https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a36652823/joe-manchin-op-ed-for-the-people-act/

Joe Manchin's Argument Is as Far Removed From Reality as West Virginia Is From Neptune
He is marching into some very unfortunate historical company.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jun 7, 2021


The Reverend William Barber, official preacher man here in the shebeen, has announced that, on June 15, he plans to lead his Poor People’s Campaign in a march on Senators Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell. By now, Manchin’s appalling decision not only to continue to embrace the filibuster—the primary barrier to any attempt by Congress to counter the national campaign by the Republican Party to destroy the franchise for millions of American citizens—but also to vote against the For The People Act even if it ever came to a vote, has been chewed up and spat out by practically everyone who’s read his misbegotten op-ed in a West Virginia newspaper.



You can drive a coal train through the holes in Manchin’s logic, and his basic argument is as far removed from our actual political reality as Wheeling is from Neptune. That latter consideration is what is going to bring Rev. Barber to his doorstep next week. Not that I believe Manchin is enthusiastic about the FTP Act’s elimination of partisan gerrymandering or its campaign-finance provisions, either, and I also think he’s still frosted that Vice President Kamala Harris criticized him on a West Virginia TV station for his absurd devotion to illusory bipartisanship. The reasons no longer matter. Criticizing Joe Manchin over these positions has moved into that category of futility that also includes criticizing a hound for howling.

But it’s worth noting that Manchin is marching proudly into the ranks of earnest past politicians who’d like to do something about equality under the law but who, gosh darn it, found themselves unable to do it. He will stand with all those Republicans in the late 19th century who abandoned equality under the law for the defense of Gilded Age economic policies. He will stand with all those Democrats who pronounced themselves paralyzed by their dependence on a bunch of racist Southern politicians who now have aircraft carriers named after them. And he will stand with the politicians in both parties who decided in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s that the Civil Rights Movement had Gone Too Far and politely embraced the backlash that, eventually, today, has us one small step away from modern Jim Crow politics.

Maybe he’s content with that. It is more than possible that Joe Manchin simply has got his, and the hell with the rest of us. His support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a less sweeping bill, is primarily camouflage, since I can’t see enough Republican senators supporting that to get it passed, either. His op-ed is so threadbare that it’s compelling evidence that he’s not even really trying anymore. He cannot be so myopic and detached not to be aware of the political reality. Just last week, he pronounced himself baffled by the Republican refusal to authorize an independent investigation into the events of January 6. He’s just a babe in these woods.

Washington Post keeps covering for GOP election lies
"Falsehood" nonsense
Eric Boehlert


Trump’s lies about the 2020 election continue to do extraordinary damage to our democracy, as his loyalists fan out across the country, demanding endless, bogus recounts and spreading wild lies about the American ballot process. The Washington Post recently detailed the deeply disturbing trend. But instead of being an honest truth-teller, the Post hid behind indefensible word-salad language, as part of the media’s long-running tradition of not calling Trump and his followers liars.

Timid news outlets like the Post are still hiding behind “falsehood” nonsense in 2021. This, as more stunned scholars are warning us that Republicans are clearly and deliberately putting American democracy at risk with their unprecedented and brazen attacks on free and fair elections.

The Post article originally ran under the headline, “Ballot Reviews Consume Trump as He Touts Falsehood of Stolen Election.”

Here’s how the Post described Trump’s lies:



This is not the normal, instinctive language people use when telling the story about nonstop lies. This is the strained language reporters opt for when they want to avoid blunt adjectives to describe deeply disturbing Republican behavior that threatens democracy. The Post used “lie” just once in its 3,000-word article about lies.


more...

https://pressrun.media/p/washington-post-keeps-covering-for

TheHill.com
Hezbollah founder dies of coronavirus
By Mychael Schnell - 06/07/21 09:21 AM EDT


Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a Shiite cleric who is considered a founder of Hezbollah, died Monday of the coronavirus.

Mohtashamipour died at a northern Tehran hospital after becoming ill with COVID-19, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, cited by The Associated Press.

Mohtashamipour established alliances with Muslim militant groups throughout the Mideast in the 1970s, according to the AP.

Following the Islamic Revolution in the late 70s, he played a part in founding the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Iran. With that group, and in his position as ambassador to Syria, he reportedly brought forces into the region and helped create Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. It operates as a political party and military wing in Lebanon.

more...

https://thehill.com/policy/international/557108-hezbollah-founder-dies-of-coronavirus

Ewwwww!

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthony-weiner-mulls-selling-his-fateful-underpants-photo-as-nft?ref=home

Anthony Weiner Mulls Selling His Fateful Underpants Photo as NFT
‘CASHING IN’
Jamie Ross, News Correspondent
Published Jun. 07, 2021 6:40AM ET

A Texas bakery lost orders after posting their Pride Month cookies. Then customers lined up around the block to support them.
By April Siese
June 6, 2021 / 6:00 PM / CBS News


Confections in Lufkin, Texas announced on Thursday that it would be selling rainbow cookies for Pride Month. The bakery, located in East Texas, soon faced backlash for its decision.

Confections took to Facebook to reveal that many of its customers had sent hateful messages and canceled orders and claimed its "likes" were also plummeting.



According to Tyler, Texas, CBS affiliate KYTX, by Friday, Confections was inundated with messages of support from across the U.S., including from Mark Cuban's brother, Brian, who reached out to buy cookies to be donated to LGBTQ charities and other nonprofits.

more...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lufkin-texas-bakery-confections-pride-month-cookies/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-endorses-maya-wiley-for-nyc-mayor

AOC Endorses Maya Wiley for NYC Mayor
‘MY NO. 1’
Corbin Bolies, Breaking News Intern
Updated Jun. 05, 2021 4:29PM ET /
Published Jun. 05, 2021 3:06PM ET

Utterly appalling!


