump to make those insulting remarks with any Middle East leader sitting beside him.  But it was a huge and grave insult to make those remarks when it was King Abdullah II sitting beside him.

If that's not been covered by the US and the international press -- going by the call last night and  e-mails, it hasn't -- that's a huge glaring error and they need to up their game tremendously.

When I saw the footage on TV, my thoughts were, "He's trying to humiliate the King."  And I thought that because of Rania's parents (both Palestinians). It was also an insult to the four children he and Rania have. 

The plan itself is offensive, impractical and built upon hate and greed.  Steven Bennen (MSNBC) reports:


It’s been about a week since Donald Trump surprised much of the world by announcing that he wants the United States to take a “long-term ownership position” over Gaza. As the president described it, Americans would both “take over” and “own” the area, and when asked about the possibility of deploying U.S. military forces to Gaza, the Republican added, “We’ll do what is necessary.”


While we're talking about how Chump's destroying US relations with other countries, we can't forget South Africa.   At RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT, John Matisonn writes:


President Donald Trump’s attack on South Africa has brought relations between Washington and Pretoria to their lowest point since sanctions were imposed on the previous apartheid government in 1986.

It is also likely to reduce or eliminate White House participation in this year’s G20 meeting, hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Johannesburg in November. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that he will not attend the G20 foreign ministers’ preparatory meeting in protest.

In South Africa, this row comes seven months into a coalition government that is testing the ability of the former liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), to work with its partner, the strongly pro-Western Democratic Alliance (DA), which represents about 90% of white voters.

Ramaphosa’s ANC chose the DA over the third and fourth largest parties, which are black, anti-Western breakaways from the ANC that accuse the president of failing to address historic black land claims. Under this intense political pressure, the ANC produced an Expropriation Act it hoped would satisfy all sides.

The coalition government’s success depends on whether it can restore economic growth and reverse rising joblessness after 15 years of stagnation.

The spat began when Trump charged that “terrible things are happening in South Africa, they’re confiscating land and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.” At the same time, U.S. billionaire and the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has accused Pretoria of doing little to stop a “genocide” of white farmers.
Oh, is that how we're going to tell the story?


How about we get real?  How about we note -- as Ava and I did on Sunday in "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism" -- that it's not just Alien Musk.  David Sacks -- another huge Chump donor -- also grew up in South Africa and unlike some idiots write -- especially in bad books -- neither man left South Africa to go to college.  They did leave.  They did go to college.  But the issue was why they left.  Because they were Whites who had benefitted -- as had their entire families -- from the racism of apartheid.  They feared that if they stayed in South Africa, the Black people would rise up against them.  No one with a brain would have blamed a single Black person if that had taken place.  But it didn't.  But as apartheid began to crumble, White boys like David  and Alien ran out of the country as fast as they could.  But we're not done yet.  Peter Thiel is also a huge Chump donor who also spent some formative years in South Africa as he enjoyed being White in a country that actively attacked and discriminated against Black people.

As Ava and I noted:

If anyone feels noting the above three stories on South Africa  is 'a little much,' maybe they went to school with Eoin Higgins?


Because the above is not minor.  His whole attitude reeks of White privilege. Such as when he's failing to grasp that Thiel's support of Ron Paul was not despite of Paul's well known racism but actually because of the politician's well known racism.  Equally true, he never notes the racist connection of rich supporters of Donald Chump to South Africa.  Or that,  for example, Elon leaves South Africa because apartheid is falling.  Instead, he -- and Thiel -- just happen o leave South Africa, the country that has allowed them to benefit their entire life from their White skin while discriminating against Black people.  The attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is briefly noted in terms of when Musk took over Twitter and was appalled by the diversity he sees in the company's work force. Higgins treats it as a quirk when, in fact, it's a built-in factory feature of three White men (Musk, Thiel and Sacks) spending their formative years in an apartheid state that fed and deepened their bigotry and hate. 



This is what happens when racists throw a ton of money at a whore.  The whore ends up doing their bidding.   .This is not a coincidence so stop treating it like it is.  This is planned and planned due to racism. .

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Murray: “If you think RFK Jr. will change who he is, you are lying to yourself… If you do not draw a line somewhere, you will cross every line you could ever imagine. You will be pushed further and further into accepting things you never thought you would—things you never thought you could.”

ICYMI: In Senate Hearing, RFK Jr. Refuses to Say HPV Vaccine is Safe to Sen. Patty Murray, Pressed on Credible Accusation of Sexual Assault

Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care who has led hearings on addressing vaccine hesitancy, has been a leading vocal opponent of RFK Jr.’s nomination—speaking out on the Senate floor, holding events, raising the alarm after meeting with him

*** VIDEO of Senator Murray’s floor speech HERE***

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, took to the Senate floor to warn of the very real dangers that lie ahead if Republicans insist on confirming RFK Jr. as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and urge her colleagues to “show some courage… show some conscience” and vote against this nomination.

Murray laid out the many ways RFK Jr. could undermine vaccines as HHS Secretary—as well as so much else that’s at stake with his confirmation. Murray pointed out that, if confirmed, there will be nothing stopping RFK Jr. from firing the CDC’s entire vaccine advisory committee—responsible for making recommendations about vaccines and indirectly determines which vaccines must be covered by insurance—and replacing them all with vaccine skeptics. RFK Jr. will also oversee FDA, another agency he has repeatedly tried to discredit and attack—and where he has said he plans to fire hundreds of scientists on Day One.

