January 31, 2023

Florida Crock: Say 'Resiliency.' Don't Say 'Climate Change.'

Florida Crock: Say ‘Resiliency.’ Don’t Say ‘Climate Change.’
by Pierre Tristam | January 30, 2023 - 6:46am

— from Flagler Live


Florida is crazy about resiliency. The word is everywhere, because hurricanes, rising seas, erosion, disappearing beaches and downtowns flooding on sunny days are everywhere. The elected need to look like they’re doing something about it. So here comes resiliency. It’s got toughness, machismo, lilt. The syllables surf off the tongue with just enough self-importance for a word coined in mid-17th century England that our right honorable Gov. DeSantis thinks it’ll power Florida through the catastrophes of the 21st. He’s plastering the word everywhere like wonder whitewash.

Except that resiliency in Florida is a crock. The state is throwing millions, soon to be billions, at the consequences of global warming. It’s not doing a damn thing about its part in causing global warming. Until then, the state is as good as complicit in its coastal communities’ destruction–maliciously so, because this isn’t mere negligence. It’s active, vindictive denialism. The language of climate change–like so much else in this administration–is censored from all DeSantis playbooks.

snip//

Ironically, the word has often been used to describe the resiliency of ecosystems, of the Amazon forest, of oceans, or the ozone layer in the face of human destruction. Give nature a chance, help it along just a bit (as we somehow managed to do with the ozone layer), go easier on greenhouse emissions, and it’ll reward you tenfold. That’s natural resiliency.

Florida hijacked the word, branding it on precisely the human factors that exploit and damage nature and exacerbate warming: concrete, overdevelopment, rebuilding fatter and meaner along the shore and in flood plains, and of course contempt for anything that might help nature along. In Florida, you not only don’t say gay. You don’t say climate change.

snip//

What are we doing in Florida? We’re policing the speech of teachers and professors. We’re banning books. We’re sanitizing history. We’re obsessing about drag queens. We have a governor more intent on turning the clock back to 1950 Florida than he is concerned about how close the ocean will be to our homes by 2050.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/pierre-tristam/104888/florida-crock-say-resiliency-don-t-say-climate-change

January 31, 2023

Don Jr. railed against 'political elite' who never worked in low wage jobs like he did

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/30/2150135/-Don-Jr-railed-against-political-elite-who-never-worked-in-low-wage-jobs-like-he-did

Don Jr. railed against 'political elite' who never worked in low wage jobs like he did
Walter Einenkel
Daily Kos Staff
Monday January 30, 2023 · 4:53 PM EST
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Donald Trump Jr. is still a thing. He uncomfortably sells Trump steaks and stuff. He also has a podcast or something resembling a digital interview show called Triggered. The title is a reference to how he triggers people. It is also the name of his sad attempt at being noticed by his narcissistic father. In a video uploaded two days before publishing this piece, and then pulled down while in the middle of writing this piece, Junior held an interview with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

From what was available to watch online, the video is a wide-ranging interview where Junior does most of the fast talking. McCarthy does a lot of vacuously agreeing with whatever points Junior has to make about how great his dad was as president. It isn’t worth watching for the most part, even if you are feeling particularly masochistic. But after long stretches of Junior telling McCarthy how dad Trump is really a “compassionate” guy who hides it so well no one in the world would ever think otherwise, Junior gives Kevin a chance to say something about Kevin.

McCarthy decides to quickly interject with information about his working- and middle-class upbringing. McCarthy brags about illegally flipping cars for profit, not having “the education” (which I guess is supposed to mean he didn’t go to an Ivy League school), winning a $5,000 lottery and buying single stock that did well when he was 20. Then Junior decides it’s time to launch into his own personal mythology that he worked hard-scrabble jobs and learned all about work ethics too.

It’s like watching the Mad Hatter Tea Party scene embodied in one man rambling for 35 seconds.



Someone’s mixing up fake working class versus capitalist class metaphors!

The rich frequently like to try and explain away their privilege by pretending that doing a job you don’t have to think about or use for money in your 20s is the same as growing up working for a living. The rich like Trump and his family like to pretend that being attacked by the media as a wildly corrupt organized crime family is the same as being a war veteran.

