55 seconds ago
Former NRA Prez Duped Into Addressing Empty Chairs Representing Gun Violence Victims


The parents of a child killed in a school shooting orchestrated an elaborate hoax earlier this month, inviting a former president of the National Rifle Association and a gun rights activist to give commencement addresses to the graduating class of James Madison Academy in Las Vegas.

But there is no such school. David Keene, the former NRA head, and John Lott, a pro-gun writer, delivered their speeches to thousands of empty chairs. Those seats represented ‘The Lost Class,’ – the 3,044 teens who should have graduated from high school this year but were instead killed by gun violence (watch video above at link).
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1407752603849531394


Oliver pulled off the stunt with the help of advertising agency Leo Burnett and production company Hungry Man.

more...

https://www.newsandguts.com/video/former-nra-prez-duped-into-addressing-empty-chairs-representing-gun-violence-victims/

Buffett resigns as Gates Foundation trustee, donates another $4.1 billion for philanthropy
Reuters
June 23, 2021, 7:46 AM


(Reuters) -Warren Buffett on Wednesday resigned as trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest private charitable organizations, as he delivered another $4.1 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropy.

Buffett has been making annual contributions to five charitable foundations since 2006 as part of a plan to distribute about 99% of his net worth to philanthropy.

"With today's $4.1 billion distribution, I'm halfway there," Buffett said in a statement.

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https://www.aol.com/finance/buffett-resigns-trustee-gates-foundation-114948733-124657420.html

https://pressrun.media/p/how-the-medias-fueling-critical-race

How the media's helping GOP fuel critical race theory hysteria
Right-wing witch hunt
Eric Boehlert
3 hr ago

snip//


Across the country, Republican legislators and officials in more than 20 states, who often have no grasp as to what CRT is, are forbidding educators from teaching it. And across the country educators are confirming CRT isn’t being taught. (The theory, often taught at the college and grad school level, details how racism and white supremacy are systemic in American society.) This year’s runaway, manufactured, red-state frenzy is reminiscent of the Red Scare that swept through the country during the Cold War.

Back then at least, the Soviet Union was an actual foe and represented a military threat to American security. By contrast, the mobs forming to make sure CRT isn’t taught in schools seem to have no idea — or don’t care — that CRT isn’t taught in schools. The whole controversy is fabricated, and it’s getting a ton of media attention. It’s the kind of media attention that plays right into the hands of conservatives.

snip//

The conservative ignorance surrounding CRT is overwhelming, and it’s purposeful. Journalists have a responsibility to ask every Republican fanning the flames of hysteria to explain, in their own words, what critical race theory is. And if they cannot, journalists need to walk away.

It was actually a local caller phoning into a Nebraska radio show who pressed Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts to define CRT, after he urged it be banned from state schools. His word-salad response made clear he had no idea what the academic and legal theory is:



The Republican Noise Machine is demanding critical race theory be banned, but has no idea what critical race theory is, or that it’s not taught in American schools. That’s the news story that requites attention.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/newsmax-goes-there-says-critical-race-theory-is-road-to-death-camps-for-white-people?ref=home


Newsmax Goes There: Critical Race Theory Is ‘Road to Death Camps’ for White People
GODWIN’S LAW
Right-wing radio talker Michael Savage declared the obscure academic theory is akin to the Holocaust, prompting a supportive response from a Newsmax TV host.
Justin Baragona, Contributing Editor
Published Jun. 22, 2021 11:33AM ET

snip//

Republicans and right-wing media have been mired in a months-long freakout over critical race theory, an obscure legal academic framework that conservatives now use as a catch-all term for any racial-equity training or anti-racist school curriculum. At the same time, NBC News recently reported that the battle over CRT that has invaded local school boards is largely an astroturfed effort funded by well-connected national political organizations and right-wing activists.