“My colleagues should know better. They do know better,” said Murray on the Senate floor. “But they are looking the other way. They are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK Jr. won’t use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades—undermine vaccines.”

Murray spoke about how RFK Jr. will also have jurisdiction over NIH, where he could redirect funds away from promising cures, or make good on his plan to fire hundreds of researchers and pause infectious disease research. Pointing to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s’ recent attacks on NIH biomedical research funding, Murray said: “At a time when lifesaving research like this is already under attack from the President and the richest man in the world, no one who truly values medical research should vote to install one of the biggest attackers of medical science as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”

Murray also spoke about health insurance—another huge responsibility for HHS. “Last time Trump was in office, we saw millions of people lose their health coverage,” Murray said. “The uninsured rate went up after years of hard-won progress, and we all know he still wants to rip up the Affordable Care Act—driving up costs and kicking people off their coverage. And there’s no reason to think Mr. Kennedy will stand up to that effort. Indeed, there is no reason to think he has the experience and understanding of the system to do so. During his committee hearings, RFK Jr. confused Medicare and Medicaid—basic stuff—and failed to describe the components of Medicare.”

Murray also hammered how RFK Jr. poses an enormous risk to reproductive health care in America—pointing out that not only did RFK Jr. confess to having no real understanding of the Department’s role in enforcing Americans’ right to emergency care, but he showed he will be totally open to Republicans’ efforts to rip away access to medication abortion nationwide.

Also noting the danger of putting RFK Jr. in charge of pandemic threats, Murray emphasized that “We cannot take this man at his word—something he has changed and gone back and forth on time and again. But we can take him at his record—which is that he has consistently undermined vaccine confidence and even profited from it.”

“I cannot tell my colleagues enough: this isn’t a game, this is not a political role without consequence, the Health Secretary has real power over whether Americans can get basic information and care that impacts whether they live or die,” Murray continued.

“So if my colleagues are feeling the pressure from President Trump or if they are feeling the weight of the richest man in the world on their backs, I would warn them: this will certainly not be the last test we face here in the Senate… If you do not draw a line somewhere, you will cross every line you could ever imagine. You will be pushed further and further into accepting things you never thought you would—things you never thought you could.

“I think most of my colleagues know what is really at stake here. I think most of my colleagues know what sort of man RFK Jr. is and what sort of damage he could do if confirmed. There are political realities, we all get that—but there is also right and wrong… So, I urge all my colleagues to show some courage. I urge them to show some conscience. I urge them to join me in voting NO on RFK Jr.’s nomination,” Murray concluded.

When President-elect Donald J. Trump first announced his intention to select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS, Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move—and she has consistently spoken out and laid out for her colleagues the case against his nomination since, including in a lengthy Senate floor speech earlier this month—VIDEO HERE. Murray met with RFK Jr. on January 15th and released a statement afterward reiterating her opposition to his nomination and urging her colleagues, “to be honest with themselves about the stakes of putting one of the anti-vaccine movement’s loudest, proudest champions in charge of HHS and join me in opposing RFK Jr.’s nomination.” In December, Murray held a roundtable discussion at UW Medicine on the importance of scientific research and vaccines—especially for children—and spoke about how having RFK Jr. lead HHS would threaten Americans’ health and safety. At the hearing on his nomination before the Senate HELP Committee, Senator Murray pressed RFK Jr. to acknowledge that the HPV vaccine was safe and effective—he would not—and respond to credible accusations of sexual assault.

As a longtime appropriator and former Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, Murray has long fought to boost biomedical research, strengthen public health infrastructure, and make health care more affordable and accessible. Over her years as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she has secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. As Chair of the HELP Committee, Murray was also instrumental in crafting the American Rescue Plan Act, including its landmark investments in public health and health care. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. Murray is also the lead sponsor of the Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act (PHISLA), legislation to establish $4.5 billion in dedicated, annual funding for a grant program to build up and maintain the nation’s public health system across the board. 

In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) pressing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.

Senator Murray’s full remarks on the Senate floor, as delivered are below and HERE:

“Mr. President, the American people are watching now with alarm—because the vast majority of people know: vaccines are safe, they’re effective, they are lifesaving.

But we are now on the verge of confirming, as our nation’s highest health official, a man who has spent considerable time, money, and effort undermining that basic fact.

“A man who has abused his platform by refusing to acknowledge the well-established science that shows that vaccines arenot linked to autism. Fear about that point—fueled by RFK Jr. and others peddling misinformation—is a leading reason that parents do not get their kids vaccinated against preventable, dangerous diseases.

“That’s why elevating a man like RFK Jr. to lead HHS would be so dangerous. Just giving him any platform to spread vaccine doubt is dangerous. But to give him one of the biggest megaphones in the world? It is truly shameful that we even are debating this.

“My colleagues should know better. They actually do know better. They are looking the other way. They are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK Jr. won’t use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades—undermine vaccines.

“Never mind the fact that CDC has already modified webpages with information about vaccines and other vital public health information—which a federal judge has now ordered the Trump Administration to restore.

“Never mind that the Trump administration is also, reportedly, planning widespread and significant layoffs—layoffs—at CDC and across HHS.