Junior’s intense working days seem to come from a period he spent in Aspen, Colorado, right after graduating University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. “To be fairly candid, I used to drink a lot and party pretty hard, and it wasn’t something that I was particularly good at.” He became a bartender. It seems that his hardcore bartending days came to an end after a few months, because according to accounts he ended up being arrested in New Orleans for public drunkenness during Mardi Gras and then he entered into the family business.

So, he maybe worked for tips?

January 30, 2023

Florida Seeks to Allow Concealed Guns Without Permits

https://politicalwire.com/2023/01/30/florida-seeks-to-allow-concealed-guns-without-permits/

Florida Seeks to Allow Concealed Guns Without Permits
January 30, 2023 at 3:22 pm EST By Taegan Goddard

January 30, 2023

Grand Jury Presentation Reportedly Underway in Trump Hush Money Case

https://www.thedailybeast.com/grand-jury-proceedings-officially-underway-in-trump-stormy-daniels-hush-money-case-nyt?ref=home

Grand Jury Presentation Reportedly Underway in Trump Hush Money Case
Asta Hemenway
Politics Reporting Fellow
Published Jan. 30, 2023 2:51PM ET

January 29, 2023

How much more respected is America around the world under Joe Biden?

https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1619683818595840002

January 29, 2023

Charles McGonigal's arrest should make Jared very nervous

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/28/2149813/-Charles-McGonigal-s-arrest-should-make-Jared-very-nervous

Charles McGonigal's arrest should make Jared very nervous
akronboy
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Saturday January 28, 2023 · 1:30 PM EST
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So far, news of the bombshell arrest of Charles McGonigal, the former FBI special agent, has focused on his central role in events leading up to the 2016 election. That connection is stunning, to be sure.

But there is another issue raised by McGonigal's arrest that hasn't drawn nearly as much attention. At least it has not yet, but it may prove even more pivotal to bringing down the Trump crime syndicate. And that's McGonigal's curious association with the desperate attempts by Jared Kushner, and his father, Charles, to rescue an upside-down investment in 666 (now 660) 5th Avenue.

A little background. Kushner Properties bought the iconic Midtown property for a record $1.8 billion in 2007, just before the 2008 crash. About $1.3 billion purchase was financed, and the property was almost instantaneously hemmoraging big money. Some estimates valued the building at well less than half of the purchase price.

Remarkably, after years of failed efforts (including overtures to a Chinese company), the Kushners finally were able to sell a 99 year lease on the building to a company called Brookfield Asset Management in August 2018, with funding supplied by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The $1.2-billion lease payment for all 99 years was paid up front, allowing the Kushners to get the finance monkeys off their backs. Phew!

Crucially, after McGonigal retired from the FBI in September 2018, he was hired as senior vice president for security by none other than Brookfield... the company that saved the Kushners' asses.

Below is a link to a fascinating timeline of the Kushner/666 5th Avenue saga. It is an absolute must read. It long predates McGonigal's arrest, as it's nearly two years old.

But what you'll find is instructive and critically important, I think. Blackmail, unauthorized diplomacy, and more.

Now, a direct connection to none other than Charles McGonigal. Coincidence? It's just too crazy to be coincidence.

Stay tuned.

https://www.justsecurity.org/69094/timeline-on-jared-kushner-qatar-666-fifth-avenue-and-white-house-policy/
Timeline on Jared Kushner, Qatar, 666 Fifth Avenue, and White House Policy

January 27, 2023

Dear Opponents of Ron DeSantis Everywhere: Get Your Shit Together

Dear Opponents of Ron DeSantis Everywhere: Get Your Shit Together
by Hamilton Nolan | January 27, 2023 - 8:02am


snip//

People in Florida of all political persuasions often talk of Ron DeSantis as if he is a formidable juggernaut that Democrats can’t hope to restrain. This is false. He is a half-smart, washed up Ivy League baseball player whose defining characteristic is not cleverness or likeability, but overweening ambition. He has a goofy squeaky voice and palpable absence of warmth that will not translate well to the national stage. He is just as immoral as his rivals, but he lacks the polished presentation of Ted Cruz and the magnetic insanity of Donald Trump. Though, as a rule, I do not make electoral predictions, it would not be surprising to see him crash and burn when faced with a presidential campaign that depends, above all, on charisma. It is easy to imagine him as the latest in a long line of media-hyped red state governors whose self-importance crashed and sunk against the rocks of a competitive primary.