Prior to interviewing Savage on Monday night, Newsmax hosts Steve Cortes and Jenn Pellegrino griped that the left was trying to deny that critical race theory exists while claiming they” have the receipts to prove” that it is “permeating all of our culture and our schools.” They then turned to Savage, a provocateur long known for his inflammatory and offensive rhetoric, as their expert on the subject.

After taking issue with NBC News anchor Chuck Todd dismissing the right-wing outrage over CRT, saying he’d like to “reach through the screen and smack him in the face,” Savage then delivered an overheated diatribe about how the schools are literally abusing white kids.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1407334052835774464

snip//

“I worry sometimes that if we continue to always use the phrase critical race theory that we might allow the left to hide, in effect,” the conservative host said. “What I mean is they’ll say, ‘Oh no, we’re not teaching CRT.’ But they are, in fact, teaching some other version of anti-white racism.”

Cortes concluded: “So I’d really—I’d prefer to call it anti-white racism as a term because, let’s face it, no matter what flavor this takes or what shape this takes the goal, always, is to shame white people.”

https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/22/democratic-group-will-pour-20m-into-voting-rights/

Democratic Group Will Pour $20M Into Voting Rights
June 22, 2021 at 1:40 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

6/21/21 9:39am
GAO Busts Trump's Lies About Building Border Wall
Building only 69 miles of a border wall was a failure of enormous magnitude.
By John Amato


The Government Accountability Office rained on Traitor Trumps' parade, as they determined that the former president did not deliver on his border wall claims, and lied about what he actually built.

This will not come as a surprise to readers of this website.



Building a border wall and promising "Mexico would pay for it" was one of Trump's signature promises when he ran for office in 2015-6.

As the seditious ex-president failed to meet his campaign promise even Fox and Friends attacked Trump for his claims. Host Brian Kilmeade said, "Mexico is off the hook, he's right, the president never should have said Mexico is going to pay for the wall."

The border wall was also used as a scam leveled by Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage and others to bilk millions of dollars out of witless MAGA supporters. Trump pardoned Bannon for ripping off his own supporters.

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https://crooksandliars.com/2021/06/gao-busts-trumps-lies-about-building

Trump Wanted His Justice Department to Stop ‘SNL’ From Teasing Him
DEBBIE DOWNER
“SNL” amounted to “nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials,” Trump tweeted in 2018, pondering whether his thought “should be tested in courts, can’t be legal?”
Asawin Suebsaeng, Senior Political Reporter
Adam Rawnsley, Senior Researcher
Published Jun. 22, 2021 3:41AM ET


snip//



It was, on its face, a ridiculous question and threat, as SNL is obviously satire, and therefore a form of protected speech in America that pissed-off commanders-in-chief have no authority to directly subvert. However, then-President Trump went farther than simply tweeting his displeasure with the late-night comedians and SNL writers’ room. The internal discussions that followed, between the former leader of the free world and some of his political and legal advisers, once again underscored just how much Trump wanted to use the full weight and power of the U.S. government to punish his personal enemies.

According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump had asked advisers and lawyers in early 2019 about what the Federal Communications Commission, the courts systems, and—most confusingly to some Trump lieutenants—the Department of Justice could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers.

To those who heard it, Trump’s inquiries into what federal regulations could be used to bust the likes of Kimmel and SNL was more of a nuisance than a constitutional crisis. “It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you,” one of these sources recalled. However, the conversations further showed, in the pettiest of ways, how the 45th U.S. president was keen on turning the country’s top law enforcers into something more akin to his own personally retained law firm.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-wanted-his-justice-department-to-stop-snl-from-teasing-him?ref=home

https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/22/gop-loses-foothold-in-big-cities/

GOP Loses Foothold In Big Cities
June 22, 2021 at 6:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/21/bonus-quote-of-the-day-1516/

Bonus Quote of the Day
June 21, 2021 at 4:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/21/a-conservatives-realization-on-structural-racism/

A Conservative’s Realization on Structural Racism
June 21, 2021 at 6:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard