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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
May 26, 2022
Trump Ordered to Testify Under Oath
May 26, 2022 at 11:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Trump Ordered to Testify Under Oath
https://politicalwire.com/2022/05/26/trump-ordered-to-testify-under-oath/Trump Ordered to Testify Under Oath
May 26, 2022 at 11:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“Former President Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in New York state’s civil investigation into his business practices, a state appeals court ruled Thursday,” the AP reports.
“Thursday’s ruling could mean a tough decision for Trump about whether to answer questions, or stay silent, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Anything Trump says in a civil deposition could be used against him in the criminal probe being overseen by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
“Thursday’s ruling could mean a tough decision for Trump about whether to answer questions, or stay silent, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Anything Trump says in a civil deposition could be used against him in the criminal probe being overseen by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
May 26, 2022
Men With Guns Are Holding Our Democracy Hostage
The GOP is a religious cult and the god they worship is power. So they weaponize male rage.
By Susie Madrak — May 26, 2022
snip//
The GOP has a lot of high priests speaking to the masses this week, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott? He's the frickin' archbishop. The man speaks in self-serving gibberish, because he doesn't care about anybody but himself. (See: Multimillion settlement for me, but not for thee!) To Greg, naked ambition is a holy sacrament.
And so one of the tenets of his religion is "blame everything but the guns."
We have a society where the only acceptable emotions for "real" men to display are hate, anger and rage. Is that a mental health crisis? Sure. But add in easy access to military weapons of mass slaughter to help them express that rage. That's the real problem.
And now, the angry men with guns are the shock troops of their religion. The high priests egg on their violence, and some of that is meant to keep the guns from being trained in their own direction.
You realize that's the real reason why everyone's so reluctant to indict Donald Trump, right? Everyone is so afraid of the weaponized rage of the men with guns.
Democracy held hostage.
Men With Guns Are Holding Our Democracy Hostage
https://crooksandliars.com/2022/05/men-guns-are-holding-our-democracy-hostageMen With Guns Are Holding Our Democracy Hostage
The GOP is a religious cult and the god they worship is power. So they weaponize male rage.
By Susie Madrak — May 26, 2022
snip//
The GOP has a lot of high priests speaking to the masses this week, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott? He's the frickin' archbishop. The man speaks in self-serving gibberish, because he doesn't care about anybody but himself. (See: Multimillion settlement for me, but not for thee!) To Greg, naked ambition is a holy sacrament.
And so one of the tenets of his religion is "blame everything but the guns."
We have a society where the only acceptable emotions for "real" men to display are hate, anger and rage. Is that a mental health crisis? Sure. But add in easy access to military weapons of mass slaughter to help them express that rage. That's the real problem.
And now, the angry men with guns are the shock troops of their religion. The high priests egg on their violence, and some of that is meant to keep the guns from being trained in their own direction.
You realize that's the real reason why everyone's so reluctant to indict Donald Trump, right? Everyone is so afraid of the weaponized rage of the men with guns.
Democracy held hostage.
May 26, 2022
STOP IT! Stop Saying "We" or "Americans" or "Congress"... Start F*cking Saying "REPUBLICANS"!
Liberal in a Red State
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Wednesday May 25, 2022 · 11:40 AM EDT
This is a short diary but I am fucking pissed with the ongoing carnage and fucking furious with the ongoing shitty media coverage, the generic words of our Democratic leaders, and the generic words of anyone in front of a fucking camera.
Say the fucking word “Republican”. In his moving rant, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy did not once say the fucking word “Republican” and lay the blame for lack of action at their feet. Nope. He said “we” 50 times as if Democrats are as much to blame for the lack of action on the gun issue.
I watch two hours of Chris Hayes on MSNBC last night and he too danced around saying the word Republican. He implied Republican by saying, “One party wants to do something about guns the other does not” a dozen different ways as if EVERYONE knows. Same thing with nearly every one of his guests wringing their hands using a bunch of generic speak. Only one Democratic guest actually CALLED OUT THE FUCKING REPUBLICANS by name.