“This is how RFK Jr. substitutes his own beliefs for science. So, when the vaccine conspiracies start swirling—and RFK Jr. turns HHS into ground zero for misinformation—‘I had no idea’ is not going to be an excuse for confirming him.

“Because at the HELP Committee hearing, the Chair pressed him repeatedly about the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. And when RFK Jr. said he needed to ‘see the evidence,’ he was shown the evidence. But, to no one’s surprise, he did not keep his word, admit he’d been wrong, and spread the good news that vaccines do not cause autism.

“He has had two weeks since that hearing to look at the same settled science as everyone else—crickets. But he won’t hesitate to quote the latest anti-vax conspiracy. He is totally up to speed on that front.

“Are my colleagues really buying this guy will take an impartial look at the science?

“If you think RFK Jr. will change who he is, you are lying to yourself. He has given no evidence to suggest that—and all the evidence in the world to the contrary.

“Given his long, and growing track record, we cannot just pretend if RFK Jr. finally gets power to undermine vaccines—a cause that he has dedicated a considerable amount of time and effort to—that he’ll just give it up. That is not believable.

“And I know I’ve been talking a lot about vaccines—because it is so obviously alarming—but the responsibility he would have goes far beyond that.

“So, let’s break some of this down—both the ways he could undermine vaccines as HHS Secretary, and the other responsibilities that would be at stake.

“To start with, the CDC is under HHS. That means that the Secretary directly appoints people to CDC’s vaccine advisory board. That board is responsible for making recommendations about vaccines—and it is those recommendations that determine whether or not certain vaccines have to be covered by insurance.

“So, simply put: changing those recommendations will change what vaccines millions of Americans, including kids, will be able to get from their health care provider.

“If he is confirmed, there would be nothing stopping RFK Jr. from firing the entire board and replacing them all with vaccine skeptics.

“After all, he has said many times, and in many ways, he thinks CDC is corrupt and bought by pharma—as usual, by the way, without any evidence.

“RFK. Jr. would also oversee the Food and Drug Administration; that is another agency he has repeatedly tried to discredit and attack—where he says he plans to fire—fire!—hundreds of scientists on Day One. And an agency that plays the crucial role of making sure our drugs and our treatments—including vaccines—are safe and effective.

“Not only would Mr. Kennedy have a key perch from which he could undermine vaccines on a scale like never seen before, he could also use his platform to peddle quack treatments with no basis in science.

“RFK Jr. would also have jurisdiction over NIH. That alone means influence over billions of dollars in medical research—research that is responsible for a significant portion of our economy, and more importantly, research that patients are desperately hoping will help them find cures. 

“But RFK Jr. could redirect those funds to promote his favorite pet conspiracies instead of promising cures.

“Or he could make good on his plan to fire hundreds of researchers and pause infectious disease research—for eight years. It should go without saying: viruses aren’t going to take a break.

“And here’s the thing—the attacks on medical research are now already happening under Trump. From his day one Executive Orders, President Trump has already been threatening medical research.

“Suddenly, all of our grants are at risk because they are looking at addressing ‘barriers to care’ or understanding why Black and Native American women have higher maternal death rates.

“And now—President Trump also is trying to illegally, arbitrarily, and suddenly change NIH guidelines to set an unrealistically low cap on indirect cost rates. That would mean researchers are laid off, studies canceled—including lifesaving clinical trials—and kids are not able to get the treatment they need.

“All because President Trump and Elon Musk don’t seem to understand how we actually fund important research, and couldn’t even be bothered to find out before taking an axe to medical research labs.

“At a time when lifesaving research like this is already under attack from the President, and the richest man in the world, no one who truly values medical research should vote to install one of the biggest attackers of medical science as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“And, M. President, insurance is another huge portfolio for HHS. Last time Trump was in office, we saw millions of people lose their health care coverage. The uninsured rate went up after years of hard-won progress, and we all know he still wants to rip up the Affordable Care Act—which will drive up costs and kick people off their coverage.

“There’s no reason to think Mr. Kennedy will stand up to that effort. Indeed, there is no reason to think he has the experience and understanding of the system to actually do so.

“During his committee hearings, RFK Jr. confused Medicare and Medicaid—this is basic stuff! He failed to describe the components of Medicare. 

“And yes, Mr. President, I also absolutely have to talk about abortion care. This is of grave importance—especially right now.

“In his hearings, not only did RFK Jr. confess to having no real understanding of EMTALA—that is a law which requires patients have access to lifesaving emergency care including, in some cases, abortion care—he also showed that he will be totally open to Republicans’ fact-free efforts to rip away access to medication abortion.

“Like so many other issues that RFK Jr. is simply wrong about, the science on that has been settled for many years now.

“Mr. Kennedy made clear though, he is very open to revisiting access to the abortion pill, based on a Republican argument against the science that basically boils down to: ‘Nuh uh, nuh uh!’

“Putting up barriers to accessing the abortion pill—or ripping it off the market completely, as Republicans have made very clear they want to do—would be absolutely devastating.

“And let’s not forget about pandemic threats. The lies that RFK Jr. spread during the last pandemic already make clear he is not the man to do this job. But if that weren’t enough, when there was a pandemic threat response planning session for this new Administration—he skipped it! He didn’t go! It would almost be comical if this wasn’t so serious.