Nor is he some sort of king whose hold on Florida should be taken for granted. Florida is, in essence, a 50/50 state that should be extremely competitive in every election. So why did DeSantis win reelection last year by 20 points? Because Democratic turnout in the state plummeted by 20 points compared to the 2018 election, while Republican turnout increased. In 2018, Democrats ran Andrew Gillum, a progressive, younger candidate of color for governor, and almost won; in 2022, they ran a tepid old former Republican, and got whipped. When you don’t give people anything exciting to vote for, they don’t turn out to vote.

Like partisan redistricting, gerrymandering, and showy acts of racist voter suppression, DeSantis’s new salvo against teachers unions is an effort to turn a narrow, temporary advantage into a permanent one. Disenfranchise some Democrats, demoralize the rest, and demolish the few institutions that can sustain their statewide power. This is the DeSantis plan, and he isn’t shy about it. He doesn’t need to be. His base revels in it, and his opposition is weak, scared, and seemingly without a plan.

In Florida, all of the most important macro-issues of American politics are screaming out as we speak. The proud fascism that DeSantis embodies must be met with radicalism. Clinton-esque Democratic attempts to triangulate their way out of the problem are doomed to fail, and will only serve to drive home the untrue impression that Florida is a red state. You can’t equivocate with DeSantis. He puts Black people in jail at gunpoint for voting; he bans books and outlaws Black history teaching with a bluntness that would make George Orwell blush; he demonizes trans kids, perfectly happy to drive a few young people to suicide if it helps him solidify his own position. This guy is not some sophisticated mastermind — he’s an asshole. He is the embodiment of the worst 30% of Floridians, the ones who make the state a national punchline. And those who roll over for him, like the dozens of college presidents who publicly kowtow to his backwards “vision,” are cowards who will find themselves on the wrong side of history when the uncensored textbooks eventually get written.

That is one thing Florida proves: The absolute need for the Democrats to stop being weak and afraid of their own convictions. The second thing it proves is the absolute centrality of organized labor as a path out of the political quandary that afflicts America. Inequality has killed public faith in institutions, and modern media has entrenched national partisanship to a degree that some perceive as hopeless. Unions can roll back inequality. Unions can bring people of different political persuasions together in common cause in the workplace. Unions can show people an actual functioning democracy. Unions can lead regular people to political activism based on principles they learn by fighting for fair treatment for themselves. Unions can be strong enough to serve as a wall that stops the predations of opportunistic, hateful politicians like Ron DeSantis.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/hamilton-nolan/104862/dear-opponents-of-ron-desantis-everywhere-get-your-shit-together

January 27, 2023

Rep. Jerry Nadler Adds Adam Schiff To The House Judiciary Committee

https://www.politicususa.com/2023/01/27/rep-jerry-nadler-adds-adam-schiff-to-the-house-judiciary-committee.html

Posted on Fri, Jan 27th, 2023 by Jason Easley
Rep. Jerry Nadler Adds Adam Schiff To The House Judiciary Committee


Rep. Nadler said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:



Rep. Schiff launched his 2024 US Senate campaign on Thursday for the expected to be open seat in California.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy only has the ability to block Democratic choices for the House Intelligence Committee. McCarthy can’t do anything about Schiff serving on the Judiciary Committee.

It would take a majority vote of the full House to remove Democratic Reps. Schiff, Swalwell, and Omar from their committee assignments, and members of the Republican caucus have already said that they would vote no if such a resolution was brought to the floor.

January 27, 2023

It Shouldn't Just Be Elaine Chao

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2023/01/it-shouldnt-just-be-elaine-chao/


It Shouldn’t Just Be Elaine Chao
When it comes Trump’s overtly racist attacks, the only person willing to speak up in the GOP is the person being bullied.
Inae Oh
Senior News and Engagement EditorBio | Follow


In a rare public statement, Elaine Chao, the former transportation secretary and wife of Mitch McConnell, hit back at Donald Trump’s anti-Asian attacks on Wednesday, claiming that the overtly racist insult “Coco Chow” revealed more about her one-time boss than it did about Asian Americans.



It was a measured response; its power relying on the fact that someone had bothered to speak up at all.