The American people need the repetition of THIS IS THE FAULT OF THE REPUBLICANS beaten into the fucking heads so there is zero question about the differences between our two parties.
snip//
Say it right. Say their fucking name, Republican.
Stop with the weak-ass generic speak, “Americans have a gun problem.”
No. It is Republicans who have a gun problem. Republicans accept this carnage. Republicans refuse to join Democrats to pass common sense legislation.
It is not “we”. It is not “Americans”. It is not “Congress”. It is not “Government”. It is not “our leaders need to do something”. No. Knock it the fuck off.
This is 100% the fault of Republicans at every level of Government and it is long past time to take off the fucking gloves and rub their fucking faces in their blood-soaked mess.
STOP IT! Stop Saying "We" or "Americans" or "Congress"... Start F*cking Saying "REPUBLICANS"!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/25/2100173/-STOP-IT-Stop-Saying-We-or-Americans-or-Congress-Start-Fucking-Saying-REPUBLICANSSTOP IT! Stop Saying "We" or "Americans" or "Congress"... Start F*cking Saying "REPUBLICANS"!
Liberal in a Red State
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Wednesday May 25, 2022 · 11:40 AM EDT
This is a short diary but I am fucking pissed with the ongoing carnage and fucking furious with the ongoing shitty media coverage, the generic words of our Democratic leaders, and the generic words of anyone in front of a fucking camera.
Say the fucking word “Republican”. In his moving rant, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy did not once say the fucking word “Republican” and lay the blame for lack of action at their feet. Nope. He said “we” 50 times as if Democrats are as much to blame for the lack of action on the gun issue.
I watch two hours of Chris Hayes on MSNBC last night and he too danced around saying the word Republican. He implied Republican by saying, “One party wants to do something about guns the other does not” a dozen different ways as if EVERYONE knows. Same thing with nearly every one of his guests wringing their hands using a bunch of generic speak. Only one Democratic guest actually CALLED OUT THE FUCKING REPUBLICANS by name.
The American people need the repetition of THIS IS THE FAULT OF THE REPUBLICANS beaten into the fucking heads so there is zero question about the differences between our two parties.
snip//
Say it right. Say their fucking name, Republican.
Stop with the weak-ass generic speak, “Americans have a gun problem.”
No. It is Republicans who have a gun problem. Republicans accept this carnage. Republicans refuse to join Democrats to pass common sense legislation.
It is not “we”. It is not “Americans”. It is not “Congress”. It is not “Government”. It is not “our leaders need to do something”. No. Knock it the fuck off.
This is 100% the fault of Republicans at every level of Government and it is long past time to take off the fucking gloves and rub their fucking faces in their blood-soaked mess.
May 26, 2022
McConnell Group to Spend $43 Million This Summer
May 26, 2022 at 7:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
McConnell Group to Spend $43 Million This Summer
https://politicalwire.com/2022/05/26/mcconnell-group-to-spend-43-million-this-summer/McConnell Group to Spend $43 Million This Summer
May 26, 2022 at 7:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“One Nation, a nonprofit group aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is gearing up for a $43 million summer spending blitz targeting five competitive Senate seats,” Axios reports.
“The biggest target by far is Georgia.“
Key takeaway: “$43 million is a substantial sum to drop before Labor Day and the final leg of campaigning. It adds to the more than $141 million the group’s sister super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has booked through the fall.”
“The biggest target by far is Georgia.“
Key takeaway: “$43 million is a substantial sum to drop before Labor Day and the final leg of campaigning. It adds to the more than $141 million the group’s sister super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has booked through the fall.”
May 25, 2022
https://politicalwire.com/2022/05/25/americas-hands-are-full-of-blood/
America’s Hands Are Full of Blood
May 25, 2022 at 5:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
America's Hands Are Full of Blood
https://politicalwire.com/2022/05/25/americas-hands-are-full-of-blood/
America’s Hands Are Full of Blood
May 25, 2022 at 5:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
David Frum: “Every other democracy makes some considerable effort to keep guns away from dangerous people, and dangerous people away from guns. For many years—and especially since the massacre at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School almost a decade ago—the United States has put more and more guns into more and more hands: 120 guns per 100 people in this country.”