“Mr. President, everywhere you look, everything about this nominee is so concerning.

“We cannot take this man at his word—something he has changed and gone back and forth on time and time again. But we can take him on his record—which is that he has consistently undermined vaccine confidence and, by the way, note: he even profited from that.

“And we can take the threat of what he might do seriously, especially given the alarming things that are already happening.

“If RFK Jr. gives you his word of honor, that he won’t freeze research—well guess what? We are already seeing the Trump Administration totally upend medical research. Thanks to the Trump funding freeze, NIH hasn’t issued any grant awards in weeks!

“If RFK Jr. swears that he is not going to take down information about vaccines, that he is not going to silence experts, well don’t look now—but the Trump Administration has already taken down or changed CDC pages about vaccines. They have already silenced public health experts.

“If RFK Jr. pinky promises you that he won’t undermine medical science or studies, and he won’t ignore global health threats, well, you might want to sit down for this—but President Trump has completely demolished our global health aid work. He has already completely demolished it.

“The fallout is utterly heart wrenching. Already we know of a woman who died—because the USAID-supported hospital she went to for oxygen was forced to discharge her because they got a ‘stop-work’ order from the Trump administration.

“It is not clear if she was the first death caused by Trump’s complete freeze, but there is no question, she will not be the last.

“And Mr. President—let me make a really important point here: it is not just people across the world who will be affected by this.

“There was a study being done on a new HIV treatment with thousands of volunteers, a study being done already having a thousand volunteers doing the treatment. But now, without their regular injections, which are cut off because of Trump’s move, there is going to be too little of the drug in their system to protect those people from HIV—but enough of the drug that if they contract HIV, it could mutate to become drug resistant.

“So, for all the absolutely unhinged conspiracies we have heard about medical research from RFK Jr. and the like, where is the concern for this actual risk, in this actual study, happening right now all because President Trump cut off foreign assistance?

“RFK Jr. has been silent about that risk, silent about how wrong that is—and so, even as he is making these empty promises on one hand to some of our colleagues, he is already standing by as President Trump breaks them on the other hand.

“Oh, and here’s one more—if RFK Jr. says he is going to consult you on health care personnel, please do not be fooled.

“Look, I don’t know why my colleagues need me to tell them this—I like to think we have some pretty smart people around here—but this vote, RFK Jr.’s own nomination, this is your consultation on health care personnel. Not some made up promise for later. This is the point you have the most power.

“Whatever he might say, you don’t get to choose who RFK Jr. will appoint to this or that—heck, he doesn’t get to choose who President Trump appoints. 

“The decision you get to make, all of us on this floor get to make, is the decision on this floor before us right now. You get to choose who you vote to confirm. And you will have to live with that decision.

“And, if you ignore the warning signs, and confirm RFK Jr.—then, when the wheels fall off the wagon, you may try to tell yourself you were lied to, but you knew who you were dealing with. You knew who you were dealing with. You knew what he has said before, and what he has refused to say.

“You had all the knowledge you needed to do the right thing.

“I cannot tell my colleagues enough: this is not a game, this is not a political role without consequence. The Health Secretary has real power over whether Americans can get basic information and care that impacts whether they live or die.

“As I have tried to drive home throughout this process—vaccines save lives. That is not a question. It is not a slogan. It is a fact.

“If, when parents look to you, worried about their newborn, wanting to do what is best for their baby, and trusting your advice as a public health leader—if you cannot tell them the same truth that centuries of science and experience tells us, which is that vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving, then you have absolutely no business leading the Department of Health and Human Services. None. 

“And so, just as I did at the hearing, I want to warn all of my colleagues: by merely voting to confirm Mr. Kennedy, we would be telling our constituents he is worth listening to on vaccines. That alone will get people killed—before he even lifts a finger.

“Because he does not even need the levers of power to get people killed—all he needs is a megaphone.

“To affirm his views by voting to confirm him as our highest health official—let’s not mince words about what that will mean.

“When babies die from whooping cough because parents weren’t sure the vaccine was safe—will you be able to look them in the eye? When the flu sweeps our nursing homes, when measles sweeps through our communities—will it be worth it?

“Mr. President, I will end on this—I’m sure there are plenty of members who know perfectly well just how dangerous it would be to confirm RFK Jr. They don’t need to hear it from me—in fact, some of them may even know the danger better than I do.

“But here’s what I do know: conscience is a muscle. Courage is a muscle. The less you use them, the more they fade away.

“So if my colleagues are feeling the pressure from President Trump or if they are feeling the weight of the richest man in the world on their backs on this vote, I would warn them: this will certainly not be the last test we face here in the Senate.

“Giving into pressure now won’t make it go away. It won’t soften the pressure you face later, and it will not strengthen your resolve when the stakes are higher. It will just show: pressure works.

“If you do not draw a line somewhere, you will cross every line you could ever imagine. You will be pushed further and further into accepting things you never thought you would—things you thought you never could.

“I think most of my colleagues know what is really at stake here. I think most of my colleagues knowwhat sort of man RFK Jr. is, and what sort of damage he could do if confirmed.

“There are political realities, we all get that—but there is also right and wrong. There is also fact and fiction.

“There is people staying healthy, and people dying pointlessly—kids dying pointlessly—from diseases that we can prevent, because they thought Congress took its job vetting our health secretary seriously.

“So, M. President, I urge all my colleagues to show some courage. I urge them to show some conscience. I urge them to vote NO on RFK Jr.’s nomination.”

###


 Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Lincoln Hater" and "I Have Two Daddies" went up last night.   The following sites updated:



Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Fetty Crap, Seth Rogen and Buddy Carter

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Lincoln Hater"


lincolnhater


He is a Lincoln hater.  Abe Lincoln was a hero and a leader.  We remember who he was because he matters.  No one will remember Donald Chump.

Let's talk losers.  First up a backstabbing actor.   Zack Sharf (VARIETY) reports:


Seth Rogen said in a new cover story for Esquire magazine that he did not pay attention to the online buzz that ignited last fall after his former friend and collaborator James Franco told Variety their friendship is definitively over. Rogen told The Sunday Times in 2021 that he did not plan to work with Franco again after sexual misconduct allegations made against the latter.
You may remember that I noted this in real time.  And that's when I lost all respect for the useless Seth Rogen.  He could have been a friend.  I don't mean he had to defend him.  He might not have known anything to defend him with.  But he didn't have to say anything.  He could have just been a friend.  Instead, Seth's career wasn't going well and he tried to advance it by slamming Franco.

When I originally called him out on that, a reader wrote in wanting me to know that she believed Seth called him out because he'd seen James Franco doing some misconduct.  As I said in my reply, if he saw something, he should have called it out when it happened and if saw something he should be calling James Franco out for it right now.  

I have no idea what Franco did or did not do.  At this point, I honestly don't care.  People took money.  I assume that was "justice" to them.   If he was a menace, they didn't help other women by settling for cash.  

These weren't children (like Michael Jackson's victim Jordy), they were adults and they made the decision to take a buy out.   That decision says to me that either nothing happened or they weren't concerned that it could happen to other women.

Regardless, I would never stab a friend in the back.  He wasn't much of a friend to Franco apparently as he makes clear via his latest statement.  

You know who else isn't a friend?  Fetty Crap.  He's not a friend to you or to me or to the country.  Grace Hall (MIAMI HERALD) reports:

Senator John Fetterman recently expressed his belief that the criminal trial against President Donald Trump in New York was politically motivated while appearing on “The View.” He noted that the trial would not have been pursued if it involved someone else. Fetterman emphasized the need for an impartial judicial system, arguing that political motivations undermine public trust.


[. . .]

Co-host Sunny Hostin asked, “Just for clarification, did you mean that the 34-count case in which Donald Trump was found guilty of various financial crimes was politically motivated here in New York?”


Fetty Crap is an embarrassment.  Isn't it telling that the Democratic Socialists of America are trying to rip apart Democrat Hakeem Jeffries?  Hakeem's actually trying to help the party, the country and us.  But DSA just knows that they can install one of their Socialists into leadership.  


Staying with the topic of trash, Buddy.  Didn't know of him until yesterday.  Klaus Marre reports:

House Republicans these days are ostensibly all about eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government. However, if they were really serious about this endeavor, they should immediately expel Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) from Congress.

Before we get to the reason why, let’s look at what “Buddy” costs the American people. First of all, he is drawing a $174,000 annual salary… courtesy of US taxpayers. Sadly, that’s not all.


Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Wednesday, February 12, 2025.  Alien Musk is a teen girl fashion plate . . . from decades ago,  Senate Dems hold a press conference, tricksters line up against Hakeem from the shadows and think we're all to stupid to catch on, FOX "NEWS" caught lying about who they brought on as guests, and much more.


First up, BLUESKY.  An e-mail to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) states I don't seem to enjoy BLUESKY.  When we focus on it here or at THIRD, we're generally highlighting something really good or nonsense that the person posting should be embarrassed about.  If there's no comment from me -- like yesterday -- I have no problem with it.  But I'll start off with a BLUESKY that I found clever.



Now let's move over to MSNBC and Lawrence O'Donnell.


If you have good eyes, you'll agree with Lawrence take on Alien Musk's outfit.  If you have bad vision, like me, you may need to take a closer look.  When I first saw photos of Alien in the Oval Office, I thought he was quite girlish.  I thought he was saluting 80s teen girls -- leggings and a skirt.  Squint and you may see what I'm talking about.  It's like he's embracing his inner BLOSSOM. 

Yesterday wasn't just about Alien Musk trying to look girlish, it was also the weekly press conference from the Senate Democrats.  We'll note this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

***VIDEO HERE***

Washington, D.C. — Today, at Senate Democrats’ weekly press conference, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke about President Trump and Elon Musk’s illegal funding freeze, government funding ahead of the March 14 deadline, and the pending nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

“We have a funding deadline fast approaching and we need a topline soon to be able to write and pass our bills. 

“I remain at the table with my Democratic counterpart in the House to get a result so we can move forward. But it is extremely difficult to land an agreement on toplines—much less our annual bills—when you have a President and an unelected billionaire ignoring the very agreements we pass each year in our spending bills. 

“What we are seeing now—the absolute lawlessness, the illegal funding freeze that is risking jobs and hurting working people—that simply cannot continue.

“The President is illegally blocking hundreds of billions in approved funding for our roads and bridges, for clean energy jobs, for foreign assistance, and a lot more. 

“What’s more, the problem right now is that it’s not even March 14th yet, and Trump and Elon Musk are effectively shutting down the government—whichever parts they don’t like—all on their own, without any regard for the law or the Constitution or Congress. 

“No one voted for the President to illegally block funding from Head Start classrooms or our rural health centers—but that is what Trump did his second week in office. 

“No one voted to let an unelected billionaire decide what bills the federal government would or would not pay—but Trump is giving Elon the keys to the Treasury. 

“In case Elon needs a reminder: the power of the purse sits with Congress—that means when people vote for us, we are their voice in how their tax dollars get spent. 

“The constitution doesn’t say Elon gets to decide if our elementary schools and hospitals get funding. Congress negotiates how we invest in our communities. 

“So, this has got to change, and we need our Republican colleagues to work with us to make sure it does—and I hope we can resolve things in time to pass the full year funding bills that I actually wanted to finish back last December. 

“Now, as we consider nominations on the floor this week: I want to remind you all it was only 2019 when I co-led a bipartisan Senate Health Committee Hearing with Senator Alexander to educate people on vaccines. With nearly every Republican Senator on that dais making very clear that vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving. 

“But now, Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Republican Party is on the verge of confirming, as our nation’s highest health official, RFK, Jr.— a man who has spent years crusading against vaccines. 

“Republicans are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK, Jr. won’t use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades: undermine vaccines. 

“People are alarmed. My phone lines are ringing off the hook with constituents who understand the stakes here and want us to stand up for science and for their health and safety. Because the Health Secretary has real power over whether Americans can get the basic information and care they need.

“I think most of my colleagues know what is really at stake here. They know what sort of agenda RFK Jr. will pursue, and they know what sort of damage he could do if confirmed.

“There are political realities, we all get that—but there is also right and wrong. There is also fact and fiction. There is also people staying healthy, and people dying pointlessly—kids dying pointlessly—from diseases that we can prevent.

“So, I urge all my colleagues to show some courage, show some conscience, and say: no, a vaccine denier should not be our highest-ranking health official.”

###



Now let's move to trickery.   Justin Baragona (INDEPENDENT) reports:


“President Trump doubling down on his support for the DOGE leader Elon Musk. Which is getting a lot of headlines – basically all of them in the last couple of weeks. It is still early, but they’re moving fast,” Hemmer noted at the top of the segment. “The president is pointing out it’s exactly what he campaigned on. But how do voters feel? I want to bring in Don O’Connor out of Iowa, a Trump voter from Mason City – he’s in banking. And screen right is Nick Schultz; he is outside of Milwaukee in Waukesha.”

Turning to O’Connor, who he called the “senior member of our panel,” the Fox host asked if he liked what he was seeing in Trump’s first weeks and if he thought it would be successful.

Why would FOX "NEWS" do that? 

Trickery.  

To trick the viewers.  That's awful.  How dare you try to put one over on your audience.  Right?  

But I guess Amy Goodman can't shriek too loudly since that's what she did over from August through the end of October on DEMOCARCY NOW! as she brought on one Socialist after another -- never identified as such -- to attack Kamala Harris and to send the message that even Democrats don't like Kamala -- even though these weren't Democrats.  (See "2024: The Year of Betrayal From Inside The Left.")

Now when FOX "NEWS" tricks their readers, we're shocked and disgusted.  But when Amy does it the bulk of the left tries to look the other way.  

She lied to viewers that Kamala and Chump were the same on immigration and the very few segments in the three months before the election -- see "Media: How Amy Goodman harmed immigrants and helped elect Chump."  

Again, when FOX "NEWS" does it, we're outraged.  

In fact, Eoin Higgins rages about FOX "NEWS" doing that sort of fakery in his new book -- a new book where Eoin does his own version of fakersy.  See "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism" and note that Eoin writes about and identifies MAGA, Libertarians, Tea Party activists, etc.  But on the other side, we're just all "the left."  It's a lie that helps pass off Socialists as Democrats -- Socialists like Eoin himself and all his friends in the circle jerk that he cites in the book -- in the book where he has a fit over Glenneth Greenwald using Twitter to promote his friends -- the same way Eoin uses a bad book to promote his own friends.  



 If you're a Socialist, you should be proud of it.  SEP members and PSL members don't hide the fact that they're Socialists.  It's really just the tricksters at DSA that hide it.  (See Elaine's "The trickster that is DSA"). 




Why can't they be honest?  Why do they have to lie and try to trick people?




Ellen: I think I've realized that I am -- I can't even say the word.  Why can't I say the word?  I mean, why can't I just say -- I mean what is wrong?  Why - why do I have to be so ashamed?  I mean why can't I just say the truth?


Do we need Laura Dern to stand in front of each of these political closet cases to coax them out of their closets?

They don't want to come out because at their most, they're 80,000 people.  That's not enough for the DSA to win seats in Congress.  So they pose as Democrats and then, the whole time they're posing, they attack actual Democrats.  Over and over, from their political closets.  Again, SEP doesn't hide who they are.  They attack Democrats -- hell, they even attack the fake assery of DSA.  

And that's fine.  

But if you're reading WSWS, the SEP's publication, you know where they're coming from.  They might make an argument you agree with (I've agreed with many) and they might make something that's way too different from what you see.  And when that happens, if you're not a Socialist, you just say, "Okay, interesting take.  That's one of the areas we disagree."