Yet did it have to be her? Reading Chao’s new statement, what struck me was the absence of Republican lawmakers defending her in the accompanying piece. Aside from two Republicans, Alyssa Farah, the former White House communications director under Trump who has since quit MAGA, and Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist and former aide to Chao’s husband, neither of whom are sitting lawmakers with real skin in the game, the piece didn’t include a single Republican lawmaker willing to speak up.

snip//

Of course, the GOP’s collective shrug at all this isn’t new. That’s turned into a near-obsession for me, and like Trump, I’ll just keep throwing out words at the wall until someone says something. Here are two: monstrous asshole.

January 27, 2023

Hakeem Jeffries just laid out Democrats' pitch to retake the House in 2024. It's killer

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/26/2149449/-Hakeem-Jeffries-makes-one-thing-clear-Winning-the-House-was-the-worst-thing-ever-for-Republicans

Hakeem Jeffries just laid out Democrats' pitch to retake the House in 2024. It's killer
Kerry Eleveld
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday January 26, 2023 · 3:55 PM EST
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When House Democrats' newly elected Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York sat down with Pod Save America this week to discuss his party’s approach to being in the minority, one thing became pointedly clear: House Republicans are already laying the groundwork for a Democratic takeover in 2024.

House Republicans—replete with juvenile, self-consumed bomb-throwers—are just wholly unequipped to lead the country in any “reasonable” fashion that can benefit the American people. But Jeffries’ reflections on trying to govern alongside a party full of nihilists was perhaps more telling about campaigning in 2024 than legislating in 2023. First and foremost, Republicans are extreme. They’re also a threat to America as we know it. Locating just five sane and sober House Republicans is the key to averting disaster, but even that’s a tall order. Finally, Democrats are committed to protecting Social Security and Medicare—programs that Americans have paid into and deserve.

Here’s a brief overview of themes Jeffries hit that are also sure to show up on the campaign trail next year:

1. Social Security and Medicare are non-negotiable for Democrats

Jeffries: “The first issue that's going to be in front of us is to make sure we don't default on our nation's debt for the first time in American history. ... There are Republicans that want to essentially hijack that debt ceiling issue in order to extract painful cuts to Social Security and Medicare—we're going to draw a line in the sand. Social Security's not negotiable. Medicare's not negotiable. And we are not going to negotiate with hostage takers.”

2. Every single Democrat wants to avert a global economic meltdown; all they need is five reasonable Republicans to join them

Jeffries: “I think the most important thing should be done is Kevin McCarthy should just bring a straight, clean debt ceiling bill to the floor of the House of Representatives, confident that every single member of the House Democratic caucus vote would support it. But we would need five, six—a handful—of reasonable Republicans to do what has been consistently been done for approximately 100 years on the debt ceiling issue.”

3. Americans have earned Social Security and Medicare

Jeffries: “I think the most important thing is that the American people have earned Social Security and Medicare, paid into it their entire lives, worked to get to a point where they can retire with grace and dignity, and there's just no circumstance where we should be even having a discussion, particularly as it relates to the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”

4. McCarthy's a lying liar and a squish, which might be the nation’s only hope

Jeffries (responding to McCarthy’s pledge to hold the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for making budget cuts): “Kevin McCarthy says a lot of things and then does something else. So the reality is, on this issue perhaps, the business community has consistently weighed in and suggested that a default on our debt would be catastrophic, highly problematic, unprecedented, and could collapse the economy, send it into a tail spin, a deep recession if not worse—not just the U.S. economy but across the world.

My suggestion is, he's not going to necessarily do the right thing as it relates to preserving Social Security and Medicare. But there are other reasons why people come to a conclusion and, in this instance, the business community can prevail upon my friends on the other side of the aisle.”

5. Republicans are extremists

Jeffries: “We've been very clear on a variety of issues: We believe in a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions. They're extreme on abortion care—they want to criminalize abortion, impose a nationwide ban.

We believe in Social Security and Medicare—they're extreme on it. They want to blow it up

We believe in democracy—apparently many of them don't. They coddle insurrectionists, perpetrate the Big Lie.

The reality is, in my view what best captures the moment that we're in is a level of extremism that the vast majority of the American people are not comfortable with. And our job moving forward is to continue to contrast that with who we are as Democrats—people who are committed actually to making a difference in the lives of everyday Americans on issue after issue after issue.”

6. Again, all it would take is a handful of reasonable Republicans


https://twitter.com/i/status/1617646808158834689