“The years of the pandemic have been the years of the greatest gun sales in U.S. history: almost 20 million guns sold in 2020; another 18.5 million sold in 2021. No surprise, those two years also witnessed a surge in gun violence: the spectacular human butchery of our recurring mass slaughters; the surge of one-on-one lethal criminality; the unceasing tragic toll of carelessness as American gun owners hurt and kill their loved ones and themselves.”
“Most of us are appalled. But not enough of us are sufficiently appalled to cast our votes to halt it.”
“The years of the pandemic have been the years of the greatest gun sales in U.S. history: almost 20 million guns sold in 2020; another 18.5 million sold in 2021. No surprise, those two years also witnessed a surge in gun violence: the spectacular human butchery of our recurring mass slaughters; the surge of one-on-one lethal criminality; the unceasing tragic toll of carelessness as American gun owners hurt and kill their loved ones and themselves.”
“Most of us are appalled. But not enough of us are sufficiently appalled to cast our votes to halt it.”
May 25, 2022
Rep.Jim Jordan contests constitutionality of January 6 committee's subpoena & issues list of demands
Could he be stalling?!
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/jim-jordan-january-6-subpoena/index.html
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan contests constitutionality of January 6 committee's subpoena and issues list of demands
Annie Grayer
CNN Digital Expansion 2017 Ryan Nobles
By Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles, CNN
Updated 7:19 PM ET, Wed May 25, 2022
(CNN)GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio is pushing back on a subpoena issued to him by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, contesting the constitutionality of the request and outlining a list of demands the committee must meet in order for him to even consider moving forward.
In a new letter obtained by CNN, Jordan is asking the committee to provide him with all of the materials it plans on using to question him ahead of any deposition, all of the documents and testimony in the committee's possession that reference him and an explanation of the legal authority upon which the committee relied in issuing a subpoena.
"I write to strongly contest the constitutionality and validity of the subpoena in several respects," Jordan wrote.
The committee declined to comment to CNN.
May 25, 2022
'Bald-faced lie': Houston Chronicle torches Texas gov’s 'bankrupt conscience' and 'cowardice' after Uvalde mass shooting
Meaghan Ellis
May 25, 2022
snip//
Highlighting the governor's use of the word "horrific," the board wrote, "The first word is apt — especially for the moms and dads who dropped off their little ones at school Tuesday morning, maybe lingering a little bit in the car line, just to crane their necks back and watch as that precious little body, that floppy ponytail or that lanky little string bean frame, laden with backpack and lunch box, made it safely through the schoolhouse door, where, it seemed, they would be safe."
The board added, "Horrific was the moment they got the news. Horrific will be their nights of endless tears. Horrific will be the bright, sunny mornings when they remember it wasn’t a dream. The bed is empty, no little lump beneath the blankets, waiting to be awoken."
However, his use of the word "incomprehensibly" was described as a "bald-faced lie." "The second word Abbott used — “incomprehensibly” — is just as much cowardice as it is a bald-faced lie," the editorial board wrote.
According to the board, the state's Republican-run legislature has contributed to the gun problem due to the lenient laws in place when it comes to acquiring firearms.
'Bald-faced lie': Houston Chronicle torches Texas gov's 'bankrupt conscience' and 'cowardice' ...
'Bald-faced lie': Houston Chronicle torches Texas gov’s 'bankrupt conscience' and 'cowardice' after Uvalde mass shooting
Meaghan Ellis
May 25, 2022
snip//
Highlighting the governor's use of the word "horrific," the board wrote, "The first word is apt — especially for the moms and dads who dropped off their little ones at school Tuesday morning, maybe lingering a little bit in the car line, just to crane their necks back and watch as that precious little body, that floppy ponytail or that lanky little string bean frame, laden with backpack and lunch box, made it safely through the schoolhouse door, where, it seemed, they would be safe."
The board added, "Horrific was the moment they got the news. Horrific will be their nights of endless tears. Horrific will be the bright, sunny mornings when they remember it wasn’t a dream. The bed is empty, no little lump beneath the blankets, waiting to be awoken."