U.S. judge overturns California’s ban on assault weapons
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press
June 05, 2021 08:30 AM


A federal judge Friday overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive," Benitez said. He issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law but stayed it for 30 days to give state Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal.

Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the decision, calling it “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians, period."

In his 94-page ruling, the judge spoke favorably of modern weapons, said they were overwhelmingly used for legal reasons.

“Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle," the judge said in his ruling's introduction.

That comparison “completely undermines the credibility of this decision and is a slap in the face to the families who’ve lost loved ones to this weapon," Newsom said in a statement. “We’re not backing down from this fight, and we’ll continue pushing for common sense gun laws that will save lives.”

more...

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/nation-world/national/article251917308.html

GOP
The GOP’s “Critical Race Theory” Freakout Is Spreading Across America
Republican lawmakers in state after state are trying to crack down on teaching systemic racism, a culture war issue that fits right into the party’s 2022 midterm strategy.
By Caleb Ecarma
June 4, 2021


In recent months Republican lawmakers in close to a dozen states have aggressively made legislative advances against the GOP’s latest culture war target: “critical race theory.” Idaho governor Brad Little last month signed a bill supposedly designed to bar state-funded schools and universities from “indoctrinating” students into the view that “any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” While Idaho’s law, which is the first of its kind, may not sound disagreeable in theory, it is a different story in action, as the legislation could ostensibly ban educators from teaching that present-day financial inequality is linked to America’s history of systemic racism. Critics of the legislation have also warned that it will stifle the First Amendment rights of teachers. Oklahoma, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Rhode Island have all introduced similar bills or amendments, or have proposed state mandates that would have a similar impact on schools.

While endorsing this legislative push during a presser with members of the House Freedom Caucus last month, GOP rep. Ralph Norman insisted that the country is in the middle of “cultural warfare today,” adding, “Critical race theory asserts that people with white skin are inherently racist, not because of their actions, words, or what they actually believe in their heart—but by virtue of the color of their skin.” Norman’s Freedom Caucus colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert accused Democrats of trying “to teach our children to hate each other.” Donald Trump deployed a similar narrative while issuing an executive mandate that barred federal agencies from giving certain sensitivity training. “They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place, it’s a racist place, and they were teaching people to hate our country,” explained Trump, whose order was ultimately rescinded by Joe Biden after previously being blocked by a federal judge.

Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a law last month similar to that in Idaho. It claims to put a stop to schools teaching that “moral character is inherently determined by his or her race or sex” and bans lessons that could potentially cause students to feel discomfort or guilt on “account of his or her race or sex.” But the law will actually limit how openly Oklahoma’s educators, who teach in a state that was home to one of the worst instances of racial violence in U.S. history, can discuss racism and inequality. With America’s classrooms serving as the battleground for this culture war, educators even fear that their livelihoods will be caught in the crossfire. During an interview with NPR, a high school teacher in Oklahoma City explained that she is now unsure whether she is allowed to discuss present-day civil rights issues, including the murder of George Floyd. “We need to do it, because our students desire it,” Telannia Norfar told the outlet. “But how do we do that without opening Oklahoma City public schools up to a lawsuit?” Oklahoma City School Board chairperson Paula Lewis expressed the anxiety that the new legislation has caused for teachers, remarking to NPR, “What if they say the wrong thing? What if somebody in their class during the critical thinking brings up the word oppression or systemic racism? Are they in danger? Is their job in danger?”

The ACLU has condemned the new batch of legislation and questioned if the proposals violate the free speech rights of educators and students. “A nationwide attempt to censor discussions of race in the classroom is underway,” the free speech advocacy group wrote in a statement. “These bills don’t just set back progress in addressing systemic issues, they also rob young people of an inclusive education and blatantly suppress speech about race.… It’s up to state governors across the country to veto these harmful bills.”

more...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/gops-critical-race-theory-freakout

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/06/04/jen-psaki-trump-facebook-suspension.html


Posted on Fri, Jun 4th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Jen Psaki Delivered The Perfect Answer When Asked About Trump’s 2 Year Facebook Suspension


White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it is unlikely that the zebra will change his stripes when asked about Trump’s Facebook suspension.


https://twitter.com/i/status/1400914169961107458



The odds of Trump changing his behavior and acting like a normal human being are zero. Facebook is big for Trump’s fundraising, but the platform has already warned that he will face swift and escalating sanctions if he violates the rules again.

Psaki is right. Trump will do what he has always done, which means that any return to Facebook is likely to be short-lived.

The Independent
Chasten Buttigieg hits out at RNC chair over comments about Pride: Fix your party ‘before you open your mouth’
Graig Graziosi
Fri, June 4, 2021


Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, took a shot at the head of the Republican National Committee over the organisation's party platform regarding LGBTQ+ rights.

Rona McDaniel, the RNC Chairwoman, said in a post on Wednesday celebrating Pride month that "@GOP is proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last 4 years, and we will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs."

Mr Buttigieg took issue with Ms McDaniel's decision to include the considerations of those who have "deeply held religious beliefs" - as in "those who view LGBTQ sexual orientations as sinful" - in the post.



more...

https://news.yahoo.com/chasten-buttigieg-tells-rnc-chair-162254222.html