But DSAers lie and they lie online especially.  They pose as Democrats because that's the only way they'll have any influrnce.  They can't buil their own party.  They'e failed since day one.




‪Waleed Shahid‬.  The DSAer attacking Kamala on BLUESKY.  He's a Socialist but lies about that and brings up the ridiculous political closet that is "Justice Democrats."  My replies to his garbage.









Its like with THE MARJORITY REPORT and with Kyle.  Now Kyle's a Socialist.  He and Cenk worked together to form "Justice Democrats."  And there are no Democrats from that group in Congress.  There are Socialists.  And I'm sure Greg Casar has to hide that reality to be elected in his district in Texas.  But my point here is, did you not notice what the White boys are doing online.

Hakeem Jeffries is the House Minority Leader.



And the White boys -- Kyle, Sam and the rests -- are trying to remove him form leadership.

Imagine that.  White boys going after the Black man.

And you wonder why I don't like DSA?  

We're supposed to pretend, are we, Sam, that this just came about.  As opposed to the reality that you are teaming up to be on message and to take out the Black man.

I'm not really sure what you think Hakeem could do.

But I am really sure how much you suck.

Do we remember the last time DSA went after a Black man in Congress? 


Now Tabitha's not crazy about Hakeem and thinks he should step down but she can still see this organized effort to take him out.




Tabitha watched the full conference to find out what Hakeem was saying.  Not the clip that the political closet cases have edited -- a la FOX "NEWS" -- to make him look bad.

Again, when FOX "NEWS" does this trickery, we are aghast.  When people on our side do it, we just look away.



Hakeem Jeffries.  It's interesting to watch them pile on at BLUESKY.  Leave it to a White Socialist to use an offensive term for Hakeem.  (It may not be up now.  It was last night.  I reported it and will do that on all racist language.  Twitter got destroyed we need to protect BLUESKY.)  If you're wondering, it rhymes with "moon."  Now where in the world did a White Socialist get the notion that was an appropriate term to hurl at a Black person?


You don't think Hakeem is doing all you want?


You're probably right.  So pressure him.

He's in a spot that no one's been in for decades.  Nancy Pelosi is probably on her way out the door and that's probably why he went to Silicon Valley.  He's got to walk.  She can't carry him.  For over two decades, Nancy pulled in the big money.  That's why she ascended to leadership to begin with.  That and some well timed and played blackmail.  (A former Texas House Rep still feels the sting from where she burned him.)  Minority Leader or Speaker of the House, they have to reassure donors.  'We don't need big donors!'  Yes, we do.  As 2024 demonstrated, we really can't count on 'the left.'  Democrats can only count on Democrats currently.  And we need to grasp that and move forward.  


I like Chuck Schumer.  I don't even know Hakeem.  But I like Chuck.  That said, I haven't stepped in to try to defend Chuck.  Chuck has been doing his job for years and I am extremely disappointed with what he's doing currently. I'm also aware that no one's coming to rescue us.  We're going to have to rescue ourselves.  So I don't slam Chuck out of rage.  But, again, he's done the job for years and should know what's needed now.  Hakeem is getting ready to solo.  If Nancy has a popular challenger, she will announce she's not running for re-election in 2028.  (I don't see her dropping out in 2026, but I could be wrong.)  So if you want to make demands on Hakeem, do so.  But I'm not grasping the hatred and I'm certainly recognizing an organized campaign from outside the Democratic Party.


And before 2024, I would've just shaken my head and focused on other things.  But what those who hide in the shadows did to us in 2024 will not be forgotten or forgiven.  We are living under Donald Chump's threats and abuses because of DSA and their trickery.  


DSA eats their own.  Greg Casar is a member and they refused to endorse him over the issue of Palestine -- this was before the assault on Gaza began in 2023.  Jamaal Bowman was one of their success stories but then they turned on him and savaged him only to whine later.


You could argue that Jamaal is what should have taught 'uncommitted' (the DSA front) to back Kamala.  They attacked Jamaal and he . . . got replaced by George Latimer who is no friend to Palestinians. Jamaal gave them most of what they wanted.  But not all.  So despite the fact that they really needed him, they cut him loose.  AIPAC was only part of the issue in that race.  DSA-ers are not known for wisdom when it comes to electoral politics. They went after him early on -- the way they've gone after AOC throughout the last year or so.  Jamaal even let his dues paying membership with the group lapse only to rejoin in 2024 when he needed support.  But they'd already destroyed his image with their nonsense and the political equivalent of high school slam books.


And now they're demanding another Black man gets replaced.


But if you're not Black?  The DSA has been awfully accommodating to Greg Casar despite his positions -- plural -- on Israel. Apparently, the White dominated organization only feels the need to castigate and punish if the person showing independence is a Black man.  Not surprisingly, that fits the stereotype of not just DSA but of it's immediate predecessor.  


Latimer didn't struggle in the general election after he beat Bowman in the 2024 primary.  That also should have been a warning to Uncommitted.  While they pretended that the left was on their side 100% that wasn't the case.  

October 30th -- days before the US presidential election -- Linley Sanders (AP) reported on the latest AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll:


But there’s a big partisan split on whether the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility for the war’s escalation. About 6 in 10 Democrats say they do — similar to the share of Democrats who say Hamas bears “a lot” of responsibility — while only about one-quarter of Republicans say the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility.


