A segment on Fox and Friends Show(04/11/23) delved into a bombshell new report that the FBI launched a domestic terrorism investigation into Catholic Churches in Virginia, with an aim to root out “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology”. As expected, this, as was the case with the counterterrorism investigation into conservative parents protesting at their local school boards, has led to valid questions as to who else gets wrongfully caught up in these counterterrorism dragnets?
Fox and Friends host Ainsley Earhardt put it best when she posed this question(1:24): “How many other memos are out there? How many other investigations that we don’t know about?”
The question Ainsley raises is one that has been raised since the Patriot Act’s passage(2001), and reasonable people will agree that after more than two decades of unanswered questions, the national security establishment needs to be compelled to shed some light on this issue. Simply put, there is no longer any excuse for Congress looking the other way, when there is overwhelming evidence that there are indeed a lot of Americans caught up in the counterterrorism dragnet, even though they have nothing to do with terrorism. Abusing counterterrorism resources is in itself, a national security problem–leads to loss of confidence from the public.
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Senator Bernie Sanders(I-VT) appeared on ABC’s This Week show(07/17/22) to discuss President Biden’s controversial trip to Saudi Arabia. Unsurprisingly, Senator Sanders, who has been very consistent about his displeasure with Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses, was opposed to President Biden’s trip to the Kingdom, which he said, was tantamount to rewarding the Saudis.
The interesting part of the interview however came when host Martha Raddatz asked Sen Sanders about Senator Joe Manchin(D-WV) “abruptly” pulling out of negotiations on a climate change proposal that was key to President Biden’s agenda. Sen Sanders swiftly interjected saying, Manchin “didn’t abruptly pull out of anything”, and then proceeded to slam the Senator from West Virginia for intentionally sabotaging President Biden’s agenda. Whoa!!
Host Martha Raddatz(video at 3:20):“Senator Joe Manchin…abruptly pulled the plug on the Democrats’ plan to pass…”
Sen Sanders:“No Martha…he didn’t abruptly do anything…If you check the record, six months ago I made it clear, that you have people like Manchin, Sinema to a lesser degree, who are intentionally sabotaging the President’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want. Nothing is new about this, and the problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not. This is a guy who is a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy who received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires.”
When host Raddatz tried to play devil’s advocate, saying Senator Manchin is concerned about record inflation, and is simply doing what’s best for West Virginians, Sen Manchin retorted:“Same nonsense that Manchin has been talking about for a year. West Virginia is a beautiful state…great people. It is one of the poorest states in this country. You ask the people of West Virginia whether they want to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and eye glasses…whether we should demand that the wealthiest people and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes…whether or not all people should have healthcare as a human right like every other country on earth, that’s what they will say. In my humble opinion, Manchin represents the wealthiest people in this country, not the working families of West Virginia, or America.”
Bottom line folks, what Sen Sanders said on ABC’s This Week show, cannot be restated enough. There was a lot of hope and enthusiasm among Democrats, and a sizable chunk of Independents who voted for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020, that the Biden-Harris administration would embark on big projects re infrastructure, climate, immigration, etc to set the country up nicely for the future. You even heard famous historians likening Biden to FDR and LBJ–both of whom are remembered for the big projects their administrations embarked, on and delivered.
However, somewhere in some Republican smoke-filled rooms, panic set in over the prospect of a transformational FDR-type Biden-Harris administration, and an elaborate plan was laid out to sabotage Biden’s presidency. Sen Sanders is absolutely right that Senators Manchin and Sinema have been willing participants in the grand GOP scheme to sabotage the Biden presidency, and they must be called out for it!!
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Nikole Hannah-Jones with host Chris Wallace on CNN Plus’ “Who’s Talking To Chris” Show
Nikole Hannah-Jone appeared on CNN Plus’ “Who’s Talking To Chris” show, for an extensive interview that covered her award-winning 1619 Project and the Critical Race Theory(CRT), both of which have made her enemy #1 for right wing culture warriors. This was a very interesting, and quite informative interview, which Yours Truly strongly suggests that you watch in its entirety for proper context.
However, if for whatever reason you are unable to watch the entire interview because you are too busy watching reruns of, idk, “Keeping Up w/The Kardashians” or what have you, just cut to the chase and go to the 12:50 mark, where host Chris Wallace asks Nikole to explain the difference between her 1619 Project and CRT. Nikole’s response not only answers the question as to the distinction between the two, but also very importantly, gets to the heart of the entire CRT “controversy”, which in a nutshell, boils down to a choice between education v indoctrination. If you miss everything else in this extensive interview, don’t miss this part.