However, his use of the word "incomprehensibly" was described as a "bald-faced lie." "The second word Abbott used — “incomprehensibly” — is just as much cowardice as it is a bald-faced lie," the editorial board wrote.
According to the board, the state's Republican-run legislature has contributed to the gun problem due to the lenient laws in place when it comes to acquiring firearms.
"Whether it’s a handgun, rifle or semi-automatic invented for war, the governor has supported and the Legislature has passed law after law that have obliterated any semblance of good sense regulation — laws so permissive that they’ve even defied the objections of police chiefs and gun safety instructors, including the 2021 permitless carry bill that the governor bragged on Twitter allows any eligible Texan to carry a gun in public with 'no license or training' needed. As though that were progress," the editorial board wrote.
more...
https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/houston-chronicle/?cx_testId=1&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=2&cx_experienceId=EXDEXBKK1F00#cxrecs_s
more...
https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/houston-chronicle/?cx_testId=1&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=2&cx_experienceId=EXDEXBKK1F00#cxrecs_s
May 25, 2022
Fox News CEO says white nationalism 'comes with the territory' because his network is 'number one'
David Badash
and The New Civil Rights Movement
May 24, 2022
Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chairman and CEO of the parent company of Fox News does not appear concerned about the far right-wing network’s embrace of white nationalism, saying the growing criticism just “comes with the territory.”
The 50-year-old Murdoch took no responsibility for the world being more divided, on edge, and politicized.
snip//
Last week, former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt called on the United States government to revoke Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. citizenship. He said the 91-year-old Australian-born media titan is “the most venomous and dangerous foreigner to ever arrive on American soil.”
Schmidt added:
https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1526713616816164864
Meanwhile, Media Matters senior fellow Matthew Gertz noted, “Lachlan Murdoch has apparently given up on his obvious lie that Tucker Carlson doesn’t promote ‘replacement theory,’ he is making it quite clear that Fox prioritizes white supremacist content.”
more...
https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/fox-news-ceo-white-nationalism/
Fox News CEO says white nationalism 'comes with the territory' because his network is 'number one'
Fox News CEO says white nationalism 'comes with the territory' because his network is 'number one'
David Badash
and The New Civil Rights Movement
May 24, 2022
Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chairman and CEO of the parent company of Fox News does not appear concerned about the far right-wing network’s embrace of white nationalism, saying the growing criticism just “comes with the territory.”
“I think when you’re in the news business, and you’re number one,” said Murdoch in an interview with Axios, “you get a lot of heat and it just comes with the territory.”
“I think the world is more divided and on edge than it has been, you know, for a very long time,” Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, added. “I think on the noise around it, so much of it is politicized … And so, you’ve got to be tough about it.”
“I think the world is more divided and on edge than it has been, you know, for a very long time,” Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, added. “I think on the noise around it, so much of it is politicized … And so, you’ve got to be tough about it.”
The 50-year-old Murdoch took no responsibility for the world being more divided, on edge, and politicized.
snip//
Last week, former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt called on the United States government to revoke Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. citizenship. He said the 91-year-old Australian-born media titan is “the most venomous and dangerous foreigner to ever arrive on American soil.”
Schmidt added:
https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1526713616816164864
Meanwhile, Media Matters senior fellow Matthew Gertz noted, “Lachlan Murdoch has apparently given up on his obvious lie that Tucker Carlson doesn’t promote ‘replacement theory,’ he is making it quite clear that Fox prioritizes white supremacist content.”
more...
https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/fox-news-ceo-white-nationalism/
May 24, 2022
Longtime Trump Gatekeeper Rhona Graff Subpoenaed by New York AG in Trump Org Investigation
SERVED
Dan Ladden-Hall
Published May. 24, 2022 5:15AM ET
Katy Winn
Longtime Trump Gatekeeper Rhona Graff Subpoenaed by New York AG in Trump Org Investigation
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rhona-graff-trumps-longtime-assistant-subpoenaed-by-new-york-attorney-general?ref=homeLongtime Trump Gatekeeper Rhona Graff Subpoenaed by New York AG in Trump Org Investigation
SERVED
Dan Ladden-Hall
Published May. 24, 2022 5:15AM ET
Katy Winn
New York’s Attorney General’s Office has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s longtime personal gatekeeper as part of its probe into the Trump Organization. Rhona Graff, who worked as a personal assistant to Trump between 1987 and 2021, will be questioned under oath about the former president’s involvement in the preparation of annual financial statements that are being scrutinized during the investigation. News of Graff’s upcoming deposition on May 31 was revealed in court papers filed by Attorney General Letitia James’ office that oppose Trump’s efforts to scrub a costly contempt of court order for failing to meet a deadline to respond to a subpoena for documents and other evidence. Special litigation counsel Andrew Amer wrote in the latest filing that James’ office wants to grill Graff under oath to find out more detail about how Trump’s financial statements were handled than she had divulged in a previous affidavit.