DSA  preferred to ignore polling that found only 6 in 10 Democrats agreed with them on Gaza.  They had to pretend that in order to demand that Kamala not call for peace and a cease-fire but call for an independent Palestine.  They couldn't be honest about polling and not seem like the whiny, demanding, has to be my way brats that they actually were.  Maybe a new voting rights law can move us from chronological age over to an age of emotional maturity?


Again, Kamala had to navigate the Democratic Party.  And the Democrats were not 100% in support of uncommitted's Gaza plan.  Or even 9 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 or 7 out of 10.  It was 6 out of 10 -- which is a pretty even split.  Now uncommitted could have formed their own party but with a membership of only 80,000 they know they're going no where.  So instead, they glom on to our party and then try to boss us around and demand we do what they want.  Even though it's not what the Democratic Party wants.  

I was against the Iraq War before it started; however, I did not withhold my 2004 vote in the presidential election.  (I voted for John Kerry who, by the way, the DSA endorsed.  But Kamala they had a problem with.) And, again, I was for Katie Porter in the primary and thought she was the best.  I wasn't pleased that she did not make it onto the general election ballot.  That did not prevent me from voting for Adam Schiff and I have been pleasantly surprised by how hard Adam's been working since being sworn in.  


Hakeem's not saying everything you want him to?  Oh, the horror!

Some try to act as though this is an attack on Socialists on my part.  No, it's not.  It's an attack on liars who scheme together and plot together against the Democratic Party and then want to show up and pretend that they're Democrats.

You can search the archives.  We've long quoted PSL, we've cited WSWS probably more than any other publication the left, we've noted Sunsara Taylor (Communist activist) and hundreds of others.  We've not WORKERS WORLD repeatedly at this site (and used to repost in full back in the day when they encouraged that).  I didn't just fight online to get Lynne Stewart released from prison, I leaned on everyone I knew who had any say in that issue.  I don't fear being associated with radicals.

The DSA is a different issue all together and we saw their predecessor did and DSA is even worse.

And I'm glad that it upsets BLUESKY when the truth is pointed out.  First, those offended and in denial go to the fact that DSA should not be treating Socialism as an embarrassment and something to hide.  Your actions -- not mine -- are freaking voters out.  Second, those offended because they are DSA are comical as they to launch their defense -- when there's no defense from trying to influence someone's vote and political action while lying to them about who you are.  

Wasn't that why we called out The Tea Party?  Because it wasn't backed by grassroots funders?  Because the whole thing was a scam?

DSA gives the left a bad name.   And by hiding in political closets, they give Socialism a bad name as well.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


“The next Secretary of Education must fight for the best interests of students and families, not greedy and predatory for-profit colleges and inept loan servicers, and must reject extreme policies and efforts to eliminate the Department.”

“[Y]ou have a minimal track record on education issues and strikingly little experience pertaining to education policy.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, sent Linda McMahon, Secretary-Designate for the U.S. Department of Education, a 12-page letter with 65 questions on McMahon policy views in advance of her nomination hearing this week.

“[Y]ou have a minimal track record on education issues and strikingly little experience pertaining to education policy,” wrote the senators. “This lack of a public record means that the American people have not been afforded the opportunity to evaluate your views on topics related to the Education Secretary’s core responsibilities.”

Given McMahon’s lack of experience, the senators pushed McMahon to explain her views and the extent to which they overlap with certain extreme stances taken by President Trump, his Project 2025 allies, and President Trump’s former Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos.

These include her views as they relate to: 

  1. President Trump’s extreme views, including his repeated call to “abolish ED” and his reported plan to do so by executive order; his history of proposing severe cuts to the Department of Education’s budget, and his proposal to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which millions of teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public servants have relied upon for debt relief.

    “President Trump has said that he wants you to ‘put [your]self out of a job’ by helping him eliminate the Department. The harm that such a proposal would cause to students and families is grave,” wrote the senators.
  2. Project 2025’s extreme proposals, such as allowing unaccredited, often predatory, schools to receive federal funding; privatizing the federal student loan system, leaving students at the mercy of unaccountable private lenders, and replacing existing student loan income-driven repayment (IDR) plans with a new repayment plan that would raise costs for millions of Americans.

  3. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ extreme policies, such as rescinding a rule that would hold shady for-profit colleges accountable for graduates’ employment outcomes; obstructing federal and state regulators’ investigations into the misconduct of federal loan servicers; refusing to enforce existing regulations requiring that ED provide debt relief to students who were defrauded or misled by their schools, and dismantling the team at ED responsible for investigating predatory for-profit colleges.

    “During her tenure, Secretary DeVos implemented numerous policies that harmed students while allowing incompetent student loan servicers and greedy for-profit colleges to rip off students and taxpayers,” wrote the senators. “The American people deserve to know whether you will repeat Secretary DeVos’s extreme policies.” 

Senators Warren and Kim are demanding that McMahon arrive at her February 13 hearing prepared with answers.

“We need a higher education system that is accessible to all Americans, not just those with the means to afford skyrocketing costs without taking on student debt,” concluded the senators. “The next Secretary of Education must fight for the best interests of students and families, not greedy and predatory for-profit colleges and inept loan servicers, and must reject extreme policies and efforts to eliminate the Department.”

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