Nikole Hannah-Jones on the differences between her 1619 Project and CRT(video at 12:50 onwards): “There are not related. I have read Critical Race Theory(CRT), and I do believe in many of the arguments of CRT which is simply saying, 60 years after the end of legal discrimination, after we outlawed discrimination by law, why do we still see so much inequality in our society? The 1619 Project is journalism that looks at history, and uses history to explain our society. They aren’t the same thing, but as we know, they have become code. CRT has become code for anti-racist teaching, for a desire to say we shouldn’t talk about this past. If you look at the[GOP] bills Chris, you’ll see they are talking about a patriotic education, or don’t teach divisive concepts. I don’t know about you, but if this were happening in China, and we were seeing laws prohibiting the teaching the bad parts of China’s history because it made people feel bad, or the Chinese government was dictating that you had to teach a patriotic, undivisive history, we would know that that was authoritarianism, but somehow because it’s in America, we are okay with that. I don’t send my child to school to get a patriotic history that never makes her feel uncomfortable. I want her to be challenged, I want her to be exposed to ideas that are outside her comfort zone. That’s how someone actually gets an education, and that’s the opposite of indoctrination. To be challenged is the opposite of indoctrination.”
Bottom line folks, as Nikole succinctly lays it out, the entire CRT debate boils down to whether we want to educate our children, or indoctrinate them, and it appears TrumpGOP, which is supposedly opposed to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other authoritarian regimes around the world because “they indoctrinate their masses”, has chosen their exact style of indoctrination when it comes to CRT. It’s really that simple!!
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Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) joined fellow Democrats for a briefing(04/07/22) on their push to ban stock trading by members of Congress. Others on the briefing were Senator Jeff Merkley(D-OR), Rep Joe Neguse(D-CO), Rep Rashida Tlaib(D-MI), Rep Abigail Spanberger(D-VA), Rep Pramila Jayapal(D-WA), Rep Andy Kim(D-NJ) and Rep Angie Craig(D-MN).
Rep Ocasio-Cortez said banning stock trading by members of Congress will not only address legitimate concerns about conflicts of interest, but that it would also tackle the other urgent problem involving crisis of faith in our institutions. She said: “We are also tackling a crisis of faith in our institutions in the United States, and that exploitation of that crisis of faith is a direct threat to our democracy, as we have seen over the last two to four years. It is our responsibility to ensure that we eliminate that perception of impropriety, because it is these perceptions that can be exploited to undermine our most sacred institutions.”
The final speaker, the epitome of “save the best for last”, was Minnesota’s Rep Angie Craig(remember that name folks, vivacious Angie is going up the Dem ladder). She said: “My background experience in this issue is I actually sat on a corporate executive team for 12 years before I came to Congress, and this is not hypothetical to me, it’s not hypothetical. I helped run the investor relations department of a major fortune 500 company. I know that information moves markets, and it moves stocks. That’s why when I first got here, I wrote something called the Humble Act, which as part of it, would ban members of Congress from owning individual stocks. And it’s also not hypothetical to me because before I was sworn in to Congress, I had stock from the company I had worked for for 12 years. I had stock options from that company as well. Every single one of those shares were sold in the open market before I stepped foot into the U.S. Capitol, every single one. And if we can’t find 535 people in the damn United States of America, who are willing to give up their personal stock portfolio in order to serve their constituents, then shame on us, just shame on us.”
Bottom line folks, as some of the speakers here pointed out, banning stock trading by members of Congress should be a no-brainer, and no Democrat should be opposed to it. Opposing a stock trading ban for members of Congress is bad optics, bad morally, bad politics, and a sure loser at the polls this Fall. It’s really that simple.
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The Republican Party has for decades fought accusations of racism from Democrats and others who do not identify with the party. As a result, Republicans have always latched onto some highly impressive African-American in their midst, as the “feel-good” Republican of color, who the party then holds out as proof that it is not a racist party.
Some of the prominent and most recent “feel-good” Republicans of color include the late General Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, both of whom served as U.S. Secretary of State, former Oklahoma Congressman JC Watts who was a star quarterback for the Sooners, and even current Senator Tim Scott(R-SC)
Well, it appears, given the reaction to her stellar performance on CNN’s State of The Union, that we have a newly-minted feel-good Republican of color—one Winsome Sears from Virginia.
Here are just some of the reactions from Republicans, super excited about Winsome Sears’ performance on CNN’s State of The Union.
It will be interesting to see how the feel-good Republican of color status shapes Winsome Sears’ political career going forward. Will she run for President in 2024? Hmm. As Trump famously says, “We’ll see what happens.”
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The Miami Herald reports that a ruling by a federal appeals court in New York(2nd Circuit) has dramatically increased the chances that documents related to Trump’s friend Jeffrey Epstein’s sex case will soon be unsealed. Importantly, some of the documents at issue could draw a direct link between Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Hotel.
According to the Miami Herald piece, one of Epstein’s key accomplices in the sex trafficking scheme, a British socialite named Ghislaine Maxwell, recruited then 16 year old Virginia Roberts Giuffre who was working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spa to become a masseuse for Epstein. Giuffre alleges that she was later made to engage in several sex acts by people in Epstein’s circle including famous Harvard University professor Alan Dershowitz. According to Giuffre, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used the masseuse pitch to lure numerous other underage girls as young as 13, into their sex trafficking operation where they were sexually assaulted by influential people in Epstein’s circle.
British Socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pictured above with Jeffrey Epstein
After Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s explosive allegations, Ghislaine Maxwell called her a liar. Guiffre sued Maxwell in 2015 for slander. Maxwell settled the lawsuit in 2017 resulting in Guiffre getting paid millions. It is documents in this settled lawsuit that the Miami Herald and other U.S. media houses want unsealed, and appear close to victory. Ghislaine Maxwell is opposing release of the said records. Apparently the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has given Maxwell until March 19, 2019 to show cause as to why documents in the lawsuit should not be made public.
If the federal appeals court goes on to unseal these documents, which at this juncture appears a certainty, this would be devastating news for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago hotel, especially if multiple minors from the hotel were channeled into Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Bottom line, as Yours Truly said in an earlier post, the Epstein sex case is one that begs for sunlight. It is in everybody’s interest, including Epstein, that everything involved in his sex trafficking scheme be exposed even if that means granting him immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony. Simply put, Epstein’s victims should not be denied justice simply because Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme may have implicated powerful politicians from both sides of the political divide.
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There’s a very troubling report on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show that a Political Action Committee(PAC) alligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan is knowingly using illegally obtained information to attack a Dem congressional hopeful Abigail Spanberger.
According to Maddow, Speaker Ryan’s PAC is using very personal information illegally obtained from Abigail Spanberger’s SF-86 form. The Trump admin maintains Abigail’s info was erroneously released to the PAC following their FOIA request.
However this is where it gets interesting. Turns out that Speaker Ryan’s PAC got Abigail’s documents only 3 weeks after submitting their FOIA request. Abigail Spanberger’s campaign also filed a FOIA request to the same agency but interestingly, its still pending several months after it was filed. This calls into question Trump Admin’s stance that Abigail’s info was released “erroneously”. As Maddow correctly points out this appears to be the new GOP shady campaign tactic–doxxing Dem candidates who have filed SF-86 forms.
Bottom line this is out and out criminal conduct for which Dems and the mainstream media must call out Speaker Ryan and his PAC. Its also further proof that the GOP has indeed become a criminal enterprise as Yours Truly recently stated.
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Folks Yours Truly readily admits that this week the Mainstream Media has done very well highlighting two issues that are very important to grassroots democrats across the country–voting machine security and the fight to save Medicare/Medicaid in the states
After bashing the Mainstream Media for weeks on end about their inexplicable silence regarding voting machine security in an election year, it was a pleasant surprise to see a report on Reuters addressing similar concerns. Hopefully MSM will continue reporting on this issue of great concern especially in Texas, where Dems are finally poised to make Historic electoral gains but are confronted with the sad reality of unverifiable voting machines in the Trump-Putin era. In years past fears about unverifiable voting machines would be shunned as conspiracy theorist talk. Grassroots Dems however are aware of just how real these fears are in the age of Trump and are desperate for more media coverage on this issue, not less.
Another big grassroots Dem story by the MSM this week was the Medicare expandion vote by the Virginia legislature that was largely pushed by the newly elected state Democrats. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hosted one of the Virginia state Democrats, Danica Roem, who was instrumental in the Medicare expansion push
The Virginia case is a classic example of why Dems need to wage the Medicare/Medicaid war in the states. As Maddow pointed out in the segment, the Dem electoral sweep in Virginia was largely because they campaigned on restoring healthcare to a public that is increasingly witnessing GOP efforts to take away their healthcare. In other words Medicare/Medicaid is a winning issue for Dems in the states
As Yours Truly has repeatedly stated, the fight for Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security are very important to grassroots Dems and could reap huge harvests in state legislatures. Democrats could literally recapture a huge chunk of the state legislatures they have lost to the GOP in recent years if they campaign hard on the theme that Republicans are out to take away people’s Medicare/Medicaid.
To be clear, Yours Truly’s argument has been that the Koch Brothers/ALEC funded clamor for a Constitutional Convention(ConCon) by state GOP politicians is aimed ultimately at the elimination of Medicare/Medicaid because they are the biggest driver of the national debt.
There is a lot of proof out there supporting this argument but you’ll never hear that from the Mainstream Media probably because it is still considered a “radical” argument because its main pusher, Yours Truly is regarded by the MSM as a “radical leftist”. But the proof is staring the Mainstream Media in their faces if they cared to look. Consider for instance, Virginia GOP’s pushback argument to the Medicare expansion move by the Democrats. Virginia’s GOP Senate Majority Leader opposed the Medicare expansion move because it “abandons Virginia’s long-standing reputation for fiscal responsibility.”–the quintessential balanced budget amendment argument behind GOP’s Constitutional Convention effort.
Bottom line folks we still have a lot of pushing to do to get the Mainstream Media to talk about issues near and dear to grassroots Dems. However where, as here, they show a slight improvement we have to give them partial credit. The ideal situation(worthy of full credit) would be for Mainstream Media to “go there” and say boldly like Yours Truly that the ultimate goal of the Constitutional Convention push by state Republicans is the elimination of Medicare/Medicaid because they believe these programs are huge drivers of both the national and state government debt. Let us hope from now until midterms 2018 the Mainstream Media sticks with issues important to grassroots Dems like voting machine security and the NoConCon war as opposed to say, “c*unt” talk
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