May 24, 2022
Digby's Hullabaloo Posts
As real as it gets
Published by Tom Sullivan on May 24, 2022
Democrats need to make the Republican threat real and personal
snip//
Perhaps one reason Democrats are failing at communicating this threat to democracy is something Republicans know about their voters. Abstractions do not connect. Republicans make issues personal. They mean to get people’s backs up, make them feel personally injured. Democracy-shmocracy, what does Republicans turning the U-S-of-A into a one-party state mean for me?
Make the Republican plot to reduce the by-God United States of America to a Potemkin village of a once-great country personal. Personalizing what voters will lose is the key both to connecting the threat to voters’ lives and to energizing pissing them off enough to get their butts to the polls in an off-year.
If American democracy is in crisis, you’d think Democrats would campaign like it. Running on mundane “bread-and-butter issues” drained of emotion cannot possibly convey the seriousness of the threat to their lives.
With the U.S. a one-party state, Republicans will steal (“sunset”) your Social Security. They will strip your Medicare, your Medicaid. They will close your neighborhood public school. They will force your daughter to give birth to her rapist’s baby.
That shit is as real as it gets.
As real as it gets
https://digbysblog.net/2022/05/24/as-real-as-it-gets/Digby's Hullabaloo Posts
As real as it gets
Published by Tom Sullivan on May 24, 2022
Democrats need to make the Republican threat real and personal
snip//
Perhaps one reason Democrats are failing at communicating this threat to democracy is something Republicans know about their voters. Abstractions do not connect. Republicans make issues personal. They mean to get people’s backs up, make them feel personally injured. Democracy-shmocracy, what does Republicans turning the U-S-of-A into a one-party state mean for me?
Losing power is very personal for people on the right. Both left and right talk about taking “their country” back, but it seems much more personal for conservatives. In their America, it seems, there is no we, just i and me.
One place you hear it is in their rhetoric about voter fraud. It is a very personal affront to them that the power of their votes might be diminished by the Other. Every time someone ineligible casts a fraudulent ballot, they insist, it “steals your vote.” Your vote. They have convinced themselves that there are thousands and thousands of invisible felons stealing their votes every election. Passing more restrictive voting laws is a matter of justice and voting integrity, of course. What other motivation could there be for railroading eligible poor, minority, and college-age voters?
One place you hear it is in their rhetoric about voter fraud. It is a very personal affront to them that the power of their votes might be diminished by the Other. Every time someone ineligible casts a fraudulent ballot, they insist, it “steals your vote.” Your vote. They have convinced themselves that there are thousands and thousands of invisible felons stealing their votes every election. Passing more restrictive voting laws is a matter of justice and voting integrity, of course. What other motivation could there be for railroading eligible poor, minority, and college-age voters?
Make the Republican plot to reduce the by-God United States of America to a Potemkin village of a once-great country personal. Personalizing what voters will lose is the key both to connecting the threat to voters’ lives and to energizing pissing them off enough to get their butts to the polls in an off-year.
If American democracy is in crisis, you’d think Democrats would campaign like it. Running on mundane “bread-and-butter issues” drained of emotion cannot possibly convey the seriousness of the threat to their lives.
With the U.S. a one-party state, Republicans will steal (“sunset”) your Social Security. They will strip your Medicare, your Medicaid. They will close your neighborhood public school. They will force your daughter to give birth to her rapist’s baby.
That shit is as real as it gets.
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Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 08:54 PM
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